to get situated here as you all hop in and we hang out. I have some some topics I want to discuss mainly just one but I'm gonna make you guys a little bit higher and you guys get here let me know in the comments below where you guys are from I always like to know where you guys are from here all right cool Utah okay looks like cool hello all right we're gonna get started on this guys um so the title of this video is basically something that I've been dealing with with with a lot of my clients for a while so we'll get a client that will call that will set up a call with and we'll talk about hey my dog all of a sudden is like this or my dog all of a sudden is acting a certain way or my dog is all of a sudden being a I'm just gonna take it off and I'm gonna make you guys here sorry about this guys so anyway so we're talking about dogs behavior changing all of a sudden and I want to point out something very interesting about this so when we talk about dogs behavior all of a sudden changing you guys always have to look or you should be looking at the age of the dog so basically what I'm saying is a lot of a lot of the dogs that I work with online a lot of people when their dog hits eight months to 12 months to a year they be they become an adult dog they become a dog that is changing in behavior the dog is not a puppy anymore um and we've been and I've been seeing this a lot I've been seeing this a lot with a lot of different dogs um people coming in and saying hey all of a sudden my dog doesn't like my other dogs or all of a sudden my dog doesn't like puppies or all of a sudden my dog doesn't like x y on z and a lot of that has to do with just your dog becoming an adult dog so just remember that when your dog is a puppy and they start changing behavior between the months of eight to 12 months that just means that they're becoming an adult dog so it doesn't always necessarily mean that your dog is becoming different or your dog is all of a sudden getting a certain way or a certain behavior that just means that your dog is becoming an adult an adult dog so that's really the only thing I wanted to discuss as far as that topic goes and I want to answer some of your your popular dog training questions as people are rolling in from Sweden Kansas Liverpool awesome awesome awesome Ottawa um cool so let's uh let's start let's start asking some questions uh I know a lot of you guys have have been over uh on my Instagram today I posted this whole thing um and then I want to I also wanted to just touch about touch base on that too just because I've gotten so much support on uh what I talked about today and I just I hit like this breaking point and I just couldn't I could not say something so um you know there's a lot of comments on just Instagram or just just in social media in general not necessarily with me I mean everybody has social media and everybody deals with things differently but um I really uh yeah I posted a big story on my Instagram and just talked about how um you know just the the pitfalls and the downfalls of of people being afraid of using tools and uh how you know how much it's affecting dog owners out there so if you guys haven't checked that out I would do so it's a really good conversation so anyway let's get into some questions and uh I want to I want to talk to you guys as much as I possibly can on here and go over some frequently asked questions books and videos are nice but what are the at what point should people seek help from a professional trainer it's a great question um I always suggest you know it's it's hard for me to answer that um simply because I I have so many people having great success with just watching a youtube video from me which I'm really grateful for and I'm glad that you guys you know have the opportunity so it really if you're at your wits end or you're having a hard time with behavioral cases I always would recommend getting getting professional help just in general I mean it's it's even if you're watching videos and you're doing curriculum and you're finding new things out um if you're still having problems or you're unsure of something higher in a professional is always like my first go to like when anybody types like this whole freaking DM on Instagram of like these 16 different pages I I don't even read any of those because it there's nothing I'm going to be able to do over an email or over a DM so hiring a trainer is always a good start and or it's always a good thing to do in general I don't think that there's any timeline that you have to say okay I gotta hire a trainer because the internet isn't um you know working I think hiring a trainer just in general is a is a good idea um but like I said I I have had thousands of people reach out and say that they've they've seen really great improvements with just watching content online not necessarily mine but others as well so anyway if you guys get here like this video we have almost 300 people here thank you guys for hopping on here today I'm excited to get to know you guys a little bit and answer your questions live um the other thing I wanted to mention is I'm drinking tea but um that's not what I wanted to mention but I wanted to tell you guys that uh I've hired a new I've had a new editor for my youtube channel so I used to do all of my edits that you guys would see on youtube uh it took me uh it it takes me sometimes three days to edit those in between you know working and things like that so that's why I wanted to do this live is to just let you guys know that we're going to be putting out content more than we ever have before um so we plan on doing two to three videos every week um and because I've hired a full-time editor to do that so I'm really excited to do that with you guys this week we're not putting out any content because we're catching up um and next week starting next week we're putting out two to three videos a week so uh I just wanted to hop on here and uh you guys support me and I want to support you as much as I can so I want to um I want to hop on here and chat and with you guys and answer your question uh Allie and Odin asks how do you know if your dog is fear reactive or excitement reactive my dog makes the same sound while he's playing when he reacts to dogs we're on a walk but it's but he seems scared it's a good question I think the deciding factor it's probably a little bit of both I think that if your dog is playful with other dogs off leash and your dog is reacting with the same external vocalization it's probably just it looks possibly aggressive I talk a lot about dog reactivity but I think I think a lot of that is probably just your dog is frustrated to get to the other dog to say hello or they want to go and meet the dog um whatever you know whatever it is so it's probably the same type of behavior and the same type of uh of uh yeah behavior that they're seeing so it's a good question but it's probably similar behavior um um cool Michael that was cool awesome that's great yeah my two-year-old spaniel is all of a sudden challenging my older spaniel in some situations out of nowhere and they're both high energy dogs and it's happening more often how can I help them so if your dog is challenging it kind of just depends again you know this is this is a you know hiring a trainer is always nice but I want to talk about these types of situations really quick if you have two dogs that are kind of all of a sudden going after each other they may be again the two-year-old mark and some dogs is that maturity mark so it could be it could be something to to that spaniel is just hitting that maturity mark and he's starting to push the other dog around and he's starting to you know maybe take advantage of opportunities of the other dog for whatever reason I don't know but I think the big thing is just advocating for the other dog that's getting picked on I think it's important for you to make sure that you're advocating for your dog and you're you're telling the other dog like hey Nick yelling across the room hey knock it off like if you know my cat jumps on the counter I'll yell across the room to get him off and he'll jump off so like if you see your dog kind of lining up with the other dog and they're getting kind of weird you can holler at him and kind of correct him that way with voice inflection the other thing is is just maybe start to really analyze and audit if there's anything changed in your life if you've moved if if somebody has entered the life left the life routines have changed situations have changed sometimes these types of environmental changes can also trigger a dog to start acting up towards another dog exercises another thing if your dog is not getting enough exercise or maybe getting less exercise than they're normal normally used to they could also start acting up so and then to be honest with you there's just sometimes where dogs get to a certain point where maybe they just you know they don't see eye to eye in certain things and they're starting to kind of have it out with each other and there's really nothing that's that's changed and there's nothing that you've done necessarily wrong and it's something that you're just going to have to manage with obedience and management with this with the systems in place at home so anyway let's see wow there's a lot of questions coming in um whoa cool um let's see geez um can I use the e-collar on a puppy um the e-collar is an extension of your communication should you correct the dog with an e-collar or correct the puppy on e-collar I'd say no I wouldn't do that but if you want to use an e-collar to extend your communication with the dog look a lot of us do with the remote collars you can totally do that just have to make sure that you know what you're doing with the e-collar I think that that's like the biggest thing I wouldn't use it to correct um no what are your thoughts on neutering and do you think it's a good or bad idea to do so wow that's a question we we get a lot too um so for me my I have dogs that are intact and I have dogs that are fixed in my pack so my Saint Bernard who is 11 which is pretty old for a large breed dog he's intact there's certain behavioral traits there's I will say that there's I did a podcast with a with a a veterinarian talking about this if you want to look at the read that you can um it's it's it's a tough question it just depends on the breed depends on the temperament of the dog but I think generally speaking if you if you let your dog the reasons why people will ask you to neuter your dog or fix your dog early there's a ton of them I mean obviously there's overpopulation um we don't want any random breedings we don't want any unpredictable breedings you know dogs having puppies and things like that that's not good um so I mean there's that but if you're just talking about a dog that you got home and you're wondering about if you should fix your dog or not I mean there have there they're in my opinion there's definitely some correlations and behaviors with intact males um not getting along with other males for sure maybe being a little bit of pushy but the pros of keeping your dog intact until they fully mature I think sometimes outweigh those behavioral things like to give you a perfect example is my Saint Bernard doesn't do well with other dogs but I'd rather my Saint Bernard live longer and not get along with dogs he doesn't know so it's really just there's so many variables with fixing your dog if you adopted a dog randomly um you know and it's a dog that you're not breeding for certain reasons to to train and things like that and you're just like wondering I would wait for them to really develop their bones and get their hormones going and then fix them you know around one years to one and a half years um but again it really just depends on so much I mean there's there there's 10 different answers with 10 different people on that so it's it's hard but that's my opinion on that Anna let's see my eight-year-old husky is virtually blind from glaucoma he's recently lost his dog housemate he is now very nervous in situations how can I decrease his stress levels well um I think again just being there for your dog and advocating for your dog um uh CBD helps uh just getting getting it's you know CBD I did get a question on here I saw Kevin flying in about CBD at CBD is great it's definitely not it's not you know it's