March 18, 2025 • 17 mins
What makes a well-behaved dog? According to Jason Toy of Canine Scholars Dog Training, it's about finding the right "love language" between dog and owner. Coming from an entrepreneurial background, Jason discovered his passion for dog training after moving to Charlotte and seeing countless young professionals with poorly trained puppies. Since 2012, he's been helping owners develop healthy relationships with dogs of all ages and breeds.
Jason takes a developmental approach that acknowledges different training needs as dogs mature. For puppies, he focuses on positive reinforcement and foundational skills, while adult dogs can handle more structured expectations. His philosophy avoids the common trap of one-size-fits-all training, instead recognizing that each dog-owner relationship requires personalized strategies.
A refreshing perspective Jason offers is challenging the notion that behavioral issues always stem from owner mistakes. In our era of widespread breeding without proper lineage tracking, many problems—particularly aggression—have genetic roots rather than training failures. This insight helps release owners from unnecessary guilt while focusing on practical management strategies.
The most successful training programs combine private lessons with real-world application. Jason explains how teaching obedience commands gives anxious or reactive dogs an alternative mental pathway when triggered, similar to how physical activity can interrupt negative human emotions. His trinity for training success? Schedule, supervision, and structure—particularly for dogs under 18 months old.
Looking to solve your dog's behavioral challenges? Check out Jason's book "Mind Your Paws" or try his innovative potty-training app that predicts when your dog needs to go out. Visit caninescholars.com to discover how understanding your dog's unique personality can transform your relationship from frustrating to fulfilling.
Canine Scholars Dog Training
Jason Toy
1235 East Blvd, Ste E123 Charlotte, NC 28203
(888) 478-2020
charlotte@caninescholars.com
caninescholars.com/charlotte-nc
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Regina League.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hi everybody and welcome to another episode of
the Good Neighbor Podcast.
My favorite thing to do is talkwith local business owners here
in the Charlotte area, get toknow a little bit about them and
share what they do.
Today I have the owner ofCanine Scholars Dog Training,
jason Toy.
Welcome, jason.
Thanks for having me yeah, weall love dogs and I'd love to
(00:35):
learn a little bit about youyourself, your journey and what
took you to opening thisbusiness.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yeah, I've been an entrepreneur so I've had a
couple of different businesses Imoved from.
I'm originally from Buffalo,new York.
I moved down to Charlotte 15,20 years ago now quite a while.
So this is now where I considerhome.
But the number one thing whenyou move away from home you're
typically a little bit lonely.
(01:02):
So you buy yourself a dog andthat tended to be what Charlotte
was early on.
Obviously, the banks recruiteda lot of people from
universities because they wouldcome down here and live in these
apartments and buy a dog.
So dogs were plentiful.
Dogs were also misbehaving andthere weren't a lot of
(01:24):
opportunities or options backthen to have really well-trained
, highly level, obedient dogs.
So I first started by buying adog and wanted to get into some
protection work just high levelobedience and I used a lot of
what I learned in that field asfar as the obedience end of it
to now train client dogs andjust typical home.
(01:48):
You know animals.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, how long have you been doing this?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
So it's been my company since 2012, and I worked
with somebody else about fiveyears prior, leading up to that.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah.
So when you did so, you hadthis other experience.
What made you spin off and sayI want to open K-9 Scholars?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
I kind of took over the company, to be honest, that
owner at that time, we kind ofbuilt it together and then he
ended up having some personalissues moved out of state and I
just want to do the right thingfor those clients that we had
took on and continued to servicethem.
And then I just kind of grewfrom there.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
So do you have ages that you require in a breed?
Tell us a little bit about whoyou.
Well, we should say what dog doyou train?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah, so we do.
All dogs, all ages.
There's not really too much ofa difference in the breeds or
ages.
It's really how you train atdifferent stages.
So expectation as a puppy isdifferent than expectation as an
adult, which is different as anexpectation as a more elderly
dog.
