Consultation Files: “My Dog Bit Someone Out of Nowhere” — Now What?

00:00

Oh my God, I've never seen him do that before. Have you ever found yourself saying this <laugh>? If you're one of those unfortunate folks that had a great dog or has a great dog and then all of a sudden one day they bite somebody or you're told they bit somebody, it can be devastating, horrifying, stressful, it can leave you confused and just not sure what to do. So if you're one of those folks, this episode's for you or lemme take it a step further if you're not one of those folks yet. This episode is also for you.

So that makes it for everybody. Take a listen. Welcome to Off Leash and Unfiltered Trigger Warning. I'm Kati Peppe Delivering the Truth in Dog Training.

01:00 — Kati introduces Diamond Canine Dog Training and its e-collar obedience and behavior-modification work.

Welcome to another episode of Off Leash and Unfiltered. I am Kati Peppe, owner of Diamond Canine Dog training in Biddeford, Maine and we specialize in eco training both for off-leash obedience and behavior modification. So helping people stop all those unwanted behaviors like jumping, barking, pulling on the leash and more serious things like resource guarding, separation issues, uh, any of that stuff. Leash reactivity and we love, love, love doing in-depth state of mind, work with anxious dogs, fearful dogs and things of that nature. We also do puppy training. So that's who we are and what we do.

And this podcast is our way of sharing everything we see, say, learn and talk about every day with you guys and hopefully you get something out of it, uh, that helps you with your own dog at home. I just got off the phone, uh, with a wonderful woman with a dog that she has had for many years. Dog is nearly a decade old, it's nine years old and she thought things were going swimmingly except that she went away for a week and her dog bit the sitter.

And I thought, jeez, I hear things like this a lot and it's, you know, it's not always when the person goes away and it's someone who's like intimately involved in the dog's life, like having to take care of them and being in their house. Sometimes it's much simpler than that and it's just somebody that came for a visit or somebody on a walk or you know, whatever. But it doesn't matter the context. The I, you know, the thing is people think they have a friendly dog and then it bites somebody and it's really confusing and upsetting and they wanna make sure, hopefully, um, that you know, they're a responsible dog owner and that they do everything in their power to make sure nothing like that happens again.

And not everybody does that. Some people are terrible, they just blame the other people and they take no accountability.

Um, and those aren't our customers. <laugh> obviously <laugh> 'cause nothing's their fault and so we can't really help them, uh, with their dog because you know, everything was just the other person's fault. So, but you know, this woman didn't have that perspective at all. She was fantastic and I, you know, I kind of wish that our consultation had been recorded 'cause I think there was so many valuable things that we talked about and it was such a great discussion, um, that I would love to be able to share that with you guys. But unfortunately I did not record it.

That's not generally my standard practice right now, but maybe I will change that in the future so with their permission can air some of that conversation. Um, or even if I just aired my own side of the conversation, I think it would still be very uh, helpful and informational for a lot of folks.

But anyway, he bit someone, right? And so I find I get these a lot. So, and another example, you know, I had a customer with, I'm trying to remember what the breed of dog with it was some kind of doodle, I think it was like sheep dog poodle or something like that. But I don't quote me on that and I can't remember exactly, but the dog was a very like, fun and you know, quote unquote happy type of dog. Seemed somewhat social. Um, I would say very social, right? But it didn't seem that way to me, but I'm sure the owners thought so.

But it's a very cute looking dog, right? Looks like a teddy bear. Uh, very happy running around. Tail wagon likes to chase the ball, you know, dog stuff like dogs do. And one day she was allowed somebody to say hi to the dog, which this is why we don't do this. And the dog snapped. I don't think they actually made contact but the dog snapped at the person. Um, and people just this horrifying. And so I think this is such a great topic because rather you're someone that this has happened to. Um, obviously this is gonna be valuable information possibly for you, but even if this has never happened to you, right?

05:00 — A dog snapped at a stranger, illustrating why random greetings can create unsafe interactions.

Maybe it just hasn't happened yet.

