Taming Fenrir Dog Training

09/13/2024

This is a neighbor's dog who got out, and no, this is not a degradation post for bad owners. This is an awareness post for people who aren't aware of what their dog needs.

So, story time.

I was about to head outside with my own dog, Aurora, a 6 month old Eurohound. I had heard the neighbors downstairs leaving their home, and getting into their car, so I waited to leave to avoid Aurora becoming over-threshold. On the way to go potty, I spotted this girl running off down the road, out of view behind a fence and into the adjacent neighborhood. I recognized her almost immediately as the dog from below us. I was very concerned about her being out because I knew the family had left (and I'm pretty sure they even knew she had gotten out. It's been about an hour now since I managed to wrangle her, drop my dog off at home to ease their anxieties being such a novel situation for them both. I lost her again because I foolishly took the leash off of her at her front door, caught her again thanks to three dogs who were setting boundaries with her, and have been waiting outside of their door since. I'm sure they must have some important things to take care of right now, but I also desperately hope they're out looking for her. I think it's very inappropriate to leave to go do anything that isn't an emergency, while your dog is loose. But, such is life.
(Update: she is finally inside her home, and mom is practically at her wits end haha she was clearly unhappy about her having run out AGAIN haha. So happy I could impart this wisdom for her)

Aside from the fact that she is wearing the worst type of prong collar in my opinion (instead of the Herm Sprenger, it's the one where the prongs all go in one direction), let's get to the educational part of this post. All of this could have been avoided had the owners done one very simple thing:

Train the dog to not rush out of an open door/window EVER. An open door is not permission to run off and put yourself in danger by running into the road, and approaching strange dogs that could attack you, or even be the one attacking other dogs or people (or Gods forbid, children), chasing cars, etc. This is absolutely preventable, and anything less than training the dog not to run out of an open door is just simply ignorance, and you can learn how to do it. You are this dog's keeper, protector, leader, teacher, guide, and family. You are their pack leader, their alpha (don't you dare say s**t about the alpha theory based incorrectly on captive wolves with no familial relationship, that's not what I'm talking about. Being an alpha means all of the words I just said, it's being a leader, not a domineering tyrannical as***le), and you absolutely should be training your dog to sit and wait for you to say it's okay to leave the house. Not when you walk out, not when the door opens, but when you SAY, "with me" or "heel" (another key aspect in being a good owner is the heel, which should be the default unless given the release word, but I'll discuss that at another time).

This training is super simple:

I. PATIENCE IS KEY. If you or your dog start to get stressed, stop trying, you can come back to it when you both are settled, and calm, and you can feel assertive and in command.
II. Watch training videos showing visually what this looks like.

1. Leash the dog and make them sit in front of the door (out of the path of the door of course)
2. While holding the leash, wait for eye contact, then open the door
3. If your dog tries to get up from sit, tug the leash up quickly and sharply for just one second and close the door. If your dog gets their head stuck in the door (don't be abusive about it) That's on them.
4. Make them sit and wait for eye contact.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 until dog sits patiently and looks at you (for guidance) even when the door is open.
6. Reward with a treat (or better yet, a piece of kibble from their meal) EVERY TIME they stay in position when the door opens.
7. Take a step toward the outside. If your dog gets up, step back towards them, and make them sit, and close the door.
8. Continue this until the dog stays seated even when you are outside of the house (even better, close the door for a few seconds while you're outside and they're inside open and see if they stay) then tell them to heel, and go about your day.
9. You should practice this for about 10-20 minutes a day, AND every time you leave the house with them.

In any case, this will take time to create lasting results. Take. Your. Time. There is no rush, and as with every dog, there will be times where you take one step forward and three steps back in any behavior you're training. Be patient. They're trying to learn from literal aliens hahaha

With that said, go love your baby, and have a beautiful day.

