Dog Training Today with Will Bangura: #127 Q & A Will Answers Email Questions and Talks About Fun Facts About Dogs

Can you keep your furry friend calm during the holiday season while managing to train a new puppy too? We're here to guide you through this journey with intriguing insights and actionable tips on navigating pet issues during the festive season. Listen as we, your hosts, cover everything from understanding various pet behaviors to revealing some astounding dog facts. Buckle up as we discuss a tough case of separation anxiety and learn how and when to include your vet in the picture.

Ever wondered about dog aggression and how to handle it? We're diving into the nitty-gritty of managing puppy interactions and proactive recall training. You'll find yourself engrossed in our detailed discussions on creating a safe space for your elder dog while introducing a new pup into your home. We'll also be covering some very crucial topics like ruling out any medical issues contributing to aggression and developing effective potty training strategies with a surprising tool: a potty journal!

The fun doesn't stop there, though! We’ve got some fascinating dog facts and training tips to keep your pet-parent journey exciting. From scent swapping to distance management and teaching new behaviors, we've got you covered. Discover the benefits of natural anxiety aids like Calm Dogs, and fascinating facts about your furry friends. Top all this knowledge off with our weekly Q&A session with Pit Talk, where we answer your burning questions. So tune in and join us on this enlightening adventure filled with expert advice and practical tips for pet owners!

Chapters

• 0:00 Pet Behavior and Training Questions Answered
• 11:18 Teaching Recall and Managing Puppy Interactions
• 21:39 Dog Aggression and Potty Training Strategies
• 31:50 Potty Training and Dog Behavior Issues
• 38:32 Introducing New Dog to Older Dog
• 46:13 Fascinating Dog Facts and Training Tips
• 1:01:11 Weekly Podcast Q&A Session With Pit Talk

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Raised by wolves with canine DNA and his blood. Having trained more than 24,000 vets helping you and your fur babies thrive, live in studio with Will Bangura answering your pet behavior and training questions. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your host and favorite pet behavior expert, will Bangura Good.

Speaker 2: 0:33

Saturday morning pet lovers. I'm Will Bangura. It is Saturday, november 18th. I can't believe we are heading into Thanksgiving and then after that we've got Christmas and and you know, with Christmas is gonna come a lot of people getting new Christmas dogs, okay, and with that are gonna come a lot of puppy issues, a lot of puppy problems. Today I'm gonna be taking your questions. I'm also gonna be going through some email questions. I've got a lot of email questions that have kind of stacked up that I haven't gotten to yet. Hey, thanks for watching. If you're brand new, let me talk a little bit about what we do here.

Speaker 2: 1:18

Again, I'm Will Bangura. I'm a certified dog behavior consultant. I've been working with dogs professionally for a little over 35 years most of my life and if you've got a question, if you've got a problem with your dog doesn't matter what the problem is, doesn't matter how old your dog is, doesn't matter what the breed is do me a favor, go ahead and type your comments in below in the comment section. Type your question and let me know where you're watching from and what kind of pets that you have. Yeah, hopefully you're having a wonderful weekend. I know it's just fantastic my weekend. I'm in Phoenix and now a lot of people would be upset if it got cloudy and it started to rain. I'm thrilled because we don't get much of that. We don't get a lot of rain, we don't get a lot of cloudy days, and so today's just a wonderful day, great day to be outside when the rain's stopping. You know it's coming and it's going a little bit. Also, I'm gonna talk about some fun facts about dogs little known fun facts that you may or may not know about dogs. Do me a favor if you're watching, if you're listening, please hit that like button, hit that share button so that more people can benefit from what we do here at the podcast. Now, if you are not subscribed to the pet talk today audio podcast, make sure you get to Apple podcast, spotify, wherever you listen to your podcast. Look up dog training today. You can find us under our old name, pet talk today, but now we're known as dog training today and when that comes up, do me a favor, please give us a five-star review and please subscribe. You know we've got about 28% of our listeners that are subscribed, so the vast majority of you that that are listening to the audio podcast. You're just not subscribed and we want to get that up. Our goal right now is to get 50% of our listeners subscribe. So please hit that subscribe button and if you love what we do, please give us a five-star review.

Speaker 2: 3:35

Looking for my water here, I think what I want to do is go into a couple email questions. But again, if you've got a question and you're watching live, type your question into the comment section along with where you're watching from and what kind of pets you have. So let me go through some of these emails here. I've got a question from June, and June says I've got a gray hound that has terrible separation anxiety. We rescued him. He's three years old. From what we understand, he was used as a racing dog and now whenever we leave, he cries, he screams and he tears up everything in the house. We were frustrated. We've tried everything, we've put it, we've gone through three different crates. The dog has busted through each one of the crates to the point where it actually was hurting itself and its paws got cut and we're bloody, all right.

Speaker 2: 4:41

Well, june, you've obviously and anybody listening that's a severe case of separation anxiety and one of the things you know this is a greyhound. This is a dog that even. You know, with its age it's pretty young to get a dog. That was a racing dog. Usually they race longer and you get them when they're a little bit older. But, june, you've even got a younger greyhound that isn't really at retirement age yet and that dog was living a life of running like crazy. Think about, think about the exercise that that dog had and that's not happening now. And one of the things that I would recommend you have got to get that dog running. You have got to get the dog in a green belt area or in a fenced in area and get the dog running. You know it's a sighthound breed, so probably you know if you throw a ball your dog is most likely going to run after it now you might be saying what does that have to do with separation anxiety?

