21 JanEpisode 114 | Dog Training Q and A! 1/21/2021: Are day cares a good place to socialize your dog? Why did my dog stop liking the crate? Thoughts on wee wee pads?
This is a bonus episode: A recording of a live Q and A.
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Here Annie addresses questions about socializing dogs during quarantine, using wee wee pads if the goal is to teach a dog to only go outside, getting a dog to like a crate again, using daycares to get a dog some social time, and more.
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Mentioned in this episode:
School for the Dogs Community App
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Become a School For The Dogs Certified Professional Trainer
Revol Dog Crate and Groove Crate Toy
Transcript:
Annie:
Hi, thanks for those of you who came to my little Instagram live demo just now with adorable little Poppy. Hope that was helpful. I did have a couple of questions that came in that I wanted to answer as always. I try and go alive every Thursday at 3:00 PM. Eastern. If you want to ask a question or want to be notified when I'm going live on Instagram, just go to schoolforthedogs.com/qanda, and you can submit a question or sign up to be notified.
Oh, hi Duke. Nice to see you there. Okay, so this question comes — I have two questions from a user, JimEVF. First one is, do you recommend taking your dog to daycare to improve his social skills?
And in a word, No. [laughs] I don't. I'm all for improving dogs’ social skills, but I don't think daycare is the best place for a dog to work on being social. I think you want to try and give your dog opportunities to have good social interactions with other dogs while you are around or at the very least while someone is paying close attention to your dog.
Now perhaps there are some daycares where they are doing a great job of paying close attention to every dog. But in general, my experience with dog daycares is they're a little bit more like — they're too much like dog parking lots. And it's just, I don't think the best set up for dogs to really learn to interact with other dogs. What's more, your dog might have bad experiences there and you're not going to necessarily know about them.
Years ago we had a kind of heartbreaking situation where a client of ours put their dog in daycare because the dog had really severe separation anxiety. She had to go to work and it was just what she had to do. And you know, anxieties can sometimes be like switching seats on the Titanic. Like, okay, the separation anxiety more or less went away because the dog wasn't being left alone, but the dog developed a fear of Hispanic men in hooded sweatshirts.
I know it's a very specific kind of fear. But my guess is there was a Hispanic man in a hooded sweatshirt at this dog daycare who either didn't treat this dog well, or this dog made some sort of misaligned connection with this person. And now the dog owner had this new and very real fear to contend with at School for the Dogs.
We run drop off a day school, which is kind of like the ideal form of dog daycare. I think there's a ratio of one trainer for every three dogs. Sometimes it's one trainer for two dogs and it's a half day and they work the whole time. They're doing training, they're working on their socialization skills, whether that's being introduced to new objects, sometimes going to new places. But also just playing with each other in a supervised way with professionals who are looking on and then reporting back to the owners about what's going on.
So I know that certainly that's kind of a luxury type of daycare. But it's what I think all daycare should ideally be.
If you are trying to socialize your dog during quarantine you know, see if you can find one other person that has a dog that can be your dog's friend. And you can either meet in each other's homes, you can find a sort of neutral, safe, outdoor space and try and develop a relationship or have your dog develop a relationship with even just one other dog. I think that the best kind of interactions for dogs are generally one-on-one.
And just to plug our new app our community app, which you can find in the app store, you can get there also schoolforthedogs.com/community. One reason we started the app was to try and help people find like-minded dog owners in their area with whom they can plan play dates in order to help improve their social skills.
Jim EVF also asks how to deal with a dog who has trust issues. How do you introduce them to new people and to other dogs?
Well, we talked a little bit just now about introducing them to dogs in general, and the more good dog-dog interactions your dog has, the better your dog is going to get at being around other dogs in general. Same thing with people. And I think that if you are there, if you're part of the interaction and your dog has good feelings and associations about you, that's only going to help your dog feel better in those in those new situations.
Actually, I think I used this analogy in the Q and A last week, but I always think about it as like, you are like a teabag of goodness and like the water that you're in with your dog is going to be infused with all things you. So, that's one reason that I love reward based training because, even if you're not particularly good at it, and all that happens is like, you're just giving a lot of treats to your dog. Well, you know what, your dog is still making good associations with you. Your dog is still learning that the world that you bring your dog into is a good world. And why, because your dog is there with you.
Alright. A couple more questions. Coley_77 says, do you have classes to become a trainer? Very good question. We are actually almost ready to launch our new professional course, the born to behave online professional course. So keep up with what we're doing through our newsletter or through Instagram, Coley, so that we can let you know about it. I'm very excited about it.
It's been an ongoing long-term group project that is finally coming to an end and what's so cool is it's actually going to be free. It's all online. There are going to be several tiers, but the main tier — Coley's there, hey Coley. The first tier, which is going to be free is going to be totally online. And then there's going to be I believe two tiers above that, that have like more kind of one-on-one or group interactions. And then we're going to be pulling from graduates of the program to come do our full apprenticeship.
We've been running an apprenticeship program for usually like two trainers at a time for three or four years at School for the Dogs. A lot of our current trainers are actually graduates of our apprenticeship. It's been a really wonderful program, frankly, for us, because it's how we've gotten a lot of our trainers. And we wanted to figure out a way that we could bring the apprenticeship to people who might not be in New York and because a lot of it is, was online.
Anyway, we decided to put as much of it online as possible, and sort of create this tiered system, where the final tier will be working hands-on with us and our trainers at the studio. Unfortunately right now it's a little hard to have apprentices be hands on at our studio, only because we're trying to keep things so small because of COVID. We're limiting how many people and how many dogs we can have in our studio at a time at the school. But I'm hoping by the time we have some graduates of the online program, it will be easier.