Maybe it hasn't happened yet. Because one of my favorite lines, <laugh>, that we hear people say in this field in dog training when we're talking to people is I've never seen him or her do that before. This is the first time I've never seen that before. But the fact is, it just doesn't matter, right? So you can make behavior somewhat predictable, but it's never a hundred percent predictable. And if we're not talking about behavior that we have intentionally developed, then we're just talking about behavior that your dog naturally exhibit. And that can change any time.

You cannot assume that because you haven't seen it yet, you're not going to. That's just stupid, right? Because if that was the case, we would never see anything, right? There's a first time for counter surfing. There's a first time for jumping up on people. There's a first time for getting in the garbage. There's a first time for barking at someone coming in the door. These things don't usually start from birth, they just pop up.

And unfortunately most of us assign the best possible persona to our dog because we see the version of them that they give us day in and day out, which is often a lot different than what they might give to somebody else who doesn't have that same relationship with them. So I would urge you, even if you haven't found yourself in this position, to listen to this episode and think about it and maybe maybe approach some at least social situations a little bit more cautiously, right? I'm not saying <laugh>, I'm not saying that you need to assume your dog is dangerous, they're gonna draw blood, that they're gonna turn into Cujo someday, nothing like that.

Um, but there are smart decisions and then there are not so smart decisions and there are things that we might just not be aware of that we might just become aware of and that might impact our decision making.

So some good stuff here. I think so her dog bit, somebody, alright, so when this happens to you, it's like okay, you know, maybe you've only had the dog for a few months, maybe you've had them for years and suddenly this falls in your lap. So we can say, okay, well maybe something changed, right? Maybe something happened that sort of was a catalyst for this behavior change. Um, and in this case, I mean her dog is uncomfortable, he's had uh, blown ccls and is on medication and you know, maybe, maybe that's part of it. You know, so maybe something changed, you know, maybe there was a death in the family, maybe they moved, maybe you've added dogs to the pack.

Who knows.

Okay. Or the other possibility. One other possibility is maybe we just never noticed it before. 'cause this is super common guys. So whether anything's changed or not, it's very, very possible that your dog has been saying this right along. They've just never said it with their teeth until now. So a lot of times there's subtle signs that the dog A, isn't interested in the person B is uncomfortable with the person. Um, or C is actively telling the person, I don't want you near me, I don't want you to touch me, I don't wanna interact with you.

09:00 — Subtle discomfort signals often precede a bite, but people notice only the dog’s final…

Um, but you know, because they're not saying it with their teeth, we don't notice it, right? Unless we're adept at like dog body language and, and subtle cues, we don't notice it. Most people do not notice it. And so that is why you hear so frequently that it came out of nowhere or that it was sudden or that the dog turned or snapped. And usually, almost always, this is not true, no Georgie down, it's gotta address this. I have Georgie doing a long down

There, she's back down. Good. So that's super, super, super common. So common. So the good news is rather something changed or we just never noticed that our dog was heading down this road. The way we approach it is really just kind of the same. Like it doesn't matter, it doesn't really matter why, right? So I recently did an episode on the root cause of your dog's behavior and it just doesn't really matter either way. The solution is the same. Uh, we need to disagree obviously with those types of behaviors and get our dogs into a different head space where they know that we are very relevant as their owner and their handler and that they have to have that same level of respect.

Um, for other handlers. If we're gonna have other people handling them, uh, we need them to know that they're in a follower position, right? That when we're at home, it's not their house, it's our house.

So dogs easily get into a head space where, this is my castle and these are all of my things, right? Not all dogs, but a lot of dogs <laugh>. So we gotta get the dog into a different head space. And so some of the things that I was describing to her about how we do that are number one, first thing outta my mouth is restricting freedom. So 99% of people obviously when we meet them, are letting their dogs just free roam around the house, free roam around the yard, right? They kind of go where they want, they lay where they want.

