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So you wanted a puppy. It was a great idea at the time, but now you're wondering what you got yourself into. From efficiently exercising your puppy to The Witching Hour your puppy seems to get every evening, there's a lot to cover when training your puppy, especially if it's you're first puppy. Let's break down some of the more essential tips to help take the frustration out one of the biggest concerns my clients have training their puppy: housebreaking their new puppy. Housebreaking Your Puppy Quickly and Easily By far, the biggest issues everyone has with puppy training is the housebreaking. It seems as if you are either running outside every 20 minutes with your puppy, or cleaning up messes all day long. Let's figure this out, and why housebreaking is going so wrong. 1. Your Puppy Has Constant Access to Water and Food We always need to bear in mind when puppy training that a dog that young has no impulse control. That goes for their bladder as well. Meaning if they take in a little bit of water all day long, a little bit of water will come out All. Day. Long. By monitoring your puppy's access to water, you are causing them to take in as much as they need at set intervals, which they will then eliminate all at once, at set intervals, rather than dripping like a broken hose. And let's remember the mantra of training a puppy or dog: In order to recreate a behavior, you have to catch that behavior. That behavior you're looking for (peeing outside) is slipping through your fingers like, well.. Pick up the food and water, and be diligent about serving actual meals and drinks, instead of a 24 hour puppy buffet. A good plan is to offer water every 2-2.5 hours (with vet approval), as well as after any activity (see if you can plan activity for right before a watering time). Set a reminder on your phone or set a timer. Let's not forget a scheduled watering time. Your puppy will drink more at once because they are actually thirsty, instead of tiny puppy sips out of boredom; all that water will come out at once, rather than a sip, sip here and a drip, drip there. 2. You're Trying to Housebreak Your Puppy Without Knowing How Often to Let Them Out I always feel so badly for my clients who are hyper-diligent about taking their puppy out. Some of my clients are trying to housebreak their puppies using what I call the "buckshot approach". If they take them outside every 20 minutes, they're bound to eventually have their puppy potty outside eventually, but that's different than actually housebreaking your puppy. You've just removed opportunity, but at the cost of your sanity. To housebreak my new puppy Hazel, I use what I call the Solo Cup System. I have 5 Solo Cups on laid out on my kitchen counter. About 5 times a day, I will empty the entire Solo Cup into a water bowl for her. She has 10 minutes or so to drink all she wants, and then I remove the water bowl. I then use a sharpie on that Solo Cup to mark what time I gave her water. I then turn the Solo Cup upside down on the counter, indicating that she has had her first offering of water. That way I can tell at a glance how much water she's had (upside down cup) vs how much water she still needs today (cups that are not upside down) If she somehow manages to drink the entire contents of the water bowl, I will refill the water bowl, making sure she's had her fill of water for that watering period. After she has had her fill of water, I will begin to let my puppy outside for a chance to potty roughly every 15 minutes. If she doesn't potty outside, I will put her in her crate, or bring her to a location in the house where she can't wander off, typically I'll have my puppy leashed with me. Usually my puppy will go potty outside after about 1/2 hour or so. As soon as my puppy starts to squat outside, I give her calm gentle praise, and then a reward. Now she can be free (ish) for a while. She will get water again in 2.5-3 hours, utilizing the second solo cup for the day. I will again mark the time she drank and the time she peed outside (or had an accident). That way I can start to estimate how soon she needs to go out after she's had water. If we decide to have some activity, I will give her water afterwards, but I try to schedule my puppy's exercise around watering times for easier housebreaking. We do the same with food: my puppy is fed 2x per day, and roughly 1/2 hour after she's finished eating, I know she'll need to start going outside to ensure she poops outside. By restricting her access to food and water, I've now set her on a schedule, which is easier for both of us to follow. 3. You're Allowing Your Puppy Free Range of the House Puppies (typically) prefer to relieve themselves slightly out of the way of where the commotion is. That's why merely "keeping an eye" on your puppy will never be the quick and efficient way to housebreak your puppy. The moment you take your eyes off of them, they sneak into a corner leaving you a present. If your puppy has not gone potty outside yet, you must keep them either in their crate or attached to you with a leash (extended 6 foot leash is sufficient). And be diligent; the moment your Spidey-sense starts tingling, take your puppy out! The more often your puppy has accidents in the house, the more you are normalizing it for her. Normalize going potty outside. 4. You're Taking it Personally Accidents happen. It's okay, just clean it up and be done with it. If you catch your puppy mid-squat, interrupt their behavior (I clap loudly), scoop them up and bring them outside. Give them a gentle positive outside, even if most of the action happened inside. If you find a puddle on the ground, don't being your puppy over to it and try to berate them or let them know what they did was wrong. What they did was pee, which is natural puppy behavior. Furthermore, appropriate dog behavior dictates that they do it away from the pack, which they did. Your puppy is actually a model canine citizen; they just suck at being human. If you start by allowing both you and your puppy to make mistakes, those mistakes become diminished, as they should be. Don't let your puppy housebreaking victories be overshadowed by such trifling things as failures. Learn and grow from those failures, but don't dwell on them. 5. Not Giving Your Puppy Proper Positive Reinforcement Part of recreating a behavior (your puppy peeing outside) is being able to catch that behavior (with positive methods). Silently standing at the doorway of your house while your puppy is in the far back of your yard peeing, and then calling them as soon as their done to give them a treat isn't going to cut it. You need to be more actively involved in the whole business. Stay closer to your puppy (but allow them a bit of space). The moment they start the show, calm, gentle positives, followed by a treat when they return to you. But by starting the praise while they are going, you are marking that moment. Find out more about giving your puppy effective positive reinforcement in this article. 6. You're Not Piloting Your Puppy's Training What on earth is Piloting your puppy, and what does it have to do with housebreaking a puppy? Piloting isn't too different from parenting a child. It's giving them safe boundaries in which to grow and learn. Being given the freedom to grow, but not the chaos that comes with anarchy. Piloting is the basis of honing a puppy's naturally occurring behaviors. It's helping your puppy learn to navigate this crazy human world safely, which creates a less anxious dog who is calm and happy. Your puppy is an intelligent (if impulsive) creature who is capable of learning and growing from their experiences. If you are simply managing your puppy, you're in for a long, difficult road ahead, full of behavioral issues such as anxiety, boundary frustration, and even aggression. A dog or puppy who has been Piloted is confident and able to face obstacles, whether they be leashed walking past a reactive dog, or simply peeing outside during a rainstorm. By building a powerful bond based on trust, your puppy has the ability to grow into a balanced, well-adjusted adult dog. Learn more about Piloting in this Ultimate Guide to Dog Training. Have a Housebreaking Plan for Your Puppy By having the information you need available (when did your puppy last potty outside? When did they get water last?) the job of housebreaking your puppy suddenly goes from chaos to simplified. Download our free housebreaking checklist to simplify training your puppy. Learn more about Darwin Dog's Piloting method of dog training and puppy training, and find out if your pup is a good candidate for our private, in-home dog training. Find out more about our private in home 30 Day Best Dog Ever and 30 Day Best Puppy Ever training packages here. Have questions about our puppy training or dog training? Find out answers here. Kerry Stack Darwin Dogs Dog Training and Dog Behavior Greater Cleveland area; Northeast Ohio

It's summertime in Cleveland, Ohio, and that brings with it two things: thunderstorms and July 4th fireworks, both of which are about as much fun as navigating I-480 during rush hour. While I've never known a dog or puppy who thoroughly enjoys either, I have met quite a few who have actual panic attacks during thunderstorms or when hearing fireworks. By tackling this issue as a dog training and behavioral issue in tandem, we can help them get through this scary time. Your Dog's Point of View Let's start with the basic mind frame you need to have in order to work through this problem. Your dog isn't giving you a hard time, your dog is having a hard time. I know...it's tough. Your dog has been barking non-stop since 1 a.m. and you need to work tomorrow. Perhaps they've had a few accidents in the house since the storm began. Maybe there's even been some destructive chewing. We need to keep in mind that your dog isn't doing any of this out of rage or anger. They are trying to do anything they can think of to alleviate their fear. By realizing this isn't about you, it's easier to focus on who this is actually about: your dog, or more importantly, their anxiety. Take a deep breath. You can do this. Be Proactive with Your Dog's Anxiety Training If you've read any of my articles, you know that I'm actually not a fan of traditional dog training any more than I'm a fan of training children. A much more comprehensive (and easier to manage) gameplan is to Pilot your dog, in a similar way you parent your children. By making this a lifestyle rather than a crash diet, you are setting up a method to address your dog's behavior that has deep roots, rather than just barely standing on its own. Helping your dog cope with a specific anxiety starts by Piloting your dog's behavior through all their anxiety. So yes, it's wonderful that you're trying to help them through the fireworks, but you've never even bothered to address their anxiety about the mailman every day? Or their anxiety when guests arrive? Anxiety is an every day issue for your dogs. Learn to address all of their anxiety issues, not just the once-a-year ones. Focus on the lifestyle change for your dog, not just the crash diet every 4th of July. Learn more how to do it in this Ultimate Guide to Dog Training article as well as this article about your dog's fight or flight response. Don't be Afraid to Get Your Vet's Help with Your Dog's Anxiety Maybe it's only once a year during July 4th fireworks. Maybe it's all summer long every time there's a thunderstorm. It's okay to ask your vet about medication to help with your dog's anxiety, but realize that this is a crutch, designed to help you until you and your dog can get back on your feet. That means dealing with the actual anxiety rather than just medicating it. Again, focus on Piloting your dog, rather than just training your dog. Learn more about the differences between training your dog and Piloting your dog in this link. Piloting Your Dog's Behavior Now that you've set yourself up for success, let's focus on what you can do during Mother Nature's spectacular shows. Control Yourself I say it time and time again: start at the beginning by controlling yourself. Make sure your body language is calm and relaxed. If the thunderstorm is No Big Deal, make sure your body language conveys that message. Also keep the talking to a minimum. You will not be soothing your dog, nor cajoling them through this mess, and your constant "It's okay, don't be scared, it's just a thunderstorm", on repeat shuffle is doing nothing to actually help your dog's fear, but is most likely only feeding it. Stop jabbering at your dog, and control yourself. And please remember to check your emotions. I know you're tired. I know your dog's been a mess for several hours. I know it's so damn hard. It's okay to be frustrated, or even angry. It's not okay to act out upon them. Learn more on ways to control yourself in this article. Control the Situation I know you're thinking that there's no way to control the situation your dog is currently in, given that there is a thunderstorm raging. But the thunderstorm is just one small part of your dog's current situation. There are so many other components that you can control. Turn on Some White Noise No, this won't fix the problem. But it will make the noise and startling abruptness