“Recalls Save Lives”: Puppies and Pitbulls with Damelle A. Morgan Sr.
Podcast Transcript
[Intro]
Damelle A. Morgan Sr. I tell them if you punish that growl, it’s gonna go away, and they’re just gonna attack. And they’re like, ‘But I don’t want him growling.’ I say, ‘Okay, so figure out what in the environment has your dog growling, and see if you can get away from it. And then, on another day, slowly break it down. Which is you and your dog and whatever the situation was, see if you can kind of reenact it a little bit so that you can work them up to not be so nervous about it. Let them realize that is good in things that they see or look at or that they used to be afraid of because it’s not always necessarily a mean growl. It can be an uncomfortable growl.’
[Music]
Elizabeth Silverstein Hi, welcome back to Telltail Dog the podcast. I’m your host, certified dog trainer, Elizabeth Silverstein, and I have with me today Damelle Morgan Sr., who is a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner and owner and dog trainer at Tip Top Breedz Dog Training. Thanks for making the time to join me, Damelle. How are you?
Damelle A. Morgan Sr. Fine. Thank you.
Elizabeth I’m so excited to have you on. I noticed that we have some mutual friends in common and you’re doing some cool stuff. So where did your love of dogs begin?
Damelle I want to say probably when I was like 13, I got my first dog. I had been wanting a dog forever and my mom kept telling me no, but then my cousin ended up bringing one to me anyway and dropping it off and when my mom saw her, she couldn’t let her go.
Elizabeth Oh, there you go. And what type of dog was she?
Damelle She was a lab-pitbull mix.
Elizabeth What was that experience for you? So you’re basically a kid with a puppy. Where did you start?
Damelle Oh, it was a lot of fun. At that point in time, I didn’t know how a puppy should act or what a dog should do. But I mean I kind of figured it out, because I was kind of her go-to person. So we got it figured out and I was able to work with her and train her a little bit. When I was about 19 or 20, I started off working in the kennel in an animal hospital and then from there, by the time I was 21 or 22, I became a vet tech. So I’ve always worked with animals, at least for the last 20 years.
Elizabeth So what was that spark for you? So was it the job just came up and you felt that working at the animal hospital, it was just really fun, or was there something that drove you to that? What was that process like?
Damelle Oh no, it was just something I wanted to try because I’ve always liked animals, and getting to work in a kennel, I was like, ‘Okay, this could be cool.’ And then I never expected that one day I would go from working in the kennel and managing a kennel to being a vet tech, and then a dog trainer.
Elizabeth How did you go from being a vet tech to a dog trainer?
Damelle I was on vacation at the beach with my family one day, and a commercial came on the TV. I think it was ABC Dog Training. And I looked at it and I looked at my wife, and I said, ‘That’s exactly what I want to do.’ And then I came back home off of vacation, and within that week, I started looking at different dog training programs. I ended up going with Karen Pryor Academy. Somebody gave them good reviews and told me that, ‘It’s expensive, but it’s worth it.’ And they were right.
Elizabeth So what’s really interesting to me and fascinating to me is, once I got into the dog training world, because I was a little bit older–I was 30 when I became a dog trainer–so I wasn’t super aware of all the complexities of the dog training world, and the different methods, and all of that. When I got my dog 10 years ago, I was like Cesar Millan. That’s where we started. That’s the name everybody knows, right?
Damelle Yes.
Elizabeth So, yeah, that’s where I started and now that I have a second dog, using such different training techniques with her has been a night and day in their behavior because with him, I was like, ‘Well, I’ve got to be in charge. I’ve got to be the leader.’ And he’s still like a little scared of me and I have to really work on that relationship. Whereas with her, she’s not afraid of me at all and her recall is so much better and she is so much more interested in engaging with me. So I see the difference. I’m not a crossover trainer, but I am what I call a crossover dog owner and I see the difference in handling my dogs. So was that something you were aware of?
Damelle I had no idea what I was getting into. All I knew is that it was clicker training and I remember being in the pet store, seeing clickers, and I’m like, ‘How is this going to train a dog? Like, really?’ And then I took the foundations course, and then it kind of opened my eyes up on how to do it and how it works. Then, it was like, ‘Okay.’ So then at this time, I had a little Boston Terrier French bulldog mix and he was maybe eight weeks. And I got a clicker and started my foundation course and started clicking and treating him and started to see how it worked, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is great.’
