Ever wonder why your furry friend loves sticking their head out of the car window? Or maybe you're puzzled about your energetic puppy's destructive habits? This episode is a treasure trove of insights, addressing everything from canine behavior to revolutionary developments in dog health. We'll help you understand your canine companion's unique quirks and provide helpful tips for managing their energy and behavior.
Anchoring this episode is the exciting news about the FDA-approved drug, LOY-001, a game-changer that offers a healthier, longer life for larger breed dogs. We'll discuss how this groundbreaking drug works and the immense potential it holds. Also, we share tips on managing energetic, and sometimes destructive puppies, and discuss the importance of exercise and canine enrichment. In this journey, we also delve into the canine world's darker side, addressing the tragic incident involving a pet wolf hybrid in Alabama, an incident that underscores the need to understand the difference between wolves and domesticated dogs.
Finally, we invite you to join us as we explore dog training methods and behavior. From markers and clicker training to understanding canine aggression, we cover it all. We answer your burning questions, like why your dog growls in response to certain sounds, and how to implement exposure therapy and counter conditioning. This episode is not just a plethora of information but also a celebration of our canine friends' incredible abilities, like their extraordinary sense of smell. Join us and let's celebrate man's best friend together.
If you need professional help please visit my Dog Behaviorist website.
Go here for Free Dog Training Articles
Ever wonder why your furry friend loves sticking their head out of the car window? Or maybe you're puzzled about your energetic puppy's destructive habits? This episode is a treasure trove of insights, addressing everything from canine behavior to revolutionary developments in dog health. We'll help you understand your canine companion's unique quirks and provide helpful tips for managing their energy and behavior.
Anchoring this episode is the exciting news about the FDA-approved drug, LOY-001, a game-changer that offers a healthier, longer life for larger breed dogs. We'll discuss how this groundbreaking drug works and the immense potential it holds. Also, we share tips on managing energetic, and sometimes destructive puppies, and discuss the importance of exercise and canine enrichment. In this journey, we also delve into the canine world's darker side, addressing the tragic incident involving a pet wolf hybrid in Alabama, an incident that underscores the need to understand the difference between wolves and domesticated dogs.
Finally, we invite you to join us as we explore dog training methods and behavior. From markers and clicker training to understanding canine aggression, we cover it all. We answer your burning questions, like why your dog growls in response to certain sounds, and how to implement exposure therapy and counter conditioning. This episode is not just a plethora of information but also a celebration of our canine friends' incredible abilities, like their extraordinary sense of smell. Join us and let's celebrate man's best friend together.
If you need professional help please visit my Dog Behaviorist website.
Go here for Free Dog Training Articles
Well, it happened again Three-month-old killed by family's pet wolf hybrid in Alabama. That's one of the things that's going on. The first ever drug to extend the lifespan and quality of life for big dogs is out, and then, of course, we've got the mysterious illness. The mysterious respiratory illness, for canines and dogs are dying across the country. All that and more today and your questions on your dog's training and behavior on Pet Talk today Don't go anywhere. We'll be back in 45 seconds.
Speaker 2: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. Oh man.
Speaker 1:Oh man, would you like to go on Walkies? Good day, pet lovers. I'm Will Bangura. Hey, thanks for joining me for another episode of dog training today. Do me a favor hit that like button. Go on, hit the like button and hit that share button. Please hit that share button so that more people can benefit from what we do here at dog training today. If you're brand new to dog training today, let me talk a little bit about how this works, and just a little bit. I'm going to be taking your questions. That's right. You can ask me anything. Ask me any dog training, any dog behavior question. All I need you to do is go down into the comment section and type your question in there if you'd like me to help you.
Speaker 1:If you've got a specific dog training and behavior issue, it doesn't matter what kind of dog you have. It doesn't matter what kind of problem you have. Maybe you've got some nuisance behaviors like barking or jumping, or your dog stealing items, or maybe your dog is having accidents in the house or is a destructive chore. Then again you might have more serious problems. You may have a dog with aggression issues, reactivity issues. Maybe you've got a dog suffering with separation anxiety. Perhaps you've got multiple dogs in the same household that are fighting and they're not getting along. Maybe you've got a dog that likes to bolt out the door or run away. Any question you have, I'm here to help you deal with all of your dog training and behavior issues. As I said, I'm Will Bangura talking about behavior. I have not woken up yet. I'm just starting on that first cup of coffee. So grab a cup of tea, grab a cup of coffee, come on over to the screen and let's enjoy an hour where we're going to be talking about your dog's training and behavior issues.
Speaker 1:Also, if you are listening to the dog training today podcast, the audio podcast do you know those of you on Facebook? Do you know there's a dog training today audio podcast? I do an audio podcast once or twice a week. There are tons of different topics about dog training and behavior on the dog training today podcast. So go to your favorite podcast platform. Wherever you listen to your podcast, whether that's Google Podcast, apple Podcast do a search dog training today. Make sure that you subscribe to the audio podcast so that you never miss any of the dog training today podcast episodes. And if you love what we do and you're listening to this podcast. Please do me a favor. If you're on Google Podcast, if you're on Apple Podcast, again, wherever you're listening, if you love what we do, please give us a five star review. Tell your friends and families about this show so that more people can benefit from it. All right, where do we begin? Yeah, I haven't had that sound for a while, but that sound means it's time for Pet Talk News.