So definitely keep in touch, Coley. if you have other questions about it, you can feel free to email me. My email is annie@schoolforthedogs.com.
A couple more questions and see if I can get to them all. Claire.and.Loki says: after two years of willing crate training, my dog refuses to go in and when I want her to. Why?
Well, I don't know why. Could be any reason, sounds like something happened to change your dog's feelings about the crate. I would say start from scratch, maybe even try getting a new crate to try and acclimate her to a new kind of enclosure. As you might know, I'm a huge fan of the Revol crate, which is from Diggs. We have it in our online store, or you can go to schoolforthedogs.com/diggs. It opens up on three different sides which makes it like a really kind of nice airy enclosure for a dog. So that might be a way to kind of help her feel like she's enclosed, but not totally.
Feed meals in the crate. Give lots of treats in the crate. Spend time with your dog while she's in the crate. Do training with the dog in the crate. You know, that exercise, I was just doing, teaching a snap with a sit is something you could absolutely do with a dog in a crate. So see if you can start from scratch teaching your dog that the crate is a good place to be.
Oh, actually another thing I'll just show I have it right here. Hi Dog cat. Thanks for being here. And Gilby, love you. Just cause I happen to have it, like within arm's reach, I was going to show you the, this is a Groove, it's called. It's made by the people who make the Revol Crate, the people at Diggs. And this one's a little bit dirty, but basically, it's made to snap into the side of the Revol crate. Although I think you could use it really in any crate. But you like smear peanut butter, cream cheese, or dog food or whatever here, and then just like put it into the crate.
I've been using this with Poppy. She loves it. Yeah, and she'll go into the crate on her own. So I suggest try making the crate like a happy, nice place to be before you start leaving your dog alone in the crate. I can't read your dog's mind, I don't know why it happened, but just, as with anything in training you can always start from the beginning. You can always start from scratch. Karen Pryor, calls it, going back to kindergarten.
TheLilybug_ says: how can I stop /decrease my dog from wanting to say hi to every dog that she sees?
Well, two main answers to this. And I think I'm going to answer these kinds of questions in this way. Like, I'm not getting a lot of information. It's like improv Q and A, improv answers, but I'm doing my best, hoping I'm giving you a little bit of something helpful.
Two things. One, try and create a new association with dogs approaching on the street. I'm assuming this is happening when you're on the street, so that when you see a dog coming, make sure that Lily, I'm assuming your dog's name is Lily, get something delicious. And you can give that delicious thing in the other direction from the dog so that you're both creating an association, dog equals delicious thing. And you're kind of getting your dog to go away from the stimulus that you're trying to distract her from. And you're creating the habit of like, Oh, I see another dog, that means I get peanut butter behind mom's leg. Or whatever.
The other thing is you want to make sure your dog is getting a lot of really good off-leash interactions with other dogs. Like we were talking about different ways to socialize your dog. Make sure that her social opportunities aren't just happening when she's on leash and you're walking down the street and you see another dog. Because if the only time of day your dog sees another dog is when they're out on the street on leash, then obviously every other dog is going to become more exciting.
I've had clients for instance, who come to our day school program or a schoolyard programs where they're seeing their like dog friends over and over and over. And they say, my dog is just not as interested in other dogs on the street anymore. And the way I think of it, it's like, yeah, because like your dog already has friends, right?
Like, if you never saw people, except for the people that you saw out on the street, you'd probably be awkward and excited, or maybe scared, or you'd have weird feelings probably about the people you see on the street. But because you have friends that you interact with, the people that are out on the street are not as like — you're not as desperate for those like social interactions.
Alright. I think I have one more question here. So many questions today. I love it. Thank you for all these wonderful questions.
WallyADoodle asks: if you're training a puppy to pee or poop outside an apartment, should you still have wee wee pads?
I think if you only want your dog to pee and poop outside, and you never want your dog again to go inside, then you probably shouldn't have wee wee pads. The longer the amount of time that your dog spends getting used to peeing on soft square things on the ground, the better your dog is going to be getting at peeing on soft square things on the ground inside. And then you have a dog who is peeing on every bathmat that they see, because they've built that habit over a long period of time.
I mean, the exception being, if you have a dog who really is very young and can't hold their pee long enough for you to be able to hold it for when you're going to be taking the dog out. But if your goal is to teach the dog to only go outside, then you really need to be getting your dog out a lot, a lot, a lot. Giving your dog lots of opportunities to go in the right place.
That said, I think it's totally fine to teach a dog to go both inside and outside, even for the long run. I mean, if you have a smaller dog. Maybe not such a great idea if you have like I don't know, German shepherd or a great Dane. But you can teach a dog that peeing and pooping in one specific area inside is okay. You can also teach a dog that peeing and pooping on a wee wee pad when it's down is okay, but you shouldn't go on it when it's not down.
And you know, the short answer of how to do that is to bring them to the places you want them to go inside as if you were taking them on a walk, at regular intervals. You can even walk them there on a leash if you want. Give them a chance to go. When they do go, praise, praise, praise, give treats. But it certainly is possible to have a dog that can go both inside and outside.
And, you know, especially if you're going to be traveling a lot with a dog, it can be really useful to have a dog that knows, when there's a weewee pad down, that means I need to go there. It's just a cue. It’s a cue like anything else. Being outside can become a cue for your dog to pee and poop. Being on grass outside can be a cue for your dog to pee and poop. Seeing a wee wee pad can become a cue for your dog to pee and poop.
Alright. Thank you for joining me, you guys. I will try and be back here next week. Again, if you have a question that you'd like to send me in advance, or if you would just like to be notified when I'm going to be going live, go to schoolforthedogs.com/QandA. Bye.
