The Doodle Pro® Podcast: Unleashing Expert Training, Grooming, & Health Tips for Doodle Dogs & Puppies

Season Finale: Best of 2022's Episodes on Doodle Dogs' Training, Grooming, Health & Behavior

• The Doodle Pro™, Corinne Gearhart • Season 1 • Episode 27

Share episode

The doodle pro podcast just launched August of this year. And I know I shouldn't be surprised by the enthusiasm level of devoted doodle parents. But wow. You all have really taken the animal and training podcast world by storm. And just our first five months on the air. The doodle pro podcast has topped the charts internationally on apples, pets and animals category. Reaching number three in the us. Number one in Australia. Number one in Croatia. Number one in Malta, number three and Thailand, number four in Canada. Number five and Switzerland number seven in Britain, and so much, much more. 

To celebrate. I want to recognize your doodle. I am thrilled to announce our new award for doodle of the week. I love sharing how special doodles are, and I'd love to feature your doodle on an upcoming episode of the doodle pro podcast. Is your dog, the goodest, or cutest around, then submit them for a chance to be the doodle of the week. 

Each week a doodle will be chosen from the entries to rain. As the world's doodle of the week. Each dog chosen will be featured on this internationally chart topping podcast. So doodle lovers around the world will hear how special they are. And they'll also receive a special gift in the mail. To brag about how fabulous they are. 

Visit the doodle pro.com/doodle of the week. And send me a quick voice message to tell me why your doodle is the best around.

the first winner of our doodle of the week is Remington, a kava poo in Colorado. And his brother Bradley is here to tell you why he is so deserving of this award. 

 Hello. I'm Bradley from Winrey, Colorado, my dog's name is Remington and I'm submitting him for a dog of the for pawing at his toys whenever he can and he passes out when he is tired and it's hilarious.

Congratulations, Remington. 

 Your prize is in the mail. 

Um, this final episode of season one, I'm going to share some clips from what listeners have pointed out are just some of the most impactful takeaways from our first season.

Well, there's no way I could cover all of the wonderful nuggets from more than 25 episodes. Enjoy this best of episode. And see if there's something new you can learn with your doodle. 

Episode number three with grooming industry expert river Lee 

was our most listened episode. We discussed what groomer is. Wish you knew about your doodle from brushing styles and bathing to Mattson, shaving. They have heard many doodle parents say. Don't poodle my doodle, but have you wondered why it's so hard to get an appointment recently? And why even the most successful grooming salon near you has closed. 

River shares the behind the scenes of what's going on in the grooming industry, how a lot of things are changing. And what doodle pet parents need to know. 

Corinne Gearhart: which helps you understand why some of even the most popular salons have closed or didn't reopen after COVID.

River Lee: Absolutely. And I do think it's important I'm in my thirties, I know. I look like I'm 12, but I'm in my thirties. I have carpal tunnel in both of my hands. I need my left shoulder replaced. They won't do it before. I'm 40. And I only groomed for about 15 years. Grooming big dogs destroys your body a lot faster. And I don't think owners understand that because just, from a time and energy and effort perspective one, let's say 45, 50 pound doodle is a, is about two to five Yorky worth. If I.

Talk to a groomer. I said, would you rather groom eight Yorkies or one doodle? A lot of times they'll say eight Yorkies because I don't hurt at the end of the day. I can go home and hold my child. I can go home and go for a walk with my dog. And 

Corinne Gearhart: that's often because of the size difference of the eight versus 80 pound, or is there more to it than the size?

River Lee: There's a lot more to it. And I'm really gonna oversimplify. A lot of doodles are what's called a combination coat, which is very rare. And some of them will have an undercoat and a top coat and they still need a haircut. And you don't know what you're gonna get. You could also have a dog who has different patterns in different places.