Elizabeth And the fascinating thing to me is there’s a skill level there and a technique level there that’s really hard to explain to people unless they start to do it and get into the definitions of it.
Damelle Yes. Because people are going all the time, like, ‘How is that little box gonna do anything?’ I’m like, ‘We’ll see. We’ll just watch.’
Elizabeth Yeah. And it’s really cool. Oh, that’s awesome. So you started at Karen Pryor Academy, and then when did you start Tip Top Breedz Dog Training?
Damelle Maybe 2014. I worked for one company for maybe a year and then I decided that I wanted to just really work for myself.
Elizabeth Same. I love working for myself.
Damelle I was like, I like to make my own schedule. Yeah, I mean, I’m still a vet tech, too, but only like three days a week.
Elizabeth Where are you located?
Damelle I’m located in Frederick, Maryland.
Elizabeth When you started your own company, and you know working for other people is a very different thing than working for yourself, was there certain values that you wanted to do when you started your own company? Are there certain things that were important to you to establish?
Damelle Oh yeah. I just always wanted to make sure that the clients were happy and to make sure that they’re understanding what it is that I’m telling them and even just following up with them throughout the weeks when we’re not working together, just to make sure that everything is still good. I wanted to always make sure that customer service is the first thing.
Elizabeth Do you have any niches or certain things that you specialize in with your dog training?
Damelle I like puppies. I like getting them when they’re sponges before they even had a chance to go through the bad things in life. So I kind of like to stick to the to the obedience thing. And sometimes I do tricks. I like to keep it basic. Loose leash walking. Good recalls. And things like that. I like that if I get them off on the right foot with their puppy, then it’ll be easier from there. Lay the foundation with them as a puppy and just keep it going from there because then that way they kind of figure out what makes them work.
Elizabeth What are some of the most important things for you when it comes to working with someone with a puppy. What do you need them to know?
Damelle That I’m not doing it for the money. I’m actually doing it to help them because I want them to have a better relationship with their dog, because I always tell people, way back when people feel like they had to dominate their dogs and they had to do this and they had to do that. But in all reality, give them options. Just like we have options. And if you give them options and you reinforce what you want from them more than what you don’t want from them, then those are the things you’ll get. Puppies are hard. I always tell myself, I love puppies as long as they go home with someone else. My dogs are one and two, so I feel like I’m kind of over the puppy thing. I tell them you have to be on their schedule in the beginning, then you kind of rotate them to your schedule, but you do it slowly and make sure that it’s comfortable for them and take baby steps and don’t try to rush things.
Elizabeth And where do you start when you get a new puppy and a client? What’s your process?
Damelle The first thing I like to start working on with them is recalls, because recalls save lives and I feel like if the dog isn’t sitting, I don’t care about the dog sitting. As long as the recall is strong, we’re good, because I need that puppy to come in case it gets away from me.
Elizabeth One hundred percent. I try to walk people through two emergency situations: they’re running down the street, they slipped out of the house, and they’ve got something in their mouths because I’ve noticed like super human stuff is, our human tendency is, to freak out, yell, and chase our puppies.
Damelle Yes.
Elizabeth And then our other human tendency, when they have something in their mouth, is we grab them and wrench that mouth open and fish it out of their mouths. So all of that is just reacting on our own panic and fear, which is legitimate. Both of those things are terrifying, but unfortunately, doing both of those things doesn’t help our dogs come to us, and it doesn’t help our dogs offer up a prized item that they shouldn’t have, either.
Damelle Right, because then I go from the recall and, then I say, ‘Hey, let’s teach drop it or leave it,’ and then we go from there. And I’m just like, ‘You have to practice with them.’ I always have to tell them, ‘Just like athletes. They practice every day. Life is life. And you may not have time every day, but you have at least 30 seconds in a day, where even if all you get is 30 seconds, I mean, it’s better than nothing.’
Elizabeth Are there any other, so you mentioned recall is a life-saving cue, are there any others besides drop it and leave it that you try to establish?
