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Episode #295 Changing Unwanted Habits In Adult Dogs · The Puppy Training Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Last week we talked about training the do instead of the don't.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I promised you today we'd talk about adult dogs.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have a dog that's a little bit older, today's show is for you.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Puppy Training Podcast, the show designed to help you raise a confident, well-behaved puppy using positive practical training methods.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Each week we'll explore real-life training strategies, break down common puppy challenges, and give you clear, step-by-step guidance you can start using right away.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you're dealing with potty training, biting, jumping, or just want to build a stronger bond with your pup as their handler, you're in the right place.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Hi you guys, welcome back to the puppy training podcast.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: If you're new around here, I'm Amy Jensen.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: I run Baxter and Bella the Online Puppy School.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And this podcast is all about helping you be successful at raising your puppy because I know life is busy and I know you have five minutes here and ten minutes there.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: All of these episodes are super short.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: They're just little tidbits or nuggets of information that you can put in your training tool belt to make life with your dog easier and more enjoyable, which is what we all want, right?
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: So today, like I mentioned, we are talking about the adolescent dog or the adult dog who maybe, you know, uh has gotten some habits that you don't really love.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, now those are just things that your dog has been practicing over time, right?
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know the ones maybe your dog launches at every guest.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you have a countersurfer who's maybe they've stolen butter, bread, a piece of pizza, I don't know, um, an entire rotisserie chicken.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's really yummy.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you have a dog who hears a doorbell and turns into a four-legged alarm system.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: If you're nodding along, here's the good news those habits are not permanent.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: They were built, which means they can be rebuilt.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: So today I'm going to give you my three-step framework.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: We manage, we replace, and we proof.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: All right, first, let's understand what you're actually up against because it's not stubbornness.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Some people tell me, my dog's just being stubborn, I know they know what to do.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's also not dominance and it's not your dog just giving you attitude.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually practiced.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: So things that your dog is now doing, they have been rehearsed.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: So think about your dog who jumps on guests.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: If he's, let's say, two years old and he's jumped on, say, 500 guests at this point, recognize that's 500 practice reps of jumping.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: And every single one of those reps made that habit stronger, especially if people were like, oh, hey, puppy, and they pet him and talk to him and give him attention.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: In his brain, jumping is a super highway.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's wide, fast, and it's easy to travel.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the behavior that we want instead, sitting politely while a stranger walks in, is a dirt path through the woods that nobody's walked yet.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: The pathway is not really set.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of blurry.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, he's going to take the main road, the one that's clear.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's not that your dog has a character flaw, it's just that the road that's been paved is the one that we don't really love.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: So the first mindset shift I need you to do is this: your dog isn't misbehaving.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: He's just doing the thing he's practiced the most.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: And once you see it that way, the fix becomes a little more obvious.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Not easy, but obvious.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now we have to close that highway.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: We have to close that road and we need to make a new pathway.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then we need to make sure that that new road holds up in real traffic, meaning when there's distractions, we still want to get that good behavior.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: So we're going to manage, we're going to replace, and we're going to proof.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, step one is manage.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I need you to hear this clearly.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Management is not giving up.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Some people complain about management.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: You're not really training your dog, you're just managing them, but we need to pair them together.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Management is going to help us, it's not cheating.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Management is buying yourself training time.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's why it matters: you can't untrain a habit if your dog keeps practicing it.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Every time your dog countersurfs and scores a win, say that piece of pizza off the kitchen counter, that habit just got another deposit.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: He got paid for doing that.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: And every time your jumper gets to launch at a guest because nobody stops him, then that road gets a fresh coat of pavement.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Do you understand?
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: So if the old behavior keeps working, no amount of training will fix it or change it.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: So we manage first.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Your jumper goes on a leash when guests arrive or behind a baby gate until everyone is settled.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Your countersurfer is going to lose access to the kitchen anytime there's food out.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: We put a gate up and your dog is out, okay?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Your doorbell barker is going to get moved to a back room before we open the front door.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Management is going to stop the bleeding today while the real training happens in the background.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to buy us some time.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's what I tell every client: I want you to just pick one habit to start with.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to pick three.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to be overwhelmed, just one.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because management takes effort and you'll actually do it for one habit.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: So just pick the one that bothers you the most, and I want you to start there.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Step two is we're going to replace.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: So if you listen to last week's episode, this is going to sound familiar because every don't needs a do instead.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: But here's our adult dog twist: the replacement behavior has to be practiced more than the old habit was.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now remember, you're competing with 500 reps of jumping or whatever it is.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Your new behavior needs to become that new pathway, and that takes deliberate repetitions.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the trick is to pick a replacement that's incompatible with the old habit.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: So the dog physically cannot do both things at once.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Jumping on guests might become sitting to greet.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: A sitting dog cannot be jumping, right?
