My Dog Ate A Sock And Peed On The Van Bed, Yet We’re Still Good Trainers

Some dogs power through thresholds like a freight train. Others melt into perfect heel the second they get nervous. We spent the week working both ends of that spectrum and came home with a message worth underlining: great training adapts to the dog and the human, not the latest trend.

We break down the big “training camps”—balanced, force-free, compulsion—and then move past labels to the skills that matter: clean markers, tight criteria, smart reinforcement, and fair corrections. You’ll hear how we slowed a pushy young German Shepherd at crate doors and equipment time, turning impulse into patience with structured thresholds. Then we flip the script with an obedient XL bully whose reactivity lives under a shiny heel. Instead of pouring on more obedience, we use flexi walks, loose leash drills, and directional changes to build confidence and decision-making away from the handler.

Along the way, we talk tools and timing, handler tension that travels down the leash, and why some dogs need more management—crate and rotate, rest, and routine—while others thrive with freedom. We share practical leash rules that let a dog look without lingering, redirect before the explosion, and reward choices that signal emotional change. We also explain why rehearsing the same tough loop every day stalls progress, and how variety—neutral dog reps, adventure board and trains, detection games—creates new wins and better state of mind.

If you’re tired of cookie-cutter advice or feeling guilty when your dog backslides, this conversation will recalibrate your expectations and your plan. There is no finish line, just evolving standards, sharper basics, and a growing toolkit that fits the dog in front of you. Subscribe, share with a friend who’s stuck on reactivity, and leave a review to help more owners find a better path.

Visit us on the website here to see what we've got going on and how you can join our pack of good dogs and owners.

Transcript

Road Update And Facility Banter

SPEAKER_02 0:11

Hello, and welcome back to the Everyday Trainer Podcast. My name is Meg, and I am a dog trainer. Today's episode, we're talking about the different types of dog training and how dog training is not one size fits all. You know the drill? Grab yourself a tasty drink and meet us back here. Been a minute. Say hello to Toma.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Welcome back to Meg. She just got back to the facility after being out on an adventure.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Yes, I am back in society, unfortunately. Back in the city. Yeah. So I spent the last week out on the road. We're doing adventure boarding trains, which are my absolute favorite. Toma has been managing the facility. You're doing a very good job managing the facility.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Well, thank you. Thank you. It's been fun. It's been really cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

Except for this morning, we had a little, a little Hey, I'm not used to you being here anymore. Toma left and I was not ready to open the facility, and then people walked in and I didn't even know where he was because he didn't tell me that he left.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

I went to great coffee for us.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

But you didn't tell me that. I was like, oh my god, people just walked in. I'm like changing upstairs, anyways. So yeah, back in society, we spent the last week. I was gone for a week on the road.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Only a week?

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Yeah. A week.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Okay. Felt like longer.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

Yeah. My adventure boarding trains are three weeks long, but I did a midweek session with Delta's owner. We love Delta's owner. If you've ever seen in our Instagram stories, they have the three enormous fluffy shepherds, and their owners are so dedicated. And one of the things that she mentioned before we agreed to do the board and train was she was like, I really want to make sure that I am able to keep up with the training, which is like a plus. I love clients that are like that. So I was like, okay, let's go ahead and do a midway session then. So went to her house. She did great. Delta did great, turning her into a little dog trainer. We trained her mom up too. It was it was good, good times.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

I love it. That's awesome. They're really committed. Like uh their two other dogs you know, already gone through training and all that. And um yeah, she came you know to what was it? I think a reactivity class of her dog was already like pretty dialed just to kind of freshen up, get a tune-up on her. Oh, my cookie is done. Cookies.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

My cookies it'll be like a reward.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

There you go.

SPEAKER_02 3:05

For us finishing.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

That was the marker.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

That was the ding.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

How long is it? Our little toaster oven or our mini kitchen.

SPEAKER_02 3:14

It's like easy bake oven over there.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

Hey, whatever works.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

It's been keeping me alive.

The Core Message: No One-Size-Fits-All

SPEAKER_02 3:19

But yeah, they're super awesome, but that is why I'm back. So I'm gonna be here for a couple days. I have some new boredom trains that are coming, but that is kind of what inspired this podcast episode is I have two adventure boarding trains right now, and they are two very, very different dogs. And it really made me realize that you have to take social media with a grain of salt because is that the saying?

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

Okay, you have to take it with a grain of salt because what I might advise somebody to do might like not be helpful to you at all, you know, in your dog training journey. So just because a dog trainer is like, you know, never let your dog walk out of heel, is that what is best for your dog? You are the one who has to determine that. And all we can do as people posting online, like all of the information is, you know, I can throw out as much content as I want in hopes that some of it sticks with you guys. But I also want you to know that nothing is gospel, and that's kind of what I teach a lot of my clients is like no one has the secret sauce, no dog trainer has the secret sauce, and if they are claiming to have the secret sauce, you should probably run. Right?

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

Because there's a million different ways to train a dog, and it really depends on what works with you and the individual dog.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

There's no absolutes in dog training, everything is so dog dependent, and that in itself kind of sounds like a shitty answer. Like I hate when people ask us something online and it's like, well, it depends. Like, you don't want to give that answer, but that truly is the reality of it.

SPEAKER_02 5:13

Yeah. I had somebody ask me like on my post where I was like, dog training is not one size fits all. They're like, should I should I use a flexi lead? Yeah, but should I use a flexi lead for a dog that pulls?

SPEAKER_00 5:26

And I'm like, I was really thinking about the answer.

Training Camps: Balanced, Force-Free, Compulsion

SPEAKER_02 5:29

You you didn't get you didn't get the the message of this thing. Okay, so to kind of get into general dog training things, there's different camps of dog training. I don't really I don't know, I feel like I don't really put myself in a camp of training, but for the most part, there's balanced training, which means you are using both positive reinforcement and also positive punishment. So it's balanced, right? We're using both kind of sides of the spectrum. There is the force-free group, and I have my air quotations right there because that is not actually possible, but that's kind of what they prescribe to is that their training is force-free. So they're saying that they don't use quote, again, quote, aversives like prong callers, uh e-callers, what else?

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Slip leads, anything.

SPEAKER_02 6:35

Do they use slip leads? No slip leads? I don't know. It depends. It depends on the person. That's kind of the camp that they're in. What else is there? There's like relationship-based training, which to be quite honest.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

I don't know. I I think if you think about you know the camps, it's like force-free, balanced, or the other side of spectrum is like compulsion where there's not much um rewarding, it's only punishment.

