One of the coolest classes at the International Trick Dog Competition is Trick Dog Teams Class. This is always one of the favourites both with the judges and the audience.
Trick team can be:
One handler and two or more dogs
Two handlers and two or more dogs
It can even be a team of a dog with another trick animal and a handler or two assisting them!
There are so few opportunities to try something new and to compete with more than one dog. So if you have not tried it yet- use the International Trick Dog Competition to play tricks with two of your dogs or team up with your friend!
We have seen some great teams over the years!
One of the best thing competing as a team is that you can buddy up with your friend. Training together is more fun- you can come up with lots more ideas, try new things, encourage and support each other.
Team entry is also an opportunity to perhaps involve your kids, or a partner and do something fun and creative together.
There are three main types of team tricks:
Sequential- dogs are performing the action one after another. The action can be the same or different.
Simultaneous- two dogs or two teams of dog an handler workign at the same time. They could be performing the same action or different actions.
Collaborative - where two dogs or tow teams of dog+handler collaborate to make a joint trick. These could be a team vs team "game" (think football as an example) or a collaborative action- eg one team holds the skipping rope and ther other team jumping over it.
Top tips:
For those who are new to team tricks and may feel a bit overwhelmed with the idea, here are some top tips
Team tricks is not necessary two dogs working at the same time collaboratively to perform a trick- that can be quite hard when you are just starting.
A good easy starter team tricks could be when dogs are taking turns performing an action.
For example, one dog could be just sitting on the top of a platform (or a bucket) while the second dog is circles around it. Then the dogs swap the roles. The second dog is keeping a static pose while the first dog is performing an action.
The pose can be lying, sitting, standing, paws up, siting on the top of an object, inside the object, under, sit pretty etc.
Collaborative can be be simplified too. For example, one dog holds a bucket, anther is tidying up balls into it. Or one dog "supports" the bucket by having two paws up onto it while the other tidying up the toys.
Taking turns can be also about performing the same action. For example you could send the dogs one after another to fetch balls and put them into the bucket. Or dogs stack the rings fetching one ring at time. Or going over the jumps together or one after another.
We are looking forward to seeing you at the International Trick Dog Competition 2024
The deadline to enter for Task 1 is by the end of this Sunday the 13th of October.
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