3 Simple Exercises You Need To Do With Your Dog

00:00 — Kati introduces the episode and asks listeners to subscribe.

Welcome to Off Leash and Unfiltered Trigger Warning. I'm Kati Peppe, delivering the Truth in Dog Training.

Hey everybody, this is your host, Kati Peppe. Before we jump in, I just wanted to take a quick second and remind you to hit the subscribe button because that helps us so, so, so much. We appreciate every subscribe and follow and we have so much valuable information we wanna share with you. So we don't want you to miss an episode. Without further ado, let's jump in. Hey guys, thanks for joining me today. It's a glorious day. It's snowing. Um, yeah, which, you know, we wouldn't expect anything less <laugh> here in the wonderful state of Maine.

It is as though spring is never going to start and I'm ready for it. Um, and it just seems, I don't know if it's a full moon, I haven't looked, but everything's just off. Like, not only is it snowing, people are being hostile, man, like, um, the psychopaths are just like coming out of the woodwork, you know, and you get one now and then.

But lately, it just seems like every interaction I have with anybody is just like whittled with hostility and just like curt remarks and just all kinds of nonsense. So like, I'm ready for this to just be over for things to get back to normal. It's been weird. Um, really weird. So, but you know, comes with the territory, comes with life, right? Life in general. Um, sometimes stuff's gonna happen. Um, but yeah, it might be material for another episode, <laugh> some other time. Today we're not gonna talk about any of that crap. We're gonna talk about three really simple exercises that you can do to have a huge impact, um, on your dog's state of mind, behavior and your relationship.

So these are easy, easy things. Um, a pretty two of them are easy, easy things. One of them is a little bit more advanced, so there might be some pre-training required, but two of the three you could literally just do today.

Um, and the third one might need a little bit of prep, depending on your dog. Some dogs will, some dogs won't. But, so let's dig into what these three things are. Number one, crate drills. So yeah, we talk about the crate all the time and how beneficial it is. Um, it's not just for bad dogs. It's not just for dogs that are destructive. It is great for state of mind teaching your dog coping skills, teaching calmness, teaching your dog how to shut off. Just all kinds of wonderful things that we want your dog to have and carry with them through life so that they can tolerate being inconvenience.

03:00 — Crate work teaches coping skills, calmness, and tolerance for separation or inconvenience.

They can tolerate being away from you. They know how to exist when they're not staying busy, when they're not able to follow every impulse. These are so, so important. Otherwise, your dog's uncomfortable, right? Because they don't know how to do any of that stuff.

And then when they do have to, it's bothersome, right? So this teaches them a skill, which is not how most people think of the crate. Um, but this episode isn't about what the crate does for you. It is here is an exercise you can do to get even more benefit out of your crate because here's the thing that maybe we don't talk about as much. We certainly show it in our social media. Sometimes we'll show these drills, but it's not just your dog being good in the crate, but how your dog goes in and out of the crate.

So when dogs first come in, this is one of the first exercises that we do with them. We do crate drills, teaching them how to go in and how to come out. So let's talk about what those drills look like and I will try to attach some links to some videos in the show notes so you guys can actually get a visual to go with this episode, uh, if that's helpful.

So crate drills. So we use the word kennel up, but you can use any word you want to of course. And what we do is we put the dog on a leash and prong collar. So we always use a prong collar for all of our training exercises. Doesn't mean you have to, but it is far and away hands down the best tool for leash communication. So especially if you're doing an exercise where you might need to give your dog guidance and you might need to show them where to go. Prong caller is going to make that easier.

Guys. They're able to sense the sensation from an engaged prong collar much, much easier than a flat collar. And god forbid a harness, don't even mention a harness. If you're using a harness, please go burn it. <laugh>, um, they have their place, right? But it's not for leash communication.

