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Why teach tricks?
Why teach tricks?
Tricks are a really important tool because:
Learning tricks helps to build their confidence as you can reward your dog when they get it right
You can use tricks to train new behaviours you want to encourage (eg leave it, look at me, stay, wait)
Learning new tricks provides great mental stimulation for your dog
The learning process will help you build a bond with your dog or help other family members improve their relationship too. In my house, my teenage daughter is brilliant at teaching tricks.
Learning tricks helps to improve your dog's impulse control.
My top tips
My top tips
Keep the sessions short to ensure you keep their concentration on the task. Regular sessions of 5 mins is probably enough.
Have some yummy treats to reward progress. Keep the treats small so you can give lots of treats rather than one big one.
Build up with easy tricks (sit, down, stay) and gradually progress to harder ones as your dog gains in skill and concentration
Be patient, reward progress rather than expecting perfection.
Never scould your dog or you could ruin his confidence. Keep calm, take a step back if its not going well. Go back to doing something easy that your dog already knows.
There are loads of resources online for learning new tricks, including lots of websites devoted to learning tricks, also tons of YouTube videos.
Clicker training
Clicker training
Clicker training is often recommended by trainers and behaviourists to help dogs learn. The key benefit is that you can mark the actual moment your dog is doing the desired behaviour and then reward after.
Click = good = treat.
Clickers are cheap and readily available from pet shops but this handy 'click treat' app turns your phone into a clicker if you don't have one to hand. There are some useful training videos too. The photo is my daughter teaching our dogs to "wave" using the clicker training.
Novice Trick Dog Certificate
Novice Trick Dog Certificate
Kyra Sundance is the author of many books on how to teach your dog new tricks. She has many books available to buy, here is a link to some of them on Amazon. On her website Do more with your Dog, she has developed the trick dog titles series where you can find resources to earn yourself a certificate as either a Novice, Intermediate or Champion Trickster. To earn your certificate you will need to have your tricks recorded and verified by a Certified Trick Dog Instructor.
As the instructors on her page are American, here is a link to a facebook group called 2 Merry Tricksters NTD Sparks Team run by Lizzie Morris in the UK who has provided lots of free resources to help you learn some tricks. If you request to join the facebook group, you can then upload videos of your tricks to get your certification .
Here are some instructions below to learn some new tricks with your dog. All copyright to Lizzie Morris.
Happy tricking!
NTD TRICKS to learn.pdfNTDapp.pdfPage updated
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