Yes, Sit and Down Are Tricks

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Yes, Sit and Down Are Tricks

Written by Lorrie Reynolds

Lorrie has been an agility enthusiast since 2002 and has taught tricks, family obedience, agility, and canine conditioning since 2005. When she's not writing articles, developing courses, or training dogs, you can find her curled up with a book in her hands and a dog warming her feet.

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EVERYTHING WE TRAIN IS A DOG TRICK

While I was creating the free eBook “Find Time to Train Your Dog”, I was in a group of business owners who were all doing a similar task. We were encouraging each other and providing feedback on what we were creating.

I was kind of surprised when one person said (paraphrasing) “I don’t want to teach tricks, I want to teach my dog the basics. He’s just a pet.”

I didn’t have any issue with the “just a pet” comment, but I didn’t realize that many pet owners see “tricks” and “basic behaviors” as two completely different things. To me, EVERYTHING is a trick! I don’t teach “the basics” any differently from the way I teach things people traditionally think of as “tricks”.

The huge project I’ve been working on meant that a lot of “the basics” needed to be re-recorded. My intention was to take advantage of the new recordings and build a stand-alone course for pet owners since there seems to be a huge need. I can see that my words need to change though!

Two dogs politely waiting on a path during training

IN DOG TRAINING LANGUAGE, TRICK MEANS ANY BEHAVIOR

New pet owners want (need) to teach their dogs basic family obedience behaviors – sit, down, stay, come, potty outside, walk nicely on a leash, and so on. Knowing these things makes a dog easier to live with, reduces boredom and bad or destructive behaviors, increases the dog’s safety, and decreases the likelihood of the pet being taken to the shelter.

Training the basics doesn’t have to be boring, difficult, or a chore! If we approach training life skills the same way we approach tricks, they can be fun to teach for both halves of the team, dogs will learn them more quickly, and the skills are more reliable.

DOG TRAINING ALWAYS FOLLOWS THE SAME PROCESS

Training anything always follows the same process:

Ask for, wait for, lure, or shape the behavior
Mark the correct behavior with a click or marker word like “yes”
Reward the dog

Of course there small differences in the strategies when we are trying to eliminate a behavior like jumping up or barking, but the initial teaching part of dog training is always the same, whether it’s sit, do a handstand, or go through a tunnel.

For any pet owners reading this, I hope it has cleared up the confusion over the word “tricks”, and for the sport dog owners, hopefully this is a reminder (like it was for me) that people who don’t live in the dog training world 24/7 don’t always understand our terminology.

If you want a copy of “Find Time to Train Your Dog” – click the button below!

Find Time to Train Your Dog

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