Episode #92 Patience in Puppies

Today we are talking about patience and impulse control when it comes to new puppies. Michele Rielly joins Amy to discuss the difference between the two, how to help our puppies gain more patience and how important it is for us as handlers to have patience too! 

Transcript

Michele: 0:00

This is the puppy training podcast episode number 92 patients in puppies This podcast is designed to help you on your journey of becoming best friends through love and learning as you train your own dog from home, and I'm here to help you every step of the way. This is the puppy training podcast, and I'm your host, Amy Jensen. Hey, everybody, welcome to the puppy trading Podcast. Today we are talking about a hot topic with puppies patience and impulse control. I think this is something that people don't really anticipate or maybe have much background knowledge on. So our expectations might be a little bit off when we get a puppy. So I have Michelle Riley here she is one of our trainers here at Baxter & Bella, and she likes to talk about patients and impulse control with our clients. And so I thought I'd bring her here today to share some of that information with you guys. So Hi, Michelle. Welcome. Hi, Amy. Thanks for having me. We're so glad you could be here. I love bringing my trainers on because they are a wealth of knowledge. And you guys might be getting tired of hearing from me. So it's nice to hear from someone else once in a while. So Michelle, will you just tell us a little bit about yourself? How long have you been training ducks. I started with Baxter & Bella about a year ago, but I kind of started with dog training when I mean I've had dogs all my life, mostly labs and we have a German Shepherd and my dad has a Rhodesian Ridgeback, which is really cool dog. But when I was in college, I was in class one day and one of my colleagues brought in a dog for during class and kind of vest on and I went up and talked to her and she said, Oh, yeah, it's a club here at Miami, we train or we race service dog puppies to become service dogs. And I said, Oh my gosh, sign me up, get me in this club. So that's kind of how I got started, I started raising puppies for four paws for ability, and kind of moved on from there to working with local shelters to help with rescues and that kind of thing. And then eventually started my apprenticeship with the dog service canines, and kind of got started with there and I'm getting my seventh puppy to train. What's your favorite thing to do in working with dogs? Now that you've trained a variety and you've done lots of puppy work and service dog work? Is there something that's your favorite? Honestly, I love the beginning of training when that like everything clicks with dogs, especially like I've been using the smart Bell more recently with my last couple of puppies. And once it clicks with them, it's magic. So I don't necessarily have a favorite cue. But I like to kind of have that opportunity for dogs for light bulb moments where things just click and it works out. So after saying that, Michelle, you might have some clients contacting you to do board and trains to see. I know raising a puppy is a lot of work and a lot of time, but I like you find it super rewarding. And I love that light bulb moment. In fact, when I was an educator in the math classroom, that was my favorite thing as my students to was just watching them learn a new concept and that light bulb click on and I find the same thing in the dog world, which is super rewarding. Yes, definitely. For patients and impulse control, this is a topic like I mentioned that, you know, maybe people have some unrealistic expectations going into training a dog, can you explain a little bit about dogs in terms of patients and impulse control and what to expect. With patience, it's kind of looks more like when you ask your dog for a wait a steak something where they need supervision, I think a lot of it goes more and with time and age of sometimes we have higher expectations of what our dog's patients levels are. Versus then with impulse control, it's more about dogs choosing on their own without human intervention. So food falls on the ground and they grab it chasing animals or different you know, fetch and things like that. Sometimes it's something that they internally do and we have to help them make those right decisions. Something that I see a lot with, at least with impulse control is counter surfing, jumping, stealing objects, things like that, things that dogs really like to do. And sometimes they get they get a reward out of it that isn't something we necessarily reward them for. Versus with patients, you know, when we ask them for a sit and a stay, and then we release them, they get to work on being able to sit and hang out for a second or two, and then they get rewarded for that behavior as well. So yeah, and why do you think it's so important for families to know about this when they bring home a puppy? What have you found in coaching these clients? Yeah, I found that a lot of the times we when we first bring our puppy home, and we really do want to focus on bond, but that doesn't necessarily mean we need to let them get away with things just because they're cute and small. So you know, just because they only weigh two pounds right now doesn't mean it's okay for them to jump on us. Or it's okay for them to rush out the door or bark or do other things like that where we if we can find ways to reinforce those good behaviors and work on how to really focus on that bond and apply positive way and reward them for doing those good behaviors. Yeah, I love that I think it's very possible for these puppies when they come into our homes to learn good manners from the get go. Right it is we're bringing a canine into a human environment. And it's important that we build that relationship and teach them this is how we behave in a home setting. And it's hard for them because they are a puppy, and they know to do dog behaviors, which are those inputs of things like barking, jumping, biting, for things they want, because that's what's worked in the past for them, or that's how they've grown up with their littermates. And so to come into a home with a family and to have some different rules, I think takes some time and patience and understanding on our part and, you know, allowing them to learn the rules and boundaries to in a in a healthy happy way. So thanks for bringing that one up. So in a nutshell, could you explain how to go about teaching a puppy to wait for something they want?

