Is your dog smart?

[Britster]

Just for fun thread =0)

Honestly, how smart is your dog?


Jackson is sometimes scary smart. I have never experienced or had another dog like him. I had a GSD growing up that was smart in a different way but it's hard to explain how smart Jax is sometimes. But people who spend a lot of time around him pick up on it. Often, the smartness can make him difficult in a lot of ways because he's overly observant and somewhat fearful (mostly, he's pretty confident in public, etc, but he has this quirks too).

But he's also the dog that picks things up faster than most, often knows what I want before I ask, is willing to try anything (i.e. if I give him a box, he will try to jump in it, jump on it, put one paw on it, push it with his nose, etc, until he does something that I tell him is right). He knows many objects and things by name and he can problem solve pretty impressively. He is a very creative thinker and comes up with ideas on his own (ex: he learned that when he starts barking, the other dogs start too, so he will lead them all outside, and then he quickly comes back to the door while the other 2 are still outside, and will come in and steal their toy/bone/whatever they were chewing on).

He's very biddable and intuitive and even somewhat creative. He picks up tricks and commands very quickly. He's definitely "book smart" but also has "common sense".

[Britster]

Now for "my" other dogs (dads dogs)...

Buddy the Dachshund. I wouldn't say he's stupid, he's smart in getting what he wants and you can tell he's a thinker in a lot of ways. But he is not very willing to learn. It doesn't interest him, he doesn't see the point, and he's just overall not very biddable.

Lilly the JRT mix is actually pretty smart. She wants to learn, but doesn't really have a "work ethic". She's doing it all for herself, not for anyone else lol. So she can get bored quickly. The desire is in her, but my dad never tried much when she was younger, so she is kind of just set in her ways.

[ilovejoel]

I'd like to think Joel is pretty smart, a few things he does is he knows when he should bark at something outside and once I check out the window and say okay he NEVER barks a second time. I think it's cute that he knows if I say it's okay he doesn't need to bark again.
If you tell him to get a certain person he will, which has been helpful a lot like when some has headphones on and can't hear. He also takes things from person to person.
Also if someone tells him to stay he won't get up unless the same person releases him, he did that on his own lol
But then he does have times when he doesn't act too bright haha But he does learn new things really fast and has good common sense

[Mork]

LOL, Mork does the same thing with the barking and toy stealing. She knows that if she starts barking, Gizmo will drop his bone and run over to bark as well. While he is barking, she runs over and steals the bone back. It's pretty hilarious.

I'd say that of all of my families dogs that Oreo (our tiny toy poodle), while the oldest (she's 10 years old) and most set in her ways, is probably one of the smartest dogs I've ever seen. Mork, who is a Yorkie, seems pretty smart too but she is young (she's 4 months old) and she is still learning. We had Mork potty trained in about a week and she learns commands pretty quickly. I taught her sit and down and she did very well with them. I think Gizmo (shih tzu-poodle mix) is a pretty smart boy too. He's a problem solver. He figures things out pretty quickly. Also, he seemed pretty easy to train although he wasn't as easy to train as Mork. But our Vet told my dad that Mork and Oreo are smart dogs and that Gizmo is a little bit slow but very sweet. That being said, I'm pretty sure that Gizmo is the Vet's favorite of our three dogs.

[Britster]

Originally Posted by ilovejoel

I'd like to think Joel is pretty smart, a few things he does is he knows when he should bark at something outside and once I check out the window and say okay he NEVER barks a second time. I think it's cute that he knows if I say it's okay he doesn't need to bark again.
If you tell him to get a certain person he will, which has been helpful a lot like when some has headphones on and can't hear. He also takes things from person to person.
Also if someone tells him to stay he won't get up unless the same person releases him, he did that on his own lol
But then he does have times when he doesn't act too bright haha But he does learn new things really fast and has good common sense

That's awesome about staying until the person releases him! haha. Jackson doesn't have that much self control. He doesn't listen as well to anyone else but myself lol.

He does know each person in the household too and it IS very convenient. I can tell him to "go get Emma" and he will go to my sister, etc.

[IDPiper]

Piper is extremely, almost scary smart. If I see her snooping around I tell her that if she needs to go potty that she had better go to her potty pen! It's hilarious because she'll look at me and run straight for her potty pen and pee. My granddaughter just about wet her pants from laughing so hard. She's done it a few times and it's almost like she is testing me!!

She also has my hubby trained better than I do. When I'm fixing her food (premade raw) she makes her daddy hold her so she can watch. When he bends over to pick her up she will literally jump into his hands. If he's not paying attention to the fact that I'm feeding her she runs up to him and paws/digs at his legs. She's such a funny little dog and my hubby is always making comments about how smart she is!

[horsnaround]

well of course lol
My Cairn is such a thinker you can just see it in her eyes She has done so many things that make you say wow she is a smart dog One that really stands out was were on vacation and there is always a lot of dogs on our camping trips We always take them all on hikes We had them all down by this lake and all enjoy the water including the yorkies Two schnauzers jumped in to chase a duck What did Maddi do she watched that duck. She knew just were it was headed and stayed dry and on the bank and let them heard it to her. Of course the duck finally figured it out and flew away. We all just stood back and said she is a thinker

The yorkies do very well at learning tricks and they have me perfectly trained to their needs at all time. They can get me up make me sit so they can sit on my lap Tell me when its time to play and to go outside Yup they have trained me well

[Doodlebug]

These two team up to get the best of us. They work together like a well oiled machine. They are pretty amazing at times. They keep us on our toes and give us plenty of laughs.

