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Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, Welcome to the Foundation's podcast. I'm your host

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Speaker 1: Tony Peterson. Today's episode is all about thinking about dog

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Speaker 1: training in a different way and then setting some goals

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Speaker 1: to make sure you kind of see the whole thing

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Speaker 1: through the New Year's upon us. And while that might

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Speaker 1: mean a lot of things to a lot of people,

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Speaker 1: it should also mean something to our dogs. You know,

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Speaker 1: even though the smartest dog out there has no idea

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Speaker 1: what day it is or what year it is and

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Speaker 1: really couldn't care about the New Year's but we do.

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Speaker 1: We like a reason to celebrate, and I guess this

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Speaker 1: is it. But we also like to set some New

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Speaker 1: Year's goals and mostly not stick to them. That's no good,

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Speaker 1: but it shouldn't stop us at looking at what we

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Speaker 1: want out of our dogs this year and how to

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Speaker 1: get there. But this topic also goes way beyond ringing

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Speaker 1: just every last drop of ability out of our four

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Speaker 1: legged buddies. There is a tendency, at least in the

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Speaker 1: working dog world and definitely the sporting dog world, to

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Speaker 1: look at training as very linear, whether that means training

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Speaker 1: a canine to sniff out a kilo of narcotics buried

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Speaker 1: inside the wheel well of a semi or training a

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Speaker 1: dog to swim out and grab a dead duck by

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Speaker 1: the body and deliver it to hand. We break down

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Speaker 1: those behaviors into workable sections and start at the beginning.

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Speaker 1: Over time, those behaviors are daisy chained together so that

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Speaker 1: the dog understands the ask and works through it. Eventually,

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Speaker 1: the task should be so well understood that even in

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Speaker 1: dynamic environments with distractions galore, a good dog will see

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Speaker 1: it through right until the very end. It's those tethered

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Speaker 1: together behaviors that culminate in some repeatable skill that often

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Speaker 1: leave normal dog owners in the dust. Everyone understands how

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Speaker 1: to get an eight week old puppy to sit or

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Speaker 1: maybe lie down, but when it comes to hand signals

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Speaker 1: or blind retrieves are something a little more upper level,

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Speaker 1: things get tricky. We inherently know this about our dogs,

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Speaker 1: But what doesn't get as much love is that training

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Speaker 1: is so much more than just teaching a dog to

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Speaker 1: do so things so that we benefit from it. There

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Speaker 1: is the intrinsic benefit of working with a dog on anything, really,

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Speaker 1: and what that does for them and for our relationship

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Speaker 1: with them. Takes some type of dog behavior that doesn't

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Speaker 1: really add much of a practical benefit. My wife's uncle

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Speaker 1: has a Golden Retriever that is very Golden Retriever like

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Speaker 1: in every way. She's got the goofball personality, the big butt.

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Speaker 1: She loves to hunt at a pace that is perfect

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Speaker 1: for a guy like him, which probably isn't a coincidence.

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Speaker 1: That dog takes things personally. So she feels like she

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Speaker 1: was left at home when she shouldn't have been, or

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Speaker 1: maybe she didn't get the walk she felt like she deserved.

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Speaker 1: She'll go grab a little bit of something out of

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Speaker 1: the garbage and leave it on the floor while it

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Speaker 1: will send a very clear message that you've wronged me

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Speaker 1: and you should never do it again. That Golden Retriever

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Speaker 1: has some interesting behaviors. But one thing she does that

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Speaker 1: people love is funny, and it's called sit pretty. This

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Speaker 1: is not a command you hear bird dog owners use

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Speaker 1: a lot, nor is it something that is a high

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Speaker 1: priority training goal with a pheasant dog. But Dora loves

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Speaker 1: to sit pretty, and when you see her tail while

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Speaker 1: she's doing it, you know that to be true. You

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Speaker 1: could make the argument that's sitting pretty, which is basically

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Speaker 1: where she stands up with her front paws in the

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Speaker 1: air and balances herself. Is I don't know good for

