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. Welcome, welcome.
Episode 25. Over -excitement at the door. Chaos,
jumping, and loss of control. Tonight, we will
be discussing crazy dogs at the door. Yeah, pretty
common. It is my solemn vow to everyone tonight
that I am going to try my absolute hardest to
not say um too many times. Well, you just said
one. I did. It was a demonstration for demonstration
purposes only. I am working really, really hard
on fixing my speaking voice. And I say that because
I talk in front of people a lot and I've actually
done... There's one. So I've actually done...
I'm trying to think of the right word. Some analysis
on just talking in front of people and how I
speak in front of people. And something that
I've noticed is that I speak very differently
when a microphone is like right in front of my
face. Not only do I speak a little bit differently,
but I speak, when I can hear my voice, When you
can hear yourself, you're looking across at someone
else that's also looking at you. And I feel like
there's so much more pressure there because someone
is looking at you and you can hear your voice.
And if they're not talking, then you should be
talking. And it's a totally different dynamic.
I'm sharing this simply because I guess it's
something that I'm struggling with. So I'm going
to really try hard for you. But also, if I'm
not talking and you're not talking, it is a podcast,
so there would be no one talking. Exactly. And
it would be silent, and then no one would listen.
So I want to talk. Without using filler words.
Exactly. I've seen there's an advertisement for
an app that helps you with that, actually. The
app helps you or does it just record you and
then you listen to it and you hear how bad you
are? You're like, oh my gosh. No, I don't think
so. It helps you to remove the filler words and
trains your brain on how to speak without those
words. Man. But yeah. you have to send me the
link you have to do those videos where it's like
day one without saying um yes day two without
saying um day one without saying exactly that
is precisely where i'm at anyways back to docs
i am gonna try real hard okay the quick i guess
let's let's jump into this because i was gonna
go down the statistic rabbit hole I'm going to
wait for next week for that. Don't switch. Don't
touch any more of those switches. When you did
that, that was crazy. Yeah, that was crazy. Crazy
loud in my ear. I don't know why it did that.
I've never heard it do that. I've never heard
it do that either, but let's not do it again.
Well. I don't know why it did that. Let's see.
Your default speaker. Yeah, something just happened.
I just got a notification on my... You want me
to put it all back how it was? No, I don't want
you to touch it at all. Brianna's over here switching
switches on the wall. Well, it's for the fan.
I get it. It's not for your keyboard. Well, look,
this is barely a professional environment. Right.
Yeah, apparently we have some wiring issues we
need an electrician for. If we don't bring you
episode 26, you'll know that we died in a fire.
Don't say that. He's joking. He's joking. But
we might have to move rooms. I don't know. Okay,
core idea. Let's get back to it. Overexcitement
at the door. We made it almost six whole minutes
of crazy banter here. Right, jibber jabber. Sorry
about that. Really sorry for everybody. Welcome
to the dog podcast. Over excitement at the door
is not a greeting problem. It's not about whether
your dog greet someone or not. Over excitement
at the door is more about impulse control. Where
am I at? It's an impulse control and leadership
problem. Dogs lose control. Because the event
is predictable and it's highly rewarding. So
when a dog sees someone come in, if they've been
conditioned to know that they get to meet them
and they've been conditioned to know that they
get to be crazy and wild and it's the most fun
and exciting thing that they get to do that day.
How do you think they're going to react? Right.
So fixing that over excitement at the door requires
slowing the whole picture down. We've got to
remove the rehearsal. And we've got to teach
calm default behaviors. And that is what tonight
is about. Yeah. Default behaviors. Just because
someone comes over doesn't. Have to mean that
your dog does anything different. Yep. But typically
that's not what we teach them. Yeah. And dogs
are pattern based. So they are going to do whatever
we reinforce, whatever we show them they should
do. Tonight is going to be just a little bit
different than some days here because. For whatever
reason, scheduling didn't work out, and we do
not have anybody live on our call. So we will
cruise through some of this stuff. Right. As
it gets warmer and as sports start up and all
of these other things, people are busier and
busier. Spring break is coming up for some places.
