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The Everyday Trainer Podcast
The Everyday Trainer Podcast
Your Dog Can Listen on Leash, Even When They'd Rather Not
Nicole's Staffordshire Terrier excels at tricks but transforms into an unstoppable pulling machine the moment a leash appears, especially when heading to the dog park.
• Teaching proper leash pressure is fundamental to stop pulling
• "Pressure on, pressure off" method establishes clear communication
• Pulling gets rewarded when it leads to exciting destinations like dog parks
• Dogs pull because they learn it works to get what they want
• Smart dogs can have poor manners when competing motivations are present
• Loose leash walking requires dedicated practice sessions
• Walking drills should progress from low to high distraction environments
• Different training tools (slip leads, prong collars) distribute pressure better than flat collars
• E-collar training can help with persistent leash issues after foundations are built
• Consistency matters - never reward pressure on the leash
Remember, it's not about being stronger than your dog - it's about teaching them that pulling never works to get what they want.
Visit us at Theeverydaytrainer.com.
Hello, hello and welcome back to the Everyday Trainer podcast. My name is Meg and I am a dog trainer. On today's episode, I'm going to give you guys a little listen into another virtual session. This one is with Nicole. She has a Staffordshire Terrier that she is working on not pulling. So she emphasizes that her dog is super smart which she is but she's lacking on some important manners, like so many of our dogs are. So we talk about how she can teach her dog leash pressure, how to teach her dog not to pull on the leash. We talk about the dog park, the downsides of the dog park and so much more. So this is a great episode, as always. Grab your tasty drink and meet me back here hi, how are you good in yourself doing well?
Speaker 2:well, tell me what you got going on. So I have an extremely smart dog like she's, stupid smart. It takes me like two seconds to teach her a new trick. Um, but she will not listen on the leash, okay, what? What kind of dog? She's a little Staffshire Terrier, hi, tixie, okay.
Speaker 1:So she for treats.
Speaker 2:I only give her carrots because she's allergic to absolutely everything under the sun. She has to eat like lamb and oatmeal food, which is ridiculous and eats better than I do, like, for instance. Let me just show you she's really smart. Watch my back, watch my front. Sit down, see. She's like really really good. Say, please, say, please, not back there. Say, please, please, please. Good job, and she doesn't need a treat. I don't have to have treats in my hand in order to get her to do these things, and she'll do it in front of people. When I have guests over and stuff. She's really obedient, but when I'm on the leash with her, she will not stop pulling very much uh staffy behavior yes, and she goes to the.
Speaker 2:I can't even say the, I can't even spell the word, but it starts with a p, where all the friends like to go and play with each other and, um, if I spell it she's gonna freak out. But there, um, she listens. Well, she will obviously just dart off and run, but if I do my call she'll come back, but it's just a completely different dog on the lead yes, um, are you going to dog parks consistently about twice a week?
Speaker 1:okay. Is that where she's mostly pulling you to? Oh, definitely okay. Do you walk her other times of day besides that?
Speaker 1:rarely, okay, so she's yeah, so she's learned that pulling on the leash gets her to where she wants to go. Yeah, um, you're never going to be more rewarding than playing with other dogs right. So inside, when there's no distraction, she's fine to listen to you because there's no competing motivators there. Yeah, when it comes down to it, if you are walking her to the park and she's pulling you and you still go to the park, she's just now learned that putting pressure on the leash is how I get to the park okay, and it is.
Speaker 2:It is a car ride to go there, and then we get out of the vehicle and then she just pulls yeah, um, do you know, like, how dog trainers feel about dog parks?
Speaker 1:no, I do not.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm a dog park hater I genuinely I don't like dog parks, and it's not because I don't necessarily like dogs, like socializing, it's because it's so externally rewarding that like I want to focus on a dog that like gets all of their rewards from me.
Speaker 1:You know, like you're never gonna beat playing with another dog. So if you can and it's a one dog household so yeah, so if you continue to like, take her to the dog park and let her pull you there, you're never going to have a dog that can walk on leash because we're just accidentally rewarding her to pull and then she gets to go do her favorite thing ever. So what I would do is I would personally work on walking at heel in times outside of like going someplace or, you know, going to the the park. Just work on walking drills with her and the reward is always going to be on you in position. And then, once you've got her walking nicely at heel and I'll like walk you through how we can teach that, um, then when you do walk to the park, you cannot put pressure and get to go on the go to the park. Okay, we're gonna do our walking drills, we'll practice our walks outside the dog park and then we'll leave she heard you say that word and she's like what um?
