1735 Steve Harper Interviews Jeff McJunkin CCDT Owner/Operator Dare2Bond Dog Training LLC

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I have learned so much from him in the times that we've gotten together.

And this is all about behavior modification, training, your dog.

Today we're going to focus on something called recall.

We touched upon that previously.

We're going to go into a lot more depth on that as well today.

With the owner at Dare to Bond dog training.

And it's so great to have him back with us.

Jeff McJunkin is on the program. How are you doing?

Oh, great. Great.

Good to be here.

Yeah. Good to have you back.

And the recall thing, if I remember correctly,

came up when we were talking about the extreme situation where your dog bolts takes off

and could be a challenging situation, maybe with traffic and such.

And the recall is getting your dog to come back immediately.

But there's more to the word recall than just that, right?

Yeah. What we don't know about then was emergency recall.

So it's something you don't use all the time.

A word that you don't use all the time to get your dog to come back to you.

That way they don't get, they don't become background noise.

And they'll respond to it every time.

But what I wanted to talk about today was just your standard recall.

Your standard recall.

So like after you say your dog's name and get their attention,

then you get them to just come to you like in the house or wherever you're at

or in the beds office, things like that out the park,

or on nature high, things like that.

Okay. So it's not a emergency situation.

But you need your dog to come back.

Let's say they're off leash and they kind of went in a different direction.

You know what? Can you give us, Jeff, some examples of the non-emergency recall?

Yeah. Well, being off leash, I wouldn't do that until the dog has a solid recall.

Because your dog will just take off.

They're not going to respond when you call them.

So you want to make sure and have a solid recall installed first.

And to begin that, first you want your dog to respond to their name.

You want them to look at you when you say their name.

Their name doesn't mean come to you. It just means hey, I'm talking to you.

You know, so like German Shepherd Dexter,

to get him to respond, I just started by when I would say his name,

if his ears parked, if he looked to me, three,

or praise whatever the reward is for the dog, whatever motivates them.

And once they get to where they know their name really, really well,

this works best as puppies, then you want them to come to you.

So you say their name and then come and pat your legs,

do all that stuff to make them excited to come to you

and reward it with the praise, attention, the treat, whatever.

And you just start increasing that distance.

But at the first, you want every time they come to you,

you want it to be the greatest thing in the world.

You should be better than anything they're going to find out there

that they can get into.

You should offer more.

And some people have a problem when you get to about 100 or 10 feet away

that the dog doesn't want to come back.

And that's when you will use what's called a training lead.

And that's just, that's basically a leash,

but it's really long.

They're 15, 30, some are even 50 or 100 feet long.

I like the 30 foot.

They give the good distance.

And you can really train that recall in in your backyard,

you know, without going out in public first.

So you leash them and you start with small distances,

three, four, five feet, get them to come back to you

and just start slowly increasing that distance

as time goes as they get better at it.

And what you end up with is a dog that will respond

when you say their name and ask them to come to you.

They'll actually come to you.

They'll be excited to see you work side in the night

or whatever it is that's distracting them.

So I'm trying to get that visual for that,

that leash that could be 15, 30 feet.

Initially we start with just a little bit,

five feet, six feet and such.

How do you get 30 feet of line out?

Are we talking just go to an open field?

Are we, you know, I'm picturing, you know,

if there's any woods and things like that, trees,

like, ah, that's going to be a problem.

Well, those training lead, they are,

they don't get hung on stuff really bad.

They're a flat, usually black, leash, you know.

And you roll it up in your hand like you would have wrote

for a lasso however you want to picture it.

But you just roll it up in your hand

and you let out as much as you need to do the training

that you're doing to the distance that you need.

And as far as we get wrapped around in trees

and stuff like that, I wouldn't suggest doing this

in the woods with the training lead,

but more of a field like usually a backyard is really good.

And you can even do it in a room in your house

before you go into your backyard, you know.

Wow.

