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

Dogs love to chew on bully sticks. We sell loads of them every day at School For The Dogs, and, very often, people ask what they are. The answer? They're penises! This answer makes some people giggle, some gag and then there are those, like Annie, who are just left with more questions. In this episode, Annie interviews Greg Claypool, a second-generation bully stick fabricator, about the origins of...

Warning: This episode meanders a bit! Annie's Facebook friend made the difficult decision to rehome her rescue dog, and Annie considers what it means to decide that a different family might be a better fit for anyone you love, be it human or dog, temporarily or forever. What if all forms of parenting were truly voluntary? Is it a dog's fault if behavior problems are exacerbated by an environment t...

At School For The Dogs, we've been lucky enough to be able to mentor a handful of aspiring dog trainers through our apprenticeship program. One of our current apprentices, Anna Heyward, first came to us as a client. Anna, a writer who is originally from Australia, has fostered dogs in NYC for years; last year, she took in a dog whose separation anxiety was beyond anything she'd ever seen. She came...

What does it mean to be a holistic dog trainer? To Annie, it means addressing issues using what we know about the science of behavior as it applies to both  dogs and humans, and looking at the whole picture of a dog's life in order to address issues. One alternative approach involves narrowly focusing on getting rid of a problem using punishment, which can produce new unwanted behaviors which are...

This episode is a second conversation with Cherrie Mahon, with whom Annie spoke last year (Episode 45: Let's talk about dog breeding with Cherrie Mahon). During quarantine Cherrie, like many breeders, has been inundated with applications. She and Annie discuss how breeders are dealing with the deluge, and think about what this boom might mean in the future for both puppy mills and shelters. Annie...

Last week, Annie looked a bit at the career of Dr. Stanley Coren, a writer who recently penned a Psychology Today article suggesting that one way to silence a barking dog is to clamp down on the dog's nose with your hand, like a mother wolf might do to try to silence a wolf pup. Ethologist Dr. Marc Bekoff, who is a columnist for Psychology Today, penned a response saying that we need to consider t...

Looking for misguided information about dog training? Look no further than Psychology Today, which is publishing new articles that are offering outdated and possibly dangerous information. In this episode, Annie surveys the work of Dr. Stanley Coren, who recently suggested to the publication's readers that they should mimic wolves and clamp down on a dog's muzzle to stop barking. She reads from so...

We are obsessed with work-to-eat toys at School For The Dogs! Snuffle mats are one type of work-to-eat toy we recommend all the time. Made of fabric, they’re great for hiding dry food or treats. They pack well, are easy to wash, and you can even make them yourself. Annie talks about some of the ones sold at storeforthedogs.com and gives instructions on how to make your own. Products mentioned in t...

It's a golden moment for those wanting to eat outdoors with their dogs. Just think: There's so much outdoor dining! And people are keeping their distance from each other! And tables are spaced at a nice distance from each other! Annie gives some tips about how you can help train your dog to be the perfect outdoor-dining companion. Also: Learn what 1950s superstar very nearly became the real Lassie...

A listener who is studying for the MCAT exam wrote in to ask if there were any dog training scenarios that could help illustrate some of the terms she needed to know for the psychology section of the exam. Annie, who has learned most of what she knows about dog training from working with dogs rather than from studying terms or taking exams, does her best to help make some "science-y" concepts more...

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...

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 charg...

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...

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...

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 i...

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...

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...

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 reinfor...

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 discusse...

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/k6v60c95ir6t6nf1 More on C...

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...

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 acco...

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...

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...

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 p...