Speaker 2: 5:49

well, one of the biggest things dogs are bored and they're not stimulated and we want to make sure that we're addressing that area as well. Now, the severity of your dog's separation anxiety, the fact that it hurts itself, the fact that you can't keep this dog in a crate it's breaking through every crate you put it in and it's causing harm to itself. We need to get the dog to the veterinarian. I'm not a veterinarian, I can't give out medical advice, but in this case this appears to be a case where it's so severe that you may depending upon what the veterinarian says you may need to use behavioral medicine in conjunction with behavior modification to help with that separation anxiety. When it's so severe like that, we're unable to help the dog and really get into the training because they're so frantic and they can't settle down at all, even a little bit, and they are just stuck in the amygdala and there's all kinds of emotions going on and the last thing that they're able to do when they're in that state is to be able to use the frontal cortex, the executive functioning part of the brain, to think and learn and to remember that doesn't happen. So when it's this severe, you need to be touching base with with your veterinarian and then make sure that you're getting somebody that really knows what they're doing with separation anxiety. Make sure that you've got a certified dog behavior consultants. You can go ahead and look at the certification council or professional dog trainers. They have a directory of dog trainers and they have a directory of behavior consultants. This is a more severe problem. You want to look for a behavior consultant in your area if you've got a problem with your dog and you can't find anybody that's qualified or certified to help you. I do virtual behavior consultations all over the world. I've got a lot of clients that are in Canada. I've got some clients in New Zealand and Australia and I've actually got one in the United Kingdom and of course, I've got a lot here in in the US. But you can go to my website over here dog behaviorist calm dog behaviorist calm and you can leave me an email. If you need some help, if you need professional help, I'm happy to help you. Leave me an email from the website. Also, if you go to the website, there's over 75 I believe over 75 articles on. They're all on different behavior problems 75 articles on different behavior problems, so check those out as well.

Speaker 2: 8:47

Let me go into another one of our email questions, and this time this is from Kathy, and Kathy says we have a. We have an older. We have an older Norwegian Elkhound I think that's what they said and we just got a new puppy that we rescued, which is a lab bulldog mix, and the puppy wants to play with the older dog. The older dog won't have it and has been snapping at the puppy. The puppy is not. The puppy is not getting the message from the older dog. We are worried that eventually our older dog is going to say enough is enough and bite the young puppy, and we don't want fights between the dogs and we don't want to have this turned into a situation where the new dog becomes aggressive as well. What can we do? Thank you for your time. All right, kathy.

Speaker 2: 9:55

So let's talk about a few things, all right, and when you say older, I'm not sure exactly what you mean. Are we talking about a senior, senior dog that is having trouble with the new puppy? Or are we talking about, oh, it's just older than the puppy? Okay, because if you've got a dog that's really old, you may have some medical issues with that dog there and again, I'm not a veterinarian, I can't give out medical advice, but I would want to, if it's my dog, get it to the veterinarian. I want to make sure, because it's getting older, that my dog doesn't have any hormonal imbalances that can affect behavior, and I'm gonna want to check to see whether or not there's a pain issue with the older dog.

Speaker 2: 10:46

You know a lot of dogs, especially older dogs. Some of their aggression is related to medical factors, hormonal imbalances, pain issues, things of that nature. Those are things that training and behavior modification are not going to be able to to be addressed, because you've got to address those with medications and whatever else medical treatments that the veterinarians think are appropriate. So that's the first thing I'm going to do, kathy. Second thing I'm gonna do when the puppy is out and about with the older dog.

Speaker 2: 11:31

I want to have a leash on both the older dog and a leash on the puppy. Now, it doesn't have to be a leash, it could be four feet of light rope that has a leash clasp that you've attached to your dog's harness or collar. Hopefully you're using a harness and you're not putting all that pressure on their neck. But and yes, it's okay for the dogs to wear the harness in the house. Listen, you need to train some manners in the house. Your dog and that puppy came to you just being a puppy. It's being a puppy. It's not being dominant with your other dog, it's just being a puppy and the older dog probably. I mean, I don't have a crystal ball, but I'm going to guess there may be some pain issues.

Speaker 2: 12:16

I don't know. You know if you had a dog previously, and I think that was also near the bot. There was more in your email that I didn't read. I think you had a dog previously and the older dog got along with that dog, but that dog passed away. The older dog could have depression too. Dogs get depression, they sure do. They have all kinds of emotions. We're going to be talking about some of that later. However, when it comes to this situation, you could have about four feet of very light rope with a leash clasp. Hook it onto the dog's collar or their harness. Let them drag that around. Why? Because, as the puppy is getting into your older dog space, I want you to grab that light line that's attached to your puppy and begin to call the dog to you and reward the dog if the dog comes to you Now.

