반려견이 집에서 하이퍼 상태인가요? 이완을 가르치는 방법 #137

And then maybe we'll go for our second walk during the day. And maybe we'll round it up with some training before dinner time. Can you see how your dog turns into a behavior junkie? Because there's an expectation, you are in my eyesight, then I need to be entertained in some way. Edutainment, education under the guise of entertainment. That's the best way to educate a dog for sure. Education under the guise of enrichment. It creates this problem dog because it creates this expectation that when you sit down to watch a movie, you should still be interacting with me, the dog. And so, that's the problem that we have. And so, is it any wonder then when you get up to leave a room that your dog just starts barking? Or what happens a lot of times is dogs learn, okay, bedtime, I can chill in my crate. Lights are out. That's fine. You're in a bed. I know where you are. We're all good. But don't put me in a crate or an X-pen and then you go in and sit down and go into a meeting on Zoom because no, you're in the room. I can see you. We need to be doing something. So, let's fix that. What's happening is there's some conditioning. Now, part of the problem, and I've said this could happen with a puppy. This could happen with an adolescent. This could happen with a rescue dog. What we want to teach the dog as part of their education is there are times when they need to chill. And that chill can sometimes look like they're chewing on a bone, but it doesn't have to be chewing on a bone. With my own dogs, if I am, I'm either training them or they're out walking or they are just chilling around the house. Like there isn't an expectation of me doing or anybody doing anything with them. Sure. If I say who wants to work, I would get everybody going, yeah, pick me, pick me, let's go. I want to go now. They love to work. I've got high drive dogs and they're trained to be amongst the best in the world at the sport of dog agility. So yeah, they want to go, but they also know when it's time to chill. And it's just so important. I think it's important for their mental wellbeing. I think it's important so that I can get some stuff done. And sometimes maybe I just want to chillax and maybe watch our Raptors game. And I don't want dogs looking at me with these piercing eyes. Are we, are we going to work? Did you want me to bring this to you? Did you want to throw that for me? I could find something for you. No, this is chill time. So how do we get there? If you remember in podcast episode 134, I talked about teaching a dog to chill

from crate games. So that's one way is you teach your dog crate games. I'll put a link in the show notes or in the description here on YouTube. You teach the dog crate games, which teaches all different aspects of learning a release word, learning how to sit, learning how to ignore distractions in your environment, but it also teaches something called relax. So it looks like this. Your dog understands the release word. We use the word break. And they also understand a word that means get in your kennel. So it could be, you know, get in your house or whatever you want. So if I tell my dog to get in your kennel, then there's an expectation that they may or may not be working. If they're not working, here's what I do. I throw a handful of cookies in there and I close the door and I walk away. If they are working, I might do something like put a leash on and play a stage of crate games called you're in, you're out where the dog, I give them a release word, but because I'm standing super close to the kennel and I'm facing the dog crate, there's no reinforcement for them. So they immediately run back into the crate and I toss them another cookie. Okay. So this is what the chill looks like. My dog, when I touch the crate, they sit, I open the crate door, I give them a cookie. I might do a distraction or two, give them another cookie for, you know, being really cool around those distractions. I will say the word break. They come out, they look at me, I'm not doing anything exciting. They go back in. I toss them some cookies and I pin the door back. Now I'm not going to do this with a dog who's just brand new to crate games. This is a dog who understands that you don't leave the crate unless you hear your release word, which is break for my dogs. And so, I'll build that duration. I'll let, I'll watch them sniff around and I'll kind of sit down and pretend I'm, you know, ignoring them. And eventually they're just going to lay down. And I might wait for a couple of seconds and then I'll go and toss them another couple of cookies. And I'm only going to do that for a little bit of time and then I'm going to release them and they can go out their business. Now, if they are a busy dog, I love using an X-pen. And here's the other thing that I love to use guys. You need to have dog beds. Now this is your Aunt Susan, crazy Aunt Susan, giving you permission to buy more dog beds. I would like one of two different kinds of dog beds for you. And you can get several of each if you choose. So, number one are dog beds that are raised, like a platform. Some dogs really like those. And I like to get

