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The Everyday Trainer Podcast
The Everyday Trainer Podcast
5 Do’s, 5 Don’ts of Dog Training
This episode outlines the five essential do's and don'ts of dog training, focusing on clarity, communication, and consistency. By emphasizing crate training, marker words, early exposure, respecting other dogs' spaces, and maintaining consistency, listeners will gain valuable insights into effective dog training methods.
• The importance of crate training
• How marker words enhance communication
• The need for early exposure training
• Respecting other dogs' spaces during interactions
• The significance of consistency in training
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Hello, hello and welcome back to the Everyday Trainer podcast. My name is Meg and I am a dog trainer. Today's episode is five do's and five don'ts of dog training. So I wanted to kind of simplify a lot of the things that I've been seeing recently in my lessons and my virtual sessions and kind of boil it down to some simple do's and don'ts. You know the drill Grab yourself a tasty drink and meet me back here. Hello, hello guys, welcome back.
Speaker 1:I am recording this podcast in the morning so I have a nice coffee with me, a honey, cinnamon, just delicious latte. Since we've been on the road, I've pretty much gotten coffee from a coffee shop every single day, because it's pretty much like the routine is find a coffee shop, go to the bathroom in the morning, right, so I don't really have a bathroom in my van. I know a lot of people ask that they're like where, like what do you do? Like how do you do it? We're mostly just using public bathrooms. Um, so I am recording this episode from the parking lot of a beach. You'll hear some noise in the background. That is just my dogs chewing on bones. I was like, all right, I'm gonna entertain them while I'm doing this. So the cost of that is you might hear some like bones kind of rattling around in the background, some like bones kind of rattling around in the background. So before we get into all the stuff, I wanted to kind of give you guys a little bit of update on me, where I'm at, what I'm doing, all that jazz. So we have been hanging out in Southern California, like San Diego area, and my plan was to hang out around here and the LA area but unfortunately because of the LA fires we have decided to head down to San Diego. I'm very fortunate in that, like our homes are mobile so we are able to do that, but so many people have been affected by the fires. Last week's episode I included a link to donate. I'll include that link again If you can donate. I think they're kind of done with like physical donations, but monetary donations are so, so helpful. So I linked it to the Humane Society so you can help out all of the dogs. So I will include that in the link of the show notes of this episode. But we've been very fortunate to hang around San Diego.
Speaker 1:I am like such a big fan of this area. My favorite town is Encinitas and it's like so, bougie, but I love it. Toma's like, oh my gosh, you better figure out how to make money if you want to live here. And I'm like I right, like I'm walking through these neighborhoods with these like beach houses, like manifesting my future house. Basically is what I'm, is what I'm trying to go for here. But the reason why I like Encinitas so much is because I feel like and this sounds dumb but everybody is very respectful with their dogs, like we don't really have to worry about like off-leash dogs approaching us or people like just trying to pet our dogs, like that hasn't been a big issue here, whereas, like in other more busy cities, I feel like we're playing a game of like try to escape the people, Like it is honestly so stressful.
Speaker 1:We were in Oceanside, which is like 20 minutes north of Encinitas, just kind of I think these are like neighborhoods of San Diego. I don't know I might sound like an idiot because I'm not really from here, I don't really know how it works, but we were in Oceanside and everybody was like oh, you will love Oceanside, go check out Oceanside. And I was like amazing. So we went there and I like it Like I think it's super cute. I think that there's like such a good vibe to the place but we literally could not take our dogs out of the vans because so many people had off leash dogs and so many people had off-leash dogs and so many people had like reactive dogs on flexies that they're like walking up to other dogs, and we spent like two days there and I was like we have to go, like we have to go back to Encinitas. I literally can't do this anymore.
Speaker 1:Like it was so exhausting and that's kind of what I got into on last week's episode is like if you have a dog that is not super friendly, not super friendly with other dogs, doesn't like to be pet, doesn't like other dogs rushing into their space you know what I'm talking about Like trying to go out for a walk in a busy area and you're just like I don't trust any of these people, right? So like we were in Oceanside and I're just like I don't trust any of these people, right. So like we were in Oceanside and I opened the van door and there was like an off-leash golden retriever that just like was right there whenever I opened the van door and I was like, wow, thank god, I didn't have like a dog out in the van, which goes into the importance of crate training, which we're going to talk about today. But but yeah, like thank God we had that extra barrier there, that like we had a dog in a crate instead of like Walter Tomas, german Shepherd, we just had him out.
Speaker 1:I also got a few comments from social media recently. They're like you need to do an intro of your dogs because we have no idea, like who you're talking about, which I think is so funny because I've just I just assume that like everybody knows my dogs and I forget that like I get new followers and you don't know my entire life, like how kind of ridiculous of me to just assume like, oh yeah, you know my dogs and you know everything in my life, right? So just to kind of give you a little bit of a rundown, if you don't know, I right now have three personal dogs. So I have Minka, who is my Malinois. She is around two and a half years old, maybe coming up on three. I have Lucy, who is my red golden retriever. She is the one who got me into dog training. She's turning eight here very soon. And then I have zoe, my eldest. She is 11, turning 12 soon. So she's my old lady, she is my cuppy cake dog, my soul dog, my super easy first dog. And then I got Lucy and I was like, oh my gosh, this dog is crazy and she's the one who got me in a dog training. So I'm forever grateful for her.
