WHAT IS THE EASIEST BREED OF DOG TO TRAIN?
(And Why "Smart" Isn't Everything)
The Short Answer: If you are looking for the easiest breed of dog to train, professional trainers agree it wins by a landslide: the Border Collie. However, “easiest” doesn’t just mean the smartest or the most athletic; it means the dog has a gratuitous amount of desire to please you.
Let me preface this by stating that I personally don’t care how easy or hard it is to train a dog. I love training animals, I love teaching hard concepts, and I love training all dogs. But when we talk about the ease of dog training, we have to look at the canine that puts the most effort into your relationship.
INTELLIGENCE VS. TRAINABILITY: WHY SMART DOGS CAN BE HARD TO TRAIN
Ease of training does not automatically mean the smartest, the hardest working, or the most athletic. It means that the dog is “good” in those three categories but possesses an unmatched drive to work with you.
Approximating a dog’s intelligence can be tricky. Many dogs understand a great deal of what their owners desire but simply refuse to oblige them. Their motives for a lackluster training career are as simple as the people you sat next to in high school:
- Laziness
- Pride
- Contempt for the teacher or institution
- Distractions and low discipline
- Low energy or poor work ethic
Which is to say, an IQ is only as good as the desire to apply it. Typically, the valedictorian of a high school is not considered to be the raw “smartest” student in the class. Rather, they are the student who found the highest intersection of consistent effort and an adequate IQ to achieve excellence.
Meanwhile, if you asked the warden of any prison, they will tell you some of the inmates serving hard time are absolutely brilliant. Just being smart doesn’t mean you are “easy to train.”
THE CANINE SMORGASBORD
Canines offer the exact same smorgasbord of personalities and work ethics:
Siberian Huskies are the wild geniuses who will break the law if left unemployed.
Shih Tzus prefer to live a quiet, comfortable life off a trust fund.
The mighty Border Collie is the hero of the working class; the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” Canine American.
WHY THE BORDER COLLIE IS THE EASIEST DOG TO TRAIN
The Border Collie is the dog that instinctively understands that being more proactive means living with more freedom. Their highly trainable nature results in incredible benefits for their handlers:
- Off-Leash Reliability: Owners enjoy a life that almost always ensures off-leash capability.
- High Comprehension: Owners often brag to their friends that they “can talk to their dog in complete sentences.”
- Extreme Versatility: Border Collies will grow into nearly any role given, whether it be the family friend, a barn dog, or a Search & Rescue tracker.
This deep desire to please is the exact reason an enormous amount of agility, fancy trick, and training highlight videos are all starring a Border Collie.
THE GOLD STANDARD
Unless you have been living under a rock for the last 40 years, perhaps this analogy can sum it up best: if the Border Collie were a car manufacturer, it would be Toyota. It brings an abundance of good things to the table, and it is the recognized gold standard of absolute reliability.
EASY OR HARD, WE TRAIN THEM ALL
We know that a lot of factors come into play when you are bringing a new addition into your family – not just trainability.
Size, temperament, aesthetic, energy level, intelligence, age, and previous experience with a breed, all influence your choice.
Perhaps you are looking for a dog that can run with you every morning, or one that will be great with your kids, or a dog that can go everywhere with you, or a dog that is comfortable holding down the fort while you work.
The good news is, no matter what animal you love, we can help. Our Lead Trainer, Andrew can teach you to cultivate a dog that cares about your desires and works to please you, reliably, every day, in every setting.