Off Leash And Unfiltered: The Truth In Dog Training

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Support the show

Love the show? Sign up to access our new exciting Xtra content! This content is unique and is ONLY available to our paid subscribers. 

Subscriptions are only $3/month! You can also just sign up to make a small donation monthly if you want to support the podcast. Or, if you can't do that right now, just hit subscribe in your favorite app and tell a friend about the show! 

Any support in any form from our listeners is sooo appreciated! We count on listeners li...

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Support the show

Love the show? Sign up to access our new exciting Xtra content! This content is unique and is ONLY available to our paid subscribers. 

Subscriptions are only $3/month! You can also just sign up to make a small donation monthly if you want to support the podcast. Or, if you can't do that right now, just hit subscribe in your favorite app and tell a friend about the show! 

Any support in any form from our listeners is sooo appreciated! We count on listeners li...

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Love the show? Sign up to access our new exciting Xtra content! This content is unique and is ONLY available to our paid subscribers. 

Subscriptions are only $3/month! You can also just sign up to make a small donation monthly if you want to support the podcast. Or, if you can't do that right now, just hit subscribe in your favorite app and tell a friend about the show! 

Any support in any form from our listeners is sooo appreciated! We count on listeners li...

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In this episode we are talking about a super common progression and a super common occurrence with dogs and dog owners. 

Dogs tend to get labeled as either good or bad. Aggressive or not aggressive, friendly or not friendly. But this is a wildly inappropriate way to go about labeling your dog who is extremely unique and has a very unique personality. There is no such thing as aggression being present or not present. And there's really no such thing as a dog being friendly or not friendly. 

After al...

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Once upon a time I was just a girl with a dog. I had never even thought about dog training. Never mind becoming a dog trainer. My dog was my best friend, and I believed The narrative out there that your dog would listen to you if they knew what you wanted. Wanted. I believed the narrative that if your dog loved you they would come back. When you called them. I believed the narrative that if your dog didn't come back when you called them, you were a shameful person in some...

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In this episode, I am discussing the consideration of your dog's age when it comes to punishment, especially in young puppies. 

Things we need to consider are the level of neurological development, the development of the other senses such as vision and hearing. These things impact the effectiveness of contingent consequences. 

There are also things such as the dog's basic genetic wiring and previous rehearsal which all culminate in a very unique level of ability to inhibit behaviors.

When deciding whether or not it is most beneficial to...

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We hear the phrase "must find the route cause" all the time in dog training. And honestly, the "route cause" simply doesn't really matter that much. But, we have also found that implementing rules and boundaries often changes the relationship, and then something magical happens...The dog just behaves better.

And, not just that, but nervous dogs seem to gain more confidence, pushy dogs become more respectful, reactive dogs become more tolerant. And that's before working on any of those things directly.

All because the owner became someone who...

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We all want to teach our dog's stuff! But how good our results are and how long it takes can be influenced by some seemingly subtle details. We cover some of the key details in the process to ensure efficiency.

Sharpen up your obedience training by understanding subtleties like sequence (giving the cue prior to performing the behavior), leaving gaps between each piece of communication (between the cue and the behavior or between the marker and the consequence).

Avoid muddying the waters by verbalizing unnecessary things or performing unnecessary...

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One thing is for sure. Any trainer (me included) that uses prong collars, ecollars, and any kind of correction is usually the "last resort" for folks. But this is silly because first of all, those tools do more than just correct dogs. The tools are highly versatile and all of the control lies in the handler's hands. 

Secondly, all dogs need correction. Yes, that's right—your dog needs to experience proper punishment. No, it doesn't matter what breed they are or what their temperament is. Sweet dogs are not exempt from thi...

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We have a lot of clients that are doing amazing things with their dogs. And we meet a lot of folks that just seem to struggle even though their goals are very realistic—quite mundane, actually. Why is this? 

There are lots of sayings out there around attitude and results, like "whether you think you can or can't, you're right."   Mantras around the power of a made up mind or Earl Nightingale's The Strangest Secret, expressing the certainty that the seeds you plant are indeed what will grow. 

I find...

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You don't need to be a dog trainer to be familiar with this term. If you've ever done a cursory internet search on stopping jumping (or anything else), you've probably seen this as the recommended course of action. 

"Extinction" is the elimination of a behavior caused by a lack of reinforcement. Sounds logical right? Or does it? Do you stop running races because you don't win? Do you stop flipping the light switch when the power goes out? Does the dog stop chasing squirrels even though he never catches them?

