Lionheart K9, Dog Training in Maryland

11/21/2024

There is no easier way to explain or demonstrate this. The principle remains the same whether the dog is a mature adult or a 12 week old puppy.

Human influence endowed this puppy with a lot of "go" for such a tiny body. She is what every working dog breeder wants to emulate and every performance dog owner wants to own.

For the better part of her life, I suspect she had to fight for everything - a seat at the milk bar, not get muscled off the food pan, etc. She grew up TOUGH.

As a result, she had the K9 equivalent of Oppositional Defiance Disorder and had absolutely no concept of 'earning while learning'. It was all fight because fight was all she ever knew.

So, instead of fighting back by using leveraging tools or deprivation, we simply withheld what she wanted until she settled down long enough to focus on the task.

Her first week wasn't easy. Grappling with a belly full of internal parasites, a UTI, and an appetite for violence, re-writing the first 9 weeks of her life took a lot of patience. A LOT of patience.

*Making* this dog do anything would have served no purpose. To her, opposition (pressure) was a signal to fight harder.

Helping guide her into the right choices took less time than trying to force compliance, which wouldn't have helped for many of the behaviors she presented with in the beginning.

I actually think there are a lot more dogs like her out there than not- having to exist in an environment where external forces trigger survival tactics, making dogs resistant. It makes them defensive, and in this little booger's case, very offensive.

Sometimes less is more. Stop adding pressure. Give the dog the latitude to figure things out, and stop trying to make these things happen.

11/20/2024

I talk about leash management a lot. I consider it to be responsible for about 99% of effective dog handling.

The quality of leash is important, quantity, not so much. Handling the line means handling what you need to get the job done and disregarding the rest.

This is the first segment of a series we did on training a dog to have manners when being approached by a human. Subscribers to our online training programs will receive the entire series.

Safe equipment management is necessary to protect yourself when handling any dog, as well as knowing how to handle a leash smoothly.

The leash is a conduit of information that flows both ways. If you learn how to use one efficiently and effectively, your training goals will be much easier to achieve.

It's no different with collars. Understanding the functions of a well-fitted collar of any type will enable you to accomplish your training goals without a lot of drama.

Learn how to let the equipment work for you. Each tool has its purpose. Professional quality tools are useless in the hands of people who don't know how to use them correctly.

11/19/2024

Starting to combine skills isn't difficult.

We had introduced a 'retreat' command a while ago, and a 'down' behavior fairly recently. I hadn't practiced the down behavior a lot since, but this clever monkey doesn't take long to figure out what the goal is.

The subscriber version of this clip is maybe 12 minutes long and shows the whole progression from introducing the retreat to only reinforcing for duration and focus.

Eris is putting 2 and 2 together pretty quickly as she matures. She is a lovely puppy with a strong willingness to try new things, which is so much easier in the young dog than in the adult.

I enjoy watching her Big Giant Brain get even bigger after sessions.

11/17/2024

Same with dog training. A certification from a week-long "school" doesn't make you a dog trainer any more than having teeth makes you a dentist.

It takes years to be proficient.

'Profiecient' relative to being able to seamlessly move from one temperament to another, one behavioral need to another, without having to adhere to one principle or philosophy.

And no, yanking on a leash or pushing a button doesn't make you a dog trainer either.

This advice will NOT be popular with those who want it RIGHT NOW, but nevertheless, here goes---

If the goal is to become two things, a good rider and a good horseman/horsewoman, be willing to think in decades rather than in years.

That first decade, from whatever age you began, will take you only so far, and may even take you to the Olympics, but riding skill alone won’t give you all you need to know and be able to do. The next couple of decades will let three components, your physical skills, your control over your emotions and your knowledge, all intertwined to complement one another.

That’s why many of the best riders and trainers are in their 40s, 50s and in some cases in their 60s, even 70s. They didn’t get those tens of thousands of hours overnight.

There are ever so many riders and trainers who gave up too soon. They just needed to have hung in there another ten years, maybe twenty. Which sounds insane, but actually isn’t.

11/13/2024

Ms. Ethel has offered us some great learning moments if you pay close attention.

The "down" behavior/exercise can either be a catalyst for relaxation or one of considerable conflict.

When working with fearful dogs, it's important to remember the distinction between suggesting the behavior and demanding it.

