#117 Dog Training Podcast Understanding and Addressing Canine Behavior: From Aggression to Anxiety. Pet Talk Today: Dog Training with Will Bangura M.S., CDBC, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, FFCP

Imagine a two-year-old girl walking over three miles in the wilderness, safeguarded by her family's two dogs. This episode is inspired by that heart-warming real-life story. We explore the world of our canine friends, their behaviors, and how we, as humans, can understand them better. We kick things off with a tale of loyalty and companionship, and then segue into a discussion about dog aggression, socialization, and the recent incidents involving President Biden's German Shepherd, Commander.

Gaining a deeper understanding of dog behavior is more crucial than ever. We dive into the realm of leash training, recognizing signs of canine stress, and turning outdoor excursions into positive experiences for our furry pals. We also discuss how food rewards can be effectively used to motivate and train dogs, and how to address obsessive licking in your pet. In this light, we'll share tips on dealing with separation anxiety and aggression in dogs, and the importance of seeking professional support in such scenarios.

In our Q&A segment, we break down essential training commands, such as teaching dogs to sit despite distractions. We delve into the correlation between aggression and anxiety in dogs and effective strategies to help manage these behaviors. High value food and toy rewards can be a game-changer in training sessions, and we explain why. Furthermore, we touch upon tackling separation anxiety, a common issue among dogs, and how to find professional help to alleviate this problem. What about Natural Calming Chews For Dog Anxiety.  So, are you ready to become a better pet parent? This episode is for you!  Pet Talk Today: Dog Training with Will Bangura M.S., CDBC, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, FFCP . Will does Virtual Dog  Behavior Consultations

Chapters

• 0:03 Pet Talk Today
• 4:56 Dog Aggression and Socialization Issues
• 15:29 Fearful Dog Training and Behavior Tips
• 32:40 Dealing With Separation Anxiety and Aggression
• 48:53 Dog Behavior Q&A

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Raised by wolves with canine DNA and is 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 Bangura Answering your pet behavior and training questions. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your host and favorite pet behavior expert, will Bangura.

Speaker 2: 0:39

Let's get that microphone on. Good Saturday morning pet lovers. I'm Will Bangura. Thanks for joining me for another episode of pet talk today. It's Saturday the 30th. Hey, we're almost into October. Can you believe it? Next thing you know it's going to be Christmas. Then then come all of the Christmas puppies. Hope you're doing well. Do me a favor Hit that like button, hit that share button If you're listening on an audio podcast. Hey, if you love what we do, give us a five star review.

Speaker 2: 1:10

So today I want to do a lot of question and answer. I want to get into your specific dog training and dog behavior problems. So if you're brand new to pet talk today, let me talk a little bit about how this works. If you've got a question, if you would like help with your dog's training and behavior, doesn't matter what the question is, doesn't matter how bad or how minimal it is, doesn't matter what kind of breed, doesn't matter how old your dog is. If you've got a problem and you would like me to help, you just go ahead and type your comments into the comments section, or type your question into the comments section. Also, let me know where you're watching from and if you have not subscribed to the pet talk today audio podcast. Make sure you get on Apple podcast, make sure you get on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Subscribe to the pet talk today podcast because there's content on the audio podcast that doesn't make it to Facebook live. Well, thanks for everybody being there again. Hit that share button, hit that like button. I want to be able to get into your questions. It doesn't matter whether it's aggression, doesn't matter if it's resource guarding, doesn't matter if it's separation, anxiety, destructive behavior, door dashing, pulling on the leash, body training issues, dogs that jump, dogs that nip, dogs that are destructive. Whatever the problem is, I'm here to help you deal with all of your dog training and behavior problems. Okay, oh, a lot of you have not heard that sound before. That sound means that it's time for Pet Talk News.

Speaker 2: 3:13

All right, this week, missing toddler found sleeping in woods under her dog as a pillow after walking three miles barefoot. A two year old girl who walked barefoot more than three miles with her family's two dogs was found sleeping off a wooded Michigan trail using the smaller dog as a pillow. Authorities said Chase. The mother said that she had an instinct to check on her daughter who had been playing in the yard and learned that the toddler's uncle told the to go inside because she had no shoes on, and Chase and her brother in law realized Theo wasn't in the house, she said she began to yell. They searched for about 20 minutes before calling authorities and the Michigan State Police put out request for drones, search and rescue and canine teams, while members of the close knit community had their own search party to help locate the child, who was assumed to be somewhere in the heavily wooded area near the home, giannuzzi said around midnight, four hours after police were first notified, a family friend searching for Theo on an all terrain vehicle came across chase family Rottweiler buddy who started barking as he approached.

Speaker 2: 4:36

According to chase, the two year old was discovered a short way off the trail sleeping on the ground with her head on top of Hartley, the family's English Springer. When the ATV driver tried to get near the toddler to wake her up, the smaller dog growled. Chase said well, that's a great story. Luckily that, you know, ended well. I love the fact that the dogs went three miles with this child. Talk about some dedicated, loyal dogs. And hey, when the child got too tired, then the child falls asleep and the dog stay there and the child puts its head on the dog's flank and falls asleep. And then, of course, when rescue people come to find the child, the dogs want to protect the child. If that's not a wonderful story about man's best friend, I don't know what is. Uh oh, you know I haven't done pet talk news in a long time, but there's a few things that that need to be addressed and talked about. So in our second segment of pet talk news, well, it's happened again, and it's not just once or twice or three times, it's not four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten times, it's 11 times.

