If you need professional help please visit my Dog Behaviorist website.
Go here for Free Dog Training Articles
If you need professional help please visit my Dog Behaviorist website.
Go here for Free Dog Training Articles
Raised by Wolfs with canine DNA in his blood. Having trained more than 24,000 vets helping you and your fur babies thrive. Live in studio. It's Pet Talk today with Will Manura answering your pet behavior and training questions. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your host and favorite pet behavior expert, will Manura.
Speaker 2:Good Saturday morning, pet lovers. I'm Will Bandura. Hey, thanks for joining me for another pet talk today. I'm here each and every Saturday morning here on Facebook Live, where I take your questions about your dog's behavior, your training questions, your challenges that you're having with your dogs or your cats or any other pet for that matters. And I'm helping to provide you with positive solutions for your dog's problems. It doesn't matter what kind of problem you have, maybe it's something that's basic, maybe it's a nuisance problem like jumping or barking or being destructive. Maybe you've got a simple obedience problem, your dog pulls on the leash or your dog won't listen When there's distractions, then again, maybe you've got a more serious problem. I specialize in some of the most difficult behavior problems that are out there. I specialize in dogs that have fears, phobias, anxiety, reactivity, aggression. Do you have two dogs in the home fighting to me that that's the most difficult? That's the most difficult thing that we could have is two dogs in the home fighting. Maybe you've got separation anxiety, a dog with separation anxiety. That's very difficult as well. Like I said, it doesn't matter what the problem is. Doesn't matter what kind of dog you have, doesn't matter how old they are. It doesn't matter what kind of breed they are. There's no dog that can't be helped, including your dog. So do me a favor, hit that like button, show me some love, hit that like button. Also hit that share button so that more people can benefit from what we do here. And then also because I wanna help you do me a favor. If you've got a question about your dog's behavior, go ahead and type your question. Go ahead right now, type your question in the comments section and then also let us know where you're watching from and what kind of pets that you have. So yeah, put your question in the comments section. I'm gonna be looking at those questions. I'm gonna be answering those questions. So just go ahead, put your question in the comment section and let us know where you're watching from and what kind of pets that you have. Hopefully you've had a good week, good weekend coming up. Did you know we're in a new month now? So it's uh, it's March. March 4th. March is National Poison Prevention Month for Pets. So we're gonna be talking about what are some of the typical or the most common things that your pets are ingesting and they're getting harmed from it because they're poisonous. What are the things that you need to watch for the most? We're gonna be talking about that. And then also I'm gonna be talking about socialization. You know, we always talk about, especially when we talk about dogs that have fears, anxieties, phobias, aggression, reactivity, the thing that I always hear, well, we really never got a chance to socialize him or we never really got a chance to socialize her well. So I'm gonna be talking about that. How important is it? How important is it to socialize your pets? And are we doing it the correct way? Are we socializing our pets the right way? Maybe we are, maybe we're not. We're gonna find out about that in just a little bit. If also, if you have, um, been a regular viewer of Pet Talk today and we've helped you with a particular problem that you've had, hey, do us a favor. Give, give us a a five-star review. The best place you can review us. If you love what we do, go to Apple Podcasts and give us a five-star review. And by the way, you never have to miss one of the pet talk today shows they're not always here on Facebook, but every single one of the pet talk today shows going back years ago. You can find by doing a Google search for the Pet Talk Today podcast. Go to Apple Podcast, listen to that. Give us a five star review. Also, if you need professional help, you can always seek me out. You can go to my website, it's down there, dog behaviorist.com. Again, that's dog behaviorist.com. Should probably be right about there. And also, I've got a ton of free dog training and behavior articles@dogbehaviorist.com. So if nothing else, go to the website, check out the free articles because there's dozens of articles on various topics that can help you and your dog. All right, let's go see if we've got some questions. I'm gonna go take a look at the comments, see what we have. I've got Brenda, Brenda says, hi, I've got a Labradoodle and a pit bull. Uh, both bite the wood from the walls or chairs. How do we stop that? And she's watching from Utah. Well, Brenda, when we've got dogs and they've got chewing problems, we take a look at several things and we're trying to look for, first of all, what's the underlying root cause of the chewing? Now we got a couple things cuz we've got two dogs that are doing it now. There's always the situation where one dog does a behavior and then another dog mimics that behavior. That might be why you've got two dogs doing it. But why do we have the first dog doing it in the first place? And maybe the second dog's doing it for the same reason. The first thing we look at is what's the age of the dog or the puppy? Because puppies, dogs that are gonna be, you know, seven, eight months old or younger, they're gonna be teething. They don't typically have all of their adult dog teeth until they're seven months or eight months of age. So prior to that, the fact that they're teething, they're gonna have a need to chew and that a greater need to chew. Dogs chew, that's the first thing you need to understand. Dogs chew. That is part of who and what they are. And we need to have appropriate things for them to chew. And we'll talk about that. But if they're a puppy, their need to chew is gonna be much greater and you're gonna have more destructive chewing. Okay? So make sure you've got a lot of good things to chew. I like giving a dog a regular bone. I don't think there's anything better than a regular bone, A meaty bone. Now if your dog's never had a meaty bone before, they're probably gonna get diarrhea the first couple times or the first time they have it. They're not used to the raw meat. The rule, the raw meat harm them. No, the raw meat won't harm them. There is never a kibble bush in the wild. There is no kibble bush in