Nate

Schoemer’s Dog Training Manual

 A Message from Nate

“
Thank you for your purchase of this book. You either received this personally
after our 1-on-1 training, or you bought it from Amazon (Kindle or paperback).
I’m dedicated to helping dogs, their owners, and the community by better
educating dog owners. Through training, I believe we can save the lives of
countless animals who would otherwise end up on the street or in kill-shelters.
Thanks and we’ll talk soon!
Nate Schoemer’s Dog Training Manual
An Expert Dog Trainer Shares His Dog Training Secrets

Third Edition
Nate Schoemer’s Dog Training Manual © 2021 by Nate Schoemer. All rights
reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever, including electronic, digital and Internet usage, without written
permission from the author, except for written quotations for critical reviews, or
for excerpts used for similar works. This book is not intended for the purposes of
any type of legal, medical or veterinary advice, and the author and publisher
absolves all such responsibility. Results from the usage of this book are not
guaranteed and should be handled with discretion and common sense. The reader
of this book acknowledges that he or she has sole responsibility for any
outcomes, negative or positive, that may arise from the use of the suggestions
contained herein.

First Printing – 2016

Second Edition: 2020
Third Edition: 2021

ISBN:
9781692362256

Editor: Cyrus Kirkpatrick

 Dedicated to:

Dog lovers around the world.

Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1 – Dog Training Terminology
Chapter 2 – Dog Training Equipment
Chapter 3 – Dog Psychology
Understanding Positive Reinforcement
Understanding Negative Reinforcement
Getting your dog to sit.
Getting your dog into the down with your hand.
Getting your dog to sit with leash pressure.
Getting your dog into the down with leash pressure.
Understanding Positive Punishment:
Examples of Positive Punishment
Understanding Negative Punishment:
Examples of Negative Punishment
Chapter 4 – The Three Primary Principles: Timing, Motivation, Consistency
Principle 1: Timing:
Principle 2: Motivation:
Principle 3: Consistency
Playing Tricks: Not a Good Idea.
Chapter 5 – The Different Types of Training
Reward-Based Training (Pure Positive):
Pressure-Based Training (Escape)
Leash Pressure Training Tips
Avoidance Training
Balanced Training
Chapter 6 – Training with Rewards
When to use toys with obedience:
Value Transfer / “Drop It” Command:
Chapter 7 – The Science of Teaching your Dog any Command
Step 1: Teaching the conditioned reinforcers (markers).
Step 2: The Physical Cue
Step 3: Teach Leash Pressure
Step 4: Putting a Command to the Behaviors
Step 5: Teach the Stay Command Using Leash-Pressure.
Step 6: Teach Reliability by Adding Corrections.
 Genetic Limitations
Chapter 8 – Compulsive Dog Training
When to Correct Your Dog:
What to do if your Dog Keeps Running Away From You:
When not to correct your dog:
Safely Using a Prong Collar.
Safely Using a Remote-Training Collar.
Most remote collars have a few options. Let’s go over them:
Recommended brands:
Recommended age;
Using a remote training collar for obedience:
When you should and should not correct your dog with the remote collar.
Chapter 9 – Fear and Aggression
Communication vs. Aggression
Dogs that Bluff:
Dogs That Resource Guard
Resource Guarding A Territory
Resource Guarding a Human
Fear-Based Aggression:
Step-By-Step for Working with a Fearful Dog
Getting a Fearful Dog Out of the Crate:
Forward Fear Aggression Problems
Confusion Based Aggression Problems
Dominant Aggression Problems
Dealing with Dog-on-Dog Aggression
Dominant Aggressive to Other Dogs
Dogs Fearful of Other Dogs
Aggression to get a specific result:
Dealing with a Dog Fight:
Chapter 10 – Confidence Building, Counterconditioning and Desensitization
Existing Fear Issues
Chapter 11 – Grading and Socializing Your Dog (Desensitization)
Obedience Levels
Command proficiency levels:
Task Levels:
Environmental Stimulation / Intensity Levels:
Goals to Aim For
Dog Social Skills.
 Generalization
Road Map to Success
Chapter 12 – Choosing, Imprinting and Raising a Dog
Choosing the Right Breed:
Choosing a Puppy From a Shelter
Choosing a Puppy from a Breeder
Asking the Breeder Questions
Where to Find a Breeder
Breeders to Avoid
Pricing the Pups from a Breeder
Transporting the Pup
Picking a Retired Breeding Dog
Preparing Your Home:
Welcoming a New Dog into the Home
Training Your New Puppy:
Advanced Obedience with Your Puppy.
Potty Training and Crate Training (this same process works with adult dogs):
Dogs That Always Go Potty on Soft Things
Dealing with Separation Anxiety
When a New Dog or Puppy Whines
Chapter 13 – Canine Nutrition: Food & Treats
Recommended Treats for Your Dog:
Human food:
In Conclusion
About Nathan Schoemer
 Introduction

Congratulations, you’re about to embark on a

great adventure with your dog. Whether you were supplied this dog-training
manual directly from Nate Schoemer, or you discovered this product separately
(perhaps through learning about me on the series Rescue Dog to Super Dog on
Animal Planet), the following is a highly condensed, brief system to
revolutionize life with your canine companion.

The purpose of dog-training is to enhance relationships between dogs and their

owners. Implementation of training principles is designed to put you and your
dog on the same page together. Dog are especially loyal to their owners; they’re
animals with a desire to please. This is why a dog may live in confusion as she
notices how her owners are unhappy—but the poor pup doesn’t understand why.
Because communication is poor, the situation never improves—the owner
remains frustrated, and the dog remains confused.

Sadly, this pattern can deteriorate the relationship, and in the worst case
scenarios—prompt an owner to surrender the dog to a shelter (where it may be
put down). I believe it’s very important to stop this pattern, improve the lives of
dogs and their owners—and thus save the lives of dogs in the process.

In summary, dog training is the process of helping your dog to understand your
expectations. As they are not capable of cognitive reasoning as is practiced by us
bi-pedal mammals, we must instead use systems of conditioning, pattern-
recognition, and positive habit forming to create our desired results, and help the
dog to comprehend our own thoughts and feelings.

Sincerely,

Nate Schoemer,

Certified Master Dog Trainer

www.nateschoemer.com
Chapter 1 – Dog Training Terminology

Before we begin, let us break down the dog training terminology (in alphabetical
order for reference).

Chasing: This is when you make your dog chase food that is in
your hand to increase food drive, prey drive, play drive, and make
the training more fun for your dog. You can also have your dog
chase toys to build your dog's toy drive.

Classical Conditioning: A word or sound that predicts a reward, or

even a correction. At first, the sound is just meaningless stimuli, but
if the sound always precedes a reward or a correction, the dog will
learn what it means—and so the dog will become classically
conditioned to the sound.

Climb Command: This is a command that requires your dog to go

to elevated positions and maintain that position until released. A
climb command can be a dog bed, a park bench, the car, or
whatever position you choose for your dog as long as it’s an
elevated position.

Command: This can be physical or verbal. It is telling the dog they

need to do what is being asked of them.

Conditioned Correction: This is a word or sound that lets the dog

know they will be receiving a correction (positive punishment) (For
the purposes of this book, we will use “No” as the conditioned
correction. You can use whatever you like.)

Conditioned Reinforcer (Mark / Marker): This is a word or

sound that has been classically conditioned to predict a reward. It's
called a marker because it signifies that you are marking a moment
in time when your dog is right or wrong.

Continuation Marker: This is a sound that lets the dog know they
will be receiving a reward. Sound = Reward

Counter Conditioning: This means training an animal to display a

behavior that is different than his / her current reaction to a
stimulus. Simply put, we take something that the dog may not like
and we change the way they feel about it by having it predict
something pleasant. For example; a dog that is afraid of the mail
carrier can learn to like the mail carrier if every day when the mail
carrier comes by, the dog is given a high-value reward. The dog
would start to associate the mail carrier with the reward.

Desensitization: This is the process of exposing the animal to a

stimulus beginning at a very low intensity. As the dog gets more
comfortable with the stimuli, the intensity can be increased. You
have to be careful not to increase the intensity too quickly or you
could end up making the dog more sensitive to the stimulus. (Here’s
an example: if a dog is extremely reactive to other dogs, a trainer
may allow the dog to just see other dogs walking around while
standing outside a dog park for a few hours, until they’re so
exposed to other dogs it’s not such an exciting stimuli).

Directional to the Collar: This terminology is for when a remote

collar is being used for obedience. This means that your dog
 understands what the remote collar is and understands that it is a
correction that is coming from you and that it’s not just a random
bug biting your dog's neck. So, when you correct your dog with the
remote collar (without a leash being attached) he knows that you are
the one correcting him.

Disposition: Your dog’s genetic behavioral tendencies that may

determine its training process. Also see: Temperament.

Distribution Hand: This is the hand you use to deliver rewards to

your dog. Keep in mind that your supply hand and distribution hand
can be interchangeable. Also see: Supply Hand.

Fixed Shaping (also just known as shaping): This is when you

have a training goal in mind, but you're letting your dog figure out
what you want instead of showing your dog. For example: you put
your dog in a room with a skateboard, when your dog investigates
the skateboard you then use your conditioned-reinforcer to mark
your dog's behavior. This will show the dog that the skateboard is a
good thing. You can then keep marking new behaviors to develop
exactly what you want your dog to do.

This is how many trainers teach their dogs to do things like ride
skateboards. This is a great training technique to use. You can see an
example of this on my YouTube channel in the scent detection series.

Free Shaping: This is when you don't have a particular training

goal in mind, and you are simply watching your dog to see if your
dog will perform a behavior that you like. For example, your dog
does a cute stretch in the morning when they wake up, and you can
mark this action. After enough repetitions, your dog will start to
offer up that behavior for rewards. This is also a great way to create
a proactive dog.

Focused Heel: This is when your dog is on the left side of your
body and your dog is also looking up at your face the entire time. If
you stop moving, your dog must sit and continue looking at your
face. This is a very difficult behavior to teach and each sport has
slightly different rules on what's considered correct. (Also see:
Heel).

Heel: Is a position either on your left or right side that your dog
must maintain when commanded. As soon as you stop moving,
your dog should then sit in heel position. If you are considering
competition obedience, then be sure to check the rules for that sport
as they often have different requirements for their heel command.
(Also see: Focused Heel).

Leash Pressure: This is when we use the leash to guide our dog
into specific positions. Once the pressure of the leash is turned on, it
cannot be turned off until the dog complies. Once the dog complies
then the pressure must instantly be turned off. This is a form of
negative reinforcement.

Leash Pop: This is when you make a snapping motion with the
dog’s leash to engage the training-collar to give the dog a correction
(a positive-punishment).

Luring: This is when you use food to guide your dog into the
desired position, and once your dog is in that position, you would
then release the reward to your dog (positive reinforcement).

Negative-Punishment: This is when you remove something of

value from your dog. For example, you’re petting your dog and
your dog jumps up, so you stop petting your dog. By removing the
reward of petting you would be implementing negative punishment.

Negative-Reinforcement: This is when pressure is applied, and it

is only turned off when your dog complies.

Non-Reinforcement Marker: This is a signal for negative-

punishment; which means withholding the reward from your dog
until your dog does the behavior correctly. This is for mistakes.
Your dog must understand that they can make a mistake and try
again.

Operant Conditioning: Also known as instrumental conditioning,

and in the dog world is a method of learning that occurs through
rewards and punishments for behavior. In other words, this is how a
dog learns how their behavior has an effect on their environment.
It’s how a dog (or even a human) makes an association between a
particular behavior and a consequence.

Overshadowing (Pairing): This is when two or more stimuli is

presented to the dog, but one produces a stronger response and
overshadows the objective. In other words, when teaching a dog a
command, the command must come before the physical cue, or one
will overshadow the other. This means all physical cues and
commands must be performed separate from each other. If you pair
your physical cue with your command, then the physical cue will
override the command, and your dog will never learn the command.
(For example: Telling your dog to go “down” while gesturing with
your hand and pointing to the floor at the same time. You shouldn’t
do this.)

Physical Cue: This is a signal to perform a behavior. Such as with

luring or leash pressure.

Positive-Reinforcement: This is when you give your dog a reward

for performing a behavior that you would like your dog to repeat.

Positive-Punishment: This is when you use a correction (such as

popping on the leash) to reduce the occurrence of a behavior.

Primary Reinforcer: This is going to be the primary reward you

give your dog when they do a behavior that you like. A primary
reward can be food, a toy, or affection.

Reactive vs. Proactive Dogs (Obedience Training): A reactive

dog will wait to see a reward before complying with a command.
You ask the dog to sit and the dog doesn't sit. You then pull out a
treat and the dog sits, therefore the dog’s behavior was being
motivated by the reward. A proactive dog understands that their
behaviors affect their environment. With a proactive dog, the
behavior is the driving force for the reward. They will do things
even without the reward readily visible.
Sit-Front: This is when your dog is sitting in front of you looking
at your face. You want your dog as close to you as possible without
touching you. The dog should be center and straight.

Supply Hand: This is the hand that you use to hold extra rewards
for your dog. Keep in mind that your supply hand and distribution
hand can be interchangeable. Also see: Distribution Hand.

Temperament: Your dog’s personality, makeup or nature that will

determine its training process. Also see: Disposition

Terminal Marker: This is a sound that lets your dog know they
will be receiving a reward, but it also guarantees a release. Sound =
reward & release.

Value Transfer: This is when your dog has something of value, and
you use something of equal value to get that item from your dog.
It's like you're making a trade with your dog, so it's important to
give your dog the other item when you use this technique—
otherwise your dog will lose trust in you. It's also a great technique
to teach the "drop it" command.
Chapter 2 – Dog Training Equipment

Notice: This manual has been designed and written for educational
purposes. Below is a list of some of the most common dog training tools.
Even though I don’t personally use all of them, it’s important to understand
how they work so that you can be fully prepared in the event you are
required to use one.

Agitation Collar: These collars are much thicker than normal flat collars. They
are designed to allow the dog to pull, much like a harness does. Trainers will
often use these collars for protection dog training.

Binder: After acquiring your puppy, it's a very good idea to not only ensure your
dog is properly vaccinated, but that you also have copies available of all
pertinent information and medical records. I feel the simplest solution is to keep
a binder available with all important documents, such as: veterinarian records,
the puppy's birth certificate, any contracts related to the purchase, and your
puppy's genealogy records (if given).

Choke Chain: This collar has the potential to be dangerous and can cause life-
long injuries to your dog. Only the most skilled dog trainers can use this collar
correctly without it being a risk to their dog's health. So, unless you’re an expert
and are in a situation where you are being asked to use this collar, stay away
from it. However, many trainers also use this as a dummy collar (see: dummy
collar).

The Crate: If you’re still house training or potty training, then you’ll need a
crate. During the potty-training process, it's important to initially have a crate
that is only a little larger than your dog or puppy, with only enough space to
stand up, turn around and lay down. This will make the dog learn to hold his/her
bladder. If your dog is already potty-trained, a bigger crate is acceptable.

Dog Bed: Help your puppy learn to adjust to their own special place of comfort.
A popular command we use is the "climb command" that teaches the dog to go
to their bed and stay until given the release word. This is very easy to teach
when you know the proper steps. Luckily for you, this information is explained
in detail, and demonstrated with a dog, in my training videos on my YouTube
channel.

Dog Gate: If you want to control where the dog goes within the household, then
use dog/puppy gates. These will restrict the dog from going into, or out of,
certain rooms. They can be installed in most doorways.

Dummy Collar: In the sport of IGP (Schutzhund), which is a protection sport, a

dog is allowed to wear a choke chain or a fur saver, but not a remote collar.
Some competitors use a choke chain that imitates a remote collar, so the dog
behaves as if it were wearing a remote collar.

Flat Nylon or Leather Collars: These collars are basic functional collars. They
can hold your dog’s dog tags and provide some pressure when used with a leash.

Gentle Leader or Halti: This collar is designed to control the dog’s head as well
as giving you the ability to close the dog’s mouth when lifting up. Just like any
training tool, this can be a safe option when working on specific issues.
However, when used incorrectly, it has the potential to cause neck and spinal
cord injuries.

Harness: These are excellent and highly recommended for when you want your
dog to pull. I use a harness to build a dog’s confidence, during protection
training, and I also use it when I'm exercising them. There are multiple different
types of harnesses that can be used on a dog—some are designed to pull and
others can be used for working dogs.

Heeling Stick: Teaches a dog how to respond when it’s felt in a particular part of
the body, so as to cue the dog to manipulate their bodies for precision obedience
objectives. This is similar to leash pressure, as it’s just one additional tool to
improve communication with the dog using negative reinforcement. It is not
used to hit the dog or any other form of positive punishment.

The Leash: There are four different types of leashes that I like to use when
training a dog. The first is a basic 4-foot or 6-foot leash. The second is a 20 to
30-foot-long line, the third is a Flexi leash (a retractable leash), and the fourth is
called a tab, which is a 4”-12” short leash. I use a tab when I’m house training a
dog as it gives me the ability to maintain control of the dog if I need to for any
specific situation, and is less likely to get caught on furniture than a long leash.

Martingale Collar: This is similar to the pinch collar as far as the use and
application, however, this collar only works well on dogs with low correction
levels, meaning, if the dog is very sensitive to corrections. This collar usually
doesn't provide enough of a correction for most dogs. It’s also used to prevent
dogs from slipping their heads out from the collar, which is very helpful when
teaching leash pressure.

No-Pull Harness: Many canine health professionals advise to stay away from
these types of harnesses, since they are considered to be detrimental to a dog’s
structure and gait. Since you are learning how to train your dog, I would suggest
teaching them to not pull on a leash, instead of using this tool.

Pinch Collar (prong collar): This is one of the most commonly used training
collars on the market. If the dog pulls on the leash it will tighten the collar
creating a pinching sensation around the dog’s neck. Once the dog stops pulling
then the pressure will stop. This can also be used to stop issues that arise during
training by popping on the leash when the dog does an undesired behavior.
When the leash pops, it will activate the collar creating a pinching sensation
around the dog’s neck. However, when used this way, the correction only lasts a
split second. This is a very safe and effective tool when used correctly. The most
popular brand amongst professional dog trainers is Herm Sprenger.

Puppy Pen: This is a good idea if you want your puppy to run around and play,
while limiting access to the rest of the house

Remote Training-Collar: These are also known as shock collars. When these
collars are used correctly, they are perfectly safe. However, ethical
considerations arise when used by inexperienced, negligent or careless trainers.
Two popular brands currently in use are Dogtra and E-Collar Technologies.

