048- Dog Training Skills with Khara Schuetzner
Summary:
What are some dog training skills pet sitters can be working on right now? Khara Schuetzner, Chair of APDT, joins us to discuss some basic skills we can all be working on. She also encourages us on the importance of these skills, even if we don't plan on offering training as a service.
Topics in this episode:
Her background and training facility
Skills we can work on while at home
Why these skills are important
Practicing without your own pet
Recommended Resources
Her training philosophy
Main take away: The more tools in your tool belt, the better!
About our guest:
Khara Schuetzner is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer and graduate of the Anti-Cruelty Society’s School of Dog Training. An American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen Evaluator, Khara is also certified in Pet First Aid and CPR, and earned her Nose Work Instructor certification from the National Canine Association of Scent Work. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology from the University of Oklahoma, and a Master of Arts degree in Teaching from National Louis University.
Khara has worked with animals for more than 20 years, and has over 10,000 hours of dog training and animal care experience as a volunteer shelter worker, foster dog parent, and behavioral consultant. She is a professional member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT), a member of the Animal Behavior Society, and a supporting member of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants. She is a member of North American Police Working Dogs and National Association (NAPWDA) and National Network of Canine Detection Services. Currently, Khara is Vice Chair on the APDT Board.
Khara was born and raised in Shawnee, and at an early age was taught to respect animals by her grandfather, who was a proud member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. From the time she was young, Khara learned about animals by watching and interacting with them. Her family’s cultural traditions continue to form her work as a professional trainer, enabling her to learn from dogs as she teaches them. This deeper insight helps Khara find solutions to behavior problems that align with dogs’ natural inclinations and make owners’ lives easier.
When she’s not training other people’s dogs, Khara enjoys working with her large clan of nine rescue dogs. They range widely in size, age, and breed – from her Argentina street dog to Wolf hybrid Sasha. Khara is working a forensic canine labrador, Blitzkrieg . Some of their special talents include K9 Nose Work, agility, herding, rally, and obedience. Khara also likes hiking, fishing, and traveling with her dogs.
Links:
Khara’s website- https://thedoggiespot.com/
Association of Professional Dog Trainers
Give us a call! (636) 364-8260
Check out our Covid-19 resources
Follow us on: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
Subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, & TuneIn
Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
dog, pet sitters, people, training, pet, dog trainers, trainer, skills, clients, facility, mat, place, owners, toys, watch, oklahoma, dashing, home, social distancing, animal
SPEAKERS
Khara, Meghan, Collin
Khara 00:00
I think I think having themes in your tool belt, that's what I call it makes you a little bit more of a commodity. So you may not necessarily have to go through like a whole program but at least pair up with a trainer and say, Hey, can I come observe your classes or take classes, learn some little tricks to help you out for when you're on a dog walk. I'm calling
Meghan 00:32
and I'm Megan. And this is pet sitter confessional, an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter.
Collin 00:45
Dog Training skills and just general animal handling. That might be something that we think we know pretty well. Or maybe we've been at this for a long time. So we don't think we need to go back and reassess those skills. But what about it If we could use this time that we have reassessed where we actually are, maybe learn some new things along the way. Today, Karsh needs her chair of the Association of Professional dog trainers and dog trainer herself out in Shawnee, Oklahoma, joins us to break down some things we can be working on right now, even though we're not surrounded by dogs, the importance of these kinds of skills and gives us some resources that we can all use to become better pet care professionals.
Khara 01:31
So I'm Corey pfitzner. I own a dog training facility in Shawnee, Oklahoma, a little small town and I'm also Chair of the Association of Professional dog trainers. I have lots of rescue dogs, I run a cadaver dog for law enforcement. So yeah, so I do a lot of interesting stuff. My big thing is I love scent work. So nose work is a big thing for me. And right now, during the Kobe crisis, my facility is deemed essential, but I'm not allowed to do Because we sell dog food. So I've had to learn how to shift my training from hands on face to face to zoom or right. Google duo or Facebook. Yeah. Which is kind of interesting because I live in Oklahoma, and half of my clients barely have cell phone service or internet connection.
Collin 02:24
Yeah, I'm sure that's been really challenging trying to make that that switch.
