Is Your Dog A Little “Extra” Sometimes? The Missing Magic Ingredient.

00:00 — Kati Peppe introduces Diamond K9 Dog Training’s e-collar work for off-leash obedience and behavior…

Welcome to Off Leash and Unfiltered. Trigger warning. I'm Kati Peppe, delivering the truth in dog training.

Hey everybody, welcome back to Off Leash and Unfiltered. I am Kati Peppe, owner of Diamond K9 Dog Training in Biddeford, Maine. We specialize in e-collar training, uh, both for off-leash obedience and, uh, behavior modification. So helping people eliminate behaviors that they don't like, dealing with things like separation anxiety, aggression, you know, resource guarding, um, and simple behaviors like jumping on people, getting into the garbage, digging holes, et cetera, et cetera. And we also do puppy training, and we've had a ton of puppies lately. It has been the puppy show around here, so we're not getting any sleep <laugh>, we're cleaning up a lot of pee.

Um, but it's good, it's all good. We love puppies. Um, so that's who we are and what we do. And this podcast is our way of sharing everything we know with you. So I'm talking about the things that I'm talking about with our clients, our hands-on clients day in and day out. 'Cause I know if this is the stuff that they need to hear, then it, it's probably the stuff a lot of other people need to hear as well. Um, and the internet is just full of garbage. So no matter how much you look for the answers there, um, most of what you're gonna read is just wrong.

Just a bunch of crap. So, so we're here to, um, make the information available for those who want it.

And, uh, lately, um, one of the things that's been on my mind is what's really at the core of things when people are struggling with their dog. And this isn't really new information and I'm sure I've talked about it on here before. Um, but it's one of those less tangible things that's really a little more difficult to articulate and a little more difficult for people to wrap their head around. Um, because it's just not as simple as describing a behavior and a way to react to a behavior. It's a little more complicated than that. But if you really think about it, all of our problems with our dogs are tied to their arousal level.

So really at the heart of everything we do is learning how to control that arousal.

So we teach dogs behaviors and how to do behaviors and we teach dogs not to do behaviors, um, and decrease and eliminate them. But both of those things are much, much more difficult if you don't know how to control your dog's level of arousal. And what's difficult is describing to people exactly what that looks like, um, so that they can go home and actually implement it in a way that will be effective. And you know, most of our customers obviously aren't dog trainers. Um, so they're not going to be perfect and that's okay. And they're not gonna do everything the same way we would, which a lot of other trainers wouldn't do things the same way we would, and that's okay too.

Um, and they're gonna miss some moments and that's okay. But if you're just letting all of these moments go, if you're just missing them all day long, things are gonna be much harder.

Um, and so I think it's really, really important to start getting a handle on that. Um, and as you know, like I said in the beginning of our podcast here, we're usually working with an e-collar. Um, this is, and the reason we are working with an e-collar most of the time because it is by far the most effective, efficient, and practical tool to do the stuff that we're talking about. Um, most effective way to communicate with our dogs, the most effective way to get reliable off-leash behavior, to influence our dog's behavior, to hold them accountable for things, to correct unwanted behaviors.

04:00 — Although Kati prefers e-collars, she says owners can address arousal without one.

Um, it is just far and away the easiest way to do it. Um, but the stuff we're gonna talk about today, although my preference is certainly to use an e-collar most of the time, you don't necessarily have to. I mean, doing something is better than doing nothing <laugh>. So even if you don't have an e-collar, there's still things you can do that are most likely going to make a big difference for you. So I wanna talk about what some of those things look like.

Um, so what am I talking about when I'm talking about your dog's arousal level? I'm talking about their excitement level, right? Like plain and simple, whether we're talking about a super reactive dog who just goes right off a cliff to a level 100 when they see a dog or, um, the same sort of deal when somebody like comes to the door, the UPS guy comes to the door, right? And your dog just like turns into a monster. Um, but even just when you come home from work or grocery shopping and your dog gets super excited, or even when you're sitting <affirmative> quietly and your dog hears a noise and they start to perk up and become super curious about what the noise is, right?

