13 Clues Your Dog is Incredibly Smart

Have you ever watched your dog work through something in their head? Maybe you’ve seen them figure something out that was completely out of the norm? Or they’ve learned where you keep their favorite toys, and they go steal them and hide them from you?

The clues you have a smart dog aren’t stored inside an intelligence test. Your dog doesn’t have to do everything “perfectly” to be considered smart. Let’s take a look at some of the most common signs you have a smart dog, and how clever your pup really is.

One of the most obvious clues your dog is smart is how quickly they learn exactly what it is you are asking them to do. You show them something, they get a reward. They’re doing it on repeat the next day.

Let’s take a basic sit command. At first, you may need to guide them into a sit using a treat. They get a reward. For smart dogs, it won’t take long to understand that the action gets a reward. In fact, some dogs are so smart, they will refuse to do a learned command until they know a reward is on the way right after.

We see this with one of our rescues. He’s a giant Saint Bernard. We ask him to sit, and he stares. He knows the command. But if we don’t have anything in our hand, he’s not moving. As soon as you break out his favorite hip and joint chews, he’s taking a seat immediately.

It’s worth noting that if a dog takes a long time to learn a command, it doesn’t mean they aren’t smart. It could be that the reward isn’t interesting enough, or there’s just too much activity happening around them. But if your dog is a fast learner, it can be just one of the signs you have an intelligent dog.

Learning a brand-new command takes one skill. But remembering after you haven’t done it much is an entirely different skill set.

You may ask your dog to perform a command it hasn’t practiced in months, but somehow, they remember. If your dog is the type of dog that can do a learned command after several months like it was yesterday, you have a smart pup.

This can be a sign of intelligence that’s easy to overlook. As dog owners, once our pups learn something, we often just expect them to remember. But the truth is, like people, it’s not uncommon for a dog to need a refresher on a skill they haven’t practiced in a while.

Some dogs learn something new in a single sitting. But you can’t get them to do it again unless it’s in the exact same place, at the exact same time.

Other dogs can learn it once or twice, then repeat the action on command, no matter the location or where you ask them to do it. They learned to sit at home, but now they can do it on command at the dog park, around twenty other dogs.

If your dog is the type of dog that can learn a skill and do it somewhere completely new, it’s worth noticing. Highly intelligent dogs can remember commands and execute them in a wide variety of different situations.

You haven’t said “W-A-L-K” or even grabbed the leash yet. All you’ve done is grabbed your shoes and walked towards the door at the normal walk time that morning. Your dog is already sitting there waiting by the leash, ready to roll.

Dogs are great at picking up on routines. In fact, a disruption in routine is a common issue for stress in our canine companions. They’ll notice small things, like walk times, what cupboard you walk to in order to grab their favorite treat, or actions you take, like grabbing their food bowl.

After some time, these actions become part of your dog’s routine, and it can almost feel like they know exactly what you are thinking. But in reality, your intelligent dog has just learned your routine better than you realize. You’ve repeated the same actions enough that they know what comes next.

Sometimes you don’t even need to say anything. For example, one of our dogs, Finna, doesn’t need a verbal command to “center.” You can just make a circle with your hand, and she will walk behind you, in between your legs, and start looking up at you, waiting for the next command.

If you’ve taught your dog hand signals, this isn’t foreign to you. But where it gets interesting is when you make certain gestures or signals that your dog picks up on without any other verbal cues.

If your dog understands you before you’ve finished giving a command, then watch your nonverbal cues. Your dog is likely picking up on physical signals that you are already giving them without realizing it. And if this is happening, your dog is probably a lot smarter than you think.

Whether it’s “go get your ball” or “go get your dragon” (one of our dogs had a favorite soft plush dragon toy), if your dog can distinguish an object by name, that’s different than saying “go get your toy.”

Especially if they bring back the same object every time. It takes a smarter pup to be able to distinguish an exact item, and not something that looks similar. There’s a difference between saying “go get your toy” and asking for a specific object, especially if your dog brings back the correct object every time.

Obviously, if you point to the same toy every time, your dog has made that association. But where it gets really interesting is when it’s buried in a sea of toys, and they pick the one that you reference, every time.

