How to Calm an Anxious Dog | Cesar Millan & Dr. Andrew Huberman

Solving Dog Anxiety Through Exercise

00:00What if somebody has an anxious dog right now? They haven't been doing this and the dog is pawing at them and and running around. Should the person just stay completely in that calm space moving about and ignoring them touching them or should they be physically giving like, you know, get off me type?

00:15Well, this this also had to do with how how much exercise physically exercise the dog has received, right? How long is his walk? Cuz most people walk 20 30 minutes. That's not enough. and the dog end up in the house for 20 23 and a half hours.

00:29In my opinion, it's borders on abuse. It's really incredibly hard on an animal that has the same people say I love my dog and and and my first question is how long do you walk them? What is your recommendation? I realize it varies by breed and by age.

00:44Yeah. And by level of energy because some are couch potatoes, low level energy, some middle and some high, right? And so it depends on the energy of the dog. So not because a dog is a back of the pack doesn't mean there they don't have high level energy.

00:54Okay? Because the sled dogs there is a lot of guys that go on the back. It's only one in the front if you notice. Right? And even in the back of the pack dogs because they create a a pack front, middle, back, right? And that's why they stay in that mode.

01:06And and so even the back of the pack, they have to have the same level of stamina as the one in the front. So now because it's a back of the pack is couch potato, you know. So then then you have to understand the levels of energy that they're born with.

01:19Low, medium, high. Yeah. A lot of times people say, "Oh, bulldogs are couch potatoes." Now, [laughter] you can have a bulldog that is absolutely athletic. Absolutely athletic and has the stamina to go and, you know, obviously you have to help them with the breeding part and because they they just go into, you know, no limits.

01:40So you have to help them, you know, this drummer has a lot of energy. Yeah. uh compared to Costello. Um so two minimum 30 minute walks per day as as much as a couple hours twice a day with a backpack on. Right. Obviously [clears throat] the dog is a little older because you know the backpack adds that extra half hour cuz now the dog is carrying something.

02:02So a weighted backpack. Yes. And how should one assess like percentage of body weight of the dog? Like in the beginning you can just put a backpack because they're psychologically you know they don't want to wear anything you know nothing that we put on them they want to wear it you know a leash a collar a muzzle a boots doesn't matter doesn't matter.

02:16So psychologically that drains them right because they got to get used to it. So you you walk until the dog comes surrender to it and then you take it off and then the mind will become very drained once the dog gets used to it and then you start putting weight.

02:31You can start with five pounds. Remember, every time you add something, you challenge the mind. And the goal is simply for the mind to surrender. You see it? And and then the body the body is going to become calm because he's wasting energy.

02:44So your job literally every day with a dog is to empty the tank. Empty the tank. You know, because a tired dog is never going to give you problems ever. True. Ever. How? He doesn't have the energy to give you problems, right? And then on

Rules and Impulse Control

02:58top of that, you create rules by limitations such as just put food right here, but he can't touch it. So the mind has to be disciplined not to touch it. Then the mind has to learn instead of doing this to do this and that requires self-discipline.

03:10If you tell the dog don't touch it or don't touch the human, don't touch the food, don't touch the cat, they go into a calm surrender state and they wait. Yeah. The first thing that I taught strummer um was to suppress action. Just as a general theme, he learned it right away.

03:29Um, at eight weeks it took about a day, maybe even half a day because I had learned the hard way with Costello. He was much more stubborn. I could set food down. Yep. As a eight-week old puppy, because we went through the training process, he's not touching it until he looks at me.

03:43I can walk around the room. I can do whatever I want. He's tracking and then when I say okay, then he's going to eat. I will just mention there's a inhibition from the forebrain down to the brain regions that control impulses. And that's what we call top down inhibition, which is nerd neuroscience speak for what you what you're describing practically.

04:05And I feel like it carries over to other circumstances more easily. But I can put food in front of him now and leave the room. I don't do this for extended periods, but I come back, he's not going to touch it. Yep. And then he he starts to eat.

