Getting your dog to listen is one of the hardest things for new dog owners to do. But how are professionals so good at it? It seems as though the second they touch the leash the dog is completely different.

How do professional dog trainers get dogs to listen? In today's episode, I uncover exactly how to get your dog to listen like the pros in a fraction of the time.

To learn how to end your dog's bad behavior click the link below and download our free guide to Resolving Complicated Bad Habits

https://www.matadork9.com/resolvingbadhabits

00;00;01;08 - 00;00;31;01
Michael J. Accetta
Welcome. My name is Michael J. Accetta I'm the founder of Matador Canine Brilliance and author of The Dog Training Cheat Codes. You're listening to the acknowledged dog's podcast No matter where you go with your dog, you want them to be able to listen. When you're going outside. You go to the park, you go to a friend's house. You want your dog to be in a listen, and you want them to be able to listen the first time.

00;00;31;11 - 00;00;49;24
Michael J. Accetta
This isn't a preference for trainers. This isn't a preference of ego kind of thing. I want my dog to listen. Now, this is a serious issue, actually, about keeping your dog alive. That might be really dramatic, but it's true. If my dog runs out in the middle of the street. I need to be able to stop them. And I can't be yelling, stop, stop, stop, stop.

00;00;49;26 - 00;01;06;21
Michael J. Accetta
That's not going to help. And to be able to say, sit down and then call them back or just their name and get their attention to have them come back. There is no time for mistakes, which is why I'm so stressed. When people say that their dog doesn't listen, I'm like, oh, my God, we got to work right now.

00;01;06;21 - 00;01;28;26
Michael J. Accetta
We've got to do something right now, today, immediately, so that your dog is in a better position. You are in a better position in the event that emergencies happen. I have seen way too many people will be heartbroken because their dogs just couldn't listen. Such simple things like kids or my kids don't listen to me. You know, they end up doing bad things.

00;01;29;09 - 00;01;49;02
Michael J. Accetta
My dog doesn't listen to me. They end up getting hurt. You tell them to leave something. And now they swallowed a chicken bone and they got to go to the hospital. That's $40,000 just to get a chicken bone removed from your dog's throat. They're alive. Thank God. But you've wasted time. You've wasted energy and money. Regardless of the fact that your dog almost died.

00;01;49;15 - 00;02;13;13
Michael J. Accetta
Right. Catastrophic things happen when your dog doesn't listen. So let's go over how we can stop that from happening. And we can teach our dog to listen the first time. Number one, they must know what you're asking for. They have to know what the behavior is. I talk about this constantly. You have to get the precision down before you can move on to asking them when to do it, and when not to do it.

00;02;14;10 - 00;02;28;29
Michael J. Accetta
It's just like if you were learning literally anything in the world, I want you to think about the last time you learned something, right? Maybe even just this is about learning something. So you have to know what I'm talking about. You have to have a dog. We have to be on the same page before I can start telling you the mechanics.

00;02;28;29 - 00;02;45;01
Michael J. Accetta
Right. You got to get the principal down. So I want you to think about learning how to drive. You have to know where everything is in the car first before you can know when to turn the car on when to put the car into drive, and then when to put your foot on the gas. Right. There's a red light, green light kind of feeling.

00;02;45;10 - 00;03;08;09
Michael J. Accetta
I know when to do this, and I know when not to do it. But first I have to know what it is. Same thing with words, right? I have to have, you know what the word means before you can use it appropriately or before I can use it appropriately with you. If I said we're going to do something in sequester order, I think that's a word, a question.

00;03;09;16 - 00;03;31;02
Michael J. Accetta
Sequester your order, and it doesn't mean anything. You're like I don't even know what that means, but it's in a sequence. I hope sequester is a word. Otherwise, I just made it up. And Webster's Dictionary should contact me and credit me for making up sequester Pretty sure it's worth it, though. So I know a lot about dog training. So sometimes I met somewhere.

00;03;31;23 - 00;03;53;26
Michael J. Accetta
So you have to know what the word means, what it really means, the definition of it, when to use it, and when not to use it. And then we can start using it in different sentences. And with a different language and different meanings of the word literally, that definition has changed because people misused the word so much the word literally.

00;03;54;10 - 00;04;14;21
Michael J. Accetta
Oh, my gosh. I literally broke my leg and the definition is the opposite of what it was. There are two definitions and they contradict each other Literally means it actually happened and literally means it did not actually happen. I think it's baffling that words are like that. But I digress. Your dog has to know what the behavior is for them to listen.

00;04;15;28 - 00;04;30;26
Michael J. Accetta
That should be standard. But many times it's not the number of dog owners that I work with. Clients that I work with are asking their dogs to do things. And I said, Okay, well, let's go back to how you taught your dog to do it in the first place. And I said, Well, I never really taught him how to do it.

