A Guide to the Technology You Need for Training

There's no doubt that separation anxiety training has a technical side to it and that's a good

thing but I know it can also seem overwhelming and also costly.

So in today's episode I want to talk to you about why tech is so important in separation

anxiety training, heck what do I even mean by tech and what are your options, quick easy

cheap ways to get started.

Hello and welcome to the Be Right Back separation anxiety podcast.

Hi I'm Julie Naismith, dog trainer, author and full on separation anxiety geek.

I've helped thousands of dogs overcome separation anxiety with my books, my online programs,

my trainer certification and my separation anxiety training app.

And this podcast is all about sharing my tips and tricks to help you teach your dog how

to be happy at home alone too.

So 10 years is a long time in technology isn't it?

Can you think back to 10 years ago?

Lots of us still had iPods, remember iPods?

Doesn't that seem like something from the distant, not even the distant past but like

from a lifetime before.

So we had iPods, iPhones had sort of come out but some people had them, some people

didn't.

Facebook was like maybe a couple of years old, Instagram hadn't started, heck it was

just such a different world.

So tech evolved, it evolved so quickly, we know that.

When I first started trying to get my dog Percy over separation anxiety we had, oh such

awful awful experiences with tech, fun and games.

Actually I say we, my husband will be listening to this going it wasn't we, it was me darling.

It was definitely trying.

What we were attempting to do was we were trying to see how Percy was when we left,

when we did the departure training and of course the only way we can do that, you know

that now, is to have a camera on him and it seems really obvious now, we've all got cameras

on our phones, we've got cameras on computers, tiny tiny little lenses that produce amazing

pictures and videos but even 10 years ago things were very different.

We decided that a webcam was the absolute best approach and it's kind of hard to describe

why it was so difficult because now you plug in a webcam and the next minute the app is

on your phone and you're looking at your dog.

But 10 years ago the problem that we had was looking at a webcam in our house while we

were out.

It was really difficult to find the technology that allowed that, it just wasn't as prevalent.

Not only was it not prevalent, it was really expensive so we did have to invest in kit

that now I look at it and think, in fact I saw it the other day as we were doing a big

clear out and that's what prompted this episode because I found this gigantic camera, we called

it Percy Cam, doesn't everybody call their camera after they had a hug?

We called it Percy Cam and it's this gigantic thing and I look at it now and remember how

expensive it was but also not just how expensive it was but how unreliable it was.

The picture was kind of meh, it was okay, it was a bit like those, you know when you

watch those crime shows or those investigation real life true story things and they bring

up CCTV picture from about 20 years ago, it was a bit like that, it was grainy and you

could sort of make out a dog and it was crackly and then the picture would go so it was unreliable.

It was really low tech compared to what we've got now and it was expensive but it did help

so we did persevere with it or rather my husband would say I persevered with it, what do you

mean you didn't persevere?

And it does change separation anxiety training because once upon a time before we had the

ability to watch dogs, we would either record them, so that was the precursor to watching

dogs live, we'd record the session and then watch it back which is terrible because we

need to know how the dog is in that moment, not afterwards, so we'd either record the

dog or we'd do crazy stuff like try and you know peek through letterboxes or look through

the window without the dog seeing us or we would just wait until the dog reacted and

actually the latter is the worst, worst way of training and you still hear some people

say that now, you know that whole thing about you go out and you come back, you go out and

you come back.

Lots of trainers will still say you go out until the dog reacts, until the dog starts

to get close to being anxious and then you come back.

The problem with doing that is your dog is always on the edge, so you're training right

up to the edge of your dog's threshold, your dog isn't learning that being home alone is

okay, it's learning that it's a bit of a white knuckle ride actually, so tech has been a

game changer for separation anxiety training, that's why I'm so passionate about it and

in 2020 we are so lucky with the options that we've got, I can't believe the difference

in prices, I mean it's true isn't it, you look at the laptops that you buy now compared

to the ones you bought 10 years ago and there is no comparison in terms of power and speed

and so on and the same has happened with webcams, they're more reliable, they're more readily

available and the big difference is it's much, much easier to watch your, to look at your

app and see your dog on it, it's kind of really complicated as to why you couldn't do that

10 years ago but I wouldn't even bother going there but now we can do that easily, however