Speaker 2: 13:13

One of the things that you should be doing proactively is working on calling your dog to you, having a really strong recall. That's probably the number one command. Even if you did nothing ever with your dogs, if you never trained your dogs at all, the one thing you should do regardless is have a strong recall. That means when you ask your dog to come, your dog comes. Now I just wrote an article on dogbehavioristcom about teaching the restrained recall. Have you heard about the restrained recall? That is something that allows your dog to get more. You can build speed on the recall. You can get the dog more interested in wanting to come to you when called. So this is part of getting a really strong recall. So check out the article, the latest one on dogbehavioristcom, and that article is on teaching the restrained recall. But back to Kathy. Proactively, I want you 10 times a day to be working on that recall. Get the information from the restrained recall from the dogbehavioristcom website. That article gives you step-by-step instructions exactly how to teach the restrained recall. Now do that where there's and it says it in the article do that where there's little to no distractions and then when your dog gets really good at that, little by little let's add some distractions. Then when you have it trained well, you'll be able to utilize that as the puppy is heading towards the older dog.

Speaker 2: 14:58

Imagine that your older dog has a circumference of comfort Okay, a circumference of comfort and if you get inside a certain distance now the older dog's uncomfortable. You need to advocate on the behalf of your older dog and your younger dog. If your older dog's growling and snapping and the younger dog keeps coming back, it's not getting the message. You need to help your dog, but I don't want you to punish either dog. Your older dog's just being a dog and saying, hey, I don't want to play, I don't want you in my space. Listen, do you want to play with, do you want to be with everybody? Do you want everybody in your face? No, of course not. So the same thing can happen with your dog. So don't punish the older dog and certainly don't punish the younger dog for just wanting to play and being a little rambunctious. But you need to teach manners.

Speaker 2: 15:55

And so what you can begin to do is, as that puppy is moving into the space of the adult dog, the older dog, at that space, you can begin to do a couple of things, and I want you to actually do both. One you can begin to do your recall and having the dog come back to you and reward the dog over and over and over, as the puppy is going towards the older dog. Give the cue to come. The dog starts coming. Reward the dog. Use very high value food rewards, because the puppy wanting to engage with the older dog has a lot of value for the puppy. So what we're rewarding that puppy with, when we're asking the puppy to do something different, that reward needs to be very, very high value. So don't be cheap. Find what your dog loves the most.

Speaker 2: 16:53

I always say the recall is the most important thing that you could teach your dog to ever do. You could save your dog's life. Your dog could be running and about ready to run into a street. Can you call your dog? Can you call your dog on come? Will your dog come back to you reliably? And will your dog come back reliably when there's insane distractions? Imagine that your older dog, kathy, was extremely aggressive and would do a lot of damage to your puppy If your puppy got too close. I know that's not the total case. I know your older dog can be aggressive, but sounds like more warning at this point, snapping at the puppy, growling, lunging a little bit, but not biting. But one of the things that we need to do is keep calling the dog to you in different environments, different locations and little by little, add distractions, because the dog is a big distraction.

Speaker 2: 18:00

The older dog, the puppy wants to get to the older dog. It's distracting the puppy. It's got the puppy's attention. Puppy is investing a lot into wanting to get close to the older dog. That has value for the puppy. Does your food reward have greater value? Or maybe you're rewarding with a favorite toy. Does that toy have greater value than wanting to get to the older dog? That's going to be critical Because if wanting to get to the older dog has more value to the puppy than whatever food reward or whatever toy that you're using as a reinforcer, your dog's not going to be working for you. So a big part of what you need to do is make sure that both you and the reinforcer that you're using have greater value and more interest to the puppy than your older dog. So, proactively, away from the older dog.

Speaker 2: 19:00

Kathy, I'm having you work on the recall. You can get that information by going to dogbehavioristcom. Then go to the menu, go to articles, look for the article on the restrained recall. Okay, now, as we're working on that, we're going to be able soon, when it gets a little reliable, to start working on that. When the puppy starts heading towards the older dog and gets too close, you can reach down and get that line to stop your puppy from getting too close so that your older dog doesn't get upset and that your puppy doesn't get hurt. Maybe, but call the puppy. Maybe you have to give a little bit of guidance with that line. Don't put pressure on there. Don't put much pressure, just a little bit of you know. Just help the dog, guide the dog towards you with the leash, don't correct the dog with the leash. This should be a fun thing for your dog.

Speaker 2: 19:58

And if your dog, if the puppy, won't come to you when it's near the older dog, that just means you have not done enough repetition of teaching that recall and slowly and gradually adding more and more distractions. Your older dog is just another distraction and it's too much too soon. You need to back up a few steps work on distractions, but a little bit lower level distractions, and condition your dog. More repetition, more repetition, more repetition. Most people underestimate the amount of repetition that they need to do for their be conditioning.

Speaker 2: 20:39

In a highly distracting environment it's difficult for your dog to go back into memory resources and to start thinking and to respond because they're excited about some distraction. That's why you need the things that you need your dog to do the most and I always say it's come when called and to be able to stay a down stay or stay on your place or your bed. If I can control the dog with that, I can go anywhere with my dogs. I can have them stay, I can have them come when called. I'm good. Those are critical. Think about it. You can manage anything. If every time you ask them to come, they come, and every time you ask them to stay, they stay. What can't you manage? For the most part, you can manage just about everything.

