When you want to improve the dog’s intelligence, its best to teach him tricks like roll on the floor, socialize your dog, provide puzzle games, send him to training classes, praise him and provide a good diet.
New research suggests that canines are indeed bright and unique. Many people have the concept that there are some breeds of dogs that are smarter than others. However, the reality is that there are different types of intelligence and different dogs are good at different things.
Just like human beings are smart in different ways so are the dogs. Failure to understand this means that a dog owner can underestimate the intelligence of their best friend. In order to understand how you can bring out your dog’s inner genius, it is good to answer some questions
What are the different things that dogs are good at
- Dogs are good at taking someone else’s visual perspective and learning from someone’s actions.
- They recruit help to a person by taking the visual perspective
- They are good at interpreting a person’s gestures to understand them and get to know what a person wants.
What Makes Dogs Unique
Every animal is naturally unique and in the case of dogs, their uniqueness is in the ability to read the communicative gestures of human beings. This makes them incredible social partners to humans and a good assistant for hunting, agility and navigating everyday life.
How to Know That Your Dog Understands You
The ability of the dog to read the communicative gestures of a person is the best way to know that the pet understands what you are doing and telling him or her. Many pet owners are familiar with rise in spirits of the dog by the way they greet them at the door. Most dogs do it by thumping their tails.
Training a person to bring out their genius is work, it makes one wonder how much more work there is to do to bring out the genius in a species that will happily drink out of a toilet bowl.
With many people trying to find out about this topic, it is important to know that there are those who have tried some techniques to find out about their pet’s ability and it worked magic.
Many dogs are smart and getting smarter through the efforts of the pet owners to bring out their intelligence. If you overlook the challenges, you will find out that you can really help your dog to be smart.
It will not only be smart but will also be a great companion who will support you in most cases. Lets first look at the background in different ways that your dog is smart
The Different Types of Dog Intelligence
Like stated above, dogs are smart differently and according to their ability such as visual, auditory and tactile. The intelligence of this pet is broken down into three categories as below
1) Instinct Intelligence
This is basically derived from the breed of the dog. Different breeds will have different instincts intelligence.
2) Adaptive intelligence
It is basically measured by how a dog can learn from experience with his environment. This can differ among individuals of the same breed.
3) Working and obedient intelligence
This is measured by what he can learn to do when instructed by humans. When a pet owner understands the different types of intelligence, he or she will now be in a good position to figure out what their pet is smart at.
It will be unfair to say that your dog is not smart because they failed to perform a certain task. If it fails in one, try in another until you bring out that unique part of their intelligence.
Here is How to Test Your Dog’s IQ
When testing the dog’s intelligence, you will need a stopwatch because this is what will help you see how long the dog takes before passing the test. Here are the steps
Step 1: Testing the ability to solve problems
Get a towel and let the dog smell it. After it has got the smell, throw the towel on the dog’s head in a way that it covers the head completely, start the stopwatch and see how long it will take before it gets it off his head. Write down the score as below
- 30 seconds or less: 3 points
- 31 to 120 seconds: 2 points
- Tries but doesn’t succeed within 120 seconds: 1 point
- No point if he does not try at all
Step 2: Testing the patience
Place a treat on the floor and put a towel over it. Start the stopwatch and give a score as below
- 15 to 30 seconds: 3 points
- 31 to 60 seconds: 2 points
- Tries but fails within 60 seconds 1 point
- 0 points if it fails to try at all
Step 3: Test the memory
Place three buckets upside down leaving some space between them, put a treat under one of the buckets while the dog is watching. Take the dog out of the room for about 30 seconds and bring it back. Let the dog find the treat. Give score as below
- Gets it right in the first try: 2 points
- Finds it within 2 minutes: 1 point
- Doesn’t find it: 0 points
Step 4: Challenge the memory
Let the dog understand what you are doing. Put a treat under a cup while he is watching, and then let him get it. Do this repeatedly until he understands.
Step 5: Test the dog with a puzzle
I have a small indoors puzzle to share with you. Get a treat and slide it below the couch where a television is on. You can do this hiding when the dog is busy watching TV. Push the treat far away from direct reach. Now show it to your dog and ask him to go get it.
