Dog Training with Will Bangura: #130 How to Raise a New Puppy or Dog

Dog Training Today with Will Bangura: #130 Are you ready to open your home and heart to a new furry friend? We're here to help make it a joyful and successful experience. Join us, your favorite pet behavior experts, as we discuss everything you need to know about bringing home a new puppy or dog. We'll start from the basics, setting boundaries, establishing a strong training foundation, and why consistency is key. We share our thoughts on the Sealy Ham Terrier, the new star at the recent National Dog Show, and give our tips on how to manage multiple pets in one household.

Ensuring your dog is well trained is not only beneficial for you but also for them. We discuss effective and practical methods of training, highlighting the importance of high reward foods and the value of positive reinforcement. From leash manners and potty training to basic commands, we've got it all covered. Learn how to create a training routine that incorporates distractions, and the significance of a 'let's go' command. We'll also discuss the need for a 'drag line' for control when training your pup.

Introducing a new pet into a home with existing pets can be a challenge. We're here to ease that process. We guide you through the best approaches to introduce a new dog into a multi-pet household, including tips for managing potential resource guarding behaviors. If you're struggling with potty training, fret not! We'll share our tips, tricks, and the idea of keeping a journal to track your pet's habits. We'll also delve into crate training and the important aspects to consider. Tune in to our lively discussion and prepare to take notes, this episode is packed with valuable insights for every dog owner. Let's make the transition of bringing a new pet into your home as smooth as possible.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Are you thinking about getting a new puppy, or maybe even rescuing a new dog for the holidays? Well, if you are, you're not going to want to miss this episode. All that and your questions in 60 seconds.

Speaker 2: 0:18

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.

Speaker 1: 0:47

Would you like to go on Walkies? Good Thanksgiving Day weekend, everybody. I hope your Thanksgiving was fantastic. I'm Will Bangura and this is another episode of dog training today. Hey, do me a favor, hit that share button, hit that like button. If you're watching live on Facebook, if you are listening to the audio podcast of dog training today, please do me a favor, hit that subscribe button and if you love what we do, please give us a five star review. I've got a great show today, so grab the pups, grab something to drink and head on over to the screen so we can talk about dogs, dog training and dog behavior.

Speaker 1: 1:35

If you're brand new to dog training today and you're watching live on Facebook, let me talk a little bit about how this works. If you've got a question about your dog's training, if you've got a question about your dog's behavior, very simply, all I want you to do is just go ahead and type that question down below in the comments section, and also let me know where you're watching from and share those pet dog names with me. I love to you know especially especially if you've got goofy names that you have for your pet. That is something that I love to read and see in here, All right. So, like I said, we've got I've got a huge show today and I want to get to your questions. I want you to put your questions in there. But today, what I want to talk about because a lot of people are going to be getting a I call it the holiday dog, whether they rescue an older dog or a younger dog, or whether they get a brand new puppy from a breeder or somewhere else we're going to see an influx of puppies and dogs as a result of the holiday. As a result of the holiday, we're going to see more and more. So what I thought I would do oh, by the way, if you're not subscribed to the dog training today, audio podcast, wherever you listen to your podcast Apple podcast, spotify, google podcast make sure you subscribe, because I've got a lot of information, a lot of podcasts like almost 130 of them up there and I do podcast on the audio podcast that are not part of Facebook. So if you only listen by Facebook Live, you're missing out on a lot of content.

Speaker 1: 3:28

This past week I did I believe it was two short podcasts and that was selecting the right kind of dog. First one was selecting the right kind of breed for your lifestyle. And then I went into that a little bit more in the second podcast. So check those out at the dog training today podcast. But today, what I wanted to do, I wanted to share with everybody what my process is, what I would be doing If I went out and I got a new dog or a new puppy. Whether it be older or younger doesn't matter. Pretty much, what I'm going to do is the same.

Speaker 1: 4:09

So I wanted to talk about and go in depth detail. What is that process? What do I do? I've got a few. I've got a few notes, some cheat sheet notes as well. But before I do that, hey, did you guys watch the National Dog Show? Yeah, we had another.

Speaker 1: 4:29

Every Thanksgiving we have the National Dog Show and I've not watched it yet. I've got it recorded. I'm going to watch it, possibly today. Spoiler alert I know who won. So if you haven't watched it and you don't want to know who won, then pause your audio for about 30 seconds. Ok, all right, here it is.

Speaker 1: 4:56

So the dog that won, the dog's name is Stash. Yeah, stash, what a cool name, huh? Well, stash is a Sealy Ham Terrier. I think I got that pronounced right Sealy Ham Terrier. Quite frankly, I've never trained a Sealy Ham Terrier and the little bit I know about them is obviously they're a Terrier but they're not as wild and crazy and not as spunky as a lot of other Terriers, from what I'm told. But I'm going to be looking more into the Sealy Ham Terrier because any time there's a dog show and a breed wins that show, all of a sudden everybody wants that breed. Remember it wasn't too long ago when the French yep, the French Bulldog, won the National Dog Show? And now guess what? In the United States the French Bulldog is the number one most popular dog registered through AKC, overtaking the Labrador Retriever, which used to be the number one dog. So I expect to see a bunch of Sealy Ham Terriers here within the next year or so.

Speaker 1: 6:00

But let me talk about so let's assume I've got a new rescue dog or I've got a new puppy that I brought into my home, and I'm going to talk about my process, what I do to introduce a new puppy or a new dog into my home and how the training goes. Ok, so let me take a sip of the coffee here and then we'll get right into that. All right, so the first thing, the first thing, the first thing that I want to say and this is important and, by the way, if you're thinking about getting another dog, I don't care if it's 10 years from now, or if you're thinking about getting another puppy, I don't care if it's at Christmas time 10 years from now. Grab pen and paper, jot these things down. You're going to get some good stuff here. The first thing that I want to say, the most important thing, the most important thing I can do with my brand new puppy or my brand new rescue dog, is take them with me everywhere. That's the first thing I'm saying. Take them with me everywhere. Get them exposed to everything, to sounds, to different sites, to different textures under their feet, different visual stimulation. That's out there in the car. Take them everywhere.

