Whether you have a puppy, are getting one, or adding a member to the family you will want to listen to today's episode. It is important to do these three fundamental steps in order to ensure you have the best companion for the next fifteen years. 

If you have a younger dog, the information will still help you learn why your dog might be the way that they are and what you need to do in order to jumpstart your training and gain some momentum. 

To build your dog's confidence check out this free e-book on Building Confidence

https://www.matadork9.com/confidence

Want to work with me? My private training gives you everything you need to succeed and more!! Schedule a call with me here

https://www.matadork9.com/coaching

Episode Transcript:

00:00:18:07 - 00:00:34:14
Michael J. Accetta
You just got a puppy or you're getting a puppy and you want to know, how do I socialize my dog? How do I build their confidence in one of the first three things I need to be able to teach my dog first to really have a good, long lasting relationship for the next 15 years. Then this is the episode for you.

00:00:34:14 - 00:01:01:07
Michael J. Accetta
Stay tuned on this. All right. So first the socialization period. You just got your puppy. Now they're not allowed to leave their mom until after eight weeks. You are already most of the way through a socialization period. What does that mean? When your dog is born, their brain starts to develop a lot faster than an adult dogwood. And so they're taking in all of this information what essentially happens is between three to 12 weeks of age.

00:01:01:07 - 00:01:27:02
Michael J. Accetta
And that does depend based on the breed and the size of the dog between three to 12 weeks of age. They take in everything that they need to know is normal. That's the key phrase that I want you to take away from this. They need to know that is normal. Now, if a dog grows up on a farm and they're never exposed to busses or trains or subway stations, they have never been on a plane, that's what they think is normal.

00:01:27:10 - 00:01:44:10
Michael J. Accetta
So if you were to remove a dog and teleport them from a farm into the city, they would freak out. Vice versa. If you got a dog that grows up in the city and you take them to the farm, they might seem actually stressed because there isn't a lot of interactions. There isn't a lot of noise going on all the time.

00:01:45:06 - 00:02:03:14
Michael J. Accetta
So whatever your dog needs to know is normal should be exposed to them between three to 12 weeks of age. Now, again, if you're getting a puppy or you got a puppy and they're eight weeks old, you only have a couple of weeks to do this. So before you get the puppy or right now write down everything your dog needs to know is normal.

00:02:03:14 - 00:02:16:14
Michael J. Accetta
Do they need to know how to get into the car? Do they need to know how to be picked up and handled, manipulated, put into the trunk of the car? If you're going to have a, you know, a big car with a crate? Maybe they need to be able to go into the trunk. Maybe you want them to sit in the front with you.

00:02:17:11 - 00:02:33:07
Michael J. Accetta
Okay. I don't do that because I think it's a little dangerous, but many people do it. And if you do that, then you need to teach your dog that sitting in the front is normal. You need to teach your dog around kids, socialize them to kids, socialism to other dogs, socialize them to the family members in your house.

00:02:33:07 - 00:03:00:11
Michael J. Accetta
Those things need to become normal. If you are going to be someone who grooms your own dog, then you're going to want to teach your dog that all of the equipment in grooming is normal. The Clippers the brush, the shampoos, the scrubbers, everything, towels, even different textures, all of the things that you are going to use in your daily life and maybe even above that should be exposed to your dog.

00:03:01:08 - 00:03:20:00
Michael J. Accetta
Okay, three to 12 weeks, you get your dog at eight weeks. You only got four weeks to do that. You got a month to do this. Now there is something to be said about doing too much. If we overexpose our dogs to these things that we want to socialize them to, what can end up happening is actually stressing them out more.

00:03:20:01 - 00:03:38:08
Michael J. Accetta
You've overexposed them and they become afraid of it. So throughout the entire training process, the socialization process, the exposure to these new things, you don't want to be pushing them to the point where they're freaking out or panicking or and this is the old method, what's called flooding you're forcing them to get over it. You got to you got to know how to do this for the rest of your life.

