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One of our goals this year is to focus more on training. Sheila is so smart and is her best self when she’s mentally stimulated. So we’ve decided to learn all of the tricks in this book, 101 Dog Tricks by Kyra Sundance.

We’re basically going to go through the book one at a time until we’ve learned them all! Periodically we’ll go back and practice older tricks to make sure Sheila really has them down.

Why learn 101 dog tricks

Dogs, just like people need mental stimulation! At this point, it’s pretty well known that active breeds, like border collies, need mental exercises well as physical. But the truth is, all dogs need mental enrichment!

Sheila is a mix of multiple working breeds. She is high energy and high anxiety. I made the mistake when she was a puppy of thinking she just needed more exercise. All that gave me was a high anxiety dog with VERY high endurance. That’s when I learned about the importance of exercising her brain.

There is a noticeable difference in her behavior when she has had proper mental stimulation vs when she’s had a boring day. Sheila’s daycare recently became enrichment based which I LOVE! They play games and do scent work and all sorts of other fun activities.

She’s always been happy to go there and loves the employees but now she literally drags me inside! Before Christmas, she dragged me in and ditched me immediately to go play with her human friends. She didn’t even say goodbye! That showed me that I should step up my game.

Different types of enrichment

It’s important to remember that dogs get bored too. Up until recently, a lot of our enrichment was puzzles and treat dispensing toys. We do occasional training like free shaping and scent work but it’s not consistent. I had gotten into a routine of activities and I was not challenging her enough.

I’ll continue to give her puzzles but I’m making a conscious effort to mix in more variety. Learning 101 dog tricks is part of that but I also want to put more focus on scent work since she loves it. But that’s for another time.

My training setup

I don’t really like training labels but if I have to call out training style something it would fall under positive reinforcement/force-free. These are the tools I use.