July 18, 2025 • 25 mins
Ever wondered why your beloved four-legged friend seems to understand everything except your commands? Blas Cardenas, owner of Five Star Canine Trainer, reveals the surprising truth: we’re speaking the wrong language.
With nearly 30 years of experience transforming dog behavior across South Florida, Blas introduces a powerful concept—your dog isn’t a furry human.
“One of the most common mistakes dog owners make is humanizing their dogs,” he explains. Whether it’s a tiny Chihuahua or a towering Great Dane, your dog is essentially a domesticated wolf with specific communication needs that humans often miss.
🐕 In This Episode:
• Why emotional goodbyes can create dependency
• How greetings can unintentionally teach dogs to jump
• The danger of misreading cute behavior as obedience
• Tools and techniques for leash pulling, doorbell excitement, and more
• Why consistency beats intensity when it comes to training
• How to build respect and trust without force
Blas's approach is proactive, practical, and rooted in respect for the dog’s true nature. His insights can help transform even the most challenging behavior into a path toward a calm, obedient, and happy companion.
🏡 "A well-trained dog is a happy, happy home indeed."
📞 Contact Blas Cardenas – Five Star Canine Trainer
Website: www.5stark9trainer.com
Phone: (954) 305-5177
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Jeremy Wolf.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hello, hello everyone , friends, family, wonderful
community.
Welcome back to another episodeof the Good Neighbor Podcast.
Yeah, I know a lot of you outthere, myself included, have
little furry friends, our littlebest friends.
I got Charlie with me here, mylittle guy, and we have a really
cool guest for you today.
I'm here with Blas Cardenas.
(00:32):
Did I get that right?
Blas Cardenas?
Yep, blas Cardenas Yep, you gotit.
Okay.
Close enough, close enough forcomfort.
And Blas joins us from FiveStar Canine Trainer.
So we got a real life caninetrainer and I've been trying my
best to train my little poochesand I've had some success, but
I've never actually spoken witha trainer before.
(00:53):
So I am super excited to getinto this.
A lot to learn today.
Blas, thanks for joining us,brother.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Hey, thank you so much for giving me the
opportunity of being here withyou.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Of course it's our pleasure.
We love featuring localbusinesses.
I'm not sure exactly.
Would you live around the areahere in Cooper City?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yes, I do.
I live actually around thecorner from Cooper City.
I'm in Davie, in Forest Ridge,so I can literally throw a stone
from my doorstep and hit CooperCity.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Excellent, excellent, cool, all right.
So without further ado, let'sget into this.
Why don't we start?
Tell me a little bit about thebusiness Obviously, everybody
knows what a canine trainer ordog trainer does but tell us a
little bit about your business,what you do specifically, and
then we'll kind of get into thebackstory behind it.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Excellent.
So you know, like we saidearlier, my name is blast
cardenas.
I'm the owner, a five-star uhk9 trainer.
Um, I've been working with dogsgoing on three decades now and
basically what I do is because Iam completely aware, and, um,
one of the things that I like todo with my clients is we all
(02:05):
love dogs.
Do we properly understand them,canine companions, their family
, pack members, so that the lineof communication between them
(02:28):
and their dog opens up?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
It's like a canine psychologist right Pretty much
yep.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Pretty much.
Yep, I love chihuahuas.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I love them all, of course, all of them.
Yeah, dogs are just the best.
I don't have anything else tosay other than that.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
I cannot agree with you more.
I love them to death.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yeah, and I always thought that I mean, whatever
business I was in was the wrongbusiness.
I needed to do something withdogs because I'm just
unbelievably in love with them.
I wanted to ask you what's acommon mistake that dog owners
make, without even realizing it,like what's the most common
thing you see?
Speaker 3 (03:16):
That's a great question.
I'm glad you're asking that.
Well, one of the most commonmistakes that dog owners make is
humanizing their dogs, and it'scalled the word is called
anthropomorphobia oranthropomorphobic, which is the
(03:37):
attribution of humancharacteristics to a dog when
they're not humans.
They're not four-legged humans.
So, again, that's where I liketo help my clients to understand
how to properly communicatewith the dog, because humanizing
them obviously is not the wayto go.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
And we are all guilty of that because we are
obviously humans at least mostof us and we love our dogs as if
they're humans in some casesmore than humans.
So naturally, that behavior isjust going to extend over to
them without us even realizingit.
So important to learn aboutthat.
So when you say humanizing thedog, could you give me some
(04:25):
examples, some behaviors thatpeople attribute to dogs?
One that I could think of is, Iguess, feeding off the table.
That kind of thing wouldprobably not be good.
What are some things that yousee in the business?
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Feeding the dog off the table is a very common one,
but one that it's super commonis, for example, one.
But one that it's super commonis, for example, let's say,
you're gonna leave your houseand one of the main things that
you have to realize is you haveto.
Here's the deal dogs aredomesticated wolves.
That's what they are, right?
(04:59):
So from the smallest ofChihuahuas, like the one you got
in your hand, to the biggest ofGreat Danes, in trait and in
characteristics, they are a wolfthat has been domesticated.
