Who's a clever dog? New study shows that curious dogs are the cleverest

What makes some dogs smarter than others?

If you have pets, you might think that your animal is the best, smarter than all the others out there.

But how can you tell?

Well, dog experts have been aiming to work out what traits a pup needs to become the cleverest canine companion.

The research has been taking place with some of the smartest dogs in the world, including seven-year-old border collie Harvey from England.

They found that three key characteristics can help them to develop their doggy brains - read on to find out more.

Irene is very proud that her dog Harvey is one of the genius 'label-learning dogs'

The study has taken place in partnership between the University of Portsmouth's Dog Cognition Centre in England and the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena's DogStudies Unit in Germany.

Researchers identified 11 'label-learning dogs', who can recognise hundreds of objects by name, from countries including the UK, US, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany, to take part.

By studying test results from the group, they found that the most important traits for label-learning dogs were curiosity, focus, and inhibition - which is the ability to control their reactions.

For example, the dogs had to be curious enough about the objects to know and understand them... but not too interested to ignore commands and just run off with the toy.

Border collie Flynn was also part of the study

Harvey's owner Irene says that her brainy border collie can find and fetch 220 toys by name.

Speaking to BBC News, she said: "I think I'm just lucky I got this super smart dog."

Dr Juliane  Kaminski, a professor from the University of Portsmouth leading the study, agrees that label-learning dogs are "extremely rare".

The professor said that it "appears to be an inherent natural ability which is specific to the dog and not a quality that many dogs have".

Does your dog have focus, curiosity and intuition like Harvey?

But the researchers are hoping that their results will make finding the smartest dogs a much less random process.

Scientists want to develop a 'Puppy IQ Test', which can try and predict which young dogs will end up being the smartest.

This could help trainers pick animals for working roles, like guide dogs or police dogs which need dogs to be clever.