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Standard Poodle Turned Service Dog!

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This Standard Poodle became a Service Dog!

Zoey came to us at 6-months old for training. After lots of hard work put in by her family in our training program, she went on to pass her Service Dog Certification!

Poodle Turned Service Dog

“Zoey has been a lifesaver on many occasions. I constantly get comments from people saying she is the best-trained dog they have seen. Absolutely no issues taking her anywhere. In fact, businesses are more excited to see her than me, but I can understand.”

– Owner Gene

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Reactive Dog No More!

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One of our Vet Student clients came to us with her reactive dog, Indie, a couple of months ago. They both learned a ton during their lessons and have been on a road to success ever since! The amount of hard work this client put into her dogs training truly shows and we couldn’t be more proud!

 

Reactive Dog No More!

 

“We had our first group obedience class this weekend!

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous going into it. I hadn’t really trained Indie all week due to studying and patient care at school and there would be quite a few dogs present, so I wasn’t sure how it would go.

But as usual, she blew me away. Indie didn’t have one single reaction at group class – she was focused, calm and so dang good, even with other excitable dogs and other dogs working around her. We were able to participate in all of the drills with the other dogs, including weaving through them and their handlers and walking past them.

If you would have told me that we would be able to do this a couple of months ago, I would have laughed. If you have a reactive dog and are struggling – reach out to a trainer. It was the best decision that I made – they helped me with things I couldn’t see, taught me how to handle situations, and continuously supported us through the process. So do better for your dog, do better for you. It’s a hell of a lot of work, but I promise you it is so worth it to see your dog learn that life isn’t so scary and to give you the confidence to help them navigate the world.“

– Owner Maddie

 

You can follow along with their journey on Instagram – @tailsofindie

 

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Place and Recall Training Success with Rescue Dog!

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Place and Recall Training has helped Taco the Texas Rescue live his best life! He and his owner worked, and continue to work, very hard on his training every day. Read below what Taco’s owner had to say about a recent successful outing.
Rescue Dog Standing
“Some huge training wins this morning!
Tacos recall has improved so much with our recent training and incorporating a “place” command. We started playing a game of getting him to place on various steps of the bleachers! Even with dogs running by, he held his position (with the cutest head tilt) until he was released.”
– Owner Lindsay
You can follow along their journey on Instagram – @tacofromtexas

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You’re A Dog Whisperer

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Building Engagement

Why does my dog behave so differently with you?

This is a question I get asked with every dog that comes in to my day train or board and train program. In these programs I train the dog and then coach their owners how to take over the process. My answer is always the same. I don’t have any baggage with the dog and I immediately set the rules and boundaries the minute the dog comes in.

I define baggage as all the unwanted behaviors that were let to develop into habits over time with a dog’s owners. I’m not pointing the finger at the owner and putting the blame on them, necessarily. In many cases they were told to do what they have tried up until that time. Add to that the simple fact that you don’t know what you don’t know. It’s too easy to point the finger and lay blame. So I don’t.

When a dog is dropped off and left with me to be trained, I’m very fortunate and it gives me a very distinct advantage. The dog doesn’t know me, is in an unfamiliar place, and immediately we implement the routines, rules, and boundaries that will shape the dog into the dog they have the potential to be. I immediately develop a relationship with the dog that is based on leadership and very quickly the dog will start to look to me to help them deal with their struggles differently.

The Art of Attention

I don’t possess the anxieties or frustrations the owner does when the dog struggles and my even keel energy quickly sets the dog at ease. It allows us to develop a relationship based on trust and leadership from day one – without the baggage. If you take into account the fact that I’m a dog trainer and should know how to deal with the issues brought before me, it allows me to gain that trust quickly. Whereas, an owner is trying to figure it out through too much trial and error that leads to confusion and distrust from the dog. The dog learns they need to figure it out for themselves because they don’t believe their owner has the solutions. Again, you don’t know what you don’t know and it is easy to give up on something when it doesn’t work immediately.

