Ever felt baffled by your dog’s unpredictable antics? You’re not alone. This episode peels back the layers on the mystery surrounding canine personalities and effective training methods. We're tapping into the latest AI research that's uncovered five unique dog temperament types, giving you a roadmap to better understand and train your furry friend. And when Tony from San Francisco reached out about his fear-plagued rescue dog, Scout, we tackled the issue head-on. Discover the powerful impact of a dog's past experiences and how positive reinforcement can transform even the most anxious pups into confident companions.
Say goodbye to the outdated and often harmful punishment-based training techniques. In our enlightening conversation, we shine a light on positive reinforcement's transformative power, debunking common myths and guiding you through counter-conditioning and desensitization strategies. The episode doesn't shy away from calling out the risky advice of some celebrity trainers and illuminates the psychological pitfalls like learned helplessness that can arise from incorrect training approaches. If you're seeking the holy grail of dog behavior modification, you've just hit the jackpot with our actionable tips and resources from dogbehaviorist.com.
Rounding off, we don't just stop at behavior correction – we share practical solutions to everyday challenges in dog ownership. Learn the secrets to house training small dogs, managing food aggression, and mastering impulse control to keep your canine disciplined even amidst the most tantalizing distractions. We dissect counter-productive behaviors and lay out a training feast that will leave your dog not just obedient, but eager to please. If you've been looking for the crème de la crème of dog training wisdom, this episode is the treat you and your dog deserve.
Dog Training Today with Will Bangura, M.S., CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, FFCP
If you need professional help please visit my Dog Behaviorist website.
Go here for Free Dog Training Articles
Ever felt baffled by your dog’s unpredictable antics? You’re not alone. This episode peels back the layers on the mystery surrounding canine personalities and effective training methods. We're tapping into the latest AI research that's uncovered five unique dog temperament types, giving you a roadmap to better understand and train your furry friend. And when Tony from San Francisco reached out about his fear-plagued rescue dog, Scout, we tackled the issue head-on. Discover the powerful impact of a dog's past experiences and how positive reinforcement can transform even the most anxious pups into confident companions.
Say goodbye to the outdated and often harmful punishment-based training techniques. In our enlightening conversation, we shine a light on positive reinforcement's transformative power, debunking common myths and guiding you through counter-conditioning and desensitization strategies. The episode doesn't shy away from calling out the risky advice of some celebrity trainers and illuminates the psychological pitfalls like learned helplessness that can arise from incorrect training approaches. If you're seeking the holy grail of dog behavior modification, you've just hit the jackpot with our actionable tips and resources from dogbehaviorist.com.
Rounding off, we don't just stop at behavior correction – we share practical solutions to everyday challenges in dog ownership. Learn the secrets to house training small dogs, managing food aggression, and mastering impulse control to keep your canine disciplined even amidst the most tantalizing distractions. We dissect counter-productive behaviors and lay out a training feast that will leave your dog not just obedient, but eager to please. If you've been looking for the crème de la crème of dog training wisdom, this episode is the treat you and your dog deserve.
Dog Training Today with Will Bangura, M.S., CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, FFCP
If you need professional help please visit my Dog Behaviorist website.
Go here for Free Dog Training Articles
Did you know that recently there was a study and AI apparently discovered five different dog personality types? Yeah, five different dog personality types that AI had discovered those are. What are those five so? Excitable, hyper-attached, anxious, fearful, aloof, predatory, reactive, assertive or calm and agreeable? We're going to talk about those different personality types and we're going to be answering all of your questions here in 60 Seconds. If you're an expert, will Mandura.
Speaker 1:Would you like to go on Walkies? Good day dog lovers. Hey, thanks for joining me for the monthly Facebook live show of dog training. Today it's Saturday, it's March, it's the first Saturday in March, so we're here for the next hour where, primarily, I'm going to be answering your dog training and behavior questions. Hey, if you're new to dog training today, let me talk a little bit about how this works. In just a little bit, I'm going to be answering all kinds of questions. You can ask me any question. I don't care what kind of dog you have. I don't care what kind of behavior problem, it doesn't matter how old the dog is. I'm going to give you positive, reinforcement, science-based solutions to your dog training and behavior challenges.
Speaker 1:As I said, I'm Will Bandgur. I'm a certified dog behavior consultant as well as a certified professional dog trainer, and I'm fear-free certified as well. We're going to be taking your questions in just a little bit. I've got a lot of email questions that I want to go over. Also, if you've got a question, if you're watching live and you've got a question, you'd like some help with a particular dog training or behavior problem. Do me a favor. Go ahead and type your question down below in the comment section and let me know where you're listening from, where you're watching from and what type of pets you have or what type of dogs you have. Do me a favor, hit that like button, hit that smash button, show us some love. Also, please hit the share button. Share this with folks on your timeline so that more people can benefit from what I do here at dog training today.
