Dog Training Tips When Your Baby Starts Solid Foods with Jake Schneider
- How to handle your dog being jealous of your baby…especially when the baby starts eating food
- Why it’s best to keep your dog out of the kitchen at mealtime…and how to do that if you’ve been lax
- Which command is best to teach your dog “that’s not yours”...and how to make your dog listen!

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE
Episode Description
Is it safe for your dog to eat food your baby drops on the floor? Should the dog even be around your baby in a high chair? In this episode certified dog trainer Jake Schneider from @ondogtrainingacademy shares tips on establishing boundaries and rules for your dog when your baby starts eating solid food.
About the Guest
- Jake Schneider is a certified dog trainer who coaches people struggling to get their dog to behave
- Jake and his wife teach an online program called WELCOME HOME with behavioral trainings for dogs
Other Episodes Mentioned in this Episode
- Episode 332 - Baby Foods Your Dog Should Never Eat with @dogmeets_baby Dominika Knossalla-Pado
- Episode 56 - Dog Meets Baby: BLW Do's + Don'ts For The Whole (Furry) Family with Alexandra Parry, DVM
Links from this Episode
- Check out Jake’s On Dog Training Academy
- Listen to his podcast Learn, Laugh, Bark
- Follow him on Instagram @ondogtrainingacademy.

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Katie Ferraro (0s):
How is the mental load of motherhood going for you? This baby stuff is a lot right? Well my goal is to give you one less thing to worry about and that's, hmm, what am I gonna feed the baby? If you are looking for a one stop solution that literally teaches you exactly how to safely help your baby learn how to eat real food, I wanna invite you to join my signature online program called Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro. This is the most comprehensive Baby-Led Weaning program out there. I give you 20 weeks of meal plans for Baby-Led Weaning to help your baby safely eat five new foods a week, which means they're going to finish their a 100 First Foods before turning one. As one mom who recently joined the program said, "Our lifestyle does not give us any mental capacity to think more about what to do with this baby".
Katie Ferraro (44s):
This program caters to 100 First Foods for your baby's current age and stage. My 100 First Foods Daily Meal Plan is also included in there. It's all in one place. And a mom in our program, she said she joined because, "I'm too tired of trying to figure out so many different things at once". I want someone to tell me what to do to catch up my nine month so we can stop using the same familiar foods we've been feeding her. If you are a type A organized per person or like let's say you wanna be that kind of person, you wanna be more organized in what you feed your baby, then I created the Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro program for you.
Katie Ferraro (1m 25s):
You can sign up at babyledweaning.co/program. I have one program with all the stuff you need inside of it to get this thing done and get on with your life. Again, that's babyledweaning.co/program. Check it out and I hope to see you there. Coming in tops on the list of work things I thought I was gonna loathe but I ended up loving YouTube. We have a YouTube channel, it's about a year old. It's finally picking up steam and there are so many valuable videos over there if you want to see what starting solid foods looks like, I know I'm telling you about a YouTube channel while you're listening to a podcast, but if you have a chance, check it out. Our channel's babyledweaning, it's literally the handle name. So original I know if you see something you like, subscribe, get notified each week when there's new videos.
Katie Ferraro (2m 11s):
That's youtube.com/babyledweaning.
Jake Schneider (2m 11s):
There's foods your dogs can have that are human foods that you should be giving to 'em. To me it's more about how you're doing it. If I'm taking food off of the baby's high chair and I'm giving it to my dog, that's a problem. 'Cause he's gonna say, oh my food comes from there. If the dog is cleaning things up off the floor to me, I mean that leads to a whole lot of different things 'cause the dog could be eating a food that's potentially dangerous.
Katie Ferraro (2m 33s):
Hey there I'm Katie Ferraro, registered dietitian, college nutrition professor and mom of seven specializing in Baby-Led Weaning. Here on the Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro podcast. I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, giving you the confidence and knowledge you need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods using Baby-Led Weaning. Is it safe for your dog to eat the food that your baby drops on the floor and should a dog even be allowed to be around your baby when they're in their highchair? So many questions about dogs when it comes to starting solid foods and I gotta be real with you guys. I Was not a dog person for a very, very long time and in probably like the biggest about face of my life, we got a dog that was two and a half years old, perfectly trained and it's been like the best thing ever.
