10 Years of brutally honest dog training advice in 20 mins

dog courses online uk Develops your Dog's Hidden Intelligence Training -For-Dogs"> Click Here 👈 I've been a pro...

dog courses online uk

Develops your Dog's Hidden IntelligenceTraining-For-Dogs"> Click Here 👈

I've been a professional dog trainer now for the best part of 8 years and I've been at it in my own time well before that but I'll admit there are some lessons I wish I'd known at the start of my journey instead of fumbling through them later on knowing these would have saved me years of trial and error and more importantly gifted my dogs a more fulfilling life right from the off because let's face it a well-trained dog lives their best life whether we like to admit it or not so today I'm giving you four lessons I learned the hard way lessons I wish someone had handed me on a silver platter all those years ago quick intro to me and and my dogs I currently have five dogs Stark my Belgium malir Dara a Romanian rescue Ranger a crossbreed Kobe another Belgian malamir and two sausage dogs Martha and Luigi they're all wildly different but trust me what I'm about to share applies to every single one of them and odds are it apply to your dog too and don't worry I'm not here just to point out what you're doing wrong instead I'll give you simple actionable Solutions so you can see Improvement in your dog's Behavior almost immediately sound good let's dive in lesson number one I completely misunderstood positive reinforcement don't get me wrong positive reinforcement is brilliant but early on I was told that all you needed was food you whip out a treat you dangle it in front of a dog's nose and and voila you'd have an obedient dog puppy books made it sound like it was foolproof as though all problems could be solved with a bag of kibble and a a bit of enthusiasm but here's the kicker when does positive reinforcement start to work against you before we get into that we need to understand how it actually works because of he's a spoiler it's not just about waving sausage in front of your dog's face and hoping for the best positive reinforcement is adding something immediately after a behavior to increase the likelihood of that behavior happening again in the future key point there adding it after the behavior what if I were to tell you that using positive reinforcement can actually create a more ignorant dog if you do it incorrectly I know I made this mistake and you might be too positive reinforcement when properly understood and applied is absolutely the path of least resistance for transforming Behavior but here's the catch it must be used correctly and by correctly I mean rewarding their behaviors after they've happened not trying to use it as a tool to fix disobedience in the moment let's talk about why this matters picture this your dog is gallivanting around the garden at 11:00 p.m. you're in your ing gown ready to go to bed cheese in hand pleading with them to come back inside they pause they look at you and then decide nah the bush is way more exciting finally after what feels like an eternity they saunter back and you relieved hand them the cheese but here's the thing what did your dog just learn that ignoring you gets rewarded in their mind the sequence goes something like this I run around like a maniac I stall for as long as possible I sniff some grass I get rewarded anyway and instead of reinforcing the coming back you've actually technically reinforced the dog ignoring you in the first place to flip the script here's what you got to do make sure your dog goes out where the leash on to begin with ask them to come back in make them come back in and once you've done that then you can present your reward I would have that reward hidden where possible when used thoughtfully positive reinforcement becomes a powerful tool for shaping and creating reliable joyful behaviors but when misapplied well that's just say it turns into your dog's favorite game of negotiation now that we've covered rewards and how they should be used let's talk about the other side of the coin Corrections when I first started diving into the world of online dog training I was hit with an avalanche of buzzwords like positive based science-based positive reinforcement modern training fory training so on and so forth and if you're anything like I was you might have felt like Corrections were painted as the devil incarnate something to be logged away in a museum alongside old dinosaur skeletons and at first I B into the idea wholeheartedly positive reinforcement was hailed as the answer to everything for teaching behaviors it was brilliant but when it came to stopping unwanted behaviors that's where things got murky and if you got a dog with a bit more oomph say a malamir or a working Shepherd you've probably realized that treats alone don't always cut it so like many I swung the pendulum the other way I would convince myself that positive reinforcement was a lie and success lay in strict discipline ID rules and constant Corrections it was all about Authority right turns out that's not the answer either here's the thing dog training isn't about picking aside it's about balance let's simplify what can easily become a very complex topic do nice things with your dog and they'll like you do enough of those nice things and they'll probably love you if you let them get away with everything all the time they're unlikely to respect you and yes I know respect is a bit of a taboo word in modern dog training circles but let's be honest who