Also, your goals is a big thing.
(03:06):
Some people want really highlevel obedience.
Some people are like, hey, Ijust don't want my dog to poop
in the house.
So you kind of have to meet theneeds because at the end of the
day, the client's hiring us todeliver a goal and so we have to
meet those goals.
Number one meet thoseexpectations but also be
realistic with what thoseexpectations are.
Some clients call aboutaggression as an example, and
(03:31):
you're not going to cureaggression.
You just need to know the dogthat you have in front of you
and set that dog up for success.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Oh, wow, okay, I didn't realize that because I
have a friend whose little tinydog thinks it can take on dogs
10 times its little side.
So what is your personaltraining philosophy and the kind
of tools and techniques youlike to use?
Speaker 3 (03:54):
yeah, from what I said earlier, a lot of it is
dependent on the age.
So, young from I like to sayfrom 12 weeks to that seven
month mark we do a lot of treat,marker training, building
foundations, focusing on pottytraining, getting through those
growth stages.
No different than a baby, yougot to go through the diapers,
you got to go through the pottytraining, you got to go through
the talking, the clumsiness, andthen, once you get a little
(04:18):
older, you got to send them offto college and they got to learn
to pay their own cell phonebill.
So if you kind of break it downinto stages and expectations,
and when the dog's ready forcertain things is when you can
start applying thoseexpectations to the dog.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
So what kind of training sessions do you offer,
you know?
For example, are they with thedog owner or are they private
classes on site somewhere?
What are your options?
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Yeah.
So all of our we have a varietyof training, but all of our
initial training is doneprivately or we have board and
trains, so we don't do any likegroup only training programs.
I don't feel those are um aseffective.
You know the the owner and thedog need to really kind of.
Every dog's a little different.
So what I find in group classesas if you're just going to learn
(05:05):
obedience at a group class forthe first time you got a crazy
puppy, an owner that's got fiveother dogs that they're trying
to pay attention to.
No one's getting anything outof it, or the dog does really
good there and they go home andthey can't apply that behavior.
So if we can go to the houseand really apply those behaviors
where the dog spends 90% of itstime, we can then translate
that out into the public whereyou're spending much less of
(05:27):
your time and work on thosedistractions.
We also have board and trainswhere we'll take the dog and
bring the dog back.
We do combo training at thatpoint.
So we still want to do thosefollow-up lessons together.
The best way I describe it iseither I can build the car for
you and teach you how to driveit, or you can learn how to
build the car and teach you howto drive it together.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah, I know, when I had a puppy, you know what I
learned is there's quite a bitof training that goes into for
the dog owner.
You know so that we know, so Ithink that's part of it.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Yeah, you have to.
No dog's the same.
Every dog is a little different.
You have to find their lovelanguage.
So you know the problem is alot of the owner's love language
is different than what thedog's love language is.
So if your love languagematches, you know you get these
very soft, sweet people that buya golden lab and they're great.
You know they have thatemotional connection.
(06:23):
If you look at the dog thewrong way, the dog is like you
hurt my feelings.
I will do anything you want meto do to feel better.
If you did that to a Germanshepherd, they wouldn't make
great police dogs.
So you have a mismatch of lovelanguages and you have to find
the right love language for thedog.
You're going to have to adjustin order to get the goals that
you have out of thatrelationship.
(06:46):
What's the oldest dog you'vetrained?
I've trained dogs up to 10, 12years old.
Oh wow.
Age is less relevant, to behonest.
What I find, just as aneconomic standpoint, is when is
the investment not worth it tomost clients?
So if your dog's 10 to 12 yearsold, uh, and you have like
(07:06):
pressing needs, those peoplewill go for it.
But if you've lived with thatdog 10 to 12 years, you're like,
ah, it's good enough, it'll.
We've adjusted our relationshipso that we can coexist.
So it's not, you know.
So for most people they've.
They've found a common groundtogether.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
So when you contact you and you really have no idea,
are the schedules structuredafter you meet the dog and the
parent to see how long it takes?
