How To Train Your Dog With Love + Science - Dog Training with Annie Grossman + Anamarie Johnson PhD (Formerly known as School For The Dogs Podcast)

Latest Episodes:

Separation Anxiety Expert Malena DeMartini on Helping Dogs Learn To Be Alone May 08, 2020

Show notes

Some dogs have panic attacks when they are left alone. If you have a dog who can't be alone, and you have any interest in sometimes leaving your home without your dog, you know the agony of canine separation anxiety. It's an issue that has led to too many dogs ending up at shelters. A good dog trainer can help, but many good dog trainers dread taking on separation anxiety cases because...they're really hard. "Who in their right mind would choose separation anxiety as a speciality?" says Malena DeMartini. The answer? Malena DeMartini. Malena has helped countless dogs learn to be alone, and also trains trainers to deal with treating and preventing separation anxiety in dogs. Annie and Malena discuss why separation anxiety cases are hard, how people can address separation issues with or without a trainer's help, the ways in which modern technology can help us train dogs to be alone, behavioral medication, CBD for dogs, and more.

Use code SFTD for ten percent off the Mission: Possible course at MalenaDeMartini.com
Treating Separation Anxiety In Dogs by Malena DeMartini
Zoobiquity by Barbara Nattersion-Horowitz
Jean Donaldson's The Academy For Dog Trainers
Uke'n' Daddy's All By Myself by Irving Berlin

Book a free session through May 15th and check out our daily schedule of free webinars at SchoolForTheDogs.com.

If you like School For The Dogs Podcast, please subscribe, rate, review, and share with your friends!

---

Partial Transcript:

Annie:
I'm thrilled today to be interviewing Malena DeMartini. She is an expert in treating dogs with separation anxiety. She is the author of the book, Treating Separation Anxiety in Dogs, a book I’ve recommended so many times, I think I should be getting a commission on the royalties. Malena is a superstar in the world of dog training, so we might as well consider this a celebrity interview. On an important topic: the topic of helping dogs learn to be okay being left alone.

But before I play you this interview, I did want to mention that we have been offering, free 30 minute virtual sessions with clients, the School for the Dogs’s trainers have been doing this since quarantine started but we are only going to be offering these sessions for one more week, so if you have yet to sign up for a free 30 minute session with one of our certified trainers, you absolutely should. We can help with problems that you have been facing during quarantine or maybe things you were wanting to deal with before quarantine, we can also help you find some fun things with your dog during this time that you are very likely spending more time together than ever. But that offer ends next Friday, May 15 so definitely book now and also if you are not aware, we have been offering free, daily webinars which you can learn more about at schoolforthedogs.com/webinars. They’ve been on a wide array of topics, we have gotten really great feedback and we also have the replays available for a limited time at that same link: schoolforthedogs.com/webinars. So if you’ve missed one, it is more likely there.

This interview I did with Malena is an abridged version of a webinar we did earlier this week that I will link to in the show notes...

Full Transcript available at Schoolforthedogs.com/Podcasts

Get full access to Don't Be a Dick to Your Dog at dogtraining.substack.com/subscribe

A Different Kind Of Dog Photographer: Meet Andrea Castanon of BowieShoots May 01, 2020

Show notes

A few years ago, Annie thought it'd be fun to do yearbook-style posed photos of dogs graduating from classes at School For The Dogs. She mentioned the idea to a few photographers and they all gave her blank stares. Then, she was scrolling through Instagram and she found a photographer whose entire feed was... posed, yearbook-style photos of dogs. Annie got in touch with the person behind the account: Andrea Castanon. Andrea was working as a professional photo retoucher and during her downtime was making these hilarious photoshopped portraits of her friends' dogs for fun, and to raise money for rescue organizations. Annie invited her to hold some shoots at School For The Dogs. Two years later, Andrea -- whose company, BowieShoots, is named for her own rescue dog -- has shot hundreds of dogs (and even some other types of pets as well) all over the country, delighting their owners with her backgrounds and knack for catching doggie smiles. While she has had to stop shooting dogs in person during the COVID-19 crisis, she tells Annie about the creative way she has both been able to continue her business and help adoptable dogs find homes during quarantine.

