Top 3 Training Principles: Be Physical, Be Neutral, Be Quiet

00:00 — Kati Peppe introduces Diamond Canine Dog Training and the podcast’s focus on off-leash obedience…

Speaker 1: Welcome to Off Leash and Unfiltered Trigger Warning. I'm Kati Peppe, delivering the Truth in Dog Training.

Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us for another episode of Off Leash and Unfiltered. I'm your host, Kati Peppe, and I own Diamond Canine Dog training in Biddeford, Maine. We specialize in eco 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.

Speaker 1: 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.

Speaker 2: We train dogs, obviously, time every day. And it stands to reason that 'cause of the number of dogs that we're seeing. We're seeing different types of dogs all the time, and this is a real benefit, um, to developing your training skills because dogs can be so different from one to another and not just from one to another, but even that same dog from situation to situation, they can turn into almost what looks like a totally different dog. And so being able to see these things, um, back to back, you know, minute to minute, day to day, different types of dogs, different personalities, different genetics, and seeing, uh, how they behave, what they respond to, how they react to things, is immensely, immensely helpful in developing patterns and frameworks that tend to be effective across a broad spectrum of dogs.

Speaker 2: And of course, we're always adapting to meet the dog where they are and to do what is the most effective thing to do with any specific dog, of course, right?

Speaker 2: So what we do with one dog is probably never gonna look exactly the same with another dog. However, like I said, we do discover patterns and develop skill sets, especially when we're dealing with, well, let me finish that thought. We do develop patterns and skill sets that we find to be more successful, right? Give us a higher success rate across a broad spectrum of dogs that might be wildly different from each other. Um, and of course, now I forgot the last thought that I started to interject with <laugh>. Um, I tend to do that. I'm very, uh, spacey.

Speaker 2: So, but so that's the knowledge I kind of wanted to share with you guys today. That's the experience that I wanted to share today. So, I mean, if you're starting out on a training journey with your dog or with a dog that's new to you, especially, there are some principles you can adopt that will really help set you up for success.

Speaker 2: So let's begin our countdown of our top three principles we've adopted that we have found help us with almost any dog, regardless of what their personality is. Number three, physical communication. So us humans tend to be super, super verbal. And unfortunately what that means is we're just blah, blah, blah, blah, all the time. Our dog doesn't understand it. So it's imperative. Like, just think if you were talking to someone that speaks a foreign language, right? And you're trying to teach them a word in your own language, just saying that word over and over and over again is not helpful.

04:00 — Because dogs do not understand human language, handlers must demonstrate training concepts instead of…

Speaker 2: Um, we need to physically show. So if you, I was trying to teach someone the English word for sit, right? I might pull up a chair point to the chair, I might physically guide them into sitting in the chair. Now they can start to understand what sit means, right?

Speaker 2: But just saying the word over and over doesn't help. So that physical piece is really, really important with your dog because your dog doesn't understand what you're saying or what you're asking for, right? It takes some repetition for them to, to figure out what the word means. And we're gonna talk more about that in a little bit. But that physical piece is super, super important. Um, the way we do physical with the dog, uh, might vary a little bit depending on the situation, but the main things we're doing is we always have the dog on a leash, right?

Speaker 2: You're, if you're training your dog, they should be on a leash until they're more advanced and have graduated to that off leash capability. And even then, if you're teaching them something brand new, you might wanna put them back on a leash, okay? But so the dog's always on a leash, and next, that leash is always attached to a prong collar.

Speaker 2: Now, is that absolutely necessary? No, I suppose not. But we have found historically a hundred percent for that prong caller to be the most effective way for us to communicate through our leach, to get leverage with our leash, to be able to move the dog around, to be able to settle the dog, to be able to disagree with things if the dog suddenly jumps on us. Having the leash on a prong collar and always having the dog on a leash is a huge piece of our recipe for success with dogs, especially early, early on in their training.

Speaker 2: It's so, so important. In fact, a lot of the time, if someone is kind of struggling with a dog, um, you know, dogs just, you know, zigzagging all around, frantically, pacing, glancing around, wrapping the person up, jumping on them. It's like, chances are what they need to do is to shorten up their leash, right?

