January 4, 2024 • 35 mins
Imagine a world where your dog navigates the chaos of a squirrel chase with the poise of a Zen master. In our latest conversation, we celebrate National Train Your Dog Month by unfolding the secrets to mastering your dog's impulse control. Say goodbye to the days of tug-of-war with your pooch at the sight of every passing bike, and hello to serene walks in the park. We tackle a lineup of exercises that will transform your furry friend's reactions to high-stimulation scenarios, and lay out three New Year's resolutions that every dog owner should embrace.
Training your dog can be as satisfying as savoring that first sip of coffee in the morning—if done correctly. This episode is your guide to ditching the intimidation tactics and embracing the power of positive reinforcement. We've dissected the science behind nurturing an obedient and happy canine through incremental challenges in distance, duration, and distraction. As we traverse the journey of training together, we celebrate each mistake as a stepping stone to success, providing a sanctuary of patience and consistency for your four-legged companion to thrive.
To wrap up, I extend a heartfelt thanks for joining me on this adventure in dog training and offer a sneak peek at the exciting year ahead. Your support means the world, and I can't wait to share the new topics and interviews we have in store. Remember to mark your calendars for our monthly Facebook Live Q&A sessions, where I'll be on hand to answer all your pressing training questions. Here's to a year of growth, learning, and the unbreakable bond we share with our dogs. Let's make every interaction with our furry best friends count!
If you need professional help please visit my Dog Behaviorist website.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Happy 2024 everyone.
Did you know that January isNational Train your Dog Month?
Yeah, so one of the things thatI wanted to do, one of the
things that I thought was prettycool that I would put together
for this podcast, would betalking about what I believe is
one of the most importantexercises that you can teach any
(00:25):
dog of any age, and that'simpulse control.
I want you to think about it.
Most pet parents, when they'refrustrated with their dog's
behavior, a lot of it tends tofall into the category of a dog
that gets overstimulated or adog that doesn't have good
(00:46):
impulse control and they losecontrol of the dog.
And this could be in situationswhere there are a lot of
distractions.
This could be in a situationwhere the dog is just
overstimulated.
Well, don't go anywhere.
We're gonna talk all about thisin 60 seconds.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Raised by wolves with canine DNA and his blood.
Having trained more than 24,000vets helping you and your fur
babies thrive, live in studiowith Will Bangura answering your
pet behavior and trainingquestions.
Ladies and gentlemen, pleasewelcome your host and favorite
pet behavior expert, willBangura.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Would you like to go on Well, good day dog lovers.
As I said in the opener, happy2024.
In January is National Trainyour Dog Month.
So one of the things that Iwanted to do, as I said in the
(01:59):
opener, was to kind of help youguys to understand what are some
ways that you can teach yourdog to have impulse control.
What are some ways that you canbegin to teach your dog.
Hey, just because there mightbe a lot of stimulation in the
environment, just because theremight be a lot of distractions,
(02:21):
doesn't mean that you have toengage in every single thing
that's going on.
And so teaching impulse controlreally can be beneficial for
those very challenging highstimulation environments where
you struggle to be able tomanage and control your dog in a
(02:47):
way where your dog kind of letsgo of and kind of ignores the
distractions.
But you're going to see thatwhat I have today are 20
different exercises.
Each one of these exercises isgeared towards teaching impulse
(03:12):
control, and one of the things Iwant you to do for 2024, if
you're a regular listener to dogtraining today, I want you to
set a New Year's resolution andif there are only three things
(03:35):
that you teach your dog thisyear or in January.
But sometimes teaching threethings in a month is a lot
depends on the dog and howquickly they can learn.
But the three things that I'mgoing to encourage you to set
goals for are to teach your dog.
(03:55):
Number one impulse control.
Number two, to come when called, no matter what.
And number three, to have yourdog stay, whether that is having
your dog lay down and stay,whether it's telling your dog to
go to its place, its bed, itsmat, its spot, and stay.
(04:18):
So those three things I thinkare absolutely critical.
Think about it.
If your dog does not lose it,no matter what the distractions,
no matter how much excitement,no matter how much stimulation,
your dog can stay focused andlisten to you and respond to
(04:42):
cues that you're giving, askingthe dog to do certain behaviors.
So impulse control isabsolutely critical.
You cannot get your dog'sattention if your dog has really
poor impulse control and you'rein an environment where there's
a lot going on.
So impulse control absolutelycritical.
(05:06):
So set a goal in 2024.
I'm going to make sure that mydog, no matter how old I don't
care if this is an eight weekold puppy, I don't care if it's
a 13, 15 year old dog.
You can teach impulse controlat any time, but make that one
(05:28):
of your goals and make anothergoal for 2024.
I'm going to train my dog tocome every single time.
I call my dog to me, no matterwhat, no matter the distraction,
(05:49):
no matter how much stimulation,no matter how much craziness is
going on around your dog.
And then again, the third thingteaching your dog to stay, and
I'm talking about a solid stay.
You ask your dog to lay down orto sit, or to go to its bed or
(06:13):
go to its spot or place.
You want to make sure that yourgoal is that your dog will stay
, no matter how crazy and insanethe distractions are.
So I want you to think aboutthis.
Picture this, imagine thisImagine you have a dog that pays
(06:36):
attention to you in anyenvironment and has phenomenal
impulse control.
Imagine a dog that will come toyou when called, every single
time, doesn't matter what thecrazy distractions are, doesn't
matter how stimulating theenvironment is.
Your dog comes every time, nomatter what, without fail.
(06:58):
And then, third, you can getyour dog to stay and to stay put
, no matter how crazy, howinsane the distractions are, no
matter how insane, no matter howcrazy the energy or the
stimulation is in theenvironment for your dog.
(07:20):
Imagine if you had those threethings and they were solid and
they were reliable and they hadpermanence of behavior.