the wild. What do you think they ate? They're just not used to it. They, they, when you switch a dog cold Turkey from one type of food to another, even a small change, a lot of them will get diarrhea. You gotta do that slowly or you gotta get through it. But anyway, talking about the destructive chewing puppies, they're gonna have it. Okay? The other reason they might chew, especially if they're chewing on organic items. You mentioned wood, right? I think you mentioned wood. And anytime I've got a dog that's chewing on organic items, I'm thinking to myself, let's take a look at the diet le let's take a look at what kind of nutrition, um, that they're having because maybe they're missing something in their diet. You know, there's a lot of really crappy dog food out there that's just loaded with fillers. So if I do have a dog that's not a puppy, and, and you know, sometimes even with puppies, I'll do this because a lot of dogs, if they're chewing on organic items, if I give them a multiple vitamin, a multiple mineral, I have found anyway, my personal experience and 35 years of working with dog owners and dogs, many of, of those dogs, they were helped by getting a multiple vitamin and a multiple mineral. They were helped by getting put on a higher value, higher quality dog food. Now that's part of helping them because usually it's several things that we have to do. It's never one thing. And there's usually not a quick, quick fix. Okay? One of the things that you need to do, and I don't care what kind of destructive behavior your dog or puppy is into, you need to be supervising your dog and supervising your puppy. Having your dog in your puppy, in your eyesight at all times. And if that means that you've gotta put a leash on your dog, then you need to put a leash on your dog to keep the dog with you. If you can't watch your dog, if you can't put a leash on the dog and keep the dog with you, then you need to crate your dog. You need to confine your dog. Put your dog somewhere where it cannot be destructive until you've done the work. Un until you've done the behavior modification to stop that unwanted behavior and teach your dog an alternative behavior. So one of the things I'm gonna do is I'm gonna say, Hey listen, your dog doesn't know the rules. Your dog's not being dominant. It's not being stubborn. Your dog is unruly. It doesn't know, it shouldn't chew as far as your dog's concerned. It should be able to chew on anything, especially an organic type item. So get your dog some bully sticks. Get your dog some regular meaty bones. Um, get your dog some good hard indestructible toys. The ones that are made from Kong, k o n g, there's a plug for them. They should be sponsoring the show or Nyla Bone there. Again, we need Nyla Bone. You need to be sponsors Nyla Bone, but you want to make sure that they've got plenty of toys. Also, I recommend that you get some, um, different toys of different textures cuz you never know what your dog's gonna like. And you know, some dogs, they don't know what to do with a toy. You gotta play with them, engage with them. Let them have fun. Anytime you notice your dog going to chew on something, it shouldn't what I want you to do. I know it's so easy to yell at them, isn't it? Everybody wants to yell. No. Why don't we start thinking about what we can say yes to, what we can, what do we, what behavior do we want your dog to do instead of the unwanted behavior? I, I just recently wrote an article, it's on dog behaviorist.com and that is, let's stop saying no and start saying yes because it's so easy to punish, punish an unruly dog, not a dominant dog punishing a dog that's unruly. A dog that doesn't know the rules. Cuz we have not taken the time to teach them. We have not shown them what we want. And it's so easy to yell at them. So easy to say no, so easy to punish them. And most of the time all you're doing is ruining the relationship that you have with your dog. Yeah. And your timing. If it's not perfect, your dog might associate that punishment with something completely different. I'm gonna spend time with my dog. I'm gonna spend time playing with my dog with appropriate chew toys. I'm gonna have lots of appropriate chew toys with me on my person, as well as many around the house. I'm gonna be supervising my dog. My dog's gonna be with me in my eyesight at all times so that if my dog begins to grab something or chew on something, it shouldn't, I am going to call the dog to me. And I am going to praise, praise, praise, reward, reward, reward for the dog coming to me. I'm gonna make a really big deal and I'm gonna give the dog something appropriate to chew on. We're gonna have fun and I'm gonna do that every time. Think about it, every time, every time your dog goes to do something it shouldn't do, you call the dog, come or here Bobo here, and here comes Bobo running and you reward Bobo Bobo's having a bobo's having a fun time with you. Isn't that better than punishing the dog for something it didn't know that it shouldn't do. And you know, if you do this over and over, if you keep interrupting unwanted behaviors and asking your dog to do a different behavior that you are rewarding, and you do that over and over and over and over and over, your dogs are gonna start defaulting to the behavior you're teaching. They're gonna start defaulting to the behavior that you're rewarding. They are going to do a different behavior because that's the one that gives'em a paycheck. And you're interrupting it right as they're getting ready to do the thing you don't want. But rather than yell at them, rather than punish them, ask'em to come to you. Now you're working on the come command. I've said it before on the show. I've got schnauzers and they, they should just name them bark because that's all they do. Bark, bark, bark, bark, bark, excessively bark. And I don't want to yell at my dog. Dogs bark. That's what they do. It's a normal thing. But I don't want the excessive barking. So what I've done since day one, every time they start barking, I give them their recall command, they come running to me and I get excited and I love and I praise them. And I do that all the time. But you know what else happens? They don't bark for long periods of time. They do a couple barks. They come running looking for me. They engage in that different behavior. It's called differential reinforcement. That's a technical term for it. Teaching the dog another behavior that if they're doing it and they're committed to it would be incompatible with the one you don't want. So what do you want your dog to chew on versus what you don't want your dog to chew on? How can you interrupt the behavior when your dog's doing something you don't want? Ask for a different behavior and reward the heck out of that. And then what you