MacOS append search-domain

I recently started using a Mac laptop (with MacOS Sierra) for work and one thing soon saw was that the search-domains were not appended when trying to use utilities such as ping or ssh (tough the configuration in the network preferences lists domain.com in the list of search-domains).

So, saying I have host1.domain.com using the following:
ping host1 would not resolve host1 (no search-domain appended)
ping host1.domain.com would resolve host1 (is specified in FQDN)
host host1 would resolve host1 (but that's because host uses its own resolver that is using the search-domain)

Looking for manual page of mDNSResponder - the system wide DNS resolver - this says:

 
OPTIONAL ARGUMENTS
     mDNSResponder accepts the following optional arguments:

     -AlwaysAppendSearchDomains
                                Append search domains for multi-labeled Par-
                                tially Qualified Domain Name as well as sin-
                                gle-labeled Partially Qualified Domain Name.
                                This argument is not recommended because of
                                the extra DNS traffic it generates and its
                                adverse effect on battery life.
..
     To cause mDNSResponder to run with these optional arguments when it
     launches on OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) and later, set the
     AlwaysAppendSearchDomains or NoMulticastAdvertisements boolean keys to
     true in /Library/Preferences/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist and reboot.

If you're a newb like me on MacOS, the next question is "how do I set the boolean key to true for AlwaysAppendSearchDomains? ". I found the answer here:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist AlwaysAppendSearchDomains -bool YES

Then, as the manual says, reboot. Bouncing the mDNSResponder would probably also work.