Speaker 1:have you ever had any like instances at the park or like bites or anything like that?
Speaker 2:no, not at all. Um, when she approaches because I'm sure this is another reason why you hate the dog park is some dogs? Some owners take aggressive dogs to the dog park makes no sense. They keep them on a leash and walk them around the dog park, making them territorial. So tricksy is her name. She'll come up to a dog and the dog will snap at her bark, at her growl. Their hair will stand up and she'll back off. She, she'll walk away. She'll be like, oh, you don't want to be my friend, okay, bye, but she's not one to keep on trying with that same dog. So she's never been attacked. The dogs give her warnings and she backs off and goes find a new friend.
Speaker 1:That's good and yeah, that's like why. Another reason why I don't like them is because I just don't trust people to bring good dogs to the dog park and it's so funny.
Speaker 2:Like these ladies, I live in a small town where there's a lot of old people that come here during the winter because they get away from their, their snow and come to Arizona and they'll pick up their little poodles and little chihuahuas, thinking my dog's just going to eat them alive, and I'm'm like why are you bringing them here then?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I would say focus on building up the skill of walking on leash and maybe not do dog park until you get that, okay so instead of the two times a week going there, do it two times a week taking her on the walk instead, without the reward of playing with the other dogs yeah, and just practice like rewarding her for walking at heel with you.
Speaker 1:She'll probably pick it up pretty easily if you've already got like a good foundation with her. Yeah, okay, um, okay, what are you walking her on?
Speaker 2:a flat buckle collar harness what you got um she has her regular collar and then just let me go. I can't bring it. If I bring it in she's gonna want to go. But but I'm just a regular, regular old leash. It does have the the shorter um leash part on it so that you can hold closer to the latch, and then it has obviously the longer regular handle okay, um, and her collar?
Speaker 1:is it just like a regular flat collar? Yeah, regular collar. Have you ever tried, uh, like slip lead or a prong collar with her? I have not. Okay, so we can start by teaching the foundations of the loose lead. Walk just on her regular collar.
Speaker 1:But I want the leash to mean just like, hey, we're doing a training session, like we're doing something that you're engaged with me. I don't want the leash to always mean like we're going to the PRAK, you know. So what I recommend doing is taking like five, ten minutes every single day and practicing this skill. So just like how you ran through, like her little tricks that she knows, our next trick is going to be walking a heel. Okay, so does she take food from you? Does she like food rewards? Yeah, perfect, so we'll use that. Um, does she like right now?
Speaker 1:because she can see that it's in my pocket does she like playing with like a ball or like tug?
Speaker 2:or she does have toys.
Speaker 1:Yes, okay cool. Have you taught her any marker words like yes or good?
Speaker 2:um, good and um, I do, yes. Um, I know it's bad, I know I'm supposed to use actual words and not sounds, but she knows uh-uh and no that's fine, that's good, that's what I use.
Speaker 1:So our marker words basically tell her what we want her to do and if she's done something correctly or not. So yes, for me is that was perfect, come back to me, get your reward. You're really from position, but the reward is always going to be on me. So I'm either going to reach into my treat, pouch reward with a treat, have my like tug, play tug with her, but it's just like yes, yes, that was perfect, come over here. Okay For me is duration. So if I'm saying good, that means stay.
Speaker 2:you're not getting rewarded. Yes, Okay.
Speaker 1:Exactly, it means that when I reward you, I'm going to come over to you and I'm going to reward you. So if we're thinking of like obedience, it's like if I put her in a down good, I can mark that with a good and walk away, yep, and then I can come back and I'll reward her in that down with a yes.
Speaker 1:no, you're gonna reward her with your good okay, okay so good is, stay there, I'm gonna come to you and reward you. Yes, it's, you come to me, you get the reward, okay. Okay, that clarity is just going to help us kind of like shape what we want her to do. Okay, so anytime we're teaching a new skill, we're always going to start with first, like coming into the position. Right, so you come into the position, yes, I'll pay you, you're released, okay, I don't want to add duration just yet. But another thing is she probably doesn't know leash pressure. So do you have treats on you right now? Treats, yeah, I can get some. Yeah, yeah, go get some. Go get some treats. And then I'll have you put the leash on her and we're just gonna start like teaching what to do when she feels the leash.
Speaker 2:Okay, and I do. She was like severely abused in her previous home To where like even just putting her collar on she like quivers down and gets scared and like even rolls on her back. But the leash she does not. I don't think she ever was taken on a leash before, but the collar I think she was like thrown around with or beat with or something Cause she does not like it. When I initially put it on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, some dogs are also more sensitive to like us touching their necks, so we'll see that a lot.
