October 23, 2024 • 20 mins
The Dog Professor, Robb Lust from the Edgefield Animal Care Center, brought an issue he heard about this week, into the studio to discuss and assist if you're experiencing the same problem. How to gain control over your barking puppy. Robb gives you scenerios and solutions to keep you and your pup happy and under control.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
It is time for another Dog Professor podcast with the
dog Professor Rob Luss from the Edgefield Animal Care Center. Hey,
how you doing, my friends? Good? Good? You got to
get out of town do a little duck hunting. That's fun.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Yeah, that was a bucket list check off there for
a little ocean sea duck hunting. So that was that
was pretty cool. Yeah, that's some fun stuff.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Today we're gonna talk about a situation that you had
in your own family where you had kind of a
buckup buttercup, kind of a moment where your.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Daughter may have maybe forgotten a few.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Things that you taught you taught her over the years,
and you want to talk.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
A little bit about that. Yeah, I'm probably gonna be
in trouble because I didn't tell her I was going
to talk about it. But you know, it is. It's
a common thing that a lot of people have problems
with their dogs when they get a puppy, and it's
with new dog owners, you know, it is. Even though
she grew up around it. And by no means I'm
super proud of my kids. They're both fantastic kids and everything,
but and she grew up around the the training aspect
(01:01):
of things, her entire life. It's still people still have
an idea of, well, can we get to this goal
without doing this stuff right? Okay? And this uh and
what I'll do. I'll explain her pup is getting close
to being a year of age, and it's it's something
(01:23):
that it's a Cheweini. Yeah, it's a it's a Chihuahua
and a docs and mix, and both of those dogs
are little dogs, and and both of those breeds tend
to be biters because of the way they're raised. And
we're getting into a natural time in this dog's maturity
(01:44):
where her call was Dad, that you know, we're going out,
and and and and she acts like she's afraid of things,
starts barking at people, starts barking at kids, start barking
at baby, so forth, and so on. They walk around
Alicia in a harness, and it's it's something that we're
concerned about. So the first step she did correctly is
(02:04):
she is concerned about it. Other people would not be
concerned about it. But this is a common thing that
occurs a lot of times, even for dogs that you
feel are well socialized as a puppy in their first
four or five, six, seven, months of age. When a
dog gets close to maturing at close to a year
of age, all dogs go through this time period, during
(02:28):
this time of gaining what's called a level of suspicion. Okay,
everything in the dog's brain and genetics at that point
in time are really really kind of coming to a head.
If you want to call it puberty or whatever, it's
the same. It's teenage years and dogs basically where the
dog is trying to decide where do I fit in
(02:51):
within my pack? Okay? Do I see a strong hierarchy
of leadership in my pack? Or am I in that
position of leadership in the pack? If I am, maybe
I'm not so confident to take that role right now.
And this is kind of what I see in her
pup a little bit. Okay. When they first got her,
(03:14):
she was shy about things, you know, and she did
her best to control things by avoiding things, okay, rather
than get having to get out and deal with them
and stuff. And she kind of came to my house
for a few weeks, and at my house she learned
real quick. She had to live with three other dogs,
large dogs, two cats, certain regimen where she was used
(03:39):
to basically living with a cat in her house, and
she kind of comes out of her shell in cases
like that and is pretty well socialized about things. But
then what happens is they get into other situations where
they're just not sure, you know, am I in charge
or are you in charge? Who's in charge of things?
(03:59):
And and it's crucial for owners to understand that there
cannot be any question as to what the hierarchy is
in the house. And while when I talk about this stuff,
because I have a lack of a way of saying
it sweetly and flowery, it is what it is, Okay.
(04:23):
There can't be any question as to that. Because when
your dog's instinct at this age starts kicking around in
their brain. Look when we go out and there's these crazy,
loud little people running all around, or there's another dog
walking by over there on a leash or whatever. I
(04:45):
need to know that if something negative happens in this situation,
that you're going to handle it as the member of
my pack, meaning you at the end of the leash,
whoever that is. And if the dog doesn't feel that
vibe from you that you have things totally under control,
then they feel they have to handle it. And if
(05:06):
they don't have the self confidence to handle it or
the ability to go away and just avoid it, which
is what meshow is the dog's name, which was her
ability to do before was just to go and avoidant.
