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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, and this episode is all about how we

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Speaker 1: can become more confident and handling dogs, which is a

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Speaker 1: huge component of training. Two weeks ago, I dropped an

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Speaker 1: episode of this podcast dedicated to developing confidence in our dogs.

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Speaker 1: That matters so much because it flavors a dog's entire

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Speaker 1: life in a positive direction. Generally, Well, guess what, the

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Speaker 1: same rules apply to us, And often our training efforts

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Speaker 1: fall flat or just don't have the horsepower they need

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Speaker 1: because we don't have confidence in ourselves. That is no

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Speaker 1: bueno and it's what I'm going to talk about right now.

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Speaker 1: A hunting industry friend of mine told me a story

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Speaker 1: years ago about a sheep hunt that he went on.

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Speaker 1: If any of you know anything about sheep hunting, it's

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Speaker 1: not the kind of activity that most outdoorsmen do even

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Speaker 1: once in their lives. So getting to go at all

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Speaker 1: is pretty incredible big horn sheep. And while most of

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Speaker 1: the sheep that are nearly impossible to get a tag

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Speaker 1: for these days aren't known for thriving in states like Iowa,

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Speaker 1: they live where the earth goes up and down a lot,

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Speaker 1: where gravity is a real issue, and things are still

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Speaker 1: pretty wild. To get to a sheep, you tend to

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Speaker 1: have to board some small planes and often climb on

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Speaker 1: the back of a horse for a while. Now, this

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Speaker 1: friend of mine, at the end of his sheep hunt,

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Speaker 1: ended up getting into one of those small planes that

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Speaker 1: still utilizes a propeller and can land on nothing more

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Speaker 1: than a cleared strip of timber that is pretty far

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Speaker 1: from what most of us think is a runway. Well,

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Speaker 1: on that flight, his plane didn't make it and they

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Speaker 1: made a crash landing. Now, while the pilot, his guide,

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Speaker 1: and he all survived, it didn't look great for them.

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Speaker 1: I forget now whether they were in Alaska or Canada,

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Speaker 1: but I remember him talking about how brutally cold it

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Speaker 1: was and how much snow they dealt with. Now, when

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Speaker 1: they finally got picked up by a rescue hell, they

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Speaker 1: thought they were good to go, as most of us would,

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Speaker 1: except that the helicopter suffered the same fate as the plane, which,

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Speaker 1: if you're keeping track, comes to a total of two

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Speaker 1: crash landings on one trip, which we can all agree

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Speaker 1: is about too many. They survived that one too, and

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Speaker 1: when I asked him what the worst part about it all?

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Speaker 2: Was.

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Speaker 1: He said it was when they were huddled under a

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Speaker 1: tarp with a single candle for warmth, and he looked

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Speaker 1: at his guide, who was a survival expert and someone

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Speaker 1: you generally find comfort in when things get really dicey,

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Speaker 1: and he was bawling his eyes out. That my buddy

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Speaker 1: said was the hardest to deal with because he saw

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Speaker 1: someone who was supposed to be in charge, supposed to

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Speaker 1: be conditioned to deal with real life and death adversity,

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Speaker 1: and it felt like he had given up. My buddy

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Speaker 1: said that was an absolute gut punch. He also said

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Speaker 1: climbing into the second rescue helicopter wasn't as joyful as

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Speaker 1: you'd expect because he had developed a pretty healthy and

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Speaker 1: understandable fear of flying machines in the undefeated gravity that

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Speaker 1: they attempt to defy. His guide had lost his confidence,

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Speaker 1: and it changed their outlook. It changed their whole situation

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Speaker 1: for the worse. My friend said, it was terrible. Now,

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Speaker 1: confidence is just wildly important to life, even if you're

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Speaker 1: not in a life or death situation. Now, if you

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Speaker 1: don't believe that, look up self help books that are

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Speaker 1: supposed to take the average low confidence person and prime

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Speaker 1: them up. To fight lions or whatever. The amount of

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Speaker 1: those books that are available is mind boggling.

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Speaker 2: It truly is.

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Speaker 1: In fact, just to see I search for self help

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Speaker 1: books on Amazon and the results totaled over one hundred thousand.

