It can't even identify itself in a mirror
It seems that man's best friend is not as intelligent as people think, when compared with other animals.
Scientists at Exeter University compared the brain power of dogs with other animals and found their cognitive abilities are at least matched by several species.
They examined more than 300 papers, and found several cases of “over interpretation” in favour of dogs’ abilities.
“During our work it seemed to us that many studies in dog cognition research set out to ‘prove’ how clever dogs are,” said Professor Stephen Lea, of the University of Exeter.
“They are often compared to chimpanzees and whenever dogs ‘win’, this gets added to their reputation as something exceptional.
“Yet in each and every case we found other valid comparison species that do at least as well as dogs do in those tasks.”
The review focussed on sensory cognition, physical cognition, spatial cognition, social cognition and self-awareness.
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