256: Fear Free Pet Sitting with Mikkel Becker
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Summary:
What is Fear Free and how does it apply to being a pet sitter or dog walker? Mikkel Becker, from Fear Free and Fear Free Happy Homes, discusses how following the Fear Free philosophy impacts our ability to build trust with the pets in our care. It not only makes our job easier, but also sets up the pet and owner for success. Mikkel shares how fear manifests itself in dogs and cats, and what we can do to help them in those moments. You may encounter client’s who don’t see eye to eye on these methods, and we discuss ways to talk through Fear Free with them.
Topics on this episode:
What is Fear Free?
How do you define ‘fear’?
Preparing before you walk through the door
Communicating with clients
Overcoming our own bad habits
Main take away: Going ‘Fear Free’ means acknowledging that pets have emotional needs that must be addressed in addition to their physical needs.
About our guest:
Mikkel Becker is the lead animal trainer for Fear Free Pets. She specializes in reward based training and behavior modification with dogs, cats and occasional other species, including horses, pigs and orangutans.
Mikkel is a Karen Pryor Certified Training Partner (KPA CTP), a graduate of the rigorous San Francisco SPCA Dog Training Academy with Jean Donaldson with a certificate in training and counseling (CTC), a Certified Behavior Consultant Canine (CBCC-KA), a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA) and a Certified Dog Behavior Counselor (CDBC). Mikkel also majored in communications and minored in sociology at Washington State University.
Mikkel is regularly featured in publications that include USA Today, today.com, Woman’s Day, Real Simple and a nationally syndicated newspaper pet column. She was the resident trainer at vetstreet.com and now is the lead animal trainer at fearfreehappyhomes.com and fearfreepets.com Mikkel has coauthored six books, including the most recent release, From Fearful to Fear Free.
Mikkel lives in Spokane, WA with her daughter, Reagan and the love of her life- a Puggle named Indiana Bones. The rest of the critter crew includes an adorably naughty rescue pug mix, Otis, a rescued stray cat- Mylo, and a cuddly, teddy bear of a horse, Chili.
Links:
10% off the Fear Free Pet Sitter Certification Program with promo code PSC10.
Fear Free: https://fearfreepets.com
Fear Free Happy Homes: https://www.fearfreehappyhomes.com
Mikkel on Facebook: Facebook.com/Mikkelbecker and Instagram: Instagram.com/Mikkelbecker
Her email: mikkel.becker@fearfreepets.com
Give us a call! (636) 364-8260
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Email us at: feedback@petsitterconfessional.com
A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE
Provided by otter.ai
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
pet, pets, dog, fear, animals, cat, people, care, stress, walk, situation, pet sitter, interaction, starts, gift, experience, lives, learn, anxiety, treats
SPEAKERS
Meghan, Collin, Mikkel
Meghan 00:10
Hello, I'm Meghan. I'm Collin and this is Pet Sitter confessional an open and honest discussion about life as a pet sitter
Collin 00:17
brought to you by time to pet and pet perennials. Have you heard of fear free. It's a way of working with pets with the animals that are under our care and allowing them to cooperate and make decisions and have agency over what we're trying to do with them. Whether that's simply taking them on a walk or administering medication or maybe applying a topical treatment in some way. We respect animals and all that we do. And fear free is a way of understanding their language and what they're trying to communicate to us. McKell Becker from fear free, and fear free happy homes, joins us today to talk about the pet sitters role in pets care, how we can set ourselves up for success through mindfulness, and by paying attention and observing all that the pet is trying to communicate. Let's get started.
Mikkel 01:09
Yes, definitely. So my name is Mikkel. And I grew up with my dad is Dr. Marty Becker. He is the founder of beer free. And I grew up wanting to be a broadcast journalist went through college, and I was three credits away from graduating. And I realized, gosh, this is like, I just don't feel the same passion for it as I thought I would. And it was hard, she didn't get to have your own opinions. And, and, you know, I had been told I have no poker face. And you have to have a very good poker face when you're in broadcast journalism. And, and also, I like to be in my, you know, comfy clothes. And I was like, gosh, this is this is really hard. You have to be dressed up every day. And so I ended up graduating in intercultural communication, which is interesting a grip, like loving travel, but my dad's like, you know, maybe what you could do with that is how about you take your your love for communication and marry it with your love for pet. And so from there, I went through some training schools and got various training certifications. And now I specialize in doing reward based training with dogs as well as with other animals. So I've worked a lot with pigs am cat, and my favorite animal I've trained is in a ring a tan. So we're to summon Ranga, tans. And I was in Florida. And so I just love animals of all types. And I use clicker training with my own pets, I have two dogs, and cat and a horse, that all our clicker training. So it's pretty awesome. I love what I do. And working with your free is just a dream because I am making a big difference in the lives of pet professionals and in the lives of pets and their guardian. So it's really a great way to feel like I'm making a positive difference in the
Collin Funkhouser 03:01
world. It really is a different way of approaching our interactions with with the pets in our lives. So at its core, how would you describe what what fear free actually
Mikkel 03:11
is. So fear free is all about taking care of both the physical and the emotional well being of the pet. So many times whether it's in veterinary care, or grooming, animal training, pet sitting, it's sometimes about putting those physical care tasks above the emotional state of that pet. And I know that for a lot of us who've experienced that with our own pets, taking them into the bed, where they're terrified the whole time, something's done with the pet, you know, in a state of terror, and you know, the physical care gets done, but the animals left worse off from that experience. And fear free is all about trying to protect the emotional well being at the same time of as you're taking care of the physical well being of that pet. So it's all about emotional well being so reducing fear, anxiety and stress. And also promoting aspects of well being in that pets life are things like enrichments for war based training, that can help improve that mutual communication. And so it's it's really a way to take care of the entire entire health of that pet, both physical and emotional,
Collin Funkhouser 04:21
that balance to make sure that they both are and not never really weighing one more than the other but realizing that both have to coexist for this to be a well balanced animal.