So if I'm going to leave myhouse, I teach my clients don't
generate excitement to the dog.
Don't tell the dog oh goodbye,fido, I'll be back later, I'll
(05:22):
see you later.
Just leave, correct, grab yourkeys.
If you have a crate, and Iencourage to crate train the
right way.
There's a right way to cratetrain and there's a wrong way to
crate train.
So, obviously, do not generateany type of excitement when
(05:42):
you're going to leave and do notgenerate any type of excitement
when you're going to leave anddo not generate any type of
excitement when you get back.
Now it's obvious we are ashappy to see them as they are as
happy to see us, but theproblem with that is you create
a dependency of excitement.
Now, remember this I can do twothings with a fire I can turn it
(06:03):
off or I can make it worse.
I can do two things with a fireI can turn it off or I can make
it worse.
So what you're doing is you aresetting up the dog for failure,
because now, anytime someonecomes in that door, whether it
be your cousin, your brother, afamily member or a friend and
the dog sees them, they're goingto be excited.
And you know, think about thisfor a moment.
You know you want awell-behaved, well-mannered dog
(06:25):
and it's kind of, you know, badto have a family member come in
the house and the dog's jumpingall over them and acting
radically.
It's not the way you want to go, you know.
And that's what part ofhumanizing does.
It creates that wrongdependency on affection.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, I'm thinking about my little guys.
They are guilty of that.
But people the thing is withmine they're so tiny and they're
so lovable that when they jumpon people and they come,
everybody seems to love it.
They sit on the couch and theycome up and sit on their lap and
people just adore them.
I think it's okay if you have,maybe if you have like little
tiny dogs, but bigger dogs maybenot so much.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Well, keep this in mind.
And you're not nobody's doingit because they're mean or
they're, you know they lovetheir dogs.
Again, like I said earlier, weall love our dogs.
Do we properly understand them?
Because that's when our line ofcommunication improves.
And, trust me, there's a sayingin my business a well-trained
(07:28):
dog is a happy, happy homeindeed, what?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
what would be the best way?
Just give some little adviceout to folks out there that are
struggling with their pets.
What would be the best way tocorrect a bad, bad behavior like
, let's say, for instance, theexample that you gave.
Uh, somebody comes over thedogs this happens all the time
with me.
Somebody knocks on the door,the dogs start barking like
crazy.
What's the best way to startcorrecting for that behavior,
(07:59):
because it seems like a very,very arduous task.
I've tried so many differentthings and I can't seem to nail
that.
What's one thing that I can doto start course, correcting for
that and putting things in theright direction.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
That's a very good question.
Well, here's the deal.
Every job that we're going todo or we're going to get done
requires tools, and not onlytools, but the proper knowledge
on using the tools.
Just to give you a quickexample if I hand you a guitar,
it doesn't make you a musician,correct it doesn't.
(08:34):
Or if I hand you a big, fatbutcher's knife and a slab of
meat, it doesn't make you abutcher it dog.
You're following your dog.
There's no neutral zone there.
It's through that very um um,um, the positive use of a leash
and knowing how to correct thedog the right way, because
(09:20):
there's a right way to correctand there's a wrong way to
correct.
So you want to make sure thatyou educate yourself properly on
how to properly correct the dog.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
So how does that, how does that?
The leash play into while I'min the house and the dog goes
crazy.
So let's just, let's play thisthrough.
I'm sitting here, my son'sfriend knocks on the door and
then I get my other one, coco.
He always goes crazy and theother one follows.
What do I do in that moment?
Are you saying that I should?
I should leash them in thatmoment and have them like what,
what?
(09:51):
What should be the interaction?
What should be the first, um,the first thing I do to start to
try to curb that behavior?
Speaker 3 (09:59):
So I do encourage my uh, my clients, cause what I do
with my clients is I give themknowledge and I give them tools,
I teach them, I coached them onhow to use these tools
correctly.
So let me just say this to giveyou a quick example, and I'm
going to answer that question soevery time you get in your car
(10:20):
and you start your car, you'regoing to drive away.
What do you do?
You put your seat belt on right, because, because you're not
going to gamble with the notionthat you're going to have that
three second to put it on beforeyou get into an accident.
And what is that called?
It's called being proactive,correct, indeed.
(10:40):
So let's say you're going tojump out of an airplane, what
are you going to need?
A parachute, because if youdon't, you might ask, you know
God, for forgiveness all the waydown, but when you hit the
pavement you're going tosplatter.
What's that called beingproactive?
So if I know I have peoplecoming home or somebody's coming
to my house to visit me, afriend, just like you, asked
(11:01):
what I want to do is I want tobe able to properly control my
dog.
So a leash would give me theability to be proactive and
control my dog so that hedoesn't dart towards the person
walking in the door.
I'm able to control him, I'mable to correct him and teach
him the proper manners so thathe doesn't jump on the person
(11:26):
walking in the door my, my, myfamily member, my friend,
whatever it is and at the sametime, I try to tell the people
hey, I'm trying to teach my dogssome proper manners.