Toys: Having a few toys at the house when he or she comes home will help with
the transition, and give you and your puppy a way to bond. Just be sure to never
leave a puppy unattended with toys. This is a safety concern as many puppies
will try to eat the toys which can cause health issues such as a ruptured bowel or
blockage and possibly death.
Chapter 3 – Dog Psychology
The foundation and understanding of dog psychology starts with the four
quadrants of operant conditioning. Since this is something that most people have
a hard time understanding, let’s go over it. The four are: 1) positive
reinforcement, 2) positive punishment, 3) negative reinforcement, and 4) negative
punishment.

These can be broken down into two factors:

Reinforcement means to encourage a behavior to be repeated,

whereas punishment means to discourage a behavior from being
repeated.

Positive means to add something to the equation to influence

behavior, while negative means to remove something to influence
behavior.

It can be tricky to see “positive” as discouraging a behavior, as in positive

punishment, and “negative” as encouraging a behavior, as in negative
reinforcement—but it’s easy to understand in the context of operant conditioning
where “positive” and “negative” are not used to mean the same things we
normally use them for, such as “good” and “bad”.
 Understanding Positive Reinforcement
We'll start with positive reinforcement and how it's applied to dog training. As
explained, “positive” in this context means “to add to the equation” and
reinforcement means to encourage a behavior to be repeated. Therefore, a
positive reinforcement translates to giving your dog anything your dog sees as
valuable, with the goal of encouraging the repetition of a behavior. Many of us
do this intentionally while training, but we also do this outside of training and
sometimes without even realizing it.

Here are a few examples of unintentional positive reinforcement in dog

training, including both helpful and unhelpful situations where an owner is
unknowingly reinforcing bad behaviors.

Giving your dog a treat for doing an obedience command, such as a

sit or down. Reinforcing the sit and the down.

Throwing a ball for your dog to fetch after your dog barked at you.
In this situation, the toy is reinforcing the bark.

Petting your dog after your dog nudges your hand for attention. The
petting is reinforcing the nudge.

Your dog pulls on the leash and you walk in the direction your dog
is pulling. Walking forward is giving your dog more freedom and
control, which would be reinforcing the pulling. And people wonder
why their dog keeps pulling on the leash.

Your dog barks at someone and you reassure your dog by petting
them. In this situation, you would be reinforcing the barking and not
reassuring the dog as you may have thought.

Your dog jumps up on someone and they pet your dog. The petting
would be reinforcing the jumping
 Understanding Negative Reinforcement
:
Negative reinforcement is when pressure is turned on to get the desired
behavior, and once the behavior is completed, the pressure is turned off. Two
things must take place in order for negative reinforcement to work:

Once the pressure is turned on, it cannot be turned off until the dog
complies.

The moment the dog complies, the pressure must immediately be

turned off.

Here are a few examples of negative reinforcement in dog training:

Getting your dog to sit.

Your dog is standing and refusing to sit. You start to push on your dog's rear until
your dog sits, at which point the pressure from your hand is removed. Your dog
now knows that every time he doesn't want your hand to push on his rear, he can
sit to remove that pressure.

Why is this negative reinforcement?

The pressure from your hand was present before your dog decided to sit. His
behavior of sitting is removing the pressure from your hand. Therefore, negative
reinforcement is occurring.

Before: Pressure is being placed on the dog's rear end.

Behavior: The dog goes into the sit position.
After: The pressure from your hand is released.
Future behavior: The dog will sit when the slightest pressure is
placed on his rear.

Getting your dog into the down with your hand.

Your dog is standing and refusing to lay down. You start to push on your dog's
shoulder blades until your dog decides to lay down. Once your dog lays down
the pressure from your hand is removed. Now, your dog knows that every time
he doesn't want your hand to push on his shoulder blades, he can down to
remove that pressure.

Why is this negative reinforcement?

The pressure from your hand was present before your dog decided to lay down.
His behavior of going into the down position is removing the pressure from your
hand. Therefore, negative reinforcement is occurring.

Before: Pressure is being applied on the dog's shoulder blades.

Behavior: The dog goes into the down position.
After: The pressure from your hand is released.
Future behavior: The dog will lay down when the slightest
pressure is placed on his shoulder blades.

Getting your dog to sit with leash pressure.

Your dog is standing and refusing to sit. You start to pull up on the leash until
your dog sits. Once your dog sits, the pressure from the leash is removed. Your
dog knows that every time he doesn't want to feel the pressure from the leash, he
can sit to remove that pressure.

Why is this negative reinforcement?

The pressure from the leash was present before your dog decided to sit. His
behavior of sitting is removing the pressure from the leash. Therefore, negative
reinforcement is occurring.

Before: Pressure is being placed on the dog's neck from the leash.
Behavior: The dog goes into the sit position.
After: The pressure from the leash is released.
Future behavior: The dog will sit when the slightest pressure is
applied by lifting up on the leash.

Getting your dog into the down with leash pressure.

Your dog is standing and refusing to lay down. You start to pull down on the
leash until your dog decides to lay down. Once your dog lays down the pressure
from the leash is removed. Your dog knows that every time he doesn't want to
feel the pressure from the leash, he can lay down to remove that pressure.

Why is this negative reinforcement?

The pressure from the leash was present before your dog decided to lay down.
His behavior of laying down is removing the pressure from the leash. Therefore,
negative reinforcement is occurring.

Before: Pressure is applied downward on the dog's neck from the

leash.
Behavior: The dog goes into the down position.
After: The pressure from the leash is released.
Future behavior: The dog will lay down when the slightest
pressure is applied via pulling down on the leash.
 Understanding Positive Punishment:
Positive punishment is when something is added to the equation that the dog
doesn't like, to reduce the likelihood of the behavior being repeated.

Examples of Positive Punishment

There are many ways to use positive punishment to influence behavior. Not all
of these punishments are necessarily good ways to discourage behavior, but they
are examples of the concept of positive punishment and the types of actions dog
owners may knowingly—or unknowingly—perform.

Yelling at a dog for a bad behavior (not recommended).

Popping the leash on the training collar when your dog does an
undesired behavior.

Stimulation via a remote training collar when the dog is doing an

undesired behavior.

Kneeing the dog in the chest when the dog jumps up at you.
(again…not recommended).

Honking a loud horn at the dog to stop an undesired behavior.

Spraying two dogs with a water hose to stop a dog fight..

For more on positive punishment refer to Chapter 8: Compulsive dog Training.

 Understanding Negative Punishment:
Last but not least is negative punishment. This is when something is removed
from the equation that the dog likes in order to decrease an undesired or bad
behavior. Negative punishments techniques are commonly practiced in dog
training.

Examples of Negative Punishment

Once again, not all of these punishments are necessarily good ways to
discourage behavior, but they are examples of the concept of negative
punishment.

While you're petting your dog, he decides to jump up at you. As a

result, you stop petting your dog and you ignore him.

Your dog barks at you to get your attention, so you put your dog in
her crate taking away her freedom (not recommended).

Your dog wants a treat, so you tell him to sit, he decides not to sit,
so he doesn't receive the reward.

Your dog starts to resource guard the couch, so you stop letting her
on the couch.

Now we have a basic understanding of the four quadrants of operant

conditioning, and the next chapters will detail how they work together.
Chapter 4 – The Three Primary Principles: Timing,
Motivation, Consistency
These are the basics that I always teach to new students during introductory
lessons. This is perhaps the most important part, and every other part of your dog
training skills are built upon this foundation.
 Principle 1: Timing:
It's scientifically proven that we have approximately one second to influence a
dog's behavior. This means you have one second to reward your dog for a
behavior you would like repeated, and one second to correct your dog for a
behavior you would not like repeated.

If the reward or the correction does not come within one-second, then your dog
will not make the connection. As soon as your dog makes a movement that
indicates the behavior you want to capture, you have to either deliver a primary
reinforcer or a conditioned reinforcer within that first second. The same principle
applies for actions you would not like your dog to repeat; the moment your dog
does the behavior in question, you have to deliver either a primary correction or
a conditioned correction within a second of your dog doing that behavior.

Here is an example of how important timing is. Let's say you’re doing a down-
stay with your dog and you’re in a wide-open space like a football field. While
you're walking away from your dog across the field, your dog breaks the down-
stay without you seeing. Your dog then decides to run to you, and when you turn
around and see your dog running at you, you then correct your dog for breaking
the down-stay.

Even though you believe that you corrected your dog for breaking a down-stay,
you just corrected your dog for coming to you. Since you did not see your dog
break the down-stay, you should not have corrected the dog. Instead, you could
have ignored the behavior, reset and tried again; or do what I do and reward your
dog for coming to you, then reset and try again.
 Principle 2: Motivation:
Your dog will always do whatever is most motivating. For example, if you're
trying to get your dog to perform a sit and he is surrounded by his favorite
things, let’s say rabbits, he's going to be more motivated to chase the rabbits
compared to his motivation to work for your treat.

It's important to keep in mind that dogs can be motivated by many things. They
can be motivated to access something pleasant, they can be motivated to prevent
something unpleasant, or the behavior itself is fun. By making sure that you
always provide the most motivating factor for your dog, you will ensure
reliability in your dog’s obedience.

There are four ways you can motivate a dog to perform a behavior: Food, toys,
affection and force. It's important you learn to use all four types of motivation
for your training. Another factor to keep in mind is that speed is based on
motivation; the more motivated your dog is, the faster your dog will perform the
desired behavior.

Aside from the motivating factors, the next important element is your dog’s level
of perseverance.

Something that throws a lot of people off is when a dog has low perseverance
and gives up when something seems too challenging. For example: you try to
make your dog spin once in a circle for a treat—and he stops halfway through.

In these situations, you have to adjust for the dog’s individual level of
perseverance. If they give up easily, you’ll need to reward the dog midway
through their completion of the behavior until they learn to finish it all the way.

Some dogs, however, have high perseverance and require less adjustment. As
such, this dog will be easier to train.
 Principle 3: Consistency
This one is paramount, because even if you have bad timing and wrong
motivation, if you are consistent, your dog will still be able to learn. This
involves always being consistent with what you want and expect from your dog.
If you let your dog jump on the furniture one day, don't correct your dog for
jumping on the furniture the next day. If you are inconsistent, you can create
stress and confusion for your dog.

You also want to be consistent with the way you say your markers as well as
your commands. Remember, your dog doesn't understand the English word
S.I.T., rather your dog hears a sound. So, you want your commands always to
sound the same, meaning you shouldn’t constantly be changing the rise and
inflection of your commands.

On this topic, let’s now discuss predictability. This word is not part of the
primary principles, but it's one you always need to keep in mind when it comes
to dog training. Always think about your actions as you train your dog, and if
they are becoming predictable or not.

You can use this to improve the training process, or by contrast, it can actually
create problems. For example, let's say you love taking your dog to the beach,
and this is an activity that your dog enjoys. Every time you’re ready to leave,
you call your dog to you. Eventually, your dog will learn not to come to you
when you call because you’ve created a predictable pattern that calling equals
leaving the beach, which your dog doesn’t want.

Instead, you would always want to play “come when called” games at the beach
that predict a release and a reward, like a ball. This way, your dog will enjoy
coming to you when called. It's a simple concept: if your dog can predict
something, then your dog can learn it, just like obedience. You say the
command, and then you show your dog the physical cue. This way, the dog
learns that when you say a command, it is then followed by the action that gets
the dog into the position. Once the dog knows this, then you no longer need the
physical cue, because it is now predictable for your dog.

Playing Tricks: Not a Good Idea.

On the topic of consistency, there’s a mistake some owners make: playing tricks
with their dogs that destroy the trusting relationship.

For example: An owner playing fetch may pretend to throw the ball, but they
really didn’t. And then everyone gets to laugh when the dog goes chasing after
nothing. While this is a funny thing to do, it’s actually dismantling your training
process.

There are many more examples, such as getting a dog excited thinking it’s
feeding time—then not feeding them. Or hiding a toy. Or any other types of
“practical jokes” played on the dog.

A dog may not understand the humorous intent, and could begin to lose trust in
the owner. An owner who frequently plays tricks will discover a dog that stops
caring or taking seriously new things the owner wants to teach.
Chapter 5 – The Different Types of Training
 Reward-Based Training (Pure Positive):
This is an ideal training to start your dog on but can also take the longest. This is
when you use rewards to teach all the desired behaviors, and you use negative-
punishment when your dog fails to perform the action, so they learn to go into
different positions to access rewards.

This training is almost entirely stress free for a dog, and it also makes the
training very positive for them. This training uses a combination of positive-
reinforcement and negative-punishment.

There are three common ways to use reward-based training (see the terminology
chapter for some added examples).

Luring: This is when you use food to guide your dog into the
desired position, and once your dog is in that position, you would
then release the reward to your dog.

Fix Shaping: This is when you have a training goal in mind, but
you're letting your dog figure out what you want instead of showing
your dog.

Free Shaping: This is when you don't have a particular training

goal in mind, and you are simply watching your dog to see if your
dog will perform a behavior that you like.
 Pressure-Based Training (Escape)
The next type of training is by using a leash, and involves using pressure-based
training (which includes many other diverse methods, as well).

Using leash pressure is great if you want faster results. It uses a combination of
negative-reinforcement, negative-punishment, and positive-reinforcement. You
turn the pressure on, and when your dog complies, you immediately turn the
pressure off and reward your dog.

I don't prefer to start this way, but I like to use this methodology a little later in
the training for reliability, teaching the stay command, and for teaching how to
turn off pressure. However, some people prefer to start with leash pressure
training as it will help your dog learn more quickly how to go into desired
positions.

Leash Pressure Training Tips

There are a few things to know before jumping into this style of training. One of
the first things to consider is how when you use a leash, you’ll discover your dog
is “resisting” it. That’s because dogs possess what’s known as classical
opposition reflex, if you pull on a leash they resist and go the opposite direction.

However, with leash pressure, our aim is to teach them to go with the direction
of the leash. This opens up new training opportunities.

Once the dog goes in the direction of the leash, we can use it to teach positions
like sit / down / stand, directing into a heel position, walking forwards, walking
backwards, or any other number of behaviors. We also use leash pressure to
easily teach our dogs the “Stay” command.

Leash pressure also helps to teach a dog what behaviors are not acceptable
without issuing a correction. For example, if a dog likes to jump up on people,
you can perform the following exercise. For the purpose of this book we will be
using the word “wrong”. You can use whatever word you choose.

Have a friend start petting your dog.

When the dog jumps up, have your friend immediately stop petting.
 Say “Wrong”, and then add the leash pressure, pulling the dog off
the friend.
Once all four paws have returned to the ground, turn off the leash
pressure, then have the friend immediately return to petting.

We can also use this to stop specific behavioral issues such as jumping up on
furniture or playing too rough with another dog. We follow the same idea of
saying “Wrong” then applying the pressure, and releasing the pressure when the
dog does what we wish.

Remember, positive reinforcement is limited by how much the dog wants the
reward, but negative reinforcement means the dog is given no choice but to
comply (and learn).
 Avoidance Training
This is when you correct your dog into the desired positions. This is considered
an older style of training and is not as commonly used anymore. The dogs learn
very fast, but it creates a bad association to the training.

This training uses a combination of positive-punishment, negative-punishment,

and positive-reinforcement. For example, the dog would be given the command
“sit”, then the dog would be corrected into the position with an upward leash pop
while simultaneously pushing the dog’s butt down. Because the dog was given
the correction, they’ll start automatically sitting because they don’t want to
experience another correction. In other words, you’re correcting a dog without
the dog actually doing something wrong.

Again, this type of training is very old fashioned and likely not a good idea
anymore.
 Balanced Training
This is the most preferred style of training, and it's what I recommend. The
balanced training method uses all four quadrants of operant conditioning:
positive-reinforcement, negative-reinforcement, positive-punishment, and
negative-punishment. In my professional experience, this style of training
creates the happiest dogs with the highest level of reliability.
Chapter 6 – Training with Rewards
Before we start training our dogs, we must know what motivates them. With any
dog I start training, I like to begin with food and luring. Now, something I’m
often asked is, “How do I train my dog when my dog doesn’t have any food
motivation?” First, let me start by saying that every dog has food motivation,
what varies is how intense the food motivation is. If you have a dog with low
food motivation, there are techniques that you can use to increase that food
drive.

Most dog’s low food motivation is caused by a few things: Either the dog has
been overfed, free-fed, given very high value food such as cooked steak, or
sometimes just feeding out of a bowl can cause this. As a result, the dog just
doesn’t care that much about getting fed as a reward.

A common technique that we like to use to correct a lack of food drive is food
deprivation. For this you will want to use mealtime as a training time. Bring the
dog out and offer food to train, if the dog is not interested, no big deal, put the
food away and try again at dinner.

Again, if the dog is not interested, put the food away and try again the next day.
Continue to do this until your dog is willing to work for the food. Be sure not to
give the dog any food between training. The dog has to know that he will only
get food that he works for. I’ve used this technique on dozens of dogs and it’s
worked every time.

When we first start teaching a new command to a dog we start with continual
reinforcement. Meaning, we reward the dog for the completion of every
behavior we are teaching. Once the dog is performing the behavior on the
command alone without the help of the physical cue, we then start spacing out
the rewards.

The idea is that the dog must believe there is a possibility that he will receive a
reward, but not that he will always receive a reward. Another way to look at it is
when you first start training a dog, you are a vending machine. Every dollar
(behavior) your dog puts in, they get their reward. Once your dog knows the
command you must transition to a slot machine. Meaning, every dollar
(behavior) your dog puts in, no longer guarantees a reward, but the hope is there.
Just like people continue to put money into a slot machine, your dog will
continue to perform behaviors for the possibility of the reward.

Once your dog is performing a behavior on the command alone, you can start the
next process. For this example, let’s look at the same series of commands with
each step of this process. First series will be with continual reinforcement.

Verbal command is given, dog performs the action (sit, heel, spin, heel,
climb, etc), marker sound followed by reward.

Now we will look at the same series when we first start to space out rewards,
moving into more of a slot machine than a vending machine:

Verbal command sit, dog sits, verbal praise but no reward.

Verbal command down, dog downs, verbal praise but no reward.
Verbal command stand, dog stands, marker sound followed by
reward.
Verbal command spin, dog spins, verbal praise but no reward.
Verbal command come, dog comes to you, verbal praise but no
reward.
Verbal command heel, dog goes into the heel command, marker
sound followed by reward.
Verbal command center, dog goes into the center command, verbal
praise but no reward.
Verbal command climb, dog goes on the elevated platform, marker
sound followed by reward.

