[BookerMoose]

There was a book published a while back called The Intelligence of Dogs that did a ranking of the intelligence of dog breeds. I have never quite gotten around to reading it, but I do understand from people who have read it that although it includes discussion of different types of intelligence in dogs - and not just obedience intelligence - it includes a ranking for obedience intelligence that has beagles right down close to the very bottom, and many people therefore have taken from that that beagles are stupid. I believe that the author (Stanley Coren, a local professor who actually has a beagle and I don't think harbours ill will towards beagles - he met ours once and was actually quite taken by Moose) does explain that this is only ONE measure of intelligence, but I think the rankings got a lot of coverage and beagles have gotten a lot of bad press as a result. I think in other tests of problem solving and other kinds of intelligence beagles have scored at or close to the top - but that seems to get lost in all the attention that is paid to blind obedience...