Episode #1 Free Q&A

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I'm Amy Jensen and this is the Puppy Training Podcast,  Episode #1, Facebook Live Puppy Q&A.   This podcast is for people looking to train their own dog, either as a companion therapy or service dog.

This is the Puppy Training Podcast, and I'm your host. Amy Jensen. Welcome to Facebook Life today.  I will answer some puppy questions. So today is a free Q&A.

If I haven't met you or you haven't seen my videos before,  name is Amy Jensen.  I'm a professional dog trainer. I train anything from puppies to service dogs/therapy dogs. It's my passion, and that's what I love to do!

As I am training service dogs, I get a lot of questions and people asking me, Hey, can you train a dog for me?  I would get this a lot and I realized I can't help everyone and I can't train everyone's dogs. So I thought, Why not roll out a program where I basically create a training plan for you and then you can train your own dog? And so that's where I came up with      Baxter&Bella.com.  I've created an online puppy school where I basically roll out a training program with you in mind.

I was at the gym this morning and I was thinking that I come to the gym and I can go to a class for a workout  or I can do my own workout.  I know for myself that if I go to the gym and I try to do my own workout, I don't work as hard as when someone is telling me what to do next. Honestly, when I go to the gym I just want to work out. So, this is what I've done for you in the puppy world and have created workouts for you. You don't have to think--What should I do with my dog today? What do I want to do for training today? I've really just rolled out an entire map for you of what to do with your puppy from day one.

Actually, even before your puppy comes home, I help you set up your house. I help you get all the necessary equipment, and then I walk you through step by step. I basically hold your hand through the whole puppy training process.  This is what I've created for you.  It takes all of the thinking out of it for you, not all of it, but a lot of it!  And I have saved you a ton of time because I've done all of the work for you, and I've rolled out a program that works. You get a nice, calm, well-behaved dog, which is what we all want, right? You want a dog that you can take places and that you can do things with.   It's not going to be embarrassing walking your dog down the street or taking it wherever you want to go.  I want to help you.

Today I said I will answer puppy questions.  Here are a few questions others have asked me to answer.   So, thanks for joining me.  Why don't you go ahead and tell me where you're from? I would love to see what part of the country you're from and maybe tell me if you have a puppy already, what kind of puppy they are and how old they are?

#1.  Crystal asked:  My nine-month-old puppy played with a four-month-old puppy the other day and made it cry several times. I feel concerned about this. Should I be? What can I do about this? And how can I help it play the same level as the other dogs?

Great question. I get asked this question a lot.  Sometimes when we watch puppies play it can look a little bit scary; maybe it looks like one puppy is dominating the play or one puppy maybe growls while they are playing.   A lot of times people are just uncomfortable watching their puppies play because they use their mouth.  It looks like they're biting each other; but that's how puppies play.

So, the first thing I would say to you Crystal is that you need to learn what puppy body language looks like and what appropriate body language looks like for a puppy that's having fun.  Basically, if you're watching two puppies play I'm looking for bouncy bodies. I want to see that the puppies are bouncing and their bodies are relaxed and they are not stiff.    I mean that their hackles aren't raised, so they're just nice and loose--like a noodle.

A really good example of  this is when a plane will do some dips. Puppies' bodies will do the same or they will do some play bows where their front paws go down. We call it a play bow. It looks just like a bow. Your dog is bowing or they are saying their prayers or something similar  that is inviting the other dog to play.

Another thing you can watch for is sometimes they will take their paw and just kind of stroke the other dog.  This is an invitation to play as well.  You could look at their mouth. You want to make sure they have a nice relaxed jaw.  You don't want them to have stiff jaws.  That goes with that "noodly" kind of a relaxed body in general.  You do want to make sure that they're taking turns.  So, if your puppies are wrestling, which puppies love to do, and yes, teeth are involved and sometimes even some growling, you want to make sure that the play is being flipped flopped.  If one puppy is always on the ground and it's being pinned by the other puppy, this is a little alarm that the puppies are not having such a fun time.  Some puppies are more vocal than others as well.  You want to always be asking: Are my puppies just being puppies and are they enjoying themselves?

So, this puppy that your puppy was playing with was a little bit older and making it cry or if it let out a little yelp, it might have been  that your puppy was biting too hard and it was letting your puppy know that--Hey, that was too hard--That wasn't fun for me, and that's okay. That's pretty healthy for dogs to learn bite inhibition. But if it was like crying or whimpering,  you know and it went on for a little bit then you know  they're initiating play and it went on for a little bit. That would be a little bit more cause for concern. 