Do me a favor, don't engage thedog until he's in a calm, cool,
collective state of mind,because again, when the dog's
(11:50):
excited, I address that I'mmaking it worse, not better.
Okay, I like that.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
So let making it worse, not better.
Okay, I like that, so let mejust play this back for you.
So if you have a planned visit,you know somebody's coming
that's the opportunity to putthe dog on the leash and control
that behavior in that moment.
And then again let the guestknow.
And then, obviously, if youhave an unexpected random knock,
you can't do that.
An unexpected random knock, youcan't do that.
(12:16):
But if you do that enough whenyou have expected visits,
hopefully that behavior willstart to translate over and
eventually you won't need theleash and they'll get trained
correct, correct, I'm learningtoday.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
You got it takes, it takes it takes.
Remember this consistency isthe mother of skills, dogs.
Dogs learn by repetitiousactivity and they learn by
consistency, not how long youwork with them.
So the more repetitious you areand the more consistent you are
with your dog, the more they'regoing to learn.
(12:47):
But not only a leash.
There's other tools that Iprovide.
There's other tools that Iprovide, like, for example, the
crate.
When crate trained the right way, is a perfect and excellent
tool to use.
Now it could be used the wrongway.
And so is another exercisecalled spot place training,
(13:18):
where I can put my dog and havemy dog relax there until I've
given my dog the proper commandor the proper release.
Until now it's okay, we canengage.
But in other words, is thatgetting that dog under that
proper mental control?
In other words, I like a calm,submissive and obedient dog?
Yeah, and it takes work and ittakes dedication, but the
results are awesome, man, whenyou have a well-mannered,
well-behaved dog, like some ofmy clients, when when they're
(13:42):
walking their dogs outside andthey see other dogs on a leash
pulling uh, being reactive todistractions, and here you are
walking your dog like you ownthe block, there there's a
certain sense of accomplishment,but that's the work that you've
put in to get your dog there.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yeah, that's another one that I have issues with.
My other dog, coco.
When he goes out on the leashsomething about being outside on
the leash he just pulls all thetime and we've tried so many
different things to pull backthat behavior.
And when he sees other dogs hejust you know, I'm that guy in
(14:23):
the neighborhood where my dogsare pulling.
They're sweethearts.
But if they see other dogs anda lot of times it's it's not all
the dogs it's crazy how theenergy that different dogs have
there's some dogs that give offdifferent energies and they make
them go crazy and I've beenunable to curb that behavior.
Any tips or tricks for me inthat realm?
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Yes, absolutely Learning how to properly master
and use a leash, because, again,a leash is a tool.
If you don't know how to use itthe right way, the dog's gonna
pull, the dog's going to want tocontrol the walk instead of you
controlling the dog and thewalk.
(15:03):
Does that make sense?
So it's very important.
You know, one of the thingsthat I just that I don't
encourage my clients is to walkdogs on a harness, because when
you click that, when you have adog on a harness, the dog
controls you.
You don't control the dog andthen if the dog sees a squirrel
(15:23):
or a cat or any distraction andyou're not having that proper
control, guess what the dog'sgonna do?
He's gonna be reactive and he'sgonna control you.
So, yeah, learning how to usethe leash the right way is key
to, uh, getting the dog undercontrol on the walks hold that
(15:44):
thought for a second.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
I want to on that.
On that, uh-oh, they gotexcited because I went to get a
leash.
They think I'm digging them out.
I stopped the harness.
My wife started looking into it.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Do you know what that means?
Do you know what that means?
What's that?
So you just said that the doggot excited when you got the
leash right.
Yeah, dogs learn by association, so they associate the leash
with a walk, of course.
And guess what they do?
They get excited.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
So, yeah, my wife.
She started looking intotraining and she's done quite a
bit with the dogs and gottenthem to a good place with many
of the behaviors.
Um, we ditched the harness awhile ago and got one of these
leashes instead.
That's flip not great yes,you're right, it does.
When you use it properly andand control properly with it, it
works.
But the problem that I havesometimes is that it it slips
down the neck and sometimes hepulls so hard it's, or it feels
(16:55):
like he's choking him and itgives me cause for concern.
It creates like more anxiety tome because I don't want to get
hurt.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Obviously, or maybe I'm just not using it correctly
yeah, I, I, uh, you know, forfor extreme pullers, I encourage
um.
Now let me say this some of thethe tools that I use for dogs,
um, there's misconceptions withthem.
For example, I have a belgianmalinois.
(17:21):
I don't know if you're familiarwith the breed.
It's, it's not a breed foreveryone, it's the breed used by
police and by the military andum, I use.
When I first started workingwith them and up to this date, I
use a prong collar.
Now, the only thing wrong witha prong collar is the way it
(17:41):
looks.
It looks like something out ofa medieval torture device.
It looks like a torture device,correct, correct.
But when you learn, when youlearn how to use it the right
way because it's all aboutknowledge right, right way,
because it's all about knowledgeright when you learn how to use
it the right way in conjunctionwith a leash, it produces a
(18:03):
phenomenal result where the dogwalks with you the right way
under any and all distractionsand under any and all
circumstances.
