“My Dog Needs a Refresher” — Or Do You?

00:00 — Kati Peppe introduces Diamond K9 Dog Training in Biddeford, Maine, specializing in e-collar training…

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

Thanks for joining us for another episode of Off Leash and Unfiltered. I'm your host, Kati Peppe, and I own Diamond K9 Dog Training in Biddeford, Maine. We specialize in e-collar training for off-leash obedience and behavior modifications, so helping people stop behaviors they don't like. Barking, jumping, getting into the trash and more serious things. Leash reactivity, aggression, resource guarding. And we love working with nervous and fearful and anxious dogs as well. We also offer puppy programs, so that's who we are and what we do. And this podcast is just our way of sharing everything we see and do and learn every day with you guys.

Everything we're doing with the dogs and with our clients. And our hope is you'll get something out of this that will help you with your own dog. So don't forget to hit subscribe to help support the podcast. Let's dive in. So I think almost everybody has been in the position where

They feel like their dog needs a refresher, quote, unquote, right? Or they feel like things have kind of unraveled a little bit. We haven't been consistent, is the thing I hear a lot, right? Consistency is like all the rage. Everybody talks about being consistent. Problem is being consistent doesn't really matter if you're consistently doing the wrong stuff. So we see people who work their butts off to be consistent for years with their dog and they're putting the work in, man, but it's not doing a lot of good because we're just not doing the right things.

So yes, consistent is good, but the fact is, if you're actually being effective, consistency, I'm not gonna say it's not important, but it basically goes away, right? 'Cause the behaviors go away, so nobody's gonna be perfectly consistent forever, right? So the idea is good training actually changes the behavior.

So then you no longer need to be consistent, right? 'Cause you don't need to do anything anymore. You don't have to give the feedback anymore. It doesn't mean you'll never have to. Um, but a good example of this is like the door behavior. So we expect dogs to stop at the door and hang out with us, not crowd the door, not charge through the door, not even get really excited about the door. Um, and we only have to tell them that a few times, generally speaking, like usually within a day or two, the dog goes to the door and they just automatically do that behavior, right?

So yes, we have to be consistent, but we're, we have to be consistent for like a really short period of time and then the behavior changes. Um, so that's really the goal. So I agree, consistency is important, but if you are finding yourself weeks, months, or even years into the process of having to be consistent, then consistency probably isn't the issue, right?

Unless you've just been wildly inconsistent the whole time, then then maybe that is your problem. But unlikely, usually it's what we're doing just isn't, it's not the right, um, it's not the right protocol for whatever our problem is. So, but anyways, that's a thing I hear a lot is, you know, we just haven't been consistent and so things have kind of fallen apart a little or, you know, we've been lax is another phrase I hear a lot. So, and you know what? We all are, it happens to everybody. It happens to the best of us.

04:00 — Kati asks owners to distinguish occasional lapses from repeatedly letting training standards slide.

So don't beat yourself up if you're one of those folks and you're kind of in that, in that boat right now. Um, but I think it is important to kind of ask yourself, how often do you find yourself in that boat? <laugh>, right? Um, how often do you dig yourself outta that hole and then put yourself right back in it?

So if this is a thing that is either occurring regularly, it's occurring frequently, or if it's a thing that we talk about all the time, but we never fix it, then, then that's not really like a phase, right? That's just how we're living. That's just our way of life. So for instance, if you find yourself saying that you've been a little lax, but you've been saying that for six months, right? You've been saying, oh, you know, my dog is kind of charging through doors, or my dog has been kind of reactive toward other dogs, or not coming back when called.

I mean, pick whatever, right? And you kind of take accountability for that and you're like, oh, you know, that's our fault. We've been kind of lax. We haven't been holding him accountable for that. It's like, okay, but you know, if this is just the way it's been for three months, six months, a year, then actually that's just how you live with your dog, right? And so that's a huge problem if that's the case. So it's, I think it's important to recognize like, is there, is there just a thing that we haven't done our best job with or are we just not doing it at all?

Like be honest with yourself, right? Because you can't <laugh> you can't really fix it, um, if you're not,

But really the big reason that I chose this topic today to talk about is because we hear it from so many folks, right? People bring their dogs back to us for boarding when they go away, when they go on vacation. And it's really, really common for people to say, oh, he could use a refresher, right? And that may very well be true, but the fact is, if your dog was once in a place where they knew the behaviors and they knew the expectation and now they don't, that is entirely on the human. So the dog is not gonna go backwards unless we allow it, right?

