Outsmarting Your Dog

Meet Roux!

This sixteen-week-old newly-adopted hound mix has a real lust for life! Bouncing, jumping, scratching and mouthing, anything to get your attention, and any attention will do. Roux's owner wanted help get control of these problematic behaviors before things got out of hand. It's easy to forget that even negative attention serves as a reward to a dog looking for consideration, especially when they are barking up a storm or chewing on your furniture.

Your first line of defense against unwanted behavior is to Outsmart your dog. This entails a whole arsenal of management strategies, like having the proper tools, such as indoor leashes and treats. These tools prevent your dog from making the wrong choice in the first place. Managing your dogs environment is another way to illustrate good decision making, by crating or setting up safe areas to confide your pup in while you cook dinner.

There are times when you may fail to get the drop on outsmarting your pooch and poor conduct will commence. Let's say your pup displays attention seeking habits such as play biting you, in times like that, outsmarting or managing the situation just isn't an option. The fastest way to ensure that the behavior stops, is to indicate disaproval and to remove your attention. This will teach your dog that the only way to GET your attention, is by acting the way you prefer them to.

For more information on the Zen Dog Training System, visit Zen Dog Training Online.

Setting up Your Puppies Confinement Area.

Meet Izzy!

This eight-week-old Golden Retriever puppy will melt your heart!

Izzy's owner was mindful in doing some research about Goldens and even purchased a few highly recommended books prior to our visit. All in all Izzy was making good progress; her owner just wanted to be certain that he was making the right decisions in regards to her training and that they both were on the right track.

Although Izzy was doing quite well she still had an occasional accident in the house and one of the first things that we noticed was that there was no confinement area set up for her. It is very common to give a new puppy too much freedom right away. Most people only confine a dog after they have an accident and then confinement becomes punishment. Confinement areas also teaches your puppy that she doesn't need to be the center of attention all the time, this in turn preps your pup for being home alone.

Training your puppy to be in a confinement area has a multitude of values. Pick an area in the house such as the kitchen or mud room and make the area comfortable with a bed, blanket and toys. Then start out with short training time like 2-5 minutes at a time while you are in a different part of the house. Who doesn't want to spend every minute with a brand-new, super-cute puppy? Still, at some point you'll need to prepare her for your normal routine. You want your pup to be relaxed and settled when alone. Remember: dogs are social animals and being by themselves doesn’t come naturally to them. Using a confinement area will help ease your puppy into your everyday life and teach her the value of a little "me time." Creating a space for your puppy can be made easy with a visit from a Zen Dog Trainer.

For more information, check out Home Alone Training and House Training at Zen Dog Training Online.

Treating for Confidence

Meet Madison!

You can't quite help yourself around this adorable seven-month-old Shih Tzu puppy. Everything about her says "LOVE ME!"

Madison lives with three humans and a ten-year-old Shih Tzu sister named Lindsey. At home, Madison is a playful and curious pup, quite typical for her age but when her environment expands or changes, she becomes very shy and tentative. Madison's owners wanted to fine-tune a few behaviors but also understand how to build her confidence in new situations.

Puppies start out with pre-established behaviors that we as humans tend to forget are completely normal. Behaviors such as playbiting or or peeing in the house. It is our responsibility to teach the puppy how we would prefer them to behave. Puppies under six months easily accept and attempt new things; beyond that age your pup becomes more and more resistant to new things if not regularly socialized.

Madison's wariness when around a large group of strange people or dogs is most likely attributed to a lack of socializing. She has reservations about new things and places and in order to change that we have to provide a positive association to these new elements. Giving your pup treats at random intervals when she is confronted with unfamiliar circumstances help largely to create a positive association. We call this Treating for Confidence. Allow your pup to investigate things and people at her own pace, being particularly careful not to force things on her. Pressuring your pup to do something before she's ready to can result in making your pup even more fearful. Be calm and reassuring and your dog will learn to follow your lead.

For more information on Socialization and Treating for Confidence, please visit Zen Dog Training Online.

House Training your New Puppy.

Meet Prancer!

