Visit us at shapedbydog.com
Answering your top questions on reactivity, dog behavior, agility, frustration, sports dogs, neutering and more! You'll hear tips on training multiple dogs, strategies for improving focus, impulse control, and drive, and how to handle things like lunging, growling, nipping and jumping up. If you have any other questions I didn’t cover, jump over to YouTube and let me know in the comments. Your questions are always so insightful!
In this episode, I’m answering your great questions:
• Do dogs benefit from being in a multi-dog household or are they happy with human company? • I'm struggling with drive to show my dog that agility is fun. • I suspect my dog is having early takeoff at agility. Can I still do the sport? Is it selfish to want to continue? • Over arousal in the agility ring. • How often a sport dog should see specialists and which ones? • Neutering. When or when do I not neuter? Also, how to handle high sexual arousal for intact dogs. • I feel like crap when I lose my patience. • How do I train more than one dog at a time? • Reactivity, reactive dogs. Reactivity, if you don't have the ability to keep a dog away from all the triggers. • I need help practicing greeting people on leash when my dog shows leash reactivity, lunging, growling, jumping. • How do I set my dog up for even more success if he gets easily frustrated? • How do I use play to reinforce a cue? Can play replace food as a reinforcer? • Herding, nipping when overexcited and herding breeds.
Resources:
1. DogsThat YouTube Channel Playlists - https://www.youtube.com/c/DogsThat/playlists 2. Podcast Episode 282: How To Walk Multiple Dogs: Step-by-Step Guide To Stress-Free Walks - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/282/ 3. YouTube Livestream: Dog Agility: Create FUN & SUCCESS with These FOUR Focuses - https://www.youtube.com/live/uv3dxW-7ZHU 4. YouTube Video: Transforming Dog Behavior - The Story Of This! So Far: Dog Training, Agility, Nutrition And Beyond - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UlHPe2R3uE 5. Dr. Laurie Coger Healthy Dog Workshop - https://healthydogworkshop.com/about/ 6. Healthy Dog Expo - https://www.healthydogexpo.com/ 7. Kim Collins: Pawsitive Steps Canine Sports Centre - https://www.pawsitivesteps.ca/instructors.html 8. 2024 APDT Annual Conference - https://www.apdtconference.com/ 9. Podcast Episode 262: Shaping Tips For High Drive, Frantic, Hyper Dogs To Stop Dog Training Frustration - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/262/ 10. Canapp Sports Medicine - https://www.canappsportsmed.com/ 11. Podcast Episode 230: Finding Joy Amidst Frustration And Shame In Dog Training – DeCaff’s Story Part 2 - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/230/ 12. Podcast Episode 181: Training Multiple Dogs To Wait Turns And Relax - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/181/ 13. YouTube Playlist: Reactive or Aggressive Dogs: Key Insights with Susan Garrett - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLphRRSxcMHy0Tbd6ZybIXgJk3mtpBLLk7&si=_-WvD5zovQjWtecA 14. YouTube Playlist: Target Training for Dogs with Susan Garrett - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLphRRSxcMHy3ylCyQ2bJQSCwo_ERiVHj3&si=ptH9TKBCjz6x4MqW 15. YouTube Playlist: Dog Training Games with Susan Garrett - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLphRRSxcMHy2TzttCtZVFwzwMGayAsaYe&si=97o0_XtEK0wBXcXb 16. YouTube Playlist: Help for Over-Aroused, Over Excited, Hyper, Frantic, High Drive or Out of Control Dogs with Susan Garrett - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLphRRSxcMHy3tN5Z336OeZkYoF2dJ7gNY&si=nyxLfoYNt90QkcLx 17. Book: Frustration Theory- An Analysis of Dispositional Learning and Memory - https://www.amazon.com/Frustration-Theory-Analysis-Dispositional-Behavioural/dp/0521247845 18. Podcast Episode 281: How Vito’s Thinking Games Will Transform Your Dog Training - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/281/ 19. Podcast Episode 215: What Your Destructive, Lunging, Nipping Or Hyper Dog Or Puppy Is Trying To Teach You - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/215/ 20. Watch this Episode of Shaped by Dog on YouTube - https://youtu.be/sWuYFA32IkM
Last week I posted and asked me anything on social media and I got a ton of questions from you. Actually on Wednesday's podcast episode was a response to one of those great questions. I have a multitude of other questions and I'm going to answer as many as I can in the next 20 minutes so let's go. Hi I'm Susan Garrett welcome to Shaped by Dog and I've got questions about agility, about behavior, about reactivity. I'm going to jump into them all and first of all I just want to give a shout out to the great podcast team at DogZat because they have put together a resource for me so I can actually refer you to a podcast episode or a playlist that's going to help you answer some of these questions into great detail but let's go first question is under the category of general behavior. Do dogs benefit from being in a multi-dog household or are they happy with human company and I guess the answer to that question is yes dogs are super super adaptable and they adapt to whatever their life is. Now there are some dogs that definitely do best in a home by themselves especially some rescue dogs who don't have confidence around other dogs so if you're thinking oh I should get my dog a friend because they might be lonely it depends on how much time there is somebody in the house that may not be the case honestly dogs bond great to humans I think all dogs like to have a friend but that friend doesn't have to necessarily be living with them and as I