Pablo Peanut Butter Chompers aKA Paulie Walnuts
Neither Beto nor I had ever been responsible for a dog on our own, so we were anxious-excited for Pablo Peanut Butter Chompers' arrival.
We tried in earnest to prepare for his arrival and get all the right equipment, but nothing quite prepares you to wake up in the middle of the night for potty breaks. Pablo immediately stole our hearts by cuddling on our laps and playing fetch with toys that were, at the time, the same size as him.
As weeks went on, Pablo was gaining 3-5 lbs a week and a sizable personality. Pablo became sweet, energetic, goofy, smart, playful, nippy, attention-seeking, a tough chewer, and strong — and we realized that we had no idea how to best train him.
We were worried Pablo would be 60 lbs and still jumping on people to say hello or forcefully pulling on his leash. Every session with Jason changed our daily lives.
In the first session, Jason explained that Pablo could sleep in his crate throughout the day for naps, not just at night. This routine shift made doing our jobs and managing our relationship with Pablo, much better.
Next session, Jason taught us the importance of Pablo being able to calm himself down in "Place"— while our dude still loves attention all the time, he no longer nips at your thighs when he wants it and has learned to stay in place while we watch TV.
Lastly, Jason taught us how to use a K9 Lifeline Transitional, which has made walking Pablo significantly easier and more enjoyable.
Jason gave us the tools to teach Pablo and has exponentially changed our relationship with him for the better.
While our dude is still a little bruiser, see clips from PuppyBowl XVII for proof (under his rescue name "Paulie"), Pablo now understands boundaries and listens to us (for the most part). Pablo remains eager to please/learn and we're forever grateful that Jason guided us through this process.
Penny
AKA Carmela Soprano
We adopted Penny through the organization Rescue City in NYC at the end of July 2020. Although both of us have had multiple family dogs growing up, it had been a while since either of us had been around a very young puppy.
We initially attempted to train Penny ourselves, but the number of conflicting opinions and slight variations in training techniques we were finding online made our heads spin!
A lot of what we were trying wasn’t working—especially every suggestion about how to teach your puppy to not bite you—so we asked our adoption organization for dog trainer recommendations. Although the puppy bites were the reason we initially reached out, by working with Jason Cohen we walked away with knowledge in so many other focus areas such as crate training, housebreaking, leash handling, and overall communication which has been crucial to Penny’s success.
Human-Dog Communication
Jason assessed her play-biting and reassured us that her behavior was just puppy playfulness and not aggression. He did explain to us that she was a very confident and assertive puppy, so teaching her boundaries and setting up routines would be important for our training. After the behavioral analysis, Jason then explained to us how to communicate with Penny through clicker and positive reinforcement training.
One of the biggest takeaways that we continue to build upon to this day is to “always look for and reward good behavior”.
After this foundational session, we began to see a huge difference within just a couple of days! Not only did we get advice on how to interrupt and redirect Penny’s unwanted behaviors, but we also saw how much fun she had during our training sessions. We suddenly had new ways to play and interact with her which in turn drastically decreased her attempts at play-biting us/our clothing.
Routines and Expectations
We got Penny as an 8-week ball of energy and while we both agreed that Penny should sleep in the crate at night, we did not always have her take naps in the crate during the day. Excited to have a cute little puppy in the house, we had a tough time not wanting her to nap next to us or on our lap while working from the couch.
By the time we had our training sessions with Jason, Penny was perfectly fine in the crate when it was time for bed, but had started displaying stress indicators when we closed the crate for her naps during the day such as digging, pawing, and whining.
Our intention to bond with her during her naps on our lap was starting to have unintended consequences—early signs of separation anxiety, and bad associations with her crate. Jason showed ways we could begin making the crate a positive experience.
