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Dog Training Today with WIll Bangura: #143 Q & A with Will FaceBook Live, National Train Your Dog Month

• Will Bangura, M.S., CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, FFCP is a World Renowned Dog Behaviorist, Certified Dog Behavior Consultant, Certified Professional Dog Trainer, and a Fear Free Certified Professional with over 36 years of experience with the most difficult of • Season 5 • Episode 143

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Ever felt like you're at the end of your leash with dog training challenges? Well, you're in luck because National Train Your Dog Month is here, and we're unleashing a wealth of knowledge to help you and your pooch overcome those pesky behavioral hurdles. From potty training slip-ups to mastering the art of a calm sit-stay amid the jingle of doorbells, our latest discussion has got you covered. Tune in, and I, Will Bangura, your seasoned host with 35 years of dog behavior expertise, will guide you through the ins and outs of nurturing a harmonious relationship with your four-legged friend.

In our comprehensive chat, we don't just scratch the surface; we go deep into practical advice, peppered with heartwarming tales that showcase the transformative power of reward-based training. Learn how to tackle the all-too-common problem of dogs leaping up in excitement, especially around those who are more vulnerable, like kids and the elderly. We explore the necessity of teaching alternative behaviors, with a focus on safety, patience, and positive reinforcement. Plus, I'll provide you with strategies to help your dog respond to an emergency recall, a command that could literally be a lifesaver.

But that's not all—our conversation also touches on the subtleties of doggy etiquette, from sharing toys to bed behavior. Understanding that canines don't come with an innate sense of generosity, we discuss how to steer them towards peaceful interactions with both humans and other dogs. I'll take your burning questions and offer tailored advice, ensuring that by the time you tune out, you'll be fully equipped with the insights and techniques to enhance your dog's well-being and strengthen the bond you share. Don't miss out on this tail-wagging training talk that's sure to set you and your pup on the path to success.

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Speaker 1:

Did you know that January is National Train your Dog Month, answering your questions, talking about that and more in 60 seconds don't go anywhere. We'll be right back.

Speaker 2:

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

Speaker 1:

Would you like to go on Walkies? Happy 2024 dog lovers. I'm Will Bangura and thanks for joining me for another Facebook Live. I'm going to be here each and every Saturday, or I should say the first Saturday of every month. That's one of the changes we're going to be making. Facebook Live I'm going to do the first Saturday of every month. Welcome everybody, and just a little bit, I want to take your dog training and behavior questions, just kind of waiting for some folks to join us here. But if you've got a question about your dog's training, if you've got a question about your dog's behavior, please go ahead and type that into the comment section below and I'll be happy to help you. Don't be shy again. If you've got a question, write it below. Like I said, happy 2024.

Speaker 1:

I want to talk about changes that are going to happen to dog training today, one of the things that we're changing. Last year we did a Facebook Live every week. I'm changing that. I'm going to be doing Facebook Live the first Saturday of every month and my audio podcast, the dog training today audio podcast. I'm doing one to two audio podcasts every single week, so, for example, since Christmas. By the way, if you're not subscribed to the dog training today audio podcast. Make sure that you go to wherever you listen to podcasts, whether that's Apple podcast, iheartradio, spotify, google podcast Stitcher I mean there's a bunch of them but wherever you listen to your podcast. If you're not subscribed, do a search for dog training today with Will Banguara and please subscribe so that you don't miss out on all the great information about dog training and behavior that I'm doing in the audio podcast. But, like I said since Christmas, if you go to the audio podcast episode 140, I did a year in review Now that's a great one for dog trainers, behavior consultants, veterinarians, veterinary behaviorists, applied animal behaviorists and some of you pet owners will enjoy that as well. Just recently did audio podcast episode 141. That's about boosting your dog's confidence through play and positive patterns. Again, that's episode 141. And then episode 142, I just also did a day ago and that's mastering your dog's impulse control part one Again, mastering your dog's impulse control part one. I'm going to be doing probably part two today or tomorrow and have that up in a few days as well. So, again, if you're not subscribed to the dog training today audio podcast, you're going to miss out on a lot of great dog training and behavior information. So please subscribe and tell your friends and family about us and if you love what we do, if you love what we do, please give us a five star review on the audio podcast platform that you listen to.

Speaker 1:

Like I said in the open, january is National Train your Dog Month. Okay, I'm going to be getting to questions in just a little bit Again, if you're watching, if you've got a question, you can type it in the comment section below, and I'm also going to be reading off email questions today as well. I got a lot of email questions about different behaviors that I think you know. A lot of them are nuisance behaviors. There's a few questions that I had that were related to puppies, new puppies and potty training. Matter of fact, did you get a new puppy for the holidays or did you adopt a new dog for the holidays and are you having potty training problems? Well, if you're having problems with potty training a dog I don't care if it's a young puppy or an older dog go to Amazoncom. You can scan that code and it will take you directly to Amazon where you can pick up a copy of my book House Training 101, potty Training Unleashed no more mess. It will go in depth. It is the most evidence-based, science-based dog training book for potty training that's out there, so go ahead and check that out. If you know somebody that's got a puppy or a dog that's struggling with potty training, please send them over to Amazon. They can again check out my book House Training 101, potty Training Unleashed. Okay, let me go into some email questions right now and actually I'm going to go. I mentioned the potty training, so I'm going to talk about some.

