January 9, 2024 • 63 mins
Ever feel like you're at the end of your leash with your dog's impulsive antics? Buckle up, because this podcast is your ticket to transforming that frisky pup into a paragon of patience. Join me, Will Bangura, as we step beyond the basics and venture into the world of advanced impulse control for your canine companion. From mastering the heel position during walks to ensuring mealtime doesn't resemble a wild food frenzy, we're covering it all. Our discussion is a treasure trove of techniques that will help you guide your furry friend to remain calm in the face of distractions that would have once sent them into a tailspin.
This episode isn't just a walk in the park—we're steering away from the well-trodden path and into the nuanced navigation of loose leash training. Together, we'll fine-tune your furry friend's focus and align their pace with yours, ensuring walks are a joy rather than a juggling act of jerks and tugs. And for those moments when the doorbell rings and chaos ensues, I'm sharing my signature doorbell desensitization drill that's sure to turn your dog's reaction from frantic to indifferent. Plus, get ready to seize those rare quiet moments; we're teaching your dog the fine art of silence on cue, ensuring peace prevails.
Wrapping up our journey into canine self-restraint, we dive into the world of positive reinforcement. Remember, every well-executed 'sit' or ignored squirrel is worthy of a reward. Think of it as your pup's paycheck for their hard work and dedication to self-control. Stick with me, and you'll not only have a dog that's a paragon of virtue amidst a world of temptations but a loyal walking buddy who won't leave you tangled in a web of leash. Share the journey with other dog devotees, and don't forget to catch our monthly live Q&A sessions on Facebook where your most pressing dog training dilemmas will be untangled.
If you need professional help please visit my Dog Behaviorist website.
Go here for Free Dog Training Articles
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
One of the best skills that you can work on with
your dog is impulse control.
Whether you have a dog that isreactive or aggressive, well,
they definitely need betterimpulse control.
Impulse control is crucial whenwe're talking about those
behavioral issues.
(00:20):
But maybe you've got a dog thatlikes to jump, is excitable,
has a lot of energy and justcan't settle down.
Maybe you've got a dog thatgoes crazy whenever the doorbell
rings or the door knocks, ormaybe when you go to get in the
car and your dog gets veryexcitable.
Maybe you go to lots ofdifferent places with your dog
(00:42):
and you'd like to enjoy things,but your dog just gets too
excited about everything that'sgoing on in the environment.
Well, we're going to talk moreabout impulse control.
This is going to be part two ofteaching your dog impulse
control.
Don't go anywhere.
We'll be back in 60 seconds tounpack this.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
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 (01:32):
Would you like to go on Wookiees?
Good day dog lovers.
I'm Will Bangura.
Thanks for joining me foranother episode of dog training
today.
As I said in the opener, we'regoing to be talking more about
teaching your dog impulsecontrol, and that is something
(01:57):
that every dog that is reactive,aggressive, excitable, hyper
can't calm down.
Those are all dogs and issuesthat definitely can benefit from
impulse control.
Now, this is part two ofimpulse control.
If you have not listened topart one, you want to make sure
(02:21):
that you go to the dog trainingtoday audio podcast and look for
season five, episode 142.
Again, that's season five,episode 142.
That is part one of teachingyour dog impulse control.
In that particular podcast wewent over various things to
(02:43):
teach your dog to help withimpulse control.
We talked about how to workwith sit and stay, waiting at
doors and gates, teaching yourdog to leave it, teaching drop
it, teaching a strong stay foryour dog, teaching your dog to
go to its place or bed and stay,and the last thing that we
(03:05):
covered in part one of teachingyour dog impulse control,
episode 42, season five.
The last thing we covered therewas teaching eye contact and
teaching focus.
If you are not subscribed to thedog training today audio
podcast.
Please make sure that yousubscribe so that you never miss
(03:28):
one of our podcasts on ourpodcast and all the great
information that we're providingto you.
I do a podcast on the dogtraining today audio podcast at
least once a week, sometimeseven more, and then also I do my
monthly Facebook live show onthe dog training today Facebook
page where, for an entire hourthe first Saturday of every
(03:53):
month at 11 o'clock Eastern time, eight o'clock Pacific time,
I've got an hour long where Itake your questions and your
challenges and your problemswith your dogs and I help
provide you with answers andpositive solutions to your dog's
(04:14):
training.
Do me a favor also if you lovewhat we do here at dog training
today, if you love this podcast,please give us a five star
review wherever you're listeningto the podcast.
If you listen to Apple podcast,itunes, iheartradio, spotify,
(04:36):
stitcher wherever you listen,please give us a five star
review and share this with yourfriends and family.
Let them all know about it.
Okay, so let's get into the meatof what we want to talk about
here in part two of teachingyour dog impulse control.
Again, as I mentioned, it'sprobably one of the most
(05:01):
important things that you canwork with your dog on,
especially if you don't have acouch potato Now, those of you
that have a couch potato youmight not need to deal with this
, but if you've got dogs thatagain, are aggressive or
reactive or very high energyhyperactive, just can't settle
(05:23):
down, if you've got a dog thatgets overstimulated and just
loses its mind, this is going tobe a great podcast for you and
also, like I said, make sure youcheck out part one, that's
season five, episode 142,teaching your dog impulse
(05:43):
control.
Part one.
All right, let's get into parttwo.
The last thing we left off withwas teaching eye contact and
focus.
So the next thing we want totalk about and that was in part
one the next thing we want totalk about is teaching your dog
If you've got a dog that needsimpulse control how to walk on a
(06:06):
loose leash, teaching thatcontrolled walk.
Teaching your dog how to healNow, some people don't know
where the heal position is, sothe way I like to teach it, I
like the heal position and how Iidentify it when the dog is
(06:28):
walking next to me and its frontpaws hit the ground as it's in
its stride, in its gait.
I want to see those front pawslanding on the ground lined up
with my heel.
All right, one of the thingsthat I don't want when I'm
(06:50):
teaching controlled walking,when I'm teaching the heel
position, when I'm teaching adog to walk on a loose leash, I
personally teach it where Idon't want the dog's eyes to be
in front of your leg, so yourdog's eyes can be lined up with
(07:13):
your leg, and that's where Ilike it to be.
You know, if you're walking andyour dog's eyeballs are a foot
behind your leg, your dog'sprobably lagging behind, maybe
getting distracted, maybesniffing somewhere, but not
paying attention to you, notstaying with you.
So I like to keep the dog'seyes right in line with my leg
(07:37):
and I don't want those eyesgetting in front of my leg,
because if the eyes get in frontof my leg, the dog, in my
opinion, is leading this walkand we're taking away a huge cue
for the dog and that's thevisual cue of us and where we're
going.
And when it comes to teachingyour dog how to walk on a loose
(07:59):
leash, how to heal controlledwalking, one of the most
important things that you needto understand this is about
teaching your dog to follow you,to follow you and to pay
attention and to stay in aspecific position and to walk at
(08:20):
a particular pace.
So we've identified theposition where we want the dog,
we want those eyes at our leg.
Now what do we do and how do weteach this?
What do we do if the dog startsto pull?
What do we do if the dog's eyesget in front of our legs?
(08:41):
Well, one of the first thingswe need to do is make sure that
we begin the process of teachingthis where there are little to
no distractions.
You need to be able to keepyour dog's focus, you need to be
able to keep your dog'sattention and if the
distractions are too much,you're not going to be able to
create that foundation for yourdog.
(09:03):
We're going to add distractionsonce your dog understands the
concept of following you, payingattention to you, walking at a
specific pace in a specificposition next to you.
I like the process to start,oftentimes in the home, inside,
(09:25):
where there's less distractions,and actually in a hallway, if
we've got a decent hallway.
What do I mean by decent Well,long enough hallway and what's
long enough?
Oh, I don't know.
Six, eight, nine, 10 steps andwhat I like to do is go to the
end of the hallway and face thedog, turn the dog around.
(09:52):
So imagine we've got thishallway and you're at the
beginning of the hallway, andlet's just say that we've got a
hallway that's about 10 stepslong.
All right, at the beginning ofthe hallway, turn your dog
around, have your dogs back,facing the lengthily part of the
(10:19):
hallway.
So you're at the beginning ofthe hallway but you've got the
dog turned around as if you'rewalking out of the hallway.
The dog's back is to themajority of the hallway.
Hopefully that makes sense.
What I want you to begin to dois have your dog sit next to you
(10:40):
and we're going to startwalking.
But rather than walk forwardwith your dog sitting next to
you, I want you to make a 180degree turn away from your dog,
take a step backwards and turnaway from your dog 180 degrees.
(11:05):
Now, when you do that, it'sgoing to put the dog slightly
behind you.
Now most dogs are going to wantto catch up to you.
Now, when you do this again,dog sitting next to you, you're
going to make a 180 degree, turnaway from the dog and start
walking.
Now, when you do this, makesure that your eyes are on your
(11:30):
dog's face.
Make sure that your eyes arelooking at your dog's head.
Specifically, make sure thatyou are looking at your dog's
eye position.
When you make that turn awayfrom the dog 180 degrees, as you
start to walk and you'relooking at your dog, your dog
should be slightly behind youand your dog should then
(11:51):
typically most dogs they'regoing to start moving a little
quicker and catch up to you.
Your job is to watch where aretheir eyes, in conjunction with
your legs, as soon as your dogcatches up and as soon as their
eyeballs get lined up with yourleg.
(12:12):
I want you to again turn awayfrom the dog 180 degrees and
start walking again, but turnyour head back to look at your
dog's face and head.
You need to know where is yourdog's position at all times, so
you need to be looking over yourshoulder at your dog.
(12:34):
Now I like to have the dog on myleft side when I do this, but
you can do it on the right sideor the left side.
It really doesn't matter.
Tradition dogs are on the leftside.
That's why I do it that way.
Can you do it the other way?
Of course you can.
Is there anything wrong withhaving them on your right side?
No, there's nothing wrong withthat.
So it's just a personalpreference.
(12:55):
Tradition says left, but youdon't have to go with that.
All right, don't worry aboutthe distance, don't worry about
how far you go.
I don't care if you're onlytaking three, four, five, six,
eight steps.
We want to make sure that whenwe're teaching this controlled
walk, when we're teaching thedog to walk on a loose leash,
(13:17):
when we're teaching the dog toheal, that it's all about
position, paying attention,walking at our pace, and the
first thing we need to do isteach position.
And as we do that, we're goingto weave into teaching the dog
(13:43):
to pay attention.
We're going to be making a lotof turns.
We're going to be making a lotof turns away from the dog, a
lot of you turns turning 180degrees away from the dog.
We're going to do that a lot.
The more turns you make, themore you keep changing direction
on the dog, the more the doghas to give up whatever else it
(14:08):
might be focused on and refocuson where you're going.
So I want you to think aboutthis If you're just walking one
direction for a long period oftime.
It's very easy, especially for adog that has no training in
this, to get distracted.
But imagine if you're the dogand I'm the handler and I start
(14:34):
having you walk with me, butthree steps into the walk I make
a U-turn.
Now we're heading in oppositedirection.
