Cross-species comparisons about cognitive and emotional capacities including intelligence are pretty useless.

It's essential to understand and appreciate individual differences in intelligence among dogs.

Myths about dog behavior can mislead; understanding individual traits is vital.

A recent essay by award-winning science writer Emily Anthes titled "In Defense of Dumb Dogs: Your pet is (probably) not a genius, and that’s OK" has generated countless emails, texts, and in-person comments and discussions so I decided it would be useful to: (1) clarify what Anthes is saying (or at least lay out what I think she is trying to communicate), (2) stress that some people seem not to have carefully read what she wrote, (3) revisit other myths about the behavior of dogs, and (4) explain why cross-species comparisons about the cognitive and emotional lives of animals are fraught with error, including those in which dogs and other animals are compared to humans of different ages.

I found Anthes's essay to be important and thought-provoking, and decided to write this post because just yesterday four people asked me, "Aren't you going to write something about who dogs really are and why we must be very careful about labelling them as being 'dumb'?" One asked, "Isn't the real problem that so many people are dog illiterate and not fluent in dog?"

Anthes's main message is summarized well in her last paragraph:

Indeed, what makes dogs exceptional is their ability to forge these relationships with us — bonds so strong that we are all somehow convinced that our own canine companions lead the collective pack. Watson might not know his hedgehog toy from his stuffed turtle, but he is — and I say this with all due journalistic objectivity — the absolute best.

Indeed, what makes dogs exceptional is their ability to forge these relationships with us — bonds so strong that we are all somehow convinced that our own canine companions lead the collective pack. Watson might not know his hedgehog toy from his stuffed turtle, but he is — and I say this with all due journalistic objectivity — the absolute best.

The importance of dispelling myths about dogs

There are numerous myths about dogs that are all too frequently repeated as........

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