it's nothing that takes things away it just kind of takes the edge off but CBD is good to kind of like relax a dog just you know a little bit it's not like a sedative or it's not uh like medication or anything like that but if your question is I have a blind dog that was successful with a dog that had recently passed that lived with us and now is nervous that's uh that's a normal regression of okay the dog's shepherd if you will through life is not there anymore so obviously we're going to be nervous we're going to be anxious so just do the best you can to guide your dog around the situations that they're nervous with and um there's nothing that you can do to to really help with that other than just kind of push your dog through these situations together and work as a team um but you know CBD helps to kind of calm down any anxiety but I would just help your dog um be a little bit more I guess independent to teach teach your dog what they need to be doing that they're having problems with and just work through it together Lauren Lopez asks about the reactive Sheltie um can you use a prong and a reactive dog absolutely um I'm actually making a video it's in production right now it should be out next week going over the sizing of the prong collar that's probably my most frequently asked question I am making a particular video about that that you guys can watch I can't every single dog is different but that's how I'm going to address that situation about how to address that yes you can correct the dog for reactivity and the sizing of the prong collar I have a ton of videos on but you can watch that maybe um next week when it comes out so it's a good question um Andy let's see we recently adopted a 20 month old lab pit mix he is very shy and fearful we're trying to build structure and leadership uh can doing too much too fast hinder that pushing him too fast um yeah I mean I I think just in general pushing any dog too fast can hinder anything um so I I wouldn't you know I wouldn't worry about it so much just with him being nervous I would just worry about pushing a dog in general too much but I think just slow and steady um going out and and working in incremental sessions for 10 to 15 minutes or or more um and just helping him get helping him do new stuff so putting him on a place command helping him go up the stairs anything that he's afraid of helping him get over it's kind of like people like we're afraid of doing something we're like we're afraid of this tea it's like the scariest thing ever and this could be anything for your dog whatever this is and then they try it and they're like oh it's not so bad and you just keep using positive reinforcement and you know just uh keep um uh desensitizing these types of situations so uh yes you can go too fast with any dog but I think with a more insecure dog lots of positive reinforcement lots of motivation and lots of patience and consistency and I think you'll be fine but don't overdo it I wouldn't be doing anything more than the most 20 minute sessions with that dog um is it true that a prong collar can fuel certain dogs to be more reactive absolutely Aaron um see that's the big thing about equipment guys that I'm I'm just like exhausted uh about not not from that question just like in general is I'm certainly I advocate for tools you guys so I use e-collars I use prong collars I use martin gales slip collars harnesses food treats I mean I use everything in the toolbox to work with dogs that I work with because we have thousands of dogs coming in from all over the world and we have to make sure that our toolbox is full of the things that we may need in diversity to make sure that the dogs that we are working with are going to be successful so um just one thing I want to point out with the prong collars is I don't use prongs and every dogs I don't use e-collars on every dogs um there's there's people out there that use these tools uh unfortunately bad and they can mess dogs up and anybody that doesn't know what they're doing can mess a dog up with any tool not just prong collars and e-collars but with food and with harnesses and leashes so when you're using tools in general you guys it's not the only thing that I use when I put out videos here on content forms platforms like youtube and instagram I'm using tools to to educate I don't need to educate people how to put a normal leash on a dog or how to teach a dog to sit because everyone knows how to do that I put out content that I feel like people don't know how to do properly that's why I've built the platform that I have because I think everybody I shouldn't say that I think I think some people are like that guy only uses equipment and I certainly don't I use equipment I use equipment on some of the dogs that I work with I put out content on equipment because I feel and I fear that people are using them wrong and I love dogs more than anybody or more than the next person and I don't want anybody to misuse tools and I don't want any dog to be um you know further back so there's that but yes you can use if a dog is reactive physically and conflicted and really uh just built up and you pop them with the prong collar and create that conflict it can absolutely create more frustration and more animosity towards whatever they're reacting to or even you they can redirect on you so there's certainly different things that you can use to get your point across and to help dogs understand what you're trying to do and your behavior modification process but absolutely the any tool like you can a treat make a dog more aggressive in training yes kind of harness yes anything to really agitate the dog if you're not you know doing a lot of precision and not knowing how to handle the situation can can absolutely uh you know you know not not do what you want it to do it could backfire all right I'm gonna take a sip of tea I want you guys to uh we have uh over 330 people in here it's freaking awesome I don't even know 20 people so it's really cool I'm gonna drink some tea when you guys are here just like this video I'm going to continue to answer your dog training questions and this is going to live on YouTube forever so um anyway um I was told correcting a dog was psychological abuse can you debunk that Allie and Odin um I think I already answered one of these questions for you but that's okay um um again like I I'm not here to argue with with there's two sides the reality is guys is there's people who are going to be comfortable and agree with correcting and punishing a dog for bad behavior that's one side the other side is going to be people who do not believe in that and all of their facts data research backs that and then on the other end of the spectrum everyone here that believes in punishment and discipline is the same thing so it's this constant left and right thing of this and they're never going to go okay let's agree it's never going to happen so anybody who doesn't support corrections tools or anything like that is always going to fight and attack and I disagree with all of that but that's where I've that's where I I I try to come in and I said wait a minute how come I've just how come I just did this thousands of times documented it hundreds of times have all these people that are really happy with the success and it's still it doesn't I could cure cancer tomorrow with a prong collar and people will hate the prong collar because of the agenda that they've built up in their own mind it's it's a roadblock in their own defense I don't care I don't care to argue with anybody who disagrees with the uses of prong collars and equipment my goal is is dog owners there is something else out there that can help but to answer your question how can I debunk the fact that psychological abuse can mess up a prong collar can create psychological abuse well I think that that's the same thing of saying like if you yell at it if you yell at a dog or you yell at a person it's going to create psychological abuse I think to some extent you certainly could do that if you just hammered it in all day and the dog is just sitting there and we're just correcting a dog for absolutely no reason eating popcorn like absolutely but that's my point is is you have to realize that the people who aren't backing or pro equipment will do anything in their power to just say that that's what will happen and so how do I debunk it I have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and other the people have done it thousands and thousands and thousands of times so there is no there's no like research data that I can pull up right now to say if you use a prong collar everything's going to change but I can tell you that if you misuse tools you can mess up anything and I also can say that if you use tools properly in the way that they were intended to mainly by veterinarians and clinically issued doctors for these types of situations you can make things better so you can't always listen to one side I believe that you know as a balanced dog trainer I use mainly purely positive training mainly positive positive positive only but 10% of my training because of the amount of dogs that I work with that have behavioral problems and issues I have to I don't have to but I choose to use punishment because it's streamlined the communication more than anything else I never started working with dogs one way or the other I just I tried every single system that I could do professionally and I learned what worked best and that's what I went with so moving on um let's see okay where does the first collar for a puppy any collar um really uh just a flat collar martin martin gale collar is like my favorite like go-to collar um so I would say like a martin gale collar it's safe it's easy to use I think that all the people who submitted their stories about using training tools on your instagram today debunks the psychological abuse fact absolutely just what I mean just one person I have a dog sitting right here that loves her prom collar um debunked I guess I mean it's not yeah so my gsd has has a very high pack drive have you ever had to deal with this what's the best way to deal with the separation from dog without putting them into drive she will jump off a balcony well I think just um separating the dogs individually would would do you good um so putting them on leashes and separating them would be a great idea um how to get my dog to focus heal if he isn't food or toy motivated um just the least pressure uh it's tough I mean definitely if if your dog isn't motivated by something I would urge you and encourage you to try harder um so there's different things that you can do like try a tastier food try chicken or beef something like that or if you get a squeaker toy or something like that put it on the end of a long line and really get your dog built up for that um but if not you can just use a little bit of leech pressure and it's going to take a little bit more time you can use leech pressure to kind of keep your dog up there's also healing sticks so there's actually sticks that you can use to when you're and I'm assuming that this is for competitive obedience for those of you don't know competitive obedience um for a competitive heal is getting your dog to look at you as your healing um you can actually get like this stick it's but it's literally just a stick it's a piece of wood and you can kind of encourage the dogs head up and reward them verbally if they're not taking food or treats um so my dog gets along with most dogs but some dogs he starts barking and lunging at how do I stop the barking and lunging behavior and how do I properly train this aggression well I think the the question is is um how are you how are you handling the situation when it happens so if your dog is um reacting to another dog um how are you teaching your dog that that's an appropriate behavior so I think that that's like the the big thing um is your dog's probably not like aggressive your dog's probably reacting so if your dog's friendly with most dogs and then sees a dog and then gets overly excited and um stimulated they may react and it may look aggressive but um just working on leave it and working on your leech pressure um would be a would be a good idea you can get a healing stick uh you can use anything use just use a stick it's just a stick you just kind of raise the dog's head up to kind of teach them