Lots of colics that may require a lot more scissoring that may require a lot more brushing. It may require more skill set. When I'm setting the coat of a standard poodle, for instance, most of them are pretty part, same similar coat. Yeah. So I can put. A stand dryer on and just stretch the coat.

However, with a doodle, I actually have to pay attention to which way I'm going. In what direction? It reminds me a lot of when I, I used to breed and show labs and some of my labs would have colics, but you wouldn't show a dog who calx all over because it would take so much time and that's a short haired dog.

And for better or worse, a lot of doodle owners want those more plush cuts. And most people with small dogs it's, a lot less maintenance. So York's gonna have very flat, thin hair. And there's basically two hair haircuts. They want, they either want it long and flowing, which is really easy to do, or they want it really short.

And I do think that owners forget anything over an inch has to be hand scissor. 

Corinne Gearhart: and can you explain for doodle parents what hand scissoring means? Cuz they'll hear a lot from their breeders. Make sure they don't use a clipper and request hand scissoring. So if I bring in my 65 pound golden doodle and say, I want it to be hand scissored, what does that mean to the groomer?

River Lee: So there's two different methods. There's comb there's using the comb method and then there is actually hand scissoring. A good example for doodle owners to understand is to take, I know, try to get on camera, take your ring finger and touch your thumb. And now do that for two hours. Because that is what a lot of time it takes to hand scissor a doodle.

And do that with both hands. If you just sat there, how tired would you be? You'll actually feel it in your arm because we don't use, this is the finger we use. We use our ring finger and our thumb and it takes hours. And like I said, we have a groomer drought and a groomer shortage. It takes a minimum.

It. To put in perspective, guys, it takes two years to make what we would consider a finished groomer and a finished groomer can do clipper work, but they cannot do hand scissoring. They don't have the technique. And because of the way doodle coats, again are combination, they would be able to do it on a dog's hair.

That is very similar. For instance, like a standard poodle, it's the same hair on the top knot as it is on the legs and the tail, but with a doodle, they have to know how to blend in straight flat hair with curly wavy hair and not create these very unfortunate looks. Yes. You've all seen those unfortunate looks.

So that groomer probably needs five to 10 years. And just to put in perspective, it takes two years to create an average grimmer, not a hand sister grimmer, and the majority of groomers leave after five years. So the majority of groomers either don't have that skillset or if they do, they really can't do more than one to two of those hands or dogs a day.

And when we talk 

Corinne Gearhart: We're, talking about the individual doodle needs. How have the influx of doodles on the market and in our families affected the grooming 

River Lee: industry? I don't think doodle owners, it's not. I always, and it sounds mean trigger warning. I always say it's our full dis grooms for not creating healthy boundaries with doodle owners.

I understand you want these really fluffy looks, but what happens is a lot of you guys come from labs and I'll tell you labs are like a Chevy, right? They're an easy car and you have a Ferrari, a standard poodle is like having platinum blonde hair. A doodle is like having mermaid hair. A lot of you guys want these very elaborate haircuts.

And unfortunately the staff that can do them can only do a finite amount of them. And as an industry, we used to only do probably one or two standard poodles a week at best, we didn't expect this influx of very large high maintenance breeds. We, really didn't see them. Old English, sheep dogs were not popular.

And if they were farm dogs, they got a shave down once a year, even the own standard poodles, their breeder starts, they're grooming around three or four weeks. So they're coming in at eight weeks and getting a groom every two to four weeks. So they know what's going on. There are so many people who close their shops because they don't wanna confront doodle owners.

They don't wanna be mean to doodle owners. They don't wanna be mean to the dogs, but they just, it's easier for them to go work at Chick-fil-A than it is for that. And I think it's really unfortunate because if we and, I wanna scare you guys, but if a Shitzu is 65 to 85 your doodle, even a mini doodle needs to start at $200.

And these St. Bernard doodles, berne the bead doodles, yes, they need to be four or $500, especially if you guys want hand scissoring, because that's an entire groomer's worth of. For them to go home and be able to spend time with their family. And a lot of them won't because they love the dogs. And so they get bitter and resentful.

