How To Train Your Dog With Love And Science - Dog Training with Annie Grossman, School For The Dogs

Warning: If you're not a very nerdy aspiring dog trainer or a science geek when it comes to the history of the study animal behavior, this episode might not be for you! You've been warned. Annie talks about the evolution of dog training, starting with hypotheses about the domestication of dogs, the rise of the "pet" dog in the late 1800s, covering the work of Pavlov and Watson in the early 1900s, the birth of clicker training in Skinner's lab in the middle of the century, up through the rise of dominance-based trainers on TV in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.  This is the audio from a lecture Annie put together for the School For The Dogs Professional Course. School For The Dogs has been training up dog trainers for four years, and is in the process of putting much of this curriculum online for aspiring dog trainers. If you're interested in learning more about the SFTD Professional Course and would like to be notified when it launches, email annie@schoolforthedogs.com.  --- Partial Transcript: Annie: So this is a bonus episode that is really for listeners who are super nerdy about dog training. You’ve been warned if you end up finding it’s boring, you might not be nerdy enough. I recorded this for our professional course which we have been building out and really putting the finishing touches on.  We’ve had a professional course for a few years, but we’ve been working on putting the majority of it online with both on demand and live interactive parts. If you’re interested in learning more and being notified as soon as it officially launches, just email me, annie@schoolforthedogs.com and I will give you more info. But yeah, so this is the audio of this lecture. There is a PowerPoint and video, too, which obviously you’re not going to experience because this is a podcast.  But I thought I put it up here, because when I first got interested in dog training, I really didn’t have any context for any of it. So I put this presentation together to try and give some context, and answer the question where did, for instance, where did clicker training come from? And why isn’t it more widely used, and was it just recently invented et cetera, et cetera. So, hope that if you are an aspiring dog trainer or are just a geek about this kind of stuff as I am, I hope you will get something out of this. All right, here you go. Oh, and by the way, if I sound like I’m talking a little bit slowly or whatever, it’s because I’m going through slides while I’m talking. So that is that is my full disclaimer. Now go forth and listen. This lecture is going to be a brief history of dog training. This is not meant to be a comprehensive history, but rather something that touches on both the last century-ish of dog training and with an attempt to put it into the larger context of dogs in the human world over time. Did humans really domesticate dogs?  We tend to have this assumption in our culture that domestication is something that we did to dogs. Actually, the more likely scenario is probably one of co-evolution, with natural selection favoring dogs who could exist in the human realm, favoring dogs who were less fearful of humans and more likely to engage in behaviors that human liked.  Or have performed some kind of job for humans. The most basic job probably being eating a family’s scraps, which would reduce the amount of disease carrying vermin. Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

On April 1 we are starting the Dog Training in 21 Days Challenge (#DT21DAYS). We’re using the hashtag on Instagram but if you don’t have IG, you can still participate!  Each day there will be a simple challenge for you to complete. They are outlined below and we will be posting about them each day on Instagram as well as sharing what we are doing for it on Instagram Stories. Please join, get your dog excited about learning and flex those dog training muscles! To participate: Post a video or image everyday for 21 days showing your participation.  Tag us and use #DT21DAYS so we can see. For anyone who wants to participate outside of social media, you can visit the link in bio, click Dog Training in 21 Days  (http://schoolforthedogs.com/dt21days) and checkout with code DT21DAYS. The code will make it completely free. Note: It’s okay to miss a day(s), just jump back in when you can. Today's episode is an interview with Leeyah Wiseman, who will be demonstrating each day on our Instagram. You can also follow Leeyah on Instagram at @georgeandleeyah The Daily Challenges: WHAT’S YOUR DOGS $100 BILL? TEACH YOUR DOG TO DRAW CAPTURE 50 AWESOME THINGS TEACH A NOSE LICK TEACH LOOK (PART 1 OF 2) TEACH LOOK (PART 2 OF 2) TEACH SIT WITH A SNAP BOUNCE YOUR DOG BETWEEN 2 SPOTS TEACH A HAND TOUCH TEACH DOWN TRAIN FIND IT THE ELEVATOR GAME THE STAY GAME TEACH “DROP IT” MUZZLE TRAINING RELAXATION PROTOCOL TEACH STAND TEACH YOUR DOG WHERE TO WALK TOUCHING AN OBJECT THE PAW TOUCH SHAPING TO PAPER If you are sharing on Instagram, be sure to tag us and use the hashtag: #DT21DAYS If you’d like access to all 21 lessons, detailed steps and additional resources visit our on-demand portal - head to the link in our IG bio, click Dog Training in 21 Days and checkout with code DT21. The code will make it completely free. Good luck! --- Partial Transcript: [Intro and music] Annie: Hello listeners. Thank you for being here. I am interviewing today, Leah Wiseman, who is, we’re trying to figure out exactly what to call her, but for the moment I’m going to call her our student leader of our upcoming 21 day challenge. Leah, Hey, thanks for being here. Leah Wiseman: Hey, thanks so much for having me today. I’m so excited to chat about our challenge. Annie: I know, me too. So I wanted to have Leah on both to talk about the challenge and we can go through some of the specifics, but also just wanting to kind of hear about Leah’s journey into dog training. She has been a podcast listener, I know, since she got her puppy.  