What are you normally lookingat?
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Yeah, correct, we do an evaluation so we can come out
to the house, meet you and thedog.
We want to see the dog in thisenvironment.
We can also do a phoneinterview.
A lot of things are justgeneral.
Most clients who just get a newpuppy, you're running through
the standard situations.
There's nothing earth-breakingthere.
But for those more specializedcases or for someone that really
is trying to learn what weoffer, we come out, meet the dog
(08:00):
, meet with you, give youexpectations how fast we can
expect those results and thenmake a decision from there.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
How often is the best scenario, how frequent and how
long are the sessions?
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Yeah, typically sessions are an hour long If
we're doing private lessons asan example for adult training.
So dogs seven months and older,we typically do our lessons
once a week For puppies.
We spread that out.
Lessons once a week for puppieswe spread that out a little bit
.
A lot of people are like theyget all their gumption right
away, they get that dog andthey're like we need to do three
lessons a week.
(08:34):
Listen, your 12 week old puppyisn't going to be much different
.
At 13 weeks it's still havingpotty accidents.
So you got to spread that out alittle bit.
You got to let the dog mature,let the body grow, let things
develop.
So speed is not your friendthere.
It's quality over quantity.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Can you describe like a dog, one that just stands out
in your mind, a case study thatyou really just walked away,
going.
Wow, we've just made a hugedifference.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yeah, we sometimes.
I actually had a dog the otherday we were working Um, very
nervous, very skittish dog.
It was a rescue uh, shuts downin public.
Uh, these people live inBelmont, uh, right in proper,
where the downtown area is, so adog is very overstimulated.
Um, problem is, when you let adog like that make decisions,
(09:25):
it's going to make the wrongdecisions and spiral.
So it kind of worries about theentire environment and it just
is spiraling out of control.
You got to shut that mind downand let the dog start trusting
in the owner building focus andengagement.
So it took about three to fourlessons and now the dog is
walking around Belmont, thelittle town down there, and I
(09:46):
want to say he's loving doing it.
Because that takes time.
You got to desensitize and workthe dog through that stuff.
But step one to doing that isgetting control.
So what a lot of people want todo is just throw the dog in
these environments and be likegood luck, here we go, figure it
out, you're going to be okay.
But first you want to get somecontrol and some tools in your
(10:07):
toolbox to put the dog in thosepositions, to teach them how to
work through that, some copingmechanisms, in other words,
instead of just being likefigure it out.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Okay, can you explain that a little bit more, how
that works with the dog?
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Yeah.
So example you have a nervousdog, or even aggressive dog,
whatever any of these behavioralissues we'll talk about which
are the easiest to explain.
So you taking your dog over neara dog park that's aggressive is
not going to make themnaturally figure out how to not
act that way, or putting them ina position to just kind of feel
(10:45):
that environment constantly isgoing to make the dog learn how
to shut that system off.
Right, because it's an emotionalresponse.
So what you want to do is teachyour come, sit, your let's go
your place, eye contact, thingsof that caliber so that when
your dog starts making the wrongdecision, whether shutting down
(11:06):
or overreacting, you can nowchange them and position them to
start turning on theirobedience that we just worked
them with, so that they can turnoff that external environment,
which is what their naturalresponse is going to be, and
start turning it into work, nodifferent, like I'm a workaholic
.
So if things are getting crazyin my life, I tend to focus on
(11:29):
some drive and work.
Or you have other people, likemy wife, great example If things
are getting chaotic, she'scleaning.
So you want to control thingsthe best that you can in your
environment.
You want to teach the dog howto use their control to shut off
the environment around them.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
So kind of like switching their mindset,
switching gears a little bit.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Another easy example is you can't be sad if you run,
like have you ever tried to justpout and run?
You can't do it.