Mikkel 04:31
Exactly, absolutely. And so So sometimes, you know, as a pet sitter, you have certain tasks that you need to get done, perhaps you need to get insulin injections, you need to get pills in that pet. So we have that care tasks that we need to do. And then it's really about finding ways that we can we can perform that task with as little fear, anxiety and stress as possible, and ideally make that care task even easier for us and for that pet in the future by making it Happy experiences whenever possible, or at the very least, reducing any negative so that pet experiences.
Collin Funkhouser 05:06
Yeah, it's really thinking through, it's like, Yes, I have to get this task done. But I also I may have to do this task again, or somebody else may have to do this task. And I want to make sure that the everybody in the circle of this pet care life, their pet care team, is helping their lives be a little bit better by how I'm interacting with them right now, because I, I am going to have long lasting impacts both positive and negative.
Mikkel 05:30
Exactly. And so many times we overlook that like where it's like, okay, I, you know, I don't really train I don't need to focus on, you know, what the pets like learning, because, you know, I'm not a trainer. But the thing is, pets are always learning, they are continually learning through every interaction, every experience, and we, as pet professionals in whatever field are making a lasting difference in that pets life. And it's important that we make a positive difference, because really just one negative experience one negative interaction that can outweigh a lot of positives and that pet experience. And so it's like trying to establish trust, and keeping that trust, you know, that trust is hard to build and easy to lose. And that it really can generalize from one person to encompass a lot of people for that pet. And so what we want to do is we want to make it as easy as possible for that pet, both during their experience with us and with other people. And that's, it really goes down to the heart of why we're doing what we're doing in the first place, which is, you know, the love of pets, you know, perhaps the love of people as well, and the love of what we're doing. And so it's it's all about, you know, and, and also, it's a it's about safety as well. So it's the safety of the pet and the safety of us as well. So when we're watching out for both physical and emotional well being, it's a much safer way to perform the tasks that we need to do. And it just feels better.
Collin Funkhouser 06:55
It does. Well, that's that's a good point is that it feels better. And I think a lot of modern pet parents are looking for different ways for their pets to be cared for, then traditional or historic methods of how pets would be handled and worked with in a particular day. So we get the, we get a benefit, because we feel better about how we're operating with them, the pet gets a benefit because they get a positive experience. And then the pet owner also has a positive outlook, and they know that their pet is getting the best care possible.
Mikkel 07:29
Exactly. And it says that care that's worth seeking out and that that care that's worth investing in and keeping. And it's one of those that you know, word of mouth, like that's, that's like one of the best ways to, to really get your clients is you know, like when when you have someone that just loves what you do, it's they can't even contain, it's like, oh my gosh, I have this, this pet sitter, that's just amazing. And so it's just, you know, it makes it for makes for easy marketing, when people love the work that you're doing when they can really trust you. And when their pet is, you know, they like when they're crazy about you like when they absolutely love you especially especially those sometimes hard to win over pet you know, you have a shy, shy cat, you have a shy dog, you have a dog that that maybe is reactive that you know is you know, barking and lunging. And you know, he can work with them and help to win them over, you know, it's not easy to come by, it's not like, okay, we can go to the next the next person or the next person, it really builds that loyalty and and that trust with not only you in the pet, but also you in the person too.
Collin Funkhouser 08:32
It can be it can be hard from from, from our perspective, because we have 30 minute chunks. I know pet sitters who sometimes do 15 minute chunks, or maybe up to an hour walk. But we don't have a lot of, of time and space for to have the interaction. And I think that's why it makes it all the more important to make sure that's a good interaction. Because whatever time we have, we need to make it as good as possible. And then also thinking again, I'm gonna may see them again and again and again. And make sure said that's, that's consistent to across time.
Mikkel 09:03
Absolutely. And, you know, when you think about animal Learning Animals actually learn best in short training sessions. So it's short training sessions for interactions, like those bows are prime time to be working with the animal to build their trust to establish that communication that's mutual for both of you. And you know, making that that just lasting connection in with them. And it's entirely possible to have a fear free way of performing your pet sitting duties to perform your dog walking duties. And to do it in a way that's actually going to make it much easier in the future for you and for that pet and safer.
Collin Funkhouser 09:40
Now it's called fear free. How do you define fear?
Mikkel 09:44
So so when we look at fear free, we look at fear, anxiety and stress. So we call it FAS for short. And essentially it's any kind of emotion like negative emotional state that pet may experience. So anything that puts In that, like fight or flight kind of mode or gets them weary, like it's like, okay, I see a threat. Okay, what do I do? Okay, do I need to react, what we want to do is we want to prevent that pet from ever escalating into that state where they go into that survival mode, or if they're in that survival mode, helping them to recover. And to go into that kind of more rest and digest kind of stage where they can have that higher level thinking. And they can be, they can use more of their thinking brain versus their reacting brains. So it's like almost like you think of it as like either a lizard brain or dolphin brain, you want to try and keep that pet and that dolphin brain where they are, are able to think before they react, where they are able to make those those good choices that we can reward. And it's really important because so many times these pets are just in that state of high fear, anxiety and stress. And it just escalates from there. It's those negative learning experiences that just kind of build one upon the other and you get the pet that that doesn't, that is unsafe to interact with is is not safe to perform care tasked with. And so sometimes it's really breaking it down. And for us as professionals, a lot of times it's also working with the pet guardian, so giving them those resources, because it's it's not fair for us to put in the work if they aren't going to put in the work as well. And so it's really getting that commitment from that pet parent. And as you said, No pets really are so close to us and just becoming closer, they're part of the family. And many of us, like relate to our pets as as kids in a lot of ways. And, you know, so for most people they want to do well by their pet, it's just that uncertainty of how to do it, or maybe they've been, they've learned other ways. And so if we can just guide them in the right direction, we can make such a big difference in that pets life and really in helping to ensure that pet is able to stay in the home ultimately, as well.
