I try to stress to owners the most important behavior is to teach your dog to stay, wait, place, etc. Your videos are really great to watch because you explain every step to getting the command/behavior. I see a lot of YT Creators who "call themselves trainers" and they are super excited during the demo. They use "too much" force right off. Your a great influence for owners. Keep it up!
I wish I would've found your channel earlier, because honestly I am guilty of all three scenarios with my dog. Thank you for the tips, I'm off to train my doggo!
DW, it's the most common mistake people make in any sort of training. Understanding basically how this works is why some teachers are good, some bad. Good teachers praise good behavior when it occurs and therefore generate more good behavior, bad ones get fussy over bad behavior and therefore cause more of that. I'm a psychiatric nurse who works with adults who don't have language, and it's the same with them. Where your attention goes is always important. They need to know how to get your attention of course, but you need to control specifically what that trigger is and then just be consistent with it. Break plates = timeout, boredom and little to no attention. Clean the table = get praise, an extra cup of coffee/what have you. It is fascinating sometimes to watch a shift change from one staff member who understands this basic behavioral psychology to one who doesn't. The monstrous chaos sometimes breaks out instantly after eight hours of tranquility. What dog owners too often do is give increased attention when there's a problem until it creates a pattern in the dog's mind, while if the dog lies quietly in its bed it often gets overlooked, which creates another pattern. You want to do the exact opposite of that. You'll have to spend more time with your dog probably, but it'll be much better adjusted and well-behaved.
Our 10 month staffy frenchie x has just started getting aggressive / jealous with other dogs in the park. She has lots of attention and training otherwise and is pretty much a great dog overall. When another dog gets close to me she gets in between us and grows ferociously and occasionally goes for the other dog. At this point I put her back on the lead wait a few mins and let her off to see if she behaves nicely. This behaviour has coincided with playing fetch with a ball at the park if another dog takes her ball. What should I do?
Brilliant! A twist on that... people often say " it's OK, it's OK, it's OK " when 'reassuring' the dog. If we replace this phrase with " good boy/girl " it sounds bizarre and we wouldn't say it, but as you say, that's exactly what is being communicated to the dog. Another awesome video thanks 👍
I took my dog everywere since he was 8 weeks old. People giving me weird looks if i would just ignore his jumpy behaviour (or give a verbal correction if it got to much) and only talk to him & pet him if he displays good behaviour. ("But he is crying, it is only a puppy, this is sad, you need to assure him" "ehm well no, actually i don't" ) Now he is not afraid of crowdy places, music, sirenes or fireworks. He will check in with me, and as long as i'm fine, he is fine. :) a calm leader is all a dog needs!
Thank you for such a confident good message. I’ve got an anxious dog that I’m trying to calm and just tell him he’s a good boy when he walks straight and has a calm look. I have to ignore all the people that just stand there with their dog pulling on the lead, trying to attack my dog, but I forgive them for they know not what they do. Thank you for your message. A very sure direct message and I bet you’ve got the happiest dog in the world. Bless you
I do the same and he’s coming to work with me daily at my grooming shop. He’s 12 weeks now and a whiny shepherd so people are constantly asking him what’s wrong and I ignore the whining because that’s just him. When my puppy acts afraid or excited about something I pause and say nothing while he observes or acts like a nut and if he looks at me, I ask him in a calm, neutral tone, “what is it? Wanna check it out?” And he’s slowly started approaching more and more things and then sniffing and chilling almost immediately or just learning acting bonkers won’t get him what he wants. I don’t do that over the top coo and comfort thing or yelling constantly I see other people do. When he’s being too enthusiastic and it’s not out of control I allow it and when it’s too much I wait for eye contact and ask for a sit and reward and he calms down immediately. He’s getting more confident every day and i really want him to be a super balanced adult. I’m taking him for puppy socialization classes starting this week for further impulse control work around other dogs as well as socialization
Same with my 12 week old, he's doing so well with loud noises. Only one time he freaked out when a firetruck drove by with a super loud sirene when we visited to city for the first time. He begged to be let into his transportation bag which is his safe spot. I indulged him because he seemed genuinely overwhelmed.