Now for the next step we will alternate with praising and NOT praising, giving
rewards and NOT giving rewards. In fact, we’ll avoid giving any rewards until
the 8th practice. Ex.:

Verbal command sit, dog sits, verbal praise but no reward.

Verbal command down, dog downs, no praise and no reward.
Verbal command stand, dog stands, no praise and no reward.
Verbal command spin, dog spins, verbal praise but no reward.
Verbal command come, dog comes to you, no praise and no reward.
Verbal command heel, dog goes into the heel command, verbal
praise but no reward.
Verbal command center, dog goes into the center command, no
praise and no reward.
Verbal command climb, dog goes on the elevated platform, marker
sound followed by reward.

Next, try to get your dog to perform multiple commands in a row with neither
praise nor reward, and then on the 8th set—provide both forms of reinforcement.
Here’s an example below:

Verbal command sit, dog sits, no praise and no reward.

Verbal command down, dog downs, no praise and no reward.
Verbal command stand, dog stands, no praise and no reward.
Verbal command spin, dog spins, no praise and no reward.
Verbal command come, dog comes to you, no praise and no reward.
Verbal command heel, dog goes into the heel command, no praise
and no reward.
Verbal command center, dog goes into the center command, no
praise and no reward.
Verbal command climb, dog goes on the elevated platform, marker
sound followed by reward.

As you can see, we start with continual reinforcement (verbal praise plus the
rewards each time), but over time we can get the dog to perform multiple
commands in a row with only the hope they will eventually receive a reward.
The order above was just an example of this process, the commands can be
given in any order. The main idea is to transition your dog from always receiving
praise and a reward, to mixing it up and only occasionally providing the
reinforcement.

When to use toys with obedience:

If you have a dog that enjoys toys, you can start to use that motivation in your
training. Once I have a dog performing all the commands on verbal alone and
they no longer need a reward after every behavior, this is the point when I like to
introduce toys into obedience training.

Before using toys, we need to make sure that the dog will give us the toy when
asked. We can teach our dog(s) this command by implementing value transfer.
The process goes as follows.

Value Transfer / “Drop It” Command:

Just like anything else we do, we want to make sure that we can get the dog to
do the behavior with a physical cue before we add the command. For this
example, we will be giving the “Out” command.

1.) You want to have two toys of equal value. Two completely identical toys
will work best for this
2.) First present one of the toys, have your dog look at you, then say your
terminal marker (like “Free”) to engage your dog into play. This will
help create structure during play, by asking something from your dog
before giving them the toy.
3.) If you’re playing tug with your dog you will do one of two things,
depending on the dog. Option one: you will stop moving the toy (this
can be difficult if you have a strong dog), option two: you will release
the toy to the dog. The second option works best if your dog prefers to
play tug with you.
4.) Once the toy stops moving or after you release the toy, you will then
give the “drop it” command (like “Out”). Be sure to only say the
command once.
5.) Then bring the NEW toy out and make it more interesting than the toy
the dog currently has. When done correctly, your dog will release the
old toy to play with the new toy.
6.) After your dog is used to switching to the new toy after hearing the drop
it command, transition into switching back to the SAME toy.
 7.) So, you stop moving, say “Out”, after the dog releases the toy, use your
terminal marker, then give the toy back to your dog.
8.) Begin to practice waiting for longer periods between giving the toy
back.
9.) Eventually, your dog will know to just drop the toy after hearing the
drop it command. For full demonstrations, see my YouTube video about
this.

When your dog becomes more proficient at the drop it command, start saying
“out” before step 3. This will help to teach the dog to release even while in
active play. Here’s a quick breakdown:

While you’re actively playing tug, say the “drop it” command.

After you say the command, stop moving the toy. At first your dog
will not out right away when you give the command.

However, since you saying “out” predicts a stop or freeze to the

game, your dog will learn to release the toy even if the toy is still
active. This is considered an advanced “out” or “drop it” command.

Now we can start training with a toy reward. After giving your dog multiple
commands, you would want to use your terminal marker and then allow your
dog to play with the toy. If you have a dog that prefers to play fetch, you can
throw the ball for your dog. Once your dog comes back to you, take the ball back
(using the drop it command) and go right back into more training.

If you have a dog that prefers to play tug, you can use your terminal marker and
follow it with a short game. Ask your dog to drop the item and then go right
back into obedience. This is a great way to make the training even more fun and
engaging for your dog.

If you are like a lot of people that would like to use toys in training, but you have
a dog that doesn’t seem that motivated for toys, you can use a technique to try
and increase your dog’s toy drive. Just keep in mind that not all dogs enjoy
playing with toys—even if you do increase their toy drive.
The first technique is to “clean house” if you have toys scattered all over the
place. In this case it’s much like free feeding a dog. Why would a dog want to
work for something they get for free? Your dog must know that the only way he
will be able to play with a toy is if he works for it. However, once your dog is
willing to work for the toys you can start allowing them to have toys for free
during the day.

The next technique to enhance toy drive is to build “frustration”. This is the
process you’ll want to follow:

Attach a harness or an agitation collar to your dog. The point is just

to make sure you can restrain the dog. You can also connect the
leash to a pole or any other object to create a back-tie.

Have a friend begin twirling or teasing with a toy just beyond reach
of the dog. Building more distance can often create more
frustration, so build distance as needed.

Keep doing this until the dog becomes “frustrated” and barks. At
this point, give verbal praise and reward the dog with the toy for
barking (plus petting and attention, etc.). But make sure you or your
friend holds on to the toy while the dog plays with it. A flirt pole or
ball-on-a-rope will work great for this.

If the dog releases the toy from the grip, run back and continue the
teasing until the dog barks again.

Now it can become like a game: Try to steal the toy from the dog (if
the dog lets go of it, don't rip it from the dog), and if successful,
return to teasing, and once again reward if the dog barks.

For demonstrations, see my “Teach Your Dog to Bark On

Command” video at: https://www.youtube.com/
HeVWMcwbf1w&t=21s.

This helps build toy drive because much like humans, dogs want what they can't
have. They also want what others want and have. This works best when you start
during the imprinting stage of a dog’s life. However, it can work later in the
dog’s life as well.
Chapter 7 – The Science of Teaching your Dog any
Command
This section consists of an in-depth look at the meat-and-potatoes of a typical
dog training lesson. We’ll cover the step by step proven scientific process of dog
training.

In regard to the science part, keep in mind that when you are training your dog
the science is always the same; what varies between each dog are things like
motivation, perseverance, intelligence, temperament, disposition, etc. Being able
to adjust for each dog’s specific needs is considered the art of dog training.

Because of this, not all techniques work on all dogs; and as a result, you have to
be able to adjust accordingly. For example; a dog with a very high level of
perseverance will continue to work through a difficult task to get a reward—
while other dogs may give up early.
 Step 1: Teaching the conditioned reinforcers
(markers).
First, we want to develop our communication channels. As we’ve explained
elsewhere in this book, these are the "markers” or “conditioned reinforcers” and
are words or sounds (such as a clicker) that will let our dog know when they are
right or wrong. I have a total of six markers that I like to teach to the dogs that I
work with.

This is the very first step I do with any dog that I’m training, assuming the dog
doesn’t have any fear or aggression issues. Some call this step “loading the
markers”, while others call it “engagement training”. In this step you are paying
(rewarding) your dog for focusing their attention on you. So, during this
exercise, you are teaching your dog two things: You are teaching them the
communication channels, and you are teaching them that it's a good thing to look
at you. The more engagement you get from your dog, the faster they will learn.

Firstly, there are the two positive types of markers: The first one is the
continuation marker (I like to use the word “yes”). This is a word or sound that
lets the dog know that they are correct and will be delivered a reward. It’s called
a continuation marker because unlike the terminal marker, it doesn’t release the
dog. Meaning, if your dog is in a command stay, you can use this marker without
releasing the dog from the stay.

However, if your dog is not in a command stay, then this marker just means
they’ll be rewarded. Therefore, this often confuses people because of the
terminology “continuation”. This is why it’s easier to understand by what it
predicts: A continuation marker predicts a reward. That’s it. It doesn’t change
the circumstances, so if the dog is in a stay, they remain in the stay, and if the
dog is not in a stay, then they remain free from the stay.

In contrast, we have the terminal markers (I like to use the word “free”). These
release dogs from commanded positions as well as guaranteeing a reward. Ex.: If
a dog was in a sitting position and you use your terminal marker, they are
released from that position and will be given a reward (indicating the sit
behavior is finished).
We have two versions of terminal markers: The first version lets the dog know
that they’re correct, and they will come to the trainer for the reward, which also
releases them from the prior behavior. The second version of the terminal marker
lets the dog know they are correct, and they may go and get their reward. Ex.: If
you had a ball out on the training field and your dog was aware that the ball was
there, they would be released to get the toy.

However, you can use the same marker for both of these if you choose. Often the
dog will know if you have the reward on your person or in the training field.
Since I teach my dogs an implied stay, meaning if I tell a dog to sit, they are in a
sit stay, I don’t have to say the word “stay”.

When I first start teaching the verbal command, I prefer to use the terminal
marker. This gives me an opportunity to do multiple reps in a short amount of
time and it relieves me of the added pressure of trying to reinforce a stay. In
addition, the dogs will learn to perform the behaviors faster, because they will
learn that the faster they perform the command, the faster they will be released
and rewarded. Keep in mind that speed is based on motivation. The more
motivated your dog is, the faster they will move.

We also have a non-reinforcement marker, and this is for mistakes. For example,
if you tell your dog to sit, and the dog downs instead, you would use your non-
reinforcement marker and then you would re-command the sit. Once the dog sits,
you would then reward the dog. Giving a dog the ability to make mistakes and
try again is imperative. If the dog gets corrected for making a mistake too early
in training, then the dog will become cautious and is less likely to try new things,
which would make it more difficult to teach new behaviors.

I also like to teach a marker that signals negative reinforcement. This is very
useful when teaching the stay command or if you wanted to teach your dog to
not jump on the furniture. This helps your dog to learn what they can and can’t
do without receiving a form of positive punishment. The type of negative
reinforcement that it predicts is leash pressure. (As mentioned earlier, for the
purposes of this book, we will use the word “Wrong”)

The last marker is a signal for positive punishment. This sound lets the dog
know they will be corrected. We use this for behaviors we would like to remove
from the dog’s repertoire. After we say the conditioned correction (“No”), the
correction is performed through a training collar. It’s important that these
markers are pinpointed at the moment of time an undesirable behavior occurs,
because if the timing is off, the dog will think the correction is being made for an
entirely different behavior.

This part of the training only requires that we teach our dog the continuation and
terminal markers. The exercise goes as follows:

Get your dog’s attention.

Once your dog is looking at you, you use your continuation-marker

(could be your voice or a clicker).

Deliver the reward. Note: the marker sound must come before you
move to deliver the reward. If you say your marker while you’re
giving the dog the reward, your dog will never become conditioned
to the sound.

Wait until your dog eats the first reward and looks back at you. Use
your terminal-marker, followed by moving away from your dog,
encouraging your dog to come and get the second reward.

When doing this exercise, I prefer to go back and forth between the two markers.
I also recommend switching your supply hand and your distribution hand. You
will continue to do sessions of this exercise until your dog is conditioned to these
two markers. When done correctly most dogs will become conditioned within a
day or two.

We need to make sure we always keep timing in mind when we are training, and
we need never to pair our physical with our verbal if we are trying to teach our
dogs a verbal command. This analogy will help you remember the process: Let's
say I place a blindfold on you, and I told you that I was going to swing a stick at
your head, but before swinging the stick, I said “Duck!” This would give you
just enough time to duck before I hit you with the stick, but imagine if I said
duck and swung the stick at the same time: You would get beaten in the head
with the stick every single time because it wasn't predictable. So, when you are
teaching your dog a command, say the command first and then show your dog
the physical cue, just like in this analogy.

Ivan Pavlov knew his dogs were conditioned to a marker because they’d
salivate. The way I test a dog to see if it’s conditioned is I will say the marker
(the sound that predicts the reward, for example I say “Yes”), and instead of
giving the reward I watch them for any changes of behavior. These are the four
most common:

• Opening their mouths

• Salivating
• Licking their lips
• Moving their paws

On the other hand, if all they give you is a blank stare—you’ll know they’re not
conditioned.

Now that your dog is conditioned to each marker, you may be wondering how
long you have to deliver the primary reinforcer before you lose the connection.
Well, you have as much time as the dog is paying attention. This could be any
length of time until the dog is distracted (if a rabbit runs by and catches your
dog’s attention, you’ve lost it). This means you don’t have to rush the delivery of
the reward.

Next, when using a marker, make sure your dog is doing a behavior that you
like. Don’t make the common mistake of using the marker to get your dog’s
attention. Meaning, your dog is not paying attention to you, so you use the
marker to get your dog to look at you. Even though your dog looks at you after
you say the marker, the dog was actually being rewarded for looking away
from you.

Lastly, if you use your marker, you must pay your dog with the primary. A
marker only has value because it ALWAYS predicts the primary reinforcer.

Once we teach our dog the different markers, we then move to the next step,
which is to show the dog what we want them to perform.

(Note: before each training session I like to do engagement training for 15 - 30

seconds. This helps get the dog focused and in the right mindset to learn and
maximize the results from each session.)
 Step 2: The Physical Cue
Before we name a command, the dog must first understand, through a physical
cue, what we want and expect from them. During this step, you will begin to
teach your dog the desired behaviors this way, such as with luring or leash-
pressure. You will continue to carry out this step until your dog is performing
each position in the way that you would like them to.

Let’s use "sit" as an example. If I'm using food, I will lift my hand up, and as the
dog follows my hand, their butt naturally goes down into a sit. The moment the
dog sits, I would use one of my markers and then I would reward the dog. Once I
know that every time I lift my hand up the dog will sit, it is then time to name
the command. This goes for any command we’re trying to teach our dogs.
Simplified: we must first get the dog to perform the behavior with a physical
cue. Once we have our dog performing the action with our physical cue it is then
time to name the command.

Now keep in mind, it doesn’t matter what the physical cue is, as long as you
know you can get your dog to do the behavior every time with that cue.

Here are a few examples:

You want to get your dog to smile on command and you realize that
blowing in your dog’s face gets this behavior. Blowing in your
dog’s face would be the physical cue.

Teasing your dog with a toy or knocking on the wall could get your
dog to bark. This would be the physical cue you could use to teach
your dog to bark on command.

Placing a treat under a call bell could get your dog to ring the bell in
an attempt to access the food. Once the dog rings the bell, you
would lift up the bell and allow your dog to get the treat. This
would be the physical cue to get your dog to ring the bell.

Once you get your dog to perform the behavior with the physical cue, you will
mark and then reward upon completion of each behavior.
 Step 3: Teach Leash Pressure
This is how you will teach your dog to turn off pressure by complying: Put a
leash and collar on your dog and start to pull the dog in one direction, when your
dog puts on the breaks, continue to pull until the dog moves with the pressure of
the leash. Once he moves with the pressure, you immediately release the
pressure and then reward. You will place your dog in all the obedience positions
using leash pressure.

For a sit, you will apply slow, steady pressure upwards until your dog sits. For a
down, you will apply slow, steady pressure downwards until your dog lays down
(elbows touching the ground). For the heel, you will use leash-pressure to guide
your dog into the heel position. Anytime you use leash-pressure; it is imperative
to turn off the pressure once your dog makes the decision to go into the position.
It’s also important to keep in mind that once the pressure is turned on, it can’t be
turned off until the dog complies.

Pro Tip: We can make this process easier by using something the dog already
knows to get them to quickly learn this concept. It will go like this:

First, apply leash pressure.

Next, after the pressure has been applied, you will use luring to
guide your dog into the desired position. For example: if we want to
use leash pressure to get the dog into the down position, we would
apply pressure first—then once the dog feels the pressure, we would
lure the dog into the down with a piece of food. This will help teach
the dog the leash pressure—which occurs because whatever comes
first is what you are teaching your dog. So, in this situation—it’s the
leash pressure.

Turn the leash pressure off.

Mark and reward.

 Step 4: Putting a Command to the Behaviors
Once we have our dog performing the action with our physical cue, it is then
time to give the behavior a command. The command can be physical or verbal.
In order for your dog to learn the command, you must say or perform the
command ONCE and then show your dog the physical cue. Don’t make the
mistake or repeating the command or saying something like “good sit” after the
dog is already sitting, which can send mixed signals to a dog that is already
sitting.

First be warned: A common mistake that people make is when they decide to
link the behavior to a command, they will deliver the command while they are
giving the dog the physical cue. If you pair (overshadow) your physical cue with
your command as stated earlier, the physical will override the command and
become the only cue for the behavior.

An example of this could be as simple as saying “Good boy” (or the marker that
trainers would prefer, “yes”) simultaneously to feeding the dog the reward. By
mixing these two actions together, the verbal marker will not have any relevance
in the dog’s mind.

If we want the dog to learn the command, then it is important to make sure that
the command (verbal or physical) precedes the physical cue by a split second.
It must be predictable to the dog. So, the process becomes: command, motivate,
mark, and reward, in that order.

First say sit (command).

Then you lift your hand with the treat (motivate).
Once the dog's butt hits the ground, you either give the reward
within the first second or you mark and then reward.
You will continue to use the physical cues until the dog beats you to
it. Meaning, if you say sit and before you lift your hand—the dog is
already sitting.

This process is the same even if you want to teach a service dog to perform a
specific command based on an involuntary human behavior conducted by the
person with the disability. For example, you’re training a service dog to nudge
his handler when his handler reaches high levels of stress, such as with a veteran
suffering from PTSD. First you would need to figure out what the veteran’s
involuntary behavior is. For this example, we will say that the veteran looks up
and starts to breathe heavily. Once we know this, then that will become the
command for the behavior. The next step would be to present a physical cue that
can get the dog to nudge your leg (which will be transitioned to the veteran
later), let’s say tapping your own leg works for this dog. Now the process would
go as follows:

First look up and breathe heavily (the command).

Then you would tap on your leg to get the dog to nudge your leg
(motivate).
Once the dog nudges you, you either give the reward within the first
second or you mark and then reward.
You will continue to use the physical cues until the dog beats you to
it. Meaning, you look up and breathe heavily and before you tap
your leg—the dog is already nudging you.
 Step 5: Teach the Stay Command Using Leash-
Pressure.
Once your dog knows all the leash-pressure cues, you can now start using it for
your stays. Place your dog in a position of your choice. When your dog breaks
that position, you will calmly say “wrong,” casually walk to your dog, grab the
leash and use the leash-pressure to place your dog back into the position that was
just broken. Once your dog is back in the desired position you will praise and pet
your dog (petting is optional), but don’t give your dog a treat or toy reward. The
reason for this, is that some dogs will break the position on purpose, so they can
get the reward when placed back into the stay position.

