Trick Training Sharpens Skills

 

Benefits of “trick training” with your dog.

BY MARIAN DEANGELO -  Check our her video on YouTube

 

It’s  fortunate  that  there  are  many  positive  training options for our dogs today! Increasingly, people are choosing to extend their dogs’ education past classes in good manners, and I strongly advocate following up those  basic  classes  with  a  tricks  class! Learning  even just a few basic tricks is fun for you, your dog, and your potential audience! And while the benefits to you and

your dog are many.

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DEVELOPMENT OF PATIENCE 

Have you ever felt frustrated or lost your patience with your dog? Raised your voice or used coercion, or other training methods that made your dog uncomfortable? Guess what: You’re human! But your dog knows when you’re not pleased, and that’s likely to negatively af fect his ability to learn, as well as potentially damage your relationship with him.

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Training a dog to do fun (or funny!) tricks helps many owners let go of their expectations and just “be in the moment” of training their dog to do something in small steps. Perhaps it’s because the goal behaviors are “ just tricks,” rather than behaviors that they feel their dogs must learn, lest they be judged as “bad owners”!

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YOUR DOG’S CONFIDENCE WILL INCREASE.

Recently, an elated student in my tricks class told me t hat since she started teaching her dog tricks, the dog was showing signs of conf idence, an interest in training,and an overall enthusiasm that my student had not seen before. She had no idea that this is ofen the case in tricks class!

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YOUR DOG WILL LEARN TO WORK WITH DISTRACTIONS.

Tricks classes present  a  dog  with  many  distractions, but if you consistently reward your dog for watching you and listening for your cues, soon your dog will pay much less attention  to  extraneous  stimuli  in  any setting when you ask him to focus. This ability to focus on you will come in handy when walking outdoors; it even increases your dog’s safety while walking with you near busy streets or crowded areas.

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BURN THAT  EXCESS  ENERGY.

Does your dog seem to have excess energy ? Trick training may be the answer. Many breeds, tend to have an extraordinary amount of energy, but I’ve found that trick training helps channel that energy into behavior that I enjoy more! My dogs Mario and Bella are very calm and well-behaved, and I credit their trick training with at least some of their good behavior.