Speaker 1:And then we have two rescue dogs, kind of fosters, foster trains. We have River, who is the big Malinois that we recently took in, like four months ago. And then we have Mink and this is where things get confusing, because she has a very similar name to Minka, my Malinois. But we have Mink, who is a pit bull, terrier, slash, staffy, slash American bulldog. We don't really know exactly what she is. American Bulldog we don't really know exactly what she is. All of the like pit bull people that I know said that she's definitely like American Bulldog, mixed in there with something. So she is my problem child. She is my behavioral case. I've had her forever.
Speaker 1:Basically I had her for a board and train, like last year, and they didn't have a foster for her. She wasn't a super safe dog. I was pretty much the only one who was able to handle her at the time. She has made great improvements. I talked about her last week in my Q&A and I don't talk about her that much because I don't know it comes off very negative and I wasn't really trying to be like negative with her and saying that she's like this horrible dog and super unsafe. I feel like those were the vibes that I was kind of giving off and I regret that, like I'm not saying that she's just like this monster that's like out to kill, but she is a dog that under the right circumstance, like could hurt somebody or could hurt another dog, and so I just want to make sure that like she's good before I just hand her off to somebody.
Speaker 1:But another issue that I have with her is she is not a clean dog, which is what I've heard with like staffies and American bulldogs. I genuinely and like I could be making this up, but I genuinely feel like it's attention seeking Like she, I will take her out, try to get her to go to the bathroom. She will not go to the bathroom and like I take her out literally every hour and a half, like I have to, I treat her like a puppy because I'm trying to get her to not go potty in the crate Because, as you can imagine cleaning crates in a van is like not fun, like it's one. My whole house smells like poop, right, like if you poop in the crate, like it stinks and I typically have to go to like a car wash. So it's like a whole like hour endeavor. I've gotten very efficient at it and I know where all the car washes are.
Speaker 1:But basically I'm trying to get her to not poop and pee in the crate, which she's been doing it the entire time that I've had her. I think it's attention seeking. Like I will take her out to go potty, she won't have to go, and then if I take another dog out, she'll immediately poop and pee and I'm like bro, it's like very obnoxious. So yeah, honestly, I feel like that's her least redeeming quality. I think we could get past the dog aggression, but the not being potty trained is like so, so difficult. And I say this a lot with rescues, because if they come from the shelter then they're very used to just like pooping and peeing in their own space, which really sucks. But you know, it is what it is and we're kind of dealing with it and as much as she drives me crazy, like I do love her and I do care about her well-being and I want her to like have a decent life. You know, like, even if she is a behavioral dog like, I want her to have a decent life and I'm hoping that at some point I can find somebody who can give her that life, you know? So, yeah, those are my dogs.
Speaker 1:And then Toma has two dogs as well, so he has a black German Shepherd and a Belgian Malinois. So those are his two drivey dogs. His dogs do not get along, so we have to take them out separately. I know I got a lot of questions last week as well about like unfixed males, if a dog, if dogs, have gotten into a fight before, is there a chance that they can ever get along? I want to say yes, but we can't get walter and hawk to get along like we can do all the neutrality in the world. They literally live in the same van together, but, like the second, the two of them are out together. If they get get close enough in proximity, like they will just latch on to each other and it's not fun, but also it's very realistic, right, I think it's an eye opening thing to see how powerful dogs actually are. I feel like we don't really like give them enough credit in that aspect.
Speaker 1:So yeah, we don't have, like we don't have super easy dogs. I think my easy dogs are my golden retrievers. Even Minka, my Malinois, is very sensitive to people coming into her space or dogs coming into her space. So I have to be very cautious whenever I take her out that there aren't like off leash dogs rushing her or people reaching down and petting her Like I have my head on a swivel, basically. So we've been kind of settling in Encinitas because it is it's very like mindful in that way I don't really have to worry too much.
Speaker 1:I've had my you know, I've had my few encounters of people who have not been so nice to me, like when we were doing lessons in a park I think I talked about that recently but for the most part people are very respectful, people have their dogs on leash and everything has been pretty easy since we've been hanging out here. So kind of our routine is we wake up, I go to a coffee shop, I take Zoe with me because she's my easy dog. I don't ever have to like worry about her. So it's just like a nice enjoyable walk and then we come back and potty everybody else and then we get to work for the day. So either lessons or calls or online work, all of the things.
Speaker 1:But I have been extremely busy and I'm super, super grateful for this. For everybody who has booked lessons with me in the San Diego area and everybody who has been doing virtual lessons with me, I'm extremely, extremely grateful for you. I'm extremely, extremely grateful for you. But because I have been so busy, I feel like I've really been learning so much about the culture of dogs. I definitely think the culture of dogs is different in Orlando than it is here, and it's just kind of good to get out of your bubble, right Like it's good to experience how other people live with their dogs, see what other people are doing. So I have been very fortunate to have lots of lessons with people recently and most of the lessons that I am doing are shocking reactivity cases.
Speaker 1:Reactivity, if you don't know, is when your dog has some sort of explosive behavior, typically due to a barrier. So a barrier could be the leash, it could be the fence, it could be a window. There's typically a barrier involved and a trigger. It could be other dogs, cats like, whatever your dog is like at the end of the leash like barking at something. What I've been seeing a lot of is one a lack of clear communication on the owner's end. One of the questions that I ask people is how do you communicate expectations to your dog and I'm typically greeted with this very confused face and clarify so what I mean by that is do you have a consistent language that you are using? Do you have a consistent set of words that have a very clear meaning every time you use those words? So when I'm doing a lesson with somebody, they typically are saying things and there's nothing really following up those words. So when I'm doing a lesson with somebody, they typically are saying things and there's nothing really following up those words.
