How Enrichment Through Trick Training Calms Anxiety and Builds Trust

Think trick training is only for flashy Instagram dogs or obedience experts? What if it’s actually the best-kept secret for anxious, fearful, or reactive pups?
In this uplifting and insightful episode of Straight Up Dog Talk, Em and trick training expert Krista from HeelerPoint unpack the surprising emotional and behavioral benefits of trick training. From boosting confidence to creating calm, tricks can offer powerful enrichment for dogs who struggle with fear, stress, or uncertainty.

You'll Learn:

• Learn how even basic tricks can reduce anxiety and build resilience

• Discover simple exercises that work for reactive or sensitive dogs

• Explore how trick training creates trust, safety, and joy—without pressure

Press play to explore how trick training can transform anxiety into confidence—and give your dog safe, joyful ways to succeed.

Guest Info:

Follow Krista: @heelerpoint

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Straight Up Dog Talk Extras:

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This podcast explores real-life dog behavior and training, diving into reactivity, barking, dog anxiety, aggression, picky eating, gut health, and dog food—while unpacking enrichment, mental stimulation, supplements, calming aids, and holistic pet wellness. Whether you’re raising a rescue dog, supporting a senior dog, managing a velcro dog, or just navigating life with a dog who’s asking for more, you’ll find practical tools to build trust, strengthen communication, and create a safe, thriving life together.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Today's episode is proudly sponsored and brought to you by
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Pet Matrix supports all three pillars of canine Wellness using

(00:23):
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This stuff works, period. Welcome to Straight Up Dog Talk,
the podcast where pet parents, pet guardians, and pet
professionals come together to dive into real issues in dog

(00:44):
parenting. From controversial training
methods to sensitive health topics, we're getting raw and
real about what it means to carefor our canine companions.
Join us every Wednesday for unfiltered conversations, expert
insights, and personal stories that will make you laugh, cry,
and grow as a pet parent. No topic is off limits and no
question goes unanswered. You won't get one perspective

(01:05):
here. You'll get them all because
every dog is different and everyhuman is too.
You can follow along on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook
at straight Up Dog talk or by visiting
www.straightupdogtalk.com TuneInfrom any of your favorite
podcast platforms. Welcome to straight up dog talk.
I'm Em and we are back again with another amazing guest.

(01:25):
This week. We have Krista, who is the mom
of Hans Solo and Carly Rae. Some of you may be familiar with
Han as he is a dog that is very talented in many ways.
He can do so many tricks. I think the thing that really
caught me on to Han was either the skateboarding or the
basketball. I'm not quite sure, but we'll

(01:47):
let Krista tell you guys a little bit about that.
So welcome to the show, and why don't you tell everybody a
little bit about yourself and the dogs?
Yeah, sure. Thank you.
I'm Krista. I'm the mom of the dogs from
Healer Point, Han Solo, and Carly Rae and I've always been
obsessed with animals since I was a little kid.
Obsessed with dogs into horseback riding and clearly

(02:07):
still into both things. But the dogs have certainly
become my full time hobby. Absolutely love it.
I just do it for fun and I have two high energy dogs so they
also need it. I know that's something that
we've talked about behind the scenes is reactivity.
I know this isn't something thatyou talk a lot about on your
platform, but I did want to bring it up because you do have
a high energy breed and then youhave another high energy breed.

(02:31):
And high energy and reactivity kind of go hand in hand a little
bit because a lot of people don't know that they need an
outlet for their dogs. And then of course, we end up
with reactivity. So you had mentioned to me that
Han is a little bit reactive, which surprised me because like
I said, you don't really show iton your Instagram account.
But let's let's talk a little bit about what kind of

(02:53):
reactivity you see from Han and what what you do to help him
with it. Yeah, sure.
I post about it a little bit, not a ton, just because I don't
want the page to be all about dog reactivity.
That's not the goal of my page. The goal of the page is posting
fun tricks and general lifestylethings with my dogs.
But yes, Han is a reactive dog. If someone asks me is he

(03:14):
reactive, I would still say he'sreactive because that was his
natural instinct, right? And natural inclination as a
young dog. But it's highly managed.
We've worked for years. We spent a solid first three
years of his life in professional group training
classes, getting help from them,getting help from his breeder,
and then through that, also building our network with folks
that you meet through class, your peers and other students

(03:37):
that might have more experience than you.
So we built this really nice network that was able to support
us through that journey and learning how to manage
reactivity, what you can do to help.
And Hans, in an absolutely fantastic spot now.
And as you mentioned, even though I don't post about it a
lot, I think if you saw us in person walking down the street,
you would never know that he wasa reactive dog or had issues

(04:00):
with that, which is great. So there's a light at the end of
the tunnel. There is a land at the end of
the tumble. But I do like that you mentioned
the time investment because it really is a time investment fits
A7. And we've been working on it his
whole life too, more specifically the last three or
four years now, because I didn'tknow what it was before.
I just thought that he just didn't like other dogs or that

(04:21):
he was shy when it came to people.
But he's just selective and that's fine.
But he does react. And for Fitz, it's more of the
I'm going to bark at you and allthe hair on my back is going to
stand up and that I'm going to retreat.
Reactivity looks different on every dog.
So how does it look on? Hot with hot, it started out
pretty young. He was probably around seven

(04:42):
months old, maybe even 6. Tough to remember that far back
now that he's 8 1/2, but he would would be on leash and if
another dog was coming by he would just all out lunge,
barking, hair up, growling sounds pretty intense.
So it would come out in that way.
And then it would also happen atthe vet.
We definitely struggles with. I just want to walk around my

(05:04):
neighborhood and have my dog be chill and be able to do loose
leash walking. And then we had to work through
going to the vet and being able to have vet visit without
sedation. Yeah, it's something that we
struggle with too, was vet visits, and finally we got a
really good solid muzzle routinein and that just makes things so
much easier for us because he's comfortable in the muzzle and he

(05:26):
know to put his chin in my lap and just kind of hang out while
they do their thing. We still have trouble with ears,
but I think they can have one thing that they still get pretty
upset about, right? They can't be perfect.
When you think about it from their perspective, it's a lot to
ask us as humans. Going to the doctor can be
really scary, or the dentist, any of those things, even though
you know what's going on, you know they're trying to help you.