uh that sort of thing if you guys are here don't forget to like this video this is fun I'm gonna keep going live uh here on my youtube channel and I'm going to answer your dog training questions I appreciate you guys hopping on uh again I'm doing this live because I'm not putting out a video this week because we're editing a bunch of new stuff for next week um okay now there's like uh there's so many questions I can't keep up um what kind of e-call or do you recommend dog trip uh how long does a fear period last depends on the dog depends on the breed depends on the behavior um depends on what you consider fear generally speaking they go through like puppies go through like a fear stage anywhere from a week to three weeks um they kind of like all of a sudden they're like puppies go through this like I'm on top of the world to like oh my gosh there's um you know there's other things in this world and they get scared for a little bit um any tips to stop my gsd from barking and jumping at cyclists and joggers teach your dog that that's not okay how do you teach your dog well you have to correct them you have to punish them we talk about this a lot um with dogs and just using operant conditioning so if your dog does something that you don't like like if your dog jumps up here and they're crowd surfing they're eating things off here you could tell them off that probably isn't going to work because the the currency of the cheesecake that's on the table is way more important than you're off you can say hey get down or else you're in trouble and he's going to be I don't care I'm going to keep doing what you want the same template when your dog is jumping and barking at bicyclists is you're going to say off no please don't you have to enforce it what's your enforcement they're going to do this to you when you do that they're going to say I don't care I feel like I want to do this you're telling me that you don't want me to I don't care how you feel so you have to correct them you have to teach them hey leave you know just using your leash leave it pop give them some sort of discipline some sort of structure some sort of correction for for doing that um and that's the fastest way I've I've been able to work with dogs uh in school um with some of the dogs that we've worked with as well as um just being in the training academy with hundreds of dogs um what should the process look like for finding the right tool for your dog good question Kelly I think I think it's a matter of um understanding your your outcome and your goals so for an example let's break it down to like healing if you're having a hard time healing your dog and your dog isn't conceptualizing heal and you're doing this the whole time and the dog so so sometimes what we do is we start off with a flat collar dog comes in with a flat collar the dog is unresponsive to the flat collar for obvious reasons the flat collar has no action there's no action to the collar it doesn't do anything it doesn't come together nothing happens so when you're doing like leash pressure if you have a collar that has action like a slip collar or martingale or a pinch collar or something like that that actually teaches the dog you just kind of go up in in increments I have some dogs that are really responsive and sensitive enough to a slip collar that's all they need is they need a little bit of pressure and they they understand it and they get it um and then you kind of go up from there okay my dog is completely ignoring me with a prom collar with whatever um then you switch to something else so you just have to find what your dog responds to your equipment that you're going to be using is your communication with the dog so you have to just find what the clearest communication is with the dog if you want your dog to stop pulling and they're blowing through everything that you're putting on them you just have to switch the the the system um that's how I that's how we do that at the facility what brand of collar dog cha do you recommend any E collars that won't break the bank the good one seems to be expensive well it's a good question Gabriella but investing in a good E collar is the difference between the E collar being an E collar versus a shock collar um because if you get like a really crappy collar they typically don't have communicative levels they have like really high levels to just correct your dog and not communicate so I know dog cha's units are anywhere between 150 to you know on up um I would just do the best you can to maybe go on amazon find something used um or something like that but I wish I could give you an alternative to find something cheaper than $150 for an E collar but it's just one of those things that you really want to get a good quality E collar because if you don't get a good quality E collar it's not going to work as good as it can or um you know whatever so is there a certain age when you can use a slip collar or slip or prong um talk about this a lot of my podcast um but a slip collar is is something just using pressure just using action pressure in general I think is something that you can start off with pretty easy if you're skilled enough you don't want like a young puppy choking themselves out and you know possibly doing damage to to any part of their body because they're young and they're fragile and correcting them with anything really physically for that matter you don't ever really want to do that but I think just using a slip leash like a kennel leash that slips together is is a good good good thing to start off with just to teach that directional pressure which I have a video coming out um next week uh on um on leash pressure so how do you feel about raw diets love them all my dog is on raw raw diets um whereas your training academy it's in upstate new york my boy is reverting back to his fear reactivity after three years of me rehabbing him and you reason why all of a sudden he's falling off the wagon um I would just try to maybe try some different things so if you're using different collars I would try to maybe switch him up but again just like Rebecca work with find a trainer I mean that's what we do as trainers is we problem solve that's what I'd like to do anyway when you come in I problem solve with other trainers other trainers come in and we train they're like hey what do you think about this or you know I'm having a problem with this dog so I think just finding yourself a creative trainer to help you get back on the wagon that you think that you fell off it would be a good idea having that support and that that you know just somebody that third eye is always a good idea so um anyway I'm going to take a sip of this there's almost 350 people in here you guys are awesome I appreciate you guys supporting me I mean it's a world to me I'm never going to stop as long as you guys keep supporting it because I do it for you guys I don't um it's it I mean that's that's what I talked about today in my instagram story is I could retire tomorrow probably and my my business is is actively running really well with the 10 times x amount of employees that we have and I I do this for you guys I really want to help um you guys become better dog owners and that's something that I think about often is I just want to help you guys so I'm appreciative and grateful for you guys hopping on here and hanging out with me tonight um okay let me get back to some questions here my border collie melissa asks my border collie husky mix starts screaming if there's a reactive dog that has tunnel if there's a reactive dog that has kind of and the e-caller and prong do not face him how do I correct this behavior well melissa to be honest with you I very rarely it's so it's not about the it's not about the equipment it's how you use the equipment so I would have you direct do a lot of directional changes so if you're out with your dog see that's the thing too is you have to realize that some dogs just don't care about any correction you could turn your e-caller all the way up hit it they won't care they're like yeah I don't care I want to go after that happens all the time same thing with a prong collar we're like sitting in there and we're like hey do you pay attention to me what are you doing what are you doing they're like yeah okay I want to go kill that dog so um that happens but it's the way you use them it's the exercises that you do with them so I'd be doing a lot of counter conditioning with obedience so working on your heel working on your leave it um and nine times out of ten a prong collar correction not working means it's not fit properly so you want to make sure that that prong collar is high and tight not down here it should be way above your e-caller sitting right behind the dog's ears so that's what I would do I have a lot of videos on that um so that's the first place I would start is don't worry so much about hey this thing isn't working worry and focus on how you're using it how often do service dogs not often um it's not my forte I primarily work on relationship building and behavior modification um so my facility does some of that too um how do you build confidence for dogs in public areas who are nervous um I like so if I have a dog that is nervous now we have a dog in right now little cute little puppy um he's super cute but he's afraid of everything so what we do is you go to an area and you try to supply them with anything that they love so if they love treats you bring treats if they love their toy you bring toy if they love you know being pet you bring your hands so when you get out to these scary places like Home Depot or something like that and they're like oh man um you just you let you let them soak it up you let them soak it in every time that somebody passes that they're unsure of um that that nothing bad happens to that dog then they develop confidence and so desensitizing things that they're afraid of is a great thing to do um you just want to expose them to the right places at the right time um so lots of positive reinforcement lots of good job buddy good job you know um and just desensitizing them to these things so um that's what I would do all right my gsd once caught and killed a squirrel and now I'm super obsessed with them any tips to deal with squirrel obsession she's not interested in food on walks um yeah I think just a is you know like whoa so many questions I think um just in general prey drives dogs are are natural uh so it's primal instinct for a dog to want to chase little fuzzy things that squeak um that's why they chew on squeaker toys like we think it's cute and it's funny that dogs are like grabbing these little teddy bears and ripping them apart they're killing it it's what they're doing when a dog um here's a squeak in the couch and they rip up the couch they think it's a mouse um so dogs are natural killers if you will um they're animals they're they're canines and so if he actually caught a squirrel uh he's like hooked and he's obsessed with like okay I can actually you know tangibly catch one of these things and actually have it um it makes total sense you know it's like getting the stuffed animal that he's always wanted um so you just be working on obedience would be leave it it would be healing um it would be on disengagement I wouldn't be focusing on hey my dog is paying attention to squirrels I would be focusing on hey if you're paying attention to squirrels but you're in a nice heel I'm okay with that and if you work on a focused command back to you um for little bits of time I would be working on that too so um I would just you know and then try to try to actually take take advantage of that prior drive and maybe use a tug toy or something with a squeaker in it to pay him for paying attention to you um so anyway um where can you purchase my merch you can go to I think shop no bad dogs.com it's on our website it's on my Instagram profile if you go to at Tom Davis the link tree thing you can shop right there but we have all of our merch and we're coming out with new merch every month starting this spring which I'm really excited about um so any good dog trainer in Long Island um your book till summer yeah um well I just I just did a Instagram post uh encouraging dog owners to tell people and dog owners where they're from dog trainers I mean go on my Instagram post and type it in say hey I'm looking for a dog trainer