Once you start running, yourbody releases all sorts of
hormonal instincts and you juststart smiling and you're like,
oh okay, I start feeling better,like you can do a lot of that
stuff and play and manipulateyourself to then turn off the
(12:09):
other end of the brain, right.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
That's super cool.
What are some of the mostfrequent misconceptions you run
across?
Speaker 3 (12:18):
The biggest one is it's the owner's fault.
So I get a lot of either seconddog trainer on the second dog
trainer in or even in the firstdog trainer in.
So two things are typically notan owner's fault.
If you have a puppy or even anolder dog that you've had your
(12:41):
whole life, it probably isn'taggressive because it's under
socialized.
It probably is a genetic issue.
We see a lot of aggression andweird things going on right now.
The link or the associationnowadays is when everyone wants
to take responsibility, likeit's my fault that this happened
(13:03):
.
But the reality is how manypeople are going back to those
breeders and telling them whatthe result of their dog is?
Very few, and so part of evenwith a protection dogs like you
want to buy these great dogs.
Part of that is knowing thelineages.
So with the popularity of dogs,nobody is going back and
(13:24):
controlling those lineagesanymore.
So we're just pumping out dogsall the time without feedback to
the breeders and nobody knowshow these dogs are coming out.
And then when there's an issue,you're blaming yourself.
It could just be bad.
A lot of it's just bad breedingand it's not anybody's fault
per se.
But genetics are genetics.
You have 100 people, you'regoing to have some genetic
(13:49):
issues with those, health-wiseand so on and so forth issues,
with those health-wise, and soon and so forth.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
How about you know?
I have an example of a lab thathas access indoors, outdoors,
but gets into everything, choosethings, eats them up.
How do you, what would you dowith something like that?
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Too much freedom.
So what happened was early onis the dog had too much freedom.
Everything about success fordog training is schedule,
supervision and structure.
So you treat the inside and theoutside the same.
If you're not going to leaveyour dog in the house by itself,
you do not leave it outside byitself.
And all that is because I needto give feedback in those early
(14:31):
stages of what is allowed andwhat is not allowed.
And if the dog is going tofigure out what's allowed and
what's not allowed without yourfeedback, it's going to make its
own fun.
And so the more they createthose habits and more they
create their own fun, the morethey're getting attention out of
doing certain behaviors, themore those habits are ingrained.
(14:52):
They're getting attention outof doing certain behaviors, the
more those habits are ingrained.
So you want to early stages.
I like to stay up to a year anda half as much schedule,
structure and supervision as youcan give.
Don't put yourself in debt.
At that year and a half markyou can give freedom.
You've already given all thefeedback you need to the dog.
My shoes are not allowed to bechewed on.
My rug is not allowed to bechewed on.
My rug is not allowed to bechewed on, my furniture is not
(15:12):
allowed to be sat on.
Whatever those rules are foryour house, irrelevant to what I
want, it's your.
If you want your dog to sleepin bed with you, that's fine.
Um, but show those rules withinyour household and then, when
you give freedom, you're nothaving to work backwards that's
amazing.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
You have such a logical approach.
I love this.
Yeah, so you admitted you're aworkaholic.
What do you do for fun whenyou're not running your business
?
Speaker 3 (15:37):
I have a four-year-old and a
seven-year-old, so I'm just kindof reliving life through their
eyes, which is a lot of fun,which doesn't give me a lot of
time to do much of myself, but Istay healthy, go to the gym a
couple of times a week.
So just trying to have fun as afamily unit right now and get
through.
The days are long but the yearsare short.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Good point.
Do you have a dog at home?
Speaker 3 (16:00):
I do my Doberman she left us about two years ago.
I learned from my client'smistakes.
I don't get puppies and pottytraining at the same time with
my children, so I do have aLabradoodle as well.
I call that my wife's dog, sowe have a small Labradoodle that
(16:22):
she's 10.
But we'll be looking here, andmy daughter is now four she just
turned four so we're out ofthat potty training stage and so
I can start looking at puppies.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
At this point we're out of that potty training stage
, and so I can start looking atpuppies at this point.
