At long last, the results of our Canine Championship are in. But before we dive right in to crowning one of our canines “Professor Pooch,” we feel that we would be remiss if we didn’t touch on a few scientific concepts first.
If you had a chance to watch the video showing the gamut of tests that the dogs would be put through, you’ll notice that the conditions of the activities were the same for each dog. Each dog was subject to the same blanket, the same cup, the same board, and the same treats. In other words, the conditions were standardized for each experiment and participant.
Because our canines were all being tested in different parts of the country and under different conditions, we had to come up with our own way to make sure that the experiments had some level of standardization. To this end, we stipulated the following conditions for these activities:
Blanket over Head: All dogs were covered head-to-toe with a regular sized bath towel. The towels must have completely covered their heads and as much of their bodies as possible.
Cup over Treat: All treats were completely covered with a regular sized plastic cup.
Blanket over Treat: The same towel was used as in the first activity and the treat was placed under the middle of the towel.
Board over Treat: The boards used were no more than 2 inches off the ground.
So, without further ado, here are the results we have for the Canine Championship:
Blanket over Head:
Lennu: 4.66 seconds
Millie: 4.8 seconds
Roxy: 9.6 seconds
Sammy: .76 seconds
Roxy
Cup over Treat:
Lennu: 11.66 seconds
Millie: 2.4 seconds
Roxy: 7.6 seconds
Sammy: 7.57 seconds
Sammy
Blanket over Treat:
Lennu: 30.67 seconds
Millie: 29.5 seconds
Roxy: 12.9 seconds
Sammy: 7.75 seconds
We know this doesn’t relate to this activity, but ain’t he cute?
Board over Treat:
Lennu: 1 minute, 38 seconds
Millie: 3 seconds
Roxy: 4.2 seconds
Sammy: 49 seconds
Total Time:
1st – Roxy 34.3 seconds
2nd – Millie: 39.7 seconds
3rd – Sammy: 65.1 seconds
4th – Lennu: 155 seconds
Way to go Roxy! While she may not have won any individual event, Roxy’s performance earned her the crown of Professor Pooch!
Ok, so before we let Danielle make too many excuses for “Last Place Lennu,” we must remark that these activities, while fun and entertaining, only seem to touch on a certain type of canine intelligence. If you look back to the three types of intelligence listed in our introductory Canine Championship post, these activities really seem to target the canine’s adaptive intelligence. Due to the fact that some breeds, particularly working breeds, have heightened amounts of working/obedience intelligence, this default mindset may have hindered our Aussie’s performance in this competition. Danielle did note that Lennu kept looking to her to make sure his actions were ok, and when he tried the activities a second time, he did them at lightning speed. On the other end of the spectrum, Roxy is great at following Lindsey’s commands but when she releases her by saying “Okay,” Roxy is very independent and doesn’t let anything stand in the way of what she wants (in this case, a treat!)
Ok, so Roxy may have been crowned Professor Pooch for the moment, but we want to hear from you! Write to us with the results of your dog so we can add them to the results board. Be sure to provide us with information about your dog’s breed, age, gender, a little known fact about them, and their trick repertoire, along with their results! And make sure you use the standardizations that we stipulated for our mutts.
Ready… Go!
