Are Bernedoodles Easy to Train? You Might Be Surprised How Smart They Are!

Are Bernedoodles easy to train?

When you’re considering buying a dog, you may want to know how easy or difficult they are to train.  All dogs have their own personalities and various breeds are smarter than others.  Things get a little more complicated when you have a mixed breed dog like a Bernedoodle.  So are Bernedoodles easy to train?  We’ll give you the details below.

The Bernedoodle Breed

Firstly, as we’ve written about in a few of our other articles, Bernedoodles are rather intelligent dogs by nature.  That’s because of the two breeds they come from; the Poodle and the Bernese Mountain Dog.  The Poodle is a very intelligent dog, second only to the Border Collie.  Poodles are capable of being trained to perform complex tricks and can learn hundreds of words/commands.  They’re also emotionally intelligent, and therefore respond well to human voice tone and body language.  Because of these attributes, they make great service dogs.

Meanwhile, Bernese Mountain Dogs, although not as highly rated on a pure intelligence scale, are very emotionally intelligent.  Meaning they can sense human emotions, body language and vocal tone.  

Further, depending on the generation of your Bernedoodle and type of breeding, your puppy may have more Poodle in them than Bernese Mountain Dog.  If that’s the case, your dog may have even higher intelligence than a standard Bernedoodle.  

Obviously, intelligence has a strong correlation to training ability, but that’s not all there is to it.  While a good baseline of intelligence, which your Bernedoodle has, is a great start, a lot of what you can accomplish with training comes down to you.  That’s right, as the owner, you’ll set the tone for how much or how little your dog can be trained.  It’s going to require a good amount of patience and repetition on your part.

Now don’t be intimidated by this.  It’s not a full time job training your pup, potty training notwithstanding.  That’s a whole other beast that we discuss in a different article.  The majority of other tricks and commands can be accomplished in a relatively short amount of time.  Start small and then work your way up to more complex commands.  

Reinforcement 

Are bernedoodles easy to train?  Let’s first consider reinforcement

You’ll want to determine what signs of reinforcement work best for your Bernedoodle.  It could be verbal praise, pets, treats, or some combination of the three.  Whatever your puppy’s praise of choice is, make sure you give it to them when they perform the command you issue.  The best part aside from them learning new commands is that the training process will also build a strong bond between you and your puppy.

Now one other word of advice.  While your Bernedoodle is going to be very intelligent and affectionate, they’re probably not going to be the most graceful. Cooper, for example, is a complete love bug, but my goodness he’s a clutz.  Even tossing a treat to him sometimes goes wrong, bonkin off his nose!  

Or there’s times when we go for a walk going up or down a curb and he trips.  It’s not graceful, but it’s hilarious and adorable.  The reason we’re telling you this is because you shouldn’t expect your Bernedoodle to perform complex tricks and acrobatics.   While there’s always an exception to the rule, that’s the nature of the breed.  

Another note is that there’s some truth to the saying “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”.  It’s not that you can’t teach them as they get older, it’s just easier when they’re puppies.  Like their human counterparts, their brains are like sponges when they’re young, so it’s best to teach them the essentials first (sit, stay, etc) and then you can teach the more fun commands like roll over, spin, etc.  

In Closing

To reiterate, Bernedoodles are intelligent dogs and easy to train.  But their intelligence alone isn’t enough and requires you as their own to put in the time and effort to train them properly.  Patience, repetition and lots of love go a long way to get this lovable breed trained up.  Enjoy the training process!