Speaker 2: So we have a tendency to relinquish a lot of control to the dog without even realizing we're doing it. So that physical piece is super important. And then we can use that leash to give the dog physical guidance to show them what we want them to do, right? And sometimes that might even be quote unquote force, right? The ugly f word. But we have some good videos posted of Murphy, uh, the golden retriever that's here for board and train right now. And he's doing amazing you guys. But his first couple videos, he just didn't wanna do anything with us, and we had no choice but to physically force him.

07:00 — Murphy the golden retriever learned place and down through leash follow-through when food failed…

Speaker 2: Now, that doesn't mean we were hurting him, it doesn't mean we were bullying him, but it means he was on a leash. And we used that leash to get the behaviors that we wanted him to do, right?

Speaker 2: And it took some repetition of him seeing, first of all what we wanted. And second of all that we weren't gonna give up. We were gonna follow through and we were going to get the behavior from him. And then he started doing it like a rock star. In fact, he was happy to do it. But if we didn't have that leash on there, we would've been dead in the water. If we didn't have that prong collar on there, we would've been very, very hard pressed to get those behaviors. It would've been very frustrating, um, because you just don't have the same leverage.

Speaker 2: You just don't have the same, um, effectiveness, the same efficacy with the dog as you do on a prong caller. And so I urge you, if you follow us, or even if you don't go find us and watch those videos, um, there's one, the one that I remember for sure that I'm thinking of right now is teaching Murphy to get onto his place cot and lay down, right?

Speaker 2: Because we want that lay down to be automatic when he gets on there and without a leash, he would've just left <laugh>. And he certainly wouldn't have laid down 'cause he really just didn't want to. He didn't want to. And so we had to work him through that a few times. But we need that physical piece. People think that they're going to like, talk their dog into doing it, they're gonna bargain with them, they're gonna bribe them. And Murphy's not into food. He didn't want food. So even if we wanted to bribe him, it wouldn't have worked.

Speaker 2: So full communication and guidance is absolutely key.

Speaker 2: All right, number two, be neutral. So, so important. Here's the thing. When I say be neutral, I mean pretty much in every aspect of your training. Um, but what comes to mind first is correction. So say your dog jumps on you or your dog barks at someone, or whatever it is that you want to correct, be neutral, right? We don't want you to be angry, we don't want you to be frustrated. We don't want your dog to sense this unstable energy coming from you. So people worry a lot about corrections, but my experience by and large has been that corrections themselves are emotionally neutral.

Speaker 2: Corrections themselves don't really quote unquote scare dog, right? It's uncomfortable, but it's not an overwhelming like, threat to their safety. What is is when a person is mad, angry, frustrated, yelling, those are the things that dogs tend to get very on edge about, very nervous about.

Speaker 2: Not all dogs, of course, but we're gonna talk about that too. It is different for every dog, but it's that unstable negative energy that is going to really affect your dog, um, in a way that we don't necessarily want to, right? Because we're just trying to change a behavior. We're not trying to scare the dog to death. We're not trying to, um, bring this toxic stuff into the relationship between us and the dog. We're not trying to make the dog feel actually threatened by us. Like, that's not what we're doing. That's what people would like you to think that is happening, but it's not right?

Speaker 2: And a proper correction. That's, that's part of why we advocate for proper corrections, is because it removes the toxic stuff from the relationship. It removes the anger, it removes the frustration and the yelling. And then you can build a healthier relationship with your dog.

Speaker 2: Uh, so being neutral is important. Now, even if we're not talking about corrections, even if we're just talking about obedience, as you're doing your repetition, if you have a dog that's stubborn or nervous or pushy or just anything at all, and, and you're just struggling to get them to do the behaviors, so important to keep yourself in check and just be neutral, keep that neutral tone about you. Because first of all, if you have a, a more nervous and fearful dog, well you're gonna make them, right? And that's might be why they're having a hard time doing this stuff is because they're nervous and fearful and they're uncomfortable, right?