And maybe that's fine if your dog's fine, right? But what if your dog's not fine and you just think they're fine? Then you get something like this <laugh> that's happening, right? So restricting freedom is a big one and that doesn't necessarily mean restricting all of their freedom or restricting it forever, but maybe we should practice that for a little while. So we know our dog is in the best level headed space possible, that we know our dog understands the dynamic and understands that I'm the one calling the shot and that this isn't their house. Maybe we should do this for a little while, right?

So that would be smart. Restricting freedom by using a crate. Number one. And usually like, what we'd like to see at a minimum is overnight when you're sleeping and when you're gone.

And at least sometimes for chunks of time during the day, even when you're home, because it's not just about safety. It again, it's about the head space the dog is in. It's about you controlling space, you making the decisions, you enforcing boundaries. And the crate gives you a really nice easy way to do that. Now. And also your dog might have behaviors when you're gone, right? And if they're just rehearsing those, then they're staying in that autonomous head space where they just do what they want. Okay? And if you have a dog with the proclivity toward biting, you don't want them in the head space.

13:00 — Crating prevents rehearsal, while place work teaches the dog to remain accountable within an…

If they do what they want, that's not a good head space for a biting dog to be in <laugh>. Okay?

So using that crate and also when you're home and you put them in the crate, you're developing coping skills and you're sending a message that says, Hey, sometimes I'm gonna be out here. You're gonna be in there. You can't follow me around the house, you can't follow me to the toilet. I'm sorry. Like you're gonna be inconvenienced for a little bit and you're just gonna have to deal with that, right? So they build some coping skills and they learn that they're actually not self-governing, okay? You are making the decisions, not them. So it's not to be mean, but it is to help them develop coping skills and to learn how to accept instruction direction and boundaries and to deal with being inconvenienced and to just see you actually making the decisions around here.

It's really, really helpful for your dog. See that and have that interpretation of you as their owner.

Uh, so crate and place, if your dog has a good place command, of course you have to hold them accountable for it. Then you can also use place a lot too, right? So they don't necessarily have to be in the kennel. Then you can use place sometimes where your dog has to stay on their bed. Um, and that's actually better in a way. Um, as long as you're there to address mistakes because your dog has to respect that place boundary and they have to choose to respect it because they know you require it, right? So that's actually a little bit harder than just putting 'em in the kennel and shutting the door.

'cause they, they can't get outta the kennel. They know they can't get outta the kennel. Um, which is fine and I still like the kennel, right? But when you put them on place, it's something a little different.

It's, she told me to go here and even though it's physically open and I'm not being managed or restrained in any way, I still cannot choose to get up. So you can see how that's a slightly more powerful conversation with the dog, okay? Tangible consequences for not listening. So again, as a side note, you have to go through the training process. You cannot just assume that if you punish your dog for not listening, that they'll just do it, right? They do have to understand how to do it. You gotta go through the process and they have to understand how to respond to the correction when you supply a correction, right?

So proper training is key here guys. But that tangible consequence piece for not listening to you, man, that's the magic of our program, isn't it? That just changes everything. Total game changer. Because again, 99.9% of people, and it's actually probably a hundred <laugh>, you know, I just don't like to use that 100.

Um, when we meet them, sure they might follow through if they ask their dog to do, do something. We do meet people that are committed enough that they're already following through and they're getting that behavior from their dog. But there still isn't a negative consequence for not having done it the first time they were asked. Nobody is doing that when we meet them, okay? So when you think about what I've said so far, you've got a dog that's autonomous in the home, right? They go where they want, they do what they want. They often have toys scattered about, they're barking out the window at every animal person car, right?

17:00 — An autonomous dog may claim the home, possessions, and decisions as its own.

And these are the things that she described to me that's happening <laugh> with their dog, right? So you have an autonomous dog that owns everything, is self-governing, interprets everything as his, and you know, he does what he wants. He feels how he wants, he goes where he wants. Um, and he's just free, right? And if she asks him to do something, he doesn't always do it. And that's just that, right? And if she, if it's important to her, she'll get 'em to do it. But there's no consequence for it. There's no consequence for not listening to her.