Collin Funkhouser 11:58
One I think it's important to note too, that it's the negative emotional state of a pet, regardless of whether that action that their fear is real or not. Right? It's it's that it's the fact we're just assessing, are they in this state or not? And that can be hard, because we're like, we want to say why are you afraid of that? Right? Are you afraid of the vacuum cleaner, it's not going to hurt you. But But there is an experience that they've had in the past. And there's a learned perception that they have of something like that, that has now put them in that elevated state, rational or not. Now, that's something that that we have to deal with, after we assess that.
Mikkel 12:35
Oh, absolutely. And if it's if it's real, then their body is is in that state of fight or flight. And it doesn't have to be rational. Like, I used to have this horrible phobia of flying, and I grew up traveling, like my family, we just my dad would would travel and speak and so I was blessed enough to be able to go with him. But you know, I've been to 60 countries but had this paralyzing fear of flying to the point like where I would worry about it, obsess about it for months before I would fly. And when I went when I was on the plane, no one wanted to sit next to me, I was in all out panic attacks, like, you know, I would sometimes, you know, they would try and give me like sleeping pills, and you wouldn't touch me just nothing because I was in such a stressed out state and a lot of these pets are in that same state where Yeah, it's not rational, you could tell me that flying is so much safer than driving then doing all of these other things. But you know, that it doesn't matter when you're in that state and, you know, in for our pets so much worse, because we can't even talk to them to tell them okay, you know, what you're experiencing isn't real to them, it is very, very real. And so it's it's all about, like breaking it down for them making it a less aversive experience. And trying to get them to that, that that level where they can actually receive those positive. So so many times, like people will think okay, the pet won't take treats in this in this instance, they're too stressed out, you know, and so we have to do it different way. Well, the thing is, is what we want to do is you want to get that pet to a low enough level of fear, anxiety and stress and in a positive emotional state where they can start to receive those positives. And so like for me with Bryan, for instance, it was really about breaking down that experience and trying to you know, pair some positives with that experience. But you know, if you're trying to do it right in the middle of when I'm having a panic attack, heck no, I'm not gonna learn like, you know, you could give me my favorite thing I love Starbucks. You give you my favorite of caramel frappuccino or whatever it is, I probably won't even drink it. I'm so upset, you know, but you you you know, maybe have you know, we're talking about the airplane when I'm off off of there. And, you know, you get me to that state where I'm more in my rational brain and I can start to like think better. And same thing with pets. Like we don't want to really latch on to it. You'll see as you'll see people adding even more fuel to the fire when the pet is already upset, the pets upset, they're struggling, they're not, they're not taking their medication or they know we're trying to put, maybe I met on the pet or clean their ears, the pet starts to struggle. A lot of times what happens is rather than letting that pet recover, letting them go to a place where they feel safe, building up slowly, a lot of times the pet maybe is held down there, they're forcibly muzzled. And it just, it escalates so much more versus like, okay, we're just going to take it take a moment, you know, we're going to let you get to a state where you feel calm and comfortable. Let's see how we can adjust our approach, how we can adjust this to make this a better experience. So that you can, that we can accomplish this with as minimal fear, anxiety and stress as possible, possible and make it as positive as possible, which ultimately is going to, like further build that trust and make that experience more possible in the future. By the way, I fly today. And I I mean, totally, it's like that that fear free state, like I mean, there's still those triggers where I'm like, okay, maybe I'll go back to that. But then it's like, I've learned those coping skills with okay, if I feel like this, this is what I do is I have that kind of routine. And that's really what we want to do with our pets, once they feel empowered on okay, this is how I handled this situation, you know, you you really build in that those coping skills that really help empower them and build that confidence. And so whether it's pets or people, we want them to feel comfortable and confident and know how to handle those situations in a better way.
Collin Funkhouser 16:30
Yeah, we want we want emotionally healthy, mature animals and pets. And that starts with equipping them with good ways of managing the stresses that are in their lives. And you hadn't said that. A lot of times, we have to partner with the pet owner. And that's so critical. I don't know how many of our clients Mike our clients say, Man, when I bring out that, that that bag, when I bring out the luggage, oh, it the dog freaks out right? And goes hide. And then now what now I'm walking into that house with a freaked out dog who's been stressed since the day before, because they've been packing and all these things. And we forget that there that when we walk into that door that dog is in a state of emotional being that is, is the result of previous experiences, probably within the last 24 hours. And we can start working with our clients saying, hey, you know, when you get out the thing, when you get out the luggage, you know, where are the treats? How is the dog interacting? How can we work with this? How can we bring down their stress, start there, so that the time you walk through the door and you do have to give them a medication or they do need an insulin shot, that fear level that stressful is already at a little bit lower level, and then we can work with them from there. Another good example you talked about being doing a sense of why is this stressful for the Pap, we have a cat that we take care of that, for some reason, had an experience where they had a bunch of guests over and So ever since then the cat has not been okay or very, very approachable at all. It goes right to three or four, almost as soon as you walk in the door. And just recently, I realized it's my shoes. I walked to the cat I think was triggered by the the heavy footfalls because I walk heavy, I'm whatever. But
Collin 18:16
when they had guests over, I don't know what transpired. But it impacted this cat to the point now where heavy footfalls send it through the roof of its stress. So now, I've take off my shoes, whenever I come into the door, and you already see it immediately interact with me differently, and it makes it more accessible. And so now we're going to work on more things to do with that. So it's doing an entire assessment of yourself of the history of that pet both immediate short term within 24 hours and the lifetime of that pet and going, how do I work help? How do I give this pet agency I love that word of going this pet can make decisions in the interaction that I have or do not have with them. And many times pet parents don't understand that and how many meet and greets I've gone to and they're dragging the cat down off the cat tree. They're pulling the dog towards you, even though that dog does not want to be in the same room with me and having to tell them no, no, it's okay. It's okay. It's okay. Let him go let him go hide. Let's just talk and we're going to work through this and and we need to build a positive association that a forced Association.