Katie Ferraro (3m 26s):
Now I totally love dogs enough in this podcast accelerator course and I meet this guy named Jake Schneider. He has a dog training academy called On Dog Training Academy. He also has a podcast all about dogs and online course about how to bring your dog home. And I was like, oh my gosh, there are so many similarities to getting a dog as there are to getting a baby like all of this stuff like you could buy. But I'm like, do you really need that? And like all the controversy about like what sort of food should it be eating and then like the different ways that you can be shamed as a person parent versus a dog parent. Like it's kind of wild. So Jake and I had a great conversation. I was like will you please come on my podcast because I'd love if you could share some dog training tips in particular to when your baby starts solid foods.
Katie Ferraro (4m 9s):
So we've covered dogs and babies in a few previous episodes, which I'll put those in the description and link on our show notes as well. But I wanted you guys to hear from Jake. 'Cause I think he has like a very straightforward way of saying like that's not that big of a deal or like actually you really shouldn't be doing that. And I just like his attitude. I like his approach. I'm definitely going to be taking his course after talking to him. I realize that there's certainly some areas in our household where we could use a few more boundaries and rules regarding where the dog is and is not allowed to be. And Jake shares a story about how he got his dog to leave the kitchen when he's cooking. And I didn't even think of it as a safety thing but like I literally almost trip over the dog like 15 times a day when I'm cooking and I didn't realize it was okay to like teach your dog to be outta the kitchen when you're cooking.
Katie Ferraro (4m 54s):
So with no further ado, I wanna introduce you guys to Jake Schneider from On Dog Training Academy sharing some tips about establishing boundaries and rules for your dog around the time when your baby is also starting solid foods. So Jake, I met you in a podcast accelerator course we're both in. You had mentioned you work with your wife Jenny, you guys have an online dog training academy, but it was either her parents or your parents, I can't remember who had originally owned a dog training business. Is that how you got into dog training and coaching or is this something that you had always dreamed of doing?
Jake Schneider (5m 26s):
I've kind of always had the idea of doing it but it was my mom. My mom's been a dog trainer now for 35 years. Yeah, I'm almost 40. So 35 years of my life. She's been a dog trainer. My dad started training with her probably about 25 years or so ago. He started running some of the business. So I feel like I've always kind of wanted to do it once I got married and stuff, everything just shifted back and just lined up with saying hey, like the area that we live in is a little more out in the country. It was extremely void of any sort of dog training or anything and we had a puppy at the time and it's like we should probably start helping some people 'cause we know we can kind of was always there. It was always in my life. Like we always had four or five dogs growing up all the time.
Katie Ferraro (6m 10s):
But what about your wife? Like how did you get her into it? Was her idea or did you have to talk her into it? 'Cause like I know personally I can not work with my husband. I really admire people who can work with their partners and spouses. How did that shake out?
Jake Schneider (6m 21s):
We've now been working together for 17 years. So she came from a family that had not pets. She really was a cat person at heart and she still is a cat person at heart. But her big thing was like she loved the idea of us having a business together. She loved the idea of of being her own boss. She was always had like this entrepreneur kind of like drive and this kind of was something she's able to do. So she's really good with the dog, she's really good with the behavior cases and stuff that we've dealt with. That's her jam. Like she loves that stuff. So yeah, we work well together but don don't think it took convincing necessarily but 17 years working together, we've definitely.
Katie Ferraro (6m 58s):
Congratulations. That's really impressive. And one thing that kind of caught my attention when we were in that course together was a comment you made that you were working on a new program and I don't think it was specific to parents with the idea came up of like welcoming a baby home and how to get the dog acquainted with the baby. I know a lot of couples who will like get a dog first together to kind of test the waters and then they'll like, all right that worked out. Like maybe we can handle a baby and bring in the baby on board. Can you give us some ideas like for established dog parents that are new people, parents, what should they be aware of when they're bringing a baby home to their dog friendly house?
Jake Schneider (7m 31s):
People just think it's gonna be seamless. A lot of times they're like, I got this dog, he's super friendly, it's all cute, we're gonna have a kid and it's all just gonna be seamless.