Speaker 1:All right, I want to get into a question right from the get-go show to start off today's show, going into some email questions that I have. So, tony, in San Francisco, california, with a rescue mixed breed named Scout, tony says what's the best approach to socialize a rescue dog like Scout, who seems fearful of other dogs? Thanks for the question, tony. So there's a couple things here that we need to talk about. Obviously, you've got a dog named Scout who is fearful of other dogs, and your question is what is the best approach to socialize a dog like that? And Scout happens to be a rescue dog. Well, you know, there's a lot of rescue dogs, there's a lot of dogs that are fearful of other dogs, and I get that question.
Speaker 1:A lot about socialization and here's the bottom line when it comes to socialization the critical canine socialization period starts at three weeks of age, when they're puppies, when they're practically born, and that critical canine socialization period runs from three weeks to 13 weeks. So think about it 13 weeks. Now. There's a couple implications we have here. First of all, if your dog is older than 16 weeks, that socialization period is over At this point. If you've got a dog that's fearful or you've got a dog that's reactive or aggressive, now it's all going to be about behavior modification. It's not about socialization. See, a lot of folks make that mistake Dogs that aren't exposed to a lot of things.
Speaker 1:And one of the most critical things that can happen, from the time the puppies three weeks until they're 13 weeks of age, and I'll extend that to 16 weeks. During that time period you need to get your puppy out and about and exposed to everything. Now you've got to be careful. You've got to make sure that you don't put your puppy in scary situations. When you're socializing a new puppy with other dogs, you want to make sure that they're calm. You want to make sure they're not reactive, not aggressive. You want to make sure that the dogs you're exposing your new puppy to aren't fearful, because that's going to cause your puppy to have bad experiences, bad emotional experiences, that socialization process. Think about it as exposure. What you're exposed to do kind of shapes your personality in terms of how you view the universe. If you're exposed to scary things during that time, well universe is going to be scary. But the same is true if a dog doesn't get the exposure during that critical socialization period. It's not just about getting your puppy around other dogs, it's not just getting your puppy around other people, but it's getting it around all different sites, all different smells, all different textures, different places, different objects, different sounds.
Speaker 1:Because dogs that aren't exposed to everything between three weeks and 13 weeks of age, they're most likely, most likely, likely going to be developing fears. They're going to be afraid of things in the world and part of that can be other dogs. Now there's other reasons genetic predispositions, heritability and, of course, upbringing, environment and what they're exposed to, and medical issues, physiological, biological, health issues. So there's a lot involved in that. But I get calls from people who've got dogs that are one, two, three years and they talk about.
Speaker 1:I need to be able, I need to socialize my dog. My dog was never really socialized and now my dog's aggressive towards other dogs and I need to socialize my dogs and you know a lot of people take dogs like that and think it's a great idea to haul them off to the dog park so they can be around other dogs and learn to socialize with other dogs. Well, thank you very much for bringing your fearful dog to the dog park, potentially causing all kinds of problems, because fear is the precursor to most aggression. You know, most animals don't go into fight or flight unless they perceive a threat. In a perceivable threat, there's fear, there's anxiety, there's stress. So, tony, chances are that socialization period has closed and now it's about how do you take your dog's unrealistic in many cases probably unrealistic perception and unrealistic fears that it probably has around strange dogs and turn that around where your dog begins to get comfortable and starts viewing other dogs as something positive. Now I'm going to talk about that in just a second, tony, because this is important, because a lot of you have dogs that are fearful of other dogs. A lot of you have dogs that are reactive or aggressive towards other dogs. A lot of you think it's a socialization issue and that time has passed and that's why it's so critical.
Speaker 1:Listen, the American Society for Veterinary Behaviorists, and these are your full-fledged veterinarians that have gone above and beyond. They're the pinnacle of behavior help. By the way, they're full-fledged behaviorists as well as veterinarians and they put out a position statement quite a while back saying that don't wait until your dog has all of its puppy shots before you start getting your puppy out everywhere and exposed and start socializing it. But for so long there's been this myth perpetuated that if you don't have all, if you don't have all of your vaccinations, you're at this huge risk of getting parvo distemper and distemper. Now, I'm not a veterinarian, I can't give out medical advice, but what I can share with you is that your dog, your puppy, is much more apt to die from behavioral euthanasia because your dog wasn't exposed to things early on in its life and it develops fears and those develop into aggression, than getting your dog out and about and exposed to everything, your puppy exposed to everything during that short window of critical canine socialization and exposure from three weeks to 13 weeks of age If your puppy this is what they're saying that it's more beneficial to get your puppy out and about because it's going to develop behavior problems if you don't. And those behavior problems the number one cause of death by dogs under the age of three is behavioral euthanasia. They've got a behavior problem that somebody can't address, can't deal with, and the dog gets put down. Number one cause of death dogs under the age of three behavioral euthanasia.
Speaker 1:So when it comes to your dog, tony, really what we need to do is do counter conditioning and desensitization. Counter conditioning is just a fancy word for pairing and creating positive associations with your dog's trigger. Right now, your dog has what we call a conditioned emotional response, that it's underlying emotional state of fear and anxiety. When it sees the trigger of a strange dog, it becomes reactive. When you are trying to address this problem, the first thing, the first thing we need to do, tony, is avoid the triggers. Not that that's the answer to this problem, but it's the first step to our potential solution.
Speaker 1:We're not going to be able to help your dog, tony, if your dog keeps rehearsing the behavior. Listen, you know as well as the rest of you that have fearful dogs, reactive dogs, aggressive dogs. You know what's going to happen when your dog sees a strange dog. Oh, maybe not every single time, but probably most of the time. In this case, anyway, with Tony's dog. So would we not be setting your dog up for failure, expecting different results. That's the definition of insanity, right, tony?
Speaker 1:So here's what I want you to do and all of you. I need you to hear this. You need to understand counter conditioning and desensitization. Desensitization is a gradual, slow, systematic process of gradually introducing your dog to triggers in little, tiny no pun intended bite size pieces or slices. Okay, the first thing we need to do is start you and your dog out at a far, far distance, a very far distance for your dog and that's going to be different for every dog A safe distance for your dog. What do I mean by that? What I'm talking about is that we need your dog to not have a care in the world. At the distance we begin to expose your dog. All right, so when we're talking about dog reactivity, you can see the dog reactivity chart here. We're showing here a red zone, an orange zone, a yellow zone and a green zone.
Speaker 1:When you start to expose your dog, you need to avoid all of the things that you're doing. You need to avoid all the triggers and you need to be only presenting your dog with strange dogs those triggers when it is a controlled, set up training session and this safe distance that I'm talking about, that you start your dog and keep your dog away from the strange dog, has to be at a distance where your dog, when it sees the trigger, the strange dog, your dog is in the green zone. Your dog can sniff, it can take treats, it can follow cues and commands from you, you can keep the leash completely relaxed and if you know canine body language, you've got a dog that's very, very relaxed. It's not showing any stress signals. Now, when you're trying to expose your dog at a distance to its triggers in this case a strange dog, and it would be the same if it were a person, if your dog was people, aggressive or reactive to people, it would be the same thing. If you happen to see your dog in the yellow zone, you know if your dog starts showing alertness or stares at the trigger, if your dog's no longer sniffing, if you have to repeat a commander cue several times to get your dog to respond, you are too close. You are too close to that trigger to be able to do counter conditioning and desensitization.
Speaker 1:In order to do the behavior modification to help get your dog comfortable with its trigger, you've got to start at a distance where your dog's in the green zone and little by little, gradually, systematically, you're going to get over time. You're going to get closer and closer and closer to the trigger. You are going to close that distance, but this takes time. You want to keep your dog at a distance where, when it sees the trigger, it's in the green zone. And the way that you want to do this because you want to make it very black and white cause and effect, association with your dog, tony, that when it sees a strange dog at that safe distance, when your dog's in the green zone, good things happen. So here comes the strange dog, your dog sees it at a safe distance, your dog's in the green zone. And this is what I want you to do.
Speaker 1:Take high value food rewards what's your dog loves the most and begin feeding and feed, feed, feed, feed, feed constantly and continuously, having your dog looking at the trigger at that safe distance in the green zone. Just keep feeding, feeding, feeding for about one to three seconds and then stop feeding and turn away. Or if you have a helper that is helping to manage a strange dog, you can have that helper move that dog out of sight, and that's the best way to do it is to bring the trigger dog into view and then out of view. Into view and out of view. And whenever the strange trigger dog comes into view, that's when the good things happen. That's when you start feeding high value food, rewards all the time, looking at your dog and its body language, making sure your dog doesn't have a care in the world. If your dog has even the slightest bit of discomfort or stress. You're not doing this correctly.
Speaker 1:I watch a lot of trainers that are very well, have good intentions, but they might not have a lot of education or experience and really it comes down to education and they know a little bit about counter conditioning and desensitization to make them dangerous. And a lot of times people don't have success. Why? Because they're trying to feed the dog when the dog is reactive. The dog's in the red zone or the orange zone or the yellow zone, and the worst thing, the worst thing that you can do, is set a dog up for failure. You know your dogs, reactive or aggressive. You bring out a trigger, a strange dog or a strange person if it's human directed aggression and your dog starts displaying red zone behaviors, barking and lunging. They can't respond to anything If you let go of the leash they might bite. And then what do you do? And what do a lot of uneducated, uncertified trainers do they tell you correct the dog and they're using a prong collar or a choke collar and giving leash corrections. Or they're using an electronic collar, a shock collar, and giving corrections with the shock collar.
Speaker 1:Look, whenever you hear the word correction, exchange that word for punishment and it's important we need to use the right terms. You are not going to fix reactivity and aggression with punishment. All you're going to do is add more fear, more anxiety, more stress to the dog that already is reactive and aggressive because of fear, because of anxiety, because of stress. The last thing we want to do is increase that feeling of discomfort when that dog is around the trigger, because that's what the dog's going to associate.
