Should You EVER Say "NO" To Your Dog? | LIVE Q&A

Hi guys, no one's going to be here now. I don't know if anyone can unmute. I don't know if anyone can hear. If anyone's here at all, could you put a 1 in the chat if you can actually hear what I'm saying? Because I don't think the mic is working. I don't actually know One. Oh yay, you can hear me! Well, no one else is coming back. Rue's here, she's taken to our beds. Don't know where Chance has gone. Did you hear anything I said about— thanks, you must have heard me at the beginning. I think this microphone has got a dodgy cable, so if I lose connection anytime soon, then you can just tell me. Tasty looks great. Thanks, can hear now. Hey, is the person that was struggling with their Doberman still here? Because I was going to give you a really good answer for that before I just froze and then got cut off. Thanks, Helena. Great, everyone can hear me. Uh, you said hello to your dog and it lost mic. Oh, that's a shame. At least you got to see my dog, one of them. Um, oh great, you're here with the Doberman. Okay, great. Chance might have broke the mic. He is a bit of a bulldozer. So with your Doberman I would look at your play for your leaky behavior. So the whinging and the whining isn't something that I would consider punishment because it's not really a crime, but it is something that you want the dog to just stop doing right now. So any kind of whining like that is what I would use my end of play cue for. Prime example now, my dog's whinging at the door because Sam's just left and he wants him to come back. He's just stopped. If he didn't stop, then I would— Chance, enough! There you go, that worked. If the camera was facing the other way, you would have seen that worked. Look, Roo's here, that's cute. She's not going to break the mic. Yeah, you're cute. So you want to work on your end of play cue, so a way to tell your dog That thing we're doing, you were just doing, we're not doing that anymore. And then if you do have a punishment cue, if your dog knows that end of play cue— and that's really important, your dog has to know what that means. You can't just decide, oh, my end of play cue is going to be enough, and then use it for something and you've just got no clue what that word means. Once the dog understands that in play, then you can farm it out to other areas. So I use it for things like barking at the door, whining, if we're playing, if he's playing with another dog and I want that to stop now, that thing you're doing, we're no longer doing that, enough. Remind me again, your other issue was around him not doing stuff, right? So you are going to want to make sure that your dog has a clear understanding of some form of pressure and release there. So maybe you would use a slip collar, maybe you would use a prong, maybe you would use an e-collar. Whatever it is, your dog needs to have an understanding of yielding to pressure. Once they have that there, that's where you can use that to make sure that your word means the thing. Create inevitability. I think My camera probably just froze for a second there again because my screen just flashed white. It's all over the place. Do you know why this is? Because— and I'm gonna blame Kirky for this— we had a Skylink here, and granted I didn't pay for it, but it has been here since the beginning. It was very good internet, and then he made Owen take it back to YCA. So this live isn't working because Kirky stole back his own Skylink. And now we've got our internet, which isn't as good. Um, yeah, I would make sure that you have something there whereby the dog understands pressure and release, so you can apply pressure, the dog knows how to relieve pressure, which is yield to it to do the thing. Create some inevitability there. When I say something, it will always happen. Therefore, it is not in your interest to ignore me. Just do the thing, and then you can move on with your day, whatever the thing was. Um, with a young Doberman like that, he's going to push boundaries and test the waters, and they can often get a bit handsy. Make sure that they have clear understandings of those things and just say it, make it happen. Um, let me know if that makes sense. I have a 9-week-old miniature long-haired Dachshund boy. Cute! How would you recommend the best way to tackle puppy excited biting? Thank you. Behaviours that you want to stop don't just stop because of things like removing them or giving them alternate things, like taking your hand away and giving them a toy. That's an area where people quite commonly go wrong with puppies. You'll get that advice quite a bit where they put teeth on you, you take away your hand and apply them Oh. Apply them, give them a toy, um, that will make them do it more because they've realized the gateway to toys is to put my teeth on you. I don't ever want my dogs to learn that it is okay to put their teeth on me, so I will make sure that my dog has an outlet in the form of play. But for a 9-week-old dog Make your main thing that you're really going to want to make sure is that that dog is getting so much sleep. So that dog should be sleeping about 18 to 20 hours a day at that point. A lot of that mouthy behavior comes because the dog is tired, so make sure that you're putting in some structured rest there, whether that be in a pen or whether that be using a crate. My recommendation personally would be to start crate training that dog. Making sure that when they're out, they're doing something. So you're out, they're toileting, they're eating, they're playing, or they're learning to take food from you. Easy peasy stuff. Um, or they're sleeping, and make sure that you have a way to make that happen. So Chance, he's just sat on the camera. Chancey! Come here, Chance. It's an absolute shit show here tonight. Dog broke the mic, now he's sat on the camera. I can't honestly tell you what's going on here. Um, yeah, make sure that that puppy's sleeping a lot, make sure that you're giving them outlets, and make sure you're getting them out and exposing them to stuff. So the environment, sounds, smells, sights. Different surfaces, all the things that you want your dog to be able to cope with. Your main focus there should be around getting them fulfilled and getting them plenty of sleep. Um, that mouthing, excited biting behavior is often because they are tired, so make sure that they've got outlets and make sure they're sleeping enough. How to stop a German Shepherd not to bark at everything even during the night? Um, you are Depends what they're barking at. Like, for me personally, I don't care that my dogs bark at the door, but I do have a strong end of play cue to tell them that thing that we're doing— you were doing— we're not doing that anymore. That's what I use my enough for. But with your German Shepherd, Lindsay, you're gonna want to make sure that if that is a