The DOuG Trainer

11/10/2022

We've been told it can take three to four weeks to train a dog.

Honestly, it starts happening in minutes, not weeks.

First, once a year on average, a brand new client calls less than a day after starting training, and asks, “Doug, did you switch my dog?” Yes, that's how quick it can be.

Secondly, it's not dog training, it's *human* training.

• Do what Nature programs into every dog.
• Don't do what Nature *doesn't* have programmed.

Do and “don't do” the right things, and your relationship with your dog will be effortless, and your training successful.

Doug Parker
The DOuG Trainer

11/07/2022

Don’t Praise a Dog—Reward Them With Submission

High energy dogs have problems. High energy dogs are the dogs that have those problems, not the relaxed, submissive ones. So why do trainers insist on and recommend praising a dog?

Praise—high pitched baby talk with “Good girl!” or “Good boy!” for example—*raises* a dog's energy level, and since higher energy level dogs are the dogs that have problems, STOP PRAISING DOGS. But then how does a dog get rewarded? It's not what you think, and it's not what you've been told.

Submit Your Dog

Learn to reward your dog with submission instead, because even though you don't know it yet, eye contact is the reward. “Eye contact” needs its own chapter, book, movie, and series, frankly. It has been misunderstood for too long.

It takes hours to retrain a human to see, understand, embrace, and adopt the new foundation needed to understand how it all works. I have no negative Yelp reviews and I have no negative Google reviews since 2014.

Respectfully submitted.

Doug Parker
The DOuG Trainer
7 2 5 . 2 2 2 . 3 6 8 6

11/01/2022

Delilah and Gidget's owners have RDL training starting Friday. Snow? They're in Henderson—the photo is old, but too cute not to use.

06/07/2022

If you're not following Nature's way, your dog is living a life full of stress—stress you don't even know you're causing. Stressed dogs live shorter lives. That's common sense, because doctors have been telling us for decades, “Get rid of stress!”

If you don't have a training or leadership model, if you don't know if you're following Nature or not, then odds are you aren't following Nature, and your dog's life is full of stress. Those facts have already been established.

Common sense says to

1) do what Nature does, and
2) don't do what Nature doesn't do.

When you do, you'll be successful, your dog will be relaxed and submissive. The problem, though, is that nobody knows if they're doing it right. Also, there's nobody telling them if they're doing it right or wrong. Most owners end up doing an unhealthy mix of 1, 2, 3, and 4,

3) doing what Nature doesn't do, and
4) not doing the things Nature does do.

Reflective Dog Leadership is modeled after Nature. It triggers your dog's relaxation and voluntary submission. How quickly? Once a year I get a call from an owner, less than 24 hours later, playfully but seriously asking, “Doug, did you switch my dog!”

You always want a relaxed, voluntarily submissive dog, with a cold, wet nose and open-mouth breathing. Once you have them there, keep them there.

Respectfully submitted.

Doug Parker
The DOuGTrainer
725.222.3686

05/26/2022

For Dogs, Lower Energy Levels Is and Are Best

Lower energy dogs have fewer problems. High energy dogs are out of control; they have more problems. You always want a lower energy dog. Sleeping is what they do best. There's a reason Nature has it that way. You may not know it yet.

Each following point needs additional explanation to be fully understood. None of them can be applied on their own, nor should they. Each is but a tiny introduction to you, Nature, and Nature's programming that you'll find in every dog. Nature's way too complex to be put it into bulleted lists. Nonetheless, it's still a good place to start.

• Laying on its side is lower and better than laying on its belly.
• Tucking its paws underneath is better than not tucking them.
• No tail wag is better than wagging its tail, for a lot of reasons.
• Sitting itself down at a distance is better than coming to you.
• Sitting quietly in front of you is better than jumping on you.
• Sleeping is better than sitting up or running around.
• Relaxed dogs are better than excited, wild, out of control dogs.

Cold, wet noses are better than warm, dry noses.
Open mouth breathing is better than closed mouth breathing.

You always want a relaxed, voluntarily submissive dog, with a cold, wet nose and open mouth breathing. Once you have him there, keep him there.