Speaker 2:Like dogs, I queue them up. I just make little bite sizes with the carrots. What food do you feed Um? For her actual food? Um, I use oh, I don't have the bag in here I use uh, pro pro pro Wiener pro peanut, pro Wiener pro plan when did I go, oh my God Pro Wiener pro plan. Sensitive skin and stomach. Stomach um lamb and oatmeal okay, damn, um.
Speaker 1:So purina is it's a lot of filler and for dogs that have really bad allergies. Basically, what they do is they take everything out of the food. If you read the label on the food, it it's like just corn, like it's just like corn and it's not anything good for them. It's delicious. Okay For staffies and for, like, the bully breeds. They have super sensitive skin. I always try to get them on like a gently cooked food with no carbs, okay, or like a raw I can send you over. Let me make a note I can send you over like a list of foods that I recommend. Perfect. That would also be really helpful for you to like build up her food drive and training. So like to like use carrots all the time. You could use like a freeze-dried raw. That's like okay, ingredients it. They love it. It's like stinky, it's soft. They love to work for their food. Yeah, a note of that of like I'll send you over a list of food she's just sitting here crying.
Speaker 2:She's like come on, mom, I see the whole bag.
Speaker 1:So sensitive? Does she just get like yeasty?
Speaker 2:Yeah, she'll start scratching her ears, chewing on her paws, and then her mouth and her stomach will get really red.
Speaker 1:I'm also going to send you one of my friends is like a nutrition consultant and like for dogs and she works with dogs with allergies all the time.
Speaker 1:Sweet, and she'll help you get to like the root of everything and give you like a full game, what you can and can't have. And yes, yes, awesome, yeah, and she's, she's amazing. I've like gone to her with all of my dogs, so I'll send that over to you as well, okay, um, okay, so go ahead and set up your phone so that I can see you go to a spot where you have like a decent amount of room. I'm gonna have you put the leash on her, okay come sit, sit, no, sit, sit.
Speaker 1:Now her ears kind of go down a little bit yeah, she's just getting the staffy zoom, the butt tuck zoomies okay, down so all she knows of the leash is that she gets to put pressure on it.
Speaker 1:So we're trying to build a new association with her with the leash. This is basically leash goes on, I'm ready to go. She's like a sled dog right now. She's like getting amped up, wants to go on the walk, thinks that you're going to the park. So we need to change the feelings of like what this actually means for her. Okay, yeah, so pick a side that you want to walk her on. Do you want to walk her on the right side or the left, the right? Okay, have you been rewarding her in heel? No, she popped into a heel. Really well, just then.
Speaker 2:I learned to put these in my pocket.
Speaker 1:Yeah, have your treats ready to go. So when she jumps up on you, I want you to just do leash pressure on. So we're just going to kind of like tug the leash pressure on. Didn't even want to. Nope, she doesn't even want it. That's okay.
Speaker 2:We won't use treats for now he's doing all her tricks, something that won't go uh-huh, uh-huh.
Speaker 1:Okay. So what I want you to do is I want you to walk in like the direction behind you, walk over there as soon as she starts to put pressure on the leash and pull you. I want you to shuffle backwards and you're going to pull her back over into the heel position. So we're going to teach her that when you walk ahead and you start to pull, you don't get to keep moving forward. You have to come back to me and leash pressure goes on when she's jumping up like that, and I want you to keep doing this until she simmers down a little bit, okay. And every time she jumps up on you, leash pressure goes on and up. As soon as all four paws are on the ground, you relax the leash, you keep moving forward, okay.
Speaker 2:It's the music.
Speaker 1:So a session like this should be a little bit boring. If she's chewing on the leash, leash pressure goes on and try to keep her on the right side. Yeah, now walk forward. And on this next one, I want you to turn over your left shoulder, so you're going to make a left hand turn and walk straight towards me and relax your arm. Leash pressure goes on when she's chewing on the leash and you can say no and kind of like, pop the leash a little bit. Has she been trained before? No, just with me.
Speaker 2:You've never done heel, not once I'm telling you, I don't know why she's so freaking smart how old?
Speaker 1:how old was she when you got her um?
Speaker 2:about nine months, and she's they didn't do any training with her. No, she was, um, she was in a very, very, very bad home. She has a bunch of scars all over her body. Um, when I adopted her from the shelter, they, um, yeah, they, uh, they got her out of the kennel and she like crawled and peed on herself, coming up to me like she was so traumatized down so when she does that, just say no and do pressure on, because I don't want down to mean like get off of me, I want down to be like her obedience command.
