Frantic Dog? Are You Training Both The Hold And The Do? #138 #podcast

Be sure to check out Shaped by Dog Episode 136: Help Your Excited Dog Calm Down and Stop Barking, Lunging, Spinning, Nipping https://youtu.be/06CyHsE-bEY

How do I respond and say thank you when someone actually responded to me with a whole podcast? I cried the first 5 minutes of it because someone cared this much to address my problems with my puppy. I am still in disbelief. This was was my planned for "dream puppy" I waited a year for after my old guy passed away. My "puppy culture" puppy that I thought would be a breeze and has proved to be the most challenging. I must say the "positive trainer from a highly acclaimed clicker school" changed my whole way of looking at my puppy. Winter hit with to much snow and below zero temps to be taking him out where others are at. Yesterday showed he hasn't settled down any when he sees another dog. I have been terrified that he is going to turn aggressive and have been so afraid. That one statement changed everything. He is my 18th husky, others were trained the old school way you mentioned. This is my first positive trained one and the one that came home fearful, afraid to be alone, then over aroused, one challenge after another. Your talk gave me hope and things to work through. Susan, you truly are a caring and special person.

14 years ago, I had a vet tell me that my border cross puppy at 8 weeks old would be aggressive and that I should put him down. I left and never returned to that vet again! My Max was the best dog ever! He was so sweet, loved people and dogs, was well trained and so happy! He lived to be 12 years old.

“Don’t let anyone put a label on your dog”. ❤️ I wish I heard that 6 years ago. My dog was labeled by one of my best friends and it changed everything. It made me a nervous wreck because I thought she had to be right. I lost all confidence in my dog and myself. It carried over to my other dogs as well. We are finally the team I knew we could be in the beginning but it was a long road.

So cool for you to take the time to reassure Helen that she and her dog aren't limited by what the trainer said. Helen, kudos to you for reaching out and making that YouTube comment. Best of luck to you and your pup. ❤️

Oh my Gosh….Susan you have hit the tip of an iceberg here. If you are reading this, I ask on the behalf of all of us Helen’s out there, to continue to deep-dive into this topic. It’s a very lonely journey for a person with a high energy dog. There is very little real help, but a wack load of blame and shame to be had. We’re starved for some solid, practical answers. My questions lay in the area of identifying when our dogs are ready to advance to a more difficult challenge. Do you wait until that exciting thing in the distance is not even noticed, or do you just get some focus and the ability to do a few behaviours before moving closer? You don’t want to stagnate, but you don’t want to overface them either. It’s a difficult balancing act. Then there is the other side of the coin; you don’t want to take your amazing high energy dog and turn them into a zombie who does all the right things but loses his enthusiasm for life. These are the kinds of questions that run through our minds. You have brought answers to so many of my past questions. Thank you so much for what you are doing here. You are a bringer of hope.

Getting to the ROOT of things - this is really good stuff. I tried putting the choke chain on the dog and going for a walk. About twenty easy steps and then he almost took my wrist off. I thought, this is not working - it's time to give it a rest. So glad I found your videos, but I did not catch on at first - thanks for the small slices. We have a vet apptmt in a week and I so hope this one will be different! Thank you and bless you!!

Susan this is one of my favorite podcasts you have done. Learning how to raise the level of excitement that a dog can handle is invaluable! Most trainers talk about working on behaviors at a distance, but if my dog could SEE or HEAR her trigger it's game over. She once ran across 3 acres & a road to get to her trigger.... So teaching her how to handle excitement inside has really started to help.

Susan, Thank you for sharing your early dog training experiences with us. It helps me to know that I'm not alone in my experiences along this journey. I cannot count how many times I've said to myself and others, "Oh, how I wish I'd been presented with this remarkable training when I had my precious first corgi, Ron, and when my buddy, Windsor, first came to me. This particular podcast has come at a time when Win is beginning to finally get out and about to explore new habitats (after our COVID shutdowns). I'll be working on conditioning his responses to "getting to come with us!" Thank you.

Thank you Susan, you are a real blessing! My 2,9 yr old Belgian shepherd was also labelled aggressive at 5 month by a trainer in a dogs school.. he is reactive, but not aggressive… I am 68 yrs old, and sometimes, I feel I just want to give up, and stop trying to take him outside our place. He bullies neighbours dogs behind the fences, right by my gate…I am taking him on the leash everyday and passing by those fences, he always barks, and stands up… really difficult to manage!

In the opening of your videos, I love the shot of Tater sitting up on the couch. Make me smile every time. 🥰

There are a lot of people who think they know how to train / teach, when they don’t have a cue. Thank you Susan for a real education on training dogs.

