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    • Ready, steady, GO!
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    • Tricks for balance, strength&coordination
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Tricks

I teach my dogs pretty much everything they need to know via tricks. Afterall, agility, obedience, tracking, disc dog... - it's all just another dog trick.

Tricks train them to think, to use their body and mind. Tricks teach them that there is no difference between working and playing and gives them the right attitude. Teaching tricks teaches them that they’re the smartest dogs in the world, that there are no mistakes and no failure, that trying things is good. Tricks give them confidence in their thinking abilities and moves, improve their strength, balance and coordination. Tricks build a bond between me and them and create a deeper understanding for them how I think and for me how they think. Tricks make them feel important, smart, confident, needed and bonded with me.

Tricks are very important for young dogs as they learn to use their body and mind that way. They're also great for cross training of competing dogs, it keeps all the muscle active and strong and prevents injuries. And it's especially great for old dogs, as tricks keep them mentally and physically active and that's what keeps them young and healthy.

AND they don't take much time, space or equipment, so you don't have any excuse not to teach some tricks to your dog!

Here is the right place to post your videos to give us some ideas, to ask questions on "how to" or ask for a suggestion if you get stuck somewhere on a way.

Here comes one of my favourite videos:

winter tricks

To learn more about tricks, please see my training DVDs on tricks.


216 Comments

  1. Diego April 8, 2010 at 18:26 Log in to Reply

    Zdravo Silvia,
    how are you?

    I saw on your YouTube channel the Summer Tricks Classes.
    If you’ll have a tricks classes this summer again I’d liker to come with my gfriend and our dogs. I have a Border Collie and she’s a Golden Retreiver.

    Please, let us know. Hvala.

    Adijo, Diego

  2. LoLaBu April 8, 2010 at 19:27 Log in to Reply

    Hi!
    Hm, I’m starting with Tricks Class this Monday, but this class will be once a week and in Slovenian (but then, I see you already speak some!:). I’m also planning a tricks class in English, starting end of June, I think that would be a better choice for you two! I was thinking something like 2 hours of tricks per lesson, every two or three weeks, what do you think?
    bye, silvia

  3. Toni-Marie April 9, 2010 at 01:10 Log in to Reply

    Why can’t you live in England, lol? We have places in the UK but there’s very little near where I live and nothing for tricks and freestyle type stuff. I have figured a lot of stuff on my own though and my two now know loads of different tricks. Here’s a small few that I have filmed so far. my first ever youtube vid.

  4. Laura April 9, 2010 at 11:42 Log in to Reply

    Silvia’s trick videos are always so much fun! And they are such a huge inspiration to me.

    In this summer video, you can see some of our tricks we have been doing. It’s more than six months old, so there are lots of new stuff I should record someday.

    http://vimeo.com/5496808

    Just a short clip of circling backwards, one of first trains we had for that specific trick:

    http://vimeo.com/6162663

    The newest video is this one:

    " rel="nofollow ugc">

    From Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/uffit), you can find some really old videos were Isla is just 14-15 weeks old and we are starting to learn tricks.

  5. Nina April 9, 2010 at 18:47 Log in to Reply

    Here are some of Ben’s tricks, nothing fancy, but I just think he looks so cute 🙂 Thank you Silvia for the ideas, you always come up with something funny or cute to teach a dog!! And this site is great, another of your awsome ideas!

    Dog tricks part 2 (Ben 1,5yr)

  6. Nina April 9, 2010 at 19:03 Log in to Reply

    And another video of Ben’s tricks (I call them monkey tricks:)) including some running contacts and weave poles

    DogTricks Part 1 (Ben 1yr)

    • LoLaBu April 9, 2010 at 21:32 Log in to Reply

      Wow, very cute indeed! I loved the piano playing! And his headstand is great! And the contacts are getting even better now! When do we you see you in competition?

      • Nina April 10, 2010 at 00:05 Log in to Reply

        Tnx :)! We would be lost without your running contacts method, stopping and staying is the same as death to Ben’s motivation.

