The Primal Dog

08/17/2024

The one thing that will determine whether you are successful in your dog training endeavors, or not so much, is the attitude and approach taken. Those that come in looking for tips and tricks for fixing or eradicating a problem, and those who see training as going to the gym and getting in shape. To be successful requires lifestyle changes, commitment, consistency, and discipline, there’s no quick fix or tip that is going to build the foundation and relationship you require to have the life you are looking for with your dog. Successful,effective dog training is about learning how to understand and communicate with clarity with another species, and creating desired habits. There are no tips or tricks for this.

08/15/2024

In the Dog/Human relationship, there is one that takes action, and one that reacts. If you are constantly reacting to your dog’s actions, your relationship is upside down. Leaders Act, initiate movement, and control speed,direction, level of drive and intention of that action. Followers react or respond accordingly.
If you are struggling with your dog’s behavior, whatever it is, ask yourself how can I be proactive, instead of reactive?
Want a better relationship with your dog? Want to start enjoying life with well behaved dogs? Schedule a one on one consultation. In person training and Virtual anywhere in the world.

Whether you have just brought home your first puppy, have had dogs your whole life, just adopted a new dog, or are struggling with any behavior, we have a training program that will give you the results you need. All our training focuses on teaching the human how to develop the dog they want, preven...

08/13/2024

This is 💯. You can not let your dog practice what you want them to stop.

“It’s getting better” is the kiss of death phrase in rehabbing bad behavior, especially with “reactive” dogs.

If you want to eliminate a behavior from your dog’s repertoire, letting it occur occasionally will only make it stronger.

Randomly reinforcing behavior is very well documented as the best way to make behavior repeatable and resilient.

But - random reinforcement can bite you in the ass (quite literally) when it’s applied to behavior you want to eliminate.

A behavior that led to the dog’s success 10:10 times being reduced to 4:10 is only getting harder to eliminate.

That’s awesome if you’re trying to get your dog to come when called. Not so much when you want them to walk civilly past strangers on the street.

Here are the steps to eliminating objectionable behavior.

Recognize ALL the places the behavior occurs.
Stop letting your dog practice in every context.
Teach your dog a (good) replacement behavior.
Practice ONLY the good behavior until it becomes the new normal.

People often fail to recognize “all” the places “reactivity” occurs, choosing only to focus on contexts where they consider it offensive.

Most of the dogs I see that bark on walks also bark at the front door when I arrive. They sometimes bark for the owner's attention. They almost always bark at delivery drivers.

Now imagine your dog’s confusion when you’re out on a walk and tell him he can’t bark at people approaching you.

You encourage his barking in every context except this one.

So how is he supposed to learn?

When I hear an owner say “we’re working on it - it’s getting better”, all I hear is that random reinforcement is now in play and that means…

It’s getting worse in the long run.

You’ll hear a dog trainer talk about the importance of consistency.

Consistently means taking a holistic approach to behavior rehabilitation, and not trying to cherry pick only those things you don’t “like”.

08/12/2024

Group classes are starting up this week! We’re moving from Sunday to Saturdays, 6 pm for now. Can’t wait to see everyone!

08/12/2024

“Stop reading the internet, find a competent dog trainer.”

"I had a colleague ask me to create a post about positive reinforcement. She was curious about my response to prospective clients who specified or questioned whether I used positive reinforcement in my training. My colleague added that occasionally, she would get an inquiry that demanded only positive reinforcement training be used on their dog.

When she asks these folks what they mean, most people respond with the usual tropes about not wanting their dogs abused or injured. This is fair. I am concerned about the recent proliferation of ‘trainers’ being caught on camera physically abusing dogs. As trainers, we have a fundamental duty to prioritize the welfare of the dogs we work with. It’s crucial not to confuse some individuals’ misuse of training methods or tools with the appropriate applications of those things.

These are the landmines we face as a trade because our language has been hijacked. We argue over the semantics, even when the definitions are quite clear. Not that we wouldn’t use positive reinforcement, but as I stated in a previous post, it’s the intimation that we are using methods and/or tools that harm more than help.

The world wide web is a magical place. It enables folks to discover things they don’t know, but it requires some divination to transcend the first page of a Google search. There is always more information that reveals flaws in logic. It is human nature to be curious, but the internet has made us less so. And we cling to our confirmation bias.

In the information age, it can be challenging to sift through all the misinformation, as sensationalism often overshadows the details of any topic. Just look at how divisive politics and religion have become, and how difficult it is to hear news that isn’t tainted with opinions instead of facts."