04:19Now, it's a little bit more difficult with things that um like trying to teach him to not uh be mouthy on So I have a rule. No, no skin in dog's mouth. This is just like it's all or none. Make it simple cuz when it's really cute when they're a puppy, those teeth are a little sharp and then you can kind of But I just have a it's a thick black line, right?

04:39And my girlfriend knows this too. Like she's like, "No, but he wants to play." It's like no skin goes in his mouth. Then he cuz that's a simple rule. Yep. And if he does happens to, you know, go for skin, I'll do the little Yelp thing. He understands right away.

04:52So, if people hear this, they're going to be like, "This is terrible, right? You're putting food in front of him and he wants to eat and you're not letting him." But could you elaborate why this is so important to the dog's happiness and well-being?

05:06Because I believe it is, and I could see that in Costello. I see it in Strummer. There's a trust, there's a calmness, there's a an availability to go more places, but many people, they just like, "He's hungry. She's hungry. They missed me."

05:20you know, they didn't know what they were doing or they feel guilty because they didn't walk the dog.

Power of Structured Walking

05:25Guilt [clears throat] plays a big role in raising dogs. Well, then let's stay on the walk for a moment. What What is so critical about the structured walk? I've been doing 2 hours a day or so of structured walk since he was little. And people say that's too much for a puppy.

05:39I I feel like he's been great with two one-hour walks. It's because they forget instincts, right? They forget instinct that a dog is instinctually is going to follow his parents to find food and water, right? Yes. They do it after two months of age because otherwise they will stay within the den, right?

05:56But from from two to four, they follow, you know, they follow and somebody's always taking care. You can see it in the African wild dogs, there's always somebody that supervises the litter, but they allow them to follow, right? and then they they they they go to a certain stance because they're growing.

06:14But as soon as the dog gets into six, eight months of age, that guy wants to walk more than 30 minutes, guaranteed. He doesn't want to stay in one place too long. So all these people with their dogs home all day or some people would say, well, the dog has the yard, running around the yard, it's not the same, right?

06:30Uh being able to run around a yard with the yard, it becomes like the zoo, right? Is an animal in the zoo with a yard. But that's not natural. That's just practical for the human, right? And the human feels like, okay, I have a backyard. That's where the dog does exercise.

06:45But the dog is going in circles. So exercise for a bird is going for a fish for, you know, a bird have to fly, a fish have to swim, and a dog has to walk. It's just the nature of each uh species, right? So the walk is the most important activity in my eyes, right?

Learning From Off-Leash Dogs

07:02Look at the homeless people with their dogs. Why they can walk a dog off leash? You were the first person I ever heard say that homeless people are the best dog owners. And the humans who are blind, the human who are blind dog is right next to them.

07:13A homeless people dog in the back, right? So what are they doing, right? Well, the dog is following them, right? They're in a follower state. And so the dog the dog that lives with the blind is is not allowed to get distracted because his purpose is to guide the the blind.

07:30And the dog that lives with the homeless, he's not allowed to go in front. Consciously or unconsciously, the dog stays in the back. Nine out of 10 homeless people have a pitbull and the dog is well behaved, off leash. I see a lot of them in my neighborhood.

07:43This is Los Angeles. Incredible. Incredible. Right. But in Mexico, every single dog in a third country, every single dog is off leash. So that's uh in America the American dream for a lot of people is is to have a dog walk off leash because people pay a trainer to train their dog to be off leash with this is the nature of a you see it does doesn't make any sense you know once you hear it is you just have to uh help them by practicing the ritual of no touch no talk no eye contact let the dog be calm surrender in front of you make sure during the walk he's also in the same

08:16state of mind and before you feed him do this for at least three weeks Right? So you get into this habit, right, that when you greet, when you walk, and when you feed. So then this dog is going to have this beautiful silence, calm, surrender.

08:29And this is the dog you bring into dog parks or dog beaches. And then your job is to make sure that you uh the dog that your dog is going to play with has the same energy as your dog. You have to be selective just like with kids. [music]