Choosing the right dog breed for your lifestyle is crucial. Get tips from Marine dog trainer Blake Marretta in our new podcast episode. Learn to understand and manage breed-specific behaviors!
Connect with Blake on Linkedin
Choosing the right dog breed for your lifestyle is crucial. Get tips from Marine dog trainer Blake Marretta in our new podcast episode. Learn to understand and manage breed-specific behaviors!
Connect with Blake on Linkedin
This is the Kestrel Country Podcast, where we discuss the people, places and events all around Kestrel Country. Blake moretta, I said that right. Yep, thanks for coming in. I appreciate you having me Talk about dog training.
Speaker 2:Oh boy.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm told we're talking about. Anyway, that's what I do. I just show up and Annika says here's who you're talking to and here's what you're talking about. Great, sounds like fun, perfect. So I like to start by getting into people's background a little bit. It's the story the podcasts are really a story of the people in this area and the places and events. But you're not from this area, neither am I. No, I'm not. Where did you grow up? And, yeah, where are you from? And maybe give a little bit of background about how you got into dogs. Has it always been part of your life?
Speaker 2:Sure yeah, I uh born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, East Baton Rouge parish, and so yeah, not around here. Nope, definitely not around here. In fact, when I drove up here, um to move here, it was 34 hours, so definitely not from here. Um, and I did drive, I did not fly, so not fly. So I grew up in East Baton Rouge Parish in the good old south Louisiana and you know we had a dog growing up when I was a little bit older. Her name was Sophie.
Speaker 2:She was kind of a mix between a couple different breeds a lab, a yellow lab, and a. It looked like somewhat of a Pyrenees, some kind of mutt mix but she was a sweet dog and um or knows I didn't deserve her.
Speaker 2:But she was a great dog, and uh so I. After high school, I joined the Marine Corps and I was there for eight years. Um, along that time time I began to pick up dog training. I had purchased a Husky. I loved the breed and their you know how much they would talk and be kind of spunky and whatnot, energetic and all that their temperament was, I thought was just hilarious and so I wanted one. And, being a Marine, we had canine handlers that were designated there was their job in the Marine Corps to train the local MWDs, the military working dogs, and so I got with them.
Speaker 2:I read up on the military their dog training manual, which they've revised many times, but I read through it very dry naval letter format document on that thick. It was just huge. And I did that, got with them. And then there was a guy that got out and started his own business and some of the guys that worked for him. I had some on the job kind of training and that was back 2014,. 2015 in New Orleans, louisiana.
Speaker 1:And so did you. I'm going to back you up a little bit. So you got that manual and everything Was that. Was that, then, your job, or was that more? I have this Husky. I'm going to figure out how to train it. Or did you actually get assigned to that job in the, in the Marines? Oh boy.
Speaker 2:I wish I was already a sergeant and they said I couldn't. So, um, you had to be a corporal or below, and more than likely it would have been a better, a better fit to be interesting than a corporal as well. So I, um, and I was a career planner, uh, so I knew the ins and outs of doing certain things. I knew it was going to be a really hard sell anyway, so I couldn't.
Speaker 2:I tried very briefly and I knew when it hit certain channels when it got shot down, like yeah, it's probably not going to fly.
Speaker 1:But you pursued it, so you thought you would enjoy it enough to want to pursue that at that time. Yes, and again I mean, was this because of Sophie growing up? Were you just like man, I love animals, I love dogs, or um, I guess it's just. I'm kind of I'm curious like people who are drawn to that.
Speaker 2:Um, well, I I did love animals. Um and um. You know the way that I interacted with animals before when I was a child. I wish that I had a little bit more guidance and a little bit more help. I think that would have been best. There were a lot of things that I missed out on. With the animals that we did have.
Speaker 2:And I didn't take advantage of like I should have. You know it's. It's similar to a Marine being stationed in Hawaii and not having the best time of their life there, they're just not taking advantage of the things that are there.
Speaker 2:So that was that was part of the problem and, uh, we were busy. We had lots of things going on growing up, so it's, it is what it is. But loved animals, uh, loved being outdoors. And I've got this Husky now and she is rambunctious as all get out and I've got some crazy stories that are probably not the best to be talking about right now of things that she did. He did to me, like while I was sleeping, okay, and just stuff that would you know, it would make you laugh and it would probably make you cry.
Speaker 1:And this was in. You said again, you said New Orleans.
Speaker 2:New Orleans, louisiana, so you were in.
Speaker 1:Louisiana Husky Yep. Is that crazy that?
Speaker 2:crazy, oh it's crazy I didn't think I'd be stationed back home. Okay, I, I was um, I was stationed and I I joined and then I went to hawaii for about 38 months and then, after that and some training and deployments in between, I left and I got stationed in lou in the 4th Marine.