Katie Ferraro (7m 38s):
It's also gonna be cute and they're gonna get along great.
Jake Schneider (7m 42s):
Yeah, the picture perfect in your brain but what people have to remember too is like what's your environment and lifestyle leading up to having a baby? Let's say it's you, your partner and your dog. I imagine that's probably a pretty relaxed quiet environment for the most part. Like it's me, my wife and my dog. Now we have client dogs and stuff too, but our environment's relatively quiet. And so you have to think about okay when you bring this this baby into your household, your dog's schedule that it's been used to for however long is going to be flipped upside down because now in the middle of the night you're up many times and so that affects the dog. Also, you're dealing with jealousy issues like is your dog gonna be jealous now that that some of the attention or the attention that normally goes to the dog is now shifting to the baby as it should.
Jake Schneider (8m 26s):
Your priority now becomes not the dog but the baby and that can affect the dog where the dog starts to get more jealous and just the fact kids carry a different type of energy than adults do. If the dog isn't used to it, it can certainly affect the dog too in many ways. And then kind lastly like the needs of your dog starts to not be met as well. So like again, the time that you had to walk your dog to exercise your dog, to train your dog to do all this stuff, you're putting that extra time now into your baby again, completely reasonable but that's going to affect your dog's personality, your your dog's energy outlets. And so like you have to make sure you come up with plans and like how are we going to still meet our dog's needs?
Jake Schneider (9m 6s):
And that might be through daycare through, I like to incorporate things. So I do a lot of playing train with my dog where I go out in the yard and I play with them like throwing ball but I'm incorporating mental work into it just like healing sits down as we're playing. So you're working both brain and body so that I'm tiring both out because we don't have a baby but we have client dogs and things that pull our attention away from our own dog. So just understanding that your dog's needs and time is going to be affected big time. That's something I think some people don't really realize till they get into it.
Katie Ferraro (9m 37s):
And what do you do then? Do you have to retrain the dog? Obviously you're working on different schedules, you just need to be cognizant aware of it or there actually like tactile things you need to be doing or these are just kind of like esoteric just hey heads up, this is what's gonna be happening.
Jake Schneider (9m 51s):
I like to, if my dog's not used to high energy stuff with our lifestyle, it's pretty calm. So if I feel like, like with a client dog, if they're gonna, if they're planning to have a baby soon I'll take the dog around to like parks and stuff in the summer where there's a playground with kids screaming and I start to condition the dog to just being okay with screaming, running kids, lots of energy, all that weird stuff because if the dog's not used to it, that's where we could get the calls that, oh my dog, you know, nipped at my kid or something 'cause of stress and and so yeah you can definitely be proactive and like hey we're gonna, before the baby comes, we're gonna start getting our dog into some more situations that are different to it, higher energy to it or just like if you have time jumping into classes, taking online classes, doing something to increase your dog's obedience.
Jake Schneider (10m 35s):
That's just gonna make things easier if your dog's better at listening just in general. Hey
Katie Ferraro (10m 39s):
We're gonna take a quick break but I'll be right back.
Motley Fool Money (10m 50s):
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Katie Ferraro (11m 21s):
So the parents and caregivers who listen to this podcast, they're very different than your audience. They're like primarily in charge of babies who are somewhere between six to 12 months of age and these babies are just starting solid foods. So this means like up until six months of age that baby's been exclusively either breastfed or bottle fed. So it's infant milk keeping them alive for the first six months of life. Now the situation's changing, the baby's starting to sit in a high chair usually you know that's in the kitchen where the dog may or may not be free to roam in and out of or like they've had free reign of the kitchen and now all of a sudden this little person is in the kitchen with them too. Sitting in the high chair. Do you have any suggestions for practices or habits to instill with your dog when it comes to the baby eating foods that you know inevitably are going to drop on the floor?
Katie Ferraro (12m 3s):
So like take us through, you know, maybe that second half of infancy how things might change with regard to your dog in the house with your baby now eating.