You must say “wrong”, or whatever word you choose, the moment (first second)
your dog breaks the position, and you only say “wrong” once for each offense—
even if it takes you a few minutes to get your dog back to the position that they
just broke. You will continue to do this step until your dog either stops moving
or goes back to the position they just broke on their own after you say “wrong.”
This will prove to you that your dog knows what is expected, and that your dog
knows how to turn off pressure by complying. Once your dog shows you this
behavior, you can then (if you choose) use corrections (positive punishment) for
reliability.

As a side note: when teaching a stay, we do not say "stay," the stay is implied
when you put your dog into a commanded position. However, some people feel
more comfortable saying the word “Stay”. If that’s the case with you, feel free to
use the word as it won’t negatively impact the training.

When I place a dog into the stay command, I have three ways of releasing them
from the stay.

One: we can use our release word. For my dogs that word is
"break".

We can use our terminal marker which predicts release and reward.
For my dogs that word is "free".

Lastly, we can give the dog a new command, such as "come" or

 "heel”.

I’m often asked how I teach my dogs the release word “Break”. You can
introduce the (release) word the same way you introduced the terminal marker.
The only difference is that the release word doesn't always predict a reward like
the terminal marker does. You can also say the release word and then follow it
with verbal praise and excitement. I’ll also squat down when I praise to
encourage the dog to come to me. This quickly teaches a dog the release word.

We can also use leash pressure to help teach our dog what behaviors are not
acceptable, as explained earlier in the manual. For example: let’s say you don’t
want your dog to be on your bed. When your dog jumps up on the bed, you can
say “wrong” or “off” and then use the leash pressure to remove the dog from the
bed. This is an easy way to teach your dog boundaries without having to
implement positive punishment.
 Step 6: Teach Reliability by Adding Corrections.
This will ensure reliability in your commands as well as your stay. First, let’s
start with the stay command, as once your dog knows this, you can start adding
corrections for reliability. When your dog breaks a position, you will say "no,"
but instead of using leash-pressure, you will give your dog a correction with the
training-collar (even if your dog goes back into the position on their own). After
you give the physical correction, you will then command your dog back into the
position that was just broken. If your dog fails to do it on their own after the
correction, you will assist them with the leash pressure or luring. You don’t want
to continue to correct a dog for the same mistake over and over again. Once the
dog is back in the position, you will praise and pet as mentioned earlier.

Now, here is how to correct if your dog decides not to listen to a command: You
give the dog the command. The moment they decide not to listen, which should
be that first second, you mark it with a conditioned correction (“No”) and then
you follow it up with a correction on the training collar (like a leash pop). After
you give the dog the correction, you repeat the command and help the dog
achieve the position via the previous physical cue used to teach the dog the
command or leash pressure. Once they are in the correct position, praise and
reward the dog. Once again, don’t keep correcting the dog over the same mistake
—it’s just one correction, then we help them out. And, as always, once the dog is
in the commanded position, you will praise and pet.

Bonus: When doing a training session with a dog, I like to incorporate multiple
behaviors in one session. Meaning; in one session I’m not just working on one
command the entire time, but rather multiple commands. I may start by asking
the dog to sit, then a down, then heel, then a down in motion, followed by the
center command, etc. This makes the training more fun and engaging for the
dog. As a side benefit, the dog learns faster. Also, when training I would suggest
filming yourself. This will help you identify and fix mistakes that you may be
making.
 Genetic Limitations
Finally, people often underestimate how much genetics has a factor in the dog
training process. I’ve put together these 3 charts to give you an idea of what this
can look like and how much training can help in relation to the genetic factors
creating certain limitations.

These charts are just examples. The larger scale represents max levels that can
be achieved by a dog with specific genetics; while the inside scale represents
that one dog's own limitations. For example, on the toy drive chart, that dog,
with all the toy drive building exercises in the world, will still never go beyond
his own "highest possible toy drive".

For a dog with a different genetic characteristic, the same amount of training
may provide a much better result. This is a general guideline and each breed
must be researched.
As you can see, with all 3 examples, a dog may only be able to achieve a limited
toy drive, food drive, or confidence level despite all the training in the world.
Chapter 8 – Compulsive Dog Training
In this chapter we will be discussing the proper use of compulsion in dog
training. Using corrections (compulsion) is not mandatory and you can get a
really well-trained dog only using three out of the four quadrants of operant
conditioning. However, if you want 100% reliability, then using compulsion
becomes necessary. Some of the information in this chapter will be repeated
from earlier, but when you’re learning a new skill, it often helps the learning
process to see and hear the information in a few different ways.

Corrections in dog training is when we are using positive punishment to stop an

undesired behavior. First, we must keep in mind that everything our dogs do is
based on motivation. The motivation to access something pleasant, or the
motivation to prevent something unpleasant. If your dog is practicing a behavior
that is fun (self-reinforcing behavior), then you have two options to stop this:

One: Preventing the dog from practicing the undesired behavior.

Two: Using a correction to stop the behavior.

A correction can be anything the dog doesn't like. So, in the end, the motivation
not to receive the correction must override the motivation to do the undesired
behavior.

If you use a correction and the undesired behavior continues, then the correction
is not high enough. Here's an analogy to help understand this concept: Imagine
every dog has a bank account (their correction level). Some dogs are very
wealthy, and some are penniless, just like people. Let's say that you are speeding
down the highway and a police officer pulls you over and writes you a 25 cent-
speeding ticket. The second the officer leaves, you will start speeding again
because the ticket wasn't high enough to get you to change your behavior. But
let's say he pulls you over and writes you a ten-million-dollar speeding ticket,
now it's so high that you will avoid driving altogether, and you will be very
stressed out. On the other hand, let's say he pulls you over and writes you a $125
speeding ticket. That would be enough to get you to slow down, without causing
you to avoid the behavior of driving altogether.

This is what we must do with our dogs; we need to correct them at a level that is
adequate to their bank account. If the dog doesn't stop the bad behavior, then you
may have to increase the correction. Just be sure to correct the dog in the act.

In addition, proper corrections should not create a fearful dog. Usually fear when
correcting a dog is due to the owner being angry, yelling at the dog, or correcting
too hard. When we use a correction, it's simple cause and effect. A correction
should never be personal and you should never yell at your dog. Once the
correction is done, then we praise and reward our dog when they're doing what
we like. If your dog knows why he/she is being corrected and knows how to
prevent the correction from happening, then you shouldn't create any fear.
 When to Correct Your Dog:
Below are different examples of when you may need to correct your dog, other
than breaking a stay. It's also imperative to understand that you should not be
correcting your dog until your dog knows the commands, knows what's expected
of him, knows how to turn off pressure by complying and has a clear path to
success.

If you give your dog a command, and they choose not to perform
that command, the moment they decide they aren't going to execute
the command, you will say "no" and then you will correct your dog
with the training-collar. After the correction, you will give the
command to your dog again. If your dog still doesn't perform the
behavior, you will then use leash-pressure or luring to place your
dog into that position.

You can use corrections immediately to stop undesirable behaviors

that are not related to obedience commands. For example, if your
dog digs, then you can correct that behavior out of your dog's
repertoire, but you have to be sure to correct your dog when they
are digging, not hours after the hole has been dug.

Remember, it’s important that we set up our dogs up for success through staging
different scenarios, so we can reward them the second they do it right. We also
set them up for failure, so we can correct them the moment they do something
wrong. Once you correct a dog for any bad behavior, you must immediately
reward them when they are no longer doing that behavior. So, if your dog was
digging and you corrected your dog, the second your dog stops digging, you
would praise them for making the right choice.

We must make sure we always give our dogs the right answer. Here's another
example: let's say your dog jumps on people, as many dogs do. You would say
"no" the moment your dog jumps up, and you would correct them (with a collar
that is attached to a leash.) The second all four paws are back on the ground, you
would immediately praise and reward your dog. This way your dog will learn
that if he wants to be petted, then he must sit nicely. This is the same process we
discussed earlier—the main difference is that the leash pressure has become a
leash pop correction.
Just be sure that the correction is high enough to stop the behavior. If the
correction is too low, the dog may learn to jump up, get punished slightly and
then get more rewards. They may offer up the bad behavior in order to get the
rewards after being corrected.

Below is a list of other behaviors that you can remove by using this concept:

Play biting
Biting the leash (or you can simply pop the leash out of the dog's
mouth)
Jumping on furniture.
Jumping up on doors.
Barking at people outside, such as the mail carrier.
Barking at the doorbell.
Barking in the crate.
Barking for attention.
Relieving themselves in the house.
Chewing furniture.
Eating feces.
Chasing, such as chasing the house cat.
Marking their territory.
Barking at dogs or people while on a walk.
Getting into the trash.
 What to do if your Dog Keeps Running Away
From You:
This is a common problem that a lot of people end up having, and it's not
difficult to fix. First, you want to teach the behavior using the dog training
science outlined in the last chapter. Once your dog knows the command, you can
start working on building the habit of always coming to you when called by
practicing the training every day.

But, let's say your dog is in your backyard or a park and doesn't have a training-
collar on. Your dog knows there is no collar on him, and he decides to run away
from you instead of coming to you. Most people will instinctively chase their
dogs; but this only makes it worse as your dog will likely think you are playing a
game. Instead of chasing your dog, you should playfully run away from your
dog. This will usually turn the game around, and it will have your dog chasing
you instead. Once your dog gets to you, don't end the game by quickly grabbing
them up, but instead continue the game by pushing them away from you in a
playful manner. When you do decide to end the game, make sure you reward
your dog, as this will encourage your dog to come to you, because it predicts
play, instead of avoiding you to prevent a correction.

Another technique would be to set up a situation where you know your dog will
choose not to come to you. Make sure you have a 20 - 30 ft long line attached to
your dog, and then start giving your dog random “come when called”
commands, reinforcing the command with the leash. Once the dog completes the
task, release and reward them back to play.

Continue to do this training exercise until the dog comes without the help of the
leash pressure. I would also recommend practicing this in multiple different
environments to help get the dog to become generalized to the training. A dog
that is generalized will understand that they need to perform the command in any
environment regardless of the distractions.

Also, be sure to practice praising and rewarding your dog after you grab their
collar. Most dogs will make a U-turn when knowing a human will reach for the
collar because it usually means the end of the play.
 When not to correct your dog:
If your dog is afraid of something, don't use a correction to help him get over his
fear, as this will only make the fear worse. For example; if your dog is afraid of
fireworks and you have your dog in a down-stay, and someone starts shooting
off fireworks, if your dog breaks the down-stay to get away from the fireworks
—you would not want to correct them back into the down-stay. Instead, you
would let the dog break the down-stay without any consequences, because in his
mind, he's not breaking the down; rather he's escaping the fireworks.

The next point: you should not correct your dog for showing signs of food
aggression or toy aggression. Correcting a dog for food or toy aggression can on
occasion make the aggression worse. If your dog is being aggressive in this
instance, it's usually because your dog doesn't trust you and believes you will
take away the food or toys and will not give them back. If you are running into
this, then I would first suggest trying value transfer (see the terminology list in
the introduction.)

When using the value transfer technique, you have to make sure your dog is not
being aggressive when you show him the other item; this is vital to keep in mind,
because if you offered the other reward when he was aggressive, then you would
be reinforcing the aggression, which you obviously don't want.

A potentially more practical solution for food aggression is to feed your dog in
their crate. The basic strategy is never to take food away after you have given it
to your dog, and crate-feeding solves this problem. This way they will never
have a fear of you stealing their food. Another option is to start feeding every
meal from your hand and make your dog work for it.

If the aggression seems to be getting worse, then I would suggest scheduling a

private lesson with a professional dog trainer.

Furthermore, you should not correct your dog for doing what most people call
begging. This is something that will often confuse dogs and can greatly slow
down the training process.

The reason for this is because in the dog’s mind they are not begging, but
instead, they are offering up a behavior that has proven to deliver rewards in the
past. Think about it: we get food and then we ask our dog to sit and look at us
during training. So, the dog sees us with food and acts out the behavior they
have been taught. Then the human corrects the dog for begging and it instantly
creates confusion.

Instead, I would recommend asking the dog to do a behavior you would prefer in
that situation. For example, when I’m eating, I tell my dogs to go to their climb
command. This way we clearly show them what we want by not creating any
confusion.
 Safely Using a Prong Collar.
First, we have to make sure that the prong collar is properly fitted to our dogs.
The prong collar will come with multiple links that can be removed or added to
get the proper fit. The collar should rest comfortably on your dog’s neck directly
underneath the dog’s ears and jawline, and not so loose that it hangs like a
necklace.

As mentioned earlier, each dog has their own correction level. Some dogs only
require a very low correction while others may need a higher correction. When I
start adding corrections in a dog’s training routine, I first start with the
martingale collar. If I correct the dog with a leash pop on the martingale collar
and the dog continues the undesired behavior, then we have to move up to a
prong collar. The reason for this is that you can only pop the leash so hard before
you would start physically harming the dog. Since we don’t want to harm our
dogs, we must move to a collar that is designed to give a higher correction.

The process for teaching the prong collar is the same as it is with the martingale
collar. The main difference is that it can deliver a higher correction without
causing harm.

Start by teaching your dog leash pressure with the prong collar, but make sure
you first teach them leash pressure with a flat or martingale collar. Even though
your dog already knows leash pressure, you would still want to go through the
full leash pressure training process.

It’s important that your dog knows how to stop the pressure from the collar at
any given time. However, unlike using a martingale collar for leash pressure, the
prong collar can turn the training into a combination of negative reinforcement
and positive punishment. The pressure from the collar combined with the
prong’s pinching can create this effect.

Now we can use the prong collar with the leash pop style correction as
mentioned earlier.
 Safely Using a Remote-Training Collar.
In the event, that you are required to use one or you want off-leash reliability, it’s
important to understand how they work so that they can be used safely, in which
case read onward:

Most remote collars have a few options. Let’s go over them:

1) Stim - The stimulation that comes from the collar. This is a muscle
stimulator, so it can safely be used in water as well.
2) Test or Vibrate - This can be a tone or a vibration of the collar. Some
trainers will use this before they correct the dog, treating this as a
conditioned correction. I’ve used the vibration when working with deaf
dogs as a marker. I’ve also used it as a recall command.
3) Nic - This is a split-second stimulation from the collar
4) Continuous - If you press this button down, it will continue to stimulate
the collar up to 15 seconds or so, depending on the brand.
5) Light - Some remote collars offer a light setting for the collar. When
you press this button it will turn on the collar’s LED light

Recommended brands:

My two preferred brands are Dogtra and E-collar technology.

Recommended age;

The earliest I would start a dog on remote collar training for obedience would be
5 months of age, but I prefer to start such training when they are between 7-9
months. You can use it at a younger age to stop behavioral issues, though.

Using a remote training collar for obedience:

This is going to be different than when we use a remote collar for behavioral
issues. When using one for obedience, first you must make sure your dog knows
what’s expected of them, they have been given a clear path to success, you have
taught them how to turn off pressure by complying and they know how to
prevent the correction. If you have done this, then you can start the process.
Before ever correcting your dog with the collar, you want to get them used to
wearing it. For the first week, you want to put the remote collar on your dog
randomly throughout the day. You have to make sure the collar is snug with both
connectors touching the dog. This gets them used to the new collar without
creating any negative association to the collar.

From my experience, if using Dogtra, between a 5 and 25 stimulation level

works for most dogs. I prefer to start at the lower end and increase as needed. If I
correct a dog at 15 and I don’t see a change of behavior, I then move the collar to
25. If I correct a dog at 15 and they react with discomfort, then I move down to
10. A simple rule to follow is to go up increments of 10 when the correction is
not high enough for the dog you’re training, and down increments of 5 when the
correction is too high. However, each dog is going to be different, so adjust
according to your dog. For example, you may find better results in increasing
increments of 6 and decreasing increments of 3.

First, it is important to make sure that your dog is directional to the remote
training-collar before you use it without the leash. So, for the first two weeks
minimum, you're going to pair the leash pop with the stimulation from the collar.
Meaning, the moment the leash pops, you will press the button on the collar to
give your dog the correction. This will help show the dog that you are giving the
correction, and the collar is not just some random bug biting them on the neck.
When starting the process, have the leash attached to a flat or martingale collar.
Follow the procedures that were explained earlier when adding corrections for
obedience.

For example; you ask your dog to down and your dog chooses not to go into the
commanded position. The moment you notice this, you will say “no”, then you
will pop the leash. The moment the leash pops, you will press the button on the
remote collar. Also, make sure the leash pop is very light. The intention is to
give the dog direction, not to also correct with the pop on the leash. In addition,
if you pop too hard, the dog may not feel the stimulation from the remote collar.

After two weeks of pairing the remote correction with the leash pop, you will
test to see if the dog has become directional to the collar, which means your dog
understands that it's a correction. You will place your dog on the climb command
(without a leash), and you will wait till your dog breaks the command. The
second your dog jumps off the climb; you will say "no," followed by a correction
with the remote collar.

Your dog will then do one of four things: either your dog will freeze in place, go
back on the climb, signifying that he is directional, or he will come running to
you or away from you, showing he is not directional. If he comes running to or
away from you, you will not continue to correct. However, you will place the
leash back on your dog and continue pairing the collar with the leash for another
week, at which point you will again attempt to see if your dog is directional.

Keep in mind that the correction level will change depending on the
environment. If you’re in an environment with a lot of distraction, the correction
level will most likely have to increase. In contrast, in a neutral environment, the
correction level may be decreased.

Once your dog is directional, you have then reached the status of off-leash
trained.

Things to keep in mind when using a remote collar:

Do not keep a remote collar on your dog for longer than 8 hours
max. Ideally, you don’t want to go beyond 4 hours.
Do not leave a remote collar on your dog when you are not
supervising them.
Always check your dog's neck when you remove the collar to
ensure your dog doesn't have an allergic reaction to the collar.
Make sure the collar is on and charged before placing it on your
dog.
Unless you have advanced training on the remote collar, do not use
the continuation button.
Be mindful of the collar’s settings. Do not accidentally correct your
dog at a level higher than what is required.

When you should and should not correct your dog with the remote collar.

There are times when you can correct your dog with the remote collar even when
your dog isn't directional yet, and for behaviors unrelated to obedience training.
You can use it to stop unwanted behaviors like digging, getting into the trash or
any of the other unruly behaviors mentioned previously. The second your dog
starts to dig or puts his nose into the garbage, you can activate the collar. This
creates an unpleasant association to the problematic behavior.

