October 14, 2010 • 35 mins
The First Family's Dog Trainer talks training techniques for your pooch: The most famous dog in the country, Bo Obama, is so well behaved in the White House and the woman who played a big role talked with Sassy Senior's host Kelly Jackson. Dawn Sylvia-Stasiewicz uses positive reinforcement and bonding to train your pet. Yes, you can even teach an old dog new tricks! Kelly and Dawn talk about Kelly's own small issue she has when walking her 13-year-old pooch, Meeko. Dawn talks about how in just about 5 weeks, 15-20 minutes each day, you can train or retrain a dog with bad habits.
More details on this episode MP3 Podcast - Bo Knows -- How to Behave on Pet Life Radio
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More details on this episode MP3 Podcast - Bo Knows -- How to Behave on Pet Life Radio
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bet you are listening to Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
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Speaker 1 (00:42):
Hello everyone, I'm Kelly Jackson with another edition of Sassey
Seniors here on pet Life Radio. Before we get started
and before I introduce our guest, I want to give
a shout out Towando times apparently tough all over. He
is a police K nine with the Jeannette, Pennsylvania Police Department.
Well he actually he used to be a K nine,
(01:04):
but starting October fifth, this drug sniffing dog services will
no longer be needed. Apparently because of budget cuts, the
city council has voted to layoff city workers. And guess what,
Wanda is included, So the six year old German shepherd.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Is out of a job.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I feel so bad for the little fella, But who knows,
maybe after so much news coverage, maybe the city council
will change their mind and give Wando back his job. Anyway,
We're going to be back after this short break with
Don Sylvia Stobwitz. Guess what.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
She has just written a book.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
It's called Love That Dog. It's a training program and
you could basically have a new dog in five weeks.
And she's also the former trainer of ba Obama. So
we'll be right back.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
We'll be right back right after these messages. Stay tuned.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
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Speaker 5 (02:39):
Hi, this is Marcy Davis and my service dog Whistle,
and we're your hosts of Working Like Dogs on pet
Like Radio. Working Like Dogs is the show where you
can learn everything you've ever wanted to know about working
animals or working dogs. Whether you're a member of a
Working Dog team, or you've just seen a working dog
or animal out at the mall or the grocery store
(03:01):
and you're curious about how these amazing animals work with
their human partners. Then Working Like Dogs is the show
for you. Join us for the inside scoops at Working
Like Dogs on Petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Let's talk pets on petlife Radio dot.
Speaker 6 (03:24):
Com and welcome back to pet Life Radio.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
I'm your host, Kelly Jackson. So pleased to have Don
Sylvia Stopwitz with us.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
She's written a.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Book called The Love Fat Dog Training Program.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Welcome to pet Life Radio, Dawn.
Speaker 7 (03:50):
Thank you for having me very much.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Well, I gotta tell you there are so many reasons
why I love this book.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
But one of the biggest reasons you have pictures.
Speaker 7 (04:00):
Pictures tell a lot, and people like those pictures. They
need a visual to try to explain something. It's much
easier to demonstrate it.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Absolutely I totally agree, absolutely so, Don you've been an
animal trainer for more than twenty years.
Speaker 7 (04:19):
Yes, yes, I have been mother trainer of all species.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Well, I will ask you about the most famous dog
in the world a little later. We hold off on
on mister bo Obama because I really do want to
get into your book.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Mainly we do a lot of talking about senior pets.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
And what I like about your book is that you
say you really can teach an old dog new tricks.
Speaker 7 (04:46):
Huh oh, absolutely absolutely. The younger the dog starts learning,
the brain is like a muscle, and a young dog
their brain is also like a spunge and they absorb everything.
So the earlier they start learning, the easier learning becomes
as they mature, and they can continue learning new things
(05:07):
well into their golden years.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely, Well, another thing I like about this
now you say in five weeks you can teach your
dog some pretty fascinating things, some pretty basic things, but
some other things that dogs really need to learn.
Speaker 7 (05:25):
Yes, in five weeks, your dog will learn all the
basics that he needs to know so you can live
with them. Even if your dog is going to be
a future show dog, he still needs to have some
man who's training otherwise you won't be able to live
with him. And that is teaching him how to function
(05:45):
in a world with people in society. Dogs are dogs
and they have their own I mean, if without training
a dog, he'll grow up to be a dog and
just totally destroy your house, jump on people and be
a big embarrassment.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
And you use the positive reinforcement approach. Right.
Speaker 7 (06:06):
In fact, yes, I use the positive reinforcement. And that's
the real issue is that it's a gentle way to
train your best friends. And the problem is that many
people don't understand the bare concept and the philosophy behind it.
(06:27):
You know, they just think of food and the dog
does the behavior, and then you get rid of the food.
And that's not the case. It's a whole learning theory
process that you phase the food out and incorporate toys
and games and all kinds of other things. Anything the
dog likes can be used as a reward right.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
And one of the things you say is, you know,
trust instead of physical threats. You know, just the other day,
I was walking on my dog and one of I
guess she's one of my neighbors, and you know, she
was like yelling at her dog and she's like, if
you don't sit, because she was just trying to sniff
my dog.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
She's like, if you don't sit, I'm going to use
the flyswater on you. Is that really necessary?
Speaker 7 (07:09):
No, Now does the dog really understand that? Well, the
dog exactly blah blah blah in an angry tone of voice. Right,
that's what the dog heard. Blah blah blah. She's angry.
I don't know why. So you can prepare a dog
to sit a when meeting and greeting people, and then
give him permission to go sniff, so the dog it's
(07:30):
a kind of a win win. You get your sit
and the dog gets to sniff, providing, of course, the
other dog doesn't mind, and you and the person that
you're talking to doesn't mind. So it's and you have
to trust your dog, right. Don't trust your dog, then
it's not a good idea to let him go sniff
someone butt dog?
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Right, And speaking of tone, you have in your book
the verbal cues of the tone and how often.
Speaker 7 (08:00):
The verbal cues you know. First, I like to teach
hand signals. And because many dogs don't look at their
owners and pay enough attention, so hand signals the dog
has to look at you to see what you're saying.
