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After an argument about Afghan Hounds being labeled as stupid, I decided to go to one of the main sources this had come from. I decided that there had to be some reason this had come about. Perhaps they had simply tested the wrong kennel. I wanted to know what the author used for his sources, and I was sorely displeased with his answer. Below is my question to him, and his response to me. Basically, because we do not compete our dogs in obedience, our breed is labeled stupid.

Hello Dr Coren,

My name is Melanie Holmes, and I am an Afghan hound owner. I was asked recently about your listing of the Afghan hound at the lowest end of the intellect scale since I am an owner of said breed. This made me ask, how are you defining this, and how many afghan hounds are you using in your research to define them as stupid?

These questions have been going around the Afghan hound lists, but I decided to post it directly to you, in hopes that you would respond. I am also the owner of a German Shepherd Dog, and I train in obedience and agility, with some dabbling in Schutzhund, so I do understand the training of a dog and what is considered intellect.

So, my interest lays in what/where/how you are defining this to mark our breed so low. Strangers come up to me and tell me that my dogs are stupid. While this bodes well for your writing and sales, it angers me as potential buyers ask me how stupid are they "really" and how hard is it to live with such dumb dogs. These are the same people with a lab lunging at the end of a leach, eyes bulging from its head to chase a fly while my Afghan hound heels neatly at my side.

My thoughts wander to if you are using one or two bloodlines that are not intelligent, and whom with experience in the breed are you using to speak with. My own mentor has forty years of breeding afghan hounds under her belt. She has had both stupid and intelligent dogs, as with people, all breeds can span the spectrum.

I hope that my letter is not inflammatory, and I am not angered, but I would like to know what it is that has our breed ranked thus.

I look forward to your communications,

--- Stanley Coren wrote:

Dear Melanie Holms:

The ranking of dog intelligence by breeds comes from my book "The Intelligence of Dogs." There are three types of dog intelligence: 1) instinctive intelligence, which is what the dog was bred to do (e.g. herding dogs herd and retrievers retrieve); 2) adaptive intelligence, which is how well the dog solves problems and learns about his world (a test if provided for that); and working and obedience intelligence, which is the equivalent of school learning ability and represents what dogs can learn to do for humans.

The ranking of breeds is based on working and obedience intelligence and it was obtained by contacting every dog obedience judge in North America and asking them to rate individual breeds on their obedience performance and intelligence. I received 199 completed surveys and this represents more than half of the dog obedience judges in the U.S. and Canada combined. The rankings that I present are based upon statistical analysis of the judges' responses. Thus while 196 of the judges ranked the border collie in the top 10 for working and obedience intelligence, 109 ranked the Afghan hound in the bottom 10. Considering all of the data the Afghan hound came out with the lowest score on this ability of the 110 breeds tested.

Objective analyses of obedience competition scores seems to confirm the judges rankings of the dogs. Thus, for example, I just received the 2003 obedience records from all of Canada and not one Afghan hound had a qualifying score in obedience competition beyond the novice level for the entire year and from the entire nation. Given the number of Afghan hounds registered in the Canadian Kennel Club for the year this suggests that this breed is, at the very least, difficult to train, and lacking in the degree of working and obedience and working intelligence that is shown by other breeds.

I am not denigrating Afghan hounds, but simply analyzing the data that is available to me. I myself, have a Beagle, which is ranked only 7 ranks above the bottom of the list in intelligence. I choose him, however, not for his cleverness, but for his sociability. I am sure that Afghan hounds have many qualities that are attractive to their owners. The certainly are elegant dogs, and have a wonderful running and pursuit ability. However, like my well-loved Beagle, they certainly do not have the mental abilities that would earn them admission to the dog equivalent of Harvard Medical School.

I hope that this clarifies the matter somewhat. The full methodology and discussion of the data can be found in my book "The Intelligence of Dogs" which is still in most bookstores in paperback, and can usually be found in most libraries (so there is no need to purchase it).

Cordially,
Stanley Coren, PhD, FRSC