Now she has to give up that power and control
and have confidence in you as that leadership that you're
(05:27):
going to handle things right. Okay, well, how do we
portray that as a leader we have that under control
to the dog? Well, you make sure the dog's under control,
all right. The greatest confidence builder in dogs like her
that want to it's you know, want to bark their
way out of things. You know, they bark at a
distance because they know they have protection. They have protection
(05:51):
because number one, harnesses make you feel like you're being held. Okay,
so they make you feel like they have backup. The
dog does, but they also at all the harness also
allows the dog to maintain eye contact on the thing
that makes them nervous, which actually is just like turning
up the volume dial on the actual behavior problem, which
(06:12):
in this case is the barking and everything else. So
dog feels confident that if something really was to blow up,
that you're going to jump in and save them. Okay,
But it's fun for them to try to build that
confidence by barking at the stuff that's going by that
they're not sure of. Okay, And normally, nine times out
of ten, most people's instinctive reaction to this situation is
(06:36):
to verbally talk the dog down, okay, verbally tell them no,
or make the mistake of touching the dog to try
to assure it that everything's okay, when in case, you're
when you touch the dog, you're turning the volume into
the situation up again. Okay. What has to happen here
is the dog has to learn that, look, if you're
going to bark at situations, okay, and that's situation turns
(07:01):
for the worst, now you're going to be responsible for
dealing with it. And I know that's a little bit
opposite of what I just talked about, but they have
to have that confidence that, look, you're if you're gonna
pick a fight, you might be in the fight and
you might have to do so do you really want
to pick that fight? Okay? So basically they have to
know one thing. One you are not their backup. You
(07:24):
are there to show them how are they how they
are responsible for acting in that situation. It goes back
to the old You don't take a toddler to the
store and let them run through the store and hope
that nothing happens. Okay, you don't sit there and go, well,
I hope she quits barking, or well, I hope she
gets more comfortable with that situation or whatever we teach her. Look,
(07:44):
this is how it's going to go. And the greatest,
the greatest way to do that in those situations, make
sure your dog knows a sit in a stay, all right,
A sit stay forces your dog to do one couple things. One,
they're barking at something going by. If they're at the
end of the leash and they're jumping back and forth
(08:07):
and they're looking at you, and you just keep telling
them no, keep telling them no, keep telling them no.
Now you're barking along with the dog, which basically adds
confidence to the dog, making them think they're some sort
of tough guy. And at the thing that they're barking
at is going away, so that adds to the whole thing.
So that problem will never get solved ever. Ever. Okay,
it's as embarrassing for most people. Number One, the dog
(08:30):
is barking. Number Two, what's more embarrassing for most people
is the need to now correct their dog in public. Okay,
So a lot of people don't do it, so they
just kind of scoop the dog up and take them
out of the situation. Which is why docs In's chihuahuas,
all these little tiny breeds are notorious biers because they
get scooped up. They never have to deal with the
(08:52):
situation on their own. What she needs to deal with is, okay, fine,
you want to bark, Fine, I'm going to one. I'm
gonna redirect your brain to a different project right now.
Your project is I don't care if you're worried about
that other dog. I don't care if you're afraid of
that other dog. I don't care if you think you're
a tough guy with that other dog or the kids
or whatever. Your job is to do what I tell
(09:14):
you to do in this situation. And I am and
again the no flowery speech here. The biggest dog your
dog needs to worry about in all situations has to
be you, okay, and how you're going to act? All right,
I don't want to get bet by the alpha, so
I'm gonna do what the alpha wants me. To do
regardless of what all these other things are happening outside
(09:36):
of our pack, right, if that makes sense. So you
have to be that alpha. If you're wishy washy about
who the alpha is, that leaves that door open for
the dog to behave that way and you're not going
to treat Okay. You can have dogs that are very
food driven that work fine in non stressful situations for
(09:59):
a piece of food, Okay, Those same dogs in a
stressful situation don't care about food anymore. They care about
if that dog going to eat me, I need to
run whatever. Okay. So the only way to build that
dog's confidence, it's not trying to treat them into the situation,
is to let them know you have things handled in
a calm, confident, and fair way. So, long story short,
(10:22):
we need to use leasi and collar in this situation. Okay.
