Are Your Walks Making Your Reactive Dog Worse? | LIVE Q&A

Oh, just broke my head. Oh, the viewer count's going up already. Oh, afternoon folks. I started very early because I didn't think I was going to be able to get it set up in time, but it turns out I did. So you'll get an extra 5 minutes of my time. What a pleasure for you guys. Um, morning Tony, how are you? You all right? Um, everyone who's turned up early, appreciated. Um, start dropping me questions in the chat, feel free to do so should you wish to, or we can sit here together for a couple of moments. What would you like to do? You're doing great. Oh, I like that, Tony. How come you're here? Tell me why you're here. Um. Let's have an informal conversation for a few moments, folks. Tell me why you're here. Tell me where you're calling from in the world. Tell me what dogs you guys have got. We're on here early together. Let's get to know each other. Why not? Or say nothing. Oh, Luna is reactive at home with other people. Inside the home, Tony, or, or outside of the home? Hey, I have a dog who is reactive when it comes to other dogs. How can I tell if she's aggressive, fearful, dominant, and what is my solution? Pit bull, America. Ah, sick, Sammy. Um, well, give me some context when you, when you say reactive towards other dogs. Is it all other dogs? What sort of environments and contexts does it need to be? Um, does she stack prior? Does she kind of fixate on the other dog? What sort of things or behaviors and body language does she display? Um, and when she actually starts reacting, what sort of stuff does she do? And are you able to interrupt it? Tell me, tell me, tell me. Tell me more. Tell me more. But it's quite hard to diagnose a dog without seeing it. But I can give it a go. I can give it a crack. And another key thing: Has she ever bitten another dog? What does she do, Tony? Both inside the house, I control her well outside. She is a bit harder. So as in she's a bit harder outside the house, or she's a bit harder inside the house? Um, AR, hi, I have a 2-year-old Shepherd Cross. He has low food drive for dry foods as well, but will take chicken. Should I persevere with dry food or just use chicken? Um, I have a feeling we've spoken before, AR, on food motivation too. Um, I'd encourage you to persevere with kind of a high-quality, high-calorie, high-protein kibble, um, to be honest. Given the fact that you on occasion use chicken, it's probably just a novelty high-value reward for your dog, and they're currently opting to eat that over the dry food in which you provide, um, because it's seen as more valuable. So I'd persevere with dry food. utilizing a bit of a food motivation protocol. The way in which I would do that is get a high-calorie kibble for one. That'll allow you to feed a lower volume for the same amount of nutrients and leave your dog more, more satiated. Um, and then he'll be more inclined obviously to be hungry on, on food feeding times. And I'd split his daily allowance into 3 or 4 meals. Um, The smaller the meal, the better. The more opportunity you've got to kind of use throughout a day. And in addition to that, the more, the more likely he is to eat. So split up the meals into 3 or 4 meals for ease of maths, given my mental maths isn't great. Uh, say he eats 400 grams of food a day, 100 grams of feeding time. Uh, opportunity to eat opens, you offer to feed it, he refuses or takes a disinterest or starts eating and then stops. The, the food window, the meal window closes and doesn't open again until the next meal time. And continue persevering with that. And as long as his body composition and his weight stays healthy, then continue persevering until you complete 3 meals. And after you complete 3 meals, move on to a marker charging process. And what that would necessarily look like, um, is playing Newton's Cradle. I'm sure you can find a video, uh, on our YouTube channel to teach you that, but I'll explain it very quickly. Put your dog on a lead, say a word or make a noise like a salient cue. Often we use yes, yes, bring the food out your pocket, throw it down to the floor. Yes, bring your food out the pocket, throw it down to the floor. And yes, and then feed from you. And then that way you can charge a marker. I'd assume that's what you're trying to do given that you're trying to increase food drive. Either that or your dog's not eating and at risk of death, in which case just feed chicken. Hi, my dog always vocalizes when getting out of the car, even when with respecting thresholds and waiting, but when released, just OTT, over-arousal. Any tips on how to stop this? Uh, Moon, by the sounds of things, um, potentially your dog isn't fully fulfilled, um, the vocalization is coming from arousal, um, so a bit amped all the time. I'd, I'd be keen to understand what breed it is, um, But what I would potentially say is do some threshold training, and what that kind of looks like is open a door, close it, open the door, close it until your dog relaxes. And once your dog relaxes and potentially stops vocalizing, that would be the point at which I then open the door and then release. In terms of the OTT and arousal, you'll kind of have to generalize that Um, and maybe condition a relaxation cue. You can do that from, from a couple of different things. Alternatively, you could condition like an end of play cue. So what you could do is, is play with your dog at pretty high intensities, have a start and end cue to play. Um, we like to use tug, and then you could use that end cue to say, hey, like, drop it, drop your arousal, calm down. And potentially what I might do for that sort of situation there. In regards to the car, the car's likely just become, uh, an indicator that they're going out on a walk, they're going on an adventure. So of course they find it really exciting. Maybe what I'd be more inclined to do with that sort of situation is just take him or her on little errands, uh, and don't do anything. So drive them down to the local shop, go and grab something, get back in the car, drive them home. And over a period of time, your dog will just start to relax and be like, oh. The the car is just another crate where I have to behave. Obviously, do it in a safe manner. Don't do it in really high temperatures or anything like that. Have to caveat that just given some people's IQ capability. But yeah, Tony outside she is fast. Eh? What in regards to her reactivity and like how quickly she reacts to things? As in she's a lot faster to react to people outside of the home, Tony? All other dogs, usually when I take her at distance, she hard stares within about 5 to 10 feet. She stiffens up. Any sudden movement, she will lunge. She was attacked by another dog in the past and fought back. Uh, yeah, yeah. Again, hard to say without necessarily seeing her. To make an assessment of where her reactivity is potentially coming from. Um, but to be quite honest, and honest with everybody here, all the 18 people I have with me this afternoon, I appreciate you guys showing up, doesn't really matter where your dog's reactivity is coming from. And that tends to offend a lot of people. A lot of people want to know what event where their dog's reactivity is coming from, what started it, was there an event that started it— what I meant by a previous comment— and doesn't really matter. A lot of people think it really matters, and it doesn't. No matter what started your dog's reactivity, no matter what event, no matter what place it's coming from, whether it be fear, frustration, maybe aggression, um, It can all be resolved using the same methodology, and ultimately that methodology comes down to creating prediction error. No matter what your dog wants, whether they want to get to the thing, whether they want the thing to go away, um, we need to create prediction error around that scenario and say, hey, you barking and lunging at that thing doesn't make it go away. It's not that scary, and we have the opportunity to countercondition that response once we can close the distance from it. Or you barking and lunging at that thing doesn't get you to that thing, and actually you have to behave on on on that sort of circumstance. So yeah, doesn't really matter. But yeah, sorry, sorry Sammy. Couldn't be much help. Alana, I have a reactive dog. I was told she needs exposure, exposure, exposure. She fixates, lunges, growls. She is muzzle trained, and she has had some progress since working with a trainer. Yeah. Exposure is important. Exposure is really important only when you have the right tools. So for example, here on a bootcamp, we limit all exposure to triggers for the first 36 hours. When bootcampers get here on a Monday morning, we then implore a ton of management so that they aren't exposed to triggers until Tuesday afternoon. when the owners and the dogs are equipped with the right toolkit, figurative and literal. And once that happens, then we can start to expose effectively, because then that allows us to stem reactions and interrupt them and say to the dog, like, this isn't okay, and fully and efficiently and effectively counter-condition responses and give the dog something else to do, fulfill them. Whereas prior to that point, if you just Like take a dog out and expose them to a ton of their triggers, you're gonna do maybe one of two different things. And the likelihood is you're gonna do the latter. The first thing you might do is you might desensitize the dog. Maybe. Maybe you take your dog out and you expose them to a ton of their triggers and you desensitize them to it. It's fairly unlikely. You are likely gonna take them out and you're gonna sensitize them to their trigger. They're going to have the opportunity to rehearse all of those undesirable behaviors in which you don't want them to do, like you mentioned, fixate, lunge, growl. And the likelihood is she's getting a ton of rehearsal in those different contexts and environments in which you're taking her to, by the sounds of things, if you haven't got the right toolkit. Whereas it's really, really important that before we go through a period of exposure and getting our dog to see triggers and habituating them and negating and creating prediction errors and stopping the rehearsal of reactivity is that we prepare you and your dog accordingly. But if you're just going out willy-nilly and exposing your dog to a ton of triggers and they're having the opportunity to rehearse a load of poor behaviors, the chances are you're just going to create sensitivity and strengthen those behaviors and motivation to react, to be quite honest. So I'd just be careful doing that, Alana. But I'm glad to hear you have had some progress. What progress have you had? Tell me more about that. Uh, Hoops, um, I'll be working with an adult rescue from a puppy mill environment. Dog lunges and aggressively barks at all other dogs. This is a small breed dog. What advice as I work with this dog 15 days? Uh, well, we work with a lot of dogs exactly how you explained within 5 days and get them to a really good point, so you have triple that amount of time. You should be able to get some really good results if you know what you're doing, Hoops. Um, increased food motivation would be key if it doesn't have any already. Um, teach some leash manners, fulfill the dog, get the dog off leash as quick as possible. Um, create a full-on and proper and effective no marker. Teach the dog what it's not allowed to do. Um, alongside the food motivation, teach them what to do, teach them a yes marker, and then start exposing them to triggers exactly how, uh, Alana mentioned. exposure, exposure, exposure to various environments, triggers, situations, contexts to fully prepare that dog for the outside world and hopefully get them rescued. Unless you're going to keep that rescue, of course. Oops. That would be my advice in short. Um, should you need any help with that, let us know. Uh, book in a consult call, more than happy to talk to you more about it and see if it's going to be your dog, how we can maybe help and assist you. AI, first time being on, but thanks for your reply. No worries, AI. No worries. Thank you, Suzanne. I believe that's you. No worries, Sammy. I don't do the majority of the videos. That's Jacob. I don't know whether you don't recognize the neck tattoos and all that. Moon, he only vocalizes once out. It's an Aussie. Um, like, what, out in the environment? Okay, interesting. Um, yeah, I'd use an enough cue potentially, or I'd condition a relaxation cue. That's what I would do. And expose them to various environments as long as they're vocalizing at the environment and maybe just becoming hyper-aroused and not necessarily reacting towards everything, if that's necessarily what you mean as well. Uh, Moon, uh, you're right with the errand thing is a good way. Whenever we go, it's always adventures. Yeah, yeah. Um, Hi, I'm from Poole. 2-year-old Cavapoo that cries and whines whenever I walk with family, which spoils the whole walk. Really gets on our nerves. Um, what's your Cavapoo crying and whining at? Okay, uh, do you know? Can you maybe put a finger on it? Is it just a case of crying and whining at everything going on? Like, is it like Moon's dog, just hyper-aroused by environment? Uh, Huli, I've started going downtown, sitting at a bench hoping that a dog passes so I can praise her. Yeah, um, praise is good for a lot of dogs that like verbal or physical praise, but a more effective method is often food or toys, most often. And if you're trying to keep a dog calm, uh, food's likely your best option to utilize. Uh, so create a rewardable dog. We spoke about food motivation a little bit earlier in this afternoon's call. Um, do that. get yourself a marker. You can have 2 types of— well, you can have more, but typically you have 2 types of positive marker. You have your terminal marker and you have your continuous marker. So your terminal marker means come to me, get paid. It's like a bit more of an excitement marker that in our videos you typically hear us use yes, um, typically. And then you can also have a continuation marker, which is how you build stability and behaviors and keep the dog calm. And often we use good for that. So if you're sitting down on a park bench watching dogs pass by, trying to keep your dog calm, Um, I'd opt to use good. I'd say good and then pay. Um, alternatively, if you're walking downtown and your dog's passing dogs and doing a good job of it, I'd say mark the moment in which in time they made the good decision. Yes, walk backwards and pay them. Uh, and then for anyone that would be interested, um, Susie has booked— very kindly, uh, booked— has put, uh, a link to the form in which if you guys do want to work with us and want to Maybe find out more about any particular programs, then you can complete that form and then we'll be in touch to kind of organize a consult call. Kuta Luta. I have an American pit bull that I've had since he was a puppy, and he is so reactive and prey-driven when out on leash, lunging and running. My pots in the past, my pits in the past, I assume you mean, were angels on leash. Do you have a question, Kuta? Like in regards to that, I'm sorry to hear that, of course, and it sounds like it's a real annoyance to you. And given that, especially given that your previous pitties were angels, but do you have any questions for me? CG, I'm in New York since working with YCA since last winter. My girl has stopped barking at people. Yeah, the reactivity started at home. Um, but since we had put our other female to sleep— ah, sorry to hear that, CG. Um, but thanks for giving us, uh, our programme a review. Uh, that's really appreciated, and you turned up to this call. Progress is she isn't immediately kicking off as soon as she sees other dogs like she used to. She struggles with higher energy dogs and has a high prey drive. Um, that's good. It's good that she's made that progression. Um, Typically, you can use you can use three different things to increase or decrease intensity when it comes to exposing a dog to their trigger. The three Ds: one would be distance, so how far away you are from the trigger, how close can you get? The other one would be level of distraction. So like you mentioned, like the energy level of the dog tends to make her maybe kick off even if it's a fair distance. And duration: how long is she sat there looking at other dogs? And that tends to build pressure, and often dogs will react. So you can typically use those three different different things to either increase intensity or decrease intensity. That's what I would be utilizing. But it's good that she doesn't kick off straight away. However, obviously she's still struggling with some reactivity, whether it be the dog being higher energy, um, and having a high prey drive is okay. We've just got to channel it in the right way. It's one of the ways in which we can give our dogs fulfillment, right? Um, we're obviously very passionate about e-collars and passionate about building a bombproof recall. If we're able to do that, then we can have our dogs off leash and they can go and chase prey. They can go and do what they're meant to do, as long as they come back safely and as long as they're not bothering anyone. I can imagine doing that for her would probably mean that probably a lot of her reactive tendencies would actually drop off. That alone, really, to be honest. Anish, hi, I have a question about doing some intensive training sessions like you do in the boot camp. I mean, let's say in the morning I play with my Mali GSD rescue dog, then walk her, then normally she rests. How would that fit into an intensive training day, um, when I'd like to keep at it for 5 to 6 hours distributed during the day? As an example, do you give dogs breaks while you train the owners? Um, so funnily enough, when, uh, boot campers come along, uh, we ask them on a morning, uh, don't exercise the dogs often. The reason for that being is we could create ourselves a false positive. If we have all of the boot campers going out and doing a 2-hour hike and playing with their dogs and depleting their energy levels, maybe their reactivity is not going to display as intense. And some dogs, you can even manage their behavior by using physical exercise, which of course isn't a long-term solution. Just creating a tired dog and then hoping through fatigue they don't react isn't a great solution. But you might create yourself a false positive. So we actually ask The owners that attend boot camp don't exercise the dogs in the morning. Bring them along so they're at 100%, and then that way we get to see the dog's full capability in terms of reactivity, what they're actually like. And then secondly, we can work with them at that level and teach them what to do and what not to do. So that's what I'd inform you to do. But yeah, throughout the day we give the dogs multiple breaks. Fun fact for you, dogs learn best in 12 to 14 minute windows of time, so we're not doing half an hour, hour-long sessions with a singular dog. Often it's short, snappy sessions teaching the dog something, teaching the owner something, and then dog goes away for a break, and then we bring the dog back out throughout the day. So you're getting multiple opportunities to work the dog, multiple opportunities to teach the dog something, and then the owners, obviously you'll have theory sessions and Q&A sessions where you'll get the opportunity to also learn more and will refine your skill set and knowledge as well. But yeah, Eoinish, book in a call, um, come and chat to myself or one of the team about a boot camp in more depth should you wish to attend. Food motivation works well until she gets laser focused on a dog that gets close walking by, then nothing works to break her concentration. Yeah, so I often on a, on a Monday morning, I draw a really crappy diagram of a rabbit and a dog and a stick figure human. And I ask every single owner around the room, what do you think your value is to your dog, even with food or maybe even with toys, on a scale of 1 to 10? And then what's the value of the rabbit? And I have not had one occasion where an owner has said that their value is more than the rabbit or dog, for example, which is what you're describing. You're describing dog economics. Your dog finds other dogs in the environment more valuable for whatever reason. And in that case, that's where we have to devalue the other thing, and that is where we can utilize, um, a strong no. That is where we can utilize tools and bring value back our way and devalue the environment or devalue the dog, um, to encourage the dog to eat. But what I would say for you specifically in your situation is I would go out, um, and I'd go to an environment of which There aren't any triggers, or maybe triggers at a long distance depending on what your dog's threshold distance is. And I would just offer her food for free, wouldn't ask her to do anything, wouldn't use a marker, nothing like that. Just sit down and hand feed. Uh, and I would continue using the methodology in which we spoke earlier, that windows of opportunity method where you're going to have like 4 feeding windows throughout the day. And I'd take her out and I'd offer her a meal, and if she doesn't take it, she doesn't take it, and she doesn't get an opportunity until the next mealtime. And if she eats outside, brilliant. and next mealtime, next mealtime. And what you'll do is you'll just create a bit more resilience and willingness to eat in different environments. And then maybe when there is a trigger at distance, you can start feeding and you can start to slowly incrementally close down the distance, which will make her more inclined to eat maybe in the face of a trigger. And you can close the distance that way. But there are a few other methods in which you can use as well. I'm trying to expose in more To more walking and walking with a gentle leader, but isn't taking well to it. Is it a matter of just exposure, tiring him out before walks, or distraction? Uh, all right, you put in another message as well. His triggers are even more confusing when he's fine in the house and when he is outside off leash. The leash is presumably the trigger. What could alleviate that trigger and subsequent anxiety? Um, so if the lead is the issue, Kuta, why can't he be off leash all the time? Or is your recall not strong enough? Um, phone. Yeah, so by the sounds of things, your dog might suffer from leash reactivity or leash frustration. In regards to that, again, we've got to devalue the other thing, teach him some leash manners. My favorite tool isn't a Gentle Leader. Uh, the reason for that, um, I believe a Gentle Leader in the UK like is a halti or a figure 8. Correct me if I'm wrong. Um, but the reason for that is when you put a Gentle Leader or a halti on a dog, it's automatically aversive to the dog. And you guys see that yourselves if you've ever used one. Put it on the dog and they're constantly clawing at their face, rubbing their face along the floor, rubbing their face on you, trying to get rid of the thing. Um, So it, it's not my favorite tool. It's actually the tool in which we've seen cause a lot of physiological damage to a lot of dogs. Oh, the law. Fair enough. Yeah, okay, you got me there. Um, I would be more inclined to use maybe a slip collar, um, or potentially even a prong collar. However, with trainer guidance. I wouldn't be trying to utilize those tools on my own. Um, I'd be utilizing the help of a professional in which has used them before. effectively can showcase those sorts of results. We obviously can, um, rather than somebody who just wants to smack a prong collar on a dog. Um, but yeah, I, I teach them some leash manners, and then again, I, I would start teaching a solid no, a solid yes, creating a rewardable dog, and then creating some prediction area and what he thinks he can do and what's sensible. Um, and looking to get him off leash as much as possible. I wouldn't necessarily be tiring him out before walks. That's maybe a short-term help. So maybe to help you in the short term to expose him to more triggers, uh, and maybe kind of teach some leash manners to make life easier, given that he is a Pittie, I might play with him for 10 minutes just prior to a walk, stick him away for 10 minutes, and then get him back out and then take him out. That way you're emptying the tank slightly and you're making your life easier, but that is not a long-term solution. That's a short-term help to start the teachings of something, to assist you in that process to make life easier. And then you'll have to discontinue that. If you don't discontinue that, one, you'll just build a really fit dog and it'll become redundant anyway. And as I spoke about just a moment ago, like distracting dogs or utilizing physical exercise in order to fatigue dogs prior to exposing them to triggers isn't a great way to be. It's a management solution. It's not a long-term solution. Um, you might create yourself some false positives. You might find that one day you tire him out before a walk, you take him out and he doesn't react towards triggers. However, the next day you don't have time to play with him, so you take him out for a walk and he wrecks everything. And then