The Intelligence of the Scottish Terrier

Last Updated: Apr 14, 2022

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Scottish Terrier Intelligence

How Smart is the Scottish Terrier?

The Scottish Terrier is a dog breed that is known to be:

  • Independent
  • Fiesty
  • Alert
  • Playful
  • Quick
  • Self-assured

But, how smart is the Scottish Terrier really?

The Scottish Terrier is the 65th smartest dog when it comes to obedience and working intelligence.

Accordingly, compared to other dogs, the Scottish Terrier belongs to the `Fair Working/Obedience Intelligence Dogs` category.

Scottish Terriers tend to learn new commands after 40 to 80 repetitions!.

These facts on Scottish Terrier intelligence are from the published work on dog intelligence and behavior by the renowned Prof. Stanley Coren. Coren is a Canadian Psychology Professor and Dog Researcher.

In the 1990s, Prof. Coren did extensive scientific research where he `measured` what is called the Working or Obedience Intelligence of more than 130 different dog breeds.

Note that the working/obedience intelligence of a dog is one of the three intelligence components that constitute a dog`s total intelligence. But it is the only intelligence component that can be measured and compared among dog breeds.

Later on, we will further explain what the working/obedience intelligence means, and what the other two parts of a dog`s intelligence are.

For his research on measuring and ranking the intelligence of dog breeds, Prof. Coren consulted with:

  • Over two hundred dog obedience judges
  • Over sixty veterinarians, and
  • Fourteen guard dog experts

From his research data, Prof. Coren ranked dog breeds according to their obedience intelligence from the smartest to the least smart.

According to the study, the smartest dog breed is the Border Collie. Border Collies are so smart that they can understand any new command that you are trying to teach them after repeating the command to them five times or fewer.

The least smart dog breed is the Afghan Hound. The Afghan Hound is one of the dog breeds with the lowest degree of Working/Obedience intelligence. It will take 80 to 100 repetitions or more for an Afghan Hound to learn a new command.

As mentioned earlier, the Scottish Terrier is the 65th smartest dog breed.

Furthermore, Coren placed dog breeds into one of six intelligence categories:

  1. Brightest Dogs: Tend To Learn New Commands After Fewer Than 5 Repetitions
  2. Excellent Working Dogs: Tend To Learn New Commands After 5 To 15 Repetitions
  3. Above Average Working Dogs: Tend To Learn New Commands After 15 To 25 Repetitions
  4. Average Working/Obedience Intelligence Dogs: Tend To Learn New Commands After 25 To 40 Repetitions
  5. Fair Working/Obedience Intelligence Dogs: Tend To Learn New Commands After 40 To 80 Repetitions!
  6. Lowest Degree of Working/Obedience Intelligence Dogs: Tend To Learn New Commands After 80 To 100 Repetitions Or More!

The Scottish Terrier belongs to the `Fair Working/Obedience Intelligence Dogs` category.

However, note that obedience intelligence is one of the many things that make a good dog. The fact that a dog breed has a low obedience intelligence DOES NOT MEAN the dog breed with not excel at other things.

Intelligence is just one of the many things that make dogs the excellent human companions that they are.

See the intelligence ranking of a few selected dog breeds in the table below: (note, although 133 dog breeds were studied, there are 79 positions because some breeds tied for the same position)

Click here to see the intelligence rank of all 133 dog breeds.

Breed Intelligence Rank
How Smart is the Standard Poodle? Ranked 2nd out of 79
How Smart is the Papillon? Ranked 8th out of 79
How Smart is the Standard Schnauzer? Ranked 18th out of 79
How Smart is the Pharaoh Hound? Ranked 37th out of 79
How Smart is the Irish Wolfhound? Ranked 41st out of 79
How Smart is the Finnish Spitz? Ranked 43rd out of 79
How Smart is the Great Dane? Ranked 48th out of 79
How Smart is the Staffordshire Bull Terrier? Ranked 49th out of 79
How Smart is the Dachshund? Ranked 49th out of 79
How Smart is the Chinese Shar-Pei? Ranked 51st out of 79
How Smart is the Maltese? Ranked 59th out of 79
How Smart is the Tibetan Terrier? Ranked 62nd out of 79
How Smart is the Scottish Terrier? Ranked 65th out of 79
How Smart is the Beagle? Ranked 72nd out of 79
How Smart is the Pekingese? Ranked 73rd out of 79
Scottish Terrier Smartness

Scottish Terrier Intelligence. A Second Opinion

We reviewed another research study to find out more about the intelligence of the Scottish Terrier. This other study is The Canine Behavioral Assessment & Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ) study.

This study was done by research veterinarians from the University of Pennsylvania.

In the study, the researchers asked owners of different dog breeds, including owners of the Scottish Terrier to describe how trainable their dogs are.

16 Scottish Terrier owners were asked to describe

how easy it was to train their Scottish Terrier in the CBARQ research survey.

We analyzed what these Scottish Terrier owners said about the trainability of their Scottish Terriers and compared that to what other owners said about other dog breeds (125 other breeds).

Dogs that are easy to train are always very eager to listen to their owner. These dogs are not stubborn. These dogs obey simple commands, and they learn very quickly.

Also, dogs that are easy to train tend to do well at fetching objects when asked to. Furthermore, this category of dogs also responds positively to correction and ignores distraction.

According to the results from the CBARQ research, Scottish Terriers are a little bit easy to train.

In fact, the Scottish Terrier ranks 87th out of 124 dog breeds for easiness to train.

Based on our further analysis of the CBARQ research data, we found that the Scottish Terrier has a trainability score of 56.8 %.

Other dog breeds that are a little bit easy to train just like the Scottish Terrier are listed in the table below:

Trainability Rank Breed Trainability Score
84 Bulldog 58.3 %
85 Ibizan Hound 58.1 %
86 Pit Bull mix 57.5 %
87 Scottish Terrier 56.8 %
88 Fox Terrier (Toy) 55.9 %
89 Alaskan Husky 55.8 %
90 Maltese 55.6 %

According to the CBARQ research data, the dog breeds that are most easy to train are the:

  1. Belgian Tervuren
  2. Belgian Malinois
  3. Border Collie
  4. Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever
  5. Irish Water Spaniel

According to the CBARQ research data, the dog breeds that are most difficult to train are the:

  1. Dingo
  2. Treeing Walker Coonhound
  3. Basenji
  4. Afghan Hound
  5. Pekingese

See our complete ranking of dog breeds from the ones that are easiest to train to the ones that are most difficult to train.

However, it is important to note that trainability does not always equal intelligence.

This is because a dog can be smart and stubborn at the same time. A smart but stubborn dog will be hard to train.

Visit this page to see the complete temperament profile (trainability, aggression, shyness, prey drive, etc) of the Scottish Terrier according to the result of the CBARQ research study.

The Three Parts of the Intelligence of the Scottish Terrier

As mentioned earlier, Prof. Coren ranked dogs based on what is called the `Working/Obedience` Intelligence.

The `Working/Obedience` Intelligence is one of the three parts of a dog`s overall intelligence.

All the three parts that make up a dog`s overall intelligence are:

  1. Instinctive Intelligence: This is the natural intelligence that comes from instinct. For example, dog breeds that have been historically bred to be guard or hunt dogs will have a high `guarding` or `hunting` intelligence compared to dogs that were not bred for guarding or hunting.

  2. You can tell what type of instinctive intelligence a dog breed will have based on the dog group the dog belongs.

    The Scottish Terrier belongs to the Terrier Dogs group.

    Dogs in the Terrier Dogs group, like the Scottish Terrier, were originally bred to go underground to hunt rodents and other small wild animals (vermin).

    Terriers come in a wide range of sizes and shapes, but all terriers are energetic, highly intelligent, and territorial. Terries also have the tendency to escape..

  3. Adaptive Intelligence: This indicates what a dog can learn to do for himself or herself. Adaptive intelligence is specific to each dog, and not specific to a dog breed. You can improve your dog`s adaptive intelligence (and therefore its overall intelligence) by investing time to train your dog.

  4. Working/Obedience Intelligence: This intelligence type is the subject of this article. This type of intelligence is breed-specific. Certain dog breeds tend to have higher working/obedience intelligence than other breeds. This intelligence is the closest to what we might call school-learning ability and it is based upon what the dog can learn to do when instructed by humans. This type of intelligence can be measured for each dog breed. Furthermore, the working/obedience intelligence of one dog breed can be compared to that of another dog breed to see which dog is smarter

The natural breed-specific working/obedience intelligence is a heavy chunk of a dog`s overall intelligence.

According to Prof. Coren, 51 percent of a dog`s intelligence comes from its genes while 49 percent of a dog`s intelligence comes from the dog`s environmental circumstances. Environmental circumstances include how much training you give to a dog.

In short, it will be much easier to train a naturally smart dog.

However, we should mention that a dog breed should not be judged based on its intelligence alone.

There are other important factors you need to consider when deciding on which dog breed to get.

The most important factor to consider is how compatible a dog breed`s overall temperament is with your lifestyle.

How Smart is the Scottish Terrier?

The Intelligence of Scottish Terrier Compared to Other Dog Breeds

See how smart the Scottish Terrier is compared to some other dog breeds.

To see how smart the Scottish Terrier is compared to all other dog breeds, see this ranking of dog breeds based on intelligence.