He taught us the Crate Game, which involved rapidly throwing in treats and teaching her to wait until we used a release word for her to come out every time we opened the crate door. He also suggested that we always feed her meals inside of Kongs in the crate, and to have a kong loaded with peanut butter in the freezer ready for any necessary breaks we needed. This way if we ever needed to put her into the crate for her to calm down, she had a Kong treat to enjoy and didn’t feel that she was being punished.
Jason also helped us dial in our schedule for Penny and over a few days, we locked into a great routine that worked wonders.
Scheduled naps in the crate were CRUCIAL for not having an over-tired feisty puppy.
It also helped with our work-puppy balance because we could plan to have chunks of 2-3 hours every day while she calmly napped to work, go grocery shopping, etc.
Time outside of the crate became calculated and easier to manage, and we could clearly tell when the play went overtime when she would go into puppy shark mode. The days when we followed the crate schedule consistently were incredibly more manageable, giving all of our structure and predictability.
Once Penny’s vaccines were completed and we got to walk her outdoors, our crate routine led to very effective Potty Training. Per Jason’s advice, we immediately would take Penny outside after her crate time to go to the bathroom. Using a vocal cue, “Go Out” and plenty of praise and treats, Penny quickly associated the outside world with time to do her business.
Proper Leash Communication
During our second and third sessions, we learned even more about dog-human communication with the introduction of the K9 Lifeline Transitional Leash. Penny initially did very well just using the slip lead, but as she got bigger and stronger and started pulling towards birds and squirrels, we trusted Jason’s advice and trained her to be comfortable with the leash as a gentle leader.
Our walks went from stressful events to a manageable and structured way to get some energy out for our high-energy pup.
Because of the way we were trained to hold the leash with two hands and use food/treats as rewards for when she was doing a great job, our walks were always 100% focused on Penny and our surroundings, and the majority of the time we could foresee a potential trigger of excitement (like another dog approaching) and intervene with engagement training to keep her from getting into an over-excited state of mind. Of course, squirrels and rats that run out unexpectedly are not something that we can plan for, but with proper leash communication and then the “leave-it” cue clicker/treat reward, we are able to eventually help get her to snap out and re-focus on us and our walk.
Our recall session in Prospect Park was so much fun! We got to watch Penny explore the park on a long lead while learning how much of a blast it was to “come” when called.
Jason explained that when training the “come” command, we should make sure to keep it really exciting and positive—something that we always keep in mind as we continue the training in her adolescent / stubborn stage of puppyhood. We practice recall often, and love watching her excitedly run towards us in different environments to get her high-value treats.
The “Place” cue; training for behavior, not for tricks
We loved seeing how quickly Penny picked up the role of “Place”. Admittedly one of us was much more consistent with this training at first, but it benefits our life with our puppy is amazing and we are now both using it for occasions like cooking, eating dinner, doing work next to her without her trying to initiate playtime, when someone comes over, or when we want to encourage her to enter a calm state.
If she becomes overly excited and we notice her heading towards destructive behaviors such as picking up our slippers or digging at the couch, we implement even a few minutes of “Place” as a re-set.
A couple of times that we’ve done this, she leaped right from the couch and excitedly ran over to her cot or bed, and within five minutes she was in a comfortable nap. Having consistently used this command during our dinnertime for the past 4 months, some nights now all we have to do is move her cot into the kitchen for her to immediately enter a calm state of mind and curl up for a nap within minutes.
Training For Life
The tools that we have learned from Jason Cohen have opened up a whole new world for us and have given us the foundation necessary for raising a wonderful pup. Since we have recently moved out of the city, Jason’s digital resources continue to be invaluable and we love knowing that we can reach out for digital training at any point. We live an hour outside of NYC, so are excited to be able to drive back to Brooklyn for group walks in the future.
Despite the occasional moments of frustration or stress that come with raising a puppy, seeing the time we put into training Penny pays off as she gets older encourages us to keep going.
Knowing about how dogs learn and how to properly set Penny up for success has been one of the most fulfilling (and fun) adventures that we’ve done together as a family, and we are so grateful that we were recommended to Jason Cohen’s Canine Cohen Dog Training program!