that tells you it's more to do with the physical activity in which you're using, which is masking the issue. It's not necessarily fixed it. I use distance if I can. Perfect. Yeah, go to like recreational grounds, large fields, town centers where maybe the pathways are quite wide and you can utilize kind of hiding places should you need to because you want to mitigate reactions as much as possible. But ideally have her eating as many areas as possible. Hey, I don't even know how you say your name. I, I've absolutely butchered that. I know I have. I'm so sorry, mate. Uh, 3 and a half years GSD owner, reactive out of frustration, undersocialized as a puppy, doing IGP with him and can mask behavior under commands. He cannot relax, crank corrections, amp him up. Any tips? Um, I can't necessarily give you any tips. I can give you some advice. Um, My, my frontline advice would be, to be fair, like, get in touch, uh, fill in the form of which Susie's put in the chat, uh, I believe it's pinned there, booking a call with myself or one of the other training team, uh, we can have a chat and, and help you properly. But we see many dogs, many, many dogs who maybe have done obedience training even to such a level as IGP, sometimes PSA, and the dog can behave in obedience. However, put that dog at liberty, if that dog can be at liberty, and it'll then kick off everything in the vicinity. And there are a lot of dogs that then get stuck in obedience, which, if I'm honest myself, is quite sad to see. I like a dog being able to be a dog, don't get me wrong. I like the funky obedience. Obviously, Jacob has Stark, who's a high-level PSA dog. The stuff in which you can do with him, like, is actually really impressive and really incredible. However, Stark can be at liberty. He can go and do his own thing. He is not neurotically looking for the next thing in which Jacob is ordering him to do, which unfortunately, um, we see a lot of trainers work with some of our, our clients who end up coming to us, or previous trainers of those clients utilize obedience to try and, um, fix that dog's reactivity, and all they've done is mask it. And that dog then is neurotically just looking for the next thing to do. And is fixed in a heel, or is fixed in a down stay, or is fixed in looking at the owner, which isn't great. I don't enjoy seeing it. Sorry, I went on a bit of a rant there. So in order to actually fix that, you've got to start putting him more at liberty. Teach him how to make good decisions. Teach him when he makes bad decisions and say that is a bad decision. Maybe I. I'd stop the IGP training for a little bit of time depending on what he's reactive toward. It maybe is not helping at the moment. Um, resocialize with people and dogs depending on what the triggers are, uh, and then do a lot of nothing. You've already mentioned yourself he can't really relax. Um, do lots of nothing so that he can relax, which by the sounds of things he probably is looking for the next command from you, the next behavior, the next thing you want him to do. Um, And then your use of corrections previously and your use of pressure has likely created a bit of a turn-on for him. It's been used improperly, maybe at too high arousal, which means we probably need to recondition a few different tools with you. So yeah, you're a, you're a bit of a complex one, but we like complex ones and we've worked with many of them. So book in a call, let's chat, um, chat to one of the team, uh, and let's see maybe how we can help you. Come see us in person, that'd be great. Luna has 100% recall until a trigger is within, say, 20 feet of her. That's where I have issues. Yeah, okay. Um, so in that regard then, in terms of bombproof recall, my recommendation would always be an e-collar, um, to help you with a bombproof recall. But also, we need to fix the reactivity first, or alongside that process, and then that way you're not going to have the trigger problem. But you're also not going to have the destruction problem of her blowing off a recall. So yeah, booking a call, why not? Give me some more questions, folks, otherwise you're gonna have to listen to me sing. I've already told Susie this. Susie said I can just make up some spiel on the spot. I've said no. I've said I will sing if no one asks me any questions, and I'll sing a song in which she doesn't want me to sing too. She's panicking now. Guarantee it. Susie, your face has gone red, hasn't it? Your face has gone red and you're doing this thing. You're going, oh no, oh no. I guarantee it. I'll sing the song. Somebody give me some questions quick. Susie's begging you all to give me questions. There's 27 of you here. Give me some questions. What you? You can make requests. Why not? It depends if I know it though. I'm no good at singing, nor am I any good at karaoke. Go on, lovely people, there's 25 of you here. We did have 27 a minute ago, but some people really didn't want to hear me sing. Any questions? Even if it's not necessarily a question about your own dog, maybe it's a question about dog training overall. Any questions about boot camps? Any questions about any of our other programs? Any questions about our recent success stories? Go, go, go! Any questions about YCA? Have I got any American viewers this afternoon? Anyone from America, the US of A? Is anyone from across the pond? I know our pity friend was. Ah. Nice. Kuta and Avis came in strong. Whoa, whoa, whoa, where all the questions are coming in at once. Uh, my pit also jumps and bites at the leash when I'm trying to run with him on leash. Any advice on that? Uh, yeah, to be honest, that behavior, um, I would use a strong no cue. Don't do it. Um, in the temporary future Before you know how to maybe condition a good no cue, I might utilize maybe a toy or a ball as a bit of a pacifier, see if that fixes the behavior. Your Pittie might just want to run along with something in his mouth. Um, but yeah, I'd probably teach him not to do that thing ideally. Um, alternatively, I'd go to areas where he can run off leash with you and run there, like go trail running. I like going trail running with my dogs. Ibis, is it a bad idea to expose reactive dogs to other reactive dogs? Name is Sandy, by the way. Sandy, lovely to meet you. Thank you for telling me your real name. I hope Kootaloo does because that is a—I can't keep saying that. It's dreadful. Well, it's a very good name, but it's dreadful. Sandy, is it a bad idea to expose reactive dogs to other reactive dogs? No. Um, we do it on boot camps all the time. So one of the things about our boot camps, as you guys may or may not know already, um, is of course there's going to be upwards of 10 reactive dogs who at some point are all going to be exposed to each other. And the reason as to why we like that philosophy is it gives you the opportunity to work around other problematic dogs, because you're going to experience that in the real world. It's not perfect. Not every dog that you guys are walking past a dog that's completely dog neutral or dog social that's going to ignore your dog for the majority. There are going to be dogs of which stare at your dog, give your dog a hard time, um, maybe even react at your dog. So yes, it's a good idea once you have the proper tools and the effective strategies to expose a reactive dog to other reactive dogs, because then that means you're prepared for every situation scenario. Like, if we were just to work with people at our center Excuse me, expose them to our stooge dogs who for the large majority are dog neutral and then chuck them out into the real world, they're going to experience a ton of problems. So we have a scaling like stooge dog hierarchy, um, that goes from Freya, who's Alex's dog, all the way to Mr. Bumble, who's Kirkie's dog. And Freya is not going to give dogs a hard time. He's very dog neutral. Very aloof, doesn't really do much, whereas Bumble is a firecracker and will give dogs problems. So we do that first, we expose them to stooge dogs, and then we start exposing the group to each other. And there's going to be kickoffs and there's going to be reactions, and the owners have to fix that in the moment. So ultimately, yes, it is a good idea, but there's some background. Um, Haxo, hello! Hi. Um, Then I will ask about my German Shepherd. She is 7 months and we struggle with recall. She just loves people and dogs and wants to play. She is running to anyone who comes