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This is sort of a list of recommendations in reverse. A list of what not to do, so to speak. I recently had a boarding visit from Finn and it inspired me to do an episode on dogs like him. It's more common than you'd think. These dogs can be full of monkey business and even down right nasty. But the second they see that you are an entity worthy of respect they snap right into being a little angel.  It's like night and day!

The good new is, these dogs a...

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This was our last option. 

Boy I get tired of hearing that! 🤣 Why am I everybody's last option? The truth is I'm not. We do get lots of folks who just know they want a well-trained dog and they start here and that's great. But we get lots of folks that don't. And the reason being is that there's a narrative out there that tells you you shouldn't need to. You should never need to punish anything, you should never need to use any tools. You should never need...

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You have to remember when you are training your dog to start slow and build up and tweak and shape the behavior over time. So we expect much less and guide much more in the beginning. As we advance through the non compliance phase of training or the "messy middle" we begin to expect a little more, so we may start experimenting with various levels of accountability, but we still give guidance as needed! 

In addition to that it is so important to be clear with your dog about what is c...

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Buckle up buttercup! Today I'm on a rampage, and I'm talking about all the terms that have been hijacked to make you think you're doing it wrong. All of these terms are being represented as being synonymous with abuse, and that couldn't be further from the truth.

A dog that is allowed to display antisocial  behaviors will inevitably be locked up or discarded. It is one hundred percent in that dog's best interest to have undesirable behaviors suppressed through the use of punishment. Which, by the way, literally means to stop a...

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This might be my least favorite topic to discuss. BUT it is by far one of the most common questions we get: How do you handle off leash dogs?

Here's the thing, you will never be able to avoid them completely (unless you just stay home). So I'm going to cover the most important things for you to do before heading out into the wild with your dog for an off leash adventure. Like knowing how to really tighten up your recall by pairing a high correction to it so that...

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Yes, maybe. There, is that clear enough?  We want to give our customers the best chance of success so we leave nothing out. Results matter to us. Your success matters to us. And we wouldn't ask you to do anything that we didn't think was potentially a necessary piece to the puzzle. 

Every dog and every family is so incredibly unique, that the fact is, no two dogs need exactly the same thing. But you could say the same thing for water. There are dogs out there that hardly drink any wa...

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I am taking a minute to talk about the health and safety of our dogs. I've had several long term customers lose their dogs over the last couple of years, and they were all very unfortunate events that really couldn't have been prevented. BUT uncontrollables always get me thinking about controllables as, well, that's all we can control!

Some of the things I recommend when thinking about the health and safety of a dog are first and foremost—training. A dog that listens is hands down the SAFEST dog. I'm going to...

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 Dogs Chew. They do all kinds of awful things and dangerous things, especially when you're not looking. So what do you do? And what should you not to do. One thing is for sure, we don't want you spending the next two years of your life trying to stay consistent with "redirecting your dog". We talk about the most common advice, why it won't work, and what does! 

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An update on Mildred the poop eater and Kali the nervous golden retriever. All the advice that never works for dog leash pulling, AND what does.

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Everybody knows dogs are gross. Everybody knows they like dirty socks, dead animals, and even eating poop. But this is the first time I've heard of a dog eating so much poop that they are pooping about 4 or 5 times more than normal..

If you have a dog that eats poop, this one is for you! But honestly, if you have a dog with any objectionable behaviors like jumping, barking, counter surfing, etc, this is all super valuable information. We are inhibiting a bad behavior. 

This is done by marking t...

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If there are behaviors your dog is allowed to do sometimes but not all the time, you might wonder if you are confusing them. And you might be. But if you've listened to me long enough, you know that the key to reducing confusion is to have a clear pattern. The problem comes in when us humans change the pattern (ironically, usually because we are worried about confusion). 

You can absolutely have your dog make discriminations. We do it all the time. In fact, your dog does it all the time u...

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We are talking about the icky dirty word PUNISHMENT today. You guys, I talk about this for a reason..it's what EVERYBODY needs. It's what EVERYBODY is missing. It's what EVERYBODY is worried about. Or..they're doing it, but very badly.

Ironically, avoiding aversives is THE THING that will result in a bad relationship and small life. It's a self fulfilling prophecy. 

You're human. So you think like a human. I'm here to help you achieve the best results with your dog training and your dog's behavior SO THAT y...