(05:47):
So from the dog's point of view,they're going into the situation
and they don't understand. They don't know why this
person's poking and prodding at them or trying to get them to
lay down on their side. So it's a pretty scary
situation. But yeah, exactly what you said,
if you work on building in the muzzle as a positive thing, not
a big deal. I definitely am of the opinion
that every dog should be muzzle trained whether or not they have

(06:07):
any issues. Because God forbid, right, You
have some crazy incident happen where the dog does start getting
nervous about something. You have that to fall back on.
They already know the muscle, they're already secure with it
and it will help you to work through whatever issues you're
having. Our vet honestly fantastic too.
So I always try to tell people, build that support network the
best that you can because even our vet, we have a great

(06:29):
relationship with them. As soon as Han was showing signs
of reactivity as a puppy at the vet, they gave us advice and we
were open minded to it. Rather than getting defensive,
let's be open minded, take this advice and do our best to work
on it. When he had his worst reactive
episode of the vet, he was probably around 6-7 months old
at this point. He'd never been sedated at the
vet. They gave us tips about the

(06:50):
muzzle and then we went back to our professional group trainer
class, explained everything thathad happened, got advice from
them and talked to his breeder about it, got advice from her
and we combined all these different concepts and made our
own little training plan and we knew we're like, we have one
year so if at his next vet visitif he's not doing better, he
will have to get sedated for blood work.
We kept to it. We did our homework, we

(07:12):
consistently practice and the next year it was night and day.
And he's never had to actually be sedated for that.
That's. Incredible.
I love that the community is so important and having a good
relationship with your vet is soimportant.
And I also agree with you that every dog should be muzzle
trained. Being a vet tech, I can't tell
you how many times we would struggle with a dog and then
have to sedate it because we couldn't even get a muzzle on it

(07:33):
to get it to cooperate for X-rays or whatever.
Because emergencies happen. Dogs get hit by cars, they fall
off of things and break their legs, they get their face stuck
in a fence and have to have sutures, all kinds of things.
And in order to even take care of the smaller issues from nail
trims to urgent situations wherewe have to take X-rays or
potentially intubate them for surgery, it's a lot of stress

(07:55):
and it's very, very scary. And to have a dog that is
terrified of the muzzle, is terrified of a kennel, and is
terrified of being at the vet, now you're just stacking things
up and making it worse. So I think that anything that
you can do to make a vet visit easier is fantastic.
And learning to implement those things in your day-to-day
routine really solidifies those behaviors and those practices

(08:20):
which you have clearly transferred over into Hans
tricks because he can do really simple tricks and he can do
really, really extreme level tricks.
And that's really why you're here today is because I'd really
like to talk about why you got started, how you got started
with his first trick, and maybe some tips and tricks for people

(08:42):
who want to get started. Yeah, sure.
So getting started as far as just being interested in tricks
is just me being crazy animal lady, which I think a lot of
folks in the Instagram dog community totally get.
As a kid, I had a little American Eskimo mix, and over
the total span of time, I only taught her 10 tricks.
But that was in the context of no YouTube existed, no social

(09:02):
media, and no professional dog classes.
So I was just a kid in the backyard trying so hard to
figure out how can I talk to my dog.
That was my dream. I want to be able to talk to my
dog and communicate with them, and that's the root of all my
trip training is I'd love to just be able to communicate with
animals. And so with her, I kind of
figured it out in my backyard. And I think that was really
great because it gave me this foundation of Haitians.

(09:24):
I couldn't go look up a quick tutorial on TikTok or Instagram
to see how do I teach my dog to roll over.
I had to figure it out myself. And in doing that, I learned
that you have to break everything down into the
smallest steps possible. So lifting the paw to shake,
you'd think that's one step, butin my mind I'd instantly
probably break it down into at least 4, potentially more than
that depending on the dog. And with Han, he's high energy

(09:47):
breed, high drive cattle dogs are known for being very smart
and liking complex challenges. So I've already had that base of
being interested in trick training and there's basically
no limit with him is what I've discovered, which is amazing.
His first stuff was super simple.
It was just like, give me your left paw, your right paw, spin
left, roll over. And then we started getting all

(10:08):
these other ideas, just things that either I would think of
sometimes my husband, ideas fromhis breeder or just the Internet
because now we have that so I can go, oh, there's all these
cool things that we could teach him like opening the fridge or
flushing the toilet. And then I ended up setting this
goal of I'm going to teach my dog 100 tricks.
So that was a big thing on my Instagram for a while was that

(10:28):
was listed right under our name.Our goal is 100 tricks.
We're at 50 out of 100 right now.
And I've updated every time I taught him a new trick.
Once we got to 100, I have stopped keeping count.
But skateboarding was the 100th,which is really cool and that's
probably the one I'm the most proud of by far.
I think it's the most complex because not only is he riding
the skateboard and staying on it, but he will actually push

(10:48):
with one leg and actively pushedto keep the board moving and he.
Looks so cool. He just has that.
I don't know. He's like this chill dude, just
I'm skateboarding. Look at me, look how cool I am.
He just has that vibe to it. I love it.
So that was the hardest one I was going to ask you is if you
knew how many tricks because he knows so many.
I wondered if you had any idea. I would have probably stopped

(11:10):
counting at 100 and. Two, yeah.
So we're roughly, I would say right now we're probably at
about 1:05 or 1:06 roughly in that area.
What do you think was the easiest trick besides sit paws
up high? 5 things that most people teach
their dogs. What do you think was the
simplest, harder trick? That's, I guess, trying to think

(11:32):
of one that most people wouldn'tteach because like you said, sit
down, roll over. Those are kind of the classic
ones that everyone's going to teach, probably backing up, even
though it seems really basic. I think that's something that
probably most people don't teachyour dog because why?
It's not a basic obedience thingthat you're probably thinking to
train, but it's a fun one. It's a great challenge for them.
It's great for hind end awareness and building that

(11:53):
awareness of, hey, I have back legs.
So if you are a person that's interested in dog sports or just
a little bit of an extra challenge for your dog to think
about, that's a really nice one that it's a little more
challenging. It's involving the hind end.
So they got to think a little bit, but it's not physically
taxing. So a lot of dogs can do it, most
probably can. And it's pretty straightforward
to teach. I have two different tutorials
for that one on my Instagram andit's very simple.