Speaker 1:

A question that I got here about potty training hey, will Jan is here, got a question for you. We just adopted a nine-month-old puppy and the puppy did not have any accidents for about the first two months and then, all of a sudden, the puppy how old is this puppy? But then all of a sudden, after being with us for two months, started having accidents. We can't understand why and we're struggling to stop it. Well, here's the thing I don't know how old. You say puppy, but you also said you adopted one, so you know that could be a four-month, six-month. You know some people are going to consider it a puppy up to a year, but regardless, you have a dog and, let's say, regardless of age, the first two months you had it. There were no accidents. The dog or puppy was doing great, that's fantastic. I want you to think about if that just happened naturally or if there were things that you did to kind of help that along all right.

Speaker 1:

Now one of the challenges is when we get a new dog and they don't, at least initially, show problems. We don't tend to do proactive work in trying to prevent problems. All right, if it was me being a brand new dog as soon as I got it, I would be doing lots of potty breaks outside. I would be rewarding with high-value food rewards if the dog absolutely loves its most favorite. Every single time the dog goes to the bathroom in the correct spot, okay.

Speaker 1:

But if you weren't having accidents for the first two months and then all of a sudden you start having accidents, there might be some issues going on. For example, your dog might. I'm not a veterinarian, I'm not giving out medical advice, but some dogs can get urinary tract infections, bladder infections. So you know, is your dog going more frequently? Is your dog having more urgency? Is your dog you know we've got the accidents? Is there a foul smell to it?

Speaker 1:

But what I would recommend, first and foremost, you need to rule out, make sure there's nothing medical going on, because you had great success for two months and then boom, all of a sudden something happens. So let's take the dog to the vet, let the vet do a full exam, make sure that we don't have any problems with, say, urinary tract infection. Make sure that we don't have any problems when it comes to any other medical issues that might be going on with the dog. But what I need you to do right now, the number one rule when you have a dog that has problems inside the home, I don't care if it's a potty training problem, I don't care if it's being destructive in the house.

Speaker 1:

You need to supervise that dog, that puppy. They need to be in your eyesight at all times. And if they're new and they're having issues like potty training issues or they're being destructive, I'm going to have them drag a leash around. I've actually got a leash where I cut off the handle, because if the handle kind of gets caught on things, so it's just kind of a straight line leash, you could use a small piece of rope with a leash clasp. You really want about three or four feet of line or a leash that's dragging behind the puppy or dog. If you have problems with the dog again being destructive or having problems in the house with accidents or the dog's getting on furniture, you don't want them to do that or they're begging the leash and dragging that leash or line just allows you a little more leverage to be able to guide the dog with that until you don't need to, until your dog has good manners.

Speaker 1:

But proactively you need to start doing potty training protocol and you need to assume and start as if the dog's not potty trained. Yeah, you had two great months but there's issues. Now You're going to take it to the vet. Make sure there's nothing medically going on. Then the next thing is has there been some recent changes? Is there a lot of stress that has happened? Did this dog or puppy go from being a kind of a calm demeanor to now a dog that's kind of nervous, because anxiety and fear and stress can cause those accident problems too. So is there something going on that's different? All right, if it's anxiety, you've got to deal with the problem of anxiety If that's the issue. So you need to figure out. You know, is this medical? Is it about anxiety? Is this a dog that maybe had one accident and nobody was around.

Speaker 1:

So now it thinks hey, it's fair game to go to the bathroom in the house and outside the house and truly doesn't know Listen, if your dog or puppy is going to the bathroom in the house, they don't know that it's okay. If they knew they would go outside. Now they know a lot of you come home and you walk in the door and a minute you walk in the door the dog looks guilty and sure enough, there's an accident. You feel the dog knows it did wrong. No, that's not what's going on. Typically, when you see that look, that you think is guilt. What has happened prior to that is the dog has had many accidents and many times, if not all times, when you came home and there was an accident, you punish the dog. Something negative, something bad, something unpleasant happened. So now the dog is equating you coming home with something bad happening.

Speaker 1:

But unless you're able to communicate with the dog in the act of the dog going to the bathroom, you can't do anything. As far as communicating with your dog. After the fact, when you cannot supervise your dog, when the dog can't be in your eyesight, you need to confine or create the dog. Most dogs are not going to have an accident in their crate, and I don't know if your dog or puppy's crate train, but if it is, you need to utilize that. Anytime you put your dog or puppy in the crate, make sure before you do that you take them outside for about five, 10, 15 minutes or so and then bring them in and put them in the crate, give them the opportunity to relieve themselves.

Speaker 1:

But again, those are some things that I would want to know in terms of whether or not there is anxiety Enrichment. Is your dog bored? What kind of physical activity, what kind of mental activity does the dog or puppy have? Maybe we've got a dog or puppy that's also bored and we need to increase that. One of the podcasts that I recently did I had it pulled up a second ago was about how you mastered dog's impulse control, and I talked about another audio podcast that I did, which was is your dog anxious or is it a lack of enrichment? Boredom can bring about anxiety, but that doesn't mean that all dogs have anxiety disorders. You can have anxiety and not have the disorder, and I'm not gonna get into what all the nuances are regarding that, but when you're working with your puppy, when you're working with your dog, you need to be very proactive right now.