At what, okay, let's say we've,

well let me rewind that.

How do you know you're good to go with off leash

or taking that longer training lead someplace else?

You know in a public area?

Well out in the public area like in a dog park,

something like that.

Sure.

There's still contain.

When your dog responds at home and on your walks,

so like even when you're walking them on just a standard six

bit lead and you say their name and call them,

they stop with doing and come back to you.

But in your yard, once they get to about 15 feet,

if all you're going to be doing is going to dog parks,

about 15 to 20 feet, then I would feel comfortable

letting them out in a fenced area.

Now when you're wanting to go completely off leash

like say on a nature hunt,

that's, that's depends on the dog.

If you have a dog who just looks coming to you every time

you call them, then you're probably good to go.

But if your dog is even sometimes hesitant,

then I would actually recommend an e-caller without the crumb.

The goal is to shock them.

You want the tone feature and the vibration.

And that's to get their attention,

because most of the time when a dog is ignoring

the morgans,

and this is neat.

They actually did a study a couple of years ago

where they put him or I had some dogs

and they wanted to find out why they seemed to ignore us

when they hear their name.

And it turns out when they're what I call lost incense,

so like they're trailing something or they found something

on the ground and they really have their attention

and they're sniffing it.

The part of their brain that controls the ears

literally physically turns off like a light switch.

They're not even on.

They're everything that's focused on that scent.

All the brain power is going into that.

And so they're not ignoring you.

They just literally cannot hear you.

And that's where that buzz,

the vibration on the e-caller comes in handy.

So if you're going on nature hikes,

you're that's much more likely to happen in that situation.

And you want that vibration,

because that overrides,

that kicks you back into,

oh, what was that?

And they look around and they're here,

it's coming back on,

and they can hear you again.

So this is not to say that you don't instill

the emergency word for the recall in there too.

I would think maybe you need to do that

before you do anything.

Well, yeah.

If you're going to be in a situation,

if you like taking your dog out to your car

without being on leash,

which I don't recommend,

but everyone's different.

Everyone does what they want to do.

If you're going to do things like that,

then I would definitely have that emergency recall again,

because if they see a cat,

a squirrel,

if they're prone to chase cars,

or if they see someone they like across the street,

and they want to go say,

hi, your dog's life is in danger.

So yeah, you want that emergency recall installed.

If that's the kind of situation

you're going to go into.

We talked about that briefly.

Can we go over that again?

Because it sounds very important.

And if I do remember correctly,

when you had mentioned it,

we're also talking about a premium treat

in that situation too, right?

Yes, the jackpot reward.

Jackpot reward.

If you remember,

I mentioned not giving them all of it at once,

like you would give them their meal in a bowl,

but preventing them to jackpot,

and giving it to them one at a time.

So like 15, 20, 30 treats,

depending on the size of the dog,

and one at a time.

Otherwise, they'll look at it,

no, I got this one big treat.

Or I got 15, 20, 30 treats for doing this recall.

And you start that with the same concept

when the dog first their head up towards you,

their ears toward you,

in the same room,

then you give them the reward.

And then a few days later,

you see that word,

that magic word again,

that you only use for this,

and do it from a different run.

And see if they move their head

or if they come towards you,

that's all you want.

Just, okay, yeah, reward.

And repeat this randomly,

just a couple of times a week,

not very often,

for about a month.

And at the end of that month,

you should be able to

from anywhere in your house,

say that word,

and your dog will come

from wherever they're at,

right straight to you,

wanting that big reward.

And then expand that out

to your backyard,

and then into your neighborhood,

and then out to the world.

As the same thing,

it's ready to take on the road.

Should you always have

those premium treats with you

in just in case?

At first, when you're doing any training,

yeah, you always want to be prepared

with your treats.

So you have your treat pouch.

I like to keep mine behind my back,

where the dogs can't see me.

They just know my hands disappeared,

and I come back,

and they don't know which hand the treat could be,

and I keep them guessing.