And they wanna investigate, those are all examples of arousal, right? If you're outside and your dog sees a squirrel, it's arousal. So anything that triggers the nervous system, anything that gets the adrenaline start flowing,

Whether it's good, whether it's bad, doesn't matter, that's arousal, right? And usually some of the telltale signs that accompany that process are ears going up and forward. Um, tail going up, sometimes body getting tense, breathing increasing, eyes getting big. A lot of times dogs will go from relaxed panting to mouth closed. So lots of things happen that can tip you off that your dog is starting to become aroused. And you know what it is? You can picture it, right? When your dog sees somebody they love appear, your dog sees a, a, a little critter or whatever the case may be, you can kind of visualize what your dog signs are.

I'm sure some dogs get hackles, right? And their fur stands up. Um, these are all indicators that our dog is becoming aroused. And that arousal right there, that is at the core of all of your problems, <laugh>. So if you can learn, number one, how to control that, and number two, learn how to start wiring your dog not to go into that state. You are gonna have a much easier time, my friend, okay? Because it's when we don't know how to give that feedback, we don't know how to shape that behavior.

We don't know how to shut off or reduce arousal. Everything stays difficult, right? And a good example of that is we teach the place command. It's like the staple of our program. Um, but people make the mistake of thinking that if they can teach their dog a place command, that that's going to fix the problem they have with their dog charging the door and bothering their guests and getting super nutty and excited. And I mean, it's worth mentioning that it might, it might if you teach a place command and then you provide a serious punishment for breaking that place command, that could work.

08:00 — Kati separates door excitement from the place command, arguing that place alone does not…

It could. But usually to get the most traction, what we want people to do is actually address the door excitement separately of place, right? 'Cause place is a command. Place alone doesn't teach your dog how to feel. It doesn't teach your dog that it's not okay to get super excited and go bananas when someone comes to the door. It's a correction that does that. So most of the time we will tell people to address that directly independent of place, right? And then what happens is the place command actually just gets easier, right? Because now you have a dog that doesn't go bananas when someone comes to the door.

So now guess what? It's easier to go to place, it's easier to stay on place and you don't have a dog that's on there, but is basically on the edge of his seat just waiting to fly off the moment you tell him to, or the moment he just can't tolerate it anymore. So place command is great, but what's better is controlling arousal and teaching your dog what is and isn't acceptable. And that I think is where the confusion comes in for a lot of folks, because it's not like your dog is doing something wildly unacceptable.

The moment they start getting wicked excited,

Right? Again, we see those things happen. We see the ears come up, we see the tail come up and start wagging. We see the eyes get big, but we don't think of any of that stuff as being bad or not okay. But it is <laugh>, it is. So, and I'm not saying your dog can never be excited, right? We're not trying to crush your dog, but it's like there's a time and a place for everything. And most dogs, they're not getting a little excited. Like, that's not what I'm hearing from my customers. <laugh>, when they come to me with their dog for training, they're not saying, oh, you know, he wags his tail.

When someone comes in, they're saying, my dog goes bonkers. He's off the wall, he's a total meathead, we can't control him. He's all over people. Um, that sort of thing, right? So if you wanna start getting a different response from your dog, you need to address that stuff the moment it starts to happen. You can't wait until your dog is a level 10 to start trying to decrease the arousal, to start trying to yell commands at him, sit, sit, sit. Right? We've all seen that.

The second those ears go up, the tail goes up. That's when you need to tell your dog no, literally tell 'em no and then provide 'em with a correction. And if you don't have an e-collar, then maybe you have your dog drag a leash so you can give him a leash pop, maybe you use a bonker. Even if he's on a slip lead, you can still pop the lead, right? Now, if your dog's really intense, that's probably not gonna do anything. The more intense your dog is, the more intense you are gonna need to be to overcome that and actually get your message across, okay?