(12:15):
It's a four step process and just repeat, beating the four
steps over and over again until they get it.
You're right, it is really difficult.
That is one that I asked you forhelp on, and we're still
struggling with it because Fitz has zero.
I intend awareness. And even though we've broken it
down into all these little steps, I don't think we've
gotten past Step 2. Because every time I do the

(12:37):
thing where I take the treat andI drop it to his chest, he spins
around instead of his head down or taking a step back.
And I'm like, no, no, it's a very hard one for him.
The good thing is, is that he learned how to spin the other
way, which is pretty cool. So we can check that off as an
accomplishment. Yeah.
Struggling with backup. So yeah, I think that is a

(12:59):
harder one to teach, especially when you have a dog that's just
kind of all over the place. And it started for me because
Toby's a lot smaller than Fitz and Fitz does not pay attention
to where he is, and I don't wanthim to step on Toby.
So I wanted to be able to redirect his back end.
And we're still working on it. It is a hard one.
What do you think was the easiest one to teach?

(13:20):
Easiest 1 and I'm assuming cutting out those basic ones,
yeah. No basic ones, the easiest.
One probably his whisper and I feel bad because that's by far
the most one that people ask me for a tutorial on and I truly
can't give them one. Because my husband taught him
that and the way he taught him was that Han made that sound one
time. He rewarded it for him

(13:40):
instantly, had treats nearby, and then my husband did it, made
that little like chuffing sound at him and he mimicked it back,
rewarded him again, did that a few times a row and boom, it was
done, locked down. He knew what it was.
That is one that I'm like, I truly don't know what to tell
people because I don't know how to get your dog to copy you like
Khan did. I don't know how to teach that.
Yeah, no, that's that's interesting.

(14:01):
We've never attempted whisper. I have rewarded for whisper like
behaviors just to try to get himto repeat them, but we certainly
have not come anywhere near accomplishing whisper as a
trick. The other one that I heavily
reinforce but haven't really gotten is the bow.
Just re heavily reinforce big stretch.

(14:22):
Instead of saying big stretch, just say yes and give that treat
and all of a sudden he's doing that more often.
But it's certainly not trick level.
How quickly does Han pick up on things?
Obviously pretty quickly becausewhat you just said with your
husband, but if you were to teach him a trick and really
know that it was locked in, how many days do you think he would
have to do it before you could say, Oh yeah, I guarantee I

(14:44):
could pull this out five days later and he would remember.
Of course, depends on the complexity, because if I was
teaching him to open the fridge and get me a can of soda and
bring it to me, that one's goingto be longer.
But if we were just going for something that I'd consider a
nice middle ground trick, not super easy, not crazy hard.
Most of the times I would say we'll give a little buffer,
we'll say 2 weeks and within that two weeks, every day I'm

(15:06):
doing a 15 minute session in themorning and a 15 minute session
at night and that's it. It's not like we're working on
it all day even though I'm saying it's happening over 2
weeks. It's 1/2 hour total each day and
that's it. That's all you're dedicating to
it. I would say that's probably a
good average to be like he 100% has it down solid.
I could ask it from a distance. I don't need to be right there
lowering him. I could be 20 feet away and give

(15:28):
him the cue and he's going to doit, is what I'd consider to be
locked down. Yeah, I agree with that.
What about when you're teaching him a trick and he struggles?
What what is your go to move? Do you go back a step?
Do you go forward a step? Or do you try to pivot what
you're doing to adjust? So if he's struggling with
something, I will say he has a very, very light tolerance.

(15:51):
I don't know the right way to describe it, but he can focus on
something that's challenging that he knows he's not quite
getting for very long periods oftime.
Where with Carly, my GSP, much shorter attention span, much
shorter time, where she's going to reach that ceiling of
frustration where she needs a break.
Han can work a solid 20 minutes on something, which is pretty
crazy, where he knows I still need to work this out.

(16:12):
I'm not quite getting it right. But when we get to that point,
normally my first thing is we just take a break.
I'd like, all right, we'll take a break.
We'll maybe do something else, play a little bit and
potentially be just done for thenight on that specific thing.
I might take full break from training.
And it was like, hey, let's go upstairs, we're all done
tonight. Or I work on stuff that he knows
already. And that way it's kind of like,

(16:33):
oh, I know all this stuff, buildyour confidence back up.
We're good, I'm having fun. And then I don't revert back to
whatever it was that we were struggling with.
I wait till the next day. And in cases where it's
something that we're really struggling with a lot, like it's
taking a long time to teach something, Kikaboo would be one
of the ones that for some reasonhe struggled for a long time
with. I took a four month break from

(16:53):
teaching it at all, came back toit, and then we started making
progress. And I actually hadn't even
really changed too much the steps I was using to teach it.
So sometimes I think he just needs that reset.
And I did the same thing with his burrito trip where he rolls
himself up in a blanket. Another one that I wasn't
expecting him to struggle with because he picked stuff up so
fast, but for some reason he just struggled with that one.
Another one I literally took five months break from, went to

(17:16):
teach it again. He got it within two sessions,
so. Interesting.
I think that it's so funny how it seems so simple to us grab
this blanket and roll over and to them just it goes completely
over their head. But I like that you either give
him a break or you move on to something else that makes him
feel good about doing the tricksagain.
That's highly reinforcing. And you want it to be fun.

(17:37):
The tricks are supposed to be fun, that's the whole point of
it. Also, I think what you were
describing was resilience. Fitz is the same way.
If he messes up something a couple of times, I know that I
can try again two or three timesbefore we either have to do a
different trick or we just have to take a break or something.
Because he does want to get it right.

(17:58):
He gets excited about it. I can see Han being that way
also, but I think that that's that hurting breed.
They just have that drive. It's a little bit different than
other dog breeds that have less care about those things and
German short hairs. I don't know what it is about.
German Shorthair is an attentionspan, but unless it is related

(18:19):
to hunting and tracking, their attention span is just not there
for most things. I find that they're just kind of
derpy in that way, and I love them for it.
Yes, yeah, and that's what it's like.
I have two high energy dogs and that's the only thing that you
have in common. They couldn't be more opposite
in their personalities and how you work with them and train
them. It's a great challenge though.