in Long Island and hopefully somebody can pick that up how do I work on training the new environments when my dog won't take even high value treats well I I have a video specifically on this that'll give you 20 minutes of straight information Avery um it's on my youtube channel and I think it's called um training your dog without treats or training your dog without food or something um but it if your dog isn't food motivated or anything like that you just a lot of people deal with that you know and that's how a lot of people end up with me is because they work with the trainer that their whole training cycle and whole structure is predicated off of reward based systems and when the dog isn't motivated by hot dogs you fail miserably and that's common and so it just depends on what you want to accomplish so it's it's hard to answer but you have to look at your you have to audit your actual goals that you want and try to figure out individually how to do that so don't be discouraged if your dog just doesn't um oh it's called getting your dog to behave anywhere yes I think that that's too much thank you so much for putting that in but that video I would check out because that's like I honestly personally it's like one of my favorite videos I did it with Lakota um and it's a really good one it talks about what are you gonna do if your dog doesn't respond to food and some dogs when they're out and they're stimulated and they're like holy crap this is the real world they're not gonna care about food they don't care about food so don't predicate your training off anything other than your relationship with your dog yes you're welcoming me good luck and my nine month old female pit barks at everyone she doesn't stop also when she walks she pulls and even chokes herself I would recommend a pinch collar for your dog it's the safest one of the safest tools to use definitely the safest collar you can use on the dog um to stop a dog from pulling and hurting their tracheolarylionics um so I have I have a lot of videos on how to introduce that and how to pick the right collar for your dog so um you just need more control that's all I just wanted to say you've helped me trim my while I'm watching your videos thank you so much I appreciate that I really do that's why I that's why I'm here I want to help you guys my passion um since since I can remember has been helping dogs so I'm really grateful for the platform we've created you guys are the freaking best really really are I'm so excited to to see what we're gonna do this year we have a lot of cool stuff on the plate so um let's sir I just got a puppy cleared for not being innocent whoa clearbred of health good no not innocent in content okay sorry I thought my puppy got cleared for but not being innocent our dog is terrified of anything in public he is fearful of pressure around his neck he was dumped in a neighborhood at four months old before we got him what tool approach would be best for him well I'd have to really see you know that's something that again like again I would hire a trainer to help you um sometimes when we are dealt with a hand that we don't know what to do that's why we hire a professional um like my snow blower just broke I am not a I am not mechanically sound at all I am not going to spend my time and energy trying to do that I'm going to hire a snow blow small engine mechanic to fix that for me so my best suggestion for you is to find somebody that can help and I know that that doesn't really help me because I'm help you because I'm I'm I'm sure you probably have um but um you know motivation you don't have to use a collar you can use something else that he's more comfortable with if he's more comfortable with a harness but I would suggest trying to trying to desensitize a collar because that's going to be the safest thing for you to work with him um so you can help him uh through time you know get better and get desensitized but I think again just lots of positive reinforcement um you know I've I've I've had a lot of breakthroughs with dogs with the prong collar um it is it is something that dogs will shut down on in the beginning because they don't you could put anything on them and they don't like it but the prong collar has really helped me break dogs through I have a I have a um a video on my youtube channel uh with a pit bull that I probably did um in the last three months he's a tan pit bull and um I would recommend watching that because that was a dog that shut down all the time and we used the prong collar to break him out of his shell and to get him more confident and now he's living a really really great life because of that so hmm can you talk about the introduction of tools to petite dogs my dog is four pounds and we use a paper or I'm sorry only a pager collar but I would love to upgrade to a dog truck yeah dog truck makes an IQ mini which is a very very small unit um and in the reality is like hey I have a four pound dog a lot of things are going to be big for that four pound dog because it weighs as much as this candle cap so um dog truck I believe makes a IQ mini that's like really small and petite I would check that out that's a collar that I would check out Lauren ass I live in a smaller town and we only have positive reinforcement trainers about four different companies super disappointing when dealing with a reactive dog I would agree a lot of people are dealing with that which is why balanced dog training is through the roof we I know myself and my colleagues we cannot keep up so it is unfortunate but I do know that dog owners out there are understanding some of these realities of things and so the I have found that the hardest part with a balanced dog trainer more than likely is they're completely booked so that's the unfortunate thing but you can do online session with me or somebody else that does balanced dog training that can actually help you with these things so that's something that you could look into too so you can you can work with somebody remotely I've been doing online training for about five years been doing it a long time and well I would consider that a long time and this was before COVID off obviously so once COVID hit I know a lot of other people jumped on doing online stuff so that's what I would recommend have you worked with Shiba inus yes I have I have a nine year old Shiba that is very feisty towards other dogs sounds about right um yeah Shiba's are one of the only dogs Shiba's great Danes and Huskies have been in my opinion the only consecutive dogs that their breed has dictated their behavior if I get it somebody's like oh I have a German Shepherd or have a golden I don't care like what you say they are every dog is different I've never had dogs act the same continually and consistently except for those breeds so correcting the behavior when it happens Shiba's are very cat like dogs they are in it for themselves and they're they could be very bossy like you said so just making sure that you're correcting the behavior you don't like again that's a template for anybody out there I had an online today struggling with this reactivity we we've tried working with a trainer and the trainer only wanted to reward the dog when they barked and blah blah blah it's like I get it but listen if your dog is reacting and doing things that you don't like doing things to a point where you're almost getting rid of the dog and that was the case for these trainers and this morning correct it I always tell people okay so you're having all these problems and it's a really um it's really stressful or whatever but you've never corrected your dog and people are like well you say leave it and you know we throw a shoe across the room or whatever but none of that stuff works dogs need to be communicated in a very assertive like hey hey me pay attention to me don't do that that's bad and they go oh that's bad yeah that's bad don't do that and then they don't do it and then you pay him and they get cookies and treats and all that fun stuff opera conditioning just like how we raise children so how do you stop puppy communication biting at a 10 month old wait 10 month old 10 month old German shepherd husky still uses his mouth more when he's bored to pay attention it's stressing out of family so I'm gonna say it again correct your dog correct your dog correct your dog punish your dog tell them that it's wrong that doesn't mean literally tell them that it's wrong because they're not going to care about that you gotta use a collar use a communication collar use something that's going to get to the point say hey what are you doing you can't do that just putting a martin gale collar and a basic color coda come here baby come here I'll show you guys a martin gale collar so this is a martin gale collar that like herm springer makes right so you put this on and you put your leash on here and your dog bites you and you do this you go leave it and you pop pop and they go hey I don't like that you go well stop biting me because you're ruining our lives okay and you mark it with a leave it and they stop and then you pay him so I hope I hope that that's that helps I'm gonna take a sip of water answer some more questions it's a problem about being passionate about something is I just don't stop and I gotta take a quick water break but if you guys are here like this video how do you book an online session go to my website americascanoneducator.com better yet go to my instagram there's a little tab that says book now I am completely booked right now uh until I think I don't know but I don't know when I'm booked till to be honest with you but you just gotta stay updated on that but that's a book um I usually do morning sessions Monday Tuesday Wednesday 9 a.m to 12 eastern standard time in the morning I usually do all my online so if you don't have availability and it says that there's no availability it refreshes every two weeks we don't book anything out more than two weeks because my my schedule changes so quickly how was it working with wolves it was awesome it was really really cool a great experience really great experience they're absolutely uh beautiful beautiful let's see um do you think neutering a two-year-old uh male driven shepherd would help with aggression maybe um like I said before neutering is one of those things that it's really tough to say if it's going to help or not but it could I don't think it's going to do any if your dog's already two and you neuter them it's probably not going to do anything worse so it I think it can only help um how do you tighten a dog's heel and recall use a leash um no it's not standard to continue to correct your dog that just means that they don't understand what you're correcting them for probably so if we're doing this the whole time heel heel heel heel heel your foundation your fundamental healing in your leash pressure probably isn't existing so your dog probably doesn't know fundamentally what heel is so a lot of times people will tell their dog to sit and their dog looks at them like they have ten heads it's like what what does that mean uh they don't know sit so just I guess my my answer to that is just make sure that your dog fundamentally knows what heel is before you try to do it outside if your dog half-ass nose heel kind of and you go out and you do it in a very distracted environment there's a good chance you're going to constantly be yanking on your dog so so can you explain relationship-based reactivity my dog Winnie is with you right now and Kyle told me that he believes her reactivity to other dogs uh could be relationship-based so relationship it's not relationship-based reactivity that just means that the dog is reactive because of the relationship with you more than likely I don't know uh I can't speak for Kyle but um that if somebody says that the dog is reactive because of their relationship that means that the dog is reactive because of the relationship that you have with um with that dog do you know Caesar Milan no I have a lot of friends that that work with Caesar every day um but no we've never we've never met off-leash training suggestions for my eight-month-old lab well I mean there's there's two things you're either off leash with a remote collar or you're on leash with a long line and I and to me um I might like I I did a post today in my story and I just I never have to really use