Speaker 1:We've got some important news today that I want to talk about. First of all, three month old talked about this at the beginning of the show. A three month old was killed by the family's pet wolf hybrid in Alabama. A wolf hybrid kept as a pet by a family in Alabama attacked and killed their three month old on Thursday. Authorities said deputies were called to the home in Chelsea, alabama around one PM to respond to reports of an animal attack. The Shelby County Sheriff's office said in a press release on Facebook. First responders took the baby to a hospital near the family's home in the Birmingham suburb of Chelsea, alabama, where the child was pronounced dead. The animal was euthanized by authorities and transported to the Alabama State Diagnostics Laboratory in Auburn for further examination. We are deeply saddened by this unfortunate and tragic event, chelsea Mayor Tony Picklesmeyer said in a post about the incident. We lift up the family and all those affected with our deepest prayers and thoughts. I'll talk about that in a second. Let me get on with the next story.
Speaker 1:The first ever drug to extend lifespan and quality of life for big dogs is out. That's right. A new drug may soon spark more life Literally a life extending drug for large breed dogs. Ask anyone who's lived with an Irish wolfhound, a Saint Bernard, a newfoundland or a great dain about what the worst part of owning any so-called giant breed is, and the answer will nearly always be they don't live long enough. The San Francisco based Loyal for Dogs company announced the first formal acceptance from the Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine that the drug named LOY dash 001 can be developed and approved to extend lifespans. In supporting the company's research and newly developed drug will help reduce the IGF one hormone levels in larger dogs. Apparently, large dogs have an overabundance of the IGF one hormone and this medication is going to decrease that, thus extending the lifespan in larger dogs. Wow, that's pretty amazing. Life extension in dogs. You know, we're just starting to kind of do that with folks, with people, and now we're starting to see that with dogs. Wouldn't that be nice? If you have a large breed and you're able to extend the life of that large breed, that'd be fantastic. So let me talk a little bit.
Speaker 1:I want to take a second to talk about wolf hybrids, because every year there's at least one, if not more, reported where somebody has a wolf dog, a wolf hybrid. What does that mean? That means that somebody took a wolf and they bred that wolf with a dog. Usually it's a Husky or a Nikita. Now you need to understand folks, wolves and dogs.
Speaker 1:Yes, dogs came from wolves, but the behavior and the instincts of wolves are very different than domesticated dogs. Wolves are highly territorial. Wolves have very high levels of resource guarding. Wolves have not been greatly domesticated and dogs have been domesticated for tens of thousands of years. And dogs like people for the most part. They evolved with man, they evolved with woman and the symbiotic nature of canines and people is huge. Most dogs are very friendly towards people. Most wolves are afraid of people. So you've got this inner civil war between the instincts and the drives of a domesticated dog that has been domesticated and evolved over 50,000, 60,000 years. You've got that instinct and those drives competing with those of a wolf.
Speaker 1:I hate to say it probably shouldn't say it, but if you've got a child and you think it's a cool thing to have a wolf, if you've got a child and you think it's a cool thing to have a wolf hybrid, you probably have a child killer on your hand. I told you I was going to get in trouble for saying that, but the bottom line is wolves are highly territorial. Wolves are highly protective. Wolves have a lot of aggression in them, if need be, if they feel threatened and it's much easier for a wolf or a wolf hybrid to feel threatened when trying to live their wild life in our domesticated box. Now you add small children to that and you really have a problem. Why? 90%, or roughly 90%, of dog bites happen to children. 80% of those happen to their face. Don't be stupid. Don't have a wolf, don't have a wolf hybrid. That is not something that we need to have. You know, there's a lot of people with a lot of big egos out there that think it's cool. Oh, I'm gonna own a wolf, I'm gonna own a wolf hybrid. Yeah, until it kills your child, until it kills your three month old baby.
Speaker 1:All right, like I said, I'm Will Bandgura. I'm a canine behaviorist. I wanna go ahead and take your questions. If you've got a question about your dog's training, if you've got a question about your dog's behavior, do me a favor, go ahead and type your question in below in the comment section. Let me know where you're watching from, what kind of pets you have as well. But I'm happy to answer your questions. I'm gonna go ahead and take some email questions, because I haven't done any email questions for a while.
Speaker 1:This one is the first question is from Suzy. Suzy's from Santa Clara, and Suzy says I've got an eight month old besenji and it has lots of energy and it is very destructive. Whenever I turn my back, it's stealing something, chewing something up. It shouldn't have. And if I leave the house, even if it's for five minutes, I come back to a house that's completely tore up. I try to exercise my dog. If I know that I'm gonna be leaving for a while, I get my dog outside. I try to run my dog around to get the energy out, but it doesn't seem to help. What can I do? That's actually a great question and there's a lot of different things there for me to cover.
