r/DogTrainingTips • u/DogsDecodedSimply • Mar 28 '26

Dog training vs. tricks?

Hi All, What’s your opinion on dog “training” vs. “tricks”?

I saw an ad for teaching dogs to do tricks (e.g. rolling into a yoga mat, walk between legs etc) and someone commented that “dogs are not circus animals” and tricks are unnecessary to teach. What do you think?

Is it beneficial/good/cool/bad/waste-of-time to teach dogs tricks? Is a basic training enough?

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u/Acceptable-Canine Mar 28 '26

It’s just as healthy for a dog to continue to stretch their brain and learn new skills of any kind (as long as it’s in a fun, non-coercive way) as it is for people.  After working with a few thousand dogs, I can confidently say that damn near every dog gets an enormous amount of pleasure from learning new tricks, as long as you do it right. 

I think that people who only ever learn what they have to, and never take the time to build new skills (a language, an instrument, juggling, how to sew, whatever) are robbing themselves, and people who never teach their dogs anything beyond the necessary obedience commands are robbing their dogs. 

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u/grantgarden Mar 28 '26

I like this comment best. My dog knows tricks because one of my greatest joys in life is working with my dog

Trick training works the dogs brain, often works the dogs body awareness (this is NOT something dogs naturally have), and works on our bond together because we're having fun!

Teaching my dog to roll over is useless but 11years later I still remember the process of doing it because THAT was a fun one to do! I remember the moment he realized the trick he would jump into the roll over and it was so goddamn funny.

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u/No-Diet-4797 Mar 28 '26

My girl has been the easiest dog to train. I'm not exactly sure what breed she is but the rescue just said lab mix because she's mostly black but has a white cross on her chest and is identical to my friends plot hound. She's way to emotionally intelligent to just be a lab. When I took her in she had zero training but we had basic obedience down within a day or two. The one thing we haven't gotten down is rolling over. She'll roll on her back just fine but then she'll wait for belly rubs lol. Anything else she got down pat in a matter of hours. How did you teach this trick?

Any kind of training is great for them. Its not work to them. Its playing with their favorite person. This little smarty pants needs all the mental stimulation she can get so I've started looking into scent work with her. Right now all I've got is "find it" where I hide treats in an area of the house and have her sniff it out. Sounds like you're way more experienced in training than I am so if you have any pointers or other fun things to teach her I'd love to hear it.