Speaker 1:She does like it auto sit I know it's crazy good. So like right there when she sits, good job, you can give her a good. And if she jumps up on you, no leash pressure goes on. All right, do the walking drills for just a couple more minutes. I want to end on a high note where she's like really getting it. Okay. She's still kind of pushing you a little bit. Now, good job. All right, go ahead and take the leash off her.
Speaker 1:Tell her all done good job, good job and then you can go put the leash away. No, no, no, okay. So what we're dealing with her is she. You have nothing to hold her accountable to anything. So so you've done a really good job at teaching her the things of like what to do. But then when she's like I don't really want to do this, or like I want to do something else, I want to jump up on you. We don't have like a meaningful way to be like hey, no, that's not what I want you to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that's my fault too, because of a trick that she knows it's come to mama and she'll jump all the way up into my arms.
Speaker 1:I mean it's it's very contextual. You know, like I let my dogs jump up on me, but I'll, I'll like go, like this. And also I don't think her jumping up on you in those moments was just like, oh, I'm just jumping up. It's like she's getting frustrated with me, like let's go. Yeah, she's getting frustrated because, like you're not doing what she wants to do, like right then Right. She's like no, you take out the leash and we go to the park and you're changing that expectation of hers. Like you're literally like no, we're actually going to do a slow training session where you have to like use your brain and practice impulse control, and she's not used to that.
Speaker 2:So she's like, you know, like I also take her to work with me about three to four times a week. So she gets a lot of excitement knowing like she doesn't go on the leash whenever I take her with me, um, about three to four times a week. So she gets a lot of um excitement knowing like she doesn't go on the leash. Whenever I take her with me, though, I just I just put her in the truck cause I can take her out front and she won't run, and she can. She's a yard dog. She'll stay out in my front yard with no gate and everything and she'll be totally chill. She'll come back when I call for her and stuff. But so I don't take her to work on a leash. But she does like jump on me ecstatically when I say are you ready?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So we want to have both. We want to have a dog that we can like turn on and be like yeah, are you ready? And they're like, yeah, you know. But we also need like the other side of that, which is like a little bit more control and a little slower. So the walking drills start practicing those, like I would practice it every single day inside, and like we end the session when you're calm, when you're focused on me, I take it off all done. And you can even see her like laying under the table.
Speaker 1:She's like tired because that took a lot of like mental work for her. Yeah, she's because, oh, okay, normally she's like acting on impulse, right, she's just like jumping up, pulling this weight, doing this, and so those walks it's kind of like doggy meditation. It's like, hey, the only thing that you need to do right now is hang out next to me. No, jumping on me, no, pulling me, none of this. The only thing I want you to do is hang out next to me. We're going to be nice and calm. I'm going to mark good, pet you in position when you're calm, and then we get to move forward. So the ticket to getting everything that you want is like calm, focus on you.
Speaker 1:Okay, you don't get to go to the park if you're dragging me down the street. You don't get to reward her for acting like a nut. Exactly, exactly. So take your time between like everything that you do, right? So like I'm not saying if you're, if you're going to the park I'm not saying you can't go to the park, but don't go to the park if she's like acting a fool, you know.
Speaker 1:Like make sure you reel her in first and I'll take my time. So like I'll grab the leash, set the leash on the counter. She's gonna be like, yeah, wait for her to settle down, then I'll clip the leash to her. Then she like goes nuts again. I'll wait for her to settle down again, then I'll clip the leash to her. Then she like goes nuts again. I'll wait for her to settle down again, then I'll go grab the leash. Then she goes nuts again. Now she's just crying, yeah, right, cause she's anticipating like, oh, I get to go to the park, yeah. So just because you grabbed the leash doesn't mean that, like the next steps that you think are coming are coming.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So wait for calm between all of those. You're never going to have any issues like jacking her up. Okay, yeah, she's got lots of energy. Yeah, she does. So think of your leash as like pressure on off. Okay, it goes on when you're out of place, it goes off when you're in place. So this week I'll have you practice those walking drills inside and then we'll take it outside. We'll go outside, like in your driveway or on your street, and do the same walking drills. One will like walk backwards, pull her back into heel, then walk forwards. But the game is anytime you put pressure forward or in any direction, I'm gonna move in the opposite direction. Yeah, we have to recondition her response to leash pressure. We need it to be follow me, not pull against me. Okay, and so your ticket to going to the park, your ticket to pulling over to the grass, is no pressure on that leash, okay, yeah, and she's smart, she'll probably pick up on it pretty quickly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I think she will. She's really smart.