Speaker 1:Let me talk a little bit about exercise, because exercise for your dog is fantastic and dogs need exercise and one of the biggest problems that we have here in the United States dogs are bored. They're very bored and they've got a lot of behavior problems as a result of being bored or having anxiety. And one of the things that we're talking a lot more about that you didn't hear years ago, that you hear a lot about today, is the idea of canine enrichment. Being able to have things to stimulate your dog's mind, stimulating them mentally things like puzzles, things like nose work, nose work and getting your dog to find treats, sniff out food, sniff out treats or just do regular scent work is fantastic for stimulating the dog's brain and helping to alleviate boredom. Doing training, teaching your dog different behaviors even if we're talking about trick training, we're still stimulating the dog's brain and physically they're being stimulated as well. They need that. They don't get nearly enough of that and when you provide really good and right, really good enrichment, a lot of times these behaviors start to dissipate. You'll start to see those decrease and in some cases they go away completely. Because dogs are bored. They're bored. You've got to do things with your dogs. When you get your dogs. You've got to do things with your dogs to keep them from getting bored.
Speaker 1:Now, if you're not familiar with canine enrichment, you can go to my website. Look down there below You'll see it says dogbehavioristcom. If you go to my website at dogbehavioristcom, I've got currently about 80 different articles on all kinds of dog behavior and training issues. One of the articles that I have there is on canine enrichment. It will talk in depth about canine enrichment. There's even a video on there, a YouTube video for do it yourself, build it yourself canine enrichment activities that you can have. So check that out.
Speaker 1:Now let me talk a little bit about exercise, the type of exercise that dogs really benefit from more than anything every day. Well, the number one thing I would say would be swimming. If you've got a pool, you live in a climate where your dog can be swimming, or you've got the pool open, your dog can swim anytime of the year. Trust me, they swim in ice, cold lakes and rivers, but swimming that involves all of their muscles. I mean, you really want to exercise a dog. Swimming is the best thing that you can do, but dogs are going to benefit a lot more from 20 minutes of sprinting. So if you've got a dog that loves to chase after a toy, get your dog in a green belt, an open area, get him in your backyard. If you've got a yard that's big enough, throw the ball, throw different toys, get your dog sprinting for about 20 minutes every day. That's going to really help your dog and it's going to also produce all those feel-good chemicals, the serotonin and the dopamine all those things that help all of us not just dogs, but us as well feel good.
Speaker 1:Dogs just going for a regular walk well, that's great. Your dogs need to walk. I want you to walk your dogs. I want you to walk your dogs a long time. I want them to be able to sniff all over the place, because dogs need to sniff. I've said it before on the show about 12.5% of the dog's brain is devoted just to their nose and smelling. Now, to give you an idea of when it comes to humans, about 0.01% of our brain is dedicated to smelling. So if you're going for a walk and you want to go on these militant walks and you're not letting your dog sniff and smell, it's like asking your dog to go through the world with a blindfold on. Imagine what it would be like for you to go through life with a blindfold on. You wouldn't be happy. Let your dog use their nose. They need to do that.
Speaker 1:But some dogs that have anxiety, dogs with anxiety issues, especially dogs with some separation anxiety when you leave, dogs with separation anxiety or anxiety issues when you leave, who are destructive, if you exercise them right before you leave, it might be exacerbating the problem. That's right. I said that exercising your anxious dog right before you leave might be making the problem worse. Why is that? Well, think about exercise. What happens when you exercise? Your heart rate increases, your blood pressure goes up, your respiration rate increases. Now, what happens when the dog is anxious? Anybody Bealer, bealer anybody. What happens when the dog is anxious? The heart rate increases, blood pressure increases, respiration increases. So dogs that are prone to anxiety, and you take them out and you exercise them and you get that heart rate up, you get the respiration up, you get the blood pressure up. Now you're mimicking some of the physiological signs that come with anxiety and we know through research this is not something I'm just pulling out of my rear end folks we know from scientific studies and research that many dogs not all dogs again there's stop thinking in extremes, but in general, many dogs that are anxious, if you exercise them right before you leave and they're anxious when you leave, it can make things worse. Or I've known people to do this when they've got a dog that's anxious about strangers coming to the house and they go exercise the dog right before the strangers come, and most aggression, most all aggression, is based in fear, is based in anxiety. You tell me what animal, what animal? I don't care if it's a dog, a cat, a person what animal goes into fight or flight without perceiving something as threatening? Again, what animal goes into fight or flight without perceiving something as threatening? That's why my contention is most all aggression, 99% of aggression, is based in fear. I don't care if you don't see the fear in the dog, because they're so afraid they feel they got to defend themselves and they're in fight or flight and they look ferocious. So if we've got a dog that has problems with aggression, what animal is going to fight with aggression, reactivity, with strangers and that's rooted in fear and anxiety, and you go exercise your dog right before the strangers come over, you're probably throwing that dog into its level of anxiety quicker and maybe even with more intensity. If you have one of these dogs because, again, it's many of them, not all that when you exercise them it mimics the physiological response of anxiety and stress as far as heart rate increasing, blood pressure increasing and respiration. So sometimes that's a dog you don't want to exercise before a stressful event. See, now, that's where the this is what's important. Hey, I'm not saying don't exercise your dogs, I want you to exercise your dogs. Exercise your dogs more. Exercise is great for anxiety as a whole generally, but exercising right before a stressful event with dogs that have a tendency that are prone for anxiety and fear and stress, you might be making things worse with that. Okay, all right, so we talked about using enrichment, keeping your dogs brain occupied, keeping them busy and, in addition to that, the physical exercise. But when do you give that exercise? Exercise them daily. I just wouldn't exercise them right before an event.
