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Dogs in the workplace: Why it's better for you AND your dog!

12/30/2014

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PictureAt AWDT, we're dog-friendly, but that's just because our customers and staff ARE mostly dogs.

Sadly, the life of a dog can be relatively boring.  

In today’s modern world, most people work or go to school during the day leaving the family dog alone much of the time. While you tend to your daily responsibilities, your dog spends his days in a crate or roaming your empty home with little to no stimulation. When people do finally get home, they are usually too busy to invest hours into the dog. After all, we all have to make dinner, visit with friends and family, clean, relax, etc. In our laundry list of daily chores, our dogs can often become a box to check off the list: one half hour walk per day - done! However, after spending hours alone, most dogs - much like people - need more than 30 minutes per day to feel fulfilled. 

I often dream of a world where we can bring our dogs with us everywhere, to allow them to lead more fulfilled lives and receive lots of mental stimulation. However, since that isn't likely, we can open up the workplace to our dogs and allow them to receive stimulation by being with us more. I’m particularly speaking to people who are employers or business owners (or people willing to persuade their bosses and managers).  

When you bring your dog to work, suddenly your dog’s day has gone from sitting home alone to being busy for a whole day just like you. When you get home with your pup, you are both exhausted, fulfilled and ready to eat dinner and lounge on the couch for the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy. The imbalance that occurred between you and your dog just melts away.  

Employers are also able to create better work environments, because having dogs in the workplace makes people happier and more productive. Having well-behaved and friendly dogs in the office creates a warm and inviting atmosphere for customers and employees alike. If your office is forward thinking and smart, then you can improve your office’s health and lower health care costs by having lunch time walks with co-workers and their dogs. Having dogs in the workplace reduces stress and even encourages people to take their required lunch break (source).  

I believe this is so beneficial, that Andrew Warner Dog Training will offer a free consultation on how to establish the proper rules and guidelines that could make dogs in the workplace a possibility at your Indianapolis area business.  

E-mail andrew@awdt.net to set up a time to make your workplace a productive and happier place to be. If you’re not the person in charge at your employer, please feel free to forward this along to let them know that you want to bring your dog into work with you! 

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Video training tips: Two ball fetch

12/21/2014

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Having trouble getting your dog to bring the ball back to you while playing fetch? Try two ball fetch!
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Ditch your leash: The 3 elements of off-leashing

12/17/2014

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Post by Andrew Warner.
Developing your dog’s off-leash skills is the greatest gift you can give to him. As I’ve said time and again, the frustration from being attached to a leash and collar is the source of countless problems people have with their pets. 

However, depending on your dog, creating off-leash reliability can be one of the most difficult things to accomplish – seemingly impossible at times. 

When working towards this goal, there are three things you should be focusing on to keep your dog happy, safe, and free.

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The two sides of good dog behavior: Is your dog getting both?

12/12/2014

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In order to get a dog to behave well, I like to take a two-pronged approach: 

1) training  
2) life fulfillment.  

Of course, there is some overlap, but I find it beneficial for pet owners to understand all sides of helping a dog be happy and well-behaved. 

Training 
Think of the idea of “training” like teaching your dog how to speak human. We say sit and we want them to know what that means. This creates a toolbox of behaviors for you to use with your dog – using a place or a stay command while you are eating dinner to stop a begging problem. These are simple, rehearsed behaviors where you want your dog to be able to understand what you want and to be motivated to give you what you want regardless of what is going on around you.  

Having these skills is very useful and very necessary to solve problems where you and your dog are not gelling together at home.  

Life Fulfillment 
Dogs who have behavioral issues often times are unfulfilled in the root of their being. They can be frustrated, bored, understimulated or otherwise lacking in their lives. This is the conversation that is more difficult to have with my clients, because no one wants to hear that they are not fulfilling their dogs or are contributing to their dog’s unhappiness. But if your dog is not being mentally and physically challenged, they are probably not living life to their potential.  

If you’re not walking your dog daily, challenging your dog’s mind with training, wearing them out with high energy exercise, and giving them new experiences in new setting, then it will be hard to get a truly well-behaved dog.  

There are lots of dogs out there with excellent training that can’t function in normal life settings. If you’ve been to training class and your dog knows what sit means, but you’re still having problems, then it’s time to start looking at the bigger picture. It’s time to start creating more time for your dog and being proactive in finding them new experiences! 
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Does your dog have trouble with guests? Here's 7 tips to make it better!

12/8/2014

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Dogs tend to be their best behaved when they are at home with their usual company. 

One of the most common problems with owning a dog is that all that good behavior goes out the door when new people come into the house. Dogs have various problem ranging from overexcitement to aggressive tendencies when it comes to visitors in the house.

Here are some tips on how to help your dog overcome their problems with strangers in the house:

1) Practice everything that excites your dog with no guests. For example, if your dog goes nuts when they hear the doorbell or a knock on the door, you have no chance when there is actually somebody on the other side of the door. Make sure you desensitize your dog to these usual triggers and also use them to indicate a beginning of an obedience routine. Meaning, ring the doorbell and send your dog to their place and reward thoroughly. If you practice this, then the doorbell will mean "go to your place" rather than "attack the door."

2) If your dog is uncomfortable with people, food is the easiest way to right the ship. I like to teach people that when guests come over, the dog should be given treats by each guest. It's important to start this as early as possible.  There should also be a hierarchy of treats that your guests give: Women should give something low value, but enjoyable like kibble. Men should give something higher value like a good treat or peanut butter.  Kids should give the highest value treat imaginable. The more consistently this is done from the beginning, the less problems your dogs will have with guests. 

Note that if your dog has already begun biting or is under extreme anxiety, this is much more difficult and may require the help of a professional.

4) Don't lose control of the situation. If your dog needs to be on a leash to stay out of trouble and to have a clear routine, then that is how you should do it. If your dog is under stress, bring them to the guests just for the treats and then take them away from the situation.

5) Try taking a walk with your guest and your dog. Dogs make friends quickest by walking together - whether that is with other humans or other dogs. It is also something high value that they will come to associate with strangers! If you do this regularly, your dog will view strangers coming over the same they view you when you pick up a leash - a sign of great things to come.

6) Get everyone involved. Use this opportunity to reconnect with people in your life and invite them over to help. Getting yourself social is a great way to improve your dog's socialization. If they don't have any practice, they aren't going to get any better. You probably have spent your life building up a list of facebook friends, it's time to start using it for good.

7) If you're not making progress or it is getting worse, contact a professional right away. Even if your dog does not exhibit aggression today, unchecked issues with strangers can escalate quickly if a dog feels repeatedly threatened by your friends and family!
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Improving Communication: Is your dog a Droopy or a Marley?

12/2/2014

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Droopy, the Lazy Bassett Hound

Picture
This guy needs more motivation and encouragement and excitement to get the training results you want.