You can pretty much manage yourdog in just about 99.9% of
(07:42):
situations just by having thosethree things taught very well.
So I want to encourage you for2024, that is my idea that I
think would be a great goal forall pet parents to achieve in
(08:02):
2024.
Now let's also talk about thefact that in 2024, more and more
and more trainers, more andmore and more pet parents are
understanding that there'smodern dog training and modern
(08:23):
dog training is science-based,it's evidence-based and it's
done with all positivereinforcement, no punishment.
So what does that mean?
That means no corrections.
That means that there's nodiscomfort, because when we're
talking about a correction,that's just a more politically
(08:46):
correct term for punishment, andwhen we're talking about
punishment, it is aboutattempting to stop unwanted
behaviors by causing discomfortto the dog.
In 2024, those modern dogtrainers, those that are
(09:06):
educated, those that arecertified, know that there is a
plethora of scientific researchpapers out there that show that
you can train in any behaviorwith positive reinforcement and
you can train out any behaviorwith positive reinforcement that
(09:26):
the use of corrections, the useof punishment, the use of
aversive tools or anything thatcauses your dog fear, pain or
intimidation or even theslightest bit of discomfort is
unnecessary.
It's just not necessary.
Any trainer out there thattells you that punishment
(09:47):
corrections are necessary here'swhat I have to say.
They are probably verywell-intended, they've got good
intentions, but if they feelthat they have to use punishment
, they have to use corrections.
All that means is that they arejust not a highly skilled
trainer with positivereinforcement.
(10:10):
There are trainers all over theworld that are positive
reinforcement trainers, that areforce-free trainers, that train
without fear, without pain,without intimidation, without
using choke chains and prongcollars and shock collars.
We don't need to causediscomfort in order to matter of
(10:30):
fact, in order to learn and toremember.
If there's fear, pain,intimidation or discomfort, you
are creating anxiety and stressand learning is going to
diminish.
Think about the times that youlearned the most.
I bet for a lot of you it wastimes when you were being taught
(10:57):
.
Yet you were having fun.
It was enjoyable, and ifthere's one thing that we wanna
make sure that is enjoyable andfun, that's training your dog,
training your puppy, doesn'tmatter what the age.
It should be fun for you, itshould be fun for your dog.
This should be the highlight ofyour day and if this is the
(11:19):
time that you spend a lot ofattention, engagement, love,
praise, affection, rewarding thedog with high value food,
rewards for doing anexceptionally good job,
responding to cues, positivereinforcement is what modern dog
training is all about.
(11:41):
Only old school, archaic dogtraining uses corrections and
punishment.
When you start hearingbuzzwords like you need to show
your dog who's boss, you need tobe alpha, you need to do an
alpha role, you need to makesure that you're at the top of
your pack, and they starttalking pack structure.
(12:03):
All of that stuff has beendisproven.
I know you might not be awareof it, but there's lots of
studies out there.
Matter of fact, the researcherthat first published and was
talking about hierarchystructure, pack structure being
(12:24):
alpha, the alpha male, the alphafemale Dr Metsch.
He said that his research waswrong, that he was doing it on
wolves and captivity, notdomesticated dogs, and it's very
different for domesticated dogs.
(12:46):
But let's talk about impulsecontrol.
There are some very specificexercises that you can work on
with your dog in order to beable to get great impulse
control from your dog.
One of those is to teach yourdog to sit and stay.
(13:06):
Any type of stay exercisewhether it's sit and stay, lay
down and stay go to your bed,your place, your spot, your mat
and stay.
Your dog can't be staying andreacting to distractions,
(13:30):
reacting to lots of energy andstimulation in the environment
at the same time.
Your dog would have to give upthe behavior of staying in order
to go with its impulses.
So one of the most importantthings about teaching a stay
(13:51):
stay exercise for your dog isnot just about having a super
reliable stay.
It's also the beautifulunintended consequences of that.
The dog learns to have betterimpulse control and it learns to
(14:14):
have a higher tolerance forfrustration, because dogs that
have poor impulse control theyget frustrated very easy.
So doing things like I saidteaching your dog to sit and
stay, lay down and stay, go toyour bed or place and stay,
(14:35):
teaching your dog to wait atdoors and gates you know, if you
spent five minutes a dayworking on teaching your dog to
sit and stay, it's not gonnatake long before you start
seeing reliability in moredistracting environments.
(14:56):
The thing about all of theseexercises, when we're talking
impulse control.
You in many of them, want tostart off with very low level
distractions, but you bettertrain with distractions.
What good is your training Ifyour dog doesn't listen and pay
attention, when all heck isbreaking loose and things are
(15:19):
crazy?
That's when you need thetraining to work.
So it's really important.
But what I want to say is thatanytime you're training your dog
and you are unable to keep yourdog focused and your dog has
poor impulse control and is justreacting and I don't
necessarily mean an aggressiveway reacting.
(15:41):
It could be your dog is veryexcited, but your dog's reacting
, responding to the environmentand all the energy and the
craziness in the environment.
So we're gonna teach the dog todo several things that are
(16:02):
gonna help with all of thatTeaching.
Your dog already said it's asit and stay, lay down and stay,
go to its bed and stay, go toits mat and stay, go to place
and stay, place and staywhatever you wanna call it your
dog bed and stay, but teachingyour dog to stay.
The other thing, like I said,waiting at doors, also waiting
(16:23):
at gates.
Now, if every day you spentfive minutes proactively
teaching your dog to wait whenyou open the door and what I
recommend that you do have yourdog wait about three feet before
, three feet behind where thedoor opens.
(16:44):
You know what a doorstop is.
Some homes don't have thoseanymore.
When I was a kid, every homehad a doorstop.
Some kids today they don't evenknow what a doorstop is.
Anyway, where the doorstopwould be is where you want your
dog to be behind when your dogwaits.
