Acknowledge Dogs - Matador Canine

From using punishment-based methods to not being consistent, these pitfalls can derail your progress and harm your relationship with your furry friend. Join us as we discuss these obstacles and offer practical tips and advice to ensure a positive and successful training experience for both you and your dog If you enjoyed today's episode you will love my new book - The Dog Training Booklet; How To Teach Your Dog Anything Get your copy instantly here - https://www.matadork9.com/booklet

Transform your pup's training with this essential podcast episode on the five golden rules of dog training. Learn how to get to know your pup better, make training sessions enjoyable, and use positive reinforcement and consistency to help them learn. Plus, we'll provide helpful tips and resources to ensure you and your pup get the most out of each session. Tune in to become an expert dog trainer and strengthen your bond with your furry companion. If you want to learn more about the way professionals train dogs, check out The Dog Training Cheat Codes here - https://www.matadork9.com/cheatcodes

Tired of your hyperactive dog? In episode 163 of my podcast, I use AI to explore 10 ways to burn off your pup's energy. With in-depth advice ranging from the basics of daily walks to the mischievous fun of doggie dancing, this episode has something for everyone. I provide insights on how to get the most out of AI and avoid potential problems, making it the perfect resource for professional dog trainers. Don't miss this episode and don't forget to check out my book, "The Dog Training Cheat Codes" for even more tips and tricks to help train your furry friend! 00:02:10:20 - 00:02:34:13Michael AccettaIt has been a while since I've recorded a podcast episode. We went on a little hiatus there with the holidays and everything going on just kind of slowed down my production a little bit. But you will be happy to know that things are going to pick up. And I am debating starting a second podcast, more in-depth science business related for professional dog trainers. 00:02:34:13 - 00:02:53:14Michael AccettaIf you're a professional dog trainer who listens to my podcast and that sounds like something you'd really want to listen to and maybe be a guest on, please let me know as I might start doing it. If a lot of people are interested in it. If not, then I'll stick to my acknowledged dogs. Otherwise, we'll have two podcasts with my wonderful voices, people say. 00:02:54:12 - 00:03:14:13Michael AccettaSo today I want to talk about and this is actually pretty interesting. I asked I because I is this big thing right now. I said, Okay, if I if I got a hyper active dog, a really excited dog, and I want it to tire them out, what should I do? Now understand? I gives you just blanket information. It's very general. 00:03:14:20 - 00:03:30:05Michael AccettaIt's not very specific. So what I did was I looked at the ten that it gave me and I said, okay, that's not too shabby. That's not too bad. But what I wanted to do is expand on it, give you what I is advices in the event that you went and you said, Oh, I don't know what to do with my dog today. 00:03:30:05 - 00:03:48:05Michael AccettaLet me, you know, type in, hey, I act as my dog trainer and tell me what I should do, because that's often what I do. When I don't have something for dinner. Like, Hey, what should I have for dinner? These are the ingredients and it'll spew out a good recipe. So if you're deciding to do that or you haven't thought of it, now you're like, Wow, Michael, that's a that's amazing idea. 00:03:48:05 - 00:04:10:15Michael AccettaI'm going to try that out. Here are some things you got to watch out for. Number one, it's generic. Okay. It gives you very blanket statements. Number two, there's detail, but it's not in-depth detail. And number three, it does not account for some of the things that could happen or your particular goals unless you strategically put them into your prompt for the A.I.. 00:04:11:00 - 00:04:30:19Michael AccettaFor example, in one of the things that we're going to talk about. It talks about doggie dances, like dancing with your dog to music, which is cute. It's great. It's fun. However, if you have a hyperactive dog, it does not account for the fact that you're teaching your dog to be overstimulated whenever you start to dance. What happens when you go to dance with your spouse? 00:04:30:29 - 00:04:46:19Michael AccettaWhat happens when you got to go to the bathroom and you do that silly dance and now your dog jumps in and knocks you down and you've made a mess, right? So I'm going to go over some of those things that maybe the I didn't think about or we could probably change if we strategically put in a specific prompt. 00:04:47:08 - 00:05:12:12Michael AccettaOkay. So number one, it says, right? And I just asked it very simply. I said, Hey, give me ten easy ways to exercise my dog. Number one, going for a daily walk. This is this is, you know, the bare bones of exercising your dog. Go for a daily walk. It says this is the most basic and easy way to exercise your dog not only provides a mental and physical exercise, but it allows them to explore new sights and smells. 00:05:12:13 - 00:05:39:17Michael AccettaThat's absolutely right. Taking your dog for a walk is remarkable for their physical and mental stimulation. They're sniffing things. They're they're bringing in new stimuli. Right. Just the environment itself is producing excitement for them. So they're getting something new. Stuck in the house, stuck in the crate. You know, maybe you work all day, so you don't really get to do much with your dog. 00:05:39:17 - 00:05:55:14Michael AccettaJust getting them out into the world just like people. Right. You go take a 30 minute daily walk. You're probably going to feel better by the end of the walk because you've got some sunlight. You got some vitamin D in your system. You got some fresh air, some good oxygen, not that circulated stuff in the office or in your house. 00:05:56:09 - 00:06:15:00Michael AccettaSo taking your dog for a daily walk not only is good for your dog, but actually good for you as long as two things. Number one, it doesn't cause more stress for you and your dog based off your dog's reactivity or overstimulation. Then we're not looking at improving our dog's physical exercise and mental stimulation. Instead, we're actually going the opposite. 00:06:15:09 - 00:06:34:18Michael AccettaWe're going back. We're creating more stress. An increase in cortisol in your dog, which means they're going to be stressed for a longer. It's going to take. And, you know, depending on the level of severity of stress they have, it could take until tomorrow for them to feel better So if you're doing three walks a day and each time they're getting stressed and stressed and stressed, that's what's called trigger stacking. 00:06:34:25 - 00:06:51:19Michael AccettaWe're stacking on the amount of cortisol that your dog can handle. And so each time they get confronted with this new stimulus that stresses them out more could be a car, could be a dog, it could be a person wearing a hat, has that stuff, gets pushed on to them. They become more and more stressed, which means they are less likely to listen to you. 00:06:51:24 - 00:07:10:26Michael AccettaThey're more likely to get hurt. They're more likely to overreact. And of course, I'm talking about reactive dogs here, but in general, the more stress you put on your dog, the more stress they will acquire over time because they don't have enough time to decompress. They have to decompress first. So that's number one, going for a daily walk. 00:07:12:00 - 00:07:46:07Michael AccettaAnd number two, right where I think I said that this was you had to this is great. If you have these two things. Number one, you don't create more stress. Number two, it's structured. I'm a guy who like structure. I like to know where I'm going based off where I've been and where I am right now. So if I'm just going to go for a 45 minute walk and I'm going to wander around and do nothing, that's not as productive to me as starting my walk off with obedience, walking perfectly to a park, doing some exciting fun playing kind of stuff, still with obedience mixed in here and there. 00:07:46:13 - 00:08:09:22Michael AccettaBut more or less sniffing around free form and then obedience on the way back. I love the sandwich, the obedience play, obedience sandwich, especially if you're doing what we're going to talk about a little bit. Oh, don't worry, we're going to get there. But you know, so, so those kinds of things are great if you can structure them so go for a daily walk with your dog, whether it's once or twice, three times. 00:08:09:28 - 00:08:30:02Michael AccettaThey don't have to be very long walks. And in fact, I don't recommend insanely long walks, especially if you're in the beginning of your training journey. You don't want to have a perfect ten minute walk. And then you've been told to do 45 minutes and instead of just sticking to your 10 minutes, you end up doing 45 minutes of anxiety and stress and chaos do 10 minutes three times, right? 00:08:30:02 - 00:08:49:01Michael AccettaTake a five minute break in between. That's going to be better for you and your dog long term than a 45 minute walk straight out All right, number two, playing fetch if your dog doesn't know fetch. It's a very, very simple I actually talk about it in my book, my new book coming out. I'm not going to talk about that yet, but I break down playing fetch for you. 00:08:49:01 - 00:09:11:11Michael AccettaSo I'll break it down very simply here. It's all about back chaining. Have your dog pick something up off the floor and just hand it to you or have your dog pick something out of your hand and then create distance from picking it up and bringing it to you or right if they're picking it up out of your hand first, depending on where you start, they pick up the object from your hand and they take a step back or you take a step back. 00:09:11:11 - 00:09:34:05Michael AccettaRather, they have to follow you. And when you click, when they follow you, they will drop the object accidentally or coincidentally into your hand. Super simple, right? All I've done is created a system, a successful repetition of them carrying an object 4.5 seconds and accidentally dropping it in my hand. I will then repeat this over and over until they start to pair. 00:09:34:05 - 00:09:51:06Michael AccettaOh, if I come to them and I drop them in their hand, then they click and I get my tree clicking is just conditioned to reinforce it. Right? You could say the word yes. You could use a click. You could make the click sound with your mouth right All I'm doing is marking the behavior that I like. I want my dog to bring the object to me and drop it in my hand. 00:09:51:09 - 00:10:12:15Michael AccettaThen I will create distance. How far do they have to travel in order to bring it to me now? That is before I teach them to go get the item. This is back training. I've taught the retrieve the the fetch backwards. So now they go get the object and they know exactly what to do. They I tell them to go get it. 00:10:12:15 - 00:10:32:07Michael AccettaThey get it. They run back to me. Perfect. Super simple, right? Super simple in words. But playing Fetch Air says is an easy and fun way to exercise your dog, especially if you have a park or backyard. Now, you don't need a park or a backyard, although they might help, especially if you're able to do really long fetch, right? 00:10:32:07 - 00:10:54:13Michael AccettaYou have one of those launchers that let you launch the ball like 100 yards and your dog is trusted off leash or it's an enclosed park. If that's the case, then great. We are awesome. But you can just teach fetch as a mental and physical exercise. If your dog doesn't know fetch, don't worry about it. Just teach them fetch and that will be good because you're teaching them a new skill they're having to acquire and absorb knowledge. 00:10:54:28 - 00:11:13:10Michael AccettaThey're having to test out problems, creative problem solving, all this kind of stuff. They have to go through that in order to find out how to get the reward how to get to play the game again, how to experience joy and a stronger relationship with you. So playing fetch with you is going to be a wonderful bonding experience. 00:11:13:10 - 00:11:27:24Michael AccettaEven if you don't have a backyard, even if you don't go to the park to do it, do it in your hallway, do it in your living room. Just try to keep everything calm and structured, not all over the place and crazy And here's a bonus tip. If your dog is way too excited about the object you want to play fetch with. 00:11:28:02 - 00:11:45:09Michael AccettaDon't start with that object. My dog Hawk loves a tennis ball but when we play fetch with the tennis ball, it's a very relaxed and it's not as structured. If I do it with a different object, I can get a lot more structure out of it. Whether it's a dumbbell, whether it's a PVC pipe that he doesn't chew on. 00:11:45:22 - 00:12:07:22Michael AccettaYou know, Kong, something that bounces very different than a tennis ball. Tennis ball. He loses his mind because his previous owner just played fetch in a casual way. So when he sees the tennis ball, he associates it to this crazy kind of wild interpretation of fetch as opposed to a nice structured sit next to me. I release you to go get the object, you grab it, you come back, sit in front of me, and I take the object and we repeat. 00:12:08:07 - 00:12:24:25Michael AccettaOkay, moving on to number three, hiking if you live near hiking trails, take your dog with you for a challenging and rewarding workout. And again, not only is this good for your dog, but it's good for you. This is what I was talking about. I give you kind of that general blanket statement to your going for a daily walk versus hiking. 00:12:24:25 - 00:12:50:03Michael AccettaIs there a difference? Absolutely. Especially depending on where you live. If you live in the city, going for a walk is going to have a lot different stimuli, different environmental factors than going for hiking. Right now, if you live in an area where hiking is very prevalent and you're very close to a park, something like that, maybe you don't live near the city, but on the outskirts or in a rural area, hiking might be very normal for your dog. 00:12:50:10 - 00:13:06:20Michael AccettaAnd I know plenty of people who take their dogs hiking and love doing, especially if their dog gets to be off leash in the particular area they're hiking. Now, I will warn you that things happen, dangerous things happen. Anything could happen in any given moment. Your dog could get lost. There could be a wild animal. They could eat something that's no good. 00:13:06:28 - 00:13:26:24Michael AccettaSo I wouldn't recommend doing that too often unless you are 100% confident in your dog's abilities. And you have an amazing recall case that hiking number four. This is fantastic. If you live in a warm area, if you're in the southern part of the state or you live somewhere else in the world which shout out to all my international listeners. 00:13:26:24 - 00:13:53:25Michael AccettaThank you for tuning in. I appreciate you So number four is swimming and I actually get this right. So swimming is a low impact exercise that's great for dogs of all ages and sizes. That's absolutely right. Swimming does not have the impact force that hiking or jogging or playing fetch will have on your dog. So I used to work at a facility where we would routinely swim puppies to get them used to the water. 00:13:53:25 - 00:14:14:25Michael AccettaHow to be handled had to be manipulated. But really specifically older dogs you know, they're they're above eight, ten years old, sometimes 16, sometimes 17 years old. They could barely walk on their own. But when you got them in the water, they can immediately swim arthritic dogs. This is great for and this is not medical advice, by the way, but it's great for older dogs if you know how to do it. 00:14:14:25 - 00:14:33:19Michael AccettaI do not recommend just throwing your old dog into the water and saying, I'll figure it out. No, you want to hold on to them. You want to encourage them to paddle. You can tickle their paws to get them to kick back, especially if they've never done this before. But it is a stressful experience. So you want to be there to make it as easy as possible for them to succeed and feel comfortable. 00:14:34:09 - 00:14:58:26Michael AccettaNow, confidence only comes from successful repetition. So you have to do it over and over and over. Keeping your dogs successful. Don't let them fail, don't let them drown. Don't let them dip their head below because you weren't paying attention. You've got to be 100% with them during this process, at least until they build up the strength. Or if they're older, they might never build up to strength just because the regenerative capabilities of their muscle cells aren't as good as they are when they're younger puppies. 00:14:58:26 - 00:15:22:11Michael AccettaDefinitely they will build up the strength. But older dogs? No. And so what you want to do is just encourage them, keep them, keep them moving. Keep them kicking their legs. Now, in swimming dogs, power stroke comes from the front legs. So if you notice their back legs tucked behind them, that's okay. That's fine. What you should do is, again, tickle their their pads of their feet and get them to kick their back legs out. 00:15:22:11 - 00:15:39:11Michael AccettaSometimes they'll just give up on their back legs because they don't need them. They just kind of float transversely if you have a dog that's starting to go vertical, that's because dogs think they can climb out of the water, especially hyperactive dogs. They want to climb up and out. So they're trying to get their paws on some type of footing that doesn't exist because they're in the water. 00:15:39:28 - 00:16:02:03Michael AccettaSo you want to hold their back, end up and try to keep them level. Just the top of their back should be peering over the water so that was number four swimming. Number five, agility training. They have amazing, you know, very inexpensive. You can get them on Amazon you get a target, PetSmart, Petco, that kind of thing. Wonderful agility training sets for indoors and outdoors. 00:16:02:03 - 00:16:19:11Michael AccettaIf you don't want to spend the thousands of dollars getting professional sets or pay for a membership to go to a facility. Now, ACE has set up an obstacle course in your backyard and teach your dog to navigate it. This is great for both physical and mental exercise. Exactly. Right. Okay. If your dog is nervous, they lack confidence. 00:16:19:11 - 00:16:37:24Michael AccettaThey're anxious. Getting them to do some of these kind of obstacles are going to bring up their confidence, success or confidence. Is built through successful repetition. Each time you put your dog into a situation where they have to think creatively and problem solve the situation in order to get a reward or what they want you are teaching them to be more confident. 00:16:38:03 - 00:16:57:16Michael AccettaSo the A-frame, right? The A-frame is that big frame that the dog goes up one side and down the other side. The amount of dogs that have had fear issues that love the A-frame, after a 20 minute session of just having them go up, it get a treat, come back off. Right. And repeat that process over and over through shaping and teaching them that, oh, if you investigate this, I'll give you a treat. 00:16:58:02 - 00:17:18:08Michael AccettaThey love the A-frame. They might not like everything else until we eventually teach it. But that's the first step. So if you have an anxious dog, I highly recommend agility training at a low, low level. Don't go crazy with your dog. Right? And on the advance side, this is actually something that I used to do to tire my dogs out because I didn't want to run. 00:17:18:08 - 00:17:39:02Michael AccettaRight. When I was working at this facility, I trained 30 dogs a day or so. I was walking about ten to 15 miles and we were running, doing agility. I was getting in and out of the pool, swimming. It was a lot, right? And so sometimes you just get lazy. And so when you're training your own dogs, you cheat a little bit, especially because your dogs are at a certain level when you're in this kind of facility and you're a professional trainer. 00:17:39:14 - 00:18:00:23Michael AccettaSo what I recommend to my professional or more experienced dog owners here is if you're going to do agility, do what's called a send off, you stand in one spot after teaching this, right? This is the ultimate goal. You stand in one spot and you have a jump that's ten feet away. You send your dog to the jump, we call them back and then turn to another obstacle and send them to that once. 00:18:00:23 - 00:18:24:13Michael AccettaMaybe it's the tunnel and you can add distance to this. It helps burn their energy a little faster because they're running more than you are. And to it helps them what's called obstacle recognition. So when you say jump, they run directly to the jump, even though you might be facing something different. It's a very advanced agility technique, but it's a wonderful, wonderful way to burn their energy and mental exercise for them because they have to think about which obstacle they're doing. 00:18:24:13 - 00:18:46:01Michael AccettaRight. Okay. Number six, I says hide and seek, hide treats or toys around the house and have your dog find them. This is great for mental stimulation. This is more of, you know, search or detection. So we're going to hide a object or treats this very simply. You could just take a tennis ball and leave it in your dog's food or hide your dog's food, breakfast and dinner. 00:18:46:01 - 00:19:01:14Michael AccettaThis is perfect with this is what I used to do with my first dog, Breezy. We would put her food bowl in the car. She hated the car. So I wanted her to explore the car and getting the food. So hide and seek. Just hide it. You tell your dog to go find it. Boom. They go and find it super, super simple. 00:19:01:22 - 00:19:23:19Michael AccettaThe amount of sniffing that's involved to find the reward at the end is what to giving them such great mental stimulation. Sniffing is wonderful for your dog, not only to reduce their stress but burn their exercise, energy and mental stimulation. They're going to be tired afterwards because of the amount of exercise I'm sorry, the amount of energy required to search something. 00:19:24:01 - 00:19:43:01Michael AccettaThat's why police dogs, when they do training, they don't do back to back to back to back searches unless that's specifically what they're targeting. They're trying to work on their dogs. Endurance. How long will they search for? They'll typically do one solid search and then they'll pause, give that dog a break, take out the next dog and do the next search like that so a dog doesn't get 15 takes in a row not they maybe get one. 00:19:43:07 - 00:19:57:20Michael AccettaThen they go back to the kennel for 10 minutes, then they get to go again. So you got to give them time to kind of digest the information here. All right. Number seven, tug of war tug of war does not cause aggression in your dog. Okay. I says tug of war is a fun and easy way to exercise your dog. 00:19:57:20 - 00:20:23:25Michael AccettaIt can be played indoors or outdoors. It's absolutely true. Tug of war is a great way to build up your dog's motivation. I will not say drive cause drives don't exist, but their motivation, their speed, their enthusiasm and training with you. And it's a great way to move away from treats. So I always teach the complex behaviors. I teach everything with treats because it's easier to control my dog's excitement levels once we start implementing toys the excitement level goes up, which means we need to have optimal focus. 00:20:23:25 - 00:20:42:22Michael AccettaAt the same time, I can't have more excitement and a less focused dog. I need to have both the need to be excited, and they need to be focused, which means they need to know the behaviors to begin with. Then I can start to use tug of war in an obedient sense. Okay, this is as you know, I just says it's a fun and easy way to exercise your dog. 00:20:43:11 - 00:21:01:27Michael AccettaI say it's a great way to train your dog. Tug of war is in a remarkable way to teach what's called on and off, on and off, like a light switch, not on and off, as in behaviors of on a place mat and off a place mat, but on and off or start and stop red light, green light, whatever you want to call it, essential. 00:21:01:27 - 00:21:19:15Michael AccettaYou're going to play with your dog. Tug of war. Da da da da da da da. Keep going, keep going and going. And then stop. Wait for them to relax for a moment and then go back to plan the faster they relax, the faster they get to play. You're teaching them to think critically, to think smoothly when in a heightened state of awareness, which is going to translate to everything else you do with your dog. 00:21:20:06 - 00:21:38:16Michael AccettaWonderful, wonderful way to bring your dog's energy. No. Eight training sessions you had, you know, it had to be in there. It's a dog training podcast. You know, it had to be in there. Just straight up training sessions. Teach your dog something to work on the behaviors that you've taught them already. It go the extra mile, right? If it's worth training, it's worth over training. 00:21:38:25 - 00:21:59:00Michael AccettaIf you're going to teach them a set, you might as well teach them to sit at ten feet away for three and a half minutes while you turn your back and look at something else. Go above and beyond, because that one time you really need them to listen. Could be the difference between life and death. Training sessions are a great way, great way, depending on what you're doing to burn their physical energy, but always a great way to burn their mental energy. 00:21:59:20 - 00:22:14:15Michael AccettaNumber nine is what I said earlier. Those doggie dances is a fun and easy way to exercise your dog. You can dance with your dog to music or just have a little fun. That's what the air says. It's a great way to have fun. I did have a client I was working with once and I told her to do this right. 00:22:14:15 - 00:22:34:17Michael AccettaI said, Dance with your dog and then stop. Just like I mentioned with Tug of War, we're going to do start and stop. Dance with your dog, stop. Wait for them to calm down and then go back to dancing. And she took it rather literally. And what ended up happening was the dog wasn't learning to relax, but whenever Mom got excited and started dancing, she wanted to run away. 00:22:35:02 - 00:22:50:10Michael AccettaIt was because she was forcing her dog to dance. She'd grab her dog's paws and she would, like, shimmy her around. And then she'd stop for a moment and be like, Oh, she's good. She doesn't want to dance anymore. That's fantastic. And then tried to go back to dancing so the dog didn't like it, which means it was no longer effective. 00:22:50:10 - 00:23:09:09Michael AccettaThe dog wasn't having fun. The whole point is to get them excited and having fun, overstimulated almost, and then bringing them back down to focus. So we ditched that idea rather, rather quickly. And I recommend only do the things that your dog loves. If you really want to do something particularly try to make it as enjoyable, possible for your dog. 00:23:09:09 - 00:23:32:26Michael AccettaAnd if it's not their cup of tea, don't force them right. As a trainer, one of my mentors once said I am asking the dog to do this. They didn't ask for this, so I'm going to do my absolute best to make it as enjoyable as possible. He was a service dog trainer. This dog did not ask to be a service dog trainer, so I'm going to do my absolute best to make this as enjoyable as possible for them. 00:23:33:27 - 00:23:51:11Michael AccettaSo if you're going to do doggy dances with your dog, if you already do them fantastic. Dance, dance, dance. What's that? What's that? Gain, freeze, tag, freeze, dance, play, freeze, dance, play, play, play. Run around, have a grand old time dance in the music paws. Wait for them to relax and then go back to plan. And number ten, number ten. 00:23:51:11 - 00:24:11:18Michael AccettaThis is what I told me is number ten, okay? And this is what I did with my first dog. This is what a lot of people do in the United States in its backyard playtime. Let your dog run around your backyard for a few minutes each day to get some good exercise I think on average, dog trainers would tell you this is a terrible idea to terrible, terrible piece of advice. 00:24:11:28 - 00:24:39:14Michael AccettaSure, they burn their exercise, but there's lawlessness there's no structure. They get to practice whatever they want to practice. Right. And the potential for getting injured is rather high, especially if you have a crazy, out-of-control dog that barks at everybody in the neighborhood. Now, if you don't have a dog that naturally wants to express all of this energy, they're just going to lay around outside, which means you're not burning their physical and mental exercise or their energy because there's nothing to stimulate them to move. 00:24:40:02 - 00:24:53:07Michael AccettaRight. Like think about you. Sure. If you have a goal coming up, you're trying to run a marathon or something, then you're going to work out every day. If you don't have a goal, you're not going to work out every day. Even the goal of working out every day is the motivator to go get you to work out it. 00:24:53:21 - 00:25:08:09Michael AccettaIf you don't have that, you're not going to work out. There's no reason for your dog to get up and run around unless they have a lot of energy and they just feel like they need to or they're trying to chase the squirrels in the back area. That's what my first dog did. She ended up just chasing the squirrels in the backyard and developing some bad behavior. 00:25:08:09 - 00:25:29:00Michael AccettaShe'd bark at every single squirrel, and then that translated to coming into the house and barking. Everybody is about nine years ago or so. And so what did we end up doing? When I'm there, I reward her for relaxing in the backyard and then they do other exercise my she lives with my parents now. They do other exercise like the daily walks and the training and that kind of stuff. 00:25:29:11 - 00:25:49:22Michael AccettaBut when she's in the backyard, there's constant interruptions to any bad behavior using positive interrupters. Right? I say my dog's name, I get their attention back on me, you know, self redirection, marking good behavior, that kind of stuff. But backyard playtime unsupervised is probably going to get you into more trouble than it's worth. Don't just let your dog run around the backyard. 00:25:50:14 - 00:26:08:06Michael AccettaThey're going to eat. Things are not supposed to eat. They're going to dig where they're not supposed to dig. They're going to develop bad behaviors. They're not supposed to develop. You want to have complete control over your dog. Minimum six months when you first start training, minimum six months when you first start training. If you do everything right for six months, then you're pretty good. 00:26:08:20 - 00:26:35:06Michael AccettaYou can probably relax a little bit and continue training, but not to the same level of severity. Right? So it's not about getting your dog's energy burned as fast as humanly possible, but rather, how do we get it burned long term? And this goes for everything I just talked about. How do we get their energy learn burned long term so we don't have the zoom is at the end of the day and they go to sleep a lot easier. 00:26:36:04 - 00:26:59:02Michael AccettaSleep is where your dog deals with stress, absorbs new information just like human beings. So if you're if you're trying to keep them awake or you're not intentionally keeping them awake, but you're not giving them the opportunity to sleep, well, then they are going to be more stressed they're going to not deal with situations as effectively. And training's actually going to be harder because they're not learning as fast. 00:27:00:07 - 00:27:18:05Michael AccettaSo let's go run through all ten of them again, just to give you a little overview, if you stayed this long. Thank you. I appreciate it. Going for a daily walks, number one. No. Two, Playing fetch. No. Three, Hiking, No. Four Swimming No. Five Agility Training. No. Six Hide and Seek. No. Seven Tug of War. No. Eight Training Sessions, No. 00:27:18:05 - 00:27:47:04Michael AccettaNine Doggie Dances and ten backyard playtime. Although I don't highly recommend Backyard Playtime, instead, you should be doing some type of obedience or training in a casual fashion in your backyard. Guys, thank you for listening to this. Today's episode of the Acknowledged Dogs podcast. My book, The Dog Training Chico's, is on sale right now. If you want to get a copy of it, head over to Matador Canine Dotcom Forward Slash Chico's Matador Canine dot com forward slash Chico's. 00:27:47:08 - 00:28:00:20Michael AccettaIt is the nine professional trainer secrets to fast results and reliable dogs. I guarantee you will not be disappointed with that book. It teaches you so much that I wish I knew ten years ago when I started training. Thank you guys for listening and I'll see you in the next episode.

I am often asked whether or not to use the command 'stay' when training dogs. In my experience, there are different schools of thought on this topic. I believe that there is a difference between using the command and not using it, similar to the difference between driving a manual and automatic car Tune in to my podcast to discover the difference it can make in your dog's behavior. If you are looking for a way to get your dog to behave at home, look no further. Click the link below to check out my training on Daily Life Skills - https://www.matadork9.com/dailylifeskills 00;00;01;08 - 00;00;32;01Michael J. AccettaWelcome. My name is Michael, etc.. I'm the founder of Matador Canine Brilliance and author of The Dog Training Chico's. You're listening to the Acknowledge Dogs Podcast To my professors in college had very different opinions on telling dogs stay or not to say the word stay. We even joked about making T-shirts about it where we would say, I believe in stay where I don't believe in stay. 00;00;32;15 - 00;00;50;21Michael J. AccettaSo which is the correct school of thought? Should we be telling our dogs stay after we tell them to do something right as they stay or should sit just by itself? Tell my dog what they're doing should be continued until I tell them to do something else. Well, I'll give you my quick answer. I prefer not to say the word stay. 00;00;51;11 - 00;01;07;10Michael J. AccettaThat may be so. I understand why people say stay and why people don't say stay. So I'm going to show you both sides of it today. We're going to discuss why it would be important to say the word stay. Maybe change to not saying the word stay or stay with saying a word stay. How many times can I say the word stay? 00;01;07;10 - 00;01;25;18Michael J. AccettaAt any given moment, right. So we're going to go over whether you should be saying stay to your dog or not. Number one, the first thing you have to understand that there is a difference between saying the word stay and not saying it. And I want you to think about that as the difference between a manual car and an automatic car. 00;01;26;06 - 00;01;40;20Michael J. AccettaWe're going to get more in-depth about this as we talk about stay. So stay tuned because although that might seem confusing, like, okay, yeah, I understand Emanuel and I are staying in automatic, but how the hell does that apply to dog training? And telling our dog a steak? Stay tuned. I'm going to go over it. First things first. 00;01;40;20 - 00;02;01;03Michael J. AccettaIf you're already saying the word stay, it would probably behoove you to continue using it. At least for a little while, unless you fully understand the concept of teaching your dog something new. If you don't fully understand that concept, trying to teach them something new at this point, by completely demolishing everything you've worked on is not going to be beneficial to you or your dog. 00;02;02;15 - 00;02;22;16Michael J. AccettaInstead, keep doing what you're doing and eventually change it. Maybe on the next behavior teaching. So if you're saying sit, stay, you're not going to just completely forego that because you're essentially starting all over with the word sit. I'll explain that in a minute. If we're now teaching our dog down, stay. Maybe we only teach them the word down instead of down. 00;02;22;16 - 00;02;46;14Michael J. AccettaStay. Understand? Right. So it's a little different. If I'm already using the word stay, I might as well continue using it. It's what my dog is accustomed to. It's what they're used to. And if I change it, they're going to get slightly confused. Now, the reason they get confused and this is one of the pitfalls and people say, well, you shouldn't be telling your dog stay is because of I say the word stay that becomes content agent on my dog staying. 00;02;47;01 - 00;03;04;26Michael J. AccettaIf I don't say the word stay, then they can do whatever they want. Okay. We break that down a little bit. If I say sit, stay and my dog stays for 3 minutes, it's only because I said the word stay because that's what they're used to, as opposed to me saying sit and then my dog doing whatever they want in 30 seconds. 00;03;05;08 - 00;03;24;26Michael J. AccettaSee, the difference is not a huge difference, but it can make the difference if you want what's called an implied stay. That's not saying the word stay. When I say sit, it's implied. They should continue to do the behavior for an extended period of time without me having to say or do anything else. I've already told them to sit. 00;03;25;02 - 00;03;47;09Michael J. AccettaThey should continue to sit until I tell them to do something else. Here's the big difference between saying stay and not saying stay. And this is what you need to discern for yourself. Do you want to have manual or automatic? Do you want to have an automatic stay that when you say behavior, your order, your dog automatically does the stay or do you want to have to manually tell them to stay? 00;03;47;12 - 00;04;03;01Michael J. AccettaIt's like putting your car park. Would you rather have a handbrake? You have to manually do it? Or would you rather have the car automatically put the brake on? Which would you rather do it? Because this is how the sequence is going to play out. You tell your dog to down and we're going to say, stay so down. 00;04;03;01 - 00;04;26;04Michael J. AccettaStay now. I've waited a period of time and then I'm going to have to release my dog. So down, stay, release word, whatever that is for my dogs. It's okay. The alternative is down. Don't have to say stay. And then I release my dog with the word. Now, at both of those situations, there is a beginning to the behavior and an end to the behavior that is clearly defined. 00;04;26;26 - 00;04;49;04Michael J. AccettaThe stay indicates whether a dog should continue doing it or the alternative in that dog's mind is, well, I was told to sit and I could get up whenever I want. Or I was told to down and I could get up whenever I want. I could do whatever I want because stay wasn't there I want to take a moment and thank all of our loyal followers. 00;04;49;15 - 00;05;10;27Michael J. AccettaThis podcast would not be possible without you Leave review and let us know what you like and want to learn on the next episode of the Acknowledged Dogs podcast. Now back to the show you can only really run into problems when you need your dog to stay. And you didn't say it. Emergencies, things happen. You get distracted or you just forget. 00;05;11;06 - 00;05;30;21Michael J. AccettaYou say down, but you don't say stay and your dog gets up and does something else. Then what often happens, and I've seen a whole lot, is yell at the dog and go down. I told you to down. Why aren't you staying? Well, if we just look at the behavior of what you did, not what your dog did and what you did, you've put a dependency on the word stay for your dog. 00;05;31;06 - 00;06;07;19Michael J. AccettaAnd therefore, when you remove the word, they think everything's fine. I could get up, I could go do something else. And then they're confused when you bark at them. Happens all the time. All the time. Your consistency will determine your dog's success. Now, the only time I would say there is kind of an opportunity where you should say the word stay is if you're going to be doing a really big difference between your everyday life with your dog in competitions So if you're going to be having a regular dog, they live in your backyard, they live in your house, you don't really do much with them. 00;06;07;19 - 00;06;30;21Michael J. AccettaBesides competition, wise, you might have different words mean different things, sometimes even in different languages. So the casual sit might just be sit, but the perform and sit for competition might be seats, right, or down might be plots, those kinds of things. You have different words form to tell your dog that there's a different level of the behavior I want you to do. 00;06;31;19 - 00;06;51;28Michael J. AccettaSame thing goes for stay. So if I tell my dog down casually, they can get up when they walk because there's no competition. I don't get any points off of my dog getting up randomly. Of course, there could be dangerous situations, which is why I opt for the implied stay, the automatic stay. I don't say the word stay, but if I were say, down stay, that would be a competition version. 00;06;51;28 - 00;07;12;06Michael J. AccettaAnd they go, Oh, okay, now I need to stay here a little bit longer and kind of ingrain it in my mind. Competitions over here, real life is over here. So we're differentiating simply because we're doing competitions and we want everything to be perfect. That is not training for real life. I think training for real life, the better way to do it is an automatic, implied stay. 00;07;12;26 - 00;07;33;20Michael J. AccettaMy dog breaks the leash. I've had this happen when I was a novice trainer. I got whatever treat leash I could get because I didn't have a lot of money. I got any leash that I could get or I made my own out of power cord, ended up breaking my dog, panicked I panicked. I said down and I forgot to say the word stay because I was so stressed about trying to figure out what I should do with my dog. 00;07;34;04 - 00;07;50;19Michael J. AccettaI was able to refashion the leash in an interesting kind of way. And put it on my dog so we could get home. But at the end of the day, in that stressful moment, I forgot to say the word stay. I don't want my dog to get injured. Because of my lack of initiative in training in the proper way. 00;07;51;15 - 00;08;11;23Michael J. AccettaSo if I can set them up for the potential dangerous situation simply by removing the word stay and intentionally teaching it differently, I can make it easier for myself in those stressful situations. Now, I also follow and if you've listen to the other episodes of the Acknowledged Dog podcast, I follow the philosophy of the six fluency is of a behavior. 00;08;12;08 - 00;08;32;17Michael J. AccettaA behavior to me is not fluent. It's not complete without going through all six of these behaviors. One of those is duration. So if I tell my dog to sit and it's a very short duration, of course there's still duration there, but it's too short for me, really consider it have been trained. It's just a natural occurrence in the behavior. 00;08;32;21 - 00;08;54;24Michael J. AccettaI want to expand on it because I want to overprepare myself again for those dangerous situations or any particular in a predicament, that predicament, predicament that I might get in with my dogs. So I'm going to put them particularly in a situation. Now, if I train the duration and make it a lot better, I can I can space it out. 00;08;54;24 - 00;09;27;19Michael J. AccettaI can make it longer there's no need for the word stay. They they've intentionally learned to do the behavior longer until I release them with a release word like, okay, there's no need where the word study isn't. Okay. So that's the kind of differentiating that you need to do. Do I want to have to say the word stay because I'm intentionally trying to teach two different things or am I teaching the word stay within applied with implied with being applied in the behavior itself? 00;09;28;06 - 00;09;54;16Michael J. AccettaThat way I don't have to say it. Situations come up, distractions, emergencies I don't want to fall short or potentially hurt my dog because I forgot to do something in real life. That's why we set up training so well, right? Like you map everything out and training, we make it really systematic so that everything gets covered. And that's where a good dog trainer will provide you with the skill set. 00;09;54;16 - 00;10;17;22Michael J. AccettaThat you need. I delay everything out for you. So when you do that, it becomes really easy. Then go, Oh, this, this, this, this, this, and this. You will then be prepared for real life okay? Now, if you're interested in all this and you're like, Man, I wish I had a outlined list of everything, I'm going to show you something that I've provided for so many on this exact kind of topic. 00;10;17;22 - 00;10;40;20Michael J. AccettaOkay, so if you go to Matt or canine dot com, you can take this course test here. It would find the right course for you. But what I want to more specifically talk about is my daily life skills course. The daily life skills course covers things like leave it the perfect training process, teaching, the stay crate training, walking on leash, name recognition, teaching your dog how to settle. 00;10;41;06 - 00;11;04;18Michael J. AccettaIf you're interested in that, just go to Matador Canine Icon, Forward Slash Daily Life Skills, Matador Canine, Dot-Com Forward Slash Daily Life Skills. You're going to get 20 47 access to the training material. You're going to get a guiding workbook to help you through the process. You're going to get 20 47 training support. It's a wonderful, wonderful program to jumpstart your training, start to teach your dog how to make it easier for you in everyday life. 00;11;05;15 - 00;11;28;05Michael J. AccettaOkay, that's what that skills for. That's why it's called the daily life skills. It's the things that make it easier for you to enjoy life just on a natural level, not your going out crazy. You don't have to be going to the hiking or climbing a mountain or kayaking or anything like that. This is why I want to lay on the couch and watch TV and I don't want my dog to be all over the place and destroying stuff. 00;11;28;24 - 00;11;51;02Michael J. AccettaOkay, that's what this course is about. Matador canine dot com forward slash daily life skills, matador canine dot.com warrior slash daily life skills. That's the difference between today and not saying stay do you want an automatic behavior? Where do you want to manual behavior? Do you want to have to initiate it by saying the word stay? Or do you want it to automatically be there? 00;11;51;20 - 00;12;07;08Michael J. AccettaIf you don't want to have to say it, you can teach it. Many people think you have to have the word stay involved. Your dog has to hear the word stay for them to stay. That's not true. It becomes true after a very long amount of training that way. Thank you guys for listening to the Acknowledged Dogs podcast. 00;12;07;11 - 00;12;27;00Michael J. AccettaIf you missed our live, you can catch it on Tick Tock. Just follow us on Social Media and you'll get notified when we go live right now to open it up. Questions Q&A for my live members here. I mean, you're listening to this after the fact and you'd like to ask questions, make sure you message me with the question so I can talk about it on the next episode of the Acknowledge Dogs podcast. 00;12;27;00 - 00;12;27;21Michael J. AccettaThanks for listening. 00;12;31;08 - 00;12;38;25Michael J. AccettaThank you for listening to the Acknowledged Dogs podcast. Subscribe to this podcast. Leave a review and connect with me on your favorite social media platform. 00;12;41;29 - 00;12;42;10Michael J. AccettaSo

