An Elite Protection Trainer on Why the Chihuahua Always Gives Him Away (Never the Shepherd)

Slade WeberThe working dogs, the working dogs. We worked some Shepherds and a couple Malawas and some sport IGP, what we call Schutzen dogs this morning. So that's fun. And then the other side of it was your bodysuit bite, right? The bite suit. The little bite. I can show you. I wonder how it's getting on.

Cameron MainIt's, there we go. Healing up pretty. We'll have to get some zoom on that. Yeah, we'll have to get a little bit of zoom, but it's some battle scars, a souvenir to take home.

Slade Weberyeah and these dogs for for that dog we always want to make sure that they know like the it's just a game but at the same time when we're done we're done right they turn on we turn on he was salivating a little bit i think we've got a clip of that there's there's spit flying for sure so can you tell for the people who don't know what it is what is shut and So Schutzen's my hobby that I got into about eight years ago. Really hardcore last four years. But you get trialed and judged by a judge for tracking obedience and protection. And we say that people that get into the dog sport, if they last five years in the dog sport, then they'll go longer. They'll last longer. But it's the five-year mark that usually gets people because it's so hard. right the the meticulous training that i'm sure you guys saw today where it's like the there's so much exactness that the judges is getting on us for so me doing all the schutzen and enjoying the schutz in that tracking obedience and protection then it allows me to to train personal protection dogs as my job which becomes a lot more fun yeah doing the maintenance and and that that stuff's a lot more fun business-wise

Cameron MainAnd that's probably easy for you, right? Compared to the Schutzen, because we saw you and the other guys, everyone's very passionate, but they're also super meticulous about the dog's posture and the way that it has to look at you and stand in the right position. So I guess, is it that much harder than training personal protection dogs?

Slade WeberIn a way, I'd say, because we're setting up a routine to the exactness. And we practice the routine. We take everything out of context to pay our dog for certain things that some people go, why does that even matter? But there's these little, little details that get you all the points. And so then going into the personal protection side, that's where everything becomes a whole lot easier in the sense now we're training humans. I've trained the dog. I know that the dog can do this. Now I need the human at the end of the leash, which is the owner, to be able to work the dog. Whether it's a housekeeper walking the dog on the personal protection or pet side even. I do a lot of pet dogs. But that's some of the stuff. You've got to be able to train the housekeeper. The housekeeper might be the one that ends up hanging out with the dog the most at that point or the assistant. So that's some of the stuff. The dog should be able to work for everybody.

Cameron MainSo personal protection, I guess, in Vegas. I mean, we've driven up here. It's absolutely beautiful, the villas. There's a lot of work for personal protection dogs here in Vegas in particular. Or is it all over?

Slade WeberI'd say it's all over. I do a lot of stuff in Hollywood and Malibu area. But it's more stuff that... I enjoy Vegas. Again, we need dogs everywhere for certain homes, people living on ranches, single mom that lives alone, those types of things. That's very important. But then people that want to leave their wife home while they go to work, right, and with the kids and their valuables, that's where stuff becomes really important. What's the value behind that? A German Shepherd, they say, has the intelligence of a three-year-old, a three-year-old human. So if we train these dogs up and we get them to about two, two and a half, that's where we start to see how the maturity, that dog will take care of the family without people putting much time into the dog if there's enough training, engagement, relationship. So there's less worries on that side.

Chris NobleHow does your training differ for like a pet dog versus a protection dog?