Speaker 2: 21:39

Now if you give that cue and again your puppy is not coming when called, you are working too close to your older dog too soon. Take it slower, more repetition, like I said, at the distance where you can have success. Now the other thing that needs to happen we need to get your older dog more comfortable with the younger puppy Moving in its direction, going in its space. So what you're gonna do is you're gonna have a helper so that you can do counter conditioning and desensitization. Those are just fancy words, for your older dog views your puppy coming close to it as something it does not like. It's unpleasant. Maybe the dog is scared, I don't know. Maybe there's a pain issue and the dog is afraid the puppy is gonna get too close and do something and it's gonna cause the dog to have some pain. I don't know if there are pain issues, but You're gonna take the dog to the vet, find out, rule out, make sure there's no medical issues that are contributing to that aggression. That's lower level but it's aggression.

Speaker 2: 22:57

And You're also going to do behavior modification by changing the underlying emotional state that your older dog has. Right now it's emotional state is I've got a Be aggressive, but that's that behavior that you're seeing. The underlying emotional state is Some kind of distress. We want to change that underlying emotional state, that distress, into something joyful, fun, something your dog loves. So if, every time the puppy came moving towards the older dog but did not get so close that it caused distress for the older dog, and If, at the same time that puppy is making the approach to the older dog, we're feeding the older dog very high value food, rewards, feed, feed, feed, feed, constantly and continuously One to three seconds, as that puppy is moving towards the dog, but it's starting off at quite a distance, a very safe distance, where it causes no distress for your older dog and we just go in a little ways. But when the puppy stops moving towards your dog or if you bring the puppy away from your dog. In those two instances the feeding stops and you want to do this for five, ten minutes. Just bring the puppy towards the older dog, get the puppy to go away. Bring the dog puppy towards the older dog. Then get the dog to go away, slow speed, at a Distance where the older dog can see you in the puppy but doesn't have a care in the world. But as the puppy is moving towards your older dog, you're feeding and Then, as the puppy turns away, as you start walking away with the puppy, the feeding stops.

Speaker 2: 24:50

You need to do that in different rooms, different locations, you need to do that outside and you need to do a lot of repetition. Right now, right now, what's happening? Your older dog is getting conditioned that every time the puppy comes around to Go after it because it doesn't feel comfortable. We need to counter condition conditions something else Replace that underlying emotional state with a positive one. And that takes time. It takes repetition. You need to be doing this at least three to five times a week. The sessions are short, but three to five times a week and gradually, systematically, slowly, you're gonna get closer and closer and closer and closer and closer with the puppy.

Speaker 2: 25:41

Now the other thing you're gonna be doing, kathy, is I want you to begin to teach the puppy leave it. Okay. You can Go to my website at dog behaviorist calm and you again go to the article section and Scroll through the articles. I've got a complete article with step-by-step instructions. How do you teach leave it? Because the other thing we want to do right now your remember I've got you intervening when the puppy starts to move towards the older dog. You've got a leash or a line, a short line I called a drag line that the dogs just have to move towards the dog, that the dog is dragging around, that's hooked to its harness and you can grab that line to keep the puppy from going too close that it causes the older dog upset and then the dog gets aggressive.

Speaker 2: 26:37

You're able to help pull the dog away, guide the dog back to you and away from the older dog, but you need to proactively Be working on a strong recall. You need to proactively be working on leave it Okay and you need to be counter conditioning and desensitizing the older dog to start pairing something very positive with what it doesn't like the younger dog moving in its direction, all right. So we've got ruling out medical factors like pain, hormonal imbalances or any other medical issue by getting your older dog to the veterinarian. Then we're going to start training proactively Restrained recall so that you have a dog that comes to you every time fast, no matter what's going on. Little by little you're going to add more and more distractions to that to make it a very strong recall. You're going to be working on leave it and when you've got the recall, when you've got leave it Now you can begin to use those things With the younger dog, the puppy, when it starts to move towards your older dog.

Speaker 2: 27:52

And we're helping your older dog get more comfortable when the puppy is moving towards the older dog. So there's a lot of things that we do. Rather than punish, we're going to use differential reinforcements. We use positive reinforcement to teach a behavior that if the puppy, if the dog, is committed to that behavior, it would be incompatible with the behavior we don't want. So in this case the puppy is bothering the older dog by getting too close in the older dog's space. I don't want to punish the puppy, but what I can do is start working on a recall, having that puppy come when called over and over and over and work on distraction, work with that recall proactively and then, as the puppy begins to move towards the older dog, I'm able to now use that behavior that we worked on, that we trained with that recall and that's done with all positive reinforcement. And, like I said, everybody, everybody needs a recall. I'm will bangura, you're listening to dog training today. I'm here each and every saturday, let's see. Nine o'clock mountain time, that's eight o'clock pacific. So from eight to nine pacific and from, I believe, 10 to 11 central and I believe 11 to noon eastern time is when we have dog training today.