I think spring break already started, actually.
I think it's like the whole month of March. It's
like goes by like states, different states do
it at different times and stuff. Right. We're
in eastern North Carolina and they are not on
spring break yet. Yeah, we've got like two weeks,
I think. But. Okay. Why do dogs lose control
of the door? So one, doorways combine anticipation
with excitement and a lack of structure. Yeah,
my brain immediately goes to like over arousal.
Right. But why? Let's frame it as it is. Then
we'll come back to why it is. So before I get
off track, the door predicts a high value event.
It could be guests coming over. It could be deliveries.
It could be the mailman. The mailman constantly,
every single day, tries to break into this house.
And I am waiting for him. said the dog. Reunions
where favorite people and favorite dogs and people
that the dog knows are coming through the door.
Right, like the owners. Or, yeah, if your dog
isn't in a crate and they're just free roaming
in the house, as soon as you get home, there's
nobody on the other side to tell them what to
do. So, obviously, they're just going to greet
you and be like, oh my gosh, so excited to see
you. Right, they should be. Yeah. Yeah, that's
not even a bad thing. Initially, what creates
a bad thing is when we don't rein that reaction
in and teach them what they can do instead. Repeated
rehearsal teaches the dog that that chaos and
that reaction, it works. It's accepted. And when
something is accepted over and over and over,
then to the dog it becomes expected. Yep. So
jumping, barking, and rushing the door are all
self -reinforcing behaviors. Yeah, those are
all really strong ones for dogs. Typically, when
we get owners that are like, my dog barks and
barks and barks and barks, and I am so tired
of it. The first question is, where does your
dog bark? Almost all the time. It's at the front
door or front window. Yep. Cool. Or the back
one. Or the back one, right? Yeah. Next most
likely. Yeah. But it's usually a door or a window.
Why is it always a door or a window? Why doesn't
it ever go and bark at the dishwasher? Because
it's like TV for dogs. Exactly. Exactly. All
of this excitement that takes place at the door
or window. And that draws the dog's behavior
in. Owner excitement can also amplify that arousal.
Right. And this is where we innocently make the
mistake of early on when the dog rushes the door.
Usually the dog is little. It's usually when
this starts. Because this is a learned behavior.
And when the dog is little, it's exciting. It's
even fun for the owner. Right, and like the dads
are always the ones that come in and start wrestling.
It's always the dads. Yeah, they're like, well,
let's wrestle. The puppy runs across the room.
Also, even if the dog's not little, even if it's
an older rescue, typically... This behavior gets
reinforced during a period of time when the owner
and the dog are new to each other. So I just
rescued a dog and I get home and I'm excited
to see the dog just like the dog is excited to
see me. So dog runs across the room, jumps up
on me, and I'm super elated and excited that
the dog likes me so much i've always wanted a
dog now i have one and the dog's really excited
to see me why would i why am i gonna tell it
to to go away why am i gonna tell it to go to
its place well because one day you're not gonna
want that anymore right and that's when you're
gonna call a dog trainer right because you all
right because you created that yeah you created
that pattern And when the dog learns that pattern,
then the dog continues to repeat that pattern.
And then you're like, no, I'm telling it not
to do that. Right. You're telling it not to do
that, but you've never shown it not to do that.