Well, great story, jason.
It's been a pleasure to talk toyou about Canine Scholars.
How can our listeners find youguys?
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Yeah, caninescholars.
com spelled out C-A-N-I-N-E.
We also have a book online.
You can get it at Barnes, nobleand Amazon.
It's called Mind your Paws.
We're finishing out the websitehere.
Shortly It'll have a videocourse.
The book and the video coursego together and we have an app
(17:00):
online on the App Store andGoogle which helps you potty
train your dog.
It's called the Potty App andso you log your poops and peas
and food and water and it kindof predicts when the dog needs
to go to the bathroom.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
I love it.
Oh goodness, Well, you havecovered everything, Jason.
It's been a pleasure.
I can see why your business isso successful.
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor
Podcast To nominate yourfavorite local businesses to be
featured on the show.
No-transcript.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Regina League.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hi everybody and welcome to another episode of
the Good Neighbor Podcast.
My favorite thing to do is talkwith local business owners here
in the Charlotte area, get toknow a little bit about them and
share what they do.
Today I have the owner ofCanine Scholars Dog Training,
jason Toy.
Welcome, jason.
Thanks for having me yeah, weall love dogs and I'd love to
(00:35):
learn a little bit about youyourself, your journey and what
took you to opening thisbusiness.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yeah, I've been an entrepreneur so I've had a
couple of different businesses Imoved from.
I'm originally from Buffalo,new York.
I moved down to Charlotte 15,20 years ago now quite a while.
So this is now where I considerhome.
But the number one thing whenyou move away from home you're
typically a little bit lonely.
(01:02):
So you buy yourself a dog andthat tended to be what Charlotte
was early on.
Obviously, the banks recruiteda lot of people from
universities because they wouldcome down here and live in these
apartments and buy a dog.
So dogs were plentiful.
Dogs were also misbehaving andthere weren't a lot of
(01:24):
opportunities or options backthen to have really well-trained
, highly level, obedient dogs.
So I first started by buying adog and wanted to get into some
protection work just high levelobedience and I used a lot of
what I learned in that field asfar as the obedience end of it
to now train client dogs andjust typical home.
(01:48):
You know animals.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, how long have you been doing this?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
So it's been my company since 2012, and I worked
with somebody else about fiveyears prior, leading up to that.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah.
So when you did so, you hadthis other experience.
What made you spin off and sayI want to open K-9 Scholars?
Speaker 3 (02:10):
I kind of took over the company, to be honest, that
owner at that time, we kind ofbuilt it together and then he
ended up having some personalissues moved out of state and I
just want to do the right thingfor those clients that we had
took on and continued to servicethem.
And then I just kind of grewfrom there.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
So do you have ages that you require in a breed?
Tell us a little bit about whoyou.
Well, we should say what dog doyou train?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Yeah, so we do.
All dogs, all ages.
There's not really too much ofa difference in the breeds or
ages.
It's really how you train atdifferent stages.
So expectation as a puppy isdifferent than expectation as an
adult, which is different as anexpectation as a more elderly
dog.
Also, your goals is a big thing.
(03:06):
Some people want really highlevel obedience.
Some people are like, hey, Ijust don't want my dog to poop
in the house.
So you kind of have to meet theneeds because at the end of the
day, the client's hiring us todeliver a goal and so we have to
meet those goals.
Number one meet thoseexpectations but also be
realistic with what thoseexpectations are.
Some clients call aboutaggression as an example, and
(03:31):
you're not going to cureaggression.
You just need to know the dogthat you have in front of you
and set that dog up for success.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Oh, wow, okay, I didn't realize that because I
have a friend whose little tinydog thinks it can take on dogs
10 times its little side.
So what is your personaltraining philosophy and the kind
of tools and techniques youlike to use?
Speaker 3 (03:54):
yeah, from what I said earlier, a lot of it is
dependent on the age.