Speaker 2:Division, the Reserve Division of the Marine Corps, and that's where I was like, well, I'll probably settle down here and get myself a dog. I should probably get this dog trained and I would like to learn how to do it myself. So that's what got me started Loved animals, loved hunting, loved hunting, loved camping, loved the outdoors. Um, really loved dogs. Just had a big affinity towards the animal and, um, I wanted to get down and dirty, get my hands um, get my hands dirty, you know, and do the work. I wanted to learn how to train dogs for myself and, at the time, just for my, for my Husky and her name was Shadow, so just for Shadow, I wanted to learn yeah.
Speaker 1:So how did that go?
Speaker 2:It went great. You know, shadow was. Huskies are notoriously difficult to train, and the difficulty in it is not that they're just very hard to train, and the difficulty in it is not that they're just very hard to train, it's that every dog trainer, if they're worth their salt. We all use the exact same principles to train dogs, but our methods differ trainer to trainer, and so you know, if you're using pressure, if you're using positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, negative punishment, whatever it is that you're using, if you're talking about pressure, if you are talking about reward, um, you need to find what works for the dog you're still using the exact same principles.
Speaker 2:And so she. She did great, because I spent hours and hours with her every single day, hours and hours and hours with her, every single day, hours and hours and hours with her, and that helped me work out a lot of the kinks that I had. Still not a dog trainer at the time, I was just learning and with my own personal dog was a good start. But then, after that, begun the hard. Lessons of okay, now I'm going to go attempt to train other people's dogs.
Speaker 2:Lessons of okay, now I'm going to go attempt to train other people's dogs and what happens when they're not as sweet as mine and I get bit, so like I've got scars on my hands and on my my legs, um, you know, and there's thankfully none that have brought me to the hospital. You know, god's been very good to me in that respect, but there was some.
Speaker 2:there was a learning curve that had to take place and how I should interact with the animal and how I shouldn't interact with the animal, especially when they're not mine. So with mine it went great, absolutely great.
Speaker 1:So then, what was that transition into training other people's dogs? Were you still in the Marine Corps?
Speaker 2:Still in the Marine Corps.
Speaker 1:And so it was like hey, here, this is a potential side hustle for me. Yeah, Was that kind of the?
Speaker 2:It began as a hobby and then very rapidly turned into a side hustle as people saw my dog and how well behaved she was and all the things she was doing. And I was on base in New Orleans on bell chase and as people saw that they were know, can you do that with my dog? And I sat there and I said, well, I guess I could, I could try. And so I started doing that and people are paying me a little bit, some money here and there to do it and I'm just applying the same things. I started hitting some some blockage.
Speaker 2:I started hitting some some some pretty big speed bumps because some of the things that I was applying with my dog weren't working the exact same way and I would. I would explain it um, like, uh, it was very, I was very rigid in how I was going about it and so I, I, I was applying these principles, but I didn't know how to bend the principles and match the method to that particular dog. And so for the next three years, as I'm developing my process and how I'm doing things with dogs, I'm really having a hard time because I don't understand, um, the wisdom or the self-control that, the balance in how I should be training and whatnot, and that was a. That was a bit of a um a difficult.
Speaker 2:That was a challenge for me. It really was. I was kind of stagnant for a little bit. Um but obviously we got past that and here we are, so yeah.
Speaker 1:So what were some of the things? I think that's an interesting thing about a, a well-trained dog, right? I mean, obviously that's what everybody wants, sure? Um, like, what were some of the things that your dog, that shadow, had or maybe not had? But like, were there things that you can point to to say, yeah, that's, this is why people were like, hey, can you do that with my dog? Like, how was she? What are some of? Maybe the? Um? Another way to ask it might be what are some of the key results of like that you say a well-trained dog acts like this or does these things?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, um, uh, in terms of reactivity, I would walk past dogs six feet or less away from me that they couldn't get to us, um, cause they were on a leash or what have you, and they would act just terribly, absolutely terrible, and their poor owners, they felt embarrassed. You know their dogs pulling like crazy and lunging and growling and trying to snap at me or my dog, and you know so. They would see the difference there, the contrast. My dog is looking and then she just doesn't care. Her body language doesn't skip a beat, she doesn't change her behavior even for a moment, kind of go. Hey, what is that? Why are you looking at me this way?
Speaker 2:it was just oh and she just keeps going and she's trotting next to me, which shows me that she's happy, um, and she looks up at me and I'm like good job, you know good job. She's like, yeah, I'm doing a good job, and so we're good job. She's like, yeah, I'm doing a good job, and so we're walking past these dogs, we're walking through highly populated areas, because I took her all over the place in New Orleans and I would heal her for miles and miles.