Respectfully submitted.

Doug Parker, The DOuGTrainer

04/11/2022

Warm, Dry Noses on a Dog are a Bad Thing

A warm, dry nose means their nose has gone offline. Noses work best when they're cold and wet; they're supposed to be that way.

When noses are dry, when noses don't work, ears work overtime, and that's a double or triple train wreck, for you and for your dog.

Get your dog's nose to be cold and wet. Getting noses to be cold and wet is what I train the human to do.

You always want a relaxed, voluntarily submissive dog, with a cold, wet nose and open mouth breathing. Once you have him there, keep him there.

Respectfully submitted.

Doug Parker, The DOuG Trainer
DOuGTrainer, public FB group
www.DOuGTrainer.com

Doug Parker is The DOuGTrainer“We’ve lost sight of how to raise, relate to, and be leaders for our dogs. We’re labeling their behaviors and paying more attention to the labels than paying attention to their behaviors.” This is gold. —Nicola CataldoIt’s a new paradigm, and it’s simple: ...

02/14/2022

Dogs with warm, dry noses are a sign of a stressed, 5-10 level dog.

Closed mouths most of a dog's waking hours is another sign of a stressed, 5-10 level dog.

Glassy eyes is a sign of a stressed, 5-10 level dog.

Hypersensitivity to sounds is a sign of a stressed, 5-10 level dog.

You always want a 0-5 level, relaxed, voluntarily submissive dog with a cold, wet nose, open mouth breathing, without any glassy look in its eyes, that does not overreact to sounds in its environment.

Doug Parker, The DOuG Trainer
DOuGTrainer, public FB group
www.DOuGTrainer.com

Doug Parker is The DOuGTrainer“We’ve lost sight of how to raise, relate to, and be leaders for our dogs. We’re labeling their behaviors and paying more attention to the labels than paying attention to their behaviors.” This is gold. —Nicola CataldoIt’s a new paradigm, and it’s simple: ...

11/26/2021

Aggression Is Not "The Thing to Get Rid Of"

Most people haven't been told this, but aggression is always TWO things, not just the aggression. Aggression is always:

1. something else causing the actual aggression,
2. and the aggression itself.

When that OTHER thing gets to be too much, Nature triggers a dog's aggression as the way to tell you and I *how bad that other thing has now become.* It's the dog's outside indication of how bad the inside condition has become for it. *Becoming aggressive* is the way Nature makes the dog *turn it up to 11,* and tells you and I it just crossed 10 and went to 11.

Fix the OTHER thing—figure out what the other thing is, address it correctly, and eliminate the OTHER thing—and the aggression will go away.

You can't and you don't fix aggression directly: you always have to fix the OTHER thing to eliminate a dog's aggression.

Always work with an experienced and knowledgeable trainer when dealing with any dog's aggression—it's a fire you don't want to play with.

Respectfully submitted.

Doug Parker, The DOuG Trainer
DOuGTrainer, public FB group
www.DOuGTrainer.com

11/17/2021

Dog's Noses Should Be Cold and Wet: Reflective

Dog's Mouths Should Be Open Most of the Time

(Photo: wagwalkingweb)

09/03/2021

Dogs Have Cold, Wet Noses and Open-mouth Breathing

Get a relaxed, voluntarily submissive dog. They should have cold, wet noses and open-mouth breathing: most don't.

If they don't, they're stressed out.

Respectfully submitted.

Doug Parker, The DOuG Trainer
DOuGTrainer, public FB group
www.dougtrainer.com

Doug Parker is The DOuGTrainerIt’s a new paradigm, and it’s simple: if you don’t see positive changes in your dog’s behaviors, you don’t pay. Why pay in advance for services that never get delivered? Why pay afterward for substandard results?If You Don’t See It, You Don’t PayTrainers c...

08/31/2021

Effective Dog Training in Minutes, not Weeks

“It takes weeks to start to rehabilitate a dog.“ That's false.

Some of the fastest happen, in real time, in seconds, right in front of their eyes. Videos prove it over and over again.

That's how robust and fast Nature is and how quickly Nature‘s effects are able to be seen—but human awareness has to be in parallel with Nature’s programming programmed within all dogs. No surprise: it's really *human* training—not dog training.

Most traditional training and most traditional home training results in high energy, stressed, anxious, 5-10 level, not-relaxed dogs.

Relaxed, 0-5 Level Indicators

0-5 level, relaxed dogs, have cold, wet noses. They breathe most of the time with their mouths open, with the characteristic “Heh, heh, heh" sound we're so used to hearing, but which is so surprisingly missing. They bark relatively little. They're not hypersensitive to sounds, they don’t have glassy eyes, and they normally sleep a lot during the day.

You always want a relaxed, voluntarily submissive dog. Once you have them there, keep them there.

Respectfully submitted.

Doug Parker, The DOuG Trainer
DOuGTrainer, public FB page
www.DOuGTrainer.com

Doug Parker is The DOuGTrainerIt’s a new paradigm, and it’s simple: if you don’t see positive changes in your dog’s behaviors, you don’t pay. Why pay in advance for services that never get delivered? Why pay afterward for substandard results?If You Don’t See It, You Don’t PayTrainers c...

08/27/2021

We think it's about what we say to dogs, but that‘s wrong. That's misinformation that causes all sorts of problems. It's a doing thing, not a speaking thing.

It's all about their behaviors. We need to learn what that means. It takes a bit of focused attention and effort.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/400327854385128626/

Respectfully submitted.

Doug Parker, The DOuG Trainer
DOuGTrainer, public FB page
www.DOuGTrainer.com

Discover even more ideas for you

07/05/2021

Dogs: Open-mouth Breathing and Cold, Wet Noses

Dogs are nose-centric; they're supposed to use their noses all the time. If their noses are dry, then their nasal passages are dry. If they're nasal passages are dry, their noses aren't working. If their noses aren't working, they use their ears in place of their noses. When they listen rather than smell, that's where the trouble begins, and these problems are always the same.

High energy, out-of-control dogs are usually hypersensitive to the sounds in their environment. They're not supposed to be that way, though. Getting them relaxed and voluntarily submissive again is where I come in as a trainer. No collars, no clickers, no treats: I use nothing but patience.

Cold, wet noses and open-mouth breathing: that's what you want to see in every dog.

Doug Parker
DOuGTrainer public FB group
The DOuG Trainer — worldwide, live video dog training
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06/23/2021

Please share, and help this young man out. Contribute what you can. Good people can have bad things happen to them.

Please reach help he and his dogs through this go fund me campaign to help them all get past this rough period:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/new-home-for-me-and-my-three-dogs

I'll be training all of them in the future. Oh my gosh does he love his boys!

Thank you!

Just when I thought my life was going good, life goes and throws a curveball I nev… Nicholas Higgins needs your support for New Home for me and my three dogs

06/04/2021

When You Look at Your Dog, Do They Get Excited, or Do They Yawn and Submit?

Relaxed and submissive dogs are best. Time to start talking about the elephant in the room: higher energy in dogs and leaving your dog in higher energy states is bad.

For some reason, most owners seem to prefer having their dogs being excited, out of control, and off the charts. Being relaxed and submissive, though, is WAY more important and far better for them. "Excited dogs are better" is a huge pile of misinformation; high energy, anxious, not-relaxed dogs are the dogs that have problems.

Relaxed dogs don't have problems. Since 2009, I've never received calls from owners of relaxed, submissive dogs asking me to help them with their dog's problems, because relaxed dogs don't have problems. It's the 5-10 dogs that are always the ones that are out of control.

Dogs should spend a majority of their time snoozing, not barking, not pacing, not acting like a sentinel. Sleeping is one of the things they do best. If they're sleeping, they're reinforcing their relaxed, voluntarily submissive role that Nature intended them to follow.

Submit your dog.

When you look at and interact with your dog, don't raise their energy level, DECREASE IT! They need LOWER levels of energy, not higher levels. If you're not consciously making the effort to do it, nobody will. That means they're getting filled with the wrong stuff—with higher and higher energy, when they need relaxation and submission—and that higher energy you're feeding them is something that over their lifetime will stress them out: stress is bad for humans and it's bad for dogs as well. Stress shortens both our lives.