(18:39):
Han is his own unique experiencein training and Carly is the
total opposite end of the spectrum.
But it's it's great for me, right as an animal lover to
expand my own knowledge and skill set because of Carly.
She just turned 3 and she's got that a little bit of an adult
brain now starting to sink in, which is awesome.
And her attention span is getting better, but it's just a
totally different thing with her.

(18:59):
So on on my page, anyone that follows me will certainly see I
post way more trick stuff with Han versus Carly.
But I do trick work with Carly as well.
But it's also just balancing outwhat does each dog really like
and enjoy. Han loves those super complex.
Like I'm going to sit here for 20 minutes straight, work on
this thinking problem and I'm going to love it.
Carly likes doing the tricks butfor shorter spans of time.

(19:22):
So with her, I'll teach her something new.
We'll work on it for a couple minutes, then she gets a one
minute break and we're throwing the ball around or just kind of
messing around and being silly. Then we'll work on in another
couple minutes and Max for her, a session is probably about 10
minutes. And then she also just wants to
run around the yard and play, and she loves just running.
She'll run alongside my mountainbike.

(19:42):
We have an attachment, so she'lldo that.
Where Han has no interest in really running with the mountain
bike. He wants there to be a specific
purpose to what he's doing. He wants to understand why am I
doing this? Where Carly doesn't care why
she's running next to the bike, She just likes running, so that
satisfies her happiness for the day.
That's that's the most German shorthair thing I think I've

(20:04):
ever heard. The running, just the running.
They love it. Fitz, Fitz has his only friend
outside of Toby is a German short hair and it's my friend's
dog. And they were puppies together
and Scout would just run and Fitz would chase him.
But Fitz was not as long legged as Scout was.

(20:26):
So it just always looked so funny because Scout would be way
out there and defense would justbe like trying to keep up.
It was so funny, it was so cute.When you teach tricks, do you
teach a single trick at a time, or do you teach multiple tricks
at a time? Usually mostly one at a time
these days, and that's more justfor my own brain keeping track

(20:47):
of things. I have a full time job and all
these regular human things, so usually it's one at a time.
But when Han was younger and we weren't at this 100 because now
I'm also struggled to think of things as well that are
completely new to teach him. But the first few years we had
him, I would definitely work on three or four things at a time.
And we did work on one thing oneday, the next day maybe I'd work
on the other thing and kind of to be in parallel like that the.

(21:08):
Reason that I ask is because youput videos out where he's doing
several tricks in a row. So do you teach him to do that
tricks in that order, or do you just do that for the videos and
you just randomly pick the tricks so that you can film?
So the order is honestly, it's probably extremely similar in
the videos, but that's only because of my brain kind of goes

(21:29):
through them in a similar order.But he knows them to the point
where I could ask him in any anyorder at all and he'll he'll
just do it. I imagine if I look back at the
videos, there's a familiar pattern in those ones where it's
just him sitting on the yoga matand it's just like down, roll
over, look left, look right. I have that pattern in my brain.
So that's all me. But he could do it in any order.
My brain gets locked down on a pattern and that's.

(21:52):
No, I get that. I think that I probably do
tricks in the same order too, and I just don't think about it.
But we also aren't to the point where I'm ready to showcase a
lot of our tricks. We're still in that polishing
phase with a lot of our tricks. I would say that Fitz knows
maybe 10 or 15, somewhere in there, maybe about 12.
Best guess if I had to just say off the top of my head how many

(22:14):
he knows. So we're still in the very, very
early stages. What do you think is a trick
that every dog should know now and why?
That is a good question. Does it have to technically be a
trick, or could it be something that falls a little more into
the obedience realm? Like a skill.
It would be obedient skill kind of thing.

(22:34):
Yeah, I think it's always funny.We label certain things as
tricks, but any skill that you're teaching your dog,
whether it's obedience or something fun, it's all the same
thing, right? You're just teaching them
something new. But I guess something that I
feel very strongly about that everyone should teach their dog
is leave it in recall. I can't narrow it down to 1, but
leave it in recall I think are two just absolutely critical
things to teach any dog. And the leave it being if you're

(22:57):
walking past another dog, you say leave it.
They should bring their attention back to you, make eye
contact with you, or God forbid you drop some food in the
kitchen that is not good for your dog to have.
You say leave it and they stop and they look at you.
They don't eat the slice of pizza that just dropped on the
floor and they leave it alone. You pick it up and throw it
away. So it's just about safety.
And then recall again, that falls into the safety category,

(23:20):
which I know they're not fun tricks, but to me those are just
the two top things that to me are so important and should just
be the main thing. Obviously get all your tricks
and all that fun stuff is great to mix in when they're a young
dog and you're teaching that stuff so that way you build that
relationship. I think the trick training is so
great because it's fun, it's stress free.
You're not putting that pressureon yourself for the dog.
It's just something silly. My dog doesn't need to know how

(23:41):
to open and enclose a door, right?
That's not essential. So it's just fun to teach it.
You build the relationship and that gives you a break from the
recall and leave it stuff that you might be putting more
pressure on yourself trying to teach.
It's just a nice, yeah, mix those things up.
But I'd say those two are are the most important things in my
mind. I'd have to agree.
I definitely think that leave Itis something that we probably

(24:03):
use, I think every day in this house because Toby is always
trying to eat something that he shouldn't be eating.
And recall is great. Even if we're in the backyard,
which is fenced in and there's another dog that's walking by or
whatever, and I can call them away to just refocus on me and
continue playing instead of barking at the thing that's

(24:24):
going by truck, the person like the cat, whatever it is out
there wandering around. And like you said, safety, I
think safety first should alwaysbe a priority, no matter what
we're working on. If it's not safe for the dog,
then we shouldn't be doing it. And that's actually something
that you've talked about more recently on your page about Han
being older and you not wanting to do certain things like his

(24:46):
jumps and his lips and stuff anymore just because of his age
and his back and not putting that pressure on those joints.
And I mean, sure, yes, he can still do them here and there
occasionally, but I love that you take into account his health
and mobility above creating content.
You're not taxing him to create content for others.
You can go back into your archives, I'm sure, and use old

(25:08):
footage or pictures or whatever.Yeah, exactly.
And that's like Han flying through the air pictures.
Those are all from years ago. And that's what I recently did
post on some of them because yeah, that's all crossed my
mind. I was like, I probably should
tell people these are throwback photos.
And the reason, the main reason for that being that he's still
fully capable of doing that. If I asked him to do a backflip,
he'd do a backflip, but I'm not going to because he's 8 years

(25:29):
old. I just think that's a not a good
idea to do that. Even when he was three years
old. He he will literally do that on
cue. If you throw the Frisbee the
right way, he's going to do a backflip.
Even back then it was like once in a great while we'll do this,
snap some pictures. It's not every day.
Let's do this repetitively because it's taxing on their
body. There's no need for that.
I try to be very aware of his body.

