YNP #040: How to Be Your Dog’s Pack Leader

11/20/19 • 13 min

Your New Puppy: Dog Training and Dog Behavior Lessons to Help You Turn Your New Puppy into a Well-Behaved Dog

There is only one thing that you need to know about dog behavior to teach or stop any behavior! Yup, when it comes down to it, our dogs are very simple creatures. In this episode, I am revealing my secret. This is what I use to solve 90% of my client's training issues. I have centered my life around dog behavior. And everything I have learned and observed comes down to this one thing. SPOILER ALERT... The one thing you need to know about dog behavior ***Dogs do what works for them...always; and they don’t feel guilty about it.*** That's it. If your dog is exhibiting some behavior then it is working for them. Otherwise, they wouldn't be doing it. The trick is to understand what's working. We can use it to our advantage to teach a behavior. For example, you want to teach your dog to sit, you give them a treat every time their butt hits the floor when you say "sit". Now, that behavior works for them so they are going to repeat it. Or we want to stop a behavior. For example, your dog barks at you and you give them attention by looking at them or even telling them "no." That behavior now works for them and they will repeat it. To change the behavior we have to take the attention away. The top 4 most common things your dog is looking for is Attention Food Release extra energy Relieve boredom These are not the only things but they are the place to start. The concept is easy, it’s applying that gets tricky. Sometimes it's super obvious (your dog jumps on the counter and gets to the food) or not so obvious (your puppy is whining in the crate for attention, not to go potty). This episode is chock full of examples on how to apply this. Now you know my secret. This is the same place I always start when trying to teach or stop a behavior. It takes practice, but if we take a hard look at our dog’s behavior (and ours) you will see the pattern. Press play to listen to the full episode with more details and examples. Enjoy!

Previous Episode

YNP Special Edition: Q&A Tuesday Highlights 03

There are three types of training that you need to turn your puppy into a well-rounded, well-behaved, and well-mannered dog. When we think of training our dog we usually think about teaching our dog to “listen to me” I want him to come when I say come and stay when I say stay. Or we don’t even think about training until a bad behavior starts and we want to correct it. In this episode, I talk about three different types of training that you need. My goal is to get you to approach training your dog a little differently. Instead of it being something that you do when needed it’s actually something that you do from the day you bring your dog home and then every day for the rest of their lives. Press play to listen to this podcast episode or subscribe to Your New Puppy where ever you listen to your podcasts. Here is a summary of each type I talk about. Skills training This is the type of training that we think of. It involves formally training your dog to do something on command. The most common example is obedience training. This is the training we gravitate to because it's really easy to see. We tell our dog to do something and we do it. The feed back is obvious. Plus, we are vocal creatures. Preventative training Preventing bad habits before they start. This is where the simple act of putting your shoes away is training your dog. You are preventing them from discovering inappropriate chewing Habit training Where preventative training is stopping bad habits before they start, habit training is creating everyday good habits. All Three There isn't one of these that is more important than the other. In fact they all work together and most of the time you will be using more than one. So, you don’t have to know which one you are doing when. The point here is that training is more than just teaching your dog to "listen to us." Sometimes training is done in the everyday subtle things like closing the front door or putting the remote on a high shelf or playing with our puppy when they pick up their own toys to chew on. I also want to make sure that you understand that just about everything we do with our puppy means something. this can help in those moments that you feel that nothing is happening and your puppy isn't learning. Remember those little things count just as much as big stuff. Press play to listen to the full episode with more details and examples. Enjoy!