Since you got your puppy, I don’t know if I should be, am I speaking to you or like the greater people? Leah: Right? It’s kind of surreal to be talking to you live when it’s I’m so used to like hearing your voice. Full transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

This is a bonus episode: A recording of a live Q and A. Join Annie Grossman for a live Q and A most Thursdays on Instagram @schoolforthedogs. Get alerted about the next one or ask a question in advance at http://schoolforthedogs.com/qanda. She also sometimes goes live to answer questions on Clubhouse. Find her there: @anniegrossman. Today, Annie spoke to the human belonging to Penny (@heytherepenny on Instagram) about how to help young Penny feel more comfortable alone and how to start to prevent separation anxiety before it begins. Annie gives lots of tips on crate training, talks about how to create crate "FOMO," use the Treat and Train, and more.  Join us on Instagram in April for our Day 1 of our Dog Training in 21 Days Challenge! --- Partial Transcript: Annie: Hi, is this Penny? Angela: Yes, this is Penny. Annie: And tell me your name. Angela: My name is Angela. Annie: Hey Angela. I’m recording this for School for the Dogs podcast. Is that okay? Angela: Yes. Annie: And where are you guys based? Are you in New York City? Angela: Yeah, so we are, we actually did sign up for a course at School for the Dogs, which starts in April. Annie: Oh, great. Which course are you doing with us? Angela: We’re doing Calm canine. Annie: Oh, great. Excellent. Angela: Just cause Penny, she’s really excited whenever she goes outside. So we’re hoping that’ll help. Annie: Is she a golden doodle? Angela: She’s a cavapoo. Annie: Okay. And how old is she? Angela: She’s six months old now. Annie: Oh, she’s a little, just a tiny pup. Okay. Well tell me what’s going on with Penny. Angela: Well, so she basically follows us everywhere in the home. So like if she’s on the couch and we get up to go somewhere, she will, even if she’s asleep, she will wake up, hop down and follow us to wherever we are. My only concern right now, my boyfriend works from home, so she’s around somebody all day, but my concern is just like, when things go back to normal, he goes back to work. Just because she’s so used to following us, seeing us everywhere, if this becomes an issue for separation. Annie: Yeah. Well, I think you’re right to be thinking about that in advance. Have you tried leaving her alone? Have you tried leaving her with anyone else? What happens when you do that? Angela: So she we’ve done little intervals, like maybe five, 10 minutes or something, but just like we’re in another room. So we’re still, you know, she’ll be in the living room and we’ll just go to another room and kind of watch her on the camera. She again tries to follow us. So for the five, 10 minutes, she will eventually, after a couple minutes of scratching at the door, will go and kind of like sit on the couch. But the longest that we’ve left her is probably like 10 minutes or so. Annie: And she cries during those 10 minutes? Full transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Annie reads a satirical essay she wrote, approaching the gun control debate from the point of view of a dog trainer. With dogs, we can create antecedent arrangements to control the environment in order to keep dogs from eating our shoes. If only it were so easy. If only it were so easy keep people from shooting each other... A FAREWELL TO FOOTWEAR: A DOG TRAINER WEIGHS IN ON THE SHOE CONTROL DEBATE by Annie Grossman  As an animal trainer by profession, I am specifically interested in shoes that get into the hands, or, rather in the mouths, of dogs. From what I witness in the homes of my clients, the deleterious use of shoes by dogs is a problem with no easy solution. Almost daily, I hear of incidents relating to shoe carnage: people coming home to find their Uggs in pieces all over the living room floor; midnight vet runs spurred by decimated Nikes causing intestinal blockage; children arriving at school late and in tears because the goldendoodle has absconded with a sandal. The problem goes beyond mere inconvenience: At any shelter, you can find dogs who face euthanasia because of sins relating to their insatiable appetite for footwear, and vets around the country will attest to the damage (sometimes irreversible and even fatal) that dogs cause themselves because of their obsession with our shoes. After every incident, be it a small-time heel nibble or a full on closet rampage, there is one question that I hear over and over again: Why did he do it? Motive is a major cause of conversation around these issues. So many dog owners will say that shoe misuse stems from deep-seated puppyhood issues, profound mental disturbance, or a need for dominance. Some say dogs are prone to these kinds of disruptive behaviors because of spite, or inferiority complexes. But, as a trainer, I like to remind people that we cannot read dog minds. We can make a lot of guesses, but they’ll only ever be guesses. Did he do it because of issues with his absentee father? Was he trying to prove himself to the bitch next door? Maybe. And we could spend a lot of time trying to establish motives rooted in those kinds of storylines. But, the fact is, if a dog eats your shoe, it’s because there was a shoe available to eat.... Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

