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taking that down. Thank you. For those. I love, I love when you guys go off the rails and give me an answer that I didn't even think of. So brilliant. That's brilliant. And so today, before we begin, I had an idea, but it wasn't really my idea. It was a comment I read in on our last live and it sparked this idea in me. So at the beginning of every live presentation, we do a prize for a share today. We're giving away a prize. It looks like this, but it's better. So the good folks at For My Murals are going to send you a tug toy. If you win the prize today. And it has the little raspberry ball at the end, which is my fave. This is one of their toys. For My Murals has so many toys. So I'm going to give that away. Here's how, what we're going to do. And I'm also giving away a Be Kind sticker. So what you do is you share this live on any page in your social media. It could be Facebook or Instagram or YouTube, TikTok. Hey, all you YouTube people. It could be anywhere. And what you're going to do is you're going to say, Susan's live, or this is, this is all about dog training, answer questions, whatever you want to say, come watch the live. And typically what we do is I give away a prize at the end of the live and I will, but today's prize is going to be the Be Kind sticker and the tug toy we'll give away in the next, in the next, um, live, which is happening on, on Friday. And here's why I decided to do it this way, because as somebody noted, um, if I give it away at the end of this live, it's all dark o'clock for a lot of people in the, around the world. This gives everybody who's watching the replay a chance to win one of my favorite tug toys from, for my morals. So I like the ones with the little raspberry on the end. Those are the ones I mostly use for my dogs. That's the one I asked them to send out to everybody. So that's what you're getting. All right. So share this. You're going to, and if you're live here, you can win two prizes, right? So you get a chance. So once you've shared it, you've got to come back to the video on Facebook or or in YouTube, because my team's checking them all and write in the comments shared and tell us where shared Facebook, shared YouTube, shared Instagram, shared TikTok. And then my team can go in and follow up and see it on your page. If you're one of the lucky winners and it's a random draw sort of deal. Okay. Does that make sense to everybody? Hearts for light. We're going to do the toy on the replay. Yeah. Right. Okay. And yes, there's still going to be a gem prize at the end of today. I'm going to tell you why. So

I'm going to tell you what the prize is at the end. And so you're listening to this live, listening to see if I answered the question you put in, but also listening for gems, listening for things that make you go, Oh, that was good. Yeah. That makes sense. Okay. I'm going to have a little sip of water. I have been talking most of the day, which is not unusual for me, but I was doing videos today. So lots of talking. Okay. Another thing on my notes, we had a lot of really good dog training questions for this live. A lot of them that were unrelated to the games. So the questions we're going to be answering today are about the games that are in the connected dog, the games that from, well, we already did a game number one. Are there any, any, uh, follow-ups from game one? Okay. So there's still a couple from game one, um, you know, which is color grab. And we're going to do some, the search game. We're going to do some treat diving Friday. We're going to do more, but we're doing up to that today. So some of you said, well, I have a problem with my dog doing X or Y and Z and here's how it happens. And here's what happens is those are all valid questions. You're seeing a challenge. You're looking, how can I overcome this? We're talking about do land here. And so what we have to do is create a level of connection, right? If you remember, I talked about our, um, our five C pyramid, I'm going to find you a nice little graphic for the five C pyramid, where we're working on the games that create a better connection. And so I asked you right off the bat, how many of you are seeing a better connection after playing one game? So if you were to go and evaluate, remember we asked you at the, to go and, um, evaluate before the dogs, your, your level of connection before you started the connected dog series, and then after collar grab, and then after the search game. So we've done three games. Have you seen a different level of connection with your dogs? Just leave me a comment and you can just say, yes, no amazing. I can't believe it. So the level of connection by playing these simple games. Yeah. It's not, you know, it's dog training. It can be really, really simple and still be super, super effective. Okay. So just leave me a comment. I've, I've seen it. It's amazing. Uh, my dog's definitely better even after the collar grab. So that's great. All right. So some of you, and so what you guys are struggling and saying, well, I still have this problem with my dog. So if we go back to the five C, the, the, the five C pyramid,

we're working on connection right now. And so the games that follow are going to help create clarity. And what happens is the more layers of learning we put on your dog, the more the problem behavior that you're seeing. And I use quote unquote, it's not a problem to your dog. He's quite happy with his behavior. It really isn't a problem. It's a problem in our vision of what life is like with our dog and how we see life should be like with our dog. Your dog doesn't see this a problem. Remember your dog's just doing the best he can with the education we've given him in the environment we put them in. And so whatever challenge you might be seeing, it could be, I, I would be willing to bet at almost any money that it is a function of the layers of learning that are missing that, that a lot of times people will try and help you by going at it from a place of don't let's get your dog to stop instead of a place of growing connection, building confidence so that whatever is distracting and creating a problem for your dog will blend to be white noise. Because here's what I know for sure. And I've said this many times in our connected dog series, your dog's behavior doesn't define who that dog is. Your dog isn't reactive, a reactive dog. Your dog isn't a, um, a pushy dog or a stubborn dog or a, um, a dog that blows you off. Your dog's behavior doesn't define the dog. Your dog's behavior defines what he needs. What emotion is being expressed in a form of behavior is like a compass that tells you exactly the direction your training needs to go in. Remember we're teachers, dogs learners, but we are also learners and the dogs are also teachers. The dog are, you know, they'll give you a neon light. This is the training we need to do next. And when you are receptive to the feedback your dog is giving you, that's when you truly become a connected team because the things that previously were distracting the dog, as I mentioned before, they become white noise as we end up in a place that I like to call environmental neutrality. So does it make sense to you guys how whatever problems you might be seeing, they are going to be minimized or eliminated by, by the five C pyramid and putting in layers of games that create more connection, right? Okay. Kelly says, yes. Um, my rescue dog has gone from a level three connection with me to about a six with just the addition of the games in the series the past few days. Big hearts for you, Kelly. That's beautiful. Absolutely. So, so, so that is, that is what,

what we're looking at. It's not problem behavior for the dog because your dog doesn't have a problem at all with the behavior. I'll do this all day long. I'm good with it. It's behavior that is, is expressing or helping us, right? So you look at your dog's behavior, not as a reflection of who he is, because I'm just going to go off the rails here. I'm going to, I want to go to another place with you guys. So what happens is if we believe we know who our dog is, I just got to get that out of there. Okay. So if we believe we know our dog is, he's a reactive dog or he's an aggressive dog. That's another one. I just, I really don't like when people say he's aggressive or even worse than, you know what I, if I have to do it like a hierarchy of things that make me go, is when people call it, he's a dominant dog. So if we believe he's a dominant dog, when he barks at the dog, other dogs on leash, then our thoughts are going to be, is that a good dog? Oh, hell no. That's a bad dog. That dog's a bad dog. He's so he's showing you a behavior and you are defining the dog by the behavior. When I say you, I say people who probably have taught you in the past have told you that's who he is. And so in your mind, that's what he is. And so when he lunges at a dog, what are your emotions? Are you, Nora? What are you doing? You're embarrassing me. And what, so your emotions directed at the dog, are they love, compassion, understanding? I can help you. Or are they you SOB? Why are you embarrassing me like this? Yes. And what are your emotions when somebody walks by? Oh, I don't know. What about as you're, as you're, what are you feeling about yourself? Are you a little ashamed? There's no way I'm giving you a heart. If you've ever been in this situation and somebody's to made you to feel ashamed at your dog's behavior, that is not, you brush that stuff off right now. That is not on you. That is a hundred percent on them. Okay. And so what happens is you feel this emotion. You're triggered at your dog. And what is the action you take? You probably correct your dog. You probably tell them, no, you'd probably tell them that they're bad. And then where does that lead you? That leads you to a dog who maybe turns into this ticking time bomb and is a little bit afraid of you. And then does it change anything about what happens the next time you go for a walk? You're stuck in this cycle all the time. If we just changed our beliefs and said, my dog's behavior does not define my dog. It defines a direction I need to take my training. Then when he lunges at another dog, you go, oh my bad buddy. I am

so sorry. What am I doing on the sidewalk? I didn't see that dog coming up behind me. You know what? Let's get out of Dodge. I'm going to get way off the sidewalk. I'm going to distract you. We're going to, we're going to, I'm going to, you know, give you a hand touch cookie. And then I'm going to go home. I'm going to look at a training plan. I'm going to look at a new place. We can exercise you. I'm going to maybe rent a little sniff spot so I can take you out. Your thoughts about your dog is, oh, you're doing your best you can. And I, I'm sorry, I let you down, but I'm going to do better for you. And now you're going to take actions that are proactive that will help lead your dog to a better place. When we look at our dog's behaviors, just as indications, rather than a definition of who the dog is, we change. Everything changes for us. Can you guys see that? I kind of went kind of fast, but can you, does it like, give me a, a, a, a, a hell's yeah. In the comments, if that makes sense to you, if you, if you can, if that, you can see that there is a way out for you now with whatever behavior I, I use react reactivity or aggression or dominance, whatever it is, there's a way out. There's absolutely a way out for you. Okay. Um, yep. So I got a hell, I got a hell's yeah. Perfect. Heck yeah. Right. What is, uh, um, what was, uh, uh, Brandon's heck, heckster. I can't remember. Perfectly said. Okay, great. I'm glad that I'm glad you guys followed that along. That was a complete uh, side road that I took you on and I am going to get to your questions right now, but, um, yeah, I just, uh, when I, when I was talking about my story, I thought, oh wait, I gotta talk. I gotta go here. Okay. Let's jump into the questions. Um, okay. So here we go with our question. Number one from Jennifer is the word connected measured by the dog's compliance to the games. So not, not at all. The level. So when I think of how connected a dog I am with a dog that, that might change from session to session, but it has nothing to do with how perfect my dog behaved. It had to do with how perfectly we worked together. So we're working on, on, uh, that belief. I gotta get that belief loop out of there for you guys. Uh, or maybe I'll just keep it in there actually. Maybe we'll just keep it in there. So we're working on creating different actions for our dogs. So for example, um, belief, that's the name of my youngest puppy is almost six. She'll just about, she'll be six months old this weekend. And she is nowhere, um, on the level of, of listening skills and responsiveness that my two

year old dog is, but yet I can still have a great connection with her because I we're growing together as a team. Your YouTubers asked a very similar question about how do you evaluate a puppy's connectedness? So I'll put, I'll squeak that in there. Okay. So Linda said that on YouTube, a great question came up, like, how do we evaluate how can, how connected our puppy is to us or we are to them. And so it, you can get great connection with a puppy. If you follow the five C pyramid and that's what I do. So I think I've got a phenomenal connection with belief. Would, would she, would I have environmental neutrality if I took her like to a bunny farm or even just out here walking with all the other dogs? Would I have environmental neutrality? Absolutely not. But I, because I follow the five C pyramid, I know that would be introducing challenge before I have the confidence to make the right choices. And so, because I, I want what's best for my puppy. She goes walking by herself sometimes, but most often she'll go walking just with swagger or with momentum, because those are two dogs that we have grown to be white noise for her. She loves playing with momentum, but she will come right off of momentum. Right. I can get her to come off of all the dogs in certain situations, but I'm not going to take her for a walk because I know the likelihood of getting her to have success every time is really low. And so my results are going to be, are, are going to be less than desired. And is that on the puppy? Does her behavior define her? No, her behavior defines the direction I'm continuing to grow. And will I get there with this terrier mix? Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. Martha asks, can you explain in greater detail training in the gap? Okay. I saw this question from a couple of people. So when we watch some of your videos, let's take, um, treat diving, for example, there is, I'll, I'll give you a scenario of what I'm looking for that you grab the collar, you say search. There's a moment. It could be a half a second. It could be a second. So it looks like here, this is my dog. And, um, I grabbed, I grabbed the collar. I say, search. Then I toss the cookie and I hold this hand to help my dog see where the cookie has landed. And then I let go of the, of the collar. Okay. So boom, search, boom, boom. What I often see is this search so that the color is touched and it let go. And then the word and the action all happens with no guidance of a hand directing. Right? So there is no gap. There is no gap. And then you, you, your dog gets the cookie and

you want to run back and maybe do a collar grab across the room. So as the dog's getting the cookie, you're saying, attaboy, attaboy, attaboy, come on, come on, come on, come on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good boy. Good boy. Good boy. Good boy. And then you grab them and give another cookie. So what it looks like when there is a gap is boom, and then search half a second, boom. Or as I told, if you watched the video of the connected plus group, which by the way, if you want to join the connected plus today's your last day to join. So it's this. And I said, you could do search, put your hand down, don't throw the cookie and then toss it. Somebody picked up that I did that with belief. I think it was in a video too. And why I did that is because no, it wasn't belief. It was the little Karen puppy rider. And when I grabbed riders collar, he immediately looked at me. And so I put my hand down and then rider took his gaze away from me and looked down. And then I tossed the cookie. See, I created a gap for myself. So the learning could happen. Grab the collar. I put my hand down. He's still looking at me. I wait until he looks down. All right. And then I toss a cookie, right? So that I said, search and then toss the cookie. So the learning happens in the gap in with any kind of classical conditioning. If Pavlov had done bell and cookie, bell and cookie, bell and cookie, he would not have got a conditioned response. He created a gap bell. And then it was food paste because Pavlov didn't know how to bake cookies. Just saying. So it was bell cookie. There's a gap, the learning, or in this case, the conditioning happens in the gap. You toss, you, you do your, your search game. And when you're running away, there's a gap. I'm quiet. When I see that the puppy has made the choice to come to visit me, then I go, yeah, I wait for the choice because there's a gap between will I do what, what she wants, or will I keep sniffing for more cookies? I wait for the gap. The gap is a choice. I reinforce the choice by then turning on my praise rather than out of buoying the puppy, the whole way through. That's a very long explanation of the gap. We could be here for days to get through all these questions. If I take that long on everyone. Uh, how much practice should you do before introducing the next game? So Kimberly, the, the games have been woven into the fabric of your day, right? I did that upfront by making sure you took some daily habits you already had. Wordle brushing your teeth, making a cup of coffee. So you're playing

these games there. And so because of that, as soon as you've played a few rounds, remember I said, conditioning happens in 15 to 25 repetitions of correct mechanics where you have created a gap. And then you go on to more spontaneity or is it always the structure? Um, as I mentioned previously that the games, um, um, I'm going to go on to more spontaneity or is it always the structure? Um, as I mentioned previously that the games, um, I, I mean, I guess I would have to see what does spontaneity mean to you, right? So the games, do I play collar grab any different with my dogs, my own dogs? No, never. Linda, do you? Nope. Do I do search differently? Yep. So search will, because there are more layers that we will add to, we've actually already added a couple, but when you want to say, can we get more abstract with the game? You're asking Tiger Woods, if you can use your hockey stick to putt today. And depending on what that means to you, you know, and that's why I would just, you know, if you are in homeschool, the dog or recallers, then that would be a question you would ask there. Here's, here's how, like, we have a lot of students who have, you know, I'm doing this from my motorized scooter. So here's what I was thinking of doing with that. Do you see how that would work? And we would say, you know what, we see that this could be a problem, but here's how I think this could help. Give that a go and come on back and tell us how it works. But you have your training planned. And then in the middle of the day, you might grab a call or give a cookie. Spontaneity. Oh, oh yeah. That spontaneity happens. All right. Absolutely. So that, um, I'll call a grab like tons during the day. So it's not like, okay, I've got my, my, my planning, my, my planning, my training is in my little journal of when I'm going to do it. But if I'm out for a walk and, um, I, you know, I goober tater makes me laugh. I call him over and I'll do a call or grab that I wasn't, that wasn't in my schedule. Yes. Training can happen spontaneously, a hundred percent. Absolutely. But the games don't spontaneously erupt into a different version of them. So maybe I misunderstood. So there are another long answer to it. Will I use be using treats all the time in training? You will always be reinforcing your dog. Yes. Because that's how relationships work. Have you ever had a relationship that drifted apart that you just aren't in the same place anymore? It drifted apart because you stopped reinforcing each other. Reinforcement. I'm not going to go into

the long discussion of the forms of reinforcement between people. It could be something like a smile. It could be something like a, just a little, you know, rub on the shoulder. Relationships fall to fall apart when there is no more reinforcement. And sadly, what replaces the reinforcement that previously was there is nagging blame judgment. So with our dogs, the re and just like with people, like I remember a first date I went on with my late husband. He took me to this really nice restaurant. There's reinforcement number one. Yes, I do love food, but then the reinforcement takes different, different forms like catching an eye across a crowded, you know, family gathering and just making me laugh. Like reinforcement changes for our dogs. At first we have to have cash and the cash is in the form, the currency the dog knows is food. And then the currency changes to a toy. And then the currency changes to something that represents a toy may or may not happen for my dogs. They walk around the field. If I call them into reinforcement zone, which is just walk beside me. They know there's a chance that they're going to earn the reinforcement of going to run again. Sometimes I'll just call them beside me because we're cooling down and then we're going in the house. So you don't, I don't have, I don't have food on me when I walk around the field, unless I'm walking with tater, because I'm always training him to do something. So I don't, when I'm just going for a walk with my dogs, the reinforcement might be weave between my legs and then go. So do Rhonda, I hope I'm making it really, really clear. There's the base of giving cookies. That's one form of reinforcement, but all of these games take on the value of the reinforcement. And then they like playing games with you. And then the value of the game goes into you. And then we can put the value. For example, if I asked any one of my dogs, including my puppy to go on a crate, they would fly in. I wouldn't have to reinforce them for that. They wouldn't have to know if I have cookies on because the value of the reinforcement has gone into the action of going into a crate. Right? And so if you train the way that I'm, I'm sharing with you, it's that's why I'm so critical about the gap because my first dog who lived to be 17, up until the day she was, you know, I can't remember the last time I asked her to go on a crate, but, um, she never would because I taught her to go in a crate by throwing the food in first. And so for her lifetime, I, even as many as I played great crate games when I was stressed or when she got

older, it was always a stop. And what have you got for me? Cause I've got to decide if I'm going to do this with you. I probably didn't put enough effort into transferring the value down the road, but if you focus on creating that gap for your dogs, you can get there. I can't promise you when they get senile that it won't come back for them though. If you started off a different way. Okay. Uh, Vivian day three, already seeing such a difference in connection, more responsiveness and play. Can I take these games on the road? Yes, Vivian, please do. Because remember our five C's that we want to make sure that we are playing first in a, in a, an environment that gives our dogs great connection, clarity, and confidence. So as I mentioned earlier, um, in our last call, that could be your kitchen, your living room, your bedroom, your bathroom. Then I might do it with the door open. That changes everything. The door to the backyard open that could, oh, I can't play now. No, I can't play now. So you're going to do, you're going to progress to new, I got a hair in my face. You're going to progress to new environments gradually where you see your dog can still play the game with the same level of confidence, right? Okay. Go back to here and I'll go back to, but yes, please do take it on the road because that's how we grow confidence. Uh, Willie's games help with dog challenges like barky, have separation anxiety, shy away from people, dog is reactive. And I will say, I can give you the name of examples of our students who have gone through our recallers program that have solved the barky, the separation anxiety, the shying away from people and being reactive. And a lot of times they didn't, they didn't have to do anything different than playing the games. So just playing the games. But my goal for the students going to the program is that you learn to create your own gaps. You learn, you, you know, we, we coach you all the way through, but my, my best win is when I can see you taking and creating your own game. For example, we have a student who now is doing field gun work with her dogs playing games. I don't, I don't do field gun work. I don't, I don't, my border collies might, might like it. I don't know, but tater salad, probably not so much. So yes, you can't. The short answer is absolutely. When you're growing confidence, confidence, you, you, you can't live confidence and fear can't live in the same body. So as we grow confidence with the dog, we're pushing out fear. It's, it's, it's not possible for them to, to hold

the same space in your dog or in a person actually. Right. Uh, Jessica, what should I do to end my sessions with each of my family's dogs? Um, I get asked this question a lot and I think I actually did a podcast on it and you can change. I mean, the easiest thing you can do is just change location. So if you're in your living room and you're playing a game and then it, you know, if like, for example, I had a bowl of food, I might just pick the food up off the floor and you can say all done. Do you ask me what I do? Absolutely nothing because the games are a way of life for me. So I might play a game and then I just move on to the next thing. I don't, I don't, you, you know, you can, I have no problem if you start building in the word all done so that it's super clear to your dog. I am not interacting with you. I honestly don't. Now when they're puppies, how did the game, how did the game end? It ends with me putting them in the crate, um, or in an X-pen throwing a handful of cookies scattered around in the crate or the X-pen for them to sniffle on. Um, possibly I might put a topple in there or a bone and like for a puppy like belief, it's just, I throw a few cookies in there and that's it. And she's in the big X-pen in the kitchen, enjoying life. So probably that's why I don't do any more like anything more formal. Like I don't have any trumpeting or, or, you know, red flags coming down saying the end because it's kind of been built in with my dogs as they've lived their life with us. So whether they were a puppy that came to me and learned this routine, or they were a rescue dog that came to me and they learned the routine. They just learned the routine of this is, this is playing and this isn't, but it's just part of being in the family and living with me. Um, okay. So our next questions are about search. Uh, is the gap the time between the toss and the release or between the word and the release? Great question, Penny Joe. So the gap is between the time and the dog knows the game has begun. And when would that be? I'm going to test you guys. When does the dog know game has begun? Put it in the comments. When does the dog know? I'm going to give you the end of it is when the dog gets their cookie because nothing else. Once the dog sees or tastes, grabs, I mean, it probably happens pretty quickly between when they see it and when they eat it. As soon as they see it, the gap is closed. It's done. We're over. All right. So, um, so the gap begins. Yeah. I, the gap could be when you grab the collar because that's the initiation of the game.

In this case, if we were doing collar grab, yes, it would be grabbed or, or we're doing the search. It would be grabbing the collar saying the word search. Either one of those starts the, uh, initiation of the game. Right? So the, the true gap is between the, the word search and the, them spotting the food. There's that gap, which is why it's so important. Now, I don't think you'd ever do grab the collar and say search because the word search is an action. That means go look for food on the floor. And, um, we want to hold the collar to get them focused in the area we want them to. Okay. Um, all right. That was a really good question, by the way, Petty Jo. I use the word find it since she's familiar with find it. Should I stick with this word power word or change it to search? I don't want to confuse her. So Catherine, I am, I know a lot of our recallers have used the word find it for cookies in the corner. What does find it mean? If it means run out, grab the cookie. I just, I gave you and come back. That's great. Somebody on our call for our plus call yesterday said, I use search for, was it search that she used? I can't remember or find it. Get it. She used the word, get it with her dog. Who's a little bit worried about strangers when she would take the dog out and throw cookies near the, the strangers and the dog would go out and eat the cookies. And I said, we don't know what's being conditioned there. So a state of anxiety of stranger danger. Now I'm assuming she's really doing the, her conditioning. Well, I'm not talking about that person, but there is a possibility somebody else may be conditioning. When you hear the word, get it it. Stranger danger alarms should go off in your head, right? Because I'm worried about people. And the word get it means I'm going to have to cautiously go out and try and grab food around the people. Now, again, I'm not talking about that's what happened in on the call yesterday, but so if your word find it has that clean conditioning that you've done it well, your dog understands that, um, that the, the queue, there's a gap between the queue and the, the, the site of the food have at it. If you can't tell me or bet me a thousand dollars that, oh, my conditioning was spot on. Right. I, I, I say the word, then I throw the food. And if you are, then yeah, you can rock and roll with it as you are. I don't think it'll hurt to create a new word though, but whatever. I'm going to sneak in here. Angie is a recall and she, recolor and she's asking, should she change

from, uh, get it, get it to search the dogs confidently loves his cookies in the corner game. How about it, Angie? Have at it. If you've conditioned it well, which you're one of our recolor students, I think you probably have, um, no, no need to change it. I think it's fun to have another queue, but no need, no need now get it could just mean go and get that one cookie in the corner and search. Like I use search as a reset for my dogs all the time. Um, that it's grabbed that, um, it grabbed the cookie and then come back to work. Right. Okay. We're splitting hairs. Don't overthink this guys. If you've got a really good condition, Q don't overthink it. Uh, Kathy says, my puppy wants to go for the treat before I even say search. Okay. Kathy, that kind of tells me that you've thrown the treat before. So if I've got my dog and my dogs, you know, saying, I want to go get that. I want to get the cookie. I want to get the cookie. Then there's, there's a cookie out there for them to want to get. And the cookie shouldn't be out there until you say the word search. Right. So just back that up a little bit. Um, and if they're excited because they know you're about to throw a cookie, that's great. That's value build. You've done a great job of conditioning. Something fun and exciting is about to happen. When I grabbed your collar, think of all the good things you can do. Now you can build that into, to a harness. You can build that into seeing the site of a leash, seeing the site of the winter sweater that they're going to have to have on soon. If they live up here in Canada, Elizabeth, my dog didn't want to leave the blanket and I was trying not to lure her. So I use collar grab game to move her. Sure. Good thing Elizabeth. Right on. Nikki, can I introduce search in the same session that we do collar grab or do I need just, uh, great question again, Nikki. I really want collar grab because the word cookie is introduced, right? And I want the dog to have great clarity. Cookie means stay where you are. I'm delivering a cookie. Stay there. It's a marker word. So if you were doing like obedient stays, you could say cookie and then walk over to your dog and your dog would stay there because they understand you stay there. And I'm bringing the cookie to you. Now search means look for the cookie on the floor. If you introduce them in the same session, there's a very, very good chance they will become the same word. So you won't get the clarity that I'm looking for. Okay. So I would keep them separate for a bit.

And what you could do is you could do like collar grab in one session that's in your bathroom. And then five minutes later, you're going to do the search game in a different room. So, you know, it changes the scenario and I would put, you know, five minutes in between. Um, okay. Beth, how do, how does a game two differ from the search command we've already learned in a previous masterclass? Um, the difference is the mechanics. So I've, I've been very, very particular about the mechanics in this game, the game within a game, because it gives you the opportunity to use that marker in a lot of different areas of life. Right? So all of this, I shared with the group yesterday, I'll tell my dogs, like I want, can you bring me that shoe? Is it I'm on the couch and I don't want to get off the couch. Can you just bring me that shoe? And I might have a collection of tennis shoes. So this is the one I want that one as one, um, one of many things that, that we will use that for. So yeah. Um, so the mechanics get the human, and that was the thing when we did our, our connection plus call yesterday. And when I, um, we've done previous groups that where we, when we have a, a, a masterclass say, and we coach people online, I never promise everybody that you will get, I will, I will coach you in your training. I never promise anybody. We do that. I say that we will coach different people. You may or may not be one of them. Well, guess what this week we have coached every single person that has showed up on camera with their dog and help them. And I would say the number, by far the biggest stumbling block is this is the, the mechanics of get your hand crossing your arm. You've grabbed the collar and you're in your hand. That's, that's directing the dog should be hitting your wrist. That's holding the dog's collar, which ensures that your hand's super close to your dog. I know when I turn the microphone around, you can hear it as well. My dog has been taught to never eat things off the floor. So when I search, say search, then toss and release them. My dog just stands there looking at me, uh, telling him it it's okay to pick it up. So this, this is great. Scott, great Scott, that we need the dog to understand because search is such a great dog training tool for resetting a dog. It's just so easy to reset a dog from, uh, behaviors to get repetitions. So we really, really want them to understand the search word. So you could do it somewhat less formally at first. And that you could like, you know, just get a really like a big piece of a