I go only three, four, five,maybe even two steps and I make
a U-turn away from you.
And now we're going anotherdirection and I take a couple
steps.
Here we go, making anotherU-turn.
You don't have a lot of time.
You don't have a lot of time tofocus on other things and get
(14:57):
distracted, because I keepchanging direction on you very
fast, in quick duration, andthat is going to teach your dog
to focus on you.
And again, if you're justwalking in a straight line,
you're going to struggle withthis Anytime.
(15:21):
When you're teaching this,anytime your dog gets distracted
, I want you to turn away fromyour dog 180 degrees, okay,
change direction and then turnaway from your dog and go right
back towards that distraction,only to turn away from it again.
We're teaching your dog whilewe're doing this to give up
(15:46):
those distractions.
Don't focus on those.
Focus on mom, focus on dad,focus on where you're going.
Okay, now remember we'restarting this in a hallway and
remember, anytime those eyes getto the middle of your leg, you
need to make a 180 degree U-turnaway from your dog Now, when we
(16:08):
start this process, we shouldhave high value food rewards
that we can reinforce the rightbehavior we're looking for.
Those high value food rewardsshould always be in a treat
pouch, and you want to have thattreat pouch attached to you Now
.
I like to have my treat pouchon the left side.
I have my dogs walk on the leftside.
(16:29):
When I reward for my treatpouch, I reach in with my left
hand and I reward.
Now, it's really important thatyou don't do this exercise with
food in your hand.
In most instances, that's notwhat we want.
We don't want to bribe the dog.
We can begin the process ofreinforcing and teaching your
(16:52):
dog to pay attention to you whenwalking by making that 180
degree U-turn away from the dogand as your dog turns to follow,
you can mark that behavior andreward right then and there, and
then you can repeat thatprocess.
(17:13):
The dog catches up to you.
You can therefore sit if yourdog can sit.
Now make that 180 degree U-turnaway from the dog and, as the
dog follows, you go ahead andmark that behavior and reward.
Now, if you don't know what Imean when I say mark that
behavior, I'm talking aboutusing markers and training.
(17:35):
I'm talking about a markertraining system.
One type of marker that somepeople use is a clicker.
Some people use a verbal markerlike yes or nice.
Using markers and training isgoing to dramatically speed up
the process and also help tomake the communication more
(17:58):
clear for your dog and thatmeans that your dog learns
quicker.
So I highly, highly, highlyrecommend, if you don't know
about markers and you learnabout markers and marker
training, you can go to mywebsite to learn all about
markers and using a markertraining system by going to
(18:21):
dogbehavioristcom.
Again, that's dogbehavioristcom.
Go to the menu and look forarticles.
When you get to articles, clickon that and then scroll through
the articles, find the articleon clicker training.
Remember, I said a clicker isone kind of marker.
(18:42):
There's a full article there onmarker training using clickers,
how to use markers and training, and then at the bottom of that
article I've got about anhour-long audio podcast and I
believe it's Episode 80 that Idid a full hour on marker
(19:05):
training.
So you can check that out aswell, because, again, that's
something that is critical.
When you're thinking about thisprocess of teaching your dog to
walk on a loose leash, having acontrolled walk, teaching your
dog to heal, I want you to thinkabout.
We're teaching the dog tofollow you.
I want you to think about we'reteaching the dog to follow you
(19:28):
and pay attention, and we'reteaching the dog to follow you,
pay attention, stay in aspecific position and walk at a
specific pace.
One of the things that I teachas we're doing this is change of
(19:49):
pace.
So sometimes when I'm goingthrough this process, I'm
walking at a normal pace, whichis pretty brisk, and then I'll
start doing it, making littletiny shuffle steps like an old
person.
Now the rules remain the sameIf those eyeballs get to the
middle of my leg, but beforethey get in front of my leg, I'm
(20:13):
going to make a 180-degreeU-turn away from the dog.
It doesn't matter if I'm goingfast, slow or normal, and I want
to work this at different paces.
Working at different paces alsohelps the dog pay attention and
, depending upon who might bewalking the dog, not everybody
walks at the same pace.
(20:33):
I want you to begin the processof teaching your dog that it
needs to adjust the pace to theperson that's walking, not that
we adjust our pace to the dog.
Who's training who?
Right?
Okay, we're still in thehallway.
We haven't gone out of thehallway because we don't need a
(20:54):
lot of room.
Don't worry about how far you go.
Worry about what are we doing.
We're making a lot of turns.
Why?
Because we're teaching the dogto give up distractions and stay
focused on us, and as the moreturns that we make away from the
dog, your dog's gonna startlooking up at you.
Where are we going?
Oh, are we turning?
Where are we going when younotice your dog starting to do
(21:17):
that because of all the frequentturns, when you start noticing
your dog looking up at you, markthat behavior and reward that.
Now we're starting to get moreof a focused heel.
Okay, again, don't worry abouthow far you're going.
Worry about teaching your dogposition.
Pay attention, all right, andthen work that at different
(21:40):
paces.
Now, if your dog's eyes everget in front of your leg, that
means you're late.
You're late in what you need tobe doing.
You should have turned 180degrees away from your dog when
the eyes were at your leg.
Now, what happens if your dog'seyes are way behind your leg.
(22:02):
Well, that means your dog'sgoing too slow and it's lagging.
If that happens, just pick upyour pace into excuse me, into a
jog for about two steps andthat'll speed up the dog because
the dog's gonna follow the pacethat you're going and that'll
bring the dog further forward.
But again, continue to watchthose eyes.
Anytime those eyes get to themiddle of the leg, turn 180
(22:26):
degrees away from your dog.
That by doing that, what doesthat do?
It teaches the dog that there'sno point in ever trying to get
ahead of you.
It teaches the dog not to forgeahead, which then leads to that
pull on the leash.
Okay, so teaching the dog notto pull on the leash isn't about
(22:48):
shocking the dog with anelectronic collar.
It's not about punishing popcorrections with a prong collar.
None of that is needed.
When you know how to usepositive reinforcement, when you
truly know how to train, youdon't need to use punishment.
You don't need to use fear,pain or intimidation to get the
(23:09):
dog to learn.
Matter of fact learning is donebest when the learner is having
fun.
How well do you learn whenyou're experiencing pain?
How well do you learn whenyou're experiencing discomfort.
How well do you learn ifthere's fear going through you?
How well do you learn if you'reintimidated?
(23:30):
But then how well do you learnwhen you're really having fun?
So this is all about usingpositive reinforcement.
Modern dog trainers today do notuse punishment.
Modern dog trainers today donot use correction collars.
They don't need to.
And if another trainer has toldyou that it's necessary doesn't
(23:51):
mean that they're a bad person.
It just means that they don'thave highly honed skills as a
positive reinforcement trainerDoesn't mean positive
reinforcement can't make ithappen.
It happens all the time.
There's thousands of trainersall over the world that are
making this happen every day.
(24:11):
You don't need to punish yourdog to have a well-behaved dog,
all right.
So we've done this in ourhallway.
Now the next step is I want youto begin the process of doing
this outside, but if you have abackyard or if you can go
somewhere where there's not alot of distractions, go through
(24:32):
the same process.
Now I need you to work on andwalk on a straight line.
Imagine that you had a paintroller and you painted a
straight line about 15 feet long.
Stay on that line, okay, go tothe middle of the line, have
your dog sit next to you.
(24:53):
Start by making a 180 degreeU-turn away from your dog.
Notice, that's how I have youstart.
I don't tell you to start andstart walking forward.
The first thing I want you todo is turn away from your dog.
That's gonna put the dog behindyou.
And again, keep your head.
Keep your eyes looking at yourdog's head, at your dog's face.
(25:16):
Where are your dog's eyes?
If you don't have your headturned, if you're not looking
over your shoulder at your dog,you don't know where your dog's
eyes are, you're gonna be latewhen it comes to executing your
steps in what you need to do,cause you're looking at the
dog's eyes.
Where are they?
In conjunction with your body.
As you turn away from your dog,your dog's behind you.
(25:37):
Most dogs are gonna try tocatch up, speed up a little bit
and when their eyes get to themiddle of your leg, you're gonna
make a 180 degree U-turn awayfrom the dog.
Now we're gonna add one morething.
Up to this point, I've not hadyou give any commands or cues.
Why is that?
Well, I want you to create thisbehavior first.
(26:01):
Then we'll start labeling thebehavior.
It does us no good to use a cueor command for a behavior if we
don't have the behavior Cause,what are we associating?
What are we labeling Garbage?
Right, if the dog can't walk?
Worth a darn?
If the dog's not healing, whyare we gonna call it heal?
(26:22):
So you can say walk, you cansay let's go, you can say heal,
whatever you want.
Just be consistent withwhatever the cue is.
I like to say let's go.
So as soon as I start rememberthe dog's sitting next to me I'm
gonna make a 180 degree U-turnaway from the dog as I'm doing
(26:43):
that.
Now I'm going, let's go, andI'm slapping my leg, making a
little sound on my leg that'sclosest to the dog.
All right.
So I'm going, let's go, and Istart walking.
But remember I'm turning awayfrom the dog 180 degrees,
letting the dog catch up.
When the eyes get to the middleof my leg, I'm gonna go again.
(27:06):
Let's go, slap my leg, makethat U-turn away from the dog as
the dog complies.
When the dog responds to thatand begins to turn to follow you
.
Remember mark and reward, useyour markers.
Reward your dog with your highvalue food reward.
It's really important thatwe're motivating your dog.
(27:28):
You've gotta be moreinteresting.
You need to have high valuefood rewards to keep your dog's
focus.
As we start getting into moreand more distracting
environments, you're definitelygonna wanna make sure that you
have your dog's attention andthat engagement Again be more
interesting than anything in theenvironment.
(27:49):
Okay, now, as you start havingsuccess, maybe in your backyard,
now move into the front of thehouse.
Try to get.
If you live in a communitywhere there are sidewalks, try
to do this on a sidewalk.
Why?
Because it's a nice straightline.
You can again make theseU-turns.
Listen, we're not going for awalk right now and we're not
(28:12):
gonna go for a walk until we canget your dog to walk.
We're gonna be doing this eightsteps, 10 steps, 15 steps.
Little by little we'll add moredistance to this, but right now
, even if your dog is walking inthe correct position, I don't
(28:35):
want you to take more than aboutsix to eight steps without
making a U-turn away from yourdog, because again, we're
teaching the dog pay attention.
And remember I said earlier, ifwe just keep walking in a
straight line, so easy for yourdog to get distracted, by making
lots of turns you can interruptyour dog from getting
(28:57):
distracted and redirect your dogto focus on you and walking
next to you.
So anytime you happen to alsonotice your dog even slightly
getting distracted, how aboutyou then give the cue?
Let's go, slap that leg andturn 180 degrees away from your
dog.
When your dog follows, mark andreward that behavior.
(29:21):
Little by little, you're gonnaadd more distance to this.
Little by little, you are goingto go in more and more
distracting environments.
Now, if you find yourself in anenvironment and your dog is
distracted to the point whereyou can't get your dog's focus,
(29:43):
it doesn't mean that you'refailing.
