Q&A—How Do I Get My Dog To Chill? Cars, Vets, Groomers, And Bones.

00:00 — Kati Peppe introduces Off Leash and Unfiltered, focused on direct dog-training advice.

Welcome to Off Leash and Unfiltered Trigger Warning. I'm Kati Peppe, delivering the Truth in Dog Training.

Hey, this is your host, Kati Peppe, owner of Diamond Canine Dog Training in Biddeford, Maine. For those of you that are new here, we specialize in e-collar training. So we help dogs listen off leash and around distractions. Or if your dog's being an absolute total jerk, well, we can help with that too. We do it all and we do puppy training too. This podcast is just my way of sharing. Well, everything with you guys, the good, the bad, the ugly. And I will always be honest about how to fix the problems you might be dealing with with your dog.

So we're not your average super floofy dog training podcast. We are real and honest around here. What you can do is hit subscribe, hit subscribe so that you don't miss an episode, and so that you can help support the podcast. Every subscribe or follow helps us so, so, so much so I can keep putting out this content. We appreciate you and without further ado, let's jump in.

All right guys, we've got some q and a for you today. Uh, I think we have some really good questions. These are things that we have been asked very recently. In fact, uh, the first few that we're gonna cover are things that we've been working on, uh, currently with some of our, um, boarding dogs. And we've been posting some material on that, on social media. So check that out if this is stuff you are dealing with at home. But for question number one, we're gonna jump right into should I be able to just take things away from my dog, right?

Or rephrase that into any other similar question like, um, why can't I take things away from my dog or, you know, my dog growls at me if I try to take a bone out of his mouth. Um, and the answer is it might surprise you.

The answer is no. You should not just be able to take things away from your dog. Well, actually that's not entirely true. I'm actually gonna flip that answer completely on its head <laugh> and confuse you now. And I'm gonna say absolutely unequivocally yes, you should be able to take things away from your dog. So why did I give you two completely opposite answers in the span of about 10 seconds there? Let me explain. Yes, you should absolutely be able to take anything away from your dog at any time, but no, you cannot just go physically remove the thing from your dog's possession or from their mouth, right?

We live unfortunately, in a day and age where society has decided that dogs are no longer dogs. They're no longer animals, they're stuffed animals, uh, without instincts, without um, impulses. Um, and you know, they have some, they're supposed to have some kind of moral compass and understand good and bad and right and wrong, and they're supposed to wanna make you happy and just need love and patience and they would never bite you unless you did something bad to them. And it's all just horse shit. Okay? So your dog is a dog. It is an animal.

It is a carnivore. It is a predator. I don't care how cute and fluffy it is. They have teeth, they are programmed to use them. And yes, I understand a lot of dogs don't, and the threshold to get them to do so is very, very high. Um, but you know, dogs can land anywhere on that spectrum.

And just because your dog can't tolerate you physically reaching to remove something from their mouth without guarding, that doesn't make your dog bad or abnormal. Um, so I would hope your dog wouldn't bite you, especially if you have the leadership stuff in place. Um, but that is going to make a lot of dogs very uncomfortable and a lot of them will bite <laugh> and I classify that as pretty normal. But hopefully if you do things the right way, you're never going to have that conversation really with your dog anyway. You're not going to put them in that position because you're essentially saying, I want what you have and I'll fight you for it.

Like, that's just not a thing we should say to our dogs. And unfortunately, when you reach to take something directly outta their mouth, that is what you are saying. And so all dogs are gonna respond differently to that.

05:00 — She recommends teaching a command for releasing items and holding the dog accountable.

Um, but the fact that some dogs don't respond well to that is not surprising, not abnormal, and it's just not a place we want to go. So the way that you get your dog to give you things is by teaching them a command. We use the word out. Doesn't matter what word you use, we're not gonna cover that in this podcast because I don't have time. Um, but we, we post lots of stuff about that on our social media and YouTube and we show you how to teach the out command and then you just hold your dog accountable for it, right?

So it becomes, when I give you this command, you give me that resource, no questions asked. You move away from it, uh, you disengage from it, uh, you don't go back to it, it's now mine. And, uh, we've been very, very successful with that.

And so, yes, you should be able to take things away from your dog. Um, but to think that you can just physically waltz in and pull something out of your dog's mouth is absolutely ludicrous and just not something we do. I wouldn't do that to my dog. Alright, and well that covers question number two, <laugh>, whoops, which was supposed to be, how do I get things away from my dog? Um, and so we just covered that. Teach a command and hold them accountable for it. Number three, how do I get my dog to behave at the vet?