Speaker 1: 7:25

Now, there's a big difference. They call it canine socialization. I hate that, absolutely hate it. They need to get that word socialization out of there. It should have said it should be called canine exposure. All right, look, when we're talking about canine socialization, we're not talking about your dog playing with every dog that's out there. We're not talking about your dog playing with and meeting every person that's out there. We're not talking about your dog or puppy meeting every dog or puppy that's out there. What we want is to get your dog exposed to everything. You've got a very short window, from three weeks of age to 13 weeks of age, to get your puppies exposed to as many things as possible, and if they don't have that exposure, they tend to develop fears and anxiety and phobias, and then that's where we really have some really tough problems to deal with with dogs. So one of the most important things you can do is get them out everywhere.

Speaker 1: 8:34

Now, I'm not telling you to go into the dog park. I am not a dog park guy. I'm not telling you to take your dog to doggy daycare. I'm not a doggy daycare guy. We can talk all about why in another episode. I don't even, I'm not even suggesting that your new puppy or dog meets other dogs, but what I want you to do is get your puppy or dog in close proximity to other people and close proximity to other dogs. I want you to work on some behavior cues and exercises with your puppy or dog in and around all of the different things that the world has to offer, and part of that is other strange dogs, other strange people. Again, I'm not saying that your dog or your new puppy should or needs to meet all people and all dogs. My dogs have met two, maybe three dogs and I've had them for two and three years now.

Speaker 1: 9:33

I'm you know I could care less whether my dogs played with another dog at all. You know they don't wake up in the morning going, hey dad, can we go to the dog park? Dad, take me to doggy daycare. Oh, can I play with the dog down the street? They never say that to me. This is all about your emotional needs. Listen. Only in America, only in America. And guess what? We've exported that crap overseas now. I was talking to a couple of wonderful behaviorists in the UK yesterday and we were talking about how all the bad habits in the US that dog parents have that they've done with their dogs, how now that's carried over into Europe. They never had dog parks. They never had dog parks, now they do. They never had doggy daycare, now they do. Where did that start? It started here in the US.

Speaker 1: 10:30

Look what I want for my dogs I want them to be around any person. I want them to be around any dog. I don't want them to be afraid and I don't want them to be reactive or aggressive, again, I don't care. If I don't want, I don't necessarily want them to play. There's a lot of dogs out there that you know. You look at them, you think, yeah, everything's okay, and then boom, they nail your dog, they attack your dog and now now you've got a dog that's all messed up. Okay.

Speaker 1: 10:59

Now what I say is that if you've got family, if you've got friends and you understand their dogs and you know their dogs are just chill and they've got a great temperament. They can put up with a lot of frustration. They've got a high tolerance for frustration. They've got really good impulse control. They're not at all aggressive, not at all reactive. Yeah, dogs are the dogs that I bring my dog around, and they're few and far between and, quite frankly again, my dogs aren't asking for it. So when I bring them around I'm doing it more for me.

Speaker 1: 11:37

All right, a lot of people are relieved when they hear your dog does not have to be social with every dog and every person. They don't, all right. So the first thing, number one thing expose my puppy or dog to everything. Even if I've got a young puppy and it doesn't have all of its vaccinations, I'm still going to expose my dog to everything. Now, I'm not going to put that puppy somewhere where a lot of dogs were peeing and pooping. I'm going to avoid that stuff if they don't have all their vaccinations. We're not going to be sniffing butts and nose to nose with other dogs or puppies either.

Speaker 1: 12:15

Okay, not the American Veterinary Society for Animal Behavior Veteran's, who have specialized now in animal behavior as well as being, you know, medical doctors, veterinary medicine doctors. They have come out with a position statement that says listen, it's much more important to get your dog out, your new puppy out everywhere. Don't worry about it being all vaccinated. Our puppy is more likely to be euthanized for behavioral reasons than get parvo or distemper. Now, I'm not a vet. I can't give out medical advice, but the information I share is in the public domain. You can get on the Google machine and you can find it there for yourself. All right, expose the puppy or dog to everything.

Speaker 1: 13:03

Now let's talk about what kind of equipment I need and the dog or puppy needs in order to start this brand new journey. So, the first thing, I'm going to have a notebook, or I'm going to keep a journal, or I'm going to keep notes on my tablet, my laptop, my computer, my smartphone. I'm going to keep a journal and that journal is going to be used for all kinds of different behaviors so that I can keep track of what I need to do Body training, when, I keep track of any fears, keep track of any phobias, keep track of anything that the dog is struggling with. I am going to be keeping a journal. I recommend that you do as well. The second thing I need a treat pouch, listen.

Speaker 1: 13:54

The way dogs learn is through positive reinforcement and that's the best way to teach and train up a dog is with positive reinforcement. In order to ask your dog to work and to learn, there's got to be a paycheck. Now you can fade out that food down the road, but most dogs are food motivated, so I want you to do it right. If there's a right way and a wrong way to reward with food and if you want detailed information on how to use food in training, go to my website, go to dogbehavioristcom, that's right. Go to dogbehavioristcom and then go to the article section and you can find the section on how to use food in training, because what we don't want to do is we don't want to use the food as a bribe, because down the road we want a dog that's going to listen. We want a dog that's going to respond to cues or commands without having to have food in our hand.

Speaker 1: 15:00

But in the beginning, as we're teaching this brand new information, we need to motivate the puppy or dog as best we can, and the higher the motivation, the quicker the dog learns and understands what it is we're trying to teach. So a treat pouch is essential. Now let's talk about equipment. If the only time that treat pouch came out and I put it on my belt or on myself if the only time that came out was when we were going to train and let's say I carved out three times a day I'm going to do 10-minute exercises of training Well, if that treat pouch only comes out during that time, eventually what the dog is going to learn, what the puppy is going to learn, is that I need to listen when the treat pouch comes out. However, when the treat pouch doesn't come out, I don't need to listen. So some of the things I'm going to be sharing with you are ways to be able to wean tools out of the picture, and it might seem a little paradoxical, but the more you wear that treat pouch, the easier it is to get rid of it and get food out of the equation when you're training. But what I want you to do, so write this down. From the moment you wake up until you go to bed or until you leave the house without the dogs, you have your treat pouch on and you have high value food rewards.

