which of these 6 breeds is the easiest to train?

Question

Have you ever owned any of these dogs? or even a few of them? From personal experience, or from knowing someone who has these dogs, list in an order from easiest to train and loyal, to the least easiest to train.

Pointer, Border collie, Weimaraner, rough collie, golden retriever, Shiba Inu

i ask this in terms of household pet qualities. Not sporting, or herding!
By Loyal i guess i mean it will listen to my commands over other alluring distractions, whether it be other dogs, humans or dangerous situations!

Answer 1

I'm glad you added the extra information because it changes the answer quite a bit. If you were simply asking for "easiest to train", the Border Collie would be the first choice, followed by the Golden Retriever, Rough Collie, Pointer, Weimaraner and Shiba Inu.

But the explanation that you are wanting an evaluation based on their desirability as a household pet and don't intend to do any specific activity with them rearranges the list. Given that information, I'd put the Golden Retriever at the head of the list. While Goldens were bred as retrieving dogs, for a number of (dog) generations now they have been principally owned and bred as household companions and have adapted well to the new role. They are extremely intelligent, faithful dogs and while as puppies they may be a bit on the exuberant side, with proper care and training they will mellow into the most affectionate companion you could hope for.

For me, second place would be a tie between the Pointer and the Rough Collie. Again, these are breeds that are now primarily bred as companions rather than as the specific task dogs of their origins and have had time to adjust to their modern roles. Rough Collies may be a bit on the barky side, which is a difficult chracteristic to correct. Watch a few episodes of Lassie and you'll see what I mean. People tend to remember Lassie as an incredibly beautiful and intelligent animal (which he was) - they forget how vocal he was! So it is with most Rough Collies.

Next on the list would be the Border Collie. While many Border Collies make outstanding house pets, they are still very often bred for their herding characteristics and if these characteristics are strong in your dog, he will not be as readily trainable to your desired role. He will be an intensely focused dog - often to the point of obsession or compulsion - and will give you fits as a housedog if you do not give him specific and regular tasks to perform. As many people have learned, if you do not give a Border Collie something to do he will find something to do on his own, and this will often result in what you will evaluate as destructive or disobedient behavior.

Next will be the Weimaraner, followed by the Shiba Inu. The only thing "wrong" with these two breeds is that they are far less popular than the first four. Being less popular means that they are bred less, their gene pool is smaller, and with a smaller diversity of gene pool, they wind up suffering limitations in intelligence that come from inbreeding when the population is more limited. Simply a fact of genetics that your Weimaraner or Shiba Inu will likely not be as sharp - and therefore not as easily trainable - as the other breeds you've mentioned.

Remember that these are only generalizations based on your stated goals. It is entirely possible to acquire a Golden who's dumb as a box of rocks, a Border Collie who will become a perfectly mellow house pet, or a Shiba who's at the head of her class, but if you were to select a dog based solely upon what breed it is, this would not likely be the case. If you want a purebred, the wisest thing to do is to visit a number of breeders of the dogs that interest you and clearly describe want you want from a dog to them. Most reputable breeders will be very honest with you - they do not want their dogs going to homes where they feel neither the dog nor the owner will be happy, because they know it will ultimately reflect poorly on both the breed and themselves. A professional breeder is the *only* place to get a purebred. Backyard breeders, pet stores and puppy mills are in it for the money. Professional breeders are in it for the love of the breed and will often turn down customers rather than sell their dogs into situations where success is doubtful. Not only that, but you will often find breeders who concentrate on specific breed characteristics. For instance, you may find a Border Collie breeder who is breeding for more mellow dogs rather than for their herding characteristics - since Border Collies, spurred by their enthusiasm and their success at such things as Agility competitions, are becoming a more sought-after house pet. You may find a Shiba breeder breeding for intelligence in order to make the breed more widely popular. We have two Shetland Sheepdogs bred by a woman who has been breeding for quieter Shelties (they are notoriously barky) and has had tremendous success; our two are extremely quiet dogs.

You might use the information you collect here as a a beginning point, but if you are serious about finding the perfect dog for you, most of your best information will come from people who breed the dogs you've mentioned. To find reputable, honest breeders, go to www.akc.org, click on the "Breeds" button, then on the "Breeds by Name" on the left of the page. Select the breed you're interested in, then click the National Breed Club and Breeder Referral buttons on the left of the page. These will lead you to breed specific websites where you will be able to locate breeders of that dog in your area. Good luck in your search!

Experience: Over 40 years of owning dogs including several of the breeds you've listed; a lover of all dogs, and a person whose dogs are 100% house pets while also being competitive in Herding and Obedience trials.

