Raising the Perfect Dog; The Secrets of Law Enforcement K9 Trainers Read Online Free

your dog for being afraid. If he hears a loud noise and comes running to you, do not acknowledge him, do not look at him, touch him, pet him, or talk to him. Again, if he sees it does not get a response from you and you do not make a big deal out of it, he will not make a big deal out of it, either.
    What if I expose my dog to an object that he is afraid of? Same thing—flooding. Flood him with that object in a positive manner. For some odd reason, we get a lot of dogs that are afraid of the pop a trashcan liner makes when the owner shakes it out to open it. I recommend the same process as we do with noises. Put the dog on a leash, hold him, and just keep popping the trashcan liner over and over. Soon enough, he will not even acknowledge it. Also, if he is afraid of the liner itself, put the liner on your hand and pet him with it. Again, he will soon realize that it is not that bad, it is not hurting him, and he is getting praised.
    Often, if you bring a new object into the house, the puppy will run from it, bark at it, etc. Use the same concepts as above—put him on a leash, pull him over to the object, and make him deal with it. Generally, this process will last about 10 minutes or less, and then he will no longer pay attention to the object because he has now faced his fears.
    Another important step for confidence-building in a puppy is get him on as many objects, surfaces, textures, and elevations as possible. There are many dogs we train that are afraid to get up on new objects. This is a direct result of underexposure to new objects at a young age. In order to prevent this, put your puppy on as many different things as possible. Set him on chairs, picnic tables, grass, asphalt, dog beds, staircases, wood, concrete, Tupperware containers, tree stumps, park benches, and anything else you can find. The key is (on the lower objects) to put him on there, praise him while he is up there, and then make him get off the object by himself. Again, you are taking away that unrealistic fear by teaching him, “I got up here and was praised. I got off on my own and I’m fine.” We put dogs in completely unrealistic situations such as a baby pool filled with empty water bottles. We create situations they are very unlikely to encounter in a real-world situation. Why do it if they would never have to go into a baby pool filled with water bottles? Simple, if they get used to being in absurd surfaces and environments, then realistic things are no problem whatsoever and they do not even think twice about getting on those surfaces.
    One of the most important steps to raising a confident dog is to play tug with your dog. People do not realize how important this step is in confidence-building. It does not help that there is so much misinformation out there on this subject that people really do not know what to think. In order to get our protection dog very tug-driven, meaning they go crazy when they see the tug and will do anything for it is by limiting their exposure to it. In the Secret Service, our dogs were working for a ball. As soon as the handlers pull that ball out, the dogs go crazy for it by spinning, barking, etc. So, many people would ask, “How do I get my dog that motivated for a ball?” First off, it goes back to breeding and genetics, some dogs from day one just have no interest in tugging or chasing a ball. That is why it is important to know what type of puppy you are getting and who you are getting it from to ensure that the puppy will be able to meet the expectations you have for it.
    In order to make your pup highly motivated for a ball, tug, or toy, it is essential that he does not have full access to it. Meaning, he should have only very limited access to that specific toy. If he has access to the ball or tug all throughout the day, he will never be highly motivated for it. Again, a toy to dogs is like money is to you: If you had unlimited access to money, you wouldn’t be very motivated to go to work because