Speaker 1: 16:31

I like to use little pieces of cooked chicken. They are about the size of a pea and that's the size that a training reward should be about the size of a pea. Now, I've got my training journal. I've got my treat pouch. I need to have high value food rewards, something very small but incredibly palatable. This is the one thing you want to find. What does your dog love? What does it love? Now, what I found is most dogs like chicken. They love chicken. Okay, it's easy. I can boil up some chicken. I can then cut it up into little tiny pieces. I actually toss it in the freezer and I take them out frozen. They're like little doggy M&Ms. They're little pieces of chicken. They melt in their mouth, not in their paws.

Speaker 1: 17:24

So I've got my training journal. I've got my treat pouch. That treat pouch is on me from the time I wake up till the time I go to bed. I've got my high value food rewards and I need those with me at all time. I also want to have a toy or two with me at all time throughout the day, because we're going to be redirecting that puppy or we're going to be redirecting that dog from an unwanted behavior to something else we want, and we're going to be using toys for that as well, especially if you've got a puppy, because if you've got a brand new puppy, you've got chewing issues. It's a given and we're going to definitely want to trade out and swap out an appropriate item to chew on versus something they shouldn't have. So I've got my training journal, I've got my treat pouch, I've got my high value food rewards in there and I've got a toy or two on me. You know what works really good, although you probably won't think it's too sexy walking around the house. But if you go to Home Depot and you get one of their smocks, they've got these big pockets in the front and you can put your food rewards there. You can put toys there. You don't have to do that. But just an idea. Just an idea. I mean. You can get real fancy. You can get online and you can buy fancy training vests that have pocket after pocket after pocket on there.

Speaker 1: 18:53

Those of you on the audio podcast, when you hear that little pause, that's Will Bangura putting a little bit of coffee down his throat to try to stay awake. Okay, the other thing I want to introduce you to is what I call a drag line. It's called a drag line, at least that's what I call it, or there have been times when I called it the behavioral imbillical cord. All right, so I'm going to assume that the puppy or dog that you have either has a flat collar on or it's wearing a harness. If it's not, you need to get a harness on the puppy or dog. You need to either that or a flat collar on the puppy or dog. Make sure the dog has an ID tag on. Make sure the dog is microchipped. If it's not chipped, get it chipped as soon as possible. All right, so we've got a flat collar on the dog or a harness. We are going to put that on first thing in the morning when we wake up. What else are we putting on? Yeah, our treat pouch. Okay, remember when we put that flat collar or then harness on the puppy or dog.

Speaker 1: 20:06

We're now going to attach what I call a drag line. You can make a drag line very simply. Go to a hardware store, get about three, four feet of rope light rope, not some big old fat rope. Okay, we're talking thin, not string, not that thin, but also this needs to be very light rope. You can also buy at the hardware store a leash clasp. You know what's on the end of a leash, the metal thing that you hook on to the harness or the collar. You can just buy that leash clasp all by itself. So you've got about three or four feet of rope and I want you now to tie that to the leash clasp and you're going to put that leash clasp on your dog's collar or you're going to put it on its harness and you're going to let the puppy or dog drag that around.

Speaker 1: 21:01

All right, why? Because there are times when we're going to need to move the puppy or move the dog or guide the dog or puppy to different locations and your life's going to be a lot easier if you use this setup where you've got that drag line on the puppy or dog, until you've got really good house manners and it's consistent. Okay. So that drag line is just leverage for you. It just helps you. You know there's nothing worse. You know you get a new dog or a puppy. They steal the remote and they're running around the house running out the dog door. You get out back, you're chasing after them. They think it's a fun game and there's no way to get them. Well, with this drag line you've got a little bit of leverage. Hopefully that makes sense. But you need to be supervising when there's a drag line on, because what if that line gets caught up on something right Now?

Speaker 1: 21:56

The number one rule when you get a new puppy or you get a new dog, the number one rule that puppy or dog is in your eyesight with that drag line on at all times. At all times the puppy has a drag line on it's in your eyesight at all times. If the puppy or new dog cannot be in your eyesight, then you need to confine the puppy or dog in an X pen or a crate where it cannot get into trouble, where it can't grab things that it shouldn't have in its mouth. And now they're developing destructive chewing habits where typically you know a puppy or a dog, if they're in a small confined area like a crate. They typically won't soil their crate. So another reason when you can't keep the new puppy or dog in your eyesight, why do you want to confine? Well, because you might not be done teaching where they need to go to the bathroom and you might not want them using your house as a toilet. Okay, so I am going to right away follow that number one rule.

Speaker 1: 23:12

Number one rule the dog is in your eyesight, the puppy is in your eyesight, you're supervising at all times and when you can't, you confine or crate the puppy or dog, that idea to let the puppy or dog go outside have an opportunity to relieve itself before you confine or crate the puppy. Now let me tell you where people go wrong. And then the puppy or dog has a potty accident, or the puppy or dog grabs something it shouldn't and choose it up. It's those little moments where you're unable to have your eyesight and pay attention to that puppy or dog. The phone rings and you pick it up. There's knocking at the door, the doorbell rings, or the house cleaner, or the air conditioning person, or the heating person, or the plumber, or the cable person or just a friend. They come over and we get distracted. Heck, you may have to use the restroom and it's a one to two minute thing and you might think to yourself well, what can happen in one to two minutes? A lot. That puppy, that dog could pee and poop everywhere. That puppy or dog can be chewing up everything, okay. So I want you to think about this when the phone rings and you know you've got to keep your attention on that call, tell that person hold on one second, put the phone down, go confine or create the puppy or dog. Somebody comes to the door and they're knocking on the door and you open that door. You're going to say hold on one second, I'll be right with you. You're going to create or confine your dog. Again, number one rule the puppy or dogs in your eyesight. At all times when that can happen, you confine or create the puppy until you've got really good house manners. All right, okay, now as far as teaching, the first thing that I'm going to teach the new puppy or dog is a marker.