Um, so we always have a leash and prong on the dog when we're doing these drills. And, and so what we wanna do is we basically wanna put your dog on a leash and prong and we wanna walk up to the kennel and open the door and we wanna teach your dog. When you say kennel up, they should go in, right? And we often use a little bit of body language. We'll point into the kennel, dog should go in, then we can sort of pretend to shut the door. You don't need to shut it all the way, right?

And you might sometimes, but in the beginning, keep it simple. Um, you don't wanna drag the reps out and make them super long and complicated because you're gonna do a lot of reps, right? But then as your dog is getting it and you wanna be more advanced and you want to sort of advance their skills and teach them other rules and boundaries about going in and outta the crate, then yeah, your reps will get longer and you'll do fewer, right?

06:00 — She recommends short, simple repetitions before adding more rules or difficulty.

But in the beginning, we're usually doing fairly quick repetition and we're doing a lot of reps. So you'll say kennel up dog goes in, you'll kind of pretend to shut the door. Just pause for a moment, then you'll open it back up and you'll teach them not to fly out until you invite them. And then when they come out, you're going to expect them to settle right there with you. Okay? So how do you do that? Well, there's a few things you have to consider. Like how sensitive is your dog? Or how much is a bully is your dog, right?

So if they're super obtuse and very excitable and overstimulated and pushy, right? Then this is a dog that we're gonna come out of the gate much stronger with. Um, we're gonna be more corrective about things. If you have a dog that's really soft and sensitive, um, you know, anxious about stuff, it's like, okay, we're gonna take it a little bit easier.

We might need to give them more guidance. We might even use food. Uh, so part of this depends on like what is your dog's personality like? But what you don't wanna do is you don't wanna go through these exercises and like literally not teach your dog anything because you're afraid of giving them a correction, right? So what you have to understand is part of this drill is addressing an unwanted behavior right away. And I would say the biggest one that needs to be addressed immediately is dogs flying out of the kennel. Now we're gonna address flying into the kennel too, but flying out of the kennel is probably the biggest one.

'cause number one, it's the most common issue. And number two, it's dangerous or could be, right? So that's something we wanna stop right away. It is absolutely treated like an unwanted behavior, usually from the beginning.

Now, some dogs, it's like if we just use a firm tone and we close the door, they don't want any trouble. They're never gonna do that again, right? That's pretty rare. That's a like the softest dog on the far end of the spectrum. And then we have some dogs that we can slam that gate right in their face. Uh, it might even bump their nose. Uh, we could give them a correction even on a, an eco, maybe an eco tap at a higher level or something, and they're still gonna try it again next time, right?

And most dogs are somewhere in the middle where you just need to send a very clear message. There needs to be some kind of a correction, some kind of, um, tangible consequence that says, Hey, this is a boundary. I disagree with that. And after a few times they're gonna get the picture that they can't just bolt out of the couch, right?

And they're gonna look at you like, what do you want me to do? And that's kind of what you're looking for, right? Uh, so most dogs obviously fall somewhere in the middle. Um, and that's the case with all of our training. Most dogs fall somewhere in the middle, but not all of them. So I just wanna iterate that, that you do need to be, um, with all training, right? You need to be conscious of like your dog's personality type. And dogs can be very manipulating. So you might be wrong <laugh>, right? Or not necessarily the dog of manipulating, but just you might be telling yourself stories.

Um, but nonetheless, uh, we do adjust our intensity and our strategies based on the dog in front of us, right? Because you have to, they're all different. So you walk up to the kennel with your dog on a leash and prong, if your dog flies into the kennel, at that point I would say, no, I might deliver a little leash pop, or I might just use a little leash pressure and guide them back out, right? Depends on the dog.

10:00 — If a dog enters the kennel without permission, Kati says no and guides it…

So if your dog's super soft and sensitive, you don't have to give them a big correction for just running into the kennel, especially if they've been doing it for three years. But you do need to tell them that's now a boundary. I don't want you to just run into the kennel. We walk up to the kennel, I open the door. If the dog runs in, I say, no, maybe I deliver a little leash. Pop, guide him back out. Then we do it over again. That's important guys, right? So when you're doing any kind of drills, it's like, yes, you give the dog feedback and then you do it again.