07:00 — Kati frames regression as dogs renegotiating rules rather than forgetting them, while acknowledging no…

So I always say the dog doesn't forget the rules, the boundaries, the standards and expectations. The dog doesn't just forget that. What happens is they renegotiate it because no dog is gonna be a robot. Of course not. No dog is gonna be perfect. And frankly, we wouldn't want them to be anyway, right? I hear that all the time too. It's like people want their dog to be a dog. They want their dog to have their personality. Um, they want their dog to have their quirks. And I agree completely,

But no dog is perfect. And so what that means is your dog is gonna make mistakes sometimes by mistake, right? Or sometimes because they're pushing a boundary or sometimes because they just got a little more excited than they normally do. And the judgment went out the window, right? The thinking went out the window and they reverted to lizard brain and they did their old impulsive behavior. That's just gonna happen sometimes. And so what determines whether or not your dog stays on track, right? Or if they regress, is how you respond in those moments. And that is why we harp so much on people keeping their e-collar on when they're fairly early in their training.

And by early, I don't mean like a few weeks, I mean six to 12 to 18 months, right? When you're setting new habits, you know, maybe longer, depends on the dog, depends on the people. It depends on how we're using our e-collar <laugh>. Um, but that's why we harp on keeping it on is because even if your dog is doing fantastic, even if your dog is just blowing it outta the water, what's gonna happen when they make a mistake? Because they're going to, guys, like your dog is not perfect. They're going to make a mistake.

And so it's really just common sense when you think about it. Because when they do, right, it's not even if, it's when they do, when they make that mistake,

What happens? Because if you're not putting your e-collar on, right, you're not keeping it on, then you are going to respond differently. Maybe there isn't gonna be any accountability or maybe there is, like maybe you have that figured out. You have another way to provide accountability. Great. I know I do, right? Because I'll just bonk my dog. My dog doesn't behave any differently with the e-collar off versus on. There's accountability either way. But the fact is we left it on so long and so consistently in the beginning, um, that it really just wasn't an issue anyway, right?

Because all the behaviors had time to become normal and easy and default for him, right? So, but the other piece of that equation is he knows if he did do something that I disagree with, if he had did a bad behavior, if he didn't listen to me, he knows there would be accountability, right? But neither here nor there, that's not really what this episode is about.

Fact is, most people don't provide accountability when their e-collar is off or they do a poor job of it, right? Um, because they're just not sure how to, or they're not very good at it because they haven't rehearsed it. Um, for instance, if someone is going to bonk their dog, most people are very, very soft and gentle and it doesn't always, um, have the effect that it's supposed to. So what we see happen a lot of the time is people are taking that e-collar off and eventually, like I said, it's not if, it's when, eventually the dog makes a mistake, makes a bad decision, pushes a boundary, whatever it is, and then they get a chance to see, oh, there's no accountability.

11:00 — Kati explains how boundary-breaking without consequences can become more frequent and potentially more intense.

So now you've just shot yourself in the foot, right? Because now you're starting, you have literally shown your dog that they can do that bad behavior or they can push that boundary, they can break that rule and there's not a consequence, right?

And now we're off to the races because once it happens, it's gonna happen again, right? And it's going to increase in frequency and maybe in intensity depending on the behavior we're talking about. Um, and they're gonna do it more and more, right? So you might go five months without seeing a behavior and you take your equipment off and you think everything is just great. Your dog's wonderful and that's good, don't get me wrong. Like that's great, you know? But then what happens when six weeks later or six days later or whatever it is, your dog goes, oh, well I'm gonna go ahead and jump all over these people coming through the door, right?

Well now what? Well, there's not gonna be a consequence, right? And so now that experience goes into the brain bank that goes into the folder, <laugh>. So you've worked so hard to create consistency and create accountability. And now by taking that equipment off, people open the door

For the dog to eventually make a poor choice. And for them to not provide any accountability. And now we're going backwards, right? And so this episode isn't about keeping your equipment on, but it is important. It is something we talk about a lot, you know, and it blows my mind 'cause I see so many trainers out there, like on social media talking about how terrible that is and how you shouldn't leave it on and blah, blah, blah, blah. And it makes zero sense to me. Zero. The collar's not hurting anything. Leave it on, right? But it's because they don't care about your results.

They don't care about your life. They don't care if it's easy for you. They don't care if everything lasts and sticks the way that it should.

Or they just don't know what the hell they're talking about. I mean, that's also a possibility. Um, but e-collar on. Um, and as a side note, side note, <laugh>, we're going off on lots of tangents here today. Uh, I will say the e-collars, especially the ones that we use, at least the straps are usually made of a not so breathable material. It's waterproof, it's like a bio thing type substance. And, uh, it does cause hot spots on a lot of dogs if it gets moist. Um, especially if your dog has sensitive skin. So we just, we had a couple of clients over the summer whose dogs like to swim.

14:00 — Kati warns that moisture beneath nonbreathable collar straps can cause hot spots and emphasizes…

And I mean they just ended up getting, um, some really bad hot spots which got infected and then they had big skin infections, uh, which can be nasty. And it's not, it's not a side effect of the e-collar itself. It's not anything to do with the stimulation. It's not that the collar's hurting the dog, it's none of that. It's just having

a non-porous collar around the neck and it's fairly tight because it needs to be. Um, it's not breathable. And so if it gets wet under there, it can cause, it can cause some problems. Especially, like I said, if you have a sensitive dog or a dog with lots of extra like folds of skin, really, really important to keep your dog's neck clean and dry, uh, when you're using your e-collar. So if your dog swims or anything like that, make sure you dry them out real well. Um, so that that doesn't happen. Anyway, back on track.

<laugh>, you guys gonna keep me on? I need someone here to keep me on track. <laugh>. Um, so that's what happens. And then people will say, well, he could use a refresher, <laugh> could, he could use some brushing up. And it's true, right? 'Cause the dog has kind of started to go off the rails a little bit and he could use a refresher. But really all that requires is just for the accountability to be what it used to be, right? For the most part, dogs don't forget what we taught them. They just learn something new.

So the key really is just for the human to go back to the basics, back to what they learned in the first place. Back to the original rules, boundaries, accountability.

So if someone does a board-and-train program with us and then they come back for boarding four months later and they say that their dog doesn't really walk in heel position, he could use some brushing up, right? Because he likes to get, you know, six to 12 inches ahead or something like that. All that is is us just not enforcing it. And by us, of course, I mean the owner, the handler, um, and again, this is not me picking on them, but I, I just see this over and over again where I think it's really common for folks to have, sorry, my dogs are being super noisy.

They're over here wrestling. Um, it's funny 'cause Boo Boo never really had the desire to play with other dogs, but since we got Niblet, our pug puppy who's now about nine months old, um, they're just best friends and they're just playing tug of war and wrestling all the time. Of course now they're getting pretty noisy, so I might have to shut it down. <inaudible>. Hey,

17:00 — Busy schedules, illness, and rushing can turn occasional allowances into the dog's everyday routine.

calm down, buddy. You can't even breathe <laugh>. Um, so we see this really common thread and I think folks sort of have this idea in their head that dogs forget over time, right? But that's not really true. Um, and how could it be true, right? If we're enforcing it consistently, there's our magic word, um, every day, day in and day out. So, but what happens is life, right? Life happens, we get busy, we get lazy, we get sick, um, we get anxious, we're in a rush, you know, all these things, life happens. And so we let it slide once and then we let it slide twice and then it just becomes the way we live with the dog.

And then we say the dog needs some brushing up. But really we just need to go back to enforcing the rules.

It really, and most of the time it's not much of a process. It's you just go back to enforcing your rules, right? But I wanna add another key piece to this, which is the better you are at enforcing those rules in the first place, the less likely your dog is to make a bad choice, to make a mistake, to start going off the rails, to push the boundaries, right? So people that put their dog on place or in a down or call their dog back, and when their dog doesn't do it, they provide a very high consequence, a proper punishment for non-compliance with something that your dog knows what to do very well.

The people that do that, they're far less likely to have a dog that pushes the boundary, ignores them, doesn't come back, breaks place, right? Because it's not worth it. The consequence is just too high, right?

But if we tend to be softer, if we tend to kind of feel guilty, if we tend to kind of make excuses or take it easy on the dog or we just don't like to turn up our e-collar, we just don't like to provide a punishment when it's needed to, to make things reliable. If you don't like to do that, and by the way, that's okay if it makes you human. It's not how we do things. If you're in my program, that's not gonna be my advice, but I get it <laugh>, it's not the fun part.

