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I think dogs have a harder time learning "tricks" versus "commands" because WE think it will be harder, and we get frustrated, and dogs feed off our emotion so they, in turn, become frustrated as well.
We just have to remember, commands ARE tricks. Tricks ARE commands! They're all one in the same to the dog. Its just adding a vocal or physical command to an action. Some are more complex but after visiting a local kennel to get Jamie in agility I learned a lot about clicker training and might actually look more into it. :o
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My experience has been that it depends more on the dog than if it's a trick or command. some learn more quickly than others, and some want to learn while others are pretty happy just doing the minimum!
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Commands are pretty basic, so I've not had any issue teaching those to Oz or Gull. Tricks however can become quite complex. If the trick is something simple, like spin or shake, then both Oz and Gull have learned it as quickly commands.
A trick that is complex like Weave Poles, can be a different story, depending on the intelligence of the dog, I think. With Oz, he figured out the concept of Weave Poles pretty quick, to the amazement of all the agility instructors.
Poor Gull though, I'm still working with him. I decided he really needed some mental challenge and hauled out my weave poles to start teaching him. The concept is just not quite clicking with him yet. He's more like the other dogs I encountered in Oz's agility classes, so I know he'll get it, it's just gonna take more focus and dedication on our part. So again it just really depends on the complexity of the trick.
Par...