So we leave, we walk up again. Now maybe this is rep two, maybe it's four or five. I open the kennel. They don't run in. Instead they just sit there next to me. Maybe they look at me, doesn't matter, but they don't run in. I say, good.

Then I'll point to the kennel and say, kennel out. Okay, dog goes in good. Feel free to feed if you wanna feed, if your dog likes food, uh, if they're motivated by it at that time, use it. Great. Then we're gonna just close the door. Now we're still holding the leash guys, at least by the end, right? 'cause we don't wanna not have any control over what's happening. Close the door, open the door. Don't let go of the door when you do that, because you need to be prepared to close it very quickly if your dog starts to rush out.

So even if they don't rush out, if they start to look really forward, like spring loaded, like they're about to run out, that's a good time to just say no and slam that kennel shut right before they're rushing out that way. It just sends a message that says, Hey, you're too forward. Don't think about coming out right now. And again, your intensity going to depend on the dog.

But I'll tell you right now, you can't go by your dog's size. Doesn't matter if they're small or big, you can't go by your dog's energy level, right? You have to actually get to know your dog and like what they're sensitive to, what they're responsive to. But with most dogs, if they look too forward in the kennel, we give a very neutral no. And we slam the crate pretty abruptly, right? Because it's, it's a startling but clear message that says You're too forward at this boundary. This is now a boundary. And then we open it and if they, right, 'cause you do it again, right?

You send the message, you give the feedback and then you do it again. So then we, we close the door, we open it again.

Now again, maybe this is the second rep, maybe it's the fourth or fifth rep, but on whatever rep where the dog goes, okay, I'm just gonna settle back here and wait to see what they want. Maybe they're looking at you, maybe they're not. But they no longer have that spring loaded forward momentum orientation at the crate door. That's when you'll say, good. And if you wanna feed it, feed it. And you can do as many of those door close and opens as you want while they're in there. Sometimes we do one, sometimes we do five.

And then at some point we'll say, let's go. And we'll invite them out with a little body language if we have to. And this is where your leash becomes really important. 'cause after you say, let's go and you invite your dog out, they know it's an explicit invite, gather up your leash and use some leash pressure to get your dog to settle next to you or to at least control their movement, right? So they can't go darting around, plowing you over, frantically, sniffing, running to the other end of the house, right? Instead, we want a pattern.

14:00 — After inviting the dog out, she uses leash pressure to settle it beside her.

You come out when I tell you to and you just stay with me. Don't do anything yet, right? And then after they do that, if you wanna release them to go do their own thing, you can, right? Not right now 'cause you're doing a drill. But I mean once this just becomes part of normal life and then you rinse and repeat and you do it over and over and over.

So I, I find it funny because these things seem so obvious to us, right? As dog trainers and we do eat it all the time, but it doesn't always occur to the dog owner to take something like this and turn it into an exercise and just do tons of reps. So anything that your dog isn't perfect on, right? Anything where there's opportunity for improvement, take it and just go do it over and over and over and over and over again in quick succession, it might be going in and out the front door. It might be going in and out of the car.

It might be going into a down when they're in the car. It might be being able to go to place when guests come in. Whatever it is, you take it, you break it down into the most basic pieces and do it over and over and over again. And the kennel, I'm going, how you go in and outta the kennel is just such a huge piece of the dog's lives while they're here for board and train. Um, we want them to master those behaviors and those expectations. And it really does a lot for the state of mind and the level of respect and just leveling out that arousal, right?

Instead of having that spiky, I get aroused. I see this environmental cue and I get really stimulated. I get really excited. It's like we teach them how to level that out and focus on their handler and wait until they're invited to go be excited for something instead of getting inappropriately excited and potentially even dangerous because of it, um, at regular moments.

