A couple weeks ago I uploaded a podcast about why focus is the most important training tool you have at your disposal. Now that you've been practicing and working hard on gaining your dog's focus and increasing distractions, you should have a solid base of focus and be able to redirect him in many situations. But how do you take your dog's obedience to the next level with the ultimate distraction of a busy public setting? Tune in to this episode with my fur friends Maggie & Orbit to find out!

On episode 003 of The #AskTheTrainer Show, I answer questions about: How to work through potty training issues, how to improve off leash recall, what to do when your dog cries to get out of his crate, how to stop accidents inside your house and how to stop a dog from barking at houseguests!

I get tons of messages from people asking how to stop their dog from barking at people who come into their home. It can be pretty embarrassing to have your dog barking at every person who walks through the front door. The best way to work through this "reactivity" (when your dog is barking at other dogs, people inside and outside of your home) is by preventing it altogether. As I describe in this episode, there are a few key steps that will help you work through this type of behavior. Listen up!

Your ability to keep your dog's focus is your most important training tool. If you have your dog's focus locked in on you, you can get them to do anything and prevent them from doing anything. To get your dog's focus, make sure you're ALWAYS saying his name positively. It's also crucial to practice keeping your dog's focus in different environments with different stimuli (dogs, people, sounds, etc). This episode gives you an example of that process with one of my service dogs.

In this episode, I cover topics such as proper introductions and how to work through a dog's anxiety in and outside the home by catching it before it turns into reactivity or aggression. To do this, I delve into WHY your dog is misbehaving. If your dog is misbehaving, why is he acting that way and what would you rather have him do? If your dog is being triggered by a certain stimuli, I discuss how to catch your dog before he crosses that line and begins reacting towards that other dog/person/sound.

How to properly potty train is a question I get a LOT from you guys! How to get a dog to stop going inside, how often to bring them outside, etc. It's actually a pretty simple process... BUT what messes most people up is a poor routine and a lack of patience with their pup! So what should you do? Follow the guidelines in this episode to house train your pup in the fastest way possible!

For families with young children, getting a dog can be an overwhelming experience; worrying about training your dog and making sure that he gets along with both your kids and other people and dogs can seem like too much for any family to handle. HOWEVER, there are a few keys that I go over in this episode to make this experience more manageable! Listen in to get your new dog to be well-mannered and fit into your living situation by making training a fun-filled event for the whole family :)

In this episode, I work with a Frenchie owner to overcome her pup’s stubbornness, improve his focus, and stop a jumping behavioral problem. I've gotten a TON of questions and great feedback about stopping dogs from jumping on their owners and guests so I hope you love this one, we get really deep into the details ;)

In this episode, we cover basic obedience skills such as "Touch", "Stay", "Leave It", "Down" and recall. I also talk about taking the next step towards advanced obedience by weaning off of treat training, working on off leash recall and prolonging focus.

Guys I'm super excited to introduce this new format to the podcast!! I do a weekly Q&A show live on my Instagram @allthingspups called #AskTheTrainer, where I answer all of your training questions live! I get dozens of questions every day in my Instagram DM so I use this show as an opportunity to share those answers with the entire All Things Pups community. In this first episode I answer training questions on topics such as potty training, crate training, jumping and self-control. Thanks for listening!