00:03:38:10 - 00:03:56:12
Michael J. Accetta
I don't care how you feel. I'm going to put you in this situation. You're going to get over it eventually. This is not the way to go. About it. This is what I first did with my first dog, Breezy, plus her soul. I was learning so much back then, and now the experience I have with my other two dogs have been 100 times better simply because I learn from Breezy.

00:03:56:12 - 00:04:14:02
Michael J. Accetta
So I thank her for being a guinea pig in the beginning. I had done flooding to teach her how to go to the baths now I was very patient. I wasn't going to throw her in there, but it took about three to 5 hours. I don't remember exactly three or 5 hours where we just sat in the tub together. And we did nothing.

00:04:14:05 - 00:04:31:00
Michael J. Accetta
She was shaking. She was shivering. She was terrified, and I hated doing it. But that's what I thought was the best method. That's what I thought was going to work. Of course, now I know different. Slow exposure, increasing the level of difficulty over time, building up their confidence, playing games with them. I didn't know that at the time.

00:04:31:00 - 00:04:48:00
Michael J. Accetta
And so I just brought her into the tub with me. 3 hours later, she finally felt relaxed and I took her out of the tub. That happened day after day after day. She still doesn't like the tub, but she tolerates it. That's the difference. You get a dog that tolerates what we asked him to do, but doesn't particularly enjoy it.

00:04:49:02 - 00:05:05:08
Michael J. Accetta
So when I got my next dog, I went really slow. I expose them to the bath, calmly getting into the water. Out of the water. Into the water. Out of the water. Sure. I did a lot of things that didn't actually require taking the full bath. Right. We just went into the bathroom and then we left the bathroom.

00:05:05:13 - 00:05:19:14
Michael J. Accetta
I jumped into the tub with them. They jumped out of the tub. That was it for the day. Right. Like those tiny little steps every single day made it so much easier for me to be able to give my dog a 20 minute bath in comparison to a three hour long bath with my first dog. A 20 minute bath.

00:05:19:14 - 00:05:42:14
Michael J. Accetta
Is it astronomical difference? And that's what can happen when you take the time to expose them correctly. Okay, so you got your dog at eight weeks, maybe they're nine weeks, maybe they're ten weeks, maybe they're 11 weeks. You only got one week left. What should you start doing? Make a list of three important things that you should be doing Car outside and people.

00:05:42:14 - 00:05:57:09
Michael J. Accetta
Sounds and noises. Okay. Sounds and noises are kind of the same thing, but people and experiences out in the world. So first is the car if there's an emergency, you're going to have to get into the car. If you're going somewhere, you're going to have to get into the car. And if you have an expose them to the car already, this is the time to do it again.

00:05:57:09 - 00:06:14:06
Michael J. Accetta
You want them to think that this is normal getting into the car is normal. You don't need to get sick. They don't need be panting. They don't need be freaking out. Again, my first dog, Breezy, she was found in the woods. I got her as a rescue. The only time she'd ever been in a car, to my knowledge, was on the van ride from Kentucky all the way to New York.

00:06:14:12 - 00:06:28:02
Michael J. Accetta
It was a straight trip. So when I put her in the car for the first time, she was panicking. She's like, Oh, my God, I'm being taken away again. I'm going to be in this car for so long. That's not what happened. Over time, she started to get better at it, but she would pant, she would draw, she pace around.

00:06:28:04 - 00:06:40:14
Michael J. Accetta
She couldn't get her footing was also for her. So when I got my next dog and then my third dog, that was something we were heavily, heavily focused on. They're going to get in the car, they're going to sit in the front to get used to it. They're going to sit in the back and get used to it.

00:06:40:14 - 00:06:59:05
Michael J. Accetta
They're going to sit in kennels and get used to a different kennels, wire kennels and taxi crates, plastic and fabric kennels. Okay. I'm going to get them used to going on the hood, going under the car to get a ball. I'm going to get them used to the car. I'm thinking it's a great thing because I don't want them to be stressed the way my first dog was and then we also went on the train.

