How To Unleash The Worst Version Of Your Dog

00:00 — Kati introduces how well-meaning owners can accidentally create the worst version of their dog.

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

Hey everybody, this is your host, Kati Peppe. Before we jump in, I just wanted to take a quick second and remind you to hit the subscribe button because that helps us so, so, so much. We appreciate every subscribe and follow, and we have so much valuable information we wanna share with you. So we don't want you to miss an episode. Without further ado, let's jump in. Hey everybody, thanks for joining me today for another episode of Off Leash and Unfiltered. I am your host, Kati Peppe. And today we're talking about naughty dogs <laugh>. So how to get the worst version of your dog.

And I think this is a good one because I think so many people are doing that. 'cause here's the thing that's easy to disguise. Even people that have good dogs, like even people that have friendly, happy, go lucky, would never hurt a fly.

I I never say that about any dog, by the way, but people say that all the time. Even those folks with those dogs are usually doing these things that result in getting the worst version of your dog, right? So it's like, sure, the worst version of your dog isn't always gonna be that bad, right? 'cause that's who your dog is. Um, but for a lot of people it's pretty ugly <laugh>. And, uh, we just had little finney come in for boarding. If you follow my social media, you may remember seeing him. Um, I don't know that there's a ton that's memorable about the stuff we posted when he was here, because we had largely nipped his behavioral stuff in the bud when he was a puppy.

Um, but it has resurfaced and it is worse than ever. Um, and so it just kind of inspired me to do an episode for folks and talk about when we see these kinds of cases, what are the things we do and what do we tell people to do?

And how, what are the things we should be doing in the first place so that this doesn't happen? But even if, even if we didn't, even if we were one of those folks that said, oh yeah, Kati, whatever, sure, I'll do all that. I'm not doing that. My dog is great, I don't need to do that. And then your dog turns a year old and suddenly that asshole gene is unleashed, <laugh>. And you go, oh, what were those things again that I should be doing? Right? If you are in that boat, because it's super common, this is a great episode for you to listen to.

We're gonna talk about what all of those things are. Now, depending on how bad things have gotten and how big and powerful your dog is, isn't all these other factors you have to consider? Maybe you need to enlist some help.

But, you know, in Finn's case, um, and we're gonna, we're gonna get off of Finn here in a minute, but again, this is just, he's what he inspired me <laugh> to do this episode. Um, in their case, they had already done eco training back when he was younger. I don't remember how old, but probably 6, 8, 10 months, somewhere in there. And so he already had eco training. He already understood the e-collar and how it was tied to his behavior. He knew the commands. Um, they had that whole foundation already laid. And Finn's tiny guys, he's tiny, right?

04:00 — Larger, unpredictable dogs that can overpower owners require especially careful handling and professional support.

When he gets nasty, he's like four pounds of pure demon. Like he's just, he's small, <laugh> small, so easy to deal with. If your dog is, is bigger, um, and they're, they're nasty. If it's, if you feel like it's unpredictable, um, if they're able to out overpower you, like you probably should enlist some help.

Um, but nonetheless, the principles don't change. Like it's all the same principles. And a lot of them you can start implementing today. Even if your dog hasn't had the training, doesn't have the foundation in place, you can still start using some structure and start having some expectations. But let's talk about, I'm gonna kind of reverse engineer this. Like, instead of telling you what to do, I'm gonna describe what we see most people do. Um, that will ultimately result in you getting the worst version of your dog. And again, the worst version of your dog might not be that bad, might even be pretty great.

Um, but for a lot of folks, it is. So <laugh>, here we go. And if you guys listen to me, like you're not gonna be surprised by much on this list, um, I think there'll be some good nuggets of information. But like this first one is not gonna come as a shock to you. There's no way you can possibly listen to me or watch our stuff and be surprised by this first one. So if you want the worst version of your dog, guys, do these things <laugh>, give your dog unlimited freedom or even limited freedom, but a lot of freedom, right?