Ooh, this is so common, you guys, so common, the vet, you know, unfortunately, because it's a necessity, right? You have to bring your dog to the vet. Sometimes it is the hardest place for so many reasons. Um, number one, it's full of other animals and dogs and cats and smells and noises and some of them are going crazy.

Um, I'm sure there's stress home hormones flying around. Um, you've got the staff who often is, um, making eye contact with your dog, touching your dog, talking in a high pitch baby voice, all of these things. Or if your dog's uncomfortable around strangers, like, and they're, you've obviously they're getting in your dog's space, touching, poking, prodding, jabbing them with needles. Like all these things, of course it sucks at the vet. And I have to say, my dog's not great at the vet and I don't really care <laugh>. So I'm giving myself permission to say every dog is different.

My dog's never going to be perfect. And this is a thing I don't care that much about. We don't go to the vet very often and when we do, he's muzzled. Nothing wrong with that, by the way. I mean, I feel like any large dog that's going into the vet, unless they, unless you feel your dog is absolutely a big baby, very comfortable with strangers and you've experienced that consistently. Like most large dogs going into the vet just should be on a muzzle, in my opinion, for the safety of the staff, just out of respect.

Um, so he goes in on a muzzle 'cause he is uncomfortable around strangers. Um, and I mean, he'll do fine like at home or even if we take him out places. Um, but he's, he's tense, you know, it is tense until he warms up and gets comfortable. And so we're going into a vet's office and you know, two seconds after he sees the stranger, they're now trying to grab him, get in his space and pok him with things. And no, that probably isn't gonna go great. And um, you know, unless we're gonna go there regularly to just get him over it, it's probably not really gonna change.

And we're not gonna do that <laugh> because I'm not motivated enough to do that. Um, I just don't prioritize it as something that's that important. Um, and maybe I would if it was like debilitating in some way.

Like if we couldn't get him into the va, you know, it's not that bad. He's just really uncomfortable with strangers getting into space, restraining him and poking him. Um, and again, I classify that as pretty normal. We put him on a muscle, we get it done and that's it. So, you know, my advice if you have a dog that doesn't do well at the vet is number one, get your dog trained. If they're not trained, meaning teach them their basic command and then hold them accountable for them and then go out and rehearse them places.

09:00 — Kati recommends muzzling uncomfortable dogs at the vet to protect staff and complete necessary…

Not necessarily at the vet, but just anywhere where there's distractions, there's stuff going on, stuff that makes them a little uncomfortable, stuff that makes them excited. And just build a new relationship with your dog where they learn that they have to listen, where they learn that they can overcome scary things.

If there's things that make them uncomfortable where they learn to distrust you and follow you and everything is fine, but they also start to view you as as firm and fair and consistent, you know, a real leadership, um, position. Like that's the role you should be taking with your dog and that will usually generalize over and bleed into everything everywhere you take your dog. Things will start to look a little different, um, because they've learned, um, a different way to behave, a different way to go through the world. Um, they have a new respect for you and that can really tone down some of the craziness at the vet, right?

So if you then are able to do things like heal your dog in the parking lot at the vet, you're able to bring them through the door and they're not pulling you and they're not head on a swivel looking for other dogs, they're not reacting to other dogs.

Like if you get all that under control, probably everything at the vet is gonna be easier, right? But if you just have a dog that's uncomfortable with strangers, unless you're prepared to like put in tons of work with your dog being, um, accosted by strangers, which probably isn't a great plan anyway, um, right? Because it's high risk, low reward in my opinion. Um, they're probably always gonna be a little uncomfortable with that situation where strangers are getting in their space, restraining them and all that stuff. And I'm okay with that. We just put a muzzle on and we go get it done.

How do I get my dog to tolerate nail clipping and grooming? Not all that different from the vet. So I would say the difference is that's something that generally needs to be done a lot more frequently. And so it is more of a problem. Um, you know, it that stuff's going to be a lot easier to overcome if you're doing the grooming yourself. You know, the problem with getting your dog over the grooming stuff at the groomers is somebody else is handling your dog and it's not their job to learn to be a dog trainer or to do whatever your protocols are with your dog.

12:00 — Groomers handle dogs directly, so owners should train trust and consider grooming the dog…

So my advice is, you know, if you can do the grooming yourself, do it yourself, um, because I also think that's great for your relationship with your dog. Um, but if you need to bring your dog to a groomer or you want to bring your dog to a groomer, you should still start with doing the grooming yourself, right?

