September 6th, 2011
By Eric Letendre
One of the great things about running my website AmazingDogTrainingMan.com is that I get emails from people all over the world.
People write to say how much they love the site, to ask questions about training and behavior and to add input.
This week I received an email from Jacob who asked about what words a dog should understand.
That was a great question and got me thinking. I sat down and came up with a list of 17 words every dog should understand.
Here they are:
1. Name/attention/watch
2. Sit
3. Down
4. Stand
5. Stay
6. Come
7. Heel
8. Lets go
9. Wait
10. Drop it
11. Leave it
12. Off
13. Jump/Hup
14. Speak
15. Quiet
16. Back up
17. Break/okay – release word
In this week’s video newsletter I discuss these 17 words and demonstrate with one of my dogs.
If you own the Amazing Dog Training Man on-line Course all 17 words with explanations and video clips on how to teach each one are now up and on the website.
To watch this week’s video newsletter:
All the best,
Eric
April 25th, 2011
By Eric Letendre
New England is beautiful and a great place to live but sometimes the weather really SUCKS! Saturday morning we had snow. The next day, 70 degrees. Go figure.
Anyway. Saturday was cold, the book I ordered from Amazon didn’t come in, Rach was making cake pops for Easter and I was not feeling too good.
So…I decided I was going to plop down on the couch and watch a movie.
Lucky for me one of my all time favorite movies was on.
It is violent, bloody, but full of action. The movie… Keep Reading…
April 13th, 2011
By Eric Letendre
I’m the kind of guy that appreciates simple, straight forward advice.
I guess that is why I love the advice Texas Bix Bender gives in his books. Let me share some of my favorites:
And one that I find real interesting:
I think it is interesting because the one thing I can do in life is give someone else’s dog a command. NOT because I am person of some influence but I do know how to influence a dog’s behavior, and after 20+ years of training dogs, I would hope so.
When I am asked what I do for a living, I often answer that I am a people trainer, that I train people how to train their dogs.
Over the years I have to tried to help as many people as I can because there is so much conflicting advice when it comes to training and a lot of it is BAD Advice.
I have put up 195 videos on YouTube and hundreds of articles to help clear up this topic. I have also tried to make my advice as simple and straight forward as possible because I know dog owners are busy people like the rest of us.
Why have I done this?
To quote another favorite speaker and author or mine:
“You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”
- Zig Ziglar
Have a great day!
Eric
P.S. If you like my YouTube videos and articles, you’ll really love my DVD, “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer.”
Get yours today: Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer DVD
March 17th, 2011
By Eric Letendre
Snow is finally melting here in Western MA and I CAN’T wait to get outside and do some hiking and biking.
Anyway, in my last message I shared with you a simple solution I came up with when my zipper got stuck at a most inopportune time (if you missed it you can get the full story below this post).
A big problem for many dog owners is the hectic, crazy dog. The dog that literally blows a gasket every time he sees another dog, person, bird, squirrel or leaf blowing by.
When it comes to calming the hectic dog, it’s important to understand how reinforcement works.
Webster defines reinforcement as: An event, a circumstance, or a condition that increases the likelihood that a given response will recur in a situation like that in which the reinforcing condition originally occurred.
Basically, when we reinforce a behavior, the behavior gets stronger.
What most people don’t understand is that reinforcement comes in two forms:
Intentional reinforcement and UN-intentional reinforcement.
A lot of the behaviors that we don’t like have been unintentionally reinforced by the owner. For example, the dog starts to bark and pull and become uncontrollable. The owner starts to pull back on the leash and starts to say things like:
“Stop that,” “Stop pulling,” “Bad boy,” “No,” “Don’t pull,” ”Quit it,” and on it goes.
Same thing happens with jumping. The dog jumps and gets some form of attention. Barking is often reinforced by the owner shouting at the dog.
My friend and psychotherapist, Gena, tells me often that negative attention is better than no attention.
So we have to be very careful about unintentionally reinforcing the behaviors we don’t like.
When I walk into a classroom full of dogs and their owners, the first thing I have the owners do is to stop talking to their dogs UNLESS the dog is doing exactly what they want the dog to do.
If their dog is standing politely at their side and there is no tension in the leash, if they are not straining and barking at the other dogs, then and only then do they talk and pet their dog. If the dog pulls, I instruct them to simply pull back on the leash and to put some slack into the leash. Pull back and get the leash to go slack.
The amazing thing that happens when you do this is that the less you struggle, the faster you gain control.
So your homework is to go to a park or a place that is not too busy (you don’t want to make it too difficult in the beginning) and practice with your dog. Find a spot and just stand there with your dog. When your dog becomes excited and starts to pull, don’t say anything, don’t get ruffled and simply pull back on the leash and put some slack into it.
Repeat this and in a few minutes you’ll see a big change in your dog. Once your dog relaxes, then and only then do you turn on the verbal and physical praise.
Give it a try and see for yourself.
I guarantee you’ll be impressed with your dog and yourself.
All the best,
Eric
P.S. I got a nasty email from one reader this week saying that I should not promote my Dog Training Inner Circle in the P.S. That I should just come out and ask the readers of this blog to buy it without “dangling a carrot(?)”
P.P.S. I do like to help as many dog lovers as I possibly can and offer a lot of advice at no charge, but this is how I make my living. So if you’d like to become a member of the Dog Training Inner Circle and get the really good stuff please consider joining The Dog Training Inner Circle.
P.P.P.S. If that offended anyone please let me apologize in advance. I still hope you find my email newsletter informative and fun to read. Even though it is free, I do put a lot of work into it.
February 24th, 2011
By Eric Letendre
In my last blog post I showed you where you can get a FREE clicker app for your phone (See below).
In this video I discuss how to use clickers. Clickers are extremely effective and you can teach your dog very fast by using one. The clicker is a tool that you use to communicate to your dog and it can cut the training time down fast.
Here is a video explaining how to do clicker training.
BTW, if you want more in depth information on clicker training check out The Dog Training Inner Circle.
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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.”