respects someone who always folds and lets them get away with absolute murder and that's where Corrections come in and when you sparingly and fairly they can set boundaries in a way that makes life hell of a lot clearer for your dog now before you start picturing some harsh military style discipline let me show you what a correction looks like in real time with Athena so I wanted to bring Athena out now and and show people and talk about the use of Corrections why we might use a correction why it may not be a good idea to always avoid Corrections with our dogs and and conceptually I guess talk about their main use now a general rule of thumb a dog rehearses a behavior they practice a behavior it gets reinforced especially when it comes to innate behaviors like reactivity aggression and that expression we see in atheno and she's barking lung and growling at potentially people or dogs they're a reinforcement so if we allow it to happen then we are quite literally perpetuating the behavior so if you've watched any of my content before we consistently set a dog up for success by managing the environment to the best of our ability so we can utilize differential reinforcement reinforce alternate incompatible behaviors around the triggers to make sure that we're strengthening one the sits the Downs the recalls but also counter condition and how the dog feels about the presence of that trigger the main argument for that would be can't always control the environment so that means surprises happen squirrel might run out of a bush someone might come around of a corner and although to the best of our ability we might be able to make sure we're taking our dog places where they're not going to be able to rehearse their reactivity ultimately the environment probably isn't going to allow that clean sheet what we're looking for so this is where a correction comes in not to say to the dog hey don't ever do that again very rarely do we actually utilize forms of physical pressure to tell a dog hey never ever do that again it's to make sure the dog doesn't get anything out of The Unwanted Behavior so this is really important fundamental to understand I might walk with the down the road we might see 50 dogs she's starting to think about that old behavior of barking lung and growling going extinct and it going away on the 51st dog she barks lung and growls and she gets the reinforcement from that whether they be inate from within the dog or the external reinforcement of that other dog going away all that reinforcement is going to come flooding back and then we can create like that intermittent reward schedule in unwanted behaviors it's really important that we set our dog up to understand a correction how to turn them off etc etc so I can do a little bit of that through play I can do a little bit of that through basic obedience in and around the house so I'm going to give a really easy example now I'm going to bring someone out occasionally we do set the dog up to not fail per se but to find a situation difficult so we can teach the correction so when we hit the real world the dog might try the behavior get corrected we then can put the dog into an incompatible Behavior reinforce that instead further to that a second use for a correction and why we should probably not avoid using them entirely is when it comes to a dog that is maybe super aggressive or when it comes to a dog that is maybe super fearful and then exhibits aggression that stems from that fear sometimes acutely suppressing a behavior through aggression so they bark L gr we say hey not allowed to do that shows the dog a situation that they did not know was going to happen so what I mean by that if Chloe comes out here now and Athena goes hey get the away and and she barks lunges and growls and again that's probably coming from Fear it's from uncertainty it's from insecurity she barks lunges and growls I say hey don't do that Chloe sticks around and then Athena gets to experience a moment in time where she goes oh Chloe was never here to hurt me I didn't know that and I would never have known that if I barked lunge and grow gone into this frenzy Chloe had gone away ultimately all she would have learned from that process is when people come along and they're potentially threatening to me all I need to do is bark lung and growl and she in her head truly believes that I've stopped this thing hurting me because I've buked lung and growls and sometimes we need the correction to say hey don't do that Chloe was never going to hurt you and then Chloe sits down has a coffee and Athena goes oh she wasn't coming to get me and we say no she wasn't coming to get you and sometimes when behaviors are so far gone and it's our dog's first portal call in terms of feeling pressure in a situation or within a certain threshold a lot of dog chain is doing great work out there but they're kind of getting stuck at that 10 m threshold if they're not using Corrections well sometimes you have to push that threshold say to the dog hey we're not going going to allow that you best calm calm the down and then the dog goes into a situation and goes oh we're not fighting we're not you're out to get me oh we're good and sometimes the dog needs that in order to progress two of the main reasons why I think Corrections are beneficial and they will probably always be in my toolbox main one being stopping the dog getting reinforcement out of the behavior EG person comes along she bars lons and growls they go away she goes oh that's reinforcing cuz I wanted