Now, when you ask your dog towait, one of the things that I
(17:10):
want you to do is to drop atreat right between their front
legs, take a step back and thengo forward, drop another treat
between their front legs, taketwo steps back, then go back and
drop two or three treats in themiddle between your dog's front
(17:33):
legs.
Little by little, you are goingto add more distance.
You're gonna add more durationin terms of how long your dog
waits at the door or is doingthe sit stay or staying on place
.
So there are three Ds that wetalk about in training Distance,
(17:54):
duration and distraction andthose are necessary for
everything that you're teachingyour dog.
Okay, when you have your dogwait, turn in front of your dog,
face your dog Slowly, make yourway out the door, backing up
away from your dog so that youreyes are on your dog at all
(18:16):
times.
If your dog begins to moveforward, say, wait, move into
your dog.
If your dog moved forward fromthe position you had your dog in
, move your dog back to whereyour dog was, start that process
over again.
(18:36):
Put a treat down between itsfront legs, take a step back,
then step in, put another treat,then try taking two steps back
and forward and drop two treatsbetween your dog's legs.
And again, if your dog startsto move forward towards that
threshold of the door, I justneed you to walk into your dog
(19:01):
and guide your dog back.
And in the beginning your dog'sgonna make mistakes.
Your dog doesn't know what todo.
So having patience andunderstanding is critical when
you're training your dog.
All right, what's another thingthat you can work with your dog
(19:23):
on that is going to help withimpulse control?
How about teaching?
Leave it?
All right now.
Teaching your dog to ignorethings and say move away from a
particular item or food when youask it to leave it can be
(19:45):
critical.
Now, one of the ways that Ilike to begin the process using
positive reinforcement.
Again, we don't need to usepunishment, but using positive
reinforcement to teach leave it.
I'm gonna have a couple treatsin each of my hands and I'm
gonna close my hands so thetreats are in closed fists.
(20:06):
I'm gonna put both hands behindmy back.
I am going to bring one of myhands out, let the dog smell it
and as the dog shows interest,I'm going to say leave it.
I'm gonna pull my hand back sothe treat goes away from the dog
(20:28):
.
And then I'm gonna reward thedog by bringing the opposite
hand out and giving the foodreward.
And I'm gonna do that again,and again, and again and again,
lots of repetition.
The one reason that I like to doit where I've got treats in my
(20:49):
hand is because when I startwith a closed fist, I can keep
the dog from getting the food.
I don't wanna lose on this one.
Remember, the goal is to havethe dog leave it, but I need to
create the concept, we need tocreate that behavior.
Your dog doesn't know whatleave it is If you've never
worked on it, obviously, and sowe've gotta teach what leave it
(21:12):
is.
And one of the things that'sreally important is doing
tradeouts.
When you do this, just thinkabout it.
If there's something the doglikes and you're taking it away,
that's punishment.
So we can avoid that by doingtradeouts, and that's exactly
what I'm doing as I'm teachingthat.
(21:33):
All right.
So again, doing leave it.
Put treats in both hands.
Close your hands so they'reinside your fists.
Both arms behind your back.
Bring one arm out.
Keep the fist closed with thetreat in it.
Let your dog smell it.
As your dog shows interest,pull that hand back and say
(21:55):
leave it.
At the same time, wait about asecond.
Bring your other hand out andgive the treats that are in that
hand.
Practice that Now when I'mworking on things like wait at
the door or working on sit andstay or working on leave it.
I'm going to try to do five,seven, ten repetitions in a row
(22:21):
and I'm going to try to do thattwo, three times a day.
So my sessions when I'mtraining they're short but
they're multiple.
And you know, I realizeeverybody's busy and this can be
inconvenient.
But you know what.
You can find ten minutes threetimes a day to work with your
(22:43):
dog, or you can find fiveminutes four or five times a day
or night to train your dog.
You don't believe me?
Start setting alarms on yourphone, and I'm serious about
that because you know, let's saythat you work outside of the
house and you worked eight, ten,twelve hour shift.
(23:05):
You're tired, you're exhausted.
If you don't set an alarm onyour phone to get up and train
your dog for five, seven, eight,ten minutes, it's probably not
going to happen.
So I really encourage you toset those alarms, all right.
So the next impulse controlexercise I want to talk about is
(23:26):
drop it.
Now, with drop it, we'retraining the dog to release an
item that they have in theirmouth when we ask them to.
Okay, let me explain how I liketo teach drop it.
And I've got two different ways.
One I love to do what I callcapturing.
(23:50):
I'll create a situation where Ifeel pretty certain, pretty
confident, that I can get a dogto pick something up.
Maybe the dog is interested ina toy or two or has three or
four toys that likes.
Well, I may take that toy thatthe dog likes and I may just
lightly.
I don't want to get the dog tooexcited with the toy, I just
(24:13):
want the dog excited enough thatthe dog will pick up the toy.
So I'm going to toss it just alittle bit and as the dog picks
it up and again I'm teachingdrop it.
As the dog picks up the toy, Iam going to label that fetch and
(24:38):
when the dog lets it go on itsown, I'm not asking for drop,
I'm just like I'm not asking forfetch.
I'm creating a situation wherethe dog is going to use its
mouth to pick something up andthen when that happens, I'm
going to associate that with thecue fetch by labeling that
behavior when it happens.
(24:58):
And I'm going to do that overand over and over.
Now if, once the dog picks upthe object, I kind of freeze
like a tree and I don't engagewith the dog.
Usually it's not very longbefore the dog just lets go of
the toy, drops the toy.
This is where the magic is incapturing.
(25:20):
When the dog drops the toy onits own, I want you to label
that, create an association withthat behavior, because we want
that.
So when the dog on its ownlet's go of an object, I just
need you to label that, drop itand then reward your dog.