00;04;30;26 - 00;04;50;00
Michael J. Accetta
I just kind of expected them to do it. Dogs don't come preprogrammed or they're not like your phone, where you can talk to Siri and say, Hey, Siri, do this thing, or Hey, Alexa, do this thing right. It doesn't work like that. Someone didn't sit down with your dog and program it into them. They're not robots. They have to be taught what to do.

00;04;50;13 - 00;05;06;01
Michael J. Accetta
And then we tell them when to do it, and when not to do it. And I often find this happens when you're a dog owner who had kids first. There is a different mentality from a dog owner who did not have kids first. And who did have kids first? Kids will pick up on things as you naturally talk to them.

00;05;06;17 - 00;05;25;17
Michael J. Accetta
My two-year-old son is constantly picking up on new stuff, literally because I'm talking to him. I said something to him. He says it right back to me. I say, Good job. And now he knows the word. It is baffling to me. He knows the system. I say something, and he repeats it back. Now he knows what it means and he'll use it in the context correctly.

00;05;26;15 - 00;05;50;17
Michael J. Accetta
Absolutely. Wonderful. Dogs don't do that. We think they do that. If you're a person who had a child first because of your experiences with just saying stuff to your kid, they sent back home, my gosh, you're so smart. And we act as if the dog is the same way. Now, if you did not have kids first and you have a dog first, you're most likely going to teach them the way that a dog trainer would Okay?

00;05;50;18 - 00;06;10;15
Michael J. Accetta
I'm going to teach them what I want them to do first, and then I'm going to tell them when to do it and when not to do it with the word. That's exactly how we should do it. So your dog has to know the behavior first. That's a given number two habit that habitual-wise can fall on to you.

00;06;11;17 - 00;06;35;19
Michael J. Accetta
So is it a habit that you are creating that tells your dog they don't have to listen the first time you have that habitual? Is it a habit that you have that tells your dog not to listen to you? What I mean by this is if you're saying a word over and over and over again. Sit, sit, sit, sit, sit.

00;06;35;28 - 00;07;01;19
Michael J. Accetta
Why aren't you sitting? Sit. I told you to sit down right Our dog goes. Okay, well, I'm not going to sit until you actually mean it or I'm not going to sit until you've said it a certain number of times. What we want to do is say it once one word for one action. If you say it once and they don't do it, they don't do the behavior you want them to do you have to go back to step one.

00;07;02;07 - 00;07;25;18
Michael J. Accetta
My dog doesn't fully know it because if they knew it and they made the association well, they would have done it so we're missing something. They're either missing clarity on what the behavior should be or we haven't effectively taught them the association between the word and the action. If you're saying it multiple times, there is a disconnect. They either think that multiple times is the word.

00;07;25;26 - 00;07;43;20
Michael J. Accetta
And I know that sounds confusing. Right. Sit. Sit. Sit is the phrase that means put your butt down instead of sitting means put your butt down. You have to be very clear about this. And you can only say it once if you say it multiple times, your dog will get used to it multiple times. There is no time to say sit, sit, sit.

00;07;43;28 - 00;08;05;05
Michael J. Accetta
When your dog is running towards the street or Bobby, come like there is no time for you to elongate everything. It's got to be sharp. It's got to be quick. It's got to be fast. They got to stop on a dime and turn back Let alone the behavior having to be fast. The response to the cue to the word that you're using must be fast.

00;08;05;21 - 00;08;35;25
Michael J. Accetta
They must be fast. In number three, you have to be consistent. If you are not consistent in what your expectation is, there are going to be variants that you can't control. So if you tell your dog to go down sometimes and lay down other times and go relax and Oh, go relax over there, and you're changing all these different ways, one ends up happening, well, our dog doesn't know what they should be doing exactly.

00;08;35;25 - 00;09;00;02
Michael J. Accetta
In relationship to a word. They're kind of guessing, right? If I used a different word every time I said hello to you, you're going to guess that I'm saying hello, and maybe in the beginning, you know what I'm saying, right? Hello, Joe. Hola. Konichiwa. I don't even know any other word, right? But if I got to the end of that and I don't know any more words, I'd just say, hey, pencil chicken nuggets, Bob.

00;09;00;12 - 00;09;23;22
Michael J. Accetta
Like, you don't really know what I'm talking about. At first, you could guess then I'm saying hello. You could guess what? You don't have some clarity. And the important part is to have clarity with our dogs. Everything has to be really clear. So that they are certain of what they should be doing. The clear you can get and the more consistent you can get, the easier it is for your dog to know what to do.

00;09;24;26 - 00;09;50;15
Michael J. Accetta
If I started speaking to you and giving you instructions, and in the middle there, there, I started talking gibberish. You pause about what's happening and immediately you're confused and probably right now, you're still thinking back on what I said so when I throw in a piece of confusion, you get stuck on that and you can't take in any more information, which is why I've just slowed down because you can't take in any more information.