should be doing is not just using that reactively, you should proactively be training these alternative behaviors and rewarding them each and every time so that they're reliable and they're solid. So when you need to use them to interrupt the behavior you don't like, you are going to actually get the proper response from your dog. So give that a shot. I know that was kind of a long-winded answer, but I think that that can apply to not just destructive chewing, but that can apply to dogs that are doing any kind of destructive behavior, getting ready to go to the bathroom in the house, um, uh, jumping on somebody, uh, counters, surfing, grabbing an item like a sock or a shoe or a TV remote that they shouldn't. All these things you need to be saying to yourself, what would I rather have the dog do? What pre-trained behavior that I've been working on and reinforcing can I give to my dog to interrupt the behavior I don't want? And I'm gonna do that over and over and over again so that my dog learns to do a different behavior. So we'll try that. Let us know how that works for you. Let me go back through the questions here as I'm scrolling through here. Thank you everybody for your questions. I appreciate that. Um, we got Suz in Omaha, Nebraska, one year old Havanese. Hey Suz, glad that you're here. Uh, Terry, Terry says, my dog is afraid of everything. She's a five year old. Yorkie, can be friendly, but so afraid. I have tried everything and feels so bad for her. Um, well Terry, the first thing we need to do is find out, does your dog, you said your dog has fears of everything. Now there's a difference between a dog that has anxiety and dogs that have fears. Now dogs that have anxiety can also have fears, but there are some dogs that just have fears and they don't have anxiety. Let me explain what I'm talking about. Um, a dog with anxiety that has fears. If they see a trigger, if there's something that I'm laughing cuz I can hear my dogs playing, uh, downstairs and they're having a good time. Maybe you can hear'em in the background. Sometimes the mic picks it up. But anyway, with, with dogs, where, what was I talking about here? Um, when, when we're dealing with, uh, these type of behaviors with your dog, you, you know, here we're talking about the fears. We need to distinguish whether it's fear, whether it's anxiety, or whether it's both. Um, there are dogs that just have fears and if they just have a fear, they need to be exposed or they need to see a trigger. You know, like for example, some dogs, a lot of dogs, they have fear of fireworks, but they're not afraid if fireworks aren't happening. And there are a lot of dogs that are afraid of people and they're afraid of other dogs. But if people and dogs aren't around strange people and strange dogs aren't around, they're not afraid. They're a normal dog. And there are some dogs that have 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 different triggers that they're afraid of. Well, they're afraid of the vacuum. They're afraid of fireworks. They're afraid of strange people. They're afraid of, uh, driving in the car. They're afraid of getting groomed. But outside of that, they're a normal, normal dog. In any other situation, they're completely normal. They don't have any fear. That's a dog that's got straight up fear. But then we also have dogs like that, that also have anxiety. Dogs with anxiety, there doesn't need to necessarily be a trigger or these dogs, it's just so generalized. Now, when you say everything, is your dog always scared? Except when it's sleeping. When is your dog not anxious? When is your dog not nervous? When is your dog not afraid? Because if it's all the time, if it's all the time, there's something else going on besides just the triggers. Okay? Just like people's brains can be ill diseased and sick. So can dogs. And there are dogs out there that suffer from generalized anxiety disorder. And some of those dogs, you know, we try to do lots of behavior modification with them, do lots of training with them, but they're in such a state of anxiety that they can't focus, they don't want to do the work. It's a bad negative experience for them. They're not taking treats, they're not remembering, they're not learning because the part of the brain that they need to access for learning has shut down because of that intense anxiety. They're in fight or flight all the time. They're panicking all the time. Everything's a threat. They're worried about survival, not about thinking and learning. And for those dogs, we're not gonna make a lot of progress on training and behavior modification when it's that severe. We need to refer you to your veterinarian for some medication, perhaps if the veterinarian thinks it's appropriate. And there's a lot of dogs that need it, doesn't mean they have to be on it long term. Doesn't mean it has to be a medication that makes your dog a zombie either. So don't be afraid when somebody brings up medication. Oh yeah, there's, there's medications out there that'll knock your dog out. Um, I wouldn't use that except in situations like thunderstorms until I've done the work to desensitize my dog. But not every day. But there's a lot of dogs that need medication in conjunction with behavior modification and the ones that I've seen in my experience. Now, I'm not a veterinarian. I can't give out medical advice or veterinary advice. You gotta see your vet for that. But what I can tell you is that I've seen lots of dogs that I work with on medication that it's been unbelievably helpful. A game changer. Yeah, they needed training and behavior modification as well, but it was so severe we weren't making progress. Once we gave the medication, now we could start making progress with the training and behavior modification. We see that more with dogs that are afraid of everything. I mean everything. And seemingly there doesn't have to be a trigger and they're afraid. So there's that component. Then there are dogs where it's just one trigger, two triggers, five triggers. Other than that, those things aren't present. They're fine. They're a normal dog. If we're talking about triggers and even the dogs that are severely anxious that might need medication, they still have triggers. All dogs that are afraid of things, people, places and things. Those are triggers. What is it that causes what happens right before they're fearful? We've gotta do long-term, gradual and systematic desensitization. Little by little over a long period of time, exposing your dog to the things it's afraid of in little tiny bite size pieces, what we call successive approximations or just little slices turning down the intensity of whatever that trigger is to make it so that your dog can handle that. And little by little we increase the intensity. So for