Damelle I try to teach them to go to their mat, and then to teach them to go into a crate, and then once they kind of get good with that, inbetween that stuff, we’ll still work on things like sit, but I always tell owners, those are things that we can work on together. Like I’ll lay the foundation, but they practice it too while I’m away, and I always let them know that if it’s more than one person in the household working with the dog, then they should work on separate things with the dog, so then that way they don’t get confused and then they can make the behavior stronger and then they can pass the cues around.
Elizabeth Oh, that’s interesting. I have never heard of something like that. So starting off just teaching it, one person should focus on just introducing the cue, and then when it’s solid, proof it by having the other people work on it.
Damelle Yes, because we may not teach it the same. Like we may have the same words coming out of our mouth, but we may be standing differently, and that may throw them off. Like, ‘I mean, I hear the word but you’re not standing the way that this person was standing so I really don’t know what you’re doing.’ The one person who teaches it gets it real strong, put it on cue and then go ahead and try to pass it around. But I feel like sometimes a lot of people try to rush it. I’m like, ‘Don’t rush it unless you feel like that’s exactly what they’re going to do when they come to you.’
Elizabeth And I’ll be curious to see if you notice this too, with rushing, people try to take leaps and bounds instead of just the tiny steps and the tiny steps can be fast but they do have to be small steps, especially for puppies.
Damelle Yes. And then I always have to tell them that it’s just like a human baby, have to do baby steps with them, and then I still tell them too, ‘You still have to have rules for them too, but it’s just you have to teach it to them. They don’t come to you programmed already.’
Elizabeth That’s another super human thing that I’ve noticed is people tend to expect their puppies to not only understand the English language but to understand the English language to a capacity that adult humans understand.
Damelle It’s like, they have no idea. Like, your dog ignores you probably 95 percent of the day. You and I are on Zoom right now and my two dogs, I put them off in their crate, and I gave them something and they’re paying me no mind. I guess they feel like the dog should know what they’re saying because they hear them talk all the time but it’s like, unless you’re talking to them and they know it, they’re not paying you any attention.
Elizabeth It’s just noise.
Danelle That’s it. It’s just noise.
Elizabeth Yeah. And I have to also walk people through if they say, ‘Sit sit sit sit sit.’ I’m like, ‘Hold on.’
Damelle Yes.
Elizabeth ‘Do you want your dog to sit the first time you say sit or the third time you say sit?’
Damelle It’s just like when you’re calling your kids down for dinner. How many times are you gonna call them down before they come down? As many times as it takes you, you can call up to 10 times, they say, ‘Okay, the 11th time I really have to go down.’
Elizabeth Yeah. Yup. And with kids, I’ve noticed there’s a lot of counting involved, so you’ll say their names maybe five times and then when you start to count, that’s when you’ve lost your patience and the child knows that you’ve lost your patience so that’s when they’re going to come.
Damelle Yes.
Elizabeth If you show them, the first time I call you, I need you to come and make it worth their while because the other part of that is if you’re only calling your child when you’re going to punish them, of course they’re not going to want to come to you.
Damelle That’s right.
Elizabeth That’s–why? One of the things that I joke about is every parent should get their child ready for the world by by telling them every now and then, ‘I have to talk to you,’ and then telling them something good.
Damelle Yes, exactly.
Elizabeth But yeah, behavior I feel between puppies and kids is very similar. So if we think about it that way, then it’s a little bit easier to understand that your puppy’s not trying to be a little jerk. They’re just being a puppy and then your teenage dog isn’t trying to be a jerk. They’re just a teenager.
Damelle Yes, and it’s up to you to kind of work with them to get it where you want it and I always tell people you have to work with them when I’m not here. There’s no point to be coming every week or every two weeks if you’re not going to work with them because they’ll work good for me because they know what I want from them but what do you want from them?
Elizabeth Yes. That’s another good point. I’ve noticed if people handling their dogs are unsure, or they’re not sure what behaviors they’re looking for, the dog is also unsure and isn’t offering behaviors.
Damelle So true. Like they don’t understand. They just feel. I tell them, ‘They feed off of you. They understand. So if you want to be that pack leader that you keep saying you want to be, then you have to lead them by a good example and don’t stress them out. If you feel like you’re going to stress them out or you see that they’re being stressed, then try to figure out how you can get them out of that situation.’
