A dog may be man's best friend, but a dog's intelligence can vary from amazing to comically dumb. They are a peculiar species in that nature never intended to give us a pet. All domestic dogs were bred originally from wolves, with breeders aiming for features that would be useful to humans, like herding sheep or fitting into the sleeve of one's gown. It usually doesn't matter how intelligent a dog is, because he's loved and cared for by his humans anyway. But maybe they are just intelligent in a different way from what we normally think.
Indeed, considerable variation exists among dogs, as their behavior can be influenced by breed, socialization, life experiences, and so on. Importantly, however, dogs are really good at being dogs, including stuff like playing fetch, barking at the neighbors, herding sheep, mooching for snacks, and, very importantly, providing companionship. There’s literally no reason for them to be more human-like when it comes to their intelligence, even if we sometimes mistakenly project more smarts onto them than they deserve.
“Dogs are very good at what they’re bred to do—they’re excellent at doing those things, and in some cases even better than other species we think are intelligent, such as chimps and bonobos,” Zachary Silver, a PhD student from the Comparative Cognitive Lab at Yale University, told Gizmodo. “But as soon as we step outside of that domain, we see a lot of failures in cognition, including a lack of flexibility and cognitive sophistication.”
Read about the intelligence and the limitations of our dogs at Gizmodo.