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Speaker 1: her core muscles. It probably is, but I doubt she's

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Speaker 1: going to have a six pack anytime soon. It's just

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Speaker 1: fun and it's funny, and she loves it, and people

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Speaker 1: love it, which reinforces why she loves it. My last

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Speaker 1: golden did a similar thing where we taught her to

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Speaker 1: sky five, which is when she'd stand up and swat

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Speaker 1: your hands with her paws, or she'd jump up and

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Speaker 1: flail away with her paws at your hands. We weren't

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Speaker 1: too strict on that one, but Lux loved it, even

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Speaker 1: though that didn't really mean anything. These types of behaviors

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Speaker 1: aren't limited to goldens either. Sometime this year, and I

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Speaker 1: really don't know what sparked it, one of my daughters

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Speaker 1: asked me if we could train our young lab to

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Speaker 1: yawn on command. It had never occurred to me to

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Speaker 1: attempt such a thing because I thought there was zero

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Speaker 1: reason to ever train a dog to yawn, but to

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Speaker 1: humor my daughter and just to see if we could

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Speaker 1: do it. We kind of talked through what that would take.

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Speaker 1: As I explained how we should probably go about it,

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Speaker 1: I figured we had a few things going for us.

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Speaker 1: Yawning is a natural behavior that dogs do. Training around

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Speaker 1: natural behavior can make things a hell of a lot easier.

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Speaker 1: This is most easily framed up by teaching a dog

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Speaker 1: how to shake, not to shake with its paw, but

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Speaker 1: with its body when it's wet. A dog that goes

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Speaker 1: into the water and then comes out is a dog

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Speaker 1: that will shake one hundred percent of the time. Since

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Speaker 1: you can predict that, training them to do it on

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Speaker 1: command is just a matter of getting them to understand

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Speaker 1: that behavior is going to happen, but not on their

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Speaker 1: time yours. Yawning is less situationally predictable, but it's still

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Speaker 1: pretty predictable because you can often see it coming, even

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Speaker 1: if you only get a few second a warning. Now,

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Speaker 1: the other thing my daughter had going for her on

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Speaker 1: this weird command was that Sadie is a lab through

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Speaker 1: and through, and if you're looking her in the eyes

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Speaker 1: and giving her attention, she's pretty much ready to work

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Speaker 1: because she knows work means rewards, and in her case,

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Speaker 1: that's just praise and it's definitely good enough. So, in

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Speaker 1: a move that probably sounds so simple and anti climatic,

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Speaker 1: after all this build up, I told my daughter to

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Speaker 1: just watch her and if she looked like she was

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Speaker 1: going to yawn, wait until she does, then love her up.

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Speaker 1: She also attached the command yawn to Sadie's yawning. I

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Speaker 1: know it sounds so dumb when I say it out

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Speaker 1: loud to thousands of people. You know how you can

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Speaker 1: just sometimes see a total wave of confusion wash right

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Speaker 1: over a dog's brain. That's what happened when Sadie first

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Speaker 1: received a bunch of praise just for yawning. It also

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Speaker 1: didn't take very long for her to start connecting that

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Speaker 1: behavior to that positive attention. After a few days, you'd

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Speaker 1: catch her looking at you and then she'd kind of

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Speaker 1: do like a half yawn chop type of thing. Eventually

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Speaker 1: she'd go all out with a big fake yawn and

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Speaker 1: get tons of love from my girls, who think it

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Speaker 1: is both amazing and hilarious that my super badass, well

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Speaker 1: bred hunting dog can yon on command, and honestly, she

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Speaker 1: looks adorable doing it. Is there any real benefit to this?

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Speaker 1: Probably not in a practical sense. I can't imagine a

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Speaker 1: situation where we'd be looking for a wounded rooster in

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Speaker 1: the cattails and I need my dog to yawn in

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Speaker 1: order to complete that task. But learning something new is important,

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Speaker 1: just as being conditioned to work and learn is important.

