How To Train Your Dog With Love + Science - Dog Training with Annie Grossman + Anamarie Johnson PhD (Annie Grossman)

Annie interviews Brooklyn-based dog food entrepreneur (and sometimes trapeze artist) Hanna Mandelbaum on why it matters what we feed our dogs. Together, they consider some of the many choices, including dry vs. canned, frozen vs. fresh, and cooked vs. raw.



Links:

Show Notes - Evermore Petfood - School for the Dogs Facebook Group - School For The Dogs



Please make sure to subscribe & rate 5-star on iTunes! NYC-based dog trainer Annie Grossman loves to find engaging ways to help both dogs & humans approach training as an exercise in better understanding all animal behavior. She specializes in working with puppies, teaching tricks, & prepping dogs for commercial work.



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Partial Transcript:



Annie:

Hi, I am here with my good friend, Hanna. 

Hanna:

My name is Hanna Mandelbaum and I do lots of different, wonderful things, but the reason I'm on this podcast, 

Annie:

You do do lots of wonderful things. 

Hanna:

The reason I'm on this podcast is I am the co founder of a fabulous pet food company called Evermore Pet Food. 

Annie:

And I should mention one of the, one of the wonderful things Hanna does when she's not making pet food is she is a trapeze artist and more than anyone else, I know she does an amazing job of combining her passions, which, I think, the best example is when she did a whole trapeze act dressed as dressed as a dog, wearing a cone. And, uh,

Hanna:

I was a fresh spay.

Annie:

A freshly spayed dog. And then at the end of the trapeze act where she was dressed like a dog, she ate her own dog food.

Hanna:

I'm sure that you should link that in the show notes. 

Annie:

Hanna and I first met because she and her partner, Alison, literally decided to eat their own dog food, which I didn't even know that it was an expression. Did you know that?

Hanna:

It is. It's a tech expression, um,from the wonderful world of technology where “eat your own dog food” meant use the product that you're developing. It's, sort of, it's about like a willingness to, like, use your own product and you can't really understand the thing that you're creating unless you use it. 

Annie:

Oh, okay. 

Hanna:

Well, I actually didn't know that it was a thing either when I started.

Annie:

Well, Hanna and Alison started to literally eat their own dog food. Their dog food brand is called Evermore. And to be perfectly honest, um, I met Hanna when I was just starting to become a dog trainer and I don't think I'd ever thought that much about dog food until I started to talk to her. And what I mean by that is I don't think I ever thought about it as anything that was that important to my dog's life. I knew he loved to eat and eating was obviously a big part of his life. And I knew I wanted him to be healthy and live a long time, but I'm not sure I ever put it all together in that I understood that it actually mattered what I fed him. I think I felt like at the end of the day, he's a dog and he can eat dog food because that's what dogs eat. And I think dog food to me was just like one category of thing that I purchased.

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts

Every dog already knows how to lie down -- your dog lies down all the time! The trick to training a "down" is to teach your dog to do it when you ask for it. That involves adding a cue. In this episode, Annie addresses the difference between a "cue" and a "command," and talks about some of the pitfalls people tend to fall into when attempting to cue a dog -- is the dog responding to your words? Or your body language? Or both? Or neither?! Annie goes over how to teach a "down" using two methods: Capturing, and luring. For the former, she describes how to use a verbal cue. For the latter, she explains how to morph a lured down into a down that is a response to a clear and subtle visual cue. The result is a dog who will understand what you want in as little as just one training session.

Also make sure to see our recent episode on training "Sit."

http://anniegrossman.com/2018/08/podcast/podcast-episode-19-train-dog-sit-scratch/9711/

Are you enjoying this podcast? Please leave it a 5-star rating and write a review on iTunes! If you have a training question you'd like answered, submit it at http://AnnieGrossman.com/ask

School: http://schoolforthedogs.com 

Shop: http://storeforthedogs.com 

Instagram: http://instagram.com/schoolforthedogs 

Facebook Group: http://facebook.com/groups/schoolforthedogs

Partial Transcript: 

Annie:

Hello humans, thank you for tuning in to School for the Dogs podcast. As some of you know, I had a baby

almost a month ago. I've been trying to find the perfect time to record this podcast all day and waiting

for her to take a nap or at least be quiet for a while and finally decided I needed to do it while feeding

her bottle so if you hear adorable little sucking and gurgling noises, that is my daughter who is a foot

away from the microphone guzzling down some milk. So sorry sorry that the extra noise, maybe we can

just pretend that baby Magnolia here is my co host. Listen to these adorable sounds, you can't make this

kinda stuff up… and that was my dog snorting.

Anyway, if you enjoy this podcast, just want to remind you that you can help me out by sharing it with

your dog-loving friends. You can do this in multiple ways, you can take a picture of your podcast player

and share it on social media, on your stories or your feed. Let other dog lovers know that this is out

there. If you tag School for the Dogs, we will go ahead and share in our stories too. Also leave us a rating

and review on iTunes- very much appreciated. I love reading your iTunes reviews, it really helps me

figure out what you find interesting and what I can offer more of and if you have a question you can

send a direct message on Instagram, you can also go to Annie Grossman.com/ask and I will do my best

to respond.

Today I wanted to go over how to teach your dog to lie down and as I mentioned in the episode I did a

few months ago on teaching the dog to sit - obviously lying down is something your dog already knows

how to do good, your dog lies down all the time-the trick is of course to teach your dog to lie down

when you ask him or her to do it. So it's really just about adding a cue to a behavior your dog already

knows and, like many dog trainers, use the word cue instead of the word command although if you want

to say command instead of cue that's okay with me.

Full transcript available at SchoolForTheDogs.com/Podcast

Before she became a dog trainer, Jenny Efimova was working human trauma survivors for a living. Her job involved being empathetic and meeting people where they were. It wasn't immediately obvious to her that a lot of the lessons she'd learned at work could be applied to someone in her home who was suffering: Her dog. Her young rescue, Larkin, was increasingly afraid to go out on walks in her neighborhood. The first professionals she worked with told her she was the issue: She wasn't “confident” enough with her puppy, and he thought he was the boss.  It didn't feel right to her, and the suggested methods didn't work. In fact, they felt like they were making matters worse. Then she started working with a trainer who explained how to use positive reinforcement in training, and it was a behavioral game changer for her and her dog Larkin. This led her to become a certified dog trainer herself, through the Karen Pryor Academy. Today she trains online and in Brookline, MA. She also runs an Instagram account @dogminded.

Annie and Jenny discuss the challenges that come with cultural expectations of how both dogs and dog owners should behave. They confront the popular idea that if you are not a stern leader with your dog, you are spoiling them, and consider whether there has been any cultural shift in changing the conversation about what it means to be a compassionate dog owner. They also discuss how interspecies relationships and examining our expectations of our pets can help us learn to be more humane and compassionate in general.

Learn more about Jenny at:

https://www.dogminded.training/

Follow Jenny on Instagram: @dogminded

Follow School For The Dogs @schoolforthedogs 

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Partial Transcript:

Jenny Efimova:

We don't expect this sort of robotic one way dictatorship in other relationships, but with dogs, for some reason, there's this expectation that there are these behavioral outputs, and that they have to do everything we say, and they have to behave in certain ways. And that any behavior that is inconvenient or troublesome for us has to be eliminated. And that there's not room to say, Hey, this is actually a sentient being. I'm gonna treat their behavior with the same courtesy I would treat the behavior of anybody else.

So it's this kind of bizarre dynamic which isn't actually natural for a lot of people, because all the people I work with love their dogs tremendously. We know that there's research showing that people who lose their pets often grieve those losses more than they grieve losses of people in their lives, right?

The relationships people have with their dogs and their pets are profound. We currently, I think, don't have the language and the norms in our culture to really honor that. And I think dog training as a whole falls really behind in that regard. Because what people really want is to have a joyful relationship with their dog. And at this point, I think a positive reinforcement based approach is what allows that to happen in the most compassionate way.

[music]

Annie:

Jenny I'm so eager to talk to you, happy to have you on the podcast. I have followed you on Instagram for quite a while, and I feel like I kind of know you in an Instagram way. And I'd like to know you in a real person way. But this is the interim, I guess.

Full Transcript at SchoolForTheDogs.com/Podcast

In 2014, Meredith Witte decided she needed a Border Collie. The fact that she lived in a studio apartment in Manhattan did not deter it. But how was she going to train a puppy? The day the dog arrived, she called Annie. At the end of their first training session, Meredith was in tears. But they were good tears! Fast forward eight odd years: Meredith and her super bright dog sidekick, Roma, now live in LA. Roma knows how to count and can perform a wide array of adorable tricks. Annie and Meredith discuss their own friendship, Meredith and Roma's incredible relationship, and the wonders -- and challenges! -- of sharing your life with a brainiac, active dog. 

Find Roma and Meredith on Instagram! @romalovepup

Get our free guide to people training at http://schoolforthedogs.com/people

Book a free session with an SFTD Certified Professional Trainer this month only at http://schoolforthedogs.com/virtualconsult

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

I am here with client turned friend Meredith Witte. Meredith, thank you so much for being on this segment of Best Pet Ever. You do have one of the best pets ever. Why don't you just introduce yourself, and then we can go ahead and talk about the lovely miss Roma.

Meredith Witte:

Oh gosh. I mean, I can talk about Roma for hours. It's always so fun to talk to you, Annie, and you made such a big impact in my life. I mean, when I got Roma, I didn't know what I was doing. So I think of you as this person who kind of saved me in this moment of crisis, which, not that getting a puppy was a crisis. But for me, it was such a big deal. And I was so concerned that I was going to do it wrong. And you reassured me so much and gave me the tools I needed to raise Roma up and enjoy the whole process.

Annie:

Aww. Well, pshaw. That's sweet of you. I just, I know the first time we met, I remember sitting on the floor in your apartment with you and you were holding Roma and you were crying. You had just gotten her like the day before. And I kind of remember thinking like, you know, she's really emotional, but you know what, that's not unreasonable. Like this is totally within the normal spectrum of responses someone could have when they're first getting a puppy and she's gonna be fine.

[music]

Meredith:

My name's Meredith Witte, and I lived in New York for 10 years, and I'm a producer. And I decided one day I was really ready for a dog. I was in my thirties and I lived alone in a studio apartment in Manhattan. And I didn't want just any dog, I wanted a border collie.

Annie:

Yeah. Now that's…that's where I think you're a little nuts. So how did that come about now? Did you grow up with border collies?

Meredith:

Well, so kind of, yeah. My grandfather had a ranch in Texas and they always had two or three dog. And the majority of them were usually border collies. Some were German shepherds. But I grew up around them. So you know, whenever I’d go visit or like during college. My childhood dog growing up was kind of a mix. It was probably like an Aussie mix, just a good old Southern mutt, you know. But she looked kind of like that type of dog.

Full Transcript at SchoolForTheDogs.com/podcast

School For The Dogs is currently taking applicants for its six month Professional Course, which begins June 1!  In this episode, Annie responds to a listener who is interested in becoming a dog trainer, but is worried that she may end up in a program that is a scam... She describes the evolution of School For The Dogs' Professional Course, discusses some some others, and talks about the many different paths people take towards becoming a professional dog trainer. She also answers a listener's question about a young dog who is resource guarding her food. 

Apply to the School For The Dogs Professional Course before May 1 at http://schoolforthedogs.com/professionalcourse

Also mentioned in this episode: 

Kennelwood Academy - https://kennelwoodacademy.com/

The Academy of Pet Careers - https://www.theacademyofpetcareers.com/

Animal Behavior College - http://animalbehaviorcollege.com

Jean Donaldson's Academy For Dog Trainers - https://www.academyfordogtrainers.com/

Victoria Stillwell Academy - https://positively.com/dog-training/become-a-dog-trainer/

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Hi, this is a bonus Q and A episode. I try to go live every Thursday on the School for the Dogs’s Instagram account. If you would like to be alerted when I’m going to go live, or if you’d like to answer a question in advance, go to SchoolfortheDogs.com/qanda. Thanks for being here.

So today’s question comes from Melissa, who lives in St. Louis. She has a corgi, Pembroke Welsh corgi named Patchy. And Melissa wrote:

Actually, I have a question that isn’t about my pop, your cast and tips have been extremely helpful so far. I was actually wondering, where would you suggest someone who wants to get into the field of dog training go? I’ve looked into the Karen Pryor Academy, but there aren’t any nearby locations to St. Louis, Missouri. There is the Academy of pet careers, which costs $20,000 for a 180 day class. There is the Kennelwood Academy for $14,000.

I really want to get into this field, and I enjoy using a lot of your techniques on my puppy with the clicker.  But I’m trying to find something more affordable and something that isn’t a scam to just get my money. I also looked into Animal Behavior College, which is almost all online and that’s roughly $5,000. I look forward to hearing from you.

Well, great question, particularly for today, because we have just opened up our dog training professional program which I think might be a great fit for you, Melissa. It is a six month program. We have been running professional programs at School for the Dogs since 2017. And I believe about half of our trainers came through our professional program. Most of them knowing little or nothing about training before that. And now they are honestly some of the finest trainers I know. So for that reason, I’m pretty proud of this program.

Full transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

This is a rebroadcast of Episode 29, which originally aired on 10/15/18. 

As much as we want our dogs to be social beings, the sad fact is that city streets are not an ideal place for leashed dogs to socialize. The close confines of the sidewalk can keep dogs from having enough space to greet each other properly, and leashes too often can become uncomfortably taught, leading a dog to think that even just the sight of another dog predicts yanking and choking.

Like this podcast? Support it by leaving a 5-star review on iTunes, telling your friends, shopping in our online store, or signing up for Annie's mailing list. Learn more about School For The Dogs at SchoolForTheDogs.com. 

This episode addresses:

-Avoiding other dogs on the street

-Using the presence of other dogs on leash as a cue for your dog to pay attention to you

-Providing your dog with appropriate off-leash socialization opportunities

-Choosing which dogs you might let your dog greet

-Helping your dog greet other dogs naturally and appropriately ... and more

Notes:

7 things to consider before letting two dogs greet on leash

https://schoolforthedogs.com/greetings

Dogs In Need Of Space

https://dogsinneedofspace.com/

The Yellow Dog Project

Mendota leash -- Annie's favorite, lightweight leash

https://storeforthedogs.com/products/braided-leash

Woof Shout Out: Dog adoption vests by Mimi Reid

https://etsy.me/2PzKd9T

Fun dog fact of the day: NYC dog names (dogs named after fruits, vegetables, etc)

https://nycedc.com/blog-entry/new-york-citys-dog-population

Follow School For The Dogs on Instagram: Instagram.com/schoolforthedogs Ask Annie: AnnieGrossman.com/ask --- Partial Transcript:  Annie:

Hey everyone! So today we are going to talk about dog-dog greetings, specifically dogs greeting other dogs on the street, and I'm going to suggest how you can teach your dog to greet another dog well and all the things you need to keep in mind when deciding whether or not you're going to let your dog greet another dog.

But before I get into the thick of it, I wanted to give my number one suggestion, which is this: Don't do it. Don't let your dog greet other dogs on the street. That's it. Now the reason I'm not going to end it there is because I know that that sort of like a bummer piece of advice. People don't generally love the idea of shielding their dog from every other dog on the street. We like the idea of being able to walk our dogs and have it be a kind of social thing where they can say hi to the other dogs in the neighborhood and everyone's gonna get along. But here's some reasons why I generally advise against letting your dog interact with other dogs on the street.

First of all, I see a lot of crazy dogs at School for the Dogs, all of us trainers do...

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/podcast/

This is the audio of a live presentation Annie gave for New York City's Animal Medical Center's Usdan Institute for Animal Health Education last week. 

Annie offers actionable advice for preventing separation anxiety and handling other behavioral issues that may arise as people begin to return to offices after long periods of working from home, with their dogs constantly by their sides.

This presentation discusses:

• How to locate a certified dog trainer and understand what "Good Dog Training" is...


• Changing a dog's emotional states...


• Reading dog body language to assess stress levels...


• Monitoring dogs remotely...


• Creative dog care arrangements for when owners aren't around...


• Conducting separation trials in a way that sets up dogs for success...

And more!

You can view the presentation in full here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NaAP5Cskd8&feature=youtu.be

School For The Dogs' trainers are available for private sessions to deal with issues relating to true separation anxiety. Book a session at schoolforthedogs.com or call us at 212-353-DOGS

Looking for online help? Check out Malena DeMartini's on-demand course on dealing with separation anxiety at http://schoolforthedogs.com/mission. Use code SFTD for 50% off.

Learn more about School For The Dogs classes and workshops, both virtual and in NYC, at http://schoolforthedogs.com/services

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Hi. Today I am sharing the audio of a virtual presentation I did last week for New York City's Animal Medical Center. They asked me to talk about how people can prepare their dogs for them going back to work outside of their homes, which I know a lot of people are hoping to do soon.

How can we make sure that dogs who have been home with us, as we've worked from home for the last year, plus. How can we make sure to set them up for success if they are going to need to be without us for longer periods of time?

So yeah, I put together this presentation. If you want to see the presentation, not just listen to it, you can find the link to it in the show notes, I will put a YouTube link there. I will also link to some of the books that I mentioned on separation anxiety.

This presentation is really sort of about how to prevent separation anxiety, not how to deal with separation anxiety, but if you are already dealing with separation anxiety, I definitely suggest these books. I also suggest checking out Malena DeMartini’s course, which you can find at schoolforthedogs.com/mission. I had her on the podcast a few months ago to talk about it. I've done it. I learned a lot from it. You can get 50% off if you use that link and the code SFTD.

Also, before I play this for you, I wanted to let you all know that we have a lot of virtual offerings and we're adding even more to the schedule this fall. Of course, if you're in New York City, you should make sure to check out our website to find out about our local classes and workshops. You can also find our schedule on Instagram.

Full Transcript at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Annie wanted to get pet insurance for her young dog, Poppy, and decided to dive deep into researching all the options out there -- and oh boy, there sure are a lot of options! In this episode she speaks to several industry experts and company representatives, looks at reviews, reads the fine print, and, after narrowing down the options, discusses the matter with her husband, Jason, whose opinion about what to get ends up being a little different than hers.  

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Pet Insurance comparison: https://www.caninejournal.com/pet-insurance-comparison/ 

Companies mentioned in this episode:  

The Dog Tale  https://thedogtale.com/ 

Wagmo https://wagmo.io/ 

Crum and Forster https://www.cfpetinsurance.com/ 

Pumpkin  https://www.pumpkin.care/ 

ASPCA Pet Insurance  https://www.aspcapetinsurance.com/ 

Hartville Pet Insurance https://www.hartvillepetinsurance.com/ 

Lemonade https://www.lemonade.com/pet 

Pet Assure  https://www.petassure.com/ 

Eusoh 

Sign up for Eusoh through School For The Dogs and get 30% percent off the monthly membership fee for life at http://schoolforthedogs.com/eusoh 

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Hello humans. So this episode really has been a challenge to put together for several reasons. It’s about pet insurance, and I was inspired to research pet insurance because of our young dog Poppy coming into our family.

But there’s a lot of numbers when you’re looking at pet insurance. There’s a lot of choices, a lot of boring, fine print. So rather than just figuring out what I could from websites, I tried to get representatives of a bunch of different insurance companies on the phone, which was very helpful.  But I was still left with a lot of options and a lot of information. So before I play the episode, I just wanted to share a few takeaways and explain or point out some things that I think are missing from this episode.

First of all, there are a lot of pet insurance companies that I did not discuss in this episode. And that’s not because they’re not good. In fact, they might be great. They might be better than the ones I ended up focusing on. I’ll explain how I ended up picking the five companies that I focus on in a little bit, although it ended up sort of accidentally being more than five.

But I just wanted to mention, you know, I’ve heard, I’ve heard a lot about Trupanion, Happy Paws, Embrace.  Embrace is one, actually, I do kind of mention in the episode for a funny reason. So perhaps there could be a part two to this episode. And if you are using one of the companies I do mention, or one of the ones I don’t mention, I am super curious to hear about your thoughts on your pet insurance.

Full Transcript at SchoolfortheDogs.com/podcast

After years of researching breeds, Joanie Comenzo of Manhattan decided to get a Welsh Terrier. When she went to pick up her new dog, Nelson, the breeder pushed him into her arms and said "Your puppy is an alpha." Joanie loved him from the moment she saw him, and that love never waned, even after he bit her multiple times, and sent her mother and boyfriend to the hospital. Over the last eight years, Joanie has sought training and medical advice from a wide array of professionals. Today, Nelson wears a muzzle every moment of the day that he isn't in his crate. He and Joanie live a happy, if unusual, life together. This is their love story.



Notes: Nelson's preferred muzzle - Fun Dog Fact Of The Day: As late as the early 1900s, dogs were allowed to roam off leash in Philadelphia as long as they were muzzled - Woof Shout Out: Zuri, who wears a muzzle to deter people from pestering her for being so cute, can be found on Instagram at Instagram.com/zurithebolo - Music: "Love Is Strange" cover by Toast Garden

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Partial Transcript:

Joanie speaking to Nelson:

Good boy Nelson, Oh, what a good boy.

**music**

Annie:

I'm here with a client of ours, Joanie Comenzo and her dog Nelson, who is, a Welsh terrier. Is that right?

Joanie:

Yes

Annie:

I wanted to speak to Joanie about being Nelson's person because I think as a dog human pair, they've encountered some,pretty formidable obstacles and have come out on the other side, still loving each other.

But let's start from the beginning. So you got Nelson when he was a puppy?

Joanie:

Yeah, 14 weeks.

Annie:

Okay. So what made you decide to get this breed in particular and where did you get him?

Joanie:

Well, I had a Yorkie that I had as a teenager and then I went off to college, so it kind of became my mother's dog. And I knew I wanted something a little bigger, but I liked, you know, Yorkie was a good experience, you know, as a terrier. I knew I wanted a terrier. Everyone told me that the Jack Russell's too insane, don't get a Jack Russell. So I was, I listened, funny story that I ended up with Nelson, but, and I'd seen a few Welsh Terriers around. I was thought they looked interesting and then I just did some research and they just seemed like the perfect dog for me, you know, they said good with kids, I thought I was going to have children. You know good with kids. Good for city or, you know, country living. They adapt well to an apartment or you know, like they just--



Annie:

I always feel like those breed books make such grand generalizations, right? And yet so many people buy their dogs based on what it says.

Joanie:

Yeah. And just so much, you know, everything I read about them, I was like, I think this is going to be the dog for me. And then I researched rescues, it was impossible to get and you know, Welshies are just so hard to come by. There was no rescue with the dog for me and I was like, you know, I waited and I waited and I researched breeders and I found, you know, the top Welsh terrier breeder and you know, in the country and I was on a waitlist there for a really long time and they went through this huge interview process. You know, they were interviewing me to make sure that I was proper for their dogs, you know--



Annie:

Which is something you want from a breeder. You want them to be doing their due diligence too...



Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts/

Last week in New York City a white woman called the cops on a black man, saying he was threatening her life. Really, he just wanted her to obey Central Park's leash laws. In this episode, Annie attempts to dissect the altercation from a dog trainer's point of view, talking about everything from how we should use leashes, to how the man used an interesting combination of treats and negative reinforcement to get the woman to leash the dog.  Through the lens of dog behavior and training, we can also spot how fear, caused by ignorance or wrong associations or both, can lead to awful actions. Annie also talks about the animal-training concepts of "trigger stacking," her own "learned helplessness" when it comes to affecting change by voting, and her ongoing efforts to take a stance, one poop bag at a time.   

Get our free house training guide:

Http://SchoolForTheDogs.com/house

Notes:  The Amy Cooper/Christian Cooper video  

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/05/29/amy-cooper-white-woman/ 

Mendota Leashes https://storeforthedogs.com/products/braided-leash

 Found My Animal leashes  https://storeforthedogs.com/collections/found-my-animal/products/found-my-animal-leash-1 Coercion And Its Fallout by Murray Sidman  https://behavior.org/product/coercion-and-its-fallout-2/ Donald Trump Poop Bags https://storeforthedogs.com/products/copy-of-irreverent-poopbags-assorted-selection --- Partial Transcript: Annie: Hey everyone. I recorded this episode over a week ago, before riots broke out all around the country. The episode is about the incident that happened just before George Floyd was killed in another part of the country in New York City. It felt to me, you know, I'm in New York, it felt like a local incident took place more or less than in School for the Dog's backyard. And I didn't expect it to go viral, but it did because it's about race and racism and white privilege. And then George Floyd's killing suddenly made this New York City incident seem all the more sinister and terrible. This isn't a podcast about race. But the reason I felt like I wanted to say something about the New York incident is because in the middle of these two people, one of whom was black, one of whom was white, there was literally a dog and no one else is talking that much about the dog, which makes sense. There's a lot to unpack here that has nothing to do with the dog, but this is a podcast about dogs and about dog training. And so I felt I wanted to talk about the dog and to do so without so much touching on the much larger issues going on because I'm not a political commentator or an activist. I am a white woman who owns a small business. I think Black Lives Matter and I'm depressed and frightened to be living in a world where we even need to point out that black lives matter. All weekend, I lay in bed, holding my daughter and listening to helicopters and sirens overhead. And I just felt helpless. And if you've listened to this podcast before you obviously know that I like to try and spot the dog training lessons in the world we live in because so much of our lives is about changing our own behavior or trying to change other people's behavior. 

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts/

School For The Dogs' Behavior Therapy Trainer Jen Nastanski came to work at our New York-based facility after two decades of working with dogs at professional and competitive levels. She tells Annie about getting trained to be a trainer at PetSmart, getting involved in competitive Obedience using positive-reinforcement-based techniques, teaching (and helping to raise) guide dogs, and, most recently working at New York City's ASPCA, working to enrich the lives of dogs seized and held in custody by the NYPD. 

Special guest on this episode: Annie's friend Melanie Friedson, mom to Bichpoo, Herschel Stanley. 

Like this podcast? Leave a review on iTunes at http://schoolforthedogs.com/listen 

Need help leaving a review? See here: https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/subscribe/

Shop with us at http://storeforthedogs.com

Support us by shopping with us online at storeforthedogs.com

Book a session with Jen at http://schoolforthedogs.com/jen or call 212-353-3647

---

Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Can I include your funny dog voice on the podcast? I don't have to attach it to your name.

Melanie Friedson:

[funny voice] Of course. It's not funny. It's just how it is.

Annie:

[laughs] I should introduce you and say that you are –

Melanie:

You can. I'm not ashamed of my dog voice, Annie.

Annie:

You are one of my best friends, Melanie Friedson, human owner. How do you refer to yourself when it comes to Herschel?

Melanie:

[voice] I'm his mom.

Annie:

Okay. Mom to Herscshel Stanley [laughs]. 12 year old cavapoo?

Melanie:

Bichpoo.

Annie:

A bichpoo, of Washington, DC.

Melanie:

Yep.

Annie:

Anyway, so it's the last day of the year. And I'm putting up the last podcast episode of the year. I wanted to say to listeners that if they have enjoyed this podcast this year, that maybe they could leave a review on iTunes or shop at storeforthedogs.com to support us. But I thought it would be more fun if it was in your dog voice than in my normal human voice.

Melanie:

Oh, okay. So you want me to say that?

Annie:

Yeah.

[laughing]

Melanie:

If you like this podcast, please support us! Leave a good review on iTunes, or you can shop for us at storeforthedogs.com. This is Herschel Stanley Friedson’s mom!

[intro and music]

Annie:

Jen Nastanski.

Jen Nastanski:

Hello.

Annie:

Hello. Thank you for being on School For The Dogs podcast. And thank you for being part of School For The Dogs since, what, has it been two months now? Something like that?

Jen:

Something like that. Time is a little nebulous right now.

Annie:

Remind me of your official title, cause I'm bad with titles.

Jen:

I'm a behavior therapy trainer.

Annie:

And you've been doing private lessons. You've been doing Day School, right?

Jen:

Mm-hmm, yep.

Full Transcript at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

This is a bonus episode: A recording of a live Q and A.

Join Annie Grossman for a live Q and A on Instagram most Thursdays.

Sign up for the next one, and/or submit a question in advance, at http://schoolforthedogs.com/qanda.

Here Annie addresses questions about socializing dogs during quarantine, using wee wee pads if the goal is to teach a dog to only go outside, getting a dog to like a crate again,  using daycares to get a dog some social time, and more. 

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Hi, thanks for those of you who came to my little Instagram live demo just now with adorable little Poppy.  Hope that was helpful. I did have a couple of questions that came in that I wanted to answer as always. I try and go alive every Thursday at 3:00 PM. Eastern. If you want to ask a question or want to be notified when I’m going live on Instagram, just go to schoolforthedogs.com/qanda, and you can submit a question or sign up to be notified.

Oh, hi Duke. Nice to see you there. Okay, so this question comes — I have two questions from a user, JimEVF.  First one is, do you recommend taking your dog to daycare to improve his social skills?

And in a word, No. [laughs] I don’t. I’m all for improving dogs’ social skills, but I don’t think daycare is the best place for a dog to work on being social. I think you want to try and give your dog opportunities to have good social interactions with other dogs while you are around or at the very least while someone is paying close attention to your dog.

Now perhaps there are some daycares where they are doing a great job of paying close attention to every dog. But in general, my experience with dog daycares is they’re a little bit more like — they’re too much like dog parking lots. And it’s just, I don’t think the best set up for dogs to really learn to interact with other dogs. What’s more, your dog might have bad experiences there and you’re not going to necessarily know about them.