Speaker 1:Now, the number one rule that I tell everybody if you've got a dog that has manners issues in the house, what do I mean by manners issues in the house? A dog that's destructive? A dog that has accidents? Okay, primarily a dog that is destructive, chewing things up, a dog that might be having accidents, if you don't have good house manners. One of the first things that you need to be doing is crate training your dog. Now, I don't want your dogs living in a crate. I want you to address the problem of destructive behavior.
Speaker 1:However, the number one rule when you have a dog or a puppy and they're destructive the number one rule if you've got a dog or a puppy and they're having accidents in the house, that dog, that puppy is in your eyesight. You're watching that puppy or dog. And when you can't, even if it's for one minute or less, if you can't watch that puppy or dog, that's destructive. If you can't watch that puppy or dog that's having accidents, even for a minute, you got to step away. You need to be crating and confining the dog. Why? Well, if they're crated and confined, they typically are not going to have a potty accident in their crate and there's nothing in the crate. Hopefully you've got everything out. If they're destructive, but they can't be destroying the house, chewing up things in the house that they shouldn't, and if they're crated, and crates are something that you use while you're training the dog, while you're training house manners, while you're working with dealing with changing the destructive chewing and while you're dealing with the potty training as well.
Speaker 1:Now, when it comes to dealing with the destructive chewing, it also depends how old is this dog. If we've got a puppy that is anywhere from birth to, say, seven, eight months of age, we've got a puppy that's doing a lot of teething and that means that their gums hurt and that means that they're going to want to chew on things to make their gums feel better. Puppies, young dogs they need lots of different things to chew on. So one of the things you've got to make sure that you've got appropriate items for your dog to chew on. Pull everything else that you don't want your dog chewing on. Get that stuff. Put up. Puppy proof the house.
Speaker 1:Now begin to work on teaching leave it. Begin to work on teaching drop it. The different is when the dog is thinking about grabbing something, we would teach the dog leave it before it grabs something, to leave that item alone. If the dog actually has something in its mouth, then we're going to teach drop. Now, one of the ways that I like to begin the process of teaching leave it teaching, drop it. Teaching, drop. Let's go with drop first. I like to begin by creating the behavior of grabbing something, and sometimes it's just taking a toy and tossing it two feet or a ball, enrolling that a foot or so, and the puppy or dog will pick it up. When the puppy or dog picks up an object, I'm going to capture that, I'm going to capture that behavior and I'm going to label that fetch and then I'm going to mark and reward. I'm going to click and reward.
Speaker 1:All right, now, if you don't know what markers are, if you don't know what clickers are, please do me a favor, go to the dog training today podcast and look up episode 80. Episode 80 is at least an hour long on using markers in training, using clickers in training. Timing is critical in training and making things very black and white for a dog who, the way they think, the way they process information, everything is a very black and white cause and effect association. Timing and making things very black and white happens more when you use a marker system and training Bottom line. Why do you want to do it? Because it's going to speed up the process. You're going to get where you want to go in training much faster, much faster when you're using markers, and it's more, it's less confusing for the dog, it's more clear for the dog. All right, episode 80 of the dog training today podcast.
Speaker 1:You can also again go to dogbehavioristcom, my website, go to the menu, go to articles and scroll down in the articles. Look for the article on clicker training. That article will go through using markers and training how to use a clicker. Also at the bottom of that article. I've got episode 80, that audio podcast on using markers and training at the bottom of that article and you can listen to that as well as have the article. Okay, I'm currently working on a guide for destructive chewing, destructive behavior. Right now that's about 30 pages. I'm not sure where that's going to end up being. If it's going to be, it's probably going to stay around 30 pages. When I have that done I'll let you know. But because I do so many articles on dog training and behavior, make sure that periodically, regularly, you're going back to the dogbehavioristcom website and going to the menu and checking out if I've got any new articles up there, because I do.
Speaker 1:Let me take a quick second here. I want to talk. Just here we go. Christmas is coming up, hanukkah is coming up, the holidays are coming up and with that come a lot of new puppies or people go to the shelters and they adopt a new dog, and many of them have potty training issues.
Speaker 1:Well, if you've got a puppy or a dog that you're struggling to potty train, make sure that you get on to Amazon and get a copy of my book that I wrote on potty training. It's over 250 pages of science-based, evidence-based information, jam packed on how to potty train the most difficult puppy or dog. And not only in the book do we talk about how to have success potty training your dogs, but if you've got an older dog that you're struggling with, we've got information in the book. If you've got a dog that's marking, that's covered in the book. If you've got a situation where you need to train an indoor potty place, that's covered in the book as well. Go to Amazoncom.
Speaker 1:Check out House Training 101 by myself, will Ben-Gurah. If you're watching on Facebook, you can scan that QR code. It'll take you directly to that. If you're listening on the audio podcast, again, go to Amazoncom. Do a search for House Training 101, or look for books by doing a search for myself, will Ben-Gurah. All right, getting back to the questions here, let me see if we've got some questions in our feed right now.