It really doesn't matter what you do, but it needs to be firm and it needs to, to make things clear, it needs to get your dog's attention. So with a tiny dog, it might just be a little poke in the side. I'll just take my pointer and my middle finger and give 'em a little poke right in the side, right in the ribs. I'll say, hey or no, and give 'em a little poke, firm poke, right? You might have to do that two or three times and then they settle down.

But if you're soft and you're passive and your reaction instead is to try to restrain your dog or just yell commands, that's counterproductive. Your dog's learning to ignore your commands. Um, and they're learning that there's, there's just no directive, there's no leadership and they're just running you right over <laugh>. They probably don't even know you're there when it's happening. So, but my next point is that these moments, even though they might all not all be that intense, like when we're talking about the door, these moments are happening all day. These moments, similar moments are happening all day.

13:00 — Kati argues that daily feedback about a dog’s state of mind matters more than…

And guess what? That shapes how your dog goes through the world. Addressing those moments throughout the day might be the single most important thing you do to shape your dog's behavior for real. So commands are great. I'm not opposed to commands, obviously. I think they're important, but just yelling commands at your dog is not gonna fix your problem. So no matter how good your dog is, somebody has to be giving them feedback, not commands—feedback about their state of mind.

And this is the reason why sometimes we see dogs go backwards after a board-and-train. They'll go home and they're fine for a few days, a week, or a few weeks. But then sometimes we start to see a backslide, you know, with the guys that have real problems, real separation anxiety or real frantic, pushy behavior, um, that sort of stuff. And it's because the owners, they know the commands and they're using the commands and the dog's doing them, but they're missing moments all day long where the dog is choosing to fly into a state of mind that's not acceptable.

And the more they do that, the more normal it becomes and it snowballs. And before you know it, they're just back to their old selves again. Everything from how they come outta their kennel first thing in the morning, how they go through the door, how they respond when they hear someone walking by the house, all this stuff, right? And if you see too much concern, too much excitement, too much hostility, even if it's somewhat subtle, if you see that, you need to address it. You need to say, "Hey, that's not what we do."

You're not allowed to look at the door that way. You're not allowed to look at other dogs that way. You're not allowed to look at squirrels that way. Whatever the case may be, right? And there's a time and a place for excitement, but it's when you say so. So one of the big things here that's a big factor is your dog is going into these states, not because you invited it or you said it was okay, or you chose to roughhouse or you chose to play. That's not what's happening. Your dog's going into these states of mind based on environmental cues, right?

16:00 — Kati contrasts dogs responding to environmental triggers with dogs taking direction from their owners.

So you've got a dog that's responding to the environment instead of you, and you really can't have it both ways. And that's one of the most difficult things to really explain to people and get them to implement. Um, because it isn't natural. It makes a lot of sense, but it's not natural for most people, right? It wasn't always for me, but it's like every time you see your dog escalating in any way because of the environment, you should step in and give them some feedback. Now that feedback's gonna vary, depend on, you know, depending on what you're seeing.

So if you have a dog that turns into Cujo when he sees another dog, <laugh>, then the second he sees a dog and those ears go up, right? Those eyes are start staring.

You're gonna wallop him, you're gonna light him up like the 4th of July because you have to, if you don't knock out that sequence really firmly right at the beginning, it's gonna continue to be a struggle. Now, if you have a dog that does, okay, but you know, they're just a little, a little excitable, they get a little too tuned out, right? Maybe you're just giving them a little leash pop. Maybe it's a matter of just walking briskly, more assertive with some direction. Like you're going somewhere and saying, Hey, let's go. Like nevermind that other dog.