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Speaker 1: Not all of those deal with confidence and self esteem,

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Speaker 1: but a lot of them do. It's a big deal,

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Speaker 1: and it matters in many facets of our lives. Setting

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Speaker 1: boundaries with your lunatic family members, being assertive enough to

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Speaker 1: ask for as you think you deserve, or at least

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Speaker 1: telling your boss to go kick rocks in the street

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Speaker 1: when he asked you to color way outside the lines

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Speaker 1: of your job description. Whatever it is, confidence matters, and

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Speaker 1: as you probably can guess, it matters with how you

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Speaker 1: handle your dog. The energy we project is important, but

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Speaker 1: that walks in lockstep with us just being confident in

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Speaker 1: what we are asking the dog to do, and then

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Speaker 1: what to do when the dog doesn't deliver. You might

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Speaker 1: remember that a couple of weeks ago I mentioned that

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Speaker 1: I've been training a King Charles Spaniel to give this

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Speaker 1: woman a hand, since her life is pretty full and

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Speaker 1: she didn't ask for that dog.

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Speaker 2: In her life.

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Speaker 1: His name is Nico, and he actually is a really

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Speaker 1: good boy. He just has very little connections to human

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Speaker 1: after being rehome three times in the first year, mind you,

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Speaker 1: and he's pretty comfortable entertaining.

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Speaker 2: Himself while ignoring most people.

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Speaker 1: But we did some placeboard work, and we did some

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Speaker 1: basic obedience stuff and he showed plenty of signs of life.

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Speaker 1: Then we worked again on the same stuff and he

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Speaker 1: had regressed some, mostly I think because he had been

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Speaker 1: cooped up inside for a few days and is not

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Speaker 1: really the kind of dog who wants to live the

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Speaker 1: life of the average housecat. So just this morning I

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Speaker 1: met up with Nico and his owner again and we

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Speaker 1: went to work, but this time about halfway through, she

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Speaker 1: took the lead and I watched her interact with the pup.

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Speaker 1: It was clear that she had been working hard with

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Speaker 1: that little dog and that he is way more bonded

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Speaker 1: to her than me. It was actually pretty awesome to see,

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Speaker 1: and I told her that, and she admitted that she

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Speaker 1: was working with him every day and that when she

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Speaker 1: knows what to do, she's all about putting the work in.

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Speaker 1: But originally she didn't know what to do. She had

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Speaker 1: zero confidence in herself as a trainer or her dog's potential,

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Speaker 1: and so she didn't do anything. Now, what is really

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Speaker 1: cool about that is she will be the one to

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Speaker 1: have the most influence on that dog and the one

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Speaker 1: who will get the most out of having that dog

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Speaker 1: for his whole life. Just her change in affected her

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Speaker 1: dog's behavior more than my presence had. And that's what

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Speaker 1: you really want to see, because it changes all of

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Speaker 1: the little interactions, the little signals. And what I mean

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Speaker 1: by that is that when I first watched her with

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Speaker 1: that dog, she would praise him and love him up,

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Speaker 1: just randomly for no reason, and often when he didn't

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Speaker 1: do what she asked him. This is super common because

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Speaker 1: we naturally want to be really positive around our dogs.

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Speaker 2: We can't help it.

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Speaker 1: But if you spend time with a professional trainer, you'll

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Speaker 1: see an awful lot of like neutral interactions with dogs.

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Speaker 1: The emotion just doesn't come in until a behavior is delivered.

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Speaker 1: Then it's party time. Pros understand that there is value

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Speaker 1: to praise and rewards, but those things need to be earned,

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Speaker 1: and they are confident they can get that message through

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Speaker 1: to dogs. Now, us amateurs have a harder time believing that,

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Speaker 1: so we tend to default to the fur baby side

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Speaker 1: of things, which is kind of like eating a whole

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Speaker 1: sleeve of oreos when you're feeling a little snacky. Sure

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Speaker 1: they taste amazing, especially with a giant glass of cold milk,

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Speaker 1: but it would be hard to argue that, aside from

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Speaker 1: the instant pleasure of gnombing on some cookies, that's generally

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Speaker 1: not a great decision. So how do you develop confidence

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Speaker 1: as a dog trainer? Your first impulse might be to

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Speaker 1: watch some YouTube videos or maybe buy into one of

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Speaker 1: the master classes that a lot of trainers offer. Now,

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Speaker 1: I wouldn't discourage anyone from doing either, because I think

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Speaker 1: that filling your head with knowledge is a good thing.