Speaker 1:Good morning, gail. Appreciate you being here. Gail's got a lab golden mix a year and a half, a rescue. Gail says that he has a low growl when he hears anything. How do you change behavior? Don't want it to start when we're outside. Regarding people and dogs, thanks.
Speaker 1:Well, gail, there's a lot of dogs that have sound sensitivities. I've got a schnauzer and my schnauzer just turned two in. I believe it was August or June, june you're saying how do you not know? Well, it was August, I'm sorry. June was the, June was, I think no, august was when I got the dog. The dog was born in June, so in June it was two, and that's Sully and and my schnauzer Sully. When we're hanging out at night watching TV, laying on the couch, many times throughout the night Sully will give this low growl and I know it's because of something that he hears.
Speaker 1:All right, and, gail, I'm glad you actually brought this up because it's an issue that I need to deal with Many times. You know we I spend so much time helping people with their dogs. My standards for my dogs are very low. I just want them to be happy, go. Lucky dogs respond to some very basic cues come when called, stay when I need them to walk, walk nice, you know, have good manners in the house more than anything but Schnauzer's bark. They are very territorial and, like I said, sully growls and it's probably a sound that he doesn't like. Ok, and how do you deal with that when you yourself can't hear the sound? Because dogs hear at different levels than we do. It could be on a completely different frequency that we never hear, and their sense of hearing oftentimes is better than ours as well.
Speaker 1:So what do you do if you've got a dog that lets out a low growl? Well, the first thing you want to do Can you identify the specific trigger? If you can identify the specific trigger, then there's a couple of things we need to do. Number one we need to start by avoiding that trigger at all costs. Now, that's not the answer, it's not the fix. It's the first step to the fix, because if your dog keeps reacting and growling to a trigger that just keeps getting more and more ingrained, more and more conditioned and that's more and more difficult to be able to train that out, if we're not avoiding the trigger and the rule of thumb is we need to do exposure therapy or counter conditioning and desensitization. Desensitization means that over time, gradually, systematically, the dog gets used to and desensitized to.
Speaker 1:These sounds Counter conditioning. Well, think about it. Conditioning right, if a behavior happens over and over again, it keeps on getting more and more conditioned. And counter conditioning would be the opposite. We're going to condition something else, something counter to the conditioning that's taking place.
Speaker 1:So let's say, for example let me just give a classic example a dog, a dog that's reactive towards other dogs. Initially we're going to avoid those triggers so that those behaviors of being reactive don't keep getting more and more habituated, and then that makes it more difficult to train out. During the time that we're avoiding the triggers, we are very specifically setting up training situations where we present the strange dog to your dog, but at a distance. See, we control the variables at a distance where your dog's not going to be reactive, and we start to pair positive things that your dog likes, whether it be food, whether it be toys, whether it be play. We pair those positive associations with the trigger that your dog doesn't like. But we do it at a distance where your dog sees the trigger but doesn't have anxiety, doesn't have fear, it doesn't feel the need to be reactive. And now what we're doing is we're taking that trigger that the dog viewed negatively, at a distance that's neutral, pairing it with something positive. Over time, over and over again, the dog begins to view that trigger as something it likes rather than something it fears.
Speaker 1:So how do we do that? With a sound that we ourselves cannot hear? That becomes very, very difficult. All right, so what you begin to do is work with other sounds. There is a thing called treat party. Okay, I think Amy Cook from Frenzy Dog Sports maybe came up with treat party, I'm not sure. Treat party is a training protocol, behavior modification technique that helps dogs that have sound sensitivities. All right, let me talk a little bit about how that kind of works. But make a note here If you've got a dog that has any kind of sound sensitivities, you can get information on how to utilize the treat party sound sensitivity training protocol and behavior modification technique by again going to my website at dogbehavioristcom, going to the menu, looking up where the articles are and scrolling down and finding the article on treat party, treating noise sensitivities.
Speaker 1:Well, one of the first things that we begin to do is we find objects that don't make much noise. It could be. I've got a used. What do you call it? I'm losing my train of thought here. The toilet paper roll or the paper towel roll, okay, if we were to drop that, that's very, very quiet, all right, we drop that. It doesn't make much noise, it doesn't really startle the dog.
Speaker 1:So when we start dealing with desensitizing dogs to sounds, especially sounds that are sudden, that might startle them, that might cause them to growl or run or bark, we start with things that are very, very quiet and basically you're going to turn those into positives. How are you going to do that? You drop the paper towel roll, you go treat party, you start throwing some treats down and you make that sound again by dropping that paper towel roll, getting all excited again, yelling treat party and throwing some treats. The dog begins to get excited about these sudden sounds and you getting excited, saying treat party and something wonderful happening. So that first week I might be dropping things that make little to no sound. The next week I'm going to find items that make just a little more sound, a little bit louder, and do the same thing. I'm going to drop it and go. What was that? Treat party? And you get excited rather than you getting upset like the dog does. Little by little you're going to do that with more and more sounds. Now, obviously, if you know of specific sounds that your dog gets startled from, or your dog starts to bark or growl or become reactive, make a list of those. Eventually you're going to get to those sounds, but you're going to start working with sounds that are benign for your dog.