In today's episode of the Acknowledged Dogs podcast, we're exploring the concept of reward placement and how it can affect your dog's training. Reward placement refers to the location in which a reward is given during a training session. When used correctly, reward placement can accelerate your dog's learning and improve its behavior. However, if used incorrectly, it can lead to disobedience and further problems. Train with me by heading over to https://www.matadork9.com/coaching Episode Transcript 00:00:00:02 - 00:00:21:07Michael J. AccettaTo the Acknowledged Dogs podcast. Today's episode is all about exploring the concepts of reward placement. What is reward placement? How does it affect our dogs? Learning, how does it affect our dogs training and how if we use it effectively, we can accelerate everything that our dog is trying to learn everything. We're trying to teach them the skills that they need to know to adapt to everyday life. 00:00:21:12 - 00:00:42:02Michael J. AccettaOr if you're trying to do competition to try to fix problem behaviors. Reward placement is huge. When working with your dog and trying to do anything of value. We're also going to talk to the concept of why reward placement could have negative effects, how it could create disobedience, it could create more problems than good if we do it incorrectly. 00:00:42:11 - 00:00:57:13Michael J. AccettaOkay, we're going to go over the science of reward places. We're going to go over positive reinforcement and how it influences your dog. We're going to talk about some of the common mistakes and the techniques that you're going to be able to use right after listening to this episode with your own dog and accelerating your training. So let's jump into it first. 00:00:57:19 - 00:01:21:29Michael J. AccettaWhat is reward placements? To understand reward placements, you have to understand what's called the reward event. Whenever you give your dog a treat, whenever you give them a toy, whenever you give them praise the big picture is what's called a reward event. Now, professionals will use a reward event in different locations to prompt their dog to do something different in the next repetition. 00:01:22:13 - 00:01:43:01Michael J. AccettaFor example, if I want my dog a little forward and whatever behavior I'm trying to do, I might reward them in front of them. If I want them to back up, I will reward them behind. The best example I can give to this is if you're having your dog recall to you. Of course, if your dog's running directly at you, you would not toss a toy behind them, right? 00:01:43:02 - 00:01:57:09Michael J. AccettaThat might seem normal when my dog's running to me. Maybe I want to reward them with a toy, so I'm going to toss the toy behind them and they're going to chase after the toy and then they're going to come back. What actually happens more often than not is instead of our dog running all the way to us, they'll stop further and further away. 00:01:57:22 - 00:02:16:28Michael J. AccettaEvery single repetition, they are rewarded further and further away from us. They're going to stop further and further away. Instead of coming all the way to us, they're like, Oh, well, you're going to toss it behind me. I might as well back up. I might as well get ready for it. That is reward placement. The reward event is happening further away from you, and so they are actively looking to go further away from you. 00:02:16:28 - 00:02:33:21Michael J. AccettaProfessionals know this, and instead they'll toss the toy behind them, their dogs running directly to them. If you can get your dog to run between your legs, that's fantastic. Your dog's running to you, toss the toy behind you. They'll run straight through your legs. They get the toy, you turn around, you recall them again, they run back to you. 00:02:33:26 - 00:02:51:09Michael J. AccettaYou tell them to drop the toy. They drop the toy. You throw a second toy. Behind you. You're teaching them to run through you in order to get the toy order to get the reward. The reward event is happening behind you, which means we're motivating them to push through us. That's just one technique we're going to go over a couple later on. 00:02:52:00 - 00:03:08:02Michael J. AccettaBut I want you to understand that the reward placement can be very, very useful. When you use it correctly. If you use it incorrectly, if you toss the toy behind them, then we're creating problems, right? We're creating disobedience. I call I recalled them. I want them to come all the way to me. And instead they want to go that way. 00:03:09:26 - 00:03:32:14Michael J. AccettaNow, the science behind this is that dogs are very simply opportunists. They're opportunists. They are looking for the opportunity for and worse, reinforce That is why positive reinforcement works so well. Our dogs are actively seeking reinforcement. They want to find the thing that's going to bring them joy, give them extra value and get this dopamine hit in their brain. 00:03:32:14 - 00:03:50:23Michael J. AccettaWhen they solve problems, they get a dopamine spike, the chemical dopamine, which is good feelings and elation. They get that in their brain and they want to do it again. The more they do it, the more dopamine they get, the more they want to do it. This is the power of positive reinforcement. All right. If you've trained your dog for any length of time using treats or toys, or praise, then you know this. 00:03:51:02 - 00:04:09:06Michael J. AccettaOnce you pull out the toy, once you pull out the treat bag, they get excited. They want to do stuff with you. So when they're looking for that opportunity, they're engaged with you. They're trying to get the reinforcement. If we give them the opportunity to go to a specific spot to do it, they will beat us there. They will run straight there. 00:04:09:06 - 00:04:24:09Michael J. AccettaThat's why dogs run to the back door when you grab the leash. They know outside is exciting and the reward placement is outside. So they're going to be opportunist. They're going to get ahead they're going to cheat the system and they're going to get to the back door. So that won't put the leash on where that much closer to going outside. 00:04:25:20 - 00:04:43:14Michael J. AccettaImagine you put the leash on at the front door and then took them out the back door. Where would they go? They're probably going to go to the back door. That was a trick question. You might say, Oh, well, they'll go to the front door. No, because the reward placement is at the back door. It doesn't matter what happens before the reward placement. 00:04:43:14 - 00:05:03:17Michael J. AccettaWhat happens is where is the reward placement? Now, this is very commonly used in heal or competition work. We want our dog to be further behind us. Right. If they're glued to our leg and they're forging forward a little bit, maybe you want them to back up. You're going to reward behind them so that they back up. They're intentionally holding themselves back instead of coming forward. 00:05:03:22 - 00:05:20:29Michael J. AccettaIf we want them to come forward a little bit, we can reward them in front. Now, there is some complication to this. Okay. Now that you understand the science, let's talk about technique. Technique where we place the treat or where we place the toy or where we place the praise. Can be manipulated by using one of two things? 00:05:21:00 - 00:05:41:00Michael J. AccettaNumber one, a conditioned reinforcer, the clicker, right? I use the clicker in the moment where my dog is in the perfect position that I want them. Then the reward event can happen anywhere. Okay. So so if I'm doing a recall, like the example from before, I recall my dog all the way to me, they sit in front of me, I click the treat can go anywhere, the toy can go anywhere, I can toss it behind them. 00:05:41:14 - 00:06:13:14Michael J. AccettaBecause they finish the behavior. The conditioned reinforcer that click or the word yes indicates to my dog that it is over. We are done over with. Okay? The behavior is completely done. You've earned your reinforcement. Wherever that reinforcement goes is totally fine. However, you can use reinforcement placement to encourage them to do the next repetition. For example, if I want my dog to look at me, right, I'm practicing having them give me eye contact instead of giving them a treat directly in their mouth while they're already looking at me, I might toss the treat over there. 00:06:13:24 - 00:06:29:20Michael J. AccettaIt gets them to turn away from me so that I can have them practice turning back towards me. As they turn back towards me, I mark and toss another tree. They're going back and forth. I'm setting them up for the next repetition. If I don't set them up, then we're in this weird loop. I do this with obedience constantly. 00:06:29:27 - 00:06:46:20Michael J. AccettaMy dog puts their butt down in a sit. I will click, run backwards and give them a treat for standing up. Does this encourage them to stand after I click? Yes. And that's okay because the click indicates that the behavior is done. It doesn't mean that all of our training is done, but it does mean that the set is done right. 00:06:46:20 - 00:07:06:16Michael J. AccettaI said, Sit my dog, but there, sit down. I could say Good boy, I could keep them going, right? I could release them with the release word. Okay, free. Or I could click. And when they click, they're allowed to stand up and get their treat. I'm essentially teaching them to break the command by a terminal markers, what it's called a conditioned reinforcer that ends the behavior is called a terminal marker. 00:07:07:05 - 00:07:21:04Michael J. AccettaSo once I get them up good, I give him a treat. Now I can ask them to sit again because they're standing. Same thing with doubt. Same thing with standing, actually. Right. So they're standing. If I tell them to stand, I might push them back into a sit with a treat. Or I might ask them for a sit and then have them stand. 00:07:21:11 - 00:07:37:15Michael J. AccettaYou have that flexibility when you understand these concepts and these principles and you can put them in to where you need them. Okay. Now, the other way, right? I mentioned there was two there's kind of two ways to do this. The other way is to add words for all of the different reward placements that you're going to use. 00:07:38:11 - 00:07:55:22Michael J. AccettaWhat do I mean by that? First, there's indirect, indirect rewarding. Some people call this the pre-match theory. I call it indirect, indirect rewarding. If I'm going to directly give my dog a treat, I'm going to take it from my hand and put it in their mouth. That is direct if I'm going to send them to go do something that is indirect. 00:07:56:06 - 00:08:18:26Michael J. AccettaSo instead of giving them the treat, I'm sending them to a bowl of food or I'm tossing a toy and having them go get that's indirect, rewarding. They go, they get it, they come back all great. Right? So first you need to determine that. And what I can do is I can have a clicker for direct rewarding. I click, they come directly to my center and I give them a treat and I can say, go and they'll run off and I can toss the toy. 00:08:18:26 - 00:08:46:18Michael J. AccettaThat would be an indirect conditioned reinforcer. What they've learned is that word go means run off until you find the thing that I sent you to go get. But it's not a command, it's not a cue. It's not telling them to do something. It's relieving them from what they've done by indicating what they just did. Earned them reinforcement go because they sat patiently means now you can go and get a toy or go eat the food in the bowl. 00:08:47:18 - 00:09:02:13Michael J. AccettaNow, there's even another level to this, an advanced level to this. If let's say we have heel is the best way to describe it because of all the different complexities in that one moment. So if we have our dog heel right next to us, they're glued to our side. They're following along with the theme of our pants, right? 00:09:03:10 - 00:09:20:28Michael J. AccettaAnd they're looking up at us. I can do a couple of things. And again, we're going to pick different conditioned reinforcers, these different sounds that mean different things. And you'd have to find that out for yourself. But if I had my dog in a heel I might put a toy right on my shoulder so that they're looking up at my face. 00:09:20:28 - 00:09:35:29Michael J. AccettaNow, I don't like this too much simply because they're looking at the toy, not my face. And that's a clear indication, right? If I were to hold the toy away from me, they're probably going to still look at the toy. If I can teach that separately, then fantastic. I can have them look into my eyes. But let's say I put the toy maybe in my armpit or on my shoulder. 00:09:36:18 - 00:09:56:27Michael J. AccettaThey make magnetic toys that fit with vests. So you can do this. And when they are looking at me, I can flick it off my shoulder or I can have my dog jump up and get it. Now I'm going to need a conditioned reinforcer that's clear to do that as opposed to have my dog go behind me. And I'm going to toss a toy off to the side away from me. 00:09:57:19 - 00:10:31:22Michael J. AccettaThat way they're learning to be closer and closer to me again. Reinforcement placement teachers. Our dog to go forward in a position or retreat in a position to get closer to where the reward placement is. So if I if I have my dog on my left side and I want them to hug on to me and be closer to my right side, I will toss the toy or the tree onto my right side, which means they're going to be pushing into me in the hopes that I will let them slip behind my leg or slip in front of me and go get the toy over there if they're on my left and they're really pushing into 00:10:31:22 - 00:10:46:23Michael J. Accettame and I need them to relax a little bit, but I still want them right next to me. I might reward them right next to me, or I might toss the toy to the left. So they're going to peel off to the left and go get it. I can also have them peel off to the left and go behind me, peel off to the left and go forward, peel off to the right and go behind me. 00:10:46:23 - 00:11:03:14Michael J. AccettaPeel off to the right and go forward right. I have all these different directions that I could have my dog go into and when we really get into the nitty gritty of competition or training and that kind of thing, you want to have conditioned reinforcers for all of these different aspects. You want them to go on from the left leg. 00:11:03:14 - 00:11:21:29Michael J. AccettaYou want them to spin in a circle and go behind you. You want them to spin in the circle and then go forward, right? Because maybe you want them to learn how to tuck there, but more behind you, they're flailing out with their butt, meaning instead of being parallel to you, they're flailing out. Their hind legs are further away from you than their four limbs. 00:11:22:05 - 00:11:47:25Michael J. AccettaRight? So instead of having that happen, I'm going to teach them to turn to the left that tucks their button. So why? Why would I then use a conditional reinforcer instead of just using a lure or using a toy and just tossing it in a random direction? This is why it creates clarity with your dog. The clearer training will be, the faster your dog will learn. 00:11:48:23 - 00:12:07:23Michael J. AccettaIt's just like in school, right? If you remember back to grade school or high school or even college, when you went to a class, the outline was laid out for you was clear what you were going to learn. It was clear what the topic was. That way your brain was in the right mindset to learn that information. If you went into English class and started talking about math, you'd make no sense. 00:12:08:04 - 00:12:33:27Michael J. AccettaAnd that's why a lot of people struggled with science because we're talking about science and we start tossing in math. Yes, they go together. They absolutely go together. But you're prepped for science. Lengthy text, difficult words like proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation, right? Those difficult words your brain is prepared for, not numbers. Once you start throwing numbers in there or algebra a lot of people hate algebra because there's letters in there. 00:12:34:15 - 00:13:04:18Michael J. AccettaWhy are there letters in there? I'm talking about math right now. On a rudimentary level, we all understand math is math, science or science. And they co-mingle together because they have to. But it's much easier for you to digest new information when you understand the rules and the outline of the information of the context. So when I use a condition reinforcer and I tell my dog spin right there in the heel position, I say spin and I want them to spin off to the right and maybe twirl a spin off to the left. 00:13:04:28 - 00:13:24:04Michael J. AccettaI say spin. They are already looking to where the reward is. They know what to expect but it is clear to them what they should be doing. Okay. If I were to say spin and I tossed the toy in front of us and spin meant turn around and go behind me, now he's going to be lost, it disrupts the flow of training. 00:13:24:16 - 00:13:43:20Michael J. AccettaIt makes him second guess what he's doing and he doesn't become as enthusiastic or creative in the process. Because he's constantly worried about what's happening next. All right. If we look at the back training principle, essentially my dog should always know what's coming next. What my dog knows least comes first. For example, the word right. My dog needs to know the behavior first. 00:13:43:20 - 00:13:59:26Michael J. AccettaThey need to know that we reinforcements are available actually first, right? First they need to know reinforcements. Are available. Then they need to know what a to reinforcer is. The clicker means. Yes, you've got a treat. Then my dog needs to know what behavior to do. And then they need to know when to do it, when not to do it. 00:13:59:26 - 00:14:25:00Michael J. AccettaThat's the word when you say sit. Everything I just mentioned happens afterwards. Sit. My dog does the behavior. They hear the conditioned reinforcer, and then they get the treat. They have to know the treat, then the condition reinforcer, then the behavior and then the word. That's how the process should go. And so at the end of day, if you're struggling with your dog's behavior, break it down like that and make it clear for them on what they should be doing and what they shouldn't be doing. 00:14:26:10 - 00:14:45:16Michael J. AccettaOkay, we got a lot there's a lot to digest. There are a lot to unpack. Now, I want to talk about the common mistakes that people make when they have a plan to start implementing reinforce ment policeman. Right. This is a very deep concept. It goes very, very deep down the rabbit hole of training and theory and techniques and all of that. 00:14:45:16 - 00:15:05:11Michael J. AccettaYou really have to know what you're doing to implement it correctly. Now, the common mistakes kind of go like this. Number one, you either don't know what you're doing and you're just kind of messing with it. Number two, you don't spend enough time conditioning the reinforcement appropriately, right? You have to teach your dog what you want them to do first. 00:15:06:07 - 00:15:27:22Michael J. AccettaNumber three, you're overcomplicating it. Or number four, you're setting them up for failing by testing them. Okay, you're testing them so let's do it like this first one. You just don't know how to do it. It's over. Complicated. Right it out. I want you to write it out. Write everything out. Get everything that's in your brain out on paper first. 00:15:28:14 - 00:15:47:29Michael J. AccettaWrite down what you want to see. Right. I want my dog to down ten feet away from me. Okay. That's what we want to see. I want my dog to down ten feet away from me. Well, where could I reward them? I could reward them where they stopped. I could reward them behind them. Or I could reward them for in front of me, which would be more likely to improve the performance of the behavior. 00:15:49:06 - 00:16:07:05Michael J. AccettaNow, if you're writing this down, fantastic. Because these are the questions that are going to be perfect. If you're struggling with this, what do I want? My dog to do? List out where you could reward them and then pick which one is going to be more likely to improve the quality of the behavior. I want my dog to stop at ten feet and they're stopping at six feet. 00:16:07:13 - 00:16:23:10Michael J. AccettaAnd this, of course, I'm talking about a recall down halfway there, 100 feet or 50 feet away. You recall them and you want them to stop ten feet in front of you. When you say the word down. So when they're running, I say the word down. I want them to drop immediately. Do I reward behind them? Do I reward them where they are? 00:16:23:10 - 00:16:43:11Michael J. AccettaDo I reward them in front of me? It depends. If they are closer than ten feet, I'm going to reward them behind them because it's going to improve the likelihood that they stopped sooner or maybe they slowed down their run to listen better. That's oftentimes what happens if they're right on the money, they're right at ten feet. I might reward them in their spot. 00:16:43:11 - 00:16:58:29Michael J. AccettaOr maybe I might reward them behind if I want to ensure that they slow down, maybe I reward in front because I want them to speed up, but continue to stop at that same spot. If they're 20 feet when they're supposed to be ten feet, then I definitely want to reward them in front of them so that they come forward more. 00:16:59:25 - 00:17:19:21Michael J. AccettaOkay. This is the kind of difference. So right out your training plan, right out what you want to see right out where you could reward them in the different spaces. You could reward them and then ask yourself what will be more likely to increase the likelihood that this happens. Okay, now overcomplicating it, overcomplicating it, it does not need to be difficult. 00:17:19:24 - 00:17:36:17Michael J. AccettaYou do not need to have 15 different conditioned reinforcers, like with heel, with advanced competitions. They got behind them, they got to the right, they got to the left, they got in front of them, they got jumping up and getting a train over here. They got jumping up and getting a toy over their right on different shoulders and different armpits. 00:17:36:17 - 00:17:55:05Michael J. AccettaThey got the toy in between their legs. They got the doing the, the toy in their pocket like all these crazy stuff. You don't need to have 15 different conditioned reinforcers. If anything, you really only need three. Okay, here are the three conditioned reinforcers that you need to have with your dog. Number one, a terminal marker. What you just did is over. 00:17:55:11 - 00:18:14:23Michael J. AccettaYou can now have the reward. The second one is what called Keep going signal. What you're doing is fantastic. I want you to continue doing it until I give you the terminal marker. Fantastic. And the last one you need is an indirect reward. So instead of directly rewarding your dog, you need to have something that tells them they're allowed to go do something or get something. 00:18:15:03 - 00:18:32:12Michael J. AccettaThey're allowed to go say hi to somebody. They're allowed to go take food off the counter. They're allowed to go eat the food on the floor that your three year old son dropped for my dogs. It's okay. Clean up, right? That tells them that there are it's a terminal marker. They stop doing the behavior, which is relaxing and waiting. 00:18:32:22 - 00:18:52:13Michael J. AccettaAnd then I say, go clean up. And that is their condition to reinforce. I say the exact same way every time. Go clean up. And now they're allowed to go and take the food off the floor that my son dropped. Those are the three that you need. Terminal marker keep going signal and an indirect reward marker. Essentially, go and get the thing that you want that is as overly complicated as you need. 00:18:53:00 - 00:19:12:22Michael J. AccettaYou could just do two. I would pick either the direct reward or the indirect reward, right? I would eliminate the keep going signal because that's really just to motivate your dog to continue doing what they're doing, but they should do it anyway based off the training that you're doing. Okay. But bare minimum would be one bare minimum. You need a conditioned reinforcer. 00:19:12:23 - 00:19:34:14Michael J. AccettaThat's the only way you're going to be able to select. What your dog did in that moment is what's deserving of the treat or the reward. Okay. Now, not teaching at first is a big mistake. Number three, if I want my dog to go get food off the floor, I cannot ask them to do a whole obedience routine and then send them confused as all hell to go get a treat off the floor. 00:19:34:14 - 00:19:47:12Michael J. AccettaYou're going to be like, Okay, what? What? They're going to come up to me expecting a treat and I'm not going to have one again. This goes back to before it's going to create a level of or a lack of clarity. But and we were confused. I thought I was getting a treat. Why didn't I get a treat now? 00:19:47:12 - 00:20:09:01Michael J. AccettaIt's dishonest, and we're getting into all this chaos. Instead, I have to teach them first the treat over there, you're allowed to go get this automatically happens if we're doing an A, leave it right. My dog sits in wait patiently. I tell them to go get it. Now they can go get the treat. Once you implement that and you start to pepper it into all your other training, it becomes very clear to your dog, Okay, go get it means go get the treat that's over there. 00:20:09:01 - 00:20:24:18Michael J. AccettaThat's super simple. But let's say you're teaching something different I want my dog to go from a down position, get up and turn around to get a treat or a toy. I have to teach that first. How might I do that? I might have my dog down next to me, I was facing the same direction. Show them the toy. 00:20:24:19 - 00:20:39:20Michael J. AccettaTell them to go get it and toss it away from them. That way they can clearly see where it should be going. Or maybe I break the behavior down so that instead of rewarding behind them, I rewarded a 90 degree angle to them, a perpendicular line to them so they can see it out of their peripheral. And then they go and get it. 00:20:39:20 - 00:20:54:23Michael J. AccettaAnd then I slowly work that back and back and back. Depends on how you want to do it. Depends on your dog's level of skill, your level of skill, and the amount of patience that you might have or what you're already used to. I personally would break it down unless I'm talking about a leave it, which I've already done right. 00:20:55:21 - 00:21:10:22Michael J. AccettaYou have to teach at first. You want your dog to spin off to the side and go get something. Then you have to teach them first to spin. Right? And this is where the fancy lowering comes from. When someone has a lot of treats in their hand and they're getting their dog to spin in a circle to the right, spin to the left, they're trying to put them in the right position and rewarding them accordingly. 00:21:11:12 - 00:21:34:22Michael J. AccettaBut in actuality, they're also teaching them a spin so they could just remove the treat, tell them a different condition to reinforce or have them spin in that direction. Mark and treat. And then they wouldn't need to mark a second time. Right? So that conditioned reinforcer leads to the other conditioned reinforcement. I'm getting confusing here. The condition reinforcement that tells them to spin, meaning what you did, where you were, is exactly where I want you to be. 00:21:34:25 - 00:21:54:26Michael J. AccettaYou're now done. You can go do something else that would then be followed by a click and treat because they're accustomed to the click and they know what they did was right. Again, we're teaching behaviors intentionally used to reward our dog accordingly. It's a very deep concept. Very deep concept. I don't want you to get muddled up in the mechanics of it. 00:21:54:26 - 00:22:11:19Michael J. AccettaUnderstand the principles. The mechanics will come a lot easier. And then the last one is setting your dog up to fail. And this is what I call testing. There's three levels to teaching your dog anything teaching, training and testing. A lot of people spend more time in the testing area than they do in the training or the teaching area. 00:22:12:17 - 00:22:31:26Michael J. AccettaOkay. Testing should probably be 20 to 10% of all of the training and work that you do with your dog. Essentially, when you're doing something with them and you go, I don't know if they can do it, let's find out. That's a test. You are testing them to see if they can do it and you end up setting them up for failure because they don't know what your expectation is. 00:22:31:26 - 00:22:44:23Michael J. AccettaThey don't know how to do it. And you're you're you're just struggling at that point. This is what I unfortunately did when I started working in college. When I started working with dogs in college, we everybody was so excited about working with dogs were like, Okay, well, I wonder if this dog could do this. And we tested it out. 00:22:44:23 - 00:23:14:03Michael J. AccettaThe dog failed. We were like, Oh, okay, well, you know, let's move on to the next thing instead of learning how to do it. And my professors pointed it out. They said, You're not teaching these dogs. You're expecting them to do things that they cannot do, teach them. And then let's talk about it afterwards. And we were all given the assignment, whatever it was, that we had our dogs testing, jumping over something or whatever, it's like, Okay, break it down, split the behavior back, change it condition reinforce or positive reinforcement reward schedules, all the good stuff I always talk about and those doctor able to do it much easier, much more competently and with a certain 00:23:14:03 - 00:23:33:15Michael J. Accettalevel of confidence that made it look easy, right? It wasn't easy before because they were struggling, because we were testing that, we were pushing the limits of what they could not do, did not know how to do and wouldn't do in a natural situation. And so if you're having your dog heel next to you or you're having your dog recalled to you and you're just you decide to do something that they've never done before, they're going to be confused. 00:23:34:16 - 00:23:57:19Michael J. AccettaAnd again, lack of clarity leads to a lack of effectiveness in training, too. Simple as that. Lack of clarity leads to a lack of effectiveness and training. This episode was jam packed. A lot of information here. So I want to go over a little bit just as a summary so you can start to understand everything we talked about and make sure you look up the information if you don't have it. 00:23:57:25 - 00:24:27:09Michael J. AccettaOr maybe you write down questions after I've saying what I'm saying and you go listen to the Acknowledged Logs podcast again. Okay, so what is reward placement? The effectiveness of rewarding our dog in a particular area with the reward event, whether it be a toy treat or praise to encourage the likelihood of that level of performance in a particular area, whether forging ahead, moving back off to the side, closer or further away, we're controlling how our dog performs the behavior by rewarding them in a particular location. 00:24:28:13 - 00:24:46:22Michael J. AccettaThis works because our dogs are opportunists. They are looking for the advantage. They want to be closer to the reward of when they don't want to wait. They are cheaters like dogs are cheaters. They want to find the best way to do something, the most effective way to do something. And if they are eager for reinforcement it, they will do this ten times better. 00:24:46:26 - 00:25:05:19Michael J. AccettaWorking dogs are amazing at this. That's why they have behavior problems like going through trash or ripping someone's pants off. I knew a dog that did this didn't get the reward fast enough, the ball. And so it ripped the guy's cargo shorts off to get the ball. They were not waiting. They are opportunist. They want what they want and they will go get it one way or another. 00:25:06:07 - 00:25:32:18Michael J. AccettaOkay. Now science behind it. The dopamine in the brain tells them to do this. It's so it's such a such it's such a powerful chemical in the brain for people. It's a powerful chemical. That's why TikTok is so addictive. That's why social media was addictive or is addictive. Still right. And when the next thing comes along and gives us more dopamine faster at a higher rate of reinforcement, talk about higher rates of reinforcement all the time. 00:25:33:07 - 00:25:55:24Michael J. AccettaTick tock gave us a dump of dopamine at a high rate of reinforcement. So much so that Instagram is kind of far to the side. Facebook is far to the side, unless you're not on TikTok. But if you're on TikTok, then this is what's influencing a lot of people's emotions and struggles right now, because they're getting such a overload of dopamine and a dump at one point that once they're off, tick tock, there's no more dopamine. 00:25:55:25 - 00:26:12:27Michael J. AccettaThey don't know what to do. And so when the dogs are looking for dopamine, once they get it, they feel great. They want to do it again. Okay. Don't create a dog that's addicted to tick tock in that way or dopamine. And that way it's bad for people, it's bad for dogs. It should be regulated. But the best type of dopamine is those that solve problems. 00:26:12:27 - 00:26:29:21Michael J. AccettaWhen we solve problems, we get a hit of dopamine that makes us feel better, makes our dogs know better, more creative, more excited, more engaging in the techniques you can use. We got to use indirect rewards. We got to use direct rewards. We have to challenge our dogs, but also create a lot of clarity for them. Teach them what you want them to know. 00:26:30:08 - 00:26:51:29Michael J. AccettaDon't overcomplicate it. Make it as simple as possible for them. Do not set them up for success by testing them and spend time really learning and understanding how to do it right. Everything down. Make it really easy for yourself. It doesn't need to be complicated again, those three basic ones that you should implement a terminal marker, meaning it's over, it's done with it. 00:26:51:29 - 00:27:17:19Michael J. AccettaKeep going. Signal mean, continue doing what you're doing. It's fantastic. I love it. And then an indirect reward. Go forth and go get the item Thank you guys for listening to the acknowledged podcast. If you have questions, please let me know either on social media or leave a review on the Acknowledge Dogs podcast. Thanks for listening. If you're interested in training with me, head over to Matador Canine dot com forward slash coaching Matador Canine dot com forward slash coaching. 00:27:17:19 - 00:27:34:14Michael J. AccettaI have one on one private virtual training. It's the most effective training in the world. You're going to get not only one on one instruction through Zoom lessons, you're also going to get the complete video library, audio library and workbooks to supplement all the training that we're doing as well as 24 sevenths support and mobile access on your phone to the courses. 00:27:34:14 - 00:27:51:17Michael J. AccettaIt's an absolute onslaught of information and content to help keep you successful and reliable in your dog's training. So that the next 15 years of your dog's life is effortless. Thank you guys for listening. I'm going to open up the live for questions if you have any, and if you haven't tuned into our live events, you're listening to this after the fact. 00:27:51:25 - 00:28:10:16Michael J. AccettaMake sure you check it out. We go live almost every single day at noon around time. Follow us on social media so you can get the notifications when we do go live. I'll see you then. All right. Open it up here. What do we got? Questions, comments, concerns. What did you like about the episode? If you were here for the whole time, What did you miss? 00:28:10:16 - 00:28:18:13Michael J. AccettaWhat would you like me to go back over? What problems are you struggling with? Your dog? What's going on? Dogs Anonymous. 00:28:20:15 - 00:28:46:05Michael J. AccettaYes, I'm recording a podcast. The Acknowledged Dogs podcast. The best podcast. People just don't know it yet. It's the best one out there. We have over 160 episodes of the Acknowledged Dogs podcast, which is an absolutely absurd amount. Not a single dog training podcast that I have found has that many episodes. I'm proud of it. If you haven't checked it out, Apple, iTunes or Apple Podcasts, I think it's called the Apple App. 00:28:46:05 - 00:29:11:19Michael J. AccettaApple Podcasts. I always say iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. Now that just happened last week. Amazon Music now it is now available because if there's no other questions, no worries. I know it's been a lot, so take all that information in, absorb it, use it to ask questions. Either in the comments section of my videos, or you can send me a message. 00:29:11:19 - 00:29:21:09Michael J. AccettaIf you're like, I don't understand what this guy was talking about, I'd love to answer them. I'd love to make more videos about reward placements because it is such an in-depth topic. Thank you guys for listening and I'll talk to you next time.

Whether you have a puppy, are getting one, or adding a member to the family you will want to listen to today's episode. It is important to do these three fundamental steps in order to ensure you have the best companion for the next fifteen years. If you have a younger dog, the information will still help you learn why your dog might be the way that they are and what you need to do in order to jumpstart your training and gain some momentum. To build your dog's confidence check out this free e-book on Building Confidence https://www.matadork9.com/confidence Want to work with me? My private training gives you everything you need to succeed and more!! Schedule a call with me here https://www.matadork9.com/coaching Episode Transcript: 00:00:18:07 - 00:00:34:14Michael J. AccettaYou just got a puppy or you're getting a puppy and you want to know, how do I socialize my dog? How do I build their confidence in one of the first three things I need to be able to teach my dog first to really have a good, long lasting relationship for the next 15 years. Then this is the episode for you. 00:00:34:14 - 00:01:01:07Michael J. AccettaStay tuned on this. All right. So first the socialization period. You just got your puppy. Now they're not allowed to leave their mom until after eight weeks. You are already most of the way through a socialization period. What does that mean? When your dog is born, their brain starts to develop a lot faster than an adult dogwood. And so they're taking in all of this information what essentially happens is between three to 12 weeks of age. 00:01:01:07 - 00:01:27:02Michael J. AccettaAnd that does depend based on the breed and the size of the dog between three to 12 weeks of age. They take in everything that they need to know is normal. That's the key phrase that I want you to take away from this. They need to know that is normal. Now, if a dog grows up on a farm and they're never exposed to busses or trains or subway stations, they have never been on a plane, that's what they think is normal. 00:01:27:10 - 00:01:44:10Michael J. AccettaSo if you were to remove a dog and teleport them from a farm into the city, they would freak out. Vice versa. If you got a dog that grows up in the city and you take them to the farm, they might seem actually stressed because there isn't a lot of interactions. There isn't a lot of noise going on all the time. 00:01:45:06 - 00:02:03:14Michael J. AccettaSo whatever your dog needs to know is normal should be exposed to them between three to 12 weeks of age. Now, again, if you're getting a puppy or you got a puppy and they're eight weeks old, you only have a couple of weeks to do this. So before you get the puppy or right now write down everything your dog needs to know is normal. 00:02:03:14 - 00:02:16:14Michael J. AccettaDo they need to know how to get into the car? Do they need to know how to be picked up and handled, manipulated, put into the trunk of the car? If you're going to have a, you know, a big car with a crate? Maybe they need to be able to go into the trunk. Maybe you want them to sit in the front with you. 00:02:17:11 - 00:02:33:07Michael J. AccettaOkay. I don't do that because I think it's a little dangerous, but many people do it. And if you do that, then you need to teach your dog that sitting in the front is normal. You need to teach your dog around kids, socialize them to kids, socialism to other dogs, socialize them to the family members in your house. 00:02:33:07 - 00:03:00:11Michael J. AccettaThose things need to become normal. If you are going to be someone who grooms your own dog, then you're going to want to teach your dog that all of the equipment in grooming is normal. The Clippers the brush, the shampoos, the scrubbers, everything, towels, even different textures, all of the things that you are going to use in your daily life and maybe even above that should be exposed to your dog. 00:03:01:08 - 00:03:20:00Michael J. AccettaOkay, three to 12 weeks, you get your dog at eight weeks. You only got four weeks to do that. You got a month to do this. Now there is something to be said about doing too much. If we overexpose our dogs to these things that we want to socialize them to, what can end up happening is actually stressing them out more. 00:03:20:01 - 00:03:38:08Michael J. AccettaYou've overexposed them and they become afraid of it. So throughout the entire training process, the socialization process, the exposure to these new things, you don't want to be pushing them to the point where they're freaking out or panicking or and this is the old method, what's called flooding you're forcing them to get over it. You got to you got to know how to do this for the rest of your life. 00:03:38:10 - 00:03:56:12Michael J. AccettaI don't care how you feel. I'm going to put you in this situation. You're going to get over it eventually. This is not the way to go. About it. This is what I first did with my first dog, Breezy, plus her soul. I was learning so much back then, and now the experience I have with my other two dogs have been 100 times better simply because I learn from Breezy. 00:03:56:12 - 00:04:14:02Michael J. AccettaSo I thank her for being a guinea pig in the beginning. I had done flooding to teach her how to go to the baths now I was very patient. I wasn't going to throw her in there, but it took about three to 5 hours. I don't remember exactly three or 5 hours where we just sat in the tub together. And we did nothing. 00:04:14:05 - 00:04:31:00Michael J. AccettaShe was shaking. She was shivering. She was terrified, and I hated doing it. But that's what I thought was the best method. That's what I thought was going to work. Of course, now I know different. Slow exposure, increasing the level of difficulty over time, building up their confidence, playing games with them. I didn't know that at the time. 00:04:31:00 - 00:04:48:00Michael J. AccettaAnd so I just brought her into the tub with me. 3 hours later, she finally felt relaxed and I took her out of the tub. That happened day after day after day. She still doesn't like the tub, but she tolerates it. That's the difference. You get a dog that tolerates what we asked him to do, but doesn't particularly enjoy it. 00:04:49:02 - 00:05:05:08Michael J. AccettaSo when I got my next dog, I went really slow. I expose them to the bath, calmly getting into the water. Out of the water. Into the water. Out of the water. Sure. I did a lot of things that didn't actually require taking the full bath. Right. We just went into the bathroom and then we left the bathroom. 00:05:05:13 - 00:05:19:14Michael J. AccettaI jumped into the tub with them. They jumped out of the tub. That was it for the day. Right. Like those tiny little steps every single day made it so much easier for me to be able to give my dog a 20 minute bath in comparison to a three hour long bath with my first dog. A 20 minute bath. 00:05:19:14 - 00:05:42:14Michael J. AccettaIs it astronomical difference? And that's what can happen when you take the time to expose them correctly. Okay, so you got your dog at eight weeks, maybe they're nine weeks, maybe they're ten weeks, maybe they're 11 weeks. You only got one week left. What should you start doing? Make a list of three important things that you should be doing Car outside and people. 00:05:42:14 - 00:05:57:09Michael J. AccettaSounds and noises. Okay. Sounds and noises are kind of the same thing, but people and experiences out in the world. So first is the car if there's an emergency, you're going to have to get into the car. If you're going somewhere, you're going to have to get into the car. And if you have an expose them to the car already, this is the time to do it again. 00:05:57:09 - 00:06:14:06Michael J. AccettaYou want them to think that this is normal getting into the car is normal. You don't need to get sick. They don't need be panting. They don't need be freaking out. Again, my first dog, Breezy, she was found in the woods. I got her as a rescue. The only time she'd ever been in a car, to my knowledge, was on the van ride from Kentucky all the way to New York. 00:06:14:12 - 00:06:28:02Michael J. AccettaIt was a straight trip. So when I put her in the car for the first time, she was panicking. She's like, Oh, my God, I'm being taken away again. I'm going to be in this car for so long. That's not what happened. Over time, she started to get better at it, but she would pant, she would draw, she pace around. 00:06:28:04 - 00:06:40:14Michael J. AccettaShe couldn't get her footing was also for her. So when I got my next dog and then my third dog, that was something we were heavily, heavily focused on. They're going to get in the car, they're going to sit in the front to get used to it. They're going to sit in the back and get used to it. 00:06:40:14 - 00:06:59:05Michael J. AccettaThey're going to sit in kennels and get used to a different kennels, wire kennels and taxi crates, plastic and fabric kennels. Okay. I'm going to get them used to going on the hood, going under the car to get a ball. I'm going to get them used to the car. I'm thinking it's a great thing because I don't want them to be stressed the way my first dog was and then we also went on the train. 00:06:59:09 - 00:07:18:06Michael J. AccettaI went into the city with them. We went on the subway, went on the train. They have yet to be on a plane. One of them has, the other one has not. But we still went in the area where there were planes and they could hear it. They could see it. Maybe we didn't get to go on them, but they're used to the noises, and that knocks out two out of the three perceptive variables that our dogs have. 00:07:19:03 - 00:07:39:05Michael J. AccettaRight. Clearly touches different, but sight, sound and smell. So they're used to the sight, the sound and the smell. I'm sorry. They're used to all three. So they're used to the sight, sound and smell. Getting on it is just that much easier because they're used to it. Okay, now how do we build our dogs? Confidence let's say maybe you're past this point. 00:07:39:11 - 00:08:00:02Michael J. AccettaYou've got a couple of month old dog, and they're starting to either show some bad behaviors because they're afraid or they're just shutting down This often happens around the four to five month mark. It's called a fear period. Okay? When ends up happening is they've been over socialized, they're out in the world, and that's important for their biology so that they can learn about the environment. 00:08:00:14 - 00:08:21:13Michael J. AccettaWhat ends up happening is right after that, they go, Okay, now let's retreat. We figured out what was normal. We've explored now let's retreat to preserve our life, keep and keep ourselves alive, right? That's a biological necessity. And so they retreat in order to protect themselves, but often they can overdo it, especially if we then coddle them and say, Hey, it's okay, everything's fine now. 00:08:21:13 - 00:08:46:13Michael J. AccettaI don't want to necessarily push my dog and punish them for feeling that way, but I do want to express and bring out their confidence, and we can do that through reinforcement I want to take a moment and thank all of our loyal followers. This podcast would not be possible without you. Leave, review and let us know what you like and want to learn on the next episode of the Acknowledge Dogs podcast. 00:08:47:03 - 00:09:08:00Michael J. AccettaNow back to the show so what do I mean by that? Essentially, I'm going to put my dog in a situation that might be slightly stressful, and you'll have to gauge and it's slightly stressful I'm not going to throw him into a lake. I might just take them to the shore, especially if they're afraid of water. That's another thing. 00:09:08:03 - 00:09:35:01Michael J. AccettaIf you have a young puppy, you should take them to the lake, you should take them to water, get them used to swimming around it to do absolutely wonderful exercise, burns calories, keeps them healthy, low impact on the joints. As they get older, they won't be beating up their legs right in their hips. Wonderful, wonderful exercises. So as a puppy, you want to get them used to that it's going to prolong the legality of exercise and activities you guys get to do together and make it easier. 00:09:35:01 - 00:09:54:05Michael J. AccettaIf you ever had to do rehab at some point because they use water very often so you're not afraid of something. You want to break it up into manageable pieces, make it easy for them to build up their confidence. So I might go to the shore not to the point where they're backing away from the water, but instead just rewarding them around the shore. 00:09:54:05 - 00:10:09:09Michael J. AccettaMaybe we play the favorite game that they have tug, snatch, search, whatever it may be. I want to play and build up their confidence, making them think that the shore is the best place to be, and then we're going to slowly move into the water. I did this when I started teaching my dogs how to kayak with me. 00:10:10:05 - 00:10:25:00Michael J. AccettaI got into the kayak and they were going to go behind me. The kayak was big enough behind me, so I said, Okay, they're going to go behind you. They're going to sit behind me. First thing I did was get them used to going on to the kayak on dry land. Now I stabilized it. I held it so that they didn't wobble around because that would have thrown them off. 00:10:26:02 - 00:10:44:08Michael J. AccettaThey would have been more nervous about it. Now they're on balance equipment all the time, sit, pause and bosu balls and all that thing, so they know what it's like to balance and maneuver. But this was something new. So I wanted to make it easy for the I stabilize it, they get on awesome. We're good. Then I'd have them jump off prematurely before they got nervous. 00:10:44:14 - 00:11:01:02Michael J. AccettaI'd have them jump off, reward them with a treat or praise and get them back on over and over and over. We did that. I slowly brought the kayak into the water, had them do the exact same thing on the shore while half the kayak was in the water and then had them do it in the water on to the kayak. 00:11:01:02 - 00:11:19:06Michael J. AccettaThat was it. Just in case they fell off while we were kayaking, they could climb back up. See what I'm doing I'm breaking down every single aspect of it to build up their confidence, their competency, and their confidence in it. That way, they can be reliable. When I asked them to do something, they're not hesitating because of how nervous they are now. 00:11:19:06 - 00:11:43:00Michael J. AccettaI go in way more depth about building up confidence in this free resource that I want to give you. The link is in the bio. If you're watching this right now, but if you're listening to this after the fact, you can go to Matador Canine dot com forward slash confidence, matador canine dot com forward slash confidence. It's a free PDF on step by step on how to build your dog's confidence that they can enjoy the life that you want to provide for it. 00:11:43:13 - 00:12:04:08Michael J. AccettaNow, the last thing I want to talk about is the bond the fundamental building blocks on what you should be teaching your dog. First, you've got a puppy. You've socialized them to the environments, to people, to other dogs, to the car, to swimming. You've, you've socialized them with those things. Maybe you had to build up some of their confidence or maybe they didn't have that bad of a fear period. 00:12:04:10 - 00:12:22:00Michael J. AccettaFantastic. Now you can really get into the nitty gritty of training. Now, many people think, Okay, I'm going to jump right into obedience. I'm going to join an obedience class. I'm going to sit down, stay. He'll come. That is not the first thing you should be doing since you've already done a little bit of training with the socialization and the fear period. 00:12:22:11 - 00:12:42:05Michael J. AccettaThis first step should be relatively easy. You're just going to build engagement when you go outside. Your dog should only be thinking about you. This is going to help prevent reactivity when they bark at other people and dogs. Socialization will also help prevent reactivity. It's going to help make recall easier and all other behaviors easier. In any environment. 00:12:42:12 - 00:13:01:04Michael J. AccettaIf your dog is engaging with you, they're interacting with you. They're looking to be with you. It's easier to get their attention excuse me, easier to get their attention and ask them to do something. So I can say sit. If they're not looking at me, they're not paying attention. When I say sit, they're not going to do it simply because they've checked out. 00:13:01:07 - 00:13:28:11Michael J. AccettaThey're looking at something else. But when I do say sit and they actually do it, then I can reward them. So by building engagement, I'm setting my dog up for success. I'm preventing reactivity and I'm making sure that I have their focus. I have their attention. When I ask them to do something, they're ten times more likely to do it now that the first thing that's the first thing, okay, you've got to have engagement down solid. 00:13:29:08 - 00:13:51:05Michael J. AccettaNow, the second thing is shaping games. The second thing you want to do, you just games that involve your dog. Learning how to learn is the best way I can describe it. If you give your dog all the answers, right, you're like Okay, I'm going to lure them with a treat or I'm going to mold them, actually take their body and physically push it into positions. 00:13:52:00 - 00:14:11:02Michael J. AccettaIf I do that, one ends up happening as my dog becomes reliant on the food lure, moving them around, right? It put it in front of their nose and I bring them over here and I try to get them to sit down and become reliant on the food law. There are ways to phase it out, but if you can actually teach your dog to start shaping the behavior by themselves using successful approximation, that's what it's called. 00:14:11:11 - 00:14:32:03Michael J. AccettaEssentially, my dog offers some version of the behavior, a small little step of it. I'm going to let them know that that's exactly what I wanted. You can say, yes, you can use a clicker, and then I'm going to reinforce them with their preferred reinforcement, whether it's a treat, whether it's a toy, whether it's praise, whether it's access to something, and then they're more likely to start performing that behavior again. 00:14:32:08 - 00:14:47:01Michael J. AccettaSo they you know, pick up their right shoulder. I'm going to mark that. I'm going to give them a treat. They pick up their shoulder and their elbow mark that give them a treat. Now they're paw comes fully off the ground. I'm Mark that can mature and I'm teaching them how to lift up their arm to maybe give me pause. 00:14:48:05 - 00:15:12:07Michael J. AccettaTeaching your dog that way, builds their creativity, builds their confidence and helps them have more problem solving skills. Everything. We just talked about socialization. Excuse me. I got something in my throat here. I'm so sorry. Socialization and that fear period. Trying to build their confidence. This is the best way to incorporate all of it. Because now that they know how to learn, you can teach them things a lot faster. 00:15:13:06 - 00:15:35:07Michael J. AccettaAs well as put them in stressful situations and have them solve problems solved by themselves. So if I put my dog in a kayak and I let it go into the water, my dog knows there's a few things that he could try. One, he could sit, he could lay down to stabilize the kayak. He knows that because of all the balance equipment practice, we do him laying down becomes easier because it's not as wobbly center of gravity. 00:15:35:07 - 00:15:59:14Michael J. AccettaNow, he's not thinking of that. He's just knowing I well, lay down, it becomes easier. He can jump off and swim back to me. Why? Because we practice swimming but he has a skill set simply because we've done so many things. So when you're teaching your dog anything, start off with engagement. Make sure that you're engaged with you wherever you go outside front yard, backyard, down at the park, down at the cafe, whatever it is, and then move into shaping games, essentially standstill. 00:16:00:02 - 00:16:18:09Michael J. AccettaWait for your dog to offer anything they look somewhere, they paw at you, they sit anything you're going to market. Reward that in the never mark and reward that one again during that session. So you want them to try something different this is called 101 Things to Do with a Box. It's a classic, classic shaping game, but it's one of my favorites for puppies to do. 00:16:19:08 - 00:16:55:05Michael J. AccettaAnd then the last thing you have to master is management. I talk about management all the time. I'm going to call extreme management. When you have a puppy, everything they do, everything that you do is going to shape the next 15 years of their life. If you can manage the first six months of your dog's life while training them how to live in your world the way you want them to live, the next 15 years is going to be so much easier if you don't manage it and they develop problematic behaviors or they do things so-so or they kind of listen. 00:16:55:05 - 00:17:13:08Michael J. AccettaBut more often than not they're just doing it to get a treat and they're becoming dependent. What ends up happening is the next 15 years of your life, you're playing catch up. Maybe you do three years of solid training. You're never going to get to exactly what you want or what could have been if you did training early on. 00:17:13:12 - 00:17:37:08Michael J. AccettaSo be proactive about it. You just got your puppy or you're getting a puppy, have everything laid out. First thing I'm going to do between three to 16 weeks. First thing I'm going to do, socialize my dog to everything they need to know is normal. Number two, I'm going to build up their confidence that way. We have the ability to do the fun adventures that we want to do together, as well as just make life easier. 00:17:37:12 - 00:18:03:09Michael J. AccettaEven if you're not looking to do fun adventures it's going to make it easier for you. Fireworks aren't going to bother them, are getting into the car stressful situations. That's not going to bother them going to the that's not going to bother them. Those kinds of things. And then you're going to move into teaching the fundamentals. First thing I'm going to do, I'm going to I'm sorry if the old engagement fundamentals build engagement game and games and you're going to manage everything at the same time. 00:18:05:06 - 00:18:28:09Michael J. AccettaIt's that simple. I know it sounds simple, like now that I'm saying it, but it's that simple. Break it down like that. When you do that the next 15 years that promise, you are going to be so much easier. Thank you guys for listening to the now Dr. Podcast. I'm going to open it up to Q&A. If you're here live, if you're listening to this afterwards, feel free to message me your questions and I'll talk about it on a future episode of the podcast. 00:18:28:13 - 00:18:29:12Michael J. AccettaThanks, guys, for listening.

