Trick training is one of the most fun things dog and owner to do together once the dog understands basic obedience and will yield from pressure. My dog Charley knows twenty or so tricks and he LOVES them! Before I got Charley, I had no idea about how to teach tricks. There are lots of trick training books out there, but none of them told me the most important part: how to START. I've found three basic types of trick training: cueing, isolating and leading.
Cueing is used when your dog does something often and you want to put a name to the trick. Charley, for example, loved to roll on his back. I wanted to add a command "bang" to it to make him play dead. This is a perfect time to use cueing. Cueing is the easiest type of training in my opinion. All you need to do is get a clicker and some cookies and go sit on your couch! Then every time your dog does the behaviour, you click and give him a treat. Pretty soon, when he sees you with the clicker and cookies, he'll do the trick. That's when you can add a name to it. And, presto, you've got a trick-doing dog!
The next type of training is called Isolating. This is when your dog does a behaviour naturallly but not often enough to cue. For example, Charley (and most dogs) will occasionally "bow" as a stretch, to lay down or to play. When you isolate, you need to know what causes the behaviour (cause and effect) and then you need to find a way to create that behaviour. For me, I asked Charley to lay down backwards - that is, instead of sitting to lay down, I had him bow. I could also have gotten him in a play mode. Timing is key when Isolating - this is where a clicker is vital - because dogs can change their behaviour very quickly and you need to let them know exactly when they've done right. This can be one of the most frustrating types of training, but if you stick it out, it is well worth it!
The final type of trick training is called leading. You would use leading if your dog does not do the behaviour naturally at all. While cueing and isolating create the trick in full, leading breaks the trick into very small, easy steps. To lead a trick, you must combine behaviours. For example, when I taught Charley to do the "army crawl", I combined "lay down" and "come". He had to "come" while still "lying down". This type of training is done in baby steps; first he must move an inch, then a foot, then a yard. Today, he can crawl up to twenty feet across a room. Leading is also done more up-close, which means that the clicker is not usually as important as the treats.
It still takes some practice, but knowing how to teach the trick is the most important part of trick training. Remember that all dogs are individuals and that what is "normal" for one dog is "unnatural" for another. And the most important part of trick training is to HAVE FUN!
Enjoying dogs,
Sarah
Cueing is used when your dog does something often and you want to put a name to the trick. Charley, for example, loved to roll on his back. I wanted to add a command "bang" to it to make him play dead. This is a perfect time to use cueing. Cueing is the easiest type of training in my opinion. All you need to do is get a clicker and some cookies and go sit on your couch! Then every time your dog does the behaviour, you click and give him a treat. Pretty soon, when he sees you with the clicker and cookies, he'll do the trick. That's when you can add a name to it. And, presto, you've got a trick-doing dog!
The next type of training is called Isolating. This is when your dog does a behaviour naturallly but not often enough to cue. For example, Charley (and most dogs) will occasionally "bow" as a stretch, to lay down or to play. When you isolate, you need to know what causes the behaviour (cause and effect) and then you need to find a way to create that behaviour. For me, I asked Charley to lay down backwards - that is, instead of sitting to lay down, I had him bow. I could also have gotten him in a play mode. Timing is key when Isolating - this is where a clicker is vital - because dogs can change their behaviour very quickly and you need to let them know exactly when they've done right. This can be one of the most frustrating types of training, but if you stick it out, it is well worth it!
The final type of trick training is called leading. You would use leading if your dog does not do the behaviour naturally at all. While cueing and isolating create the trick in full, leading breaks the trick into very small, easy steps. To lead a trick, you must combine behaviours. For example, when I taught Charley to do the "army crawl", I combined "lay down" and "come". He had to "come" while still "lying down". This type of training is done in baby steps; first he must move an inch, then a foot, then a yard. Today, he can crawl up to twenty feet across a room. Leading is also done more up-close, which means that the clicker is not usually as important as the treats.
It still takes some practice, but knowing how to teach the trick is the most important part of trick training. Remember that all dogs are individuals and that what is "normal" for one dog is "unnatural" for another. And the most important part of trick training is to HAVE FUN!
Enjoying dogs,
Sarah
Sarah heads up the training aspect of The Good Dog Spot. Her knowledge and expertise of dogs and their behaviours are a valuable asset to both training classes and daycare evaluations.
