NYC dog walker/dog trainer

I am a NYC resident and I love walking dogs. I love it when a dog is enjoying the walk yet still is listening to me. I, nor anyone else, likes to be pulled down the street by a dog. This is why leading from the front is important. I also love even more to train dogs. This is my passion and I have spent countless hours reading about, training, and observing dogs. After a while I began to see a pattern. I hear some people say they watch youtube videos to solve their problem. The probably can fix it depending on the problem, but there are missing pieces that a good dog trainer can troubleshoot on the fly. You can learn the basics, but who has time to spend all day watching youtube videos?

 I know how important it is to understand our dogs as they are part of our family. I seek to help humans better understand how to motivate, engage and live a fun life with their dogs in the areas of Queens and Manhattan NY. I want to give credit to all the other dog trainers who are educating the world and making it a better place for dogs and humans. What can a person expect using my services? You can expect to see a dog that is calm around other dogs and a dog that wants to be with you. I am going to be attending the Michael Ellis school of dog training and a lot of my concepts I get from him or other popular dog trainers in the dog training world. Get ready as I teach you what I love to do.

The Cesar Millan show!!!

Recently I just went to a Cesar Milan show in Westbury Long Island. I had a great time. He definitely put on a show that was entertaining with jokes and demonstrations.  He talked about his story coming from Mexico and being surrounded by dogs with no leashes yet the dogs followed him.

It was this sort of primal energy that he was putting off that seemed to not be accessible to our modern technological world. I loved this talked as it fed my hunger for nature and returning back to a simplier time and way of living even if only in my mind.

I watched demonstrations of Cesar taking a dog that was pulling a volunteer around the room. Cesar took that dog and within seconds was able to walk with the dog only the leash with 2 fingers.

Many were surprised. I watched this guy for a while and its what I expected. Cesar also had words of wisdom too. He talked about dogs following you and the state of mind that they are in when they were demonstrating certain behaviors. Some dogs were too hyper and he gave them a chance to relax first.

This was something I liked about Cesar. He is big on being fair and setting the dog up for success. Even though he has a dominance theory of how dogs are like wolves in a pack he believes in fairness. You know dog psychology stuff.

I went with an open mind being that I had to because I didn't know we were going there until my girlfriend and I pulled up to the theatre with her car. And also because I always feel like I can learn something as a dog trainer.

I do think people don't realize that Cesar shows is mostly for entertainment not for you to go home and start practicing on your dog. I have clients that immediately start to shhhh their dog and tapping them the way Cesar does. Without knowing what state of mind their dog is in and just guessing, they attempt it. Every time their dog "acts up" they think he is being dominant. I believe that there are dominant dogs but most dogs are opportunist.

Also  realistically for some of the behaviors that dogs have that Cesar fixes on his show he needs more than an hour to do. There is a lot of editing and showing you quick results. I am not discrediting Cesar because he is a professional and knows what he is doing. I just don't want people to get the wrong idea about trying this at home.

These are the thoughts that went through my head as I drank some red wine after the intermission. Maybe it was the wine making think more intensely, but truthfully I think like this about dog training on a regular. I wish I got more footage of Cesar. Too bad I wasn't a VIP member. Maybe next time. Can't wait for the next stop- Michael Ellis dog trainer in Cali. 

Why I quit PetSmart And decided to start my own company?

Many dog owners go to PetSmart for the money deal. They have 6 week classes for $129. That sounds like a bargain right? Not really because its a lot of filler and making sure the classes are stretched out. I'm not saying that the training is all bad, it;s just low grade compared to what you could be getting from an actual trainer.

Since they are a corporation they are about money. I'm not complaining about that. They promise that clients get a money back guarenteed if they are not satisfied with the class. What I am complaining about is that that money comes out of my paycheck if a client does want a refund. Its not my fault a client wants a refund. They taught me the methods to use and I had to use their methods.

It was bad enough that they weren't paying enough, but this was over the top. Now business is business. I'm sure they were not in the business to lose money. Therefore I agree with those methods to market, but as an employee who loves dog training all around I was upset by the limiting tools and methods I could use.

