December 12th, 2011
By Eric Letendre
Last night I picked up a book that I read about ten years ago. The author is one of my favorites, he’s the kind of rare writer that will have you laughing your head off on one page and on the next have a tough guy like me almost in tears.
The author’s name: James Herriot. His real name was James Alfred Wright, and he wrote about his experiences as a country vet in England. Keep Reading…
May 12th, 2011
By Eric Letendre
I mentioned not to long ago that I had just finished reading the book, “Marley and Me,” by John Grogan.
Great book and I really enjoyed it because I have met many, many Marley’s in my career as a dog trainer. Marley was a big, happy, hyper, lovable yellow lab that turned into a real handful for his owners.
Marley had a lot of fun chewing, digging, stealing and dragging his owners every where they walked. Labs are great dogs but they get into trouble because they are full of energy and a love of life. I’ve had many dog owners come to me with their dogs and have listened to them as they tell me how much they love their dog but don’t know how to stop the bad behavior. Keep Reading…
January 21st, 2011
By Eric Letendre
Here I am sitting in my house watching the snow falling at a very rapid rate.
I really don’t a mind some snow but this year we are getting nailed here in Western MA. The big problem is that after the last snow storm, it rained which put a thin sheet of ice over all the snow making it next to impossible to walk in.
Yesterday I was going to go for a walk with my pup but by the time I made it to the backyard I felt like I had run a marathon.
This can be a tough time of the year to exercise your dog.
As I was sitting here watching more snow dump on us, I decided to make a list of all the ways to exercise your dog inside and I am going to share it with you.
Dogs need physical AND mental exercise. I’ve included both in my list. Here you go:
Search and Rescue - Especially good if you have kids.
Tell your kids that you going to play a game with your dog. They have to go and hide somewhere in the house.
They have to be very quiet and let them know that their dog is going to rescue them. Hold your dog as they go hide.
Once they are hiding tell your dog “Find them” and let him go.
Your kids will love playing this game. Make sure you tell the kids to make a big deal when the dog finds them.
Find it - A variation of the above but done with toys.
Stuff a kong toy with some of your dog’s favorite treats right in front of her. Tell her to stay and go hide the toy. Once it is hidden release your dog from the stay command and tell her, “Find it.” As your dog gets good at this make it more and more difficult to find the toy.
Tug o war - One of my favorite games. Can be played in a very small area and really gives your dog a good work out.
Retrieve up stairs - This was a favorite for my Belgian Malinois, Suede. I would stand at the top of the stairs and drop a ball down them. He would run down, retrieve the ball and haul back up the stairs.
Ten minutes of this can wear out any dog.
Tricks - What better way to give your dog some mental stimulation than tricks. Teach your dog to roll over, sit pretty, shake and play dead. These are easy tricks to teach and it will tire your dog out.
Obedience - Another great way to mentally stimulate your dog when he is bored. Work on sit, down and stay. Start working on the time your dog does a stay and distractions.
Work on nagging behavior problems - What better time to finally put an end to those behavior problems you’ve been putting up with. Now is the time to teach your dog to stop barking on command. End begging at the table. Teach your dog to never steal anything off the table ever again.
Turn a snow day into a productive day with your dog and if you need help ending those pesky behavior problems check out the Good K9 Manners Course.
Good K9 Manners Course has videos showing you step by step how to stop annoying behavior problems. Use this course to change your dog’s behavior and for a short time I’ll even offer it at a special discount price.
Use this code to get the special price: 10-OFFK9MANNERS
All the best,
Eric
June 7th, 2010
By Eric Letendre
Saturday night my sweetie tells me that we
are going to her folk’s house for her Father’s
birthday.
“No problemo,” I tell her and off we go. I was
not expecting to walk through the door and get
attacked – not by a dog, by a person.
The person was Rachael’s cousin’s wife, Mary Ann.
Ryan, her cousin, and his wife, Mary Ann, had come
up from New Jersey to attend the party and they brought
their new little dog, Lucy, with them.
Lucy had a few issues that Mary Ann wanted me to help
with and was anxious to get started. I had barely walked
through the door when the questions came at me faster
than bullets coming out of an M-16 on full auto.
Lucy is a great little dog and Rachael’s cousins were in
luck because I was going to compress six weeks of dog
training lessons into one hour.
I was going to show them how to stop the jumping, walk on
leash, come when called and show them what to do for the
separation problem they were having.
I think they were skeptical that I could accomplish such a
feat, but only because they had never seen me work my magic.
One hour later, Lucy was a different dog and Rachael’s cousins
had a better understanding of dog training. You see, I had
shared with them the secret to dog training.
It is a secret that I did not learn from any of the dog training
“gurus.”
You see, I learned it from one of America’s founding fathers – Ben Franklin.
Ole Ben was a master of persuasion. I became very interested in persuasion
and started to think about it and teach dog owners to use it instead of force.
Here is the definition of persuasion: “The state of being persuaded or
convinced; settled opinion or conviction, which has been induced.”
I especially like the last part, “which has been induced.”
The best way to train is to induce your dog into doing the commands.
For years force was used and it has backfired tremendously.
Don’t believe me?
Take a look at the statistics – 4.6 million reported dog bites last year. That
number probably doubles if you were to add the unreported dog bites.
Man’s best friend?
Not according to the statistics. Listen, I have been in the trenches training
dogs for a long time and I have seen first-hand how negative training methods
have caused a lot of aggression in a lot of dogs.
Anyway, as I said earlier, I don’t see her cousins too much and compressed
the six week course that I teach into one hour, but I told them they had to
continue their training using the Dog Training Inner Circle website.
They agreed and went home happy. Another day in the life of your friendly,
neighborhood Amazing Dog Training Man.
If you’re ready to learn more about training dogs Ben Franklin style, you’re
in luck because you can still take advantage of the Cotton Anniversary Special.
You can get my dog training products at an incredible half off.
This won’t last much longer, so don’t delay.
All the best,
Eric
July 15th, 2009
By Eric Letendre
A few weeks back I met with a nice couple to help them with their eight month old labra-doodle.
As we were going through some leash walking exercises the wife turned to me and said:
“You make this all look so easy.”
I had to suppress a chuckle as I thought back on all the times I had made a complete fool out of myself trying to learn how to train dogs.
I know firsthand what it’s like to get yanked so hard that it felt like my elbow was going to leave my arm.
My most painful leash walking memory is the time I was working with a young husky on leash walking.
I was at the park and there were some girls playing Frisbee. Trying to look cool I started working the husky.
The husky being much smarter than me somehow ran around behind me, wrapping my legs up in the leash and I fell flat on my face, much to the amusement of the girls who were watching.
Why am I sharing all of this with you?
Because I have a new video to show you some basic leash training techniques.
Once you understand and work on the basics you can get much better results.
Here you go:
All the best
Eric
P.S. If you’re looking for more advanced leash walking techniques skip on over to
Eric Letendre is a professional dog trainer from the United States. For more than 20 years, he has been developing dog training "hacks" that have worked for dog owners all over the world. Eric operates from a home office or a laptop while traveling and draws on his experience and passion for dog training to show others how to develop a dog that is truly “Man’s Best Friend”.
Eric is the author of numerous reports, the E-Book “101 Ways to Hack Your Dog’s Behavior,” “The Amazing Dog Training Man Book,” and produced and stars in his DVD “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer.”
