Proven Techniques for A Great Day Everyday & The Mysteries of Dog Behavior

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Speaker 1 Today, on something you should know, how the clothes you wear can change who you are in a big way.

Speaker 1 Then, how to have a great day every day.

Speaker 2 Well, if there's one thing that I want people to know, it's that you can queue up your best day at a moment's notice.

Speaker 2 Neuroscience has revealed some great strategies that help you make the most of the brain you've got given the day you've got.

Speaker 1 Also, some facts and myths about bad breath to help keep you minty fresh and understanding dog behavior and how we sometimes unknowingly reinforce the bad behavior.

Speaker 3 Too often what I see happen is, you know, dog barks and then someone's like, Stella, stop it, stop it.

Speaker 3 And then the dog's barking and it's like, I think the dog is like, oh, I barked and then that caught attention from her and now she's barking and now we're all barking together.

Speaker 3 It has like the wrong effect.

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Speaker 1 Something you should know, fascinating intel, the world's top experts, and practical advice you can use in your life today.

Speaker 1 Something you should know with Mike Carruthers.

Speaker 1 So how in the world could the clothes you wear make you measurably smarter, stronger, and give you better posture? Well, you're about to find out as we begin this episode of Something You Should Know.

Speaker 1 Hi and welcome. So if you want to be smarter, you wear a white coat.
You just have to make sure it's the right kind of white coat.

Speaker 1 In an experiment, volunteers were given an intelligence test while wearing a white lab jacket.

Speaker 1 The group who believed the jacket belonged to one of the doctors scored higher than the other group who were told that the jacket was a painter's smock.

Speaker 1 The study had some other interesting results. Women wearing a white blouse looked and felt more innocent.
Men in black t-shirts were a little stronger.

Speaker 1 People had more energy when wearing bright-colored clothing, and those who wore formal attire had better posture, grammar, and more poise.

Speaker 1 And that is something you should know.

Speaker 1 Some days just go better than other days. On some days you're on top of the world.
Everything goes well. It's a great day.
Other days,

Speaker 1 you struggle. Things don't go your way.
The motivation's not there. You make mistakes.
If only there was a way to smooth things out, to make the day go better, go more your way.

Speaker 1 Well, there are some things actually, proven techniques to help you in the moment so you have a better day and better outcomes throughout the day.

Speaker 1 Here to explain what they are and how to use them is Therese Houston. She is a cognitive scientist at Seattle University.

Speaker 1 She was the founding director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Seattle University.

Speaker 1 And she is author of a book called Sharp, 14 Simple Ways to Improve Your Life with Brain Science. Hi, Therese.
Welcome to Something You Should Know.

Speaker 2 Thank you so much, Mike. It's a real treat to be here.

Speaker 1 So you have an interesting message because, you know, I have good days and bad days. I think most people do where, you know, you're just on your game, things are going great.

Speaker 1 Other days, just it kind of struggles to get through the day. So what's your message here?

Speaker 2 Well, if there's one thing that I want people to know, it's that you can queue up your best day at a moment's notice.

Speaker 2 So often we feel like our best day is subject to whether or not we got a good night's sleep or whether everything's going well at home.

Speaker 2 But the truth is, neuroscience has revealed some great strategies that help you make the most of the brain you've got given the day you've got.

Speaker 2 And I just want to communicate as many of those strategies as possible.

Speaker 1 Well, that's a great idea because how many of us have had days that just didn't go so well, didn't turn out too well, even with the best of intentions.

Speaker 1 But maybe you have to be more than just intentional. Maybe you have some things you can do that will help you have a better day.

Speaker 2 Exactly. We all want to show up

Speaker 2 and do our best in most situations, and yet it can feel frustrating. You know, there's this phrase, work smarter, not harder.

Speaker 2 And I say that tentatively because I've always been confused by what that means.

Speaker 2 If your manager says that to you, it can feel like extra pressure and you're not sure how to do anything differently.

Speaker 2 So I want want to give people as many quick techniques as possible, things you can do in five minutes or 10 minutes or less, just to ensure you have the best day you can have.

Speaker 1 So dive in and pick one

Speaker 1 that gives people a sense of what you're talking about. And let's do that one.

Speaker 2 Sure. So why don't we start?

Speaker 2 I would love to do a demonstration of a technique that actually both reduces stress and improves decision making, which seems as though those two would be very different parts of your brain or that they would require different techniques.

Speaker 2 But the beauty is neuroscience shows this one technique can actually, you know, kill two birds with one stone and be so effective. So would you mind, Mike, if we do a demonstration of this?

Speaker 2 It's going to be a breathing technique and people can follow along if they want to. So what we're going to do is a breathing technique that is sometimes called skewed breathing or 5-2-7 breathing.

Speaker 2 So you're going to inhale for a count of five and I'll count out loud. You'll hold that breath for a count of two

Speaker 2 and then you'll exhale for a count of seven.

Speaker 2 And if you find any of that hard, for instance, if it's tricky to inhale for a count of five, just inhale for a count of four and then hold your breath and then do the exhale.

Speaker 2 It's the long exhale that's the most important and it can help to breathe out through little pursed lips like you're sipping through a straw. That can help slow your exhale if that's tricky.