Speaker 1:

If you need to take a notebook and write down every time the dog or puppy eats. Write down Every time the dog or puppy drinks. Write down every time the puppy goes to the bathroom, whether it's pee or poop, whether it's outside successfully or inside an accident. Feed your dog at the same time every day. If you start collecting that data and you write that down every time your dog eats, write it down Every time your dog drinks. Write it down Every time your dog goes to the bathroom, write it down. Is it an accident or did they go in the right place? After a few days you should start to see a pattern X amount of minutes after the dog drinks it's peeing, or X amount of minutes or hours after the dog eats it's pooping. If you keep a good schedule, you will see the pattern that allows you to kind of predict when this puppy or dog needs to go to the bathroom based on the data that you've collected.

Speaker 1:

Why is that important? So that we can prevent accidents and maximize successes. You can go ahead if you know roughly. Hey, maybe the information you've collected tells you that every 20 minutes after the dog eats or drinks, it's going to the bathroom. If that's the case now you can set an alarm on your smart watch or your smartphone or whatever. You can set an alarm to make sure, like I would set it for 15 minutes. If the dog, typically 20 minutes after, would go to the bathroom 15 minutes, my alarm goes off. That signals me. Hey, I gotta get the dog out. Now. I'm gonna make sure again.

Speaker 1:

I've got high value food rewards and the better the reward. Think about rewards as currency. Do you want your dog to do a really good job? Pay your dog as much as you can. And when it comes to potty training, nobody likes that nobody. It's gotta be the worst thing. Everybody hates it when their dog is using their house as a toilet. So if you're one of these people that doesn't like to use food and training, my question is let's stop paying you for going to your job. You're asking your dog to work. That food's a paycheck. Food rewards should be very tiny, about the size of a pea. You should be using a treat pouch. You should only be reaching in there and getting a food reward after your dog has done the behavior. That's a difference between using it as a reward versus holding it in your hand, and now it's a bribe. You use food the right way, correctly, and it's not a bribe. You use food correctly and you can wean off of that food and I did an article recently about that how to use food correctly in training.

Speaker 1:

Have you guys been to my website Down below? Where is it Right in the middle down below? Dogbehavioristcom? Check out my website at dogbehavioristcom. If you go to the menu, click on articles. I've got over 80 free articles that cover 80 different topics. Basically, I've got articles on potty training, I've got articles on fears, phobias, aggression, reactivity, other nuisance behaviors like digging, barking, begging, jumping, being destructive. But I've got an article on potty training and, like I said earlier, if you've got a dog, if you've got a puppy that you're struggling with and you can't get that dog or puppy potty train, check out my book, go to amazoncom, look for house training 101, potty training unleashed by Will Bangura. All right, let me go to another email question that I have.

Speaker 1:

Well, we've got a dog that constantly jumps. He is very excitable and we have actually worked with two different trainers. He knows his commands. He can sit, he can lay down on command, he can walk on a loose leash and he can do all that. The thing that we're struggling with is he's got a lot of energy, keeping him very calm and making sure that he doesn't jump. We have a small child and also my husband's mother lives with us and she's elderly and we're concerned if the dog jumps on her she might fall. All right, I'm concerned about your toddler or your baby. I'm concerned about your mother-in-law.

Speaker 1:

We need to, first and foremost, make sure everybody's safe. If you know when the dog's gonna jump, at least right now, as a safety measure, have a leash on the dog. Grab that leash so it can't jump, okay. Now the first thing you need to do is make sure your dog is not in situations that cause it to jump. Now, that's not the answer, that's not the fix, but it's the first step to the fix. If your dog keeps engaging in that behavior, because the opportunity exists that just keeps getting more and more and more conditioned and in grade. We need this behavior to extinguish, and so the first thing we need to do is avoid all the triggers and write down all the triggers what things, what situations? What things, what people, places, things, situations, locations, times. Does your dog jump. When you know the triggers, now you can begin to both proactively start dealing with the jumping and you'll know what to do ahead of time when those triggers appear.

Speaker 1:

Now there's a couple different options, and those of you that watch dog training today, you know there's two philosophies on training, and one is positive reinforcement. The other one is where they use corrections and punishment. And today, modern dog trainers, certified dog trainers, dog trainers that have good education, that know what they're doing, they don't use aversive tools, they don't use choke collars, prom collars, electric collars. They're not punishing and correcting dogs. First and foremost, the dog's just being a dog and if we didn't take the time to teach the dog what we want and alternative behavior to jumping, that jumping behavior is very normal, matter of fact. We create jumping a lot of times because puppies we pick up from the ground up up to us and the dog then learns to jump as a result of that and we tend to reinforce it by petting the dog and picking the dog up when they're small, but now they're big and we don't like it.

Speaker 1:

Okay, rather than punishing the dog, rather than using corrections because you don't need to listen any behavior can be trained in. Any behavior can be trained out using positive reinforcement. If you don't think that's possible, you just don't know how to use positive reinforcement the correct way. If another trainer tells you that you can't train a dog reliably, especially with distractions, with just using food, that you must use corrections and punishment, you must use things that cause fear, pain, intimidation or at least the dog being uncomfortable. They're wrong. They just don't have the honed high-end skills using positive reinforcement. Just because somebody can't make it happen with positive reinforcement doesn't mean it doesn't work. Just means they're not skilled at it and we need to teach and we need to learn more.