Skal"Amen

12/06/2023

If you have dogs please listen up

I found out today that getting your dogs raw meat, might actually be causing some health issues. I had no idea! I've been feeding Stella raw chicken, and I think she might have E.Coli from it. We're going to the vet tomorrow to check, but I need everyone to be aware.

Not only that, but there's been a study in the UK linking raw meat diets with dogs who have an antibiotic resistant stain of E.Coli. Now granted, this is because farms are using antibiotics on their animals, which is totally valid, and I didn't see anything about it in the US, but that's irrelevant. I know we all just want our dogs to be happy and healthy, but please thoroughly cook your meat at a medium temperature to avoid any potential illnesses okay?

I know it seems like it's a natural thing, but as my partner pointed out, they're not wild animals anymore, they're not wolves. Please cook their meat if you're giving them flesh.

08/21/2023

08/20/2023

This is NOT how you rehabilitate an aggressive dog. Aggression in dogs is most always fear based, and the one way you don't want to fix the problem, is by ADDING MORE FEAR. I know so many people are simply uneducated, and want a quick fix, and they see people like "Dog Daddy" posting all of these videos of how well their training has worked, but the fact is, he is adding fear to the equation. If X is fear, and Y is the training we do to help our babies heal, and Z is the result, then his equation is this: X+XY=ZX2
I do not believe in adding fear to the equation. I don't want my result to be ZX2. I want it to be Z. That's why my equation is X+Y=Z. I take the fear away, and replace it with trust and respect and understanding. A fearful dog is fearful because of a number of reasons, and it's as simple as showing them that they don't need to be afraid.
Dog Daddy just shows up without building any relationship with these dogs, and thinks that he can just swing them around while they rage fearfully trying to get away from the situation, and when they finally surrender (the equivalent of saying, "fine, you win, just kill me please"), then somehow people think that means he did something. He adds more fear on top of the fear that's already there, and the end result is a fearful dog who appears to have learned to be confident, and will very likely lash out even harder one day. It's based off of archaic, outdated knowledge where people thought being aggressive was the way to train dogs, and modern dog behaviorists know now that it's counter-productive, and this "trainer" is just playing off of people's emotions and fears for money.
What I suggest is starting slow. Show up, and ignore that dog, making sure to never face them directly; especially avoiding eye contact, while also dropping treats often, so that they can start to relate me to good things like treats, and the fact that I'm not invading their space. I build trust by not rushing into it, and exacerbating the fear. I give the owner direction, and slowly push towards showing them that the thing they fear is not a bad thing. I allow the owner to have the power, to make the moves, and just guide them so they have hands-on experience understanding what to do, and what not to do.
It's not my dog, it's not my relationship, it's yours. You and your baby need to work together, and I'm just there to teach you how. I don't need to take the leash from you right away, I don't need to have the control 80% of the time, and I certainly will never take the leash of a dog who wants nothing more than to get out of this fearful situation, and start swinging them around, potentially causing a collapsed trachea.
This is not how you untrain dangerous behaviors, and I know that because I've researched dog behaviorism, and I've trained enough dogs using every method available, and realized that these methods don't work. I'm not a positive-only trainer, because that also doesn't help to prevent unwanted behaviors. Dogs don't correct each other with positive-only methods. Sometimes they even get into scuffles because they're telling the other dog, "YOU HAVE BEEN IGNORING MY BOUNDARIES AND CORRECTIONS, SO YOU HAD THIS COMING!" Sometimes you do have to do that to a dog, but there's a time and place, and if you're a good trainer, you'll never have to do anything like that with a dog you're training. If anything you might have to do it with someone else's dog who's not respecting your boundaries, but it's such a rarity, and it's definitely not the first thing you should do in a session.

If you've stuck around this far, please, please share this, and let everyone know that "trainers" like Dog Daddy are not good trainers, and they don't know what they're doing. On the contrary, they're making matters worse. Speak out against this outrageous behavior, and stop giving these toxic people your money when there are better options.

08/08/2023

Why did I decide to become a dog trainer?

So, what was it that made me want to become a dog trainer?