Speaker 2 And we'll do it, we'll do it twice: two rounds of it. And what you should find, well, I'll ask you when we're done the impact on you.
So, are you ready to try?

Speaker 1 Sure, absolutely.

Speaker 2 Okay, great. So, exhale, and now inhale, two,

Speaker 4 three,

Speaker 4 four,

Speaker 2 five.

Speaker 4 Hold,

Speaker 4 two,

Speaker 4 exhale, two,

Speaker 4 three,

Speaker 1 four,

Speaker 2 five, six, seven.

Speaker 4 And inhale, two,

Speaker 2 three,

Speaker 4 four,

Speaker 2 five.

Speaker 4 Hold, two.

Speaker 4 Exhale, two,

Speaker 4 three,

Speaker 4 four,

Speaker 2 five, six, seven.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 3 How do you feel?

Speaker 1 I guess more relaxed. I mean, I just, it, you know, I took my mind off of what we were doing and got my head into that.

Speaker 1 And, and it just kind of slowed everything down because I was working on breathing rather than anything else. Yeah, it felt feels good.

Speaker 2 Feels good. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Well, so what the research indicates is if we just did two cycles

Speaker 2 that took less than 30 seconds, what you would want to do is about six cycles of that.

Speaker 2 So that would last about two minutes. And researchers find that that objectively improves decision making.

Speaker 2 And part of what it's doing is, as you noted, it's making you feel less stressed, more relaxed.

Speaker 2 It's actually activating that slow exhale is activating part of your body called the vagus nerve and the vagus nerve is part of your parasympathetic nervous system which helps your body relax and the reason well first of all that's nice for relaxation right you can you can do this anytime you can be sitting in a meeting and you can do this you know activity without counting out loud just counting in your head but what's beautiful about it is it actually improves decision making because it reduces activity the vagus nerve with an exercise like that reduces activity in part of your brain called the amygdala, which is, you know, people have heard of the amygdala as a fear center, but it's also related to anxiety and

Speaker 2 other strong emotions. So by reducing activity in the amygdala, suddenly your stress levels go down and it becomes easier to make decisions that were causing you stress because

Speaker 2 stress impairs decision-making.

Speaker 1 Well, that was pretty simple and fun and easy.

Speaker 1 Let's do another one.

Speaker 2 A wonderful technique for improving focus because I hear so many people

Speaker 2 are finding it hard to get focused when they need to get focused, right? You sit down to do your work, or you get drawn into doing internet shopping, whatever it might be.

Speaker 2 It can be hard to get your day started as quickly as you might like to, or you find it hard to get focused when you need to.

Speaker 2 And so, one of my favorite techniques for this is to do something called binaural beats. It's Latin for two ears.

Speaker 2 And basically, what you do with binaural beats is you put on a set of headphones or AirPods and you look for, YouTube has plenty of these videos, and you type in binaural beats 40 Hertz, H HZ, or you can spell out Hertz, H-E-R-T-Z.

Speaker 2 And you put on your headphones and you start the

Speaker 2 recording and you listen to it. You don't have to watch what's beautiful about it.
You know, these are videos, but they're basically audio recordings.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 it will take you from scattered thinking to incredible focus within minutes.

Speaker 2 So, if you have some task you need to do, put on your headphones, turn on the 40 hertz binaural beats, and within minutes, you will be so focused, you will think, wait a second, how is this working?

Speaker 2 And basically, what you're going to hear are two different tones.

Speaker 2 In each ear will hear a different tone, but it will just sound like one tone because your brain will do a subtraction.

Speaker 2 So, if one ear is hearing 410 hertz and the other ear is hearing 450 hertz, your brain does a subtraction so you hear 40 hertz. That's why it would be called a 40 hertz binaural beats.

Speaker 2 And what's almost magic about this is that 40, when you listen to binaural beats at 40 hertz, your brain

Speaker 2 electrical activity starts to synchronize with that. And 40 hertz is kind of an optimal focus for brain activity.
And so you're basically, you know,

Speaker 2 you're getting in and you're reaching into your brain and tuning a dial so that you have optimal focus.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 it helps me every time on days when I'm feeling unfocused. I've taught this technique to many people, and it's the one that people write back to me most about to say, I can't believe it.
This works.

Speaker 2 And it's now my go-to on days when I feel a little fuzzy-headed.

Speaker 1 Oh, that's cool. Well, I want to try that later.
That's an interesting, I had never heard of that before. So that's great.

Speaker 3 It is.

Speaker 2 It's surprising. And it's one of these things that I'm not sure why more people don't know about it.

Speaker 2 The one tip I would offer on this, if you're going to try it, don't do it for longer than 20 minutes, especially the first time.

Speaker 2 For me, I'll get so caught up in a task that I'll forget to turn off the binaural beats. And what can happen if you listen too long, it can can make you feel a little nauseous.

Speaker 1 Well, that's good to know i i wouldn't want to find that out the hard way well i want to get to more of your proven techniques to help people have a better day i'm speaking with therese houston she is a cognitive scientist at seattle university and author of the book sharp 14 simple ways to improve your life with brain science

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Speaker 1 So, Therese, I know you talk a lot about multitasking, and I know there are people who believe they're very good at it.

