In this episode, Jerry Bradshaw and Derek Beckelman discuss:

• Building a relationship of trust with your new dog, both pet and working.
• Being consistent with the rules with your dog.
• The emotional nature of dogs and handlers.
• The clash between attention and anticipation.
• Increasing the effectiveness of your communication with your dog.

Key Takeaways:

• Using food, treats, or toys to motivate, especially in the early stages of building the relationship is not a bad thing. But you want to avoid becoming a treat dispensing robot.
• There are two sides to training - classical and operant. You do not want to focus only on operant conditioning and forget about the aspects of classical conditioning that can help with your training.
• Dogs will try to anticipate everything. We, as humans, fall into routines. These can clash and create conflict within the training.
• Training can be frustrating. But the dog just wants to do dog things. You can't get mad at them for being a dog.
• You have to pay attention to where your dog's head is at in any given moment. Sometimes they aren't listening, not because they don't want to, but because they cannot due to other circumstances.

"It's not up to me how quickly a dog makes progress. It's up to the dog. But as long as we're paying attention, and we're reading what the dog is trying to tell us is going on, we can make jumps and progress when they're ready. But you have to see it. You have to feel it, and that just takes experience." — Derek Beckelman

Get Jerry's book Controlled Aggression on Amazon.com

Episode References:

• Dog Language: An Encyclopedia of Canine Behavior by Roger Abrantes - https://www.amazon.com/Dog-Language-Encyclopedia-Canine-Behavior/dp/0966048407

• Excel-erated Learning by Pamela Reid - https://www.amazon.com/Excel-erated-Learning-Explaining-plain-English/dp/1888047070

• How Dogs Learn by Mary Burch - https://www.amazon.com/How-Dogs-Learn-Mary-Burch/dp/1630260398

• Info Every Dog Trainer Should Know by Will Garrido - https://www.amazon.com/Info-Every-Trainer-Should-Know/dp/1653816155

• The Decoy Book by Will Garrido - https://www.amazon.com/Decoy-Book-Collaborations-Some-Industry/dp/B08T6YGWSD/

• On Talking Terms with Dogs by Turid Rugaas - https://www.amazon.com/Talking-Terms-Dogs-Calming-Signals/dp/1929242360/

• Mia Skogster - https://inspireurdog.fi/trainings

Contact Derek:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/derekbeckelman/

Contact Jerry:

Website: controlledaggressionpodcast.com

Email: [email protected]

Tarheel Canine Training: www.tarheelcanine.com

Youtube: tarheelcanine

Twitter: @tarheelcanine

Instagram: @tarheelk9

Facebook: TarheelCanineTraining

Protection Sports Website: psak9-as.org

Patreon: patreon.com/controlledaggression

Slideshare: Tarheel Canine

Calendly: https://calendly.com/tarheelcanine

Tarheel Canine Seminars: https://streetreadyk9.com/

Sponsors:

ALM K9 Equipment: almk9equipment.com

PSA & American Schutzhund: psak9-as.org

Tarheel Canine: tarheelcanine.com

Superior Canine Website: https://superiorcanine.ca/

Aaron's Superior Canine Email: [email protected]

Superior Canine Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/superiorcanineinc

Superior Canine Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/superiorcanineinc/

Train Hard, train smart, be safe.

Show notes by Podcastologist Chelsea Taylor-Sturkie

Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.