Speaker 1:Now, dogs are not predominantly verbal creatures. They're not walking around talking to each other, and I think this is why we struggle so much is because we are able to verbalize. We're able to verbalize our feelings, we are able to verbalize expectations, and that to verbalize our feelings, we are able to verbalize expectations and that's how we predominantly communicate, but dogs are not that way. Dogs are actually communicating mostly through body language. They are very physical beings, and so if we are going to communicate with our dogs verbally, we have to make sure that we have taught the dogs what our verbal language is.
Speaker 1:So this is where I get into marker words and typically, when I do a lesson with somebody, they're just like saying random things to their dog. They're either talking to their dog like a person the whole time and they're like oh my gosh, sadie, come on Like. You don't need to be staring at that dog, let's go, come on, let's walk. I guarantee you your dog is not really listening to you. One, because you haven't taught them what the words are. And two, if you're constantly talking to your dog like, it's literally like what's the, the, the peanuts cartoon, right, where all the teachers are like. So if you're constantly talking, that's all your dog hears, right, cause it never really means too much. Another thing that I see a lot of is like the sounds, like, and I'm like what does that mean? And they're like um, I don't know, just like pay attention to me. Or like stop doing that or I'll stop you right there, right. So those are two very different meanings. If we're going to say that like sound or word, we need to make sure that we're consistent in what it means. So this is where we get into marker words. I am so, so big on marker words and I have this conversation literally every day of my life. I have it with my virtual shadow program students, with my virtual lessons, with my in-person lessons. Everybody that I work with, I make sure, has a clear understanding of marker words.
Speaker 1:So marker words are a set of words that we can use to communicate expectations to our dogs. These words are typically followed up with something physical, a physical reward or a physical punishment. Now, everybody flinches when I say the word punishment. Punishment is determined by your dog. If moving into your dog, spatial pressure, gets your dog to stop doing a behavior, then that's considered a punishment, right? We're not beating our dogs, we're not screaming at our dogs. We're not harming our dogs. We're just communicating. Hey, when I say, no, I need you to stop doing that, I'm going to make sure that you stop doing that, because I'm going to hold you accountable. You stop doing that, because I'm going to hold you accountable to that. No, so let's get into our marker words, just to kind of clarify everything. I know I've talked about this on previous episodes, but it's always a nice little refresher. So for me, my marker words are yes, which is. That is perfect. That's exactly what I asked. You are released from the command, come back to me and get your reward. This is what you'll predominantly see people using is yes.
Speaker 1:However, I would argue that most people are using their marker words incorrectly. The whole point of a marker word is that you do not have to be fast with your reward. I was watching a TikTok video last night that had tons of views from a dog trainer and she said you have to be fast with your reward. I could not disagree more. I could not disagree more. I could not disagree more. I think that that is wrong, because the entire point of our marker words is that it creates anticipation for a reward to come or a punishment to come. So, for example, if I'm asking my dog to sit or I'm teaching my dog to sit as soon as their butt touches the ground, I'm going to mark that with a yes. That marks that that was the behavior that I wanted to do. You can now break your sit, come back to me and I will deliver a reward.
Speaker 1:What I see a lot of is people say yes and reach for their food at the same time. They say yes and reward the dog at the same time. Another common mistake that I see is sometimes they will reward the dog in position and sometimes they will reward the dog out of position. So I want clarity in my marker words. I want my dog to know, when you hear yes, rush back to me, come back to me, get your reward. It's the anticipation of the reward that elicits those feel good hormones that's going to get the dog to do the behavior again so you can genuinely take your time reaching for your food. You can take your time reaching for that ball. This is the biggest mistake that I see If you are using marker words, one you need to be very consistent in what it means.
Speaker 1:If I mark with yes, I am never rewarding in position. I'm simply using my yes to mark the behavior. The dog jumps out of position, rushes over to me. I follow it up with a food reward and I always take my time between my marker and reaching for the food. Always take my time between my marker and reaching for the food, because if we don't take our time then we are just cuing the dog that a reward is coming with our hand in our treat pouch, right, or us holding our hands up.
Speaker 1:So a common question I get is Meg. Why does my dog only listen to me when I have food in my hand? It's because you've inadvertently taught them that hand up or me showing you that there's food in my hand, means that it's time to listen. You're going to get rewarded. So the value of the marker word is that once we condition this again and again, yes, meaning this thing, then we don't even have to have the reward. We can still mark behaviors and the dog is going to get the same feel-good hormones as if you had the reward. So no, you do not have to be fast in your rewards. If you've properly conditioned your marker words to be consistent and have a consistent meaning, then you can genuinely take your time reaching for your food and that space between your marker word and delivering the food. That's that good stuff. That anticipation is going to get the dog pumped to work for you.
Speaker 1:So where would we use this? Why would we use this? It's really valuable when we are teaching commands. So, since our yes has no duration to it, if I say yes, that means you can break the command I can use yes as a positive disruptor. So let's say my dog is getting ready to be reactive, right, instead of, let's say, popping them on a leash. If I've really loaded up my marker word, I can mark that with a yes and my dog's going to go oh, she's about to pay me, I'm going to rush back to her and I get some motivation to come back to me. I can disrupt what's about to happen with that marker word. So that's essentially kind of like counter conditioning. We're using a positive disruptor.
