Introducing Your Dog to House Guests

April 9, 2015 by Fanna Easter

Easy Tips for Introducing Your Dog to House Guests

Guests are coming over. What should you do with your dog? Follow these easy tips on introducing and socializing your dog to visitors so you can enjoy your party.

Keep Your Dog Leashed

If your dog jumps up on people or becomes overly excited, leash your dog before opening the door. Don’t forget to reward your dog with yummy treats for keeping all four feet on the floor when greeting people.

If your dog becomes overstimulated during greetings on leash, put him in his crate with a food stuffed Kong. Once everyone arrives and settles in, then you can try again.

Keep Greetings Away From the Door

About five minutes before guests are due to arrive, I crate my dogs with a food stuffed toy. Once everyone arrives and settles in with a beverage, I leash my dogs and introduce them to our company. If the dogs become overly excited, we take a few steps back and wait until they calm down. Once calm, we walk back toward guests and continue greeting for a few more minutes.

After everyone has hugged and squeezed each dog, I put our dogs back in their crates. Sobek and Stella are young dogs. Once they master “I’ll say hello and then take a nap in the corner,” they will continue to practice polite greetings.

Enjoy Your Party

Once dogs are back in their crates, chewing on luscious food stuffed toys, I return back to guests and enjoy the party. Before everyone leaves for the night, I leash both dogs again and bring them back to the party, as we say good night. Some pet parents may frown at this idea because they would love their dogs to enjoy the party, but I’ve learned my lesson the hard way. During a party, a well meaning friend slipped my dog a large piece of fried chicken skin. That night and the next few days were terrible. My dog’s tummy was tore up! It’s best to keep everyone safe.

If you would like your dogs to attend your party, I recommend supervised tethering. Leash them to the chair you’re sitting in and provide a wonderful food stuffed toy to enjoy while relaxing with guests. Not only are they enjoying the party, they’re also learning to relax around a large group of people while practicing polite manners.

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4 Tips for Renting with Large Dogs

April 8, 2015 by Fanna Easter

Renting with Large Dogs

We’ve been homeowners for years so when a new job opportunity popped up, we were faced with renting a home again. But wait, we have a Rottweiler and Bull Terrier. No one will rent to us, right? Oh, it was not easy, but we found the perfect home and I learned a ton!

Check Out Rental Websites

When looking for rental property, I scoured rental websites. My favorites were Zillow and HotPads, both of which have filters that drill down pet-approved rentals while zeroing in on specific mapped locations. Check daily. You never know what will pop up, and pet-friendly rental property goes fast!

Consider Renting a Home

Many renters share their homes with dogs, and with the soft housing market, it seems many property managers are opening their doors to pets. Using property rental websites, you can view a listed home’s buying, selling and rental history, which is interesting. It seems many rental homes were listed for sale at one time, then after a few months on the market, they were removed and listed for rent. Plus, who wouldn’t want a backyard, right?

Stay Away From Large Property Management Companies

Personally, I found large property management companies discriminating against specific breeds of dogs, such as Rottweilers and Bull Terriers, so I quickly crossed them off my list. One of the frustrating parts of searching for rental homes is about half of rental listings were managed by these folks. And we all know it’s not the breed; it’s the owners of the dog. (OK, I’m off my soapbox. Grr.)

Create Doggie Resumes

When searching for rental property, I stumbled upon this darling idea. Pet-friendly landlords want to know about your dogs so this quick attachment gives them a pretty good idea of your dogs. Take this moment to brag about your dog’s accomplishments, such as graduating puppy and basic manners classes. Once completed, save as a PDF file and forward to landlord before viewing a property. Add a color photo, keep it short and address your landlord’s concerns:

Is your dog up-to-date on vaccinations?
Does your dog bark excessively?
Will you confine your dog to his crate when left alone?
Is your dog potty trained?
Is your dog friendly around people? (Have they bitten or tried to bite someone?)
References (Vet, dog trainer, dog savvy friends, etc.).

Good luck and have patience. The right house will come around!

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Calm and Assertive Pack Leader? Nope

April 6, 2015 by Fanna Easter

Teach Dogs Polite Behaviors Instead

If you’re researching this topic, you’re probably following a popular TV personality who discusses dog training. I’m beyond thrilled you’re searching for dog training tips and would like to provide my take on the thought process of a calm and assertive pack leader.