So people are like, oh, well, my dog doesn't have unlimited freedom. I put a gate up so he can't go upstairs. Okay? Let me tell you a secret that's not limiting your dog's freedom. <laugh>,

From your dog's perspective, they have unlimited freedom. Because here's the thing, you are not setting a boundary with the dog. There's, there's an obstacle, there's a physical obstacle in their way, but it's not you setting a boundary with the dog. So yeah, sure, technically you're limiting their freedom, but from the dog's perspective, you are not limiting their freedom, right? There's just, there's something in their way. So that does not affect your dog's perception of you, of your relationship, of your dynamic, um, or of what their role is in the house and what they are and are not allowed to do, and where they're allowed to go.

Gates do not limit freedom. Remember that <laugh>, um, they limit physical, what's the word, guys? What's the word I'm looking for? They literally impede the dog's physical movement, right? But they don't limit freedom, right? Because freedom is up here.

Um, so that's a big one, violating space. That's really common. It's especially, it's common with all dogs, but it's especially common with small dogs because they're cute and they're small, and it's easy. It's not as much of a pain in the butt. If your dog violates your space and they're small, it's, it's less annoying. We're more likely to give in, we're more likely to even like it, we're more likely to reward it. But again, it happens with all dogs. So what do I mean by violating space? It's not necessarily always an outright violation, right? But what it is, is it's your dog sees you and when they see you again, they have unlimited freedom and they know it.

08:00 — Dogs learn they can violate personal space when owners repeatedly allow them to approach,…

So they know that you never really set boundaries around your personal space.

This is done in a lot of ways. So they know that they can come par at you, they can come kind of jump on you. They can come climb up in your lap. Um, they can stand in your way. They can get in your path. They can do all of these things, and you're not really gonna do anything about it. Even if once in a while you kind of, no, no, no, right now I'm busy. You're not setting a hard boundary with the dog. And also, most of the time when people do that, and it's like, no, no, no, not right now, I'm eating or I'm busy, they're using their hands and they fingers and they're literally pushing the dog off and they're being pretty soft about it.

And so from the dog's perspective, it's almost like getting a pet, getting affection, right? So if you're going to physically remove the dog from your space, you should do it in a more firm manner.

And what I mean by that is your energy should be firmer, and the body part and the motion that you're using should be firmer. So I'm not telling you to punt your dog across the room, um, but what I am saying is it should be more of a bump, right? So instead of pushing your dog, pushing with your fingers, which we use to pet the dog all the time, right? Softly pushing the dog down, down, get down, <laugh>, it should be more like maybe you use your wrist or your forearm, um, or maybe if they're on the floor and they're jumping on you, maybe you're using the side of your foot like your ankle, um, or even your knee or your, um, the side of your calf, depending on how big your dog is, right?

So you're not using a part of your body, your fingers that you usually use to stroke the dog, and you're not being soft.

It's a firm bump like that. Does that make sense? So that sends a much more clear message than this, right? Because it's that, and I'm not saying punch your dog <laugh>, because I know that people are gonna take this outta contact. Oh, she said, use your fist to hit the, no, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying don't use your fingers. And I'm saying be firm and bump the dog off you, right? Say, Hey, not right now. Um, that sends a much more clear message. Now, keep in mind when we do that, we're not saying never, we're not saying that the dog can never come get in our space.

We're not saying that we never wanna show affection to the dog, but your dog is gonna internalize that message as like, oh, this person can draw a boundary. Who knew <laugh>? Who knew? Um, and those conversations, guys start to add up. And your dog starts to perceive you as somebody worthy of respect.

Somebody who your dog goes, oh, I have to actually control myself and my behaviors, and I can't always get what I want. And I can't always do what I want and I can't because that person says no. Okay? And that's a different conversation than just managing the dog, right? Pushing them off you with their fingers, putting them in their kennel, because that way you don't have to deal with it. It's like, instead of doing that, and I'm not saying don't use the kennel 'cause we're gonna talk about that one too. That one's important. But what I'm saying is don't use that to try to have the conversations with your dog for you.