(25:51):
He's my number one priority. His health and his happiness not
likes on a picture. No, I agree.
Again, health, safety and injury.
The last thing you want is to tax his body to the point where
now he can't even do any tricks at all because he's injured and
that's not fun for anybody at. All yeah, exactly.
I'd say I definitely am mindful of what I ask him to do as

(26:13):
tricks and being aware of his age and everything.
He's in great shape for being an8 year old dog, but I was just
the cattle dog personality of I've got to do everything at
200%. So we're just playing basic
fetch in the backyard and I try to be very careful about how I
throw the frisbee or the ball because he will still fly into
the air even though that's not what I'm trying to do if the

(26:34):
wind catches that frisbee the right way.
So I'm trying to be very careful, throw everything low.
High drive dogs are something else.
Fitz has really taught me he hasno limit.
There is no limit for him. He will go until he is silly and
he cannot even hardly stand up. And then he'll still keep trying
to go. And I'm like, dude, you need to

(26:56):
just lay down for a minute. Does Han have a hard time
winding down, or do you have a routine that helps him with
that? So not anymore.
He used to when he was younger. I'd say those first three years
we were working on a lot of stuff and him learning to just
relax and be chill in the house definitely took some time.
He was never the type that wouldn't go to sleep at night,

(27:18):
thankfully. So he was, he was pretty easy in
that regard. We were very good about keeping
a routine. So he knew, OK, at night I go
into my crate, I go to sleep andhe never was the type to whine
or cry over that, which was fantastic.
But in the evenings, like dinnertime, whatever, still up
and moving around doing things would be kind of a little bit
antsy at times. That's where the just making
sure we're truly meeting his exercise needs as high energy

(27:40):
hurting breed. So yeah, we were at work all day
and it's dark outside at 5:00 PMwhen you get home in the winter.
But I still need to go in the backyard with my dog and bundle
up in my coat. And we're going to play Frisbee
for 1/2 hour and then we'll takea break, probably eat dinner.
And then after that we're going in the basement.
We're doing our trick training. I'd say that's where the trick
training really became this driver to help with his overall

(28:04):
behavior because he needed the physical stimulation of running
around in the backyard. But just as important for him as
a cattle dog is that mental stimulation and tiring out his
brain and getting that thinking through complex things.
He truly needs that. Even though it's fun, I find it
fun. I love it.
He loves it. It's also honest.
Like if you have a breed like a cattle dog, I'd say it's a
requirement. You need to meet that mental

(28:26):
stimulation and we're able to dothat through their trick
training. So then we do that and then
they'd be like, OK, I'm good, I'm chilled for the night, go
lay on the couch. Still struggle to find the
balance for fits, but he just continually surprises me because
he just turned 7 and some days we'll get the right amount.
We go for a walk, we've played fetch 3 times.
He's got like 6 miles of steps in and then we do tricks and

(28:49):
he's had a bully stick and a lick mat and all the things and
then he lays down in the bed andhe does this like.
Not done. Like why are we not done yet?
And it is hard at 5:00 when it'sdark and I have a big backyard.

(29:09):
So throwing the ball at a certain point in this, not even
backyard. I don't want to hurt myself
either. I don't want to break my ankle
trying to navigate the backyard situation.
But I did buy a snowsuit this year because in the winters is
usually when he's the craziest because we were not satisfying
those needs. So this year I bought a snowsuit

(29:30):
and we've been going outside andhonestly I think it's better for
my mental health too because I'mgetting up and I'm still staying
active and we're still doing things.
It definitely keeps us more in arhythm.
But I agree, I think that that mental stimulation for those
high energy, especially hurting breed dogs where they have so

(29:50):
much drive and they have so muchoomph all of the time, give them
a 5 minute nap and all of a sudden we're here, we go, we're
ready to go again. Yeah.
So I think that having somethingto be able to break that up with
is really, really helpful. And it really has been kind of a
game changer for us too, becauseevery night I have learned that
at the end of the night when we go out for the last time, that's

(30:14):
when I'll have him run through his tricks and we'll do them by
the back door in the kitchen. And I'll say, OK, it's time for
bed. We're going to go hang out.
And then I will run him through all of his trip.
Then by the time he's does that,then I'll do like a little food
scatter on the floor for him. And then when he's done with
that, then he'll go and lay downin the bed.
And then, like I said, sometimesit's not good enough and he has

(30:35):
something to say about it. He still has to give you the
evil eye. He's got worse.
Does Han have words? Does he have a little attitude
thing that he does so? He every once in a while will it
reminds me more of a Husky. He'll, he'll do these yelping,
Yodelis whining sounds. But it's not a bark.

(30:59):
It's not a howl. It's somewhere in between and
he's trying to tell us something.
Usually it's he's yelling at us because it's time to eat and
you're 10 minutes late for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
I guess he probably honestly sounds most like a Chewbacca
sound to probably be like a higher Chewbacca sound.
Which is funny because his name is Han Solo.
That is hilarious and now I feellike you need to send me a

(31:20):
recording of this because I think I need to hear this.
I will. I will have to.
That's why it'll be very easy toget because if I just in like 5
minutes late on that meal time, he'll do it so.
It's so funny, I posted a threads post the other day and I
said tell me something that yourdog taught you and somebody
responded that dogs can actuallytell time.

