Dogs are as intelligent as 14-month-old babies

Scientists were surprised to find that man's best friend showed evidence of advanced reasoning on a par with toddlers in a physical problem-solving test.

The Austrian team concluded that we have long underestimated the brain power of our favourite pet.

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Their test sought to establish exactly how sophisticated dogs' thinking could be when they chose to imitate the behaviour of others.

The starting point was a study of several children aged 14 months - who each separately sat and watched as, one by one, their mothers entered a dimly lit room carrying a blanket with both hands, before using their heads to turn on a light switch.

When the children were then given the chance to switch on the light, they generally did so using their hands rather than their heads.

Analysts concluded that the babies were able to reason that their mothers had clumsily used their foreheads only because their hands were full.

So, rather than blindly copying their mothers exactly, the babies analysed what they had seen and realised that their hands were clearly more suited to the task.

Researchers at the University of Vienna carried out a similar study of dogs, to see if they were capable of behaving in the same way.

Knowing that dogs will typically use their mouths to carry out most tasks, the scientists trained a female Border collie called Guinness to push a bar with her paws in order to receive a treat.

She was then made to perform this task while being watched separately by two groups of mixed-breed dogs.

While being watched by the first group, Guinness had a ball in her mouth, but for the second group, her mouth was empty.

A third group of 14 dogs were not allowed to watch Guinness at all, but were simply let loose on the mechanism without instruction.

As anticipated, 12 of the 14 operated the bar with their mouths.

Then the 19-strong group that had watched Guinness move the bar with her paws while her mouth was empty were given a go - and 83 per cent copied her by using their paws, assuming that doing so was the key to getting the treat.

But the clincher came with the group of 21 that had watched Guinness in action when she had a ball in her mouth, as 80 per cent of them used their mouths to push the bar.

Just as the 14-month- old human babies had reasoned that their mothers turned the light on with their heads only because their hands were full, the dogs apparently reasoned - albeit wrongly, in this case - that Guinness had used her paws to push the bar only because her mouth was full.

University of Vienna researcher Friederike Range said: "The fact that the dogs imitate selectively depending on the situation has not been shown before.

"We were very surprised to see this 'selective imitation' by the dogs. They didn't just copy blindly what they saw."

Fellow researcher Zsofia Viranyi, of Eotvos University in Budapest, said of the research, published in U.S. journal Current Biology: "The dogs' behaviour was very similar to the children who were tested in the original experiment.

"Whether they imitate or not depends on the context. It's not automatic, insightless copying. It's more sophisticated."