Speaker 1: 25:14

Now, I'm a huge proponent of using markers in training. A marker is something that gets conditioned, and in this case we're talking about a reward marker and we condition either the sound of a clicker to the food reward or we might use a verbal marker like nice and give food. Now, nice means nothing to your dog. That word is just a sound. The sound of the clicker means nothing to the new puppy or dog. It's just the sound. It has no power. We're going to create power In training.

Speaker 1: 25:54

Timing is everything. You literally got about one second to get that food reward in the puppy or dog's mouth From the time it does the behavior in order for it to connect the dots cognitively, timing is everything. So, in order for us to always have great timing, if we condition a reward marker ahead of time, before we even begin training, we'll always have that marker to signal to the dog hey, that behavior right there, I like that behavior. Right there, in that exact moment You're getting a food reward. Now, the way that we do that let's say we're using a clicker as our reward marker we're going to have 30 little tiny pieces of high value food reward, again about the size of a pea. And how you're going to condition the marker is you're going to click the clicker, click and immediately give your dog one of those food rewards.

Speaker 1: 26:47

When your puppy or dog finishes eating that first food reward, you're going to give a second click and immediately give a second food reward to the puppy or dog. When it finishes the second one, you're going to give a third click and immediately give a third high value food reward. You're going to repeat that about 30 times in a row Click treat, click treat, click treat. Don't say or do anything else while you're doing that 30 times in a row. Click treat, click treat, click treat. The sequence has to be that Do not have food, do not reach for food until after you click, click, reach for food, give it to the puppy or dog. Click, reach for food, give it to the puppy or dog. Practice that before you even start doing that with the puppy or dog. Yeah, you heard a pause. That was me drinking again, excuse me. All right, so we're going to condition our clicker.

Speaker 1: 27:48

Now, if you don't want to use a clicker and you use an auditory marker, you would just pick a word. It could be pudding, it could be banana, it could be yes, it could be nice, it could be good. Well, if it were good, I'd be good Treat, good Treat, good Treat, whatever word. Okay, I like using a clicker. I think it's a little more black and white for the dog. All right, they don't have to figure out tonality. All right, once I've got that clicker conditioned, once I've got a marker in place, and, by the way, to get a lot more information about using markers in training, using a marker training system, clicker training, you can go to the dog training today audio podcast and you can look for let's see which episode. I think it's episode 80. They put it down. Yeah, episode 80. Go to the dog training today podcast. I've got at least an hour on episode 80 that goes through in depth how to condition a marker, how to use a marker, how to condition a clicker, how to use a clicker, what marker training systems are all about. I got a frog in my throat today. All right, so we're going to condition our marker. Now, once we've got that marker conditioned, it's going to start being very, very powerful.

Speaker 1: 29:20

Okay, now the first thing I'm going to do training wise. After I've conditioned my marker, I am going to be a great observer. Remember, I'm supervising the puppy or dogs in my eyesight, or I can find or create the puppy or dog, right? Well, I'm waiting. I'm looking for behaviors. I'm looking for that puppy or that dog to offer behaviors on its own that I want to put on cue or command. Let me say that again, I'm waiting for the puppy or dog to offer behaviors on its own that I want to put on cue or command. The term for that type of training is called capturing. I'm not asking for anything because the puppy or dog may not know anything. And the last thing I want to do is ask for a behavior if they don't know anything, because now the conditioning that I'm creating is that word, that cue, that command, means nothing. Do nothing because they don't know what to do.

Speaker 1: 30:25

Dogs learned by associations. Dogs learned by consequences, rewards or punishers. Okay Now, modern dog training today, evidence-based, science-based dog training. We don't need to use punishment, we don't, and dogs learn best when they're trained with positive reinforcement. Punishment's just not necessary. Punishment begins where education and learning fails and ends. Okay, all right.

Speaker 1: 30:53

So what am I going to capture Every time I see that puppy or dog sit? What I'm going to do is as it's happening. Remember, I'm not asking for it. I notice that puppy or dog sitting. I'm going to label that behavior as it's happening. I'm going to go sit and then I'm going to click and reward Again. Every time I see the puppy sit or the dog sit on its own. I'm going to label that behavior. Then I'm going to mark and reward. I don't care if it's sitting on its own, lying down on its own. If it comes running to me on its own, you know, if it comes running to me on its own, I can go, come and click and reward. So I'm creating associations with particular behaviors, every behavior. When the puppy or dog barks, I am going to label that bark or speak, and I'm going to click and reward. And I'll explain why.

Speaker 1: 31:52

Because one of the best ways to teach quiet is to be able to teach your dog how to bark on command, first and foremost. Okay, so I'm going to be capturing everything. Now, one thing that's really, really important Okay, I want you, every time the puppy or dog picks up something In this case, hopefully, because you're setting the puppy or dog up for success, you don't have things out that the puppy or dog is going to get into trouble with. We'll teach manners, but let's set the puppy or dog up for success and let's arrange the environment where that puppy can't be grabbing things. It shouldn't, can't be getting into trouble.

Speaker 1: 32:34

All right, we've got our marker conditioned. We're creating associations by capturing behaviors. We like labeling them with the cue or command we're going to be using to ask for down the road. We're going to be marking or clicking and rewarding. When we are marking and rewarding certain behaviors, the dog starts to learn and those behaviors have value. And when the dog starts to learn that they're going to want to repeat the behavior I guarantee if you're doing capturing and you're doing a great job, it won't be long before that new puppy or new dog comes up to you and starts offering a repertoire, really offering you different behaviors, trying to get you to click and reward. It tries to manipulate the system. It's a wonderful thing that just means now we've got a puppy or a dog that understands what a marker training system is and we have a dog or a puppy that really wants to learn. And that's what we want. We want this to be fun for the puppy. We want this to be fun for the dog.