Speaker 1:We're teaching a pattern, we're teaching a game. Dogs love patterns. Dogs love to know what to expect and oftentimes, if you think about it, fear. What is the biggest issue with fear? The lack of predictability. When a dog can predict what's going to happen, frankly, when any animal can predict what's going to happen in the future, there's a lot less anxiety, there's a lot less fear. So, by creating this pattern, a sudden sound happens. You go treat party. You start tossing some treats on the ground and that's a positive experience. And the marker or the cue for that positive experience when there's a sudden sound becomes, you going treat party. You can say anything you want as the cue. That's how I do it. And again, you can go to dogbehavorscom, find the article on treat party, treating, sound sensitivities, and you can get some great information there as well.
Speaker 1:The concern becomes we have a dog that is growling, so they're over threshold. What is over threshold mean Meaning that they're not in a neutral state for me to be able to pair something positive with the trigger, in this case the sound that we can't hear Gail, I think we can't hear Gail. I don't know that you know what the sound is, but if you do, let me know. If we know what the sound is, we can get a recording of that sound and begin to play that very low, at such a low level that the dog doesn't care, and I can press play and as soon as the dog hears that sound, feed, feed, feed, feed, feed, constantly and continuously for about three to five seconds, pairing something very, very positive with the sound that the dog found scary. But we're playing so low now that the dog doesn't care. Little by little, gradually, systematically, over time, we're going to bring that volume up and we're again, we're going to be pairing something very positive.
Speaker 1:When the dog hears the sound, the dog gets treats, high value food rewards. When the sound goes away, the treats stop. Eventually the dog looks forward to the sound at the very low volume because it brings treats, something it likes. We condition the dog for a couple of weeks at that level, letting the dog really understand. Hey, this is a really cool game. Every time I hear that sound, great things happen. The dog can predict it.
Speaker 1:So now, when we want to go up a little bit in the volume, just a little bit higher, the dog typically, because of the lower level that we conditioned and created as a positive, is able to deal with that little louder volume. Now we can't crank it up after one desensitization and counter conditioning session. Typically it's a very slow, gradual process of slowly bringing the volume up. But if we don't have the ability to do that, because we don't know what the sound is, we can't hear it. We can't set it up that it's quieter and begin that process of counter conditioning and desensitization. Desensitization is going to happen automatically if that sound keeps going on and on and on and on and on. Over time. Gradually your dog will get more and more used to it. What can we do? Well, we can begin to use differential reinforcement in a situation like this.
Speaker 1:Gail, we start to teach behaviors to a dog that if the dog is committed to doing those behaviors, it would be incompatible with the behavior we don't want. So, for example, I've said on the show many times my schnauzers bark and they can bark excessively, and I don't want them barking excessively outside. Now I don't believe it's fair to punish my dogs, cause fear, pain or intimidation, and I don't advocate the use of punishment for a behavior. That's very natural for the dogs and it's my job to teach them what I want them to do, and so what I've done, I've taught an alternative behavior. When they're barking to barking excessively, I let them bark two or three times, I call them to me very excitedly and they get rewarded. And we have done that over and over and over and over again.
Speaker 1:So my dogs typically do not bark excessively. They bark a few times and they usually come running looking for me. Now today, just on occasion, they might get a food reward, but when I was working through this, every time I called them they got a high value food reward. Now, when they come, when they're barking, I'm not calling them, but they're so used to the pattern I bark, we get rewarded. I bark, I find dad, I get rewarded. I bark, I find dad, I get rewarded. And no, they don't just keep going back out and barking to come back in and getting another reward. It doesn't work that way.
Speaker 1:But teaching an alternative behavior that would be incompatible with the behavior you don't like. So, gail, what are some things that you can begin to have your dog do the instant your dog starts to growl? Can you get your dog engaging in some trick training? Can you get your dog engaging in certain behaviors like sit, lay down, roll over, shake high five things of that nature, distract your dog and get your dog doing other things and reward those other things? All right, so rather than classical counter conditioning, now we're talking about operant behaviors. Operant behaviors meaning that we're training behaviors, teaching behaviors that if the dog does the behavior, there's a consequence and that consequence is a reward, a reinforcer. When your dog gets used to doing a different behavior, that's getting a reinforcer. And that pattern occurs when your dog begins that low growl. Over time, that low growl will extinguish. Your dog will want to instead revert to the behaviors that are getting rewarded.
Speaker 1:But I want you to think about this, because a lot of us, you know, we get a dog that starts growling or barking. What's the first thing we want to do? We want to yell at them Quiet, no. Or we punish them. Right, we punish them, give a physical correction. First of all. How fair is that for a dog just being a dog Number one, number two, most of the time when they're growling like that, there's anxiety. They're concerned about something. Think about it. They're nervous. Now you've used fear, pain and intimidation. With punishment You've made them more nervous. Oh, you may have suppressed the outward behavior. They may have stopped growling because of fear, pain or intimidation, because of the, because of the punishment. But what you haven't done is you have not changed the underlying emotional state. If the dog is anxious and that is what's motivating the growling behavior when it hears that, something suspicious that it doesn't know about If you don't change that underlying state, and now you're adding punishment, you're actually making that state of anxiety, that fear. You're making that much worse. You're not making it better Again, temporarily, that outward behavior might dissipate.