That way they don't know,

like if you have it on your side,

every time you reach that bag,

they're going to go into,

ooh, I'm going to get a treat,

so they'll do whatever you ask.

Right.

Then, yeah.

And that can be problematic, too,

because you reach in your pocket

to get your keys,

and they, oh,

treats come in my way,

no, I just have keys for you.

Yes.

Yes.

And it also helps you

to use the silicon ziplock bags,

the silicon ziplock bags,

instead of the standard ziplock bags,

because the ziplock bags,

they rattle,

and the dogs learn that noise,

kind of like a cat knows a cat opener.

Yeah.

Or they hear that food rattle in the kit,

and the bowling stuff,

you know,

and they come running for that,

the sun concept,

with the ziplock bag,

if they hear it rattling,

they know, oh, treats,

and then they'll do it.

They'll behave better.

You know,

you're what we get in a true response from them.

So, but the silicon bags,

silicon bags,

do not make that noise.

They don't make that racket,

so there's no giveaway.

What else can you tell us, Jeff,

about the recall?

Uh, recall is,

man,

besides,

it's probably more important than sit,

and it's something that you have to constantly use with your dog.

You want them to always respond to it.

Um,

it's, it's for safety,

it's for just general behavior.

It's,

it's,

it's,

training a dog is,

recall,

then,

then hand target

is mountain order operation.

So that's the first thing that I think too.

Um,

because they're just,

they're so important there,

they're my hands,

my far hands down,

the most useful things you can do to your dogs.

Now, when we talk about treats,

the average recall,

not the emergency one,

just, you know,

the,

the basic one,

what level of treat

should be used for that?

Um,

just your,

your regular training treat,

I would use the super treat,

not after it's installed.

Once it's installed,

just anything will work.

What,

as long as the dog enjoys it,

you know,

yeah.

Um,

cheer,

I mean, Cheerios,

those are great.

Those are now some cheap,

you know,

I never,

you know,

cheap,

I mean,

to the dog's mind,

they're cheap.

I never even considered Cheerios.

I've never did,

because I'm,

you know,

well,

it's got to be a treat they like.

Maybe there's got to be some meat in it,

blah, blah.

Um,

I'm not,

I'm not talking about the expense involved,

but like when you have dog treats in your pocket,

you know,

get smelly,

and you know,

just,

I never even thought of Cheerios.

Like,

simple, quick,

lightweight,

you can have it anywhere.

Like,

amazing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They're,

they're whole grain and everything,

and there's not sugars and stuff in them.

They're healthy.

Sure.

You know,

and they're crunchy,

the dogs like the crunchy.

Yeah.

And,

and you've got something

to throw it there.

Um,

fabulous.

Like that's,

uh,

never,

never in a million years,

when I think of a Cheerio.

That's a great.

And, um,

yeah, the Cheerios are great.

And also,

if you're out and about with your dog,

and you need to snack,

you can also eat them.

Yeah.

Then there's that.

And you'll get some funny looks from people too.

I love that when

people are watching what,

what you're doing,

and you're throwing treats to your dog,

and then you reach into the bag,

and you eat one or two.

Right.

They'll look on their places,

priceless.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I have some questions.

Can we, uh,

should we get to those now?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Instant feedback.

See the Gmail.com.

You can always reach us there.

Melanie in Newark,

New Jersey checks in.

She says,

I'm looking to train my dog,

and I have two questions.

Can you train using video?

And how many sessions

for a two-year-old dog

is average?

Well,

it depends on what you're training,

and how well you are

with doing the homework.

Um, if you're really good at doing your homework,

you're 15 minutes a day,

then a week.

So like, let's say that,

um, we spend an hour video session on Zoom,

teaching your dog to, uh,

go to place.

Okay.

They already know how to sit.

They already know how to down.

Now we're going to teach them to go to this spot,

and sit, and down.