near our garden. Okay, cool. Um, so teach a bombproof recall. So start doing some recall training for that. You probably need a rewardable dog and you need her to be motivated by something, whether that be toys or food or both. Um, you can utilize those as things and motivation in order to bring her back. Uh, key thing here would be also utilize a long line, um, or a retractable leash in order to reinforce the recall should she choose to blow it off, because other things in the environment might be more valuable than your food, um, or your toys. And ultimately, um, hopefully I'm preaching to the choir given that you guys have found yourselves on our YouTube channel, um, but e-collar training— e-collar training is going to be the best thing for you, uh, should she have trouble with recall, and it'll be the only tool that gives you a bombproof recall long term. So Just do it. Why not? Um, is it a good idea to start training at 8 weeks old? Yes, but the focus for you, CG, is going to be something different. Um, to be honest, with a lot of puppies, with a lot of dogs that are 16 weeks and below, even, even 6 months and below, um, we tend to preach here at YCA to just focus in on socialization. And socialization isn't taking your dog to walk-around puppy classes and chucking them in a room full of other dogs. Um, Just expose them to various different environments, noises, ensure they're very resilient, ensure they're very confident. Within that time frame, kind of after that 16-week window, you might want to start looking at teaching a no marker and a yes marker. That's going to give you the best— they're going to be at their most susceptible age to teach that sort of thing. And then life should be sweet as long as you socialize them properly. Carter or Carter Rare, Texas. Oh nice, cool. And New York. I was hoping there were going to be some people from California in here, um, because all the guys— for those of you that don't know, uh, I say all the guys— Kirky, uh, Jacob, uh, Alicia, Chloe, Maggie are all over in, um, Northern California at the moment opening on a new center. So anyone from California, go and pop by, say hello. Fun fact for you, anyone who's based near or around California, Jacob I believe Jacob himself is actually offering free in-person assessments for the next week, so get onto one of those. Jacob's time is like gold dust, so go on, take it up. Go and ask him loads of annoying questions. Tony, I'm from Canada. Oh nice, cool. Nice to meet you, Tony. Uh, Tony, bikes riding up behind us is also a trigger. Um, coming towards us, 80% ignored by her. How do I manage this part? Yeah, so by the sounds of that, um, she sounds a bit more nervous Or of a nervous disposition with things coming up behind you potentially. So I'd work on her resilience and general reactions to startle responses. One of the best ways to do that is through the use of play. So I'd get her playing lots and lots and lots, and I'd use fear purposely in play. By that I mean like making loud bangs, throwing things at walls, maybe even get somebody on a bike to ride past and see if you can keep her engagement. And should she let go of the toy, If she's well toy motivated, sorry, and play motivated, then you're going to run away and her punishment is in effect going to be the fact that she loses the game and she needs to reinstill the game and re-engage in the game with you. I'd maybe use that. Your friend Nat. Hi, my friend Nat. When's the quietest time of year for a boot camp at either of the UK locations? To be honest, Nat, we don't really have a quiet time of year. Um, all of our boot camps are either limited availability or they sell out months in advance. Um, we've been running them now for more than a year and they've been going really, really well. They go well down at South Coast as well. Um, why, why do you want a quiet boot camp? Surely if you've got a dog reactive dog, you want a busier boot camp. Tell me why. Tell me why, Nat, my friend. Um, CG, like I mentioned before, the breeder gave us another puppy because my other one Was a year and four months, so I started because I seen her going crazy for food. So I started the training like ASAP. Nice, good job. Kay, my message won't send. Okay, if you have a message that won't send, I'm hesitant to give out my WhatsApp number on a local forum or an open forum. Why not? There's only 22 of you here. Let's do it anyway. Okay. Message. Hang on. If I start getting a load of abuse, might be too long to send. Suzanne is trying to save me. Yeah, if your message is too long to send, just split it into multiple messages. Like copy and paste it and split it down before I give my WhatsApp number out to everybody on this thing and start getting fucking weird messages from all of you creeps. Not calling you guys creeps. You guys aren't creeps. Of course not. But obviously the video stays on YouTube for a little while. Um, uh, GC, is it important in YCA standards to address food aggression towards humans and dogs? Depends in what context, because like largely we have a philosophy that— or what I do anyway— like I wouldn't want somebody fucking around with my food. Like there are all these weird thoughts and methodologies used by other trainers, especially when dogs are puppies or if they're displaying any sort of food aggression, to go over and take a dog's food away from them and then put it back down and take it away and put it back down and put their hand in it whilst the dog's eating it. And even one of my recent consults, so I spoke to one of you guys, they want to do a boot camp with us, and I was speaking to her And she said the previous trainer of which she worked with told her to spit in her dog's food every day before she gave it to her. And that is wild, absolutely wild, because you're not teaching the dog anything other than the fact that you're a bit of a dick. Um, so yeah, it, it, depending on the context, if your dog is being proactive with it— and what I mean by that is you give your dog their dinner And there's ample space, it's an ample room, or maybe they're on the other side of a room and you give them their food and you walk into that room and that dog charges at you out of nowhere and tells you to bugger off, or, or maybe even lays teeth on you. Yeah, like, we're gonna fix that because that's a huge risk, um, to both the dog and to you. Whereas if you're going over there and you're fiddling with your dog's food, just don't do it. Just don't do it. Let your dog eat. Let them have their food, and then once they're done, then pick up their bowl. If they're resource guarding their bowl, that's something different. We'll address that, and we can address that through a different a few different methods, right? But yeah, in terms of food aggression or resource guarding in that context towards humans wouldn't necessarily be something that we're really keen to address unless there are other things going on too. Anish, I'd like to hear you sing though. You know you wouldn't. You really wouldn't. it's not going to make any sort of improvement to your life. It's going to make things a lot worse. When I walk my rescue dog, 7 years old, I let her sniff on a 10-meter flexi because I can't let her off leash yet. I read that this makes reactivity worse. Uh, it's like one of those things, isn't it? It's like everything gives you cancer. Uh, I'm sure everything's gonna make your dog more reactive in some sense. Um, no, I wouldn't say that aspect, those things are making your dog more reactive. I would say let's get rid of that leash. I would say let's fix the reactivity. I'd say let's get her off leash as quick as possible. I'd say let's train her with a bombproof recall. Um, yeah, that, that's what I'd advise upon that. But in terms of that process there, walking along and letting her sniff things on a 10-meter flexi, not making things worse from, from what you've said. Obviously, if you're letting her kick off at things on the end of a 10-meter flexi, then yeah. Uh, My dog is reactive but also really nervous. Would a boot camp suit her? Would tools make her more nervous? Right, so, um, yeah, we work with loads of nervous or maybe fearful reactive dogs, um, on boot camps. And tools— no, tools of course can make a dog more nervous, 100%, if used incorrectly or misused. Um, tools aren't the be-all and end-all. A lot of people focus a lot on tools Um, because of horror stories or maybe because