Speaker 1:I watch a lot of people correcting dogs for growling, telling them no, punishing them. First of all, if you've got a dog, let's say that you've got a dog that's aggressive towards strangers or aggressive towards other dogs, or even has resource guarding issues towards you or a family member, and the dog warns with a growl hey, back off. If you don't back off, I'm going to bite. Maybe, right? And you keep punishing the growl, you're going to start teaching the dog not to warn before it bites, not to warn before aggression. That growling is communication. You don't want to suppress that information. You don't want to suppress that communication. You need to know that your dog is upset because that allows you the opportunity to be able to intervene and that might be protecting somebody, whether it be a dog or whether that be another person, from getting a dog bite, and that can be critical. So, gail, you can try treat party and you can try to see if you can identify maybe better if you can hear what the trigger is, what the sounds are.
Speaker 1:A lot of dogs that have noise sensitivities are anxious dogs. In general, we find that dogs have dogs that have sound sensitivities. They tend to have more anxiety issues than other breeds do. Now, gail, I don't know if that's the issue with your dog, if you find that your dog is having, let's say, separation anxiety issues, maybe issues around strange dogs, maybe issues around strange people, maybe your dog sees strange objects and gets nervous, maybe it's very skittish, I don't know. But a lot of dogs, a lot of dogs that have sound sensitivity, we find that they've got anxiety issues in many, many different areas.
Speaker 1:All right, I need to take a quick break here for our sponsor. I want to take a quick second to talk to you about calm dogs. Calm dogs is a natural calming aid that I spent five years researching and developing. That's right. Calm dogs is my creation. I developed calm dogs for dogs with anxiety, fears, phobias, reactivity and even aggression. I created calm dogs to help dogs that have noise sensitivities, like a fear of thunderstorms or fireworks. Calm dogs also works great for dogs with separation anxiety, a fear of car rides and travel. Calm dogs even helps those dogs with a fear of vet visits or grooming. In fact, I'm so confident that calm dogs will help your dog that I make it absolutely risk-free. Calm dogs comes with 100% money back guarantee. My promise to you is very simple Calm dogs works for your dog or it's free. Take the 45-day calm dog challenge. Go to calmdogscom or doganxietycom to learn more about calm dogs and how it can help your dog today, risk-free, at calmdogscom or doganxietycom.
Speaker 1:All right, we're back. So that's another thing. If you've got a dog that has anxiety, if you've got a dog that has sound sensitivities, okay, oftentimes and like I said, dogs with sound sensitivities typically not all of them, but typically they've got other areas of their lives where they have some anxiety. Well, calm dogs that natural supplement that I created has helped many dogs with lots of different anxiety issues and that includes sound sensitivities, noise phobias, things of that nature. So you can check out calm dogs and that might help. Like I said on the commercial, it's risk-free. There's a money-back guarantee. Try it for 45 days. Give it at the correct dose twice daily for 45 days. If it doesn't help you, let me know and I will refund your money.
Speaker 1:All right, let's get back into another topic. So I wanted to take a second to talk about this new mystery respiratory illness that we're seeing dogs throughout the United States contract and in some cases, some of these dogs have actually died. Now let me give you a disclaimer. I am not a veterinarian, I am not giving out medical advice, but let's talk about some very common sense things. There's a lot we don't know about this particular mysterious respiratory illness with canines and from what I've read and you can get online you can read as well they really have not found any medications to treat this. Now for a lot of dogs it might be like a bad cough, bad cold, again, upper respiratory infection and many dogs are going to do okay and they're going to recover. But there are going to be some dogs that don't recover and they're going to die, and we've seen this happen.
Speaker 1:So how do you keep your dog safe? If you're very concerned about this, well, the first thing you need to do is contact. If you've got concerns, call your veterinarian, talk to your veterinarian. They're going to have they should have the latest and greatest information about this. All right, but what I can tell you is very simple common sense things. Don't get your dogs around other dogs. They're contracting it from other dogs. So if you love to take your dog to doggy daycare, just know that your dog might be at greater risk. Talk to your vet about that. If you love to take your dog to dog parks, your dog might be at greater risk. Talk to your veterinarian about that.
Speaker 1:Now, I myself am not a fan of dog parks. I myself am not a fan of doggy daycare. I believe that they're well intentioned ideas that have a ton of risk. Number one risk contracting it, illness or disease. All right. Now, I don't know what it's like where you live, but as far as the statistics in Maricopa County, arizona, the last I knew and this was a few years back about 60% of dogs in Maricopa County, arizona, where I live, are vaccinated. So if those are the statistics, that means that 40% 40% might not be vaccinated. Now, how many of those 40% of dogs that aren't vaccinated are at the dog park? Okay, are those statistics similar, maybe where you live? I don't know.