Speaker 1:

But I like to teach an alternative behavior for jumping. Let's just use the excitability of somebody coming home and through the door. Now a lot of trainers will have. You need the dog in the chest, maybe take a can with pennies and throw it. Maybe yell no at the dog. Maybe you've got an electric collar and you've shocked the dog, or you've got a prong collar and you give a leash pop correction. I don't do any of that. To me that's not fair and it's unnecessary.

Speaker 1:

And you have to ask yourself a question your relationship with your dog, should it be one where you're inflicting discomfort or should it be one of benevolent leadership, love, patience, understanding and teaching? The word discipline comes from the word disciple, and a disciple is somebody who's studying under and a disciple is learning, and that's what your dog is. Discipline doesn't mean hitting your dog, doesn't mean punishing your dog. It means educating and learning, and I like to teach the dog to sit instead of jump. So one of the things that I do is I start by doing a lot of repetition of asking my dog to sit three feet back from the door and I reward the dog, and then I start working on distractions. The door is not open, nobody's coming in. I'm just working on a solid sit, stay about three feet from the door and little by little, gradually, I'm adding distractions. If my dog breaks from that sit, stay. When I'm doing distractions, I just need to back up, lower the level of distractions, give more reinforcement for what the dog can do and take a little bit slower approach.

Speaker 1:

Listen, when your dog fails at something, it doesn't mean your dog is stubborn or stupid or can't be trained. It just means we need to make an adjustment to how we're teaching. That's all it means is communication. A lot of people are working too fast. They wanna rush their dog through something. Have patients. Take your time. It's a gradual, systematic process to get your dog to really listen when all hell's breaking loose, when there are big distractions.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I'm Will Van Gura and if you're watching right now, this is dog training today. Welcome, appreciate you guys watching. I'm gonna be answering questions. Right now I'm doing email questions. If you're watching and you have a question about your dog's training and behavior, do me a favor, go ahead and type it in the comments section below. There's no wrong questions, no bad questions. Ask whatever it is that you want. All right, let's go back to that email question and I'm talking about what I would do to teach a dog not to jump.

Speaker 1:

I'm not correcting, I'm not punishing the dog. I'm teaching the dog an alternative behavior. I'm gonna start three feet from the door, do a lot of sit stays Might, do that for about a week or so and while I'm doing that, gradually, systematically, I'm adding distractions and if the dog takes the bait, I just put the dog back in sit. The dog doesn't take the bait of my distractions and maintains that sit. I'm gonna be rewarding the dog every single time, showing the dog what I want through rewards and shaping that behavior. If my dog keeps breaking from the sit stay, I'm working too fast. Slow it down. Bring those distractions down a little bit. Spend more time. Then try going to a higher level distraction, all right, once I've got that pretty solid. Now what I'm doing is I'm doing the same thing and I'm adding a distraction of a doorbell or door knocking.

Speaker 1:

Now for some dogs that just really sets them off big time and they might be extremely difficult to control or manage. You may need to start teaching your dog to sit and stay when the door knocking happens or the doorbell happens, by starting with very light, very light knocking and with the doorbell you can record the doorbell sound and you can play it at super low volumes. That will help your dog have success. To start with, maintaining that sit stay when somebody's knocking or ringing the bell. Now, gradually, systematically, maybe over two weeks, we need to turn the volume of the doorbell up. We need to bring the volume of the knocking up, all right. Now when you're having training sessions with your dog, they should be about seven to 10 minutes. Yeah, they don't need to be long, but make those seven to 10 minutes count, all right.

Speaker 1:

The next step, if my dog's doing well, can maintain the sit, stay, with knocking and the doorbell ringing. Then I add the component of the door opening up. But it just opens up a crack and I'm gonna do that a bunch of times to make sure that when that door opens up just a crack my dog doesn't get out of the sit stay. Little by little that door starts to open more and more and more. Then, when that's going well, I'm gonna have a helper, a human helper, a stranger, and I'm gonna put them about 15 feet from the front of the door. I'll have them ring the doorbell, walk back 15 feet. I open the door. I want the dog to see there's a stranger, but at a distance. If the stranger starts real close, the dog might get too excited and break the sit stay. I want success, so I'm gonna start them back and reward the dog for maintaining the sit. I'm gonna do lots of repetition of that. Little by little I'm gonna bring the stranger forward and then we get to the point where the stranger comes in the door and stands at the doorway and then, little by little, we add animation or excitability to the trigger. So we have that helper, that human helper, over time start making noises, start moving a little faster, adding more stimulation, but gradually.

Speaker 1:

Again, if the dog keeps losing, if the dog keeps coming out of the sit stay, you need to reinforce more at the previous step. You're working too fast. Slow it down a little bit, it'll happen. You just gotta work at the dog's pace. You can't work faster than the dog's pace. And then I'm gonna start generalizing that once the dog has that, with different strangers coming over, now you can do the same thing by sending your dog to its better place instead of sitting and staying. You could do the same thing asking your dog to lie down and stay rather than sitting and staying. But the key here is teaching your dog a different behavior that if your dog's committed to that different behavior, it would be incompatible and the dog would not be able to do the behavior you don't want. You don't want the dog to jump. Well, the dog can't be sitting and jumping at the same time. The dog can't be on its better place and jump at the same time. The dog can't be lying down and committed to that behavior and jump on somebody at the same time. So teaching an alternative behavior is absolutely, absolutely critical.

