School For The Dogs Podcast

A few weeks ago, Annie interviewed Jon Provost, who played the little boy Timmy on the Lassie TV series in the 1950s and 60s. He talked a little bit about Rudd Weatherwax, who was Lassie's owner and trainer. Jon talked about how Weatherwax only trained with praise and rewards, and Annie described him as "progressive." After the episode aired, however, she found some old videos that showed training methods that suggested otherwise. In this episode, Annie reads from Weatherwax's 1971 book, The Lassie Method: Raising & Training Your Dog With Patience, Firmness & Love, and considers the pros and cons of his suggested training techniques.  Notes:  Free ebook on dog training techniques you can use on people: http://schoolforthedogs.com/people 1971 footage promoting the book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMrD3wO2m0I The Lassie Method: Raising & Training Your Dog With Patience, Firmness & Love---Partial Transcript:Annie:So a few weeks ago, I interviewed Jon Provost, the actor who played Timmy on th

Before she became a dog trainer, Annie assumed that understanding dogs' supposed obsession with dominance was an important part of being a good trainer. She pushed her 18-pound Yorkiepoo into alpha rolls so he'd know she was boss. She yelled in his face, and made sure he never entered through a doorway before her, because Cesar Millan said that that would make the dog think he was the one in charge. The whole idea that dog behavior, and the way dogs learn, had anything to do with science simply did not compute; the notion of them existing in a kind of Lord-Of-The-Flies quest for supreme power seemed plausible and not something worth reconsidering. After graduating dog training school, her thoughts on "dominance" shifted 180 degrees. Now,  ten years spent working as a professional trainer, they've shifted yet again...Bonus Q+A: Pizza the mini goldendoodle (@the_pizza_dood) is obsessed with stealing collapsible water bowls at the park. Annie suggests a three pronged approach to curing him of the habit of destro

Nothing makes people want puppies quite like a global pandemic! Those who are raising puppies during quarantine may face some challenges when it comes to socialization. But, if you succeed at doing a good job with it -- if you can clear the unusual hurdles that new dog owners have to face right now -- you will be paving the way for a great future for your dog and while developing your own training abilities.Annie discusses what socialization is, how to spot signs of possible stress, and how to start at "criteria: zero" in order to build new and appropriate behaviors (and keep bad ones from happening). She talks about using food in socialization, using the right toys, and making use of sounds and objects you might be able to find in your home and enlisting neighbors in a safe way. She also talks about how to help your young dog get adequate puppy playtime, even if that means you... have to pretend to be a puppy.FREE EBOOK on The Dog Training Triad: http://schoolforthedogs.com/triadGet access to our private Fac

Jon Provost was the boy sidekick to the 20th Century's most-loved dog: Lassie. In the late 1950s and early 1960s a third of American households tuned in each week to watch Lassie, a whip-smart Collie, help Timmy get out of countless pickles. Lassie came to define the "perfect" dog. In this episode Provost, who is now 70, talks about working with a dog star, and about what he learned from Lassie's rather progressive trainer/owner, the famous Hollywood dog trainer Rudd Weatherwax. He and Annie also discuss his early exposure to the notion of a "therapy" dog, and his more recent work to bring attention to rescue dogs, Army dogs, and more.  Annie ends the episode by reflecting on how Lassie impacted our cultural notions about dogs, perhaps not for the better, and reads from Jean Donaldson's book Culture Clash, about the Disney-fication of dogs and how a desire to anthropomorphize "man's best friend" has led to some huge errors in the way people attempt to train and understand the dogs who live with us. If you're

In an ideal world, dogs would all be trained to be able to be alone. It would be a process of shaping a behavior, and helping your dog make good associations with being without you. But, in the real world, not everyone can take the time to acclimate a dog to alone time. Annie talks about the "cry it out" method and some of the tools that are used to punish the behaviors that can occur when a dog is stressed about being alone, and their potential fall out. She also gives a few strategies you can use when you really just have to leave your dog before you are sure he can handle it, and discusses what it means when we get rid of a behavior using extinction.Support School For The Dogs by shopping in our online store! Products mentioned in this episode. Treat n' Train - https://storeforthedogs.com/products/treat-trainTreat Separation Anxiety In Dogs by Malena DiMartiniScholarship Fund mosaic: http://schoolforthedogs.com/mosaicMaster Class can be found at anniegrossman.com/masterclassNYDogShare.comAlso listen to: Ep