Khara 02:28
And we lived in Argentina for a while. I'm like third world countries have better places and they, you know, the Association of Professional dog trainers have a lot of good resources for dog owners. And if sitters want to become dog trainers are some good resources on there. And I would say, because we have, I mean, I've met a lot of pet sitters, and I really like them because that way the dog is at home and not at a facility. So I think One thing that they could be working on is door dashing, you know, like when you get the leash and the dog is like crazy because it's ready to go on a walk and they charge out the door. That's something that everyone can work on while they're at home. So the dogs not charging out of a door because that could be a really scary thing for owners in pet sitters, if you're not prepared or something happens and the dog just runs out the door. So that's something that they could be working on. Another thing that people can work on is a place. So if your dog has a mat or I've seen a Labrador with a handkerchief, they go to the handkerchief and they do it down or sit or just a little place for them to chillax. That is what I like to call it the chillax spa. So, and right now my dogs are all doing that right now. They're all snoring. So that's a good thing to work on. Right now while you're at home, especially if you're doing a lot of webinars and your dog is like coming up to you and getting screen time. If they if you tell them to go to their mat and you reward them for being on their mat with their dog kibble or treats or whatever you want to give them, then that mat and that place becomes like their little zone.
Collin 04:12
I'm curious, you mentioned that you run a cadaver dog. How did you get involved in that? And where did that come from?
Khara 04:18
Um, it started back in 2010. And I was actually helping a student that had a dog that had dog to dog reactivity. And I had a little rescue Labrador that came in and so she put some stuff out some sources, and he liked them. So we started training him and then he washed out after we got him neutered. So then I got my second dog. And so it's been something I've always liked to do, because I might my passion is to help victims and families to have that closure. So I do a lot of cold cases or homicide. Mostly.
Collin 04:57
Wow. Yeah, that's really that's really fascinating. And I'm, you know, the amount of impact you can have on people with that simple act of just being there and and looking for a loved one. I'm sure that that is just life changing.
Khara 05:10
Yeah. And it's, you know, we don't get our name in the newspaper usually, right? Like, we brought a dog out. I'm like, Oh, that was my sir. You know, because I can't talk about them usually. But it is it gives you some closure, you know, and people always ask me, and this is my first I don't want to say purchase dog. But it was my first dog for my breeder. And I had a big, hard time having issues by buying a dog from a breeder, but there are good breeders out there. Just because I had rescue dogs most of my life. And he really loves it. Because if you make it into a joy, then they don't get depressed when they don't find stuff or when they do find stuff. So, yeah,
Collin 05:50
you touched on a little bit about how your facility was deemed essential because you sell dog food. I'm really interested because you've got a pretty cool facility and a pretty neat place. Do you? Tell us about The history of where you are.
Khara 06:01
Yeah. So I am, I got my dog training start in Chicago. And then I moved back to Oklahoma to be closer to family, which is kind of nice now that we're in a pandemic. But I got to a place downtown in this small little town and I wanted a facility where we could educate people, and do community events because I think everyone who has a pet loves their pet, right. So they may not be able to afford things. So we do quarterly free classes for people to come in and get some training help and advice for free and to see the facility so we didn't know what we were going to do with it because the city was like, I don't know what to do with a dog trainer. So they made us sell retail training and grooming. Like they literally opened up this old book where the pages were like falling apart trying to figure out what to zone me. So we've been in there for seven years, we actually expanded this year and doubled our square footage and then we got COVID on Team so that was kind of interesting. And we, you know, being in, I would say a downtown area of a small town is very rough, especially around this time of the year for you know, because you have a lot of big box stores. It's rough for everyone. But the community has really come in and stepped out and supported each other. I think we see all this social distancing, but we see a lot of support for each other too. That's going on. Like today, we actually went to do therapy dogs at the windows of nursing homes today.
Collin 07:33
Oh my goodness.
Khara 07:34
So in so we went to the outside windows and just the joy on the dogs and the handlers and the people in the window. It was just, it was worth it. Like worth every moment of that.
Collin 07:46
Wow. Yeah, that's something that you touched you mentioned of, we're being told to stay apart, but the community has just really rallied and come together in socially respecting each other Just a distant, respectful respectful ways. But that's that's really special that you've been able to be a part of that too for where you guys are.