And that's normal in most households when, like I said, when we meet people, they're not doing that. And most people don't know how. And that's what we're here for guys, is to help you with that and show you how, um, tangible consequences as well for bad behavior. So like the barking out the window I just talked about, in, in most cases, we're gonna tell you to probably address that, especially if it bothers you. But especially in a case where we're having a dog decide he can put his teeth on people, there's not gonna be any more barking out the window, add anything.

There's no barking out the window, there's no reacting to someone coming up the driveway or coming through my door or knocking on the door. You're not allowed to charge the door. You're not allowed to bark like crazy. You're not allowed to bark out the window and look for intruders and trespassers and all this business.

It is not your place. Don't do that. Right? So consequences for not listening to commands that your dog knows, but also consequences to knock out those kinds of behaviors. Now, I'm not just saying supply a consequence so that you can have that conversation with the dog. I'm not just saying that we wanna provide a negative consequence every time your dog barks, right? So that they know and we're telling them every day, no, no, no, I want you to actually get rid of those bad behaviors. So yes, the conversation itself is valuable. Your dog seeing, oh, I guess she actually has something to say about this.

Yeah, that's valuable, but getting rid of that behavior is even more valuable, right? Because now your dog knows you're a relevant party with feedback about the situation. You disagree with it, but you're also eliminating the behavior. So your dog is going to learn a new way to exist without doing that stuff, which is going to start to really shift that mindset more.

You take a dog who's totally free roaming, free governing, who just barks out the window at everybody and you take away that barking piece, not by managing it, but by actually eliminating it with a proper negative consequence. And now you have a dog that goes, huh, well I guess I'll just lay down, right? Or I guess I'll just hang out or do whatever you're telling them to do and it's no longer I have to protect my palace, right? So your dog can't really, and I use the word full very loosely here 'cause it's a dog, not a person.

Your dog can't really feel protective and not be protective. So that's what people have to understand. Everyone wants to go to the root cause, right? Like we talked about in that previous episode. It, it can actually happen the other way around. And that's how it usually happens with our, our training programs, right? So we change the behavior and then the feeling changes after.

So you take away that protective behavior that they're exhibiting or whatever you wanna call it. Possessive is a better word. And the dog will start to feel less possessive because, because they can't be possessive. So magic really starts to happen there, right? And then we talked about the coping skills with being in the crate, not being able to follow you. Um, I, I don't, with dogs that are exhibiting, you know, really any kind of like biting behavior, but especially dogs that tend to be possessive, that are guarding things or are territorial. Those aren't dogs where we wanna have toys scattered all over the house, bones scattered all over the house, even if they haven't had a problem with the toys or the bones, right?

21:00 — Possessive dogs should not have toys, bones, or food freely scattered throughout the house.

Because you're missing the point if that's what you're thinking. It's like, yeah, but your dog, you know, he guards his dinner or he guards his bed or he guards the house from everyone outside, right? So he's in the mindset of everything, his mind. So let's not take his toys, right? And scatter them all over the house. And let's not do free feeding either where he always has food available and he can come and go as he pleases, um, and eat whenever he wants to eat, right at his leisure. It's up to him. Everything's up to him and his things are all over the place.

You can see how we're kind to setting our dog up for this mindset where they are the king and everything is theirs.

So you can't allow certain things when you have a dog that has decided to use their teeth on people. And some of those things that I would look for, we mentioned, um, we mentioned door charging, right? Barking out the window, growling in any context, really aside from play, if you think it's a play when you're playing with your dog, that's hard fixation, right? So they can look around, right? But if they're staring at somebody, especially with big eyes, that's probably no good. I would not allow that, right? So having those conversations with your dog, hey, you can't stare at people hard like that.

You can't track them with your eyes. You can't growl, you can't charge the door, you can't bark at them out the window. You're telling your dog, no, no, no, no, no, no, you are confused my dear <laugh>, this is not your job.

