Abstract:Objective:Exploring whether there are differences in the cognitive abilities of socially different Labradors. Methods:The Dog Mentality Assessment (DMA) test created by the Swedish Working Dog Association was modified to use 12 behavioral variables from five subtests of the DMA test: Social contact, Play I, Distance-play, Ghosts and Play II to assess the sociability of the dogs. According to the scoring criteria,49 Labradors provided by The China Guide Dog Training Centre In Da Lian was scored on the social behavioral variables, which were classified into high (n=15) and low (n=34) sociability groups using cluster analysis. A new system for testing canine cognitive ability was developed based on Bray et al.'s Dog Cognitive Development Battery (DCDB), which tests different domains of cognitive ability such as social cue use, unsolvable task, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, working memory and multi-step problem solving task, and the dogs' behavioral performance and duration of the test were recorded. Statistical analysis was performed to determine whether there were differences in the cognitive abilities of socially diverse dogs. Results:Dogs in the high and low social subgroups differed significantly on behavioral variables in the unsolvable task, the inhibitory control test and the multi-step problem solving task. In the unsolvable task, dogs in the high social grouping average looked at people time for significantly longer than dogs in the low social grouping (P=0.008) and average looked at people for significantly less latency time than dogs in the low social grouping (P=0.0001). In the inhibitory control, dogs in the high social group chose correctly significantly more than dogs in the low social group (P=0.034) and chose for significantly less time than dogs in the low social group (P=0.039). In the multi-step problem solving task, dogs in the high social group successful completion number of stakes significantly higher than dogs in the low social group (P=0.044); the percentage of operation pale time was significantly lower than dogs in the low social group (P=0.05); the average latency time to solve bone task was significantly higher than dogs in the low social group (P=0.037); and the percentage of operation bone time was significantly lower than dogs in the low social group ( P=0.038). On tests involving manipulable apparatus, dogs in the high social group spent more time looking at people than dogs in the low social group and less time manipulating the apparatus than dogs in the low subgroup, but there were no statistically significant differences (P>0.05). Conclusions:High sociability labradors showed greater cognitive ability,they were more able to suppress impulses during the test, were more able to complete multi-step problem solving task and were more inclined to change strategies to seek new cues from people rather than obsessing over manipulating the apparatus when they were unable to solve a problem.