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Speaker 1: And maybe you pick up a book at least if

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Speaker 1: you're one of those people like me who was born

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Speaker 1: way back in the nineteen hundreds, It doesn't really matter.

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Speaker 1: There are a lot of ways to learn about this stuff,

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Speaker 1: and consuming content is a pretty good way to get there.

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Speaker 1: It's not as good as training with someone who is

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Speaker 1: better than you, but that's often a hell of a

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Speaker 1: lot more difficult to facilitate. Fill that big, beautiful brain

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Speaker 1: of yours up. But then remember that learning about a

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Speaker 1: subject and then actually engaging in that subject are just

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Speaker 1: different things. And also remember that the people who create

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Speaker 1: a lot of the content probably just way better at

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Speaker 1: training than you, or they might have a style that

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Speaker 1: just doesn't jive with your personality or your dog's personality.

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Speaker 1: And even if it does perfectly match what you have

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Speaker 1: going on, there is the reality of someone explaining how

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Speaker 1: to do something in a five minute video or a

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Speaker 1: twenty minute podcast and then actually going out and confidently

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Speaker 1: putting that into practice for weeks until lessons start to stick.

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Speaker 1: This is where it gets tricky, and there are a

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Speaker 1: million examples of other things in life that kind of

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Speaker 1: create or at least contextualize this concept. So here's one

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Speaker 1: that stuck with me and changed my life. When I

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Speaker 1: was in college, I fished a lot of bass tournaments.

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Speaker 1: I was eaten up with it, even though the travel

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Speaker 1: and stress and expense nearly killed me. But I did

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Speaker 1: enjoy it for many reasons, but one was that I

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Speaker 1: just got to fish with people who were really good

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Speaker 1: at it. Now, if you know anything about bass, you

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Speaker 1: know they love cover and they love structure, small mouth

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Speaker 1: and large mouth alike. Rocks true use weed lines, and

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Speaker 1: of course docks. Docks provide overhead cover from avian predators.

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Speaker 1: They're full of hard structure to use to their advantage

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Speaker 1: when trying not to get eaten and also while trying

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Speaker 1: to eat something, And they often create really harsh shade lines,

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Speaker 1: which are perfect if one of your primary strategies for

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Speaker 1: eating is to ambush smaller fish, you just hide in

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Speaker 1: the shadows. A lot of people fish docks by casting

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Speaker 1: to each side with a spinner bait or some other

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Speaker 1: chunk and wine lure. But when you learn how to

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Speaker 1: skip underneath docks, everything changes. And I thought I was

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Speaker 1: pretty good at skipping senkos and tube jigs and swimming

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Speaker 1: jigs and whatever else under docks until I drew a

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Speaker 1: pro and a championship tournament on Lake Minnetonka here in

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Speaker 1: the Cities one time. Then I got a lesson in

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Speaker 1: skipping docks, and it changed everything for me. He was

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Speaker 1: so much better at it than I was. It wasn't

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Speaker 1: even funny. It made me realize how much better I

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Speaker 1: could be, and I started working on it to the

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Speaker 1: point now where I'm very confident in that strategy. But

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Speaker 1: I can also tell you I wouldn't have gotten there

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Speaker 1: by just reading an article or listening to a podcast

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Speaker 1: or watching a video. I had to see it in action,

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Speaker 1: but most importantly, had to put it into practice in

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Speaker 1: different conditions for a long time. Dog training is like that.

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Speaker 1: You can read about treat training your dog to do something,

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Speaker 1: which is great, but until you spend days or weeks

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Speaker 1: treat training a dog to do something, it's just a

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Speaker 1: different thing. And I know this is simple, but I'm

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Speaker 1: going to go somewhere with this. Let's say you have

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Speaker 1: a one year old Labrador Retriever that you've done a

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Speaker 1: pretty good job with as far as obedience is concerned.

