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. Episode 19,
Jumping on People, Why Dogs Do It, and How to
Stop It. Today, before we even get into the episode,
I'm almost out of breath. I was plugging in wires
and moving things around super fast while the
intro was playing. Made it. wild with like record
snowfall which is nothing to most places that
get snow right but i think uh i think we got
like nine or ten inches overall and uh well around
here that never happens yeah and uh All of our
lessons have been moved. All of our clients are
running around. Work schedules and school schedules
are all canceled and reworked. And it has been
a wild turn of events in the last week. So we've
got a couple of people that are able to dial
in tonight. And so to them. Just a reminder,
you can use the meeting chat feature on the Zoom
call, type in a question as we're going, or if
you are dialed in on a phone just through the
Zoom number, we'll open up the question and answer
session at the end, and you can ask your question
then. Quick recap of a couple of different things
here before we get started. This week we start
a new a new series on the podcast which is common
behavior struggles. I said it right that time.
Yeah. But common behavior issues that we find
in the home and in clients houses people that
call us and are like. Please help. I don't know
what to do about this. So today it's going to
be talking about jumping as like the main topic,
but we've kind of covered jumping before and
we're going to branch out into, it's not just
jumping, but it can be, it's pushy dogs, right?
Dogs that are pushy. They don't respect your
space. They don't respect other dog space. They
crowd the door. They crowd the threshold. Just
in general, how do we work with a dog that does
not respect your personal bubble? And what do
we do about it? So we covered what was going
on. With this, I would absolutely love the...
I would absolutely love... comments on if, if
we should cover some, if you're having a specific
behavior issue that we either, I'm going to go
over some of the different things that we've
got scheduled here. And if you've got something
going on, that's not on the schedule, throw it
out there. Let us know, send us, send us a message,
send us an email. You can, you can reach me on
via email at Ryan at TopDogTrainingNC .com. And
I can build a episode about it because we want
to solve things that people are actually dealing
with. Here is a quick list of what is coming
up over the next five or six episodes. So one,
barking. Barking for attention. Counter -surfing
and stealing food. Digging and destructive behavior.
Over excitement at the door. Just general threshold
management. Pulling towards dogs or people on
walks and begging at the table. So. Love those.
Those are the ones that are coming up. But if
you're having a specific issue, reach out. Let
us know. Jen says she got 19 and a half inches
at their house. Jeez. You must have hit that.
That flurry and had the wind going against you
there. Oh, my goodness. Said that Chenoa sank
in the snow. I bet. Checkers was struggling.
Checkers, we put out a couple of videos, but
Checkers was like a little snow plow out there.
Yeah. All right, cool. So let's get started jumping
on people, turning chaos into calm greetings.
But why dogs do it and how to stop it, right?
The jumping in general, it's usually not a dominance
issue, right? It's not usually, it can be, but
it usually isn't that the dog's just like jumping
on people and just being like, ha, get out of
my space. They're not advocating for their space.
Almost always they're, they're taking your space.
Yeah. Right. It's not really a sign of affection
either. It can start that way where the dog initially
learn. They're just trying to get close to you.
Right. But a lot of times it turns into something
different. And and that's what we want to talk
about tonight. I was just in a home recently
where a dog was in this pattern of like barking
and then running away. just as an example, right?
It became so ingrained in the dog that the dog's
not even like paying attention to it anymore.
They're just doing it. And people would be like,
oh, well, you need to counter condition this
and you need to desensitize that and you need
to do this and you need to do that. You know
what I did that would solve the issue immediately?
I just put a leash on the dog. And that dog stopped
barking. Yeah. Because they couldn't run away.
So they couldn't go into that pattern. It's like
taking a record that they play over and over
and over and over old records and you just scratch
it up. Yeah. And then that thing will never play
the same way again. Right. But when you put it
on the record player, press play, it is going
to sound totally different. Right. So just as
an example, this jumping often becomes the same
thing. It starts as one thing. And it quickly
morphs into this pattern that is more just because
of over arousal and a dog just not really knowing
what to do instead, right? Being in the behavioral
vacuum that we're going to talk about. So where
did I leave off here? So jumping is often a reinforced
behavior driven by excitement, habit, Mostly
habit. Yep. Right. And just unclear expectations.
