Welcome to Pawprint Academy, your blueprint to
raising better dogs. My name is Ryan, and I'll
be your host for this journey. I've got my trusty
co -host here, Brianna. Hello. And together,
we're bringing you real -world training insights
built on leadership, structure, and proven methods.
We record this podcast with live clients on the
line in one take with live, unscripted questions
and answers. At the end of the day, this podcast
is a lot more than just teaching your dog to
sit or stay. creating calmness, and becoming
the kind of leader your dog truly needs. We do
that with our three pillar method of trust, obey,
and perform. Together, we'll show you how these
three pillars shape every step of training. Thanks
for being here. Let's get started. All right,
episode 11, building confidence in puppies, setting
the stage for success. Today, we are finishing
up our puppy, I guess, series, right, series.
So this will be the last episode that is strictly
about puppies. Just because it's about puppies
doesn't mean that a lot of these techniques don't
work on older dogs, too. We just frame it in
the concept of we started a lot of these podcasts
with building from the ground up and a lot of
people reach out. probably a little bit too soon
to try to get their puppy trained because they
got it like three days ago and they're like,
it's destroying my house and peeing everywhere
and what do I do with this? So we are trying
to stop the madness. But set up a good foundation
for your dog to grow older. But that doesn't
mean that one dog and like the way a puppy learns
is so different than an older dog that it just
can't even be, you know, switch back and forth.
Right. Especially when it comes to like confidence
building. Right. Because this is kind of a universal
concept. So tonight we're going to be talking
about confidence and how to build it in your
dogs. way that this goes we already talked about
the the live clients on the line but sometimes
they will type in a message or a question or
something during the during the recording process
and so I'll read that aloud and then we'll answer
it and then at the end we'll open it up for live
Q &A and then we'll give you guys two projects
two listener projects which are just hey This
week, I want you to work on this, whatever that
is. I don't want to spoil it. Start at the end.
All right, so the core idea for today is that
confident puppies, or dogs just in general, they
grow into stable, balanced adult dogs. Confidence
does not happen by chance. A dog doesn't just
grow up into confidence. If we don't help nurture
that. And in fact, it's built through structured
exposure and through leadership and through fair
challenges. Confidence is not something that
is built without exposure to something that may
be scary or difficult or hard to overcome. Obstacles
is part of life. And by overcoming those obstacles,
that's how your dog learns confidence. So a lot
of people are like, well, my dog has never experienced
anything scary. So why are they not confident?
And I'm like, well, maybe that's why. Because
they haven't really experienced anything scary
and then overcame it. All right. So let's jump
into it. So number one, exposure builds that
resilience. And resilience is something in dogs
that you can tell a resilient dog. I mean, dogs
are resilient to a great degree, right? There's
tons and tons and tons of stories. And pretty
much everybody has run across a... a time where
you experienced a rescue dog that came out of
a very, very, you know, crazy place and a crazy
life before. And they've overcame it, and you
wouldn't necessarily even know looking at them.
Yeah, there's definitely a way to like even resilience.
I think when a dog when you think of it in a
dog really comes back down to like trusting people
and having that trust broken and then rebuilding
trust with humans again. Right. Yeah. So the
right kind of exposure, though, is what helps
puppies face the world calmly. There are. Let
me not jump ahead as I always end up. Somehow
answering the questions that I lay out before
we actually get to the questions. So I'm going
to try not to. We'll see how we do. Let's talk
about this. So controlled introductions. We want
to use controlled introductions to new sounds,
surfaces, environments, heights, like all of
these different things. There is a concept in
the science that says that. There are only two
things that puppies are born with fear to, right?
And that is loud noises and falls from a height.
Yep. However, some people would argue that their
puppy is immediately scared of other things.
is probably something that led them to becoming
fearful of that. And that was a learned behavior
rather than a born with behavior. So when, as
a dog trainer, right? What are like, you want
to talk through how, how that looks for us? Like,
what are we controlling when we're in introducing
these things? what are we controlling or what
are we kind of well so like how does that go
right the controlled introductions what does
that look like right for well with for other
dogs or like just anything in general right i
guess well so let's start with just what's on
here right of sounds surfaces and environments
right so when it comes to sounds it's really
all encompassing yeah we're really big on like
for sounds we do like the alexa exposure right
you just play random sounds at a low volume kind
of work your way through that. There's lots of
videos that we use and things like that to play
those sounds. But we'll start at low volumes,
kind of work your way up, start at like meal
times, things like that. That's a great way to
do it is when your dog is a puppy at breakfast,
lunch, dinner, whatever meal times you guys have.
Play those noises on your TV, on your speakers,
on your Alexas, on your Google Home, on your
whatever all those other crazy devices are. Play
them at low volumes throughout their meal time.
