tricks vs. commands

[Tollers-n-Dobes]

Tango learns both tricks & commands equally. She prefers to learn new tricks as they're more fun (she loves to show off and be the centre of attention when company comes...lol) but overall she loves to learn new things and quickly learns new tricks and commands at the same speed. Winston likes to learn new things but it takes him a lot longer than Tango. I'd say he learns commands easier than new tricks. The others don't enjoy learning new things really, they get bored too easily. Keeva's got a horrible attention span so that makes it really difficult to learn new things (she only knows sit, down and come) and it takes a long time for her to learn something new. I don't think she enjoys learning either one more than the other. Comet had absolutely no training whatsoever when we got him (I think he was trained in another language...), so he's still working on the basics. I haven't tried to teach him any tricks yet.

[Alysser]

Sassy learns trick much easier! She NEVER listens to commands. But to tricks she listens to me alot more!

[cali]

Happy is just fine with both, Misty is a bit odd, she loves learning tricks, ut she totally seperates tricks and commands. for example she knows the command "back", if I command her to "back" she will back up, but if I dont give it to her as a command, and instead as a trick, she suddenly hasnt a clue what I am talking about

[Jessika]

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.

[cyber-sibes]

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!

[ParNone]

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...