The classic mantra of Exercise, Discipline, and Affection has a new layout. Exercise, Education, and Affection This is a more effective and appropriate mantra for you to be able to train your dog with positive methods that actually last. In today's episode, I go over why this is so important and how changing the word discipline to education makes all the difference in the world to you and your dog. If you want to be able to have the dog of your dreams schedule a call with me with the link below. https://www.matadork9.com/coaching Want to train your dog from the comfort of your home to be well-behaved and listen no matter what? Get access to Matador University with the link below! https://www.matadork9.com/14daytrial Episode Transcript 00:00:00:03 - 00:00:26:05Michael J. AccettaWhat we're going to be talking about today is the classic phrase exercise, discipline, affection, and what it should actually be, which is exercise education and affection. So if you have a dog and you've heard the phrase exercise, discipline, affection, I'm going to change your thought on that middle piece, that discipline aspect, because it doesn't give you everything you need in order to actually have success with your dog, in order to have a dog that is well trained, well behaved. 00:00:26:10 - 00:00:56:01Michael J. AccettaExercise, discipline and affection is not the right line up. It should be exercise, education and affection. So let's go through exercise. Why do we even care about exercise? Exercise. Make sure that our dog is healthy, happy and fulfilled long term. Okay. Yes. You want a dog that is well-behaved. You want a dog that listens however if they have all this pent up energy that zooms at 7:00 at night, if they have all that pent up energy, they're not going to be able to think clearly. 00:00:56:04 - 00:01:11:03Michael J. AccettaThis is what's called the Yorks docks and law. So if you think about a hill, the more excitement that your dog has, the less focus they are. If we get to the top of the hill, they can be really, really focused until we get too excited then we actually start to go down in the level of focus. Okay. 00:01:11:03 - 00:01:33:06Michael J. AccettaSo over here, we got a couch potato at the bottom of the hill on the side. There's no excitement. There's no energy. When we start to get energy, maybe we pull out a treat or a toy or we jazz our dog up, we get excited. Then we get to the middle of our hill, that top of the hill where our dog is perfectly focused, and then it goes back down to the bottom when our dog is too crazed, too much energy, too much excitement in the environment. 00:01:34:02 - 00:01:52:14Michael J. AccettaIf your dog has way too much energy, you have a high energy dog and you actually tire them out a little bit. They can think clearer. This means that you can teach them faster. They'll absorb new information faster, and you don't have to struggle trying to, you know, be more jazzed up with your dog. You can actually be at a more level playing field. 00:01:52:14 - 00:02:13:06Michael J. AccettaYou should do this with my clients all the time. If I have an individual who doesn't have a lot of energy, naturally they aren't all over the place and bouncing around or can kind of fake it till they make it. If they can't do that for whatever reason, we need to tire the dog out first. If I tire the dog out first, then I have them on a level playing field. 00:02:13:06 - 00:02:31:12Michael J. AccettaThey'll actually work together. If the dog is crazy and the individual has a low level of energy, they're not going to line up. Same thing if it's the opposite. If the owner has a high level of energy, they want to do a lot with their dog, but their dog doesn't. Their dog wants to be relaxed. Then we also don't have a nice line up. 00:02:31:12 - 00:02:49:04Michael J. AccettaOur dog gets like Drudge along with everything, and they don't like it. They don't enjoy it as much. So the first thing, if you're having problematic behaviors, is to burn your dog's energy just a little bit. Doesn't have to be crazy. Yes. The whole classic two 45 minute walks is perfect. However, there's some other things you can do to burn your dog's energy. 00:02:49:09 - 00:03:09:13Michael J. AccettaTeaching them different games, playing puzzles with them, teaching them to search stuff in your house or just teaching tricks for that mental engagement is going to burn their energy a lot faster than physical. The other aspect of working on physical energy a lot is that our dog would build a tolerance. If you go for two 45 minute walks a day in the span of three to six months, your dog is going to get used to it. 00:03:10:05 - 00:03:35:09Michael J. AccettaAnd then two 45 minute walks a day are no longer adequate. You actually have to do more. So we run into a problem when we try to chase this physical exercise, but if we do mental, it's not so much pressure on you, but it's a lot of good exercise for your dog. They're actually going to burn more energy and get tired because of the mental expenditure that goes on in solving problems, learning new behaviors, and the engagement exercises. 00:03:36:00 - 00:03:57:01Michael J. AccettaOkay, so that's step number one. Burn our energy. If you're having problem behaviors, burn their energy. Number two, I changed the phrase from exercise discipline to affection to exercise education and affection. Now, the education part is really important if you're going to discipline your dog, that kind of has the connotation that you're going to say they did something wrong. 00:03:57:07 - 00:04:16:14Michael J. AccettaRight. My dog jumped on the couch. I'm going to discipline them, going to tell them that was wrong. Get off the couch. That doesn't give them a clear understanding of what they should be doing. That's why I change to educate. You should be educating your dog on exactly what they need to know in the environment you want them to know it in to the extent you want them to know it. 00:04:17:06 - 00:04:37:14Michael J. AccettaSo we're hanging out right now. My dog, Tom, he's laying over here on the side when we're in the bedroom. Or in the office or just hanging out. I want him to relax. If we go outside or we go to a park and I take him off leash, I expect him to run around and have fun. But still listen when I need him to, the expectation is there, but I need to educate him on each one of those types of expectations. 00:04:38:14 - 00:04:54:12Michael J. AccettaSo in the office, I didn't just have him come in here and expect him to know everything I know. I took the time to teach him. When we're in the office, you have to relax. When we're in the bedroom, you have to relax when we're inside, essentially, you have to relax. And I sit down you should lay down next to me right when I sit on the couch. 00:04:54:12 - 00:05:16:06Michael J. AccettaIf I don't invite you up, just lay by my feet until I invite you up. So I have to go forth and teach him the actual expectation that I have. I can't expect him to know it. If he knows it, great. And this is what happens when you adopt an older dog. Some dogs just know certain well-behaved skill sets or habits if you got a puppy where you got an older dog, it doesn't have these skill sets. 00:05:16:12 - 00:05:30:13Michael J. AccettaOftentimes you struggle and this is where training comes in. So the first thing you're going to do is teach them what you want them to do and then use it constantly until it becomes a new habit where you no longer have to reward them. You no longer have to engage with them as much. They just naturally do it. 00:05:30:13 - 00:05:46:04Michael J. AccettaThat's what Tom is doing here. I came in to sit and chat with you guys and he just laid down next to me. He's nice and relaxed, super simple. That's what he understands is the habit. That's what I've educated him to do. If I didn't do that, he probably would be up in my lap. He'd be like, Hey, what are we doing? 00:05:46:04 - 00:06:07:14Michael J. AccettaAre we going outside? What are you doing? Talking to people on the Internet? What's going on here? So how do we how do we break this down? Okay. If you want to learn how to teach these kind of daily skills, I have an entire course on daily skills. She's got to go to Matador Canine dot com forward slash daily skills, Matador canine dot com, forward slash daily skills. 00:06:08:14 - 00:06:28:00Michael J. AccettaIt goes over everything you need to know in order to have a well-behaved dog on the day to day kind of skills. But you cannot just rely on those things. You also have to give your dog affection after exercise and education. So you exercise them. You got them nice and tired, right? We did something this morning to get Tommy nice and relaxed. 00:06:28:07 - 00:06:48:07Michael J. AccettaThen he knows the expectation and I have to then reward him or give him some type of affection. Now, Tommy loves people. He loves hanging out with people. He loves cuddling with people. So this in of itself is ring free enforcing. If he was crazed all over the place, I might kick him out of the bedroom or the office and he would go, Okay, well, that's no way to hang out with Dad. 00:06:48:07 - 00:07:08:03Michael J. AccettaI'm not getting reinforced for that crazy behavior. If I come back in and I relax, then maybe I will get reinforced, see how it works. So the affection is still important. We just put it last because of how much we already put affection on our dog, right? You you love your dog. It's easy to love your dogs, easy to give them affection and love and caress them and cuddle them and all that good stuff. 00:07:08:11 - 00:07:26:14Michael J. AccettaBut you have to do the education and the exercise first. You have to do those first before you go to the affection. If you do the affection first, we end up rewarding bad behaviors. So let's say my dog's crazy to run around having do and I grab a hold of him and I start rubbing their belly and I'm getting all crazy with them. 00:07:27:03 - 00:07:50:06Michael J. AccettaI just rewarded them for having zooming I've rewarded them for thinking that the best thing for them to do is run around like a crazy puppy or crazy dog being all over the place, having your dog jump up on guests if I reward them with praise and affection and love, then my dog thinks that jumping up on people or on me is the right thing to do and accidentally giving them affection or praise for the wrong behavior. 00:07:50:06 - 00:08:09:09Michael J. AccettaThe thing I didn't want them to do. And then we go into education. So if I'm trying to educate my dog, I can use affection. Certainly but it's much easier to use treats or a toy to get clarity on what you want them to do and then phase those things out with general praise. You can do that through reward schedules. 00:08:09:09 - 00:08:26:05Michael J. AccettaWhich kind of events? Technique. I talk about it on other episodes of the Acknowledged Dogs podcast, where instead of rewarding every single repetition I'm going to reward maybe every two repetitions and I'm going to praise in the middle. So I reward with a treat or a toy. Then I praise, then I reward with a treat or a toy. 00:08:26:05 - 00:08:43:09Michael J. AccettaThen I praise, then I reward with a treat. Or a toy. So I'm slowly weaning them away from becoming dependent on the treats. They're becoming more dependent on the praise. And then I might do treat praise. Praise treat for each repetition. I'm I don't mean I'm doing that in sequential order directly after one behavior I told them to set. 00:08:43:14 - 00:08:58:01Michael J. AccettaAnd then I give them a treat. Praise them, praise them, treat. That's not what I'm saying. Saying I asked them to sit. I give them a treat out of position so I can get them to move again. I ask them to sit again. Then I'll praise them for that repetition. Get them to move, ask them to set praise again. 00:08:58:06 - 00:09:27:13Michael J. AccettaGet them to move. Ask them to sit and then treat. Okay, treat, praise, praise, treat. And then I would just keep extending that treat. Praise, praise, praise. Treat. Or maybe I do praise first. Treat, treat praise. Alternating those is also good exercise. Educate, affection And here are some things that are going to go wrong along this cycle. If you do exercise every single day and you don't do education, what ends up happening is the exercise wise. 00:09:28:05 - 00:09:47:14Michael J. AccettaIt's become a management practice for or supplementing the education, actually replacing the education. You're relying on your dog being so exhausted that they can't do anything wrong. This is what the mistake I made with my first dog. I had the mantra exercise, discipline, affection in my head, as many of us do when we get a dog exercise first. 00:09:47:14 - 00:10:03:02Michael J. AccettaA tired dog is a good dog. Write all of those phrases. And so I used to run maybe six miles or bike with my dog for six miles a day, get them exhausted. They couldn't they couldn't do anything. They were so tired. They just slept the rest of the day. Now, at the time, I was nervous of my dog and kicked out. 00:10:03:02 - 00:10:19:10Michael J. AccettaI was young. I was a teenager. My parents said, if this dog does anything wrong, it's getting the boot. This is my first dog. And so we went for six mile bike rides two miles, three times a day. Morning, afternoon and evening. I wanted this dog exhausted because I didn't have the time to train it and I didn't know what I was doing yet. 00:10:20:01 - 00:10:37:05Michael J. AccettaI had all this information as a teenager, but I didn't know how to apply it effectively into it until I learned that, until I had practiced with my dog, I needed to manage it, and that's fine. But if I had kept doing that and never moved to the educational step of actually training and teaching, then my dog would not be as well behaved as she is. 00:10:38:00 - 00:10:59:01Michael J. AccettaWe wouldn't have been able to go on bike rides off leash. I wouldn't have been able to recall her when she ran out of the house towards a squirrel. So I had to move from the exercise into education, which means I had to reduce the exercise because she was way too tired to learn. I had to reduce the exercise in order to have her be motivated and eager to work with me, excited to have the energy to actually learn. 00:10:59:14 - 00:11:21:11Michael J. AccettaThen once she learned, we moved into affection and just daily life skills because she knew what to do and what my expectation of her was. It was much easier for us to reward her and engage with her and relax and and hang out. Okay, exercise first, education second, and then you move into affection. Thank you guys for listening to the acknowledged podcast. 00:11:22:02 - 00:11:36:11Michael J. AccettaIf you're watching this live, I'm going to open it up for Q&A. If you're listening to this after the fact, make sure you jump in on a live events so that you can ask questions based off the podcast in real time or other questions you may have I'm going to open it up for Q&A now. Thank you guys for listening.

The thanksgiving feast is almost upon us and that means that there are also bad behavior problems looming in the corner. Stealing food, jumping on guests, barking at strangers in the neighborhood and so many more Don't let your dog ruin this holiday season with their bad behavior. In today's episode, I go over how you can prepare yourself and your dog for the best Thanksgiving dinner you have ever had. No chaos, no stress, and certainly no visits to the hospital. Here is the download I mentioned in the episode Thanksgiving Dog Etiquette E-book https://www.matadork9.com/thanksgivingmanners If you want to get started training before the big day, give me a call right away, and let's get started before it is too late!! https://www.matadork9.com/coaching Episode Transcript 00:00:00:05 - 00:00:18:08Michael J. AccettaIf you're nervous about your dog and what they're going to do during dinner, when guests come over and there's food all over the place and there's good smell in Turkey all over the place. What are you going to do That's what we're going to talk about today. I'm going to go over the four things that you must have in place in order to have a successful and enjoyable Thanksgiving with the dog. 00:00:18:13 - 00:00:39:02Michael J. AccettaOkay. Now, the first thing we're going to talk about is management. This is crucial to have any type of enjoyment during the holiday season. If you cannot manage your dog's behavior, nothing is going to go right. If your dog is already well behaved, then you kind of already did management. You've you've done all the management ahead of time. 00:00:39:02 - 00:00:54:02Michael J. AccettaAnd that's led to a successful time right now. But we only got a couple of days until the big feast. If you want to call the big feast, we only got a couple of days until the big feast. And so right now is not necessarily the time to teach your dog anything new. Maybe you don't have the time for it. 00:00:54:03 - 00:01:11:08Michael J. AccettaMaybe your dog has never done any training and it's way too much to be putting on yourself and overwhelming yourself with right now. Instead, what we need to do is set up parameters and where a dog can be successful. What does that look like when people are coming into the house? We don't want to have the dog in the living room by the front door. 00:01:11:12 - 00:01:30:02Michael J. AccettaIt's just going to create more chaos and more excitement. Someone's coming in. They're all over the place. And then our dog loses it and they run into the person. And now we have all this chaos over. Excitement leads to sometimes biting, sometimes playing too rough and nipping the person. Sometimes it can lead to urination and having our dog all over the floor. 00:01:30:09 - 00:01:50:03Michael J. AccettaThat's not what you want when you're having guests come into your house for Thanksgiving. It's just not. You're adding more chaos. It'd be easier to say, Okay, I'm going to put my dog into the bedroom or into the bathroom. I'm going to wait for everyone to come over, and then I'm going to have my dog come out. Once everyone's there, the excitement of having them come through the door has now been eliminated. 00:01:50:13 - 00:02:05:14Michael J. AccettaYour dog is still going to be excited when they see the people that they miss and they love and they want to hang out with. But the level of excitement has changed. It's gone down simply because we haven't had them introduced right at the exciting point of coming into the door. So that's one way you could manage it. 00:02:06:08 - 00:02:20:00Michael J. AccettaThe other way you can manage it is having gates up. So maybe your U.S. of a party house where the dog hangs out. And if people want to go hang out with the dog and they're good with them and they can be relaxed, then they can go play with the dog. Otherwise, the dog stays out of the picture while you have guests over. 00:02:20:14 - 00:02:35:05Michael J. AccettaNow, what about dinner when you actually sit down and you're trying to enjoy a meal? Well, I would either do it in one of two ways. One is kind of like having guests come over. We're going to put them to the side. Maybe we put them in the bedroom. We have gates set up, maybe we put them in the kitchen, whatever it may be. 00:02:35:12 - 00:02:54:08Michael J. AccettaI want to create some space and distance so that they can go relax over there. The alternative is to have one person. Usually the person who's the best with the dog was done training, maybe takes them out for walks the most, has the better relationship. They're going to be solely responsible for training the dog in that moment. Okay. 00:02:54:09 - 00:03:10:01Michael J. AccettaSo when you sit down to eat, their focus is really on the dog. They're not going to converse with everybody as much. They're not going to be getting up and getting, you know, people's food or more drinks or whatever. They're going to sit in their spot and they're going to just focus on the dog. That's one of the best things you can do. 00:03:10:01 - 00:03:31:14Michael J. AccettaHave one person focused on the dog because not only do you stop the dog from doing bad behaviors, you're using that as an opportunity to train. You're having an opportunity to train the dog. Now, not everybody wants to do this. Some people are just, Okay, I'm gonna put the dog away, and that's totally fine. If you are not in the mode of training and you just want to enjoy having guests over, there's no problem with putting the dog in a space where they can enjoy themselves. 00:03:31:14 - 00:03:49:06Michael J. AccettaYou give them something to do a puzzle, maybe put a movie on. And I know that sounds silly, but that's a little secret pack. Many dogs enjoy watching something, even if it's, you know, the National Geographic, where there's not much going on, and it's just nature going by as long as your dog is not barking and freaking out about it. 00:03:49:14 - 00:04:06:12Michael J. AccettaBut if you give your dog something to do after the side, not only does it distract your dog for a little bit, but it gives you a little bit more peace. In many cases, you're like, Okay, my dog is completely excluded from the picture. They're just not in the picture. Right now. Okay, so that's the first thing you need to do to have a successful Thanksgiving. 00:04:07:06 - 00:04:31:05Michael J. AccettaYou have to manage as much as you possibly can whenever your dog is in a situation where there's a potential for bad behavior to come up. We end up punishing them, which isn't good, right? So if I put my dog in a situation where guests are coming over and the guest walks in the door, my dog freaks out and they start jumping up on the person and I start yelling at him or the person starts yelling at him, I've just I've created this big problem. 00:04:32:00 - 00:04:54:05Michael J. AccettaWhy not put my dog away when guests come over, make it easier for my guests to come in, for me to greet my guests, and easier for my dog to learn the right skills at the right time. This might just not be the right time. Okay, so we're moving on to number two. How would we actually introduce our dog to guests, whether you want to do it in the beginning, when people come over or you want to do it after the fact. 00:04:54:08 - 00:05:10:12Michael J. AccettaLet's talk about after the fact first. So we've managed the situation. We put our dog in the back room or off to, you know, the bedroom or the bathroom where maybe people come in, maybe ten, 15 minutes go by, maybe you wait an hour. Either way, depends on the dog. You've waited some time. Things have kind of settled down. 00:05:10:12 - 00:05:29:02Michael J. AccettaPeople are sitting chatting. You can either do it one of two ways you can bring the dog out. Just let them sniff and interact with people. Depends on your dog. If your dog is very high level of excitement, and they love these people, maybe it would be beneficial to have them on a leash and actually work through how you would want them to interact with people. 00:05:29:02 - 00:05:44:08Michael J. AccettaDo you want to walk your dog up? Have them sit patiently and then be told to go say hi? Depends on what your level of training is and what your objective is, what your goals are going to look like. So that might be the way you do it or you just ain't got the leash. Let them go out, sniff around many dogs. 00:05:44:08 - 00:06:06:01Michael J. AccettaThat's totally fine. They come out, they go, Oh, there's people here, whatever. It doesn't really matter. I'm just going to sniff them and do my own thing. I have done both. My first dog Breezy, we ended up just letting her come out and she would sniff my other dog, Tommy, who loves people. We'd have him on a leash because we needed to control how he greeted somebody, especially during that training phase of teaching him, Hey, you cannot go up to everybody. 00:06:06:09 - 00:06:26:03Michael J. AccettaI'm going to stop you before we get to people. And when you do get to the person, then I'll let you go say hi. So it depends on the situation you're in, depend on what your goals are. But greeting people is going to be a very, very large portion of having guests over and the biggest potential problems. Okay. 00:06:27:06 - 00:06:47:12Michael J. AccettaNow, number three manners. During dinner, as I mentioned before, having somebody 100% locked in on your dog is going to be the easiest way. But what do they do? What does that person do at that time? Well, one, they should have treats to the dog, should be on a leash, doesn't have to be a collar or maybe just a harness and maybe you put a bed next to the person sitting down. 00:06:47:12 - 00:07:05:14Michael J. AccettaSo if I'm sitting here, I'd have my dog right next to me. I would get to eat my food and maybe I have a mason jar on the table of treats like. Right. I don't have to give them food scraps. And in fact, one of the big parts of Thanksgiving, the fourth thing we talk about is the foods that are safe and not safe to eat. 00:07:06:02 - 00:07:25:10Michael J. AccettaOkay, so there are plenty of foods that your dog can eat from Thanksgiving, but there's a lot of foods that they really should not be eating. And I've actually created a PDF on all of those things. Which you can get at Matador Canine dot com forward slash Thanksgiving manners. It goes over all of this in more depth as well as that list of food your dog can and cannot eat. 00:07:25:11 - 00:07:52:02Michael J. AccettaMatador Canine Dot com forward slash Thanksgiving manners. Now back to what I was that you got a a jar mason jar of kibble or cheese or hotdog slices something super high value and all you do is slowly slip your dog a treat for laying down and being patient and waiting while you're having dinner. This is much easier said than done, especially if you've never done it before. 00:07:52:02 - 00:08:06:12Michael J. AccettaThere's a lot of trading going on over and over and over and your dog's like, oh my God, this is fantastic. I love this. But you're like, I just want to eat my turkey. I just want to have some stuffing. And you run into this problem where you then just go to eat and you forget that you're supposed to be ruining your dog. 00:08:07:03 - 00:08:26:08Michael J. AccettaWhat happens then? Our dog gets up and they do something bad in order to remind you. They say, Hey, hey, hey, you were rewarding me. What happened right now, they don't actually say that in their brain. They're just trying something new. But that's how we can conceptualize it. We say, Hey, you know, you were rewarding me and you stop and I kind of want what you had, so I'm going to try something new. 00:08:26:10 - 00:08:42:09Michael J. AccettaBut if you forget about me again, I'm going to get back up and I'm going to do something that you don't want me to do. And so we want to do is have this internal clock going, and at first it might be over 5 seconds, then we might expanding after five, ten treats to every 10 seconds. Then we might expand it a little again. 00:08:42:11 - 00:09:02:06Michael J. Accetta15 seconds 20 seconds. Then we might go back to 3 seconds. Why would I do that? Why would I go back and make it easier if my dog's getting better at it? Because I don't want my dog to think that it's always going to get harder. If we're constantly pushing the abilities of our dogs, they end up thinking that, Okay, well, I got it, and you're just making it more difficult. 00:09:02:09 - 00:09:20:01Michael J. AccettaThat's no fun. It's kind of like a video game. If you defeat a level and the next level was always more difficult, you're eventually going to not want to continue playing that game because there is no enjoyment in beating that level because you're just going to get hit with something harder unless you're the type of person who really likes the challenge. 00:09:20:01 - 00:09:36:04Michael J. AccettaAnd there are dogs like that. But at the end of the day, what we want to do is actually pull back and make it easier. If you've ever played a video game and you've done like four or five levels and then the six level, is this really easy thing? And you're like, Oh, okay. And then you go to level seven and it's ten times harder. 00:09:36:04 - 00:10:07:03Michael J. AccettaThat's exactly what they're doing. They're making it easier that boosting up your confidence and then they make it harder so you can definitely do that with your dog. And that is something you should emulate with your dog, especially in this exercise. My dog's lying next to me. I'm going to reward them a whole bunch. Then I'm going to stop for a second add some time, reward them at some time, reward them, add some time, reward them, then immediately reward them again and then add more time I want to slowly build up how long they're willing to wait in order to get the reward. 00:10:08:04 - 00:10:28:01Michael J. AccettaIf I can do that, I make it easier for myself to enjoy my dinner and easier for my dog to be relaxed. Right? The harder it is for them to understand what they're doing, the less likely they're going to do it longer. What I mean by that, the confidence goes down. They go, Okay, and understand why I'm still here. 00:10:28:05 - 00:10:46:11Michael J. AccettaBut someone dropped chicken on the floor or turkey on the floor, so I'm going to go get that. Now, if that happens, what's your backup plan? Right. You've got to be able to get your dog back. That's why I mentioned the leash earlier. Whether it's on a harness or a collar, at least you have something to control them in the event that they jump toward something. 00:10:47:02 - 00:11:05:12Michael J. AccettaYou might even want to position yourself far enough away from everybody so that if they drop food, it doesn't become a problem. No notice when, say, when they drop food, you could be perfect. You could be perfect. But in the situation we're talking about, we're having Thanksgiving dinner. People get messy, people get sloppy, they're all over the place, right? 00:11:06:02 - 00:11:26:01Michael J. AccettaYou go to eat and you just drop it on your lap and then you kind of brush up on the floor because maybe you don't have a dog or maybe you do have a dog in your dog or that person's dog we're talking about. They're used to letting their dog eat all of the food. But as I mentioned earlier, there are foods that your dog cannot eat that are very popular during Thanksgiving very popular. 00:11:26:01 - 00:11:50:03Michael J. AccettaAnd there are foods at your dog, Kenny. Okay. Again, there's a whole list of I'm not going to go over there now, but mad at our canine dot com forward slash Thanksgiving manners has that list. It's a PDF Download. It has that list for you because there's a whole bunch of I mean, there's quite a lot that you would not think are unsafe or are safe to have so big takeaways here. 00:11:50:04 - 00:12:10:03Michael J. AccettaBig big takeaways. Number one, manage everything that you can if you can put your dog in a space where they can be more successful long term, do that. If you want to go through the process of training perfect this is might be the time to train I say might because it might be too much for your dog to handle and if it's too much, we want to have them put away. 00:12:10:11 - 00:12:29:11Michael J. AccettaIf it's not too much and you're working on these things actively before we get to Thanksgiving dinner, then yeah, this is perfect. This is the time to train. Your dog has worked all this much, all this much. So your dog has worked this much for this moment. Okay, this is the moment that you need and you're probably not going to have unless you really have people over every weekend. 00:12:29:11 - 00:12:53:02Michael J. AccettaYou're not going to have this many reps to play with. Okay, this is a perfect opportunity to do it. And then when you're having dinner, actively having dinner, you're going to be as relaxed as possible. You're going to reward your dog for being nice and relaxed. You can give them breaks by having them get up, or you can even do place and you mentioned this, you could have them go to a place if they know, please just understand the likelihood of them breaking the position. 00:12:53:02 - 00:13:16:14Michael J. AccettaIf you haven't really practiced place that much with that level of distraction is very high. They are going to break place in order to get something that maybe they don't you don't see and they're going to go sneak and get it. And then you realize they're not on place anymore because you've been distracted, engaging in conversation with people and then they win, not necessarily win because they're not malicious, but they took the opportunity to go get a reward and it wasn't from you. 00:13:17:12 - 00:13:38:10Michael J. AccettaSo what you might want to do is put them on place and then recall them to you every couple of minutes and send them back to place. You recall them to you, they get a treat, they go back to place. You toss a treat over to them, make it as easy as possible for them to succeed. A lot of rewards, a lot of praise, a lot of encouragement, because the situation that you're working in, depending on how many people you have, is very distracting. 00:13:39:05 - 00:13:59:09Michael J. AccettaThe more distracting environment is the less likely our dog is to perform, unless they are used to working at that level. Of distraction. Okay. And then with guests, same thing when you're having them come over, if you can put them away, great. When it does come time to reintroduce them to the party, you got two options. Have a leash on them and control the way they're meeting. 00:13:59:09 - 00:14:18:01Michael J. AccettaMaybe they have to give PA first. Maybe they have to lay down and rollover first. Whatever it is to try to slow them down. You have to do that before they get to meet the person. And the alternative is to just let your dog go and see what happens. Now, if you're nervous that your dog is a big dog and going to take out grandma, then option two is not for you. 00:14:18:05 - 00:14:41:14Michael J. AccettaOption one is have them on a leash, have them controlled. If you have a tiny dog, nobody's going to step on the dog. And they're used to running up to people and just being happy and sniffing. Then you can just let them go. I would say a dog over £60 you should have on leash and have control over even though they might be wonderful now they've never jumped on anybody, especially if this is the first time you're having this many people over to your house. 00:14:42:03 - 00:14:52:06Michael J. AccettaThis is the time to set them up for success. Don't wait for them to fail and then try to fix it later. Set them up to do everything right now and will make it ten times easier for you next time.

There are 1000s of ways to train a dog and somehow, we fall into figuring out how to do it differently with our dogs. Whether you are trying to solve a problem behavior or work on training for the next sporting competition, there are some things about training that will always stay the same. In today's episode I will be going over the nuances of dog training and how you can train without needing to focus on the differences, but on the similarities which will make it easier and more enjoyable for your dog. Learn how to stop your dog's bad behaviors here - https://www.matadork9.com/resolvingbadhabits Work with me - https://www.matadork9.com/coaching Episode Transcript 01:15:33:20 - 01:15:53:21Michael J. AccettaThis is going to be an insanely controversial episode of the acknowledged dogs podcast. I'm going to make some people have said, especially if you are in the dog training world, whether you're a sport dog trainer, a working dog trainer or service dog trainer, I'm going to make you upset. I'm going to bruise your ego. And it's intentional because you need this kind of reality check. 01:15:54:17 - 01:16:12:10Michael J. AccettaI want to talk about the different nuances of dog training. Now, to fully understand this, I want to define what a nuance is. Okay. It's great to have these kind of definitions. You can fully wrap your head around what I'm talking about. If you don't fully understand something, I'm going to lose you. So I want you to understand what a nuance is. 01:16:13:06 - 01:16:45:12Michael J. AccettaNow, the definition of a nuance is a subtle difference in or shade of meaning, expression or sound, a subtle difference in or shade of meaning, expression or sound used in a sentence. The nuances of facial expression and body language. Some similar words or variation, degree, shade, graduation, refinement, overtone. You can use it as a verb, give nuances to the effect of the music is nuanced by the social situation or listeners. 01:16:45:12 - 01:17:06:17Michael J. AccettaThat means it's it's subtly changed a meaning simply because of the social situation of listeners. Now we're talking about the nuance of dog training. And what's really wonderful is, as I started to look up some information about today's episode and what I wanted to talk about finding a definition is a finite definition for dog training is rather difficult. 01:17:06:19 - 01:17:29:12Michael J. AccettaThere's a beautiful one that I'm going to read for you just in a second, but it is difficult to find a real clear definition on dog training. Now, of course, we could break those two words up dog. Canine familiarity as a family, right? Mammal and training is the act of going about educating yourself and working through particular problems to a certain level of competency. 01:17:29:21 - 01:17:46:10Michael J. AccettaOkay. But if we look at dog training, the definition, this is the best one that I could find. And I think it really lays out exactly what I'm talking about because it is a long definition, and that's exactly what we're talking about, the different nuances of dog training and the fact that this definition needs to be so long because of the nuances of doctrine. 01:17:46:11 - 01:18:16:06Michael J. AccettaHere we go. Dog training is the application of behavioral analysis which uses the environmental events of antecedents and consequences to modify the dog behavior. Now, you could stop right there, but that's not the nuance of dog training behavior. So after we have that part, either for it to assist in specific activities or undertake particular tasks or for it to participate effectively in contemporary domestic life. 01:18:17:05 - 01:18:41:14Michael J. AccettaI'm going to read the whole thing again here. Listen carefully. Dog training is the application of behavior analysis, which uses the environmental events of antecedents and consequences to modify the dog behavior. Either for it to assist in specific activities or undertake particular tasks, or for it to participate effectively in contemporary domestic life. 01:18:43:17 - 01:19:14:03Michael J. AccettaWe're talking about multiple things here. Dog trains the application of behavior analysis. That means the individual who's training the dog, whether it be an owner handler or a professional who's teaching a dog for somebody, for a client. The application of behavioral analysis, understanding how behavior works, analyzing it objectively and then force going in, using it in environmental events of antecedents and consequence to understanding why behavior happens and the positive punishment. 01:19:14:03 - 01:19:42:22Michael J. AccettaPositive reinforcement, negative punishment, negative reinforcement after the behavior happens in order to modify the dog's behavior either. Okay. Now, there's multiple reasons as to why we use behavior analysis in their environmental events of antecedents, the consequences to modify the dog behavior. It's either one for you to assist in specific activities that's a service dog or undertake particular tasks that might be a service dog or a working dog sport dog All right. 01:19:42:22 - 01:20:10:21Michael J. AccettaWe might have police dogs herding dogs, that kind of thing, or even more cause for it to participate effectively in contemporary domestic life. That is your everyday dog and how they live in our complex world. So there's a whole bunch of nuances here. And this is where it actually becomes difficult to understand, because if you're looking at this and saying, Okay, well, I'm either teaching a dog to be a service dog, I'm teaching a working dog, or I'm teaching a dog for contemporary domestic life. 01:20:11:08 - 01:20:37:09Michael J. AccettaDo I teach those things differently? No, you don't. Because dog training encompasses all of those. This is what I want to talk about today. When we're looking at dog training as a whole. The bigger picture, dog training is not different depending on what you're teaching. You might be teaching different behaviors. You might be teaching different behaviors. Your goal might be different. 01:20:37:22 - 01:20:58:13Michael J. AccettaBut the processes by which you go about it are exactly the same. This is where I said I was going to bruise your ego. If you're listening to this and you're a professional dog trainer, you're a service dog trainer, you're a sport dog trainer, don't get caught up in the fact that just because you teach those specific things means you have to be the best at something. 01:20:58:20 - 01:21:18:20Michael J. AccettaThis is oftentimes what happens with sport dog trainers or working dog trainers. I have heard countless times, Will, you don't know how to train my dog? My dogs are working dog. You don't know how to train this. I'll tell you right now. I do. And I'll tell you a quick little story. I was working at a facility who had other trainers at the time. 01:21:18:23 - 01:21:38:17Michael J. AccettaWell, they had other trainers they all left. It was me and another trainer. And this client had not come in for a while, which he had this beautiful Dutch shepherd whose name was Bear, and she came in and she was expecting to work with the other trainer who was my senior. She was the operations manager. And the operations manager had to work with another dog. 01:21:39:05 - 01:21:57:15Michael J. AccettaAnd so I had the lovely privilege of working with Bear. And the owner, she comes in and she said, Why aren't I working with the operations manager? And I said, she's busy at the moment. I'll be doing your session for the day. And she said, I'd like to cancel my session if that's the case. She had never worked with me before, so I'd like to cancel my session if that's the case. 01:21:58:03 - 01:22:20:12Michael J. AccettaAnd I said, We're already here. Why don't we start the session? If you're not happy with it, we can reschedule it, no problem. And she said, No, I'd really like to work with the operations manager, so I completely understand. Give me 5 minutes if you're not happy with it, we can reschedule your session. No works, she said. Fine. And as the operations manager walked by, she told the operations manager she was upset and she said, Michael's fantastic. 01:22:21:10 - 01:22:43:06Michael J. AccettaJust enjoy your session. Next session will be with me. Whatever. Now, as my personality as confronted with certain things, she had kept saying, you know, you don't know anything about my dog. And I said, I completely agree with you. I don't know anything about your dog. I was able to look over the notes of your past sessions, but it's been about a year and a half since you've been it, so please catch me up. 01:22:43:06 - 01:22:58:18Michael J. AccettaHow are things going? What's going on? What are you looking to do? And she started to tell me and she said, well, you know, he's he's a working line dog. He's a serious dog. We do agility, but he's a serious dog. So I don't want to you know, we're not going to play around rock and do it. I said, I completely understand I said, What is he like? 01:22:59:22 - 01:23:16:14Michael J. AccettaHe said, Did you guys bring treats? Does he like treats? She said, no, he's a working dog. He doesn't eat treats. Doesn't he treats? Does he like toys? Oh, yeah, he loves the ball. I said, Great, that's my favorite to do. She said, Yeah, but you don't know how he does it. I said, Great. I would love for you to show me and we'll see where we go from there. 01:23:16:23 - 01:23:32:05Michael J. AccettaI'm very open, okay? I'm not about shoving things down people's throat and saying, No, what you're doing is wrong. What you need to be doing is this. I'm not interested in that. If they already have something good going, great, I want to elevate it. I want to make it better. So I asked, Well, what do you have going for you? 01:23:32:05 - 01:23:48:18Michael J. AccettaWhat's going on? How things go? And so she showed me what the problem was. She was trying to do a recall, and what happened with the dog would turn around and it would run towards her and it would stop halfway to get her. And it's because she had the ball out in front of her. And I said, Okay, we're just going to change one thing, if you don't mind. 01:23:48:18 - 01:24:09:16Michael J. AccettaJust test it out for me. Now, I knew this was going to work, but I didn't want to put pressure on her for her to become defensive and so I'm thinking about how not only the dog's going to respond to the training that we're doing, but how my client's going to start to respond to what's going on. If I start challenging what's worked for her in the past, since she's already frustrated her is not listening. 01:24:09:20 - 01:24:29:00Michael J. AccettaI don't want to create more frustration, and I don't want to create more animosity between the two of us. Now, this is a nuance to how you go about training somebody and training the dog. I'm getting a little ahead of myself here, but essentially there was no difference between how I treated this situation and how I would treat any other situation. 01:24:29:00 - 01:24:49:14Michael J. AccettaA nervous dog. I might treat it slightly differently in mind, but my determination are demeanor, rather. My demeanor might be different, but the mechanics were still the same. The fact that the dog was turning around and looking back to her and not recalling simply because the ball was present or wasn't present. That's what was happening. The dog was turning around and didn't see the ball. 01:24:49:17 - 01:25:08:11Michael J. AccettaSo it said, Oh, well, I'm not getting anything. I'm not going to come to you. And so we did a few repetitions of changing. A very small mechanic always hide the ball when the dog comes to you, Mark, and then produce the ball. The ball isn't getting the dog to come. I get the dog to come and then I reward them afterwards. 01:25:08:11 - 01:25:36:16Michael J. AccettaThat mechanic is vital to any training. It doesn't matter whether you're teaching, you know, what was the definition here? What we got, whether you're teaching them for specific activities or undertaking particular tasks, service dog trainer should do this all the time. Why would you teach your dog to become dependent upon a reward or a toy? When we're teaching service dogs, that would be awful to try to do because at the end of the day, your dog cannot just listen when you have a treat. 01:25:36:16 - 01:25:57:13Michael J. AccettaThey have to listen all the time, even if you're unconscious or there's something going on where you can't get a tree out. That's very important for a service dog. We're talking about working dogs, police dogs. I don't have time to stop and pull out treats. I don't have time to stop and pull out the ball. My dog has to perform knowing that afterwards they're going to get their favorite thing and then we have contemporary domestic life. 01:25:58:05 - 01:26:15:22Michael J. AccettaThis is often where we let the mechanics slide because, oh, it's not that important. Many, many trainers chalk this up. Oh, well, we don't have to teach everything perfectly the way I would teach any other service dog or working dog. This is where that nuance comes in. This I'm going to change it simply because it's a domestic dog. 01:26:16:09 - 01:26:32:12Michael J. AccettaIt's a companion dog. It doesn't need to be that important. My client, I treat them as it's that important because it is. If my dog doesn't recall and they run out into the middle of the street, they're going to get hurt. If my dog jumps up on somebody and they're not prepared for it, they fall back. They hit their head on something. 01:26:32:18 - 01:26:55:18Michael J. AccettaNow, he got a rushed to the hospital my dog could become aggressive because they haven't been, well, socialized in the environment. These are very important things. And because of how the gravity of all of that, when you do actually train and you understand of that certain level, the world opens up for you. Everything becomes a hell of a lot easier when your dog is fully trained, when you don't have a fully trained dog and you chalk it up to, oh, well, they're just a lap dog. 01:26:56:01 - 01:27:16:09Michael J. AccettaThey don't need to know all of this stuff. Fine. When problems arise, it's going to be a bigger problem for you than the person who actually went forth and trained their dog. And then on the other side of things, if you're training your dog as a working line, police dog, service dog, whatever it is, and you hold them at a very high caliber, that's fantastic. 01:27:16:22 - 01:27:43:08Michael J. AccettaBut that does not mean you neglect the fact that they are still a companion animal. This is oftentimes what happens with high end working dogs, professionals and people alike will treat a high end working dog as a tool, and it is to an extent, but they forget that that dog is still a dog, it still wants to be loved, still wants to be taken care of and petted and rubbed and all that good stuff. 01:27:44:15 - 01:28:11:16Michael J. AccettaRight? It still needs a little bit of freedom. It cannot be a robot and we cannot switch the way we train a dog simply because there are working line or simply because they are a service dog or simply because they're a companion dog. The way you train the dog is exactly the same. We keep it fun. We use good mechanics we set our dogs up for success, and we maintain the behaviors over long periods of time with controlled practice and reward schedules. 01:28:13:01 - 01:28:31:22Michael J. AccettaThat's how you do it. No matter what you're trying to teach, that's how you do it. Service dog, police dog, companion, dog. You're doing sport work. You keep it fun, you keep them engaged, you keep them successful. You teach them everything they need to know in order to be successful. You don't just push them and say, Yeah, well, they better know how to do it. 01:28:33:00 - 01:28:48:20Michael J. AccettaSo how it works the methods for teaching are exactly the same. There is a little bit of nuance on how we might go about it. Now, if I have a nervous dog, I might be a little more gentle. If I have a really confident dog, I might push them a little faster. But I cannot say, Oh, well, it's a working dog. 01:28:49:04 - 01:29:15:21Michael J. AccettaI'm going to use punishment instead of rewards because it's a working dog. I hear that way too much. Oh, well, you can't train a working dog with positive reinforcement. Baloney. You absolutely can train a working dog with positive reinforcement. And in fact, if you did, the dog would be better. They'd be more willing to work, more willing to train faster at learning new material because they enjoyed it so much and they're so stubborn. 01:29:16:19 - 01:29:56:08Michael J. AccettaIf you have a strong, confident, stubborn, working, lined dog, positive reinforcement is perfect. Perfect for them because of how determined and dedicated they will be to doing that behavior because they know that it works. I'll get passionate here because it's a passionate topic for me. The nuance, different subtle manipulations of the dog training industry creates a division. It creates the divide if you don't want your dog to struggle in training, you have to play with them like a companion dog. 01:29:56:11 - 01:30:28:05Michael J. AccettaThat's their only job. And treat them and train them to level the high level of working dog status. That's the secret train them with excitement and joy and happiness, but to the level of a working line dog. That's what we did with Bear My goal was on making it as fun as possible for the dog, but understanding that this owner wanted the dog at such a high level I said, Great, we can do that. 01:30:29:03 - 01:30:48:12Michael J. AccettaAll we have to do is fix these mechanics. And by the way, at the end of the session, she said she was fantastic. She did not know that I knew as much as I knew about dogs in general. She didn't know me, but she didn't think the things that I knew would apply to working like dogs. And I didn't try to validate it by telling her that I had worked with 12,000 dogs. 01:30:48:18 - 01:31:07:11Michael J. AccettaI didn't try to validate it by saying I had an animal science degree and had worked with individuals who have 50 years of police dog training experience I didn't validate it by saying, I've been in a bite suit and I've done bite work and I've done detection work and I've worked with police dogs. I didn't validate any of that to her because honestly nothing was getting into her brain at that moment. 01:31:07:11 - 01:31:28:04Michael J. AccettaShe was just defensive, which is oftentimes what happens when you hear this kind of information, which is why I told you in the beginning of this episode that it was going to be an ego bump, it was going to hurt your feelings because it's supposed to. It has to wake you up if you're training a police dog or working like dog, a high energy dog. 01:31:28:05 - 01:31:47:06Michael J. AccettaI encourage you this week is my task for you this week. This week, all I want you to do is play with your dog in between all the obedience that you do. Obedience first playing and then obedience again. If you have a companion dog, same thing. Instead of just doing obedience, start to treat them like a high end working dog. 01:31:47:17 - 01:32:22:09Michael J. AccettaDo obedience. And it doesn't have to be aggressive obedience on either side. Obedience can still be fun obedience then play and then obedience again. Okay, if you're struggling with problematic behaviors, all of this still applies. And in fact I created a PDF for you to download on result in complicated bad habits without having to use punishment. Everything I talked about today on keeping things fun and exciting and keeping your dog successful is in this PDF, so I'm going to put the link in the description where you can head over to Matador Canine Ecom Forward Slash Resolving bad habits, matted, working uncommon, resolving bad habits. 01:32:22:17 - 01:32:45:10Michael J. AccettaIf you want to work with me and get one on one private coaching, head over to Matador Cain Uncommon Forward slash coaching Matador Cain Icon Forward slash coaching and we can schedule discovery call see if the training is right for you. I'm probably going to be doing a Black Friday sale. So if you're listening to this during Black Friday, make sure you schedule will call this week as soon as soon as you hear this schedule call. 01:32:45:15 - 01:32:52:17Michael J. AccettaLet's see if we can do something together so I can help you have the freedom that I get to have with my dogs. Thank you guys for listening and I'll see you next time.