Like it sounds simple, but that's a huge difference compared to some people's very passive leash handling, right? If you're one of those people, this is what I talked about, I think, on the last episode where you kind of say, "Oh, we'll see," like, "We'll see what he does." Like you leave it up to the dog,

Right? And you got him on a leash and you're going to walk by another dog and he starts to get tense. He starts to stare, get, 'cause he is doing the excited thing, you know, and he wants to go say hi or something like that. And you end up just in the background hanging onto the leash going, "Oh, I knew this was gonna happen," but it didn't have to happen. Like you're relinquishing the control to the dog. Shorten up your leash, give 'em a little leash pop and say, "Let's go." Like, "We're walking." That's huge, right?

And just like I said on the last episode, that's not gonna cure your severely reactive dog if you've got a guy with serious problems, <affirmative>. But those little moments, those little bits of feedback, man, they make a huge difference in your dog's state of mind. They make a huge difference in your relationship. It really clarifies which end of the leash is making decisions and it really clarifies what state of mind is acceptable and what state of mind is not. And with a little consistency, you're gonna start to see things change, right? So the level of traction you get with this stuff, guys, is gonna be highly dependent on, well, how consistent are you?

How much are you watching? How clear are you with your feedback? Are you intense enough when you need to be intense? Right? And that's why board-and-trains, that's part of the reason they're so effective, is we're using a very high level of structure. So the dogs, they're in a kennel if I'm not watching them, right, I'm not doing something with them. So every single moment that they're out of their kennel, I'm right there. And if they perk up, if they get overexcited, if they start to get reactive, if they start to go bananas, like I'm right there to notice it right away.

20:00 — Kati credits board-and-train changes to structure and immediate feedback, not command training alone.

And I give them meaningful feedback right away. And the end result, I mean, nevermind the end result. Within a couple of days we have a different dog. And I'm telling you right now, that's the only reason that's it. Like that really is the magic of the board and train it's structure and feedback. Sure, we teach commands, sure, we make the commands reliable and we leverage them to help with anything the dog struggles with. But even if we never taught the dog a single command, just using some structure requiring calmness and giving them feedback when they get too excited,

Correcting them when they do something nutty, different dog <laugh>, different dog. Controlling arousal and giving your dog feedback all day will completely change how they move through the world, at least when they're with you, right? Because again, it's a relationship thing. So you might do this with your dog and they might end up being fantastic with you, but you put 'em in someone else's hands. It might be another story and that's normal. Um, but you wanna develop a relationship with your dog of accountability and you want them to know what the expectations are. Uh, and that just requires consistent feedback.

Again, highly recommend e-collar for this stuff. Lots of videos out there on how to do this. Um, we're putting together another course right now, uh, which I will, uh, talk about in in future episodes. When we're done, I will have links, uh, so you can check them out, purchase those courses if you want to. Um, but this is the stuff, this is, this is the stuff that really, really creates change. And start paying attention to what things your dogs get aroused by. And don't be afraid to tell them, "Hey, just chill out."

23:00 — Kati closes by distinguishing commands such as sit from feedback directed specifically at a…

But you gotta tell 'em in a way that works. And the way you tell your dog to chill out is not by yelling "sit" at them. I think that's the big takeaway here that I want everyone to have. It's like I'm not opposed to command and you can use them, but you can't use them to fix state of mind. Not really. You can leverage them to help with state of mind, but you're gonna have to give your dog feedback specifically about their state of mind. You're going to have to say no and correct them. You're going to have to pop your leash.

You're going to have to tell them, "Hey, we're gonna keep walking," right, in sort of an assertive manner. Calm, assertive manner, um, or give 'em a poke,

Bonk 'em if you have to bonk 'em. Again, all this stuff really depends on like your dog, the situation, the severity of their arousal. But there are like so many of these moments all day. And the thing is, if you address them, there's fewer and fewer every day. So it gets easier and easier and your dog just starts naturally going through the day in a calmer state. They're more tuned in, they're more focused. They can listen to you easier, they're more respectful. They're just waiting for you to tell them, um, "Don't do that. Just chill out," <laugh>.

Alright, that's it for today, guys. Thanks for joining me and I look forward to the next time.