Khara 08:08
Yeah, and I mean like they invited us back we waited about two or three weeks once our state kind of did the mandated closings because we didn't we wanted to give some time to settle you know, you have this I don't want to say mourning period, but like probably like this. Oh my god, what's going on here?
Collin 08:25
As pet sitters, I know we we opened up a little bit about this but what kind of options do they have to to learn maybe online right now for some Dog Training dog handling skills and what kind of courses or certifications are out there?
Khara 08:44
So like I said earlier, if you get an A PDT as website, they actually have stuff where if you want to be a dog trainer or dog owner, so they give you some tips to do on there. Trevor Smith has the dog dojo and he has a YouTube channel which is really great for some trips and stuff. to work on, so most pet sitters probably have their own pet anyway, so they do this at their house. So it's kind of a good little tip to work on with that. I think a big thing that's going to happen when people go back into work is you're going to see some separation anxiety issues with dogs because they're at home with their people, and then they leave again and it's going to you're going to have some maybe destruction behaviors coming on. So I would look for like interactive toys for the owners or pet sitters that are going to be there. Like what we talked about with impulse control with the mat play scene. I would also look for maybe some separation anxiety people, but you can look on certification and professional dog trainers website or behavioral consultants with that. They have a certification for separation anxiety trainers online, I think it's c s, a T. And then I ABC has some places for that too, because you might see some dogs that are showing some signs of stress. Once their owners go back
Collin 10:01
on that other than the interactive toys. What kind of things? Should they be watchful of? Or be communicating with the owners right now, to get ahead of that?
Khara 10:10
I think right now they need to be communicating with their owners, especially their clients. Like if you're going to be home all day, why don't you just go out the front door and sit on the porch for five or 10 minutes and when the dog is quiet, come back in. Don't make a big deal of your entry when you come back in and just be like, Hey, you know I'm back. Because you know, they're probably the dogs are following you. Or they're running away because you've taken them on somebody walks, right? Definitely doing that even if they're not going to go out. They have a garage, just go out the garage door, get in their car back out of the garage, sit there listen to radio stations for like 10 or 15 minutes and then come back in. Because we have all been out of our normal routine. So it's just getting them used to going back out for the longer periods of time.
Collin 11:00
Right. No, that's, that's a good just taking the small baby steps back into this so that whenever they do go back to work, it's not as big of a deal. Instead of just going, you know, cold, cold turkey back into the whole thing.
Khara 11:13
And one thing we probably all can do is just put on your work clothes and grab your car keys.
Collin 11:20
Start start sending those signals of, Hey,
Khara 11:22
we need a signal.
Collin 11:24
We tell you know, a lot of us are trying to still work from home and do those things. So we were trying to stick to our routines, but more importantly, continuing to communicate those unspoken verbal communicative cues to your pets. So that Hey, remember this, this is a thing. This isn't new.
11:41
I had to brush my teeth and make my coffee. Right?
Collin 11:45
Oh, I love that. Um, this? This is kind of a simple question. But I know this comes up and I see this a lot in the pet cert community of Do I need to go through this kind of training? Do I need to go through training to become a trainer even if I'm not going to offer those services? What Kind of benefit does that give me
Khara 12:01
I think, I think having things in your tool belt, that's what I call it makes you a little bit more of a commodity. So you may not necessarily have to go through like a whole program but at least pair up with a trainer and say, Hey, can I come observe your classes or take classes, learn some little tricks to help you out for when you're on a dog walk. Um, one thing that I think is very simple that anyone can do is do a touch with their dog, a hand target, and you can Google that or whatever you put a treat in your hand and the dog touches your hand. He said, guess the puppy, reward them and you can actually teach the dog left or right. So when you're out walking, if the dog gets focused on something, instead of calling their name, because sometimes we're like, oh, man, I really have to stare that squirrel that squirrels going to come get me right. You can stick your hand down and do a touch and it's a redirection and they can target you know, it kind of disconnect that impulse thing. So there there's a couple of things that I think pet sitters should be able to do. Because you know, the dog anytime you're with an animal, dog, cat, horse, chicken, and you're, you're in that intimate setting, somebody is training somebody. Yeah. So, I mean, you go out with my barn cats and they see you near the cat food, they're gonna start whining because they're gonna be like, yeah, we know you're gonna feed us. So I mean, like, having some sort of training tools in your belt as a pet sitter, I think is a good thing to have.
