May 27th, 2010
By Eric Letendre
This is the best time of the year. The weather is getting warmer, the leaves are back on the trees and it’s a great time to be outside with your dog.
Where I live, there are acres and acres of land that I can go hiking on with my dogs. I love hiking with them through the trails and fields.
They spend the whole time off-leash and get a lot of exercise.
This was not always the case.
Last year, when my wife, Rachael, adopted a little maltese, poodle mix, she was awful every time she was off-leash.
She would run in the other direction and it would take me 45 to 60 minutes to catch her.
I hate hiking with my dogs on leash. So the first thing she had to learn was the command “Come.”
It took me about two weeks, but now she can be off-leash every time I go hiking and I’m going to share with you how I did it.
The first step was teaching her that she had to come to me every time I said the command come. I did this by never allowing her the option to ignore the command.
You see, when your dog is off-leash and you call the command come, your dog has options. They quickly learn that they DON’T have to come to you.
In fact, many dogs learn that when they come to you the fun ends. Your dog is running around having fun and then you say “Junior COME!”
Junior trots over to you and the first thing you do is put him back on leash.
Your dog just learned a very valuable lesson. Coming to you equals end of freedom.
So the first step is to keep a long leash (20 to 30) attached to your dog’s collar. Now when you say “Come” you can use the leash to guide your dog back to you.
The next step…
…will be covered in my next email so stay tuned.
All the best,
Eric
P.S. If you’d like to see videos on how to teach your dog to come when called check out Dog Training Inner Circle!
March 12th, 2010
By Eric Letendre
Your dog is always trying to communicate to you through his body language. It can effect the training that you do with your dog. This video will show you what to look for when you’re training. Please leave your comments and suggestions for other videos.
January 7th, 2010
By Eric Letendre
Waaaay back in 1994 I was asked to set up
a K-9 Unit for a security company at World
Wide Plaza on West 44th St. in Manhatten.
To say I was excited was an understatement.
Food, hotel, cab fare all paid for, not to
mention the cashola they were paying me to
do the work.
When I landed at LaGuardia Airport I was picked
up by a limo and they drove me to meet the client.
I learned a very valuable dog training lesson as
we drove into Times Square to pick him up.
Here’s what happened:
As were driving through Time Square he wanted to talk
over the details of training the staff and dogs. He
also wanted to discuss dog food, vet care and training
equipment.
In most situations I would have been all ears…
…but I just could not focus on what this guy was
saying. In fact, I was silently wishing he would
shut his pie hole so I could concentrate on what was
going outside the limo windows.
You see, I had been to New York many times as a kid,
but this was the first time I was there on my own. I was
young, I had a pocket full of money and all of the
Big Apple was calling for me.
Have you ever been in a situation like that?
Here is the dog training lesson I learned. Most dogs
can do their obedience commands when there is nothing
going on around them.
Most dogs come to their owner when they are in the
house. Take them outside and with all the distractions,
your dog’s obedience goes out the window.
So the question of the day is…
“How do I get my dog to respond to the commands when
there are distractions?”
That question, my dog loving friend, will be answered in
my next message, so stay tuned.
All the best,
Eric
December 17th, 2009
By Eric Letendre
Went for a walk with my pups this morning
and all I can say is, “IT’S COLD!”
December mornings here in chilly Western
Massachusetts are not fun. Maybe I’ll take
my Mom’s advice and go visit her in sunny
south Florida soon.
Won’t she be surprised when I show up with
Jimmy, my German Shepherd, Izzy, my pitbull
and Martini, the maltipoo – haha!
Anyway, as I was walking around this morning, I
thought back to when I used to do K-9 patrol
in Hartford,CT.
I used to work 8 to 9 hours outside with my
partner Jocko, a long haired German Shepherd
who never seemed to mind the temperature.
Back then I started giving it some thought
to becoming a full time dog trainer. The
thought of working all day long in a nice,
heated room working with dogs seemed nice.
What I didn’t know was that becoming a dog
trainer was like entering a life in politics.
Dog trainers are very opinionated about the
right way and wrong way to train dogs.
Spend some time on the Internet or watching
some of the popular dog training TV shows
and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
One trainers says to use a choke collar, the
next says to never use a choke collar, never
use a treat, always use treats, and on and on.
The problem for the new dog owner is that they
become confused, frustrated and in some cases
depressed.
I know, I have talked to thousands of dog owners
over the past 20 years.
It’s one of the reasons I have put up so many
videos on YouTube and articles on the Internet.
It’s also the reason I developed the Dog Training
Inner Circle. I wanted a place where people could
go and get quality information and a place where
you can go and ask your questions.
The forum has over 1700 pages of questions asked
and answered. The forum is a dog training encyclopedia
all by itself!
Add to this, The Good K9 Manners course, The Housetraining
Handbook, monthly video seminars, breed of the month
profiles and your dog training and behavior problems are
SOLVED!
If this is the kind of information you’d like to get
your hands on…now you can.
All the best,
Eric
P.S. You’ll be amazed at how simple and easy it is to apply
all of the dog training techniques.
October 12th, 2009
By Eric Letendre
In my last email I said that I was going to share 9 reasons why your dog doesn’t listen to you.
In this email I’m going to share the first two reasons why, but first…
…a quick story.
If I was still in high school, I would be on drugs. There would be no doubt about it, some guidance counselor would have suggested and strongly recommended that I be put on some type of drug therapy to get through high school.
You see, I barely, and I mean barely, squeaked out with a diploma. I was really just pushed through my junior and senior year of high school. When I look back on my school days, I was really just pushed through most of my schooling.
I was “diagnosed” as having a learning disability in the third grade. Today I would be classified as ADHD. It’s not that I couldn’t learn, I just had a very active brain and I was BORED out of my mind. I could not concentrate on what was being taught, but when I had a subject and a teacher that was interesting, I was at the top of my class.
So why do I share all of this with you?
Simple…
Training your dog boils down to getting your dog’s attention and keeping him interested in the training. Over the next few days I’ll share with you the nine reasons why your dog doesn’t listen to you. Today I’ll talk about the first two:
Reason 1
Short sessions: Dog training is best when you do it in short sessions. I always recommend that the sessions should not last more than 10 minutes. When you train longer than that, your dog loses attention and won’t listen to you.
Reason 2
Exercise: Dogs, like kids, won’t listen if they have too much pent up energy. Most of the time when I go to help a dog, I know within the first five minutes that the dog does not suffer from behavior or obedience problems, the dog has exercise problems.
This is especially true with young dogs. Make sure your dog is getting enough exercise and obedience will be much easier.
Coming up…more reasons why your dog doesn’t listen to you.
Reasons like:
All the best,
Eric
P.S. If you really want your dog to listen to you, check out The Dog Training Inner Circle.
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.”