example, maybe somebody's afraid of spiders and maybe they start by just looking at pictures of spiders. And when they get comfortable doing that, then they can see a real one, but a real one that's far, far, far away. And then as they get comfortable, little by little over time, maybe months, they can bring that spider just a little bit closer, little bit at a time. It's the same thing with fears with dogs. So what kind of fears can dogs have? They can have fears that they see a visual fear. They can have a fear that they hear auditory. They could have something that they're afraid of that is tactile touch and in some cases smell. So what they see, what they hear, what they feel touch wise, are all things that they could be afraid of. When we're talking about things that they see, the first step is you have to avoid all of those triggers. I know nobody wants to hear that. I know it's not the fix, but it's the first step to the fix. I've said it many times. You have to avoid the triggers. If your dog continues to experience the fear, the anxiety, the phobias, the reactivity, the aggression, whatever it is that that trigger triggers in your dog, your dog continues to rehearse that behavior over and over with that trigger going into that emotional state of anxiety, of fear. And by the way, all aggression, all re activities based in fear. No animal goes into fight or flight unless they perceive something as threatening. That doesn't mean there's a real threat, but they gotta perceive it as threatening to go into fight or flight or they wouldn't do it. So the underlying root cause, the anxiety, the fears are what we need to address. Those of you that are working with well-intentioned trainers that are telling you you need to be alpha, that are telling you your dog is dominant, that are telling you you need to alpha roll your dog that are telling you you need to show your dog whose boss you need to just give your dog a correction. By the way, correction, that's just a fancy word. That's just a nicer, more pleasant word for punishment. Punishment correction means, oh, I'm gonna make it uncomfortable for the dog. So they don't want to do it again. Did we take the time to teach the dog what we wanted? Is it the dog's fault? Can the dog help it? Is there a genetic component to the aggression? The fear? And you're not gonna just push your dogs through this, you're gonna make it worse. Flooding your dog by just throwing them in the middle of these triggers. You have to avoid the triggers first and foremost. Then you have to. And I'm telling you, when it comes to this type of work, you really need to be hiring a professional. I'll tell you how to do it and I'll give you some resources, but if you're not having success, you need to hire a professional. This is what I do. This is what I do for a living. I've done this for 35 years. I consult with people all over the world. I do virtual consultations, kind of like Zoom, but I've got my own video portal and I'm helping people all over the world with dogs, with extreme fears and phobias, helping people all over the world with extreme aggression and reactivity and having great success. If you need professional help, if there's not somebody local to you that's qualified or good or that you like, check me out. Go to my website@dogbehaviorist.com, I can help you. But let's get back to what we're talking about. Counter conditioning and desensitization or how you're gonna help any dog that has fears, phobias, anxiety, aggression, reactivity. It's the gold standard counter conditioning and desensitization. I've got articles on counter conditioning and desensitization@dogbehaviors.com that you can learn from. Also, what I want you to do is go to the Pet Talk Today podcast. Go to Apple Podcast, go to Google, say Pet talk today podcast. Look for episode 81. Episode 81 is an hour and 35 minutes of nothing but talking about how to help dogs with fears. How to help dogs with anxiety, how to help dogs that are reactive, how to help dogs with aggression. And it's an hour and 35 minutes of how to use counter conditioning and desensitization to change your dog's underlying emotional state. Helping the dog to relax, helping the dog to view what it now views as something scary or a threat into something positive. But you've gotta do that slow and there's no quick fix. You know, shame on you trainers out there that are selling these, uh, two, three week and one month board and train programs telling people with fearful and aggressive and reactive dogs, Hey, send your dog to me. We'll fix'em. Sad part is some of them come back and you don't see the behavior for about two to three months. And then that behavior comes back after about two to three months and it comes back in a vengeance. It's much worse because they used punishment cuz they didn't have the time to do the real work, the real work. Any moron can punish a dog and suppress behavior and it might look good on the outside. What have you done for the underlying emotion of the dog? Nobody's addressed the fear of the anxiety. That's what counter conditioning and desensitized desensitization does. But if it's a visual trigger that trigger first gets presented far enough away that the dog doesn't care, it knows that that triggers there. It might be way far away, but it doesn't have a carrot. It's loose, it's relaxed, it'll take food, it listens to you. It's calm body posture. Body language is relaxed. That's the distance. You start exposing your dog to visual triggers over and over and over and over, more times than you think are even close to being necessary. And when your dog gets very comfortable, I mean very comfortable over a long period of time. Now you can go a little closer. Then we also add counter conditioning to that. Counter conditioning's, just a big word for pairing something positive with that trigger that they viewed as scary or not positive. So high value food rewards, all of a sudden your dog sees that visual trigger at a distance. It doesn't care that that trigger is there. It knows it's there, but it's so far away that it's not nervous about it. As soon as it sees that trigger, you begin feed, feed, feed, feed, feed constantly and continuously. High value food rewards for about one to five seconds and then stop. But when you stop feeding, this is critical. It's because the trigger left. See, the trigger creates everything. Here comes the trigger interview that causes high value food rewards now to start being given to your dog. The trigger goes out of you and then you stop feeding, repair that over and over and over until the dog associates that all that yummy food is coming from the trigger. And it starts looking forward to this game, so to speak. And when the dog looks forward to the game, that's usually an indication