Roots K9 is a dog training service in Norman, Oklahoma specializing in relationship-based dog training, on and off leash.
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https://www.rootsk9.com/blog/2023/3/4/heres-the-thing-about-giving-your-dog-a-job
When it comes to obedience training, dog owners are often told to give their dog a job. However, this can be an overwhelming task when you have kids or other obligations. Learn why our obedience training program takes a different approach.
https://www.rootsk9.com/store/errorless-potty-training-digital-download
Our newest digital product - an ✨ errorless ✨ Potty Training Guide to help you break up with your enzyme cleaner for good!
Did you just bring home a new puppy and already your back, knees, and brain are hurting from cleaning up all the accidents? Or maybe you have an older dog that has established up some seriously bad potty habits through the years, and you don’t know if it’s fixable or not. Never fear, our no-nons
https://www.rootsk9.com/blog/2023/2/22/dog-training-is-terrible
Dog training is terrible, in fact it can be a giant pain in the ass. Getting a puppy is fun, petting them is great, watching them play with your kids is usually cool. But the thing about dogs is they just keep on….behaving…long after your’e done petting them or playing with them. You have to c...
We are very excited to announce our first digital product!
This 38 page book is a no-nonsense guide to start repairing your relationship with your dog. Maybe you been overly permissive with your dog and you are realizing the unhealthy state of mind it has created. Maybe you’ve been too harsh with your dog - yelling when you know you shouldn’t. Maybe you just got your puppy, you follow my page for inspiration and education, and you want to cruise on by any potential behavioral problems 😎
This book is for you if you want to have a healthy, functional relationship with your dog, period! With all of the conflicting information out there, you just want to know from someone who’s worked with a ton of dogs...what is going to be effective and what’s a waste of time? How can I get my dog to follow my lead when he hasn’t even looked at me in over two years? I got you, sis!
This was the book I wish someone had handed to me when I was in deep doo doo with my dogs. As someone who has also been 👏🏻 through 👏🏻 it 👏🏻 I know that your confidence can really take a hit and when nothing you have tried works. Once I got plugged in to a community that believed in me, AND that also believed my dogs were fully capable of becoming better, everything changed for us. I believe your dog can be good too ✨
We can’t wait to hear feedback and hope this e-book lands in the hands (ermmm, the inboxes) of people who need it!
It’ll be on sale for the next week, so if you want it go grab it! ☀️
A collection of screenshots from Amaras walk last night. Amara was either neutral or showed mild (appropriate) interest in the dogs. If you have a reactive dog I would encourage you to look at the way you live with your dog while you’re not on the walk. How does your dog access your attention? How does your dog access freedom? How does your dog access food and fun? Do you ask for your dog to slow down? Can your dog be still when asked, have manners, and be calm in social situations? Tackle all of these things first before expecting your dog to be good outside the house.
Amara update! She’s doing well. She’s living and working around dogs without issues. We removed her crate divider today. She doesn’t need it. All we’ve done is walk her in heel, address her pushiness at thresholds, and stop letting her avoid/blow off obedience commands. She’s still a high strung GSD at the end of the day but as far as the reactivity goes - she’s doing well. She’s ready for pack walks at this point. Does this mean she will like all dogs? No. Does this mean she’s going to play with the dogs here? No. But being held to a new standard around dogs gives her a different experience of the situation.
Dolly’s go home Lesson was punctuated by peals of laughter at how damn cute she was. Little dog owners, don’t think just because you set boundaries with your dog that it will make them lose their personality. Dolly has gained a whole new confidence, has acquired skills that make her safer in this world, and happier in general.
The puppies doing their place & down commands this morning! If they would wander, we would say “nope” and guide them back down with the leash. Good puppies!
Everybody welcome Amara! Her owners have been in private lessons now for a while and they are hoping to help Amara relax around dogs. Unfortunately Amara suffered a pretty serious dog attack when she was 6 months old, and since then has always been reactive. She has went though positive reinforcement training where she did have some progress getting closer and closer to dogs inside a fenced area - but they had a hard time generalizing to dogs out on the street or at the park. She often doesn’t take food when out and about, and straight chicken/hot dogs tends to tear up her GI. Additionally, she has a lot of pull when she explodes and it is a safety concern for the human holding the leash.
We are going to put Amara through our program, tighten up her leash skills, get her obedience where it needs to be, get her living around a balanced pack, teach her relaxation skills, and see where we are at. They aren’t asking for her to go to the dog park, they just want her not to feel so worried about dogs if they happen to see one at the park.
This nice woman asked to pet Maya and maya definitely wanted to say hi too! But I didn’t want her greeting with too much excitement so I declined and told her how we were working on calmly eating food when people walk up. I told her that Maya is working on self regulation/calmness. About how I don’t want her to be too excited when greeting, because excitement can turn into frustration real quick. Then we had a nice little convo about her GSD instead. People are usually willing to help you out in your training if you explain what you are trying to do. This was a nice visit for little Maya! She got to get some snackies and see some people! You’ll notice she was able to self control and listen to the lady talk without disengaging from me. Had this not been the case, I would have been doing movement instead of stillness while feeding her.
You asked and we delivered! We have a very special Board & Program geared towards those clients who really just want their dogs to behave! In this program, we apply our special Magic Wand System, and presto chango - your dog is fixed, without any special effort or changes after your dog goes home! That means:
-no rewards
-no corrections
-no management
-no further training!
Yes that’s right, your dog will automatically know what you want....without you even having to tell them!!
Your dog will let itself out to potty and learn to open doors, but will not open doors that shouldn’t be opened.
Your dog will listen the first time every time. Because our system involves a literal freaking magic wand, no corrections, rewards, or new associations/patterns will be necessary. It’s literal magic y’all!
Best of all, this program is only ONE WEEK long, so gone are the days where you have to leave your dog for many weeks so it can develop new patterns. Ain’t nobody got time for that!
due to the overwhelming demand for this program, we expect to book up quickly - so reserve your spot now!
Gus is sooooo fun. He’s athletic, mentally tough, extremely smart, and biddable. So even though he’s a pet; he can do a lot more than what a pet would typically do - especially when it involves nose work or retrieving.
He enjoys the process of working and learning, so we having been doing a bit of customizing with his Board & Train. He has great ball drive so here we are seeing if we can create a formal retrieve and get him to fetch other objects. We got two successes with a stick, wow! That’s not nothing! Notice that I am holding him back from getting the object at first. This builds drive/frustration for him to get the thing. It also allows me to name the behavior. The click at the end signifies the end of the behavior. Fetch not only means “get the thing” it means “get the thing and bring it.”
“Why’s mom saying TSST again??”
https://www.rootsk9.com/blog/2018/1/2/is-your-dog-just-not-that-into-you
When people tell me that their dog is “distracted” or “stubborn,” I typically want to question them more. ”How is he distracted?” ”What is he usually distracted by?” ”Define stubborn? Describe what stubborn looks like, step by step for me?”
Sokka has come a long way in three weeks! We are excited for his owners to see how calm, respectful, and fun he can be with solid leadership and structure in the home. We love all our client dogs but the ones who have issues relaxing, trusting, and being comfortable in their own skin just hit different! We will miss this little gremlin.
Legend has it I am still trying to get all the damn dogs back inside the house
Alexa, play “Soak Up The Sun” by Sheryl Crow
Conditioning calm in public with Dolly. Just free shaping with her kibble.
Another 3 minute hand feeding session. Five handfuls of kibble.
You have to remember- these are fully trained dogs. They know the behaviors! If you are training the behaviors yes it might take longer than 3 minutes!
If there’s one thing I can say about Gus, it’s that he’s got balls! 🤣
One of the most common objections I get with our hand feeding requirement is: “I don’t have time!” This comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of what hand feeding is. It can take...literally 3 and a half minutes twice a day. You could very easily steal 3.5 minutes from your Netflix or scrolling social media time!
Or, another one is: “my dog doesn’t want to work he’s distracted!” Not a problem, put him back in his kennel and try again later. At some point, it will be clear to your dog that you have food and his hunger will override everything that is “not you.”
“My dog doesn’t listen to me as well as you.” Also not a problem. Your dog doesn’t have to “listen” if you don’t command him to do anything. So don’t command him - just stand there with the food and see what he naturally does. If your dog has been through a Board & Train program, your dog will start offering sit, down, come, eye contact, and place. So just reinforce all those behaviors that we taught! The work is done for you! 🤪
This is what a typical breakfast for Sokka looks like. This 3.5 minutes represents a value time for us to connect, to reinforce a healthy relationship dynamic, and to establish healthy patterns inside the house. The breakfast is eaten quickly in several handfuls. In the first half of the video I use Free shaping to see what the dog wants to offer. Once the dog is easily offering on his own I begin to cue the dog to do it. I think I cued it maybe three times, the rest of the time was just capturing (meaning the dog chose to do it on his own and I marked and reinforced).
When Sokka goes him his owner will hand feed him for 3-6 months so that they can create a healthier relationship dynamic. Sokka enjoys this lifestyle and seems very happy with the arrangement. He’s a proud, confident guy when he’s consistently asked to show us the best version of himself.
Mental exercise ✅
Physical exercise ✅
Both of these pups are tired from their work today!
Sweet Iker had his last puppy session today! He’s a fine young lad and can do a lot of things because he values his owners, he can maintain self control in most situations, and he’s never practiced bad habits. Amazing work team Iker.
My name is Sokka and I did good for my mom today at my mid lesson!
Everybody welcome miss Dolly! She is a nervous queen, here for some general help. She’s undersocialized, pretty nervous of people and dogs bigger than her (which is 98% of dogs) and she’s got a hell of a tremble. Her owner has big plans to travel with her full time in a van...with a big standard poodle, who she doesn’t love. As I always say, let’s get some commands on her and see what she looks like!
Trainers, is this just me?? Why do I get off every consultation phone call with the knowledge of every dog they’ve ever owned going back 6 generations?? 😂😂😂
Resource guarding of a human develops when the human allows more emotional and physical closeness than the dog can handle. Dogs have different temperaments and personalities - some dogs will never explore resource guarding behaviors and for others, it’s just a matter of time. When Sokka was adopted, he came with a sad story and that made his owner regard him differently than she might’ve if he’d been purchased from a breeder. Because his old owner stated he was in a kennel all the time, that made her want to never kennel him again. This is an understandable reaction. The problem is...1) Sokka has a propensity to resource guard and 2) Sokka -still- isn’t potty trained.
The two issues are linked - the dog is never asked to separate from his owner (whom he loves) and he is never really asked to confront his frustrations about being apart from her. The potty issues are a direct result of more freedom than he should be allowed in the house. She isn’t 100% compliant with using the kennel when she leaves because he screams. I can definitely empathize with her and can also relate to her not wanting to noise pollute the house!
Her situation is so relatable, because everyone who gets a frenchie wants to cuddle and pamper them. Heck, that’s basically all I want to do with him! But I know that that’s not best for him. It’s doing Sokka no favors to continually allow him to soil his living quarters. It’s doing him no favors to continue to allow him to bite loved ones. If we don’t teach Sokka a better way of living, there’s really not a lot of options for him.
So we’ve been doing the deep work of confronting his frustration/separation issues. Right here, the dog is in a long sit stay (only because he won’t yet down-stay). Every time he gets up and moves towards me, I “nope” him back to the center of the rug and sit back in my chair. This is pretty easy for me to do, because I have limited emotional attachment to the dog, and hey, being paid to train him helps a lot too. But if Sokka truly is to get better, his owner (who he has a history of guarding will have to confidently tell the dog: “hey, go be over there and give me my space.”
Gus the Brittany is back for his big kid training!! As expected, at 6 months we see some “I don’t wannas” come out. Tis only natural, especially for a working line hunter! Now that Gus is more mature, we’re going to start raising the criteria and introducing consequences for non compliance of trained commands. His family is particularly excited about being able to go hike with him off leash safely with his big sis Ella, who went through our program in 2020. Let’s get to work on that gentleman side, Gus!!!
Norman, OK
73069
| Monday | 9am - 7pm |
| Tuesday | 9am - 7pm |
| Wednesday | 9am - 7pm |
| Thursday | 9am - 7pm |
| Friday | 9am - 7pm |
| Saturday | 9am - 5pm |
| Sunday | 9am - 7pm |
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Dolly’s go home Lesson was punctuated by peals of laughter at how damn cute she was. Little dog owners, don’t think just because you set boundaries with your dog that it will make them lose their personality. Dolly has gained a whole new confidence, has acquired skills that make her safer in this world, and happier in general.
This nice woman asked to pet Maya and maya definitely wanted to say hi too! But I didn’t want her greeting with too much excitement so I declined and told her how we were working on calmly eating food when people walk up. I told her that Maya is working on self regulation/calmness. About how I don’t want her to be too excited when greeting, because excitement can turn into frustration real quick. Then we had a nice little convo about her GSD instead. People are usually willing to help you out in your training if you explain what you are trying to do. This was a nice visit for little Maya! She got to get some snackies and see some people! You’ll notice she was able to self control and listen to the lady talk without disengaging from me. Had this not been the case, I would have been doing movement instead of stillness while feeding her.
Gus is sooooo fun. He’s athletic, mentally tough, extremely smart, and biddable. So even though he’s a pet; he can do a lot more than what a pet would typically do - especially when it involves nose work or retrieving. He enjoys the process of working and learning, so we having been doing a bit of customizing with his Board & Train. He has great ball drive so here we are seeing if we can create a formal retrieve and get him to fetch other objects. We got two successes with a stick, wow! That’s not nothing! Notice that I am holding him back from getting the object at first. This builds drive/frustration for him to get the thing. It also allows me to name the behavior. The click at the end signifies the end of the behavior. Fetch not only means “get the thing” it means “get the thing and bring it.”
Conditioning calm in public with Dolly. Just free shaping with her kibble.
Another 3 minute hand feeding session. Five handfuls of kibble. You have to remember- these are fully trained dogs. They know the behaviors! If you are training the behaviors yes it might take longer than 3 minutes!
One of the most common objections I get with our hand feeding requirement is: “I don’t have time!” This comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of what hand feeding is. It can take...literally 3 and a half minutes twice a day. You could very easily steal 3.5 minutes from your Netflix or scrolling social media time! Or, another one is: “my dog doesn’t want to work he’s distracted!” Not a problem, put him back in his kennel and try again later. At some point, it will be clear to your dog that you have food and his hunger will override everything that is “not you.” “My dog doesn’t listen to me as well as you.” Also not a problem. Your dog doesn’t have to “listen” if you don’t command him to do anything. So don’t command him - just stand there with the food and see what he naturally does. If your dog has been through a Board & Train program, your dog will start offering sit, down, come, eye contact, and place. So just reinforce all those behaviors that we taught! The work is done for you! 🤪 This is what a typical breakfast for Sokka looks like. This 3.5 minutes represents a value time for us to connect, to reinforce a healthy relationship dynamic, and to establish healthy patterns inside the house. The breakfast is eaten quickly in several handfuls. In the first half of the video I use Free shaping to see what the dog wants to offer. Once the dog is easily offering on his own I begin to cue the dog to do it. I think I cued it maybe three times, the rest of the time was just capturing (meaning the dog chose to do it on his own and I marked and reinforced). When Sokka goes him his owner will hand feed him for 3-6 months so that they can create a healthier relationship dynamic. Sokka enjoys this lifestyle and seems very happy with the arrangement. He’s a proud, confident guy when he’s consistently asked to show us the best version of himself.
Chief likes to pick things up and investigate them. This can be a hat on the ground, a sock, a paper towel, a contractor bag. Really anything at all. When you pursue him to retrieve the item out of his mouth, it becomes a game for him and he wants to play keep away. We noticed this on day 1 and have been working on it. Chief has shown no propensity to resource guard and we’d like to keep it that way. Avoiding resource guarding is way easier, safer, and 1000x less expensive than fixing it once it has become a habit. There can be a slightly different “recipe” for each dog, but Chief’s looks like this: 1. Always having him drag a house line. That way, if he snags a makeup brush, baseball glove, or whatever the heck else on his way out the door to potty (just as an example), you can step on his house line and immobilize him. This prevents the game of keep away from starting. I will step on the end of his line and calmly walk up his line and retrieve the thing out of his mouth. I do not tug on the thing, I open his jaws and get it out. going after it. Once I get we move on. 2. We work on an out command. I say out and if he drops the thing, I make a big deal out of it. If he fails to drop the thing, I move him away from the thing with the leash. We practice with everything that might be an issue - brushes, socks, shoes, gloves, hats, clothes, sticks, pine cones, clickers, chewing items, toys, boxes, water bottles, etc. the key is to not get flustered when your puppy picks something up. Create a clean out cue, practice it frequently, and when your puppy finds something it should have, simply have them drop the thing. 3. Keeping the house picked up. This can be difficult to do especially with kids in the house, but while you work on having a really clean “out,” you’re going to have to try to keep socks etc out of the puppy’s mental space.
How to Let Puppy Out 1. Walk up calmly (without speaking or overexciting the puppy) 2. Attempt to open the door. If puppy barks or paws the door, remove your hand for 5-10 seconds to negatively (remove something) reinforce (increase the likelihood of) the behavior of QUIET. John Paul has a tendency to get over excited anytime he thinks he’s going to go be worked, and he also has a tendency to protest bark when left in the kennel. We want to instead condition calmness. 3. Open the door, if puppy rushes out, close the door to stop him or use your body to block him in. 4. Say “okay!” or “let’s go!” when you are ready to invite him out. 5. When you put him back in, walk up to the crate and say “kennel.” If he is avoidant of the kennel, put a leash on the dog and try again. When he goes in, say “down,” and lure him down. 6. Periodically reinforce quietness as you walk away. Anytime you catch him being calm and quiet drop a kibble in his crate. If the dog really struggles to settle, give a frozen Kong or toppl every time you have to leave for long periods.
Had JP out in a busy environment last night - the grocery store. The environment dictated a short leash. He is rarely ever on a short leash. How did he do? Amazingly well. Like almost perfect. When I say perfect I mean at my left side, keeping track of me, and rarely or never putting pressure on the leash. I have probably spent hours upon hours training the dog not to pull, right? Nope. JP’s foundation has been primarily OFF leash. He has probably been on a short leash maybe 4 times in his life. What you are seeing is the result of tons of reinforcement for the heel position. Every time the dog ends up at my left on my property he is reinforced. As a result the dog sort of just prefers my left side. Adding a short leash (at least at this developmental stage and in this environment) isn’t a challenge for him. He’s very used to migrating with me. He’s very accustomed to being on my left. The dog has never practiced leash pulling, so it’s never been reinforced. He’s sensitive to hitting the end of the leash. He’s interested in his environment but not overly interested. If wants to investigate stuff I let him, to the extent that is safe. I have to say I really enjoy this extended time with JP. There’s so much patterning going on in the little brain of his.
We are starting to do behavioral Downs AKA long Downs AKA sit on the dog with Chief. This to create a dog who has the skill of settling. Settling isn’t something that comes naturally to most dogs. Most of the problems I see in 9 month - 2 yo dogs come from not enough work on relaxation in the first six months. Relaxation - true relaxation - involves the puppy submitting to the reality that he can’t be active right now. He can’t say hi to Jonathan. He can’t say hi to my dog sleeping on the couch. He can’t chew the couch. He can’t jump in my lap. Etc. Yes exercise is important and every new puppy owners first impulse is to run them until they are tired. There is a time and place for that. Of course puppies need to run. But exercise doesn’t replace the internal skill of repeatedly (daily for 6 months straight) being asked to settle down. There’s multiple exercises out there that look similar to each other but basically they all involve sitting or standing on your dogs leash until they calm the f down. If you have a 3-6 month old puppy who struggles with frustration, reactivity, jumping, nuisance barking, general disrespect... you probably don’t need to spend a lot of time worrying about a solid place command or sit or shake. You probably need to spend time (try 180 days in a row) standing on your dog’s leash, making total relaxation (chin to floor or sleeping) the ticket into the next activity. Right now chief has very little impulse control - which is normal for puppies his age - and he is in the beginning stages of learning it. He wants to launch himself towards everything and anything he finds interesting - other dogs, people, etc. This is cute right now but it will very quickly become dangerous and unwelcome. People can be pulled over, knocked over by jumping, and scared by big dogs lunging towards them. Right now is the only time that we have to instill a sense of calmness in the dog. We can either make use of it now or deal with problems la
What behavior is John Paul displaying? Tell us in the comments!
John Paul will need to go to a groomer for coat maintenance for the rest of his life, so we are conditioning him to enjoy collar grabs and beard grabs. It’s much safer for the dog that way if they don’t flail and flip out when restrained. Process is simple: grab the face or the collar, mark and reward. Over time we’ll add comb, a trimmer sound, scissors, etc and condition him to enjoy and cooperate with those activities as well. #puppytraining #puppyraising #doggrooming
Everybody welcome Gus! He’s here for...well I’ll just let the video explain it 😬
Gus gets to join me for coffee this morning! He is doing a Behavioral Down while I caffeinate. This exercise involves sitting with your dog on a short leash and waiting until they find a calm body and mind posture. This morning it took Gus about 20 minutes! Believe it or not, this number will get smaller and smaller the more we practice. We do this once a day!
Having so much fun in the leaves today!
She is looking happier and more confident every day!
This is a pretty big deal! You have to be so neutral with dogs like this, you can’t even be too excited when they do good. The social pressure is too much for her. She is only eating from my hand right now, and her appetite has been extremely low. For the first few days I had to bring other dogs out and work them so that she would eat. See what I mean about “needing” other dogs to regulate emotionally? That’s littermate syndrome!
Everyone meet Pepper! Her owner has already worked with her a ton, actually she did several levels of Pet Smart classes (!) and they want to learn e-collar to solidify their recall. Because the owner already has good communication with the dog, they can skip straight to e-collar work! She tried to condition e-collar before on her own, got kinda overwhelmed, and put it back in the box. Is this you? Give me a call! 😃
Finley can be a little unsure about new things but we are seeing her return to curiosity after a flight response more often. It was really funny - there’s a very gradual ramp leading up to these bleachers and for about 3/4 of the ramp she was walking y’all, but as she neared the top she started crouching. Everybody gangsta until the depth perception kicks in! 😂
A good rule of thumb with puppies is to go in search of interesting things (other dogs, other people) and work to make looking away from those things at least as worthwhile or more worthwhile. The way all leash reactivity starts is with a prolonged stare and a buildup of arousal, so it’s best to start EARLY making those things a cue for engagement with handler rather than a cue for arousal.