I remember I had to train a boxer who wasn't aggressive, but he was hyper. The owner had an issue with the dog jumping up on people. I did the petsmart  way but the owner was very impatient. I let him know that it does take patience and consistency. Unfortunately, as a petsmart employee I was not allowed to go to a client's home to offer training. So I couldn't be certain what they were doing at home.

When a dog has behavior issues most of the time it has to do with how you live with your dog. Your dog can know all the obedience commands in the world, but not perform it if you live poorly with your dog.

What I mean by living poorly in simple terms is your dog not respecting what you say because your dog doesn't understand and you haven't explained the rules  the best you can or because you lack consistency.

The dog spent most of their time home and around the neighborhood so that's where I wanted to do my work. Another reason I quit and went rogue was because I hate working in retail. I don't know about how you feel, but to me it sucks. The hours cutting, the short lunch break, the constant standing on your feet looking aimlessly for something to do, the constant need to be pleasant to people who are beyond rude and look down on you. I think I'll pass.

I feel much happier now that I have the freedom to help my clients connect more with their dog in a deeper way. I don't have to smile at every person that walks by like a crazy clown. I can be truthful, authentic, and creative. I love it and my clients love it and do great also. I can't wait to see what the future holds. Some big plans coming soon.

Step by step to get an off leash dog

I knew a man that walked around with his dog as if they were partners. No leash on the dog. Just walking around the neighborhood while the dog sniff the green grass and trotted along behind the owner. I was in shock and amazed. It seemed like he was doing the impossible when all I seen up until that point was people with cute little dogs on retractable leashes or people with big dogs walking their owner.

I wanted to understand the work it took to get an off leash dog. Little did i know it would be a lot of work as moving too quickly could mean risking your dog or someone else safety. First I want to say that many people move too fast when moving to this step. You have to practice these over and over.

A behavior becomes reliable the more a dog practices it and does it every time on command. Just think of it like tying your shoelace. After performing this behavior so many times it becomes automatic.

We want our dogs to perform the behavior without thinking. If your dog sometimes listens to you then he/she is not ready for off leash training. There are 3 steps to accomplishing this task. How long it takes depends on the dog in each phase. Also keep in mind that every dog is different.

You might see someone with their dog off leash, but you don't know how they raised the dog. Its been my experience that people either go through these 3 steps I'm about to share with you or they never put a leash on their dog to begin with and always let them roam free as a small puppy. The latter dogs have never known restriction and probably feel it is normal to be off leash. We must first start with the basics. We have to first teach the dog what we expect from them

Step 1.

We start with the dog on a 6foot leash and we teach our dog the basics. We teach the all the obedience commands that they must know. We use positive reinforcement for all of these exercises. It is important to up the distraction very slowly and to make sure you have control over the environment the best that you can.

 The issue with distractions is when you have high competing motivators. Another dog might be a high competing motivator for your dog so it is important to move slowly when getting to this step. I suggest that you thoroughly work on place and the come command as they are the most important. The stay command also is important.

Step 2.

Work with the dog on a long line. Start with a 10 foot long line and work your way up to a 30 foot long line. Practice the same commands as in step one only with more distance first. With some of the commands, such as stay and come, when you increase distance you automatically increase duration.

With other commands, such as down or sit, you can practice distance first then duration.  After they know what is expected and they have demonstrated this we proof behavior on long line with e-collar.

Step 3.

We first condition the dog to the ecollar. Then we use ecollar to give the dog low level stimulation to get the dog to perform the task everytime since it has demonstrated that it knows it anyways. In this step we first use the long line. After that we move to off leash freedom.

Reactive dog case study

My sister has an older dog who i have been taking care of. She is a pit bull mix and she is 11yrs old. She has hip problems, so you can imagine how hard it is for her to sit. She is a highly food motivated dog but she has a hard time with the body positions.

I wanted to do a lot of obedience with her just for practice, but I realized she had an even bigger problem. She was a reactive dog. I decided not to do obedience training and took her for a walk. We encountered several dogs along the walk. She would pull a little on the walk, but she calm down after a while.

