I have discovered that my labrador would kill himself trying to figure out how to solve differential equations if he knew he could get a bite of ginger bread for it :-).

That said, having raised a puppy that was destined for guide dog training, the trick is early on getting the dog to understand that you are asking it to do stuff. That is a big part of puppy training, and once trained, the dog will look for you to ask it to do new things, and knows that if it figures them out quickly you will reward it. It has been one of the more amazing experiences in my life.