my e-caller with my dog but I always have my e-caller on my dog when I'm in public places off leash because I just don't know what other people are going to do so I have a e-caller video on how to introduce the e-caller on my channel on recall I have I'll repeat that I I have a e-caller introduction video specifically for recall on my YouTube channel it's two videos ago in my latest post I would highly recommend checking that out because to me I love animals and love dogs too much to be naive to say oh well I'm just going to use treats to get my dog to come back off leash because once they get a whiff of a rabbit or a squirrel or a chipmunk it's over it's all over Johnny so I like using an e-caller to be able to communicate where areas I can't touch um manual you got a herm springer for your dog it's too small and I when I get extra links do I put one on each side or can it be even doesn't have to be exactly even but you can yeah I mean it doesn't have to be exactly even um how do you fix a dog that's e-caller wise put the e-caller on as much as you possibly can and not use it I think that that's like the best way to to do that um and and just desensitize the e-caller being out and not using it what do you do about dog's noise phobia I've never even heard of that so sorry big fan from Canada cool thank you so much my boxer is hit or miss with other dogs we are totally sphere aggressive but selective um he's fear aggression he has fear aggression but it's like yeah I mean certain dogs are if they're if they're fearful if your if your dog is fearful um if your dog is fearfully reacting oh my sorry guys my hair is a little lit if your dog is fearfully reacting to other dogs it is going to be hit or miss to who or she he or she reacts to because he's going to be he or she's going to be reactive to dogs that he is fearing versus dogs that he may be comfortable with so it makes sense but I would just try to socialize your dog as much as you can um with with um uh with sorry positive reinforcement uh so getting around the right dogs is important um don't get around a bunch of dogs that are going to be overwhelming for your dog um so how much is to book an online session I think it's 220 uh USD per hour how do you positively associate a prong collar put it on uh once it's on it doesn't do anything um so I think I think the question is maybe is how do I associate the dog how do I associate the dog with the prong collar positively over versus corrections is when the collar is on you have to think about the correction should only happen once or twice um you know in a little segment and that correction is quick and uncomfortable for the dog to teach them and punish them and just say hey nope that's not it we're not doing that uh and it's over so it should be a lot a lot of positivity like when I'm training with the dog with a prong collar they're excited to put it on um I've never had a dog cower with with a prong collar uh to to say that they didn't like it so you just have to make sure that you're using it properly what do you suggest for a toy obsessive dog to react to what do you suggest for a toy obsessed dog to redirect behavior he will pass for hours looking for them and will not come down to play pace for hours sorry looking for them to play come on um I would just find a different outlet so if your dog is obsessed with toys I would get your dog to train and take that energy and put it towards something else like if your dog is like I gotta get a toy I gotta play with a toy say no you don't actually you can play with me or you can you can hold that toy so the toy's on you and you do obedience with it so is it true that male dogs won't attack female dogs nope that's not true what do you recommend for control of a strong dog if they're triggered by a prong collar triggered I don't mean um triggered meaning like gets mad about the prong collar or gets upset or has a conflict it just depends on what you're working on I mean the prong collar again it's a communication so it's kind of like anything else guys like the prong collar is literally just something that just communicates for you better that's all it is it's not like this you put it on and your dog's trained or you put it on and all of a sudden the training starts no it's just a communication it's just a it's just a it's just a communication it's just like here we're talking it's communication is a prong collar good for a blind or senior dog I don't know it depends on the prong collar is a communication guys it's just it doesn't it could be sure I mean I wouldn't put a prong collar on a blind old dog and correct it like crazy absolutely not no that's something I definitely wouldn't do no wouldn't do that don't stress your dog the prong collar should not be initially stressful for your dog the prong collar can create stress because you're breaking through new things that they didn't want to do or you're helping them overcome different behavioral things that they do but stress is part of dog training in general anybody out there that says stress is bad in dog training well if you're doing something new and you're doing something different and you're you're modifying or you're changing or you're drastically changing the dog's perspective of things that's stressful so buying a house stressful going on a first date stressful first day at your dream job stressful so there's always stress involved with progression so remember that um why does my dog think he needs to protect this all time probably because you're not clearly showing that you're clearly showing to your dog that you're um a a positive not positive a a good leader that's probably why so a couple of things that I'm doing that I wanted to to tell you guys is again I'm getting I hired a full-time editor awesome so we're putting out the most content we've ever done this year so I'm really excited about uh we're putting out new merch we're doing a whole new line with no bad dogs coming this spring super super pumped on that so we're going to put out new merch drops every month and then also we're we're developing this is the game plan is we're developing classes for you guys to download so no we're not making merch for babies classes that you guys can download so much like you see in a lot of other companies like leerberg or other companies that you can download a module or a class we're going to start to do that with some of the cases that I do so we're going to create um actual we're going to be a little bit more on our higher production and we're going to actually create modules that you guys can purchase and download and watch as many times as you want so we're going to be having modules for leash walking prom collar introduction e-collar introduction so on and so forth we're going to put them on the website you guys can download them and it's going to be a step-by-step guide and tutorial and blueprint on how to do these things because you guys are seeing on youtube anyway I don't know if you guys follow me and other things but you guys are seeing me upload an hour session working with a dog owner and I'm we're me and my editor are breaking that down to 10 to 15 minutes at the most so there's a lot of information and there's a lot of stuff that I wish you guys can see but um we're we're doing this we're breaking down tutorials so these videos will be sometimes an hour long just going over the do's and the don'ts and answering all of these questions so you guys can actually download them on your smartphone your tablet or your computer and you can rewatch them and do whatever you want with them so we're really working on that that should be out this summer um and I'm really excited about that because it's going to be really nice to just send you guys to my cart and to just say like hey buy this we go over all of this right there so we do like we do do that on on youtube I mean that's a lot of things that we do here on youtube but like I said these are going to be more long form tutorials of people who really want to dig deeper and into this information so we're going to take some more questions here I have two female German shepherds we both who both fought with a new female German shepherd what is happening they never fought aggressive like this we have two female German shepherds who both fought with a new so you got a new dog and they're fighting um that sounds pretty likely um that doesn't necessarily surprise me that much if you brought a new dog home and they're not getting along how do you safely socialize a reactive dog live in a large apartment complex with lots of dogs well um you know to me I I don't I don't I don't think all dogs should always meet each other I don't I don't like when I'm out with my dogs I don't have my dogs meet with anybody so I think it's important for you guys to know that that just because your dog is reactive and your dog is um you know potentially aggressive or maybe maybe not even aggressive maybe your dog just doesn't like other dogs or whatever the case may be I think that's okay and I think that you should just avoid those situations at all costs but I would also encourage you to get to the core of what's going on so if your dog is fearful how can we develop a stronger relationship or stronger confidence is your dog actually aggressive well then you know yeah get oh maybe you're gonna have to if you're if you're if you're looking for advice on how to curb a reactive dog's reactivity when you live in a place where there's a lot of dogs you have to start you have to start with the reactivity so you know making sure that your dog understands leave it and heal and all those things so um um I would love to know more about dog behavior yeah we're gonna do all that stuff um which geez uh what brand e-collar would you suggest on a $300 budget depend the e-collars are really just predicated off of how far you want them to go especially with the dog tree units through uh you can get a 1900 s or an arcans free for less than that and the arcans free is is a nice popular unit um so it's like a dog training course from day one by day when you get your dog kind of it's just going to be modules of everything that you guys want to know in longer format so you guys post I post a video of like hey this dog is aggressive let's see what we can do you're going to watch it it's going to be 10 to 15 minutes long but in the modules and the new courses they're going to be they're going to be broken down a lot more so um if you guys haven't yet do me a solid freaking favor like this video when you get here leave in the comments and let me know where you guys are from I'm going to take a couple more questions um I have a white swiss shepherd that is really anxious and fearful when people want to pet her and approach do you suggest build her confidence with people since she's been like that since day one if she's been like that since day one and she was born insecure there's a good chance she's not going to like random people coming up and petting her so I would highly suggest just telling people that she's in training and she's nervous and they are not to come up and pet her so my gst only responds to my commands on a prong collar and leash how do I transfer commands on a normal leash or even off leash that's because um the training you're not doing quality training um I would assume alexis you have to make sure that your dog is responsive to the things that you're saying and not just responsive to a correction and not just responsive to um uh treats or food um so you really have to again get down to the foundation of of your training um to make sure that your dog understands what you're doing Boston UK what else we got where else are you guys from um Boston UK Belgium what's good that's awesome people Poland born and raised in Clifton Park awesome San Diego sweet Poland cool Jacksonville Florida Netherlands Portugal UK Ontario California Israel Minnesota Minnesota Long Island Germany Canada Miami Indiana Indian Miami Indiana that's right cool Lebanon uh Toronto I'm actually going Scotland Ireland Michigan I'm going to Florida in a couple weeks um to do some private training which I'm excited to get out of this snow weather New Jersey Niagara Falls I just sent somebody home from Niagara Falls today Toronto Houston Indiana Lebanon all right let's Sweden Ohio do you guys have any uh final questions at the end