Speaker 2: 6:12

Yes, monday, commander, president Biden's German Shepherd bit secret service members for the 11th time. Prior to that, there were 10 bites within three months. Now here's the deal. You know this dog has been sent to multiple boarding trains three. Now they're going to send it back for a fourth one. And guess what? Yeah, the common denominator they're using averse of tools and methods where they're punishing and suppressing the outward aggressive display, the behavior, but they're not doing anything to address commanders underlying emotional state, which is anxiety, stress and fear. You get rid of that underlying stress, anxiety and fear. There is absolutely no reason to bite. But when you punish when you suppress that outward behavior. Commander for a little while is intimidated and afraid to act out aggressively, but inside that emotional state is building and building and building and then eventually commander snaps and it gets worse. Listen, months and months ago, the last time commander went to board and train on my podcast I made the prediction a it wasn't going to work and be that commander would come back and the aggression would be worse. Now, all of a sudden, on Monday, we find out there's been 11 bites.

Speaker 2: 7:44

Mr President, this is first lady. If you keep sending the dog to a balanced trainer, they're going to keep doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. Time to do something different. Find a certified dog behavior consultant. Somebody who actually has formal education is certified, so they can actually help you. Quite frankly, a lot of my listeners Could probably do a better job because they understand you need to use counter conditioning and desensitization when it comes to dealing with anxiety, fears, phobias, aggression, reactivity.

Speaker 2: 8:26

If you want to learn more about how to help an aggressive dog, a fearful dog, a reactive dog, a dog that has a lot of stress or phobias, go to the pet talk today audio podcast and look for episode 98 neppus. Episode 98 is about an hour and 35 minutes. That goes through very specific protocols on how to rehabilitate, how to address, how to manage and how to change the underlying emotional state. So dogs like commander and maybe you've got a dog like commander that doesn't like strange people you can get them to learn how to relax so that they're not viewing the triggers in this case Secret Service agents as scary. We can change that into a positive. None of that work is being done. I know who the trainer is, I'm not going to say the name. None of the works being done, none of that.

Speaker 2: 9:29

So those of you that want to advocate for balance training and how great it is, you want to advocate for the use of punishment and aversives and somehow that's going to help aggressive dogs. I've said it forever that it's a temporary fix, it suppresses the outward behavior and it's not long one, two, three months at the most before the aggression comes back and it's going to come back worse because you've added more stress, more fear, more anxiety and that dogs underlying emotional state when you used punishment. When you use aversive tools and methods like choke collars, prom collars, ecollars, yelling at the dog, yank and crank leash corrections using spray bottles. No animal needs to experience fear, pain or intimidation to learn. As a matter of fact, that actually hinders learning when they're in that type of emotional state. So, those of you that are regular listeners, you're getting that message.

Speaker 2: 10:30

I'm getting a lot of great emails. You are taking the information that I'm teaching you here on Pet Talk today and you're going and you're implementing that with your dogs and you're having fantastic success. That makes me just so thrilled. I love getting your emails. If you've got another success story email that to me, send that to will at PetTalkTodaycom. Will at PetTalkTodaycom. Also, if you have specific ideas, topics that you would like me to cover, send me an email again. It's will at PetTalkTodaycom. Also, what would you rather have? This is your show. Do you want me to do all Q&A? Do you want me to do interesting stories in the community, like Pet Talk News that I did? Do you want me to do interviews? And if you want me to interview people, what type of interviews would you like? This is your show. Don't be shy. Send me an email to will at PetTalkTodaycom If you're just joining us.

Speaker 2: 11:36

I'm Will Bangura. I'm a certified dog behavior consultant as well as a certified professional dog trainer and I'm also fear free certified. I use positive reinforcement and I work with the most difficult behaviors like fears, phobias, anxiety, aggression, reactivity, obsessive, compulsive behaviors, serious elimination problems you name it, I do it. I want to help you today with your training and behavior problems. I said it earlier, but if you're just joining us, go ahead and type your questions into the comment section and let me know where you're watching from and what kind of pets you have, and hit that like button, hit that share button for me. Let me go into some questions. I've got email questions also that I want to address this hour as I'm going through things. Tracy, watching from South Dakota hey, tracy, nice to have you here.

Speaker 2: 12:37

Alyssa, who's got a six-year-old Rottweiler who has separation anxiety and has started to show aggression that she never had before. She's now pulling on leash, walking and chasing. Never had that before. How do I handle this? Well, alyssa, you've got a six-year-old Rottwe and they've got separation anxiety and he started to show aggression. I'm guessing, without all the details, that the dog had separation anxiety for a while, maybe even since it was younger, because it's six now, and what I think I'm understanding you say is that. But now we're starting to see aggression. So it's not just the separation anxiety, we're starting to see aggression. What type of aggression are we talking about? Okay, alyssa, what kind of aggression Is this resource guarding? Is it aggression towards you? Is it aggression when you try to leave and the dog doesn't want to be separated? Those are things that I would like you to comment on and that way I can answer your questions a whole lot more. But there's definitely things that we can do. So can you give me more information, debbie? I'd appreciate that.