Right. And dogs don't speak English. So you're
at a disadvantage. Right. Yeah. If you're touching
them, you're doing it. Don't touch them. Yeah,
don't touch them. All right. And then. The last
one for this is fast routines remove impulse
control opportunities. So being in a rush to
come in and get things done or get the dog out
to the bathroom, things like that where you really
need to slow down and focus on the pattern that
you're building with and in that dog. So if you're
always just like, I don't have time. to stop
at the door before we go out the door or I don't
have time for the guests to come in and me work
my dog through place I want to sit down and hang
out with them I'd say your alternate option would
be for that like then then I would best case
scenario put your dog in a crate at that point
at least set them up for success versus immediately
knowing that you're setting them up for failure
right at the get -go yeah one thing I want to
bring up your dog is a body that's built around
a nose initially, right? And then is programmed
around this concept of tracking, attacking, killing
prey. So their prey drive, what we call it, prey
drive, is this sequence of eye movement, tracking,
sniffing, locking on, targeting. attacking yeah
destroying right should i play the science the
science music yeah you can i'm thinking of nala
with that bee last week where she tracked it
and bit it and ate it she ate a bumblebee yeah
during an eval during an eval when we're the
chomp was so deafening We're just sitting there
and these dogs are looking at each other and
we're doing an evaluation on a dog, whether they're
reactive to dogs or not. And Nala, my Malinois,
sitting next to me on a leash, just do, do, do,
do, do, do. And I'm talking and all of a sudden
Nala lunges forward and up like high, jumps like
five feet in the air, chomps. This bumblebee
right out of the air. First try. Immediately
goes, oh, I didn't want that bumblebee in my
mouth. And spits it out. The bumblebee survived.
We moved it off to the side. That was hilarious.
That's immediately what I thought of. Because
I watched her eyes track it for a second. And
she was like, ah. I got it. Got it. I can get
it. You're right. I totally forgot about that.
All right. Sorry. The. This concept though, right?
Dogs are prey driven and most of them were bred
at one point or another in to attack or, or attack
is not hunt, right? Hunt, attack, herd, adjust,
right? Some sort of prey situation. whether they're
tracking them and grabbing them and retrieving
them and all of these different types, right?
At the end of the day, though, this targeting
sequence is something that is ingrained in the
dog's brain. And that targeting sequence is turned
on and exacerbated by movement. Easier it is
for you to increase the arousal of your dog.
Pretty much any dog across the board. What that
means is we can use that to our advantage for
sure by increasing excitement when we want to.
But we can also really mess this up by when we
need that calmness and we need that relaxation.
We move too quickly. excites the dog it arouses
the dog it increases that level that threshold
or that level of arousal for the dog for sure
that explanation can be it can be explained or
demonstrated in the concept of ripping a door
open yeah real fast yeah or with like a sliding
glass door If you have your dog at the back door,
sliding glass door, and you ask the dog for a
sit, and then you launch that door open, what
is the statistical chance that this dog is going
to bolt outside? It's higher. Yeah. For sure
it is higher. It's unlikely you're going to be
able to argue with me on this. Yeah. It's higher
than it is if you slowly open it. Oh, yeah, for
sure. And everyone knows that intrinsically.
They're like, well, okay, I got it. Yeah, it's,
of course, if you move fast, then they're going
to move fast, right? So apply that. Apply that
to all of these other concepts that you have
in the house. When you are having a behavioral
issue, regardless of what it is, when you're
having an issue that you can't seem to solve,
break down what the inciting triggers are. And
then slow it all down and see if you don't get
your dog's attention back a little bit. Yep,
for sure. Okay. Those things aside. Why common
fixes fail. First. Most of our fixes address
symptoms rather than restructuring. Yeah. And
just like. With you know medical treatments we
can put a band -aid on a cut or a bleed but the
band -aid itself doesn't fix it the band -aid
doesn't stop the bleeding right the clotting
stops the bleeding the Body ends up healing that
wound the band -aid didn't do it the band -aid
just covered it up Maybe it kept some infection
out But it doesn't fix it. Yeah so Some of these
things that we're going to talk about now are
like common thoughts that was like, oh, we could
just do this, but that doesn't really, that's
not the, that's not the source of the issue.
Okay. Number one, yelling, yelling louder at
the dog, telling the dog no louder rarely works.