Jake Schneider (12m 10s):
If your dog has counter surfing issues, you could teach your dog to no longer do that. Like work with them to fix that behavior because dogs are gonna say, hey there's food up on this, this high chair, I'm gonna put my feet up here and try to help myself to the kid's food. But the big thing I think is, is starting to come up with plans of like management, how am I gonna manage my dog? And and a big thing to do when it comes to management is just getting your dog kennel trained. If it's time to to feed the baby, I'm going to put the dog away because I don't have the time to try and juggle both dog and baby. And it could be make things worse if I'm not careful when I do have the time or when you do have the time you could be working on certain training things.
Jake Schneider (12m 50s):
But I don't like to say, okay well I want to teach my dog to stay out of the kitchen so I'm gonna work on it or I'm gonna teach my dog it in the situation at hand.
Katie Ferraro (12m 59s):
Yeah. So you're doing the training ahead of time, essentially you're kind of forecasting how things are gonna change.
Jake Schneider (13m 5s):
Yep, exactly. Because if you're trying to do it in the moment, you're timing's off communication's off because you're bouncing back and forth between baby and dog.
Katie Ferraro (13m 13s):
And this so stressful when your kids start Solid, Foods parents are really scared about choking, they're scared about allergic food reactions. Like you really need to be paying attention. I think you make a good point, like the dog is a priority but the baby's safety is the ultimate priority. And maybe having that dog in the kennel is gonna be able to allow you to create a more peaceful eating environment for your child.
Jake Schneider (13m 31s):
Yeah, exactly. And then like once you have the time, say you have five or 10 minutes or, or whatever or if like your partner can go do some dog training or something while, while you're, you're feeding your baby or whatever. Once you've started to train the behaviors, like let's say you're teaching your dog stay outta the kitchen. Like that's something even with our own dog, when I'm in there cooking, he has to be outta the kitchen. That's a rule. When I'm not, if I'm doing dishes or, or if I'm just doing something in the kitchen, he can lay in there and hang out with me. But if I say get out, that means you gotta leave you. And typically for him it means go to the living room.
Katie Ferraro (14m 1s):
How come that is like You don't want him accidentally eating something he shouldn't be, you don't want him to get burned by splattering oil. Like why do they have to be outta the kitchen if you're cooking in your house?
Jake Schneider (14m 9s):
For me it's just all about safety a hundred percent. And plus like our kitchen isn't huge and so like I'm moving around and I'm obviously not the smallest person. So if I'm moving around I've tripped over him or stepped on him or got it whatever, and I just want him out of the way so that I can just focus on what I'm doing. But just wherever your baby's going to eat, just tell your dog to leave. Like just don't let 'em come in. And I know it sounds easier than maybe it is for training, but keeping them out, teaching them like I love teaching dogs either a stay or place command. So having them go to their bed, lay down and stay, you can give them a bone to chew on, you can give 'em treats for doing it, whatever. But teaching the dog, when I feed the baby, you go to that bed and lay down and the bed is like in the living room well away from, from the baby that could possibly be launching food towards the dog out of the, the throwing distance, you know, and then just teaching like a, a very basic leave it command.
Jake Schneider (14m 59s):
I think that's a command that I think classes cover some obedience classes cover. But I think what I've noticed is that the way sometimes it's trained isn't the way we train it. We train leave it as like a be all end all. If I tell a dog to leave something it means they're never going to get it. So if, if the baby drops something on the ground and I don't want the dog to get it, I can tell him leave it and my like my dog would go okay and he'd just leave. He'd just look away from it and walk away. I'll say leave it and the dog will, you know, a lot of times the way it's I've seen it trained is the dog will leave it for a while and then the dog owner will say, okay, now you can have it.
Katie Ferraro (15m 32s):
Is that sending mixed messages? Like is that confusing? Should, should leave it be a forever command or is like leave it now you can go get it. Like, like, like confusing them.
Jake Schneider (15m 40s):
I think that type of control is really nice to have on your dog. But I call it weight. Like if I want my dog to eat something but I don't want 'em to eat it yet, I'll throw a food of food on the ground and I'll say wait. And then once I'm ready I, I can tell him he can have it but I want to command and this is what leave it is for us. That means it is not yours, you don't get it, you don't touch it, whatever. But if the dog leaves it alone, like with my dog, if I say leave it and he turns his head and just ignores it, I'm rewarding him with treats and praise and everything but it's not coming from the thing that I told him to leave. We use it a lot for like puppies when we're walking with cigarette butts on the ground and garbage and rocks and all that stuff. But it's really good in the kitchen when it comes to things falling or babies throwing food.