Speaker 2:I mean I think one time I healed her for about 10 miles and it was about five miles and then it was you can go run and play, and then it was you can go run and play, and then it was come back and heal. She needed a break and it took me a while to work her up to that kind of work, but she did fantastic, just absolutely fantastic. So that was part of it. And then I was able to, from 100 yards away about 100, 150 yards away, I could give her commands without saying a word and I could just point up and she would sit. I could give her commands without saying a word and I could just point up and she would sit. I could point down and she would lie down, no leash, nothing, and so I would. People would see that and they would see tons of people around their dogs and whatnot.
Speaker 2:And she was obeying me, she was focused on me, which, again, these are things that are hard to do with a Husky. And it's not again, it's not because they're just so darn stubborn. It's kind of like not every kid learns the same.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of kids probably learn similarly, so you can squeeze them into categories, but not every kid does, and you've got to be creative and so in that similar kind of process, I had to kind of bend things a little bit and, with her being able to do these distance commands, be focused on me and obey me, and do so cheerfully which actually I'll get into that in just a moment, because at first it was not but something, something changed in me which made me a better dog trainer, I think. But yeah, so she would do that and then I would, from 100 yards away, I would tell her to jump up on this platform and just stay there, and she would stay there for an hour or so. We'd be out in the park, we'd be out in Algiers or somewhere else on the West Bank, and she would just obey everything. Didn't matter what the context was. We'd be weaving in and out of people without a leash.
Speaker 2:Now, whether that was legal or not for me to do probably not At the time, you know, being younger and not as familiar with things, probably wasn't. But, um, people were enamored by it. They were just wow, we, we want, we want what you're doing. Can you do that with our dog?
Speaker 1:so that's kind of yeah started yeah, I mean that sounds amazing, all right, like that's. That's the kind of thing that everybody kind of dreams of, right, whether you're, no matter the type of dog. Um, so you had some some bumpy. Do you think some of that was your? Like you said, you spent hours and hours with that dog and she's your dog right.
Speaker 1:So how much of that is translates over into a dog trainer? Versus the owner who has that? I would assume I'm making some assumptions. Do does, would you say. Versus the owner who has that I would assume I'm making some assumptions. Would you say, does the owner have just a different bond with the dog?
Speaker 2:Well, I was being intentional in a very specific kind of way. I prefer I don't teach, excuse me, I don't take dogs away from owners anymore and train them. I did that early on and I would say that was great for me to learn, but it was absolutely terrible for the product that I was trying to achieve and it was necessary for me to find that and do that. And then stumble through all of it and then realize you know, I should probably change this up, stumble through all of it and then realize you know, I should probably change this up because the owners have all the continuity with their dogs. Um, you can't, you can't serve two masters. I can make myself your master for a short period of time and things can go really well, and then I can
Speaker 2:hand off back to your owner and things are going to be chaotic. So, uh, I don't do that anymore. Those were one of the bumps. One of the other bumps was, you know, in my much more formative years as a man and being in the Marine Corps, everything is very strict, very structured, very rigid, and that's the key word is rigid. It's very wooden, it's very black and white, and so, if things didn't go my way, I was harder on the dog.
Speaker 2:I was harder on the dog, um, and that was something that wasn't beneficial to me as a trainer and it wasn't beneficial for my dog's learning and growing process, so I had a lot of maturing to do throughout all of that and with any, with any art or skill.
Speaker 2:That's artsy and I would say dog training is is similar because you're dealing with organic they're, they're animals, they're not robots. Um, you can't just put hardware or software in. Everything's changed. Um, you really have to mold, and it's incremental, it's progressive, it just little by little, the steps in order to produce the thing that I was. I was getting um, so learning to be patient was a big one, um, and marine corps didn't set me up for that, not at all, not by a long shot. Uh, at least not to do so cheerfully and um, but going back to what you were saying, owners versus trainers, trainers understand canine behavior and they know how to respond appropriately. I wouldn't say, uh, respond um, the right way. I would say respond appropriately, because it's going to differ ever so slightly dog to dog, um, and it really depends on what the dog is doing and it really depends on what the dog is doing.
Speaker 2:So, if you know most of my clients, they're looking at me when I'm training a dog Me. I'm not looking at them, I'm looking at the dog and I'm looking at the dog's body language Now occasionally I will look at them because I want to see okay, why did the dog do that?
Speaker 2:And then I see the owner. The owner is tensed up, they're anxious, they've got a real firm grip on that leash and uh, they're. They're very, um, they're lacking confidence and whatnot. And that's a lot of what I do. It's when I'm teaching folks, folks, how to train their dogs, I'm uh teaching, uh encouraging and I'm I'm Well, that's really what I'm doing.