After hearing. River discuss. 

The different coat types and care needs. For doodles coats. I broke down the best doodle brushes tools and techniques to get your doodle, the look you want while also keeping them comfortable and healthy on episode six, how to brush the doodle.

Corinne- The Doodle Pro™: Their hair is like ours where it just keeps growing. And if you weren't to brush your hair, or comb your hair...

you could see I've got my own curly coat. If I were to not comb this or wash this for six weeks and have a headband around like a collar or a harness. And I wore that for six weeks. You'd have to shave my head too. So I wanna walk you through the tools and the methods to keep your doodles coat healthy and comfortable.

 Teaching your doodle to come to you when you call. Is giving your best friend a vital and life-saving skill. Uh, rocket recall can save your dog from a tragedy and traffic. Getting lost away from you or approaching something dangerous or lethal. 

On episode eight. We learned the foundation of expert, recall training with my interview with professional dog trainer, founder of the cold nose, college and author of the new book, the original rocket recall. 

And this segment. Trainer Lisa Lyle Wagner puts to rest loving doodle owners worries that they're bribing their doodles with treats and she shares how rewarding. Really works. 

A lot of people worry that in using treats to reinforce behavior that they're bribing their dog.

And sometimes that can sound like I want them to do it because they know they should, or I want them to do it to please me. I'm their owner, or I'm worried. They'll only listen. If they know I have a treat. So what are your thoughts for those sorts of objections to this method of training? First of all, again, listen, abroad is something given ahead of time.

We're not giving the food ahead of time. We're giving it afterwards and dogs will do what works for them. Just like people do. I can say all day, my dog ought to do this. Yeah. Maybe my friend ought to do that too, but she didn't think that if people understand that food is a tool. To help create a behavior that's stronger.

And that over time, because of the relationship that's built in the bond that's built, you can start randomly reinforcing, maybe not with food, but with something else of value to the dog. So that could be toys that could be play if you're using food to reinforce, and you're also praising your dog at the same time, then that praise takes on value because it's been paired with food and for low value behaviors, I might just use praise.

Let me say this. I am always gonna say thank you to my dog in some way for the things they do. Yes. Whether it's Hey, good boy. That's awesome. Or a little pet under the chin. If your dog likes hands on praise, there's no reason not to always recognize the wonderful choices our dogs make throughout the day.

and we're not robots that only dispense praise to our dogs and loving words and pets when they've obeyed a behavior. So that would be really hard to not say who's a good boy when they come up and give you a snuggle and they come by your side and holding back those pets. If you were to hold back all forms of praise and affection, because that's their only reinforcement that wouldn't, to me, wouldn't be a very rewarding relationship that I would exactly.

It's just not, it's a relationship that has no nurturing to it. And I think if we respond politely and thank, thank each other, I respond, I've been married, Brad, and I've been married almost 38 years now. So we've been hanging out together just a few years. Yes. But, and we love being together. And if he does, if he hands me a glass of water, if I'm thirsty, I'm not going to.

Ignore that I'm gonna say, thanks. Gosh, that was really nice of you. I really appreciate that. yeah. Don't ignore behaviors that you like reinforce behaviors that you like with people, please. And also with your dogs. A lot of people who agree that teaching a solid recall is a life saving skill and that they agree that it's really important to them.

A lot have been told that you must use a shot collar, also known as an E collar to guarantee that your dog is going to come back to you. And that's the only effective method to teach a rock solid recall. What are your thoughts on that opinion? First of all, I absolutely disagree with that because I see the strength of the recall in my dogs that have been trained without a shock collar.

So let's talk first about something that is unpleasant to the dog mm-hmm . And so if we think about shock. I don't care how low level somebody says that shock is to the dog's neck. The collar was not designed to be pleasant, right? So the dog is working to avoid something versus working to attain something.

