Betsy (dog)

Betsy is a black and white longhaired Border Collie, credited with being one of the world's most intelligent dogs.

Biography

Betsy (born 2002) lives in Vienna, Austria with her owner, who goes by the pseudonym "Schäfer" (English: Shepherd). Betsy is also a pseudonym given to her by animal cognition researchers. At ten weeks of age, Betsy was able to sit on command and knew numerous objects, such as a ball and set of keys, by their name and would fetch them on verbal command. Betsy was discovered after her owner answered a request by National Geographic Magazine to submit intelligent animals for study. Betsy was one of two dogs (both of which were Border Collies) whose intelligence was beyond that of Rico, also a Border Collie, who knows over 200 words. Betsy was featured on the cover of the March 2008 edition of National Geographic.

Intelligence