Trick, Treat, Repeat.

I have worked with dogs for more than seven years now, and when I got my first dog I very much thought that I would be an obedience person in terms of dog training. After all, almost all of my favorite breeds are known for their obedience and trainability, and I do enjoy some snappy compliance from my dogs when I ask them to do something.

So it was, of course, very much a surprise to me when I got my own dog and started training him, and discovered that I enjoyed training tricks far more than I did obedience. It isn't even that my dog is bad at obedience (although sometimes he has a stubborn streak that makes me think maybe the obedience ring is not quite where he belongs), but for me I believe that the difference lies in how these different skills and abilities are taught.

Obedience can be fun-- in the beginning when it is still new and fresh and your dog is still learning. But those basic obedience skills you were so proud of teaching-- the sit, the stand, the stay-- they get old real quick, and become boring for both you and your dog through the rote repetition required to perfect them. Obviously there are more advanced parts of obedience training that take longer not just to learn but to get right, and if you train correctly with differences in speed and reward it can still be pretty exciting-- for your dog. But there is no escaping the fact that you and your dog are doing pretty much the same thing broken up into little mini-sessions throughout the day, every day. And at some point you run out of obedience skills to teach.

I'm not going to get too far into it here, because this is not an article about obedience and most of what I have to say about it is my own personal opinion from my own personal experiences. Do I like obedience? Yes, and I do believe it to be a fundamental part of any well-rounded dog's education. I believe it is essential for furthering your dog's prospects and that therefore a significant amount of time should be spent upon it. Do I like teaching obedience? Also yes, but generally only in the beginning, and pretty much just to the stage where the dog is appropriately proofed (i.e. can perform the given command in pretty much any place, at any time, and anywhere-- regardless of distractions and familiarity).

So why do I like trick training more? Well, to be fair, I have an attention deficit disorder, so unless something really grips me, I don't like having to spend more time on it than is absolutely necessary. I get bored quickly and need to be able to move on or switch tasks in order to keep myself engaged. A lot of dogs-- particularly young ones-- are the same way, and that is something that good trainers keep in mind during their training sessions. That being said, I am a trick training advocate for many reasons, the simplest of which is that it is fun, and the nitty gritty of which I will get into down below.

The Benefits of Trick Training

Teaching tricks requites creativity-- from both you and your dog. Not all dogs are the same, and like us, some of them learn in different ways. What this means from a training perspective is that, sometimes, in order to get the behavior that you want, you're going to have to think outside the box to find a method that communicates quite clearly to your dog what it is you want for him to do. If you've had dogs before or have any experience training them (and yes, your pet dog does get to be included in this), you've probably had the experience where you were taught to teach a behavior using one method, only to run up against a dog for whom that method doesn't work. If your response in that situation is to just give up and deem the dog unteachable, then trick training is not for you.

Instead, dedicating yourself to teaching dogs tricks-- from a basic roll over to a body rebound-- requires us as trainers to be more versatile. You can watch a YouTube video or read an article where a dog trainer tells you how to train something, and that might work for them, but if it doesn't work for the dog you're training then it doesn't work for you, and it's time to find a different way.

It can be challenging and frustrating, but honestly I love this part of training the most, because not only does it force your dog to think about what you're doing and why you're doing it and what is required of him (I love making dogs think) but it also requires you to think and to really know your dog. In order to be a successful trainer-- in all aspects of dog training-- you have to understand at the most basic level what it is that motivates your dog and gets him to work, whether it be food, toys, a pat on the head or any combination of the three. You can find that out through basic obedience training (unless you train using compulsion), but you will get a whole lot more creative with it in trick training. Also, if you don't have a lot of knowledge of dog behavior and how that factors into training, teaching tricks is a fast and fun way to learn.

Which brings me to what I really love about trick training: it is all about communication and the bond you share with your dog. Okay, yes, basically all training is about communication, but trick training is like the all-star level. You can 'teach' obedience through compulsion, the use of adversives, and positive punishment for non-compliance or mistakes; however you can't really teach most dog tricks unless you know how to communicate with your dog, and the two of you communicate well with each other.

I've seen people dismiss trick training before or not really bother with it because it isn't 'real' training and they see no practical purpose for it. Obviously I disagree. I believe trick training is essential to the development and strengthening of our bond with our dogs, and it is also cross-disciplinary. After all, why else would basic commands like 'sit' and 'stay' be on the requirement list for obtaining the Novice AKC Trick Dog title? Trick training can be a fun and mostly stress-free way to strengthen obedience commands, and a lot of the 'tricks' can have practical purposes that-- if your dog happens to be a working one-- can be turned into tasks for use during their work.

Most handlers of working dogs I know (particularly service dogs) utilize trick training in their daily communication with their dogs in some form or another. This is not only because of the improved communication formed through trick training or the utilization of some of the tricks as tasks, but also for a reason I mentioned earlier about teaching tricks forcing a dog to think.

Without training (and sometimes even with it) a lot of dogs are impulsive and just bully their way through to getting what they want, without taking the time to think about their actions or consider other ways in which they can achieve their goal. When we take away their immediate access to a reward, we can see them start to slow down and really consider how it is they are going to get it. This is when your dog stops using his body and starts using his mind, when he actively begins to work and figure things out. This is the essence and the goal of training. We as trainers are not only forcing our dogs to try something new, but through renewed access to the reward learn that new behavior as well.

It is very hard to compel a dog to perform most tricks-- particularly if he does not want to do them or has no basic understanding of what it is that you want from him. In order to gain access to his reward, he really has to rely on his own mind and his knowledge of what has worked for him in the past. You can typically see a point of frustration being reached when you are teaching something new and none of the old tricks are working. That is your cue to take a step back and make things easier for your dog to figure out. This is also the reason why tricks are taught in stages as opposed to all at once. A frustrated dog is not a thinking dog, and therefore not a learning dog. Instead, he is quick to lose interest, disengage, and not be willing to try again.

However, once you have built the habit of thinking into your dog and his approach to new and challenging situations, you will start to see him considering a few if not most of his impulses before acting on them. You'll start to see your dog evaluating whether something is worth doing, and if so, how to go about doing it. Let your dog take however long he needs to figure something out and resist the urge to help or guide him until it is truly needed-- the dog will learn better if he figures it out himself, and all helping does is create a lazy dog who doesn't want to do things for himself because you'll be there to do them for him.

Take Five!

I got a little further into the nitty gritty of dog training here than I had initially intended to, but that's okay because I intend to talk about it some more in this section.

I mentioned early on that dogs get bored easily-- particularly with repeating the same task or set o tasks over and over. This is why typically in dog training, there is a rule of thumb to only work the dog in fifteen minute sessions. There can (and should), of course, be multiple sessions throughout the day, but the training session should in its entirety only take fifteen minutes. And then, of course, that fifteen minutes should be further divided into three sections of five minutes.

Why, you may ask?

Well, quite obviously, to fit in with the average canine attention span. Most dogs-- particularly young ones who are new to any sort of training-- can't really be expected to focus on something for more than five minutes at a time. Spending any longer than that on any given task at any given time gets repetitive and boring, and unless the dog is used to it (and has had extensive work with it before) you're going to lose him and potentially set him back in learning that particular task. So it is recommended to break up your training sessions and work on at least three different things.

For myself, I like to do two obedience tasks and then a trick session, just to keep things fun and interesting. The trick session requires the same sort of focus and attention as the obedience ones, but unlike those there is no pressure, and the dog has more freedom of movement while performing. The expectations are generally lower, so both you and the dog can take a load off and just have fun with each other. I call this 'Taking Five' and the trick session really should feel more like play time than learning time-- not because it is play time, but because a lot of creative learning happens during play, and keeping things fun increases your value for your dog. No one wants to hang out with someone who just requires them to work all the time.

So, no matter what your training goals, I hope you do take the time to teach your dog some new tricks-- it can be unexpectedly rewarding!