So it's rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. And then you can raise the bar a little bit. Mix things up. Don't make every single drill exactly the same. That's one of the most common mistakes with any training people will do. Every single rep exactly the same. And then the dog starts to predict what you are going to do next, what you're going to say next and what they're supposed to do next instead of learning to just wait and see. So you wanna change up what you do, meaning you wanna change up how long your pauses are you wanna change up where you're standing.

17:00 — Varying repetitions prevents dogs from predicting the handler’s next movement or instruction.

You might even wanna change up how you sound, what tone of voice you're using. Um, you wanna move around a little bit. And so that kind of ties in nicely to like making things a little bit harder.

Once your dog is really good about not going in until you tell them to not coming out, until you tell them to. Right now it's like maybe you shut the door, you open the door, you move around a little bit side to side, you back up, you, you know what I mean? Start to move around. Add some motion. And when your dog makes a mistake, tell them no. Give 'em a little leash, pop, put 'em back in. Do it over again. When you move around and your dog does a good job and doesn't just assume they're coming out, you could say good.

You could give them a piece of food if you want to, right? Keep in mind if you use food, it might get your dog a little excited. They might think that means they're done and they're coming out and you need to be prepared to tell them no and give them that feedback, right?

Just because I praise you or just because I reward you with a piece of food doesn't actually mean you're done. You still can't come out until I give you an explicit invite. So these drills are all about giving you lots and lots and lots and lots of repetition, lots of opportunities to show your dog the pattern. If you then go and shoot yourself in the foot by deviating from the pattern, at least the pattern that you want to set, then it doesn't work, right? So if you make exceptions and let your dog come outta there sometimes when you didn't invite them or you make exceptions and you let your dog run in sometimes when you didn't tell them to, well what is the pattern, right?

Because your dog is busy trying to figure out your pattern, um, the pattern that you expect, what the boundaries are.

And so if you as a human make exceptions, it just gets harder for your dog to figure out the pattern. Love the show. Well I have great news. We are offering an inexpensive subscription to our new premium content. This is content that isn't available to the general public. We make it just for our subscribers. We're gonna cover a variety of new topics in these episodes and I think it's gonna be a ton of fun. So you can jump right down into the show notes to get that website address and then skip over there and sign up for this premium content.

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So when you praise your dog, when you reward your dog, you need to stick to your nice clear, consistent rules. That is how you get the most value out of doing any drill is to not deviate from the rules. That way the pattern becomes much clearer, much faster. Okay? I always say, people will tell me what they think they're doing or what they think their rules are, but the dog will tell me what they really are. <laugh>, right? Because the dog will adjust their behavior to whatever you're enforcing. So be clear and consistent with your rules.

Don't make exceptions. Um, you'll just make things harder on yourself and your dog. Um, but that's it guys, right? That's the drill. You go in when I tell you to, you don't come out until I tell you to when you come out, you just settle next to me. Keep a nice short lease so you can help your dog settle. I like to do these very, very quietly. Do not talk and yap at your dog. Zip it. Use your leash for physical communication when your dog needs guidance or when they need help settling.

21:00 — Kati recommends quiet crate drills using the leash for communication instead of constant talking.

And make sure you go back to a very relaxed leash when you're not using it for those things. Stick to verbally only using the command kennel up or whatever word you're using and let's go or whatever you're using for an invite out. And other than that, or maybe using the word no and good, that's it. Don't talk to your dog a whole bunch in between because you're just muddying the waters. Very simple drills, very quiet, very clear in, out, in, out, in, out, calmly, quietly. Leash guidance when needed. Leash pops when needed. Praise and food when needed to build up what you do want and that's it.

And make it harder or change things over time, right? So move from just in and out to closing and opening the door to closing and opening the door and moving around and teach your dog that The pattern stays the same, which is you go in when I tell you to, you come out when I tell you to, you settle next to me even if I move around, no matter how many times I open and close the door, all these things, right? Your dog has to see it and experience it for it to become normal. And that's it.