Speaker 1 And then I've also heard that it's not really a thing, that it's a myth, that multitasking is really switching back and forth between two or more things, but not really doing multiple things at the same time.

Speaker 1 So what's your take on that?

Speaker 2 Yes, multitasking. People can have such pride around being good at multitasking.
And I'm I'm not saying that they're bad at it.

Speaker 2 They might be better than the other people in their household. They might be better than they used to be.

Speaker 2 But the research is very clear on this, that when you're multitasking, you're worse at the two things that you're trying to do or the three things you're trying to do than you would be if you single-tasked, if you just focused on one thing.

Speaker 2 So if it's all right, I'd love to do a demonstration of how many mistakes we make or how hard it is when we multitask.

Speaker 1 Sure, go right ahead.

Speaker 2 So here is how this is going to work. I'm going to ask you, Mike, to count out loud from one to seven as fast as you can.

Speaker 1 Go. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Speaker 2 Excellent. Now I'd like you to say the alphabet out loud as fast as you can from A to the letter F.
Go.

Speaker 1 A, B, C, D, E, F.

Speaker 2 Excellent. So that was single tasking.
You were doing counting, you were focused on that. And then you did the alphabet and you were focused on that.
So now we're going to multitask.

Speaker 2 So what I want you to do is say a number and then say the letter and move down from one to seven and from A to F. So the first one would be one A.

Speaker 2 Go.

Speaker 1 1A, 2B,

Speaker 1 3C,

Speaker 1 4D,

Speaker 3 5E.

Speaker 1 6F.

Speaker 2 There you go. Good job.

Speaker 2 It's so much harder, right?

Speaker 1 Yeah, it is. But it is misleading because I do feel like I'm just doing one thing.
I'm doing that task.

Speaker 2 But the reality is you're rapidly shifting back and forth, just like you did between the alphabet and the numbers. And the result is you don't do either task nearly as well.

Speaker 2 Research indicates that your brain activity for whatever the main task is.

Speaker 2 So let's say your main task is you're trying to get this email done before dinner, but you're also talking with your partner or your kids while you do this, your brain activity for writing that email goes down by on average 37%.

Speaker 2 So you're really not performing as well and mistakes will go up by as much as 50%.

Speaker 1 Because the brain can only do one thing at a time.

Speaker 2 We can make motions. We can

Speaker 2 do something that doesn't require any attention. I can adjust in my seat as I'm talking.
I can move my hands.

Speaker 2 Those things I can do simultaneously because moving my hands, adjusting in my seat, that doesn't take any attention.

Speaker 2 But something that does take attention away from whatever we're trying to do, that we're switching back and forth. We may not realize it, but we're doing these little tiny micro switchings.

Speaker 2 And all those micro switches add up. They cost something.
They're not free.

Speaker 1 Let's talk about managing acute stress. I know you have some techniques that can help and who doesn't face that from time to time where you're really under the gun and some help would be great.

Speaker 2 There are fabulous techniques for reducing acute stress. So

Speaker 2 the one that people are most surprised to hear initially, but then they're like, oh, this makes sense, is affection.

Speaker 2 So researchers have found that

Speaker 2 as little as a 20 second hug

Speaker 2 from your partner or someone that you're comfortable hugging, right? You can't do this just to a random coworker.

Speaker 2 But if you get a 20 second hug from your partner in the morning or from your even your pet, you hug your pet for 20 seconds,

Speaker 2 you'll have lower cortisol levels. And we think of cortisol as a bad thing.
Cortisol can help you act, but if cortisol levels are high all day, that's going to be hard on your body.

Speaker 2 And so 20 seconds worth of hug and boom, your cortisol levels will be less when you go into that stressful event at work later that day. Now, self-affection works too.
So giving yourself a hug.

Speaker 2 So if you wanted to grab the tops of your arms, just setting your hands gently on the tops of your arms and rubbing lightly, that kind of self-hug for 20 seconds will also reduce cortisol levels.

Speaker 2 The other nice one, the one that I actually prefer, is to simply put both hands on your heart and just rest them there. And if you try this, you'll find that within 20 seconds you feel more relaxed.

Speaker 2 So it's a wonderful way to reduce cortisol levels, to reduce immediate stress, and you'll have less, you'll feel less stressed when you go into a stressful situation.

Speaker 1 What about getting motivated? Because that's something I think everybody struggles with. You know, I don't really want to do this.
I really,

Speaker 1 I just don't have it in me. And eventually maybe you get it done, but maybe not well.
And what about that?

Speaker 2 The key thing to know about motivation is that dopamine will increase your sense of motivation. Dopamine, people think of it as the reward chemical.
I think of it as the let's do this chemical.

Speaker 2 And the way to increase dopamine in your brain, there are a couple of strategies. There's a lot of talk right now about deliberate cold exposure, right? Cold plunges, cold showers.

Speaker 2 Those are wonderful first thing in the morning. But if you need a motivation burst at, let's say, three in the afternoon, you're like, oh, I've got two more hours.

Speaker 2 I need to work i do not want to be here anymore you know a cold shower or a cold plunge isn't going to help you so what i do and of course it depends on the time of year is go for a brisk walk outside you know if it's 30 degrees out tie a jacket around your waist and go for a 10 12 minute walk and and the idea is you want it to be uncomfortable cold exposure will do it And that'll increase your dopamine.