Speaker 1:Now there's a lot of these celebrities or YouTube personalities that disguise themselves as a dog trainer, when really they're a YouTube personality and they are very heavy handed with dogs and they love to create videos that are very dramatic. They bring out a dog and you see the dog just going, totally you know what crazy insane with reactivity and aggression. And then, if you're the dog, daddy Augusta de la Vera. You're going to hang the dog with the leash and I've watched dogs lose control of their bowels and bladders. When he did it they were so fearful. But then in the video you see the dog stop being aggressive, like within 30 to 60 seconds and to the uneducated, untrained eye whether you're a new dog trainer or whether you're a pet parent, a pet guardian, dog owner, you look at that and you think Holy cow, that's a miracle cure. That's unbelievable. It's smoke and mirrors. It's a thing in psychology known as learned helplessness.
Speaker 1:The dog stops being reactive, the dog stops being aggressive because of the harsh punishment. The dog doesn't want to experience pain, the dog's intimidated, the dog is afraid. So it stops that outward behavior the best it can, for as long as it can. The problem is in this scenario if you're using a prong collar, a shock collar, a choke collar, hanging the dog, physical corrections, harsh treatment, punishment, yelling at the dog, bonking the dog with a rolled up towel, gary Wilkes, what is wrong with you? If you don't know what I'm talking about, you guys look it up. Bonker with a towel. Gary Wilkes, you figure it out. It's a punishment technique. I'm not advocating it.
Speaker 1:Punishment doesn't work. It's a short-term, temporary fix that does nothing more than suppress outward reactive or aggressive behavior. That comes back, guaranteed to come back, not a matter of if, but when the dog experiences enough fear, enough stress, enough anxiety. Imagine this it's like Having a pot of boiling water on the stove. Let's imagine that the boiling water is aggression, okay, and let's imagine that the corrections or the punishment is putting that lid on the top of that pot of boiling water. Hey, it all looks good. You don't see the aggression, you don't see the boiling Water, do you? When the lids on the top, that's what punishment, that's what corrections do? You won't see that outward behavior for a little while. But what's happening in that pot of boiling water that has that lid on it? Isn't the pressure inside of that? Just building and building and building, and you don't see anything. You don't see the pressure building. You don't see the stress.
Speaker 1:When you punish, when you correct a reactive, aggressive dog, they shut down. They go into this learned helplessness, they're afraid, they're intimidated. They don't want, they don't want to experience pain. They don't know what to do. They shut down. You don't see the behavior. That doesn't mean it's fixed. It doesn't mean you've modified anything. Why? Because the outward behavior is not the problem. The outward behavior is the symptom. The problem is the dogs underlying emotional state of Fear, anxiety and stress. The only way you're gonna have permanence and reliability of modifying the dogs behavior, change that underlying emotional state. Change that underlying emotional state and that perception and the association that that dog has with the trigger Into one where the dog starts having experiences where, when that trigger comes into view, really good things happen, really positive things happen.
Speaker 1:In this case, at a very safe distance, where the dog doesn't have a care in the world. It sees the trigger and, lo and behold, as soon as that trigger comes into view, oh, my god, now I'm getting pieces of chicken. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. Oh, the dog is now leaving up the chicken. You're not feeding me chicken anymore. Oh, here comes a strange dog again and you're feeding me chicken. Oh, this is fantastic. And then the strange dog leaves and the feeding stops. And when you do that over and over, consistently and your timing is good, your dog starts making this very black and white cause and effect association in comparison that hey, hey, strange dogs are fantastic. Look what's happening. I'm getting Incredible positive reinforcement, in this case, high value food rewards. Now, most dogs are food motivated and if you find the right food and I'm talking, maybe it's cut up chicken, cut up hot dogs, cheese, steak, something that your dog loves the higher the value the food, the better.
Speaker 1:Now I can't take the whole show and talk about all the little nuances, all the little details as it relates to Modifying reactive and aggressive behavior. What we're talking about, like I said, is counter conditioning and Desensitization. So I want to direct you, tony, and anybody else that has a dog that's reactive and aggressive, to get additional help. If you are watching and viewing this video, you can see down below, dog behaviorist calm. That's my website. What are my websites? If you're listening to the audio podcast, write it down. Dog behaviorist calm, go to my website. If you haven't been there, make sure that you visit dog behaviorist calm.
Speaker 1:I've got over 25 published articles on various different dog behaviors, a lot of them dealing with aggression, reactivity, fears, phobias, obsessive, compulsive behavior some of the more difficult behaviors, where I've got articles that give you step-by-step Instructions on how to modify those behaviors. And in some cases, especially if you're dealing with reactivity, you're dealing with aggression. We're talking about something that can be pretty dangerous, right, and so you might need to hire a professional. If you go to dog behaviorist calm, you can go to the menu, go find articles and find the article on counter conditioning and desensitization Desensitization that's what I've been talking about. That's gonna give you a lot more detail, and at the bottom of that article on counter conditioning and desensitization there's an hour long audio podcast that goes through in detail how to do Counter conditioning and desensitization, how to do exposure therapy, because, tony, just like the many calls I get, if you have passed that critical canine socialization period from three weeks to 13 weeks of age, it's no longer about socializing your dog now. It's about behavior modification, it's about counter conditioning and desensitization, and you can learn more about that by going to dog behaviorist calm.