if you guys want to blast off some some any any questions you guys can ask me it doesn't matter it doesn't have to be about dog training it could be about dog training if you want any any questions here at the end Glens Falls New York cool brook that's where I grew up kind of Arizona um Toronto does the prong collar have to be as high up as possible even if it's tight it should be up as high I mean it doesn't have to be if it's down it's not a big it just doesn't work that's all can we see your dogs um yeah I think well Lola's in the truck my older dogs in the truck kota any funny training stories yeah every day is funny come here baby let's see Lakota come here this is Lakota come on she's my Dutch shepherd come here come on oh baby oh this is coax she's my baby she actually heard her pad because it's really it's really icy here so my mom came over and and through with her and um she cut her pad so she's kind of sore her pad right now so she'd be in a little baby just so you guys know she always does this with her ears there were some videos that I put out with her see her ears are back somebody was like oh my god she's so terrified nope touch she always is um all right let's you guys want to see Thompson I'll show you Thompson wait where is Thompson where is that big boy let's see if I can find him oh there he is oh buddy oh that was my big boy all right cool all right you guys he always slaps me all right I'm gonna go get some dinner I appreciate you guys so much for watching if you haven't yet go over to my instagram and hop on how equipment has changed your life there was a comment on there on youtube that somebody said that they would rather euthanize a dog than correct a dog with a prong collar and that's something that's happening all over the world and I'm doing the best I can to share success stories of equipment and how it can change people's lives if you haven't yet do me a favor there's always 300 people in here go over to my instagram tag me in your story telling me or showing me or just a picture with your dog with equipment and how it's helped you in your in your relationship and I can share it with the world and I'm going to create a a little icon in my story highlight in my instagram to put all of those success stories if you guys haven't done that yet go do it um we're trying to advocate and we're showing people how I mean there's more people out there using tools than not but I want to make sure that we have a documented file of how important it is to understand what tools are so all right you guys have a good night I'll talk to you next time bye


Planter fasciitis Surgery Planter fasciitis surgery a runner's story a runners Story if you're watching this video right now There is a very high likelihood that you have in the past had pf or you are currently suffering from pf Planter fasciitis. I'm sorry. I get it. I feel the pain literally and I'm here to help I'm gonna tell my story that connects to planter fasciitis And I'm gonna talk to you about what I have had to do in the past and what I'm currently doing now to overcome and defeat Planter fasciitis and why I'm wearing this t-shirt right now is first of all because it's positive It kind of makes you laugh and smile And I want to make sure that you runners out there that are suffering that you don't give up Keep smiling keep a positive attitude you can defeat planter fasciitis And I know this kind of sounds intense to start the video But it's it's really serious and it hurts and the pf. You just want to kick it to the curb But there's hope there is hope hope lives. I promise I promise okay In sixth grade I was a soccer player, and then I decided wait a minute. I'm kind of a small guy I can't even kick a ball from the corner kick to the goal I can't I don't have the leg strength. Let's just eliminate the soccer ball I by the way This was up in Buna Vista, Colorado where I grew up and let's just start running. I love running boom Let's like no more soccer ball. Let's just run. Let's do what you really really love So I switched from soccer to cross-country and that was my first bout with with planter fasciitis in seventh grade My dad who is also a runner you see him there on the screen when my first bout of pf popped up He would sit on the couch and massage my foot night after night working out the pf This was in seventh grade fast forward a lot all the way to college at the University of Colorado Where I competed on the cross-country and track team my second bout of planter fasciitis this time in my right foot and Training at the collegiate level as a division one athlete is pretty intense You're putting in a lot of miles and it's not always easy and we pounded ground on Magnolia road And we pounded ground on the track and we worked out in these very light weight spikes this pair Actually, I still have them these Nike milers from the Bill Bowerman series like a very lightweight track spike that Gets you up on your toes and yes Possibly contributed to my planter fasciitis popping up in college this planter fasciitis in college would Not go away It was so so discouraging and I bet you can connect to this part of my story If you just get so down because you feel like you're doing everything correctly to get rid of it I took I even took three months off and this is maybe my first tip of the day Don't take time off unless your doctor tells you to by the way I'm not a doctor, but unless your doctor tells you to With pf. It's not necessarily and you got to make sure you diagnose it correctly So go to a you know podiatrist or your doctor and they will be able to help you figure out if you actually have pf But I took three months off four months off like it would not that didn't help as soon as I started back up again It was still there. We did the night splint. We did Injections cortisone injections which by the way to this day is still the most painful thing of my life Like it an injection to the bottom of my heel. Oh, we did shockwave therapy We did everything for over the course of 18 months Nothing would make my pf go away So what did I do? Ladies and gentlemen, what did I do and this is something that I have not shared with many of you longtime viewers of the blog Is that I flew to California and I had surgery on my pf. I know I know I Don't necessarily even regret that decision actually in fact it worked it worked Six weeks later after the surgery. I was able to start running again, and it was a little tender at first But it went it was not there the pain Was gone now listen. Is that the best option? No Surgery is by far not the best option But when you're a collegiate athlete, you've got only a small window to be competing at a high high level You have to get the at the end of the day You got to make a decision and I'm not afraid to make decisions like all right This is my decision and I'm going with it And you you never really fully will know if it was the right one But fast forward again, so that was in college at the University of Colorado fast forward again to 10 years later and I had a bout of pf. It went away quickly. This was three years ago from this date right now and then 2018 July so four months ago almost five months ago from right now It flared up again this past summer this time in my other foot, so my left foot I had the surgery in college in my right foot and so now in the present I am no longer a collegiate athlete But I'm trying to compete at a high level in ultra running and in marathon running and in Mountain running and I believe this current bout with pf was caused because I was running up Big mountains and not doing enough maintenance, so I love running big 14,000-foot peaks here in Colorado But I was not doing enough maintenance to take care of my body and not enough stretching and massaging and all that good Stuff we're gonna get into that in a second So this is my fourth bout with pf in my life right now Fast forward to two weeks ago just before Thanksgiving and that's where this t-shirt connects in where I got this t-shirt I was racing a 5k in city park in Denver, Colorado And I was leading the race. I was about to win the race about to win this 5k race I was trying to break 16 minutes as a 33 year old if I might add it and I was in first place Second place was about 10 feet behind me. I was digging digging digging. I knew like okay I got to go right now with a hundred meters to go in this race or else I'm gonna get kicked down because my speed is okay, but it's not amazing And so I'm sprinting sprinting sprinting turn a corner sprint plant tear Possible tear to my planter fasciitis What would be called the release a rupture a tear a stretch? I don't frankly even know what to call it But two weeks ago from right now December 8th 2018 I believe I ruptured my planter Tendon in my left foot. Okay. I know I just said a lot But I had to tell you that background as to my experience with planter fasciitis surgery Massaging as a kid and yes rupturing. I believe I ruptured my planter tendon two weeks ago in that race If it wasn't a full rupture, maybe a partial rupture partial release something definitely Overstretched and I could feel something go and so I did not win that race Because I had surgery because I believe I ruptured my planter two to three weeks ago. I am feeling better My pf is basically non-existent. I can very rarely does it hurt now for better or worse That's what happened and I did that race in the vapor fly 4% which has a carbon fiber plate in this shoe Did that contribute to the possible rupturing of my planter? I don't know but just wanted to let you know this is reality and this is what happened I was wearing this shoe But before I ruptured my pf two to three weeks ago I was in a lot a lot of pain probably a similar amount of pain to what you are suffering from if you have Pf in your foot or feet right now and here's just a few mistakes that I think I made over the last four to five months and even frankly Throughout my life with respect to not taking care of my feet and my pf here. It is the first mistake Stretching too hard at first and not stretching before getting out of bed in the morning Pf often is the worst in the morning when you before you get out of bed It can really be painful that first step when you get out of the bed, you know, you know what I'm talking about And so laying in bed Stretching before you get out of bed has helped so much second mistake Likely massaging my heel area too much with this little wooden toy that I have for my kids and not focusing on stretching and Massaging my arch enough. I was massaging my heel because it felt so good And it's like you're trying to just dig in and kind of break up a little bit of that scar tissue in there But in retrospect, I have learned through a lot of research through listening to a lot of you on YouTube that it's More effective to stretch and massage Slowly and gently your arch because your arch is what's actually You need to loosen that up so that you can basically take the tension The tension off of the tendon where it's connected to the calcaneus bone Which is your heel bone in the bottom of your foot? And so you don't actually want to massage your heel very much You want to miss at all actually you want to massage your arch and you want to stretch your arch as much as possible third mistake not strengthening my feet enough and my ankles enough with specific exercises one of them being Scrunching up a towel with your toes That is a very very effective way to basically stretch out your pf And then to strengthen all of those ligaments tendons muscles in the bottom of your foot. So that has been so Incredibly important for overcoming my pf before I ruptured my pf I was getting better, but I think I was fortunate to actually rupture or release it in this race I it's crazy. I know it's crazy and listen probably 99% of you will never do that. Okay, it just kind of happened like I was it just happened I don't even know I don't even know what else to say But before that what was working for me like what was I was making small teeny tiny steps forward with Overcoming and this is what I was doing and it was working But then it just happened the the pf release gentle stretching not too aggressive So just gently stretching my calf my soleus and because you don't you don't want to feel the pain right where that Tendon attaches to your heel like if you are over stretching too much You're actually gonna be Inflaming that tendon and it's just gonna bark at you.  I cannot stress this enough Massaging your calf your soleus and yes your arch Don't massage your your heel too too much maybe a little bit Try and avoid the heel area as much as possible Focus a little more on that arch if you need to hire someone to do it for you if you have the money I would highly highly recommend it I was able to do that in the last six weeks and her name's Katie Thank You Katie and it's helped so so so much, but you can also do it on your own It's it's not gonna be as effective, but if you if you can't afford a physical therapist or a masseuse You could do it on your own just be careful if you're doing it on your own because you don't know You don't want to overdo it when it comes to that heel area specifically icing after runs is good I sing your your foot icing your heel icing your arch is good But I also to help if you're in the middle of your track season or your cross-country season or you're getting ready for a Marathon and you've got like two weeks to go and you need to get through this to get through those last workouts or to get through the race I have been soaking my foot in pretty hot water with epsom salt, which is a basically a Relate it relaxes your muscles and your tendons and it helps relax your body this epsom salt So I have been doing that a lot in the last eight weeks Before a training session or before a race just to help again take the edge off Two more things don't forget your plantar fasciitis Yes, it hurts in your foot, but it's really starts in your lower back I know that's crazy, but from your lower back through your glutes through your hamstrings through your calves Your soleus all the way down to that fascia tendon on the bottom of your foot. It's all connected It's a big rubber band basically so if that rubber band is too tight in your hamstrings Which is my scenario my hamstrings are so tight. I continue to work on them and stretch them You got a stretch not you don't want to just stretch the bottom of your foot It starts up frankly in your lower back and your glutes Don't be afraid to stretch all in fact. I shouldn't say it that way Stretch no matter what your glutes your hamstrings and your lower back that will slowly release the tension Which is then going to be it's like a chain reaction all the way down your legs Down eventually to your fascia tendon in the bottom of your foot and the last tip for overcoming your pf is this Foot log. It's designed for Massaging the bottom of your foot. It's designed by a doctor. I love it. And yes, it's available down below from Amazon Love this thing, but what I have found it to be almost just as effective for is Stretching the bottom of my foot. So what I'll do is I'll just stand on top of it Not with all of my weight just almost though I'll just ease into it where I'll put more and more weight onto my arch Slowly like a tortoise go slow, but just slowly Stretch those muscles and that big fascia tendon that big yellow piece of tape You see on the bottom on my foot that is your fascia tendon That's what it looks like inside of your foot And so you want to step onto that foot log and just put your weight onto that foot log and Slowly it'll stretch out that tendon and I would recommend doing this three times a day Holding it for three sets of two minutes for three times a day. So I know that's a lot So three times two that's six minutes six times three is 18 minutes a day if you can do this 18 minutes a day. I promise and ease into it Don't just do that in the first day ease into it, but I promise you're gonna slowly feel that fascia stretch out and Eventually it might take time and this is where the patience comes in But eventually the bottom of the where it's pulling away from your heel bone. That's gonna slowly Stretch out and it's not gonna be pulling on your calcaneus bone Which is where that pain comes from right most likely on the inside of your heel Oh, you're just one so that is my maybe my my number one tip with this foot log It's just stand on it and slowly stretch that fascia tendon now. I know I just talked to you for a long time This is a little bit of a unique daily vlog I get it But I just had to hit this topic because I know so many of you are suffering and you're letting me know that You're suffering down in the comments and by the way Let me know if you are suffering down in the comments, but I'm here for you I'm here to answer your questions. Make sure you ask your questions down in the comments I guess my top two tips are stretching and massage stretching and massage I think I could have overcome now that in retrospect right looking back I think I could have defeated my pf in college if I would have been a little more aggressive in my Massaging and stretching. I just I just didn't quite Attack it well enough and I'm telling you if you do the things every single day the stretching and massaging It's gonna take time, but I promised it's gonna go away And if it doesn't come back and tell me down in the comments. Oh, and yes, the keyword of the day is Release it will release it might take some and hopefully you don't have to release it how I did in the race Don't do that, but it will release slowly if you are consistent and patient in your maintenance of your body And the question of the day And they I know not everybody can answer this but have you ever suffered from plantar fasciitis? If so, what did you do specifically to help you overcome it? And I may have already asked a question similar to what I just asked I get it But again, I know there's a lot of new subscribers welcome by the way Let us know down in the comments if you've ever suffered and how you overcame it If you have not had plantar fasciitis Do you know someone who has had it or maybe you have had it in the past? And it's gone or maybe you're currently suffering, but all of us runners Probably know someone who has suffered so let's get the conversation going Thank you for answering the question of the day and for typing release down in the comments Thank you. We're gonna do it. I can I'm telling you there's light at the end of the tunnel Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. Come on YouTube. Come on. Help each other. Help each other All right, because I was aggressive in attacking my PF and I realize I'm a little bit of a unique situation Because my I believe my fascia released in that race But mine was getting better by doing everything that I just told you In the last, you know, 20 minutes and thank you for being here by the way for so long But I'm telling you guys you can overcome this I did not touch upon all the points that I would like to but I also want to respect your time All I'm saying is thank you for being here Thanks for watching and don't forget that we're here together on this journey of life and we're gonna we're gonna get through We're gonna get through. All right. All right. I'm out Night run. Love you and yes, let's seek beauty work hard work hard at defeating that PF. Mmm. Mmm And love each other


Good afternoon, Highline. First and foremost, thank you all so much for being here this lovely afternoon where you are. My name is Doris Martinez. She, her pronouns, and I currently serve here at Highline as the Interim Associate Dean for Student Life, and of course a member of our Equity for Strategic Plan core team. And so today, just to let you know, just a couple of housekeeping matters, we are recording the first part of this session. And of course, it will be available to everyone, hence why I am recording. But when we get to the breakout rooms and discussions of today's session, that will not be recorded because we want folks to feel 100% comfortable in sharing your thoughts and your perspectives. And sometimes being recorded can feel a little intrusive. So just wanting to let you all know that. But anyhow, we're going to go ahead and move ahead. Happy Monday and thank you all again for being here. Today's Town Hall is really about our mission, vision and values that we have been working on here as the core team. And so today in the next hour, we're going to be of course focusing, of course, doing a welcome community guidelines and really talking about the equity first core team have Andrea Gardner, who's one of our core team members here with me today. And now the Yankees Park, who is one of our consultants. And then you'll see other folks coming in later on who are also part of our equity first strategic planning work team that has been really working the past almost 10 months to create a equity strategic plan. And so we'll talk a little bit more about what that process has been like. And then introduced to you all today, our mission, vision and values. Again, this is actually a working draft. And so you as students will have an opportunity to give us some much needed feedback, because this is going to be a working and living document. And we really want it to embody the essence of our Highline students. And then we'll discuss next steps. So in terms of our conversation, so today's town hall is essentially going to serve as an opportunity for everyone to share like their experiences, really looking into, you know, what the vision, mission and values are, in addition to giving us feedback. And so just really thinking, we really wanted as a team to provide a space where, you know, folks can really give a feedback in addition to sharing your own voices and your perspectives, because that's really important, especially as we are revamping our mission that really embodies our identity, you know, defines the identity of the institution. So just keeping that in mind. In terms of community guidelines today, there's really these couple of guidelines. We really want you to keep that in mind as we are conversing with one another today. So choose to be present, however that seems to you, definitely, you know, be feel free to speak. But again, like it's not required to, there'll be different ways for you to communicate your thoughts. We love a good chat feature. So feel free to include that via chat as well. Listen respectfully and actively is so key to the work that we do here. We want to make sure that we are embodying that throughout because there's going to be a lot of different thoughts and perspectives. So we want to make sure that we are providing space and being as respectful as possible. Be open to ideas that are being shared, right. And so I think that's really important in this process. And you know, as well, that this process is also being done with faculty and staff as well. So our core team, we're really right now wanting to hear and listen to all of the ideas of our community. And you are, of course, the center of that. And so just being open to hear. And with that being said, there's going to be ideas that you may not 100% agree with. It's okay to criticize ideas, but not the individuals, right. So, you know, if there's something that you have a question on, it's okay to ask, it's okay to challenge. But, you know, but that not challenging or being disrespectful to an individual. And then commit to learning. I think that's the one of the greatest lessons that we've been learning going through as a core team is that learning aspect, right. We are all in the school of lifelong learning and so commit to learning, not debating. And so that's what some of the community guidelines that we wanted to continue on with today. So you may hear have heard about this equity first core team. So just wanting to go a little bit over about the purpose, the process, and ultimately the product. So we started this process, I want to say June 2021. So it's been a while, but essentially the purpose of this project is to support, highlight to develop and sustain an strategic plan that sets the vision for a more equitable institution for students, colleagues, and the community, right. So this is led over an 18 month process. And it focuses on the following elements, which includes to engage campus stakeholders, establish community wide equity imperative and examine meaningful data to identify institutional inequities, create goals and milestones to mitigate equity gaps and D to revise the mission vision and value statements to align with the new vision and direction of the college. And as y'all may know, I mean, the college has