Speaker 1:I look at dog parks as a breeding ground for disease and illness. I look at dog parks as a way to really screw up your dog because it's usually not a matter of if it's a matter of when your dog ends up in a fight. If you frequent dog parks long enough and you stay there for a long enough time, it's usually not a matter of if it's a matter of when your dog's going to be in an altercation. Now, maybe your dog and you leave the dog park and you're just fine. But maybe your dog leaves the dog park and it needs to have medical care. Maybe your dog leaves the dog park and now it's developed a fear of other dogs and now you can't even walk your dog without it wanting to be aggressive towards other dogs. Okay, again, dog parks, they're well-intentioned ideas. I get it. I would love it to work for every dog. There's too much risk for me. I don't recommend you take your dog to dog parks.
Speaker 1:Doggy daycare Well, most doggy daycares they're looking to make sure that the dogs are vaccinated. But listen, this mystery respiratory illness. The dogs are getting sick. Some have died that have been fully vaccinated. We don't know enough about this particular respiratory illness right now. So if you're going to get your, if it's me and I'm going to have my dog around first of all, I'm not going to have my dog around other dogs. I could care less if other dogs are around my dog, all right, my dogs are perfectly happy just being in our little pack. They could care less about going to a dog park. They could care less about going to doggy daycare. They could care less about other dogs. That's the way I like it.
Speaker 1:Okay, and a lot of people are surprised by that, because somehow there's this crazy pressure here in the United States that every dog owner, every pet parent, somehow thinks that if they don't have a dog that everybody can pet, if they don't have a dog that every dog can play with, that somehow there's something wrong. Look, 20% of dogs are going to have issues with other dogs. 20% of dogs are going to have issues with some other dogs. 20% of dogs are going to have issues with some other people. Now, are those numbers perfect? No, they're not perfect. I'm not quoting statistics here, but in general there are certain people I don't like. There are certain situations I don't like. I'm not necessarily a social butterfly, and some of your dogs aren't.
Speaker 1:I watch people taking dogs that absolutely hate the dog park, scared to death. They don't want to be there and they force their dog to be there, thinking somehow, somehow their dog's going to get over it. And then that dog, other dogs get too close to it and it gets scared and it snaps. Now another dog. Oh my God, it snapped and here you got a dog fight that breaks into the dog park and maybe your dog is one of those dogs that ends up getting sick from the dog park. Maybe your dog is one of the dogs that ends up getting hurt. Okay, so use common sense.
Speaker 1:If you have to have your dog around, other people know the people's dogs, know that they're not sick, know that they're vaccinated, Know what their temperament and demeanor is, so that you're not having to deal with a dog with an illness, so that you're not having to deal with a dog that develops fears and phobias. My dogs have been around maybe three different dogs all around, friends of mine's dogs that. I know their temperament, I know their character. I know that they're going to be calm, cool, collected around my dogs and that's what I want. But we'll learn more about this mystery illness. And again, I'm not a veterinarian, I'm not giving up medical advice. Make sure that you talk to your vet if you have questions about that. Hey, gail, I want you to let me know if you start doing some of these things with your dog for the sound sensitivity. Let me know how that goes. And again, you might want to consider the calm dogs. You can try that for 45 days. It might help. I don't know if your dog has other anxiety issues or not. Can't remember.
Speaker 1:Gail, you're a great viewer. I appreciate you being here and always love your comments and love it when you say hello. You know what I don't know, gail, is do you have more than that one dog? I don't know that. But yeah, all right, let me go. I got just a couple minutes.
Speaker 1:Let me see if I've got another quick question here. All right, here's one from Gail James, and James is asking why this is not so much a problem as it is just a question. Why do dogs like to stick their head out the window when you drive? That's a great question. Does anybody else wonder? Why does the dog, why does your dog stick its head out the window? Gail's only got one dog, okay. Why do dogs stick their head out the window when you drive? For the smell. I'm convinced, and that's what the vast majority of the research out there and what we think they love it because there's all kinds of smell. It's like your dog going for a walk and sniffing all over the place. But yeah, they've got a fantastic sense of smell, being able to go in the car and drive all over the place. They're just getting bombarded with different scents. Just to kind of give you an idea, look, if you taught a dog that to bark if it smelled blood, you know, like cadaver dogs that do search and rescue. So let's say you train a dog that when it smells blood it barks.
Speaker 1:I could have three 55-gallon barrels full of water. Each barrel, each one of the three, has 55 gallons of water in it. I have a eyedropper with blood in it. I go to one of the 55-gallon barrels full of water, I put one drop, that's it, just one drop of blood in that barrel. Now that one drop of blood is diluted by 55 gallons of water and the other two 55-gallon drums just have water in them no blood whatsoever. Now let's six months go by. I can take that dog that was trained to alert when it smells blood, bring the dog into the room that has the three 55-gallon barrels full of water when six months ago I took an eyedropper that had blood in it and put one drop of blood six months ago. Then one of those 55-gallon barrels of water, one drop of blood. The other two barrels no blood.
Speaker 1:I asked that dog go find the blood. That dog will sit right in front of the 55-gallon barrel of water that I put that one drop of blood in six months ago. That dog is going to find it. That dog's going to find it. That's how incredible and strong their sense of smell is and that's why they stick their nose out the window because they love it. All right, well, I am out of time. I appreciate you guys, appreciate your comments. Do me a favor. Hit that like button, hit that share button If you're listening to the audio podcast, please, if you love what we do, give us a five-star review. Share this with your friends. Have a great weekend. I'm out of here.