Um, so we spend an hour,

me working with you over Zoom,

to teach them to do that.

And I use one of my dogs as an example

to walk you through it,

and you get it down then,

and then if you spend the 15 minutes a day,

working on that like actual training,

and then on top of that,

just randomly through the days,

using it just in daily life,

then roughly a week,

a week.

Most dogs,

you can install a new behavior

into a dog,

even a two-year-old,

even a five-year-old.

Um, in about a week.

As long as you know what motivates that dog,

and you're consistent

and patient with the training.

When you say,

what motivates,

are we back to treats again?

Uh, it could be treats,

it could be the toy,

like you had mentioned the K-9 unit you spoke with,

that they win their dogs off of the treats,

and on to the rubber ball on a rope.

So that's the reward,

that's the treat to that dog.

Yeah.

And some dogs can be praised,

like mine,

they respond to treats,

praise, you know,

play, toys,

they respond to everything,

because I make everything exciting to them.

And ultimately,

would you say it's,

you want to get to that point,

where you can be,

you can give praise,

and they're happy with it.

They're good with it.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah, you can see it in your dog's eyes,

um, that.

So if I give them a treat,

they're wide-eyed,

you can see the smile beginning

on the corners of your mouth,

but I get the same response,

if I don't have any treats with me,

and I call them to me

and ask them to sit,

or down, or whatever,

and they do it,

and then I rub their face

and I love all of them,

and I get my hug and stuff.

Yeah.

I get the same wide-eyed,

grand, and everything.

Yeah.

Because you make it exciting.

If you make it exciting,

that's what they want.

They want the attention from you.

It's not just the treat.

It's the attention.

It's the praise.

It's that eye contact

and everything from you.

That's got to be a great feeling.

Jeff, when you get to that point,

where your dog looks at you,

with happiness, admiration,

you know,

it's not all about paying them off.

Yeah.

To do something.

No, what happens is,

as you're training your dog,

that's why I named my company,

Dare to Bond,

because as you work with your dog,

that bond increases,

just like with a child,

when you're teaching your children,

and you're spending time

with them quality time,

and you're having fun

and you're doing things.

That bond gets stronger.

The same thing happens with your dog.

So as you train,

you're working with them.

That is quality time.

They're having fun,

even though they're learning,

you know, they're still having fun.

And that increases that bond,

and the stronger that got bond gets,

the happier they are with you.

More than anyone else,

or anything else out in the world,

they want to be with you.

There's even a recourse that shows

your nervous systems start to sink.

And so that's why they want to be near you,

because you're in sync.

It's real.

They're really amazing animals.

We just place a new trail right there.

I believe never even considered that.

That you become in sync with your nervous system.

And I guess I'm going to think

even maybe your energy level too.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

My dogs, they are.

So I have asked burgers.

So when I very first started working with dogs,

I noticed that my energy,

my nervousness and stuff,

was transferring to them.

And no trainer I went to back then

had told me anything about this.

I had to learn it on my own.

I discovered that if I controlled my own emotions

in my own state of being,

that the dog became calmer in my presence.

So they definitely pick it up.

I don't know if they feel it from you.

I think it's more of a pheromone thing,

like they like we produce different chemicals

as our energy changes for lack of a better word.

And they pick up on that through scent.

Because don't forget that word.

If you can smell a drop of bleach

in a glass of water,

they can smell that same drop of bleach

in eight Olympic pools.

Whoa.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, that glant.

There's a glant in their nose

that is slowly dedicated to processing smells and things.

Wow.

Okay.

Yeah.

That's pretty amazing.

What's the order of them picking up information?

Is it smell first,

then they're looking at visual cues?

Or are they picking up things like,

you know, nervous energy and things like that?

What do you think?

Because I hear it in different ways.

No, it's not just smell, yes, important.

But they're looking at you.

They're picking up on body language.

What do you think, you know, one, two, and three?

If you put them in the top three,

what do you think it is in order?