Mikkel 19:15
I love that I absolutely love everything you said there because that that is just everything that I feel that I'm about and you know, by giving that pet that element of choice that is one of the greatest reinforcers for for people or for pets is that ability to choose and to make that that choice, that purposeful decision, okay, this is what I'm going to do versus you know, if it's out of control, you can't predict what's going to happen that's so scary for pets and to to think like, okay, something I don't know what's going to happen, something bad could happen. I don't have any control over this versus okay, we try and make it as predictable as possible. And we try and make it only predictable but also make it as positive as possible. So we are predicting positives and we also Give them that choice. And they always have the choice to say no, by giving them that choice to say no. Or to say, hey, hold up, like, Wait, pause, let me like, catch my breath. Let me let me think about this. Versus like just forging through and doing it anyways, we ultimately are going to increase the likelihood that that pet is going to cooperate and and just feel better. And it's going to make our job so much easier just simply by giving them a choice rather than forcing something you are that that in and of itself alone is going to make a dramatic difference in a relationship that anyone has with a pet.
Collin Funkhouser 20:37
Yeah, well, it starts with the little things to from simple as Can I pet you? Can I touch you right now? And that may seem so like, why do they need a choice in that, but we're giving them agency and choice in the little matters. So that as that pet ages, as their health conditions change, what they know that they have a choice there is well, then we're linking all this together, especially you know, starts with really young animals going, I can start this off on a good path, making sure they have agency choice, and they're trusting me they're trusting their pet parent, so that if something does happen, if they do need to have insulin shots, or something more invasive, or if they do need to wear a different harness or collar, they they're ready for that, right. And we're building that emotional maturity of them.
Mikkel 21:19
I love that. It's so so true.
Collin Funkhouser 21:23
Have you heard of time to pet player from acting critters that has this to say
21:28
time to pet has honestly revolutionized how we do business. My sitters can work much more independently, because they have ongoing access to customer and pet information without relying on me, I save hours upon hours of administrative time on billing, processing payments and generating paychecks
Collin 21:44
if you were looking for new petsitting software in the new year, give time to pet a try listeners of our show can save 50% off your first three months by visiting timed pet.com/confessions. Now, unfortunately, people may be listening to this or they have clients that would listen to this and go, that doesn't make any sense. Just get it done. Right pulled the cat down and give the give the shot and get it done. You're wasting time. How do we communicate with them and other people in the pet care circle.
Mikkel 22:16
So I like to say just get it done doesn't work in the long run. So when we when we try and get something done quick and dirty. Every single experience we are teaching the pet something and the pet is experiencing a certain emotion. And so it is what's accomplished through fear and force is cause for remorse is another one of my my my sayings that I try and think about because it really is because in the end, what's going to happen is you're going to get more avoidance, you a lot of times the pet may may stifle or inhibit their expression of that underlying emotion that's causing them to act out or to respond, but they aren't feeling better. And a lot of times what's gonna happen is, you're going to actually see an increase of aggression with your warning signs. So that's where the pet may, you know, maybe they are, maybe they will freeze or they will tolerate, tolerate like parentheses, procedure, but they don't feel better about it. In fact, they're going to feel probably worse, because it's done there, they don't have a choice in that situation, they're going to probably try to avoid it more in future or they may put up with it, and freeze but in the future, they're probably going going to react and react with even more ferocity. And that's a lot of times what you will see if you see that all the time, even you take the traditional bet visit where the pet is placed up on the slippery exam table. And maybe the first few times the pet freezes in fear. But what eventually happens almost always is the pet then starts to try to escape or they actually resort to aggression. And so we want to prevent that progression to aggression by trying to make that experience easy for the pet. And sure there is some advantage of trying to get something done in a way that is as minimally aversive as possible. So in some situations, we may use a treat distraction or something like that. But we don't want to do something if it is causing that pet emotional distress, we want to ensure because really every experience you have you are teaching that pet something and they're they're experiencing some emotion. And so we want to try and make it as minimally aversive as possible, which really is is going to be safer because otherwise you will have those pets that that will aggress like you'll have the cat that all of a sudden the cat starts attacking its side of the towel at the side of people the cat starts to run away, as you said like with the heavy footsteps, they start to pair these experiences or the the dog that, you know they say, Oh, they bit without warning. Well, there probably were a lot of warnings leading up to that but a lot of those warnings may have been taken away so when you take away the pets boy Like their ability to grow their ability to bark, or to otherwise warn you, you are moving then even closer to just going right into that bite. And so so we want to empower our pets to have that voice and really honor that voice and choice in our interactions with them.
