Ty The Dog Guy On The Daily

which complaint do I hear the most? “My dog only listens when she wants to.” Oftentimes, people think of this as an issue with their dog. They think it means their dog is stubborn, unmotivated, stupid, or even too smart. But in reality, almost everyone teaches their dog to only be obedient when they feel like it. It usually starts from day one, whether they’ve bought a puppy or adopted an older dog. Let’s say, as an example, that you’ve just brought home your new puppy. You tell him: “Come here, puppy!” Being a curious puppy, he hears someone talking and immediately comes over. Tomorrow, you say the same thing twelve times. The puppy keeps listening, because frankly they’ll come to anything! You could say “zucchini” or “radish” and a puppy would respond to it. But the puppy isn’t really learning anything, other than that it’s a good thing to come when called. You’re just making a noise, and he’s responding to it. What tends to happen is an expansion. Now you say “sit,” “down,” and “stay,” but dogs don’t learn

In today’s post, I want to talk about a nursery rhyme. An old lady who swallowed a fly, and then a spider to swallow the fly, and then a lizard to swallow the spider, and a bird to swallow the lizard, and a cat to swallow the bird, and a dog to swallow the cat—whew! Basically, this woman didn’t know how to solve the problem, so she kept sending other things out to solve it for her.

Today, I thought I’d write a post about a news item that’s been on my mind lately. If you hadn’t heard, it was recently in the news that the Obama family’s dog bit a teenage girl in the face. The story, as I’ve heard it, is that the girl got in the dog’s face and was trying to kiss it—and he bit her. I don’t ever like to condone a dog biting, but at the same time you can’t condone the behavior of this child.

This morning, I was out with my dog Chocolate Chip, just running around. It’s a cold winter and she’s in heat, so I’m not letting her run around the house and make a mess. During this time I like to let her have some fun, because otherwise she’ll go nuts.

In today’s post, I want to give you a few tips for keeping your dog close. Many clients find themselves using these methods in the front yard, when they’re gardening, chatting with neighbors, or working on their car. You want to be outside and you want your dog to be with you, but you don’t want to tie him down. The dog needs to be able to wander without running off. You can also use this tip when you’re out on the trail and want your dog to hang close without heeling or being on a leash. It comes in handy at picnics and the beach as well, or any situation where you want your dog to stick around without a command.

In today’s post, I want to talk about something that I’ve brushed on before and want to explain in more depth. It’s called the “collateral effect.” The “collateral effect” is a term that I use frequently. It simply refers to the common trend that when we satisfy one need in a dog, other behaviors that we weren’t trying to fix still tend to fall into line.

Today, I’m at home doing some work and trying to get up the nerve to take my dog for a walk in the rain. I hope the weather is better where you are! I thought that while I was waiting around inside I would write up a few blog posts. One topic that comes to mind right now, primarily because I’ve been emailing back and forth with a potential client, is this one: your dog’s friends need to be chosen, not happened upon accidentally.

Yesterday I had to go to the airport to pick up a dog, and it reminded me of my last time there. At the Salt Lake city Airport, if you’ll be gone for a few days and need to park, you insert your credit card to open the gate. You go in and park, and when you leave you put your credit card back in. No tickets, just your card.

In today’s post, I’d like to address the topic of about training as it relates to your dog. My dad is an awesome guy. For my whole life, he’s been in sales: sales training, leadership training, and helping people in his field succeed. Even when I was a kid, I read business magazines and books and traveled with my dad to leadership and sales capacitation training events.

Don’t get me wrong: I love dogs! However, they can sometimes be real jerks. What we don’t often realize is that we often think this because we’re looking at them from our own perspective.

Spite is one of the most human emotions. When something happens that we don’t like, we often like to punish other people because of this feeling. Here’s an example: if someone does something their spouse hates, their spouse might withhold attention or even intentionally do something they know the person hates out of spite. Our species does this all the time!

I personally like the plastic mold, but some of this decision depends on budget and the size of the dog. If your budget is tight and you can only afford one crate, I would get one of the big wire ones and partition it off. If the budget permits, however, I do prefer the plastic mold. I think dogs feel more comfortable in something that is enclosed and sturdy, more like a den. Plus, plenty of dogs can break the wire mesh crates. When I raise a puppy, they’re in a small plastic crate for a while and then as they get older they move to a larger plastic crate.

My last post was about the proverb “you pet what you get,” and that got me thinking more and more about the affection we give our dogs—enough that I wanted to dedicate another podcast to it. Unfortunately, lots of dog owners approach this topic wrong, and it sets their dog up for some problems.

I want to talk today about an old saying that we have in dog training, which I probably heard for the first time about twenty years ago: “You get what you pet.” What’s that mean? Well, deep within this phrase there’s a very important lesson to be learned. It’s not talking literally about petting, although that can certainly be a part of things. Rather, it’s wisdom that regards showing affection and attention to your dog.

For my last few posts, I’ve been describing some of the “core behaviors” that are crucial to solid training. These three obedience behaviors can help us manage or solve any dog-related problem we might run into. In my last post I talked about staying when told, and in this one I want to address the last core behavior: walking properly.

In my last post, I discussed the concept of core behaviors: three behaviors which, done well, allow you to manage nearly everything. We’ve already discussed coming when called, so if you missed that one please go back and have a read! Today, I want to talk about how to get your dog to stay when told. Just like recall, staying when told is critical for a lot of things you need from your dog. Often, when I’m talking with owners for the first time, they tell me that their dog knows all the “tricks”: sit, lie down, shake, roll over. But if your dog doesn't do these things very well, then it’s nothing more just a trick. If you can get your dog to come when called in the living room with a treat in your hand, who cares? It’s not useful! That behavior only matters if your dog will still do it in the front yard with the mailman standing right in front of him.

In today’s post, I want to talk about a very important subject in dog training: core behaviors. I’ve found over the years that there are three of these “core” behaviors. If a dog does these behaviors, and does them well, then we can manage or solve 95% of the things that bother the owners about that dog’s behavior. Those three behaviors are: coming when called, staying when told, and walking properly. We might achieve these behaviors through various commands, but those three concepts are absolutely critical. With mastery of them, your dog can manage almost anything. I want to dedicate my next few posts to these core behaviors, because nearly every dog I meet has a merely rudimentary understanding of these behaviors. Perhaps he will come, but not very well. Perhaps he will sit, but not stay. That’s not very useful. When the time comes to apply that obedience to aggression or manners, then the dog won’t behave in the presence of distraction. In this post, I want to discuss things you can do to get your core

Today is a blustery, freezing cold day here in Salt Lake City, and I’m out on a trail where I frequently take my dogs off-leash. While there, I came across two Golden Retrievers that belong to a client and who I’ve known since they were brand-new. In fact, one of them was dropped off at my house before I brought him to the owner. So these dogs feel like family. They’re my oldest clients, and like my step-dogs.

In today’s post, I want to talk about cheating. This topic came to my mind when I was with a client earlier today. We’re training a service dog for her teenage daughter, and right now we’re working on a specific service task. Now, their problem isn’t that the training is too hard or that the dog can’t do the task, but that it’s hard to get the daughter to want to practice.

I want to talk to you about Einstein, and about a quote of his that I’m probably paraphrasing and not doing justice. It’s unclear whether he actually said this, to begin with, but it’s a great quote. It goes something to the effect of this: “Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will spend its whole life thinking it’s stupid.”