So what do we do about it? So dogs jump oftentimes
because it works. Yeah. Right. They start because
they want to get close to you. They continue
because it worked. Yep. And then after a certain
while, they just keep doing it because, well,
this is how I greet people. Well, this is normal.
It's not even so much about affection anymore.
It's just that, yeah, when people come over,
I hit a 10 out of 10, and then this is what we
do. Yeah. They don't know any better. Right.
So stopping the jumping requires changing the
reinforcement patterns, not just yelling and
pushing and kneeing the dog away, but actually
changing what we reinforce and being mindful
of what we're doing with it. Yeah. So let's talk
about that a little bit. Why dogs jump on people.
So let me put it this way. So jumping overall
is almost always learned. Very, very few dogs
just are wired to jump like on people. It's not
really a normal genetic behavior. Always learned.
almost always right but i mean it's just natural
for a dog also like when they even when they're
like little puppies right they they end up trying
to climb up you Just to get closer. And typically
it's because like right when you go to feed a
puppy or do whatever, you have something in your
hands that's higher up than where they are. And
so naturally they're going to try to get to whatever
it is that you have. Right. And you never have
anything down at a puppy's level that they really
like want or care about unless you get down there
with them. Right. But 90 % of the time you're
standing up and everything you have is typically
in your hands. exactly and so that i'm trying
to like keep this in order so that's the reason
they jump up first yeah the first time right
because they're trying to get closer to you or
they're trying to get something that you have
or they're just really short and and they're
like that's that's how they can like feel closer
to you right right but then we inadvertently
or or on purpose reinforce it. So almost always
I when I do evals I hear well the when we first
got him then when he jumped up it was kind of
cute and like I used to give him hugs or I used
to do this or I used to do that because you're
talking about like this little 10 15 pound puppy.
Now the dog's 80 pounds and you're like, this
has got to stop. Right. Well, we created that.
We created that. So I'm going to really try to
not go down a rabbit hole here. Hold on just
a moment. Okay, so even negative attention. So
we go down this without going down too many zigzags
here. When you decide, initially we decided that
it was acceptable. Or even if you didn't encourage
it, you engaged it. Right, because negative attention
is still attention. That's still attention, right?
that still reinforces it. Right. You still put
your hands down. You still touch the dog. You
still talk to the dog. All of the things that
the dog knows, whether it's bad or good. Exactly.
And so without so much rewarding the dog, when
you so much as look down at the dog and the dog
gets that eye contact from you, that's called
engagement. And that is rewarding to a dog. Now
let's go down another path here and say that
you don't reward it, you scold the dog. Well,
there's a lot of times that that is also attention
for the dog. When they weren't getting attention
before, And they really want that engagement.
And then they do something and suddenly you're
like, no, what are you doing? And you put your
hands down on them. You push them off of you.
You might look at that as, hey, I gave him negative
feedback, so he shouldn't do that so much. That
is not always what the dog perceives. And more
often than not, that. is something that the dog
looks at as, oh, yeah, that got his attention,
or, oh, that started this game, or that started
this, yeah, exactly. And that's the accidentally
rewarded part that we're talking about. Puppies
are often encouraged to jump. I already talked
about that. Sorry, I went out of order. So puppies
are often encouraged to jump when they're small
and that creates a problem as the dog grows.
So high arousal during greetings also overwhelms
the dog in that impulse control scale. And then
when structure is missing, that can increase
this problem too. The structure that we're talking
about is this behavioral vacuum. If the dog doesn't
have something to do, they're going to fill the
void, the vacuum with something. Yep. And a lot
of times it's not what you want. So even though
we're talking about jumping in this case, it
could be applied to any of the other behaviors.
Yeah. When a dog finds. what gets your attention
and gets you to zero in on them, they're more
than likely going to repeat that behavior. So
we can find ways to avoid that by pre or being
proactive before it starts. And that's what we'll
talk about on our like second major point here.
And I try to stay in order here cause I, I have
a tendency to jump forward talking about the
next thing when I wrote these notes out in sequential
order. The next thing, inconsistent rules can
confuse the dog when some people in the household
allow something and others don't. Right. The
big one with that one is if you have kids in
the household or a lot of the times, I'm just
going to say it. When the husband comes home,
a lot of the times it's the husband that is okay
with the dog jumping and the wife is not, typically
because women are smaller, right? And so it's
just a little bit more inconvenient for us. But
that is a lot of the times those big things where
they are kind of teaching it as play, right?