Prancer reminded me of a circus poodle aspiring for applause by leaping through a sparkeling hoop. This ecstatic apricot toy poodle is a gem! At sixteen weeks, his lust for life is admirable and his energy impressive. Prancer's owner called us to make sure that Prancer was headed in the right direction. She wanted to be able to bring Prancer to work with her but wasn't sure he was ready for the responsibility.

One thing that we noticed right away was the wee-wee pad in Prancer's kitchen. Prancer was trained by his breeder to go the bathroom on a pad inside even though his owner preferred that Prancer pee or poop outdoors. This proved to be very difficult since she worked a few days a week for a couple hours at a time.

Training a puppy to eliminate outside when he's already doing it in the house is highly confusing for the puppy. Either it is okay to go the bathroom in the house or it is not. The secret to successful housetraining is in 100% supervision. Remember, when a puppy has to go to the bathroom he will do it where ever he can get away with it! If you're unable to provide 100% supervision, then having a confinement area or a crate can help prevent accidents.

We helped Prancer's owner set up a crate in the kitchen for times when he couldn't be supervised. This freed up his owner to do things she needed to do without the stress of worrying about Prancer's comings and goings.

To learn more about Housetraining your puppy, visit Zen Dog Training Online.

Ollie the Schnauzer.

Meet Ollie!

This guy is a wonderful bundle of Schnauzer energy but something his parents wanted to address was Ollie using pee-pee pads when left alone in the apartment. He had learned to use his pee pads very well, but the problem with these pads is that it's tricky to use them in the beginning of a relationship and then ask your dog to start to going to the bathroom outside. This is because dogs don’t get the idea of “sometimes." The word just isn't in their vocabulary!

By using the pee pads, Ollie had learned that it was okay to go to bathroom indoors. When left to his own devices, it's likely he’ll just go inside the house. It is possible to teach a dog to use pee-pads, but only if you want to use them for the rest of the dog's life!

If you want to train your dog to go outside, it's better to teach your puppy that going to the bathroom inside is never okay. Make sure he's supervised 100% of the time, or use a crate or gated-off confinement area to minimize mistakes. Diligently interrupt accidents and rewarding (with lots of praise and treats!!) your puppy whenever he goes outside, and he'll learn what you want to teach him.

We provide our clients with our Housetraining eBook along with our Simple Summary highlighting the important things to remember. In addition, we include a Housetraining Log so you can:

1. track your puppy's pee and poop "activities,"
2. identify your puppy's "problem times" when mistakes happen most frequently, and
   
3. share with your household whether your dog is full and needs to be taken out.

By understanding your dog's natural tendencies, communicating with everyone in the family about what needs to be done, rewarding good behavior, and, er, "eliminating" the chances that your dog can make a mistake, you can have a new puppy house-trained in less than one week!

To learn more about housetraining, crates and confinement areas, visit Zen Dog Training Online. Check out our Housetraining eBook, Simple Summary Housetraining and our Housetraining Log.

Woody the Daschund.

Meet Woody!

….But be calm and unthreatening when you do.

Woody’s family got him at eight-months-old from a breeder who assured them that their puppy was friendly and socialized. They were told that Woody was going to be a great pet since he was already past the most difficult of the puppy months. Unfortunately that wasn't exactly the case.

It was a huge shock for Woody, to be taken from his brothers, sisters and quiet backyard and brought to a new home. There were so many new sights, sounds, and smells that confused and frightened him.

Even though our dogs are domesticated, their primary instinct is still survival. When presented with a new frightening situation, that instinct kicks in and completely takes over — dogs go into fight or flight mode. The only thing dogs in these circumstances are concerned with is either getting the heck away or making whatever frightens them go away... which usually means barking, snapping and being as frightening as possible themselves.

In Woody’s world, two men like me and Gordon coming into his home was very scary. As we stood in the entry, we felt legitimately nervous. Since Woody was beyond the point of reason, we wanted to make ourselves as unthreatening as possible so we sat down; sitting made us smaller, and by being smaller, we were a lot less scary.