So it's very easy. Because dogs are nonverbal animals, they're
watching everything that you do. And then we will once
(08:22):
we teach the behavior with the hand signals, then we
give it a name fit and the dog will learn
to sit and get his reward at the end of
the behavior, not before. In the book the illustrations, and
(08:43):
many people have, you know, various signals. What I see
a lot in class are people that point to their
dog like they'll point to the rear end and say
fit like pointing to the rear end. The dog understands that,
but they will understand it. And people think that they
don't have signals, when in fact their body gestures are
(09:04):
giving cues to the dog as to what they want
the dog to do. I test that theory in class
all the time.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (09:11):
Yeah, And everybody's got something that they do with their eyes,
their hands, their feet that cues the dog to the behavior.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
What about the tone of voice and how often should
you say, you know, sit to a dog.
Speaker 7 (09:25):
Well that's a very good point. What I like to
incorporate and to keep people so they can understand and
so the dog can understand that telling a dog to
sit and down and running through this boring routine. You know,
the dog, okay, is sitting, but we really want the
dog to understand the relevance of what sit means and
(09:47):
what down means. So I incorporate what is called real
life rewards. In essence, you're taking your dog off welfare
and giving him a job. He's not out hunting the police.
Dogs out of work. They need something to do. And
so when you have your dog sit and then present
(10:07):
his food, sit, he gets his water bowl filled. Sit,
the door open, Sit, the leash goes on, the dog goes,
uh wow. When I sit, great things happen for me.
And as a wonderful, wonderful way to train your dog,
especially if say one day, you don't have enough time,
If your real life rewards are in place, then that
(10:28):
kind of backs up your training and keeps the dog
fine tuned. And I can always tell when students are
not doing their real life rewards.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
And how's that.
Speaker 7 (10:40):
Because when the dogs stay with me and I'm presenting
them their food and they don't fit, I'm like, uh huh,
someone's flocking off here, and it's not the dog.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
They weren't doing their whole work. Yea is yeah, And real.
Speaker 7 (10:53):
Life rewards is so easy. I mean, you're gonna pet
your dog anyway, you're gonna love your dog, You're gonna
give him treat, You're going to want him on your bed.
All I'm saying is ask him to do something first
to earn that, so he learns to work for other
things besides food and toys. It's a canine equivalent to
please may I. And dogs will learn to communicate with
(11:18):
you when they want something by sitting seeing dogs that
you know they know it's dinner time, and they'll go
over and sit in the spot where their food is
usually served and wait, yeah, and you know, oh my gosh,
it's dinner.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Tell me he knows that, don What are some of
the hardest things to teach a dog.
Speaker 7 (11:39):
The hardest things, I think is first of all, getting
the owners to pay attention to their dogs, so they
will learn to read their dog's body language, which gives
off a lot of information. One of the hardest problems
is to get a dog to stop jumping. And dogs
(12:01):
come fully equipped knowing how to jump because it's learned
in the litter and when they come to your house,
they're going to try and play with you and get
attention from you. And the only way they knew how
and what they've already learned, and that is to jump.
Cute little puppies jump. Owners reach down and pet him,
not realizing that in a few months, this dog's going
to be a horse, and the dog's not going to
(12:22):
realize he's a horse, and he's gonna keep jumping. It's
got to be a very black and white issue. Either
you're gonna let your dog jump or you're not gonna
let him jump. The middle ground is to put the
jumping on queue and teach your dog to jump when
you ask for it. It's no different than asking your
(12:42):
dog to sit. You're putting a dog knows how to
sit anyway, You're just putting it on que so he
sits when you want to sit. You can do the
same thing with jumping. You can do the same thing
with barking.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
And how do you get a dog not to jump
on you?
Speaker 7 (12:56):
Well, first of all, you know I don't allow it,
and I tell to keep their hands out of the picture.
Don't reach down and push the dog away with your hands,
because the dogs don't always know the difference between is
she reaching down to pet me and love me, or
is she reaching down to push me away? So if
a dog, I'm constantly watching the dogs, and a dog,
(13:18):
I can always tell when they're getting ready to spring,
and I turn my back and walk away and I
ignore them, and typically they'll follow you, and then I
will turn around and look at the dog, and I'll
do one of two things. I'll either wait for him
to offer me a fit, or I'll wait and then
request a sit. Either way, the jumping is not going
(13:43):
to be rewarded. Don't pay attention to anything that you
don't like. If your dog, you know, playing keep away.
Dogs love to be chased, and owners get caught up
in that game all the time. You know, don't chase
your dog if he's got something and he's going to
go away with it and he's trying to get your attention. First,
(14:04):
I turn to walk the other way. If he comes
to me. I make trades. That's really hard for people
to understand. We're offering the dog something in exchange for
what he's got, so he learns to give things up
because it's to his advantage. So he's not running under
the bed and you're trying to grab whatever he's got
(14:24):
under the bed, which I would never reach under a
bed to grab something from a dog. I mean, it's
a sure way to get bitten. He's under there for a.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Reason, yes, And if you know, that's the behavior that
he'll keep doing over and over and over.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
If you don't break them up.
Speaker 7 (14:39):
It yes, once, because it's a dog by you, He's
going to get a reaction out of you, which means
you're going to pull away and the dog is going
to realize it. Oh gosh, that worked. And then each
time if that behavior is repeated, the dog is going
through rehearsing. He's going to get better and better at
(15:00):
snapping at you because he knows it works to the
point where owners won't become afraid of their dogs.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
And what do you do with a dog that has
aggression or starts building it out of Sometimes I hear
people say my dog like, out of the blue, Now
he's getting more aggressive.
Speaker 7 (15:18):
You know, many of these aggression number one is thrown
around a lot, and I've gone on cases where the
dog was supposedly aggressive and he's not. I've got a
Borcollie I took out of rescue came to me as
dog aggressive. He's not. He's not. I've got it all
on film. He's just a pushy dog that wasn't properly
(15:40):
socialized when he was younger. Now he's getting along fine.
Aggression people throw that word around the lot, and typically
red flags go up fairly early in the dog's maturity
and owners missed those red flags, and then it's snowballs
(16:02):
into what may be aggression what may not be I
don't know until I get to the owner's house and
is the dog aggressive because I hate to put these
two together, but sometimes dogs will, you know, bite out
of fear, and people will confuse that with the true
(16:22):
aggression and it's not. I think a fearful dog, in
my opinion, is more likely to bite than one that's
truly aggressive. And then you need to figure out the triggers.