(25:42):
Please make sure you are givingyour dog some very high value
food rewards.
And trust me, some people willsay, oh, my dog's not food
motivated.
Every dog is food motivated.
You just got to find the righthigh value food reward.
Now, granted, some dogs havemore food when I call food drive
(26:03):
than others, but there's nosuch thing as a dog that we
can't motivate with food.
We just have to find the rightthing.
All right, we talked about stayand we talked about with
teaching stay as an impulsecontrol exercise.
You can do this with a sit stay, having your dog lie down and
(26:26):
stay to go to its place you knowthose elevated dog cuts or go
to its dog bed or go to a mat orspot, whatever you want to call
it.
But you're going to want to doproactive distraction training
and I've got a rule of three andwe do the distraction training
(26:47):
to kind of proof the stay.
But you got to start with very,very low level distractions.
They can't be intense at alland the duration of the
distraction has to be just asplit second.
And you've got to reward thedog immediately when the dog
doesn't take the bait.
(27:08):
Make it easy for your dog in thebeginning to win Very short,
very benign distractions andthen, little by little, when
your dog has success with those,start doing that but add a
little more distance to it.
Okay, and then start withadding more duration to the
(27:37):
distraction.
Now, if you keep losing or itshould say if your dog keeps
losing every time you start tocreate distance your dog comes
out of the stay.
That just means that you havenot spent enough time positively
reinforcing the step before thedistance before that you were
(27:57):
having success with, and perhapswhen you added more distance
you didn't do it, just a littlebit and slightly.
Maybe you took a big leap ofdistance and maybe it was too
much, too soon for your dog.
We can only work at the dog'space, and when things aren't
(28:18):
working with your dog.
That's communication, that'sfeedback telling you that
there's something that we needto adjust with how we're
teaching the dog.
It's not an indicator that thedog is stubborn or the dog's not
intelligent, because it's allabout motivating the dog.
(28:40):
That's our job.
Okay, all right.
What is another impulse controlexercise that we can begin to
teach your dog?
Well, one another one that Iabsolutely love, and this is one
that you can also capture.
(29:02):
Oh, let me rewind a second whenit comes to drop it.
Remember, I was talking aboutcapturing that behavior.
I'm going to capture that for acouple of weeks and then, after
a couple of weeks, if that'sbeen going well, I'm going to
change things up just slightly.
I'm going to do everything, thesame kind of toss that toy,
(29:24):
hoping the dog's going to pickit up.
Only I'm going to say drop, I'mgoing to ask for drop.
Now, this is after a couple ofweeks of working with it every
day, spending about five, seven,10 minutes a day working on
this.
Okay, go.
(29:45):
The next exercise I want to talkabout, for impulse control is
another one.
We're going to start, before weask for it, by creating the
behavior and labeling it.
So we're going to create,capture the behavior, labeling
it, making an association.
So we're labeling with the cuewe want, creating that
(30:08):
association.
Then immediately rewarding thedog.
So teaching the dog to focus,teaching the dog to look at you,
to watch, and it's very easy todo.
Now you got to make sure and Ishould have said this in the
beginning make sure that you'vegot a treat pouch on, make sure
you've got a bunch of high valuefood rewards, and they should
be not only highly palatable butthey should be tiny.
(30:31):
Yeah, a food reward when you'retraining your dog should be
about the size of a pea, but itshould be yummy.
Whatever your dog's chocolateis and I don't mean real
chocolate, whatever your dogloves and it can be beneficial
to find three different types offood rewards that your dog
(30:53):
loves, and very, you know,amongst those three different
food rewards as you're training,so your dog doesn't get sick of
it, all right.
So how do we teach focus, watch,look at me?
First of all, pick the cue thatyou want to use.
(31:16):
Are you going to say watch?
Are you going to say look at me?
Are you going to say focus?
All right, we've got our wordselected and we're going to
start creating the behavior ofhaving the dog look at you, and
one of the ways I love to dothis is just by saying the dog's
(31:39):
name.
So the dog's not looking at you, your dog's not looking at you.
Begin to say its name, and sayit in a cadence If you need to.
If the dog doesn't look at youright away, repeat the name over
and over.
The dog's going to look at you.
And, by the way, don't startthis in a distracting
environment.
Start this in an environmentwhere there are little to no
(32:00):
distractions.
Again, we want to create thebehavior, label the behavior and
reinforce that and dorepetition with that and then
eventually we can actually askfor it.
All right, so say the dog'sname in.
Let me give an example.
My dog's name is Boo.
So if I go Boo and Boo looks atme, the instant Boo looks at me
(32:24):
, I'm going to say watch andthen I'm going to immediately
reward my dog.
I'm going to let my dog getdistracted.
Again, I'm going to say mydog's name, boo.
As soon as Boo looks at me, Iam going to label that watch and
I'm going to reward immediatelyafter that.
Timing's everything.
So you got to be quick withthis.
You're creating the behavior ofwatch.
(32:47):
But you are not asking for it,you're labeling it when your dog
does look at you when you sayyour dog's name.
So when you say your dog's name, we're trying to get the dog to
look at you.
Let's say your dog doesn't turnto look at you the first time
you say its name.
Repeat it like this Boo, boo,boo, watch and reward.
(33:09):
So again we can repeat theirname.
But if we're going on and onand on repeating the name over
and over and over and they'renot looking at us, well chances
are you are in an environmentthat's way, way, way too
distracting.
You need to be in a lower levelenvironment that doesn't have
(33:32):
those intensive distractions.
You're going to get therelittle by little, baby steps.
Again, remember when I saidpatience and understanding.
That's something that's super,super important.
All right, I'm going to.
I'm going to break up thispodcast into a part one and a
(33:55):
part two, because I'm trying tokeep the podcast a little bit
shorter just so that you guyswill listen more.