It doesn't mean that your dogcan't do this.
It doesn't mean that thetraining doesn't work.
All that means is that you'reworking too quickly.
You need to take a step backinto a less distracting
environment and work more ongetting your dog to focus and
(30:03):
pay attention to this process.
Okay, Make sure you'rerewarding focus and attention.
Like I said, anytime your doglooks up at you, I want you to
also mark and reward that.
All right, and again, little bylittle, go into more and more
distracting environments.
But this is a journey.
(30:25):
The biggest assets that you canhave patience and understanding
and it's so important that yourealize that this is a journey,
the way that dogs get good isthrough practice, practice,
practice.
Practice makes no, not perfect.
No animal is going to beperfect.
(30:46):
I want you to think about a newsaying Practice makes permanence
.
The more we practice, the morepermanent the behavior is, the
more reliable the behavior is.
But that's how you start toteach a dog to walk on a loose
leash.
It's not about popping theleash.
All right, by the time you'repopping the leash, the dog's not
(31:09):
doing what you want.
Why not teach the dog what youwant from the beginning, instead
of punishing the dog?
So that's the first thing.
That is a good impulse controlexercise.
When we're talking here in parttwo of teaching your dog
(31:30):
impulse control.
Part one was in episode 142, ifyou haven't listened to episode
142, please make sure that youcheck that out.
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at calmdogscom or doganxietycom.
All right, very good, let's getback into teaching your dog
(32:54):
impulse control.
All right, what's our nextthing that we can do to begin to
teach?
What's another exercise toteach impulse control?
Well, how about food bowlcontrol?
Right, training your dog towake calmly while their food
bowl is being prepared and thenwaiting to eat until you've been
(33:16):
given a release command.
Now, how do you begin theprocess of doing that?
All right, so teaching your dogto wake calmly sometimes is
about waiting them out, allright.
So when you're preparing yourdog's meal, start doing this,
(33:38):
maybe on a day off, if you feedright before you go to work.
This is not the time topractice this, but let's say
that you've got time.
Maybe it's your day off and youget ready to put food in the
dog's bowl and maybe it's just amatter of you take a step
towards the pantry or whereveryou keep the food and your dog
(33:59):
starts getting excited.
When that happens, freeze likea tree until your dog is calm.
Then start moving towards yourdog's food again.
At any time your dog starts toget excitable and animated,
freeze like a tree until yourdog calms down.
(34:20):
Then go back into the process.
So you're going to go throughthe process you normally go
through to get your dog's foodready and to feed your dog.
But from the start of thatprocess to the end, anytime your
dog gets excitable, freeze likea tree, wait for your dog to
calm down and if you start backup again, your dog immediately
(34:44):
gets excitable.
Freeze again, freeze again.
This works.
You've got to be patient.
You've got to be consistentwith this.
Now, one of the things you canalso begin to do most people
have taught their dog to sit.
You can teach them to sit andanytime they come out of the sit
(35:05):
, re-command the sit and slowlybegin the process of putting the
food bowl down.
As you put the food bowl down,as you're making that movement,
if your dog begins to get up inanticipation, re-ask for sit
(35:26):
again.
All right, now, don't rewardthis other than praise.
The big reward is going to bethe food bowl.
So if you're asking your dog todo certain things to control
its excitability, just useverbal praise when your dog
complies.
All right.
Little by little, get your dogto maintain that sit as you put
(35:50):
the food bowl down.
Now you might need to have aleash to help guide your dog, so
you might start this with yourdog's harness on.
Attach the leash to the harness.
Make sure that your dog can'tget to the food bowl.
Okay, and begin by labeling thebehavior that we're trying to
(36:14):
teach here as weight, weight andthen, like I said, teach a
release command when your doghas waited for a couple seconds
while the food bowl is down.
Now give your dog a releasecommand.
Click free at ease.
Okay, whatever that releasecommand is for you, but be
(36:36):
consistent.
Don't let your dog beat you.
Don't give in.
Teaching your dog to wait forits food is a great impulse
control exercise, all right Nowkeeping with food.
Another great impulse controlexercise is teaching your dog to
(36:57):
take treats gently, all right.
Do you have a dog that justgoes crazy when you got to treat
and just about bites your handoff.
Yeah, a lot of people do,especially if we've got these
dogs that are high energy,excitable dogs that don't have
good impulse control right.
So a lot of.
If you've got a dog with goodimpulse control, chances are it
(37:19):
takes treats slowly.
But a lot of dogs that don'thave any impulse control, bam,
they just grab that treat, allright.
So how do I teach a dog gentlein terms of taking treats?
I will have treats in bothhands and I'm gonna close my
hands.
So I've got treats in bothhands.
Hands are closed.
(37:39):
Put both hands behind my back,all right.
I bring out one hand.
I very slowly open it up.
As the dog goes for the treat,I close my hand.
I go gentle, I pull it back alittle bit.
Then I bring out my other handand I slowly open my hand up
just a little bit.
If the dog starts going for it,you know, in a non-gentle way,
(38:02):
I'm gonna close my hand, say,gentle, pull that hand back
behind my back.
I got both hands behind my back.
Take one hand out slowly, beginto open it.
If the dog's moving towardsthat hand and trying to get the
treat fast, I close that hand.
I go, gentle, and I put thathand behind my back and then I
take my other hand out.
When the dog will go for itslowly, then I will open up the
(38:26):
hand completely and I'll let thedog have that.
And again, this is one whereyou've gotta be patient.
If your dog might learn this inone or two repetitions, then
again it might take your dogdays to learn this.
It all depends on the dog.
You can only work as fast asyour dog's pace, so have
patience when doing this.
(38:47):
That's your impulse control.
Okay, all right.
Another, the next thing.
What's another thing that wecan work on in terms of teaching
impulse control?
How about doorbell training?
Okay, anything really.
With the door, all right.
(39:08):
Training your dog not to rushthe door or bark excessively
when the doorbell rings orsomebody knocks on the door.
Part of that is beginning todesensitize your dog to the
sound of the doorbell and thesound of knocking.
And one of the ways that youcan do that, let's start with
(39:29):
knocking.
You can have a helper beginknocking at extremely low volume
.
So just the lightest knockpossible, just once, and feed
the dog when you do that andthen go knock, knock, feed feed.
Knock, knock, knock, feed feedfeed.
Knock, knock, knock, knock,feed, feed feed.
(39:51):
So the whole time knocking ishappening.
You're feeding.
But you've gotta start superquiet or your dog's gonna just
bark through that and be moreconcerned about barking than
taking food.
All right, then you can dolittle by little.
You're gonna, with the knocking, have your helper knock a
(40:13):
little louder.
Now, this can take days, it cantake weeks.
Some dogs will get it in a day,some dogs it's gonna take
longer Can only work as fast asyour dog's pace.
Next you can work on thedoorbell.
How do you do that?
Well, how about you start withrecorded sounds of doorbells?
You know you get on YouTube andyou can find just about any
(40:34):
sound For that doorbell soundthat's recorded.
Turn it all the way down to itslowest volume and you press
play, ding, dong.
Feed the dog.
Make sure you press stop.
We just want one doorbell andit's at low volume.
If your dog's going crazy, thevolume's too loud, bring it down
even more.
(40:54):
And you want to pair high valuefood rewards when the sound
happens.
So, as soon as the sound starts, feed, feed, feed, feed
constantly and continuously thewhole time the sound is
happening.
But when the sound stops, stopfeeding.
Okay, that'll help desensitizeyour dog to those sounds.
(41:19):
Now, when it comes to rushingthe door a great impulse control
exercise.
You know.
In part one, episode 142, ofteaching impulse control, we
talked about teaching your dogto go to its better its place
and that is a great exercise touse to begin the process of
teaching your dog to stay whenthe door opens and I talked
(41:44):
about that and talked aboutopening the door as a
distraction, keeping your dog onits bed or keeping your dog on
its place.
We don't want the dog rushingthe door.
Another thing we can do at thedoor it's not just the doorbell
and the door knock, it's saypeople coming in right, teaching
(42:06):
and working with our sit stay,which we talked about teaching
that sit stay in part one ofteaching impulse control,
episode 142.
And we talked about, when itcomes to teaching impulse
control, also about teaching sitand having the dog sit and
(42:29):
maintain that sit when the dooropens.
Now, when you begin thisprocess, you don't just have a
stranger come in right away.
You begin the process by goingover the door and rattling the
handle and seeing if your dogcomes out of the sit.
If it does, you ask for sitagain.
Remember when you have toreinforce a behavior, when you
(42:49):
have to recommand that behavior,when you have to give another
cue for that behavior.
Please just use praise, love,praise, affection when your dog
does the right thing.
You don't have to give the cueagain.
Use high value food awards.
Make that difference there.
Differentiate between the twobehaviors.
(43:11):
One gets a higher paycheck thanthe other.
All right, all right.
Another thing what's anotherthing that you can do to teach
impulse control to your dog?
How about waiting for play,bringing your dog's favorite toy
out and make them sit and becalm before you begin to play
(43:34):
and then interrupt play and askfor a sit again and Make them be
calm.
Just wait them out.
Just wait out the calm.
When the calm happens, go backinto play.
Then stop playing.
Wait it out.
When calm happens, go back intoplay.
(43:55):
Little by little, your dog'sgoing to learn when you stop
playing to calm down faster.
When you're able to do thatenough times repetitiously that
you've created that behavioragain, what are we creating?
We stop playing.
The dog calms down.
When that happens, you canbegin the process of when you
(44:16):
stop playing.
You can say calm, relax or wait, whatever you want.
You can now add a cue to that.
But create the behavior Now forall of these things.
Dogs learn best when you do lotsof repetition but short
training sessions.
So your training session mightbe five minutes long, seven
(44:38):
minutes long, but if you can dothat multiple times throughout
the day, that's going to be awhole lot better than trying to
do this for an hour on Saturday.
That's going to take foreverDoing short little sessions, but
lots of them will get you towhere you need to go much faster
.
So that's one of the thingsthat I recommend.
All right, we talked aboutwaiting for play.
(45:01):
What is the next thing?
Okay, how about teaching yourdog, as an impulse control
exercise, to pause on walks,implementing random stops during
a walk where your dog must sitor or just stand still briefly
before continuing, and it's likethe other things that I've
(45:24):
talked about.
It's about waiting out calm.
Now, if you're in anenvironment and your dog cannot
settle down, cannot calm down,you need to dial back a little
bit.
You're moving faster than yourdog's pace.
Okay, slow down.
Go into an environment thatdoesn't have that level of
(45:45):
distraction.
Spend more time Working there.
Spend more time reinforcing theright behaviors in that level
of distraction, get that moresolidified and then go into More
distracting environments.
But do this very gradually,very systematically and remember
(46:05):
anytime you're not havingsuccess with your dog, go back
to the step that you were havingsuccess.
Spend more time working therebefore you again step forward.
Alright, calm greetings that isOne of the best things that you
can teach your dog right, andit's an impulse control exercise
(46:29):
Teaching your dog to greetpeople and other animals calmly,
without jumping or Withoutexcessive excitement.
