[ELI5] What dictates a domestic animal’s ability to follow commands or cues by their owner?

Question

[ELI5] What dictates a domestic animal’s ability to follow commands or cues by their owner?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Their intelligence, their training, their temperament and how closely the command matches their natural instincts.

Teaching a dog to fetch is easy because they are smart, they are pack animals, and they naturally want to chase things. Teaching a squirrel to fetch would be more difficult on all three counts.