My dog Penny loves to chase after the birds in our yard. At first, she would charge full speed as soon as she saw them, but this quickly scared the birds away. I watched her learn to adapt her strategy into a slower stalk across the yard with frequent pauses, which allowed her to get within a few feet of the pigeons. This behavior taught me that Penny has a high level of adaptive intelligence, meaning she is good at problem solving. (Photo by Sarah Genter)

Last week I received an email from a reader about her little terrier mix who seems to be averse to training. I’ve certainly met pups who I anticipate would be hard to train, sometimes due to a rambunctious or distracted nature, and even dogs who are so shy or nervous they just won’t engage.

So, what do you do when your dog just can’t seem to grasp what you’re trying to teach them? There are several areas to look at when trying to train your dog. One of the most interesting for me is the concept of three categories of intelligence.

Instinctive, adaptive, and working intelligence

In Dr. Stephen Coren’s book “The Intelligence of Dogs,” he describes three types of intelligence in dogs: instinctive, adaptive, and working.

Instinctive intelligence is a dog’s ability to perform tasks expected of their breed groups, such as a border collie’s ability to herd livestock, or a bloodhound’s ability to follow a scent.

Adaptive intelligence is a dog’s ability to problem solve and learn from their experiences. I’ve heard of dogs figuring out how to unlatch their crate doors – this would be an example of adaptive intelligence!

Lastly, working intelligence is a dog’s ability to learn from a human teacher. This would cover a human teaching their dog basic obedience, fun tricks, agility, and much more.

Each dog will have different degrees of intelligence in each of these groups, with breed playing a role in their strengths and weaknesses in the three categories. For example, border collies are considered one of the smartest dog breeds, with high levels of instinctive, adaptive, and working intelligence.

Bulldogs are considered to have relatively low working intelligence, so it may be more difficult for them to learn things from a human. It’s important to remember that a dog with low intelligence in one of these areas is not a stupid dog – they simply have different strengths!

You should also take some time to work with and observe your dog, as each dog is still unique, regardless of breed or breed mix. Does your dog seem to pay attention and pick up quickly on things you teach them? Are they always getting into things you thought you had hidden well, or escaping from their crate or yard? Are they overpowered by their instincts, such as taking off after a scent or a moving animal?

Observing your dog’s behavior will clue you in to their strengths. For example, my dog Penny loves to chase the birds in our backyard. At first, as soon as she saw them she would take off running trying to catch a pigeon. This showed me she has some instinctive intelligence related to hunting small game.

However, immediately running full speed at the birds alerted them to flee. I watched her learn from these experiences over time, and she began to adjust her strategy. Now when she sees birds, she creeps ever so slowly toward them, stopping every few steps to watch and see what they’ll do, and possibly wait for them to relax on the ground again if she spooked them.

It was amazing to watch her figure out the best way to get close to them. While I don’t actually want her to catch and harm a bird, observing her learning and problem solving was so interesting, and a great display of her adaptive intelligence.

Knowing your dog’s area of strength will be beneficial in training largely as a reminder that your dog is not stupid or being stubborn. They may just have lower working intelligence, and that’s okay! Dogs with lower working intelligence can still learn, it just may take a slower approach and more repetitions for them to learn.

Your dog’s learning style

Did you know dogs have their own preferred methods of learning, just like people? Imagine trying to teach a visual learner how to do something by only explaining how to do it – it would probably be hard for them to grasp! This doesn’t mean they’re incapable of learning, it just means the teaching style needs to be adjusted to facilitate their ability to learn.

The same goes for dogs. Some may need a slower learning process, with a cue broken down into pieces. Others may be more engaged in training if there is a problem solving element. Most dogs will probably find visual cues easier to learn than verbal cues, as dogs communicate primarily using body language.

It may take some experimentation, and trial and error, but that can be part of the fun! When trying to teach your dog a new behavior, try out different training methods to see which one they enjoy and understand the most.