And so the dog then thinks that it's okay all
the time because they don't know. When it is
and when it isn't. And I think kids are a much
bigger issue because. Yeah. Kids are shorter.
Right. And then when they have something of value
and it's usually food. Yeah. Right. Because they're
walking around and they're having their snack
or whatever. And they pull that food in towards
them and the dog doesn't let up and is like pushing
their face into there being super pushy to get
that food. And what do kids like naturally do?
They raise it up. Like they're going to just
naturally, like they're going to keep it away
from the dog. And that immediately turns the
dog into this jumper. It's like, oh, okay, cool.
The game is I got to go higher. And then we get
that reinforcement event. Yeah. That's not everyone's
problem. But oftentimes we see dogs that jump
in households with kids. And that's oftentimes
when you boil it all down. where some of that
reinforcement comes because kids also they usually
have that higher pitch voice and they're also
a lot more animated and so they move quick and
those hands are going all over the place and
those little fingers are all over and it's just
very very fun and engaging for the dog yep physical
corrections last one last point here so physical
corrections Often accidentally increase the excitement
level rather than reducing it. And so we go after
this dog with a collar correction or you try
to slip your finger in the collar and go no.
And a dog that is really like aroused or their
arousal level goes up when you put your hands
on them. They're going to find excitement in
that. Rather than. So watch out for that. I know
we're framing a lot of these issues. We'll give
you some ideas here coming pretty quick. What
do you think most owners misunderstand in this
conversation before we move forward? I think
that most owners misunderstand what they're doing
that is encouraging the process. Right. Yeah.
There is, I don't want to go down that road.
Like, Oh, nevermind. I'd say that was probably,
I think I had like a different phrasing in my
head for it, but mine was like, Yeah, what they're
doing to reinforce the behavior. Because a lot
of the times it's things like bending over and
like getting closer to the dog. We will naturally
do that if a dog goes to jump up, but then the
dog's like headbutting you for one. It learns
to more of jump in your face rather than just
not jump at all. So, yeah, I think that's the
big thing for me is like the language and the
behavior we're giving the dog to reinforce the
jumping rather than discourage it. I'm really
big on like just go like dead silent. Yeah. So
where I was when I was struggling with the wording
here was that I think there's a I think that
behavior. morphs kind of in like phases and that's
what's most confusing to people because they're
like well that's not how it started right i understand
that's not how it started but you have to understand
that your dog is a living being and it is constantly
learning yeah so it's not going to be the same
now that it was right Because they're going to
change and they're going to learn and they're
going to get better or worse or whatever, but
their behavior is going to morph. Yep. And that's
the hardest thing I think for people to understand
in this process because they're like, well, that's,
that's not like, why am I correcting that? That's
not the reason he started jumping. Right. But
he started jumping probably for a different reason
than he's. to jump now. Right. Yep. And that
subject can be applied to any bad behavior around
the house. Because what they're doing now probably
morphed from what they originally were doing.
Yeah. There you go. How does inconsistent reinforcement
keep the jumping alive? It shows them that sometimes
I think for one, it shows the dog that sometimes
it's okay, right? But two, it shows them that,
I guess it's kind of the same thing in a way,
but that there's no, it's not black or white,
right? There's like some gray area. And a dog
is very like black and white. It's like yes or
no. Yeah. It's not like sometimes yes, sometimes
no. Maybe if you're in this room, but not in
that room. Maybe with this person, but not that
person. A dog is like, can I jump? Yes or no.
So last week I went down this rabbit hole on
the science thing about the fastest way to reward
or the most efficient way to reward your dog
and build the most motivation. And I identified
that as. The variable ratio approach where this
is the same concept as a casino and how the slot
machines and how the slot machines get you addicted
to continuing to play. The reason it gets you
addicted is because it's just enough of a reinforcement
ratio. To keep you guessing and want it even
more. That's what happens with an inconsistent
reinforcement situation. If you are reinforcing
it sometimes and you're punishing it others,
you will make the dog drive harder because you're
inconsistent. Because that is the same thing
just flipped on its end as variable ratio rewarding.