Crate drills guys, right in and out of the crate. It sounds so simple. Um, but it's huge. It's so huge. And I'm not saying that your dog can't just go in the crate, right? Like when they're free roaming in your house and your crates open, your dog wants to go in there, that's fine. That's different than I have you on a leash. And we walk up to the crate. Why is that different? Because when your dog is on a leash, you want to teach them, they are following you, they are following your instructions, you are doing a thing together.

They should never make assumptions when they're on leash.

So yeah, your dog can go in and outta their crate, right? If you are okay with that, you make the rules, um, when they're on their own time or they're free roaming, but your dog's not on their own time when they're on a leash. And maybe it doesn't matter very much, right? Maybe some people don't even do the going in. They only focus on the coming out. But what I see is a lot, a lot, a lot of dogs get a lot of benefit out of that drill both ways in and out because they are learning how to pay attention to their handler versus the environment.

24:00 — The drill teaches dogs to focus on the handler and think instead of automatically…

They're learning how to think rather than make accept assumptions, right? They're literally learning how to use their brain. They're literally learning how to devote that decision making time to you. Like what do you want me to do?

They're literally learning how to control impulses, control making assumptions, control arousal. They're sharpening so many skills, especially if you have a nervous dog, right? So we get dogs in here that aren't really comfortable working or that are anxious or that are nervous or even really fearful and they want to go in that kennel more than anything. They don't wanna do work, they don't wanna hang out with us. They don't wanna do any of that stuff. They just wanna go in their kennel, right? So that's a dog that's gonna get more benefit out of that than the average dog, right?

Because asking them, Hey, don't run into your kennel is really hard. That's where they wanna be. That's where they feel the safest. That's where they feel the most comfortable. And we're asking them to do something uncomfortable, which is not caved to that impulse and run into the can.

So say we're at my house with a bored and trained dog and we're done working and it's time to put the dog away as we get close to that kennel, if they fly into that kennel, that's no good guys. 'cause that is a nervous dog getting nervy impulses and following them. And if I don't step in and teach them another way that controls their life forever, right? Because that's gonna bleed into other contexts and other scenarios, right? Where we're out at the park and they see a bike and it scares them, right? And they're gonna run away because all they know is following nervy impulses.

You gotta teach your dog another way. So just an example of how these sort of drills can benefit a dog. But you can take any kind of dog with any kind of personality and you can think of something valuable that they get out of doing.

Simple drills like this, I'm gonna teach you how to go in, how to stay in when I open the door, how to come out when I tell you to and settle. And we're gonna do that over and over again. Super, super valuable. Another super valuable exercise that I love to do often give this to people as homework is the leash pressure sit. So this is a fun exercise to do with dogs that are really, really anxious or really, really excitable where you just teach them that they're on a leash and prong and when you gently pull their leash straight up over their head, right?

27:00 — The second exercise teaches a nonverbal sit through gentle, upward leash pressure.

You want a short leash for this because otherwise you're gonna be flailing your arms around everywhere. Pull the leash straight up over their head, very gentle.

If they freak out, just hold the pressure there, right? Not hard guys. You shouldn't be coming in real hot, just very gentle pressure upwards so that you know the collar is engaged but it's not squeezing them, right? Just gentle, gentle. And if your dog does nothing, maybe you do increase the pressure a little bit. And again, this is where like you gotta know your dog, right? Or get to know your dog. How sensitive are they? Because some dogs takes the slightest amount of pressure and they're very, very responsive to it. Some dogs, it takes a lot of pressure and they're not responsive to it at all.

It depends on your dog. So I can't tell you that like you have to know your dog or get to know your dog and try things. So very gentle pressure straight up over the head. If your dog doesn't naturally go into a sit, when you do that, then you can say sit, right? But the idea is to move away from that. We want this to be non-verbal.