So a dog who is reinforced with something that they find value valuable, they will go above and beyond to Excel to get that reinforcer that a dog who's trained with aversives will do just enough not to receive whatever that aversive is. So I want a dog who wants to work with me and strive to do something that they're going to be reinforced for.

I think one of the things that I've heard many people say is you have to have food on you all the time. You have to carry. Some food, not always. You have to have some sort of reinforcer, but it doesn't have to be food, but doesn't does shock call a trainer have to carry a remote tool within, correct. I just I'd much rather have food in my pocket to reinforce my dog with than something I'm gonna, cause that would cause pain to them.

There are times where a guest opens the front door and a dog darts out. Someone might not have their remote handy and the collar on and which dog is going to have that basis. And I completely agree with you. I don't come from a place of judgment. I think all of us do the best we know and the best absolutely.

With the information we have. Yes. Without a doubt I, before I learned, and of course, you know this from having read my book, cuz I talk a little bit about my journey. I train my dogs on my home with all aversive techniques and I just didn't know that there was a different option. Yes. And so we all only do what we know.

Will work and it worked, I will never argue that using averse and training don't work because they do, but wow. I just really want my dog to really work to attain. And I wanna see the joy in my dog's eyes. Yes. When they're learning, because I saw the other look in my dog's eyes when I use different techniques.

And I really like what I see now much better

A lot of people worry that in using treats to reinforce behavior that they're bribing their dog.

And sometimes that can sound like I want them to do it because they know they should, or I want them to do it to please me. I'm their owner, or I'm worried. They'll only listen. If they know I have a treat. So what are your thoughts for those sorts of objections to this method of training? First of all, again, listen, abroad is something given ahead of time.

We're not giving the food ahead of time. We're giving it afterwards and dogs will do what works for them. Just like people do. I can say all day, my dog ought to do this. Yeah. Maybe my friend ought to do that too, but she didn't think that if people understand that food is a tool. To help create a behavior that's stronger.

And that over time, because of the relationship that's built in the bond that's built, you can start randomly reinforcing, maybe not with food, but with something else of value to the dog. So that could be toys that could be play if you're using food to reinforce, and you're also praising your dog at the same time, then that praise takes on value because it's been paired with food and for low value behaviors, I might just use praise.

Let me say this. I am always gonna say thank you to my dog in some way for the things they do. Yes. Whether it's Hey, good boy. That's awesome. Or a little pet under the chin. If your dog likes hands on praise, there's no reason not to always recognize the wonderful choices our dogs make throughout the day.

and we're not robots that only dispense praise to our dogs and loving words and pets when they've obeyed a behavior. So that would be really hard to not say who's a good boy when they come up and give you a snuggle and they come by your side and holding back those pets. If you were to hold back all forms of praise and affection, because that's their only reinforcement that wouldn't, to me, wouldn't be a very rewarding relationship that I would exactly.

It's just not, it's a relationship that has no nurturing to it. And I think if we respond politely and thank, thank each other, I respond, I've been married, Brad, and I've been married almost 38 years now. So we've been hanging out together just a few years. Yes. But, and we love being together. And if he does, if he hands me a glass of water, if I'm thirsty, I'm not going to.

Ignore that I'm gonna say, thanks. Gosh, that was really nice of you. I really appreciate that. yeah. Don't ignore behaviors that you like reinforce behaviors that you like with people, please. And also with your dogs. A lot of people who agree that teaching a solid recall is a life saving skill and that they agree that it's really important to them.

A lot have been told that you must use a shot collar, also known as an E collar to guarantee that your dog is going to come back to you. And that's the only effective method to teach a rock solid recall. What are your thoughts on that opinion? First of all, I absolutely disagree with that because I see the strength of the recall in my dogs that have been trained without a shock collar.

