Avoid Dog Training Disasters

I could hear my Mom's voice: "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

Easy for her, she was on her way to becoming a Catholic nun before she met my Pop on a beach in Connecticut. She is hard wired to always be nice.

Anyhow...

I was sitting at a round table discussion with some other pet professionals discussing dog behavior and care. There was a vet, a couple of groomers, a shelter manager, another dog trainer, and me.

The round table was an informational event open to the public. Dog owners were encouraged to attend and ask questions. There were a lot of training and behavior questions that the vet and the other trainer answered.

I was keeping my mouth shut and I could feel my face becoming red and knew that my blood pressure was rising. As I was sitting there, I was listening to advice that I completely, 100% disagreed with. The other round table attendees all agreed with each other and I was keeping my mouth shut.

I guess everyone noticed because I was asked if I had anything to share.

I sat there and thought about my choices. I could:

1. Get up and leave.
2. Agree with the bad advice and keep things friendly.
3. Voice my thoughts.

I work hard at not being confrontational, but this was too much. With my Mom's voice echoing in my head I opted for choice number three and spoke up:

"I disagree with a most of what's been said here today."

"Would you like to tell us what you disagree with."

"Sure," I said and then went on to contradict just about everyone at the table.

The other "experts" were advising that training a dog should not be done until the dog is six months old. The other dog trainer and the vet completely agreed on this point. They were also telling the attendees that they should use a choke chain for training and that treats should avoided at all costs.

They also said that a puppy should be kept in the house and have limited exposure to the outside world until after the vaccinations are complete.

I almost literally had to put my hand over my mouth when I heard that one. I went on to explain that puppies should start training as young as eight weeks old. That a puppy can start to learn basic commands such as sit, down, stay, come, and walking on leash.

I also added that keeping a puppy in the house and not socializing him can turn into a nightmare situation for the puppy's owners. A puppy has a socialization period that has to be taken advantage of. The more the puppy is exposed to, up to between eight weeks and four months, the more stable she will be as an adult dog.

The veterinarian was none to pleased with my comments and made it clear.

"You are putting the puppy at risk by exposing him without proper inoculations."

I knew that was coming and was ready with my reply:

"Do you know what the number one reason for dogs dying in the United States is
?" Before he could answer I followed up with, "Do you know the number reason for euthanasia?"

I was hot now and still did not let him answer.

"Behavior problems."

More dogs are put to sleep for behavior problems than for any other reason. We don't properly socialize our puppies, we wait until the pup is six months old before we start training, then to top it off, we use negative, outdated, harsh and sometimes cruel training methods.

When the dog becomes aggressive, fearful, or unruly to the point where we can't control the dog, the dog ends up in a shelter, abandoned, or put to sleep.

I added that the chances of a puppy dying from rabies, parvo, distemper etc. couldn't compare to the numbers of dogs that were being put to sleep for behavior problems.

The round table ended shortly after and I was never invited back. When I think back on the whole situation I guess I may have been a little out of line.

BUT...

I don't apologize for what I said or did. I stand by what I said then and still do today. I not going to sit there and listen to advice that can potentially be harmful to a dog.

Anyway, as I was thinking about all of this I wrote down what I think are the four biggest dog training disasters:

1. Waiting
2. Harsh methods
3. Giving up
4. Follow through

With the advice given at the round table a lot of dog owners wait to start training. By that time their dog has developed some behavior problems. The dog training "experts" recommend harsh methods which often backfire. Because using harsh methods is not fun most people don't follow through with the training. In the end they give up. They give up on the training and sometimes on the dog.

Conclusion: Start training early, use lots of positive reinforcement, don't give up and keep on learning about dog training so you can follow through and have a dog that is well behaved and fun to be around.

Your friend,

Eric

Learn more about effective, positive training methods at www.AmazingDogTrainingMan.com

Who Else Wants To Learn A Little Known Dog Training Secret Inspired By A Former Russian Special Forces Instructor?

On a beautiful spring morning a few years back I found myself sitting in a small classroom listening to “The Evil Russian,” Pavel Tsatsouline discuss flexibility training.

There were about 25 people in the room and they were all there to learn techniques that Pavel used to train the elite Russian Special Forces Unit, Spetznaz. Everyone listened intently as Pavel shared his secrets with us, but one person, me, was really amazed at how some of what he said applied to dog training.

What Makes The Difference?

Have you ever wondered, as I have, what makes such a dramatic difference in the way a dog behaves? It isn’t always the person training the dog. It isn’t that one person wants a well behaved dog and the other doesn’t.

The difference lies in how well the person understands a few basic techniques about training dogs.

It’s important for us to understand that we do NOT want to reinforce the behaviors that we don’t like. One of the biggest problems for about 90% of dog owners is jumping and unruly behavior.

We need to make sure that we are not un-intentionally reinforcing the unruly behavior. When a friend comes over and your dog starts to jump, the typical scenario goes something like this: your friend pushing your dog or petting your dog, while you are trying to pull your dog back and yelling, “down,” “get down.”

This all reinforces the unruly behavior. Unintentionally, but still reinforcing.

What The Evil Russian Taught Me

During the seminar that I attended, Pavel made a comment that applies to all of this. As he was discussing stretching he used the term:

Forced relaxation

He added that only the Russians can come up with a term like “Forced relaxation.”

It struck me because that is exactly what we need to do when we are dealing with a young dog that likes to jump and become unruly. We need to force them to relax.

The easiest way to do this is with a leash on your dog. Here’s how it works: when your friend comes over the house, before you let your friend in put a leash on your dog. You then step on the leash to prevent your dog from jumping.

With all your weight on the leash you force your dog to relax before your friend approaches and gives your dog any attention. Your dog only gets your friend’s attention when she or he relaxes.

If your dog is too strong for you, find a place in your house where you can secure the leash to something sturdy. This way your dog is out of the area where he can jump and get unintentional reinforcement.

I'll be adding a video showing how to do this to my website: Amazing Dog Training Man

Forced relaxation is a great way to teach calm behavior. The calmer the dog, the easier and more enjoyable it is to be around your dog. Your friends will like you and your dog much better when they come over to your house and your dog does not jump all over them.

It’s hard to believe, but not everyone is a dog lover like you and me.

Peace,

Eric

A confession...

I didn't get a lot of sleep last night.

Many of you know that I am a huge New England Patriots fan. Being a life long resident of New England, I love the Red Sox and the Patriots.

The past year has been great for fans in New England. The Red Sox won the World Series and then the Patriots went on to an ALMOST perfect season.

I woke up Sunday morning in a great mood. I was sure that the Patriots were going to win and wanted to celebrate it with all the great dog owners like you, who subscribe
to this newsletter.

I was going to call it "The Perfect Season Package."

The package was going to include:

The Good K9 Manners course - $29.99 value
The Amazing Dog Training Man digital book - $9.99 value
Ultimate Online Dog Training Course - $19.99 value

$60.00 worth of hard-hitting, real world dog training instructions. I was going to include everything for just $29.99 - a FULL Half Off!

That was before the Superbowl. But as you know by now, the Giants won.

But...

Just to show your that I am a good guy, I'm still going to let you take advantage of
this generous offer for the next 7 days only.

Instead of calling it the "Perfect Season" Package I am now calling it the "I'm Not A
Sore Loser" package. The "I'm Not A Sore Loser" package with be available for the next seven days.

So, to take advantage of my grief and this great package don't delay. Want to take advantage of this incredible offer? Go to:

http://goodk9manners.com

and purchase the Good K9 Manners program. As soon as you do,you'll receive an email
with links to both the Ultimate Online Dog Training Course and my digital book,"The
Amazing Dog Training Man." This offer is only good for the next 7 days.

Your friend,

Eric

Why Dogs Pull On Leash

How can you pick out a lab owner standing in a group of dog owners?

Answer: The lab owner is the one with a sling on her arm, a black eye, and using crutches.

That's a bad joke that I used to tell when ever I was doing one of my leash walking seminars. I used to do weekend seminars just on leash walking and I always told that bad joke because of an incident that happened shortly after I opened my dog training business.

You see, one Saturday afternoon I was finishing up a day of teaching classes when a very nice lady walked into my office. She looked like she was in a Rocky movie. She had two huge black eyes, a piece of tape over her nose and her face was red and puffy.

I found out that her face was puffy from crying, she started to cry almost as soon as she walked in the door. She then told the story of her big 90lb. black lab that was the cause of her injuries and her crying.

She went on to explain that she was about to take her dog for walk, something she absolutely dreaded because he was such an awful puller. He would drag her around for about thirty minutes and taking him for a walk was terrible.

She added that the other day she was getting ready to take him for a walk. Just as she was about to exit the house her husband called to her. She stopped just as she was walking out the door. Her lab was outside the house and she was still inside the house.

As she was standing in the house holding her dog's leash as he was outside, her dog saw a cat. Her lab seeing the cat took off after it full speed. She had the loop of the leash around her wrist.

With the speed of a boat pulling a skier out of the water she went face first into the door, breaking her nose and injuring her wrist.

It was then that she started to cry - she said that she loved her dog. He was sweet, never chewed, never had any housetraining issues but she could not control him on the leash. He pulled her everywhere and it was becoming impossible to walk him anywhere.

I assured her that she was in the right place and that we would get her dog walking on leash in no time. A few days later she showed up with her happy, excitable, strong lab and we started our leash training. I explained to her that the best place to start training is to understand why dogs do certain behaviors.

When it comes to pulling there are three reasons why dogs pull. Once you understand what the reasons are you can take steps to fix the problem. Here they are:

Reason #1: Your dog has no clue that they are supposed to walk next to you.

Reason #2: Opposition reflex.

Reason #3: Your dog is constantly being rewarded for pulling.

So let's look at the first reason why dogs pull - Your dog has no clue that he is supposed to walk at your side. When you put your dog on leash your dog does not know that he is supposed to walk politely at your side. Your dog sees a big world in front of him and starts to pull.

The first step is to teach your dog to walk at your side. I start by using a food lure and having the dog follow the food lure.

IMPORTANT POINT: The is a exercise that you practice in a non-distracting area. The purpose of this exercise is to teach your dog where you want him to be. Taking your dog for a walk with a food lure won't work for long. There are too many distractions.



You want to spend about 10 minutes a day just having your dog follow the food lure at your side. This is laying the foundation for the future. Once your dog starts to understand that you want your dog to walk on your side you can add a slight correction that will teach your dog to stay at your side.

In my next post I'll explain opposition reflex and why that makes walking your dog difficult.

Good luck and I look forward to your comments.

Best,

Eric

P.S. You can teach your dog to walk on your left or right side. If you plan to do competitive obedience your dog has to be on your left side.

P.P.S. If you don't need to teach your dog to walk on leash but are interested in more about dog training visit: Amazing Dog Training Man Home Study

The Best Dog Training Advice I Ever Heard

Would you like to hear the best dog training advice that I ever heard?

You would?

Here it is:

“If you think you can, or if you think you can’t, you’re right.”

Why do I think that that is the best advice I ever heard? It’s simple really. You see, I have worked with thousands of dogs and their owners. Working with that many dogs and owners, you come into contact with a lot of different kinds of people.

True story – no too long ago I was teaching an obedience class at a local shelter. Right from the beginning one student began telling me why her dog would not do the commands. She informed me that her dog was the only male in the room full of females, and that’s the reason why her dog would not perform.

I proceeded to let her know that there were two other male dogs in the class.

She then told me that her dog would not do the commands because he was young and would not pay attention. I took her dog to personally work with and went through the commands, showing her that her dog would pay attention.

The following week she came to class and gave her dog the command “down” in German. She then gave the command in English; she then switched back to German. I walked over to her and said that she was going to confuse her dog by switching languages.

She let me know that she wants her dog to learn the commands in English, German, and Portuguese. THREE LANGUAGES!

I don’t know why, but she wanted to come up with reasons why her dog would NOT perform the commands. She was convinced that she had a bad dog and came up with some unbelievable excuses to try to prove it.

That is one of the most extreme cases I have ever dealt with, but it goes right back to the statement I shared with you at the beginning of this article – “If you think you can, or if you think you can’t, you’re right.”

All the best,

Eric