Years ago we had a kind of heartbreaking situation where a client of ours put their dog in daycare because the dog had really severe separation anxiety. She had to go to work and it was just what she had to do. And you know, anxieties can sometimes be like switching seats on the Titanic.  Like, okay, the separation anxiety more or less went away because the dog wasn’t being left alone, but the dog developed a fear of Hispanic men in hooded sweatshirts.

I know it’s a very specific kind of fear. But my guess is there was a Hispanic man in a hooded sweatshirt at this dog daycare who either didn’t treat this dog well, or this dog made some sort of misaligned connection with this person. And now the dog owner had this new and very real fear to contend with at School for the Dogs.

We run drop off a day school, which is kind of like the ideal form of dog daycare. I think there’s a ratio of one trainer for every three dogs. Sometimes it’s one trainer for two dogs and it’s a half day and they work the whole time. They’re doing training, they’re working on their socialization skills, whether that’s being introduced to new objects, sometimes going to new places.  But also just playing with each other in a supervised way with professionals who are looking on and then reporting back to the owners about what’s going on.

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

The sprightly Japanese organizing guru Marie Kondo has gained worldwide acclaim for essentially being an excellent trainer of humans. Specifically, she trains people to "tidy up" their homes. While she might be adept at using positive reinforcement (mostly in the form of her sheer enthusiasm about junk drawers) and other methods that dovetail with Good Dog Training, her approach also  encourages people to attach their actions to part in certain bizarre "superstitious" behaviors. like verbally "thanking" pieces of clothing and "waking up" sleeping books by tapping them. In this episode, Annie, who believes that  behavior-changing techniques should appeal more to common sense than to magical thinking,  talks about how Kondo and famous dog trainers like Barbara Woodhouse and Cesar Millan douse snake oil over their proposed solutions in order to suggest that clutter is caused by sleeping books,  dogs love the letter T, and nice leash walking can only happen if you channel amorphous invisible powers. 

Notes: 

Marie Kondo on Netflix - Marie Kondo's book: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up - Marie Kondo on The Late Show w/ Stephen Colbert, 2/5/2019 - Marie Kondo on Jimmy Kimmel Live, 1/29/2019 - Cesar Millan clip quoted in podcast, in which Millan tells the dog owner that her dog's won't listen to her unless she is "calm and assertive" and "injecting energy" into them while walking. - Barbara Woodhouse, dog trainer who throws books at dogs.  Clip in podcast is taken from here - On doing dishes and peeing 

The following are blog posts about The Dog Training Triad. Each post contains the podcast episodes on the same subjects, which were I posted last July  (Episodes 16, 17 and 18)

Part 1: Management 

Part 2: Rewards

Part 3: Timing

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Partial Transcript:

[Intro]



Annie:

Hey there, humans. So today I want to talk about someone who has been making the rounds on talk shows, and just generally in the news a lot, her name is Marie Kondo. And if you live under a rock and you don't know who I'm talking about, she is an expert on tidying up. In fact, her new Netflix series is called "Tidying Up" but years before this Netflix show, she was already quite well known for her book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Now, I know you're listening to this and you're saying to yourself, hold on, this is a dog training podcast. Why are we talking about this young Asian woman who helps people clean out their closets?  Well, it actually has to do with superstition or what dog trainers call superstitious behaviors.



Now you might be surprised that dogs are superstitious as are people, of course.  And I'll talk a little bit more in a minute about what dog superstition looks like. I think you probably already know about human superstitions, like wearing a certain pair of socks so that your favorite baseball team wins or not walking under a ladder or crossing a black cat...



Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts

This is a bonus episode: A recording of a live Q and A.

Join Annie Grossman for a live Q and A most Thursdays on Instagram @schoolforthedogs.

Get alerted about the next one or ask a question in advance at http://schoolforthedogs.com/qanda.

She also sometimes goes live to answer questions on Clubhouse. Find her there: @anniegrossman.

Today, Annie spoke to the human belonging to Penny (@heytherepenny on Instagram) about how to help young Penny feel more comfortable alone and how to start to prevent separation anxiety before it begins. Annie gives lots of tips on crate training, talks about how to create crate "FOMO," use the Treat and Train, and more. 

Join us on Instagram in April for our Day 1 of our Dog Training in 21 Days Challenge!

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Hi, is this Penny?

Angela:

Yes, this is Penny.

Annie:

And tell me your name.

Angela:

My name is Angela.

Annie:

Hey Angela. I’m recording this for School for the Dogs podcast. Is that okay?

Angela:

Yes.

Annie:

And where are you guys based? Are you in New York City?

Angela:

Yeah, so we are, we actually did sign up for a course at School for the Dogs, which starts in April.

Annie:

Oh, great. Which course are you doing with us?

Angela:

We’re doing Calm canine.

Annie:

Oh, great. Excellent.

Angela:

Just cause Penny, she’s really excited whenever she goes outside. So we’re hoping that’ll help.

Annie:

Is she a golden doodle?

Angela:

She’s a cavapoo.

Annie:

Okay. And how old is she?

Angela:

She’s six months old now.

Annie:

Oh, she’s a little, just a tiny pup.

Okay. Well tell me what’s going on with Penny.

Angela:

Well, so she basically follows us everywhere in the home. So like if she’s on the couch and we get up to go somewhere, she will, even if she’s asleep, she will wake up, hop down and follow us to wherever we are. My only concern right now, my boyfriend works from home, so she’s around somebody all day, but my concern is just like, when things go back to normal, he goes back to work. Just because she’s so used to following us, seeing us everywhere, if this becomes an issue for separation.

Annie:

Yeah. Well, I think you’re right to be thinking about that in advance. Have you tried leaving her alone? Have you tried leaving her with anyone else? What happens when you do that?

Angela:

So she we’ve done little intervals, like maybe five, 10 minutes or something, but just like we’re in another room. So we’re still, you know, she’ll be in the living room and we’ll just go to another room and kind of watch her on the camera. She again tries to follow us. So for the five, 10 minutes, she will eventually, after a couple minutes of scratching at the door, will go and kind of like sit on the couch. But the longest that we’ve left her is probably like 10 minutes or so.

Annie:

And she cries during those 10 minutes?

Full transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

In this episode, Annie offers a follow up to the previous episode, which featured a candid conversation with her husband about her ill-fated attempt to use punishment to keep him from showing her his uvula very time he yawned. Here, she points out some of the similarities and differences between using punishment with dogs and with humans. This episode touches on, among other things: -The long shadow punishment can cast -How language can offer clarification... or not -The subjective nature of "bad" behavior -Choosing appropriate punishers (and reinforcers) -The issue with a "Nothing In Life Is Free" approach to training -The importance of wisely selecting a training subject who isn't inclined to exhibit copious unwanted behaviors Notes: How I used punishment to train my husband to cover his mouth when he yawns (Part 1): - Parentonomics-- a book that discusses the trap of toilet training a child with jelly beans - Plenty In Life Is Free by Kathy Sdao - Have a question for our upcoming Q + A episode? Ask it at AnnieGrossman.com/ask

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Partial Transcript:



Annie:

Hello listeners. So last episode, if you heard it was a conversation with my husband, Jason, about an instance where I tried to change a behavior of his that I didn't like by using punishment and the episode was a conversation about this, this debacle, let's call it.

I got a bunch of questions about the whole thing. The specific behavior of course was that I was trying to get him to stop yawning with his mouth wide open. I was trying to train him to cover his mouth and the episode led to a lot of questions and I realized that it was sort of maybe like giving everybody a primary source without offering enough commentary and dissection about the whole thing. And I think that it's an anecdote that actually contains a lot of lessons that are applicable to all kinds of behavioral training, whether you're training a dog or your husband. Certainly  it was a failed attempt. So might be helpful if you go back and listen to that episode before listening to this episode. The real meaty part starts about halfway through if you want to cut to the chase.

The first thing I wanted to point out in looking at the whole incident, which Jason refers to as a “yawngate” is really how arbitrary and silly it is that, of course, that this was the thing I decided I was going to try and train. That this was the behavior that I was going to try and punish.



So often with dogs, we're inclined to categorize behaviors as a good behavior or a bad behavior. But in the end, they're all just behaviors. And whether or not they're good or bad depends on who is making the judgment.  Plenty of people would not be bothered at all by someone yawning without covering their mouths. And certainly working with dogs as trainers, we see all the time the things that are considered bad behaviors by one dog owner that someone else wouldn't mind at all.



For instance, lots of people don't want their dogs on their furniture and other people have no issue with their dogs going on their furniture. My dog barks at the doorbell and I have had people come over and comment on this as if it's an irony that I have a poorly behaved dog who barks at the doorbell when I am in fact a dog trainer.



Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts/

Join Annie Grossman for a live Q and A most Thursdays.

Sign up at http://schoolforthedogs.com/qanda.

Have a question? Visit AnnieGrossman.com/ask or upload a recording at anchor.fm/dogs.

In this episode, Annie talks about her epically bad day. She describes how a teenager has trained people to stop leaving her voicemails. 

She talks to Joan, a Manhattan woman who has MS and an out-of-control adolescent shepherd in downtown Manhattan. She wants the dog to be a service dog, and also wants to breed him. She also talks to her longtime friend, New York Times columnist Ronda Kaysen, about her recent search for a non-shedding puppy.

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Hey everyone. This is a bonus Q and A episode. I try and answer questions live every Thursday. You can sign up to come to my free live Q and A at schoolforthedogs.com/qanda, and you will see the next one I’m doing. I then am trying to take recordings of those Q and A’s and post them here to the podcast feed. If you have a question, you can email me directly annie@schoolforthedogs. You can also go to anchor.fm/dogs and record your question there. Thanks for being here.

I was going to wear sunglasses for this episode, but I think I can’t see properly.

Hey Yolanda, nice to see you and Joan is here. Hi, Joan. I just, I need a second to recover. It’s been a bad day. I would say this has been a really bad… first of all, well second of all, second of all, I just posted a podcast episode, like just bonus…well bonus sounds like it should be like a nice cherry thing. It didn’t feel like a nice cheery thing, but anyway, but I felt like I needed to post this episode. And as I posted it, like the microphone has like a little thing on it ….. Anyway as I… it’s actually, the second part is funny. The second part is right as I posted this episode, just now I like spilled an entire bottle of seltzer on my laptop.

Like not a little bit, like the entire bottle of water just went over on my laptop. Fortunately, I have like a desktop PC, so I have a computer, but it was like, anyway. And the first thing that happened today, which was much worse, thing is I just learned that my dog is dying. It was like that phone call that you don’t ever want to get. Well, I got that call this morning where that said that he has something in his liver that’s inoperable most likely. I mean, I guess I could get a second opinion, but it sounds like, sounds like this is probably it. And he’s been in really good health up until pretty recently when a couple things started to seem off. He’s 15 and a half-yesterday was his 15 and a half birthday. And you know, they don’t live forever.

It’s just just processing. He’s doing really well, he’s doing pretty well. We’re going to give him something to help his appetite, but he’s been his perky self, mostly. My daughters and him are so sweet together and I’m really glad that like she had the experience of having him as a dog, even though she probably won’t remember it, but like, he’s just been such an important part of my life for so long. And obviously now I have her and  it’s different, but I’m glad that they had a little bit of overlap in my life.

Full transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/podcast

Hang out with any Positive Reinforcement dog trainer and they're bound to have a shirt in their wardrobe from the online store Woof Cultr: An apparel company that has a very niche market: Force-free trainers. Woof Cultr is the brainchild of Mandy Boutelle, who originally left a career as a hairstylist to become a certified dog walker in San Francisco. When she started doing off-leash group dog walks, she knew she had to learn more about dog training and behavior in order to manage her rowdy young pack. This led her to decide to become a dog trainer. At the start of the pandemic, however, she and her husband decided to move to Oregon and to spread the gospel of positive reinforcement dog training in a unique way: By printing bold-but-simple statements about training and behavior on t-shirts. 

Links:

https://woofcultr.com/

DigiWoof | Web Design & Digital Marketing for Dog Trainers and Pet Pros

Annie was recently browsing her local dog Facebook group, when she came across a post by a woman named Michaelle who was reaching out for training help with her reactive foster dog. Several of the replies recommended a trainer in the area who was not professionally certified, and Michaelle posted that she had decided to work with. When Annie, perhaps a little too aggressively, responded with critical questions about this trainer, Michaelle called her out on it. By way of apology, Annie offered to coach her through some of the issues she was dealing with, gratis.

They discuss her foster dog Baozi's reactivity in the home, including his, growling, barking, sometimes sudden biting and lunging, his many triggers, and health issues that may be affecting his behavior. Rather than focusing on quick fixes for these unwanted behaviors, Annie approaches the issue by suggesting ways to get to the root cause for lasting and mutually beneficial behavior change.

Note: School For The Dogs Podcast is going on hiatus for a few months! But you can join Annie inside the new School For The Dogs Online Campus.

Join at http://schoolforthedogs.com/podcastfan and get one month free. Post in the Online Campus that you're a Podcast Fan and get free access to School For The Dogs' Body Language Basics on-demand course, a $47 value. 

Related:

How to train "Touch": https://anchor.fm/dogs/episodes/How-to-train-your-dog-to-touch-your-hand-and-why-it-is-such-an-important-thing-to-master-e1e9i86/a-a2gg9qd

How to train "Look": https://anchor.fm/dashboard/episode/e1jelng

Body Language Basics: https://storeforthedogs.com/collections/online-courses/products/750634

In advance of School For The Dogs April 24th screening of Bob Bailey's short film, Patient Like The Chipmunks, Annie is reading aloud some works by Dr. Bailey and his late wife, Dr. Marian Breland-Bailey. Today she is reading from their 2001 article, The ABCs of Behavior, from The Trainer's Resource: The APDT Chronicle Of The Dog. The ABCs are Antecedent, Behavior, and Consequences. 

Sign up for the screening at http://schoolforthedogs.com/bailey 

Purchase The Dog Trainer's Resource by The APDT Chronicle Of The Dog - https://amzn.to/2Rv3ZsU

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Partial Transcript

Annie:

The Association of Professional Dog Trainers puts out a quarterly magazine which you can subscribe to digitally or in print. Or, you also get it if you become a member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers.  It is called Chronicle of the Dog. And it contains some excellent essays about dog training, about learning theory, about the business of dog training.

They have put out some, what do you call it? Like anthologies. Yeah, I guess anthologies. And I have one of them that’s called the Dog Trainer’s Resource. It’s from 2007, it’s a collection of their essays and there’s so much good stuff in here. I think they’ve put out three or four of these collections of essays that appeared in the magazines.

And honestly, if you buy these collections on Amazon, you can find them used, I find, usually for like six or $7. So you could buy like all of their collections probably for the amount that you would pay for a single year of quarterly magazines from them. So word to the wise. But definitely look into becoming a member you can do so apdt.com.

Fun, fun, little known fact , they actually kicked me out. I was a member. I paid my a hundred dollars a year or whatever it was. And they kicked me out and then lobbied me to come back. Although I must've just been on some lapsed membership list, lobbied me to come back or continue to lobby me and actually to come back every few months saying we miss you, which I always think is funny. Cause they kicked me out for reasons I'm not going to get into right now, but maybe one day in the future, I will. It had nothing to do with dog abuse or anything like that.

Anyway today I wanted to read an essay from my copy of the dog trainer's resource, which I love.  The last few Mondays I've been doing these readings reading things that I've learned from that I'd like to share.  Last week, I read from Bob Bailey's website, and this week I'm also going to read something by Bob Bailey. And next week I'm going to read something again by Bob Bailey.

This is because on April 24th, at 4:00 PM Eastern, we are going to be offering a screening of a short film he made on the history of operant conditioning called Patient Like the Chipmunks. And after that, I will be hosting a Q and A with him, pretty excited about this. He is something of a legend in the world of animal training, living legend. You can sign up at schoolforthedogs.com/Bailey. All of the proceeds will be going to the Marian Breland Bailey scholarship fund.

Full transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

As much as we want our dogs to be social beings, the sad fact is that city streets are not an ideal place for leashed dogs to socialize. The close confines of the sidewalk can keep dogs from having enough space to greet each other properly, and leashes too often can become uncomfortably taught, leading a dog to think that even just the sight of another dog predicts yanking and choking. 

This episode addresses: 

-Avoiding other dogs on the street 

-Using the presence of other dogs on leash as a cue for your dog to pay attention to you 

-Providing your dog with appropriate off-leash socialization opportunities 

-Choosing which dogs you might let your dog greet 

-Helping your dog greet other dogs naturally and appropriately ... and more 

Notes: 

7 things to consider before letting to dogs greet on leash

https://schoolforthedogs.com/7-things-to-consider-before-letting-two-dogs-greet-on-leash

Dogs In Need Of Space 

https://dogsinneedofspace.com/

The Yellow Dog Project 

Mendota leash -- Annie's favorite, lightweight leash 

https://storeforthedogs.com/products/braided-leash

Woof Shout Out: Dog adoption vests by Mimi Reid 

https://etsy.me/2PzKd9T

Fun dog fact of the day: NYC dog names (dogs named after fruits, vegetables, etc)  

https://nycedc.com/blog-entry/new-york-citys-dog-population

Follow School For The Dogs on Instagram: Instagram.com/schoolforthedogs Ask Annie: AnnieGrossman.com/ask



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Partial Transcript:



Annie:

Hey everyone! So today we are going to talk about dog-dog greetings, specifically dogs greeting other dogs on the street, and I'm going to suggest how you can teach your dog to greet another dog well and all the things you need to keep in mind when deciding whether or not you're going to let your dog greet another dog.

But before I get into the thick of it, uh, I wanted to give my number one suggestion, which is don't do it. Don't let your dog greet other dogs on the street. That's it. Now the reason I'm not going to end it there is because I know that that sort of like a bummer piece of advice. People don't generally love the idea of shielding their dog from every other dog on the street. We like the idea of being able to walk our dogs and have it be a kind of social thing where they can say hi to the other dogs in the neighborhood and everyone's gonna get along. But here's some reasons why I generally advise against letting your dog interact with other dogs on the street.

First of all, I see a lot of crazy dogs at School for the Dogs, all of us trainers do. And a lot of those dogs are dogs who have issues with other dogs and, especially, those are dogs who have issues with dogs on the street, issues with other dogs at close proximity and in New York City where I am, and in a lot of cities, when you're having a dog greet another dog on the street, there's a lot that could go wrong. And I have to assume that it's the minority of dogs who have problems greeting other dogs or problems even just being on the street at all where other dogs may or may not appear or just problems being on the street at all, no matter where other dogs are.



Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/podcast/

Training a dog where to pee and poop is a major priority for most new dog owners. But there is a lot of misinformation on how to do it -- we don't even have a term for it that make sense! Are we training the house? Is it still "house breaking" if you live in an apartment? Annie breaks down how to take on this task in a way that can be easy and error-free using smart management tools, good timing, and well-thought out rewards. If you have a question for Annie or want to request a guest, join our Facebook Group at facebook.com/groups/schoolforthedogs 

Show Notes

10 Steps to House Training



About: Dog trainer Annie Grossman loves to find engaging ways to help both dogs & humans approach training as an exercise in better understanding all animal behavior. Please make sure to subscribe & give us 5-stars on iTunes!

Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Hey everyone. Thanks so much for tuning in today. Today, I wanted to talk about one of the main reasons that people contact a dog trainer, especially when people get a new puppy and that is they want their dog to know where he should and should not pee and poop. Now, I am going to talk in particular about how to work on training a puppy, but most of the tips I'm going to give could be applied to older dogs as well. Whether it's a new dog in your household or a dog that just needs a refresher course, but first of all, what do we call this kind of training?

Well for simplicity, I'm going to refer to it as house training. But I think it's kind of a weird way to refer to it because first of all, like most of my clients, I don't actually live in a house and also aren't we training the dog to not go in the house most of the time? So wouldn't it be NOT in house training? I can only think that it's a term that must stem from a time when dogs mostly lived outside and so training them to be in the house meant training them to not eliminate in the house.

Um, but actually in advance of doing this episode, I tried to research a little bit the origins of different ways that people have referred to what we're calling house training. And I looked up the word house breaking, which is also a weird term. I think it's generally understood at least as it applies to dog training. But I mean if you're “breaking in” something that you're kind of like doing something to the thing right? Like you break in a pair of shoes or I guess you break a horse, that's another training term, but you're not doing anything really to your house, although, maybe you are, because I am going to suggest some ways that you can set up your home to help with house training, but still house breaking I dunno, it's kinda weird, right?

So I put it in to Google's Ngram search tools, which shows when and where and how words have been used. And as far as I can tell, it looks like up until,maybe like the mid 1900’s, housebreaking really referred to breaking into a house. It didn't really have anything to do with dogs. And that's still a definition found in many dictionaries. But then I looked it up in the online dictionary, Oxforddictionaries.com and it gives the definition “housebreak: verb housebroken, housebroken, train a pet to urinate and defecate outside the house or only in a special place; house train.” And then the example it gives is, “an elephant is exceedingly difficult to housebreak.” And I mean, why are you trying to teach an elephant to not pee or poop in your house? Why do you have an elephant in your house to begin with?

Full Transcript at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts/

In the summer of 2017, Lidia Matiss, then a high schooler, went to visit her mom at her workplace and, inside the office, was brutally attacked by an off-leash dog. Her mother worked for Cesar's Way, which belongs to Cesar Millan, aka The Dog Whisperer; the dog was Millan's late pit bull, Junior. Annie interviews LA-based lawyer Brian Adesman, who is representing the victim in a suit against Millan, and learns some of the surprising details about the case, including Millan's blaming of the victim and how Queen Latifah's dead dog fits into the picture.  Also, Annie answers a question from a longtime client who wants to know how to go about training a new dog, and her old dog at the same time. She mentions the Revol crate, the Treat and Train, and the Good Dog Training course, all available at StoreForTheDogs.com.  https://storeforthedogs.com/products/the-revol-dog-crate http://schoolforthedogs.com/tt https://storeforthedogs.com/collections/online-courses/products/726834 For a limited time, we're offering a 30-minute virtual private session when you purchase our Good Dog Training course. Learn more when you do our free and useful 1-hour master class at http://anniegrossman.com/masterclass Have a training question you'd like answered? Submit it at http://schoolforthedogs.com/qanda Learn more about Brian Adesman at https://www.qureshi.law/brian-adesman Like this podcast? Please leave a five-star rating and a review on iTunes! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1355439730

Our trainer Maddie Messina, who started out with us as a walker two years ago, is getting a master's at Hunter's Animal Behavior and Conservation, where she is studying canine cognition. She and Annie discuss her early interest in veterinary medicine, the opportunity she had to work with primates as an undergraduate at Bucknell University, her current focus on working with puppies, and doing it all... while being severely allergic to dogs.

Book a session with Maddie at http://schoolforthedogs.com/maddie

Follow Maddie at Instagram at @onlyfurendswithdogs

Join our new community app, accessible in the iTunes App store, the Play store, or in any web browser at http://schoolforthedogs.com/community.  Use hashtag #podcastlistener and we'll grant you a moth of Premium app access.

Find Annie on Clubhouse @anniegrossman. Want a Clubhouse invite? Text a request to 917-414-2625



Like this podcast? Leave a review on iTunes! Need help? See our guide to leaving a review here. https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/subscribe/  

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

So thanks for being here, everybody. I am here with Maddie Messina who's been at School for the Dogs, working with us in various capacities for, gosh, could it be two years now? Is that right?

Maddie:

It's definitely coming up on that, for sure.

Annie:

So why don't you talk a little bit about what you're doing right now with us, and then we can talk about what else you've done and what you're doing when you're not wearing your training pouch.

Maddie:

Okay. Absolutely. So I started at School for the Dogs as a walker, and I came from a training background. So that was my step into the School for the Dogs world. And since then, I've transitioned to working at Day School, which is our adult basic manners drop-off program. And I also mainly focus now on puppy training.

I do a lot of first sessions. So people who come to the school, they see me for the first time as their trainer. And then from there, we kind of build out a program for them or lead them into our group classes, which I just started teaching as well. So last week was my first week of teaching puppy kindergarten.

Annie:

Oh yeah, congratulations. How did it go? I think I was, I was there right when you were starting to set up, I think.

Maddie:

Yeah, it was definitely a big change because I’m used to kind of handling one-on-one clients. But the one thing I will say is that I also think that I’m skilled in handling chaos. That was definitely just kind of practice in handling more chaos, but it went really well. I think the nice thing about our puppy kindergarten setup is that all the puppies who come, by the time they’re here for their first week, they’ve already kind of met with a private trainer and they know the gist, so I think it’s a little bit less chaotic than it would be if you had a group of puppies and parents who were stepping into the training world for the very first time

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Kate Senisi and Annie Grossman founded School For The Dogs together in 2011. What a decade it's been! Kate, who oversees training and staff at School For The Dogs, is quite busy and can be hard to pin down. But, when trapped in a car with Annie, she agreed to record a casual conversation about the business, the specific challenges faced by city dogs and their owners, and SFTD's unique offerings. She also offered her tempered and reasonable views on two topics about which Annie tends to get highly fired up: Cesar Millan and shock collars. 

Learn more about Sidewalk Psychos

https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/services/sidewalk-psychos/

Learn more about Stranger Danger

https://dogs.pike13.com/courses/267279

Played in this episode: 

Millan discusses shows ABC 7 Chicago 

https://abc7.ws/2TKmQl7

10 reasons to watch Better Human Better Dog, from Cesar MIllan's Twitter feed

https://twitter.com/cesarmillan/status/1421160078812479489

Previous episode mentioned: 

Terrible dog training, sugarcoated with New Age woo: Cesar Millan is back on TV

https://anchor.fm/dogs/episodes/Terrible-dog-training--sugarcoated-with-New-Age-woo-Cesar-Millan-is-back-on-TV-e158cl8

---

Partial Transcript

Annie:

I am in a position where I have a lot of friends, colleagues, employees, who are amazing dog trainers and really smart, interesting people. And I have tried to get them to come on the podcast, and I’ve had a lot of trouble doing so.

Now I don’t think that’s because they don’t like me or they don’t like the podcast. I think it’s because not everyone is as comfortable talking publicly about, I don’t know, things in general and maybe dog training in particular in this way that you’re doing when you’re doing a podcast where you’re sort of speaking to an unknown audience of people in what is sort of an intimate way, because we’re going straight into your ears.

And a lot of these people who I respect and and love and I’ve learned from are very careful people who don’t necessarily have the time to put together all the notes and thoughts that they might like to have, I guess, on hand before talking to me for a recorded conversation for the podcast.

And, you know, it’s something that I think is both a blessing and a curse in my person, is I think I generally lay things out, lay out the things that I’m thinking. I am not a big plan ahead-er. I am rather impulsive. And I think all of these qualities make it possible to produce a podcast.

But also you know, like I talked about last episode, it can leave me feeling rather vulnerable, because I know that I am being very honest about my thoughts and feelings about things, and not everyone is gonna agree with me. But I believe, often, in not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Full Transcript at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Earlier this year Logan Mikhly and her father Coppy Holzman opened a business unlike any other in NYC: A dog-friendly cafe. Logan has a background in animal rescue, Coppy is a dog-loving serial entrepreneur, and both are obsessed with coffee. Frustrated by the fact that New York's health codes make it nearly impossible for them to grab a cup of joe without having to tie their dogs to a streetlight, they contacted the Department of Health for a brainstorming session on how to make a place where beverages and quadrupeds could lawfully co-exist. The result is Boris & Horton. Named after their own dogs, this bright, cheery, and well-loved cafe-cum-indoor-dog-park has quickly become a beloved neighborhood fixture. In this episode, Logan shares the business' back story.



Notes: Boris and Horton is located at 195 Avenue A, at the corner of 12th Street. Learn more at BorisAndHorton.com. Other dog friendly cafes: The Bulldog in New Orleans - The Dog Cafe in Los Angeles - Chateau Le Woof in Queens, NY - Products mentioned: Klimb Platforms - Bocce's Bakery Treats - Stewart's Freeze Dried Beef Liver Treats - Nature's Miracle - Fun Dog Fact of the Day:  The CoyoteVest - kansascity.com/news/nation-world/national/article220971390.html - Woof Shout Out: Last week the world lost a wonderful woman, and dog lover: Ellen Retter. She was a client, a friend, and a big School For The Dogs fan. A photo of Ellen and her dog Lucy training at School For The Dogs with Annie appeared in CNN in 2015.

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Today I am speaking with Logan Mikhly, who is one of the owners of New York city's first and only dog friendly cafe, Boris and Horton, which is in the East village and is named after, well, actually, Logan, why don't you tell us about the cafes namesakes?

Logan:

I actually have Horton here with me and the other dog that the cafe's named after is Boris and that's my dad's dog.

Annie:

And Horton, I should say is just the cutest, scruffiest, little like terrier mix who loves nothing more than to stare lovingly at Logan.

Logan:

Yes, stare deeply into my eyes. He does need a haircut. He looks scruffy, but he looks like a little, maybe a little too scruffy.



Annie:

I think he's perfectly, perfectly scruffy.

Logan:

He has like grandpa eyebrows now.

Annie:

And Logan runs Boris and Horton with her dad. So tell me his name.

Logan:

Yeah, his name is Coppy Holzman. Okay. So I actually worked with my dad at his previous company, which is called Charity Buzz and it's an online auction company that raises money for nonprofits. So he was in the process of selling the business.

Annie:

He's something of a serial entrepreneur, isn't that right?



Logan:

Yes. So for my whole childhood and up until now, he's started several different businesses, sold them. Uh, he's super creative, big ideas guy. But yeah, his previous company, Charity Buzz is an online auction company that raises money for nonprofits. And he was in the process of selling it. And we were actually out to dinner one night and I was staying at the company, but I wasn't kind of like loving the company culture and was thinking about leaving myself.



Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts/

Some dogs really freak out about loud noises. Unfortunately, too often, new dog owners learn this on a day when scary sounds abound: July 4th. Annie talks to fellow trainer, Cheryl Gfrerer of Giffy Dog in St. Paul, MN, about her personal experiences dealing with a sound-sensitive rescue dog, and together they discuss protocols and practical approaches to helping dogs who are triggered by fireworks and the like.  Find Cheryl Gfrerer online at giffydog.com and on Instagram @giffydog 

Like this podcast? Support it by leaving a 5-star review on iTunes, telling your friends, shopping in our online store, or signing up for Annie's mailing list. Learn more about School For The Dogs at SchoolForTheDogs.com.

Mentioned in this episode:  

DAP (Dog Appeasing Pheremone) products by Adaptil https://storeforthedogs.com/collections/dog-appeasing-pheromone 

Thundershirt https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0029PY7SK?tag=thedogs00-20 

Decoding Your Dog https://www.amazon.com/dp/0544334604?tag=thedogs00-20 

Through A Dog's Ear (on Spotify) 

https://open.spotify.com/artist/1MsgeM3kAiAt5NTnasaIh1 

Storm Defender Cape https://www.stormdefender.com/ 

Karolina Westlund blog post on fireworks and thunder phobias https://illis.se/en/eliminating-firework-and-thunder-phobia-in-dogs/ 

--- 

Partial Transcript: Annie: Hello humans. In advance of the 4th of July, which is coming our way next week, I wanted to do an episode on preparing dogs to deal with fireworks and other auditory related stressors. And I was about to record an episode with all the protocol that I would suggest for preparing a dog for the 4th of July. And then I thought, I don't think I've worked specifically with dogs who have fireworks phobias and I've never had a dog like that, since I've been a trainer at least. And so I thought, it would be nice to talk to a trainer who has dealt with this issue in a more firsthand way. And because I'm also always happy to not have a podcast that's only my own voice, I decided to invite my colleague, Cheryl Gfrerer, who is a fellow Karen Pryor Academy graduate on to talk about how she has been working both with her own firework phobic dog, and helping rescue dog owners with their dogs who have similar phobias where she is based in St. Paul, Minnesota. So what you are going to hear is my conversation on this subject with her. Full Transcript at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

On April 1 we are starting the Dog Training in 21 Days Challenge (#DT21DAYS). We’re using the hashtag on Instagram but if you don’t have IG, you can still participate!  Each day there will be a simple challenge for you to complete. They are outlined below and we will be posting about them each day on Instagram as well as sharing what we are doing for it on Instagram Stories. Please join, get your dog excited about learning and flex those dog training muscles!

To participate: Post a video or image everyday for 21 days showing your participation.  Tag us and use #DT21DAYS so we can see. For anyone who wants to participate outside of social media, you can visit the link in bio, click Dog Training in 21 Days  (http://schoolforthedogs.com/dt21days) and checkout with code DT21DAYS. The code will make it completely free.

Note: It’s okay to miss a day(s), just jump back in when you can.

Today's episode is an interview with Leeyah Wiseman, who will be demonstrating each day on our Instagram. You can also follow Leeyah on Instagram at @georgeandleeyah

The Daily Challenges:

1. WHAT’S YOUR DOGS $100 BILL?
   
   


2. TEACH YOUR DOG TO DRAW
   
   


3. CAPTURE 50 AWESOME THINGS
   
   


4. TEACH A NOSE LICK
   
   


5. TEACH LOOK (PART 1 OF 2)
   
   


6. TEACH LOOK (PART 2 OF 2)
   
   


7. TEACH SIT WITH A SNAP
   
   


8. BOUNCE YOUR DOG BETWEEN 2 SPOTS
   
   


9. TEACH A HAND TOUCH
   
   


10. TEACH DOWN
    
    


11. TRAIN FIND IT
    
    


12. THE ELEVATOR GAME
    
    


13. THE STAY GAME
    
    


14. TEACH “DROP IT”
    
    


15. MUZZLE TRAINING
    
    


16. RELAXATION PROTOCOL
    
    


17. TEACH STAND
    
    


18. TEACH YOUR DOG WHERE TO WALK
    
    


19. TOUCHING AN OBJECT
    
    


20. THE PAW TOUCH
    
    


21. SHAPING TO PAPER
    
    

If you are sharing on Instagram, be sure to tag us and use the hashtag: #DT21DAYS

If you’d like access to all 21 lessons, detailed steps and additional resources visit our on-demand portal - head to the link in our IG bio, click Dog Training in 21 Days and checkout with code DT21. The code will make it completely free.

Good luck!

---

Partial Transcript:

[Intro and music]

Annie:

Hello listeners. Thank you for being here. I am interviewing today, Leah Wiseman, who is, we’re trying to figure out exactly what to call her, but for the moment I’m going to call her our student leader of our upcoming 21 day challenge. Leah, Hey, thanks for being here.

Leah Wiseman:

Hey, thanks so much for having me today. I’m so excited to chat about our challenge.

Annie:

I know, me too. So I wanted to have Leah on both to talk about the challenge and we can go through some of the specifics, but also just wanting to kind of hear about Leah’s journey into dog training. She has been a podcast listener, I know, since she got her puppy.  Since you got your puppy, I don’t know if I should be, am I speaking to you or like the greater people?

Leah:

Right? It’s kind of surreal to be talking to you live when it’s I’m so used to like hearing your voice.

Full transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

School For The Dogs' clients Samantha Schwartz and Ben Ment wanted to find a mixed-breed Bernese Mountain Dog puppy, figuring that it'd be less prone to health issues than a purebred Bernese. When Samantha's email inquiries to breeders got posted to social media, she ended up being cyber bullied by hardcore breed enthusiasts/purists around the world. Samantha tells Annie about how this unexpected and bizarre turn of events led her and Ben to Basket, a puppy from the Bernese Mountain Dog Vitality Project, which is run by breeders and geneticists who are working to help modify the breed for the better over time.



Link to Show Notes - Bernese Mountain Dog Vitality Project - Basket's Instagram

Please make sure to subscribe & rate 5-stars on iTunes! Annie Grossman owns and operates School For The Dogs in NYC. Studio: SchoolForThedogs.com Shop: StoreForTheDogs.com Instagram: Instagram.com/schoolforthedogs



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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

I'm here with our clients. I should say clients, plural. I am here with our human client, Samantha Schwartz, and her dog are the canine client of this team. Oh, who's giving her a big hug right now. Who’s name is Basket and he is this huge, deliciously, lovely black and furry. Just big galoot of a dog who I wish I had a life-sized stuffed animal of that I could just snuggle and cuddle all day long.

He looks like a Bernese Mountain Dog. He is not totally a Burmese mountain dog, which we're going to talk about in a moment. And when I first met Samantha and her partner, Ben, they started to tell me about how Basket came into their lives. And I was fascinated.

**music**

Samantha:

I had always wanted a Bernese Mountain dog. I had grown up with labs and retrievers

and Ben grew up with a Norwegian Elkhound and a Chinook. We were kind of like, I was just dead set on having a Bernese Mountain Dog.

We were living out in Cape Cod, getting his family's house together last spring, just temporarily. And we were like, well, let's get the dog ‘ause it'll be easy to train the dog while we're out here. We have some time. So last year, we started more seriously looking at Berneses again, and he thought that it would be better if we maybe looked at getting a mixed breed. We were looking at all the rescues, there’s  a lot of Bernese rescue organizations. And then we were, we were looking at just different options. And finally we ended up saying, why don't we see about getting a mixed breed, something that is part Bernese.

Annie:

You were said you were worried about the health issues.

Samantha:

So Bernese Mountain Dogs have, being one of the giant... they're one of the giant breed dogs, um, similar to great Danes and Saint Bernard's. So they can be up to 150 pounds, females on average weigh between I think 90 and 110, and then the males can weigh much more than that. Because they're a giant breed they have some joint issues and things like that because of their bones, but they also have a particular type of cancer that is really, really prevalent in their breed. They are dying really young. They're very... purebred dogs in general are very inbred. They have what's called closed studbooks and the close studbooks mean that they kind of all ended up being cousins with each other. And because of that, their genetic diversity is leading to many health problems...

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts

Someone on the School For The Dogs mailing list sent Annie an angry email accusing her of being out of touch because, with everything going on in the world,  "no one cares about dog training right now." This inspired Annie to outline some reasons why people could, and maybe should, think about dog training and the science of behavior now... perhaps more than ever. 

Show notes: 

School For The Dogs' studio is closed, but we have lots of great content online: Classes, daily webinars, and FREE virtual private training sessions. We aren't sure how long we will be doing these sessions for free, so take advantage of this opportunity now.  Learn more at SchoolForTheDogs.com/services. 

Rats get blamed for causing disease but they might've actually been helping keep all of us from getting Coronavirus sooner... Rats have been trained to find endangered pangolins. Pangolins are anteaters, the trafficking of which may have led to this pandemic. Want to see a video of these hero rats? Of course you do. 

Woof Shoutout to Dr. Lisa Lippman, who we had on our last episode. Both her parents have COVID-19. We are helping collect supplies for the  hospital where they are currently being treated. If you have masks, gloves, or gowns, you can mail them to: 

Sue Kaufman

4292 Imperial Isle Dr. 

Wellington, FL 33449

You can support School For The Dogs Podcast by shopping at StoreForTheDogs.com or donating to our Scholarship Fund. 

SHOW TRANSCRIPT: 

(00:35):

Thanks for being here. I just want to jump into things. I don’t think I need to talk too much about how crazy everything is right now here in New York city and pretty much everywhere. If you're listening to this in the future I hope you, Future Listener, are experiencing less craziness than what we're in right now.

Quick update about School For The Dogs: We did have to close our studio and we had to suspend our walking program. Basically we are more or less shut down as far as our physical space goes. But we're trying to use this time as much as possible to offer training to people online wherever they are, because we feel this is a time when people are in need. And we also want to keep our trainers employed. So we're trying to take advantage of this time to be up our online offerings.

(01:35):

We've been doing daily webinars on lots of different subjects. We are doing free 30 minute sessions right now. We are trying to do everything we can to bring our services to people who are in need right now. People who are home with their dogs, people who are fostering dogs. I am trying to see this as an opportunity to to help people outside of New York city. Obviously we are normally focused New York City residents because that's where our studio is. But thanks to technology, we can reach more people. 

(Full transcript available at http://anniegrossman.com/2020/04/podcast/no-one-cares-dog-training-right-now-new-podcast-episode/9836/)

One of the many interesting things about dog training? Every professional has taken a different path. We are in a moment where many people are considering new careers. If you've ever thought about becoming a dog trainer, you will want to listen to this interview featuring two women who went from success in completely different fields to success in working with dogs. Annie, who became a dog trainer after working as a journalist for a decade, interviews Marie Poliseno, a former Wall Street Trader turned dog trainer turned CPA. Her company, Dollars & Scents, specializes in working with professional dog trainers who need help with the financial side of things.  

Learn more about Marie at Dog-Pro-CPA.com.  Learn more about Annie at AnnieGrossman.com. Special thanks to Nikki Acton for sharing her lovely Yelp review in this episode. 

 The audio in this episode is an abridged version of a webinar interview between Annie and Marie. You can watch it here. Learn more about Marie at Dog-Pro-CPA.com. Special thanks to Nikki Acton for sharing her lovely Yelp review in this episode. You can follow her dog, Mookie, on Instagram: @mookietheoriginal 

Mentioned in this episode:

The Certification Council of Professional Dog Trainers

Dana Crevling's Instructor Training Course

Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson

The Karen Pryor Academy

The Academy For Dog Trainers

School For The Dogs' Professional Dog Training Course

Don't Shoot The Dog by Karen Pryor

Reaching The Animal Mind by Karen Pryor

LIMA

Terry Ryan's Chicken Camps

Clicker Expo

The Association of Professional Dog Trainers

Tawzer



Partial Transcript: 



Annie (00:05): I am here with Marie Poliseno who is basically School For The Dogs’ CFO.  I've known her for many years. She is our bookkeeper, accountant and a both a cheerleader and a shoulder to cry on. Her company is called Dollars and Scents. That “scents” S-C-E-N-T-S. She specializes in helping dog-related businesses. She is based in Montana. I've been wanting to interview Marie for a long time, but it usually occurs to me right around this time of year, around tax time. And I never want to bother her by asking to take her time to do an interview when she's preparing people's taxes. But this year,  tax day got moved and I saw an opportunity! So I wanted to specifically have her here to talk about becoming a dog trainer and things to think about when making a,  making a choice to move to this new kind of career. I think she has an interesting perspective. Marie, why don't you start out by telling us a little bit about how you first got into dog training.

Full Transcript available at SchoolForTheDogs.com/Podcasts

Dog parks aren't appropriate for every dog, and urban dog parks have their own unique challenges--a revolving population and small foot prints, to name a few. If Annie had her way, all dogs parks would have life guards! She gives some reasons why you might think twice before bringing just any dog to any dog park. If you've decided the dog park might be a good thing for your dog, take some tips from Annie's partner Kate Senisi, a trainer with an expertise in working with high-arousal urban dogs. Annie shares Kate's top eight tips, and adds a few of her own. This episode talks about how to enter the park, what to bring, signs it may be time to leave, and more.  

This episode offers special thanks to Alexandra Messiter, who, along with her dog Cooper, has been students at SFTD since 2019. Alexandra and her husband gave a generous donation to our Scholarship Fund recently, and we are so appreciative!  "I felt moved to donate mostly because Cooper (who we adopted from Bideawee in 2019) is just so awesome - he's such a fun, smart, loving companion and has made my husband and I much more passionate about trying to encourage folks to consider rescuing.  Because we know that lack of access to affordable quality training can lead to more dogs being surrendered -- and can discourage folks from adopting great dogs with some behavior concerns -- we're always happy to help any organization that is filling a need, which SFTD is definitely doing here." -- Alexandra Messiter  

Visit our site for 8 tips to read Kate's 8 tips on keeping your dog safe at the dog park. 

https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/8-tips-to-keep-your-dog-safe-at-the-dog-park/

Learn more about our Scholarship Fund at schoolforthedogs.com/fund 

Get half off our on-demand dog body language course using code HALFOFFBODYLANG 

https://storeforthedogs.com/products/750634 

Other episodes mentioned in this episode:  

SniffSpot: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/air-b-pee-sniff-spot-allows-dog-owners-to-rent-peoples/id1355439730?i=1000512680806 

Bully Test: https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/podcasts/episode-95-the-bully-test-how-to-tell-if-your-dog-or-kid-or-country-is-having-fun-plus-fomo-crate-training/

---

Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Hey all. Annie here. Today, I wanted to talk about dog parks. Dog parks are not appropriate for every dog, and dog parks in cities have their own unique challenges. They can be very small and dense, and they can have a highly revolving population. Meaning that a lot of people in a big city, a lot of people bring their dogs to a big city dog park means that you might see a lot of different dogs there. It's not just a small population of a dozen or so dogs, like I imagine maybe some small town dog park, what that must be like.

It can be challenging for dogs and for people. 

Full Transcript at SchoolForTheDogs.com/Podcast

A decade ago, Annie and Kate set out to become dog trainers.  They ended up with a dog training business. They both knew a lot more about dog training than they did about business management, so they attempted to use what they knew about animal behavior to manage the company... In this episode Annie talks about four business lessons she's learned that stem from what she knows about dog training. She talks about the importance of creating shaping plans (something she is bad at, both when training dogs and when managing staff), the difficulty of using money to reinforce behavior, and how to use environmental environment and antecedent arrangements to change employee behavior (hint: don't). She also talks about how classical conditioning, and focusing on people's conditioned emotional responses, is just as important to think about when dealing with clients as it is when dealing with dogs.

Find Aubrey Daniels' books on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3ii810T

---

Partial Transcript:

Annie:

I was recently emailing with a podcast listener who was telling me she is thinking about becoming a dog trainer. And I asked her what she currently is doing for work, and she said she works in human relations. And I said, Oh, well, HR is kind of like human training. So you’d sort of just be moving from one species of animal to another.

And I also said that I really never appreciated how important HR people are to businesses until School for the Dogs got to a size where it became quite evident to both me and Kate that we had so many people on staff, that the people on staff needed their own person basically to take care of them. We don’t have a full-time HR person, but we do have someone that we work with on an as-needed basis. And that is something that’s been really, really useful.

And podcast listener wrote back, and she said, yeah, you know, I don’t think I really saw the connection between clean dog training and human resources until I started listening to your podcast. But now I see how behavior is unfortunately coerced a lot in businesses. I also see how sometimes rewards aren’t used effectively or appropriately and being a dog trainer yourself, you must be particularly skilled at managing staff. And I wrote back to her and I said, yeah, maybe you would think so, but the reality is, I think management in general is something I really, really struggle with.

I’ve talked a little bit before about School for the Dogs’ origin story.  Kate and I met about 10 years ago and we were both at a time in our lives where we were trying to figure out how to become dog trainers. I had been a freelance journalist and a journalist on staff at different New York city papers throughout my twenties. And Kate was a graphic designer at an agency.

We met through an Association for Professional Dog Trainers message board, I think, and went for a cup of coffee.  Turns out, we lived literally across the street from one another. And I kind of proposed to her. I said, let’s figure out a way to start something together. I saw early on that we had talents and skills that complemented each other.

And we were kind of both at the same place of starting out. We knew a lot about training, but we both knew we needed to know more. And we both were sort of equally stumped as to how to become professionals and doing it as a team seemed like it would make things easier.

Full Transcript available on SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Leeyah Wiseman is a recent graduate of School For The Dogs Professional Course. If you follow us on TikTok or Instagram, you probably know her from the videos she does for SFTD. While she never thought of herself as a "dog person," she ended up adopting a puppy, George, and falling in love with him. But then she realized she had an issue on her hands: Separation anxiety. Her work figuring out how to deal with this issue in a way that felt right led her to decide to become a dog trainer. Annie and Leeyah discuss how she worked with her dog to improve his anxiety, what she got out of the Professional Course, and popular notions of what it means to "be" positive.

Find Leeyah on Instagram @galdogtraining and @schoolforthedogs!

Like this podcast? Please rate and review on iTunes! 

Learn more about the Professional Course at http://schoolforthedogs.com/professionalcourse22

Next cohort starts in late August! 

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Spoil your smart pooch with a Brainy Box! Listen to the episode for a special discount code to our new monthly subscription box. 

http://schoolforthedogs.com/brainybox

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Leeyah:

I feel like just being – it felt like we were just there, and we were able to see how things played out in real life when tough training questions come up. When random training questions come up. When things happen like a dog peeing on the floor in the middle of a session. Or a dog needs a different type of assignment because they're struggling with something. And, you know, how to kind of answer questions that are tough, how to move training sessions along in a real way. ‘Cause in the course we kind of had a module on that as well. And then seeing it actually, especially seeing the trainers that do it the same way in the course, because it's like the School For The Dogs' method. It was kind of like a whole big picture of everything.

[music]

Annie:

If you follow us on Instagram, TikTok, then you have seen Leeyah Wiseman who is a recent graduate of of School For The Dogs’ Professional Course. You are about to get to know her a little bit more. You can learn more about the Professional Course at schoolforthedogs.com/professionalcourse22.

I am thrilled to have you on the podcast yet again. Maybe you can just introduce yourself.

Leeyah:

My name is Leeyah Wiseman and I took the 2021 professional course, and I also do social media for School For The Dogs. So I do a lot of the coordination for the Instagram page and some talks and things like that.

Annie:

Which are really awesome and fun. And I love how you just go for it.

Leeyah:

Yeah. You gotta, you really have to. I mean, it's kind of like, if you don't then you're not gonna really make good content. Nobody's gonna watch something that you're not like being authentic in.

Annie:

Yeah. And you just gotta put yourself out there. I think it's a lesson about so many things. And some people really can't do it and when you do do it, you're accepting risk, right?

Leeyah:

Yeah.

Annie:

And you're accepting, you're opening yourself up to the possibility of failure and criticism, which can be no small thing. Right?

Full Transcript at SchoolForTheDogs.com/Podcast 

If two dogs are playing, and you're unsure if your dog is into it, there is a simple "test" you can perform. The Bully Test, which was coined by Dr. Ian Dunbar, is a great way to tell how your dog feels about his or her playmate. Annie looks at how she herself behaved when faced with childhood mean girls, and how voters reacted when bullied by the Bully-In-Chief.  Also: Is "bully" an inherent quality in a dog? Or a kid? Is there a term that we could come up with that doesn't vilify one of two puppies when performing this "test?" And: Why you shouldn't expect dogs to just "working it out" during play. Lastly: Annie explains how to use FOMO to train dogs to love going in crates.

Master Class: http://anniegrossman.com/masterclass   Community App Early Invite Signup: http://schoolforthedogs.com/podcastcommunity

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Partial Transcript:

[Intro and music]

Annie:

Here is a pretty simple thing that any dog owner can do if their dog is playing with another dog and they're not sure if both the dogs are enjoying themselves. What you do is you gently restrain whichever dog is the more outgoing, the more aggressive one. I think a lot of the time, in play with dogs, just like with kids, one person is the chaser.  Hold back, restrain in whatever gentle way you can, the more aggressive of the two dogs and see what the other dog does.

If the dog comes right back and goes up to the dog, who's being restrained and is like, come on, I thought we were doing this. Then that dog probably was into it. Right? That dog was probably feeling good about that place session. If the dog goes to the other side of the room that tells you that that dog was most likely happy that he has the chance to take a break and that perhaps he was feeling bullied.

This is called the bully test. I believe it was named, if maybe not also developed, by a Dr. Ian Dunbar, a trainer of great renown and also a veterinarian. It's such a simple thing. It makes so much sense. And if it can help you make sure that two dogs aren't enjoying playing with each other, there's really no downside. And by the way, the dog who is the possible bully -- if the dog who wasn't being restrained does take the chance to go to the other side of the room -- that does not mean that one dog is a bad dog. It just means that in that situation, maybe the intensity was too much.

Maybe there’s a size difference between the two dogs that is making one of them uncomfortable. Maybe it has nothing — one dog might just be extra fearful for any reason, or no reason.  Could be mix-matched play styles. So this isn’t, you know, see which dog is the good dog and which is the bad dog. It’s just a way to diagnose the healthiness and the happiness of play that is happening.

So I wanted to mention this because I think it’s a really easy tool to have in your dog training dog-owning toolbox to use with dogs who are off-leash. And I think off-leash play is very important for most dogs, much better than on leash play. But I also think one-on-one play is often the best kind of play. However, this technique could be used in a dog park situation too, or with more dogs.

Another reason why I was thinking about the bully test recently and wanted to mention it was because I was going through some stuff in my mom’s basement recently. And I found a letter. I wrote it to my mom from summer camp when I was nine. And it was about this girl who I was in grade school with at that time.

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Annie's life has two speeds right now. You'll find her physically trapped underneath her two young daughters using a suite of remote treat dispensers to train her dog, or she's at a local co-working space in a tiny room alone, talking to herself. In this bonus episode, on the one-year anniversary of her beloved dog Amos passing, she is in the latter mode, recording a kind of phone call to her late father, who she thinks would've enjoyed learning what she's learned about the Youtube star Blippi, aka Stevin John, fka Steven or "Steezy" Grossman (no relation). A line of thought about loving those who are no longer alive leads her to discuss the nature of pet love as something that exists inside of us and how the expression and feeling of that love is, in many ways, projection of something that doesn't go away when someone gone. She somehow relates this both to Travis Barker and Kourtney Kardashian's recent public display of their love of the movie True Romance and the way in which Nabokov's letters to his wife and to his mistress were sort of fungible. Also: She talks about how the app Duo Lingo is manipulating our behavior in a good way and she reveals the not-so-secret key to getting better at anything, which she only really understood after she became a dog trainer.  Want to use a remote trainer to train YOUR dog while your kids are climbing on you? Get a Treat and Train at http://schoolforthedogs.com/TT

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

I'm sitting in a vertical phone booth, coffin-like, although rather brightly lit, tiny, windowless room in a We Work. If you can call this a room. I guess actually it does have windows, but not external windows. And I feel like my life rhythm is funny right now. I'm either in a spot like this, alone, either staring at a screen or talking to myself as I am now, or I am home underneath two small children, often literally lying down underneath them, it seems.

Although to bring it back to dog training, I have set up a Pet Tutor and two Treat and Trains in my apartment because I feel like I have so little time to devote to training Poppy. And so I've been trying to use these moments where I'm like paralyzed under the two girls to do push button training, basically triggering the Treat and Train, one of the Treat and Trains.

I have one on her bed, one in her crate, and then like her relaxation mat. So like go to bed, go to crate, go to mat. I just sort of have her going from one to the other with this hilarious, like all these buttons that I'm wearing, one for each dispenser. And it's, it's ridiculous, but I think it's been good for her. If only because when I have the two of them piled on me, like I don't also want her piled on me, which she has a tendency to do cause she likes to be snuggly. Anyway.

But that moment is not this moment. This is the isolated-in-a-coffin moment. And I just wanted to share a couple things. One is that this is the one year anniversary of Amos dying today. And so I've been thinking a lot about him, but of course I think a lot about him every day. And I guess just, you know, feeling those feelings.

Full Transcript at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

In this Q+A episode, Annie answers a question from a puppy owner whose dog is scared of the crate and stresses out when left alone, and then considers another dog owner who asks if "Attachment Theory" applies to dogs. Visit AnnieGrossman.com/ask or leave a voicemail at 917-414-2625.



NOTES

Products:

Annie's preferred crate, the Revol (get $25 off the Revol with code SFTD25 at checkout through March 31, 2019) - See through pen on Etsy by ClearlyLovedPets - See through crate on Etsy by PrettyKennels - Treat and Train - The Toppl toy



Books: 

Treating Separation Anxiety in Dogs by Malena Demartini-Price  -  I'll Be Home Soon by Patricia McConnell, PhD



Sites: 

Evolutionary Parenting article on Attachment Theory and Attachment Parenting by Tracy Cassel PhD 

Shoutout: 

You can witness Gilby and Ghost's playdates at @GhostFrench  and @GilbyKriss

Fun Dog Fact: 

The Beatles song that contains a secret dog whistle



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Partial Transcript:



[Intro]



Annie:

Hello humans. Today I am going to be answering some dog training questions that have come down the pipeline. If you have a question you'd like answered in a future Q&A episode, you can find us on Instagram @schoolforthedogs. You can send a direct message.  Or go to Anniegrossman.com/ask and you'll find a nifty little form there.



So our first question comes through Instagram from a listener named B. She writes:



"Hi Annie. I've just finished listening to your crate training episode. I love how no nonsense you are with most subjects, and this one is of particular interest to me. My husband and I fostered a few dogs before we adopted.  All the dogs we had before, including puppies and adults slept in a crate.  However, our last foster and now adopted member of the family hates the crate. He'll go in if there's food, but if the door closes he immediately loses it and won't eat.  He tries to eat the bars, jumps up and throws himself against the bars, and generally cries until you open the door. We've also tried pens, et cetera. We want to crate train for all the reasons you mentioned on the podcast and also because I want him to stop sleeping in our bed. He moves around and I'm always scared he'll fall off. He was rescued from a puppy mill. And I've been following the Best Friend's guidelines, which say that some dogs will never adapt to crates after being born in a puppy mill. He is five months old. He also hates pens. I've tried covering the crate to make it more den like, but he barks and jumps the whole time. Occasionally he goes quiet. I've even filmed him and left the apartment, and he keeps jumping and barking until I’m back.



"He is very happy when he's let out. He also won't eat if he knows he's closed in the pen or crate. He's very stuck to me in general...



Full transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts

Is all punishment necessarily bad? Nope! There are two kinds of punishment, and one of them is actually frequently used by so called "positive reinforcement" trainers like Annie: Negative Punishment. Here Annie breaks down what Negative Punishment is, talks about how it interplays with positive reinforcement, and explains its role in the "Elevator Game," which is a great exercise you can to do at mealtimes in order to teach a dog to not bum-rush the food bowl. She also reads from Behavior Principles In Every Day Life by John D. Baldwin and Janice I. Baldwin, which talks about a study in which parents used negative punishment at story time in order to discourage children from sucking their thumbs. 



Behavior Principles In Every Day Life by John D. Baldwin and Janice I. Baldwin,  https://amzn.to/3qd8TXf

Eileen Anderson on Extinction https://eileenanddogs.com/blog/category/extinction-2/

Other episodes and blog posts on this topic: 

Episode 65: Don't let your dog cry it out: On training dogs to be alone 

https://anniegrossman.com/2020/06/training/episode-65-dont-let-your-dog-cry-it-out-on-training-dogs-to-be-alone/10141/

Episode 47: A busy person's guide to operant conditioning

https://anniegrossman.com/2019/04/training/episode-47-a-busy-persons-guide-to-operant-conditioning/10094/

The Big Bang Theory explains Operant and Classical Conditioning

https://anniegrossman.com/2012/03/funnies/operant-conditioning-as-explained-by-the-big-bang-theory/4094/

Dog Training Lessons Learned From Watching Girls

https://anniegrossman.com/2013/02/training/dog-training-lessons-learned-from-watching-girls-54375/7793/

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Partial Transcript:

[Intro and music]

Annie:

So a few years ago near where I live in Manhattan, I saw a woman walking a dog with a shock collar, like a really big shock collar, bright, I think it was like bright yellow. And she had the remote very conspicuously in her hand. And maybe I shouldn’t have done this, but I posted a photo of it, I think an Instagram stories of her with her dog and a shock collar.  Like from the back, you couldn’t really tell who she was or who the dog was.