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Separation anxiety is a common problem but exists on a pretty broad spectrum. When you have a dog at the extreme end of the spectrum you are unable to live your life. It is all consuming. Every little mundane thing becomes an issue. Everything from showering to going to work, to going to a dr.appointment or a friend's house..because if you can't take the dog, someone needs to come sit them.

When you are dealing with severe separation anxiety, it can be tough to know what to do. In...

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In this episode, I'm talking about a topic that comes up in almost 100% of our go home lessons. Once you teach your dog what the word no means, they tend to be very responsive to the word. No. This leaves people thinking that they can use the word no stop behaviors without needing to use any kind of tangible correction. 

And although we might all do that every once in awhile, there is a problem with doing that regularly.. And that problem is that no in and of i...

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I get lots of great questions from our clients and listeners. Here are a few that I get asked a lot. 

Have you ever had a dog you couldn't train? Answer: not a normal dog. We have had a few that didn't have much hope, but it's extremely rare. Maybe 1 out of 500 has a very poor prognosis of being able to get to a point where they are "safe enough" to stay in their home. I describe what was different about these dogs and the difficult part—telling the owners that the...

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Are you worried about inadvertently creating negative associations if you correct your dog? You're not alone. We hear this a lot. Especially around fussing in the kennel, but there are hundreds of contexts this can be a concern, and luckily, they are all mostly handled the same way.

It's really important that your dog understands that consequences are in fact tied to their behavior, and not random or tied to only to a "thing" in the environment. This means you should know exactly how to show your dog which behavior leads...

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When we get dogs with behavioral challenges, especially if they are anxious or nervous dogs, a huge piece of the rehab is the human. We often get dogs that have struggled for years, and the environment is always a factor in the path that the dog is on. 

It is imperative that we change the environment and change the interactions. That means rewiring the humans so we can rewire the dog. It is very unnatural to respond neutrally when we feel big feelings, but it is so important if we are t...

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I love this episode, guys. I'm talking about all the amazing things you can do for you and your dog through training. This might be as simple as teaching sit or it might be using sit as a way to help your dog overcome fear or it might be as in depth as using e-collar skills to help your dog avert their gaze from a trigger that makes them uncomfortable.

This is the whole reason that we keep some dogs longer. Some dogs need more state of mind work, and this...

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We are talking about the physical feedback necessary to actually maintain the control end of the leash. We see folks relinquish control to the dog all the time for a variety of reasons.

Sometimes we tend to treat certain moments like they are unimportant because they are brief in nature (like walking to the car) but the fact is ALL moments are important, and all moments are learning moments. 

But at the core, I think it's really unnatural for people to communicate physically because as humans we primarily communicate v...

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Okay. This is the most common question, at least after "when can we take the e-collar off?"  Neither question has a straight answer, either. But I think the most succinct response is you can take it off when you can take it off (might be never) and the right level is the one that works (in most cases).

Most people don't realize that we can use our e-collars (aka big, scary shock collars) in a variety of ways. We have 100 levels, and I cannot feel it until it's on a level 12. I...

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Here is a list of 5 rather random things that I hear people say they are doing VERY frequently. And they are things I wouldn't recommend. These things are usually not helpful and often even make things much worse. 

5- Tethering your puppy or dog to you all day

This is supposed to strengthen your bond and "reduce freedom" but really it helps create a needy dog with potential separation issues. It also allows you to actually mentally check out.

4-Letting dogs sort things out themselves

Y...

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Puppies! We've been talking about them a lot lately. One thing I hear over and over again is people justifying behavior as "puppy" behavior. And although there might be some truth to that in a way, the dangerous part of that is attached to that statement, logically, would be that once the puppy isn't a puppy anymore the behavior goes away naturally. And THAT couldn't be farther from the truth in most cases.

Puppies exhibit everything that comes naturally (as will adult dogs except they usually have some learning under their...

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Food! Most dogs love it. But some dogs couldn't care less about it. Some dogs are too reactive or too nervous to take it. So what do we do to motivate our dogs with food if they aren't the most food motivated? 

There are ways to make food more desirable. One of which is to use it when the dog is hungry. This might mean training before a meal or it might mean skipping a meal or reducing meal size for a few days. It might mean using higher value food a...

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I hear it all—the—time! You should never punish a growl because that's how dogs communicate they are uncomfortable. This argument is complete nonsense, and in this episode I break down why and what we have seen with the hundreds of dogs we have addressed growling with.

By putting more emphasis on why something is happening than on how to change what is happening, people stay stuck. The whole 'root cause' argument is generally not helpful and sends people down a rabbit hole that goes nowhere. 

Dogs do lots...