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Speaker 1: Quite a few years ago, I was looking into different

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Speaker 1: car companies to see who was about to go give

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Speaker 1: Elon a little run for his money with Tesla on

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Speaker 1: the ev side of things. While diving into Forward as

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Speaker 1: a potential investment, I went down a rabbit hole about

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Speaker 1: how they had developed a bike I honestly can't remember

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Speaker 1: now if it was an e bike or just a

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Speaker 1: normal pedal bike. And I was like, why would a

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Speaker 1: car company make a bike? If you can sell someone

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Speaker 1: on a car, why would you sell them a much

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Speaker 1: cheaper means of transportation? So I dug into it more

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Speaker 1: and I found a thread where people were debating that

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Speaker 1: very thing. An engineer weigh in, and he said that

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Speaker 1: sometimes companies will give the folks who dream up how

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Speaker 1: to make things in the real world a task that

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Speaker 1: has very little to do with their actual job, at

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Speaker 1: least on the surface. I suppose you could argue there

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Speaker 1: is some opportunity costs associated with this move, since it

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Speaker 1: would probably be the most financially expedient to keep your

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Speaker 1: employees focused on the core mission of the company, but

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Speaker 1: his argument was that a lot of good things come

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Speaker 1: out of giving designers and engineers some leewaight to tinker

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Speaker 1: and mess around. His argument was that Ford might not

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Speaker 1: ever sell bikes, but having some of your big brains

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Speaker 1: work on a problem that is sort of a side

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Speaker 1: quest can result in a lot of innovation that might

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Speaker 1: feed your core mission, or it could result in an

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Speaker 1: entirely new product category. I honestly didn't know which result

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Speaker 1: came of that experiment, so I looked it up. And

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Speaker 1: this might surprise you because it did me. But Ford

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Speaker 1: has a line of e bikes that look pretty badass.

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Speaker 1: I don't know whether they're a financial hit or not.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I kind of doubt it, but who knows.

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Speaker 1: There's probably a lot more at play there that I

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Speaker 1: don't understand. Maybe maybe that was too long and windy

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Speaker 1: of a road here, But here we are, And the

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Speaker 1: lesson is this, learning in general is just good. Challenges

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Speaker 1: are just good, and dogs that learn to learn and

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Speaker 1: embrace challenges because they want to show up for work

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Speaker 1: are often very good dogs and very enjoyable dogs to own.

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Speaker 1: They are also easier to train when it comes to

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Speaker 1: the things that everyone wants to get out of their dogs.

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Speaker 1: My daughter's training our dog to yawn on command might

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Speaker 1: seem dumb, but think about it from Sadie's perspective. That

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Speaker 1: dog gets to do a little job and get a

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Speaker 1: little reward, which evolutionary wise, is about seventy five percent

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Speaker 1: of what they need to be fulfilled. It didn't take

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Speaker 1: a single thing away from Sadie's other abilities, you know,

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Speaker 1: to hunt or whatever. It was just additive and I

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Speaker 1: can promise you that it's enjoyable for her. It pays

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Speaker 1: to think about dog training from the dog's perspective, because

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Speaker 1: they want to engage with you, and they thrive on

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Speaker 1: being asked to do stuff. If the only training we

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Speaker 1: do with them is the same dummy retrieves after work

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Speaker 1: in the same park, that's better than nothing, but it's

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Speaker 1: not enough. Over time, there are so many little opportunities

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Speaker 1: in life to train some type of skill or behavior

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Speaker 1: that might not result in a bunch of extra limits

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Speaker 1: or roosters or green heads, but can raise the standard

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Speaker 1: for the training that will. What I mean by that

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Speaker 1: is we all wanted to that wants to work and learn.

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Speaker 1: Most of them have some level of that built right

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Speaker 1: into their genes. Which is great, but it's also something

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Speaker 1: that can be teased out and worked on until it's

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Speaker 1: like a bigger part of their personality. That's an important

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Speaker 1: thing to acknowledge as we slide into the new year.