of prior poor use of them. But the thing that I would always say to people is the tools are just a catalyst in a process of which we're teaching the dog something, and they just provide very clear communications. They allow us to build clarity, and clarity will build confidence and will build resilience. So if you have a nervous dog and you give them more clarity, you're going to make their life a lot better and you'll make them a lot less nervous. So yes, a boot camp would suit, and no, tools are not going to make her— well, in our experience anyway with our teachings. I'm not going to make her more nervous. Um, Haxo, she knows how to recall but not when something as interesting is there, so e-collar is the go. Um, depends really. I, I would always advocate for an e-collar in regard to recall. Um, however, I would also say that ensure that the recall is good. A lot of people say they have a recall, good recall, and they don't. Um, not calling you out here, Haxo, just saying. Um, but make sure that you've got the best motivation possible for her to get back to you, and you've got a decent recall to start. And then of course, yeah, I'd overlay an e-collar over the top, and that allows us to provide tactile feedback at distance and, and remove value from the other thing and make recall non-optional. Because the last time that she doesn't recall— or sorry, the next time that she doesn't recall might be the last time she doesn't recall, if you get what I'm saying. Um, so how do we get our dogs used to fireworks and explosions? Nice, good question. Um, especially with November just around the corner now. Sad, summer's gone. Um, I would start desensitizing them now. Um, and I do that through a variety of different means. Start as you mean to go on. Um, one of the key things in which I would use is I would use play. I'd use play to build resilience and confidence, and I'd use fear purposely in play. If you want to learn more about that Um, I don't exactly have time now in this 15 minutes. Um, book in a consult call, um, speak to one of the team and we can help you do that. But I'd do that first and foremost. That would be the key tool that I would utilize. Uh, I would also start just desensitizing them to loud noises or the sound of fireworks utilizing like a speaker. A lot of people have like Alexas, Googles now, all that sort of thing. Obviously there are other speakers available. I've got no affiliation to either of those. I should probably speculate that now on a large YouTube channel, naming products. And I might put my dog's dinner down in the evening and play those sorts of noises in the background. So they're having quite a positive experience with something they may associate as negative going on in the background. Okay. And I might slowly increase the intensity of that. So I might start off with the speaker quite low, and then I might move up to the speaker being quite loud. Um, and I just play noises at all sorts of different times as well, just trying to desensitize them to it, um, build a more positive association with it, and, and generally make them more resilient. And then that way you shouldn't have too much issue really. Um, but yeah, I'd start now, start as soon as possible. It's obviously September now and it'll be October before you know it, uh, October, November before you know it. Um, I don't even know what day it is. Uh, The horned. Nice, Hern. Nice. What kind of horned are you? Tell me. If you could only teach a dog to do 5 things, what would they be? Interesting. Yes. No. Recall. Teach them how to play. Oh, I've still got one to play with. Hmm. What else would I teach my dog? Oh, I found out, for those of you that know Kobe, Kobe at the YCA, uh, there are lots of videos on this YouTube channel about him. Um, Jacob fostered him for a period of time and now he's with Maggie. Uh, he does the, the whole like thing and he rolls over and he pretends to die. I teach my dog that. Those, those 5 things right there. A yes, a no, a recall. Um, I teach him how to play and then I teach him how to do that. Yeah, there's my 5. I've used them. No backsies. What would you teach your dog to do with only 5 things, Han? Tell me. Um, my friend Nat, I figured a quieter week could give more space to ask more in-depth questions and discussions. Uh, also I'm coming from a burnout situation, so it may be too intense, the full week, right now anyways. Ah, sorry to hear that, Nat. Well, hopefully the week would be respite for you. Do you know what? A lot of people say after they've been to a boot camp, or they say on the Friday, I don't actually want to leave. That's actually what they— I'm not even bullshitting, that's actually what they say. And you know what, some people haven't. So, um, for anyone that's had the pleasure to visit SCCA recently, uh, if there is anyone on the call, or maybe you've spoken to any of the staff at SCCA, um, so that's South Coast Canine Academy for those that aren't aware, um, Harrison and Kaylee quite literally didn't leave. So they did the first ever boot camp at SCCA, uh, and now they work there. They never left. So that shows you how good boot camps are. They're good for rest. Um, yeah, so in regards to coming to a quieter week, so, uh, we, we leave plenty of time throughout the week, uh, for one, for Q&As. So there are plenty of Q&A sections and opportunities to ask questions of the training team during your boot camp. Um, There's also follow-up calls and things in which you can attend after your bootcamp, uh, and follow-up meetings to ask more questions and have in-depth discussions about what you guys are going through. Um, we like a difficult question every now and then. There was a gentleman who actually I had the pleasure of speaking to him this morning. Um, he has a dog called Ica. Uh, if he's here or if he watches this later on, he'll know exactly who he is. Um, who asked some really, really good questions whilst he was on his bootcamp, really in-depth questions, and his bootcamp was full. And one of the things in which he's decided to do now is potentially to do the dog trainer development course. So he was so interested and asked really good questions that we actually encouraged him to be a dog trainer during the course, and he is actually going to do that. So now he's going to spend 10 weeks with Kirkie, asking Kirkie tons more questions and getting access to Kirkie's brain, which is like gold dust, um, or gold dust in terms of dog training, obviously, and the gym. if anybody needs help with the gym. Um, and yeah, uh, there was really good discussions and his boot camp was full. So I'd encourage you, even if it's a busy week, even if it's a sold-out week like, uh, like Jack's was, I'd encourage you to do it. Um, there'll be plenty of time to have in-depth discussions and ask lots of questions of us, whether that be on a one-to-one basis— there's opportunities for you to catch us on our own, or you on your own— or whether that be in a group format. Um, as a team. Um, but yeah, come along, come along to a busy boot camp. It'll be okay, don't worry, we're all friendly. Um, lots of people refer to their reviews as us to being professional. I would think I'm anything but, but apparently people think I'm very professional. I make mine work, uh, for all they go in their kennels, uh, keep the house calm while they get their food. They're on a raw diet, so my girl who was reactive goes down and I give her her food. Uh, the others that I make wait until I say good boy, good girl, and they calm. Keeps— sorry, CG, I don't know whether there was a question earlier on about that. Ask it again if there was. Just wanted to say thank you for your insights, much appreciated. Tony, no worries, thank you, I'm glad I could be of help. Uh, Shadow, good answers, thanks. No worries. Hearn, I teach yes, no, recall, place, close, heel, off-lead heel. Ah. Heels overrated. Never mind about that. The whole like bang rollover thing's way cooler. Jade, I don't know why I find myself funny. I'm really not that funny. I want to learn how to probably use an e-collar, but I don't have the resources to work with a trainer. I want to be a dog trainer and add the e-collar to my toolbox, but I don't want to fuck up my dog. Well, in that regard, Jade, I wouldn't. You, you might, you might. I don't know what resources are out there free regarding e-collar usage and e-collar work because it is, it is a skill