behavior that you want to stop, that you have a very strong punishment marker. whereby you're able then to tell your dog, hey, that thing you just did was incorrect, don't do that again. Um, let me know what that barking extends to. Is it everything inside the house? Is it everything outside the house? Um, your communication system with that dog needs to be crystal clear in order to get rid of that behavior, but also making sure that you're providing outlets for your dog. What quite often happens is people get so honed in and focused on the thing they want to stop the dog doing, they get to the point where they build that strong, strong punishment marker, they get that behavior to stop, but the dog still has an intrinsic need to do the thing. For a German Shepherd, barking is very intrinsically reinforcing. If you don't give that behavior somewhere to go, an appropriate avenue through through play, you will end up playing behavioral whack-a-mole. That behavior will just pop up somewhere else that you also don't want it to be. So the way in which we work is making sure that yes, we are able to address the issues that you currently face in your life. So everyone that comes to our boot camp is struggling with some form of reactivity. It is having an effect on their lives and on their dog's lives, their freedom, the places they can go, the stuff they can do. So on and so forth. When they come to one of our boot camps, yes, we work to make sure that that dog has a means of communication with the owner where they're able to say, hey, we're not doing that anymore, but also making sure that we're— they're getting that dog fulfilled. So getting them off lead quickly and reliably as soon as we possibly can. Off-lead freedom shouldn't be a Brucey bonus at the end of a training plan if the dog has earned it for good behavior, like getting a— is it like a parole day, or like what them days you have when you go in prison and you can have like a day out? Like that. Um, shouldn't be that Brucey bonus at the end of a training program. It should be a fundamental thing. To get that dog off lead safely and reliably as quickly as possible. Um, also making sure that we're building really strong play, so we're giving that dog outlets so that they're able to— guys, enough! Thank you. Honestly, guys, It's chaos here tonight. I can't even— come on, take it over there. Um, making sure that we're building play properly with, uh, with the dogs. Just knocked the table over. Fruit down. Go, Chance. Down. Good boy. Um, I've lost my train of thought now. Everything today, it's all happening this week, guys. Uh, making sure that we're doing play with those dogs, so we're giving them an area of fulfillment. We're not leaving voids all over the place where we behavior somewhere to just pop back up again, making sure that we're fulfilling the dog in every way that they need so that they are able to live a free, happy life. Um, sorry, that was well all over the place. These two are being carnage tonight. Dog training, innit? Um, very neat idea. I've never thought of something Termination cue for play is very obedient, but when doesn't want to lay down, he'll do it but just with a frustrated noise in addition. Dobermans are very chatty, they're very whiny. I would say play is going to be really key for you there. Um, yeah, start cue, end cue for play, a word that says the window of opportunity for play is now open. And a word that says that thing we were just doing is now finished. If you are struggling with reactivity, especially with your German Shepherd there, like barking at everything, we'll pop a link in the chat here. Have a, have a flick through that link and you'll be able to book a call with one of our trainers. Much like this YouTube Live, it's free. So it's a free half an hour chat. with someone who has worked with many, many dogs just like your dog. Um, if nothing else, you'll walk away with some free advice. So I would recommend using that link and having a chat to someone. Hello, hello, TT. He's e-collar and loose lead trained, just never felt right about correcting the whining. We'll work on termination cue. The thing about whining is like whining is not a crime. It's not a punishable offense, it's just annoying. They haven't actually done anything wrong really. So I would use my end of play like I said there, and if the dog then is like— they know that end of play cue and then they're like, nah, I'm gonna carry on whinging anyway— then I would use punishment because the crime there was ignoring me. I told you to pack it in. You have chosen to ignore me. Don't do that. Um, some people hold the lead very short so the dog can't go in front. Someone talking about lead walking here? Some people hold the lead very short so the dog can't go in front without pressure, and YCA often I see holds it in the other hand. Works better for my dog. Is there a reason? How are you talking about to do with like loose lead walking? You hold Lead partly in one hand, partly in the other. Um, the, the goal of like what— however you hold your lead is that that lead stays loose and the dog understands when I feel pressure, yield to it, go back, not keep putting pressure into it and moving forwards. The problem that most people run into in terms of trying to teach pressure and release is that trying to teach it on a tool which we would say is already poisoned. So in my example, I'm going to use a flat collar because that's what most people start out on. If you've used the flat collar before with your dog and they have learned when they feel pressure there Put more pressure on, keep going forwards. You have poisoned that tool because the dog has felt pressure and not learned what it was that you wanted them to learn from that pressure. They have learned I can keep putting even more pressure into this piece of equipment and I can keep going forwards. That is where I would start thinking about introducing a fresh tool. The dog has no prior history. Of pressure and release with that, and then working on teaching it properly, whether that be a prong or whether that be a slip. Um, could also use an e-collar, but it wouldn't be my preference. Um, the dog— it's really important to remember when you're thinking about using tools or however you're going to do something, the tool itself is not the magic wand fix. There's nothing out there that you can buy— no halti, no harness, no collar, no prong, no e-collar— there is nothing that you can simply just put on a dog and then voilà, your problems are fixed. You still have to teach the dog something. Those tools just act like a catalyst in training, like power steering in your car. I always say this To the people that we work with. Like, most people probably aren't driving around in old bangers. Like, everyone's got power steering. Your power steering isn't the thing that takes you from your house down Tesco. You still have to drive the car. The power steering just makes the job a lot easier. That's what tools, uh, that's the way we think about tools. That's how they work. Thank you, we'll work on more sleep and outdoors time. No problem. Waiting for that last vaccine. Don't wait for that last vaccine to get your dog out. That is the biggest mistake that puppy owners make, especially with a little dog like that. Put them in a puppy pouch, take them out, let them see stuff, go all the places. That period that you're in now Up until like 16 weeks is going to be really pivotal for your dog. Um, here he is squeezing himself into the smallest bed in the world. That, that's the time at which you're going to want to get your dog around as much as you can possibly get them around. So don't, don't wait till they've had that last vaccine. They don't need to be down on the floor. It's a teeny weeny little dog. Get him in a puppy pouch, hold him if you have to, take him out, get him seeing the world. It'll be the best thing you can possibly do for that dog. Um, usually when I'm outside with my dog, I have treats with me because he's reactive and I'm training most of the time outside. With treats, he's listening very good, but when I don't have treats with my— then I need to correct him. More by commands like healing, recall, or some other basic stuff. What can I do better? Okay, a couple of things on that is that when you're using any cue like a heel, a recall, or basic stuff— I presume you mean some kind of obedience there— the only thing you're doing there is strengthening those obedience cues and making them better. You're not actually addressing the reactivity. When we work with clients here, or if you've ever been to a boot camp, you'll hear us telling people all the time the goal across the week is to give your dog as much liberty as we possibly can, freedom to make choice without micromanagement from you. And that is where your communication system is going to come into play. So yes, having a way to reward the dog— I would say probably not with treats, but by having a well-charged marker and then using food. Ideally not treats, ideally their regular food, because then you've got lots and lots to play with, especially if you've got a bigger dog. You've got that whole daily food portion to play with. You're going to be able to pay into lots of behavior with that. If you're only using treats, you're going to reach a ceiling quite quickly of what the dog will be willing to take because they're going to go home and get fed for free anyway. So what's their motivation to take the cheese or the steak that you've got to offer when actually what they really want to do is gob off at that dog? And also you run the risk of them either becoming overweight or malnourished because you have to deduct the treat portion of what they're getting from their regular food, which means they're not getting the nutrients that they actually need. Um, also with adding in cues like healing recall, all that other stuff, at liberty your dog would still probably choose to do the thing. So you're only making the behavior you're asking for better. You're not actually addressing your reactivity. My top recommendation to you is that you are trying very hard and you've got somewhat of a plan, but it's maybe not the right one. Um, I would have a, have a click on the link that we've posted just above here, book a call with one of our team and have a chat to us. Tell us exactly what's going on with your dog, how long it's been going on for, what that reactivity actually looks like. Again, like I said, it's a free half an hour call and everyone loves free stuff. So book onto the call, have a chat with a trainer, and even if you don't decide to work with us, we'll be able to point you in the right direction. So use that link, it's more free things. But yes, just there, you'll need to pair those— that food reward with an actual marker that your dog And also stop using obedience. Obedience only strengthens obedience. It's not going to fix your reactivity, at least if you want to ever be able to let your dog make choice on their own. Otherwise, you're just going to be micromanaging them through situations all the time because they might be really good at heeling past another dog, but at liberty, they'd choose to go off. People need to listen to what a dog wants to say. Don't think like a human, but feel in that sweet doggy wanting affection from you. Not sure which dog you're talking about. Maybe the Doberman, the whingy Doberman. Uh, thank you. What do you think is better? I hold the leash in the right hand When she's on the left, but I heard some people say hold the leash on the left and really short so the dog has no need to go in front when reacting. Um, whatever you do there is not going to help your reactivity in terms of like holding your lead, making sure that your dog If they are on the lead, has a clear understanding of loose lead walking, so they're not constantly sat on the end of a tense line. I wouldn't make sure that you have your lead very, very, very short because then there's going to be constant tension there. You're going to add in frustration, and you will either go to reaction or make the reaction they will have worse. You don't ever want the dog to be sat on the end of a tense line, but, um, I'm not sure what dog you have. Like, if they're a very powerful dog, very strong, stronger than you, then yeah, you probably are going to want to hold your lead a bit shorter because you're not going to want to let them get to the end of the line, potentially pull you over. If your reactivity is something that you're currently struggling with, again, like I was saying before, no amount of like loose lead walking or teaching heel is actually ever going to address that issue. You may be able to potentially get to the point where you can put your dog in heel and walk past 20 dogs But if you didn't put them into heel, they would gob off at 20 dogs or lunge at 20 dogs. So, um, again, my recommendation to you would be to book in and have a chat with us. Talk us through what's happening there. Tell us about what it is that you have tried before. Um, And tell us about where it is that you want to get to with your dog. Like, what are your goals for training? Again, like I said, it's a free phone call. It's half an hour with someone who works with these kinds of dogs every day. Um, and even if you don't decide to work with us, you will have had a free half an hour chat with someone who knows what they're talking about, maybe walk away with some helpful advice. But depending on the dog, I usually hold my lead in the hand of the side that I want my dog to walk on. So if my dog's walking on my right, I hold my hand on my right, and if they're walking on my left, I hold my hand and hold my lead in my left. But again, it