What happens before the dog aggresses. You know what's happening,
what was the trigger, what made that happen? And you
(16:44):
can You got to figure it out. That's why I
want people to start with hand signals positive reinforcement. If
you make a mistake, the reality is nobody gets hurt
with traditional training, and that's how I learned using choke
collars and things like that. If you make a mistake
and give the correction at the wrong time, if the
(17:07):
dog gets hurt and confused. So what I'm saying, let's
flip the coin. Let's pay attention to the good behaviors.
And the more you pay attention to those the bad
behaviors will start to fade away.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
In your book, also, you have be a tree. What
do you mean by that?
Speaker 7 (17:22):
Oh, be a tree. If your dog pulls, don't walk,
don't move in the direction he's pulling, stop and be
a tree. And he's going to say, what's that good
weight at the end of the leash's doing? And the
dog is going to turn around and look at you.
And you're going to market and say put dog, and
then lure him back to you, get him back into
(17:43):
a sit next to you, and then start over.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
I have a question for you.
Speaker 7 (17:48):
You may not I mean, if you want to go
to the dog park, you may have to start an
hour before you really want to be there.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
You know, my dog is thirteen and so I'm sure
he has a few learned behaviors. But he is one
of the best dogs in the world. But there are
times when I'm walking he's a shitsu.
Speaker 7 (18:04):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
But there are times when I'm.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Walking him, he'll stop and he'll dig his pads, you know,
went to the ground, and you know, he doesn't want
to come back in. He wants to stay out and
walk and he'll just stand there and what do I do?
Maybe I'm not taking control of the situation as much
as I But.
Speaker 7 (18:21):
He's number one, he's thirteen, right, number two, how long
has he been doing that forever? Okay, so if he's
been doing this forever, it's going to take a long
time to try and change that behavior. I mean, he's thirteen, right,
that should have been addressed when that's again what I'm
(18:42):
talking about. We're going back to red flags. He displayed
that behavior earlier in his youth. That was a red flag.
And you know, sometimes it's cute, it gets you know, ignored,
and then it's snowballs into what you have right now
and you can try to like a tennis all does
he like reward him when he comes in the house.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
And it doesn't do it every day, trust me, but
only on occasion, you know, he'll he'll do.
Speaker 7 (19:10):
It put you off guards. Yeah, yeah, well probably one
of those days where you want to do a quick
walk and get back in exactly, you know, because you
don't have time, and he's like, you know, it's sounds
like the dog is saying, hey, wait a minute. We
usually walked for fifteen minutes, and now you've got me
down to five no, no, right.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
And oh my goodness, Okay, we're going to continue this conversation.
We're talking with Don Sylvia Stasswitz. I said that wrong,
didn't I.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
She has to love that dog training program. We're gonna
take a quick break. We're going to talk about the
most famous dog in the country, also some other famous
dogs that you have trained.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
So we'll be right back.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
We'll be right back right after these messages. Stay tuned.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
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Speaker 3 (22:09):
And we're back with down Sylvia Sootswitch.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
She's written the book, loved that dog training program And Dawn,
I was reading your book and apparently a special little
dog has a birthday this week. Celebrating a birthday.
Speaker 7 (22:25):
Cappy, which is the letter May to the President's dog
who is owned by Senator Kennedy and Vicki and I
referred to him as Charlie Folk.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Okay, so we'll.
Speaker 7 (22:38):
Be getting their second year.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Is that amazing? Now, I've got to ask you, and
I know the world wants to know. How did it
come about that you trained the first dog? You trained
this dog before it made its way to the White House.
Speaker 7 (22:53):
Yes, he came to me through Vicky Kennedy. I knew
the breeder, and the breeder is the same breeder where
all of the Kennedy dogs are from. So she just
wanted me to evaluate the dog because he was going
to be rehomed. And I said, sure, fine, no problem,
I'll do anything for you. Vicki and I picked him
(23:15):
up and took him to my ex husband's office for
a down appointment, and come as a cucumber, not stressed
at all from you know, the traveling and all of
the other things you know that he had been through.
And I was quite quite pleased.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
How long did you train him down?
Speaker 7 (23:36):
I think I had him for about maybe six or
eight weeks, A couple of months, a couple of months.
It was fun. First of all, I d span a Porie.
I used to own a party back in the eighties
when they were first introduced to United States.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
And for some people who may not know their Portuguese
water dogs.
Speaker 7 (23:58):
Yes, Portuguese water dog we called them porties. And I
had one my children were little, and she was just
the best dog. There were allergies in the family, so
I was looking at, you know, poodles and various other breeds.
But I went to a lot of dog shows and
researched and talked to a lot of people, and I
(24:19):
ended up choosing a Portuguese water dog and she was
wonderful and very bright. So I needed to evaluate this
dog to see what would be a good fit, where
he would fit in, because the worst thing, you know,
for a dog is to be bounced from home to
home to home. We don't want that. We want to
(24:42):
make a good evaluation and make a proper placement. And
Vicky checked with me, you know, a few weeks later,
she checked in Aten and I was just, you know, floored.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
When you found out that. And then we should say, Vicky,
is that the wife was under light to Kennedy?
Speaker 7 (25:00):
Right, Yes, I was floored. A great dog, he was, Oh,
I mean I couldn't believe it. I had not one
accident in the house. He can't clearly let me know
when he wanted to go out. So the previous home
where he had been was good to him. There were
just some behaviors that I wanted to fine tune and
(25:22):
install in him, and I did. And had he not
gone where he went, I wanted to be next in line.
I would have taken him in a heartbeat.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
So I have a.
Speaker 7 (25:35):
Feeling he's so great.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
He passed with flying colors. Uh, you got a gold
star from you.
Speaker 7 (25:41):
Yeah. And the way I worked with him is the
way I would work with anyone that would send a
dog to me, and the way that I work my
own dogs, because in the future, you know, I may
want to show a dog get into some sporting event.
So in order to do that, you have to socialize, socialize, socialize,
(26:04):
and take the dog out and expose them to as
much as you possibly can think of that he will
encounter at some point in his life, so you start
working on it while they're young. So Charlie went a
lot of places target you know, I'll go anywhere with
a dog until they'd say no dogs are allowed, And
(26:26):
I'm like, Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see a sign.
