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Bollocks to the AKC and obedience trials
Smartest dogs I ever met were basically unteachable because they thought for themselves - like coyotes, which would run intellectual circles around anything on the AKC list except maybe border collies. Additionally, hybrids are almost always healthier and more robust than "pure breeds" - more inherent resilience that accompanies genetic diversity known as "hybrid vigor" - would not be at all surprising if that also generally makes them "smarter" as well.
Have had two border collie hybrids - the first was half shepherd and the sliest creature on four legs I've ever met, spent the better part of one summer leaping over an eight foot fence and tearing around the neighborhood all day until she heard my car at which point she would run home so that she was innocently awaiting my arrival back inside the fence when I returned - people were telling me for weeks that she was running loose before I figured out her game. The other was one quarter coyote (her half-breed mother used to basically try to talk to people when she wanted something) and almost everything I ever tried to get her to do ended up with her looking at me like "What's the point" or if I was persistent enough she would eventually do what I asked and then sigh and throw herself down like it was just so such a waste of time.
Anyway, obedience/conditioning is hardly synonymous with intelligence. Best story of a smart dog I ever heard was one that lived with four others and liked to sound the alarm bark and lurch toward the front door at feeding time so that all the other dogs would run from the kitchen to fend off the phantom threat while he stayed behind and snarfed down some of everyone else's food.
Never really appreciated dogs until I realized that as descendants of wolves that they're still "pack" animals at heart and that the human/canine bond is enabled by dogs supplanting the traditional pack with a human owner(s) or family. Met a couple guys who summered with a group of "naive" (no previous human contact) wolves in the Brooks Range of Alaska one summer and were adopted into the pack. Great stories and amazing pictures - can't think of too many better ways to spend a summer.
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