Dogs » Dog Training

Training Your Dog To Do Tricks

According to Kentucky.com, it is really good for your dog to learn new tricks.

“Probably the biggest reason dogs misbehave is they don’t get enough exercise or mental stimulation,” says Teresa Hanula of A Dog’s World Dog Training & Pet Care in Fairfax, Va., whose trick-savvy 3-year-old border collie, Leroy, has his own Web site, www.theamazingleroy.com. “A half-hour of training can tire them out more than hour at a dog park. And it helps them learn how to learn.”

Another advantage to trick training is that owners get less hung up on obedience, says Gerilyn Bielakiewicz, author of The Only Dog Tricks Book You’ll Ever Need. “It’s a lot more lighthearted, and people don’t expect their dog to do it, so they’re kinder and more generous with reinforcements — which is how we should be all the time.”

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The Everything Dog Training and Tricks Book Click!I admit that I don’t do this enough. But it makes a lot of sense to me. Dogs can get bored doing and seeing the same things all the time. Their brains need exercise as well as their bodies.

I think it would be fun to teach my dogs tricks, too. They could show off for my friends and get a lot of attention. And the training that I would be doing, to get the dogs to learn the tricks, would be a fun activity and a good way of bonding with them.
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4 Responses to “Training Your Dog To Do Tricks”

  1. Kirsten Says:
    March 4th, 2006 at 7:16 am

    I’ve lurked about during discussions, on the Yahoo Clicker Solutions forum, about whether tiring a dog out through hard exercise alone is a good idea. Some trainer/behaviorist types think that too much exercise can actually cause stress — it can raise levels of stress hormones in a dog’s system, with various undesirable consequences. Giving the dog “mental work,” otoh, is also tiring, but less stressful.

    Tricks definitely falls into that second category!

  2. KirstenMortensen.com » Blog Archive » Pet tricks: good and good for you Says:
    March 4th, 2006 at 8:03 am

    […] Pat, at Doggiewoggie.com, found an article on Kentucky.com (reprint from Newsday) about teaching your dog or cat to do tricks. […]

  3. Pat Says:
    March 4th, 2006 at 2:06 pm

    Kirsten, thanks for the comment. I never thought about the problems of too much exercise. I can see where that could be a problem. I have heard that too much exercise is not good for humans either (only if you go way overboard). I myself am too lazy to ever be in danger of this!

  4. Gigolo Kitty Says:
    March 7th, 2006 at 8:10 am

    But what about the saying “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks?”:)

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