However, the important thing to remember is to never correct your dog with the
remote collar if your dog is actively engaged with a dog or people. You do not
want your dog to think that it's the other person or the other dog that is causing
the correction with the collar. If you do, there is a possibility that the dog will
develop aggression, so be mindful of that.

In addition, as explained before, the remote collar is also used for creating
reliability with all of the obedience commands, so long as the dog is directional
to the collar at that point.

Lastly, and this should go without saying, never use the remote collar on your
dog in an attempt to stop a fearful behavior. As mentioned before, this would
only make the fear worse.
Chapter 9 – Fear and Aggression
In this chapter we’re going to take a deeper look at fear and aggression in dogs.

Sometimes fear and aggression are taught behaviors, but in many cases it is the
result of genetics. People often underestimate how much genetics have an effect
in the dog’s training and abilities (see charts in chapter 7). This chapter was
written to give you an idea of what you might be dealing with. I’ve tried my best
to make this section as black and white as possible; however, there are many
gray areas when it comes to working with a dog that is aggressive.

If you feel you have a dog that is showing signs of aggression, I highly
recommend that you hire a professional to help you with the issue
 Communication vs. Aggression
Before moving forward, there’s an important point to understand: On more than
one occasion I've had clients tell me that their dog is aggressive. When they
show me the "aggressive" behavior, It's clear to me that it's not aggression; but
rather communication.

Since dogs are unable to communicate at the same level we can, we have to be
able to read their body language as well as their vocal communication—as they
may be signaling possible aggressive behavior before it happens. Many owners
don’t realize this, and I've been told by people that have been bitten by a dog that
the dog gave zero warning. However, this isn't usually true. In fact, dogs
telegraph most of their behaviors, which is why it’s important to become familiar
with the signals your dog may demonstrate before biting or acting aggressively.
Let's quickly go over some of these warning signs:

Sudden lip licking, yawning, tail between the legs, ears going backward, looking
away—staring intently at the bite target, with the dog’s hackles going up. These
are all signs that may be telling the human to stop doing whatever they are
currently doing.

If those don't work the dog may escalate to growling, showing its teeth, or
walking away. If walking away doesn't work, then once again the dog may
escalate to actual aggression. The dog may even give a warning bite. These
behaviors are known as the escalation of aggression.

Keep in mind that these behaviors don't always mean the dog is going to bite. A
dog that has been taught proper bite inhibition may also bite at the human in an
attempt to get the human to go away or to back off, without causing any injury.
You have to keep in mind the context of the situation. Just like a person who is
cold may cross their arms, it doesn't always mean they are closed off or angry.

Often people will also confuse play with aggression. In many cases, dogs while
playing will growl or even mouth the person they are playing with. This doesn't
mean the dog is aggressive. This type of play can also be important for a young
dog's development as it helps teach bite inhibition. You can stop this by
redirecting the dog to a different behavior such as the climb command or
teaching them a stop command. I do this by implementing the leash pressure
technique that we discussed earlier in the manual.

Dogs will also correct other dogs. This is often seen when an older dog corrects
a young puppy. The dog may growl at the puppy or even snap or do a quick bite
at the puppy. The dog's intention is not to hurt the pup, but rather to teach the
pup a lesson, such as respecting the other dog's boundaries. This is much
different from a dog that is attacking another dog to cause harm. An aggressive
dog that is attacking another dog will bite, hold on, and shake to cause damage.

Let’s discuss the four main types of aggression towards humans that you may
experience when working with a dog.

1.) Dogs that Bluff: Dogs that will act aggressive in order to get a specific
desired behavior from the human: I like to call these dogs fakers or dogs
using fake aggression. They’re just trying to manipulate a human to get
a reward, but may not actually have hostile feelings.

2.) Fear-Based Aggression: The next and most common type of

aggression. This behavior is due to a trauma, genetics, lack of exposure,
or a conflict in the dog’s personality, they are acting in a defensive and
hostile way to people or other animals.

3.) Aggression from Confusion: This develops when a dog doesn’t know
what’s expected of them. They don’t know how to avoid, prevent, or
stop a correction, and they haven’t been given a clear path to success,
which results in confusion. This is the most preventable type of
aggression as it’s only caused by mistakes made by the human. This is
also why it’s very important to always be consistent with your dog’s
training.

4.) Dominant / Domination Aggression: This is the least common form of

aggression. Since 2012 when I started training dogs professionally, I’ve
only come across two dogs that were dominant aggressive. These dogs
may bite regardless of being provoked or not.
 Dogs that Bluff:
First, let’s discuss our fakers. It's imperative to be aware that a puppy or dog may
be using aggressive behaviors as a way to get the desired outcome (by
manipulating the owners). It’s important to stop these behaviors before it
develops into real aggression.

Fake aggression behaviors originate from owners teaching or reinforcing

aggressive behavior without realizing it. An example could be: Your puppy is on
your couch, you try to get the puppy off the sofa, the puppy growls, and so you
leave the puppy there. What happens next is that the puppy grows up, and this
behavior has become hardwired into adulthood. While it may have felt innocent
or even cute when the dog was small and fluffy, the adult version of the puppy
growling from the couch is now threatening and scary. These behaviors may start
as a fake or bluff, but if not stopped early, the bites could become real.

What should be done in such a situation is to act like you are not even
acknowledging the growl, and then simply get the puppy off the couch. This way
the puppy learns that growling doesn't work. Keep in mind that most puppies
who are growling are trying to get a result from the owner—fear aggression is
possible, and dominant aggression is very rare.

Below is a list of some of the common ways a puppy may appear to be

aggressive. Most of these will go away if it doesn’t have a positive effect for the
puppy:

Biting at your hand when trying to take a toy.

Biting or growling when taking away food.
Biting at your hand when putting on a collar or leash.
Aggressively rushing at house guests who enter.
Acting aggressive inside the crate.
Growling, barking or snapping if given a command.
Aggression toward other dogs.

This becomes more of an issue if it’s an adult dog that has been practicing this
behavior for a while. To make matters worse, if something has been working for
a dog for a long time and one day it doesn’t work, the dog may amp up the
behavior to get what they want, because in their mind that behavior still works
but suddenly requires extra effort. Therefore, it can get worse before it gets
better (this is known as an extinction burst - The behavior becomes more intense
before it drops off).

If I’m working with an adult dog that is displaying this behavior when I ask
them to do something, I make sure to always follow through to guarantee they
perform the action. However, I’m also very careful not to get bit, in case the dog
decides to escalate the aggression to an actual bite.

For example: Let’s once again reference a dog that refuses to come off the
couch. I would set this situation up so I could best control it. Meaning I would
make sure the dog had a leash and collar on, I would give the dog a chance to
jump up on the couch—whereupon I would say “wrong” or “off”, then I would
use the leash pressure to pull the dog back off the couch.

In this situation, some dogs may growl, but will be fine once you follow through
and pull the dog off the couch. I’ve had other dogs lunge at me, whereupon I use
the leash to prevent the dog from biting me by lifting up on the leash restricting
the dog’s forward movement. As mentioned before, never make anything
personal by yelling or getting angry at the dog. I always keep in mind simple
cause and effect. Once the dog realizes that this bluffing doesn’t work on you,
then the behavior goes away. Just keep in mind that the longer a dog has been
practicing this, the harder it will be to break the dog of the behavior.

Dogs That Resource Guard

Dogs and puppies may use fake (bluffing) aggression to guard their resources
such as food and toys. When in a situation like this, I may have to use the
“Superman” method to get the dog to relinquish the resource and learn that being
aggressive is not an option. However, keep in mind that constantly harassing a
dog while they are eating can cause the aggression.

You should have protective gear on, including long gloves to

withstand dog biting. This is especially important if working with
an adult dog (if the dog is still a puppy, it’s probably not so
important).
Put your hand over the resource. The dog may go to bite you. Don’t
 correct the dog when this happens, as this could make it worse.
Keep your hand over the toy or food, and let the dog bite and bite.
Once the dog stops biting, reward with praise (“Good boy!”)
remove the hand and pet the dog.
Repeat this process. We are showing the dog / puppy that just
because your hand is coming, it doesn’t mean you’re going to take
their resource away. It also teaches the dog that biting won’t help.
When doing this with an older dog, they may amp the behavior up
(extinction burst), which means growling is more likely to turn into
actual biting.
With older dogs, it may be better to teach the “drop it” command
(see earlier in the book) via obedience training, and if they don’t
drop it, reinforce it with a correction as opposed to using the
“Superman” method. This technique is better suited for puppies
who can’t really hurt you. In addition, if one bite location is not
working for the dog, they may try to bite a new location on the
human—beware of this behavior when dealing with all forms of
aggression.

Resource Guarding A Territory

If a dog is resource guarding something like a couch, usually the best option is to
use obedience training with the leash (see prior chapter). If they act aggressive,
just use the leash and pull them off the couch to show the dog it doesn’t work to
do that. You’ll want to set the dog up ahead of time with the collar and leash,
within their protected territory, and be prepared to use the leash-pressure if the
dog begins guarding the territory. Make sure there is distance between yourself
and the dog and in the event of large, aggressive dogs—protective gear is
needed.

Resource Guarding a Human

Sometimes the owner of the dog is the resource that a dog is aggressively
guarding. If you find this to be antisocial behavior that you want your dog to
stop, it can often be corrected if the owner implements positive punishment to
tell the dog it’s not OK to do this. The important point, however, is that the
owner themselves must implement this, whereupon the dog will listen. Someone
who’s not the resource being guarded may create more aggression if they try
correcting the dog while the dog is resource guarding their owner. From my
experience, it's better when the owner corrects the dog for this behavior.

However, you may also use negative punishment to stop this behavior. This
works when you are dealing with a "chicken with a bodyguard"—which means a
dog that is acting aggressive and confident because it’s being held by the owner
or is next to the owner. Once the owner walks away, the aggression stops.

Here’s how you can set a situation up to deal with this scenario: Have the dog on
a back-tie next to the owner, when you approach the dog—if it starts acting
aggressive—have the owner walk away from the dog. This will teach the dog
that the unwanted behavior will remove the dog's bodyguard. After
implementing this enough times, through controlled training sessions, different
locations, and different people approaching to generalize the dog, the behavior
may go away.
 Fear-Based Aggression:
As mentioned earlier, this is one of the most common types of aggression and
can often be fixed with confidence building, counterconditioning and
desensitization, which we’ll discuss in greater detail in the following chapter. It’s
also important to always give this type of a dog an escape. If they feel they can’t
escape a situation, then they may bite. In the dog’s mind, they are not biting to
hurt the human, but rather protecting themselves.

When working with dogs that display this type of aggression, I like to follow a
step-by-step process. Please note, before we begin, that this process is for my
client’s dogs that I’m training, but not my personal dogs. With your own dog you
can skip the first four steps of building trust and comfort.

Step-By-Step for Working with a Fearful Dog

1.) First, we need to build trust. The first step is I’ll just sit next to the crate
while the dog’s in the crate. I may give them some food and just “hang
out.” What I’ll be very careful of is not rewarding the dog if the dog is
growling or acting aggressive. So, if the dog starts growling, it gets no
reward. I may do this for up to an hour depending on the dog’s
behavior.

2.) The next step is I open the crate, let the dog out and just ignore him. I
act as though the dog is not even in the room with me. Meaning: I don’t
let the dog see me look at them and I don’t talk to the dog. Usually, I’ll
watch the dog through the camera on my phone, so it looks like I’m
looking at my phone and not the dog. Eventually, the dog will come up
and investigate me by smelling my legs.

3.) Once the dog starts showing interest in me, I start to slowly walk around
the room dropping treats on the ground for the dog to pick up. If they
get even more comfortable doing this, and I’m not seeing any outward
signs of aggression, I may stand with the food in my hand—facing
away. I’ll let the dog come and take food from my hand without facing
me.

4.) As the dog gets more comfortable with that, I may start to become more
 frontal, allowing the dog to take food from me directly.

5.) Then, if I feel the dog is becoming more comfortable with me while
taking food from my hand, I’ll try to pet them to see a reaction. What
you don’t want to do is pet the dog with your hand going straight
toward the dog’s head. This type of movement can trigger aggression.
Instead, you want to move nice and slow.

6.) To teach a dog to be comfortable with hands coming forward, put food
in one hand and keep your other hand free—and bring both hands
toward the dog at the same time. Feed and pet at same time. I may pet
their chest first as this part of the body is less likely to trigger
aggression. This is really about building trust.

7.) Once they trust me and are comfortable via the above methods, I’ll
begin the normal training process—using nice slow movements the
whole time.

During the subsequent training processes, you’ll want to use counter

conditioning to desensitize them toward what they may be fearful of. This
process basically depends on identifying the causes of a dog’s particular fears,
and using high value rewards to change the feelings toward those situations. For
more information, see: counter conditioning in the glossary.

This process is likely to be different for every individual dog, and is where the
skill of dog training really comes into play.

Getting a Fearful Dog Out of the Crate:

Fearful dogs will often prefer to stay in the crate than they will be to train. If this
is the case, follow the process below.

I will try to introduce the fearful dog to leash pressure before

attempting to get them in and out of a crate, being careful the whole
time and using slow and gentle movements.

The first issue that may arise is a dog will go into the crate, but is
too afraid to get out. For this reason, let them go into a crate but
keep the leash on them, then you can use the leash to guide them
 out. Alternatively, just wait. A dog will always come out eventually.

It’s also recommended to cue the dog with the leash while keeping
your back to the dog, sending the dog to go around behind you.
Showing your back is less of a threat to a lot of dogs.

Once the dog comes out, allow them to go back into the crate.
Having them go in and out of the crate will get the dog more
comfortable with this behavior. Also remember that dogs learn
through predictability. If the dog learns that you are going to train
the moment the dog comes out, you may find more resistance next
time if the dog doesn't want to train.

Forward Fear Aggression Problems

This is a more dangerous dog situation, but a little more workable than the
dominant aggressive dog I’ll talk about next. I dealt with a dog like this fairly
recently, in 2020. A client came to me to help with aggression issues, and I
discovered their pup was a fearful forward-aggressive dog. What this means is
the dog was extremely pro-active in “neutralizing threats” with its aggression.
However, unlike dominant aggression, this was still based in fear. So, while most
dogs growl or act aggressive only in a defensive way and they avoid the thing
they’re afraid of, this dog decided to “take matters into her own hands” and
attack the thing she was afraid of.

When working with this dog, I had my back to her in a non-threatening way, and
she still ran behind me and bit me. Although once I turned around and grabbed
her by the collar, she stopped. As you can imagine, this is a pretty extreme (and
dangerous) situation for a trainer to come across, and like a dominant aggressive
dog—protective gear is a wise idea.

To train such a dog, it’s basically a rehash of what we just discussed for a normal
fear-based dog, but everything is going to go much slower, much more
methodically, and generally being much more careful (or leaving it to a skilled
professional trainer).
 Confusion Based Aggression Problems
These situations are the result of poor training, and can occur without an owner
realizing they’ve created a dog with aggression issues.

One example is a dog featured by Inside Edition as “Frankie the Demon Dog.”
As it turns out, Frankie wasn’t a devil dog, at all—but had no idea what to do,
what not to do, etc, creating erratic behavior.

One way a dog becomes this way is if the timing of obedience training is off by
even a second. In this situation, Frankie’s owner was performing poorly timed
corrections, such as saying “No!” too late—after Frankie was calm and lying on
a couch. In Frankie’s mind, lying on the couch and being calm was the behavior
that was wrong—and Frankie out of frustration and confusion answered with
aggression.

These situations are resolved by instituting proper obedience training, and it may
take time to work out the bad habits that were created from the previous poor
training.

Of course, in this situation we have to make sure we identify the type of

aggression issue, to ensure it’s confusion-based and not a more dangerous
situation with a different type of aggression. The best way is to see how the
owner performs their dog training techniques, and if they’re the ones creating the
confusion / aggression.
 Dominant Aggression Problems
As I mentioned previously, these situations are rare, and I’ve only encountered
two dominant aggressive dogs among countless dogs I’ve worked with since
2012. These are dogs using their aggressive behavior as a way to dominate and
control a situation. Dominance to a dog also means having priority access to
valuable or limited resources.

The way to deal with these situations is you need protective gear on to block any
damage from bites. Then, the goal is to simply show the dog that the aggression
is not going to work. This means not showing fear or even any response at all to
the bites. You’re taking the power away from the dog.

You also want to do your best to prevent the dog from trying to bite you in the
first place.

One of these two dogs was a dominant aggressive husky puppy (7-8 months).
When I set something on the ground for the dog, the dog would rush toward me
and immediately try to bite / attack me. To the dog I was taking something that
he considered to be a valuable resource. You can see how that can turn into an
issue.

So, what I did was I set up many different situations where the dog may
ordinarily try to bite the human, but there was a boundary in place. In this case, I
set up an object on the ground, put the husky on a climb bed with a leash, and
secretly back-tied the leash. When I went to go pick up something on the ground
—which was an aggression trigger—the dog ran at me, but was auto corrected
by the leash—blocking his attempt to bite me. Afterward, the main goal was to
repeat this many, many times until the dog began to realize “I’m not going to be
able to bite people anymore to get what I want” and the behavior started to go
away.

While wearing protective gear, if the dog is biting you, you can ignore the bite or
“pull them into” the bite until the dog feels very uncomfortable, as the only type
of “corrective” measure I’d probably use in a situation like this. You’re basically
pulling their mouth and jaws into your protective gear until they realize “biting
really sucks and I don’t want to do this anymore” because it’s so uncomfortable.
Again, be careful that the dog doesn’t transfer the bite to a new location.

To recap:

- These can be dangerous situations.

- They do try to bite, they want to bite, and may even get satisfaction
from it. Beware.
- You must prevent them from biting in the first place.
- But DON’T correct them WHILE biting, this can turn into a fight.
- So, you must have protective gear on regardless.
- If you don’t have such protective gear available, this is a good time to
hire a professional dog trainer. Even if you do have such gear, hiring a
professional is still the recommended course of action.
 Dealing with Dog-on-Dog Aggression
Just like we see different forms of aggression towards humans, the same is true
with aggression towards other dogs. You will see fear aggression, dominant
aggression, aggression to get a specific result, etc.

Generally, a dog could become aggressive to other dogs because of experiences

when it was a puppy, lack of socialization, and other problems during the dog’s
upbringing. In numerous situations, a dog can learn that other dogs are a threat,
including being attacked. Another factor may be the dog’s DNA and a built-in
tendency to be less friendly to other dogs.

