Dogs Solve Problems Faster When Their Owners Encourage Them
For some owners, their pet’s learning skills constantly surprise them. It’s true that not all dogs are that smart, but it seems that, with our help, they tend to solve problems faster if we encourage them.
the intelligence of dogs
According to Stephen Coren, a researcher at the University of British Columbia, a dog is as intelligent as a two- to three-year-old child.
This means that our best friends are capable of understanding far beyond what we think, meaning dogs tend to solve problems.
We may not have some future scientists close to us, but they have been shown to be capable of complex reasoning.
This study also showed that dogs are able to understand more than 150 different words.
It’s been proven that dogs can count too. Maybe they can’t solve an operation with fractions, but at least counting to five they count perfectly.
In addition, they are able to perform basic math operations such as addition and subtraction.
However, while all dogs are able to learn in the same way, not all have the same ability. Breeds such as Border Collie and Labrador Retriever have been proven to be the smartest.
This study, conducted in 2009, shows that dogs generally resolve problems more quickly when their trainer or owner encourages them.
How to help dogs solve problems faster?
We’ve already seen that breed greatly influences the intelligence of our dogs, but there is something else that influences the issue.
Dogs are smarter and more reflective depending on whether or not they are treated as pets.
In a 2017 study by Oregon State University, it was shown that rescue dogs think faster than those who are just pets.
This is because our pets often don’t receive more rigorous training.
The experiment consisted of having the dogs find a plastic container with a prize inside.
To open the container, a rope was tied to the lid, which when opened, revealed the prize. However, this container was hidden, to increase the difficulty of the experiment.
In the study, 15 different breeds of pet dogs and 13 of rescue dogs were used in order to see which ones would do better. Of course, rescue dogs were the winners.
There was one more detail in this test: first, they would do the search without the support of their trainer, and then they would do the test together with their trainer.
A key detail is that the technician could not physically touch or assist the animal; they could only do this with words.
The results
To the surprise of many, the rescue dogs, when they took the test themselves, didn’t do very well.
Only two of them managed to complete the test. In the end, three of the pets did well halfway through the experiment, because none of them managed to open the container lid.
However, when the test was carried out together with the coaches, things changed. Only two of the pets managed to complete the course halfway, while nine of the rescue dogs managed to complete the test completely.
In a very curious way, the pets treated the subject simply as a new game. In the case of those who were trained, they took their job more seriously.
There are different versions of why this happens, but the best one is as follows. If we take into account their closest cousins, the wolves, it is observed that they cooperate with each other for the same purpose.
Dogs, on the other hand, lost that sense of companionship and became independent beings. Except for the fact that they’ve become very dependent on human beings.
Why do dogs tend to solve problems faster when we encourage them? To them, we’re like the alpha male, so because we constantly support them, we have the same effect on them as the grunts and howls of an alpha wolf.
We can conclude that our presence to dogs is not just a simple co-dependence. They evolved to obey our orders, in exchange for greater security. They may not be the smartest beings on the planet, but they are certainly capable of great things.