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Speaker 1:Alright, let's get back. Let's get right back to your questions again. If you're just tuning in, I'm will Ben Gurra. I'm a certified dog behavior consultant and the first Saturday of every month I do this Facebook live show and I also do weekly audio podcast, the dog training today podcast. So if you're only getting the podcast here the live podcast on Facebook live once a month, please make sure that you subscribe to the audio podcast dog training today. You can go to any of the hosting platforms like Google podcast, spotify, apple podcast. Wherever you listen to your podcast, do a search for dog training today with will Ben Gurra and Make sure that you subscribe and if you love what we do, please give us a five-star review and tell your friends all about it.
Speaker 1:If you, if you're watching and you've got a question and you would like some help with a question that you have about a Dog that you have and a particular problem that you have, go ahead and type your question down below in the comment section and I'll be happy to try to answer your question if I can. Oh, okay, hey, sis, happy to see you here. You've been MIA. Happy you caught me to. Hey, thanks, sis, you need to get in touch with me. We were gonna do a podcast together, so reach out to me. Let's see you're trying to get some training in. Do you have five minutes to train your pups this weekend? You're talking to some other folks here. I think all right. Let me get back to some email questions that I have. Here's one that's a house training question. This is Carlos, san Antonio, texas. He's got a doxin and Pepe. What are some tips for house training a small breed dog like Pepe? Well, that's a. That's a loaded question there.
Speaker 1:The number one tip that I can give anybody when it comes to house training a puppy is have that puppy or dog. Could be an older dog, doesn't matter, younger dog, older dog, smaller dog, bigger dog. Have that dog that has problems with potty training. Issues in your eyesight, Anilish, with you at all times and when you cannot watch your dog or puppy Immediately, take them outside. Give them an opportunity to relieve themselves and put them in their crate. Listen, if you're not crate training, you probably are not potty training. Crates are, in my opinion, indispensable when it comes to potty training a dog. The number one rule supervise or confined. You need to be there. When something Haps happens in the moment, in the act, you need to be there. You also need to be a lot more proactive. What does that mean? Getting your puppy, getting your dog outside Much more frequently than you need to.
Speaker 1:If you've got a dog or a puppy that you're trying to potty training you're struggling with, the more opportunity you get the dog outside. There's a couple things. Number one the more opportunity the dog has to go to the bathroom and not have an accident in the house, the more opportunity you have to be able to create positive associations through positive reinforcement, rewarding your dog when it goes to the bathroom outside in the correct place. I mean most people are really good at wanting to yell at and punish their dogs when they make a mistake and we're really poor at and bad at rewarding our dogs when they're doing something right. And hey, learning theory 101 Any animals going to gravitate towards behaviors that are consistently Rewarded. The higher the value of the reward, the more they're going to gravitate towards those behaviors. So always have a treat pouch on you. Always have high value Food rewards on you.
Speaker 1:If you're potty training a dog, make sure that you have done crate training and any time you put the dog in the crate Before you do that, make sure you get the dog outside for about five minutes. Give it the opportunity to relieve itself. Another great suggestion that I would give you is to create what I call a potty training journal or a log, and all that, all you need, is a piece of paper and pen and Write down every time the dog eats, write down every time they drink. Write down every time they pee, every time they poop. Make a distinction between hey, when they went to the bathroom wasn't an accident or Did they go in the correct place. If it was an accident or they went in the correct place.
Speaker 1:The reason why we want that information and why. We want to know what time it is when they drink, what time it is when they eat, what time when they Eliminate feces, what time when they eliminate urine. When you collect that data, if you're feeding and this is critical, feed on a schedule, feed on a schedule put the food down for five minutes, pick it up. Don't put it back down till the next feeding Water. Put the water down when they're eating and then, if you want to, every couple hours, you can offer water again, but pick it up, don't leave it down. If you'll do that and you collect the data, you're going to start to find a pattern. What you're looking for is hey, out of these last 10 times that the dog peed, how long was it from the time it last drank? From the time it peed, you should be able to find a somewhat consistent running average of about how long after your dog drinks before that bladder needs to be emptied, whether it's an accident or have gone in the correct place.
Speaker 1:Same thing with your dog pooping Knowing and collecting the data, how long after my dog eats does my dog poop? Now you need several days to a week's worth of data to really get a good idea of what is the rhythm, the biological rhythm, going on here. The reason I say this is important is you are able to set a timer. You know you get on your smart phone, set a timer. Let's say that you are looking at your dad and it's like hey, seems like about 20 minutes after my dog drinks, it's either having an accident or it's peeing outside in the correct place. Well, if that's my data, at about three minutes before that or five minutes before that, I'm getting the dog outside with my treat pouch, with my high value food reward.
