More Confidence More Wins

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

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

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Off Leash and Unfiltered. I'm Kati Peppe, owner of Diamond K9 Dog Training in Biddeford, Maine. We specialize in e-collar training for off-leash obedience as well as behavior modification, helping people stop those behaviors that they don't like. Um, things from simple behaviors like jumping and getting into the trash all the way to, you know, really reactive dogs, aggression, resource guarding, that sort of stuff. Uh, and we also do puppy training. So that's who we are and what we do. And this podcast is here for us to share everything we know with you.

Um, so I'm talking about the stuff that I'm talking about with my hands-on clients every single day. My private session customers, my board-and-train customers. If this is stuff that I see them needing over and over again, um, then I know there's other people out there that need this information too. So this is my way of sharing that with all of you guys. Um, so thanks for joining me today. One thing that I've noticed is how much we can alter our reality with our frame of mind. So we talk about the dog's mindset all the time, but the human mindset is huge.

So let me explain a little bit what I mean by that.

How you go into a situation, how you approach a situation with your dog absolutely impacts your result. So we have some people call us with some, some pretty terrible dogs. And before I go any further, let me just clarify that in no way, shape or form am I saying that you control all of your dog's behavior with your frame of mind. That that is not true. That is not what I'm saying, but I'm saying it makes a huge difference. And sometimes, sometimes it just fixes the problem. So if you can just get the right tools on the dog so that you have control and feel more confident, a lot of times that's life-changing.

So an example is, and this was a long time ago, I had someone send me two bulldogs, two English bulldogs who were very reactive toward everything, <laugh>, dogs, animals, people, really, really reactive. Um, when they dropped them off, I mean, I am not gonna say I forgot they were reactive, but I'm just not really thinking about it, right? The dogs come in and then at some point we get in the car and we head home and the dogs come home with me and I get the dogs out of the car and we're walking up the driveway and that's it.

03:00 — When the Bulldogs react to farm animals, Kati describes giving a leash pop and…

Like, I'm not thinking, like we're just walking up the driveway.

And we get near the bend in my driveway and they can see the farm animals that I had at the time. And one of them, they both kind of started to, to pull ahead and go a little nutty, and one of them let out a bark. Um, but all I did was just kind of pop my leash and kept going. Now, there's two things happening here. Yes, I did do something that made a difference, but it's more than that. It's confidence. So if the owner had been in that situation and was walking up the driveway, at least if she had known what was around the corner, would've been really nervous, right?

She, she would've been anticipating all kinds of crap from her dogs, and she rightfully so because they were, they would probably give her crap. But if you walk into that situation, if she had walked into that situation nervous, tense and leaving everything up to the dog, it would've been super, super messy. Super messy, barking, lunging, going crazy, pulling obviously very, very hard. Um, I'm not gonna say they didn't let out another grumble or two, they probably did, but we just kept going. So the two things that are happening there, yes, I, I did pop my leash and yes, I'm sure that made a difference.

But let's just say I hadn't, right? 'Cause I do that just out of habit. But let's say I hadn't, even if I had just kept walking with an assertive energy and said, "We're walking, guys, let's go." That's going to unfold way differently than somebody who's unsure, nervous, tense. Um, they're leaving everything up to the dog. This makes, this makes a huge difference, guys. So another example, it's like we just, we put the dog on a leash and we don't have that thought process of, 'cause this is the words that I hear, okay? These are the phrases that I commonly hear, like, "We'll see if he can do it."

06:00 — Kati challenges a “we’ll see how it goes” mindset while clarifying that confidence alone…

"We'll see how she does," "We'll see how it goes." Or "I don't know if he can" or "I don't know if she will." That is the wrong frame of mind to approach this stuff. And so if you have a severely reactive dog, I'm not saying, oh, if you just have confidence, you're gonna go out and walk by and your dog's not gonna do any of that stuff. I'm not saying that.

That's not what I'm saying at all. But if you have a dog that just is a mildly reactive, that could be the case, that could be the case. And if you have a dog that's really reactive, it's probably gonna be somewhat tempered if you go out with a more confident, assertive attitude and you are making the decisions and you are calling the shots, right? So I talk about passive leash handling a lot, and I think there's a lot of overlap here for sure. It's like if you put your dog on the leash and you just let them make the choices, <laugh>, it might not be good <laugh>, it might not be good choices.

But when I put a dog on a leash right from the get-go, I'm not worried about what they're going to do, right? I ha, I almost always have them on a prong collar. So I have maximum control, which I think is important.

