Is your dog smart?

[TheGoldenRetriever]

Cheyenne was an incredibly smart Golden Retriever and very eager to please so training her was an absolute breeze. (Still getting used to having to use the past tense with her ... we lost her just this past Father's Day ... she was 15 years old.) She was an Okeechobee Golden, which means nothing to those outside of Golden circles and certainly meant nothing to her!

She knew many, many commands and her response was instantaneous. She also recognized an absolutely astonishing vocabularly of English words. She was the type of dog you had to spell certain things in front of ... imagine our surprise when eventaully she learned to spell most of those words! We had to start spelling them backwards ... she never did figure out that trick! She would retrieve anything according to very specific and complex instructions, and rarely made a mistake. She never met a stranger and truly loved all people and all other animals.

We have had many dogs, whether our own or ones we grew up with in our familes ... so I'll not catogue all their mental abilities! But Cheyenne deserves special mention as she was by FAR the smartest dog we have ever known. She was a legend in both nieghborhoods in which she lived and among all who knew her, including her vets who loved her as much as we did. She truly was THE Golden Retriever!!

 

[M&M's Mommy]

Missy is the smartest. She always figures out how to get what she wants when she wants it, even if it means using her nose to move thing, so she can stand on it to get to something higher. She's also the only one who can literally communicate with me by making different sounds or gestures. I can tell exactly what Missy wants me to do for her, either to let her in/out, pick her up to cradle, help her get the ball that's stuck under the couch, or to stop Muffin's doing something she's not suppose to (yup, she's a tattle-teller ). She's also the only one who can point me to things or bring things to me.

Mocha is the sweetest. He has the ability to speak to my heart and understand my emotions. When I'm upset or sad about something, just holding Mocha can make me feel better.

Muffin is the ... chubbiest . She may appear dumb to someone who don't know her, but I know better. I think she's just stubborn. She understand the commands, but only do them when she feels like it i.e, when she knows it involves food!. She's lucky she's the cutest & has the face no one can stay mad at

 

[sparks19]

Belle is as dumb as it gets lol. if you shake her head you can probably hear her pea brain rattling around in there lol.

Beezer is clever and catches on quick... and he's sneaky.

 

[Suzzie]

popper is incredibly smart. but he gets bored incredibly easy. So he'll get something after two times or so, then wander off in search of something more fascinating.

merlin is very smart, he'll do what you want.

roofus... well, he is an oes after all. He's actually the most obedient dog, but I think it is more to do with his insane oedipus complex more than anything else. I've often called him dimwitted. Things that should click instantly take him awhile.... like chasing the frisbee. he expects it to go where he's looking, which is not necessarily where i throw it...

blossom is smart enough to know she can ignore me and do whatever the hell she wants and i can't do a thing about it.

murphy... well, she's old.

 

[xpaeanx]

Bella is smart and impossible to train. Best combo

She knows when you are using treats to train and when you aren't. She knows quite a few commands but will never respond to any unless it is beneficial to her. She sneaks around and gets into things she shouldn't but if you are watching her she won't do a thing wrong. She has different levels of obedience for myself, my wife, my father and my brother. She knows what she can get away with and with whom.

that pretty much describes Keeda.

 

[BostonBanker]

It's really interesting to read about how each dog learns differently and reacts differently to training. It makes it tough to say who is really "smart" I think.

I think Meg is very smart, and easy to train as long as it isn't a behavior that touches on her fears (and even that is going away as her confidence grows and grows). She's very big on proofing EVERY behavior that I train. She will test each one to find out just what it is that is getting the reward and what isn't a part of it. Teaching her 2 on/2 off contacts for agility was a riot.

"Okay, I get the cookie if both front feet are off. What about if this front foot is off, but this one is in the air? How about if I turn my head this way? What if both feet are off, but I lie down? What if I slam my front feet down, and bounce back on? What if...."

Medley was scary smart, but not nearly as trainable. He would sort out anything that would benefit him personally (clearly a terrier!). He learned that my mother, and only my mother, would give him treats to keep him quiet while she was on the phone in the kitchen. As soon as she started talking on the phone, he would stand there and bark at her. It got to the point where as soon as she picked up the phone, she would walk over to the drawer where we kept the biscuits and just start tossing them to Medley.

Once he'd figured that out, it took him only a day to understand the concept of the portable phone, and he would track her down even if she was on talking in the bedroom.

 

[Toller_08]

Dance is highly intelligent, and very easy to train.

Keira is highly intelligent, but a challenge to train.

Winston is lacking greatly in the intelligence department, but is pretty easy to train as he tries so hard to please.

 

[iwantmypup]

Mine is too smart.

 

[smkie]

TAtey was so dense she couldn't hear the difference between sit shake and speak so she would try to do all three at the same time.

 

[Gempress]

Don't get me wrong. Zeus is actually pretty good to work with, obediencewise. It takes him longer to figure things out, but once he's got it, he's GOT IT. He'll do it every time perfectly. I think it just never occurs to him to test his limits or get creative.

 

[Sweet72947]

Daisy is extremely trainable, but as for problem solving and stuff like that, she's a few fries short of a happy meal. She doesn't think outside of the box, ever. For example, I tried to do that confidence building stuff where you let them mess around with a basket and click/treat for behaviors, and all she did was sit and look at me. Because she knows sit = treat. She's not one for trying anything original.

Benji is very smart, but he doesn't give a darn about what you want teach him. He doesn't really think outside the box either, but I think that's because the abuse he received in his previous home taught him not to go outside of his comfort zone. I haven't tried that basket thing with him yet, so we'll see what happens with that!

 

[ACooper]

Both of ours are pretty darn smart, eager to please as far as training goes, and good problem solvers.

The problem with Orson is he uses his brains for the dark side while Phoebe sticks to the good side of the force, LOL

 

[Adambesme]

My pup Thomas is the most trainable dog I've ever had, and I while he's still young, I really do get the idea that he's smart, too. He gets the idea that things still exist even if he can't see them, which is more than I can say for some dogs I've known. And he's good at learning "accidental" commands. Things he picks up from association...and not always with food!

My parents have two boxers. The male is smart, trainable, and good natured. The female is none of these things. My parents did that dog intelligence test with them once, when you put a blanket over the dog and see how long it takes to get out from underneath. The male was out in the lowest amount of time. The female would still be under that blanket if we'd hadn't taken it off her. She, too, was very ill as a puppy, and that probably has a lot to do with it, and I do feel sorry for her, but my lord, she's definitely not all there.

 

[Whisper]

TAtey was so dense she couldn't hear the difference between sit shake and speak so she would try to do all three at the same time.

That reminds me of Harley, the rottweiler I grew up with. He's still alive, but he lives now with my mom's then-roomate. I get to see him all the time, though. My mom never mixed anything up, so when he learned sit-shake-down, he knew it would come in that order, and he was so eager to do it and get the treat he'd sit, throw his body up waving his paw, and crash down on the floor, his tongue hanging out like he's just had the time of his life. It was hilarious.

Anyway. . .Millie is extremely intelligent, extremely eager-to-please, and extremely trainable. The only challenge in training we've has is lack of confidence to think outide the box, but that improves all the time.

Lucy is the smart, hard to train type. She's more interested in what ever anything she has to do has in it for her. If I find the proper motivation (usually mouthwatering food), she learns quickly, but also seems to have the "I've temporarily gone deaf and cannot hear you" quality. What can I say? She's part chi, part terrier.