meatball or something, get on the floor, sit on the floor, hold them back, say, ready, ready, ready. They're not in the sit, just ready, ready, ready. Search tossing. Yeah. And, and help them to understand you're allowed to get it now. Get, you know, again, a deeper connection, a higher level of, of excitement and a higher value cookie. If that's possible, Terry, if I hesitate at all after the toss, he's going to get the cookie. Should I have him sit before tossing? Okay. Remember guys, the site of the cookie closes the gap. Learning is not happening. So we're going to hold the collar, say search. You can put your hand down, but not, you, you, you, you know, you could either put your hand down and wait till they're looking down, or you could just say, grab the collar, say search, boom, throw the cookie. They don't have to be staring at the cookie at this point. Okay. We're going to work on them focusing down at the cookie in the, it's your choice game. But at this point, it's not, they don't, there's no requirement other than conditioning or conditioning the work. Mark asks, please comment about holding the leash, breaking the heel position or front position. My dog wants to be in these two positions each time. Mark asks, please comment about holding the leash. If they want to be in heel position, that's pretty much where the puppies were when I was playing the game. That shouldn't be a problem. If they want to be out front, you can just use collar grab and just spin in a circle, give them a cookie and then do it again. So manipulate your environment Mark so that the opportunity to get out in front or the opportunity, like, you know, you could stand beside a wall so they can only be in reinforcement zone or heel position. Right. It just, your dog is just telling you where there's great value. And that's, that's a good thing. Hazel the hot dog. The new search game was grabbing the collar. What would you do if your dog automatically goes and sits on the blanket as if it's their place? I would just do collar grab, get them off of it. And, and, and I would, I would assess whether my leash is actually in my hand or is it even on my dog? Cause how are they going to leave and go there if they're on a leash? Yeah. Pulling your leg. Okay. Dogs should be on a leash though at that stage. Is it true that search game can also help those dogs who sniff every on everything on walks? Okay. Let me preface this by saying, I don't think it's a horrible thing that dogs sniff on walk. My brother's beagle. And he loves to sniff on walk. My dog, my border collies, they do a little bit of sniffing.

They more like to run. Tater salad loves to sniff and yeah, he, he gets a lot of female that boy. So he's got a lot of reading to do on a, on a walk. So I I'm prefacing all of this by saying, I don't care if my dog sniffs on a walk. What I do care about is I don't want my dogs ever eating anything on a walk. So this game and the, it's your choice game. The, they, these are the foundational layers to help a dog to learn. You're not allowed to eat things that you find on the ground. So it's a biggie. Okay. Treat diving questions. Ah, Emma asks, does it matter what way you turn after throwing the treat in the search game? What if my dog just stands there and it doesn't come when called? Okay. Emma. Uh, yes, I think it does matter. I mean, it's not like you're breaking a rule if you turn the wrong way, but if we want to encourage a dog to chase the best way to do it is the way I did it in the video where I turn towards the dog. All right. So let me just give you an example here. So if my dog is, is here and I turned away from them, they would now have to come up this way, which isn't wrong, but I've broken the connection. So when my dog is there and I turn into them, I'm still connecting with them the whole way. See, do you see how that works? And if your dog doesn't, it just stands there after the search game, then here's what I want you to do. It's about manipulating the circumstances, the environment and the consequences of learning for your dog. And here's what we're going to do. We're going to take a lower value cookie and throw it on the ground and say, search, and you're not going to run away. You're going to stand right there. And then when he eats that cookie, you can do a collar grab right there and say the word cookie and give him a much higher value reinforcement. So he's learning. Oh, I just grabbed that and come back to you because Hey, that was like a little bit of like dried kibble. And you just gave me a piece of steak. I like coming back to you. I like it a lot. So we're actually the game within the game. We're building a better response to your movement. When you move away, betting a better response to their name, when you call them. Right. So manipulate the environment of the reinforcement you're giving it. Don't, don't let it be equal equal anymore. We want their dogs to come fast. For any of you, your dog who takes the cookie and start sniffing, jack up the value of the return collar grab cookie. Uh, Tressa, what is your optimal distance at, to start the collar grab following the treat dive?

Would you increase distractions before distance? Um, I wouldn't be building any distance away from, um, um, yeah, I wouldn't be doing so. Um, there's no, there's no distance really. I would increase just distractions because the collar grab, um, I guess there is, there's distance away from the dog when you're going to go to them and grab their collar and then feed them. That's one. We're talking about tree diving where we're going to grab the collar, say search and then move away. Well, the dog should be able to grab and get cats that distance pretty darn quick. Right. And so for me, um, in either of those games, I wouldn't add distra distance very fast. I would, or I mean, really, you don't really need to add much distance for the treat diving at all. Sheila, what is, why is it important in the search game to reach across your body for the collar and toss the dog from your arm? It's awkward. Is there a reason? Yeah. So I have touched on that a little bit, Sheila, but if I grab the collar here and toss with this hand, then what's going to happen is there's a good chance of the dog missing it. Oh, Susan, I'm going to just toss the, the, the cookie right in front of my dog's face. When does the gap close? The dog, the, as soon as that dog sees the cookie, it closes. So you've said search and the dog could be looking anywhere. So every part of the mechanics of every game I played, there's an intention behind it. So this as awkward as it seems right now, you practice with your microphone at home and you're, it's going to become really quick for you. My, my wrist of the top hand is going over like the thumb of the bottom hand, which means I'm really, really close to my dog's head, which means I'm creating a pointer at like, this is where the cookie is going to lie. Right. And if you've ever thrown, like, if you throw cookies to a dog that can't catch, where do they start looking? They look where it lands. When you guide your dog, this is where the cookie is going to land. You're going to get, as soon as you grab the collar and you're about to play, they're going to go, yeah, this is it. I got it. Yeah. We're going to play this game. This is good. Right now, when I do this, I'm telling my dog, we're going to look down. If I grab like this, what would I want my dog to do then? Do I want them to look down? So it's very clear in this scenario, look away from me, but when I'm doing just regular collar grab, you can connect with me, buddy. I don't want you looking all over outer space and what else is out

