How To Train Your Dog With Love + Science - Dog Training with Annie Grossman + Anamarie Johnson PhD (Formerly known as School For The Dogs Podcast)

This is a bonus episode in which Annie reads aloud the preface to Walden Two , BF Skinner's 1948 novel about a utopian community that he imagines could be closely engineered based on what we know about behavioral science, and cooperatively governed based on principles rooted in positive reinforcement. The book was called "fascism without tears" when it was published and also compared to a plan for...

When David Adams' girlfriend traveled with her dog, she had an issue: The dog only liked to pee in yards. Adams, who had previously build a site for people looking for short-term apartment rentals, had an idea: What if there where people could rent... yards? So, he built SniffSpot.com , which allows people to rent out their fenced-in outdoor spaces to dogs, hourly. Annie and David discuss how this...

This is a bonus episode: A recording of a live Q and A. Join Annie Grossman for a live Q and A most Thursdays on Instagram @schoolforthedogs . Get alerted about the next one or ask a question in advance at http://schoolforthedogs.com/qanda . She also sometimes goes live to answer questions on Clubhouse. Find her there: @anniegrossman. Here, Annie talks to an SFTD client who has a young rescue dog...

Professor John B. Watson's 1913 essay argues that psychology should be studied from a behavioral perspective, echoes some of the same conversations that are had today between dog trainers who are approach dog training as a science and those who approach dog training by making assumptions about dogs' internal feelings and motivations.  Read "Psychology As The Behaviorist Views it" in full at http:/...

Is all punishment necessarily bad? Nope! There are two kinds of punishment, and one of them is actually frequently used by so called "positive reinforcement" trainers like Annie: Negative Punishment. Here Annie breaks down what Negative Punishment is, talks about how it interplays with positive reinforcement, and explains its role in the "Elevator Game," which is a great exercise you can to do at...

This is a bonus episode: A recording of a live Q and A. Join Annie Grossman for a live Q and A most Thursdays on Instagram @schoolforthedogs . Get alerted about the next one or ask a question in advance at http://schoolforthedogs.com/qanda . She also sometimes goes live to answer questions on Clubhouse. Find her there: @anniegrossman.  Here, Annie answers three questions:  @gussiethehussie asks: "...

We're posting this as a bonus episode because it isn't really about dog training... but it's something we think you will want to listen to if you love dogs and empathize with people who love them.  If you've heard the podcast Dirty John, or seen the dramatization on TV, also called Dirty John, you'll know that it's a story that is... complicated. The hero of the real-life true-crime story is Terra...

When Adam Davis came to work at School For The Dogs in late 2019, he was only in his mid-twenties but already had a decade of working with dogs professionally under his belt. In particular, his background involved a lot of hours spent helping city dogs learn to co-exist, and play, off leash. Today, he runs School For The Dogs' unique School Yard program-- a by-appointment, trainer-supervised membe...

Anna Heyward is a writer and a School For The Dogs apprentice who has been featured on this podcast. She joined Annie and others to discuss her heartbreaking new article in The New Yorker , "Bad Dog," on Clubhouse. Their discussion touched on the complicated world of behavioral euthanasia, the cultural fog about dog training and the rampant misinformation about it, and more. Former School For The...

After attending two webinars where people extolled the virtues of positive reinforcement, Annie was left wondering why the term seems to be so misunderstood-- or maybe she is the one misunderstanding it? While she tries to train using positive reinforcement and she believes the world would be a nicer place if people were able to identify positive reinforcement and use it more effectively, she does...

Our trainer Maddie Messina, who started out with us as a walker two years ago, is getting a master's at Hunter's Animal Behavior and Conservation, where she is studying canine cognition. She and Annie discuss her early interest in veterinary medicine, the opportunity she had to work with primates as an undergraduate at Bucknell University, her current focus on working with puppies, and doing it al...

Annie has a toddler, a husband who is a busy guy, and a toddler. It's freezing outside, the dog hates the cold weather, and Annie's mobility isn't great at the moment: She's pregnant and lives in a walkup. All this resulted in a her family's inability to get the puppy, Poppy, on the six or so walks a day that she, as a dog trainer, knows would be needed to teach her to go outside on the city stree...

This is a bonus episode: A recording of a live Q and A. Join Annie Grossman for a live Q and A on Instagram most Thursdays. Sign up for the next one, and/or submit a question in advance, at http://schoolforthedogs.com/qanda . Discussed in this episode:  -How do you get a dog to eliminate more than once a day?  -My dog likes dogs on TV but not in real life  -What do I do if my dog just wants to bar...

