by Gabriel Riesco | May 3, 2023 | Dog Training, Fun Doggy Wisdom, Puppy Training
5 ESSENTIAL “Must Knows” For Training Puppies
These 5 “Must knows” to train your puppy can dramatically impact the long term and short term behavior of your dog. If you get these things wrong with your puppy, you are going to waste a LOT of time and money trying to fix them later:
1. Never chase your puppy. If you chase your puppy, she will pretty soon learn that running away from you gets rewarded with her favorite game: game of chase. Game of chase is far way more reinforcing than treats. If you keep running after your puppy even if it is because they’re getting in trouble you’re reinforcing the behavior of staying away from you.
2. Keep Training Sessions Short: Puppies have short attention spans, so it’s important to keep training sessions short and sweet. Aim for 10-12 minute sessions or less, several times a day.
3. Socialize your puppy with other puppies and with well behaved adult dogs. With other puppies they will learn how to play. With adult dogs they will learn boundaries and social cues.
4. Move away from your puppy so she chases you. Go to the other side of your room and get excited. If she comes reinforce with play or with food. Keep moving away from her so she learns to check in with you and stay with you.
5. Use body language and techniques to calm your puppy down to teach boundaries. Puppies who have no boundaries will struggle with socialization with both humans and dogs. Remember that a highly trained does not mean a well behaved. To learn more check this blog: Difference between behavior and Obedience
© Gabriel Riesco, Pawmos Dog Training LLC | All Rights Reserved May 2023
by Gabriel Riesco | May 2, 2023 | Dog Training, Puppy Training
Training your puppy to sleep at night can be a challenging task, but it is an important part of the process of raising a well-behaved and happy dog. While you’re potty training your puppy I would highly recommend to use crate at night. This will avoid accidents from happening and will teach your puppy that the crate is a safe place where he or she can rest and relax. Here are some tips to help you get started:
- Establish a consistent bedtime routine: It’s important to establish a consistent bedtime routine for your puppy, which should include calm activities to wind down and having a potty break. This will help your puppy understand that it is time get ready for bed.
2. Do not rile your puppy up and get her excited close to bed time thinking your going to tire her out. This will make your puppy restless and more prone to seek for your attention at bed time. Keep the bedtime routine nice and calm.
3. Ignore nightime barking or whining: It is natural for puppies to whine or bark a little bit, especially if they are not used to being alone. However, it is important to ignore this behavior and not give in to your puppy’s demands for attention.
4. Once your puppy is in the crate, never give eye contact, talk or engage . If you do so your puppy will think that is time to play or engage and will start barking out of frustration. Is not fair to engage with them if they can’t get out. Once your puppy is in the crate do not engage.
5. If your puppy is settled in the crate and relaxed, DO NOT give treats to reward behavior. This is a huge mistake and bad advice a I keep seeing all the time. Treats and food usually makes puppy excited. The last thing you want to do once your puppy is settled is to interrupt their calm state of mind. If you want to use treats put them before your puppy is in the crate. Make some crumbs and hide them at the end of them crate. The scent and the search will calm your puppy and it will still create a positive association with the crate.
Training your puppy to sleep at night takes a little bit of time and patience, but with consistent effort and a simple routine, your puppy will soon learn to sleep peacefully through the night.
© Gabriel Riesco, Pawmos Dog Training LLC | All Rights Reserved May 2023
by Gabriel Riesco | Mar 22, 2023 | Dog Training, For Dog Trainers, Mindfulness & Psychology with Dogs
Respect is commonly miss-understood with showing who is boss. It has nothing to do with this. Fear is not respect. You don´t ask, demand or gain respect. Respect is not something you necessarily achieve. Respect is something that you give and you get back in return. You can not force or convince someone to respect you. You have no direct control over this. It has to come from them. If you are respectful to people, people will be respectful to you. The same is with dogs. Understand that when dogs get out of control they are not mis respecting you. They are simply out of control and our job is to help them.
The better question is, how do I give respect to my dog?
The answer is simple: acknowledge and treat your dog as a dog.
Let me explain. If I treat you as a dog, you´ll agree with me that I´m miss-respecting you. Well, if you treat your dog as a human you’re mis-respecting your dog. Your dog is not a human, your dog is a dog. Dog’s are beautiful creatures and they deserve to be respected for who they are.
I could write an entire book about how to acknowledge dogs as dogs, but to keep things simple here are 6 skills for you to be aware of how to give respect and get respect back from your dog:
1- Instead of talking to your dog, listen to your dog. 95% of dog´s communication is through body language and energy. Meaning in silence. Yet 90% of my clients do not know how to communicate with their dogs in silence. Dog´s don’t understand English or Spanish or Chinese. They understand body language. Be curious and learn It!!