Collin 25:17
Yeah, and especially for for many pet sitters, you know, we're not doing a lot of us don't do a lot of procedures, you know, insulin shots are common, but they're not with every single pet. But just realizing, you know, if you get pushback from a client on that, just simply saying, like, this is gonna make your life a lot better. And, and this is gonna for the long run, is what we're working with here. And this is, this is how we can work together and partner together. And just us recognizing, you know, from our perspective, sure, I'm not trying to give this cat insolence. That's, that's an example. Because it happens, it's common, or I medication or whatever it is, these typical situation that come up, I may not be doing that stressful situation that the dog is the animal is under stress. Because the owner is not there, things are different. I'm here, right, and it's gonna take a little while to work on this, and just being observant and watchful for how they're interacting or not interacting with us to see what they're trying to tell us.
Mikkel 26:10
And, and trying to make it as minimally aversive as possible, giving them those coping skills, trying to take that predictability that they already have at their pet Guardian, and being able to use those elements in our own interaction with them. Maybe they have a favorite way that they they interact with their own pet parents, maybe this is like, you know, so we look at well, being of the pet, you know, definitely you taking the dog out in a walk can be really beneficial. But for some dogs, like the thing that they really want, most of all is like that snuggle time just that downtime that chill time, or maybe that play like so, you know, figuring out what are their routines? Like? How can we add in those routines and predictability is so important for pets. And I would say especially for cats, so trying to keep it as predictable as possible for them is going to reduce that fear, anxiety and stress and make that visit so much easier for them and for us.
Collin 27:01
Yeah, I will say a really good question that we put on our intake form, we used to just ask, you know, what, what, what stresses your pet out? What do you know? What are they fearful of? What don't they like? The the logical follow up to that is? Okay, if they're stressed by that, how do you comfort them? How do you address that? How do you take care of that, because either A, you're going to learn that they have no idea what they're doing, then you can help partner with them and give them some good equipment, you know, good tools and resources. Or B, you can go oh, that's what you do. Okay, I will do that as well. I will. And then like you said, this routine stays the same. So it's viewing this partnership with the, with the owners and as utilizing them to and part of this care. You know, you can
Mikkel 27:41
think of different things. Maybe they use a compression garment, like a Fender shirt on their pet, maybe they have certain you know, if it's something like sound anxiety, like it is storm season, or it's around the Fourth of July, you know, looking at, okay, what are the tools that we have, and you know, coming up with a plan, okay, here's how we might handle this situation. Like, you know, having something that maybe muffle some of what the pet is hearing, maybe that's really important. It is very important to know about those sound anxieties going into watching that pet because we want to really have those preventive tools already in action where we're having, you know, the calming music, we're having another buffer of white noise such as a fountain or fan. Maybe that's where we really are with the pet during that time and just our presence being there. And maybe it will keep the pet away from you know, trying to claw their way through the door and severely injuring themselves versus okay, maybe they're they're going to do some anxious pacing, but just a simple neck make a big difference. I think I think we have I've actually pet see my parents on Qt right now. So it's a little crazy. He has some I think he wanted to speak up because he had some severe sounding ideas. Goodbye and then of course it's like trying to try to keep the whole group from going into the barking where we go into like the whole wolf pack kind of kind of craziness. It's a you know, knowing that about the dog like I have my headphones on right now. So probably what happened I probably didn't even hear it but it's probably it's garbage day. So when you think of noise anxiety, guard Shea Oh, that's a good one to know about and I learned that living in Seattle for a while we didn't have very many thunderstorms what oh boy, do we have those dogs that were terrified of garbage day? And so Neo having an idea okay, this is when it happens. You know and that's important to know even if you're out walking that pet you know if you have a pet that's that's absolutely petrified of downs and you're out walking them and the guard shack goes by Oh goodness, say like that. You get that big setback. Have you had that happen before?
Collin Funkhouser 29:54
I've had a coming around a corner and there's a construction crew in the middle of the road where there's a back Whoa, and a beat, you know, the dump truck is beeping as it's backing up in the dog just totally locks up. And you can tell in that instant that this is going to go one or two ways real fast. So we need to get treats, we need to distract, we need to get away and increase the distance from this right now. But a lot of it takes us observing that how this dog is interacting, how this pet is interacting in their world, what are the things that we're looking for, and they're going to be good cues for us.
Mikkel 30:28
So a big part is body language, it's almost always going to be based on their body language. And what we want to do is we want to look at those really subtle signs. So there's really subtle signs of fear, anxiety and stress that we may miss. A lot of times people don't realize that the pet is in a stressed out state until we take what was perhaps just a whisper or a simple like kind of turn away body language shoe like where that dog has to elevate and they have to go into speaking louder, or go into a full on shout, yell. We're actual physical like fighting. And so it's almost like you, you think of it as you know, for a person that's being approached by somebody else, you know, maybe that person's like doing like that direct eye contact, staring at them directly, they're sitting there on the bench, maybe at first, they'll kind of look away, turn their body away. And if that person doesn't change their behavior, it's going to go to something even even louder from that person. So it may go into like, That person then having to like look back having to stare back to the threat, maybe they have to get up and leave, maybe they go into the you know, actually like shouting at that person or a physical fight like, you know, we want to prevent that that animal from having to escalate by listening to them early on. And, and that really helps to to improve that that trust because then the pet can trust that we can hear them. They, it really builds that communication and that common language between us and really does foster that trust. So body language is always really key and, and really looking at what that species needs. So you know, dogs and cats are a little bit different, for instance, okay, and now now we have a siren with our, our noise sensitive dogs. So right here, this is good, I had my whole setup ready, just in case where I had my treats nearby, so I have my little treat stations around. And I'm trying to pair that with a positive and also, you know, remembering that animals really influence one another. So what we want to do is, since they are always learning, you know, if you are in a pet sitting situation with your own dogs, or where maybe you're walking multiple dogs, just being aware that, you know, dogs learn from one another all the time. And so, you know, in some ways that can be beneficial, we have a really stable dog, but in other ways it can be a hindrance, and especially when we have that, that really anxious pet that can can, you know, emotions are contagious, like between people and pets and between pets with one another. So it's really important to be aware of that. Yeah. And to be able to manage that.