there. Okay. So there's a lot of little elements into everything I do. And I could, I could probably spend an hour explaining the mechanics at every single game that I, that, that even just in the games that we're presenting here in the connected dog, or you could say, and I don't, I'm not busting your chops for asking the question, Sheila, but I'm encouraging you all to trust in the 30 years of me, not playing these games for 30 years. I've been evolving the games for 30 years. There's a big, big difference. So I, you know, we have recallers on here saying, well, why are we doing it this way? Because not much stays the same for me. I see how we can create more excellence and mitigate problems that people are having with their dogs, just by tweaking mechanics for people. Okay. Isabel, being a recolor students, I take for granted that my pup knows search. Should I integrate the arm action to the game to make sure it works? I would do it for sure, Isabel, for the reasons that I just said, it creates a lot of other bonuses for you. And it isn't too dissimilar to cookies in the corner mechanics. It should be identical really. Is there a specific reason you use a blanket? Does the blanket work into further training sessions? Oh, cue the dramatic music. No, no, no, no, no. Foreshadowing. There's always a reason for everything I do. And before the season series is over, I promise that you will know the reason for the blanket. Don't skip that corner now. Christina, how would I be playing these games when I have two dogs? Youngster keeps trying to budge in front of mom and trying to take the spotlight. Okay. So Christina, I was really, um, maybe it was just in one of our last, uh, Q and A sessions, but it's super important that you not have a more than one dog out at a time. And if you're going to play this with your cat, super important that the dog and cat are separated from each other when you play it. So separated could be giving them a bone and having them to chillax in a different room. It could be putting them in, just asking them to hop it up on the couch. That's what I always did. When I first started out with these games back in the late eighties, I, I would have early nineties. I just have my dogs all jump on the couch. And then I would give them a reinforcement for staying on the coach while I played the games with the other dogs. You do not want, you do not want more than one dog out because guess what? The dog who is roaming around is learning the word cookie is meaningless. They'll figure it out eventually that, oh yeah. When you

say to me, oh, it means something making conditioning a lot harder for yourself. So, and since the games, my dog pastures me to play with her, dropping a toy by me, barking for attention. I've started taking the toy away. If she barks, is this the right approach? Um, first of all, Anne, I want you to reach up to the sky, reach down, pat yourself on the back. You girl have been conditioning games properly. And what you're seeing there, what you're describing is a deeper connection. Now the deeper connection is going to come with a little bit of baggage and that the dog says, is it game time now? I want game time. And we just have to help them understand this isn't game time. And so by, you know, giving them a bone after a game or, or, or stuff topple or something initially, but they, so until, until they understand that game time's over. Um, and yes, if your dog barks at you taking the toy away is the right approach, but what I would like to do, because that's punishing the dog and that I'm a hundred percent okay with that. In this instance, we want to prevent the behavior. We don't want to see to show up by giving them a different job to do when the game is over, not a job. I don't want them to be on alert, like lay on that spot until I release you. Just give them something to focus their attention on, you know, put them in front of the iPad or something, teach them the portal. I don't know. Is there such a thing as cool? Yeah, there's so, um, but if the, if any dog takes a toy and, and starts pestering me, I do take the toy and I just hide it. And then when the dog relaxes, then I go over and say, Hey, you want to play this game with me? So once they've been relaxed and they forgot about the toy, then I say, why don't we play so that I'm helping them to understand, like you can't just be coming around 24 seven suggesting like you're going to have a dog wake you up at three in the morning with a toy in their mouth. Is it dog time now? I think it's dog, is it dog time? I don't want that. I don't want that. And so I, I it's, it's an evolution of the dog understanding what's dog time and what's not dog time. But for now I want you to really celebrate, celebrate the great job you've done to get your dog to that place. Like what a better problem to have. Would that be a better problem than the dog that, you know, runs away and, and never comes back and plays keep away. We've got a dog who, who wants to connect with you. That's awesome. Speaker 1 New collar grab questions. So collar grab is our first game. So we're circling back.

