May 16th, 2013
By Eric Letendre
There is a company in Woodland Hills, CA that operates as a doggy CSI.
If your dog takes a dump and you don’t pick it up, this company will take a sample of your dog’s poop and track you down.
How do they do it?
Through the dog’s DNA.
Poo Prints West is the company and they use the same DNA testing that police do to hunt down criminals.
This is how it works:
A residential community signs up for the service. It requires its tenants to have their dogs swabbed for a DNA sample, then when some “evidence” is discovered, a nickel-sized sample would be tested.
Right now it is mostly used in apartment complexes and home owner associations.
Anyway. . .
. . . I’m glad I taught my dogs to go “on command.”
I give my dogs the “Get busy” signal and the floodgates open and the best part – this is not that difficult to teach.
Moral of the story.
Train your dog to go #1 and #2 on command. It really makes your life easier on cold rainy days or when the Doggy DNA Team comes to your town.
The Housetraining Handbook has everything you need to know about housetraining and more. The best part is that you can get it and other popular dog training courses during the Amazing Dog Training Man’s Spring Sale.
Here’s where to go NEXT:
All the best,
Eric
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
August 27th, 2012
By Eric Letendre
Here is some advice you won’t hear from every dog trainer.
Treats can actually backfire on you when you are training.
Yes, you read that correctly, let me splain:
There is a HUGE difference between rewarding behavior and bribing behavior.
The big mistake that many people make (especially with the come when called command) is that they use the treat as a bribe and not a reward.
Many people will bribe their dog to come back when they call. My sister has three great little dogs and when they are out in the backyard she always bribes them to come back into the house.
Sometimes they listen and often they don’t. In order to get them in the house, she has to come up with a stronger bribe.
You see, a bribe puts your dog in control. Your dog can decide to take the bribe or to ignore it.
A reward on the other hand correctly reinforces the behavior and keeps you in control of the situation.
If your dog is not coming when called, it may be because you are bribing and not rewarding.
The Ultimate Online Recall Course shows how it is done.
Check it out here:
http://dogtrainingrecall.com/
Best,
Eric
August 27th, 2012
By Eric Letendre
Today I decided to do a little Q & A.
I get sometimes get between 300 and 500 emails a day so it is impossible to answer them all.
Here’s a question I recently got:
“MY dog loves to beg and it has become embarrassing whenever I have guests over for dinner. I love to entertain but I haven’t recently because my dog will paw, whine and beg for food when we sit at the table. Can this be stopped?”
My answer: YES! This is a very easy behavior to stop and I am going to share with you how it is done.
Two things need to happen:
1. Everyone in the house has to be consistent. Dogs usually learn to beg from one or two people that feed from the table.
2. Turn the consequences around.
Let’s begin – Instruct family and guests that no one is to feed the dog from the table. You can’t get mad at a dog that is being rewarded for begging. This is a learned behavior and in order for it to stop, everyone has to agree to stop feeding from the table.
Next – dogs learn to beg because it is a POSITIVE consequence. They beg and someone hands them a yummy piece of chicken or steak. Dogs beg because it works.
The next time the dog begs, the food being handed to the dog should NOT be tasty. It should be something the dog really dislikes.
Think about it from the dog’s point of view. Imagine you’re the dog and someone hands you a tasty morsel from the table, not the boring, crunchy, dry food that you eat every day. Of course you would repeat this behavior every chance you got.
Now I want you to think of the food you HATE the most – liver, broccoli, kale? Now imagine the food you hate is handed to you from the table. You are not going to repeat the behavior.
It’s as simple as that and I show real life examples of how to do this and the EXACT “mixture” I use to stop this behavior forever.
Check it out here:
Best,
Eric
July 23rd, 2012
By Eric Letendre
Got this email over the weekend:
“Hi Eric, Love your emails. Very informative and fun to read but I have one problem. I have a little four month old yorkie that my husband and I adore but she has one problem. She still poos inside the house. We need her 2 poo outside, any suggestions?”
No fun having a yorkie that poos in the house.
This would be described as a behavior problem by many of the dog training “experts.”
Let me make this very clear – This is NOT a behavior problem. Your dog peeing and pooing is a normal, natural function that all living creatures need to perform.
When your dog pees or poos in the house it is a LOCATION PROBLEM.
Sorry for the all the captial letters but I really want you to understand this because when it is called a behavior problem it is often lumped in with bad behavior and bad behavior is always viewed through the lens of punishment.
When a dog poos inside it is not bad behavior and a dog should not be punished.
In fact, punishment can quickly backfire and cross associations can develop.
A cross association is when your dog makes a negative association with your presence, not the event you were punishing for.
For example: A dog pees in the house. The owner gets mad drags the dog over to the urine and stuffs his nose in it and yells “BAD DOG.”
The dog now learns to hold it when the owner is around. They hold it in the house and they hold it when they are outside with the owner.
The dog has to eventually go so guess what the dog does?
He hides.
He finds a place where no one can see him and he pees behind the couch, under the table anywhere he can’t be seen.
Instead, we need to think of this as a location problem and apply the M.U.T.T. Method as discussed in Friday’s email.
So if your dog still pees or poos inside the house, remember that housetraining is like real estate:
Location, location, location.
Teach your dog the right location and your dog will be housetrained faster than you can say “Amazing Dog Training Man.”
BTW – The Housetraining Handbook is included on The Dog Training Inner Circle which shows you the step-by-step method to teach your dog or puppy the right location.
Get all the details here:
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.”