Speaker 1:

I'm Will Van Goura. Hey, thanks for joining me. If you're just joining us now, I'm a certified dog behavior consultant. I've been doing this for 35 years. I specialize in working with dogs with severe fears, phobias, aggression, anxiety, reactivity but I also work with puppies basic obedience, nuisance behaviors like jumping and barking and being destructive or having potty accidents, something like that. So those are some things that we talk about.

Speaker 1:

If you've got a question about your dog's training or behavior, do me a favor, type it in the comment section below. Don't be shy. If you've got a question, let me help you. Write it in below. I'm going through email questions right now and if you've got a question, like I said, put it in the comment section. I will get to that as well.

Speaker 1:

All right, let's get to the next email question after a sip of the coffee here, all right? The next one is from John. John, actually Alaska. Okay, you don't tell me what kind of dog you have. I was wondering if you had a Malamute.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, john says that he's got a dog that bolts out the door and the dog takes off running and it's next to impossible to get the dog back. My concern is he's gonna get out and get hurt. What do I do? Well, john, there's a couple of things here that we need to talk about. One is what is the impetus, what's the trigger that your dog? Why is your dog running out the door? Is your dog running to something? Do we need to desensitize your dog to that something that your dog might be running to? Maybe it's not that, maybe your dog's just excited, wants to get out and sniff. But there's a couple of things. One proactively we wanna teach door manners.

Speaker 1:

Okay then the second thing we wanna do is make sure we have an emergency recall. All right, an emergency recall is getting your dog to come when called, but it's different than your everyday come command. An emergency recall is never used except in an emergency. An emergency recall you are training constantly for the dog's life and you hope you never have to use it Now. If you go to my website, dogbehavioristcom there it is down below dogbehavioristcom and go to the article section, recently I did an article on the emergency recall. I can't remember or not whether I did an audio podcast. There might be an audio podcast embedded in that article how to teach the emergency recall. But let me just give you just a real quick synopsis on that. So the first thing you wanna do is get your dog's attention. Drop a couple high value treats on the floor and give the cue that you're gonna use to get the dog to come on the emergency recall. Now this should be a word that's rarely used.

Speaker 1:

I had a client that used Poughkeepsie. Let me tell you the story. So the client had two golden retrievers. They went on vacation with their kids and they get a call from the dog sitter. They got a dog sitter that's staying at their home watching the dogs and the dog sitter's frantic crying, sobbing because the dogs ran out the door. Down the road. She's running after them trying to get them to come back. They're not coming back. They think it's a game. She's scared because she spent 20 minutes trying to get them back. She can't get them back. So finally, she calls the owners and the owners say what I want you to do in a loud but not scary voice, but loud enough they can hear it. I want you to say Pekipsie, and they should come to you and if they do, give them a high value food reward, go quickly, get in the house and get some rewards. They're in the cookie jar. So she gets it. She goes out there, she goes Pekipsie, dogs turn around, come running to her like rockets.

Speaker 1:

The emergency recall is so important, so very important. So I start by going Pekipsie, I drop a couple of treats on the ground. Then I say, pekipsie, I run back two steps, drop treats on the ground. Then I say, pekipsie, I run back four steps, drop treats on the ground. You get the idea Little by little. Every day I'm adding a little more distance to that. I'm doing about five repetitions of that every single day. Now, once the dog is unbelievably reliable with distractions. Now I'm going to do that once a month. I'm gonna have a training session on that to keep it solid, all right. So the emergency recall if they get out the door, you gotta get them back critical. Check out my website, dogbehavorscom, and check out the article on the emergency recall.

Speaker 1:

The other thing that you need to do is teach your dog doormanners, and what I do is I take the dog and I put them about three feet back from the door. I like to have a doormat inside the house and when I open the door and I'll have a leash on the dog when I'm training this, the dog must stay behind that doormat, about two, three feet behind the door, and I'm gonna turn and face the dog, put my hand by them and tell them wait, I'm gonna take a step back, facing the dog. If the dog follows me, I'm going to guide the dog back where I had them, put my hand in front of them, tell them wait, now I'm gonna take a half a step back. Remember, the dog failed on a step. Take a half a step back. If the dog doesn't move, I'm gonna reward the dog. Then I'm gonna take another half a step. If the dog doesn't move, I'm gonna reward the dog. Little by little, I'm teaching the dog to wait, not move forward, when that door opens.

Speaker 1:

All right, now the other thing you could do exactly what I was talking about with the other dog that we were teaching, that sits, stay, that likes to jump on people when they come over, right, teaching an alternative behavior. That would be incompatible. If your dog was committed to the behavior couldn't run out the door. So maybe the strategy is every time you need to open the door, you've asked your dog to go to its bed and lay down and stay there and little by little you've taught that. Okay, but there's two things door manners you've gotta teach the dog that, hey, you always go through the door first. Then you call the dog to you and do me a favor and make sure you don't let the dog wait right at the threshold of the doorway. Put the dog back. So you got that little cushion, that little window of two to three feet. As you see the dog move towards you or towards the dog or door, you're able to pick up your leash and then guide the dog back. All right, and you wanna do this daily again. You wanna spend about five to seven minutes every day doing it. If you can have multiple training sessions, it's just gonna go faster, but short sessions are a lot better than very long sessions.

Speaker 1:

I'm Will Bangura. You are watching Facebook Live the dog training today show. I'm here the first Saturday of every month where I answer your questions about your dog's behavior and training, challenges and problems. If you've got a question about your dog's behavior and training, please type it in the comments below. I'm gonna be answering your questions. I mentioned that January is National Train your Dog Month. So what does that mean? It means that as a trainer and a behaviorist, I'm supposed to encourage you to train your dog.