Would you believe me if I told you that there are only 5 reasons your dog does anything? Only five. Although it might be hard to hear, dog training stems from understanding these 5 reasons your dog does (fill in here, hahaha). Anything you can imagine is a result of these 5 influences and today I am going to go over each one of them and why they are so powerful over your dog's behavior. Learn how to stop your dog's bad behavior with this free guide https://www.matadork9.com/resolvingbadhabits Work with me! Schedule a discovery call here https://www.matadork9.com/coaching Episode Transcription: Your dog only does certain behavior, certain things for five influences, five reasons Now I'm going to break down each one of those reasons, and it's going to help you start to take the actionable steps toward solving the problem with your dog. We're not necessarily going over those actionable steps today. However, once you understand how to diagnose the problem, you know where it stemmed from and what the reason is. 00:00:57:09 - 00:01:19:04Michael J. AccettaIt can help you move on the right path. So if you have a dog that has behavior problems, they are chewing on the couch, they're chasing after the kids, they're barking at strangers. There's a definite reason as to why that's happening, and it's going to fall into one of these five influences. That's it. It is super simple. It's not about this or that or all of that. 00:01:20:02 - 00:01:44:03Michael J. AccettaGet that out of your brain now. And I want you to start to absorb that. There's only five reasons why your dog does anything Are you ready? The first reason is going to be genetics. Now, this episode, this podcast that I'm recording here actually stemmed from somebody saying that if you get a dog, any breed of dog, of course, you should do your research. 00:01:44:03 - 00:02:02:06Michael J. AccettaOf course, I agree with that. But they were saying that if you got a breed of dog, you should understand that you are getting exactly what that breeds description is. And that is just not true. We put so much emphasis on genetics, actually an overemphasis on genetics, and then we say that there's nothing we can do about it. 00:02:02:09 - 00:02:35:01Michael J. AccettaSo I don't want you to put an overemphasis on the genetic breeding and selection of your dog. Yes, it's something to consider. Yes, it's something to look at when selecting the right dog. However, we cannot assume just because we got a German shepherd or just because we got an Australian shepherd or just because we got a bulldog, that they're going to act like all the other German shepherds, Australian shepherds and bulldogs that we've met, for example, I was working with a German shepherd once who was the complete opposite of a German shepherd, stereotypical. 00:02:35:09 - 00:02:54:13Michael J. AccettaOkay. It acted more like a golden retriever. It didn't want to do anything, but it was happy about seeing people. It didn't bark at other people. It didn't mouthy you at all, barely wanted to use its mouth. It was completely opposite to what most people would consider a German shepherd to act like another. An advanced breed would be a Belgian Malinois. 00:02:54:14 - 00:03:27:05Michael J. AccettaPeople get a Belgian male and what to do, bite sports work, agility, frisbee, really intense kind of stuff. And I was working with this beautiful Malinois and the gentleman wanted to do bite sports, wanted to do agility, wanted to do all this stuff. And we couldn't because the dog was terrified, terrified of the environment. Okay. Now that might stem into some of the other reasons for behavior, but I want to understand that just because you're looking at a specific breed doesn't mean you're going to get every single aspect of that breed. 00:03:27:14 - 00:03:56:09Michael J. AccettaOkay. I understand that. That's a possibility. Now, that being said, within genetics, there's two factors that we can control. Number one is the breed. And number two is the selection of the ancestry. Okay. So if you're looking for a dog or if you're looking for your second dog or you just want to have some fun with it, you can look at what your dog's stereotypical variables are or selection or behaviors that they do, and then see how close your dog fits that. 00:03:57:12 - 00:04:21:04Michael J. AccettaIf your dog does not fit and fit it very well, then there might be another reason All right. And we're going to go over those. There might be another reason as to why your dog's not fitting into the stereotypical breed behaviors However, if you're looking to get a dog, then you're going to need to talk to a breeder and find out what the ancestry of the dogs are. 00:04:21:12 - 00:04:41:11Michael J. AccettaOkay. The lineage that heavily influences the specific genetics of the dog that you get. This is where people who are doing bite sports work or police work, they're looking at sporting line versus working line dogs. It's a very big conversation, a very big topic. They want to know, are they getting a sporting line dog or are they getting a working line dog? 00:04:41:11 - 00:05:01:03Michael J. AccettaBecause they're going to behave differently? Not to say that they're going to be perfect, right? You could get a working loan dog that acts more like a sport dog and you can get a sport lined dog that acts more like a work dog, but you're getting as close as you could possibly get, roughly. Of course, there's variances in all of this stuff. 00:05:01:07 - 00:05:26:09Michael J. AccettaOkay. That's genetics. Why my dog does a specific thing might be contributed to genetics. They're breeding. They're hurting. Sorry, they're hurting. Their breed would determine that they hurt. Or maybe they point. Maybe they were tree really well. Okay. I know plenty of golden retrievers who do not retrieve, and I know plenty of pointers who have never pointed ever in some dogs do it naturally, and that is attributed to their genetics. 00:05:27:04 - 00:05:54:11Michael J. AccettaOkay. Don't get so hung up on the breed specifically. Just because it's a German shepherd. Just because it's an Australian shepherd, just because it's a Belgian Malinois doesn't mean it's going to act like that specific breed. It could act like a completely different one. Okay. So let's move on to two. The second one, after genetics, after we say, Okay, I've looked at the genetics, my dog is not acting the way they're acting right now because of the genetics, you know, chewing up the couch. 00:05:55:14 - 00:06:17:14Michael J. AccettaThey're not hurting, but they're are hurting dogs. So maybe that has nothing to do with the genetics. Let's move on to step two chemistry. The chemistry in your dog's brain, whether it's a naturally occurring or it's influenced by their diet, is going to contribute to the imbalance in their brain or hypervigilance in their brain, just like people. So there's a chemical imbalance in your dog's brain. 00:06:17:14 - 00:06:44:11Michael J. AccettaIt is going to influence how they act, whether they they're slow, whether they're jittery, whether they're nervous, whether they can't walk straight. Right. There's a chemical imbalance in your dog's brain. Oftentimes people ignore this because they don't want to accept it, just like human beings, right? If you have ADHD or you have something else Sometimes medication can help you on the road to learning the coping mechanisms. 00:06:45:12 - 00:07:03:13Michael J. AccettaIf you don't go through the process of learning how to cope with certain behaviors, you can never get any better. Same thing goes for your dog. If your dog is freaking out all of the time and losing their mind there is no way for you to give them new information to teach them how to cope with the world. 00:07:04:08 - 00:07:24:13Michael J. AccettaSo what we need to do is get us on a level playing field where they can start to interact with us and absorb the new information that we're trying to teach them, and then we can win them off medication. I was working with a dog named Piper to walk into the facility and immediately want to kill me. She would look at me, she would lunge at me, and this was the dog's problem. 00:07:24:13 - 00:07:49:02Michael J. AccettaIt was reactive towards men So after a few sessions, we started to say, Okay, we're not seeing as much progress as we typically do with these kind of cases. Why don't you bring the dog to the vet and see what the vet says? They did a screening test, whatever. And then they recommended some medication to lower the dog's threshold to make it easier for the dog to start to absorb information because of how worked up she was. 00:07:49:08 - 00:08:10:00Michael J. AccettaShe wasn't getting anything. Those training sessions. She wasn't absorbing the information. It would have taken years for her to get it, and then it might not have been possible because her brain wasn't in the right space. So they administered a very low dosage of medication. The dog then started to accept the new information of training, started to realize, Oh, this guy's nice. 00:08:10:00 - 00:08:25:04Michael J. AccettaThis guy wants to do fun stuff with me. I want to do fun stuff, like playing agility. And so now we were able to progress, and eventually we got the dog off of medication. We were able to wean the dog off medication because the dog had learned a coping skills of when it's stressed out and it doesn't like somebody and it wants to lash out at them. 00:08:25:08 - 00:08:49:11Michael J. AccettaIt can just walk away from the situation. He couldn't do that when its brain wasn't in the right mindset. The brain wasn't able to think clear enough because of how crazy it was. So if your dog is completely over the moon for something or there might be another neurological thing going on, whatever it may be when it over, the moon, whether they're completely lethargic, there might be a chemical imbalance. 00:08:49:11 - 00:09:19:11Michael J. AccettaAnd again, that could either be from a natural occurrence from the genetics. Okay, that's happened or it could be from diet. Okay, so you're feeding your dog something and it's causing a chemical imbalance. Now, that's one and two, genetics, chemistry. I'm going to move on to healthier. And personally, I had this happen with my own dog. Now I got Hawk when he was four years old, he had an abscess in his cheek that made him aggressive. 00:09:20:00 - 00:09:41:06Michael J. AccettaAnd I know that sounds ridiculous. Your dog's aggressive. Yes, he was simply because he had a pain in his cheek. And when you pressed it, he would react. Stands to reason. If I have a headache, I'm going to be a little more grumpy Right. And so once I solve the health problem, the behavior almost immediately went away. He's no longer aggressive. 00:09:42:10 - 00:10:14:06Michael J. AccettaThat's an influence of health That is because there's a health problem causing what's called pain induced aggression. But that's not only what it does, right. Health doesn't just cause aggression. It can cause a bunch of other things. But essentially what we're looking at is, okay, genetics checked off, chemistry checked up. Is there a health problem? My dog doesn't want to sit because their hip hurts My dog doesn't want to run quickly to me in a recall because they broke their toe okay. 00:10:14:08 - 00:10:37:08Michael J. AccettaMy dog doesn't want to go up the stairs because their shoulder hurts. There's a health reason involved. My dog doesn't want to keep running because they don't have any more cardiovascular capacity to continue running. They are beat. They're wiped out. They're tired. That's a health problem. Now, I know I've been talking a lot about behavior problems, but I also want to flip the script and talk about the positive side streets, right? 00:10:37:08 - 00:10:56:09Michael J. AccettaIf you're looking to do something with your dog and you also want to go through these checklists. Okay. I want my dog to be a sport dog. I want to agility with them. Great. Let's first look at genetics. I'm going to look at genetics. Find the breeds. Maybe I pick three or five that I'm willing to work with in order to have an agility title. 00:10:57:08 - 00:11:15:03Michael J. AccettaThen I'm going to look at the chemistry. So I want to look at the tests. If I'm getting from a breeder, I want to look at the lab results and see what's the chemistry of this dog. You know, if you understand chemistry, if you understand what you're looking at, great for you. That's fantastic. Or you can just ask your vet to kind of explain it to you or the breeder if they're a competent individual. 00:11:16:09 - 00:11:32:04Michael J. AccettaAnd then you want to look at health. So after you've looked at the chemistry, okay, the chemistry all looks normal, which is great. That means we're not going to run into any problems when we're doing agility. And I want to look at the health, I want to look at the parents of the dog genetics. They are going to influence the help, and my dog's health is going to influence their performance. 00:11:33:12 - 00:11:56:10Michael J. AccettaSee how it all trickles down like that? So then when the health is involved, I want to make sure that my dog has a long career in agility, a long career in spite sports. But then also I can influence the health by doing certain exercises, conditioning routines, strengthening certain muscles to make sure that my dog can perform at their absolute best. 00:11:57:01 - 00:12:22:08Michael J. AccettaGenetics. Chemistry helpful now. Still sticking to the good side of things. We're going to move on to the fourth influence of behavior. The fourth reason your dog does anything, and that's going to be early experiences, early experiences. This is between three to 12 weeks old. Sometimes it extends a little bit past that, depending on the breed it could go up to six weeks. 00:12:23:01 - 00:12:47:01Michael J. AccettaBut roughly we're looking at the first three to 12 weeks of age. Oftentimes this is going to be with the mom of the dog unless there's been some unnatural occurrence or this is going to be under the supervision of a breeder. So the breeders really responsible for the socialization period of what's called the three to 12 weeks of your dog's behavior. 00:12:47:01 - 00:13:06:07Michael J. AccettaAnd what they need to learn is everything that is normal to them. They need to learn what a car is, how to walk, how to have a leash on, how to have a harness on how to be handled, manipulated, groomed. All of that should happen before 12 weeks of age. Otherwise, you're moving into the next category. I want to talk about that in just a second. 00:13:07:07 - 00:13:24:02Michael J. AccettaSo that experience is huge. Think about a dog that grew up on a farm or in the city, vice versa. The dog grew up in the city and you've moved it to the farm. It's going to behave very differently as well as if you had a dog grown up in the farm and you brought it to the city. 00:13:24:02 - 00:13:43:06Michael J. AccettaIt's going to behave very differently. The early experiences that that dog had is trying to help guide it through the rest of its life. And so if we don't set them up for success between three to 12 weeks of age when they eventually get to where they're going to be for the rest of their life, they're going to struggle because they just don't know what to do. 00:13:44:09 - 00:14:05:13Michael J. AccettaSee the problem here? So the best thing that you can do is talk to your breeder or if you're rescuing a dog. Ask what the early experiences were that we have a better understanding, especially if you're going to be doing sports or something like that. You don't necessarily want to have behavior problems creeping up while you're trying to focus on getting titles and ribbons and awards and stuff. 00:14:06:09 - 00:14:23:14Michael J. AccettaSo depending on what your goal is now, if you already have a dog, then they have behavior problems. And you've looked at the genetics, chemistry and health. It could be from the early experience, but unfortunately there's nothing you can do about it, right? Chemistry can go see that. Genetics, you can't do anything about it. Health, you can go see of that and you can fix the problem. 00:14:23:14 - 00:14:42:06Michael J. AccettaMaybe you strengthened some muscles, maybe you do some rehab, that kind of thing. Early experiences. There's nothing you can do about it's already happened. We've moved on from it, and what we need to do is move into the last influence behavior, and that's adult learning. Why does your dog do blink? It's because they've learned it as an adult. 00:14:43:04 - 00:15:01:07Michael J. AccettaOkay, why does my dog jump up on people? They've learned that jumping on people gets them praise, gets them to say hello. So of course, they're going to jump on more people, right? Why does my dog sit patiently when I go out the front door? Because they've learned to sit patiently before I go out the front door. See the difference here? 00:15:01:07 - 00:15:22:10Michael J. AccettaSee how we can influence the rest of their lives through these five influences the behaviors that your dog does every single day are only influenced by these five things. So no matter what behavior problems you're having, no matter what your goals are with your dog, you have to look at these five things and start to understand where they stem from in order to move forward. 00:15:23:03 - 00:15:43:06Michael J. AccettaBut there's really only two that you can control. Three you can control sorry, chemistry health and adult learning. So if it's not, chemistry of chemistry is not the problem in health isn't the problem, then you need to do more training. If you've done a ridiculous amount of training and something's not clicking, go backward. Or maybe it's a health problem. 00:15:43:06 - 00:16:03:12Michael J. AccettaNo, it's not a health problem. Maybe it's a chemistry problem. So you can go back and forth between those three chemistry, health and adult learning or adult learning health and the chemistry. I'll give you a couple examples here. My dog's not sitting Is it their hip or just have I not done enough training? My dog is not recalling well, is it a health issue? 00:16:04:01 - 00:16:26:09Michael J. AccettaIs it a chemistry issue or is it adult learning? I just haven't done recall enough. I haven't practiced the behavior enough in able to warrant doing it in that environment. Now, a genetics could also play a role in that if my dog's not recalling because they're pointing at a rabbit. Well, the genetics would say that the dog should point at the rabbit and should continue to stare at it. 00:16:27:06 - 00:16:49:11Michael J. AccettaNow we need to do something else. We need to do more training to combat the genetic side of your dog's predisposition. Okay. Now, if you're struggling with any of these problem behaviors and understanding, okay, how does this work? How do I fix any of this? I made a guide for it. It's called the resolving complicated bad habits without using punishment. 00:16:49:12 - 00:17:15:03Michael J. AccettaThe links going to be in the description. Or you can just go to Matador, Canine Brilliance Forward Slash, resolving bad habits. Matador, Canine Brilliance. I'm sorry, matador, canada. Come forward. Let resolving bad habits matter lurking out of that, come forward. Slash resolving bad habits I'm going to leave you with this. Just because your dog's behavior stemmed from one of these places does not mean you have no control over it. 00:17:16:00 - 00:17:51:03Michael J. AccettaYou have complete control over your dog's behavior whether you think you do or not. And when you do train your dog, when you do work with them, when you do solve problems, not only does it build a stronger relationship, you get to have more freedom with your dog. But the world opens up. I promise you, no matter how difficult it is right now to work through these problem behaviors, to work through the the difficult training sessions, the obstacles you have in order to get to where you want to get to the world opens up when your dog is well-behaved, when they're well trained, when you get to experience new things with them for the first time 00:17:51:03 - 00:18:01:13Michael J. Accettaand have full confidence that they're going to be safe and respond and listen to you because you've done the work, because you've put the effort to get out there, go train. Thank you guys for listening and I'll see you next

Wanting your dog to be off-leash is not just some power move to show your neighbors you are better than them. It can actually be life-changing for your dog and save them in case of emergencies. However, there are a few things you must teach and get out of the way before you embark on this new adventure of off-leash training. In today's episode, I go over exactly what you need to teach and feel confident in before unclipping the leash for the first time. You will also learn exactly how I have taught over 12,000 dogs and their owners to have reliable dogs that they can trust off-leash wherever they go. Here is a free PDF download on stopping bad behaviors without punishment to get you started in training and succeeding. https://www.matadork9.com/resolvingbadhabits If you want to work one on one with me schedule a discovery call here and let's make sure this is a right fit for you. https://www.matadork9.com/coaching Episode Transcript 00:00:35:12 - 00:00:59:05Michael J. AccettaWhat I want to talk about today is off leash training, off leash training and the prerequisites that are required in order to have an off leash dog. It's not as simple as just unclip the leash, although a lot of people just do that. That actually gives me anxiety. That makes me nervous when someone just unclip the leash. And I've been around enough trainers and enough individuals that I know. 00:00:59:10 - 00:01:20:04Michael J. AccettaSome people just do it. They just go, Oh, it's going to be totally fine. Let me just unclip my dog's leash. And, you know, they're not going anywhere. I know they're not going anywhere. Great. Okay, that's wonderful. But for me, I need to have some reassurance. I need to know that there's been training involved. I need to know that I have multiple boxes checked off before I unclip my dog's leash. 00:01:20:14 - 00:01:42:10Michael J. AccettaSo we're going to go over those things. What do I need to check off? In order to make sure that my dog's ready to have the leash taken off that are we can start having off leash adventures that we could go into the woods and go for hikes or in the event of an emergency. I know that I can call my dog when I need to if the leash breaks or the harness snaps or I trip and I dropped a leash. 00:01:42:10 - 00:02:01:13Michael J. AccettaI've seen all of these things happen when your dog's running away. How do you get them to come back? Now, I was thinking the other day was walking with my family of a three year old son and my significant other. We were just walking. We were kind of enjoying our day. We had the dog with us, and I started thinking my son has never worn a leash. 00:02:02:01 - 00:02:24:12Michael J. AccettaMy three year old son has never worn a leash, but my dog has. They've always worn leashes. And I started to think, what if society said dogs can't have leashes? Like we don't put leashes on kids, okay? There's a certain prerequisite to a child being able to walk around, right, without being carried or put in a stroller. They have to listen. 00:02:25:01 - 00:02:41:11Michael J. AccettaThey have to understand what you're saying and they have to have some type of engagement with you. They want to walk with you. They want to hold your hand. Right. They want to ask you questions. So they're engaged with you. And we don't even think about that when it comes to our kids. But we never think about it. 00:02:41:11 - 00:03:06:05Michael J. AccettaWhen it comes to a dog. So I was really thinking about it and I was like, okay, let me let me look at this from a scientific perspective, because that's what I do as a dog trainer. Our dogs get used to having the leash on and we get used to the leash being there. We've essentially become dependent on the leash keeping our dog at a certain distance, it being, you know, six feet or ten feet if you have a long legs or 30 feet, if you have a really long range. 00:03:07:00 - 00:03:26:14Michael J. AccettaI like to walk with a four foot leash because I like my dog to really close. But if I just lost the leash and I had to practice building my dog's engagement and rewarding them heavily, wouldn't it be different for them? Would it change something? And that's what we're going to talk about today. The prerequisites to having an off leash dog. 00:03:27:05 - 00:03:52:09Michael J. AccettaWhat I do with my clients when I want to build engagement is I tell them to get rid of the leash because there's two main things we need to have in the beginning engagement. Actually, there's three things. There's engagement there's confidence in socialization before you take the leash off your dog. So that engagement comes from practicing, giving them treats, giving them praise, having them want to interact with you. 00:03:52:09 - 00:04:05:06Michael J. AccettaIf they don't want to interact with you, then you can't have an off leash dog because once you take the leash off, they're going to go run after something else. They're going to go run after the squirrel. They're going to go say hi to somebody. They're going to go sniff the grass over there and you have nothing to get them back. 00:04:05:06 - 00:04:22:14Michael J. AccettaNo reason for them to want to come back. Okay. So you have to have me engagement aspect there. If you don't have the engagement aspect, nothing is going to happen. You just you don't have the confidence to let your dog off leash. And I think that's one of the biggest pieces that are missing when we have our kids. 00:04:23:01 - 00:04:43:02Michael J. AccettaOur kids want to engage with us. They want to talk with us. Or if you went for a walk with a friend, your friend doesn't just take off in another direction. No, they hang out with you, right? They want to interact with you. You guys are having a conversation. If something was really blown out of proportion and they ran off to go somewhere else, well, the conversation wasn't as important as that. 00:04:43:02 - 00:05:01:02Michael J. AccettaSomething else. My point being, there's a simple way to build engagement with your dog, and that's treats. That's what we always talk about, right? Something that can reward the dog and encourage them to continue hanging out with us. The more you reward them, the more they want to hang out. The more you get to reward them, the more they want to hang out. 00:05:01:09 - 00:05:23:01Michael J. AccettaAnd then we talk some about some advanced stuff where you don't have to reward them as much. But that's a later episode. So once you have the engagement down, your dog wants to engage with you. You then need to build confidence and socialization. You cannot have an off leash dog if they are nervous or unsocial. So if you have a reactive dog, then you can't have them off leash. 00:05:23:06 - 00:05:48:08Michael J. AccettaKind of makes sense, right? My first dog, her name is Breezy, but she's still alive today. I think she's nine or ten years old. She lives with my parents and she is terrified of the world, or at least she was for a majority of the time. We've done a lot of confidence building over the years, but in the beginning, when I first got her, she was terrified and we were always nervous about her slipping out of her collar or the leash breaking or the harness breaking anything could happen. 00:05:48:10 - 00:06:11:00Michael J. AccettaThis is where my brain, my my brain, my brain goes all the time, right? I'm constantly thinking about what is going on, what could be the potential problem And so instead of waiting for it to happen, I intentionally trained for it. So we worked on a recall very, very subtly every day. We just did a little bit here, a little bit there, building engagement outside, trying to build up her confidence. 00:06:11:09 - 00:06:41:09Michael J. AccettaAnd one day she ran out of the front door, sprinted down the block after our money, and I was able to call her name and get her to turn around. She practically skidded on the floor. And it made it so much easier and better for me because of all the practice that we did, because otherwise my dog would have ran down the street, gone to a main highway chasing after this funny and potentially gotten hurt but because I had engagement, because I did a lot of practice, I was able to at least get her attention. 00:06:42:09 - 00:07:03:03Michael J. AccettaThen she freaked out because she was outside and she was nervous about being outside and she just kind of froze. So we had to then work on confidence. We had to work on the obedience part of being out in the world and socializing. And that's what we're going to get to in a second. What confidence if your dog is nervous, they can't think clearly when they're nervous. 00:07:03:11 - 00:07:22:09Michael J. AccettaA friend of mine had a German shepherd who was afraid of lightning and rain. It got out during a storm. Of course, the lightning happens, the rain happens, the dog freaks out. And then it ended up a couple of blocks away. I think it was lost for two or three days because it got afraid. It got so scared, it ran to try to protect itself. 00:07:23:10 - 00:07:47:10Michael J. AccettaAnd the owner couldn't then go get the dog, couldn't recall the dog, couldn't get the dog's attention, couldn't do anything because the dog was that afraid. And so if you know what your dog is afraid of, I encourage you to practice everything you do with your dog. It doesn't just have to be recalled, doesn't just have to be engagement, doesn't just have to be obedience, but tricks, manners, Agility it, conditioning. 00:07:47:10 - 00:07:58:05Michael J. AccettaAnything you do in your dog, you should practice in the situations where they might be a little nervous. It's going to build up their confidence, their certainty in their capabilities of what to do when they are nervous. 00:08:02:04 - 00:08:26:05Michael J. AccettaI want to take a moment and thank all of our loyal followers. This podcast would not be possible without you. Leave a review and let us know what you like and want to learn on the next episode of the Acknowledged Dog podcast. Now back to the show and then you need to have a dog that's well socialized. As I mentioned before, if your dog is reactive, they're barking at people and barking at other dogs. 00:08:26:05 - 00:08:56:08Michael J. AccettaThey're barking at squirrels, cats, bicycles, skateboards, cars, whatever it is, your dog is not well socialized enough to be trusted off leash What do I mean by that? You, my dogs barking at people. I can't take them off leash because eventually they're then going to go run to the person and they're going to be so worked up and all over the place that they end up either, you know, maybe biting the person potentially if they're reactive, maybe they get up there and scare the person and the person starts swinging at the dog. 00:08:56:14 - 00:09:14:02Michael J. AccettaAbsolutely. Can happen. And it's absolutely happened. Right? So you don't tick tock all the time on social media all the time. So your dog needs to be socially seized with those things. They need to not necessarily love them. They don't have to love them to be socialized with them. They just need to know that they exist and that they're normal. 00:09:14:14 - 00:09:46:04Michael J. AccettaLike socialization does not necessarily mean your dog has to love something or play with it or enjoy being around it. They just have to be neutral. Around it. They shouldn't be overly dramatic on one side or overly excited on another. Usually people get this confused when they get puppies. So if you have a puppy and someone saying, Oh, you got to socialize your dog, it doesn't necessarily mean bring them to playdates or go to the dog park or bring them to PetSmart or bring them to a boarding place where they can play with other dogs every day daycare. 00:09:47:01 - 00:10:12:07Michael J. AccettaAnd it's not what socialization means. Socialization means they can be neutral in the presence of anything a bike, a car, a shopping cart, a guitar, someone with a hat on, someone with glasses on, someone stomping and workman's right, holding them upside down, grabbing them, squeezing them. Those things they have to get socialize. Do they have to get used to those and know that they're normal? 00:10:12:07 - 00:10:35:00Michael J. AccettaIf they don't know they're normal, they're going to be a little weary of them. And if you're out in an environment your dog's off leash, either by accident or intentional in something spooks them and they're not used to it. Ride a car like those big trucks that whistle, then do not do it. All right. Those trucks often scare dogs or 18 wheelers. 00:10:35:06 - 00:10:52:06Michael J. AccettaThose often scare dogs because they're just not used to them as much unless you live in an environment where they hear them all the time until you it would behoove you to play sounds like that in your house while your dog eats best way to do it. There is nothing for them to actually get afraid of sight wise. 00:10:52:06 - 00:11:17:09Michael J. AccettaThey don't smell anything but they can hear it. They can use the the south. Then when you're out in the environment because they're used to one aspect of it, the sound, you can start to focus on the site and the smell of it. You're kind of your chopping away, if you will. If you have this giant piece of marble, you're chipping away at all the pieces that might cause a problem and you're leaving just a masterpiece in the middle, which is all the success of the off leash ness that you're striving for, that you're looking for. 00:11:18:07 - 00:11:43:10Michael J. AccettaSo the three things engagement, first confidence. And then socialization. Now that's just an emotional kind of prerequisite, behavioral wise, the behaviors that our dog does. There's three more prerequisites that you need to have an off leash dog. Now, this can go over any type of obedience that you want, and that's totally fine. It could be sit you can be down you could be heel. 00:11:43:11 - 00:12:01:04Michael J. AccettaThey could stand in between your legs. It could be a place map, right? You just walk around with a blanket, throw the blanket down, have your dog lay on it. But these are the three requirements Number one, it must be reliable the first time you say it the first time, not sit, sit, sit, sit, sit. It should be sit. 00:12:01:12 - 00:12:30:01Michael J. AccettaMy dog does it immediately. Okay. Before you even finished saying the word, they should start the behave. That's how you know that your dog is reliable in the behavior. Okay? They know what the behavior is. If they don't know what the behavior is, they're not going to do it. Oftentimes, that's the problem. When your dog's not listening, you tell them to do something, and either it's not the right word that they've associated or it's not in the same environment that they learned it. 00:12:30:02 - 00:12:50:08Michael J. AccettaSo they're a little confused Dogs don't generally as well. And so if you tell your dog to get off the couch in the word, you always do say as off, right? To say off, off off. Eventually your dog does pick up. That off means get off the couch. But today you said get off the couch. Well, those are two different things. 00:12:50:08 - 00:13:11:00Michael J. AccettaRight off and get off the couch are completely different. So if I say the word often, I know my dog can jump off. Great. Now I can reward them for listening to the correct word and the right terminology. And the behavior that they did. But if I say get off the couch and they don't do it, and then I scored them for it, they go, Oh, well, I don't really like listening to mom or dad because they scold me when I don't understand. 00:13:11:06 - 00:13:33:09Michael J. AccettaNobody wants to learn when they're getting scolded for not understanding something nobody wants to learn when they're getting scolded for not understanding something that just doesn't it doesn't help them learn. It doesn't make them feel confident, doesn't make them feel comfortable. It doesn't open their brain to the possibilities of what life could be like if they learned that material. 00:13:34:12 - 00:13:50:14Michael J. AccettaSame thing with your dog. Your dog is going to shut down and go. I don't know why mom and dad are mad at me, but I'm going to go do something else. So they have an off leash dog. You must have that level of reliability when I say sit, my dog has to sit every time. They can't ignore me. 00:13:51:01 - 00:14:15:05Michael J. AccettaThey can't choose not to. They can't get distracted by something every time you say sit, they must do it now. The second prerequisite to obedience behaviors is having them at any distance. And any duration. Rabbit. Okay, any distance or duration. So if my dog is 100 feet away and I say the words sit, he still has to sit. 00:14:16:06 - 00:14:33:10Michael J. AccettaIf my dog is ten feet away and I say Sit, they have to sit or down, or he'll write. Even if it's at a distance, they're 100 feet away. I say he'll they should run all the way over and then he'll next to my leg. So you have to be able to do it at a distance because if your dog is off leash, they're going to get far away from you. 00:14:34:03 - 00:14:46:11Michael J. AccettaLike that's the whole point of having an off leash dog. If you're going to go hiking with your dog or maybe you're going to go to the lake or maybe going to go to a field and start playing fetch or whatever it is if your dog is off leash they're going to be farther away from you than normal. 00:14:47:01 - 00:15:08:02Michael J. AccettaIf they were going to be close to you, you might as well just put them on a leash for safety reasons. But if they're going to be farther away from you than normal, you need to practice having them listen farther away from you than normal. Oftentimes people run into the problem of having the dog on a 30 foot leash and practicing on a 30 foot leash and then once they take that 30 foot leash off, the dog knows, oh, 31 feet. 00:15:08:05 - 00:15:28:14Michael J. AccettaI don't have to listen. That's often the problem with using punishment to get your dog to do something. There's a contingency involved. The leash is there, the collar is there. My presence is there that says, You must do this. Now, if you don't do it, I'm going to correct you, okay? We don't want that. We want it or to want to do the thing. 00:15:29:01 - 00:15:48:06Michael J. AccettaIf they want to do the thing, then we can reward that and they start to think, Oh, I'm the one making the decisions here. Dad just seems to give me stuff. When I do stuff, I can make him give me treats. That's fantastic. I'm fine. With that. If my dog thinks that it's great, I let my son think that he's in charge half the time. 00:15:49:06 - 00:16:06:12Michael J. AccettaOkay, when we go out to eat, I say, Hey, do you want this or this? I give him the option of two things, and he goes, Oh, I want that great choice. I love that. So he he's kind of in a box where he can make a decision and that's what we're doing with our dog, especially when you have a leash or you're doing some kind of setup like that, right? 00:16:06:12 - 00:16:26:03Michael J. AccettaYou're creating a situation where, well, they can either go ahead and get nothing or they can come towards me and get a tree more. Which is it? Which do you want to do? And we just make the one so interesting, so inviting to them that they choose the option we wanted them to choose in the first place. But in their mind, they thought they figured the game out. 00:16:26:06 - 00:16:40:01Michael J. AccettaOh, I figured it out. All I've got to do is go to Dad and he's going to give me a tree. And then, of course, there's advanced techniques to getting rid of the tree and later on. Okay, would you dog needs to be able to listen at a distance. They also need to be able to listen for duration, for timing. 00:16:40:10 - 00:17:13:05Michael J. AccettaThis is often overlooked, and it's one of the fundamentals to having a dog that listens reliably and on the road to off leash. So what do I mean by duration? I mean how long it takes your dog to do something? No, actually mean the opposite. How long your dog is capable of doing the behavior. If your dog is sitting and they sit for 5 seconds and then they just pop up expecting a treat or expecting to go somewhere or do something else, or that's just the habit that they've gotten into now what ends up happening is that's the routine. 00:17:13:05 - 00:17:28:12Michael J. AccettaI sit, I wait for 5 seconds, I get up and I go do something else. What we want to have happen is when you say sit, you should sit forever. Until you tell them to do something else, whether it be you tell them down, you tell them to recall to you or you release them, you can have a release word. 00:17:28:12 - 00:17:57:00Michael J. AccettaRight? Okay. Is my dog's release work? Meaning you can go do something else. So the duration is highly important because if you're going to teach it down at a distance, and it's an emergency behavior, right? It's an emergency obedience behavior. My dog is running after something and I say down. I need to be able to get up to them and grab their collar because the situation might warrant not being able to recall them to me. 00:17:57:00 - 00:18:30:04Michael J. AccettaMaybe I was lucky to get the down because of the level of distraction in the environment. I don't want to then push my luck by trying to recall them, which releases them from the down and creates the potential for them to run after the thing that they were running after. So I need I need to have something that can keep them there also, duration is going to help create space between whatever it is that's distracting them and the urge to get up and go after it. 00:18:31:06 - 00:19:04:11Michael J. AccettaWhat do I mean by that? If my dog can sit in and down uninterrupted by any distractions for 3 minutes, once we start to increase the level of distractions, we increase the difficulty. The duration is going to go down. This means if 3 minutes with no distractions turns out to be 30 seconds with distractions. So I've actually given myself a better opportunity, better chance of succeeding, given my dog a better chance of succeeding simply because I practiced a little bit more duration than normal. 00:19:05:03 - 00:19:23:03Michael J. AccettaThen maybe what I need in an average life right? My dog just got used to it. Oh, 3 minutes. I'm going to stay in this down. Perfect. That's fine. Then, with the distractions. Oh, it's 30 seconds, whatever it may be. Okay, now there's one more prerequisite when it comes to emergency behaviors that you have to dial in. Nobody talks about this. 00:19:23:03 - 00:19:47:04Michael J. AccettaNobody does it. And it is one of the biggest mistakes okay? If you're going to have a dog that's off leash, they need to be able to listen in any orientation. What the hell do I mean by orientation? I mean, in relation to you, if you were to think about a compass or a clock, it's easier to think about as a clock if you're facing 12:00 they're facing 12:00. 00:19:47:07 - 00:20:15:07Michael J. AccettaWill they still listen? If you're facing 12:00 and they're facing 6:00, will they still listen? Right. Oftentimes we're facing 12:00 and they're facing 6:00. So we're looking at each other like this. What happens when they're looking the wrong way? What happens when they're looking away from you and they're running away from it? That's what happens when they chase after something and when you don't practice them listening, running away from you, they don't ever learn to turn around in order to come back. 00:20:15:09 - 00:20:42:10Michael J. AccettaMaybe you don't want them to. Maybe you want them to stop and face the direction they're going. Maybe you're doing hunting work or you're doing bite work or some kind of sport event. So you want them to continue, drop into a down and stay facing their direction. That's totally fine. You can train them, but most of the time when we're talking about an emergency recall or having a dog off leash, when we say their name we would want them to turn around and then we could call them to us, or we can have them turn around and then down so that we have more of their attention focused on us. 00:20:43:08 - 00:21:05:02Michael J. AccettaBut they're still added distance and that's totally fine. But you have to practice having those different orientations, whether they're facing away from you. They're the angle that aside or maybe you're in front, maybe you're facing the wrong way for whatever reason. Okay, that's more of a what's called a permutation and permutations, the orientation of two points now and how they're related to each other. 00:21:05:10 - 00:21:28:08Michael J. AccettaAnd so if you're permeated one way and they're permeated the other way, they're behind you, then, well, they still listen. Those are the things you need to practice. Okay. That's a lot of prerequisites. I want to go over all of them again, just for those who are tuning in now, it's the prerequisites for an off leash dog. One confidence two engagement. 00:21:28:10 - 00:21:54:11Michael J. AccettaThree, Socialize with the environment, especially the one that you're going to be in when you're off leash. Then you need to have emergency obedience behaviors locked down. They need to be one reliable. The first time you ask to, they need to be in control of distance, duration and distractions. Okay. And then number three, you need to be able to do it in any orientation or permutation.

Take the time to learn how to train effectively and you will have all of the freedom you could possibly want with your dog. However, this training does come at a cost, especially when you don't know how to do it effectively. So many of my clients come to me after going with another trainer and wonder why they weren't told everything from the beginning. They trusted someone and they got burnt. A lot of the time dog owners will never go back to any training and that leads their dogs to have less-than-ideal lives and more stress in the home than necessary. In today's episode, I am going to go over exactly what Balanced Training is and how it can hurt or help you depending on the situation you are in. Here is a free PDF download on stopping bad behaviors without punishment to get you started in training and succeeding. https://www.matadork9.com/resolvingbadhabits If you want to work one on one with me schedule a discovery call here and let's make sure this is a right fit for you. https://www.matadork9.com/coaching Episode Transcript 00;00;01;05 - 00;00;20;01Michael AccettaHello. Welcome to the show. My name is Michael Accetta I'm the founder of Matador Canine, brilliant author of The Dog Training Cheat Codes and host of the Acknowledged Dogs Podcast. Thank you for joining me today. Today's topic is about balanced training. Now, I appreciate your time. I appreciate you looking into this. I'm not going to use it. Let's jump right into it. 00;00;20;14 - 00;00;48;11Michael AccettaBalance training. What is it? Balance training. Is the concept an idea of using as many quadrants and what is quadrants quadrants of learning for your dog? This is positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment and negative punishment. They try to use a balanced amount. Now, many dog trainers that are switching into a balanced field, it's very popular right now, have either come from a compulsive background or a positive reinforcement background. 00;00;48;17 - 00;01;10;13Michael AccettaWhat do I mean? By that? A compulsive background is where they mainly at verses. Okay. They're correcting dogs constantly to teach them. They're using leash pressure and then releasing that pressure when the dog does do the thing that they want. Or a trainer is coming from a purely positive mindset. This means they're training dogs with a lot of treats, and maybe they weren't seeing the results that they expected. 00;01;10;26 - 00;01;34;11Michael AccettaAnd so now they're figuring out new ways to get easier results for them. Now, balance training as a whole is not a terrible idea. I'm going to tell you very, very bluntly. It is not a terrible idea. Bounce training in theory makes a lot of sense. That's exactly how dogs learn. Things get punished and things get rewarded. Things that get punished. 00;01;34;18 - 00;02;05;10Michael AccettaDecrease in the likelihood of being present and happening and things that get rewarded. Increase in the likelihood of them happening. So if you do something and I give you $100, you're more likely to do whatever it was that got the $100. That's exactly how it works. What ends up happening? However, if a trainer came from a compulsive mindset and is moving towards a balanced training, probably not because of an inner change of heart, although it is possible. 00;02;05;25 - 00;02;29;10Michael AccettaMost likely it came from social pressure because the purely positive side says you don't need to correct your dog, ever. You can teach them everything they need to know. And if you do it correctly, if you do it right and you spend the time doing it well, then you don't have to correct your dog. So a corrective based trainer is now in a very weird predicament. 00;02;30;10 - 00;02;53;07Michael AccettaEverybody's eyes are on them. Everybody is judging them. Everyone is telling them they're doing it wrong even though they have been rewarded. Mind you, first, however long they've been doing it, trainers that have been training for 40 years have been rewarded for 40 years of the same thing that they've been doing. This means it is very difficult for them to give up on their old ways and move into new ways. 00;02;53;20 - 00;03;18;18Michael AccettaUnless something is that traumatic for them, I think it comes down to social pressure. If as a whole, we're all pressuring these individuals to move away from aversive methods. They're going to find something that still allows them to do these old habits, even if intermittently, which then puts it on a variable schedule. Right? So even intermittently they can still do the old habits they have. 00;03;18;18 - 00;03;45;19Michael AccettaAnd if they fall back on those old habits, it's excusable with that. With that comes the problem of doing it too much. So a compulsive based trainer who's moved into a balanced trainer mindset still might correct their dog 90% of the time. That's just the old habit. It's going to die hard right? Old habits die hard. That's just what's going to happen. 00;03;46;16 - 00;04;07;20Michael AccettaNow, a purely positive trainer who moves into a balanced trainer mindset probably has a better skill set when it comes to using more treats and more rewards than the compulsive trainer. Now, I didn't say they just have a better skill set. They have a better skill set when it comes to treats. The problem, though, is that they can still correct wrong. 00;04;08;15 - 00;04;38;16Michael AccettaThey can still punish incorrectly, and the dog isn't going to get the information that they need. This is where a good balance trainer will get results. I'm not suggesting that they don't bounce. Trainers do get results and they do get them very quickly. However, however, at what cost is it really about going about punishing the dog for doing something it doesn't know is wrong and trying to cover that up by using treats? 00;04;39;20 - 00;05;01;16Michael AccettaNow, I want to tell you a very quick story about a dog named Neptune. This is my favorite dog in the world. If I could have him, I would while I was in college, I'm studying to be a dog trainer I was given a task of training this dog to just do general obedience. Nothing crazy, but the dog was going to say seven or eight months maybe a year old. 00;05;02;17 - 00;05;23;18Michael AccettaAbsolutely. Off the walls. Loved him for it, but he was off the walls. He could run for 2 hours a day. He could, you know, he could beat you in a race any day the week over and over and over again. He never needed to stop running. He loved life. We even got him on the treadmill for a half hour before doing any training because he had too much energy. 00;05;24;17 - 00;05;49;02Michael AccettaThat being said, we did obedience work. No big deal right now in the class that I had him, I did a lot of work making sure that he understood he had to focus on me for an extended period of time. I had to do a lot of duration work. And that's important. If you have a high energy dog and you need them to calm down, the more duration work you do, the easier it is for them to relax. 00;05;50;07 - 00;06;17;12Michael AccettaIn another class, they used compulsive methods on him. Now, this was because the college was determined to teach us all of the skills of dog training so that we had a well-rounded understanding of every aspect, tool and technology. So we also learned compulsive methods and I insisted that this dog did not need compulsive methods. I insisted so much so that a professor and I had a disagreement about it. 00;06;18;13 - 00;06;44;18Michael AccettaDidn't end in me getting a bad grade or anything. It just ended in. Okay, well, prove it. Prove that you can do this. And I did. I practiced over and over again. I did not have the skill set I do now, but with the skill set I had, I was still able to get really good results, really good obedience, simply because I worked with what I was presented with, if I had resorted to just punishing him. 00;06;46;02 - 00;07;05;15Michael AccettaThe charismatic nature of this dog would not have been there. And I could see it when he was in the other class. He wasn't bouncing around. He wasn't having a great old time. There was no smile on his face. He wasn't happy. He was just shut down. Sure, he did sit and he did down and he did his stay, but he wasn't happy about it. 00;07;06;04 - 00;07;25;13Michael AccettaAnd that dog had so much charisma. So much charisma. If you shut that down, what's the point of training the dog? Did you want a robot or do you want a well-trained dog? I would like a well-trained dog. I don't want a robot. If I'm going to have a robot, I might as well get a robot dog. They do sell them. 00;07;26;11 - 00;07;50;10Michael AccettaI think they come over from Japan or China. They do sell robot dogs that you tell them to do something and they will do it immediately. I think even then, sometimes they won't do it as a programing feature. But if you're going to be a balance trainer, understand that 90% of your work should be treats. And if someone says, Oh, aren't you a bounce trainer? 00;07;50;10 - 00;08;16;22Michael AccettaAren't you supposed to use corrections? No, because corrections should only take place, only take place when you are 100% confident that the dog really knows the behavior in the situation that you're asking it for. And there is nothing else There is nothing else outlining why your dog shouldn't be doing the behavior but I have one more problem. I always got problems, right? 00;08;17;13 - 00;08;36;24Michael AccettaI have one more problem with it. If I taught a dog for six months that training with me is a positive, enjoyable thing, and I say sit over and over and over again at my dog, understand? Sit is a great thing to do. We call it a great thing to do. Any trick is a great thing to do because of the amount of rewards they get. 00;08;37;12 - 00;09;15;14Michael AccettaAnd all of a sudden I say it, they don't respond. And now I correct them What does that teach them? There's a tonal shift. They learn that behavior does not always mean rewards. It might mean punishment. And here's another caveat to it. If punishment only ever happens, one out of every 100 chances, it's on a variable schedule, which means my dog does not know when they're going to get punished and they're going to start to be more concerned about the behavior instead of excited about the behavior. 00;09;15;29 - 00;09;35;03Michael AccettaI want my dog to enjoy running to me, enjoy performing with me. And I was doing competitions with my dogs. I want them to look happy and excited. Pretty sure judges look for that kind of thing. We don't want a robot. We want a dog that is lively and inspired to work. This is what we mean when we say dogs love to please people. 00;09;35;07 - 00;09;56;17Michael AccettaIt's because they look like they're loving to please us because of how excited they are to do their work. If a dog doesn't look excited and doesn't look like they're enjoying the activity. Why would you do the activity? In fact, a person. I mean, yes, there are some parents who force their kids to do things, and they end up being wonderful, wonderful athletes and musicians and artists. 00;09;56;18 - 00;10;22;13Michael AccettaYes. Beethoven. I'm pretty sure his father locked him in the basement for 10 hours a day into practice. He became a wonderful, wonderful musician and composer. But he was sad. He was sad most of his life. That's a terrible way to live. I'd much rather have somebody who's excited about music and is inspired, even despite being pushed down and berated. 00;10;23;03 - 00;10;52;17Michael AccettaI'd love to see somebody do that, not just doing it because they're forced to do it. So for bounce trainers, it comes down to this. Are you a balance trainer? Because you are from a compulsive side and you're starting to change your heart? Which I would absolutely love. I think going to a balance trainer is a wonderful step before realizing that there are complete, complete systems to train any behavior you previously thought of. 00;10;53;20 - 00;11;21;08Michael AccettaYou can now do it with positive reinforcement. And in fact, I know some trainers that can't think of what they should do in order to teach these new skills. Right. If you're an older trainer or you've just been taught a different way, starting to think about new ways of doing things is very difficult. When I first started out and I had learned primarily positive reinforcement, first, I couldn't fathom how you would teach a dog to do something through corrections. 00;11;22;03 - 00;11;36;04Michael AccettaHow could how could I teach my dog to do a dance routine with me with corrections? It just didn't seem possible Am I just going to nip them in the feet and have them jump up? Of course not. And I don't think corrective based trainers would do that. 00;11;38;10 - 00;11;57;25Michael AccettaThere was probably a time and a place where they did. But if you're a corrective based trainer, an aversive based trainer, an alpha dog trainer, which has been debunked if you're any of those and you're moving into a balanced trainer area, kudos to you. I think that is great. You're using more treats, you're using more rewards, and maybe you'll find you don't need to correct. 00;11;58;21 - 00;12;21;28Michael AccettaIf you're a positive based trainer, you're using so many treats, so many rewards, and you're moving into a balanced trainer concept It might be because the skills that you have are not full. They're not complete. You're missing something. You're missing some kind of mentorship or tutelage from someone who's been doing it for a very long time and has had a lot of success. 00;12;23;04 - 00;12;44;16Michael AccettaA lot of success. Now, if you like the concept of teaching your dog without punishment, without any punishment at all in solving problem behaviors, I want to invite you to download the PDF Guide below is resolving bad habits without using punishment is a wonderful PDF. Of course I wrote it myself was my gift to you is absolutely free. 00;12;44;25 - 00;13;04;10Michael AccettaIt walks you through the steps on how to end problem behaviors without punishing your dog, without yelling, no correcting them, without having to use equipment. You can just engage with your dog and stop the problem. Behaviors before they start, while they're happening or afterwards trying to be proactive, interrupted, or reactive. And I go over that in the guide. 00;13;05;14 - 00;13;26;24Michael AccettaThank you guys for listening today. I appreciate all of you taking the time. I hope I didn't waste it. I hope you gathered some information. If you're deciding whether to move into a balanced area or you're a dog owner who is looking for a trainer and you have heard bounce training and know, is it good, is it bad, it is fine, it'll get you results, good training, regardless of what the method is, we'll get your results. 00;13;27;26 - 00;13;42;10Michael AccettaBut if you don't want to correct your dog, you don't want to punish your dog and you want to be able to do it by bringing life to your dog, enjoyment to their training, go with a purely positive trainer who knows exactly what they're doing and how to get you with results without waiting years to do it. 00;13;43;24 - 00;13;48;04Michael AccettaMake sure you download that PDF guide and I'll see you guys next time. Oh,