Valerie says my dog became somewhat fearful when I grabbed her collar. So I stopped fearful behavior. Her demeanor changed and she shied away. Do I do, do I change something? So we address this in the first Q and a Valerie it's a hundred percent. Okay. Remember we meet the dogs where they're at. And if the dog said, this is freaking me out now, that's a hundred percent fine. So what I would do is circle all the way back, go back and listen to the first Q and a, but I would start by conditioning the site of a leash. Right? So you're just putting it in your purse or in a shopping bag and walking around the house, pulling it out because we're right. We got to have a gap. It's coming out. And then you're going to say, cookie and give your dog a good cookie, put it away. And that's it. 10, 15, 20 times a day. You're going to pull it out. Then your dog's going to, there's the leash. Oh, that's really good. Something that's going to happen to me. So now we can put the leash on the dog and we're going to do collar grab game. I can't do this. Collar grab game is let's say this microphone comes in handy. So let's say this is my dog's collar. I'm going to get rid of that, that other little thing. Hold on. Okay. So this is my dog's collar. And when I grab for the collar, you know, especially if it's a little dog, but it doesn't even have to be exclusively to little dogs overpowering them is it can be off-putting. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to grab here. I'm going to say cookie and I'm going to feed the dog and I'm going to feed them with really outrageously high value food, like the best stuff I got. And remember, create the gap. So as soon as they see the food, the conditioning is stopped. So grab the collar, boom. And it's not collar. It's like the end of the leash. And you're going, your dog will dictate by their behavior when they're ready for more, when it's time to add more grabbing closer to the collar. So just take your time. Let the dog, remember we schedule the training or dog dictates the pace of the training. Doreen, when doing collar grab, my eight month old German Shepherd dog pup is figuring out that a cookie is coming and is tending to jump and mouth my hand or wrist. Is it best to take a break? So I don't reinforce this behavior. I would just be a little less frequent. So I grabbed the collar. And if I get jumping and bumping and jumping and bumping and jumping, you can do one of two things. You can take your hand off the collar because that ends the game. Or if it's just a little bit, you can just wait

until it stops, then say the word cookie. So just be a little more intentional. We have to grow a bigger gap because again, Doreen, you've done a great job. You've done a great job. Your dog is saying, I love this. So we have to, what we're seeing are what's called a cheap behavior, cheap behaviors. We don't want to reinforce cheap behaviors. So if you grab the collar and the dog started going, this is so much fun. Oh my God, feed me, feed me, feed me, feed me, feed me. I can't wait. You're not going to reinforce that by we're trying to condition collar grab as a good thing and the dog's going off the rails. So what you're going to do is say, I don't want to build in cheap behaviors with this cookie. So in that instance, I would choose not to feed. I would go to lower value food and just practice grabbing the collar, doing nothing, touching, touching, and they're on leash and then grabbing and holding. And if the dog is just, Oh, okay. Then you could go in and condition. Okay. Good job, Tareen. Uh, Cameron, normal collar grab. She's perfectly fine with search. My dog seems to have an issue with the arm reaching over the other arm. She backs away and lays down. Can't, can't get in the search game. Okay, Cameron. Then what we're going to do is if you notice that, um, the, the little Karen Terrier rider, when I grabbed, he kind of put his paws up. I just got really quick. So you're going to, you're going to do this on leash. My leash. You're going to do this on leash. Instead of grabbing the collar, just grab the leash, put your hand across or wrong hand, put your hand across and drop and say, search, right? So search, boom, search, boom. You're not close to your dog's head at all. Eventually you're going to get closer. All right. So leash, everybody playing it on leash, right? Mary Beth, can you use a collar grab to change directions out on a walk? If you see something, I, I wouldn't use, I mean, I would use it if my dog, um, I, I, I use it. If I'm going to give my dog a cookie out on a walk all the time, changing directions, I would like them to cue into my motion. So if they're really connected, so I might just change direction, stop feed, change direction, stop feed. So I don't have to reach down for the collar all the time, change direction, stop feed. And so that they learn to change directions is as good as a collar grab game. Okay. Makes sense. Yeah. Okay. Um, reminder game day four opens is open today and, um, a lot of great, great questions. A lot of great, great, great questions. We are going to now do a draw

for our winner. Winner today is going to get a be kind sticker mailed to them. And our winner is Sandy S A N D E. And I'm also going to give out yesterday's gem winner. Oh, didn't I do yesterday's, I did yesterday's gem winner. Didn't I just start the, no, I didn't. Oh my goodness. Oh, okay. I'm going to find the gem. Uh, yesterday's gem was a good one. Okay. I've got to take this off of here. So yesterday's gem from Julia, uh, Julia said, I have two gems. The first is that I set aside my previous understanding and experience and came in with a beginner's mindset. Super important. That was life-changing second. I have two dogs that have their, their moments of joy. And Winnie has moments of wanting to be an only dog. I have been struggling with bringing them together and I find harmony in working with both girls. I am starting by introducing each game individually and then bringing them together. They are actually taking turns. Wow. We are going, we are so happy to be here. So Julia, you, uh, win a, I think it was a, I'm not going to say, I think it was a propel, but I'm not sure. I think it's an awesome prize tomorrow. I'm we're going to go. So, so right now, if you would like to win for, for our, on Friday, what I'll be giving away on Friday is a, um, uh, from blue nine, a, a harness. So it will be, uh, the size of harness that fits you. And I just could get that off of there. Hold on. So go to our Facebook page and there'll be a post. There'll be a picture there for gems and write in. What were your takeaways? Why do I do? I love for the world to hear the good dog training, the common sense dog training. I love for the world to see that training this way. It makes sense. And your dogs are loving it. So by sharing your gems, you're sharing your knowledge of what you learned with everybody that missed this call with everybody who might just scroll through Facebook, right? If we can have one dog have a better life, let's do it. Okay, guys, Friday, we'll be back, but I really encourage you to watch the plus connected plus coaching calls where I coach people through some of these mechanics. I think it'll be really eyeopening for you. There should be two of them up there. Now. If you go to the learning zone, there'll be two of those calls. And if you are thinking you might want a chance to be coached by myself and Linda, then we do have, uh, one, two, I believe two more, two more calls. So join us. Okay. We'll see you. Make sure you're watching the games, rewatch them. The series is only

open until Sunday. I don't know the date, not this Sunday following. Uh, yes, the, this Sunday coming up at midnight. So these videos are all going away on the Sunday, the 24th, the 23rd at midnight. Okay. Okay. See you guys.