(31:43):
I was like, yes. They can't.
They don't know what the hour orthe minute is, but Dang it, they
know the time of day but the position of the sun and light.
And you know how much time has passed.
Yes, they can sense all of thosethings as part of being an
animal in that natural world thing.
So I just thought that was really funny because it's so

(32:05):
true that they thrive on consistency.
Fitz really thrives on consistency.
So I just think that it's funny that Han is, excuse me, things
are not happening in the right order.
I want to talk a little bit about the basketball.
I think the one that just fascinates me the most.
I mean, not that the skateboarding isn't cool.
The skateboarding is really freaking cool.
But I've seen other dogs do skateboarding.

(32:28):
There's a bulldog that skateboards and I know I've seen
a couple other healers. Some corgis.
Corgis, yeah, I've, I've seen other dogs do skateboards, but
Han just looks cool skateboarding.
But it was the basketball one for me because he can seriously
bounce that balls so high off ofhis nose.

(32:48):
It was just shocking to me. How long do you think it took
you to teach him that? So that's another one that my
husband taught him initially andhe just figured out utilizing
the hurting drive. You throw that ball up in the
air and he wants to run and nip at it and hurt it.
Then it's just a matter of you as the person throwing it up at
the right angle to get that and that.

(33:09):
Yeah, like a day with the the basketball is interesting
because I know people love that one.
It's not one that's like consistent right, because it's
such a combination of things that have to happen correctly.
If you were to come stand in my driveway and throw the ball,
he'll sit there and shoot hoops with you over and over again.
Is it going to actually get in the basket every time?
No, you're probably going to geta one out of 15 goes in the
hoop. The other ones are all bouncing

(33:30):
in the area of the hoop, bouncing off the backboard and
stuff like that. Have to throw it at just the
right angle and then he has to jump up at just the right time
and hit that with his nose at just the right angle to get it
into the hoop. But he definitely understands
what the goal is and what we're doing.
It's just really hard. I imagine the amount of
precision that it would take forthat and timing.

(33:51):
I don't think that Fitz could ever do that.
But I think that it's just really cool that you've figured
it out, because I can't hardly shoot a basket by myself, let
alone try to teach my dog how todo it.
And then like you said, the right angle, the right timing,
because if he boops it in the wrong, even if you throw it at
the perfect angle, if he boops it from the wrong side or

(34:12):
whatever, then the ball is not going to go in the basket, It's
going to go a different direction.
And I will say another thing that's key with that one is the
right ball. So we do not use a basketball
because that's way too hard, even though he totally, if I
would let him, would basketball,but I'm like, no, that's going
to damage your face. Not a good idea.
So it's literally we use the cheapest little thin bouncy
balls that you get in a big bin at the dollar store that little

(34:34):
kids play with. So it's super, super lightweight
and very, very bouncy and then it's soft.
That was another key that I leftout with getting that trip to
for it to work. So don't use a real basketball
again. Consideration for your dog and
your dog's health and safety. Again, that's so, so, so
important. There are so many people out
there that don't understand or don't think about those things

(34:57):
and it's so important when you're doing things like that
with your dog. Even been learning to ride a
bike with your dog. That could be considered a trick
because not every dog, like you said, wants to run by the bike.
Like what's the point of this? Or but you could have had the
opposite thing happen where Hanslike it's a moving target.
I'm supposed to this and knock you off of your bike and now
you're in a bad situation. Potentially he is too.

(35:20):
So making sure you take safety precautions and everybody's
going to be OK. I really like that you're
considerate when it comes to your pets.
Well, beings that's I just I really like that.
I'm trying to think of some other ones.
Oh, the ring stacking, that one is fun too.
Did you, did you teach him how to stack the rings in order?

(35:40):
Because I've noticed sometimes he stacked them in the right
order and then other times you have that one that's, I'm
guessing it's some kind of baby toy that has different colored
ones and different patterns and stuff on it.
And they always go on in the right order.
So it looks kind of wonky. So did you teach him to do it in
a specific order or do they justkind of go on however he feels

(36:02):
like it? So I have two different.
Ones they're both baby toys. I have lots of toys in my house
that are for children's probablyone through 4 that are for my
dogs again, crazy dog mom. One of the ring stackers they
have to go on in a certain order.
It starts with the biggest ring at the base and then gets
smaller as they go up. And then the newer one that I've
been posting with more lately, all the rings are exactly the

(36:23):
same size so they can go on in any order which is really nice.
And the reason I bought the new one wasn't actually to do with
the ring size was because the older 1 I had where the rings go
from big to small. The base is wobbly.
It's purposely wobbly base whichis probably great for a little
kid but not great for a dog. So I always had to hold that
base for him. So I was like, I'm going to buy

(36:45):
one with a flat base because I know he can do this 100% without
me at all if the base wasn't wobbling back and forth on him.
So that was the main reason I bought that new one.
But usually I'll order them a little bit in front of him in
the in the order that I want himto put them onto the stacker.
At least with the one that went big to small now it doesn't
matter. So they're just kind of in lines
next to him so we can easily getthem, but it doesn't matter the

(37:08):
order. That's so fun.
That's another. Precision one too, because for
him to be able to put the ring around the little pole and let
it slide down, that's a lot of precision.
If somebody wanted to teach that, how would you instruct
them to start with that? The number one.
Thing I would teach because I'm actually teaching it to Carly
now and she has gotten a couple of rings on a couple times so

(37:30):
we're making some progress. But basically how I've started
it with her and it's really the same thing with Han too.
It's just now it's fresh in my mind is #1 startup, teaching
your dog to retrieve items, something they're more familiar
with and put it a distance away.With Han, I could just put it a
distance away. He'll go pick something up and
bring it to me. Carly I actually have to throw
it to kind of build that motivation, like, oh, I'm going

(37:51):
to go run and play and get it because that's fun.
So it's a slight variation there, but train that retrieval
of items where they're going to bring an item back to you and
bring it right back to your hand, not just drop it in the
vicinity of you. And as you start out doing that,
start out with a ball or frisbeeor a nila bone, something
they're familiar and comfortablewith picking up, and then slowly
migrate it to other things. You could go right to the rings

(38:13):
if you want to, but you could also teach them to go get my
backpack in the corner and bringit to me.
Obviously have it empty. But once you have that retrieval
down, then you switch it over tothe plastic rings and then keep
your hand right at the base. So your hand should be right
next to that base where you wantthem to drop the ring on.
And with Carly right now, she'llbring it and she'll kind of drop
it near my hand, but not necessarily on the base, but I

(38:34):
reward that. So that's step one.
You're getting it. My hands over here.
You know, I want it near my hand.
My hand is also near the base. And she's starting to make that
connection that every time she brings it over closer and closer
to the base, she's getting rewards.
And then on the rare occasion she actually gets it on to that
little pole and off fully onto the base, it's like jackpot of
treats, big deal. Oh my God, you're amazing.