Speaker 1:Okay, the other tip that I would give you I think every human being that has a dog should have a dog door. If you've got a house, you should have a dog door, and there's nothing better and helpful for potty training than having a dog door and a crate that is a double door crate. Remove one of the doors completely from that crate, that opening where the door was. Push that up against the dog door. Teach your dog how to go in and out the dog door. When you can't watch your dog, when your dog can't be in your eyesight, I don't care if it's for 30 seconds. You got to run to the bathroom.
Speaker 1:Listen, if you've got a dog or a puppy that's not potty trained, you can't afford to turn your back to that puppy or dog for 30 seconds. Right, that's when it happens, when you're least expecting it. You just turn around for a second. If the phone rings, it's an important call. You say, hey, hold on a second, run the dog outside, let the dog try to relieve itself, put the dog in the crate. But if you got the dog door you don't even have to run the dog outside. You can just put the dog in the crate. The dog can go out the dog door, relieve itself. It can come back in if it doesn't want to stay out there.
Speaker 1:Now it's in the crate and most dogs do not soil the crate if it's an appropriate size crate. You've got one of these huge crates. They're probably going to pee and poop in it. If you get a large crate and you put a lot of padding in it, they're probably going to go into the corner and pee. The padding will soak up the urine. They don't care. The whole concept of having a crate and crate training is the crate should be no larger than the dog, lying down from the tip of its nose to the base of its rear end. It's got to be tall enough to stand, it's got to be long enough to lay down, it's got to be kind of stretched out without being crunched up, but it shouldn't be a whole lot bigger than that. But a double door crate, removing one of those doors and taking that opening where you remove that door, pushing it up against the dog door, man, that's the best way, that's the greatest thing to help you potty train your dog that I know of anyway. I think that's huge.
Speaker 1:However, if you're really struggling, here's my shameless plug you can get my book on potty training. That's right. You can go to amazoncom, look for House Training 101, potty Training Unleashed. It's got 253, 254 pages of evidence-based, science-based best practices on how to potty train even the most difficult puppy or dog, and in this book it also includes chapters on creating an indoor potty place. Maybe you live in an apartment or you've got a toy breed dog and there's a complete section on how to potty train an older dog. Some of you rescue a dog. It's an older dog and you're struggling with potty training issues. But again, go to amazoncom, look for my book, house Training 101, potty Training Unleashed, by Will Bangura. You can also scan the QR code on the screen right now if you're looking at this video, and it will take you right to that book.
Speaker 1:All right, let's get into some more questions. Oh wait, before I do that, there was a recent study that was done not too long ago and apparently AI. There was a study where AI took 78, all right. So there was an AI algorithm that searched through 70,000 behavioral records of dogs to find common threads running through the breeds and basically what this research did. It found that dogs could be classified into five groups. First group is the excitable, hyper-attached group. The second group personality group is the anxious or fearful group. The third is the aloof or predatory group. Then there's the reactive and assertive group and there's the calm and agreeable group. So those are the five personality types that they were talking about. What are they?
Speaker 1:Again, let me read through those. Number one excitable, hyper-attached. Number two anxious and fearful. Number three aloof and predatory. Number four reactive, assertive. Number five calm and agreeable.
Speaker 1:Now that's all wonderful, but it's important to know that those traits can cross over. A dog can have traits from multiple personalities, and I don't mean, like they're crazy, of multiple personality civil. Those of you that are my age, you'll know what civil means. If not, get on the Google machine, check it out. But yeah, the thing about when we start taking behavior and we start assigning specific behavior to breed or we start taking dogs and put them in very specific personality types, the thing to remember is nothing is that black and white when it comes to behavior or personality. I don't care if it's canine, feline, human, doesn't matter. We all have varying traits within lots of personality, traits that make up who we are, and it's no different for your dog. It's no different for your dog either.
Speaker 1:All right, let me get back into some questions here. Okay, this is interesting. So Owen in Raleigh, north Carolina, he's got a Jack Russell Terrier named Toby, named Toby, no, two of them, toby and Luna. Oh, no, sorry about that, I'm butchering this. Owen in Raleigh, north Carolina with the Jack Russell Terrier named Toby and Luna a greyhound, and Owen asks how can I prevent Toby from being food aggressive, especially around Luna?
Speaker 1:All right, well, that's an interesting question because when we're talking about food aggression, there's a lot of dogs that have food aggression and it's kind of a evolutionary issue with dogs, you know, as dogs evolved, as in the wild anyway. You know, there was never a kibblebush in the wild, so a lot of times food and resources were scarce. One of the interesting things that we found is that in large litters large litters of puppies we tend to get puppies more puppies that have food aggression issues. Why? Because the food is more scarce. Think about it If you've got three puppies and a litter and they're all trying to eat out of the same bowl, versus 13 puppies and a litter trying to eat out of the same bowl. Or you've got a mama dog that has 10 nipples to nurse from and you've got 13 puppies. Three of those puppies they got to wait.