And then as soon as they're done eating, stop
the sounds. And then the next day, increase the
volume by a couple notches. And just keep going
up and keep adding noises. But all of those things
are going to be really good. Surfaces, I mean,
just walk your puppy across surfaces, right?
That's how they test like working dogs. They
just like run them across all these random surfaces
and see how like unbothered the dog is. But just
walk them across different surfaces. One big
thing that we really, really notice in dogs that
we get are hardwood floors. Because even if you
have a hardwood floor, most of the time you have
carpet over it. So we get a dog in that like
cannot. walk across the hardwood floor to save
their lives and they're like i gotta make it
to that carpet over there suddenly they've been
given a pair of skates right or like noodle legs
or something that's crazy but different surfaces
those things matter um and then what was the
other one just environments right so that's just
taking yeah taking them to different places take
them to parks take them to parking lots take
them to Hardware stores, but don't take them
to the busiest places you can imagine. Right.
That. Yes. Yes. Sorry. I have to jump in here.
So environments. Right. Because you you have
to dial this back to be like, imagine you were
were eight weeks old. Right. Like you you don't
have the experience that you have right now.
So like a single car alarm going off or. A siren
or this or that could potentially set you off
to where you're like, oh my gosh, what is that?
And then if that's coupled with the same timing
as meeting another stranger or seeing something
crazy go by or another dog barking at them. And
these are the situations that we see unfold in
front of us out in public. every day yeah and
and those owners don't probably this isn't me
you know taking a dump on these owners it's just
that they they probably don't even know what's
happening here but like their puppy that is you
know doing the like noodle legs like plopping
around all over the place and they look so cute
but their tail is tucked between their legs and
they don't look crazy scared But like their ears
have not left their skull for the last like five
minutes. Yeah. Right. Like those those are dogs
that are developing in that moment. They're developing
these fears. Yeah. And and you're influencing
that. So we can't just take the puppy to Ulta
right off the bat. Right. There's too much going
on. We got to start places, go to a public place,
but go to a public place like right when it opens,
when there's very few people there. Go to a park,
but like over out on the side where there's no
one walking around and they can see everything
at a distance. because it's safe right and those
things are important but also it's like the things
that you need to get to before you even go to
those places is more important like every day
in your household things that dogs end up getting
scared of like pots and pans banging around and
you opening up an umbrella because it's raining
outside or the garage door going up and down
I could name like a million things. And I think
people all the time are like, well, we need like
a list. And there are like plenty of lists and
we should probably like make one. But there are
lists that like we even use with tons of different.
You know, things that you should be exposing
your dog to. Christmas trees, you know, inflatables
in the yard and like yard decorations in general
is a big one that we see dogs with all the time,
especially this time of year. Right. Dogs are
all over and they're like, ah, what is that?
Right. We've got that like happy -go -lucky abominable
snowman. Right. Inflatable at the end of the
street that the dogs, all of the dogs hate. But
it's like things like that. And even the more
important things like play the noises of dogs
barking, but like do it low enough to where your
dog's not reacting. And you might think that's
pointless or useless because they're not reacting,
but they hear it. But if it's at a low enough
volume, they're not worried about it because
they're like, oh, the dog's too far away, whatever.
But it's still desensitizing them to some degree
to the level of dogs barking to where it can
build that confidence to be like, yeah, whatever.
There's a dog barking. Because exposure is what
builds that confidence. And if you're not doing
it daily and picking something to work on, then
your dog is missing out on it. Yeah, totally
agree. So we want to pair exposure with also
calm leadership. And calm leadership, we talk
about the leadership a lot of times on this podcast.
The calm leadership just means I want you kind
of in front of the dog showing the dog, look,
see how my body language is. I'm not worried.
Now, you telling your dog, see, you don't have
anything to be worried about is useless. That
is not a soothing thing to talk to the dog and
tell the dog all of the words. Now, you can.
fall back on a few calm marker words that you've
already taught the dog mean that either they're
going to get a treat or they're they've done
the right thing or they're in a good position
whatever those things are fine but talking to
your dog hey buddy don't worry about that fire
engine that's okay don't that it's I know. It's
going away. You're okay for me. Right. You're
okay. Right. That's another one. You're okay.
You're okay. Yeah. If you didn't teach your dog
you're okay when you were inside the home and
they weren't worried about anything, then it's
for sure not doing you any good once you're out.
right you're definitely just confirming like
their emotions and how they're feeling which
is stress and negativity and worry and all of
those things and if you're like yeah you're okay
you're okay and you're like petting them you're
definitely just confirming their fear of whatever
that is yeah right because you're acting different
yeah and so the dog's gonna look to you for like
okay well well this is strange this is suspicious
and Anything that is suspicious to a dog, they're
going to give it their attention. Yep. Things
that are not suspicious to you are going to,
in general, stop being suspicious to the dog.