said off the top some dogs prefer to be the only dog in the house next question is about agility I'm struggling with drive to show my dog that agility is fun so I did a live and I'm going to put a link in the show notes and it was all about creating fun and success for your agility dog and I want you before you go too deep into the dog training is I always you know refer to my dog this I'll put a link to her story in the show notes as well there's so many things that could be affecting your dog's drive it could be a health issue for this it was a gut biome issue so it started with me completely revamping her meal plan and I was feeding raw if you're feeding kibble I would definitely go to feeding fresh foods maybe just start by adding fresh food to the kibble changing the kibble or if you can go to even a commercial blend raw dog food would be ideal but you can't dog train a problem that isn't a dog training problem so a lot of times drive is more of a gut biome problem it that can be related to nutrition it can be related to a lack of digestive enzymes you might need some probiotics I like to refer people to my friend dr lori cadre over at healthy dog expo she's a great resource to help you dig into is it something that you just can't see next question I suspect my dog is having early takeoff and agility can I still do the sport is itself as to want to continue I think that it is a question of how severe is it now the first thing I would do is drop the dog in height I'm going to refer you to my friend Kim Collins up in BC Canada she is a great reference for dog jumping in general and I would just drop her a line and ask her if you can send her a video and ask for her opinion should you continue to do agility it could be dangerous for your dog but not always some dogs jumping actually can improve with jump program like kims some dogs jumping it once you lower the jumps it actually takes away a lot of the problems so there's a lot of things you can do however if it's our you know horrific problem where the dog's landing on top of the jumps and you're jumping at a high height they could be dangerous so you really need to have somebody look at that video and give you their expert opinion okay over arousal in the agility ring the topic not necessarily in the agility ring but I'm preparing my talk for APDT which is going to happen next week and it's all about shaping high-drive dogs I've talked a lot about high-drive dogs here on the podcast but with respect to agility in particular I really think that a lot of times that an overalls dog in agility can be a function of lack of clarity or over frustration so I'm going to refer you to episodes on shaped by dog here there's a couple that I spoke specifically about that problem how often a sport dog should be specialists and which ones oh that's a great question specialists here are the specialists my dogs see routinely they see a massage specialist somebody who does massage on them every single week and I like to rotate between two or three different specialists routinely Chelsea who works here does most of the massaging on the dogs I get one other set of hands once a month and then somebody else who just to give different opinions everybody has a different modality of how they do think so massage I like osteopath or chiropractic some people in the Europe I think they call it physiotherapy but it's all about making sure the dog is in alignment and that they are functional in their movements and so myself I've mentioned this several time I love getting my dogs evaluated on a regular basis starting when they're a year old with Debbie and Sherman Knapp probably the world's authority on orthopedics and I just like to get a baseline of what are their range of motion and their joints and their gate what that looks like and then if there's ever a question I have something to go back to with a baseline so how often it really depends on how close or how accessible an expert is and with respect to body work I think something routinely when we're doing anything that's physically active for the dog okay neutering when or when do I not neuter also how to handle high sexual arousal for intact dogs okay neutering there's just so many questions obviously North America neutering is the go-to thing I personally would never neuter a dog before two to three years of age unless there is a real need for it so if it's a pet dog family and the dog is a real handful with respect to seeking out the affections of other female dogs then and it's too much to handle then yeah there's a behavioral reason for that neutering there's just so many papers now that show that spanger neutering dogs early actually leads to a larger number of known cancers so more recent literature is available on that used to be people said that you know memory tumors in females or pyometra is you know such a terrible thing we all everybody should stay or neuter their dogs before their year old but you know there's countries like Norway that spaying or neutering is illegal unless it's a life or death situation for the dogs so really the answer is it depends so I had swaggered neutered when he was nine years old because he had a heart problem and I didn't want him to become too over aroused because I have females that would come into heat routinely here in the house so that was the reason I had him neutered so I would do some digging do some research and make an educated decision so everybody's got an opinion but do what's best for you and your dog in your situation and with respect to sexual arousal I mean I guess what are you calling sexual arousal because sometimes people see their dog humping and