set, it is a knowledge base in which people have had to invest in in order to learn. So I'm not sure they'd give away their knowledge for free in regards to e-collar training. I know there probably is some e-collar training advice out there for free. Um, I can't speak to whether it's very good or not because I did mine paid. Um, I paid the YCA to teach me I'd encourage you maybe to do this, look up the funds, especially if you're then going to use it, um, to then, uh, get yourself some clients. Think about it, if you learn how to use an e-collar, um, and condition it properly for various different things, you could then sell that skill set to many other people. So you could make that investment 10 times over, is what I'd encourage you to do. But I don't know of any free resources out there. Um, but yeah, I'd definitely use an e-collar, um, but properly, and add it to your toolbox. Become a trainer, why not? Uh, Alana, I was told that we need to find out what level of the e-collar my dog works at. She comes straight back to me so she can have off-leash freedom as she's currently on a long line. So, um, in regards to e-collar training, kind of links into Jade's question, um, We typically use 2 levels, uh, one of which we, we term as like a nag that the dog has a, has a perception of, which might be a mild irritation. And then we tend to use what we call like a boost or an aversive level. Typically we use those 2 levels. In regards to finding the lowest level of a dog, that all depends on the dog and them. Everyone's an individual, just how dogs are all individuals. Um, there's a cool social experiment that we run on a boot camp On a Monday morning where everyone tries the e-collar on themselves, and everyone tells me when they can feel it, and everyone tells me when they want to move on. And there's a variety of different levels throughout the room, depending on background. Doesn't matter on on sex, that sort of thing. Really varies. Inish, thank you. I found a trainer here in Switzerland who is a trainer in the program with YCA. I work with him to let my princess off leash and fix her reactivity. Oh, nice, Inish. That's good news. Um, I really, really wish I could remember the gentleman's name. I know exactly who you're talking about. Uh, I literally spoke to him the other day. That's really bad of me. I'm really bad with names. Apologize for him on my behalf, but I have actually met him and I do know who he is. So yeah, I'm glad to hear that you're working with him. I love your name. Um, if I only have 5, it's good, bad, recall, out, enough, all done. Nice, cool. That's a good point. Why doesn't everybody tell me what five things they would teach their dog if they only had five things? I think my five would be yes, leave it, and three times recall. Well, you don't need a three times recall if you have a good recall. Huh? Yeah, ditch the heel for a bang. Fuck heel. Like, let's all just teach our dogs bangs. CG, someone was asking about food aggression, so I was just saying. Oh, sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So. Yeah, like in regards to food aggression, how I explained, we wouldn't necessarily address it, but management is definitely key. Like for example, I don't feed any of my dogs together. There's never been a problem, knock on wood, but I still don't feed them together and I don't fuck around with their food, despite the fact that I think I could quite happily take their bowls. Irish, I could maybe sacrifice one recall for a bang. Good. I'm currently telling everyone to teach their dogs how to play dead. Amazing. Um, I'll tell you what, folks, if you teach your dog— the first person— and nobody, by the way, nobody's allowed to cheat. If somebody or somebody's dog already knows bang, you can't take part. But the first person to teach their dog bang And post it on Instagram and tag us, I will send you a free YCA hoodie. All right, so first person to teach the dog bang, post it on Instagram and tag us, I'll send you a free hoodie. Go on, let's see who can do it first. Um, CG, uh, I lost my place now. Um, ah, thanks. I hope you have a great day too, CG. Thank you. YCA is excellent, isn't it? Brian, um, used your e-collar for recall and Tilly is 110% now without using the e-collar anymore. Need to get to the next level but not sure how. Any advice? Uh, get to the next level of what, Brian? In terms of like— I'm glad obviously you used our— our Shadow, you're not on Instagram. Uh, Email, email us. Post on YouTube and come to the next Q&A and tell somebody you've posted it and get them to watch it. They can be the adjudicator, and you can tell them I told you I'd give you a free hoodie. Yeah, what do you mean by getting to the next level, Brian? Tell me. I taught my dog the difference between red, yellow, green ball. He knows ropes rather than stick on recall. He knows left, middle, right. See, Shadow, it should be easy for you then. You, you're going to be the quickest at this. Come on. See, what you could do is be the quickest to teach your dog bang, make yourself an Instagram account, and then tag us. Um, walking with e-collar, uh, or discipline? Uh, so you mean like e-collar loosely teaching like an off-lead heel, um, or teaching a heel utilizing your e-collar? Honest, game on. Bye, I have to go now, training. Enjoy, Ernest. Take care. Um, Yeah, so in regards to e-collar loose lead, Brian, if you did recall, uh, and our e-collar course, uh, I'll tell you now that the process for recall is no different to that of the process to e-collar loose lead. All right, so all that you need to do is look at the process, familiarize yourself with the process and what you went through in order to condition a recall. And then use the exact same process but replace your recall cue, um, for that of your heel cue. That's it. Everything stays the exact same. Um, the common theme though that I see for a lot of people, um, with something like an e-collar loose lead is you have to have a half-decent or foundational heel in the first place. It's in the same way with like an e-collar recall. You have to have a foundational recall in the first place. If you have a shit heel that has no criteria— and I'll explain what I mean by that in a minute— then you're just going to have a shitty collar loose lead heel, or you'll confuse the crap out of the dog. So one, have a good foundational heel and pick a criteria. And what I mean by that is lots of people say, I just want my dog to walk by my side. What does that mean? It will be different for you than it means for your other half or your other family members or your friend who walks on occasion. So The key thing is, uh, we like to use nose over toes or shoulder blade to leg. That's a criteria. It's objective. It can't be misconstrued. It's very clear, brings clarity. Um, get her walking to that and then start to overlay your e-collar onto your heel cue utilizing that criteria. And at that point, you should be able to go through the phases of e-collar and build a really, really strong e-collar loose lead and therefore uh, you'd be able to adapt that to then an off-leash heel too. She walks awesome shoulder to leg. I'll hold you to that, Brian. Um, Jade, recall, stay, good, bad, and that one circus-like trick where he goes up on 2 legs. Oh, that'll be cool, like a, like a sit pretty thing. Yeah, nice, folks. Any more questions? I know we're cutting close to time, but I'm happy to stay on. If anybody has anything burning, my friend Nat, what's for dinner tonight? Do you know what? I don't know. I haven't decided yet. Maybe a takeaway, maybe if I'm feeling it, if I'm feeling spicy. I don't know why I said it like that. What am I doing? Susie, I'm losing my mind. What is happening to me? Is there like too much pinch collar usage for a dog? Uh, there could be. Depends in what context you're speaking about in terms of ethically. Um, in terms of physiological, um, in terms of like how much pressure that dog's been put under before and has it been used correctly or have they become very tolerant. So the answer, the short answer to your question is yes. There's a few different facets to the answer really. Uh, I mean, should I use a pinch collar on every walk or just once per day? Ah, right. Um, Well, to be honest, like, all tools have their individual uses. Um, a pinch collar for me is a means to an end. It's to walk a dog through a close proximity environment, or a dog to