Speaker 2: 29:31

Let me go back into some of these fun facts that I have here with with dogs here. Well, I don't know, I knew this, but maybe you didn't know this puppies are born deaf and blind. Did you know that? So, newborn puppies, they're born with their eyes, their ears, closed. Their eyes typically open around 10 to 14 days of age and they're hearing Develop shortly after that. So they're born deaf and blind.

Speaker 2: 30:02

Dogs can See with their noses. That's what it says here. I don't know about seeing with their noses, but it says a dog's sense of smell is their primary way of interpreting the world. Yes, it is. It's so powerful that they can detect odors at concentrations nearly 100 million times lower Than a human can. Yeah, their sense of smell is crazy. Dogs dream, just like humans. Research indicates that dogs have similar sleep stages to humans, including REM sleep, where dreaming occurs. If you've ever seen your dog twitching, paddling or making noises in their sleep, they're likely dreaming.

Speaker 2: 30:44

Dogs have unique nose prints. Did you know that, just like humans fingerprints, every dogs nose and every dog's nose print is unique and that can be used to identify them? Very interesting, let me look and see. Hey, bonnie, how are you? Thank you for being here. Hope you're having a good weekend and hope, as Thanksgiving comes up, that Things are wonderful and they're safe.

Speaker 2: 31:15

Let me go back into some email questions I have here as well. I've got a question from Paul, and Paul says we're having a really difficult time potty training our 16 week old Havanese um. She knows that she's not supposed to go in the house, but she goes To spite us. This happens more when we're not home than when we are home, but she will sneak away sometimes when we're home and go both number one and number two in the dining room. All right, paul.

Speaker 2: 31:50

Um, one of the things, the number one rule when it comes to potty training, is you need to supervise your puppy at all times. Your puppy needs to be in your eyesight at all times and when your puppy, when your puppy Can't be in your eyesight, at that time, you need to be confining your puppy so it can't Sneak off and have an accident. Most puppies, most dogs, will not soil themselves in a crate. If the crate is the size of the puppy, your dog, it needs to be big enough that they can stand up, they can lay down. Um, their nose and their rear end aren't touching, their back's not touching when it's standing up. But you don't want a big crate About the size you know and big enough that the dog can stand up and turn around. Do you need to create train? Because when you can't watch your dog, you need to confine your dog. When your dog has accidents, it's not the end of the world.

Speaker 2: 32:53

What we've got to do is begin to teach the right thing, and one of the things I love to do is create what I call the potty journal. I create that potty journal. I'm keeping track when does the puppy eat, when does the puppy drink, when does the puppy poop? When does the puppy pee? Is it an accident in the house? Is it outside, in the correct spot? If I'm feeding on a schedule and if the pee problem is really bad, I'm going to water, give water on a schedule, initially so that I can teach what I need to teach, because when I'm feeding on a schedule, when the puppy's drinking on a schedule, and I'm keeping track of the data of when it drinks, when it eats, when it pees, when it poops, where it relieved itself accident or in the correct place I'm going to start to see a pattern. There's going to be a pattern as far as how long time-wise, after the puppy drinks before it pees, whether it's an accident or in the right place. We're going to start to see a pattern when we look at the data that we're collecting every day about how often and how long after the dog drinks or the dog poops, does it go to the bathroom. That allows us to take our smartphone, set the alarm If we're finding the pattern is oh, about 40 minutes after the puppy eats. He's always pooping. Well, I'm going to set my alarm for like 30 minutes, 35 minutes.

Speaker 2: 34:28

I want to get the puppy outside in the correct place to go to the bathroom before it is going to have an accident. My dad is telling me hey, time-wise, the dog needs to go. So I get the puppy outside and we spend about five minutes out there. Now, if the puppy's distracted, don't count time. We need five minutes of relatively undistracted time, making sure that the puppy has enough time to go to the bathroom. When the puppy goes to the bathroom outside, wonderful things need to happen. There needs to be the biggest celebration in the world super high value food rewards and give that to your dog right after your dog finishes going to the bathroom and anytime you can't watch your dog, remember you've got to confine your dog. Now, the best case, the best practices, would be when you have to confine your dog, get your dog outside first, give your dog the opportunity to go to the bathroom and then confine your dog in the crate, and those are the things that you need to do. Also, let me talk for a second. Christmas is coming up.

Speaker 2: 35:43

There's a lot of great stocking stuffers that people like to buy. Do you have a dog or a puppy, or do you know somebody that has a dog or a puppy and they're struggling with potty training. Well, you can get my book right on Amazon. Just do a search for Will Bangura or do a search for House Training 101. House Training 101 is the most comprehensive, evidence-based, science-based potty training manual potty training book that is out there. So check it out. You can scan the code there and it'll take you right to Amazon. Or, just like I said, you can do the search on Amazon if you've got a dog. So that's one of the things that you can do is to grab that book and I guarantee, if you follow the instructions in House Training 101, my book you can potty train even the most difficult dogs in the world. Okay, all right, perfect, all right.