BowieShoots
Bowie Shoots Instagram
Social Tees Animal Rescue
Train Your Dog Without Pain, Using Your Brain" Sticker
School For The Dogs

Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Hey everyone. I am here today with a wonderful photographer whose name is Andrea Castanon. You might know her by her business's name. Her business is called Bowie Shoots. Bowie is the name of her rescue dog. Andrea, it is so good to see you.

Andrea:

You too. Didn't know the next time would be virtual.

Annie:

I know, I know. So I am so excited to be talking to you. Well I, Andrea, I would really love to talk to you about how you got into doing what you do. And then I want to talk about how you're working currently, which I think is really interesting. But...

Andrea:

Yeah, all involved.

Annie:

It's so, it's so cool. It's so cool. You’re a hero to me. But I want to maybe just describe how you came into my life or how you came to School from the Dogs from my perspective. So for years we have had this, kind of like, school theme to School for the Dogs, kind of, playful sort of retro, like decorations and just a vibe and theme of, like, old school way to put it. Like if you have, I'm trying to think of like how I would describe it to someone who doesn't know about us or hasn't been to our studio, like just old chalkboards but also photos that are, kind of like, a retro throwback to school days, as you know, adults today might've experienced school in like a fun, playful way.

And so years and years ago, I think, even before we opened up our first storefront location, we got a big like laser photo background made and we started having our graduates pose in front of this laser background photo, like kind of, something like from the nineties. And we were always just like doing it with our cell phones and it was never like it was particularly literally thought out. But it was kind of like just a fun, silly thing that we did. And I kept thinking like, we should go farther with this. It would be cool to, like, actually have more sort of styled like school photo kind of photos that we could take of graduates or puppies or whatever just to kind of go with this theme. And I couldn't really figure out like, just like how to make that happen...

Full Transcript at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcasts

Get full access to Don't Be a Dick to Your Dog at dogtraining.substack.com/subscribe

Helping The Sad Polar Bear & Trump's Coyotes: The World Of Dog Trainer Ferdie Yau Apr 24, 2020

Show notes

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

Notes:

-SchoolForTheDogs.com/Mosaic

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

-BehaviorVetsNYC.com

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

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

-Sitsnwiggles.com

Partial Transcript:

Annie 1:24

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

Full transcript at Schoolforthedogs.com/Podcasts

Get full access to Don't Be a Dick to Your Dog at dogtraining.substack.com/subscribe

How do you become a dog trainer? A conversation between two women who switched careers Apr 16, 2020

Show notes

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

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

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

Mentioned in this episode:
The Certification Council of Professional Dog Trainers
Dana Crevling's Instructor Training Course
Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson
The Karen Pryor Academy
The Academy For Dog Trainers
School For The Dogs' Professional Dog Training Course
Don't Shoot The Dog by Karen Pryor
Reaching The Animal Mind by Karen Pryor
LIMA
Terry Ryan's Chicken Camps
Clicker Expo
The Association of Professional Dog Trainers
Tawzer
Partial Transcript:
Annie (00:05): I am here with Marie Poliseno who is basically School For The Dogs’ CFO. I've known her for many years. She is our bookkeeper, accountant and a both a cheerleader and a shoulder to cry on. Her company is called Dollars and Scents. That “scents” S-C-E-N-T-S. She specializes in helping dog-related businesses. She is based in Montana. I've been wanting to interview Marie for a long time, but it usually occurs to me right around this time of year, around tax time. And I never want to bother her by asking to take her time to do an interview when she's preparing people's taxes. But this year, tax day got moved and I saw an opportunity! So I wanted to specifically have her here to talk about becoming a dog trainer and things to think about when making a, making a choice to move to this new kind of career. I think she has an interesting perspective. Marie, why don't you start out by telling us a little bit about how you first got into dog training.