Katie Ferraro (16m 20s):
Well perfect segue to garbage surrounding the floor. Some families are open to their dog cleaning up after a meal and eating people food while I know others are strictly opposed to that. What's your stance as a certified dog trainer on dogs eating human foods? Which one are off limits and do you have any suggestions for families who are trying to establish these household rules about dogs interacting with food now that the baby is learning how to eat?
Jake Schneider (16m 41s):
So I never look at food as like human food. It's a really popular thing for people to say like, oh you know, I don't wanna give my dog human food. I look at it as is this food healthy for my dog or not healthy for my dog? And there's a lot of, I guess human foods that are healthy for dogs like blueberries have a lot of antioxidants that are good for dogs. Yogurt has probiotics like your, your regular yogurt, not your super sugary yogurts but your regular yo yogurt and stuff and pumpkin's really good with fiber. There's foods your dogs can have that are human foods that you should be giving to 'em. To me it's more about how you're doing it. If I'm taking food off of the baby's high chair and I'm giving it to my dog, that's a problem. 'cause he is gonna say, oh my food comes from there. If the dog is cleaning things up off the floor to me, I mean that leads to a whole lot of different things 'cause the dog could be eating a food that's potentially dangerous, grapes, things like that.
Jake Schneider (17m 30s):
Raisins are not good for dogs. I think it was episode 32 you did a whole thing with foods that dogs can and cannot eat. It's definitely worth a list and if people haven't listened, but like we need to be careful because there's foods that we can eat that are good for us, that are really toxic to dogs. And I personally don't allow my dog, I I get that it's, it's helpful when your dog cleans up the whole floor and now all of a sudden, oh don don't have to sweep.
Katie Ferraro (17m 54s):
But I really appreciate your perspective 'cause I come from a place of like when in doubt leave it out. Like I don't wanna be liable for it. So like can I just set a baseline rule that is like, yes of course it would be easier if the dog licked this all up but like there's a lot of annoying things you have to do as a parent and freaking sweeping the floor three times a day after they eat is maybe just one of them.
Jake Schneider (18m 12s):
Yeah, and the thing I think sometimes people don't realize is that there's consequences beyond it. If you let your dog clean up the, let's say your dog cleans the floor up every time and your dog never gets into a a bad food, that's possibly dangerous for it. There's other things that could possibly become a problem. Your dog now learns how to scavenge the floor like every time it's in the kitchen the dog's nose is on the ground and it's looking for things. And as hard or as good of a job as we try to do cleaning things up, you're gonna miss something. What if that grape rolls to the corner and you don't see it Now suddenly your dog who's got a super sniff on 'em is able to find it and eats it. So I'd rather not do that and just teach my dog, don't come in the kitchen, don't do this stuff. Don't go for the food on the floor, I'll just clean it all up.
Jake Schneider (18m 55s):
Plus personally I think if the dog is underfoot and your baby is dropping food and everything, I think sometimes for babies it becomes a game of like I'm just absolutely gonna throw food to the floor of the dog.
Katie Ferraro (19m 4s):
Especially for the older babies where you are gonna move into those, you know, you're
Motley Fool Money (19m 7s):
mentioning
Katie Ferraro (33s):
grapes and raisins like I have a 100 First Foods program so we teach parents how to feed their baby a hundred foods before they turn one and you're saying all these foods, I'm like dude I need a hundred first dog foods program but I don't.
Motley Fool Money (19m 16s):
But
Katie Ferraro (33s):
there's foods on the 100 First Foods list that you get to a point where it is safe for your babies to eat.
Katie Ferraro (19m 20s):
Grapes are a perfect example. Once they have their pencil or grasp, usually around nine to 10 months of age they can pick up the smaller pieces of food. They also know how to manipulate and maneuver them around their mouth so that they don't pose a choking hazard. But like I'm gonna give my baby older baby grapes. But that older baby, that 10 month old baby is the exact age who's starting to drop food on the floor to get my goat, to get a rise outta me to see what sort of reaction I have and they're gonna do it to the dog as well. So what I'm hearing you say is it kind of makes more sense just to have that blanket rule of the dog's not in the kitchen when the people are eating or the baby's eating or whatever your situation may be because it's not just about you feeding the dog, grapes. It's that you turn your head for one second and the baby who's now okay to have grapes is feeding the dog who's not okay to have grapes.