P.S. A little story to let you know what you can expect from a truly reputable breeder. When we decided we wanted our next dog to be a Shetland Sheepdog, we began making inquiries into finding a rescue operation. Within a couple of months we were contacted by a breeder who also ran a rescue operation. She had no rescues available, but she had a recent litter where one pup was obviously going to grow too big for show (Shelties can be a maximum of 16" at the shoulder in order to meet breed specifications for AKC showing). She thought we might be interested. We drove up for a visit. When we had a chance to evaluate the pup (and the breeder had a chance to evaluate us) we fell in love. Her show quality dogs normally sell for $1,500 and up, but she was willing to sell this pup to us for $700, which was about $700 more than we had ever paid for a dog before in our lives. But we were hooked, and took "Finnegan" home with us. Although we'd never done anything with our dogs before other than train them to be good members of the family, we knew Shelties were supposed to be good at many things, so we got some books and started training him. At six months old, Finnegan won his first AKC Obedience trial. By nine months he had won his first Obedience title. At ten months, he won his first Herding title. He's now two years old and has 5 Herding titles and is working on his 6th and 7th.

When Finnegan got to be about a year old we began thinking that it would be nice if he had a buddy. His breeder called one day while we were thinking about this and told us she had another pup who was probably going to be too big to show and wondered if we might be interested. We told her that we had just been thinking about calling her and drove up to see the pup. Of course, we fell in love again, but were concerned because money was very tight. We thought maybe she'd be willing to give us a break on the price, so I asked her if she wanted the same price for this pup as for Finnegan. She told me that she had called us because of what we had accomplished with Finnegan. She was so pleased with Finnegan's achievements that she wanted to offer this pup to us before she tried to sell it to anyone else - and that she was offering it to us for free! She said she'd rather see her dogs in homes where people really cared about them and worked with them than sell them to someone who might not give them a good home. So we took Spoofendifer (Spoof) home with us. We now have two drop-dead gorgeous, extremely intelligent and absolutely wonderful companions - and all thanks to a breeder who really and truly cares about her dogs. That's the kind of thing you can expect to find when you get in touch with really good breeders.

Answer 2

I own Weims and they are wonderful dogs but are not the easiest to train. They take time and patience and do not always listen. That is common with hunting breeds.
I have worked with pointers and Goldens pointers are great ut high prey drive and like to roam as they are hunters
Goldens are the easiest to teach anything. They live to please the owner and are willing to do almost anything. They are smart but have very easy going tempermant. They do not ask why you are trying to get them to do something they just do it.
Rough collies are nice but tons of grooming and have some health issuses.
Shibas are beautiful but aloof and not as friendly as the rest of these breeds.
We see tons of border collies in rescue if you do not have something for them to herd they are tought as they need so much exercise. They are destructive if not exercised properly and a walk does not even come close for these guys.
If you are a first time dog owner and you are not ging to hunt or herd wit hyour dog I would go with
Goldens first choice.
Hope this helps some.

Answer 3

It depends on what you want to train them to do. The border collie is a herding dog and would be the easiest to train to herd cattle while the golden retreiver is a natural retreiver and would be easiest to train for hunting sports that require retrieving. So actually it will really depend on what you're expecting them to do. As far as loyalty, all dogs that are treated like they are members of the family will be loyal to their owner. That is the finest quality of the dog, no matter which breed it is.

Answer 4

Border collie or the rough collie, they are working dogs & very obediant. I own 3 rough collies & they are all very good & trained well!!! The golden retriever is proberly the most hard to train because they are sooo playful & silly!!!

Easiest to train - Hardest to train
Border collie
Rough collie
Pointer
weimaraner
Pointer
Shiba Inu
Golden Retriever

Loyal - Least Loyal
Rough Collie
Border Collie
Golden Retriver
Shiba Inu
Pointer
Weimaraner

Answer 5

Any dog is easy to train - it all depends on the owner. If you're a relatively inexperienced dog person you definitely shouldn't get a weimaraner or pointer - they're best left to people who know what they're doing. As for the border collie, they're very high energy dogs who require an owner who will keep them active - walks, obedience, flyball, agility, etc. They won't be happy if they're bored. As for the rest, they're pretty easy going dogs.

The question about loyalty is pretty silly. You get out of a dog excactly what you put into them. Dogs don't think in terms of loyalty. Dogs live in packs, if you are the pack leader they'll listen to you and be much happier dogs.

Answer 6

Golden Retrievers are by far the easiest. Border Collies and the rest of the bunch are great dogs too. I believe that if you actually take the time with your dog you should not have a problem with training any of them. Dogs react to their environment. If you are loving yet firm and praise your dog when it is necessary then any animal will respond positivly.

Answer 7

I would believe a border collie. I have one and he is my very first dog ever and now he is 2 1/2 years old and understands everything I tell him. But I brought him to school for almost a year straight because I wanted him to be a very well behaved dog wherever we would go.

Answer 8

Golden Retriever... easiest to train (a friend had one as an inside pet)
Border collie, which I have as an outside dog has been great and easy to teach.
the others, I don't have a clue about, sorry.

not all but some males dogs have a tendancy to **** up the leg in the house even after training, unless they are "fixed" asap after they are born.

good luck in your search.

Answer 9

border collie - needs work. loves to work all the time. will be destructive if doesn't work.
golden - sweet breed. easy to train.
shiba inu - a bit stubborn

Answer 10

To get any breed dog to listen to your commands over alluring distractions, it would need to be trained properly, professional assistance is always good, even if its just PetsMart or something and not a private trainer.

Answer 11

I have a border collie and she's pretty cool. Every once in awhile she won't stay out of my face, but for the most part she listens to me.