A lot of people want to avoid it as much
as they can, but a harness just builds that type
of barking behavior like you would not believe. We need
to redirect eye contact and attention, even if it's for
a split second, back to us off of the target,
and the only way to do that a lot of
times is a startle correction okay, And with little dogs,
(10:46):
it's just a quick little tug on the leash and
a sharp no. Not a bunch of nose, not high
volume nose. Don't add to the stress and the volume
of the situation. But you have to be able to
redirect eyeballs back onto you for a split second. So
now you give it a sharp no, sharp little pool
on the lead. Dog turns around, says what was that,
looks back at you, stops barking for a second. Then
(11:08):
you tell them you praise them good quiet, or give
them something to do, give them a command. Okay, My
command in that situation is quiet. And then I redirect
into a new project, which becomes the sit command. All right,
no sit, So the dog sits all right. Of course
the dog is still focused on the on the other
(11:28):
dog or the kid or whatever, and starts barking again.
Right the next time, I hear a peep. No quiet okay,
So the dog could be sitting, and now they got
to focus on staying seated. Okay. So it's not an
excuse because there they want to go bark at that thing,
or they want to jump up. Now you have to
stay seated, and I mean seated, not on your foot,
(11:52):
not leaning against you, not touching anything, but seated a
foot away from you at the end of the leash.
And that's where they have to stay, all right. So
now your dog's like, wait a minute, what, you're not
gonna pick me up. You're not gonna bark along with me.
You're not gonna tell me no and touch me and
pat me and try to tell me everything's okay? What's
going on? So now their brain starts to rewire a
(12:13):
little bit. Well, maybe that kid's not so bad, okay,
maybe that other dog's not such a threat. Okay. Plus
mom's really getting on me here about some things, and
I'd really rather not be on mom's bad side, so
maybe I'll just do what mom wants me to do.
So while this is going on in your dog's brain,
(12:35):
a couple things are happening. One, you're asserting your confidence
that the situation is in control onto the dog, so
the dog starts to build confidence about the situation. You
can tell a dog all day that it's okay, you
don't need to be afraid. That doesn't mean squat to
a dog verbally unless they get that vibe from you. Okay,
(12:57):
And if you're over there just praying that the dog
stops barking, and you're nervous about people looking at you,
that vibe is what your dog is getting also, okay,
So then your dog thinks you're nervous about the target
that they're barking at, which increases the volume and the
severity of the situation. All right, So you do have
(13:18):
to tune out the surroundings. You do have to tune
out your thoughts about what other people are going to
think about what you're doing at this moment, because right
now their attention is on your dog barking, okay, And
there's going to be people that go, well, my dog
never acts like that, and blah blah blah, Well that's
not your dog. Yeah, okay. If you want to keep
(13:38):
that dog, you want to keep that dog from building
into a biting situation where you have to get rid
of that dog. You have to get serious at this moment,
and you have to decide what's more important keeping your
dog in your family and teaching them that this behavior
is unacceptable regardless of what the Karen thinks about over here,
(14:00):
or are you going to worry more about what it
looks like around you and then just scoop the dog
up and go home and never solve the issue, only
postpone it until the next time. So this is a
buck up buttercup moment, all right, And it's become easier
and easier for me. But I understand that it's not
(14:24):
easy for people to do right, Okay, it's just.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Not so when you have that situation with your dogs,
your own dogs, and you're emotionally attached to those dogs.
I mean, do sometimes you have to fight the emotion
to do the right thing sometimes? Or have you programmed
yourself that we just do the right things, because sometimes
(14:47):
I think, like in your daughter's situation, there's got to
be some emotion there because it's her.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Dog, right right, there's all you know. And granted, I
look and visualize things everything through the eyes of a trainer, okay,
And part of that is my curse because I can
see in the future with training basically, all right, So
that tends to kind of clear up my gray zones.
(15:14):
But I also have dealt with clients enough over the
thirty years to understand your emotional attachment to the situation, okay.
And I've also been a parent, and I understand my
emotional attachment to the situation. But I also have to
tell myself at the end of the day, somebody's got
(15:35):
to do this, okay, for the better. I feel full,
wholeheartedly that this is going to make the situation better. Okay.
