How intelligent pet you want to have?
November 19, 2009 by admin · 2 Comments
What is intelligence? Psychologists might define intelligence as the ability to make new “connections”. In other words, to learn a new association between previously unrelated things. How does an owner decide if their pet is smart, and who is to say that owning a smart pet is really such a good thing? So, how do owners know if their pet is dumb or highly intelligent? Intelligent animals love to play games according to their health and energy level. An old dog might be tired and in pain, this does not mean the dog is stupid. A young pup might be running all over the house, this does not mean it is smart.
Dog
Dog intelligence is the ability of a dog to learn, think, and solve problems. Dog trainers, owners, and researchers have as much difficulty agreeing on a method for testing canine intelligence as they do for human intelligence. One specific difficulty is confusing a breed’s genetic characteristics and a dog’s obedience training with intelligence. The ability and willingness to learn and obey commands is not the only possible measurement of intelligence.
Dogs have the ability to solve complex problems and are more like humans and other higher primates than previously thought. Dogs’ mental abilities are close to a human child age 2 to 2.5 years. There are three types of dog intelligence: instinctive (what the dog is bred to do), adaptive (how well the dog learns from its environment to solve problems) and working and obedience (the equivalent of ’school learning’). As for language, the average dog can learn 165 words, including signals, and the “super dogs” (those in the top 20 percent of dog intelligence) can learn 250 words, The upper limit of dogs’ ability to learn language is partly based on a study of a border collie named Rico who showed knowledge of 200 spoken words and demonstrated ‘fast-trick- learning’, which scientists believed to be found only in humans and language learning apes. During play, dogs are capable of deliberately trying to deceive other dogs and people in order to get rewards. And they are nearly as successful in deceiving humans as humans are in deceiving dogs. The most smartest dog breeds is Border Collie.
Cat
Cat intelligence is the considered capacity of learning, thinking, and problem solving ability possessed by the domestic cat. Cats learn by trial and error, observation and imitation. In one study, it was found that cats possess visual memory ability comparable to that of monkeys. However, for short term working memory, at least one study showed that dogs outperformed cats for periods of time up to 60 seconds.
Cats can be trained to make use of a toilet. Because of their sensitive sense of smell, cats prefer going outside to urinate and defecate. Cats may learn to open windows and doors. Also, they may learn to open cupboard doors to get to food. Cats learn from experience when they find the information relevant, which is why they can develop phobias quite easily. Cats are also good at remembering useful information (such as noises they have made that achieved the desired response from their owners) and they can recognize the people and animals they have interacted with. They can also learn their owners’ schedules. As a result, some cats will act as alarm clocks, attempting to wake their owners if they sleep past the usual time. In addition, many cats have the uncanny ability of knowing when their owners are about to arrive home, even when they aren’t returning at the usual time. It’s been theorized that this ability stems from a cat’s superior hearing and the capacity to recognize the sound of his owner’s footsteps from far away. Siamese, Bengals and Burmese cats are well-regarded as breeds that naturally carry objects in their mouths. They are easy to train to fetch and carry. Other breeds such as the Maine Coon, Turkish Van, Savannah, and Angora cats are also well known for an almost dog-like liking of playing fetch. To get the most out of the cat, spend time with him. Play with him, talk to him, play music for him, watch TV with him. Many cats surprisingly show an interest in the television and even seem to remember where it is and what it does.
Fish
Fish are smart, interesting animals with their own unique personalities—just like the dogs and cats we share our homes with. A recent issue of Fish and Fisheries, devoted to learning, cited more than 500 research papers on fish intelligence, proving that fish are smart, that they can use tools, and that they have impressive long-term memories and sophisticated social structures. Fish are more intelligent than they appear.
In many areas, such as memory, their cognitive powers match or exceed those of ‘higher’ vertebrates, including non-human primates. Their long-term memories help fish keep track of complex social relationships. Their spatial memory—”equal in all respects to any other vertebrate—allows them to create cognitive maps that guide them through their watery homes, using cues such as polarized light, sounds, smells, and visual landmarks. Fish have a memory span of at least three months,” and they “are probably able to adapt to changes in their circumstances, like any other small animals and birds.”
Parrot
The parrot is a strange, mysterious creature. He appreciates praise and likes to be netted. He recognizes faces and often connects them with sentences or words. He usually makes friends of children and loves to play with them. With so many human characteristics, why should we not be fond of them? For most bird lovers, however, it is not sufficient to read about, or see a fine bird as they desire at once to possess it.
Enthusiastic owners of parrots attribute to them a high measure of intelligence and many wonderful stories are told of their memory and ability to connect words with persons or things. Their manner of answering when spoken to seems at times manner marvelous, and it would really seem that these birds are gifted with some measure of human reasoning. Parrots recognize colors, shapes and numbers up to six. They understand certain mechanisms; they memorize colors of objects and they act logically (correction of errors). Certain smaller species (African grey, amazons) have the capacity to imitate very precisely voices and noises and to associate words and sentences with objects and events. Unfortunately macaws and cockatoos are not very talented talkers.
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Both dogs and cats give us pleasant to play with them. Speaking about intelligent pet, so, it’s not so easy to describe. For example, Maine Coon cat is so smart and funny, that almost the same as German Shepherd dog while training (who’s mind is like 5th years old child). Both of them learning almost all their life to give a joy not only to themselves, but also to their master.
But, I think that most breeds are pretty smart to be called as intelligent too. Probably, it’s depends more on human person, what to choose…