SPEAKER_02 6:59

Yes. Okay, compulsion and relationship-based, which I don't really know what that is. I like I feel like we should all be relationship-based trainers, but that's like a camp of dog training that people put themselves in. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Never even heard of that.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

I don't know how they identify as that. And then there's also the like dog psychology camp of trainers, which I call them the Caesar Milan trainers. We'll have to do a whole other episode on that camp of training. I have very strong opinions on that camp of training, but I would say for the most part, you and I and a lot of the trainers that we work with are very much in the balanced. And we are very truly balanced in that we shape everything using positive reinforcement for the most part.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

Yeah, for sure. You know? I think that's the funny thing too. It's like, you know, people claim to be like uh force-free trainer, and it's like they're not even luring they're not even like luring or rewarding properly. It's like if you're gonna claim to be purely positive, like at least that part should be the dialed, you know?

SPEAKER_02 8:15

Yeah, and like their ability to use markers.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Like the basics, I don't know. To me, I don't know. Like, we don't really identify as like you know, balance or anything, but it's just like dog training is just dog training, like correct the unwanted behaviors and reward the desired behaviors, and you get more of that.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

We had a really cool woman come to one of our classes today, and I'm gonna have her on the podcast. We honestly should have recorded the entire conversation that we had, but that was like the gist of our conversation. She has been a dog trainer forever, and she's not like what I would consider like a professional dog trainer, but she's a search and rescue dog trainer.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

She was awesome. She was really cool.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

She was so cool. I'm so excited for like you guys to hear her chat about her journey into dog training. But it ended up with we're all kind of doing the same stuff, and it all comes down to proficiency in the basics, which is do you know how to mark a behavior?

unknown 9:11

Yep.

Markers, Basics, And Real Proficiency

SPEAKER_02 9:11

And that's my that's my issue with the Caesar Milan camp, is like they don't use their markers very well. And I'm kind of lumping everybody together. So I'm sorry if that's not the case. But anyways, all of this to say, there's a million different ways to train a dog. And what works for the dog, I feel like is we were talking about how it's very 50-50, right? For you and I, we look at does it work for the dog and does it work for the owner? You know, that's a huge other component of it. We know some people who are very just can much concerned about the dog, you know. I have some people who are very much just concerned about the owner. Is the owner able to do this? It, you know, don't really care that much about the dog or whatever. But I feel like Toma and I are very much like in the middle of we look at, okay, is the owner capable of doing this type of training? And also, is it what is best for the dog in front of us? So there's a bunch of different camps of training, and there's a million different ways to train dogs. But we mostly prescribe to, you know, teaching everything with food and play and positive reinforcement, and then holding the dogs accountable with corrections. E-collar stem, affirm no, pop on the leash, pop on a prong collar, that sort of thing. So that is very much like the balanced camp. But within the balanced camp and the type of trainers that we are and all of our friends are, there's also a ton of nuance. So I have these two board and trains. I have Delta, who is what, he's around seven months old. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

He's a giant puppy.

Case Study 1: Delta The Pushy Shepherd

SPEAKER_02 10:57

He's a giant puppy. He is a big fluffy German Shepherd. He is a very, very, well, I don't know. I don't want to say like very, but he was the first week of his board and train super pushy. He came to me for a board and train because I had done a board and train with his sibling dog in the past. He is definitely a lot drivier and a lot pushier than his sibling dog. I don't know if you guys ever saw Duke. He was the black fluffy shepherd that I trained. But Delta is, he's a smart dog. He knows when he has his e-collar on. He knows when he has a leash on. He's super pushy with his owner. His owner is a little more soft. And he's kind of learned that he can, like, for example, he would jump up and like bite her whenever he was getting frustrated. And he's a big dog. Like he left a solid bruise on her arm, you know? So he would push out of the crate, super whiny in the crate, just kind of this like pushy dog, where my solution to his training is very much like you kind of have to be in boot camp mode. And we're doing a ton of impulse control, a ton of slowing him down. I would say the most important thing with Delta is thresholds and putting the equipment on. I've done a ton of work slowing all of that down. So, for example, kind of what that looks like. When I say thresholds, I basically mean like the crate door or the front door or the car door. Basically, you're not allowed to just walk through any door without me first releasing you. So, my main place that I work on this is gonna be at the crate door. So I'll open up the crate door. If he goes to rush out, I'm gonna close the crate door. When he calms down a little bit, I'm gonna open the door back up. If he goes to rush out, I'm gonna close the crate door. I'm gonna do that until I get some sort of surrender from the dog. The dog is typically gonna go and like sit at the back of the crate, like, all right, laney, what do you want? I'm gonna wait, right? And they'll kind of look to you instead of looking out the door. I always tell people dogs are very simple creatures. What they're staring at is their intention. So if the dog is not staring at you and they're staring at the door, they're just waiting for that moment for you to move a little bit and they're gonna go and push through the door. So that's the type of dog that Delta is, is he'll definitely take advantage of those moments. So let's say I've got him settled, I don't have any equipment on him. Great. Now we're gonna move on to the next step of I'm gonna put my e-collar on. So with Delta, when you go to put the e-collar on, he paws you. He, you know, bites your hand a little bit. So I'm gonna pull back, I'm gonna wait. When he's calm, I'm gonna move forward, pretend like I'm putting the e-collar on. He starts pawing at me, I'm gonna move back. I don't progress in steps until the dog offers me the behavior that I want to see more of. So really taking my time in all of those steps and teaching him that pushy behavior does not get you what you want. In this case, he really wants to come out of the crate. He wants to rip around and run with the other dogs and you know go for a walk. So I can use that as a reward to reinforce this like behavior and state of mind that I want to see more from him. Everything with Delta has been about slowing him down and putting some control on him, some impulse control. And then we have Buko. Very obedient boy, very obedient boy. His owners did so much training with him. I'm very impressed, honestly. Better trained than half of my dogs. So Buko came with a this just to give you a picture of his owner. I love his owner so, so much. She like, I I wish, I wish that I was like her. I told her, I was like, I need you to plan all of my events and dress me. Like, she is just on it. She's organized. Buko came with everything labeled. He came with two baggies of things. He has all of his supplements, he has all of his slow feeders, all of his wolf snacks, things, his nose balm.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

He came with not to mention the raw. Like she cut up all the raw.

SPEAKER_02 15:28

She cut up all the raw for us, measured everything out. He I have a laminated instruction and like emergency contact on top of his food bin. And then she also printed out a list of all of his commands for me, which I've never in the eight years of me doing this, I've never had anybody do. And amazing because he is so obedient. I need to know the words that he uses and understands because we got stuck there the first day.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

That first day you tried to feed him, and he's just staring at his bowl forever.

SPEAKER_02 16:03

Yeah. So the first day I tried to feed him, and she accidentally wrote the wrong release word for him to get his food. And I'm like, break, get it, go. Like, I'm saying all of the words, and he's like, he's like, I'm not gonna, you know, I can tell that she's proofed that, and I'm like, oh my gosh, like it, I don't know. I don't know what the word is for you to get your food. He would not break to get his food until I said yes. And so then I texted her the next day and I was like, what's Buko's word to get his food? And she was like, Oh my gosh, I think I wrote the wrong thing on his list. Like, it's yes, or you know, whatever it is. And I was like, Okay, yeah, I kind of figured that out, but like this is crazy. He has so much control on him. So with Buko, one of the biggest struggles is his neutrality with dogs. Like when I talked to them a while ago, they were like, we just really want him to be able to like go for a hike and not freak out when he sees other dogs. But Buko is literally the stereotypical reactive dog in that it's just the barriers, it's just the tension on the leash, it's just the you know, being behind a door that really like sets him off. He's very, he's an XL bully, so it's very like on brand for him.

