How Intelligent Are Golden Retrievers

The Vacuum Cleaner Will Be Your New Best Friend

German Shepherd Lab Mix is a double-coated breed, which means they have an undercoat next to the skin with longer hair over the top. Dogs from this crossbreed shed a lot, especially when the seasons change.

If you want to keep her hair shiny and healthy, you should take time to brush her for at least 10-15 minutes, three-to-five times a week. During spring and fall shell need to be brushed daily, and sometimes the use of a shedding blade can be required.

A consistent brushing schedule will help you reduce the amount of hair around the house. However, you should start looking for a vacuum cleaner for pet hair as youll be cleaning your home almost daily.

• cleaning her ears ,
• brushing her teeth ,
• andà cleaning her eyesà .

While this sounds like a lot, on the other hand, she only needs to take a bath about once a month.

Trimming her nails requires professional help in most cases, because theyre strong and transparent, with blood vessels and nerves. Exercising her on a concrete surface could help you keep her nails in good shape and reduce the number of visits to the vet.

Traits Common To All Golden Retrievers

While the typical build and color of Golden Retrievers varies depending on the type, some breed standards are the same across the board. A Golden Retrievers temperament is perhaps its most important trait. Properly bred Golden Retrievers should be friendly, confident, trusting, and gentle. Goldens who show any type of aggression or are timid or unusually nervous do not meet breed standards.

Golden Retrievers are calm, naturally intelligent, and eager to please. They also have an instinctive love of the water and are extremely easy to train. Theyre often fun-loving and active but can also sit quietly for hours while accompanying their owners on a hunt. Golden Retrievers are very social dogs who are good with children, other dogs, and a variety of animals. These personality traits make them excellent family pets and working dogs.

Golden Retrievers As Guide Dogs

Because of their temperament and intelligence, golden retrievers are considered to be the perfect guide dogs. They have a friendly temperament and they work well with people processing commands and responding to training very well.

As such retrievers are thought to display an excellent work ethic that works hard to impress their owners. Although they are an active breed, they arent overly energetic and so they offer patience and reliability which makes them very capable of fulfilling their duty.

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Golden Retrievers Are Obedient And Eager To Please

Golden Retrievers are known for having the highest obedience-command trainability by experts. Your dog will be eager to please and learn new commands. This makes training very easy and exciting since it wont require a lot of work to train them.

Just to prove a point, the first three winners of the obedience competition run by the American Kennel Club were Golden Retrievers. Their desire to please their owners makes them very easy to train and makes the process fun and exciting for the whole family.

Its been said that even the least intelligent Golden Retriever will be a breeze to train. They are so eager to please that theyll try to do anything you ask of them. Furthermore, they arent the type of dog who tries to figure out what is going on, so theyll simply obey your command exactly how you want them to.

How Do You Measure Who Is Smarter In A Golden Retriever Or Goldendoodle

There is no clear and straightforward method for measuring if the Golden Retriever or Goldendoodle is smarter for families and individuals, but it can be fun to try. Trial and error through various tasks and situations can help determine who is smarter. However, who is smarter can change over time, depending on the environment, situation, and lifestyle.

Dog intelligence or cognition relates to how they acquire, process, and store information. It also includes what they do with this information once they have gained it. In general, dogs have the smarts to read body language and between the lines in certain situations.

While some studies and tests have been done on dogs concerning intelligence in various situations, these are not commonplace and more for research purposes to understand dogs. They are not related to one particular breed of dog than another but all dogs as a whole.

Measuring if a Golden Retriever or Goldendoodle is smarter can be somewhat determined by the success of executing tasks and responding to training. How they react to the world around them, how quickly they pick up or learn things will determine their smarts, skill, knowledge, and abilities at home.

These personality traits are determined by their environment and how they are raised, and who they are as a dog. Providing a positive, healthy environment that promotes learning and good behaviors goes a long way to effectively training any dog.

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Top 10 List Of The Worlds Smartest Dogs

Because Im sure youre curious, heres Dr. Corens list of the worlds top 10 smartest dogs.

So at number 4, a Golden Retriever is smarter than most other dogs but is not the smartest dog there is. But #4 isnt too shabby. A Golden Retrievers smarts make them very easy to train so lets look more into the trainability of a Golden Retriever.

Does Color Really Matter

There are a variety of âofficialâ color variations when it comes to the golden retriever: light golden, gold and dark golden. According to breed standards, there isnât a âwhiteâ golden retriever or a âredâ golden retriever, just variations of their official colors, although the British golden retriever has accepted âcreamâ as a color of the breed.

