Dog owners apparently have a problem with overestimating their pet's intelligence. In the New York Times, science writer Emily Anthes uses a flood of reader emails about "genius" dogs to explore how we routinely overrate canine brainpower, especially our own pets' mental gifts. Research shows dogs can do impressive things—read human gestures, track what others know, even rival toddlers on some tasks—but surveys find many owners go much further, sometimes rating dogs as having a level of intelligence rivaling teenagers. Two-thirds of dog owners in one poll said their animal was sharper than the "typical" dog, while only 6% acknowledged their dogs might have below-average intelligence.
Anthes gently pushes back on the obsession with brilliance, noting she's "delighted" to own a dog "on the slower end of the spectrum." Hyper-intelligent pets, she notes, can be exhausting: when her clever cat isn't entertained, "she opens our drawers, shreds our toilet paper and pushes our dishes off the kitchen counter." By contrast, her seemingly bumbling dog Watson forgets routines and barely follows commands, yet excels at what really matters: reading his owner's subtle cues and offering steady companionship. "I don't need him to help me with the crossword—I just want him to curl up next to me while I do it," she writes. For Anthes' full case for celebrating "average" dogs, read her piece in the Times.
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