But I got my three minutes in and that's all.
It takes three minutes here, three minutes there. We went
to the bank, went to Target, went strip malls, went
by playgrounds, introduced him to my neighbor's children. And he
(26:46):
was great. I mean, and the breeder. Of course, Martha
and Art Stern are really good breeders. They're temperaments of
their dogs or just exquisite.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
So when did you actually find out that Charlie aka
bo As actually the White House.
Speaker 7 (27:06):
It was, gosh, I don't know, maybe two or three
weeks beforehand, you know, I found out, but I wasn't nervous.
To me, they were just another family and they had children,
and that I wasn't nervous at all.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Well, that's because you've been a trainer for two decades.
Me I would have been like I would have been
eyeballing him for the last two weeks.
Speaker 7 (27:32):
Oh yeah, I had trust and faith in this dog
so much. And I mean, in my heart I knew
once they met him. I mean, I don't know what
the conversation consisted of because it was between the family,
but in my heart I knew that, you know, it
(27:53):
was love at first sight.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
I was.
Speaker 7 (27:56):
I was a little teary eyed, knowing that my time
was limited.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Now when you see him, you know, going on boarding,
you know, the Air Force one or the helicopter with
the families, and when you see him trotting along, I'm
sure you have a certain amount of pride.
Speaker 7 (28:13):
Yes, absolutely, yes, absolutely his pride, especially when he was
on the Oprah Show. I'm sure everybody saw that just
an easy going guy. Charlie was that way as a
young puppy, and he will continue to be that way.
I'm pretty sure as he grows, and it's obvious when
(28:34):
you see him on television that his training is being maintained.
Training never ends, it just gets easier. And that's the
beauty of positive reinforcement because we can get kids in
the training process.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
I was going to ask you that too.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
When it comes to training a dog, it is important
to get the kids involved.
Speaker 7 (28:56):
Right, to get the whole family involved. My children were
involved with all of my dog training from the time
that they were toddlers, you know, and again they were
mimicking me, but they knew how to interact with dogs.
(29:16):
And my kids never rough house with any of my dogs,
playing with my dogs. Our dogs was training, playing school,
being the teacher. The dog's a student, you know, playing
communion in the church. Now got communions, Cracker a drink
of water. I've got all these pictures. I mean, it's
(29:39):
just my kids at tea parties, you know, having the
dogs sit at the sit stay at the tea party,
and he drinks out of a cup of tea cup
of water. They're all kinds of ways that you can
get children involved. I would not ever put a choke
chain on a dog and give it to a child.
It's just I believe it's wrong. I think you're putting
(30:02):
out the dog at risk and the child at great risk,
and unfortunately, the dog's gonna go if you hurt your child.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
You hear that, listeners, do not have a child handle
a dog with a choke chain, and always supervise.
Speaker 7 (30:18):
You've got to supervise because you know, one on one
kids are pretty good, but when you get a group
of them together, iq level drops with the children. So
you really need a good for teenagers. So you really
need to supervise all the interactions. You know, my kids
used to create each other. You know, I've got pictures
(30:40):
of that. My dogs never minded my kids being in
there because my kids when they went in their crates,
the dog's crates, they always had some doggy kibble or
a doggy bone, you know, to see the dogs. So
there's a lot of ways that kids can get involved.
And the other thing too to remember is, and I've
(31:03):
never done this, my dogs are my dogs. I did
the research. Never buy a dog or adopt a dog
because your child wants one. Typically the age that people
get a dog for a child with seven and ten,
which they think is a good age, and it is,
but it's fleeting because then they have school events, they
(31:26):
have sleepovers, they have parties, and they start driving and
the parents inherit the dog.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
So you're saying, even though if your child wants one,
you have to make sure you're truly on board with
it as well.
Speaker 7 (31:38):
Exactly if your child wants a dog and you're not ready,
don't get the dog. Great, you have to be on
board and have a very long, ongoing conversation with your children.
If you decide yes, I would like a dog, then
you need to decide what kind of dog is going
to suit the family. The one thing about the Portuguese
(32:01):
water dog that's just so as attractive is that they
come into coat varieties. They're good swimmers, they're smart, some
are super high energy, some are super low energy. They're
considered non shedding. But when you get into a non
shedding breed, people don't realize that the grooming is high maintenance.
(32:22):
The majority of the Portuguese water dogs that you see
out there are hand a little bit alive. I've done it,
and it's a lot of work, and you have to
be very talented and the dog has to be very
patient and you have to be very patient. So that's
one thing is that you know they're a high maintenance
breed for grooming, and they're not a breed for everybody.
(32:45):
Some people just don't want them.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Well, apparently the first family loves their dog. Non We're
going to start to wrap this up, and I wanted
to get some final thoughts from you. Three things that
our viewers should know when it comes to training the dog,
no matter what age. Can you give us a couple
of quick little tips You.
Speaker 7 (33:05):
Need to research your breed. Okay, socialization for young puppies
is paramount. You've got to do it. When you get
your dog, put him on his schedule, teach him to
accept the crate, don't use his punishment, and make training fun.
Make training fun. If it's not fun, your dog won't
(33:26):
enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Advice. And I have another question, my final question. You
have two of your own dogs.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
They must be the most well behaved dogs around, are they?
Speaker 7 (33:37):
You know? There are no perfect dogs. I have an
eight year old I beef and hounds, so he's getting
up there. And then I have this Border Collie who's
almost three, who's got some issues, but for the most part,
they're pretty good. Good to know absolutely so, just got
all their basics down, all their basics downs.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
Well, the book is I love that dog training program.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Don.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
By the way, you're going to be in Saint Louis
on Friday, right, You're going to be in my hometown.
Speaker 7 (34:07):
Oh yes, I am, I am. I certainly will be there.
I think that's for the.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Big Read That's right. That's right.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
So if you if you want to meet Don in person,
go to the Big Read.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Book Festival, because she's going to be there.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
This has been Greaty, you'll be there.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
I unfortunately will be in Chicago.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Okay, or else I would have been there to meet you.
Speaker 7 (34:30):
Trust me, Okay, I believe you. I believe you. It's
going to be a nice weekend. It's been a nice weekend.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Well, Don, thank you so much and the book is one.