Again, maybe I shouldn’t have done this, but turns out she was a client of another dog trainer that has a studio, not that far from a school for the dogs in Manhattan. And I ended up taking the photo down but not before there was some back and forth in comments if I remember correctly on this photo. Maybe it wasn’t in stories, maybe it was in the feed.

Anyway, there were comments, kind of along the lines of how we as quote unquote positive reinforcement trainers don’t understand the importance of using all four quadrants of operant conditioning, and that — although I think this trainer referred to them as corners — that we, we really can’t be good dog trainers unless we understand and use all four corners, AKA quadrants.

So operant conditioning, is the process of learning by consequence. If you do something, there is a consequence and the consequence can either be punishing or reinforcing. The consequence can be involving adding something or subtracting something. And if you’re adding something, we call it positive.

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Spencer Williams, the founder and CEO of Bozeman, Montana-based company West Paw, grew up on a working ranch where the dogs slept outside, worked hard, and, when they played, they did so with sticks. And... they were happy! Some twenty-odd years ago, he decided he wanted to help modern non-working dogs be that happy too, and wanted to do so in a way that wouldn't just improve doggie lives: It'd also improve the community and the earth. Those weren't small goals! Annie talks about the origins of this interesting company, whose guaranteed-for-life, recyclable, made-in-the-USA products have been sold at School For The Dogs in Manhattan and at storeforthedogs.com for nearly a decade. Learn how they became a "B-Corp" and what that means, in addition to finding out about some of their innovative products, materials, and practices.  Find West Paw products in our online shop: https://storeforthedogs.com/collections/west-paw-designs Like this podcast? Tell your friends! And leave us a review on iTunes! http://schoolforthedogs.com/listen

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Well, thank you so much for taking the time to chat. I'm really excited to get to know you a little bit. I feel like I know you through your business. But maybe we could just start out, you could just say your name and your title, and we'll go from there.

Spencer Williams:

I'm Spencer Williams and I'm the CEO and owner of West Paw

Annie:

And West Paw, as School For The Dogs fans might know, makes some of the most fabulous dog toys on the market. We have been selling them at storeforthedogs.com since 2014. And I'm excited to talk to you, because as I've spent these years buying West Paw products, both for my own dogs and for our shop, I've learned a little bit about the company that has intrigued me. So first of all, tell me about being a B Corp. Is that what it's called?

Spencer:

Yeah, I mean, that's great. Well, and thanks for all the years of experience you have buying and using and selling our products. I'm looking forward to the conversation. And B Corp's a great place to start because it is a movement that matters a lot to West Paw.

This whole concept started just about a dozen years ago. And what people realized is that when they were leading a business that was impact driven, if that business had a change in leadership or a change in ownership, sometimes those impacts the business was able to drive would be lost in those transitions.

And the idea around the B Corp was how do you create more opportunity for those impacts to be long lasting? And how do you measure the impact? So the idea here, Annie is how, how do you differentiate from really good marketing to fact-based information on a company's impact.

And so that's where the B Corp movement came from. And in a nutshell today, what it means is that a company can choose to become a certified B Corp, and the B stands for benefit. That's a good way to think of it. Like you're benefiting primarily four areas in a business: the employees who work in the business, the community that that business is located in or impacts; it's also around the environment and how the business impacts the environment; and then finally the customer piece.

Full Transcript at SchoolForTheDogs.com/Podcast

Nothing makes people want puppies quite like a global pandemic! Those who are raising puppies during quarantine may face some challenges when it comes to socialization. But, if you succeed at doing a good job with it -- if you can clear the unusual hurdles that new dog owners have to face right now -- you will be paving the way for a great future for your dog and while developing your own training abilities.

Annie discusses what socialization is, how to spot signs of possible stress, and how to start at "criteria: zero" in order to build new and appropriate behaviors (and keep bad ones from happening). She talks about using food in socialization, using the right toys, and making use of sounds and objects you might be able to find in your home and enlisting neighbors in a safe way. She also talks about how to help your young dog get adequate puppy playtime, even if that means you... have to pretend to be a puppy.

FREE EBOOK on The Dog Training Triad: http://schoolforthedogs.com/triad

Get access to our private Facebook Group with the purchase of any of our new self-paced online courses. See http://schoolforthedogs.com/courses

Additional resources:

Annie's webinar on raising a puppy during quarantine: https://event.webinarjam.com/go/replay/81/k6v60c91ulrt9oi1

Dog Body Language Demonstated By A Human with Em Beauprey: https://event.webinarjam.com/go/replay/148/k6v60c5vhns2s1

First Episode of The Dog Whisperer featuring Nunu and Kane (both being flooded -- but lots of good examples of stress signals): https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x72q489

More on Slow Food Bowls: https://storeforthedogs.com/blogs/news/extend-the-joy-of-your-dogs-mealtime-with-slow-food-bowls

K9 Sports Sack: https://storeforthedogs.com/products/k9-sport-sack-rover-backpack-1

Flirt Poles: https://storeforthedogs.com/products/flirt-poles

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Hey everyone. So lots of people have gotten puppies in the last few months during quarantine, which I’m super excited about.  But the truth is, while the crazy world pandemic we’re living through might mean that you have more time to spend at home with your puppy, which by and large is a very good thing, it also means that there are some very real challenges that you may be facing that really might make things harder than they would be for a puppy owner getting a puppy in more normal times.  You might not have the support system around you that you used to have. You might not have access to safe places that you can go with your puppy outside of your home. You’re probably dealing with financial stress. You might be having to move unexpectedly. You might get sick.  But you know, all of this is to say that if you can get through having a puppy during quarantine, you know, it’s kind of like I tell my clients, if your puppy can make it here, he can make it anywhere. In New York City.

Same thing with this. If you can get you and your new puppy through this difficult period in the right ways, you’re really going to be setting yourself up for a life together that is going to be enjoyable...

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts

Leashes, collars and harnesses are some of the first accessories most dog owners acquire when they get a dog, and very soon they come to depend on these tools. But, in this guide to teaching a dog to walk on a loose leash, Annie suggests teaching where you want your dog to walk in relation to your body (right next to your leg), and what you want your dog to be doing on leash (checking in with you often) before you start relying on equipment to control your dog's behavior. This episode contains suggestions on training exercises to help teach nice walking (with or without a leash), protocols for encouraging good behaviors on leash, and gear recommendations.  

Products mentioned in this episode:  

Found My Animal double-ended nylon leash: https://storeforthedogs.com/collections/collars-leashes-harnesses/products/found-my-animal-leash-1 

Mendota Lightweight Braided Leash  https://storeforthedogs.com/collections/collars-leashes-harnesses/products/braided-leash

Freedom Harness https://storeforthedogs.com/collections/collars-leashes-harnesses/products/freedom-harness

Liquid Treat Dispenser https://storeforthedogs.com/products/liquid-treat-dispenser

Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Hey, everyone. Thank you for tuning in. Today’s topic is loose leash walking.

Now I’m going to talk about how to walk the dog, like how you should be walking and what equipment you can use. I want to talk about what behaviors you’re going to reward and where you're gonna reward and then I’m going to give you two exercises that you can work on when you're trying to practice your dog’s loose leash walking.

But first, I want to talk for a minute about what you want your dog to look like on leash or what you want your walks to look like on the leash?  What do you want to look like with your dog on leash? Take a moment to conjure up sort of the perfect image of what a walk should be there. I don’t think there is really a right or wrong answer; I just want you to think about what you want your walks to look like so you can work towards that goal.

I mention this because there is a man in my neighborhood who for years I’ve seen him walking his dog in this sort of militaristic- style. The dog, who is a big dog, his neck probably is close to the guy’s hip and this guy holds the leash super tightly- there's maybe 1 foot of leash between his hand and the dog’s neck or  I think maybe he walks him on some kind of like head harness, anyway,  they just look so tense, both of them, that they stress me out every time I see them- I want to like give both of them a massage. Anyway, at one time I was sitting in the park with my dog on a bench and this guy came and sat down on a park bench near me with his dog and we started chatting a little bit and I couldn't resist saying something, I was nice about it, but I said something like, “I notice your dog walks really close to you”, or something like that,  it wasn't super judgy and he said something like, “ well how a dog  is supposed to walk. Outside time isn’t about fooling around. “ So fair enough.

But that’s not my idea of how my dog is supposed to walk. My vision of the perfect walk, if I were to paint a watercolor of it, would be my dog walking near me with a very loose leash, ideally no tension on the leash and I want us to kind of be paying attention to each other's needs. So if I need to go in one direction, I want him to be aware of that and go in that direction with me.

Full transcript at Schoolforthedogs.com/Podcasts

During the dark days of 2020, Annie has been self-medicating. Her drug of choice? Watching clips from old movie musicals she loved as a kid. It turns out that there are a lot of lessons about behavior in these films, and storylines that unwittingly relate to dog training. In this episode, Annie gives a dog-trainer’s-eye-view analysis of Mary Poppins, The Music Man, and the movie Annie. 



See the full clips played in this episode when you join our new app: http://schoolforthedogs.com/community

Mentioned in this episode: 

Animals Make Us Human, by Temple Grandin 

https://amzn.to/2KkyXA8

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Transcript:

Annie:

So there’s something that I think probably a lot of people who know me well, probably don’t even know about me, which is that I love old movie musicals. I grew up with a small skyscraper of VHS tapes balanced atop the TV of Judy Garland movies, Fred Astaire movies, Gene Kelly, Robert Preston. I would watch these movies — I’m trying to think of some of them, 42nd street, GiGi, The Music Man, The Sound of Music, the Easter Parade, Oklahoma.

I would just watch these movies over and over. And so much of them I feel like are deeply ingrained in me. And really it sort of informed my early view of what the world was like, which is maybe why adulthood has actually been something of a disappointment. Like it turns out if you’re an unmarried woman in your thirties who loves books, that doesn’t mean that Robert Preston is going to come serenade you in the library while everyone does a choreographed jig around you.

I think I kind of put my love of movie musicals aside for many years, you know, occasionally maybe going to one if there was something at the Film Forum.  But the existence of YouTube has really made it possible for me to occasionally dive in for an hour or two and watch some old favorite clips.  It’s like a drug. It just makes me so happy to see people singing and dancing and these old movies.

And during these gray months of 2020, I have started watching some of my favorite old musicals with my daughter, who’s almost two. We have Disney Plus, which is a treasure trove. And I’ve made her some YouTube playlists that we work through of my favorite scenes from old musicals. And of course I can’t help myself from finding little dog training lessons and dog life parallels in, in my old favorite movies.

So I thought I would share a few songs today and tell you how I’ve been thinking about them as it relates to dog stuff. I don’t think there are any majorly important dog training lessons in what I’m about to share, but maybe it will just be a little bit of fun to share my thought process with you. And of course, to share these joyous, joyous movie moments.

I am going to post the full videos in our brand new app, which you should definitely check out. You can get there at schoolforthedogs.com/community. There is a section there specifically about the podcast and that is where I’m going to post the videos.

So, first one that I want to share with you is from Mary Poppins. Mary Poppins was based on the PL Travers books and of course starred Julie Andrews and Dick van Dyke. Two of my all time favorites, both of whom are still alive, fortunately. Julie Andrews, this was the first time she played an amazing babysitter. The second time being in the Sound of Music, which came a few years later.

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Amos Grossman Pedicone died on November 3, 2020. He was 15.5-years old, and lived with Annie Grossman since his puppyhood. He was a black Yorkiepoo who enjoyed playing fetch in the ocean, swimming in fountains, and learning new tricks -- sometimes pretty fabulous ones. But this episode isn't about his accomplishments, or about his braininess or cuteness. It's about death as part of dog ownership, and about how dog ownership can be part of a person's self-care. It's about how people can love a dog that doesn't belong to them. It's about how training can help us be able to enjoy our dogs and spend more time with them, and can help them be happy to be in the role of being the objects of our affection. It's also about how dogs are the opposite of death and heartbreak. But mostly, it's about Amos. He will be missed. 

Join the School For The Dogs Community app!

On the web: http://schoolforthedogs.com/commumity

On iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1355439730

In Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.disciplemedia.schoolfordogs

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

So my dog died a month ago on November 3rd, Election Day. And I have been attempting to record this episode for the last few weeks, but it’s been hard to get myself to sit down and do it.  To sit alone in a room and talk about losing my dog best friend over the last 15 and a half years, you know?

And it’s not like I have to race cause someone else is going to scoop the story. It’s not like I have an editor breathing down my neck. I mean, I could just choose to not record a podcast episode about losing my dog.

But this is a podcast about living with dogs, loving dogs, teaching dogs, learning from dogs. And unfortunately death is part of pet ownership. So I sort of feel like I would be chickening out if I neglected to talk about this part of my experience of this relationship. Also, this is School for the Dogs Podcast, of course, and Amos was a big part of how School for the Dogs came to be in existence.

You know, some people I know have become dog trainers because they were really interested often from an early age in animal behavior in general, and dogs are a relatively easy animal to focus on if you’re interested in animal behavior, since you can study them and work with them without having to go scuba diving or camping out in a tree.

I know quite a few dog trainers who consider themselves, I think animal trainers first, dog trainer second. And I also know a lot of people who got into dog training because they had a really difficult dog. But I don’t think I fit into either of those two categories for me. I think my dog training life started with a love of dogs in general and then a great love for one dog in particular. I didn’t become a dog trainer to change Amos in any way. I became a dog trainer because I wanted to figure out how to be a better person to my dog, how I could spend more time with him.

I think I mentioned this in an early episode of the podcast, but I went through this real soul searching period during the last major economic downturn, like in 2008, 2009, 2010, where I was really thinking hard about how I could make a living doing something different than I had been doing. And I spent a lot of time with Amos in the dog park, writing lists of things I liked and things I could imagine spending my time doing.

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Humans and dogs have more in common than what initially meets the eyes. As non-extinct land dwelling mammals, we are both species that are in a special category that makes up 1/20th of 1/20th of 1 percent of all the species of animals who have ever lived. Annie attempts to look at the dog/human relationship from the long lens of the evolution of life on Earth, and helps us think about about what we can extrapolate about dog behavior based on what we know about ourselves. 

Show notes: http://anniegrossman.com/podcast5

A dog trainer's view of evolution: http://anniegrossman.com/evolution

6 ways in which dogs and humans are exactly alike: http://anniegrossman.com/6ways 

Please make sure to subscribe & rate 5-star on iTunes!

Annie Grossman owns and operates School For The Dogs in NYC. Studio: http://schoolforthedogs.com Shop: http://storeforthedogs.com Instagram: http://instagram.com/schoolforthedogs Facebook: http://facebook.com/groups/schoolforthedogs

Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Hey Humans.  So, so far on this podcast in past episodes we have talked about things pertaining to dog owners like where your dog is going to pee or poop, what your dog is going to eat, etc. But today I want to about two things that affect all of us whether or not we own dogs.

Say hello to our special guests: time and evolution.

Now I don’t think most people think a lot about evolution when they’re training their dogs. This might be because they're simply too busy trying to figure out where their dog should pee and poop and what they should eat. But it also might be because we tend to think more about dog training than we do about dog learning and dog learning, like all animal learning, has been a huge factor in their success on this planet as a species.  A key to survival is the ability to adapt your behavior in such a way that’s going to be conducive to living in a given environment and natural selection has favorite animals who are good at figuring out what works in order to not expend energy unnecessarily and to stay alive. The inability to adapt to certain environments has caused many other species to not succeed.

In the last couple decades, so much about dog training has gotten muddled up with trying to understand wolf behavior.  Now there's some problems comparing dog behavior to wolf behavior, but I don’t even want to get into that right now. My larger feeling about trying to understand dogs by understanding wolves is that it's kind of over-complicating the situation because wolves learn in the same way that dogs learn but dogs learn also in the same way that we learn and we know a lot more about ourselves than we know about wolves.  So if we are fishing for kind of animal to compare dogs to in order to better understand them, I think we are better off looking at ourselves.

One thing that I often tell my clients is that dog training is all about understanding animal behavior and we all understand animal behavior a lot more than we give ourselves credit for, simply because we are animals and we are behaving, all the time.

Full transcript available at Schoolforthedogs.com/Podcasts

You might consider your dog your "baby," but what happens if you decide to add an actual infant to your family? Jessica Jacobson, owner of NYC's Dapper Dog Training, has spent years coaching families on prepping their dogs for the arrival of a tiny non-furry new family member. Annie and she discuss how she built her career, and go over some key things to consider when training a dog for interspecies sibling-hood.



Notes: 

Dapper Dog Training - Marilyn Ullman of the "Discover Your Dream Career" course - Association of Professional Dog Trainers' annual conference - Nursing Your Baby by Karen Pryor - Snuggle Puppies - Annie's baby! - Music: "Hello Ma Baby" ukulele cover by The Channel Drifters

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Partial Transcript:

**music**

Annie:

Hi everyone. Thank you so much for listening. Before we get into the meat of today's show, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has left reviews on iTunes. It's a really great way to let people know about this podcast. If you're enjoying it, please do leave a review. And Instagram stories has also been a fun way that people have let others know about the podcast. If you take a screenshot and share in stories and tag School for the Dogs on Instagram, we will reshare it. And it really feels good to know that we're reaching people.

So today I am talking to my friend, fellow dog trainer, Jessica Jacobson, who has her own dog training business in New York City. And I wanted to talk to her both to just find out how she got into dog training and built her business, but also specifically because she has something of an expertise on preparing dogs for the arrival of a baby. And I have a baby on the way so I was hoping she might be able to give me some tips on getting Amos, my Yorkiepoo ready for this life event.

Jessica:

Hello? Hi. My name is Jessica and my company is called Dapper Dog training and I'm stoked to be here.

Annie:

And we've known each other actually for a long time now.

Jessica:

Yeah

Annie:

We met in Atlanta at the APDT dog conference dog conference.

Jessica:

30000 years ago.

Annie:

2010 it was. I remember it was 2010, cause it was right after I finished Karen Pryor Academy.

Jessica:

Oh yeah.

Annie:

Was that the first time you'd ever been to the association? APDT is the Association for Professional Dog Training?

Jessica;

Yes. I think it was my second conference or maybe my first. I don't remember, but I remember when I saw you and we had gotten together because I think I was listed on the APDT website as having a dog trainer meetup.

Annie:

Yeah, yeah. Which is actually also, I think how I met Kate was through your meetup. But that was like a real seminal moment for me because it was the first time that I was sort of immersed in a group of dog trainers outside of the two other people in my class at KPA.

Jessica:

It's like social crack.

Annie:

Yeah. It was a bit. It was also, it was just so interesting to meet people doing it, like all people from all over the country and also meeting different kinds of dog trainers and cause Association Professional Dog Training is not strictly, um...



Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts/

This is a follow up episode to last week's "journey" through the world of pet insurance. Annie mentions some companies she's heard good things about from listeners in the wake of the episode airing, and dives deep into what insurance will cover in terms of dealing with behavior issues. Her guest is trainer Briana Balogh, who is the Client Care Coordinator at Behavior Vets. 

https://behaviorvetsnyc.com/our-team/briana-b/

Looking to get some help with house training? Download our free guide at http://schoolforthedogs.com/house

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Partial Transcript:

[intro and music]

Annie:

Hey there. So this is sort of a follow-up last week’s mammoth pet insurance episode. I just wanted to mention or reiterate a few things and respond to some feedback I’ve gotten. And then I do have an interesting interview to share.

But I just wanted to reiterate that I think it’s a good idea to get pet insurance as early in your dog’s life as possible, because I don’t think there are any companies out there that are really gonna cover preexisting conditions. So you want to get a plan that you like before your dog or cat has any conditions.

And the sooner that you start out with one company, and the more time you may have to stop working with that company, try a different company, et cetera, et cetera, once your dog or cat has any kind of pre-existing conditions, you’re going to kind of be locked into working with whichever brand you’re with because you’re not going to be able to switch and get that stuff covered.

If you do have a dog who has a pre-existing condition, definitely check out the pet assure discount code, which I talk about in the episode, which is probably the best option in those cases.

I also got some feedback that I was a little dismissive of companies that offered different kinds of insurance. And I think that’s totally true. I was just trying to narrow the field a little bit, set some parameters, arbitrary as they may be. But a couple of people have reached out to me for instance, and said that they have Nationwide and said they’re really happy with Nationwide.

I ran a quote and it looks like Nationwide would cover just about everything that the the company I ultimately chose would cover. They don’t have tons of options to toggle and choose from, which I actually really like. I think it simplifies things. And the quote that I got from them looks like it would be about what I’m going to end up paying per month with a plan I chose with the company I chose, except the deductible would be lower.

I have a thousand dollar deductible. The nationwide one would be 250. The wellness visit would still be covered. And they would cover 90% of bills. Although the plan I got is a hundred percent of bills. So I think definitely that’s one worth checking out.

And as I did mention in the last episode, if you already have insurance that you like, a lot of people already have Nationwide for their home insurance or renter’s insurance or car insurance or whatever.  You might be able to get a deal bundling your insurances together. So again, that is one of my major recommendations.

Full Transcript at SchoolfrotheDogs.com/podcast

Ferdie Yau,  behavior consultant at NYC's Behavior Vets, has been training animals in New York City for nearly twenty years. Today he mostly works with dogs (he trained his own to be a coyote poop detection dog...) but he started out working in the city's zoos. Learn how a lifelong passion for animals  led this Long Island-born conservation biologist to think about the importance of enrichment in training urban-dwelling animals, whether they be puppies in living rooms, cats in shelters, or polar bears in Central Park.

Notes: 

-SchoolForTheDogs.com/Mosaic 

-For a limited time, we are offering free thirty minute sessions with our trainers! Book yours at SchoolForTheDogs.com

-BehaviorVetsNYC.com

-Get $10 off to make your own custom stickers with Sticker Mule. Use this link. 

-Elly Lonon sings Aba Daba Honeymoon. Elly is the author of Amongst The Liberal Elite.

-Sitsnwiggles.com

Partial Transcript:

Annie 1:24

That is Elly Lonon singing Abba Dabba Honeymoon. Thank you for tuning in. I have an episode that I'm really happy to share with you all today. It is an interview with a really excellent trainer who I'm pleased to call a colleague: Ferdie Yau. And, you know though, I actually recorded this with Ferdie almost a year ago, and then kind of took a hiatus with the podcast and I just wanted to mention that since then, he has taken a job with Behavior Vets, which is a highly respected veterinary practice that specializes in Behavioral Medicine. And yeah, I'm glad to be able to share this interview with you. I also wanted to mention that we are still doing free 30 minute private virtual sessions. With all clients, new and old. We're offering one to anyone who is interested. If you have not taken us up on that offer yet please do so, you can sign up at schoolforthedogs.com. Not sure how long we will be offering this promotion, but we feel it is something we can do during quarantine to help people who are either facing issues with their dogs having to do with the massive changes in lifestyle we're all experiencing, or if you're just looking to learn a little bit more about training, maybe looking for some ideas of fun stuff that you can do with your dog. Go ahead and sign up at schoolforthedogs.com. We are able to pay our trainers to offer these sessions thanks to our scholarship fund. So thank you to anyone who has already donated to the fund.  You can learn more about it at schoolforthedogs.com/fund. And right now we are putting together a mosaic in our studio while we're closed. It's being built by the artist Jim power.  Jim power is the artist who has done all the mosaics on lampposts throughout the East Village for like three decades. And he is doing this for us and if you donate $100 or more right now, we will thank you with a photo tile that will go in this unique mosaic.  You can learn more about that at schoolforthedogs.com/mosaic, and I will link to it in the show notes as well. And lastly, if you're enjoying this podcast, please do leave a review but also reach out and say hi to me, I would love to hear from you...

Full transcript at Schoolforthedogs.com/Podcasts

At School For The Dogs, we've been lucky enough to be able to mentor a handful of aspiring dog trainers through our apprenticeship program. One of our current apprentices, Anna Heyward, first came to us as a client. Anna, a writer who is originally from Australia, has fostered dogs in NYC for years; last year, she took in a dog whose separation anxiety was beyond anything she'd ever seen. She came to School For The Dogs after consulting with several dog trainers. Some suggested the dog was just being dramatic and that she just needed to let him manipulate her; others told her to use a shock collar on him. In this episode, Anna explains how her experience fostering dogs in New York City and her work with our trainer Anna Ostroff led her to rethink everything she thought she knew about behavior, and ultimately pursue a career in dog training. 

If you enjoy this podcast, please leave a review on iTunes! You can also support us by shopping in our online store: StoreForTheDogs.com 

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

So,  I’m about to share with you is a conversation with one of School for  the Dogs’ apprentices, Anna Heyward. And I wanted to talk to Anna for a  bunch of reasons. I’m really interested in how people are finding their  way and to the world of dog training, whether that’s because they aspire  to doing it professionally or not. And I met Anna when she started our  six month apprenticeship. And we’ve gotten to know each other this year a  little bit. And Anna is a very talented writer and recently I read an  essay she wrote, a not yet published essay about her experience  fostering. Specifically fostering one very difficult dog. And I was just  so moved by what she wrote and how she wrote about the experience of  being a temporary home to a dog who has behavior issues that are extreme  and what that mean. What it meant-meant both for her, for the dog. What  it helped her learn about the world. What she learned about the people  around her, her family, her loved ones through this very difficult  experience of being a foster, a foster mother to two dogs.

And so I was thrilled when she said she  would talk to me a little bit about her experience as a fosterer on  the  podcast. But I… before  I share with you this conversation, I just  wanted to mention another Anna who you’re going to hear about a little  bit in this episode because Anna Heyward would not have come to School  for the Dogs without Anna Ostroff, who is a woman I just love so much.  And I was, I’m trying to think about how do I express my feelings… it’s  like, I feel like it’s such a special thing when you get to mentor  someone and then you see them being a mentor to someone else.

And I should specify  I’m talking about  as a mentor, but I think more of sort of Kate and me and School for the  Dogs as an entity, a mentoring entity, I guess, is sort of how I think  of what we’re doing in a lot of ways to shape people to be better dog  owners, if not dog trainers and Anna Ostroff came to School for the Dogs  about four years ago with a very sweet and shy young dog named Ginger  and her husband, Alan.  They are theater producers and had, I believe  had pretty recently before coming to us, won a Tony for a Broadway play  that they produced. And I just enjoyed getting to know them as these  very interesting people with an interesting theater background. So they  were clients with whom I became friendly.

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/podcast

In an ideal world, dogs would all be trained to be able to be alone. It would be a process of shaping a behavior, and helping your dog make good associations with being without you. But, in the real world, not everyone can take the time to acclimate a dog to alone time. Annie talks about the "cry it out" method and some of the tools that are used to punish the behaviors that can occur when a dog is stressed about being alone, and their potential fall out. She also gives a few strategies you can use when you really just have to leave your dog before you are sure he can handle it, and discusses what it means when we get rid of a behavior using extinction.

Support School For The Dogs by shopping in our online store! 

Products mentioned in this episode. Treat n' Train - https://storeforthedogs.com/products/treat-train

Treat Separation Anxiety In Dogs by Malena DiMartini

Scholarship Fund mosaic: http://schoolforthedogs.com/mosaic

Master Class can be found at anniegrossman.com/masterclass

NYDogShare.com

Also listen to: 

Episode 26 | Teach a foolproof DROP and COME using Classical Conditioning

Episode 59 | Separation Anxiety Expert Malena DeMartini on Helping Dogs Learn To Be Alone

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

I am in my neighbor's apartment. This has become my backup recording studio.  And my neighbor is a wonderful man I have known my entire life. He has a lot of stuff. He has a lot of stuff. I don't think he would disagree with that statement. And right next to the desk where I've been recording in order to seek some quiet, because my apartment is not quiet very often with my little daughter, right, running around.  Right next to the spot in his apartment, where I sit is a dead cockroach that's been dead on its back for, uh, the last few months and has remained unmoved. And I feel like I've been paying homage to this dead cockroach. Like we've been sharing space with him in his death, me still alive. You know, I don't think I ever saw him when he was alive, but he did live in my building. I thought about picking him up. But then I started to feel like he was some kind of symbol.  Not as cute as like a rabbit's foot, but actually kind of less gross. And, you know, people have taxidermied animals that they keep around.  Right now, I'm just coexisting with a dead cockroach.



[Intro and music]

Annie:

So I've been getting a lot of questions relating to separation, which I guess could be sort of seen as predictable seeing that there's been a period of people being home a lot with their dogs. And now perhaps a period of us being less at home with our dogs.  And a lot of people who have gotten dogs in the interim period, this like COVID 19 puppy and adoption boom that we seem to have seen. And so I wanted to talk a little bit about how I think about separation and the various options of how you can deal with it.



And you know, I should say that separation is such a frustrating issue.  And if you've listened to this podcast before you might've heard the episode I did with Malena Dimartini, who is probably the separation anxiety dog training expert out there...

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts

Jon Provost was the boy sidekick to the 20th Century's most-loved dog: Lassie. In the late 1950s and early 1960s a third of American households tuned in each week to watch Lassie, a whip-smart Collie, help Timmy get out of countless pickles. Lassie came to define the "perfect" dog. In this episode Provost, who is now 70, talks about working with a dog star, and about what he learned from Lassie's rather progressive trainer/owner, the famous Hollywood dog trainer Rudd Weatherwax. He and Annie also discuss his early exposure to the notion of a "therapy" dog, and his more recent work to bring attention to rescue dogs, Army dogs, and more.  Annie ends the episode by reflecting on how Lassie impacted our cultural notions about dogs, perhaps not for the better, and reads from Jean Donaldson's book Culture Clash, about the Disney-fication of dogs and how a desire to anthropomorphize "man's best friend" has led to some huge errors in the way people attempt to train and understand the dogs who live with us. 