SPEAKER_00 17:33

So Buko's this typical XL bully.

SPEAKER_02 17:35

Buko is this typical XL bully in that if you like for um kind of context, me and my friend Lex, we were out camping and I had uh Buko, he's off-leash trained, but I had his prong collar on and a leash on, and Lex was kind of like messing with a dog in her crate. So there was a dog like crate door open, and I'm always very mindful of like, let's not interact with the dogs if we're if it's not being intentional, you know, just in case a dog pushes out or whatever. So I had Buko on leash just so he didn't walk up and his prong collar popped open. I guess I didn't close it all the way. And so I grabbed his e-collar, and as I grabbed his like his e-collar strap. His e-collar strap. Yeah, exactly. As I grabbed his e-collar strap, he's like tensing up and he's like looking around, is like, uh I'm like, there it's pitch black, Buko. Like that you literally cannot see anything, but it's he's just so cute to leash tension equals be reactive that even if there's nothing there, and I grab his collar and I put tension on it, he's like, Yeah, like be reactive. He pulls forwards. That's like typical bitework stuff. Yeah, that's what we that's what we do in bitework, you know. And so it's very much pit bull, bully. They are all very much like that. And part of it is trained, part of it is just like genetics, how they are. So that you know, just to kind of give you context of how he is. So he's with me to work on that. His owners are also on vacation, so they wanted to do some training with him instead of just sending him to like you know, typical boarding where he would just kind of like sit in a crate a little bit. And everything that I've been doing with Buco is a lot of untraining.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

Yeah, I think it's important to also maybe preface why we need to untrain him.

SPEAKER_02 19:31

So I got a good question on my post today that was like, my post is essentially this podcast of like not dog training is not one size fits all. You know, Buko is, you know, a little more insecure, Delta is a little more pushy. I had somebody ask, like, what are the signs that you're looking for that tells you that this dog is a little more insecure or a little more pushy? So with Buko, he likes to or he defaults to obedience because that's where he feels most confident in. So, for example, if we are walking with another dog, even if I don't put him into command, he will put himself into an obedience command. He does like a tight heel where it's basically like a contact heel. He's contact healing with me. I didn't put him in that command, but he's like, Oh goodness, like I don't want to be reactive. I don't want to be, I don't want to do the bad thing, like my getting more amped up. I'm gonna default to obedience. Default to obedience.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

Why is that a bad thing?

Case Study 2: Buko’s Insecurity And Reactivity

SPEAKER_02 20:38

You cannot solve reactivity with obedience, and I think this is the perfect case for that for kind of two reasons. One, you're watering down your obedience. With obedience, I think it's very important that we have the right state of mind with the dog. I don't want a dog to go into obedience out of avoidance of doing a behavior that maybe is going to get corrected. You know, he's probably been corrected for being reactive, whether it's, you know, just the owner doing that or him correcting himself on a prong caller. You know, that happens if he goes to be reactive, prong caller goes on. He's, you know, trying to do the right thing, but there's a lot of conflict in our obedience there because there's the anticipation of another dog, the anticipation of him being reactive. So he flips into that heel out of a place of conflict. It's not out of a place of like, wow, good emotion. And with our obedience, I really want to I want a lot of good emotion there. That's why we do a lot of food rewards and play and you know, really structured active training sessions to build up those skills, but it's really important. Important also that while I'm working through obedience, I'm not relying on or sorry, while I'm working through reactivity, I'm not relying on that obedience to fix my reactivity because of all of that conflict. So my approach to working on reactivity, especially with a dog that already has a solid foundation, he understands his marker words, he understands leash pressure, he understands e-caller. How am I going to work through reactivity with him? Well, for him, I believe his reactivity is stemming from this place of conflict and this place of insecurity. So to get to the root cause of his reactivity, I need to build up his confidence. I need to get him out of the place that he feels most secure in because it's kind of all we've done with him and get him out of that contact heel that he flips himself into. So I'm doing a lot of flexi walks with him. I'm trying to get him away from me, but he doesn't want to be away from me because he's not confident away from me.

SPEAKER_00 23:07

Yeah, he gets very um tense to like pit bull spazzy, like kind of zoomies, but yeah, he's like, his body tenses up.

SPEAKER_02 23:17

Yeah, he gets nervous. And I see this also with Minka, my dog. Minka is she's a very nervy dog, like she just is. We've had a few bad instances of her with people. She does not like people in her space, she does not like kids in her space, she just does not enjoy that. And when she starts to feel uncomfy, she glues herself to me. That is like her default, which I'm not like I'm not opposed to that because for her, she's not reactive. She, you know, I'm not trying to necessarily work through things with her, but she does the same thing. If she sees a person coming, she's like, oh my God, and she like defaults and clings to me instead of being neutral like my other dogs. My other dogs can just like no no-no, you know, keep walking past. But Minka is very similar in that she tenses up and she's like, What do I know? I know a heel. I know a heel. I'm gonna do the I'm gonna do the thing that I know best because I'm feeling nervous and I don't know what to do.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

So going back to like Buko wanting him to be on the flexi, it's kind of like the initial foundations of like a sport puppy. Like, we'll get a dog, we want to build confidence, we let them roam, let them pull on the flat collar, let them be out and let them explore. We want to see, you know, that good emotion that they're confident to like walk a new environment and explore, own it.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So with Buko, I am trying to get him to get away from me a little bit because he's insecure and so he's kind of defaulting to me. I want to teach him to make good decisions even when he's away from me. So when we're camping with him, we got him off leash, and I have a video I'll have to post. It's hilarious. We're trying to get Buko to leave the campsite, and it the campsite is basically the equivalent of heel for him. He's like, This is our home now. You know, he's like, I'm not gonna leave, I'm I must stay here, I'm not gonna leave the campsite. And me and my friend Lex are like running down the trail, and we're like, come on, Buko, come on, let's go. And he like will go a little bit and then he stops and he's like, Oh god, I'm in a new place, I'm uncomfy. And then he sprints back to the campsite. We're like, no, Buko, come on. He's like, No, no, no, no, no. That that is too much nature, that is new, too, like too much, too much new. I don't want to do it. So we're doing baby steps with him. I think the adventure board and train is honestly like the perfect format of training for him because we pull up to a new location every like every single time that Vandor opens, it's a new horizon. Yeah, exactly. And so he doesn't have time to get super comfy. And I do think part of that is how his owner is in his routine, and I see that in the you know pamphlet that I got for him and all of that. And I I literally message her, and I love her so much. I message her, I was like, Are you a little anxious? And she was like, I am. I was like, So is your dog?

