LONDON: Intelligence is not just down to good breeding, at least for the man's best friend.

Researchers at the Aberdeen University in the United Kingdom have carried out a study and found that mongrels are cleverer than their pedigree chums.

In fact, according to the researchers, crossbred dogs have better spatial awareness and problem-solving abilities than pedigrees, and are better suited for work as police dogs and as guides for the blind.

"Being a purebred does not improve the intelligence. The risk of medical problems among crossbreeds is also significantly lower.

"Crossbreeding a German shepherd with a rottweiler, for instance, would produce as good a police dog as a purebred German shepherd," lead researcher Dr David Smith was quoted by The Daily Telegraph as saying.

The researchers came to the conclusion after they put 100 canines through seven separate tests in the programme, marking them out of 30.

A collie-spaniel cross called Jet was found to be the brightest dog, scoring maximum points, while seven out of the top 10 performing dogs were crossbreeds.

"Pure bred dogs are used as police dogs and they can sometimes have problems such as joint problems. If you can use crossbred dogs then may be that's a better choice of dog," Dr Smith was quoted as saying.

Matthew Bottomley, the breeding manager of the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, agreed. "That's interesting because we are finding that, statistically, crossbreeds make better guide dogs."