Slade WeberIn the beginning, everything's the same. Everything's the same in the beginning. The engagement that we talked about in the beginning, right? Our dog's wanting to push us to do things, right? I want my ball. I want my ball. How do I get it? Maybe I stare at you in the eyes and we get it. Because this guy over here, Gronk, you guys met Gronk. But Gronk, these dogs will stare at us to want to go to the next thing, whether we're doing healing, protection. Like if I bring out a dog and the person says, oh, I want them to bite me, like you guys. I want my dog to look at me first, and then they're allowed to. So then when we start putting it into a household setting, the dog doesn't get to make decisions on its own. We don't want the dog to make decisions at all. We want the dog to go, Dad? What do you want from me? Like, this is a new person. And then you tell your dog maybe to lay down. And then your dog goes, for sure. Dad's calm. I should be calm, right? They pick up on our energy. But once we start freaking out about who's at the door, right? The Amazon guy comes four or five times a day to some of these houses, right? Everyone's ordering stuff from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. So how many times does Amazon come a day, knock on the door, our dogs start barking at the Amazon guy, then that guy leaves. What does our dog think? Our dog thinks, even if it's a chihuahua, any dog, that they're scaring the person away, right? Inevitably, they're training themselves of how to push people away, how to deal with stress at their own house, how to deal with conflict. Rather than when we open up the door and the dog's barking, sometimes the dog won't even go because it's all just a fake defense.

Chris NobleThat's really interesting. I like that. Right?

Slade WeberBecause at the same time, my dad, he owns an eviction company here in town. So I've done a lot of evictions with him. I go through some of these spooky, spooky neighborhoods in Las Vegas, if you will. And it's the chihuahua that's been there for 12 years living outside at the condo at this apartment complex that always gives me away. That's the dog that gives me away, right? And it's just because they yappy. But as soon as I get to the top of the doorstep, I'm hanging my notice where I got to come back in seven days if they don't pay their rent. And then all of a sudden, I'm getting the door opened on me. I'm like, ah, the chihuahua gave me away, right? It's not the shepherd that gave me away. So all these little things where the chihuahua becomes a deterrent. rather than needing the personal protection dog. I always like my dogs that live in homes that... dogs are always living there i don't want them to think that they're supposed to be engaging every time that they're dealing with conflict you can bark but at the same time if your human tells you hey this is what we're doing that's all we're doing right so it's either black or is it white is the behavior good or is the behavior bad once you start working these dogs in the gray area that's where we start to get the liability gray area meaning If someone were to come in the backyard right now that we didn't know, Gronk would be pissed about it. He would not like that because he would know. And he'd be like, woo, woo, woo, woo. And he'd come stand right here, right? And he'd be like, no, that guy's not supposed to be here. So those are some of the things. Little bit of a rant, so sorry.

Chris NobleHe's going to ask you for permission first.

Slade WeberYeah, right? In order for him, like you saw Jax and Effie barking and different things, they must show obedience before they can go and do what they want to do. All the dogs want to bite and bark once we get them to that level, but you don't get to unless you make obedience.

Cameron Mainand so okay so these dogs or mainly these dogs are trained they'll look at you first right if for if something's going to happen in a family setting where you know you might have husband the wife and the children are they always going to look at one person in general or are they going to look to more than one or how is it going to work then

Slade WeberTypically a dog that we've trained and worked with for a while that's been around the family and now we push them into a new home with new kids and different things. Odds are that that dog's already seen a bunch of kids and loves his kids because we don't just put dogs in homes at that level that haven't seen kids, right? if these things happen our dogs will probably want to go and hang out around our kids rather than hanging and protecting the the human that the the older humans if you will the adults but it comes as something where whoever works with the dog the most and has the best relationship that's who the dog looks at right and it goes into another thing you start stepping into the pet side Who does the dog have the most fun with? Is that good news or bad news that that person has the most fun with the dog? Right? Because that person could be creating bad habits. But the dog goes, I love these bad habits. This is so fun. This guy, he gives me sugar all the time. He gives me all these treats without his wife knowing. How does he do that?

Cameron MainAnd that's...

Slade WeberThat's sometimes what happens here at this house.

Cameron MainIt's funny as well. You talked about different energies around the dog. And that's something we picked up on a lot today, especially when we were training. Because you would have ways that you would get the dogs riled up. You would have ways that you'd command them that was very strict. And then the rewarding was you would change instantly into more like a sort of higher-pitched voice or a rewarding voice. How important really is that when you're training as well?

Slade WeberThose are what you're describing as our marker words is what we call them, right? So every behavior, like if we're going and I'm helping my dog into aggression, I can help them by maybe, oh, you're going to watch that bad guy, right? And our dog goes, who am I supposed to be watching, right? That's one way. But at the same time, we were talking about in the beginning, how do we prep our dog, right? Like the typical pet. Pet homes that we love, they go and grab a leash. The dog gets all riled up, like, ooh, we're going for a walk. But how often do they put the leash on the dog and sit back down on the couch? True. That's the other side of reverse conditioning, right? We've conditioned our dogs to understand what say yes means, and they get a ball. But what about the other side? Leash comes out, they're all stoked, goes on. And that's how we make our dogs a little bit more calm in the house. So that's often what you just asked is the main thing that I tell people that we should be doing as we get a new dog. Have we started putting the leash on in the house? And people say, why would I do that? I say, well, how are we going to create good behaviors in the home or outside if we can't even do it in the home? So those are some of the things. Talking about the markers that you were talking about, there's a marker word for really anything you want. but yes, marking, marking the good behaviors that we do want. And then some of this stuff, like I'm not hard on the nose, right? We don't want to get on them for, for too many things, but felonies and misdemeanors, right? Like, is more of a misdemeanor. A dog kind of going smelling like a little, a little potty that another dog did over there versus a dog running across the street. That shouldn't be right. There's a difference in, in what should be done there.

Cameron MainYeah, difference in severity. Right. So what if we take a look at pets then? So I guess dogs that are in a family home. How would you use tone in your training there? Tone of voice or the way you would speak to them?

Slade WeberThe humans or the dog? human to the dog i guess okay so like talking to the humans just starting there talking to the humans is is something where we got to get a game plan of what we're going to do with the dog and it's better to be a hundred percent consistent bad or really good right either either do what you want and be consistent in that but don't dabble in between oh i'm gonna train and then i'm gonna secretly do these things without slade knowing because that's what it ends up being and then it's like why does it happen a lot happens a lot yeah it happens a lot

Cameron MainAnd they think that it's just like a little treat for them or something, or that they can just, I guess, make exceptions.

Slade WeberExactly. I'll give you one example. There's a lady with an XL bully, six months old. Dog's cute. Very, very cute. He's the best. He's got big personality. And it's this man and woman that have finally gotten together. And I'm doing a Dr. Phil moment. I find myself doing a lot of Dr. Phil moments where they've been together for a little bit of time, move in together, right? And that's how that goes. But the rules that that dog has with them not having any kids ends up being the dog can kind of do no wrong, right? And so getting them to use a crate, for instance, right, to have boundaries, to let our dog just hang out in the crate for a little bit. Like what happens when we go travel? We need a crate. So then I get the questions, to answer your question, I get the questions of why is my dog humping me in my sleep on my bed? And I get, should I be putting a collar on my dog and correcting my dog? And I say, why would you reward for that behavior, right? That's just so weird, right? But the real answer is that dog should be in a crate until he's a little bit older, respects the boundaries, respects the bed. Me personally, I... I can invite them into bed, but the bed for me is my safe spot. My room, that's my room. That's my time. That's where we talk about boundaries and the hierarchy. I try not to go too much in the hierarchy stuff, the alpha stuff, but it's more... Pack leader. Who's the leader in the house? Are we fair, confident, and consistent? Those are who the dogs want to follow. Because oftentimes I don't see dogs for seven years, eight years, and I go over to the house and it's like, the dogs haven't seen me forever, but they know me. They know, like, oh, my dog never gets that excited for me. It's like, well, there's a relationship. I've had your dog. I worked with your dog for X amount of time.

Cameron MainDoes that ever happen where, I guess, your clients see that the dog is closer with you than with them or that the dog prefers to spend time with you? Oh, yeah. Yeah? Oh, yeah. It's a big thing. How does that go down?

Slade WeberMy dog likes you more than me, right? And it's like, well, what am I going to do? Right? But that's from creating that relationship. Typically, when I do training, everything that I do is through food, through engagement in the beginning, right? Because who shares with number two in the pack, the number one in the pack, the leader? alpha wolf right we'll call it but that's that's how it goes in the pack right number one us we we give our dog food and they they respect it in that way

Cameron MainAnd the clients, do they ever get upset about it? Yeah?

Slade WeberOh, yeah. You know, there's another time, a little dog, and I was raising the puppy with the lady, and I'd follow her everywhere, and we went to work together, hair salons that she had, the appointments that she had. And any time I picked that dog up, I got looked at from across the room, like, you put my dog down right now. No one gets to bond with my dog like that other than me. And I was like, oh. So I never did that again. But does the bond get further created just because someone's holding the dog? That's a whole other thing. That's another podcast.

Chris NobleThat's another podcast indeed. What about a lot of people say things like, OK, putting my dog in a crate is cruel or using different training methods is cruel. What's your perspective as a trainer and what would you tell people about that?

Slade WeberThe best thing for me is creating the crate as a fun place, right? Because every dog genetically comes stemming back from the wolf, right? That's just what we got for science. So if every dog is like the wolf, the wolf loves their den. But how did the wolf become happy with the den? Well, there was cavemen in there, right? And they would go and hunt food. Maybe they'd share with the wolves and the wolves would keep them safe in the cave at night because they'd sleep right outside the cave or in the cave, right? So we've always had this symbolic relationship with the animals. And that's where we go into something where, why wouldn't we use food for training? If the dog doesn't have as much food drive, then we can go to other things, praise, different things, and we keep working the dog. We don't wash the dog, per se, meaning like, hey, we're not doing this anymore. Like, my dog's dumb. Like, no, maybe your dog works more emotionally through praise. And that's what we see a lot, especially with the doodles. Everything for me, I'd rather praise 80%, 90% of the time and correct 10% of the time. So to answer your question, those are some of the things in the beginning. Creating the crate is a happy place. Putting the food inside the crate, just even on the bottom of the bed. Another big mistake we make as dog owners is putting too many things in the crate. How many toys does the puppy need, right? Versus them being grateful to get maybe a nice toy they can chew on, right? And then all of a sudden they go, oh, I get a blanket. This is cool. But I'm not really grateful about it. So they'll just rip it. It's just shreds. And so those are some of the things. We need to be able to create this boundary of hanging out and enjoying ourselves. I always tell people with new puppies, either the dog's with you on leash hanging out outside and you're watching the dog like we are. Like, oh, they're not getting into anything and we're eyes on. Or maybe the dog's hanging out here. The dog's inside with us hanging out on the inside of the house. Or the dog's in the crate. There's only three places our puppy can really be without all these other things. Just recently, I had a lady that, hey, don't have anything in the crate. Hey, don't have anything in the crate. And the dog ended up eating three stuffies. And it goes down the stomach. And they had to do the surgery to open up the stomach and go and grab them. But it was an exploratory thing where they had to take everything out and figure out how much stuff was in there. Versus like, could we have just not had stuff in the crate? Because that's a $4,000 surgery compared to...

Cameron MainAnd a lot of stress on the dog's body, right? Super amount. Super unnecessary stress as well.

Slade WeberEspecially with these puppies, right? For them to go through this kind of stress at that age, it's like we try to avoid all these things. And what we're talking about today, I've learned from also a lot of different people before us that have messed up. All these little mistakes that we make as humans, we just learn from each other. That's all it is. It's not like we're hard on each other about it. But if we share our stories, our dog stories, then everyone gets to learn. Exactly. Right? Because I'm coming from like 60 years of stories is really what it is. 70 years of stories.

Cameron MainIs there one particular mistake that you see dog owners make all the time? Like the same thing again and again and again? As they get older or younger? Just in general, I guess.

Slade WeberOkay. In the beginning, we spend so much time worrying about, the dog doesn't love me, right? We worry about that versus, like, what happens when we take our dog out on leash? Does our dog want to pull away from us to run away? Or does our dog go, hmm, I wonder if dad's got a cookie for me, right? And then our dog's just kind of staring up at us like, hmm. This is pretty nice. He's got a cookie for me, right? There's a relationship there. Versus the dog that wants to pull away from us and go after the other dogs. Is that dog more high value because of the unknown? Or should we be more important as the pack? They're trying to figure out what's the deal with the other dog versus they can come and engage with us. So those are the things for me. Because at a certain point, we do all the training. We shouldn't need leashes. We shouldn't need collars. We shouldn't need e-collars and these different things because our dog's trained. If we follow the system and we're able to implement what's reliable, and the tools help us get the reliability. Because without all the tools, the dogs are 99% reliable as far as taking them to the park, taking them down the strip, right, without a leash I'm talking about, right, for them to be hanging out next to you. Those are just some of the things that there's that.01% that something could happen, and it's nice to always be ready for it. Rather than being reactive, let's be proactive. That's the big thing I'm always telling people. Kind of ranty.

Cameron MainIt's good. It's a common theme we have, actually, being, I guess, proactive rather than reactive. I guess it's similar to what we're doing here in many regards. And I think everyone who's at the forefront of canine or dog health or dog training or dog well-being is looking at exactly that principle. And that seems to be a common theme, whether it's talking to you, whether it's talking about our product, whether it's going to shelters. That is the thing that we're seeing time and time again.

Slade WeberBecause dad's dogs in the police department never made it past nine, right? Those were all genetically really nice dogs, but they were put through so much over the time.

Chris NobleThat's just so true. Run. I have no idea why, but I really want to know why.

Cameron MainI think he left stuff outside.

Chris NobleOh, my God. He left his laptop out there.

Cameron MainIs it wet? The SSD was there as well. The gold one.

Chris NobleThat's going to be okay.

Chris NobleI saw you run at the... Mate, by the grace of God. Mate, have you seen the rainbow over there? Wow. A serious rainbow. That's going to be cute behind you. we're doing good actually this is really good this is awesome okay are we good for battery and stuff okay so it sounded like what you said there was the biggest mistake dog owners make is that engagement early on and not understanding that relationship right

Slade WeberYeah, being able to put our dog on, like even using no leash, right? Like we can work with our dog and we can run away from our dog. We can create our dog having fear of missing out, if you will, right? We run away to the other side of the house and our dog goes, oh my gosh, where'd our dad go? And then you praise them up when they chase you, right? We don't want to create too much dependency on us. We want them to be independent thinkers, but we also have to create that, oh, where'd dad go, right? That gets created and you can create that very fast early on.

Cameron MainWhen it comes to nutrition and food, do you also take the same sort of approach with, I guess, the way you look at training?

Slade WeberRight? I do. I played a lot of college soccer. I was a high-level athlete at the time, and these guys, our dogs, whether they're Labradoodles sitting at home, whether they're German Shepherds, Malawas, whatever, they are actually all athletes, right? They're hamstrings. Their Ilias, psoas, all these different muscle groups that they have are so, so special and important. You have to work them. And some of these times, like in the Schutzen dog sport, we'll see a dog that can't go over the A-frame. It can't go over the jump and different things because there's not enough muscle in the back end. Now we can manipulate it and condition the dog to go from a down to a stand, a down to the stand, where they start to really get those muscles going. But a lot of times we need extra help. We need the vitamins. So I bounce around from... You guys might want to cut this out. But I bounce around from different vitamins a lot with the dogs. I'll do a lot of salmon oil or I'll go to different fish oils. And I see how it affects their coat. If they get dry coat, especially the shepherds, then I do influence it a lot. Especially with aloe vera spray and stuff. Different things too. But as far as stuff that goes into them, we... Just sharing. Mios. Mios is a big one for me. And then they have different forms of Mios. But I don't mess with it too much because I either have them on treadmills three or four times a day or they're swimming. Swimming is my biggest thing when we talk about being proactive. These dogs swim all day. Even when it's 30 degrees out, they still want to go into the pool. Even though they shouldn't, they still do.

Cameron MainI have a quick question. Do you think I can use their bathroom quickly? What happened? I think he dropped his... I think he dropped his toy in his shed over there. Oh, really? And he brought it all over me.

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