The FB algorithms don't like links that take you off their property, so you can read the rest of the article at the link in the comments. If you are seeing this from a shared post, click on the image to take you to the original.

08/11/2024

Many people are ✨shocked✨ to see that my dogs aren’t super dog-friendly. They’re a dog trainer’s dog, how can they be so mean?

“Mean” because they don’t run up to other dogs, mean because they aren’t dying to meet your dog, mean because they don’t tolerate inappropriate behavior..

To me, they’re an example of dogs with healthy boundaries and relationships to others. It seems to be the “norm” for a lot of dog owners to expect other dogs to tolerate all of their own dog’s behavior. If your child was being harassed by another child, would you tell them to tolerate it? Of course not; we would intervene and the same should be happening for our dogs.

Any inappropriate behavior (posturing, face licking, jumping, excessive sniffing), or really any behavior that makes the receiving dog uncomfortable, should be interrupted or punished.

This can happen in two ways: we intervene which is the preferred method. If your puppy is face-licking your older dog and your older dog isn’t enjoying it/is trying to get away, etc, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to remove the puppy from the older dog. We should not except any dog to tolerate annoying behavior and we certainly don’t want to raise our puppies to continue this. Or if your male dog is excessively sniffing a female dog to the point she’s uncomfortable, you can interrupt or punish that with a “no,” a nick on the ecollar, separating them, etc. It is your responsibility to manage your own dog and advocate for others.

The other option is to allow the receiving dog to correct the inappropriate dog, but this is rarely efficient and should only happen under very strict circumstances. We never want to allow a dog we don’t know to correct our dog. There’s a good chance they won’t, which will teach tolerance, and there’s an equally good chance they will overcorrect, resulting in injury or fight.

Often a puppy is raised where other dogs are expected to tolerate behavior. One day the puppy runs up to a dog and starts behavior that they’ve rehearsed, the new dog doesn’t tolerate it and corrects the dog/starts a fight...

Read the full article here:

https://www.horizonretrievers.com/post/socialization-1

08/10/2024

"Biologically, dogs are not designed to ‘share’. They are designed to survive, come what may. Can they be made to share? To a point. A better question to be asked is can they be taught not to bicker? Of course. And as I state in all things, how much time do you have? Yes, there are exceptions to the rule, but in the case of resource guarding, it’s never organic.

It’s a survival tactic. Being defensive over food or other resources is a feature of evolution.

In the wild, once wild pups are old enough to move with the pack, they are at a higher risk of starvation. They are deemed mature enough to start accessing food when it’s available. The dam is no longer bringing food to them. She is bringing them to the food. The highest mortality rate among weaned wolf pups is through depredation of other predator species and starvation. Early on, they are indoctrinated into the art of defending that which they possess. It starts the first time they sidle up to the milk bar, moments after birth.

These instincts didn’t die on the domestication branch of the evolutionary tree. They accompanied the other genes that made wolves into Pugs or Maltese. Or in this case, Dachshunds. These instinctual drives are still very much intact. One of the primary complaints of dog owners is their dogs’ behavior around food, toys, or sleeping areas.

People freak out when I tell them it’s natural."

Read the whole thing here- https://lionheartk9.com/littermate-syndrome/

08/10/2024

To those contemplating the rehoming of a pet, this is not intended to cause shame or guilt, but rather to encourage thoughtful consideration.

It is essential to recognize that there is no ideal home where individuals magically acquire more time or resources. Similarly, there is no farmer in need of an untrained dog, nor is there a rescue organization with unlimited resources and time to devote to every dog.

The reality is that many well-behaved and loving dogs languish in shelters and foster care for extended periods, sometimes exceeding a year, without receiving any adoption applications.

Before resorting to rehoming, it is crucial to exhaust all available options and make every effort to ensure a successful and fulfilling life for your pet. This may involve seeking professional training, exploring alternative care arrangements, or addressing any behavioral challenges.

Remember, rehoming should only be considered as a last resort, and every effort should be made to find a suitable and loving home for your pet.

