Teach My Pet To Do That’s animal trainers Nando Brown and Jo-Rosie Haffenden give their top tips for training your pets to do tricks
ITV’s quirky eight-part animal show Teach My Pet To Do That, hosted by Alexander Armstrong, sees expert animal trainers Nando Brown and Jo-Rosie Haffenden put a variety of pets and their owners through their paces by teaching them a range of tricks.
Here, Nando and Jo-Rosie give their top tips for teaching your own pets…
Give Rewards Find what the pet loves and use it to motivate them, so if your dog adores liver cake, use it to reward him for the behaviour you want. Cats often need a lot more tactile and physical affection as part of their rewards, while dogs want food and toys.
Keep training short Just doing three to five minutes of training once or twice a day is more than enough to keep your animal mentally stimulated. It’s all about patience.
Be positive You might not want a dog to bark at the door, but it is better to train them to do something you want rather than punishing what you don’t want.
Make it fun They have to enjoy the experience. An animal that wants to do a trick is always going to be better at it than an animal that is made to do it. If we came across any animals on the show that didn’t want to do something, we knew the environment wasn’t suitable for them. We had to keep their welfare at the forefront.
Bin the bowl Most animals are motivated by food in one way or another, but just giving them a food in a bowl is a waste. Throw in a few tricks and give them their food in little pieces, that will actually be better for their digestion and for their brain.
Teach My Pet To Do That premieres on Friday, August 11 at 8pm