And get them comfortable with all the grooming procedures. That's the first step. And then getting them comfortable at the groomers. Well, you might need to be there so that you can handle your own dog if they'll let you because you just can't expect them to adopt, to learn and adopt all of your protocols and strategies. It's not reasonable. But just like the vet, I would say train your dog and hold them accountable for these things and build a new and better relationship. Get a higher level of submission and trust from your dog through work, right?

You sit, when I say sit, you hold it, you down. When I say down, you hold it, you place. When I say place and you hold it, you walk in a heel. When we're out in public, when I tell you to, um, you don't have your head on a swivel, you're not no stuck to the ground, you're not reacting to other dogs, fix all those things if they're there.

So we don't even think of that when we think of, I wanna cut my dog's nails, right? But they are tied together because if your dog does any of those things that I just mentioned, they're basically a victim. They are helpless to control their state of mind, right? They're a victim of their own arousal. And so they just go through the world on a roller coaster mentally, right? It's like the arousal is just like this. Um, and they don't have any mechanism by which to control that because we haven't installed that in them. And so that's what your training really does.

If you do it properly and you include the accountability piece, very important. Um, your dog actually starts to build coping skills and impulse control where now that arousal can be shut off. It can be capped, right? They can actually control it, but there's no reason for them to even try because we haven't done that with them.

So built that relationship with your dog where they know what you're asking them to do and they know they have to do it, it's not negotiable. And then go out and practice that stuff. To me, that is the first piece to getting your dog to tolerate grooming or the vet. If you don't have those things in place, then you have no control over your dog and they have no control really over themselves because there's no reason it should ever even occur to your dog that they should try to do something different. 'cause they're not human, right?

They're just doing what comes naturally. And that will never change unless you intervene and start to teach them how to do things that don't come naturally. Teach them how to do things that don't come easy, that aren't easy, that are challenging, that are uncomfortable. If you don't teach them how to do that and that they have to do that, then when you go into a really challenging environment like the fed or the groomer, you just forget it. You're dead in the water right now. You might put all of those things into place and it still doesn't come together.

And that's where just repetition comes in. Uh, being conscious of your own energy, right? So if you're frantic, if you are tense, if you're chaotic, if you're stressed and anxious, you are gonna pass that on to your dog. So zip it, be quiet. Use very few words.

Only use words with your dog that matter, like good and no. Or if you have to give a command. But otherwise just be quiet. Use your leash, okay? And generally you want your leash to be relaxed unless you're giving your dog information. And usually that's gonna be a leash pop to kind of disagree with something or to bring the arousal down or it might be leash pressure just to get them to settle. And then as soon as they settle, you shut off that leash pressure and relax, right? But very intentional communication through your leash, a very calm, assertive energy coming from you is gonna be really helpful.

16:00 — Kati advises keeping the leash relaxed except when giving information through pressure or a…

And then just repetition going into these environments, right? And I mean if you can go there and just do work in the parking lot and then leave, that's great. There's a million opportunities there. I was just talking about this with a customer the other day whose dog doesn't like going to the vet And the groomer both had a problems. So it's like get your dog holding it down in the car. Teach them when they get out of the car to immediately sit and wait for you instead of head on a swivel stress, panting, whining, glancing around, right?

Those are two very different states of mind.

Then you just heal around the parking lot. Then you get back in the car and you leave, then maybe you drive back in, do it again, right? Do a little loop, go back in, start over, do it again, do it again. Do it again. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. Then maybe you go through the door into the building, say hi, turn around and leave. Most places don't mind if you do. That doesn't mean they have to interact with the staff, especially if the staff are very excitable and wanna come over and baby and coddle the dog and feed them treats.

It's just, it's not that I'm anti treats guys, it's just not helpful.

It's just not helpful. Especially if it's an environment where your dog already has a hard time. I know our human brains wanna think, oh, they just need to see it's good. They just need to see it's good. But that is just false. Sometimes good actually equals frantic, it equals chaos, which equals then anxious nervousness, right? Because it's over arousal. And when your dog is over aroused, whatever it is that they struggle with is gonna surface. So that's actually a pretty good way to articulate it, right? It's like, yeah, I understand. You think someone coming to say hi to your dog, petting them, loving on them, giving them treats sounds like a good thing.

But it will absolutely over arouse and overstimulate your dog. And the issue with that is that then number one, you become irrelevant and you fade into the background, right? So now you have no control over your dog anyway, right?