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Speaker 1: He doesn't pull too hard on the leash when you

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Speaker 1: walk him, he sits on command, he doesn't beg and

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Speaker 1: he heals just like you want him to. If you

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Speaker 1: make him sit and you toss a bumper, he'll go

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Speaker 1: get it, and if you've done a really good job,

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Speaker 1: he'll deliver it to hand. Honestly, that's better than a

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Speaker 1: hell of a lot of dogs already. So that's great.

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Speaker 1: But what about double retrieves, what about long distance retres

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Speaker 1: what about water work or some other environment that he's

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Speaker 1: unfamiliar with. Well, I can tell you this. Make believe

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Speaker 1: pup can do all of those things if you make

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Speaker 1: them happen. And if you did all of that earlier stuff.

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Speaker 1: You probably have the confidence to try to make that happen.

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Speaker 1: But what if you didn't. What if you didn't work

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Speaker 1: the basics first, so that when you ask your dog

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Speaker 1: to sit, he sometimes does and he sometimes just ignores you.

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Speaker 1: Or what if you just couldn't get him to not

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Speaker 1: pull on the leash NonStop while you walked him. Will

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Speaker 1: you have the confidence to try the upper level stuff?

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Speaker 1: Probably not. This is a process that feeds itself, and

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Speaker 1: the momentum can swing one way or the other depending

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Speaker 1: on what you put in and how patient you are.

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Speaker 1: We preach the message of training a puppy from the

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Speaker 1: moment you bring it home with. The idea is that

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Speaker 1: the dog needs to learn and you're the one who

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Speaker 1: will teach him. And without a doubt, that's absolutely true.

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Speaker 1: You want to train your dog from the jump. But

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Speaker 1: it's not just to have a better dog. It's also

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Speaker 1: a way for you to see the results of a

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Speaker 1: training plan, positive results, because that matters a lot. And

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Speaker 1: while it's pretty dang easy to treat train most puppies

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Speaker 1: to do a few basic things, and that's great, it's

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Speaker 1: also not just for them. It's a starting point for you.

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Speaker 1: Think about it this way. If you can take an

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Speaker 1: eight week old puppy and get him sitting pretty consistently

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Speaker 1: on command after a few days, why can't you do

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Speaker 1: the harder stuff later. Because usually there's a breakdown in

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Speaker 1: confidence somewhere in between there, and that's when things get tough.

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Speaker 1: This is where the pros earn their money and why

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Speaker 1: they deserve their money. When your dog is struggling with

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Speaker 1: some task, it's easy to think all kinds of things,

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Speaker 1: he's not smart enough.

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Speaker 2: He's too stubborn, whatever.

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Speaker 1: But most of that is projection on our part, because

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Speaker 1: we've already seen that we can ask them to do

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Speaker 1: things and they'll deliver, but at some point, for some reason,

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Speaker 1: they won't, and that can get really frustrating fast. This

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Speaker 1: is where the timeline often shifts and it's easier to

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Speaker 1: decide that training has gone far enough. But mostly it's

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Speaker 1: because we aren't confident enough to help them through whatever

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Speaker 1: we are asking. This happens for plenty of reasons, but

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Speaker 1: it's so important to remember that you have to get

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Speaker 1: those early wins and sometimes revert to the easy wins

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Speaker 1: to keep your training momentum going in the right direction

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Speaker 1: and your confidence growing. This is also why when you

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Speaker 1: watch pros work, they might dedicate a little time to

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Speaker 1: some type of training with a dog and then switch

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Speaker 1: gears ten or twenty minutes later to work on a

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Speaker 1: different task. It's not that they couldn't push through the

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Speaker 1: original one, but if the wheels start to fall off,

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Speaker 1: or they see the dog has just moved enough in

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Speaker 1: a certain direction maybe with their attention, they consider it

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Speaker 1: time to do something else. Plus, they are generally pretty

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Speaker 1: confident that they can offer up situations where the dog

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Speaker 1: will eventually have success, and that matters in a major,

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Speaker 1: major way. They're not going to let the dogs fail,

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Speaker 1: and in that process, they won't fail at training even

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Speaker 1: if something they wanted to check off the list just

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Speaker 1: didn't get there on a specific day. They also know

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Speaker 1: that all of this stuff helps them be confident and

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Speaker 1: is recognizable by the dog. If you think that's not true,

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Speaker 1: you need to work with dogs more, because they can

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Speaker 1: read us very very well. A calm, assertive, and confident

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Speaker 1: trainer is one who can ask a lot of dogs

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Speaker 1: because dogs generally respond very well to that energy. A

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Speaker 1: person who isn't confident, who is an assertive will watch

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Speaker 1: a dog make its own decisions because it knows it can.