(38:56):
Make a really big deal over it. And then it's just repeating
that process over and over againuntil she will make that
connection that it's like, oh, OK, instead of like the focus is
no longer me bringing it to yourhand.
The focus is I'm putting it on the base.
And then I'm using the new Q word as well.
So because we're at the point now where I started out and I
was just like, oh, bring it. That's what they both know is
bring an item to me. And I've practiced it with her

(39:17):
enough Now where we've transitioned to, I'll kind of go
throw the ring a little bit 5 feet away, sure want to go get
it. And then she knows to bring it
back to me. But then I'll say stack and
that's the new cue word. So that way eventually she won't
be confused. She'll still know.
Bring it is its own cue. And stack is the cue for
dropping the rings on to the stacker post.
It's really cool. How when we train our dogs

(39:40):
certain things, we can kind of incorporate things that they
already know to teach them new things.
And that I think, again, shows that kind of resilience in you
can tell what the the level of resilience is by how quickly
they pick it up and transfer it to the new thing.
But yeah, then you just slide that new Q word in there and it
turns into something else. I think that's really cool.

(40:00):
That's really cool. OK, so your best advice for
somebody who's never taught their dogs a trick, maybe they
accidentally have taught their dogs to shake, because I think
everybody tries to teach their dogs how to do high 5 or shake.
I know pretty much all of my dogs have been able to do that.
But your best advice for somebody who wants to get
started and doesn't? Really know what to do or how to

(40:21):
feel about it. I guess my best advice.
For someone that's trying to getinto the more mid level to
advanced trick training, get beyond rollover and paw shaking,
is patience and consistency. Those are the two most important
things by far with trick training.
Because if you're patient, you keep coming back to, you keep
trying, and then you have a consistency in the fact that,

(40:44):
OK, three times a week we're going to do 310 or 15 minute
sessions working on this. If you've got those, those two
ingredients, then you're, you'reprobably going to be making some
progress on a lot of stuff. There might be the occasional
trip where you need to rethink how you're teaching it.
Because maybe however you're thinking about it, your dog
isn't thinking about it that way.
You got to break it down a different way.
That's of course going to happenon occasion.

(41:04):
But for the most part, the patient's inconsistency are the
two most key things to have. And then just that mindset of
thinking about, OK, in my mind, I'm teaching my dog to sit
pretty because that's probably one that we think in our head.
Oh, that's super easy. But think about just lifting
their front legs up, in my mind is one step to teach, sit
pretty. That's probably going to be an 8

(41:25):
to 10 step process to do that. And just have that patience,
consistency and break things down as small as possible.
And you're going to reward all those small steps.
And once you eventually you complete that, you'll have the
full trick at the end. Yeah, repetition really is a.
Thing with dogs, the more often you do it with them and they
complete the task, the better itseems to sink in.

(41:47):
And like you said, take, take those, those breaks, reward
every time, even if it's not quite right.
I'm not so picky as to where. I'm like, you didn't do it all
the way right. I'm not going to reward you.
I might tell him to try again and see if I can get a little
bit better placement on something, but I'm not going to
not reward him if he doesn't getit right the next time.
I believe that there's close enough sometimes because when

(42:09):
you're learning, I like to be encouraged.
When I'm learning, I don't want to feel like I'm.
And your dog is going to get frustrated too, if if you don't
help them through some of those tougher moments.
And you really seem to be able to do that really well with both
of your dogs. Yeah, that's super important.
You need to reward progress, right?
It's not about just getting thatperfect trick at the end.

(42:29):
It's rewarding the progress because just if they're trying
and it's like, okay, they've made that .5 step in the
direction of what I'm thinking that they should do right now
for me to teach this trick. Reward it because that's helping
them stay motivated. But also you should acknowledge
that you're, you're encouraging them.
Hey, you are starting to do the right thing.
And yeah, that's just huge, right?
Because it's, yeah, exactly likeyou said.

(42:50):
Like if I'm in school, like, there's no way I'm going to
know. Well, I'm terrible at math, so
that's a terrible example, but I'm not going to know calculus
right away. Right?
But I should be getting positivemotivation for the fact that,
oh, 2 + 2 is 4. That's a new thing that I've
just figured out. OK, I should be getting rewarded
for that because I'm making steps in the direction on this,

(43:10):
this journey of whatever my end goal is.
So yeah, definitely always, always reward progress.
And then once they have a trick down solid 100%, and you know
that, then you can be more picky.
Han knows how to roll over 100% both directions, so if I ask him
to roll over and he kind of goeshalfway and is just chilling
looking at me, I might be like, OK, let's try it again.
Nothing negative, no upset voiceor anything, just hey, yeah,

(43:33):
come on, let's go, let's do it again, give it another shot.
And then he does it and he gets his nice little cookie.
And I think that that's great because.
If we don't keep it positive, they're not going to want to
come back to it. Yep, there's no point in that.
There's no point in letting themget frustrated about it.
OK, so the last one that we can talk about is the stacking.
Because Han is like the stack master, I cannot get to sit

(43:54):
still long enough to get one cookie to stay on his nose.
But Han is the king of stacking.How many cookies can he keep on
his nose now? Or his face or wherever?
Yes. Pause.
You stack them everywhere. Yes.
Yeah, I think. The highest, and this is this
might be off by a few cookies, so I apologize if anyone double
checks my Instagram, but I want to say roughly around 34 or 36.

