Ask any dog owner, and they will tell you they have the most intelligent dog in the world. Some will even put their money where their mouth is, offering to prove their dog's intelligence in some way or another.

Although that may be true, there are also some indications that certain breeds of dogs are more intelligent than others. This isn't true across the board, but in general, some smart dog breeds can hold their own as far as their intelligence is concerned.

Photo: Pexels/Blue Bird

This question may now be put to rest, thanks to some research from Yale University. They used their Canine Cognition Center to look into various dog breeds and see which is the smartest. They then published the study in Scientific Reports, and have crowned the most intelligent breed in the world.

According to that report, the Belgian Malinois could perform with extreme intelligence on several tests. It has been crowned as the most intelligent breed in the world.

To make this determination, researchers from Yale University looked into 1002 participating dogs. They were all put through the smartDOG cognition test to examine their memory, reasoning abilities, strategy, and ability to control their impulses.

Photo: Flickr/Llima Oroso License: CC BY-ND 2.0

Some other factors that were part of the test included how easily the breed could look at human gestures and understand them. They also wanted to see if they could copy the behavior of humans naturally.

The highest number of points possible was 39 points. The Belgian Malinois, which is a hurting breed, was able to score 35 points out of 39. That is quite impressive!

One of the parts of the test that the Belgian Malinois passed was the ability to look at human gestures and interpret their intent. They also got through the problem-solving portion of the program with flying colors.

A cylinder was placed in front of the dog with a treat inside. The dogs couldn't see through the cylinder, and they had to figure out how to get the treat out of the end. Most dogs try to go through the end of the cylinder, but the Malinois did so through the side. The other breed that did it in this way was the German Shepherd.

Photo: Pexels/Adam Kontor

In the past, you may have heard that the border collie was the smartest breed in the world. They now come in second place to the Belgian Malinois, but they are still in the top two.

The Finnish Lapphund is also a herding dog that is thought to be intelligent, but they didn't do well in the test for tasks that were human-directed. They may be able to herd animals, but they couldn't take instruction as well as other breeds.

According to The Telegraph, one of the researchers, Dr. Saara Junttila, spoke about the strengths and weaknesses that most breeds experience. She pointed out the labrador retriever as an example, saying that they could read human gestures but couldn't solve a problem easily.

Sorry to all the labradors out there!