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Speaker 1: This is kind of like in grade school when you're

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Speaker 1: usual teacher who took absolutely no shit is out and

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Speaker 1: a sub is in, and the sub was working in

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Speaker 1: the mortgage industry until weeks ago, and they have no

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Speaker 1: business teaching kids because they don't know what the hell

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Speaker 1: they are doing. Do you think the classroom behavior will

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Speaker 1: be the same then with that sub it won't, because

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Speaker 1: kids are just like dogs, and that they can sense

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Speaker 1: things about authority figures and that flavors their interactions in

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Speaker 1: a palpable way. If they get a whiff of uneasiness,

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Speaker 1: then they'll test your boundaries. It's nature, honestly, and dogs

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Speaker 1: understand that game very well. So not only is it

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Speaker 1: just generally a good idea to work on something like

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Speaker 1: training until you're more confident, but it's also necessary to

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Speaker 1: get the results you really want out of the task. Now,

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Speaker 1: of course, I should probably say this, confidence can be

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Speaker 1: a double edged sword. If you're over confident, you can

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Speaker 1: ruin a dog pretty quickly, and likely will, because that's

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Speaker 1: the kind of situation that can lead the best of

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Speaker 1: us to absolutely lose our shit when things go wrong.

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Speaker 1: Confidence should ideally manifest itself in a bend. There done

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Speaker 1: that attitude, not a know it all attitude, if that

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Speaker 1: makes sense. So I'll say this just to reiterate it

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Speaker 1: one last time. If you aren't overly confident in your training,

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Speaker 1: consume whatever content you need, get around the right people,

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Speaker 1: but also just go for it. Train your dog on

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Speaker 1: the simple stuff, get those easy wins. Then train that

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Speaker 1: simple stuff over and over while you slowly add in

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Speaker 1: more challenging things. Your confidence level should move in lockstep

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Speaker 1: with your dog or be so damn close you can't

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Speaker 1: tell who is in the lead. Now if you hit

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Speaker 1: a roadblock, make sure you're incorporating other training tasks to

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Speaker 1: give the dog a win no matter what, every time

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Speaker 1: you train, and then figure out how to navigate those

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Speaker 1: troubled waters. Believe in yourself. Dog training in many ways

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Speaker 1: isn't that hard, and I say that followed by a gigantic,

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Speaker 1: super huge, But it certainly can be really difficult, and

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Speaker 1: it only gets more difficult the less confident we are,

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Speaker 1: which often leads to a good enough attitude, and the

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Speaker 1: dogs that are trained to that level often are barely

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Speaker 1: trained at all. Work on yourself in this category and

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Speaker 1: the dog and you will be way better off for it.

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Speaker 1: Do that and come back in two weeks because I'm

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Speaker 1: going to talk about genetics, like really really dive into

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Speaker 1: the topic and explain why it's so important to the

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Speaker 1: dog world, way beyond the usual ways in which we

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Speaker 1: think about canine genetics. That's it for this episode of Houndations.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tony Peterson. Thank you so much for

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Speaker 1: listening and for all your support. You guys showed up

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Speaker 1: big time a couple weeks ago when we had the

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Speaker 1: Dog Days of May at meat Eater here.

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Speaker 2: We really really appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: If you're interested in more than dogs, and we know

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Speaker 1: you are, head on over to the medeater dot com.

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Speaker 1: Give Brent Reeves this country life podcast to listen, just

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Speaker 1: good storytelling. We have new podcasts on there, all kinds

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Speaker 1: of crazy stuff, dropping new content every single day over there.

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Speaker 1: Go check it out at the meat eater dot com

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Speaker 1: and thank you once again,