School For The Dogs' trainers and clients love treats that dogs can lick straight from a container. One woman has cornered this market, and we're so glad. Her name is Brandi Barker. She started out training dog, but now is the fulltime force behind Bark Pouches, which are little squirt bottles filled with shelf-stable deliciousness. She and Annie talk about how she entered the world of dog training, how she came up with her product, and more.  Get Bark Pouches at storeforthedogs.com https://storeforthedogs.com/collections/bark-pouch or at BarkPouch.com  https://www.barkpouch.com/ --- Partial Transcript: [Intro and music] Annie: Hello folks. Thank you for being here. I am here with Brandi Barker, who has the world’s best last name if you’re into dogs [laughs]. And Brandi who is joining us from Chicago? I believe. Brandi: I actually moved to Columbus, Ohio. Annie: Oh, okay. From Columbus, Ohio. Why don’t you tell us about your amazing product and then we can go from there. Brandi: Okay. Sounds good. So it’s called Bark Pouch, and it’s dog treats in a pouch. Everything is human grade. And I try  to keep the ingredients really minimal and I have multiple sizes. I have multiple — Annie: Sorry to interrupt you, but explain it. Let’s explain what a pouch is because it has different meanings. Brandi: Okay. Okay. So you want me to start over then? Annie: No, no, no, just go ahead. Brandi: Okay. So it’s it’s dog treats in a pouch. So if you’ve ever seen the applesauce pouches, or the yogurt pouches that kids eat from, it’s basically like a paste type consistency that you just hold down for your dog and squeeze a tiny bit. They lick straight from the pouch. So it’s, I really design them for walking and training just to make that process easier for people. Annie: What’s funny is I have a toddler. And she eats now from these kinds of pouches all the time, but I feel like my first exposure to this kind of pouch was through Bark Pouch. And then I was like, Oh, wait, they make these for children too. And actually some of the ones that they make for children, I think you can also use for dogs. But yeah, so we’ve been carrying your product for several years now, and they are so genius because they’re lickable.  And as trainers we are very into treats that can be licked straight from the container for so many reasons. One reason that I think that people might not think about is when you’re working with dogs all the time, as so many of us are, your hands get really gross and your pockets get really gross. So having something that can simply be given straight from the container into a dog’s mouth is great. Love using it for especially outside, love using it for stuff like muzzle training. So many reasons. And recently we have been selling so many more Bark Pouches before because they used to have to be stored frozen, and then put in the refrigerator after use, but by some magic of production, they are now shelf stable as of a few months ago. And so we’ve been shipping them all over the country. Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

This is a bonus episode: A recording of a live Q and A. Join Annie Grossman for a live Q and A most Thursdays on Instagram @schoolforthedogs. Get alerted about the next one or ask a question in advance at http://schoolforthedogs.com/qanda. She also sometimes goes live to answer questions on Clubhouse. Find her there: @anniegrossman.  Join her on Clubhouse tomorrow 3/19 at 12PM ET to give your answer to the question: What is a good dog? Need a Clubhouse invite? Text 917-414-2625. Today, Annie answered the following questions:  -Is it considered "positive punishment" if you use body pressure to encourage walking (from @vagabondpaws)  -What is the best way to keep your puppy off of furniture? Saying "No" or "Off"? (from @eleniannm) -How do you get a 12-week-old puppy to potty outside (from @eastvillageenzo) -How do you get a puppy to eat her kibble if she only wants to eat treats and people food? (from @heytherepenny)  -What are good toys to leave in the crate (from @303lauren)  -How can you best train yourself before getting a dog? (from @alinalauranarvaez)  -What should you do when a puppy cries overnight, besides taking him out to potty? (from @luvmesumkatie)  Mentioned in this episode: SFTD's on demand courses course available at schoolforthedogs.com/courses SFTD's house training guide: schoolforthedogs.com/house SFTD's puppy nipping guide: schoolforthedogs.com/nip Truthaboutpetfood.com  Products:  The Groov by Diggs https://storeforthedogs.com/products/groov-training-aid?_pos=1&_sid=dfad4b503&_ss=r The Toppl  https://storeforthedogs.com/products/toppl?_pos=1&_sid=b6781a892&_ss=r Yak Chews: https://storeforthedogs.com/products/himalayan-chews Bully Grip https://storeforthedogs.com/products/bully-grip-stick-holder?_pos=1&_sid=19b6e3056&_ss=r Other episodes mentioned:  A Pet Food Killed My Dog (Interview with Sue Thixton of Truthaboutpetfood.com) https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/podcasts/episode-63-a-pet-food-killed-my-dog-susan-thixton-the-truth-about-pet-food/ A Modern Dog Owners Guide To Nipping https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/podcasts/episode-10-a-modern-dog-owners-guide-to-nipping/ A Modern Dog Owners Guide To House Training https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/podcasts/episode-3-a-modern-guide-to-house-training-your-dog/ In Defense of Negative Punishment https://anchor.fm/dogs/episodes/In-Defense-of-Negative-Punishment-Teaching-dogs-patience-at-mealtime--stopping-thumb-sucking--more-erj8si