At that point, we began to earn Woody's trust quickly and easily: we had a Treat Party! By giving Woody Treats for No Reason, we stopped being a threat and became a source of food. Suddenly we weren’t so scary anymore! Ten or fifteen minutes after we sat down, Woody began to sniff around our chairs and even sniffed us, looking for more food. It was a major step, but it was only the first of many Woody needs to take in order to be comfortable with his world.

By giving a dog food when he is scared, we help him associate good things with what was once a life-threatening experience. Though it may seem otherwise, doing this doesn't reward our dogs for being scared — at that point, dogs are too scared to do any training exercises. Many terrified dogs won’t even take treats once they're scared and panicked. We want to teach our dogs to connect something they're frightened by (men, loud trucks, rolling chairs, etc.) with their favorite treats. If you train slowly while your dog isn’t too freaked out, you can work to change his feelings and associations enough so, while he might still be nervous, your dog can handle things he doesn't like.

For more information on Treats for No Reason and Treat Parties, check out Zen Dog Training Online.

Myth Busting: Waiting until the 6th month to train a dog

Nothing riles me up more than hearing someone say,"a trainer told me you are not supposed to train a dog until they are 6 months old."

What a crock! Absolute rubbish!! Hearing people say something like that makes my stomach turn.

First, do you really think the dog isn't learning from the very first second they open their eyes and start to hear? Seriously, by the 6th month, the dog is now the human equivalent of a 7 year old child! At that point they have already made up their minds about how the world works - in my book if we start at 6 months we are "re-training" them.

Actually, good breeders (and I mean the REALLY good one's) are not only housetraining puppies by the 5th week, they are teaching them to 'sit' and pre-socializing them by exposing young puppies to lots of people, kids, loud noises and otherwise preparing the youngsters for success in our noisy, busy world! Cool huh?


Why do people recommend that you can't train a dog until they are six months old?

The most plausible reason I have heard is that trainers who use 'corrections', metal prong collars or employ "startle-techniques" (jerk the collar, pop-the-leash kinds of things) have to wait until the dog has bonded with humans first so they don't "break the dog's spirit" when training them.

Bottom line here, your dog starts learning what works and what doesn't in your house the very first second they walk in the door! Waiting to train them (especially if you have kids!) sounds ludicrous to me, but strangely I still hear about it!

Those of us who train dogs with peaceful methods (dog training methods that depend on communication and understanding) it is - completely reasonable - to have a 12 week old puppy mostly potty trained, doing simple 'sit', 'down' commands and even walking on a loose leash!

Of course, those are not my first objectives - my priorities with new puppy training are:

1. Teaching them bite inhibition - they should learn not to bite people!
2. Teaching them to accept their home as safe - including the mailman, visitors and strangers, outside things like joggers, bikes, scooters, trucks, kids, and strangers. (Socialization)
3. Teaching them to NOT protect food from us and to accept ANY touch at ANY time, from kids at the park, to the groomer, brushing their hair of teeth, or even mild-restraint at the vet or during an emergency.

Phew! That's a lot - a better summary of the essential puppy training lessons would be:

- Housetraining
- Playbiting
- Home Alone Training
- Socialization (People, Places, Things and other Dogs)
- Preventing Food Guarding
- Socialization to Touch


Remember, your dog is a learning machine! Who over hundreds if not thousands of years has learned to successfully live and co-exist with human. They are masters of learning what pushes your buttons and how to get what they want. That's why training them you rules needs to happen right away!

Gentle training methods like our Zen Dog Training system to interrupt problem behaviors can be used immediately upon getting a new dog. In fact, the ideal time for us to start In-Home Training is 2-3 days after the new puppy has arrived.

The most important training tools for puppies are the ones that create an environment for success. Confinement areas, chew toys, crate, bed, housetrining and feeding schedule, playbiting with kids or chasing cats...all potential problems that can be avoided from day 1 with good training tools!

For more information visit www.ZenDogTrainingOnline.com - See: Outsmarting your dog, and all the PDF's and Video's under "Your New Puppy"

Stella the Yellow Lab.

Meet Stella!

