Lift Your Leg - the art of training a dog

A reactive dog discussion.

We had a fun repeat conversation on presence - something that every reactive dog owner needs to master. Please share it and follow us

Forgive our laughter - we do discuss latchkey dogs and the benefits of staying home, and the changes we have seen in dogs now that this happens so much less.

I interview the ladies from The Calm Dog Studio in Victoria, BC about their business. We discuss what they've done right, what they've done wrong, and they give wisdom to any young upstart groomers. I hope these conversations will help entrepreneurs with running their own businesses.

Sometimes to free a dog up, or to make them be the best that they can be, we need to allow some badness. Again we talk about the video Marcelle the Shell. If you haven't yet watched it, you should.

This is such an important topic that inevitably novices get wrong. Jill and I discuss it in detail, including the fall out if you go too soon. Enjoy. As always, if you like us please follow us and give us a review

How do other businesses come up with their unique ideas and create successful businesses? This week I talk to Hayley Hais, find out what she does, and how she pulled it off, I hope young entrepreneurs find her story inspiring.

Coping When Things Go Wrong - on social media we all hear about everyone's successes. But what do they do when they fall down and keep screwing up? We've all been there - and here is a frank discussion on how to survive when you find yourself there.

Jill and I disagreed last week about the benefits of following, so this week, I won the argument. Sorry Jill, that was obnoxious of me. However, it did create a really strong discussion on the benefits of following to build your relationship. Enjoy. Please like and share as far and wide as is possible.

Thanks to Maryna Ozuna for her brilliant questions - we answer the important and difficult topic she gave us. I feel like this is a decent first attempt - of how do we pass the subtle knowledge that we know to the younger generation? On my FB page will be the video promised, and the photo of Pippa squashing the poodle, by poodle's request.

We discuss the last Building Bravery Seminar for my Shadow Program, and the secrets to success, and some of the difficulties teaching this group.

We got to interview Telah about our shadow program. This is Telah's amazing facility that is for sale in Illinois. https://www.facebook.com/share/18VaNbDcEb/?mibextid=WC7FNe

If you want it bad enough, you will find a way. If you don't, you will make an excuse. This is my mantra for life, and we discuss our challenges in this podcast. We do get off topic and discuss an awful new learning about what some trainers are doing with Place. In this episode we discuss the fantastic Michaela Bouzkova, from Ontario Canada. https://www.instagram.com/expat_obedience/

Sadly, our recording was cut off at half an hour, and time in our week ran out and we never got a chance to fix it. Sorry folks

we come up with suggestions to make yourself funner, which will increase your dogs attention to you, and aide all of your training goals.

Great questions. Thank you everyone.

Often people retrain their reactive dogs and do a super job, but when their dog next reacts, this knocks all their confidence away. This regression is harder to swallow once we've had the taste of success. This episode is to help you regain your confidence, and get your easy dog back.

We discuss Garbage bags, and ways to build your dogs resiliency.

We all want dogs to enjoy and enrich our lives, yet so many just suck all joy from them. This podcast will help understand the differences in our lifestyles, and how to create a dog you enjoy living with, that can also make you laugh.For Marcelle the Shell you must watch until the very end. https://youtu.be/VF9-sEbqDvU?si=fiKnMbjlDkG783zw

DOG TYPES; the differences in how to train them.Jill and I are finally on to something great, and I thank those who have given us honest, raw input to get us on task. This week we have an uncensored discussion trying to decide the difference of how we train a sensory dog compared to one lacking confidence. We do get there, with a really simple answer, but we are talking about something that has never been defined before. We do define it and the answer is really simple. This weeks podcast applies to all the Mexican Rescues and other street dogs, many reactive dogs, and all the weirdos out there that are so misunderstood by recipe trainers. It explains why so many of these dogs get worse under programs with rigid structure. Please share this with all your friends that this might help. Thank you to you all for sticking with us, while we learned how to do this. The growth curve was steep, but I've enjoyed every moment of it. Jill, not so much!

We tackle a very difficult topic of highly sensitive, reacting inappropriately because of an overloaded nervous system, or fearful? Plus we discuss my highly sensitive dog, that cannot poop in public. Enjoy!

This one is about what we should be training, and if we can brag, is our best one to date. Understand how to train the building blocks to having a nice person that you can live with. Here are some visuals to help show certain pieces. https://www.facebook.com/share/v/18YGE9eeFJ/?mibextid=iCjFHx

Having feel and timing comes at a cost, and a lot of talented trainers burn out long before they should. We discuss survival tips for to keep the good trainers going.

We discuss ideas on how to deal with fireworks, and minimize and prevent damage to your dogs.

I got an email from the BC SPCA suggesting that muzzles are really a leash, and all dogs should be wearing one as a preventative. Jill and I discuss this, deeply, over wine.

It's been a full moon kind of week, where very little went right. While I could have pretended on short instagram videos, I didn't, and you get a full podcast on my weekly disasters. Everyone fails, sometimes. If you haven't, you haven't put yourself out there enough, or worked with enough dogs.

