What are some of the easier to train dogs?
Question by Dude: What are some of the easier to train dogs?
I know that every dog is different, but there has to be some dogs breeds that are more easily trained than others. I am trying to research a good dog breed for myself and this is one of the more important traits for me.
Best answer:
Answer by Bonzie12
German Shepherds are very easy to train. Very smart dogs however not good for a first time dog owner.
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One of the best easily trained dogs are Labrador Retrievers!
The key is to start training the second you get the dog from the breeder, you are already half way through the pets highest ability to learn at this point,
Labrador Retrievers
German Shepards
Golden Retrievers
siberian huskies are very smart and easy to train , its just the fact that they are very VERY stubborn, They need a firm hand, ( not beating , firm hand is an expression)
GET A GERMAN SHEPARD THEIR MY FVORITE BUT MY MOM LIKES SMALL DOGS=/
Shelties! They are very smart, but warning, they shed and are know to be barker’s!
German Shepperd, lab, husky (very smart dog but stubborn). Have to be very patient, and consistent in training a dog
1. The issue that trumps everything else including breed is that of temperament. Do a Volhard Temperament test (or pick a dog that has had a Volhard or hire someone to do it for you). A dog that score’s all “3′s” on the test is an ideal dog for a first-time owner and very trainable. A dog that scores mostly 1′s or 5′s is (for a variety of reasons) a dog best left to an experienced handler. While there are some breeds that are easier to train (or harder), seriously, the single biggest factor is temperament.
2. Second biggest factor is the quality of the trainer. Which is why it is critical to get into a class (or hire a trainer) so you can learn how to be a smart human. I mean no insult in this. Most honest trainers will tell you that Obedience I is to train the human/handler.
3. Breeds: if you look at the posts on dog intelligence, you’ll note that all breeds have about the same level of intelligence but different breeds have particular types of strengths in areas of intelligence. The dogs that are the easiest to train are those that are “biddable” which means they are not good problem solvers, they don’t generalize well and they do a lousy job of figuring out what is best for them. They do stuff because you told them to do it.
Most of the herding breeds fall into this category (because they’re generally speaking, very biddable–they were bred to work as a team with their human so they want instructions from you). Terriers (which are great problem solvers and also bred to not give in easily–a useful characteristic if you’re going to send one down a hole to kill a badger) tend to be harder to train. Ditto with MinPins, Basenji’s and Husky’s (which at times seem to disobey intentionally as if testing the handler). But that said, there are individual differences within each breed and that is the temperament of the individual dog being displayed.
May I suggest you narrow your search down to dogs in the Herding and Sporting group? These dogs were all bred to work closely along side humans so they are more likely to take direction and commands from their owners no questions asked. Terrier, Hounds and many working dogs however, were bred to work on their own, sometimes that independance can make it a bit more difficult to train – not that they aren’t smart they just need a really good reason for why you want them to put their butt on the floor
If you’re looking for a smaller dog most toy breeds are fairly easy to train.
Here’s the Sporting Group:
http://www.akc.org/breeds/sporting_group.cfm
And the Herding Group:
http://www.akc.org/breeds/herding_group.cfm
Golden Retrievers are often very forgiving dogs, a very good choice to try your hand at training with.
Corgis, Shelties, Labs and GSD’s can be, but are not always, easily trained. It will depend on the individual dog. A timid dog can be just as hard to train as a dominant dog.
Stay away from the “high drive” or “working” dogs. You can identify them easily by the “constantly in motion” or “needs a job to do” in their breed description. (Border Collies, Belgian Malinois, Australian Shepherds fit in this category) They are easily trained by a professional, but are not forgiving of mistakes. Save this kind of dog for your next one!
Good luck…
Golden Retriever
Belgian Tervuren
German Shepherd
**The Belgian and the German Shepherds take a different training style because they are incredibly smart and REASON – so you have to keep them from getting bored, but they generally learn very very quickly – the Golden Retriever is smart and always loves to please. . .so it makes for quick easly work.
Individual dogs, however have different temperaments. You can have a Golden Retreiver that is ‘soft’ – meaning if you just look at him the wrong way it will take a week of really loving on him to get him back to normal and out of his puddle of tears, or medium – which means the dog takes a normal average correction to know what not to do – that’s the easiest type of training temperament – or HARD. . . which means this dog is very self assurred, know’s what he’s about and YOU are going to have to REALLY make him understand YOU’RE THERE before he will give you the time of day ie a HARD correction.
All three of the above dogs can be a Golden Retriever. . .it’s all in how solid their awareness of themselves are. I have a GSD right now. She’s hard. She’s a wonderful dog, she learns incredibly quick, she’s focused, she’s got good drive, but she knows who SHE is, and a correction is something that has to be big enough for her to know it really isn’t worth her trying that again. . because she will, a million times if she knows she can get away with it. She’s an Alpha, and she will test her boundaries a million times. It takes consistent, consisitent, consistent correction with her keep those boundaries up. I’ve owned a GSD that was medium, and easy easy train, and one who was soft and wow. .. couldn’t get much done with her at all. If I had the choice, I’d of course want medium, but I’d prefer hard to soft any day of the week.
Hope this helps!
You need to be more specific about the kind of dog you want.
Poodles definitely. We have two minis – one small, almost toy, and one large. They are one of the smartest breeds in existence and easily trained.. You can even train them to do tricks ranging in difficulty from begging on their hind feet to jumping through hoola-hoops on fire. We even trained ours to talk.
You need to be a bit more specific. Easy to train for what? Just general behavior like housebreaking, walking on a leash, not jumping up on you?
Then, stay away from the toy breeds which are difficult to housebreak and the high energy breeds like sporting and herding breeds because they take awhile to learn to behave. A working breed like a German Shepherd, Dobie, Boxer, may be a good choice.
However, if you mean training for a competitive sport like agility or obedience, the herding breeds are the best. A Border Collie, Aussie, Sheltie are all quick to learn and love to work.
I have had alot of kinds of dogs and I found that the labs are very easy to train if you want a pure bred. If not mutts or mix breeds are even easier to train.