12:00 — Clear boundaries teach dogs that they must control their behavior and cannot always get…

You have to have the conversation with your dog that says, no, I don't want you in my space right now. Even if you do really want them in your space, you have to learn to practice.

I'm gonna tell you, you can't come into my space right now. And dogs will do that to other dogs with no trouble. But humans, human struggle, human struggle. They always let the dog in their space, very, very, you know what? Never, I've never had anyone come in here who's telling their dog they can't come into their space. And I like to be precise in my speech, guys, if it was very rarely, I would say very rarely, I started to say very rarely. But it's wrong. It's never, I've never had anybody do that. I've had people come in here with some extremely human aggressive dogs, and the dogs will just go get into the owner space whenever they want to.

No one's ever told them, no, you can't come into my space right now. So that is a big one. And people really struggle with this, with puppies, guys. But again, if you do this stuff from the time your dog is young, you are way more likely to avoid having issues down the road. And trust me, everybody, when their dog is a puppy and they're all sweet and they're all cute and everything seems good, everyone wants to be like, no, no, my dog is good. My dog is a good dog. My dog wouldn't do that. She doesn't do any of that.

My dog doesn't bite. My dog wouldn't hurt a fly. She's not aggressive. She doesn't do anything aggressive. She's not aggressive. She, she's not bad. She's not a bad dog. It's like, okay, your dog is 2, 3, 4 months old.

You don't know your dog at four months old. You don't know. Dogs are dogs and even good dogs develop behavioral issues, okay? Because there are no good dogs or bad dogs. There are only dogs. And you don't know if your dog has an asshole gene at four months old. You might see it at four months old. God help you <laugh>. You might not. Most people don't. Not until their dog comes into maturity. You start to see it around 10 months, 12 months, 16 months, and then it's all coming to the surface and you're going, oh, it must be that time he was attacked by a dog.

It must be that time. I scared him with the vacuum.

It must be that time that we lost the power. And I dropped the pie plate on the floor and it scared him to death. And now he is an aggressive maniac. Those are the kind of stories people come up with. But no, what it actually is, is your dogs come into maturity. These genes are unlocking and they're displaying behaviors that they just wouldn't display as a baby. And that's normal. Um, and combined with giving your dog all kinds of freedom, never drawing any boundaries, your dog now comes into maturity. These gene unlock you combine that with no rules, no consequences, all the stuff we we're still yet to talk about.

16:00 — Maturity can reveal inherited behaviors that were not visible when a dog was still…

Um, and you get, boom, the dog, you didn't think you had the dog you don't want to have. And now you're going, well, now what do I do? Well, you do this stuff that we're talking about now.

So violating your space, learn to draw boundaries with your space so you can pay attention to your dog when you want to. And by the way, if that's all the time, stop it. Learn to share space with your dog more neutrally. Not everything has to be constant petting, constant stroking, always talking to your dog. Stop making your dog the center of your universe, okay? Put your dog on place in the room while you watch a movie or while you're working on the computer, while you're reading a book. Put your dog in a down and enforce it while you're doing things in that room.

Or even just go to the park with your dog, right? You walk in a heel, you get to the park, you sit on a bench, you put your dog in a down right by your feet, and you just share space.

But the dynamic stays intact, and we're just quiet and we're neutral, right? And I don't have to be making out with the dog all day, because your dog knows guys. They know that they're like the center of your universe. They know you put 'em on a pedestal. They know, right? Not in the way. We know they're not humans. They sense all of this. It's very clear to them what the dynamic is. Your dog knows. People will tell me what they think it is. But the dog always tells me the truth. This is a person that requires respect.

This is a person that does not. This is a person that puts me at the center of everything.

They touch me all day. They talk to me all day. They take me everywhere. I sleep in their bed. I do whatever I want. The dog tells the truth. So tons of affection. Bad idea. Again, I'm not saying you can't pet your dog guys, right? But if you're petting them all the time, if you're petting them to alleviate your own anxiety, when, when you're anxious, when you're stressed, you need to notice that you need to dial it back. Less affection. Use affection more deliberately. Let your dog earn it. Let them work for you. Let them do some stuff right?