Speaker 2: 14:03

Let's see, we've got V watching from Los Angeles, the left coast. Glad that you're here, debbie is watching. She says I've got a three. I lost Debbie. I've got a three-year-old golden retriever. Oh, that I'm having a hard time socializing. Every time I take her out, she'll pull on her leash and try to get back in the car. How can I get her to enjoy going out to new places and not be afraid? And then Mary says my in training service dog loves people too much. What can I do to lessen her excitement? Yes, we got a lot of great questions there. I'm really hoping.

Speaker 2: 14:50

Ok, so Alyssa says aggression towards everyone except my daughter and myself. All right, how long ago did the aggression start, alyssa? Let me know how long the aggression has been going on for and how long the separation anxiety has been going on for. Ok, that is something that I need to know about Debbie, your three-year-old golden retriever that you've had a hard time socializing. Every time you take her out, she'll pull on the leash and she'll try to get back in the car. First of all, I would start getting her comfortable on the leash in your backyard or in your house and pair that with high value food rewards. Then I would step out the door with the dog on the leash with high value food rewards and I would step back in the house, step out the house feed, step in the house feed, step out the house feed in the house feed. Be very happy, excited and jolly Like. Look what we're doing. We're going outside, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then bring the dog right back in again and reward. We're going back outside. Let's go go go, go, go.

Speaker 2: 16:03

Get out the door, you feed, then bring the dog back inside. Little by little over a period of time, gradually, systematically, you're going to get the dog out further one step, two steps, three steps, four steps. Don't take the dog further than what the dog is comfortable with and pair that distance, the comfortable distance, with food every single time. What a lot of people do is they make the mistake of pushing their dog too far, too fast. The dog starts having stress, anxiety and fear and they want to, like you said, want to get back home. So their experience that's associated with going out there is negative. It's bad. They don't like it. As far as they're concerned, it's punishment. And then when you take them home, that's the reinforcement, because they feel better. That's negative reinforcement. You're removing something uncomfortable which they don't want to be outside. But you need to also fast movement. Run out the door two steps, run back in. I mean, make this like it's, like the dog is bringing you the Mega Millions Powerball ticket. Ok, get really excited, use this happy, jolly routine, start laughing. Hey, let's go go, go, go, go, go. Get outside and move fast, Give a treat, then right back in the house, don't worry about going for a walk. Yet Start with having your dog learn that it's a blast. Wonderful things happen Just going in and out the door and then, when that's a fun, fun, fun game, go out the door two, three steps and then come back in and do the same thing over and over. But at any point in time you get further away from the house and your dog starts displaying stress signals. Now the big one, tail tuck, the dog's going to run, want to run back home. That you're way too far. At that point. Look for things like lip licking, tongue flicks, ears being back, dilated pupils, the dog panting OK, those type of things. Low level stress. That's too much.

Speaker 2: 18:21

Now you need to go to the Pet Talk Today audio podcast. Do a Google search Pet Talk Today audio podcast. You need to look for episode 98. Episode 98 is exactly how you deal with this problem. I guarantee if you listen to episode 98 and you follow those guidelines, you're going to have success with your dog. Now, for some reason, if you're not, you can always contact me. Where am I? Dogbehavioristcom? There, it is Right there, dogbehavioristcom. I do behavior consultations all over the world virtually and we're super successful because I'm great at teaching you and you're the person that needs to be taught how to deal with your dog, teaching your dog to be calm, relaxed and no longer be afraid to go outside. And there's a lot of things that we can do, but I would start with that, to begin with, tracy watching from South Dakota hey, tracy, how are you? Thank you for being here. We'll get back to Alyssa and your separation, anxiety and pulling.

Speaker 2: 19:38

Tracy says my dogs are constant lickers. One licks people, the other herself Licking on herself, tracy, depending upon where she's licking and how long she's licking, and if she's licking to the point where she might be causing sores. Two things One, typically allergies. Get your dog to the veterinarian. Let's see if there's some kind of food insensitivity or some kind of allergy. Also, anxiety Dogs can lick and chew themselves Kind of an obsessive, compulsive behavior and in a way it's beyond grooming, it's almost a self-soothing thing.

Speaker 2: 20:21

Some dogs like yours may also grab toys, cloth-like items and kind of suckle on it, use it as a pacifier. I don't know if it's that, if that your dog does that. But again, another anxiety thing as well, what you want to think about. You don't like the licking Tracy, but what kind of a behavior could we teach your dog to do through positive reinforcement Having a lot of fun doing it, your dog having a lot of fun doing it that if your dog did that alternative behavior and we're looking for a behavior that if your dog's doing the alternative behavior to licking and your dog's committed to the alternative behavior, that your dog cannot engage in licking when it's doing something else. So, for example, if I ask my dog to lay down and I'm in arms length away from the dog, well, the dog can't lick. But I want to proactively be working on teaching the dog to lay down for several weeks. I want to make it a real fun exercise.