of the thunderstorm seem less...big. Bonus points if you've started creating a calming routine utilizing the same musical or noise cues. In my house, I play a very calming playlist for my dogs every night when it's time to go to bed and whenever they will need to be calm in their mudroom for a while. It's on repeat, so they know that if that music is still playing, they need to stay calmly where they are. While this doesn't magically make the thunderstorm less scary for my dogs, the music is a calming cue, and is just another tool in the toolbox of tricks I use to help train my dogs to understand what behavior is required during specific situations. It can take a week or two before your dog learns and understands these cues: start now. Exercise Your Dog I am constantly trying to broadcast the message that your dog's behavior is 75% rooted in the need for activity. Keep your dog on a steady diet of steady activity, rather than a crash diet of just a game of fetch before the fireworks begin. For ideas on how to efficiently exercise your dog (with less effort from you) check out this link. Again, start now! Be Present for Your Dog If a kid is afraid or has a nightmare, do you just yell at them to go back to bed? I certainly hope not! You are there for them, and perhaps will lay down with them for a bit to help calm them. Being scared is easier to deal with if you're not alone and scared. My dogs typically sleep in their mudroom together, but if there's a bad storm, Ellis can sometimes have a rough time. So I bring him up into the bedroom, where he immediately crashes and sleeps like a baby. He just needs more of me, to be closer to me, to make the storm feel farther away. And the best part is, since he knows I'm always going to be there for him, I don't always have to be there. In other words, he is so used to being protected from the thunderstorm that half the time I don't need to even do anything about his anxiety: he is managing it well himself. But he knows that if he can't, mom will be there to help him out. Even something as simple as putting a leash on your dog and walking around inside your house can be a tremendous benefit. You're in this together, definitely, but some dogs have an easier time doing something together, rather than just remaining stationary. It just takes the edge off. And once that edge is off, now may be your opportunity to sit quietly with your dog (still leashed) as you watch a movie together. Turn up the volume...any little bit of distraction helps. Pilot Your Dog Your dog has a big question: "Is the storm going to hurt us?" And of course your answer is: "Nope!". Make sure you give your dog that answer if they can't come to that conclusion themselves. Your dog isn't bad; he's scared. He doesn't need a correction, he needs guidance and answers. To learn how I managed that with my Arwen, check out this link. But don't forget the most important part: empathy. Your dog is in a different place than you are right now. And that's okay. But rather than hoping they will come back out of their fear and anxiety by themselves, travel that road with them. Be there for them. Because the empathy and connection is what they are craving. Give it to them. Understanding Dog Training vs. Dog Behavior So where do you go from here? Well, continue to build trust. You made it through the first storm together. The first round of fireworks. Yes, it was messy. Maybe there was crying and tears (from both of you) but you both did it together instead of separately. And family stays together, weathering each storm (or 4th of July). Interested in learning how to Pilot your dog? Learn more about our dog training services and how it can help you and your dog or puppy achieve your training goals quickly, humanely and without frustration. Kerry Stack Darwin Dogs Dog Training Serving the Greater Cleveland Area and Northeast Ohio

There's something I like to call The Witching Hour. If you have a puppy or have trained your puppy with Darwin Dogs, you probably know what I'm talking about. It's a nightly occurrence during which your sweet, adorable puppy goes full on Regan. While it usually happens between the hours of 6-8, it can happen sporadically throughout the day as well. Your ordinarily well-behaved, rational puppy suddenly isn't interested in a damn thing you have to say. Jumping, nipping, and general mayhem ensues. Nothing you do seems to calm your puppy down, and pretty soon, you are dreading the sun setting as The Witching Hour is about to start. So what can be done alleviate this frustrating and sometimes dangerous behavior? Why Your Puppy is Acting Out A mantra I need you to always remember with your puppy (and when training your dog for that matter) is that they are acting normally...for the situation they currently find themselves in. Your puppy isn't giving you a hard time; your puppy is having a hard time. Typically with dogs and puppies, it's an issue with overstimulation. A long day of "puppying" can take a toll mentally. Too much activity or too little activity can cause it. Not enough mental stimulation or too little mental stimulation. When everything is new and exciting, a little tip or deviation from NoRmAl can wreak havoc on their ability to cope, and boom - you're calling in the OG Men in Black and burning sage. So let's break this frustrating puppy behavior a part and learn how to manage The Witching Hour. Getting Ahead of Your Puppy's Behavior The most important aspect of the Piloting method of dog and puppy training is that it's adaptive to your puppy's behavior. And the mantra of Piloting is three simple steps: 1) Control yourself - No yelling or adding energy to the situation. Body language is important here, so make sure you are standing up straight. If your puppy is already going bonkers, don't add to that energy with the nonstop yelling and flailing. 2) Control the situation. This is the most important aspect to getting ahead of your puppy's game. You don't add stimuli to a situation to get control of it. Don't fan your puppy's fire, in other words. But even more, you can set your puppy up for success well before The Witching Hour. By giving your puppy the activity and mental work they require throughout the day, they aren't going to try to glut themselves on it last minute right before bed. 3) Pilot your puppy. Start to answer their questions regarding your puppy's behavior. If your puppy is being an asshole throughout the day, then at The Witching Hour, of course they're going to turn into a phenomenal asshole. By simply Piloting your puppy's behavior throughout the day, you are building up "money" in that Piloting Piggy Bank (learn more about it here and here). Each time you answer you're puppy's questions about their behavior, whether it be about jumping on you or even just not respecting your personal space, you are building up clout. It snowballs into a thing of beauty. The more you answer, the easier each answer is accepted by your puppy. Piloting your dog and puppy's behaviors when it's easier (ie., not The Witching Hour) makes it possible to start working through your puppy's behavior when they're at their worst. I'm always reminded of parents who take their kids out to restaurants and are shocked and disappointed by their kids' behavior. Not sitting still, yelling, and being disruptive. But these same parents didn't help their children through these behaviors under easier conditions: at home during dinner time. In other words, the first time these expectations are set shouldn't be in a situation where there is tons of stimuli. The same thing applies to your puppy. Don't start trying to manage your puppy's behavior for the first time when your puppy is at their worst. You start when they toggle a little left or right of the path. If your puppy jumps on you when you call them during the day, that is the time to work on jumping. If your dog doesn't take treats nicely, that's the time to work on the mouthiness, not when your dog is wound up and nipping. Don't chalk it up to "puppy behavior'. It's called puppy behavior because they need help growing out of it, not passive permission to normalize it. Behavior tolerated is behavior encouraged. By setting the bar so low, your puppy is actually tripping over the bar. Expect better, and help you and your puppy work through those expectations. Your Puppy's Behavior During The Witching Hour Now that you've used these three steps to get ahead of The Witching Hour, let's do some damage control, because no matter how you batten down the hatches, that storm is still coming. But it's up to you decide how bad that damage is going to be. Your puppy will have energy. It may be from pent up frustration, or it could be "your-not-the-boss-of-me-itis". Regardless of the reason, we're going to start back with the three steps. It's 6:00 pm, so let's get ready to rumble. 1. Control Yourself How do you look? Are you presenting calmly? Or are your hands clenched at your side while you alternate between yelling "NO NO STOPJUMP NO BITE NO!!!!" Take a moment. Be silent. I don't care what your dog is doing, you WILL not add energy to that situation by yelling and screaming. Even better, don't even talk. Not even to say, "No". Because you sound like a broken record player with your "STOP OR I'LL SAY 'STOP' AGAIN". Also, take a look at your position. Are you sitting on the floor all crumpled up, wondering why your puppy won't stop using you as a chew toy? Stand up! Stop giving your puppy motive and opportunity! Rather than deflecting your puppy over and over (and over), simply standing up states that you are no longer a passive victim in this game we call life. 2. Control the Situation with Your Puppy Like I said, that storm is coming. You can't stop it, but you can channel that energy into a more appropriate outlet. You will still be negating your dog's behavior, but immediately channeling it into a different direction the moment they cease their behavior. Example: Your dog is jumping on you. You will still negate that behavior as outlined in this video, but the second they deviate from jumping on you, replace that behavior with something more appropriate. And no, I'm not talking about that sad, old bone that's been laying on the ground all day, ignored. If it wasn't interesting for the past 9 hours, it's not going to be interesting now. I always had a box of toys specifically for The Witching Hour. They were only accessible during certain times, so they were always very interesting to my dogs (learn more here), or at least, more interesting than using me as a parkour session. Again, you aren't trying to get rid of that energy (you won't), you are merely channeling it into other directions. There's that old saying that if you and your friend are out hiking, and you come across a hungry bear, you don't have to be faster than the bear, you have to be faster than your friend. Well, right now you're the easier and more interesting target. So create a new target, and you will have that bear tamed. My favorite toy for helping to manage the energy levels during The Witching Hour is definitely a flirt pole. It keeps the energy coming off your dog away from you, but easily wears your dog out. Another great toy to help is an enrichment feeder. I know I go off about these all the time, but seriously, let your dog blow off some steam and get some mental work as well. The best enrichment feeders for The Witching Hour are Kong Wobblers and Outward Hound Treat Tumbler. Again, these toys should only come out specifically to manage The Witching Hour, otherwise they lose all effectiveness. Bonus Tips for Training an Unmanageable Puppy The Witching Hour is all about impulse control. Your puppy does not have a lot due to their age (and your dog may not have ever needed to utilize any). As I mentioned above, the time to start working with your puppy's impulse control issues is not during The Witching Hour, but rather, well before. Here are some tips to get you started. Teaching Your Puppy Tricks Yes, there is tons of impulse control involved in learning how to do the most simple tricks. Your puppy has to stop and think of a way to get from Point A (no treat) to Point B (treat). That alone helps with impulse control. Agility Not only does it burn a little bit of energy, it's simple and easy to do at home, and it provides a lot of impulse control, similar to learning a trick. For a crash course in how to do it, check out the video below. Start very, very small. Remember, this is fun, not another task to accomplish. Use the Leash and Collar Go for a short walk (for leash walking tips, check out this link). Like, around your backyard. Or maybe down the street. When you get back inside, leave the leash on (supervised) so you have an easier way to control your dog's reactions and behavior. The leash is there to add a level of control during a walk; use it the same way during The Witching Hour. Your Puppy: Managing the Unmanageable Behavior The Witching Hour is definitely a huge pain point for most puppy owners. The chaotic jumping, nipping and general mayhem is a lot to manage. But again, it's a symptom stemming from impulse control issues with your puppy, which is natural (if not unsavory). By helping your puppy learn impulse control, as well as setting your puppy up for success through activity and mental work, The Witching Hour starts to lose it's magic,, and you stop cringing when you see what time it's getting to be, until pretty soon you start to simply refer to it as "bedtime". For more information on how to Pilot your dog or puppy, or to inquire about our unique 30 Day Best Dog Ever training packages, visit our FAQ's here. Kerry Stack Darwin Dogs Dog Training and Behavior Puppy Classes Northeast Ohio Greater Cleveland Area