I Wish It Were That Easy

Oh, how I wish! If it were that easy, pleading pet parent emails would disappear from my inbox and dog training blogs across the world would become silent. My phone would stop ringing and classes would be empty because pet parents would learn to be calm and assertive and their dogs would learn to listen to commands.

Beware of quick fixes in dog training. I wish with my entire heart that I could wave a magic wand and dogs would magically learn polite manners. Trust me, I’ve tried and it hasn’t worked yet (big grin!). Training dogs is not as hard as you think–that I can promise you.

Remove the pressure of walking with assertive energy (seriously, what does this mean anyway?) and take a deep breath in and out. Don’t you feel better now? Good! Now, fill your pockets with yummy treats for your dog and, by all means, walk in a normal pace and posture. Click and treat your dog for good behaviors instead.

RELATED: Clicker Training for Dogs

Stop Blaming Pet Parents

Wow, pet parents are riddled with stress, guilt and shame. They’ve been told, “If your dog is bad, it’s because of you. You caused it.” I can’t tell you how many pet parents break down during group class in actual tears and occasional sobbing. They’re worried their dog or puppy isn’t normal. What caused this fear? Who’s subconsciously telling pet parents their dog or puppy isn’t normal? Whoa, let’s stop and take a moment to bring reality back.

I honestly believe when folks know better, they do better. Someone doesn’t consciously decide to teach her dog naughty behaviors. Now, there are fruit loops in the world who make bad decisions everyday and I really don’t think they would spend time researching dog training blogs, do you? So I’m talking to you, the pet parent, trying to learn the easiest way to teach dogs polite behaviors. 🙂

Can you unknowingly teach naughty dog behaviors? Yes, it’s quite easy actually. 🙂 So shake the guilt and shame off, and learn what really works!

What Does Work

Puppies and dogs don’t come with an instruction manual nor have they read one before arriving at your home— oh I so wish they did! It’s our job to teach puppies and dogs polite manners instead of assuming naughty behaviors are plots to take over our home and lives.

Dogs are a lot like children. We spend time teaching kids where to potty, touch lightly (same as puppy nipping), play gently, self settling, behave politely in public and when guests come over, and so forth. Bingo, it’s the same with dogs! 🙂

Can you imagine walking calm and assertive around your teenagers? They would giggle and learn how to manipulate a situation for a specific outcome. That’s called learning. 🙂 Walking with your head held high and chest puffed out doesn’t teach your dog anything. Instead, spend time teaching your dog (and teenager) polite behaviors instead. Remember, there is no such thing as dominance between dogs and humans. This myth was dispelled over a decade ago.

Putting the time in now will pay huge dividends and shake off that “my dog is trying to boss me around” and “my puppy knows what I want, he’s just not doing it.” This is not what your dog is thinking, I promise. Instead, assume your dog is confused and teach him polite behaviors instead. 🙂 Dogs get confused, especially when we don’t provide clear details, so take a step back and make it easier.

Polite Manners

Looking for polite behaviors to teach? Enroll in a group class and take a peek around. We have hundreds of articles to help! Blogs are extremely helpful to reference during and after graduation, but they will never substitute a great group class and fabulous expert dog trainer.

I’m not selling anything here. I want to provide easy, honest and current dog training articles that will help you and your dog lead peaceful and happy lives. That’s worth its weight in gold for me!

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Shaping Dog Behavior

March 5, 2015 by Fanna Easter

Shaping Dog Training

You’re Getting Closer

Shaping dog behavior is another extremely powerful way to teach polite manners. A teacher uses basic learning fundamentals for humans, dogs, cats, fish and snails so let’s discuss how dog owners can use shaping in dog training.

What is Shaping Dog Behavior?

Shaping means rewarding small approximations, or small steps, toward a goal behavior. When teaching complex behaviors that don’t occur naturally, shaping works wonderfully.

Think of shaping as the “hot and cold” game. When a learner is “warm,” you click and treat. When she is “cold,” the learner is ignored. In shaping dog training, reward “warm” behaviors often because we all know how discouraging it is after hearing “cold, cold, cold.” You want to quit, and it’s no longer fun.