Now let's say your dog is crazy, crazy excited, wants to just
meet every person, wants to meetevery dog.
The first thing you need to dois make sure that You're
(46:53):
stopping that behavior.
And what do I mean by that?
I don't mean punishing your dog.
I don't mean correcting yourdog.
Listen, what is the distancethat your dog needs to be away
from a strange person or astrange animal Before it gets
excited?
See, there's a distance whereyour dog, when it's far enough
(47:14):
away from a strange person ordog, can tell that there's a
strange person or dog there, butthey're far enough away where
your dog doesn't get crazyexcited.
It's at that distance where youwant to start this.
You know, if you try to do thiswith your dog a calm greeting
when you're two feet in front ofsomebody, your dog's just
(47:36):
losing its mind and you justkeep trying to do that over and
over and over, you're settingyour dog up for failure and
You're setting yourself up for alot of frustration.
And when that happens, what dowe want?
To fall back on punishment,right, and it's not the dog's
fault.
We don't need to punish it all.
We got to teach the dog what wewant.
(47:57):
We've got to teach success.
So start at a distance whenyour dog can see the strange
person appear or see the strangedog appear other animal.
And when your dogs calm, rewardthe dog and Start working on
some of the other trainingexercises that you know, even if
(48:18):
you know tricks at thatdistance from the Strange person
or dog.
If you know, if your dog knowshow to sit, start working on sit
.
If your dog knows how to laydown, work on sit and lay down.
If your dog knows how to sit,lay down and watch, work on all
three of those things.
If your dog can roll over Shake, do high five.
Any other tricks, work on thoseas well.
Keep your dog focused andengaged on you and make sure
(48:42):
that you're rewarding with highvalue food awards.
Don't bribe the dog.
Don't have food in your hand.
Wait for your dog to do theright behavior, then mark, then
reach in your treat pouch andreward your dog.
Okay, little by little, you aregonna close that distance
Between you and the strangeperson.
(49:02):
You're gonna, little by little,you're gonna close that
distance between you and thatstrange animal.
But again, if your dog can'tfocus, you've gone too close too
soon.
You're working faster than yourdog's pace.
You need to slow down a littlebit and then take a step back.
It'll happen.
It'll happen, but you got to doit step by step.
(49:22):
You can't skip steps and expectthat to happen and there's no
such thing as a quick fix.
All right, anything good takeswork.
Okay, we talked about pausing onwalks.
We talked about calm greetings.
What's next?
Well, handling and grooming.
Tolerance.
How many of your dogs thinkabout it that have impulse
(49:45):
control problems, that struggleto be groomed?
Yeah, a lot of them.
Okay, gradually, getting yourdog used to being handled,
gradually, getting your dog usedto being brushed or groomed
without fussing or moving away,is a great skill.
But again, how are you going todo this?
(50:07):
You're gonna begin this verySlowly.
If your dog doesn't like to bebrushed, maybe the first thing
you need to do is show the brushand give a food reward.
Put the brush away.
Show the brush, food reward.
Brush behind your back.
Show the brush, food reward.
Brush behind your back untilyour dog's like, hey, I love
that brush.
Bring it out.
Then change your criteria.
(50:27):
Show the brush, touch it onyour dog.
Don't brush, just touch it andgive a reward.
Do that a bunch of times Nowyour dog wants that brush to
touch it.
Then change the criteria.
Show the brush, touch the brushon the dog's back.
Do one stroke and reward and Dothat over and over till the dog
(50:52):
loves that.
Then add two brush strokes andthen add three.
You get the idea.
Slowly, gradually, as your doghandles that calmly.
Reward your dog for that.
All right, all right.
What's our next Impulse controlexercise?
(51:14):
We can teach.
How about teaching your dog tobe quiet on cue, teaching your
dog to stop barking or makingnoise Upon given the cue of
quiet?
How do you do that?
Well, let's talk about aprinciple and training called
capturing.
In capturing, initially, we arenot asking for the behavior.
(51:36):
We are looking for the behavior.
We might create a situation oran opportunity to create the
behavior so that we can labelthat behavior, making an
association between the behaviorof quiet and a cue that we're
gonna want to associate andeventually ask Used to ask for
(51:58):
quiet.
All right.
So it's really simple to dothis.
You get your dog barked andwhen your dog stops barking for
about three seconds, you'regonna capture that three seconds
of quiet and you're gonna sayquiet and then mark and reward.
Do what you can to get your dogbarking again.
(52:22):
When your dog settles down,don't ask for it.
When your dog settles down, inis offering quiet behavior for
three seconds.
Label that quiet, mark andreward.
Do that as often as possible.
Eventually you'll be able toask for quiet.
(52:43):
But right now you're justcapturing the behavior your dog
offers, the quiet behavior.
Say quiet, mark and reward.
Eventually you're going to beable to ask for quiet.
Your dog will know what youmean.
All right, let's go to our nextimpulse control exercise.
How about no chasing, teachingyour dog to resist the impulse
(53:08):
to chase after moving objectslike toys being thrown, animals
running around, people runningaround?
In part one of impulse controlin episode 142, I talked about
teaching your dog to go to itsbetter place.
It's very difficult, if yourdog is committed to one behavior
(53:32):
, to do an alternative behavior.
That would be incompatible.
If your dog is committed tostaying on its bed or its place
or its mat or spot, if it'scommitted to that, it cannot be
chasing after moving objects,animals or people and stay on
(53:52):
its place.
At the same time, it would haveto give up one behavior for the
other.
Now, when we have a good, solid,reliable place and, by the way,
if you don't know how to teachplace, you can go to my website
at dogbehavioristcom.
Again, it's dogbehavioristcomGo to the articles, go to the
(54:15):
menu, click on articles, scrolldown till you find the article
on teaching place.
That article talks about how toteach place.
I also have a training videothat's embedded in that article
as well.
Now, once we've got that, wecan use that.
We can use that to teach thedog not to chase.
(54:39):
If we've got a dog that likesto chase, we can use that.
But here's the kicker.
Remember when I talked aboutteaching the dog the calm
greetings.
Remember I talked about that.
You started a distance that'sfar enough away where your dog
is relaxed and calm.
Same thing when, let's say,your dog likes to chase after
(55:01):
cars or kids on bikes orscooters or skateboards, well,
you're going to want to gosomewhere where that stuff
exists, or you're going to wantto elicit the help of somebody
who can create that Right.
They can drive their car by, ora kid can go by on a bicycle or
a scooter or something likethat.
(55:22):
You want to help her becausehere's the thing you want to
start at a distance that's farenough away where your dog
doesn't lose it and begin tochase and you want that moving
object to go slow.
So let's say your dog likes tochase after cars.
Well, I'm going to have yourdog a good distance away from a
(55:46):
car that's moving slowly andhave the dog stay on place and
I'm going to reward andreinforce the behavior of
staying on place and the dog notchasing.
Little by little I'm going toclose the distance between the
moving object and the dog andlittle by little I'm going to
(56:07):
increase the speed of thatmoving object and when the dog
doesn't take the bait and chase,I'm rewarding the dog for
staying on place.
And again, this is a gradual,systematic exercise that can
take days, weeks, in some casesmaybe longer than a few weeks.
You can only work as fast asthe dog's pace.
(56:29):
You got to have patience.
It's all about repetition.
It's all about doing a littlebit of work every single day and
it starts to add up and add upand add up.
Now, most people don't traintheir dogs to the level of
having muscle memory.
If you truly want good impulsecontrol, you've got to do a ton
(56:54):
of repetition where your dog, inexcitable situations, doesn't
even have to think about what itis you're asking for.
It just becomes an automaticresponse because it's happened
so many times.
If you ever learn to play aninstrument well, or if you ever
struggle to drive a stick shiftand then began to be and have
(57:17):
become successful driving astick shift, you understand how
repetition after so manyrepetitions you get to the point
where it becomes an unconsciousprocess.
When you first learned to drivea stick shift, it was brutal,
but then, as you continue topractice, you got to the point
where you could drive all overthe place shifting your shifter,
(57:39):
never even once thinking aboutwhat you're doing.
When you started it, it seemedlike that there were all these
different steps involved and youwere making all kinds of
mistakes.
But practice, practice,practice makes for permanence
and reliability, not permanent,all right.
What is our next impulse controlexercise that we can talk about
(58:04):
?
Well, I call it the toy switchgame teaching your dog to switch
from one toy to another on cue,which can also help in managing
possessiveness.
The way that you're going to dothis remember we talked about
(58:26):
how to teach the dog to taketreats gently that same process
where you've got treats in yourhands.
Instead of that, you're goingto have toys in your hands.
You're going to have two toys.
You're going to bring out onetoy and you're going to play
(58:47):
with the dog.
Then what I want you to do isbring out the second toy from
behind your back and your otherhand.
Typically, when you do that,the dog will give up the toy
you're currently playing with.
As your dog gives it up again.
Here's a little bit more ofcapturing.
You're not asking for it,you're creating the behavior.
(59:09):
You say leave it All right.
Let's paint this picture again.
Let's say I've got a rope toy,I got a ball and a rope toy.
The ball's in my left hand,rope toy's in my right hand,
both hands behind my back.
I'm going to take the rope toyfrom behind my back, bring it in
front of me, play with the dog.
Then, as we're playing, I'mgoing to go ahead and take the
(59:30):
ball that I have behind my backout.
As the dog sees the ball, I'mgoing to get the dog interested.
As the dog releases the rope tonow engage with the ball, I'm
going to say leave it and takethat rope toy and put it behind
my back.
I'm going to repeat thatprocess back and forth.
Practice, practice, practice,right, repetition, repetition.
(59:55):
Start teaching your dog toswitch out toys.
The best thing is, when we'retaking something from your dog,
always give your dog analternative, all right.
Otherwise you're going topossibly start making the dog
think resources are scarce andthe dog might start to protect
resources and be a littleprotective or start engaging in
(01:00:18):
resource guarding.
We don't want that, all right.
The last thing that I want totalk about here in part two of
teaching your dog impulsecontrol remember, if you didn't
listen to part one, make sureyou go to season five, episode
142, and listen to part one ofteaching your dog impulse
(01:00:41):
control.
But the last thing that we canteach is patience in your dog's
crate.
All right, if your dog's cratetrained.
Teaching your dog to wait calmlyin the crate until it's
released is a great impulsecontrol exercise.
(01:01:01):
And so let's say you get home,your dog's created, your dog's
all excited.
Stand by the crate, freeze likea tree when your dog settles
down.
Begin the process.
You hear what I'm saying now?
I didn't say open the.
I did not say open the door.
I said begin the process ofopening the crate door as you
(01:01:23):
move your hand towards the cratedoor.
If your dog starts gettingexcited, again freeze like a
tree, pull your hand away.
When your dog settles down,again try it again.
Slowly.
Reach your hand to the cratedoor.
If your dog gets excited,slowly move your hand away and
freeze Gradually, slowly,systematically.
(01:01:46):
Only open the door when yourdog is relaxed.
If your dog starts to getexcited and you start opening
the door, make sure you'reopening it slowly, just freeze.
Don't open it up all the way.