Do me a favor, like I said, ifyou love what we do, please
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(34:15):
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(34:40):
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(35:04):
excited.
I'm looking forward to 2024.
I'm going to be doing a lot ofnew topics for 2024.
I'm also going to be doing someinterviews for 2024 and kind of
break things up and forFacebook Live, I'm just going to
be doing that the firstSaturday of the month and it's
(35:26):
going to be Q&A.
Have a great day everybody.
I'm out of here.
Happy 2024 everyone.
Did you know that January isNational Train your Dog Month?
Yeah, so one of the things thatI wanted to do, one of the
things that I thought was prettycool that I would put together
for this podcast, would betalking about what I believe is
one of the most importantexercises that you can teach any
(00:25):
dog of any age, and that'simpulse control.
I want you to think about it.
Most pet parents, when they'refrustrated with their dog's
behavior, a lot of it tends tofall into the category of a dog
that gets overstimulated or adog that doesn't have good
(00:46):
impulse control and they losecontrol of the dog.
And this could be in situationswhere there are a lot of
distractions.
This could be in a situationwhere the dog is just
overstimulated.
Well, don't go anywhere.
We're gonna talk all about thisin 60 seconds.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Raised by wolves with canine DNA and his blood.
Having trained more than 24,000vets helping you and your fur
babies thrive, live in studiowith Will Bangura answering your
pet behavior and trainingquestions.
Ladies and gentlemen, pleasewelcome your host and favorite
pet behavior expert, willBangura.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Would you like to go on Well, good day dog lovers.
As I said in the opener, happy2024.
In January is National Trainyour Dog Month.
So one of the things that Iwanted to do, as I said in the
(01:59):
opener, was to kind of help youguys to understand what are some
ways that you can teach yourdog to have impulse control.
What are some ways that you canbegin to teach your dog.
Hey, just because there mightbe a lot of stimulation in the
environment, just because theremight be a lot of distractions,
(02:21):
doesn't mean that you have toengage in every single thing
that's going on.
And so teaching impulse controlreally can be beneficial for
those very challenging highstimulation environments where
you struggle to be able tomanage and control your dog in a
(02:47):
way where your dog kind of letsgo of and kind of ignores the
distractions.
But you're going to see thatwhat I have today are 20
different exercises.
Each one of these exercises isgeared towards teaching impulse
(03:12):
control, and one of the things Iwant you to do for 2024, if
you're a regular listener to dogtraining today, I want you to
set a New Year's resolution andif there are only three things
(03:35):
that you teach your dog thisyear or in January.
But sometimes teaching threethings in a month is a lot
depends on the dog and howquickly they can learn.
But the three things that I'mgoing to encourage you to set
goals for are to teach your dog.
(03:55):
Number one impulse control.
Number two, to come when called, no matter what.
And number three, to have yourdog stay, whether that is having
your dog lay down and stay,whether it's telling your dog to
go to its place, its bed, itsmat, its spot, and stay.
(04:18):
So those three things I thinkare absolutely critical.
Think about it.
If your dog does not lose it,no matter what the distractions,
no matter how much excitement,no matter how much stimulation,
your dog can stay focused andlisten to you and respond to
(04:42):
cues that you're giving, askingthe dog to do certain behaviors.
So impulse control isabsolutely critical.
You cannot get your dog'sattention if your dog has really
poor impulse control and you'rein an environment where there's
a lot going on.
So impulse control absolutelycritical.
(05:06):
So set a goal in 2024.
I'm going to make sure that mydog, no matter how old I don't
care if this is an eight weekold puppy, I don't care if it's
a 13, 15 year old dog.
You can teach impulse controlat any time, but make that one
(05:28):
of your goals and make anothergoal for 2024.
I'm going to train my dog tocome every single time.
I call my dog to me, no matterwhat, no matter the distraction,
(05:49):
no matter how much stimulation,no matter how much craziness is
going on around your dog.
And then again, the third thingteaching your dog to stay, and
I'm talking about a solid stay.
You ask your dog to lay down orto sit, or to go to its bed or
(06:13):
go to its spot or place.
You want to make sure that yourgoal is that your dog will stay
, no matter how crazy and insanethe distractions are.
So I want you to think aboutthis.
Picture this, imagine thisImagine you have a dog that pays
(06:36):
attention to you in anyenvironment and has phenomenal
impulse control.
Imagine a dog that will come toyou when called, every single
time, doesn't matter what thecrazy distractions are, doesn't
matter how stimulating theenvironment is.
Your dog comes every time, nomatter what, without fail.
(06:58):
And then, third, you can getyour dog to stay and to stay put
, no matter how crazy, howinsane the distractions are, no
matter how insane, no matter howcrazy the energy or the
stimulation is in theenvironment for your dog.
(07:20):
Imagine if you had those threethings and they were solid and
they were reliable and they hadpermanence of behavior.
You can pretty much manage yourdog in just about 99.9% of
(07:42):
situations just by having thosethree things taught very well.
So I want to encourage you for2024, that is my idea that I
think would be a great goal forall pet parents to achieve in
(08:02):
2024.
Now let's also talk about thefact that in 2024, more and more
and more trainers, more andmore and more pet parents are
understanding that there'smodern dog training and modern
(08:23):
dog training is science-based,it's evidence-based and it's
done with all positivereinforcement, no punishment.
So what does that mean?
That means no corrections.
That means that there's nodiscomfort, because when we're
talking about a correction,that's just a more politically
(08:46):
correct term for punishment, andwhen we're talking about
punishment, it is aboutattempting to stop unwanted
behaviors by causing discomfortto the dog.
In 2024, those modern dogtrainers, those that are
(09:06):
educated, those that arecertified, know that there is a
plethora of scientific researchpapers out there that show that
you can train in any behaviorwith positive reinforcement and
you can train out any behaviorwith positive reinforcement that
(09:26):
the use of corrections, the useof punishment, the use of
aversive tools or anything thatcauses your dog fear, pain or
intimidation or even theslightest bit of discomfort is
unnecessary.