Speaker 2: 21:28

I want to use high value food rewards so that it's worth the dog's. While I had somebody ask me when can we stop using food rewards and I said when they stop paying you at your job. Now, granted, we can wean down on them, but if there's no positive reinforcer behaviors, extinguish. It's got to be fun, they've got to be motivated. Food is usually the biggest motivator, but it's how you use the food. A lot of people are like, hey, I don't want to bribe my dog, I don't want you to bribe your dog either. There's a right way and a wrong way to use food. If you go to my website, dogbehavioristcom, I recently I don't know it's like three or four articles back. But if you go to dogbehavioristcom, go to the menu, click on articles, look for my article on the appropriate use of food in training. That's also very critical for having success.

Speaker 2: 22:34

We get back in here into the questions Walking and chasing never had that before. Do, do, do, do, do, do lickers. Okay, all right. Going back to your question, debbie, about your three-year-old golden retriever that you're having a hard time socializing every time I take her out she will pull on the leash and try to get back in the car. How can I get her to enjoy going out to new places and not be afraid when it comes to that?

Speaker 2: 23:14

You've got to get your dog exposed to different locations, but you've got to watch your dog's body language. You've got to know, hey, is my dog stressed out? Okay, is my dog stressed out? And if the dog is stressed out, you don't want your dog exposed to that location. You're too close to that location too soon. You need to gradually, slowly, get your dog accustomed. But you've got to keep your dog at a safe distance, a safe space where it doesn't have a cure in the world. And then when your dog is in that environment that was scary, but you're at a far enough distance where the dog feels safe you need to start feeding high-value food rewards and then you disengage from that exposure. Stop feeding Now. You reengage with that trigger. You start feeding again Now. There's a lot more nuances and information, but that's just the gist of it.

Speaker 2: 24:15

Again, episode 98 of the audio Pet Talk Today podcast. I cannot tell you, if you've got a dog, any fear, any anxiety, any stress, any reactivity, any aggression that is something that is going to help counter conditioning and desensitization. Need to take a quick second to talk about our sponsor here, if I can get that little lower third to go away. Are you familiar with calm dogs? It's a natural supplement that helps dogs with anxiety, fears, phobias, firework, storms, other noise sensitivities. Helps with aggression, helps with reactivity. Car rides, grooming, diet visits, any behavior that is rooted in anxiety or fear, and aggression and reactivity are as well. Calm dogs is going to help. This is the strongest product on the market today. That is all natural.

Speaker 2: 25:19

Calm dogs was developed by me. I spent five years five years developing calm dogs because nothing nothing on the market that was natural would work, and it took me five years, through research and development, to find what ingredients had research studies where they were duplicated and showed that the ingredients that I have in calm dogs all have statistical significance, that they help reduce fear, anxiety, phobias, reactivity and aggression. I'm so convinced that my product will help you. It's doing amazing things. We're getting amazing reviews from it.

Speaker 2: 26:05

But, like anything else you know, you say to yourself well, I've tried a lot of these. I don't know if I want to spend more money and if it doesn't work, waste it. You don't have to waste a cent. I offer a 100% money back guarantee. You try calm dogs for six weeks. You need to give it to your dog twice a day. You try it for six weeks. If your dog does not improve, let me know. You get 100% of your money back. You can get calm dogs by going to doganxietycom. That's doganxietycom. Or you can go to calmdogscom. You can also scan the QR code that you see currently on the screen.

Speaker 2: 26:57

All right, enough of that, but literally I'm getting emails constantly from people that, with aggression, fears, phobias, separation, anxiety, their dogs are getting better. Will it help every dog? No, it's not going to help a dog that's super severe that might need medication. But I've also had dogs that were pretty darn severe and it helped them. So sometimes it's an alternative to medication without the unwanted side effects. It's all natural.

Speaker 2: 27:32

All right, let me get back to the questions here. All right? Blanche says hi, my three-year-old Chihuahua, ella, after three months at home, loves to go out and walk to the corner, then stops, looks back and wants to go home. Thanks, well, there's a couple things your dog could have pain. 80% of dogs with aggression have a contributing factor. That's medical and the two biggest contributing factors are pain and hormonal imbalances.

Speaker 2: 28:14

Now, I'm not a veterinarian. I can't give out medical advice. You know, when we've got a dog that starts getting aggressive, or we got a dog that was walking and stops walking, their physical activity starts to diminish, the first thing we should do is take our dogs to the veterinarian, rule out any potential medical contributing factors to your dog's behavior. Especially if the behavior just completely turned on a dime overnight, that's usually a sign that there might be a medical contributing factor. Like I said, I'm not a vet, but it is good standard operating procedure.