Puppies are assholes. There. I said the quiet part out loud. But those of you who have puppies are nodding your heads in agreement. Puppies are like a combination of a toddler with a Redbull and a teenager who has just been informed of a new curfew. In reality, a puppy is no different than any other adolescent creature: they are exploring their world, testing boundaries, and learning about themselves in the process. So while I joke a lot about how training a puppy can be a total goat rodeo, the fact of it is, I love and respect their willfulness. I admire their stubbornness, because after all, stubbornness is just determination in an opposite direction. Why should my puppy come when I call them? Why shouldn't my puppy chew on my new leather sofa? Because I told them not to? Let's start with a new mindset with your puppy's antics: Your puppy isn't against you; he's for himself. Nothing your puppy does is directed at you (no, not even when he's biting and nipping at you). Right now he's a bundle of energy tied together with a very delicate string. He's holding it together as best he can, but it doesn't take much for that string to snap. So how do you work through this behavior? Piloting your puppy rather than training them. Piloting is a lot like parenting: there's a lot of Q & A. You sometimes feel like you've answered the same question about a million times, and sometimes you find yourself in the bathtub with the door locked at 12 am trying to silently eat a pint of chocolate ice cream in peace. I guess you could say that the only difference between Piloting your puppy and parenting your kids is that at some point you are going to watch your kids launch into adulthood, no longer dependent upon you, but rather asking your advice rather than needing your guidance. They are adults now, living in a human world. Your puppy, however, will never grow into a full fledged human, able to survive and completely understand a human world, so your dog will always be dependent on you to guide them. However, that level of dependency depends upon how you well you are able to Pilot/parent them. So let's start at the beginning. Two Most Important Steps to Puppy Training Whether it's housebreaking, basic commands, leash walking or trying to get your puppy to stop harassing and biting you like a mosquito. No matter what behavior your puppy is giving you, you always start with these two steps. 1. Control Yourself: How Do You Look to Your Puppy? Do you look like someone who can Pilot this plane called life for one of it's most confused and anxious passengers, namely, your puppy? If you're angry, frustrated, rushed, or even hyper, ask yourself if that's how you want your puppy to be? How do you feel when your puppy gives you the same energy you are about to give them? Remember, the goal is a calm(er) puppy who is capable of rational though. Show them what that looks like. Now, I'm not going to tell you not to get frustrated: that's hilarious. Remember, your puppy is an asshole. They revel in their assholerly and run gleefully amok. But if you're here to guide them through this confusing (and often overstimulating) human life, at least look like you're capable of the job, because yes, your puppy is gauging how they will react based upon how you are reacting. So, Piloting your puppy is a job: put on your uniform. Lock up your emotions for just a moment. You know those fists you have clenched right now? Yeah... relax. Force yourself to calm down before you do anything to add fuel to your puppy's fire. Take a look at your body language. Are you standing up straight, or are you bending over, right at your puppies level? And most importantly, how is the volume? Are you talking nonstop at your puppy? Yelling, even? You're just escalating the situation, and hoping that you losing control helps your puppy regain control of their behavior. Noise and energy create more noise and energy. So when you're trying to Pilot your puppy's more unsavory behaviors, make sure you are in control of yourself. Stand up straight. Unclench the fists and make sure you are trying to communicate with your dog in a productive way. Remember, we're trying to communicate with them, not give them Stockholm Syndrome. A moment of patience in a moment of anger saves a thousand moments of regret. 2. Control the Situation: Is Your Puppy in a Good Place? If you've done dog or puppy training with me, you will constantly hear me repeating a very important phrase: You can't add stimuli to a situation to gain control of a situation. And currently the situation is your puppy. If your dog is barking and jumping at the door, get control of the current situation before opening the door (even if it means just locking your dog up so you can read this article about how to answer the door). Why would adding more energy and chaos end the current chaos. That's like taking a drink of milk from the fridge, seeing it's gone bad, and putting it back in the fridge, hoping it gets better. Stop and look at the current situation. Do you have control right now? Or are you trying to train a puppy who hasn't had breakfast and is all wound up from being in their crate all night? That's a losing battle. Make sure you have control of the situation. And sometimes that means knowing the when to try to train your puppy and when to merely channel their current energy. Let me give you a great example: the Witching Hour. That's the hour when your puppy goes from an absolute angel puppy to a demon possessed by Satan himself. Your docile little furball has suddenly decided to zoom around the house with and jump and bite you with the intensity of a thousand burning suns. The Witching Hour usually happens around sundown, and is the equivalent of a tantrum. Your puppy is completely out of control and cannot take in any new stimuli without redirecting upon said stimuli, and that may be you. So if you're puppy is jumping, clawing and biting you while you're trying to sit on the floor... get up! There's too much of you available to your puppy right now, and he's overstimulated. By simply standing up you are removing your puppies options (ie., stimuli) so your puppy can better organize themself into some semblance of calm. Yes, your puppy may still try to jump up on your legs, or go for your feet, but you are in a better position to start to channel your puppies energy in the direction you want. And rest assured: that energy will be channeled, not negated. The Witching Hour is the perfect time to utilize an enrichment feeder to channel your dog's energy (learn more in this article). Let them beat up their dinner instead of you. Engage it a game with a flirt stick, which is great at controlling the situation, as it keeps the action farther from you, while you still control the play (find out more in this article). I always think of the Witching Hour like food poisoning: just let all that yuckiness out and it'll be better. That energy and pent up frustration from throughout the day need to go somewhere: channel it in a direction you want, and have a plan ready. Also take in mind your puppy's current mental frame. If you've been working on the same 3 commands for 2 hours straight and your puppy is struggling, you need to take another look at your goal. There are only so many new things your puppy can process in a day without having a meltdown. If your puppy, who was totally engage with learning the "stay" command 10 minutes ago is now struggling, it doesn't mean you're doing it wrong. The problem is you're still doing it. Give them a break. Let them reboot. Go on to something that gets rid of pent up energy: a Kong, or a game of fetch. Let them reboot rather than melt down. Remember Your Goals with Your Puppy You aren't trying to have the perfect puppy. Don't let the perfect become the enemy of the good. Frustration happens when we start to compare what we see in others without seeing the full picture. I see it all the time during pack walks, when my clients start noticing how "well behaved" another dog is on a during the walk, while they are still struggling with passing by people or bikes. What they aren't seeing is that the dog who walks so well is has a huge issue with resource guarding. Or separation anxiety. Or perhaps they are destructive in the house, running like a freight train through anything in it's path. So perhaps first an foremost, take a good hard look at your puppy. What are your goals with him? How do you want your relationship and your bond with your puppy to look? The only way you can figure that out is by looking at your puppy rather than the world around you, because for your puppy, you are their whole world. Dog Training vs. Dog Life By focusing on dog life, rather than dog training, our goals can become so much more attainable and clear-cut. Most of us don't want an obedient dog, we just don't want a dis-obedient dog. Robot-style dogs who are afraid of stepping out of line are for certain types of people I guess. But that's not my style. That's why I developed the Piloting method of dog training over 20 years ago, a force-free method of dog training and puppy training that didn't rely on abusive shock collars or cruel prong collars, yet didn't constantly bribe with non-stop click-n-treat style dog training. I want a bond with my dog based on trust and communication. Learn more about our Piloting method of dog and puppy training here. Find out more about our private in home 30 Day Best Dog Ever and 30 Day Best Puppy Ever training packages here. Have questions about our puppy training or dog training? Kerry Stack Darwin Dogs Dog Training and Puppy Training Greater Cleveland Area Northeast Ohio

You've just gotten your new puppy, and are ready to start on the journey of new dog ownership. You've read every single article online about training your puppy, and have read every book full of conflicting information on everything from housebreaking to basic commands, and now you're thoroughly confused. Where do you even start when nobody can agree on the right way to train your new puppy? Let's start at the very beginning, and clear up a few misconceptions and fallacies: Puppy Training Success: Do's and Don'ts DO Realize That Your Puppy is Unique Your bond with your new puppy is yours, and yours alone. It can not be recreated or imitated, and will never fit into the one-size-fits-all model of Every Other Puppy out there. From how your puppy learns, to their past experiences, nothing about your puppy is comparable to any other puppy. Just as children need to be raised as individuals capable of their own thoughts and ideas, your success in creating a happy, healthy bond with your new puppy is dependent upon you seeing who your new family member really is: a unique individual with their own view of the world. And that leads us to the first pitfall of puppy training... DON'T Compare Your Puppy to Other Puppies So your sister's neighbor's aunt got a Golden Retriever puppy from the same litter you did, but her puppy is already housebroken, whereas you've decided to rename your puppy "Puddles". What are you doing wrong? You're comparing puppies. Just because Puddles is taking a little longer to housebreak doesn't mean that you're doing it wrong, or that your puppy is being stubborn. Comparing puppies, even from the same litter, is as nonsensical as comparing human siblings. So maybe you're envious about Puddles' littermate already being housebroken, but you may not have the full story: her owner takes her out for potty breaks every 45 minutes and wakes up 3 times each night as well. Also, Puddles' littermate has also chewed through a 5 pairs of shoes, 2 remote controls, and a laptop charger. By comparison, suddenly Puddle's occasional accidents don't look so bad. Detrimental Mindsets in Dog Training Ten Commandments of Dog Training The Best Dog Ever DO Give Yourself A Break A favorite saying of mine is: "God created crates and iPads to keep us from killing our dogs and our kids." As I wrote about in this article addressing the myth of consistency in dog training, sometimes you just need a break. It's not about raising the perfect puppy any more than it is about raising the perfect kid. Don't worry so much about being consistent. It's okay to occasionally ignore some behaviors. It's the follow-through that is key. If 9/10 times you address your dog jumping on you, you are still going to have an amazing, well behaved dog. You're just taking the scenic route and enjoying the journey through puppyhood, rather than focusing on every negative thing. Dog Training When Frustrated Dog Training Hacks Dog Training Cornerstone: Failing Your Dog by Failing Yourself DON'T Make Excuses Just like kids, puppies and dogs do like to see where their boundaries are, and they can utilize some very unsavory tactics to find them. Don't make excuses for that behavior. So while your puppy isn't bad when they nip at