OMG! Thank you once again for all you share with us. This episode touched me deeply for many reasons ( among them living with an 8 year old poodle that has been labeled by everyone but one who has ever seen his over zealous reactions to other dogs) . I hate labels and refuse to accept them for my dogs or any others. The protocol you’ve described to help owners and dogs learn to respond in excitement will benefit many… my youngest puppy included .

this was just what I need for my puppy V.I.P. Indeed I can' t go into a class in dogschool because she wants to play with every dog and reacted like your dog. She does'nt take food or toys at that moment , only an other dog is her big big reward . I always laughed with some students who are saying : at home he/she is working very good ........and now ....shame on me : my dog is indeed a "doing everything at home " dog to. . Also she is distracted by every drop or leave that is falling . Walking on leash is still difficult because she is also arroused by a biker , car or another person who is passing by . ( Basenji of 10 months ) many many thanks .simonne

this exactly what i needed, my dog has triggers and i've been trying to figure her out...she was dropped at the shelter at 6.5 weeks, we adopted at 7.5 weeks...so dog missing lessons from her mother and litermates...i've been tracking when she gets triggered, we've been inside because of winter, shady cold backyard...and waiting to be clear from parvovirus, 17 weeks, working to help this puppy to learn her life lessons...

Hi Susan, my name is Sonia and I am trying to read up and learn on how to basically behave and know what I’m doing wrong as a human that affects my dog. I literally just bought a cava poo puppy and it is coming in a week and I haven’t had a puppy in over 15 years and honestly I had a boyfriend at the time that was more experience in the puppy training aspect specially the potty and the barking anxiety thing, is that because of Covid and because I I have been trying to work in the Canadian Mental Health Association for a decade taking night classes finally got the job to help people not to commit suicide that were depressed in general anxious and five like five weeks into my training and my mom commit suicide November 2021. Needless to say I couldn’t continue to help people when I was constantly being triggered because now I always experiencing that kind of trauma which was the first time that I have ever experienced that specific type of trauma experienced a lot, but not that one and my siblings and the rest of my family members felt that they should all take care of their own families and because I am the only one that’s divorce without kids or any pets that I should do whatever I need to do, well I won’t lie. It has been a year here and a half of extreme pain and sorrow and depression and I was getting close to follow my mom‘s footsteps sadly and I decided you know what I went back to school to try to help others, but it’s triggering me know I literally just finished a course that was about Burnouts and self-care, and to be honest, the course was so content driven made me realize how much this course was killing me that the only thing that I really wanted was unconditional love again and I 28 years old with two herniated disc and sciatica I am not attempting to date. My last attempt was when I left an abusive relationship eight years ago, and I’ve been living on my own ever cents so this was the phenomenal huge step that I took last week because I literally scared myself and I do not want to scare my new puppy, now I’m a little concerned because of the situation people don’t really know how to talk to me anymore or how to hang out with me anymore so I’ve pretty much lost every connection. I’ve had other than a neighbour that has a Chihuahua that in my opinion is extremely aroused, and constantly barking his head off, and I hate to say it she is dealing with her own Battles like we all are but sadly there’s a lot more wine and she becomes a different person when and sadly that’s every day. I realize just from the few times that I was at her place how soothing it was to pet the dog as soon as I would sit down my mix, King, Charles, and cocker spaniel would just come on over and I would pet and pet and pet, but she died about Seven years ago and it was difficult sigh and the divorcee that’s living in apartment complex that now can’t have dogs which thank God but I don’t want to alienate the only person that’s actually you don’t talking to me right now. And I know suicide and Greece and anger and Covid. Everybody’s more upset, but this is a cava poo with a toy poodle Father and a cava poo mother so she’s gonna be maybe 1015 pounds at most and I do not want her to get bad behaviours from this older dog. That’s obviously never been trained or hate to say it but no shipping no nothing it’s more it was her security blanket and I know what she did it but I don’t wanna do that to my dog. My course right now is social services I have finally gotten my disability tax credit the last five years I only found out that I had ADHD dyslexia and multiple learning disabilities, as well as personality disorder on top of what mine, mom gave me genetically, severe anxiety and abuse, and physical and mental and peace, PTSD, nightmares, and chronic depression with manic tendencies. My message was so big it wouldn’t let me send it all at once, so I’m breaking it down . Sonia part 1

This is such good information! I’m happy I found you Susan for training my Vizsla puppy. I needed to understand what was happening in her mind and emotions and it’s making a huge difference already. The calm strokes instead of strong correction works wonders

I do love it I have one rescue weim that’s so amped he is on meds. We are working on just this

My very first dog was a Whippet. I was in college. We had squirrels that would play outside our apartment door. Used to tell her to go get the squirrels. Never realizing she could actually get one. I had to praise her because she did exactly what I asked her to do, but never told her that again. Now I tell my students, be careful what you say to your dogs. Not sure how many of them could throw a sit in there and have the dog do it, especially at such a time. Brought back memories when you mentioned sending your JRT. Thank you for all the great advice and challenges in this podcast.

Great podcast and so glad Helen wrote the comment, sad how someone would say that but so Happy you showed no animal or person has limits if they believe and learn that anything is possible. I'm always learning from you. Bear hugs ❤️❤️❤️❤️⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