Speaker 2:I'm really encouraging them because I think everybody's got it in them. They have all the key ingredients, all the key elements, naturally, to be able to do this. It's just they've never done it before, and so I'm kind of helping to develop that in them. Why does my dog act this way? Well, we're looking at two different things. I'm looking at the dog's behavior. You might be looking at the other dog that has a problem with your dog. I'm looking at your dog. I don't care about the other person's dog, I care about your dog. So when I look at your dog, I can see all the problems, the small decisions that that dog is making, right then and there, and nobody is teaching him to do something different.
Speaker 2:So I can't fix the other dog because they haven't hired me, but I can help you fix your dog. So that's, that's the big difference. And me spending hours and hours and hours every single day on my dog, taking her for walks, doing training here and there, it wasn't one gigantic session that would have exhausted me emotionally and physically. It wasn't one gigantic session that would have exhausted me emotionally and physically. It's a very emotionally draining process to deal with an animal where you have to be stern one second and then, immediately after, you have to be very sweet and praise, praising them, and so your emotions are this and that, this and that, and if you control them well, you can do things at the right time with the right emphasis and so forth. So those are, um, are the right level, those are, um, some of the challenges, but those are the things that were helpful that while I was spending all this time with my dog, which is I was single at the time, so it was very much feasible. But looking back when, as a married man.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't have that much time Not, not at all. Okay, so I did that and I was able to pick up on my dog's behaviors in a variety of different situations and see her baseline. That's what made a big difference for me from going to just being a dog owner to beginning the process of becoming a dog trainer, and then I began to see it in other dogs and then I began to realize that I could. I could catch this If I could. If I could catch it at the right moment, when things are small, I can avoid the explosion with the dog. So that was that would be huge for me, especially like when I was starting out working very difficult dogs.
Speaker 2:That would just come at your throat. You know, I remember I went to New York city and stay with a family and they had a German shepherd and he would defecate all in the house and, um, they were kind of pulling their hair out but at the same time they were giving him Oreos and stuff. Um, but you know so, um. But I remember I didn't have any tools with me and we brought him down to ABC city and, uh, they were restraining him and he, he lunged at me, he jumped up in the air. It was about eight feet away, lunged up in the air, and I said, okay, let him go.
Speaker 2:And they said let him go and everybody walking by who wants this dog to get put down because of a terror he's been for fighting other animals um people's dogs or other people, little kids or whatever. I said, okay, let him go. And they said are you sure?
Speaker 2:And everybody is just watching people I've never met before and I said, yep, let him go. And as soon as he jumped up, you could hear the gasp at least 30 people in the air. You know like, oh no, what's gonna happen. And so I sidestepped just a couple feet and I grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and I, controlling the neck, I brought him down to the ground. I didn't slam him to the ground or anything like that, but I held him down and I had, I positioned myself over him where he couldn't. He couldn't struggle too much to where he could get up and I just waited and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited some more and everybody's freaking out, and eventually that dog just went and I let go, got up and he turned around and looked me on the face. I said, ok, you're ready to work, put a leash on him, let's go. And so that was. That was a very instrumental moment for me, just kind of you know, in the way of danger.
Speaker 2:This dog has his jaws open and he's jumping at my face midair, and I just kind of sidestep and, you know, help him out. In that moment Something he desperately wanted was who's going to pull my bluff card? Who's going to hold me accountable? Who's going to? Who's going to care enough to love me with some tough love? Who's going to who's going to do that? And I, I helped him in that moment. He, he loved me after.
Speaker 2:So how'd you know that would work? I didn't, it just did work. I, yeah, it just kind of worked. It was, um, I would never do that today. Um, looking back, you didn't, didn't know what you were. No, I'd been training dogs for about two, two and a half years and, um, for several months I had coaching and guiding um doing somewhat on the job, training. But that was from folks that they were. They would tell me hey, uh, when you get off work from the Marine Corps, uh, if we've got a dog for you to train, come over and we'll help you. We want you to train the dog that we're training and we'll teach you and we'll coach you and whatnot. I said great, most of those dogs were at midnight or at 2 am I was like good Lord man this is I'm tired.
Speaker 2:I don't know about you guys, but I'm tired and so it was. But I'm tired and so it was. You know, I, I didn't. What I lacked was a mentor through and through. So a lot of things I really had to learn just the hardest way, trying different things, stumbling through it. Well, that was a dead end. Well, that would. That didn't work. I messed things up with that dog while I did things good with that dog. What can I learn from both and um? So those were defining moments for me as a trainer. Um yeah, those were.
