9 "Dumb" Dogs That Are Actually Pretty Smart

For some dogs, learning to "shake" isn't that easy. But that doesn't mean they're dumb. Golden Retrievers, Border Collies, and Labradors, among other working breeds, are often considered to be some of the most intelligent dog breeds. But Margaret Gruen, an assistant professor of veterinary behavioral medicine at North Carolina State University, told Woman's Day that whether a breed is intelligent depends entirely on what you're defining as intelligent.

Intelligence isn't a line, with Border Collies on one end, and "dumb" dog breeds on the other. "There's actually all these domains in which you can excel," she said. "Memory or navigation or causal reasoning or inference — those are all different domains, and different species will have strengths in one or another or a composite of them."

Most of the dogs that people think of as intelligent are breeds that work closely with people, according to Liz MacHaffie, a professional dog trainer and behaviorist. "These dogs are much more likely to be tuned into us and to be able to think of what we're doing as important to them and to be motivated by social interaction with us," she told Woman's Day. In other words, breeds people often think of as smarter like being around people more. (So, clearly humans aren't biased at all.)

But "dumb" dog breeds, on the other hand, are the dogs that humans have bred to be more independent. They aren't necessarily less intelligent — they just excel in other areas that people overlook or don't quite understand. Here are nine of the "dumbest" dog breeds that aren't actually dumb.