Slowly close it again Veryslowly, very gradually.
Open that door as your dog ismaintaining a relaxed, calm
(01:02:08):
demeanor in the crate.
Make sure that you're markingthat behavior and that you are
rewarding that behavior.
Really critical.
We're asking the dog you knowwhen we're doing impulse control
exercises.
We're asking the dog to give upsomething it really wants and
when it does that.
Please, please, please, makesure the dog's getting a
(01:02:30):
paycheck for that hard, hardwork and your dog's paycheck in
most cases is going to be somekind of very high value food
reward.
These food rewards should betiny, about the size of a pea.
The goal here is not to, youknow, fill the dog up, but it's
to reward, to reinforce theright behavior.
(01:02:50):
Eventually down the road, asyour dog gets more reliable with
these behaviors, as thesebehaviors become more and more
permanent, as your dog starts todevelop better impulse control,
little by little you're goingto be able to feed out or to
fade out some of these foodrewards.
All right, hopefully you got alot out of this.
(01:03:12):
Please subscribe to the dogtraining today podcast.
Make sure you tell your friendsand families check out all of
our podcasts on Apple podcast,google podcast or wherever you
get your podcast.
Have a great day, everybody.
I'm outta here.
One of the best skills that you can work on with
your dog is impulse control.
Whether you have a dog that isreactive or aggressive, well,
they definitely need betterimpulse control.
Impulse control is crucial whenwe're talking about those
behavioral issues.
(00:20):
But maybe you've got a dog thatlikes to jump, is excitable,
has a lot of energy and justcan't settle down.
Maybe you've got a dog thatgoes crazy whenever the doorbell
rings or the door knocks, ormaybe when you go to get in the
car and your dog gets veryexcitable.
Maybe you go to lots ofdifferent places with your dog
(00:42):
and you'd like to enjoy things,but your dog just gets too
excited about everything that'sgoing on in the environment.
Well, we're going to talk moreabout impulse control.
This is going to be part two ofteaching your dog impulse
control.
Don't go anywhere.
We'll be back in 60 seconds tounpack this.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
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 (01:32):
Would you like to go on Wookiees?
Good day dog lovers.
I'm Will Bangura.
Thanks for joining me foranother episode of dog training
today.
As I said in the opener, we'regoing to be talking more about
teaching your dog impulsecontrol, and that is something
(01:57):
that every dog that is reactive,aggressive, excitable, hyper
can't calm down.
Those are all dogs and issuesthat definitely can benefit from
impulse control.
Now, this is part two ofimpulse control.
If you have not listened topart one, you want to make sure
(02:21):
that you go to the dog trainingtoday audio podcast and look for
season five, episode 142.
Again, that's season five,episode 142.
That is part one of teachingyour dog impulse control.
In that particular podcast wewent over various things to
(02:43):
teach your dog to help withimpulse control.
We talked about how to workwith sit and stay, waiting at
doors and gates, teaching yourdog to leave it, teaching drop
it, teaching a strong stay foryour dog, teaching your dog to
go to its place or bed and stay,and the last thing that we
(03:05):
covered in part one of teachingyour dog impulse control,
episode 42, season five.
The last thing we covered therewas teaching eye contact and
teaching focus.
If you are not subscribed to thedog training today audio
podcast.
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(03:28):
one of our podcasts on ourpodcast and all the great
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I do a podcast on the dogtraining today audio podcast at
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(03:53):
month at 11 o'clock Eastern time, eight o'clock Pacific time,
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(04:14):
training.
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(04:36):
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Okay, so let's get into the meatof what we want to talk about
here in part two of teachingyour dog impulse control.
Again, as I mentioned, it'sprobably one of the most
(05:01):
important things that you canwork with your dog on,
especially if you don't have acouch potato Now, those of you
that have a couch potato youmight not need to deal with this
, but if you've got dogs thatagain, are aggressive or
reactive or very high energyhyperactive, just can't settle
(05:23):
down, if you've got a dog thatgets overstimulated and just
loses its mind, this is going tobe a great podcast for you and
also, like I said, make sure youcheck out part one, that's
season five, episode 142,teaching your dog impulse
(05:43):
control.
Part one.
All right, let's get into parttwo.
The last thing we left off withwas teaching eye contact and
focus.
So the next thing we want totalk about and that was in part
one the next thing we want totalk about is teaching your dog
If you've got a dog that needsimpulse control how to walk on a
(06:06):
loose leash, teaching thatcontrolled walk.
Teaching your dog how to healNow, some people don't know
where the heal position is, sothe way I like to teach it, I
like the heal position and how Iidentify it when the dog is
(06:28):
walking next to me and its frontpaws hit the ground as it's in
its stride, in its gait.
I want to see those front pawslanding on the ground lined up
with my heel.
All right, one of the thingsthat I don't want when I'm
(06:50):
teaching controlled walking,when I'm teaching the heel
position, when I'm teaching adog to walk on a loose leash, I
personally teach it where Idon't want the dog's eyes to be
in front of your leg, so yourdog's eyes can be lined up with
(07:13):
your leg, and that's where Ilike it to be.
You know, if you're walking andyour dog's eyeballs are a foot
behind your leg, your dog'sprobably lagging behind, maybe
getting distracted, maybesniffing somewhere, but not
paying attention to you, notstaying with you.
So I like to keep the dog'seyes right in line with my leg
(07:37):
and I don't want those eyesgetting in front of my leg,
because if the eyes get in frontof my leg, the dog, in my
opinion, is leading this walkand we're taking away a huge cue
for the dog and that's thevisual cue of us and where we're
going.
And when it comes to teachingyour dog how to walk on a loose
(07:59):
leash, how to heal controlledwalking, one of the most
important things that you needto understand this is about
teaching your dog to follow you,to follow you and to pay
attention and to stay in aspecific position and to walk at
(08:20):
a particular pace.
So we've identified theposition where we want the dog,
we want those eyes at our leg.
Now what do we do and how do weteach this?
What do we do if the dog startsto pull?
What do we do if the dog's eyesget in front of our legs?
(08:41):
Well, one of the first thingswe need to do is make sure that
we begin the process of teachingthis where there are little to
no distractions.
You need to be able to keepyour dog's focus, you need to be
able to keep your dog'sattention and if the
distractions are too much,you're not going to be able to
create that foundation for yourdog.
(09:03):
We're going to add distractionsonce your dog understands the
concept of following you, payingattention to you, walking at a
specific pace in a specificposition next to you.
I like the process to start,oftentimes in the home, inside,
(09:25):
where there's less distractions,and actually in a hallway, if
we've got a decent hallway.
What do I mean by decent Well,long enough hallway and what's
long enough?
Oh, I don't know.
Six, eight, nine, 10 steps andwhat I like to do is go to the
end of the hallway and face thedog, turn the dog around.
(09:52):
So imagine we've got thishallway and you're at the
beginning of the hallway, andlet's just say that we've got a
hallway that's about 10 stepslong.
All right, at the beginning ofthe hallway, turn your dog
around, have your dogs back,facing the lengthily part of the
(10:19):
hallway.
So you're at the beginning ofthe hallway but you've got the
dog turned around as if you'rewalking out of the hallway.
The dog's back is to themajority of the hallway.
Hopefully that makes sense.
What I want you to begin to dois have your dog sit next to you
(10:40):
and we're going to startwalking.
But rather than walk forwardwith your dog sitting next to
you, I want you to make a 180degree turn away from your dog,
take a step backwards and turnaway from your dog 180 degrees.
(11:05):
Now, when you do that, it'sgoing to put the dog slightly
behind you.
Now most dogs are going to wantto catch up to you.
Now, when you do this again,dog sitting next to you, you're
going to make a 180 degree, turnaway from the dog and start
walking.
Now, when you do this, makesure that your eyes are on your
(11:30):
dog's face.
Make sure that your eyes arelooking at your dog's head.
Specifically, make sure thatyou are looking at your dog's
eye position.
When you make that turn awayfrom the dog 180 degrees, as you
start to walk and you'relooking at your dog, your dog
should be slightly behind youand your dog should then
(11:51):
typically most dogs they'regoing to start moving a little
quicker and catch up to you.
Your job is to watch where aretheir eyes, in conjunction with
your legs, as soon as your dogcatches up and as soon as their
eyeballs get lined up with yourleg.
(12:12):
I want you to again turn awayfrom the dog 180 degrees and
start walking again, but turnyour head back to look at your
dog's face and head.
You need to know where is yourdog's position at all times, so
you need to be looking over yourshoulder at your dog.
(12:34):
Now I like to have the dog on myleft side when I do this, but
you can do it on the right sideor the left side.
It really doesn't matter.
Tradition dogs are on the leftside.
That's why I do it that way.
Can you do it the other way?
Of course you can.
Is there anything wrong withhaving them on your right side?
No, there's nothing wrong withthat.
So it's just a personalpreference.
(12:55):
Tradition says left, but youdon't have to go with that.
All right, don't worry aboutthe distance, don't worry about
how far you go.
I don't care if you're onlytaking three, four, five, six,
eight steps.
We want to make sure that whenwe're teaching this controlled
walk, when we're teaching thedog to walk on a loose leash,
(13:17):
when we're teaching the dog toheal, that it's all about
position, paying attention,walking at our pace, and the
first thing we need to do isteach position.
And as we do that, we're goingto weave into teaching the dog
(13:43):
to pay attention.
We're going to be making a lotof turns.
We're going to be making a lotof turns away from the dog, a
lot of you turns turning 180degrees away from the dog.
We're going to do that a lot.
The more turns you make, themore you keep changing direction
on the dog, the more the doghas to give up whatever else it
(14:08):
might be focused on and refocuson where you're going.
So I want you to think aboutthis If you're just walking one
direction for a long period oftime.
It's very easy, especially for adog that has no training in
this, to get distracted.
But imagine if you're the dogand I'm the handler and I start
(14:34):
having you walk with me, butthree steps into the walk I make
a U-turn.
Now we're heading in oppositedirection.
I go only three, four, five,maybe even two steps and I make
a U-turn away from you.
And now we're going anotherdirection and I take a couple
steps.
Here we go, making anotherU-turn.
You don't have a lot of time.
You don't have a lot of time tofocus on other things and get
(14:57):
distracted, because I keepchanging direction on you very
fast, in quick duration, andthat is going to teach your dog
to focus on you.
And again, if you're justwalking in a straight line,
you're going to struggle withthis Anytime.
(15:21):
When you're teaching this,anytime your dog gets distracted
, I want you to turn away fromyour dog 180 degrees, okay,
change direction and then turnaway from your dog and go right
back towards that distraction,only to turn away from it again.
We're teaching your dog whilewe're doing this to give up
(15:46):
those distractions.
Don't focus on those.
Focus on mom, focus on dad,focus on where you're going.
Okay, now remember we'restarting this in a hallway and
remember, anytime those eyes getto the middle of your leg, you
need to make a 180 degree U-turnaway from your dog Now, when we
(16:08):
start this process, we shouldhave high value food rewards
that we can reinforce the rightbehavior we're looking for.
Those high value food rewardsshould always be in a treat
pouch, and you want to have thattreat pouch attached to you Now
.