will depend on the size and power of your dog. If they're very small, it'd be fine. They're very big, could end very bad. So just make sure that you're not holding constant tension on the lead because that's going to make it worse for the time being. Um, now at the beginning of this stream, I did say that people are free to drop questions into a chat on Instagram, which I would get to first, and I woefully ignored that and I haven't answered any of them. So I'm going to answer some of these questions that have come in through Instagram. Before I completely ignored that these people actually existed. Um, okay, what if I don't know what caused my dog's reactivity? When we are dealing with reactive dogs, it can be super helpful to know at what point the reactivity Started, but it's very hard usually to pin a dog's reactivity down to one singular event. Yes, single event learning can happen, but it's very rare that it was one exact thing that led to the dog being the way they are. It's usually a buildup of a multitude of things and a lack of communication between dog and owner. So to be honest, if you know your dog's background, if you have an idea of where it may have started, it's very helpful for a trainer to know that, but not the be-all and end-all. We'll work with the dog in front of us at the point of which they are at now and make sure that you have that foundational skill set there with them before you start working with us. So If you book onto a boot camp, there will be some pre-training homework for you to get on with before you come. It's nothing super complicated, but it just means that when you arrive here on Monday, we're able to really hit the ground running because you have that basic stuff there. So just centers around food motivation and charging a marker, nothing that should take you more than a day to do really. Um, but just Again, really means hit the ground running. And then when you arrive here on Monday, we'll be able to take a look at exactly where your dog is at now and build a plan for them from there. Can you actually change reactivity or just manage it? Yes, you can. And no, you don't have to just manage it. So this kind of taps into what I was talking, um, To talking about earlier in terms of, uh, I can't remember whose dog it was that they were— they could put them into like a heel or use basic obedience to get through certain situations. That is a form of, of managing it, being able to put the dog into another behaviour or move them away or distract them with food or a toy. Is just management. It's a plaster on a problem. Once you are able to tell your dog in a way that they can actually understand and learn from— that yes, that was correct, come to me, get paid; no, that was incorrect, don't do that again— that's when you open a window for prediction error, especially for dogs where their reactivity comes from a place of fear. They do the thing because in their mind they're like, oh, thank fuck I barked at that person because they were coming over here and I shouted, and now they're not coming over here. And if I hadn't have done that, I could be dead. So that is what I will do in the future. Um, Down. Good girl. Um, when we are able to effectively take that behaviour off the table, it opens a window for us and for the dog to have real learning whereby they're able to see, ah, I didn't do the thing and I didn't die. Maybe I was wrong. And then that's where we can start really changing reactivity and changing emotion there, changing feelings in the dog. That's when you can start to use things like counter-conditioning, where you're able to pay into the things you like, build more positive associations with that stuff, and change the way the dog actually feels about the thing. But if you don't work to take that behavior off of the table first, you'll be hard pushed to ever get there to really truly change feelings. Food in that sense is more just bribery than actually causing real effective change. Dog sees the thing, looks at you, looks away, and it's like, well, I still hate it, but I got a bit of food. But if it came any closer, I would still bark at it. Or for dogs that are super, super, super food motivated and they want to bark at the thing, that the food can overshadow the dog thinking about the thing in the first place because they're like, oh, I won't bark at it because all I can think about is your pocket full of ham. But once that ham's gone, then there's nothing else for me to think about, and now all I can think about is the fact that that dog or that person is over there, and now I'm going to shout at it. For those that haven't been here before, I really do waffle a lot, so feel free to tell me in the chat to shut up and move on. That was a very long-winded answer to not a particularly complicated question. How do I stop my dog being obsessed Oh my God, sorry, I only had half a coffee this morning. I just yawned. Um, right, how do I stop my dog with being obsessed with other dogs? She loses focus around them. If your dog's reactivity stems from a place of frustration whereby they want— they— all they want in the world is to get to that dog because those dogs are so exciting and so fun, you're really, really, really going to want to work on play. Honestly, if Chance sits on that camera one more time— to be fair, at least he shifted the focus off of my Monica cupboard door. Do you have to sit there, mate? You're gonna knock that over in a minute. Um, you're really, really, really gonna want to work on play and giving your dog a strong outlet for that need, that want to play with you so that they're not so outwardly focused on doing that with other dogs. If your dog goes out and has had a history of just going out and playing with other dogs or greeting other dogs and finding so much joy and so much fulfillment there, and you never ever play with them, what is their motivation to come back to you? They also have a need that needs to be met, and they only can fill that void through other dogs. So of course, when they leave their house, they're like, don't care about you, I just need to find another dog. I need to do this stuff, I need to release this energy, and the only way I ever do it is if I play with other dogs. So God, get me to another dog. If you're able to build a strong structured game with your dog, something that you and your dog both enjoy doing together, something that really drains the tank for that dog, they're gonna be less outwardly focused on other dogs because that need is already being met. So they're like, yeah, whatever, like I've already done the thing with Mum, so now I can just be out and more in the environment and just doing dog things. I'm not so in need of being around and interacting with all these other dogs. Hopefully that makes sense. When would you start with the no mark? My GSP today looked at a little dog and the little dog barked 3 meters away and she put up her hair and watched. So 2 things there. Even if your dog had barked back Clapping back at another dog isn't a crime. If the other dog started it, I would never punish it anyway because your dog didn't start the fight. That's where I would use my end of play cue. Um, I would start— personally, I always start building a punishment marker as soon as I possibly can with a dog so that I'm able to give them clarity as soon as I possibly can. Um, if it's something that you're looking to do with your dog Is that enough reacting for a no marker? Is staring enough? Okay, so like I just said, if your dog barks at another dog because that other dog barked at them, that is not a crime. That's where I would have a strong end of play cue so I could tell them, okay, I get it, enough. If they then were like, nah, we'll carry on doing it, and I know that end of play cue Then I would punish, because like I said earlier, then the crime was ignoring me. I know you know you were supposed to stop and you have chosen to ignore that. Don't do that. Um, if they're just looking at the other dog, or their hackles go up, or for the majority of dogs, even if they growl, that's not a crime. Looking at another dog and thinking about it is not a crime. Me looking at Sam and thinking about smacking him in the chops is not a crime. But if I actually went over there and did it, I could get arrested. So you can't punish dogs for just looking at other dogs. You can't punish them for just thinking about doing it or growling is something I would never take off the table for a dog because it's a way of communicating, hey, I'm starting to feel uncomfortable here, and you will be able to help the dog out. If you take that off the table, you're likely to make that behavior a lot worse, whereby the dog would go straight to the bark, straight to the lunge, straight to the snap, because you've taken their initial method of communication away from them. Those things in terms of like their hackles going up or like hard staring, fixating, stuff like that, it's something to be mindful of and something to learn about your specific dog. That could mean your dog is about to have a reaction. Again, like I said, we focus on letting dogs make choice. So there I would let them sit in the choice point with no instruction from me. What do you choose to do? Do you choose to gob off, or do you choose eventually to disengage and do nothing? There I'm able to give feedback if I have a strong punishment marker and a strong reward marker. I'm either able to tell the dog, nah, that was incorrect, don't do that again, or I'm able to tell them, yes, that was great, I liked that, do that more. That's really what you— we aim to build here. Clarity in feedback. Don't want to micromanage you all the time. I don't want to put you into behaviour all the time. I want to have a means of communication where I'm able to give you effective feedback about what you just did. There really are only a handful of things in life that dogs It always gets to this time of day. I feel like maybe before these lives I should have a coffee to put a little pep in my step so I don't just chat shit for an hour. Um, there really are only a handful of things in life that are actual crimes: putting teeth on people and dogs, gobbing off at people and dogs, chasing livestock. Eating poo off the floor, horse, fox. Roo used to do that. Um, I don't know, chasing cars, life that your dog simply cannot do. My argument to people is always, is it not easier To have a way of telling the dog, hey, them things, just don't do them. Then you can just do anything else. They could pick 200 other things and those things would all be fine and allow them to be free and to be at liberty and to make their own choices because they know there's just 5 or 6 things in life they're not allowed to do. They can just do anything else. To me personally, it's something I would focus on from the get-go with the dog, any dog that I was bringing into my house, because if I have that, then I can worry about teaching all the fancy stuff later or all the other bits later. If I have a way to tell my dog that was correct, that was incorrect, and come back to me when I call you. That's really the foundation of everything. Then my dog can be off lead, enjoying life, going anywhere with me, because— and then I can fulfill them. I can get them out. I could take them on that 4-hour hike with me. I could walk them down a high street. I can take them on holiday with me. I can go on a walk with my friends because my dog knows that handful of things they're not allowed to do, so I can trust them to be anywhere. And I know when I let them off the lead, if I call them, they're coming back. So I can let them off the lead anywhere and they can be free and go be a dog. That's the whole purpose of everything that we do during our boot camps, is to give dogs that level of freedom, which I personally think every dog deserves. Your luxury at the end of training should be something that you aim for from the get-go. Um, when beginning crate training, is it better to use a no marker when the dog starts whining, ignore the dog, or take another approach? I wouldn't punish whining in the crate. Whining isn't a crime. None of what your dog is doing there is a crime. Making sure that you're setting the dog up to be successful in using a crate— so depends what age the dog is, if they've ever had experience using a crate before and what that experience was. Um, when you're crate training, I wouldn't use a punishment marker, especially if you've never used it for anything before. And also, like I said, the whining isn't a criminal offense. It's not something I would punish, it's something I would use end of play for. Um, the thing you're doing— cut out, stop doing that. Set the dog up to be successful. Don't just get them out when they're buzzing their nut off when you've just woken up in the morning. And try and shove them in a crate for half an hour. Do it when you've met their needs, played with them, taken them for a decent walk, fed them, toilet them. What do I want you to do now? The answer most people will give is, "I want my dog to go to sleep now." Fine. All I'm saying is you have to do it here. Set them up to be successful. They'll find it much easier and. Crate training is something that I recommend all dog owners do. Unfortunately, at some point in your dog's life, they probably will end up at the vets for something, and at the vets they will have to be crated when they go there. If it is because they're poorly, poorly, that one's for Chloe, poorly, um, then they're gonna have to be crated. They're going to be stressed because they're going to be uncomfortable. Don't make that situation more stressful for them by not preparing them for something like being in a crate. Make it something that they're prepared for, they're used to, and they actually enjoy and can decompress in. You'll take the edge off for them. Then you again take them anywhere. Take my dogs on holiday with me, Airbnbs, wherever we go. They're both crate trained. So I know if for any reason I needed to leave you in this Airbnb You have a safe space to go where you're not gonna cause harm to yourself or anyone else. You're actually going to be chilled and relaxed, and if I need to go out, then I can. I really waffle. I'm always apologizing for it, but I go on and on. Treats with me, but when I don't have treats, then I need to say commands multiple times. I'm working with his normal food for sports things. For the rest, I use treats. Because we're also doing canning crossing here so we don't get overweight. Sorry for so much chat. Literally never apologize to me for so much chat. If you haven't already gathered, this is 45 minutes going on an hour of pure waffle, so never apologize to me for so much chat. Um, when you say you're using your So you're using your food in order to create behavior. You're bribing into behavior. Your dog needs to have an understanding of pressure and release, or some form of pressure, whether that be pressure from your lead, whether that be spatial pressure, whether that be e-collar pressure. Your dog needs to have an understanding of yielding to pressure so that you're able, once you have your verbal cue, And you know your dog knows when I say sit, that means your bum hits the floor. Have a way of using pressure to get them to do the thing, and then reward them with a clear terminal marker for completing the behavior. Stop using food to bribe them into doing the thing. Use your pressure for that instead. Um, come on, they need to know bang and sit pretty too. That's very cute. To be fair, I taught Rue spin and I think it's really cute, and I taught her middle. She loves learning things. Chance doesn't really like learning things, and God bless him. I think it's very clear who my smart child is, and it's not Chancey. He's gonna be really sad now. It's not you. Come here, come here to your mother. Come on. He's not a smart child. Good boy. This one, not the smart one, but he's very handsome. What you got to say? That microphone's not on because you broke it. You made it get broken. Yeah, good boy. Um, yeah, obedience and all that stuff is a fun thing to do with dogs that like and enjoy learning, but fundamentally I want my dogs to be able to have freedom as much as I possibly can give it to them when they're not knocking over microphones and fiddling with cameras and knocking over tables and making themselves a scared because they knocked over the table. Um, love the answer. I did Behaviour Bible and it helps very much. Oh great, I'm really glad that you found it useful. Um, for anyone here, I don't know if the link is in here, but if you're looking for a bit more free advice and free training, we do also have a Behaviour Bible. So maybe the link's in the chat, or if you book on the phone call and you want to talk about your dog's reactivity and where you're at and where you want to be And we again don't have anything that is currently suitable for your dog, we do have Behaviour Bible and that is free. There's loads of really good information in there and as you can see in the chat, someone else found it really helpful. So I mean, who doesn't love free things? Nothing's free anymore. My dog is 4 or 5 years, how can they make the crate fun? How long with purely positive reinforcement before increasing time in the crate? I would say it's less about making the crate fun and making your dog have an understanding that they, they won't be dead just because they're in the crate and the door's closed. Um, so making sure that you're properly fulfilling the dog before you're putting them in there. And closing the door, sit in the room with them. They're supposed to be sleeping anyway. Use a bit of pressure if you need to, to get them in, out, in, out, in, out, in, out, in with the door closed, out. Working through pressure shouldn't be a bad thing, and working through things that your dog finds slightly uncomfortable Even if that is having to be in the crate with the door shut and they get a bit whingy because of it, isn't a bad thing. It's not punishment, it's not a crime, it's not cruel to the dog. It's actually really like positive and good for building confidence in a dog, showing them that there are going to be small challenges in life, things that you find slightly uncomfortable. But you're brave and you're strong and you're clever and you can do the hard things. You can yield to a bit of pressure to go into a crate even if you feel uncomfortable, and you can come back out again. You can yield to a bit of pressure to go into a crate and I can close the door and you can feel a bit uncomfortable about it, but you're not gonna die. And then you can come back out again. Crate training doesn't have to be this big thing, and I would avoid trying to make the crate this big. Exciting, fun place, because actually what you really want that place for is somewhere quiet and calm where your dog can learn to decompress and switch off. So stop making it this big exciting thing where all these treats come flying in all the time and I'm constantly anticipation of when my next reward is gonna come. What do you actually want to achieve with your dog when you go in the crate? You want them to achieve calm, switching off, going to sleep, relaxing, shutting down, not buzzing their nut off waiting for the next cookie to fly through the bars. So I would think more along the lines of using a bit of pressure and release to get them to do the uncomfortable thing, set them up for success, do it at a time of day when they're naturally Meant to be sleeping anyway, and gradually increase difficulty in terms of how long they have to be in there for, whether you're in or out of the room, stuff going on around them, um, more like that. I do the positive reward marker as soon as she sees another dog, but she ignored it today with the little dog. Do I give the reward when the marker is said every time? Your positive reward marker should always mean to your dog that you've got it correct. Come to me, get paid. As much as it is a reward, it is still kind of a cue in of it, in of, in and of itself. Mimimimimimimimim. Your dog still should come to you and take the food that you are willing to offer. And that is where your food motivation is really going to come into play and where you're really going to struggle if you're just using high-value treats outside the house. That's one of the number one reasons that we work with dogs essential food only. I want to push my dog's motivation as high as I can possibly take it to take what I'm willing to offer as reward instead of trying to be a beg friend and find the next