I think that was my biggest mistake. I got my dog at 8wks. Parvo was/still is really bad in our area so I was afraid to take him any where or around anyone or animal till he got his last set of shots. He is now 16wks old and shows so much aggression towards people or animals. I now have to get him trained. The vet had to put a muzzle on him just to do shots he was growling and trying to bite him. He’s a shih poo won’t get bigger then 10 lbs. I really regret not just taking him with me places now bc of this.
Having taken on a Jackapoo at 7 months old I can totally respect what you say about apoo owners. 9 months down the line she's still a reall challenge as she'd had no basic training, hadn't had jabs and never been walked. She was a lockdown puppy. She was totally emaciated having been fed on adult food from a pup. She's coming on but by the gods it's been a struggle.
I've got a nearly five month old Border Collie who came to me in a similar situation to yours. I got her at 14 weeks, she had no injections or training, been locked in a room for five weeks and fed adult food. She's lovely but challenging. She starts training classes tomorrow and these videos have helped me to know the best way to deal with her issues. I'm so lucky to have found this chanel.
So pleased I've found this guy. My daughter bred her German Shepherd (who behaves fantastically) One of the buyers has given the puppy ba k at 7 months (I took him because I didn't want him to be THATdog that gets passed about) Anyway I'm left with 7mth Gsd which needs training. I want to take my dog everywhere so glad I've found Will. Got to admit some days I could cry, it's one step forward 2 steps back
Thank you for this. Our current fur baby is so very different personality wise that I feel like I'm all of a sudden incompetent. This gave me just the reassurance I needed that my approach has been correct...even if it feels like it's taking forever
Be stubborn and patient. If a behavior has become ingrained, it will usually take time. Best to adjust while the dog is a puppy obviously, but if it's too late for that patience is required. But don't waffle. Pick a demand or response, and a reward structure for good/desired behavior, and stick to it, come hell or high water. Your demands/expectation must be clear to the dog and therefore simple and undebatable. Then it will protest in various ways most likely, but as long as you're consistent, less and less.
Will, I hope I can meet you someday. Your videos opened up so much for me, and my dogs. Seeing the affect of just a couple applications of what you teach, and the way you explain the psychology behind it all, I've gotten a love of dogs that i never knew was there, and it started with you and your videos. thank you Will!
No sooner did the Amazon delivery guy come to my door and my three dogs went literally berserk, i came across this video. My dogs need a lot of work and I need more videos.
Thank you for sharing your years of experience with us. For the last 29 years we've always had multiple dogs, Pitbulls, Pit mix, Mastiff, Great Dane, Boston Terriers, on the 4th German Shepherd now. I used to be a Humane Law Enforcement officer in a city filled with drugs, violence and pitbulls used for awful things including protecting the drug stashes. I learned a ton from Cesar Millan and local behaviorist. But for some crazy reason I have problems with me, not the dog but myself. Iam getting way to frustrated and really have to watch myself so that I won't set our 4 month old pup up for failure. Having a bum leg isn't helping either. I am learning quite a lot from you, thank you!
I don't have a dog yet but I'm doing lots of research for when I get a house and a dog. This video was great, it's something I haven't thought of before, this is definitely a mistake I would've made if not for this video. Thank you Will!
My cattle dog/corgi mix has a lot of anxiety behaviors we've struggled with. Most recently it's been a hyper fixation on wasps flying around outside our apartment window (I talked to management, they can't find the nest 🤦♀) Thanks for the informative video, I'll definitely make an effort to stop comforting and reinforcing his stress reactions. Luckily he loves training, so his recall, stay, wait, sit, and down are all REALLY strong, so we should have a good base to try your suggestions.
Thank you, Sir! Great solutions to problems (plus how to prevent problems!). My 1¼yr ♂️Rottie (rescue...gotcha date was May 26 this year) got really scared of fireworks this July 4th. I had already worked on Heel & loose-leash walking. He was so hepped-up, he was literally prancing next to me ... I had to do tons of turns & corrections to remind him to focus only on me + burn his nervous energy through our work. He finally settled in after about 30 min of drilling. Now when he hears the 'pop-pop-pop' he sticks to me like glue in Heel position. He's still not calm, though, so I'm going to start playing fireworks sounds at low volume when we walk to desensitize him more.