Yep. All right. What not to do when addressing
jumping. Man, I wrote this with a lot of negatives
in it. Let's work through it. So many common
responses actually strengthen the behavior that
we're trying to get to stop. We can talk to them.
We can yell. We can touch them. We can use eye
contact. But all of those things reward the dog.
Even pushing the dog off can oftentimes turn
this whole thing into a game. Yep, because then
you're in a wrestling match. Yep. So the number
one, pretty much across all the books, is ignore
the behavior. In the moment. Ignore the behavior
completely. Completely check out. You cannot
reinforce that by any means. And we've talked
about a whole bunch of ways that we accidentally
reinforce it. The next level to this is we prevent
it before it starts. And that we'll cover in
a minute. Along the same lines of things that
aren't going to work is waiting for the dog to
just grow out of it. Yeah, they're not. It's
not going to work. Dogs usually grow into things,
not out of them. Yeah, that's one of my favorite
lines. So punishing a dog without teaching them
an alternative is going to lead to that same
behavioral vacuum that we've talked about. You
are punishing the fact that they're doing something
you don't want them to do, but you've given them
nothing else to do. Yep. And it's not, I don't
want you to jump. It's actually, I want you to
sit or I want you to down or I want you to go
to your place. So correcting. And the last thing
on this is correcting only after the jumping
starts is reactive. And what we're talking about,
what we're suggesting is we need to go preventative.
So now let's talk about that. How do we teach
that politeness when the dog is making greetings
and when they're coming to see you? One, teach
the dog an incompatible behavior. And jump on
you at the same time. Right. Your dog can't place
and jump on you or jump on guests at the same
time. So that's an example of something you want
the dog to do instead. Yeah. What are some others?
I mean, sit down, place. What's some other things
you've seen? walking them over to the guests
and if they're if they jump up walking them away
from the guests so using a leash to kind of remove
them from what they want okay that's a little
more reactive right well yeah i guess preventative
yeah is always like place for me pretty much
yeah um i i think even a heel inside yeah right
it's still a proximity to you and not to the
guest yeah So that can work. Manage the environment.
So what Brianna was talking about, manage the
environment with a leash. Leashes, doors, clear
expectations. When we put a leash on a dog, now
we have accountability. When we use an e -collar
on a dog, now we have accountability. Those things
are only as good as us and our use of them to
communicate to the dog. What to do What we're
not advocating for here Even though it may be
necessary at some point But it's really our last
line of defense is we're not even advocating
for correcting the dog. We're advocating for
preventing The behavior. Yeah You're gonna be
way more successful with that managing and preventing
bad behavior is way more successful than correcting
a dog for it. Right. Because what I'll always
encourage people to do is like early on when
your dog is a puppy, teach your puppy to go to
their place and they should be on place when
guests come over and they should just hang out
on place while guests are there for the first
like good while so that they learn that just
because people come over doesn't mean that they
get to leave their place. And roam around and
get all these pets and get ramped up and excited
because that's just going to build a habit in
the level of excitement every time someone rings
that doorbell. And then you wonder why they rush
the door, why they jump on people. It's because
every time someone exciting comes over and pets
them and gets excited with them and does all
these things. But if your puppy. can learn to
just be ignored in the first few months of its
life it's going to change how the next few months
go for you yeah or the next few years or years
yeah yeah for sure so the way that we reduce
reactivity with dogs is we teach we teach dogs
that other dogs are just scenery we can see dogs
we don't have to meet dogs well The same thing
goes with people. You can teach them that guests
are just scenery. That doesn't mean just because
someone walked through the door doesn't mean
that they get to go see them. Yeah, they do not
have to get pet by strangers. At some point,
the thing that you have to hold yourself back
from is your own guilt, your own sadness that,
oh, well, I really want them to meet these people.
Okay, that's fine. But just know that you're
opening the door to some of these other behaviors
if you have reinforced them previously. Right.
You know what might be great for the people and
your puppy is do it in the last like five minutes
before everybody leaves. Right. And then just
make it like five minutes and then everybody's
gone. Yeah. And then it builds up this excitement
and then the puppy gets to relax because everybody's
leaving. It's not this prolonged like time period
of the puppy just being amped up, amped up, amped
up, amped up. And then also it prevents you from
clashing with your puppy or dog where you let
them kind of free roam, right? Get all this like
excitement going. And then you take them out
of that and put them in a kennel, put them back
on place, do something and remove them from the
fun. And then you're at odds with your dog because
now they're upset that they're not able to like
still be a part of it. They got all of this huge
dopamine dump. Yeah. And then you took it away.