I know it's still an investment and I know it's still a bit of a hassle so let's talk

through some of your easier and cheaper options to get you started. The very first thing and

actually we did this while we were trying to play around with PercyCam but the very

first thing you can think about doing is you can think about doing a video call to yourself

so you only need two operating devices for this, so if there's two of you in the household

and you've both got smartphones or if it's just you and you've got a smartphone and a

laptop or a tablet and a phone that's all you need, you just need two active devices

with cameras on and as it sounds video call, you are going to video call yourself so you

could use FaceTime, you could use Zoom, you could use Skype, you could use any number

of the new video conferencing software and apps that have come out in 2020 because there

are a ton of them now and you're going to do a call, you've got you number one and you

number two, two different devices, call the two devices, one of those devices is going

to be focused on your dog, the other one's going to be in your hand and you're going

to be able to see your dog as a participant essentially, your home alone dog is participating

in this Zoom call and you're looking at your screen as you as a participant in the conference

as you go out of the door. So that's the number one easiest way to get started, you

just need two active devices and a free video conferencing app and you are good to go.

The second option is if you've got, sometimes this is the case right, we've got that device

in the back of the drawer that we kept meaning to take to recycle because we know we shouldn't

put old phones in the bin but we've never got around to it, if you can get a charge

in that phone, you can use an app such as a nanny cam type app or a baby monitor type

app or a dog monitor type app, there's plenty of them on the Apple Store or on the Play

Store, just Google nanny app, dog monitor app, a lot of them are free up to a certain

limit on functionality but they'll certainly get you started. The great thing about having

an old device, the device you kept meaning to recycle but now it's coming really handy

is you can keep it set up and I really like that, I like having a device that's ready

to go when you need it rather than a device that requires a bit of effort so maybe it's

you and your partner and you have to ask your partner for her phone and she's using it and

it's like blah blah blah but if you've got an old device that you just fire up, it charges,

you can connect it to your Wi-Fi, you are good to go. Check out the apps, lots of them,

I won't go through a list and some of them are free, some of them are paid but even the

paid ones are not incredibly expensive so that's definitely a good option for getting

started quickly. And the third option and I love this option because it is the simplest of all

is to have a dedicated camera, is to go and buy a webcam. You'll see them called webcams,

security cams, net cams, there's lots of different names for them but it's a dedicated camera

that's going to connect into an app of some sort. It could be the camera device's own app

or it could just link straight into your laptop. Those are my preferred options because you can

just leave it and forget about it and we know that with separation anxiety training, with any

difficult change and separation anxiety training is like losing weight or getting fit, it's hard

work, you have to do it often and there's lots of excuses. So what I love about having a camera

set up is that's one less excuse. The great news is you can get these for a fraction,

about a tenth of the price of what we were paying 10 years ago. So no they're not cheap,

they're still you know 20 to 30 US dollars, maybe 20 or so pounds but they are great

kit. They work, they're reliable, the picture's good and you have always got them ready to go.

So those are kind of my three favorite options. The first one, video call. As long as you've got

two devices you could be doing that immediately. The second one, get an old device and set it up

as a camera, as a surveillance camera, as a nanny cam, dog cam. Third option, go and buy a dedicated

camera. Obviously the first two are your cheapest, the third one is the easiest because once you're

up and running with that you're good to go. But whatever you decide to do, do really think about

technology. It's almost impossible, no it is impossible to do separation anxiety training

correctly without being able to look at your dog when you go out. I'd almost say don't start it

until you've got the tech set up. Okay so if you've got any more questions about this,

I highly recommend that you jump into my free Facebook group because this question of cameras

and tech comes up all the time. And if you want to find out a specific model of camera

for the country that you're in, jump into the search bar, type your country, type camera

and you'll find a gazillion threads pop up with recommendations. Other than that, crack on with

the training. You have got this. There is hope for getting your dog to be comfortable home alone

and I'm going to be with you every step of the way. All right, that's it from me.

I'll catch you online soon.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Be Right Back Separation Anxiety Podcast.

If you want to find out more about how I can help you further, head over to julienaysmith.com.

Meanwhile, if you enjoyed listening today, I would love it if you would head over

to wherever you listen to your podcasts and consider rating my show.

Thanks so much. Good luck with that training and bye for now.