Speaker 2 You'll come back. You'll feel ready for anything.
And you just then need to focus your attention on the task you've been dreading. So deliberate cold exposure really helps.

Speaker 2 My other favorite technique, and this one doesn't get talked about nearly as much, is to listen to music that moves you.

Speaker 2 Chances are, Mike, you have some music that when you listen to it, you just, you get chills.

Speaker 2 And research shows that listening to music that gives you chills, that really moves you, makes you want to get up and move, that increases dopamine in the brain.

Speaker 2 Now, what's tricky here is that you can't just listen to what other people like, right? So this isn't listening to what's the top 40 for right now. It has to be personal to you.

Speaker 2 Listening to other people's favorite songs doesn't do this the way that listening to your favorite song will.

Speaker 2 And so, you know, you can make a dopamine playlist, a list of songs that when you listen to them, it moves you.

Speaker 2 And that can be something that you can turn to in those moments when you're feeling unmotivated.

Speaker 2 Listen to one or two songs and then dive back into that task that you need to work on that you're dreading and you will feel renewed focus.

Speaker 1 See, I would never think to do that because I would feel guilty like I'm, you know, I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm off listening to music and that's kind of like pleasure and recess.

Speaker 1 So shouldn't do that.

Speaker 2 Exactly. There can be this sense that

Speaker 2 That the thing we need to do needs to be on task every minute, right? That that's going to improve our motivation or focus.

Speaker 2 And in the case of both doing a brisk walk outside or listening to music that moves you,

Speaker 2 what's beautiful about them is you don't have to do them for very long. The walk can be 10 minutes.
The music can just be one song, maybe two songs.

Speaker 2 But what's beautiful about it is because it's increasing dopamine in your brain, that is going to last for a while. And so now you get back to the task that you're dreading and

Speaker 2 got, you've, you've got a burst of motivation that you didn't have. And chances are once you then start working on that task, you'll be able to stick with it.

Speaker 1 One thing I think a lot of people struggle with is remembering names when you first meet someone. Somehow the name just evaporates.
I don't know why. It just, I have that problem.

Speaker 1 And you have a way to help prevent that. So I'd like you to talk about that.

Speaker 2 So I'll be going into a situation. It happened just this weekend.

Speaker 2 I was going to an event on Saturday where I knew I was going to meet a bunch of people and I wanted to be able to remember their names.

Speaker 2 And sure enough, I got into the situation and I found myself saying hello to someone.

Speaker 2 They'd say their name and I would forget it instantly, in part because I was moving on to meeting the next person at the table, right?

Speaker 2 And I would just move around and each person's name, I'd say it out loud, and yet still it wasn't going into the memory bank. We've all been there.

Speaker 2 So how can you improve your memory for particularly if you know you're about to walk into a situation where you're going to want to remember as many names as possible.

Speaker 2 And the strategy here is to do a 10-minute mindfulness meditation before you walk into the situation. I'm a big fan of the Healthy Minds app.

Speaker 2 I'm not affiliated with them whatsoever, but it's out of University of Wisconsin and it's free and it's developed by a neuroscientist and they have great 10 minute and some of them are active so you can listen to them while you walk instead of having to sit still and you get 10 minutes.

Speaker 2 You'll be more relaxed. But more importantly, it improves memory immediately.

Speaker 2 Your recall goes up by, on average, 75%

Speaker 2 in the time that follows.

Speaker 2 So if you have the opportunity, you know you're about to walk into a situation where you're going to have to remember a bunch of names, sit down, do a 10-minute mindfulness meditation, and then walking into that situation, you're going to be impressed.

Speaker 2 Your ability to remember those names will go way up.

Speaker 1 Well, what's great about a podcast is they stay up for a long time. And this episode will stay up for a long time.
And people can come back and re-listen to these techniques you've given.

Speaker 1 And on Apple Podcasts, read the transcript as well. So this will be very helpful for a lot of people.
Therese Houston has been my guest.

Speaker 1 She's a cognitive scientist at Seattle University and author of the book, Sharp. 14 Simple Ways to Improve Your Life with Brain Science.
There's a link to her book at Amazon in the show notes.

Speaker 1 Therese, thank you for being here.

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Speaker 1 Whether you own a dog or not, you certainly see them everywhere, you likely interact with them to some extent, and you notice how different they are.

Speaker 1 Some are very well-behaved, some seem out of control, and a lot of them are somewhere in the middle. Some dogs are mellow, others are hyper.

Speaker 1 Dogs come in a wide variety of temperaments and intelligence. And since we are around dogs so much, how can we best get along with them and train them? Here to discuss that is Annie Grossman.

Speaker 1 She's a journalist turned animal trainer who has written about dogs for the New York Times and the Boston Globe and other publications.

Speaker 1 She runs the School for Dogs, which is an acclaimed training facility and retail store in New York City.

Speaker 1 She's host of a podcast called How to Train Your Dog with Love and Science, and she is author of a book with that same name, How to Train Your Dog with Love and Science. Hi, Annie.

Speaker 1 Thank you for coming on something you should know.

