Let’s Talk About Clever Noggins
Recently I had the joy of being asked to jump onto the ABC radio for third time to chat about our perfect companions and it got us thinking, hey this needs to be a blog post.
We wanted to elaborate about how clever our perfect pups actually are! Fun Fact to kick us off - Did you know that a head tilt compensates for the interference of floppy ears, dogs can perk up their little listening flaps and tilt their heads to gain optimum sound collection or to better process the sounds- how cool is that?
Let’s get into it!
Every dog has been bred with a genetic makeup and predatory motor pattern for breed specific purposes. These are what we have created over the years as humans, breeding dogs for a purpose. From our herding and retrieving breeds, to our companions and terriers, to scent dogs and protective workers, every single one has a breed specific purpose.
Genetic makeups is one of the biggest components of the underlying root of all behavioural traits. As a pawrent of working breeds, we really get how these poochies have been bred and the way their brains work to think more independently. So we use them as our leading examples to better help you understand how our dogs can be seen in the human eye
We’ve personally heard the “oh you’ve got it easy, you have smart dogs” but in reality, it’s the work and breed underneath that goes into them that helps them grow up to be smart, trained and confident and capable members of the world, doing super cool things!
As an owner of border collies and then an Italian greyhound, the smartness of both breeds shines through in their own ways. Matty has a rational thought process, he strategically plans his actions and thinking to achieve his goals whereas Aurora and Eric just jump straight in and figure it out on the fly!
A classic example of these two completely different breeds is when a hoof gets stuck under the couch!
Matty moves around the couch, bobbing down looking for the exact location before flopping down to fish it out with his little feeties. If that fails he will then “ask” for help by bowing down with it in dead on in line with his paws and start boofing until one of us helps him
Where Aurora just flops down, jams both paws under and gives it her all. Usually resulting in it going further under and then protesting dramatically that it’s lost Both dogs are smart enough to figure out their own techniques and Aurora is slowly figuring out that her strategy isn’t working and adapting her ways!
Every dog has a brain, every dog is capable of amazing things and every dog is darn perfect and smart. You just have to consider a few things, sort of like having realistic expectations!
Some things to consider when working with your dog:
Motivators: Every dog is motivated by something different, but then these motivators change in different environments! The kibble treat may work at home, but you’ll more than likely have to break out that cheese and roast chicken at the beach!
Environments: The impacts on a dog from environmental influences are huge! The world is massive, with lots to process for all elements of the sensory system. Taking your young pup straight down the street and expecting a 3 minute wait from 10 metres away is probably out of reach in the early days.. work on one element at a time, with suitable motivators and build up to the big goal over time!
Learned Behaviours: These are big influences into seeing a “smart” dog… we see it in classes all the time! The “Awh she’s so smart, she can already do a drop on week one” followed up with “my dogs not that smart” This is usually the simple fact that the pups have already learnt these things prior to starting a class, have a higher motivator and a different breed specific behaviour baseline. Adding a new skill, in a new environment with a low motivator and then expecting it straight away is where we slip up, don’t worry though, we get it!! This is why our programs are designed to set you to understand why we start where we start!
Breed specifics: Using Aurora and Matty as another example; I wouldn’t expect Matty to be able to go and herd the cattle in, yes I could probably train that but a realistic expectation is that he simply wasn’t bred for that role, plus he is far to small to be galivanting through fields hot on the heels of large beasts.. as much as he’d probably love it same as I wouldn’t expect Aurora to snuggle up under a blanket with me, while I do my study. She is too busy for that and has better things to learn about. Plus, she’s a puppy. So, consider what your dog is bred for, what’s its purpose and align your training plan to suit!
Some of poochies are the perfect couch companions, ready to snuggle all night long. Others are the perfect blend of chaos and adventure who thrive in learning environments and have the natural drive to please! Some are even content just existing with you, being in your presence and hanging out playing with their toy. We have one of each of these and Fly was the perfect blend of all of them!
To summarise, this post is to highlight that our pups can all do blasted phenomenal things! They’re all perfect in their own way and we love them for that. This is why our Puppy Program is designed to create your version of a perfect pup
We love the variety of little bubbas we get to share our time with, and walking this exciting pathway of the dog training world with you as pawrents! If you have any burning questions after reading this post, send them through! We’d love to chat about how we can tap into those natural attributes of your pooch