OR

Marley, the Hyperactive Yellow Lab

Picture
This guy needs you to cultivate calmness and use words and sound wisely.
  1. Is your dog lazy or hyper? If you have Droopy the Bassett Hound, then this might be the time to up your energy, praise and excitement. If you try to train Droopy in a solemn, stern voice you probably won't get very far. If you have Marley the Yellow Lab (from "Marley and Me"), too much praise, baby talk and excitement will take your already excited dog and send him over the edge into a wild, uncontrollable state.  
  2. Is your praise working? Often times I will see people training a stay and every so often they will want to let their dog know they are doing the right thing so they will say "good dog!" - a few dogs, this will break their stay every time. You can see their tails start to move the second the owner says "good dog" and with their tail helicoptering, it becomes very difficult to maintain a sit stay for a dog.  Other dogs will start to look off into the distance when practicing a stay and get kind of a bored / curious look in their eyes gazing off into the distance. For these dogs, some encouragement can help them finish their stay.  
  3. Do you need to adjust your intensity or timing? These are questions that are more often asked about corrections than praise, but they are equally important to both sides of the spectrum.  As discussed above, giving praise at the wrong time can be the difference between your dog maintaining a stay and being safe, or getting overly excited and running into the road. If you are training Droopy the Bassett Hound, your praise will probably need to be at a high intensity and delivered frequently. If you have Marley, the energetic Yellow Lab, then maybe a quiet "good boy" and a gentle pat on the head is more than enough reward.  
  4. Be wary of repetition. Sometimes it's okay to repeat a request to a dog. Often times, people try this when the dog doesn't know what you're talking about in the first place, so saying it over and over again just creates confusion. I will often see this with new dog owners the first time they teach a dog something - they will just frantically start repeating themselves - "sit... sit... no SIT... SIT SIT SIT SIT SIT SIT!" and all the while the dog is just getting more confused and less reliable. Repeating yourself not only works the dog up, but it will also work the handler up and both sides become frustrated. In the early stages, you want to introduce the word and then show the dog what the word means. In later stages, the dog may need a couple repetitions if they are highly distracted. I usually only repeat myself if I want to make sure the dog heard me, or I need compliance and I don't have better control of the situation than to follow and repeat. 

As with much of my philosophy, you will notice there is no one size fits all approach. It's important that you both learn how to read your dog and start delivering her the exact right communication she needs to be successful.  

Hyperactivity is one of the most common problems we see in the dog world. If you are one of those owners with a live wire dog, jumping on everyone, surfing counters, getting the zoomies through the house, then it's time that you start cultivating calmness in your house. And doing so starts with changing the way you communicate your expectations.  

How much should I talk to my dog? 

This is a question I have never been asked, but something that should come from every client. 

Two of the easiest mistakes to make when training a dog is to praise her incorrectly or to verbally reprimand her incorrectly. Both mistakes are common, and it happens repeatedly in any training scenario - often times even by experienced and skilled trainers.  

There's several considerations when trying to decide if your words are hurting or helping your dog training, and this is largely dependent on which type of dog you own.
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Old Dogs, New Beginnings: Stories of Success

12/1/2014

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This weekend AWDT spent some time helping older dogs set a new course in their lives. 
 
Picture
(Above) Old Warners taking old Benjamin home (Right) Cuddling up during a buckeye football party
The Stray GSD Mix

Firstly, as many of you know, my wife Tracy corralled a stray dog about two weeks ago, and since then he has been living with us, assimilating with the pack and looking for someone to take him in.  

We are proud to report that this old guy has found a home with the coolest family on earth. He is now relaxing in Columbus, Ohio with Andrew's parents. We named him Benjamin while he was here and since we learned he mostly likes to sit around and watch TV, we figured he'd be a perfect match for our parents in Ohio.  

After his first weekend there, we're happy to hear that he is making new friends everyday and that he is already having a great time off-leash at the dog park. I'm sad to report that he loves the Ohio State Buckeyes and Buckeye football parties, but we can't all be perfect. 

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Andrew Warner is an IACP certified dog trainer based out of Indianapolis, IN.
Andrew Warner Dog Training
Email: andrew@awdt.net
Phone: 317-719-6584
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  • Home
  • Training Info
    • Training Philosophy
    • Board & Train Packages
    • 1:1 Training Sessions
    • In-Home Boarding
  • Testimonials
  • FAQ
  • Blog
    • Ask the Trainer
    • Training Tips >
      • Adopting a New Dog Advice
      • Dog Training Fallacies
      • Family & Baby Advice
      • Leash Reactivity Help
      • Poor Recall Help
      • Separation Anxiety Help
    • Training Videos
    • Board & Train Stories
    • Helpful Infographics
  • Contact