2- Understand your relationship with your dog. Who is the parent? Who is the guardian? If your dog doesn’t feel your are making the calls don’t expect him or her to listen to you. Humans and and animals don’t listen to people who stay in the sidelines. They listen to people who take responsabilties and to people that make decisions. Respect the relationship and accept your responsabilities. Being a parent or a guardian comes with teaching boundaries and educating your dog. It’s work! It can be a lot of fun, but you have to know where your place is. Being a parent or a guardian is a privilege and your choice, not your right or entitlement.
3- Be aware of your state of mind and work on self control. If you are not in control of yourself don’t expect your dog to listen to you in a willing or cooperative way. What I mean by this is to be in control of your body language and your state of mind. This is a skill that you might need to relearn.
4- Be aware of your your dog´s sate of mind. Meet your dog where she/he is at and work from there. You have to be sensitive and react accordingly to your dogs state of mind instead of trying to impose your dog training program. Dogs are not computers or machines that simply obey to commands.
5- Clarity. Teach your dog with clarity. Be clear with what your dog can do and with what your dog can’t do. Always do so for your dog’s best interest.
6- Be present. Dog´s can’t live in the past or in the future. They can only live in the present. So don’t allow your mind to take over and navigate around time. Be present!!
All these skills and tips are ways to give respect to your dog and a sure way to get respect back in return.
© Gabriel Riesco, Pawmos Dog Training LLC | All Rights Reserved March 2023
by Gabriel Riesco | Mar 16, 2023 | Dog Problems. Behavior Modification, Dog Training, Dog Training & Conditioning, For Dog Trainers, Mindfulness & Psychology with Dogs, Puppy Training
Should I ever say No to my dog?
There’s an advice very often given to never say No to your dog under the mantra : “Never tell your dog don’t do that, instead teach them what to do”
The problem with this is that your dog never has a clear understanding of what not to do. And that’s not fair.
Another problem is that in order to stop your dog from doing unwanted behaviors, you have to micromanage by constantly reinforcing alternative behaviors in a helicopter parenting style.
Let me give you an example: If I go to a bank and you teach me 5 different things to do in a bank, but you never tell me that I should not rob it. Well, you can probably keep teaching me 10 other alternate behaviors and skills, but I still don’t really know that I shouldn’t rob a bank. Why wouldn’t you tell me that in first place instead of trying to micromanage every move I do with alternative behaviors?
Teaching boundaries is the art of teaching your dog not to do things or doing things in a controlled manner out of independent thinking not out of micromanagement.
Can I teach boundaries without punishing or harsh corrections?
You can teach boundaries and say no to your dog in a kind way without hurting your dog or without getting mad at your dog, but the focus should be on providing clarity on the boundary not on the alternative behaviors.
Teaching boundaries does not mean punishing your dog for doing the wrong things. I don’t use or advocate for those methods. There are ways through cognitive learning and by using basic body language techniques through which you can communícate boundaries to your dog effectively and in a kind manner.
We need to have a clear understanding that boundaries are not part of learning methodologies based on Reinforcement. Boundaries are part of social behavior skills based on self control and a clear understanding of what is and what is not acceptable.
What are learnt boundaries?
A learnt boundary is you going to a bank and not robbing it; or you going to a store and not stealing; or you waiting in a line and not pushing everyone around to get in first.
You don’t get rewarded for not doing those things and you should not need to be offered an alternative behavior. You should have a clear understanding to not to do those things. You should also have the self control skills for not doing them.
Here’s an example with my dog: A boundary is when I put my food on my coffee table and I teach my dog not to eat it even if he is laying down right next to me.
My dog has a clear understanding of what not to do and he’s perfectly fine with it. He is not stressed because there is no confusion. Not only I’m very clear with boundaries, but I also taught my dog the self control skills needed to let things go.
A boundary is not telling my dog to go to his place and stay there because I reinforced that behavior one million times. That’s obedience training. These are two very different concepts. Obedience training is about teaching new behaviors not about teaching behavioral skills.
Why are boundaries so important?
The lack of behavioral training is a huge problem because there is no clarity, there is no self control skills and involves helicopter parenting. Helicopter parenting kills independent thinking and autonomy on your dog. It’s also exhausting and very time consuming on the humans.
Self control is very different than impulse control.
When you impose obedience training and helicopter parenting over behavior training with the mantra: “Never tell your dog don’t do that, instead teach them what to do” think what you are really doing.
You are basically going through a byzantine labyrinth of alternate behaviors in order to stop your dog from doing unwanted behaviors. This is based on impulse control not on self control. Impulse control is micromanaged . Self control is autonomous thinking.