So, this is what you can do to see how the puppies are feeling with each other.  You can put both puppies on a leash.  I would have your friend who owns the other puppy possibly hold her puppy and you hold your puppy and give them a little break.   Separate the puppies for just a few minutes and then let the younger puppy go first, taking it off leash, and see if it goes back to the other puppy and initiates play again with those play bows or other kinds of body postures that tells us the puppy wants to continue playing. If it hugs you as the owner (kinda like thanking you for giving it a break, as if to say "I really appreciate your help"), the puppy is most likely not having as much fun and is probably done with the play date. 

This is a good trick that you can use to to assess if the puppies are still having fun or not.  The first part of this is to know if you should be concerned, and the second part is how to help my puppy play appropriately.   After you have assessed the situation well, then I would go through and make sure that the arousal levels weren't too high.   Let's assume they start playing again and you notice that your dog is starting to get really animated and really just pouncing on the other puppy pretty hard; they are not flip flopping anymore, I would de-escalate that play and I would do it by introducing some moments of subtle time.  I would call your dog off, even if you have to just go over and click a  leash on it or wave a treat in front of its nose, get his attention back on you, and then I train a "settle"  that I would ask my dog to do it.  This would be for a minute or two.
 
If your dog is used to doing mat work or if you don't have a mat, that's fine. You can just use the settle cue, and I would ask my puppy to settle. I would stroke him. Touch his paws. This is a good time to do all of that body handling that we do with puppies. Rub its' ears, maybe rub its' belly, see if it will roll onto its' back for you, just get your puppy into a nice relaxed state.  And, if all of that touching just makes the arousal level go higher, then just simply ignore your puppy and just sit there by it.  As it is sitting by you, you both can watch the world go by for a little bit and you can just chill for awhile.  You can tell if your puppy is calm because it will either go into a down or it will just roll over onto its side.  If their body is stiff and tense again, they are not relaxed.  After a few minutes of your puppy just relaxing and being calm, you can then say "OK, go play."   Every few minutes call it back to you.  Recall and attention is great training for your dog.  Ask for another settle.  Chill out for a few minutes and then say "Ok,  go play" and let it go and play.
 
These are really healthy things that you can do when puppies are playing together.  I would keep these sessions kind of short.  Also, keep the settle sessions short as well.  We want your puppy to have fun and have a good time, and we want it to learn that. Yeah, you might call them off for a few minutes to settle and relax and you might give it a reward and then you are  going to let it go play again.  This plays into that 10:1 rule that I talk about a lot. You want to just make sure that it realizes--its going to settle, then its going to get to go play again.  In that level of arousal and excitement it's not going to get so high that your puppy is playing inappropriately with other dogs. 

The last suggestion I have for you, Crystal, is that if the other little four-month-old puppy chooses not to come back and play with your puppy then perhaps you know it wasn't having such a good time, I would just try to find another puppy that you can set up play dates that maybe is a better match to your puppy's play style (maybe closer to its age).
 
In my program, there is a lesson 5.3 in puppy prep that talks all about dog body language and how to introduce appropriate dog-to-dog play if you are interested.

#2.  Laura asked:  Is it possible to teach a puppy a certain command so they will continue walking along with me instead of wanting to chase the neighborhood cats? Yes, absolutely. There is a possibility for you, actually, several come to mind. So the first thing that you can do or that I want you to do is to think in your mind--What do you want it to look like when you and your puppy are walking down the street and they see a cat? So, this is a really  important first step of puppy training.   You have to know what you want your puppy to do and what you want it to look like. A lot of people skip this step, and they just they don't want their puppy to chase the cats when we are on a walk.   Well, that's great and all other than it's really hard to train that. So, I want you to think what I want it to look like as my dog and I are walking down the street and a cat comes along.   In my mind I'm asking what's the perfect scenario? What would my dog do when they see a cat? Once you've got that clear picture, then we can train. We can start making a plan. 

So for me, if I'm walking down the street and I have a puppy and I see my puppy is walking by my side and see that they see a cat and look at it for a second.  I then see my puppy looking right back at me and keeping attention on me until I ask it to do something else.    So this is what I call an "auto watch".  I call it this because I want my dog to look at me automatically and I want them to watch me.  So, hence the name "auto watch".  Here's how I do it.

So this is going to take something super yummy. I use food rewards a lot because dogs are highly motivated by food.  It's a really great way to train. I use something like last night's steak or some pieces of chicken from last night's dinner, ham or hot dogs. Whatever your dog loves is what I put in a bag,  in my pocket or in a training pouch.  It's whatever you have.  These are  small pieces; it doesn't take a lot.  In fact, the smaller piece you use, and the more you can get your dog to work for that, the better off you both are.