Speaker 3 Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1 So I guess I'd first like to know, what's your philosophy about dog behavior and training dogs, getting them to do what you want to do? Where do you come in on this topic?

Speaker 3 I think as someone who is passionate about the science of behavior, what's amazing to me is how few people even recognize that there is a science of behavior or know that there is a science of behavior.

Speaker 3 So much of training over the last century has been about sort of dominating a dog and having a certain kind of energy and tuning into like your inner dogginess, which, if you ask me, is kind of all a bunch of malarkey.

Speaker 3 At the end of the day,

Speaker 3 behavior is part of evolution. So I guess you could say my philosophy is

Speaker 3 the science of behavior and behaviorism is both a science and a philosophy in that I think once we can understand

Speaker 3 the basics of what I think is a really interesting area of science, we can do a lot to managing our dog's environment in order to get the behaviors we want, figuring out how we can reward the behaviors we want with appropriate reinforcers or rewards.

Speaker 1 So what do you mean by managing or manipulating the environment?

Speaker 3 We do things without even thinking about it that are, of course, manipulating the dog's environment,

Speaker 3 putting the dog in a crate, right? We put a dog in a crate because a dog who's in a crate is a dog who is not going to pee on the carpet or chew on the coffee table.

Speaker 3 But even more than that,

Speaker 3 we can think in any given moment about how we can structure literally the room that the dog is in

Speaker 3 in order to encourage the chances that we're going to get the stuff we want and be less likely to get the stuff that we don't want.

Speaker 3 And when you're focusing on training using positive reinforcement, what you're really doing is trying to figure out how you can encourage behaviors you want.

Speaker 3 And part of that is trying to make sure that you're not getting a lot of the behaviors you don't want.

Speaker 3 The other problem with getting behaviors that you don't want is that those behaviors can then be positively reinforced without your meaning to.

Speaker 3 So, you know, if you create a situation, for instance, where you have a dog who jumps at everyone who comes inside in the door, if you create a situation where your dog gets to practice that behavior over and over and over of getting to bum rush whoever's coming in at the door, that that behavior is most likely being reinforced.

Speaker 3 Because even if people are yelling at the dog, hey, get off me, I don't like that, the dog might still be interpreting it as attention. The dog still might be enjoying jumping up.

Speaker 3 So that's why you kind of want to create a path for your dog that they want to be on, where there is like not a whole lot of chance that they're going to be engaging in the stuff that you don't want them to do.

Speaker 1 So what do you do then? If your dog is one of those dogs that jumps on everybody who comes over and you're having a party, what do you do? Do you put the dog in another room?

Speaker 1 What is it you do to manipulate the environment?

Speaker 3 Yeah, you might suggest that your dog be in another room or tethered and give your dog a more appropriate thing to do.

Speaker 3 For instance, my dog, when people come in, I try and make sure that she is getting rewards in some place that is away from the door.

Speaker 3 Because what I want her to associate with someone coming in the door is good things happen all the way over there on the other side of the apartment when people come in.

Speaker 3 I like to encourage people to think about associations. What is the association that your dog is making at any given moment? How is your dog, you know, dogs, all of us, we're all connecting.

Speaker 3 You know, if this happens, then this happens all the time, all day long. So, I use, for example, a little device.
It's called a treat and train.

Speaker 3 It's a remote control treat dispenser that I keep on the far end of my apartment. And

Speaker 3 whenever anyone comes to the door, as soon as they ring the doorbell, I start triggering that at the other end of the apartment.

Speaker 3 And this is a way that I've manipulated the environment, created a situation in my home where I know exactly where the rewards are going to come out.

Speaker 3 I'm specific about where those rewards are coming out, and I'm specific about delivering them in such a way that that I know that as soon as she hears the doorbell, she is going to bolt to that other place because that reinforcement, the reinforcement of getting treats from the machine is more valuable to her than the reward of like going to the door and jumping up on someone and getting that kind of attention.

Speaker 1 But it doesn't really address, though, the

Speaker 1 issue of, or maybe it's not important to, of why the dog is jumping on everybody when they come over.

Speaker 3 You know, I tend to think people get way too caught up in the why, especially coming when you're dealing with behavior and with an animal that you're never going to be able to talk to about the origins of their

Speaker 2 feelings

Speaker 3 or their choices.

Speaker 3 I mean, it doesn't really matter why.

Speaker 3 When we're working with behavior, we're very much working from the outside in.

Speaker 3 You know, I'm not sitting my dog down on the couch and asking how she, you know, feels about the fact that I leave for work every day.

Speaker 3 I'm looking at the behavior that is being expressed and figuring out how I can change the behavior with things that

Speaker 3 I can control.

Speaker 1 I would suspect one of the most common problems people have with dogs is barking, incessant barking. The dog barks at everything, at everybody.

Speaker 1 Anyone comes to the door, the doorbell rings, the car goes by, bark, bark, bark, and people don't know what to do.

Speaker 3 It's an interesting problem, like so many problems with dogs when you think about it.