I will let you know. Okay, someone comes in here to burglarize me, I will let you know <laugh>, because I'll probably be screaming, right? Your dog will know that's not a normal encounter. 'cause I get that question a lot. Well, what if someone does break in? It's like, well first of all, what are the chances of that? Right? It's not gonna be the burglar that gets it, it's gonna be like the UPS guy, the mailman. So just know. But usually if you actually have a violent encounter like that, you have someone actually breaking into your home against your will, it's going to look a lot different.

And your dog's instincts are probably still gonna take over. If their instinct is to be protective, to be possessive, to guard the home, to guard you. Like, that's probably gonna happen even despite your training. Unless you practice that scenario where you have someone break in all like dressed in black with a knife, um, and you tell your dog, no, don't attack that person.

Um, you're probably still gonna get it, right? But who knows? Anyway, I always tell people, look, if you've got a dog that's causing some issues here in your real day-to-day life, that's what you need to focus on. Stop worrying about the one in a million chance that someone's actually gonna break into your house <laugh>. But just know that, that, that scenario would look different and you probably would still get that behavior from your dog. Um, anyway, moving on. Um, so all this stuff is very, very helpful to get your dog into a different head space where you are more relevant.

You are a decision maker, you're a leader. Your dog knows you are calling the shots, right? So it just gets them, it knocks 'em down a peg, really, if I am to be honest. And you know, sometimes they just get too big for their britches because we, you know, we spoil them and we love our dogs and we're super affectionate and soft all the time.

25:00 — Unlimited affection and freedom can make dogs overconfident and less responsive to household boundaries.

And they roam around, they do what they want and we just wanna see 'em happy. And then one day they bite someone and we're like, shit, where did I go wrong? Well, <laugh> things have been going off the rails for a while and you just didn't notice it until now. Uh, and hopefully you're a responsible dog owner and you're just gonna make some changes, right? So what you wanna know, if you, you do all this stuff, yeah, sure it's gonna help, but you know, ultimately your dog isn't necessarily going to generalize this over to other people.

So sometimes, especially when people aren't real familiar with dog training or they just, they don't know a lot about dogs, they don't know a lot about behavior. They think there's something we can do to change the dog. And so then they just won't make this mistake again. And that's not really how it works.

Yes, we can inhibit behaviors, right? But ultimately your dog is very smart. They know when the sheriff's in town, they know when they're not. So if you do all this stuff and you're getting great stuff from your dog, that's wonderful. But then if you put someone else in charge of your dog and you leave them in the care of somebody else and you are not around, well that's a whole other ball game folks, which was this lady situation. She had someone sitting her dog. Uh, so in that scenario it might stick, right? But chances are, even if it does stick at first and your dog gives them good stuff at first, they're gonna start to get more comfortable with this person.

And they're gonna see that this person does things a little bit differently than you. They're gonna see that this person doesn't really care when they jump on them or doesn't provide a consequence when they break their place command or doesn't tell them to stop it if they do decide to bark, right? So they're gonna be getting extra freedom, maybe extra affection, there's gonna be less accountability where there would've been accountability before. And then all that old stuff is potentially gonna start to regenerate.

Um, and in this case it resulted in the dog biting the person and then chasing them up onto a bed <laugh>. So yeah, he actually went all out. And probably the only reason that that worked is because this dog has some pretty bad back legs and probably can't get up on the bed, um, without it being really uncomfortable. So it won't necessarily generalize over to other people. So that's something that's really important to talk about because this might give you a lot more control in your house or over your dog if you take your dog places, but it won't make your dog necessarily safe with another handler.

Um, and people are unpredictable too. So you never know what stupid things people are gonna do. I mean, you really just don't, people think they're dog people. And usually the way you know someone's not good with dogs is that they say they're good with dogs, right? And they wanna get down on the floor and get right in their face and make out with 'em and make friends and they're baby talking to 'em and they're trying to touch 'em. And it's just shit guys. 'cause that, that is just not how you meet a dog.