Speaker 7 (34:41):
Thank you very much. I really appreciate your time.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Okay, thanks for joining us for another edition of Sassy Seniors.
We will see you again very soon, you guys, so
thanks for tuning in.
Speaker 4 (34:54):
Let's Talk pets every week on demand only on pet
life Radio dot com.
Speaker 5 (35:03):
The found not
Bet you are listening to Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Sase Seniors is brought to you by Petco dot com.
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Speaker 1 (00:42):
Hello everyone, I'm Kelly Jackson with another edition of Sassey
Seniors here on pet Life Radio. Before we get started
and before I introduce our guest, I want to give
a shout out Towando times apparently tough all over. He
is a police K nine with the Jeannette, Pennsylvania Police Department.
Well he actually he used to be a K nine,
(01:04):
but starting October fifth, this drug sniffing dog services will
no longer be needed. Apparently because of budget cuts, the
city council has voted to layoff city workers. And guess what,
Wanda is included, So the six year old German shepherd.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Is out of a job.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I feel so bad for the little fella, But who knows,
maybe after so much news coverage, maybe the city council
will change their mind and give Wando back his job. Anyway,
We're going to be back after this short break with
Don Sylvia Stobwitz. Guess what.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
She has just written a book.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
It's called Love That Dog. It's a training program and
you could basically have a new dog in five weeks.
And she's also the former trainer of ba Obama. So
we'll be right back.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
We'll be right back right after these messages. Stay tuned.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
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Speaker 5 (02:39):
Hi, this is Marcy Davis and my service dog Whistle,
and we're your hosts of Working Like Dogs on pet
Like Radio. Working Like Dogs is the show where you
can learn everything you've ever wanted to know about working
animals or working dogs. Whether you're a member of a
Working Dog team, or you've just seen a working dog
or animal out at the mall or the grocery store
(03:01):
and you're curious about how these amazing animals work with
their human partners. Then Working Like Dogs is the show
for you. Join us for the inside scoops at Working
Like Dogs on Petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Let's talk pets on petlife Radio dot.
Speaker 6 (03:24):
Com and welcome back to pet Life Radio.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
I'm your host, Kelly Jackson. So pleased to have Don
Sylvia Stopwitz with us.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
She's written a.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Book called The Love Fat Dog Training Program.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Welcome to pet Life Radio, Dawn.
Speaker 7 (03:50):
Thank you for having me very much.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Well, I gotta tell you there are so many reasons
why I love this book.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
But one of the biggest reasons you have pictures.
Speaker 7 (04:00):
Pictures tell a lot, and people like those pictures. They
need a visual to try to explain something. It's much
easier to demonstrate it.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Absolutely I totally agree, absolutely so, Don you've been an
animal trainer for more than twenty years.
Speaker 7 (04:19):
Yes, yes, I have been mother trainer of all species.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Well, I will ask you about the most famous dog
in the world a little later. We hold off on
on mister bo Obama because I really do want to
get into your book.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Mainly we do a lot of talking about senior pets.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
And what I like about your book is that you
say you really can teach an old dog new tricks.
Speaker 7 (04:46):
Huh oh, absolutely absolutely. The younger the dog starts learning,
the brain is like a muscle, and a young dog
their brain is also like a spunge and they absorb everything.
So the earlier they start learning, the easier learning becomes
as they mature, and they can continue learning new things
(05:07):
well into their golden years.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely, Well, another thing I like about this
now you say in five weeks you can teach your
dog some pretty fascinating things, some pretty basic things, but
some other things that dogs really need to learn.
Speaker 7 (05:25):
Yes, in five weeks, your dog will learn all the
basics that he needs to know so you can live
with them. Even if your dog is going to be
a future show dog, he still needs to have some
man who's training otherwise you won't be able to live
with him. And that is teaching him how to function
(05:45):
in a world with people in society. Dogs are dogs
and they have their own I mean, if without training
a dog, he'll grow up to be a dog and
just totally destroy your house, jump on people and be
a big embarrassment.
Speaker 3 (06:03):
And you use the positive reinforcement approach. Right.
Speaker 7 (06:06):
In fact, yes, I use the positive reinforcement. And that's
the real issue is that it's a gentle way to
train your best friends. And the problem is that many
people don't understand the bare concept and the philosophy behind it.
(06:27):
You know, they just think of food and the dog
does the behavior, and then you get rid of the food.
And that's not the case. It's a whole learning theory
process that you phase the food out and incorporate toys
and games and all kinds of other things. Anything the
dog likes can be used as a reward right.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
And one of the things you say is, you know,
trust instead of physical threats. You know, just the other day,
I was walking on my dog and one of I
guess she's one of my neighbors, and you know, she
was like yelling at her dog and she's like, if
you don't sit, because she was just trying to sniff
my dog.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
She's like, if you don't sit, I'm going to use
the flyswater on you. Is that really necessary?
Speaker 7 (07:09):
No, Now does the dog really understand that? Well, the
dog exactly blah blah blah in an angry tone of voice. Right,
that's what the dog heard. Blah blah blah. She's angry.
I don't know why. So you can prepare a dog
to sit a when meeting and greeting people, and then
give him permission to go sniff, so the dog it's
(07:30):
a kind of a win win. You get your sit
and the dog gets to sniff, providing, of course, the
other dog doesn't mind, and you and the person that
you're talking to doesn't mind. So it's and you have
to trust your dog, right. Don't trust your dog, then
it's not a good idea to let him go sniff
someone butt dog?
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Right, And speaking of tone, you have in your book
the verbal cues of the tone and how often.
Speaker 7 (08:00):
The verbal cues you know. First, I like to teach
hand signals. And because many dogs don't look at their
owners and pay enough attention, so hand signals the dog
has to look at you to see what you're saying.
So it's very easy. Because dogs are nonverbal animals, they're
watching everything that you do. And then we will once
(08:22):
we teach the behavior with the hand signals, then we
give it a name fit and the dog will learn
to sit and get his reward at the end of
the behavior, not before. In the book the illustrations, and
(08:43):
many people have, you know, various signals. What I see
a lot in class are people that point to their
dog like they'll point to the rear end and say
fit like pointing to the rear end. The dog understands that,
but they will understand it. And people think that they
don't have signals, when in fact their body gestures are
(09:04):
giving cues to the dog as to what they want
the dog to do. I test that theory in class
all the time.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (09:11):
Yeah, And everybody's got something that they do with their eyes,
their hands, their feet that cues the dog to the behavior.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
What about the tone of voice and how often should
you say, you know, sit to a dog.
Speaker 7 (09:25):
Well that's a very good point. What I like to
incorporate and to keep people so they can understand and
so the dog can understand that telling a dog to
sit and down and running through this boring routine. You know,
the dog, okay, is sitting, but we really want the
dog to understand the relevance of what sit means and
(09:47):
what down means. So I incorporate what is called real
life rewards. In essence, you're taking your dog off welfare
and giving him a job. He's not out hunting the police.
Dogs out of work. They need something to do. And
so when you have your dog sit and then present
(10:07):
his food, sit, he gets his water bowl filled. Sit,
the door open, Sit, the leash goes on, the dog goes,
uh wow. When I sit, great things happen for me.
And as a wonderful, wonderful way to train your dog,
especially if say one day, you don't have enough time,
If your real life rewards are in place, then that
(10:28):
kind of backs up your training and keeps the dog
fine tuned. And I can always tell when students are
not doing their real life rewards.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
And how's that.
Speaker 7 (10:40):
Because when the dogs stay with me and I'm presenting
them their food and they don't fit, I'm like, uh huh,
someone's flocking off here, and it's not the dog.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
They weren't doing their whole work. Yea is yeah, And real.
Speaker 7 (10:53):
Life rewards is so easy. I mean, you're gonna pet
your dog anyway, you're gonna love your dog, You're gonna
give him treat, You're going to want him on your bed.
All I'm saying is ask him to do something first
to earn that, so he learns to work for other
things besides food and toys. It's a canine equivalent to
please may I. And dogs will learn to communicate with
(11:18):
you when they want something by sitting seeing dogs that
you know they know it's dinner time, and they'll go
over and sit in the spot where their food is
usually served and wait, yeah, and you know, oh my gosh,
it's dinner.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Tell me he knows that, don What are some of
the hardest things to teach a dog.
Speaker 7 (11:39):
The hardest things, I think is first of all, getting
the owners to pay attention to their dogs, so they
will learn to read their dog's body language, which gives
off a lot of information. One of the hardest problems
is to get a dog to stop jumping. And dogs
(12:01):
come fully equipped knowing how to jump because it's learned
in the litter and when they come to your house,
they're going to try and play with you and get
attention from you. And the only way they knew how
and what they've already learned, and that is to jump.
Cute little puppies jump. Owners reach down and pet him,
not realizing that in a few months, this dog's going
to be a horse, and the dog's not going to
(12:22):
realize he's a horse, and he's gonna keep jumping. It's
got to be a very black and white issue. Either
you're gonna let your dog jump or you're not gonna
let him jump. The middle ground is to put the
jumping on queue and teach your dog to jump when
you ask for it. It's no different than asking your
(12:42):
dog to sit. You're putting a dog knows how to
sit anyway, You're just putting it on que so he
sits when you want to sit. You can do the
same thing with jumping. You can do the same thing
with barking.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
And how do you get a dog not to jump
on you?
Speaker 7 (12:56):
Well, first of all, you know I don't allow it,
and I tell to keep their hands out of the picture.
Don't reach down and push the dog away with your hands,
because the dogs don't always know the difference between is
she reaching down to pet me and love me, or
is she reaching down to push me away? So if
a dog, I'm constantly watching the dogs, and a dog,
(13:18):
I can always tell when they're getting ready to spring,
and I turn my back and walk away and I
ignore them, and typically they'll follow you, and then I
will turn around and look at the dog, and I'll
do one of two things. I'll either wait for him
to offer me a fit, or I'll wait and then
request a sit. Either way, the jumping is not going
(13:43):
to be rewarded. Don't pay attention to anything that you
don't like. If your dog, you know, playing keep away.
Dogs love to be chased, and owners get caught up
in that game all the time. You know, don't chase
your dog if he's got something and he's going to
go away with it and he's trying to get your attention. First,
(14:04):
I turn to walk the other way. If he comes
to me. I make trades. That's really hard for people
to understand. We're offering the dog something in exchange for
what he's got, so he learns to give things up
because it's to his advantage. So he's not running under
the bed and you're trying to grab whatever he's got
(14:24):
under the bed, which I would never reach under a
bed to grab something from a dog. I mean, it's
a sure way to get bitten. He's under there for a.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Reason, yes, And if you know, that's the behavior that
he'll keep doing over and over and over.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
If you don't break them up.
Speaker 7 (14:39):
It yes, once, because it's a dog by you, He's
going to get a reaction out of you, which means
you're going to pull away and the dog is going
to realize it. Oh gosh, that worked. And then each
time if that behavior is repeated, the dog is going
through rehearsing. He's going to get better and better at
(15:00):
snapping at you because he knows it works to the
point where owners won't become afraid of their dogs.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
And what do you do with a dog that has
aggression or starts building it out of Sometimes I hear
people say my dog like, out of the blue, Now
he's getting more aggressive.
Speaker 7 (15:18):
You know, many of these aggression number one is thrown
around a lot, and I've gone on cases where the
dog was supposedly aggressive and he's not. I've got a
Borcollie I took out of rescue came to me as
dog aggressive. He's not. He's not. I've got it all
on film. He's just a pushy dog that wasn't properly
(15:40):
socialized when he was younger. Now he's getting along fine.
Aggression people throw that word around the lot, and typically
red flags go up fairly early in the dog's maturity
and owners missed those red flags, and then it's snowballs
(16:02):
into what may be aggression what may not be I
don't know until I get to the owner's house and
is the dog aggressive because I hate to put these
two together, but sometimes dogs will, you know, bite out
of fear, and people will confuse that with the true
(16:22):
aggression and it's not. I think a fearful dog, in
my opinion, is more likely to bite than one that's
truly aggressive. And then you need to figure out the triggers.
What happens before the dog aggresses. You know what's happening,
what was the trigger, what made that happen? And you
(16:44):
can You got to figure it out. That's why I
want people to start with hand signals positive reinforcement. If
you make a mistake, the reality is nobody gets hurt
with traditional training, and that's how I learned using choke
collars and things like that. If you make a mistake
and give the correction at the wrong time, if the
(17:07):
dog gets hurt and confused. So what I'm saying, let's
flip the coin. Let's pay attention to the good behaviors.