Elizabeth Picking your battles too, right? You know, does your dog have to do everything that you want it to do every time that you say? Is it like a jump, how high situation, or are there some things that you could just let go?
Damelle Because and I even feel like that’s how it is in everyday life–pick your battles. But some people are just like–they’re too hard up and they’re like, they want to be controlling and it’s just like no, it’s a dog. I feel as long as it’s not biting, attacking, or jumping all over people, and you can get it to come back to you, then you can work with that. It’s just you have to practice with it and I always tell clients when you want to work for greetings or having a dog act a certain way when guests come over, you get your dog friends to come over and let them know, ‘I need you to help me work with my dog today.’ Always try to make every experience a good one and always try to work with people that know you’re working with them so that when you do take them about the real world, they’re just like, ‘Oh, I’m used to this.’ I tell them, it’s not you being mean or being rude by removing your puppy from a situation. It’s just that you know what you want, and you know what you’ve worked hard to get, and you don’t want to mess it up. It just takes one bad experience, and then it’s all shot.
Elizabeth And even if it’s not a bad experience, if someone says, ‘Oh, it’s okay that they jump,’ and then they pet the dog for jumping, that’s so reinforcing to that puppy, so of course it’s gonna keep jumping.
Damelle Uh-huh. I tell ‘em, we reinforce a lot of things by accident, and I’m just like, even I do it sometimes to a client’s dogs and I tell them, ‘Yeah, I shouldn’t have done that, but this is kind of a good response that they gave me and I’m gonna take it,’ but then I’ll get them to get down and that’s it. Like right now, I’m working with a dog that’s very shy. The owner’s had her for nine months and she’s been using pee pads in the house. She hasn’t been going outside. She won’t go outside. She’s just so terrified. But she came and stayed with me a couple of times and I’ve been able to get her to go outside, so now I get pictures from Mom all the time with her outside on walks and stuff. In the beginning, I was like, ‘You have to have patience with her,’ and I could tell her patience were kind of running thin, but then she started to see her going outside and moving around. She’s just like, ‘Oh yes, now she’s so happy,’ and as long as they’re happy, I’m happy.
Elizabeth Yeah, I don’t think even the best trainers are immune to like a super cute dog and a shy dog. Like, there are dogs that I’m like, ‘You know, you weren’t even gonna acknowledge me a few weeks ago and now you’re jumping on me. That’s okay right now. You’re acknowledging me.’
Damelle Yes. So sometimes, like, you just have to do it. Just take it. You can choose your battle. Is it worth it, or is it not? Because, I mean, I’m gonna take that. I want that and, as a pet owner, I’m gonna appreciate that, because especially if I get the opportunity to say, ‘Oh wow, they’ve never done that,’ to you.
Elizabeth Yeah, and all dogs are individual. There are some dogs that it wouldn’t be great if they jumped on me, but other dogs, it’s like, okay, we’ll work here. Get that confidence and then teach some manners and go from there.
Damelle Exactly. And that’s right. That’s what I told her last week. I was like, now that she’s tired of loosening up, now we can teach her manners.
Elizabeth So you have two dogs, is that right?
Damelle I have three dogs, but one of them is my oldest son’s dog. I have two American Bullies, and then my son has a French Bulldog.
Elizabeth Okay, so just a bunch bunch of bullies in the family.
Damelle Yeah, I just handled the bill part for him. [Laughs]
Elizabeth Yeah, that’s a good setup. [Laughs] He gets to enjoy the dog and you get to take care of everything else. So your dogs are pretty young–one and two. Did you raise them from puppyhood?
Damelle Yeah.
Elizabeth And what are their names?
Damelle Reign and warrior.
Elizabeth And what are some of the things that you did differently with Reign and Warrior as opposed to your childhood dog that you got when you were 13?