(44:18):
Somewhere in that range is the most probably that we've done
most recently, probably maybe six months, definitely within
the past year added now he will hold them in his mouth at the
same time as having 10 stacks onhis head.
So that's been the newest variation of that one, which has
been fun. OK, so best.
Tip for type of cookie to start with because I think that may be

(44:39):
part of the struggle. Yes, so.
Definitely you want a big cookie, What I'd consider a big
cookie, not a giant one because some of these dog bakeries have
these huge ones. Not that, but Cloud Star Pet
Treats makes these cookies that are for dogs, but they literally
just look like a golden Oreo andit's the same size and shape as
an Oreo. Those are a really nice size.

(45:00):
So I'd say use that as a reference point.
Maybe don't give your dog Oreos,God no.
But that size or a slightly bigger than that is a really
nice and make sure it's a flat round cookie and that's going to
give you more surface area. It's not going to flop off super
easily where if you're using little training treats and stuff
like that, that's going to be really hard to keep on top of

(45:20):
their head in a stack, right? If you're doing an individual
treat, you can do any size. But if you want to start
stacking 3 or 4 treats, go for those bigger round flat cookies
and that's going to really help you because then it's easier for
the dog to balance them. Where if you're using ones that
have a funky shape to them or they're really small, trying to
stack it in my own hand, right, that's going to be hard and it's
going to wobble. That's a really good visual the.

(45:42):
The Oreo is a really good visualbecause that gives a perfect
size and shape to start with, and if there are dog cookies
that are that size, that's a great tip.
Where would you start with the stacking?
Would you start on the paw, the head, or the nose?
I would start on the floor. Not even on them.
So I would put a couple pieces of their regular kibble or

(46:03):
something. I'm thinking starting at Ground
Zero, the dog might even be struggling with impulse control
on a treat being on the floor infront of them.
That could potentially be too much for some dogs.
So I would start with their kibble that they eat every day
so it's a little less exciting. Put it on the floor near their
paws and depending on the dog, if even that's hard, put more
distance. Put that little pile of kibble
like 3 feet away from them if you need to.

(46:25):
It's all about building a weightqueue.
So I should in theory be able tosay wait and walk out of the
room, not for a long period of time, but walk out of the room,
be out of sight and come back and that kibble's still there
and just work on building that where reward.
OK, that kibble's on the floor 3feet from you and I told you to
wait and you waited one second reward that great.
And then bring the kibble over to them and let them have it.

(46:46):
Or you could pick that kibble upand it could be always that that
kibble's not part of the reward.I'm giving the reward from my
treat bag, especially to help inthe beginning.
And then the kibble gets closer,right?
So then eventually it is actually maybe a couple of
treats on the pause. So it's very easy to do.
It's not really balancing situation.
And then if they keep them on their paws for again 1-2
seconds, reward that right away.And it could even be with some

(47:09):
dogs, depending on how much self-control they have to start
out. You could reward for 1/2 second
to start out and then you slowlybuild that to 10:20, 30-40
seconds. And then you get to that point
eventually where you're able to do it on their head.
You can stack them up in stacks of 10 on their nose and their
head and everything. And you've built up that weight
queue where they're really, really solid on.

(47:30):
OK, my mom told me to wait. I'm going to wait here until I
get that release word. And I know that just chill and
that they're going to get the reward at the end, right?
Because they know that no matterwhat, it's like, OK, you waited
for 30 seconds with these cookies on your head now and
make a huge deal and you're going to get a bunch of cookies
as a. So you broke that down even.
Farther than I would have. I wouldn't even have thought to

(47:50):
start with the cookies just in adifferent area and work with the
weight. And that's a skill that we work
on is weight. And I'm going to place the three
cookies down and then on three, you can get all three cookies
kind of thing. That's a game that we play.
But I would have never thought that that would be the first
step for that. So that's that's really cool.
That's really cool. I've learned a lot today.
So everybody check, make sure you check out healer point on

(48:14):
Instagram. Krista constantly has amazing
videos of Han and Carly doing all kinds of cool stuff.
And it's just really so much funto follow your account because I
never know what you're going to post.
And I always, I'm just so excited when I see a post and
Hans face pop up, I'm like, whatis it today?
So I always get really excited. What would you like to leave the

(48:35):
listeners with? Goodness, that's a lot of
pressure. I don't know, I guess for any
folks that already follow the account, thank you so much for
following the page. It's surpassed my wildest
dreams. I remember when I was just like
Oh my God I hope I can get 1000 followers.
So the fact that it's up to 65 +1000 is absolutely mind blowing.
So thank you so much to everyonethat follows the page and

(48:58):
honestly, thank you for just being supportive because I'd say
by far 99.9% of any interactionsI have are positive and people
being kind and encouraging, which is just amazing.
And I think we can't have enoughof that in this world.
So thank you everyone for following us and being positive
and supportive. It's amazing.
We appreciate everyone that likes, follows, interacts with

(49:20):
us in any way. And of course, thank you so much
for having us on the podcast andfor inviting us and thinking
we're cool enough to come on podcast.
It's been great. Well, I am obsessed with.
Dogs just as much as you are. I'm also a horse girly.
I think it's so funny how many of us are horse girlys and dog
girlys. It just kind of kind of
transcends into this. We are just these crazy people

(49:43):
who teach all of our pets tricksand we want to ride horses and
jump barrels and all. This definitely has been a
really cool way to make friends and have those common interests
that obviously turn into other common interests as well.
So thank you so much for taking the time out to chat with me
today and I'll be in touch because I always have questions

(50:04):
when it comes to trick training and you guys listening.
Make sure that you'd understand and know that Krista will
absolutely help you and she willdirect you to a video that will
help you or she will help you find the way through whatever
tough area you are in when it comes to trick training.
And we will see you guys next week on Straight Up Dog Talk.

(50:25):
Straight up dog talk was createdby Emily Breslin.
It is edited and produced under the supervision of Straight Up
Dog Talk, LLC and Emily Breslin.If you're enjoying this podcast,
follow or subscribe and be sure you don't miss an episode and
leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform.
Looking for more honest and relatable dog content?
Check out our sister show Unpacked with Jerry Sheriff and

(50:48):
Madison Simpson. Thanks for listening to Straight
Up Dog Talk. See you next week.