At this point, I pull out my little doggy treats. I've got my dog on a leash and we're walking down the street. As soon as that my dog sees this trigger, which in this case is the cat, I'm going to try to figure out my dog's threshold.  I want to know at what point can I be walking down the street and my dog will see the cat, but I will be able to catch him before he pulls toward the cat or if you have a dog that barks at the cat or some other behavior when it sees a cat.  In this case, it sounds like its pulling.  I want to find that threshold for my dog, and then I'm going to try to work under my dog's threshold. 

The instant the dog sees the cat my hand has a treat in it and I'm reaching down feeding the treat to my dog.  I am not waiting at this moment for my dog to look at me or anything else;  I want to capture the second that my dog sees the cat and the treat is in its mouth.   Timing is super crucial for this to happen.  I'm going to repeat that over and over and over again at least 10 times. So, if you have a cat that you could help set up this scenario or if your neighbor has cats that are always out and you know what time of day they are kind of always out, it's a good time to go out and do some training.  This really helps.

So again you put your puppy on a leash. You're walking down the street. You see the cat and the instant dog sees the cat the treat goes right into your dog's mouth. Now, it's eating the treat.   This might take several treats. Just keep treating. And then you can either turn and go the other way or you can keep walking. I would just create more distance between you and the cat.  You could also just stay there and let the puppy look at the cat as you keep feeding the treats. 

Cats are a little tricky and the cat might stay there for a long time.  In this case,  I would probably let the puppy see the cat and give it some treats and then we go do something else. You could wait for the cat to walk away, but who knows what this cat is going to do.?   Cats are pretty funny like that.  They like to do whatever they want to do. So that's up to you, but the concept is the same.  Whether you choose to walk away or stay is that when the puppy sees the cat the treats start coming.   You want to do that to the point that the next time you put your puppy on a leash to go for a walk and see a cat that you kind of wait a second before the treat comes out and you want to see if your puppy will look to you like, Hey, I saw a cat. Where's my treat?  Remember last time I saw the cat, you gave me a treat.  This is when you know you've captured that auto watch.  From that point on, when my puppy sees a cat the treat comes out and it looks at me again.  You want to repeat this enough that when the puppy sees a cat it looks to you for a treat.  At this point, you can hold off for a treat for a few seconds to see make sure your puppy is looking at you as it sees a cat.  This is the start of auto watch.

From then on when you're walking and your dog sees the cat, you wait for the dog to look at you. Then you could mark Yes because that's what you're wanting your dog to do is look at you once you've marked Yes or clicker trained.  It's whatever you do to mark your dog's good behavior you it a treat.  Then I would just do a U-turn and go the other way or I continue walking on and I would practice that a lot. This is not going to happen overnight. This is not going to happen in one training session; possibly,  it could but really depends on the age of your puppy and how long your puppy has been reacting to cats. But this is a really great one. I love it because it's automatic. I'm not having to command my dog to do anything.  It just knows when you see something and it's super exciting that it know you have something that is more rewarding because it knows really yummy food will come and then the cat problem goes away.

The other option that I thought of was that you could train the "leave it" command and this could be generalized to anything. I start off by training my puppies to leave it.  Let's say there is a sock or something in my house and then when you take it outside, you could generalize it to the neighbor's cat. I would not start by training the leave it cue with the neighbor's cat. I would start with something a lot more boring than that. But once your puppy knows the leave it cue, you can generalize it to cats. So when your puppy sees a cat, you could say leave it,  and then your dog knows to just ignore it.

The only difference, really, between the auto watch and the leave it command is on the auto watch I expect my dog to look at me and give me its full attention. Whereas, the leave it command is simply to ignore whatever I told it to leave alone. So, if it sees a cat and you say leave it, he needs to take its attention off of the cat.  Then, we move on.  Both are really great options for you.   Feel free to do either one or even both. I think both could be valuable and in my members only area in lesson 2.15, I cover the leave it cue if you want to see that in more detail. Thank you for your awesome question. 

#3 Jodi asked:   How can I train my puppy to stay in the boundaries I set for her? She runs off the second I take the leash off. 

How many of you can relate to this one? Probably a whole bunch.  First of all, I want you to think, What do I want her to do when I take the leash off? What do I want that to look like? So this is actually a two part question to me. First of all, you know, the second I take the leash off, she's bolting. And then we're wanting the puppy to stay in the boundaries we set for her. So I'm gonna address the the second part of that. First, I'm like, what do I want her to do when I take the leash off? Really, what do you want that to look like? I would expect my puppy to sit and to be calm. Then when I release or take the leash off, I would expect my puppy to stay there in a sitting position until I say, "Okay, go play!" or release or whatever your release cue  is. I would start training that because I don't want my puppy to just bolt anywhere. I want to make sure they're in a calm state of mind and that I'm releasing them to go play--like we're done here.  You're welcome to go play and sniff and do whatever you want. I would start with that behavior first, and then I would address, okay, she's off playing. I released her to go play. How do I get her to come back to me? 

The first part of this, how would you train your dog to sit? Let's say that that's what you want it to look like that you're going take the leash off. I want my dog to sit calmly while the leash comes off. And then I want my puppy to stay there until I say, "Okay, go play."  And then she could. Then it's okay that she bolts, that she takes off because I released her to go play. So I use in training a lot what's called a long line. It's either a foot 15 foot line or I have a 20 or the 30 foot line and they're different weights. So if your puppy is small a good tip is to go get some of that paracording. It's super thin. I just buy a teeny tiny carabiner and I tie a knot around it. It's the super cheap way to go, and I clip it to my puppy's collar so  I have a long line that my puppy can have some freedom from me but that he couldn't run away and get away because he's a still attached to something. 

I would  attach both to your puppy. I'd have a leash on your puppy, and I'd have that long, line just kind of sitting on the ground. Your puppy could drag around. So when you're training this, the long line is going to be the reinforcement in the kind of the management tool to keep your puppy where you want him to be. Then we're going to practice taking a leash on and off while your puppy is calm and in a sitting position. I would get some food reward and have it in my training pouch. 

Again, I put my puppy on the leash and the long line. I would actually step on the long line so you don't have to worry about handling that and holding it in your hands, and then I'd have my puppy on leash should have the leash in one hand and my treats in the other hand. I then ask my puppy to sit. I'm going to reach down and try to take off the leash. If at that point I start to take off the leash, my puppy gets animated or his arousal levels escalated and gets super excited,  I simply stop and back up while still holding the leash, but I'm not going to  unclip it. So if my hand goes down to unclip that leash and my puppy's getting super excited about that hand movement, I'm just going to pull it back until he can calm himself down again.  You might have to spend, you know, even a couple training sessions just doing that part where your hand reaches down to release your dog off the leash and he stays calm.

This might take several sessions, so I just realized the reality of that. But after your puppy sits and he's calm and you can take that leash off.  Then the second you release the leash, we want to make sure that he's in a sit stay and staying.  So again, this is going to be a two-part process. You're going to have to make sure your puppy has a solid sit stay.   I know for my dog sit means stay.   But if you say sit, stay, your dog can't leave until he's released. So I would work on that in a separate session, and then you're essentially going to be combining these sessions.

When you go to release the leash your puppy is already in that sit stay then he knows he has to stay, and I would start to release the leash. The long line is going to be there because of your dog is not going to be able to bolt. You'll be able to get him back into his stay until you release him.  This session might take a couple training sessions as well.   You are going to be  spending some time doing this stay.  You're going to be spending some time making sure that when you reach down to unclip the leash, he's not overly excited. You're going to be spending some time putting those two together to get that ultimate behavior where he's sitting calmly while you take the leash off and waiting for you to release him to bolt off and go play. Okay, that's the first part.

The second part would be training a recall.  Now that your puppy has been released to go play and he's off running around, how do you get him to come back to you?  Again, I use the long line because you have to have a way of reinforcing this. If you don't have a way of reinforcing this, your puppy is just going to learn that "come" means nothing.   Does he have to come? Is there a way that you know? Can you just run away? Does it matter? Is there a way that you can get him back to you?  I always have a way to reinforce this when I'm first training with a young puppy.  A long line is a fabulous tool to use.

So, the long line is on him and then I use what's called the 10:1 rule.  I mentioned this earlier and explain it here. So,10:1 means that for every ten times that I ask my puppy to do something he gets to just go play again.  It might be something like the "recall."  Let's talk about the "recall"  because that is what we're talking about.  I say: "puppy come." He comes to me and gets a reward or if he comes he sits--whatever it looks like to you.  Then say, "Okay, go play."   And I'm gonna say "puppy come" and do whatever I do with the command and say, OK, go play again.  I do this repeatedly ten times for that one command.  Then I'm going to clip the leash on and we are going to go inside.  