So that relationship is just gone. That means of control and influence is gone out the window, right? So now you're actually building a crappy relationship with your dog where you're in an environment that's distracting and you don't matter. Love the podcast. Well, I have great news. We are now offering an inexpensive subscription where you can get access to our new premium content. This content isn't available to our general listeners, it's made just for you. It includes all kinds of behind the scenes stuff, all the obstacles and how we're overcoming them with our board and trained dogs.

And the most difficult part of our job, how we deal with overcoming obstacles with our clients. So all kinds of new cool interesting stuff for you to get out of those episodes. You can jump down into the show notes and there will be a link to our support page where you can sign up and start listening right away. Thanks for your support. Enjoy the rest of the show. Well, you can never, you can't accomplish anything that way. But the just a, just as big of a problem is the fact that when your dog gets over aroused and overstimulated, whatever it is they struggle with will start to surface, right?

20:00 — Aggression, reactivity, anxiety, and fearfulness are more likely when a dog becomes overstimulated.

So whether that's aggression, reactivity, anxiety, fearfulness, you're much, much more likely to see it when your dog gets over aroused. They're almost always tied together.

And so that's why teaching your dog just to control arousal is one of the most powerful mechanisms we have to teach your dog how to control aggression, reactivity, anxiety, nervousness, do you see? Um, and so rehearsing that impulse control, the accountability, all the stuff you've taught them and then just rep, rep rep in the parking lot in the building, that's gonna be really helpful. And then if you can stay and handle your own dog while they're groomed even better, right? Because now you've built a relationship with your dog where they're going to give you a higher level of submission, they're gonna trust you.

They know they have to control their arousal, which is gonna help them keep fear and anxiety and reactivity and all that stuff down. Um, and then you can start to build a different experience at the groomers, right? And you might only need to be there a couple of times and then you might not be needed anymore, right?

Because once the dog has done it in that environment, it just gets easier in between me and you. Your groomer might, might have a couple takeaways from that that they learn whether they tell you that or not, right? Seeing you handle your dog, um, quietly, calmly, assertively, leash communication, right? They might take away from that things that could help them with other dogs, right? Because they'll see the difference in your dog and they'll go, wow, that actually actually was a lot different. That was a lot better <laugh>. Uh, but enough rambling on about the groomers.

Um, how do I get my dog into the car? Well, it's actually a pretty easy one. I like this question. Um, and we get it a lot, lot dogs don't like to get in the car. They're anxious in the car. Even dogs that love it in the car sometimes it's like they just don't wanna get in.

And I've seen a lot of dogs. It actually looks like it's almost as though they have forgotten how to use their back legs. <laugh>, like you, you get dogs that can jump around like popcorn, right? Jump all over people, but then you bring 'em to the car and they're like, eh, I don't know how to, I can't pull myself up into this thing. Um, it's ridiculous. <laugh>. So we do have, um, a specific protocol actually for dealing with this. And so what we'll do is, number one, we usually start with a leash. Almost everything you'll notice is we start with a leash, right?

Leash and prong and just apply pressure in the direction of the car, right? So usually I'll point and I'll say up or in, you know, whatever it is you wanna say to your dog to instruct them to get in the car. And then inevitably they won't, right? 'cause they don't. And then you'll just put on your leash pressure. So in other words, you're gonna pull the leash like into the backseat or wherever it is that you want your dog to go. You're not gonna drag them in, you're just gonna pull on the leash enough that it puts some pressure on the collar and you're just gonna hold that pressure there.

Don't jerk the leash back and forth. We're not trying to pop the leash. Um, we're not trying to rock the dog or give him momentum. You just pull the leash steady and hold it there. So now you have leash pressure on and it does not shut off until the dog is in. Okay? So if your dog is really resistant to getting in the car, especially if they're big, you might want to thread the leash through the backseat and you go on the other side opposite your dog to do this. That'll give you the most leverage.

24:00 — For large resistant dogs, threading the leash through the backseat provides leverage from the…

Um, and you know, if that's difficult to do, if you don't have anybody with you, you can use a long line, right? Like a 20 foot leash in that way. You can easily, um, thread the leash all the way through the car without, you know, your dog getting away or anything like that. But the idea is you turn on that leash pressure, it does not shut off until the dog is in a lot of dogs with just that are gonna go ahead and hop in the car reluctantly, but they're gonna hop in, right? And then it's just rinse and repeat and you're off to the races.

Now if they don't, you can increase that leash pressure, right? But what I will often do, I will increase it and if it still doesn't work, I will then I'll have to be next to the dog to do this.

You can't do this from the opposite side of the car. I will keep that leash and prong pressure on, but I'll loop my fingers under their flat collar and help pull them up into the seat and actually lift them that way by their collar. Right? Now if your dog is too small, too short to jump into the car, that's different. You might just have to go ahead and pick up your dog or you know, get a step or something. Um, but this protocol, this is for dogs that can get into the car, they're just reluctant.

Uh, they just don't want to. Um, so I'll loop my fingers under the flat collar. So I'm still pulling on the leash and prong, but I also loop my fingers under the flat collar. And at the same time I really help lift the dog in that way. Now the reason I do it by the collar and everyone's all worried, you know that, oh, you're gonna hurt the dog, you're choking the dog.

It's like, no, it takes two seconds to lift them into the car. They're fine. Um, it's really important not to lift the dog's romp because do you remember me saying just a minute ago? It's almost as if they forgot to use their back legs. Like they, they just know how to use them. I stand by that <laugh>, they go to get in the car and it's just awkward for them to be up on their hind legs like that and to figure out they have to jump. They can't just step into the car. And so making them make that leap with their back legs helps teach them how to do it, right?

So if, if you just reach down and you pick up their butt, right, you lift their back legs off the ground for them and they don't have to use their muscles to do that.

They don't learn as fast how to do it themselves. And that's always the idea with everything we're doing is minimal guidance so that the dog learns how to do the stuff themselves. So if you can't get your dog into the car, the worst thing you can do, again, for a dog that's actually big enough and capable and doesn't have like terrible hips or anything like that, this is for normal dogs that can handle getting into the car. The worst thing you can do is reach down and pick up your dog's butt and back legs for them.

27:00 — Owners should use minimal assistance so dogs learn to enter the car independently.

You. So I want you, no matter what you do to get your dog into the car, I want you to remember that your dog has to lift those back legs, those paws themselves. You can do the front ones if you have to. Do not lift their back ones.

They have to propel themselves into the car. And most dogs, if you loop your finger under their flat collar and you just pull a little bit, it's gonna give them just enough, just enough air that they're gonna go, okay, we're getting in. And they're gonna lift those back legs and, and they're gonna hop in. And it might be really messy the first couple times, but they'll get really good at it really fast. 'cause just like everything else in behavior, once they do it, once you're cooking with gas, they'll do it again and it'll get more natural and easier and faster every time.

So just don't lift those back legs. Now how do I get my dog to chill in the car? That's our last question. Once you actually get your dog in. Now what? Because if you have a dog that's nervous in the car, um, that can be a real problem.

It can be annoying, obviously it can be dangerous. Um, so what do we do to get our dogs to relax in the car? And it's like, well it depends on what is it your dog's doing? Like what do you mean by relax, right? Are they whining, are they barking? Are they pacing? So here's what we do. All of our dogs, they have to be calm in the car. And I often have three, four, or even five dogs in the car at a time and it cannot be chaos. So none of those dogs are pacing around my car.

Uh, none of them are whining, none of them are barking. We just don't do that in my car. And it's not as hard as you would think. So dogs when they first come in and are little crazy, especially dogs that don't like the car, they're tied up.

They're not loose running around the car, right? You could also use a kennel and that's okay, but I don't have room in my car to have kennels in there, especially for five dogs. Can you imagine? Um, and obviously I transport people often in my car, so taking crates in and out is just a pain. There's no crates in my car. The dogs, when they first come in, they're tethered, right? So I'm lucky enough, I, I drive a Jeep, so I have like the oh shit handles I can tie them to. Um, but if I didn't have that, I would find something else.

I have driven other vehicles at times. Um, and usually you can find something, whether it's the headrest, um, in back of them, the headrest in front of them. Um, usually there's a way. Don't tie them to the door handle <laugh> just, just putting that out there, um, as a side note.

30:00 — A temporary tether can prevent dogs from running around the car while they learn…

But if you can find something to tether them to just while they're learning, that's ideal, right? And that way they might not fully settle, but at least they can't run around the car. That is the most important thing, okay? Get your dog on an e-collar. If they're whining, if they're barking, that's just a correction. Super easy. You just say, no, wait a second or two, follow it with a correction. How high? Whatever works. I don't know. Dog will pick the number. Um, and then you'll have a quiet ride. So I have Joyce's dogs from boarding, um, several months ago when she was traveling, um, to go see her daughter and her dog winds in the car, one of them winds in the car just excessively.