them to go away I'll bark L and gr next time if I say hey you can't do that before the person goes away the dog doesn't get anything out of it and therefore I'm not allowing The Unwanted feelings that she's going to get out of that reaction to come flooding back second benefit is I can show her put her into situations where her feelings aren't validated what I mean by that is hey that person that dog there they were never going to hurt you they were just minding their own business and they were always going to walk past anyway regardless of what you did sometimes really important for our dog that they understand that lesson we keep our reward weight High we use Corrections where necessary I'm going to give you an example in a second so I'm going to bring Chloe out I'm going to do a bit of desensitization with Athena so I'm walking along I'm keeping my dog under threshold you know their arousal at the right level I've got my marker system in place I'm doing all the right things she's had a play prior to this all the rest of it that you guys should be doing if you watched any of our previous videos trigger pops out from nowhere right we can't help this sometimes it might be the cocka poo running over from a distance that's got no recall the dog over threshold right we can't afford the rehearsal for The Unwanted Behavior to happen this where correction needs to come in cool okay and I'm just going to move her around and good girl Chloe's going to walk in front and I'm going to keep Chloe nice and safe she picks a more suitable Behavior than aggression I Mark move reward same again Chloe she picks a a more suitable and appropriate behavior an aggression I Mark Ru and reward she's very quickly over chlo now which is good and then perhaps she's more concerned about this little dog over here our intensity of Correction needs to outweigh so there's an example there our dog's desire to perform The Unwanted Behavior think of your dog's unwanted Behavior like a fire a small campfire ideally if we've done all the things outside of that session teaching our dog lead pressure teaching our dog a marker system increasing their motivation make sure sure they're biologically fulfilled make sure they're well rested make sure their arousal is at the right level all of which I've spoken about in almost every single one of my videos then that fire is going to be small and should we need a correction it doesn't have to be the big fire extinguisher could just be like hey we're going to throw a small blanket over that the fire is going to go out however we're not doing any of our work outside of these training sessions that are set up and look like this then what happens is the fire is nice and big and if we take our correction and we try and stop the dog it's the equivalent of throwing a small bucket of water over that big fire what's going to happen the oxygen from the water is going to ignite the fire to a greater intensity than it did before so we want to make sure we're setting our dog up for success we're not constantly relying on suppression through the corrections but if we need the occasional correction we apply it at the right intensity to outweigh the dog's desire we stop cap that behavior sit put the dog into something else Mark mve and reward that we don't need to be going out relying wholeheartedly on corrections but neither for the two main reasons that I've explained do we need to be allowing the dog to rehearse The Unwanted behavior and if we need pressure need a correction need a bit of compliance with the lead or tool in order to make sure that the dog is on the routee to success and continuing on the path of more constructive Behavior than aggression then so be it you're not a bad guy for doing that think of your dog's Behavior as a novel you're writing positive reinforcement is your pencil shaping the story by rewarding behaviors you want to see more of Corrections are your eraser there to fix any mistake or guide your dog back on track when things potentially go wrong if you neglect to use your eraser the story can become messy with smudges and errors making it harder to read both tools are necessary but making sure we use them at the right time for the best results Point number three brings me to one of the most controversial topics in dog training neutering you spend 5 minutes on any dog training Facebook group and you'll see it brought up constantly especially when it comes to issues like reactivity or aggression it's often hailed as the go-to fix a magical solution that will solve all behavioral problems and I'll admit before I become a professional dog trainer I was convinced it was the first step for nearly every case but Does neutering actually make a difference the short answer is well yes and no here's the sciency bit castration reduces the amount of testosterone flood in your dog system but testosterone isn't the aggression hormone people make it out to be what it does Drive is competitiveness not aggression itself so if your dog's reactivity or aggression is linked to competition with other dogs neine might genuinely help them become less reactive but and this is a big but many dogs aggression isn't about competitiveness at all it's about insecurity think about it we've all met that guy you know the one that's compensating for his receding hairline his height or maybe something else entirely he doesn't feel great about himself so he over compensates and sometimes that comes off as socially aggressive or over-the-top behavior dogs can be exactly the