Speaker 2:Those were defining moments. So I but two, two and a half, three years in actually it was. It was two years, two years in when I went to New York. Yeah, just about 2017-ish, 2016, 2017. And I didn't know what I know. Now I look back and I'm like boy. That was foolish.
Speaker 1:Were you still in the Marine Corps at that time? Still in the Marine Corps? Okay, still in the Marine Corps. So it was still kind of side hustle, yep. So it was just the word just building People would refer you to somebody else, like people in New York. How did they find you?
Speaker 2:Well, that's a funny story, so that's actually probably a story for another time. These were folks that I knew. Um, I was just going to pay them a visit and it was kind of a vacation period for me so it was connection.
Speaker 1:It wasn't like you had a website, you're starting to get a following and you were getting people to bring you out to new york to train dogs.
Speaker 2:No, I had some friends in new york. They said, hey, you're dog training now and I said well, yeah, well, yeah, I kind of sort of am. I said, well, we could sure use your help with our dog. I said okay, sure, let's see what you got. And then it went from there. But in two days I had that dog healing with me around New York City. He wasn't reactive, we didn't have a big problem with other dogs and whatnot. And he active, we didn't have a big problem with other dogs and whatnot. Um, and he was super sweet and friendly with me, not just with his family, um, and people were asking me for business cards. I had some, just not with me. I left them in Louisiana. I didn't think I'd be doing this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, so so where'd he grow from there? You did it for a few years while you were in the Marine Corps.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, really, in 2017, March 23, 2017, I had a huge change in my life. A huge change in my life, um, I, the Lord, had saved me. I became a Christian Um, and that was the biggest defining moment for me, because a lot of the things that I was doing in my training practices, I realized I don't know if this is right anymore for me to do this this way. The way that I was taught Um and and some of it, just the way that I did it was my own fault. It was all my fault, but the um. So coming to grips with that and then trying to figure out now where can I go to find better practice, boy, that was hard.
Speaker 2:There wasn't much out there, um, there was a lot of good methodology, absolutely atrocious philosophy, um, and it was actually very detrimental. It didn't, it didn't line up with the methodology and the teaching. So all of the undergirding principles, they just it didn't, uh, it didn't match very well. But you see, these people are just brilliant dog trainers. They really know what they're doing, but they don't know why they're doing it, how they're doing it, um, why even can they do it? Um, and they just they're all very, they all seemed, when you talk to them, they seem just like they just had a rough go of things in life. And so I was sitting there like, well, I'd love to learn from these folks, but they just don't seem like kindred spirits.
Speaker 2:And so I actually started digging in to my faith as a Christian and began just scouring the Bible over and over and over and over and over and over again, and what I found were all the principles that I was applying, and then some, and then some more than that, and I began to just kind of sit there and meditate over them. And then I started to try to practice them and things changed. Things changed big time, and for the better. I started having much better results, um, and I started. You know, it's not that I'm doing things drastically different from folks who are not going to the bible. The bible is not a dog training book for one um, but it teaches on everything, and the principles it lays forth they're all there. So I took those principles and the ones that I already had and I began to see okay, now, how, how can I make this? How can I make these principles deliver to the animal in a way that honors God? That was the principle question that I was asking myself how can I do that? Because if I can't do that, what am I even doing?
Speaker 2:And a lot of that was just I need to be cheerful and joyful when I'm working the animal. If I'm working a problem dog, I don't need to come down hard on the animal. God considers our frame, where we are, and he works us accordingly. And then so I need to consider more Where's the dog at in the training process? Ground zero, step one, step two, step three? Where are they at? Where's their emotional state at? Um, you know where? Why are they acting the way that they are? Um, what are they missing? I walk into some homes and you know the animal, by and large, the. The problem is the animal is lacking discipline and structure, um, and once that's done, the animal is oftentimes lacking joy, and so I don't want an obedient dog, I don't want a happy dog, I want a cheerfully, joyfully, obedient dog, because that's what I'm called to be. So I need a dog to do that. And it really boiled down to I'm looking for someone to imitate. Who do I imitate? And then I found.
Speaker 2:Jesus, or rather he found me and pulled me out of my problems. And then I said well, if I want to learn how to train dogs better, I should probably imitate the perfect man. And that's where everything changed for me, and that's you know in terms of growth and whatnot. I left Louisiana, moved here after I got out of the Marine. Corps shortly thereafter and 2020, been here and I've been doing it ever since.
Speaker 1:So you really went full time at it after coming up here, yeah, yeah. So what would I mean? You mentioned a few different times these principles Back at the beginning. You talked about kind of how most everybody is working from the same principles. Sure, but they have different methodology, the principles that you were applying that. You then saw similar things in the Bible. What are a couple of those key principles with?