Not that you can't have a verbal sit too, you can, but this is about developing the physical communication with your dog. So leash pressure up. If they don't sit, you can increase it a little bit, right? And at that point, your dog might just not know what they're supposed to do with that. So you can say sit. And as soon as your dog's butt hits the grounds is very important guys, you have to relax that leash pressure. So you shouldn't be jerking the leash around for this. This isn't leash pops, it's not leash tugs, it's not on off, on off pressure.

It's pressure on right straight up over the head. You hold it there, steady gently increase it a little bit if needed. If your dog doesn't seem to have any idea that you're asking for something. And then if your dog just doesn't know what to do with that pressure, say sit as soon as the butt hits the ground, relax your arm, relax your leash, relax the pressure, shut it off, right?

And say good. And that's it. Don't say anything else. And after you do a handful of those, your dog should start to realize that you turn on pressure and the next thing that happens is you say Sit. Right? So they start to what I talked about earlier, your pattern is always the same. Same. And so the dog starts to predict what's next and they learn, you turn that pressure on. The next thing that happens is you tell them to sit. So they'll start doing it automatically. If you give them time, turn the pressure on and just wait a second.

Don't say anything right away. See if they've figured it out yet. Eventually on one of those reps, you're not gonna have to say sit anymore. And the dog's just gonna do it. And usually guys, that happens within the first 10 reps.

And once your dog gets it, now you're cooking with gas. And so the whole exercise is just that. So once you've mastered it in a low distraction area, take that skill and go to the park, go to tractor supply, go sit at a gas station, go anywhere. Especially if you have a dog that is really anxious, that is really whiny and frantic, that is excitable and overstimulated. Go anywhere. Don't do anything else. Get out of the car. Sit somewhere where your dog can see stuff, right? If your dog is really bad, like you don't have to go right into the middle of the action.

Like sit right outside the door at Hannaford, stay at a distance first. Whatever works for you. You want it to be a challenge for your dog, but you don't want it to be impossible, okay? So start somewhere where things are easier to control. You get a little more space again, just depending on your dog, right? They're all different. But just do that. Keep it zipped. You are not gonna say much. You can say good, that's about it.

31:00 — She recommends practicing sits in public environments that challenge the dog without overwhelming it.

You are gonna go somewhere busy, you are gonna find a good spot to hang out. You are gonna apply leash pressure upwards. If your dog doesn't sit, you're gonna increase the leash pressure a little. And then as soon as your dog sits, you're gonna relax that leash and you can say Good, but that's it. And then you're just gonna stand there, which might be an exercise for you <laugh>, just as much as it is for your dog. But this is classic homework for people with anxious or excitable dogs or nervous dogs. Dogs that have a hard time just existing in chaos with stuff going on, right?

It doesn't matter what their problem is. This is a valuable exercise for just about any dog.

And if your dog pops back up, all you're gonna do guys is turn your leash pressure back on leash, straight up over the head, gentle pressure, increase if needed, shut it off when they sit. And in the beginning you might have to do that 10, 12 times in a row, right? Your dog just keeps standing up. They sit, they stand up, they sit, they stand up, they sit, they stand up. That's okay. I just want you turning your leash pressure back on to get them back in a sit. And what you're gonna notice most likely is eventually they start to just stay in that sit.

And guess what? That's gonna start to become easier and more natural and normal and it's gonna start to become default. Or they're like, oh, we go to a busy place and I can actually just sit and I don't have to look for things that make me nervous or overstimulated. I don't have to be sniffing. I don't have to be exciting my brain, I don't have to be unsure. I don't have to do any of those things. I can just sit. And there's way more value in that than you realize. Okay? So we have crate drills, we have leash pressure, sit, take it to busy places.

Do it all over the place. So easy. So easy and so valuable guys. And the last one is the one that could be a little bit harder depending on your dog and their level of training. But teach your dog to lay down in the car huge.