Speaker 2: 28:58

When you've got a serious behavior problem with your dog, you get your dog checked out by the vet. Then you contact somebody qualified. What do I mean by qualified? Listen, this is an unregulated industry. It's very scary. You've got to be very careful who you hire to help with your dog, because it's unregulated. Nobody has to have education, nobody has to know anything and they can call themselves a dog trainer. You get on a website, you assume they're a professional. They know what they're doing. Folks, if you're looking for a dog trainer, go to the certification council for professional dog trainers Again the certification council for professional dog trainers. They've got a directory of fantastic certified professional dog trainers and also certified behavior consultants. Now, if you really want the creme de la creme when it comes to behavior consultants, behaviorists go to the international association of animal behavior consultants Again the international association of animal behavior consultants and look up a behavior consultant in your area.

Speaker 2: 30:18

Any, I think, that picks up a leash has good intentions, except for the dog, danny. And the problem is without a lack, with the lack of formal education. They don't know what they don't know. They've got good intentions, but they're making a mess out of things, especially dogs that have fears, anxieties, phobias, aggression. Please make sure you find someone with formal education. They've studied animal behavior undergraduate studies, graduate studies. They do continuing education. They've taken the time to prove their knowledge, skills and abilities through certification, through the certification for professional dog trainers and or certification through the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants.

Speaker 2: 31:11

If you don't see those two, if the person you're looking at isn't involved, there isn't certified run. There's plenty of certified people. You don't need to take the risk of having somebody that has little to no formal education and knows very little about behavior, even though they've got good intentions to work with your dog, especially with serious behavior problems. So yeah, blanche, we need to check things with the veterinarian. We need to rule out, make sure there's no pain or any other medical conditions.

Speaker 2: 31:46

And then, blanche, I know it's a broken record, but going to the Pet Talk Today audio podcast, listening to episode 98, you can also go to my website at dogbehaviorist when is it Dogbehavioristcom? And go to the articles section and grab the article on counter conditioning and desensitization. As a matter of fact, if you grab that article down at the bottom of the article, I believe I've got the podcast embedded. But again, I've got a lot of great information on the audio podcast that if you're only watching Facebook live. You're not gonna get all the latest and greatest If you're not going to my website at dogbehavioristcom. You're not getting the latest and greatest. So subscribe to the audio podcast and give us a like, give us a share, give us a review.

Speaker 2: 32:40

All right, let's get back to some questions. I'm waiting to see if some of the earlier questions are gonna give me a little more. Okay, alyssa says the aggression started last year. She didn't show signs of separation anxiety until I started working from home and now that I need to go back outside the home to work she is becoming whining and aggressive. Well, here's the thing three years old, we start seeing between a year and a half and three year olds dogs having big behavior problems that they never had, and one of the contributing factors oftentimes is genetics and heritability. And it takes time for the egg to cook, takes time for your dog to get a little bit older and the brain to develop and all of a sudden, boom, we start having these problems. Your dog's got a lot of anxiety.

Speaker 2: 33:44

When it comes to separation anxiety, if it's severe, you need professional help. Separation anxiety is very difficult and there are very, very few trainers that are good with separation anxiety. Look and see if you can find a certified separation anxiety trainer. You can go to malenademartinicom and she has people that are certified in separation anxiety, but I'm gonna let you know they're gonna work with you virtually. That's what behavior consultants do. We work with you virtually and it's very successful. Now if you wanna deal with the aggression which you definitely need professional help, definitely need professional help and the separation anxiety, well, you can go to my website at dogbehavioristcom. I've got a lot of articles on those things, a couple articles on separation anxiety, articles on aggression, articles on counter conditioning and desensitization. But you may very well need to hire a consultant. Like I said, you can go to my website at dogbehavioristcom. I do behavior consultants all over the world, but that's a really difficult thing.

Speaker 2: 35:12

One of the first things and I know it's tough when we're dealing with separation anxiety, we have to avoid absences. If your dog continues to rehearse that behavior, it's gonna get worse. If your dog continues to rehearse that behavior, that separation anxiety, it's gonna get more and more ingrained and it's gonna stress the relationship between you and your dog. So there's some very specific protocols, very specific work that needs to be done in order to help your dog with separation anxiety, and that usually is gonna take several weeks minimum six weeks of doing work and during that time we have to make sure that the dog's not alone, whether that means bringing in a sitter, whether that means having a friend or a family member coming over or whether that means seeing if you can work from home again for a little while. But we've gotta do some very specific work. And imagine we are fixing a broken water pipe and we need to avoid the absences with your dog. Well, that's us turning off the main water valve for the water pipe. We can't fix the broken water pipe when water isn't leaking all over the place. We gotta turn off the main valve so we avoid the water. Well, you need to begin avoiding absences. I know that can be tough for people, but it's probably not going to happen without it.

Speaker 2: 36:43

Now the calm dogs that I talked about a second ago. We have had fantastic results using behavior modification along with the calm dog supplement that you can get at doganxietycom or calmdogscom. It comes with a 100% money back guarantee. So doing behavior modification for separation anxiety in conjunction with the calm dog supplement, you're going to see a whole lot greater success. But literally you've got to walk out the door for a second, walk back in. Walk out the door for a second, back in. Walk out the door for a second, back in. Make that the most boring thing in the world till your dog could care less. Then you're walking out for two seconds, coming back in. Walk out for two seconds, come back in. Walk out for two seconds, come back in. You get the idea Gradually, systematically, you're going to add a little more time to the duration of time you're absent.