Speaker 1:I don't even know why she's even smarter than the Doberman that I had for 12 years. Yeah, staffies are smart. Yeah, they really are. Um, and then, what does like your day to?
Speaker 2:day look like. So I'm a personal trainer and I own my own women's gym. Um, so my schedule varies. I'm always off work by five and I'm always at work by nine, but I have lots of breaks in between a lot of the time and, like on on Wednesdays, I get off at 10, like it just depends on the day.
Speaker 1:Okay, um, do you always take her with you? Not always, but most of the time, okay, and what does she do when you're working? She?
Speaker 2:just lays there, hangs out. She's super, super calm. She has a little dumbbell toy that she'll come up to me and tell me to throw for her and stuff at the gym, but other than that, she just hangs out, she doesn't do anything. She never, ever, ever, jumps on my clients. Um, she'll bark at me every once in a while if I don't throw her toy right away.
Speaker 1:but and that's her way of saying please- yeah, yeah, yeah, um, do you ever struggle with, like her, barking at other dogs when you're on the leash?
Speaker 2:no, um, she does really, really, really pull. When she's where, I get a little bit scared that, um, she's gonna come out of her collar because she'll like turn around and pull backwards. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, like she stands.
Speaker 1:If I pull this way, the collar might come off yeah, I'll send you um a slip lead as well, like I'll send you info for slip lead.
Speaker 1:So the reason why I like slip leads and prong collars is because they tighten up evenly around the dog's neck so that we're really able to teach like pressure on, pressure off, whereas like the flat buckle collar, it wherever yeah, it puts all the pressure, like on the front and then there's that big gap at the back, so like they're putting so much pressure on their trachea, whereas like a collar that like tightens evenly around the neck is not going to allow them to put so much pressure on it.
Speaker 1:That makes sense and I wouldn't start with I'll send you info for a slip lead and um a prong. I wouldn't necessarily start prong with her until you've got these like walking drills down with her, because I always start with either a flat focal collar or a slip lead with dogs just to teach them like the foundations of it. But you might find that once you start taking this like these drills around more distractions, other dogs around the dog park she's not going to care about your leash pressure and she's like it's worth it and just like that's what he literally chokes herself like yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And so in moments like that, like I would use a prong collar because they're just not able to put as much force on the leash as they would, and like she's a big girl, yeah, yeah, she could like really drag you if you weren't a personal trainer, I'm sure she's got some strength on her and it's all the thing that she does at the place that she loves yeah, but I would keep taking her, like take her out to work with you.
Speaker 1:You could even teach her like a place command and have her like chill on her little place bed. But if she's fine like and relaxes and doesn't have any bad behaviors, you really don't have to micromanage her that much. You know, like you don't have to tether her to something, you don't have to like crate her or anything like that, because she's not like doing anything bad.
Speaker 2:She has a little crate, but it's legit just for her little safe space you know what I mean Like I can put a blanket over over it. She has her dog bed and toys in there, but it's mainly just so that when she feels some type of way, she could go in there and be by herself yeah, I've never closed it on her.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she goes in there, especially when it's like, um, fireworks and stuff like that, she'll go in there, and that's why I put the blanket over it, because she was curling up in like the very corner of my kitchen when the lights were off and I'm like you just want to be dark, so I'm gonna put a blanket over the crate and now she uses that.
Speaker 1:That's awesome yeah, and that's perfect. That's what we want the crate to be. Yeah, it's just like their safe, comfy place. People always are like I don't want to create my dog and I'm like they will. They will love it Like they learn you know, yeah, and I've only.
Speaker 2:it's only been closed on her one time, um, when she chewed on the couch and, uh, I tried to use it as a punishment, but it did not work. She actually nod out of it. So I never closed it again and now I put her outside. Well, I have put her outside. She hasn't chewed on anything in like a year, but, um, I've put her outside until she learned not to chew on stuff, just for like a good 10 minutes.
Speaker 1:so what, she's, um, about two years old okay, yeah, you are probably out of that, like if she hasn't done it yeah, she hasn't done it in months. Yeah but if she does get to the point where she's like starting to destroy stuff, then I would definitely create her whenever you leave. Okay, yeah, and I would like take the bed out, because sometimes yeah, she did chew on the bed before.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but the only thing about closing the crate on her is this is what she likes to do. She ended up pushing through, like, and it scratched her back and her head so bad she was bleeding on her paws and it, like it was just so bad I was so scared to ever do it again. So I just kind of try to bend everything back to place and haven't closed it since.
