Lift Your Leg - the art of training a dog

Our most challenging topic to date, which needs to be revisited. Feel. This might be the most misunderstood and underappreciate skill in training dogs today. We work through trying to define this abstract concept.

Matty joins Monique and Jill to tackle a discussion on corrections. We discuss different types of corrections for different types of dogs, give examples from our daily lives, and e-collars. E-Collar Conditioning by Leanne Tucker Recall Collar Conditioning 101   Turn the collar on and have both contact points touching your arm.  Feel the various levels of stimulation. It is important to know for yourself what each level feels like.  Any tool can be abuse. Used correctly,  the ecollar is a wonderful and life saving tool!    Let’s get started!! You may find you have to up the intensity of the stimulation if the distraction is quite exciting… ie. Baseball being thrown, squirrel etc.  each dog is different and you will have to figure out what level is required.  For example I varied between a low 3 and a medium 3 for my training.   Use caution while around other dogs.  If you are going to call your dog do it at a respectful distance.  Do not stimulate your dog while it is saying hello to another dog.   Use common sense J   At this point you should have a dog with a 100% reliable recall…. It’s a wonderful feeling J   1. Have your dog wear the ecollar for a couple of weeks.  Put it on for walks and wear it a little bit around the house. It is not turned on, the dog simply needs to wear it to get used to the feel of it and so they don’t think of it as something bad. It goes on for walkies… this is a good thing!  It must fit snuggly.  Two fingers max in the collar, the prongs must have a good contact.  It is not to move around as this will cause differing stimulation results and is not fair to the dog. The contact points should stay in one spot so they don’t rub back and forth causing an abrasion. 2. Have the dog wearing the collar in the house turned on.  Do not have any distractions around and just go about your daily business.  Set the control to a starting low level.  I usually start at say a 10 with Dogtra or a low/medium 2 with a tritronics.  I use the continuous setting and just do a 1-2 second stimulation.  The response you are looking for is “hey, what was that”…… start low and work your way up until you get that response.  You DO NOT want any vocalization.  You are simply finding out where your dog feels the stimulation.  This will be different for every dog.  My dogs have all gotten a desired response with a tri-tronics low 3 – medium 3  (20 on my old dogtra) I tend not to use a High  on my tritronics collar… I get vocalization on the high so I just use low and medium settings. 3. Now you know what your baseline level is we are ready to get started.   Off to a distraction free area/greenspace/park you go with a long line and cookies!   The dog must already know what “come” means.  The collar is NOT for teaching the recall it is for reinforcing it. 4. Allow dog to wander and check out the environment as you walk him/her on the long line(not a flexi as you will let the dog drag the long line).  You can do a “free” recall (no stimulation) or two with a nice treat for coming to you.  The next step as the dog is wandering around is to say “fido come” and push the continuous stimulation button at the SAME time.  The second the dog turns toward you the stimulation stops. Gently use the long line to make sure they come in to you initially if needed.  The dog is learning how to turn the stimulation off.  It turns off by coming towards the handler. Treats are given for the recall.  The dog should not be vocalizing or be getting upset.   Some dogs may pause and wonder what the heck is that…. That is why the long line is on.  The dog can never be wrong. Bring it toward you with the long line and then the stimulation stops.  Since  your dog already knows come this should not be much of a problem. 5. Repeat several times with some “free” ones in between (“fido come” without stimulation, give the dog a chance to respond in a speedy fashion).  Lots of praise and treats for a job well done. 6. It is not uncommon for the dog to use its brain and want to stay close to you… this is perfectly normal.   Something weird happens when I’m a certain distance away from my owner.  They will figure it out quickly though. Continue walking around until they start to investigate the environment again. 7. Stay on the long line in a distraction free environment for 2-3 sessions.“fido come” plus stimulation,   Stimulation stops when dog turns toward you and comes in.   If the dog starts to come toward you (the stim has stopped) and then decides to abort and go sniff grass, repeat “fido come” with simulation.   8. Next have some distractions present while still on the long line at a reasonable distance.  Ie. Kids playing/ people walking/other dogs at a safe distance on a leash.  Do not use the collar on your dog if another dog is approaching or while visiting another dog.  Your dog is still in the learning phase and you don’t want the dog to associate the stimulation with the approach of another dog, in addition you don’t want your dog to run toward you, away from another dog and perhaps bring on an attack.                                                 Do 2-3 sessions with distractions 9. If your dog is doing well (which it should be) remove the long line.  Go back to a distraction free environment. Again,  “fido come” with stimulation, stim stops when dog turns toward you.  Mix this up with “free” recalls too.   10. Next repeat in a distraction area.  There should be total understanding at this point.

Jill Brown and Monique Anstee discuss if disobedience is always bad. Sometimes dogs have reasons, and are we introspective enough to know if their reasons are valid, or not? Here we go through examples of our dogs showing opinions, and discuss whether we allow it in all dogs, or only ones that have earned that right.

It's question time, and we tackle what you threw at us, some of which sparked some very good conversation. How do you train retrain an e-collar, correct your dog, deal with in -house guarding from guests or your in-house dogs etc. Thank you to all that were brave enough to ask us questions, and I hope these answers suffice!

This is true dog talk, where we discuss living with dogs and that 23 1/2 hours a day of training is more importanat than formal training sessions. Here is the video of Ivan Balabanov and Tina, that we discuss. There are many more videos of his process that should be watched.

The best way to diminish your dog's career is by stepping in the ring before they are ready. Here are things that we are looking for, to know our dogs are ready. One game I mentioned was the plate game. Get ten plates, number them one to ten, then scatter them in your training place. Can you heel from plate 1-10 and keep your dog's focus? If you can, you are probably ready for the ring.

This weekend I taught a heelwork seminar, and loved it. Here are our after thoughts.

Jill and I try to define how we train, and we got it, eventually. It is not forced free or balanced training, but latent learning, and we explain what it is, and how it will change the response from your dog. This might be a slower podcast but stick with it.

Its happening again. The keen among us are breaking their puppies, and its hardly surprising given whats on the internet. Here we give you a quick guide on HOW NOT TO DO THIS

Clearly I'm in vacation mode, and published the wrong one last week. Here is the cleaned up version. I promise to trap Jill into a good conversation for next week.

Monique and Jill discuss lessons from four days of training reactive dogs in BootCamp.

Jill and Monique discuss the lessons their dogs have taught them, and discuss the personal growth gained from training a dog.

Matthew Twitty joins us to discuss the lack of balance in balanced training. This is a heart felt discussion that all three of us feel very passionate about.

Keltie R. Lang (Keltierlang.com) joins Jill Brown and Monique Anstee to further discuss the issues of dog training today with Social Media influence. Please spread the word, comment and share if you like our conversation. Thank you for listening!

Join Monique Anstee and Jill Brown as they attempt to define the differences in a good breeder and a bad breeder when looking for a puppy.

A strong, but true title. Social Media has changed Dog Training from what it used to be, and all of us die-hards are unable to stop it. Tic Toc and Instagram have made many greenies instant professionals, with a bursting client base and six-figure salaries to matcjh. We need to find a way to stop this trend before our profession is watered down to only 30 second video clips.

Getting a puppy? Want to know what breeds to get, or avoid? Then this podcast is for you. We go through the CKC breeds groups and discuss the dogs that we most often see people struggling with. Our Previous podcast (20) is about the breeds that everyone succeeds with. While we state these dogs are not good pets, it does not mean we do not like the breed. In fact, most often, they are our favourites. From Livestock Guardian Breeds, Pointers, Border Collies and Malinois, find out why they are wrong for most people's homes.

There are so many hidden gems for dog breeds, many that are quite unknown. Here Jill Brown and Monique Anstee share breeds that are wonderful and easy to succeed with, from each group of the AKC (American Kennel Club). From Golden Retrievers, to Smooth Collies, and Japanese Chins, learn the breeds that always succeed in their homes.

Monique Anstee, from The Naughty Dogge, and Jill Brown discuss training, safety protocols and preparation needed` for natural disasters like forest fires, tornados, and floods. Some dogs turn feral in these moments. Hopefully this discussion can spark ideas as to how you can make your dog safer in these moments. This is a useful podcast that could save lives. Please share it far and wide.

Learn how YOU play a part in your dog's reactivity, and how to change it. Monique Anstee from The Naughty Dogge and Jill Brown discuss handler errors in the vicious cycle, and what your role is to retrain your dog. They go through the handler jobs, one by one, to make walking your reactive dog a much more enjoyable experience. Lanny Bassham's book - With Winning in Mind, is here... https://mentalmanagement.com/products/with-winning-in-mind Lanny's journal system, Performance Analysis, worth every single penny, is here... https://mentalmanagement.com/products/performance-analysis-the-ultimate-performance-journal. You do need the book to learn how to make the most of this journalling.