gone, I feel quarterly, daily through numerous changes. And so how do we, you know, as an equity centered institution have mission vision values, a strategic plan, that also is the image and embodies where Highline is and is wanting to go. And so that's where this project really serves in its foundation. And so just to give you just a quick math, join the meeting. Okay, in terms of how this process has gone, as you can see here, this is just like the roadmap of where we've been. So last spring, there was recruitment for the core team, in addition to a starting. And then that led into the second part in terms of, you know, learning how to develop an equity strategic centered plan. And then right now we're kind of in the midst of that third piece, right, which is to craft. We've worked with many folks in, you know, acquiring collecting data. And so we're currently in the third phase of beginning to write and craft the equity first strategic plan. And then we're going to go into phase four and summer 2021 2022, I'm sorry, in terms of committing and implementation. So here's some things that we've done in the course of the last year. Internally, it's been a lot of work, our team. So reviewing various Washington state, you know, state board, community college, community technical, strategic plans, exploring the conditions of Highland College, you know, holding various town halls, really taking a deep look into our mission statement is, in addition to collectively working to reimagine a more equitable Highland College. So very like again, not only holding town halls, but various meeting with various folks across campus. And you can see, like externally, what are some of those things, including hosting an opening day session for faculty and staff and professional development day, we had various community or conversations in at the end of fall quarter with faculty staff and students. And then in the winter quarter, we had a equity coalition, equity coalition meetings with various affinity groups throughout the college. And then this quarter in the spring, we're holding formal town halls like this for faculty staff and students. And then we will also be holding a few informal spaces as well. So in terms of these are just some reflection questions for you. And actually, I would love to hear or see in the chat. When you hear the words mission statement, just think about that for a second, you know, whether you apply to a college, right?  When you hear that what pops into your head, I would love to hear what comes to mind. A set of rules and goals. Ooh, what the organization strives for. These are great. What else? Yeah, main goal. Yep, goals of an organization, mission. Yep. So let me ask y'all this. Why, so in terms of highlighting, thinking of where you are all at as students, why are the mission vision and values of Highline, why would they be important? I'm curious, right? Because they represent us and impact your experiences. I really would love to know more about that. Absolutely. Okay. These are great. Thank y'all so much. So here's what we found out in the research portion of this process.  Our team, we found that there were too many buzzwords. The statement, as a singular sentence, there's a lot of passive verbiage. It's old and outdated, and it's too focused on diversity and globalism. And when we think about it as well, if you read it, it could really fit in as a statement for any other college. So what made it distinctive, right? And standing on its own as a representation of what Highline is and not something that is just generic. So just thinking about that, those are some things that we as a core team, diving into reading these documents, realize that it was not the essence of what the Highline we know. So then in terms of reimagining our mission, this is where a lot of our time has been spent on. In our core team, we were asked in our training and our work to envision, right? When we think about writing a strategic equity first plan to envision how Highline would be, let's say seven years from now, right? So looking at 2029. And when we did this exercise, these were some things that came to mind, like in terms of what we want Highline to be. For example, Highline College now offers the top five degrees that local employers require. Thunderbirds achieve the highest completion rates for student parents in the state. But then also thinking, if you look at that column on the screen, what needs to change, right? So start to survey and build specific strategies that would support our students. You know, bring back education classes that are taught in various languages, looking at the variety of courses that we teach on the evening and weekends, right? So really having offerings for our students that really mirror our student populations. And so we began to envision and think about if this is going to be a strategic plan of where Highline College wants to go, how are we really going to get there and what needs to change? So then based on the feedback and all the work that we had just, I just previously shared with you all in terms of the steps that we took in gathering and working with our community, this is the mission statement, the draft that we came with. So I'll read it to you all. As an anti-racist institution, Highline College provides equitable access opportunity in student success for student learning and living on and around the unceded traditional villages sites of the Duwamish, Muckleshoot, and Puyallup tribes. Highline College staff, faculty, and administrators are committed to continually developing and maintaining anti-racist, culturally responsive, and inclusive curriculum support services and community partnerships. We partner with our students as they envision, plan, and achieve their academic and professional goals. Through collaboration across campus and with local and global partners, we seek to achieve and sustain a campus environment rooted in social justice that appreciates, serves, supports, and supports all employees as they create conditions for student success in and outside of the classroom. It's a lot. It's a working draft, but let that sink in for a moment. And then when it came to the vision statement, this is the current draft. Again, y'all, this is a working draft and we will need your help with. At Highline College, we accept people as they are and honor the life and experience they bring. We are cultivating a collaborative community that is equitable and anti-racist, centers the well-being of the whole person, and envelops a sense of belonging. Our community advances success and empowers dreams to be achieved. We highly regard the families and support systems that enable our success and acknowledge that by working together, we are boundless. That's the vision statement. Again, working draft. And then in terms of the values, these are the current draft values. As you can see on our website at Highline.edu, you'll see that the current set of values have a definition to them as well. Please note like right now, we do not have the definitions for these. However, this is where we would love your feedback to define what authenticity or belonging, equity, inclusivity, et cetera mean to you. So the values are currently here. Highline College seeks to live out these values in everyday practice, which include authenticity, belonging, collaboration, environmental sustainability, equity, inclusivity, representation, respect, transparency, and also thank you, Jen, for adding this in the chat. Critical literacy is another value as well that has been discussed. So we definitely wanted to add that back in there. Okay. All right. So I'm going to stop talking because I want y'all to talk. So over the next half hour, there's going to be a few breakout rooms. And then this will be an opportunity for you all to share your feedback. There's going to be a facilitator in the space and a note taker as well. But this will be an opportunity for you to really get into kind of like the meat and the potatoes of each mission, vision, and also the values. And you'll have an opportunity to make edits yourself as well. And so after 30 minutes, we will come back as a collective and close it out for next steps. Any questions on that? All right. So what I am going to do, and I know I have some folks here from our core team, welcome, welcome. I have the breakout room set, and I'm going to open them. Oh, by the way, the breakout rooms are self-selected. So you can actually select the room that you want to go into. For students that are in the room, please go into a room. If you are a staff or faculty member, stay in the main room here with me. And other than that, all the rooms are open right now. So feel free to go into them. And we'll see you back here in about 25, 30 minutes. I'll do a call out.


This is list podcast number nine. It is the third in the critical analysis series, adopting a more critical approach to writing by Kate Olly Pitchford. Welcome to the third in our series of podcasts about critical analysis. The series is designed to give you a greater insight into this complex issue and suggest some strategies to help you develop your skills. In this podcast we're going to discuss critical writing. So Kate, how do you adopt a more critical approach to academic writing? Well you can't suddenly become critical in your writing if you haven't already adopted a critical approach to thinking and reading whilst preparing for your assignment. So if you haven't already heard the two podcasts that cover these topics I would recommend you listen to them next. You mentioned earlier that reading various sources of information is important in order to gather different views. Yes, it's important to engage fully with a wide range of literature but being critical is not just about collecting ideas. You need to synthesise them into a coherent whole. By that I mean you need to weigh up information from various sources, discuss their strengths and weaknesses and then make up your own mind. When writing you should offer an interpretation of the literature. You present a case in your own voice and your argument is of course backed up by the evidence. It's a little bit like cooking. You put lots of different ingredients into the bowl, flour, sugar, butter etc and then end up with a very different product, in this case a cake. Are there key features to critical writing? Critical writing tends to give more depth so within the confines of a word count your essay might have to cover fewer themes but you would examine each in much more detail than simple descriptive writing. Of course that means you have to make judgments about what you do include and what you leave out. It's therefore important that you identify the significance of the themes you do address. Why is this idea interesting or important? After analysis of the evidence a critical writer should highlight what conclusions can be drawn. Sometimes of course issues are complex and things are not always black and white. If that's the case it's fine to say so. You should always remain objective and present both sides. Any more tips? Students should consider the language they use when writing. In particular the verbs they use when presenting the evidence in their essays can help them to sound more critical. So for example rather than writing Smith says that individuals are motivated by basic needs you could write Smith clearly demonstrates that individuals are motivated by basic needs. This shows your tutor how you feel about Smith's work. You're being positive about it. If you wanted to show that you were not very impressed with Smith's work you could use phrases like Smith neglects to mention or Smith makes assumptions that. There are more examples of useful verbs on the skills at Cumbria site on blackboard. One final point to make adopting a critical approach to writing takes time. You cannot write a good critical essay overnight. It's important to write your first draft and then allow time to reflect on whether you've presented a structured argument.  Thanks Kay you've given us some useful tips on how to adopt a more critical approach to academic writing. In the next podcast in this series lecturers will give their views on what it means to be critical. For further details please go to the university website click on the student life tab and choose the library and learning link.