The Unconventional Dog Trainer Luzelle The Dog Trainer

Hey there, dog lover! Welcome to this episode of the Unconventional Dog Trainer. We hope you enjoy our battle tested, relationship based solutions for helping your unconventional dog shine, with your host, Luzelle Cockburn Let's dive in.



Let's talk about different personalities and dogs. This is probably one of my favorite topics because this is one of the first things one of my mentors taught me and this has really helped me see each dog as an individual. Now in every breed, you can have the four different personality types. So, what are they?



They're the same ones that apply to us people. You have your driver, which I call your company CEO. They like to make the rules. They're the fun Nazis. They want to see results. They don't care how it's done. They are not there to have fun. They are there to get shit done. That's your company CEO. Then you get your expressive or your company sales person.



These dogs are all about fun. Now I generally joke, I do not recommend this, and say you could hit this dog with a 4x2 over the head and they're not going to care as long as they get to do what they want. I fall into this category. You can do whatever you like to me. It is not going to squash me because as long as I get to do what I want, no matter how much pressure you put on me, no matter what you try and do to me is not going to work for you because I am going to find a way to do what I want and it's just going to suck to be you.



These dogs work on my nerves. I struggle with these dogs because I can see their bullshit a mile away. Now, generally, these dogs struggle with the company accountants or the analytics. So the analytical dogs are your company accountants. You do not hug your company accountant. They're all about data and information.



They are introverted. So you do not. Hug these dogs. They, they like to lie by your feet. They like to be social. They have a very small circle, whereas your expressives, like, they're friends with everybody, but you could die a slow painful death and they're not gonna care. That's your expressive. That's me. I love you, but if you disappeared, I probably might not notice.



And I'm sorry, it's not you. It's me. Um, so that's your expressive dogs. They don't care. Your analyticals form deep, meaningful relationships. They are loyal. Um, they need information. They have a very small bubble. So they have one or two really good friends, uh, the rest of the world can die a slow, painful death and they won't care.



Um, think like, more like Sheldon, engineers, accountants, these sort of people fall into the analytics. Analytical or company accountant category, and then you get your amiables. I call them the company receptionists. These dogs pretty much train themselves. They are the perfect dogs. They are so eager to please.



They just want to do everything right. But your driver or company CEO personality can squash these dogs. Um, so if you have a very dominant personality, I recommend you do not get a, um, a company receptionist type dog, an amiable dog, because you're going to squash this dog. Also, these dogs are very sensitive.



I've had a few, generally they're your golden retrievers. Um, your company salespeople are usually your labs, your company CEOs, uh, generally they can be in almost any breed, but they're very strong minded. So usually really strong Malinois, Rottweilers, uh, German shepherds, um, however, most German shepherds are your company accountants.



Your aimables is your, um, golden retrievers. And I've actually had a few who have gone in a depression when they've been rehomed. They are that sensitive. They feel things deeply. And when they, they lose their family, it's like they really, really, really struggle to cope. Now, these are generally the four personality types.



You can get multiple. Now, one thing that most people don't talk about when it comes to personality types is where you fit in a personality type quite often can change depending

Hey there, dog lover! Welcome to this episode of the Unconventional Dog Trainer. We hope you enjoy our battle tested, relationship based solutions for helping your unconventional dog shine, with your host, Luzelle Cockburn. Let's dive in.



How to tell if your dog is the correct weight and why is it even important? Right, I have a very easy way to tell if your dog's the correct weight but let's start with why is it even important. If you're here, you're, you probably feel like I do that our dogs don't live long enough as it is. And I would love for my dogs to live as long as possible and not just live a long life, but be as pain free as possible too.



Because I don't know about you, but I can be pretty grumpy and miserable if I'm in pain and our dogs do too. And many, uh, dogs. Behavior problems and grumpiness is actually due to pain. So if we can reduce the pain, then we're gonna have a happier, longer life with our dogs. And that is the ultimate one win, in my book anyway.



So, how do you tell if your dog is the correct weight? Right, there is a simple, easy way to tell and all you need is a hand. Right, so if your dog's rib area feels like the palm of your hand, then they're overweight. If your dog's rib area feels like your knuckles, then they're underweight. You see how the knuckles, um, there's quite a gap between the bones and the skin and it's, it's quite distinctive.



You definitely don't want that because that means your dog is too skinny. And they are actually starving. Now, when you look at the palm of your hand, you actually have to dig down to feel the bones in the palm of your hand. Um, and, um, as soon as you have to, uh, push through the skin to, to feel the bone, then your dog has got extra weight that they don't need to which can result in a shorter life down the track.



The ideal weight. For your dog to be is to feel like the back of your hand where you can easily feel the bones but it is not distinctive like the knuckles and you don't have to take down like if it was the palm of your hand so if you you should just run your finger along lightly and feel the rib bones Um, through the skin.



And so I never look at a dog's coat because many of our coated breeds like Huskies and Pomeranians, they, you, you won't know if they're over or underweight just by looking at them because they've got that thick coat. So always feel the dog's rib area to determine if your dog is the correct weight or not.



Now, there is something else, some other research that's come out that you may need to take note of and But remember every dog is different and every dog needs something different. However, that is never being overweight What um, you may want to consider is feeding your dog once a day. Dogs who are fed once a day has been shown to live longer than dogs that are fed twice or more a day.



Obviously puppies need to be fed. Um, the younger they are, the more meals they need. Five meals and then reduce to four, then reduce to three and then reduce to two. And eventually by the time they're a year old, you can reduce it to one meal a day. Um, that is ideal for dogs, um, because for us too, uh, fasting is a very effective way to, um, keep us healthy.



Another thing is to make sure that we don't overfeed our dogs or ourselves. To keep us healthy and happy for longer. Anyway, I hope you got something out of this short episode today and it helps you live a long, happy life with your amazing dog. Happy training. 



Thank you for listening to this episode of the Unconventional Dog Trainer. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe so you don't miss an episode, or share it with a friend to help us help more dogs enjoy long, happy lives in their homes. We also have more resources for you at thedogtraininglab. com.



Catch you in the next episode.





For more resources, check out https://www.thedogtraininglab.com/



If you'd like to see the videos, check out our YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@th

Hey there, dog lover! Welcome to this episode of the Unconventional Dog Trainer. We hope you enjoy our battle tested, relationship based solutions for helping your unconventional dog shine, with your host, Luzelle Cockburn. Let's dive in.



How to tell if your dog is the correct weight and why is it even important? Right, I have a very easy way to tell if your dog's the correct weight but let's start with why is it even important. If you're here, you're, you probably feel like I do that our dogs don't live long enough as it is. And I would love for my dogs to live as long as possible and not just live a long life, but be as pain free as possible too.



Because I don't know about you, but I can be pretty grumpy and miserable if I'm in pain and our dogs do too. And many, uh, dogs. Behavior problems and grumpiness is actually due to pain. So if we can reduce the pain, then we're gonna have a happier, longer life with our dogs. And that is the ultimate one win, in my book anyway.



So, how do you tell if your dog is the correct weight? Right, there is a simple, easy way to tell and all you need is a hand. Right, so if your dog's rib area feels like the palm of your hand, then they're overweight. If your dog's rib area feels like your knuckles, then they're underweight. You see how the knuckles, um, there's quite a gap between the bones and the skin and it's, it's quite distinctive.



You definitely don't want that because that means your dog is too skinny. And they are actually starving. Now, when you look at the palm of your hand, you actually have to dig down to feel the bones in the palm of your hand. Um, and, um, as soon as you have to, uh, push through the skin to, to feel the bone, then your dog has got extra weight that they don't need to which can result in a shorter life down the track.



The ideal weight. For your dog to be is to feel like the back of your hand where you can easily feel the bones but it is not distinctive like the knuckles and you don't have to take down like if it was the palm of your hand so if you you should just run your finger along lightly and feel the rib bones Um, through the skin.



And so I never look at a dog's coat because many of our coated breeds like Huskies and Pomeranians, they, you, you won't know if they're over or underweight just by looking at them because they've got that thick coat. So always feel the dog's rib area to determine if your dog is the correct weight or not.



Now, there is something else, some other research that's come out that you may need to take note of and But remember every dog is different and every dog needs something different. However, that is never being overweight What um, you may want to consider is feeding your dog once a day. Dogs who are fed once a day has been shown to live longer than dogs that are fed twice or more a day.



Obviously puppies need to be fed. Um, the younger they are, the more meals they need. Five meals and then reduce to four, then reduce to three and then reduce to two. And eventually by the time they're a year old, you can reduce it to one meal a day. Um, that is ideal for dogs, um, because for us too, uh, fasting is a very effective way to, um, keep us healthy.



Another thing is to make sure that we don't overfeed our dogs or ourselves. To keep us healthy and happy for longer. Anyway, I hope you got something out of this short episode today and it helps you live a long, happy life with your amazing dog. Happy training. 



Thank you for listening to this episode of the Unconventional Dog Trainer. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe so you don't miss an episode, or share it with a friend to help us help more dogs enjoy long, happy lives in their homes. We also have more resources for you at thedogtraininglab. com.



Catch you in the next episode.