Just had to deal with this exact issue with someone. I had a car backfire whilst working my own dog and she broke her stay. I simply said "No" and put her back with a "safe" command which I personally teach from puppy age. She is an advanced dog . I also did Pack walks on firework night. Great video.
Brilliant video Will, and sound advice as always, and it's so you should never use verbal communication when your dog is doing something like barking etc etc because they think you're encouraging them to do it.
I had a malinois, i used to take him around alot of loud noises and bangs etc when he was a puppy. Fast forward to fireworks night he would be in the garden as happy as if he had 2 tadgers watching fireworks bursting in the sky. Its all about showing a calm attitude
Please tell me if you have a video about dogs who bark/attack objects; the rake, the shovel, broom, mop, hand trowel, and the wheels of the garden cart, and he really goes nuts over water coming out of the hose.
Will I give my dog a frozen Kong when fireworks begin. He’s stays focused on that and keeps relaxed. We started when he was one and it really helps as we live at the beach and their are often fireworks during summer, not just July 4.
What about when the dog doesnt feel well? I remember my dog was acting strange a few weeks ago. She was making sad sounds and was sitting right next to me as I was doing chores. Everywhere I went she sat next to me and whined. I knelt down to reassure her and pet her like you described like in this video. Shes a germanshepherd with big "up" ears, and her ears were just flat against her head. I decided to take her outside and she had diarrhea. So, in that instance, did she not recognize I was trying to console her?
Hello Mr. Atherton. These days I just noticed a problem with my dog. My dog is Cane Corso and he is 7 months old now. The problem is that when we try to walk out in a new territories or new streets in the city, my dog feels uncomfortable, a bit scaried maybe of course when in the street having an other dogs who are barking when we walk around their houses. What should be the best practices to do to fix this mood in my own dog ? How do you think ?
Great Video but this seems like a lot of preemptive training. What do we do in those situations when they barking and getting too excited? How do we get them to call down?
My parents used to live next to a pub and on Wednesday midday my father would go to the pub for a pint. Come lunch time my mother would ask the dog, a GSD, where my father was and she would go through the hedge and into the pub at the front door. In the bar the locals would sit worriedly as she was known as a good effective guard dog. No-one would go to the bar counter where my father was and he would then have to take her home and to have his lunch. At our car club, one couple brought their GSD to social evenings in the function room of the pub. This was OK until the owners and then others allowed the dog to drink beer out of their mugs, the dog invariably got aggressive and was banned along with any other dogs from club nights thereafter. Our dog, a St Bernard/GSD X, is praised when he barks at anyone visiting our property or drives down to our end of the lane. I always check what he is barking at and he quietens as soon as I have done that. His barking is clearly as a notification that strangers are about and not because he is fearful. Our immediate neighbours appreciate the dogs attention as we have had suspicious characters around our lane in the past and the village had a spate of daytime burglaries that took the police more than 12 months to resolve. With fireworks we calm the dog as soon as he becomes attentive to them and it works. He understands that the home is a safe environment and that fireworks are of no concern. A few years ago fireworks parties season used to last from beginning October until mid- November and then again over Christmas and New Year. Because of the fireworks i used to take our dog on his evening walk at 11.00pm. One night I was walking along the main road that has a number of gardens with tall hedges and fences backing on to it and as we got to one tall close boarded fence there was a huge explosion from a firework (the first) within 10ft of us, both the dog and I were startled and I got tangled in the lead and fell down into the road. Fortunately, the approaching cars missed me and I got up and carried on. IMO all firework displays, should be licensed by the local Council to keep control over their indiscriminate use that can be a nuisance to others. The cost of such a license would be minimal compared with the obvious expenditure that most domestic displays have especially as now the fireworks are of an industrial size, that are more applicable to major displays.
I'm proud to say I was able to bring my dog to a crowded outdoor restaurant and he was a star! We worked hard to get to that point. Unfortunately, I'm about to lose him to cancer at 12. 😥
Thank you for this very helpful video. Do you have any advice on how to prevent counter-surfing and food theft? My dog is always searching for food. 😕 Hé is a lovely sweet companion but it is stressful to always be on the lookout for food that he might steal.
I really wish I could have worked with you before I got rid of my beautiful Freya she was a Belgian Malinois/German shepherd... And she was my very first dog I know that was probably a mistake to start with a dog like that but unfortunately I didn't do my research until I had her
You can’t say it in the video so I’ll say it. Decent women struggle with this more than men. The motherly instinct is to reassure the baby. Women are awesome.
My dog is a staffy cross a naughty bastard he's a year old and I still can't control his behaviour, he has seperation anxiety and can't be left alone he is stubborn and mischievous. Totally fed up
Help my Milo had 2 owners before me he is Saluki Bull Cross. His recall is impossible he bites my arse and I struggle with him every day . He jumps up and is 6 feet tall and he is a bit stupid to be Frank so training him is real difficult. Where do I start he is 1 year old is it too late 🤔
No it's not too late. Just difficult and you will need patience and firmness. And you must not be intimidated by the dog. It is missing a reward structure, so it is creating its own by being naughty. That gets your attention, so why not? Turning it around should take you a few weeks of systematic interactions with your dog. No more. It could take less than a day. 1: Always jump on positive behavior, even if it's incidental. Praise, treats, etc. 2: Minimize your reaction to negative behavior, particularly your verbal reaction. Give a single command, look away etc at least until the bad behavior stops. Just as soon as positive of any kind occurs you can normalize, if relevant positive behavior occurs, pounce on it with praise, contact etc. You should be waiting for it at all times so you don't accidentally miss it. 3: To control the dog, you must be in charge. Therefore the dog paying attention to you counts as good behavior, so treats, praise etc. The dog ignoring you is you not being in charge = bad behavior. Little to no attention, single commands, patience, wait for good behavior. 4: Set the dog up for success by not, perhaps inadvertently, seeking out the most difficult situations first. Start with something manageable and work your way up. No pubs, go to the park. Something like that.
Hi I've been following your trainings. We listened to your video about crate training and it's OK to let the dog bark and cry as long as it takes...whichis fine, but my puppy poos everywhere in his crate everytime he is barking longer than 15 mins 😭😭😭😭😭 is this normal ? Do I clean him and put him back in it? Which he poos again :(
Sounds like your pup is very anxious about being in there. Perhaps start your crate training again from the beginning. Let your puppy get used to it being a safe place without closing the door. When you get to the point of closing the crate start for much shorter periods and build it up.
@@juliea3903 the problem is he would happily go in it. Like we don't even ask him..he would run in and sit down but once I close the gate he keeps acting like he wants to get out and if we all leave the room or house thats when he goes mad and starts pooping :(
@@marraentezary6952 try giving a high-reward stuffed Kong to distract him? Canned puppy food is perfect for this. Use this for when you really have to leave. For training, slowly build up the time the door is closed. Give a tiny treat when he stays calm for 1 second of the door being closed. Open the door BEFORE he starts to freak out. Repeat only a few times each day maybe, like 3 or 5 reps morning and evening. Use his favorite treats and only use them for crate training to create his positive association.
So here's an enigma of a response to this - how do you apply the end logic of this video to a dog being scared of lightning/thunder ? You can't very well take the dog out for a walk during a lightning storm.
try doing a training routine at home with sits stay and come if you pet your dog when they are scarred they apparently perceive it as reward for being scared. and we all know there is nothing to be scared of. even if sudden thunder strike can scare me as well. i dont stay scared whole the time neither should the dog. people make their dogs scared of stuff because they reinforce it. dog is scared of vacuum cleaner and barks at it. and you pet your dog while he barks telling him everything is all right. he thinks hell yea. thats what i need to do every time to get pets and encourangment.
my mom always gets out of bed and gives attention to our cat when she makes a ruckus behind her door at 4am and mom then complains about the cats behaviour and gets mad at me when I tell her not to teach the cat to do that, saying it's not her fault... I wonder why the cat only does that behind her door, why indeed... And she's supposed to be good at pedagogic skills, working at a kindergarten. 🙄
@@Tsuchimursu i never managed to teach anything my late cat in her 18 year old life. everything she learned by her herself without any reinforcement. like opening the doors by jumping on the door handle. but i never managed to train her to use her scratch pad instead of the couch.
Will I don't usually comment on videos but I have to say you're doing an amazing job sharing these super valuable information! We've come to a long road with my adopted GSP so far, he was only 7 months old when we first met, he learned basic concepts from scratch and now he's almost no different than a human who could successfully communicate with us in our home. Though one thing I couldn't manage was his reactivity and if I would not come to this video, I could never think myself responsible for reinforcing this behavior. I will try to implement the method to correct his behavior and lead him to success. 🤞🏻Thanks for sharing mate. You're one of the best there is!
Thank you Will. You have reminded me to keep with the basics of dog training AND to not judge a book by it's cover. So many times I saw your thumbnails and disregarded them thinking you were just a macho man with nothing much for me to learn. Boy!!! Was I wrong! I am very appreciative of your channel now.
Anthropomorphizing is a problem for dogs. It is detrimental to dogs if they are percieved as being something more than a dog and that is where such owner behaviors stem from. Great video!
That last bit was amazingly helpful. My husky has huge separation anxiety so I use a long style treat in another room to distract him while I leave so he doesn't notice my leaving as much. Just so happens he like to try and escape out the same door I leave and get food deliveries to. I was doing sit/ stay while I opened the door for deliveries not thinking about what the consequences could be. The last week as I am leaving he hears me approach the door and runs toward it to a beautiful sit. Using a place command will be super helpful going forward. Thank you Will!
Brandon mcmillan is the most gentle, thorough and effective dog i've ever encountered. My friend and i love the dog show and never miss it. So many times we've shed a tear of happiness just seeing a dog's life changed forever when proper training is applied and they go on to live their lives the way they should. I have brandon's book ru-vid.comUgkxK8-VQWpYThx4IC6MiIvb6VS1ebTzzdxq in two formats. Not only the paperback version but also the kindle version to refer to when i don't have the paperback along with me. I have used his methods with my cavalier kc spaniel and turned a non-disciplined furbaby into a companion who has traveled thousands of miles with us across the country. He is a near perfect dog thanks to brandon's methods. I don't get one cent of kickback for recommending brandon but i do it because i love dogs. They deserve to be given a chance. Brandon's mission in life - to rescue dogs and place them in a forever, happy home - is very dear to my heart. I recommend his methods to anyone who has a dog - young or old. I've seen him take even old dogs and teach them. Brandon was an animal trainer before his current mission. His parents were animal trainers. His methods are the best i've ever found. Your furbaby will thank you for spending the money on this book. Don't hesitate - it is worth every cent.
hi Will just found your channel and it's so informative, quick question please do you have a video on older house dog 11years being very aggressive towards our new 10 week old sheepadoodle..as in serious biting..kind regards Paul
My 18 week old whippet stuggles with treats .Once he knows there in my pocket. Thats all he wants his full attention is on my pouch or pocket ? What to do?
Great video we have a new puppy coming into our house in about a week. The hardest part will be getting my wife to understand the do's and don't with this puppy. But by watching your videos I'm trying to teach her what learned behavior is. That dogs and cats will do the good and the bad if you don't teach them the difference. Thanks for all you and yours do.
Hi there ... for some reason I am not able to access the Perfect Puppy Course anymore. I purchased it and even when I try resetting my password, it does not send me a way to reset it. Please help, I tried contacting customer service also and have not received a response. Please advise ... thank you in advance.
Hi Will, our dog gets so excited when we get the lead for a walk that she starts to mouth and claw at us when trying to get her collar and lead on, no matter what we do it takes an age to get the lead on and get out for a walk, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, our dog is 1 year old and is a rescue dog from Romania.