Collin Funkhouser 32:55
Exactly. And be a good that starts with observing and going okay, well maybe, you know, maybe phyto isn't triggered by sound, maybe they're not sensitive to that, but but Fifi is, but but finally going to get involved with this. So I need to make sure that I'm addressing I'm working with with Fifi and then also rewarding phyto as well so that we're managing this entire group, and remembering that everybody's an individual, everyone's going to have a voice and we can we can't ignore those individual interactions.
Mikkel 33:25
Exactly, exactly. And, you know, I think that the one thing that that pet guardians miss so often that we can really reinforce as, as pet professionals is being able to reward what we like that our pet is already doing. So so many times it's like, like, the pet is ignored. Like, you know, you think of like the the jumping dog for instance, like they are ignored when they're behaving in a way that we like, like, it's like, Oh, thank God, he finally settled down his mouth, finally relaxed, like now there's some peace and quiet. So we ignore it. And the exact opposite is really what should happen with that that really attention hungry dog is we want to really reinforce those moments when they are calm and quiet, rather than just ignoring them or trying to take advantage of that moment. Because, you know, whatever we reinforce with things that the pet likes is going to increase. So trying to build upon those calm behaviors can make such a big difference. And in for some pets, it's as simple as you know, eye contact and noticing them to reinforcing them with different things that they like whether it's the delivery of their meal, getting to go out and that walk getting the leash on their toy. Like there's so many ways that we build behavior that we may not even be aware of
Collin 34:38
right now and because when people think of reward, they typically think of oh, I've got to get treats. Right. And I know that's, that's a concern. People will have about quote unquote overtreating, and I know that there are dietary restrictions and things like that we always have to take into account to make sure that we're using appropriate ones for that pestival Working with but also, as you said, realizing there's a reward here that If this dog really likes to go on that walk, we have a dog that is, this is exactly them. They're they're kind of, they kind of guard that door they don't like when we come in. So the moment they start ignoring me is one of our, that's when I break out the leash, and boom, we're off to the races, and he's my best friend. But, but if I were to try and you know, rush that or try and address that in another way, it's just going to escalate that situation. And so just recognizing, hey, I need to wait for the signal from him. And again, he's ignoring me now. Boom, now we're off. And now we can go and do this and realize that there are other ways to reward that than this than just treat all the time. Obviously, that's a really good motivator, because they're all food motivated, to some extent, based on fear level and all that. We can do other things in their lives as well.
Mikkel 35:45
Absolutely. So yeah, you look look at know, what, what is the function of this behavior in the situation. And, you know, for the pet that's really wanting and Attention, attention is huge, like just noticing them, you know, and so when it's almost like the kid that escalates, you know, it's like, my, my daughter's like to come up to me, Mom, I don't listen to her right away, or I'm so distracted, Mom, mom, mom, and then nicely Pom, it's like, same thing, animals do the same exact thing. So it's like, you know, it's really important to get reinforced those behaviors that we want to see and just be aware of, you know, just catching ourselves, I catch myself even as a trainer all the time, like reinforcing behavior or not reinforcing the behavior I want to reinforce. And so just being aware of it is such a big step in that process. So just, you know, thinking, Okay, what does this pet what does this pet really like? And for some pets, honestly, like even especially with like, like cats or fearful dogs, this is a big reinforcer for them. So we can use space as a reinforcer.
Collin 36:48
Yeah, no, I love that of going giving them more space, stepping out of their space, stepping into a different space, turning your body a little bit away from them, giving them that alone time really is really kind of all that they're wanting, and then you can work from there. And that's, that starts with you said, like, I do these things sometimes. And we all do. So we have to start with kind of doing an assessment of how I'm currently working, right? What am I how I currently reacting? How do we walk through being able to go and overcome that for ourselves of our own immediate reactions of oh, I used to do this right. But now I need to, how do we train ourselves? Can I Clicker train? Can you clicker? Is that something I can?
Mikkel 37:28
Yeah, yes. So it's actually really cool. They call it they call it tag training with people. And I do that I do that with myself. Sometimes I'm like, okay, you know, the important thing is, is to think of just one thing at a time. So a lot of times we we do what what you call in training as lumping criteria where you have like, maybe you have like eight different things, or even three different things you're having to do, you want to make it simple. And give yourself easy wins get that pet easy wins. So if it's something like, for instance, maybe it's that that dog that does the attention barking, or the attention jumping, maybe my my tag point, the thing I'm focusing on is, you know, when the dog jumps, and I look up, or, you know, when the dog jumps, cross my arms, so something that super simple like that, or we can focus on that positive. So look at okay, when the dogs, four on the floor, I click reward. So just four on the floor, like we start off just easy, it doesn't even have to be a sit, it doesn't have to be a down, we want to just make for these really simple, easy, easy wins for them, that really will translate into easy wins for us as well. And so, so really breaking down that that criteria for a cat, for instance, it's really fearful. An easy win for them could be okay, I walked through the doorway, where I'm going to be delivering the food, I just wait for a moment of eye contact. As soon as I get that eye contact, I deliver that food, then I leave. So we're actually reinforcing social contact, starting off with just eye contact and what what you'll get is you'll get more and more of that, that focus interest that can lead to to a more a closer interaction with them, but we just start off as simple as possible. And don't expect too much all you know, all at once, otherwise you're bound to fail
Collin Funkhouser 39:28
well in for ourselves to like he said, it's a lot to take in and think okay, I'm gonna be watching their lips, their tail, their ears, I'm gonna be watching how wiggly they are. I also have to be knowing about what happened to them the last 24 hours and what their history for their entire life. And I'm going to be doing this and this and I'm going to be Whoa, that's way too much just for ourselves. Right? We've got to as you said, what's the one thing I'm going to do differently during this visit? What's the one? Yeah, this animal? What's the one thing I can do right now and giving ourselves grace for when we don't? And recognizing that it's a process for me and I've got to break my bad habits. I break my way of doing things and how are used to react immediately or I used to try and shout over them. I've got to stop doing that. And it starts to it's just one thing at a time.