A four-month-old puppy and, as we were told, a bundle of Lab-ish mischief. Before we arrived at their home, we pictured the typical lab greeting: incredibly excited puppy anxious to jump all over us, smothering us with attention... then trying to chew off our shoelaces.

When we arrived, Stella’s dad came out to meet us; we had a fantastic “nice to meet you” chat and slowly made our way inside. Immediately, we realized that something was wrong! Where was the whirling dervish? Why were our shoes still tied? And why was it so darn quiet and peaceful?!

We took a look around the living room and finally saw a pair of emerald eyes looking at us from a crate next to the couch. And even though she was dying to meet us (and boy was she excited when we let her out) Stella knew that during crate-time she was expected to be calm, settled and quiet. Wow! What an easy, fun visit it turned out to be! The hard work was already done for us!

Starting from her first night home, Stella had been introduced her to the crate and understood the ground rules. The crate was to be her happy place. She was fed meals in her crate. Her crate had a towel to block out the light. Inside she had a soft washable bed, her favorite chewy, and a food dispensing toy (Busy Buddy).

Since dogs are den animals, they tend to want a safe, quiet place to call their own. By properly introducing Stella to her crate, her family had created a place for her to feel safe and — best of all — those "tough" new puppy problems were easier to solve!

• Housetraining becomes a breeze since you know when your dog is full. If they've just had water, then went to sleep in their crate for 30 minutes....than you know they probably have to go pee? Now you can show them where you want them to go and reward them when they do!
  
• Independence training, the most important (but often overlooked) skill to teach a young puppy is almost effortless if you practice sometimes leaving your dog in the crate — while you are home. That new puppy over-the-top, nervous, attention-seeking, whining and crying for attention can be safely ignored.
• Destructive chewing becomes easier to stop because you don't have to think about your dog all the time. With puppy in the crate, you can put in a movie or make dinner without worrying if your dog is chewing the cable wire or peeing behind the couch.
• Separation anxiety can be avoided because your dog learns that when you are around they are not always the center of attention. Of course, crating a dog who already has Separation Anxiety can be harmful! (Call your Zen Dog Trainer for help!)
  

Bottom line, the crate is an invaluable tool when living with a puppy — or with a dog of any age. It is instrumental to house training, and a place where a wound-up, over-tired, puppy can learn to settle-down and take a nap.

To learn more about crate training your dog check out our Separation Anxiety or Housetraining eBooks at Zen Dog Training Online.

Chewy the Yorkie.

Meet Chewy!

I know what you're thinking: what a shy little dog!

Well, I hate to tell you that you're wrong as wrong could be. This little girl is as bold as brass. She just looks shy because I happened to snap her photo as she took a breather after running round the grassy garden while Gordon and I spoke with her parents.

(Before you complain about the lack of full-frontal puppy cuteness, let me just say this: you try taking a picture of a nine-week-old Yorkie that's not out-of-focus and get back to me.)

Chewy's parents had a lot of "New Puppy" questions, but something they were especially interested in was teaching their girl things like sit and down. Lucky for them, we had just finished updating Zen Dog Teaching Commands notesheet — after our editing spree, Gordon and I still had all of our tips and tricks fresh in our heads.

With a frisky pup like Chewy, finding something that will hold her focus is key; for her, it was a meaty treat. We showed her mom and dad how to turn that treat into a food lure that will help them coax Chewy into sitting, lying down and rolling over. After a few minutes of practice, this smart little girl was showing us how eager she was to learn, and showing her parents how consistent training is key. In time, she'll be ready to move on to understanding hand signals and verbal commands.

To learn more about Teaching Commands and food lures, visit Zen Dog Training Online.

Housetraining puppies can so frustrating!

We understand that housetraining puppies can be frustrating! The good news is, if you are extremely diligent you can get through this very quickly — however, it will require work from you! Here are some Zen Dog Training tricks to help you out.