Speaker 2: 37:47

But don't engage your dog and make this very, very, very boring, very boring. Don't reward the dog with food. That is old school training practices, with separation anxiety. We want your dog calm, extremely calm. You come back in, give your dog food. Your dog gets excited again. That's not what we want. But if you come, go, come, go, come, go, come, go, come go super short duration, but do it a lot your dog's going to be like then they're done. That crazy guy keeps going in and out, that crazy lady keeps going in and out. Then add a little bit of time. I'm talking a tiny bit of time of duration Now as you start adding more and more time duration when you walk out the door.

Speaker 2: 38:41

I need you as the time expands, to throw in intermittently very short duration. What do I mean by that? Let's say you've worked yourself up to three minutes and you keep going out three minutes, come back, go out three minutes, come back. I want you to go out three minutes, come back, go out 30 seconds, come back, go out three minutes, come back, go out three minutes, come back, go out 10 seconds, come back. Overall, you're adding more and more duration to your absence for separation. But as you're adding more and more duration, you are intermittently throwing in short duration absence, so that you're not creating a pattern that the dog will pick up on. It keeps getting longer and longer and longer and longer. Oh shit, they're going to be gone a long time. We don't want the dog figuring out that pattern, ok, so that's why we're going to throw in some short duration and mix it up and vary it, but the overall pattern is to add more and more time. But you got to do it slowly. At any point in time your dog starts to experience any level of stress you have left too long, too soon. It's all about doing this a lot over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over, it will get better. But go to my website, check out my articles. In addition to that, you could also check out Melena de Martini and her book on separation anxiety, or you can go to her website, melenademartinicom and she has a book on separation anxiety.

Speaker 2: 40:28

Some dogs with separation anxiety. If it's really severe, they may need a supplement. They may need medication along with that. Again, I'm not a veterinarian, but separation anxiety can be very, very tough. In some cases it's a huge panic attack. Yeah, the thing about anxiety in dogs they kind of go hand in hand with aggression. All right, and the fact that you've got aggression, the fact that you've got a rottweiler which if they bite they can do a lot of damage. They're big and it's six years old absolutely get this dog to the veterinarian. Make sure everything's okay there physically. And you need to find yourself a certified behavior consultant or a veterinary behaviorist, somebody highly qualified to help you with your dog.

Speaker 2: 41:24

Right now you need to avoid the triggers and again, nobody likes that. It's not the cure, but it's the first step to the cure. And again, I'll use the analogy if the problem wasn't the dog, if the problem was a broken water pipe, the first thing we need to do is turn off the main water. Now we can successfully work on fixing the broken pipe, but if we keep the water on, that's us not avoiding triggers. If the water on is us not avoiding triggers and we try to do the work of fixing, it's just a mess and we're not going to have success. Just like you wouldn't have success fixing a broken water pipe If you didn't turn the water off, you're not going to have success dealing with aggression, fears, phobias, anxiety, separation anxiety. If you're not avoiding the triggers, then we set up a very specific training plan and behavior modification plan and treatment plan and protocols where we are proactively setting up scenarios exposing your dog to triggers at a safe distance in a way that will teach your dog to be calm, to be relaxed and not view those triggers as scary or fearful or the need to be aggressive or panicking because you're gone Now. Also, a lot of dogs Alyssa that have separation anxiety and anybody else listening a lot of dogs that have separation anxiety. A lot of dogs that have aggression. In addition to that, they've got other anxiety issues and in addition to that, many of them, many of them have resource guarding issues.

Speaker 2: 43:24

As a matter of fact, I'm here to tell you that all aggression is resource guarding. I just wrote a textbook for pet professionals. Pet parents could buy it as well. It's on Amazon. It's called Taming the Treasure Keepers. It's a evidence-based, science-based guide, a textbook for pet professionals on managing, addressing and treating resource guarding. But I want you to think about it Territorial aggression is resource guarding. Food aggression. Resource guarding, toy aggression resource guarding In protective of a human in the house. Resource guarding they're a resource their bed, their crate where they lay down. Maybe they lay at your feet and you move and they're aggressive. Location resource guarding aggression Dog-on-dog aggression usually is always over resources, whether it be some space, whether it be a toy, whether it be food, whether it be one of the owners, the pet parents, whether it be another pet in the house. All aggression is resource guarding. But you can get my textbook Taming the Treasure Keepers and you can get that today on Amazoncom. Let me look and see if we've got other questions here, but let me get back to the licking.