This is a bonus episode in which Annie reads aloud the preface to Walden Two, BF Skinner's 1948 novel about a utopian community that he imagines could be closely engineered based on what we know about behavioral science, and cooperatively governed based on principles rooted in positive reinforcement. The book was called "fascism without tears" when it was published and also compared to a plan for a dog obedience school for humans. Three decades after writing it, Skinner wrote Walden Two Revisited, which reflected on how society still hadn't done enough to harness the power of non-coercive, non-punitive control in order to better people's lives. Forty-five years hence, has anything really changed? Maybe dog training can help us better understand what Skinner had in mind... Notes:  Clubhouse Reading Group on Walden Two: 4/1 at 3PM ET. Need a Clubhouse Invite? Text 917-414-2625 Annie imitates a dial up modem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B8KPvp9eew Buy Walden Two: https://amzn.to/3cKdGL8 3 minute summary of Walden Two, by the Prosocial Progress Foundation  --- Partial Transcript: Annie: This is a bonus episode. Woo woo woo wee aw wee aw wee aw!  That’s my bonus episode cheer. It happens to also sound a lot like a car alarm. I also do impressions of dial up modems, true story.  Look in show notes. Anyway, I have decided to give myself permission as this podcast’s editor and producer to do the occasional episode that is really only tangentially related to dog training. It’s not specifically related to solving dog training problems, but that touches in my mind on dog training in a larger context.  And that these episodes may sometimes simply be me reading things that I have found thought-provoking in this arena. Last week, I read the 1913 essay, um by John B. Watson psychology as the behaviorist views it.  Which kind of pits the then just burgeoning world of behavioral psychology, behavior analysis, against cognitive psychology kind of as if it were pitting science or a theory of evolution against creationism.  And today I read it and see a lot of similarities between the world of science based, positive reinforcement rooted dog training, and the world of dog training that has to do with myth and energy and misunderstood concepts like dominance. Today I wanted to read the 1976 forward written by BF Skinner for his 1948 novel, Walden Two.  Which I first read about 10 years ago. And it really, it really affected me. It was sort of the first time that I realized that I had, I had just graduated KPA at that point that I had kind of learned how to use this technology of this field of sciences, field of behavioral science to train dogs.  But really the same basic bits and pieces could be used to do things way outside of helping people get their dogs to not pee and poop in the house. And actually, Walden Two, which is, it’s not a book to be read because it’s like fine writing. It’s a book written by a scientist to communicate ideas. And when it came out it was, it was likened to the idea of creating a dog obedience school for humans.  And was also called fascism without tears. And it, I mean, I guess there is fascism in his suggestions for how a utopia could be, but also communism, and also a kind of socio libertarianism. Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

When David Adams' girlfriend traveled with her dog, she had an issue: The dog only liked to pee in yards. Adams, who had previously build a site for people looking for short-term apartment rentals, had an idea: What if there where people could rent... yards? So, he built SniffSpot.com, which allows people to rent out their fenced-in outdoor spaces to dogs, hourly. Annie and David discuss how this innovative service may revolutionize the way dogs are able to exercise and socialize.  Learn more at SniffSpot.com.  Like this episode! Please leave a review on iTunes! Support School For The Dogs by shopping at storeforthedogs.com  Download our new app to join the conversation at http://schoolforthedogs.com/community  Special thanks to Bill and Lizzie of Toast Garden for creating our Season Three intro song! Find them on Youtube.com/toastgarden --- Partial Transcript: Annie: All right, David. Thanks for being here. Why don’t you just go ahead and tell me about yourself and your really interesting business. David Adams: Yeah, yeah, definitely. Thanks for having me. So Sniff Spot, maybe I’ll start by telling you how it came about and I can talk about it a little bit. Annie: And if you don’t mind, tell me your full name and where you’re based. David: Yes. So my full name is David Adams and I’m currently living in Boston. Annie: Okay. And Sniff Spot.  