Collin 13:33
Sure, just because it you mentioned it's in your tool belt, it builds your confidence, it adds to your resume and even in your skill set. And even if you never intend to offer training services, it just makes you a more educated, competent, pet care professional in the long run.
Khara 13:49
And the thing about training too, is every dog is an individual. So like, what may work for, I have a multiple dog household of five dogs and let me work for one of them. will not work for the other one and one may like carrots and the other one will sell his soul to the devil for an orange. I mean, you have to figure out what works for the dog and what the dog likes. So, and I think one thing as a pet sitter and a trainer, and everything is we have patience. And sometimes we forget about that, because we have this expectation that everything should happen in real time. So maybe this social distancing thing is a good thing because everyone's had to slow down. So if you are watching a dog, and they're kind of a little stressed or frustrated, just have some patience with them, and just, you know, don't be forceful with them and stuff and let them work it out.
Collin 14:42
I like that. earlier. You mentioned have a lot of us have pets at home that we can be using some of these skills and trying these out. I mean is is there a difference in in how we should be interacting with our own pet versus maybe a client's pet or how do we kind of navigate that
Khara 15:00
All my clients pets are interacting like my own bed except for I do have a dog who doesn't like other dogs This was after the new terrain you know changed his personality so his shut up word is euthanasia but I know it's pretty funny because if he's barking and I went in quiet I yell euthanasia and he gets quiet and people are like, appalled by this, but I think it's kind of funny. I wouldn't say that to my Coggins dogs because I don't know them. I might be like, quiet or something. But you really I mean, if you're watching a dog, it's it's your response. It's like your own. I don't want to say first child, but they basically have an IQ of the three to seven year old so that speaks a different language. So you are watching you know, another animal intelligent animal. So having training in both of them and ask your client what they want. Like sometimes clients have different words than I use. And so like, I used to touch and I have a client who uses like, The fist bump, like so I have to be able to communicate that. I have another client who has a deaf dog. So that's totally way we train, then my dogs that are.
Collin 16:13
Sure. Now it gets a little complicated if maybe a pet sitter doesn't have pets of their own that they can directly practice some of those skills with. So what kind of recommendations would you give to somebody who doesn't have pets readily available to work,
Khara 16:25
shelter, go to a shelter? Hey, also, you can, you can volunteer at a shelter. You can go walk dogs at a shelter, my favorite place to watch dog people and interactions. And there are some good and bad is sometimes I like to stock people at dog parks. Because you can learn a lot about behavior and see things and you can predict when a fight is going to occur sometimes based on dog behavior. And basically observation skills are what you really need to have a lot of so there's tons of videos online that you can watch different to streamer has great videos of dog dog play to the dog Guru has stuff. pet sitters are national, I think has some good stuff, too. I mean, there's lots of videos of dog training. There's lots of bad videos of dog training. So, a good trainer tries not to push the dog over threshold, or invoke a white. You know, it's kind of like if you're afraid of spiders. I don't know. Are you afraid of anything calling heights? Okay. So it'd be like, if you're afraid of heights, and I wanted to train you. I would not take you to the Eiffel Tower. And train you. Because it's way over your threshold, right? Yeah, yeah. So we're going to build up to that. So there there's a part of that. I equate it to like, if I'm yelling at you and your face and stressing you out and asking you to do calculus, you're not going to be able to do
Collin 17:59
that kind of follow up question. They kind of got into a little bit of your dog training philosophy, how would you describe how you work with dogs and how you go about training them.