Speaker 2: 44:58

So, tracy and anybody else that has a behavior problem with your dog, if your dog has a behavior problem and you don't like it, rather than thinking about what you don't like or what you don't want, because then we tend to want to punish the dog for that, and it's not fair, especially if we didn't teach the dog a behavior that would be appropriate to do. That we can reward. So it's called differential reinforcement. The classic example is somebody comes to the house and your dog likes to jump on guests. Well, rather than punish the dog for that, we would take time proactively to start teaching the dog to sit when the door opens, and then we would start working with calm, quiet guests. We'd open the door and they would just stand at the door and we'd keep making the dog sit every time until the cue for sitting is the door opening and a stranger coming in and we're going to be rewarding the heck out of the dog. It's got to be more interesting and more rewarding to sit when a stranger comes than meeting the stranger, and this is one of the reasons why I don't let my dogs get excited around other people besides me and my family. This is another reason why I don't let other people get excited around my dogs. Get my dogs excited. Now I got to correct their behavior. So I tell people you know, ignore my dogs, and I don't let my dogs go crazy around people. I want calm dogs and they're very happy, very happy being a loop to strange people, very happy. My dogs are being a loop to strange dogs.

Speaker 2: 46:45

Folks, your dogs don't need to play with every dog that's out there. You're getting your dogs into dog fights by trot. You think socialization is they've got to sniff butts with every dog out there. You think socialization is I got to get my dog to the dog park. Dogs are constantly getting in fights there. Socialization is about exposing your dog in close proximity to as many things as possible so that your dog doesn't develop fears. That doesn't mean that your dog needs to integrate and play with every dog, or it doesn't mean that your dog has to play with every person.

Speaker 2: 47:23

You know, if you go to Germany, the culture is completely different. Everybody leaves everybody else's dog alone. Dogs don't get excitable when they see a strange dog. Dogs don't get excitable in Germany when they see strange people. Nobody asked to come up and pet their dog. Oh, nobody says hey, can my dog meet your dog? And as a result, the dogs there are super calm. They get to go everywhere in the stores, in the restaurants, on public transportation. They're not service dogs. They didn't have any incredibly high end training, but people left the dogs alone. They didn't get them all jacked up. It's amazing. We do a lot of things wrong here in the United States.

Speaker 2: 48:11

Now, it's not that I don't want your dog to have fun with people or have fun with dogs, but I want you to discriminate. I want you to pick just a few people, pick just a few dogs. You know, every time I want to socialize, I don't go into a big party where there's 50 and 100 people and I don't do that three times or four times, five times a week. And that's what you're doing when you're bringing your dog to a dog park. And I'm going to tell you right now it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. If you frequent a dog park long enough, your dog's going to get into a fight and it might damage your dog.

Speaker 2: 48:53

Find friends, find coworkers, find family that have stable, calm dogs and set up playdates. Have people that meet your dog, be super calm, super calm. But yeah, separation, anxiety, aggression those are things that you typically you can learn about it. You can get information on my website. I can give you a little bit here to make you dangerous, but you really need to think about hiring a professional for that. Let's see what else we got.

Speaker 2: 49:35

All right, alyssa. Aggression towards everyone except my daughter and myself yeah, so, alyssa, you definitely need to get your dog into a vet. You definitely need to find somebody that can help you If you go to here's the thing, I even forgot about it. August 7th, I think that's next Saturday I'm doing a two hour webinar on aggression. I don't know if you've seen that, but we've got 25 spaces available. First come, first serve $42 dirt cheap for two hours of a webinar on aggression, and that way we can get kind of into some specifics about your dog. When we're doing that. If you want to sign up for that dog aggression webinar, which is next Saturday, you can go to dogbehavioristcom and just go to the menu and find where it says webinar and you can sign up right there.

Speaker 2: 50:37

All right, my in training service dog loves people too much. What can I do to lessen her excitement? South Carolina, mary. I got a friend and great friend, best friend in Florence. South Carolina, love Myrtle Beach, love it, love it, love it.

Speaker 2: 50:56

So, mary, the first thing that you need to do is start teaching your dog to have a strong sit with mild distractions, then a strong sit with moderate distractions, then a strong sit with heavy distractions. You got to do that gradually and systematically. You've got to be much more excitable, much more interesting in the world than anybody else that's out there. You need super high value food rewards to reinforce that sitting. But you've got to do distraction training. People are just distractions to get your dog excited. And so one of the things that you could do here's the good use of a dog park. Don't go in the dog park. Work at a distance that your dog can handle without being reactive, without being distracted, where your dog can focus on you. Park obedience commands at a distance from that dog park.

Speaker 2: 51:55

There your distraction, little by little, as your dog is having success, staying focused on you and filtering out the distractions, get closer and closer and closer, not over days, over weeks and maybe a couple months, and at any point in time you lose your dog's focus. Your dog becomes reactive or aggressive. You've gone too close to the stimuli, to the strange dogs and people, before your dog had enough conditioning at the lower level distraction. Then you start moving into the higher level distractions. With that, try high value food. She ignores it. Well, mary, here's the thing Does your dog love that high value food when you're in the house and you don't have that stimuli? Because if your dog outside, when it sees people, won't take food? Now we're talking about a dog that is getting so aroused it's crossing over into anxiety. Okay, now one thing, mary. Maybe there's a toy that your dog likes better than food. But, mary, you're too close too soon.