And they're on a, a, a relatively short leash. Like I'm not gonna let all five, six feet of leash out. So they're on a prong collar. The leash should be loose, but it's fairly short, right? If they're just coming in and they're not trained, the leash might not be super loose, but it's short because I, I want control of the situation. And right now, if I don't have mental control of the dog because they're trained, then I need to have physical control. So I do whatever I have to do to feel in control, and then we go, we go wherever we're going.

And that is wherever I say we're going. And I'm not thinking, what is he gonna do? How is he gonna react? I'm just going, we're just, we're just doing our thing, right? And if the dog does react, if the dog does make a, a mistake, if the dog is a bonehead, I'll, I'll respond to that. Of course, that doesn't mean I have to worry about it. That's not helpful, guys. That is not helping anything. So I think one of the biggest things I'm getting at here is if you are unsure and you are nervous and you're tense, that travels through your leash to your dog. Almost certainly you're gonna send cues you don't even know you're sending,

09:00 — Kati recommends replacing passive leash handling with a leader-follower walk rather than letting the…

Right? And then combine that with passive leash handling, having the dog having their leash attached to a collar where they really can't feel anything. Letting out the whole leash, letting the dog choose sort of where to go, following the dog around is like the worst thing you can do. So, reshape your walk, um, to be more of a leader, follower dynamic. Yeah, train your dog. But I mean, until your dog is trained, there are still things you can do. Put a prong collar on, make sure it's properly fitted. Learn how to attach a safety. So if your dog, if it, your collar comes apart, your dog isn't loose, okay?

Keep your leash short but loose.

And hold your head up and be confident and decide this is where we're going and this is what we're doing. And don't worry about what your dog is gonna do. And if your dog starts to be a knucklehead, let's go. Right? And even if you fail miserably, you know, let's say you do have a dog that has real meltdowns, um, and that happens, at least you have control of the situation, right? At least you don't have a dog that's at the end of a six-foot leash freaking out, and there's nothing you can do. You're gonna have so much more control on a short leash with your dog next to you on a prong collar where you can actually move them around, potentially get their attention, right?

And you're gonna learn how to be a more confident handler, right? It doesn't mean that nothing bad will ever happen or that your dog will never make any stupid decisions or act like a fool. But it means I can go out, I can feel in control, I can make the decisions, I can be the leader on the walk instead of giving all that control up to my dog. And in addition to that, me doing that is probably gonna influence his behavior. And we see it all the time.

We see it all the time. If you go into a situation thinking, I don't know how he's gonna do, we'll see how he's gonna do. Is he gonna, what is he gonna do? Is he gonna bark? Is he gonna be a fruitcake? Is he? Probably will be, he probably will be. But just being a little more confident. Learn how to handle your leash. Learn how to say, hey, don't do that, and we're going here and we're going there. And then you just walk and you don't worry about what your dog is gonna do. Again, you have a crazy reactive dog.

12:00 — Kati says confidence does not replace training and emphasizes making decisions rather than worrying…

I'm not saying you don't need training, you do. All dogs should have training anyway, but your dog perceives that they're in control because they are. Your dog acts like a nutcase simply because they can. And I'm gonna remind you, only one end of the leash can be making choices, guys. But just having a more confident mindset. And I'm not saying confident means believe your dog is gonna do perfect. I'm just saying stop worrying about it so much. I'm in charge. You're on a leash, we're going and I'm not thinking about anything else. And if something happens, we'll deal with it when it happens, but we're not gonna expect it to happen, right?

It's like a self-fulfilling prophecy. You're like inviting it.

And then of course there's all kinds of stuff in addition to that, like just everything else you do throughout the day and, and shaping your relationship. But I just thought that was so important because I pick up on these things that people say, um, and I know

The dog knows, right? Not 'cause they understand English, but every little subtle thing about your body language, um, tells the dog it's time. <laugh>, it's time for, for the shit to go down, do whatever you want. What am I gonna do about it, <laugh>? And of course, the more you do learn about your leash handling skills, the more confident you will feel and the more traction you're gonna get. Lots of videos on that stuff, guys. Um, but that's it. That was, that was my big point for today is don't go into situations with the wheel.

See if attitude, stop relinquishing so much control to the dog. Go into situations with the "this is what we're doing" attitude. And if something happens, then you cross that bridge when you get to it.

But you gotta feel confident and in control. And I do think part of that is knowing that even if your dog is a meathead at some point, it's not the end of the world. You're gonna take charge of the situation and you're whatever that means, right? So it might be giving your dog a leash pop, it might just be turning around and getting your dog outta there if things are really bad. But you'll just handle it if and when it happens. It's just a whole different way of going through the world and your dog's gonna notice it, guys.

Alright, that's it for today, guys. Thanks for joining me and I look forward to seeing you all again real soon.