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You might have wondered if Pomeranians are intelligent dogs. Are they easy to train? Loyal? Understanding? Excellent with kids? Well, I can tell you one thing for certain, they are cute.
In this article, I will go over all the intelligence parameters of dogs and Pomeranians in particular. I will list down why you should develop your pomeranian intelligence, how dogs learn, what games you can play with them to develop their intelligence, and as a bonus how to teach them words and commands.
How do Dogs learn?
How can I nurture my dog’s cognitive abilities so he can be smarter?
Short answer, Yes. They are considered smart. They are ranked 28th place in the top 100 intelligent dogs. So you can consider them as smart. Although, intelligence should be nurtured.
To nurture your dog’s intelligence you should take him to explore. Like humans, he learns from curiosity, if a pom will be in a small room or a house all his life, he will have a few sets of skills. But if you let him for a walk and smell stuff and learn from other dogs. You will be developing his intelligence.
Develop intelligence with toys and games
You can play games with your dog, there are many toys out there that you can teach your dog to play with.
There are the treat hiding toys that will make it a bit challenging for your dog to get his food/treat. Easy enough just put some of your favorite dog treats or healthy treats in the containers and he needs to find them. Show him a few times how to find it and he will sniff to find it. I recommended you not to fill all holes, let him smell to find the right holes to get it from.
There are some levels of these toys. You can even teach your dog the name of the games so he can get familiar with the words (improving his intelligence by remembering more observations) and get him excited for delicious treats.
Here are some of my favorite toys. Outward Hound Store has a lot of toys to choose from to entertain your dog and develop his intelligence. Each toy provides its own instructions.
Level 1 – Easy
Games
Same as with toys, dogs love to use their nose. It’s playful, and fun and he gets treats. You can play a game I call Try to find it. You can hide some treats throughout the house and let him find them with his nose. Of course, don’t let him see you do that. You need to use smelly treats so your dog can smell and track them. Start with easy spots after they get the idea you can make it harder. Try to get them to use their nose and less on their vision to find it.
How many words they can remember?
Pomeranians like any other dog can remember words, you’ll be surprised by the number of words your little pom can remember, it is as high as 170 words. Average dogs can remember 150-170 and respond to commands. Children understand this amount only after two – two and a half years after birth.
How do I teach my pomeranian words?
Firstly, you need to understand what you want to teach your dog, you can start with basic items in the house or some actions like a walk or leash. First, some basic rules:
- Get some good treats – you will want to give them praise when they success
- Don’t yell or punish them when they don’t succeed – that will just confuse them.
- Do you gradually and have patience.
If you want to teach your dog the word “come” then do these steps:
- Sit on the floor with your dog next to you and say the word “come” or your dog’s name
- Each time you say it praise your dog and give them a treat or something delicious to snack on. (just repeat the word every 5 sec and give them a small treat)
- Now, start and go a bit far from your dog, drop a treat on the floor, and say “come” (or your dog’s name) when they come and finish eating treat them again.
- Repeat step 3 a couple of times, your dog may not respond all the time at first. Try to switch places, get closer or step back, and try not to scream your dog’s name or “come” too much. The word can because means less and they will ignore it. Your goal is that your dog will turn his head toward you when you say the command (“come”).
- Once step 4 is completed (your dog is facing you when you say the word) you can start making it more fun by moving around the house/room. Drop a treat on the floor and take a few steps aside or back, and see if your dog follows you.
- As a final step, make sure your dog follows you even after you step away from the treat. If they get to you after you stepped away from the treat, give them lots of praise, and treats, and play with them.
- Congrats! You did it! Your dog will now respond easily to his name or come.
How Do I teach my dog the words of objects?
First, you need to pick several objects. You can start with 1-3 objects. This is soo easy to do and fun so I
think you will like it. let’s start,
- Sit down with your dog with your selected items/objects/toys and a sack of his favorite treats (carrots chopped into small cubes work great).
- Get excited and say the object’s name gladly. Be consistent with your tone and the way you say it. You need to get your pomeranian to look at it. If he does, that’s a success, Give him a treat. Do it 4-5 times. if he comes to sniff it and touch it with his nose even better.
- Now, when your dog is getting excited when you say the word, and repeatedly touch, sniff, looking. Do it more challenging. drop the object on the floor and say the word, see if your dog jumps on it, and go for it. each time he does, give him a treat. if he doesn’t get back to step 2.
- And that’s it. your dog will remember the object’s name.
Found a nice video by Kristin Crestejo that show and explain how to do this:
That’s a good practice, you can even achieve a fetch game. you might want to teach your dog how to sit I’ve prepared a full article about it.
Conclusion
If you came here to enhance your dog’s intelligence you got some good tips, and if you still questioning if your pomeranian is a smart one. I must say they are. They can learn comments, trained, and be attentive and loyal like any other dog. They are fun and funny and a bit clumsy and above all cute. I hope you learned something new here, if you do please share this with your pomeranian lovers’ friends. Yes, I want more readers and to share my knowledge with other pomeranian owners. Thanks, Lia.