Speaker 3 Like it really, the fault really is in the fact that we bred these animals to be our alarm systems for many many many thousands of years and now we put them in situations where they are triggered to be our alarms like wolves wolves are not big barkers like we've created uh animals that do this and now we put them in situations where they're triggered and we we don't want them to do it um certainly there's like a million reasons why dogs bark um So rather than addressing each one, what I would say is it can be smart.

Speaker 3 First of all, like I said, manage the environment, figure out

Speaker 3 what's causing the barking and how can you make those triggers less

Speaker 3 pertinent. Sometimes the answer is as simple as like, you know, I work a lot with like city dogs

Speaker 3 and who are triggered by like noises in the hallways.

Speaker 3 Sometimes the answer is as simple as like putting up a door sweep on the bottom of a door to like get rid of that little gap at the bottom of of the door where sounds are coming in and and lights are coming in like light changes in light.

Speaker 3 Anything that's unpredictable to a dog can is more likely to be a trigger.

Speaker 3 Also, if you're home and dealing with a dog who's barking, sometimes it can be useful to reward your dog after one bark, sort of like say, thank you as soon as they bark and then give a treat.

Speaker 3 I love using the treat and train dispenser, like I said, because I can just like always have the button in my pocket and I can trigger that away from wherever the sounds are most likely to be coming from.

Speaker 3 And then what you have is a dog who who barks once and then kind of comes to you looking for the reward or going to the other side of the house.

Speaker 3 And even if you're not giving a reward every single time, you know, that even just a variable rate of reinforcement can keep that behavior happening.

Speaker 3 They're like, I bark once and then I go to my mom or I go to the treat and train.

Speaker 3 And most people don't have a problem with a dog who barks once. Too often what I see happen is, you know, dog barks and then someone's like, Stella, stop it, stop it.

Speaker 3 And then the dog's barking and it's like, I think the dog is like, oh, I barked. And then that caught intention from her.
And now she's barking. And now we're all barking together.

Speaker 3 The wrong effect.

Speaker 3 Like I said, though, you know, positive reinforcement, behaviors that we don't like may be positively reinforced by things or negatively reinforced by things we don't have much control over.

Speaker 3 So your dog is barking at sounds in the hallway. The person in the hallway leaves the hallway.

Speaker 3 Now that behavior of barking has been reinforced because your dog's like, oh, it made that bad thing go away. My barking must have done a really good job.

Speaker 3 So that's why, you know, because we have access to, you know, the hardware store down the street where we can do something like buy a white noise machine or

Speaker 3 window film or door sweep or whatever, like I always think those are the best things to try first.

Speaker 1 What's another big concern that dog owners talk to you about, ask you about, because they're struggling with it?

Speaker 3 Certainly a big problem is dealing with other dogs on the street. You know, so some tips there.

Speaker 3 It's an unpopular suggestion, but I often suggest that people don't let their dog say hi to any other dog on the street, if only because I don't necessarily trust that most people have a good enough ability to read dog body language to keep their dogs safe.

Speaker 3 So I would rather just, because, you know, you let your dog say hi to one dog on the street and that dog's having a bad day. And, you know, you literally could have your dog get their head bit off.

Speaker 3 And if you do let your dog greet another dog on the street, make sure you're keeping your leash really loose. You don't want your dog to associate, oh, there's another dog coming by.

Speaker 3 Now my neck is going to get all this pressure on it. And let the greeting just be very quick.
I also like

Speaker 3 using a hands-free leash outside, especially for city walking, because I think it makes it a lot easier to deliver food rewards outside, which I think can be really useful.

Speaker 3 You know, when we're outside with our dogs, we are the least interesting thing. They're with us all the time.
And outside, there's lots of novelty,

Speaker 3 lots of things to distract them, lots of things that are more interesting to us. So anything that we can do to make ourselves more interesting when we're outside, I think we should do.

Speaker 3 And that might mean using some kind of like really high-value treat, having it on your person, like in a treat pouch.

Speaker 3 And if you're using a hands-free leash, like something that you can wear around your waist or like something carabiner to your belt, you have two hands-free to give that stuff rather than trying to use one hand with a leash and one hand with a treat.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 you can work on making sure that your dog is on the opposite side of wherever the dogs, other dogs are on the street.

Speaker 3 Practicing having your dogs change side is something that we can do a lot of work with pretty quickly with a dog, teaching them, you know, I want you on this side or that side so that you can make sure that you are putting yourself between them and any dog on the street.

Speaker 3 And also giving some sort of small food reward whenever whenever you see another dog, again, to make that association and build that habit.

Speaker 3 Other dogs are good because when another dog comes, Annie gives me a little bit of hot dog.

Speaker 3 And when I see another dog,

Speaker 3 that's a cue for me to look at my person or to go to that spot, you know, near her knee or wherever where she's usually giving me the treat. That's what I need to do.

Speaker 3 That's the information.

Speaker 3 Other dog equals go to that spot, get that good thing, rather than other dog equals, you know, me bum rushing the other dog and barking or whatever else.

Speaker 1 I've often heard people say that, you know,

Speaker 1 a well-trained dog is a happier dog. That to leave a dog untrained is not good for the dog.
But what's your sense of that?

Speaker 3 Well, I don't think of training as a binary thing. It's not like a dog is trained or not trained.
I mean, you could train a dog every day and keep training them. There's always more to learn.