Is Sniff Spot your baby? David: Yes. Yes. One of them, one of them. Annie: Oh, okay. Well, are there other babies that we’re going to need to know about? David: There are other babies, there are two fur babies named Soba and Toshi, and they came before Sniff Spot and they actually inspired Sniff Spot. Annie: So what is Sniff Spot for those who don’t know? David: Yeah. So Sniff Spot is Airbnb for dog parks. The idea is that anyone can offer their land or their yard as a safe and private space for dogs to play. And people that have dogs can book hourly for private time with their dogs, for exercise, training, whatever they want. Annie: That’s such an interesting idea. So when did you first come up with this idea and tell me about its evolution David: Yeah, so I was living in Seattle at the time. And I had just met this wonderful woman who is now my wife and I had my dog Soba and she had her dog Toshi.  And I was going around to dog parks with Soba. I was a first time dog owner and just kept having bad experiences. Soba is high energy, she’s a lab pit mix. And I needed to exercise her, but dog parks, you know, there were dogs there she didn’t get along with. They felt dirty and not hygienic. So I was feeling dissatisfied. Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

This is a bonus episode: A recording of a live Q and A. Join Annie Grossman for a live Q and A most Thursdays on Instagram @schoolforthedogs. Get alerted about the next one or ask a question in advance at http://schoolforthedogs.com/qanda. She also sometimes goes live to answer questions on Clubhouse. Find her there: @anniegrossman. Here, Annie talks to an SFTD client who has a young rescue dog who became frightened about going outside after some bad experiences on walks. The owner has been bringing the dog to off-leash time at School For The Dogs in NYC and wants Annie's thoughts on bringing him to the dog park. Mentioned in this episode:  Dog Body Language course available at http://schoolforthedogs.com/courses Lili Chin's book Doggie Language https://amzn.to/3cpAO1e Sue Sternberg's dog park app  Learn more about off-leash offerings at School For The Dogs at SchoolForTheDogs.com Dogs under 5 months: https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/services/puppy-playtime/ Dogs over 5 months: https://www.schoolforthedogs.com/services/school-yard/ --- Partial Transcript: Annie: So Katie with her dachshund mix. Katie wrote: I got three-ish months old Sunny on January 13th and he has settled in swimmingly. He’s happy go lucky, playful, but overall, very calm and observant. One standout example. When a stranger came in the house briefly, he all blinked at him. He only barks in the mornings to get out of his crate. He’s crate trained and he sleeps for around eight hours every night. The issue: he was with foster mom on a farm before coming to be in Brooklyn and was increasingly skittish on our initial walks to the park. Note, he was on pain meds from his neutering at first.  As days oere on and pain meds wore off this continued. So I started picking him up and walking him to the park. Eventually he didn’t want to go outside at all. We had a couple of unfortunate incidents that may have sped up the snowballing, including spooky home alone, where the passers-by, and one Pitbull that got a little too close sending Sunny between my boots and then yelping like a car alarm. I tried using treats, but after day five of growing anxiety, frankly, on both of our parts, I stuck to a pee pad in our backyard and we’ve since had great success with him going on command on the pads, both inside and outside. My question, how soon is too soon to hit the sidewalk and or the park? He’s had two rounds of vaccinations and we’re going to puppy socialization class at School for the Dogs on Monday. But again, she wrote this like a month ago and she just wrote me a little bit of an update. Let me see if I can find it, but I did also invite her to come on to chat here.  So earlier today she wrote... Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Professor John B. Watson's 1913 essay argues that psychology should be studied from a behavioral perspective, echoes some of the same conversations that are had today between dog trainers who are approach dog training as a science and those who approach dog training by making assumptions about dogs' internal feelings and motivations.  Read "Psychology As The Behaviorist Views it" in full at http://anniegrossman.com/watsonessay Thoughts on this? Join the conversation by downloading the School For The Dogs Community app find it in iTunes: http://schoolforthedogs.com/app find it in the Play store: http://schoolforthedogs.com/play --- Transcript: [Intro] Annie: Happy Monday morning humans. I am going to take advantage of this quiet moment in my home.  Quiet because my daughter’s wonderful babysitter has brought her to the playground.  To share with you an essay I just looked up that I actually have not read in several years, but I remember it left quite an impression on me when I did read it. It’s from Psychological Review from 1913 by John B. Watson. I looked this up because I am working on some of the lectures that are going with our online professional course, which, I’m just finishing up these lectures. And I did a lecture on the history of dog training, and the history of dog training and both in universities and in pop culture, I guess is the best way to describe what the lecture is. And I mentioned Skinner and said something about how Skinner was influenced by the work of Ivan Pavlov and John B. Watson. Both of whom were mostly working in the very early 1900s. And I kind of just started looking up stuff about John B. Watson. Again, I got on kind of a Watson kick a few years ago. I read part of his biography, which I’d actually like to look at again. I think Watson has probably due his own episode at some point, and is widely considered the OG daddy of the field of behavioral science as I understand it. Briefly put, he was a psychology professor, I think at Johns Hopkins.  