Toy Poodles like their Miniature and Standard cousins are highly intelligent dogs and extremely fast learners. The downside to this is they are just as quick to pick up bad habits as they are the good. They are also extremely sensitive to a person's voice and the way they say things which is one of the reasons why they are probably so easy to train. As such, in the right hands and environment, these little dogs are extremely easy to train and love nothing more than to please.
Their training has to start early and it has to be consistent and always fair throughout a dog’s life so they understand what owners expect of them. Toy Poodles are never happier than when they are given something to do which is why they are so amenable to learning new things. They excel at many canine sports which includes activities like flyball and agility because they thrive on the attention they are given during their training and the one-to-one contact when competing with their handlers.
The key to successfully training a Toy Poodle is to make their training as interesting as possible and to avoid too much repetition. It's also a good idea to keep training sessions short which helps dogs stay more focussed on what it’s being asked of them, bearing in mind that the more intelligent a dog is, the faster they get bored and that Toy Poodles are extremely smart, little dogs.
They do not answer well to harsh correction or any sort of heavy handed training methods, but they do respond extremely well to positive reinforcement which always brings the best out of these intelligent and quick witted dogs, especially when there are high value rewards involved.
