Recent animal studies prove that the Labrador Retriever is one out of six canine breeds with the highest intellect. It has been proven that the Labrador can count to the number five or more.
The Labrador is capable of learning, remembering, recognizing and understanding a vocabulary of over one hundred fifty words. In the past, it was believed that only members of the primate species have this kind of vocabulary capability and intelligence because the primate has the ability to communicate human language by the use of sign language.
Even though the Labrador is not capable of sign language, it does have the ability to communicate by the use of its own body language when the Labrador hears the words and acts or performs the action associated with the word or its meaning. This is also due to the Labrador’s memory capacity. If you were to say to your Labrador “Go get the leash if you want to go walk,” then your Labrador actually does go and retrieve the leash and brings it to you. The Labrador has associated the leash with the word Walk and the word Go. The Labrador remembers that he or she is allowed to go and walk if you ask for the leash.
Some owners and breeders of the Labrador believe that the Labrador continues to add words daily to the list of words it recognizes and understands, and there is not reason to think that the Labrador is not capable of this type or learning. Because of the Labrador’s extremely high intelligence who knows what else the Labrador breed is capable of accomplishing.
A Labrador’s intelligence gives the Labrador the ability to act or to perform certain activities or actions on its own without being trained, instructed, or shown. A Labrador can look at an event or a situation and then solve the situation or act on the situation in a positive manner. Say a Labrador were to come upon or find a human injured and alone–the Labrador will do whatever possible to comfort the human and then will bark out a warning for help to come to the injured human, or the Labrador may leave the human to go and find help.