heel before you can let them off leash. My sole aim and desire a lot of the time is to get my dogs off leash as quick as possible. I don't want them to be on a lead. I don't want them to be in a heel. That's why I'd much rather teach them bang. Um, I want to get them off as quick as possible, but there are on occasions times where, or if I want them to come with me because my dogs love to be with me and I love to be with them and I want to take them to a cafe or a pub or something, they might have to be on a pinch collar for a period of time. Um, but then ultimately I want to give them as much liberty and freedom as possible, especially if I'm taking them on my errands. So in terms of how often should they use a pinch or wear a pinch collar, um, wherever they need to. However, otherwise, if they don't need to, I wouldn't have them on it. Hopefully that answers your question. Uh, Where I live, there is a guy with 2 proper wolves. They have never been on a lead and mostly walk behind the owner. That's what I'm training my GSD to do. Nice, cool. Uh, When recalling my dog, how do I get her to stop hitting my legs with her muzzle? I don't know. Stand out the way like a bull. Hold a little flag or something. Get her to run into that instead. I have fixed that problem before. Yeah. Teach her a solid no. Teach her a solid no and say, hey, stop running into my legs. That's not very nice. Um, Kevin, Chloe's dog, um, he does it all the time. He doesn't care. He doesn't care about legs. Legs don't exist. Human legs don't exist as far as he's concerned. And it's cute. Depends how much it bothers your life. Uh, question: why would Tilly walk nicer off lead than she does on lead? On lead, she wants to be out in front. Uh, she puts herself into a heel and just carries on. Probably due to a history of reinforcement Most likely there's probably been inconsistencies or reinforcement for pulling out ahead whilst on lead, and then vice versa when off lead, there's been more reinforcement, um, and maybe criteria put on her being in heel. So it's a bit of a safe zone for her, uh, yeah, is what I'd probably speculate. Joel, you've left this all the way until the end. You can't Yeah, I've said Coot-a-Looter for the last hour and now you decide to tell me your name's Joel. Nice to meet you, Joel. Um, do you have a video on proper pinch collar usage? Um, I don't believe we have a free-to-air— uh, you're bad, you did it on purpose. Um, I don't believe we have a free-to-air, uh, video on pinch collar usage, primarily because we don't tend to stick information or technique information or tool information out there into the public eye on YouTube where proper coaching and training can't be delivered. So yes, There is also an aspect to it where we are a business, we do need to make money. It's a skill set of which Jacob and Kirkie have spent and invested a lot of time and finances in learning this skill set, so they then sell it on to other people to make money, um, in order to help more dogs. But ultimately, it also comes back to what is safe, and a pinch collar, even a slip collar and especially an e-collar, are all tools in which can very easily be misused. They can go wrong if you don't know what you're doing. Um, you can make behaviors worse, you can cause psychological issues to a dog, and with some tools you can cause physiological issues, um, or health concerns to a dog. So with all things like that, we don't put them out on a free-to-air network because you don't have me on the other side of the phone or me in person to say you're doing this wrong, stop doing that, do this instead, or do this next, or this doesn't work for your dog, you should do this instead. Um, so that's, that's why we don't tend to put videos out there with that sort of thing, because we don't want you guys to mess it up inadvertently. And we don't want things to be misconstrued, and we don't want dogs to go through unnecessary stress or harm, or for their training road to be made more difficult than it needs to be. Because we work with a lot of dogs who have had tools used on them improperly, and it makes their training journey more difficult than it needs to be. Whereas if they hadn't had tools used on them improperly, then we would do a lot better. As in, we still do really good, as in their, their journey would be a lot easier for the owner and the dog. Uh, what techniques do you use to help dogs with confidence because he hasn't been outside for 8 years of his life? Jesus Christ. Um, wow. Uh, well, play, exposure. Socialization. Given that he's not been outside for eight years of his life, he's probably going to be pretty ill socialized with the outside world. Yeah, and I'd get onto that as quick as possible. Really, Jade? Best of luck with that one. Should you need any assistance, booking a call. Sorry for my big, pretty exacerbated reaction. Brian, your training is awesome. I'm very happy customer. Thank you. Thank you, Brian. And hope Tilly's well. Understandable. I know there's definitely a right and a wrong way to use it. Just figured I'd ask because I hadn't come across it yet. Literally just came to your channel for the first time this morning. Oh, brilliant. Um, well, I'm glad you found us. Um, I hope you found some good content already that has been helpful. Um, but yeah, that's typically the reason as to why you might see some videos where we are utilizing tools, but we don't tend to put out, um, instructional videos on, on those sorts of tools. Just in case. Uh, and 9 times out of 10, new collar users put on too loose and give up. Yeah, so there's obviously something to do with fitment as well, but also just down to use of the tool and actually teaching the dog something. Um, as I mentioned earlier on, a lot of people hyperfocus on tools. There might even be somebody here, um, who is maybe considering doing a program with us but is apprehensive behind the use of certain tools. But what I like to remind people all the time is somebody could give me a hammer and a chisel, doesn't make me a fucking carpenter. I wouldn't know what to do. Um, whereas if you were to give me a slip, an e-collar, a prong collar, I know how to train a dog. Uh, and a lot of people can't. So the tool doesn't do the work for you. It's not going to teach the dog anything. It's not going to teach the dog to recall. It's not going to teach them to loose lead walk. It's not going to bring them neutrality if they're reactive. Um, you need to teach the dog something. The tool is purely a catalyst in a process. All right, so don't hyperfocus on tools. Um, folks, it's been a while. We made it through without me singing. Um, I hope you've all enjoyed this afternoon. I hope you found it helpful. I hope you had your questions answered. Should you be interested, um, in at all, uh, working with us more or helping your dogs, then I'd recommend booking in a consult call, um, and speaking to us at a bit more depth to see if you're a good fit for one of our programs and see if we can help you for real. Um, But hopefully you've had some tips, some advice, questions regarding your dogs answered, and it's been helpful. Um, don't forget, teach your dogs a bang, put it on Instagram, tag us. First person to do it, I will send you a free hoodie. And by the way, I've not had permission to do this, so it'll be coming out of my own pay packet. So just take that as pleasure for you guys charging me money. Uh, your friend Nat, will the boot camp have a karaoke night? I'll tell you what, Nat, if you come to a boot camp, especially a fully booked one because you wanted to come to a quieter one, um, I will sing. I'll sing on the morning, Monday morning of boot camp for you. All right, see you later, folks. Have a good evening. Take care. Oh, nice. Just got back from the boot camp in NorCal. How was it? Was it good? You enjoy it? Have a good time? As in you want me to sing Hallelujah, or as in hallelujah, I'm gonna sing? Pamela, quick, tell us how it was so I can go and have my dinner. Actually, I've got about 10,000 dogs to toilet before I do that. But Pamela, awesome. Nice. Good review. See, folks, there is a review right there from somebody that did a bootcamp this week, and they said it was awesome. So if you are situated in the United States of America, And you want to work with us in person, go visit NorCal. Go and see Sam and the team and get your dog trained. See you later, folks. All the best. Bye.