Speaker 1: 33:44

All right, it shouldn't be something that causes fear, pain or intimidation. You don't need a prong collar, you don't need a choke collar. You don't need an electronic collar. That's for lazy people that don't want to train dogs and you ruin the relationship with your puppy or dog. And how fair is it to correct your puppy or dog when you didn't even take the time to teach it what you want. Remember, punishment begins. We're teaching and knowledge and All right. So we're capturing good behaviors and we're capturing.

Speaker 1: 34:24

When the dog picks something up, we're going to label that fetch, we're going to click and reward, mark and reward. Anytime the puppy lets something go out of its mouth, like it's got a ball or maybe it's got a different kind of a squeaky toy or a rope toy when it picks it up, I want you to label fetch, click and reward. When the puppy or dog on its own lets something go out of its mouth, it drops the ball or something like that, I want you to label, capture that, label that behavior, drop and click and reward. Don't ask for these things. Capture these behaviors. Trust me, it's going to go. It'll go quicker. You've got to trust me, it will go quicker. You might think, oh, if I'm not making it happen, how's it going to happen? Trust me, it'll work, all right.

Speaker 1: 35:16

I want to talk about proactive house manners, because when a new puppy, when a new dog comes into our lives, they don't come with a rule book. It's our job to teach house manners. Now, when a big part of house manners is going to be potty training. All right, and I'm not going to. I'm not going to go in depth in this particular podcast into potty training. I already mentioned that the number one rule is supervised or confined With that particular rule. That is very applicable to potty training. We've got our marker conditioned Obviously when we get the puppy or dog outside. We want to mark and reward when the puppy goes to the bathroom so that the puppy or dog once it realizes, hey, wonderful things happen when I go to the bathroom outside. Therefore, I want to go outside so I get the wonderful thing, the high value food reward or a play session.

Speaker 1: 36:24

However, if you need help with potty training, there's a couple resources. You can go to the dog training today audio podcast and you can go to episode 16, episode 16 is 45 minutes on how to potty train a dog, also one of the things that you can do. Oops, we've got to get, I got to get that little thing off of there. Let's see, let's do that. There it goes. Now it disappeared.

Speaker 1: 36:58

So recently I wrote a book on potty training because there was not an evidence-based, science-based book on potty training and a lot of these books on potty training were trying to tell people, hey, you should have your puppy or dog potty trained in a day or in a week, and for many puppies, for many dogs, that is just not realistic. You cannot go faster than the dog or puppy's ability to learn. But you can go ahead and get a copy of my book, house Training 101, potty Training Unleashed, no more mess. And you can get that at amazoncom. You can either scan the code there it'll take you right to the potty training book, or just remember and do a search when you get to Amazon for House Training 101. Or you can find all my books by doing a search on Amazon for my name, will Bangura. All right, so that's one of the things that you might be dealing with is potty training. Even if the dog that you rescued was potty trained, it's not potty trained in your new house, and so I recommend that you take that new dog, even if they say it's potty trained, through the potty training protocol. Okay, you can.

Speaker 1: 38:24

Also I've got, I think, an article on dogbehavioristcom, my website. If you go to the menu, go to articles I've got I actually got about almost 80 articles on various different behavior problems. So if you haven't gone to my website at dogbehavioristcom and check out all the free dog training articles and all the free articles on behavior problems and how to work through those with your puppy or dog. Definitely check that out. Go to dogbehavioristcom, all right.

Speaker 1: 38:55

So if you're just joining us, I'm Will Ben-Gurl. I'm a certified dog behavior consultant and professional dog trainer, and we're talking about, if you get a new dog, if you get a new puppy during the holidays or any time for that matter what is a good process to go through in order to get that puppy or new dog training? All right, I was talking about proactive house manners. So when I'm hanging out with the dog or puppy and I've got time to keep my eye on the dog or puppy, everything that I puppy-proofed, everything that I picked up, all right, I'm gonna start laying out all the things that the puppy or the new dog can't have. I'm gonna put it on the floor. I'm out there, remember, there's a drag line attached to the puppy or dog. I've already conditioned my marker.

Speaker 1: 39:48

I've been capturing fetch and drop and at this point, the puppy or dog knows what drop means. I'm going to have some very high value toys that the puppy or dog likes on me hidden in a pocket or in a pouch and as the puppy or dog goes to try to grab something it shouldn't, I am going to use an interrupter and that interrupter, to start with, is gonna be leave it. Now, the dog doesn't know what leave it means unless I've been training it capturing it. Okay. But what that should do is break the dog's focus and have the dog look back at you. And when the puppy or dog looks back at you now give it something appropriate to have in its mouth and play with it. Okay.

Speaker 1: 40:47

Then when your puppy or dog drops it, label that. Remember, we're capturing, drop, click and reward. Now grab that item that the puppy or dog shouldn't have had and bring it towards that puppy or dog. As the puppy or dog shows interest, just pull it away, go leave it and then give either a food reward or give an appropriate toy, and every day for about 20 minutes, do that. Have everything that you are picking up that we don't want the puppy or dog getting in its mouth Every day for 30 minutes. We're gonna just put all that stuff on the floor near us so that we can teach what I call mouth manners. All right, so that we can teach mouth manners absolutely critical. And also this is proactive work so that you're not having to deal with a dog or puppy that has resource guarding issues.

Speaker 1: 41:48

Now, if you do have a puppy or dog that has resource guarding issues and if you haven't subscribed to the Pet Talk Today audio podcast, I've got one, two, three. I've got four different podcasts on resource guarding. I've got about a five minute quick tip podcast on resource guarding. That's episode 115. Then I've got three episodes that are about an hour long each episode 52, episode 53, and episode 54, again episode 52, 53 and 54, all on resource guarding. I also have an article on resource guarding at thedogbehavioristcom website. So there's lots of great things for you.