Speaker 2:dog training. Okay, so I'll give you a couple differences, I'll give you some and I'll give you the differences. So BF Skinner has a, it's not a diagram.
Speaker 1:It's a quadrant of training and it has.
Speaker 2:Uh, over here you have the positives, over here you have the negatives. Now, in dog training, positive doesn't mean that it's good, negative doesn't mean that it's bad it means addition, subtraction, so positive reinforcement you're adding a reinforce, reinforcer, um, positive punishment.
Speaker 2:So, or excuse me, positives over here, negatives over here. So, positive reinforcement, positive punishment. You're adding a reinforcer, adding a punisher. You're retracting a reinforcer in order to. You're retracting something in order to reinforce something. Or you are retracting order to reinforce something, or you are retracting something in order to punish the dog, like, in other words, a reward withholding a reward, like taking a privilege away, kind of a thing.
Speaker 2:Now, the differences for me in these would be one as a Christian, the punishing, although it's a biblical term and although previously people would have said well, we know what that means and we know how we should go about it, we know what the Bible says on that. Today, punishment seems to have taken a very different meaning, and it's more so wrath, anger, um just, there's a lot of ego involved, um, a lot of pride. Your pride gets pricked, you have bad expectations, you think yourself more highly than you ought and, um you, when your expectations are not met, you get angry and you take it out. That seems to be a more appropriate cultural understanding of the word punishment today.
Speaker 2:So the word that I use, the word that I prefer, is discipline, because discipline incorporates teaching, chastising a bunch of others, but for the animal, teaching, chastising, physical correction and then restoration, punishment, never incorporates those things. Now, if the dog does learn things from experiencing physical pain or physical discomfort, that's true, but teaching should always be done from a place of joy.
Speaker 2:It should always be cheerful and joyful. And you're building a tool, Chastising. You have your physical word that you don't want the dog to do something no off, whatever it is. And then you have your physical correction. There you have your leash pops, your scruffing, your a swat, whatever it is that you do, and then you have restoration. There's no restoration on the punisher side. Now where I can potentially get into trouble with this is that while I call it restoration, some other folks can call it something very similar. They can say they're recovering the dog, helping the dog, raising their spirits, and I think that's all perfectly fine. But I see this as I'm supposed to initiate, because God is the one who initiates. So I need to initiate the teaching, the chastising and the discipline and I need to initiate the restoration, so I bring the dog back.
Speaker 2:If I do this properly, then I should be able to say with the psalmist that Yahweh has disciplined me severely, but because of this, the gates of righteousness have opened up to me and I went through with thanksgiving to the one who disciplined me severely. But because of this, the gates of righteousness have opened up to me and I went through with thanksgiving to the one who disciplined me. Right and so that? These are some of the principles. And then it's well, the reason that your dog is acting out is because your dog doesn't think that they belong to your family. They don't. They don't belong to your household. Well, what on earth would make you make you think that? Well, because the bible tells me if you're without discipline, you're no legitimate child, and the same thing applies with the animal, in fact, everything um that lives underneath your roof, everything so um.
Speaker 2:If the animal is without discipline, they do not feel loved and they'll act out. They desperately need discipline and they'll act out, they desperately need discipline and they need a firm, self-controlled, cheerful hand. Uh, who's not going to abuse them? And typically I run into I run into folks regularly, um, that have a misunderstanding about the two terms, when I when I use them that way. When I'm dealing with um, I always try to deal with husbands and wives. Uh, if, if I'm dealing with, I always try to deal with husbands and wives.
Speaker 1:if I'm dealing with a family, Otherwise it's a little bit easier.
Speaker 2:But usually folks that have families. It's a little bit harder, but I'll tell them you need to discipline your dog, you need to recover your dog.
Speaker 2:You need to restore your dog and when they do it the first time it's clunky, it looks pretty bad. And that's where I come in and I just start encouraging them. It's okay, you can do it, you've got this, you've got all the ingredients already, I'm just helping you bring it out. And with that there's always challenges and learning and whatnot, problems you've got to work through. If they discipline too lightly, they're going to create big problems for the dog. If they discipline way too hard, if they're harsh in their correction and not only did they do that physically but also their demeanor was just angry then they're going to create a problem.
Speaker 2:You either have a dog who becomes very durable to correction, or you have a dog that becomes very fearfully obedient, so he's terrified and fear aggression could come out of that. Or he becomes aggressively, he becomes confident in that he can take corrections and then you have a different problem on your hand. So those are the two ditches under-correcting, over-correcting, and then in the middle you have just self-controlled discipline. It's severe for the occasion, it's good for the animal, good for the owner, and the dog loves the owner more. They trust the hand of correction just as much as they do the hand of affection. That's what we want. We don't want the dog to run away in fear. We want the dog to come to us. We don't want the dog to be afraid. So those are, those are the big principles. It's really just joy, discipline, discipline, joy.