It would just be a constant high pitch wine the whole time. Wherever you're going, well, I am not gonna allow <laugh> allow that in my car.

So we had to correct the dog and you know, she is done this, but she, it still, it wasn't consistent with her. She still had some whining sometimes. So the dog came to me, uh, when I had them for boarding and I corrected her and it would work for a little bit, but then it would kind of come back. So I just kept trying, you know, new level. So I kept bumping that level up and I wanna make a significant jump each time. You don't wanna bump your level up by just like two points, five points.

You wanna have a bit of a leap in that level so that you don't just desensitize the dog to it. And we ended up on like an 80 and I gave her a good correction at an 80. And yes, she, oh my God, right? Just for a split second and then guess what?

And she just relaxed and she went to sleep. Um, maybe she didn't go to sleep, but she was very, very calm. Uh, I don't, I don't actually remember specifically, but it was quiet. And not only was it quiet, it was quiet the next time we got in the car, I don't think I had to correct her at all. Right? And so that's always the goal is to get your dog to settle in a way or change their behavior in a way that you don't have to keep telling them, right? 'cause you're just perpetuating the state of mind that way.

And we want, we wanted Bella to relax and just be calm. So yes, I had to give her a high correction, but it was totally worth it because every time we got in the car after that, she was relaxed, right? Good for her. And so that is the goal.

Put an e-collar on your dog. Find the level that gets them to stop whining. Yes, that might be really challenging or next to impossible with some dogs, but that's very rare. Um, so if you have one of those dogs, you're probably gonna be chipping away in a lot of other ways besides just correcting the whining. Barking would be the same exact thing. We would mark it with a no and then we would give a higher correction. Um, and we're looking for a level that doesn't just stop the barking in the moment, but that gets the dog to make a different decision next time.

So it's an overall reduction and hopefully elimination in barking pacing, like I said, should be controlled with a tether at first. But, you know, work with your dog. Teach them what the down command means, teach them that they have to hold it and then you just start doing that in the car, right?

You have to lay down and you have to hold that down while we're in the car. Um, and reinforce that with an e-collar, of course you have to lay the foundation with your dog so that they understand the down command and they understand the eco in relation to the down command, right? You can't just spontaneously suddenly correct your dog on an e-collar for not laying down and think they're gonna know exactly what to do. They won't. You have to put in the rehearsal. And there's lots and lots of, um, information out there on this if you look for it.

There are lots of videos, we have plenty of videos, there are lots of other good trainers out there with videos. Um, but if you wanna enforce the stuff with an eco, which is the most practical and probably safest and easiest thing to do when you're driving, um, just lay that foundation with your dog ahead of time and then you'll have that tool in the car to keep them calm.

Um, but we love that. So dogs are tethered at first. They're corrected for whining and barking. And then once they know how to lay down, we expect them to lay down and hold that down and then we don't even have to tether them anymore. Um, and that is such a fantastic tool to help teach your dog some new coping skills. And if your dog tends to get car sick, this will usually help. Um, usually once they know how to do that and stay laying down in the car, it's only a matter of time, a little repetition before that car sickness goes away, uh, which is wonderful.

'cause if your dog vomits in the car, that's no fun. My last Jeep saw a lot of dog vomit, <laugh>. I have a new one now and I made sure to get some good seed protectors because, uh, yeah, it's no joke.

So that's it guys. We covered some hard stuff today. Uh, nail trimming groomers, vets getting in the car, chilling out in the car if your dog is anxious, all kinds of stuff. So, and if you noticed, I mean all of this stuff really starts with building that relationship with your dog. And that relationship has to be more than just you being a pest dispenser. It has to be more than just you being a snuggle machine, right? So start practicing some of the other stuff with your dog. Start balancing that relationship. Start actually teaching your dog some things and holding them accountable for it.

Um, put in the time, put in the repetition and you're going to see reward. You really will, um, totally worth it. And, um, then you're off to the races, right? And this stuff starts leading into everything and everything starts to get a little easier, right? I'm not saying everything will just be fixed automatically. Um, it won't, every dog is different, every situation is different. Um, but I think one thing that's really the same for everyone is the first component to making these things easier for your dog is to build a new relationship with them.

We hope you enjoyed today's episode. If there's a topic you'd like to hear discussed, you can send that to me directly at Kati at Diamond Canine dot com via email. So I will link to that email address in the show notes. Thanks for joining us today, guys. Thanks for supporting the podcast and I look forward to the next one.