Khara 18:09
So dog training is not really about working with the dog working with the communication with the dog and the human because the dog has been training the human for a long time. And it's working about how to read that communication. So I am a very much a reward positive trainer. And I get in trouble sometimes because I do use the word no, or, you know, there's different there's extremes on both sides of the continent. But you have to have empathy for an animal, I think, and I'm very much into see what will my animal like? Is it rewarding for them, I do a preference test with my dogs. I make my clients do this. I don't make them do it 100 times, but I'll put out like 100 different types of food like three at a time and figure out which ones they like and them, I will do that with their toys. So like, like I said, I have a dog who sells his soul to the devil for oranges, and he knows when in season. And so like that's his high value toy. So he hates being blown drawing at the groomer. So guess what, they give him an orange. And the most time with training, he can we can do play, we can do everything else, but you have to know what your dog likes and works for. Because it's like you I mean, if you didn't get paid for doing a good job, why would you do it? And it cracks me up because I do I'm in a very rural area. So there's still the old school method of training, which you know, is the leash and corrections and punishment base. And then you see this dog that when you call them they're like, I don't really want to come next to you. And you have to figure out what they would pick them for, like what what do they like and then a lot of times is ignore the bad behavior because normally when you're watching a doctor Or, let's say you're walking them and they're bullying or whatever, they get all the attention when they're doing something wrong. And not any of the attention when they're doing something. Right. Right. So I, I tell people to practice this in life. So when somebody does something nice to you just say thank you, and see how freaking people get with that, because we don't do that anymore. We just oh, you know, oh, it but if it changes your way of looking at it, it helps you become a better communicator with the animal.
Collin 20:29
No, it is it is all about communication and working on that and being consistent. And you know, you mentioned earlier of a good way to train right now if you don't have dogs is just go to a dog park, go watch people go watch how they interact with their dogs and start taking notes and just being observant about that. And then watch yourself whenever you're acting around dogs and your clients so that you can comment on that in a constructive way. But just so you can start picking up patterns as you see more things
Khara 20:57
and a lot of it is voice to you know, like you were like Because I say euthanasia, I mean, like, it's how I say it to like, it's a strong word, right? But if I say it in a funny tone, like I was like, I'm gonna be quiet that I'm gonna wag my butt. Because I know she, you know, said our voice inflections, and like, our looks, all the dogs read all of that, too. And for people who don't want to use food and training, I do have to say this. It's like you're feeding the dog. Right? Like you're giving them a food bowl.
21:26
Yeah.
Khara 21:28
Why not use it in your training? No. Sorry, that's my, that's my joke for because I get those people. They're like, I don't want to use food. And I'm like, well, you're feeding them. Right?
Collin 21:42
Please tell me you're feeding them. Right? This is the thing we do.
Khara 21:45
They have to go hunt the cows.
Collin 21:49
Well, I was wondering if there's anything else in closing that you would like to tell pet sitters, about things they can be working on or maybe just, you know, a positive encouraging word for them right now during this kind of scary time or anything else.
Khara 22:04
I think pet sitters, I think you guys really need to do some good social marketing with your stuff sometimes because I know a lot of people are like their plans are got canceled and you're probably nervous about what's my gonna look like when they come back. I think you guys are going to come back strong. I think people are wanting to get out and travel. And I would definitely brush up on some skills with or dashing, recall limits and sets, you know any of the basics like that. And you guys do fine. I love my pet sitter. So I wish there was more of you. Yeah, I mean, I love my boarding facilities, too, but I have old dogs and there's nothing like them being in their house when we're going on vacation.
Collin 22:46
Yeah, well, no. Well, I really appreciate that if I know we kind of just Blitz through a lot of highlights and some focus questions. If people have more questions or want to follow up and get in touch with you How is the best way for them to do that? They can
Khara 23:00
go on the doggy spot website and the info at the the doggy spa calm and actually goes to me. I know it goes to the owner, it's an info and it's a th e d o GG, ie spot calm or you can even email APD t.com and somebody will answer your questions about that. But um, you guys are going to be great. We'll make it through everything together and partner up with people, man, reach out to your community.
Collin 23:27
Thank you so much. You have a wonderful day you too. In the weeks and months ahead, I know Megan and I are going to be turning some training attention back to our 12 year old Doc's and Coby. He has some impulse control and some definite door dashing issues that we've known for a while now but just really haven't had the time to do some intentional focusing on that. I hope that you have the ability to do that and dig into some of the resources that she mentioned and I will also make sure to include those in the show notes. We'd love to hear about how you are Working on these kinds of skills and working with your client during these times on those kind of needs for their dog. So shoot us an email at feedback at pet sitter confessional comm or give us a call 636-364-8260 we'll talk to you again soon.