Speaker 3 That said, I think we can help dogs be happier by helping them understand how they can make choices that benefit them and giving them a little bit more agency and control over their lives in that way.

Speaker 3 And I don't think training necessarily, the way I think of training doesn't necessarily mean, you know, sit down, stay, come, drop it.

Speaker 3 You know, training might just be helping them use their energy in a more efficient or a more productive, less dangerous way so that that energy is not left over.

Speaker 3 For instance, I think it's a really great idea to feed dogs out of toys.

Speaker 3 I think every dog could benefit from getting one, if not all of their meals out of toys or during some sort of training session.

Speaker 3 We tend to think of like, this is food and these are treats, but really it all ends up in the same place. And you could use every piece of kibble in your dog's bowl as a treat if your dog is into it.

Speaker 3 And you can use every kibble in that bowl to reward some behavior that you like. Now, that behavior might be sitting quietly on the couch.
That behavior might be not barking at someone that comes in.

Speaker 3 But every time you're rewarding your dog, it's kind of like you're underscoring a moment of good and you're saying, I like that you did that. I'm going to pay into the bank account that you did that.

Speaker 3 Puzzle toys, I think, are a great way to help your dog burn some energy and problem solve and

Speaker 3 sort of become smarter in that way. These are toys that you can put.
Sometimes they're called work to eat toys. These are toys you can put kibble in.
You could put treats in, you could put wet food.

Speaker 3 There's lots of different kinds of toys. But dogs have that need to problem solve and figure things out and work.
And if we don't give them jobs, they're much more likely to make up their own jobs.

Speaker 3 Like I'm going to announce every person who goes in the hallway to take the elevator.

Speaker 3 So it's like, how can we, how can we help them use that energy in other ways? So I think dogs are happier when they have more information about how, how, like what they can do that the humans like.

Speaker 3 And positive reinforcement training uh gives that to them as a gift because what you're doing is we i like to use a marker a marker is is anything that like a pin something that pinpoints a moment in time a clicker is the most common marker that dog trainers use but you can use anything i often use a word like yes um sometimes with other species people use whistles you can snap your fingers but what you're doing is pinpointing a moment saying i like that you did that and now something good is going to happen and um you know what you can get get with a dog is kind of what I call like a goody two-shoes dog who's like walking around all day trying to be like, what is the thing that I need to do to

Speaker 3 get that sound and get the good stuff? Which doesn't have to be food. It could be anything your dog likes.

Speaker 3 But the sound, the marker, the clicker is the information and it's followed by something, something your dog likes.

Speaker 3 And I do think that dogs are happier when they're not just the victims of their surrounding.

Speaker 3 I also think dogs are happier when they're trained with positive reinforcement versus with punishment because it's a difference between like operating in a world where you're trying to figure out what's, what works and what's going to benefit you versus operating in a world where you're, you know, walking on landmines trying to figure out, you know, constantly worried that, you know, you're going to, you could do the wrong thing, but you're not sure what the wrong thing is.

Speaker 3 And unfortunately, I think that's the standard.

Speaker 1 Something I've wondered about and maybe felt a little guilty about, because I don't know the answer to this.

Speaker 1 And I've had, you know, dogs most of my life is that we hear dogs need exercise, but I don't really know how much, like how much is enough exercise for a dog? Because some people

Speaker 1 take their dog on a run every day. Other people

Speaker 1 take the dog down to the end of the driveway, turn around and come back.

Speaker 3 You know, it's really every dog is different. I was watching my best friend's dog this weekend and his dog is like a quarter the size of my dog.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 I would take his dog and my dog for a walk and my dog dog goes around the block one time. And she's like, I've had enough.
I need to go inside now. And his dog was like just getting started.

Speaker 3 And so I would like bring my dog home. And then his dog would like take me, you know, on like a two-mile odyssey,

Speaker 3 which is what she needed. You know, dogs are individuals, you know, even breeds of dogs.
You know, every cavapoo is not like every other cavapoo.

Speaker 3 You know,

Speaker 3 you want to make sure that you have a dog who gets enough exercise that they are not going stir crazy, that their health is okay, that their weight is okay. You know,

Speaker 3 it's definitely a health issue as much as a behavior issue. But if somebody is having a behavior issue, especially one that has to do with like active behaviors like barking, lunging,

Speaker 3 chewing,

Speaker 3 you know, as opposed to, you know, more sedentary behaviors that could be problematic, like, you know, separation, anxiety, maybe,

Speaker 3 you want, you want to make sure that your dog is is getting enough exercise, is getting enough like cardiovascular activity, and it's also like getting, it's also

Speaker 3 eating appropriately,

Speaker 3 and, you know, that you're sort of running a clean, healthy system because, you know, behavior is not separate from everything else. Behavior is like part of a continuum.

Speaker 1 Well, obviously there's a lot to this science of dog behavior and dog training, but any one last thing you want to mention that, that you really think people need to understand about

Speaker 1 why dogs do what they

Speaker 3 Again, I think thinking about the associations that your dog's making is so important. I really tell the story of the science of behavior over the last like century, century and a half.
And

Speaker 3 part of where it starts is with Pavlov. And most people kind of know the name Pavlov.
Does the name Pavlov ring a bell? Ha ha ha.