Mikkel 40:09
You don't I love how you are you and I were talking earlier about taking those deep breaths. I think that was one of my first experiences of training myself was teaching myself to be in that zen mode. So so when I start to feel stressed when I noticed that the animals are feeling stressed, that's when I'm going to start taking those those deep breaths. And what I'm doing by taking those deep breaths is I'm lowering my own blood pressure, I'm reducing my heart rate.
Collin 40:36
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Mikkel 42:24
Yes, I that's so huge. I I think I'm a really big fan myself of mindfulness. I don't know if you've gotten into that at all. But yeah, it makes such a big difference. And, you know, the biggest thing is like, and I struggled with this for years, my brother had always tried to talk me into oh, you should you should meditate, you should get into this. And it was always so hard for me to like set, you know, carve aside that time and but what I've learned is just being able to be in that in that present moment. And so many times, it's like we're, you know, our mind is perhaps stolen in the past or it's way off in the future. And so it's like, rather than punishing ourselves like, okay, like I'm getting I'm worrying again, or I'm like, you know, thinking back to this other stuff. Like, instead of doing that it's like, okay, when I see that someone once told me, it's almost like you're riding a horse on the trail and the horse, you know, starts eating some is going towards the bushes to grab a snack, and you just gently guide them back on the trail and keep going forward. It's like, okay, when I'm doing that, it's okay. Okay, I notice I'm doing that. Okay, now it's here, we're going to go forward again. So it's just acknowledging, and then we move forward. And we all are going to make mistakes, I make mistakes all the time. As a trainer, you know, as a person, and you know, the faster we can move forward, give ourselves grace, and really get back on onto that focus point of what we're doing. It just makes it so much simpler and better, not only for us, but ultimately for the pets and people that we're with, because we're actually with them versus often our heads somewhere.
Collin 43:56
Yeah, and that's a good, that's a good thing to remind ourselves, the visit may be 30 minutes, I don't have to rush, I can rush that 30 minutes, or I can luxuriate in that 30 minutes. And that all starts with my prep time. And the tools that I'm equipped with, to address anything that I walk into. And that really can impact like he said, how we I don't want to, I want to make sure that I'm in a state so I don't miss the state that they're in. And and that starts with all my prep work and all my everything that comes up before that you're right. It just be that that mindfulness of going, what that means is going How am I doing right now? And now? I want to be there. If not, I continue.
Mikkel 44:36
Yes, I think that that's absolutely huge.
Collin Funkhouser 44:40
The the course itself is is for pet sitters, what does it entail? And and kind of what does somebody need to be prepared for taking it again, or other education opportunities that come along with it?
Mikkel 44:53
So I know that with you we have a special 10% off discount for your listeners. For the fear free petsitter certification course. And what the course itself looks like is there are different modules, and each one has a different topic. So we look at things like fear, anxiety and stress. And then we look at behavior and we look at, you know, animal enrichment basics. And then we look at things like the car ride, you know, whether, you know, maybe it's if we are taking the pet anywhere if the pet is needing to come to us in certain situations. And so looking at ways to reduce fear, anxiety and stress in that situation, and looking at reducing anxiety and stress in the greeting, so whether it's an initial meet and greet, or when we first arrived to go take care of that pet in the home, and we're doing those care tasks and, and reducing anxiety, stress and those those regular interactions, and looking at at that in, in terms of locks and delivering care as well. So different ways to also coordinate with, with the pet guardian, in terms of ensuring that we have all the tools that we need to stay successful. So as you said, it's like, you know, knowledge, knowledge really is, you know, it gives you that empowerment to, you know, feel more comfortable about that situation. And, you know, so if we have a plan in place, say, Okay, if we do have an emergency, if we do have a problem, here's what I can do. And so, you know, maybe we have have that veterinary contact on hand, or in that situation where if that pet does have a concern, maybe we aren't able to deliver those ear meds or that insulin is we need we need to, okay, what do we do so we have a plan of action to be able to offer us that support that we need. And so the fear free, pet sitter course is all about just empowering the pet sitter to be able to work better with the pet guardian, their care team, which can include the veterinary team, and with that pet,
Collin Funkhouser 46:49
I love the fact that it does, again, reinforce this, this pet care team, the pudding are helping us be a better member of that. And we're using other people as a resource. Good to know that we're not alone. Alright, because that can happen a lot. I'm in the house. It's nine in the morning. I've already been up for two hours. And I've got to get this credit shot. I I'm really, really struggling with this right now. Call somebody right, called totally, how can we get around this? What can we do? How can this be prolonged? Can this be delayed? Can we do something? Can I bring the cat to you? How do we work together better. So because that's what we want at the end of the day, whether I give the shot, or it's somebody else, the cat needs a shot. And that's what we need to that's what we need to be focusing on doing that in the in the best way possible. And knowing that we're not alone. And that takes education that takes partnership, communication, all of that to help set ourselves up for for the success and for the better care of the pets that we that we all want. If people are interested in learning more about fear free in checking out the course, how can they do that.