For more resources, check out https://www.thedogtraininglab.com/



If you'd like to see the videos, check out our YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@th

Hey there, dog lover! Welcome to this episode of the Unconventional Dog Trainer. We hope you enjoy our battle tested, relationship based solutions for helping your unconventional dog shine, with your host, Luzelle Cockburn Let's dive in.



When it comes to helping difficult or challenging dogs, I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is you need to love your dog in order to be able to help them. The bad news is love is not enough. What do I mean by that? What do I mean by you need to love your dog? And what do I mean by love is not enough?



All right. So before we begin, the first thing I'm going to tell you is At no point am I telling you to put your life in danger in order to put up with your dog's dangerous behavior. However, what I am saying is when you love your dog enough in order to



Try and overcome their difficult behaviors. That's where you grow as a person. That's where you grow as a trainer and that's where you'll get the results Now love is not enough because love alone can't change a dog But what love can do is love has power. Love has the power to motivate you in order to realize what you're doing currently isn't working and you need to change what you're doing.



Yes, change is difficult and until I could change what I was prepared to do, I could not help my dogs. I could not see results. I was never going to see results because I wasn't prepared to change. So, um, story time. My very first puppy was a German Shepherd called Kaz. And so she was an introvert and a future episode.



I'll tell you all about extrovert and introverted and extroverted dogs. But for the purposes of the story, you need to understand she's an introvert. So she didn't like a lot of things. She wasn't social. Her idea of the a good time was lying by your feet and playing with you. However. Not one time in those interactions did that, uh, involve hugs.



Did that involve playing with other dogs? Unless she was friends with them. That didn't involve, um, getting patted. It did not involve giving up her toy. Those things were not things she enjoyed doing. However, we could overcome many of those things if Well, if I changed what I was doing and if I was prepared to learn how to help an introverted dog, which took me a long time, it was really Kaz who motivated me to change, you see, because when I first got Kaz, I had a temper problem.



I was no good as a dog trainer or even a dog owner. I had no idea what I was doing. I'd got this puppy. I was a mental mess anyway. I'd gone through a crappy time at work and so I got this puppy and yeah, uh, proceeded to screw her up. However, one thing I did do was loving this little puppy and realizing that this puppy is not to blame for the way she turns out.



What's happening with this little puppy is My responsibility. Now you can't grow. If you have fingers pointing at the dog, because the problem with pointing a finger at the dog is that three are pointing back at you. The more you say, yeah, but my dog, the more I hear, I am not prepared to change, to help my dog.



Now I'm only telling you this because this is what I needed to see for myself in order to be able to help my dogs. Now, here's the other things that you need to, uh, that, well, where love can help you. So, love can motivate you to get help. Now, I tried getting help with Kaz, um, with her reactivity, but I was told things like, Oh, tell your dog to sit and correct her when she doesn't sit.



You don't correct her for reacting, but you correct her for not sitting. The problem was She was so freaked out by how close these other dogs were, she was uncomfortable, she didn't even, she wasn't even, she didn't even feel safe. So, that sort of feedback was not helpful for poor Kaz. These were professional trainers giving me this advice.



So, really, the problem is, Kaz was really the motivator for me to learn how to be a better dog. Trainer. Kaz is the reason I can help reactive dogs because Kaz is the reason I had

Hey there, dog lover! Welcome to this episode of the Unconventional Dog Trainer. We hope you enjoy our battle tested, relationship based solutions for helping your unconventional dog shine, with your host, Luzelle Cockburn. Let's dive in.



What can you do to help your reactive dog? Hi, I'm Luzelle, the unconventional dog trainer. And in today's episode, we are going to talk about the three strategies I use with every reactive dog to help them. But before we get started, remember, my philosophy is every dog is different. And I cannot tell you how many dogs I screwed up because I tried to prevent issues or fix.



Issues that I thought would come up from one dog based on what I learned and had to fix 10 times from my previous dog. It wasn't until I actually learned to just take time out. See what the dog in front of me is giving me and then responding accordingly that I stopped creating issues for myself now How can you do that?



You can head on over to thedogtraininglab. com and you can grab our free resource How to become your dog's best friend. That is What I use mentally, it's my mental checklist that I've written down for you that I go through with every dog I work with so I've shared it with you so you can get to know your dog a whole lot better and just by following the getting to know Their dog's better.



A lot of owners have seen huge changes in their dog's behavior. All right, so without further ado, let's get started. So the first thing I implement with a dog is a stress detox. Why a stress detox? And I will cover what it is and exactly how to do it in a future episode. Now, I do a stress detox because I want the dog and owner to start from a relaxed point, especially a reactive dog, because usually the dog owner, if there's a reactive team going through the spiral of despair, I understand the spiral of despair, because I have been there, my friend.