they think that sexual arousal and it's really just excitement has nothing to do with their sexual hormones at all so yeah just do some digging okay this was more of a statement than a question and it was I feel like crap when I lose my patients and I think if everybody is in tune with their emotions and really grounded I think everybody would feel like crap when they lose their patients whether it be with their dog their family members or co-workers somebody driving in traffic or themselves so you know you need to give yourself grace know that we're just human we're doing the best we can and you know work at how can I do better and I think for me it always comes down to asking a better question the only reason that I might lose my patients is when my expectations of whoever my dog my co-workers whoever myself is unwarranted so ask yourself a better question if what I think is true it wasn't true what could be true I love that question if that wasn't true what else might be true I'm going to give you a reference to podcast episode number 230 finding joy admits frustration where I talk about how I would feel bad about myself and some of the training decisions that I made earlier in my career okay another question about training more than one dog in a household I obviously just did a podcast episode on that one and so the question is how do I train more than one dog at a time and I will refer you to podcast episode number 181 the one I did this week was on walking a dog but 181 was about the routine I always did for the last 30 years now it's changed in you know more recently because I've got more sophisticated I used to involve my couch in all of my training my you know living in furniture I now use like raised dog beds or just dog beds because I have plenty of dog beds around my house so teaching dogs to relax and wait their turn is a big part of being able to live calmly in a multi-dog household okay lots of questions that just or that comments I just came in reactivity reactive dogs reactivity if you don't have the ability to keep a dog away from all the triggers we have a playlist over on youtube on reactive dogs and honestly it really depends on what level of reactivity that you are seeing and you very well might need a veterinary behavior to help you but certainly like one one of the questions that came in that said practice I need help practicing greeting people on leash when my dog shows leash reactivity lunge and growling jumping well that dog shouldn't be asked or expected to greet people on leash they're telling you with their behavior that's feedback that I don't feel comfortable in this environment so you need to I'm assuming it's a puppy if it isn't a puppy you probably are going to need a professional to help you with this but you need to listen to your dog and not have them be that close to people I know I've mentioned on this podcast when I was sharing this the story as a 12 to 14 month old puppy she was terrified of people she was born during covid and you know we couldn't get out very much and so she was terrified of children holy smokes and men were the two biggies dogs okay she had three biggies children men and dogs and now this is my anchor dog meaning I take her along when I want a puppy to see how to be calm and centered and grounded amongst people dogs children man it doesn't matter this he is just like the model and so it can be done as long as you accept the feedback that your dog is giving you and don't expect like so many people say well give this person some cookies and let your dog take cookies from their hand no no I would get far enough away that my dog could comfortably play games with me play a retrieve game play a tug game do some hand targeting there's a lot of games on my youtube channel that you play at a distance so the dogs learn that whatever they're afraid of now is just white noise you stay far enough away that the dog does not care and then the next time out you can go a little closer and then a little further away it's like you are giving the dog little doses of what they're afraid of in an environment that they're never going to show fear they're never going to go what what what what they're just going to be calm and focused with you and eventually they're going to be oh well this actually is a good place and I did that with thisy at the baseball diamonds I would go there almost every other day during the summer when she was coming up on her second birthday and I guess before that the summer before that when she had just turned one I went there a little bit but I have to stay a big periphery way back then so the bottom line is trust your dog take that feedback and adjust your training based on your dog's confidence and joy we do not want the dog to show fear reactions or growling or lunging at anybody or anything therefore get them out of that environment and work on the periphery super super important and don't be afraid to get the help of a professional to help you on this okay how do I set my dog up for even more success if he gets easily frustrated so i'll give you a link to a episode on over a rouse or frantic or frustrated out of control dogs but it might not be that your dog might be getting frustrated and just give up you know i've talked about the book frustration theory where dogs have four different responses to frustration that they're born with but we can change those so some dogs their response to frustration is just i don't get this i don't get it and i give up what we want to do with those dogs is not say oh why are you giving up so early we want to turn it on ourselves how can i set the environment so that i'm going to