Shaping Happens Everyday

If you want to increase the chances of your husband emptying the dishwasher, reward him with control of the remote afterwards. You don’t need to say anything. Just push the remote toward him when he enters the living room after tidying up in the kitchen. 🙂

Works at the Office Too

You can totally shape better behavior at the office. For grumpy co-workers, ignore or limit chit-chat when they’re complaining. Reward smiles and positive comments by engaging in conversations. If he should become grumpy again, disengage. Over time, you’ll notice a happier co-worker even if it’s only with you. 🙂

Bosses are different. We sometimes need to engage when they’re grumpy. Instead of grimacing or blankly staring back at your boss, try nodding often and offering direct eye contact. This will lighten the mood, as your boss is being acknowledged. When you notice the mood lighten even if slightly, smile. You may notice your boss smiling back even just a little toward the end of your conversation. 🙂

Shaping Dog Training Technique

When teaching a complex behavior, such as walking on a loose leash, spend some time figuring out what polite leash walking looks like.

Polite loose leash walking components:

Leash is loose.
Dog looks back at you (checks in regularly).
Dog walks around within three to four feet of your legs/body.
Your dog can easily ignore approaching dogs.
Dog ignores approaching people.
Now, she can ignore movement (bicycles, cars passing by, joggers passing you on walking trails, etc.).

That’s a lot of components, and learning all of these at the same time is like learning to ski or dance in an hour. It’s not going to happen. 🙂

Pick one component and practice during training sessions. Once your dog learns to keep a loose leash after three or four practice sessions, move onto the next component and practice. Now you’re clicking for when your dog looks back at you while keeping the leash loose.

Once your dog can do both at the same time, move to component three. If, at any time, your dog begins pulling on the leash, take a step back and work on “keeping leash loose.” It’s hard doing two things at once. Remember balancing and then squatting down on skis? If you lose your balance, take a step back and refresh.

Slowly add one component at a time until your dog walks politely on leash. Again, take one or two steps back, isolate the component your dog is struggling with, and refresh. Once she’s ready, try adding back the final behavior.

Don’t Get Overwhelmed

Shaping actually prevents that dreaded overwhelming feeling. Keep it simple, split tasks into smaller chunks and refresh often. When working on a complex project at work, you probably wrote high-level tasks in an outline, captured and categorized each task in an Excel sheet, and completed items by category–that’s shaping!

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Zak George’s Dog Training Contributions

February 2, 2015 by Fanna Easter

Zak George Promotes Positive Training Methods

Zak George Dog Training — Courtesy of Zak George’s YouTube Channel

Who is Zak George?

Zak George may be a newcomer to the dog training world, but he’s been widely popular with pet parents since he began creating free dog training videos on his YouTube channel.

In the videos, he shows pet owners how to teach their dog’s polite behaviors. With his charismatic charm sprinkled in each video, it’s no wonder he starred in TV shows, such as SuperFetch on Animal Planet and CBBC’s “Who Let the Dogs Out?”

Despite his growing popularity, you can find Zak George creating videos for his website and YouTube. His most recent video for Grouchy Puppy, a fabulous website by Sharon Castellanos, shows an uncut version of the dog trainer. The authenticity of his character is much admired.

WATCH: Grouchy Puppy’s Interview

Zak George’s Training Philosophy

Zak’s contribution to the dog training world started on social media, and he has since been taking the power of positive reinforcement to the masses one video and blog at a time. His philosophy is to make training your dog fun and rewarding. He is fondest of Pitties (American Pit Bull Terriers) and has the most positive energy ever, so what’s not to love?

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Thank You, Zak George

I want to thank Zak George for his contribution to the dog training industry. His fun, creative, energetic and informative videos are a must for dog owners to view. Given the easy accessibility of the Internet, there’s no reason not to tune into Zak George’s YouTube channel.

Remember spending hours looking for one answer among your childhood encyclopedias back in the 1980s—or is that just me? Anyways, I subscribe to Zak’s YouTube channel and recommend my group class clients pop in and watch as a refresher or just to get a breath of fresh air about dog training.

Go, Zak, go! Tell us what you think about Zak George in the comments section below!

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