If you're enjoying School For The Dogs Podcast, please subscribe to it, rate it, and leave a review! 

Jean Donaldson's Culture Clash: https://amzn.to/2KNwH2n

JonProvost.com

Timmy's In The Well: The Jon Provost Story https://amzn.to/2ZAVxbL

Get a free eBook: Three Secret Keys To Dog Training Success when you register for Annie's Free Master Class! http://anniegrossman.com/masterclass

You can find some old episodes of Lassie on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HluWrXiVNks

Rudd Weatherwax's obituary: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-02-26-me-25026-story.html

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Partial Transcript:



Annie:

60 years ago, there was a TV show that was so popular, it's estimated it was watched in a third of American households each week. Its star, whose name was Baby, was a guy playing the role of a girl -- a nonhuman girl. That girl was, of course, Lassie.

[Whistling - Lassie theme]

Baby has long since left us. The show is only on in reruns.  And today, most people have not heard of Lassie's famous trainer, Rudd Weatherwax, who was responsible for many of the 20th century's most famous dog actors, but last year, his best friend is still around and still hanging out with dogs like it's his job.  Today, I have for you an interview with Jon Provost who played Timmy on the show Lassie for most of his childhood.  He spoke to me about Weatherwax’s progressive and positive reinforcement based training methods, what it was like to grow up off camera with Lassie, and about his continued work with dogs. Fun fact, did you know there was actually never an episode where Timmy fell in a well, can you believe that?

Before we get started, I just wanted to suggest that you go check out my brand new one hour long master class. It's called “Three simple things every dog owner needs to know to teach a dog quickly and easily without, force, pain, a major time investment or fancy equipment.”  It's a presentation where I talk about how I got into dog training, how it kind of revolutionized how I see the world. You'll learn to think about the way your dog learns, specifically wow to think about the way in which your dog is learning thanks to classical conditioning all the time...

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts

Two months after losing her 15.5-year-old Yorkiepoo bestfriend, Annie and her family welcomed a new puppy into their home. In this episode, she talks about the experience of falling in love with rescue dogs on the Internet, conversing with breeders charging top dollar, and, finally, landing the perfect puppy for her family. 

Go to School For The Dogs' Instagram to see a picture of Annie's new puppy!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJhGbJFn6Ir/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Join the School For The Dogs Community at http://schoolforthedogs.com/community

Episode with Anna Heyward: https://anchor.fm/dogs/episodes/Lessons-learned-from-foster-dogs-A-discussion-with-our-apprentice-Anna-Heyward-ejr8oh

Products mentioned in this episode: 

Squishy Face Flirt Pole https://storeforthedogs.com/products/flirt-poles

DIY Flirt Pole https://storeforthedogs.com/blogs/news/dog-flirt-poles-you-can-diy

Revol Crate by Diggs https://storeforthedogs.com/products/the-revol-dog-crate

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Partial Transcript:

[Intro and music]

Annie:

Hey folks, it’s New Year’s Day. And I only have a short window of time to record this while my in-laws are at the playground with my daughter. I actually had a different episode lined up for today. Kind of like a business lessons, behavior-minded business lessons of 2020 episode I was going to do.

But at the last minute I decided instead I wanted to share that there’s some big dog news in my life that’s happened in the last week, which is that I got a puppy. And I thought while this event is still quite fresh, I would talk about it. We got her on Tuesday and today is Friday. So it’s really only been a few days.

So as regular listeners might know, I lost my beloved 15 and a half year old Yorkie poo Amos about two months ago, November 3rd, after a swift illness. And I had him for most of my adult life. He really shaped who I am. And so it was a big loss, big loss to recover from.

And it didn’t feel right away like, okay, now we need to get a new dog. I just kind of thought, I’m just gonna let this settle, see how I feel. Don’t need to rush into anything. And my husband was like, why don’t we wait a few years? And I thought, I don’t know if I can wait a few years. I mean, this is my life, dogs are my life. The house feels empty without a dog.

Plus I realized I’ve only ever had one dog. I mean, I had dogs when I was a kid, but like since being a dog trainer, I’ve only ever had one dog.  And when I got into dog training my dog was already five. So I’ve never had a dog who I’ve trained from the beginning. And the more I thought about it, the more I felt kind of like, gosh, am I fake? Am I a failure that I’ve only ever had one dog?

I mean, I’ve certainly trained many dogs. I’ve spent extended periods of time with many, many dogs, but I just felt like, I think it will benefit me to be in the trenches with a new dog.  That experience can only benefit my understanding of dogs in general.

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

This is a bonus episode: A recording of a live Q and A.

Join Annie Grossman for a live Q and A most Thursdays.

Sign up for the next one at http://schoolforthedogs.com/qanda or join in the School For The Dogs app at http://schoolforthedogs.com/community

Have a question? Visit AnnieGrossman.com/ask or upload a recording at anchor.fm/dogs.

In this episode, Annie answers questions from: 

-A bilingual dog owner who is confused about what language to use with his dog, and who gets angry when the dog goes on the couch 

-A dog owner whose older dog just died, leaving the younger one, a border collie, sort of depressed... can any thing be done? 

-A person who lives with a dog who is obsessed with watching TV. Can TV time actually help this dog be less reactive with other dogs? 

-A Great Dane owner whose dog attacks the door when people come in, or when he can see people through the glass

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Partial Transcript:

[Intro and music]

Annie:

Now onto some of these questions.  I have four questions here that I am going to try and answer.

First question today comes from Luis, whose dog is named Luca. He is a 47 pound one year old American bulldog. They live in Phoenix. You can find them on Instagram, @nomadatemporal. Luis says:

I just welcomed a beautiful dog into my life after we met at the shelter and I started listening to your podcast to get ready and train her. I think we are making progress and your tips have been super helpful. I’m having a hard time because my tendency is to get angry. For example, I don’t have a ton of money, and I got a set of couches as a gift from my family. So I’m trying to keep her off the couches.

But when she gets on them, I respond in a way that is not helpful to training. I usually say no point to the ground, and sometimes she listens.  Other times I have to physically take her down. Also Spanish is my first language. So it’s been hard to give her commands in English when my instinct is to say the first thing and it’s usually in Spanish.

I know commands can be whatever.  The people around are English speakers or bilingual. So I feel like training twice as much to teach her two commands for each. I love her, she’s American bulldog and we are learning from each other. Thank you for such a beautiful show and I hope I can support your work.

That’s very nice. Alright. So a few things here, first of all, I really wouldn’t worry about what language that you’re speaking to Luca.  You know, it’s funny with this because I really think that you know, most of the things we say to dogs they interpret like, remember like the parents in Charlie Brown? Like wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa. Sure, I think they understand tone to some extent, but I wouldn’t get too caught up in worrying about which language you’re using.

Because you know, you can use gestures, you can teach using visual cues, for example. And when you do start to teach her specific behaviors, then you can start to think about being specific about what cues you use.  And you might choose a visual cue instead of a verbal cue if you’re worried about going back and forth from one language to another.

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

James Joyce said that Catholicism means "Here comes everybody." But does "everybody" mean our Yorkiepoos, too? 

Earlier this month, Pope Francis made the remark that "many, many couples do not have children because they do not want to, or they have just one – but they have two dogs, two cats… Yes, dogs and cats take the place of children [...] And this denial of fatherhood or motherhood diminishes us, it takes away our humanity." Annie, who is not Catholic, wondered if this pooh-poohing of pet ownership was echoing the church's stance on our relationships with non-human animals, or if maybe the Pope was going rogue. So, she called her friend Dan Gallagher, a professor of Classics at Cornell University. Professor Gallagher is uniquely qualified to discuss this topic: He used to be one of the Pope's secretaries and translators. He also grew up breeding Cocker Spaniels, and once gave a funeral to a hamster. He and Annie discuss some of the Catholic church's past champions of animals -- from Saint Francis of Assisi to cat-lover Pope Benedict --  try to parse the Pope's words and wonder if maybe it's time for Pope Francis to try his hand at...pet sitting.

Read the Pope's full January 6th catechesis:

https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/audiences/2022/documents/20220105-udienza-generale.html

Learn more about Daniel Gallagher

https://as.cornell.edu/people/daniel-gallagher

Learn more about the Paideia Institute 

https://www.paideiainstitute.org/

Donate to the School For The Dogs Scholarship Fund

http://schoolforthedogs.com/fund

Get a tile in the School For The Dogs Mosaic

http://schoolforthedogs.com/mosaic

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

I want to read a few paragraphs from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, that my friend Dan sent me the other day, on the Respect for the integrity of creation, 2415:

The seventh commandment enjoins respect for the integrity of creation. Animals, like plants and inanimate beings, are by nature destined for the common good of past, present, and future humanity. Use of the mineral, vegetable, and animal resources of the universe cannot be divorced from respect for moral imperatives. Man’s dominion over inanimate and other living beings granted by the Creator is not absolute; it is limited by concern for the quality of life of his neighbor, including generations to come; it requires a religious respect for the integrity of creation.

Animals are God's creatures. He surrounds them with his providential care. By their mere existence they bless him and give him glory. Thus men owe them kindness. We should recall the gentleness with which saints like St. Francis of Assisi or St. Philip Neri treated animals.

God entrusted animals to the stewardship of those whom he created in his own image. Hence it is legitimate to use animals for food and clothing. They may be domesticated to help man in his work and leisure. Medical and scientific experimentation on animals is a morally acceptable practice if it remains within reasonable limits and contributes to caring for or saving human lives.

Full Transcript at SchoolForTheDogs.com/Podcast

A trainer who goes by the name "Dog Daddy" has millions followers and has recently incited arguments on social media: His critics accuse him of harming dogs and calling it training; his fans accuse his detractors of being sissies who can’t face reality. These two vociferous groups are facing off online and at his in-person events around the world.

Annie puts the saga into the context of a larger (and longer) story about the use of force and coercion in dog training, and gives a nuanced explanation of what defines "balanced" training and what defines trainers that takes a "LIMA" approach. She also investigates Dog Daddy’s background and unconvers some surprising information about how he initially positioned himself to potential clients.

PLUS: The podcast has a new jingle, to go with its... new name! 

School For The Dogs Professional Course is taking applications! Apply at http://schoolforthedogs.com/pro

LIMA guidelines and the Hierarchy of Procedures for Humane and Effective Practice:

https://www.ccpdt.org/about-us/least-intrusive-minimally-aversive-lima-effective-behavior-intervention-policy/

Judge Rottenberg center: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/15/us/electric-shock-school.html

Dog Daddy Archive.org page: https://web.archive.org/web/20141108115514/http://gskennels.com/about-us/

Brandon McMillan’s training maraca: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kiFZ6Mikpo

Zak George on Instagram: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp6GpMnZHxg&t=45s

Cesar Millan’s “Shh”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp6GpMnZHxg&t=45s

Jeff Gelman on how Positive Reinforcement ruined his life: 

https://www.solidk9training.com/sk9-blog/2016/02/16/positive-reinforcement-training-resulted-in-my-becoming-divorced-drunk-and-suicidal

Facebook Page: The Truth About Griffin Shepherds

https://www.facebook.com/TheTruthAboutGrffinShepherds

Annie is joined by School For The Dogs apprentice Leeyah Wiseman to discuss two super important behaviors: Touch and find it. She and Annie discuss the benefits of teaching these two things and talk about why both behaviors are such great starting places for many dogs and their humans. Check out @schoolforthedogs' Reels on Instagram to see Leeyah demo both! 

Annie also engages in some time travel, reading a letter that Dr. Andrew Luescher, a veterinary behaviorist at Purdue University, wrote more than fifteen years ago. It was addressed to National Geographic, which had asked him to review their show, The Dog Whisperer, before it was released... Based on what happened next, it seems like no one read it. 

http://beyondcesarmillan.weebly.com/andrew-luescher.html

See the Illuminaughtii episode on Cesar Millan at https://youtu.be/ENl5RTBResY

or find it on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1Ygtrku55i49RA0HxxPVPG

Find Leeyah on Instagram: http://instagram.com/galdogtraining

Find Annie on Instagram: http://instagram.com/annie.grossman

Previous episodes with Malena DeMartini:

Episode 159 https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/podcasts/episode-159-how-has-quarantine-changed-the-way-we-think-about-treating-separation-anxiety-in-dogs-a-conversation-with-malena-demartini-ctc/

Episode 59 https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/podcasts/separation-anxiety-expert-malena-demartini-on-helping-dogs-learn-to-be-alone/

Want to make sure you know when the next round of our apprentice opens up? Make sure to sign up for our newsletter! You can also email Annie directly at Annie@Schoolforthedogs.com. 

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Hi! Today I am joined by School for the Dogs' apprentice, Leeyah Wiseman, who is going to talk about two very important behaviors that we teach all the time at School for the Dogs, Find it and Touch. Leeyah has been doing reels for our Instagram. You can see them @schoolforthedogs on Instagram. You can also find Leeyah on Instagram @galdogtraining, it stands for George and Leeyah dog training. George is her pup.

I tried to schedule this call with Leeyah at a time when my infant daughter would be napping, but I was foiled. So you can hear her goo-goo ga-ga-ing a little bit during this talk. And I apologize for that, but as working mother, sometimes I just have to not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good, as they say.

In the beginning of the conversation, I'm asking her about Malena DeMartini, who I've had on the podcast before, who was a separation anxiety expert. And earlier in the week, Malena was gracious enough to speak to our apprentices. We have guest speakers who participate periodically.

Full Transcript at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Professor John B. Watson's 1913 essay argues that psychology should be studied from a behavioral perspective, echoes some of the same conversations that are had today between dog trainers who are approach dog training as a science and those who approach dog training by making assumptions about dogs' internal feelings and motivations. 

Read "Psychology As The Behaviorist Views it" in full at http://anniegrossman.com/watsonessay

Thoughts on this? Join the conversation by downloading the School For The Dogs Community app

find it in iTunes: http://schoolforthedogs.com/app

find it in the Play store: http://schoolforthedogs.com/play

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Transcript:

[Intro]

Annie:

Happy Monday morning humans. I am going to take advantage of this quiet moment in my home.  Quiet because my daughter’s wonderful babysitter has brought her to the playground.  To share with you an essay I just looked up that I actually have not read in several years, but I remember it left quite an impression on me when I did read it.

It’s from Psychological Review from 1913 by John B. Watson. I looked this up because I am working on some of the lectures that are going with our online professional course, which, I’m just finishing up these lectures. And I did a lecture on the history of dog training, and the history of dog training and both in universities and in pop culture, I guess is the best way to describe what the lecture is.

And I mentioned Skinner and said something about how Skinner was influenced by the work of Ivan Pavlov and John B. Watson. Both of whom were mostly working in the very early 1900s. And I kind of just started looking up stuff about John B. Watson. Again, I got on kind of a Watson kick a few years ago. I read part of his biography, which I’d actually like to look at again. I think Watson has probably due his own episode at some point, and is widely considered the OG daddy of the field of behavioral science as I understand it.

Briefly put, he was a psychology professor, I think at Johns Hopkins.  His most famous experiment was most likely the baby Albert experiment, where he showed you could condition a child to be scared of all things fuzzy, like rabbits and that kind of thing, by pairing similar fuzzy furry things with a loud scary noise.  It’s pretty cruel and weird considering his research subject was a non-verbal 18 month old boy named little Albert.  But still interesting as it certainly relates to so much dog training where we see dogs become conditioned to fear seemingly random things.

And he ended up leaving academics, I think because of some sort of affair he had with a student.  And he ended up at the famous ad agency, J Walter Thompson, where he used what he had studied and learned about human behavior in order to manipulate humans into buying things. He is credited with having popularized the idea of a coffee break, giving people a built-in reason in their day to stop and go drink and buy coffee. So if you are a big coffee drinker, as I am, you might just have John B. Watson to thank for your very stained teeth.

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Annie talks about why she is generally against costumes for dogs and suggests some alternatives to dressing up your dog on Halloween. She also discusses some feedback she got about last week’s episode, which featured an interview with the lawyer representing the woman who was mauled by Cesar Millan’s dog. Lastly, she shares two anecdotes: one about how she is using a Buy Nothing group on Facebook to get neighbors to help her train her dog (unbeknownst to them) and the other about how her attempt to use negative reinforcement to get her daughter to brush her teeth ultimately back fired (in a sort of hilarious way).

Like this episode? Leave a review on iTunes!

Follow us on Instagram: @schoolforthedogs @annie.grossman 

Episode with the lawyer suing Cesar Milan: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/dogs/episodes/Suing-Cesar-Meet-the-lawyer-of-teen-mauled-by-Dog-Whisperers-dog--And-How-to-train-2-dogs-at-once-e18r9eb

Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement, Positive Punishment and Negative Reinforcement: You may have heard these terms thrown around, but they're often misused or little understood. Together, they describe four different ways all animals learn by consequences-- aka, Operant Conditioning. In a rush to put up a podcast episode while her young baby naps, Annie challenges herself to describe each "quadrant" of Operant Conditioning in two and a half minutes.  

Notes:  

Phoebe controls the TV with her eyes  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMQfFIJU_Ho

Operant conditioning explained in Little Golden Books 

https://anniegrossman.com/2012/03/training/punishment-reinforcement-in-little-golden-books-92902/6672/

Operant conditioning explained on The Big Bang Theory Being 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XUvm_smWHY

BF Skinner's Daughter 

http://anniegrossman.com/2018/08/podcast/podcast-episode-21-bf-skinners-daughter-deborah-buzan-dispels-myths/9722/

6 ways in which dogs and humans are exactly alike  

https://anniegrossman.com/2018/04/science/6-ways-dogs-humans-exactly-alike/9419/

A dog trainer's view of evolution 

http://anniegrossman.com/2018/04/science/dog-trainers-view-evolution/9438/

Episode 42: Let's talk about dog breeding with Cherrie Mahon 

https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/podcasts/lets-talk-about-dog-breeding-with-cherrie-mahon-of-river-valley-doodles/

Episode 44: Are you talking to your socks? Marie Kondo, Cesar Millan & training humans with snake oil

https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/podcasts/episode-44/

Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Hey everyone. Annie here. And I'm with my three-month old cohost who is being quiet right now, but she may have something to say shortly. And because I am a full-time mom in addition to running School for the Dogs and in addition to doing this podcast, I am trying to be more efficient and how I do everything. Because although I have seven hands and four brains, it's hard to get it all done. So for that reason, I am challenging myself today to keep this episode short. And the thing I want to talk about today is operant conditioning, which really has four major parts. So I decided to see if I could describe each of those parts in two and a half minutes. Making all of operant conditioning, something that can be contained in 10 minutes. And let's see. Let's see if I can do it.

But first, what is operant conditioning and why do I want to talk about it? Well, there are basically two ways that all animals learn. There's two kinds of conditioning. Conditioning is a term that's synonymous with learning. And those two ways of learning are operant conditioning and classical conditioning.,,

Full Transcript at Schoolforthedogs.com/Podcasts

This is a bonus episode: A recording of a live Q and A.

Join Annie Grossman for a live Q and A most Thursdays on Instagram @schoolforthedogs.

Get alerted about the next one or ask a question in advance at http://schoolforthedogs.com/qanda.

She also sometimes goes live to answer questions on Clubhouse. Find her there: @anniegrossman.

Today she answered a listener's question about keeping her young dog from attacking her cat. 

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Partial Transcript:



Annie:

A quick Thursday Q and A for you, if you’re here and you have a question, you’re welcome to ask it. But I have a question that I got at Anniegrossman.com/ask that I really liked that I thought I’d share.

And I’m rocking a side ponytail today. What do you think of my…what do you think of this look? [laughs] It was the best quick hairdo I could come up with. If I was going to have to show my face. Does it look, does it look intentional? Hey there, Dustbin Terrier, great name. Hi, Bo…Uh, Pixel.

Okay. So, this question comes from Melissa and, did I lose it? Okay. Melissa, who is from, St. Louis, Missouri and has a corgi, right? Pachi is almost six months old. He and my two year old cat Covu love to play around together, but sometimes they get too rough. Anytime this happens, I use the touch cue with my fingers and give him a tasty treat, but then he turns around and runs right back to Kovu. Sometimes it’s friendly, but it always escalates into a serious fight.

And then she has like a side note part, which I want to talk about in a second, but let’s just talk about this part. So really great question. Actually I’m gonna read the second part now because I think it relates, so then she writes: I’ve also given a name to the touch cue, which is Revelio, I’m using Harry Potter spells as trick names, and he’s brilliant.

Isn’t that cute? He comes when I call almost every time, but I guess play time with Covu, is more fun. Sometimes I grabbed his favorite toy to distract him from Covu, but again, that only lasts for so long. Do you have any ideas? Thank you so much for your podcast. I’m amazed with how much I’ve been able to train Pachi within a short amount of time. And especially with three syllable trick names such as Expelliarmus for “drop it.” [laughs] I was told that it was impossible to do by a local trainer.  Again, thank you.

So it’s funny, you know, I’ve heard people do say dogs only understand like one or two syllables, but I think that’s probably b******t. So good for you, Melissa, for going the Harry Potter spell name route. I think that’s very clever.

But to go back to the issue of what’s going on here with the cat and the dog. I mean, Pachi is only six months old, so I would hope that you’re able to get him some really good play time. I think puppies ideally need a really good jaunt with other puppies every day, if that’s possible. It doesn’t need to be a dog park.

Full transcript at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

There is one behavior we teach every dog we work with at School For The Dogs: Touch! 

This is an easy-to-teach building block that you can use to build... whatever you want! In this episode, Annie outlines how to teach touch, and talks about this behavior's countless uses and variations. 

Annie's Free Webinar on training touch - https://event.webinarjam.com/go/replay/78/k6v60c95ir6t6nf1

More on Chirag Patel's Bucket Game - https://www.facebook.com/thebucketgame

Ken Ramirez demonstrates different types of targeting. - https://theranch.clickertraining.com/live-episode-1/

Doodle Buddy and other apps you can use with your dog - https://anniegrossman.com/2013/12/training/3-apps-your-dog-can-use-to-make-art-35313/8246/

Support this podcast by shopping in our online store, storeforthedogs.com!  http://storeforthedogs.com/

Products mentioned in this episode:  

Clicker Sticks https://storeforthedogs.com/products/clicker-stick

Lamb Lung https://storeforthedogs.com/products/lamb-lung



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Partial Transcript:



[Intro]



Annie:

Hey everyone. Annie here. Thank you so much for listening. If you're hearing this on Friday, May 15th, today is the last day that we are offering 30 minute free sessions at School for the Dogs. This is something that we started to do at the beginning of quarantine. We are bringing an end to this offer for the moment. So if you have not booked one yet, you should do so at schoolforthedogs.com and we can work on whatever you want to work on with your dog. Whether you want to talk about an ongoing issue you're having, or you just want some ideas of fun stuff you can do with your dog, or maybe you're thinking about getting a dog, whatever is going on. Our certified trainers would be psyched to talk to you, but again, today is the last day that you can get one of these sessions for free if you book before the end of the day today schoolforthedogs.com.



Today I wanted to talk about my favorite behavior to train and the behavior that I think is probably the most important behavior for anyone to train, especially if you're just starting out training a dog.  I would even go so far as to say that this might be the only behavior you need to train. I'll explain a little bit more about that in a moment, but the behavior is a Touch, specifically teaching a dog to touch his nose to your fingers.



Now I first want to describe what this behavior is going to look like, what it's going to consist of, and then I'll talk about some variations and why I think it's such an essential building block behavior. Your first job is to decide which hand your dog is going to touch and which hand is going to hold the treats. Now you could certainly reward with play or lots of other things other than food.

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts

In our very first episode, meet your host, dog trainer Annie Grossman, School For The Dogs' co-founder. Learn about her journey from average-jane dog lover to passionate defender of ethical dog training and ownership. 

Annie Grossman: http://AnnieGrossman.com 

Show Notes: http://schoolforthedogs.com/podcast 

School For The Dogs: http://schoolforthedogs.com 

Shop For The Dogs: http://storeforthedogs.com 

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/schoolforthedogs 

Please make sure to subscribe & give us 5-stars on iTunes! 

NYC-based dog trainer Annie Grossman loves to find engaging ways to help both dogs & humans approach training as an exercise in better understanding all animal behavior. She specializes in working with puppies, teaching tricks, & prepping dogs for commercial work.

Partial Transcript:

Annie:   Have you ever thought about starting your own podcast? When I was trying to get School For The Dogs Podcast off the ground, I had a lot of questions. How do I record an episode? How do I edit an episode? How do I get my show into all the apps? Is it possible to make money from a podcast?  The answer to every one of these questions is really simple. Anchor. Anchor is a one-stop shop for recording, hosting and distributing your podcast. Now, Anchor can match you with great sponsors who want to advertise on your podcast. That means you can get paid to podcast right away. In fact, that’s what I’m doing right now by reading this ad.  My favorite part about using Anchor is that I can record whenever I feel like it, directly into the app. I’m pretty busy, so I really appreciate how easy they’ve made it to podcast. So, if you’ve always wanted to start your own podcast, and make money doing it, go to anchor.fm/start. That’s anchor.fm/start, to join me and a diverse community of human podcasters already using Anchor. That’s anchor.fm/start. I can’t wait to hear your podcast.

[Intro]

Hi! My name is Annie Grossman and I’m a dog trainer. This podcast is brought to you by School For The Dogs, a Manhattan-based facility I own and operate along with some of the city’s finest dog trainers. During this podcast, we’ll be answering your questions, geeking out on animal behavior, discussing pet trends and interviewing industry experts. Welcome to School For The Dogs Podcast!

Annie: Hi! This is Annie. Thanks for tuning in to our very first episode. I’m here with my co host, Amos, a 12 year old yorkipoo. Say hi Amos! [barks] Good job, buddy! Some of you might know me from School For The Dogs. Those of you who haven’t been by School For The Dogs, if you are in New York City, definitely come on by. We’re located on East 2nd Street near Avenue A. We host classes, play groups, private lessons and I’m sure that during the course of this podcast, we’ll talk about lots of the going-ons at School For The Dogs, and you’ll get to meet some of our trainers but also some of our students, both human and canine. We also have a small boutique where we have a great selection of interactive dog toys and training gear, which you can also find online at Storeforthedogs.com.

So as this is our first episode, I wanted to take some time to talk both about how School For The Dogs came to be and my background in dog training. The dog training we do at School For The Dogs is called many different things, sometimes it’s called award-based training, sometimes it’s called clicker training, it’s called positive reinforcement training, and in the next episode I’m going to go into some detail about each of these labels and exactly what they mean...

Full Transcript at Schoolforthedogs.com/Podcasts

This is a bonus episode: A recording of a live Q and A.

Join Annie Grossman for a live Q and A on Instagram most Thursdays.

Sign up for the next one, and/or submit a question in advance, at http://schoolforthedogs.com/qanda.

Discussed in this episode: 

-How do you get a dog to eliminate more than once a day? 

-My dog likes dogs on TV but not in real life 

-What do I do if my dog just wants to bark at other dogs in the dog park but not play with them? 

-How can I keep my dog from stressing out now that I'm going back to work? 

-How can you keep a dog from counter surfing? 

Disclosure: These Q and A's give very cursory to questions that are sometimes pretty complex! We encourage dog owners to seek out personalized profession training help whenever possible. 

Mentioned in this episode: 

Ruffwear Load Up car harness https://storeforthedogs.com/products/the-ruffwear-load-up-harness

Treating Separation Anxiety In Dogs by Malena DiMartini https://storeforthedogs.com/products/book-treating-separation-anxiety-in-dogs

Episodes on separation anxiety:

Ask Annie: Separation anxiety, tips for crate training and an overview of attachment theory

https://anchor.fm/dashboard/episode/e3c9ev

Separation Anxiety Expert Malena DeMartini on Helping Dogs Learn To Be Alone

https://anchor.fm/dashboard/episode/edpqpo

Featured image: Flapjack and Wanda by cseeman is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Hi, this is a bonus Q and A episode. I try to go live every Thursday on the School for the Dog’s Instagram account. If you would like to be alerted when I’m going to go live, or if you’d like to answer a question in advance, go to School for the Dogs.com/q and a. Thanks for being here.

Annie here. I have some training questions to answer. I was going to be starting this at three, but I’m a little late for a very serious reason, which is that I ordered food.  Specifically if you must know, I ordered shake shack lunch, and I was waiting for the delivery to come so I wouldn’t be interrupted by the delivery.

I’m actually pregnant. And so I had a real jonesing for French fries. So I ordered shake shack French fries, which for those of you who are not able to be eating French fries right now, I am not going to eat while I am doing this. So I’m sparing you that.

So let me see if I can figure out how to get my questions up here while I’m talking. Here we go. I think I have it here. Okay. And I also have a dog owner named Megan who might be joining me live to talk about some housebreaking issues she’s having.

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

In 2012, Joe Freni's wife surprised him with a puppy they named Lenny. Lenny, they felt, was simply perfect. In fact, he was so perfect that they decided to start enrolling him in competitions.  In the years since, Lenny has received titles both in dog sports and dog shows, the latter culminating in his recent spot in the Westminster Dog Show. Not long after he started showing his dog in the ring, Joe decided to also start showing... himself. In this episode, Annie learns about Joe's journey as a body builder, a power lifting world champion, and as a show dog handler.  