Speaker 1:

You know there's nothing better than having a dog that's really well-behaved, that you can go anywhere with it. You can take the dog anywhere. You can have anybody come over to the house. You're not frustrated, you're not angry and it takes five to seven minutes of training every day and being patient and it doesn't take long before your dog starts improving. But it's a process. Everybody wants a quick fix and the problem with quick fixes is they typically don't last. You know, training is about educating and it's about creating muscle memory. You've gotta do enough repetition with your dog on whatever you're training and teaching where your dog doesn't have to think about it, where it just happens automatically, it's a reflex. You know, maybe I should write an article on reflexive training. And you know we talk about classical conditioning and about reflexes and responded learning.

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You know, pavloff, who was studying salivation in dogs, realized that when the dogs were fed they salivated, and he realized that they started to salivate before the food came. They started salivating when the helpers came into the room because they knew those helpers only came in the room to feed. They made that association between the person and the food. Now all they've gotta do is see the person. They start drooling because they anticipate food. That is a reflex. They didn't make themselves drool, it happened automatically because of so much repetition. So Pavloff saw that and he goes hmm, what if I? Rang a bell, gave food. Rang a bell, gave food. Rang a bell gave food. Rang a bell, gave food? Would I eventually be able to just ring the bell and get them to salivate without any food, like I think I'm seeing them salivate without any food when the people that come in to help feed walk in? Sure enough, pavloff did the experiment rang the bell, gave food. Rang the bell, gave food. Rang the bell, gave food. Eventually, all he had to do is ring the bell. They'd start drooling With enough repetition, with enough consistency. You wanna train where your dog. It's an automatic reflex.

Speaker 1:

Most people do not have dogs trained to that level and they need to repeat commands. Their dogs fall apart when there's distractions. They can't work. So those are some things that I think are very, very important that you've gotta have patience and you've got to know that training is a journey, it's not an event, and that quick fixes don't typically work. And make sure, if you're looking for a professional to help you train your dog, that you find somebody who is certified. You need to go to the certification council for professional dog trainers website. In their directory they've got certified dog behavior consultants and certified dog trainers. See, the dog training industry is unregulated. Anybody can call themselves a dog trainer. You get online, you look at a website. You just assume they know what they're talking about. Well, there's no requirement for education, there are no standards, so literally anybody could call themselves a dog trainer. Make sure you find somebody that's been certified.

Speaker 1:

All right, got a question here from somebody who's watching Maria. Maria says what can I do to get my pirate ore to lay in his bed? We adopted him a month ago and he refuses, only wants to be on the couch. He is a year old. Well, how about you start by putting the bed on the couch and see if you can get him in there? You can take some food, maria, and bring it to his nose. High value food words, maybe a piece of dried liver or a piece of chicken, or a piece of bacon, or a little bit of hot dog or cheese. See if you bring it to his nose, can you slowly lure? Can you lure? Can you take that food and lure the dog onto the bed and then, as soon as the dog's on the bed, give the food. Don't worry about the dog staying there first, just worry about getting the dog on there. I don't care if you got a sprinkle a bunch of treats on there, very tiny, to keep them there.

Speaker 1:

You do what you need to do to create the behavior and then start labeling it. Don't ask for it because the dog doesn't know what it is. Create the behavior with a food lure and when your dog actually gets on the bed, then say the cue or command you want to use, whether it's bed. Try to make it one word, one syllable, very simple. Or place or spot bed. Lure the dog with food, get the dog on its bed.

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As a dog gets on the bed, say bed and give the food reward. Make sure you do that about 10 times in a row, do that every single day. If you can do it more than once a day, that's fantastic. Then start eventually, as that's going well for a few days. Then have the food in your hand but close the hand, bring it to the dog's nose and then move your hand towards the bed and ask for bed If your dog doesn't go. Your dog needs a little more repetition with a food lure and then eventually, hey, even when you've got that closed hand and you guide the dog over and you point to the bed, make sure you open that hand and reward the dog and then eventually do it with no food in your hand. But once the dog gets on the bed then you are going to reward the dog for that each and every time.

Speaker 1:

You know I don't know what the bed looks like and I don't know if it's you know one of these beds that is kind of high. You know maybe a different bed, but you know most dogs. You know if you take a food lure you can kind of lure them up there. You may have to put a leash on the harness and give a little guidance. Don't force the dog on there because that's just going to make the dog want to go there even less. If the dog's having a bad experience related to that bed, if you're like pulling on that leash, you know, or putting pressure on the collar, yeah it's going to be a problem because the dog's just going to say, well, anything related to the bed is punishment, because the dog doesn't feel good, the dog's experiencing some discomfort.

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All right, let's see here. Good morning Manny, michael and Lewis here from Pittsburgh, pa, listening with our dogs Boxley, boxbombo. Then it says M, a three year old golden retriever, what else, where is it? Three year old golden retriever, four month old golden doodle Right? How do I get my dogs a three year old rat terrier and a four month old, okay, golden doodle to share toys? They want the toy the other one has at the time and that's actually from Elaine. All right, so, elaine, here's the thing Dogs don't share, dogs don't share.