Damelle I have more patience with my dogs that I have now and I credit all of that to going through the Karen Pryor Academy, because at first, before I even went through it, I’ve always had the vet thing and done that, and it’s just like it’s totally different when you’re in the vet. It’s like, the animal has to do it,so you can get things done, so that’s how I’ve always been but then, after going through this class, it’s just like, oh we’re giving up options. And then even as a kid, that’s how my parents worked with the dog, like, ‘When I ask you to do something, you need to do it. You have to do it.’ But then seeing the Karen Pryor Academy, and seeing how they give them options, and how the clicker actually makes them become creative on their own, I was just like, ‘Oh yeah, this is easier.’ Like now, when I’m at work, I tell them if I have to put a dog on his side or pin it in a corner, I’m not touching it. If I can’t just hold him by his collar, and we do everything we need to do and feed him some easy cheese, I don’t want to be bothered, because it’s just like, I understand that they don’t like us, but we can’t force them to do things because then that’s when they start to hate us.
Elizabeth One of the things that I’ve noticed about, especially people with bigger dogs is, like they try to muscle them and I’m like why don’t we just ask them?
Damelle Yeah, but us as pet owners also need to say, ‘Okay, we know our dog hates the vet, so let’s take them to the vet and just walk them and put them on the scale. Give them some treats and walk back out without anything happening to them. Unless your vet is far away from you, you could do that on a weekend or something and just pop them in and pop them back out and just make it a routine and a habit thing for them so it’s not as stressful to know where they go.
Elizabeth I actually teach my group classes in a vet clinic and that has been huge for those dogs because it’s not just, they go in and get poked and prodded and shots, but they go in and it’s a marvelous time in my classes, so when they have to go back for a checkup it’s not as stressful for them.
Damelle Yes, totally. Everyone acts like they’re too busy in life. I mean, I get it, but sometimes you just need to do it, because, I mean, you got this dog because that’s what you wanted. The dog could have been somewhere else with someone else, enjoying its best life, but you’re too busy for it.
Elizabeth When you think about it, just like you said, 30 seconds of training a day. That’s really not a lot and taking 15 minutes to go to your vet and pop in and pop out isn’t really a lot. And if you break it down that way, then you see what’s possible and you’re also building a better relationship with your dog and then you naturally want to do more because you see the possibilities. It’s really us getting in our own way of like, oh I don’t have time. Do you or do you not want to and those are two different things.
Damelle Those are totally two different things.
Elizabeth So I wanted to ask a little bit about having pitbulls. I’m in an area where we have some breed specific legislation. Is that something to worry about in Maryland at all or no?
Damelle Yes. Yes. [Laughs] I love pitbulls. That’s my favorite breed. That’s why I became a dog trainer, too, because I was kind of like, I want to help pitbulls. I’m a big fan of Pitbulls and Parolees. So I’m like, ‘Yeah, I want to help as many pitbulls as possible.’ But at this time, I was working at Bethesda and I was getting nothing but labradoodles and golden doodles and anything that wasn’t a pitbull, so it’s just like okay. So when I do get them, I’m happy. I kind of got away from the breed, just because I was tired of the dirty looks, but I still kind of get them with my bullies, because the first question I’m always asked is, ‘Are they nice?’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean? Yes.’ I always tell people I wouldn’t have a mean dog. Because I have five kids. That’s just too much more for me to have to worry about.
Elizabeth Yeah. Any dog with a blocky head and some muscle is gonna be looked at a certain way and I think that’s why body language is so important for people to learn. There was a, he kind of looked part pitty, maybe part lab, but there was a loose dog in a neighborhood where I was doing a training walk and I encountered this woman who saw him first, and she’s like, ‘Do you know that dog?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know.’ I was like, ‘Do you want some lunch meat to see if he’s friendly?’ and she’s like, ‘No, I have mace.’ And I was like, ‘Okay. We’re gonna start with mace with a loose dog?’ I understand maybe she was attacked before on her run because she was on a run, so maybe she’d been attacked before, and she just doesn’t want to mess with loose dogs at all, which I get, but I think when it comes to dogs in general, especially our larger dogs, if you don’t understand body language, if you don’t know how to approach a dog, if you don’t know the basics of understanding if a dog is friendly or not, then you’re doing such a disservice to dogs that just might be like happy-go-lucky. They’re just huge and they’re just like, ‘Why are you being mean to me?’
Damelle Yes. They’re big babies. But those little chihuahuas – I always tell people that’s the real pitbull.
Elizabeth Yeah. Yeah, for no good reason. I guess they’re tiny, so that’s why I guess they have to do that. So, what do you love about pitties in general, too, and what do you wish people knew about them?