It might work. The first couple of times. And
then that's why people start using it more and
more. But it only works the first couple of times
because it either scares or surprises or breaks
the dog's pattern. Interrupts their thought process
and they go, whoa. And that whoa moment is why
they adjust their behavior just slightly. But
after they figure out that nothing follows that
whoa moment. It's called learned irrelevance.
The dog will no longer respond to that same level
of stimulus. Yeah. All right. Blocking the dog.
Just standing in front of them or putting your
leg out or putting an arm out. This one I see.
I see a lot. Dog goes to bolt after something.
You just kind of like put. Put a foot out or
something. Like this dog can't jump like four
feet in the air. Typically what this ends up
doing is it just turns the whole thing into a
game. The dog's like, ah, oh, cool. It's an obstacle
course and an exciting situation at the door.
Now they just go into parkour mode and they take
off. Yeah, just jump over you. Right. I think
I've heard a few dogs go parkour. Yeah. The important
understanding, the important piece of this is
just that just blocking your dog oftentimes just
turns it into you. It turns you into an obstacle
for the dog to get around. It doesn't actually
prevent the dog from doing anything. And so even
though it might have worked once or twice, eventually
the dogs would be like, if I'm a little faster,
I can get around there. Or if I jump a little
higher or whatever it is. Yeah. And then also
correcting after exploding is too late, which
is a big one that I tell people about like reactivity,
right? It's the same concept. Once a volcano
like explodes and erupts, put the lava back inside.
The magma? Yeah, magma. I don't know when it
turns into lava. Yeah, let's not go down the
science. That could be our science. That's our
science. Yeah, the difference between the two.
But it's the same concept when it comes to correcting
your dog when they've already had the opportunity
to get all the way across the room and jump on
the guest one time. You've already like lost
the little battle that the dog was like involved
in with you. So, yeah, always when you know you're
going to have your dog in that situation and
it's like, cool, they're not in a crate, then
you're going to hold them accountable for something
else. Then you have to make sure that you're
vigilant in watching the dog and working them
through that to make sure that they don't get
one added to the whole. tally list of I won that
one. Right. I'm just picturing the balance like
the back in like the Roman times of this big
scale and every time the dog wins one goes on
there. But typically every time the dog wins
you You'd have to drop like two or three pieces
of kibble. That would be funny. We should get
one of those little balance. It's like a lawyer
thing too, right? They have those little scales
and we can put dog kibble on there. So that's
one for you and one for the dog. Okay. Allowing
greetings before the change in behavior takes
place is the next one. So before you've actually
got the dog calm, you allow them. Yeah. To get
what it is that they were looking for. Yeah.
So the greeting, the actual greeting where the
dog gets to be close to someone or someone reaches
down and pets them or whatever the situation,
when that takes place before the dog actually
exhibits calmness, then you've reinforced the
chaos. Right. And I will say it. If your guest
is not going to stay long enough for your dog
to get to that state of mind, then. Then don't
let him meet. Right. Then it's like, hey, sorry,
maybe next time. Like, I don't know what to tell
you. My dog's working on being calm and they
couldn't like handle it today. Right. But if
your guest stays long enough for your dog to
get to that state of mind, then go for it. But
also don't let that jump right back in. to we
always say an excited dog is not always a happy
dog. It's an overstimulated dog. And so don't
let your dog get to the point where then it turns
right back into jumping and getting in their
face and things like that. If that starts to
happen, you have to reinitiate that calm and
then come back to it again. Right. And then it
goes hand in hand with this, but the inconsistency
completely destroys your clarity. Right. If you
let them jump on you, they're going to jump on
other people. Right. When a dog comes up to you
when you're sitting on the couch and puts its
paws up on your lap and then shoves its face
right up in you and then you wrap your arms around
the dog and love on it and go, oh, I love you
so much. But then the dog jumps up on you while
you're standing and you're like, oh my gosh,
no, get off of me. You're being a human about
this. Yeah. You're not looking at it. You're
not looking at it from the dog's perspective.
So the dog can crawl all over you in this circumstance,
but not in this circumstance. Right. That's not
the way the dog sees it. Nope. Very black and
white. Probably not going to work out for you.
Yeah. They don't see gray. Very good. No. They're
very. The dichromatic vision that gets them.
Ooh. The science. Right. The science. I know
which button. I put the science music on one
of these buttons. You have to get a label maker
for those. Is it this one? This is it. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. It's the science. All right. Dichromatic.
Dichromatic vision. Sweet. Oh, my gosh. All right.
We got to get back on track. So inconsistent
rules destroy the clarity of this process. Yeah.
We have nothing to explain to the dog what is
good and what is bad if we lack clarity. Clarity
is like our biggest tool. And when you get into
like a highly ethical way of training your dog,
clarity is the total package. If you don't have
clarity, you're not going to be fair. You can't
be. It's like putting a blindfold on and then
me, if I put a blindfold on Bree and I told her
to duck and then I just kept swinging my hand.
And every time I said duck, I swung my hand.
But sometimes I just swung. Is that even right?
Swing. Swung. Swung is right? I swung. Holy moly.
This um thing is getting my brain. I had a you
in it and you were like, I refuse. I was like,
can't. Can't say it. Swung. Stop. Okay. I'm so
focused on it. I can't say it. I can't believe
that I tried to say swang. That didn't, I didn't
even sound right as it came out. I was like,
go back, go back. Oh my gosh. You turn on the
highway, go back to exits. So where I was going
with this was if I swing my hand every time that
I say duck, but I say duck first, that's, that's
fair. I'm giving her. It might not be fair, but
the concept is that I'm giving her a opportunity
to avoid the swing. Now, if I sometimes don't
say duck. Yeah. Everyone would go, well, that's
not right. Okay. How is it any different than
the way that people train their dog? They're
like, no, you can't get up here. No, you can't
get up here. No, you can't. Okay. This is fine.
Yeah. Right. Now it's okay. Now it's okay. Yeah.
I keep crying laughing. Yeah. That was so funny
to me. Oh, that whole thing. All right. But yeah,
like I said, it's the clarity, right? It's the
black and white and, and removing the gray, like,
well, maybe, maybe this, maybe that. And, and
just being really transparent with the dog. I
think that's important. Okay. Gotta get over
my laughing spell there. I had the giggles for
a second. How to build calm door behavior. What
do we do about it? Now let's talk through how
and the why behind it. So one, teach a default
behavior like place or sit. That place is my
favorite. In the dog training world, this is
called. Let me see if I get it right. This is
called DRI. Which is. I don't think I even know
what that is. I don't use acronyms. Differential
reinforcement of an incompatible behavior. Where's
the B at? Hold on. Why'd they take a B out? Right.
What am I doing? So. DRI. Differential reinforcement
of incompatible behavior. So you can do DRA,
DRI, DRO. It all ends with behavior. So we don't
talk about the B. Yeah, you just remove that.
That's why I don't like acronyms. Because whenever
they feel like it doesn't make sense, they're
like, don't put the B. desib would be weird so
you've got differential reinforcement of an alternate
behavior which is another behavior in place of
you've got dear differential reinforcement of
other behavior which is give me any behavior
other than the one that you are currently exhibiting.
And then you have DRI, which is differential
reinforcement of incompatible behavior. And that
is highly, highly effective. The incompatible
behavior is place. You cannot physically be on
place and rushing the door at the same time.
That's the concept. We're not going to go into
the science of DRA and DRO, but... This is the
concept. Teach an alternate behavior that is
incompatible with what you don't want. Yeah.
They can't do both of them at the same time.
Then if you want to take it a step further, start
associating the triggers that make the dog do
the initial behavior, i .e. rushing the door.
and apply those triggers to the cue that you
want. In this case, place. So how you do that,
what triggers the dog? Does the doorbell trigger
the dog? Is it knocking on the door? Cool, let's
start with the doorbell. The doorbell goes off,
dog runs to the door, and then gets super excited
because someone is here. Well, that's a learned
behavior. First, we teach them the incompatible
behavior, place. Then we associate that behavior
to the sound of or the trigger to the other behavior
that you don't want. Yep. So now doorbell goes
off and they go, someone's here. I'm going to
my place. Pair what you want and set yourself
up for success. Yeah. And even if it's you coming
home, right, you can still build in that reinforcement
of that. It's like your dog runs to greet you
and jump on you. They have to go to their place
first before they get any of your attention and
then they need to settle down. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
David Premack. There's another science one. The
Premack principle is do this is the concept that.
You can train a dog to do the lower priority
behavior by reinforcing them with the higher
priority behavior. The concept of if you eat
your vegetables, then you can have dessert. Yeah,
that's what I was about to say. In dog training,
we use, Premack is one that we use a lot. And
one of the best. versions of it is sit before
you get to go outside. Yeah. Right. Well, I don't
want to sit. Okay. Then you don't get to go outside.
You don't get to go in the backyard and chase
that squirrel or that lizard or that whatever.
Yeah. Okay. Well, I'll sit. Oh, perfect. There
you go. And now we open the door and they can
go out. That was like that down today in the
lessons. I was like, no, no, no. I'm like, no,
no, we can do this. No, it's usually my favorite.
No, it's not. The next one. Use leashes or tethering
to prevent the rehearsing of the bad behavior.
Whether it's bad or not, the unwanted behavior.
Right, because if you're listening to this, it's
because your dog might do it. And you don't want
them to do that. Otherwise you would skip this
episode. And the concept of tethering is just
putting a leash on your dog on just like a regular
flat collar harness, whatever they wear. Using
an object that's larger or heavier than them
and basically using that as an anchor. And so
a lot of times we will use like we have big kettlebells.
We have and usually we put their place next to
it so they have somewhere to lay down. But that's
kind of like their only option. That's like a
tethered place type of solution. Right. Also
another of my favorite that nobody ever thinks
about, but everybody has is the backside of a
door handle. So tying it to the inside and then
closing the door so that they're not, you know,
obviously like you're not tying it around that,
the same side as they're on and then like ripping
your door handle off because they have the leverage
of the whole door and the hinge. Right. So the
door, so that as they are pull, if they pull,
it's actually closing the door. Yep. That's the
concept. Yeah. So it needs to be an inward opening
door to the side that the dog is on. Yeah. Yeah.
All right. I think I said that backwards. You
did, but I was just going to move on. No, no,
I'm thinking about it. The door needs to open
opposite of the side that the dog is on. Yeah.
That should help clear it up. Yep. And then practicing
opening and closing the door without guests,
right? I all the time will use imaginary friends
and go to the door and open it and be like, hey,
how's it going? What are you doing today? Oh,
cool. And the dog doesn't know. I mean, they
might after you try to invite them in and there's
nobody there and they're like, what is going
on? Right. I also don't know. I pick around the
corner. I'm like, who's here? Yeah, right. No
one. But nobody knows the difference, right?
She gets me all the time. And so for people that
are like, well, I can't work on it. I don't usually
have a lot of people over, things like that.
You have imaginary friends. Create one. Your
dog has no idea. We use fake stuffed dogs for
reactivity sometimes. And it works great. Right.
They have no idea until they're face -to -face
with it for a minute. What is wrong with that
dog? But that's not the point of it. It's to
get the initial reaction, and then they just
don't even notice. Right. But those things can
be worked on. videos on youtube of just like
different doorbells it's doorbell after doorbell
after doorbell like play those videos work your
dog through it you don't necessarily need a guest
but when you do it's like cool somebody has your
neighbor could walk over and ring your doorbell
for you at the very least maybe you give them
five bucks or a soda or something i don't know
yeah but There are concepts that you can work
through without having actual people to just
begin the process before you even make it too
hard for the dog and it's somebody new anyways.
Yeah. I just incorporated another section to
the Pawprint Academy app that is coming out that
has sounds on the timers and you can adjust the
timer and pick sounds. And basically create your
own little like sound playlist. So you can work
through place and these different concepts. And
every so often at whatever interval you set,
it'll play a doorbell or a door knocking or a
dog barking, baby crying. Yeah, all of those
things are so helpful. All right. And then rewarding
calm holding and disengagement from. the guests
or the noises and things like that. When you're
working through these problems, if you don't,
you know, reward your dog through them, you're
not going to get the success that you're looking
for. Right. You can't just require your dog to
work and work and work and work, but for no paycheck.
Yep. You wouldn't go to work without a paycheck.
Nope. At least not for very long. Right. And
neither will your dog. Yeah. Finally, release
the dog to greet guests only when they've exhibited
that calm behavior. Now, where I get the argument
is the people that relate the perceived excitement
of the dog to their happiness. Those are the
ones that argue with me on this because they
go, oh, well, the dog doesn't even want it anymore.
Right. That's the point. Like, hold on. Bring
it in. Come here. That's what we want. Because
you don't want the dog to reinforce this bad
behavior. Well, then don't let him do that. Yeah.
Let them calm down and then they get to do what
they wanted to do. But they'll be at a level
of arousal that's so much less that now they're
like, eh, it's fine. This guest has been over
here for the last 25 minutes. It's not that interesting
anymore. That is the point. That's what we want.
So go for that. Do that. Because that's what's
going to solve your problem. If you have this
issue, that is what solves your problem. So if
you have the dog in a kennel or a crate and they're
whining and crying and trying to get out and
they want to meet this person, they want to meet
this person, eventually they finally lay down
and you go to let them out and they ramp right
up and they're like, oh, finally, they don't
get to come out. If you go back and forth and
you do that, It might take an hour. It might
take two hours the first time. Yeah. But that's
the crazy thing is that the next time it won't
take the same two hours. Yeah. It'll be a little
faster. It might still be an hour and a half.
Right. But that's where you have to just show
that emotional maturity that you are the leader
of this situation, not them. You're not doing
anything bad to the dog. You're not doing anything
mean to the dog. You're holding the dog accountable
to act appropriately for the situation. Yep.
That's all. All right. With that being said,
we don't have any active listeners here tonight
for questions. So we're going to move right to
our listener projects. Number one is our doorway
repetitions without. So leash the dog or put
the dog on place. Open and close the door. Open
and close the door. Reward the calm behavior.
Open and close the door. Reward the calm behavior.
Do it over and over and over. And repeat it each
day for a week. That's the first step. Then...
You can get more advanced. All right, listener
project number two, calm greeting protocol. Dog
starts on a leash or on place. The guest comes
in. The dog does not get to meet the guest yet.
The guest ignores the dog until the dog shows
calm behavior. Now we let that. We let the reward
be for that calmness. That calmness starts, and
then we reward with a release, but a controlled
release. Use your tone of voice. Use your body
language. Use your intonation. All of those things
to good. Break or free. It's not free. Great
job. Oh, good boy. We're not ramping the dog
up. Use the things that you have to communicate
relaxation, calmness. That is going to help you
a lot. Reinforce, reinforce, reinforce what you
want. Don't reinforce. Don't reward what you
don't want. That's the key to dog training. All
right. Anything else to add? No, that was great.
Awesome. All right. Short and sweet. We made
it in under an hour. Yeah. So if you are listening
to this and you have questions, comments, concerns,
or something that you know that you could add
to. bring more value, please let us know. Let
me know what I need to add. That's a better way
of saying it. I'm always, always, always trying
to find ways to bring more value. So if you've
got some of those ideas, please send me an email
at ryan at topdogtrainingnc .com or leave us
a message, leave us a like, leave us a review
on our podcast. With that, I will bid you good
night. Good night.