There are a thousand mistakes that people make when training a dog but these three can make all the difference. If you are willing to correct these mistakes and take charge of your dog's training and learning you will open doors you did not even know were available to you. In today's episode, I am going to teach you the 3 biggest mistakes dog owners make and how to solve them without spending thousands of dollars or hundreds of hours training. Get my training planner for free here https://www.matadork9.com/planner The Dog Training Cheat Codes https://www.matadork9.com/cheatcodes Resolve your dog's bad habits with this free PDF Download https://www.matadork9.com/resolvingbadhabits Work with Me!! https://www.matadork9.com/coaching Episode Transcript 00;00;01;08 - 00;00;29;19Michael J. AccettaWelcome. My name is Michael, etc.. I'm the founder of Matador Canine Brilliance and author of The Dog Training Chico's. You're listening to the Acknowledge Dogs Podcast Today we are talking about the mistakes that everybody makes. I've made them. Other trainers I know have made them, and they're not something that you necessarily think about all the time until someone calls them out. 00;00;30;00 - 00;00;50;15Michael J. AccettaThat's my job. I got to call out the things that we don't see all the time. Once I realize that that's happening in my life, I have to tell you guys about it. I tell you about it, and then you go, Huh? Yeah, I guess I do that, too. And we all grow as a community, as individuals, and together we're all going to grow and move on, and our dogs are going to get better and better. 00;00;50;19 - 00;01;18;23Michael J. AccettaMy goal is to push the industry forward. That's my long term goal, right? I've seen the past. I've seen the present. I don't know what the future holds, but I want dog training as a whole to become better and better. I'm tired of it being stagnant, sitting still, using old technologies I want to learn new things. And by doing that, by giving you information, everybody starts to learn the things that I know and they'll bring new things to the table. 00;01;19;15 - 00;01;36;07Michael J. AccettaWhat if everybody's trying to catch up? We can't move forward. At least that's what I think. So please take the resources that I give you. Listen to the podcast listen to the episode. Follow us on social media because we're always posting things. Little tips and tricks here and there. But today we're talking about the big mistakes that everybody makes. 00;01;36;21 - 00;02;01;10Michael J. AccettaThis is hands down. The biggest mistakes that I see over and over and over again. Trainers make these mistakes. Owners make these mistakes. Parents make these mistakes with their own kids and even not even dogs. Just kids. These mistakes that are made constantly. Now, the first one we're going to talk about. I want to actually read from the book The Dog Training Chico's. 00;02;01;28 - 00;02;23;02Michael J. AccettaOkay. Now, this is a book I wrote. It is available at Matador Canine XCOM. You can get a physical copy. You can order a physical copy or the e-books if you're that kind of person. If enough people are interested, I will record the audio version of it. So if you're interested in you want an audio version, please email me or message me on social media saying, Hey, I'm not really a eBook reader, but I would love to listen to it. 00;02;23;02 - 00;02;47;13Michael J. AccettaI want to buy the audio version and I'll record the audio version. I don't mind, but I want to know if it's something people want. Okay, so we're talking about a dog's didn't have that, didn't have any aggressive issues or behavior problems, but it behaved poor poorly for what the family wanted. They wanted a perfectly well-behaved dog that would listen to anything they said Problem was, they weren't practicing with the dog. 00;02;48;07 - 00;03;14;22Michael J. AccettaJust like anything in life, you need to practice in order for it to improve every single day. You do a very small thing and write it in your training journal, which we talk about in the book as well. You'll see a slow but gradual improvement over a long period of time. Right. So if you if you're tracking these things, which again I talk about in the book, if you track these things, you're much more likely to see improvement not only in your day to day life, but you'll be more cognizant of it. 00;03;15;20 - 00;03;37;18Michael J. AccettaSo I always think about the gym and I'm actually going to talk about in a second gym. But with the gym, if you were to workout every single day, you might not see something from day to day. But if you look at a photo from 30 days ago to now are the classic transformation photo to 30 days, if you see that, you're like, Wow, that was a wonderful transformation, but you don't see that day today. 00;03;37;22 - 00;03;59;18Michael J. AccettaAnd other people who don't see you very often, they are going to see the transformation a lot more than you do. Think about when you were a kid and you want to go see Grandma, Oh, how big you've gotten. You didn't think you got big with Grandma. Thought you were huge. And it's because there is a giant leap between what we realize for ourselves and what someone else realizes for us. 00;04;00;07 - 00;04;20;14Michael J. AccettaSo let's keep reading more consistent the progress is the more permanent the progresses. If you were to go to the gym for two months and absolutely obliterate your body in order to get in peak physical condition for the summer, your body isn't going to stay that way for long. Right. You could you could obliterate your body in the gym every single day. 00;04;20;14 - 00;04;43;18Michael J. AccettaYour PR goes up every single day. You are absolutely smashed. Yeah. You're going to grow. Your body is going to adapt. It's not going to stay that way for long. The same would go for if you dropped £100 by fasting for 30 days and only drinking water. This is a classic thing that people do. They'll do a cleanse and they feel really good and they look really good, and then they go eat something and they build it up. 00;04;44;19 - 00;05;03;26Michael J. AccettaRight? The second you eat something, you're going to balloon back up. However, if you take a slow, calculated approach by doing small habitual changes like diet or daily exercise, your body will slowly adapt and the consistency for doing those routines will benefit you. Long term, this does not mean you have to train your dog diet or workout for your entire life. 00;05;03;26 - 00;05;18;11Michael J. AccettaIt simply means if you do it long enough, you don't have to think about it anymore and you'll see more progress in the long term. So you're not training enough, right? That was a big mistake, number one. And there you go. That's how you kind of solve it. That's how you fix it. Make it a habit to train your dog. 00;05;18;22 - 00;05;40;05Michael J. Accetta5 minutes in the morning, 5 minutes at night, breakfast, a dinner breakfast and dinner, 5 minutes in the morning, 5 minutes a night. That's 10 minutes a day. If you don't have 10 minutes a day, you have to reevaluate your life because you have way too much going on or you have to start eliminating things that are distracting you as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, I have to eliminate things that distract me all the time. 00;05;40;24 - 00;06;00;18Michael J. AccettaI work from home. I got a two year old. I would love to play with him all day, every single day, but I got to focus on my work. So for me, it's a personal thing. I got to tighten everything down and I still have to work with my dogs. I got to do certain things with them. So those 5 minutes here and there, you can find a guarantee, you can find it, and if you can't find it, email me. 00;06;00;18 - 00;06;18;11Michael J. AccettaLet's figure out what's going on with your life. What can you subtract? Maybe too much television, too much social media. If you read too much, maybe you're not the traditional. Oh, I'm on social media so much maybe your traditional reading books, maybe you do a lot of art and you just get lost in the zone, whatever it is. 00;06;19;02 - 00;06;42;18Michael J. Accetta5 minutes here in the morning, 5 minutes at night is all you need with your dog. It's 10 minutes a day. It's over an hour a week. You do the math. All right. 52 weeks a year. You're doing an hour a week. Let's just say an hour a week. Then that's 52 hours a year. It's three days wow. Two and a half days. 00;06;43;19 - 00;07;00;09Michael J. AccettaMore like two days. So now now I want to make a point. If you were to go to a class on a Tuesday or Friday, whatever, you know, your local training club does as their class, it might be an hour long class, so. Oh, well, I train an hour a week is not the same thing. It's not the same time. 00;07;01;03 - 00;07;21;20Michael J. Accetta5 minutes a day is much better than an hour. One day work because your body and your dog and all relationship gets used to this pattern, your brain. I'll start getting used to this pattern. Okay? I'm going to work with my dog every single day. My dog is going to get better every single day. My dog then starts to practice these behaviors a lot more. 00;07;22;05 - 00;07;42;24Michael J. AccettaThey get better at it. And so they, they're greasing the groove is what it's called. If you practice something every you're greasing the groove every day. So your brain is constantly thinking about what you might be practicing today. What I wanted to learn the piano. I tried to make a point to go whenever I pass the piano, open up the piano and I play a couple notes and then I close the piano that's greasing the groove. 00;07;43;28 - 00;08;03;20Michael J. AccettaMy brain was always thinking about playing the piano. Then every time I passed up, I should play the piano. And so my brain starts to initiate the concept of playing the piano. Even if I didn't play the piano, I was walking past it. My brain would start to practice mentally, satirically in my brain. I'd start to practice playing the piano, some greasing the group. 00;08;04;01 - 00;08;26;00Michael J. AccettaYour dog does the same thing. You practice, sit down and patiently waiting and walking nice on leash, doing all those things every single day. That's where their brain goes to all the time. The first thing they think of instead of excitement, excitement, excitement, six days out of the week and one day the week. I'm asking you to focus and you can't because we're at a imbalanced ratio. 00;08;26;16 - 00;08;50;23Michael J. AccettaSix days of excitement, one day a focus. It's not going to work. However, six days of focus, one day of excitement is a much better balance, even though it might not seem so much better of a balance. Big mistake. Number two is wasting time teaching things that don't actually serve you. They aren't important. Everybody does this. You teach your dog, PA. 00;08;52;09 - 00;09;08;05Michael J. AccettaI love poor. Think it's a very cute trick. But teaching your dog poor doesn't help them be patient. It doesn't help them get your attention. It does help them get your attention, but not in a productive kind of way. They're going to start pawing at you and scratching you they're going to get mad and then you're going to try to correct them. 00;09;08;14 - 00;09;25;07Michael J. AccettaBut Paul walked over here and you're correcting me. I don't want you to keep asking me for Paul. This doesn't make any sense. So teach your dogs the thing you need them to do first. And it doesn't have to be obedience, doesn't have to be sit or down or recall. It should, because I think it sets a really strong foundation. 00;09;25;07 - 00;09;48;21Michael J. AccettaBut it doesn't have to be I want to take a moment and thank all of our loyal followers. This podcast would not be possible without you. Leave, review and let us know what you like and want to learn on the next episode of the Acknowledge Dogs podcast. Now back to the show Think about if you didn't learn a language, you didn't learn how to read or write. 00;09;49;07 - 00;10;12;11Michael J. AccettaAnd yes. For hundreds of years, thousands of years, nobody learn how to read and write. In today's day and age, if you don't know how to read and write, things will be much more complicated for you. As you get older, you can't gain new knowledge and read. Forget government forms trying to fill those out. If you can't read, write, it creates a huge barrier for you. 00;10;12;23 - 00;10;37;14Michael J. AccettaAnd you are stuck in a certain section. You either always need help or you can't advance in life because you're stuck. I, I can't read this new information that will help me because I can't read. I know it would help me. People keep telling me it'll help me, but I can't read, so I can't and the fact that you can't even you couldn't even go read about reading to learn how to read better because you can't read. 00;10;37;21 - 00;10;48;21Michael J. AccettaThat's why video style formats are so good. Takes away the reading part. People don't like to read. Sometimes if you're going to read, you should read the dog training decodes. But. Shameless plug right there. 00;10;51;09 - 00;11;15;02Michael J. AccettaSo if you have the skills, you can then apply them when you actually need them. You don't have to apply them all day, but you can apply them if you need them. When I was younger, I did a lot of martial arts. I went to class three or four times a week. I absolutely loved it. I got my black belt the age of 13 And for those of you who say that's not really a black belt, I think I was pretty damn good. 00;11;15;11 - 00;11;43;04Michael J. AccettaOkay. I could hold my own in a fight against multiple opponents. Anyway, point being, I was constantly working out and keeping myself in really good shape. I was also young, but as I've gotten older, I haven't kept up with the martial arts as much. I've been focused on other things. I started dog training and does that in the third when I was requested and needed my body to adapt to a certain situation. 00;11;44;19 - 00;12;04;03Michael J. AccettaMy athletic abilities were there when I needed them because I had the skills prior to needing them. I could jump over things. I could do physical feats that maybe other people couldn't. I could jump over a car, like those kinds of things. I had no problem doing because I was really fit. I could run, I could jump, I could slide. 00;12;05;08 - 00;12;24;10Michael J. AccettaI could almost do a backflip without really trying. There was no effort involved for me. I could just do it. Playing dodgeball in high school. Favorite thing in the world? Because I had the skills from doing the martial arts. And as I've gotten older, my brain still has the skills. So if I need them in a jiffy, I could do them. 00;12;24;29 - 00;12;41;02Michael J. AccettaI fell down. I did a nice roll, tuck and roll perfectly how I would have. And I was taught to do martial arts. When I got up, I was a little sore, right? My body just hadn't done those things in so long. So I'm out of practice and I know I got to get back into the gym. That's a personal note for me. 00;12;42;14 - 00;13;04;26Michael J. AccettaBut my point is, if I just learned the fancy kicks at karate, they were not going to help me in a street fight. They weren't going to help me if I fell down. First thing you learn in karate was to fall down because you're going to fall down a lot If I didn't learn those skills, those fundamentals, those basics, the things that teachers trying to tell us since day one, learn the fundamentals, learn the basics. 00;13;05;08 - 00;13;24;07Michael J. AccettaYou can't do the advanced stuff without the basics. Your dog's the exact same way. Yes, I can teach them tricks. You can teach them part. You can teach them to spin around in a circle. But if they can't sit still for 3 minutes, they can't go with you anywhere. You can't go to an outdoor cafe. You can't bring them to the store, you know? 00;13;24;12 - 00;13;52;29Michael J. AccettaClearly, a place that allows dogs you can't bring them on vacation with you. You can't bring them through the airport. You can't do anything with your dog if they can't relax. Sure. They can get everyone's attention by spinning around in circles and giving them power, doing all these keep things. But if you're not going to teach things that help you have the freedom with your dog, that serve you I always talk about a teacher dog to sit when you touch the handle of the door that serves you, that helps your life. 00;13;54;10 - 00;14;09;13Michael J. AccettaRight. Dogs that can carry things. Even though we don't need our dogs to work, it gives them something to do. It helps you out. It's just like kids. Hey, could you hold this for me? I ask my two year old to feed my cat, say, hey, can you feed Daniel? He takes a thing, he gets the food he goes over. 00;14;09;13 - 00;14;27;01Michael J. AccettaAnd if he's learning how to do these things to help me in my life, but it also teaches him responsibility and to take care of my cat, I'm not abusing. Having a two year old and going off and make him do everything and file my taxes and paint the walls. No one to ask him to do simple things that he can do. 00;14;27;14 - 00;14;55;03Michael J. AccettaSo he learns a responsibility. Our dogs don't learn the responsibility the same way a two year old would, but they learn that helping us is a way of bonding. Think about farming dogs, herding dogs. They love working. And a lot of dogs have behavior problems because they don't have a job. So give them a job and teach them the skills they need to serve you, to help you, to be with you and have the freedom with your dog before you start teaching those fun tricks, agility and all that kind of stuff. 00;14;55;09 - 00;15;22;03Michael J. AccettaThose are great, but teach the fundamentals first. And the big one. The biggest one. This one I will fight at the top of the hill until my last breath okay. I well, I'm serious. I will fight this until my last breath. It is doing a preference test. Nobody does them. Nobody talks about them. It is so important. And I listen to a lot of podcasts. 00;15;22;10 - 00;15;46;23Michael J. AccettaI watch a lot of YouTube videos. Nobody's talked about preference testing with your dog. What is preference testing if you are using the wrong treat with your dog, the wrong reward, let alone a treat wrong reward, your dog will not learn as fast as they can. My job is to be as effective in my training as possible. I don't want to spend a large amount of time on one given task. 00;15;47;02 - 00;16;12;19Michael J. AccettaI want to get my dog successful repeating the behavior to build up the confidence. My confidence is repeated success. So I want to build up their success and confidence in that behavior and grow it or move on to the next thing. That's my goal in every training scenario. Get them success. Build up the confidence hi reinforcement history. Move on to the next part, whether it's the different variables, whether it's different reward schedules, whether we're moving to an entirely different behavior. 00;16;13;04 - 00;16;32;18Michael J. AccettaAnd I can't do that as quickly if I don't have the right reward. You just can't. You just can't. I was working with a client once. You wanted to do agility with their dog. She had gone to a different trainer to do obedience. It's totally fine. The place I was working at, we did a lot of fitness, so it was totally fine. 00;16;32;18 - 00;16;57;24Michael J. AccettaShe wanted to do obedience with a different trainer. Go for it. Kudos to you. But they didn't use any treats. That trainer told me owner that the dog being next to you, that that person's presence is a reward in itself. To the dog and that she should take the dog and pull her and hold the dog to her hip in order to reward the dog for good behavior. 00;16;59;12 - 00;17;22;00Michael J. AccettaMany dogs. I think that's great. If that works, wonderful. However, in most cases, dogs are not going to find that as rewarding as the outside environment, especially agility and some dogs don't like that. They don't want to be pinned against you. For example, one of my dogs, wonderful dog, he does not want to cuddle with you. He just doesn't. 00;17;22;07 - 00;17;39;08Michael J. AccettaHe'll sit next to you. He loves sitting next to you. He doesn't mind being touched. He loves his belly. Robbie loves playing fetch, but he does not want to cuddle with you. My other dog, on the other hand, will try to get inside your skin so that the owner told me this. Oh, well, you know, my dog being next to me is her reward. 00;17;39;27 - 00;17;55;21Michael J. AccettaI said, Okay, let's try to do agility with it. I gave her the benefit of the doubt, tried to do agility with it. The dog wanted no part of the owner and running agility. I said, Why don't we try a toy? Of course, the dog was perfect through the agility course with the toy in the dog owner chalked it up. 00;17;55;23 - 00;18;16;10Michael J. AccettaWell, of course you have a toy. Of course she's going to be motivated to do it. Why wouldn't you use a toy? That to me, it didn't make any sense. Why why would I make it harder for my dog and myself if I know that using a reward properly can build up the motivation, have them enjoy the process a lot more, get the results faster. 00;18;16;14 - 00;18;35;09Michael J. AccettaAnd I can say is that the toy later on? Seems like common sense to me. But if you don't have the right reward, let's say you're using a lower value reward to try to teach something instead of using a higher value reward. That low value reward, yes. Will teach them that. The high value reward will teach them much faster because they're more motivated to learn. 00;18;35;18 - 00;18;53;26Michael J. AccettaThey want to keep engaging, right? They want to get to the next step because they know they're going to get more rewards. Do you have something low on the scale? They're not really motivated. I'm going to give you a penny for doing something versus $100 if the value is way higher than whatever. I'm asking you to do. 00;18;54;10 - 00;19;13;07Michael J. AccettaRight. I'm asking you to go knock on a stranger's door. You'll do it for a hundred bucks. But if I'm only going to give you a penny back, no, it's not worth it. That's exactly what your dog thinks. Take the time before you start training, officially formal training. Figure out what your dog loves, not likes that are interested in loves. 00;19;13;29 - 00;19;33;26Michael J. AccettaThey should get serious. I have posted on social media hawk with a tennis ball. I pull the tennis ball. He goes from panting and loosey-goosey to deadly serious. He wants to kill that tennis ball. That is the kind of focus that you need. And when we find that we call it the magnet because the dog is so attracted to it. 00;19;34;21 - 00;19;55;18Michael J. AccettaIt's their preferred reward and you keep that value as best you can. So Hawk only has the tennis ball when we're training, when we're doing something really exciting and motivating. I need him to really engage with me. I won't teach him necessarily with the tennis ball, but I can reward him heavily with a tennis ball. And I teach him with low-value rewards so he gets the skills down. 00;19;55;18 - 00;20;15;05Michael J. AccettaRight. We talked about it teaching the fundamentals first, and then I can start to build out things. So if I have, let's say, cheese I can teach him really quickly and now he can move on to the tennis ball where I can get faster behavior, more motivating behavior. And he's really, really serious. I'm also not fattening my dog up with treats I can actually exercise with the toy. 00;20;16;00 - 00;20;31;15Michael J. AccettaSo those are your three big mistakes that literally everybody makes all the time. I've made them. I've forgotten so many things oh man. I should have turned down a preference test first. I just got excited and we jumped into it. Or you miss a day or you missed two days of training with your dogs. You've broken down that habit. 00;20;32;02 - 00;20;52;24Michael J. AccettaAll it takes is three days of consistency, and now you're completely gone, right? If you're training every single day for six months, three days go by and you don't train. Now you're starting to get into this other habit of not training. Something is stopping you. Either you're convinced you shouldn't be training your dog anymore, that they don't need it, or you're uncertain of what you should be doing. 00;20;53;02 - 00;21;11;28Michael J. AccettaYou've kind of hit everything, you know, like, what do I do So make sure you have a list. You can teach tricks. I have no problem teaching tricks. Just teach those fundamentals first. See how they all kind of go together. All right, guys, thank you for listening. I appreciate it. If you have questions, comments, or concerns, leave them in the comments. 00;21;12;10 - 00;21;32;03Michael J. AccettaYou can. Also message on any social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, if you are interested in the dog training cheat codes. It's a book I read earlier in the episode. If you're interested in that it's at matadork9.com/cheatcodes and if you're interested in training with me head over to training that matadork9.com/coaching. 00;21;32;17 - 00;21;33;25Michael J. AccettaI'll see you guys next time. 00;21;39;00 - 00;21;46;18Michael J. AccettaThank you for listening to the acknowledged Doug's podcast. Subscribe to this podcast. Leave a review and connect with me on your favorite social media platform

You are the best person to train your dog. Whether you think you are or not is another question. At the end of the day, you have the best connection with your dog, the most understanding, and the ability to be the most consistent. That is all it takes to have a well-trained dog and progress quickly. On the other hand, you also need the know-how in training in order to be successful. Click the link below to learn how to resolve bad habits without needing punishment. https://www.matadork9.com/resolvingbadhabits The Dog Training Cheat Codes are still available at a discounted price so click below to get your copy today. https://www.matadork9.com/cheatcodes 00;00;02;01 - 00;00;25;14Micahel J. AccettaYou are the best person to train your dog. You. Yeah. I'm talking to you. You are the best person to train your dog. And in today's episode, I'm gonna give you three reasons as to why that is. Thank you guys for jumping on. Thank you for listening to me today. Of course, I am your host, Michael Seda, author of The Dog Training Cheat Codes, founder of Matador Canine Brilliance, and the host of the Acknowledge Dogs podcast. 00;00;26;06 - 00;00;48;27Micahel J. AccettaWe are talking about why you are the best person to train your dog today. If you don't believe me, just hang in there. Okay? I'm going to go over three very key components to a dog's success and how you already fulfill those needs. Okay. I'm also going to give you a couple of tips and pointers throughout today's episode, and I'm going to mention later on a little more depth than a free download that's in the description. 00;00;49;01 - 00;01;06;00Micahel J. AccettaIf you just want to pause and go check it out right now, you can do that. But I will be talking about it a little bit later. So rule number one, the first key component I want to talk about today with the first one is a level of consistency. You are the best person to train your dog because they're your dog. 00;01;06;15 - 00;01;25;26Micahel J. AccettaYou have access to them. 20 47. Granted, you might go to work sleeping, those kind of things in there. But breakfast, lunch and dinner and breakfast and dinner at least if you work an eight hour day, you can train your dog every single day. If you stay on a schedule, you have it built into your habit. It's a consistent practice. 00;01;26;21 - 00;01;50;24Micahel J. AccettaNow, this is different than if you were to send your dog to a boarding train or to send your dog to a class, or you go to a class once or twice a week. Yes, those are great things. And you're going to be working with your dog in a class that's once a week. And if the trainer is going to be working with your dog in that setting, like I've seen a lot on social media where people go to class with their dog, but they're not the one training the dog. 00;01;50;24 - 00;02;07;02Micahel J. AccettaThe trainer trains the dog in front of the owner and then hands off the leash and expects them to do it at home. That's not how it works. Right? You need to know what you need to be doing. Granted, you don't need to have the level of skill that a professional trainer has. Right. And I don't mean this in a bad way. 00;02;07;02 - 00;02;26;21Micahel J. AccettaBut you could be an amateur trainer and still get amazing results compared to a professional. Now, I don't want you to think I'm calling you an amateur. Amateur is simply someone who does not do it. To get paid as a profession. Right. I'm an amateur juggler. I love juggling. I'm actually pretty good at it, but I would not consider myself a professional juggler. 00;02;26;21 - 00;02;45;23Micahel J. AccettaI still drop things that I can't get the perfect spins if I'm using clubs, but I can juggle clubs. And so there's at different levels. I don't want you to think I'm bashing you by saying you're an amateur trainer. You might be a very good amateur trainer. Above average. Almost at that cusp of professional. But you will not have the experience. 00;02;46;05 - 00;03;11;00Micahel J. AccettaThe Hands-On experience, the Expertize, the small nuances that a professional trainer has. It's just not possible on an amateur level as a professional level. Absolutely. And if you're competing all the time with your dog, you can get up there. But my point is, you have to train your dog in order to get good at it. And because you have 20 47 access to your dog, you can practice all the time. 00;03;11;16 - 00;03;31;02Micahel J. AccettaThink about someone who's strongly committed to working out the rock Dwayne the Rock Johnson. He goes to the gym every single day. I think he even goes multiple times a day, two or three times a day, which is insane. It's insane. Some of us don't even go once a day. But he has such a strong connection with working out, feeling good, building himself up. 00;03;32;00 - 00;03;59;26Micahel J. AccettaThen in fact, instead of going to the gym, he brought the gym to his house. Now, that's kind of common. Okay, I'm going to have the gym in my house. I'm going to work from home. Sure. However, Dwayne The Rock Johnson takes it another step further, and he brings the gym with him. I believe he has. I forget what he calls it, but it's a trailer that he has a group that is in charge of just bringing his gym equipment with him to wherever he's going. 00;03;59;26 - 00;04;17;21Micahel J. AccettaHe's going to go film a movie in Australia. He's going to go to the movie the location in Australia. And he's going to film it there where he's going to work out there. So he actually has such a strong connection to it. He's going to bring it with him. Imagine you did that with your dog. Imagine you brought your dog with you when you went somewhere. 00;04;18;03 - 00;04;32;28Micahel J. AccettaHow much better they behave in those environments? You have the access to do that to 24 over seven, access to your dog you can do it all the time. You can do it every single day. You do multiple times a day. You can bring them with you, right? Ask your boss at the office, Hey, come, just bring my dog with me. 00;04;33;13 - 00;04;54;01Micahel J. AccettaI promise they'll be well-behaved. Now, that puts some emphasis on you. Make sure they are well behaved. I love offices that allow dogs when I move out of my home office here and I have a giant facility which will happen eventually. It's going to clearly be a dog centered facility, but people will be allowed to bring their dogs to work with them and they can hang out underneath the desk and do whatever. 00;04;54;04 - 00;05;15;27Micahel J. AccettaSo having that 20 47 access, that consistency with your dog is imperative to their success. If you only ever work with your dog once a week on Saturday and Sunday, you're a weekend trainer. You're not going to see the results. You're not going to get what you want. You are the best person to train your dog. I am 100% confident in that fact. 00;05;16;03 - 00;05;36;08Micahel J. AccettaYou are the best person to train your dog, even if I don't even talk about the other two, which I will in a minute. The consistency is so huge. Imagine paying somebody to come to your house, professional trainer come to your house every single day. How much is that going to cost you probably a couple thousand dollars for the entire length of the dog's training. 00;05;36;25 - 00;05;53;14Micahel J. AccettaThey're going to come to your house every single day. It's a lot now. If you were to look at it from the standpoint of well, I'm going to pay myself thousands of dollars by having a really well behaved dog. Which would you rather do? We'd rather pay someone else to come to your house and have that level of consistency see, that is important. 00;05;54;01 - 00;06;12;08Micahel J. AccettaThat will get you results regardless of the training style, but will get your results. That level of consistency is important. Are you going to pay someone to come do that? Or can you do it? Save yourself some money, maybe even pay yourself in the long term, maybe not monetarily, but success wise. Okay, so I think we've gotten that down. 00;06;12;08 - 00;06;36;19Micahel J. AccettaYou guys get it. 20 47 access to your dog. There's a level of consistency there. Number two is trust and relationship. This really goes for dogs that are nervous or anxious. They're a little, you know, they're nervous. They're high strung, if you will. The level of trust in relationship you have with your dog is going to help them progress faster through the training process. 00;06;36;28 - 00;06;56;27Micahel J. AccettaIf you don't have that relationship first, you have to build the relationship and then you can start working with your dog. This is why I think board and trains fail most of the time. If they don't fail, they're very limited by what you should get out of it. Send your dog off somewhere, a couple thousand dollars, you send it off off somewhere. 00;06;57;17 - 00;07;16;25Micahel J. AccettaThe trainer is going to have to first build a relationship with the dog. Now, some dogs have a relationship with everybody right away. Some dogs don't. If your dog doesn't, they have to build that relationship first before they start trying to teach anything. You can't learn. If the relationship isn't there, the engagement isn't there, if the interest isn't there. 00;07;17;12 - 00;07;42;17Micahel J. AccettaI remember being in high school, middle school, elementary school, and the teachers that were engaging, exciting that I had a relationship. I learned so much better from the teachers that did not care to get to know me and I did not care to get to know them. I suffered a lot. One of my favorite teachers who I hope is watching this at some point, I hope this gets back to him because I lost contact with him since I graduated high school. 00;07;43;00 - 00;08;03;00Micahel J. AccettaName is Kenneth Frank. Wonderful teacher, wonderful, wonderful teacher. He cared more about the students than anything else. I think he now works at Apple, where he was at least often offered a job at Apple, his wife. And I'm going on a tangent here, but his wife ended up winning Jeopardy a couple of times. Anyway, kind of Frank, if you're listening to this, please reach out to me. 00;08;03;00 - 00;08;18;10Micahel J. AccettaI'd love to chat up and see what you're up to. But a wonderful teacher and he showed an interest in all of his students and not just in their learning, but their lives. He wanted to know what was going on. You know, if you're a great start to slipping, he wanted to know maybe something was going on at home. 00;08;18;19 - 00;08;46;02Micahel J. AccettaWonderful. Wonderful teacher. And he showed me the excitement of reading and how good it could be and actually started reading more from there. Ended up reading 100 games. I ended up reading all of the Harry Potter, and I grew up with dyslexia, so I didn't have I didn't have this desire to read. I hated reading up until I found someone who showed a real interest in me and showed me the joy of reading the world world of a difference. 00;08;46;02 - 00;09;03;27Micahel J. AccettaFor me, it completely changed the game. And how I learned and how I've developed and how I think because I had a relationship with him, I was able to be open to the style of learning about reading. Same thing goes with your dog. If they're not open, if they don't have a good relationship, they're going to be combative. 00;09;04;13 - 00;09;28;18Micahel J. AccettaYou're going to shut down. They're going to try to hide. They're going to do everything they can to avoid opening up their mind. Not intentionally. This isn't malicious, this isn't spiteful. It's just a nature nature's gift. If you will, of protecting them from things that they are uncertain about your dogs uncertain. They're going to be guarded if they're certain, if they're happy, if they're excited, then they're going to let things okay. 00;09;28;19 - 00;09;48;28Micahel J. AccettaNumber three, now, I said I was going to talk about the free gift is down and the description of you did not click on it yet. I'll tell you a little bit about it. Resolving complicated bad habits without having to use punishment. And that's basically what number three is. You have the Internet, you have access to a mirage of dog training information. 00;09;48;29 - 00;10;06;04Micahel J. AccettaAnd that's exactly what that PDF guide is about. It's about resolving bad habits, but it's information. It's supposed to guide you through the process. And it's 100% free, by the way. It's a short little ten packet, ten page packet, but it is packed with information. So take advantage of it. And this is what you should do with everything on the Internet. 00;10;06;12 - 00;10;31;14Micahel J. AccettaYou're watching this video is taking advantage, right? You're watching any dog trainer on social media is taking advantage of the good pieces of information that you can't get just walking through your neighborhood as a dog owner in the 21st century, you have access to something that no one else has had up until this point. If you're if your friends didn't know something that was it friend, you didn't know it. 00;10;31;28 - 00;10;52;11Micahel J. AccettaAnd if your parents didn't know something, that's it. You didn't know it. If you didn't experience it, you didn't know how to solve it. With the Internet, you can experience things through other people, through me, through another trainer that you follow. Whoever it is, you can experience their life and their mistakes and their learnings and their journeys, and you can apply it to your own thing. 00;10;52;11 - 00;11;10;04Micahel J. AccettaThat's one of the reasons I wrote the dog training Chico's. It's because I felt that some things that I've learned throughout my years had been left out. I've read a lot of dog training books, but there were some things that had been left out, and that's why I wrote that book. I wrote more specifically things in there that don't get mentioned anywhere else. 00;11;11;22 - 00;11;28;05Micahel J. AccettaThey just don't. So I wanted to find a book I couldn't. So I wrote one. I wrote a book about the things that I couldn't find in other books, and I had to figure out the hard way. I think that's how everybody progresses forward, and that's something that you should be interested in if you're trying to train your dog. 00;11;28;15 - 00;11;48;29Micahel J. AccettaThere's online courses Matador Canine sells them, but other course create or sell them as well. Online courses with PDF documents like the one in the description below, there's free YouTube content. Their social media content there. There's that in the search. But here's the problem. Here's the problem. You don't know which is which, which is good and which is bad. 00;11;50;05 - 00;12;09;06Micahel J. AccettaIf you can't discern which is good and which is bad, you're just lost. No matter how much free content is there in the world, you will be lost on what you should be doing. So find a trainer that you trust. If it's me, I am honored. I am flattered. I love that. I hope I never let you down. 00;12;09;27 - 00;12;32;05Micahel J. AccettaIf it's me, great. If it's not, that's okay. That is okay. But find somebody that you trust, right? Go back to trust your dog. Has to trust somebody and you have to trust somebody to get knowledge and information from that. We take that knowledge and information and then look at it under a microscope. Really dissect everything they've set right for me. 00;12;32;26 - 00;12;56;19Micahel J. AccettaQuick example. Fear regression is the biological purpose of making a fearful thing lesson or go away. Does that make sense to you? If it doesn't mean someone might be able to explain fear aggression better to you? Now, that's for me, that's a definition. Biological purpose of fear. Aggression is to limit or lessen or make the fearful thing go away. 00;12;57;25 - 00;13;20;12Micahel J. AccettaRight? Biologic purpose of social aggression is to establish and maintain the hierarchy. Those to me are definitions. They are solid. I'm convinced that those are the definitions of those terms. But if they make no sense to you, they mean nothing to you, then it's not going to help you positively. Enforcement. I would talk about positive reinforcement all the time. 00;13;20;21 - 00;13;46;18Micahel J. AccettaI'm giving my dog a treat, and then they do the behavior more because they like getting the treat. That explanation might work better for you, then positive reinforcement is increasing the likelihood anything that increases the likelihood of a particular behavior. Right. It doesn't have to be a treat. It doesn't have to be a toy. Whatever your dog perceives as a reward is positively reinforcing them and they increase the likelihood of that behavior. 00;13;46;18 - 00;14;05;04Micahel J. AccettaHappening in the future because of their past experiences of getting rewarded, whatever the reward is. So, yeah, I talk a little technical. I like to get into the science of it and I like to explain it that way is that you have a full understanding because I want you to have a full understanding. And it's simply because I went through education. 00;14;05;04 - 00;14;33;24Micahel J. AccettaI have a college degree in animal science, and when I look on YouTube, it is insanely difficult to find somebody who's talking the way I talk about dog training in that deep of science and that type of concept and complexity and trying to break it down in an easy to understand analytical format. And if that if none of that makes sense to you, then find a trainer who does make sense to you, trust them, take their information and try to apply it to what you do with your dog. 00;14;34;12 - 00;14;52;06Micahel J. AccettaBut there is so much out there that you have to be careful of what you let in. I heard a quote this morning. I was listening to a podcast. The individual was talking about your mindset and what you let into your brain. Yes, you should have an open mind, but it should have a gate, have an open mind, put a gate on it. 00;14;52;24 - 00;15;07;06Micahel J. AccettaOnly let the things in. You open up the gate let things come in that you like. Maybe you check the papers, you check their I.D. and then you send them back out. If you don't like it, you can have an open mind and you should because that's the only way to learn but you can't take in things that are going to be damaging to you. 00;15;07;28 - 00;15;29;08Micahel J. AccettaThink about everybody who's stuck on the concept of alpha theory. It's been just proven. The guy who brought it up in the first place has been trying for decades to disprove and show that it's disproven. He just proved it. He knows it doesn't. Is it a real and you've been trying to convince everybody else since that because people opened up their gate to let it in and they closed their gate. 00;15;29;24 - 00;15;53;20Micahel J. AccettaThey can't let anything else in. Alpha theory is in their brain even though it's not accurate, it's not correct. So find something, find somebody. Find a trainer that you like, you trust, you appreciate and take everything you can from them. And if you find another one, good. Find a couple. But if they start competing with each other, if ideas start to conflict, you're going to get stressed. 00;15;53;20 - 00;16;13;16Micahel J. AccettaYou're not going to know who to trust, and you're going to be uncertain of what to do with your dog and your dog is going to pay for it. Right? When I first started out, my training I was just learning a little bit at a time. And because of that, this patient is my dog was I was not as good as I am today because I didn't have all the resources that we do have today. 00;16;14;02 - 00;16;32;23Micahel J. AccettaA dog training as an industry has exploded over the last ten years. I'm lucky to have been a part of it, but ten years ago, I was not Ten years ago, I was stuck reading old books that told me old information that didn't help me get to what I wanted to get to today. That was through experience and training thousands and thousands of docs. 00;16;33;07 - 00;16;56;10Micahel J. AccettaYou don't have to do that. You now have access to the Internet. You now have access to the PDF Download below that you can read and understand Oh, how do I do? How do I do? How do I resolve complicated bad habits without having your punishment? Right. What key codes can help me, right? You can name anything. It's one of the chapters in this book. 00;16;56;10 - 00;17;12;25Micahel J. AccettaYou can name anything. What does that mean? What? You might not mean anything to you if you had the book, you would read that chapter and you would understand what it means. You can get the book if you're interested. You can get the e-book or the physical copy at Matador Canine Dot come up with the link down in the description as well. 00;17;13;04 - 00;17;29;21Micahel J. AccettaBut if you don't want to buy the book and you just want the free resource, take advantage of that. It's in the description below. So what was it? Three Do you remember Do you remember why you are the best person to train your dog? Number one, you have 20 47 access to your dog. You can train them all the time, every single day that could be attached to your hip. 00;17;30;06 - 00;17;49;15Micahel J. AccettaAnd you could train them every single day number to trust in relationship. Your dog will learn better. You'll progressive faster through the training program that you're doing. Because they trust you. They have a strong relationship with you. And number three is you have access to all of the information you could possibly want about training your dog. All you have to do is sift through it. 00;17;49;26 - 00;18;15;03Micahel J. AccettaOpen up the gate, let it in, check it out, send it back. If you don't like it, keep it and use it. Add it to your toolbox if you do. Thank you guys for tuning in today. Again, I'm your host, Michael, etc. I appreciate you taking the time. Take advantage of that PDF down below. And if you have questions or comments or concerns, you can ask on social media, or you can put it in the comments section of this video and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. 00;18;15;13 - 00;18;16;28Micahel J. AccettaThanks again. I'll see you guys next time.