Now I'm not saying getting down on the floor is necessarily a bad thing, but depending on what you are seeing, it fricking might be. Um, and touching the dog might not be a bad thing, but depending on what you're seeing, it might be. And most people just don't know what they are seeing. They cannot distinguish a dog that wants it from a dog that doesn't, they cannot distinguish a safe dog from an unsafe dog. A comfortable dog from an uncomfortable dog. So lots of times people will come in here with a dog and the dog isn't looking at me 'cause I don't pay any attention to the dog.

29:00 — People who approach dogs in the face or demand attention can create unnecessary pressure.

I'm talking to the people and they bring the dog in and the dog is, you know, meandering around on the leash, looking at other things, sniffing other things, and they wanna know why I am not paying attention to the dog.

The dog doesn't want me to, the dog has zero fucking interest in me. They are busy checking out other things that isn't a dog that's saying, oh, please pet me. Granted the dog's not doing anything bad. They're not growling at me. Okay, <affirmative>, but they're not doing the very soft wiggle and sort of excited submissive eyes that a really social happy go lucky dog that wants me to touch them would do a dog that approaches me with a very soft body language and a very soft wiggle and a soft tail. And a soft face. Yeah, but most dogs actually don't do that.

So a dog, first of all, just because they approach someone does not mean they wanna be touched. So even in that scenario I just described, if the dog did approach me, I still am not going to touch that dog necessarily.

A dog that just comes over to smell me, just wants to smell me. And here's the problem. You can train your dog until you're blue in the face, but you cannot train the rest of the world. You cannot train all of the people, you just can't. And there is no way that the general public is ever gonna know the things that I'm talking to you today about. They just don't. So if you let your dog go sniff somebody, that person is going to put their hand handout. That's why you shouldn't fucking do that. Pardon my English.

I get pretty animated <laugh> when I talk about some of this stuff just because I've seen it play out so many times and I've heard the stories so many times people think the way to get their dog over discomfort is to let them meet more people.

And it gets worse. It gets worse because we're putting the dog in a situation again where they're autonomous, they're self-governing, they're making their own decisions, they're not comfortable. And then the human does the normal human thing to do and put their hand out and the dog says, what the hell you doing? And they bite, right? Or they try to bite. And then everyone's aghast. Oh my God, I'm so sorry. I've never seen him do that before. Um, it's just normal guys. So I'm not saying that your dog doesn't have any issues, I'm just saying dogs bite man, dogs bite.

Especially dogs that are put in uncomfortable situations with people doing uncomfortable things to them, like sticking their hand out over their head and staring into their eyes. Especially dogs that are fully autonomous all day every day, running around totally free, making their own choices. Lots of treats, lots of affection, but no rules, no boundaries, no consequences for anything.

33:00 — Dogs placed in uncomfortable situations may bite, especially when owners provide no meaningful consequences…

So if you don't incorporate any negative consequences into your dog's life, and I mean real consequences, punishment, you know, whether it's for not listening or for doing bad behaviors, if you don't incorporate that into the relationship where appropriate, of course you will see the worst version of your dog. I promise you. There is no other way for that to play out. And your dog might be very good and it just never really matters. But not everyone's that lucky. I would argue most people aren't that lucky. Um, doesn't always end in a biting dog, but it always ends in some kind of problem.

You will see the worst version of your dog.

So if you plan on having someone else walk your dog, sit your dog while you're away, any of this stuff, this is a person that needs to understand dogs, or at the very least they need to know what you do with your dog and that you expect them to do the same. And I'm not saying let's say you do like a thorough eco program with your dog, which is like what we would love to see everybody do when they're in a situation like this, right? Because that's just optimal. Um, I'm not saying that they have to be an eco or expert and that they have to do everything perfectly exactly the way you would, but at a minimum, they should be holding the dog accountable for any bad behaviors like window barking.

They should know how to do that. And if they're going to be giving the dog commands, they should understand what those commands mean and that they need to hold the dog accountable for that as well, right?