When it comes to the training process, there are six different methods at your disposal to teach your dog something new. Certain methods will work better to teach certain behaviors, and some will work better for your dog than others.

Luring is the most common, and usually the easiest for people to use. It involves using a treat or toy to lure your dog into the behavior you want. For example, holding a treat in front of your dog’s nose and then slowly lifting it up and backward will cause them to follow the treat with their nose. They’ll tilt their head back and will have to sit down, which you can then mark with a clicker and reward with a treat to reinforce the behavior.

Targeting teaches a dog to touch something with a specific part of his body, such as his nose or paw. You would present the target to your dog and allow him to investigate it. When he touches it with the desired body part, mark and reward the behavior. Once he understands that booping the target with his nose gets him a treat, he’ll be more inclined to repeat that behavior. Then you can move on to using the target to teach specific behaviors such as pressing a button, walking at heel, or spinning in a circle.

Modeling involves the trainer gently positioning the dog into the desired behavior, such as sitting or laying down. This method is useful for teaching behaviors that require a very precise posture, such as a kick-back stand.

One method I really enjoy is capturing. Capturing involves watching your dog behaving naturally until they engage in a desired behavior. When they perform the behavior you want, you mark it with a clicker and provide a reward to reinforce it. Capturing can take a long time and extreme diligence to really train a behavior, but it’s useful for training cute and unique behaviors such as yawning on command.

Somewhat similar is the training method of shaping. This method may be well-suited to dogs with high adaptive intelligence, as it relies on the dog experimenting and figuring out what you want them to do. Say I wanted to teach a dog to go into their crate using shaping: every time the dog looks at his crate, I would click and reward.

After a few repetitions of this, I would then wait for the dog to take the behavior a little further, such as taking a step toward his crate. After repeating that a few times, then the dog would have to sniff the crate, then put his head in, then one paw, then two, and so on.

This method gets the dog’s brain working and encourages problem solving. However, some dogs can get frustrated by shaping as they may not understand what to do, or don’t understand why a behavior that was earning them treats isn’t anymore. If you try shaping with your dog and find they’re getting frustrated, it’s probably best to try a different method and see if that works better.

Lastly is imitation or mimicry. This training method involves a human engaging in a behavior they want their dog to imitate. This method can be useful when you want a dog to engage with another object. For instance, I taught Penny to wipe her paws when we come inside by wiping my own feet on the mat every time we came in. Eventually, she copied my behavior and wiped her little paws, which I marked with a clicker and rewarded to reinforce the behavior.

It can be fun to experiment with these methods and see what works best for your dog. Perhaps they had a hard time learning before because the training method used was difficult for them to understand, or possibly even too boring for them to get engaged.

When your dog has had enough

Just as important as how you train is knowing when to take breaks. Dogs can get tired, bored, or frustrated during training, and providing breaks at these times is crucial to keep your training both fun and effective.

Puppies, for example, have short attention spans. When training a puppy, be sure to give them breaks every ten to 15 minutes. Breaking up training with play is a great way to keep things interesting and let your pup blow off some steam in between learning. Puppies also need more sleep than older dogs, so don’t try to fit tons of training in one day. Again, keep sessions short and don’t be afraid to call it a day if your dog is sleepy or getting distracted during training.

There are behavioral cues to watch out for that indicate your dog has had enough for one day. Turning their head away, yawning, and scratching their sides are all signals from your dog that they’re overwhelmed, confused, or frustrated. Take this as your cue to end the training session for a bit to give your dog a chance to relax.

Lastly, remember that training should be fun! It’s a great bonding experience for you and your dog, and a chance to learn even more about what motivates them and how they learn. Always try to end your training sessions on a positive note to keep the experience enjoyable for both you and your dog.

Do you have any questions about dog training? Send me an email at sgenter@evesun.com for the chance to have your question answered in a future column! As I’m still earning my dog training certification, I may wait to answer some questions until I feel I have sufficient knowledge and experience to provide an accurate answer.