Golden Retriever brothers are trained to hug on cue and they're completely adorable
Life with dogs can be very rewarding.
It’s amazing how these fluffy creatures learned how to communicate with us even if we don’t speak the same language. They look at our facial expression, body language, and voice.
But training them is another thing.
It takes a while to teach them how to do even the simplest tricks on cue. Even the common tricks sometimes take ages to teach. That’s why as fur parents, we get so proud if they can do even just one or two of those (but we’re aiming for all the tricks, right?).
These pair of Golden Retrievers have an adorable trick up their sleeve.
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They learned how to hug each other on cue.
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Their fur parent, Kieran Lehane, said that he had Kylo in 2018 and was barely a year old. A year after, he got Vader, who was only nine months younger than Kylo.
He saw how Vader always wanted to snuggle with his big brother.
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Kylo simply allowed him to be all cuddly next to him. Vader would snuggle up and hug him, and the older dog let him be.
Kylo is also a very patient big brother.
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It doesn’t bother him if Vader keeps teething his tail or playing around all the time. He either joins him when they both want to play or lets Vader do his thing and not bother him at all.
Seeing their loving bond, Kieran thought of training them to hug.
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He knew that the best way to do it was through positive reinforcement, and he knew exactly how to reward their obedience: cooked chicken.
Since Kylo was used to being hugged by Vader, Kieran thought of training the younger Goldie. Plus, Vader already knew how to do the “paw” trick, especially when his favorite treat is at play. With those in place, Kieran started their training.
He told TODAY that he trained Vader one step at a time.
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“I would use a ‘paw’ and then move my hand a little bit higher. And then I ended up putting my hand on an object like a chair. Then every time I did ‘chair,’ I’d put my hand on the chair and then move it quickly so Vader would put his hand on the chair.”
Then, he moved forward with letting Kylo sit nearby.
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Instead of training with a chair, he did this beside Kylo. Vader would then put his paw on Kylo, and it soon turned into a hug. And you know what Kieran’s command for them to do this? “BFF.” Isn’t that cute?
These two lovely beings didn’t need a command anymore in the long run.
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According to Kieran, Vader would immediately hug Kylo whenever they were together. Hence, they have multiple hugging photos wherever they went making them Instagram su-paw-stars!
Kieran also used his platform to send positivity to the world.
He noticed that many people commented on his posts and were always looking for the lovely duo.
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“In some of the captions, I put in a message or even a reminder to tell someone to hug the people closest to you or send some love,” he said.
Thank you, Kieran, Kylo, and Vader, for giving us this adorable paw-sitivity.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
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Source: TODAY, Kylo and Vader Instagram Page