But again, the key is learninghow to use the tools the right
way.
I could be the best carmechanic in the world.
You bring your car to me and Idon't have the proper tools.
(18:26):
I can't fix your car, or I havethe best tools that money can
buy, but I have no idea how touse them.
The job ain't getting done.
So when you combine knowledgewith proper tools, the results
are awesome, with long termresults.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Yeah, this is really useful stuff.
I know our listeners are goingto get a lot of positive tips
out of this and I wish we hadmore time to go through this,
but I did want to inquire alittle bit.
I was checking out your websitewebsite and I saw that you are
the official trainer for the dogtrainer for the Miami Heat.
Did I see something like that?
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Correct.
I have worked with a lot of theMiami Heat dancers.
I have worked with some likeI've worked with I got the guy's
name in the tip of my mouthBruzinski from the Miami
Dolphins.
I've worked with Mouth of theSouth, jimmy Hart.
(19:26):
He was Hulk Hogan's manager forquite a while.
So you know I've been in thisbusiness a while man.
I don't consider this a job.
I love what I do, and if youlove what you do, you don't
work've been in this business awhile man.
I don't consider this a job.
I love what I do, and if youlove what you do, you don't work
a day in your life.
I'm passionate, I'm consistent,I'm thorough and you know I
(19:46):
don't want to seem arrogant orcocky, but I see myself as the
best dog trainer in SouthFlorida.
Because conventional lookeverything has evolved.
Everything.
Conventional dog training isout the door.
There's new methods to teachand train your dog that produce
(20:10):
a phenomenal result, and that'swhat I do with my clients.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Speaking of clients, obviously you live here, right
by my area.
Where do you typically service?
Like how far will you go?
Anybody's listening to this.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
I cover three major counties Miami, dade, broward
and Palm Beach.
Right now I'm at about easy tosay, about a month and a half
wait list.
I have a prop oh yeah, I'msuper busy.
It's just me, and you know I'mgoing to when the time is right.
(20:48):
I want to hire the right person, but it has to be the right
person, man, because noteverybody is cut out, cut cut
out to do this job.
You know, um, especially, youknow you deal.
Look, not every client is goingto be the same and not every
dog is going to be the same.
So you have to learn how toidentify the particular needs
(21:14):
and want of that client toproduce the right result that
they're looking for, withoutgoing outside I guess you could
say, the norms of your trainingsystem, and that's super
important to produce the rightresult.
But yeah, I cover three majorcounties.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
And how can we learn more, more?
What's the best way to connectwith you?
Speaker 3 (21:39):
maybe share your, your website and your contact
information without you can youcan go to my website, um, or you
know, you can call me, uh.
My number, you know my number954-305-5177.
Um.
I have.
I have done a lot of work withuh, with people around cooper
city.
As a matter of fact, there wasum, um an event that cooper city
(22:03):
had involving uh.
I'm not sure if he's still themayor or not, but the guy's last
name was ross something okay.
Well, when he was, I was theonly trainer that um he invited.
It was at some park over hereby um 90th avenue and I attended
(22:23):
the event and I got to meet alot of great people.
Man and I love cooper city.
I love cooper city, I lovedavey yeah, truly a wonderful
community.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
so we will of course, drop a link in the description
to all of your contactinformation so folks out there
can connect with you.
Bless, this was fun See that.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Unexpected noise outside.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Right on cue, they're mowing the lawn out there.
So before we go, that justhappened.
What do I do now?
Assuming we're not on thepodcast, they hear a noise
outside and they start barkingand run to the door.
That just happened, what?
What do I do now?
Right, like, assuming we're noton the podcast, like they, they
hear.
They hear a noise outside andthey start barking and run to
the door.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
So you hear that craziness.
That's a behavior that obviously, that's a behavior that you'd
like, you'd want to correct,obviously.
But you have to correct thebrain.
You can't correct the earsbecause, remember, when you talk
to a dog like give you a quickexample you tell a dog to sit
three or four times after thefirst time that you told the dog
(23:22):
to sit and the dog didn't sit,you gave them another three or
four times to ignore you.
They're not human.
So you're talking to the ear.
You need to talk to the brainso that the dog can comprehend
hey, this is what my my masterwants me to do.
He wants me to do, he wants meto shut up because they're
barking out there and I'm makingnoise.
And, trust me, there's a properway to do that.
(23:44):
There's the proper tools,proper knowledge.
The results are amazing.
Man, I'd love to help anyoneand anybody that has any
questions.
Feel free to give me a call.
I always tell people, whetheryou hire me or or not, I'm
always going to point you in theright direction love it.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
This, this conversation will will not end
here.
I'm going to be reaching out toyou.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
I I anytime as many times as you want.
Man, I, I, I.
I'm awesome to meet greatpeople like you.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
All right, man.
Well, it was a pleasure.
Thanks, as always, to ourlisteners for tuning in.
I hope you got something usefulout of this.
