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Comment by nradov | Hacker News Reader

I wonder what would happen if we selectively bred dogs for that type of intelligence rather than for appearance and temperment? What are the upper limits of canine intelligence?

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We've been doing that. However, we have been selecting particularly for obedience which limited their intelligence.

We don't want actually a dog that is super-intelligent but just one that is funny, protective and smart-enough.

We adopted some dogs that have been abandoned; those you don't pick for any traits besides them not being completely crazy/vicious. We had (and have) ones that no-one wants because they are too smart; they are escape artists and very good thieves. They know how to trick you. They are absolutely not obedient, even after training (they seem to train easy, but they are just doing what gives them the quickest treat; if that ends they immediately stop again). I like them more than the obedient ones really.

A super-intelligent dog would be a pretty bad pet. Smart dogs get bored, and bored dogs get into trouble. A super-intelligent dog would be able to get into entirely new kinds of trouble. It would take a huge effort to keep it entertained and happy and well-adjusted.

A dog like that would need a full-time job, rather than being just a household pet.

This would be a great neuroscience hobby project. Plus you'd get "free" gov-grant paid dogs too.

Border Collies were supposedly bred for intelligence and obedience.

A wolf will be always the most intelligent dog bred available. You can't easily improve the job of millions of years selecting the brightest animals. Not in 50 or 100 years.

Brunner's 'Shockwave Rider' has an interesting vision of how super-intelligent dogs might take care of security for village sized human communities.

Breed slightly too much intelligence into them, and suddenly your security guards are going to take that village hostage unless they receive double food quota...

Sounds like they earned the right to strike at that point ;)

Since bringing up books, Clifford D. Simak's "City" is recounted by dogs being told stories about humans, and how they disappeared, while asking questions about human civilization such as what a "city" is, and what "war" is.

Given time and if you are prepared that the end result won't be a dog anymore at least as intelligent as humans.

Wolves. You would get wolves.

Wolves are actually... different in terms of intelligence. IIRC, there's study about how wolves tend not to rely on human help regardless of how long the wolves have lived with humans. They just ... don't get it. They can't tell that they can cooperate with humans. e.g. if there is a door and the wolf can't reach the latch, it won't seek help from the human at all, whereas a dog likely will.

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