I taught her how to walk loosely on the leash first.  Then we walked down blocks where I knew there were dogs. As we approached about 25 feet from an all white pit bull behind a fence, she begin to stare. After the stare I heard a low growl followed by her galloping sideways while intensely staring. She then started barking.

I just broke this down for you but this process literally takes seconds to happen. I was working with Tyril Frith, another dog trainer, who taught me some things of how to attack this issue. I started implementing some e collar conditioning. One thing I want to say is that I never just punish a dog with the collar.I condition them

I wanted to work below her threshold so that I wouldn't take her over the edge. The threshold is the line between a dog who is calm and a dog that is wildly out of control. Once a dog gets wildly out of control it is best to excuse yourself and the dog out of the situation because anything you say will go in one ear and out the other. 

Back to the walk:

As soon as she even started staring at the dog with intent, I corrected that behavior. The earlier I can correct the behavior the better. After the walk I realized where the threshold for this particular dog was and what level of correction she needed at that level. Next I taught the dog to look at me.( This is very important with reactive dogs). Once she knew how to look at me I used this when encountering other dogs.

The whole idea is to teach the dog what you expect and discourage unwanted behavior. It sounds simple, but the timing is the most important factor in this equation. This dog showed tremendous progress as we worked on this for several days in a row. She would see a dog and immediately look away.

Now that she understands what I don't want, I had to let her know when she did a good job. I can't always focus on the negative or it will ruin my relationship with the dog. I gave her a lot of praise and verbal marker (YES!!!) when she was calm around dogs or she looked up at me. This is a long process but we will continue to make progress as she has.

If you have a dog that is not just reactive, but you know might bite a person or another dog, then I would seek out a professional dog trainer who will probably work through with a muzzle for safety reasons. Stay safe and enjoy the process.

6 must know obedience commands before summer

Now i know you probably know a few of these like sit and down, but the rest of these are so much more important. I am going to show you how to do it and explain why you should learn them. Lets start with the basics.

Sit

Difficulty level: It is an easy command and almost natural for the dog.

Method: Luring

How to: 

1. Take a bite-sized treat in the palm of your hand

2. Open palm facing the ceiling hold the treat to the dog's nose

3. Once the dog starts sniffing, lift your hand above the dog's head

4. The dog will look up and its butt will hit the floor, Say your reward marker (YES!!!)

5. Give dog the treat

Down

Difficulty level: It can difficult for some dogs and easier for others. Just keep practicing and they will get it. In my experience, the huskys and German Shepherds down easily and the pit bulls sometimes take a little longer.

Method: Luring

How to:

1. Have 2 pieces of bite size treats in your hand.

2. Get the dog to sit , say reward marker (YES!!!) then give the dog a treat

3. As soon as the dog takes the treat take the other treat and put it right in front of the dogs nose

4. Lure the dog by bringing the treat straight down the dog's chest to the floor in between the dog's paws

5. Dog ends up in a hunch over position and so their butt slids out and their stomach hits the floor

6. Say reward marker(YES!!!) then give the dog the treat.

Leave It

Difficulty level: This depends on the dogs energy level and how bad they want to get to an object or person. Hyper dogs take longer to get it and need to work more on having a calm state of mind, which is a topic for another post.

Method: Catching the dog in the act by creating the scenario

How to:

1. Take a treat and place it on the floor in front of your dog and a treat behind your back

2. Instead of letting the dog eat the treat you are going to cover it with your hand palm down so that the treat is no longer accessible to the dog.

3. Most dogs will immediately go for the treat by scratching or even nibbling on your hand if they really want it

4. You don't do anything but keep your hand there and tell the dog to "leave it" in a strong non threatening voice. You keep telling the dog this until he looks away or backs up. Then you say the reward marker (YES!!!) then treat with the treat behind your back.

Tip: Don't give the dog the treat on the floor. We practice with treats but if that was something that was poisonous we wouldn't tell our dogs to "leave it" and then give it to them. Practice for real life scenarios.

Come

Difficulty level: Not difficult. Make sure when you're first teaching your dog that its in a very low distraction area such as in your home. Avoid outside with lots of distractions. We will work our way up to that and if you want to really get this down check this out.