Patiently wait for your dog to show you behaviors showing any of the dozens of levels of "progress toward submission." It's complicated, there's lots more to it, but that's the Cliff Notes version.

You always want a relaxed, voluntarily submissive dog. Once you have them there, keep them there.

Respectfully submitted.

Doug Parker
The DOuG Trainer
DOuGTrainer my public FB group
www.DOuGTrainer.com

05/31/2021

Dogs Always Need More Time, Not Less Time

What do I mean? If any dog gets forced to do anything, they're going to get aggressive—the aggression is their way of saying "Do not coerce me.“ Frankly, it's Nature saying, "Do not coerce My dogs.“

If you're given two, novel methods to address a problem with your dog, always choose the longer of the two. Why? Because when you truly understand how important it is to NOT coerce a dog, your choosing the longer of the two methods best sets your dog up for success, through providing him the most amount of time he can receive, and that's always going to be the better approach. Do not choose quick solutions, since those imply coercion.

That's the rationale for why all collars are bad and don't work, because collars coerce a dog to do something—the coercion will stress him out.

Worse yet, when a collar is triggered, when the dog's anxiety goes sky high, when your dog's got no target onto which to address his aggression from the collar's triggering, the dog becomes more and more spring loaded to be aggressive some time in the future when the aggression will come out. Most likely it'll be really bad.

The best relationship is based on any dog's relaxation and voluntary submission. If you know how Nature works, you can trigger any dog's voluntary submission. That's the best thing, that's the best way, and that's what Nature does all the time, She gets them to voluntarily submit.

You always want a relaxed, voluntarily submissive dog. Once you have him there, keep him there.

Respectfully submitted.

Doug Parker
The DOuG Trainer
DOuGTrainer, my public FB group
www.DOuGTrainer.com

Doug Parker is The DOuGTrainerIt’s a new paradigm.The change you’ll see in your dog’s behavior is almost instantaneous, because it’s Nature’s natural programming. If you don’t see it, if you’re not witnessing Nature’s “amazing,” instant change, then you don’t pay.You invite me ...

05/27/2021

Cold, Wet Noses, Open-mouth Breathing

If your dog's not there, they need to be there. Why?

If their nose is dry, it's stopped working. Dogs are nose-centric. If their nose isn't working, Nature makes up for the loss by making them use their ears more, accentuating sounds in their environment. The ears take over, the slippery slope starts, and the problems begin. Dogs are built to be "nose-eyes, not ear-eyes."

Open-mouth breathing checks off three or four key needs, including hormonal triggers, relaxation, yawning, and submission. Every dog falls asleep. When you trigger the oxymoronic "voluntary submission," everything begins stacking up in your favor.

Respectfully submitted.

Doug Parker
The DOuG Trainer
www.DOuGTrainer.com
725.222.3686

03/29/2021

The Canine Misinformation Bubble

This is one of the diagrams I give you in training. You use it to trigger Nature's programming that's in every dog. It results in your dog's relaxed and voluntary submissions, and all good stuff comes from that.

Unfortunately 85% or more of owners, respectfully, are inside what I call "The Canine Misinformation Bubble." (See the graphic.)

If I do what Nature needs me to do, and if I *don't do* the things that Nature doesn't want me to, then I end up in column (4) with an essentially effortless relationship with my dog. However, most owners are in columns (1), (2), or (3), with dogs showing problems.

It's a powerful tool. It takes time to understand, but once it's understood, it raises one's self into a new and powerful level of awareness with your dog.

Respectfully submitted.

Doug Parker
The DOuG Trainer
DOuGTrainer public group
725.222.3686

03/05/2021

When you're in a relationship with your dog, your dog submits to you. Your dog's submission is

• its behavior
• its communication
• and its personalized relationship feedback via its behavior.

When you really engage with your dog, all three get nurtured at the same time, making all three more relaxed, more voluntary, and more submissive. That's exactly how you become your dog's best leader.

