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July 13, 2023 14 mins

Are you ready to revolutionize your relationship with your dog? Join us for an enlightening discussion with Brendan Goyer, a luminary in the dog coaching world championing a relationship-based approach to canine behavior. Brendan's unique perspective challenges conventional training methods and presents a holistic strategy that emphasizes positive reinforcement, appropriate play, and giving our dogs more choices. Tune in for his invaluable tips on how to boost your dog's confidence, especially on the leash, as he delves into the psychology behind our pets' behaviors and how to help them navigate our complex world.

Stepping into the second part of our conversation, we turn our focus to the bond between us and our four-legged companions. Drawing from his extensive experience with kindness-based training, Brendan opens up about the power of rewards and management in fostering a more positive, meaningful connection. Listen in as he shares practical tools and advice on how to enhance your relationship with your furry friend. And guess what? There's more! Don’t miss the opportunity to learn directly from Brendan during his upcoming live online workshop, where he will provide more insights into his dog training approach. This episode is a must for any pet owner seeking to better understand and connect with their dog. Tune in now!

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dr Edward (00:25):
Okay, everybody, welcome to the pets, people.
And how many podcasts.
This is actually our very firstever interview.
I've got my beautiful pearlhere.
He's very, very old.
We've got Brendan Goyer, who's abehavior consultant and canine
coaching legend.
He's got his beautiful littledog there.

(00:47):
He's hiding behind his name sowe can't quite see that dog's
face.
So Brendan started off in salesand finance, so I'm going to be
looking over here just so I canread the bio and tell you who
Brendan is.
He left banking and finance topursue a career in dog training
in 2019.
He practiced alongside a wholelot of trainers for some time.

(01:11):
Then he became clear to himthat training dogs required more
than the cookie cutter approachSort of offered by a lot of
these training programs that areout there, teaching everyone to
do the same thing with everydog, and he developed his own
brand, 2010 created caninecoaching.
Brendan takes a really moreholistic, relationship based

(01:32):
approach to behaviormodification and he's really
interested in looking at helpinghis clients look deeper into
the various potential causes ofless than desirable behaviors
for the human which are oftenquite desirable behaviors for
the dog, but the humans don'tnecessarily love them so much
and meeting the needs of the dogfirst.

(01:54):
Brendan really promotespositive reinforcement, offering
more choice and appropriateplay, and he's super keen on
continuing to grow in this world.
So welcome, brendan, and I'm soexcited to have you here on our
brand new sparkly, shinypodcast.

Bryndon Golya (02:12):
I'm very excited to be here myself.
Thank you for having me, drEdward.
Best of the best.

Dr Edward (02:16):
Is there anything else you can add to that intro?

Bryndon Golya (02:19):
I mean it's a pretty good intro.
It kind of encompasses mytransition from, I guess,
something outside of the petworld, and I had to Not really.
I spend most of my time reallyjust working with animals, so it

(02:40):
pretty much encompasses what Ido.

Dr Edward (02:44):
Cool.
Well, this is like a littleteaser episode for our full
podcast episode that will becoming up in a week or so, and
the topic is strengthen yourrelationship with your pets
through deeper understanding.
Could you tell us in a minuteor two why this is important to
you?

Bryndon Golya (03:04):
It's a good question.
It's very valuable, I think, formy clients to understand more
about the why, why the pets arehaving a hard time and I say
that they are having a hard time, not that they're having
problem behavior per se, butthey're really struggling to
adapt to our world and we have avery complex that's my dog

(03:24):
knocking the TV.
We have a very complex worldthat we live in.
That's advanced very quicklyover the past 10, 15 or so years
, and I don't think we've reallyacknowledged how much we are
asking of our animals, whateverspecies of animal.
We have to figure out how tocope and understand and work
with our dynamic world, and soit's become apparent to me

(03:44):
throughout the little over 10years of working with pets and
dogs that just teaching thebasics isn't quite enough, and
it definitely doesn't help whena lot of your pets are
overstressed or fearful or inpain or having a hard time
working with what we expect themto do.