In either situation, obedience can either stop or mask the issues—so even if a
dog has a compulsion to attack another dog, they’ll weigh that impulse against
the thought of a reward or correction, and are less likely to be aggressive
anymore.

When restricting a dog from attacking another dog, such as on a leash, it’s
possible that the dog redirects the aggression to the human. Over arousal
aggression (too much stimuli) can become a redirected aggression.

Dominant Aggressive to Other Dogs

As with dominant aggressive behaviors to humans, this is also an extreme

situation, and as such I’d never bring a dominant aggressive dog among other
dogs to work the problem out. It’s not fair putting a normal dog in the vicinity of
a dog that wants to attack them simply out of dominant / bully behaviors.

Another way to go about this: Keep the dog muzzled, on a leash, and then
expose the dog to many other dogs in the area, like outside of a dog park. As we
mentioned earlier in the book, you can keep the dog on the periphery of the park,
like along the fence and out of actual contact with other dogs. Over time, and it
may take a long time, the dog may learn to stop trying to intimidate other dogs.
These are the concepts of desensitization and a bit of counter conditioning at
work.

If you do encounter another dog in the vicinity of the dominant aggressive dog,
make sure you have full control. If the dog escapes your leash, and especially if
the dog isn’t muzzled, in a few seconds another owner’s dog could be dead.

Dogs Fearful of Other Dogs

Dogs may become fearful of other dogs due to trauma, genetics, lack of
exposure, etc. Issues may have arisen when they were a puppy, with incidences
involving other dogs, or if the puppy was raised with a very fearful mom. The
reason fear stems from the mother is because dogs will often replicate the
behaviors they see displayed by their mother. This behavior is identified when
the dog cowers and whimpers when other dogs are around, or when another dog
intrudes too closely, that dog may get defensive, growl, bark, or snap. Usually,
they don’t want to hurt the other dog—they just want the other dog to get away.
Their message is: “I’m afraid of you, I don’t want to play, please go away.”

These types of dogs can be fixed if you bring them around very friendly, nice
dogs. I’ve worked this situation out many times by introducing them to friendly
dogs in play situations. At first, they will cower and whimper. But over time, the
dog starts to realize the other dogs are not a threat. As they discover this, and are
given positive experiences, that will often stop the fear.

This type of aggressive behavior can be identified by their signs of actual fear
and cowering. So, make sure you properly identify the type of fear your dog has
first and foremost—because as I mentioned with dominant aggressive dogs, you
do not want such a truly aggressive dog around other dogs in a play
environment, or the results could be disastrous.

Aggression to get a specific result:

Often dogs will also act aggressively to get something from another dog. Most
people, when experiencing this, will call the dog the “Alpha”. The reason is that
this dog will often take what they want from the more submissive dog. For
example: one dog has a toy and the “alpha” takes that toy from the other dog.
They’ll also take food away from the more submissive dog. The easiest way to
deal with this is to keep the toys and food limited to just one dog at a time. You
may also want to feed the dogs in separate rooms or their crates.

This usually won’t turn into a dog fight, because the more submissive dog will
yield to the more dominant dog. If I want to stop something like this, then I
prefer to prevent the dog from stealing or being a bully to the other dog. By
preventing the dog from practicing a behavior, just like anything else, it will
often go away.

However, the best course of action is to simply not leave out anything the
dominant dog sees as valuable. You can try to teach the dog that it’s not an okay
behavior by implementing obedience, but I would prefer not to put any other
dogs in a potentially dangerous situation. Follow the three simple steps below.

1.) Put away all toys that the dogs may fight over and only allow them to
play with the toys when they are not around any other dogs.

2.) During feeding time, feed the dogs in separate crates or rooms.

3.) Teach both dogs their own separate “climb” commands, such as on their
own beds, and don’t allow them to ever go on the other dog's bed, ever.
This way when the submissive dog feels threatened, he or she can go to
their “safe” place.
.
 Dealing with a Dog Fight:
Unfortunately, if you own a dog, there is a possibility that your dog may end up
in a dog fight. The important thing is knowing what to do if the situation arises.

What most people do in a panic is they try to pull the dogs apart by the scruff
around their necks or they try hitting them, hoping that will get them to stop
fighting. Grabbing them by the neck is not only dangerous for the human, but if
you try to pull them apart that way, you can end up causing more damage to both
the dogs. If you try to hit the dogs, hoping that will stop the fight, it may just add
fuel to the fire and increase the struggle, since they’ll think it's the other dog
causing the additional pain.

Instead, trainers in particular rely on a few solid methods to break up a fight,

which I’ll talk about next.

1.) Lower Back Technique: The first course of action I’d consider. Try and
stay calm and target the dog that is being the aggressor, then grab the
scruff on the dog's lower back by the base of the tail. You will then lift
the dog up, by that scruff until the dog lets go of the other dog.

If the dog doesn't let go of the other dog, then just twist the dog's scruff
to make the dog let go. Be cautious, though, because it is possible that
some dogs may redirect the aggression on the human.

This isn't a perfect solution and anytime dogs get into a fight, there is
the possibility of the dogs being injured or the person being bitten.
However, if you do it the way I just described, you will have a much
higher chance of stopping the fight and coming out of it without an
injury to the dogs or yourself.

2.) Hind Leg Technique: This is another method trainers and people
working in shelters use. Target the aggressive dog, then target their hind
legs, lift the dog up, then back it away while turning, so the dogs are no
longer facing each other. If you do this technique, be careful not to
damage the dog’s hind legs.
 3.) The Choke Out Technique: Another technique professionals use where
they target the aggressor dog, target their collar, and lift up to attempt to
choke the dog out of the bite. If this technique is not working, and if the
dog’s jaws are around the victim dog, the trainer may twist the collar to
increase the pressure until the victim dog is released.

For each of these techniques it helps if a second person is holding the other dog
that’s being attacked—which is to prevent the victim dog from feeling like the
humans are in the room to gang up on the aggressive dog, whereupon the dog
that was attacked may try to attack the attacker.

Spraying the two dogs with a water hose to stop the fight or blowing a loud air
horn is also used. In fact, the water hose is one of the safest ways to stop a dog
fight. However, since you don't always have a water hose on you or an air horn,
it's good to know what to do when those tools are not present.

Another common technique is using a pipe to separate the two dogs. This is not a
technique I would recommend.

As you may have gathered, you want to use the technique most suited for the
situation and the intensity of the fight. A less intense fight can be stopped with a
spray bottle, while others may need more extreme measures. However, dealing
with any dog fight poses the possibility of being bitten. With the first technique,
often the dog will turn around to bite you—then notice you’re a human, not
another dog, and either not bite or bite very lightly. That said, it’s impossible to
predict what may happen, however by remaining calm, and if possible having a
second person help you—we can reduce the risks as much as possible.
Chapter 10 – Confidence Building, Counterconditioning
and Desensitization
Confidence in a dog is a lot like confidence in a human. Almost universally it's a
positive characteristic. As an example, would you want a confident employee or
one who's unsure? A confident doctor or a frightened doctor? How would you
feel if your friends constantly had anxiety when they’re around you?

As a trainer, sometimes owners tell me of their issues with dogs that lack
confidence. An example might be a dog who's shaky, scared to try new things,
fearful of ordinary situations, or prefers to ignore his owner instead of doing
something uncomfortable.

The solution they may say is, "I want my dog to become submissive to me, so it
stops acting anxious and does what I tell it."

However, contrary to popular belief, we do not want a submissive dog. In a dog's

mind, submission means: "Look how small I am, please don't hurt me." In fact,
this is NOT confidence.

The dog may push itself to do certain behaviors if it's truly become submissive,
but it's out of fear. At the end of the day, you have a fearful dog, not a confident
one. Who would want that?

By contrast, a confident dog is much easier to teach new behaviors to. A dog that
is willing to try new things is much easier to train than a dog with fearful
characteristics. This means far fewer problems with your dog down the road
compared to having a submissive / fearful pup.
Often younger and adolescent dogs will go through a period of fearful behavior,
sometimes known as the fear period. During this time, the dog may appear to be
easily startled, worrisome, and seemingly losing confidence. For example, at
seven months of age, one of my dogs went through a fear period where she was
afraid of people. When she would see someone new her hackles would go up,
she would continuously bark while backing up. When she first started to display
this behavior, I knew it would be important to fix it right away before letting it
become a bigger problem.

Lucky for me, I have a lot of dog trainer friends that helped me through this
training process. For two weeks I personally did not feed her, but instead, I had
my friends feed her from their hands. It was a progressive process, as they
couldn’t just give her the food right away because she was cautious of them. So,
instead they would have their backs facing her with their hands down by their
sides, palms facing out with food. This took away a lot of the pressure and my
dog was able to steal (in her mind) the food out of their hands.

As she became more confident, they started to turn more towards her.
Eventually, they were able to bend down and feed her while petting her. By
doing this we were able to create for her a very strong and positive association
with new people. New people now gave her the same positive feeling that she
received when she was being rewarded by my friends. Because of that training,
she enjoys meeting new people now.

If your puppy or adolescent dog is having fear problems, there are some
considerations to make: One thing you don't want to do is reinforce the behavior
(petting, soothing, etc.). However, you also don't want to use a physical
correction to attempt to fix the problem. As mentioned earlier, this can make the
fear worse.

Instead, there a few things that can be done with a puppy or adult dog to increase
their confidence immediately. Similar to the Disney character "Bolt the
Superdog", we can build a dog's confidence by making them believe they are a
"super dog” through confidence-building activities.

An easy way to look at confidence-building is to take something that the dog

may be unsure about and make it predict something pleasant instead. For
example: Let’s say you want to get your dog comfortable with different sounds,
so you fill an empty kiddie pool with empty plastic bottles for the puppy / dog to
play with. At first, the puppy or dog may be hesitant about the situation, but if
you show the pup that it’s fun by either getting in the pool first or luring the pup
into the pool, they will soon discover that it’s a fun activity and the pup will
associate the sound of the plastic bottles with fun (this is something a lot of
protection dog trainers will do with their puppies because in some protection
sports, they will use what’s called a bottle curtain, which is basically a bunch of
empty plastic bottles hanging from a pole in a curtain-like fashion that the dog
will have to run through.) Simply put, it’s about constantly exposing your dog to
new things and making those activities pleasant by predicting something the dog
enjoys.

Below are some confidence building exercises that I like to do with puppies and
dogs that I work with.

Having the dog walk on multiple surfaces while giving the dog
treats. An example could be having the dog walk on bubble wrap or
a gym floor.

Having the dog walk on elevated surfaces while providing rewards.

Making sure the dog won’t fall and get hurt, which could have the
opposite effect.

Playing tug and always allowing the dog to win. If I want the toy
from the dog, I always use the “drop it” command. I never
physically take the toy away by ripping it from the dog.

Exposing the dog to different sounds while providing rewards.

Starting at a low volume and increasing as the dog becomes more
comfortable.

Taking the dog to different environments for training. This is part of

socialization.

Create a puppy or dog obstacle course.

These are just a few examples, but you can see how the process works. Try being
creative when doing confidence building exercises with your dog.
 Existing Fear Issues
Confidence building helps prevent a dog from having fear issues, but what if
those issues are already present in our dog? This is when we use
counterconditioning and desensitization. Counterconditioning is very similar to
confidence building, but the main difference is that we use counterconditioning
to help a dog overcome something they may be afraid of.

For example, your dog is afraid of the vacuum cleaner:

Expose the dog to the vacuum cleaner while it’s turned off.
Reward the dog with high value rewards just for being comfortable
with the vacuum cleaner. The dog will start to associate the vacuum
cleaner with high value rewards.
Start moving the vacuum cleaner around the carpet (turned off).
Again, reward the dog for behaving and being comfortable, but not
if they’re barking at it.
Turn the vacuum cleaner on, then off, treating it like a marker.
Reward the dog.
Keep turning it on and off, and eventually leave it on, and reward
the dog. Now, the dog will no longer associate the vacuum cleaner
negatively at all. You can also simulate the sound on your phone by
starting at a low volume and gradually increasing it as the dog
becomes more confident.

There are another few examples: When I'm training a sports protection dog, they
have to become desensitized to gunshots, because one of the exercises requires
the dog to bite the decoy (person in bite suit) while the decoy is firing a blank
pistol. We do this by first firing the blank pistol at a distance that doesn't trouble
the dog. As the dog becomes more comfortable with the sound, we slowly, over
time (could be weeks or even months), bring the gunshots closer and closer to
the dog, until the dog isn't bothered by it at all. Keep in mind that each dog will
take a different amount of time to learn a new behavior or increase in
confidence.

I had a dog that I was working with a few years back that was terrified in public,
and in two weeks I was able to fix the issue. Here's what I did with that dog
using a combination of desensitization and counter conditioning: First I ONLY
fed the dog and did obedience outside of the house. The first day I was in my
front yard training, as the days progressed, I slowly moved to more locations
with slightly more activity. As the dog's confidence continued to go up, we went
to even more locations with more activity. By the second week I was doing
obedience with the dog inside of a local Home Depot and a Petsmart. It's
important to keep in mind that I did not feed the dog in the house where the dog
was comfortable. I wanted the dog to associate the public locations with the
pleasant experience of training and food rewards.

The idea is to be on the same team as your dog, rather than having a relationship
based on fear, or the belief that the owner needs to be the "alpha".

Proper socialization early in the dog’s life will also help with confidence
building. We’ll discuss proper socializing in the next chapter.
Chapter 11 – Grading and Socializing Your Dog
(Desensitization)
Generally, it’s a good idea to introduce your dog to increasingly challenging
environments and levels of obedience training, also known as grading. This
includes the levels of the task, levels of obedience, levels of proficiency, and the
intensity of the environment (which includes training your dog’s social skills).

Without being aware of these guidelines, you could be in for a lot of problems
during training. For example: Don't ask for an advanced task from a dog that is
still at a lower proficiency level in a highly intense environment. You would be
setting yourself up for failure.

On the flip side, if you’ve just started your training, starting on a low obedience
level in a low-key environment, using beginner tasks, makes a lot of sense.

Therefore, part of your training process is knowing how to grade your dog’s skill
and ability to work in different environments. Another part of this that’s closely
related to grading the environments is the process of socializing.

Socializing doesn’t mean just allowing your dog to play with all the other dogs
in the neighborhood, or jump on every person that he or she sees, the big idea is
to expose your dog to new situations, people, and environments. This leads to a
dog that’s adjusted for many situations and has a balanced personality.

But it's important to control the situation. As an example, we wouldn't want your
dog to be exposed to aggressive dogs at your nearby park, thus associating that
park with the confrontation. Your dog should also avoid humans with poor skills
around animals.
Socializing is, therefore, a process that involves introducing your dog to new
situations, to help him or her learn in a positive way. This can include bringing
your dog around other well-behaved dogs, owners who reinforce positive
behavior, and activities that you think your dog might enjoy.

Here’s a breakdown of these elements of grading:

 Obedience Levels
Dogs, like humans, gradually become more proficient at what they are trying to
learn. Starting out, and when working with a dog who’s new to training, it’s
usually necessary to begin at a first stage of obedience. In time, a dog may
graduate to a full obedience level, able to perform a wide variety of tasks. The
road to get there is going to be faster or much slower depending on the
individual characteristics of the dog.

Here are the four stages:

Little to no obedience: Simply not allowing the dog to practice bad

behaviors, but not yet trying to teach specific commands.

Very little obedience stage: This is when we ask the dog to

perform a few easy commands that they can get proficient at.

Medium obedience stage: implementing a few more complicated

commands and more repetitions of the easy commands.

Full obedience stage: This would be more of the final stage when
we are asking the dog to perform all obedience and service dog
tasks.

Likewise, it’s possible to grade a dog’s proficiency during obedience training.

How long for a dog to become highly proficient may depend on your dog’s level
of perseverance.
Command proficiency levels:

No proficiency: Completely unable to follow any level of

obedience training.

Slightly proficient: Can take on basic tasks and basic positions

(having your dog sit for a treat).

Mostly proficient: Can undertake basic tasks quickly and easily,

and is capable of learning more complex tasks.

Completely proficient: The dog is skilled at all learned tasks and

can quickly take on new tasks from basic to advanced.
 Task Levels:
Next, it’s important to grade the dog’s actual tasks based on levels of difficulty.
This is fairly straightforward:

Basic Tasks: What we all know: sit, down, come, loose leash
walking, stay, etc.

Advanced Tasks: Service dog tasks and other advanced obedience

concepts, such as retrieval training or a focused heel.
 Environmental Stimulation / Intensity Levels:
A superstar dog is able to perform advanced tasks even in a very distracting
environment. But most dogs are not at that level and must start much more
slowly.

Almost no stimulations: This would be a place your dog is very

comfortable at, such as your home.

Very little stimulation: This would be a place your dog is

comfortable at, but with some natural distractions. An example of
this could be your front or back yard.

Somewhat intense: This would be a new environment that has

some distractions, but not so many that the dog could become
overwhelmed.

High stimulation / most intense: This would be a new

environment with multiple distractions, such as a very busy park,
people grilling food and wild rabbits jumping around (you get the
idea).

Let’s go deeper into the concept of stimulating environments, and getting your
dog used to socializing / performing with other dogs around:

The main goal with this element of the training process is desensitization. This is
the technique of making your dog less reactive to stimulus that would ordinarily
cause a bad reaction (chasing after another dog or other strangers), and is done
by exposing the dog to the stimulus at a very low level until there is no response.
Gradually, as you increase the stimulating environments, the dog will become
non-reactive.

The process of socializing (and desensitizing a dog) could mean first taking the
dog to a park in the early morning without many other dogs or people around.
Later, as you increase in intensity, you might return to that park in the afternoon
on a Sunday with lots of other people and dogs around. The goal is for the dog to
behave the same way in either situation.
At the beginning, start with low levels on all the stages discussed
above. So, a low intensity area, low task levels, low obedience
levels, etc.
You can move on to higher levels once it seems clear the dog is
very proficient.
When moving into a situation with higher environmental intensity,
start again with a low obedience level. This will increase with the
speed of the individual dog. Eventually, like before, the dog will
master this environment (eventually).
 Goals to Aim For
There are some things to aim for with your dog as you work through these
different levels of training, and how to know you’re making progress:

Dog Social Skills.

Much of our socializing process is more about exposure and less about contact.
However, part of the process of socializing the dog is to reinforce the dog’s
social skills around people and other dogs, namely ensuring the dog is not
aggressive or reactive in any way. This requires controlling situations so the dog
can have nothing but pleasant experiences with other dogs and humans. This will
help prevent fear or aggression issues in the dog you're training.