His most famous experiment was most likely the baby Albert experiment, where he showed you could condition a child to be scared of all things fuzzy, like rabbits and that kind of thing, by pairing similar fuzzy furry things with a loud scary noise.  It’s pretty cruel and weird considering his research subject was a non-verbal 18 month old boy named little Albert.  But still interesting as it certainly relates to so much dog training where we see dogs become conditioned to fear seemingly random things. And he ended up leaving academics, I think because of some sort of affair he had with a student.  And he ended up at the famous ad agency, J Walter Thompson, where he used what he had studied and learned about human behavior in order to manipulate humans into buying things. He is credited with having popularized the idea of a coffee break, giving people a built-in reason in their day to stop and go drink and buy coffee. So if you are a big coffee drinker, as I am, you might just have John B. Watson to thank for your very stained teeth. Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Is all punishment necessarily bad? Nope! There are two kinds of punishment, and one of them is actually frequently used by so called "positive reinforcement" trainers like Annie: Negative Punishment. Here Annie breaks down what Negative Punishment is, talks about how it interplays with positive reinforcement, and explains its role in the "Elevator Game," which is a great exercise you can to do at mealtimes in order to teach a dog to not bum-rush the food bowl. She also reads from Behavior Principles In Every Day Life by John D. Baldwin and Janice I. Baldwin, which talks about a study in which parents used negative punishment at story time in order to discourage children from sucking their thumbs.  Behavior Principles In Every Day Life by John D. Baldwin and Janice I. Baldwin,  https://amzn.to/3qd8TXf Eileen Anderson on Extinction https://eileenanddogs.com/blog/category/extinction-2/ Other episodes and blog posts on this topic:  Episode 65: Don't let your dog cry it out: On training dogs to be alone  https://anniegrossman.com/2020/06/training/episode-65-dont-let-your-dog-cry-it-out-on-training-dogs-to-be-alone/10141/ Episode 47: A busy person's guide to operant conditioning https://anniegrossman.com/2019/04/training/episode-47-a-busy-persons-guide-to-operant-conditioning/10094/ The Big Bang Theory explains Operant and Classical Conditioning https://anniegrossman.com/2012/03/funnies/operant-conditioning-as-explained-by-the-big-bang-theory/4094/ Dog Training Lessons Learned From Watching Girls https://anniegrossman.com/2013/02/training/dog-training-lessons-learned-from-watching-girls-54375/7793/ --- Partial Transcript: [Intro and music] Annie: So a few years ago near where I live in Manhattan, I saw a woman walking a dog with a shock collar, like a really big shock collar, bright, I think it was like bright yellow. And she had the remote very conspicuously in her hand. And maybe I shouldn’t have done this, but I posted a photo of it, I think an Instagram stories of her with her dog and a shock collar.  Like from the back, you couldn’t really tell who she was or who the dog was. Again, maybe I shouldn’t have done this, but turns out she was a client of another dog trainer that has a studio, not that far from a school for the dogs in Manhattan. And I ended up taking the photo down but not before there was some back and forth in comments if I remember correctly on this photo. Maybe it wasn’t in stories, maybe it was in the feed. Anyway, there were comments, kind of along the lines of how we as quote unquote positive reinforcement trainers don’t understand the importance of using all four quadrants of operant conditioning, and that — although I think this trainer referred to them as corners — that we, we really can’t be good dog trainers unless we understand and use all four corners, AKA quadrants. So operant conditioning, is the process of learning by consequence. If you do something, there is a consequence and the consequence can either be punishing or reinforcing. The consequence can be involving adding something or subtracting something. And if you’re adding something, we call it positive. Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

This is a bonus episode: A recording of a live Q and A. Join Annie Grossman for a live Q and A most Thursdays on Instagram @schoolforthedogs. Get alerted about the next one or ask a question in advance at http://schoolforthedogs.com/qanda. She also sometimes goes live to answer questions on Clubhouse. Find her there: @anniegrossman.  Here, Annie answers three questions:  @gussiethehussie asks: "How do you vet the trainers you hire? What sort of continuing ed do they get?" @artielepup asks: "Why is my dog suddenly so reactive"  @roxyriddler asks: "My pup is no longer interested in recall unless she sees a treat! Help!" Mentioned in this episode: School For The Dogs' Professional Courses Association For Professional Dog Trainers  Certification Council For Professional Dog Trainers  Tawzer  Clicker Expo ClickerTraining.com --- Partial Transcript: Annie: Hi.  