Right. Whereas like they won't feel the same
because the people leave. Right. So it's like,
cool. The last like five, 10 minutes, give your,
give your dog some time to like socialize with
the guests and like then they can pet the dog.
But that will give them the rest of the time
just to like watch the people go by. Or even
if they're in a separate room and they just have
to listen to all the stuff that's like going
on, then it gives them time to process it and
come down from the level of like, Where they're
at when people come over. Yeah. And, and for
when people tell me that, well, but it takes
so much time and effort to get the dog to go
back to their place and keep like reinforcing
this. Well, I just want to point out that jumping
in this case is also a learned activity and you
taught him that. Yeah, it takes way longer to
reverse jump. It takes way longer to reverse,
but you did it, right? So we've got to put in
the work. Right. There's no magic button. Just
be really boring with it and be like, no, please.
And not only that, reward the behavior you want
the same way that you accidentally rewarded the
behavior you didn't want. So we accidentally
rewarded the jumping. when we first initially
taught it to the dog or the dog did it and we
reinforced it by looking at them, engaging them,
rewarding them with our contact, with our attention.
Well, do the same thing, but reward them for
calmness. So when they're on their place bed
and they don't rush your guest for 10 whole seconds,
tell them good job. And go over there and give
them pets or go over there and give them a treat
or go over there, reward them for that calmness.
And then if they get ramped up, immediately remove
that and show them, oh, that's not a successful
strategy. But reward the one that you do want.
Right, and give them a bone to chew on or something
while the guests are there, right? Yeah, make
it a good activity. Yeah, that's what they get
when guests come over. They get a bone on their
place bed. Yeah. And then if they get up with
it, just walk over, pick up the bone, put it
back on their place bed. Because dogs will do
whatever you consistently allow them or reinforce
them to do. Yeah. They're pattern -based creatures.
All right. Practice structured greetings so the
dog gets to rehearse this in a successful environment.
And now you can do that by setting up these greetings,
but you can also do it like Brianna said, wait
until the end and then talk through what you're
going to do. The person comes over, you're dealing
with the dog, you get the dog onto place or into
a crate, and we just ignore, we check out, we
give them a bone, whatever, through all of the
strategies we just talked about. And at the end,
then you talk through it with the guest. Hey,
I'd really love for my dog to meet you. Can we
do it like this? Yeah, because if you try to
do like a calm greeting with your guest right
after the doorbell rings and they come through
that threshold, it's not going to go well ever
because your dog's going to be at like an 11
out of 10 most of the time. And so you're not
going to be able to have a successful calm greeting
if the dog is not already calm. Right. But if
they're down at a 4 or 5 and then you release
them in order to meet the guest, they're going
to jack up to a 7 or an 8. But they're still
not going to be at a 10. And that will assist
you dramatically in maintaining some level of
control in the home. Also, do guest greetings
like with your family members, right? The dog
is going to be excited to like greet mom and
dad like when they come home too. So start practicing
those, right? And you could have somebody go
outside, count to, you know, 30 and come back
in. It can be. you know, a kid, an adult, anybody
in the household and the dog can, you can still
get the dog amped up and excited to see you.
Oh yeah. By using tones and body language and
all these things and then have the person holding
the leash work through that. There should be
unlimited amounts of like guest greetings that
you can kind of do where the dog is not going
to be excited to kind of see someone, you know?
Yeah. The last one I've got here is that you
need to have a conversation with your family
members, especially all the adults, but include
the kids too. And you need consistency. You've
got to be on the same page. You've got to talk
through it and be like, cool, this is the strategy.
These are the steps. You know what I have yet
to see in any dog household? that I go into when
I first get there to do an eval, no one has ever
written out like a plan of this is how we do
these activities. This is how we go outside.
This is how we go through the door. This is how
we, um, this is the process, right? And if I
ask one, like the husband, and then I asked the
wife, almost always there's a little, there's
small little tweaks in the process. Now what
I'm not, I'm not saying that, that everything
about dog training has to ruin the excitement
and the spontaneity of owning a dog. Yeah. I'm
not saying that. But what I am saying is that
the people that struggle the most with behavioral
issues are usually the ones that are the least
consistent across the board. Yep. Almost always.