you, their behavior is not acceptable, and must be addressed. Don't chalk it up to it simply being "puppy biting" and hope they'll grow out of it. Your puppy is demanding something in a very unacceptable way (and would most definitely have been addressed by their mom). There's a saying: "Only your mom tells you when your face is dirty". You are responsible for helping your new puppy understand what is rude behavior, and what is acceptable behavior. Love your puppy enough to help them sort through those behaviors rather than struggle through them on their own. Why Your Dog is an Asshat Positives and Negatives in Dog Training Dog Training Simplified DON'T Underestimate the Importance of Activity and Mental Work A bored puppy is a destructive puppy. Just like children, puppies are at an age where they explore and learn about their world. Limiting the opportunities they have to learn only leads to frustration and destruction. Let them learn within the safe boundaries you have set for them. Give them opportunities for benevolent frustration, which leads to learning opportunities. Enrichment feeders, learning tricks, or even just battling against that rope toy you just got them can provide mental work. Going for walks, puppy playdates, or teaser sticks can be a great way to give some activity to your hyper puppy. Short answer is that if you don't provide your puppy with activity and mental work, they will find a way to get it themselves. And puppies can be quite creative. Training a Hyper Dog: The Link Between Exercise and Learning Dog Training 101: Mental Work Dog Training 101: Exercising Your Dog Easily DO Have a Plan Puppy training is so much more than just teaching your new puppy basic commands and housebreaking them. Actually, I find "training" to be a rather stodgy, ineffective term. You don't train kids, why would you train a puppy? Further, training tends to fall into that one-size-fits-all category that I so loathe. Puppies, like children, are very curious about their world; they question things, and I love and respect them for that. Training a puppy sets them up to respond to a specific set of stimuli in specific way, for example, training your puppy to walk on a leash nicely rather than pulling you. Unfortunately, typical puppy training classes don't always account for behavior. So you train a puppy to sit when you give them the command. But what if your puppy decides to start nipping at you? That's a behavior, and needs to be addressed. Think of the difference between puppy training and puppy behavior as similar to sending a kid to school to learn to read vs. addressing their behavior when they balk at being told it's bedtime. So rather than merely training your new puppy, take a more holistic approach: learn how to address your puppy's behaviors as well. Why I Stopped Training My Dog Dog Training without Dominance: The Toxicity of Alpha-Style Dog Training Ultimate Guide to Training Your Dog Dog Training vs. Dog Life By focusing on dog life, rather than dog training, our goals can become so much more attainable and clear-cut. Most of us don't want an obedient dog, we just don't want a dis-obedient dog. Robot-style dogs who are afraid of stepping out of line are for certain types of people I guess. But that's not my style. That's why I developed the Piloting method of dog training over 20 years ago, a force-free method of dog training and puppy training that didn't rely on abusive shock collars or cruel prong collars, yet didn't constantly bribe with non-stop click-n-treat style dog training. I want a bond with my dog based on trust and communication. Learn more about our Piloting method of dog and puppy training here. Find out more about our private in home 30 Day Best Dog Ever and 30 Day Best Puppy Ever training packages here. Have questions about our puppy training or dog training? Kerry Stack Darwin Dogs Dog Training and Puppy Training Greater Cleveland Area Northeast Ohio

I hate dog training. There. I said it. It's a gimmick, and every dog trainer seems to be spouting the same two pieces of nonsense: That your dog only wants to please you, and that consistency is key. Both are bullshit. Let me explain. To find out why I hate the term "consistency" when it comes to dog training, check out this link. Suffice it to say that focusing on consistency when you're training your dog or working through your dog's difficult behaviors will only bring you frustration. It pits The Perfect against The Good Enough. But what really makes my eyeballs itch is when someone tries to tell me that dogs "just want to please". Please who? Do you want to please? I should hope not. I know my clients are only repeating what they've heard so many times, and it is a way to try to keep perspective on your dog's behavior; they're not out to get you. But I always flip the script and ask my clients if they only want to please me. Man, the looks I get when I ask that. Of course my clients don't "just want to please" me. But what they do want is to work together, as a team. They want to get a (difficult) job done: working past their dog's negative behaviors and build a bridge of communication between dog and human. That is a far cry from wanting to please me. And the good news is that I am totally down with that goal, too. I actually don't want to "please" my client any more than they want to "please" me. But I'd really like to do is work together and tackle your dog's problems. I'd love to learn more about how you think and how your individual thought processes can be harnessed to help your dog and you bond in a way only you two can. I love sharing those small victories with you, when you start benevolently skeptical of the unique dog training methods Darwin Dogs offers, and end up amazed at the difficult things we accomplish together. But that's a far cry from us wanting to please each other. And to do that, we need to grab your dog's naturally occurring behaviors and shape those behaviors into the building blocks of a healthy bond between dog and owner, based on trust and empathy. Training/Shaping Your Dog's Behavior Through Piloting For the purposes of this post, we will categorize dog behavior into two categories: positive and negative. The goal of your dog's behavior is to accomplish certain tasks, such as getting a treat, or eliminating a (potential) threat. That's where the Piloting comes in. Think of Piloting the tool you use to shape your dogs behaviors. Or as I like to look at it, it's the method you will be using to "answer" your dog's questions. Example 1: Your dog jumps on you. Their Question: Can I jump on you? Answer: Negative. Your dog isn't being bad, they just have a question that happens to have a negative answer. You will be shaping this behavior towards ending. Example 2: Your dog remains calm for the mailman. Their Question: Should I try to be calm(er) when the post man delivers the mail? Answer: Positive. This is a behavior you like, and want to shape into recreating. The behaviors/questions your dog was asking were perfectly normal for a dog. But you will be shaping those behaviors towards your goals by utilizing Piloting. Dog training is merely catching these naturally occurring behaviors and placing either a positive on the behaviors to encourage and recreate these behaviors, or placing a gentle negative on these behaviors to end those behaviors. Piloting is what brings it all together, and is the method you use to "answer" your dog's questions. Dog Training Goals By framing your dog's behaviors as "questions" rather than acts against you, or them trying to please you, we get to the true goal both you and your dog share: communication. Sometimes things get lost in translation, and need to be repeated a couple (many) times, and other times you just click. But neither of you are against the other; and neither is being stubborn. Stubborn adj. - Determination in an opposite direction. Both of you are currently set in your ways, convinced that your way is best. And guess what? You are both correct. Dogs behaviors are perfect if you're a dog, and human behaviors are of course correct if you're a human. So of course you both are going to be stubborn. But as Edward Hoagland put it so succinctly: In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn't merely try to train him to be semi-human. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog. So for the sake of the interwebs and searches, I guess I'll have to continue to use words like "training". Even though it irks me. But remember, rather than trying to please each other, which gets you nowhere, start by Piloting your dog towards actual goal: teamwork, trust and an unbreakable bond. And that pleases everyone. Dog Training vs. Dog Life By focusing on dog life, rather than dog training, our goals can become so much more attainable and clear-cut. Most of us don't want an obedient dog, we just don't want a dis-obedient dog. Robot-style dogs who are afraid of stepping out of line are for certain types of people I guess. But that's not my style. That's why I developed the Piloting method of dog training over 20 years ago, a force-free method of dog training and puppy training that didn't rely on abusive shock collars or cruel prong collars, yet didn't constantly bribe with non-stop click-n-treat style dog training. I want a bond with my dog based on trust and communication. Learn more about our Piloting method of dog and puppy training here. Find out more about our private in home 30 Day Best Dog Ever and 30 Day Best Puppy Ever training packages here. Have questions about our puppy training or dog training? Kerry Stack Darwin Dogs Dog Training and Puppy Training Greater Cleveland Area Northeast Ohio

I'm a dog trainer. By extension, I'm a dog lover, and am more than willing to support the efforts of our local shelters and rescues. On Friday, April 21, I made a puppy mill rescue run with a woman I love and respect: Lauren Jacenty. We loaded up a cargo van full of 30 dogs ranging from a very sick six week old doodle (who was blind and deaf) to older Cavaliers who had been stuck in cages doing nothing but breeding for the past 5 years. We spent roughly 7 hours driving, picking up dogs, getting them vetted, and driving them to the first stop on their journey, where wonderful humans would be continuing the mission to get them to their foster homes. These dogs were discarded like trash by these "breeders". We were able to rescue 30 of the 27 dogs on our list from the "breeders". (You read that correctly; the puppy mills literally snuck some extras in) thanks to the efforts of: - Story Tellers Express - Second Chance - Rescued Treasures - Sophia's Grace - Puppy Mill Rescue Team Seriously, look them up. They are amazing, so make a donation to them on their sites. These are the same places that Pick of the Litter and Petland get their puppies from. All of them sick. All of them underage. All of them bred from parents who have never seen the outside of a cage before their liberation day on Friday. Some of them stuck there for the better part of a decade. So how can we stop this cruelty and abuse? I don't know. But I'm going to keep trying everything I can do until they are stopped. I'm not going to throw my hands in the air and hope Someone Else can fix this. Someone Else isn't coming, so it's up to us. I implore you to join us at our protest on Saturday, April 29 at Southpark Mall to bring attention to these atrocities that are being committed. Animal abuse will not be tolerated. We see what they are doing to these dogs, and we are here to stop it. It's been a while since we've last visited Southpark Mall and their famous puppy mills. Covid hit, and things were down for a while. I originally wrote this article in 2019, right after our last puppy mill protest (and right before Covid). Unfortunately nothing has changed. Oh, except that the Pick of the Litter *accidentally* caught fire. It's time to stand together to end the cruelty. ********* The article below was originally published in Sept. 2019. We all know cash is king, and easy money is the best money. Let’s face it, corporations’ sole reason for existing is to make more money. But at what cost? When does the search for more money become inexcusable due to the swath of destruction of innocents that lay in its wake? In other words, is the enrichment of corporations and businesses acceptable if the cost is the health and safety of innocent animals? Over the past three years, Darwin Dogs has been picketing Southpark Mall over their support of puppy mills by allowing Pick of the Litter and Petland continue their practices in the mall. Council meetings have been attended by those horrified by what goes on in the mall. So what information has come to light recently? And more importantly, why is Southpark Mall’s management ignoring this information, even at the cost of risking their shopper’s health and safety? Is animal abuse really acceptable in return for a better bottom line? Read the disturbing evidence for yourself. 