You might have noticed that a lot of the article headlines about Cooper call him a "genius" or say things like, he's "smarter than most toddlers." However, you need to understand that these are just clickbait headlines designed to get you to click onto the article. As his owner, I personally do not think that Cooper is a genius, or even extremely smart. I would say that he is probably smarter than the average shih tzu, because they are ranked very low in intelligence. I don't think he is smarter than most toddlers, but he might be smarter than most younger babies. I think that just about any border collie or poodle (or any other intelligent breed) would be smarter than him, and could do his tricks much better than he can, if they were given the same training. Cooper is just very biddable and treat motivated. That's how I'm able to train him to do these tricks. Sometimes an extremely intelligent dog can be harder to train because they can be very stubborn or will find ways to get the treats without doing the work.
I wouldn't want Cooper to be a "genius" anyway, because if he was, he would probably be much more of a handful. I bet he'd constantly be getting into treat cupboards! He only recently learned that he can jump onto the kitchen table to get leftover food. That's the most mischievous thing he does when I'm not looking, and I'd like to keep it that way :)