So let's say you just want them to use the place command and not allow, you know, barking, jumping. You need to show them how to do that. They need to know how to hold your dog accountable. They need to know what your rules are and they need to be willing to enforce them at least the important ones, right? And if some of the other little things have backed little, little while you are gone, no big deal, right? But if, if you just let 'em run amuck with the other person, they're going to learn that. And those bad behaviors may very well regenerate while you're away because they go, oh, this is a different ball game, right?

So this dog chased this girl like across the house or whatever, into another room, up on the bed.

Um, and I don't know, I don't know what the whole setup there was, but he chased her anyway. That's what she says. And I believe it, right? Because it's a dog that's just very much in that mindset of this is my palace lady and you're clearly a a doormat. So I am going to assert myself, right? And that's all that was. And that's just natural dog behavior. Guys, I know it's not pleasant, but dogs are not teddy bears. So they'll just do this stuff and it doesn't make 'em good or bad. It just makes, makes 'em a dog.

And she asked me, you know, you wouldn't consider this aggressive, would you? He's not an aggressive dog. And I said, all dogs are aggressive. Aggressive isn't an on off black, white, yes. No thing. It's a spectrum in a sense, right? So I I think dogs fall on a spectrum, right? 'cause some dogs are, uh, highly likely to do an aggressive behavior. They do it faster, they do it more intense, right? Other dogs are much less likely, right? So your dog falls somewhere on that spectrum. Some dogs, it's very, very difficult to get, to get them to bite, right?

You'd have to, um, you'd have to make them actually fear for their life, um, and be causing pain or who knows, right? To get them to bite,

Right? They just won't do it unless their lifelike depends on it or they feel that way. And then other dogs are very quick to bite. So you could say the dog exists somewhere on that spectrum. Um, but no matter where they are on that spectrum, it can just happen. That's just how behavior works. New things just happen. The brain takes new routes, tries something different. So nothing really surprises me anymore. So yeah, when someone else is gonna be handling your dog, it's important for them to know what are the key things that I need to watch, that I need to enforce, and how do I do that?

38:00 — Use a crate during daily routines and establish clear expectations for anyone handling the…

Um, because if they don't know that, then you're setting them up for failure, right? And we obviously, if we're talking about biting dogs, we don't want someone to get hurt.

And as you move through your day-to-day life, I highly recommend a crate in situations where you're not confident. So a lot of folk, uh, like to put their dog on a leash, that's way better than loose. But it's still not my favorite. And I'll tell you why, um, is because what I see play out over and over and over again is people will put their dog on a leash because they don't completely trust their dog. And they know the dog can be a little unsure because he's either, uh, exhibited that before or maybe he's let out a little growl before, you know, or maybe he's even bit somebody.

And so they put the dog on a leash. But what, what do they do next? Well, I'll tell you what they do next. They cautiously allow the dog to approach a person. And we all we're doing in that situation is we're putting the dog on a leash and we're putting him in a position again to make all the decisions and to feel all the feelings with no real instruction, no clear path to walk. We're saying just have at it buddy. And we're just letting things play out and we're just a spectator and we're just watching and we're biting our nails and we're waiting to see if something happens.

Does that sound smart to you? Because that's what people do. And I see it and I see it here. They let their dogs approach us, which by the way, is a no-no, until we know your dog very well, your dog is not allowed to approach us unless we say so.

Um, so it's putting the dog in a bad position and we're just spectating. And then if some, we think something's gonna happen or something does happen, we just yank the dog away, right? But first of all, what if you're too late? What if things do go sideways? And what if you're too late? It's not a good scenario to find yourself in. And that's why I don't like the leash. If you're gonna use the leash to tell your dog to sit their ass down next to you and mind their business, great, do that. Right? But just so you have a means of yanking them away, if something goes wrong, that is the incorrect use of your leash, my friend.

So until you have control of your dog's brain between their ears and the choices they are making, and you can give them clear instruction and have them follow it, which usually is mind your business, you don't need to go say hi to people we already know you don't like to. That makes you uncomfortable. So why are we doing that? By the way, the reason most dogs are doing that is so that they can go assess the threat because people find that confusing. Like, why is my dog running up to people and then biting them or threatening them?

