Quote Originally Posted by Macker View Post
I think intelligence has a lot to do with a dogs rearing, the more you stimulate the brain as the dog grows up the smarter the dog becomes i.e when my dogs are growing up I like to bring them into the city and walk them among the crowds of people, I feel this brings them out of there shell especially with a nervous dog, the hustle and bustle of the crowds overwhelm them and they don't have the time to panic because there's actually so much going on.

The more different situations you can put them in the more they learn. I think when it comes to "schooling" ability is ability and a lot of the time it's god given talent but a bad rearing may affect the ability to bring out the best of this ability. Potentially Good dogs can be ruined through bad rearing. A lot of guys leave a dog on a chain from 6 months to 16 months and then scratch there heads when the dog turns out to be a nervous wreck and no good.

If your putting the dog through a keep then the time for sculpting the dogs brain may have been and passed, I really believe in doing it when they're young, like 8weeks young.

Just my opinion.
I like this idea. I do a lot of the same type of this with my dogs from early OB to nerve testing via surface changes and trips to petsmart and petco even though I don't buy from there. People will always be in there with screaming kids and carts making noise. I also do some other things from early on like teaching them how to win under pressure with a nice full grip on a rag while dropping bottles and shaking a clatter stick. It's funny because I can see the difference between a dog that I get who is 1 yr old versus my own 1 yr old that I have done these things with. The dogs who have these things done seem to run into any new place like they own it while the dog who has not seems to be slower to enter into a new environment.