There is a moment here where we move from suggesting to demanding, applying resistance to her refusal, and demonstrating that it doesn't take the kludgy, offensive amount of pressure some folks employ to get a dog to lie down.

I reward everything that looks like a down enough times for Ethel to recognize it as something she can do without concern, and then I only reinforce voluntary behavior.

She thinks herself clear of a confusing moment between about 1:58 and 2:20, when she takes a head-clearing walkabout to help understand my rebuke after her submissive posturing once she gets up, until our next attempt.

Tiny, subtle little things tell me she is capable of understanding that pressure need not be feared, and effort is self-reinforcing.

Today, we'll be requiring similar responses in an environment she has been before, but is much more chaotic than this one.

11/12/2024

Every person I have ever worked with has heard me repeat some version of this.

Folks just don't get it. If you want to accord your dog with the respect that it deserves for it's efforts on your behalf, think about this.

They appreciate the quiet moments of acknowledgement far more than they are given credit for, or space to enjoy.

Not every dog appreciates physical 'praise'. Sometimes a quiet respite is much more than an absence of pressure.

It is a human thing, this need to touch and be touched.

So many times, I will watch someone whose horse has done exactly as they’d wished and immediately, they take the relax and let down response of the horse and turn it into something else. Another thing to be borne.

Rather than rest and soak in the beautiful feeling of accomplishment, we’ll ruin everything that came before with a pat or a sudden forehead rub.

I know that I share this observation with the risk of ruffling feathers. Yes, your horse loves you. Yes, your horse will stand to be petted for hours. Yes, he’ll leave his friends and even his feed, to come and stand with you. Yes, you have built up a wonderful relationship based on love and sensitivity. Yes.

But wait. If your horse could talk—and trust me, when I’m watching his subtle but telling responses, he is—he would thank you for noticing this heroic effort he has made. He would love that you stopped and gave the long rein, or let his lead rope hang free. He would appreciate that you stopped chattering and just stood there, breathing deeply, melting into one another’s space.

He would be grateful that you behaved like another horse.

He would hear you when you silently were still and formed the thought of contentment. He would shake his forelock out of his eyes, in relief, when you suddenly got it… that this thing you do with your hands is to please yourself, rather than to gratify him.

Hey, I’m not against stroking my horse’s neck, or breathing deeply into his soft nose. I’m not saying that I never straighten a forelock, or gently clean out a horse’s windblown eyes, or that I don’t give a heartfelt hug. I am not against all shows of affection!

I’ve spent a lifetime observing horses and their people, however. I have seen much. Our need to touch, to pat, to caress, to reassure is as often a reflex action, done without mindfulness or empathy, as it is to show our appreciation. Many times, our loving hands have all the softness of a habit, a craving unmet, or a nervous tic.

I’ll go ahead and say it.

So often, when we pat our horses, or rub their foreheads, we’re doing this to please ourselves. Those little pats can be a selfish act, uncaring of the needs of others. It’s one more ask for which they must stand still. For when we stop and really watch, we’ll see that if we sit quietly and with nothing but love in our hearts, they will yawn and rub their noses against their knees. They will feel free to self-soothe, to let down their guard and to wholly relax.

I have seen that the horses who really crave the hands-on, will stand straight on to us with their heads at our stomachs. They will stand close beside us, so that we might reach that one nagging itch. They will not be mouthing at us, or looking away when we reach for them, or standing as unmoving/unblinking/unbreathing as a stone.

It is telling that when we are praising our horses, so often they try to move away…

I have written of this before. I have learned that people will get angry about my drawing attention to such a small thing. They scoff and defend themselves, they will mock this idea and call me names. So be it; I am ready.

Welcoming one’s touch is very different from enduring it and recognizing the difference is a subtle thing deserving of our contemplation, particularly as women. We, of all people, should understand. We claim that we want relationship. This is a two-way street, my friends. Being in a healthy pairing means that one’s needs do not automatically trump another’s.

No, our petting—and even, our constant chattering—is seldom about them. Learning to stand with our hands in our pockets is a self-discipline that is darned near Zen.

That said, what a beautifully soft and private moment this is, between Henry and Cait. I think it is telling that it is he who is stretching his head out, to reach her hand.

11/11/2024

Yet again, the ugly spectre of dog trainers biting each other permeates the ether as warring factions fight amongst themselves over 'territory'.