best thing— Parma ham, Primula cheese, steak, salmon, mackerel, I don't know, whatever it is that your dog likes— because eventually you're going to hit a ceiling there. You push the barrier every time you increase the value, the higher value of the treat. The next one, the next one, the next one, then that becomes the bar. Then they'll only work for cheese outside, then they'll only work for steak outside, and then you're going to hit a ceiling where the dog's like, yeah, I don't actually care about what you're willing to offer. The— your reward marker is only as powerful as the reward that comes with it. If your dog is— The reward that you have to offer, you will deplete the value of that marker. So just make sure that your dog is taking food before you say your word. Offer them something for free and see if they'll take it. If they're not taking food, don't use your marker. If you've worked hard to charge it and your dog's response to that marker is, oh my God, the food, I'm coming, don't deplete that value by saying your word and then having your dog fob you off. For the reward. See biggest dog smallest bed. I've got to show you. It's very cute. See, does it go down? I don't know how to make this work. See huge dog tiny bed. If he fits, he sits. Now I'm probably going to put this down and break it. Et voilà. I will try it out and we'll work on that. I've heard from other trainers that I need to reward him every time because it's the same. As we're gonna— as we're working for money, what do you think about that? I'm gonna have to scroll back to your question because I can't remember what it was that you asked. Oh, I would go to the thing that you're doing there is a continuous reward schedule. If you're only rewarding afterwards, if you're using your food to lure your dog into position and then paying them, they're just following the food. Your dogs have a hierarchy of communication: tactile first, visual second, audible last. What did I say? This one was tactile. Let's say if either of these 2, tactile or visual, come before your audible, they will overshadow your audible cue. Your dog will not hear the word. You will always have to rely on a tactile or a visual stimulus. For them to do the thing that you're teaching. So you want to make sure that you get your word out first every single time, make it happen, and then pay it. Don't use your food constantly to lure and pay, lure and pay, because then you're just using visual stuff and you're just bribing into position. Without the food being present, like you said, then the dog won't do the thing. Look, I'm no expert in obedience. It's not my specialty, but you don't want to be paying every single time because then you're going to fall into the trap that you have fallen into here, whereby do the thing, get paid, do the thing, get paid, do the thing, get paid. As soon as they do the thing and don't get paid, they're like, I'm not doing that again then. It's not worth it. Fob me off. Not— you're not paying me. You want to go to an intermittent reward schedule as soon as you Possibly can, so it leaves the dog being like, "Come on, is the thing going to come? Is the thing going to come? Any minute now, it's going to be the thing. It's going to be the jackpot thing," and it actually gives the dog more motivation to work because they can't tell when the next reward is coming. They just know that it will. In terms of like reactivity, that's why we we switch to an intermittent reward schedule quite quickly. So the dog's not just like, "See the dog get the thing. See the dog get the thing." Because then the moment you don't give the thing, they're like, "Fine." I'll bark at the dog then, or I'm not interested in you anymore. I'm not going to do anything because you missed my one reward. You want to leave them guessing when— they just know that it will come if they do the right thing. Eventually it'll become more rewarding for them long term. Do you have any tips also, like doing stuff that's like 50p jobs, like people that pay into loose lead walking, like every 5 steps? It's a 50p job. Not paying you to do a 50p job. Pay to do a 20 quid job, but not that. That's easy peasy. Do you have any tips? I have 2 small dogs, a 2-year— I can't pronounce that, I'm sorry— and a cross Chihuahua and a 10-month-old Italian Greyhound. If you could phonetic— like, if you could spell that out for me, like how I'm supposed to say in the chat, that'd be great. Uh, and a 10-month-old Italian Greyhound, both social dogs and great with recall, but can get scared when being rushed and chased by big breed dogs. Sorry, I'm not yawning like this just because I am tired. Um, I keep training them, of course, and they see plenty of dogs and have had good experiences, but the bad ones can be really bad. Because most of the time it's the dog that chases them, goes into hunting mode, and me calling my dogs off puts oil on the fire because they have to run away for the other dog. But leaving them out in the open also doesn't seem like the right thing. When you call your dogs, like, they have strong recall, they'll come back to you every single time. I would say it's about If you've obviously got 2 little dogs, getting your dogs out and about and resocializing them in an appropriate way around bigger dogs, getting them comfortable with bigger dogs being in their close personal space for a few minutes and having them know that that is not going to end their world. The way in which you do that is very specific, not just like letting them loose and hoping for the best or letting them do loads of face Greetings on the end of tense leads, that is a recipe for disaster. Enough. Um, so if that is something that you wanted to work on, again, I would have a chat with one and see if we've got something appropriate for you guys or something, um, that your dogs would be a good fit for. But teaching resocialization in a certain way to teach them, look, those dogs are always going to happen. My main thing that I always tell everyone is that you cannot control anybody else or anybody else's dog. You can only control your own dog. So get them out around bigger dogs, start working in social— on socialization in an appropriate way. Not on the end of tense leads, not face to face, not just unclipping them and hoping for them for the best. Um, teaching a strong leave it cue so that they're able to know that dogs can come up, be behind you for a few minutes, not world-ending. You don't need to shrivel into a nothing to get out of it. It's fine, you'll still come out of it alive. Build some positive associations there. Make sure that you've got a rock-solid recall. Your dogs come back to you, recall is safety, then you are able to move away with your dogs. More often than not, if you can get your dogs moving and walk away, the other dogs will lose interest quite quickly and just go away if