Give your dog a puzzle toy, and watch what they do with it. Some dogs will sniff, paw, or just push it around. When something moves and a treat becomes available, they experience the reward for the expected behavior of solving the puzzle.

If your dog is suddenly paying attention and watching how it works, this is a sign of intelligence. Some dogs will just keep mashing levers and buttons until a treat pops out. Others will understand that there’s a logical process to getting access to the reward.

When a dog starts to figure out that logic, they are learning how their actions affect the outcome. Watching a dog go from investigation to figuring something out can tell you quite a bit about how they approach a problem.

Your dog wants that muffin on the counter, but they can’t reach it from their current position. Instead of continuing to try from one spot, they move around and find something to stand on in order to snag it.

This may seem small, but they’ve logically just changed their approach when the first attempt didn’t work. It’s problem-solving.

We have a dog that did this to the extent she figured out how to open doors. And I don’t mean just nudging them open. She can stand on her back legs and push downwards on a handle to pop a door open.

And she also knows how to pull the door open if it swings the opposite way. We had to change out every single doorknob in our house because she’d just walk around, opening all the doors.

Remembering where things are can be another sign of intelligence. For instance, one of our dogs knows where the squirrels run in our backyard. So when we let her out in the morning, that’s the first place she runs. Every day. Even if there are no squirrels running around. She heads straight that direction to see what’s happening.

This can happen if they’ve found something worth tracking, but also if they’ve found something enjoyable.

The trash can is another place. While it’s not the behavior you want, it’s not uncommon for food-motivated dogs to find the trash can. Once they find their way in for the first time, it’s a very difficult habit to break because the reward outweighs the risk.

One of our dogs is ball-obsessed. And you can bet, the moment that ball goes under the couch, her head is in your lap. She will start by pawing at the area, sniffing it, and then trying to wedge herself under the couch to get it. When she’s unsuccessful (she’s a big girl), she will seek out one of her humans to grab it for her.

If your dog displays behavior like this, it might seem like common sense. But this is actually another form of problem-solving. Your dog has figured out that asking you to help is going to be faster than them trying to do it on their own.

Once you’ve lived with a dog for a while, you start being able to read each other’s signals. For example, they may stand by the door when they need to go out. You recognize this means they need to go to the bathroom.

Another example is that they may nose you when you’ve stopped petting them too soon. Or they may paw you to show you that they want affection. You may not have deliberately taught your dog any of these actions. But they’ve learned that it gets them what they want, so they do it anyways.

Over time, these little exchanges become part of everyday life. They happen so commonly that you may not even think anything of them. But this is a smart dog’s way of telling you exactly what they want, and you both understand.

We have six dogs. Something we see commonly is that our more intelligent dogs will actually watch to see what the others do before making a decision. Watching allows them to see what the outcome is before deciding what to do.

One example is a green ball that our Saint Bernard, Maja, absolutely loves. She runs to find it every morning she runs outside. One of our other dogs also loves this ball. But she doesn’t make a beeline for the ball right away. She waits for Maja to find it, bring it to me, then goes to chase once we start throwing. She lets Maja do the work, then starts to play after.

This can also happen when your dog watches you. Watching you interact with something may make them more willing to investigate it themselves.

Some dogs just love to find things. If you hide their favorite toy, they are immediately interested in going to find it. Having a strong sense of smell isn’t the same as being smart.

But how they use their nose as an informative way of completing a search involves more than simply having a keen sense of smell. Watch how your dog checks different places and works out how to find the item they are looking for.

It’s worth paying attention to. If this is something your dog particularly enjoys, then it’s an activity you can do together. Start with small searches around the house and build up from there. It will give your dog something to work on and might help them develop a skill in the process.

Smart Doesn’t Always Mean Easy to Train

Your dog might be great at solving puzzles and highly intelligent in almost every other aspect. But don’t mistake smart for being easy to train. Some dogs may be quick to pick up on your daily routine but want nothing to do with a game of fetch.

In fact, some of the smartest dogs are also some of the most difficult to train. Take our Golden Retriever–Great Pyrenees mix, for example. She is smart enough to open doors but independent enough to not listen during a recall.

It’s important to understand that there’s a difference before welcoming any new dog into your home. If your dog has exhibited any of the traits above, you likely have a smarty pants on your hands.

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