Lol.

Want to learn about dog training without judgment, drama, or a self-limiting, industry-crippling, unilateral approach of dogma and devisive rhetoric?

Are you tired of tool-specific nonsense? Want to actually learn how to understand dogs and manipulate their behavior in humane, scientifically sound ways?

Stop wasting money on inflated egos and popular trends and learn from someone who is actually interested in elevating training as a trade and is invested in your success with it.

I have references and many documented years of survival in a trade that is notorious for eating its own young.

Give me a call. I can get ya where ya want to go without the narcissistic bu****it.

Be prepared to work hard, but I guarantee I can make it well worth your while.

11/10/2024

There's a lot going on here, even though it looks about as exciting as watching paint dry. There may not be colorful track suits and flashy acts of canine derring-do, with dude-bros getting their operator on, but learning is happening, and the only student that really matters, is the dog.

To say that Ethel has been slightly disadvantaged is an understatement. She is a lovely dog, from a spectacular family of lovely dogs, and whether is was a fall of the genetic cards, her unfortunate upbringing, or a combination of all of that, she has some serious issues with confidence.

As boring as this video is, there are some really exciting things happening in it. Ethel explores her autonomy and is rewarded for her curiosity. Her willingness to approach the noisy reward dispenser is climbing-Mt-Everest-in-a-bikini-and-surviving- level of amazing.

You can start to see her calculate -how- the food happens, and her role in its appearance.

Making myself not part of the reinforcement picture forces her to make decisions she is unfamiliar with having to make.

Every successive repetition for this dog is groundbreaking. It doesn't take a lot of effort; I keep my mouth shut, I let the dog figure it out, and I don't interfere by 'helping' her. She starts to practice the primal function of having to make executive decisions completely on her own.

Post-Covid, we see a LOT of anxious, fearful dogs. Using a lot of force, or haphazardly placing a dog in compromising situations before it's prepared may be appealing to some, but playing the long game sets the dog up for faster success in the grand scheme of things, without many setbacks from having gone too fast, too far, too soon.

With dogs like this, it's far better to take the scenic route, if, for no other reason, it helps the handler identify those spectacular learning moments in real time.

When you are ready, we are here.

11/09/2024

This little beast is a lot of dog for so small a package! She is greedy and opinionated and likes to use her little razor teeth to DEMAND her human servants ATTEND HER DEMANDS!

But seriously, for being under 10 pounds, she's a handful!

When we work with these guys, we employ the same rules we use for everything-

1) provide options

2) guide choices

3) control outcomes

She can grab at the hand with her mouth, but the treat doesn't get released any faster.

She can try and force me to give it to her by jumping up or displaying any number of previously rewarded behaviors, or she can sit quietly and wait for me to release it.

It doesn't take her too long to figure it out!

PS- This works with dogs of all ages and sizes. The leash helps you restrain the dog until it settles. Dogs that are larger or older can be back-tied to help them learn the futility of demanding slightly faster.

11/08/2024

As I was editing this clip, Eris was in the other room screaming her head off because she thought we were going to have a 3rd set this afternoon.

It's not really a lot. I had started this last week, my Manners Minder broke, we were waiting on parts, life happened Yada Yada.

stepped in and gifted Princess Eris her very own and were finally able to review what we had started lately last week.

We're building many skills simultaneously with her, and it's important to remember when starting different things with dogs, to clearly segregate each new skill during the learning phases so there aren't a lot of mistakes or misinterpretation.

The easiest way of doing this is to change the scenario, limit the dog's options, and only supply access to reinforcement through the new work.

We are rehearsing the auto sit after the recall, her name, heel as a position, and a retreat command, so we may require those things throughout the day, we segregate them from new work, so there are no mixed signals and misinterpretations.

Being clear is very important. Practicing neutrality is difficult for owners. We want to push, pull and provoke, all at the wrong times, and end up muddying the water, making it harder for the dog to learn.

Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. You have the dog's whole life. There is no need to hurry.

11/04/2024

I have had my fair share of skeptics and naysayers, clients who want the result but are unwilling to put in the effort, and folks that trainer shop until they find the individual that resonates with them.

It's all good.

What happens a lot of the time is they hear the same things being repeated, and quite often, not even that differently.

