Inadvertent Time Outs In Dog Training: What They Are, Why They Matter, And How To Avoid Them

In dog training, inadvertent time outs happen more often than many realize, so I’m sharing what they are, why they matter, and how to avoid them. Being aware of these moments can help you stay present with your dog and keep training and everyday time together more connected and engaging.
Transcript Summary:
I have a question, have you ever watched a professional dog trainer, like an elite level dog trainer train their dog? Maybe you've seen one of my videos on YouTube of just me training my dog and you'll notice the dogs got this attention for their owner.

They could have finished the exercise and maybe the owner's walking back to start a new exercise and the dog’s just like, they're just excited and engaged and connected. Have you ever seen that kind of connection going? “Wow, I wish I could get that with my dog.” Well, I'm going to share with you one of the most important things that you might be doing that's hurting the possibility of getting that.

Today is all about the inadvertent time outs. The ones you may not even be aware that you're doing, but your dog is.

Picture this, I've seen this time and time again, you're in class and you're doing something with your dog and then your teacher wants to give you some feedback so you take all that focus and good energy that you just had on your dog and you go, “wawa? A wawa.” And she goes, “wawa wawa.” And then you go, “wawa wawa wa?” And then she goes, “wawa wa.” And you go, “wawa.” And then you look back at your dog and go, “okay, let's train again.”

And the dog's going, “yeah. I left you about two ‘wawa’ ago.” Like you can't just expect the dog to be on when you want them to be on. And then when you turn your back on them and leave them hanging, expect them to pick right up. They're not machines guys. They're animals. Now your dog doesn't know what's going on. All your dog know is, you are on a roll, you were doing something good and then you disengaged. You saw somebody better come into the room.

So how can we fix that? How can we fix these inadvertent time outs? And it doesn't matter, you might be saying, “Oh well, I don't really go to classes. This isn't about me.” Don't hit pause or flick away because I have seen so many people lately walk down the street with their dog on leash and they are scrolling through their phone.

Hello, your dog, like just, I'm not saying when you walk your dog you have to have like your eyes on them and constantly, but you know what? Get your head up, get your nose out of your phone. Enjoy the nature around you. Be grateful for what's going on. Talk to your dog from time to time. You know, he might not want you to babble at them the whole time because he's got pee mail to read right on this route. But be present for the dog because when you're not, you are giving them that time out. You were saying this little box that I'm carrying in my hand needs me more than you do.

So, what I do, for example, I was training some puppies today. Puppies are going to be seven weeks old and sometimes when you get them this young, you don't, I mean, somebody at my level doesn't even know the exact right thing to do all the time. And I'll see that a puppy has lost confidence. And to me, that's like a dagger going through my heart. My job is to raise your confidence, never to lose it.

And so, my abandoned mission is I just drop what I'm doing, and I put my face on the floor because I know puppies love to jump on me and pull my hair and bite my glasses. And let's make all things right in the world. It doesn't matter that I'm not going to have success with what I'm training. Right now, let's just get back on track. Now that change of tact might be, I'm just going to throw a handful of cookies in the crate, put you in the crate and regroup. That might be what happens instead of the big sigh.

So, don't turn your back on your dog to talk to an instructor. Don't scroll through your iPhone when you're walking down the street. But also, if you're walking down the street with your dog and you're having a great old time, you're saying, “Hey buddy, you got some good smells there.” And then you see your neighbor. “Hey, did you see Netflix last night? I was watching—” “Yeah. I was watching that.” Again, pick up with your neighbor, you're disconnecting with your dog. How fair is that?

All right. So, I want that focused attention from my dog that I spoke about at the beginning of this podcast. To get that focused attention from your dog in work, you give that focused attention to your dog. When you go back and write your records of that little session, you write down how you did with respect to keeping your focus and attention on your dog.


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