But if you don't do it, then you are opening yourself up to the dog breaks place. The dog doesn't come back when called. The dog reacts to the other dog. All these things, right? And so then you're more likely to end up in that boat with all the folks that are saying things have kind of unraveled, things have kind of fallen apart, things have kind of gone off the rails. He needs to, to be brushed up. He needs a refresher, right? But it doesn't, my point is it doesn't have to be that way. And I tell everyone, because of course everybody's favorite question is when they can take their equipment off and, um, a dog trainer is, well, we hate that question <laugh>, uh, because the fact is like, I can do it, but most of our clients can't.

21:00 — Kati links moving away from e-collar use to owners accurately replicating the trainer's protocols…

And the reason that most of our clients can't is because they're not dog trainers, right? So they're not, this isn't their life and they're not gonna be as consistent as we are. They're not gonna be as skilled as we are. They're not gonna be as meaningful and effective and efficient as we are. But if you are, if you do, if you do go home and execute and replicate the protocols we show you, if you do use your e-collar meaningfully, if you're not afraid to draw a real boundary and you're not afraid to enforce it and you do use a proper punishment when it is necessary, then you will be able to move away from needing that e-collar and you'll be less likely to have a dog that pushes the boundary, that ignores you, that doesn't listen, that does the bad behavior, that breaks place, all that stuff, right?

And like I said, once they do it once, if they experience doing that and a variable consequence where there's no correction, now you're gonna start seeing that behavior more and your dog is gonna fall into that "Oh, he needs a refresher" category, right? And like I said, we've all been there. This, it happens to all of us. None of us are perfect, right? Especially you go through periods of life where things are just chaos. You have seasons that are crazy. Uh, whether it's with your kids or your work or just life stuff, family stuff.

It happens and you let things slide sometimes, right? It's not like the end of the world. Like it's not your top priority to make sure your dog is being polite at the door. Like I get it. Like, yes, I'm a dog trainer, yes, I preach the stuff, yes, I roll my eyes <laugh> people that don't do it. Um, but it's not because I don't get it. It's not because I don't get it. Um, I do it too, right? So confessions of a dog trainer, I'm not perfect. In fact, I just recently decided that I needed to be better about thresholds with my dogs,

Right? Because they're pretty good going out the door, but not as good coming in. And that's important 'cause my dogs, my dogs are good dogs, but they do tend to get overexcited. They also tend to run over my mother a little bit because my mother is, it's all green lights when she's here. She's a big softie. Um, so these little moments, I call them little, but they're not, right? These cumulative moments in time that we're experiencing every day, every day, every day. Threshold is just my favorite example of that. Doors, right? Those moments are important because they're really gonna shape how our dogs behave, what their mindset is going through the world, how relevant humans are, who's drawing the boundaries, right?

Clarity. So I decided we were gonna be better about that and I've really started refining that with both of my dogs. Um, and they're great. Absolutely super. And guess what? If they didn't have their e-collars on, they'd still be super, but they stay on because one of these times they won't be super and I'm gonna be able to address it <laugh> and we're gonna be consistent so that we don't go the other way and end up going, oh, I need to clean that up. Oh, things are falling apart, right? Things don't have to fall apart.

Now some things will sometimes, again, like I said, because of life, but it doesn't have to be that way all the time. It doesn't have to be hard to get back in the saddle. And it certainly isn't hard to just leave the equipment on if that's the thing that's getting in your way. So I always say when somebody says to me, my dog needs a refresher, I say, actually, you need a refresher, right? Not because the dog's behavior went sideways, right? Things have kind of unraveled a little bit. But the thing is, if they're saying that to me, then they don't know how to fix it.

And the way you fix it is easy. You just start enforcing your rules again, right? So for instance, if, if I taught your dog a heel in training program and then you come back for boarding a few months later and your dog is moving ahead and not heeling properly, there's, I'm not gonna teach your dog anything new. He already knows the heel. I'm just gonna enforce it, right? And so that's the thing I try to teach people is it's really important for you to know how to address the thing you're experiencing. 'Cause I'm not gonna teach your dog anything new.

We've already taught your dog this stuff,

Right? So if your dog actually was trained, right? And that is important. If your dog actually was trained on how to do a behavior, they don't need a refresher, they just need to know the boundary.