12:00 — Frustrated handling can intensify fear in nervous dogs and increase defensive behavior in already…

Speaker 2: But if you start getting frustrated, if you start manhandling your leash a lot, like being very herky jerky and kind of taking out your frustration on the leash, dog's gonna feel that, right? If your tone of voice, um, if you're raising your voice, like dog's gonna feel that, right? Your facial expressions dog feels all this stuff, they're gonna become more nervous and fearful. And so now your problem gets worse,

Speaker 2: Okay? If you have a really tense dog, kind of like Murphy, the golden that we have here, it's very common, uh, for the breed. But a, a lot of dogs are very kind of tense and just insecure, right? Those dogs, if you seem hostile, if you seem unstable, that dog that's really tense is gonna get more and more defensive. And then guess what you open yourself up for, for potentially a bite, right? Because a lot of dogs are gonna bite first, ask questions later. If you make them uncomfortable, they might just revert to lizard brain.

Speaker 2: And out comes the bite, right? It is just a biological, uh, reaction. Brain senses that the interaction is dangerous and triggers the behavior of a bite, right? Not for all dogs, again, all dogs are different but common, right? And that's really common with dogs that tend to be just really tense, really rigid, and just not sure about things. So like Murphy, when he first came in until he got really comfortable with us over days, you know, weeks, he would've been one of those guys. I had an Aussie one time, um, and I wasn't even being, um, hostile quote unquote, right?

Speaker 2: But just

Speaker 2: The follow through and the increase in pressure made her defensive enough that she turned around and snapped at me. But, so you can imagine the fuel that would add to the fire if I was escalating in frustration if I was angry, right? I mean, she grazed my, my leg <laugh> with a tooth and actually put a little hole in my leggings. Um, be, it was funny too, funny story 'cause she just didn't wanna sit. And I have the video somewhere, um, and I have to try to find it. But it was really, it was just like 15 minutes of just asking her to sit over and over and over again and then using the, the leash to get her to sit.

Speaker 2: And at some point she was just, she didn't wanna do it and she was just done. Um, and that happened. But, you know, if I had come into that situation and gotten frustrated and angry, that might have been a lot worse. And we might not have made it to 15 minutes. <laugh>

Speaker 1: Can't get enough of this dog training stuff. Well, I have great news. We're going to start offering an inexpensive paid subscription where you can get access to our new exciting bonus content. It's just one more way that you can help support the podcast. But even if you can't do that, just leaving us a review and hitting subscribe is hugely appreciated. And of course, don't forget to tell your friends about the podcast. 'cause you and I know they have issues with their dogs. And this way they won't have to get mad at you for saying it because I'm saying it.

Speaker 1: <laugh>, thank you for being here guys, and thank you for your support.

Speaker 2: Right? So dogs that are, are tense and, and rigid and not real sure about things, especially a dog you don't have a relationship with yet, you wanna make sure you're really keeping your energy in check that you're not getting frustrated. Um, another story that I have just real briefly that's similar, although I think this one was more my fault. So, you know, the story of the Aussie was really more just the Aussie was a little crazy, um, <laugh>, but there I have, uh, it was a golden, and he tended to be just like Murphy, uh, a little tense, a little rigid, a little unsure of things.

Speaker 2: And he was still fairly new to me. Not Brandy new. We, I had had him for at least a few days, maybe a week, um, somewhere in, but anyways, it was morning time I was rushing around. I was a little frantic because I was going to be late.

Speaker 2: And, uh, he needed to come with me, you know, as is part of our morning routine, like getting the dogs outta their kennels and geared up and out into the car and everything, getting my daughter to school and it's, it's chaos, right? And so on a morning where you're behind, it's added chaos. And I open up his kennel to get him geared up and take him out. And, um, he didn't wanna come out, which again, is a thing I actually see a lot with goldens, which is kind of interesting. But I, so I open up the kennel and he's like, Nope, like, I'm good.

17:00 — Rushing toward a kennel and reaching for a reluctant golden’s collar triggered a defensive…

Speaker 2: I'm just gonna hang out in here. Which of course doesn't work for me. Like, we need to go <laugh>. So, so I'm calling him out, he's not coming out, he's not getting up. And even though I know this isn't the best idea, like I'm in a rush, I don't care.