1) Strongsville Animal Control Officer, Chuck McCleary, had visited Tom Collins 22 times in the past year. Exactly what has McCleary been inspecting? The recent photo of the very sick husky above was taken by me, personally, on Sept. 20, 2019, and posted to Darwin Dogs’ Facebook platform. In a series of Facebook posts, as well as PM’s, McCleary reached out to inform me that the dog in the picture “is by itself, in its own cage not on display on oral antibiotics.” That dog looked about as far from “by itself” as the dog could possibly get. 2) City of Strongsville’s own ordinance states that is an individually is criminally liable if they “Keep animals… in an enclosure without wholesome exercise and change of air” * and “Whoever violates this section is guilty of a misdemeanor of the second degree. In addition, the court may order the offender to forfeit the animal or livestock and may provide for its disposition including, but not limited to, the sale of the animal or livestock.” * To put it bluntly, Tom Collins’ puppies, as well as his breeding cats, never see the light of day once he acquirers them. They are never taken out of their pens for healthy exercise. So every day that his puppy mill store has been operating, he has violated Strongsville law, and McCLeary would have seen this all 22 times he inspected in the last year. As a matter of fact, he may have seen the same exact animals in the same exact cages over the past years. Why is this happening? The account of one person I spoke with may shed some light on this. Speaking with her, she informed me that, “Chuck McCleary flat out told me he is a friend of Tom’s when called because he had a dog for sale in the store with a note on it saying it was found in the parking lot of the mall that day.” The individual I spoke with was an employee at the mall at the time, which was a bit over a year ago. The mall employee went on further to state that, “The warden chewed me out for calling him and that he wasn’t going to do anything to Tom, and they’ve been friends for a long time, and as far as he was concerned, Tom was doing it a favor.” I have asked McCleary if he is indeed friends with Tom Collins; he denied any such relationship. 3) Falsification of vaccination records/medical history ** Kaylin, a local animal advocate as well as a vet tech, recently adopted a puppy from Pick of the Litter, against her better judgment, based solely on the fact of how far in distress one of the puppies looked. She adopted her puppy on July 14, 2018. Having a vet tech background, Kaylin knew that the puppy was only 6-8 weeks old on the day of adoption. POTL told her the puppy was 4 months old. Kaylin knew better, as her puppy had absolutely no adult teeth in her mouth. To make matters worse, Kaylin was told by the employees to give the puppy crushed Fruit Loops on top of her dry food, as the puppy was hypoglycemic. And if she didn’t, her puppy may go in and out of consciousness. In Kaylin’s own words, “Well, also coming from a vet tech background, that does happen when you take a dog away from their mother too early and they aren’t getting the nutrients they need from the [mother's] milk. If you have to do that, you supplement with some kind of simple syrup, like a Karo syrup, not Fruit Loops. That’s going to cost her in the long run.” And unfortunately, Kaylin has had plenty of problems with her Pick of the Litter puppy. “Allergies, and things of that nature”, she stated, “Probably because her immune system didn’t get to be fully developed.” But that was just the start of Kaylin’s problems with her puppy. Remember, according to POTL, her puppy was 4 months old, born in March 2018. Kaylin believed her puppy to be 6-8 weeks of age, born on or about May 19-31 and her vet confirmed it. That made the vaccination records POTL provided to Kaylin with her new pup extremely disturbing: “The records I have from Pick of the Litter for this dog are, some of the vaccine records written in. Working in a vet clinic myself, you take the lot number sticker off the vial, and you put it on the record for if there is any recall or any issue. Three of these are handwritten in. There’s no lot numbers. “ Even more disturbing evidence presented itself on the vaccination records, as Kaylin explained. The dates POTL has stated for the vaccinations of Kaylin’s puppy were before the puppy was even born. According to Kaylin (a vet tech) and Kaylin’s own veterinarian, the puppy was born some time between May 19-31. According to POTL, the puppy’s first shots were given on: - April 21 (4 weeks before the puppy’s birth) - May 3 (2 weeks before the puppy’s birth) - May 20 (the week of birth) - May 25 (the week of birth) Parvo and distemper are both very contagious, deadly infections, for which this puppy was never properly vaccinated against. During the Oct. 1 council meeting, Tom Collins stated, “I know the difference between a four week old puppy and an eight week old puppy. A lot of vet techs know everything and they don’t know everything. I’ve been in the business for 35 years.” * As Kaylin puts it, though, ”This is just a blatant, falsified record of my puppy.” Falsifying health records is a very serious thing, especially if you are supplying your store with puppies from unethical breeders. Evidence was given that the sick husky puppy photographed above, as well as puppies in the store, had been dosed with “metro” (Metronidazole), due to diarrhea. Metronidazole is used to treat: Giardia (and other parasites) Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Oral and dental infections Other bacterial infections that cause diarrhea or sepsis Animal Control Officer McCleary even stated in a comment that, according to his inspection at the beginning of October this year, “…this dog came from the breeder this way, and was going to be put to sleep”. He further states that, “…in reality it was saved [by POTL] from euthanasia by the breeder”. I thought Tom was only picking out dogs from "good Amish breeders". Yet Tom Collins vehemently denies being involved with unethical breeders and puppy mills. Southpark Mall is allowing these infected puppies in their establishment and allowing children to come in contact with them right before heading to the food court to eat. Evidence has also shown that Tom Collins falsifies his vaccination records, so who knows what else your children may pick up while there. But enjoy Southpark’s indoor trick-or-treat event on Sunday, October 27! Candy and parasites for everyone! What about all the bite instances we’ve been hearing about? It’s the most disturbing and gruesome story I’ve heard so far (and that’s saying a lot). I spoke personally with the witness, Ken, and here’s what he had to say. Date of incident Aug 17, 2019 A puppy was kenneled in fish tank with other different dogs from a different litter. Puppy was in a 50-100 gallon fish tank. At least 7-8 dogs in there with him. I asked why he was in there, and an employee said that puppy (pittie) was in there b/c of the bite. A little kid was touching the puppy, and child was unsupervised, and there were no employees around. At least three employees were working that day, but nobody was with the public in the store, which was crowded. Dog jumped up and nipped the child. Employee told me that if nobody bought it, they would try to give it back to the breeder, and otherwise they would “put it down”. If the breeder didn’t take it back or if nobody bought it, it would be euthanized. I tried to find a home a home for the dog, but couldn’t. POTL tried to sell the dog to Ken for $750 initially. Half an hour later, the employee said that the breeder didn’t want it and Ken could have the puppy for $30 . Ken tried to find a way to take the dog home, or find someone to take it, but he couldn’t as he has a newborn, and nobody else he contacted could take it. We can only guess what eventually happened to the the poor pittie in the photo. By law, the puppy should have been micro-chipped within 24 hours of his arrival at POTL. Most likely, it wasn’t so we will never know. But what about the individuals who are allowing this to continue? Let’s face it, money talks. Unfortunately, the puppy mill dogs and cats that Tom Collins deals with are unable to speak for themselves. It’s time we stand for those who have no voice. Contact Southpark Mall, and demand to know why they allow puppy mill brokers and pet stores selling puppy mill dogs to do business within their mall. Let them know publicly, via reviews, that we will not do business at establishments that allow for animal abuse. Let them know via Facebook that you won’t stand for this mistreatment of animals. Or call/send a letter: Southpark Mall c/o Starwood Retail Managers 500 SouthPark Center Strongsville, OH 44136 (440) 238-9199 So in short, protests bring a lot of attention to situations like Tom Collins and Pick of the Litter, but at the end of the day, not all of us are willing/able/crazy enough to protest outside in all kinds of weather. The way to shut these establishments down can be as simple as one phone call. One email. One review. Let them know this won’t be tolerated anymore, and that we demand better. And we will fight for it. Dog Training vs. Dog Life By focusing on dog life, rather than dog training, our goals can become so much more attainable and clear-cut. Most of us don't want an obedient dog, we just don't want a dis-obedient dog. Robot-style dogs who are afraid of stepping out of line are for certain types of people I guess. But that's not my style. That's why I developed the Piloting method of dog training over 20 years ago, a force-free method of dog training and puppy training that didn't rely on abusive shock collars or cruel prong collars, yet didn't constantly bribe with non-stop click-n-treat style dog training. I want a bond with my dog based on trust and communication. Learn more about our Piloting method of dog and puppy training here. Find out more about our private in home 30 Day Best Dog Ever and 30 Day Best Puppy Ever training packages here. Have questions about our puppy training or dog training? Kerry Stack Darwin Dogs Dog Training and Puppy Training Greater Cleveland Area Northeast Ohio

If you've ever read any of my articles about dog training and dog behavior, one thing that will most likely stick out is that I'm not a very big fan of rules. Rules are stupid and boring. And let's face it, they feel confining. So I'll never give you a bunch of commandments to follow regarding training your dog (except that one time). However, there are some necessities that are hard to get around: basic commands. Before you go bananas and try to teach your dog Every Trick In The Book, ask yourself a few questions: Is this command necessary? Is it useful? Is it fun? Unless you can answer "yes" to at least one of these questions, then skip it. FULL DISCLOSURE: my dogs don't know how to lay down on command. Ellis picked it up somewhere, but I never actually taught it to him. But you'll notice it's on every single puppy kindergarten itinerary, and other dog trainers gasp and pull out their smelling salts when I admit my dogs don't do it. I found it unnecessary, useless, and not much fun. Dog Training 101 Catching Dog Behaviors Before we get started, let's briefly go over how to "catch" a dog's behavior so you can recreate it. If your dog sits, and you give them a treat, you have definitely caught the behavior. But in order to recreate the behavior on command, you have to name the behavior. So work the word in there as much as possible. You can catch an unprompted behavior. No, it's not cheating if your dog is already sitting and you walk up and start gently praising your dog and give them a positive. "Good sit, Fido. Sit, sit, sit....*hands treat*... good sit....