All About Training Your Dog

A lady called me a couple of months ago and wanted me to come to her home to help her with her hyperactive airedale puppy.

 Turned out that she wasn’t the usual dog owner that calls me. She knew quite a bit about training and also quite a bit about her breed.

Airedales are not known for being the most serious of dogs. Quite a bit of working potential, but kind of clownish and not the longest attention span in the K-9 world.

Airedales are a great all-around dog but when training you run the risk of boring them and as a result losing your audience.

She was well aware of all of this and so she didn’t need me giving her training advice…but she did want to ask about the behavior problem. We talked for quite awhile and I asked her a lot of questions.

I went through the whole checklist I use when determining what the dog problem is and what the human problem is.

Most owners unknowingly perpetuate dog behavior problems.  I can usually get to the bottom of this with a lot questions, but with this lady she had all the bases covered.

Ok, Doug you know so much, what was the problem? Well just prior to me having to say to her, “I’m just going to have to see the dog,” I asked her one more key question.

By the way, I hardly ever say, “I’m just going to have to see the dog.” That is usually a trainer’s way to get the session booked, which is just another way to say, “get my money!”

Now, I have no problem charging for my services. And I’m not cheap, but we trainers can certainly get a client started with some free tips to help get the whole process started. You don’t have to see the dog for that.

In addition, getting the owner started with some pre-session work can make everything go more quickly and easily once the trainer gets there. My experience has been that I’ll build a lot more good will by helping people then by soaking them for money. Good will usually translates into more business coincidentally.

Anyway, I was just about to the point where I was going to have to say, “I’m going to have to see the dog” when I asked this very key question: “What are you feeding him?”

She was feeding one of the so-called gourmet brands. So I asked her if she had the bag.

“Yes.”

“Good, would you read me the ingredients?” Usually commercial dog food doesn’t have enough real meat in it and way too much in the way of carbs (grains, etc). Too many carbs can sometimes equal too much energy.

What do you think is more essential to K-9 nutrition, meat or corn? Meat or wheat? Meat or soybean?

Anyway she started reading and I was listening triumphantly and about to comment on the large amount of carb content when she gasped.

“Oh my gosh!”

“What?”

She then told me. “This stuff has green tea extract in it! That’s caffeine!”

Her puppy was jacked up on caffeine! When she changed the food, her airedale puppy settled down and behaved more normally.

So the moral of the story? Do your research on commercial dog food…stay tuned and I’ll have more info for you on that soon!

Train on!

Doug

Well first of all I would like to thank all of you who ordered the e-books…they are still available for a bit at the special price.
If you haven’t gotten them yet you still have a chance, if you
move quickly, to get “the deal”!

Get them here:
http://allabouttrainingyourdog.com/insiders-guide/

Now on to training info!

One of the things you need to remember is that teaching your dog to behave properly is a progressive process. You need to stick with the training over time…and understand that dogs don’t always just have one “problem.” Sometimes many problems make up the “whole dog.”

For example, just last week I visited a couple, I’ll call them Brent and Betty, with two Great Danes.

The male, who I’ll call Bo, weighs 140 lbs. He is totally unruly,
barks excessively, won’t come when called, pulls on walks and also jumps on people.

Bo was staying in Betty’s parent’s backyard because he was put out of the couple’s apartment complex. He nipped one of the service guys, who was acting suspiciously.

It might have been easier for Bo to stay if he were normally better behaved, but his reputation for unruliness and his size got him banished from the apartment.

When I got to the parent’s house, Brent, Betty and the parents met me out front. Bo was in the backyard. Betty’s father told me that Bo “is an idiot. He doesn’t listen and if you go back there he will jump all over you.”

So Betty’s Mom and Dad watched from inside the house as Betty, Brent and I went into the backyard with “the beast”!

Now, I’m no fool so if they had told me that Bo was vicious, I
certainly wouldn’t have just walked into his backyard. I would have him brought out to me on a leash in that case.

Nevertheless, a 140 lb dog that jumps on people is not to be taken lightly. I was careful as I entered the backyard.

In about two minutes Bo was sitting quietly on leash ready to go on a walk. I used no force; only a few “ah, ah’s” and appropriate petting. He calmed down pretty easily; no barking, no jumping, no unruliness. He actually lay down and then came to each of us as we called him for a reward.

He tried to jump on Betty once or twice. I showed her how to
calmly re-direct him before he actually jumped up. In less than 5 minutes he was a “new dog.” I told Betty, “We should be doing this on TV!” She agreed.

What we did was address Bo, the whole dog. That included his
relationship to his human owners. See, I don’t train the dog so much as the human and how he or she relates to the dog.

When I showed Brent and Betty and the parents how to change their behavior around Bo, then all of his behaviors changed. He suddenly was a “new” dog and his problems disappeared.

Now if Brent, Betty and the parents don’t stick to the plan we
created, then Bo will go right back to being the “bad dog” he was before. The responsibility is theirs to stick to the program for Bo’s sake.

Now, I’d like to ask you a favor: Besides, excessive barking, what are the other problems you have with your dog?

Hit “REPLY” and just send me a list. Don’t worry about writing it all that well, just get the list down and let me know about your dog’s “problems.” Then keep your eyes open for something very cool in the near future!

Until then, Train on!

Doug

P.S. Get the “The Insider’s Guide to Best Dog Behavioral Secrets”
here:
http://allabouttrainingyourdog.com/insiders-guide/