I like to have my treat pouchon the left side.
I have my dogs walk on the leftside.
(16:29):
When I reward for my treatpouch, I reach in with my left
hand and I reward.
Now, it's really important thatyou don't do this exercise with
food in your hand.
In most instances, that's notwhat we want.
We don't want to bribe the dog.
We can begin the process ofreinforcing and teaching your
(16:52):
dog to pay attention to you whenwalking by making that 180
degree U-turn away from the dogand as your dog turns to follow,
you can mark that behavior andreward right then and there, and
then you can repeat thatprocess.
(17:13):
The dog catches up to you.
You can therefore sit if yourdog can sit.
Now make that 180 degree U-turnaway from the dog and, as the
dog follows, you go ahead andmark that behavior and reward.
Now, if you don't know what Imean when I say mark that
behavior, I'm talking aboutusing markers and training.
(17:35):
I'm talking about a markertraining system.
One type of marker that somepeople use is a clicker.
Some people use a verbal markerlike yes or nice.
Using markers and training isgoing to dramatically speed up
the process and also help tomake the communication more
(17:58):
clear for your dog and thatmeans that your dog learns
quicker.
So I highly, highly, highlyrecommend, if you don't know
about markers and you learnabout markers and marker
training, you can go to mywebsite to learn all about
markers and using a markertraining system by going to
(18:21):
dogbehavioristcom.
Again, that's dogbehavioristcom.
Go to the menu and look forarticles.
When you get to articles, clickon that and then scroll through
the articles, find the articleon clicker training.
Remember, I said a clicker isone kind of marker.
(18:42):
There's a full article there onmarker training using clickers,
how to use markers and training, and then at the bottom of that
article I've got about anhour-long audio podcast and I
believe it's Episode 80 that Idid a full hour on marker
(19:05):
training.
So you can check that out aswell, because, again, that's
something that is critical.
When you're thinking about thisprocess of teaching your dog to
walk on a loose leash, having acontrolled walk, teaching your
dog to heal, I want you to thinkabout.
We're teaching the dog tofollow you.
I want you to think about we'reteaching the dog to follow you
(19:28):
and pay attention, and we'reteaching the dog to follow you,
pay attention, stay in aspecific position and walk at a
specific pace.
One of the things that I teachas we're doing this is change of
(19:49):
pace.
So sometimes when I'm goingthrough this process, I'm
walking at a normal pace, whichis pretty brisk, and then I'll
start doing it, making littletiny shuffle steps like an old
person.
Now the rules remain the sameIf those eyeballs get to the
middle of my leg, but beforethey get in front of my leg, I'm
(20:13):
going to make a 180-degreeU-turn away from the dog.
It doesn't matter if I'm goingfast, slow or normal, and I want
to work this at different paces.
Working at different paces alsohelps the dog pay attention and
, depending upon who might bewalking the dog, not everybody
walks at the same pace.
(20:33):
I want you to begin the processof teaching your dog that it
needs to adjust the pace to theperson that's walking, not that
we adjust our pace to the dog.
Who's training who?
Right?
Okay, we're still in thehallway.
We haven't gone out of thehallway because we don't need a
(20:54):
lot of room.
Don't worry about how far you go.
Worry about what are we doing.
We're making a lot of turns.
Why?
Because we're teaching the dogto give up distractions and stay
focused on us, and as the moreturns that we make away from the
dog, your dog's gonna startlooking up at you.
Where are we going?
Oh, are we turning?
Where are we going when younotice your dog starting to do
(21:17):
that because of all the frequentturns, when you start noticing
your dog looking up at you, markthat behavior and reward that.
Now we're starting to get moreof a focused heel.
Okay, again, don't worry abouthow far you're going.
Worry about teaching your dogposition.
Pay attention, all right, andthen work that at different
(21:40):
paces.
Now, if your dog's eyes everget in front of your leg, that
means you're late.
You're late in what you need tobe doing.
You should have turned 180degrees away from your dog when
the eyes were at your leg.
Now, what happens if your dog'seyes are way behind your leg.
(22:02):
Well, that means your dog'sgoing too slow and it's lagging.
If that happens, just pick upyour pace into excuse me, into a
jog for about two steps andthat'll speed up the dog because
the dog's gonna follow the pacethat you're going and that'll
bring the dog further forward.
But again, continue to watchthose eyes.
Anytime those eyes get to themiddle of the leg, turn 180
(22:26):
degrees away from your dog.
That by doing that, what doesthat do?
It teaches the dog that there'sno point in ever trying to get
ahead of you.
It teaches the dog not to forgeahead, which then leads to that
pull on the leash.
Okay, so teaching the dog notto pull on the leash isn't about
(22:48):
shocking the dog with anelectronic collar.
It's not about punishing popcorrections with a prong collar.
None of that is needed.
When you know how to usepositive reinforcement, when you
truly know how to train, youdon't need to use punishment.
You don't need to use fear,pain or intimidation to get the
(23:09):
dog to learn.
Matter of fact learning is donebest when the learner is having
fun.
How well do you learn whenyou're experiencing pain?
How well do you learn whenyou're experiencing discomfort.
How well do you learn ifthere's fear going through you?
How well do you learn if you'reintimidated?
(23:30):
But then how well do you learnwhen you're really having fun?
So this is all about usingpositive reinforcement.
Modern dog trainers today do notuse punishment.
Modern dog trainers today donot use correction collars.
They don't need to.
And if another trainer has toldyou that it's necessary doesn't
(23:51):
mean that they're a bad person.
It just means that they don'thave highly honed skills as a
positive reinforcement trainerDoesn't mean positive
reinforcement can't make ithappen.
It happens all the time.
There's thousands of trainersall over the world that are
making this happen every day.
(24:11):
You don't need to punish yourdog to have a well-behaved dog,
all right.
So we've done this in ourhallway.
Now the next step is I want youto begin the process of doing
this outside, but if you have abackyard or if you can go
somewhere where there's not alot of distractions, go through
(24:32):
the same process.
Now I need you to work on andwalk on a straight line.
Imagine that you had a paintroller and you painted a
straight line about 15 feet long.
Stay on that line, okay, go tothe middle of the line, have
your dog sit next to you.
(24:53):
Start by making a 180 degreeU-turn away from your dog.
Notice, that's how I have youstart.
I don't tell you to start andstart walking forward.
The first thing I want you todo is turn away from your dog.
That's gonna put the dog behindyou.
And again, keep your head.
Keep your eyes looking at yourdog's head, at your dog's face.
(25:16):
Where are your dog's eyes?
If you don't have your headturned, if you're not looking
over your shoulder at your dog,you don't know where your dog's
eyes are, you're gonna be latewhen it comes to executing your
steps in what you need to do,cause you're looking at the
dog's eyes.
Where are they?
In conjunction with your body.
As you turn away from your dog,your dog's behind you.
(25:37):
Most dogs are gonna try tocatch up, speed up a little bit
and when their eyes get to themiddle of your leg, you're gonna
make a 180 degree U-turn awayfrom the dog.
Now we're gonna add one morething.
Up to this point, I've not hadyou give any commands or cues.
Why is that?
Well, I want you to create thisbehavior first.
(26:01):
Then we'll start labeling thebehavior.
It does us no good to use a cueor command for a behavior if we
don't have the behavior Cause,what are we associating?
What are we labeling Garbage?
Right, if the dog can't walk?
Worth a darn?
If the dog's not healing, whyare we gonna call it heal?
(26:22):
So you can say walk, you cansay let's go, you can say heal,
whatever you want.
Just be consistent withwhatever the cue is.
I like to say let's go.
So as soon as I start rememberthe dog's sitting next to me I'm
gonna make a 180 degree U-turnaway from the dog as I'm doing
(26:43):
that.
Now I'm going, let's go, andI'm slapping my leg, making a
little sound on my leg that'sclosest to the dog.
All right.
So I'm going, let's go, and Istart walking.
But remember I'm turning awayfrom the dog 180 degrees,
letting the dog catch up.
When the eyes get to the middleof my leg, I'm gonna go again.
(27:06):
Let's go, slap my leg, makethat U-turn away from the dog as
the dog complies.
When the dog responds to thatand begins to turn to follow you
.
Remember mark and reward, useyour markers.
Reward your dog with your highvalue food reward.
It's really important thatwe're motivating your dog.
(27:28):
You've gotta be moreinteresting.
You need to have high valuefood rewards to keep your dog's
focus.
As we start getting into moreand more distracting
environments, you're definitelygonna wanna make sure that you
have your dog's attention andthat engagement Again be more
interesting than anything in theenvironment.
(27:49):
Okay, now, as you start havingsuccess, maybe in your backyard,
now move into the front of thehouse.
Try to get.
If you live in a communitywhere there are sidewalks, try
to do this on a sidewalk.
Why?
Because it's a nice straightline.
You can again make theseU-turns.
Listen, we're not going for awalk right now and we're not
(28:12):
gonna go for a walk until we canget your dog to walk.
We're gonna be doing this eightsteps, 10 steps, 15 steps.
Little by little we'll add moredistance to this, but right now
, even if your dog is walking inthe correct position, I don't
(28:35):
want you to take more than aboutsix to eight steps without
making a U-turn away from yourdog, because again, we're
teaching the dog pay attention.
And remember I said earlier, ifwe just keep walking in a
straight line, so easy for yourdog to get distracted, by making
lots of turns you can interruptyour dog from getting
(28:57):
distracted and redirect your dogto focus on you and walking
next to you.
So anytime you happen to alsonotice your dog even slightly
getting distracted, how aboutyou then give the cue?
Let's go, slap that leg andturn 180 degrees away from your
dog.
When your dog follows, mark andreward that behavior.
(29:21):
Little by little, you're gonnaadd more distance to this.
Little by little, you are goingto go in more and more
distracting environments.
Now, if you find yourself in anenvironment and your dog is
distracted to the point whereyou can't get your dog's focus,
(29:43):
it doesn't mean that you'refailing.
It doesn't mean that your dogcan't do this.
It doesn't mean that thetraining doesn't work.
All that means is that you'reworking too quickly.
You need to take a step backinto a less distracting
environment and work more ongetting your dog to focus and
(30:03):
pay attention to this process.
Okay, Make sure you'rerewarding focus and attention.
Like I said, anytime your doglooks up at you, I want you to
also mark and reward that.
All right, and again, little bylittle, go into more and more
distracting environments.
But this is a journey.
(30:25):
The biggest assets that you canhave patience and understanding
and it's so important that yourealize that this is a journey,
the way that dogs get good isthrough practice, practice,
practice.
Practice makes no, not perfect.
No animal is going to beperfect.
(30:46):
I want you to think about a newsaying Practice makes permanence
.
The more we practice, the morepermanent the behavior is, the
more reliable the behavior is.
But that's how you start toteach a dog to walk on a loose
leash.
It's not about popping theleash.
All right, by the time you'repopping the leash, the dog's not
(31:09):
doing what you want.
Why not teach the dog what youwant from the beginning, instead
of punishing the dog?
So that's the first thing.
That is a good impulse controlexercise.
When we're talking here in parttwo of teaching your dog
(31:30):
impulse control.
Part one was in episode 142, ifyou haven't listened to episode
142, please make sure that youcheck that out.
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All right, very good, let's getback into teaching your dog
(32:54):
impulse control.
All right, what's our nextthing that we can do to begin to
teach?
What's another exercise toteach impulse control?
Well, how about food bowlcontrol?
Right, training your dog towake calmly while their food
bowl is being prepared and thenwaiting to eat until you've been
(33:16):
given a release command.
Now, how do you begin theprocess of doing that?
All right, so teaching your dogto wake calmly sometimes is
about waiting them out, allright.
So when you're preparing yourdog's meal, start doing this,
(33:38):
maybe on a day off, if you feedright before you go to work.
This is not the time topractice this, but let's say
that you've got time.
Maybe it's your day off and youget ready to put food in the
dog's bowl and maybe it's just amatter of you take a step
towards the pantry or whereveryou keep the food and your dog
(33:59):
starts getting excited.
When that happens, freeze likea tree until your dog is calm.
Then start moving towards yourdog's food again.
At any time your dog starts toget excitable and animated,
freeze like a tree until yourdog calms down.
(34:20):
Then go back into the process.
So you're going to go throughthe process you normally go
through to get your dog's foodready and to feed your dog.
But from the start of thatprocess to the end, anytime your
dog gets excitable, freeze likea tree, wait for your dog to
calm down and if you start backup again, your dog immediately
(34:44):
gets excitable.
Freeze again, freeze again.
This works.
You've got to be patient.
You've got to be consistentwith this.
Now, one of the things you canalso begin to do most people
have taught their dog to sit.
You can teach them to sit andanytime they come out of the sit
(35:05):
, re-command the sit and slowlybegin the process of putting the
food bowl down.
As you put the food bowl down,as you're making that movement,
if your dog begins to get up inanticipation, re-ask for sit
(35:26):
again.
All right, now, don't rewardthis other than praise.
The big reward is going to bethe food bowl.
So if you're asking your dog todo certain things to control
its excitability, just useverbal praise when your dog
complies.
All right.
Little by little, get your dogto maintain that sit as you put
(35:50):
the food bowl down.
Now you might need to have aleash to help guide your dog, so
you might start this with yourdog's harness on.
Attach the leash to the harness.
Make sure that your dog can'tget to the food bowl.
Okay, and begin by labeling thebehavior that we're trying to
(36:14):
teach here as weight, weight andthen, like I said, teach a
release command when your doghas waited for a couple seconds
while the food bowl is down.
Now give your dog a releasecommand.
Click free at ease.
Okay, whatever that releasecommand is for you, but be
(36:36):
consistent.
Don't let your dog beat you.
Don't give in.
Teaching your dog to wait forits food is a great impulse
control exercise, all right Nowkeeping with food.
Another great impulse controlexercise is teaching your dog to
(36:57):
take treats gently, all right.
Do you have a dog that justgoes crazy when you got to treat
and just about bites your handoff.
Yeah, a lot of people do,especially if we've got these
dogs that are high energy,excitable dogs that don't have
good impulse control right.
So a lot of.
If you've got a dog with goodimpulse control, chances are it
(37:19):
takes treats slowly.
But a lot of dogs that don'thave any impulse control, bam,
they just grab that treat, allright.
So how do I teach a dog gentlein terms of taking treats?
I will have treats in bothhands and I'm gonna close my
hands.
So I've got treats in bothhands.
Hands are closed.
(37:39):
Put both hands behind my back,all right.
I bring out one hand.
I very slowly open it up.
As the dog goes for the treat,I close my hand.
I go gentle, I pull it back alittle bit.
Then I bring out my other handand I slowly open my hand up
just a little bit.
If the dog starts going for it,you know, in a non-gentle way,
(38:02):
I'm gonna close my hand, say,gentle, pull that hand back
behind my back.
I got both hands behind my back.
Take one hand out slowly, beginto open it.
If the dog's moving towardsthat hand and trying to get the
treat fast, I close that hand.
I go, gentle, and I put thathand behind my back and then I
take my other hand out.
When the dog will go for itslowly, then I will open up the
(38:26):
hand completely and I'll let thedog have that.
And again, this is one whereyou've gotta be patient.
If your dog might learn this inone or two repetitions, then
again it might take your dogdays to learn this.
It all depends on the dog.
You can only work as fast asyour dog's pace, so have
patience when doing this.
(38:47):
That's your impulse control.
Okay, all right.
Another, the next thing.
What's another thing that wecan work on in terms of teaching
impulse control?
How about doorbell training?
Okay, anything really.
With the door, all right.
(39:08):
Training your dog not to rushthe door or bark excessively
when the doorbell rings orsomebody knocks on the door.
Part of that is beginning todesensitize your dog to the
sound of the doorbell and thesound of knocking.
And one of the ways that youcan do that, let's start with
(39:29):
knocking.
You can have a helper beginknocking at extremely low volume
.
So just the lightest knockpossible, just once, and feed
the dog when you do that andthen go knock, knock, feed feed.
Knock, knock, knock, feed feedfeed.
Knock, knock, knock, knock,feed, feed feed.
(39:51):
So the whole time knocking ishappening.
You're feeding.
But you've gotta start superquiet or your dog's gonna just
bark through that and be moreconcerned about barking than
taking food.
All right, then you can dolittle by little.
You're gonna, with the knocking, have your helper knock a
(40:13):
little louder.
Now, this can take days, it cantake weeks.
Some dogs will get it in a day,some dogs it's gonna take
longer Can only work as fast asyour dog's pace.
Next you can work on thedoorbell.
How do you do that?
Well, how about you start withrecorded sounds of doorbells?
You know you get on YouTube andyou can find just about any
(40:34):
sound For that doorbell soundthat's recorded.
Turn it all the way down to itslowest volume and you press
play, ding, dong.
Feed the dog.
Make sure you press stop.
We just want one doorbell andit's at low volume.
If your dog's going crazy, thevolume's too loud, bring it down
even more.
(40:54):
And you want to pair high valuefood rewards when the sound
happens.
So, as soon as the sound starts, feed, feed, feed, feed
constantly and continuously thewhole time the sound is
happening.
But when the sound stops, stopfeeding.
Okay, that'll help desensitizeyour dog to those sounds.
(41:19):
Now, when it comes to rushingthe door a great impulse control
exercise.
You know.
In part one, episode 142, ofteaching impulse control, we
talked about teaching your dogto go to its better its place
and that is a great exercise touse to begin the process of
teaching your dog to stay whenthe door opens and I talked
(41:44):
about that and talked aboutopening the door as a
distraction, keeping your dog onits bed or keeping your dog on
its place.
We don't want the dog rushingthe door.
Another thing we can do at thedoor it's not just the doorbell
and the door knock, it's saypeople coming in right, teaching
(42:06):
and working with our sit stay,which we talked about teaching
that sit stay in part one ofteaching impulse control,
episode 142.
And we talked about, when itcomes to teaching impulse
control, also about teaching sitand having the dog sit and
(42:29):
maintain that sit when the dooropens.
Now, when you begin thisprocess, you don't just have a
stranger come in right away.
You begin the process by goingover the door and rattling the
handle and seeing if your dogcomes out of the sit.
If it does, you ask for sitagain.
Remember when you have toreinforce a behavior, when you
(42:49):
have to recommand that behavior,when you have to give another
cue for that behavior.
Please just use praise, love,praise, affection when your dog
does the right thing.
You don't have to give the cueagain.
Use high value food awards.
Make that difference there.
Differentiate between the twobehaviors.
(43:11):
One gets a higher paycheck thanthe other.
All right, all right.
Another thing what's anotherthing that you can do to teach
impulse control to your dog?
How about waiting for play,bringing your dog's favorite toy
out and make them sit and becalm before you begin to play
(43:34):
and then interrupt play and askfor a sit again and Make them be
calm.
Just wait them out.
Just wait out the calm.
When the calm happens, go backinto play.
Then stop playing.
Wait it out.
When calm happens, go back intoplay.
(43:55):
Little by little, your dog'sgoing to learn when you stop
playing to calm down faster.
When you're able to do thatenough times repetitiously that
you've created that behavioragain, what are we creating?
We stop playing.
The dog calms down.
When that happens, you canbegin the process of when you
(44:16):
stop playing.
You can say calm, relax or wait, whatever you want.
You can now add a cue to that.
But create the behavior Now forall of these things.
Dogs learn best when you do lotsof repetition but short
training sessions.
So your training session mightbe five minutes long, seven
(44:38):
minutes long, but if you can dothat multiple times throughout
the day, that's going to be awhole lot better than trying to
do this for an hour on Saturday.
That's going to take foreverDoing short little sessions, but
lots of them will get you towhere you need to go much faster
.
So that's one of the thingsthat I recommend.
All right, we talked aboutwaiting for play.
(45:01):
What is the next thing?
Okay, how about teaching yourdog, as an impulse control
exercise, to pause on walks,implementing random stops during
a walk where your dog must sitor or just stand still briefly
before continuing, and it's likethe other things that I've
(45:24):
talked about.
It's about waiting out calm.
Now, if you're in anenvironment and your dog cannot
settle down, cannot calm down,you need to dial back a little
bit.
You're moving faster than yourdog's pace.
Okay, slow down.
Go into an environment thatdoesn't have that level of
(45:45):
distraction.
Spend more time Working there.
Spend more time reinforcing theright behaviors in that level
of distraction, get that moresolidified and then go into More
distracting environments.
But do this very gradually,very systematically and remember
(46:05):
anytime you're not havingsuccess with your dog, go back
to the step that you were havingsuccess.
Spend more time working therebefore you again step forward.
Alright, calm greetings that isOne of the best things that you
can teach your dog right, andit's an impulse control exercise
(46:29):
Teaching your dog to greetpeople and other animals calmly,
without jumping or Withoutexcessive excitement.
Now let's say your dog is crazy, crazy excited, wants to just
meet every person, wants to meetevery dog.
The first thing you need to dois make sure that You're
(46:53):
stopping that behavior.
And what do I mean by that?
I don't mean punishing your dog.
I don't mean correcting yourdog.
Listen, what is the distancethat your dog needs to be away
from a strange person or astrange animal Before it gets
excited?
See, there's a distance whereyour dog, when it's far enough
(47:14):
away from a strange person ordog, can tell that there's a
strange person or dog there, butthey're far enough away where
your dog doesn't get crazyexcited.
It's at that distance where youwant to start this.
You know, if you try to do thiswith your dog a calm greeting
when you're two feet in front ofsomebody, your dog's just
(47:36):
losing its mind and you justkeep trying to do that over and
over and over, you're settingyour dog up for failure and
You're setting yourself up for alot of frustration.
And when that happens, what dowe want?
To fall back on punishment,right, and it's not the dog's
fault.
We don't need to punish it all.
We got to teach the dog what wewant.
(47:57):
We've got to teach success.
So start at a distance whenyour dog can see the strange
person appear or see the strangedog appear other animal.