*ear scratch* You can give a positive any time your dog is giving the behavior you wish to catch and recreate (read: train your dog to do on command). Catch it when you can. To start off right, learn more about the best way to give your dog a positive in this link, and read more about how to catch your dog's behavior in this link. So what are the mandatory commands that your dog needs to know (at least in my opinion)? Basic Dog Training Commands Sit Command Most puppies and some dogs will automatically do this; you just have to link a word to the behavior. It's a natural dog behavior showing respect, or perhaps a better way to phrase it is that they are making it clear that they aren't showing disrespect. It's how a dog says "please", or "I'm paying attention" in dog language. The easiest way to go about teaching your dog how to sit on command is to slowly and gently move into their personal space. Make sure you are standing up straight. If that doesn't work, take a treat (or a favorite toy if your dog isn't food motivated) and gradually move it at an arc above their head while gently pushing down on their butt. The moment they give you the behavior you wanted, be sure to place a positive on the behavior with either the treat or a toss of the ball. Stay Command This works best if your dog already sitting. Remember, the idea is to catch the behavior and name it so you can recreate the behavior. This is especially important with the stay command. The object is to catch them not moving. Don't confuse that with you moving as far from them as you can. Place your dog into a sit. Facing them directly and using gentle but firm body language, you are going to back up just a little bit, all the while facing your dog head on (your stomach should be pointing directly at your dog). The entire time your dog isn't moving, you are slowly and methodically repeating the word "stay" so as to name the behavior. This is the awkward part: as you back away from them, you need to point directly at them. Pretend your finger is a squirt gun full of water and you're trying to spray them between the eyes. Never put your finger directly in your dog's face. As with humans, it is exceptionally aggressive to invade personal space like that, so a distance of about 2 feet from the tip of your finger to where your dog is should be sufficient. After just a second or two of this, you slowly return back to where your dog is and give them a positive. Remember, the behavior you're trying to catch is that they don't move! Don't give them the treat if they get up. If they try to move towards you, simply put them back where they started, and do it again. Since you're trying to catch the behavior and name it before you lose it, be sure to set your dog up for success when learning basic commands. You will lose the behavior if you place your dog in a sit position and expect them to stay as you walk all around the house. Start much smaller. Back away from them just a few steps. Still lost the behavior? A lot of times when starting out with puppies, I literally take only one step back with one foot and shift my body weight backwards. I moved away from them, they stayed, and I caught the behavior "stay'. Gradually add distance until your dog understands that "stay" means "don't move". TIP: don't confuse the stay command with the come command. Don't call them to you. Come Command/Dog Recall Just like with the "stay" command, we are going to make sure we catch the behavior. The time to start working on this isn't when your dog is running up and down the fence line with your neighbor's dog, barking out threats through the fence like a bunch of drunken belligerent kangaroos. Set yourself up for success. Start in a quiet area when your dog has some modicum of chill, with them just several feet away. The object of the "stay" commend was to make sure your dog didn't come to you, so you used very strong body language (facing your dog head on). This time you want your dog to come to you, so you will be using softer body language, showing your dog your profile. Your body language should look more like a letter "S" Not a letter "T", which can be intimidating regarding of if you're in a standing or sitting position. The biggest mistake I see with the come command is that you are facing your dog too directly. If your dog doesn't come when you call them, soften your body language a bit more. Frequently when teaching this to a dog during our dog training session, I will be balled up in what I call "Tornado Drill" body language with my head on the ground. And the dog comes bounding over the second I start calling them. As you get yourself into the correct body language position, start calling their name and/or "come" over and over again an an upbeat, energetic way. You want them to match your energy, as in move towards me. It's okay to pat your leg or the ground as you do this. When they get to you, well...who's a good dog?!! Give it a few moments for your dog to respond to the come command, but if it's obvious you're being ignored, calmly and slowly stand up. Gently move towards them from your hip not facing them. When you get to your dog, turn your head away from them as you reach out with your hand to gently tug on your dog's collar, cheerfully telling them "come come come, good!" as you make your way back to where you first started. It doesn't matter how your dog gets to you, as long as they eventually do come when called, so it's okay to get help from another person. Have them help guide your dog or puppy towards you as you call them. Always mark with a positive. Don't punish your dog for not coming when you called them. Just gently enforce the come command so that they understand that yes, they will eventually end up coming to you, but that they will always get a positive when they do, and sometimes that positive is a treat. TIP: Make sure you if you call your dog, you are ready to follow through. It's okay to not call your dog, and ignore a behavior if you know you won't follow through. Don't hope your dog will come when you call; hope is never a game plan. Real World Dog Training vs. Contrived Dog Training Don't bother making empty promises to yourself that you will drill on these commands 30 times per day, 8 days a week. Drilling is no fun. Make it spontaneous. Make it brief (when either your or your dog's attention span waivers, there is your cue to end it). This isn't a competition to see who's dog can learn the fastest. Don't try to have fund whether you like it or not. It's okay to only do okay; focus on the main goal: communication based on trust. Dog Training vs. Dog Life By focusing on dog life, rather than dog training, our goals can become so much more attainable and clear-cut. Most of us don't want an obedient dog, we just don't want a dis-obedient dog. Robot-style dogs who are afraid of stepping out of line are for certain types of people I guess. But that's not my style. That's why I developed the Piloting method of dog training over 20 years ago, a force-free method of dog training and puppy training that didn't rely on abusive shock collars or cruel prong collars, yet didn't constantly bribe with non-stop click-n-treat style dog training. I want a bond with my dog based on trust and communication. Learn more about our Piloting method of dog and puppy training here. Find out more about our private in home 30 Day Best Dog Ever and 30 Day Best Puppy Ever training packages here. Have questions about our puppy training or dog training? Kerry Stack Darwin Dogs Dog Training and Puppy Training Greater Cleveland Area Northeast Ohio

My husband, Michael came up to me the other day as I was writing a blog post. He mentioned that he should write a blog post for me about what it's like being married to a dog trainer. Of course I jumped at the chance of having insight on what it looks like being married to a dog trainer and dog behaviorist. I ran into one of my co-workers the other day. “I see you like Darwin Dogs on Facebook too! We hired Darwin Dogs a few weeks ago. Did you hire them too?” I see it coming before I answer. “No,” I replied. “I’m Kerry’s husband.” My co-worker began to laugh. “Does she Pilot you when she wants the dishes done? Does she do that thing she does to the dogs when you do something she doesn’t like? Does she give you a ‘negative’?” It kept up like this for quite a while. It was clear my co-worker was enjoying himself. Of course, the answer is “No”, the reality far more pedestrian — we’re a normal married couple who treat one another like any other married couple. That is to say, we fight sometimes, get along most of the time, and love one another dearly. However, there are probably a few key ways in which my household differs from others. We Don't Tolerate Negative Behavior From Our Dogs or Our Kids I think one of the key insights in having a well-behaved dog is to think of them as children, at least in a sense. When you see your children behaving badly, you correct the behavior. However, when a dog starts jumping on most people, they think, “Ahh, that’s just a dog being a dog.” When a dog jumps on one of us, we immediately think of a small child yelling, “gimme gimme gimme”, and react appropriately, with calm, gentle negatives. Along those lines... All our Dogs are the Best Dogs I've Ever Met This is one of the perks of being married to a dog trainer. Not perfect, though, because Kerry doesn't tolerate laziness, nor does she believe in perfection. A perfect balance of not necessarily obedient dogs, but definitely not dogs who are disobedient. Companions and best dogs ever, rather than robots or machines. I Hear a Lot About Dog Training and Dog Behavior It has given me a lot of insight into dogs, and the typical types of problems dog owners have. One interesting thing I’ve noticed is that nearly every owner thinks his or her problems are unique – everything from submissive urination, “aggressive” dogs (which are normally anything but) to simple poor leash-walking skills and puppy problems. My wife deals with the same problems over and over, which helps her to be better at her job. If she saw something new every single session, she wouldn’t be nearly as good as she is. Which brings me to: My Wife is *Damn* Good Training Dogs (and Humans) Of course I’d probably say that even if it weren’t true, but I’ve been fortunate enough to accompany my wife on a few training gigs (somebody needs to stand outside in the winter and pretend to be the postal delivery person), and I’m amazed at just how well she does her job. While my wife is training dogs, she is really doing something far more involved – training humans how to interact with their dogs and see their dog's behavior in a whole new way. My wife takes her role very seriously. Often, my wife is all that stands between the would-be dog owner, and either a well-adjusted dog, or a one-way trip to the shelter. Dog Training is a Demanding Job Though you might not realize it, her job is beyond full-time. After the dog training session, there is the content creation and articles to maintain, calls to make & return, text messages to answer, volunteer work — the list is nearly endless. The home visits themselves are really just the tip of a vast iceberg that is involved in dog training. The Whole Story While most of the things I’ve listed are positive, there are also drawbacks to being married to a dog trainer – we usually have more dogs than I’d prefer running around the house at any given moment, there are dog treats stuck in our washing machine, and my wife is required to work odd hours. And of course when we were first married and I’d ask her what her dog training schedule looked like on a particular day, my heart would skip a beat when she would casually throw out: “I have an aggressive dog at 10:00 and then a puppy training session from 1-3.” Now I realize that aggressive dogs are typically just anxious dog, and I know that Kerry finds the puppy sessions more exhausting. Fun, but exhausting. Part of me does still get a kick out of people’s reactions when they hear what my wife does for a living. I love watching her get all excited answering questions about their own dogs, which invariably happens when they discover her profession. I’m proud of the volunteer and charity work Kerry does, and how she stands up for what she believes is right. But if I were to sum up Kerry in one word, that word would of course be “Pilot”. Someone who can calmly take the controls if necessary, but who is confident enough to know when someone else should fly the plane. Someone who knows their limitations, but tries every day to stretch those limitations. Kerry is someone who inspires me to do the same. Michael Stack Darwin Dogs Dog Training in Northeast Ohio Dog Training vs. Dog Life By focusing on dog life, rather than dog training, our goals can become so much more attainable and clear-cut. Most of us don't want an obedient dog, we just don't want a dis-obedient dog. Robot-style dogs who are afraid of stepping out of line are for certain types of people I guess. But that's not my style. That's why I developed the Piloting method of dog training over 20 years ago, a force-free method of dog training and puppy training that didn't rely on abusive shock collars or cruel prong collars, yet didn't constantly bribe with non-stop click-n-treat style dog training. I want a bond with my dog based on trust and communication. Learn more about our Piloting method of dog and puppy training here. Find out more about our private in home 30 Day Best Dog Ever and 30 Day Best Puppy Ever training packages here. Have questions about our puppy training or dog training? Kerry Stack Darwin Dogs Dog Training and Puppy Training Greater Cleveland Area Northeast Ohio