Speaker 2:And if you screw up. If you screw up, then the way to fix that is restitution. That's a word that we don't really talk about a whole lot anymore. But restitution, Not with dog training, certainly, definitely not with dog training.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But that's if you screw up with disciplining your dog and you think oh golly, I messed up my relationship with my animal, now what do I do? Yeah, well, there is a way. There is a way to restore the animal's trust and to get things back on track where they need to be. So that's what I try to do with folks, and those are some of the principles at play. Those are the big ones.
Speaker 1:Yeah, interesting. Now you said that there's a lot of all dogs are different, right? Just like kids take instruction in different ways and that kind of thing. Sure how much of that, I guess. How important is that? How much of that goes into it? You know how important is a particular dog and the breed or the personality of the dog to those results.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's so. I think how I want to answer this, because it could go on for a while. I want to answer this because it could go on for a while and I think probably the best way to go about it is I have lots of families, lots of folks who ask me what dog should I get? I'm sure you do. What dog should I get? You know, I've got a big family. It's just me. You know, I'm a single guy, single gal.
Speaker 1:You know what do I do.
Speaker 2:What dog should I get? I used to tell folks a lot of different things, and now what I tell folks is I ask them a question. I say, okay, what do you want to manage for the rest of the dog's life? What's the thing that you want to have to be on top of? And what's the thing that you want to have to be on top of and, um, what's the detriment? And usually with your, with your, um, your herding dogs, uh, which can also fall in the category of your working dogs, uh, your shepherds, most of them is if you have a big family and you have little ones running around, then they're going to jump off all over the place, go after the kids, nip them in the ankles and try to herd them into a corner.
Speaker 2:That can be pretty painful for the children and the dog is not biting, but they are nipping. The dog is bred to do this. You're not going to get rid of it. It was put there by God.
Speaker 2:You're not going to get rid of it. Put there by god, you're not going to get rid of it. So, um, it just hundreds of years of breeding going into this one animal, uh, whatever it is. Um, that's the thing I always tell folks you can't fight this. You can manage it, but you can't fight it. So you've got to develop structure for the dog, things for the dog to do, to kind of mitigate these things. But don't think that you've fixed the problem. Uh, you can think of it like a besetting sin. It's always going to come back.
Speaker 1:So how do you want to deal with it?
Speaker 2:Now with other dogs, say the GSP or the Lab, it's different. So typically it's shedding an energy. That's really. Those are, generally speaking, the only things that folks have to manage.
Speaker 3:You know, I say, boy, if all you have to worry about is shedding and energy thank your lucky stars, man, you don't have a problem on your hand.
Speaker 2:They say, well, I don't really like the shedding. I was like well, I'm sorry, I don't know what to tell you, it's an animal. Well, I'm sorry, I don't know what to tell you, it's an animal. So the shedding and the energy, if you've got a big family, these dogs tend to do extraordinarily well. That's not to say that there are other dogs that won't. I have a big black Czechoslovakian, czech line German Shepherd. He's the sweetest dog. I can do bite work with him, tracking off leash obedience, but he's just super sweet and that's, um, that's something to be prized.
Speaker 2:When you're looking at guardian or working breeds, it's, uh, you don't want a guardian breed that's going to go haywire. Um, you know, and we're talking about the context of a family or, just as my working dog, if he's a police dog, that's a completely different story. Maybe some guys want a harder dog than others. Uh, for specific reasons, you know, depending on where they're at, where they're located in the jobs they typically come across. So, um, it just depends. But there's plenty of other breeds out there. The Bernie's Mountain Dog is one of them.
Speaker 2:A lot of the hunting dogs. They're excellent breeds, with the exception of maybe some and the ones that I don't recommend folks get, like the Australian Shepherd, the Blue Heeler, the Poodle. It's not because they're bad breeds, it's because it's not a good fit. It's not a good fit and I run into trouble with some folks because they say well, I think, that every dog should just be able to obey me, you know, or?
Speaker 2:I should just be able to love every dog and it should work just fine. I said, yeah, but it doesn't. The world doesn't work that way. It wasn't made that way. There's good fits and there's bad fits. Just like I couldn't marry just anybody and not just anybody could marry me. I have one wife, she has one husband, and we're a good fit for each other. Um, I can't, I can't. Um, it doesn't work that way.
Speaker 1:So, and if it, doesn't work that way.
