How smart is a Labrador retriever? You might be interested to know how intelligent labs are if you’re looking to own one, and this is a good question. A Labrador is a highly trainable and companionable breed that is one of the most loved of all for its obedience in learning tricks, commands, and dog skills.
How smart is a Labrador?
It’s considered and ranked the seventh smartest out of 138 dog breeds and are known for their high retrieving skills and instincts. Labradors are also known to adapt perfectly well to different situations and are great family pets that can easily adapt to new environments, too.
How does a lab compare to an average dog?
It can learn new commands at least five times faster versus an average dog that needs 25-40 repetitions to learn one.
An average dog breed will obey a common command with at least 50% success rates. Some of them include the Boxer, Great Dane, and Siberian husky.
Why are Labrador retrievers smart?
For one, they score high in terms of retriever’s intelligence. They have an instinctive intelligence, which they’re initially bred for.
Remember, Labradors were bred for their working ability, aiding fishermen in retrieving fish that had escaped fishing hooks and retrieving game.
Labradors were originally bred as water retrievers, and not many are like them.
They’re agile, skillful, and highly obedient and are sometimes referred to as superior water dogs, whose physical qualities like their dual coat makes them highly adaptable and useful in cold waters.
Their coat is water resistant, which provides them that perfect insulation in icy waters.
They also have a short fur coat, which gives them that buoyancy to float when swimming. In addition, they’re efficient and excellent swimmers because they also have webbed toes to swim fast.
This instinct and ability in swimming of these water retrievers is still present in modern day labs although most of them are now family pets instead of workers.
Labrador retrievers still have a very high intelligence quotient.
Meanwhile, they are also highly adaptable to learn new commands and tricks, allowing them to learn really quickly for themselves.
Labradors have this adaptive intelligence, which is a measure of what they can do for themselves, including learning and benefitting from past experiences with surroundings as well as solving new problems.
Adaptive intelligence is said to be the foundation upon which developing the skills of a Labrador rests.
It is how quickly they will learn and pick up social cues during training, which also affects how easily pet owners can mold their dog’s instinctive intelligence for new and useful skills and how well labs will do a job.
Labradors can take on new habits and move with you! They can easily adjust to new environments like a small child.
Did you know that they have also displayed their prowess in math and language? Studies have shown that Labs can learn new commands in different languages.
A lab, being a highly intelligent dog breed, can learn more than 250 words along with different auditory and visual signals, when compared to an average dog that can learn 165 words.
Labs are excellent guides
Labradors are also known as guides for the blind and visually impaired individuals. They’re excellent when it comes to maneuvering different obstacles on the road.
They are also lifesavers in that they can put themselves between the person they’re guiding and car, bike, and any oncoming obstacle, which would otherwise put our lives in danger.
Even the Guide Dogs of America regard them as the most useful guide dogs. Evidently, labs have also been used in many guide dog programs.
Which Labrador color is the most intelligent?
You’re probably wondering which Labrador color is the smartest of them all. However, there is no study or science that has been done to prove one color to be smarter than the other. Nevertheless, all lab colors are intelligent.
Which is smarter, a Golden retriever or a Labrador retriever?
Both dogs are intelligent breeds, and they have similarities and differences.
Labradors are the seventh smartest dog, while Golden retrievers are fourth.
So if you get a Golden retriever, you can be certain that you’ll have a clever dog with high adaptive and instinctive intelligence.
But either way, both dog breeds are intelligent. There is no question about that. They are also highly trainable and can learn new tricks and commands faster than average dog breeds.
Golden retrievers and Labrador retrievers also need playtime and exercise and possess good temperaments.
Perhaps, the most noticeable difference you’ll see is their coat and appearance. For example, Golden retrievers have longer hair; thus, they may need more frequent grooming than a Labrador retriever.
However, Labradors are better swimmers than Golden retrievers.
Final Thoughts
Labradors are highly intelligent dogs and are ranked as the seventh in the world. To make them the happiest pet you could have, keep them mentally and physically stimulated. After all, you’ll not have a hard time working with and training them for new skills, tricks, and commands. Your active and companionable pet is adaptable to different surroundings, so moving them will not be a problem, too.
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