Speaker 3 What Pavlov did was he rang a bell or rang a buzzer actually and then gave his dogs food and buzzer food, buzzer food, buzzer food.

Speaker 3 Eventually the dogs just associated the buzzer with the food and the buzzer itself made them salivate.

Speaker 3 And I think it's an interesting, it's interesting to remember this experiment because nobody actually talks about what else the dogs were doing. Were they barking? Were they peeing?

Speaker 3 Were they sniffing each other? We don't really know. And it doesn't really matter because it was just about creating that association.

Speaker 3 And that association produced a behavior that wasn't happening before, right? The dogs were not born knowing about the buzzer,

Speaker 3 but because of that, you know, repeated association, it made them salivate.

Speaker 3 We can use that exact same kind of training, that classical conditioning, it's called, that, you know, to make those associations left and right with dogs in order to change their behavior.

Speaker 3 And it's not the kind of training that you think about that happens at dog training class. It's not

Speaker 3 sit down, come, leave it, drop it, stay.

Speaker 3 It's changing the feeling. And it can be, I think, an incredibly powerful brain.

Speaker 3 shift when you start thinking about how can I make associations that ultimately make my dog feel safe and good about the world that we're asking them to live in.

Speaker 3 And in the book, I call it like starting out with criterion zero.

Speaker 3 Just start out rewarding your dog for existing in the world that you're asking them to live in because we're asking a lot of them all the time. And before you start worrying about

Speaker 3 you know, is my dog sitting when someone comes to pet them? Think, is my dog feeling okay about the fact that someone's approaching?

Speaker 3 You know, start by like just assuming that every moment is something that your dog might not feel good about and start thinking, like, how can I make my dog feel good about that?

Speaker 3 Rather than worrying about, like, what behavior are they engaging in at that very moment? Because the behavior will follow.

Speaker 1 Well, this is great because I think when you have a dog, you know, you see the world through your human lens.

Speaker 1 And you sort of think the dog does too, but the dog has a whole different perspective on the world and what motivates and doesn't motivate them. And it's really good to dive into this.

Speaker 1 Annie Grossman has been my guest. She is a journalist, an animal trainer, and she is author of a book called How to Train Your Dog with Love and Science.

Speaker 1 She's also a host of the podcast, How to Train Your Dog with Love and Science. And there's a link to both the book and the podcast in the show notes.
Thank you, Annie. Thanks for explaining all this.

Speaker 3 All right. Thank you so much, Mike.

Speaker 1 Bad breath is something I think we all worry about from time to time, and there are some things about it worth knowing.

Speaker 1 First of all, there is a myth that bad breath originates in the stomach, but actually there isn't really any constant airflow between your stomach and your mouth.

Speaker 1 Bad breath is pretty much all in your mouth.

Speaker 1 A stuffy nose can cause bad breath because when a cold prevents you from breathing through your nose, you're forced to inhale and exhale through your mouth, which dries out the tissues, reduces the flow of saliva, and that's the mouth's built-in cleanser.

Speaker 1 The less saliva, the more bacteria, the more odor. Mouthwash containing alcohol is a problem.

Speaker 1 It promises to kill 100% of the germs in your mouth, but what they don't tell you is those germs repopulate in less than an hour, causing rebound bad breath.

Speaker 1 Some alcohol-free mouth rinses can be beneficial and the results last longer. Eating cheese or other dairy products can help neutralize acidity and cut down on bad breath.

Speaker 1 And the side effects of many drugs like anti-anxiety drugs, antidepressants, even allergy medications can produce dry mouth and hence bad breath. And that is something you should know.

Speaker 1 So do me a favor right now, right here while we're at the end of this episode. On whatever app you're listening on, there's going to be a share button on there.

Speaker 1 And just hit that share button and send this episode to someone you know that you think would enjoy it as much as you did. I'm Micah Ruthers.
Thanks for listening today to Something You Should Know.

Speaker 1 The Infinite Monkey Cage returns imminently. I am Robin Ins, and I've sat next to Brian Cox, who has so much to tell you about what's on the new series.
Primarily eels.

Speaker 2 And what else?

Speaker 1 It was fascinating, the eels. But we're not just doing eels, are we? We're doing a bit.

Speaker 1 Brain-computer interfaces, timekeeping, fusion, monkey business, cloud science of the North Pole, and eels. Did I mention the eels?

Speaker 1 Is this ever since you bought that timeshare underneath the Sagasso C? Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 5 Oh, the Regency era. You might know it as the time when Bridgerton takes place, or the time when Jane Austen wrote her books.

Speaker 5 But the Regency era was also an explosive time of social change, sex scandals, and maybe the worst king in British history.

Speaker 5 And on the Vulgar History podcast, we're going to be looking at the balls, the gowns, and all the scandal of the Regency era.

Speaker 5 Vulgar History is a women's history podcast, and our Regency Era series will be be focusing on the most rebellious women of this time.

Speaker 5 That includes Jane Austen herself, who is maybe more radical than you might have thought.

Speaker 5 We'll also be talking about queer icons like Anne Lister, scientists like Mary Anning and Ada Lovelace, as well as other scandalous actresses, royal mistresses, rebellious pr