There are a lot of people that I would talk to if I got a chance.

But in the top five would be Chuck Norris.

Being a lifelong fan, I have always admired him and what he has done.

Anyway, I bring this up because I want to talk to you about you and your dog.

Starting in May, I am going to hold a monthly live call-in teleseminar for ALL Dog Training Inner Circle members.

Every second Tuesday I am going to take members calls and answer questions. I will also have topics that I will cover. I am also looking into doing webinars.

So, talking to me may not be as exciting as talking to Chuck, but it will be informational and helpful for you and your dog, covering whatever behavior problems or obedience questions you have.

AND if that isn’t exciting enough, when you become a Dog Training Inner Circle member, you’ll also get my DVD, “Secrets Of A Professional Dog Trainer,” AND THREE Special Reports Mailed To Your House:

“Amazing Dog Training Man’s Guide To Healthy Dogs”

“7 Simple Steps That Can Reduce Your Dog’s Shedding In 3-5 Days”

“How To Train & Exercise Your Dog While You Are At Work”

AND the live call in teleseminar EVERY month with me.

BTW – Speaking of Chuck Norris, did you know that when Alexander Bell invented the telephone he has missed three calls from Chuck Norris.

Anyway, here is where you can subscribe:

All the best,

Eric

Do you watch The Celebrity Apprentice?

I love the show and it amazes me as I’m watching some of these celebrities.

Gary, “Mr. Hang Brain,” Busey for one needs to be fenced in and supervised. That poor guy really concerns me. A few weeks back he made a sculpture which he named, Mr. Hang Brain.

Anyway, he is very entertaining and is becoming famous for his acronyms.

Some of his famous ones are:

Light – Living In God’s Heavenly Thoughts (I like this one).

Team – Together Everyone Achieves More (another good one),

Failing – Finding An Important Lesson, Inviting Needed Growth.

For a guy so off his rocker he actually comes up with some great acronyms.

Although not as famous as Mr. Busey, I have come up with a popular acronym for dog owners that need help with behavior problems.

It isn’t as poetic or have as much spiritual flavor as his, but it gets the point across.

Here is the one I developed:

MUTT – Manage, Underlying, Training, Time.

Whenever you are faced with a behavior problem, you need to follow the four steps and you will solve the problem.

Here’s how it works. Short term you need to manage the behavior. Using a crate, leash, fenced in yard or simply keeping an eye on your dog are all ways to manage behavior.

NEXT: Figure out what the underlying problem is. Every behavior has a motive. Find out what the motive is and you’ll know why your dog is doing the behavior which will lead you to…

Training a new or appropriate behavior. If you don’t like your dog chewing you, first manage the behavior so you can prevent the problem short term. Then you find out why your dog is chewing (bored, teething, frustrated, etc) then you teach the correct behavior.

Teach your dog what he can and can’t chew on. And lastly you need to give it some time.

And that my dog loving friend is The M.U.T.T Method in a nutshell.

The good news is that if you need more help with this, I show you the EXACT steps on how to apply and use this method for your dog.

If you need more help with your dog here’s where to go NOW:

Best,

Eric

I want to tell you how I got my now wife,Rachael, to go out with me for the first time.

I hatched a plan because I do not handle rejection very well.

I figured if she said “No,” I would not get a second chance.

Here is the boiled down version:

A famous writer was coming to her old college to speak. Tickets were NOT cheap.

Anyway, I had the speaker’s books and struck up a conversation with Rach. I told her how much I liked this guy’s books and asked her if she would like to read them.

She said yes and took them home. A few days later I approached her and asked her if she liked the writer.

Luckily, she said she did and we talked about him for a few minutes.

Everyday I made it a point to talk about this writer with her.

After doing this for about a week I told her that the writer was coming to the University of Rhode Island to speak.

Now here is the dealio: I did NOT ask her to go with me.

I picked up the phone and called one of my friends. I asked him if he’d like to go with me. Before he could answer I said, “Ah, that’s too bad. Take care.” and hung up.