Let us know in the commentswhat's your biggest takeaway.
Is there something that wasuseful and who knows like?
If you like this and you wantmore, let us know some more
questions.
Maybe we'll have Bloss back onthe podcast to answer some more
questions for us in the future.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Thank you very much.
I appreciate it.
It.
I appreciate it.
It was an honor to be here.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
All right, man Take care.
Have a good day.
God bless you.
Thank you, bye-bye.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast
Cooper City.
To nominate your favorite localbusiness to be featured on the
show, go to GNPCooperCitycom.
That's GNPCooperCitycom, orcall 954-231-3170.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Jeremy Wolf.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hello, hello everyone , friends, family, wonderful
community.
Welcome back to another episodeof the Good Neighbor Podcast.
Yeah, I know a lot of you outthere, myself included, have
little furry friends, our littlebest friends.
I got Charlie with me here, mylittle guy, and we have a really
cool guest for you today.
I'm here with Blas Cardenas.
(00:32):
Did I get that right?
Blas Cardenas?
Yep, blas Cardenas Yep, you gotit.
Okay.
Close enough, close enough forcomfort.
And Blas joins us from FiveStar Canine Trainer.
So we got a real life caninetrainer and I've been trying my
best to train my little poochesand I've had some success, but
I've never actually spoken witha trainer before.
(00:53):
So I am super excited to getinto this.
A lot to learn today.
Blas, thanks for joining us,brother.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Hey, thank you so much for giving me the
opportunity of being here withyou.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Of course it's our pleasure.
We love featuring localbusinesses.
I'm not sure exactly.
Would you live around the areahere in Cooper City?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yes, I do.
I live actually around thecorner from Cooper City.
I'm in Davie, in Forest Ridge,so I can literally throw a stone
from my doorstep and hit CooperCity.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Excellent, excellent, cool, all right.
So without further ado, let'sget into this.
Why don't we start?
Tell me a little bit about thebusiness Obviously, everybody
knows what a canine trainer ordog trainer does but tell us a
little bit about your business,what you do specifically, and
then we'll kind of get into thebackstory behind it.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Excellent.
So you know, like we saidearlier, my name is blast
cardenas.
I'm the owner, a five-star uhk9 trainer.
Um, I've been working with dogsgoing on three decades now and
basically what I do is because Iam completely aware, and, um,
one of the things that I like todo with my clients is we all
(02:05):
love dogs.
Do we properly understand them,canine companions, their family
, pack members, so that the lineof communication between them
(02:28):
and their dog opens up?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
It's like a canine psychologist right Pretty much
yep.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Pretty much.
Yep, I love chihuahuas.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I love them all, of course, all of them.
Yeah, dogs are just the best.
I don't have anything else tosay other than that.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
I cannot agree with you more.
I love them to death.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Yeah, and I always thought that I mean, whatever
business I was in was the wrongbusiness.
I needed to do something withdogs because I'm just
unbelievably in love with them.
I wanted to ask you what's acommon mistake that dog owners
make, without even realizing it,like what's the most common
thing you see?
Speaker 3 (03:16):
That's a great question.
I'm glad you're asking that.
Well, one of the most commonmistakes that dog owners make is
humanizing their dogs, and it'scalled the word is called
anthropomorphobia oranthropomorphobic, which is the
(03:37):
attribution of humancharacteristics to a dog when
they're not humans.
They're not four-legged humans.
So, again, that's where I liketo help my clients to understand
how to properly communicatewith the dog, because humanizing
them obviously is not the wayto go.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
And we are all guilty of that because we are
obviously humans at least mostof us and we love our dogs as if
they're humans in some casesmore than humans.
So naturally, that behavior isjust going to extend over to
them without us even realizingit.
So important to learn aboutthat.
So when you say humanizing thedog, could you give me some
(04:25):
examples, some behaviors thatpeople attribute to dogs?
One that I could think of is, Iguess, feeding off the table.
That kind of thing wouldprobably not be good.
What are some things that yousee in the business?
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Feeding the dog off the table is a very common one,
but one that it's super commonis, for example, one.
But one that it's super commonis, for example, let's say,
you're gonna leave your houseand one of the main things that
you have to realize is you haveto.
Here's the deal dogs aredomesticated wolves.
That's what they are, right?
(04:59):
So from the smallest ofChihuahuas, like the one you got
in your hand, to the biggest ofGreat Danes, in trait and in
characteristics, they are a wolfthat has been domesticated.
So if I'm going to leave myhouse, I teach my clients don't
generate excitement to the dog.
Don't tell the dog oh goodbye,fido, I'll be back later, I'll
(05:22):
see you later.
Just leave, correct, grab yourkeys.
If you have a crate, and Iencourage to crate train the
right way.
There's a right way to cratetrain and there's a wrong way to
crate train.
So, obviously, do not generateany type of excitement when
(05:42):
you're going to leave and do notgenerate any type of excitement
when you're going to leave anddo not generate any type of
excitement when you get back.
Now it's obvious we are ashappy to see them as they are as
happy to see us, but theproblem with that is you create
a dependency of excitement.