34:00 — The third exercise teaches the dog to lie down in the car for safety…

If that one is too much, then just do door drills with the car. Just like you did the crate. You go in, when I tell you to, you don't come out until I tell you to practice. Shutting the door, opening the door, shutting the door, opening the door. If your dog comes out, it's no leash, pop, send 'em back in. Do it over again, right? Don't be mad when your dog makes mistakes. That's the training. They're supposed to make mistakes. You tell 'em it was a mistake, you do it over. Then when they do it right, you say, good, rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat.

But teaching your dog to hold a down in the car is super valuable. So if your dog knows the down command, just stay in your driveway and practice having them go in the car and just lay down. Now if you have a dog that's absolutely nuts in the car, this is gonna take a lot more work, right? So we're talking about probably overlaying an e-collar with their down command. Um, and we teach all that and we show how to do it. Lots of videos on that stuff.

But assuming your dog is just a little too up in the car, right? They're sitting up, they're hanging out the window, they're kind of coming into the front seat. It's like if they know down and if they don't, then just practice it so they, they know it, right? Then you start teaching them, Hey, you can actually lay down in the car and then you start requiring it, right? You have to lay down in the car. This helps to have two people, especially if you don't have a need caller. So you can start out of the car and you can teach your dog.

Hey, if I tell you to lay down and you get back up, there's a correction for that, right? And this has to be after they know the down command Guys, you can't just jump in with corrections and think that's gonna solve everything.

It won't. Your dog has to know it, right? But assuming your dog knows the down command, they can do it in your living room, they can do it in your front yard. Well then they can do it in the car, right? But just start in your driveway, like practice having your dog get in the car and lay down, you get in the car, they stay laying down, turn the car on, they stay laying down, you drive a few feet, they stay laying down, right? And if you teach them in your living room and in your front yard and all these things that hey, if you break your down down, there's a correction, which might be a leash pop.

If you don't have an e-collar, once they get that, then you can teach them that same thing in the car.

I think that's a huge one, right? How you go in and out of the car laying down in the car because it's such a safety hazard too. You can't have a dog pacing around. You hit the brakes, they fall over, they could break their legs. I've had some incidents like that in the past. That's no good dogs trying to get into your lap while you're driving, right? Reactive dog suddenly sees another dog. Yeah. And they're on the driver's side window, right? So they fly over there. That's not dangerous or anything. Um, dogs that get car sick, teaching them to hold it down will often start to make that better.

Not always and not right away. But usually dogs that get sick in the car, if you can teach them to hold it down, that starts to resolve.

But I think the car is not only a source of anxiety for tons of dogs, but it's a source of too much excitement, too much arousal, too much stimulation. The last thing your dog needs, most likely when they're in the car is to stay in that state and work themselves up more, right? Looking out the window at things, hanging their head out, whining, pacing, drooling, getting all worked up. And then that is all gonna work against you. Whenever you get where it is you're going. If you can teach your dog how to just exhale in the car, that's huge.

Huge.

So again, one of those of those things people don't often think about, Hey, we're just gonna go out in the driveway and practice car stuff. It's like, yeah, you know, you don't have, don't wait until you're going somewhere. First of all, you only get one rep <laugh>, right? If you're getting in the car and leaving, it's like, yes, you can have conversations with your dog in that moment, but how much good is it really gonna do? How much are you really gonna cement anything in that one instance like you're not, right? If you really wanna change something, it takes repetition.

39:00 — Kati advises practicing car repetitions when there is nowhere to go and ten to…

So just go out when you're not going somewhere and you actually have time and you've got 10 or 20 minutes to work on it and just do some reps. And it doesn't have to be an hour either 10 minutes, Hey, we're gonna go out in the driveway, we're gonna do car stuff, we're gonna do in and outta the car, or we're gonna do, this is how you lay down in the car.

And for dogs that really struggle with this, especially if you don't have a second person, I have absolutely, um, used a tether to help dogs see that they can stay laying down, right? So you can just put their leash on their flat collar and tie it to the leg under the seat or you know, anything you can find that you could tie a leash to. So if you can get your dog in the backseat laying down, you get a leash on their flat collar, tie it to something under the seat, um, not real tight. They should have, obviously it should be a little loose.

