Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Lift Your Leg - the art of training a dog

Ever feel like your energy is just... off? 🤔

Veronica shares a powerful moment during her Shadow Week experience. She realized that her energy wasn’t weak; it was muddled. Sometimes, we need a little push (or a drop kick, as she puts it!) to shake off the confusion and get back in the zone.

This journey is about rediscovering the joy of working with dogs, even when it feels like you're stumbling.

The best part? It’s all about the little victories. Each step forward is a reminder that we can always find our way back to what we love.

Enjoy listening to Veronica from She Walks Dogs in Okotokes, Alberta

#DogTraining #FindYourEnergy #NaughtyDogge #ShadowWeek #DogLovers #Victoria, BC

Monique Anstee from The Naughty Dogge in Victoria, BC, chats with Melody Shaw from Kuri K9 Trail and Train in Nanaimo, BC. They dive into the insights from their recent Bootcamp and Shadow Week experience, and here are some Key Takeaways

1. **Atmosphere Matters**: A positive, engaging environment fosters learning.

2. **Direct Communication**: Open dialogue enhances understanding and reduces defensiveness.

3. **Transformation is Possible**: Both reactive dogs and owners can experience significant growth in a supportive setting.

4. **Fun is Essential**: Rediscovering the joy in training leads to better relationships with our dogss.

5. **Innovative Techniques**: Embracing new methods can reinvigorate training practices.

I hope you enjoy the listen, and please share this podcast with your dog clubs and friends.

I want us to redefine categories of dog trainers from Force Free and Balanced to Leave the Essence in and Take the Essence Out. Hear our thoughts...

Creep is a fearful dog lacking trust, and life experiences. Retraining him has been a whole lot of fun. I've been videoing his progress and in this episode we discuss questions asked, what the videos miss, and other such things. Join Hayley and I as we iron things out.

This episode is dedicated to Pico, the Border Collie. It's all the things you need to be aware of training a clever and sensitive dog. This podcast applies to all herding breeds, and sensitive dogs, and weirdos, including reactive dogs.

Happy Training Folks.

We discuss the trend of trainers being uncommitted to their clients - the easier and friendlier road that fails the client. We also get into the politics of today, and other topics.

It's not about engagement games, food rewards, toys or corrections. Training dogs is about relationships, and what makes us fresh, alive and relevant to our dogs. We discuss Monique's last seminar in Abbotsford and TNT Kennels, hosted by Janice Gunn. It was such a fun weekend, with a consistent thread seen in many of the dogs there.

While this podcast is interviewing Alison who just succeeded in the ring with her Tibetan Spaniel Vinnie, it is about finding out how she learned to get out of her own way to have this success. This podcast applies to all with reactive dogs who are struggling with the same.

This turned out to be a deep discussion about the process of growth.

We talked about Mika with a C, which led to inhouse fighting, dog communication, balanced training and an over reliance on tools, the value of relationship, and so much more.

Kathy Keats shows why she is a 2 x world champion in this conversation. Her kindness and wisdom shine through this 90 minute conversation on everything dog. We discuss all of the key topics in raising a nice puppy to live with, to getting a top competitive dog.

If you do not already listen to Kathy's postcast, you must. It is brilliant. She can be found at https://www.kathykeats.com or where ever you listen to podcasts.

What you need to know when you decide to add a new dog or puppy to your house. We discuss breeders, rescues, and ways to acquire a good dog that you can afford. We discuss genetic testing, and how to find out what tests need to be done for your breed. Please share with your friends.

How do you train dogs? The same as I fix my friends.

Here is an interview with my friend. She has had a crappy year with the universe repeatedly beating her down. After a particularly bad day, where her palid skin hung off her face, I asked her if I could give her a nutritional intervention. She agreed and this pretty much into a human version of a board and train.

Here she speaks of her experience and her transformation. How her adventures and pushing through fear removed her anxieties, got her thinking clearer, and brought her back to life.

Derek was so fun and easy to talk to, that we did it again. No topic, except for dogs. We discuss raising young dogs, puppies, feel and timing, reactivity, basic obedience, intuition, sheep, competition, getting your mental game on, etc

Hope you enjoy. Please share with your friends, and like us on spotify, or whoever hosts your podcasts.

I get to talk with the charming and engaging Derek about Sheep Dogging,. This interview has lessons for every competitor regardless of sport, and maybe even all dog owners. He discusses keeping his mind sound for competing, how to deal with and overcome adversity, and shares his brilliance. I hope you enjoy listening to Derek as much as I did talking to him.

Heidi Reeder - commit to win

https://www.audible.ca/pd/B0722PCTRT?source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=pdp

Napoleon Hill - Outwitting the Devil

https://www.audible.ca/pd/B071VD22JH?source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=player_overflow

With Winning in Mind - Lanny Bassham

https://www.audible.ca/pd/B09JZVQ4QG?source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=pdp

You can reach Derek at Derekjohnfisher@gmail.com

Hayley Hais from The Chewed Slipper in Nanaimo interviewed me on my business, dogs, training, and life. The time went very fast - thankyou Hayley

We just completed BootCamp which is 4 days of retraining reactive dogs. Maria, from Two Peaks Pet Services joined me to discuss what she saw and learned.

I did my second shadow program, and asked two of the ladies to share their experience.

We discuss the dogs I am training this week, and what makes one so incredibly trainable, and the other, well, not?

Is it being spoilt, wrecked by positive reinforcement training not done quite right, the lack of following, or is she abnormal? And what made the other so easy to train?

Find out as we start to work it out.

If you only ever use the same tools on every dog, you are not balanced. We talk through three dogs, and how they were trained, all with no corrections because that wasn't what they needed.

Jill and I are both considering adding a puppy to our families. This is our thought processes, what we are looking for in a puppy, the health testing we need to see done etc. Enjoy!

If you like our podcast please give us a five star rating to help us get found by other listeners. Thankyou

A reactive dog discussion.

We had a fun repeat conversation on presence - something that every reactive dog owner needs to master. Please share it and follow us

Forgive our laughter - we do discuss latchkey dogs and the benefits of staying home, and the changes we have seen in dogs now that this happens so much less.

I interview the ladies from The Calm Dog Studio in Victoria, BC about their business. We discuss what they’ve done right, what they’ve done wrong, and they give wisdom to any young upstart groomers. I hope these conversations will help entrepreneurs with running their own businesses.

Sometimes to free a dog up, or to make them be the best that they can be, we need to allow some badness. Again we talk about the video Marcelle the Shell. If you haven’t yet watched it, you should.

This is such an important topic that inevitably novices get wrong. Jill and I discuss it in detail, including the fall out if you go too soon. Enjoy. As always, if you like us please follow us and give us a review

How do other businesses come up with their unique ideas and create successful businesses? This week I talk to Hayley Hais, find out what she does, and how she pulled it off, I hope young entrepreneurs find her story inspiring.

1. Coping When Things Go Wrong - on social media we all hear about everyone’s successes. But what do they do when they fall down and keep screwing up? We’ve all been there - and here is a frank discussion on how to survive when you find yourself there.

Jill and I disagreed last week about the benefits of following, so this week, I won the argument. Sorry Jill, that was obnoxious of me.

However, it did create a really strong discussion on the benefits of following to build your relationship. Enjoy. Please like and share as far and wide as is possible.

Thanks to Maryna Ozuna for her brilliant questions - we answer the important and difficult topic she gave us. I feel like this is a decent first attempt - of how do we pass the subtle knowledge that we know to the younger generation?

On my FB page will be the video promised, and the photo of Pippa squashing the poodle, by poodle's request.

We discuss the last Building Bravery Seminar for my Shadow Program, and the secrets to success, and some of the difficulties teaching this group.

We got to interview Telah about our shadow program.

This is Telah’s amazing facility that is for sale in Illinois. https://www.facebook.com/share/18VaNbDcEb/?mibextid=WC7FNe

If you want it bad enough, you will find a way. If you don't, you will make an excuse. This is my mantra for life, and we discuss our challenges in this podcast. We do get off topic and discuss an awful new learning about what some trainers are doing with Place.

In this episode we discuss the fantastic Michaela Bouzkova, from Ontario Canada. https://www.instagram.com/expat_obedience/

Sadly, our recording was cut off at half an hour, and time in our week ran out and we never got a chance to fix it. Sorry folks

we come up with suggestions to make yourself funner, which will increase your dogs attention to you, and aide all of your training goals.

Great questions. Thank you everyone. I did change our resource guarding answer after the fact because resource guarding has the potential to be so dangerous.

Often people retrain their reactive dogs and do a super job, but when their dog next reacts, this knocks all their confidence away. This regression is harder to swallow once we've had the taste of success. This episode is to help you regain your confidence, and get your easy dog back.

We discuss Garbage bags, and ways to build your dogs resiliency.

We all want dogs to enjoy and enrich our lives, yet so many just suck all joy from them. This podcast will help understand the differences in our lifestyles, and how to create a dog you enjoy living with, that can also make you laugh.

For Marcelle the Shell you must watch until the very end.

https://youtu.be/VF9-sEbqDvU?si=fiKnMbjlDkG783zw

DOG TYPES; the differences in how to train them.

Jill and I are finally on to something great, and I thank those who have given us honest, raw input to get us on task. This week we have an uncensored discussion trying to decide the difference of how we train a sensory dog compared to one lacking confidence. We do get there, with a really simple answer, but we are talking about something that has never been defined before. We do define it and the answer is really simple.

This weeks podcast applies to all the Mexican Rescues and other street dogs, many reactive dogs, and all the weirdos out there that are so misunderstood by recipe trainers. It explains why so many of these dogs get worse under programs with rigid structure. Please share this with all your friends that this might help.

Thank you to you all for sticking with us, while we learned how to do this. The growth curve was steep, but I’ve enjoyed every moment of it. Jill, not so much!

We tackle a very difficult topic of highly sensitive, reacting inappropriately because of an overloaded nervous system, or fearful? Plus we discuss my highly sensitive dog, that cannot poop in public. Enjoy!

This one is about what we should be training, and if we can brag, is our best one to date. Understand how to train the building blocks to having a nice person that you can live with.

Here are some visuals to help show certain pieces. https://www.facebook.com/share/v/18YGE9eeFJ/?mibextid=iCjFHx

Having feel and timing comes at a cost, and a lot of talented trainers burn out long before they should. We discuss survival tips for to keep the good trainers going.

We discuss ideas on how to deal with fireworks, and minimize and prevent damage to your dogs.

I got an email from the BC SPCA suggesting that muzzles are really a leash, and all dogs should be wearing one as a preventative. Jill and I discuss this, deeply, over wine.

It's been a full moon kind of week, where very little went right. While I could have pretended on short instagram videos, I didn't, and you get a full podcast on my weekly disasters. Everyone fails, sometimes. If you haven't, you haven't put yourself out there enough, or worked with enough dogs.

Our most challenging topic to date, which needs to be revisited. Feel. This might be the most misunderstood and underappreciate skill in training dogs today. We work through trying to define this abstract concept.

Matty joins Monique and Jill to tackle a discussion on corrections. We discuss different types of corrections for different types of dogs, give examples from our daily lives, and e-collars.

E-Collar Conditioning by Leanne Tucker

Recall Collar Conditioning 101

Turn the collar on and have both contact points touching your arm.  Feel the various levels of stimulation. It is important to know for yourself what each level feels like.  Any tool can be abuse. Used correctly,  the ecollar is a wonderful and life saving tool!   

Let’s get started!!

You may find you have to up the intensity of the stimulation if the distraction is quite exciting… ie. Baseball being thrown, squirrel etc.  each dog is different and you will have to figure out what level is required.  For example I varied between a low 3 and a medium 3 for my training.  

Use caution while around other dogs.  If you are going to call your dog do it at a respectful distance.  Do not stimulate your dog while it is saying hello to another dog. 

 Use common sense J

At this point you should have a dog with a 100% reliable recall…. It’s a wonderful feeling J

1. Have your dog wear the ecollar for a couple of weeks.  Put it on for walks and wear it a little bit around the house. It is not turned on, the dog simply needs to wear it to get used to the feel of it and so they don’t think of it as something bad. It goes on for walkies… this is a good thing!  It must fit snuggly.  Two fingers max in the collar, the prongs must have a good contact.  It is not to move around as this will cause differing stimulation results and is not fair to the dog. The contact points should stay in one spot so they don’t rub back and forth causing an abrasion.

2. Have the dog wearing the collar in the house turned on.  Do not have any distractions around and just go about your daily business.  Set the control to a starting low level.  I usually start at say a 10 with Dogtra or a low/medium 2 with a tritronics.  I use the continuous setting and just do a 1-2 second stimulation.  The response you are looking for is “hey, what was that”…… start low and work your way up until you get that response.  You DO NOT want any vocalization.  You are simply finding out where your dog feels the stimulation.  This will be different for every dog.  My dogs have all gotten a desired response with a tri-tronics low 3 – medium 3  (20 on my old dogtra) I tend not to use a High  on my tritronics collar… I get vocalization on the high so I just use low and medium settings.

3. Now you know what your baseline level is we are ready to get started.   Off to a distraction free area/greenspace/park you go with a long line and cookies!   The dog must already know what “come” means.  The collar is NOT for teaching the recall it is for reinforcing it.

4. Allow dog to wander and check out the environment as you walk him/her on the long line(not a flexi as you will let the dog drag the long line).  You can do a “free” recall (no stimulation) or two with a nice treat for coming to you.  The next step as the dog is wandering around is to say “fido come” and push the continuous stimulation button at the SAME time.  The second the dog turns toward you the stimulation stops. Gently use the long line to make sure they come in to you initially if needed.  The dog is learning how to turn the stimulation off.  It turns off by coming towards the handler. Treats are given for the recall.  The dog should not be vocalizing or be getting upset.   Some dogs may pause and wonder what the heck is that…. That is why the long line is on.  The dog can never be wrong. Bring it toward you with the long line and then the stimulation stops.  Since  your dog already knows come this should not be much of a problem.

5. Repeat several times with some “free” ones in between (“fido come” without stimulation, give the dog a chance to respond in a speedy fashion).  Lots of praise and treats for a job well done.

6. It is not uncommon for the dog to use its brain and want to stay close to you… this is perfectly normal.   Something weird happens when I’m a certain distance away from my owner.  They will figure it out quickly though. Continue walking around until they start to investigate the environment again.

7. Stay on the long line in a distraction free environment for 2-3 sessions.“fido come” plus stimulation,   Stimulation stops when dog turns toward you and comes in.   If the dog starts to come toward you (the stim has stopped) and then decides to abort and go sniff grass, repeat “fido come” with simulation.  

8. Next have some distractions present while still on the long line at a reasonable distance.  Ie. Kids playing/ people walking/other dogs at a safe distance on a leash.  Do not use the collar on your dog if another dog is approaching or while visiting another dog.  Your dog is still in the learning phase and you don’t want the dog to associate the stimulation with the approach of another dog, in addition you don’t want your dog to run toward you, away from another dog and perhaps bring on an attack.                                                 Do 2-3 sessions with distractions

9. If your dog is doing well (which it should be) remove the long line.  Go back to a distraction free environment. Again,  “fido come” with stimulation, stim stops when dog turns toward you.  Mix this up with “free” recalls too.  

10. Next repeat in a distraction area.  There should be total understanding at this point.

Jill Brown and Monique Anstee discuss if disobedience is always bad. Sometimes dogs have reasons, and are we introspective enough to know if their reasons are valid, or not?

Here we go through examples of our dogs showing opinions, and discuss whether we allow it in all dogs, or only ones that have earned that right.

It's question time, and we tackle what you threw at us, some of which sparked some very good conversation. How do you train retrain an e-collar, correct your dog, deal with in -house guarding from guests or your in-house dogs etc.

Thank you to all that were brave enough to ask us questions, and I hope these answers suffice!