I repeated the process two more times right in front of her.

After the third call I turned to Rachael and said: “Wow, I can’t believe this. This great writer is going to be in our backyard, tickets are $150 apiece and no one wants to go.”

Rach said, “I’ll go with you.”

BINGO, BANGO, BONGO!!!

SUCCESS!

Anyway, that is THE secret to teaching your dog to come when called.

Set your dog up for success. The best way to do this is to practice the “Spring Loaded Recall Exercise.”

The good news is that I break this all down for you and show the EXACT steps you need to follow and much more. Here’s where to go NOW:

Always Come When Called

Best,

Eric

Never a dull moment around here.

I was doing some training with a guy and I really can’t figure out why he hired me.

You see, I was helping him teach his dog to come when called. He wanted to be able to let his dog off leash and run around but his dog did a very common behavior.

His dog did come when called.

IN fact, his dog’s recall was quite impressive.

His dog would come racing towards him BUT…

…would stop about three feet away from him. His dog would stay about three feet away and was impossible to catch.

Making it impossible to put the dog back on leash. When I tried to show the guy what to do he informed me that he knew what to do and refused to take any instruction.

I don’t know why this happens but every once in awhile I end up working with a “know it all” that refuses my help.

Whatever.

So I want to share with you a very important part of teaching your dog to come when called.

When you are teaching your dog to come when called always, Always, ALWAYS, make sure you have your dog’s collar in your hand BEFORE giving your dog the treat.

Call your dog to you with the treat in your hand. Once your dog comes to you, reach down and take hold of your dog’s collar and then give the treat.

This teaches your dog to come all the way to you and conditions your dog to accept a hand taking the collar.

This little training nugget will come in extremely handy in many situations – believe you me.

Most dogs LOVE playing keep away and you want to avoid that as much as possible.

And you know what?

I show you EXACTLY how to do this and much more in The Ultimate Online Recall Course with videos and instructions for teaching your dog to come when called.

Here’s where to go NEXT:

Best,

Eric

My wife and I saw a great movie over the weekend.

The movie?

“The Life Of Pi.”

Pretty good flick. I won’t spoil it for you but it is about a young man that gets stuck on a small rescue boat with a tiger. It is a much deeper story but that is the basic gist of it.

Anyway, when you are on a boat with a tiger and food is scarce, you quickly become the main item on the menu.

The young man, Pi, has to build a raft and hang out next to the boat and at one point tries to train the tiger.

He has a whistle and attempts to make the tiger sick every time he blows the whistle.

That is classical conditioning. Associate a sound with a consequence.

Watching this scene, I wanted to tell Pi that he would have better results if instead of using a negative consequence he offered a positive consequence.

You see, in order to do clicker training, you have to understand classical and operant conditioning.

The sound of the clicker is first associated with a positive consequence. You don’t ask the dog to do anything. You simply click and then deliver the treat.

You repeat this over and over until the dog hears the click and KNOWS the treat is coming.

Once your dog is “classically conditioned” to the sound of the clicker, you then switch to operant conditioning.

Operant conditioning is when you start using the sound of the click to reward a specific behavior.

So if you dog does a sit command, the second your dog’s butt hits the deck you click and then treat.

The click communicates to your dog that she has done a behavior you wanted. Repeat it enough times and your dog learns the command “sit” or whatever command you want to teach.

Pretty cool stuff. And once you understand how classical and operant conditioning works, you can train any animal: cats, birds, horses, dolphins, killer whales, tigers and dogs.

Our friend Pi would have gotten better results using a positive instead of a negative consequence because negative consequences tend to make us grumpy and put us in a foul mood.

Not the best conditions for training.

But a very, very good movie.

Before taking off, one more thing:

I put together a video on The Ultimate Online Recall Course showing the exact steps to follow for clicker training and using clickers to teach your dog to come when called.

You can check it all out here:

Best,

Eric