In Defense of Trick Training
Trick training gets a bad name. What’s the point? Showing off on social media? So what? That’s nothing special, right? In reality, trick training is one of the most important things for just about any dog to practice. Why? Because it doesn’t matter!
“Quinn, you’ve finally snapped.”
Yeah, maybe. But hear me out: if a service dog can’t hit that task that they really need, that matters. If a dog can’t heel and ignore everything around them and focus on their handler, that matters. If I’m working with a dog with a neurological condition and he can’t learn to redirect before becoming overstimulated, that matters. If I’m working with a dog who’s fear-aggressive and she attacks someone, that matters.
What I do has real world repercussions for everyone involved. For me as the trainer, because I take my work very seriously and I am deeply passionate about it. For the owner or handler, because they’re counting on their dog to learn and grow. And, perhaps most importantly, for the dog, who is trying their best but is still able to fail, and for whom the demands of doing these things is a huge ask… and failure can come with a very great cost.
One of the most important things to me is that training must always stay fun. Whether the dog I’m working with loves the thrill of taking on massive challenges, or has the drive of a sea snail and would rather sleep through her sessions, it must always stay fun. Even when we’re using aversives, training itself cannot become aversive.
Wait! What’s the difference?? An aversive training tool, like a spray bottle or remote collar, establishes that a behavior is not acceptable by issuing a correction and making the targeted behavior un-fun. Scrappy jumps on a guest and is given a sharp “NO!” and sent to his kennel, Bella goes to lunge at a dog and gets a correction on her collar. These are aversives, and they have their place. But using only aversives as an entire training plan never rewards the dog for choosing the correct behavior, and can make the process of learning itself an aversive experience. That’s not good, and is where so much of the misinformation and fear about aversive training methods comes from! The correction should be aversive enough that the behavior that preceded it becomes recognizable as a wrong choice, but the activity of training can’t become aversive. If we must correct, we must also reward, so that choosing the right course is desirable, giving our dogs a goal to work towards and keeping training a process, not a punishment. This is where the term ‘balanced training’ comes from!
And this is where trick training comes in. This is where we flip the switch from “I really need you to pull this off” to “it doesn’t matter as long as we’re having fun trying.”
Trick training is the silly stuff; this is the “snoot loop” where you hold your hands in a loop shape and have your dog stick their muzzle in your hands. This is your dog standing between your legs and walking backwards with you, matching your speed. This is jumping through a hoop you made with your arms. This is roll over, this is dancing on her hind legs, high five, balancing a treat on his nose, learning to bark loud and bark quiet on different hand signals-
Easily my favorite part of my job is watching it all come together. That moment when dog and owner are working together as one unit and are perfectly in sync with each other. And I see a marked difference in how quickly that happens when the owner is enjoying themself. Both dog and human communicate better, and learn better, too. “While stressed out” is generally a bad state of mind to try to learn anything in. So have some fun, do something silly. It doesn’t need to be a “real” trick, make it up! Watch your dog and see if they do something silly you’d like to make into a cue. I once taught one of my boarding guests how to “wave hi”, because he really liked sitting up on his back legs and waving his paws in the air. So, we made it a cue, me and him, together. He was eventually surrendered to me to be rehomed when his owners decided they wanted a Golden Retriever instead (long story…), and it’s his new mom’s favorite thing; he has a strong protective streak, so to prevent him from becoming protective over her, she can ask him to “wave hi!” when he meets someone new. That person that might have been perceived as a potential threat is now a source of joy, attention, praise, and treats. So hey, maybe that “pointless” cue had a purpose after all, eh?
Reality is, sometimes training matters too much. It can be so intense that we lose focus on what matters: having a healthy, happy, well-rounded, confident dog. When everything else we’re teaching is so intense, that’s where owners start to break down. This is where so many owners lose their interest in training, because it stopped being fun and became too heavy. Of course rehabilitating a dog with a neurological condition, or managing a dog with genetic aggression, or training the dog who you rely on to keep your health in check… Yes, of course those things are intense and hard and scary, and of course they can become too much. That’s why there’s absolutely NO shame in throwing some fun tricks in there, literally just for fun! Keep training those important things, absolutely… But remember to break it up and have some laughs, too. You and your dog will both benefit, promise!