So let's talk first about something that is unpleasant to the dog mm-hmm . And so if we think about shock. I don't care how low level somebody says that shock is to the dog's neck. The collar was not designed to be pleasant, right? So the dog is working to avoid something versus working to attain something.

So a dog who is reinforced with something that they find value valuable, they will go above and beyond to Excel to get that reinforcer that a dog who's trained with aversives will do just enough not to receive whatever that aversive is. So I want a dog who wants to work with me and strive to do something that they're going to be reinforced for.

I think one of the things that I've heard many people say is you have to have food on you all the time. You have to carry. Some food, not always. You have to have some sort of reinforcer, but it doesn't have to be food, but doesn't does shock call a trainer have to carry a remote tool within, correct. I just I'd much rather have food in my pocket to reinforce my dog with than something I'm gonna, cause that would cause pain to them.

There are times where a guest opens the front door and a dog darts out. Someone might not have their remote handy and the collar on and which dog is going to have that basis. And I completely agree with you. I don't come from a place of judgment. I think all of us do the best we know and the best absolutely.

With the information we have. Yes. Without a doubt I, before I learned, and of course, you know this from having read my book, cuz I talk a little bit about my journey. I train my dogs on my home with all aversive techniques and I just didn't know that there was a different option. Yes. And so we all only do what we know.

Will work and it worked, I will never argue that using averse and training don't work because they do, but wow. I just really want my dog to really work to attain. And I wanna see the joy in my dog's eyes. Yes. When they're learning, because I saw the other look in my dog's eyes when I use different techniques.

And I really like what I see now much better

 When doodle dog barking drives you crazy. It helps to understand why your doodle is barking to know how to solve it most effectively. On episode seven behavioral veterinarian, Dr. SIF shared her advice. On ha shared her expert advice on how to quiet dog barking in your home. And detective there's an underlying fear or anxiety causing it.

How to Get Your Doodle to Stop Barking- Interview with anxiety and barking expert Dr. Sif the Vet (1): Sometimes I also describe this as like a traffic lights. This is easy easier. It's like we have three lights, we have the green light where the dog is completely relaxed.

Like you said, like if they're laying down and having a nap, they're like completely on their back exposed, exposing their belly, or they might light on their side, they might be snoring or whatever. And they're, you can just see that they're like breathing slowly and they're like completely relaxed. And also when they're awake, they're like just doing their thing.

Maybe like they're when they're eating or they might be chewing on a, treat or playing with their toys or something. They're just completely relaxed. And in the moment that's like a happy life for a dog. Okay. And then we have the yellow light, which is all these when they're giving all these appeasing signals that we mentioned before, like the yawning shaking themselves.

Also, this happens often, if there's an episode where they are a little bit nervous and then after they shake themselves, it's like shaking off the, stress. Yes. It's a way of calming themselves down and then the yawning, the lip licking the lip, smacking, looking, retreating, all these kind of things.

And like looking, away looking, away. And and these, this is what I would describe as like the yellow song. This is like the, the yellow light. And then there's a red light where they go off like barking, like really like crazy. It might happen inside the house or in the garden, or it might happen outside in the street when you're walking the dog or at the park.

If they see a dog that they don't like for some reason might go off like that. And usually when they're in that state you can't do any training. Like it's too late at that point. Because there's like you probably who experience this with their dog, they've already tried like giving the dog a treat and they won't even look at the treat.

They're just not able to eat or think about food when they're in this state of mind. So they completely over their threshold. Yes, exactly. And that's, where into the red light. So we want of course, like for a completely calm normal dog, of course, everybody has moments where they like have a stressful episode or something, but usually it happens like once in a while but for, docs that have underlying anxiety, they might have an every day or every other day or multiple times per day, when, where they go into the red light and they might spend like half the day in a yellow light state of mind.

yeah. And, or maybe 80% or 90% of the time sometimes when people do my program, like they real, they come to me after the first week and they're like, oh my God. I just realized that my dog is spending like 90% of his day, like in the yellow. And the purpose of the, treatment is to bring that down so they can spend more of their time brain.