Stay on place for a couple of hours. Walk in a heel with me and I'll give you some scratches. I'll give you some belly rubs.

But people want to shower their dog with affection, not only for every little thing they do, right, all damn day, but also just for nothing. The dog's just there. It has to be pet. The dog comes into the room, it has to be pet, it has to be acknowledged, right? Every time the dog comes into the room, it's, oh, gotta acknowledge the dog. Gotta talk to the dog. Gotta touch the dog. You're elevating your dog status. And again, I'm not saying you can't pay attention to your dog, but is it excessive? Is it all the time?

20:00 — Excessive attention can affect behavior, especially when owners prioritize their dog over family members.

Are you giving your dog more of your attention than you are your own spouse, your own kids? Because you know what a lot of people are. If you think that doesn't affect your dog's behavior, you're on drugs.

Next one, no expectations. So what I mean by that is we talk about things like being polite at the door, being polite around food. Um, but most people, even when they think they're doing those things, they're not right. They'll tell their dog to sit, to stay, to wait. Then they'll put the food down. If the dog goes near the food is uh, uh, uh, right? And they pick the, maybe they pick the food back up or something like that. That's not an expectation. Guys. Take the training wheels off and have an expectation. So if you are telling your dog what to do, if you're giving them a command, you're just asking them to perform a circus trick every time you feed them or every time you go to a door, sit, sit, wait, uh, sit.

Sit. No, sit. Okay? We don't do that. We don't even say sit at all. And you shouldn't because here's the thing, we don't wanna ask our dogs to perform a trick. This is about having standards. So the standard is your dog should just know the food is yours until you say otherwise.

So that means you put the bowl down, the dog knows not to go near it. How many people had that when they came to me? Zero. This is another never. I've never, I've never had anyone walk through my door. Now, probably 75% of the people that walk through my door would tell me they do that. No, they don't. What they do is they hold the bowl away from the dog until they can get the dog to sit. And they say, sit, sit, sit, sit. And then they put the food down and then they can't move.

Because if they do, the dog's gonna attack the food. So they have to be very ginger and very low spoken. And they have to remind the dog they're supposed to be sitting. That is not what we do. It's, I put the bowl down. If you go near the bowl, I'll correct you. Oh, she's so mean.

Yep. I'm a big meanie because I want my dog to know, and I want them to know from a fairly young age, right? No, I'm not doing this with an eight week old puppy guys. This criteria, all this stuff we're covering, we do start it with puppies to a degree. Things look different with young puppies. Now, when I say puppy, I mean 2, 3, 4 months old, they start getting older than that. We start transitioning them to higher standards, to higher accountability. Okay? I have a great episode. Several on puppy stuff. Listen to those episodes.

Okay? Your dog is five, six months or older. We set expectations. There's a bowl of food. If you go near it, I will correct you until I tell you it's okay. Because what that does is it sets a standard, it creates an expectation. So I don't have to go sit, sit, sit every time I put the bowl down.

24:00 — Placing the food bowl down only after the dog meets expectations communicates rules and…

So which one garners more respect you guys, all these moments play into how your dog views you. Do you have rules? Do you have boundaries? Do you have standards? Do you actually expect things from them? Do you expect them to know and remember and execute? Or will you just spoonfeed them forever? 'cause they'll take it and it will impact how they view you. It will impact your dynamic a hundred percent. So especially if you have a dog that's biting you guys, this is not negotiable. Doors feeding protocols. The dog gets corrected if they make the choice to advance.

And that's it, right? Until we say, all right, let's go. It's yours. Break whatever your word is, right? But it's an explicit invitation to eat the food, to go through the door. So those are expectations, right? Just asking your dog to perform tricks. That's not an expectation, guys. It's silly. So it's better than nothing but better than nothing is not good enough. If you have a dog that's nasty to you all, no consequences for obedience or bad behavior, right? So just like we were talking about expectations a second ago, um, another expectation is just doing the things I told you to do, assuming your dog knows it.