Speaker 1:Another big value of having a clear yes marker or a terminal marker, meaning that we're done, you come back to me is that we can build speed and motivation in our training. If I have a really insecure dog, if I have a puppy, I want to build speed and excitement and motivation to come back to me. Let's say recall training. Right, I call my dog back to me. As soon as they turn back to me, yes, I mark that with a yes. The dog's like heck, yeah, I'm running back to her, I'm getting my reward. I can create speed.
Speaker 1:Now our other marker word is good. So good means that is perfect, stay there. That is my duration marker. So when I mark a behavior with good, that means it's an implied stay and I am going to reward you in position. So let's say I'm trying to add duration to a down, I tell my dog down, they go into a down. I mark that with a good Good Dog stays there. I grab my food. I reward the dog in position. Good, grab my food. Reward the dog in position. Good, grab my food. Reward the dog in position. It is so, so valuable to have very clear markers in this way, because if I mark a behavior with good, the dog knows okay, I'm gonna stay here. If I mark a behavior with yes, the dog's like, oh, I gotta rush back to my person. They come back to me.
Speaker 1:But what I see is people get real messy with their marker words. They're either yesing everything and like rewarding in position, rewarding out of position. Sometimes they hold the dog to stay there, sometimes they want them to get up. That creates a lot of confusion for the dogs and then we have insecure dogs who don't really know what to do. Right. Clear communication equals clear expectations and that is one of the ways that we can build confidence in our dogs and also confidence in us as their handler. Right? So when we're working through problem behaviors overexcitement or nervousness, fearfulness, excitement or nervousness, fearfulness clarity in our communication and expectations is going to help that dog know how to win right.
Speaker 1:If I'm telling you exactly what I need you to do and I'm extremely consistent in my language and what I'm going to hold you accountable to you know what to do. You know what to do to get the reward. You know what to do to succeed. So those are my two marker words that are followed up with food. Now I also have two other marker words uh-uh and no. So uh-uh is hey, that's not what I asked, try again. It is not followed up with a punishment, but I'll typically give the dog some level of guidance. So that's basically just like a no reward marker. So, for example, if I tell my dog sit and they go into a down, I can mark that dog. Or I can mark that down with uh-uh. That means no, that's not what I asked. I'm not going to punish you for it, but you need to try again. So I'm not going to reward you because you didn't do the correct behavior. That's extremely important whenever you're teaching commands or teaching expectations for a dog.
Speaker 1:We want to have a no reward marker because I don't want to use no for everything. For me, no is I don't want you to ever do that again, a punishment is following. A punishment could be leash pressure goes on. It could be a pop on the leash, it could be stim on our e-collar, it could just be spatial pressure of me moving into you, but something to tell the dog. Hey, I don't like this behavior, I don't want you to do that.
Speaker 1:Uh-uh is not followed with a punishment because, let's say, we're teaching the dog something new and they're trying to figure it out. I don't want to mark with my punishment marker because I don't want the dog to be scared to make a wrong decision in that moment. Right, you don't really know what I'm asking. You're trying to figure it out. I'm not going to punish you, but I am going to give you that feedback that this isn't what I asked. So basically, we want to keep our verbal communication with our dog as simple as possible and make sure that we're following up with something physical. So our reward commands are always followed up with a reward. Sometimes the reward is on me, sometimes it's in position. Uh-uh is followed with no reward and kind of readjusting the dog, adding in extra guidance if we need to, and no is followed up with a physical punishment, whether that's spatial pressure, leash pop, e-collar, stim, whatever it is right.
Speaker 1:So, over time, the more consistent that we are in these languages, in these words, we can use these words to tell our dog exactly what we expect them to do in any given situation. So over the course of the past couple weeks that I've been doing lessons, everybody thinks that they're doing marker words, but they're not, and so everything is yes, yes, yes, like we're just marking everything. And I also see dog trainers teach this incorrectly where and I've already like gone on this rant before but I see dog trainers teach this incorrectly where they're like it's just the equivalent of like a clicker yes just means food is coming. But our dogs are way smarter than that. Like.
Speaker 1:I don't like to use yes like that. Yes should have direction to it, yes should have meaning instead of just like yes, pay, yes, pay, yes, pay, like. That is not that useful and helpful. It doesn't give the dog direction on what you want them to do. So I like to have clear direction of yes means come back to me, right, so then I can use it in moments that I need to like a positive disruption with recall, building drive, building motivation. That's another big thing that I'm seeing is people don't have motivated dogs. Like the dog will take food you know it's not a huge reward. The dog will take the ball not a huge reward. It's really hard to shape behaviors when you don't have good motivation from people and dogs. Right. So, yes, can allow us to build up that drive to get the reward. And and again, that anticipation is where it's at. You'll see.
Speaker 1:People compare yes to Pavlov's dogs, like that experiment. But keep in mind that if you don't know the experiment, it's basically they had a bunch of dogs and they would ring a bell and then they would bring the dog's food out and they did this every single time before they would feed the dogs and eventually the bell would have the dogs salivate. They would be drooling because they're anticipating the food coming. Right, however, the food was not already out. It was the bell that was the cue that the food was coming. So when you're training your dog, think of it like that. We want the yes to be the cue that the food is coming. We don't want the food being out to be the cue to listen and, you know, follow through with instruction. We don't want you holding food in your hand to be the cue to listen. We don't want the you know your hand by your tree pouch to be the cue. We want that bell, we want that, yes.
Speaker 1:So this separation between your marker and you reaching for your food is the most important part of this, and people who tell you otherwise don't know what they're talking about. Okay, I'm so sorry. I love you guys. So, yeah, kind of my marker word rant, but I really wanted to add some clarity in that, because this is a conversation that I have every single lesson that I have, that I have every single lesson that I have. Now, another valuable thing to bring up in this is you are allowed to tell your dog no.