Unknown: 5:52

Yes, I really love the freefall game. That's one of my go twos for my puppies, especially those that are like to jump or like to jump after things they want to do. I also really like the only if you're nice. And then I'm really like the relaxation protocol, which we have a link to it in Baxter & Bella, as well that you can watch those videos.

Amy: 6:15

I find myself in advising those three games as well to clients. I mean, start off here, we can teach your puppy to wait for good things. Will you explain the freefall game just since you mentioned that and just maybe teach our listeners how to play?

Michele: 6:27

Yes. So basically, we want to have our dogs in a set. And in the video on the website, we do use a toy, but sometimes I like to use kibble as well, especially if you are working on a pup that is grabby with treats. But basically, you're going to take that toy or the treat, and you're going to start up really high, and then slowly go down towards the dog. If they jump up, or if they stand up anything where they're not sitting patiently we bring that toy or treat back up high. And we keep bringing it down slowly kind of like with teaching wait for dogs bowl until they are given an okay to be able to grab the toy or the treat from us.

Amy: 7:08

I find that young puppies pick this up pretty quickly. If we're consistent about it.

Unknown: 7:12

Yes. And it's something that I really found helps if you start it from the beginning, they're less likely to jump for anything they want.

Amy: 7:21

Puppies definitely do what works for them. So if they figure out that jumping works, they'll keep jumping. Or if they figure out that biting for that tree works, they'll keep biting as you mentioned with the treats, I liked that you brought that up with the kibble is that, you know, when you lower a piece of kibble to a puppy, you don't have to give it to them, like if they bite our mouth where you can say nope, and then slowly lower it again and help them learn, oh, when I grab it with my teeth, it doesn't work. But if I wait patiently, then I get that piece of kibble. And then that's what gets repeated. Are there any ways, Michelle, that we can go wrong when we're trying to help our puppy Be patient? How can we mess this up?

Michele: 7:55

Possibly, I think the biggest thing is that we are not patient enough with our dogs, when it comes to this kind of stuff. If they continue to jump up and you're not willing to continue to bring your hand up away from them, we given to those impulses of the puppy then gets rewarded for those behaviors. I was talking to a client today who was working on a leave it where her pup scratches at her hand to get her food underneath it on the floor. And she's like he won't wait. And I said well, sometimes it's more about you waiting longer than they are and being more patient for those kinds of things. So that's one thing I've really learned is how to be patient with dog training and kind of being able to realize that some dogs are different learners just like humans are and some are a little more analytical where they actually have to think so we just kind of have to be patient and wait and see if they figure it out over a few seconds. That reminded me of a call I had with a client this week about they take their puppy to a new place and the puppy won't focus or listen. And I find that's another avenue that we as handlers struggle with patients. We want to get to the park and start walking right away or we want to get to the store and start our training session right away. But being patient enough to let that dog, learn about their environment, sniff around a little bit. acclimate to where they are and relax in that new environment. Then you'll start to see your dog turn around and focus on you like Okay, I'm ready. Now I'm ready to focus on you. I'm ready to listen, I'm ready to work. Let's go. And I think that's like you brought up it's us trying to be patient and let the dog do that versus trying to rush right into something. Yes, definitely. I also have found as a parent, I'm a much more patient parent because I train ducks. My kids are thanking me for getting into this avenue. I should have probably done this before I had children.

Unknown: 9:42

I use kids all the time as examples, and I do not have kids.

Amy: 9:49

The two worlds have a lot of parallels parenting children and parenting puppies. There's a lot of parallels I find. All right. Well Michelle, thanks for your great advice on patience and impulse control. Before we go today, I'd love to ask you a couple more questions. You trade a lot of puppies, but you also train a lot of people. So you help our clients learn how to train their dogs. And I'm curious, what is your most commonly asked training question?

Unknown: 10:11

I'd have to say it's probably biting. I think we've got a lot, a lot of young puppies who come in, and some people just don't. I mean, they know that dogs bite, but they don't realize for how long and that's something we talk about a lot.

Amy: 10:24

Same kind of idea with patients too, as I say, that goes hand in hand, right? Teaching them to take that piece of kibble gently versus using their teeth waiting for that tongue to come out. But that does take patience on our part to wait for that to happen. Yes, Michelle, if you had a day off with just you and your dogs, how would you spend it?

Michele: 10:41

We'd be at the lake 100% My aunt has a lake house up in Tennessee, and we spend every day off we can up there.

Amy: 10:50

So fun. Well, thank you for joining us today. Thanks for talking about patients and impulse control. I know that this is a topic that is sometimes very frustrating because that patience does take time. And it does take a little extra effort, but it's so worth it. Being consistent and adding that extra patience level on our part really helps our puppies show patients on their part and then it helps our relationship be better. So thank you for joining us today Michelle.

Michele: 11:15

Thank you.

Amy: 11:16

As we leave today, just to recap, try to help your puppies build that patience and impulse control. We try to lengthen it one second at a time. We help them do this in a very kind loving way. We get one second of a wait that yes, here's a treat. Then we go for two seconds and then three seconds and then four seconds and we really help our puppies win at the game of patience. Have a wonderful week and happy training. If you have a question about anything you heard on this podcast or any other Puppy Training question, visit my site Baxter & bella.com to contact me.