So dog trainers are not dog whisperers. Sure, if you want to turn your dog around as quickly as possible then get a dog trainer to train them for you in a board and train type program. The fact that they do this for a living professionally is the reason they will achieve results more quickly and to a higher level. Just like any trade; getting a skilled trade person to do a job versus doing it yourself will typically yield a better, faster result. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t do the job yourself. You just have to learn how to the best of your ability.

Solutions

My advice to those doing it yourself is set yourself up for success and the first step for that is to remove the baggage. You need to flip the switch and reset your dog. That means you have to always be in a position to teach so you can communicate to your dog what is right or wrong to influence their choices to the ones you wish them to make in all the circumstances that demand it. You have to be consistent and the dog must understand the conversation. When you are not in a position to teach, the dog needs to be somewhere where they can’t exercise the decisions you don’t want them to make. I recommend crating them. This sets the rules and boundaries and removes the baggage.

Freedom is earned.

The second step is to employ a training system. First you need to establish a communication system that the dog understands that distinguishes right from wrong. Then you need to teach the dog whatever you will employ in those circumstances outside of those circumstances first. The dog needs to understand everything about the conversation to be successful. If they do then the only variable is the choice the dog is making and that is what you are aiming to influence.

That’s the secret. It isn’t dog whispering at all. Where people often fail is a lack of consistency and failure to control the dog’s environment. People are often looking for a quick fix. They search YouTube and find a video on how to fix something and they try it. When it doesn’t work immediately they try something else. That just confuses and frustrates the dog. It isn’t that the YouTube video was necessarily wrong. There is just a lot more that goes into it then you see in a short video clip. So a lot of information is missing for a full solution. A large part of that is changing how you live with your dog – the baggage.

Calm and Happy

If a board and train program is not in the cards and you are struggling to achieve results on your own, I recommend you hire a professional for private sessions and follow what they are instructing you to do. You are still doing it on your own but with professional guidance and a plan. Another option is a quality video training system that teaches you how to train your dog. Again, you need to follow those instructions and be very consistent to have success.

Need Help?

Regardless of the path you choose to unleash your dog’s potential, I can help you. I offer day train, board and train, private lessons, and an online video series that can train any size, any breed, and any problem. Contact me to find out more or visit my Facebook page to see my training in action.

Guy Lapierre, Certified Professional Dog Trainer.  Unleashed Potential Halifax.

 

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Overly Excited, Pushy Dog? How to Calm Your Dog Down in Minutes

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1 Simple Trick to Calm the Overly Excited Dog and Get Attention Fast

Some dog trainers and dog owners believe that using food in dog training causes overexcitement, over-arousal, and creates a dog that is too pushy so they stop using the food or never begin with it.  They don’t believe an overly excited, pushy dog can learn to calm and pay attention with food alone.

This is a false belief.

In this video, I’ll show you how easy it can be to get a pushy dog, who really wants the food that I have, to calm down, pay attention by giving me eye contact and think, in order to get the food.

It’s so easy it could be considered lazy dog training!

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SUMMARY

  • The overly excited pushy dogs need to learn to calm down to eat and the weak dog needs to become pushier to eat.
  • Trainers and pet owners sometimes believe that food will make a dog too pushy and too jumpy.
  • People say, stand still and the dog will stop jumping. They will eventually but why not use food and create a thinking dog?
  • When a dog starts thinking, when they actually start using their brain, they stop the jumping and other unwanted behaviours.

dog not paying attention

  • Pay attention and look in my eyes to get the food reward.

Calm dog paying attention

  • Think of this:  if the dog charges at the bush (being overly excited), there will be no rabbits (food) in that bush.  When the dog figures out that if she looks into my eyes (calms down, and pays attention) it will make rabbits (food!) come from the bush and she eats.

 

The Liver Bites I use and train with every day.  Freeze-dried, all-natural liver bites with no preservatives.