we can move a little closer. But most of you move too close, too soon, too fast. You need to take your time. There are no quick fixes for this. This, you know, if you've got a dog that's really afraid, you're looking at working with your dog three to five times a week. And really it should be daily. Your sessions are gonna be about 15 minutes long each. And you're gonna be doing this for three to six months minimum. If you really wanna make a change with your dog's underlying emotional state, how it views the triggers and some dogs, you're gonna run into a limitation. Maybe they couldn't be anywhere close to another dog. Maybe they couldn't be anywhere close to another person. Now they can be within a hand lengths distance of them. Maybe not everybody can pet them, but they're not afraid of people and dogs anymore. They're not attacking them. They can be in close proximity, but maybe there's some limitations. Always think in terms of making things better when we've got these severe problems. There's not always a cure. If it's an auditory trigger, if, if it's sounds that your dog's afraid of, it's the same process. Remember episode 81, pet Talk today podcast, look for it on counter conditioning and desensitization. Get my article on counter conditioning and desensitization@dogbehaviorist.com. And there's tons of other free articles there. But you've gotta do counter conditioning and desensitization work and a lot of it. And when it's a sound, usually we're presenting recordings. You gotta have a really good recording. You can get just about anything on YouTube today. Your dog afraid of garbage trucks sound on YouTube, your dog, afraid of the baby crying. The sounds on YouTube, your dog afraid of fireworks. The sound is on YouTube, your dog afraid of thunderstorms, it's on YouTube. Very few things you can't find sound wise on YouTube. You need to have a really good sound system. If you don't have a surround sound system, now is the time to, to gift yourself, be good to yourself, buy that surround sound, but you're gonna start playing these scary sounds at the absolute lowest volume possible. If your dog is nervous, when it hears it, it's too loud, too soon. So at the lowest volume possible, whatever that sound fear phobia is, you press play. As soon as your dog starts to hear it, you begin feed, feed, feed, feed, feed constantly and continuously, one to five seconds. Press stop. The sound stops. Now you stop feeding. You're gonna do that over and over and over again. Three to five times a week, 15 minute sessions each. And you're gonna need to do this for three to six months. Little by little, very gradually you can turn that volume up. But at any point in time you go up in the volume and your dog starts showing any concern, I mean any nervousness, you've gone too high too soon. Again, we've gotta pair the triggers to a dog that's in a really good emotional state. And we've gotta then feed the dog when they're being paired with a trigger. And that's being paired with a really good emotional state. And we've gotta do that over and over and over. That's why it's called conditioning. And most of you, most of you have no idea how many repetitions it takes for conditioning. Those of you that have played an instrument, you know about conditioning cuz it takes lots of practice before it becomes muscle memory. You don't have to think about it. And that's the kind of conditioning we're talking about. All right, let's go. So try that stuff. Um, Alicia, my mom rescued a German shepherd. She says off the streets in California, uh, he's really only listening to my youngest sister and not my mom. Any tips? Well, Alicia, if I mean, have your mom listen to the show first and foremost. And you know what specifically your dog isn't listening to. I'll, I'll tell you that when dogs don't listen, there's a couple reasons why. Number one, they truly don't know what it is we want them to do. Have we taken the time to teach them? Have we done it repetitiously? Have we motivated them and reinforced that positively with with treats, love, praise, affection, toys? Or are you just asking them to do it and you're not giving'em a food reward? They need a paycheck, especially when it's brand new. How long are you gonna work? No, seriously, how long are you gonna work at your job if they stop paying you? Right? Don't be cheap. Give your dog a paycheck. Listen, it's not a bribe. If you put the food in a treat pouch and you ask for the behavior and you don't reach in the treat pouch and give'em the food till after they do the behavior. But if you got food in your hand and you're asking for it, that's a bribe. Bribes are hard to get rid of down the road. Rewards. We can fade those out. But you need a treat pouch. You gotta use food the right way. Now, why don't dogs listen? Repetition. They don't know what they're supposed to do. Somebody does it one or two times, they expect the dog's gonna know it and you're gonna have permanence. More, more, more repetition. Lots of repetition. Number two, why does a dog not listen? Competing motivator. We need to motivate your dog to do what we want. If your dog's not doing what we're asking, your dog can hear us. Your dog has had lots of repetition. So you've trained in that behavior, it's been reinforced, but your dog still doesn't do it. Well, chances are there's a distraction. My other word for distractions are competing motivators. And that distraction has more value in your dog's mind than whatever positive reinforcement you are using. So you need to be more interesting than anything in your environment. Your food reward might need to be higher value. You may need to practice more. The other reason why dogs don't listen is we're not consistent. We might be asking for a behavior. Sometimes we enforce it, sometimes we make it happen. And then there are other times we ask for a behavior, the dog doesn't do it. And we let them get away with not doing it. Don't ever give a behavior that you are not willing to help the dog do. Don't ever ask for a behavior you're not willing to reward. Yeah, down the road. You don't have to feed your dog all these treats, but you've gotta get'em trained in conditioned first. They need a paycheck for that. They need to be motivated or, you know, you could choose not to reward them and they won't be reliable and it'll take forever and it won't work. So repetition, consistency, okay? Making sure they're motivated, you're rewarding them. And then what kind of distractions are in the environment? Are you more interesting? Is your food reward or whatever positive reinforcer you're using, more motivating than the distraction? Those are the things that you need to look for. Um, let's see here. Let's get in here. Uh, Cindy shared listening, great tips, chewing on