Let’s be clear that when you condition your dog to do an alternative behavior with 1 million repetitions, you’re not giving him/her a “choice”, which is the magic word used to convince people of these methods. There is no choice here. Is either you do what i want or I’m gonna repeat this 1 million times and manipulate the environment until you do so. Then I’m going to convince my self that it was your choice.
It’s perfectly fine to use this method if your purpose is to teach your dog new skills, tricks or behaviors. I use it all the time and positive reinforcement is the best way to go. The focus here is on learning and reinforcing new behaviors.
But this method and this mantra is a very inefficient way to teach boundaries. This is because your dog never learns what he or she is not supposed to do. Boundaries and rules are very necessary and needed information in order to adapt to any environment. They are also the best way to have independent thinking and autonomy without having to be micromanaged.
© Gabriel Riesco, Pawmos Dog Training LLC | All Rights Reserved March 2023
by Gabriel Riesco | Mar 9, 2023 | Dog Body Language, Dog Problems. Behavior Modification, Mindfulness & Psychology with Dogs
Dogs are our loyal companions, and getting their trust is essential for developing a strong and healthy bond with them. Building trust with your dog is a process that requires kindness, clarity, confidence and competence.
Love is all you need?
There is a misconception that you’ll get trust from your dog by just being kind, loving and compassionate. This is not true. Animals, including humans, do not think like that.
Being kind, loving and compassionate is where you should come from. At least that’s my philosophy. Any animal lover comes from kindness and from compassion. But that’s not entirely what you trust, that’s just the starting point. Although it’s a must, it doesn’t stop there and it’s not enough.
When you trust someone is because he or she knows what they are doing, not just because they are kind or compassionate. Dogs and animals in general are the same way.
Let me give you an example. If you are in an airplane would you trust a kind and compassionate pilot that doesn’t know how to drive? Of course not. Would you trust a pilot that is insecure, incompetent or not qualified to drive? You wouldn’t, even if he or she was a very nice person.
When you really think about it what you trust is competence and confidence on top of kindness. The reason why I emphasize this is because most dog problems that I deal with don’t come from the lack of compassion or kindness. The problem is usually the lack of clarity, confidence and knowledge. Without clarity, confidence and knowledge, competence becomes an impossible task.
What’s the missing piece?
If you are a kind and a compassionate person the main way to gain trust with your pup is with guidance and leadership. By leadership I don’t mean being the Alpha or using dominance. I mean taking the responsability to guide and being accountable for it. Like parents do. YOU are responsible of your dog’s behavior and education. The difference between leadership and dominance is that the first one comes from acceptance and the latter one comes from imposition, force or fear.
Your dog won’t trust you if you don’t give guidance and lead with kindness, clarity, confidence and competence. The same way you wouldn’t trust someone that doesn’t have those virtues.
Here are some game changers to build trust with your dog:
1. Communicate Effectively:
Dogs communicate through body language, so it’s essential to learn to read your dog’s body language and respond appropriately with your own body language. This will help you to understand your dog’s needs and feelings better, and it will help your dog understand you better. This will make your dog feel understood and valued and will take your trust to higher level.
2. Be Patient:
Building trust with your dog sometimes can take time. Be patient with your dog and allow them to adjust to their new environment at their own pace.
3. Develop good timing skills.
Good timing means to read the rhythm of your dog’s learning and adjusting process. Allowing your dog/s to learn and grow at their own pace doesn’t neccessarily mean slow. Finding the rhythm and the learning pace of your dog it’s an art form and can safe you a lot if time and frustrations. Is like syncing with your dog.
4. Respect their uniqueness:
Every dog is different and it’s essential to respect this. If your dog seems uncomfortable or scared in certain situations, don’t force them to do something they don’t want to do. Instead, work with your dog and help them overcome their fears at their own pace. Helping a dog overcoming fears takes trust to a whole different level.
5. Be Consistent:
Consistency is crucial when building trust with your dog. Guiding in a consistent way will make your dog feel safe, secure, and comfortable in their environment, and it will help them to trust you more.
6. Set up clear boundaries:
Dogs feel safe when they have a clear understanding of what’s permitted and what’s not. When you don’t know the rules you can’t play the game. You don’t need a lot of rules, but the rules need to be clear. When rules are not clear, dogs become anxious, restless and aggressive. Providing structure and clarity will make your dog really trust you.
In conclusion, building trust with your dog is a process that requires kindness, clarity, confidence and competence. Building a strong and healthy bond with your furry friend will last a lifetime.
© Gabriel Riesco, Pawmos Dog Training LLC | All Rights Reserved March 2023