SPEAKER_00 26:27

But it it's crazy because you know, obviously, like you said, you've only been gone a week and he looks like he's a lot more confident, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

Like, for example, we I kind of like let him rip around the facility last week when I first got him, and he's weird about approaching literally anything. Like, there's a weird tug on the ground, and he's like creeping up to it and then like will twitch and like jump away from it. And it's like that hasn't even moved, Buko. Like, why are you scared of that? So, to answer that person's question, that's what I see when I'm like, Oh, you're not a confident dog, right? And so I kind of know a lot of his problems are coming from his lack of confidence, and so his own training, it's not like I'm doing anything different than his owners do, but I'm doing a lot less obedience. Letting him explore, letting him letting him explore, yeah. And like pulling me a little bit on leash, you know, I'm letting him make decisions for himself.

SPEAKER_00 27:30

And and the cool thing with a dog like him is you have the obedience, so you can always fall back on it. Like, let's say he's at the end of you know a 20-foot flexi.

Fixing Reactivity Without Overusing Obedience

SPEAKER_02 27:39

I I say with me one time, and he whips into heel. Yeah, exactly. And that's what's that's what's so nice about having a solid foundation is like, okay, we've got the foundations now. I can let him rip a little bit, and I still have control over him, you know. So how I've been approaching his reactivity training is that tons of confidence building, tons of like, I'll run away from him. I literally run and he's like, wait, you know, like, come on, Buko, let's go, you know, getting him moving, but also in more of a practical context, I am not putting him into heel whenever I'm walking around other dogs. I'm giving him full slack on the leash. And I give him about three seconds to look at a dog before I pop him on the prong or tap him on the E to redirect him back to me. And I am so big on my walking drills and my directional changes, and I always fall back to this foundation. No matter how advanced I get in our training and even, you know, training my personal dogs, it always goes back to these walking drills as kind of the foundation in working through behavioral issues. Because I'm not putting the dog in obedience, I'm simply just, you know, just walk. Like, let's just walk. I'm gonna let you look at that dog. You can look at the dog, but you can't linger. And if you linger, I'm gonna walk away from you. And if you don't notice that I'm walking away from you, I'm gonna pop you. But I'm not walking you with this super tight short leash. I'm letting you get out away from me a little bit. And the game is really just pay attention to me. You don't have to be in heel, you don't have to, you know, be in this perfect position, focused heel, contact heel, whatever. I don't have huge criteria. My criteria is just kind of pay attention to me. And when I see the dog is starting to load up and I sense that they're gonna be reactive, I'm gonna walk away from that dog. And if the dog is not paying attention to me, they're too busy focusing on the other dog, then they're gonna get that pop on the prong and go, oh, pop on the prong means I gotta go back to her, right? They come back to me, good, and we'll keep walking and we'll do it again. If you start to, you know, fixate on that dog, give you about two to three seconds, walk in the opposite direction, you're gonna get a tap on the A-collar or a pop on the prong. And also the tools that we use on the dogs are very dog dependent and owner dependent.

unknown 30:16

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 30:17

First of all, let's say we talk about a prong collar, the owner has to be like willing to use it and be consistent about using it. But then also, certain dogs don't do well with a prong, it could jack them up, get them more aroused. Um but basically what you're saying is you let the dog look at other dogs. Like you can look, yeah, you just gotta make the right decision. Yeah. And if you load and get more intense, you see the ears, the dog, maybe the chest neck goes forwards, they're starting to kind of posture up at the dog.

SPEAKER_02 30:51

We gotta we gotta redirect them.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

Your attention before like they they explode because you know it's what follows. Your dog has given you those those reps where he's he's literally told you he makes bad decisions, and that's when we want to disrupt him.

SPEAKER_02 31:05

And it just that is how I teach them to make good decisions. And when you teach the dogs how to make decisions for themselves, it gives them this confidence in themselves of like, oh yeah, I don't need to be super insecure away from mom because I know I'm gonna make the right decision. And that's where I think Buko's insecurity comes from is he wants to be good. He wants to be good so bad. He doesn't want to be impulsive and be reactive and bark at the dogs, but it's just like so instinctual for him. And so he has this inner conflict of like, oh my god, I'm fighting my instincts to do this thing, and I really I really want to do this thing, you know. And like, let's be real, that's what the bully breeds are bred to do. Like, they're literally bred to be reactive. He is fighting against his instincts.

SPEAKER_00 31:57

That's why he's getting all stiff and then he gets all stiff gets the like bully zoomies, yeah, which is a with the e-brake on.

SPEAKER_02 32:04

Yeah, he tucks his butt under. Yeah, literally, yeah, exactly. But like teaching him, you don't have to be in this perfect heel to make the right decision, you can just make the right decision.

SPEAKER_00 32:17

Yep, and that's where like literally that's what we do in like the reactivity class. We'll have maximum three dogs signed up, and we're kind of walking towards a trigger and doing a directional change when the dog kind of gets out ahead and like starts. It's starting to load up. And the cool thing about that is we walk in the other direction, the dog's like in a like relaxed, calm state. We go back towards the trigger. That way the dog's not also rehearsing.

SPEAKER_02 32:46

We're not running away from the trigger.

SPEAKER_00 32:48

We go back, and that's giving the dogs more and more reps of like looking at another dog without reacting, yeah. At a you know, good distance, and throughout the class, we close up that distance, and then the dogs are getting successful reps around other dogs, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:03

And it's also teaching the dogs what I want them to do. Like instead of flipping into heel, I want you to just remove yourself from the situation. I would say a lot of the dogs that we work with that are reactive, it is coming from some place of insecurity, right? So they're kind of like barking to like create space or because they have this inner conflict, you know, like not very many dogs are forward reactive that we see.

SPEAKER_00 33:32

And the other thing too, um, that's kind of neat about the reactivity class is obviously it's it's very controlled, right? Like you know for a fact the other dog is not gonna keep coming towards you because, like, you know, one of the traders is making sure that both parties keep a good distance. But something with that, um, it's not just the dogs that are tense, but the handlers are tense as well.

SPEAKER_02 33:55

Oh, the handlers are so tense, and it's noticeable. Like, oh, absolutely. We go from puppy class and then reactivity class, and everybody pulls up and they're just like, um, okay, uh and I mean uh understandably so.

SPEAKER_00 34:07

Oh, yeah, for sure. But you'll get to a point with the lease drills where your dog's actually very in tune with you, and when you turn around, the dog's turning with you without any pop. And in one of my recent classes, um one one handler, this lady, she she no matter what, turn, pop give Walter the mic.

SPEAKER_02 34:29

He has something to say. Walter, what do you have to say?

SPEAKER_00 34:33

Walter now you're quiet.

SPEAKER_02 34:35

Walter, Walter. Nothing. He said he got camera shy. He said, never mind.

SPEAKER_00 34:44

He's like his dad, and he put a mic in front of him and he said talk.

SPEAKER_02 34:46

Oh, never mind.

Tools, Timing, And Handler Tension

SPEAKER_00 34:49

Going back to this, you know, quote unquote, uh insecure handling, I I feel like it was almost to a point where we were turning, the dog was turning with her very nice, and it was just so instinctual to pop to pop. And I was like, hey, relax. Give your dog like a second, give give them the opportunity to make the right decision. And fair enough, she uh she did, and the dog was following her, and I think that was a really neat moment for her. She's like, Oh wow, like I'm you gotta give your dog a little trust.

SPEAKER_02 35:22

And I I think that is gonna be the case with Buko as well. Exactly. You know, I know that as soon as I hand the leash over, Buko's gonna be like, you know, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 35:33

Because stress travels down the leash, and if you're you're and it's it's a very it's a hard thing to like you can't just like tell uh a handler to hey, just just relax, like you know, like yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:47

I always say take a deep breath, deep breath, relax your arms.

SPEAKER_00 35:53

I literally I say take a deep breath, and people go absolutely that was a that was a cool moment because like her dog performed well, and then she was like, Oh wow, I could actually trust her dog, yeah. And then she got more relaxed, and then the whole session went better, which was amazing.

SPEAKER_02 36:12

Yeah, Toma has been teaching all of the classes. I feel like I've been I have done, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 36:20

You did maybe like two or three classes. Um I don't know, but it's fine, like you've been doing the board and trains.

SPEAKER_02 36:27

I do love the adventure board and trains.

SPEAKER_00 36:29

It works out great, because to be honest, I really like the board and trains.

SPEAKER_02 36:34

And I I don't like the board and trains in like a traditional sense. I don't necessarily like doing it out of the house, but there's something so manageable about doing it out of a van because we have all of our things like right there, and I have all of the dogs right there. Like I feel like even here, when we go to potty the dogs, it's like, okay, we gotta potty the dogs in the front room and the dogs upstairs, and you know, I gotta find the leash. And it's just there, there's so much space here, and there's so much like there's so many steps for you to go and like let the dogs out. Whereas on an adventure board and train, I pull up to the middle of nowhere, open the van door, and I'm like, let's go. And you just like let everybody rip out of the van. And I am kind of I'm kind of a lazy dog trainer in that I love with the adventure board and trains. I'm basically hiking the dogs for like six miles in the morning before I do anything else.

SPEAKER_00 37:34

I don't know what's lazy about that.

SPEAKER_02 37:36

No, but I'm not walking six miles. They're walking, I'm walking like three and they're doubling it because they like run down the road and then they run back, and then they run down the road, and then they're wrestling each other. And getting the dogs physically worked is I think the most important part of any sort of training protocol, and just seeing the difference in the dog's state of mind on the road, I would say.

SPEAKER_00 38:04

Yeah, it translates for sure.

SPEAKER_02 38:06

It's like crazy. And the fact that we don't have our treadmills yet is sending me over the edge because I love the routine of our treadmills of we treadmill the dogs in the morning, we get them physically exercised. When they're physically exercised, then I can ask you to settle. Like we didn't do a lot with the dogs today because we were doing, you know, I was doing classes, you were doing classes. Our dogs have been not super fulfilled today, which is fine because I just spent the past week where they're hiking six miles a day. Like they need a day to rest. They're all literally sore. You know, Zoe's like limping, she's been tackled by Malinois all week. And even, you know, Delta, like his hips are bothering him. I'm like, okay, we all kind of need a we need a bit of a rest day. You can hear Muffin losing her mind in the front room because I haven't asked her to settle at all the past week.

SPEAKER_00 39:00

You know, so it's all about a balance, but there's something so nice about just opening the van door and van life in VLM land is pretty great with a pack of dogs.

SPEAKER_02 39:10

Van life in City is the worst.

SPEAKER_00 39:14

But it's funny that you say that you're you know a lazy dog trainer because if you, you know, think about Florida, we had a house full of dogs, and like you said, they're all treadmilled. If it was like too hot and humid, which you know it was a lot of the time, but you're also going on I don't know how many miles we would walk a day with the Yeah, Toma's grateful that I don't make him go on the super long walks anymore. I mean, that was like kind of your your sick, right?

SPEAKER_02 39:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The lap around the neighborhood was like two and a half miles.

SPEAKER_00 39:45

No, three and a half at least we were walking like at least 20 miles a day. I was gonna say 15, 20 a day for sure.

SPEAKER_02 39:51

Yeah. So I would walk every dog at least a lap around. And I would do groups, obviously, if we can.

SPEAKER_00 40:00

We'd be walking dogs at like midnight because it was too hot in the day.

Adventure Board & Train And Exercise

SPEAKER_02 40:03

Yeah, but some dogs can't be walked with other dogs yet, so then you have to do all of these individual walks. That's what sucks. I love it when I get to the point where the dogs are all social and I can just let them all out together. Yeah, you know, and that was cool about Lex's dogs, too, is that's something that's like very important to her as well. And Rook, like her Malinois, is super social. We introduced Rook and Buko together, and that's gonna be kind of my next stage of Buko's training is let's get Buko reps with dogs. Let's get Buko reps with neutral dogs. And the funny thing about Buko, legs took Rook out and was like, all right, Rook, if he goes to attack you, just run. You can outrun him. And it was so true because like he would start to get a little stiff and intense, and Rook is like, nope, and would just like take off down the road, and then Buko, like Buko's not running after Rook at all. He's just like, okay, you know, and then like Rook would come back and like play with him a little bit, and then Buko would start to get too intense, and she's like, nope, okay, I'm just gonna like run away. And Buko's just like, okay, you know, like the bullies can do sprints, the kid, they can't. Yeah, no, he cannot keep up with the Malinois. So it worked out, but you know, Rook was like a really good intro dog, and you know, next I'm gonna introduce probably Muffin and then Minka. I think both of them will do really well with him. Lucy's been kind of a bitch recently. Fair in her old age, I would say.

unknown 41:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:32

And then Zoe don't really count.

SPEAKER_02 41:35

Yeah. Zoe's Zoe's neutral, but the problem with Zoe is if a if a dog like muzzle punches her or something, like she's gonna get knocked to the ground. And I feel like that's not really fair for Zoe.

SPEAKER_00 41:46

Fair enough.

SPEAKER_02 41:46

You know, she's already getting tackled by these Malinois all the time. Oh, oh my god. It was so bad. It was so bad. We were walking, and Muffin and Rook and Delta are wrestling, and they have no self-awareness at all. And they will just they like flipped, flipped Zoe through the air, and she's like, and like Zoe never yelps. She has a very high pain trolleunch, and then she's like limping, and I'm like, oh my god, you guys. So I've just started doing basically aversion training to Zoe, where if you guys go anywhere near Zoe, I'm gonna stem you on the e-caller because like use your brains, don't tackle the elder.

SPEAKER_00 42:30

Respect your elders.