Lenny on Social Media:

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/lennytheboston/

Instagram:  @puppy_kid

Twitter:  @LennyandJoeShow

YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb9rAnMl99XelUhuyTG7_1w 

Shop Lenny Gear: https://shop.spreadshirt.com/lennys-loot

Learn more about "The Good Boys of Boston" calendar at @good_boys_of_boston

Fun Boston Terrier Facts: http://www.bostonterrierclubofamerica.org/about-boston-terriers/boston-terrier-history.htm

Our beloved Boston Terrier student Reggie is on Instagram at @reggieinnyc

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Like this Podcast? Make sure to leave us a 5-start review on iTunes! 

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

So I am here today with Joe Freni of Boston and he is the human who belongs a Boston Terrier named Lenny and Joe got in touch with me because he wanted to tell me a little bit about Lenny and I was intrigued because it turns out both Joe and Lenny are kind of both professional physical perfect specimens. Lenny competes in dog shows and Joe  competes and what you might call human shows. He is a bodybuilder and a world champion powerlifter. Of course, you  don't normally encounter bodybuilders in the dog show ring, at least as far as I know, so I wanted to learn more and Joe, thanks so much for taking the time to talk today.

Why don’t  you introduce us to your dog Lenny.

Joe:

So for anyone who's never met Lenny. He’s a fantastic little Boston terrier he is named after Leonard Nimoy a.k.a. Spock in Star Trek due to the pointy ears and the fact that we’re huge, you know, Star Trek nerds.

Annie:

 You know it's funny as I almost named my dog, Lenny, after Lennie Briscoe on Law and Order.

Joe:

No way.

Annie:

And I also once met another dog named Lenny named after Leonard Bernstein. So there are lots of dogs named after people it seems.

Joe:

Leonard Nimoy is also from Boston which we thought was really cool. So Lenny is six and half years old, we got Lenny as a puppy about 10 weeks old, I believe. My wife actually actually got him, she completely surprised me with Lenny, I had no idea that we were getting him. I've always loved Boston Terriers and we actually had three Boston Terriers prior to Lenny so they were all rescues and this was our first first Boston Terrier from a breeder....

Full Transcript available at Schoolforthedogs.com/Podcasts

Tamara Meyer is a dog trainer with something of a dream job: She hangs out in the woods with dogs. Her Manhattan-based business, Shape Up Your Pup, brings groups of dogs to trails near the city every day. Annie met her when she was very pregnant and was looking for ways to make sure that her young dog, Poppy, got some good exercise. Annie asks her about the origins of her business, her journey to becoming a trainer, and gets tips on how to work with dogs -- one or many! -- off leash.

Shape Up Your Pup

https://www.shapeupyourpup.com/

Tracking collar mentioned: Garmin Astro 430

https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/545353

Bear bells

https://amzn.to/2VXCV85

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Partial Transcript

Tamara Meyer:

Hi everyone. My name is Tamara Meyer. I am the owner of New York City-based dog hiking and training company, Shape Up Your Pup, which I founded in 2017. Dating back, I have always felt very connected with animals and drawn to them, obviously dogs, especially. But as a kid I needed to stop and pet every dog that walked on the street.

It’s funny, cause I actually did not grow up with dogs in my early age. I spent actually 18 years of my life begging my parents to get a dog. And it was literally years and years and years of begging and begging. And my mom being very stubborn was always saying no, just simply based on her thoughts about the house being stinky and hair everywhere.

And I just wouldn’t budge either, so I totally persisted and finally convinced my parents in 2007 when they agreed to get a dog. I had my heart set on a lab and I just felt that a lab would fit in perfectly with our family. So I did tons of research and we were paired with our amazing dog when he was around eight weeks old.

But that moment that he came home truly carved kind of my life path. And I oftentimes get emotional talking about my dog Simba because he unfortunately passed three years ago. And I have so much to be grateful to him for, but he’s really the reason behind every milestone I’ve accomplished the last four years. And of course the biggest one being starting my own company.

Annie:

Did you go to college? Did you study anything relating to dogs in college? Or did you work in any areas before?

Tamara:

So it wasn’t until I really graduated from college that I knew I needed to set myself up for this career where I wanted to have really professional experience working with dogs for around two years. Cause I was just thinking very far ahead, and I was planning out, you know, what do I need to do to get myself to have the most experience I could? Work with every kind of dog, every breed, every temperament, and really set myself off on that path.

So right out of college, I began working for a local dog walking and training company in my town, knowing this was the first step to gaining professional experience. I just wanted to get as much exposure and learn all I could about dogs. So I shadowed trainers, and I trained with my own dog whenever he was up for it.

Full Transcript at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Join Annie Grossman for a live Q and A most Thursdays. Sign up for the next one at schoolforthedogs.com/qanda.

Have a question? Visit AnnieGrossman.com/ask or upload a recording at anchor.fm/dogs.

In this episode, Annie talks about using a crate with a new dog. Among the questions answered:

• Where should you put a crate?
  
  


• What kind of crate should you get?
  
  


• Do you have to use a crate?
  
  


• How can a crate help with housetraining?
  
  


• What can you put in a crate?
  
  


• How can you get a dog to like being in a crate?
  
  


• What work-to-eat toys work in a crate?
  
  


• Can a dog be alone in a crate right away?
  
  


• Should you cover a crate?
  
  


• What training exercises can make a dog enjoy being in a crate?
  
  


• What behaviors can you teach in a crate?
  
  

Mentioned in this episode:

Slow Food Bowls

https://storeforthedogs.com/collections/dog-bowls-and-treat-dispensers

Revol Dog Crate

https://storeforthedogs.com/products/the-revol-dog-crate

Revol Crate Cover

https://storeforthedogs.com/products/revol-crate-cover

Groov Training Aid

https://storeforthedogs.com/products/groov-training-aid

Lickable Treats

https://storeforthedogs.com/collections/lickable-and-spreadable-treats?sort_by=best-selling

Susan Garrett's Crate Games 

https://amzn.to/3lCYnpK

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

I have been getting a lot of questions about crate training. A lot of people getting dogs this year, which is pretty cool.  The upside of global pandemic seems to be that people bring dogs into their homes.  Who knew that that would be a silver lining.

And crate is often one of the first things that people purchase right when they’re getting a dog.  I think sometimes people get confused about how to use it, why they should use it or not use it.   So I want to just sort of talk to y’all about the way I think about a crate.

A crate is, of course, a great management tool. The three pillars of the dog training triad — management, timing and rewards.  Management is all about setting the stage, setting a stage where our dogs are going to perform in ways we are going to be likely to like, and are not going to have a chance to do a lot of the stuff we might not want them to do.

I think particularly a crate can be a very good management tool for house training.

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Annie has been on podcast-hiatus working on her book, but... she's back! Join her for a conversation with longtime friend of the podcast, British pet marketing guru Dom Hodgson, who is coming to New York City to lead a seminar at School For The Dogs later this month. Dom shares his thoughts on the current state of the pet service industry and gives some really excellent advice on how to turn happy customers into brand cheerleaders.

Sign up for Dom's April 23rd seminar
Grow Your Pet Business FAST

https://www.petbusinessmarketing.com/nyc

See the proposed School For The Dogs "Good Dog Training Pledge" at http://schoolforthedogs.com/pledge

Annie answers questions from listeners dealing with jumpy dogs, and also addresses how to acclimate a nervous dog to all the stimuli she needs to interact with on a daily basis. Have a training question? Leave a voice message at Anchor.fm or at 917-414-2625, or email podcast@schoolforthedogs.com. You'll learn: -Why dogs want to jump & why most attempts to punish jumping don't work -How to use treats effectively on the street -How to have people approach your dog on the street (& how to tell them to go away) -How to employ a remote-controlled treat dispenser to help your dog rehearse good dog manners whenever anyone enters your home



Show notes - How to stop a dog from jumping before he starts - "Give Me Space" vests - Treat + Train - Resources for people w/ dogs who have issues with fearfulness in public: DogsInNeedOfSpace.com TheYellowDogProject.com



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Partial Transcript:



Annie:

Hi, my name is Annie Grossman and I'm a dog trainer. This podcast is brought to you by School for the Dogs, a Manhattan based facility I own and operate along with some of the city's finest dog trainers. During this podcast, we'll be answering your questions, geeking out on animal behavior, discussing pet trends, and interviewing industry experts. Welcome to School for the Dogs podcast.

Hey everyone. So I am super excited because this is our very first School for the Dogs Podcast: Q&A episode. And I've collected some great questions here that I am going to answer. If you have a question that you would like answered on school for the dogs podcast, there are lots of ways that you can get in touch with us. If you're listening to this through anchor, which is our podcast hosting company, it's super easy through their app. To ask us a question, just click the, “send a voice message” button next to our icon. You will see it as soon as you log in.  You can also send an email to podcast@schoolforthedogs.com or you can call and leave a voice message. (917) 414-2625. Alternatively, you can send a text message to that number. Our first question today comes from an anchor listener.

Corey:



Hi Annie, my name's Corey. I'm just new to your podcast and I'm also an owner of a newish Labrador puppy. She's actually 11 months old, but, um, my question is the jumping. My dog is extremely excited, very friendly, very happy. We've been through two basic trainings. No one's really been able to help me in the area of jumping. She's a jumper. She's a big girl, she's 75 pounds. And when people come in the house or we're outside a neighbor comes up to her, she just jumps in, of course I say down, of course we do the whole thing with the tree, but it just seems like we just cannot get over this hurdle of her jumping up.  And of course it's not good because she could hurt somebody inadvertently. So any tips would be great. Thanks so much. Love the show.

Annie:

I'm so glad Corey asked this question because it's certainly a problem that a lot of dog owners deal with, especially people who have young dogs and large dogs.  Jumping up is a totally normal puppy behavior.  Really it's a normal behavior for any dog...



Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts/

"Shaping" is simply the process of breaking a behavior down to its smallest components and slowly raising your criteria in order to build new behaviors. By reinforcing successive approximations, it's possible to train dogs to do almost anything they are physically capable of doing! In this episode, Annie goes over some key things to think when shaping a new behavior, and describes how to shape a dog to go to a mat, or what she calls a "sticky spot." A dog who knows how to go to a mat will make an excellent guest at holiday dinners: You can "shape" a pup to have a specific spot where he will have learned to stay put and be calm, no matter how good that stuffing smells!



Notes: School For The Dogs training mat - Don't Shoot The Dog - Karen Pryor's Ten Laws of Shaping - Fun Dog Fact Of The Day: Karen Pryor's Nursing Your Baby - Woof Shout Out - Share your shaping session with us by tagging @SchoolForTheDogs on Instagram or sharing at Facebook.com/groups/schoolforthedogs. Like this podcast! Please rate us five stars on iTunes!

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Hey everyone. So today I wanted to talk about a concept that is really crucial to dog training, but also something that is going to help you with a practical training exercise that you can start working on in preparation for Thanksgiving, which is a time when I think it's a good idea to show off how well your dog is trained to your family and friends. And, of course, that can be challenging because you're often in new places, there's food involved,  there's a lot of commotion. But by playing this little shaping game that I am going to describe over the next week or so, I think that you are going to be able to really demonstrate how savvy your dog is at understanding what you want and just being an overall polite little buddy.

Shaping is simply the process of breaking a behavior down to its absolute smallest parts and then positively reinforcing the behavior, raising your criteria at incremental steps. Now, the real trick to shaping is to never raise your criteria too quickly, which means there's kind of an art to shaping I think. And that's an art of really knowing the student you're working with, in this case, a dog so that you can make things harder only at a rate that they're going to be able to still figure out what it is you want. If you make things too hard, too fast, you get an animal who I call it “dropping out of school,” you get an animal who's just like, well, I can't do this, nevermind, goodbye. Now of course, shaping is happening all the time.



And certainly school, a human school is a place where we all experience shaping. You start out at school and the criteria is very low. You show up and you do a crayon drawing and no matter how bad it is, everybody's clapping their hands and you put two blocks together and announced that that's the number two. And your teachers and parents will think you're a genius but of course pretty quickly, the criteria of what's expected of you is raised. And by the time you're in high school, you're doing algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, and you didn't get there  in a single leap from your days playing with blocks. The criteria was raised slowly over time with your teachers, step-by-step, raising the bar as far as what was expected of you.



Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts/

Did you know that The Dog Whisperer and Jada Pinkett Smiths are longtime best friends? Two weeks ago, Will Smith calmly and confidently sauntered up on to the stage of the Oscars and slapped someone who said something he didn't like. His vibe and techniques struck Annie as a bit Dog Whisper-y. Maybe that's because she was aware that Cesar Millan, aka The Dog Whisperer, was supposedly made famous in part early on because of his connection to a small handful of movie stars, among them, the Smiths. Annie unearths some old Red Table Talk recordings of The Dog Whisperer revealing his origin story to Jada and her mother,. She also reads from a 7-year-old Cesars Way blog post where Jada talks about how the dog training lessons she learned from Cesar has helped her marriage. 

Cesar Millan on Red Table Talk with Jada Pinkett Smith and Gammy (Adrienne Banfield-Norris) in 2018

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=600331890366290&id=538649879867825&_rdr

Cesar’s Way article from 2015: Jada Pinkett Smith Takes The Lead

https://www.cesarsway.com/jada-pinkett-smith-takes-the-lead/

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Have you ever disliked a celebrity purely by proxy? I'm not telling you that there's a celebrity, I've maybe long disliked by association. I'm just asking you. Have you ever disliked a celebrity because of that celebrity's association with another celebrity? Where one of these celebrities might be in a completely different field than the other celebrity?

Because there's this one celebrity who has been in the news a lot in the last week. And I don't think I need to tell you how I feel about this person. But I do wanna tell you that this person has probably had a larger impact on the field of dog training than one might realize, on dog training as it exists in the mainstream today. And I wanted to also maybe propose the argument that he has caused a lot more harm to dogs than he's ever caused to people, if only secondarily, if not also in practice. I don't know.

Purely because this one person's celebrity helped create the celebrity we know as Cesar Millan, the dog whisperer. Now, if you've ever watched The Dog Whisperer, you probably would guess that someone who is an acolyte of Cesar Millan might be very forceful, might feel that they need to be the alpha, as they say, lead the pack, be the protector, be the leader and not take not take lip from anyone. And someone who might feel fine about using physical force, without considering the unintended consequences or fallout of using punishment, be it physical or otherwise, he'd be perhaps someone like Will Smith.

Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith are long time friends of Cesar Millan’s. And their celebrity is part of what helped him reach such heights in popular culture. I started thinking about this and wanted to do an episode on this and started to look online. I knew that he had worked with Cesar. I mean, I knew that Cesar had worked with Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith's dog. So I thought maybe I could find clips of him giving the kind of advice that, were you'd apply it to humans, would lead you to slap people in the face.

Sometimes Cesar Millan is so often talking about humans and the human behavior and energy, and how to be an alpha, and all these kinds of things that make me think of someone actually kind of like Will Smith. Someone who is charismatic and seems like they're beaming love and energy and confidence, but also fine using force.

Full Transcript at SchoolForTheDogs.com/Podcast

Join Annie Grossman for a live Q and A most Thursdays.

Sign up for the next one at http://schoolforthedogs.com/qanda.

Have a question? Visit AnnieGrossman.com/ask or upload a recording at anchor.fm/dogs.

In this episode: A young labrador no longer wants to go to Fiesta Island with his walker. Is he being lazy? Peaches the Chihuahua doesn't understand why her human wants her to pee on the patio. Is it wise to get a second dog if a finicky dog seems more interesting in eating meals when other dogs are around? 

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Hey everyone. This is a bonus Q and A Episode. I try and answer questions live every Thursday. You can sign up to come to my free live Q and A at schoolforthedogs.com/QandA and you will see the next one I’m doing. I then am trying to take recordings of those Q and A’s and post them here to the podcast feed. If you have a question, you can email me directly Annie@schoolforthedogs.com. You can also go to anchor.fm/dogs and record your question there. Thanks for being here.

This is Annie Grossman here. I am doing a Live.  We had some technical difficulties, but you you can join now at schoolforthedogs.com/Qanda. Or you can just hang out here. I have some great questions here. We have Max and Melissa in the room with us right now. Max has a two year old standard poodle named Lolo. I’m not sure I met Lolo, but how is Lolo doing?

Anyway thanks for sticking with me. There were some technical difficulties just now. But I have some great questions. I am not sure if those who ask these questions are in the room, but if you are, do say hello. All right.

Our first question is from Michelle Adams who has a Labrador, 70 pounds, lives in San Diego. And Michelle writes me this:

Hooper has been going to Fiesta Island, a large off-leash park where he can chase a ball and play with other dogs, for about three months now.  He has been going with a dog walker who also has other dogs. He absolutely loves Fiesta Island this week.

This week he has decided he does not want to leave the house when they show up to take him.  He is home by himself and simply needs to go out the doggy door. Rather, he sits on the sofa and looks at them through the window. If they come into the house, he will go with them. He then has a blast while he is at the park, pictures to verify (I guess she’s saying they take pictures to verify this).

The first time he refused to go, they asked him if he wanted a treat and he went right out the dog door.  The second time he refused to go, they again tried asking him if he wanted a treat and he still refused to go. They had to go into my home to take him. I am not certain if he is just being lazy, it’s not really his style. Or if I should listen to him and realize that he doesn’t want to go?

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

This is a rebroadcast of Episode 3, which originally aired on 3/18/18.

Training a dog where to pee and poop is a major priority for most new dog owners. But there is a lot of misinformation on how to do it -- we don't even have a term for it that make sense! Are we training the house? Is it still "house breaking" if you live in an apartment? Annie breaks down how to take on this task in a way that can be easy and error-free using smart management tools, good timing, and well-thought out rewards. 

Download our free eBook on house training at http://schoolforthedogs.com/house

Please make sure to subscribe & give us 5-stars on iTunes!  

Click here for show notes! 

http://anniegrossman.com/2018/03/podcast/podcast-episode-3-modern-guide-house-training-dog/9308/

Full Transcript at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts/

https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/podcasts/episode-3-a-modern-guide-to-house-training-your-dog/

In this bonus episode, Annie talks to one of her best friends, Daisy Carrington, who she has known since high school. After Daisy recently came in second place at a Moth story telling event, Annie asked her to share her story on this podcast. Her story doesn't really have to do with dogs, so Annie drilled her about her childhood with dogs to justify having her on as a guest.  Daisy remembers her screenwriter father, who lived in Malibu with a stolen Staffordshire Terrier named Zeb who he loved "as if he were an ex-wife," and talks about the time in tenth grade when Annie "ran away" to her apartment with her Wheaten Terrier, Zeke.  Annie and Daisy met when they were seven, became friends in high school, and later both became journalists. Their children were born ten weeks apart. They discuss both of their transitions away from journalism into new careers.  But the best part of the episode is when Daisy tells the story of how, as an 8-year-old living in Malibu, she became a loan shark to a famous British con man, Count Guiy de Montfort.

Learn more about Guiy de Montfort here - Daisy's dad was screenwriter Robert Carrington, who wrote, among other things, the Audrey Hepburn movie Wait Until Dark - Learn more about Daisy Carrington at DaisyCarrington.com - Paris Themmen - What ever happened to the Oompa Loompa actors?

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

This is a bonus episode in which I am talking to one of my very best friends about her life with dogs and some other things, too. This is a conversation with Daisy Carrington. We’ve been friends since we were kids. We both grew up to be journalists and are now both working in other areas. I hope you enjoy our lively conversation.

I miss you.

Daisy:

I miss you too, my love. Won’t be gone for too long. I mean, I know it’s a couple months, but it will fly by.

Annie:

So I feel like I, since I’m going to record this, I feel like I need to explain to anyone listening, why I wanted to talk to you, as you are not someone who has a dog or works with dogs. Or I don’t think you have even very strong feelings about the things that I do as a dog trainer. But, as you know, you are one of my oldest and best friends, and I will take any excuse to chat with you.

But, a few months ago back when people went out and did things, you told me that you went and did a story at The Moth. And I was sad that I didn’t get to go see it.  And also sad that you didn’t win, that you came in second because you are such a great and hilarious storyteller that I’m sure that you should have won.

Daisy:

I did feel robbed.

Annie:

I’m sure you were robbed. And we just haven’t had a moment where I could be like, sit down and perform it for me. So I thought, all right, well, if I can like, have you on the podcast, then it’ll be more of an occasion. And you will be forced to tell me your story, which I guess I’ve heard, because I’ve just known you for so long, but I haven’t heard the perfect telling of it. So I don’t if you’re up for it, but in order to warm up and to justify having you here, I thought we should talk a little bit about dogs first.

Full transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Nora Moran is a director at Puppies Behind Bars, a program that employs prisoners to raise and train puppies who will grow up to become service dogs, therapy dogs, and working dogs. She first learned about the program when she herself got the opportunity to raise a puppy while incarcerated at New York's Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. Since her release in 2008, she has been working to help more prisoners raise dogs and learn about training. She and Annie discuss the kinds of work the prisoners are doing with the dogs, and talk about the transformations that take place as prisoners welcome dogs, and behavioral science, into their lives.  In this episode, Annie also reads the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior's recent position paper on humane training.  Learn more about Puppies Behind Bars at puppiesbehindbars.com 

Read the AVSAB position statement at http://schoolforthedogs.com/humanetraining 

Mentioned in this episode:  Treat Everyone Like a Dog: How a Dog Trainer's World View Can Improve Your Life by Karen B. London, PhD http://amazon.com/Treat-Everyone-Like-Dog-Trainers/dp/1952960002 

AVSAB's Recommended Reading List:  1. Decoding Your Dog (American College of Veterinary Behaviorists)  2. Decoding Your Cat (American College of Veterinary Behaviorists)  3. From Fearful to Fear Free (Dr. Marty Becker, Dr. Lisa Radosta, Dr. Wailani Sung, Mikkel Becker)  4. Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy (Zazie Todd)  5. Puppy Start Right (Dr. Kenneth Martin and Debbie Martin)  6. The Power of Positive Dog Training (Pat Miller)  7. Don’t Shoot the Dog! (Karen Pryor)  8. How to Behave So Your Dog Behaves (Dr. Sophia Yin)  9. The Other End of the Leash (Patricia McConnell)  10. Control Unleashed: Reactive to Relaxed (Leslie McDevitt)  11. Animal Training: Successful Animal Management through Positive Reinforcement (Ken Ramirez)

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Hi there. I have an interesting conversation to share with you all today. I spoke to Nora Moran who learned to train dogs as an inmate in prison. She was incarcerated for 10 years and was a puppy raiser behind bars. And now she works for Puppies Behind Bars as a director. I asked her about the program and her evolution as a dog trainer.

But before I share my chat with Nora, I wanted to read aloud a position statement that was just published by AVSAB, that stands for the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behaviorists. They put out this excellent statement about why we should not be using force punishment and aversive techniques to train dogs.

So I am reading it aloud. It takes me about 13 minutes. I read the whole thing, including the Frequently Asked Questions, plus the books they recommend, if you’re interested in learning more about positive reinforcement training. So if you’ve already read it or you’re not interested, you can skip ahead about 13 or 14 minutes. You can also find the position paper on our website at schoolforthedogs.com/humanetraining.

Full Transcript at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

A listener who is studying for the MCAT exam wrote in to ask if there were any dog training scenarios that could help illustrate some of the terms she needed to know for the psychology section of the exam. Annie, who has learned most of what she knows about dog training from working with dogs rather than from studying terms or taking exams, does her best to help make some "science-y" concepts more understandable through the lens of dog training and human behavior as we experience in everyday life. She talks about schedules of reinforcement, learned behaviors vs preinstalled behaviors, learning by observation and more.  

Mentioned in this episode:  

Excel-Erated Learning: Explaining In Plain English How Dogs Learn And How Best To Teach Them, by Pamela J. Reid 

https://amzn.to/3fN3RfW 

Don't Shoot The Dog by Karen Pryor  

https://amzn.to/2Mugnpc 

Behavior Principles in Everyday Life by John D. Baldwin and Janice I. Baldwin 

https://amzn.to/30jJxNH 

Bobo Doll Experiment  

https://www.britannica.com/event/Bobo-doll-experiment

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Hello, human friends, Annie here.  As I've mentioned before, I've been recording mostly in my neighbor's apartment while he's out of town so that I can escape the craziness of my apartment, but he doesn't have air conditioning. So I couldn't deal with sitting in his apartment to record today. So I came back to my apartment to record after sweating profusely while trying to record down there.

And then I realized you can't really have the air conditioning on anyway when you're recording a podcast because of the background noise, which made me think about all the sweaty podcasters working from home right now. So I blast the AC really, really high, just long enough to try and cool down the room while I record. So anyway, Hi!

I wanted to respond to an interesting question. I got from a listener who has been in touch with me, uh, before Supriya is, uh, her name.  I might be saying it wrong. Supriya.  Such a pretty name that sounds like surprise.

She wrote:

“Hey Annie, I am currently studying for the psychology section of the MCAT, and while I've never heard of many things in this section before I am totally nailing the section on classical and operant conditioning, because I've been listening to your podcast for a while now.  I was wondering if you happen to have time before my exam in September, would you be able to expand on operant conditioning in terms of dog training, which is what makes sense to me.

Specifically, I'm studying reinforcement schedules, innate versus learned behaviors, escape and avoidance learning, the Bobo doll experiment and associative versus non associative learning. Then there's also biological constraints on learning, which I'm studying specifically for humans. But I'm curious about this in dogs too. Of course, if you don't have time, this is completely okay.  Just thought I would ask considering I've learned so much from you already.”

Isn't that a nice email to get, isn’t that a cool email to get? First of all, just wanted to say that I'm flattered that you feel that you've learned so much. And I'm amazed that anybody is asking me for MCAT advice...

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts

Last month, the Wall Street Journal ran an opinion piece about how positive-reinforcement dog training is too much trouble, concluding that punishment-based training is faster and, overall, underrated. Quite a few dog trainers wrote to the Wall Street Journal, angry that such a major publication would run something with such spurious facts and no sources. Annie called up her long time friend Kiki Yablon to talk about why so much "journalism" about dog training goes wrong. Kiki, who is a Karen Pryor Academy faculty member and trains dogs in Chicago, was an editor for many years, and turned to a career in dog training around the same time as Annie quit the field of journalism as well.  In this casual chat, the two discuss the errors reporters frequently make when writing about dogs, the traditional media's dismissiveness of pets as a serious subject, the general public's misunderstandings about behavior as a science, and the flubs they both made themselves when attempting to write about dog training before they set out to become trainers.



Learn more about Kiki at https://kikiyablondogtraining.com/

Learn more about my cousin Dinah Grossman's pie shop in Chicago at https://www.spinningj.com/

Like this podcast? Please leave a review on iTunes! 

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Notes:



I’m Disciplining My Dog, Not Torturing Her, Wall Street Journal 8/2/21

https://www.wsj.com/articles/dog-training-barking-puppy-ecollar-prong-collar-11627919661



Letters to the editor about the article

https://www.wsj.com/articles/peta-train-your-dog-humane-shock-prong-collar-crating-11628546838?cx_testId=3&cx_testVariant=cx_4&cx_artPos=0&mod=WTRN#cxrecs_s

More about Laura Monaco Torelli

https://www.lauramonacotorelli.com/



Roald Dahl's The Sound Machine (1949)

https://fleurmach.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/rdahl_screamingtrees.pdf



Annie's 2007 article about people becoming dog trainers

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/27/fashion/27DOGS.html



Chicago Reader article Kiki edited about pitbulls

https://chicagoreader.com/news-politics/born-bad/

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Partial Transcript:

Kiki Yablon:

There’s this Roald Dahl story that ran in The New Yorker that I think about all the time. And basically it’s a man who invents a box that makes sounds audible to him that other people can’t hear. And then he takes it out in the garden and the neighbor is pruning her roses and all he can hear are screams. That’s the level I think that we all get to when we’re working with animals and their people, and you see all these little moments of misery. Or like sometimes I wake up thinking about, God, dogs have to ask every time they need to go to the bathroom for their entire life. Like…!

Full Transcript at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Karen Pryor turns ninety on May 14th! Annie is celebrating today and... plotting continued celebrations on this podcast in the coming year. 

If you're a Karen Pryor fan, join the celebration! If you're not, you'll enjoy learning why she is so worthy of it. In this episode, Annie interviews BF Skinner Foundation president Dr. Julie Vargas, about the importance of this incredible scientist, writer and entrepreneur who, over the last thirty years, has done more than probably anyone else alive to help show people how we can use operant conditioning and secondary reinforcers to train dogs with rewards: aka, clicker training. 

When her husband bought Sea Life Park in the 1960s, Pryor was tasked with training the dolphins to perform. She got her hands on a paper written by students who were working in BF Skinner's Harvard lab, and it outlined the basics of operant conditioning and how to use a secondary reinforcer, like a whistle, to pinpoint the moment a desired behavior occurred. It further described how to then use successive approximations to shape the behavior using reinforcement. She  took what she had learned about dolphins and wrote a book about about using positive reinforcement in everyday life: Don't Shoot The Dog!, then started doing seminars on how to use a clicker with dogs in the 1990s. In the 2000s, she started running Clicker Expo, a conference which brings the worlds best positive-reinforcement trainers together several times a year, and began training dog trainers through her Karen Pryor Academy. 

Follow us on Instagram, @schoolforthedogs, where we are giving away her book Reaching The Animal Mind and a signed clicker this weekend. 