[JasmineNoelle]

We have 2 yorkies, ages 5 years and almost two years old, Jasmine and Maggie. We also have a toy poodle, Prissy, who is 11 years old. Prissy is without a doubt the smartest of the three. She was a breeze to potty train and crate train, that was when I was still working too. I trained Prissy not to lick, she knows several tricks and she helped train the yorkies. When she goes to the vet she minds like a trooper, she always waits for me to enter a door first and rides better in the car than any grandchild. I love the spunk and cuteness of Jasmine and Maggie and they are not dumb by no means, but Prissy is just smarter. I wouldn't trade any of them though!!

[Britster]

I have heard poodles are VERY smart!!

[Quadraphinic]

Gina is scary smart, we could see that when we 1st met her at 4 weeks old. When she is thinking, trying to figure something out, you can see the thought process through her eyes. I've had some very smart dogs before, but none as smart as Gina is. Since she's going to be my service dog in about 5 or 6 months, I guess it's a very good thing that she is so smart. Tonight I caught her trying to get a chocolate wrapper off of the chest in front of the couch, it was out of reach, but she put her paw on the remote and started to turn it so that it would knock the wrapper off. Last Saturday at training class, she showed all the big dogs up on demonstrating how to heel, and several other tricks as well. She knows the names of all her toys, and the difference between her socks, two socks tied together, and my socks, when you tell her to go get a certain toy, she will go straight to it. If however she doesn't want that toy, she'll grab what she wants, typical Yorkie.
Cheers Quad & Gina

[ShowGirlLola]

Lola is very smart, but she only does what she wants to do. She's also very determined to get whatever she wants. She's easy and hard to train at the same time because of her strong will, it would also help if I were a better trainer.

She figured out how to get on the couch as a tiny 12 week old puppy within 2 days of getting her. She dug her nails into the blanket and pulled herself up.

One day she wanted to get into my mom's room, there's a hamper and a tote turned on it's side blocking the way. She got her foot in the hamper's hand hole and pulled herself up on top of the tote and jumped down to my mom's side. She was about 3lbs at the time.


My family had a crazy smart yorkie before I was born, he was bought at a mall pet store in the 70's. He was their second dog and never trained, he just did stuff.
-The day they brought him home he kept going to the door and acting like he wanted out, so they put him out and he went to the bathroom. That was it, he never had an accident except he'd poop in the middle of strange living rooms.
-There was an emergency outside one day and my aunt, not thinking, told him to watch the baby (my cousin), and he did, he wouldn't move until she told him it was ok.
-He'd sneak sticks in the house by holding them in the corner of his mouth so the length went down his body.
-Never wore a leash, he knew to wait at corners to be picked up to cross the street.


I also agree, poodles are very smart, excellent dogs. My 2 had no training and they were perfect dogs, their only problem was a lack of socialization. We had 2 other dogs when we got them and it's not easy to take 4 dogs out.
They were very mouthy when people were over and protective of us, they were also horrible with riding in the car and getting groomed.
I corrected the mistakes we made with them with Lola.

[Mork]

Originally Posted by Britster

I have heard poodles are VERY smart!!

Our Oreo is ridiculously smart. When she was just a puppy, we had a play pen for her. We put her in the playpen when we would leave the house because she didn't need to be in her crate any more but we didn't want to give her full run of the house. It was probably 3 feet high and she was probably 3 or 4 pounds when we left her in it. After the second time we left her in it, we came home to find her running around our house OUTSIDE the play pen. We decided to put her in and watch to see how she was getting out so that if there was a gap we could fix it. We discovered that she was using her paws and mouth to climb out.

When we had her spayed, the Vet had her wearing a cone that was tied on with a ribbon so that she wouldn't lick her stitches. She figured out how to remove the cone. She would take her paws and adjust the cone so that the ribbon was parallel to the ground. She would then lower her head, put her paw on a piece of the ribbon, and then left her head and untie the ribbon. Once the ribbon was untied, she could push the cone off.

[Mork]

Originally Posted by JasmineNoelle

We have 2 yorkies, ages 5 years and almost two years old, Jasmine and Maggie. We also have a toy poodle, Prissy, who is 11 years old. Prissy is without a doubt the smartest of the three. She was a breeze to potty train and crate train, that was when I was still working too. I trained Prissy not to lick, she knows several tricks and she helped train the yorkies. When she goes to the vet she minds like a trooper, she always waits for me to enter a door first and rides better in the car than any grandchild. I love the spunk and cuteness of Jasmine and Maggie and they are not dumb by no means, but Prissy is just smarter. I wouldn't trade any of them though!!

How does your Prissy deal with your puppies? Oreo, who is eleven, hates our one and a half year old Gizmo and our four month old Mork.

[Teegy]

too smart for their own good