Is the Scottish Terrier Smarter Than the Yorkshire Terrier?

The Intelligence of Scottish Terrier versus the Intelligence of Yorkshire Terrier

The Yorkshire Terrier is smarter than the Scottish Terrier.

This is because the Yorkshire Terrier ranks 27th out of 79 in the intelligence ranking of 133 dog breeds, while the intelligence rank of the Scottish Terrier is 65th out of 79 in the ranking of the intelligence of 133 dog breeds (133 and not 79 because some breeds tied for intelligence in the same spot).

Because of its intelligence rank of 65th, the Scottish Terrier belongs to the `Fair Working/Obedience Intelligence Dogs` category.

This means that Scottish Terriers tend to learn new commands after 40 to 80 repetitions!.

On the other hand, because of its intelligence rank of 27th, the Yorkshire Terrier belongs to the `Above Average Working Dogs` category.

This means that Yorkshire Terriers tend to learn new commands after 15 to 25 repetitions.

Scottish Terrier Yorkshire Terrier
Intelligence Rank 65th out of 133 dog breeds 27th out of 133 dog breeds
Learning Ability Tend To Learn New Commands After 40 To 80 Repetitions! Tend To Learn New Commands After 15 To 25 Repetitions

Learn more about how smart Yorkshire Terriers are here.

Is the Scottish Terrier Smarter Than the Bichon Frise?

The Intelligence of Scottish Terrier versus the Intelligence of Bichon Frise

The Bichon Frise is smarter than the Scottish Terrier.

This is because the Bichon Frise ranks 45th out of 79 in the intelligence ranking of 133 dog breeds, while the intelligence rank of the Scottish Terrier is 65th out of 79 in the ranking of the intelligence of 133 dog breeds (133 and not 79 because some breeds tied for intelligence in the same spot).

Because of its intelligence rank of 65th, the Scottish Terrier belongs to the `Fair Working/Obedience Intelligence Dogs` category.

This means that Scottish Terriers tend to learn new commands after 40 to 80 repetitions!.

On the other hand, because of its intelligence rank of 45th, the Bichon Frise belongs to the `Average Working/Obedience Intelligence Dogs` category.

This means that Bichon Frises tend to learn new commands after 25 to 40 repetitions.

Scottish Terrier Bichon Frise
Intelligence Rank 65th out of 133 dog breeds 45th out of 133 dog breeds
Learning Ability Tend To Learn New Commands After 40 To 80 Repetitions! Tend To Learn New Commands After 25 To 40 Repetitions

Learn more about how smart Bichon Frises are here.

Is the Scottish Terrier Smarter Than the Irish Terrier?

The Intelligence of Scottish Terrier versus the Intelligence of Irish Terrier

The Irish Terrier is smarter than the Scottish Terrier.

This is because the Irish Terrier ranks 53rd out of 79 in the intelligence ranking of 133 dog breeds, while the intelligence rank of the Scottish Terrier is 65th out of 79 in the ranking of the intelligence of 133 dog breeds (133 and not 79 because some breeds tied for intelligence in the same spot).

Because of its intelligence rank of 65th, the Scottish Terrier belongs to the `Fair Working/Obedience Intelligence Dogs` category.

This means that Scottish Terriers tend to learn new commands after 40 to 80 repetitions!.

On the other hand, because of its intelligence rank of 53rd, the Irish Terrier belongs to the `Average Working/Obedience Intelligence Dogs` category.

This means that Irish Terriers tend to learn new commands after 25 to 40 repetitions.

Scottish Terrier Irish Terrier
Intelligence Rank 65th out of 133 dog breeds 53rd out of 133 dog breeds
Learning Ability Tend To Learn New Commands After 40 To 80 Repetitions! Tend To Learn New Commands After 25 To 40 Repetitions

Learn more about how smart Irish Terriers are here.

Is the Scottish Terrier Smarter Than the Dandie Dinmont Terrier?

The Dandie Dinmont Terrier is smarter than the Scottish Terrier.

This is because the Dandie Dinmont Terrier ranks 62nd out of 79 in the intelligence ranking of 133 dog breeds, while the intelligence rank of the Scottish Terrier is 65th out of 79 in the ranking of the intelligence of 133 dog breeds (133 and not 79 because some breeds tied for intelligence in the same spot).

Because of its intelligence rank of 65th, the Scottish Terrier belongs to the `Fair Working/Obedience Intelligence Dogs` category.

This means that Scottish Terriers tend to learn new commands after 40 to 80 repetitions!.

On the other hand, because of its intelligence rank of 62nd, the Dandie Dinmont Terrier belongs to the `Fair Working/Obedience Intelligence Dogs` category.

This means that Dandie Dinmont Terriers tend to learn new commands after 40 to 80 repetitions!.