It's just not necessary.
Any trainer out there thattells you that punishment
(09:47):
corrections are necessary here'swhat I have to say.
They are probably verywell-intended, they've got good
intentions, but if they feelthat they have to use punishment
, they have to use corrections.
All that means is that they arejust not a highly skilled
trainer with positivereinforcement.
(10:10):
There are trainers all over theworld that are positive
reinforcement trainers, that areforce-free trainers, that train
without fear, without pain,without intimidation, without
using choke chains and prongcollars and shock collars.
We don't need to causediscomfort in order to matter of
(10:30):
fact, in order to learn and toremember.
If there's fear, pain,intimidation or discomfort, you
are creating anxiety and stressand learning is going to
diminish.
Think about the times that youlearned the most.
I bet for a lot of you it wastimes when you were being taught
(10:57):
.
Yet you were having fun.
It was enjoyable, and ifthere's one thing that we wanna
make sure that is enjoyable andfun, that's training your dog,
training your puppy, doesn'tmatter what the age.
It should be fun for you, itshould be fun for your dog.
This should be the highlight ofyour day and if this is the
(11:19):
time that you spend a lot ofattention, engagement, love,
praise, affection, rewarding thedog with high value food,
rewards for doing anexceptionally good job,
responding to cues, positivereinforcement is what modern dog
training is all about.
(11:41):
Only old school, archaic dogtraining uses corrections and
punishment.
When you start hearingbuzzwords like you need to show
your dog who's boss, you need tobe alpha, you need to do an
alpha role, you need to makesure that you're at the top of
your pack, and they starttalking pack structure.
(12:03):
All of that stuff has beendisproven.
I know you might not be awareof it, but there's lots of
studies out there.
Matter of fact, the researcherthat first published and was
talking about hierarchystructure, pack structure being
(12:24):
alpha, the alpha male, the alphafemale Dr Metsch.
He said that his research waswrong, that he was doing it on
wolves and captivity, notdomesticated dogs, and it's very
different for domesticated dogs.
(12:46):
But let's talk about impulsecontrol.
There are some very specificexercises that you can work on
with your dog in order to beable to get great impulse
control from your dog.
One of those is to teach yourdog to sit and stay.
(13:06):
Any type of stay exercisewhether it's sit and stay, lay
down and stay go to your bed,your place, your spot, your mat
and stay.
Your dog can't be staying andreacting to distractions,
(13:30):
reacting to lots of energy andstimulation in the environment
at the same time.
Your dog would have to give upthe behavior of staying in order
to go with its impulses.
So one of the most importantthings about teaching a stay
(13:51):
stay exercise for your dog isnot just about having a super
reliable stay.
It's also the beautifulunintended consequences of that.
The dog learns to have betterimpulse control and it learns to
(14:14):
have a higher tolerance forfrustration, because dogs that
have poor impulse control theyget frustrated very easy.
So doing things like I saidteaching your dog to sit and
stay, lay down and stay, go toyour bed or place and stay,
(14:35):
teaching your dog to wait atdoors and gates you know, if you
spent five minutes a dayworking on teaching your dog to
sit and stay, it's not gonnatake long before you start
seeing reliability in moredistracting environments.
(14:56):
The thing about all of theseexercises, when we're talking
impulse control.
You in many of them, want tostart off with very low level
distractions, but you bettertrain with distractions.
What good is your training Ifyour dog doesn't listen and pay
attention, when all heck isbreaking loose and things are
(15:19):
crazy?
That's when you need thetraining to work.
So it's really important.
But what I want to say is thatanytime you're training your dog
and you are unable to keep yourdog focused and your dog has
poor impulse control and is justreacting and I don't
necessarily mean an aggressiveway reacting.
(15:41):
It could be your dog is veryexcited, but your dog's reacting
, responding to the environmentand all the energy and the
craziness in the environment.
So we're gonna teach the dog todo several things that are
(16:02):
gonna help with all of thatTeaching.
Your dog already said it's asit and stay, lay down and stay,
go to its bed and stay, go toits mat and stay, go to place
and stay, place and staywhatever you wanna call it your
dog bed and stay, but teachingyour dog to stay.
The other thing, like I said,waiting at doors, also waiting
(16:23):
at gates.
Now, if every day you spentfive minutes proactively
teaching your dog to wait whenyou open the door and what I
recommend that you do have yourdog wait about three feet before
, three feet behind where thedoor opens.
(16:44):
You know what a doorstop is.
Some homes don't have thoseanymore.
When I was a kid, every homehad a doorstop.
Some kids today they don't evenknow what a doorstop is.
Anyway, where the doorstopwould be is where you want your
dog to be behind when your dogwaits.
Now, when you ask your dog towait, one of the things that I
(17:10):
want you to do is to drop atreat right between their front
legs, take a step back and thengo forward, drop another treat
between their front legs, taketwo steps back, then go back and
drop two or three treats in themiddle between your dog's front
(17:33):
legs.
Little by little, you are goingto add more distance.
You're gonna add more durationin terms of how long your dog
waits at the door or is doingthe sit stay or staying on place
.
So there are three Ds that wetalk about in training Distance,
(17:54):
duration and distraction andthose are necessary for
everything that you're teachingyour dog.
Okay, when you have your dogwait, turn in front of your dog,
face your dog Slowly, make yourway out the door, backing up
away from your dog so that youreyes are on your dog at all
(18:16):
times.
If your dog begins to moveforward, say, wait, move into
your dog.
If your dog moved forward fromthe position you had your dog in
, move your dog back to whereyour dog was, start that process
over again.
(18:36):
Put a treat down between itsfront legs, take a step back,
then step in, put another treat,then try taking two steps back
and forward and drop two treatsbetween your dog's legs.