It is when. You take your dog out for a walk, nothing, you've not had an incident before, or even if you've had, even if, or even if it's the first walk, you take your dog out, and then they have a big emotion and a big blow up, and so they react. That gives you a fright, not only that you're shocked and surprised and you have feelings of, Maybe shame, maybe embarrassment, maybe confusion.



And it all comes down to, you don't know what to do with this information your dog's giving you. Because it could be at something totally innocent like a child. Now, what do you do? Problem is, we don't know what to do. So, we have all these feelings of stress and fear come through us. And of course, that releases.



The hormones that our dogs can smell. And once our dogs smell the fear hormones coming through our body, that they caused, don't get me wrong, they, they caused it, but of course, they're your dog. How could they cause you stress? In their mind, they do not connect. The two that it was them that caused you those feelings to them.



They just now all of a sudden smell all those fear, um, pheromones and smells and scents. And now all of a sudden they're thinking, Oh, I must have been right. And that person or dog or whoever or whatever it was must be scary. So I was right. And so the circle of the cycle of despair starts because next time you go out.



You are going to start from a more stressed state of mind because the dog reacted and so it just continues. And then your dog reacts and then it's, Oh yes, I was right because now my owners lost it. And then you start panicking before you even start taking your dog out. And this is the problem with most reactive dogs and owners.



And I can tell you this because it's. I have been there. This is how I know. Um, so, this is why I do a stress detox. For a period of time, depending on the dog and the owner, stay home. Do things at home. Learn the part two, which is the skills. While you just completely stop walks, because no good is going to come from continuing in that stressed state.



When are you most likely

Hey there, dog lover! Welcome to this episode of the Unconventional Dog Trainer. We hope you enjoy our battle tested, relationship based solutions for helping your unconventional dog shine, with your host, Luzelle Cockburn. Let's dive in.



The most common challenge dog owners have are with barking dogs. So what can you do about it? Alright, so first things first. Let's get you sort of in the mindset to understand your dog a little bit. Say you see an advertisement for a piece of jewelry. The more you look at it, do you want it more or do you want it less?



Of course you want it more. So the same with our dogs. The more they are looking outside our homes for things to bark at, the more they're gonna bark at them. We also have to keep in mind that dogs were bred to be our security systems before such a thing existed. So our Dogs were selected to bark. Um, that's what their job was.



If they didn't alert us to intruders, well then they were a useless dog. Um, uh, back in the day, people probably didn't feed these dogs and they didn't breed from these dogs because these dogs, uh, weren't going to keep them safe. And most people, um, had dogs for safety, to alert them to an intruder or a problem.



Now if you allow your dog to look out the window, look through the fence, well then they're going to look for intruders. If you don't want that, you need to block their view. Um, I had a client, a dog, the dog was called Doug, and Doug moved from a rural property into town. Lovely boy, one of the most amazing dogs I've ever met.



Uh, he was such a sweetie. Anyway, what was happening was, there was a little gap in the fence that he could see through, and he was barking at everyone walking by. And of course First thing I said is why is Doug barking? What's he barking at? Where can he see through the fence that he needs to bark at?



Block that view and when they did, his barking stopped. It can be that simple. So if your dog is sitting on the couch looking out the window, well, then you need to stop that. You need to shut the door so that they can't see out the window. You need to baby gate off the area, put something in the front, maybe frosting if the, if they're sitting at the bottom.



If you've got a full length window, maybe frost it or put something in the front so your dog can't see through. Um, Or even close the curtains. Yes, some of these measures are a little bit drastic, but you either have the conversation with your dog, and if you want to learn how to do that, I teach that in Hush the Bark at the dog training lab.



And if you don't want to constantly train your dog and help your dog, well then, you need to manage it. So, there are only two ways to deal with things. Train it, manage it. So the easiest thing to do is block off your dog's view. That has instantly stopped so many dogs from barking issues, it's not even funny.



So if you have a dog with a barking problem and it's because they're staring out the front yard, move them to the backyard. If it's because they are looking out the window, well then they are no longer allowed to look out the window. If you need to close the door to that room, um, shut the curtain, use a baby gate to block off that area where they can see, put something in front of that area.



Whatever you need to do, you need to do. Otherwise, you need to learn to have a conversation with your dog about how to stop barking. And that's what I teach you in Hush the Bark. So my dogs stop barking on thank you. Thank you is the cue I say, and then my dogs Uh, reduce their barking. You might get a few woofs still, if your dog is thinking there is a problem for them to deal with.



Um, but for most of the dogs, um, they generally go, okay, that's my cue. I'll stop now. And so, there is how I handle it. Um, I hope this has helped you, and I hope this has solved your Barking problem. If your dog is barking when you're not home, well, then you can't really address it. You're going to need somet