you just start moving the opposite direction. If you're able to stop yawning, it's really bad. If you're able to recall your dogs, then they're closer to you, then you're able to advocate for them, get the other dogs to move away, show them that they do— don't need to do anything. It's not actually a bad thing. If you see another massive dog at distance and you're like, absolutely not, that's a recipe for disaster, recall your dogs, move on with your day. Don't wait until the last possible point. I'm not saying that you do this because you probably don't, um, but waiting to be like, oh, I don't know if they're going to come over, or just leave my dogs away from me, probably be fine, and then recall them at the last minute when you see that dog bulldozing towards yours— I would recall them, move on with my life. I reward him after he's done the command, and when I say the command, I don't I don't have my hand in the pocket with the treat pouch. I'm so sorry, I'm still yawning. I don't— I really don't mean to, but once I've started, it's like Pringles, you can't stop. I don't have my hand in the pocket with the treat pouch, so it's coming. But for example, is our recall way better when I have treats on the walk than when I don't have some treats? Personally, when I take my dogs out And I recall them. I probably only actually recall them once, maybe twice on a walk. Like, if I'm just walking back to the car, I don't recall them at all. Like, go out. The cue that I use most often is this way. I don't actually really ever want my dogs to be at me and come back to my feet. I just want them to move in the direction in which I'm going. So I just use a this way cue. And if I need to recall my dogs when I leave my house, I take my leads, I take my dogs, I take poo bags. What is the difference to me to shove a handful of biscuits into my pocket or a handful of kibble into my pocket as well, or just keep a little baggie of kibble in my car? Um, I'll just take some with you. When I recall my dogs, I always pay them for it. Personally, so I just think always carry some kibbies. And you don't need to be recalling your dogs every 5 minutes. Get them to move along this way with you. Think about the moments when you actually need your dog to come back versus when you actually just want them to come with you. If you keep recalling them all the time, again, you'll deplete the value of it because they're like, oh, for God's sake. You'll do one of two things. You'll make your recall really slow because the dog's like, oh, she's She's calling me again. Now what does she want? Or you will create a very sticky dog that won't venture out very far because they're like, there's no point in going further away or going and having a little sniff because every time I go anywhere she calls me back anyway, so I'll just stay here. Oh, am I doing the right thing with Ozzy? I just let him go where he wants on the beach. He comes back when he wants to. I call him. Yeah, fine. But Ozzy's not going to get bulldozed by some rando dog. Like, if you're on the beach, Elena, with Ozzy and you saw some mad out-of-control dog coming in the opposite direction, then you're not stupid. You're not just gonna leave Ozzy out there in no man's land. You would tell him this way and you would move along with your day. You wouldn't just be like, guess I'll see what happens here, that dog looks a bit mental, see how far I can possibly push my dog. I wouldn't be going over there if my dog was further away from me and I needed to go in the opposite direction. I'd recall them and I would move along. Don't leave them out there in no man's land with rando dogs that look out of control. You said before I can let my GSP watch other dogs, but when she stares and she stares every time a bit, would you increase the Distance to learn is not needed. Do you mean like she stares and glues herself to the floor and won't move? In that case, I would use my lead to get her moving, or build— if she's off lead— a really strong, uh, this way cue. This way, or leave it if she's off the lead to get her moving along. Help her to break the fixation if she hasn't yet had a reaction. But it sounds like you're dealing with quite a lot of stuff there. And like I said, I think it would probably be really, really worthwhile for you using that link at the bottom of this page and just having a chat over with one of our trainers so we can make sure that we're actually pointing you in the right direction and getting you in the direction of where you want to be versus kind of where you are now. Um, I have run over, and I've probably actually run over by quite a bit, 15 minutes in fact, because I don't know, messed up YouTube. It wouldn't work when I first came on, and then I didn't have a microphone, and then it froze, and then it ended the stream. So that is it for today. Um, been a fun one. I got some compliments on my tan. For those of you who weren't here at the beginning of the last live stream, I've been away, and, um, you can't really tell because the lighting isn't very good, but I actually am really quite tanned. You need an answer to your question. Hold on. Like, I know I've— that camera keeps moving and I'm really scared it's going to fall on the floor and break. Let me find your question specifically. Helena, before I go, do you and Sam like chocolate biscuits? Bloody love them. Chocolate hobnob, Helena. That would be my preference. Sam will eat anything because he has absolutely no, no taste. Not no taste, he just doesn't care. He'll eat anything. He's like a dustbin, that boy. There's a big, uh, treat bin in the kitchen. It's always full of junk, and Sam raids it like he's a badger in a dustbin. That boy just lives off of no water, coffee, and snacks. But he's on a health kick this week, so he's been trying not to. But I did catch him in the snack bin earlier, and he has eaten about 4 Jaffa Cakes. And he puts Jaffa Cakes in his breakfast, so I don't really know you can call that a health kick. But who am I to judge? Um, anyway, guys, thanks so much for listening to me waffle on for well over an hour, and If you are struggling with your dog, then use the link at the bottom of this chat. I think you'll find it very helpful, and you'll get to somewhat chat to someone that potentially won't waffle on for quite as long as I do. My dog goes very far in front when I let him on coffee. Should I need to recall him off? Anyway, I gotta go. So thank you for joining, and thanks for all your chat. And thanks to those of you that joined the chat earlier and complimented my tan. Hopefully I'll still have one next week. I think I'm actually gonna go and get a sunbed tomorrow, this weekend. And again, I want people to compliment my tan. Um, and maybe see you guys next week if you're around again. Have a good week. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Bye, guys.