This is a bonus Q and A episode. I try and go live every Thursday afternoon on the School for the Dog's Instagram account, which is simply @SchoolfortheDogs. If you would like to ask a question in advance or be notified when I am going to go live, you can go to SchoolfortheDogs.com/qanda. I also periodically answer questions on Clubhouse. You can find me there @AnnieGrossman. GussietheHussie says: how do you get the trainers you hire? What sort of continued education do they get? Very good questions. So, a few years ago, we started our professional program training people up to become professional dog trainers. And I think that's Sophie. Hey, Sophie.  And part of the reason we did that was because we had trouble finding trainers that we felt like we wanted to work with.  It's really hard to find good dog trainers out there. And I'm happy to share some tips on how to find some good dog trainers. But before I do, I should plug that we are putting our professional program largely online. And what's extra exciting about that is a lot of the content is actually totally free because we want there to be more educated good dog trainers out there.  We wanted to take away as many of the barriers as possible. So we are just on the brink of launching the full suite of courses, but the first two first two are up and you can get them schoolforthedogs.com/courses. The completely free open-source one which contains most of our professional course online content written content is called Born to Behave. You can find it there, you can sign up there. And there's like a tier one professional course which is the same content as Born to Behave. But you do get a certificate at the end, if you do all the parts and do the quizzes. Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

We're posting this as a bonus episode because it isn't really about dog training... but it's something we think you will want to listen to if you love dogs and empathize with people who love them.  If you've heard the podcast Dirty John, or seen the dramatization on TV, also called Dirty John, you'll know that it's a story that is... complicated. The hero of the real-life true-crime story is Terra Newell, a soft-spoken dog groomer who was attacked by her sociopath stepfather one night when she and her dog were coming home from a day working at a shelter. Annie and Terra talk about her life with pets, the traumatic experience she and her dog experienced, how her dog impacted her recovery, and more.   You can find Terra on Instagram at @terranewell Dirty John Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dirty-john/id1272970334 Dirty John on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/80241855 Mentioned in this episode:  Don't Shoot The Dog https://amzn.to/37Nn7I2 The Human Magnet Syndrome https://amzn.to/3bzBv7G --- Partial Transcript: Annie: So I’m posting this as a bonus episode because it’s not really about dog training, but it is about a pretty incredible and traumatic experience that a woman who is a huge dog lover had with her dog. And I explain it in this conversation, which I recorded live on Instagram, why I wanted to talk to Terra Newell, who I first learned about from the podcast Dirty John.  She is also portrayed in the dramatization of the story Dirty John, in the TV show called Dirty John. I think I say this in the conversation, but there’s so many things to talk about and think about that are brought up in Dirty John. But of course, with my dog training point of view, all I could think was this woman should become a dog trainer!  [laughs] Anyway, I don’t think that is part of Terra Newell’s life plan, but I was happy that she agreed to talk to me. You can find Terra on Instagram @terranewell. I also just wanted to mention that my recording settings were a little off for the first minute of this conversation, but then they were fixed. So you will hear a transition about a minute in. Terra: I had to put you on mute on my computer. Annie: Yeah, I’m putting you on mute here too so I only have to record in one in one place, but I am psyched to get to talk to you, and what a beautiful dog. So is he a mini Aussie? Terra: Yeah, he’s a mini Aussie. He’s technically known for the AKC as a North American shepherd now, because the mini Aussies are considered their own breed because they had to use a Chihuahua or like the smallest of the smallest Aussie to kind of try to breed that breed. Annie: What made you decide to get that, or to get him? Terra: So I was at a pet store, working there, and I was with this guy, in a relationship, and he was obsessed with Aussies.  And I was just like, okay, I kind of want a papillon because they have the butterfly ears, and I really liked that, and then I was like, well, they’re kind of cool. Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