So, young from I like to sayfrom 12 weeks to that seven
month mark we do a lot of treat,marker training, building
foundations, focusing on pottytraining, getting through those
growth stages.
No different than a baby, yougot to go through the diapers,
you got to go through the pottytraining, you got to go through
the talking, the clumsiness, andthen, once you get a little
(04:18):
older, you got to send them offto college and they got to learn
to pay their own cell phonebill.
So if you kind of break it downinto stages and expectations,
and when the dog's ready forcertain things is when you can
start applying thoseexpectations to the dog.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
So what kind of training sessions do you offer,
you know?
For example, are they with thedog owner or are they private
classes on site somewhere?
What are your options?
Speaker 3 (04:43):
Yeah.
So all of our we have a varietyof training, but all of our
initial training is doneprivately or we have board and
trains, so we don't do any likegroup only training programs.
I don't feel those are um aseffective.
You know the the owner and thedog need to really kind of.
Every dog's a little different.
So what I find in group classesas if you're just going to learn
(05:05):
obedience at a group class forthe first time you got a crazy
puppy, an owner that's got fiveother dogs that they're trying
to pay attention to.
No one's getting anything outof it, or the dog does really
good there and they go home andthey can't apply that behavior.
So if we can go to the houseand really apply those behaviors
where the dog spends 90% of itstime, we can then translate
that out into the public whereyou're spending much less of
(05:27):
your time and work on thosedistractions.
We also have board and trainswhere we'll take the dog and
bring the dog back.
We do combo training at thatpoint.
So we still want to do thosefollow-up lessons together.
The best way I describe it iseither I can build the car for
you and teach you how to driveit, or you can learn how to
build the car and teach you howto drive it together.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah, I know, when I had a puppy, you know what I
learned is there's quite a bitof training that goes into for
the dog owner.
You know so that we know, so Ithink that's part of it.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Yeah, you have to.
No dog's the same.
Every dog is a little different.
You have to find their lovelanguage.
So you know the problem is alot of the owner's love language
is different than what thedog's love language is.
So if your love languagematches, you know you get these
very soft, sweet people that buya golden lab and they're great.
You know they have thatemotional connection.
(06:23):
If you look at the dog thewrong way, the dog is like you
hurt my feelings.
I will do anything you want meto do to feel better.
If you did that to a Germanshepherd, they wouldn't make
great police dogs.
So you have a mismatch of lovelanguages and you have to find
the right love language for thedog.
You're going to have to adjustin order to get the goals that
you have out of thatrelationship.
(06:46):
What's the oldest dog you'vetrained?
I've trained dogs up to 10, 12years old.
Oh wow.
Age is less relevant, to behonest.
What I find, just as aneconomic standpoint, is when is
the investment not worth it tomost clients?
So if your dog's 10 to 12 yearsold, uh, and you have like
(07:06):
pressing needs, those peoplewill go for it.
But if you've lived with thatdog 10 to 12 years, you're like,
ah, it's good enough, it'll.
We've adjusted our relationshipso that we can coexist.
So it's not, you know.
So for most people they've.
They've found a common groundtogether.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
So when you contact you and you really have no idea,
are the schedules structuredafter you meet the dog and the
parent to see how long it takes?
What are you normally lookingat?
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Yeah, correct, we do an evaluation so we can come out
to the house, meet you and thedog.
We want to see the dog in thisenvironment.
We can also do a phoneinterview.
A lot of things are justgeneral.
Most clients who just get a newpuppy, you're running through
the standard situations.
There's nothing earth-breakingthere.
But for those more specializedcases or for someone that really
is trying to learn what weoffer, we come out, meet the dog
(08:00):
, meet with you, give youexpectations how fast we can
expect those results and thenmake a decision from there.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
How often is the best scenario, how frequent and how
long are the sessions?
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Yeah, typically sessions are an hour long If
we're doing private lessons asan example for adult training.
So dogs seven months and older,we typically do our lessons
once a week For puppies.
We spread that out.