Speaker 1:Yeah you would also like, if you did crate train her, you would need to get a different crate that she couldn't break out of, either like a roughland or like an impact crate. Okay, it's up to you, like to me. That shows me like, oh, she's not cool being crated. So like I think of like emergency situations, right, like she's probably gonna have to be created at some point in her life maybe she does that and you know, has to be created there. Like, do you want that to be the traumatizing?
Speaker 1:or trauma yeah, yeah, no. Or do you want to practice it like in your home and teach her that like hey, even if I close the crate, like the world is not going to end, yeah, then you might want to consider doing that. It's not an easy road to crate. Train a dog that does not like being crated.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she only likes to go in there on her own terms.
Speaker 1:And I think that's kind of like her thing right. Like that's why she can do well on leash, that's why she's jumping up on you when you're trying to get her to do something is like she's great if you never tell her what to do. Or like restrain her. Yeah, like restrain her in any way. She's like no, I don't want to, you know. And like you're lucky that she makes good decisions for herself. Yeah, like imagine if she had that attitude and she did not make very good decisions for herself, she would be very problematic.
Speaker 2:Yes, I would be very stressed out. I probably would have been months ago yeah.
Speaker 1:So like if I wanted to crate train her, I would basically practice by like feeding her her meals in the crate. Oh okay, yeah, so like you go into the crate, I'm gonna feed you, close the door. When you're done I'll open it and let you out, so that like, yeah, use your food as a opportunity to kind of like counter condition her like freaking out and she'll be too busy eating. Then to you know, like want to try to break out of the crib and I would just make that like part of her day, part of her routine of like hey, you just go in here, I closed the door, you eat your food, I'll let you out.
Speaker 1:It's a non-event you know, and then you could start adding like more time to it, of like, okay, I feed you and then you hang out in there for 10 minutes and then I'll come and let you out. But if you don't have like a rush to crate train her, you could really take your time with it and your big thing will be closing the door and trying to prevent her from losing it.
Speaker 2:I feel like she has like separation anxiety because I take her so many places, like I take her to work with me. I take her to her favorite place in the world. She's just constantly, always, like literally always right next to me. She never leaves my side. She's attached to my hip.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm sure she does. I'm sure she does have separation anxiety. Yeah, but I don't know, I wouldn't really like tackle that beast. I would just work on getting her a little bit more comfy being in the crate with the door closed. Okay, yeah. Because if your life is set up to where he can spend that time with me, yeah, why?
Speaker 2:not. I know I'm like her place, our places, it's not small, but by any means. But her, her environment is so small and I want to expand that so much Cause I feel so bad, cause she has no option to expand her. Her environment is so small and I want to expand that so much because I feel so bad, because she has no option to expand her own environment. You know it's it's up to me to expand that. So I'm like you're gonna go to work with me. Plus, who doesn't like going to a gym with a dog in it, a killed dog at that? You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:If you're able, to like bring your dog to work, like that's perfect. You know, yeah, I live out of my van and so, like my dogs are always with me. If I go back to, like, living in a house, they're for sure gonna lose their mind, because they're so used to like they literally go everywhere with me. You know, like they never see me leave because, like you are in the vehicle that I am with. You know, so, like you could easily say like, oh, my dogs have separation anxiety, which, like, yeah, they definitely will, but that's their environment. You know, yeah, like I'm totally.
Speaker 2:it's not like you're planning on leaving them, yeah exactly, Exactly.
Speaker 1:So it's like fine for me, you know.
Speaker 2:I got separation anxiety too. Why do you think she goes to work with me?
Speaker 1:I know right, I feel naked if.
Speaker 2:I don't bring my dogs with me. I know my daughter and I went to Hawaii for two weeks in January to visit some of my family and I left my dog with my mom and me and my daughter were crying because we were so sad without her. We're like what do we want to do? And my family out there doesn't have dogs. They don't believe in dogs. They think they should only have working animals. There's no reason to have a dog, which blows my mind. So we went and cuddled some cows, literally laid in the grass with some cows and cuddled them for two hours, just so that we could feel a little bit better about not being with our dog.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I mean it goes both ways? Yeah, definitely. Yeah, that's like everybody who boards their dogs with me. I have a dog here right now and I know her owner is just like losing it because her dog has separation anxiety. He doesn't have it with us, but I know that he has it with the owner and I'm like this comes from somewhere. Like the owner also is having separations. Oh yeah, that's how it goes. As many videos as possible like he's good. I promise she's like. I miss him so much. I'm like, I know, I know it's so funny.
Speaker 1:Um. Is there anything else that you want to work on, aside from the leash pulling?