(04:05):
And a lot of the solutions thatare pretty popular, traditional
, have pretty negativeconsequences and I don't think
people realize how likely theyare.
I think they see a very smallpopulation sample of their
neighbors and don't quite getthe full understanding of what

(04:26):
it really looks like with aproper sample size of hundreds
and thousands of dogs and thepercentages of dogs that we see
that have a real hard time basedon either a lack of
understanding, a lack ofpresence with them or basically

(04:46):
training them or working withthem in a way that is
detrimental to their welfare.

Dr Edward (04:50):
Drawing an illustration of some kind of
logo onlay regarding the I look,I really agree with you and
that's one of the reasons whyI'm really excited to have you
bringing all of your livedwisdom of you know a long time
working with a lot of dogs, andwhat we do in these little
introductory sessions, theselittle teaser sessions for the
podcast, is we ask you to sharethe one thing, the one thing

(05:11):
that you can tell us in aboutfive minutes that, from your
experience, is going to givepeople something that can really
help their animals.
And the one thing that youwanted to talk about today was
three ways to increase yourdog's confidence, and especially
on lead, when walking, thatsort of thing.

Bryndon Golya (05:30):
Right, I think there's some very simple things
we can do, and I see this.
You know, dogs are a magnet formy vision.
When I'm driving, when I'mwalking around, when I'm looking
at my balcony here, all I seewhen I see a dog, I'm on it and
I'm like what does that dog say?
And what does a person do withtheir dog?
You know, it's just.
I'm fascinated by ourinteractions, especially outside
, on walks, with the public, andhow we respond and engage with

(05:53):
our animals, whether becauseit's it's interesting, our
behavior really has a lot to dowith their behavior, they're, we
are just their guides, and thewalk on a leash, most of the
time where we want to take them,is so unnatural for them to
understand and how to manage,without really clear

(06:14):
understanding and a solidemotional foundation, that I
think we expect too much of themmost of the time, whether it be
just to go to the bathroom, orwhether it be going to stroll
with us or how you know, whetherit be meeting people, dogs, et
cetera, all the things that aregoing to pass all the way.
So my, my easy tips are this onegive your dog, most often, a

(06:36):
little bit more leash.
A five foot, a four foot, a sixfoot leash is fine for a really
well trained dog with us in aspecific environment.
But I work with a lot offearful animals or a lot of
animals out of history, ofunderstanding what a leash is
and the consequences of whatthat.
You know the consequences of aleash and how it really feels to

(06:58):
be on a leash and so it isessentially being trapped.
It's a barrier and a lot ofbehavior that people call me for
is because of this.
Essentially is this mechanismwhere the dog cannot communicate
properly with the the rest ofthe environment.
They do not have the flexibilityor freedom to inspect or sniff

(07:18):
something that they'veidentified and find valuable,
and every second or every, everyvery often, just hitting the
end of the leash to smellsomething does a few things.
One is frustration, and itbuilds up that.
It also impacts the animalsphysiology.
It pulls on their neck,somewhere on their body, and it

(07:39):
often because we're not reallykeen on what that means.
We just followed the dog andthey learned to pull by
happenstance.
So there's, a lot of thingsthat happen.
And most dogs aren't dying torun away.
They're not dying to run downthe street, run away from you.
You know there's, and when Isay add a longer leash, I'm
talking about maybe a 10 footleash and something you can turn

(08:02):
into a five foot leash in aroll or a.
You know, once you're real.
In one time I found, bychanging this over the past few
years, one I can train puppiesthat are unfamiliar with
boundaries and leashes mucheasier because they will not hit
the end of the leash as oftenI'm not going to panic as bad
Dogs who are very scent driven,which is every dog and specialty

(08:23):
breeds like beagles and soforth and hounds.
They can access more of whatthey're looking for without
having to end up pulling orhitting something, causing them
frustration.
And it also allows you tohere's the cell walk less or be
less, I guess corrective on yourpet.
Well, I can kind of walk hereand my leash and now is the

(08:46):
extra long my pet can kind of dothis without having to follow
me so intently or so carefully,which is very challenging.
And so it allows the owner toactually get walk the same pace
and their pet to cover moresurface area.

Dr Edward (09:02):
So you've got more freedom for the human dog and
the dog with a longer leash.

Bryndon Golya (09:07):
You're not like hurt, right, you're pulling so
much.
You know the dog is able tojust get out of that boundary
and get what they're reallytrying to get.

Dr Edward (09:16):
And then finally, that's the first thing, that's
the first thing.