Jake Schneider (20m 1s):
Yeah, unintended consequences is pretty much what it is. Yeah, it's, I'm sure if I, when I was a kid I probably threw food around at my dogs too. Like I, it seems like it'd be something fun to do at that age.
Katie Ferraro (20m 10s):
Tell me a little about your podcast. I love hearing about other people's shows and the courses. I know your show is called Learn Laugh Bark. What sort of content do you cover? What inspired you to start a podcast and then what inspired you to develop online courses for dog owners?
Jake Schneider (20m 24s):
When Covid hit, we were forced to push everything basically online. Like a lot of people had to do. Like we did so much in-person stuff that when Covid hit we couldn't, we were out of options and so we're like, let's reach out, let's start doing online training because we still needed to reach out to people but we also wanted a way that people could get to know us as trainers as as whatever. And so that's what the podcast started manifesting as is like a way for people to get to know our personality, get to know our training style, our opinions on certain things. And so we started that, I think it was 2021, I believe we started the podcast. We cover a lot of different things. We cover training tips, we cover questions that people have. Like if someone submits a question like why is my, why do dogs growl or why is my dog's hair standing up or counter surfing?
Jake Schneider (21m 11s):
We've done episodes talking about children and dogs and how the interactions between the two can be really great but also can be really bad if, if not managed right. And so we, we cover massive amount of different types of things and we also like to do stories like I love telling stories about service dogs who, who did certain things or working dogs who say like there was one recently who a dog saved its owner from drowning. It broke through the ice and this was in Michigan, broke through the ice and because the dog knew fetch the helper person was able to get the dog to fetch rope to his owner because the person couldn't get out there and then he was able to pull his owner to safety. So it's just, we have a lot of interesting stories that all sort of tie into dog training and we just try to give as much advice as we can just because we just want to help people.
Katie Ferraro (21m 55s):
Hey, we're gonna take
Slaycation (21m 55s):
a quick break
Motley Fool Money (22m 2s):
but
Katie Ferraro (21s):
I'll be right back.
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Katie Ferraro (23m 29s):
For the first like 400 episodes of my show, I was not a dog person. Like we have seven children, my husband travels almost a hundred percent of the time. Like I know how this story ends, it's me doing all the work if we have a dog and I never say I dislike animals, I just don't like them. Like even saying that people just start cringing that blow you up on social media. I can't believe you don't like animals. So what I just started to say, I'm scared of animals, I'm scared of dogs. I grew up in a family where my parents always had dogs but they were never trained. They get hit by a car. I remember a dog that literally had a broken leg. I was like, dad, I think this dog needs to be put down and like bite everyone that touched him. Like very, very terrible experience growing up with animals like just never wanted them in my life. Fast forward, my kids are begging for a dog and we had a family friend passed away very unexpectedly the two and a half year old, perfectly trained goldendoodle.
Katie Ferraro (24m 14s):
I mean his dad had trained him and like this guy's the most anal guy in the world and this dog like needed a home very quickly. And I was like, oh my gosh, fast forward, this is the best thing that ever happened to me. I love this dog so much. My husband's like, this is crazy. You said you were never gonna get a dog. I was like, but like the right dog for the right family at the right time. Like I know I couldn't, my sister's having has a puppy at this time and I'm like watching what she's going through. It's literally the same thing as having a dog. I am actually blown away how getting a new dog is like getting a new baby and I'm like in the head space of my ideal customer avatar. Like oh my gosh, all these things you don't know and the things you can get shamed for in baby space versus dog space. Like there's a lot of similarities. So you talked about jealousy. I didn't know that was a thing but like I'm not lying, I'm telling you the truth. The dog loves me the most because I'm home with the dog all day.
Katie Ferraro (24m 55s):
The kids go to school, my husband travels like he likes me the most and the kids are like, the kids are jealous because they're like, the dog likes you the most. And I'm like, oh gosh, now I have to like be sensitive to your emotions about whether or not the dog likes you. Like is there a favorite person in the family?