A busy area with other people’s random dogs around may not be such a good
idea compared to a barbecue with friends who are savvy dog people themselves,
who have behaved dogs and who don’t reward bad behaviors like jumping.

If you can’t find such a group of people, perhaps check online for dog owner
get-togethers, like Meetup.com.
 Generalization
This is the concept that the dog knows that a command applies in any situation.
This is where the dog’s proficiency in the training and desensitization really
comes into play. A dog that has generalization ability knows to “sit” whether at
home, in a busy dog park, in a shopping mall, a park with squirrels, you get the
idea. A dog that is less well-trained may only sit at home, but once exposed to a
new environment, the training goes out the window. This is what we seek to
avoid happening via training our dogs in multiple environments. A superstar
dog will sit obediently and perform necessary tasks in virtually any situation.
 Road Map to Success
Here’s an example of how to apply everything outlined so far on a schedule:

Day one: A new environment with almost no stimulations. This

could be something as simple as your front yard or local park that
doesn't have much traffic. Start with little to no obedience, but don't
let the dog practice bad behaviors such as barking at other people /
dogs or pulling on the leash.

Day two: The same environment, but start asking for basic tasks.

Day three: The same environment, but ask for basic tasks and start
introducing more advanced tasks.

Day four: The same environment, but ask for basic and advanced
tasks and work on proficiency in the commands.

Days five to seven: New environment with very little stimulation.

Repeat the previous process.

Days eight to 11: New and somewhat intense environment. Repeat

the previous process.

Days 12 to 14: New more intense environment: Repeat the previous

process.

Days 15 to 17: New high stimulation / most intense environment.

Repeat the previous process.

If you follow this simple process you will be able to train your dog to behave
with other dogs and humans, as well as responding to your commands, in all
environments. Keep in mind this process also plays a huge role in your dog’s
confidence.

Final note: when you do allow your dog to interact with other dogs and humans,
just make sure it always is a positive learning experience. Make sure all the
humans are good with dogs and won’t yell at or unfairly correct your dog. When
your dog is interacting with other dogs, make sure they are dog-friendly dogs
that won’t try to dominate your dog. If a dog friendly dog is attacked by another
dog—it has the potential to create a fear aggressive-to-dogs pathology. So, be
careful what kind of dogs you allow your dog to play with. This is one of the
reasons dog parks should be avoided in most situations.
Chapter 12 – Choosing, Imprinting and Raising a Dog
Whether you are a first-time or experienced dog owner, getting a new puppy can
be a lot to consider. Of course, owners who prepare will experience a lot
less stress and a lot more fun. In this part, we'll go over some important
pointers regarding bringing a new puppy home and how to raise them.

(Special thanks to Bethany Preud’homme from PhDogs in Riverside CA, whom

I can cite as a primary resource for many of the sections in this part of the book.
Check out our interview on the Nate Schoemer YouTube channel:
https://youtu.be/G_cczA1r470).
 Choosing the Right Breed:
One of the most common questions people ask me is, "Hey! What breed should I
get?" and my first thought is typically, "What's your lifestyle like?" I'd want to
know if you lead an active way of life; do you want a companion to take hikes
with? Or would you prefer the type of dog who enjoys lounging by the fireplace
and all-day movie marathons?

This is a major factor because dog breeds include incredibly different

personalities. The common belief that "it's not the dog, it's how you raise them",
is a huge misconception. While nurture does have an effect, genetics play an
even larger role.

Some of these points may seem like common sense, but many people need
reminding about these factors. It's not all about how cute your new pup is.

If you lead an active lifestyle, get a dog that can keep up with you. For example,
you may want a Vizsla. That's just one example of many breeds that are
excellent for an active lifestyle.

By contrast, if you lead a lifestyle that is less active, perhaps if you work at
home on the computer all day, a Vizsla may not be such a good idea. Instead, a
Golden Retriever would be a better idea. It would have just enough energy, but it
wouldn't go into overdrive by never having an off-switch.

After determining the activity level, the next thing to consider are factors like the
size of your dog, whether you are worried about shedding, if you can maintain a
thick coat or if you'd prefer a thin coat or a dog with hair instead of fur.

Another factor is intelligence. Without directly insulting any of our canine

friends, the unfortunate truth is that some dogs are smarter than others. Now,
getting the most intelligent dog could seem like the best idea, but if you don't
keep that advanced brain constantly working—such a dog could become
destructive. On the other hand, a smart dog could also be a great joy to own.
These are, again, factors that depend on personal preference and lifestyle.

Another common concern is the cost of a new dog. Veterinary bills can be steep,
and some dogs are prone to many health problems by comparison to other breeds
that tend to stay healthier.

As you can see, it's important to take many variables into consideration.
 Choosing a Puppy From a Shelter
While professional breeders often do the selection process for new clients, in
other situations—such as picking a dog from a shelter—it’s very helpful to
perform particular tests to get an idea of a dog’s traits, which helps when there is
no other information available or staff are unfamiliar with the traits and
behaviors of the litter.

These compliancy tests are ways to check the behavioral characteristics of a

puppy, indicating what kind of experience you may have with the dog in the
future, and how easy they will be to train. Note: Always get permission first
from the shelter or owner before doing these tests.

1.) The first test I’ll do is select a puppy, and just cradle it in my arms like a
baby. If it doesn’t resist or fight, but just lies there very calmly, that
usually means the puppy is going to be more compliant and easier to
train—even into adulthood.

2.) Some trainers hold a puppy by the neck scruff, and just hold it there. If it
just dangles there relaxed—more likely than not it will be a compliant
dog vs. if it thrashes, fights, etc. They may also hold the puppy by the
scruff to the ground. I don't use this test as the first compliancy test is
adequate enough.

3.) The next thing I do is test to see how interested the puppies are in
humans. If there’s a litter of puppies, I look for the ones that show more
interest in people. Puppies with a liking to humans are easier to train.

4.) Next, I may test a puppy with food and toys. I’ll start luring them and
finding the one that’s really scrambling to get my food—this will be a
higher food drive dog, and thus easier to train. I’ll do the same with
toys, tossing them around and seeing if a puppy picks up a toy and runs
off with it (or brings it to me to play). These are all indications that the
dog loves toys, and will be easier to train. Sometimes all the puppies in
a litter are this way, but typically we’ll find a select few with the highest
interest.
 5.) Another test I may do is a confidence test. So, with a litter of puppies
present, I’ll knock over a chair or make a loud noise. If the puppies
freak out, run and hide, this may not be a litter I want a puppy from.
However, if they get startled, react to it, then go back to their business
playing—this shows a more confident batch. Of course, the ideal litter
would be one that ignores the sound entirely.

A few more points:

Keep in mind the breed of the puppy. For example, if I’m getting a
Malinois, the compliancy test of holding the puppy will be far less
important, because typically a Malinois is thrashing everywhere,
anyway. In this case, I’ll focus a lot more on the food / toy drive.
On the flip-side, a Golden Retriever will almost always be very
compliant, anyway.

A compliancy test doesn’t mean you won’t be able to train a dog, at

all. It just means they don’t like being held in a restrictive state.

A puppies’ behavior may not be consistent, either (e.g.: You may

have found a sleepy dog being high energy, a high energy dog being
sleepy.) So these techniques may not always be 100% accurate
without the help of someone who knows the litter very well.

Although not every shelter is the same, some do operate with staff
more like a breeder would, and they may know the puppies very
well and be able to help pick out the ones with the traits and
temperament you’re looking for.

Watch out for rescue operations that perform “rescue retails”—

claiming they are rescuing a dog from a meat market in China,
when they’re really just making a profit. See if what they’re
claiming is true and if it can be investigated first.

Look for a dog in a shelter that you feel you can build a relationship
with more than picking a dog out of pity. As Bethany Pred’homme
says, when people get married because they feel sorry for / pity
their spouse, that’s usually going to end up with a divorce. You
don’t want to end up in the same situation with a dog who you’ll
end up “divorcing” when you find you can’t get along with once the
feeling of pity ends.
 Choosing a Puppy from a Breeder
When going through a reputable breeder they are likely to choose the pup for
you via the matchmaking process. In fact, you may not even be allowed to pick
your own pup, at all.

The reason for this is that a breeder is going to know the specifics of the dogs
much better than a new customer who’s only spent 20 minutes with the pup. For
example, a prospective owner may have encountered what they believed was a
high energy pup—but ends up with the sleeper who is normally snoozing all day
—and the customer got unlucky by seeing the sleeper all worked up on a rare
occasion after a bit of play.

Another reason is customers are notorious for making the wrong decisions on
their own about what they want. For example, prospective owners often pick a
dog based on looks (such as fur color, coat thickness, etc,) only to find those
physical characteristics completely change as the dog ages—and have no bearing
on temperament or other, more important factors.

A matchmaking process is especially important if you’re getting a dog for

protection training or an occupational purpose (law enforcement, a therapy dog,
etc,) but may be less appealing to new owners looking for a family pet (where
owners often want to choose personally who the new family member is going to
be on a more holistic level).

However, even in a situation where a prospective owner wants to pick or

physically hold the puppy, blindly picking a dog without consulting with the
breeder is a bad idea. A quick look at a dog’s physical attributes or making a
strong guess about the pup’s temperament doesn’t necessarily mean the new pup
will be the right pet for you.

This is a good time to mention my first warning sign to look for at a breeding
operation: Beware of a breeder who doesn’t know the litter very well. A good
breeder should be VERY aware of the pups and their dispositions, and have
spent a lot of time working with them. If the breeder’s attitude is “Your guess is
as good as mine” about a pup’s traits, you’ve found a bad breeder.
Asking the Breeder Questions

It’s very important to get some information from the breeder, as well, while
selecting the puppy.

Ask the breeder what they are breeding for. We’re looking for
breeding in reference to temperament, trainability and disposition.
If the breeder responds that they breed just for looks, the cutest
dogs, etc., this is a warning sign and may not be a litter you want a
puppy from.

The breeder’s goal for the litter should match what you're searching
for.

Ask what the breeder hopes to produce with this pairing—what the
goals are with the litter: Speed, big jumpers, full grips (bite work),
more prey drive, more food drive, etc. Be sure to specify the traits
you need in your dog, for example—you don’t want a police dog
afraid of loud noises and unmotivated. A breeder who hasn’t
produced a police dog before could still have a great police dog
hiding in a litter—but it won’t be a sure thing.

For pet dogs: Ask if the puppy has a calm disposition, is friendly
with kids, plays with toys, unfriendly with other dogs, people, and
not prone to resource guarding, etc.

Ask how long the breeder keeps their puppies. A good breeder
keeps the pups for at least 8 weeks, so that the puppies can learn
communication with each other and with the mom. If the breeder
releases a puppy earlier than that time, they’re not being
responsible.

Ask the breeder if they have a matchmaking / questionnaire process

as outlined before, to be able to match the puppies to the owners. If
this service is not available, you’re likely dealing with a non-
professional breeder.

Ask the breeder if they have a health guarantee. A good breeder

should be checking the dog’s hips, eyes, elbows, heart—all the
health inspections you’d expect a breeder to have done with adult
dogs. The breeder should also search for parasites (including giardia
which is common in young dogs) and performing vaccinations.
Note: Health testing varies by breed, some breeds are predisposed
to different issues, like if the puppy is a purpose bred mixed breed
(Goldendoodle, Border Whippet, etc,) the breeder should have
health testing on each parent.

In regard to a dog’s health tests, if you’re with a reputable breeder

then a dog’s health may be available on public record. For example,
if you search the database at the Orthopedic Foundation for
Animals (OFA.org) you can find a dog without even contacting the
breeder first, and their health tests will pop up (in regard to
orthopedic health). Just make sure you’re using the dog’s registered
name (which may be different from the given name).

The breeder should want the dog back if, for some reason, the
human can no longer keep the dog. A good and ethical breeder
believes in their dogs, cares about their dogs, and keeps in contact
with the people they’ve sold dogs to—and are willing to take the
dog back if the human can’t take care of them (they may not
necessarily refund the owner, though).

Guarantee the breeder has a contract. This contract should include

the dog’s information, registration number, microchip, and a history
of events in the dog’s life. This contract should also make it clear
that if the dog has to go back to the breeder, the dog will NOT be
given away to a shelter (which could mean the end of the pup’s life)
but will be taken care of within that breeder’s network.

Ask the breeder when the last time the puppies had their nails
trimmed. A sign the breeder is a backyard operation is they don’t
think about these types of things. This also means the puppy will
not be used to being handled.

Experts warn against premature spaying and neutering. This causes

 physiological and mental issues. So, the contract should be specific
that dogs belonging to the breeder are not spayed and neutered until
1 ½ to 2 years of age. If the breeder has a stipulation in the contract
that you must spay / neuter the dog before this time frame, find a
new breeder.

Ensure the breeder has stipulations on dog breeding. New owners

who decide to breed their dogs should follow standards associated
with that, and a breeder who doesn’t care about this factor is
unprofessional.

Where to Find a Breeder

You can save time worrying about whether or not your breeder is a good one by
narrowing your search, and trying a few of these techniques to find the best
breeder in your area.

Your first step may be the American Kennel Club’s AKC

Marketplace which will showcase breeders in your area. Check it
out at: https://marketplace.akc.org/.

If your goal with owning a dog is to get into a sport, like agility,
then your best resource is your local agility sports club. Just ask
who’s breeding good dogs for your purposes.

Most dog breeds have breed clubs. You can investigate the breed
club of the dog you’re interested in owning, finding their website,
then using that website to locate a breeder. These breeders will
always follow the important criteria outlined earlier.

A good veterinarian is going to be aware of not only the breeders to

contact—but the ones you should avoid.

Breeders to Avoid

Experts don’t suggest going with amateur breeders. For example, Craigslist or a
neighbor with a box full of puppies. While it’s a good thing to adopt a puppy that
wouldn’t otherwise have a home, be aware of the risks associated with doing this
if you want a specific breed for specific purposes. In some situations, you could
also risk falling victim to a scam.

As stated earlier, if you enter a breeding operation and find they are giving away
puppies before 8 weeks of age—when they should be in a developmental stage
with the other puppies and the mom—skip. The same goes if the breeder is
keeping puppies during this critical period of up to 13 weeks, but doing nothing
with them and isolating them from the mom and other puppies.

As mentioned a couple pages above: If the breeder has no idea about the
individual characteristics of each puppy, this is a very bad sign.

Beware of a breeder who says the dogs are “health tested” because a veterinarian
checked them over. That’s not health testing, which is more detailed than getting
a look-over from a vet.

Beware of a breeder who has a litter full of fearful dogs (see prior points about
the compliancy tests). If the dogs are all scared to death of everything—the
breeder is breeding the wrong types of pups that won’t fit as good pets or
working dogs.

Beware of a “breeder” who will only meet you in a parking lot, won’t even
Facetime you to show the whole litter, and won’t show who the parents of the
pup are. These are all signs of a sketchy backyard breeding operation.

Beware of a breeder with no registration papers. This means the parents likely
have no breeding rights, which means the breeder is not responsible for
anything.

This is fairly obvious, but take into consideration the condition of all the puppies
in the litter. If they’re dirty, unhappy, or have other issues, follow your gut.

Beware of a breeder who’s having back-to-back litters from the breeding dogs to
make a profit. Sometimes a breeder does this for health reasons as it’s physically
healthier to breed back-to-back and spay at the end, but if a breeder isn’t aware
of this and is over-breeding to maximize profits, it’s probably not an ethical
operation. Try asking the breeder “why” they are having so many litters from the
same dogs and see how they respond.

Beware of breeders creating fashionable and trendy dog colors (silver Labradors,
white German Shepherds, white Dobermans, etc.). While such dogs may be
novelties, it also indicates a breeder doesn’t care about temperament and health,
but is trying to make a buck by selling the novelty.

Pricing the Pups from a Breeder

During this process, be mindful of the prices of the pups. Search online to get a
good idea of the average costs, and be mindful of situations when a breed is
being sold too low or too high.

When you find a puppy is sold for more than the average cost, determine why.
You’re looking for a situation where a pup is priced higher because of
undergoing all the necessary health requirements, within a great professional
operation. That’s good, and is preferable.

If a puppy is being sold high, and there is no evidence the breeder is really doing
that work (see prior points about questions to ask, breeders to avoid) then
obviously this is a big problem.

The other big problem is if the price is too low and there is no professional
process being undertaken, such as health testing. You’ll end up paying more in
the long run doing all those things yourself.

Transporting the Pup

Not every breeder will ship a puppy, but most puppies when they’re small
enough can fit under your seat on an airplane, so don’t hesitate to fly out and
grab the puppy.

If a ground transport option is available, however, you’ll want to do a lot of

research and make sure they’re reliable and safe. You may find some trustworthy
companies that do this in your area.
Experts, like Bethany Preud’homme, warn against puppies shipped from an area
with loose breeding regulations, in particular Missouri, where there is a higher
chance the puppy is coming from a “puppy mill.” If you do decide to select a
dog without going physically to the location to meet her, then try to Facetime the
operation, take a look around the premises, and use the tips provided thus far to
determine if it’s a legitimate breeding operation or not. You need to make sure
it’s live video of the operation. If they don’t permit live video—skip on that
breeder.

Otherwise, if everything checks out—the dogs have their health tests, you can
see live video, the breeding operation is legitimate—there’s no problem with
shipping.

Picking a Retired Breeding Dog

A good thing that reputable breeders do is they retire their breeding dogs and
find them new homes. This is an excellent option if you’re looking for an adult
dog rather than a puppy. So, ask the breeder if they have a waiting list for their
adult dogs.

The reason this is a good option is because such dogs are going to be health
tested, heavily socialized, well trained, possess good genetics, and typically not
be very expensive. They’re also likely to still have many years left in them.
 Preparing Your Home:
Congratulations! You figured out what type of puppy to get—which by now
you’ve probably discovered can be a long, difficult process. Now you may be
worried that the little scoundrel is going to eat your Master's thesis on your desk.

So, puppy proofing your house may be a good idea. Here are some of the
suggestions that I have:

First, if you want to control where the dog goes within the
household, then use puppy gates. These will restrict the dog from
going into certain rooms. They can be installed in doorways.

Start to develop puppy-proof habits. Much like being concerned

with a rogue two-year-old, it's wise to pay attention to what is
accessible for the puppy to chew on or steal. Don't allow your
children to leave their toys on the floor, for instance.

