May 2nd, 2013
By Eric Letendre
My mom did something that was brilliant when I was growing up.
What she did was get me some comic books. I loved (and still do) reading comic books.
Reading those comic books lead to a lifelong love of reading and learning.
You see, she never forced or demanded that I read. She came up with a way that developed a desire for me to read.
And that, my dog loving friend, is the “secret” to crate training.
The problem with crate training is that most dogs or puppies are forced into the crate. If you take a little time you can turn this around and train your dog to LOVE the crate, to go into the crate on command with no struggles or fighting.
Most trainers will tell you to toss treats into the crate and let the dog go in. There is one HUGE step that they are missing.
And I am going to share it with you:
You need to add a little frustration to the mix… just a little.
Start by holding your dog’s collar and take out a treat.
Make a big deal out the treat. Show it to your dog, let her sniff it, get her a little excited and then toss it into the crate BUT…
…close the crate door.
When the crate door is shut let go of your dog’s collar. The treat is now on the inside of the crate and your dog is on the other side.
Your dog is now thinking, “How do I get inside this crate.”
Chances are your dog will start pawing to get inside – good!
You are building desire to go INTO the crate.
There are a few more steps that need to be followed but you get the gist.
The good news is that all of this and MUCH more is covered on The Dog Training Inner Circle with a forum where you can personally ask me any of your dog training questions.Get all the details by going here NOW:
Dog Training Inner Circle
Best,
Eric
April 25th, 2013
By Eric Letendre
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:
Dog Training Inner Circle
All the best,
Eric
April 24th, 2013
By Eric Letendre
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:
Good K9 Manners
Best,
Eric
April 14th, 2013
By Eric Letendre
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:
Always Come When Called
Best,
Eric
March 21st, 2013
By Eric Letendre
This may be a tad bit…disturbing.
Growing up I had a best friend.
We’ll call him Fred.
Fred was a great guy to hang out with because you never knew what he was going to do next. There was always a little bit of danger hanging out with Fred.
He would whip a snowball at a car or knock over some empty garbage cans when you least expected it, and you’d be off running.
Nothing serious and mostly adolescent schoolboy hijinks.
As Fred got a little older, his stunts became more serious and he started to break the law. He showed up at my house one day in a stolen car.
That was the last day I hung out with Fred.
Last I heard, Fred was in jail.
Most would think that Fred is a bad person. Many of my old friends do.
I always disagreed with them.
Fred did a lot of bad things but he was not a bad person.
You see, Fred was severely abused. One of his parents was truly awful to him, day in and day out. I still shudder when I think of what he had to endure as a child.
I saw it firsthand for years.
The point I want to make is that there is a strong underlying reason for Fred’s behavior.
As I began my career in dog training, I thought about Fred a lot because whenever you are dealing with a behavior problem the first step is to find out what the UNDERLYING problem is.
A dog that digs has a reason for the behavior. The dog may be hot, nesting, frustrated, cold, or trying to bury something.
The same holds true for aggression, barking, chewing or any other behavior you can think of.
Once we find out what the underlying problem is, we can deal with it and help the dog develop a new behavior.
It is the reason I created The M.U.T.T. Method which stands for Manage, Underlying, Training and Time.
It’s the recipe for helping any dog with any behavior problem and is included in The Good K9 Manners course and you can use the coupon code GK9M50 to get half off.
Check it out here:
Good K9 Manners
I haven’t seen Fred in years but I hope is doing well. I still say a silent prayer when I think of him and hope someone helped him with his underlying problems.
All the best,
Eric
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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 techniques 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.”