SPEAKER_02 42:31

Respect your elders. Ugh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:34

Going back to all dogs need, you know, different forms of training.

SPEAKER_02 42:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:41

Anything else that we need to cover? Like, you know, each dog is different. Um, some dogs require different tools, different forms of management, different expectations.

SPEAKER_02 42:55

Yeah, let's talk about different types of management. You're an expert on that.

SPEAKER_00 43:00

I mean, as far as like I go, management, you know, I have two intact males that hate each other. Hate each other, but I I need to create and rotate. But I think Walter said, I uh never. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, he's the problem, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 43:16

I think they're both problems.

SPEAKER_00 43:18

Yeah, but you know, I think he created that and now it's to a point where um he taught Hawk the bad behaviors. Yeah. Walter, come on. Come join us on the couch. Walter Um No, kind of going back to a client we had earlier today. Uh we were talking about earlier in this podcast, we mentioned, you know, the clarity of the marker words and like how it all just ties into whatever level of dog training, it's all just mastery of the basics. But she hadn't had a puppy in a long time, and her puppy was being very mouthy, and it literally just boils it back down to hey, put our dog in the cream. Put your dog back in the crate. It's really that simple, you know? Yeah. A lot of the answers to you know problems people have are really quite simple. Like Alright, your your dog has too much freedom. Manage it, you know? Your dog's reactive. Oh, maybe stop going on walks for a little bit. Work on some, you know, leash drills, then we can go back out in the real world.

SPEAKER_02 44:24

Yeah. It's all dogs are individuals, and even like my personal dogs have different lifestyles. Like fucking Lucy has been peeing on our beds. Beds multiple.

SPEAKER_00 44:40

Yeah, she hopped into the van.

SPEAKER_02 44:42

Like hopped into the van on a very elevated bed. Like this is uh intense is so intentional and peed all over the van bed. Like what? She's 10 years old almost. Why are we being this bad?

SPEAKER_00 45:00

She's acting up.

SPEAKER_02 45:01

She's acting up. Lucy can have zero freedom.

SPEAKER_00 45:05

Yeah, she she she really does thrive with the management or like the structure, you know?

SPEAKER_02 45:09

Yeah, she I can't. I cannot leave Lucy out.

SPEAKER_00 45:12

But she'll like crate herself too, like when she's headed up with the other dogs.

SPEAKER_02 45:16

Yeah, she's like, I need to go into the box.

SPEAKER_00 45:18

And if there's no crate, she'll like literally hide underneath like a counter or something. Yeah. Or like under the bed, you know. So she'll literally tuck herself away.

SPEAKER_02 45:26

Oh, she's so bad. That's another thing, too, is like she's my best trained and worst dog.

SPEAKER_00 45:34

I think for the most part, when clients come to us with like quote unquote problem dogs, they're also the most fun to train because they got a ton of drive. So they got a lot of good qualities to like be trained and be flashy and like fast, but then they make quote on Lucy makes horrible decisions on her own.

SPEAKER_02 45:55

That is one thing is God, she's just she runs away. I was thinking about this last night actually, because I was so pissed. I went into the van and I was like, why does it smell like pee in here? And I could not, and I checked all of the crates. I was like, who peed? What is going on? I grab my bonnet from the bed and it's soaking wet. And I was like, You're joking me. Yeah, like you are kidding me. So I was so pissed, and I was like, God, Lucy really is the worst dog, and it's kind of crazy because a lot of dog trainers have the story of like, oh, I got this really bad dog, and then I became a trainer in the process of learning to train it, and now this dog is like great, and like I can't even say that. Like, I can't Lucy's so bad. Do you remember when we were in Florida and she would run away all the time to find water? To find water Gator Land, and she would get picked up by strangers because she's cute, and like it's like, oh, Lucy's gone. Wait for my phone to ring for some random old lady who she jumped into the car. Yep. Like to bring my dog back. And it's not like we weren't watching her, like we're literally standing in we're standing in the backyard with all of the dogs, and where's where's Lucy?

SPEAKER_00 47:14

She'll actually come up and she comes up to you and she's like, Hey. And then next thing you know, she's gone.

SPEAKER_02 47:20

Yeah, like she is like, I'm about to be bad.

SPEAKER_00 47:24

Really slick about it.

SPEAKER_02 47:24

Yeah, yeah. And that's just like how she is. And I one, she's gonna live forever, and she's gonna be like this until the day she dies for sure. Like, you know, the book Marley and Me. Yeah, that's Lucy.

SPEAKER_00 47:35

But but on the flip side, like you said, she's also your most well-trained. Like, she got phenomenal obedience.

SPEAKER_02 47:42

We have a focused heel, we have a downstay, like she has all the things, but left to her own vices, she makes really bad decisions.

SPEAKER_00 47:50

Yeah, and I mean Hawk's kind of in the same boat, like you know, he has like fancy obedience like to like pet standards, like you with the sports stuff.

SPEAKER_02 48:00

Hawk is not nearly as bad as Lucy. Hawk wants to make you happy so bad. Lucy does not care about us at all.

SPEAKER_00 48:09

But I wouldn't uh eyes off of him, you know.

SPEAKER_02 48:12

Yeah, but that's just like malinois, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:14

Fair enough, you know. I suppose. I think some malinois, like you have you can let your guard down a little more than others, though.

Socialization, Neutral Dogs, And Pack Dynamics

SPEAKER_02 48:23

We don't have any of those. We do not we don't have any of those malinois. Walter is pretty good. Like Walter doesn't really need to be created if he were an only dog. But I will say I think he's gotten a lot better with dogs.

SPEAKER_00 48:41

Yeah, I think he's improved. Um, he can play just more ref and stuff, yeah. I think he was good in his younger days, then he got really bad. You let him be a bully.

SPEAKER_02 48:51

Yes, I you let him be a bully for the city. I created this, yeah. Um but I do think that he's gotten a lot better with Muffin because he can't catch Muffin. Yeah, you know, for sure. Like Muffin's like, ah, and like tackles him, and then Walter can't get her, and it's like this funny game to Muffin. You know, it's kind of turned like it turned him soft, it turned him soft. No, but yeah, Walter He can't win. He can't win.

SPEAKER_00 49:19

Walter doesn't have like you know, nearly as fancy obedience as Hawk, but he also doesn't need it, you know.

SPEAKER_02 49:25

He's not really gonna like, he's not gonna get into things, he's not gonna He makes better decisions, yeah. You know, he can just hang out in the house, yeah, and that's why it's so funny when people go on social media and they're like, I've never used a crate and I've had the most perfect dog ever. And it's like, yeah, I didn't really I stopped creating Zoe at like six months old.

SPEAKER_00 49:45

I never created Walter until he was four.

SPEAKER_02 49:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:49

And when did I start? When I got another dog.

SPEAKER_02 49:52

Yeah, like some dogs are just like that. But if if I never created Lucy, can you imagine? Can you imagine what my life would be like with she'd be an utter terror? Like she would she would have killed herself. She also she swallows socks. Yeah, she still does that. I remember, oh my gosh, I remember Hunter, one of my old trainers. We were at the house in Florida. She's sitting on the couch petting Lucy, and there's like a sock on the couch, and she's petting her, and then she looks at me and she's like, Meg, the sock is gone. And I was like, What do you mean the sock is gone? Like it just fell off the couch. And she was like, No, no, no, the sock is gone. And I was like, No, this there's no way. And she's like, Lucy ate the sock. And I was like, Why would Lucy just swallow the sock? Like, you're you're sitting right there petting her. What do you mean? She just swallowed the sock just now. And I was like, What do I what do I do? You know, and we're like, Well, get the hydrogen peroxide, right? So we get our little turkey baster, hydrogen peroxide, give it to Lucy. Sure enough, she throws up a sock. Like, girl, that would have been obstruction surgery, like 10k right there.

SPEAKER_00 51:01

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 51:02

It she's sitting right next to us. And that's the thing, is she's so sneaky about it, too. And even she was in the van today for two seconds because you know, people came in real quick and I was like, oh my god. So I just like threw well. First of all, I threw them in the bathroom. Lucy peas on the floor in the bathroom. Oh my god, she's been driving me nuts recently. This is what happens. Lucy in particular. She's not she's a little she's acting out right now.

SPEAKER_00 51:30

Makes it sound like you never change her a day in your life.

SPEAKER_02 51:32

I know. So I throw her in the bathroom because people came into the facility real quick, and I was like, I'm just gonna put the goldens in the bathroom real quick. She pees on the bathroom floor, and I was like, okay, great, great, I need to clean the bathroom floor. So then I throw her into the van real quick, and then I I swear she peed on the like van again today. Like I walk in and she's like spread like flat on the bed, just like looking at me like I just did something. And I was like, you either swallowed a sock, peed on the bed again, or ate something that you're not supposed to.

SPEAKER_00 52:05

And I'm like, oh my god, that's where management comes in.

SPEAKER_02 52:08

So I clean out the crate, clean out the crate, put Lucy in the crate. Like, girl, I can't leave you for two seconds without you eating something that you shouldn't. And like, Zoe will eat some things, but Zoe only eats edible things. You know, Zoe's only gonna eat like a stick of butter on the counter.

SPEAKER_00 52:27

I was gonna say, she'll snag a stick of butter.

SPEAKER_02 52:29

She loves she loves a stick of butter. But we can leave Zoe out. Where is Zoe? Oh, she's over here laying by the couch.

SPEAKER_00 52:35

And she's always been that way. You don't have to worry about Zoe. We don't even know where she is. She just resting. Yeah. But it's funny because on the flip side, um, goose can be great on a leash, and we can take her out and about, and she's wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 52:50

She's a wonderful demo dog when she's on a leash. Yeah, but that's the she's the dog that I take out in all of my classes. She's my best trained.

SPEAKER_00 52:57

Yep. And then you take her off leash and she's gone.

SPEAKER_02 53:02

Yeah, I remember we took her out at training one time, like what at uh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm like, Shane was like, Do you got a recall on that dog? She just left.

SPEAKER_00 53:15

Booked it across the map. I'm like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:19

Like, here's the dog trainer who can't recall her dog. Yeah, she knows a recall.

SPEAKER_00 53:24

She knows really being vulnerable here. Lucy's been mad telling the world how bad of it.

SPEAKER_02 53:31

I was literally laying in bed last night, and I was like, I'm gonna blast her on my stories and tell everybody how bad she is because she's driving. The peeing on the bed thing is crazy. Yeah, like pee anywhere else, but to crawl into the van, up onto the bed.

SPEAKER_00 53:47

Just for added context, she was like free in the facility, and she decided to sneak away, climb up into the van, jump up. The van's like the bed is like what four feet, five feet tall, like up. Yeah, it's high. She jumped up into the bed.

SPEAKER_02 54:05

You have to for her to get into the bed, she has to like jump on the couch, then the counter, then get on the bed.

SPEAKER_00 54:13

Very, very intentional, very intentional.

SPEAKER_02 54:16

And she's in a crate right now. But I will say, she gets like this when I give her a lot of freedom. She's had a lot of freedom recently because we've been on our little adventure.

SPEAKER_00 54:27

She had the best time of her life.

SPEAKER_02 54:28

And now we gotta go back to boot camp mode.

SPEAKER_00 54:30

So she acting up.

SPEAKER_02 54:32

Yeah, and that's the other thing, too, is your dog is always gonna tell you what they need.

SPEAKER_00 54:36

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 54:37

You know, people are like, when can I ease up on the structure? When you when your dog starts making good decisions.

SPEAKER_00 54:43

And there's also no problem in dialing it back. Like you give your dog a little bit more freedom, they can handle it, great. They show you they can't handle it. Uh, let's dial it back a notch.

SPEAKER_02 54:54

Yeah, I'm not too big on having my dogs have e-collars on them all the time. Oh, they got they got e-collars on. I'm fucking I'm charging my e-collars every night right now because I gave them a ton of freedom on this road trip, and now they're like, wow, we can do whatever we want.

SPEAKER_00 55:12

Yeah, your your dogs are a little too confident.

Management At Home: Crate, Rotate, Structure

SPEAKER_02 55:15

My dogs are a little too confident. That's like I need to give Buco some of their confidence. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 55:20

No, you're very good at raising confident puppies.

SPEAKER_02 55:22

Yes, my dogs are unfazed by literally anything, I will say. Minka is definitely my most insecure, but she wasn't always like this. I would say it's like been a few bad interactions that has kind of turned her. But even for Minka, like this trip was so good because for a while she was so, so anxious. She had like a bad encounter with a person. And for a while after that, she was so, so anxious. And pretty much the only time I saw her rela relax, and I mean like she lost all of her hair, she was losing weight, like it was really bad. The only time that I saw her relax was in the facility with the door closed because she knew, okay, no sterile environment. Sterile environment, nobody's gonna come in here that I don't know. You know, it's it's very controlled. That was the only time that I saw her relaxed. And she really did open up a lot on this trip, I would say, because before when I would take her on a hike, she's like glued to my leg, you know, but she was like playing with the dogs and getting comfy again, and we're kind of like building her confidence back up. But it's it's something that we can kind of dial up and then reel the dog back in and dial up and reel the dog back in. And it's something that we're also doing for life, you know, like we never reach a point where we're like, okay, we've made it, we've made it. I don't have to do anything with you. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:56

Progress isn't linear. Yeah, there'll always be you know different things to work on with your dog and your your relationship with your dog.

SPEAKER_02 57:04

And yeah, and I think that's just on living with living beings, you know, think about taking care of ourselves also, you know. Like I didn't eat very good today, and I was like, oh, I don't really I had a bunch of candy, you know, sitting in the traffic and a box of suckers, and I just like ate a bunch of suckers and I was like, I don't feel good. We're about to eat a cookie, you don't see it. You know, but it's like, okay, I'm gonna go back to eating better, and then I'll feel better and working out. And it there, you don't reach a point where you're like, I'm a perfect human being, I'm done.