Dogs love bully sticks, and the weird world of dried bull penises (which is what they're made of) has become a bit of an obsession of Annie's. In this episode, she interviews someone else who is obsessed with them: Vaso Karras, the inventor of the Bully Grip. When dogs swallow small pieces of bully sticks, they can cause potentially-fatal intestinal blockages. Karras' puck-like rubber device is de...

Anna Ostroff is a Tony-award winning theater producer and the head of a non-profit that brings arts education into New York public schools. Somehow, she also manages to work fulltime at School For The Dogs, where she trains dogs with behavior issues, manages (and teaches) group classes, and generally keeps everyone smiling with her sunny disposition and "can do" attitude. Here, she and Annie discu...

This is a bonus episode: A recording of a live Q and A. Join Annie Grossman for a live Q and A on Instagram most Thursdays. Sign up for the next one, and/or submit a question in advance, at http://schoolforthedogs.com/qanda . Here Annie addresses questions about socializing dogs during quarantine, using wee wee pads if the goal is to teach a dog to only go outside, getting a dog to like a crate ag...

This is a bonus episode: A recording of a live Q and A. Join Annie Grossman for a live Q and A most Thursdays. Sign up for the next one at http://schoolforthedogs.com/qanda . Here, Annie answers two questions, and offers a similar suggestion to help deal with both issues: Train a dog to go in a bag!  K9 Sport Sack Dog backpacks: https://storeforthedogs.com/collections/backpacks Boat and Tote: http...

A decade ago, Annie and Kate set out to become dog trainers.  They ended up with a dog training business. They both knew a lot more about dog training than they did about business management, so they attempted to use what they knew about animal behavior to manage the company... In this episode Annie talks about four business lessons she's learned that stem from what she knows about dog training. S...

Em Beauprey came to School For The Dogs in 2017 when he was working as a vet tech and running his own dog walking business. He started out as an apprentice, and went on to build SFTD's walking program from scratch, and to helm our professional program. These days, when he isn't putting the finishing touches on Born To Behave, our forthcoming free and open-source course for aspiring professional do...

This is a bonus episode: A recording of a live Q and A. Join Annie Grossman for a live Q and A most Thursdays. Sign up for the next one at http://schoolforthedogs.com/qanda or join in the School For The Dogs app at http://schoolforthedogs.com/community In this episode, Annie discusses why she loves using viscous treats with dogs, and reviews some of her favorite types of lickable treats.  All of t...

Two months after losing her 15.5-year-old Yorkiepoo bestfriend, Annie and her family welcomed a new puppy into their home. In this episode, she talks about the experience of falling in love with rescue dogs on the Internet, conversing with breeders charging top dollar, and, finally, landing the perfect puppy for her family.  Go to School For The Dogs' Instagram to see a picture of Annie's new pupp...

This is a bonus episode: A recording of a live Q and A. Join Annie Grossman for a live Q and A most Thursdays. Sign up for the next one at http://schoolforthedogs.com/qanda or join in the School For The Dogs app at http://schoolforthedogs.com/community Have a question? Visit AnnieGrossman.com/ask or upload a recording at anchor.fm/dogs . In this episode, Annie answers questions from:  -A bilingual...

Meet Claire Cario, School For The Dogs’ Private Training Manager. Annie interviews Claire about her journey into the world of dog training, which began with a childhood love of nature shows and eventually led to an array of interesting jobs working with dogs, from training dogs to herd geese in Prospect Park, to working with therapy dog teams at The Good Dog Foundation to evaluating dogs in New Yo...

This is a bonus episode: A recording of a live Q and A.  Join Annie Grossman for a live Q and A most Thursdays. Sign up for the next one at http://schoolforthedogs.com/qanda or join in the School For The Dogs app at http://schoolforthedogs.com/community Have a question? Visit AnnieGrossman.com/ask or upload a recording at anchor.fm/dogs . In this episode, Annie talks about humping: Why dogs do it,...

At School For The Dogs, we are very picky about products we recommend:  We try to guide our clients towards products that we feel really work well and are made by US-based, sustainability-minded small businesses. North Carolina-based business 2 Hounds Designs ticks all the boxes. In particular, we are big fans of their Freedom Harness. It is one of only two harnesses that we sell in our Manhattan...