Speaker 1: 42:36

Do me a favor everybody that's listening, please hit that like button, hit that share button. If you love what we do, please on our audio podcast. Whether you're listening on Apple podcast or Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcast, please hit that pause button. I know it's a pain. Hit that pause button. Please give us a five star review. You're hitting that subscribe button. You leaving a review that brings our rankings up. More people then get to know about dog training. Today. They're able to get free help, because not everybody can afford dog training, not everybody can afford having a behavior consultant work with them. So this is my labor of love to be able to give back. So please give us a five star review, subscribe to the podcast, hit like, please hit share. All right, moving right along.

Speaker 1: 43:29

We're talking about doing mouth manners and proactively doing that. Because here's the thing If you're not managing and controlling things in the beginning, if you're not proactively dealing with this and your dog grabs something it shouldn't. You got a couple of choices Either punish a dog and I don't advocate that, it's gonna ruin your relationship with the dog and it's unnecessary and it just suppresses the behavior, doesn't change it. You still gotta do the work and the conditioning work to change that. But make sure that you put everything up. But every day for 30 minutes, bring it all down and start doing tradeouts. Start using leave it, start using drop it if your dog has it in its mouth. But give your dog something more valuable, something even better. All right Now. Interestingly enough, everything that I've gone through I'm going in terms of importance and the steps that I would take, steps that I would take.

Speaker 1: 44:38

Number four slow introductions to other pets. Look at everything I've done and I haven't even introduced the new puppy or dog to other pets in the household. So if I do have other pets in the household, I am keeping them separate for a while. I need the puppy to get used to the new home. I need to be able to establish some rules and some manners. I need to have a little bit of training in that puppy or dog and I need that puppy or dog to start getting comfortable in that environment.

Speaker 1: 45:17

All right, now I am going to be taking a towel and I'm going to rub a towel all over the new puppy or dog and I'm going to take that scent and I'm going to give it to my other pet, whether it's a cat, whether it's another dog, and they're going to have that scent with them all day long. They're getting familiar with the scent of the new puppy or dog and vice versa, the other pet that I've got put up. I'm going to rub a towel all over that cat if it's a cat, rub a towel all over the other dog, if it's a dog, and I'm going to give that scent to the new puppy or dog. And I'm going to do that for a few days guys, I am not introducing them for a few days, and there is an art to introducing dogs. There is an art on how to do that and if you want a lot of detail regarding that, you can go to the Pet Talk Today podcast, Episode 91, is about how do you do introductions.

Speaker 1: 46:28

But what I'm going to do, let's say I've got two dogs that I need to introduce. I need two people. I need them on a long leash, about 20 feet long, Not a retractable either. Now, I'm not giving the dog all 20 feet. We're going to start off about 100 feet apart. So we're going to be in a neutral location, maybe a park, but I want it to be a quiet area. Don't go to a dog park, for God's sakes. So I'm going to a quiet area, neutral location.

Speaker 1: 46:59

I've got both dogs. They're both on 20 foot long lines. They're a hundred feet or more apart. I'm watching what each dog is doing. Are they getting overly excited? If they are, I'm going to create more distance.

Speaker 1: 47:13

I'm going to try to get each of those dogs focused on the handler taking food rewards, and then we're going to move in a little closer. We still want to keep the focus and attention on us. If the dogs are focusing on one another. We're too close too soon. Back it up. Little by little I'm going to get closer and closer and closer. And what we're going to do? To begin with we're going to do a drive-by. Okay, remember we got two people, all right. So we're going to add a distance, maybe 20 feet apart. We're going to walk by each other. See what happens. If there's a lot of excitement, if there's reactivity, aggression, we're going to create a lot more space. Little by little, we're gonna do our walk-bys a little closer. Then at one of them, we're gonna let them give a second sniff and then we're gonna pull them apart, and then we're gonna come back another sniff. We're gonna pull them apart, come back another little sniff, pull them apart.

Speaker 1: 48:18

But at any time we're getting closer and we start seeing a problem in the body language or the behavior of our new puppy or dog, or if we see a problem in the body language or in the behavior of the older dog that we already have at home, or cat, I'm not gonna introduce them yet. I'm gonna take my time to do that. Now you might say my gosh Will. This is a pain, this is a lot of work. You know what's a lot of work Having dogs that are fighting and having to rehabilitate that and it happens a whole lot more than you know.

Speaker 1: 48:58

And let's talk about a rescue for a second. Typically, if you get a rescue dog, you will not see 100% of that new dog's demeanor, temperament, character and behaviors until that rescue dog has been in your home for about two months yeah, for about two months. So this is why I do things very cautiously. That's why I do a lot of proactive stuff, because it actually is faster than having to try to fix a problem down the road. And I wanna make sure hey, I've got a really well-behaved new puppy or dog and that allows that new puppy or dog to have a whole lot more freedom. They get to enjoy their life a whole lot more and do more things, and I don't have to deal with the frustration of having a puppy or dog that has really bad manners.

Speaker 1: 49:55

All right, so we were talking about introducing the new puppy or dog to other pets, animals in the home. Let me say this, as it happens all the time and I don't get it I get calls all the time hey, we would like you to help us. We just purchased a brand new puppy. It's eight, nine, 10 weeks old and we've got an older dog that's five, six, seven, and that dog's aggressive and we'd like your help integrating the two dogs. Why in the world would you get a second dog, a puppy or an older dog, when you already have a dog at home that is aggressive towards other dogs? That makes no sense to me whatsoever, but a lot of you are doing it. I get calls like that all the time.

Speaker 1: 50:54

So here's what I'm gonna tell you If you've got a dog at home that's aggressive, reactive, fearful, phobic, anxious, don't bring another dog into that house. Rehabilitate the dog you currently have and think about still not bringing another dog into the house, but certainly don't bring another pet, another animal into the house until the first one you have problems with you've resolved those issues. Use common sense, folks. Now I know there's a bunch of you that wouldn't do that, but you would be surprised. You would be surprised. This happens a lot, a lot.