00:06:59:09 - 00:07:18:06
Michael J. Accetta
I went into the city with them. We went on the subway, went on the train. They have yet to be on a plane. One of them has, the other one has not. But we still went in the area where there were planes and they could hear it. They could see it. Maybe we didn't get to go on them, but they're used to the noises, and that knocks out two out of the three perceptive variables that our dogs have.

00:07:19:03 - 00:07:39:05
Michael J. Accetta
Right. Clearly touches different, but sight, sound and smell. So they're used to the sight, the sound and the smell. I'm sorry. They're used to all three. So they're used to the sight, sound and smell. Getting on it is just that much easier because they're used to it. Okay, now how do we build our dogs? Confidence let's say maybe you're past this point.

00:07:39:11 - 00:08:00:02
Michael J. Accetta
You've got a couple of month old dog, and they're starting to either show some bad behaviors because they're afraid or they're just shutting down This often happens around the four to five month mark. It's called a fear period. Okay? When ends up happening is they've been over socialized, they're out in the world, and that's important for their biology so that they can learn about the environment.

00:08:00:14 - 00:08:21:13
Michael J. Accetta
What ends up happening is right after that, they go, Okay, now let's retreat. We figured out what was normal. We've explored now let's retreat to preserve our life, keep and keep ourselves alive, right? That's a biological necessity. And so they retreat in order to protect themselves, but often they can overdo it, especially if we then coddle them and say, Hey, it's okay, everything's fine now.

00:08:21:13 - 00:08:46:13
Michael J. Accetta
I don't want to necessarily push my dog and punish them for feeling that way, but I do want to express and bring out their confidence, and we can do that through reinforcement I want to take a moment and thank all of our loyal followers. This podcast would not be possible without you. Leave, review and let us know what you like and want to learn on the next episode of the Acknowledge Dogs podcast.

00:08:47:03 - 00:09:08:00
Michael J. Accetta
Now back to the show so what do I mean by that? Essentially, I'm going to put my dog in a situation that might be slightly stressful, and you'll have to gauge and it's slightly stressful I'm not going to throw him into a lake. I might just take them to the shore, especially if they're afraid of water. That's another thing.

00:09:08:03 - 00:09:35:01
Michael J. Accetta
If you have a young puppy, you should take them to the lake, you should take them to water, get them used to swimming around it to do absolutely wonderful exercise, burns calories, keeps them healthy, low impact on the joints. As they get older, they won't be beating up their legs right in their hips. Wonderful, wonderful exercises. So as a puppy, you want to get them used to that it's going to prolong the legality of exercise and activities you guys get to do together and make it easier.

00:09:35:01 - 00:09:54:05
Michael J. Accetta
If you ever had to do rehab at some point because they use water very often so you're not afraid of something. You want to break it up into manageable pieces, make it easy for them to build up their confidence. So I might go to the shore not to the point where they're backing away from the water, but instead just rewarding them around the shore.

00:09:54:05 - 00:10:09:09
Michael J. Accetta
Maybe we play the favorite game that they have tug, snatch, search, whatever it may be. I want to play and build up their confidence, making them think that the shore is the best place to be, and then we're going to slowly move into the water. I did this when I started teaching my dogs how to kayak with me.

00:10:10:05 - 00:10:25:00
Michael J. Accetta
I got into the kayak and they were going to go behind me. The kayak was big enough behind me, so I said, Okay, they're going to go behind you. They're going to sit behind me. First thing I did was get them used to going on to the kayak on dry land. Now I stabilized it. I held it so that they didn't wobble around because that would have thrown them off.

00:10:26:02 - 00:10:44:08
Michael J. Accetta
They would have been more nervous about it. Now they're on balance equipment all the time, sit, pause and bosu balls and all that thing, so they know what it's like to balance and maneuver. But this was something new. So I wanted to make it easy for the I stabilize it, they get on awesome. We're good. Then I'd have them jump off prematurely before they got nervous.