Mikkel 47:54
So you can go to fear free pets.com. And you'll be able to see the pet sitter course right there and be able to see more of an outline of what it entails. And so to become a fear free pet sitter, it's going through the course. And then we have a guiding code of conduct for our professionals, which really gives the pet guardians peace of mind with the pet professional that they're getting. So you you you know, it's a commitment to being a person that will watch it over that that pets emotional welfare and their behavioral well being at the same time that you're taking care of those physical care tasks. That sounds a little daunting. But honestly, it's made as easy as possible and as safe as possible. So fear free, ultimately, we want to make it as easy as possible on everyone involved. And by taking care of that emotional well being that's the best way to do that. And you're taking care of that physical safety, as well. And once you are certified, it's a I believe it's only a $39 renewal fee every year and you get tons of CEE courses, which is really cool. So there's lots of really great ways to continue to learning and just just improving your, your education. I know I'm a lifetime learner, it's like you can never learn enough. The more you learn, the more it's like okay, the more you realize you don't know. And so, you know, it's there's great CEE courses and all it requires is just, you know, taking a couple hours to see ease to keep up on your petsitter certification. And that's something you can definitely keep for life and, and keep going forward. And it's you know, it really empowers and better Sivas. Professional, in what you're doing.
Collin Funkhouser 49:31
Yeah. And what I love about those courses is many of them, you may look and go, Well, I don't do that, like one of the courses on there is like nail trims. Well, we don't provide nail trims as a service. But you know what, I can now teach my clients, you know how to trim their nails or I can have a better communication with the groomers in my area with the vets in my area for how to do a different approach. And so it's equipping ourselves with that knowledge that we can then share whether whether we are going to implement it or not. It's another other arrow in our quiver that we can use and help everybody. And so not being afraid to take some of those courses where you go, Well, I That's not me. I don't I don't offer that. It may come up sometime and it's better to have it now when you don't need it to be scrambling for the answer later.
Mikkel 50:16
Absolutely. That's so so true. And you know, even with our own pets, it's like how many pets struggle with nail trims there are a lot so, you know, and yeah, and one negative experience with you know, paw handling with nails with, you know, footcare like, aka can set the pet back and so, you know, in terms of even you know, the Pepsi and carry but if you're an offering nail trims a lot of times, you know, you may have to do a pasta, you may have to do a rap on the on the pets, like they're, they're different things, medicated baths like, you know, it's so many of those concepts really apply and to different situations and, and can help us with our own pet. So it's, it's just making our lives
Collin Funkhouser 50:55
better. Or we can help set that pet up for success when it does go to the groomer, right we starting some of those procedures and working through that process and helping them have that lower level of stress before they even get there. Right. Like that's, we can help do that and help make sure that this is as good as possible.
Mikkel 51:11
Exactly, exactly. Your little kitty in the background. He's He's He's our special case, he would be one of those pet city dogs that you get, you're like, oh my goodness, he has a whole host issues he has his little noise sensitivity and resource guardian and my goodness, we have the whole gamut but he is such a special dog and it's uh, you know, for for us it's really setting up that predictability, getting that routine and you know, having been empowered to have those behaviors to help them it helped the other pets around us and help us with like how do we respond in this situation? Because yeah, knowledge is definitely power in that with okay, if we do have a pet soon this this is what we can do. And as you said, not remember that you're not alone. That is huge.
Collin Funkhouser 51:56
Absolutely. I couldn't agree more McKell I can't tell you how much I've really enjoyed our conversation and have really appreciated you sharing and encouraging us to learn new ways and to that we aren't alone that there's a lot of resources out there. So I really appreciate you taking your time out of today to do this before you fly hopefully you can go get your your your caramel macchiato or whatever it was. And enjoy that. If people want to get connected with you maybe pick your brain on other stuff. Um, how can they follow along with everything that you're that you're doing these days, so
Mikkel 52:29
well definitely check it out fear free pets calm as well as your free happy homes calm. So fear free happy homes is our our pet Guardian, the pet owners site that is very useful as a pet professional as well. tons of articles and videos on there that are all vetted and just really good resources. And then for me personally finding me on facebook or instagram at McKell Becker, M i k k E L. Becker. And I would definitely love to be connected with you and to hear what you're doing in the industry. And it's you know, I think we all have so much that we can learn and really grow from that, that connection with one another. And I know that I've really enjoyed my time talking with you today. It's just been amazing. You do want to reach out to me personally, you can also feel free to email me at mikkel M I K K E L dot Becker, e CK er, at fear free pets.com. So if you have any personal questions or anything, if I can help direct you in the right direction, feel free to email me,
Collin 53:30
the fear free petsitter certification course came out late last year. And I can't encourage you enough to go and at least check out fear free happy homes to start learning more. If you are interested in going and signing up for that fear free pet certification program, use the promo code PS C 10. And you get $10 off your course. I really think that if we can start combining the mindfulness that it takes for us to be present in the moment with the power of observation and then equipping ourselves with the necessary tools and information to act and respond to behaviors that we see in pet slides. We can really start impacting pet parents in very big ways. And when we are working the same way that vets are that groomers are that the dog walker, that the pets that are when we're all working together and in same consistent manner. The pets are going to have a much better experience, the owners aren't going to be stressed out in our lives are going to be a lot easier to we want to thank today's sponsors, time to pet and pet perennials for making today's show possible. And we really want to thank you so much for listening for taking time out of your busy day to come and listen to this. We hope that you've learned something and we'd love to hear your experience either using fear free some of the methodologies or how you plan to implement it in your business. You can send that to feedback at Pitzer professional comm or anywhere on social media. Hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and we'll be back again soon.