Speaker 1:Sometimes resource guarding and food aggression is one type can begin in the litter. All right, but I watch a lot of people. I hear from a lot of people when they get their puppies and dogs and they feed them, they want to stick their fingers in their food. They want to take away the food. Listen, if you want to be proactive in trying to help your dog not view food as scarce so it doesn't have food resource guarding, rather than put your fingers in that bowl and take the bowl away, how about you set a handful of cooked up little pieces of chicken or steak on the ground next to the bowl and when your dog goes for that stuff, that's better. Take the bowl away and then give it right back to your dog. Do tradeouts. Don't validate a dog's unrealistic view that food is scarce. Show them that anytime somebody comes towards your food you get better stuff.
Speaker 1:But when it comes to your two dogs on that are fighting that there's this food aggression issue. The first thing you need to do is what we call safety and management. Not that that's the fix, but you feed the dog separate. There's a physical barrier separating the two dogs. When there is food present, whether it's their dog food, whether it's a snack or a treat, whether it's a chewy or raw hide, a bully stick, anything food related and for some dogs it's the same thing with toys Then then the only time food comes out when the dogs are out together is during a very controlled where you are controlling everything.
Speaker 1:You're setting everything up in a very safely controlled environment, where you're doing training, where you're doing behavior modification for resource guarding, where you're doing counter conditioning and desensitization. Yes, we use that for all kinds of aggression, reactivity, fears, phobias. So earlier in the show we talked about how we begin to use counter conditioning and desensitization for dogs that are aggressive towards other dogs, for dogs that are aggressive towards other people, and we were presenting that trigger at a safe distance. Remember, presenting that trigger at a safe distance, where the dog's in the green zone, where the dog is relaxed, doesn't have a care in the world, will take food, will respond to cues or commands, will sniff the ground. You can have it on the leash and the dog's leash can be loose and it's not trying to go towards the other dog, no stress. Well, imagine that the dog that is presented is done the same way. But it happens.
Speaker 1:And now we've got the food bowl in front of the dog where we put the high value food rewards in. So remember when it was just the dog I think it was Tony that maybe had that issue when it was just a trigger of a dog that wasn't related to food. Just hey, the dog's aggressive when it sees a dog. We started at a safe distance. The trigger dog comes into view. We start feeding the dog that has the aggression issues at a safe distance, where the dog doesn't care, creating positive associations with the presentation of the strange dog. Strange dog. We have that dog removed, we stop feeding. We do that over and over and over. Now there's more to it than that. If it were that easy, nobody would need to hire a professional. When we do it with a dog that has food aggression issues, it's the same. We are then doing little approaches towards the bowl from a safe distance, and we're only approaching a step or two at a safe distance and creating a positive association, gradually, systematically, over time we'll get closer and closer and closer and closer, but again gradually, systematically, over time, getting closer.
Speaker 1:Now remember the dog reactivity chart. This is a very basic chart, but anytime you're doing behavior modification, anytime you're exposing your dog to a trigger to try to desensitize and to try to create a positive association with the trigger, I don't care what the trigger is. Your dog, every step of the way, has to be in the green zone or it's not going to work. Most people, most trainers, get this wrong. They're working the dog in the yellow zone or the orange zone and even the red zone. Trying to expose a dog in the red zone will never work. Trying to expose a dog to a trigger in the orange zone will never work. In the yellow zone it might take you a super long time. If you have success, try for keeping your dog in that green zone.
Speaker 1:Now, one of the things that any dog that has reactivity or aggression I don't care if it's food aggression, resource, other types of resource guarding, I don't care what the problem is those dogs also suffer from having poor impulse control and they need to learn. And you need to work on with your dogs all kinds of impulse control exercises. Some of those are waiting at the door sitting and waiting for food, teaching your dog to leave it, teaching your dog to drop it, teaching your dog to watch, working around and doing distraction training. There's a lot of things that you can do and that's just part of it. The more your dog has to work on impulse control, the less your dog feels like it's got to react to everything around it. But impulse control exercises are not a substitute for counter conditioning and desensitization. You're not going to get around not doing counter conditioning and desensitization. The impulse control exercises are just going to leverage the work you're doing. It's just another thing that's going to help and make things go a little bit quicker. Now. Recently I wrote an incredibly comprehensive 37-page guide on how to teach a dog good impulse control. I've got many different exercises in there and every exercise there is meticulous step-by-step instructions and directions on how to teach impulse control. So check that out. Go to dogbehavioristcom. When you get to my website, go to the menu, find articles, click on that and find the impulse control guide that's on the website there.
Speaker 1:Also last week, amy Castro do you know Amy Castro? She's a podcaster and she's also somebody who has a rescue organization and Amy had me on her podcast and that episode aired, I believe, this last week. And if you go to starlightpettalk S-T-A-R-L-I-G-H-T-P-E-T-T-A-L-K. Dot com Amy Castro, starlightpettalkcom you can find that podcast that we did that she did with me, interviewing me all about resource guarding. So it's an hour-long conversation with Amy Castro on resource guarding. So if you've got a dog that's got a problem with resource guarding, you absolutely want to make sure to check out Amy Castro's podcast Again, you can find that at starlightpettalkcom and check out not only the podcast interview that she did with me on resource guarding but all of Amy's other podcasts. She's got a great website there. She's got some great favorite products there that she likes to share with others, as well as just a treasure trove of great information that she has.