Speaker 2:Good luck trying to make it work. I've never met anybody that can. I've never met anybody that can. You might be able to make most of it work, but that's about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, it's interesting that you keep coming back to the owners. You know, like talking about training, it's like you're training the owners in a lot of ways, more than you're training the dog. People ask you about what kind of dog to get. You're really more interviewing the owners, right? It's just interesting. You don't necessarily think about that. You kind of think of people who work with dogs, people with dog trainers. They're really animal focused. And it's not like you don't work with animals a lot.
Speaker 1:But you're only going to have success if you're working with the people, if you watch me walk with my clients when we're working their dogs.
Speaker 2:the thing that I'm honing in on is you is you need to correct that you weren't firm enough. You need to be more cheerful with your dog. You need to, um, be a little bit more bubbly and excited and um, uh, demonstrate that you are much more enthusiastic about your dog's performance here than you were there, and really it's their character. That's what I'm honing in on. I want them to have control over their emotions with regard with respect to the animal. That's a that's. That's more than half the battle. I mean, I can teach you how to use a prong collar, an electric collar, a choke chain, a Martingale system, whatever it is. I can teach you how to use a bunker. You know these are simple and very easy, but the self-control over your emotions and over your timing, your actions and where your eyes are wandering, those are hard. I will tell folks all the time you're not looking at your dog.
Speaker 2:You need to look at your dog. Stop looking at that dog. Look at your dog. Don't worry about that dog. Look at your dog. Your dog just made a bad decision. You didn't do anything about it, right? So the response, the weight of responsibility, is entirely on the owner. However, the dog is not perfect. The dog may have not sinned in the garden, but we sure did, and it affected them, and so, um you know, they're uh, they're 100% afraid of the image of God that's on man.
Speaker 2:So you know, with that in mind, yeah, you really shouldn't go up to random people's dogs and pet them. Why You're not their owner, you're not their master? Well, why would they be afraid of me? Because Genesis nine says they will be, because God made it that way. Are you going to try to undo that?
Speaker 1:What about?
Speaker 2:some dogs. Some dogs are Well, yeah, because these dogs, if they're afraid their fight or flight response, they come wagging their tail up to you. I give up, please don't beat me. Other dogs they run away. Other dogs, yet still they'll fight you. So it depends on what's going to happen. And then some dogs if you socialize them properly from a very young age, you can mitigate a lot of that.
Speaker 2:You're not going to make it perfect, but you can mitigate a lot. And typically those breeds are the ones that have a high threshold for their sociability. They just have a very high threshold for it. Their batteries are almost recharged Like. The Lab is a good example. The Golden Retriever, the English Lab, the American Lab, those are easy examples that I can just throw out there and everybody's like oh yeah, got it it. Yeah, these dogs are great. Um, an English Bulldog is another good one. These dogs do excellent in um big social environments.
Speaker 2:You take my German Shepherd and put him in the midst of 100 people, he'll freak out. He might bite somebody by accident. He could probably scare him. Um, if I put an English lab, american lab, in the midst of all those people who, he'll probably sit there and want everybody to pet him, go around and say this is great, this is good. He'll probably sit in the corner and come back out and you know he's um, this is, this is just the the breeding this is, this is the dog, and, uh, it's what I have to deal with.
Speaker 2:I can't fix that. I have to. There are constraints that I have to work around, so yeah, how early should somebody get started? Training their dog. Eight weeks, eight weeks, eight weeks, right when they come home. Yep, right when they come home.
Speaker 1:And how do I'm going to have to wrap it up, Yep? How do people find you to get started at eight weeks? Yep, it's kind of like.
Speaker 2:this is the time of year, everybody's getting puppies and it is, oh my goodness, and um, there's so many folks in this area that are having litters, um, tons of breeders, people who are wanting to be breeders. I just got a phone call the other day about some bernie doodle puppies that, uh, just they're uh, they're new, they're new and uh and they're they're beautiful, they're just gorgeous coat.
Speaker 2:but anybody who wants to get in contact with me, they can contact me through my website, 04k9.com. That's the letter o, the number four and a K and a ninecom. I've got a little tab there where they can contact me and it'll put in their information, a little blurb. Or you can email me at 04K9.training at gmailcom and you can also find my business cards at. Pets Are People Too. I work with them every now and then. Sometimes they'll see me training dogs in and out of there. You can find me walking down Moscow, downtown Moscow, training dogs around Main Street. I'm all over the place.
Speaker 1:Perfect. Yeah Well, thanks Blake. Super interesting, and I got some stuff to work on, so that's good too.
Speaker 2:Great Thanks, Blake. All right Appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Thanks for joining us. Like, share, subscribe. We'll see you next week.