Many people love the idea of getting a puppy or a rescue dog,
but then it's not quite what they expected.
Are you one of those people who are more often than not getting frustrated
with your young dog? Today, we're gonna ask you a series of yes,
no questions that are gonna help you decide if you are
respected by your dog and seen as a good leader. That's a.
Better girl. What a good puppy.
Dog. But you need to be truthful,
cuz that's gonna give you an honest answer on whether you've got a problem you
need to work through. Over the last 20 years,
I've had the great opportunity to do hundreds of group lessons or
private training lessons with people who are often frustrated with their dogs.
And it often boils down to just one thing, lack of structure. In this video,
you're gonna work alongside me as I ask you a series of questions.
We're gonna find out if you have a problem with your dog
Puppies and young dogs love to jump. We all know that it may be in the morning.
They're excited. They'll jump on us.
When we first come home often when we have something of value,
a toy or food,
they're going to jump up and try and grab it out of our hands. Get that buddy.
Yes. Good boy. But I wanna make sure my dog's respectful of me.
Do you have a dog that jumps up uncontrollably on you trying to
grab things out of your hand? Pretty common for dogs to bark at different times.
You know, maybe when they're excited and they're playing,
it might be when they're, uh, if they see another dog,
it could be when they, uh, a little alert bark,
when they see something they're not sure of. But, when your dog is barking away,
do they not stop when you ask them to?
One thing I'm very aware of when I have young dogs.
Is whether or not they elicit attention from me, what do I mean by that?
I mean that maybe my dog comes up and just softly puts their head there, uh,
for a pet. But if I don't, maybe they get a little nose budding in there.
Hey, you pay attention to me, pet me now. Maybe they come and they stuff a toy,
um, into my hand saying, play with me. Now. Maybe if I don't oblige them,
I get some barking demand barking at me. Or maybe even some nipping.
Does your dog demand attention from you?
Here's something I see where it started out as a little problem and got to be a
big problem. Dogs will get on furniture and sort of consider it. Wow,
that's theirs. And they might resist.
When I start to ask them to move either,
they're just gonna use their weight and say, I'm not gonna move.
You're gonna have to physically move me. Or even worse,
I might get some growling. I might get some teeth,
but it also might be happening anywhere. You know, when my dog's comfortable,
lying down and relaxed, when I start to move towards them,
they might do a little growl or start to stiffen to say, this is my space.
I'm relaxing. Don't you bother me.
Is your dog one that's gonna fight you to get off a couch or a dog
bed or move out of your way. Many dogs like to hold something in their mouth?
The question is when my dog has something and it might be a toy, get it buddy.
Yes. Out. Will they willingly drop that item when I ask?
So it could be a toy, but it also might be something they found on a ground,
you know, in the house, maybe a sock, maybe outside a leaf or a stick.
Does your dog resist you taking it? Do they try and run away from you?
Do they growl at you or snarl or snap or try and swallow that object to
keep it from you? When we're outside with our dogs,
there's lots of distraction and our dogs are gonna look around.
They're gonna sniff. Uh, but the question is,
do our dogs ever check in with us voluntarily without me asking when we're
outside, because they find us valuable.
Does your dog totally ignore you and never check in when you're outside?
There are gonna be many times in my dog's life that I need to take
control of them. Maybe take their collar.
Maybe I need to position them into a sit, um, or into a down,
you know, maybe it's a vet appointment. Um, maybe I need to, you know,
check their mouth. Maybe there's a porcupine.
I need to make sure there's no quill in there. You know,
maybe I need to pick up my dog.
Maybe he needs to be upside down for a vet procedure. Um,
or maybe I need to carry him out of some place if he was hurt.
So I need my dog to see me as a leader and respect that. If I'm doing that,
I know what I'm doing and I'm doing it for his best good.
And see how relaxed Berk is.
So does your dog fight you or go to bite or struggle when
you try to take control of their collar,
groom them or reposition them?
Young dogs are gonna get distracted and there're gonna be things of value.
They can't have. You know, maybe there's a skunk or a porcupine, uh,
a dog that's not too friendly. Maybe there's a carcas or something.
I don't want my dog to have that he's gonna say is pretty stinky. And he wants,
they may not yet have training to know to leave something,
but I need to know that I can guide them away from something that may not be
safe without them turning, grabbing my arm and saying,
you don't have the right to do that. Or physically trying to just overpower me.
So does your dog resist you when you want to calmly move them away from
something they find valuable?
Young dogs are occasionally gonna grab something we don't want.
Whether it's a stick on the ground, you know, a sock shoe in the house. Um,
you know, they may try a counter, but you know,
when that happened and we've worked through it,
no you're not supposed to have that. You leave that, move them away.
Does your dog relentlessly keep grabbing those items?
Even though you've already worked through that?
When we have new pups being outside, it can be so distracting.
It's hard to get those pups attention,
but inside when there's not much going on way lower distraction,
I want to know that my pup sees me as valuable when you're inside,
not much going on around,
does your dog still ignore you and not wanna give you attention?
Did you answer yes three or fewer times? If so, congratulations.
Chances are your dog sees you as a leader and you have a pretty stress free
relationship with them.
Did you answer yes between four or five times on that
questionnaire? In which case your dog may see you as a leader,
but chances are, you've either got some leadership gaps or some training gaps.
Did you answer yes. More than five times on those questions or did you answer?
Yes. And in some cases, the, the resistance was very high. You know,
trying to move my dog off the couch.
If I'm seeing some aggressive behavior growling or teeth,
then it tells me that probably there's a little bit of a leadership issue and
you're not enjoying the best relationship you could with your dog. In fact,
you're likely finding things quite frustrating. When I say the words,
leadership, what words come to mind? If you're thinking,
dominate your dog or alpha dog, I want to stop right there.
Erase that,
thinking that whole alpha dog and dominance comes from what's called the
dominance theory that has been disproved by scientists for years.
I want you to think about words like value, respect,
inspiration. That's the type of leader I want to be for my dog.
All of us want safety, security, stability in our life. Dogs,
especially in the wild animals that stability is created
by where I started in this video structure, structure, organization,
a plan, um, is what keeps animals safe.
So they value that, uh, above everything.
So I wanna provide that structure for my dog information on how to behave,
what to be doing at given times they feed off me.
If they see something new that might be threatening,
they look to me for that information because they see me as that leader,
whether you answered yes, once or 10 times,
I urge you to check out the full leadership assessment in the description below
to actually go through a little deeper dive and pinpoint exactly
where your leadership could be shored up.
We talked about leadership at a pretty high level today.
If you wanna find out more about how you can be a better leader for your dog and
unlock their potential, create that great relationship.
Check out this video right here on that note. I'm Carol.
This is the Berk, happy training.