11 Easiest Dogs to Train That Make Obedient Pets

Proper training is essential for any pet, whether they’re going to be family companions, service dogs, emotional support dogs or guard dogs. “Your dog needs to know basic obedience,” says Courtney Briggs, head trainer at dog-training company Zoom Room. “‘Sit,’ ‘stay,’ ‘come,’ ‘off’ and ‘down’ are all crucial skills you’ll need to have mastered before bringing your dog into unfamiliar environments with unfamiliar humans and activities.” And although it can be a little trickier when they are very young, you can also learn how to train a puppy to teach them good habits right from the start.

If you’re thinking of bringing a new pet into your life, first consider which breeds are the easiest dogs to train. Both instinct and intelligence play a role in how trainable an animal is. Certain breeds have been bred for hundreds of years to do specific activities, like herding, and it’s challenging to stop a dog from doing what it’s instinctually supposed to do. But with regular training, any pup—from the smartest dog breeds to even the hardest dogs to train—can learn the basics. So find a dog trainer and enroll your furry friends in obedience school when they’re young.

With positive reinforcement and consistency, your new puppies will become obedient, happy members of the family. And remember: Regardless of breed, training a pup takes time, consistency and patience, says Rob R. Jackson, co-founder and CEO of Healthy Paws Foundation and Healthy Paws Pet Insurance. Treats don’t hurt either.

Robert Pickett/Getty Images Border collie

Bred to be bright and energetic, border collies take their name from the border region of Scotland, where the breed was developed, and the Scottish word for sheepdog: collie. These agile, intelligent dogs are practically athletes when it comes to herding and are no doubt smarter than you think. So impressive are the pups that, the story goes, onlookers at one of the first sheepdog trials, held in Wales in 1873, were amazed by the breed’s ability to follow hand signals and whistles to gather sheep into pens.

Keep in mind that border collies need a lot of dedicated time, attention and activities. It’s worth the effort, though; collies are one of the most loyal dog breeds out there. Jackson recommends focusing on potty training, socializing and commands like “sit” and “stay” to help your pup get used to new people, animals and situations.

Puppies training to be future assistance dogs earn their wings

Five puppies learning to be assistance dogs had a howling good time during a training exercise at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.During the Tuesday training, the quintet of pooches and their trainers walked through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint, rode an elevated tram and boarded an airplane.It was all part of an effort to acclimate the dogs to one of the many settings they may experience later in life. The training was led by Paws With A Cause — a Wayland, Michigan-based nonprofit that oversees the custom training of puppies that become assistance dogs for people with disabilities. The group pairs puppies with volunteers who raise and socialize the dogs for the first year of their lives.”Eventually, when they’re placed with our clients, they may well need to fly with them,” said Liz Hood, who coordinates foster puppy curriculum for the organization. “So, if they have this exposure now while they’re young, then it means it’s not going to be a big deal for them when they’re with their clients when they’re older.”The trainers also take the puppies to grocery stores, libraries, restaurants and doctor’s appointments, Hood said. But the airport provides a unique experience because of its distinct sights and sounds.The five puppies — Labrador and golden retrievers, and a papillon among them — bounded through the airport, earning more than a few quizzical glances from airline passengers. The dogs shuffled down a jetway and onto a plane, where they nestled at the feet of their trainers, who were seated and provided the pups with treats to stay still.”One of the main reasons for doing this type of training is so that our puppies become calm and confident in all types of different social situations,” Hood said.

Five puppies learning to be assistance dogs had a howling good time during a training exercise at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

During the Tuesday training, the quintet of pooches and their trainers walked through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint, rode an elevated tram and boarded an airplane.

It was all part of an effort to acclimate the dogs to one of the many settings they may experience later in life. The training was led by Paws With A Cause — a Wayland, Michigan-based nonprofit that oversees the custom training of puppies that become assistance dogs for people with disabilities. The group pairs puppies with volunteers who raise and socialize the dogs for the first year of their lives.

“Eventually, when they’re placed with our clients, they may well need to fly with them,” said Liz Hood, who coordinates foster puppy curriculum for the organization. “So, if they have this exposure now while they’re young, then it means it’s not going to be a big deal for them when they’re with their clients when they’re older.”

The trainers also take the puppies to grocery stores, libraries, restaurants and doctor’s appointments, Hood said. But the airport provides a unique experience because of its distinct sights and sounds.

The five puppies — Labrador and golden retrievers, and a papillon among them — bounded through the airport, earning more than a few quizzical glances from airline passengers. The dogs shuffled down a jetway and onto a plane, where they nestled at the feet of their trainers, who were seated and provided the pups with treats to stay still.

“One of the main reasons for doing this type of training is so that our puppies become calm and confident in all types of different social situations,” Hood said.

Dog Culture Must End

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.When I say that I hate dogs, I don’t mean that I hate your dog. I mean that I dislike ill-behaved dogs. I mean that I’m actually a little bit scared of them, and they can sense my nervousness, and so we tend not to get along. I mean that I hate dog culture—the relentless prioritization of dogs’ needs over humans’, and the suggestion that anyone who doesn’t want their face licked by some oversized mutt is a monster.

This issue of our societal permissiveness toward dangerous dogs recently came up at work. During his tenure, President Joe Biden has brought two violent dogs into the White House, where thousands of people go to work every day. Last month, a conservative watchdog group released records showing that Biden’s German shepherd Commander attacked Secret Service members 10 times between October 2022 and January. And in 2021, Major Biden, another German shepherd, was exiled to Delaware after his own biting spree. When my colleague Inae Oh surveyed Mother Jones readers about how the Bidens should handle the situation, I was baffled by the responses.

Several respondents suggested that Commander must be able to sniff out Trump allies, as if those people deserve to be savaged by an untrained dog. The notion that a dog is a reliable judge of character is symptomatic of a dog-obsessed society; a subset of our population genuinely believes that the dog is always right.

I think the president should take a stand against this. Biden should set an example for the rest of the country by getting his animals under control or getting them out of the White House, away from an active workplace where they’ve been known to hurt people. He should make it clear that no one needs to tolerate an unruly dog. He should give a grand speech—I’ll write it, don’t worry—on how this country’s canine-first attitude is, although not a top legislative issue, extremely annoying.

I am allowing Biden to take the moderate position here, as usual. He does not need to say he hates dogs. He can simply state the obvious: It’s a dog’s world, and we’re just living in it, no matter how dangerous, dirty, or disrespectful it may be. (Hating dogs, by the way, is just another thing Trump ruined.)

Some will read this and pretend they don’t know what I’m talking about. Come on. You’ve experienced dogs’ indiscretions. You’ve stepped on their shit in the street. And it’s not their fault: Behind every misbehaving dog is a human victim of dog culture, an individual whose mind is too warped by dog-love to consider the well-being of their fellow humans or the dog itself. In a world of doggy day care, dog parades, and dog spas, can you really blame some people for starting to believe that dogs are a little better than the rest of us?

Some of us act like dogs rule the world. Often, when I’m out with a friend, strolling down the street or sitting down at a restaurant, a dog walks by, and the friend interrupts our conversation to freak out about the dog. They might exclaim what a cute dog it is, or go up to the owner asking to pet it, initiating a protracted conversation about the animal’s age, sex, weight, breed, temperament, and grooming requirements. What I want to say to my friend, but never manage to spit out, is, “Have you never seen a fucking dog before?” Calm down. Why are you so excited? It’s a dog.

I think, if I were a dog owner, that I would be annoyed by people stopping me every two blocks to fawn over my pet. But I’m not a dog owner, so I’m unable to comprehend the sense of superiority and entitlement that governs their day-to-day. Imagine going through a life with a rambunctious dog and insisting to every stranger she attacks that “She’s really sweet!” Imagine dragging your dog into restaurants with a fake “service animal” vest, thereby making it harder for people who actually do need service animals to prove that they’re not just pets. Imagine bringing your dog into a wilderness area, ignoring the leash requirements, and acting surprised when your dog won’t stop chasing birds or digging up plants.