Jake Schneider (25m 9s):
It definitely, dogs do have favorites but I think favorites could shift even in our own household favorites shift. So like right now I would say our dog, we have, he's, he turns eight actually fairly soon here right now I would say I'm probably his favorite. But there were times where like my wife would take him and do training with him and stuff and like when she's working with him, she's his favorite. She's like, yeah dad, whatever I wanna be with mom. And so I think with dogs, and this is what I always tell people, the the question I always ask, who does most of the work with the dog and whoever's doing the most work with the dog in positive interactions with the dog is gonna be the one the dog prefers to be with. People can be like, well I run and like the kids could be, I'd run and play with the dog and the dog plays with me.
Jake Schneider (25m 51s):
Why doesn't it like me? More dogs love structure. They love dogs are pack animals, they have their hierarchy and so whoever they see as as above them, they tend to navigate towards. So with the kids, I just tell 'em work, you know I, I tell kids, work with the dogs a little bit more, put a leash in the dog, grab some treats and just try to do some obedience. Even if it's the most simple basic things. Getting the dog to listen to the kid puts the kid at a different level in the dog's brain.
Katie Ferraro (26m 16s):
That is so helpful. And you mentioned like the pack thing. This dog came from a very peaceful environment with one owner who loved him and then he comes into our house and we're trying very hard but it is loud, it is stressful. And there's one, one of my quadruplets, the dog nipped him the other day and now he's convinced that the dog doesn't like him. So we're trying to do the thing like you need to spend more time with him. I don't wanna make the kid feel bad, but like if the dog knows you're scared of 'em. As someone who's been scared of dogs my entire life, like I know they can sense evil but they can sense when you're scared of them and they mess with you more. Like I swear the dog like kind of seeks out and messes with this, this one kid. So I'm trying to have him like same thing, put the leash on, go for a walk, do some obedient stuff and give him some treats like is that the right approach and is that okay or do they just, dogs are just maybe gonna not like one of your kids more than the other ones.
Jake Schneider (26m 60s):
It's always interesting how people perceive certain dog behaviors and what I find is, is when nervous around a dog, you'll see your dog starting to act out, acting out of character almost. And it's not because they're trying to take advantage or anything, it's more because they're stressed. So what you're seeing is, is your dog acting out almost in stressful way? Like maybe they get more hyper around a certain kid that they're not comfortable with, it's 'cause they don't know what to do and they're a little bit more I don'y know if you wanna say the dog could be more spastic, more hyper, whatever. Like people think, oh the dog I yell at the dog and then it jumps all over me 'cause it doesn't wanna listen. No, that's how it responds to stress, you know? So it could be something as simple as like, it may seem like he's picking on or acting differently around that, that child, but it could be because that energy of the child is affecting the dog's behavior and yeah, they could hang out together more.
Jake Schneider (27m 46s):
You wanna find things that the dog and kid can do together that are gonna be not very stressful. I'd rather have quality over quantity. Like no, don't hang out with the dog all day, but when you do, let's make sure it's playing fetch or you know, maybe the kid starts to put food in the bowl and is they're just doing things to build the relationship into a different value.
Katie Ferraro (28m 8s):
Okay, I have to ask you about the dog food because I feel like for generations dogs ate dog food and then now there's all these fancy food services that cost a lot, et cetera. And it's just like in my world, like for generations, parents fed their babies, modified versions of the same foods the babies eat. And then starting in the early part of the 20th century, there's all these commercial processed baby foods you can buy. But like what kind of food like is, is there one type of food for all dogs? Is it okay just to give your dog dog food or do you have to like buy these fancy food services?
Jake Schneider (28m 36s):
No, you don't have to buy fancy food services. Everything goes to what you can afford to. We feed our dog raw food, so he gets raw meat, eggs, he gets a whole list of things we brought, we buy it pre-made, but at the same time he's our kid, he's, we have one dog. So like when it comes to like money stuff, it's him. Dogs have lived a long time by being fed kibble and I know it is popular to be like, oh kibble is bad for dogs now and, and everything like that. But truth be told, it's more about the the kibble you feed than kibble in general. Like I don't want a blanket statement kibble and be like, it's all bad.
Katie Ferraro (29m 9s):
So what would you be looking for if you're going the kibble route? Because I mean people groceries are, it cost enough money and I, I get what you're saying, like that's your splurge, that's your call and you're not shaming anyone who can't do that. If you're in the kibble category as we are in our family, what sort of ingredients do you look for and not look for.
Jake Schneider (29m 26s):
You can go grain free. I don't really think unless the dog, unless you go to the vet and the vet says it has a grain allergy, I try not to go to grain free too much. But really the main things you're looking for is a quality protein. I don't like seeing corn. What I want to see is like, let's say you're feeding your dog chicken and rice or something as like a a, it's a pretty popular flavor. So you're feeding your dog chicken to rice that first, the first ingredient should be chicken. The second ingredient should be chicken meal, which is just the dried version of that protein.
Katie Ferraro (29m 54s):
Tell me about the course that you and your wife teach the course that you have, the course that you guys are creating. So for families who are interested in making some more of these boundaries, how can your course help us?
Jake Schneider (30m 4s):
Yeah, the course that we have available right now is called Welcome Home and that is a very robust course that goes over create training, healing, sits down, stay, it's, it's all the obedience stuff. It talks about health management things. We, we go through a ton. There's like five plus hours of video in it. It's really good if you're, if you have a dog and you're just starting from scratch. We have a course that we're working on right now called Remote PAWS. And PAWS stands for Proactive Approach for Wellbeing and Safety and Proactive is the key. That's something that we feel like if people can just get ahead it just think ahead a little bit of like, here's my dog's problem, how can I address it? You can get ahead of the problem and stop it before it becomes too bad.
Jake Schneider (30m 44s):
And it's just a course that we found was sort of lacking. Like people can do online courses for dog training sits and downs and stays. You can go in person classes, but once you get home, your dog might know all the stuff you learned in class. But then you get home and your dog's like still jumping on the counter, still chewing on your shoes, still eating the couch or stealing things, playing keep away. And people are like, my dog knows everything, but it's still doing this. How do we fix this? And that's what that course is designed to do. It's designed to just help people work through their problem and come up with a proactive kind of approach to being able to get these things resolved.
Katie Ferraro (31m 17s):
What does the remote in Remote PAWS mean? Is it 'cause it's like a distance remote course?
Jake Schneider (31m 23s):
It's a remote course, but also it sort of was initially designed because we do a lot of virtual talking with people, whether it be in the course that me and you met in or other places. And we see how often dogs become problems within those meetings. Oh, the dog's in the background barking or because you're talking to a computer, your dog then decides to just chew on something it's not supposed to or pees in the house or you can't let your dog be unattended. So it's in the room with you screaming and we're like, we can work on these things. And so that's kind of how remote sort of came up is it's remote, meaning it's an online course, but it also means like the reason it was created was initially created to be able to help people who are trying to just sit in these meetings and wanna be able to trust that their dog's just gonna be laying.
Katie Ferraro (32m 4s):
I'm just trying to do my job. Exactly.
Jake Schneider (32m 6s):
Yeah. I just want my dog to be over here chilling and not causing any problems and I just wanna be comfortable while I'm in my meeting knowing that my dog's gonna be safe.
Katie Ferraro (32m 14s):
Thank you so much for coming on and sharing some of these tips. I will link to your courses, your resources, your podcast as well in the show notes for our app. But I did just wanna say thank you again for sharing your time and your expertise. There are a lot of similarities about bringing a dog home and bringing a baby home, and you have to peacefully coexist with both of them. So I appreciate your time and all the tips you shared today.
Jake Schneider (32m 34s):
Oh, not a problem. Thank you for having me on.
Katie Ferraro (32m 37s):
Well, I hope you guys enjoyed that interview with Jake Schneider. He's from On Dog Training Academy. His online program is called Welcome Home. I'll link them in the description where you're listening to this, but they'll also be on the show notes page for this episode, which you can find at blwpodcast.com/426. And a special thank you to our partners at AirWave Media. If you guys like podcasts that feature food and science and using your brain, listen to some of the shows that AirWave has. We are online at blwpodcast.com. Good luck feeding your baby and feeding your dog.
Katie Ferraro (33m 17s):
I'll catch you next time. Bye now.
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