And not the least consistent in human terms like
how we would grade each other. We're like, oh,
well, that's understandable. You got to look
through it. You got to look at it through your
dog's eyes. Are you consistent? In your dog's
eyes. Yeah. Because that's what matters. It's
just like the motivation thing. It's like, but
does your dog have motivation? Because I just
finished filming an episode for some coursework
that we're working on. And the concept of like,
well, when do I get to stop using treats? Well,
when do I get to stop treating my dog? You mean
when do you not have to motivate them? Right.
You mean when do you not have to pay them? Yeah.
Like what is that? What does that mean? Because
not giving your dog food treats forever. Cool.
Got it. Yep. I'm on board. But you can only fade
those out when you built motivation in other
ways. Yep. If you don't have any engagement with
your dog, you're not going to be able to motivate
your dog to do anything without food or toys.
Maybe love and affection, if that's what your
dog loves. But something, you've got to give
your dog some sort of motivation. And your dog
dictates that. There's no version of this that
you get to dictate what is going to motivate
your dog. It's always on the dog's schedule.
All right. That aside, what, Brianna, what is
your favorite replacement behavior for chronic
jumpers? Place. All day. i do i love place i
get i get asked all the time and it's like we
i just answered this question the other day it's
like well how long is like too long to hang out
on place i'm like never it's like cool like if
you could stay in bed and relax all day would
you because like i would And most of the time,
like our dogs now, you don't tell them to go
to place. And most of the time you look over
and they're like laying on their place bed. Because
what else are they going to do? Lay on the ground?
Because eventually that's what your dog does,
right? They eventually lay down on the ground.
If not, they're pacing and that's anxious behavior.
And that's not good for anyone. But your dog's
going to lay down eventually. And that's what
place is for. That's what dogs do. They're just
going to lay on that instead. And so sometimes
I ask for it, sometimes I don't. But most of
the time, I just naturally am like, okay, place.
And then they never fight me on it unless something
exciting is going on. But that's definitely my
go -to behavior, right? Because you can move
a place bed, you can put it anywhere, you can
have multiples, you can put it across the room,
you can move it inches, centimeters, whatever
you need to. But there's so many options with
place. Yeah. Because place, place doesn't have
to be this exact bed. It can also be a different
space, right? Yeah. You can put down a towel
or a pad or a this or a that. Yeah. What you're
doing with place, it's not about the bed that
they're laying in. It's about you gave them a
position. Yeah. You gave them a job. Yeah. And
so the reason we like our dogs laying on place
and the reason why we pattern it so much that
they also choose their place beds to go lay down
is because they've done it so many times. They're
like, they've built value in their minds in those
spaces. That's where they chew on bones. We don't
let the dogs, because we have four dogs. So we
don't let the dogs just chew on bones willy nilly
throughout the house because otherwise we'll
start competitions over the bones. Right. Right.
They love if something does spook the dogs and
our dogs, they're not perfect. They're not robots.
Right. They get up off of their place beds. Something
happens or they hear a noise and hey, I need
to check this out or whatever at the whatever
happens. One dog leaves their place bed and their
bone is on the place. The other dogs. Oh, yeah.
Will bolt across the room to take that bone.
Why? No reason other than that's what they had.
Yeah. Because they all have the same bones. Oh,
my gosh. A free one. Oh, my goodness. I got to
go get it. I got to get an extra. And then and
then we have to, you know, put them back on their
their respective places or be like, no, no, that
one's not yours. That one's yours. Right. But
it's but those things aside. It's like paying
a human to hang out in bed all day. It's like,
why would you not take that job? I would take
that job. It's like, cool, yeah, just bring me
my food here. This is fine. But to sum up what
I was going for, those bones, because I don't
just give them a bone and be like, go ahead and
go chew on it wherever you want. That is an activity
that they do on their place beds. And that has
started to build value of that space in their
minds so then they go to it automatically because
hey i get good things here i get pets i get attention
on my place we don't send dogs to place and then
never pet them yeah we don't send dogs to place
and then not talk to them we give them attention
when they're on place and when they're not on
place that's when We tune them out. That's when
we ignore them. That's when it's just a transit
from the door to here or they're following me
around. But I'm not engaging them. I'm not giving
them that attention and building that pack drive
when they're not doing something that I want
them to do. That's how you build that value.