Learn more about Dr. Vargas: 

https://www.juliesvargas.com/

Learn more about Karen Pryor:

https://karenwpryor.com/biography/

Learn more about the BF Skinner Foundation: 

http://bfskinner.org

Books: 

Don't Shoot The Dog!

https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Shoot-Dog-Teaching-Training/dp/1860542387

Reaching The Animal Mind

https://www.amazon.com/Reaching-Animal-Mind-Clicker-Training/dp/0743297776

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Tomorrow May 14th marks the birthday of Karen Pryor. And this is not any birthday she's having tomorrow. She's turning 90. She has done so much with those years, so much that has benefited the lives of so many dogs and so many people through her work. Her work as a scientist, as a writer, as an animal trainer, an educator, and an entrepreneur.

She started the Karen Pryor Academy, which I attended in 2010, really going in knowing nothing about the world of positive reinforcement dog training. I just thought being a dog trainer sounded like a great career, sign me up. There is no way I had any idea what a life changing experience it would be doing that six month program, because it really shifted the way that I see the world and the way that we treat so many behavior problems in our homes, in our society, in ways that don't make a lot of sense, at least when seen through the prism of what we know about behavioral science

Full Transcript at SchoolForTheDogs.com/Podcast

Looking for misguided information about dog training? Look no further than Psychology Today, which is publishing new articles that are offering outdated and possibly dangerous information. In this episode, Annie surveys the work of Dr. Stanley Coren, who recently suggested to the publication's readers that they should mimic wolves and clamp down on a dog's muzzle to stop barking. She reads from some of Dr. Coren's books on dogs from the early 1990s and also shares a comedy clip from the early 1990s on the topic of reading dog minds. Next week: An interview with Dr. Marc Bekoff. 

Take Annie's free Master Class! http://anniegrossman.com/masterclass

My Dog's Smarter Than Your Dog, by Sarah Boxer (NY Times Book Review, 1994) https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/05/books/my-dog-s-smarter-than-your-dog.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss/

Why Does a Reward During Training Change a Dog's Behavior? by Dr. Stanley Coren https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/canine-corner/202008/why-does-reward-during-training-change-dogs-behavior

A Quick Fix for a Barking Dog by Dr. Stanley Coren (Version edited post-publication) https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/canine-corner/202008/quick-fix-barking-dog

Original version of article can be found here.  

Do Dogs Bark Unnecessarily or Excessively? by Dr. Marc Bekoff https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animal-emotions/202008/do-dogs-bark-unnecessarily-or-excessively 

Punishment as defined by Psychology Today  https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/punishment Conan O'Brien 1993 clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FFyNyfOqQQ

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

A few years ago, a cousin gave me a pile of books about dogs, all these used books that I think he'd gotten at a garage sale. They were all from the nineties. And one was called, What Do Dogs Know? One was The Pawprints of History: Dogs in the Course of Human Events. One was called The Intelligence of Dogs. And I kind of flipped through the books and thought, you know, okay, there's some dated information here, and there was some decent info here and there, but overall I found the books a little, I guess, a little boring.

And I put them on my shelf of books that are dated and, but possibly interesting for future reference relating to all things dogs and dog training. I have a lot of books in this category, or not even books that are dated, just like I like old, weird books about dogs.  I like thinking about not only how people think about dogs now, but in the past.

I guess I didn't really consider these books too much or the author, although I did remember seeing that he was a doctor, that he was a professor of psychology...

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts

A bunch of media outlets have recently done stories about private dog runs in NYC, and have mentioned School For The Dogs' School Yard sessions, which are playtimes for dogs. School Yard is members-only, by-appointment and trainer-supervised. Annie talks about why the service is so special, and also why it's so expensive. She addresses some of the negative feedback she's gotten to the articles. She also discusses how she plans to train with her dog, Poppy, while visiting family, and suggests ways in which people can approach training a timid dog in new places or with new people over the holidays. 

Follow School For The Dogs on Instagram: http://instagram.com/schoolforthedogs

Follow Annie on Instagram: http://instagram.com/annie.grossman

Learn more about School Yard here: https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/services/school-yard/

Products mentioned in this episode are all available Storeforthedogs.com!  Also come shop with us at our storefront in Manhattan at 92 E. 7th Street. 

Revol dog crate: 

https://storeforthedogs.com/products/the-revol-dog-crate

Slow food bowls: 

https://storeforthedogs.com/search?q=slow+food

Want to donate to help a rescue dog owner in need access free private training? Learn more about our Scholarship Fund at http://schoolforthedogs.com/fund

Articles mentioned: 

The New York Times: Does Your Dog Deserve a Private Park?

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/17/style/private-dog-parks-new-york-city.html

New York Post: Pledging for pooches: VIP clubs where NYC’s doggie 1 percent hangs out

https://nypost.com/2021/08/03/dog-owners-are-paying-thousands-to-join-exclusive-canine-clubs/

The Wall Street Journal: Dogs Rule at These New York City Spots—For a Price

https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-city-dog-owners-private-clubs-dog-run-off-leash-pandemic-puppy-11625580000

Other episodes about relevant topics: 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sftd-off-leash-manager-adam-davis-on-training-as-teenager/id1355439730?i=1000510765257

https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/podcasts/episode-33-how-to-shape-your-dog-to-go-to-a-mat-and-to-be-a-polite-thanksgiving-guest/

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Hello, Annie Grossman here. I am the host of School for the Dogs Podcast and the owner and co-founder of School for the Dogs in New York City on East 7th Street and 1st Avenue. Make sure you come on by when you're doing your shopping this holiday season. You can also shop with us at storeforthedogs.com.

We specialize in selling toys that are meant to engage your dog’s brain and mouth at meal times. Of course, we also have an awesome selection of treats. We have our own house brand of Lamb Lung training tools. Everything we sell, we sell because we use these things ourselves. We use them with our dogs. It's just, yeah, just great stuff. So make sure you do shop with us this holiday season. We put a lot of love and effort into our shop and make sure to follow us on Instagram @SchoolfortheDogs, because we do product giveaways every Friday.

Full Transcript at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Not long after throwing her own English Bulldog a princess-themed birthday party, Hayley Mehalco decided to leave her job as an event planner at one of New York's poshest hotels in order to become a full-time party planner for the canine set. In this episode, Annie learns about the ins and outs of Puppy Parties NYC, a business that caters to "dog Instagram socialites," and talks about her own former tendency to roll her eyes at such things. Annie also asks some larger questions about modern pet ownership: Is it okay for people to treat their dogs as ersatz children? Who is the real beneficiary of things like parties for dogs?



Link to Show notes - Puppy Parties NYC - Puppy Parties NYC on Instagram - School For The Dogs on Instagram

Please make sure to subscribe & rate 5-stars on iTunes! Annie Grossman owns School For The Dogs in Manhattan. Learn more at SchoolForTheDogs.com.

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

So in the pet realm, there is this whole category of services that I think tends to make a lot of people roll their eyes. And when I was working as a journalist and releases for these kinds of services would come across my desk, I could always kind of tell when my editor would be interested and a story about one of these things, because it was kind of like there was always room to make fun of things people do for their dogs. And if you keep an eye out for this kind of story about these kinds of services, they almost always have the same lead. It's usually something like “Last Friday afternoon, Bethany got her nails done and then had a ballet lesson and saw her Latin tutor. Bethany is a French Bulldog..”  And there's always this kind of sense to it of like, Oh, we got you, right. You thought we were going to say Bethany was a sophomore at ....Although I always find these leads sort of annoyingly dishonest because usually from the title of the article or the picture, you can tell they're going to be talking about a dog.

So anyway, I am sure I wrote some stories like this, and I think I rolled my eyes just as I assumed my editor would and the reader would. Because I think there is this general underlying assumption, somehow that people who spend money extravagantly on their pets are just ridiculous. And I'm saying all this because my point of view has really changed. Now, I know it's possible. You might be listening to this and you might be thinking well, of course her point of view has changed, she runs a place called School for the Dogs where people spend money needlessly on their dogs, lots of the time. But I think it's actually more than that. You know, eight or nine years ago when I first kind of discovered the world of dog training and realized that it was something that really spoke to me, I started to think how weird it is that there aren't sections in the newspaper devoted to animals in any kind of serious way.

I started to see that dogs could be a hobby that was no better or worse than any other hobby, but that pet ownership really isn't recognized in that way in our society, right? Look at the sections in newspapers, there's a section on sports, there's a section on cooking, there's a section on homes, cars, but if there's any kind of pet section, it has generally been more about showing pictures of cute adoptable animals rather than offering really interesting content on what it means to own a cat or a dog or any other kind of pet and with content that could actually appeal to someone's interest in animal behavior and that kind of thing...

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts

Today I caught up with Zak George to hear the latest about his public feud with Dog Daddy.

See Dog Daddy's petition against Zak George at Change.org

https://www.change.org/p/stop-zak-george?source_location=search

Dog Daddy, Part 1: The face of modern "bad" dog training

https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/IZ8rDgtkWEb

Dog Daddy, Part 2: Zak George calls out animal abuse masquerading as dog training

https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/pqBs1htkWEb

Annie sees Dog Daddy live. Also: Get to know Erin Whelan (2020 episode rebroadcast)

https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/0jWG1ftkWEb

We use dog crates every day at School For The Dogs. They're an integral part of dog training: We recommend them to clients who are house training puppies, incorporate them into class exercises, and transport dogs in them. And yet, all of us who work at our training center agree: Crates... kind of suck! They're clunky and ugly! Noisy! Storing them is a pain, and when you have to open and then collapse them all day long (like we do), you're going to suffer pinched fingers. It has long seemed like a problem with no solution, but Zel Crampton might just be our white knight. Crampton is the founder of Diggs, a product development company whose flagship item, the Revol, is a crate that just might change everything... In this episode, he and Annie talk about the problem with crates, and the "revolution" that he foresees. 

Notes:  Find the Revol at StoreForTheDogs - Through 3/31/19, get $25 off your Revol crate purchase from StoreForTheDogs.com with code SFTD25 - 10 innovative crates - Database of dogs licensed in NYC (last updated in 2017) - The Treat And Train

In this episode, Annie spoke about how she wished there were a collar that could vibrate but not shock a dog; most vibrating collars are also shock collars. But after recording the episode, she was told about one! Witness the Dogwidgets "No Shock E-Collar Pet Trainer"

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Partial Transcript:



Annie:

So I am here with Zel Crampton, founder of Diggs.  Is that how you call the company or is it Diggs pet products?

Zell:

Just Diggs.

Annie:

And I wanted to talk to Zel today because he has a product that is innovative in a bunch of ways, which we will talk about, but I think interesting to me in part because it's really like the only innovative thing in the world and the world is crates. At School for the Dogs we have maybe a dozen crates. They're really important. We use them every day, all the time. And nobody likes them. I would say these crates have no fans, but they're clunky. They hurt your fingers when you have to close them and open them all the time, which we do everyday, all day. They're noisy, they fall over, they, they're ugly. But they're totally necessary. Like we couldn't live without them. And yet I don't think anybody who works at School for the Dogs would have any nice things to say about any of them. And what you're doing in the world of crates is, it gives me hope that  there is a future that could be better for this product. But I know Diggs has two products and why don't you tell us about those two products and then we can talk about how you got into this world.

Zel:

Sure. So our flagship product is the Diggs Revol dog crate. As you just rightfully said, crates are ugly, hard to use, unsafe, noisy, hard to collapse, hard to transport. Frankly, they're an abysmal product, when you consider other consumer categories, like they just haven't been changed in 50 years. They're just the same old ugly wire thing that for some reason never got, never innovated.



Annie:

Why?

Zel:

I'll give you my opinion. I don't know for a fact, but I actually think that the history of the pet industry is really that, you know, pets used to be property, right? And they're legally speaking, they are still property, but people used to view the pets as their property, right? I'm a dog owner. Right.

Annie:

Or a master? That's what my dad used to call himself, growing up. He was the art dog's master.



Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts/

Touchscreen devices can be used to teach a nose touch, which is a basic, building-block behavior that School For The Dogs' trainers teach almost every dog they work with. A nose touch can be taught with a person's hands and a dog's nose; the person clicks when the dog's nose touches the screen, and then the dog receives a reward. Using a touchscreen device and one of a handful of apps, you can take the clicker out of the equation and your dog's nose will register a sound when it makes contact with the screen, essentially doing the job of any good marker signal.  Annie discusses the origins of her use of touchscreens with dogs and talks about some of the more advanced work that can be done with screens, such as teaching a dog to read, teaching cue differentiation, and more.

Episode on teaching touch: 

https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/podcasts/episode-60-the-most-important-behavior-youll-ever-train/

More on using touch screens:

Dogs Take Selfies Too - https://anniegrossman.com/2013/11/training/dogs-take-selfies-too-48370/8225/

Teaching Dogs to Use iPads in London - https://anniegrossman.com/2014/03/training/school-for-the-dogs-studies-abroad-teaching-dogs-to-use-ipads-in-london-80528/8330/

Teaching Pets to Use iPads in NYC - https://anniegrossman.com/2013/08/training/idog-teaching-pets-to-use-ipads-in-nyc-56551/8127/

The First App Made Specifically for Canines - https://anniegrossman.com/2013/09/science/app-for-dog-the-first-app-made-specifically-for-canines-79647/8190/

Three Apps Your Dog Can Use to Make Art - https://anniegrossman.com/2013/12/training/3-apps-your-dog-can-use-to-make-art-35313/8246/

Apps mentioned: 

Doodle Buddy - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/doodle-buddy-paint-draw-app/id313232441

App for Dog - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/app-for-dog-free-puppy-painting-button-clicker-training/id968928583

Yes No App - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/yes-no-from-i-can-do-apps/id635649909

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Partial Transcript:

[Intro and music]

Annie:

A few years ago, back when Kate and I were running School for the Dogs out of my living room, in 2013 I got a spate of prank phone calls. They might’ve all been from the same person. I don’t know. One was someone asking me if I could help them teach their dog to navigate the worldwide web, because right now he only knew how to do one thing online and it was to watch porn.

Another caller asked if I could teach the dog to use the remote control. That one I actually, I thought was legit for, for half a second. I said, I guess I could teach a dog to use a TV remote, but why would you need to do that? And he said, well, I’d like it if he could change the channel when I’m masturbating.

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Annie recently received an email from a producer who had a request: Were there any School For The Dogs students who were big men with tiny dogs? Or people who had big dogs who wouldn't mind their dogs being humorously mocked on Youtube? 

The request came via Douglas Widick, a Brooklynite who had recently brought his young Scottie, Skye, in for playtimes at School For The Dogs. A musical comedian, he'd written a song and was casting its music video. The song's title was "Big Man, Tiny Dog." 

Annie called Doug to talk about the origin of a song that pitches woo to the Yorkiepoos of the world while also poking fun at men who seem to use big dogs as accessories to accentuate their own toughness. Their fun conversation touches on everything from being inspired by the Notorious BIG, swimming with dolphins, Dorothy's poor dog training abilities in The Wizard of Oz, dog-fostering tourism in Hawaii, and the joy of using a hands-free leash. 

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Through the end of this month: Get a FREE virtual 90 minute private session with a School For The Dogs trainer when you sign up for our on-demand courses. Learn more at SchoolForTheDogs.com/virtualbundle.

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Big Man Tiny Dog on Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9Jsey3UOnk

Douglas Widick 

https://www.douglaswidick.com/

The Found My Animal hands-free leash 

https://storeforthedogs.com/collections/found-my-animal-1/products/found-my-animal-leash-1

Annie's Reel walking with a hands-free leash on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CZSUtNGJ8Mx/

Maui Humane Society

https://www.mauihumanesociety.org/beach-buddies/

Puppy Playtime at SFTD

https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/services/puppy-playtime/

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Partial Transcript:

Douglas Widick:

I was watching the Notorious B I G documentary. And he talked about how he was like, “People told me that like certain lyrics were either too intense or whatever on this album, but I'm just writing my truth.” And I was like, oh, is it that simple? Like, he's just writing his truth. He had a song called, Ready to Die, which was about feeling suicidal. And I was like, okay, well, my truth right now is that I'm a big guy with a puppy. [laughs]

[music]

Annie:

A few weeks ago, our client Douglas Widick got in touch with me to ask if I could help him cast a video he was doing a music video to go with a song he had just written. The song, he told me, was called “Big Man, Tiny Dog.” And I heard the song. I thought it was hilarious, just so witty and well written. And I said, of course, we'd be happy to help you.

The music video and the song just dropped this week. You can find it on our Instagram @SchoolForTheDogs. I'll also link to it in the show notes. The video features his dog Sky who has come to our puppy play times as well as our Great Dane student Bandit, who came to us when he was just a tiny Great Dane pup.

Full Transcript at SchoolForTheDogs.com/Podcast

Annie has always loved using the Treat & Train, a bare-bones, battery-operated remote-controlled treat dispenser, but she has found it particularly useful for her current situation: Being busy and also largely pregnant in a city apartment with a toddler and a rambunctious adolescent dog. She describes how she has turned the word "Dop" into a tertiary conditioned reinforcer that, with the help of the Treat & Train, she uses to get her dog Poppy to stop jumping, leave her daughter alone, and more. 

Through the end of June, get 10% off your purchase of a Treat and Train using code TREAT21 at http://Schoolforthedogs.com/TT

Also get 10% off the Revol crate and all of Diggs' products using code DIGGS21 at https://storeforthedogs.com/collections/diggs

Like this episode? Please make sure to rate and review School For The Dogs Podcast on iTunes!

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

So a couple of weeks ago, in the episode I did about products that I think new dog owners can really benefit from, I mentioned that one of my favorite gadgets, probably my number one favorite dog training gadget, is the Treat and Train, which is a remote controlled treat dispenser that works on a radio frequency. There’s four different channels.  It’s been around I think for about 20 years. I’ve been using it for about 10 years, and I’m always finding new fun ways to use it in training.

It’s interesting cause it’s really, it’s not very slick looking. It doesn’t operate on Bluetooth.  There are not a million options to it. There’s no camera, there’s no speaker. It’s a pretty bare bones gadget as far as dog gadgets go these days, but it is a workhorse. I have many Treat and Trains and they tend to last a really long time. They’re just battery operated. We use them at School for the Dogs, too.

And anyway, since getting Poppy, I’ve been using it a lot, for a couple of reasons. One is simply that I’ve been pregnant the whole time we’ve had her.  And I got pretty big pretty quickly. And I normally like to sit on the ground when I’m training. It’s just sort of how I’m most comfortable. And I’ve really had a hard time with my massive belly being able to sit on the ground these last few months.

So it’s been sort of more comfortable for me to train her with a remote control, requires less movement overall from me. And I just fill the Treat and Train with dry food. I usually put in like her regular dry kibble. And then some like I mix some hard treats in with it. I like to use the tricky trainers, crunchy treats or tiny pieces of lamb lung or crumps naturals, which makes what they call mini trainers, which are these very small bits of beef liver.

Full Transcript at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Good Dog Trainers will refer to giving a "cue" vs giving a dog a "command." A cue implies an opportunity; a command implies a threat. It just occurred to Annie that it's sort of like the difference between getting a special offer you can take advantage of and getting a bill you have to pay: Both result in the behavior of you spending money, but in one case you're engaging in that behavior because of positive reinforcement, and in the other, negative reinforcement. This may be a useful way to help the uninitiated understand the difference between cues and commands.

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

I was just answering a question from someone. It’s actually for a presentation I’m putting together and Bailey who I work with doing Petcademy, which offers online training to people who are adopting and fostering dogs from a number of shelters throughout the country. Anyway Bailey and I are doing a presentation for a company about Petcademy. And there was a question in the deck about understanding a cue versus understanding a command. And I just thought of a good analogy that I wanted to share.

So, we as good dog trainers tend to use the word cue instead of the word command when we’re referring to telling a dog what something is called. If I am teaching my dog to sit, when I say, sit, then sit is the cue.  If I am teaching a dog to sit at the curb on the street, then the curb is the cue. And really there are cues all around us all the time, all around dogs all the time, indicating that it would be a good idea if you do X, Y, or Z. So cues are not just something that come from us human beings.

But traditionally in dog training over the decades, the word command has been used.  When I first started at Karen Pryor Academy in 2010, I remember answering homework questions with referring to giving a command to a dog and was corrected that it was a cue. And I thought, I think at first I thought like, Oh, well, I guess it’s about being nice. Like, I kind of reduced it down to that.  Cue sounds nicer.

But really a cue and a command are different things, because one is encouraging a behavior by saying, Hey, you, should you choose to engage in this behavior, something good is going to happen. Which is, you know, positive reinforcement, positively reinforcing behavior, adding something to the equation in order to encourage the behavior.

And a command is saying, do this or else, negative reinforcement. If you don’t engage in this behavior, I’m going to take something away from you. Something bad is going to happen in the form of something desirable being taken away.

And I was thinking, you know what it’s like, is like the difference between an offer and the bill. If you see a special offer for something, a sale for something you’re looking for, a deal, an ad that that results in you spending money, kind of like you responded to a cue.  You didn’t have to take the offer. You chose to take the offer. The result is that you spent money.

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Elise Mac Adam and Annie first met in 2002 when Annie wrote up Elise's engagement announcement for her column in The New York Observer. Both of them were terrier lovers, writers, and native Manhattanites: They became fast friends. When Annie and Kate first started School For The Dogs in 2011 and running classes out of Annie's Manhattan living room, Elise and her dogs were among their first clients. Elise, her sons, and her husband, have worked with half a dozen of School For The Dogs trainers over the last decade, with three of their dogs. She has, overall, clocked more sessions than any other single client. Eventually, she had to make the difficult decision to rehome one of her terriers. She and Annie discuss how rehoming a dog can feel like both a success and failure at the same time, and the silver lining of this difficult experience: It led her to decide to enroll in the School For The Dogs Professional Course. 

Apply to the Professional Course at http://schoolforthedogs.com/professionalcourse2022

Next cohort begins August 31. 

Episodes featuring other graduates: 

https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/meet-our-trainer-anna-ostroff/

https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/podcasts/episode-190-our-newest-sftd-certified-professional-trainer-ionelee-brogna-on-shock-collars-horses-schnauzers-trick-training-and-learning-empathy-by-selling-used-books/

https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/podcasts/episode-93-school-for-the-dogs-trainer-erin-whelan-on-how-dog-training-changed-her-life/

https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/podcasts/episode-111-school-for-the-dogs-trainer-em-beauprey-on-conformation-cats-bespoke-dog-walking-and-training-trainers/

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Elise Macadam is here with me today. I am excited to talk to you because I think you're the only person – you're probably the person I've known longest who's been on this podcast. No, I guess I talked to my friend, Daisy, who I've known since I was 14, but second to maybe Daisy, in 200 plus episodes. You are someone who knew me from my previous life.

Elise:

I knew you from many previous lives, probably.

Annie:

And who I have now known as a friend, as a client and as an apprentice.

Elise:

Yeah. We go way back.

Annie:

And you've known me as well. You wanna tell the story of how we first met?

Elise:

So I met you when I was ghostwriting a book about wedding resources in New York City. And you were writing engagement column.

Annie:

Yeah, I was writing, I was at the New York Observer in, it must have been 2002?

Elise:

Yeah, probably.

Annie:

And I was the assistant to the editor and I wrote a weekly column where I interviewed three different couples who were getting married, and it was called The Love Beat: Countdown to Bliss. And it was a bit of a scramble sometimes to find couples, ‘cause this was long before social media. I had all these like hacks of finding couples. I remember seeing a woman with a big diamond ring on the subway and like writing her a note, slipping her a note once or going to places where people register and like going up to people.

Elise:

Oh, that's so awesome. I didn't know you did that.

Full Transcript at SchoolForTheDogs.com/Podcast

For two decades, Malena DeMartini has been helping people help dogs who have separation anxiety. She joined Annie to discuss her new book, Treating Separation Anxiety in Dogs: Next Generation Treatment Protocols and Practices. In it,  she reveals some surprising updates to the protocols she suggested in her first book (spoiler: she now wants her clients to do LESS training than before).  She and Annie also discuss her virtual school for coaching Certified Separation Anxiety Trainers, her client-facing course, Mission Possible, and how quarantine changed the way people understand what canine separation anxiety really is.  

Malena's course: Mission Possible http://schoolforthedogs.com/mission 

Use code SFTD and save 50% at checkout  

Like this podcast? Support it by leaving a 5-star review on iTunes, telling your friends, shopping in our online store, or signing up for Annie's mailing list. Learn more about School For The Dogs at SchoolForTheDogs.com.

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Listen to Annie's May 2020 episode with Malena here 

https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/podcasts/separation-anxiety-expert-malena-demartini-on-helping-dogs-learn-to-be-alone/  

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Mentioned in this episode:  

Malena's latest book: Separation Anxiety in Dogs: Next Generation Treatment Protocols and Practices https://www.amazon.com/dp/1617812749?tag=thedogs00-20  

Malena's first book: Treating Separation Anxiety in Dogs: Next Generation Treatment Protocols and Practices  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08D4SX4DP?tag=thedogs00-20  

Dr. Kara Moore's post on The Human Magnet Syndrome

https://drandyroark.com/secret-trick-handling-difficult-clients/   

The Human Magnet Syndrome: https://www.amazon.com/dp/168350867X?tag=thedogs00-20  

The Certified Separation Anxiety Trainer training program:   https://malenademartini.com/for-trainers/separation-anxiety-training-certificate-program/

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Tell me about what’s been going on, and maybe we can talk about the why in the future. And I guess just, for someone who’s just tuning in for the first time, maybe you should just introduce yourself with a brief bio.

Malena:

Sounds good. I’ll do that. So my name is Malena Demartini and I have been working exclusively with separation anxiety for over two decades now, just a little over two decades. I’m the author of two books on the topic of separation anxiety. The most recent one was released last year in 2020. And it is quite up to date with all of the research and understanding that we have about separation anxiety, which is tremendous. And it’s been quite a boon that we’ve got so much information, evidence and research coming forward about this topic.

Full transcript at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Annie reads from How We Got By, a new book by Shaina Feinberg & Julia Rothman which includes a chapter about how School For The Dogs got started. She also gives an update on the bizarre/sad Dog Daddy world tour, and shares how excited she got when she first read about a man being called "the hot dog trainer." Who was the handsome fella?

November giveaway: Enter to win a "Hot Dog Trainer" mug this month at http://schoolforthedogs.com/pod

Apply to the SFTD Professional Course through Nov. 30th. http://schoolforthedogs.com/pro

Get How We Got By on Amazon: https://rebrand.ly/hwgb

Hot Dog Train

Instagram:

@annie.grossman

@schoolforthedogs

***February 2022 Special: New to School For The Dogs?  Book a free virtual consult with a trainer at http://schoolforthedogs.com/freeconsult***

This episode is a rebroadcast. It first aired on May 15, 2020. 

There is one behavior we teach every dog we work with at School For The Dogs: Touch! 

This is an easy-to-teach building block that you can use to build... whatever you want! In this episode, Annie outlines how to teach touch, and talks about this behavior's countless uses and variations. 

Annie's Free Webinar on training touch - https://event.webinarjam.com/go/replay/78/k6v60c95ir6t6nf1

More on Chirag Patel's Bucket Game - https://www.facebook.com/thebucketgame

Ken Ramirez demonstrates different types of targeting. - https://theranch.clickertraining.com/live-episode-1/

Doodle Buddy and other apps you can use with your dog - https://anniegrossman.com/2013/12/training/3-apps-your-dog-can-use-to-make-art-35313/8246/

Support this podcast by shopping in our online store, storeforthedogs.com!  http://storeforthedogs.com/

Products mentioned in this episode:  

Clicker Sticks https://storeforthedogs.com/products/clicker-stick

Lamb Lung https://storeforthedogs.com/products/lamb-lung

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+++ Need help house training your dog? Download our free eBook at http://schoolforthedogs.com/house +++

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Full Transcript at SchoolForTheDogs.com/podcast

Join Annie Grossman for a live Q and A most Thursdays.

Sign up at http://schoolforthedogs.com/qanda. 

Have a question? Visit AnnieGrossman.com/ask or upload a recording at anchor.fm/dogs.

Here, Annie takes the following questions: 

• How can you train a dog to not freak out if strange dogs, off leash, appear out of no where? 


• What work-to-eat toys can you use with wet or fresh food? 


• Can you train a dog to stay away from the litter box and the cat food? 


• A dog likes playing fetch but doesn't like going on walks. Is fetch going to be enough exercise for him? 


• A new rescue dog barks all night at nothing in particular. Why? And how can you get him to stop barking? 


• How can you get a dog to pee on a curb instead of on trees? 

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Partial Transcript:

[Intro]

Annie:

Hey everyone. This is a  bonus Q and A episode. I try and answer questions live every Thursday.  You can sign up to come to my free live Q and A at schoolforthedogs.com/qanda.  And you will see the next one I’m doing. I then am trying to take  recordings of those Q and A’s and post them here to the podcast feed. If  you have a question, you can email me directly at annie@school for the  dogs. You can also go to anchor.fm/dogs and record your question there. Thanks for being here.

You know, I was just thinking about how, when, when I used to work at an  office, which was not for very long, but in my early twenties, it was  so wonderful to have like an IT person, like just someone there, like  when something doesn’t work, you can be like, excuse me. I remember this  one great IT guy’s name was Ramon would just be like, Ramon, my mouse  won’t click won’t make the right clicky sound, or whatever, like  whatever little thing, and Ramon would be there and he would fix it or  he’d like, go to get me like another computer or whatever. Like, don’t  you like, I mean, I haven’t had that for a long time because I’ve been, I was just thinking that I bet right now in the, in the moment of COVID everybody working from home, that a lot of people are missing their…  people are missing their IT people. That’s the moment of greatest  appreciation for IT people.