00:10:44:14 - 00:11:01:02
Michael J. Accetta
I'd have them jump off, reward them with a treat or praise and get them back on over and over and over. We did that. I slowly brought the kayak into the water, had them do the exact same thing on the shore while half the kayak was in the water and then had them do it in the water on to the kayak.

00:11:01:02 - 00:11:19:06
Michael J. Accetta
That was it. Just in case they fell off while we were kayaking, they could climb back up. See what I'm doing I'm breaking down every single aspect of it to build up their confidence, their competency, and their confidence in it. That way, they can be reliable. When I asked them to do something, they're not hesitating because of how nervous they are now.

00:11:19:06 - 00:11:43:00
Michael J. Accetta
I go in way more depth about building up confidence in this free resource that I want to give you. The link is in the bio. If you're watching this right now, but if you're listening to this after the fact, you can go to Matador Canine dot com forward slash confidence, matador canine dot com forward slash confidence. It's a free PDF on step by step on how to build your dog's confidence that they can enjoy the life that you want to provide for it.

00:11:43:13 - 00:12:04:08
Michael J. Accetta
Now, the last thing I want to talk about is the bond the fundamental building blocks on what you should be teaching your dog. First, you've got a puppy. You've socialized them to the environments, to people, to other dogs, to the car, to swimming. You've, you've socialized them with those things. Maybe you had to build up some of their confidence or maybe they didn't have that bad of a fear period.

00:12:04:10 - 00:12:22:00
Michael J. Accetta
Fantastic. Now you can really get into the nitty gritty of training. Now, many people think, Okay, I'm going to jump right into obedience. I'm going to join an obedience class. I'm going to sit down, stay. He'll come. That is not the first thing you should be doing since you've already done a little bit of training with the socialization and the fear period.

00:12:22:11 - 00:12:42:05
Michael J. Accetta
This first step should be relatively easy. You're just going to build engagement when you go outside. Your dog should only be thinking about you. This is going to help prevent reactivity when they bark at other people and dogs. Socialization will also help prevent reactivity. It's going to help make recall easier and all other behaviors easier. In any environment.

00:12:42:12 - 00:13:01:04
Michael J. Accetta
If your dog is engaging with you, they're interacting with you. They're looking to be with you. It's easier to get their attention excuse me, easier to get their attention and ask them to do something. So I can say sit. If they're not looking at me, they're not paying attention. When I say sit, they're not going to do it simply because they've checked out.

00:13:01:07 - 00:13:28:11
Michael J. Accetta
They're looking at something else. But when I do say sit and they actually do it, then I can reward them. So by building engagement, I'm setting my dog up for success. I'm preventing reactivity and I'm making sure that I have their focus. I have their attention. When I ask them to do something, they're ten times more likely to do it now that the first thing that's the first thing, okay, you've got to have engagement down solid.

00:13:29:08 - 00:13:51:05
Michael J. Accetta
Now, the second thing is shaping games. The second thing you want to do, you just games that involve your dog. Learning how to learn is the best way I can describe it. If you give your dog all the answers, right, you're like Okay, I'm going to lure them with a treat or I'm going to mold them, actually take their body and physically push it into positions.

00:13:52:00 - 00:14:11:02
Michael J. Accetta
If I do that, one ends up happening as my dog becomes reliant on the food lure, moving them around, right? It put it in front of their nose and I bring them over here and I try to get them to sit down and become reliant on the food law. There are ways to phase it out, but if you can actually teach your dog to start shaping the behavior by themselves using successful approximation, that's what it's called.

00:14:11:11 - 00:14:32:03
Michael J. Accetta
Essentially, my dog offers some version of the behavior, a small little step of it. I'm going to let them know that that's exactly what I wanted. You can say, yes, you can use a clicker, and then I'm going to reinforce them with their preferred reinforcement, whether it's a treat, whether it's a toy, whether it's praise, whether it's access to something, and then they're more likely to start performing that behavior again.