me, rugs, furniture, my slippers has plenty of old slippers, toys, choose, et cetera. Normal puppy behavior. What do you mean has plenty of old slippers and toys? Do you think that your please don't tell me. Please don't tell me that you are giving your puppy your dog old items like slippers that it can chew on so it won't chew on your slippers. Your dog cannot distinguish between that. You would have to teach that and train that. If your dog's only chewing on the slippers you gave it, that's coincidence and luck. All right? But that logic, even though it might seem logical, doesn't work. It's not something that works for dogs. First of all, dogs don't share that is not in their nature. Secondly, when when some texture is almost identical to another texture, they assume it's the same thing. And why, if this was in my mouth and I could feel this texture and it was okay to chew on, then why can't I chew on the next thing that has that same type texture? That's why if you've got babies that you're giving stuffed animal toys to stop getting those same type of toys for your dogs, they're not gonna leave your kids' toys alone. They've been playing with stuffed animal toys that are theirs. They feel and almost look identical to the ones your kids have. Okay, so I talked about this earlier. I don't know if you were here listening at the beginning of the show, but I talked about the rule as supervisor confine, have a leash on the dog. Create the dog when you can't watch the dog. Be proactive teaching your dog what it should and can have in its mouth and start interrupting the behaviors of your dog, grabbing the things it shouldn't grab by asking for an alternative behavior that would be incompatible. Your dog. Your dog can't be searching for things to put in its mouth that it shouldn't have. If your dog is on a down command, your dog can't be doing that if you call it to you on a come command. But you've gotta put the work in. And again, it's so easy to punish the dog, which is just suppressing behavior temporarily. It does not modify behavior. Um, Julie says, my eight month old malua has become aggressive at the dog park. He chases other dogs barking and biting at them and won't listen to me. Also, he's shown this behavior towards children. No, I have to muzzle him and keep him on leash. Uh, he needs to run for exercise him at a loss for what to do. Well, Julie, you know what? Malua is a big, uh, strong, intense dog. And if you've got a malua that's eight months old and it's aggressive towards children and dogs, you have a big problem. You have a big problem, okay? And these dogs are bred to be aggressive. Hopefully not in a bad way, but there's a lot of bad breeding that's out there too. I don't know, is this the first malua you've ever had? Because the only time I recommend somebody has a malua is they're a very, very, very experienced dog owner and handler, and that they've trained dogs and they know how to train dogs. You probably need to hire a professional. You can either hire me@dogbehaviors.com, you can find somebody in your area. Hey folks. Also, let's talk about something. Let's talk about the difference between a dog trainer and a behavior specialist or a certified, uh, dog behavior consultant or a certified behavior consultant. Canine knowledge assessed, or a dog behaviorist. Dog trainers. First of all, it's an unregulated industry. Anybody can say they're a dog trainer. There's no requirement that you have any education, no requirement that you be certified, no oversight whatsoever. You could be doing things all wrong with the greatest intentions. You might have a pretty face and you might be charismatic. And the person that hires you might do what you say. And you might be harming their dog. I think you've got good intention, Mr. And Mrs. Dog Trainer. But there's so many that don't know what they're doing. And they don't know that they don't know. Make sure that you hire someone who is certified a legitimate certification if they're not certified by the certification Council for Professional Dog trainers, or if they're not certified by the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants, walk away. Those are the only two legitimate certifications for dog trainers that are out there. They certify dog trainers, they certify dog behavior consultants. What's the difference? A dog trainer teaches commands like, sit, come, heal, lay down. A dog trainer helps you with nuisance behaviors. All right, attention barking, stealing something off the countertop. Potty training, destructive chewing a certified behavior consultant, a dog behaviorist. They're looking at and diagnosing the underlying root cause of behaviors. And they work with more severe behaviors like I do. The fears, the phobias, the aggression, the anxiety, the reactivity. Regular dog trainers are not qualified. They think they are and they're well-intentioned, but they have not gone through the years and years of education. The study, the rigorous exams and standards that we have to be held to and to prove, um, through demonstration the kind of work that we do. Very, very important. So get the right kind of person. Um, you're not messing around when you've got a malua, okay? Your dog needs a ton of counter conditioning and desensitization. You might need to see a veterinary behaviorist. Okay? First thing you need to do is consult with somebody, whether that's myself or find a professional in your area. You need to see what you're dealing with. I I, I, I'm afraid that I'm not gonna give you justice here. That's a serious problem. And I know all about mal in-laws. I've owned them great dogs, but a lot to try to manage, a lot to try to handle. Um, let's see, what else do we have? Hey, good morning, Janice. So glad you're here. Janice is always here. Janice, you're a great fan. Um, Marie, my dog won't get in the car. Why? Well, Marie, how is your driving?<laugh>? No, I'm just kidding. Um, you know, there's a lot of dogs that are afraid to get in the car. Now, where does the anxiety, Marie, where does the anxiety start? Because usually by the time they're in the car, they've got a full-blown panic attack and their anxiety started way before you got'em in the car. For a lot of dogs, they're excited when you get the leash. They're excited when you take'em on leash and you walk out that front door. But for a lot of dogs, you get out that leash, they get excited. And as you start moving towards the door that leads to the garage is usually the only time we go through the garage. We're getting in that car. Now they're scared. So a lot of dogs are becoming fearful, right? When you get to the door that leads to the garage, and that's where you start doing the work. You may have to walk up to that door, feed your dog, high value food rewards, walk away from that door, walk up to that door feed, walk away. Walk up to that door, turn the door handle feed, walk away. Walk up to the door, turn the handle, open the door. Two inches. Feed, walk away, walk up to the door, turn the handle doorknob two inches, excuse me, turn the door knob, open it two inches. Now open it. Two more inches, four inches. Feed, feed, feed. Close it. Then maybe we open it a little further, a little further, a little further over time. And then we take a step in the garage and step out, two steps in the garage, step out, five steps in the garage, step out, getting to the car, feed, feed, feed, feed, feed. Step away, getting to the car, feed, feed, feed, feed, feed. Step away. Success of approximations. Imagine that from the time you grab the leash to the time you return in the car with your dog, that that's a movie. And we got frame after frame, after frame, after frame after frame. And you're just gonna be working on a few frames at a time. So you, you progress two or three frames and feed and you do that a bunch of times. Like I said, all these successive approximations, you need to start counter conditioning and desensitizing. This is a very slow process. This is not about just getting your dog in the car and there's some magic to make'em feel better. Now, some dogs, they have a full-blown panic attack. They're drooling, they're trembling, they're panting, they're cowering those dogs, in my experience, I'm not a vet. I can't give out medical advice, but those dogs that are that severe, they need behavior medicine along with behavior modification. If your dog is too afraid, if your dog is too panicked, it cannot learn. It cannot get in a state where it will learn. And remember, it is completely emotionally out of control. Those dogs that are that severe need medication with behavior modification, but I can't make that determination that you need to see your vet or you need to see a veterinary behaviorist. I work with veterinary behaviorists. I work with veterinarians all the time. We work in conjunction. All right, and also Marie, episode 81. Hey guys, I know I keep repeating that over and over. It's like a mantra. But episode 81 of Pet Talk today, go to the Pet Talk Today podcast. Go to Apple podcast. That's on counter conditioning and desensitization. It's an hour and 35 minutes in depth, and you can go to dog behaviors.com, find the article on counter conditioning and desensitization. That's how you're gonna do this. Um, Cindy Smith said, oh, well, there's lots of Cindy Smiths. I didn't give your name away, but anyway, I normally don't say people's last names just for anonymity. But she says, my 10 year old Dalmatian lab mix is petrified of my brother. She runs from him, barks at him, she will pee if he comes close to her. We live with him. He has never done anything to her. I put her on a leash and, uh, walk her to him and she just started to poop. Uh, she doesn't do this to anyone else. Any ideas to help this issue? Hmm, very interesting, Cindy. My question would be, how is your brother different than other people? And, and what I mean by that is, is he suddenly like this gigantic guy? Um, is he a very loud individual? Is he physically or auditory auditorily different than all the other people that your dog's been around? Is the environment and the context so much different that with that person, your dog is afraid? Has that individual met your dog in another location other than his own home? Like for example, when you were living somebody, when you were living somewhere else, did you have the dog? Did he see the dog? And was the dog okay? Can the dog handle being with him outside of the house versus inside of the house? Is it possible, I hate to say it, but is it your po? Is it possible when you weren't around, your dog was Abu, or your brother was abusive to your dog? And and that can take form in a lot of ways, you know, these are questions that I have. But again, if your dog is scared, that's scared that he's pooping himself and your brother's no threat, no threat whatsoever, you're gonna need some professional help That's so serious, so severe. Your dog can't hold its bowels. It can't hold its bladder. It's losing it. That is a panic attack. Fearful defecation is a panic attack. Have empathy first and foremost for these dogs that are panicking, suffering. Yeah, there's work we can do with counter conditioning and desensitization, but it's not easy. We've gotta get your brother so far away from your dog. We need to avoid your brother all together for a long time. And we need to use your brother over and over and over again at a distance to counter condition and desensitize it little by little over three to six months. Get them closer and closer and closer. And chances are, you probably need to use some medication along with this because of how severe it is. Again, I'm not a veterinarian. I can't give out medical advice, but my experience 35 years working with, uh, this population of dogs where 62% of the clients I had, their dogs are on medication and they need to be. See, I was talking earlier about my dogs' schnauzers barking. They should have named them barking. There they are. They heard something. But anyway, um, episode 81, counter conditioning and desensitization. Go see your veterinarian. This sounds very serious. Find somebody to help you professionally. Um, I can help you. Go to dog behaviors.com or find somebody locally. Make sure they're certified. Make sure they're not just a dog trainer. You need a behavior consultant or a dog behaviorist. Um, hey Pie, it's been a while since I saw your name. Maybe you're watching every week, but good to see your name here. Um, how can I Pie says how can I help my dog? Who seems to have jealousy issues? Well, jealousy issues are resource guarding issues. Everything. Everything is a resource. You are a resource. That's why I get a kick out of these trainers that well-intentioned, but they don't know any better. And they're telling people, Hey, you need to be alpha and you need to show your dog whose boss really, really does your dog truly survive without you? Do you not feed the dog? Do you not give the dog water? Do you not give the dog shelter? Do you not give the dog comfort? You are more than alpha. You are God. You're god dog does not live without you. So when we've got dogs that are more insecure, they can definitely view you as the primary resource. And they're scared somebody or another dog comes up to you, they're worried they're gonna lose the resource. Is it rational? No. No. If you share yourself with everybody and show your dog that, hey, you don't lose me, that can help a little bit. But if your dog's in a state of anxiety and panic when you're doing that, again, we're not gonna help these dogs when they're in that state. We have to do the exposure at a greater distance. A distance to start with where your dog's not nervous, not afraid, not reactive, not aggressive, whatever the problem might be, that's where you start exposing your dogs. Anytime you're getting closer and closer to a visual trigger through, uh, desensitization and counter conditioning exposure therapy. If your dog starts getting nervous or anxious, you've gone too close too soon. Back it up. Back it up. Um, there's no quick fixes. Um, will she ever get over this? Yeah. Yeah. But it takes time, takes work. A lot of work. Um, let's see, getting through here. Johnny says, my dog growled and barked at the vet because he had a mask on. He was on Trazodone. He had to be muzzled broke my heart when I heard that. Well, you know, I'd be scared of somebody that had a mask on. I would be scared of somebody I rarely see. I would be scared of them when I'm in a tiny little exam room in a place I rarely ever go. And when they're not taking their time to get to know me, and they are going into my personal space and they are poking me and prodding me, yeah. I'm gonna be scared and I'm gonna want distance from that trigger. And you know what? I'm gonna communicate that. I'm gonna communicate. I'm scared and I want distance. And that's why I growl. And when you correct and punish my growl, you're teaching me to learn to bite without a warning trying to tell you what I need. I'm trying to tell you what I want. Trying to communicate that don't punish the growl people. Yeah. There's no quick fixes. And your vet has to do the work they have to do. So we have to muzzle them. We have to keep the vet staff safe. We have to maybe sedate them until you do the long-term work of counter conditioning and desensitization. And usually that requires a, the help of a, a professional. I've been talking almost exclu you know, every week I'm talking about counter conditioning and desensitization. Because when you've got these serious problems and have an underlying emotional state of fear, anxiety, you have to do counter conditioning and desensitization. Tanya says, my Labrador dog not afraid of fireworks. Well, good. You know, funny thing is, we have dogs that are not afraid of fireworks or, or thunderstorms, but yet they're scared to death of other little sounds. Fire alarm going off the sound of the, uh, washer dryer or the, um, garbage disposal. Yeah, that can happen. Um, let's see here. Is it Rona? Rona Rona. How do I get my dog to calm dog? Calm down. What can I give him? She has a bunch of toys and bones. Um, well, the first thing you can give your dog is more exercise. How's that? Uh, you know, I'm not here pushing pills. Give your dog more exercise. Give your dog mental stimulation through canine enrichment knows work games, puzzles, obedience training, exercise. Stimulate the brain. Okay. I talked a lot about destructive chewing. I talked a lot about appropriate toys today, but your dog's probably very bored. Okay? Most domesticated dogs in the United States are bored to death, and a lot of their problems are related to boredom. Okay? Your dogs need 20 minutes of aerobic exercise every day. That means running for 20 minutes solid. Okay? Aerobic exercise. Your dog needs to be trained every day for 15 to 30 minutes on obedience training. Your dog needs to be engaged with puzzles, nose work, other games that stimulate their brain. Do me a favor, go to dog behaviors.com. I recently wrote an article on canine enrichment activities that you can do with your dog to stimulate their brain, stimulate them physically, uh, stimulate their nose, which is nose work is huge. People, that is the number one thing that dogs do. They, they go through the world with their nose. That helps a lot. So check out my article on, uh, canine in Richmond as well. Um, let's see. If I had the dog, I would've been training him. She doesn't believe in treats. Try to convince her. I will try to convince her again. Hey, Alicia, have her listen to my podcast. Have her listen to my podcast. Um, she can be opposed to everything she wants to. All right. She can keep coming up with all these reasons why something's not gonna work. She needs to get out of the problem and get into the solution or get rid of the dog. Um, all right, let's see. What else have we got? Well, you know what we've got about, we've got about two minutes. So that music means it's time for pet talk news. Um, it's a new twist on an old axiom. A dog's a prosecutor's best friend. Well, that was the case in the six week murder trial of disgraced South Carolina. Attorney Alex Murdoch, convicted killer Alex Murdoch was placed at the scene of his wife's and son's murders. Thanks to Bubba, the Murdoch family's dog, Bubba, a rambunctious yellow Labrador retriever's presence at the crime scene placed a pivotal role in convicting the now disbarred South Carolina attorney who was sentenced to life in prison without parole Friday for the murders of his wife, Maggie 52, and son Paul 22. Does Bubba have a sixth sense? The prosecutor asked the jurors claiming the dog was prompted or claiming the dog prompted Alex to give up his whereabouts. Thank God for Bubba Myrta insisted to authorities on that night of the SLS that he wasn't near the dog kennels at the family's rural hunting lodge where Maggie and Paul were found fatally shot her with a rifle, him with a shotgun. But prosecutors brought to light a bombshell Snapchat video that clearly placed Myrta at the family's landing hunting lodge, revealing his voice as one among three clearly heard on the 52nd clip. The other's belonging to Paul and Maggie in his sensational testimony. Myrdal later admitted joining his wife and son at the kennel where he is heard snatching a chicken away from Bubba. Come here Bubba. Murdoch's voice says, come here Bubba. Since Maggie and Paul's death, Bubba reportedly lives with a former housekeeper for the Murdochs, who was herself a witness during the trial. Well, what do you think? Have you been watching that trial? Like I said, thank God man. Thank God for, uh, thank God for Bubba. But, um, what do you think? Was justice done? Was it enough, uh, to get life in prison? Or should he have gotten the death penalty?
Speaker 3:Yes, they deserve to die. I hope they burned hell.
Speaker 2:Well, you've got my take on that. That's my little editorial for today. We are out of time. I want to thank everybody for your questions. Be sure to join me next Saturday, same time, same place for another Facebook Live episode of Pet Talk Today. Hey, be sure never to miss an episode of Pet Talk today. Make sure you subscribe to our audio podcast. Go to Google, do a search for Pet Talk today podcast. Have a great weekend, everybody. We are outta here. We will see you. We will see you next week.