Boston Terrier Okay, but are they, though?
If you’ve spent any time researching this breed, you’ve probably gotten a dozen different answers. Some people swear their Boston learned commands in a week. Others will tell you their dog has been "working on" sit for six months. So what’s actually going on here?
The truth is a little more nuanced than a simple yes or no.
The Boston Terrier Brain: Smart, Stubborn, or Both?
Boston Terriers are genuinely intelligent dogs. They pick up on routines quickly, they read their owners well, and they notice everything. That last part matters more than people realize.
A dog that notices everything can be trained to do a lot. It can also decide, quite deliberately, that it has better things to do.
That’s the Boston Terrier in a nutshell.
The Stubborn Streak Is Real
Let’s not sugarcoat it. Bostons have a well-earned reputation for selective listening. You’ll ask for a sit. They’ll look at you. They’ll look at the treat. They’ll look back at you. And then they’ll just… walk away.
This isn’t stupidity. It’s personality.
Boston Terriers were bred as companion dogs, not working dogs. They weren’t designed to take orders all day. They were designed to hang out with you, make you laugh, and generally do whatever they felt like doing.
"Training a Boston Terrier isn’t about breaking a will. It’s about redirecting one."
That shift in mindset changes everything.
What Actually Makes Training Easier (or Harder)
Age Matters More Than You Think
Puppies are sponges. Everyone knows this. But Boston Terrier puppies have a particularly important socialization window, roughly between 3 and 12 weeks, where everything they experience becomes their new normal.
Start training during this window and you’re working with the brain, not against it.
An older Boston who’s never been trained isn’t a lost cause, but you’re adding extra steps. Old habits, especially self-rewarding ones like barking at the window or jumping on guests, take longer to unlearn.
Food Motivation Is Your Best Friend
Here’s some good news: most Boston Terriers are extremely food motivated.
This is not a subtle trait. These dogs will do almost anything for a piece of chicken. Use that. Small, high-value treats during training sessions work better than praise alone, especially in the early stages when you’re trying to build a new behavior from scratch.
Keep sessions short. Five to ten minutes is genuinely enough. Bostons bore quickly, and a bored Boston is not a cooperative Boston.
Consistency Beats Everything Else
This is where most owners quietly go wrong.
You train every day for two weeks, see progress, and then life gets busy. The training slips. The dog slips right back to the old behavior. And suddenly it feels like you’re starting over.
"With Boston Terriers, inconsistency doesn’t just slow progress. It actively works against it."
The dog isn’t being difficult on purpose. It’s just doing what works. If jumping up sometimes gets attention and sometimes doesn’t, jumping up will continue. The math is simple.
Commands That Boston Terriers Tend to Pick Up Fast
Sit
Almost universally the first win. Bostons figure out the sit-to-treat connection quickly, often within a handful of sessions. Start here, build confidence, and use it as the foundation for everything else.
Watch Me
This one’s underrated. Teaching your Boston to make eye contact on command gives you a powerful tool for redirecting attention in distracting environments. It’s also just adorable.
Leave It
Important, and actually pretty teachable with Bostons once they understand the concept. The trick is to make leaving it more rewarding than taking it. That requires patience and a treat that’s genuinely exciting.
Where Boston Terriers Tend to Struggle
Recall (Coming When Called)
This is the big one.
Off-leash recall is genuinely hard with many Boston Terriers, particularly when there’s something interesting in the environment. A squirrel, another dog, a weird smell, a piece of trash that might be food: any of these can immediately outrank you in the priority list.
Work on recall early, reward it generously every single time, and don’t make the mistake of only calling your dog when fun is over. If "come" always means the walk ends, your Boston will figure that out fast.
Barking
Boston Terriers are not heavy barkers by breed standard, but individual dogs vary wildly. Some are surprisingly quiet. Others have decided that they are, in fact, guard dogs and will protect you from the mailman, the neighbor’s cat, and the sound of wind.
Managing nuisance barking takes time and a clear, consistent response every single time it happens. Yelling doesn’t help. It usually makes it worse, because now you’re both barking.
Leash Manners
Pulling on leash is a common frustration. Bostons are small but they’re muscular, and they have opinions about where the walk should go.
The stop-and-wait method (you stop moving the second leash tension appears, resume only when it releases) works well with this breed. It’s slow going at first. Stick with it.
Training Methods That Work Best
Positive Reinforcement, Full Stop
This isn’t up for debate with Boston Terriers. Punishment-based methods don’t just fail with this breed; they actively damage the relationship you’ve built.
Bostons are sensitive. They pick up on your frustration, your tone, your body language. A harsh correction can shut them down completely, and a shut-down dog isn’t learning anything.
Reward what you want. Ignore or redirect what you don’t. That’s the whole game.
Short, Fun Sessions Beat Long, Serious Ones
Think of training like a game rather than a lesson. Keep the energy light. End on a win, even if that means backing up to something easy. Your Boston should walk away from every session feeling successful.
"The dog who loves training will learn twice as fast as the dog who tolerates it."
Clicker Training
A lot of Boston Terrier owners swear by this. The click gives you a precise way to mark the exact moment your dog does the right thing, which makes the learning process cleaner and faster. Worth trying if you haven’t.
Should You Consider a Training Class?
Yes. Even if you’re experienced with dogs.
Group classes add a layer that solo training at home can’t replicate: distraction. A Boston who sits beautifully in your kitchen and a Boston who sits beautifully in a room full of other dogs are two very different achievements.
Puppy classes in particular offer early socialization that pays off for years. The behavioral benefits of proper socialization during that early window are well documented and genuinely hard to overstate.
Look for a trainer who uses positive reinforcement methods. Ask questions before you commit. A good trainer will welcome them.
The Bottom Line on Trainability
Boston Terriers are not hard to train in the way that, say, a highly independent livestock guardian might be. They’re not working against you. They’re just… working with themselves first.
The breed’s intelligence is real, and so is the stubbornness. Both are features, not bugs, if you know how to work with them.
Patience, consistency, high-value treats, and a genuine sense of humor will get you surprisingly far. These dogs want to be with you. They want to make you happy. They just also want it to be on their terms.
Respect that, and training becomes a lot more fun for everyone involved.