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Speaker 1: For a lot of us, this is sort of the

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Speaker 1: official start of the off season where we leave the

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Speaker 1: birds alone for about nine or ten months. That's an

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Speaker 1: easy time to forget about training anything, but it's better

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Speaker 1: to think about the stuff your dog did well and

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Speaker 1: the stuff your dog didn't do well, and then make

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Speaker 1: a plan to work on that. For hunters, a lot

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Speaker 1: of the things in the latter category are pretty obvious.

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Speaker 1: You know, steadiness in the duck blind, recall in the

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Speaker 1: grouse woods. There are a lot of usual suspects here,

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Speaker 1: and one of the reasons they are so common is

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Speaker 1: because we tend to train in specific areas and then

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Speaker 1: hunt in totally different places. We tend to expect our

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Speaker 1: dogs to perform as well in the duck boat in

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Speaker 1: November as they do in the soccer fields in July,

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Speaker 1: but that's not generally how it works. There's a lot

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Speaker 1: to go into there about practical training, but I'll say this,

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Speaker 1: if you want a dog that's easier to train, train

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Speaker 1: it in a lot of places and on a schedule

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Speaker 1: that isn't super predictable. Sadi learning to yawn on a

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Speaker 1: Sunday afternoon in our living room isn't the same Sadi

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Speaker 1: that hops out of the truck at the park by

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Speaker 1: our house knowing I'm going to grab a placeboard and

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Speaker 1: some dead foul trainers so that we can work on

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Speaker 1: long distance retrees or hand signals or whatever. But the

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Speaker 1: Sadi that learns to yawn on command is a dog

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Speaker 1: that is getting rewarded for making good eye contact and

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Speaker 1: for following direction and seeing a small ask through to

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Speaker 1: the finish line. When people run marathons, they don't train

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Speaker 1: by always practice running twenty six point two miles. They

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Speaker 1: vary up the distance and the speed of their runs,

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Speaker 1: and a lot of that training barely resembles what it

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Speaker 1: takes to slog through a whole marathon, but it's all

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Speaker 1: beneficial to the final goal. We seem to understand this

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Speaker 1: when we bring home puppies, because they have to learn,

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Speaker 1: and we are always excited to teach them. When you

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Speaker 1: get a dog to say two or three years old,

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Speaker 1: they should have a hell of a lot of the

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Speaker 1: basics down and for most dogs a good chunk of

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Speaker 1: the advanced stuff too. Training to keep them sharp on

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Speaker 1: those skills is great, but looking for other reasons to

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Speaker 1: train is even better. Looking for a reason in the

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Speaker 1: off season or on a January afternoon to work with

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Speaker 1: your dog on something is only going to benefit your

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Speaker 1: dog and you, even if it's something that doesn't seem

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Speaker 1: like it has any real tangible benefit overall. So how

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Speaker 1: do you go about this? Well, the easiest way is

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Speaker 1: to pick the behaviors you really want to train for. First,

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Speaker 1: does your dog embarrass the shit out of you when

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Speaker 1: guests come over, Then you have a good task to

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Speaker 1: work on in the winter when there isn't a whole

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Speaker 1: lot to hunt and going outside might suck. That's simple.

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Speaker 1: Or did your dog hit a distance wall on retrieves

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Speaker 1: when you knock down birds this year because it was

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Speaker 1: conditioned to only go so far like as far as

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Speaker 1: you can throw a bumper, Great, it's time to work

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Speaker 1: on some long distance retrieves. Those kinds of things are

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Speaker 1: really no brainers if you think about them, and they

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Speaker 1: are excellent off season tasks. But what can you do

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Speaker 1: that will be fun for you and for your dog

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Speaker 1: that has a lighter lift. As far as a training

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Speaker 1: commitment is concerned, can you set a goal or two

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Speaker 1: around something like that. One of my favorite veterinarians told

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Speaker 1: me one time that she trained her dogs to help

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Speaker 1: with the laundry. Now, her dogs are labs, and they

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Speaker 1: would go into the laundry room and bring her towels

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Speaker 1: or other pieces of clothes, and they'd carry garments for

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Speaker 1: her when she was putting the clothes away. Now, if

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Speaker 1: you don't mind some dogs slabber on your Grandiandi's, that's

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Speaker 1: a great move. Laundry is pretty much a never ending chore,

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Speaker 1: so the opportunity for her dogs to perform happens almost

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Speaker 1: every day, or at least a couple times per week.