There is nothing worse than trying to do right by your dog and making them overweight because of training. You can also actually make things worse by using treats. In today's episode, I want to show you exactly what it means to be rewarding too long and what happens when you take the treats out of your hand. AND how to fix when your dog only listens when you have treats. All of that and more in the Acknowledge Dogs Podcast. Get started with training at https://www.matadork9.com/coaching Free Training Guide on Resolving Bad Habits https://www.matadork9.com/resolvingbadhabits 00;00;01;08 - 00;00;35;15Michael J. AccettaWelcome. My name is Michael, etc.. I'm the founder of Matador Canine Brilliance and author of The Dog Training Cheat Codes You're listening to the Acknowledge Dogs Podcast Drop the treats. Get rid of them. Get rid of all rewards. All treats. Get them out of the training picture. Get out of that mindset. Why would I say that? I'm a professional dog trainer who uses positive reinforcement daily. 00;00;36;02 - 00;00;56;14Michael J. AccettaWhy would I tell you to get rid of the treats I'm your host. Michael is author of The Dog Training. She Codes. Host of the Acknowledged Dogs podcast and founder of Matador Canine Brilliance. Today we're talking about what happens when you hoard treats, you hold them in your hand. Your dog starts to learn where the treats coming from, when the treats are there, when they're not there. 00;00;56;14 - 00;01;14;27Michael J. AccettaWe're going to guide a little bit more into it. But did you know that you can actually train your dog through positive reinforcement and still end some behaviors? You don't have to punish them. And to help you out I wrote a free PDF guide called Resolving Complicated Bad Habits Without Using Punishment. The link is in the description. You can download that. 00;01;14;29 - 00;01;38;02Michael J. AccettaAbsolutely free. It's a nice short read, but it is packed with useful information, so make sure you take advantage of that. I have seen way too many times over the thousands of dogs that I've trained over the thousands of dogs I've trained away to many times where the owner has practiced for weeks. You're getting so much success. And then we take the treats away, or they don't have treats or they don't have the ball, whatever it is. 00;01;38;12 - 00;02;01;27Michael J. AccettaAnd the dog completely forgets what they should be doing. This happens way too much, and you've just wasted weeks of time that you've worked with your dog. Simply because they now know what the difference is between working and not working. So why does this happen? Why are dogs so smart Well, we don't want them to be. And they play dumb when we want them to be smart, and you're trying to teach about them. 00;02;02;09 - 00;02;29;08Michael J. AccettaAnd they're like, Nope, I'm just going to keep taking my treats. But of course, they can be really smart and they are very smart, so they pick up on these things. What happens is dogs learn what's called stimulus control. So people refer to it as generalization, becoming really specific. I like to label it under stimulus control. Stimulus control is when a behavior happens, when it's supposed to happen doesn't happen. 00;02;29;08 - 00;02;50;09Michael J. AccettaWhen it's not supposed to happen, it happens in response to a particular cue. Right. If I say sit, my dog will sit in. Does not happen when a different cue is presented. So I say downward dog wouldn't sit. Also, the behavior set wouldn't happen when I said the word down. So there's kind of four criteria there that lock in that stimulus control. 00;02;50;09 - 00;03;10;17Michael J. AccettaNow, the same thing goes for when our dogs are training just in general. Okay. We're going to train when I have the trip back, John. We're not training when I don't have the trip pouch. I'll see how very quickly our dogs can learn what the difference is right when a treat pouches on when my hand is in my pocket, when I have the ball sticking out of my back pocket. 00;03;11;07 - 00;03;33;18Michael J. AccettaAll of those things tell our dog that there is opportunity for reinforcement. And when there is an opportunity for reinforcement, they forget what they're doing because it's not in the same context. Classic example I always give to my client is I want you to think about a kid in school. You ask them their timetable multiplication and you say six times five, they go, boom. 00;03;33;18 - 00;04;02;08Michael J. Accetta35 you go six times. Well, they do 72. I know what's up with today and six, but that's what I'm thinking about. So they can very quickly, boom, they got the math application. The math application the multiplication in math, because they are learning in the environment and being tested in the environment of which they learned to take the same kid, go to Disney land, ask him five time six guarantee it'll be longer, it'll take them more effort to get the number. 00;04;02;29 - 00;04;24;22Michael J. AccettaNow, if you practice in all these different environments, sure, they get really good at multiplication. And maybe that's a very specific, specific situation where kids wouldn't learn how to do it in Disneyland. But most of the time the kids are just too overstimulated and excited to be thinking about math. Asked them to do a Declaration of Independence, recited There's no way that's going to happen if they learned it in school. 00;04;24;22 - 00;04;48;12Michael J. AccettaOf course, if they haven't learned it, it's not going to help them either way. Getting on a little bit of a tangent here, boy being dogs learn specific situations mean one thing, and if the specific criteria isn't there, it means something else. If you don't have treats, I'm not going to listen if you're not going to guide me around, this is what a problem I have with lowering the tree in your hand. 00;04;49;12 - 00;05;05;29Michael J. AccettaThis is the big point of today's episode. Don't lower your dog if you take nothing else away. This is the point that you should take. Stop lowering your dog. We're going to go over how to teach your dog and what to do so that they're not following treats and they're not creating this kind of problem now a little bit. 00;05;06;12 - 00;05;20;15Michael J. AccettaBut what I need to get through to your head right now, stop lowering your dog Thank you for listening to the Acknowledged Dogs podcast. Subscribe to this podcast, leave a review and connect with me on your favorite social media platform. 00;05;24;03 - 00;05;52;27Michael J. AccettaSo every social media trainer that I see every single day is lowering their dog. One of the greatest social media marketers when it comes to dog training. And I will mention who it is. They teach classes in competition styled obedience, and they do a lot of lowering a ridiculous amount of long. And oftentimes that would be fine. I would be okay. 00;05;53;03 - 00;06;09;11Michael J. AccettaYou don't do your little lowering, but then they teach more people how to do it, which means more people are going to have the problem that I'm talking about today where their dog does not do it if you don't lower them or does not do it if you don't have treats in their face my reactivity course that's available at training got mad at auction icon. 00;06;09;24 - 00;06;29;18Michael J. AccettaMy reactivity course specifically goes against which so many clients are told about reactivity. Oh, your dog is staring at something. Put treats in front of their face and have them turn around. What happens when you don't have tricks? What happens when the dog doesn't like the treats? This is a classic example of people fighting against the positive reinforcement side. 00;06;29;18 - 00;06;47;02Michael J. AccettaThe cookie pushers, as they say, Oh, you're just putting treats in front of their face or cookies. In front of their face. Actually, what we should be doing is rewarding the choice to have them turn towards us, which is what I do in the reactivity course. So if your dog is reactive, head over to training that Matador can ICOM sign up for the activity course. 00;06;47;09 - 00;07;08;23Michael J. AccettaYou can also sign up with me to do some coaching that's training. That Matador can icon slash six week coaching and I'll actually walk you through the course one on one. But to look at the differences here, I want my dog to not become reliant on the treats do not become reliant on food or a toy or any other reward. 00;07;09;15 - 00;07;26;20Michael J. AccettaYes, I'm going to use it. I'm going to use it to teach them the behavior I want and I'm not going to eliminate rewards and I have no way of telling them they did a good job, but I don't want them to become reliant on it. So the first thing you can do, the first thing you can do is start shaping behaviors instead of lowering them. 00;07;27;06 - 00;07;46;15Michael J. AccettaNow, shaping is just selecting behaviors that are slowly getting closer to the ultimate goal. Right? Successful approximation is what we call it. So if I want my dog to go sit on their bed, I'm going to mark with a clicker, a conditioned reinforcement, a mark for them getting their front paw on the bed. And I'm not boring at the same time. 00;07;46;16 - 00;08;10;18Michael J. AccettaThis is a big confusion. Oh, well, I'll just mark when their front pockets on the bed, but I'm going to lure them there the condition reinforcer doesn't matter. At that point, a conditional reinforcer has to come before the primary reinforcer or the reward reinforce or you're trying to condition. So the clicker, a mark comes before the treat. They'll make the association. 00;08;11;04 - 00;08;31;13Michael J. AccettaIf it doesn't, if they come at the same time or the treats first and then the conditioned reinforcer one, it's not really technically a conditioned reinforcer. And two, they don't make the association. They don't think that that click means anything, and you can damage a really strong, conditioned reinforcer if you do this. So if you're going to lure your dog, you have to lower your dog. 00;08;31;25 - 00;08;47;05Michael J. AccettaReally, the only situation I see in is if you need to teach a very complex maneuver, you have to manipulate their body or you're doing fitness equipment. So dogs aren't a fitness equipment and you're trying to get my new adjustments to work on fitness right there. They're small little muscles that we need to engage, that kind of thing. 00;08;47;14 - 00;09;11;29Michael J. AccettaThat's when I'll use Lauren. But really, you should switch over to shaping. If you switch over to shaping, your dog is no longer becoming reliant on the treats. If you're going to use lowering get rid of the clicker. If you have to use Laurie for exercise, if you have to use layering for those tiny movements, get rid of the clicker and added in later. 00;09;12;08 - 00;09;32;04Michael J. AccettaBut I guarantee you're going to run into the same problem. You're going to lower your dog a little bit, get the behavior that you want, and now you have no way of starting that unless you start phasing out the law. And that just add so much more time. Teach it through shaping first work your shaping muscle. It is a muscle to try to think about, okay, how can I take this giant behavior? 00;09;32;04 - 00;10;01;05Michael J. AccettaBreak it down into a really manageable step so that my dog can get good at it. If they can get good at that good. Now we can move on to the next step. We can move on to the next one. If they can't get good at it, I can't move forward. But the more you do this, the more your dog does this, the faster you're going to learn Overall, one of my favorite stories it's in and one of Karen Pryor's books, she had done a seminar and the owner had a I'm a 16 week old puppy. 00;10;02;00 - 00;10;23;15Michael J. AccettaAnd after introducing clicker training, this puppy was able to do every single obedience command and multiple tricks in one night. The dog loved learning so much it could just keep going and it could do more things it because the owner was able to instruct the dog perfectly which sounds baffling to me. They just had such a good understanding right away. 00;10;23;23 - 00;10;58;24Michael J. AccettaThis puppy learns so many things. Sit down, heel walking, nice on leash, spin jump bark, all of those things. This puppy was able to do so. And yet people who laud their dogs can take years and the dog still doesn't know what it should be doing. That's a problem for me. That's a problem. Why would why would I, as a professional dog trainer, recommend to you something that I've seen happen way too often where a dog is just lured for years and they never get the picture, they never understand what they're supposed to be doing. 00;10;59;12 - 00;11;29;22Michael J. AccettaShape it. And you can do it all in one night. You can do it all in one session if you're really good, depending on the complexity of the behavior. So why does this happen this happens because dogs learn very quickly specific situations and scenarios in where they're going to get rewarded when they're not going to get rewarded. When you take the treat away, when you hide it, when you put it in different pockets, when you put it off to the side in a mason jar, mark over here, get your dog, do the right thing, Mark, then go get the treat. 00;11;30;09 - 00;11;52;23Michael J. AccettaYou teach them that you are important. The mark is important, not the treat itself. And if you stop lowering if you completely get rid of luring, illusory and luring, if you get rid of that, where the treats in your hand guiding the dog around, get rid of that right now. And work out the training muscle in your brain of how to split behavior down in marker. 00;11;52;23 - 00;12;18;07Michael J. AccettaReward those tiny steps. If you can do that, your dog will be much better off in the long term creativity wise when it comes to so problem-solving learning new skills picking better choices and options so you don't have to constantly intervene. All of that happens when your dog knows how to get reinforcement without being prompted otherwise. They just sit there. 00;12;18;29 - 00;12;37;19Michael J. AccettaI literally seen dogs just sit there and stare at you. You could say Sit all you want. They're not doing anything until you put your hand up and this is where some people say, Oh, well, my dog responds really well to hand signals. You're absolutely right because that's considered a prompt, just like a treat would be. We're prompting them into the right direction. 00;12;37;25 - 00;12;55;18Michael J. AccettaBut once you take those prompts away, they've got nothing. It's as if you didn't see anything. And if if my cue is going to be a word, I say the word sit my dog sit. If my cue is going to be a word, and I want them to respond. If I don't say anything, they don't do anything It's the exact same thing. 00;12;55;18 - 00;13;18;20Michael J. AccettaAnd for whatever reason, we as human beings treat them as two separate things. They're not two separate entities. They are all together. A cue tells our dog what to do, and in many cases, the treat in your hand is the cue, so everything else doesn't matter. Some dogs get hyper fixated. They put blinders on, and they only focus on the treat like their eyes roll back in their head. 00;13;18;20 - 00;13;36;10Michael J. AccettaAnd they're just, I want the treat. Labs do this now and let's do it with toys. And it's good to have that kind of motivation. But I'd much rather switch that motivation to me, have them looking towards me, engaging with me, working with me, and then I magically produce treats afterwards, after they've done the thing that I want. 00;13;36;18 - 00;13;53;02Michael J. AccettaI'm not going to use treats to get them to do it. I'm going to mark the behavior they've done and I'm going to reward them afterwards. That's what you need to do. And that's what happens when you take the treat out of your hand. Your dog just stops. I don't want that to happen to you. I want to see your progress with your dog in a timely fashion. 00;13;53;02 - 00;14;15;10Michael J. AccettaYou shouldn't be training for years unless you want to, but if you get through the fundamentals and I say this all the time, if you get through the fundamentals in an effective way, you've learned the skills and your dog is now prepared to teach anything else you want to teach, any trick, any environmental stimulus you want to work on, any competition you want to do becomes ten times easier if you start sooner. 00;14;15;22 - 00;14;35;00Michael J. AccettaI mean, if a dog has bad habits, they're going to stay bad habits longer. If you start sooner because you worked on the effectiveness in your fundamentals, you've worked on your skills, your dog knows the fundamentals really well. Then they're younger when they're learning these things, but really what ends up happening is you have a stronger relationship and your dog is more creative. 00;14;35;02 - 00;14;53;20Michael J. AccettaThey can solve problems easier. That makes it much easier for you to do any competition work that you wanted to do. There's been a short episode today. I hope you appreciate it. I hope you take this information and go apply it to day. Go use it right now if you if you can, if you're driving or dissecting rats or something, then clearly don't use it. 00;14;54;11 - 00;15;12;01Michael J. AccettaBut if you are going to use it today, make sure you take notes. I don't say this enough. You guys got to take notes. It's something that I struggled with in the beginning and I learned the hard way. It's actually the first chapter in the dog training Chico that's available at Mount Auction. Icon is the first chapter in Mad at Arcane Incan. 00;15;12;11 - 00;15;30;24Michael J. AccettaAnd I'm actually going to put in the description. I'm giving away the first chapter for free. So if you want to read the first chapter about keeping really good notes so you can progress faster with your dog, click the link in the description and go read it today when you have lunch, when you're having dinner, when you're kind of trying to calm down and cool off before bed. 00;15;31;09 - 00;15;34;12Michael J. AccettaEnjoy that and I'll see you guys next time. Thanks for listening. 00;15;42;17 - 00;15;50;05Michael J. AccettaThank you for listening to the Acknowledged Dogs podcast. Subscribe to this podcast, leave a review and connect with me on your favorite social media platform. 00;15;53;23 - 00;15;54;05Michael J. AccettaSo

Reactive dog training is one of the most frustrating and rewarding types of training you can go through. Although you have regressions and obstacles to overcome you will feel amazing when you actually succeed. Let's get you started now! This episode is a masterclass in reactivity training. If you master these 3 secrets you will be able to transform your dog's life and make it easier for you wherever you go. Free Gift!!! https://www.matadork9.com/resolvingbadhabits Get reactive training anywhere anytime with our Reactivity Online course - https://www.matadork9.com/reactivity 00:01:41:04 - 00:01:59:04Michael J. AccettaI'm talking about reactivity. The three main things you need to do in order to have a successful training plan when it comes to reactivity and kind of set you up for success. You can have a training plan in general and you could start doing stuff with your dog. But if you don't have a system, if you don't have an organized way to do it, then it's not going to work. 00:01:59:14 - 00:02:15:04Michael J. AccettaSo I want to talk about three main points here, and then I wanted to dove in a little bit more on some of those points. The first thing that I want to talk about is called threshold training. If you have a reactive dog if you have a dog that barks at people, they lunge at other dogs, they're dragging you down the street. 00:02:15:04 - 00:02:31:26Michael J. AccettaIf you have a dog like that, then you need to understand threshold training. Whatever you're doing with your dog, no matter regardless of what kind of training you're doing. There is a fine line between stressing them out and continuing the progress and pushing them to where they fail. You don't want your dog to fail. You want them to succeed. 00:02:32:10 - 00:02:51:05Michael J. AccettaSo we have to find that fine line. And there are three main ways that we can do this. We can control the threshold training. Number one is management. If you're going out with your dog, you need to manage their entire environment, their entire life, essentially, even if it's not reactive. If you're talking about something else, your dog's destroying the garbage. 00:02:52:01 - 00:03:11:24Michael J. AccettaYour dog is chewing up the couch, your dog's jumping up on people. You have to manage things. But when it comes to reactivity, you need to control the environment as best as you can. So that means having eagle eyes and looking out into the environment as far as you could possibly see and recognizing what might stimulate your dog and trigger them to become reactive. 00:03:12:13 - 00:03:30:15Michael J. AccettaOkay. Your dog is people-reactive. That might mean don't go into areas where there are a lot of people that's probably not the best place to go. Instead, go to a park where things are a little more relaxed, and a little calmer, and then you can reward your dog heavily there. Now, you cannot control everything so you also have to have a backup plan. 00:03:30:16 - 00:03:46:18Michael J. AccettaWhat happens when my dog loses their mind? Where could I go? Oftentimes I have my clients go to the park in their car and they can just jump right back into the car if something happens. Right. They stay right there. They don't go for a walk. They stay right near their car and they practice. And if they have to, they can jump back into the car. 00:03:47:09 - 00:04:09:18Michael J. AccettaBut your goal is to observe the area as best as you can and stop your dog from being put in to situations where they're going to have problems, where they're going to freak out, where they're not going to be able to think clearly or progress in training efficiently. Now, number two, I want to talk about different variables just because we're talking about sight when it comes to managing the environment, right? 00:04:09:19 - 00:04:30:05Michael J. AccettaYour dog sees another dog, they lose its mind. We also have to consider, smell and sound. So when you're trying to keep your dog below the threshold you don't want your dog just be okay with seeing another dog or seeing a person or seeing a squirrel or a cat or whatever it may be. You need them to be okay. With hearing it as well as smelling it. 00:04:30:20 - 00:04:53:19Michael J. AccettaThey need to become desensitized to all of those things. Oftentimes, I'll even have my clients work on those things separately. Right. So if a dog is way too stimulated by the sight of something, then we might just work on the sound. The dog is way too simulated, stimulated by the sound of something. We might just work on sight. See how we can kind of break that up and we can even control the different levels within that. 00:04:53:22 - 00:05:19:03Michael J. AccettaSo sound. Is it lower or is it higher? Is it more in their brain like, oh, my God, I can't figure it out, right? Because of how loud it is? Or can we make it softer? Can we make it easier for them? Same thing with sight. Closer, further away movement is involved. There are a lot of variables you got to play with, and if you have a reactive dog, it's your job to kind of pinpoint all of the things that make your dog lose their mind. 00:05:19:19 - 00:05:38:09Michael J. AccettaRight. So if you've found out what makes them lose their mind, you can then dial it back and make it just a little bit easier for them. That is the finesse of really good reactive dog training and trainers. That's what they get paid a lot of money for. It's that ability to break it down and keep your dog successful that whole time. 00:05:38:11 - 00:05:53:14Michael J. AccettaSo if you can do that, you're going to save yourself thousands of dollars in training as well as hundreds of hours in training. Right. Like you're not going to spend as much time because they're progressing faster. The faster your dog progresses. The faster they can move on to the next thing. And we can encourage them more with build more confidence. 00:05:53:20 - 00:06:11:21Michael J. AccettaAnd it keeps going like that. We kind of just build on everything as they go now. Now that you understand the different variables and how to manage everything, you can start dancing with pressure. This is what I call dancing with a cha cha cha. Right? Act little. Was it? I don't even know. I do a little dance, make a little move. 00:06:11:21 - 00:06:35:16Michael J. AccettaGet down tonight. So you want to dance under pressure? If I can add a little bit of pressure and I can make it just that much more stressful. Just a little bit. And then I can take the pressure back off. Instead of my dog getting used to working at one level, I can stress them out, create a little bit more of a challenge for them, and then reward them by taking the pressure off. 00:06:35:22 - 00:06:55:04Michael J. AccettaAnd encouragement with rewards, toys, treats, that kind of thing. Praise. They'll actually progress that much faster. I did not push them to the point where they freak out and they fail, but I pushed them just past what they are comfortable doing. It's like people, right? If you want to learn how to play the piano, yes, you have to learn the scales. 00:06:55:04 - 00:07:12:25Michael J. AccettaYou have to learn all the mechanics of it. But then if you want to get good, you kind of have to play faster. You have to play without looking. You have to create these challenges that make it easier when you don't have those challenges. Think about someone in a sport, right? They play football instead of pushing against a £300 guy in football. 00:07:13:02 - 00:07:33:28Michael J. AccettaYou practice pushing against a £500 thing in practice. That way, when you're in the game, it's easier for you to push against the £300 person. That's what you need to do for your dog. Just in a controlled way. You're going to add a little bit just enough to where they're stressed. They didn't freak out yet, and then you bring them back, you relieve them, and then in real life, things become easier. 00:07:34:14 - 00:07:51:21Michael J. AccettaNow that's just the first secret, that threshold training. That's the first secret when it comes to reactive dog training. I'm going to go over the next two in just a minute. But if you're excited about this, you're like, Oh, wow, this guy's got a lot of information. I made it super, super easy for you to learn how to do all of this, and I'm actually going to demonstrate it for you. 00:07:51:21 - 00:08:14:07Michael J. AccettaIf you just go to Matador canine dot com forward slash reactivity, I created an entire course, and if you just put rescue in the coupon section, you get 10% off. That's my gift for you, man. Barking uncommon slash reactivity get 10% off by using the coupon code. Rescue all caps in that. Now, the second secret is a solid foundation. 00:08:14:27 - 00:08:35:01Michael J. AccettaSolid foundation. I mean, you have to have such a strong fundamental understanding and your dog has to have that fundamental understanding of what they should be doing. Doesn't need to be everything, doesn't need to be everything. But you should at least have one thing and that's going to be a recall or name recognition. Recall, right? Say my dog's name. 00:08:35:01 - 00:08:50:28Michael J. AccettaThey come to me. Name recognition is just saying your dog's name and having them respond to you. Since we're working on reactivity, maybe you're going for a walk, or maybe you're going to the park. You're probably still going to have your dog on a leash, which means you don't need as far of a distance for a good recall. But it will help when your dog is closer. 00:08:51:01 - 00:09:06:12Michael J. AccettaRight. Just like I just talked about with that challenge, if your dog is able to do a 100-foot recall and you get them two feet away from you, the odds of them responding to you are much higher Name recognition is the exact same thing we're just not doing at a distance. So I say my dog's name HAWK turns towards me. 00:09:06:12 - 00:09:28:01Michael J. AccettaGood. I can reward him if your dog understands name recognition and recall when you need to use it, that means you're out for a walk and they see something else and you say their name. They should turn back and you should be able to reward them. That is going to start becoming an automatic response for them. They see the thing that triggers them and they turn towards you expecting a treat. 00:09:28:13 - 00:09:47:24Michael J. AccettaSuper simple, right? But if they don't know that first, then you can never use it in that heightened state of awareness. When your dog is stressed, they're not thinking as clearly as they usually do. If you take them out to go do something and they're stressed by a dog, they're stressed by a person, they're trying to chase the squirrel up the tree and you call their name. 00:09:47:25 - 00:10:05:08Michael J. AccettaOdds are they aren't going to turn to you. That's a problem, right? That's a whole it's whole emphasis of reactive dog training. We want our dog to engage with us as opposed to everything else. And so if they don't even know what the fundamentals are, then how am I going to be able to do it in a stressful situation? 00:10:05:08 - 00:10:28:00Michael J. AccettaIt's just not going to happen. Now, the other things you might want to teach before you jump into reactive training are obedience and manners to a certain level. Right. I want my dog to be able to sit now at my dog, able to relax and maybe walk on a leash without anything else going on. Again, it's going to make it easier for me to transition from a less stressful environment to this new stressful environment. 00:10:29:11 - 00:10:46:25Michael J. AccettaRight? There's no way for my dog to know those things in this stressful environment unless I've taught them somewhere else. It's like getting into the pilot's seat of a plane. There's no way you can fly a plane. I mean, people do it all the time and it does happen. But there's a school to learn how to become a pilot. 00:10:46:25 - 00:11:08:06Michael J. AccettaThere's a reason you have to go through all this training in these hours of practice because when you're in the actual seat, holding the steering wheel, steering wheel of a pilot, I guess the steering wheel, it's not a wheel I don't know what it's called. The steering wheel of a pilot. When you have the steering wheel as the pilot, there's a certain amount of stress that overcomes you. 00:11:08:17 - 00:11:22:14Michael J. AccettaAnd you can't necessarily be thinking about learning all of this new stuff. You just have to do it. Same thing with your dog. If you teach them obedience in the manners that they should know, eventually they're going to have to know. They're going to have to know how to stay. They're going to have to know how to down. 00:11:22:17 - 00:11:44:18Michael J. AccettaThey're going to have to know how to walk on a leash. If you can teach those things and get a pretty good amount of success when you do add in these stressful situations like people like dogs, like cats and squirrels and bicycles and noises, and once you start to add those things in you have something, at least something maybe it's not perfect, but you at least have something to kind of bounce back off of. 00:11:44:25 - 00:12:02:02Michael J. AccettaYou have something to go off of and fall back on in case your dog freaks out. My dog's freaking out. I get their attention. Good. Now I got to tell them to do something because if I get my dog's attention, they've recalled to me, I've said their name, they turn and then they go right back to reacting. I'm just having them practice doing circles, and that's no good. 00:12:02:13 - 00:12:20:13Michael J. AccettaI want them to react, turn to me, and now engage again. So maybe I asked them to sit. Maybe I start teaching them tricks. Maybe I get them to settle. Maybe we then walk in another direction. All of that is what you need to do in reactive training to help guide your dog through the process of being like, Okay, it's fine, everything's going to be okay. 00:12:20:13 - 00:12:48:13Michael J. AccettaI don't need to worry about them. I just need to focus on whoever's walking me. Right? So we call name recognition. Those solid fundamentals are what's required. And then the last secret, the last secret to perfectly training your dog through reactive training is repetition and reward schedules. The 2 hours repetition of reward schedules, repetition. You've got to practice every single day over and over and over every single day. 00:12:48:13 - 00:13:08:13Michael J. AccettaYou've got to practice when you go for a walk, when you go outside, you go to the backyard, the front yard. You got to be practicing something related to reactive training. Whether it's sharpening up the solid fundamentals, whether it's practicing more of the recall at a distance. So it's easier when they're closer or starting to implement all those sounds and smells and sites we discussed. 00:13:10:01 - 00:13:38:24Michael J. AccettaThat's the whole point of reactive training. Your goal is to then get more people into the circle, right? Either people or dogs, more people involved, too, where your dog goes, Okay, I can be around more people, I can be around more stressful situations, and that's that repetition. And then we move into reward schedules. So reward schedules essentially say, if my dog is doing well, every single time they see somebody at 100 feet, now I'm going to wait. 00:13:39:00 - 00:14:05:02Michael J. AccettaThey're going to have to see somebody three times at 100 feet in order to get the same reward. We're going to stretch their capabilities of how much they're willing to work in order to get the same level of reinforcement that that is what's going to create longevity in the training, not just success, but longevity, because then your dog goes, Okay, I can look at that person three times and not be accustomed to getting a treat every time. 00:14:05:20 - 00:14:26:09Michael J. AccettaYou're going to cut down on treats. Your dog's not going to get fat. It's going to make it easier for you. And secretly, if you miss an opportunity to reward your dog it's okay if I don't see that my dog saw somebody and then turns towards me. It's okay because I can still reward them for the second or third, fifth, or 10th time they saw somebody, and then again that becomes easier. 00:14:26:09 - 00:14:49:14Michael J. AccettaSo if that was 100 feet becomes easier. Now I can jump two to 75 feet, and 50 feet and make it easier that way. Every single time you train your dog, you have to be focused on one of these reactivity kinds of methods, one of these kinds broken down into those three secrets. Which 1 a.m. Am I going to focus on today as the only way to be successful when it comes to training your dog? 00:14:49:14 - 00:15:10:05Michael J. AccettaNumber one, threshold training management, different variables and then dancing with pressure. Number two, is solid foundations. Does your dog have a recall? Do they know their name? Do they have any level of manners in obedience? You need that and then number three, repetition, and reward schedules. I need something that I can rep out over and over and over again. 00:15:10:21 - 00:15:31:18Michael J. AccettaMaybe I have a friend come and they guide me right at a distance. Rather, I'd guide them at a distance and make sure that they stay still. I control the environment. I get to practice what my dog needs to practice those solid fundamentals around the person that maybe makes my dog reactive. That's a perfect training plan right there. 00:15:31:18 - 00:15:55:19Michael J. AccettaThere's a perfect training schedule, and you just ripped that out over and over and over until your dog's not expecting a reward anymore. And then you increase the pressure. You increase how difficult it is for your dog to get a reward. That is the secret to effective reactivity training. If you want all of this laid out for you made it completely simple for you. 00:15:56:01 - 00:16:12:17Michael J. AccettaEverything's laid out. You get a video demonstration, you get a workbook to guide you along the process. Head over to Matador Canine e-Comm Forward slash reactivity and you can get 10% off by putting in the code rescue Matador Cain Icon Forward Slash Reactivity Coupon Code Rescue

Before you can start focusing on obedience, adventures, or fixing problem behaviors you must teach these three things. Once you spend the time to teach your dog these fundamentals you might find that you do not need to fix every tiny behavior. You can rely on these three skills for almost everything. In today's episode, you will learn how to teach your dog to settle, build engagement, and a solid recall; the fundamentals of a well-behaved dog and reliable companion. Free Gift - Resolving Complicated Bad Habits without Punishment https://www.matadork9.com/resolvingbadhabits Train with me - https://www.matadork9.com/coaching Leave a review here - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/acknowledge-dogs-matador-canine/id1584049404 Podcast Transcript 00;00;18;13 - 00;00;41;25Michael J. AccettaWhat skills did you teach your dog? The first engagement, solid recall, and settling calming them down. Those three things are the first things you should focus on. Whenever you get a new puppy, whether you're getting an older dog or you finally decided to start training your dog. I'm Michael Aceto, founder of Matador Canine. Brilliant author of The Dog Training Chico and host of the Acknowledged Dogs podcast. 00;00;41;26 - 00;01;01;03Michael J. AccettaThank you for being here. Before we dove in a little bit more about those three things, I want to offer a free gift to you. Click the link in the description and get the free PDF download for resolving complicated bad habits without having to use punishment. It's a very short read, but it is packed with useful information, so please take advantage of it. 00;01;01;06 - 00;01;20;28Michael J. AccettaIt is my gift to you. Okay, so the first one is engagement. Engagement is huge. This is where Lucy's walking can be fixed. This is where a solid recall can be built. And that's why it's before the solid recall. Engagement comes first. If you go out into an environment and your dog is not focused on you, there's no way you can teach them to do anything else. 00;01;22;15 - 00;01;40;06Michael J. AccettaYou have to teach them engagement. First, they have to be engaged. Or do they have to be focused on you? They have to want to learn with you over all of the other stimuli in any environment. Right. You go out for a walk, they're going to be looking at the squirrels and be looking at the cats. They're going to be looking at the dogs, and everything else besides you. 00;01;40;22 - 00;02;05;00Michael J. AccettaYou can't start teaching basic obedience or manners or nice loose leash walking, or any of that If your dog is not engaged with you. So how do we build engagement? Well, my favorite way is to wait. What would I wait for exactly? Go sit on a park bench. Hold your dog's leash and wait. At some point, they will get bored with the outside world and they will look toward you. 00;02;05;22 - 00;02;29;06Michael J. AccettaWhen they look toward you. You're going to mark and reward. That is my favorite way to do it. Shaping engagement. The more they turn toward you, the more you mark the reward. Sounds super simple. But when done effectively, your dog becomes insanely responsive, and they're actually looking to you more than everywhere else. Once they start looking at you, we can start to ask for more things, right? 00;02;30;04 - 00;02;50;11Michael J. AccettaBut we can't ask for more things if they're not looking at us. So take the time today. This is my action plan for you today. Go outside, sit on your front stoop, sit in your car, or sit on a park bench. Hold the leash with the clicker and some treats They're going to turn around eventually when they do mark and reward the second they make the decision to turn. 00;02;51;13 - 00;03;15;08Michael J. AccettaIf they start to go, you click and they don't come all the way to you. That's okay. Don't worry about it. At least toss a treat out to them. Eventually, they'll get it. Practice this over and over and you start to do these in different environments. That way your dog is engaged no matter where you are. We know dogs don't generalize well, and they're very specific about what criteria are important in a scenario. 00;03;15;21 - 00;03;34;20Michael J. AccettaCriteria in this scenario are when you're with me, you should be engaging with me. Everything else doesn't matter whether you're wearing the leash or are you wearing a harness collar whether you have a halting on you got booties on, whether we're out of the park or we're in a parking lot, no matter where we are, you should try to engage with me more. 00;03;34;20 - 00;03;54;23Michael J. AccettaYou engage with me, and the more I'll reward you for the next step, that solid recall we're going to hold off on for just a second. I want to focus more on settling. Many dog owners struggle with their dogs not being able to settle and relaxed all over the place. They're having a grand old time just running around the jumping off the couch. 00;03;55;20 - 00;04;15;15Michael J. AccettaMaybe they're tearing down your blinds. My dog Tommy is a very big boy, and he gets very excited last night. He was very excited because we were playing with him and he gets excited and we can stop him by saying, go lay down, go settle. So if you have a puppy or you're deciding to teach your dog something new, they're going to get excited to work with you. 00;04;15;26 - 00;04;39;01Michael J. AccettaWe're building engagements. They're going to get excited to work with you. But you also have to teach them how to sell, how to relax. When you sit down on the couch, they should sit down. They should be nice and calm. You can do that by teaching a place command, right? Have a nice bed for him, walk them on over, get them to offer to go on the place multiple times for a reward, and then have them come off, say place before they jump back on when they jump back on the market board. 00;04;39;01 - 00;05;08;16Michael J. AccettaNow, you've taught them the word place we chose to say go lay down is just the phrase that we use. You can say anything. Go take a chill pill. Go take five. All right. You could say anything. I would not say down because that's an obedience routine command or cue writing down is a very specific behavior. I don't want to ruin the down or my settling Q by cross-contaminating them if you will. 00;05;09;12 - 00;05;28;05Michael J. AccettaRight. If I say down, I expect my dog to stay focused on me in a fit any active down, which means they're primed and ready to get up and do the next thing. Go lay down or go settle or go on. The place is a passive type of down. They're actually laying. Maybe they roll their hip. Maybe they lay like a pancake, completely flat. 00;05;29;09 - 00;05;37;10Michael J. AccettaI want to have differences there, and I want my dog to know the difference. I'm going to use a different word to signify different behavior. So that's important. 00;05;41;27 - 00;06;02;02Michael J. AccettaI want to take a moment and thank all of our loyal followers. This podcast would not be possible without you. Leave a review and let us know what you like and want to learn on the next episode of the Acknowledged Dog podcast. Now back to the show now you can teach this without saying anything, and that's how I would prefer to do it. 00;06;02;06 - 00;06;18;07Michael J. AccettaThat's what we did with my other dog when I sat down in a chair when I was first teaching him, he was attached to me by a leash. When I sat down in a chair, I immediately started putting treats on the ground. You learned whenever Dad sits down, I should lay right next to him and I'll get my treats. 00;06;18;23 - 00;06;32;13Michael J. AccettaNow, this might not be what you want. You don't want your dog constantly sitting next to you. In the situations I was in and I was training in, I was in college I was in class, and he was laying right next to me. And that was totally fine. Nowadays, when I lay down, he lies right next to me. 00;06;32;17 - 00;06;50;00Michael J. AccettaAnd it's wonderful until I go to move the chair and then he moves and that's right. But I've taught him the action of me sitting down, telling him to go settle. We don't play when I'm sitting down. We play what I'm standing up and we're running around. When I sit down, everything stops and we should relax and settle. 00;06;50;12 - 00;07;07;01Michael J. AccettaInsanely useful, insanely, insanely useful for so many things. You go to a friend's house. You want them to relax in your own house. You want them to relax. You got kids, you want them to relax. You got other dogs. You want them to relax. You're in a zoom meeting and your dog's pestering you. You said, go lay down and they go lay down. 00;07;07;01 - 00;07;28;27Michael J. AccettaNow, everyone in the Zoom meeting is impressed, right? Moving on to the third one, recall this is huge. And if you've listened to the other episodes, you know that I think a recall is one of the greatest things you can teach your dog. If you teach your dog a solid recall, you can prevent them from running away. You can prevent loose leash walking be a problem. 00;07;29;06 - 00;07;50;29Michael J. AccettaYou can prevent them from running up to people when they're not supposed to. You can prevent resource gardening, stealing food, jumping up on so many things, chasing animals, chasing other dogs, and playing too rough, fix all of those things with a solid recall. Solid, solid. But you can't have a solid recall until you have one of two things. 00;07;50;29 - 00;08;13;16Michael J. AccettaOne, really good engagement. So that when you say your dog's name, they actually want to engage with you and you can't have a solid recall until your dog can settle in a lot of places. Why is that? Well, what ends up happening is most dog owners don't work with their dogs in distracting environments until they're told to, so they never bring their dog out to Lowe's. 00;08;13;16 - 00;08;35;00Michael J. AccettaHome Depot, Dog Park just to train, right? They just go to the dog park to run around. But if you head to all these places and worked with your dog, they would learn that being engaged with you and settling with you is important, despite where we are when it comes to the recall. If they can't be calm and engaged with you in these areas, there's no way they can do the recall. 00;08;35;05 - 00;08;58;20Michael J. AccettaThere just isn't unless you resort to punishing them, which in that case, you're really getting their attention through punishment. You're not rewarding them for recalling them. See the difference, which sounds nicer in my opinion, getting their attention and recalling because they're going to get a reward is much stronger and more beneficial for our relationship. It makes me feel better, right? 00;08;59;08 - 00;09;24;17Michael J. AccettaBut positive behaviors, which positively reinforce behaviors are much stronger than punishing behaviors. That's why punishment always has to happen again and again. And the race to be a refresher course. You reinforce behavior enough and you could stop reinforcing it. It'll still work, especially if you use reward schedules. Think about the time when you were punished for something let's say your job, right? 00;09;24;18 - 00;09;44;21Michael J. AccettaYou got scolded at your job for doing something. Yeah. It might not have been as severe as anything else, but you got punished and you still came back the next day. Maybe because your job is really reinforcing because of money. It's a good job that you really enjoy or the people you really enjoy, whatever it may be. That's not another example. 00;09;45;02 - 00;10;10;02Michael J. AccettaFriends and family. Someone could say something negative to you and it hurt your feelings, but because you like that person, and it's positively reinforcing to hang out with them, it outweighs that negative. Someone would have to do something insanely, insanely punishing to you for you to completely disregard their existence for the rest of their life. And I don't even think that's true, although people do terrible, terrible things right. 00;10;10;03 - 00;10;35;10Michael J. AccettaTheir stories of murderers eventually being given forgiveness. And I have watched a movie recently. It was called The Professor and the Crazy Man or something like that wonderful movie. Mel Gibson's in it. And this man went crazy and he killed his father. Of a couple of children, didn't kill the children, but killed the father. He ends up going to an insane asylum. 00;10;36;03 - 00;11;04;07Michael J. AccettaAnd the wife of the husband that was dead fell in love with him. What a plot twist there. Fell in love with the man who murdered her husband. Sure. It's a story, right? Although I'm pretty sure it's actually accurate. I believe it wasn't a documentary, but I'm sure it was based on true events because it was about the writing of death, not the Declaration of Human Rights about writing in Webster's Dictionary. 00;11;04;29 - 00;11;22;11Michael J. AccettaI think it's Webster's Dictionary. Yeah, the dictionary. But writing the dictionary. This professor had written the dictionary I'm going on a very sad tangent, but you get my point. If you could positively reinforce your dog for settling and engaging in these distracting environments, you can have a really solid recall that is based on rewards and want to be with you. 00;11;23;06 - 00;11;45;27Michael J. AccettaThe recall becomes very strong at that point. They're running to you, they're engaging with you, they're having a great old time. Every time you call their name, they light up with excitement and they run straight to you. Regardless of what else is going on. You got to work on the settlement and the engagement first. Now when it comes to the recall because you already did the engagement, it should be fairly easy and you don't already want to come to you. 00;11;46;10 - 00;12;14;12Michael J. AccettaSo you're just going to mark with a clicker or a verbal marker when they're running toward you and give them a treat when they start doing that consistently. Right? Just choosing to run towards you. Then you could add in the word right before they do it. So you'd say come, they run towards you, click treat. And I'd always click right before they get to you until you know if you're working on having them sit perfectly in front of you for a, you know, competition or something like that. 00;12;15;15 - 00;12;36;07Michael J. AccettaI would mark them as they're running to build that motivation because running is the most amount of effort they're putting forth. So we can make a really strong recall, really strong recall by marking as they're running. And then the treat becomes the end goal for them, right? They're running all the way to the tree. Eventually, you can have them run, grab a hold of them first and then mark and reward them. 00;12;36;18 - 00;12;55;12Michael J. AccettaBut in the beginning stages, you really want that motivation. You want them running to your mark as they're running. You should be practicing this in all different scenarios too, not just because you did the engagement in settling in those different scenarios, but the recall should be practiced in different scenarios. Go to Home Depot, go to Lowe's, go to the park, go to a friend. 00;12;55;12 - 00;13;22;11Michael J. AccettaNow, put up my words this morning. Go to a friend's house or a family member's house and just practice a recall in their house or in their backyard. Say, Hey, can I buy you some pizza? You know, whatever it is, I'll take you out to dinner. Can I just practice my knowledge? Recall in your house hopefully they're nice enough to let you do it because it's important that your dog can do these things all the time, no matter where you are. 00;13;22;26 - 00;13;41;01Michael J. AccettaIf they can't do them. What was the point of training? In my opinion, if it's worth training, it's worth overtraining. And some people say, Oh, you shouldn't overtrain. You know, I want my dog to be as best as they possibly can, just like I want to be as best as I possibly can. That's not the right word. I want to be as good as I possibly can the best I can. 00;13;41;29 - 00;13;57;07Michael J. AccettaI don't know what's going on with my words today. I want to be the best that I can be. There we go. I want to be the best that I can be. I want my dog to be the best that they can be. So if I'm going to train, I'm going to overtrain I'm going to work through all of these problems, all these problem behaviors that so many dog owners suffer through. 00;13;57;19 - 00;14;18;17Michael J. AccettaI'm going to work through all of that so my dog can have a nice, freedom-filled life. And I can't go hiking with my dogs. If they can't recall, then they don't have any engagement. I can't bring my dogs to an outdoor cafe. If my dog can't settle right. I gain a certain level of freedom and adventure simply because I work with my dogs. 00;14;18;26 - 00;14;39;06Michael J. AccettaI train them and I get them the exercise that they need and the skills required to live in our society. We needed to learn skills. That's why kindergarten exists. That's why parents have to teach you things you have to learn the skills before you can move up into, you know, first grade, let's say. Right? You got to be potty trained before you can go to kindergarten. 00;14;39;06 - 00;14;56;05Michael J. AccettaI think that's why pre-K exists I got a two-year-old now who's trying to be potty trained and he's got to learn that skill before we get to those upper grades. No, they're not upper grades. They're low-grade. But for him, they'd be upgraded. So he's got to be potty trained before we can do that. He's got to learn the skills just like a dog. 00;14;56;17 - 00;15;14;27Michael J. AccettaYou got to learn the skills of engagement, settling in a solid recall for you to have any chance of an adventurous, freedom-filled life. And I hope you work on that so you can have the same freedom that I get with my dogs. Thank you guys for listening today. Again, please take that free pdf download in the description. 00;15;14;27 - 00;15;32;05Michael J. AccettaIt's absolutely free. It's ten pages. It's a nice little short read, but it'll help you understand how to resolve the bad habits of your dog are the problems that they have without using punishment, yelling at them, correcting them, without making a whole big fuss out of it, just teaching them what they should be doing. Take advantage of that. 00;15;32;13 - 00;15;44;23Michael J. AccettaAlso, if you are interested in training your dog with me through one on one coaching, click the link in the description as well, or head over to training at matador canine for six-week coaching, and I'll see you guys in our first session.

What happens when rewards don't work? What do you do when your dog is not food motivated and willing to work with you every day? You are supposed to be teaching and training them and they want nothing to do with you. In today's episode, I break down the 3 reasons your dog isn't responding to reward-based training and what you need to do about it today!! Download the Training Planner Template with the link below https://www.matadork9.com/planner Join Matador University for free - https://www.matadork9.com/14daytrial Train with my - https://www.matadork9.com/coaching Want me to answer your dog training questions? Leave a review with your question, and I will ask in the next episode! 00:00:19:02 - 00:00:43:27Michael J. AccettaI've got a great show for you today. Oh, boy, oh, boy. If you guys stick around until the end of this, you are going to have so much in your tool belt now. We're going over so much today. The question that started this was what happens when rewards don't work? What happens when my dog is smart enough to know when I have a treat or when I don't have a treat? 00:00:45:04 - 00:01:12:11Michael J. AccettaRight. My dog is a master of deception. They're not food motivated. How am I supposed to reward them if I can't give them food, they don't care. They're wicked smart and are way too smart for their own good. They know when something's available and when it isn't right. We say the dog collar savvy or training savvy. Essentially, it's a layman's term for, well, my dog understands that there's a criterion involved in training. 00:01:12:11 - 00:01:26:16Michael J. AccettaAnd if the criteria aren't there, then I don't need to perform. I don't need to listen I don't need to respond when you tell me to come to you. I don't need to sit when you ask me to sit. I can do whatever I want because you don't have anything on me. You don't have a way to keep me accountable. 00:01:26:20 - 00:01:49:25Michael J. AccettaAnd you don't have a way to reward me. This happens constantly. It's a lot of what my job entails when my dog listens inside, but they don't listen outside. My dog listens when no one's around. But the second there's a person involved, my dog loses their mind. If you are dealing with this, you need to stay tuned for the entire episode because I'm going over so much today on why this happens and how we can fix it. 00:01:51:04 - 00:02:14:09Michael J. AccettaOkay, now there are only three reasons as to why rewards don't work There are only three. So I want you to find out while you're listening to this, whether you're driving or whether you're doing something else. Maybe you're sitting down and taking notes. I want you to just think, which one do I fall into? There are only three. The first one is you do not have the preferred reward. 00:02:15:08 - 00:02:35:28Michael J. AccettaThis is one of the easiest ways to solve your problems. Now, the next two or a little more complicated. But if you can just rule this one out, at least you know that you didn't waste a lot of time. The number of dogs that I've worked with and the owners that I've helped change their lives was as simple as, let's just find out what your dog likes. 00:02:37:17 - 00:02:56:16Michael J. AccettaLike, if you've never done that, you're wasting time in training. If you've never spent the time to figure out what your dog actually likes, then you are adding time to training as opposed to succeeding in training that you're just it's making it harder for you to get the same results as if you were to just have the treats that your dog preferred. 00:02:56:29 - 00:03:15:20Michael J. AccettaLet me give you an example. My dogs usually use kibble for their reward every morning and night. When we have breakfast and dinner, I train my dogs with kibble. However, I know that if we need to do something quickly, I need to teach a behavior very fast, and I want my dog to be motivated to learn and engaged. 00:03:16:02 - 00:03:42:23Michael J. AccettaI can use cheese. I could use hot dogs, and they are on it. Okay. They are light lit up there, ready to go because of the fact that I have something that they actually prefer. Yes, they love their kibble. They eat their kibble every day, though. But if I have something you know, higher up in their hierarchy of rewards, I can get that much more motivation, that much more excitement, that much more involvement. 00:03:43:29 - 00:04:00:06Michael J. AccettaAnd then as long as I don't mess up the next to which we're going to talk for a second, so long as I don't mess up, the next to my dog will not become dependent on that preferred reinforcement. What do I mean by that? I mean, my dog won't be looking for the reward and going, Oh, well, you don't have the cheese. 00:04:00:06 - 00:04:21:07Michael J. AccettaI'm not going to listen. And I've had that happen to one. Husky comes to mind right now when every single session they had to change treats. They ended up getting a subscription box and they would just buy treats from the subscription box and then figure out what the dog liked. But the dog always changed it because it wanted to know what else you got, what else you got? 00:04:21:24 - 00:04:47:01Michael J. AccettaOh, you got, you got jerky. You got a hot dog. She got cheese, you got cheddar cheese, you got mozzarella cheese. This dog became picky because the owners kept changing it. They didn't set forth a goal of finding the preferred reinforcement and using it. Instead, they just kept guessing to the dog, said Well, if I don't take the treat, maybe they'll pull something else out and they'll try to get me to do it. 00:04:47:15 - 00:05:05:28Michael J. AccettaAnd then, of course, when they did pull something else out, the dog went, Oh, cool, all I got to do is wait. And then you'll find something better to give me. I don't want that to happen with you and your dog, because if that happens now, you're just getting into a competition well, who can wait longer? Can your dog wait longer to get something they really want? 00:05:06:12 - 00:05:35:10Michael J. AccettaOr do you have to wait for your dog to then go, Okay, this is all I'm getting? It's no good. Do a preference test first. Figure out what they prefer. What is their favorite treat? And then market and go, Okay. Cheese is the ultimate goal. Cheese is the ultimate goal. If I need to teach anything quickly if I need to teach serious behaviors like recall or say I'm going to use cheese I want to take a moment and thank all of our loyal followers. 00:05:35:21 - 00:06:02:13Michael J. AccettaThis podcast would not be possible without you. Leave, a review and let us know what you like and want to learn on the next episode of the Acknowledged Dogs podcast. Now back to the show But that's only the first reason that a reward might not work. You just don't have the right reward. But if you rule that out now, we can move on to the second and third reasons why your dog might not respond as effectively to reward-based training. 00:06:04:01 - 00:06:29:00Michael J. AccettaThe second reason is sloppy mechanics, sloppy mechanics. This kind of goes back to what I was mentioning earlier about getting dependent on treats If your dog knows that you have something to reward them with and you only ever have something to reward them with when you're doing training they will learn, Oh, he's got treats or she's got treats. 00:06:29:02 - 00:06:58:28Michael J. AccettaLet me listen. She doesn't have treats. He doesn't have treats. I'm not going to listen. That is sloppy mechanics. That essentially means your dog should think. You just exude treats all the time. You always have the opportunity to make rewards come out of thin air. Right. If you can just make them appear, then you can always get your dog to do something and you can always get them to listen because there is no opportunity in life where there isn't a reward. 00:07:00:22 - 00:07:21:07Michael J. AccettaThink about having to listen when you go to an event somebody important gets on stage. Everybody quiets down. Right. If there's nobody on stage, then everybody does what they want. Right. You're not quite waiting for someone to go on stage. Someone goes on stage. They say, Attention, everyone. And then everyone quiets down. They start to pay attention. That's what happens with your dog. 00:07:21:07 - 00:07:42:03Michael J. AccettaThey see you and they go, Oh, he's on stage. He's ready to perform. This might be with a training vest. This might be with a training pouch. But when you take all of those things off, your dog goes, Oh, I don't have to listen. We're not training anymore. This is very common. If you use collars or harnesses on your dog, they become a collar or harness savvy equipment savvy. 00:07:42:21 - 00:08:05:21Michael J. AccettaThey know that that means we're going to work now. We're going to go do something very, very common in police dog work. And they actually use this to their advantage. They want the dogs to listen exceptionally well during police work and relax when they're not doing police work. So that works. But if you're just having your dog go out normally, then you want them to listen all the time, no matter what. 00:08:06:19 - 00:08:32:23Michael J. AccettaIt should not be contingent upon wearing a harness or a collar or anything else. Now, the last reason, the last possible reason as to why the rewards aren't working is timing. Your timing is off. Something is getting in between what your dog did and what should have rewarded the behavior that could go for literally anything. But I'll give you a couple of examples here. 00:08:33:11 - 00:08:55:27Michael J. AccettaLet's say I want to reward my dog for recalling me and on the way to recalling me they might go off to the side, divert to something else, and then finally come back to me and I reward that. In that case, I did not reward a perfect recall. I ended up rewarding a diversion and then coming back. 00:08:56:19 - 00:09:18:20Michael J. AccettaAnything you reward will increase the likelihood of it happening. That's, you know, the definition of reinforcement increases the likelihood of it happening, which means that behavior is now going to happen again. My dog is going to divert and if they divert more and more and more, eventually they're going to divert so much off the central line of recalling to me that they're going to be five blocks away. 00:09:19:21 - 00:09:38:10Michael J. AccettaAnd, you know, why is my dog not recalling? Well, you rewarded them just for the wrong thing. The timing was off there. The same thing goes for leaving the park. Let's say you have your dog running around everything's great. And as they're running to you, instead of marking and rewarding them for running to you, they get all the way to you. 00:09:38:10 - 00:09:55:08Michael J. AccettaAnd then they start to move away from you and you use the clicker to get their attention again. I've seen this happen over and over again. Right. The dog gets to you. They realize we're leaving. Oh, no, I don't want to leave. So they go to book it. And you remember to click at that moment, and then you've clicked your dog for running away. 00:09:56:06 - 00:10:13:16Michael J. AccettaAnd now they think, Oh, I got rewarded. I was supposed to run away. Especially if you did a good job of conditioning the clicker or the marker signal. If you say yes, you've done a good job of conditioning that to the point where they don't need the secondary reward, rather the first reward that they don't need the primary reward. 00:10:13:16 - 00:10:39:16Michael J. AccettaThe treat, right? They just need the secondary reward, which is the clicker That's a timing issue. You have a timing issue. Your dog thinks one thing because you've accidentally marked and rewarded the wrong thing. So record your sessions, actually pull out your phone, and record what you're doing with your dog. And then review it later. Is my timing right? 00:10:39:16 - 00:10:59:26Michael J. AccettaYou can see frame by frame, frame by frame. My dog is moving away from me as I click. Wow, that's a problem. I'm late my dog is moving towards me as I click. That's perfect. My dog is not doing anything. As I click. Well, they're always doing something, but if they're stationary, let's say they're sitting. And you wanted them to move toward you, right? 00:10:59:28 - 00:11:18:06Michael J. AccettaThey ran all the way to you. They're sitting in front of you and then you click. You're not rewarding the recall anymore. You're rewarding them for stopping and sitting, which very often happens when we have dogs run towards us and they stop a few feet away. We reward them because we go, Oh, well, I want them to encourage me to keep coming to me. 00:11:18:22 - 00:11:41:18Michael J. AccettaBut that's the wrong timing. We have to encourage them while they're running towards us to continue running through all the way to us. Okay. So those are three reasons. The only three reasons. Positive reinforcement not working. Number one, you do not have the preferred reinforcement you do not have there their absolute magnet. The thing that they are so drawn to, they could ignore everything else in the world. 00:11:41:18 - 00:12:02:03Michael J. AccettaFind out what that is and training will be ten times easier to you just have sloppy mechanics. Either you intentionally have sloppy mechanics or you don't know what the right mechanics are supposed to be. And that's totally fine if you don't know what the mechanics are then clearly you're not doing it out of malicious intent. But if you do know what the mechanics are, you're just lazy, which have seen a lot in trainers. 00:12:02:12 - 00:12:24:05Michael J. AccettaThey just get lazy. They get, you know, oh, I could still get a result by doing it with less effort. That's not good. You got to do 100% all the time in order to get 100% success. 100% reliability. And then the last one is timing. Is your timing off? Is your timing off? Are you actually rewarding the right thing? 00:12:24:05 - 00:12:48:15Michael J. AccettaNow, here are the three solutions. I told you was going to be good if you stayed for the podcast. Three solutions. Number one, get the behavior first offered reliably and then add the queue. If your dog's not listening, it might not be that they're distracted by the environment. It might not be that they're having an off day. It might not be that they just don't like you. 00:12:49:10 - 00:13:16:06Michael J. AccettaMaybe they just don't fully understand the association between the word and the behavior so if you spend time focusing on the behavior itself, don't ask them to do it. Have them love doing it so much that then you can reward them for it. They're offering up the behavior on their own. This happens a lot when you do shopping with your dog and with a lot of positive reinforcement your dog starts to offer these behaviors, and that's what we want. 00:13:16:06 - 00:13:41:29Michael J. AccettaThey're engaged. They're motivated to get you to release treats to them. Remember what I said earlier about convincing your dog? You just exude treats all the time. That's how you do it. Get them to offer the behavior to you so that you can then reward them if they're offering the behavior all of the time they are convinced that you have rewards, then you can start to add in the word, whatever that word may be. 00:13:42:03 - 00:13:59:18Michael J. AccettaI tell my dog to sit spin, recall whatever it is you can then get them to do it after, you know, 100% that they are wanting to do the behavior, not forced to do the behavior. They want to do it so badly. And you're just saying, hey, this is the word that means go for it. 00:14:01:19 - 00:14:27:24Michael J. AccettaRight? You're essentially saying this word that I'm saying that's coming out of my mouth means if you do that behavior that you love to do already, I'm going to give you a reward Now, the second solution is to use what your dog already finds rewarding. I know. I said to use the preferred reinforcement and you absolutely should but if there's something in the environment that's really rewarding to your dog, it might be the preferred reinforcement in that environment. 00:14:28:15 - 00:14:56:10Michael J. AccettaMy dog Tommy was like this. He loves people. He still loves people. He will take you to the ground if you let him. Is a Great Dane. Border Collie has all his energy, but he's goofy as hell. So when he used to run up to people and literally take their knees out, we had to work on it. Now, the preferred reinforcement would be playing Tug with a person he loves playing Tug but when there's somebody new around, the preferred reinforcement that worked had to change. 00:14:57:13 - 00:15:16:03Michael J. AccettaAnd in this case, right. Use what your dog already finds rewarding it, saying hi to that person so I can use that to my advantage. All I had to do is get a little bit of control at first and look, I go right back to it, get the behavior first offered, then add the Q So I wasn't going to tell my dog. 00:15:16:03 - 00:15:35:01Michael J. AccettaSit, sit, stay. Right. I'm not commanding him to stay. I would just wait at a far enough distance from my dog was successful. He'd start to put his butt down because we had practice set a whole bunch. And then once his butt goes down, I send him to say hi to the individual, and boom runs down, and goes to say hi. 00:15:35:06 - 00:15:57:26Michael J. AccettaGreat. I've just rewarded him with what he already found. Rewarding without having to say anything. I didn't have to add a Q verbally because the person became the Q. We're getting a little technical here and a little advanced but essentially don't spend time adding the word if your dog doesn't know the behavior first and then use what your dog already finds rewarding in the environment. 00:15:59:14 - 00:16:19:10Michael J. AccettaOh, my dog really loves chewing on the garbage. Okay. Is there any way you could possibly control that to the point where you can actually send them to maybe put something in the garbage? And that's an advanced training technique, but. Right, you could do that if my dog loves the garbage. Okay. The first thing I'm going to do is get my dog to leave the garbage alone. 00:16:20:15 - 00:16:33:18Michael J. AccettaThen I'm actually going to teach my dog to put something in the garbage intentionally. For me, this is what I did with my son, not a dog, but my son. He's three years old and he just he was interested in the garbage pail. So I taught him how to go over, unlock it and throw out a piece of garbage. 00:16:34:04 - 00:16:49:21Michael J. AccettaNow he cleans up my living room all the time. We have a garbage truck like he loves cleaning up garbage. Maybe he'll be a garbage man when he grows up, but he loves that kind of cleaning mentality and keeping everything orderly. And maybe that's a little bit of our family dynamic and trying to keep everything clean all the time. 00:16:49:21 - 00:17:06:22Michael J. AccettaBut right. I didn't say, Hey, clean up your room first. The first thing I did was show him. I demonstrated that when I pick stuff up and throw him out, he wants to do it. And then I said, Hey, thanks for cleaning up, buddy. That's awesome. I rewarded him and then I use what he already found rewarding. 00:17:06:22 - 00:17:31:27Michael J. AccettaHe wants to clean up. He wants to be involved in the garbage pail. Okay, what can we do those things together? Boom. Perfect. And then the third solution is to set your dog up for success. Constantly, constantly set your dog up for success. A lot of people say reward-based training does not work, and they've had personal experience with it not working simply because they're putting their dog in a situation that their dog is not ready for. 00:17:33:01 - 00:18:02:22Michael J. AccettaIf your dog is not ready to be around a thousand people at a packed stadium because they've never been in that situation before and you're trying to teach them something new, it is way too stressful. We have to remove them from that environment, set them up for success by eliminating distractions, using their preferred reinforcer, breaking down the behavior into manageable pieces that they can digest, and then rewarding them heavily so they can build their confidence in that behavior. 00:18:04:11 - 00:18:27:09Michael J. AccettaYou cannot do that in a stressful environment. You personally imagine trying to learn something new. Imagine the first day of work. You might be excited, you might be nervous, you might be anxious. You try and do everything right trying to impress the boss, and you mess up the classic movie, classic life, right? You mess up your first day, you get the coffee wrong, or you spill something or you drop the papers or whatever's going on. 00:18:27:11 - 00:18:40:02Michael J. AccettaMaybe you had an amazing first day, but odds are at some point you were in a nervous situation. I want you to think about it for a second. You were in a nervous or stressful situation and you did not think as perfectly as you usually do. 00:18:42:26 - 00:19:09:03Michael J. AccettaWhy would you intentionally put your dog in a situation where it's harder for them to learn and then punish them for not doing as well of a job? Set them up for success and reward them heavily so that you can build their confidence in what your expectation of them is Now, I want to give you something to make this ten times easier and to keep you organized so that you can teach your dog the behavior first. 00:19:09:17 - 00:19:37:19Michael J. AccettaSo that you know what? Q You're going to add to the behavior what your dog is finding rewarding so you can actually kind of pair it together and then how set your dog up for success and get long-term success in training. I'm going to give you my training template, my actual planner that I use on every single client, and every single dog so that I stay organized and know what I've done, what I need to do, and where I'm going in my training so I can stay accountable and organized. 00:19:38:02 - 00:19:57:16Michael J. AccettaI'm going to put a link in the description, or you can just head over to https://www.matadork9.com/planner. I want to thank you guys for listening today. If you have questions comments or concerns about dog training, make sure you let me know either on social media or leave a review on this podcast. 00:19:57:26 - 00:19:59:18Michael J. AccettaThank you guys for listening and I'll see you next time.

Learning how to build up your dog's confidence and your own is vital in order to build your relationship and make it easier on you for everyday life. With confidence in being able to handle your dog, you will make vet visits, traveling, and emergencies less stressful for both you and your dog. In today's episode, I talk about how you can use the techniques that police dog handlers use to teach their dogs to be confident when carried, manipulated, and handled roughly in extreme situations. You will also learn how to avoid the #1 reason resource guarding happens in young dogs and how to curb body sensitivity for good. To learn how to make your life easier with your dog click the link below. https://www.matadork9.com/dailylifeskills Show Transcript 00;00;01;08 - 00;00;36;25Michael J. AccettaWelcome. My name is Michael Accetta I'm the founder of Matador Canine Brilliance and author of The Dog Training Cheat Codes. You're listening to the Acknowledged Dogs Podcast. Today we're going to be talking about body sensitivity on the podcast, as well as how protection training uses body sensitivity and how you could implement what they do to make it easier for you to handle your dog and manipulate them without the fear of getting beat or causing your dog more stress. 00;00;37;04 - 00;00;56;09Michael J. AccettaSo stay tuned till the end of the episode. We're going to be talking about protection training. But first, you got to understand what body sensitivity is and how we traditionally teach our dog to be comfortable with being handled Now it's a hell of a lot easier to do this with a young dog, with a puppy, and actually a lot of kennels and professional trainers if they're breeding dogs to use for work. 00;00;56;21 - 00;01;14;04Michael J. AccettaService dog police work, military work, that kind of thing. They have systems in place. They actually have procedures written out on what you need to do with a puppy from eight weeks old until they start training week by week up, sometimes day by day. What they're going to do with those puppies to get them used to being handled? 00;01;14;24 - 00;01;36;09Michael J. AccettaThis could include spinning them, flipping them upside down, and holding them on their back for an extended period of time. All of those things are going to get used to being handled and manipulated by human beings so that they don't really care As they get older, they don't mind going to the vet. They don't mind being thrown into a car, they don't mind being picked up for whatever reason, and it makes it a hell of a lot easier for them. 00;01;36;25 - 00;02;02;26Michael J. AccettaThey can take that piece out of the training as an adult ride, the adult learning part. They can take out the body sensitivity part because the dog already knows what's going on. And like, okay, whatever they handle, their feet, their nails, they pick up their legs randomly. They play with their tail. They do very, very simple versions. Veterinarians, exams to make sure that that dog is comfortable and confident whenever it goes somewhere new and gets handled by somebody new. 00;02;04;06 - 00;02;33;04Michael J. AccettaYou have a puppy. You should be doing this with your dog every single day. Every day. Now, that used to be amazing advice and it is still amazing advice. You should be working with your dog every day, but we're going to go over how to teach this appropriately in modern-day terms. The old way to get your dog to be comfortable with being handled was to have your dog eat breakfast and dinner and you're going to touch them while they're eating. 00;02;34;10 - 00;02;51;22Michael J. AccettaI want to talk about this early on in today's episode because it is vital for you to stop doing that if you're doing it, if your new dog owner, if you have a puppy or a young dog and you were told, oh, just touch your dog while they're eating. I'm telling you right now, that is not a good idea and is not a good idea. 00;02;51;22 - 00;03;08;25Michael J. AccettaAnd some of you were like, well, everything's been fine so far. That's totally fine. You can do it your way or you can do it my way, or you can do it someone else's way. That's totally fine. But I would go with the person who's worked with 12,000 dogs, and we've seen a little bit more than maybe your friend who's giving your advice. 00;03;09;10 - 00;03;27;05Michael J. AccettaAnd I know that sounds pretty harsh. It's meant to be harsh because at the end of the day if you do that and it doesn't go perfectly well, you are going to get bit, your dog is going to develop aggression with resource guarding and you're going to get bit when you even get close to your dog. That is the potential. 00;03;28;12 - 00;03;47;08Michael J. AccettaAnd the rise of resource guarding dogs has gone exponentially up because that was a form of advice. Touch your dog while they're eating. When ends up happening is you touch their you touch your dog, they become tense and then you stop touching them because you're told to do it very short in the beginning. Right. So my dog's eating. 00;03;48;12 - 00;04;04;23Michael J. AccettaI'm going to touch them for 2 seconds. Then I'm going to pull my hand away and then they can go back to eating. Then I'm going to touch them for 2 seconds and then they're going to eat. And we're touching for 2 seconds. Every time you touch them, they become tense and tense and tense. And then you pull away and they go, Oh, great, becoming tense gets mom and dad to take their hand away. 00;04;05;01 - 00;04;26;17Michael J. AccettaAnd then the next day you do 3 seconds and they build up the tolerance to becoming tenser. They go, Okay, I'm gonna be tense for 3 seconds instead of two, then become tense for 5 seconds. Then I'm going to become tense for 20 seconds a minute. And you might have a dog that's resource-guarding, just becoming stiff and tense for 15 minutes. 00;04;26;17 - 00;04;44;09Michael J. AccettaI've seen that happen where dogs just stand there very, you know, grin face to the showing and they're just tense for a very long period of time. If you were going to go to the training ground or just wait them out until they get comfortable, it's going to take a while. This is not what we recommend to owners anymore. 00;04;44;15 - 00;05;08;20Michael J. AccettaThis is not the recommendation by veterinarians, at least educated veterinarians on behavioral training. Not every veterinarian is trained on behavior to see you know, not every veterinarian knows what they're talking about when they say behavioral recommendations so if they're trained and they're up to date on behavioral recommendations, then they would know this is not the way to do it anymore. 00;05;09;09 - 00;05;30;23Michael J. AccettaWe do not put our dogs in a situation to stress them out intentionally like this, accidentally creating resource guarding. So how do you do it? Well, there are two main ways to teach your dog to be okay with being touched. There are two main ways, of course, and there are 800 ways. There are more ways to train a dog than there are trainers to think them up. 00;05;31;15 - 00;05;57;25Michael J. AccettaI love that quote by Karen Pryor. There are more ways or there are as many ways to train a dog as there are trainers to think about. But the two main ways are either to reward your dog with food while you touch them, to build a positive association, or to shape the behavior. I personally prefer the shaping of the behavior, but sometimes that can be challenging if you don't have practice in shaping if using a clicker or a marker. 00;05;58;20 - 00;06;19;03Michael J. AccettaSo the first way let's talk about the first way. Just take a handful of food and feed your dog. That's step one. Get your dog comfortable eating from your hand. That's the easiest way to do it. They're eating from your hand. They're not tense. They don't already have resource gardening issues. If you already have research gardening issues, call my office at 5166596287. 00;06;19;04 - 00;06;42;13Michael J. AccettaLet's talk about it. We can figure out what we need to do to get you and your family on the right page. If your dog already has resource gardening issues, call my office If your dog does not have resource gardening issues and give them treats, they're eating them. And then you touch them and then pull the hand away that's touching them before you pull the treats away. 00;06;42;14 - 00;06;56;27Michael J. AccettaThis is going to make a positive association. I put my right hand out with treats. They're eating it. I touch them. With the left hand. I pull the left hand away, then I pull the treats away and they go, Oh, I only get treats when I'm being touched. And you're going to slowly build up the time that way. 00;06;58;13 - 00;07;28;28Michael J. AccettaNow, it's not my favorite method of doing it like that is not my favorite method, although it is very effective if you are uneducated on marker and clicker training. If you have a good set of techniques and experience and skills behind you on marker training and clicker training, and you can do this technique much faster with your dog, you're simply going to shape the behavior of them choosing for you to touch them. 00;07;29;29 - 00;07;46;18Michael J. AccettaSo you put your left hand out, they're going to rub up against it, you're going to march and give them a treat. It's that simple, and you're going to build on that. So maybe they rub their head against your hand Mark before reporting. This is completely their choice. So what does that mean? They are choosing to interact with you. 00;07;46;18 - 00;08;09;14Michael J. AccettaThere's no force put on it. And some of you might say, Well, my dog's got to get used to it. You're absolutely right. But whose responsibility is it to teach my dog or me Whose responsibility is it to learn in college? Is it the teacher's responsibility to teach? Or is it the student's responsibility to learn? Which is it depends on what side you're on. 00;08;10;19 - 00;08;32;09Michael J. AccettaMany people say, well, the student has to learn whether the teacher teaches it or not. They have to go home. They got to get their textbook. Then why are they paying the teachers? It's just paying moderators to take tests. It's the responsibility of a teacher to make the information digestible. For the learner, because that's what the teacher's job is, literally what the teacher's job is. 00;08;32;24 - 00;08;59;07Michael J. AccettaTake the information that is complex and dynamic. Break it down into something that's digestible and easy to understand, and then develop it to where it can be understood at a complex and dynamic level. That is the responsibility of a teacher, and that's the responsibility of you as a dog owner. When you take on the responsibility of having a dog, you're going to teach your dog how to exist in the complex world that we live in. 00;09;00;23 - 00;09;23;08Michael J. AccettaAnd so when your dog chooses to come up and accept affection in rubbing and touching on their own accord, then you reward that they're going to be more likely to want to engage in that type of interaction, in that type of affection. If you are forcing them one way or another to accept you touching them, they have the opportunity to want to back away. 00;09;24;07 - 00;09;41;05Michael J. AccettaNow, we go back to the first example if I'm feeding them from my right hand and I go to touch them with my left and they back away, but somehow still get a piece of food, let's say they're still eating it still in their mouth, they get rewarded for backing away. I don't have as much control even though I'm not forcing my dog to do something. 00;09;41;05 - 00;10;04;13Michael J. AccettaI still have control over the situation. Those are not opposing, right? I can have control over the situation. Even though I release a little bit of that control and that free will to my dog choosing to come up and be pet the very, very dynamic way of thinking. So I recommend that way for you and your dog. I want my dog to learn how to be comfortable with me holding them. 00;10;04;22 - 00;10;26;27Michael J. AccettaI'm going to have them come up to me. I'm going to mark and reward them when I pet them, and then I'm going to move on from there and practice more Now there are three different levels to body sensitivity and body handling. Now, body sensitivity does not just mean being comfortable being touched. Body sensitivity could be fear-based. It could be aggressive-based. 00;10;27;07 - 00;10;46;27Michael J. AccettaIt could be pain-induced, pain-induced aggression. If you go to touch your dog and they went away and they run away, it could be because they have a sore spot, right? Maybe they have an underlying condition internally. Maybe they have a bone structure problem you'd have to get this checked out. Is it's fear-based? It could be because of strangers. 00;10;46;28 - 00;11;16;22Michael J. AccettaIt could pass experiences or early experiences in their life. Or could be chemistry. Your dog just could be a little jittery, a little more anxious. So sometimes behavioral medication could take a big advance on your body. Sensitivity training but there are also three levels on how you train this. There's doing it yourself. There's familial, and then there are complete strangers so doing it yourself is what I've just described. 00;11;16;22 - 00;11;38;29Michael J. AccettaYou are the one touching your dog. You are also the one rewarding your dog. They came up, you rubbed them, and then you gave them a treat. Super simple. The second way is with family and friends. These are people that your dog most likely knows but perhaps does not have the same level of trust as they do with you. 00;11;39;26 - 00;12;05;08Michael J. AccettaSo this might be a friend that comes over once or twice a week regularly dog friendly with, but doesn't really care about, right? Doesn't feel one way or the other, doesn't get too excited, and doesn't shy away. But if your friend went to go reach for the dog, they might be more sensitive about it. So what you can do is either have your friend replicate what you've done, hold the clicker, they hold the treats, they're in charge of the process, and they would be doing it by themselves. 00;12;05;08 - 00;12;32;00Michael J. AccettaRight? The DIY version is them doing it by themselves or this is a little more advanced. You can have your dog go up to them, get touched, and then you'd mark and have them come over to you to give him a treat. And I think this is wonderful. If you can do this if your dog outright, it gives them the opportunity to leave the individual to take the stress of being touched off because in this case, our dog does not want to be touched right. 00;12;32;06 - 00;12;46;09Michael J. AccettaThat's why we're working on body sensitivity in the first place. A dog doesn't want to be touched. And so we're going to move them away and I'm going to give them a treat. Side note, because I don't think I mentioned it before, if your dog has pain-induced aggression or you think it's an underlining health issue, go see a veterinarian. 00;12;46;28 - 00;13;08;26Michael J. AccettaDo not try to do body sensitivity training. If you think it's a medical health issue, you need to go see a veterinarian and get that handled first because you could make it ten times worse. If your dog has pain-induced aggression which means something on their body hurts, and when you touch it, they become aggressive. No amount of sensitivity training is going to make that pain go away. 00;13;09;29 - 00;13;27;07Michael J. AccettaGo get the pain fixed, and most likely you won't have to do any body sensitivity training. You just get the pain handled, and boom, you're done. You don't have to do training, maybe have to do a little bit of training afterward. But in most cases, the dog doesn't feel pain and therefore they're okay with it. If you do it too long. 00;13;27;16 - 00;13;42;11Michael J. AccettaYou're right. Your dog has a lot of pain for a long period. Of time. They're going to develop the habit of accidentally getting touched there and becoming aggressive, and they're conditioned to it. So the next time it happens when there is no pain after you get it fixed, they're going to wince when you touch them, even though there is no pain. 00;13;43;28 - 00;14;07;19Michael J. AccettaOkay. Back to what I was talking about. So you could have an individual touch your dog, pet your dog, rub your dog, and then the dog moves away. Back to you. You mark and you give them a treat. So again, they're choosing to go get touched in order to get a treat. We're manipulating the situation to our advantage, keeping them successful by not pushing them too far. 00;14;08;14 - 00;14;40;02Michael J. AccettaBut you're giving them the opportunity to earn reinforcement by letting someone else touch them. Now, that is familial, friends, family. It's going to be way easier for your dog to do this. Then the third step is strangers complete and utter strangers. Since you just worked on both versions of having your dog go get the treat from the individual that they're working with or getting touched and then coming back to you, you can do the exact same thing with a stranger. 00;14;40;29 - 00;14;54;16Michael J. AccettaYou go for a walk, someone wants to say, Hi, you're friendly, with you. Trust them. You say, Hey, here's a couple of treats. Would you mind just rubbing my dog and giving him treats? This is after a lot of training and you trust that your dog is going to be okay with another individual. If your dog has some type of aggression. 00;14;54;16 - 00;15;01;04Michael J. AccettaI would not do this for a very long time, and you should definitely have a professional guide you through this process. 00;15;04;08 - 00;15;28;03Michael J. AccettaAfter you have the other individual interact with your dog and give them treats. Maybe go back to the version to have your dog go back up and recall them back. Give them a treat. Veterinarian Groomer. Strangers. Kids in some cases. Got to be you got to have good judgment with kids because kids will do the wackiest things. You are like, Oh, can they pet your dog? 00;15;28;03 - 00;15;52;16Michael J. AccettaYeah, you let your dog go, and then they're pulling on the dog's ears. That's not what you want. But that does play into body sensitivity. You should teach your dog all of those things like a pull on your ears. I can grab your toes. I can do right. All of those things fall under body sensitivity. So if you do an amazing job and you've practiced a lot, I mean, a couple of months, then maybe you trust other kids to pet your dog and your dog will be fine with it. 00;15;52;27 - 00;16;22;17Michael J. AccettaDepends on your situation, depends on the dog, and depends on your level of trust with those individuals and your dog. But you want to do this with everybody. You could possibly find not to the point where your dog gets excited when they see other people and becomes reactive. Reactive doesn't necessarily mean aggression or fear. Could be they're overly excited about other people and other dogs, but you want your dog to be comfortable with other people touching them in the event you pass out for whatever reason or you trip and get hurt and you drop the leash. 00;16;22;22 - 00;16;41;16Michael J. AccettaYou don't want your dog running away from other individuals. You'd want them to go, Ooh, a person. Maybe they come over here and they pick me up. I'll get a treat. That's what we want. So that's what you want to practice. Literally, in that scenario, you could practice over and over again. And when I used to hold in-person classes that's what we did. 00;16;41;20 - 00;17;16;16Michael J. AccettaWe'd practice yelling at our dogs and having them be confident and actually excited to hear someone yelling at them because you never know when the real-life situation is going to hit you and you'd better have done all the training to prep for training for real life. Now, I mentioned earlier about protective training, and these are actually oppositions, body sensitivity training and protection training are completely opposite protection training is about creating distance between dogs barking to get you to go away. 00;17;16;17 - 00;17;36;27Michael J. AccettaThat is the whole goal of them barking. They go to bite you to get you to go away. Clearly, protection training, serious protection training is a little sharper than that. It's a little cleaner than that. There's the intention behind certain things, but at the very, very recruitment level, I bark at you, and you walk away. I feel good. Great. That's the goal. 00;17;37;08 - 00;17;54;23Michael J. AccettaBody sensitivity is the complete opposite I want that individual to come closer and touch me so that I can get a treat. That's what your dog is thinking. That person, when they pet me, I get a treat. If I bark at them, they will go away. I don't get a treat. But if your dog's doing protection, I bark at them. 00;17;54;23 - 00;18;18;11Michael J. AccettaThey leave. Good. I win. So how do they then use protection, training, and body sensitivity together? Well, the protection training says, Well, I'm going to bite you now. I have to hold on. Let's say you're apprehending somebody is a police dog. If that dog bites an individual, that dog has to hold on until help arrives, until another officer shows up. 00;18;18;26 - 00;18;43;14Michael J. AccettaSometimes they send another dog. So that dog needs to be comfortable being touched all over their body, all over their body in order for that dog to be effective at its job. If that decoy, the individual who gets bitten by the dog, that decoy were to touch them in the right leg, the back leg, and that dog. Let's go with the bite to see what are you doing in my leg now. 00;18;43;14 - 00;19;15;05Michael J. AccettaWe have a problem now. The dogs bite and then eat after rebate, which is a problem, or in a very dangerous situation, the individual has the opportunity to hurt the dog and that's no good. So you have to teach sensitivity to protection dogs and working dogs because they need to understand that their body is fine. They don't need to care about anything else, let alone just moving them around in the car, putting things on them, booties, vests, jackets, goggles, all of those things they have to be accustomed to. 00;19;16;01 - 00;19;43;02Michael J. AccettaAnd that's a form of body sensitivity if you put something on your dog and they freeze up, they can't move. They're sensitive. We don't want sensitive dogs in the working world. We need strong dogs that don't really care about their physical body, whatever. My limbs go sideways. Doesn't matter. Those are amazing working dogs. So one way to do this and replicate this in your own life if your dog is toy motivated, play tug with them and slowly start to touch the rest of their body. 00;19;43;24 - 00;20;00;17Michael J. AccettaIf you touch them and they let go of the tug toy, that means that they're sensitive in that area. So you do need to go slower. This might mean you just bring your hands in the air instead of actually rubbing them. So bring your hand close to them while you're playing tug. And every time you touch them, play Tug a little bit harder. 00;20;01;27 - 00;20;30;18Michael J. AccettaCould this create resource-guarding tendencies? Absolutely. The same way that the beginning when I was talking about food could do it. So you have to do all those other behavioral body sensitivity training first. Then you can start to implement this style of training. If your dog is good with everything else, it shouldn't take that long to get to the stage but if your dog is struggling with everything else, then there's no way you should be doing this. 00;20;31;07 - 00;20;52;01Michael J. AccettaPlaying tug with your dog and touching them is very exciting. There's a lot of stimulation your dog is over the moon thinking, right? They are so elated about playing Tug that they're not going to think clearly. And if you have a dog that's already very, very short in their temper and earn a snap at you at the slightest little thing, playing tug is going to exacerbate that problem. 00;20;54;09 - 00;21;13;00Michael J. AccettaThe more excitement they have, the less focus they have. There is a balance. All right. If your dog has no excitement and they move up and they're like, Okay, I'm getting a little excited. I'm excited to work with that focus. We get too excited. We go back down the hill and there is no focus. That's the potential for playing tug with your dog and touching them. 00;21;13;17 - 00;21;30;22Michael J. AccettaSo you need to do all that other training first, understand your dog personally, personal level, and how they handle that kind of stress, and then start to do it with a tug, and then that would relate to it. You're doing protection work, the decoy, so you might also want to do it with different equipment. Rub your dog with a stick. 00;21;31;28 - 00;22;01;18Michael J. AccettaOkay, rub your dog with a tarp. That's body sensitivity to all of those weird feelings. And things are going to help your dog understand that nothing touching them is a problem. Nothing at all. Touching them is a problem. If you want to learn more about the daily life skills that help guide our dogs through the complexities of our life and make it easier for you to take care of and enjoy your dog, head over to Matador Canine dot com slash daily life skills. 00;22;01;18 - 00;22;14;10Michael J. AccettaMatador Connection Slash Daily Life Skills. The link will be in the description. Thank you guys for listening today. If you have topics or questions that you want me to cover, make sure you let me know on social media or email me at Matador Canine.

Learning how to build your dog's confidence is going to grow your relationship in a whole new way. There are three main rules when it comes to building your dog's confidence and you need to know them if you are going to be successful in your dog training. Confidence is Built Through Successful Repetition It is harder to fix than it is to build Confidence is relative If you can understand these three rules your dog will become bulletproof (not actually but pretty close) Do you want to train with Matador Canine? Try our 14 Day Free Trial with the link below https://www.matadork9.com/14daytrial #dogtraining #matadorcanine. 00:00:01:02 - 00:00:21:13Michael AccettaHey, guys. Welcome to today's episode. The topic is going to be about building your dog's confidence. We're going to go over the three rules of building your dog's components. And once you understand those, you're going be able to take your anxious, nervous all-over place scatterbrain kind of dog and have them be a hero. I want to tell you two quick stories before we jump into those three rules. 00:00:21:14 - 00:00:43:17Michael AccettaNo. The first story, actually, I was gonna say number one, but the first story is about a dog, a train named Sky. And we called her Sky because her eyes were wide open all the time and had these beautiful blue eyes and her eyes were open because she was terrified. And that's a sign of a nervous dog. Dogs that have big, wide-open eyes, they're nervous, they're tense. 00:00:43:17 - 00:01:03:09Michael AccettaEverything's pulled back. Sometimes it looks like they're smiling because they're actually pulling their cheeks back, and their ears go back. Everything's, like, all tense and tight. We want to help a dog relax. But this dog Sky we ended up working with for maybe two or three months and the program we had in place was all about building up her confidence. 00:01:04:07 - 00:01:25:10Michael AccettaIt was everything we did. We didn't do obedience. We didn't do manners. We didn't do walking unleash. The sole purpose of the training was to build their confidence. In about two to three months, this dog was then able to focus on obedience and engagement, and manners. And other skills and tricks and all those things. Some people will say obedience is going to boost your dog's confidence, and that is absolutely correct. 00:01:26:02 - 00:01:43:03Michael AccettaManners can boost your dog's confidence and we're going to actually go over why that happens and how that works. But I want you to understand that if your dog is nervous, your sole purpose right now, just like with Sky, your sole purpose should be to build their confidence first if you do not have any confidence in your dog. 00:01:43:07 - 00:02:05:27Michael AccettaYour dog doesn't have any confidence. You can't do the fun things that you want to get to do. The second story I want to tell you is about a Dogo Argentino. This is a story I recently heard about that fought off a puma. A feline, a giant feline in the mountains of the woods, wherever they were. A family had gone out, you know, picking food, going on a hike, something like that. 00:02:07:06 - 00:02:33:13Michael AccettaAnd their dog followed them and a puma went to attack the dad and the two little girls, and the dog intervened. The dog won this dog. Argentina won the fight against a puma. A nervous dog cannot do that. A nervous dog cannot think clearly enough in order to enter into that situation, think critically, and react responsibly. Right. It just can't do it and everything. 00:02:33:13 - 00:02:56:02Michael AccettaIt would run away. A nervous dog is going to flight. They're going to run. They're going to flee. They're going to get out of this situation. A confident dog will stand their ground fight, and defend its territory, just like human beings. A confident individual is going to puff up their chest and stand for what they or believe in. And a coward, a nervous, anxious person might run away in those situations. 00:02:56:03 - 00:03:20:06Michael AccettaAnd I don't mean coward in a negative context, although it does have a negative connotation. I mean coward as in someone who flees a situation. We usually call people cowards in a negative light. But it's not necessarily negative. Just you left a situation when you could have possibly done something different. So let's jump into those three rules and I'm going to break down Sky and the dog Argentina unfortunately, I don't remember the dog's name, but the first rule of confidence. 00:03:20:21 - 00:03:47:06Michael AccettaThe first rule is confidence is built through successful repetition. It's the only way your dog can build confidence. They cannot do it by doing something once. They cannot do it by repeating something over and over and failing. That's not how confidence is built. Confidence is built through successful repetition. The more you do with your dog and they succeed, they more they're going to want to do and succeed just like your life. 00:03:47:11 - 00:04:03:25Michael AccettaIf you do something and you're good at it, you're probably going to continue doing it. And that's how a lot of people get into art, music, acting, in that kind of creative style because they were good at it. Someone complimented them for it, and then they continued. They said, Wow, I really enjoy this. I'm going to continue doing it. 00:04:04:22 - 00:04:25:25Michael AccettaSuper simple, right? Confidence is built through successful repetitions, buying things that your dog is good at, and then continuing to do it over and over and over again. This is where tricks, obedience and manners can have a place if your dog is really struggling and you can just get them to put their butt down and they can just sit, you can reward that. 00:04:26:29 - 00:04:52:19Michael AccettaThey've now completed one successful repetition of an action, and then we can do it again and then again. And then they become confident in that action itself. They become confident in sitting right. If you want them to be confident about climbing on things, then you have to build that confidence through successful repetitions of their climbing on things. This is why agility is such a wonderful activity and exercise that you should do with your dog. 00:04:52:23 - 00:05:20:00Michael AccettaIf they're nervous or anxious, the more they get over their fear and they're successful, their confidence will go up and it'll start to trickle into other areas of their life. As long as you then teach, that now moves on to the next. That moves on to rule number two, guys. Confidence is relative confidence is relative. This means that your dog is not going to become confident in one area of life and their entire life is fixed. 00:05:20:22 - 00:05:41:22Michael AccettaThink about your own life. If you're confident that you can write a skateboard, that doesn't mean you're confident you can go stand on a stage in front of 30,000 people and give a speech. Those are two very different things. Same thing with your dog. They might not be confident in going up to somebody. They might not be confident in greeting somebody. 00:05:41:22 - 00:06:04:09Michael AccettaPolitely. They might be nervous about the person, but they have no problem greeting a person with a dog. Those are completely different things, right? Your dog might be so confident to rush up to another dog and say hello. And then there's a person attached to that dog. Cool. Awesome. I love it. But if there's one person by themselves or that person's wearing a hat or persons wearing a glass-like glasses wearing a glass wine glasses, what do I like to wear? 00:06:04:09 - 00:06:30:10Michael AccettaMonocle. They're wearing glasses that might instigate fear in your dog. Right? They don't have the confidence to go up to them because maybe they've never been introduced to somebody with glasses or a hat or on a bike. All of those things change the picture for your dog. Okay, not everything is the same, but the more you do with your dog, the easier it's going to be for them. 00:06:31:16 - 00:06:47:00Michael AccettaThe more you expose them, the more confidence you build in every area of their life, and the easier it's going to be for them. They're there shouldn't be. Okay, well, we're just going to do agility. Let's say you just did that. You found an agility group. You said we're going to work on confidence, added Jody. Your dogs have become amazing at agility. 00:06:47:20 - 00:07:04:23Michael AccettaThat doesn't mean they can jump up on your couch and not be afraid. That doesn't mean they can get into the car and not be afraid. That's up to you to practice separately. It's definitely going to make it easier, right? The more confident your dog builds, the more confidence they're going to be able to build. But you have to practice it in all of these different areas. 00:07:05:18 - 00:07:35:21Michael AccettaSo rule number one, confidence is only built through successful repetition. Rule number two, confidence is relative. Rule number three, confidence is easier to build than it is to fix. Confidence is easier to build than it is to fix. If you have a puppy or a young dog, it is imperative right now that you build that dog's confidence. You build it up, you make them bulletproof, you make them a superhero from the beginning. 00:07:36:04 - 00:07:49:26Michael AccettaIf you do that, it becomes so much easier for the rest of your dog's life. Anything you want to do with your dog, you can then go do. Both of my dogs are insanely confident dogs. They weren't in the beginning, but they are now because of all the work that we've done. And one day I decided, You know what? 00:07:49:26 - 00:08:08:27Michael AccettaI'm going to take them kayaking. They've never been on a kayak, right? They've never practiced it. Sure. I took my time and taught them what they should know. But the process was very smooth and very quick because of their confidence. Right. I can ask my dogs to do almost anything and are willing to try. I've had my dogs try to climb trees. 00:08:09:02 - 00:08:32:29Michael AccettaI've had my dogs hop over fences. They've had no problem attempting those things because of the confidence that we've practiced over and over and over again. And I never pushed them past what I know they were capable of doing. If I were to do that, I would damage their confidence. Now what? I mean, by it's easier to build than it is to fix is if you realize very early on, oh, my dog's nervous, my dog's anxious. 00:08:33:08 - 00:09:10:14Michael AccettaLet me build them up. That is much easier than saying, Oh, I don't know if they're anxious. Let's test it out. You damage your confidence, you destroy. Yeah, destroy their ability to quickly overcome problems and situations, and you've put them at a decent, advantageous position, a disadvantageous position simply because you rush the process. So if you have a dog that might be fearful of people might be fearful, and you introduce them to somebody and they are fearful, now you have to go back and fix that relationship with that person. 00:09:11:20 - 00:09:30:09Michael AccettaYou're essentially starting backward. But not only do you have to build their confidence back up, you also have to build it past the point of zero, though. Zero was here, right? And we didn't know they were afraid, but now we made them more afraid. Now we have to cover new ground plus all the ground we would have had to cover in the beginning. 00:09:30:24 - 00:09:54:17Michael AccettaYou're just making double work for yourself. That's why it takes longer and it is harder to fix a confidence issue than it is to build your dog's confidence. When you are training, do not push your dog to the point of failure. Build up their confidence slowly. That way they understand what they should be doing. They feel comfortable in it, and you can progress that much faster. 00:09:54:27 - 00:10:23:26Michael AccettaConfidence is only built through successful repetition. So if you are failing, you are not building confidence. That's rule number one. Rule number two, confidence is relative. And rule number three, confidence is easier to build than it is to fix. If you understand those three and you implement them every single day. Confidence is an everyday thing. Practice it every day with your dog morning, afternoon and night if you can, and introduce them to as many new things as you possibly can. 00:10:24:14 - 00:10:45:09Michael AccettaThat's the secret. It takes a long time. It takes practice, it takes diligence, it takes determination, and discipline. And if you can do all of that, your dog is going to be an absolute superhero. Thank you guys for listening. If you have questions about dog training and want to hear more. Make sure you put it in the comments what problems you're having, and what questions you have for me. 00:10:45:09 - 00:10:56:04Michael AccettaI would absolutely love to talk about it on the podcast and on my YouTube channel. If you're not following us on social media, make sure you do that. Matador, Canine Matador. Cannot. Thank you guys for listening and I'll see you next time.

Will playing tug with your dog cause aggression? Can you teach your dog to be more aggressive or bring out its wild side with such a simple game? in today's episode, we unpack this amazing game and how, when done effectively, will give you everything you need to train your dog as the pros do. Learn more about playing and training with your dog with our 14-day free trial of Matador University Click here https://www.matadork9.com/14daytrial To solve your dog's problem behaviors read this free PDF https://www.matadork9.com/resolvingbadhabits #dogtraining #matadorcanine #acknowledgedogspodcast 00;00;18;16 - 00;00;43;16Michael J. AccettaWhat I want to talk to you about today is playing tug with your dog. It's not that difficult of a concept. Okay? You know, but I pull this way. My dog pulls back. But for whatever reason, so many individuals struggle with the concept of playing with their dog in an effective way. It's actually productive. For years, I was taught when I was younger, when I was growing up, I didn't grow up with dogs, but I grew up knowing a little bit about dogs. 00;00;43;16 - 00;01;04;28Michael J. AccettaPeople had their concepts, and, you know, you don't touch a dog. Don't look a dog in the eye. Never play with a dog's mouth, those kinds of things. And one of the things I always heard was "never play tug with dogs". And even as I started growing and learning and gaining more experience and knowledge about dog training and psychology, people kept saying, don't play tug with dogs. 00;01;05;21 - 00;01;25;26Michael J. AccettaShelters were pushing this heavily Don't play tug with dogs. Don't play tug with dogs. You know, if you had a working dog, you had a German shepherd, a Belgian Malinois, a pit bull, an Australian shepherd. Don't play dog with your dog. Don't play tug with your dog. It's going to make them aggressive. That's what everyone said. The tug is going to make your dog aggressive, make your dog aggressive. 00;01;25;28 - 00;01;48;05Michael J. AccettaAggression is behavior just like anything else. So playing Tug with your dog isn't going to make them aggressive. If anything, if they're already aggressive, playing Tug might bring it out. But it's not actually going to So what does Tug do? The tug is an insanely useful tool for building our dog's motivation and rewarding them with such a high level of excitement. 00;01;48;18 - 00;02;04;11Michael J. AccettaThat's what Tug can do when done effectively, of course. Right. So if I'm going to work with my dog, let's say I'm going to teach them obedience yeah. I could use food, right? They said I could give them a treat, or I could say, sit. They do it. And then I pull up a tug toy. They jump up, they grab a hold of it. 00;02;04;11 - 00;02;24;08Michael J. AccettaNow I can control how much excitement and playing that my dog gets right. If they did an exceptional job of sitting, I can do an exceptional job of playing time. If they did a mediocre version of sitting, I can reward them lackadaisical, and then I can have them stop. I can have them sit. Not only can I reward with more motivation, right? 00;02;24;08 - 00;02;49;23Michael J. AccettaI can boost up their confidence at wanting to chase after something, and I can make them more excited, which means I can reward faster responses. The third, third pillar of dog training. We talking about speed and motivation so this is huge. Not only can I do that, but I can actually teach them how to have a level head and think clearly when they're excited if my dog is all over the place, the zoom is right. 00;02;49;23 - 00;03;06;19Michael J. AccettaThe zoom is at 6:00. Dog starts chasing its own shadow. It's jumping off the couch. It's going into the kitchen, into the bathroom. It knocks into the water bowl. Those zoomies are because your dog is overstimulated. No matter how much you yell, no matter how much you try to get their attention, they just can't focus. 00;03;07;21 - 00;03;28;05Michael J. AccettaWhat have I told you playing Tug could fix that? Playing Tug with your dog, actually rewarding them by playing and getting excited and then stopping having them stop, drop the toy and sit because they know what will get excitement, right? What behavior do they have to do in order to get more excitement, more enjoyment, and more playing with you? 00;03;29;06 - 00;03;52;29Michael J. AccettaThat's what Tug can do if you do it right now. If you do tug wrong, you do tug wrong. You can develop problem behaviors. Now, before I go into what problem behaviors can happen by playing Tug, I want to give you something for free. Absolutely free to gift for me to you, because way too many people are suffering from problem behaviors and they don't need to click the link in the description to free PDF Guide and resolving complicated bad habits. 00;03;53;10 - 00;04;19;29Michael J. AccettaWithout having to punish your dog. It's a very short, simple read, but it is packed with useful information, so please take advantage of it. Click the link in the description and use it to the fullest extent. But what problem behaviors can result when you tug incorrectly? Number one resource guarding and your dog can take the tug and go hide it because you're constantly stealing it from them, especially if you're intentionally trying to steal it from them. 00;04;20;11 - 00;04;37;28Michael J. AccettaThey could break down the trust between you guys, and now you have resource guarding. Resource guarding is all about trust. I can take things away from my dog because they trust me. I'm not going to do anything bad and I might give them something better. Or the thing back. Or if I came up to you and stole your wallet, you're going to be resource-guarding of your wallet. 00;04;37;28 - 00;04;53;04Michael J. AccettaYou're going to become defensive, you're going to fight me, maybe punch me in the mouth but if I say, Hey, can I take your wallet? I do a magic trick and I give everything back to you. I didn't steal any money at a do. I gave everything back to you and I gave you some more right. Because I entertained you for a little bit. 00;04;53;13 - 00;05;08;02Michael J. AccettaAnd the magic trick is how we built trust. And you trusted me enough to give me your wallet so I can do this magic trick. So then I can give it back to you. And I'm not trying to trick you in any way. Besides, of course, the magic trick part, but not stealing anything. I'm not doing something like that. 00;05;09;19 - 00;05;28;25Michael J. AccettaSo your dog can develop resource-guarding issues simply because you're stealing things from them all the time. On top of that, if it's not resource guarding they can learn to keep things away from you. So they'll bring a toy right up to you, and instead of giving it to you, they'll run away because they want you to chase them. 00;05;29;22 - 00;05;44;01Michael J. AccettaThat becomes a problem. They want you to actually engage in the game of Chase instead of the game of Tug. So what I tell owners that struggle with that, have a couple of pieces of the tree. Have your dog come up to you, bring the toy, and drop some treats on the floor. They drop the toy in order to eat the treats. 00;05;44;08 - 00;05;59;05Michael J. AccettaYou pick up the toy again and try to engage them in tug. You can let them have it, but then bring out the treats again or bring out a second toy. Get them re-engaging with you. If you play Tug and you stop, you let go of the tug. They should be shoving the tug back into you so you can play again. 00;05;59;05 - 00;06;21;22Michael J. AccettaIf they're not doing that, then you're not being very playful in an overexuberant kind of way. And some people just aren't that way. You have to find an alternative for yourself. That's where treats come in. That's where some other techniques come in. The third thing I want to talk about when it comes to Tug and this is probably where people think, Oh, your dogs don't become aggressive if you don't work on your mouth. 00;06;21;22 - 00;06;40;15Michael J. AccettaEye coordination is what I'm going to call it, right? Your dog jumps up and they're aiming for the toy but they get your hand right. They're aiming for right there, but they get your hand, mouth, and eye coordination. If your dog doesn't have that because they're moving too fast or they never practice, or they're a goofy puppy you're going to get bitten. 00;06;40;15 - 00;07;01;10Michael J. AccettaThe hand teaches your dog where to aim. And odds are they're going to stop biting in the hand, right? If you never teach them, if you never deal with it, you never try to fix it. You never try to give them the right opportunity for success. If you never go forth and put forth the effort they are going to know what to do and they're gonna keep biting your hand. 00;07;02;00 - 00;07;23;25Michael J. AccettaSo take a break, right? I had this big toe. I don't have it here in my office, but it was a wager. Oh, I remember why I don't have it. I could dog destroyed it. My dog destroyed one of my favorite toys. That's fine. It was a long tube, and I would hold the outsides of the toy, and he would be right in the middle, and then we could play Tug. 00;07;24;05 - 00;07;45;06Michael J. AccettaSo I started doing was I bring my hand closer and closer and closer. As I got closer, the space between my hands got smaller, which means he has to aim for the space between my hands and get really good at it. Did he hit me a couple of times? Yeah. Was I expecting that? Absolutely. But when he did get a hold of the toy in the correct position, I can reward him by playing Tug. 00;07;46;00 - 00;08;00;09Michael J. AccettaIf he completely missed and got my hand, I was prepared to stop holding the toy still and reset. I'm not going to get mad at him. I'm not going to yell at him. I'm not going to substitute with something else. I'm just going to tell him that that didn't work. And what he needs to do is try better next time. 00;08;00;09 - 00;08;28;02Michael J. AccettaWhen he does try better, I'm going to reward that heavily. So those three things are the things that could happen, right? You shouldn't do that with your dog. You shouldn't try to steal it. You're going to ruin your trust in your dog. You should expect to get nicked. You should expect that to happen. And third, you should have some kind of system in place so you can keep your dog with you and engage with you as opposed to fighting you for the tuck toy and then running away with it. 00;08;29;04 - 00;08;49;28Michael J. AccettaBut when you're playing Tug correctly, those three things don't matter. One, you're not fighting the dog ever for the toy. So they shouldn't resource guarded. Number two, they should want to engage with you. So even if they did resource guard it in a weird kind of way, they would bring the toy to you, which is fantastic that they're running to you with the toy so that you can play. 00;08;49;28 - 00;09;12;18Michael J. AccettaThey can't resource guarded at the same time. And number three, you're expecting them to get better and better at aiming, which means they're not going to bite your hands as much. If they're not biting your hands as much, they're going to learn not to put their teeth on you, which can stop puppy biting, which can stop, you know, oh, older dogs that have a tendency to nip because they're excited or they're playing and they just didn't learn as a puppy. 00;09;12;27 - 00;09;37;14Michael J. AccettaThis can stop them from doing those things. So Tug is a wonderful, wonderful tool. When you use it correctly, you should be rewarding your dog for the excitement that they bring to training, to the motivation towards the tug toy. And you can even reward going off a little tangent here. You can reward their motivation towards the tug toy by playing more tug or by giving them treats. 00;09;37;14 - 00;09;55;11Michael J. AccettaYou can build up how much tug they want to do by playing more tug when they show more motivation. I know that sounds kind of backward, right? If I were to do a push pole door, let's just say a jammed door push pole door kind of gets into some other things. But a jammed door, you get a jammed door. 00;09;55;22 - 00;10;15;04Michael J. AccettaI'm going to push it. Nothing happens but push a little bit harder. Nothing happens if I shove through the door with a 110%, eventually I'm going to open up the door and a required 110% of my effort. The same thing goes for your dog. If they give 50%, they don't get the toy, but they're still motivated. They're still going to try again. 00;10;15;13 - 00;10;41;29Michael J. AccettaAnd they get 60% and they still miss the toy just by, just by the skin of their teeth. They miss the toy and they jump up to 100 and you reward that, right? They actually get the tug toy. Then they are rewarded for the motivation and effort required to get that toy. That is how you build a dog that loves playing and training and exercising and all of this stuff put together. 00;10;42;23 - 00;11;05;27Michael J. AccettaAnd to do that you need a little bit of practice. You have to kind of work on your skills before trying to do it with your dog. But once you do work with your dog and you get that level, the connection between the two of you, the engagement will be absolutely insane. I'll tell you a quick story. One of my favorite clients we talk about every three weeks now because she's been doing so well, she doesn't need to meet every week. 00;11;06;11 - 00;11;27;12Michael J. AccettaWe talk about every couple of weeks and she plays tug with her German shepherd, her German shepherd loves playing tug with her, and loves playing fetch. And all of those types of games love it to the moon and back. So this dog is 100% focused on her when they go to the field to work. She knows exactly what the expectations are. 00;11;27;22 - 00;11;44;24Michael J. AccettaYou know, it's exactly what she needs to do and how to get her reward. But when they go to do something else, let's say a hike, they still have to use tricks. And they've been trying to transition over to toys. But there's just a lot going on. Once they get into that toy realm. This dog and this owner are going to be unstoppable. 00;11;45;13 - 00;12;07;29Michael J. AccettaAbsolutely unstoppable. But that's the harder it was, was the dog couldn't focus, couldn't pay attention, couldn't engage because they got to play so much together. They built such a strong relationship and their motivation was improved every single time they played. That's what you should be looking for. That's what you should be aiming toward every single training session with your dog. 00;12;08;27 - 00;12;30;01Michael J. AccettaThank you guys for listening. If you have comments or questions, please leave them below in the comment section or you can ask me on any social media platform. We're on TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram. We're going to try to be on Twitter a little bit more. Twitter and Twitter have been evading me. So if you're interested in us talking on Twitter more, please, you know, let me know. 00;12;30;07 - 00;12;47;04Michael J. AccettaLet me know if you're on Twitter you're not on Twitter. And I won't go on Twitter, but I think I think some of you are on Twitter and you're missing out on all the good stuff that we post. Also, remember to take advantage of the free guide in the description, resolving complicated bad habits without having to punish your dog.

One of the scariest things you can experience as a dog owner is having your dog run away. In today's episode, I am going to go over exactly how you need to train your dog to keep them safe no matter what! Your dog will thank you for teaching them how to live in our world without punishment or confusion. To learn how to train your dog in the most effective way click here: https://www.matadork9.com/14daytrial Free Gift!!! https://www.matadork9.com/resolvingbadhabits 00:00:01:08 - 00:00:32:15Michael J. AccettaWelcome. My name is Michael J. Accetta I'm the founder of Matador Canine Brilliance and author of The Dog Training Cheat Codes. You're listening to the acknowledged dog's podcast The first time I ever experienced my dog running out, it was chasing after a rabbit. I was about 17 years old. My dog Breezy ran out of the front door after I had walked out and I just left the door open. 00:00:32:22 - 00:00:50:21Michael J. AccettaShe sprinted out after me. She ran down the block. I turned around. I saw her sprinting and I recalled her back. Now, if I had not done the work that I'm about to tell you about, there is no chance that she would have stopped, turned around, and came right back to me. She would have gone straight onto the street. 00:00:50:21 - 00:01:14:13Michael J. AccettaShe would have gone into the main highway, which was not very far. In an attempt to chase after this rabbit. I don't want this to happen to you. And in fact, every time I drive down the street and I'm in an urban area and I see people with their front doors wide open, it makes me panic. To this day, I still have an internal feeling about doors being propped open because I think dogs are going to run out and they're going to get hurt. 00:01:14:20 - 00:01:29:06Michael J. AccettaThey're going to get hit by a car or they're not going to get home. Are going to get lost. They're going to end up in a shelter somewhere and the family is going to be heartbroken. All because they did not do what I'm about to tell you in today's episode, if you don't know who I am, my name is Michael Accetta 00:01:29:14 - 00:01:53:03Michael J. AccettaI'm the founder of Matador Canine Brilliance, the author of The Dog Training Cheat Codes, and the host of the Acknowledged Dogs podcast. Thank you. For being here. What I want to talk about today is how to teach your dog to not run away. And I believe that every dog can do this. If you're in a situation where your dog is frequently getting out of the house or you're just trying to be proactive, then this is the episode for you. 00:01:53:20 - 00:02:23:10Michael J. AccettaThe first thing we need to do is understand that you are responsible for everything that happens to your dog. You are responsible. It does not mean you have to be a boss. That does not mean you have to be an alpha. That means you are responsible. You have to hold yourself to that standard. If your dog does not know what to do because you did not teach them Now I want to drive that point home to you, but understand that your dog has a level of responsibility as well. 00:02:23:11 - 00:02:45:12Michael J. AccettaI cannot completely blame you and I cannot completely blame your dog. The important part here is to find the solution. But I want you to start thinking about how you can implement structure into your life and how you can be responsible for your dog's success. You can't put it on your dog and you can't put it just on you. 00:02:45:13 - 00:03:09:07Michael J. AccettaYou guys have to be together as a team trying to solve the solution, but you are inevitably responsible for everything that happens to your dog and everything that your dog does. You have the intellect to learn more. You have the capacity to lock them in and manage their situation. They do not. They cannot go to YouTube and type in How do I not run away? 00:03:09:23 - 00:03:26:15Michael J. AccettaYou have to say, How do I teach my dog not to run away? So you have to be responsible, and I hope you are taking that into consideration. Now that you are listening and watching this episode, you're kind of taking it okay. Yet it is a part of my responsibility. I have to be the one to teach my dog. 00:03:26:15 - 00:03:52:06Michael J. AccettaSo how do we do that? Number one, you're going to control as much as you can. If you can have a gate in front of the door if you can lock the front door so that they don't go out. If you can have them on a leash and literally tie them to your hip, if you're going to be going in and out, that's a wonderful way to teach your dog not only to stick by you, to build engagement, have wonderful obedience and manners throughout the entire day, but it stops them from getting into bad practices. 00:03:52:21 - 00:04:09:05Michael J. AccettaRecently, I saw an ad for this tiny little gadget that attaches to your door. If you have a smaller dog, this might work. If you have a big dog. It definitely will not work. It's just, if not meant for that. It's meant for a smaller dog, but it connects to the door and it connects to the frame of the door. 00:04:09:05 - 00:04:33:22Michael J. AccettaAnd so when you open the door, it creates this fence or this net so that your dog doesn't rush out. In the process of teaching your dog what we want them to do. This might be a perfect solution for you. Now, it is not a long-term solution. It is just a simple solution to help you limit your dog to practicing the bad behavior of rushing out the door every time they rush out of the door. 00:04:33:23 - 00:04:50:01Michael J. AccettaThey will get rewarded for the experience as long as nothing bad happens on the other side. If they were to rush out and everybody starts screaming at him and they get fearful they run back into the house, then no, they won't be reinforced for it. But if they ran out to go say hi to somebody, they ran out to go to the bathroom. 00:04:50:06 - 00:05:09:00Michael J. AccettaThey ran out to go sniff the grass. They are going to get rewarded for running out in the first place. That's no good. That's not what we want. We want our dogs to be engaged with us and to listen when we need them to listen and not to run out of the front door or the back door or the side door or the garage or the car, whatever it may be. 00:05:10:02 - 00:05:32:05Michael J. AccettaSo that's number one. Control as much as you can Number two, you're going to teach them when they can go out the door and when they can't. This is called stimulus control. Stimulus is the cue that sets off a behavior. When you get the green light, that means you can go. When you get the red light, that means you can't go. 00:05:33:04 - 00:05:51:07Michael J. AccettaWhen you get a phone call, that ringing tells you when to pick up your phone. If you don't get the phone call, you wouldn't pick up your phone and hold it here. Here at this very very clear communication between when you can do it and when you can't do it. Now, what does that mean? That means your communication has to be perfect. 00:05:52:05 - 00:06:14:15Michael J. AccettaNow, there are a few ways to go about doing this. One is my preferred way and one is an alternative. I understand that individuals' lifestyles are different and what is required of you might be different. So I want to give you some alternatives here. The first way you got to do it, the way I prefer to do it is to teach my dog that when the door opens, they should do some incompatible behavior. 00:06:15:07 - 00:06:39:08Michael J. AccettaWhat do I mean by this? If I'm going to open up the door, my dogs are going to sit. This does not mean they sit. And then I open the door. It's very simple confusion. The old method. Oh, well, I'll have my dog sit and then I'll open the door, and then we'll go out. Instead, I teach my dogs that the action of me putting my hand on the handle and opening the door tells them to go in the sit position. 00:06:39:14 - 00:06:58:18Michael J. AccettaJust like the words sit tell them to go on the set position. The door opening tells them to go in the set position. Now, the other thing I do is release them outside. I say, okay, they go outside and we've made it a habit to immediately turn back around and face me every single time. They go outside every single time. 00:06:59:12 - 00:07:32:05Michael J. AccettaThis creates consistency, predictability, and certainty. They know what to expect and I know what to expect. So when they go out the door, muscle memory tells them, turn around and you're going to get a tree. Turn around and I'm going to engage with you. Turn around and I might call you back in. Now, the other way to do this, the other way to have your dog in that kind of situation is to have the door open and always let them out, but have them immediately turn back around. 00:07:33:04 - 00:07:53:04Michael J. AccettaSo one is way more structured and the other is way more relaxed. The reason I like both but prefer the first is because if I open the door and I don't want my dogs running out I have the choice to do that with the first example, my dogs will stay inside. I can go outside and I can close the door behind me. 00:07:53:26 - 00:08:14:18Michael J. AccettaIf you live in a more rural area, and you got plenty of space and you have some time that when your dog runs out, you can record them back, you're not right up against the street, you're not in the city, you're not in an apartment complex. That kind of thing. It might be more relaxing for you to let your dog go out the front door, turn back around, and if you have to call them in, you can. 00:08:15:03 - 00:08:36:12Michael J. AccettaIf you don't have to, then you can let them hang out outside. It really depends. But if you are struggling with your dog or running out the front door, I'm going to give you a hint here. Go with the first option. I'd much rather have my dog be reluctant to go outside than have them go outside consistently after having been reinforced for it. 00:08:37:07 - 00:08:58:14Michael J. AccettaAnd then try to get their attention. We're just we're competing when we should be succeeding. We want to succeed. You want to have complete control of the situation. Now you've managed everything you've taught them either to go ahead and stop before you open the door and then go out and turn around towards you, or you've taught them just to go out when you open the door and then turn around towards you. 00:08:59:00 - 00:09:22:14Michael J. AccettaThat engagement is huge, and that's really where step three comes from. If you never want your dog to run away, you have to work on engagement. You must build a connection that's so strong that there is no question about leaving like with my son is two years old. When we start to walk away from the park, we don't have to say anything. 00:09:22:25 - 00:09:38:12Michael J. AccettaHe just leaves the park and walks with me. And his mom like we just go, There isn't a fight. There isn't a Hey, we're going to leave now, buddy. Let's go. And he's like, No, I want to stay at the park. Sure. He wants to stay at the park. And I completely understand it. When I was a kid, I wanted to stay in the park. 00:09:38:23 - 00:09:57:08Michael J. AccettaBut in the situations that we've practiced, every single time we walk away, he follows with us and then we engage with him again. We ask him how playing was. We ask him what he thinks of this. We start working with like and I mean working as in talking with him interacting with him like you'd be working with the dog. 00:09:58:00 - 00:10:26:29Michael J. AccettaNow, I don't treat my son like a dog, but I do teach him very similarly I use positive reinforcement. I build engagement first. I teach him what I want him to do and then tell him when to do it and when he's not allowed to do it. We just got him a nice little set where he can hammer some fake nails in, but he's got to learn when he can hammer, where he can hammer, and when he can't, you can't hammer the cat you can't hammer my office desk. 00:10:26:29 - 00:10:44:10Michael J. AccettaHe can't hammer the door. So he can't hammer the window when he can hammer in this very specific spot. So you have to teach your dog when it's appropriate to leave and when it's not appropriate to leave. And you got to work on any of it because even if you miss everything else, even if you miss everything else, you don't do the management. 00:10:44:20 - 00:11:06:15Michael J. AccettaYou don't have your dog stop before you go outside. You don't have them reengage when they go outside. If you have an engagement, they'll be glued to you regardless right there will be glued to you regardless. I'll tell you a short little story. I was interning at a guide dog facility where they train guide dogs for the Blind as well as veterans with PTSD service dogs. 00:11:07:21 - 00:11:25:14Michael J. AccettaAnd one thing I asked was, you know, are you ever afraid of these dogs running away? Because we were pretty close. The facility was very close to the main highway and they didn't really have many fences they did for a play area. But those dogs really didn't get to play much because they wanted them focused on work. They were too tired from playing. 00:11:25:14 - 00:11:38:17Michael J. AccettaThey wouldn't focus on the work kind of thing. And so I asked, I said, hey, are you ever worried about them walking away? And running away and that kind of thing? And the trainer looked at me and said, Do you think this dog is going to run away? I was like, I don't I don't think so. I don't know. 00:11:38:17 - 00:11:53:03Michael J. AccettaThis was a couple of years ago. I said I don't think so. But, you know, I would be nervous about it because I just don't know. And he would say, watch. And he just dropped the leash and walked away. Didn't call the dog, didn't try to engage with the dog. He didn't have treats with them, didn't have a toy with them. 00:11:53:18 - 00:12:13:05Michael J. AccettaAnd the dog just stuck by his side. And he said, Michael, this dog has been within six feet its entire life. It always has a leash on. It's always been reinforced ever since it was eight weeks old and it started learning everything it needs to know. And this was now the dog was about a year and a half. 00:12:13:24 - 00:12:42:08Michael J. AccettaEverything it needs to know. It has been on a leash consistently locked into six feet because that's the leash that the use of six-foot leases. There was no chance that this dog would run away or walk away. And in fact, they never even taught a recall because the engagement was so strong. It was so important to have the dog be engaged with the handler, especially doing service dog work that a recall was pointless to them. 00:12:42:16 - 00:13:01:08Michael J. AccettaWhy are we going to spend the time to teach the dog how to recall at 100 feet if it will never, never be 100 feet away? They never taught fetch. They did if it was a service dog and they had to go get something and bring it back, but they never taught fetch as in playing right. The dogs really didn't get to play with each other. 00:13:01:23 - 00:13:25:00Michael J. AccettaIt was all strict business and that's how you've got to be for at least a short period of time. You have to be business related, structured. Don't worry about necessarily teaching them or recalling them right now. Worry about the engagement, worry about having them focus around the door because the door is such an exciting event and every time you go to it, your dog gets excited, they get animated, they get Oh my goodness. 00:13:26:12 - 00:13:45:17Michael J. AccettaAnd so they can't think as clearly you've got to work on engagement in that space before you could ever hope to have your dog not run away. They're running away because they are engaged with something else. Not you. Thank you guys for listening to today's episode. If you want more, head over to Matador Canine e-Comm and I'll see you next time.

In today's episode, we talk about predatory aggression - more commonly called, prey drive. If your dog is obsessed with small animals and chasing things, you need to listen to this episode. I am going to cover why your dog does this the three things you need to start doing today to fix it and how to be successful long term With any amount of dog training you can accidentally reward your dog for being aggressive which might be what is going on. If you're struggling with your dog's reactivity or aggression, get started with training here! https://www.matadork9.com/reactivity 00;00;01;08 - 00;00;41;08Michael J. AccettaWelcome. My name is Michael Accetta. I'm the founder of Matador Canine Brilliance and the author of The Dog Training Cheat Codes. You're listening to the acknowledged dogs podcast Welcome to today's show. We're talking about aggression, more specifically, predatory aggression. When you're dogs chasing, catch and try to dispatch to kill a small animal or prey-like creature. Before we jump into why that happens, how that happens, what predatory aggression is, and all that I want to tell you a quick little story about chasing down little birds. 00;00;42;07 - 00;00;59;04Michael J. AccettaIt's going to be a saddle. But don't worry, the bird gets away. All right. So a sad story, but the bird does get away. So you have that much to look forward to. So I walked out into my backyard, walked out in my backyard, and I had both my dogs with me. Now, remember, this is a Great Dane Border Collie, and this is a retriever. 00;00;59;05 - 00;01;16;25Michael J. AccettaThey both come outside with me. And we had this section that we fenced off. So our dogs go to the bathroom in that section and we could clean it more easily. So we had the rest of the yard to be nice and pristine and all that. So would I bring my dogs over to that area? And one of them had the ability to jump over the small fence that would create it. 00;01;16;25 - 00;01;35;29Michael J. AccettaSo he jumps over and makes a beeline like a direct line for the corner. He doesn't do this, you know, usually go sniff around, maybe find a spot to go to the bathroom or whatever. No, no, no. He made a direct beeline for the corner. I know that something must be over there. So I recall him away as fast as I can. 00;01;36;04 - 00;02;07;18Michael J. AccettaHawk turns. He runs towards me. Just as I did that. A bird flew up into the sky. My oh, boy bird flies up and gets out of range. And my Great Dane Border Collies behind me, he leaps up the air, leaps up into the air, trying to catch the bird and just misses. So now I recall Tommy, the Great Dane Border Collie, and I put him into the backyard, a fenced area so I can see that. 00;02;07;18 - 00;02;33;08UnknownMake sure that the bird got away safely. Well, the bird doesn't get very far. Something had happened with its wing or it was wet or something happened, and the bird was unable to fly very far. So it lands as I'm looking for the bird my retriever jumps back over the fence out of the fenced-in area into the main yard and chases after the bird again. 00;02;33;16 - 00;02;57;18Michael J. AccettaI don't see this because I'm looking around for the bird. Now he goes behind me as I look around to check the fenced-in area. He sneaks around and he pins the bird down by its wings, doesn't eat, it, doesn't bite, it doesn't lick, he just pins it down and is staring at it very intently. The second I see this, I recall him back. 00;02;58;01 - 00;03;20;06Michael J. AccettaHe'd let go. The bird flies back. I put him back in the house. I grabbed my Great Dane. I put him in the house. And now I go see where the bird is. The bird was gone. I know my dog didn't need it. I don't know where the bird one, but the bird is gone. Completely gone. How was I able to recall both dogs away from a moving target? 00;03;20;06 - 00;03;41;12Michael J. AccettaA bird? One that almost caught it while it was jumping in the air. And the other one twice when it was on top of the dog. On top of the bird. Literally on top of the bird. Holding it down, looking directly at it. Could have decided to eat it. I could have just said, I'm not going to recall this time. 00;03;41;12 - 00;03;58;24Michael J. AccettaI'm going to eat this bird. But it didn't stop what it was doing, and it came right back to me. The power of a recall is insanely important. I just talked about this on one of my social media platforms. We were talking about recording how important it is to get you to stop doing any bad behavior. Just recall them away and they will stop doing the bad behavior. 00;03;58;24 - 00;04;18;23Michael J. AccettaThey cannot do both incompatible. They're chewing on the couch. We call they're chasing after bird recall. Okay. It doesn't help if they're already on top of you, but if they're at a distance and they're doing stuff they're not supposed to recall, it makes it ten times easier. So what is predatory aggression? Why did my dogs chase after this bird so much? 00;04;18;23 - 00;04;43;15Michael J. AccettaWhy were they so invested in what the bird was doing? Predatory aggression is the biological purpose of your dog to chase, catch and dispatch that's it. Chase, catch, and dispatch. They want to chase something. They want to catch it, and then they want to dispatch or kill it. Now that can be a bird. That can be a bunny. 00;04;43;16 - 00;05;01;15Michael J. AccettaThat could be a rabbit. That could be a squirrel. That could be a cat. That could be a smaller dog. And if you have a dog that's barking and reactive because of predatory aggression, you know exactly when that is, right? You see a tiny little fluffy dog and you got a German shepherd. If your dog's predatory aggression, they want to go eat that fluffy dog. 00;05;01;15 - 00;05;27;22Michael J. AccettaNow, there is a caveat to predatory aggression that most people forget about. If your dog is barking, they're not in predatory aggression. How do I know that? How do I have a level of certainty to say, I know that your dog is not in predatory aggression if they're barking because barking would push the prey away, why would your dog want to get the prey to go further away? 00;05;27;22 - 00;05;54;16Michael J. AccettaIt makes zero sense. They could be overstimulated and excited and bark. They could be really friendly and want to get something and bark. They could be terrified and bark. But predatory aggression and barking do not go together. They do not mix unless your dog has learned to bark and is doing it intentionally. That goes into learned aggression. That's a little messy. 00;05;54;29 - 00;06;15;26Michael J. AccettaLearned aggression is a completely different animal. It's the same animal. It's just a different methodology, a different theory. That kind of thing is learned aggression that's completely different. But predatory aggression is true. Predatory aggression is to chase, catch and dispatch, period. I keep wanting to say dispatch an animal, but that's not true. Kate Chase, catch and dispatch. Anything could be a tug toy. 00;06;15;26 - 00;06;45;14Michael J. AccettaIt could be a ball. That's my dog, love. Fetch, chase, catch and dispatch. Now, this is not a drive people talk about prey, drive, ball, drive, squirrel drive. So ridiculous. That gets very quickly. Rabbit Drive. They love Red Deer Drive. Love chasing deer makes no sense. A drive, although we've socially accepted it. Oh, drive success. Right? My dogs got a good ball drive. 00;06;45;14 - 00;07;26;00Michael J. AccettaThey got a good food drive. It's not true because drive insinuates that it builds up in the animal and must be expressed it must be expressed. It's the wrong word. You cannot say driving is a behavior. Aggression is a behavior drive is not a drive. Oh, my dog has a lot of prey drive. The very prey-driven know they have predatory aggression, predatory aggression drive insinuates it builds up and must be expressed to the point where it'll keep building and building and building and building and building. 00;07;26;03 - 00;07;48;04Michael J. AccettaAnd at some point your dog's like, I can't hold it anymore. And then they got to go do it. It's not what happen if I had cookie drive okay. I love chocolate chip cookies. I love chocolate chip cookies, love chocolate chip cookies. If I have a food drive for cookies, cookie drive, at some point I would be satiated. That's not true. 00;07;49;09 - 00;08;05;06Michael J. AccettaIt's not true. I don't know how I know it's not true. Because I've tested it. I want sat down with an entire box of cookies. I think it was the two boxes, but what will say is a box. So I don't doubt that it was an entire box of cookies. And I had ginger ale next to me. Why did I have the ginger ale? 00;08;05;09 - 00;08;24;07Michael J. AccettaBecause I was determined to finish this box. And some of you might say, Oh, a box, a cookie. That's not a big box. And if a box of cookies is nothing to you, it's because drives don't exist. Because of a full box of cookies. We're like, Oh, yeah, I could eat a whole box of cookies. No problem. That's right. 00;08;25;02 - 00;08;54;22Michael J. AccettaAnd if you ate the box of cookies, you might want to go get another box of cookies for a couple more. You are not satiated simply because you ate a certain number of cookies. Your dog is not satiated simply because it caught and released all of its predatory drives. Now they are rewarded for catching and dispatching, chasing, catching and dispatching through predatory aggression because aggression is a behavior and it can be rewarded and punished accordingly. 00;08;56;05 - 00;09;21;08Michael J. AccettaSo if your dog is increasingly increasing in the likelihood of performing predatory aggression, then they are being rewarded each time. Let me take that back. Let me take a step back there. If your dog is increasing in the likelihood of expressing predatory aggression, they're being rewarded for doing so. So they're nice and quiet. They're calm, they're staring down the bird. 00;09;21;11 - 00;09;43;19Michael J. AccettaThey chase after it, they catch it. They did that. This dispatch that's the word I wanted to say, dismantled. That sounds terrible. Dispatch, right? They dispatch they get rewarded for the entire event. Now, break one of those things up. Chop one of those things up. I'm not going to let my dog chase the prey animal. Not going to let them chase. 00;09;44;03 - 00;10;03;21Michael J. AccettaWell, then they cannot catch and they cannot dispatch if I'm going to let them chase, but I don't let them catch then they can't dispatch. And if I'm going to have my dog chase and catch, but don't let them dispatch. I've broken up the sequence so for my dog Hawk, the first time I didn't let him chase him. 00;10;04;04 - 00;10;24;20Michael J. AccettaI interrupted him as he was chasing and called him back. So he did not catch and therefore dispatch. Now, the second time he did catch, but I did not let him dispatch, so I recalled him away. That way I do not reward predatory aggression. Do my dog still like to perk up? And they look around at the start of that? 00;10;24;29 - 00;10;43;02Michael J. AccettaYeah. Can I immediately call them off of it? Absolutely. So now let's get into how do we stop our dog. How do we stop them from expressing this kind of predatory aggression? How do we stop them from chasing, catching, and dispatching? There are two ways to do it. I'll give you two ways. Maybe I'll give you a third way, but there are two ways to do it. 00;10;43;02 - 00;11;02;07Michael J. AccettaActually, I'm going to give you three number one management. It's the easiest way to do it. Always, always, always. Always manage. Well, I can put a muzzle on my dogs. They do chase something, they don't kill it. I can put a nice tight leash on them. Never give them the freedom to go and try, or I can keep them inside my house all the time. 00;11;02;22 - 00;11;18;00Michael J. AccettaThose are your three management practices. I'm sure there's a whole bunch. And you could go on management practices for days, years even, and people do train management for years. That's what a lot of people get stuck at. I'm going to stay at that. I'm going to manage my dog's life just like we try to do with kids. All that. 00;11;18;04 - 00;11;52;12Michael J. AccettaI manage my kids. I'm not going to put them in dangerous situations instead of teaching them how to do those dangerous situations in a safe way. My son's two and a half years old. We go to the playground. Sure, there are some things I would much rather not have him climb on. Not because they're dangerous when he's touching them, but because he could fall after a few repetitions of teaching him how he knows exactly what he needs to do to get from point A to point B, and now I can sit back, talk with other parents and watch my son from afar and know that he can climb up ladders by himself. 00;11;52;12 - 00;12;16;03Michael J. AccettaThat's right. Two and a half years old. He can climb up ladders. He can go up the slide, not down. So he can go down to the slide, but he can go up the slide. He knows how to communicate with his friends. He can't go down the fire pole yet, even though he really wants to. He just doesn't have the grip but he can do all of those other things, which means he knows how to exist in a dangerous situation, in a safe way. 00;12;16;08 - 00;12;40;00Michael J. AccettaThat makes me more confident and comfortable with him playing, and it makes him more confident and comfortable. So managing your dog is always going to be the easiest way to do it, but you need to eventually move in to teach them. So the second way to do it is called stimulus control. Stimulus control is rewarding them for doing it on purpose and rewarding them for not doing it when they're not told to do it. 00;12;40;14 - 00;13;02;15Michael J. AccettaHow does this look playing with your dog? The old way to do it is to hug you could use a flirt pole, or you could just use fetch, but you want to get their brain to that exciting level of predatory aggression and then teach them how to control it, how to channel it in a productive way. We want to get them actually thinking about doing it, but then go on. 00;13;02;15 - 00;13;14;15Michael J. AccettaOkay, we really want to go chase that ball. But I know I've got to listen first and I got to wait for the release cue to go get that ball. So I'm going to sit here nice and patiently, but stare at the ball, then going to look at my honor. Then we'll look back at the ball then or look back at my owner and they're going to tell me to go do it. 00;13;14;19 - 00;13;32;23Michael J. AccettaAnd now I can go chase the ball. One step above that is I'm going to teach them to go to the ball and I'm going to recall them away, just like I did with Hawk and Honey. I taught them in those high-stress situations. When I tell you to go do something, I can always call you back. I can stop you halfway. 00;13;33;00 - 00;13;50;28Michael J. AccettaThat's the power of a really good recall and using indirect, rewarding, or rather the pre-Mach theory. In this case, they are slightly different. So I'm sending them to go do something like, Hey, go do this. Sure. Go chase the ball, go chase the flagpole. But before you get there, I'm going to tell you to do something else. 00;13;51;11 - 00;14;09;26Michael J. AccettaYou might even have your dog chasing the flirt pole, right? You're moving around and you tell him to drop. You say down, boom, they plop down. You're still moving the floor. What's what is that teaching that it's not the chase, catch and dispatch that's important? It's engaging with you. It's playing with you, it's chasing. But I'm not going to let you catch it right now. 00;14;09;26 - 00;14;27;17Michael J. AccettaMaybe I'll let you catch it later tomorrow or next week. But right now, I'm not going to let you do that. But you have to teach your dogs that eventually they do succeed, and work on stimulus control. And then even the variable rewards schedule. This is all advanced up. When you have to go through the whole process, you cannot just go through one sliver. 00;14;29;00 - 00;14;46;13Michael J. AccettaOne sliver isn't going to help you. You got to go through the whole process. That's why at Matador University, the courses that I've created don't give you 10%. I don't sell just the 10%. I don't want clients going, Okay, well, I got the 10%. I'm good. I can stop. No, no, no, no, no. You got all this way to go. 00;14;47;11 - 00;15;06;27Michael J. AccettaIf it's worth doing, it's worth completing. If it's worth doing, it's worth completing. If you're interested in any of that kinds of courses and having the whole story, not just the 10%, not the 1% that I get to talk to you on these episodes and stuff on social media, that half of 1%, if you want the whole story. 00;15;07;12 - 00;15;36;05Michael J. AccettaMatador Cain Icon Slash Matador University, Matador, Cain, NAICOM Slash Matador University. Get everything. The whole nine yards. The whole ten yards. Okay. And then the second option I remember is a biological purpose, a biological purpose to chase, catch and dispatch with that. You can counter condition, and teach them to do something else in the presence of a prey animal. 00;15;36;24 - 00;16;00;23Michael J. AccettaI can teach them incompatible behavior and I can counter conditions. Right. Condition is something that previously meant nothing. That now means something. We can counter that and say, okay, this thing that meant nothing but does mean Chase now means do this option A, B, or C, whatever it is, right? So when they see a squirrel, their first option is to lay out this is what farmers do with border collies. 00;16;01;18 - 00;16;23;25Michael J. AccettaWhen they see a sheep, they want to go chase it, want to do something right? Yeah. Get them all type together. But what's the first thing? A border collies you do? I see them, I lay down and I'm going to stare at I'm really intent and I'm going to wait to be told to do something. And once I get told to do something and I stop doing that thing, I'm going to lie down again. 00;16;25;05 - 00;16;51;12Michael J. AccettaAnd they say they stock they get so laser-focused on what they need to do. You can teach that. And in fact, it's one of the ways I taught Tommy how to say hello to people we counter-conditioned his initial response to see somebody like that person. I want to say that his initial response was to go chase because he wanted to go tackle you to the ground and give you all of his love and be all over the place. 00;16;51;23 - 00;17;11;18Michael J. AccettaBut instead, we taught him when he sees somebody just sit back down, they will come to him. Now, when he sees somebody and he really wants to say hello, he's got all this pent-up energy, and his butt hits the ground so fast, leaving a crater in the air. That's what we want. That's the kind of conditioning you can do when you know how to do it. 00;17;13;16 - 00;17;41;22Michael J. AccettaNow, what happens if they're too strong? My dog's predatory aggression is way too powerful. They have such a high prey drive. What do we do? You have to set them up for success. Teach him stimulus control and counter-conditioning. You have to do all you can't pick. Got to do all of those things. I'm going to manage their life, their situations, and what they're capable of doing, what they're able to do. 00;17;42;06 - 00;17;58;18Michael J. AccettaAll they're not going to go out in the front yard off leash anymore. They're not going to be in the backyard unsupervised. That's number one. Number two, I'm going to teach them through play through treats, through engagement, that you can only do things when I tell you to go do them. And you cannot do them when I don't tell you to do them on your own time. 00;17;58;18 - 00;18;14;06Michael J. AccettaYeah. You can sit down with the stimulus controls. What I'm talking about is if I tell you to chase something, go get it. You can go do it. But until then, don't. And then three, you got a counter condition every time they see a squirrel and me, you know, get a little stuffed animal, put it in the corner, go for a walk. 00;18;14;06 - 00;18;33;09Michael J. AccettaAnd when you see the stuffed animal and your dog sees a stuffed animal, teach him to do something. Repetition over and over and over. If your dog is that strong-willed, that strong-willed, you need to at least do all three of these steps, if not more training. On top of that, you should be doing obedience socialization, and working around distractions. 00;18;33;17 - 00;18;56;02Michael J. AccettaReward schedules are a must. All of that stuff comes together. And that's the only reason I was able to call Hawk and Tommy multiple times in a row without having to treat Tommy, without having a ball, without having toys is the only reason I was able to call them away from a bird that was on the ground, at their level, in their paws. 00;18;58;02 - 00;19;15;06Michael J. AccettaIt's the only reason I was able to do that is that I did all of those things. I manage their life while I was teaching them. I taught them stimulus control. I counter-conditioned them to over-exciting things. We worked on reward schedules. Again, that's that whole journey. If you're not going to go through the whole journey, at least go through those three steps. 00;19;15;24 - 00;19;35;29Michael J. AccettaAt least go through those three steps or give up and just manage your dog's entire life. I'll be honest with you, that's what a lot of people do. And that's fine. You can do that. I'm not saying you can't do that, and you are going to be stuck in a box. You do not have freedom. You do not have the enjoyment that you want to have with your dog. 00;19;35;29 - 00;19;58;05Michael J. AccettaYou just you're not going to don't put yourself in a box. I beg you, do not put yourself in a box. At least do these three things management, stimulus control, counter conditioning, and be light years ahead of what you were yesterday. Yeah, start doing them right now. Thank you guys for listening. If this spoke to you personally, if it hit you, am I going to go work with my dog right now? 00;19;58;24 - 00;20;04;04Michael J. AccettaGood. Turn this off right now and go work with your dog. Thank you, guys. I'll see you next time.

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They probably wouldn't... That being said so many people jump onto the next best thing, but not dog training. There are some tried and true training techniques and principles that have stood the test of time. Today I go over three of those principles and how effective they truly are. If you want to join the list of dog owners changing their lives with Matador University, click the link below and get 14 days free! https://www.matadork9.com/14daytrial Share with friends and family so they can benefit too!!

Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation in which the abuser attempts to sow self-doubt and confusion into the victim's mind. By distorting reality and forcing them to question their own judgment and intuition, they can gain control. Are you gas lighting your dog? In today's episode, we go over exactly what it means to gaslight your dog, why you might be doing it, and how it affects your relationship and your dog. Get started training with Matador University Premiere Access https://www.matadork9.com/matadoruniversity Read The Genius of Dogs Here Get Access to The Dog Training Cheat Codes Here

I know that you love your dog but do you know what your dog loves? From belly rubs to food off your plate there are countless things that our dogs find enjoyable but what do they love??? What would get them to do anything in the world? What is their Klondike bar? In today's podcast episode I answer that question and help you discover your own dog's favorite treat. Jump into the world of training at another level that will save you time, energy, money, and frustration. If you are looking to learn more about how to train your dog get started with Matador University 14 Day Free Trial https://www.matadork9.com/14daytrial

The best person to train your dog is a leveler. You need to listen to this podcast if you aren't one now. In today's episode, I go over the four questions that you must ask yourself in order to think like a leveler. I also go over three tips to help you work with your dog when you're stressed out. Powerful information in this one episode but you should also listen to this to fully understand these personalities. Yes, No, Maybe...Don't Get Distracted: Episode 121 - https://www.matadork9.com/podcasts/acknowledge-dogs-matador-canine/episodes/2147787532 You Are Not a Robot, Stoping Being a Computer: Episode 120 - https://www.matadork9.com/podcasts/acknowledge-dogs-matador-canine/episodes/2147787029 It Isn't Your Dog's Fault, Don't be a Blamer: Episode 119 - https://www.matadork9.com/podcasts/acknowledge-dogs-matador-canine/episodes/2147775071

When faced with a conflict or accused of something, the distractor personality time will blame everyone else and validate their excuses with reason. To train a dog successfully you want to be as far away from a distractor as possible. If you are a distractor don't worry there is hope for you still. In today's episode, I talk about how to avoid being a distractor, when to know you are being a distractor, and how to communicate with one if they are in your family or friend group. Knowing yourself is the first step in successfully working with your dog. Here are some free resources I talk about the episode Free Discovery Call https://www.matadork9.com/coaching Resolving Bad Habits PDF download https://www.matadork9.com/resolvingbadhabits

You are not a robot, I used to be until I learned how to think more clearly and focus on solving the problem. Many dog owners I work with are stuck in trying to figure out what they need to do that they never look to train or actually put in the work with their dog. This is a very common trait among Computer personalities and I want to help you get your mind right so you can train with your dog and get out of your own way. Throughout the episode, I mention these resources to help guide you in your training Resolving Completcated Bad Habits without Punishment PDF https://www.matadork9.com/resolvingbadhabits The Dog Training Planner and Notebook https://www.matadork9.com/planner Matador University 14-Day Free Trial Here!! https://www.matadork9.com/14daytrial

Blaming your dog for their bad behavior is one of the fastest ways to now solve the problem. If you are blaming your dog you might be blaming other things in your life. It is time to take responsibility and learn how to solve all of your chaos and get back on track with your dog. This is part two in a serious about how your mindset affects your dog training. Get started with Matador University with our 14-Day Free Trial https://www.matadork9.com/matadoruniversity

When you are training your dog you need to take full responsibility. You can not rely on your dog to make all of the right choices naturally. If you can take charge and be your dog's leader you will see a significant change in your family and dog's dynamic. To get The Dog Training Cheat Codes On Sale click here

Once I realized this about how dogs learn, I was able to do the same in my own life and everything becomes easier. Understanding the ABC's of how habits are formed, started, and rewarded you can control what behaviors your dog does...and you!! This episode goes beyond dog training and helps you transform your life into exactly what you want. All you need to do is listen and learn. Free PDF Download https://www.matadork9.com/resolvingbadhabits

How do you teach your dog to listen? What many are looking for is how to get their dog to actually respond faster, not just listen in the first place. Once you teach your dog obedience and manners then you can improve their abilities overall. One of the best ways to do that is to separate your training into latency and speed. In today's episode, we talk about speed, you are not going to want to miss this. Learn more about getting your dog to listen here https://www.matadork9.com/cheatcodes Learn how to do the preference test here https://www.matadork9.com/preferencetest

How do you teach your dog to listen? What many are looking for is how to get their dog to actually respond faster, not just listen in the first place. Once you teach your dog obedience and manners then you can improve their abilities overall. One of the best ways to do that is to separate your training into latency and speed. In today's episode, we talk about latency, you are not going to want to miss this. Learn more about getting your dog to listen here https://www.matadork9.com/obedience