The order will change on the situation.

So when you're in training,

like in a training room,

in that environment,

in that learning environment,

they are paying attention more to your body language.

So in that situation, it's sight.

After sight comes the smell,

because they smell the treats,

and then audio them.

Out in the wild,

if you have them out on a walk,

they're going to be sniffing.

So in that situation,

smell is more important.

And then you have to get their attention to you,

the audio,

or the vibration with the feel.

If you can get them to respond to your voice

in out nature,

you're doing really, really good.

You've done your work at home,

and you've got them out there,

and they respond to you,

the audio, and then visual.

So it changes situation to situation,

just like the alpha dog will change situation to situation.

You know, if there's scrounging for food,

scavenging,

this dog will be in charge.

That's the alpha.

But if they're getting into a situation

where there might be a fight,

or they might have to become defensive,

then this dog will be the alpha.

Yeah.

You know,

I left out sound.

I can't believe it.

At least,

Jasmine Miami asks,

is my puppy has tons of energy

and keeps biting everything?

Is this normal,

and how do I redirect it?

If it's a year and a half old puppy,

it's normal if it has been learned.

If it's a new puppy,

it's just puppies.

Like, if it's, you know,

a three or four month old,

or 20 week old,

well, that is three months.

And to correct that,

first thing I tell people to do

is when your puppy nips you,

does that puppy body?

Do you want to scream

like they took your arm off?

Okay.

You're going for an Academy Award

in an old B-movie horror movie.

Okay.

It's the worst thing that could happen to you.

And what that's doing is when they're in the litter,

they, when they bite each other too hard,

they scream.

And that's how they learn bite control,

bite pressure,

and all those things.

So you have to kind of repeat that

because they're with you now.

They're not with their litter anymore.

They're with you.

And so they're learning,

how hard can I bite you?

But you don't want them to put their teeth on your skin

or your clothes.

So anytime those teeth touch you,

scream.

And it won't take many times.

Many times at all.

And that dog will be,

oh, I don't,

sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you in there,

or whatever thought goes through their mind.

But they learn,

I shouldn't do that.

Without having to actually punish them,

you're using something

that they learned in the litter.

You know, wow.

You know, as you're saying that,

I used to do that with my dog,

who's now eight.

And not even know I was doing it.

That would just make,

oh, whoa, whoa, that hurt.

Yeah.

And yeah,

he never bites.

He never did bite.

But you know,

when they're younger,

they play a little bit.

And now he knows just the right pressure.

If he wants to play a little bit,

you know, he'll know.

And it's kind of amazing how they can gauge

how much pressure to use,

you know,

your hand is radically different

than a plastic ball,

where he wants to jump down on that.

Wow.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's bite control.

That's what you're teaching them

when you do that.

But I teach people not to let the dog

put teeth on skin at all.

Like, so mine,

even if we're playing tug.

So my German Shepherd,

of course, they love to play tug.

And we play tug with rules.

They have to let go of it

when I ask them to.

They have to grab it

when I tell them to,

all those things.

But if they're,

they don't let their teeth touch my skin.

They learn,

that's a no-no.

That's games over.

Everything stops.

It hurts.

I scream the whole time.

And something else you had mentioned in that,

that question was the dog's energy.

So we went over the puppy nipping,

but the energy.

So dogs need to be taught

their off switch.

And how I do that is assuming

that the dog is already crate trained.

So they love their crate.

That's a good happy place to go.

Take them outside.

Get them worked up.

Play with them.

You won't be excited.

Very excited.

And then you're going to take them

while they're excited.

And put them in the crate.

And I think we went over this a couple of weeks ago.

Once they're in the crate.

And when they begin to calm down,

this is teaching them their off switch,

their emotional off switch,

their state of energy,

off switch.

Once they're in there,

when they start to calm down,

name it.

So I tell them mine.

One of them I say,

okay, another one I say easy.

So I tell them,

good, okay.