Speaker 2:um, maybe one other thing would be in my backyard. She's very, very kind to other animals, even cats, but not if they're on my backyard wall, because she'll see a cat walking across the wall and she'll jump and her face will scrape down the side of the wall. She does it the entire way. Do you think she would ever get out? No, no, because she could. If she wanted to Because I have this right here she could easily jump on and jump over and be gone. I'm only five, four, these are not tall walls um, and she I'm I I know she can't, because she could jump in my arms easily with like no hesitation and no effort put in.
Speaker 2:I don't think she's aware that she could jump the wall okay, that's good, let's keep it that way yeah, yeah, even like my daughter sometimes jumps the back wall and I'm like you better not let trixie see you, because then she's gonna understand, because she's so smart. She's like oh, that's how you get over yes, yeah, that's exactly what will happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay. So with stuff like that, with behaviors that we don't want them to do, go back to your pressure on, pressure off right. So like if she's jumping at the back of the wall, we'll say no, walk over, grab our leash, pop her on the leash, guide her back down. You have to correct that type of behavior. So if you know that, like when I put her in the backyard, she does this, like every time I would have a slip lead on her. You can just let it drag.
Speaker 1:But that's our accountability, right of like doing something that I don't like. Pressure is going to go on. I'm going to guide you either back to me, like, let's say, we're trying to pop her on the leash and she just doesn't care. She's like no, I'm going to get that cat, like nothing's going to stop me. I would grab my leash, walk her back inside you know.
Speaker 1:So the punishment in that sense is like okay, no more outside time and you have to be like on it. Or the other option that you can, you know, think about is e-collar training her. And e-collar is basically our electric leash okay, cordless leash for things like that. So like if I have a dog that is jumping at the fence, barking at the fence, jumping up on counters, and the owner's like I have to stop this behavior, we're gonna e-collar condition the dog which is just teaching them. That is the equivalent of the leash pressure. So we do the same walking drills Pressure goes on when you're not doing what I like.
Speaker 1:It goes off when you're next to me and heel. It's the same thing with our e-collar. So we would like press and hold, stim goes on, it goes off. It's just like a tens unit. Okay, like that stim feeling, that's what it is. And so, like in those moments where she's like like popping off at the cat, it's just a way to disrupt her and be like hey, pressure's on, stop doing that thing, and then it will go off.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So that's something that you can consider down the line. Um, definitely teach her leash pressure first and in your mind, think, okay, pressure on, pressure off. Leash, pressure goes on. When she's doing something that I don't like, I guide her back to me, it goes off. So if down the road, you do want to do e-caller with her, it's the same sort of thinking. It's pressure goes on. I press my button, she stops doing the thing, pressure goes off okay does that make sense?
Speaker 1:yes, but if you practice the like walking drills and all of that stuff, then by the time you get really good at that, you'll be like okay, this makes sense. Like, really pay attention to like, when the leash is tight, when it's loose, what are we queuing? Comes after that if the leash is tight, when it's loose, what are we queuing? Comes after that If the leash is tight and she pulls over to another dog, she's just like been rewarded for putting pressure on the leash. So make sure those little moments we don't accidentally reward her for putting pressure on the leash. Okay, and then once you get really good at that, it will be super easy for you to layer the e-collar on top of. Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good at that. It will be super easy for you to layer the e-collar on top of. Okay, yeah, and with with the e-collar, still be okay if like, for instance, let me take off her collar so you can see. Yeah, oops, what did I just do? Sorry, where did I go there? We are all right, let me switch this around. But, like what I'm trying to, let's see if you can see this. Let's see how she like really gets like scared that's pretty typical.
Speaker 1:A lot of dogs do that. I wouldn't say much about that I don't think I don't think it necessarily. I don't think it necessarily means that she was like abused with the collar. Some dogs are just like weird about like you putting your hands.
Speaker 2:So so it wouldn't. I was just thinking that as far as like an e-collar, if that would make it worse for the collar wise.
Speaker 1:But okay, and also like practice putting the collar on and like rewarding. You know like good things happen when the collar goes on. But I don't necessarily think that that's like bad feelings. I think it's just like. It's like a submissive dog thing Like my golden does it and she's never like I've never abused her, she's never had any issues with the collar. It's almost like a just oh you're, you're putting a thing on me that's like gonna hold me accountable you know, and they're like oh fine you know, yeah, it's just like a little kid who like doesn't want to put their like school clothes on.