And again, if your dog startsto move forward towards that
threshold of the door, I justneed you to walk into your dog
(19:01):
and guide your dog back.
And in the beginning your dog'sgonna make mistakes.
Your dog doesn't know what todo.
So having patience andunderstanding is critical when
you're training your dog.
All right, what's another thingthat you can work with your dog
(19:23):
on that is going to help withimpulse control?
How about teaching?
Leave it?
All right now.
Teaching your dog to ignorethings and say move away from a
particular item or food when youask it to leave it can be
(19:45):
critical.
Now, one of the ways that Ilike to begin the process using
positive reinforcement.
Again, we don't need to usepunishment, but using positive
reinforcement to teach leave it.
I'm gonna have a couple treatsin each of my hands and I'm
gonna close my hands so thetreats are in closed fists.
(20:06):
I'm gonna put both hands behindmy back.
I am going to bring one of myhands out, let the dog smell it
and as the dog shows interest,I'm going to say leave it.
I'm gonna pull my hand back sothe treat goes away from the dog
(20:28):
.
And then I'm gonna reward thedog by bringing the opposite
hand out and giving the foodreward.
And I'm gonna do that again,and again, and again and again,
lots of repetition.
The one reason that I like to doit where I've got treats in my
(20:49):
hand is because when I startwith a closed fist, I can keep
the dog from getting the food.
I don't wanna lose on this one.
Remember, the goal is to havethe dog leave it, but I need to
create the concept, we need tocreate that behavior.
Your dog doesn't know whatleave it is If you've never
worked on it, obviously, and sowe've gotta teach what leave it
(21:12):
is.
And one of the things that'sreally important is doing
tradeouts.
When you do this, just thinkabout it.
If there's something the doglikes and you're taking it away,
that's punishment.
So we can avoid that by doingtradeouts, and that's exactly
what I'm doing as I'm teachingthat.
(21:33):
All right.
So again, doing leave it.
Put treats in both hands.
Close your hands so they'reinside your fists.
Both arms behind your back.
Bring one arm out.
Keep the fist closed with thetreat in it.
Let your dog smell it.
As your dog shows interest,pull that hand back and say
(21:55):
leave it.
At the same time, wait about asecond.
Bring your other hand out andgive the treats that are in that
hand.
Practice that Now when I'mworking on things like wait at
the door or working on sit andstay or working on leave it.
I'm going to try to do five,seven, ten repetitions in a row
(22:21):
and I'm going to try to do thattwo, three times a day.
So my sessions when I'mtraining they're short but
they're multiple.
And you know, I realizeeverybody's busy and this can be
inconvenient.
But you know what.
You can find ten minutes threetimes a day to work with your
(22:43):
dog, or you can find fiveminutes four or five times a day
or night to train your dog.
You don't believe me?
Start setting alarms on yourphone, and I'm serious about
that because you know, let's saythat you work outside of the
house and you worked eight, ten,twelve hour shift.
(23:05):
You're tired, you're exhausted.
If you don't set an alarm onyour phone to get up and train
your dog for five, seven, eight,ten minutes, it's probably not
going to happen.
So I really encourage you toset those alarms, all right.
So the next impulse controlexercise I want to talk about is
(23:26):
drop it.
Now, with drop it, we'retraining the dog to release an
item that they have in theirmouth when we ask them to.
Okay, let me explain how I liketo teach drop it.
And I've got two different ways.
One I love to do what I callcapturing.
(23:50):
I'll create a situation where Ifeel pretty certain, pretty
confident, that I can get a dogto pick something up.
Maybe the dog is interested ina toy or two or has three or
four toys that likes.
Well, I may take that toy thatthe dog likes and I may just
lightly.
I don't want to get the dog tooexcited with the toy, I just
(24:13):
want the dog excited enough thatthe dog will pick up the toy.
So I'm going to toss it just alittle bit and as the dog picks
it up and again I'm teachingdrop it.
As the dog picks up the toy, Iam going to label that fetch and
(24:38):
when the dog lets it go on itsown, I'm not asking for drop,
I'm just like I'm not asking forfetch.
I'm creating a situation wherethe dog is going to use its
mouth to pick something up andthen when that happens, I'm
going to associate that with thecue fetch by labeling that
behavior when it happens.
(24:58):
And I'm going to do that overand over and over.
Now if, once the dog picks upthe object, I kind of freeze
like a tree and I don't engagewith the dog.
Usually it's not very longbefore the dog just lets go of
the toy, drops the toy.
This is where the magic is incapturing.
(25:20):
When the dog drops the toy onits own, I want you to label
that, create an association withthat behavior, because we want
that.
So when the dog on its ownlet's go of an object, I just
need you to label that, drop itand then reward your dog.
(25:42):
Please make sure you are givingyour dog some very high value
food rewards.
And trust me, some people willsay, oh, my dog's not food
motivated.
Every dog is food motivated.
You just got to find the righthigh value food reward.
Now, granted, some dogs havemore food when I call food drive
(26:03):
than others, but there's nosuch thing as a dog that we
can't motivate with food.
We just have to find the rightthing.
All right, we talked about stayand we talked about with
teaching stay as an impulsecontrol exercise.
You can do this with a sit stay, having your dog lie down and
(26:26):
stay to go to its place you knowthose elevated dog cuts or go
to its dog bed or go to a mat orspot, whatever you want to call
it.
But you're going to want to doproactive distraction training
and I've got a rule of three andwe do the distraction training
(26:47):
to kind of proof the stay.
But you got to start with very,very low level distractions.
They can't be intense at alland the duration of the
distraction has to be just asplit second.
And you've got to reward thedog immediately when the dog
doesn't take the bait.