Every single dog training article you read always seems to start with the same mantra: consistency. Every time your dog does X or Y, you have to Z. Every. Single. Time. "Consistency is key to dog training." Dog trainers are always keen to harp on consistency. If I were to ask every single dog trainer near me what the most important part of dog training is, they would all respond with consistency. But what does that even mean? Like, if my chocolate lab is the wrong consistency, I can't train him? Let's break some dog training myths here, and while we're at it, figure out one of the main reasons why you're struggling with training your dog. Dog Training and the Consistency Myth Working with dog behavior I see a lot of the same mistakes being made: new dog owners getting frustrated with themselves because they've been consistent with training their dog, but haven't seen measurable results in their dog's behavior. This occurs because of two reasons: 1) They have confused dog training with dog behavior; or 2) They are ultra-consistent until they get frustrated, and then give up. So I'm going to tell you a secret that no other dog trainer wants you to know: consistency absolutely is not necessary for dog training. At least not how you've been told. So let's break down that dog training myth, and learn how to train your dog without frustration. Training Your Dog vs. Piloting Your Dog If you've been around the Darwin Dogs page, you've probably seen that word bantered about quite a bit: Piloting. But what does Piloting mean? Think of Piloting like parenting. It's not that much different. You're responsible for some wee little thing who asks a lot of questions, and does a lot of...things. Some of the actions get a positive, some get a negative, and some you kinda pretend you never saw. For example, my daughter River when she was little: River: *Starts playing with her soccer ball in the dining room* Me: No. Don't do that in here. River: *Starts setting the table for dinner* Me: Nice job! Thank you for doing that! River: *puts Ranch dressing on her apple slices* Me: *gags* Just like kids, there are some questions/behaviors from your dog that elicit a negative answer, some a positive answer, and some that you just ignore or overlook. The same applies for dogs. If my dog is jumping on me, that will get a gentle negative from me. If they come when I call them, they will get a positive. And if they decide to start playing with their toy, or investigating a stick, you can just ignore them. This series of Q&A is the basis of Piloting. Training Your Dog Using the Piloting Bank Money is something we all use, and we all understand. If you don't have enough money saved, you literally can't buy that Shiny New Thing you want. You simply have to earn more money, and then that Shiny New Thing is yours. That's why I developed the Piloting bank. How does Piloting your dog work? Let's look at this in a real-life scenario: barking. Let's say that the amount of money in your dog's Piloting bank is $1000. That means in order to get your dog to stop barking at every noise, you need to get $1000. Remember, each "question" you answer for them is money into your bank. So let's get to work answering that question for your dog. Each "question" you answer for your dog (such as, "can I bark?"), takes money out of his Piloting bank and deposits it into your Piloting bank. Whomever has the most money wins. Here are all of the instances in a day that your dog may start to bark: - dog barks at the mailman ($10) - dog barks at another dog walking in front of the house ($8) - dog barks at the wind ($12) - dog barks at schoolbus ($25) - dog barks at Door Dash ($30) Now bear in mind, that amount is per instance. You need $1000 to get them to stop consistently barking. But here is where the beauty of Piloting your dog comes into play: You can Pilot your dog based upon your own schedule. In other words, if you've only got a little bit of patience today, then you answer your dog's barking question once, perhaps when the mailman shows up. Congrats! You've got $10 to put towards your $1,000 goal! Maybe tomorrow is your day off, and you've got a little more patience, so you Pilot your dog's question about the mailman, and 2 other dogs walking by the house. You've got another $26 towards your goal! Just like you don't have to attend every fight you're invited to, you don't have to Pilot every question that comes up. As long as you are building your Piloting bank, it really doesn't matter how long it takes you. How Long Does it Take to Train a Dog Using Piloting? It is entirely up to you. Some people prefer to answer most of the questions their dogs ask, and therefore handle their dog's behaviors quickly. Others know that they'll start to get frustrated, so they only answer about 1/2 of their dog's questions, deciding it's better to slowly build up that bank. As long as you are answering some questions for your dog every day, you will eventually hit that pivotal moment where you've reached enough money to finally pay for that barking issue. Yes, there will be some upkeep, but it will be minimal. Think of it as the difference between buying a new car and maintenance like gas and oil for a new car. So Where Does Consistency Come In? Consistency in dog training only comes into play if you enjoy being frustrated. As I said, all dog trainers will tell you that if your dog barks, you must be consistent and give a response, otherwise your dog will think it's acceptable to bark. I'm here to call bullshit. If you have to act every. Single. Time.... you're going to go insane. So rather than being consistent, I want you to follow through. Example: Yesterday I told my daughter, River, to clean her room or she wouldn't be allowed any screentime. She didn't clean her room. Therefore I followed through and didn't get screen time. Today I told her to clean her room or she wouldn't be allowed any screen time. She cleaned her room. Therefore I followed through and she got screen time. Tomorrow I'm going to be tired because of so many dog training sessions. So I am not going to tell River to clean her room because I'm not in the mood to follow through. But since I usually tell River to clean her room, and I always follow through when I tell her to clean her room, there's a very good chance that she may just clean it on her own without being told. And if she doesn't, not big deal. You can't lose battles you don't fight. So while consistency isn't nearly as key as you may believe, follow through definitely is. In other words, if my dog starts barking and I give them a negative, I have to follow through until they stop barking. If I don't follow through, my negatives are worthless. And the first time you have to follow through with a negative isn't always appreciated by your dog, but you slog through it, and now here you are, with $10 in your Piloting Bank. An hour later your dog starts barking at the mailman. You're in the shower, so you choose to ignore your dog's question: "Can I bark?". You didn't get any Piloting money in your bank, but you didn't lose any. More importantly, you didn't lose your patience because with Piloting, you are training your dog on your timeframe, under your terms. Consistency: Addressing every one of your dog's negative behaviors, ie., every time your dog barks. Follow Through: Not always addressing every negative behavior, but if you do, you stick with it until the current situation is resolved, ie., when your dog barked at the school bus today. The beauty of it is that even though you aren't answering all of your dog's questions about their behaviors, you are answering enough (and following through!) that they start to anticipate your answers. It just gets easier and easier, until they start to anticipate your answers. So rather than giving up because you feel you are spending most of your waking hours training your dog to stop barking, you are breaking up training your dog into smaller, more manageable chunks. Dog training minus the anger and frustration, with no time frame but the one you are comfortable with. Dog Training vs. Dog Life By focusing on dog life, rather than dog training, our goals can become so much more attainable and clear-cut. Most of us don't want an obedient dog, we just don't want a dis-obedient dog. Robot-style dogs who are afraid of stepping out of line are for certain types of people I guess. But that's not my style. That's why I developed the Piloting method of dog training over 20 years ago, a force-free method of dog training and puppy training that didn't rely on abusive shock collars or cruel prong collars, yet didn't constantly bribe with non-stop click-n-treat style dog training. I want a bond with my dog based on trust and communication. Learn more about our Piloting method of dog and puppy training here. Find out more about our private in home 30 Day Best Dog Ever and 30 Day Best Puppy Ever training packages here. Have questions about our puppy training or dog training? Kerry Stack Darwin Dogs Dog Training and Puppy Training Greater Cleveland Area Northeast Ohio

Darwin Dogs is reader supported. When you buy our tested items through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. And that means more dog treats! So you've got your first puppy. Such a sweet little angel; slept the whole way home from the shelter. First night perhaps your puppy cried a bit, but you were able to calm them down. Your puppy even peed outside twice, and only had one accident. It's off to a great start. Until.... The destructive puppy behaviors begin. Lamp cords are chewed. Laptop cables are hunted like a prize trophy. Socks and slippers are ruthlessly annihilated. Furniture legs are attacked. Your sweet puppy has transformed into a combination of a wood chipper and a tornado. Puppy Behavior: Treat Puppy Chewing as a Murder Just like any murder, the destruction your puppy is wreaking is facilitated by both opportunity and motive. We simply eliminate both and we are able to eliminate the havoc. Motive: What is Causing Your Puppy's Chewing Behavior While there is no such thing as a bad puppy, their behavior is definitely a negative. but what is causing your new puppy to chew through your house like termites through an abandoned house? Let's break it down. 1. Exploration - Puppies, like their juvenile human equivalents, use all five of their senses to explore their world. Think about how babies and toddlers put everything in their mouth. Puppies are more mobile, and thus, have more ways to explore and figure out their surroundings. 2. Boredom - If left with nothing better to do, they of course they will find something to amuse themselves. And maybe you did indeed leave them something to play with, but they are no longer interested in what's become "normalized" playthings. There's no mystery left in them. 3. Anxiety - Ever chew your nails when you're nervous or anxious? 4. Teething - Between the ages of 3 months to 6 months, your puppy is losing their teeth. What may have began as exploration with their mouths has turned into ferocious gnawing to help work those teeth free and erupt their adult teeth. This gets especially hard core between 4.5 to 5.5 months old. Opportunity: Your Puppy's Prize is Attainable In dog world, there is no such thing as something that you're not supposed to be chewing on. Either someone else is claiming it (the dog currently eating their food) or they aren't (the stick that's up for grabs). The concept of a "forever" claim is rather abstract for a dog. Remember, dogs have only been living indoors with us for less than 100 years. Opportunity exists when: 1. Your puppy is not adequately attended and left with too many options; or 2. Your new puppy may have not been set up for success by having their questions answered, or as I refer to it, Piloting them. More on that in a minute. From Puppy Behavior to Dog Behavior Now is the time to set your puppy up for the behaviors you want them to have as an adult. You are taking natural puppy behavior and marking it with either a negative or a positive. Catching those behaviors is how you train a puppy not to chew on things, and help them understand what is appropriate to chew on. Most of the motives behind your puppy chewing, if left unresolved, will follow them into adult dog behaviors. Similar to kids who are never given guidance growing up into adults who are assholes, puppies are the same way. Kids and puppies are meant to put out feelers in all directions to find out from the rest of society what is acceptable behavior. Behavior tolerated is behavior encouraged. And now you have a much bigger problem of a full grown dog who chews everything. So it's imperative to start training your puppy and guide your puppy towards behaviors that are positive, while gently negating negative behaviors. How to Stop Your Puppy From Chewing It all goes back to preventing a chewing murder spree: eliminate both the opportunity and motive and your furniture will survive. So let's break it down. Removing the Motives for Puppy Chewing: Back to our original list of motives for chewing, and their resolutions: 1. Exploration - Provide your puppy with new and safe adventures. It can be leashed walking through the neighborhood, or if your dog is not feeling safe enough yet, a leashed walk through the house. During this walk, randomly hide some of their usual toys. Help them find these toys, and give tons of positives when they do. You are not only helping them learn to find appropriate toys to chew on, but are providing the framework to give your puppy mental work. Learn how you can provide your puppy even more mental exploration in this link. 2. Boredom - All of your puppies usual toys are just that: usual. Now I'm not saying that you need to go out and buy your puppy even more toys, because they will just become background noise at some point as well. So let's use the toys you have more effectively. Find out how in this link. 3. Anxiety - Anxiety is not always bad. Anxiety is merely either positive or negative (positive anxiety is hoping someone liked the birthday present you gave them, whereas negative anxiety is waiting for the dentist to start on that root canal). Either form is a basis for chewing, helping to channel that nervous energy. Anxiety is defined as "fear of the unknown". Your puppy is of course filled with anxiety, some negative and some positive. To work through these anxieties, Piloting your new puppy is a must. Simply put, Piloting is answering their questions, which for a full grown dog may be as varied as, "Do I need to attack that other dog?" to "Can I jump on you?" or "Can we go for a walk now?". Those questions may be answered with: No, No and Yes. The question your puppy is asking is "Can I chew on this?". If it's their deer