them big enough so that my dog can lie on their side. Now, those of you with Irish wolfhounds, I hope you have a big place if you're getting a raised dog bed big enough to lie on the side. Second kind of dog beds that I want you to get are dog beds that have a wall, like they have sides. So, a lot of dogs, they'll like to lay there with their chin on the roll-up wall of the dog bed. So, why do I like those two different types of dog beds? It's just so darn easy to transfer the criteria of wait for a release to something that's got an obvious barrier. So, the obvious barrier is the wall of the dog bed or stepping off of the raised platform to the lower level to the floor, right? And so, I love, love, love those. And here's what I do. I will start with one in the X-pen. Now, if you've got a dog who can climb or jump out of the X-pen, you either put a lid on the X-pen or you have a really tall X-pen, or please don't put the raised dog bed in the X-pen because you're just giving them like a boost up to get up and over. All right. So, I would use a dog bed that's got sides. Now, I would not put a dog bed in a crate or in an X-pen unless I'm 100% confident that dog is not going to be chewing or shredding the dog bed. And if they are, then what I'll do is I will put the dog bed in and I will do something like, you know, read a book. So, I'm kind of, I'm present. The X-pen might be right in front of me. And if I see the dog like licking the dog bed, then what I'll do is I'll get up and I'll take the dog bed out. If I see the dog, what Tater Salad used to do is really obvious. He would, as a precursor to starting to chew on it, he'd grab the dog bed and he'd just like throw it around the X-pen. We always made sure there were other things in there for the dog so he could chew on. There were toys and indestructible toys in there for him. There were bones for him to chew on, but putting your mouth on a dog bed, that means the dog bed's got to come out. Okay. And after doing this very consistently, he learned if he wants to lay on a nice dog bed, he can't put his mouth on it. So, you've got your dog bed, you've got your dog in the X-pen. There should be at least one other thing in there for them to chew on, something they love. Now, I can give you some suggestions of things that you should have in there for your dog to chew on. I'm going to give you some that you shouldn't have as well. I will tell you what I use with a big asterisk. There is a risk. So, I use raw marrow bones. They come with a little bit of meat.

We get them from the grocery store, from the butcher department. So, they're cut. If you can get the organic ones, that's even better. You want them big enough that their dogs can't get the marrow cut over their lower jaw. You wouldn't be the first person who had their dog go to the veterinarian to get one of those bones cut off there. The other problem with the marrow bones, and if all you do is you get the bones long enough, that's not going to happen. The other problem with them is there is a potential. These are raw, but there is a potential if your dog just chews on the bone that they could get a slab fracture in one of their teeth. So, I'm giving you that asterisk. I'm telling you that I will take that risk, but you don't have to. Things like horns. I'm not a big fan of using things like cow hooves. Not a big fan at all of those. You can use something like a pizzle. So, you can Google a pizzle. But what I would like you to do is I always make sure the pizzle has a holder. So, you can buy, you can go to Amazon and buy holders that you jam these pizzles in. And why I like having them in a holder is because when these get down too small, most dogs are going to want to try and swallow it whole. I don't want that. So, I will let them chew it down in the holder. And I just made a holder out of an old Kong. I just made a slit and it's really hard to get it in and out. So, it will be hard for the dog to get it in and out. And when it gets down, I'll just throw that piece out. Yes, it's a waste. So, what? Better safe than sorry. Okay. Here's what I do not want you to use. I don't want you to use for chewing number one rawhides. Go to my friend Rodney Habib. Google Rodney Habib or Planet Paws and rawhide. He'll give you the down low on why you should never. Rawhide is like garbage from the leather industry and it's just filled with chemicals. Don't give your dogs rawhide. Also, I'm not a big fan of giving a dog things like plastics that to chew on that have like different colorings in there. So, I'm more a fan of giving the dog something that actually is or was some sort of food form. You can also just give your dogs toys to have in their X-pen, but not ones that they can destroy if you've got a chew or it's just dangerous. You don't want to do that. I also don't like giving stuff to animals. Like things can happen. They can pull them apart. They can shred things and they might eat them. So, just be cautious, but we need our dog to be entertained or have something in there for them to chew on because that helps lower that anxiety.