So less time the yellow, and to have fewer episodes where they're going into the red the red light. I hear from a couple of clients that my dog only exhibits the signs that you would describe as the higher level yellow or red, when my husband's gone. And when it's just me, this would be the wife's.

Yeah. Like he needs to protect me and he's barking more. Yeah. What does that mean to. Yeah, it's it's the same thing, really. And also this kind of, because you mentioned protecting that's also if you really about it what is protecting, for example, protecting your food or protecting your territory.

If you have to bark to protect your territory, what does that really mean? It means that you're afraid that somebody's going to take something from you. If you have to work or protect your food, it means that you are scared that somebody's gonna come and take your food. Because if you are completely relaxed, you'll just eat your food and you're not worried about other people coming going.

And it's, the same, like if they are, so this kind of protective it's, really a sign of anxiety. And fear because it's like, they are afraid that something is gonna happen. Something's something bad is gonna happen. And and it really is often a matter of the dog's wellbeing to help them to get out of this state and not have to worry all day's, it's sad that the dog has to worry all day about something bad happening, agree poodles, and there's certain breeds that have genetic predispositions to higher levels of anxiety or that have been bred to guard.

Which means that they're bred to be at this higher alert, which for their mental and physical health is hard to sustain. Especially living in an apartment or in the suburbs where there's so much to be alert for. Yeah. And people always think that like these. Like large dogs that are like bred to be guard dogs, that they are like so brave.

But in reality they, have a, very high tendency to become nervous because of the way they're bred. They're bred to be suspicious and and nervous. Yeah. And if you're living around a lot of other people and dogs, that's a lot of triggers that you've lined up for them to deal with day after day.

 Here's a clip from episode 12, all about golden doodles where I really blew some people's minds. Explaining how some genetic traits that bring the delicious red color. To some golden doodles can bring some behavioral traits as well.

Corinne Gearhart- The Doodle Pro™: Laura says that red poodles are the craziest and wildest of all poodles. Of course there are no peer-reviewed studies to back that up, but the legend is persistent amongst trainers. This might be because there are shorter lines of lineage for red poodles, , and if you were to be an unscrupulous breeder looking only at profit, that is the color that will get you the highest dollar.

Red poodles are much rarer than other coat colors. They're only recently being used in show . And they don't have as long of a lineage in show lines. they are now the rarest and most popular in the US and in China. But the most popular look for golden doodles right now is the deep red color, and that's often pulled. A fielding golden line. So if you're drawn to that dark red golden doodle, you need to be aware of the fielding golden's temperament and the qualities they're bringing to the table.

So with that red golden doodle, you're talking about a higher energy dog. A dog who's shedding might be less obvious, is a bit smaller and thinner, more athletic, and can get into some more trouble and be mouth. Genetics matter. If you pick the redder Golden Doodle. Be prepared for some extra training and diligence to help them channel their drive in healthy ways.

Sho Golden lines cross with poodles can grow into being more mellow. They still are a higher energy dog, but more mellow than their field counterpart with less rigorous training needs. 

If you have a question that you want answered our new season starting next week. Shoot me a DM On Instagram. And let me know what you would love covered. 

We've already got some amazing guests coming to talk to us. Covering separation anxiety. How to help your doodle enjoy brushing how to give your doodle on nail trim. And what to do if your doodle. 

Growls or bites. So be sure to subscribe so you don't miss all of these great upcoming episodes

 I'm going to end this with a piece from the pet calming Maestro. Uh, guest pianist, Lisa specter. She taught our listeners how to use music, that relaxes dogs the right way. On episode 10. and played a private concert for us and our doodles. 

 I can't wait to see how we enhance the lives. Of our doodles in 2023. Together. And thank you so much for listening

People on this episode

Head Shot

The Doodle Pro®, Corinne Gearhart

Host