08/10/2024

Picture Stolen from my friend’s refrigerator!😂😂😂(along with the leftover chicken enchiladas)🙄😋

08/09/2024

OLYMPIC ATHLETE OR ARMCHAIR QUARTERBACK?
Before you get a high drive working breed,ask yourself if you are adequate for the dogs energy level. Don’t get a sport or working dog if you are a lard ass couch potato. You need to be equal or above your dogs energy requirements. That means that you signed up to become an athlete if you weren’t already. Sitting on your ass and getting mad and correcting your dog for barking, howling, jumping, destructive behavior, etc is unfair and abusive when you aren’t providing any outlet for their biological drives. I can’t fix your dogs behavior when your behavior is the problem. GO RUN YOUR DOG! 🐕 🐾🏃🏽‍♀️🐾🏃‍♂️🐾🐕

08/08/2024

The Long and the Short of it. How to stop puppy barking by preventing it in the first place...

"One thing people overlook is not allowing the puppy out of the crate until it is calm. I do not permit dogs to exit the crate in a heightened state of arousal. The dog must sit, stand or lie down patiently as I approach, and until I extract the dog on a leash and collar. This is important because we tend to ‘feed’ the wrong emotional state, creating more excitement, and therefore more resentment for being confined.

Every approach should be quiet and casual. We start initiating a ritual about crate confinement and exiting from the very first moment we bring your new puppy home to help inoculate against stress around confinement. We practice these things in advance of our need. We don’t wait until the puppy needs to go the bathroom before practicing ‘waiting’ in the crate, we practice ‘waiting’ first before the puppy ever has to relieve itself.

The third factor is ‘being comfortable with being uncomfortable’, at least for the first few days your new puppy is home. Make sure your puppy is taken out to relieve itself the very last thing before turning out the lights, and set your alarm every few hours during the night to take your puppy out before he wakes you up. The reason this is important is because of the precedent we wish to establish regarding being quiet while confined.

If I allow my puppy to get emotionally overcome and it starts to make noise and I sympathize or get frustrated and release it, I have signalled that noisemaking is rewarded. If I make small sacrifices early and take the puppy out before it makes noise, I am essentially rewarding silence. Yes, it is inconvenient, but that inconvenience is temporary."

Read the rest of the article at the link in the comments.

08/08/2024

08/02/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/jMP29S7BawMTdgKa/?mibextid=0TepDJ

08/01/2024

It’s easy to blame and critique those in the positive only/force-free world who sell snake oil rather than results.

But no one sells snake oil unless there’s demand for it and plenty of benefits. Benefits like reputational safety, status elevation via false virtue, and of course money.

And so if we’re going to be honest, and take responsibility for our part, we have to acknowledge that the monster eating the training industry—and causing countless dogs to suffer needlessly, be doped up on ineffective psychotropics, and yes, be euthanized (because *shock* training approaches which don’t align with reality aren’t able to help)—then we have to take a hard look at the part we’ve played in creating the demand that those who are either unscrupulous, opportunistic, naive, or indoctrinated—or all of the preceding—are happy to fill… at your’s and your dog’s expense.

Perhaps it’s time we shift our scorn and derision from those providing what’s demanded to those doing the demanding? Zak, Karen, Ian, Victoria, and the rest of the charlatan crew are simply providing what you’ve asked of them.

And the truth is, bullsh*t only survives as long as it receives the support and nurturing and “oxygen” it requires. And the reality is, we all know better. You’re just prioritizing your feelings over your dog’s wellbeing.

You know, choosing the gift of suffering wrapped up in the pretty outer packaging of toxic and superficial empathy and kindness.

Is it the drug dealer (supplier of delusion) or the drug seeker (pursuer of delusion) who’s to blame? Because we all know you don’t get the former without the latter.

07/23/2024

Move with purpose and leadership energy!

07/23/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/TA8sWVL5G45HLq9A/?mibextid=NoJtEM

07/22/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/uN9Y6kFsdinmqRTS/?mibextid=NoJtEM

07/18/2024

07/18/2024

Trainers routinely watch dogs play the game of offering their best to those who demand it and offering something very different to those who don’t.

The sheer number of highly trained dogs running around pretending not to know anything is one of the greatest ruses ever pulled on permissive and/or gullible owners.

This is why your trainer can’t (or shouldn’t) make any guarantees about how the dog will behave with you—because if you won’t hold the dog accountable for what it knows and is capable of, your dog’s “memory” will be impressively brief.

Of course your trainer has to train you as much as they do the dog—or more—but once that knowledge is passed along, only one party can make the new reality… reality.

And yes, you can feel free to substitute child for dog if that helps bring more clarity to this dynamic that you’ve almost certainly seen in other contexts.
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For seminar or shadow program dates/tickets, training courses and books, or hands-on training (Louisiana and PNW areas) please visit: www.thegooddogway.com

07/18/2024