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Dogs make perfect pets because they are soft, fun to play with and provide brilliant companionship... but how clever are our pooches?

Well, surprising new research says small dogs can be more intelligent than larger ones.

The team at the University of Montpellier, in France, say they were shocked to find that small dogs - like chihuahuas - have larger brains relative to how small they are, but larger dogs - like huskies and border collies - which are often considered to be very intelligent and helpful to humans, have smaller brains relative to their larger bodies.

Dr Ana Balcarcel, who led the team behind the study, says brain size has an impact on something called "cognitive ability" - or intelligence.

The study results showed that "complex skills and cooperative behaviour" are more likely to be present in dogs with bigger brains and smaller bodies.

The team created a database of almost 1,700 dogs from 172 different breeds, and compared their size, weight, head size and brain size to each other.

They found toy breeds like the pug, chihuahua and Pomeranian have the biggest brains compared to their body, whereas working breeds, like huskies and Rottweilers, have smaller brain-to-body ratio.

The scientists think this is because dogs have been bred and evolved by humans to meet our desires rather than evolving to meet the demands of living in the wild like other species.

Evolutionary scientist Dr Balcarcel told the Telegraph newspaper:

“Throughout time, most animals have increased their relative brain size. The hypothesis is that a bigger brain helps us to survive, it helps us to out-compete other animals.

“In the dog, it’s exactly the opposite – in this one way that we are measuring cognitive ability.”

Do you have a very clever, tiny dog? Or is your Great Dane a super smart pup?

Or perhaps you have a dog who is a little on the silly side and that's why you love them?

Let us know in the comments section below...