same same now here's where it gets tricky reducing testosterone in an already insecure dog can actually make things worse testosterone can fuel confidence as well as competitiveness so when you take that away you might actually amplify a dog's insecurities instead of calming them down they might actually become more reactive and potentially more aggressive imagine we have someone who freaks out every time a room gets dark every time the lights go off they start balling and shouting well neutering can be like dimming the lights for one person they might be sensitive to Bright Lights and be getting a headache so dimming the light for them is a simple solution problem solved but for another person dimming the lights only makes their fear of the dark worse neutering is similar while it might help reduce certain behaviors linked to testosterone it can also amplify insecurities in some dogs and unlike dimming the lights neutering isn't something you can just undo once it's done it's done you can't just stick a Band-Aid on the situation and expect everything to be fine again but it's not all human and Gloom neutering can create a reduced sex drive in your dog so your dog might stop sniffing excessively every blade of grass on the search for their new baby mama that means they're potentially more focused on you and therefore easier to train and by extension potentially less reactive so does neutron fix reactivity or aggression sometimes yes it can help sometimes no it all depends on the root cause of the behavior and as always training and understanding your dog's needs play a much bigger role than simply booking them in for having their bollocks dropped off okay and my final points if you've watched any of my other videos you'll know I'm a massive advocate of biological fulfillment meeting your dog's exercise needs and where applicable cater into their breed specific needs but and again this is a big butt solely just meeting those needs isn't the magic one solution to every behavioral issue as some dog trainers make it out to be let's talk about the Trap we can fall into when we rely on exercise and fulfillment as our go-to fix here's the thing if we constantly combat unwanted Behavior by Upp in the exercise or providing more enrichment we might actually be setting ourselves up for failure why because as we increase our dogs exercise and stimulation we're also increasing their expectation for that level of fulfillment it becomes a vicious cycle where theoretically every single day they need a little bit more exercise and more fulfillment just to remain balanced and if you can't keep up guess what they're back to being a knob again so what's the alternative well it's just as important if not more important to teach your dog how to settle and do absolutely nothing now I know what you're thinking but I already give my dog a stuffed Kong or licky mat to help them chill and while those tools have their place they're not actually teaching your dog to do nothing they're still engaging in a low arousal activity what we need to teach them is a genuine impulse control and arousal management skills that don't come naturally to a lot of dogs this is where you step in your job is to guide them to show them how to switch off how to relax it's not as flashy as teaching tricks or as physically demanding as a 2hour hike but trust me it's just as crucial for their behavior and ultimately your sanity because sometimes the best thing a dog can learn is how to do nothing at all now there's a couple of ways we can do this but let me just warn you this might be the most boring yet most effective dog training tutorial you'll ever watch okay so this is the world's most simple dog training tutorial but one of the most underlooked exercises especially if you've got a dog that just will not settle in the house we call it anchoring so we're going to take a lead we're going to take our dog we're going to take something relatively heavy so I'm going to use the weight rack here we could do this on furniture banister kitchen units wherever it needs to be and very simply we're going to do nothing with our dog so often we put so much emphasis on positive reinforcement keeping our dog in place with food sometimes it's just really not necessary so here goes nothing I'm just going to Loop this around here typically do this two three times a day with Athena and I'm just going to leave her make sure she doesn't get tangled and we're just going to let her chill out there as soon as she does chill out lies herself down ideally puts her chin on the floor we going get her take her off there you go she clever that was a quick one we can very quickly start teaching our dog once you're calm you get what you want and if you got a clever dog like Athena she's going to get there real quick good go I'm going to go on tangle her leg I know I love you too there's a chance here your dog might kick off have a bit of a tantrum have a bit of a wobbler it's super important we don't succumb to that we do this with all the our daxis as well to make sure that we're building some separation and they're not totally dependent on us so there you go that's what we mean by anchoring you should be introducing it into your dog's everyday life to give them that ability to essentially do nothing so there you go there's four things I wish on you before as a professional dog trainer if you enjoyed this video you might enjoy this one here please don't forget to like And subscribe ...

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