Liver Bites - Dog Treats

 

 

treat pouch to hold high value food to calm the pushy dog
Unleashed Potential Training Pouch

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Full Transcript-

Overly Excited Dog? How to Calm Your Dog Down and Get Attention in Minutes

[The following is the full transcript of this YouTube video. Please note that this video, features Duke speaking extemporaneously–he is unscripted and unedited. Filmed in one take].

 

Hey there, it’s Duke Ferguson, the owner CEO and master trainer of Unleashed Potential K9 and creator of Dog Training Genesis.

In this video, I want to address the myth that too many trainers and too many pet owners tell me about and that is food making dogs too amped, too pushy, too crazy and they can’t train them because they’re too hungry. That’s further from the truth. So in this video, I want to show you an actual example of how you can get a dog to use his brain, and to calm down and think, in order to get the food while you don’t have to do anything. The dog is the one that’s actually putting out, trying, and you’re barely doing anything at all. It’s just that easy. Here’s a clip from my Monroe, Washington seminar and it shows exactly that. I hope you enjoy it! Before you start the video, be sure to subscribe to see future videos, just like this one.

I want to address the myth that too many trainers and too many pet owners tell me about and that is food making dogs too amped, too pushy, too crazy and they can’t train them because they’re too hungry. That’s further from the truth.

So the pushy dog, remember I said, I’ll get her all amped. The pushy dog needs to learn to calm down to eat,  and the weak dog needs to put out to eat. So, let her push. I’m looking for anything.  Notice the pushiness just kinda stopped. I don’t care what she does I’ll either go…If I’m looking for eye contact she jumps on this board, I’ll mark that. I’m just getting her brain to work. I’m talking to you guys. This is a dog doing reactive stuff,  just what they know, what they can get away with. And she’ll learn to start using her brain and she’ll look into my eyes. I can sit on a chair. Do you want to see the look on her face? Just hang tight.

The overly excited, pushy dog needs to learn to calm down to eat,  and the weak dog needs to put out to eat.

The dog’s a bit nervous. When they are really hungry, touch. okay. We will go this way to see. There’s the food, I want eye contact. When a dog starts thinking, when actually start using their brain, they stop all this sh** and they think, huh, charging the bush… there are no rabbits in that bush. Ah,  See? Simple.

So in theory, people could say, stand still and the dog will stop jumping. They want you. They will eventually, but you’ll get all scratched to crap. If they want food, all they’re doing is licking and pushing on my hand. And I can discourage that pushiness, by taking it away. So, I can make it faster. So let’s say they’re really pushy when she goes to it, I pull away. You can play catch to build a little dopamine. So you can actually use your food as prey as well. Now I’m going to make it more distracting.  She learns, to get distracted by this you starve! Sit down and think, how do I get that? She doesn’t understand, right, so I make it easy. So notice I pull away. See the brain working?

So you can actually use your food as prey as well.

Put your camera right on her face, the look, she’s like. Come see it, just her head, this dog her brain, you can smell the wheels turning in there and there’s smoke coming out of her ears, every so often, it’s great! Okay. I can do this, all day, and she’ll learn to stare in my eyes. . So fast, “Chip” And it happens faster, faster, faster See it? See the eyes? She’s thinking. You want a thinking dog. No GPS help. I’m not doing this: Look, look, oh good girl! Don’t do that. Don’t do that. That drives me crazy. So now, you’re not paying her, and that’s okay? because she’s looking at you. Right, because she’s putting out and I can talk to you and she’s still thinking. Now I’m talking to you guys and look at the dog. She’s putting out. Yeah. So I don’t need to do the cheerleading and it’s less effort. That’s called lazy dog training. Look, here’s the pouch man, holy cow! Look at her thinking. “Chip” Look in the guy’s eyes, make rabbits come from the bush and eat it. She learns. Hey, pretty quick. That’s an easy thing I know what to do. I’m already waving around.  Notice how people are like “Don’t distract the dog.” “Don’t distract, In training, don’t distract my dog.”

I’m talking to you guys and look at the dog; she’s putting out.  So I don’t need to do the cheerleading and it’s less effort