[Mrs SW]

We currently have an 11 week old pug who seems to be very clever, he has sat on command from 8-9 weeks, he goes outside to do his business 90% of the time usually its only at night time he has the odd accident.


When we told friends we were getting a pug they basically laughed and said good luck with that and said how hard pugs are to train etc.


So are they hard to train and we seem to have hit lucky with Arthur or are they actually really smart? He is our first small dog, we have only ever had large breeds that tend to take a while to train properly so i really don't know the answer to this.



TIA

[la di dah]

Every pug I've ever known would do anything for a snack. I had a friend with a pug who said "if you want a pug to follow you to the ends of the earth... all you have to do is put butter on your feet."

Just hearsay though, I don't have a pug, but I've heard they're pretty trainable where food's involved.

[Mrs SW]

Every pug I've ever known would do anything for a snack. I had a friend with a pug who said "if you want a pug to follow you to the ends of the earth... all you have to do is put butter on your feet."

Just hearsay though, I don't have a pug, but I've heard they're pretty trainable where food's involved.

Hahaha I can imagine Arthur would follow if i had butter on my feet! I have never used food to train him though.

[*Spikey*]

As a dog trainer, I can say that there are dumber breeds around.

They do very well with clicker training.

[Mrs SW]

Hahaha so spikey they are on the dumb scale.

[seepi]

My pug cross is smart enough that he won't do anything at all unless he can see the food reward in my hand...

[Faradaye]

My pugs were very food motivated and absolutely trainable. It took patience and consistency, but we got there in the end.

Nothing like my rottweiler who picked things up after only a couple of repititions. She was one smart cookie.

There are advantages to not so smart dogs. They need much less stimulation, so tend to do less digging, chewing and those sorts of boredom driven activities.

[morgansacre]

I'd have to say Pugs are no smarter or dumber than the next dog. Some are just bone lazy and stubborn, others love to please.....and where there's food there's training

I have had 3 Pugs, all have been exceptionally easy to train with or without food. The only thing I had trouble with on one Pug was TT, but I think that was just shear laziness on the dogs part

Archie loves to please, he picks up things very quickly....but a lot of the problems we have had with him have been retraining him, he was an outside dog running with the pack of Pugs, so he didn't know how to walk on a lead, be calm before being fed, stay, crate training, etc. So we had to ignore his previous behaviours and encourage the right ones. It didn't take long, but you have to be consistent.

Plus remember if you give treats....expect the extra weight, unless you compensate for that in their diet. I think Pugs see food and gain weight

I must admit Archie is totally deaf when it comes to cheese, it cant hear anything you say until he's eaten all of his and your share

Lynn

[*Spikey*]

I didn't find them especially difficult. They're not labs, shepherds or poodles, but then, they're way out ahead of some lovable small breeds (and some lovely larger ones too). They can easily cope with Advanced and Novice level stuff, as long as the equipment is scaled to suit.

[morgansacre]

I know a few people who run their pugs through Agility, they are fantastic to watch. It's amazing what these dogs can do...though I haven't see hardly any in obedience. Lots of other breeds though...lol

Lynn