Okay. So, we've got our dog in the X-pen. Now let's say you're working in your office and you want to get up and go get and make yourself a coffee. I will release my dog from the X-pen and here's where having multiple dog beds around the house comes in on the way to the kitchen. I will stop at the first dog bed. And because I'm stopping there, my dog will hop in. I won't tell them. They'll just offer to go in because I'm standing there. They're like, what are we doing? Oh, I see something here. I'll offer something. They'll go in. I'll give them a cookie. I might wait. They'll offer to lie down. I'll give them another cookie. And then what I'll do is I'll see I can take a few steps away, come back, give them another cookie. I want to see how far away I can get. If I can get, so if you only have one dog bed, get to the kitchen, turn the kettle on or the coffee maker, and then come back and give a cookie. See if you can do that. I've done this with like little wee puppies and I can get build up to a great distance away, especially if they can see me. But what I love to do with the little ones is get to the next dog bed and I'll release them from the first and they'll go in the next. Until I get into the kitchen, there'll be a dog bed outside of the kitchen and I'll be able to toss cookies in there while I'm making my beverage of choice. Release the puppy, go back, you'll prep or the dog at this is great time to let them out for a potty break, take them back upstairs. You've just given them some true enrichment. You've allowed them to use the brain. You've allowed them to offer the choice to go in the bed. You've allowed them to practice their listening for their release words. And then you've got it back upstairs. Now that's far better than letting your dog scream at the top of the lungs because you left the room. Now, if you want to strategically leave your dog in an X-pen and leave the room, I would suggest you just do it by getting up and walking around the room and then going back and sitting down. Getting up and walking. If you have a closet in the room, that's ideal. Just go in the closet, come back out and then come back and sit down. And after you sit down, then you might get up and give your dog a cookie. If you have a dog who has true anxiety about you leaving, they have separation anxiety. I strongly encourage you to seek the help of a veterinarian behaviorist, but you can do this if your dog really doesn't have true anxiety. They just are, you know, I'm used to being with you. You can use a remote feeder or you can just strategically leave the room,

come back and give them a cookie, sit down. Sometimes come back in, sit down, then get up and give them a cookie. So, they don't always get the trigger. Okay. When she comes back in the room, I get my cookie. I can't wait till she get back in the room. I can't wait. I can't wait. No, sometimes it has come back in. And when you give them a cookie, this, I don't go crazy. I just, I just give them the cookie. I don't say, good, yay, this is good. You did something really well. Because I want them not to be performing. I don't want them to be behaving. I just want them to be chilling. Now, if when you are walking around the house, the dog grabs a bone and gets in and just jumps in a dog bed and starts chewing, those are the times that I look for the opportunity to grab some cookies and just, oh, you're chewing on a bone in a dog bed? There's a cookie. And I'll go back about my business. I'm building the dog's desire to be in a dog bed chilling. Chilling starts small. It has to be intentional. At first your dog may be like big eyes going, yeah, look at, I'm doing something. Am I going to get cookies? Eventually when you walk from bed to bed, when the dog goes, there's something about these beds that this chick loves and they learn to relax for longer and longer. Your dogs will be like my dogs and they'll just seek out the beds on their own and they'll be chilling all day long until you say, hey, who wants to do some work? Trust me, it works. It'll work for your dog. You just have to be patient. I'll see you next time right here on Shaped by Dog.