Damelle I just love the the energy that they have. I had two of them when I was maybe 21, and they were different. One was very athletic and the other one was like a princess. I mean, I loved both of them, but my little athletic one, I kind of loved her a little bit more. Just because I loved that she was an athlete and she would run and we could play fetch in the creek and throw the ball, throw the stick, and she would dive in the water. Go get it, come back, swim. But the other was just like, ‘Oh no, I don’t want to do that.’ If you work with them, and you kind of give them things to do, then that’ll get the energy out of them and you got to also watch what it is that you do with them because I always tell people, keep in mind that the world has a different aspect of that. So you want to always be careful what it is you do with them because keep in the back of your mind that if you upset them, you can upset them, but as long as you’re good with them, they’re fine. They’re just like any other dog. You could do that with any other dog too, and they’ll be the same way.
Elizabeth I wonder sometimes if sometimes they need a more experienced owner and it’s not a first-time owner dog for all of the five that are under the pitbull label because they are very, very smart and they are strong. Putting that in the hands of someone who’s inexperienced can be a challenge.
Damelle And that’s a conversation that I’ve had with my wife plenty of times. I feel like you should have to be a certain age to walk a pitbull or any big dog, period. Even a big lab, you need to be a certain age because these things are strong and they can pull you and there’s no telling, your dog may be perfectly fine, but you don’t know anything about that other dog, so you want to be able to have control of everything in the situation if you can. So in my neighborhood where I live, I always see maybe middle school kids walking in their pitbulls or whatever and I’m just kind of like, bad idea.
Elizabeth And as a father of five kids, are there things that you do with your kids and your dogs to keep everybody safe? How do you set both your children and your dogs up for success?
Damelle I always tell my kids, ‘You have to respect them. They have to respect you, too, but you have to respect them as well, because if you do things to them then that can upset them and you don’t want to upset them.’ All of my kids that’s old enough, they usually work with the dogs too, so they have that relationship with them. I feel like they’ll be fine and I never leave them alone anyway. Like if I’m gonna go somewhere, I’ll put the dogs up if the kids don’t go with me. I’ll put them up, but other than that the dogs do whatever they want to do and the kids do what they want to do and they interact when they want to. It’s all about giving them options.
Elizabeth And how old are your kids?
Damelle My oldest one is 12 and my youngest one is one. And I have 11, 4, and 6. We’ve always taught them to respect dogs.
Elizabeth What advice would you have for someone who has kids, especially young ones, and their dogs?
Damelle To teach your kids to respect the dog as well. I get that you have in your mind that these are your kids and that the dogs have to respect them and the dog shouldn’t do this, the dog should do that, but the dogs have feelings too, so you have to kind of keep that in mind. If you notice your dog is growling at one of your kids, don’t punish the growl with your dog. See what it is that’s making him growl. See what it is that the child is doing that’s making this happen so you could kind of let them know, ‘Hey, don’t do this. Instead of doing that, why don’t you do this?’ So that you’re going to redirect your kid too.
Elizabeth Yeah and it’s so dangerous to punish a growl, because then the dog learns not to not do anything but to not growl so when they’re pushed too far, that you’ve eliminated the growl completely, which is a huge warning sign that we need to have.
Damelle Yes. Yes. I tell them, if you punish that growl, it’s going to go away and they’re just going to attack, and they’re like, ‘But I don’t want him growling.’ Okay, so figure out what in the environment has your dog growling and kind of see if you can get away from it, and then on another day, kind of slowly break it down which is you and your dog and whatever the situation was, see if you can kind of reenact it a little bit so that you can work them up to not be so nervous about it. Let them realize that is good and things that they see or look at or that they used to be afraid of. It’s not always necessarily a mean growl. It can be like an uncomfortable growl.
Elizabeth Or I’m scared or yeah, give me space.
Damelle Yes, so I’m just like, you have to respect it but the world is like do it, do it, do it. It’s just you can’t do that in the dog world, you gotta kind of break things down for them from time to time. I personally will take a million baby steps to get what I want instead of trying to get it done in five steps.
Elizabeth Because then everyone knows what’s expected, right? The kids and the dogs. When you make it clear what’s going on and that they have a safe space to go to if they’re uncomfortable or the kids need to stop pulling on the dog, then it’s a much safer environment for everybody.
Damelle Yes, and I always recommend to clients to have crates for their dog because that can be their safe place. If they don’t want to be bothered with the kids, then they can just go in their place or go to their bed or their mat or whatever you have out for them to go to. And you just let the kids know when they’re there, off limits. When you see them go to that spot, don’t mess with them. That’s their time.
Elizabeth I try to, it depends on the age of the kid, but I try to explain it to the kid, too, like, ‘If you’re in bed and you’re super warm and cozy and then someone comes and grabs your foot and grabs you out of bed, would you like that?
Damelle Right. No they wouldn’t. Oh my gosh.
Elizabeth I just posted an interview with another person who has a pitbull and a baby and we were talking a little bit about the book, Don’t Bite the Baby, and all this management protocol and I’m just glad that there’s–even if it’s slight–there’s this shift in a dog should be okay with whatever a kid does to it, and now we’re moving towards, ‘Well, let’s actually give them space and make sure that they’re comfortable and they feel okay.’
Damelle Yes, exactly. Because I’m just like, ‘Do you want people to do those things to you?’ Even when it comes to prong collars and shock collars, I always ask clients, ‘What if every time you said something stupid or did something stupid, you got a shock or you got a tug on a collar? And it’s not good for anyone. Try this positive thing and it will work out so much better for you, because you don’t want your dog to be scared of you, because that’s when they start being fearful and then they bite and then they see you and then they just get so stressed out. You stress them out, and then since you’ve decided to stress them out, now they got you stressed out and it’s just not good for anything.’
Elizabeth Damelle, so I think that was all the questions that I had. Was there anything else that you wanted to add?
Damelle Oh no. I mean as far as people and pitbulls, they are a great breed, but they shouldn’t be for first-time dog owners and they shouldn’t be dogs that you let your teenagers walk around. They really need to be with responsible owners. They’re strong and this whole myth about them having locked jaws–they’re just strong. They’re strong as hell and you have to be able to control it, and if you treat them good from puppyhood up, you’ll have the perfect dog, but if you try to dominate them, then just be prepared, because it’s not going to be good for you or them.
Elizabeth I think there’s a lot of times we do stuff where dogs are just like, ‘What the heck?’ and so they have to respond. It’s like, they’re trying to protect themselves or they’re trying to avoid fear or pain or what have you.
Damelle Yes. Well, with my dogs, I try to do everything that involves food, especially if I’m doing vet things with them. I just gave my boy dog a … shot, and I made sure I put cheese out for him and just talked to him and got him real happy, and I didn’t just poke him, because I know he doesn’t like that. I was prepared for scrapes. I was like, maybe I can avoid that if I just do this. Just think about ways you can set any dog up for success and still get what you want and then you’re winning.
Elizabeth And that’s when it’s more of a a dialogue or a conversation, so if the dog needs to take a break, you know it,and you can let them and they can let you know, ‘Hey, I’m not comfortable,’ so more more conversation and less monologuing, I guess.
Damelle Yes, that’s it.
Elizabeth Well, Damelle, where can people find you online if they want to email you? If they’re looking for a trainer or if they want to follow you?
Damelle If they want to email me, they can email me at dogtrainer86@icloud.com. I’m also on Facebook and Instagram and it’s Tip Top Breedz Dog Training, with a z. And I’ll a web page, and hopefully it should be complete by the end of the year.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedogtrainer86/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tiptopbreedzdogtraining/
Elizabeth I will link to your email and your socials, too for the podcast episode. So I’ll do the sign off first, and then I’ll ask you the question.
This has been Telltail Dog the podcast with your host, Elizabeth Silverstein, certified dog trainer in central Arkansas and my guest today, Damelle Morgan, Sr. Music has been provided by Jim Ciago of Seven Second Chance. Find more of his work on iTunes and Spotify and stick around for after the music for some final advice from Damelle.
[Music]
Elizabeth Damelle, before we sign off completely, what advice do you have for someone who’s just brought a puppy home?
Damelle Okay, I would tell them that every dog is different. Never compare your new dog to your old dog and to always try to set them up for success.
