Is there really such a thing as a dumb dog?

I was having a conversation with a dog-training friend last night about a dog she had tried to train a few times for agility, which is a sport that involves having your dog do an obstacle course. She was telling me how incredibly dumb this dog was. She didn't go into detail, but one of her reasons for thinking the dog was dumb was because it was too excited to learn anything in the presence of food. So when she used food to lure the dog into position, for example, the dog was unable to move into that position because she was too busy thinking about/trying to get the food. Of course, my friend could never move to the next step, fading the lure, because the dog never had a clue that it was doing anything other than following the food. This was a very different response than she had gotten from her own dog, who could follow the food and learn at the same time.

She had told me how she didn't want to train a dumb dog, because it was too frustrating. I expressed surprise, because I have trained four dogs of my own competitively, and two were, in my opinion, not the brightest bulbs in the box. I never had trouble training them because of what I perceived as their lack of intelligence.

This whole conversation led me to question how we really define canine (and perhaps human) intelligence. In my opinion, there are many ways to train the same thing. If you want to teach a dog to sit you can push them into position, lure them there with a treat, capture the behavior and reward it when it happens naturally, shape it with a clicker, and any combination thereof. There's probably other methods I forgot too. If you try one technique with a dog and he doesn't catch on, does that make him dumb? What about two methods? Every method you can find? Every reward you can think of? Then do we declare him a "dumb dog" and give up?

This reminds me of the child in school who is a tactile learner. If every lesson is taught on the board and with lectures, this kid seems dumb. But if you allow him to manipulate a model with his hands, suddenly he can do geometry with the best of them. Is he dumb for not learning it your way? Or are you dumb for not teaching it his way?

I believe dogs, like people, have many different kind of intelligences. One of my dogs is an astonishing problem solver. If she wants food off a high shelf, there's a strong chance that some day she will get it. She has high levels of concentration because she is extremely focused on getting what she wants. She is incredibly persistent, and will try day in and day out to reach her goal. She will use her agile body, pointy nose, and jumping skills to maneuver herself to get where she needs to be. She will growl at another dog if he gets in the way of reaching her prize.

I think this shows intelligence and creativity. However, I bet many people think otherwise. They might say, "That dumb dog, she's never going to get that cat food off the top of the dryer." But she did, and I wouldn't put it past her to get it off of the top of the refrigerator if we put it there.

Right now this dog shoves her head through the cat door every time she comes out of her crate. Instead of taking the straight route outdoors, she runs to the cat door and looks into the rest of the house. I can't see any way she could fit through this door, but I fear that she is hatching a plan and that one day I'm going to be astonished by the results.

This same dog is a member of a breed (Whippets) that aren't considered to be exceptionally smart. Very few Whippets have attained the highest titles in obedience and agility (I think maybe one in obedience and two in agility). They are considered hard to train, and they really kind of are, because they often aren't easily motivated. But if mine is any example, when they ARE motivated, watch out. So, is she stupid? Or are we for expecting every dog to fit into the same mold?

In contrast, I also own a Vizsla. They are supposed to be reasonably smart and moderately easy to train, although they sometimes have trouble concentrating well enough to perform well in competitions. But give mine a problem to solve and he'll bark at it. Ball rolls under the sofa? Bark. Bone gets pinned under a toy? Bark. Don't use your paws or anything to try to dislodge it. Just bark. That's his motto.

I've always said that he was basically pretty stupid. I took him outdoors to work on clicker training, which is a technique in which you mark the behavior you want with a clicking sound. Many times you "shape" the behavior, which means that you click when they do something that gets them going in the right direction of the behavior and then you up the ante until they are doing the finished product (this is a VERY simplified explanation). I wanted this dog of mine to eventually pick up and carry his dinner bowl, so I started by putting the bowl on the ground in front of him with the intention of clicking him when he looked at it. But he never did. He knew I had treats so he stood there and barked at me. I eventually wiggled the bowl with my foot and he glanced down at it when it made a noise. Yay! I clicked at treated. But even after several sessions of work, he never connected glancing at the bowl with the click and treat. He rarely even looked at the bowl at all. I eventually had to give up because I feared that the barking would disturb my neighbors.

Sometimes I think that maybe my Vizsla is actually brilliant. After all, he gets what he wants without doing much of anything at all. "Bark at it and it will come!"

But using methods that suited him (requiring him to do none of his own thinking), he competed at the highest levels of agility and learned some complicated obedience exercises. He was always fun to train and he always tried - two things I can't always say about my current "smart" dog.

Even the dog that spends most days plastered do the sofa, doing almost nothing, he may just be unmotivated rather than stupid. The two don't always go together.
Figure out a way to motivate him - if it's possible - and then see what you've got.

This blog has been brought to you by the Foundation for Hair Restoration. A recent web release from www.foundhair.com discusses hair restoration techniques offered by the Foundation's resident surgeon, Dr. Jeffrey Epstein. Dr. Epstein is a recognized expert in hair restoration. He is a specialist in the technique of follicular unit grafting, and he is also a facial plastic surgeon. At www.foundhair.com, potential patients can learn about the available restoration methods and read testimonials from other patients. Check out Dr. Epstein's resume and patient's before and after photos online as well. If you are interesting in hair restoration, please visit www.foundhair.com