Why does that matter if you think about it? If the only time you called your puppy to you and you either got mad at him because he's been bolting off or let's say you put the leash on every time you say "come" and you go inside or you put the leash on and then you put him in a crate and you leave somewhere, these are all kind of negative associations to your dog.  He is   associating them with the "come" cue.  A dog that bolts more often than not when I have clients that say my dog just bolts; I would say go back and retrain that "recall" so that your puppy learns when you call him back to you that he is rewarded and it is fun that he comes to you.  He knows he will get a yummy treat and then he gets to go play again.  That is a really fun motivating game for your dog. That's what we want to train our dog to do when we recall them. He's like yeah when I come in I'm going to come running. I'm going to get something yummy and then I'm going to take off and go play again.  This is where I would start with the recall.

I guarantee if you spend daily time, maybe three short sessions a day, your dog will be doing this type of recall.  You do it over and over and over again.    You will start to have a puppy that comes when you call them, and they're not going to be bolting every time that you send them off.   Hopefully, this helps.  

 I have a lesson 2.1 1 in my program all about come and all about the recall and all about the 10:1 rule on how to get your puppy to come when called so that they're not just bolting off.  Again with that, though, if you're releasing him to go,  bolting is not such a bad thing. So it's kind of how you look at it. I I think what you're asking more, though, is if they bolt off and maybe don't come back. So, hopefully that recall lesson helps you. 

The final questions is:   Can I use your training tips on a dog who is not a puppy? Yes. It's never too late to train a dog. You can teach an old dog new tricks. All of those things that we have you definitely train a dog using these tips.  I call it Puppy Prep. I call it and I know I talk a lot about puppies, new puppy owners, but generally speaking, it could be any dog. So everything that I teach you in my program, everything that I teach you on these live calls, everything that I post on my social media as tips and tricks, they absolutely transfer over to any dog at any age.

I will say If you have a new puppy, I would really encourage you to start right away with the training process. Don't wait. The second your puppy comes home you become a dog trainer. Because everything and every interaction you have with your dog, he's either learning something you want him to learn or he's learning something maybe you necessarily don't want him to learn.  Realize the second your puppy comes home training has started, and I've outlined a really great way to go about it to get a good, well-mannered dog that you'll be happy to live with for all of your life.

So, if you have an older dog and you're coming to me and saying my dog has some bad habits. It's okay. I am totally happy to outline a training plan for your dog based on whatever bad habit you feel like your puppy has and that you're wanting to focus on, I would love to help you.  Please don't give up at any  whatever the age your dog is and it can be done.    

Thanks for joining me everyone. I was going to see if  there is anymore last minute questions posted.  Sometimes I forget to check my my comments.

 Oh, here's one from Scott and thanks for asking.  When is it too late to start your program? It's never too late to start my program. That kind of goes along with Christie's question. So if I'm visiting someone's home who has a pet that likes to jump up on me, what is an appropriate way to get them to settle without causing problems with the dog owner?  That's a great question.  In the ideal world, we'd go to people's homes and they would realize that not all of us like dogs jumping all over us. This isn't always the case. A funny thing about this question is a lot of times I tell my clients on the reverse that when people come to your home, you know it's harder to train that person to ignore your dog. It's harder to train the person than it is your own dog to not all them to jump.   A lot of times we go to people's houses and we'll see this cute little puppy and our voices will get high and our actions will get animated and will start to use our hands and be like, Oh, it's such a cute Puppy. I love puppies and see how high pitched voice that sounds and puppies love that.  They mirror that person.  They get all excited and they go crazy. So, a lot of times I'll teach my clients to train their guests how to appropriately respond to your super cute puppy.  If you are the person on the other end of it and don't want that dog to jump on you and hopefully the owner or your friend will recognize your body language. Some body language that you can do when you go into someone's home would be to turn your back to the dog. You can cross your hands over you even and turn around. That's very clear body language to a dog that you don't like what they're doing.  It should also be very clear body language to your friend or owner that you don't like what their dog is doing and that you don't necessarily want to pet their dog or even see their dog.  I don't think that's a rude thing to do. I think that's a very easy action to just cross your arms and turn around. It should signal to both your friend and the dog that you don't appreciate the jumping, and then hopefully your friend will leash their dog and it will help with that behavior. The other thing Christi you can do is send them to me, and I will help them train their dog not to jump on you when you go to their house.

All right, Thanks, Ryan, for joining Crystal. Thanks for being on today, James. Thanks for jumping on. Um, I don't see any more questions, so hopefully you guys are doing awesome. Happy training. Have a great week. Get out there with your pups and do some good training sessions and all. If you have a question about anything you heard on this podcast or any other puppy training question, visit my site BAXTERandBella.com to contact me.