Full Transcript available at SchoolForTheDogs.com/Podcasts

Get full access to Don't Be a Dick to Your Dog at dogtraining.substack.com/subscribe

How to train a dog to pee and poop inside Apr 09, 2020

Show notes

Dog trainers are commonly asked to help dog owners teach a dog to "potty" outside. Well, thanks to this crazy quarantine situation, we're not being asked the opposite question: How can I teach my dog to pee and poop inside? Annie interviews School For The Dogs' trainer Anna Ostroff, who has a dog who is a professional when it comes to peeing and pooping inside. Learn how to train a dog to have a potty spot inside, and how to put it on cue! Also: How socializing with people in face masks can help us thinks about dogs greeting each other in leash.

Get our illustrated guide to house training when you sign up for our newsletter at AnnieGrossman.com/potty

Learn more about School For The Dogs at SchoolForTheDogs.com.

Make sure to also check out our 2018 episode all about house training!

Products mentioned in this episode:

http://FreshPatch.com

http://DoggieLawn.com

Partial transcript:

Annie: Hey everyone. We've been getting a lot of questions about how to train a dog to go inside. Usually dog trainers are asked for help training dogs to go outside, but due to this mass quarantine, people can't go outside with their dogs or don't want to go outside with their dogs. And suddenly this new problem presents itself. How do we train dogs to go inside for an expert opinion on this? I wanted to talk to our trainer, Anna Ostroff, who is one of my very good friends and just a wonderful trainer and person. But as often happens with me, I was kind of last minute on this. And so rather than arrange an interview with her in advance, I called her up with kind of a surprise interview. I think you're going to enjoy hearing about her dog ginger and how she trained ginger to do her business in the closet.

Annie: So this is a kamikaze interview cause I, I want to talk to you about teaching your dog to pee in that house recording right now. Is that okay? I can record you talking about how your dog pees in the house. People don’t normally call you up to ask you how you got your dog to pee in the house? Is this weird?

Anna: Well, you know, these are weird times. You never know these days. How are you? Cool. I'm doing okay. So, you want me to just like talk about how I trained Ginger?

Annie:To anyone listening, I should explain that you have a dog who's very sensitive to New York City among other things and well why don't you explain how it came to pass that she is an indoor pottier. I mean, the reason I want to talk about this is because so many people are asking this question right now because they don't want to, some of them can't go outside or feel like they shouldn't outside or whatever. The reason is there's an increasing amount of people trying to get their dog to go to the bathroom inside, which is unusual and unusual thing for a dog trainer to be asked about because usually it's the opposite.

(Full transcript available at https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/podcasts)

Get full access to Don't Be a Dick to Your Dog at dogtraining.substack.com/subscribe

"Nobody Cares About Dog Training Right Now" Apr 01, 2020

Show notes

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

Show notes:

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

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

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

Sue Kaufman

4292 Imperial Isle Dr.

Wellington, FL 33449

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

SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

(00:35):

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

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

(01:35):

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

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

Get full access to Don't Be a Dick to Your Dog at dogtraining.substack.com/subscribe

What dog owners need to know about the coronavirus with Dr. Lisa Lippman Mar 16, 2020

Show notes

Welcome to Season 2 of School For The Dogs Podcast!

This episode is a conversation show host Annie Grossman had with veterinarian Dr. Lisa Lippman about the thing we are all talking about: COVID19. Annie asked Dr. Lisa if our pets can get sick, if they can get us sick, and the two spoke about how to take necessary precautions to keep our dogs safe.

Most of this episode is from a webinar Dr. Lisa and Annie did on March 4. It can be found here.

Learn more about Dr. Lisa Lippman at https://www.vetsinthecity.com/

Partial Transcript:

Annie: Hey, everybody! So I ended up having to take a bit longer of a hiatus [laughs]. Sorry, I had trouble getting that word out. A hiatus from this podcast than I originally meant to. But there was good reason for it. I have spent the last year hard at work at putting together an online dog training curriculum. And if you’re hearing this, on Monday, March 16th, I hope you will tune in for the live webinar that I am going to be doing this evening. I will be talking about the online course in the webinar. You can register for that at anniegrossman.com/register. And we’re going to try and get back to a once a week schedule with the podcast. In these crazy times, I think we could all stop and think a little bit about dogs, and I hope to be the person who can do that with you.

As always, if you have any dog training questions, please get in touch with me. I am going to try and do more Q&A episodes this season. We’re now on our second season at School For The Dogs Podcast. But what I have for you today is an interview I did with Dr. Lisa Lippman, a veterinarian, about a week ago about COVID-19. Specifically about dogs and COVID-19. Can dogs get Coronavirus? Can they give it to us? Can we give it to them? What do we need to be thinking about? She answered some of these questions and I’m glad I can share these answers with you.

So here we go; my interview with Dr. Lisa Lippman...

Annie: Hey, everybody! I am here with Dr. Lisa Lippman. I wanted to urgently talk to you, Dr. Lippman, about Coronavirus.

Dr. Lippman: Yeah.

Annie: It’s scary stuff.

Dr. Lippman: It is really scary stuff.

Annie: We’ve had a lot of clients asking us about it. And so, I wanted to get your expertise.

Dr. Lippman: Yeah.

Annie: When did you first hear about Coronavirus? Were vets in the know? I know sometimes vets are in the know about these things before we know that they can affect humans.

Dr. Lippman: Yeah, for sure. Well, we know that every species has their own Coronavirus. I actually did research on Coronavirus on avian Coronavirus in veterinary school as a model for SARS in people. So we know that every...

Annie: Oh really?

Dr. Lippman: Yeah. We know that every species has their own Coronavirus. So, for example, in dogs it tends to be a respiratory disease. In cats, it tends to be a GI disease. One that can mutate. Maybe people know as Feline Infectious Peritonitis. But they tend to be pretty benign viruses that are actually pretty easy to kill, which is true of this current Coronavirus as well, because they don’t have a shell or an outer coating to the virus itself. The Coronavirus is named because of the way that it’s shaped. So it’s shaped like a crown or the corona. It’s got like little particles sticking off of it. But it actually is pretty easy to kill in the environments. So that is also good news.

Full transcript available at https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/podcasts/episode-53-what-dog-owners-need-to-know-about-the-coronavirus-with-dr-lisa-lippman/

Get full access to Don't Be a Dick to Your Dog at dogtraining.substack.com/subscribe

Why viral videos are bad for dogs, with Eileen Anderson May 17, 2019

Show notes

Pet videos fuel the Internet, but too often they perpetuate false ideas about dog behavior by misattributing a dog's intentions, or by falsely framing their actions. Why do we seek to anthropomorphize dog behaviors rather than celebrating all the behavioral commonalties that exist between us and them? Annie and the acclaimed, prolific blogger Eileen Anderson of EileenAndDogs.com, tackle this question together.

This is our 52nd episode, and marks the end of our first season! We'll be back with Season 2 in a few weeks! Have a question for Annie? Submit it at AnnieGrossman.com/ask or call and leave a message at 917-414-2625

If you are enjoying this podcast, please support us by shopping at StoreForTheDogs.com, or by leaving a review on iTunes!

Notes:

Eileen on fake dog videos: https://eileenanddogs.com/blog/2019/04/22/fake-dog-videos/

Eileen on smiling dog video: https://eileenanddogs.com/blog/2019/03/04/shelter-pup-smiles-submissive-grin/

Dr. Susan Friedman's Living and Learning with Animals: http://www.behaviorworks.org/htm/lla_professional_overview.html

Toast Garden: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFwYVIJt15j7sq5N22FNOng

Doris Day's hotel in Carmel, CA: https://cypress-inn.com/doris-day-carmel-california-hotel/

Doris Day Animal Foundation: https://www.dorisdayanimalfoundation.org/

Transcript:

Hey everyone, thank you for listening! I am excited to share this conversation with you. It’s with someone whose work I’ve admired for a long time. She’s a dog trainer and writer whose name is Eileen Anderson. I had a couple little issues with the recording, so I apologize for that in advance, but it’s not too bad. But before I share this conversation with you, I wanted to let you know that we are taking a little break with School For The Dogs Podcast. This episode is our 52nd episode which marks the end of what we’re going to call “Season 1”. When I started doing this podcast, I aimed to do one a week for a year. And I started in late March 2018, so it’s been a little over a year. I have missed a few weeks mostly because of some big life events - my dad died, I had a baby, and we moved School For The Dogs to a new studio during the last year. So for those reasons, I ended up skipping a few weeks. But now we have 52 episodes, which means if you’re just starting out you can listen to one episode a week for a full year.

The main reason why we are taking a break is because we are building an online course, which I’m really excited about, and I want to turn my attention fully to that for the next month or so. And after that, I will be back with new episodes. I’m hoping to do more Q&A episodes in the next season, so please share your questions with me. You can send them to me at anniegrossman.com/ask or you can leave a voicemail at 917-414-2625, or you can always shoot me a message on Instagram, we’re there at @schoolforthedogs.

Full transcript available at http://anniegrossman.com/2019/05/podcast/episode-52-transcript-notes-viral-videos-bad-dogs/9841/

Get full access to Don't Be a Dick to Your Dog at dogtraining.substack.com/subscribe

Ask Annie: Dealing with humping and other annoying behaviors May 07, 2019

Show notes

Annie addresses questions from people who are dealing with dogs who have habits that annoy other dogs, and, ultimately, their owners as well. One owner wants to know how to deal with a new rescue who is bothering the household's other two dogs and generally causing chaos in the home, and a dog walker asks about how to manage a charge who is constantly trying to hump his walking buddies. In addition to addressing setting up appropriate social situations for dogs, exercising them and using crates in multi-dog households, this episode offers a thoughtful take on why dogs hump and how to keep it from becoming an issue.

Follow the askers of these questions on Instagram at @uarndcool and @pudgydog

Products mentioned in this episode:

The Treat + Train: https://storeforthedogs.com/products/treat-train

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

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

The Animatwist: https://storeforthedogs.com/products/animatwist

The Animaswizzler: https://storeforthedogs.com/products/the-animaswizzler

Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Hey everyone. Annie here. Thank you for listening and a particularly big thank you to those of you who have reached out in the last few weeks. We seem to be getting a bigger listenership which is really rewarding and I've appreciated the nice reviews on iTunes and the messages on Instagram etc. Seriously, I really appreciate it. As some of you know, I had a baby recently. Little Miss Magnolia who is so wonderful and I really love being a mom, but as you may have heard parenting is hard. Actually parenting is not so hard as much as parenting and trying to do absolutely anything else has proven difficult. Especially at podcasting because even if I can get someone else to watch her and I do have an amazing woman who comes and watches her a few hours, a few days a week and my in-laws and my mom and my husband, but even if I can get someone to watch her which is great; I live in like a loft basically, there's no doors so it's hard to find a quiet spot to record and uh best case scenario I can like find a way to record while she naps but her naps were sort of unpredictable and every night I think, “OK well tonight I'm going to record a podcast episode when she goes to sleep but usually by then I'm so exhausted that I know that I'm not going to be giving you my best self.”

So right now I managed to have her in a sling, on my body, taking a bottle although she just pushed it out so that she could suck her thumb and I am going to attempt to answer some of the excellent questions that I've been storing up. I've gotten so many questions lately that are so good I want to answer them all but I'm going to see if I can get through two or three before uhm we have a baby meltdown here.

OK so the first one comes from Emily of Cleveland OH.

Emily writes...

Full transcript available at Schoolforthedogs.com/Podcasts

Get full access to Don't Be a Dick to Your Dog at dogtraining.substack.com/subscribe

How to train your dog to walk on a loose leash Apr 24, 2019

Show notes

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

Products mentioned in this episode:

Found My Animal double-ended nylon leash: https://storeforthedogs.com/collections/collars-leashes-harnesses/products/found-my-animal-leash-1
Mendota Lightweight Braided Leash https://storeforthedogs.com/collections/collars-leashes-harnesses/products/braided-leash
Freedom Harness https://storeforthedogs.com/collections/collars-leashes-harnesses/products/freedom-harness
Liquid Treat Dispenser https://storeforthedogs.com/products/liquid-treat-dispenser

Partial Transcript:

Annie:

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

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

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

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

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

Full transcript at Schoolforthedogs.com/Podcasts

Get full access to Don't Be a Dick to Your Dog at dogtraining.substack.com/subscribe

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

How To Train Your Dog With Love + Science – Dog Training with Annie Grossman + Anamarie Johnson PhD (Formerly known as School For The Dogs Podcast)

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected