Course Details
Did you know that you can now title your dog in Tricks?! Tricks aren’t just for fun anymore and this isn’t just another tricks class! Tricks have so many purposes including teaching your dog to enjoy training, sharpening your skills as a trainer and improving your working relationship with your dog. This class will help guide you through teaching all of the tricks needed to achieve your Trick Dog Novice, Trick Dog Intermediate and Trick Dog Advanced titles.
The tricks in this class are broken into six different categories. We’ll start by focusing on the novice-level tricks for each category and work on building those into the tricks needed for the intermediate and advanced levels.
There is an option for Gold students to earn AKC Trick Dog Titles at the end of this course (additional fee paid to the AKC required).
Your dog does not need any prior training knowledge for this class, but it is very helpful that your dog is food-motivated.
Teaching Approach
The teaching approach for this class is comprised of written lectures and short video demonstrations. Videos will have captions. Instructor feedback is focused on the positive while looking for one or two aspects of the exercise to improve at a time. Instructor prefers to use the unlimited time format for Gold spots (unlimited videos under 60 seconds), however Gold spots can choose to do a 6 minute cap with unlimited video length if it works better for their schedule.
Sara Brueske (she/her) has been training dogs for over 15 years, and has experienced a large variety of breeds and sports during that time. Having graduated as a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner ... (click here for full bio including Sara's upcoming courses)
Syllabus
- Perch tricks
- Get in (N)
- Get on (N)
- Sit in box (N)
- Go to kennel (N)
- Balance beam (N)
- Wobble board (I)
- Balance on exercise ball (I)
- Go to place (I)
- Sit/down at distance(A)
- Head target
- Nose touch (N)
- Smoosh (A)
- Touch lamp (I)
- Head down (I)
- Nose touch (N)
- Front paw target
- Paws up on target (N)
- Pivot (A)
- Push button (I)
- Close door (I)
- Shake (N)
- High five (N)
- Paws up on target (N)
- Thing in a thing tricks
- Fetch it (N)
- Retrieve flat item (A)
- Toys in box (A)
- Basketball (A)
- Fetch it (N)
- Handler tricks
- Leg weave moving (A)
- Leg weave figure 8 (I)
- Circle handler, write in (N)
- Paws up on arm (I)
- Prayers (A)
- Leg weave moving (A)
- Independent tricks
- Spin/twist (N,A)
- Sit pretty (I)
- Walk on hind legs (A)
- Play dead (A)
Prerequisites & Supplies
Dogs of any skill level or age are able to participate fully in this class.
Materials needed (most items do not need to be exact!)
Dog toys or similar objects
Basket
Small garbage can or toddler basketball hoop
Wobble board/teeter (or 2x2 piece of plywood with a towel under it)
2x8 stable board or similar for a “balance beam”
Box for your dog to sit in
Perch for your dog to jump onto
Exercise ball stable enough for your dog
Bowl for pivot work
Push button
Lamp or light switch
Sample Lecture
Week four is all about bringing one thing to put into another thing! We'll be teaching this as a concept using a neutral object and bowl and then generalizing it to the objects we want to use for our tricks. The tricks we'll learn this week include "Fetch", "Fetch a flat item", "Toys in a box" and "Basketball".
This is an advanced demo of what you can do with the Thing in a Thing behavior in addition to the tricks we'll learn in this class.
To begin teaching this trick, you will need two objects. A bowl or box of some sort that is made of plastic or some other hard material as well as a smaller, retrieve object made of a hard material as well. The objects should make an audible noise when they make contact.
Begin by teaching your dog to pick up and carry the retrieve object. You can do this by tossing the object out and marking any interaction with it. Then gradually change your criteria to mouth interaction and then picking up the object. Reward placement should be in front of you or slightly to your side. This will help encourage your dog to carry the object towards you when they pick it up. Build the carry by delaying your click longer and longer.
Once your dog is picking up and carrying the object towards you, you can introduce the second object seperately. Place the bowl down and mark for any nose interaction. If your dog paws at the bowl, use reset rewards to get distance and mark quickly, before they have a chance to paw at it. Reward multiple times, putting the treats in the bowl itself. Then move the bowl to different locations around you.
When your dog is easily targeting the bowl with their nose, go ahead and re-introduce the retrieve object. Remove the bowl and toss the retrieve object out, once your dog picks up the object, replace the bowl. Mark for picking up and carrying the retrieve object, reward in the bowl.
Delay your mark for longer and longer until your dog is dropping the retrieve object near the bowl. Jackpot for any object contact (should make a noise). Eventually, only mark for object contact and jackpot for when the retrieve object is dropped in the bowl.
Once your dog is reliably dropping the retrieve object in the bowl, begin to move the bowl to different locations around you. You may have to step back in criteria slightly at this point, marking and rewarding for carrying the object towards the bowl and jackpot for contact as before.
You can also use a nose press into the bowl to help teach this behavior. Bring by holding the bowl and asking for your "smoosh" behavior, continue at this step until your dog is offering the nose press easily into the bowl no matter where you put it. Then introduce the retrieve object. Begin again by holding the bowl up and shape your dog holding the object and doing the nose press into the bowl at the same time. I like to use the "availability" of the bowl as a way to help my dog learn to keep the object in their mouth. So if they drop the object, the bowl is no longer available (I move it behind my back), once they pick up the object again, then the bowl reappears.
Generalize to different retrieve objects and bowls, then find something fun like the stacking bowls or a toddler-sized basketball hoop to teach this with!
Testimonials & Reviews
A sampling of what prior students have said about this course ...
Tricks for Titles was my first gold class and I absolutely LOVED it! This class is jam-packed with tons of tricks and Sara teaches all of them with joy and precision. Her feedback was always clear and kept us moving towards our goals. The biggest testament for Tricks for Titles is that I went from zero trick titles on three dogs, to submitting for our Intermediate level on all of them - and we are so close to our Advanced!
Sara's grouping of tricks by equipment or technique structured the training process. Her clear written explanations and video demos further facilitated the learning. Best of all was Sara's concise and pertinent daily feedback. Bottomline - tons of fun!
This was a great class due to the shaping in the videos. The class helped me get a Novice Trick and an Intermediate Trick title on my just turned 6 month old puppy. I was working on tricks prior to the class and after seeing all the tricks provided in the class, I changed to some tricks that were showcased in the videos.
Sara is an awesome teacher! This was a very fun class!
Thank you for offering this class. My rescue dogs and I just discovered the virtual tricks titles last winter and are hooked! You're class has helped is get to Intermediate! I never thought tricks would be something I'd do with dogs but I'm hooked!!
Registration
Next session starts: February 1, 2025Registration starts: January 22, 2025Registration ends: February 15, 2025
Registration opens at 10:30am Pacific Time.
FF240 Subscriptions
Gold |
Silver |
Bronze |
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Tuition | $ 260.00 | $ 130.00 | $ 65.00 |
Enrollment Limits | 12 | 25 | Unlimited |
Access all course lectures and materials | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Access to discussion and homework forums | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Read all posted questions and answers | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Watch all posted videos | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Post general questions to Discussion forum | ✔ | ✔ | ✖ |
Submit written assignments | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ |
Post dog specific questions | ✔ | With video only | ✖ |
Post videos | ✔ | Up to 2 | ✖ |
Receive instructor feedback on |
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