Speaker 1:

And if dogs do share, that's more of a odd abnormal behavior than what is normal. The question should be do they fight over toys? Do they fight over objects? Okay, if they're not fighting, don't worry about it, they will work it out. They'll work it out. Dogs don't share. That's not in the genetic nature of a dog and they're going to want the other toy and that's what they do. Same thing happens with my dogs. I just make sure that there's plenty of toys that they can get something in their mouth and play with. If my dogs were fighting over toys not sharing and fighting over toys then I would do something. I'd be concerned. But you're trying to get dogs to do what people do, and people share. They're not people, they're dogs.

Speaker 1:

I don't know that you probably don't like that answer, but that's the fact of the matter and I think you know it's probably more concerning for you than it is your dogs. What do you think? Do your dogs seem upset when this is going on? Are they upset? Is there distress? Well, if there is, let me know and you know we'll see if there's other things that we can address as it relates to that.

Speaker 1:

Okay, okay, back, manny. Thank you. I see you said good morning from. I got your message mixed up with Elaine Morning from Pittsburgh, pa, listening to her dog, listening with her dogs. Moxley, mox, momo M Is that their cute little names? Dog's name is Moxley. I think you've got nicknames like Mox, momo M. Yeah, I've got a lot of nicknames for my dogs as well Three year old golden retriever and good rich G Go-Go. Okay, 11 year old chocolate lab. I love labs. I had several chocolate labs throughout my life and they're great dogs.

Speaker 1:

I'm Will Bangura and you are watching Dog Training Today. If you're just joining us, I'm here the first Saturday of every month here on Facebook Live and I'm answering 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 and go ahead and type it in the comment section below and I will be glad to help you out and answer your questions. I've also got some email questions here that I can go through, but I like to take this time to answer your questions.

Speaker 1:

Need to take a second to talk about calm dogs. Do you know about calm dogs? Do you have a dog that has anxiety, fears, phobias? Do they have problems with fireworks? Maybe they struggled on New Year's if you had fireworks going off. Are they afraid of storms? Are they aggressive? Do they struggle with car rides, grooming, vet visits or any kind of upset? If you've got a dog that experiences that, check out calm dogs.

Speaker 1:

Calm dogs is an all-natural supplement. There's 21 vitamins, minerals, herbs and amino acids that are all scientifically proven to help dogs that have these problems. Calm dogs is non-sedating, so if you've got a dog that just has a lot of energy, this is not gonna help you. This is for dogs that have emotional upset, okay, and I created calm dogs and I'm so confident that calm dogs can help. If you've got a dog that needs it, I offer a 100% money-back guarantee. Here's how the guarantee works Give it to your dog twice daily at the right dosage for six weeks, 45 days. If, after the end of six weeks, if you've given your dog the calm dogs twice a day at the right dose, if you've not seen any improvement, I will refund 100% of your money. You're not gonna find that anywhere. Go to calmdogscom. You can't get this on Amazon. You can't get it on Chewy Some veterinarians are carrying it and it's on calmdogscom. Or you can go to doganxietycom and give it a shot. If you know somebody that they've got a dog that could need something, you can have them check out calm dogs. All right, enough of that. Let me go back into see if I have any questions here right now. Go into the email questions also, also those that are just joining.

Speaker 1:

In addition to the monthly Facebook live where I do a Q&A, then I'm going to be doing the first Saturday of every month I'm doing one to two audio podcasts every single week. For example, if you go wherever you listen to your podcast and if you don't listen to podcasts, you should. There's so much great information. You can go to Apple podcast, google podcast, you can go to iHeartRadio, spotify, stitcher, buzzsprout. Those are all different places you can go to listen to podcasts. Do a search for the dog training today podcast. Make sure that you subscribe so that you never miss an episode.

Speaker 1:

A lot of people here we're talking about issues that also relate to impulse control. These dogs that boom run out the door, or dogs that boom jump they need also impulse control. I just did part one of how you teach impulse control to dogs and it's up there right now on the audio podcast. And if you love what we do, please give us a five star review on the audio podcast. Really appreciate that. That helps get the message out to more people because that increases our rankings. And please share this video on your timeline and if you haven't already, do me a favor, show some love. Hit that like button, please. That helps as well. All right, let me get to.

Speaker 1:

I think I've got time for maybe, maybe one more question, one more email, unless somebody's going to type a question that's watching right now and I'll jump into that and run a little bit over, but I try to end always within the hour. I don't like these to go longer than an hour. By the way, the audio podcast now they can go anywhere from 20 minutes, 45 minutes. Well, it's in a great while to be long, okay, but I'm trying to keep them a little bit shorter. Keep people more interested and do me a favor. If you've got ideas, if there are things you would like me to discuss on dog training today, you can go ahead and shoot me an email. Email me at info at dogbehavioristcom. That's info at dogbehavioristcom.

Speaker 1:

Also, if you are looking for a professional help, you you can't find anybody that you think is qualified and can help you where you live. I do behavior consultations all over the world. I do virtual consultations. It's extremely successful. I know you think that we need to be there in person. We don't. We need to be good teachers, good educators and teach you what to do to get your dog better. But if you are looking for help, go to dogbehavioristcom. You can send me a message and we can see if I can help you. I've got, like I said, clients all over the world in Australia, in the UK, all throughout the United States and they're all doing a great job. I'm so proud.