Lessons once a week for puppieswe spread that out a little bit
.
A lot of people are like theyget all their gumption right
away, they get that dog andthey're like we need to do three
lessons a week.
(08:34):
Listen, your 12 week old puppyisn't going to be much different
.
At 13 weeks it's still havingpotty accidents.
So you got to spread that out alittle bit.
You got to let the dog mature,let the body grow, let things
develop.
So speed is not your friendthere.
It's quality over quantity.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Can you describe like a dog, one that just stands out
in your mind, a case study thatyou really just walked away,
going.
Wow, we've just made a hugedifference.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yeah, we sometimes.
I actually had a dog the otherday we were working Um, very
nervous, very skittish dog.
It was a rescue uh, shuts downin public.
Uh, these people live inBelmont, uh, right in proper,
where the downtown area is, so adog is very overstimulated.
Um, problem is, when you let adog like that make decisions,
(09:25):
it's going to make the wrongdecisions and spiral.
So it kind of worries about theentire environment and it just
is spiraling out of control.
You got to shut that mind downand let the dog start trusting
in the owner building focus andengagement.
So it took about three to fourlessons and now the dog is
walking around Belmont, thelittle town down there, and I
(09:46):
want to say he's loving doing it.
Because that takes time.
You got to desensitize and workthe dog through that stuff.
But step one to doing that isgetting control.
So what a lot of people want todo is just throw the dog in
these environments and be likegood luck, here we go, figure it
out, you're going to be okay.
But first you want to get somecontrol and some tools in your
(10:07):
toolbox to put the dog in thosepositions, to teach them how to
work through that, some copingmechanisms, in other words,
instead of just being likefigure it out.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Okay, can you explain that a little bit more, how
that works with the dog?
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Yeah.
So example you have a nervousdog, or even aggressive dog,
whatever any of these behavioralissues we'll talk about which
are the easiest to explain.
So you taking your dog over neara dog park that's aggressive is
not going to make themnaturally figure out how to not
act that way, or putting them ina position to just kind of feel
(10:45):
that environment constantly isgoing to make the dog learn how
to shut that system off.
Right, because it's an emotionalresponse.
So what you want to do is teachyour come, sit, your let's go
your place, eye contact, thingsof that caliber so that when
your dog starts making the wrongdecision, whether shutting down
(11:06):
or overreacting, you can nowchange them and position them to
start turning on theirobedience that we just worked
them with, so that they can turnoff that external environment,
which is what their naturalresponse is going to be, and
start turning it into work, nodifferent, like I'm a workaholic
.
So if things are getting crazyin my life, I tend to focus on
(11:29):
some drive and work.
Or you have other people, likemy wife, great example If things
are getting chaotic, she'scleaning.
So you want to control thingsthe best that you can in your
environment.
You want to teach the dog howto use their control to shut off
the environment around them.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
So kind of like switching their mindset,
switching gears a little bit.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Another easy example is you can't be sad if you run,
like have you ever tried to justpout and run?
You can't do it.
Once you start running, yourbody releases all sorts of
hormonal instincts and you juststart smiling and you're like,
oh okay, I start feeling better,like you can do a lot of that
stuff and play and manipulateyourself to then turn off the
(12:09):
other end of the brain, right.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
That's super cool.
What are some of the mostfrequent misconceptions you run
across?
Speaker 3 (12:18):
The biggest one is it's the owner's fault.
So I get a lot of either seconddog trainer on the second dog
trainer in or even in the firstdog trainer in.
So two things are typically notan owner's fault.
If you have a puppy or even anolder dog that you've had your
(12:41):
whole life, it probably isn'taggressive because it's under
socialized.
It probably is a genetic issue.
We see a lot of aggression andweird things going on right now.
The link or the associationnowadays is when everyone wants
to take responsibility, likeit's my fault that this happened
(13:03):
.
But the reality is how manypeople are going back to those
breeders and telling them whatthe result of their dog is?