When Adam Davis came to work at School For The Dogs in late 2019, he was only in his mid-twenties but already had a decade of working with dogs professionally under his belt. In particular, his background involved a lot of hours spent helping city dogs learn to co-exist, and play, off leash. Today, he runs School For The Dogs' unique School Yard program-- a by-appointment, trainer-supervised members-only dog run -- and also oversees puppy playtimes, in addition to working private with clients. He and Annie discuss his early introduction to the world of science-based training, his interest in police dogs, his rescue dog Sonic, and more. Book a session with Adam at http://schoolforthedogs.com/adam Learn more about School Yard and Puppy Playtime at http://schoolforthedogs.com/services Mentioned in this episode: The Human Half Of Dog Training --- Partial Transcript: Annie: So I am here with Adam Davis. Adam, why don’t you introduce yourself with your official School for the Dogs title. Adam: Hi, Annie, thank you for having me on.  Yeah, my name is Adam Davis and I am the off-leash manager at the School for the Dogs. Annie: And what does that mean? Adam: So pretty much, we have these really cool services, it’s called our Off Leash services, right? Pretty much it sounds exactly how it sounds you get to come into the school and allow your dog to be off-leash in a highly controlled and constructive kind of way. Our services are great for — Annie: And to be clear that the owners are there. Adam: Yeah. Owners are there, you’re there with your dog. You’re talking to other parents, you’re talking to the trainer, that’s there. Yeah, we definitely want people to be involved with their dog, especially when it’s in an off-leash kind of setting Annie: And we have two different kinds off leash services, which are? Adam: Yes we do. Yeah. We have the puppy ones, which, you come in it’s puppy play time. You get to learn a little bit about how dogs communicate to one another, when to give breaks.  Really, really valuable. I would suggest this to anyone that has a puppy.  It’s so valuable to have our puppy socialized in a highly controlled manner. So that’s the puppy side. That’s the cool, that’s the baby side. Right. And then we have school yard, which is a little bit of a step up.  It’s for dogs that are 20 weeks and older. Very much a similar kind of structure, but a little bit more laid back, I would say. So school yard is really great for dogs that want to be social, that can communicate well. That can take communication well. And it’s a great space for them to be able to come and socialize in a highly controlled manner. This is for adult dogs. Well, not really adult, but non puppies. Annie: Some of, some of them are adults. We have some.  Well, I think the part of the reason it’s maybe like less controlled as you say is because it’s… I mean, puppy playtime often, it’s, someone’s first time there with their dog.  Whereas school yard, we have people who come almost every day of the week for years, so they don’t need as much as much instruction. So why don’t you talk about the process of getting into school yard.  Puppy play time of course is open to puppies who’ve had at least their first round of shots. Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

Anna Heyward is a writer and a School For The Dogs apprentice who has been featured on this podcast. She joined Annie and others to discuss her heartbreaking new article in The New Yorker, "Bad Dog," on Clubhouse. Their discussion touched on the complicated world of behavioral euthanasia, the cultural fog about dog training and the rampant misinformation about it, and more. Former School For The Dogs trainer Anamarie Johnson, also previously interviewed on this podcast, was among those who joined the conversation.  Find Annie on Clubhouse at @anniegrossman. Looking for a Clubhouse invite? Text 917-414-2625 Read Anna's article at NewYorker.com https://www.newyorker.com/culture/personal-history/bad-dog Anna Heyward is on Instagram at: @biggirl.world Mentioned in this article:  School For The Dogs courses (including a FREE one) for aspiring dog trainers http://schoolforthedogs.com/courses  The Freedom Harness  https://storeforthedogs.com/products/freedom-harness Lessons learned from foster dogs: A discussion with our apprentice Anna Heyward https://anchor.fm/dashboard/episode/ejr8oh Let’s talk about classical conditioning with dog trainer Anamarie Johnson https://anchor.fm/dogs/episodes/Lets-talk-about-Pavlov-with-dog-trainer-Anamarie-Johnson-e1goa1/a-a3johv Authors mentioned in this episode:  Sophia Yin https://amzn.to/3smqwoO Kathy Sdao https://amzn.to/3sxQkyx Lili Chin https://amzn.to/3smqPjs Karen Pryor https://amzn.to/3koAT8U Patricia McConnell https://amzn.to/3aUu0Ju Jean Donaldson https://amzn.to/3dOaWhU --- Partial Transcript: Annie: This is a bonus episode that was recorded on Clubhouse. Clubhouse is an app for iOS devices that is currently open by invitation only.  If you would like an invitation text me at (917) 414-2625. And if I have an invite available, I will share it with you. You can find me there @AnnieGrossman. So thanks for being here, everybody I’ve asked Yolanta who is a virtual assistant specializing in dog businesses to be here to help me moderate this room. Cause I’ve never moderated a room before and I didn’t want to get it wrong. And Anna Heyward is here. Anna wrote the wonderful, very moving poignant article, Bad Dog, which appeared in the New Yorker last week. Anna Heyward is a School for the Dogs apprentice and started out with us as a client. I actually interviewed Anna for the podcast a few months ago and then wanted to have another conversation with her for the podcast about her article, but thought it would be fun and interesting to open it up to others who read the article. So Anna, thank you for being here. And if anybody would like to ask Anna a question or discuss the article, just go ahead and use that like hand raising button on the bottom of the screen and Yolanta or I will ping you to to the stage to speak. Full Transcript available at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast