My Foolproof Strategy To Overcoming Dog Training Challenges #227
Aug 18, 2023
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Learn how to overcome dog training challenges by building a strong connection with your dog, addressing and evaluating the challenges strategically, and exploring the concept of management and crutches in dog training. Discover the importance of journaling in dog training to measure progress, identify triggers, and overcome challenges. Embrace curiosity and let go of negative emotions to create a positive training environment.
Assess the dog training challenge and make it a priority to fix, rather than avoiding triggers or relying on sporadic training.
Evaluate management techniques and crutches used to handle the behavior, strategically plan to reduce reliance on them, and track progress through journaling.
Deep dives
Approach to Dog Training Challenges
The podcast episode discusses the challenges that dog owners face in training their dogs. The speaker emphasizes the importance of having a different approach to these challenges. Instead of avoiding triggers or sporadically incorporating training, it is crucial to assess the problem and make it a priority to fix. The speaker highlights the human element in these challenges, where expectations of how a dog should behave can lead to frustration, anger, and disappointment. By tracking progress, evaluating management techniques, journaling emotions, and maintaining curiosity, dog owners can develop effective strategies to overcome training challenges.
Evaluating the Importance and Management of Challenges
The episode provides a checklist for evaluating dog training challenges. The first step is to determine if the challenge truly matters and if it affects the dog's quality of life or health. The speaker advises dog owners to critically evaluate the management and crutches they have been using to handle the behavior. These may include keeping the dog on a leash or relying on verbal warnings. It is important to strategically plan to reduce reliance on these management tools and crutches. Journaling is recommended to track behavior, emotions, and progress, allowing for a deeper understanding of the challenges and the ability to make informed decisions.
Shifting Perspectives and Taking Responsibility
The podcast highlights the need to shift perspectives and take responsibility for dog training challenges. The speaker encourages dog owners to focus on their own beliefs and emotions rather than seeking validation from others. Emphasizing the importance of positive relationships, the speaker urges dog owners to let go of frustration, embarrassment, and shame. By embracing curiosity, gratitude, and a growth mindset, dog owners can create a better bond with their dogs and approach challenges with a solution-oriented mindset. Additionally, the episode suggests referring to a previous episode that provides a distraction intensity index and offers assistance through the podcast's team for further guidance.
Everyone with a dog, including professional trainers like me, encounters dog behavior problems. It might be a dog's non-existent recall, chasing things, counter surfing, being out of control, not paying attention, or, if you do sports, not listening to you in the ring. Or it could be a dog's naughty habits around home persisting. Help is at hand, and I'm sharing my strategy for success no matter what the dog training challenge.
In this episode you’ll hear:
• How to ensure you overcome dog training challenges for good. • My approach to working through a dog’s triggers with curiosity. • What to do when naughty behaviors reappear. • About knowing where the reinforcement is for unwanted behaviors. • That some behaviors are simply quirks of the dog’s personality. • The unconscious and overt crutches we use to manage our dogs. • That tracking your training will improve your dog’s behavior. • What to journal about the behavior you’re fixing. • Why we don't want to avoid our dog's triggers. • How to handle toxic emotions about your dog’s actions. • About Momentum’s agility see-saw obsession and starting my fix. • Why I'm grateful for the challenges that dogs present. • How I handled an unsolicited opinion about my age and my dog at an agility trial. • That life is better when you see amazing things in your dog.
Contact Us: Write to us at wag@dogsthat.com for another dog training plan.