Oh, the mesmerizing Goldendoodles. This is one of the most popular mixed dog breeds in the world. They are known for their beauty, but the question is how smart are Goldendoodles?
Are these dogs little Einsteins, or are they just candy for the eye? We can say with certainty that Goldendoodles are the full package of brains and beauty. Hey… they are not this popular for no reason, are we right?
In this article, we will go in depth about the intelligence of a Goldendoodle. If you are interested, then keep on reading.
How Smart Are Goldendoodles?
Every dog breed is smart in their own unique way. Some dogs show it more, while others… well, they tend to hide it a bit. Are they just uninterested or a bit lazy… who knows?
When it comes to mixed breeds like Goldendoodles, it is a known fact that they are very smart dogs, both males and females. But, how smart are Goldendoodles in the first place?
There are a couple of things that make a dog intelligent, and we will list them all for you. You will be able to see that these pooches check all of these, and that this is not a big surprise.
Here are types of intelligence that measure the intelligence of a dog, in this case, the Goldendoodle:
1. Adaptive Intelligence
It is said that experiences make a person filled with knowledge – this is the same with dogs. Adaptive intelligence is basically the ability when a dog remembers something, and does things by itself based on previous experiences.
If you don’t quite understand what we mean by this, we will explain it through a simple example. If you tell your English Godlendoodle to go pee, pee-pee, or whatever phrase you decided on, your dog will know what to do.
There are plenty of dog owners who actually describe how smart their Godlendoodles are by how fast they learned that when they hear “go pee”, the dog automatically goes outside or to their leash because they know what is next.
The tricky thing about this type of intelligence is that it can’t actually be measured. There are examples where a dog will sometimes know a certain command while other times, he or she either doesn’t want to do it or maybe forgets it.
For adaptive intelligence, you should listen to other owners and their anecdotes in order to make a conclusion as to whether or not these dogs have it in them. Since there are a lot of stories, we can surely say that Goldendoodles have adaptive intelligence within them.
2 Instinctive Intelligence
Instinctive intelligence can be described as a task that a dog knows because it is part of their DNA. In other words, they know the thing they were bred for, and they know it perfectly.
For example, Golden Retrievers are good at retrieving things, and this is something that they were bred for. Since they have a Golden Retriever parent, Goldendoodles are also amazing with retrieving things.
Because of this, these dogs are excellent at playing fetch. Both Poodles and Goldies are partially bred to be loving companions, which Goldendoodles are as well.
Instinctive intelligence can be hard to assess when it comes to mixed breeds because they basically weren’t bred for a specific thing. It depends on what they inherit from their parent breeds.
And, as we can tell… these pooches check this type of intelligence as well.
These dogs might not be AKC approved, but they certainly have qualities just as any purebred dog.
3. Working Intelligence
Working intelligence is measured by how many times you need to show or repeat to a dog some trick or command before they get ahold of it.
As you can tell, working intelligence is not how good they know a certain task or how many tasks they know. It is the speed at which they learn something new.
If you don’t have to repeat the trick or the task too many times, you can consider yourself happy because you own a smart dog.
Based on a lot of examples of happy Goldendoodle owners, these canines don’t need a lot of repetition to learn new things. This means that they can also check the bracket when it comes to working intelligence.
They have a good streak, can’t you tell?
4. Communication Intelligence
The name says itself. This means that these dogs are very good with telling you in certain ways what they want. We are all aware that dogs communicate some feelings with their body parts, a.k.a., they use a lot of body language.
You have certain tail positions, and even ear positions that can show us whether our dog is happy, angry, or sad.
These pooches take it up a level. They know how to bring you to the thing that they desire. You will most likely see your Goldendoodle sitting beside the place where you keep its leash.
They might even bark, start spinning in circles to get your attention, and maybe even grab you by a piece of clothing to physically bring you to the leash.
It is not hard to realize that they want to go out.
There are many more examples of this type of intelligence that other dog owners share online.
5. Emotional Intelligence
Goldendoodles can be considered as pack dogs, and this is the reason that makes them one of the best family dogs. These dogs can sense the energy that we humans project.
The best way to see this is when they are interacting with a child. You can tell that they understand that they are with a small human who can easily get injured if they play with them the same as they play with adults.
They are super gentle, and they will almost have a type of parent instinct where they can sense whether the child is happy, scared, or sad. Protectiveness will kick in immediately if they feel any type of sad or scared energy.
This is very special to see when it comes to standard Goldendoodles. Their size might be intimidating to kids, but their behavior towards children makes them like gentle giants.
It’s not only the kid’s energy they can sense… oh, no. They know how every family member is feeling, and the best part is that they know how to behave based on the way you are feeling.
You will rarely see a Godlendoodle get into a fight with another dog. The reason for this is that they feel how the other dog is feeling, and remove themselves from the situation if they cross paths with an angry dog.
Things You Need To Take Into Consideration
Here you go… we have it in black and white that these dogs are very smart, but there are some things that you need to know.
Every Dog Is Unique
The main thing you need to know is that every dog within the same breed is different. By this, we are not saying that some dogs will be a bit dumb while others will be highly intelligent. No, no… this just means that some dogs will be better at certain things than other ones.
One Goldendoodle might have extremely high emotional and adaptive intelligence, while another one might have high working intelligence.
Some dogs will excel at all 5 of them, some might be average at all 5, etc. There are many examples.
You can teach every dog some of these if it doesn’t come naturally to them.
They Can Be Stubborn
This can mess a bit with their working intelligence, or in other words, training them can be complicated. This is not that common, but if you get yourself a stubborn Goldendoodle, you will need to have a lot of time and patience to train it.
This will be the worst in the beginning stages of training, a.k.a., when they are young puppies. When they get ahold of training sessions, you will have it much easier.
At that point, the stubbornness will wear off a bit, and they will realize that by learning new things, they are making you happy. That is their biggest reward – well, that and a treat here and there won’t hurt.
They Need To Be Mentally Stimulated
It is very important to keep these dogs mentally stimulated on a daily basis. This can improve their intelligence, and it also makes them feel useful.
If your dog is bored and not mentally challenged frequently, you might end up with a destructive and even depressed dog.
This might be the reason why some people think that Godlendoodles are just the worst. Luckily, for the dog, that would be our fault – not the dog’s since they are dependent on us.
To Sum It All Up
If you have ever wondered how smart Goldendoodles are, you got your answer. These dogs have many amazing qualities about them, and because of this, they are one of the most popular mixed dog breeds out there.
They are considered to be the best family dogs, and their emotional intelligence has provided them with that.
Amazing personalities, intelligence, beauty, lots of love… who wouldn’t love this dog, are we right?