Speaker 1:

I know a lot of my clients listen to the audio podcast or they watch the Facebook, whether it's live or a little bit later on, because the video stays up here. A lot of people watch it when it's not live. And if you're watching, like I said, please hit that like button, hit that share button so that more people can benefit from it. I'm going to be here. Let's see. When is the next Facebook live? Get into the calendar here. I think it's February 3rd, but let me get into the calendar. Yeah, february 3rd. So the next Facebook live where I'm going to be answering and doing Q&A is going to be February 3rd and I'm going to be here at 11 am Eastern Time, 8 am Pacific, 10 o'clock Central. And if you're in Arizona and you're in Arizona, it doesn't do daylight savings, it starts at 9 o'clock. But again, january, national train your dog month. If you have a dog that you've had for a while and it's had problems and you've avoided training, make that a new year's resolution that you are going to take some time to train your dog. Also, want to let you know for 2024, one of the things that I want to do is do more interviews with other dog training and behavior professionals, and those interviews that I'm going to be doing throughout the year, those are all going to be uploaded to the Dog Training Today audio podcast. So make sure that you have subscribed to that, elaine?

Speaker 1:

What is your calming choose compared to fluxitine for dogs? Well, fluxitine hydrochloride is the generic for Prozac and it's a pharmaceutical. You know, if the dog is super severe, the dogs might need medication in conjunction with behavior modification. Calmed dogs works very similar to some medications like fluxitine, but it's all natural. But what does fluxitine do? Now, I'm not a veterinarian. I'm not giving out medical advice. I do have very specific training and education in psychopharmacology and I can talk about that. So serotonin is boosted when you use Prozac fluxitine. What it does, serotonin is a neurotransmitter. It's kind of the feel good neurotransmitter.

Speaker 1:

We use Prozac a lot with dogs that have severe anxiety, fears, phobias, aggression and reactivity. But no pill is going to just completely change a dog and there are some dogs that need it. You know dogs have mental illness. We don't call it mental illness, but dogs have mental illness. They have anxiety disorders, they have bipolar, they have schizophrenia we just don't call it that. They have a nervous system just like we do. They get PTSD and sometimes there's a need for medication in conjunction with behavior modification. Sometimes a natural supplement might help.

Speaker 1:

My supplement can help a lot of dogs. Will it help your dog versus the fluxitine? I don't know. First of all, I want you to talk to your veterinarian. Do not take your dog off medication. Do not switch something without talking to your veterinarian.

Speaker 1:

Also, if your dog is currently on behavioral medication, you cannot give the calm dogs with that, because your dog could get what's called serotonin syndrome, having too much serotonin, because calm dogs is very powerful. Is it as powerful as a pharmaceutical? No, no. But it also doesn't come with all the side effects too. Now, I don't want that to scare you. Prozac is a very safe, good medication. We've used that with hundreds thousands of dogs myself personally and you'd never know they're on medication. It doesn't make them a zombie. It doesn't make them a zombie. But you can get on. Elaine, go to doganxietycom or calmdogscom. Look at the science behind the calm dogs. Look at the ingredients. I mean I've got a ton of scientific studies listed, everything. It's a great supplement. Is it going to help every dog? No, some dogs need medication. And if your dog's on medication, talk to your vet if you're thinking about switching, and make sure your dog's off of the Prozac and off for a little while, a couple of weeks, before you start giving calm dogs. Now I'm not telling you to do that. You need to talk to your vet about that. Okay, all right, I'm going to run over just a little bit.

Speaker 1:

Katie has a question how do you stop a dog from playbiting other dogs? Well, first of all, why do you want to stop it? That's how dogs play. It's called playbiting. Okay, when dogs are aggressive, they sink their canines into the skin, they puncture and those canines go into the skin. If your dogs are not breaking skin and you called it yourself playbiting, how do you stop a dog from playbiting other dogs? That's what dogs do. They communicate with their mouth. Now, there might be some dogs that didn't have proper canine socialization and they don't know how to play, and maybe your dog is playbiting some dogs that don't know how to play because they've got some issues and they take that playbiting as a threat and maybe they're going after your dog.

Speaker 1:

I don't know. I'm speculating, katie, give me more information if you can. I mean, I could teach you ways to stop it, but you're fighting a lot of genetics and your dogs are playing. I don't know, katie, I'm hoping that you're going to type in some more information about this. If it's not play, if it's true aggression, they're going to sink their teeth into the other dog. It can sound like when dogs are playing. It can sound like they're killing each other, absolutely killing each other.

Speaker 1:

Scott's saying maybe from escalating is what she means. Well, if it's about starting off with play and playbiting and you're concerned about it escalating, you have to say okay, at a certain cap, at a certain level, I'm going to call my dogs to me on a recall or a come command which will stop that behavior, and you can reward them for that rather than correcting them. Still waiting to see if Katie is going to give me more information. Katie, katie, katie. But yeah, if they're escalating, you need to get involved. Call the dogs to you, and that's where constantly working on your recall, constantly working on having them come when called, is so important, because it's a great way to interrupt unwanted behaviors without having to use corrections, without having to use punishment, which in many cases, isn't fair because we've never done the work that we needed to do to teach them what it is that we want them to do so well. I was hoping that Katie was going to give me a little more information, but I I gotta go.

Speaker 1:

Guys, it's been a great show. I appreciate all the questions. Please come back on February 3rd where we do our next Facebook live. Please make sure you subscribe to the Dog Training Today podcast. Have a good weekend, everybody. I'm out of here.

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Will Bangura M.S.,CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, FFCP

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