antler, then absolutely. If your puppy is chewing on your shoes, then the answer is "No". The more often they get a positive on specific thing, the more likely they are to actively choose what's appropriate. So while you can't negate everything that's inappropriate, by negating what is inappropriate chewing as it occurs, and actively marking positives on appropriate chewing, your puppy will start heading towards the reliable positive items to chew on rather than something they aren't sure about. Read more about Piloting your dog in this link, and learn how to answer their questions here. 4. Teething - Yeah...my favorite. Your puppy is hard wired to work those teeth loose. So it's necessary to allow them to do so. Fortunately, out of all the reasons your puppy is chewing and destroying things, this is one that will eventually resolve itself. But just because they will eventually stop teething, why not help them through this ordeal? Provide many different types of safe teething toys. From toys with squeakers (provided they don't shred them) to marrow bones and deer antlers, the more textures and tactile experiences they can have, the more likely they are able to scratch the itch they have. Here are some of my favorite toys for teething: Best for Hard Core Chewers: Arwen's favorite toy during her chewing period. She'll still randomly grab it and whale on it. Best for Anxious Chewers: Although I got Ellis as an adult, he still will self-soothe in stressful situations with this toy. Best for Sensitive Dogs: Not all chewers are power chewers. Some enjoy sensory input of plushy toys or crinkly toys. Here are two of my favorites. Opportunity for Your Puppy to Destroy Again, it's a murder, and opportunity and motive and both components. So let's figure out where your puppy is having opportunities to chew. Addressing the Opportunities for Puppy Chewing 1. Puppy supervision. Having your puppy roaming free while you "keep an eye on them" is never going to work. You will lose focus and no matter how diligently you keep your eye on them, they will slip through and find something to destroy. Either actively supervise you puppy's playtime and answer their questions as they go to investigate things such as power cords and furniture, or have them in a safe, confined area. Gated playpens are a wonderful compromise between destruction and crating your puppy nonstop. Think they're too expensive? Ask yourself which is more expensive, the playpen or your new sofa. Here are two of my favorites: 2. Piloting Your Puppy's Behaviors. Use the Piloting techniques I outline in this link to negate or confirm your puppy's chewing choices. Example: you are in the kitchen supervising your puppy as they explore and roam. Your puppy immediately pounces on a table leg and starts to gnaw. You need to mark the behavior as a negative. Don't just replace the table leg with a toy, you need to let them know that the table leg is a negative. You simply gently negate your puppy's behavior before replacing it with a positive item to chew on. However, if your puppy is roaming the kitchen (under your watchful eye), skips over the chair legs and pounces on their Kong and starts tearing into it, you want to mark that behavior with a positive. Make sure your puppy knows that what they just did deserves a positive. This help them build good choices in the future. In other words, your puppy chose wisely, but do they know that? I always say to my clients, "Is your puppy doing well? Do they know that?" Learn how to give a positive correctly here. Eliminating the Puppy's Chewing Murder Spree By Addressing Motive and Opportunity Redirecting your puppy's behavior alone doesn't address the issue that they still don't know chewing on the furniture is unacceptable. However, not marking your puppy's positive behaviors when they choose wisely doesn't set them up for making wise choices in the future. By addressing your puppies motivations for chewing as well as their eliminating their opportunities to pick inappropriate items, you are setting up your puppy for success as well as creating the basis for a calmer, happier dog. Dog Training vs. Dog Life By focusing on dog life, rather than dog training, our goals can become so much more attainable and clear-cut. Most of us don't want an obedient dog, we just don't want a dis-obedient dog. Robot-style dogs who are afraid of stepping out of line are for certain types of people I guess. But that's not my style. That's why I developed the Piloting method of dog training over 20 years ago, a force-free method of dog training and puppy training that didn't rely on abusive shock collars or cruel prong collars, yet didn't constantly bribe with non-stop click-n-treat style dog training. I want a bond with my dog based on trust and communication. Learn more about our Piloting method of dog and puppy training here. Find out more about our private in home 30 Day Best Dog Ever and 30 Day Best Puppy Ever training packages here. Have questions about our puppy training or dog training? Kerry Stack Darwin Dogs Dog Training and Puppy Training Greater Cleveland Area Northeast Ohio

Drilling. It was non-stop drilling. And so much frustration. I was 20 years old, and just got my first dog (Darwin) and I was solely responsible training my dog. I read all the "dummy" books that were the rage at the time. I researched dog training through every source I could find. All I kept reading about was the drilling. "Practice command 5 minutes every day." "Take your new dog outside every hour and when they wake up from a nap." "Your dog needs at least a 1/2 hour walk every day, twice a day." 1) There were five basic dog commands they wanted me to teach my dog: sit, stay, come, no, and place. 25 minutes a day minimum on repetition. 2) Each trip outside to housebreak my dog was a 10 minute venture, so on average, that was at least 1.5 hour a day spent outside hoping my dog would finally pee outside. 3) I couldn't get down the driveway without my dog dragging me, and I was supposed to walk with them for an hour each day?! Two weeks into this regime of dog training, I stopped entirely. There had to be a better way. The Problem with Dog Training If you're struggling training your dog, I suggest you stop. Right now. Dog training is fundamentally flawed, as you're not really trying to train your dog, are you? You don't train your dog not to jump, you give them an answer about their behavior (jumping is a negative). You aren't training your dog not to drag you on a leash, you are negating their lack of impulse control. The problem with dog training is that it is designed to give you a specific response to a specific set of stimuli i.e., if you don't jump, I'll give you a treat. If you jump on me, I'll turn my back on you until you choose for yourself whether or not you wish to keep jumping, and then I'll face you again. It's a race to the bottom, with the bar set so low, everyone is tripping over it. Let's put it in a different context: kids. Would you ever tell your kid that if they stopped hitting you, you'd give them a candy bar? Would you turn your back on your child if they were hitting you, only to engage with them again when they finally stopped? Probably not. You would negate their behavior without resorting to domination. You would guide them back towards correct behavior, rather than negotiating with a little terrorist. The problem with dog training (and training kids) is that we are waiting and hoping that they will eventually stumble upon the correct "answer" to their behavior themselves, whereupon we give them some kind of positives. That's the triumph of hope over experience. Why I Quit Training My Dog & Started Piloting In my mind I had a path I wanted my dog and I to travel together. But we were lost in the woods together. I knew where the path was, but I didn't know how to tell him. He didn't even know there was a path, he thought he was leading me safely through the forest. I could beat him towards that path, using alpha energy training tactics and domination, but would he ever want to willingly stay with me on that path? Even if he did, was it Stockholm Syndrome? Pure negative energy is a pretty negative experience. I could also try to bribe and cajole him along the path, clicking and treating any time he showed any hope of finding the path, but I could wait forever for him to head in the right direction. Plus, that makes for a very unhealthy and overweight dog. Perhaps the answer lay in the middle somewhere. Rather than training my first dog, what if I could guide and answer rather than abuse or negotiate and bribe? Hence, Piloting was born. What Is Piloting Your Dog Nobody's Flying the Plane The concept of Piloting came to me when I was rewatching one of my favorite childhood movies: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Three people trapped on a plane that's slowly losing altitude. Willy, the female lead, is useless and panics immediately. Short Round, a kid, knows there's a problem, and does the best he can to figure out what to do, which is immediately wake up Indy to get help. Short Round knows he can't Pilot, but he knows someone who may be able to: Indiana Jones. Ultimately, Indy gets them safely to the ground. Did he do it perfectly? Nope. Was it scary? Yes. Did he have to hurt or cajole anyone to do it? Absolutely not. Now think about your dog. They are existing in a human world, not understanding much of anything because nobody is flying their plane. They are panic piloting, and that never ends well. But what if someone actually did know how to Pilot? Dog Behavior The biggest problem with dog training was that there were no answers. It was still incumbent upon the dog to figure out the way to the right path. That's like being given a map of Illinois to navigate around New Dehli. You aren't going to get anywhere, even if you are following exactly what the map tells you to do. But what if instead of a map, you had a guide with you? Someone who simply tells you at each intersection if you should go left or right? Even if that's all they ever said to you, you'd still find your destination. Your dog's behavior is New Dehli. You will be the guide to tell them left or right, or in this case, yes or no. May I jump on you? Nope. Is that other dog a threat? Nada. Can we go on a walk? Yeah, let's go! By answering questions about your dog's behavior as it occurs, you free yourself from constantly being in "training mode" with your dog. In other words, you don't have to schedule training with your dog, because you are traveling that path together. If your dog strays off path, you gently negate their behavior until they are on the correct path again (or heading towards it). If your dog is on the correct path (or heading towards it) you give them a positive. You are starting to communicate with them, rather than manhandle or bribe them. Dog Training So now you realize you can answer your dog's questions with a simple, gentle positive or negative. But what about recreating behaviors that you like? That's what training is. But you must start with behavior before you start with training. In other words, if your dog thinks that it's okay to display a complete lack of impulse control (jumping, running into you, etc.) do you think he's going to show enough impulse control to patiently sit and learn new human words, i.e., commands? No. In order to train your dog, you have identify behaviors you like and then you have to catch and name the behavior. And you're going to wait forever and get frustrated if you can't guide them through their current behaviors to get the one you want? Can I jump around and be hyper? Sit. Can I spin in a circle and bounce off of you? Sit. Sit!!! Can I go running around the house doing parkour? SIT!!!!! Come here....sit. I said SIT!!!!! When your dog doesn't even have control of themselves and their impulses, why do you think they are in a mental state of mind to work through the stay command? Or to figure out what you mean by "sit"? Dog Behavior + Dog Training = Your Best Dog Ever So let's use both Piloting your dog's behavior alongside dog training. Can I jump around and be hyper? No. Can I spin in a circle and bounce off of you? No. Can I go running around the house doing parkour? No. Should I calm down a bit? Yes. Excellent job. Really? Should I focus on you? Yes, now try "sit". Huh? I don't get it. *gently pushes dog butt down while repeating sit, sit, sit, sit, calmy* Do you want my butt on the ground? Yes! And is that what "sit" means? Yes. Who is the best dog ever? You. Absolutely you. Dog training without working through your dog's behaviors is a recipe for disaster. Nobody cares that your dog knows a million tricks that you've trained them to do if they are getting bruised like an apple every time they come to your house because you haven't addressed your dog's behavior of jumping. By combining dog training with dog behavior, you have established what both lack on their own: the correct road map and a competent guide through this journey called life. To learn more about Piloting your dog, check out these links below: Ultimate Guide to Piloting Your Dog's Behavior How to Avoid Dog Training Failures in 6 Easy Steps Training Your Dog Using Positive Reinforcement Kerry Stack Dog Behavior & Dog Training Cleveland & Northeast Ohio