Speaker 1:Let's go to another question. We've got Sarah in Seattle Washington. She's got two dogs, a Labrador Retriever named Buddy and a Shih Tzu named Bella, and Sarah's question is how can I effectively train both dogs at the same time without them getting competitive for attention? Call Sarah impulse control, impulse control, impulse control and making things easy and simple in the beginning. So part of it might be that they get competitive for the reward, right? Maybe I don't know, but I'm assuming that's part of it. When you say competitive, you're either competitive for your love, praise, attention, affection or for a reward like a food reward or a toy reward, whatever that positive reinforcement they're getting. What I think I'm hearing you say is that there's a little bit of competition, a little bit of jealousy there.
Speaker 1:How can I train them both together? Well, one of the first things I'm going to do is I'm going to teach both dogs separately an incredibly strong place command Go to your bed, go to your place or go to your spot which, by the way, I teach as an implied stay, and I make sure I do an incredible amount of distraction training. If you don't know about place, if you don't know how to train place again, you can go to my website at dogbehavioristcom. Dogbehavioristcom. Go to the menu, go to articles. There's over 85 articles. Roll down until you find the article on how to teach a dog place. If I remember correctly, in addition to the step-by-step instructions in the article, I believe there might be one, maybe two videos that are embedded in that article where you can see exactly how I do that myself with my dog.
Speaker 1:But the impulse control exercises I talked about previously, check out that impulse control guide and you want to train each dog individually on impulse control exercises. Then when you bring the two dogs together, start training them on place. Have them sit on place, have them lay down on place and sit and lay down, and sit and lay down, and sit and lay down and sit and lay down. Do that together. Keep them a little bit separated. They can't be staying on place and being competitive at the same time. They'd have to come off place to be competitive. Little by little, start at a distance, just doing drills on that place board. Little by little, bring them closer and closer and closer and closer and closer Maybe.
Speaker 1:Maybe part of what you need to do is use a reward schedule that is variable and you don't reward on every response to every cue that you give and sometimes you mix up. It might be praise, it might be a food reward, and maybe you need to low key things. Maybe the verbal praise is too excitable and they start getting competitive. Tone that down. If that's the case, play around with it. Maybe your food rewards are too valuable. Maybe bring those down a little bit.
Speaker 1:The other thing that I would look at is hey, can you give one or two cues, have them do one or two things and then be done with it? And there's no competitiveness when it's just one or two asks and one or two responses to a particular command or cue, and do a lot of those little tiny sessions right where you're given one command, you're done. Fifty minutes later. One command, you're done. Fifty minutes later. Give two cues, you're done. Find out where does that competitiveness start? How close do they have to be for it to happen? What type of positive reinforcement is happening when it happens? What's the energy level? How excitable might they be? Because that's something that is going to be critical as well. Because if they're competitive, if they're showing some jealousy and they're getting a little snarky for the rewards, impulse control, starting at a distance, keeping things low-keyed, doing super short sessions and building on that. Play around with those things, find out at what point and in what context do things start to go wrong, because that's going to be absolutely critical to know where that starting point is.
Speaker 1:But I'm all about impulse control and part of that is doing a lot of distraction, training and when we a lot of people say that you know what positive reinforcement's really good and great. But boy, when we're in a super distracting environment, it doesn't matter what kind of cookie or treat I have, it just doesn't work. And then you hear a trainer saying positive reinforcement doesn't work, you've got to use negative reinforcement or punishment. When there's a big distraction, like a rabbit or something like that, that rabbit's going to have a whole lot more value to your dog than whatever cookie you have in your hand. And the dog is going to say see, ya and your positive reinforcement's not going to work.
Speaker 1:That's not true. That is a myth. That is false. What that really says is that the trainer attempting to do that doesn't know how to use positive reinforcement, doesn't know how to do shaping, doesn't know gradual, successive approximations. You know, when we talk about keeping the dog in the green zone, when we're doing counter conditioning and desensitization, when we're exposing to triggers like dog reactivity, dog aggression or aggression towards people, I want you to think about those triggers as distractions. Forget about the fact that there's aggression for your reactivity. Pretend there's not.
Speaker 1:When you can't manage and control your dog with positive reinforcement, when there are distractions, your dog's not in the green zone. You're working your dog too close too soon to distractions that are too intense. You need to dial it back a little bit. Create more distance, tone down the distractions a little bit, spend more time working your dog on impulse control exercises, focus exercises and lower level distractions, conditioning the right responses, and then just turn up the distraction a little bit and a little bit and a little bit, gradually, systematically, making it more and more challenging. At any point you're unable to maintain control of your dog. That doesn't mean that positive reinforcement doesn't work. It means you're working too fast. It means that you need to slow things down a bit.