Yes, personality conflicts aside (and I freely admit I am not the trainer for everyone- I have expectations for the people I work with, just like they have expectations for me), there are a vast majority of folks who just want to hear their words coming out of someone else's mouth.

I don't play that game.

People who want a certain result, I can help them achieve it. People who want to be pandered to, can go elsewhere.

“Learning (Something) The Hard Way”

It’s a familiar saying. Often it’s said critically, when someone fails to take advice, as in, “Well, I guess you’re just going to have to learn it the hard way.”

What it means is that it will involve learning by failure or through some similarly unpleasant outcome that could theoretically have been avoided “if only you’d have listened.”

How unpleasant can range from mildly annoying to destruction and death.

Why so many humans have to lesrn the hard way is probably bound up in something my friend Walt Gervais told me many years ago. Walt was a tough man, a WW2 and Korea Navy veteran, a good athlete, and someone who had learned through experience more than through a classroom. He said, “Denny, the only people who are going to take your advice are the ones who agreed with you before they heard it.”

Humans tend to hear what they want to hear and to avoid what they don’t. Whether from indoctrination, ego, stubbornness, distrust, a long list of reasons. Now learning the hard way isn’t always so bad. We often remember those hard lessons better, and try not to repeat them. But I watch this tendency in the horse world, and it makes me wonder why some people even bother to take lessons or go to clinics, or buy books and videos, if they never take the advice that they are given.

Training horses well in ways that don’t scare, injure or force them is a well established body of knowledge, and the better teachers and clinicians all advocate one or another version of this mindset.

Yet so many humans still approach the training process as if it was some sort of competition, human versus horse. And the results of doing this "the hard way” will be scared and damaged horses, and that could and should have been avoided “if only he/she had been willing to listen.”

10/29/2024

OK folks- we're gearing up for the Fall Puppy Program for pups aged 8 weeks on up, which will start this Friday, November 1st, 2024.

New material is being created almost every day, featuring our new gal, Eris.

As a "woman of a certain age", it occurred to me how beneficial this would be for other folks in that demographic who might appreciate learning how to effectively control and train young dogs safely.

I mean, if a fat old boomer can do it, anybody can.

If you want to sign up, you can go to the comments for more information.

Feel free to message me for more details!

10/28/2024

It's been a week since our first Ethel video.

I took the time to look up exactly how long she had been with us. She arrived on July 2nd, so it's been almost 3 months.

It's nice to finally see progress. She has decided that I am worthy of hanging out with, and the occasional food I offer isn't laced with arsenic.

From the very beginning, she would become stiff and wooden if anybody touched her. Her form of objection was to become paralyzed.

There is a neurological disorder in dogs called 'Myotonia congenita'. It is essentially the same thing as Fainting Goat Syndrome.

Ethel doesn't have it, but when she first came, anything new or out of an established routine would either send her into absolute hysteria or cause her to freeze in total fear.

As little like progress as this looks, this pretty little gal has come a Very Long Way.

Funny that earlier today I booted some shrill little harpy off this page for making ignorant comments of a video I posted about a week ago. The clip was of me handling my new pup through an episode of mouth slinging and squirming. I was told what a brute I was and that I should 'educate' myself.

This person chastised me about somehow forcing what she considered 'learned helplessness', and it is abundantly clear that she has absolutely no idea what that actually is.

Ethel is, or -was- a model for it.

Now, not so much.

If you're coming here to throw stones, be prepared to substantiate your bu****it or find yourself in the ether.

We don't play here. We produce results.

10/28/2024

Finally, Part III with Helmut Raiser.

"I never argue with a dog."

This.

Want to know how to fix defensive behavior?

Stop arguing with your dog.

Dr. Helmut Raiser, who was revolutionary in dog training has over 60 years of experience training dogs. He has gone thru the primitive era of dog training al...

10/26/2024

We have a moral and ethical obligation when we take our dogs in public.

Eris is at the age where we want to expose her to different places, people, and things to help round out her experiences while she is young.

All of these things are deliberately designed to promote a resilant dog who is socially polite and relaxed around novelty.

For folks who are interested in our new virtual Right Start Puppy program- we have changed the start date to November 1st to accommodate additional participants. We are also offering additional savings for our M2M training course for folks who would like to continue into the formal work after completing the puppy program.

Some folks have already gotten a notification of this change, so message me here for additional information, and enjoy Eris' first outing!