Monty
AKA Silvio Dante
Monty was adopted on 7/29/2020 when he was about 2 months old, part of a big litter of mixed breed puppies rescued from Texas by Rescue City.
He was about 13 lbs when he joined our family and much like Pablo, he lost that little puppy belly in a matter of weeks and is now likely close to 60 lbs.
While Corn and I had always had dogs, they were always at least 1 or 2 years old when we adopted them, so we had no puppy experience whatsoever!
We knew that we wanted to start in the best position to train Monty to be a happy, playful, and good dog and knew we needed Jason's help to assist us. He was the best recommendation that Rescue City could have provided us! Even before we could have our first training session Jason gave me his phone number so we could chat about Monty's behavior and get started as soon as possible.
Monty was not fully vaccinated when he was adopted so his first month with us was spent entirely inside our apartment. This made him very timid when we first brought him out onto the busy sidewalks of our Brooklyn neighborhood, to the point where he would not want to leave the front stoop or would pull and cry to go back home.
Jason gave us so many great tips for helping him get acclimated - we started by just sitting on the stoop and letting him watch the world go by and now he wants to explore the world!
Jason's first visit helped us get him better at being in his crate, using the clicker and treats, treats, treats! (and here we'd been saying 'Oh, Monty's not very food motivated!) He still isn't in love with the crate but is willing to go into it and now stays quiet inside it when we need him to be safe while we're busy working or out running errands.
On our second visit, Jason taught us 'Place'. I will be the first to admit we're not great at it - let's just say Monty is more consistent than Corn and I about practicing it and we need to work on duration. My favorite bit of advice from Jason was 'Don't Act Weird' (which of course we were).
Now the most success I get from Monty going to his place is when I am doing the most normal things - like washing dishes and cooking.
We also learned the proper use of the K9 Lifeline transitional leash and practiced walking with Monty inside and then outside on the sidewalk. This leash has been incredible for us to have pleasant walks with Monty and offers us the ability to correct his behavior quickly and safely while enjoying a nice, much more pull-free walk!
Our third visit was so much fun - we learned Recall training in Prospect Park.
It is so great to have Monty on the long lead and to practice this exercise.
One of the best practice moments Corn and I had was with my sister going to Jacob Riis Beach and running along the dunes and practicing Recall.
Winter has slowed down our opportunity to practice a lot, but Recall is helping a lot when we have Monty out in our backyard and we want to go back inside. Just making fun sounds snaps him out of his crazy brain mode and he (usually - he is a pup/teen now) comes to us.
Jason also was so wonderfully generous with his time setting up a playdate with Monty's famous brother Pablo - the Puppy Bowl Champion!
Jason taught us how to introduce them outside on a leash, far apart from each other and we took a walk, gradually letting the pups get closer and then slowly sniff, then walk next to one another, then we went into our backyard and a couple of hours Wrestlemania went down! Jason observed their behaviors, play styles, and noted when one pup was being dominant or the other pup was tiring and needed a break, and he demonstrated many techniques to handle any escalations or other situations that could occur between dogs (very helpful at the dog park).
Without Jason's teaching and continued guidance through his Facebook group, I'd likely have a road rash on my body from being dragged down the street by this giant beast.
Monty is such a loving, goofy, smart, and vocal pup - he is a wonderful addition to our family. We are so grateful that Jason was our coach and as of one week ago, my twin sister who lives in our 2nd-floor apartment has adopted a pup herself and plans to reach out to Jason for coaching.
We already are using the advice Jason gave us during Monty + Pablo's playdate - and we are waiting to introduce Monty to his new best friend Bunny until she has had time to decompress, get comfortable with my sister and our house, and then we will work on introducing them in the same way Monty met his brother again!
Many, many thanks, Jason! Monty would not be the dog he is today without your training (of us!)