Speaker 2: 36:48

Let me go back into another question. By the way, if you don't want to buy the book, which is much more in-depth, you can go to the podcast, the Pet Talk Today, the Dog Training Today podcast. I'm going to get that mixed up a little bit, since we changed the name from Pet Talk Today to Dog Training Today. Go to the Dog Training Today podcast. Look for episode 16. Episode 16 is, I think, 45 minutes to an hour of me going through in-depth, in detail how do you potty train the most difficult dog, or one of the things that you can do, like I said, is you can go to Amazon and you can pick up my book on potty training. It's called House Training 101. Or you can just type in the search bar in Amazon. It'll bring up all the books that I have written.

Speaker 2: 37:42

All right, again, I want to go back to email questions, because I've got a lot of email questions and I've not been getting to them. I apologize for that. So I said I was definitely going to commit time for that. All right, this question is from Tina. Tina says that she has a two-year-old men pin and she has a 14-year-old Jack Russell Terrier and they're fighting. They got along for the first three months and now they're fighting. Well, tina, I'm wondering if the other not the older dog, not the 14-year-old, but the other dog, the younger dog did you just get that? Did you rescue the dog?

Speaker 2: 38:32

See, here's the thing when you get a new dog and you want to introduce it, especially to an older dog, don't assume that everything is going to be fantastic. One of the things that I like to do is I like to get the dogs familiar with their scent first, before I even introduce the dogs to one another. And when I introduce the dogs it's done in a very, very specific way. We do that outside, in a neutral area. They're on leash. I've got both dogs at a distance far enough away. They don't care about each other but they can see each other. And I start feeding food to the dogs and I've got two helpers and little by little we get closer and closer and closer. But while we're doing that we're trying to keep the dog engaged with us on both sides the older dog and the younger dog and we can start using behaviors that we've taught, like sit, shake, lay down, roll over, watch, touch lots of different things, spin Anything that your dog knows. Start having them do that while you're getting closer and closer and closer to the other dog.

Speaker 2: 39:54

If you start to see your dog start to show anxiety, stress, reactivity, aggression, you've gone too close too soon. They're not ready to meet. One or both of the dogs has a problem. So only go as close as where the dogs are really comfortable. There is no rule that you need to introduce two dogs in one day or in one minute, or five minutes or 10 minutes. It might take weeks to introduce the dogs and get them really close together. I don't know how long it's going to take, because it's all up to the dogs. And if we're doing everything correct, if our timing is really good and we are working with the dog and we're getting improvement, but then we start hitting a wall, chances are we need to do more repetition at a level distraction level that is not so intense. So back up a little bit, spend more time working on that, being proactive, working within, teaching new behaviors like sit, lay down, shake, roll over, bend, touch, watch lots of different things you can teach your dog to do and make that fun and engaging with you and start doing fun, engaging, training around the dog that you want to introduce and make it fun for both dogs. But work at a distance where they're not distracted by one another they're not reactive and little by little, get them closer and closer and closer and closer until you can get very close and you can work with both dogs and keep their focus. Remember I love that.

Speaker 2: 41:57

Recall the restrained recall, the thing that I think is the most important thing that your dog can do. What if your dog looks at the older dog and you start to see something concerning? Can you call your dog back to you and will your dog be reliable, coming back to you in that type of situation it needs to be. Now, again, I'm swapping scent. So I'm taking a towel, I'm rubbing it on one dog, I'm leaving it with the other dog. I'm rubbing the other dog with a big towel and I'm leaving it with the other dog so that they can get used to the scent. Every day if this takes more than a day they're getting the scent and I'm feeding them. They smell the towel I feed, pull the towel away, bring the towel to their nose. They smell it, I feed. So not only are they getting used to the smell, but I'm trying to pair things that are really positive, that are absolutely positive for that dog, for the puppy, so that when we're actually trying to get them together and we're getting closer and closer and closer to them, they're going to recognize the scent that they've already been smelling, that we've created a positive association with.

Speaker 2: 43:28

It might be that I don't know, tina, if you're older, jack Russell has anxiety issues. I don't know if it's got problems with other dogs. One of the things some of the times, anxiety listen. Anytime a dog shows reactivity or aggression, there's some kind of underlying anxiety, some kind of underlying stress, perhaps fear, and we don't know at what level. Have you heard about calm dogs?

Speaker 2: 44:01

Now, calm dogs is an all-natural anxiety aid for dogs. So if you have a dog that has anxiety, fears, phobias, maybe sound issues with fireworks or storms, or maybe your dog's aggressive or has fear and anxiety when it rides in the car or gets groomed, or maybe you have a real struggle not only at the groomer but vet visits as well, well, if you have any of that, calm dogs is for your dog. It comes with a 100% money back guarantee. What does that mean? You try calm dogs for 45 days, because we know 98% of dogs are going to be helped by calm dogs. Their behavior is going to get better when they take it twice a day for six weeks. So if you take it twice a day for six weeks or give it to your dog and you don't see any improvement, I will refund 100% of your money. I created this product, so I stand behind this that this is the best calming aid that's natural that you will find on this planet. I guarantee it. I guarantee it so much that if it doesn't work for your dog, you let me know and I'll give you all of your money back. But check out calm dogs. You can go to doganxietycom or you can go to calmdogscom and ask your vet about calm dogs for your dog.