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Charging the front door becomes running to a mat when the doorbell rings.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: A dog that's lying on a mat cannot body slam our visitor.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Countersurfing becomes maybe a go-to-bed behavior in the kitchen while I'm cooking.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: A dog that is on their bed cannot be stealing chicken at the same time.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: So notice we are training the replacement away from the hard moments first.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: You don't teach sit to greet with actual guests arriving.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to teach it in your living room on a Tuesday with boring reps and great food rewards until it's so easy for your dog.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then we add a guest.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I would start with a person that your dog already knows.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: They're not super excited about.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Family members work great.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then we can add more people and people your dog doesn't know, more exciting people.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to build that road in the quiet before we just drive out onto a busy highway, right?
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: So let's practice easy, successful reps.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: You want your dog to win.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: So they love playing this training game with you.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: So make it easy at the beginning.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Then we add distractions, harder and harder ones, as your dog is successful at the easy ones, okay?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: So one more thing about replacement.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to reward the new behavior like it's the best thing your dog has ever done because to your dog's brain, it needs to be.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now the old habit worked, and maybe it's worked for years.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how long your dog's had this habit.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: The new one has to be worth it.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: That means better food rewards, more excitement from you, more celebration, like throw a party.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: So you're not just teaching a behavior, you're outbidding a habit.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: All right, now step three is proof.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a step most people skip.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if they just get tired at this point.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I understand that because it's a process, but I need you to focus here.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: We've got to proof this.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: If we don't proof it, the habit comes back.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now, your dog sits beautifully for guests in practice, and then your mother-in-law arrives with shopping bags and a really happy voice, and it's like the training never happened.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, proofing means we're going to test this new behavior against real life on purpose, but we're going to do it gradually.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, think of three dials you can turn up.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: We can turn up the distance, that's how far away you are from your dog.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: We can turn up the duration, how long we're asking our dog to do this behavior, and we can turn up distractions.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now, all those put together we call difficulty, and we want to manage the difficulty.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: So we're going to start with all three dials very low.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: One calm guest, a short greeting, a quiet house.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Then we're going to turn up one dial at a time.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe our guest is a little more exciting, but we're still doing a short greeting in a quiet house.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Or we can do a longer greeting, but now we need a calm guest.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: But we're never going to up all three of those dials at once for now.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Also recruit help.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: So text a friend.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Can you come ring my doorbell five times on Saturday?
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: I need to practice some reps.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Or set up the hard moments deliberately so your dog can win.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: Every successful rep in a slightly harder scenario is another car on that highway.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: And eventually that new road becomes the easy one for your dog.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the timeline truth.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: This takes weeks, you guys.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's not days.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Again, that's maybe why we give up because we get tired of the work.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: But if the habit took two years to build, you need to give the replacement a couple of months of honest work.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: The good news is this works.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is a tried and true method of getting behavior to change for your dog.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: So you can do this.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here's your homework.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to pick one rehearsed habit, maybe one that bothers you the most.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: This week, I want you to manage it.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: So set up the environment so your dog simply can't practice it.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever you need to do to do that.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then I want you to start teaching the replacement behavior in the quiet, easy moments.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Two or three minutes, a few times a day.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Just scatter it throughout the day.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: Don't do like a 30-minute session.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Your dog will not love that.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: So manage, replace, and then proof.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: Remember those three dials we're going to do one at a time and help our dog win.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: The more our dog wins again, the more they want to work with you and the faster these habits will change.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: So we're going to close the old road, we're going to pave the new road, and then we're going to test it in real traffic.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: And again, not in a day.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: This is going to take some time.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: So be patient with your dog.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: All right, you guys.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for tuning in today.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: If you know of somebody getting a dog soon or a somebody that's having struggles with their dog training, please let them know about us.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Send them to the show.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: I have a lot of great tips here, and it's absolutely free to listen to the podcast.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: So have a great week.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Happy training.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for tuning in today.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: If you found this episode helpful, be sure to subscribe so you never miss a training tip.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're enjoying the show, leaving a quick review really helps other handlers find us.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: For more training resources, tips, and support, visit me, Amy Jensen, at baxterembella.com.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, happy training.