And when you in training, if you feel wholeheartedly about
regardless of the action you have to do, if you
wholeheartedly think it's going to make the situation better, about
(15:56):
ninety percent of the time it does, because that's the
vibe you're giving off to the dog, right, okay, if
you have doubt, and part of it as a trainer,
part of my job was not just to go, well,
do this when this happens, and this and this. My
job was to eliminate doubt in your eyes that we
were doing the right thing, because then once you got
rid of that doubt, then you were more willing to
(16:19):
do the right thing. But just like in the world
we live in, if people don't see it for themselves,
they are always going to have that doubt that what
you're talking about is the correct thing, right Okay. You know,
for years people are like, well, you're magical, because as
soon as you pick up the least she starts listening.
To you and doing this, and I go, yeah, because
I don't live with her. Okay, dogs observe your weak
(16:40):
points all day long. Okay. In fact, if by me
observing your dog interacting with you, your dog is telling
me where your weak spots are nine times out of
ten throughout the rest of your life with that dog.
Because they will do this behavior because they know this
behavior is coming from you, or this behavior has gotten
(17:01):
them out of doing things before. And when I see
the dog act that way, I know exactly where your
weak spot is. So then I have to I have
to build up your weak spot and getting people to
understand that, you know, using a leash correction or any
type of correction or even a harsh no in cases
(17:21):
is not going to psychologically scar your dog for life. Okay,
I have to remind people watch a dog grow up
with their siblings as a puppy, all right, when mom
mom loves them, she wants to keep them safe, but
she understands to keep them safe, we have to make
sure they don't do dumb stuff, just like a parent. Yeah,
(17:42):
and sometimes that requires being tough. It's harder on the
parent than it is on the on the child or
the puppy, but it's important that you have to do it. Okay,
you have to deal with that at that moment. So
in the case with dogs, they don't get second chances
like that. I would rather deal with people looking at
me weirdly because I'm making my dog listen in public,
(18:05):
then having to deal with a parent after my dog
bit a child. Right, Okay, that is a way worse
situation to deal with. So you have to pick the
lesser of, in your mind, of two evils in this case,
and in this case a lot of times, if you're
consistent with it, the dog realizes what's going on, You've
got it. You solve the problem very quickly. Yeah, okay,
(18:29):
but this as dogs get close to that year of age,
it is a crucial time. It is those teenage years
in dog years, and if you kind of just try
to not deal with it and hope that it gets better,
ninety nine percent of the time it does not get
better with dogs, and then you have problems down the
road which you can't get away from, and pretty soon
(18:52):
you've got real drastic things you got to decide with
your dog.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Have you ever seen that one percent where where where
we're ignoring it work.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
No, you've just heard that maybe, so I say ninety
nine because you know, I'm not one hundred percent about anything,
but but.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
You know, no, I get it. And if you're looking
for tough love, you know, buck them up. Buttercup kind
of training, that's what you're going to get at the
Edgefield Animal Care Center. And you guys have you've done
it forever. So talk a little bit about that and
how people can reach out.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Well, dog behavior is tough by by design, by nature,
that's what it is. So we're a lot softer than
dog behavior, a lot softer than when a mother with
her pups or anything like that. But we do. We
do teach you the easiest way, and that what your
dog is looking for from you, So it's easy for
them to understand what behaviors are acceptable to you, what
(19:44):
behaviors are not acceptable to you. Confusion is is a
killer in the dog training world. So we try to
make everybody consistent understanding as far as and passionate and fair,
and that's that's how dogs are and that's how we
try to teach people. Also, we've been doing it for
over I've been doing it for over thirty years. We
(20:05):
have very experienced people doing that type of training. Easiest
way if you're interested in finding out more about this
stuff like this is push a butt pushed a button
in your brain like, yes, that situation's going on. I
need to get this under control and see this happen.
You find out all our information about Edgefield Animal Care Center,
our training, our veterinary hospital, our boarding and grooming, all
(20:26):
of that stuff. Go to our website Edgefieldanimalcare dot com.
You can get all that information Edgefieldanimalcare dot com.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Yep, and you'll find the Dog Professor podcast there, and
you'll also find it on the free iHeart app. Go
find it. When you do find the Dog Professor podcast,
depending on where you're catching it or listening to it. Now,
hit subscribe and then your setup. You're going to get
a notification every time we post a new one.