Speaker 2: 53:15

If your dog won't take the food, you need to be working at a much further distance where your dog will take food and then work at that distance for several weeks and you need to be out there four or five times a week doing these training sessions. They're short, 10 minutes. Again, if you go to episode 98 of the Pet Talk Today podcast on counter conditioning and desensitization, Mary, that's the ticket. That's an hour and a half instruction of what you need to be doing. Yeah, I know you say she just started signs of separation anxiety until you started working from home and then going back to work, because she would have had the separation anxiety anyway that we know from research and science. So you're going to need to be working on that.

Speaker 2: 54:09

And again, dogs with anxiety well, they tend to have other problems like aggression. Aggression and anxiety go hand in hand. Reactivity, anxiety they go hand in hand. Resource guarding and anxiety hand in hand. But yeah, I've got over 70 articles, lots of different topics, lots of different great information. So make sure you're stopping by my website at dogbehavioristcom and checking out those articles and make sure that you do a Google search for the Pet Talk Today podcast, whether it's Apple podcast, spotify, I think, it's Amazon, echo, I don't know Alexa, something like that but subscribe so you never miss an issue and if you love what we do, please give us a five star review on Apple podcasts and any of the other podcasting platforms. So let's see here. Going back to questions, got a lot of great questions today. I really appreciate it. Let's see here, bonnie Bonnie, bonnie Bonnie, what's going on with you today? I like to get this out there for us dog persons.

Speaker 2: 55:24

Yesterday I walked between cars to grocery, to a grocery, I guess, store. I was not talking or running or touching cars. The dog latched onto my arm from a car window. Wow, that was down. Yes, it hurt bad. I calmly told the dog to let go. And what does the rest of the message say? Come on, come on, come on. Hold the dog to let go. Can't see the rest of the message? Well, I can't read it. It keeps kicking me out of there.

Speaker 2: 56:02

Yeah, you know I was. I was eight years old and I walked up. I don't know why I remind I'm 57, I'm thinking. When I was eight years old I walked up to a car. There was a German shepherd in the car and I asked the guy if I could pet the dog. I pet the dog and the dog bit me. One of the incisors bit me right by my nose, the other one bit me in the head. So, yeah, you got to think about it. Cars are territory and it's a very small, confined territory. A lot of dogs can be more aggressive in the car towards strangers than strangers coming into the house. So just know that, yeah, you got to be careful, got to be careful. And also, you know those of you that are driving in your cars and you like to let the dog, you know, stick their head out the window. First of all, it might not be the safest thing in the world and no, well, I'm not my happy dog parent self today. I'm sorry, bonnie, it sucks, it sucks, but you know, take that lemon and make it into lemonade, you start advocating for things, you start spreading the message and you can make hopefully make some good out of that.

Speaker 2: 57:32

B says my dog doesn't seem to like the leash around his neck. He seems, she seems to shut down. He doesn't take treats and his body language looks low and his facial expressions look sad. I'm afraid of adding more to his anxiety fear. Yeah, so, b, what I want you to begin to do is get that. What is it? The leash leash around his neck? Are you talking about the collar or the leash, or is it a slip leash? Well, this is what I want you to do. I want you to just take it out five times a day for about two minutes, set it on the ground and I want you to sprinkle some high value food rewards around it. Do that for three or four days, unless your dog doesn't choose to eat the treats. Do it a little longer to.

Speaker 2: 58:21

Your dog eats the treats for three or four days. Then have your dog go up to it and pick it up and feed a treat, set it down. Pick it up, feed a treat to your dog, set it down. Do that for a couple of days until you can tell your dog's really comfortable with that, then you're going to take it one step further. You're going to pick it up and you're going to bring it towards your dog, but just a little bit towards your dog. Don't try to put it on the dog yet. Bring it a little bit towards the dog. Feed, feed, feed constantly and continuously with high value food rewards. Then remove the leash so it's not so close to him, but stop feeding. Then again, now pick up the leash, bring it a little closer. Maybe you just have a very light touch of that leash or collar for the briefest of duration and you give a jackpot a handful of chicken and you do that several times, gradually, systematically, in little tiny slices. We've got a pair of positive reinforcement with what your dog doesn't like. At any point he starts to show stress, you need to dial it back a little bit and go into procedures that you were doing previously, at a distance previously, where your dog did not have any problems with that.

Speaker 2: 59:49

Again, a lot of your questions, folks. There's a lot of detail that you can get and help you. All of these questions are the same. Please, please, please, go to the Pet Talk Today audio podcast. Look for episode 98 on counter conditioning and desensitization. I guarantee you that is going to help you tremendously. If you need professional help, you can contact me at dogbehavorscom. If you've got a dog with anxiety, stress, fears, phobias, aggression, reactivity, hey, check out my product, calm Dogs at doganxietycom. It's a natural supplement. Use it for six weeks, give it twice a day. If you don't see improvement, you let me know and I'll refund 100% of your money back. Well, folks, we are out of time. It's 10 o'clock. Great questions. I love you guys. Hit that like button, hit that share button. Tell your friends about this so that more people can benefit from what we do. This is your show. Let me know what you want me to cover and have a great, great weekend.