Before Annie became a dog trainer, she assumed all dogs were trained using "commands" and cues were for... pool games and stage actors. In this episode, she talks about the difference between cues and commands, describes the process of adding a cue, noticing cues, changing cues, and more. Enjoy School For The Dogs Podcast? Please leave a 5-star rating on iTunes and a review! Notes: Find Annie's new MasterClass at http://anniegrossman.com/masterclassA Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court https://amzn.to/2YectpgEpisode 19: How To Train A Dog To Sit From Scratchhttps://www.schoolforthedogs.com/podcasts/episode-19-how-to-train-a-dog-to-sit-from-scratch/Episode 40: Teaching A Stellar Down With A Verbal Or Visual Cuehttps://www.schoolforthedogs.com/podcasts/13927/---Partial Transcript:Annie:Mark Twain, satirist of the 19th century, one of my favorite writers, wrote the book A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. And it’s a story about–it’s a time travel story about a guy who gets bonked on the head and w

Thirty years ago, a vet told Susan Thixton that dog food had given her dog bone cancer, and the dog had two weeks to live.  "That day changed my life," she said. She dove into researching pet food, and found an industry doing its best to keep its practices opaque to pet owners. Too often, she discovered, we are literally feeding our dogs garbage. In the decades since, Susan has become a full time blogger on the subject and a consumer advocate, lobbying to try to improve the quality of the food we feed our pets. She and Annie discuss the difference the precise definitions of terms like "food" and "feed,"  "with" and "meal," and Susan reveals what she feels is the single most important thing to look for when selecting a pet food. This episode may forever change how you think about dog food. Sign up for Annie's new Master Class! http://anniegrossman.com/masterclassNotes: This conversation was recorded as a webinar, a replay of which can be found here.TruthAboutPetFood.com: What is feed grade and human grade pet

Last week in New York City a white woman called the cops on a black man, saying he was threatening her life. Really, he just wanted her to obey Central Park's leash laws. In this episode, Annie attempts to dissect the altercation from a dog trainer's point of view, talking about everything from how we should use leashes, to how the man used an interesting combination of treats and negative reinforcement to get the woman to leash the dog.  Through the lens of dog behavior and training, we can also spot how fear, caused by ignorance or wrong associations or both, can lead to awful actions. Annie also talks about the animal-training concepts of "trigger stacking," her own "learned helplessness" when it comes to affecting change by voting, and her ongoing efforts to take a stance, one poop bag at a time.   Get our free house training guide:Http://SchoolForTheDogs.com/houseNotes:  The Amy Cooper/Christian Cooper video  https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/05/29/amy-cooper-white-woman/ Mendota Leashes https:

When Ken Ramirez is not training elephants to avoid poachers, teaching dogs to count, coaxing polar bears out of suburban garbage cans or getting butterflies to fly on cue, he is mentoring and educating dog trainers. Ken is the Executive Vice President and public face of Karen Pryor Clicker Training, which operates the Karen Pryor Academy, among other things. In this episode, he and Annie discussed his new book of essays, how he almost got The Dog Whisperer's time slot, the existence of free will, sleep training a baby and more. Get our guide to making walks more fun: Http://SchoolForTheDogs.com/funwalksNotes:The Eye Of The Trainer: Animal Training, Transformation and Trust, by Ken Ramirez - On My Mind: Reflections on Animal Behavior and Learning, by Karen Pryor - Ken Ramirez on Hannah Brannigan's Drinking From The Toilet Podcast - Ken Ramirez on Ryan Cartlidge's Animal Training Academy Podcast - KenRamirezTraining.com - Ken's Letters - Training Lessons From Pokemon Go - Talk To The Animals clip -  Find the u

There is one behavior we teach every dog we work with at School For The Dogs: Touch! This is an easy-to-teach building block that you can use to build... whatever you want! In this episode, Annie outlines how to teach touch, and talks about this behavior's countless uses and variations. Annie's Free Webinar on training touch - https://event.webinarjam.com/go/replay/78/k6v60c95ir6t6nf1More on Chirag Patel's Bucket Game - https://www.facebook.com/thebucketgameKen Ramirez demonstrates different types of targeting. - https://theranch.clickertraining.com/live-episode-1/Doodle Buddy and other apps you can use with your dog - https://anniegrossman.com/2013/12/training/3-apps-your-dog-can-use-to-make-art-35313/8246/Support this podcast by shopping in our online store, storeforthedogs.com!  http://storeforthedogs.com/Products mentioned in this episode:  Clicker Sticks https://storeforthedogs.com/products/clicker-stickLamb Lung https://storeforthedogs.com/products/lamb-lung---Partial Transcript:[Intro]Annie:Hey everyon

