h42el:

The tricks from week 1 of @keepitupwiseguy​’s trick dog spark team (whaat?)

Honestly at first I was thinking “pff this is gonna be some silly fun” and it is, but that’s not all. Trick training (even silly little party tricks) is relationship building central, and helps you figure out your timing, what treats your dog values, etc. Plus, sit/stay and target hand in particular are useful behaviours.

Basically, whenever someone tells me “oh I just teach my dog the basics, no silly tricks” I pity them and their dog. They are missing so much. It’s not about getting your dog to do “unnatural” tricks for your amusement. It’s about your pet enjoying interacting with you, and figuring out the game of how to get rewarded.

And it is like playing a game. Be it Mario Bros or Angry Birds or Call of Duty or Tomb Raider, a good game starts easy and raises the difficulty as you gain skill. It’s satisfying to figure it out. You wouldn’t enjoy a game that granted you a win no matter what you did! And I posit it’s not a humans-only thing. Play is universal. Animals enjoy figuring stuff out.

It’s sad to me that people moan about animals kept in zoos (who generally have keepers figuring out new enrichment for them constantly) but then they go straight home to their pets, who get all their food in the same bowl, in the same place, at the same time, for their entire lives.

So here’s to tricks, folks. Go train some “useless” tricks y’all. “Torture” your “poor” dog/cat/horse/bird/rat/etc with a game. If you adjust the criteria so that they can succeed, and keep the rate of reinforcement up, I promise you they will enjoy it.

(From KP’s Reaching The Animal Mind)