Now, remember this I can do twothings with a fire I can turn it
(06:03):
off or I can make it worse.
I can do two things with a fireI can turn it off or I can make
it worse.
So what you're doing is you aresetting up the dog for failure,
because now, anytime someonecomes in that door, whether it
be your cousin, your brother, afamily member or a friend and
the dog sees them, they're goingto be excited.
And you know, think about thisfor a moment.
You know you want awell-behaved, well-mannered dog
(06:25):
and it's kind of, you know, badto have a family member come in
the house and the dog's jumpingall over them and acting
radically.
It's not the way you want to go, you know.
And that's what part ofhumanizing does.
It creates that wrongdependency on affection.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, I'm thinking about my little guys.
They are guilty of that.
But people the thing is withmine they're so tiny and they're
so lovable that when they jumpon people and they come,
everybody seems to love it.
They sit on the couch and theycome up and sit on their lap and
people just adore them.
I think it's okay if you have,maybe if you have like little
tiny dogs, but bigger dogs maybenot so much.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Well, keep this in mind.
And you're not nobody's doingit because they're mean or
they're, you know they lovetheir dogs.
Again, like I said earlier, weall love our dogs.
Do we properly understand them?
Because that's when our line ofcommunication improves.
And, trust me, there's a sayingin my business a well-trained
(07:28):
dog is a happy, happy homeindeed, what?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
what would be the best way?
Just give some little adviceout to folks out there that are
struggling with their pets.
What would be the best way tocorrect a bad, bad behavior like
, let's say, for instance, theexample that you gave.
Uh, somebody comes over thedogs this happens all the time
with me.
Somebody knocks on the door,the dogs start barking like
crazy.
What's the best way to startcorrecting for that behavior,
(07:59):
because it seems like a very,very arduous task.
I've tried so many differentthings and I can't seem to nail
that.
What's one thing that I can doto start course, correcting for
that and putting things in theright direction.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
That's a very good question.
Well, here's the deal.
Every job that we're going todo or we're going to get done
requires tools, and not onlytools, but the proper knowledge
on using the tools.
Just to give you a quickexample if I hand you a guitar,
it doesn't make you a musician,correct it doesn't.
(08:34):
Or if I hand you a big, fatbutcher's knife and a slab of
meat, it doesn't make you abutcher it dog.
You're following your dog.
There's no neutral zone there.
It's through that very um um,um, the positive use of a leash
and knowing how to correct thedog the right way, because
(09:20):
there's a right way to correctand there's a wrong way to
correct.
So you want to make sure thatyou educate yourself properly on
how to properly correct the dog.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
So how does that, how does that?
The leash play into while I'min the house and the dog goes
crazy.
So let's just, let's play thisthrough.
I'm sitting here, my son'sfriend knocks on the door and
then I get my other one, coco.
He always goes crazy and theother one follows.
What do I do in that moment?
Are you saying that I should?
I should leash them in thatmoment and have them like what,
what?
(09:51):
What should be the interaction?
What should be the first, um,the first thing I do to start to
try to curb that behavior?
Speaker 3 (09:59):
So I do encourage my uh, my clients, cause what I do
with my clients is I give themknowledge and I give them tools,
I teach them, I coached them onhow to use these tools
correctly.
So let me just say this to giveyou a quick example, and I'm
going to answer that question soevery time you get in your car
(10:20):
and you start your car, you'regoing to drive away.
What do you do?
You put your seat belt on right, because, because you're not
going to gamble with the notionthat you're going to have that
three second to put it on beforeyou get into an accident.
And what is that called?
It's called being proactive,correct, indeed.
(10:40):
So let's say you're going tojump out of an airplane, what
are you going to need?
A parachute, because if youdon't, you might ask, you know
God, for forgiveness all the waydown, but when you hit the
pavement you're going tosplatter.
What's that called beingproactive?
So if I know I have peoplecoming home or somebody's coming
to my house to visit me, afriend, just like you, asked
(11:01):
what I want to do is I want tobe able to properly control my
dog.
So a leash would give me theability to be proactive and
control my dog so that hedoesn't dart towards the person
walking in the door.
I'm able to control him, I'mable to correct him and teach
him the proper manners so thathe doesn't jump on the person
(11:26):
walking in the door my, my, myfamily member, my friend,
whatever it is and at the sametime, I try to tell the people
hey, I'm trying to teach my dogssome proper manners.
Do me a favor, don't engage thedog until he's in a calm, cool,
collective state of mind,because again, when the dog's
(11:50):
excited, I address that I'mmaking it worse, not better.
Okay, I like that.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
So let making it worse, not better.
Okay, I like that, so let mejust play this back for you.
So if you have a planned visit,you know somebody's coming
that's the opportunity to putthe dog on the leash and control
that behavior in that moment.
And then again let the guestknow.
And then, obviously, if youhave an unexpected random knock,
you can't do that.
An unexpected random knock, youcan't do that.
(12:16):
But if you do that enough whenyou have expected visits,
hopefully that behavior willstart to translate over and
eventually you won't need theleash and they'll get trained
correct, correct, I'm learningtoday.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
You got it takes, it takes it takes.
Remember this consistency isthe mother of skills, dogs.
Dogs learn by repetitiousactivity and they learn by
consistency, not how long youwork with them.
So the more repetitious you areand the more consistent you are
with your dog, the more they'regoing to learn.
(12:47):
But not only a leash.
There's other tools that Iprovide.
There's other tools that Iprovide, like, for example, the
crate.
When crate trained the right way, is a perfect and excellent
tool to use.
Now it could be used the wrongway.
And so is another exercisecalled spot place training,
(13:18):
where I can put my dog and havemy dog relax there until I've
given my dog the proper commandor the proper release.
Until now it's okay, we canengage.
But in other words, is thatgetting that dog under that
proper mental control?
In other words, I like a calm,submissive and obedient dog?
Yeah, and it takes work and ittakes dedication, but the
results are awesome, man, whenyou have a well-mannered,
well-behaved dog, like some ofmy clients, when when they're
(13:42):
walking their dogs outside andthey see other dogs on a leash
pulling uh, being reactive todistractions, and here you are
walking your dog like you ownthe block, there there's a
certain sense of accomplishment,but that's the work that you've
put in to get your dog there.
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Yeah, that's another one that I have issues with.
My other dog, coco.
When he goes out on the leashsomething about being outside on
the leash he just pulls all thetime and we've tried so many
different things to pull backthat behavior.
And when he sees other dogs hejust you know, I'm that guy in
(14:23):
the neighborhood where my dogsare pulling.
They're sweethearts.
But if they see other dogs anda lot of times it's it's not all
the dogs it's crazy how theenergy that different dogs have
there's some dogs that give offdifferent energies and they make
them go crazy and I've beenunable to curb that behavior.
Any tips or tricks for me inthat realm?
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Yes, absolutely Learning how to properly master
and use a leash, because, again,a leash is a tool.
If you don't know how to use itthe right way, the dog's gonna
pull, the dog's going to want tocontrol the walk instead of you
controlling the dog and thewalk.
(15:03):
Does that make sense?
So it's very important.
You know, one of the thingsthat I just that I don't
encourage my clients is to walkdogs on a harness, because when
you click that, when you have adog on a harness, the dog
controls you.
You don't control the dog andthen if the dog sees a squirrel
(15:23):
or a cat or any distraction andyou're not having that proper
control, guess what the dog'sgonna do?
He's gonna be reactive and he'sgonna control you.
So, yeah, learning how to usethe leash the right way is key
to, uh, getting the dog undercontrol on the walks hold that
(15:44):
thought for a second.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
I want to on that.
On that, uh-oh, they gotexcited because I went to get a
leash.
They think I'm digging them out.
I stopped the harness.
My wife started looking into it.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
Do you know what that means?
Do you know what that means?
What's that?
So you just said that the doggot excited when you got the
leash right.
Yeah, dogs learn by association, so they associate the leash
with a walk, of course.
And guess what they do?
They get excited.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
So, yeah, my wife.
She started looking intotraining and she's done quite a
bit with the dogs and gottenthem to a good place with many
of the behaviors.
Um, we ditched the harness awhile ago and got one of these
leashes instead.
That's flip not great yes,you're right, it does.
When you use it properly andand control properly with it, it
works.
But the problem that I havesometimes is that it it slips
down the neck and sometimes hepulls so hard it's, or it feels
(16:55):
like he's choking him and itgives me cause for concern.
It creates like more anxiety tome because I don't want to get
hurt.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
Obviously, or maybe I'm just not using it correctly
yeah, I, I, uh, you know, forfor extreme pullers, I encourage
um.
Now let me say this some of thethe tools that I use for dogs,
um, there's misconceptions withthem.
For example, I have a belgianmalinois.
(17:21):
I don't know if you're familiarwith the breed.
It's, it's not a breed foreveryone, it's the breed used by
police and by the military andum, I use.
When I first started workingwith them and up to this date, I
use a prong collar.
Now, the only thing wrong witha prong collar is the way it
(17:41):
looks.
It looks like something out ofa medieval torture device.
It looks like a torture device,correct, correct.
But when you learn, when youlearn how to use it the right
way because it's all aboutknowledge right, right way,
because it's all about knowledgeright when you learn how to use
it the right way in conjunctionwith a leash, it produces a
(18:03):
phenomenal result where the dogwalks with you the right way
under any and all distractionsand under any and all
circumstances.
But again, the key is learninghow to use the tools the right
way.
I could be the best carmechanic in the world.
You bring your car to me and Idon't have the proper tools.
(18:26):
I can't fix your car, or I havethe best tools that money can
buy, but I have no idea how touse them.
The job ain't getting done.
So when you combine knowledgewith proper tools, the results
are awesome, with long termresults.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
Yeah, this is really useful stuff.
I know our listeners are goingto get a lot of positive tips
out of this and I wish we hadmore time to go through this,
but I did want to inquire alittle bit.
I was checking out your websitewebsite and I saw that you are
the official trainer for the dogtrainer for the Miami Heat.
Did I see something like that?
Speaker 3 (19:02):
Correct.
I have worked with a lot of theMiami Heat dancers.
I have worked with some likeI've worked with I got the guy's
name in the tip of my mouthBruzinski from the Miami
Dolphins.
I've worked with Mouth of theSouth, jimmy Hart.
(19:26):
He was Hulk Hogan's manager forquite a while.
So you know I've been in thisbusiness a while man.
I don't consider this a job.
I love what I do, and if youlove what you do, you don't
work've been in this business awhile man.
I don't consider this a job.
I love what I do, and if youlove what you do, you don't work
a day in your life.
I'm passionate, I'm consistent,I'm thorough and you know I
(19:46):
don't want to seem arrogant orcocky, but I see myself as the
best dog trainer in SouthFlorida.
Because conventional lookeverything has evolved.
Everything.
Conventional dog training isout the door.
There's new methods to teachand train your dog that produce
(20:10):
a phenomenal result, and that'swhat I do with my clients.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Speaking of clients, obviously you live here, right
by my area.
Where do you typically service?
Like how far will you go?
Anybody's listening to this.
Speaker 3 (20:25):
I cover three major counties Miami, dade, broward
and Palm Beach.
Right now I'm at about easy tosay, about a month and a half
wait list.
I have a prop oh yeah, I'msuper busy.
It's just me, and you know I'mgoing to when the time is right.
(20:48):
I want to hire the right person, but it has to be the right
person, man, because noteverybody is cut out, cut cut
out to do this job.
You know, um, especially, youknow you deal.
Look, not every client is goingto be the same and not every
dog is going to be the same.
So you have to learn how toidentify the particular needs
(21:14):
and want of that client toproduce the right result that
they're looking for, withoutgoing outside I guess you could
say, the norms of your trainingsystem, and that's super
important to produce the rightresult.
But yeah, I cover three majorcounties.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
And how can we learn more, more?
What's the best way to connectwith you?
Speaker 3 (21:39):
maybe share your, your website and your contact
information without you can youcan go to my website, um, or you
know, you can call me, uh.
My number, you know my number954-305-5177.
Um.
I have.
I have done a lot of work withuh, with people around cooper
city.
As a matter of fact, there wasum, um an event that cooper city
(22:03):
had involving uh.
I'm not sure if he's still themayor or not, but the guy's last
name was ross something okay.
Well, when he was, I was theonly trainer that um he invited.
It was at some park over hereby um 90th avenue and I attended
(22:23):
the event and I got to meet alot of great people.
Man and I love cooper city.
I love cooper city, I lovedavey yeah, truly a wonderful
community.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
so we will of course, drop a link in the description
to all of your contactinformation so folks out there
can connect with you.
Bless, this was fun See that.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Unexpected noise outside.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
Right on cue, they're mowing the lawn out there.
So before we go, that justhappened.
What do I do now?
Assuming we're not on thepodcast, they hear a noise
outside and they start barkingand run to the door.
That just happened, what?
What do I do now?
Right, like, assuming we're noton the podcast, like they, they
hear.
They hear a noise outside andthey start barking and run to
the door.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
So you hear that craziness.
That's a behavior that obviously, that's a behavior that you'd
like, you'd want to correct,obviously.
But you have to correct thebrain.
You can't correct the earsbecause, remember, when you talk
to a dog like give you a quickexample you tell a dog to sit
three or four times after thefirst time that you told the dog
(23:22):
to sit and the dog didn't sit,you gave them another three or
four times to ignore you.
They're not human.
So you're talking to the ear.
You need to talk to the brainso that the dog can comprehend
hey, this is what my my masterwants me to do.
He wants me to do, he wants meto shut up because they're
barking out there and I'm makingnoise.
And, trust me, there's a properway to do that.
(23:44):
There's the proper tools,proper knowledge.
The results are amazing.
Man, I'd love to help anyoneand anybody that has any
questions.
Feel free to give me a call.
I always tell people, whetheryou hire me or or not, I'm
always going to point you in theright direction love it.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
This, this conversation will will not end
here.
I'm going to be reaching out toyou.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
I I anytime as many times as you want.
Man, I, I, I.
I'm awesome to meet greatpeople like you.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
All right, man.
Well, it was a pleasure.
Thanks, as always, to ourlisteners for tuning in.
I hope you got something usefulout of this.
Let us know in the commentswhat's your biggest takeaway.
Is there something that wasuseful and who knows like?
If you like this and you wantmore, let us know some more
questions.
Maybe we'll have Bloss back onthe podcast to answer some more
questions for us in the future.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Thank you very much.
I appreciate it.
It.
I appreciate it.
It was an honor to be here.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
All right, man Take care.
Have a good day.
God bless you.
Thank you, bye-bye.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast
Cooper City.
To nominate your favorite localbusiness to be featured on the
show, go to GNPCooperCitycom.
That's GNPCooperCitycom, orcall 954-231-3170.
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