Speaker 2: 45:38

All right, let me get back to questions here. I love my coffee. All right, wait. Before I get to questions, let me give you some more fun facts about dogs. Well, oh yeah, I didn't even know that puppies have 28 teeth and adult dogs have 42 teeth. I didn't know that there was that big. I knew there was a difference, but I didn't know it was a huge difference from puppies having 28 teeth and adults having 42.

Speaker 2: 46:13

Wow, though, oh, the world's oldest known breed is the Saluki. Originally bred in Egypt around 329 BC. The Saluki is considered the oldest dog breed, known for its incredible speed and endurance. Oh, wow. And dogs, they've got a built in Earth. They have an inbuilt. It says Earth's magnetic field sense. Why don't they just say they have a sixth sense for the magnetic field of the earth? Research suggests that dogs prefer to align themselves with Earth's magnetic field when relieving themselves. This behavior is observed more strongly in calm magnetic field conditions.

Speaker 2: 47:03

I can tell you that's true. I've paid attention to that. I've watched my own dogs. That is just some strange thing. Did you know that Dalmatians, when they are born, they're born pure white and over time the Dalmatian begins to get those black spots, but they're born completely white? Also, did you know that dogs can be left or right pod? What do we mean by that? Well, you know. Are you a lefty? Do you use your left hand or are you a righty? Do you use your right hand? Which one is primary, which one is dominant? Same thing can happen with a dog and their paws they can be right pod or they can be left pod, all right. One more fun fact, and that is the loudest bark in the world. There's a golden retriever named Charlie, and Charlie holds the record for the loudest bark, at 113.1 decibels, and that's in the Guinness Book of World Records. Huh, I would not have expected that to come from a golden retriever. That's just absolutely crazy. That's absolutely insane.

Speaker 2: 48:14

I'm Will Bangora. You are listening to Dog Training Today. This will also. This is my Facebook live show that I do each and every Saturday, from 8 to 9 Pacific and from 11 to 12 noon Eastern. Yeah, I got to think about those. See, I'm here in Phoenix, arizona. We don't change the time. Everybody else changes their time and it throws me off big time, but I think I got it right there.

Speaker 2: 48:47

If you've got a question about your dog, go ahead and type it into the comment section, but also make sure that you are listening to the dog training today podcast. You can still find it under the old name Pet Talk Today, but go to Apple Podcasts. Look up Dog Training Today. There are God, there's got to be like 125, 124, 126 episodes. I talk about every behavior imaginable. So start scrolling through those. Make sure you subscribe If you love what we do. Please give us a five star review wherever you're listening to your podcast.

Speaker 2: 49:29

All right, let me go back to email questions. This one is from Kimberly, and Kimberly is asking why did? Why did dogs stick their head out of the window? My dog does it and my dog absolutely loves it. Well, probably because the people in the car really stink. I'm just kidding. You know, there was like a thing on Facebook that said that it was really funny. Why do they stick their head out the car? Because of they have the opportunity to smell so many different things. My God, I was talking about a dog, since the smell and it's a million times better than yours, and you know.

Speaker 2: 50:16

Let me give you an example. If I had three, 55 gallon barrels of water okay, each barrel. I've got three each barrel you can put 55 gallons, or big drums. So I fill up all three of those big drums with water and one of them I take a eyedropper that has blood in it, human blood and I do one drop in one, only one of the barrels Remember, they're 55 gallons. Each of the three barrels is full of water, 55 gallons of water. In each one of those barrels I put one drop of blood in.

Speaker 2: 51:00

Now if I train a dog because they've got a great sense of smell to be able to search and find human blood, I could take that dog a year after I put that eyedropper, one drop of blood that has been completely diluted in 55 gallons of water, and I bring that dog in there and say, hey, I need you to find the blood. The dog's going to go directly to that barrel that has that one drop of blood. They can smell it. They can smell it. Just think of that. It's hard to wrap my brain around that.

Speaker 2: 51:46

Imagine going for a car ride and I blindfold you. That's what it would be like if the dog couldn't stick its head out. So the reason they stick their head out is it's a blast and they're getting so much information, they're smelling so many things. Okay, they're like a tourist and they're traveling this traveling tourist with their nose. You're taking them on the tour, you've got them in your car and they got their head out the window. So that is why you know it's just, it's fun, and they get to smell a lot of things. And you know, what I don't think is fun for them is the wind blowing in their ears and blowing the ears back and in their eyes and stuff like that. But the reward, the sense of smell that they get and all those scents, all those smells that they get when they put their head out the window, has more value than the unpleasant wind blowing in their face and that's why they keep doing it. They keep doing it because they're reinforced by the smells that they get and that's how they figure out the world through their nose. I've said it before, I've said it recently on the podcast We've taken a look at the canine brain as well as the human's brain when it comes to the amount of brain matter that is used to smell, for a dog is 12%.

Speaker 2: 53:17

So 12% of brain matter. Out of all, 100% of brain matter 12% for dogs is utilized for smelling. On a human, on our brain, 0.01% is devoted to smelling. In our brain, 0.01% of our brain, human's brain is devoted to smelling and again 12% of a dog's brain. So there's this huge disparity between what they can smell and what we can smell. Their sense of smell is absolutely crazy.

