How Intelligent is Your Dog?

As parents, we struggle to maintain and improve the IQ of our children when they are young. For many families, this focus on IQ expands beyond the children and even includes family pets. When adopting young, especially a young puppy, it is important to protect and nurture the health of your puppy, including the nurturing of the IQ.

In terms of IQ, psychologists vary on what they consider to encompass an intelligence quotient, also known as an IQ. For some, the IQ is gauged based on an individual's ability to learn. For others, the IQ is simply a measure of how well someone can reason. And, for others, the IQ is a measure of an individual's ability to adjust to new complications successfully.

For dog's, these same measurements of IQ can be applied. In fact, for many dog trainers, the IQ of the dog is generally calculated by the dog's ability to successfully use a "trial and error" process for conditioning. To this general line of thinking, dog trainers add what is known as insightful learning in which a dog has an ability to react, almost instinctively, to a particular even without any prior exposure or conditioning.

So, how, as a dog owner, can you improve your dog's intelligence quotient? Many dog trainers will stress the importance of creating a solid and nurturing environment for your dog, right from birth. Because the intelligence level of your dog, to some extent, is developed by the environment, it is important to avoid deprivation and provide the dog with adequate nutrition.

In the first three weeks of life, the puppy should spend of his time sleeping and obtaining nutrients from the mother. It is not until the period up to the seventh week that the puppy will begin to rely upon the environment for the early stages of learning and development. It is during this period that the dog's IQ can begin to be molded with proper direction and interaction by the dog trainer or owner.

The most significant period in which to capitalize on the puppy's natural intelligence is the period from seven to 12 weeks. Interacting with the puppy in mild training sessions will begin to set the stage for later more aggressive training.

As a family adopting a young puppy, it is important to interact with your new family pet early and often but to use, to some extent, some structured training sessions, even if for only 15 to 20 minutes per day. This, coupled with proper nutrition, will work to ensure the puppy is provided the best opportunity to improve the intelligence quotient the he was naturally born with.