And the more you pay attention to those the bad
behaviors will start to fade away.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
In your book, also, you have be a tree. What
do you mean by that?
Speaker 7 (17:22):
Oh, be a tree. If your dog pulls, don't walk,
don't move in the direction he's pulling, stop and be
a tree. And he's going to say, what's that good
weight at the end of the leash's doing? And the
dog is going to turn around and look at you.
And you're going to market and say put dog, and
then lure him back to you, get him back into
(17:43):
a sit next to you, and then start over.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
I have a question for you.
Speaker 7 (17:48):
You may not I mean, if you want to go
to the dog park, you may have to start an
hour before you really want to be there.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
You know, my dog is thirteen and so I'm sure
he has a few learned behaviors. But he is one
of the best dogs in the world. But there are
times when I'm walking he's a shitsu.
Speaker 7 (18:04):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
But there are times when I'm.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Walking him, he'll stop and he'll dig his pads, you know,
went to the ground, and you know, he doesn't want
to come back in. He wants to stay out and
walk and he'll just stand there and what do I do?
Maybe I'm not taking control of the situation as much
as I But.
Speaker 7 (18:21):
He's number one, he's thirteen, right, number two, how long
has he been doing that forever? Okay, so if he's
been doing this forever, it's going to take a long
time to try and change that behavior. I mean, he's thirteen, right,
that should have been addressed when that's again what I'm
(18:42):
talking about. We're going back to red flags. He displayed
that behavior earlier in his youth. That was a red flag.
And you know, sometimes it's cute, it gets you know, ignored,
and then it's snowballs into what you have right now
and you can try to like a tennis all does
he like reward him when he comes in the house.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
And it doesn't do it every day, trust me, but
only on occasion, you know, he'll he'll do.
Speaker 7 (19:10):
It put you off guards. Yeah, yeah, well probably one
of those days where you want to do a quick
walk and get back in exactly, you know, because you
don't have time, and he's like, you know, it's sounds
like the dog is saying, hey, wait a minute. We
usually walked for fifteen minutes, and now you've got me
down to five no, no, right.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
And oh my goodness, Okay, we're going to continue this conversation.
We're talking with Don Sylvia Stasswitz. I said that wrong,
didn't I.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
She has to love that dog training program. We're gonna
take a quick break. We're going to talk about the
most famous dog in the country, also some other famous
dogs that you have trained.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
So we'll be right back.
Speaker 4 (20:01):
We'll be right back right after these messages. Stay tuned.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
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Let's talk past.
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Radio, Hetline Radio, Petlight Radio dot com.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
And we're back with down Sylvia Sootswitch.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
She's written the book, loved that dog training program And Dawn,
I was reading your book and apparently a special little
dog has a birthday this week. Celebrating a birthday.
Speaker 7 (22:25):
Cappy, which is the letter May to the President's dog
who is owned by Senator Kennedy and Vicki and I
referred to him as Charlie Folk.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Okay, so we'll.
Speaker 7 (22:38):
Be getting their second year.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Is that amazing? Now, I've got to ask you, and
I know the world wants to know. How did it
come about that you trained the first dog? You trained
this dog before it made its way to the White House.
Speaker 7 (22:53):
Yes, he came to me through Vicky Kennedy. I knew
the breeder, and the breeder is the same breeder where
all of the Kennedy dogs are from. So she just
wanted me to evaluate the dog because he was going
to be rehomed. And I said, sure, fine, no problem,
I'll do anything for you. Vicki and I picked him
(23:15):
up and took him to my ex husband's office for
a down appointment, and come as a cucumber, not stressed
at all from you know, the traveling and all of
the other things you know that he had been through.
And I was quite quite pleased.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
How long did you train him down?
Speaker 7 (23:36):
I think I had him for about maybe six or
eight weeks, A couple of months, a couple of months.
It was fun. First of all, I d span a Porie.
I used to own a party back in the eighties
when they were first introduced to United States.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
And for some people who may not know their Portuguese
water dogs.
Speaker 7 (23:58):
Yes, Portuguese water dog we called them porties. And I
had one my children were little, and she was just
the best dog. There were allergies in the family, so
I was looking at, you know, poodles and various other breeds.
But I went to a lot of dog shows and
researched and talked to a lot of people, and I
(24:19):
ended up choosing a Portuguese water dog and she was
wonderful and very bright. So I needed to evaluate this
dog to see what would be a good fit, where
he would fit in, because the worst thing, you know,
for a dog is to be bounced from home to
home to home. We don't want that. We want to
(24:42):
make a good evaluation and make a proper placement. And
Vicky checked with me, you know, a few weeks later,
she checked in Aten and I was just, you know, floored.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
When you found out that. And then we should say, Vicky,
is that the wife was under light to Kennedy?
Speaker 7 (25:00):
Right, Yes, I was floored. A great dog, he was, Oh,
I mean I couldn't believe it. I had not one
accident in the house. He can't clearly let me know
when he wanted to go out. So the previous home
where he had been was good to him. There were
just some behaviors that I wanted to fine tune and
(25:22):
install in him, and I did. And had he not
gone where he went, I wanted to be next in line.
I would have taken him in a heartbeat.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
So I have a.
Speaker 7 (25:35):
Feeling he's so great.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
He passed with flying colors. Uh, you got a gold
star from you.
Speaker 7 (25:41):
Yeah. And the way I worked with him is the
way I would work with anyone that would send a
dog to me, and the way that I work my
own dogs, because in the future, you know, I may
want to show a dog get into some sporting event.
So in order to do that, you have to socialize, socialize, socialize,
(26:04):
and take the dog out and expose them to as
much as you possibly can think of that he will
encounter at some point in his life, so you start
working on it while they're young. So Charlie went a
lot of places target you know, I'll go anywhere with
a dog until they'd say no dogs are allowed, And
(26:26):
I'm like, Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see a sign.
But I got my three minutes in and that's all.
It takes three minutes here, three minutes there. We went
to the bank, went to Target, went strip malls, went
by playgrounds, introduced him to my neighbor's children. And he
(26:46):
was great. I mean, and the breeder. Of course, Martha
and Art Stern are really good breeders. They're temperaments of
their dogs or just exquisite.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
So when did you actually find out that Charlie aka
bo As actually the White House.
Speaker 7 (27:06):
It was, gosh, I don't know, maybe two or three
weeks beforehand, you know, I found out, but I wasn't nervous.
To me, they were just another family and they had children,
and that I wasn't nervous at all.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Well, that's because you've been a trainer for two decades.
Me I would have been like I would have been
eyeballing him for the last two weeks.
Speaker 7 (27:32):
Oh yeah, I had trust and faith in this dog
so much. And I mean, in my heart I knew
once they met him. I mean, I don't know what
the conversation consisted of because it was between the family,
but in my heart I knew that, you know, it
(27:53):
was love at first sight.
Speaker 5 (27:55):
I was.
Speaker 7 (27:56):
I was a little teary eyed, knowing that my time
was limited.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Now when you see him, you know, going on boarding,
you know, the Air Force one or the helicopter with
the families, and when you see him trotting along, I'm
sure you have a certain amount of pride.
Speaker 7 (28:13):
Yes, absolutely, yes, absolutely his pride, especially when he was
on the Oprah Show. I'm sure everybody saw that just
an easy going guy. Charlie was that way as a
young puppy, and he will continue to be that way.
I'm pretty sure as he grows, and it's obvious when
(28:34):
you see him on television that his training is being maintained.
Training never ends, it just gets easier. And that's the
beauty of positive reinforcement because we can get kids in
the training process.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
I was going to ask you that too.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
When it comes to training a dog, it is important
to get the kids involved.
Speaker 7 (28:56):
Right, to get the whole family involved. My children were
involved with all of my dog training from the time
that they were toddlers, you know, and again they were
mimicking me, but they knew how to interact with dogs.
(29:16):
And my kids never rough house with any of my dogs,
playing with my dogs. Our dogs was training, playing school,
being the teacher. The dog's a student, you know, playing
communion in the church. Now got communions, Cracker a drink
of water. I've got all these pictures. I mean, it's
(29:39):
just my kids at tea parties, you know, having the
dogs sit at the sit stay at the tea party,
and he drinks out of a cup of tea cup
of water. They're all kinds of ways that you can
get children involved. I would not ever put a choke
chain on a dog and give it to a child.
It's just I believe it's wrong. I think you're putting
(30:02):
out the dog at risk and the child at great risk,
and unfortunately, the dog's gonna go if you hurt your child.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
You hear that, listeners, do not have a child handle
a dog with a choke chain, and always supervise.
Speaker 7 (30:18):
You've got to supervise because you know, one on one
kids are pretty good, but when you get a group
of them together, iq level drops with the children. So
you really need a good for teenagers. So you really
need to supervise all the interactions. You know, my kids
used to create each other. You know, I've got pictures
(30:40):
of that. My dogs never minded my kids being in
there because my kids when they went in their crates,
the dog's crates, they always had some doggy kibble or
a doggy bone, you know, to see the dogs. So
there's a lot of ways that kids can get involved.
And the other thing too to remember is, and I've
(31:03):
never done this, my dogs are my dogs. I did
the research. Never buy a dog or adopt a dog
because your child wants one. Typically the age that people
get a dog for a child with seven and ten,
which they think is a good age, and it is,
but it's fleeting because then they have school events, they
(31:26):
have sleepovers, they have parties, and they start driving and
the parents inherit the dog.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
So you're saying, even though if your child wants one,
you have to make sure you're truly on board with
it as well.
Speaker 7 (31:38):
Exactly if your child wants a dog and you're not ready,
don't get the dog. Great, you have to be on
board and have a very long, ongoing conversation with your children.
If you decide yes, I would like a dog, then
you need to decide what kind of dog is going
to suit the family. The one thing about the Portuguese
(32:01):
water dog that's just so as attractive is that they
come into coat varieties. They're good swimmers, they're smart, some
are super high energy, some are super low energy. They're
considered non shedding. But when you get into a non
shedding breed, people don't realize that the grooming is high maintenance.
(32:22):
The majority of the Portuguese water dogs that you see
out there are hand a little bit alive. I've done it,
and it's a lot of work, and you have to
be very talented and the dog has to be very
patient and you have to be very patient. So that's
one thing is that you know they're a high maintenance
breed for grooming, and they're not a breed for everybody.
(32:45):
Some people just don't want them.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Well, apparently the first family loves their dog. Non We're
going to start to wrap this up, and I wanted
to get some final thoughts from you. Three things that
our viewers should know when it comes to training the dog,
no matter what age. Can you give us a couple
of quick little tips You.
Speaker 7 (33:05):
Need to research your breed. Okay, socialization for young puppies
is paramount. You've got to do it. When you get
your dog, put him on his schedule, teach him to
accept the crate, don't use his punishment, and make training fun.
Make training fun. If it's not fun, your dog won't
(33:26):
enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Advice. And I have another question, my final question. You
have two of your own dogs.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
They must be the most well behaved dogs around, are they?
Speaker 7 (33:37):
You know? There are no perfect dogs. I have an
eight year old I beef and hounds, so he's getting
up there. And then I have this Border Collie who's
almost three, who's got some issues, but for the most part,
they're pretty good. Good to know absolutely so, just got
all their basics down, all their basics downs.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
Well, the book is I love that dog training program.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Don.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
By the way, you're going to be in Saint Louis
on Friday, right, You're going to be in my hometown.
Speaker 7 (34:07):
Oh yes, I am, I am. I certainly will be there.
I think that's for the.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Big Read That's right. That's right.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
So if you if you want to meet Don in person,
go to the Big Read.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Book Festival, because she's going to be there.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
This has been Greaty, you'll be there.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
I unfortunately will be in Chicago.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Okay, or else I would have been there to meet you.
Speaker 7 (34:30):
Trust me, Okay, I believe you. I believe you. It's
going to be a nice weekend. It's been a nice weekend.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Well, Don, thank you so much and the book is one.
Speaker 7 (34:41):
Thank you very much. I really appreciate your time.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Okay, thanks for joining us for another edition of Sassy Seniors.
We will see you again very soon, you guys, so
thanks for tuning in.
Speaker 4 (34:54):
Let's Talk pets every week on demand only on pet
life Radio dot com.
Speaker 5 (35:03):
The found not
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