Tricks, tricks, and more tricks!
/WHY DO WE TRAIN TRICKS?
Trick training is a great tool for lots of reasons, but here are a few:
More mental stimulation for your dog - this means their species-specific needs will be fulfilled and they'll be more likely to settle down easier at the end of your day.
Helping them grow confidence in new situations (in new places, asking for fun cues that they have a very reinforcing history with can help them to).
Growing their problem solving skills - teaching them how to make certain events happen (a reward) and navigate new body movements and actions can help them to generalize their problem solving skills.
Strengthens your relationship and connection with your dog - when you do more things together, you get to know their learning style, thresholds, body language, and personality traits!
Lastly, tricks are super fun to show off to friends and family, and having them ask for tricks is a great way for your dog to be introduced to new people.
Shaping is the learning process with which we train most basic cues and tricks. Shaping is usually achieved by teaching the dog an action using food luring, then incorporating hand signals & verbal cues, and phasing out the food lures.
Capturing is a form of training that involves rewarding your dog for something they are ALREADY offering us. For example, you can try to mark (capture) the moment when your dog barks, and put it on a verbal cue so we can ask them for "speak" over time, and they'll offer a bark as a behavior.
Or in different context, I could reinforce calm behavior my dog is already offering me by rewarding settled body language if she tends to get overexcited in certain situations (even if it’s not at the time you want it to be offered, the skill can be generalized over time).
**When training tricks, you may need to adjust your approach based on the skill you're trying to teach your dog. Troubleshooting is a big part of this, and you may need trainer help to cross any big roadblocks.
Trick training can help shy dogs gain confidence in new situations over time, which is a skill dogs can practice in our Wallflower class, a group class geared towards dogs who are a bit nervous around new dogs, new people, and new environments.
TRICK SUPERSTARS
Our clients are always working on new tricks to show off. Here are some of the amazing entries from our Instagram Tricks contest!
"TELL ME A SECRET" SHOWN BY LUCY AND FINLEY
"HANDSTAND" SHOWN BY SOUSA
"TARGETING A TOY" SHOWN BY FIDI
"SIT PRETTY" SHOWN BY ROSIE
"PLAY DEAD/BANG" SHOWN BY OLIVER
"DANCE" SHOWN BY OZZY
If you need help with shaping a new trick with your dog, contact your SSDT trainer and they can help you! We also have a virtual training option where we can help you come up with new tricks to teach your dog via zoom if you need extra assistance.
TRAINEE OF THE MONTH
SOUSA THE COTON DE TULEAR
Sousa is a Coton de Tulear and he an his mom have been participants in our wallflower class, building his confidence in more social situations. Training tricks with Sousa has helped him build confidence and overcome anxieties around other people and dogs. It also builds a strong two-way communication between him and his parents, and can even help build trust with strangers: when someone unfamiliar asks him to do one of his tricks, he is happy to know that they speak his language and both are left with a positive interaction. A favorite interaction trick with someone unfamiliar is “Wave”; people love getting waved at by Sousa and Sousa is happy to oblige!