Scottish Terrier Dandie Dinmont Terrier
Intelligence Rank 65th out of 133 dog breeds 62nd out of 133 dog breeds
Learning Ability Tend To Learn New Commands After 40 To 80 Repetitions! Tend To Learn New Commands After 40 To 80 Repetitions!

Learn more about how smart Dandie Dinmont Terriers are here.

Is the Scottish Terrier Smarter Than the Pharaoh Hound?

The Intelligence of Scottish Terrier versus the Intelligence of Pharaoh Hound

The Pharaoh Hound is smarter than the Scottish Terrier.

This is because the Pharaoh Hound ranks 37th out of 79 in the intelligence ranking of 133 dog breeds, while the intelligence rank of the Scottish Terrier is 65th out of 79 in the ranking of the intelligence of 133 dog breeds (133 and not 79 because some breeds tied for intelligence in the same spot).

Because of its intelligence rank of 65th, the Scottish Terrier belongs to the `Fair Working/Obedience Intelligence Dogs` category.

This means that Scottish Terriers tend to learn new commands after 40 to 80 repetitions!.

On the other hand, because of its intelligence rank of 37th, the Pharaoh Hound belongs to the `Above Average Working Dogs` category.

This means that Pharaoh Hounds tend to learn new commands after 15 to 25 repetitions.

Scottish Terrier Pharaoh Hound
Intelligence Rank 65th out of 133 dog breeds 37th out of 133 dog breeds
Learning Ability Tend To Learn New Commands After 40 To 80 Repetitions! Tend To Learn New Commands After 15 To 25 Repetitions

Learn more about how smart Pharaoh Hounds are here.

Is the Scottish Terrier Smarter than a Cat?

Intelligece of Scottish Terrier versus cat

Dogs have more neurons in their brains than cats. In fact, a dog has twice the number of brain neurons of a cat (500 million versus 250 million neurons).

This is according to a research study in which the scientist counted the number of brain neurons in dogs and in cats.

Brain neurons are used for processing information. Hence, it is likely that the Scottish Terrier will have a better information processing power than a cat

Thus, if we are to use the number of neurons in an animal`s brain as a measure of intelligence, then the Scottish Terrier is definitely way smarter than a cat because the Scottish Terrier has twice as many brain neurons as a cat.

However, intelligence is a very complex concept that may not be explained simply by how many neurons an animal`s brain has. Learn more here.

What is the IQ of the Scottish Terrier?

The IQ of the Scottish Terrier versus human

Before discussing the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) of the Scottish Terrier, let us first define what Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is. IQ is simply a measure of how mentally advanced a person is relative to that person`s chronological age (the typical age that is calculated from birthday).

For example, a 2-year-old child with the mental capacity of a 4-year-old has an IQ of 200 (that is 4 divided by 2, multiplied by 100).

This is an old but simple definition of IQ.

According to Prof. Stanley Coren, a dog has the mental capacity of a 2-year-old human child.

Let us assume that Scottish Terriers become full-grown and reach mental maturity at one year of age.

Also, let us make the bold assumption that, as Scottish Terriers get older, they do not get significantly smarter than a 2-year-old human child (You Can`t Teach an Old Dog New Tricks).

Thus, a one-year-old Scottish Terrier will have the mental capacity of a 2-year-old human child, and a 2-year-old Scottish Terrier will still have the mental capacity of a 2-year-old human child, and a 3-year-old Scottish Terrier will have the mental capacity of a 2-year-old human child, and so on.

Then, from the way IQ is defined, a one-year-old Scottish Terrier, which will have the mental capacity of a 2-year-old child, has an IQ of 200! This is not too surprising because Scottish Terriers mature and age faster than humans.

A one-year-old Scottish Terrier is twice as smart as a one-year-old human child.

Also, since a 2-year-old Scottish Terrier will have the intelligence of a two-year-old human, then the corresponding IQ of a 2-year-old Scottish Terrier is 100. Similarly, a three-year-old Scottish Terrier will still have the mental capacity of a two-year-old human, making its IQ 66, and so on.

These may sound odd. But this is because the concept of IQ was designed to test human intelligence and not Scottish Terrier intelligence. That is what you get when you use human intelligence as a reference to measure Scottish Terrier intelligence.

Conclusion

We hope this article has provided you with all the facts you need to know on Scottish Terrier intelligence.

To learn more about the Scottish Terrier, check out our article where we reviewed the Scottish Terrier breed.

Also, to learn more about the temperament and behavior of the Scottish Terrier, check out our article on the temperament profile of the Scottish Terrier. This will tell you what Scottish Terriers are really like.

If you do not own the Scottish Terrier yet, and you are planning to get one, check out our list of reputable Scottish Terrier breeders and article on Scottish Terrier price and buying advice.