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When Should You Start Training Your Golden Retriever

Puppies start learning from birth. A reputable Golden Retriever breeder begins handling and socialization right away. When you bring your Golden Retriever puppy home at eight weeks, your at-home puppy training begins immediately potty training then training will progress to crate training, walking on a leash, and so on.Many experienced dog trainers generally find Golden Retrievers easy to train. However, keep in mind that all dogs have distinct and unique personalities. Training a Golden Retriever dog requires patience and finding the perfect balance of firmness and love.

They Have Beautiful Coats

Most of us look not only for pets but rather for beautiful pets. Although beauty is in the eye of the beholder, most would prefer to opt for an aesthetically better pet as a lifelong companion. This is where the Golden Retriever shines. This amazing canine does not need its long list of wonderful attributes to amaze you, as its brilliant and outstanding coat would do the job.

Golden Retrievers are known for their lustrous, distinctive fur coats that come in different shades of gold, which are fairly easy to maintain with regular grooming. Gloating and attractive, a Golden Retriever will surely compliment the beauty of your home, in addition to being an amazing companion.

Also Check: What Is The Difference Between A Golden Retriever And A English Golden Retriever

Most Recommended For Goldens:

Best Vacuum For Golden Retriever

Our Favorites: Robot Vacuum Great for keeping up with the shedding!

Best Treats For Golden Retriever

Our Favorite Treats Great for training. They are small and low calories.

Best Brush For Golden Retriever

Our Favorite Brush Slicker Brush is the primary brush for removing undercoat.

Are Golden Retrievers Mischievous

Golden retrievers are very smart and love to play.

Those are both good qualities until you as the owner dont want to play!

Heres a quick story about my golden retriever, Oliver.

It was easy to teach him the drop it command as a puppy.

He was very young when he learned that when were playing tug, or if he has something in his mouth, drop it means open your mouth and drop it.

However, hes also so smart that hes learned that stealing rags from the kitchen gets us to play his favorite game, which is keep away.

When he takes a rag from the kitchen and we ask him to drop it you can literally see the gears in his head spinning as he asks himself, Should I be obedient and drop it? Or should we continue to play my favorite game?

The combination of golden retrievers love of playing and their brains can sometimes drive you wild.

And its not just Oliver.

Check out this video of Archie, the famous golden retriever thief.

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Lets See If Golden Retrievers Are Intelligent

Stanley Corens research on the intelligence of dogs was perhaps his most renowned contribution to science. There are many factors that go into determining which dog breeds excel in obedience trials, but one is particularly notable: how long it takes a particular breed to learn commands and obey them when commanded . To determine what type of time frame could be expected for each different variety of canine friend under various circumstances, Stanley collected hundreds upon thousands of data points from North American obedience trial judges over decades worth or hours spent judging these intelligent animals. The end result? One conclusive answer Golden Retrievers are by far the 4th smartest pup-loving pups out Intelligent dogs, such as Americas favorite dog require fewer repetitions and therefore learn basic commands much more quickly. This is determined by the rate at which they obey known commands on their first attempt. Dog breeds that have a higher success in obeying these orders are considered to be smarter than others however there was one limitation of this study: it only included dog breeds with 100 responses from trial judges! Golden Retrievers are considered to be the 3rd most popular dog in America, and because they have an overwhelming number of responses, there is no bias when it comes to data collection.

Golden Retrievers Vs Other Dogs

Weve already determined where Golden Retrievers stand on the intelligence spectrum, but what does this information mean with respect to other dog breeds? This is why we chose dogs that ranked from #63 to #104 for a fair comparison.

Cohen found that the average dog required anywhere from 25 40 iterations to fully learn unknown commands. When compared to the highly intelligent Golden Retrievers, this is 5x slower, and that, even in human-terms, is a lot!

On the other hand, in terms of obedience, average dogs obey known commands at an average success rate of 50% or higher. While this stat isnt that bad on its own, it is nowhere near what Golden Retrievers are capable of.

Dont get us wrong, though. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being average. Some of the most popular dog breeds in the world fall under the category of average IQ, namely, Siberian Husky, Great Dane, Dachshund, Boxer and Australian Shepherd.

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Find Out How Intelligent Golden Retrievers Are

Yes, they are. For two reasons Weve already mentioned how intelligent Golden Retrievers are ? which makes for one reason. The other is that their intelligence allows them to quickly pick up new commands or behaviors of course every dog-person will say theres a third and we agree! That would be the fact that golden retrievers were traditionally bred as long time family dogs who did what was asked of them: this training fun and easy with these people pleasers pets in your life! Golden Retrievers are one of the smartest breeds in existence. They were originally bred to help hunters retrieve downed birds over both land and water during the 1800s, a trait that is still present today as Golden Retrievers work alongside humans for hunting or therapeutic purposes. Some people may be surprised by this creatures intelligence considering theyre often known more as playful dogs who get themselves into trouble every now and then!