Speaker 1: 51:33

All right, now let's talk about crate training or and or training place. So I'm a firm believer that every dog needs to be comfortable being crated. You never know, maybe your dog has to go in for surgery and they've got to keep the dog overnight and the dog's got to be crated. We certainly don't want your puppy or dog, if it just had surgery and has to stay overnight at the vet, to be freaking out and ripping open stitches. Crate training is critical for house manners training and that includes potty training, all right. So that's going to be one of the first things that I'm going to begin to teach as well.

Speaker 1: 52:21

So I'm going to get a crate either a plastic or a metal crate only as big as the puppy or dog. Don't get these huge crates. All right, don't worry about putting anything in there. Don't put anything in there. Don't put a blanket, don't put a bed in there. Right now, some puppies, they'll go into the corner of the crate and pee and that dog bed or that blanket will absorb it and then they just go to the other corner and lay there. The whole idea, part of the idea of crate training, is that most puppies, most dogs, they don't want to lay in their waste. But, especially with a new puppy, if they can pee in the corner and it absorbs it and they can go to the other corner and not lay in it, that defeats that purpose.

Speaker 1: 53:03

Okay, now for potty training. I'm going to keep remember. You got your journal. I'm going to write down every time the puppy or dog eats. I'm going to write down every time that puppy or dog drinks, I'm going to write down every time they pee and poop and I'm going to make a note. Was this an accident or not? After, oh, a few days, I'm going to start seeing a pattern. What I'm going to start to see is that there's a certain duration of time that goes by after the puppy or dog drinks, that they pee. Now maybe I'm noticing, as I'm looking at my data, that, oh, it seems like Monday, tuesday, wednesday, each of the times the dog drank, about a half hour later the puppy or dog peed. Now this information is really important to help potty train and to have success, because now I can set a timer on my smartphone and I can now get that puppy or dog outside to the correct potty spot, hopefully before it has an accident, because I want as many successes as possible.

Speaker 1: 54:15

Now, when I get out there, I'm not going to be interacting with the dog. I want to be quiet because I want them to do their business. If they're highly distracted, you can't bring them back in right away. They need about four to five minutes to be able to sniff around without distractions to see if they need to go Now. If your data shows that the puppy or dog needs to go to the bathroom based on the data and you get out there and the puppy or dog's not going and it's not distracted, what I want you to do is bring the puppy and dog back in, put it back in the crate for about 15 minutes and take it back out. Repeat that process until the puppy or dog goes to the bathroom. Please make sure every time your dog goes to the bathroom in the correct spot, you are marking or clicking and rewarding. That's going to help motivate the puppy or dog to say hey, going to the bathroom out here, I get a paycheck, I want my paycheck. Therefore, I'm going to go here Now.

Speaker 1: 55:19

If your puppy or dog ends up going to the bathroom in the house, do not punish the dog or puppy. They don't know better. What you can do is you can start creating emotional problems with that new puppy or dog with you and ruin the bond. When you punish, you could also start to create problems of anxiety in the area where you corrected. Our job is to teach the puppy where to go and when you do that and when you reward that and when you realize that, hey, if it's a brand new puppy, they've got a little tiny bladder, it doesn't have a lot of muscle control. The same thing for their bowels. They're going to need to go out more frequently. And that's where that journal is going to help you, that potty training journal going to get you and your dog out before there's an accident and you can reward the dog Again. If you need help, you can go to Amazon. You can get my book House Training 101 by Will Bangura 253 pages of evidence-based, science-based information on how to potty train the most difficult of dogs or puppies.

Speaker 1: 56:32

Okay, so we talked about crate training. The next thing that I'm going to do because I'm gonna work on the recall, I'm gonna work on teaching the dog to come when called. All right, and the way I like to do this and hopefully you've got a helper I like to go into a hallway. I like to sit down on the floor on one end of the hallway. I don't want my helper sitting down on the floor facing me on the other end of the hallway and I want that helper holding. I want that helper holding my new dog or puppy by the harness and I'm on the other side trying to get my new dog or puppy really excited to want to run to me. And they're restraining the dog or puppy and when that dog or puppy is really, really, really wanting to come to me, I'm gonna be waving food or a toy, going oh look at this, look at this, look at this. Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, getting them real excited, amped up right. Then the helper lets them go and as soon as that puppy or dog comes, taken off or running towards me, I go, come. When they get to me, I click and reward and I'm gonna repeat that and I'm gonna do that at least 10 times in a row, 10 times in a row. I want to teach that restrained recall because I want a dog that when I ask them to come, they come in fast, fast. Now, little by little, I'm gonna start adding distractions, because that's when you really need the training to work. It's not when things are calm and quiet and you're hanging out with the pups, it's when there are a lot of distractions. So I'm gonna work on that restrained recall. To get more information about a restrained recall recently, it's either one of the last one or two or three articles that I posted. Go to dogbehavioristcom Again. Go to my website, go to the menu, go to articles and look for the article on the restrained recall. I guarantee it, that's the only way I wanna teach a dog to come when called.

Speaker 1: 58:54

Now the other thing that I'm gonna work on is a place command or a spot or go to your bed. When I teach that, I'm teaching an implied stay. For me, the two most important behaviors that we wanna put on cue are gonna be come and stay, and I like to have them stay on one of these elevated dog cots, all right, and I lure them with food up onto the cot. I label that place, I click and reward. I do that over and over and over. I also teach the dog a release command. So I take food, I lure the dog or puppy off of that little elevated dog cot and when I do that, I say free or break so they learn that release command. I'm gonna do that about 30 times in a row every day when my puppy or dog is successfully following that lure and I'm labeling that place. When they go up and successfully following that lure as I lure them off and they're successfully coming off when I'm saying break or free. Now I'm gonna get the food out of my hand and I'm just gonna use my hand as like I'm pointing, almost like a hand signal, and I'm hoping that the puppy's gonna do it, that the new dog's gonna do it, because we put in repetition before. I've created a pattern, and when they do that now I'm gonna click and reward. Now you may have to reach in and lure a couple more times, that's okay. Every dog is gonna learn at their own individual pace and you cannot train or teach faster than the puppy's pace.