Some dogs have panic attacks when they are left alone. If you have a dog who can't be alone, and you have any interest in sometimes leaving your home without your dog, you know the agony of canine separation anxiety. It's an issue that has led to too many dogs ending up at shelters.  A good dog trainer can help, but many good dog trainers dread taking on separation anxiety cases because...they're really hard. "Who in their right mind would choose separation anxiety as a speciality?" says Malena DeMartini. The answer? Malena DeMartini. Malena has helped countless dogs learn to be alone, and also trains trainers to deal with treating and preventing separation anxiety in dogs. Annie and Malena discuss why separation anxiety cases are hard, how people can address separation issues with or without a trainer's help, the ways in which modern technology can help us train dogs to be alone, behavioral medication, CBD for dogs, and more. Use code SFTD for ten percent off the Mission: Possible  course at MalenaDeMartini.

A few years ago, Annie thought it'd be fun to do yearbook-style posed photos of dogs graduating from classes at School For The Dogs.  She mentioned the idea to a few photographers and they all gave her blank stares. Then, she was scrolling through Instagram and she found a photographer whose entire feed was... posed, yearbook-style photos of dogs. Annie got in touch with the person behind the account: Andrea Castanon. Andrea was working as a professional photo retoucher and during her downtime was making these hilarious photoshopped portraits of her friends' dogs for fun, and to raise money for rescue organizations.  Annie invited her to hold some shoots at School For The Dogs. Two years later, Andrea -- whose company, BowieShoots, is named for her own rescue dog -- has shot hundreds of dogs (and even some other types of pets as well) all over the country, delighting their owners with her backgrounds and knack for catching doggie smiles. While she has had to stop shooting dogs in person during the COVID-19 cr

Ferdie Yau,  behavior consultant at NYC's Behavior Vets, has been training animals in New York City for nearly twenty years. Today he mostly works with dogs (he trained his own to be a coyote poop detection dog...) but he started out working in the city's zoos. Learn how a lifelong passion for animals  led this Long Island-born conservation biologist to think about the importance of enrichment in training urban-dwelling animals, whether they be puppies in living rooms, cats in shelters, or polar bears in Central Park.Notes: -SchoolForTheDogs.com/Mosaic -For a limited time, we are offering free thirty minute sessions with our trainers! Book yours at SchoolForTheDogs.com-BehaviorVetsNYC.com-Get $10 off to make your own custom stickers with Sticker Mule. Use this link. -Elly Lonon sings Aba Daba Honeymoon. Elly is the author of Amongst The Liberal Elite.-Sitsnwiggles.comPartial Transcript:Annie 1:24That is Elly Lonon singing Abba Dabba Honeymoon. Thank you for tuning in. I have an episode that I'm really happy t

One of the many interesting things about dog training? Every professional has taken a different path. We are in a moment where many people are considering new careers. If you've ever thought about becoming a dog trainer, you will want to listen to this interview featuring two women who went from success in completely different fields to success in working with dogs. Annie, who became a dog trainer after working as a journalist for a decade, interviews Marie Poliseno, a former Wall Street Trader turned dog trainer turned CPA. Her company, Dollars & Scents, specializes in working with professional dog trainers who need help with the financial side of things.  Learn more about Marie at Dog-Pro-CPA.com.  Learn more about Annie at AnnieGrossman.com. Special thanks to Nikki Acton for sharing her lovely Yelp review in this episode.  The audio in this episode is an abridged version of a webinar interview between Annie and Marie. You can watch it here. Learn more about Marie at Dog-Pro-CPA.com. Special thanks to N

Dog trainers are commonly asked to help dog owners teach a dog to "potty" outside. Well, thanks to this crazy quarantine situation, we're not being asked the opposite question: How can I teach my dog to pee and poop inside? Annie interviews School For The Dogs' trainer Anna Ostroff, who has a dog who is a professional when it comes to peeing and pooping inside. Learn how to train a dog to have a potty spot inside, and how to put it on cue! Also: How socializing with people in face masks can help us thinks about dogs greeting each other in leash. Get our illustrated guide to house training when you sign up for our newsletter at AnnieGrossman.com/pottyLearn more about School For The Dogs at SchoolForTheDogs.com. Make sure to also check out our 2018 episode all about house training! Products mentioned in this episode: http://FreshPatch.com http://DoggieLawn.com Partial transcript: Annie: Hey everyone. We've been getting a lot of questions about how to train a dog to go inside. Usually dog trainers are asked for

Someone on the School For The Dogs mailing list sent Annie an angry email accusing her of being out of touch because, with everything going on in the world,  "no one cares about dog training right now." This inspired Annie to outline some reasons why people could, and maybe should, think about dog training and the science of behavior now... perhaps more than ever. Show notes: School For The Dogs' studio is closed, but we have lots of great content online: Classes, daily webinars, and FREE virtual private training sessions. We aren't sure how long we will be doing these sessions for free, so take advantage of this opportunity now.  Learn more at SchoolForTheDogs.com/services. Rats get blamed for causing disease but they might've actually been helping keep all of us from getting Coronavirus sooner... Rats have been trained to find endangered pangolins. Pangolins are anteaters, the trafficking of which may have led to this pandemic. Want to see a video of these hero rats? Of course you do. Woof Shoutout to Dr. L

Welcome to Season 2 of School For The Dogs Podcast! This episode is a conversation show host Annie Grossman had with veterinarian Dr. Lisa Lippman about the thing we are all talking about: COVID19. Annie asked Dr. Lisa if our pets can get sick, if they can get us sick, and the two spoke about how to take necessary precautions to keep our dogs safe. Most of this episode is from a webinar Dr. Lisa and Annie did on March 4. It can be found here. Learn more about Dr. Lisa Lippman at https://www.vetsinthecity.com/Partial Transcript: Annie: Hey, everybody! So I ended up having to take a bit longer of a hiatus [laughs]. Sorry, I had trouble getting that word out. A hiatus from this podcast than I originally meant to. But there was good reason for it. I have spent the last year hard at work at putting together an online dog training curriculum. And if you’re hearing this, on Monday, March 16th, I hope you will tune in for the live webinar that I am going to be doing this evening. I will be talking about the online co

Pet videos fuel the Internet, but too often they perpetuate false ideas about dog behavior by misattributing a dog's intentions, or by falsely framing their actions.  Why do we seek to anthropomorphize dog behaviors rather than celebrating all the behavioral commonalties that exist between us and them?  Annie and the acclaimed, prolific blogger Eileen Anderson of EileenAndDogs.com, tackle this question together. This is our 52nd episode, and marks the end of our first season! We'll be back with Season 2 in a few weeks! Have a question for Annie? Submit it at AnnieGrossman.com/ask or call and leave a message at 917-414-2625If you are enjoying this podcast, please support us by shopping at StoreForTheDogs.com, or by leaving a review on iTunes!Notes: Eileen on fake dog videos:  https://eileenanddogs.com/blog/2019/04/22/fake-dog-videos/Eileen on smiling dog video:  https://eileenanddogs.com/blog/2019/03/04/shelter-pup-smiles-submissive-grin/Dr. Susan Friedman's Living and Learning with Animals: http://www.behavio

Annie  addresses questions from people who are dealing with dogs who have habits that annoy other dogs, and, ultimately, their owners as well. One owner wants to know how to deal with a new rescue  who is bothering the household's other two dogs and generally causing chaos in the home, and a dog walker asks about how to manage a charge who is constantly trying to hump his walking buddies. In addition to addressing setting up appropriate social situations for dogs, exercising them and using crates in multi-dog households, this episode offers a thoughtful take on why dogs hump and how to keep it from becoming an issue. Follow the askers of these questions on Instagram at @uarndcool and @pudgydogProducts mentioned in this episode: The Treat + Train:  https://storeforthedogs.com/products/treat-trainThe Revol Crate: https://storeforthedogs.com/products/the-revol-dog-crateFlirt Poles: https://storeforthedogs.com/products/flirt-polesThe Animatwist: https://storeforthedogs.com/products/animatwistThe Animaswizzler: ht

Leashes, collars and harnesses are some of the first accessories most dog owners acquire when they get a dog, and very soon they come to depend on these tools. But, in this guide to teaching a dog to walk on a loose leash, Annie suggests teaching where you want your dog to walk in relation to your body (right next to your leg), and what you want your dog to be doing on leash (checking in with you often) before you start relying on equipment to control your dog's behavior. This episode contains suggestions on training exercises to help teach nice walking (with or without a leash), protocols for encouraging good behaviors on leash, and gear recommendations.  Products mentioned in this episode:  Found My Animal double-ended nylon leash: https://storeforthedogs.com/collections/collars-leashes-harnesses/products/found-my-animal-leash-1 Mendota Lightweight Braided Leash  https://storeforthedogs.com/collections/collars-leashes-harnesses/products/braided-leashFreedom Harness https://storeforthedogs.com/collections/co