Your dog is running up to people because number one, they just don't know what else to do. They're aroused and they're often assessing the threat.

And I can tell you, most of the time your dog isn't gonna walk away. Like even after they go and they sniff the person, they're not gonna get enough out of that interaction, that little sniffing moment to decide that person's just totally fine, right? I'm not saying they're gonna go sniff the person and then attack 'em necessarily. They might, right? But there's no way they're gonna come outta that with, oh yeah, this person's totally fine, right? So they're still gonna be on edge, but that's usually why I think they're doing that is, is they're threat assessing, right?

42:00 — Dogs often rush toward people to assess perceived threats, not because they want friendly…

And my dog will do that if I let him. He will run up to people, he may even press himself into them to get affection, but then he'll look up and see that they're making eye contact and he'll have a freak out.

And I know that because I saw it a long, long time ago, uh, which was actually fairly early in my dog training career. But anyway, putting a leash on your dog, letting them approach someone and hoping for the best is a really shitty plan. And unfortunately, that's what a lot of people are doing, and I totally get that that's what they're doing because they don't know what else to do. But I'm here to tell you that that is trouble waiting to happen. And that you are better off keeping your dog with you by your side and telling them no, you don't need to go say hi and telling the human no.

You don't need to say hi. Don't touch my dog. And if you don't wanna do those things, then for the love of God, just put your dog in a, in a crate, right? So this is mostly for people coming into your house. Obviously if you're taking your dog out into the world, the crate is not an option, right? But that's when it becomes really important that your dog just nevermind people. Just nevermind them.

That's what we teach. You don't need to worry about the environment. You don't need to worry about people coming and making out with you. I'm not gonna allow it. However, you're gonna listen to me, you're gonna do the things I ask you to do. You're not gonna growl at people. You're certainly not gonna lunge at people or snap at people. That will be a bad day for you if you do that right? And we're gonna go out and we're just gonna have a good time and it's gonna be you and me and you're not here for everyone else's entertainment.

So we don't have to have a love fest with strangers, right? And a lot of people really wanna do that. And I just don't get it because it's not for the dog. We already know the dog doesn't like it. I think some people are convinced in their heads that even though the dog bites that they like it and that they're just scared. Like they don't know the person's good. And it's like, yeah, but they don't know the person's good in a sense. I might agree with that because like the person's an outsider, right? And the way you change that is to make the person an insider.

But unless this is a person that's gonna be at your home regularly, unless this is a real friend or family member that's going to be there, you know, frequently, then it's an outsider. Your dog will treat them like an outsider. That's normal.

Teaching your dog to love having interactions with outsiders and to trust them and think they're great, that's a fantasy. So I think this is really important to have realistic expectations of our dog and realize when we're just trying to give ourself the warm fuzzies versus do what's actually realistic and what's right for the dog and what's right for the safety of everybody else as well, right? So in our training programs, we definitely teach dogs to make better decisions. We teach people to have more dogs, to have more respect for people, uh, more make their owners more relevant, teach their owners that, you know, if this won't transfer to other people, unless they make it transfer to other people and uh, to use their management techniques when they need to put your dog in a crate, when service people are coming in, it is the safest thing to do, right?

Unless you know you can trust your dog that is safe, it'll just make everything less stressful for everybody.

46:00 — Kati closes by urging realistic expectations and invites questions at [email protected].

But that's it guys. And so as a reminder, don't be surprised when your dog does anything for the first time. <laugh>. It doesn't matter that you've never seen him do it before, it was bound to happen eventually. There was a first time for everything that happens. Please send me your questions and suggestions for topics to cover. You can send them to me at Kati at Diamond Canine dot com. That's Kati, no E at D-I-A-M-O-N-D-C-A-N-I-N e.com. Would love, love, love to hear from you. Okay guys, that's it for today. Thank you so much for joining me and I look forward to next time I.