Speaker 1: 1:00:32

Remember we were capturing. Remember I talked about capturing a long time ago. Well, you've been still capturing down, meaning to lie down. You've been still capturing sit, meaning to sit on your butt. By this time you should be able to ask for down. You should be able to ask for sit. All right, when you begin to teach the dog to stay on place or to stay sitting or to stay laying down, you're gonna take a step back. Click and reward A step to the side of the dog. Click and reward A step to the other side. Click and reward A step back. Click and reward Now, at any time, if your puppy or dog comes out of the sit command, the down command or off a place, and you are beginning to work on stay, you ask for the behavior again.

Speaker 1: 1:01:18

Only don't reward that time. Okay, reward for staying. And you need to reward a lot very quickly, over and over. Don't let a lot of duration go by, because then your puppy or dog's gonna come back off a place. They're gonna come break out a sit, break out a down. Don't do this where there are big distractions. You wanna start where there are no distractions and then, little by little, you're gonna add distractions. Then, little by little, you're gonna add more duration to the puppy or dog having to stay in those positions. Little by little, you're gonna add distance away from them, gradually, systematically.

Speaker 1: 1:02:05

All right, then the next thing. After that, what I'm gonna do I'm gonna start teaching leash manners and I'm gonna do that on a six foot leash and a 20 foot long line. I have been working on my recall, remember. I'm gonna go to a big field where there's really nothing other than great things for the dog to smell and I'm gonna let the dog get distracted and start moving away from me on that 20 foot long line when the puppy or dog gets almost to the end of that line. Maybe there's a foot or two left.

Speaker 1: 1:02:46

I am gonna give my cue to have the puppy or dog come to me. So I'm gonna go come and I'm gonna go running backwards and then I'm gonna click and reward. When the puppy or dog gets to me, then I'm gonna let them get distracted again. They can sniff and do whatever. I'm gonna make my way behind the dog and I'm gonna let them get distracted. No, again, almost get to the end of that long line and I'm gonna call them back to me and I'm gonna run backwards when I do that to make it quick. When they get to me, I'm gonna click and reward. Then again I'm gonna go release the dog or puppy, let them sniff, let them do their business, let them get distracted with their nose. I'm gonna work my way behind them and call them back to me.

Speaker 1: 1:03:34

Now, having your dog come to you is not a whole lot different than having your dog come with you, okay. So one of the things that I'm gonna do I've been working on SIT, we've been capturing it right I'm gonna ask for SIT, I'm gonna click and reward. I'm gonna be next to the dog or puppy. I like having them on my left side, but it's not mandatory. They can be on your right side, doesn't matter, whatever your preference.

Speaker 1: 1:04:04

I am then going to take a large, big step backwards, away from my puppy or dog and I'm gonna say let's go. And as the puppy or dog turns around to follow me, I'm gonna click and reward. And then I'm gonna do the same thing again. I am gonna turn away from the dog 180 degrees, or I'm gonna take a very large step backwards and turn as the dog turns to come with me. I'm gonna click and reward. Now, as I'm moving from the dog, away from the dog, I'm gonna go let's go. If the dog doesn't follow me when I say let's go, I'm gonna say come, cause again coming to you and coming with you. They're very close and if you need to use that to move the dog, think about you could just say come. You could step away from the dog. Say come, step away from the dog. Say come, step away from the dog. Say come. You could be working a square or you could be on a straight line. Just doing 180s.

Speaker 1: 1:05:14

You're teaching the dog to follow you, be in close proximity, pay attention to you, and you're still on a long leash. Okay, leashes do not train dogs. Leashes restrain dogs for safety. Leashes are not meant to have a prong collar or a choke collar and jerking on your dog's neck. That causes a lot of damage to dogs and you don't even realize it Physical, structural damage.

Speaker 1: 1:05:50

What I'm doing with the short leash, that six foot leash, I'm teaching the dog that when you feel the lightest bit of pressure, you go in the direction of that pressure and that pressure goes away completely and you get a food reward. How do I do that? All right, so the dog is interested in something. In front of me, I've got my six foot leash on, I make my way to the dog's rear end, I grab that leash parallel to the ground and I give a little bit of very light. I'm not jerking it, I'm just giving a little bit of light pressure away from the dog towards me. Remember, I'm behind the dog, I'm pulling, pulling, pulling and as soon as that guidance with the leash gets the dog to even move an inch, relax all the pressure, click and reward. And I'm gonna do that again Very, very slight pressure, very slowly pulling towards me. As soon as the dog goes an inch, I let it go, I click and reward Once the dog is doing that successfully. Now I'm gonna go ahead and overlay. When the dog starts to move I'm gonna say let's go Now.

Speaker 1: 1:07:13

I am not correcting with this leash, I am not giving corrections, but I'm a firm believer that when a dog feels pressure on a leash, it has no clue what to do other than put the brakes on. Oppositional reflex is what we call that. It's a natural, reflexive behavior. I want the puppy or dog to understand that any pressure from that leash is just guidance. Move in that direction. It's all I wanna do. All I wanna do Just give a little bit of pressure Again, just getting that puppy or dog to move an inch.

Speaker 1: 1:07:51

Now, if the puppy or dog is putting the brakes on and you're in this tug of war with the leash, what you need to do is relax the leash, give a little pull, relax the leash, give a little pull. Relax the leash, give a little pull. While you're doing that, I want you to be moving away from the dog, but looking at the dog, don't keep your feet stationary. When you do this, when you're teaching leash pressure, your feet are moving a little bit. Okay, your feet are moving a little bit. Well, I've actually gone over time, but I wanted to go through some of those things. Hopefully you guys got a lot out of it. I know I packed a lot of information into that, but it's okay to listen to it twice. Do me a favor hit that subscribe button. Give us a review. Have a great weekend, everybody.

Speaker 2: 1:08:38

I'm just giving a dog a bow. I'm giving a dog a bow Now, Lastly.

Speaker 1: 1:08:45

See you next time.