Males or Females: Who Rules and Who Drools in (Dog) Intelligence?

Overview

Objectives/Goals The purpose for this project is to see which gender of dog is the smartest. With this knowledge, future dog owners who wanted a specific gender of dog may choose the other because of more potential intelligence. I think that more female dogs will get high I.Q. scores than will male dogs because my research verifies that females tend to be more alert than males. Methods/Materials With the help of many resources, I created a dog I.Q. test consisting of 14 problem solving activities: Couch Play, Obstacle Course, Canny, Follow the Leader, Hide-and-Seek, Cover Up, Follow the Leader: Tugboat Style, No Balloon On Me!, Get it Outta Here, House Remodeling, Smile!, Just Smarts, Jjuusstt Ssmmaarrttss (a longer version of Just Smarts), Fridges and Videos, and Big Puppy Towelie. The tests were a mixture of hard, medium, and easy activities. I tested 23 dogs, recorded their scores, and calculated the I.Q. from the mental ages of the dogs. 1 bath towel, 1 container of 550 dog treats, 1 couch per house, 1 digital camera, 1 dishtowel, 1 #Mental Age# sheet, 1 pen, 1 #raw data# sheet per dog, 1 roll of yellow string, 1 small trash bucket, 1 stopwatch, 23 dogs (sample size), 3 balloons, 2 chairs per house, 2 treat footballs (diff. sizes). Results The test Couch Play, involving dogs to reach under a couch or other large object displayed difficulty. Eleven dogs used their paw. Get it Outta Here!, Just Smarts, and Jjuusstt Ssmmaarrtts were harder activities. The tests Obstacle Course, Follow the Leader - Tugboat Style, Cover Up, No Balloon On Me!, House Remodeling, and Smile! were relatively easier. Only one dog did not receive credit for Obstacle Course. As for Follow the Leader - Tugboat Style, 12 dogs obtained the treat in 15 seconds or less. 18 dogs triumphed in No Balloon On Me!. 18 dogs put their nose to the ground in House Remodeling. The three medium activities were Smile!, Fridges and Videos, and Big Puppy Towelie. Nine dogs succeeded in Smile!. The other 14 dogs were divided up: 4 dogs came close to getting full credit, 3 dogs hardly understood the concept, and 7 dogs clearly did not understand. Twelve dogs failed the Fridges and Videos activity, and 11 dogs passed it. Sixteen dogs did well on the activity Big Puppy Towelie. Conclusions/Discussion I have found that there were more high female I.Q. scores than male high scores. Therefore, female dogs are smarter than male dogs.

Awards (1)

• Honorable Mention

Competition history

• CSEF 2008 Mammalian Biology · Entry J1121

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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