People claim their dogs are geniuses for doing things like remembering where the treats are or figuring out how to open a door you swear was shut. But scientists have an actual definition for this canine brilliance.

A new study from the University of Portsmouth and the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena suggests the smartest dogs on Earth share three traits that separate them from the rest: curiosity, focus, and self-control.

As reported by Newsweek, the research team studied 11 rare “label-learning” dogs, a category reserved for canines that can identify dozens or even hundreds of objects by name alone. Dr. Juliane Kaminski, who leads the Dog Cognition Centre at Portsmouth, called these dogs “extremely rare” and added that their talent appears to be innate. The group included border

See Full Page