There are five things I tell my clients to do with their dogs. These have to be done with every dog:

1. be patient,
2. be patient,
3. be patient,
4. be patient,
5. and, finally, be patient.

When you do these—which is hard because the human culture teaches us otherwise—you win, your dog wins, and on multiple levels everyone wins.

You always want a relaxed, voluntarily submissive dog. Once you have him there, keep him there.

Respectfully submitted.

Doug Parker
The DOuGTrainer
725.222.3686
Training using effective, world-wide, live video training across the globe or in your home if you're in the Henderson, Las Vegas area.

03/03/2021

When I train a new dog, results are immediate; permanent results get cemented into place over time, depending on every owner's patience, dedication, consistency, and awareness. That should make sense.

If the patience isn't there, then the dog isn't given the time to cautiously assess that it's safe to submit to you, be your follower, and put you in the leadership role.

If the dedication isn't there, then the dog doesn't receive the repetition of the new pattern you want to establish: dogs are pattern recognition units on four paws. Give them a new pattern, it replaces the old ones, and they're programmed to help you repeat the new one.

If the consistency isn't there, then your efforts are all across the road, when Nature requires the same pattern, over, and over, and over again, so he can detect the new pattern. If you're sloppy on the delivery of the pattern, well, then your dog learns sloppiness. You don't want that.

If the awareness isn't there, then that's a shortfall that only you can fix, because it's an inside job. Interestingly, dog training is really human training: how is it that remote, video training works? I'm not working with the dog over the video, I'm working with the human. When the human changes, the dog instantly changes. We've been told the wrong thing. It's not the dog getting trained, it's the human training that's happening.

Dog leadership is a race where the last one crossing the finish line wins. The first time you do something new with a dog is when it's going to be the hardest and take the longest. The most important jobs you do with your dog are going to be the longest and the most *uninteresting* to you—be ready for it.

You always want a relaxed, voluntarily submissive dog. Once you have him there, keep him there.

Respectfully submitted.

Doug Parker
—The DOuGTrainer
+1.725.222.3686

01/10/2021

SUBMIT YOUR DOG: DON'T PRAISE THEM

0-5 level, relaxed dogs generally don't have problems; 5-10 level dogs do.

So, if the high energy dogs are dogs with the problems—and they generally are—what sense does it make to use high-pitched baby talk, raising their excitement level? Time to stop using baby talk; just because it's easy to do doesn't make it right nor in your dog's best interest.

Here's another controversial but common sense stance: no more praising your dog. "Good boy" and "good girl" raises their energy levels. High energy isn't what's needed. It's not what's best. Instead of praising your dog: *submit your dog.* Learning what it means *to submit your dog* takes some time and effort to learn.

Traditional training will probably continue to support *praising of dogs* for a long time, but face it: it's still in conflict with common sense. It's also out-of-line with Nature.

Respectfully submitted,

Doug Parker
The DOuG Trainer
DOuGTrainer group on Facebook

11/02/2020

Eye Contact Triggers Sleep, but Can Also Trigger Aggression

Traditional, conventional training can only go so far, and hasn't really progressed much for as long as I can remember. To have a better relationship with your dog, put aside the things you've learned or been told about conventional training.

Nothing gets done quickly when working with a dog. Given two different ways to fix an issue with a dog, one promising a fix in a short amount of time and the other promising a longer time frame, always opt for the longer of the two: dogs need time to voluntarily submit. That's why all electronic collars are a fail; no shock collar will ever get a dog to do anything voluntarily.

Traditional training also says to "never look a dog in the eye." That's only one part of the truth. Unfortunately, the lie lives on.

With the right foundation, behaviors, and patient approach, eye contact can sometimes trigger submission even in an out-of-control dog. Meet Bambino. His behavior is the proof:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlIOksCcPJA

You always want a relaxed, voluntarily submissive dog. Once you have him there, keep him there.

Doug Parker
facebook.com/TheDOuGTrainer
DOuGTrainer - DOuGTrainer FB group
7 2 5 . 2 2 2 . 3 6 8 6

Bambino is a three year-old mixed breed with severe aggression issues. His owner contacted The DOuGTrainer for help. The DOuGTrainer was able to determine th...

09/14/2020

Obedience is an Indicator

Things we don't talk about as dog owners and leaders:

A) Tricks come second or third, and
B) the *relationship* comes first.

Most trainers immediately start working on tricks, claiming that "the dog's doing tricks" shows obedience. In Reflective Dog Leadership, that's backwards: instead, obedience indicates a relaxed dog, and relaxed dogs have the ability to learn to do tricks. Obedience is an *indicator,* not a fact.

Dog's Energy Levels

Dogs are either 1) 0-5 relaxed, or 2) 5-10 not relaxed.

A 0-5 level, relaxed dog has the ability to be obedient and learn tricks. A 5-10 level, not-relaxed dog doesn't have the ability to be obedient: they won't learn tricks.

Once you know any dog's *energy level,* which tells you their *obedience level,* that tells you when they're able to learn tricks. Don't start trick training until you're sure your dog is 0-5 relaxed, and not 5-10 not-relaxed, or you're wasting your time and money.

Doug Parker
The DOuG Trainer
725.222.3686

09/14/2020

Don't buy quick fixes for your dog; 1) dogs respond poorly to quick fixes, and worse yet 2) you sidestep you and your dog's relationship. Stop and think about that for a bit.

Dog leadership is a race where the *last* one crossing the finish line wins—that will always be your dog. That makes sense. Since you're in a relationship with your dog that's built on their true, voluntary submission, the dog needs as much time as it needs for its internal factors to resolve so it can voluntarily submit to you.

You can't force that or speed it up. If you *DO* force it—like with a shock collar, for example—then you're coercing the dog and using force, not getting voluntary submission: that use of force will fail.

If you know of two ways to address a problem with your dog, always take the one with the longest time requirement—not the shortest. Why? Because by choosing the longest path, you maximize the amount of time the dog needs to get its internal planets aligned so that it *can* voluntarily submit to you.

It's science. Yes, it takes longer, but the beautiful payback is that it results in a) a better relationship and b) a more relaxed, more submissive dog.

Doug Parker
The DOuG Trainer
725.222.3686

05/22/2020

This is a direct challenge to the current “praise your dog” standard.

Who do we say “Good boy!” for?

We don't think about it, but what if we did...

Dogs don't understand words. Dogs need to be and *must be* relaxed, otherwise, they have problems. Read on: https://qr.ae/pNy9vE

Doug Parker's answer: Don’t praise your dog: please suspend all judgments until the end. This answer 1. will take a widely opposite view, 2. will offer reasonable proof of itself, 3. will incorporate common sense, and 4. will challenge your current view and assumptions of what’s right and wrong....

05/17/2020

Dogs that are learning from their owners how to be relaxed, voluntarily submissive, calm, and balanced again.

04/02/2020

The Canine Misinformation Bubble—it's not a good place to be. Nobody knows when they're in it or not, and nobody tells us when or if we're operating from inside it or not... but Nature gives us clues to answer that question all the time. Nature gives us clues through our dog's behaviors.

You always want a relaxed, voluntarily submissive, calm, balanced dog. We're not talking about its *spirit* here—that's something totally different. We're talking about its daily range of energy during its waking hours. Nature intended dogs to be sleeping most of the time.

Cold, wet noses are an indicator, as are warm, dry noses. Open-mouth breathing is an indicator, and so is closed-mouth breathing.

• A cold, wet nose, and open-mouth breathing are good, positive indicators.
• A warm, dry nose, and closed-mouth breathing are negative indicators.

Doug Parker
The DOuGTrainer

04/01/2020

Do you have a 0 - 60 dog living in a 5 mph zone? Learn how to slow his roll with "LIVE" video-based training, now available. Give me a call, 725.222.3686 or visit my site, dougtrainer.com for details.

02/18/2020

Learning the human's always the leader, Duke and Harley are three month-old sheepadoodle brothers. They're leap frogging each other in terms of who's becoming truly relaxed quicker.