Speaker 1:They're like no, I don't want to, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I wouldn't stress too much about that, but like you can positively condition it if you wanted to you know, or you could like put the collar on, feed them so that like color on is like food, so she like gets pumped when the collar comes on. And that's how a lot of dogs get with like the e-collar too, because it's like how your leash is associated with, like going to the park, my dogs. When I pull out the e-collars, they're like yes, we get to be off leash, like we're going for a hike, we're doing something fun, yeah. When I pull out the e-callers, they're like, yes, we get to be off leash, like we're going, we're doing something fun, yeah.
Speaker 1:When I pull these out, good things usually happen okay, yeah yeah, and also, like e-caller, definitely could help you with the pulling on leash.
Speaker 2:Yeah, especially if she's not super sensitive to leash pressure especially when we leave the vehicle and walk up to the gate of the place. That's when it's just like, oh my god, who are you?
Speaker 1:yeah, you're not my dog, you're possessed yeah, and the the e-caller will give you like a little more oomph. Okay, you're in your leash because, like you have to think we're dealing with competing motivators, right, your dog does not care about the leash pressure because they're about to get something so good. So, like they do not care that they're going to get corrected, they do not care. Like that, it's uncomfy, it's like worth it to push through to that to go into the park. Or for some dogs, it like it's worth it to you know, eat through it, eat collar correction to get the squirrel. Or to you know, get something they want. It's like makes sense. You know they really want to go to the dog park, so they're willing to like do anything to get there. Yeah, and when you do that like time and time again, leash pressure equals dog park, leash pressure equals dog park.
Speaker 2:It's just a habit.
Speaker 1:Yep, then we're just conditioning. When you put pressure on the leash, you get to get the thing that you want.
Speaker 2:I get there faster, I'll literally jog, because she pulls so dang hard and I'm like scared she's going to get out of the collar. So that makes sense that she's like I'll just keep doing it because it makes you go faster.
Speaker 1:Yeah it's like training you very, very well she's training me.
Speaker 2:Oh, how the tables have turned. Yeah, exactly so. So this week, do like five, ten minutes of what we did the little walking drills inside, and then gradually go outside, and then eventually go up to where we park for the place and do it out there without actually going in, right, yeah? And it's gonna be hard, like she's gonna be horrible I'll definitely need the um, the other color for that, not the e1, but the, not the prong. The slip, yeah or no? No, you said the prong one would be better for that instance.
Speaker 1:Huh yeah, but I would still recommend you teach it like in the house first, but the same thing that you did today. Whenever we teach a new tool, we'll do that same exercise, and then are you part of my online community.
Speaker 2:I am on your Instagram but I don't know about your online community. I had a friend actually referred me to you just a couple of weeks ago, I think you were in Phoenix, and he was like you need to go see her and I'm like I live in Yuma, two and a half hours.
Speaker 1:I wasn't able to make it over to you, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I just recently, recently, became aware of you, nice, nice.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm going gonna send you a link to our community as well. Um, I have tons of videos of, like, the walking drills of e-collar, of like all the things that you need, so I can give you like a little list of videos to watch. Okay, making notes here, um, and then also on wednesdays, I do like group calls with everybody, cool, yeah, it's a good opportunity to like check in and be like, hey, I'm doing this, here's what's happening. Yeah, you can also like submit videos of you training. I can give you feedback. Like that's how I really make sure that, like I can follow up and kind of like see where you're at with everything. Yeah, perfect, yeah, so I'll send you info for that call.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I've got, I'm gonna send you over a list of food. I'll send you April's info. She's the dog nutritionist. Uh, link to a slip and prong. I'll send you the other crates, but I wouldn't necessarily focus on that right now. Like we're not really in a big rush for that. Yeah, info for the online community. Is there anything else? Um, no, I believe that's it. Okay, perfect, you got any other questions for me? Nope, that's all.
Speaker 2:I really appreciate you, megan. Thank you, that's all. I really appreciate you, megan. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:It was so nice meeting you and I'll either see you in the community or just shoot me like an email or a DM of any updates and if you have any questions, okay, perfect, thank you so much.
Speaker 2:All right, bye. Have a good one you too.
Speaker 1:All right, guys, I hope you enjoyed that episode. It's always good to see how dog trainers are like actually working with clients, and I feel like Nicole was just such a good listen because she's in the place that so many dog owners are. I can tell she hasn't, you know, dove deep into the dog training world on the internet, so a lot of the things that I was telling her are what we're gonna work with with a majority of owners, especially if you're a dog trainer, you know it's the basics. It's teaching leash pressure. It's not reinforcing bad behaviors by going to the dog park. It's about building up engagement with ourselves instead of the external environment with our dogs. So hope you enjoyed. We'll see you next week. Thanks so much for being here.