And when your dogs calm, rewardthe dog and Start working on
some of the other trainingexercises that you know, even if
(48:18):
you know tricks at thatdistance from the Strange person
or dog.
If you know, if your dog knowshow to sit, start working on sit
.
If your dog knows how to laydown, work on sit and lay down.
If your dog knows how to sit,lay down and watch, work on all
three of those things.
If your dog can roll over Shake, do high five.
Any other tricks, work on thoseas well.
Keep your dog focused andengaged on you and make sure
(48:42):
that you're rewarding with highvalue food awards.
Don't bribe the dog.
Don't have food in your hand.
Wait for your dog to do theright behavior, then mark, then
reach in your treat pouch andreward your dog.
Okay, little by little, you aregonna close that distance
Between you and the strangeperson.
(49:02):
You're gonna, little by little,you're gonna close that
distance between you and thatstrange animal.
But again, if your dog can'tfocus, you've gone too close too
soon.
You're working faster than yourdog's pace.
You need to slow down a littlebit and then take a step back.
It'll happen.
It'll happen, but you got to doit step by step.
(49:22):
You can't skip steps and expectthat to happen and there's no
such thing as a quick fix.
All right, anything good takeswork.
Okay, we talked about pausing onwalks.
We talked about calm greetings.
What's next?
Well, handling and grooming.
Tolerance.
How many of your dogs thinkabout it that have impulse
(49:45):
control problems, that struggleto be groomed?
Yeah, a lot of them.
Okay, gradually, getting yourdog used to being handled,
gradually, getting your dog usedto being brushed or groomed
without fussing or moving away,is a great skill.
But again, how are you going todo this?
(50:07):
You're gonna begin this verySlowly.
If your dog doesn't like to bebrushed, maybe the first thing
you need to do is show the brushand give a food reward.
Put the brush away.
Show the brush, food reward.
Brush behind your back.
Show the brush, food reward.
Brush behind your back untilyour dog's like, hey, I love
that brush.
Bring it out.
Then change your criteria.
(50:27):
Show the brush, touch it onyour dog.
Don't brush, just touch it andgive a reward.
Do that a bunch of times Nowyour dog wants that brush to
touch it.
Then change the criteria.
Show the brush, touch the brushon the dog's back.
Do one stroke and reward and Dothat over and over till the dog
(50:52):
loves that.
Then add two brush strokes andthen add three.
You get the idea.
Slowly, gradually, as your doghandles that calmly.
Reward your dog for that.
All right, all right.
What's our next Impulse controlexercise?
(51:14):
We can teach.
How about teaching your dog tobe quiet on cue, teaching your
dog to stop barking or makingnoise Upon given the cue of
quiet?
How do you do that?
Well, let's talk about aprinciple and training called
capturing.
In capturing, initially, we arenot asking for the behavior.
(51:36):
We are looking for the behavior.
We might create a situation oran opportunity to create the
behavior so that we can labelthat behavior, making an
association between the behaviorof quiet and a cue that we're
gonna want to associate andeventually ask Used to ask for
(51:58):
quiet.
All right.
So it's really simple to dothis.
You get your dog barked andwhen your dog stops barking for
about three seconds, you'regonna capture that three seconds
of quiet and you're gonna sayquiet and then mark and reward.
Do what you can to get your dogbarking again.
(52:22):
When your dog settles down,don't ask for it.
When your dog settles down, inis offering quiet behavior for
three seconds.
Label that quiet, mark andreward.
Do that as often as possible.
Eventually you'll be able toask for quiet.
(52:43):
But right now you're justcapturing the behavior your dog
offers, the quiet behavior.
Say quiet, mark and reward.
Eventually you're going to beable to ask for quiet.
Your dog will know what youmean.
All right, let's go to our nextimpulse control exercise.
How about no chasing, teachingyour dog to resist the impulse
(53:08):
to chase after moving objectslike toys being thrown, animals
running around, people runningaround?
In part one of impulse controlin episode 142, I talked about
teaching your dog to go to itsbetter place.
It's very difficult, if yourdog is committed to one behavior
(53:32):
, to do an alternative behavior.
That would be incompatible.
If your dog is committed tostaying on its bed or its place
or its mat or spot, if it'scommitted to that, it cannot be
chasing after moving objects,animals or people and stay on
(53:52):
its place.
At the same time, it would haveto give up one behavior for the
other.
Now, when we have a good, solid,reliable place and, by the way,
if you don't know how to teachplace, you can go to my website
at dogbehavioristcom.
Again, it's dogbehavioristcomGo to the articles, go to the
(54:15):
menu, click on articles, scrolldown till you find the article
on teaching place.
That article talks about how toteach place.
I also have a training videothat's embedded in that article
as well.
Now, once we've got that, wecan use that.
We can use that to teach thedog not to chase.
(54:39):
If we've got a dog that likesto chase, we can use that.
But here's the kicker.
Remember when I talked aboutteaching the dog the calm
greetings.
Remember I talked about that.
You started a distance that'sfar enough away where your dog
is relaxed and calm.
Same thing when, let's say,your dog likes to chase after
(55:01):
cars or kids on bikes orscooters or skateboards, well,
you're going to want to gosomewhere where that stuff
exists, or you're going to wantto elicit the help of somebody
who can create that Right.
They can drive their car by, ora kid can go by on a bicycle or
a scooter or something likethat.
(55:22):
You want to help her becausehere's the thing you want to
start at a distance that's farenough away where your dog
doesn't lose it and begin tochase and you want that moving
object to go slow.
So let's say your dog likes tochase after cars.
Well, I'm going to have yourdog a good distance away from a
(55:46):
car that's moving slowly andhave the dog stay on place and
I'm going to reward andreinforce the behavior of
staying on place and the dog notchasing.
Little by little I'm going toclose the distance between the
moving object and the dog andlittle by little I'm going to
(56:07):
increase the speed of thatmoving object and when the dog
doesn't take the bait and chase,I'm rewarding the dog for
staying on place.
And again, this is a gradual,systematic exercise that can
take days, weeks, in some casesmaybe longer than a few weeks.
You can only work as fast asthe dog's pace.
(56:29):
You got to have patience.
It's all about repetition.
It's all about doing a littlebit of work every single day and
it starts to add up and add upand add up.
Now, most people don't traintheir dogs to the level of
having muscle memory.
If you truly want good impulsecontrol, you've got to do a ton
(56:54):
of repetition where your dog, inexcitable situations, doesn't
even have to think about what itis you're asking for.
It just becomes an automaticresponse because it's happened
so many times.
If you ever learn to play aninstrument well, or if you ever
struggle to drive a stick shiftand then began to be and have
(57:17):
become successful driving astick shift, you understand how
repetition after so manyrepetitions you get to the point
where it becomes an unconsciousprocess.
When you first learned to drivea stick shift, it was brutal,
but then, as you continue topractice, you got to the point
where you could drive all overthe place shifting your shifter,
(57:39):
never even once thinking aboutwhat you're doing.
When you started it, it seemedlike that there were all these
different steps involved and youwere making all kinds of
mistakes.
But practice, practice,practice makes for permanence
and reliability, not permanent,all right.
What is our next impulse controlexercise that we can talk about
(58:04):
?
Well, I call it the toy switchgame teaching your dog to switch
from one toy to another on cue,which can also help in managing
possessiveness.
The way that you're going to dothis remember we talked about
(58:26):
how to teach the dog to taketreats gently that same process
where you've got treats in yourhands.
Instead of that, you're goingto have toys in your hands.
You're going to have two toys.
You're going to bring out onetoy and you're going to play
(58:47):
with the dog.
Then what I want you to do isbring out the second toy from
behind your back and your otherhand.
Typically, when you do that,the dog will give up the toy
you're currently playing with.
As your dog gives it up again.
Here's a little bit more ofcapturing.
You're not asking for it,you're creating the behavior.
(59:09):
You say leave it All right.
Let's paint this picture again.
Let's say I've got a rope toy,I got a ball and a rope toy.
The ball's in my left hand,rope toy's in my right hand,
both hands behind my back.
I'm going to take the rope toyfrom behind my back, bring it in
front of me, play with the dog.
Then, as we're playing, I'mgoing to go ahead and take the
(59:30):
ball that I have behind my backout.
As the dog sees the ball, I'mgoing to get the dog interested.
As the dog releases the rope tonow engage with the ball, I'm
going to say leave it and takethat rope toy and put it behind
my back.
I'm going to repeat thatprocess back and forth.
Practice, practice, practice,right, repetition, repetition.
(59:55):
Start teaching your dog toswitch out toys.
The best thing is, when we'retaking something from your dog,
always give your dog analternative, all right.
Otherwise you're going topossibly start making the dog
think resources are scarce andthe dog might start to protect
resources and be a littleprotective or start engaging in
(01:00:18):
resource guarding.
We don't want that, all right.
The last thing that I want totalk about here in part two of
teaching your dog impulsecontrol remember, if you didn't
listen to part one, make sureyou go to season five, episode
142, and listen to part one ofteaching your dog impulse
(01:00:41):
control.
But the last thing that we canteach is patience in your dog's
crate.
All right, if your dog's cratetrained.
Teaching your dog to wait calmlyin the crate until it's
released is a great impulsecontrol exercise.
(01:01:01):
And so let's say you get home,your dog's created, your dog's
all excited.
Stand by the crate, freeze likea tree when your dog settles
down.
Begin the process.
You hear what I'm saying now?
I didn't say open the.
I did not say open the door.
I said begin the process ofopening the crate door as you
(01:01:23):
move your hand towards the cratedoor.
If your dog starts gettingexcited, again freeze like a
tree, pull your hand away.
When your dog settles down,again try it again.
Slowly.
Reach your hand to the cratedoor.
If your dog gets excited,slowly move your hand away and
freeze Gradually, slowly,systematically.
(01:01:46):
Only open the door when yourdog is relaxed.
If your dog starts to getexcited and you start opening
the door, make sure you'reopening it slowly, just freeze.
Don't open it up all the way.
Slowly close it again Veryslowly, very gradually.
Open that door as your dog ismaintaining a relaxed, calm
(01:02:08):
demeanor in the crate.
Make sure that you're markingthat behavior and that you are
rewarding that behavior.
Really critical.
We're asking the dog you knowwhen we're doing impulse control
exercises.
We're asking the dog to give upsomething it really wants and
when it does that.
Please, please, please, makesure the dog's getting a
(01:02:30):
paycheck for that hard, hardwork and your dog's paycheck in
most cases is going to be somekind of very high value food
reward.
These food rewards should betiny, about the size of a pea.
The goal here is not to, youknow, fill the dog up, but it's
to reward, to reinforce theright behavior.
(01:02:50):
Eventually down the road, asyour dog gets more reliable with
these behaviors, as thesebehaviors become more and more
permanent, as your dog starts todevelop better impulse control,
little by little you're goingto be able to feed out or to
fade out some of these foodrewards.
All right, hopefully you got alot out of this.
(01:03:12):
Please subscribe to the dogtraining today podcast.
Make sure you tell your friendsand families check out all of
our podcasts on Apple podcast,google podcast or wherever you
get your podcast.
Have a great day, everybody.
I'm outta here.
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