fill you with confidence and then give you a small challenge so if you go to veto game chip by dog episode number two hundred and 81 in that episode it's a simple game the veto game where i show you how you can get the dog problem solving so for the dogs that get frustrated we need to be better at manipulating the environment to help our dogs see solutions in their training not have them be overwhelmed and then when we want them to work out some problem solving set up a simple scenario much like the veto game where they are problem solving all on their own that's giving them the confidence to work through even tougher problems in the future how do i use play to reinforce a cue can play replace food as a reinforcer okay this is a double answer and the first answer is a toy or a game is a reinforcer so if the dog does the behavior so ask for something you know the dog is going to respond to a sit a down whatever a trick and when they do it say your cue to tug so i say strike is my dog's cue to grab that toy so you can use that and that's what i would do in environments like when you're away from home and you want the highest rated reinforcement that your dog wants in those environments so that we can build up focus for you and confidence in the dog however when you are at home this is what i would encourage you to do is ask the dog for a simple behavior you know that they will want give them a high value food reward wait until they've eaten it and then from behind your back pull out their favorite toy and say get that thing do that like several times a day as a surprise and what's going to happen is the value for the toy gets put in to the food and very quickly you can lower the value of the food and have several different types of food rewards and maybe you can do two behaviors before you pull out the high valued toy that's how we get a transfer of value from the toy to the food but you're going to start with that toy being hidden so the dog takes the food and swallows it before you pull out the toy now if you know the dog's going to be so so on the food you might ask them to sit and get really excited say good boy and then you run and tell them get it get it get it and have them chase around your body as you then toss the food so that you're adding more excitement to the process of eating the food you might have to do that the first few times eventually that excitement the game of chase that you've put into the food helps to bump up the value of the food for the dog because ultimately we want the flexibility of being able to train our dogs with anything including just praise but that comes by using a great transfer of value process okay and our final question hurting nipping when over excited and hurting breeds so you don't mention the age of the puppy or dog i'm going to right off the bat say refer you to shaped by dog episode number 215 where we talk about working with nipping dogs honestly nipping dogs need to be again take that as feedback when is the dog nipping are they on leash probably they're off leash probably they've been allowed to rehearse certain behaviors so you need to say how can i create a more appropriate environment for a dog at this stage so maybe they're tired over tired puppies tend to nip a lot more or you've got children and they're stimulated by the children running and that is going to be something that you're going to need to manage while you build a more appropriate response for that dog in the stimulation of something moving because hurting dogs are bred to herd and for many of them part of the herding process involves using their mouth and so it's innately who they are and so creating an inappropriate response through the differential reinforcement of something that is going to be impossible for them to do at the same time it could be when the kids are around you hold a toy in your mouth so it's impossible to nip when you've got that toy it could be you know they have places hop it up in their bed that they can go but really and truly it involves engaging that dog in regular training sessions like our recolored games or our homeschool the dog games that give them structure and focus and how to be appropriate because we want them to fit into our world but they have different drives than we do and so as humans we need to respect the innate drives of each breed and not focus on how do I stop this but how can I help that dog fit better into our world and that's going to involve some planning and some work on your part unless you're in one of our programs so it's all about taking the feedback from the dog and saying how can I guide that dog's current drive away from the nipping jumping up biting whatever it is that that dog is doing and towards focus for work or holding a toy when something is stimulating you an alternate behavior until they're old enough or at a stage in their life when they can learn to watch kids run get excited and not feel the need to chase and bite all right I hope all of this helps I hope it all makes sense please jump over to my youtube channel there's just so much great training you'll find in the playlist if you go to youtube click on a playlist there's so many playlists whether you will have a puppy a reactive dog a dog that you need more drive a dog who has too much drive you know there is a playlist there that will give you hours of help and at the end of all of that you still feel you need more personal help from us contact us at wag@dogsat.com and we can guide you to a program of ours that may help you help your dog be the absolute best family pet you could have ever dreamt of I'll see you next time right here on Shaped by Dog.