Speaker 1:So I recently had a session with somebody whose dog struggled with separation anxiety. I'm not gonna like get too deep into this, but basically this person was following a separation anxiety protocol over the past six months and was not leaving her home because this person who created this protocol told this woman that you cannot leave your home, you're going to make the separation anxiety worse, so the dog was never left alone. Now this person was in a relationship and so I looked at their partner and I was like does the dog have separation anxiety with you? No, why? Because you leave the dog. So the dog only had separation with the person who was never leaving the dog, and I think that this is very, very telling.
Speaker 1:Right, in order to work through separation, we have to create separation. With that, we have to create clear expectations. So one thing that I had the person practice is place command and when the dog got up from place, instead of going and grabbing a reward and guiding the dog back into position, we gave that dog a leash pop for breaking the command. We gave that dog a leash pop for breaking the command. The expectation is you stay here and if you break the command, I'm going to say no and I'm going to correct you, and so that teaches you to stay here. If you stay here, I'm going to continue to reward you, but also the communication of no, I don't want you to get up, I don't want you to follow me around the house, I want you to stay here while I walk into the kitchen. Come back and I'll reward you if you stay here. But when the dog would break, they would go and get food. Pay the dog and a down. The dog would break again. They would go and get food. Pay the dog and a down.
Speaker 1:So the game became oh well, I'm just going to break command, because I'm rewarded for breaking the command. However, use your marker word. No, I don't want you to get up. So clear communication on both sides. Right, I'm going to teach you exactly what I want you to do and I'm also going to teach you what I don't want you to do. Okay, that's my spiel. I won't go too in depth, but it but it's a reoccurring conversation that I have and I feel like dog trainers do not explain it well enough, and maybe that was me in the past. But dog training is all about creating clear communication so that we can set expectations. So my communication systems are marker words, which I just explained to you guys leash pressure, body language and e-collar if we choose to do e-collar with the dog, which I won't get into too much today.
Speaker 1:But over the past couple of weeks I have kind of, you know, got to see what we're all all doing. I told you guys that I was a little bit out of touch from not training dogs and not doing lessons. I love doing lessons because I really get to see what people are doing. It's very different from board and trains, which I've done mostly in the past where, like you get a dog and then you train the dog, we're not really seeing what the owners are doing with the dogs. I'm mostly just seeing, like, the dog's behavior. I think I have a general idea of what people are doing based on the dog's behavior. But lessons really shows you what folks are doing, and so I've created just a quick little list, five do's and five don'ts in our dog training that can hopefully help you create a better relationship with your dog.
Speaker 1:So let's get into it. We're going to start with the do's. We're going to start off positive here. So number one crate train. Oh, I know, I know such a basic thing, but creating your dog is such a valuable skill to have and people think that it's like this horrible thing. But it's just a skill, right, and pretty much every single dog trainer I have never met a dog trainer who does not suggest creating dogs. I'll give you that one. I have never met a dog trainer who does not create dogs, who doesn't suggest create training dogs. We're all going to suggest you crate, train your dog because it's just a tool that you can use to help your dog, right? So I'm getting a ton of separation anxiety cases. So I'm getting a ton of separation anxiety cases.
Speaker 1:I also kind of disclaimer I don't like the term separation anxiety for dogs, because very, very few dogs actually have separation anxiety. Most dogs are just demand, barking Like they're just very demanding. It's not actually true anxiety and I also feel like people have anxiety and it kind of belittles people who have genuine anxiety because it's not it's like most of the time a taught behavior with our dogs. Okay. So the crate is super valuable in teaching our dog to settle. It's super valuable in safety for our dog, right? So, like I have all of my dogs crated in the van, having an extra layer of like security. Right, if I open my van door, I know my dogs aren't going to go rushing out into the street or I know they're not going to rush that dog that was off leash outside of our van. It helps with destructive behaviors. It helps with potty training. It helps with car anxiety.
Speaker 1:I got a message on Instagram from a owner that I worked with a few years back and we e-collar trained this dog. This is a very severe dog. I feel for them it's a really tough dog, but basically they're scared to use their e -collar, they're scared to dial up on their e-collar. If you've properly conditioned your dog, you should not be scared to dial up on your e-collar If you like are getting hung up on levels, you need to dial up because that is your. It's just an arbitrary number and people, people will be like I don't want to go over 30 and it's like, okay. Well, if I gave you another e-caller that was stronger, if you were at a 30, that would be the equivalent of like to this 60. So don't get hung up on the levels, just do the number anyways.
Speaker 1:They were telling me that the dog is super reactive in the car, like it was this big long message about how it's been so horrible and they don't know what to do and they like can't use the e-caller because the e-caller doesn't work. And then I was like are you correcting the dog? Well, I don't go over a 30, okay, well, you need to dial up. Or do you have a car crate? No, okay, well, create the dog in the car so that the dog's not staring out the window, right? So it's just another option. It's just another option that we can use in our training. But if your dog is not crate trained or, let's say, you don't have a car crate like you're not able to do that. Right, so I'm left with okay, then you have to correct the dog. Well, I don't want to correct the dog. Okay, then you're gonna have to avoid going on car rides then, which I think personally is unfair, because you're limiting your dog's freedom, because you are unwilling to give them the structure with the crate or correct them for the behaviors that you don't want them to do.