Yeah. Now, it's not automatic. It's not like,
oh, well, you didn't pay attention to that dog,
so the dog doesn't pay attention to that dog.
Well, they might still be curious. But if you
pay attention to it, they're for sure going to
pay attention to it. Yeah. That's what we're
talking about. All right. And then the last one
with this one, right? So we actually want to
avoid flooding a puppy. There's a concept called
flooding that gets a lot of mixed reviews in
the dog training space. I believe that it can
be a useful technique as a last resort. Or certainly...
very far down on the, I guess, on the hierarchy.
So flooding is when we put the dog in a position
that they are uncomfortable so that they experience
this uncomfort, whatever it is, the discomfort.
But we make sure that they're safe. We make sure
their needs are met. We make sure that they're,
you know, they're understanding that we're there
with them. But we still expose them to whatever
it is that they're scared of. And we expose them
and we expose them and we expose them and we
expose them. Until such time as the brain's finally
like, I'm kind of exhausted of being scared here.
And then a different set of hormones start getting
released. And the dog starts to calm down and
relax. Now, there's a few issues with that. That's
why we really prioritize that last. If you, there
is one train of thought on this that's like,
let's say that you're deathly afraid of spiders.
And the concept of flooding is like putting you
in a room full of spiders. And being like, you're
okay, you're okay, you're okay. You can imagine.
that you're probably not going to believe that
for a good while. Now, if all of those spiders
don't hurt you and they don't get too close to
you, there's probably a good likelihood that
you will eventually calm down. If you don't pass
out first. Right. You might be that calm. Bran,
I would probably not. Yeah, I would pass out
first. She would pass out first. She doesn't
like spiders. So the issue, though, is that you
can push flooding too far too fast real quick.
And because if one of those spiders initially
were to. Jump on Brianna. Right. Or like crawl
in your mouth. Or crawl. Right. Right. Because
you didn't control the variables properly. Yeah.
You can imagine that you're going to you might
escalate. Right. Yeah. I'm not going to go well.
It's probably not going to go the way that you
want it to, which is why even when we're flooding,
even if we're using flooding, because that's
our only option. And there are some dogs. I can
argue about this. There are some dogs that flooding.
Works really well. There are some dogs that flooding
doesn't work very well. And for that is where
you need to really seek out a behaviorist or
somebody who really knows what they're doing
to decide and kind of read into which dog do
I have here? Because I'm not advocating. I'm
not standing here and advocating. You just go
flood your dog with whatever they're not good
at. Because that can go. very poorly and it can
increase your aggression, increase your reactivity,
increase your fear and all of those things. Yeah.
Cause I definitely think like in my experience,
I think it's a little bit more useful in my opinion,
like in the cases I've seen or witnessed for
aggression rather than fear. Yeah. Right. And,
and it comes down to, there are some fears that
where I've seen it used really, really well.
is fears that are coupled to a um something that
is also pleasurable right so uh case in point
a dog with um fear of like human contact right
or contact to like the lower legs or something
like that and a dog that's just they have seized
up so much that They just cannot think through
anything, cannot. And you've exhausted all of
these other options. And then there's this option
of flooding where you can show the dog that,
oh, he didn't hurt me. Oh, actually, that feels
pretty good. Oh, oh, wow, this is actually pretty
nice. And that's how a lot of times you can positively
influence that. There we go. That's down the
rabbit hole on flooding. So in puppies though,
puppies are too young to just flood them. There
are so many other options. There are so many
other highly science backed options to do. Instead,
we just don't recommend flooding for puppies.
Yeah. All right. End each session with success.
No matter what you do, always end. With success.
Don't end with like. Oh man. They didn't listen.
All right. Oh well. Just go back in your crate.
Yep. Right. Even if you got to take a break.
For a little bit. And then come back to it. And
then. Nail that behavior. Nail that whatever
it was. Right. And then. Oh great job. Even if
it's a very low. Easy. Low hanging fruit. Something
easily attainable. Always end with success. Yep.
All right. What. early exposures do you think
make the biggest impact on confidence um i'm
probably gonna go with like handling techniques
i think that's one people really really miss
out on and don't think of and it has nothing
to do with anybody else but you and your dog
really and so handling techniques so that involves
touching paws, touching ears, lifting their lips,
looking at their teeth, grabbing their tail,
touching their underbellies, all of the things
that a vet or a groomer would do. But you should
be doing that with your dog because regardless
of whether you're going to do the grooming or
not, if you get your dog comfortable with situations
of being handled to that degree, then they're
going to be, one, a lot more confident in general
because you've just exposed them to a lot of
just like touch therapy, essentially. And two,
if they do go to a groomer or a vet, they're
going to be a lot more comfortable with either
you doing it with the vet because there are some
vets that are very open to working with you handling
your dog in certain situations. the vet themselves
or the groomer themselves handling them um so
yeah definitely handling uh for me for sure and
second question how do you recognize when a puppy's
overwhelmed what do you look for um pretty much
not taking food and puppies because puppies will
kind of take food through any situation so if
they're not taking food they're definitely going
to be overwhelmed um shaking ears tail for sure
tail is a big one in little puppies yawning yawning
yep that's a big one yeah shaking obviously but
shaking doesn't always it doesn't always get
it give it to me for a dog to like end a session
or show that it's like too much right to be honest
it's just stressed yeah that one um that one
isn't always 100 for me but definitely yeah tail
for sure and not taking food All right. So let's
go to the next one. Confidence starts when puppies
know that someone is guiding them. So where we
go with this is when you are at the front of
the friction of whatever it is that you're going
through and you're going through it with them,
they're going to be significantly calmer because
they're going to be watching you. Because everything
is new to them. They're like, I have no idea
what the heck is going on. But they have you
to look to. When you are a soup sandwich yourself
and you're just walking around aimlessly and
you're in some puppy or dog friendly store and
it's like, I'm going over here, I'm going over
there, I'm going over here, I'm going over there.
The dog doesn't know. What is going on? And something
as simple as, oh, well, I'm just going back the
same way to go look at this other price on this
other item. The dog doesn't know any of that.
When you look like you're lost, they think they're
lost. Just as an example. I know it's not all
about being lost, but the concept is the same.
What your body language says, the puppy is reading.
don't forget that yep so when you act confidently
when you walk up to someone confidently when
you walk out confidently all of those things
are things a puppy is going to pick up on and
it everything that you do the dog wants to look
to you for guidance yeah where dogs stop looking
to you for guidance is when you don't lead When
you don't lead them and you let the dog make
the choice, like, hey, do you want this toy or
do you want this toy? Do you want this food or
do you want this food? And you might just be
wanting to learn about the puppy, so you're giving
them all these choices. But you're giving them
choices, then they're making them, and that's
elevating their decision -making process to go,
right, I have to choose. And that can backfire
because a lot of dogs, they were never genetically
predisposed to making decisions. And we put them
in that position. They were going to be great
pack dogs. But we put them in the position to
be the leader. And they weren't supposed to be
the leader. They didn't want to be the leader.
And you force them into that position to be the
leader because you don't. And then. We get an
anxious, nervous wreck of a dog. And we're like,
oh, what happened? But you let them choose everything.
You let them choose where to sleep. You let them
choose where to sit. You let them choose where
to go during the day. You let them choose what
to eat. You let them choose when to get their
toys out. You let them choose from 20 different
toys in a toy box. You let them choose when to
go out the doggy door. You let them choose when
to chase the squirrels. Those things are things
that we look at as that's freedom and that's
very valuable to me. Humans, and especially Americans,
look at freedom as this very high worth thing.
Dogs don't necessarily always look at freedom
in the same way. Yeah, freedom is valuable. For
sure, freedom is valuable. But a lot of dogs
are totally fine just being led. They're like,
oh, cool, we're not going outside yet? Oh. That's
fine. Right. Well, we're also like in this age
of like gentle parenting, right? Where it's like
our parents were like, sit down, shut up because
I said so. And now it's like, hey, could you
maybe please be a little quieter because I'm
trying to do something important. It's like,
no, no, just sit down, be quiet. So I'm not even
going to go down that road. So puppies look for
structure to feel safe. And when we provide that
structure, when we provide that baseline foundation,
and we communicate to the dog very clearly that
they're either doing it or they're not doing
it, puppies see that as very fair. And it pacifies
their anxiety because they don't have to choose.
So clear marker words and boundaries. are the
next thing that really comes into play to reduce
that anxiety because that's our communication.
We say communication all the time here, but how
do you communicate with your dog? If you use
40 plus words to try to communicate a concept
to your dog, it's over. They're not listening.
They don't understand. You've got like three
words. It's yes, no, and free. We can use those.
Really really successful. I need one that says
keep doing it. I need one that says you're done.
I need one that says wrong one. Choose a different
one. By doing that you could have a conversation
with a human who did not speak any English. But
you could get a point across with those three
Marker words, you could pointy talky your way
through all sorts of things. You really could.
Right. It's like if if they understood. Like.
Yeah, yeah. Keep doing it. Keep going. Keep going.
That's the right thing. Or right. You got it.
You're all done. Or no. Wrong one. Try again.
All right. Last one. Calm, consistent handling
builds trust. So the. Calmness is important.
With puppies, they love to ramp things up. And
when we ramp things up with them, we can actually
become a little scary in the process because
they just don't understand how we're communicating.
They don't know verbal cues yet. They don't know
a lot of these things. And we get wilder and
crazier. A big thing that comes up is when dogs
pee and poop on the carpet or in the house. number
one thing we see is yelling. Yeah. It's like,
no, what are you doing? Right. They might have
got the no, and they certainly picked up on it
with the tone of voice. But all the other words
that you just used, confusing and anxiety ridden.
Yeah. Yeah. All right. So how do we explain to
owners that structure builds confidence without
making them feel like, that structure that we're
talking just limits them, right? Limits them,
limits their dog. A lot of people feel like when
we talk all of this stuff about structure, they're
like, well, I just can't have any fun with my
dog. Right. Well, it comes down to when you have
a structure and a schedule with your kids and
your family, your kids still have freedom time
throughout the day, you know, when there's downtime.
or play time but you still have a schedule to
abide by right so when play time is over and
you have to move on to dinner time play time
is over and you have to move on to dinner time
i think that's what it comes down to is like
yeah you can have freedom and fun but it still
has to have somewhat of a schedule in order for
the dog to feel confident in what's going on
yeah What would you say is like a simple routine
that an owner could use to, I guess, reassure
a nervous puppy without being like, you're okay.
Like without the notorious ones. Like a daily
routine? Well, I guess like in the moment, right?
When a dog gets nervous and you can tell that
they're getting nervous. What would you recommend
that they do instead of trying to like reassure
the dog and be like, yeah, yeah, it's okay. It's
okay. It's okay. I mean, I really pretend like
nothing's happening, right? It depends on, it
depends on what's, what's going on to be honest
with you. So let's say that the dog, you can
tell the dog got really overstimulated, right?
I, I'd say number one, I want to increase the
distance from whatever it is that's overstimulating
them, right? Cause distance is the number one
thing that we can build in that. Immediately
makes something less scary. Yeah. So distance
is number one. And with distance. We also. And
I lost my train of thought. Distance first. Yeah.
Right. All right. Let's just go back to the question.
We can engage in play with the dog. There you
go. You can engage in a training session with
the dog. Get him into some sits. Some downs.
Some like. Basically taking their attention away
from it. They're at the attention. That's where
I was going. Yeah. Right. So with distance, when
we're increasing the distance, we're drawing
their attention away from whatever it is that
is going on. Right. And so that's the thing we
need to practice in the home is we need to practice
engagement. engagement's the number one thing
I encourage all owners to do with their dogs.
Right off the bat, you need engagement from your
puppy because when they're engaged to you, they
can't be reacting to something else. And so instead
of being like, oh, you're okay, you're okay,
you're just redirecting their attention, you're
engaging them, and then you're leading them away.
And by doing that, you're not violating the...
rules of um falling into like the mailman theory
where we are seeing something scary and running
away from it yeah instead right we're stopping
i'm getting the dog's attention i'm getting the
dog to dial into me engaged me then i'm increasing
the distance that's my strategy yeah um all right
and let's knock out number three so small challenges
Build big wins. So our confidence in puppies
grows when they succeed at manageable tasks.
And so we've got to give them tasks that they
can succeed at, but that aren't just, you know,
dirt easy. We don't want it to be cool. Once
the dog knows to sit. Great. That sit no longer
builds their confidence. Yeah. We're going to
change it. Like I want them to jump up on something
and sit up here. I want them to sit on something
that they got a balance on. I want them to, you
know, spin around my legs and then sit. I want
you. I, I, I'm immediately, um, changing the
game up. Yep. So, um, obedience. is a great tool
um maybe i could have like restructured this
whole lesson on how obedience increases a dog's
confidence right because it really does and that's
how we use obedience to build that confidence
we need a foundation of obedience because we
need to be able to give a dog hey i want you
to do this not that yeah instead of just no no
no no no don't do this i want to be like No,
don't do that. Do this. And if I don't have any
obedience, what do I have to tell them to do
instead? Right. So that's why obedience is the
cornerstone or the foundation of this building
confidence. But that's not really what we're
talking about. We're talking about the actual
act of how we affect this. Yeah. All right. So
we're going to use confidence building drills
like climbing low platforms and walking on new
textures. That's a big one. I love the treadmill.
I love the treadmill. It's got a different texture
on the belt that goes right. It's something different
that the dog hasn't felt before. It's we elevated
up. So that's kind of like running up a hill
a little bit. It's. Like it beeps and it goes
and they're running, but they're not going anywhere.
It's a totally different concept for a dog. Yeah.
And it's a great opportunity to build that dog's
confidence. I love teaching climb and off as
the obedience commands and then getting them
to jump on things because I have yet to meet
a dog that didn't like to jump on stuff when
they could. Yeah. When they could. Right. And
so you got to start slow. But even our most fearful
jumpers that did not know where their back legs
were and did not know that they had legs. Yeah.
By the time they left our programs, they were
jumping up in the back of cars and stuff because
that in and of itself can build a ton of confidence.
Yeah. That's literally, here's an obstacle, overcome
it. That is like the epitome of what we're talking
about. Yeah. Obstacle. I jumped over it. Right.
And we'll challenge kids like daily, right, to
do hard things. But we are afraid to challenge
our dogs to do something that we feel like is
too hard for them. Yeah. So food puzzles. Right.
That's an engagement activity. Typically we classify
it as engagement activity, but it still stimulates
the mind and makes them have to overcome an obstacle.
I can't figure out how to get this food out of
this thing. Yeah. But, oh, hey, I did figure
it out. Now I got the food. Oh, this is great.
Confidence. I'm trying to think of. other really
easy, low hanging, uh, things, um, incorporating
those obedience commands with sound. Yeah. Right.
So you teach the dog, those basic obedience things,
sit down, stay, come. And then you start working
them with dogs, barking in the background, babies,
crying, glass breaking, um, car honking. Yeah,
doorbells. Doorbells, right. Like all of these
things are kind of like pretty standard sounds
that usually set dogs off. And you just start
working through them. Yeah. Like it's normal.
Yep. All right. Then we reward the effort, but
we don't require perfection. Right, yeah. Right?
But we reward the effort. We encourage, and then
we keep. pushing the dog while they show resilience.
So that means if the dog's getting real close,
but they're just overwhelmed. Okay, cool. I'm
going to help you. That's where you take over
as the leader and you're like, cool, come with
me. Let's do this together. But that is different
than a dog like, nope, I will not participate.
Yeah. Two different things. So when you can cipher
through there or kind of sift through there,
that's how I would deal with it. When you have
a dog that's like trying hard, almost cool, I
give you a little leniency. The dogs are like,
nope, I will not participate. All right, cool.
Then. There's no treat. There's no reward. I'm
not going to continue that, but I'm going to
then dial down the distraction. Right. Just slightly.
Yeah, just make it easier. Make it just a little
easier, and I'm going to reengage the dog. Yep.
All right. So then we gradually increase the
challenge as the puppy improves. This goes for
every dog. This is the entire dog's life for
sure. Every dog, like there was. There's a couple
of food puzzles that we've used for my Dutch
Shepherd. And he will cruise through some of
those now. And just like he made it. Like he
created that puzzle. He knows it. So that puzzle
no longer has the same value of me setting it
in front of him. I've got to up the challenge.
So I've got to change something. And that can
be all sorts of different things, right? We can,
we can, I like doing, I like doing crazy stuff.
And so where, cool, I'll take that same puzzle.
Now let's do it out on the porch. Let's do that
puzzle out in the cul -de -sac. Let's do that
puzzle out at a brewery. Let's do. like where
the dog has to pay attention to all of these
other things, right? I don't think that that's
too much. I think that that is in line with what
most dogs need to do, which is just see a different
picture of the same thing. It might look like
the same thing to us, but it's a different picture
in the dog's mind. All right, so what's your
favorite drill to build puppy confidence? Mine's
jumping. Yeah, jumping is a really, really good
one. I like jumping up at the back of cars, things
like that. I like doing different things on,
like, different surfaces. That's a really good
one. Like, walking across things and over things
and under things. That's a really good one for
me. Also, like, a classic sitting outside of
somewhere. But, like, not going in. Because that's,
like, the strongest dogs that you see, I think.
The dogs where it's like they have older owners
who just take them to the same place every day
and they just sit outside like it's a park and
like there's nobody there almost. But they just
sit on the bench and like watch people walk by
and then they go home. And it's because that
dog gets exposure to so many different things
that it gets to see and smell and hear. But it's
not interacting with them necessarily. It's just
watching them all go by. So yeah, those are some
of my favorites. And how do you keep the challenges
fair without overwhelming the puppy? I think
increasing in small increments and rewarding
for any kind of progress. Because puppies aren't
the same as dogs that have behavioral issues,
right? It's like sometimes behavioral issues,
you have to treat the dog accordingly depending
on what their behavior is. But with puppies,
it's like they're new and they're learning the
world. Reward that dog for everything good that
it's doing. It doesn't understand what it's doing
when you first try it. So reward any kind of
effort or progress and it's just going to keep
trying. Yeah, definitely. I had written down
that to share like a case where like structured
challenges transformed a timid dog. And I think
we've shared this like three or four times. But
one. I always go back to Gabe because he's the
hardest dog I've ever trained. This dog is just
like a circus animal. But he's the dog that would
just do something wazoo to a weird sound, right?
Or just shake uncontrollably because there was
a trash can within. 12 feet of him um and a lot
of the structure that we built into him was just
we're gonna do this same thing every day yeah
until suddenly he was like oh that that actually
doesn't bother me he's like what just on thursday
like he's like oh i actually don't care about
that yeah like you Okay, you will never do this
before, but now it's just good. And that really
came from consistency and just doing the same
exact things over and over. Right. And it's not
like he's on like an exact schedule, right? But
he definitely thrives on his pattern of go in
my kennel, go outside, run around, go on my place,
go back in my kennel, go outside, run around.
Yeah. Go back on my place. And like he loves
that. Right. And he loves it. He knows it. And
he loves the place or he goes because he's safe
in all of those areas. Right. Right. This is
a dog who had a very, very, very rough past,
a very bad life before he was rescued. And he's
about six years old now. Yeah. And he just. He
just loves his sequence. He loves his pattern.
And I know some people would be like, well, I
want my dog to have more like freedom, but like,
what does he need to do? Right. He doesn't want
to do anything. Right. You take him outside.
You just start shaking. Yeah. Right. But he loves
to run in the yard and he does that. He runs
around. He'll stay out there forever by himself.
And then he's like. There's something scary I've
decided. Can you let me back in? And he comes
back in and he's like, I would like to go in
my kennel. And it's like, cool, okay, go back
in your kennel. And then he comes out and he
goes on his place and then he goes back outside.
And it's this whole pattern. But my man loves
it. He's like, yeah. And this was before a dog
that would just pee out of sheer fear of anyone
coming in or anything going on. But by giving
him those outlets. Right. It's you guys. Everybody
has to understand that it's on the dog's pace.
Right. Like you can't force a dog to like something.
Right. They decide what they like. He doesn't
like to play. And we are huge on like you should
play with your dog. But like he just likes to
scamper around. Right. He loves. And run fast.
And so he loves. Right. He loves to run. He loves
to run fast. And so what we do is I'll play with
one of the other dogs. Right. Because I offer
him these balls. It's not that I'm not doing
this. Right. I offer him all of these things.
The exact same way that we train every other
dog. Yeah. He just doesn't want to engage those.
He wants to be part of the pack. Yeah. He doesn't
want to make decisions. Do I have to go get that?
Do I have to bring it back? He doesn't want to
do any of that. He just wants to be part of the
pack. So he plays with. as a supporting role
to the main character, which is Nala or Dexter.
And they will run until they die. And they will
run and catch balls and frisbees and all of these
things. And you know what Gabe does? He just
runs with them. Yep. Doesn't want to get them.
Nope. Doesn't want to bring it back. Doesn't
want anything. Just wants to run. Yeah. And then
he comes back and he's just the happiest, happiest
dog. And that's fine. Right. He's never picked
up a ball in his life except for once. And it
was like a month ago. And I was like, who are
you? But he never touched another one. Yeah.
He just picked it up for a second. And then he
realized he didn't know what to do with it. So
he's like, I'm going to put it back down. I don't
actually want this. I don't actually want that.
I just saw it, thought I wanted it, thought it
was food. But he's the sweetest boy. He's the
sweetest dog. He loves the pets, loves the affection.
Yeah. And you know what? That is the dog that
he loves being. Yeah, that's the dog he is. And
so we pushed him on some of these limits. And
then we found where it's like, he's like, no,
no, I don't really like that. Yeah. Okay. What's
the upside of me pushing him through that? Right.
Cool. So then he grabs the ball, right? It just
doesn't matter. Right. I've even tried to get
him to like tug on something for a piece of salmon.
And he's like, no, no, just give me the salmon.
Right. But he'll run on a treadmill. He will.
He will run on a treadmill because he loves to
run. That's what he loves. He loves to run. So
anyway, all of this is to say that there. You
have to. I recently started saying this and it
like just it brings more meaning to me every
time. Yeah. And it's like. you have you have
the dog you have you don't have the dog that
other people have yeah so all the dogs on tv
or wherever it is that we have these dogs that
just like follow you around and they're not on
a leash and they never look at another dog or
a person or any of that and there are trainers
out there that will tell you that well you can
train every dog to be anything yeah i don't know
that i fully believe that anymore Yeah. Because
the dog chooses what the dog's going to be. Right.
It's like people. The dog chooses what they want
to do. Right. To a certain degree. And I literally,
I don't like that sentence that I just said.