Um, but it's tight enough that they can't stand all the way up, right? And so what will happen, they'll try to stand up and you'll hopefully mark that with a no right? And they'll feel inclined to lay back down because it's not real comfortable to stay in that half standing up position, right?

But if they don't, then you gotta get out and go help them lay back down. This is easiest done with an eco, um, if you've overlaid an e-collar with the down command. But that doesn't mean that it can't be done with some dogs without that, especially if you do have a second person to help you out, it's pretty helpful <laugh>. Um, but you know, just hanging out in your driveway and doing car stuff like that, huge, huge, huge. So that's it guys. Those are my three exercises. Um, the crate drills huge. The leash pressure sit huge, but only if you take it out into the real world and use it.

Um, car drills learning to lay down in the car, but you know, even if that's a little too advanced for your particular dog and your level of training, um, in and out of the car, the way they go in and outta the car is huge, right?

And please, like tether your dog, right? If they're the type of dog that jumps all over the place and you don't have like a crate in there or a buckle in there, like at least tie them to something, put their leash on their flat collar or not their prong, right? Just in case of any freakouts, we don't want, uh, any panic attacks. We don't want to get hung up on anything. Um, but if you can tie your dog to the headrest or a seat leg or an oh shit handle, if you have a Jeep like I do, um, tie it loosely, but just enough to keep them from jumping over seats, jumping up into your lap because it's super, super, super dangerous and it will go a long way to start showing your dog.

They don't have to do that stuff. They can actually just stay in one spot, <laugh>.

So it sounds ridiculous to say show your dog that they can stay in one spot, but seriously, if a dog has rehearsed something, that's what they've always done. They've never done anything else. They literally don't know how to do anything else. So it's funny that once we teach dogs a down command, we see them, they just start laying down like on their own. And I'm not talking about the car, I just mean in general, right? Because it just wasn't a behavior that was really in their repertoire before. It's like yes, they knew how to lay down, but like they never chose to do it until we started asking them to do it.

And then they were like, ah, this is pretty good, right? And then they start choosing to do it. So believe it or not, like tether, even just tethering your dog in the car, um, can start to show them something different and their behavior is more likely to wiggle and they're more likely to start, um, incorporating some of that into their repertoire on their own just because they've actually done it now, right?

So we always say with behavior, once your dog has done something, they're more likely to do it again. Absolutely true. Um, and it's true whether they do it on their own or you force it in some way, right? So restraining them does count for something. It's not as likely to be as effective as your dog choosing to do it, um, initially on their own right? Or you, um, showing them through feedback and guidance, right? This is probably the least effective method, um, of getting a behavior to occur is like just restraint, just restraint. Um, like management, you know, but it's a lot better than nothing.

It is safer than having your dog bouncing around the car and it does get them to do it, right? So then you actually have a shot at your dog choosing to do that behavior more, which is just, just stay put <laugh>, you don't have to be all over the place.

Um, but yeah, those are the three things. Do those drills, and I'm sure you can get creative and you can come up with other ideas, right? Other areas of life where your dog isn't perfect or there's some opportunity. These are usually gonna be small, small moments during the course of your day guys. But then instead of just addressing those moments once or twice a day or even a week, depending on what it is, you might go, oh, this is a thing, right? And carve out 10 minutes to just go do that thing over and over again.

It will have such a meaningful impact, um, on your life, on your relationship, um, just by taking 10 minutes and doing lots and lots and reps on these simple, simple things that we ask our dogs to do all the time. Hey guys, thanks for joining us today. I really hope you enjoyed the show. If there's a specific topic you'd like to hear discussed, you can send that to me directly via email or fan mail. Just jump down into the show notes. That information will be there for you. I really look forward to hearing from you.

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