Okay. structured practice sessions what's your
advice for before the guests even arrive oh how
do you like kind of said it right um what we
talked about like at the end um the other version
of this right is you go outside before the guest
comes in yeah and you just you just explain it
you do not I really want to advocate for people
to not feel embarrassed by explaining to someone
how hard you've been working at not reinforcing
your dog to either jump or to behave in a crazy
way. So when someone comes over and you stick
your head out the door and you're like, hey,
I've been working real hard on this. I just want
to let you know. This is the best way that I've
found to do this. Can you please just ignore
my dog? I'm going to work with him the best I
can. But he might jump once or twice and then
he'll lose interest and I'll manage it. But can
you just try real hard not to make any eye contact
or reach your hands down when he comes over?
Yeah. That can go a long, long ways in explaining
to them what you're working on. And then... People
are a lot more apt to be like, oh, yeah, no problem.
Yeah. My dog does this or I've seen this or whatever
it is. But you don't need to be embarrassed about
it. Yeah. Because I think most people understand
how hard it is to work through some of those
things. Last one. What do you suggest? How do
you keep or what do you do to keep guests from
sabotaging? I know you could talk through, but
the only thing that I can think of, how do you
keep guests from sabotaging your reinforcement
events here? If you have a guest that just cannot
keep their hands to themselves. right and they're
just going to they just want to pet that dog
right that's the when you identify that guest
that's when your dog's got to go on a leash yeah
either that or i'm like yeah just like or in
a crate i'm like yeah just go in the kennel and
like chat tap out on this one it's it's fine
because when you get it when you get a guest
that just cannot yeah respect those boundaries
for you to work through those things then it's
probably not worth Yeah. And usually that goes
for like kids that are too young to understand
instructions and adults who don't know what boundaries
are. I want to pet that dog. So for those guests,
and if you know that that's a guest, because
I've, I've heard this before. Oh my. You can
call them out. It's usually the sister -in -law.
It's not the brother -in -law. Just saying. It's
like, she just loves dogs so much. When that
happens, right, just go into a management scenario
rather than a corrective scenario. It's going
to damage your relationship with your dog less.
Right, you got to be fair to the dog on that.
Don't expect too much of your dog too soon. Right.
And if the humans can't listen to the rules,
you can't expect the dog to understand and keep
that structure. Yep. All right. The next thing
I've got on the list is listener projects. So
before we go into that, I'm going to open it
up for questions. Jen, I saw your comments there.
Jen says, and there you go. And there you go.
Love it. I'm going to unmute you guys here. I
meant that to Brianna. Oh, to Brianna? Yeah,
when she says, oh, I just tell them to go to
place. Yeah, that's my favorite. It's like, and
there you go. And you'll find Brianna in bed.
Yeah. Well, I personally struggle with trying
to get Chanoa to. Go to place for me. But I am
working on it. My mobility. Is limited. As far
as. Has gotten worse. But like. When we have
somebody come to the house. Especially like if
there's a delivery. Or when the family comes
over. As soon as they come through the door.
Chenoa is like. Halfway up Abel's. And you know
how tall Abel is, Ryan. So it's like she just
is, not that she's attacking, she's just so excited
to see them. Gotcha. And so, you know, we're,
it's not just so much the dog being trained,
it's the humans being trained, as Cliff has always
said. But we are still trying to work with it
on her. Do you? I know she's grown since the
last time that we did something. Does the place
bed that you – 55 pounds. She's 55 pounds now?
Oh, my gosh. Does the place bed that you guys
use, does it move? Can you move it closer to
you? That's what I was going to suggest, yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, I would try to maybe restructure
for a little bit and put the place bed close
to you so that you can have her on a leash and
kind of hold her accountable, but you not have
to be mobile in that. That is a wonderful idea.
Because when Chenoa specifically, right, I would
say when the dog, but in this case it's Chenoa,
when she sees the example that, well, because
of your mobility, right, just calling it what
it is, when you're not going to get up and hold
her accountable, because you can't it only takes
a few times for her to be like yeah right i yeah
i'm not gonna do that and at that point now she
can kind of take control of that interaction
yeah but by moving that place bed closer to you
and then just having her on a on a simple leash
you can simply just be like no no i am gonna
hold you accountable you're gonna go on your
place and By working through that with repetition,
she'll understand that expectation and start
to build that into her, like that's her, I'm
looking for a word and I'm lost. You're just
staring at me over there. I don't know, her home
base? I have no idea what you're trying to say.
Right, so the same concept of how our dogs naturally
go to their, their place bed they we've increased
the value of that place bed that's where they
get treats that's where they get attention that's
where they they get like engagement from us so
as you move that bed closer to you that bed will
have more value to her also right Yeah. Because
like I said, because a lot of times dogs moved
around and that's one of my favorite, like that's
one of my favorite things about it is like you
can put a place bed wherever you want to. Right.
And a lot of times dogs like to be closer to
you. Right. That's what she wants to do. So by
putting it closer to you, you automatically raise
the value of that bed at the beginning. Then
when you tell her and you use those repetitions
and then hold those, hold her accountable to
stay to go there. You will you will find that
you'll improve that situation. Yeah. Yeah. She's
actually gotten like one time a day. She'll come
up in the middle of the day and she wants to
be at the foot of my recliner with my recliner
raised. And she just lays there. And so she just
lays there on the end of the recliner. But I
am going to move the bed over. I'm going to start
doing that tomorrow. Awesome. Moving it over
close to me so that I can have her more accountable.
Yeah, perfect. Awesome. All right. Does anyone
else have a question about anything that we talked
about tonight? Did you hear something? Oh, Cliff?
No, I'm good. Awesome. Mine is laziness and time.
It's still more of the trainer's issue than the
dog's issue. Okay, okay. Well, let us know how
it goes moving the bed closer. I will. I will.
And I can't wait for you. We can get a dry day
so we can bring her so you guys can see her.
Yeah, bring her to group. Yeah. We've been meaning
to, but we keep forgetting. Well, hopefully we'll
see you. Yep. Hopefully the weather will start
cooperating. Yeah. Right. More 19 inches of snow.
All right. Does anybody else have a question
for tonight? Or we will wrap it up with the listener
projects. I'll give you a quick second here.
All right. So listener project number one. Sit
before greetings. So put the dog on a leash before
the greetings ever happen. We talked through
a couple of different ways you can do that. But
even if this is at the end, like what Brianna
was saying, even at the end of the interaction,
ask for a sit before the person approaches. We
remove attention at the moment the dog stands
or jumps. So someone moving towards the dog and
the dog gets all excited and everything starts
to wiggle around and the dog leaves that position
of the sit. You don't have to do anything. That
person just backs up. That's called a negative
punishment where you are. removing something
that the dog wanted and by removing it you decrease
the likelihood that they're going to do it again
negative punishment um so when that person removes
their attention that is the punishment um then
we reward the dog With that attention from that
person or the closeness of that person, only
when four paws stay on the floor. Practice it
daily or practice it every time you have an opportunity.
All right, project number two, place during door
activities. So send the dog to place before we
open the door. I like to train the dog that the
doorbell means go to your place. So instead of
the doorbell being, oh my gosh, someone's at
the door and I've got to crowd the door, it's
the doorbell rings and that's a cue to go to
my place. Reward calm behavior on the bed. So
when they stay there and they're on their bed,
that's when we reward that calm behavior. That's
when we give them good things. And we release
them only once they've settled. Use it. For guests,
deliveries, arrivals, anything like that. All
right. That's all I got for you. All right. So
thank you for tuning in tonight. Thank you, everybody,
that was on the call. Try to stay warm out there.
The next week's topic is going to be on barking.
Barking for attention. And going forward, I...
Really, really would love some comments and things.
We've got 400, I think we're up to like 412 listens
on the podcast. So that is awesome. But I would
love to hear from anybody listening after the
fact. If you've got something specific that you
would like to hear about or something specific
you're dealing with your dog, send me a message,
send me an email. we'll get on it. Um, but that
is all I've got for tonight. So we're going to
start to close it out here. Thank you everybody
for tuning in. I appreciate it. Thank you. And
good night. Good night. Good night. See you guys
later.