SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio — There is a saying among dog trainers: "24/7. Either you are training your dog or your dog is training you.
3News' Stephanie Haney has experienced plenty of ups and downs with her pup, Oscar Wilde McCool, who just celebrated his very first birthday.
Oscar's behavior left a lot to be desired, so she turned to Shaker Hound Academy for some much-needed help -- for the both of them.
Calling it "Operation Oscar," Haney enlisted the help of K-9 trainer and Academy owner, Chris Ramsay. To be fair, Oscar has some really good behaviors, too, but the less-than-desirable ones need to go.
Right off the bat, Ramsay insists both Oscar and his human are indeed trainable.
"This is different than how they used to train in the 70s and 80s. It was like 'you're gonna follow my commands. I'm gonna tell you what to do every second of the day, and if you don't you're going to get in trouble,'" Ramsay explained.
He uses a modern training style called "training between the ears," that focuses on rewarding good behavior instead of punishing your pup for things you don't want them to do.
"So it takes some time. It's worth it. The more time you put up front, the less work you have to do later. When he starts making decisions on her own, this is what we want," Ramsay elaborated.
The concept might be hard to grasp as Oscar's decisions up to this point have included climbing on coffee tables, jumping on countertops, eating wallets and toilet paper. There's also the issue of jumping on everyone who comes through the door, and dragging Haney down the street, while trying to chase every car and animal that passes by. Oscar is excited about life and it shows.
In their first official meeting, Ramsay takes stock.
"I would say excitability is a problem for most dogs and its nice that Oscar's excitability is driven by, you could say, optimism. So when their excitability is driven by anger or pessimism, those are more serious case," he explained.
Oscar the optimist also has two cats living with him at home, who don't exactly appreciate his big personality... especially when he wants to chase them across the room.
"The cats will pick up that body language, so if we work on his behavior it will change the cats' behavior. Everybody wins," said Ramsay.
Oscar is about to embark on a two-week doggy boot camp with Ramsay, to give Haney the jump start she needs.
"Once we deal with his excitement piece and we get him kind of relaxed and a little bit focused, not like a robot, but just like behaving good -- we can ask him to do whatever we want. If we don't take care of the emotional piece first we can't ask for that physical piece," Ramsay said.
With that, Haney gave Oscar a kiss and a hug goodbye. Next week on Ready Pet GO! we will show you how Oscar did during his boot camp, but the work for Haney is just beginning!
Learn more about Shaker Hound Academy HERE.
Learn more about Training Between The Ears HERE.
Editor's note: Video in the player above was originally published in a previous story on March 15, 2023.