Speaker 1:Okay, so the crate is super, super valuable. Dogs that stare out the window all day, bark out the window, practice reactivity, crate. The crate prevents that. It's such a valuable thing. It teaches our dog downtime. My dogs love their crate. It's when I give them bones, it's when I give them their meals. All the good stuff happens in the crate. We oftentimes are putting our own emotions on the crate and every single time I do a lesson with somebody, I ask are you creating your dog?
Speaker 1:No, okay, we need to go back on a crate routine. I had a human we'll say human aggressive. The dog has like nipped people. I mean I think if a dog is putting their mouth on people then that's aggressive. But anyways, I followed up with a lesson with them and obviously the first lesson I was like, hey, you need to get back on a routine, back on structure with this dog. No couch time with this dog. You know, if you're not there dog needs to be in the crate. If you're feeding your other dog, this dog needs to be in the crate. And then last lesson they're like wow, it's literally like changed the dog so much. Just getting on a crate routine. It's crazy. And I was like, yeah, I need to record you and I need you to tell all of my clients this, because it really does make such a big difference in the dog's state of mind and overall behavior. I promise dog trainers are not just like making this up for funsies. Okay, all right, we'll get into number two Do teach markers, teach your markers.
Speaker 1:Clear communication is literally everything with our dogs. That is why I started this podcast off with that long ass rant. Right Is because every single person that I work with is like well, I don't really use my markers anymore or I'm not really consistent with it. That's pretty much like everybody they talk to. They're like uh, well, I'm not really consistent, I'm not really consistent, I'm not really consistent. Okay, well, are you ready to be consistent? Being a dog trainer is tough because it feels like you're coming in and you're like the you know the like personal trainer who's like hey, you have to stop eating ice cream three times a day if you want to lose weight. Man, you know, I know that, but I don't really want to do it. I'm the one who's telling the people hey, you got to be consistent, you got to do the things. You got to be consistent in your language, you got to be consistent in what you hold your dog accountable to, and marker words helps you do that. It helps with your consistency. Okay, all right.
Speaker 1:Number three exposure training early. Okay. So I think, in my opinion, opinion, a lot of dogs adult dogs have behavioral issues because they haven't done proper exposure training early on. We're kind of getting older covid dogs so during like covid lockdown, all of that stuff, nobody took their dogs out and then these dogs turned into adults and they're like scared of the world, or they get overly excited every time they see another dog, or they're like fearful of just school buses and bicycles and all of this stuff because they haven't properly been socialized. If you start doing that early that's all I do with puppies I will, you know, shape behaviors. I'll start to shape a loose lead walk. But my training does not focus on obedience. My training does not focus on like perfect manners. It focuses on crate training, potty training and exposure training. Everybody rushes this For the first year that you have your dog.
Speaker 1:You have a puppy. You need to expose them to as much as possible. Around six to nine months is when they're going to hit their second fear period, and exposure training or socialization during this period is crucial to prevent your dog from developing random fears. I personally like a long line or a flexi and I'll let the dog explore. We'll go on walks. We'll, you know, go to parks. We'll go on hikes. I'll walk through the city. I take my dog to all of the places that I'm going to take them in adulthood, when they're young, as soon as you get your puppy, you should start doing this, okay.
Speaker 1:Number four respect other dogs space. This goes into last week's episode. Guys, not every single dog is friendly, and if you have a super friendly dog, I love that for you. I genuinely do. Like that is so amazing. That is my first dog. She is a puppy cake dog. She gets along with every single dog that she meets. I could put her in a room with the most aggressive dog and they would still get along. However, not every dog is like that and until you have a behavioral dog or a reactive dog, you just don't see the world in that way.
Speaker 1:But we want to be able to take our dogs out and not have to stress so much, and I feel like a big part of the stress that comes from having these dogs and taking them out is the worry that we cannot trust people, that we're gonna have to like advocate for our dog, that we're gonna have to like be mean to people. I told people that I lie and I say my dogs are aggressive and somebody on social media was like you shouldn't lie, like people are gonna test that and like good for them for like testing it out. Like I have to lie because if somebody is approaching your dog whether it's just them or they have another dog you have about two seconds to set firm boundaries with that people. That is my best approach. I say hey, sorry, we're training, or hey, my dog's not friendly, that you have literally two seconds to set a boundary with your dog. But I'm trying to coach people on the other side of things, where, just because somebody is out in public with their dog doesn't mean that they want your dog to come up to their dog, doesn't mean that they want their dog to be pet. It literally has nothing to do with you and everything to do with that dog. Okay, so I would love to see a world where we are respecting other dogs, space where we can kindly look at another dog, smile and keep on walking, not have to have these constant interactions just because a dog is out in public.
Speaker 1:Okay, my number five do be consistent. Be consistent in what you hold your dog accountable. If I put my dog in a down and they break the down, I'm going to put them back into a down, no matter how many times it takes. I'm going to always hold them accountable. If I mark your behavior with good, you have to stay in that down until I release you. I'm never, ever, ever, ever, ever going to allow you to break that down until I release you.
Speaker 1:Dogs do what works. If pulling on leash allows them to keep moving forward, they're going to keep pulling on leash. If breaking commands works, if you let them break commands, they're going to break commands. That is how dogs work right, and dogs typically become really pushy. Of course there's like a personality factor to that, but dogs become pushy because being pushy works. If it works, they're going to keep doing it. So if you look at dog trainers, dogs and you're like, wow, I wish my dog was that great. Your dog can be that great. Dog training is not rocket science, but it is hard. It's hard because it never stops.