Our most challenging topic to date, which needs to be revisited. Feel. This might be the most misunderstood and underappreciate skill in training dogs today. We work through trying to define this abstract concept.

Matty joins Monique and Jill to tackle a discussion on corrections. We discuss different types of corrections for different types of dogs, give examples from our daily lives, and e-collars. E-Collar Conditioning by Leanne Tucker Recall Collar Conditioning 101   Turn the collar on and have both contact points touching your arm.  Feel the various levels of stimulation. It is important to know for yourself what each level feels like.  Any tool can be abuse. Used correctly,  the ecollar is a wonderful and life saving tool!    Let's get started!! You may find you have to up the intensity of the stimulation if the distraction is quite exciting… ie. Baseball being thrown, squirrel etc.  each dog is different and you will have to figure out what level is required.  For example I varied between a low 3 and a medium 3 for my training.   Use caution while around other dogs.  If you are going to call your dog do it at a respectful distance.  Do not stimulate your dog while it is saying hello to another dog.   Use common sense J   At this point you should have a dog with a 100% reliable recall…. It's a wonderful feeling J   1. Have your dog wear the ecollar for a couple of weeks.  Put it on for walks and wear it a little bit around the house. It is not turned on, the dog simply needs to wear it to get used to the feel of it and so they don't think of it as something bad. It goes on for walkies… this is a good thing!  It must fit snuggly.  Two fingers max in the collar, the prongs must have a good contact.  It is not to move around as this will cause differing stimulation results and is not fair to the dog. The contact points should stay in one spot so they don't rub back and forth causing an abrasion. 2. Have the dog wearing the collar in the house turned on.  Do not have any distractions around and just go about your daily business.  Set the control to a starting low level.  I usually start at say a 10 with Dogtra or a low/medium 2 with a tritronics.  I use the continuous setting and just do a 1-2 second stimulation.  The response you are looking for is “hey, what was that”…… start low and work your way up until you get that response.  You DO NOT want any vocalization.  You are simply finding out where your dog feels the stimulation.  This will be different for every dog.  My dogs have all gotten a desired response with a tri-tronics low 3 – medium 3  (20 on my old dogtra) I tend not to use a High  on my tritronics collar… I get vocalization on the high so I just use low and medium settings. 3. Now you know what your baseline level is we are ready to get started.   Off to a distraction free area/greenspace/park you go with a long line and cookies!   The dog must already know what “come” means.  The collar is NOT for teaching the recall it is for reinforcing it. 4. Allow dog to wander and check out the environment as you walk him/her on the long line(not a flexi as you will let the dog drag the long line).  You can do a “free” recall (no stimulation) or two with a nice treat for coming to you.  The next step as the dog is wandering around is to say “fido come” and push the continuous stimulation button at the SAME time.  The second the dog turns toward you the stimulation stops. Gently use the long line to make sure they come in to you initially if needed.  The dog is learning how to turn the stimulation off.  It turns off by coming towards the handler. Treats are given for the recall.  The dog should not be vocalizing or be getting upset.   Some dogs may pause and wonder what the heck is that…. That is why the long line is on.  The dog can never be wrong. Bring it toward you with the long line and then the stimulation stops.  Since  your dog already knows come this should not be much of a problem. 5. Repeat several times with some “free” ones in between (“fido come” without stimulation, give the dog a chance to respond in a speedy fashion).  Lots of praise and treats for a job well done. 6. It is not uncommon for the dog to use its brain and want to stay close to you… this is perfectly normal.   Something weird happens when I'm a certain distance away from my owner.  They will figure it out quickly though. Continue walking around until they start to investigate the environment again. 7. Stay on the long line in a distraction free environment for 2-3 sessions.“fido come” plus stimulation,   Stimulation stops when dog turns toward you and comes in.   If the dog starts to come toward you (the stim has stopped) and then decides to abort and go sniff grass, repeat “fido come” with simulation.   8. Next have some distractions present while still on the long line at a reasonable distance.  Ie. Kids playing/ people walking/other dogs at a safe distance on a leash.  Do not use the collar on your dog if another dog is approaching or while visiting another dog.  Your dog is still in the learning phase and you don't want the dog to associate the stimulation with the approach of another dog, in addition you don't want your dog to run toward you, away from another dog and perhaps bring on an attack.                                                 Do 2-3 sessions with distractions 9. If your dog is doing well (which it should be) remove the long line.  Go back to a distraction free environment. Again,  “fido come” with stimulation, stim stops when dog turns toward you.  Mix this up with “free” recalls too.   10. Next repeat in a distraction area.  There should be total understanding at this point.

Jill Brown and Monique Anstee discuss if disobedience is always bad. Sometimes dogs have reasons, and are we introspective enough to know if their reasons are valid, or not? Here we go through examples of our dogs showing opinions, and discuss whether we allow it in all dogs, or only ones that have earned that right.

It's question time, and we tackle what you threw at us, some of which sparked some very good conversation. How do you train retrain an e-collar, correct your dog, deal with in -house guarding from guests or your in-house dogs etc. Thank you to all that were brave enough to ask us questions, and I hope these answers suffice!