I say that because every time I have to do anything, I feel like I need a friking IT person. It’s like, it’s see right now, I’m trying to like  record on in Audacity, which is what I record the podcast in while  recording on whatever else, this thing is that I’m recording in. And,  and it’s like, doesn’t want me to do it. Like it’s….I mean, the amount  of stuff you have to figure out as an adult person is just beyond, like,  there’s just like, like life involves so much paperwork and so much  figuring things out. All right.

Hi, Annie Grossman here I am answering dog training questions. I have a  few lined up. This went well last week. So it went well. I mean, getting  some questions in the chat area here I’m doing this on Instagram live  at the same time and you…if you want to ask the question, do it through  the computer  at schoolforthedogs.com/qanda...

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

While doing the NYC's annual workplace Sexual Harassment Prevention course, Annie noted that people are being told to assume that many things other than the word "No" may mean "No."  This might be a good thing, but it's also potentially confusing! In the world of dogs, she's seen how the word "No" can also be a confusing concept, as it is frequently used ineffectively, and can even end up positively reinforcing some behaviors. She thinks about how, for both dogs and humans, this confusion about "No" can lead to stress. What if, with both dogs and humans, the focus were not on explaining what not to do, but rather on teaching what appropriate behaviors can be engaged in instead? Maybe men, in particularly, could learn something by taking discussion-starting tips from "Linda Richman," the Mike Myers "Coffee Talk" character from Saturday Night Live in the nineties. ("Talk amongst yourselves: I'll give you a topic. Discuss!")

Annie goes into how it's possible to condition a secondary punisher to make the word "No" more meaningful... but most people don't do this work. She also explains that it's a misconception that Positive Reinforcement-based trainers never try to stop behaviors. She explains how SFTD trainers work to help build a dog's ability to stop and start a behavior, and help owners think about what a dog should ideally be doing instead of an undesirable behavior. As an example, she explains how "Break" is taught at School For The Dogs for dogs attending off leash play sessions. 

Interested in learning more about our trainer supervised off-leash sessions? Visit us online at https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/services/school-yard/

NYC's Sexual Harassment Prevention  

https://www1.nyc.gov/site/cchr/law/sexual-harassment-training.page

Coffee Talk with Linda Richman (Mike Myers) on SNL 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haunEK4HLI8

In the #MeToo era, 60% of male managers say they’re scared of being alone with women at work

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/men-are-afraid-to-mentor-female-colleagues-in-the-metoo-era-heres-what-not-to-do-2019-05-20

Episode 26 | Teach a foolproof DROP and COME using Classical Conditioning

https://anchor.fm/dogs/episodes/Teach-a-foolproof-DROP-and-COME-using-Classical-Conditioning-e29h2c/a-a2daie5

Like this episode? Please leave a review on iTunes! 

Learn how here: http://schoolforthedogs.com/subscribe

Special thanks to Toast Garden for the theme song!

https://www.youtube.com/c/ToastGarden

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Partial Transcript:

Voice:

No comes in many forms. Verbal no means no. Body language can mean no. Excuses can mean no. A tone of voice can mean no. Maybe can mean no.

[intro and music]

Annie:

I recorded that clip from the annual sexual harassment awareness training required by everyone at any business in New York state. So, I'm going through this online training thing, and I realize there's kind of this focus on the concept of no...

Full Transcript at SchoolForTheDogs.com/Podcast

This is a bonus episode: A recording of a live Q and A.

Join Annie Grossman for a live Q and A most Thursdays.

Sign up for the next one at http://schoolforthedogs.com/qanda.

Here, Annie answers two questions, and offers a similar suggestion to help deal with both issues: Train a dog to go in a bag! 

K9 Sport Sack Dog backpacks: https://storeforthedogs.com/collections/backpacks

Boat and Tote: https://amzn.to/3p8bhPm

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Partial Transcript

Annie:

Thank you for joining me folks. I have two questions here that were submitted.  As always, you can join me for these Q and A sessions live in two places, either in the new School for the Dogs app, which is free and you can get there by looking up School for the Dogs community in the app store or play store, or going to schoolforthedogs.com/community.  Or you can join me in webinar format schoolforthedogs.com/QandA. And you can submit a question in advance as some people have done here at anniegrossman.com/ask.

So two questions this week and they have a common thread in my answers. First one is regarding Wilson who's currently a School for the Dogs puppy student, and is very excited for prep school at School for the Dogs which is starting next month after graduating from puppy kindergarten.  He's very rarely had an accident in our apartment, but given that he was still getting used to going downstairs, upstairs not being a problem, we've always carried him outside to eliminate. We thought we were golden saying, okay, once we made it outside and treating right after he eliminated.

Wilson's much more confident walking down stairs now, however.  We're in a fourth floor, walk-up in New York City.  On foot, he's having about a 50-50 success rate holding his bladder until we get all the way downstairs and out the two front doors.  Any tips for how we can help him out because he is getting heavy?  They also note that he is eating puppy kibble and and treats.  His high value treats are freeze dried duck and boiled chicken.

So I think a 50, 50% rate and nearly a hundred percent success rate of getting this puppy to pee and poop outside is actually pretty good. So thumbs up to you guys. Zach and Molly, Wilson’s people.

So this is behavior that [inaudible] anything else can be shaking him down 90% of the way, and then letting him walk the last 10% of the way. And if you can have success with that, without him going during that last 10% of the way outside then start carrying him down 85% of the way.  And let him walk the last 15% of the way.

Two other tips, you know, he’s still a puppy. His bladder is gonna get stronger, he’s still developing. So, it’s possible that the excitement of going out combined with his puppy-ish young bladder isn’t quite ready to handle being able to go all the way down. But again, you can help him build this behavior, the behavior of holding it, little by little.

And certainly if you get outside and he has not peed or pooped, you would, should reward that behavior. I mean, being outside might be a reward in and of itself, but sure. Why not also give it a treat, give him a treat.

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Did you know there is a woman running for president? Her name is Jo Jorgensen, she is the Libertarian candidate, and the only third party candidate who is going to be on the ballot in all 50 states.  Dr. Jorgensen has a PhD in organizational and industrial psychology and teaches at Clemson University. She has a Basset Hound named Gertrude, and she has trained her to not beg at the table... but that's not actually why Annie wanted to talk to her.  Annie wanted to talk to her because she has been trying to figure out if a world view and values informed by behavior-based dog training have turned her into a Libertarian.

After she became a dog trainer, Annie started thinking about something that had never taken up much brain space for her before: Government. We can govern our pets' worlds, and produce good behaviors, using environmental management and conditioning. If we can do all that without punishment or coercion, couldn't it be possible to -- at least to some extent! -- govern people that way as well? Isn't "freedom" just the ability to make choices that will be positively reinforced, rather than doing things because of coercion?

When Karen Pryor first started using a conditioned reinforcer to operantly condition dolphins to do tricks, she was using literature that had been given to her from the lab of Harvard Professor BF Skinner. He was experimenting on training animals in labs, but he was also writing about how humans could be conditioned. Last week, Annie looked at examples of people conditioning other people in some recent documentaries and biopics; this week, Annie speaks with the Libertarian presidential candidate about what it could mean to give people choice and to ease up on the use of coercion and punishment.

Notes:  Ukulele version of America The Beautiful By Roy Sakuma - Jo Jorgenson's Campaign Site - Annie's dad Robert Grossman's illustration of Ronald Reagan as Mickey Mouse - Walden Two by BF Skinner - Beyond Freedom and Dignity by BF Skinner 

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Today’s episode is a little bit different. It’s an interview with a presidential candidate, Jo Jorgensen. She is the libertarian candidate for president this year. She is a professor of psychology at Clemson University. She has been an entrepreneur. She, her specialty is industrial and organizational psychology, and she is the only candidate other than Biden and Trump who is going to be on the ballot in every state. She’s also the best looking candidate that’s going to be on the ballot in every state. I guess that’s debatable, but I could say she looks more like me than anyone else running for president this year. I’m about to share with you a conversation I just had with her.

But let me back up a little bit, because I feel like I need to explain that. First of all, I don’t actually think I’m a libertarian. And second of all, I feel like I need to explain why I’m having this conversation with this person on a dog training podcast.

I mean, I’m sure she is a much better dog trainer with her dog than Biden is. And of course, Trump doesn’t have a dog, so that makes her the best dog trainer in the race, but that’s sort of over simplifying why I was interested and talking to her. I really have never considered myself a political person. My father was a political cartoonist and growing up politics to me like politics and cartoons went hand in hand.

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/podcast

A School For The Dogs Instagram Reel that was meant to help dog owners understand how to tell if a trainer is a "positive reinforcement" trainer or not resulted in a battle in the comments section about what kind of dog training methods are best. Annie considers how the very title of "positive reinforcement dog trainer" is problematic, and talks about how the conversation led her to consider the possibility that maybe the divide between dog trainers comes down to expectations about what we want dogs to do and how emotionally resilient we think they may be.   

Other episodes mentioned in this episode: 

What is good dog training?  https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/podcasts/episode-2-what-is-good-dog-training/ 

Don't chase your cat around the house with the Christmas tree: On the TikTokers who are "traumatizing" their cats in order to spare their holiday decorations https://anchor.fm/dogs/episodes/Dont-chase-your-cat-around-the-house-with-the-Christmas-tree-On-the-TikTokers-who-are-traumatizing-their-cats-in-order-to-spare-their-holiday-decorations-e1b73jq 

"Clues a dog trainer may not be positive-reinforcement based" Reel:  https://www.instagram.com/reel/CXHK_LHlOD6/

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Last week, we posted a Reels on the School For The Dogs Instagram, and the title of the reel was “Clues that a dog trainer might not be positive reinforcement based.” And, you know, reels can be kind of tricky to do because they're short and to the point and meant to be kind of flip and quick and ephemeral.

And, you know, it's not like we workshop them for weeks. We do them pretty quickly. And there have been a couple of times where I've sort of regretted ones we've put up, not because I didn't think they were good, but because they deal with a topic that in reality is quite nuanced and complicated. And when you reduce a topic like this down to something that is 20 seconds long or 10 seconds long and lip synced to music, it can be misleading and certainly reductive.

Last week when we posted this reel saying, Hey, here are some tips that or some clues that a dog trainer you're working with might not be positive reinforcement based. I wrote the text for this reel and I guess the avatar in my mind of who was reading this is someone who is like I was when I was when I first got a dog, and first found a dog trainer. I mean, I didn't research different kinds of training. I just went to the closest doggy daycare that was offering puppy kindergarten classes and had no idea about the language people use or methods people use.

And so, I guess, often in things I do when I'm thinking about clients, I'm thinking about the client I would've been, and if somebody's following us on social media, I assume that means that they're kind of into what we're doing. So, I thought of it as like, Hey, if you're into what we're doing, here is how to maybe try and figure out if a trainer you're working with or following is doing a similar thing. And the shorthand for the kind of training we do that's most well understood is positive reinforcement training.

Full Transcript at SchoolForTheDogs.com/Podcast

In NYC in the last month there have been nearly 100 dogs diagnosed with the dog flu. To learn more, I interviewed Dr. Andrea Y. Tu of Park East Animal Hospital and Veterinary Behavior Consultations of NYC. H3N2 is believed to have originated in birds and was first detected in dogs in South Korea in 2007. It was identified in March 2015 in the Chicago area; it most likely spread from dogs rescued from South Korea and brought to the US for adoption. In this episode, Dr. Tu addresses the following concerns, among others: 

-How the flu spreads 

-How you can keep your dog safe 

-What to do if your dog is infected

-What to do if you run a facility that is frequented by dogs 

Show notes: AnnieGrossman.com/podcast12 

A primer on the dog flu outbreak in NYC: schoolforthedogs.com/flu 

Transcript: Speaker 2 (00:36):

Hello humans for this episode. I have interviewed Dr. Andrea Tu, a veterinarian who is with

Park East Animal hospital, which is on the upper East side in Manhattan and she also works as a vet with Veterinary Behavior Consultants, which actually sees patients at School For The Dogs. I asked her every question I could think of about the dog flu, which has been a big topic of concern in New York city over the last month or so. I wanted to apologize for the quality of this interview. I spoke to Dr. Tu over the phone and it's not the greatest, but the information is pretty good. So I wanted to share this recording our phone call despite the not great audio quality. I just wanted to note that I've also put up a blog post that has some pretty comprehensive information about the flu and some useful links. You'll find it in the show notes, but you can go there directly by just typing in the URL schoolforthedogs.com.

Dr. Tu (02:04):

There really are kind of two big strains. So, um, the previous strain was one called the H3NH strain that's been around since about 2004 and it's found primarily in dog and we believe that jumped over to dogs from horses. Um, and that one, it wasn't as big of a deal because it's not as aggressive. It's not as infectious. The current strain now is the H3N2 strain. And this was a newer strain that was initially found back in 2015 and we believe it jumped from dogs to dog, sorry, from, um, birds from Korea. Um, and basically we rescued all these dogs from Asia and from, from, from folks from Korea. Yeah. So the, the current strain is the H3N2 that we're concerned about. It was initially found in 2015. It came from birds and then went to the dogs.

(03:03):

We believe it started in Korea. So when we adopted and rescue dogs, all these dogs from Asia traveled with those dogs over to us. And so the 2015 outbreak initially was found in Chicago. We didn't actually know that the strain existed at that time. Um, and that outbreak lasted for quite awhile. So the current outbreak in New York that we're dealing with now, we believe came from San Diego and it is, um, it's not the original strain that caused the outbreak in 2015 in Chicago that came from Chicago to New York. But this one may be the same strain, but it came from potentially a different dog that brought it to San Diego back in around January of this year.

Full transcript available at AnnieGrossman.com/podcast12 

In this episode, you'll learn about two products, each invented by a woman. The first is something you've probably encountered:  the retractable leash. The second is a new brand of treats called Shameless Pets, which makes yummy stuff for dogs from pre-consumer food waste.  The former can be quite dangerous, but Annie suggests a way to make it safer; the latter is a successful version of a Seinfeld-esque business plan that Annie's neighbor came up with in the 1990s.  In between tips about using a retractable leash and the story of Shameless Pets, you'll hear a hilarious piece of standup by comedian Drew Lynch.  

Drew Lynch on retractable leashes - Mary Delaney's patent - Shameless Pet Treats - Free guide to house training

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Partial Transcription:

Annie:

Do you need some help teaching your dog where you want him to pee or poop, and when?  If so, I hope you’ll check out our brand new totally free house training guide. You can find it at schoolforthedogs.com/house. It’s filled with lots of really good tips on how to train a dog to potty in the right spot. But it also is going to explain to you how to teach your dog to do it on cue. So go check it out.  Schoolforthedogs.com/house.

[Intro music]

Hi, thanks for being here, humans. There are two parts to this episode. One part is about retractable leashes and the other part is a conversation I had with Alex Waite, who is one of the founders of Shameless, which is a really cool brand of treats that you’re going to learn a lot about. They’re doing things differently in a very interesting way.

Just a reminder that if you liked this podcast, please go to iTunes and leave a review and support us by shopping in our online store storeforthedogs.com. I think we have the greatest stuff in the world there, for people who love their dogs.  Enjoy.

So here’s something you might not know if you’ve never worked with a dog trainer or you don’t hang out with dog trainers.  Most dog trainers, at least the ones that I know, don’t like retractable leashes. And there are a bunch of reasons for this. For one, we want our dogs to ideally be walking on a loose leash. I always say a leash should be there the same way a seatbelt is in a car.  You don’t wear the seatbelt and then feel like, okay, now I can drive like a madman. It’s there in case of an emergency.

Ideally your dog should be able to walk in a vicinity that is acceptable, but the leash should be there in case of an emergency. And if you have a leash that is always taut, your dog can get used to feeling that the leash has to have some kind of pull on him at all times.  So often dogs on retractable leashes are dogs who have learned to pull.

Another reason is that the cord that attaches the class to the plastic chunky part of the retractable leash is very thin. And if you, if you get it wound around a finger or your leg or a dog, it can really do some damage. Actually, if you go to Google and you start typing in retractable leash, at least on my computer, the first suggested thing that comes up for you to be Googling is retractable leash injuries. Thanks to the magic of Google images, you can see what retractable leash injuries look like, and they’re pretty awful.

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Annie is happily married to a man named Jason Pedicone, who is basically perfect in every way except... he doesn't cover his mouth when he yawns. So, she decided to use her talents as a dog trainer to train him to change this behavior. But she decided to try something she doesn't normally do with dogs: She attempted to curb his habit by using punishment. While she sort of succeeded, she also got a first hand taste at how training using punishment can mar a relationship in unexpected ways. Notes: Pavlov Dog Monitor - Pet Safe Anti-Bark Autotrainer - Jonah Hill on Fresh Air with Terry Gross - Dogs and Yawning - Tips on keeping your dog out of the ER this Thanksgiving - Music: "Hello My Baby" ukulele cover by The Channel Drifters

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Partial Transcript:



Jason:

Coming to you live from New York state highway 81 North. It's a gray day here on the shores of Lake Ontario. Just came off extraordinarily greasy lunch and we're ready to talk about punishment.

**music**

Annie:

Hello listeners. Doing a little bit of an experiment in podcasting this afternoon. My husband and I are on a little road trip to Montreal and we're gonna be doing some car casting. Is that an actual phrase? I don't know. Podcasting from the car. We'll see how it goes.  I forgot my microphone back at home. So the quality might not be top notch, but the content will be because my husband is here and he's a genius.

We are going to talk about punishment. Specifically a punishment in our relationship, more specifically about a specific incident where I attempted to use punishment to change Jason's behavior. But before we get into this particular incident, Jason, why don't you, I'm curious for if you could tell me or our listeners what you, how you would have thought about punishment or how you would have defined punishment prior to your union with a dog trainer.



Jason:

Yeah, that's a very good question. I guess, the first thing that comes to mind when I think of a punishment is just something bad that happens to someone or something in order to try to discourage it from doing something which is bad. So spanking a child or spraying a cat in the face with a water bottle, something like that.

Annie:

Yeah. Yeah. Although I think too often and really the technical definition of punishment is that it discourages a behavior. But I think too often it can get wrapped up in the idea that it's something bad. And that I was actually, I was just listening to an interview on Fresh Air with the actor, Jonah Hill, who has a new movie out about skateboarding, and he was talking about how he got really into skateboarding when he was a teenager because it was so, like, I think he described it as punishing and painful and punishing and that made him want to do it more.  And I thought, okay, well I totally understand what he's saying, but actually the pain was reinforcing, not punishing because if it made him want to do it more, then that wouldn't be punishment. Anyway. But,I know you tried to use punishment with the dog that you had before we met, right?

Jason:

Yeah. Uh, I used to have a dog who was extremely high strung and he was a Papillon and just sort of always very excited. His little body was constantly taut and he barked a lot and he had this issue where, when I went out and left him home alone, he would bark nonstop for hours.

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts

Renowned behavioral psychologist BF Skinner codified much of the science behind positive reinforcement-based animal training, and is a hero to many dog trainers. But for over half a century, his reputation has been tarnished by rumors that his daughter went crazy and killed herself because he raised her in a box. Annie interviews said daughter, Deborah Buzan, who is alive and sane. She was in fact raised in a box... sort of. Buzan discussed the "Air Crib," aka the "Baby Box," and growing up with a genius father who was devoted to engineering ways to make life easier and happier for his wife and daughters.



Notes -  Music: Hello My Baby cover by Melissa Mahony of the Channel Drifters - Blue Danube cover by David Beckingham - BF Skinner Foundation: BFSkinner.org - Sponsor: Is your Inbox a mess? You need SANEBOX! Get a free trial and $15 off SchoolForTheDogs.com/Sane

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Partial Transcript:



Today I am speaking to a very famous baby. Of course she is not a baby any more. She is a woman in her seventies. The story of her babyhood has become something of an urban legend. The misunderstandings about her youth I think actually dovetail with a lot of misunderstandings about dog training. Deborah Buzan is an artist who lives in England and we spoke via Skype, and, unfortunately, we didn’t have a great connection. So, this recording isn’t wonderful but I did my best to clean it up. But even if it is not the most easy listening I hope you’ll make it through this episode because we had a really interesting conversation. She is the daughter of B.F. Skinner and if you’ve listened to this podcast before, you’ve probably heard me talk about Skinner. He is one of my heroes and a hero to many good dog trainers out there. Skinner, who sadly passed away in the early 1990s, is considered to be one of the founders of the science of behavior.He codified a lot of what we know about the science and philosophy of behaviorism. If you’re not familiar with Skinner, I suggest going out and getting all of his books, or at least one of them. About Behaviorism a good one to start with, or Beyond Freedom and Dignity. He also wrote a novel called Walden Two which is kind of about how you could create a utopia creating positive reinforcement.



Anyway, I thought the best way to introduce Deborah would be with this clip of her father discussing some of the misunderstandings about how she was raised.

“I’d like to correct some rumors that go around. I am sure that some of you have heard them. A distinguished psychiatrist whose name you all know, I won’t mention it, told a distinguished person whose name you also would know, that the child that we raised in the so called box, the air crib, became psychotic. I wrote to him that we’ve heard this before and I’ve often heard this, would you mind telling me where you heard this rumor? Our daughter is very intelligent and talented, married, her husband teaches international studies at the Univ. Of Warwick, they live in London. My daughter is an artist, she does large color etching and sells all she can produce and so on. I don’t see any ill effects of the air crib on her. Well, he sent me a very apologetic letter, I must say that. But he didn’t tell me where he heard it."



Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts

When Ionelee Brogna decided to bring a Miniature Schnauzer puppy into her NYC apartment a couple of years ago, she knew she didn't want to employ the punishment-based or "balanced" methods that her family had used on their dog back in rural Massachusetts. But she wasn't sure what other options there were. Her research led her to... this podcast! And then to classes at School For The Dogs, and then to our six-month-long Professional Course. Ionelee, who formerly worked in publishing and at New York's famous Strand Book Store, just finished apprenticing with us, and is now starting to see clients. She and Annie discuss her background training horses, the human insight one gains working in the service industry, the surprising lessons learned while teaching a dog tricks, and the challenges associated of living with a terrier who is training obsessed. 

If you're interested in being notified when we start taking applications for our 2022 Professional Course (aka our "Apprenticeship") join the waiting list at http://schoolforthedogs.com/apprenticeship2022

We will be welcoming four students into our spring cohort. Not in NYC? No problem! The program is fully virtual.   

Want to learn how you can use dog training techniques on people? Check out our free eBook at http://schoolforthedogs.com/people  

*** February Special!*** 

Book a complimentary 15-minute virtual consult with a School For The Dogs Certified Professional Trainer at http://schoolforthedogs.com/freeconsult

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

I am joined today by Ionelee Brogna, one of the very most recent graduates of our Professional Course. When she is not training, she is often at the front desk at School For The Dogs and mans our inbox. Her official title is admin assistant and client coordinator.

Ionelee, though, something I've wanted to ask you since I've met you, and I've never asked you, is tell me about your name, ‘cause I've never met an Ionelee before.

Ionelee Brogna:

So it's a variation on my grandmother's name, which was Ione space Lee, and my parents smooshed that together so that my middle name could be my other grandmother's name, which is Carol.

Annie:

Oh, and is Ione a kind of, is that a name from somewhere?

Ionelee:

Yes, it's Scottish actually.

Annie:

Oh, okay.

Ionelee:

Which is ironic. Cause I'm mostly Italian and Mexican, but…

Annie:

[laughs] But your grandmother was Scottish.

Ionelee:

Yes.

Annie:

And her name was Ione.

Ionelee:

Yes.

Annie:

Well, it's very pretty. Although it's, I've noticed and I'm guessing you've noticed in your life, people refer to you sometimes as Lone-ly.

Ionelee:

Yes, I get Lonely a lot. I like to tell telemarketers that I'm not lonely. I do have friends. Which is why a lot of times I'll just sign my name fully in lower case.

Annie:

Well, anyway, it's a beautiful name. So, I wanted to have you on today to hear about your journey into the world of dog training. Because, as I know, and as other people on staff know, you started out with us as a client, then started working for us doing work at the front desk, and now have graduated our apprenticeship program...

Full Transcript at SchoolForTheDogs.com/Podcast

When we first met Lola Barksdale,  she was a tiny Frenchie puppy in our Kindergarten classes. We had no idea that she would become an Instagram star, or that she was secretly obsessed with unicorns and alpacas, loved purple fruit loops and waffles (which she calls "woofles,"), considered herself a "floofdragon" and had hobbies including interior decorating and counting her own feet. The genius behind her account is her human, Rachel Rednor. Rachel works in finance, but during her bathroom breaks at the office, she has developed an entire character for her little dog, built through photos and captions.  Annie talked to Rachel about creating, and managing, her dog's Internet celebrity. 

Notes:  @lolabarksdale - twitter.com/dog_feelings - #sukiisadopted - French Bulldog Club Of America - Music: Ukulele cover of "Play a Simple Melody" by JazzBanjoRex

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

I am here with Rachel Redner. I met Rachel and her husband, Matt about six years ago when they did a lesson with me with their brand new puppy. Lola, who is this tiny, fawn colored, would you say?



Rachel:

I, we call her cream.



Annie:

Cream French bulldog, who was just, just the cutest little like potato of a dog. [laughing] She has like no neck, which adds to her adorableness, I think. And, they actually started doing classes when School for the Dogs was located in my apartment, which is where we are right now.  In a previous iteration, it was the School for the Dogs classroom. And I wanted to talk to Rachel for this episode because, I think even before dogs on Instagram were sort of a thing, she had an account for Lola on Instagram.  And I started following it and just sort of became obsessed with Lola's Instagram and was like, who is this person writing it? I mean, I knew it was Rachel, but it wasn't, it wasn't the voice of the woman who works in finance, who I had met in her apartment. It was the voice of this hilarious, um, tiny French bulldog. And I think a lot of people kind of develop a voice for their dogs, but I think, you do it better than most. So why don't we talk quickly? Just tell me about how Lola came into your life.



Rachel:

Sure. So my husband and I had different views on a dog in general. I had grown up with a dog and he grew up in a very animal free house and was not that interested in the idea of a dog, but I was very persistent. And when we moved to Manhattan, there were Frenchies. That started to be everywhere. They weren't as kind of everywhere as they are now, but they were--



Annie:

Where did you move from?



Rachel:

We moved from college. We met in Syracuse and then we moved to the city. Uh, we were local. We grew up here, but not really in Manhattan.  You know, so you don't get that much exposure to all the different breeds of dogs when you're living in the suburbs. So we moved to Manhattan and we started seeing Frenchies and I had thought I wanted a beagle. And then I read somewhere one time and it was, this was all, it took me that beagles are terrible in the city because they just have their nose to the ground.  And it's really, really hard to manage that. So I said, okay, let's forget.



But we started seeing Frenchies everywhere. And I don't remember if we looked it up or we just talked about it, but we started this obsession that just kind of grew. And the worst of it was we would follow people with Frenchies around the city.



Full transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts/

School For The Dogs' trainers and clients love treats that dogs can lick straight from a container. One woman has cornered this market, and we're so glad. Her name is Brandi Barker. She started out training dog, but now is the fulltime force behind Bark Pouches, which are little squirt bottles filled with shelf-stable deliciousness. She and Annie talk about how she entered the world of dog training, how she came up with her product, and more. 

Get Bark Pouches at storeforthedogs.com

https://storeforthedogs.com/collections/bark-pouch

or at BarkPouch.com 

https://www.barkpouch.com/

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Partial Transcript:

[Intro and music]

Annie:

Hello folks. Thank you for being here. I am here with Brandi Barker, who has the world’s best last name if you’re into dogs [laughs].

And Brandi who is joining us from Chicago? I believe.

Brandi:

I actually moved to Columbus, Ohio.

Annie:

Oh, okay. From Columbus, Ohio. Why don’t you tell us about your amazing product and then we can go from there.

Brandi:

Okay. Sounds good. So it’s called Bark Pouch, and it’s dog treats in a pouch. Everything is human grade. And I try  to keep the ingredients really minimal and I have multiple sizes. I have multiple —

Annie:

Sorry to interrupt you, but explain it. Let’s explain what a pouch is because it has different meanings.

Brandi:

Okay. Okay. So you want me to start over then?

Annie:

No, no, no, just go ahead.

Brandi:

Okay. So it’s it’s dog treats in a pouch. So if you’ve ever seen the applesauce pouches, or the yogurt pouches that kids eat from, it’s basically like a paste type consistency that you just hold down for your dog and squeeze a tiny bit. They lick straight from the pouch. So it’s, I really design them for walking and training just to make that process easier for people.

Annie:

What’s funny is I have a toddler. And she eats now from these kinds of pouches all the time, but I feel like my first exposure to this kind of pouch was through Bark Pouch. And then I was like, Oh, wait, they make these for children too. And actually some of the ones that they make for children, I think you can also use for dogs.

But yeah, so we’ve been carrying your product for several years now, and they are so genius because they’re lickable.  And as trainers we are very into treats that can be licked straight from the container for so many reasons. One reason that I think that people might not think about is when you’re working with dogs all the time, as so many of us are, your hands get really gross

and your pockets get really gross. So having something that can simply be given straight from the container into a dog’s mouth is great.

Love using it for especially outside, love using it for stuff like muzzle training. So many reasons. And recently we have been selling so many more Bark Pouches before because they used to have to be stored frozen, and then put in the refrigerator after use, but by some magic of production, they are now shelf stable as of a few months ago. And so we’ve been shipping them all over the country.

Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast