The Top 5 Reasons Your TRAINED Dog Is Still Not Listening
We spend 2-3 weeks with most dogs. We spend 2-3 hours with you. It isn’t fair to think you will be confident after just a few hours with us. You need to go out into the real world and do stuff. Seeing is believing!
But we have found that there are 5 specific things that really get in the way of results carrying over to the owners themselves. Those things are:
- The owners not getting the proper training. So we meet a lot of folks that did e-collar training elsewhere and received ZERO instructions on what they should do at home. Or they received very inaccurate instructions.
- Going into off leash situations without their long line before they are ready to. You’re still new to this! You need to practice and build confidence.
- Not following the instructions back home, especially the structure piece and accountability. A lot of folks don’t think it’s important to limit their dog’s freedom or challenge them, especially in the house, because their dog is “really good”. But that autonomy and lack of experience with respecting you and your boundaries will follow you outside!!
- Being afraid to turn up the heat and hold the dog accountable. Without enforcing the rules, they simply aren’t rules. And most of the things we are worried about are just in our heads. Which brings us to the last one..
- The story people tell themselves. Oh boy…do people know how to write a story! I find a lot of folks could be writing scripts for heart wrenching lifetime movies. People worry. And honestly, your brain and body wouldn’t be working right if you didn’t. That is normal! But you have to know when your brain is trying to protect you from a threat that isn’t real. Like your German Shepherd barking at the trash can in the yard because you moved it earlier and it’s now 3 feet to the left of where it was. Haha.
Don’t tell yourself that your dog is scared, confused, nervous, panicked, afraid, or even stubborn for that matter. Let the story go. Even if your dog is confused or panicked, or stubborn, it’s you being calm, assertive, and consistent that will get them through it.
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Minute-by-Minute Breakdown
- 00:00 – Kati Peppe welcomes listeners and asks them to subscribe.
- 01:00 – Episode frames five reasons owners still struggle despite trained dogs.
- 02:00 – Trainers often fail to support owners after they go home, causing unraveling.
- 03:00 – Number five: owners weren’t trained how to manage and maintain behavior.
- 05:00 – Without owner skills like accountability, even initially good dogs will likely unravel.
- 06:00 – Number four: owners put dogs into situations they and their dogs aren’t ready for.
- 08:00 – Always use a safety net like a long line until you gain confidence.
- 10:00 – No trainer can recreate every real-world scenario in a short go-home lesson.
- 11:00 – Practice with a long line until you can confidently drop it.
- 12:00 – Don’t go into complex environments off-leash immediately after a two-week program.
- 14:00 – Keep the same level of structure at home as taught during training.
- 15:00 – Use kennel, place, down, and heel to keep focus and rehearse obedience.
- 18:00 – Require polite behavior at the door and during departures without extra commands.
- 19:00 – If dogs go ‘bananas’ at home, that arousal follows and destroys outside reliability.
- 20:00 – Number two: owners are afraid to ‘turn up the heat’ and enforce consequences.
- 22:00 – Confronting unwanted behavior may be uncomfortable but it reduces issues quickly.
- 28:00 – Owners invent stories about dogs being ‘confused’ to justify not enforcing rules.
- 36:00 – Consistent structure and accountability usually resolve confusion and anxiety over time.