        I was hoping to enter the first competition with him in Ajdovščina, but I’m not sure anymore, because he forgot all about see-saw during the loooooong snowy winter without training and now we need to start that all over (suddenly he’s afraid of the bang against the floor). We’ll see… We might be there cheerleading 🙂

  7. April April 9, 2010 at 19:29 Log in to Reply

    I agree, there are so few places in England for tricks and freestyle. I cant even get into an agility class near me, they all have waiting lists, so we just train with what we’ve got! I have also learnt a lot of stuff on my own, and having 4 dogs there always the ones teaching me new things =]. Your trick videos have always inspired me and given me new ideas, plus its been great watching Bi progress as my spaniel is not much older than her =].

    Heres some tricks from the Summer and from Autumn. =]

    Tricks and fun with Ernie, Indi and Lola

    Autumn fun and tricks -- Indi and Ernie

  8. Andrea April 11, 2010 at 04:09 Log in to Reply

    Hi Silvia,
    I just made this video for a presentation show so is not edited. I now I should look for music first and then do the sequence . I just can’t find the right music lol. I will also post our running contacts soon they look much better.

    Thanks

    httpv://www.youtube.com/user/smartmovesCR?feature=mhw5#p/a/u/0/-GLs_a2aURg

    • LoLaBu April 12, 2010 at 23:30 Log in to Reply

      For me, it’s also much easier to teach the tricks as to find the music!:)

  9. KesyBu April 11, 2010 at 21:27 Log in to Reply

    I wanted to do extraordinary video of dog tricks and I got an idea. There aren’t difficult or special tricks in it but Be performs her tricks to the lyrics of the song You’ll always find your way back home 🙂
    I hope you enjoy it!

    Be, tricks video to the lyrics

  10. Parmach April 15, 2010 at 20:58 Log in to Reply

    Hi! :o)
    I’m fairly new here, and thought I should post here first, as we don’t do neither running contacts, nor cik-cak, as I1m pretty new in agility, and learned about all these after I have thought my dog Pami 2on2off, and she does it sooo well, that I just don’t feel like retraining (she has never missed a contact on competition EVER. :)).
    But, we do lots and lots of trick training, as she is a rescue dog, and the best way that I found to open her to the world was to teach her tons of tricks (and i actually got sooo addicted to trick-training that I can’t stop…. :D)

    I actually don’t have a good trick video, but I can show videos of our dog-dancing competitions (she became a really successful dancing dog actually :o)) to show you what we have, I hope you’ll all like it.
    These are of course not all of our tricks, but most of the trick I have thought are not capable with dog-dancing routines… :DD

    This is our latest competition in Austria (ended up on fourth place :))

    Aand an old christmas video. 🙂

    I hope you like them! 🙂

    • LoLaBu April 15, 2010 at 21:21 Log in to Reply

      Hi! Would love to see your video, can you try again? If it doesn’t work, you can also send links to me and I can try.

    • Toni-Marie April 16, 2010 at 20:54 Log in to Reply

      Don’t use the embed codes, they don’t work in here at least, I tried it….several times:D. Just use the url of the whole youtube page that the video is on. That works!!


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articles beyond foundations bi bu busting the myths camps EO foundations hiking la le my philosophy my videos photos puppies! puppy class running contacts students' videos ta To trials tricks world championships xtreme xtreme foundations
sialaSilvia Trkman is known for bringing every dog, from her first dog on, to the very top of the sport. Her dogs are known for great speed, tight turns, running contacts and long and injury-free careers. Silvia is in agility since 1992 and is
– 3x World Champion (with two different dogs)
– 5x European Open winner, with 4 different dogs (Lo, La, Bu, Le)!!!
– National Championships podium and World Team member with every dog she’s ever had
– National Champion for 22-times (with 5 different dogs of 3 different breeds)

– World Team member for 19-times (mostly with at least two dogs at the time – sometimes four 🙂 )

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