(27:08):
Make it easy for your dog in thebeginning to win Very short,
very benign distractions andthen, little by little, when
your dog has success with those,start doing that but add a
little more distance to it.
Okay, and then start withadding more duration to the
(27:37):
distraction.
Now, if you keep losing or itshould say if your dog keeps
losing every time you start tocreate distance your dog comes
out of the stay.
That just means that you havenot spent enough time positively
reinforcing the step before thedistance before that you were
(27:57):
having success with, and perhapswhen you added more distance
you didn't do it, just a littlebit and slightly.
Maybe you took a big leap ofdistance and maybe it was too
much, too soon for your dog.
We can only work at the dog'space, and when things aren't
(28:18):
working with your dog.
That's communication, that'sfeedback telling you that
there's something that we needto adjust with how we're
teaching the dog.
It's not an indicator that thedog is stubborn or the dog's not
intelligent, because it's allabout motivating the dog.
(28:40):
That's our job.
Okay, all right.
What is another impulse controlexercise that we can begin to
teach your dog?
Well, one another one that Iabsolutely love, and this is one
that you can also capture.
(29:02):
Oh, let me rewind a second whenit comes to drop it.
Remember, I was talking aboutcapturing that behavior.
I'm going to capture that for acouple of weeks and then, after
a couple of weeks, if that'sbeen going well, I'm going to
change things up just slightly.
I'm going to do everything, thesame kind of toss that toy,
(29:24):
hoping the dog's going to pickit up.
Only I'm going to say drop, I'mgoing to ask for drop.
Now, this is after a couple ofweeks of working with it every
day, spending about five, seven,10 minutes a day working on
this.
Okay, go.
(29:45):
The next exercise I want to talkabout, for impulse control is
another one.
We're going to start, before weask for it, by creating the
behavior and labeling it.
So we're going to create,capture the behavior, labeling
it, making an association.
So we're labeling with the cuewe want, creating that
(30:08):
association.
Then immediately rewarding thedog.
So teaching the dog to focus,teaching the dog to look at you,
to watch, and it's very easy todo.
Now you got to make sure and Ishould have said this in the
beginning make sure that you'vegot a treat pouch on, make sure
you've got a bunch of high valuefood rewards, and they should
be not only highly palatable butthey should be tiny.
(30:31):
Yeah, a food reward when you'retraining your dog should be
about the size of a pea, but itshould be yummy.
Whatever your dog's chocolateis and I don't mean real
chocolate, whatever your dogloves and it can be beneficial
to find three different types offood rewards that your dog
(30:53):
loves, and very, you know,amongst those three different
food rewards as you're training,so your dog doesn't get sick of
it, all right.
So how do we teach focus, watch,look at me?
First of all, pick the cue thatyou want to use.
(31:16):
Are you going to say watch?
Are you going to say look at me?
Are you going to say focus?
All right, we've got our wordselected and we're going to
start creating the behavior ofhaving the dog look at you, and
one of the ways I love to dothis is just by saying the dog's
(31:39):
name.
So the dog's not looking at you, your dog's not looking at you.
Begin to say its name, and sayit in a cadence If you need to.
If the dog doesn't look at youright away, repeat the name over
and over.
The dog's going to look at you.
And, by the way, don't startthis in a distracting
environment.
Start this in an environmentwhere there are little to no
(32:00):
distractions.
Again, we want to create thebehavior, label the behavior and
reinforce that and dorepetition with that and then
eventually we can actually askfor it.
All right, so say the dog'sname in.
Let me give an example.
My dog's name is Boo.
So if I go Boo and Boo looks atme, the instant Boo looks at me
(32:24):
, I'm going to say watch andthen I'm going to immediately
reward my dog.
I'm going to let my dog getdistracted.
Again, I'm going to say mydog's name, boo.
As soon as Boo looks at me, Iam going to label that watch and
I'm going to reward immediatelyafter that.
Timing's everything.
So you got to be quick withthis.
You're creating the behavior ofwatch.
(32:47):
But you are not asking for it,you're labeling it when your dog
does look at you when you sayyour dog's name.
So when you say your dog's name, we're trying to get the dog to
look at you.
Let's say your dog doesn't turnto look at you the first time
you say its name.
Repeat it like this Boo, boo,boo, watch and reward.
(33:09):
So again we can repeat theirname.
But if we're going on and onand on repeating the name over
and over and over and they'renot looking at us, well chances
are you are in an environmentthat's way, way, way too
distracting.
You need to be in a lower levelenvironment that doesn't have
(33:32):
those intensive distractions.
You're going to get therelittle by little, baby steps.
Again, remember when I saidpatience and understanding.
That's something that's super,super important.
All right, I'm going to.
I'm going to break up thispodcast into a part one and a
(33:55):
part two, because I'm trying tokeep the podcast a little bit
shorter just so that you guyswill listen more.
Do me a favor, like I said, ifyou love what we do, please
subscribe.
You know we've got a lot oflisteners that listen.
Every week over.
We're getting over 11,000,almost 12,000 downloads every
(34:15):
week, but very few of you aresubscribed.
And why do I want you tosubscribe?
Well, first of all, you nevermiss a podcast.
When I publish it, it's goingto notify you.
But the other reason why isthat when you subscribe to the
podcast, we have better rankings, and so our podcast goes up
(34:40):
when people are searching for adog training podcast.
And so I want to be able togrow this podcast and help more
people.
But I need your help and thathelp what I need.
Please subscribe.
If you love what we do, give usa five star review.
Please tell your friends, tellyour family about this, and I'm
(35:04):
excited.
I'm looking forward to 2024.
I'm going to be doing a lot ofnew topics for 2024.
I'm also going to be doing someinterviews for 2024 and kind of
break things up and forFacebook Live, I'm just going to
be doing that the firstSaturday of the month and it's
(35:26):
going to be Q&A.
Have a great day everybody.
I'm out of here.
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