What Should You Train Your Dog Next? More Tricks Aren’t Always the Answer

I’m Olga, founder of the Dog Talent Association, and I train and work with my two dogs, Bonnie and Simba.

Between them, they have achieved 25 Guinness World Records titles. Bonnie has six and Simba has 21, with some records achieved together.

That probably makes it sound as though I am always searching for another trick to teach.

But the more we have learned and achieved together, the more I have realised that more skills are not always the answer.

There are so many brilliant things we can teach our dogs. We can follow tutorials, work through trick lists, enter challenges, collect titles and move from one new behaviour to the next.

All of that can be great fun. But at some point, many teams begin to wonder:

Where is all this training actually taking us?

Perhaps your dog already knows lots of tricks, but you are unsure what to focus on next.

Perhaps you keep following the same route as everyone else because it is difficult to know what would suit your own dog better.

Perhaps some skills seem to flow naturally, while others always feel like hard work—even though your dog is perfectly capable of learning them.

Or perhaps you have both become a little stuck and need something that gives your training fresh meaning and energy.

Bonnie and Simba have taught me a great deal about this.

They are both extremely capable dogs, but they are completely different. Simba is thoughtful, precise and brilliant at detailed behaviours and complex sequences. Bonnie is expressive, spontaneous and loves finding ways to become involved in whatever people are doing.

They could both learn many of the same skills. But that does not mean those skills would bring out the best in both dogs—or that I would enjoy developing the same projects with each of them.

So now, when I consider what to teach next, I try to look beyond:

Can my dog learn this?

I also ask:

• What genuinely motivates this dog?

• How do they learn best?

• Which abilities keep appearing across different skills?

• What kind of work makes them more engaged as it develops?

• What do I enjoy teaching?

• What would feel exciting and meaningful for us to build together?

Because the human matters too.

A dog may have the aptitude for an activity, but it is unlikely to grow into something special if the person finds the process uninspiring. Equally, we may have an exciting idea of our own, but it will not become the right shared project if it does not suit the dog in front of us.

The best direction is often found where the dog’s strengths and motivation meet the human’s interests, creativity and hopes for the future.

That is the idea behind a new six-week programme I am developing:

Beyond Tricks: Build on What Makes You Brilliant Together

This will not be another course showing everyone how to teach the same collection of tricks.

Instead, we will explore:

• what brings out your dog’s best quality of work;

• how they prefer to learn;

• what your previous training successes and struggles may be telling you;

• which skills and aptitudes are genuinely worth developing;

• what you find enjoyable and motivating as the human half of the team;

• where those ingredients could come together in a meaningful next direction.

  
  

By the end, each team will choose a development focus and create a practical plan for a project that suits them both.

It might lead towards a useful helper sequence, a creative performance, an unusual prop project, a technical challenge, a DTA title or the International Trick Dog Competition.

The outcome will not be the same for every team—because that is exactly the point.

Are you currently choosing what to train because it truly fits you and your dog, or following the next available trick, challenge or pathway?

What usually guides your next training choice?

• My dog’s natural strengths
• What I personally want to achieve
• Whatever interesting challenge appears next
• A mix of all three

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