Method: slight  leash pressure

How to:

1. Walk with your dog on the leash.

2. Wait for dog to look the other way

3. Back up away from dog and give slight leash pressure towards you

4. Tell the dog to come as you do step 3

5. Say reward marker(YES!!!) and give the dog a treat once he/she gets to you.

Tip: This is the basic version. If a dog won't come to you when you have the leash in a distraction free environment then he won't come when something else has his attention. Work slow and at your dog's level. Just because you understand the exercise doesn't mean the dog does. It gets much more complicated than this and I go over this in my advanced obedience lessons.

Stay

Difficulty level: very difficult for puppies( who have a short attention span) and hyper dogs (who have a hard time sitting still).

Method: Teaching the dog what we want through baby steps

How to:

1. Stand facing the dog as the dog will also be facing you.

2. Use open palm( like telling someone to stop) and tell the dog to stay

3. Take a step back then return to the dog with a step forward back to the dog.

4. Say reward marker(YES!!!) and give dog a treat.

5. Next do step 1 and 2 the same, but for step 3 you will take 2 steps back then 2 steps forward.

6. Say the reward marker(YES!!!) and give your dog a treat again

7. You will work your way to the end of the leash

Tip: You must always return to your dog when you tell them to stay. If you call your dog to come all time from a stay, your dog can begin to anticipate you calling them and get up from a stay before you want them to.

Place

Difficulty level: Simple for the dog to understand. Your dog will just need time to understand how to get there from a distance

Method: Luring

How to:

1. Take a piece of food and lure your dog onto the place mat( their bed).

2. Once they are on the bed feed them a couple times and with some treats( make it so that they receive treats on the bed and don't receive treats off of the bed).

3. After they feel comfortable going on the bed, the next step is teach them when to go on the bed

4. Walk up to the bed and stop abruptly just before the bed

5. Say "place" and use the leash to guide your dog onto the bed.

6. After a while as your dog begins to understand you can increase the distance by which you stop. Instead of stopping right before the bed, you stop 3 feet away and say "place".

Tip: To break it down, the dog must first like the bed( feeding them on the bed and not off makes that association).  Then you put the command "place" to it. Then you increase the distance.

The place command helps to send your dog to their bed when a guest comes over and you don't want them charging at the door.

Hope this was helpful.

The KEY to success dealing with dog BEHAVIORAL ISSUES

I have seen many dog owners with fearful, reactive , and aggressive dogs have a hard time with this concept I am about to share. This is the key to leadership with your dog. Many take their fur ball to obedience class at petsmart or petco only to realize that obedience didn't solve their problem. The dog and owner learned a lot but not how to solve their problem. This is solely because they were focusing on the wrong issues. I am a big proponent for building a relationship with your dog so that they love and respect you and want to be with you. Let me be specific with my example to make this clear. Don't let your dog affect your emotional state!!! This is the key I am talking about.I met someone with a skittish dog who always hid under the couch and when the owner grabbed the dog, the dog bit him. This should not be happening with your own dog. As I sat back and observed, the owner left the dog and refuse to take the dog out because he felt like he was hurting the dog and making the dog uncomfortable. This is also why sometimes a trainer is needed to truly evaluate the little details in the dog's behavior and to let the owner know he is not physically hurting the dog. In this case the dog just didn't  want to do what was being asked and they were so used to not listening. A leader has compassion and understands what needs to be done to lead their dog to a calm state of mind because they have a calm state of mind. Instead of letting the dog's erratic state of mind affect them, they choose to affect the dog using their calm state of mind

You CAN teach an old dog NEW tricks

Many people do not want to adopt a dog from the shelter because they fear that the dog automatically learned bad behaviors and that it will be easier with a puppy. I am here to say that this is simply not true and that a puppy actually requires more work. Unless you want the dog for something else besides just a pet then I might say get a puppy to quickly prevent bad behaviors. I still might suggest adopting a dog even then. Although it is much easier to prevent bad behaviors then to correct habitual bad behaviors, a lot of pet owners end up unknowingly creating bad behaviors in a puppy anyway. I want dogs in the shelter to be helped because I've seen dogs with so much potential.