Your Poodle has the capacity to learn a great many things, but will never reach his or her full intelligence capability unless they are given the opportunity.
And since dogs learn by repetition, if you do want to help your Poodle increase his brainpower, it must be done with consistency on a regular basis.
Here are some great starting points:
Engagement of the senses: As we touched on earlier, canines have more developed hearing and scent abilities than we do and they love to use them. Allowing your Poodle to work on these not only helps keep his skills honed, but can also increase his level of contentment.
When a dog is taken outside to smell new scents, see new things and hear new sounds, he generally goes home a happy dog; regular exercise helps calm a
hyper dog
and typically lends to better behavior.
Finally, regular outings are a fantastic method to socialize a Poodle to new events and settings.
Word comprehension:
Your Poodle has the intellect capacity to learn, at a minimum, 200 words and when an owner makes a concerted effort, 300 or 400 is quite doable. The more words your Poodle learns, the better the communication will be with you and your dog.
And of course, dogs do not need to verbalize back in order for this to be a two-way street. A dog may take a specific action (mouth his leash, fetch the remote, hold a door open, clean up his toys, etc.) or he may gain contentment in understanding (wait patiently as you finish a task before playing, relax after being told that a certain noise is not cause for alarm, etc.)
When teaching the words of certain objects, choose 3. Place them out in a line.
Pick up each, saying the name with clear articulation. Repeat several times and then encourage your Poodle to nose, paw or mouth the one that you are asking for.