This is true dog talk, where we discuss living with dogs and that 23 1/2 hours a day of training is more importanat than formal training sessions. Here is the video of Ivan Balabanov and Tina, that we discuss. There are many more videos of his process that should be watched.

The best way to diminish your dog's career is by stepping in the ring before they are ready. Here are things that we are looking for, to know our dogs are ready. One game I mentioned was the plate game. Get ten plates, number them one to ten, then scatter them in your training place. Can you heel from plate 1-10 and keep your dog's focus? If you can, you are probably ready for the ring.

This weekend I taught a heelwork seminar, and loved it. Here are our after thoughts.

Jill and I try to define how we train, and we got it, eventually. It is not forced free or balanced training, but latent learning, and we explain what it is, and how it will change the response from your dog. This might be a slower podcast but stick with it.

Its happening again. The keen among us are breaking their puppies, and its hardly surprising given whats on the internet. Here we give you a quick guide on HOW NOT TO DO THIS

Clearly I'm in vacation mode, and published the wrong one last week. Here is the cleaned up version. I promise to trap Jill into a good conversation for next week.

Monique and Jill discuss lessons from four days of training reactive dogs in BootCamp.

Jill and Monique discuss the lessons their dogs have taught them, and discuss the personal growth gained from training a dog.

Matthew Twitty joins us to discuss the lack of balance in balanced training. This is a heart felt discussion that all three of us feel very passionate about.

Keltie R. Lang (Keltierlang.com) joins Jill Brown and Monique Anstee to further discuss the issues of dog training today with Social Media influence. Please spread the word, comment and share if you like our conversation. Thank you for listening!

Join Monique Anstee and Jill Brown as they attempt to define the differences in a good breeder and a bad breeder when looking for a puppy.

A strong, but true title. Social Media has changed Dog Training from what it used to be, and all of us die-hards are unable to stop it. Tic Toc and Instagram have made many greenies instant professionals, with a bursting client base and six-figure salaries to matcjh. We need to find a way to stop this trend before our profession is watered down to only 30 second video clips.

Getting a puppy? Want to know what breeds to get, or avoid? Then this podcast is for you. We go through the CKC breeds groups and discuss the dogs that we most often see people struggling with. Our Previous podcast (20) is about the breeds that everyone succeeds with. While we state these dogs are not good pets, it does not mean we do not like the breed. In fact, most often, they are our favourites. From Livestock Guardian Breeds, Pointers, Border Collies and Malinois, find out why they are wrong for most people's homes.

There are so many hidden gems for dog breeds, many that are quite unknown. Here Jill Brown and Monique Anstee share breeds that are wonderful and easy to succeed with, from each group of the AKC (American Kennel Club). From Golden Retrievers, to Smooth Collies, and Japanese Chins, learn the breeds that always succeed in their homes.

Monique Anstee, from The Naughty Dogge, and Jill Brown discuss training, safety protocols and preparation needed` for natural disasters like forest fires, tornados, and floods. Some dogs turn feral in these moments. Hopefully this discussion can spark ideas as to how you can make your dog safer in these moments. This is a useful podcast that could save lives. Please share it far and wide.

Learn how YOU play a part in your dog's reactivity, and how to change it. Monique Anstee from The Naughty Dogge and Jill Brown discuss handler errors in the vicious cycle, and what your role is to retrain your dog. They go through the handler jobs, one by one, to make walking your reactive dog a much more enjoyable experience. Lanny Bassham's book - With Winning in Mind, is here... https://mentalmanagement.com/products/with-winning-in-mind Lanny's journal system, Performance Analysis, worth every single penny, is here... https://mentalmanagement.com/products/performance-analysis-the-ultimate-performance-journal. You do need the book to learn how to make the most of this journalling.

Monique, Jill and Hayley discuss training resource guarding, and separation anxiety, and ways to best avoid both from occurring. The change in Golden Retrievers locally, with resource guarding, and their inability to 'do aggression well' is touched upon. The dear friend that helped me out with the one resource guarder was Cheryl Randolph at Sooke Harbour Pet Resort. She made sure he was safe but limited his fun so that I was able to rescue him, and boost my relationship ahead on the fast track. Every trainer in this profession needs friends like her! https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063494323600 If anyone would like to book a camping site so that Jill can yell at you if you touch her blackberries, you can find more information here. https://www.portaliceoceanfrontrv.com/

An episode where we answer your dog-training questions... thank you to all that responded. Some questions we were unable to access until later, and we will answer at another point in time.

Listen as Monique, Jill and Hayley discuss ways to build confidence in puppies and young dogs, and rehabbing broken, feral puppies. We have technical glitches during this recording so our apologies.

Jill Brown and Monique Anstee, from The Naughty Dogge, discuss the hidden benefits of competitions. They discuss topics like keeping egos in check, boosting your dog's confidence, finding your community, and much more.

Regardless of Sport, Monique Anstee and Jill Brown offer tips to get your dog ready for competition day. Minor details that you probably haven't considered are the difference in your dog feeling like a success or doubting their performance.