Right. The dog chooses what to do. Because I
always advocate for you to be the leader and
you to choose what the dog does. Where I draw
the line with that is at no point am I ever talking,
when I'm talking about leadership, I'm not talking
about choosing what the dog should do, whether
they like it or not. Right. That's not what we're
talking about. We're just talking about if they're
going to eat salmon that day or they're going
to eat beef, right? Like, okay, cool. Make the
decision and give them what you've decided. Right.
I think we're also talking about like personality
quirks. Yes. Right. When we get into personality
and how the dog is really going to be. Yeah.
You can't control that. Right. The dog controls
that. Yeah. And there are dog averse dogs. There
are dog selective dogs. And then there are dogs
that love every dog. But you don't necessarily
have. That dog that loves every dog. Yeah. Most
dogs are dog selective. A few dogs love every
dog. Most dogs are dog selective and some dogs
are dog aggressive or just, we just, I just don't
love dogs. You, you have the dog you have. You
don't have the same dog that Joe down the street
has. And so it's really important to remember
that it's a living, breathing being. All right.
So at this point, I am going to open it up for
questions here. I'm going to play my Jeopardy
music until we get sued. Now we're going to because
you said it. No, no. It's technically an off
-brand. of the Jeopardy theme anyway. Well, that
doesn't even make any sense because it sounds
just like it. Right, but it's not like the Jeopardy
theme, so that's how I'm getting around it. If
anybody who is dialed in live has any questions,
now is the time to unmute and ask. I'll give
you about 10 or 15 seconds here. All right, I'm
getting no questions. It makes my life easy.
All right, we're going to dive into our listener
projects. Listener project number one, new surface
drill. So I want you to introduce your puppy
or your dog to three new surfaces this week,
right? We can do gravel, wood, tile. Don't get
crazy with it, with this slippery, like you put
a sheet of glass down and do whatever. Yeah,
don't do that. Let's just do gravel, wood, tile,
maybe a treadmill belt, some slats of some sort,
something that the dog is not used to. And we're
going to encourage exploration. We're going to
mark with yes. We're going to give them a treat.
We're going to give them when. Anything calm
happens. So as the dog relaxes and chills out,
we reward it. Yes, give them a treat. We're going
to reward those small steps towards curiosity
and build that comfort with those interactions.
All right, listener project number two, leadership
walk. So take a short walk in a quiet area. Guide
your puppy or your dog. Confidently pass mild
distractions like, you know, parked cars, people
at a distance. Try to avoid dogs specifically
for this because we're looking for these calm
type mild distractions. Kids playing soccer or
baseball or something where they're all interacting,
but they're not interacting with the dog and
from a distance. Those are great. Down in Surf
City, there's a skate park. That's a great one.
You go to the park and you can literally walk
around this playground. You can walk well around
this playground and that all the kids are playing
on and you can walk past the skate park. There's
a sidewalk pretty, like a pretty good distance
away from the skate park. So you can just kind
of walk back and forth and all this, the skate.
Park people are just doing their thing and they're
not paying attention to the dog, but there's
noises. There's distractions. All right. That's
what we're talking about. Guide. I already talked
about that. Mark calm behavior. Reward after
passing the distractions and reward engagement.
Always reward engagement with your dog. So when
they look at you, give them that engagement.
All right. That is all I got there. One thing
I wanted to say is I had my notes. Thank you.
We were voted first place and the top sale, top
choice awards on the, that just closed this last
month. So we got first place for the, for dog,
for a dog obedience program. So that's the baseline
dog trainer award. And honestly, I was super
blown away because I mean, it's, it's super cool.
I've, you know, we both have been putting in
about 70 hour weeks for the last three or four
weeks. And as, as things have just kind of like
come to a head before the holidays and we've
got lessons and we've got dogs and we got our
dogs and we got kids and we got all of the normal
life things plus other things. you know, job
growth opportunities and things. So we are super,
super blessed. I wanted to put out a personal
thank you to everyone who voted for us. That
really meant a lot. And it was really, really
cool to see super shocking, but super I was stoked.
I was super stoked. So thank you from personally
for me yeah absolutely thank you guys um yeah
it's uh it's been a great uh journey so far and
it was actually unbelievable to uh to win first
place so yeah thanks everybody so um with that
we are gonna close it down here um i appreciate
everybody for tuning in Thank you to our clients
who are live on the line. Even if you didn't
have any questions, that's totally fine. If you
are listening to this afterwards, I would love
it to hear from you. Send me an email. Send me
a text. Go on and leave me a comment on one of
the different podcast hosting services, however
you listen to this later. If you want, leave
us a review and let us know how we're doing.
With that, I will be signing off. Thank you,
guys. Have a good night. Thanks. Good night.
Thank you.