Speaker 2: I just reach in to get his collar and put his, um, gear on him and he snapped at me, right? And so that my fault, like I know that's a bad idea, but in that moment from his perspective, he doesn't know me real well yet. Uh, I'm rushing around all frantic, I'm, I'm moving quickly and I'm reaching in his kennel toward him in an enclosed space, like reaching for his collar. And it just triggered snap, right? And it wasn't a big deal. He didn't actually get any teeth on me at all. Um, but he was definitely sending the message like, I don't know what you're doing.

Speaker 2: Not cool <laugh>, right? So really important. Like even in those situations, right? I wasn't frustrated or angry, but I guess this is a good point, I was still from the dog's perspective, like unstable energy, right? Because I was rushing around really frantically. And so it can be helpful in moments like that to just kind of take a deep breath, even if you're late, like I was running late, <laugh>, take a deep breath and just slow yourself down for a second, right? Because when you're interacting with the dogs, you've gotta be conscious of that energy. You don't wanna be unstable energy.

Speaker 2: Um, so yeah, if you have a tense dog, you could trigger that defensive sort of mechanism in them. If you have sort of a dominant, pushy type dog, you could just trigger straight up aggression, right? A dog that says, nobody tells me what to do is, you know, they can become aggressive even if you're doing everything right. So if you throw fuel on that fire that says, Hey, we're having a conflict, then you're gonna get more of that. You're more likely to see that, right? Again, if they see the unstable energy, if they see the frustration, if they see the anger, um, if they see you as just an adversary, right?

Speaker 2: And now you're throwing on top of that all kinds of emotion, all kinds of unstable energy, you're definitely a lot more likely to get pushback from those types of dogs. So you can see we've described like three different personality types. And of course there's infinite personality types, right? Because almost no dog fits perfectly into one box. But you can see how if you get a nervous, fearful dog who's having a hard time doing stuff, you could make them worse

Speaker 2: By exhibiting that unstable energy. If you get a dog that's really sort of tense and rigid and anxious, you could make them worse. You could make them defensive. If you get a dog that's really pushy and bratty more dominant, um, stubborn doesn't like to be told what to do and they see you having unstable energy, you getting frustrated, they see conflict. Some dogs like conflict by the way, right? So some dogs will engage in that super fast, right? They'll go, oh, I guess we're fighting now. Right? So you really, really, really wanna rehearse the skill of just staying neutral.

21:00 — Neutrality does not require monotone delivery; handlers can adjust voice and energy while remaining…

Speaker 2: Now, as a side note, before we move on to number one, I do wanna say, when I say stay neutral, what I don't mean is monotone, okay? We often will intentionally be changing our tone of voice and our energy level to keep the dog engaged, keep them excited.

Speaker 2: There's nothing wrong with that. That is a tool you should use at your discretion, okay? So if you have a dog who isn't real confident, is kind of nervous, isn't sure about you, and you find that using a higher voice or using a little more encouraging energy gets them going, then do that. Right? That's not what we're saying when we say be neutral, but more we're just saying don't be rushing around frantically. Don't be getting frustrated. Don't be exhibiting, you know, anger. Um, don't be yelling, you know, that type of stuff. And also as a side note, using too much enthusiasm might actually be overwhelming to some really nervous, fearful dog.

Speaker 2: So, I mean, do what works in terms of what energy you're using with a dog really is the bottom line, right? Just like when we're using our eco and we say, Hey, do what works. Same thing with your energy level, but be very conscious of it. And don't forget to slow yourself down. Take a breath if you need to. And, um, never, never allow that, the frustration to creep into your training. 'cause it's definitely going to be counterproductive and it could result in real issues if you have a dog who's not in a good state of mind.

Speaker 2: Alright, number one, guys, this is the biggest one. Be quiet. <laugh>, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up. Seriously. Now, this ties back into number three. I told you we would talk a little bit more about, um, you know, the verbal nature of humans. And boy are we verbal creatures. So, but here's the thing. The more your verbal, verbal, verbal, the more your verbal noises just become less noticeable to the dog. So you are literally, you, not literally, but you are becoming the fan in the background, right? You're becoming the air conditioner in the background.

Speaker 2: How many of you leave your fans or ac running into the fall, maybe even into the winter, because it puts you to sleep, right? White noise. You are becoming white noise to your dog. So that is super counterproductive, right? 'cause we want our dogs to notice when we're talking to them, and we want them to know what we're asking for when we talk to them. And that is just a lot less likely to happen if you're always making noise, right? And that doesn't mean you can't talk, like you can't talk to the people around you or even to your dogs sometimes, right?

Speaker 2: But if we're talking about commands, if we're talking about giving your dog instruction, you need to zip it.

Speaker 2: In fact, sometimes you don't even need a command, right? If you have your dog on a leash, we are huge, huge, huge proponent of physical communication with the dog. Like we talked about in number three. You can control their position with the length of your leash. You can get your dog to sit by applying upwards pressure on your leash, right? You might have to condition your dog to that first. It's very quick and easy to do. You can tell your dog not to pull by popping your leash. You can move your dog to the left and the right by just applying a little leash pressure, right?

Speaker 2: So when you have your dog on a leash, there's actually literally no reason to ever say anything to your dog.

Speaker 2: That doesn't mean that you can't, but if you're going to use a verbal command with your dog, just say the command, don't then follow it with a paragraph of meaningless nonsense because your dog does not understand what you're saying and what you're really doing. 'cause your dog is taking pictures all the time in their brain, and you give your dog a command, they snap a picture, right? Especially early in the learning process. And so if that picture just has one word and then that word is followed by a behavior, that's a very easy pattern for your dog to pick up on and figure out that's gonna make you very effective and very efficient.

25:00 — On leash, handlers can teach positions through physical guidance and pressure-release without adding unnecessary…

Speaker 2: However, if that word is followed, then like I said, by a paragraph of meaningless nonsense, that picture is now cluttered up with all kinds of shit that your dog doesn't need, doesn't understand, and it becomes part of your picture and part of what they're trying to learn. So your dog doesn't know to filter out all that crap after you give the command. For all they know, that whole paragraph might be your command, right? And so now they've got 5 million things they have to listen for or try to figure out if they're part of the pattern.

Speaker 2: So keep it simple by being quiet, especially early on in the training. If you're trying to teach your dog something new, you need to zip it one word, <laugh>, that's it. And only say that word once, not over and over again,

Speaker 2: Right? Because they don't understand what all those other words mean. But every time you use them, they kind of get attached to the word you're trying to teach. So the word you're trying to teach needs to stand alone. And most of the time that we're talking, what we're actually doing is we're driving up our dog's arousal. So I can't stress this enough, if you have a dog that gets easily overexcited, overstimulated, again, if they're on a leash, this is part of the reason why we're a huge proponent of just physical communication through your leash and the human zipping it and being quiet.

Speaker 2: You go out in public with a dog that gets really excited and you just talk at them the whole time. And guess what you're doing? You get them more excited, more aroused, more stimulated, and then they have a harder, harder and harder time. You're doing them a huge favor by just being quiet. And I really, really recommend people carving out some time to rehearse that you can put your dog on a leash, that's fine, but go rehearse doing things with your dog and not paying anything, right? And so then when you do use commands, maybe it will come a little bit easier to you

Speaker 2: To be quiet. Just use the command and don't say anything else. So that's like training for the human right. You need to practice, you need to rehearse being quiet, how to convey what you wanna convey to your dog, and then stop. Don't convey anything else. <laugh>. The more verbal you are, the more you blurry the picture, the more you muddy the waters and the more you drive up your dog's arousal, it's not helping you, it's not helping your dog. And again, depending on how you're being verbal, if you are overexcited, dog gets overexcited. And for some dogs, that might mean they become more anxious because a lot of times those are wrapped up together, right?

Speaker 2: If you are frustrated, dog gets defensive, perhaps, or who knows, right? But the less verbal you are, the lower risk of any of that happening, and the faster your dog is gonna be able to learn because the picture is gonna be so much more crisp and clear to them. I think that really truly is one of the most valuable skills that you can develop when you're working with a dog, is being quiet and being clear, being neutral, having a nice calm, but confident energy, and using physical communication and guidance along with our minimal verbal instruction.

Speaker 2: That's it guys. Those are the top three. Be quiet, be neutral, be physical.

Speaker 1: 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 Canine 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.