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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver Weekend, Saturday September 30, 2006 - 21 Improve training by understanding your dog's IQ C anine intelligence has become a topic of great interest to the scientific community. Stanley Coren, well-known author, award-winning scientist and Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia, provides a simple explanation to help you understand your dog's intelligence quotient (IQ). Coren is best known as the host of a national TV program on Life Network called intelligence, which is breed dependent. Adaptive intelligence is demonstrated in Good Dog! On the program Coren uses his back- ways such as being able to tell the passage of ground in psychology to teach owners expe- time with great accuracy. If you follow a regular rouriencing dog problems a new tine, the dog will know when way to look at the problem. When dogs appear to you are expected home and He also shares these disobey or ignore us, when dinner will be served. insights into how dogs think Reading body language is in one of his most popular they are often reading another way dogs demonbooks The Intelligence of our body language, strate this type of intelligence. Dogs. which is either telling When dogs appear to disThe book (which went them to do something obey or ignore us, they are into 16 printings in hard else or sometimes that often reading our body lancover, and is still selling in guage, which is either telling paperback) has been trans- they will get into trouble if they follow them to do something else or lated into 18 languages. sometimes that they will get In it Coren writes a fasci- our suggestions. into trouble if they follow our nating description of how suggestions. dogs think, their mental abilFor example, if you say ities and the various types of "Come" and the dog remembers that the last intelligence. He defines dog intelligence in three ways: time he was reprimanded for his slow adaptive intelligence (learning and problem- arrival, he will think twice about a quick solving ability, specific to the individual ani- response. Some people believe the dog is emotionmal and not measured by canine IQ tests); instinctive intelligence, which is specific to ally tuning into our body language and us. The other issue is training. Sometimes the individual animal and is measured by canine IQ tests; and working/obedience the dog doesn't follow through on the com- mand because we have failed to train it properly. Instinctive intelligence allows dogs to do a good job of what they have been bred to do. The bird dog that flushes out birds or the herding dog that fetches sheep are both demonstrating genetic "smarts". Testing can be done to determine a dog's ability to learn commands. How intelligent the dog is, is determined by how many repetitions it takes to learn the command and then how consistently dogs offer the commands when given. Stanley Coren's final category of intelligence, the ranking of breeds according to intelligence, became front-page news in many newspapers around the world. Working/obedience intelligence separates one dog scholar from the other by breed. Two examples of breeds that excel in working/obedience intelligence are Huskies and Beagles. Both types are generally excellent at figuring out how to get out of a fenced yard; one because it is driven to run and the other because it is driven to follow a scent. Unfortunately in the case of these two breeds, it means many end up in shelters. Those dogs that are great problem solvers are not always the easiest to live with. Understanding your dog's IQ through Coren's categories can go a long way toward helping you train your pet. Knowing how your dog thinks in these three distinctive ways promises to help every dog owner improve their intelligence about how a dog's mind works. Pet of the Week KAPRIA: Kapria is an active intelligent girl. She will steal your heart when you watch her sitting in her run in "beg" position. Many of the animals available for adoption can be viewed on our website at www.oakvillehumane.ca ENJOY AN ELEGANT EVENING WITH FRIENDS IN SUPPORT OF THE OAKVILLE-TRAFALGAR MEMORIAL HOSPITAL & Co-Present THE OTMH CANDLELIGHT BALL SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4TH, 2006 at the Burlington Convention Centre, 1120 Burloak Drive COCKTAIL RECEPTION 6:30 p.m. DINNER 7:30 p.m. SPECIAL FEATURES Tickets include: · Raffle · Silent Auction · Live Auction · Dinner · Dancing to The Anita Rossi Band For tickets call Aleta Mayer at 905-845-2571x4351 GOLD SPONSORS SILVER SPONSORS BRONZE SPONSOR Accenture Inc. Dr. and Mrs. Robert G. Jones and family KPMG