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Speaker 1: She's also leaning into something that her breed of dogs

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Speaker 1: really likes to do, is to retrieve and carry stuff around.

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Speaker 1: So the dogs get that reward as well as the

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Speaker 1: excitement of knowing they're going to get to do something

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Speaker 1: that will give them positive attention. And when I asked

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Speaker 1: her why she trained her dogs to help with the laundry,

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Speaker 1: she simply said, because they need a job. You could

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Speaker 1: make a compelling case that training a dog to bring

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Speaker 1: a towel upstairs to you is kind of dumb, and

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Speaker 1: it might seem that way on the surface, but it's

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Speaker 1: not dumb to train dogs and to give them something

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Speaker 1: they need to have a better life. It gives the

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Speaker 1: dog something important. But what it also does, and this

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Speaker 1: is maybe the best thing for us, is that it

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Speaker 1: helps us work with our dogs better. One of the

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Speaker 1: things I'm learning about my young dog as I hunt

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Speaker 1: more and more with her is that her version of

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Speaker 1: being Birdie is different than the old lab who just retired.

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Speaker 1: Sadie's version of asking for help in the field is

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Speaker 1: different too. The relationship isn't just me teaching them to

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Speaker 1: do something and then it's over. I have to learn

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Speaker 1: them too. Your dog needs to learn how to work

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Speaker 1: for you, but you also need to learn how to

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Speaker 1: ask your dog the right questions to get the desired results.

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Speaker 1: Pro trainers are generally masters at this because they can

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Speaker 1: read dogs really well. But us, as individual owners who

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Speaker 1: aren't professional trainers, can get a hell of a lot

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Speaker 1: better at training our dogs by well, training them more

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Speaker 1: in a variety of environments and through a whole litany

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Speaker 1: of tasks, some of which might seem kind of pointless

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Speaker 1: or silly, but they aren't. And if the worst case

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Speaker 1: scenario this off season is that you get your dog

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Speaker 1: to understand some kind of command that amounts to just

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Speaker 1: a circus animal trick, you haven't taken anything away from

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Speaker 1: their more marketable skills, but you've added something extra in

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Speaker 1: and you both have received the very tangible benefit of

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Speaker 1: working together through a problem. That's the crux of just

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Speaker 1: about everything we want out of our dogs. And you

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Speaker 1: know what else, it's just fun. Training can take on

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Speaker 1: a very serious form and a hurry, especially for us

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Speaker 1: ego driven dudes who want the most badass dogs on

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Speaker 1: the planet. Sometimes you just have to have some fun,

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Speaker 1: and so do our dogs. So think about that as

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Speaker 1: we slip into twenty twenty five here, and think about

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Speaker 1: coming back in two weeks, because I'm going to drop

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Speaker 1: an episode on not only how our dogs really learn,

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Speaker 1: but how intelligent they can be. That's it for this week.

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Speaker 1: I'm Tony Peterson. This has been The Houndation's podcast. As always,

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Speaker 1: thank you so much for your support. We really appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: Here all of us do. If you need some more

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Speaker 1: dog content, if you need a podcast to listen to

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Speaker 1: on some road trip, if you need a recipe to

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Speaker 1: cook something up that's going to be tasty and a

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Speaker 1: little different than the usual stuff you make. The meadeater

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Speaker 1: dot com. As you covered, there's so much content. We

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Speaker 1: drop new stuff every single day. Go check it out

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Speaker 1: at the meadeater dot com. The touble him, the tactic

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Speaker 1: cot In, the topic man