Is your bedroom compatible for your puppy's crate? It's a good idea
to keep your puppy close to you at night to prevent separation
anxiety which could lead to a lot of whimpering during the puppy's
early years. You should also be prepared to get up during the night
to potty the puppy.
 Welcoming a New Dog into the Home
If you're bringing home a puppy and your other dog is good with dogs, then it
should be a simple process. Just bring the puppy home and let your older dog see
you holding the puppy. Most dogs will not be aggressive to a puppy because a
puppy is not a threat. However, some dogs will correct puppies for getting into
their space or not respecting boundaries. Often this isn't an issue, but it can start
to teach your dog to be submissive. Since I don't like my dogs to be submissive,
I don't allow my older dogs to correct puppies when I bring them home. If I
notice that the puppy is bothering the older dog, then I'll move the puppy away
from the other dog. It also helps to introduce them in a neutral environment, such
as the front yard.

However, I follow a different process if I am bringing an adult dog home. First, I

want to make sure that I can walk both dogs on a loose leash. Once I can do that,
then I walk both dogs together. One dog on my left and one dog on my right.
You can also have a person help with this process. Just be sure a person is
between both dogs.

While I'm walking the dogs, I'm making sure the dogs are not showing any
aggressive behaviors. Most of the time, non-aggressive dogs will just walk as if
it's a normal walk. They will show interest in the other dog, but nothing to raise
any flags. Once I get back to the house, I walk both dogs into the backyard or in
the house if no yard is available. By walking around the neighborhood with both
dogs it seems to welcome the new dog into the group. Once in the yard I drop
the leashes and let the dogs interact. For peace of mind, you can have the water
hose ready if the dogs decide that they don't like each other. Spraying dogs with
the hose is a safe way to stop most dog fights. This is usually not necessary if
you did the walk correctly and watched for signs of aggression.
 Training Your New Puppy:
The moment your dog enters your house, it is learning. From the moment the
dog is born to 16 weeks of age is the most important time in the dog’s life. This
is known as the imprinting stage and we want to make sure it is learning the
things we want it to maintain as it grows into an adult. Therefore, it's important
to begin as early as possible teaching the concepts necessary to raise a puppy
into adulthood with excellent behavior.

You want to start training your puppy the moment you bring them home. You
should try to get in 1 - 3 sessions each day. Each session should be between five
to fifteen-minutes.

When training a new puppy, I like to use mealtime as training time. In the
beginning, you want to do continual reinforcement, meaning you reward every
correct behavior. If you don’t have time to train, don’t feed your puppy out of a
bowl. Instead, put the food into a raw bone or kong and freeze it. Once it’s
frozen, you can give that to your dog in the crate. This will help keep them
entertained, but it will also satisfy the puppy's need to chew. Don’t try to
increase the value of the food by giving them something like cooked steak. If
you do, that’s a lot like giving your dog a pay raise. This will make it more
difficult to use lower value rewards during training, such as your dog’s kibble.

Confidence building exercises, socializing, and exposure to new situations is

also very important with a new puppy. Be sure to follow the processes explained
in chapters 10 and 11.
 Advanced Obedience with Your Puppy.
If you plan on doing any advanced obedience with your dog, it’s a good idea to
get them to enjoy that type of training at a young age.

Let’s say you wanted to do scent detection with your puppy when she gets older.
You would want to start scent training during the imprinting stage. One example
of making this training more fun for the puppy would be to make it predict the
puppy’s favorite toy. This would create a strong positive association to scent
detection training and it will make it much easier to create a strong scent dog
when the pup gets older. You don’t have to worry about the puppy being
proficient at scent detection training, but you would want the puppy to love the
training. That would be the main goal.

This would be the same for anything else you want your puppy to excel at when
they get older. For example; I enjoy teaching my dogs the basics of bite work.
Because of this I start teaching them how to bite a puppy bite sleeve when they
are only eight weeks of age. By making them enjoy the basics of bite work when
they are 8 - 16 weeks old, I can easily get them to do more advanced bite work
when they are older.

The main idea is this: if you want them to be experts at something when they are
older, get them to love it when they are puppies.
 Potty Training and Crate Training (this same
process works with adult dogs):
You’re going to want to start potty training right away. I would advise staying
away from puppy pads unless you want your puppy to learn to go potty in the
house.

Below is a simple step-by-step process, involving a crate that's just big enough
for the dog to stand up, spin around, and lay down in (and not any larger). If the
crate is larger, then the puppy would be able to go potty in one end of the crate
and sleep on the other end, which would slow the potty-training process. By
having the crate the correct size, this will allow the dog to learn to hold their
bladder. When your dog is fully potty trained, a larger crate will be acceptable.

There are three crate-training principles to understand: The first guideline for
crate-training is that you always want to make the crate a pleasant place for your
dog and never a place of punishment, like as a time-out or something of the sort.
The second most important guideline is to never put your dog in the crate only
when you are leaving the house, or the dog will learn that the crate means that
you are leaving, and this can create anxiety and further problems for the crate-
training process. The third guideline is to keep your crate next to your bed at
night to make it a more comfortable place for your puppy to sleep.

List of crate to-dos:

Feed your dog in their crate with the door closed.

Put your dog into the crate randomly throughout the day (even
when you are not leaving the house.)
Give your dog treats in the crate.
Have your dog sleep in the crate at night.
If your dog barks or whines in the crate, then directly hit the top of
the crate with a metal bowl and this will usually make them quiet.
Be sure to say “no” the moment they whine or bark BEFORE
hitting the crate. As with any correction, it’s about cause and effect,
never personal, so no yelling because you’re angry. This technique
works on most dogs.
Depending on the age of the dog, we have to consider how long they can hold
their bladders. A simple rule to follow is a dog can stay in a crate for as many
hours as months they have been alive. For example, a young pup at two months
old can stay crated for two hours. Three months, three hours. Four months, four
hours. All the way to eight hours being the max time in a crate.

After the time in the crate, the puppy is taken out and given a chance to go potty.

If they successfully go potty, the dog should be rewarded, perhaps taken on a

walk or playing fetch. We try to reinforce that the bathroom break leads to more
fun activities (however, when I wake up to potty a puppy in the middle of the
night, I won't play after they go potty. I'll let them sniff around for a couple
minutes and then I take them back inside).

If the puppy doesn't go, then he or she is brought back to the crate. We wait 20
minutes, then repeat the process.

The important factor is to make the dog associate going outside with going potty,
and that it's something to look forward to.

If the puppy happens to go inside the house, you don't need to rush at them
yelling. You simply say "no," correct the puppy, then take the pup outside, and
reward with positive reinforcement after they go potty.

Often people will argue till they are blue in the face that they can teach a dog not
to go potty in the house by catching them after the fact. However, out of the ten
times they corrected the dog for this behavior one or two of the times they
actually caught the dog in the act, and that’s when the dog learned.
If the puppy has gone potty in the house, but you did not catch them in the act,
then do NOT correct them. You must catch them immediately or else they won't
understand. Please see the importance of timing discussed elsewhere in this
book.

Here’s an analogy I use for explaining this to people: Let’s say that you become
a prisoner of war in a foreign country where you don’t speak the same language.
You have your little prison cell with your toilet that you use every day with no
issues. One day you become bored and you start to carve on the wall. One of the
guards sees you carving on the wall and he runs into your cell, yelling at you in a
language you don’t understand. They then take your face and shove it into the
toilet. Are you going to think that they are shoving your face into the toilet
because you used the toilet, or are you going to think they are shoving your face
into the toilet because you were carving on the wall? Because that’s what you
were doing when they started yelling at you.
It is the same for our dogs and our puppies. If your dog or puppy goes to the
bathroom in the house and you did not see them go to the bathroom, and the dog
starts a different activity, then whatever that activity may be, if you start to yell
at your dog during that activity and shove your dog’s face into their own mess,
they are going to think that you are shoving their face into their own mess
because of the activity they were doing when you started yelling at them.
Note: if your puppy goes potty inside their potty-training crate, then it's your
fault. Dogs do not go potty where they sleep or eat unless they simply can't hold
it. However, if your puppy continues to potty in the crate even though you have
been giving them plenty of opportunities to go potty outside, there is a
possibility that the puppy has a urinary tract infection and should be looked at by
your veterinarian.

When training your puppy, remember, you want to make the training as fun as
possible, creating a fun learning environment that the puppy wants to keep
coming back to. Follow the training process as explained earlier in chapter 7:
The science to teaching a dog any command. Be sure to work on multiple
commands in each session. This makes the training more fun for your puppy and
as a side effect, they will learn faster.

Dogs That Always Go Potty on Soft Things

A dog owner wrote to me about how her one-year-old dog is potty trained,
doesn’t have accidents in his crate, but continues to have accidents when there is
something soft in the crate. Whenever she thinks her dog is done having
accidents, she’ll put a blanket or dog bed back in the crate—then predictably a
few days later, accidents start happening again. This dog can be taken outside to
go potty, but will still prefer to potty in the crate if there’s anything soft in it. The
owner is desperate because she doesn’t want her dog to have to sleep on a hard
surface for the rest of his life.
This is a surprisingly common situation. Here is my response to this issue:

This problem is the same reason why it takes human toddlers longer to be potty
trained now vs. 30 years ago. They've made diapers so effective at absorbing the
urine, that the child doesn't experience the discomfort from a wet diaper, and as a
side effect they continue the behavior. The less absorbent the diaper, the faster
the child learns.

First, you want to keep in mind that everything our dogs do is based on
motivation. The motivation to access something pleasant, or the motivation to
prevent something unpleasant. When you don't have a blanket in the crate and
the dog goes potty, then he experiences a consequence. The discomfort from
being wet with urine. However, when you have the blanket in the crate, the dog
doesn't have to sit in his pee. This is good and bad. Good because we don't want
our dogs in their mess. Bad because it gives them the chance to relieve
themselves without discomfort. Much like the very absorbent diapers. Basically,
the dog has realized that it's more comfortable for him to pee on the blanket than
it is to hold the pee in.

When this happens in a dog's mind, the best way to stop it is to correct the dog in
the act. This is how I fix it:

- Step one: Let the dog sleep in the crate at night without a blanket.

- Step two: Then in the morning, remove the dog from the crate. Place
the blanket in the crate. Then put the dog back in the crate without
providing a bathroom break. We are setting the dog up to fail, so we can
correct them when they do the undesired behavior.

- Step three: Have a camera set up (Facetime or a Furbo works great for
this) so you can watch the dog when you leave the room.

- Step four: The moment you see your dog starting to go potty on the
blanket, you say "no" or whatever sound you prefer. Then you walk to
the dog and give him a correction with the training collar.
 I would do this a few times until the dog can hold it for an additional 5
minutes or so after I put him back in the crate with the blanket. For example;
if it's the 3rd day that I'm doing this and the dog holds it for 5 minutes after I
leave the room, then he's probably trained at this point and I don't have to set
him up to fail anymore. He has to know that it's not an okay behavior. So,
the motivation not to receive the correction needs to override the motivation
to go potty on the blankets.

Dealing with Separation Anxiety

Crate training has more than one purpose, and can be used to keep the dog from
engaging in bad behaviors when home alone, but it can also add to your dog’s
anxiety issues if this method is not handled properly.

Often, when a dog is left alone, they won’t know what their responsibility is in
the house, so they’ll find things to do (undesirable behaviors, getting into trash,
etc.) or become very stressed out in the house not knowing when we’ll return.
Many owners deal with this by putting their dog in the crate the whole time.

The way to handle this is by remembering one of the three primary crate training
principles mentioned earlier: always place dogs in the crate at random times.
Do not place the dog in the crate ONLY when you are going to leave for an
extended period of time, or else they’ll start to identify being in the crate with
the owners leaving. This causes a lot of stress.

However, by putting them randomly, we’ll see this stress go away. So, if you’re
going in the shower, crate the dog, or cooking in the kitchen, crate the dog, and
so forth. We also want to do behaviors that we may do when we are normally
about to leave—without actually leaving. For example, grabbing your jacket and
putting it on, then setting it back down, picking up your car keys and putting
them back down, etc. Crate the dog each time.

We are doing this because dogs are very good at recognizing patterns, and they’ll
identify certain behaviors with “crate time.” When those behaviors are no longer
linked to a pattern of leaving, then the dog will no longer link these two concepts
together. So, just because you picked up your keys and left the house—the dog
will not necessarily calculate that you went anywhere—you must still be home
like every other time you picked up your keys—so the dog will remain crated
worry-free.

When a New Dog or Puppy Whines

Sometimes, when crating a puppy, or when you leave the house, you’ll find they
are whining a lot or barking.

For young puppies, this is normal because instinctually they are separated from
their mother or pack and want to alert everyone. But when a dog gets older, it
may be a manipulation tactic to get you to release them from the crate.

When I have a dog like this, I simply use any metal dog bowl, and I keep it on
top of the crate. When the whining starts, I say “No” which is the marker the dog
is conditioned to, then I walk to the crate, and I hit the top of the crate with the
bowl once. I don’t do it harshly, just enough so the dog understands cause and
effect: Whining and barking causes the crate to get hit by a bowl making an
unpleasant sound. In time, the dog will figure out that it’s not worth it to bark /
whine.

Finally, remember the crate should never be used as a tool to punish the dog as in
a time out.
Chapter 13 – Canine Nutrition: Food & Treats
Before moving forward into this last chapter, keep in mind that I’m not a canine
nutrition expert, nor do I claim to be one on the internet. However, below are
some of the resources that I use when choosing the right food for my dogs, as
well as what I like to feed my dogs as their training food, treats, and meals.

With a puppy or a new dog in training, I will often start with a 5-star high-
quality dry food during the training process. I also usually give the puppy raw
goat milk from Answers to help ensure the dog is getting enough quality
nutrition.

If I don't have enough time for a training session, then I soak the kibble in water
or raw goat milk and stuff it into a Kong or raw bone, then freeze it. In addition,
I train with freeze-dried dog food, but that can be very pricey. Usually, a high-
quality kibble will be okay. For me personally, I’ll transition them to a raw diet
when all the main training is completed and then I use the freeze-dried food as a
reward while training. This way, your dog’s "dog food" will be his training
treats. This is a healthier and cheaper option to using store bought sugar filled
dog treats.

My number one source for K9 nutrition is from Dr. Karen Becker. She has an
excellent YouTube channel full of useful content that will help you decide what
to feed your dog to maximize their health and wellbeing. You can find her
channel on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/user/MercolaHealthyPets. She
also has a great book titled "Dr. Becker's Real Food for Healthy Dogs & Cats:
Simple Homemade Food."

Another great source to learn more about dog food is dogfoodadvisor.com. This
website gives a non-bias review based on a 5-star rating system. Keep in mind,
however, that each dog food category is rated amongst other dog foods in the
same category. For example: dry food is rated against other dry food, raw food is
rated against other raw dog foods, etc—the issue with this is food categories are
not all the same. Just like a martial arts belt system, we can think about dry food
as white belts, canned food the blue belts, dehydrated and freeze-dried would be
the purple belts, and raw would be the brown and black belts. Therefore, just like
a 5-star white belt isn’t better than a 4-star black belt, a 5-star dry kibble isn’t
better than a 4-star raw dog food brand. Once this is clear, it’s a great website to
investigate the best foods compared to other brands.

If you're looking for the best choice possible for your dog's diet, then I would
recommend a 5-star premium raw dog food. Your dog needs a lot of water to
stay fit and healthy, and many dogs on dry food are slightly dehydrated since dry
food is only around 18% moisture, in comparison to raw at 70% moisture.
 Recommended Treats for Your Dog:
I don’t recommend many store bought treats, which are rarely healthy for your
dog (just read the ingredients to see what I mean—lots of animal byproducts and
factory floor scrapings). Instead, you’re better off making your own treats, or
using premium ingredients. For example:

- Freeze dried food used as a treat.

- Bully sticks.
- Bones from a butcher.
- A bone or Kong filled with raw dog food or premium canned dog food, and
then frozen for a tasty frozen treat.

Human food:

Often I’ll hear people say proudly, “I never give my dog human food”. This is
great if their definition of human food is fast food. However, there is nothing
wrong with giving your dog natural raw foods from the grocery store. Often
when I’m cooking, I’ll give my dogs small bites from the raw ingredients. If I’m
unsure of a certain ingredient, a quick Google search will often let me know if
it’s okay or not okay to feed to a dog. Just like with anything, the key word is
moderation.

Final note: The longest living dog was an Australian Kelpie named Maggie that
lived 30 years. The owner said that he fed her primarily a raw diet, including raw
goat milk, and she would get plenty of daily exercise on the farm. This may be a
good method to follow if you want your dog to live the longest and healthiest
life possible.
In Conclusion
Dog training is an art form and it takes years to become an expert. However,
through the essentials we’ve provided in this manual, anybody can take their dog
ownership to the next level right-away. Although you won’t master this field
overnight, you can quickly develop at least the essential skills needed to fix the
majority of issues that dog owners face. In addition, you’ll discover a greater
relationship with your dog, as you now have the tools to address the bad
behaviors that may have frustrated you or pushed you further away from your
companion. I believe that improving the lives of dogs, along with their owners,
is the most important thing. We’ll talk soon!
Nathan
 About Nathan Schoemer
Nate Schoemer is an American dog training and canine educational expert and
former United States Marine. He was certified as a Professional and Master Dog
Trainer through the Tom Rose School, where he graduated at the top of his class
in both the Professional and Master Dog Trainer programs and was later invited
to be an assistant instructor.

Nate utilizes his extensive experience to help many canine professionals

establish their own similar companies. Eventually, Nate’s career culminated with
the creation of Nate Schoemer’s Dog Training, with a mission of improving the
lives of dogs and their owners through education.

In 2017, Nate’s dog training caught the attention of Animal Planet and was cast
as the co-host of Rescue Dog to Super Dog; a UK show that was formatted for
American audiences. In the show, Nate transformed rescue dogs into service
dogs to help the lives of people affected by disabilities.

More recently, Nate joined forces with the non-profit Operation Therapy Dog
with a two-part mission of helping veterans and training service dogs for the
disabled. He is the head of canine operations for Operation Therapy and he has
designed their premier training program matching the ideal training techniques
with the proper physical and mental developmental period of a dog’s life. His
approach to training virtually eliminates the amount of time a dog ever has to
spend in a kennel ultimately benefiting the dog, the trainer and the veteran.

Nate hosts a popular YouTube channel to help continue his mission of improving
the life of all dogs by educating those that care for them.

He prides himself on his self-motivation, honesty, integrity, enthusiasm, and

determination to serve his clients, and his community, in all of his endeavors. He
currently works on his entrepreneurial activities and lives with his Malinois,
Arih and Labrador, Charlie.