Speaker 2: 53:58

All right, let me go to another email question, and this one is from Rhonda. And Rhonda says I've got a extremely loving and extremely smart two and a half year old French bull, french bulldog, who is only has one problem the dog is really crazy, really hyper. When I come home, anytime, whether I've been gone for a minute or two or whether I've been gone for eight hours when I come home, the dog, my dog, is whining, crying, spinning, jumping, drooling, and it takes forever to get my dog to calm down. What can I do? Well, one of the things that you can do is give your dog calm dogs, and I'm serious about this. Go to calmdogscom, go to doganxietycom, get some of the supplement calm dogs and try it with your dog. Now, I don't want you to just give a supplement, but this is going to help with that craziness, that anxiety, and it's going to put your dog in a better place to learn.

Speaker 2: 55:13

All right, now, initially you're not going to be able to. Just you know, I'm not going to be able to tell you to do something, and then tomorrow when you come home, the dog's not going to jump. All right, there are things that you need to do. I don't want you to punish the dog, and you know, modern training today, modern training today, does not have to use punishment, does not have to use force. No dog should experience fear, pain or intimidation. The only way that trains, other than that they're using old, outdated, archaic ways of training.

Speaker 2: 55:49

You can train in any behavior with positive reinforcement. You can train out any behavior with positive reinforcement. You just need to know how to do it. You just need to know how to do it. So any trainer that says that it can't be done with positive reinforcement, they just don't know how to do it with just positive reinforcement. And for me, I don't wanna use fear, pain or intimidation on my dogs. I don't want my dogs experiencing a shock from an electronic collar. I don't want my dogs feeling the pain of a prong collar. It's not necessary.

Speaker 2: 56:26

So here's what you're going to do okay, proactively, every day you're gonna start teaching your dog to sit about three feet from the door. So imagine we've got the door frame here, here's the door. Okay, you're gonna have your dog three feet away from where the door is. Okay, let's say this is the door. Instead, you're gonna be three feet away from the door, you're gonna have the dog sitting and you're gonna reward. You're gonna do that 10 times in a row every day and that's gotta be the highlight of the dog's day. Okay, 10 times in a row, reward the dog for sit. Now, if your dog is getting super crazy excited when you're doing that work, get really calm because you've got an excitable friendship. You may have to be really calm. If your dog gets too excited about the high value food reward, you may have to use a lower value food reward. This doesn't happen much, but this might be the case because your dog might be so overly excited.

Speaker 2: 57:40

Now you're gonna start teaching sit proactively three feet from the front door and you're gonna start practicing sit as an implied stay by starting to move away from your dog. You're gonna take a step If your dog maintains the sit. You're going to reward If you take a step and your dog does not maintain the sit, give the dog the cue for sit again. Have the dog sit and then, with both of your feet planted on the floor right in front of the dog, just move one foot, not both. Don't take that step, just move one foot, just that movement of one foot, and reward the dog if the dog stays. And then start moving that one foot over and over, then move the other foot by itself over and over. Reward the dog every time it stays in the sit when you're moving that one foot.

Speaker 2: 58:33

Now, if that's going well, now take a step away and start working within and rewarding that. And then two and three and four and five steps and then vary it. Maybe you take a step reward, then you do five steps, reward. You do two steps, reward, two steps, reward. Two steps away, reward, and then one step away in reward and then 10 steps away in reward, and then 10 steps and then 15 steps and then 20 steps and then 30 steps and then five steps. Vary the distance. But little by little you're gonna increase how far away you can be from your dog and have it sit.

Speaker 2: 59:09

Now, once you've got that, you're gonna start throwing in your own distractions. You wanna make sure that you're working with distractions. See, the biggest distraction is when you walk in that door. Okay, the biggest distraction is when a stranger walks in that door. Okay. Now what we're going to do we're gonna practice you very calmly coming in the door and if your dog gets excited, you're gonna freeze like a tree and you're gonna do that over and over until you can walk in and your dog is calm and then you're gonna reward the dog with food and you're gonna do that over and over and over. Okay, a lot. We need to get 10 calm episodes If you walking in that door, your dog is calm and you can reward your dog.

Speaker 2: 1:00:08

Now you might be saying why did we work on sit? Well, because if your dog gets crazy and is jumping on you, you can ask for sit. The dog cannot be committed to the sit and jumping on you at the same time. You'd have to give up the sit to jump on you. So you're gonna practice walking in that door and giving the sit cue, rewarding, walking out, coming in, giving the sit cue over and over, rewarding that. So you're coming in. If the dog's excited, you freeze like a tree, reward the dog when it gets calm. You're doing that over and over every day at least 10 successes. So you gotta do a lot of repetition and you're also gonna do 10 times a day where you're gonna be walking into the house from the door calmly and, if your dog gets excited, freeze like a tree, reward your dog when your dog is calm, all right.

Speaker 2: 1:01:11

Well, I appreciate all the questions. We are out of time. It's already looking at the time, actually 10.02,. We went over time. Thank you for all the email questions. I finally got to some of those. Remember, we're here each and every Saturday. Make sure you subscribe to the Pit Talk Today podcast. Have a great weekend, everybody. I'm out of here Just giving a dog a ball. Give a dog a ball. Now 16 Halcyon Ensemble.