00;09;50;15 - 00;10;15;29
Michael J. Accetta
I can't tell you what to do. And the same thing happens with their dogs for a second. They get confused, they disregard us completely. Second, they're confused. Their disregard is complete. Have you ever listened to a TED talk? And in the middle of the talk, they say something that maybe you don't understand right away. Now you either pause the TED talk, you go over to Google, you type in what they said you're trying to understand, and then you come back to it or you completely skip over it.

00;10;15;29 - 00;10;35;19
Michael J. Accetta
You go, All right, like I don't need to know that one piece of information, but now you're completely lost. For the rest of the TED talk, you're completely lost. Same thing. If you were in college or in high school, and the teacher said something and you're with it, everything's good. When you get distracted by something, it starts snowing outside or your friend passes you a note or something and now you feel like you're behind.

00;10;35;19 - 00;10;53;19
Michael J. Accetta
So you're trying to catch up and you really never catch up. In many cases, kids just give up paying attention. They got distracted by something. They look back, they missed a pivotal point of information they don't know what page they're on. They don't know what topic we're talking about, what chapter we're on, who did what, or what's going on.

00;10;53;19 - 00;11;19;13
Michael J. Accetta
And they just completely give up and they forget it. I'm like, I'm overwhelmed. There's too much information being thrown at me and I can't keep up with it because I got distracted for a moment. I was confused for a moment. That's all it takes. So if my dog's running towards the street and I tell them to come, but sometimes I say the word here and other times I say, Come on over, and other times I use their name.

00;11;20;16 - 00;11;41;23
Michael J. Accetta
That small bit of confusion stops them from responding you have to be consistent with what you want your dog to do. If I'm going to use the word here, I'm only going to use the word here for the immediate, important recalls I want my dog to stop on a dime, spin around, come straight to me and sit in front of me.

00;11;42;06 - 00;12;03;18
Michael J. Accetta
That could be your here. And then come on over could be more relaxed. You can do that, but you have to be very clear. That's where advanced training kind of comes into play, right? I can teach my dog a relaxed come-on over is very different from here. Here means you to stop exactly what you're doing in that moment.

00;12;03;21 - 00;12;32;12
Michael J. Accetta
Spin around and run straight to it. The same thing with my dogs down and relax and go lay down are completely different things. But I taught them completely separately. I taught the behaviors first. I see the command once and I made the association before asking for it in everyday life. That's the kind of order you need to go through. Teach them exactly what you want them to do, make the association with the word and teach them when to do it and when not to do it.

00;12;32;28 - 00;13;00;29
Michael J. Accetta
Be consistent and only say it once. If you do that, your dog will listen. Nine times out of ten they are not robots. I cannot say they will listen. 100% of the time. But I want to tell you a quick story, but a wonderful client of mine in this tiny little dog. But separation anxiety, we were able to work through it once we got past separation anxiety, the client wanted to work on some obedience, but the problem was her family was all on different pages.

00;13;01;08 - 00;13;19;00
Michael J. Accetta
Everyone was using different words the kids were using random words that they made up that they thought were fun. The dad was using more German obedience-type words, and the mom just wanted the standard sit-down. He'll write so I said, Okay, we're all going to get on the same page. And we went through each one and we became consistent.

00;13;19;00 - 00;13;33;06
Michael J. Accetta
What do we want said to be? What do we want down to be? What do we want he'll to be? What do we want recall to be? What do we want a place to be? And we broke it down everyone had to be on the same page now. They had to go through their own learning curve of stopping.

00;13;33;06 - 00;13;54;23
Michael J. Accetta
The old words of not using those words become because they became habitual. Any time you go to train your dog, understand that you are also training yourself on a new behavioral skill. We're getting rid of old habits and you're implementing new ones. Just understand that. So with their dog, they started to reteach all of these things. That was the first thing I had them do.

00;13;55;07 - 00;14;14;11
Michael J. Accetta
You're not going to say the words, you're not going to tell them when to do it. You're going to go back and teach all of the skills that you want to teach. Sit down. He'll come. Place. They taught all of that. Then we were able to add the words one by one because they were consistent and this was structured.

00;14;15;02 - 00;14;35;10
Michael J. Accetta
You could only say it once the dog had to do it. If they didn't do it, we had to reset and try again. Because we did that within two weeks. This dog that was riddled with separation anxiety couldn't listen. I was stressed out all the time, was listening perfectly, and eventually got into group classes with about 15 other dogs doing wonderful things.

00;14;35;10 - 00;14;51;24
Michael J. Accetta
When the owner was like, I never thought that could be possible. I couldn't even go for a walk with my dog. And pay attention. And then, of course, you wanted to do agility, you wanted to do all the fun stuff because her dog now had the listening skills and she had the freedom to do what she wanted to do with her dog.

00;14;52;13 - 00;15;12;22
Michael J. Accetta
If you guys are struggling with problem behaviors and you want to know how I go through the process. Click the link in the description for resolving complicated bad habits without using punishment. You can teach your dog how to listen. You can end problem behaviors with the techniques that I talk about in all of these different episodes. Thank you guys for listening and I'll see you next time.