It is time for another Dog Professor podcast with the
dog Professor Rob Luss from the Edgefield Animal Care Center. Hey,
how you doing, my friends? Good? Good? You got to
get out of town do a little duck hunting. That's fun.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Yeah, that was a bucket list check off there for
a little ocean sea duck hunting. So that was that
was pretty cool. Yeah, that's some fun stuff.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Today we're gonna talk about a situation that you had
in your own family where you had kind of a
buckup buttercup, kind of a moment where your.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Daughter may have maybe forgotten a few.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Things that you taught you taught her over the years,
and you want to talk.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
A little bit about that. Yeah, I'm probably gonna be
in trouble because I didn't tell her I was going
to talk about it. But you know, it is. It's
a common thing that a lot of people have problems
with their dogs when they get a puppy, and it's
with new dog owners, you know, it is. Even though
she grew up around it. And by no means I'm
super proud of my kids. They're both fantastic kids and everything,
but and she grew up around the the training aspect
(01:01):
of things, her entire life. It's still people still have
an idea of, well, can we get to this goal
without doing this stuff right? Okay? And this uh and
what I'll do. I'll explain her pup is getting close
to being a year of age, and it's it's something
(01:23):
that it's a Cheweini. Yeah, it's a it's a Chihuahua
and a docs and mix, and both of those dogs
are little dogs, and and both of those breeds tend
to be biters because of the way they're raised. And
we're getting into a natural time in this dog's maturity
(01:44):
where her call was Dad, that you know, we're going out,
and and and and she acts like she's afraid of things,
starts barking at people, starts barking at kids, start barking
at baby, so forth, and so on. They walk around
Alicia in a harness, and it's it's something that we're
concerned about. So the first step she did correctly is
(02:04):
she is concerned about it. Other people would not be
concerned about it. But this is a common thing that
occurs a lot of times, even for dogs that you
feel are well socialized as a puppy in their first
four or five, six, seven, months of age. When a
dog gets close to maturing at close to a year
of age, all dogs go through this time period, during
(02:28):
this time of gaining what's called a level of suspicion. Okay,
everything in the dog's brain and genetics at that point
in time are really really kind of coming to a head.
If you want to call it puberty or whatever, it's
the same. It's teenage years and dogs basically where the
dog is trying to decide where do I fit in
(02:51):
within my pack? Okay? Do I see a strong hierarchy
of leadership in my pack? Or am I in that
position of leadership in the pack? If I am, maybe
I'm not so confident to take that role right now.
And this is kind of what I see in her
pup a little bit. Okay. When they first got her,
(03:14):
she was shy about things, you know, and she did
her best to control things by avoiding things, okay, rather
than get having to get out and deal with them
and stuff. And she kind of came to my house
for a few weeks, and at my house she learned
real quick. She had to live with three other dogs,
large dogs, two cats, certain regimen where she was used
(03:39):
to basically living with a cat in her house, and
she kind of comes out of her shell in cases
like that and is pretty well socialized about things. But
then what happens is they get into other situations where
they're just not sure, you know, am I in charge
or are you in charge? Who's in charge of things?
(03:59):
And and it's crucial for owners to understand that there
cannot be any question as to what the hierarchy is
in the house. And while when I talk about this stuff,
because I have a lack of a way of saying
it sweetly and flowery, it is what it is, Okay.
(04:23):
There can't be any question as to that. Because when
your dog's instinct at this age starts kicking around in
their brain. Look when we go out and there's these crazy,
loud little people running all around, or there's another dog
walking by over there on a leash or whatever. I
(04:45):
need to know that if something negative happens in this situation,
that you're going to handle it as the member of
my pack, meaning you at the end of the leash,
whoever that is. And if the dog doesn't feel that
vibe from you that you have things totally under control,
then they feel they have to handle it. And if
(05:06):
they don't have the self confidence to handle it or
the ability to go away and just avoid it, which
is what meshow is the dog's name, which was her
ability to do before was just to go and avoidant.
Now she has to give up that power and control
and have confidence in you as that leadership that you're
(05:27):
going to handle things right. Okay, well, how do we
portray that as a leader we have that under control
to the dog? Well, you make sure the dog's under control,
all right. The greatest confidence builder in dogs like her
that want to it's you know, want to bark their
way out of things. You know, they bark at a
distance because they know they have protection. They have protection
(05:51):
because number one, harnesses make you feel like you're being held. Okay,
so they make you feel like they have backup. The
dog does, but they also at all the harness also
allows the dog to maintain eye contact on the thing
that makes them nervous, which actually is just like turning
up the volume dial on the actual behavior problem, which
(06:12):
in this case is the barking and everything else. So
dog feels confident that if something really was to blow up,
that you're going to jump in and save them. Okay,
But it's fun for them to try to build that
confidence by barking at the stuff that's going by that
they're not sure of. Okay, And normally, nine times out
of ten, most people's instinctive reaction to this situation is
(06:36):
to verbally talk the dog down, okay, verbally tell them no,
or make the mistake of touching the dog to try
to assure it that everything's okay, when in case, you're
when you touch the dog, you're turning the volume into
the situation up again. Okay. What has to happen here
is the dog has to learn that, look, if you're
going to bark at situations, okay, and that's situation turns
(07:01):
for the worst, now you're going to be responsible for
dealing with it. And I know that's a little bit
opposite of what I just talked about, but they have
to have that confidence that, look, you're if you're gonna
pick a fight, you might be in the fight and
you might have to do so do you really want
to pick that fight? Okay? So basically they have to
know one thing. One you are not their backup. You
(07:24):
are there to show them how are they how they
are responsible for acting in that situation. It goes back
to the old You don't take a toddler to the
store and let them run through the store and hope
that nothing happens. Okay, you don't sit there and go, well,
I hope she quits barking, or well, I hope she
gets more comfortable with that situation or whatever we teach her. Look,
(07:44):
this is how it's going to go. And the greatest,
the greatest way to do that in those situations, make
sure your dog knows a sit in a stay, all right,
A sit stay forces your dog to do one couple things. One,
they're barking at something going by. If they're at the
end of the leash and they're jumping back and forth
(08:07):
and they're looking at you, and you just keep telling
them no, keep telling them no, keep telling them no.
Now you're barking along with the dog, which basically adds
confidence to the dog, making them think they're some sort
of tough guy. And at the thing that they're barking
at is going away, so that adds to the whole thing.
So that problem will never get solved ever. Ever. Okay,
it's as embarrassing for most people. Number One, the dog
(08:30):
is barking. Number Two, what's more embarrassing for most people
is the need to now correct their dog in public. Okay,
So a lot of people don't do it, so they
just kind of scoop the dog up and take them
out of the situation. Which is why docs In's chihuahuas,
all these little tiny breeds are notorious biers because they
get scooped up. They never have to deal with the
(08:52):
situation on their own. What she needs to deal with is, okay, fine,
you want to bark, Fine, I'm going to one. I'm
gonna redirect your brain to a different project right now.
Your project is I don't care if you're worried about
that other dog. I don't care if you're afraid of
that other dog. I don't care if you think you're
a tough guy with that other dog or the kids
or whatever. Your job is to do what I tell
(09:14):
you to do in this situation. And I am and
again the no flowery speech here. The biggest dog your
dog needs to worry about in all situations has to
be you, okay, and how you're going to act? All right,
I don't want to get bet by the alpha, so
I'm gonna do what the alpha wants me. To do
regardless of what all these other things are happening outside
(09:36):
of our pack, right, if that makes sense. So you
have to be that alpha. If you're wishy washy about
who the alpha is, that leaves that door open for
the dog to behave that way and you're not going
to treat Okay. You can have dogs that are very
food driven that work fine in non stressful situations for
(09:59):
a piece of food, Okay, Those same dogs in a
stressful situation don't care about food anymore. They care about
if that dog going to eat me, I need to
run whatever. Okay. So the only way to build that
dog's confidence, it's not trying to treat them into the situation,
is to let them know you have things handled in
a calm, confident, and fair way. So, long story short,
(10:22):
we need to use leasi and collar in this situation. Okay.
A lot of people want to avoid it as much
as they can, but a harness just builds that type
of barking behavior like you would not believe. We need
to redirect eye contact and attention, even if it's for
a split second, back to us off of the target,
and the only way to do that a lot of
times is a startle correction okay, And with little dogs,
(10:46):
it's just a quick little tug on the leash and
a sharp no. Not a bunch of nose, not high
volume nose. Don't add to the stress and the volume
of the situation. But you have to be able to
redirect eyeballs back onto you for a split second. So
now you give it a sharp no, sharp little pool
on the lead. Dog turns around, says what was that,
looks back at you, stops barking for a second. Then
(11:08):
you tell them you praise them good quiet, or give
them something to do, give them a command. Okay, My
command in that situation is quiet. And then I redirect
into a new project, which becomes the sit command. All right,
no sit, So the dog sits all right. Of course
the dog is still focused on the on the other
(11:28):
dog or the kid or whatever, and starts barking again.
Right the next time, I hear a peep. No quiet okay,
So the dog could be sitting, and now they got
to focus on staying seated. Okay. So it's not an
excuse because there they want to go bark at that thing,
or they want to jump up. Now you have to
stay seated, and I mean seated, not on your foot,
(11:52):
not leaning against you, not touching anything, but seated a
foot away from you at the end of the leash.
And that's where they have to stay, all right. So
now your dog's like, wait a minute, what, you're not
gonna pick me up. You're not gonna bark along with me.
You're not gonna tell me no and touch me and
pat me and try to tell me everything's okay? What's
going on? So now their brain starts to rewire a
(12:13):
little bit. Well, maybe that kid's not so bad, okay,
maybe that other dog's not such a threat. Okay. Plus
mom's really getting on me here about some things, and
I'd really rather not be on mom's bad side, so
maybe I'll just do what mom wants me to do.
So while this is going on in your dog's brain,
(12:35):
a couple things are happening. One, you're asserting your confidence
that the situation is in control onto the dog, so
the dog starts to build confidence about the situation. You
can tell a dog all day that it's okay, you
don't need to be afraid. That doesn't mean squat to
a dog verbally unless they get that vibe from you. Okay,
(12:57):
And if you're over there just praying that the dog
stops barking, and you're nervous about people looking at you,
that vibe is what your dog is getting also, okay,
So then your dog thinks you're nervous about the target
that they're barking at, which increases the volume and the
severity of the situation. All right, So you do have
(13:18):
to tune out the surroundings. You do have to tune
out your thoughts about what other people are going to
think about what you're doing at this moment, because right
now their attention is on your dog barking, okay, And
there's going to be people that go, well, my dog
never acts like that, and blah blah blah, Well that's
not your dog. Yeah, okay. If you want to keep
(13:38):
that dog, you want to keep that dog from building
into a biting situation where you have to get rid
of that dog. You have to get serious at this moment,
and you have to decide what's more important keeping your
dog in your family and teaching them that this behavior
is unacceptable regardless of what the Karen thinks about over here,
(14:00):
or are you going to worry more about what it
looks like around you and then just scoop the dog
up and go home and never solve the issue, only
postpone it until the next time. So this is a
buck up buttercup moment, all right, And it's become easier
and easier for me. But I understand that it's not
(14:24):
easy for people to do right, Okay, it's just.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Not so when you have that situation with your dogs,
your own dogs, and you're emotionally attached to those dogs.
I mean, do sometimes you have to fight the emotion
to do the right thing sometimes? Or have you programmed
yourself that we just do the right things, because sometimes
(14:47):
I think, like in your daughter's situation, there's got to
be some emotion there because it's her.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Dog, right right, there's all you know. And granted, I
look and visualize things everything through the eyes of a trainer, okay,
And part of that is my curse because I can
see in the future with training basically, all right, So
that tends to kind of clear up my gray zones.
(15:14):
But I also have dealt with clients enough over the
thirty years to understand your emotional attachment to the situation, okay.
And I've also been a parent, and I understand my
emotional attachment to the situation. But I also have to
tell myself at the end of the day, somebody's got
(15:35):
to do this, okay, for the better. I feel full,
wholeheartedly that this is going to make the situation better. Okay.
And when you in training, if you feel wholeheartedly about
regardless of the action you have to do, if you
wholeheartedly think it's going to make the situation better, about
(15:56):
ninety percent of the time it does, because that's the
vibe you're giving off to the dog, right, okay, if
you have doubt, and part of it as a trainer,
part of my job was not just to go, well,
do this when this happens, and this and this. My
job was to eliminate doubt in your eyes that we
were doing the right thing, because then once you got
rid of that doubt, then you were more willing to
(16:19):
do the right thing. But just like in the world
we live in, if people don't see it for themselves,
they are always going to have that doubt that what
you're talking about is the correct thing, right Okay. You know,
for years people are like, well, you're magical, because as
soon as you pick up the least she starts listening.
To you and doing this, and I go, yeah, because
I don't live with her. Okay, dogs observe your weak
(16:40):
points all day long. Okay. In fact, if by me
observing your dog interacting with you, your dog is telling
me where your weak spots are nine times out of
ten throughout the rest of your life with that dog.
Because they will do this behavior because they know this
behavior is coming from you, or this behavior has gotten
(17:01):
them out of doing things before. And when I see
the dog act that way, I know exactly where your
weak spot is. So then I have to I have
to build up your weak spot and getting people to
understand that, you know, using a leash correction or any
type of correction or even a harsh no in cases
(17:21):
is not going to psychologically scar your dog for life. Okay,
I have to remind people watch a dog grow up
with their siblings as a puppy, all right, when mom
mom loves them, she wants to keep them safe, but
she understands to keep them safe, we have to make
sure they don't do dumb stuff, just like a parent. Yeah,
(17:42):
and sometimes that requires being tough. It's harder on the
parent than it is on the on the child or
the puppy, but it's important that you have to do it. Okay,
you have to deal with that at that moment. So
in the case with dogs, they don't get second chances
like that. I would rather deal with people looking at
me weirdly because I'm making my dog listen in public,
(18:05):
then having to deal with a parent after my dog
bit a child. Right, Okay, that is a way worse
situation to deal with. So you have to pick the
lesser of, in your mind, of two evils in this case,
and in this case a lot of times, if you're
consistent with it, the dog realizes what's going on, You've
got it. You solve the problem very quickly. Yeah, okay,
(18:29):
but this as dogs get close to that year of age,
it is a crucial time. It is those teenage years
in dog years, and if you kind of just try
to not deal with it and hope that it gets better,
ninety nine percent of the time it does not get
better with dogs, and then you have problems down the
road which you can't get away from, and pretty soon
(18:52):
you've got real drastic things you got to decide with
your dog.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Have you ever seen that one percent where where where
we're ignoring it work.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
No, you've just heard that maybe, so I say ninety
nine because you know, I'm not one hundred percent about anything,
but but.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
You know, no, I get it. And if you're looking
for tough love, you know, buck them up. Buttercup kind
of training, that's what you're going to get at the
Edgefield Animal Care Center. And you guys have you've done
it forever. So talk a little bit about that and
how people can reach out.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Well, dog behavior is tough by by design, by nature,
that's what it is. So we're a lot softer than
dog behavior, a lot softer than when a mother with
her pups or anything like that. But we do. We
do teach you the easiest way, and that what your
dog is looking for from you, So it's easy for
them to understand what behaviors are acceptable to you, what
(19:44):
behaviors are not acceptable to you. Confusion is is a
killer in the dog training world. So we try to
make everybody consistent understanding as far as and passionate and fair,
and that's that's how dogs are and that's how we
try to teach people. Also, we've been doing it for
over I've been doing it for over thirty years. We
(20:05):
have very experienced people doing that type of training. Easiest
way if you're interested in finding out more about this
stuff like this is push a butt pushed a button
in your brain like, yes, that situation's going on. I
need to get this under control and see this happen.
You find out all our information about Edgefield Animal Care Center,
our training, our veterinary hospital, our boarding and grooming, all
(20:26):
of that stuff. Go to our website Edgefieldanimalcare dot com.
You can get all that information Edgefieldanimalcare dot com.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Yep, and you'll find the Dog Professor podcast there, and
you'll also find it on the free iHeart app. Go
find it. When you do find the Dog Professor podcast,
depending on where you're catching it or listening to it. Now,
hit subscribe and then your setup. You're going to get
a notification every time we post a new one.
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