00:14:32:08 - 00:14:47:01
Michael J. Accetta
So they you know, pick up their right shoulder. I'm going to mark that. I'm going to give them a treat. They pick up their shoulder and their elbow mark that give them a treat. Now they're paw comes fully off the ground. I'm Mark that can mature and I'm teaching them how to lift up their arm to maybe give me pause.

00:14:48:05 - 00:15:12:07
Michael J. Accetta
Teaching your dog that way, builds their creativity, builds their confidence and helps them have more problem solving skills. Everything. We just talked about socialization. Excuse me. I got something in my throat here. I'm so sorry. Socialization and that fear period. Trying to build their confidence. This is the best way to incorporate all of it. Because now that they know how to learn, you can teach them things a lot faster.

00:15:13:06 - 00:15:35:07
Michael J. Accetta
As well as put them in stressful situations and have them solve problems solved by themselves. So if I put my dog in a kayak and I let it go into the water, my dog knows there's a few things that he could try. One, he could sit, he could lay down to stabilize the kayak. He knows that because of all the balance equipment practice, we do him laying down becomes easier because it's not as wobbly center of gravity.

00:15:35:07 - 00:15:59:14
Michael J. Accetta
Now, he's not thinking of that. He's just knowing I well, lay down, it becomes easier. He can jump off and swim back to me. Why? Because we practice swimming but he has a skill set simply because we've done so many things. So when you're teaching your dog anything, start off with engagement. Make sure that you're engaged with you wherever you go outside front yard, backyard, down at the park, down at the cafe, whatever it is, and then move into shaping games, essentially standstill.

00:16:00:02 - 00:16:18:09
Michael J. Accetta
Wait for your dog to offer anything they look somewhere, they paw at you, they sit anything you're going to market. Reward that in the never mark and reward that one again during that session. So you want them to try something different this is called 101 Things to Do with a Box. It's a classic, classic shaping game, but it's one of my favorites for puppies to do.

00:16:19:08 - 00:16:55:05
Michael J. Accetta
And then the last thing you have to master is management. I talk about management all the time. I'm going to call extreme management. When you have a puppy, everything they do, everything that you do is going to shape the next 15 years of their life. If you can manage the first six months of your dog's life while training them how to live in your world the way you want them to live, the next 15 years is going to be so much easier if you don't manage it and they develop problematic behaviors or they do things so-so or they kind of listen.

00:16:55:05 - 00:17:13:08
Michael J. Accetta
But more often than not they're just doing it to get a treat and they're becoming dependent. What ends up happening is the next 15 years of your life, you're playing catch up. Maybe you do three years of solid training. You're never going to get to exactly what you want or what could have been if you did training early on.

00:17:13:12 - 00:17:37:08
Michael J. Accetta
So be proactive about it. You just got your puppy or you're getting a puppy, have everything laid out. First thing I'm going to do between three to 16 weeks. First thing I'm going to do, socialize my dog to everything they need to know is normal. Number two, I'm going to build up their confidence that way. We have the ability to do the fun adventures that we want to do together, as well as just make life easier.

00:17:37:12 - 00:18:03:09
Michael J. Accetta
Even if you're not looking to do fun adventures it's going to make it easier for you. Fireworks aren't going to bother them, are getting into the car stressful situations. That's not going to bother them going to the that's not going to bother them. Those kinds of things. And then you're going to move into teaching the fundamentals. First thing I'm going to do, I'm going to I'm sorry if the old engagement fundamentals build engagement game and games and you're going to manage everything at the same time.

00:18:05:06 - 00:18:28:09
Michael J. Accetta
It's that simple. I know it sounds simple, like now that I'm saying it, but it's that simple. Break it down like that. When you do that the next 15 years that promise, you are going to be so much easier. Thank you guys for listening to the now Dr. Podcast. I'm going to open it up to Q&A. If you're here live, if you're listening to this afterwards, feel free to message me your questions and I'll talk about it on a future episode of the podcast.

00:18:28:13 - 00:18:29:12
Michael J. Accetta
Thanks, guys, for listening.