Or easy.

Good, easy.

And they start calming down in the crate

and you keep reinforcing that word

to that state that they're in.

And also when you're just out and about,

whether it's in your home or out in public with them,

if they are calm beside you,

again, use that word,

reinforce that word,

easy.

Or okay, it's okay.

Like Dexter,

he's real high strung.

And okay works better with him.

And easy works better with my younger German Shepherd.

But you want a word that is long,

soothing vowels.

So, so that your state is also staying calm.

You're saying, oh, it's okay.

It's easy.

You know, not calm down.

Because that's,

or stop.

Yeah, or stop that.

Yeah.

Wow.

Even, so like,

even if one of my dogs gets away from me,

I don't yell at them to come back to me.

Even though they did something wrong,

I want them to return every time I call them.

So, even in that situation,

like if they go out the door and when I open the door,

they know they're not supposed to.

But sometimes, you know, they're,

they miss us.

And I don't get mad at them.

And oh, Dexter,

come back here.

You bad boy, all that.

I'm like, Dexter, come on.

Come on, come on, come on.

Be a good boy.

Come on.

And I use a positive,

you know, it's,

yeah.

That's exciting.

Oh, come on.

That's what I'm seeing here.

It's all about the positivity.

Because many of us dog bolts out.

Hey, come on.

Hey, wait, wait.

Come on.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And they can pick up back to the energy,

right?

They pick it up.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, if somebody was yelling at you,

mad to come to them,

would you be more likely to come to them

while they're screaming in yelling at you?

Or if they were,

hey, it's good to see you.

I want you to come over here.

Yeah.

You'd be far more likely to go to the nice one

than somebody.

Hey, you come over here.

You know.

Truly love your approach on all of this.

And of course,

as we have identified with Melanie's email

and previously,

you can do this virtually.

You can do it for anybody anywhere,

of course,

if you're around tap nouga,

where you are.

Yeah, it can be in person.

I'm sure.

That's way to reach you, Jeff.

What's that?

The phone number 7626778636.

Text is always great.

And then the email at Jeff

at daretubond.com.

Beautiful.

And also,

anybody has a question about anything?

Instantfeedbackstevengmail.com.

As always, Jeff.

Thank you for the insight.

The information really appreciated.

Oh, you're very welcome.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you.

When you call your dog to come,

does he turn away?

Tail in the air?

Like he's giving you the middle finger?

When you say sit?

Does he stare at you?

Like you just insulted his mother?

Or did you bring home a new puppy?

And now you're questioning

every decision that led you here.

Good news.

You're not alone.

And dare to bond dog training is here to help.

At dare to bond, they know that every dog is different.

That's why they use a balanced training approach

with the emphasis on positive reinforcement.

Because there's no one-size-fits-all solution.

They offer remote Skype sessions for guidance and quick fixes.

One-on-one private in-person training for a variety of behavior challenges.

And an intensive board and training program

accustomized two to three-week experience.

And they only take two dogs at a time

so your dog gets focused

into visualized attention.

Visit daretobond.com.

That's dare, the number two, bond.com.

Or call 762-677-8636 to get started.

Dare to bond dog training.

Except the challenge.

This is the Global Podcast Network.

Where executives and professionals connect, share, and inspire.

Stay tuned for the conversations that drive success.

Hey!

Hey!

Hey!

Hey!

Hey!

Hey!

Hey!

They'll challenge your authority.

Hey!

Hey!

They'll try to break your will.

They'll push you to the edge of your sanity.

Because that's what kids do.

But this car is your territory, not theirs.

Defend it.

Who makes the payments?

Who cleans it?

Who drives it?

You do.

That's who.

And in here, your word is law.

So when you say you won't move until everyone's buckled up,

you won't budge an inch.

Until you hear that clip.

Never give up.

Until they buckle up.

The message from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Ad Council.

For more information, visit safercar.gov slash kids buckle up.