Very few, and so part of evenwith a protection dogs like you
want to buy these great dogs.
Part of that is knowing thelineages.
So with the popularity of dogs,nobody is going back and
(13:24):
controlling those lineagesanymore.
So we're just pumping out dogsall the time without feedback to
the breeders and nobody knowshow these dogs are coming out.
And then when there's an issue,you're blaming yourself.
It could just be bad.
A lot of it's just bad breedingand it's not anybody's fault
per se.
But genetics are genetics.
You have 100 people, you'regoing to have some genetic
(13:49):
issues with those, health-wiseand so on and so forth issues,
with those health-wise, and soon and so forth.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
How about you know?
I have an example of a lab thathas access indoors, outdoors,
but gets into everything, choosethings, eats them up.
How do you, what would you dowith something like that?
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Too much freedom.
So what happened was early onis the dog had too much freedom.
Everything about success fordog training is schedule,
supervision and structure.
So you treat the inside and theoutside the same.
If you're not going to leaveyour dog in the house by itself,
you do not leave it outside byitself.
And all that is because I needto give feedback in those early
(14:31):
stages of what is allowed andwhat is not allowed.
And if the dog is going tofigure out what's allowed and
what's not allowed without yourfeedback, it's going to make its
own fun.
And so the more they createthose habits and more they
create their own fun, the morethey're getting attention out of
doing certain behaviors, themore those habits are ingrained.
(14:52):
They're getting attention outof doing certain behaviors, the
more those habits are ingrained.
So you want to early stages.
I like to stay up to a year anda half as much schedule,
structure and supervision as youcan give.
Don't put yourself in debt.
At that year and a half markyou can give freedom.
You've already given all thefeedback you need to the dog.
My shoes are not allowed to bechewed on.
My rug is not allowed to bechewed on.
My rug is not allowed to bechewed on, my furniture is not
(15:12):
allowed to be sat on.
Whatever those rules are foryour house, irrelevant to what I
want, it's your.
If you want your dog to sleepin bed with you, that's fine.
Um, but show those rules withinyour household and then, when
you give freedom, you're nothaving to work backwards that's
amazing.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
You have such a logical approach.
I love this.
Yeah, so you admitted you're aworkaholic.
What do you do for fun whenyou're not running your business
?
Speaker 3 (15:37):
I have a four-year-old and a
seven-year-old, so I'm just kindof reliving life through their
eyes, which is a lot of fun,which doesn't give me a lot of
time to do much of myself, but Istay healthy, go to the gym a
couple of times a week.
So just trying to have fun as afamily unit right now and get
through.
The days are long but the yearsare short.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Good point.
Do you have a dog at home?
Speaker 3 (16:00):
I do my Doberman she left us about two years ago.
I learned from my client'smistakes.
I don't get puppies and pottytraining at the same time with
my children, so I do have aLabradoodle as well.
I call that my wife's dog, sowe have a small Labradoodle that
(16:22):
she's 10.
But we'll be looking here, andmy daughter is now four she just
turned four so we're out ofthat potty training stage and so
I can start looking at puppies.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
At this point we're out of that potty training stage
, and so I can start looking atpuppies at this point.
Well, great story, jason.
It's been a pleasure to talk toyou about Canine Scholars.
How can our listeners find youguys?
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Yeah, caninescholars.
com spelled out C-A-N-I-N-E.
We also have a book online.
You can get it at Barnes, nobleand Amazon.
It's called Mind your Paws.
We're finishing out the websitehere.
Shortly It'll have a videocourse.
The book and the video coursego together and we have an app
(17:00):
online on the App Store andGoogle which helps you potty
train your dog.
It's called the Potty App andso you log your poops and peas
and food and water and it kindof predicts when the dog needs
to go to the bathroom.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
I love it.
Oh goodness, Well, you havecovered everything, Jason.
It's been a pleasure.
I can see why your business isso successful.
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor
Podcast To nominate yourfavorite local businesses to be
featured on the show.
No-transcript.
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