27:00 — Kati recommends hands-on coaching at boarding pickup so owners can practice restoring previously trained…

There

Has to be accountability. And so your dog is telling you that accountability hasn't been there. And so I've just renegotiated this boundary. Now I know I can walk here without consequence. And so depending on the case, I will usually say, well, we should spend a few minutes together when you come and you pick your dog up from boarding because, um, I'm not actually gonna teach your dog anything new, right? We've already done this stuff with your dog. So chances are what really needs to happen is I need to spend the time with you so you can see what do we do to get this behavior?

'Cause that's actually the thing that's missing and that's so, so important. Um, especially, you know, a lot of times with puppies too because puppies aren't doing e-collar programs. Um, we'll teach the puppy their basic obedience. We'll teach them how to walk on a leash and then we'll send them home. And then puppy starts getting bigger, starts getting a little older, and people, um, you know, think they need to come back and get the dog more training. And it's like, well, you kind of do, right? Because they've only done puppy training and we really need to put the finishing touches on that with more accountability.

And I love laying that e-collar foundation when they get a little bit older and all of that.

But

You should be able to get the behaviors you're asking for,

Right? And so if you can't, you and I need to spend time together, not your dog, right? I'm not saying your dog won't be part of it, <laugh> we'll do, we'll do the work with the dog, but really what needs to happen is time with the owner, time with the handler, showing them hands-on, this is what I do to get the behavior because I've already done the training with the dog. Like, what else am I gonna teach the dog? Nothing. I don't have anything new really to teach that dog. Um, unless until they wanna come back for an e-collar program.

But even then we're gonna spend two or three hours with the owner showing it to them. Because again, you have to know how to follow through, how to hold your dog accountable, how to work them through their cha challenges, right? There's nothing I can teach your dog that's gonna set them up for life without me teaching the owner or whatever trainer teaching the owner. There just isn't any way to do that. Because again, at some point dog's gonna do some different stuff and they're gonna have a different experience. It's gonna be no accountability, it's right.

And then the behavior's gonna evolve, it's gonna change, it's gonna migrate, it's gonna go off the rails. So it's so important. Handler has to know what to do. And so a hundred percent of the time if someone says they need a refresher, it's not the dog that needs the refresher, it is the human.

So I want you to just think about that. If you're having any of those moments with your dog where you know they're not really doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing, um, and you're not really sure how to fix that, and this might look a little different depending on the dog and depending on what the behavior is, but go back to basics. So if you remember what you were supposed to do, that probably just hasn't changed. You're just not doing it, right? And then you've made up this story in your head about how the dog has forgotten and is confused and, and blah blah, blah.

And if it's been a long time, the dog might be a little confused, right? When you hold them accountable for it because it's just not what you've been doing. And they're gonna go, whoa, what is that? That, that isn't what we do. Um, but that's okay.

31:00 — After a long lapse, Kati recommends a leash, low-to-moderate feedback, and several days reestablishing…

How else are they ever gonna learn if you don't tell them, no, we're going back, we're going back to the way we're supposed to do this behavior. We're going back to the rules and the boundaries the way they're supposed to be, right? And until you give 'em that feedback, it's not gonna change, right? But if you think your dog is going to be confused or if you think it's going to be sloppy and challenging, make sure they have a leash on, right? And you don't have to light 'em up like a Christmas tree, guys. Like if it's been a long time and your dog just is, you've got a new way of life now.

This behavior has changed. You've been doing it a different way. You don't have to light 'em up like a Christmas tree, right? You can use low to moderate levels, start giving your dog the feedback, right? But they learn this stuff quickly. You don't need to do that for weeks and months, right? Spend a few days just drawing a new boundary and then start enforcing it with real accountability.

But, you know, that's it. I think that that about sums it up. If your dog is in a position where, um, you know, they're kind of pushing boundaries, they're kind of drawing up new rules, renegotiating things with you, chances are good that you need to stop focusing so much on what the dog is doing and focus more on what you are doing and how you're addressing it and how you're reacting to it. Um, and are you doing that in a way that makes it clear to the dog? That was a violation of the boundary of the rule.

And most of the time, most of the time people just aren't. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. If there's a topic you'd like to hear discussed, you can send that to me directly at Kati at Diamond K9 dot com via email. So I will link to that email address in the show notes. Thanks for joining us today, guys. Thanks for supporting the podcast, and I look forward to the next one.