Speaker 1:I will always hold my dog accountable to the commands, no matter if I'm sick, no matter if I'm tired, no matter if I've had a long day. I'm not going to allow my dog to break commands, because if I do, then they're going to continue to do that. So make sure that you're consistent in what you hold your dog accountable to, but also consistent in your communication. Does your yes always mean come back to me and get a reward? Does your good always mean to stay there? Is your no always followed by a punishment, no or something to stop that behavior? If not, our words lose their meaning and then we're not able to use them to hold our dogs accountable to whatever we ask them to do. All right, let's get into my five don'ts.
Speaker 1:Number one don't get rid of the crate too soon. Typically, around six months old is when our dogs start to look like adult dogs and so we start to give them more freedom, this typically means getting rid of the crate and what happens is our dogs hit our like that adolescence period, that six to nine months, and they regress drastically. Keep your structure through the first year, year and a half. Some dogs are very slow to mature. Livestock guardian dogs are very slow to mature. Dobermans, I've found, are very slow to mature.
Speaker 1:Let's see what else my Malinois. She just developed consciousness, like she just now has a brain. For like the first two years of her life I was like, oh my god, is my dog dumb, like I feel, like she doesn't think, like I feel, like she doesn't use her brain. She was just in adolescence. So we want to make sure that we stick with our structure, stick with our crate through adolescence.
Speaker 1:Once our dog has reached adulthood and shows us that they've matured, you'll know, you see it, you will see it. Then we can start to give them more freedom. If they are doing great with that freedom amazing. We can give them more. If we give them more freedom. And let's say they get into stuff they chew on the baseboards, they are barking out the window we're going to go back to our structure so we can give our dogs more freedom until they show us that they can't handle that freedom and then we go back to more structure. Your dog will always tell you what they need through their behavior.
Speaker 1:Everybody wants to get rid of the crate as soon as possible because most owners think that it's a bad thing. They feel bad for their behavior. Everybody wants to get rid of the crate as soon as possible because most owners think that it's a bad thing. They feel bad for their dog and I remember recently I was like reading like a meditation book or something and it was talking about be careful who you feel bad for. Like it's it says more about you than the person that you feel bad for. And I honestly think about this like every day, like I don't really feel bad for people and hear me out for a second I feel like like feeling bad for our dog.
Speaker 1:It's like where is that coming from? Why do we feel bad that our dog's in a crate? Well, maybe we don't like when we're told what to do and so we don't want to put that on our dog. But our dogs are not us, right, they are dogs. They are a completely different being. But we're looking at them through the eyes of us and our past experiences and I don't really think that that's fair.
Speaker 1:I don't think that it's fair to put our human emotions on our dog. So, like my owner who didn't want to correct her dog, I don't like that, meg. What do we do, meg? What do we do? I tell her what I would do. I don't feel good about that. And then I said well, you're putting your own emotions on it. You know it's going to really suck if you can't take your dog out because you're unwilling to correct them, because you're putting your own emotions on that e-collar, on that tool. I don't really think that's fair. So don't feel bad for your dog. Just think of you have to switch your mindset around the thing. Right, like I try not to feel bad for people. I'm not like I feel so bad for that person. It's like, okay, well, if I have these feelings, what can I do to help? Right, like, what can I do to change that person? Feeling bad for them isn't really helpful for anybody, okay.
Speaker 1:Number two don't talk to your dog like a person. Dogs are not predominantly verbal communicators. While, yes, I do talk to my dogs. I talk to my dogs, but I don't talk to them with the expectation that they understand what I'm saying. I talk to them knowing I'm probably fulfilling some need of mine that I need to talk to people, right? I know that my dogs aren't going to listen or understand to you know half the words that I'm saying. So use your marker words, use your language that dog understands. Stop putting human feelings, human emotions, human communication on your dog. In my eyes, the best way to love your dog is to treat them like a dog. They are not people. They do not communicate like people do. They do not have feelings like people do. The best thing that we can do is study up on dogs and dog behavior and understand how they communicate, and that's why dog trainers emphasize communicating through marker words and body language and leash guidance. So much is because we've studied dogs, we've studied dog's behavior and this is the most efficient way that we've come up with communicating with them. Right?
Speaker 1:Number three don't wait for your dog to be fully vaccinated to do exposure training. Your vet will scare you. Your vet will tell you that your dog is going to get parvo and your dog is going to die if you take them out in public. This is not true and I think now there's research to actually back this up, like they've done studies on this and like most dogs are totally fine. Do not wait for final vaccinations before you take your dog out.
Speaker 1:In my opinion, the consequence of not taking your dog out far outweighs the risk of them getting sick, because when you don't take your dog out in that very early imprinting stage, your dog is going to develop fears. They're going to develop behavioral issues that are going to be very, very difficult to work through down the line, because your dog was imprinted early on on only being in the house, never seeing the world, and so that is their reality. Those first couple of weeks that you have your dog are the most important. Take your dog out, let them climb on different services. Now, when I'm saying take your dog out, I'm not saying go to a dog park or a doggy daycare or take your puppy to puppy group classes. No, but go to a park, go to a coffee shop, like, go to places that are not heavily populated with dogs, and I promise you the risk of your dog getting sick is so, so little, but it's going to greatly benefit their behavior in the long run. So don't let your vet scare you of this. Okay, as a dog trainer, I get so many dogs with pretty severe behavioral issues because they were not exposed early on. Expose your dog right away to all the things that they're going to be encountering.
Speaker 1:Number four don't do on leash greetings. I'm going to scream this from the rooftops Don't do on leash greetings. It creates too much pressure for the dogs. It's very unnatural. If there's going to be a dog fight, it's going to happen in on leash greetings. And now, if you're listening to this and you're like Meg, my dog is so friendly. We greet other dogs all the time and my dog loves it and other dogs love it Like other dogs all the time, and my dog loves it and other dogs love it. Like, don't tell me what to do. I hope. I hope that you do not approach a dog with behavioral issues and your dog gets hurt like if that hasn't happened to you. You are very, very lucky. You need to count your blessings because I fear someday, if you are letting your dog approach every dog, something bad is going to happen and honestly, it's just a very naive approach.
Speaker 1:Dogs do not need to be greeting each other. We need to be focused on neutrality. Right? Are you able to walk past another dog without rushing up to them, without being reactive, without being overly excited? Most dogs cannot. And then they call a dog trainer and then I tell them you have to stop on leash greetings. It is just not like there is nothing good that comes from it. Literally, there is nothing good except fulfilling your own needs for social interaction. That's the only thing that's happening. When you allow your dog to greet other dogs, I guarantee your dog would be totally fine. You have just placed so much emphasis on like oh my God, my dog is so friendly because, like that's what you want for yourself, like you're putting your own emotions on your dog and personally I don't really think that that's that fair, because your dog is a dog, right? So practice neutrality. Just practice walking past other dogs without acknowledging them. Act how you want your dog to act. If you want your dog to be neutral, don't even acknowledge that there's another dog there. Just continue walking.
Speaker 1:Number five don't do dog parks or doggy daycares. I have, in parentheses, most daycares, because the daycare community comes for me every time I say this and they're like we have an amazing daycare. I am not saying that you don't. I am just putting out a blanket statement that most daycares are very unstructured and don't monitor proper dog play and interaction. So the reason why I do not like dog parks, one I trust no one. I see how people are with their dogs. I do not trust that they will recall their dog or even be capable of recalling their dog if their dog is being an asshole to my dog. I see it literally every single day.
Speaker 1:I go outside of dog parks and like it's always, I'm so, I'm so sorry, but it's always a doodle lady who has like five doodles off leash and because she has doodles, she thinks that, like, she's entitled to her dogs being off leash. I'm not like, I'm not making this up. Every single time I go to a park there's a doodle lady with off leash dogs, not even a dog park. But like, no recall, right? Like your dog is off leash doing whatever they want, rushing up to dogs on leash, like it's just, it's not good, right? So like, avoid dog parks, ignore, avoid parks where there's a ton of off-leash dogs, unless it's dogs that, like you know and see on a consistent basis.
Speaker 1:So, like I had a apartment complex that had a small dog park and this was a very small space and every single day it was like the same four people with their dogs and like all the dogs got along, but also everybody managed their dogs very well. So like if the dog was like being too pushy with another dog, like they would grab their dog and they would leave, or somebody else there would be like hey, your dog isn't allowed to play with our dogs, like they're playing too rough. That is where the magic is right. Like you can go to dog parks as long as everybody's kind of on the same page as that, but you always get the one person with the dog with behavioral issues that shows up and they think that their dog is the best dog ever. And it's like picking fights with other dogs and it's just a fight waiting to happen. And the problem with dog park fights is all the dogs rush in and then you have like this big horde of like dogs fighting and it's just like terrible and I don't wish that upon anybody.
Speaker 1:And then daycares if you haven't already, please go and listen to my doggy daycare episode. I had everybody submit stories of daycares and like the list went on and on, and on and on and on of just like traumatic things at daycares, and like the list went on and on and on and on and on of just like traumatic things at daycares. Large groups of dogs, very unnatural, large groups of dogs that get along very rare uh, I guarantee you, your daycare is not telling you when there's a dog fight. They are not telling you when there's an incident. I know, I know because I speak to the people who work at these places. Okay, so if you're like, no, mine is different, the chances of that is very, very slim. Most reactive dogs that I work with either go to dog parks consistently or daycare consistently. So just you know, keep that one in mind. So that's my list Five do's, five don'ts.
Speaker 1:We're keeping it simple. We started off with our marker word rant. That's pretty much all I got for you today. A little housekeeping thing. I am opening up virtual lessons. So one thing that I want to do with you all is I want to share you, share you. I want to share more of those on the podcast.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to be opening up virtual lessons to be featured on the podcast. So if you would like to schedule a virtual lesson with me, you can either go to the website or also include the link in the show notes. I'm going to be opening that up so that we can start having more of a transparent conversation, because I'm having the same conversations all the time, so why not just share it with you guys? Right, like I want you guys to be able to listen in on these virtual calls that I'm having with people, so you can implement this stuff on your own and kind of make the training more accessible. If you are not able to pay me for you know, that lesson I don't want to like gatekeep the information, right, and that's why we have the podcast, that's why we have all of this. So, yeah, join me for virtual lessons.
Speaker 1:I am loving my virtual client people, just so you know. But we're opening that up for the month of February. I'm also opening up lessons in the San Diego area for the month of February. I will be here for the next five weeks, so I've also got some package options for people if you want to do more than one lesson a week. I think that's the best, because we can actually work through some shit right. We can actually reach our goals with some consistent training. So I'm going to include that link in the show notes, as always. Thank you guys so much for being here and for listening and you know, being a supporter and follower and dog owner passionate dog owner I should say you listen to this every week. Yeah, thank you guys, love you. See you next time.