SPEAKER_00 57:40

I think standards increase as well, you know. Like maybe like at a time you just had a reactive dog and that's all you're working like through, is like, oh, I hope we get to a point where he's no longer reactive, and then it's like, oh, you achieved that for the most part, because maybe he's always still some instances where they're still reactive. Um, but then it's like, oh, we have new goals now because you discover this whole other realm of dog training, and now we're you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_02 58:05

And your group class this morning is like a perfect example of that, for sure. We have Steve and Zuma, and they're like, Steve, this is his life.

SPEAKER_00 58:14

He is he's signed up to our monthly membership.

SPEAKER_02 58:16

He is always training, he is here more than I am.

SPEAKER_00 58:20

He made it, yeah, exactly. He made a very valid joke.

SPEAKER_02 58:23

He said, I I've seen Toma more than his wife has.

SPEAKER_00 58:28

That you have this last week for sure.

SPEAKER_02 58:31

But it was cool because it was uh Steve, and then we have this new couple here at the facility who they just adopted a little white curly haired dog.

SPEAKER_00 58:44

Little little little terrier, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:46

Terrier, doodle. No, yes, really, that's not a terrier. That's a little that's a little white crusty. He'd be groomed like a terrier. No, I don't think he's a terrier. I think he's a little doodle.

SPEAKER_00 59:00

Like he looks like um not a westy, but you no, he's a doodle.

SPEAKER_02 59:05

He's a little doodle.

SPEAKER_00 59:07

Ain't no way, uh, probably probably, yeah. Actually, now that I think about it. Anyways, I thought he was terrier.

SPEAKER_02 59:14

That's funny. Um he's insecure and kind of like nippy and reactive.

SPEAKER_00 59:19

Yeah, he got some like resource guarding stuff.

SPEAKER_02 59:22

Yeah, so they came to us for the training foundation's class, and you know, they're working on basic stuff, loose lead walk, and Toma's teaching them how to use the leash and marker words, and then they get to watch Steve and Zuma, and they're like, Wow, this is crazy, you know? And it's like your dog can do that.

SPEAKER_00 59:41

It's all still just ministry of the basics, you know? He was doing, I don't know, send to place over a jump, that kind of stuff, you know?

SPEAKER_02 59:47

Yeah, send through a tunnel. But the you know, Teddy, Teddy's owner, yeah, was like, Oh, did your dog used to want to get up off of place? You know, and it's like, yeah, for sure. Like that is something that we have to teach. We have to teach like impulse control of going to place and staying there, you know. He's like, Oh my gosh, my dog, I don't think my dog would stay there. And it's like, your dog wouldn't stay there, but we can teach him to stay there, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:11

Like, like Steve said, like a big part of it is training the handler, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:15

So for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:17

Yeah, and it's funny because you know, even in that session, I think he caught himself. He's like, Oh, I didn't mark or whatever, and he's speaking to them. He's like, See, I'm the problem, you know, and I think that's uh very relatable. So it was good. Yeah, we can always improve ourselves and in turn help our dogs improve.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:36

Yeah, but all this is to say all dogs are different, and what works for one dog might not work for another. And when you see your favorite dog trainer on social media posting some cool thing that you should do, it doesn't always mean that that's what your dog needs or what is gonna work for you, and it also very dependent on the stage that you're in.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:03

And Instagram's super, super curated. Like my last bite night the other day, I told the people there that I wasn't planning on trialing Hawk, and they're like, What do you mean? He looks so good. I'm like, when have you seen me train? Like, he looks really good in this 30-second, very curated Instagram reel. You know, that's not the reality. We're we all we all got our own struggles with our dogs, you know?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:29

So that's that's the reality.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:31

That's the reality. We're always working on it. We're back to boot camp mode with my dogs.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:38

And I I think at the end of the day, like we just gotta enjoy that whole journey, you know. It's not even about like that end goal, like whatever that goal is, if it's the trial or just to have, you know, the dog that you can take out in the world. Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:52

You definitely have to appreciate where you're at, you know. And I feel like people think that there's some sort of finish line.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:59

That one day you're gonna feel like you made it and that your dog is great, but that that is never going to come. And I feel like in recognizing that, there's a bit of like surrender, yeah, weight lifted off your shoulders, yeah. Because people get so stressed about like, let's, you know, talk about reactivity. If their dog has a reactive moment, they're like, oh my god, like it's all out the window, everything that I've been working for, you know. And I'm like, it's not a big deal.

Different Dogs, Different Freedoms

SPEAKER_00 1:02:32

Yeah, shit happens, but but also I think if all you do with your dog is continue going on these walks and to try to work through reactivity and it's it's no fun for nobody. If your dog ain't having a good time, you're not having a good time. And that's why, like, I really enjoy giving people the opportunity to do other things with their dogs, like the you know, like whatever, you know, fancy obedience, detection, like just different ways to interact with your dog in a like enjoyable way. I think like that's that's been super cool to like I had um a cattle dog that came for um I think reactivity or like an obedience class, you know. It was more like pet style healing, and the dog looked pretty flat, like I wasn't having a great time. And then I saw it again in detection, and I was like, holy shit, this is the same dog, like she's thriving, you know. So that's neat as well, like to see the handler more relaxed and having a good time, and the dog as well being like in a completely different mindset, yeah, and that is how we get to a better place, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:38

Just like by enjoying more reps, yeah, more reps of oh wow, that was actually pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:44

Yeah, you know, you get to enjoy your dog, you know. It's not it's not always like we gotta work through this struggle today, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:51

And that's why I'm like, don't if you are working through reactivity, don't just keep going on the same walk, the same loop.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:01

They're like the same loop where your dog second turn, my dog pops off with those dogs every day, every day.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:07

I'm like, okay, let's stop doing that, let's stop rehearsing that. Both of you are rehearsing that and Nick exactly how to do it. We we love Nick, but he does that, and he has conditioned himself to be to tense up, like he tenses up.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:23

He's like, Oh, that third house there, there's those tiny dogs are gonna bark. Yeah, yeah, it's just like go on a different walk or take your dog to the park instead.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:31

Or play tug. You know, play tug out in front of your driveway, or you know, just do walking drills, or it just switch it up. Do literally anything else. That is my bad dog barking in the background. Nothing. The one that we just trained for 30 minutes, who should be settling, but she's not. I want to work more! More. More.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:53

We do have to potty everybody.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:56

Yeah. All right, y'all. Thanks for being here. Hope you got something out of this episode. Oh, nice little reminder if you want to do a virtual shadow program, that starts February 16th. Check out the website, go schedule a call with me. It's a great time. I'll teach you to be a good dog trainer who knows how to use your marker words correctly.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:19

Mic dropped.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:21

Oh my goodness. All right, guys. Thank you. We'll see you next week.