Prompting Behavior

When you bring your pup outside, make sure you clip a four to eight-foot drag line onto her leash. This way, if she's not listening to you during Name Game, you can gently "coax" her along with the leash. Don't forget to reward her with a ton of praise and a treat when she gets to you.*

Housetraining

• 100% supervision is a must. If a mistake happens, you want to be right there to catch it in the act. Continue to interrupt these mistakes, and then race her outside to finish.
  
• Create a schedule that you and your family can follow. This way, you'll all know when your puppy has peed, pooed, how much and how often. This will help you identify her "problem times" of the day. More importantly, you everyone in the family will know when your dog is "loaded" or "full."
  
• What do you do with a loaded or full dog? If you've taken your dog outside and they just won't go, you should take her back inside, then immediately put her in her crate with a chew bone or food toy. Wait. After she's been in the crate for about 15-20 minutes, carry her outside. Again, spend about 5-10 minutes trying to get her to do her business. If she still doesn’t go — put her back in the crate for another 15-20 minutes. Repeat this as often as you need to until she goes.
  
• When you're outside for a potty break, try not to play with your dog or act too excited — no "Come on, it's pee-pee time!" Instead, just act like it's time to get down to business. And, I can't stress this enough: AVOID EYE CONTACT. Look away from her in a way so she can't tell you're watching what she is doing. When she finally does pee or poop, reward her when she's finished with your attention — at last! — and some high-value treats.
  
• If your puppy insists on playing around and eating stuff outside, physically prompt her to a new location — remember that drag line! — and stoically wait her out.

I hope this helps!

To learn more about our housetraining tips, drag lines and Name Game, and to download our Housetraining eBook, please visit Zen Dog Training Online.

* Don't use the drag line to reel your puppy back to you. You want her to know that the experience of coming to you to is always fun!

Rascal the Labradoodle.

Meet Rascal!

How adorable is this twelve-week-old's face? I just want to give this hairy guy a hug — or I would if his mouthiness was under control because I don't want those little teeth anywhere near my hair, or my glasses, or my earrings, or my lip...

Rascal's at that age where a bit of biting is not only normal but also necessary; he's literally getting a taste of this crazy world. That said, Rascal's family wants to keep their house intact and as free of tooth-marks as possible.

As strange as it sounds, our advice was to first watch what Rascal was going after. Was he interested in gnawing the leg of a wooden coffee table? Was he headed towards the soft corner of the sofa?

After Rascal's family figured out what their pup was in the mood to chomp, we suggested refocusing his attention on a toy with the same "feeling." By getting Rascal to chew on a tough bully stick, for example, the coffee table was spared any more damage. A soft plushie to nibble saved the sofa.

By having a wide variety of toys, Rascal's family will have a range of tools at their disposal — not to mention undamaged furniture. And after he's gotten past the mouthy phase, I'll be first in line for that hug.

Check out the sidebar for our Zen Dog Shopping List of our favorite products, including bully sticks and other toys.

Indy the Jack Russell Terrier.

Meet Indy!

This little terrier looks innocent and shy, but he's really a dog-shaped bundle of unrestrained and excited energy. Indy's mom gave us a call because she knew that having a brand-new puppy in the apartment was going to be a lot of work.

It's never too early to start training a puppy, and eleven-week-old Indy was no exception. Gordon and I arrived in the North End armed with pages of Zen Dog notes and puppy-specific guides to help this young dog's family welcome their newest member.

One of the areas Indy's parents needed our advice on was nipping. Of course Indy doesn't mean to do anyone harm with his little puppy teeth, but a responsible dog owner needs to teach his or her companions that touching teeth to people is never okay. Since this Jack Russell is so young, playbiting is natural and necessary — Indy is literally getting a feel for the world — so we allow puppy playbiting until the sixteenth to eighteenth week.

To get some of his nippiness under control, we played a game called Taking Treats Gently. We wanted to teach Indy that, no matter what, all food or treats are given to him by people — not taken or stolen from them.. By playing this game with Indy anywhere from twenty to thirty times a day, our point will definitely be made. not only that, it's a great way for his parents to feed their happy little dog parts of his meals... all the while teaching him something new.

To learn more about Taking Treats Gently, visit Zen Dog Training Online.