Start Teaching Your Puppy Basic Dog Commands: Sit Stay Down Come

a) How To Teach Your Puppy To SITTraining your puppy how to sit is a very important basic dog command to learn. Using a lure method , your dog will learn the desired dog command.To teach your dog to sit, stand in front of your dog and hold a tasty treat by your dogs nose. Keeping the treat close to your dogs nose, slowly lift your hand from your dogs nose towards his/her forehead. As your dog raises his/her head to follow the treat, his/her bottom will go on the floor. As soon as your dog sits, praise and give him/her the treat. When your dog will sit easily for the lure, it is time to add the verbal cue of the sit command.

b) How To Teach Your Puppy To StayUsing the verbal cue and hand signal for the stay command, the goal is for your puppy to remain sitting.Ask your puppy to sit. Place your hand out, with your palm facing forward and in front of the dogs face while saying stay. Keep your hand out and keep saying stay while taking one or several steps back. After 3-5 seconds, go back to your puppy and then reward him/her for staying sitted. Once your puppy mastered the stay command, increase the number of steps and seconds. As soon as your puppy lie down, praise and give him/her the treat. When your puppy will lie down easily for the lure, it is time to add the verbal cue of the down command.

Repetition is key to mastering any dog command. Be consistent, patient, practice, and praise your dog for good behavior.

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The Top 5 Smartest Dog Breeds

Dogs are smart, its clear to everyone, but there is someone who has not stopped at this sentence and with the help of 199 judges, the psychologist Stanley Coren has been able to build a canine intelligence ranking.

Stanley Coren, professor of the Department of Psychology and Director of the Human Neuropsychology Laboratory at the University of British Columbia, is also a great dog lover and one of the most experienced in the behavior of our four-legged friends.

From a long and personal experience, Coren explains the evolution of this animal, its selection and various uses at the service of man by subjecting him to attitudinal tests to establish its IQ, or its level of intelligence.

Thanks to his work, Coren has been able to identify 3 types of canine intelligence:

• ADAPTIVE

• FUNCTIONAL

• IMPULSIVE

I° LEVEL: these are dogs capable of learning a new command in less than 5 repetitions, obeying at least 95% of the time.

II° LEVEL: excellent work dogs who learn a new command repeated between 5 and 15 times, obeying at least 85% of the time.

III° LEVEL: in this group we find dogs learning a new command repeated between 15 and 24 times and obey at least 70% of the time.

IV° LEVEL: dogs who need 40 to 80 repetitions to understand a new command and they can execute it correctly 30% of the time.

V° LEVEL: they learn new orders between 80 and 100 repetitions. They do not always obey, only in 25% of cases.

The ranking covers a total of 131 Breeds, we will show you the top 5:

Golden Retriever Lab Mix Care

Since all Golden Retriever Labrador mixes have the double layer of Lab, they need to be brushed weekly, probably more during shedding season.

In addition to weekly brushing, you will need to brush your dogs teeth regularly to prevent dental problems and gum disease. Their nails should also be trimmed regularly.

Do golden retriever lab mixes make good family pets?

Both parent breeds are popular pets because of the friendly, loyal, and gentle but playful nature of these dogs. They are known to get along well with children and other animals.

Labrador Golden Retriever Mixes respond well to training and can be handled well enough to work as service and therapy dogs.

This mixed breed is a great pet for families with space and time to meet this dogs training needs. As a large and exciting dog, this may be a better pet for families with older children, as a wild Goldador may unintentionally knock over smaller children.

Similar breeds

Here are some other mixed dog breeds to consider if you are interested in a Golden Retriever Labrador mix.

• German Shepherd Golden Retriever Mix
• Goldendoodle

The most popular Golden Crossbreed DogsLab mix: Labrador Cross BreedsLabrador retriever mix: which one is right for you?

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You Can Start Training Golden Retrievers When They Are Puppies

Since Golden Retrievers are very intelligent when it comes to learning new things, you can start training them as soon as you bring them home. If you make sure not to use physically adverse techniques to punish them, it doesnt matter when you start training them.

Golden Retrievers will observe your behavior, so its good to be aware of training opportunities as early as possible. Start with obedience training to build a good foundation for your dog. Even though Retrievers are born with good temperaments, every dog is different. If you start obedience training early, you will have yourself one of the best-trained dogs in your neighborhood.

Consider A Different Breed If:

• You dont have the time to commit to long walks every day
• You live in a small apartment or house with limited space for a large dog
• You want a dog with low grooming needs
• You want a breed less likely to bark loudly
• You want a dog with a strong guarding instinct
• You dont have the budget to afford a dog that requires a lot of food

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