Bryndon Golya (09:20):
The second thing is you get to practice your
recall on a walk now becauseyour dog is just far enough
ahead of you to call Gotcha.
So now, instead of having to beoff leash or go to a park and
put a 30 foot leash on therewhen your dog happens to smell
ahead and you want to practicereorienting or coming to you to
get more walk to get the samesmell as he was going to get,

(09:43):
you get to intermediate or kindof insert yourself into the
picture, allowing your dog towork with you, just to, so you
can work with him.
So it kind of this relationshipof I'm working with my pet to
work with me and who'scontrolling who is kind of
there's no control, it's just amatter of like we're doing this
together in this way where I getto strengthen my dog's basic

(10:04):
skills Because I get to practice.
Come to my hand, look at me,sit, let's go, or whatever
combination of those I want, anduse the reward of the walk
which is what he wants anywayjust to keep going Because the
leash is loose.
It's just a little moreseamless.
There's not.
It's not as hard of a test tokind of nail like.
The dog has that flexibility.

Dr Edward (10:25):
And safety.
You can practice recall withsafety too.
So I'd never thought that one.
That's super cool.
So what's the third thing?

Bryndon Golya (10:32):
Well, with this long leash, you know, and I had
other ideas, but this long leashactually helps your dog meet
dogs better, or helps your dogavoid meeting dogs better,
because they now have more of anability to communicate.
I want to move forward or movebackwards, and so, for instance,
if a dog approaches yours orthere's a say a dog startles you

(10:54):
, your dog now can jump or runaway just far enough to where
it's not going to get hung up onit, and it finds there's a
little bit more agency orcontrol in this, because now
they bound it out of the way orthey backed up and it's diffused
the situation, whereas the fouron a four to six foot leash
you're probably hitting itimmediately and you're coming

(11:16):
along with it, and if that's abig dog, that might be
problematic for you as well.

Dr Edward (11:20):
Gotcha.

Bryndon Golya (11:21):
Yeah, I think, I think justice, and I would say
this there's actually a type ofleash that I prefer over all
other materials.

Dr Edward (11:29):
Yeah.

Bryndon Golya (11:30):
It's called biophane.
I think it's a regular materialyou can find around.
It's basically like a kind of apleather or kind of a rubbery
kind of a thing.

Dr Edward (11:41):
It's nice and grippy.

Bryndon Golya (11:42):
Grippy, except when it's wet.
However, there are essentiallytracking lines that I found from
other people that trainers, andif you're walking on concrete
which is a lot of what we walkon out here this particular
leash, if you step on it and youneed to control your animal and
there's a problem and you can'thold onto them, it has a very

(12:04):
high friction.
I guess coefficient, if that'sthe real word I want to use- On
the pavement, if you just put onthe pavement if you put your
foot on it, it will not slideout very easily.

Dr Edward (12:15):
We will put a link to where you can find that kind of
resource in the podcast thing.

Bryndon Golya (12:22):
Yep and it cleans up real nice.
At the end of the walk you canwipe any pee poo, anything from
the street, anything from theyard, just wipe it right down.
It's brand new.

Dr Edward (12:32):
Awesome.
So this is our little teaserbecause we want to inspire you
to come along and watch the full45-minute interview that we're
going to have with Brendan.
That's going to be released ina week or so, and Brendan is
going to dig into three reallysuper important topics in that
extended interview, which numberone is why kindness is the

(12:55):
ultimate training principle.
Number two is using managementand rewards to strengthen your
relationship with your dogs.
And number three is offering achoice versus demanding behavior
with your dogs.
So that's going to be a reallyjuicy rich conversation and
you're going to learn a wholelot of really cool stuff.
And, following up after the45-minute session, we're going

(13:16):
to have a two-hour-longintensive live online workshop
where Brendan is going to teachyou a whole lot of practical
stuff that you can do with yourdogs to make a massive,
beautiful difference for them.
But that's the wrap for thislittle teaser introductory
episode for the podcast with thetitle of Strengthening your
Relationship with your PetsThrough Deeper Understanding.

(13:36):
We'll be back for the45-minute-long full interview in
a week or so, after this hasbeen released out.
Look forward to seeing you then.
Thanks so much and goodbye.
For now.
Here's a shout out back toeveryone.
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