- If the dog reaches it within 2 minutes: Award 4 points
- When the dog takes 3 minutes or less: Award 3 points
- For using his paws but took 3 minutes: Award 2 points
- Tries but fails: Award 1 point
- Did not try at all: 0 points
If the scores are above 10 points, the dog is a genius
Between 8 and 10 points the dog is an obedient one
Between 4 and 8 points it’s an average dog
If your canine scored below 4 points, it doesn’t mean that he isn’t smart, it only means that you need to do something that will make him bring out the genius in him.
How to Make Your Dog Smart
1) Introduce a new trick
Introducing a new trick is one of the best ways that will boost the intelligence of your canine. It may seem hard work to teach him, a good way to do it is to give him rewards and be patient with him. Do not force the dog to do the trick that you are introducing, be patient as you teach and reward him on every move he makes.
While doing this, be cautious about time. Do not take more than 30 minutes on the training. Taking too much time will make the dog get bored. Doing it within 30 minutes will also improve his memory. You can teach him a new trick every week.
The look left, right and spin on your command have been covered in another article.
2) Socialize your dog
Exposure is not only important for human beings, but it is also very important in dogs. Taking him out more often will help in opening up his mind. It is also one of the best ways to expose him to new situations that will broaden his thinking capacity and probably bring out something you never knew he had.
Introducing a new puppy to other dogs is important and you can also take your dog to the parks made especially for dogs.
3) Provide continued tests and problems
There are various ways that you can challenge a dog. The challenges are the best way to bring out skills from him. While he is trying to solve the test, he becomes smart in problem-solving and handling issues.
Some of the ways you can use to test him are by buying food bowls that make him use his intelligence to eat.
4) Teach them as many words as possible
It is said that dogs are theoretically capable of learning the meaning of up to 200 human words. This means that you can heighten the intelligence of your dog by teaching him as many words as possible.
The best way to do it is to say the words clearly in association with the things you want him to look at. Hold up things and say the word, you can start with the food he eats, hold it up and say the word, jump, eat, run, bring among others. Make sure that you get the reactions that confirm he understands. You will be amazed at how intelligent your dog is.
5) Send him to training classes
Not every pet owner will have the patience to help bring out the genius in his or her canine. This does not mean that he just stays like that; there are classes that are meant to improve the intelligence of a dog. If you do not have the patience and the time, you can enroll him for the classes.
Experts who have all the knowledge and experience of doing it best manage the classes. Actually, this could be one of the best ways to bring out all the genius in your dog.
6) Train him when still young
It is said that the best time to train a person is at a young age. The same applies to dogs, they are in a much better position to understand what they are trained at a young age. It is at this point that you will get to know where they are unique and put more effort into that.
7) Praise him
Praise is one of the best ways to encourage your pet. You should do this every time you discover a new thing in him. Give him treats when he learns a word or a new trick. This kind of encouragement will help him bring out more intelligence and want to discover more.
8) Diet is Crucial
What you feed your dog plays a major role in his overall health. The more you pay attention to what he eats, the better it is. Every breed is unique in its own style and it is not possible to recommend one diet to every dog.
However, there are some foods which are always recommended like coconut oil and peanut butter are liked by so many dog owners. If you want to feed the right food to your dog then you must check the dog food training course.
Conclusion on How to Make Dog Smarter
Dogs are man’s best friends and best companion. Just like a man feels good when his or her child performs better in academics or displays a talent, it is the same way a dog owner would feel if his best companion displays a unique character.
The good news is that dogs are intelligent and unique. There is no standard way of measuring their intelligence because they are smart in different ways.
It is the responsibility of a dog owner to bring out the genius in a dog. There are so many ways that can help the owner do this.
Understanding your dog is the first step towards bringing out his genius. The steps discussed above will help you know about the IQ of your dog.
After you have understood the IQ, you are now in a better position to know the training techniques that will help your dog to bring out his or her talent as well as his smartness. Patience, practice, and training will definitely bring out what your dog is best at.
If you want professional step by step training then the dog brain training program is the best.
References
- https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3152130.3152146
- http://www.gleichstellung.uzh.ch/dam/jcr:00000000-0a3c-09a8-0000-00006b831d00/Albisetti_2004.pdf
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