And I know I always, I always add that in. I feel like that's necessary because I don't want people to cherry pick one sentence from this podcast and think, oh, I should just punish my dog for not coming back. It's like, yeah, I agree with that. But first you have to do the work.

So your dog has to understand the command. They have to understand what you're telling them to do, and they have to understand what to do after the correction. And so that takes work. But if your dog knows this stuff, if you've done it, especially if your dog's been through an eco program, if I tell you to sit, fucking sit, not the 10th time I say it, not five minutes from now, right now, I'll say it once, do it. So if you have a dog that's nasty. If you have a dog that's biting, if you have a dog that's growling at you, this is another non-negotiable.

Hell, these are all non-negotiable, right? But these are big, right? These are, I would say, extra big because it's like if you don't do that now your dog knows. Yeah, she tells me to do things and it's meaningless. How do you think that impacts your dog's view of you? How do, how do you think that impacts your dynamic? What do you, how do you think that impacts your dog's attitude, so to speak, right? To the degree a dog can have an attitude. 'cause again, they don't have all the reasoning.

They don't have the thought is intact like a human does. But your dog, they have a feeling about you. They have a feeling about your relationship. They do know there's expectations or there's not. If your dog knows what you're asking them for guys, and they don't do it, and you give them 20 fucking free passes marshmallow and your dog knows it. So sure you can just correct your dog for biting you, right? But if you're still just a marshmallow all day might not go away, right? 'cause your dog just knows this person. I don't take seriously.

28:00 — Fair, consistent boundaries help dogs take their owners seriously without requiring meanness or bullying.

I'm not saying be mean. I'm not saying be a bully. I'm saying be fair. Be consistent, be clear. Have real boundaries, right? So doing what I ask you to do is a real boundary. It's a real rule. It's a real expectation. But it's only real if you enforce it guys. And even the people that do, they usually do after 2, 3, 4 requests, right? Not the first time I'll ask you to do this thing, right? I've spent time teaching it to you. You know it. I'll ask you to do this thing once and then you do it.

If I have to ask you a second time, it's a tangible consequence for that.

And then all the random crappy behavior, jumping on people like we talked about earlier, counter surfing. Here's a big one though. Barking. Barking out the window at people. Barking with someone comes up the driveway barking when someone comes to the door, right? Some people don't care. And if your dog is well behaved and you don't have any issues with their stuff, then maybe it doesn't matter, right? But we're not talking about those dogs. We're talking about dogs that are having aggression issues and not just aggression issues, but even at home with their own family. If you're gonna let your dog bark at people out the window bark, when people come up the driveway bark, when people come to the door, maybe they even charge the door.

What's the message we're sending? So everything your dog does all day, you have to think about, if I allow that, what's the message I'm sending? Right? It doesn't mean you can't allow anything ever, but kind of a big one, right? Your dog sees someone outside. Maybe it's even a neighbor, maybe someone that lives there. Maybe someone's out there all the time and they bark. Why? What's the message you're sending if you don't address that, right? Your dog is probably saying, get the hell away from my house. And you're going, well, that's fine. I don't see a problem with that.

Yeah, I like it when he does that. Right? Because that's what people say. Well, I like it that he tells me, no you don't because your dog is being an asshole. And so it's your job, not just when he bites you, but all day long to tell him when he is being an asshole. It's not his job. Like it's your house, not his house.

But all day long, we'll send the message. Hey, your house. Good thing you're protecting it. Hey, your house. Go wherever you want. No, don't bark at the neighbor. Don't bark at the person at the door. Don't bark at the guy coming up the driveway. Do not. And your dog needs to hear that from you. They need you to step up and say, it's my house. I got it. You shut up. Okay. Mixed messages, guys. <laugh>, most of the time they're not very mixed, right? Because it's softness all day and it's freedom all day and it's affection all day.

That's not very mixed <laugh>. But when people first start trying to implement the stuff, there's a lot of mixed messages because it's like, I've learned to draw a boundary here or have an expectation there, but I'm still letting you act like an idiot. Someone comes up the driveway, someone comes to the door.

32:00 — Jumping, barking, and counter surfing are examples of dogs taking control when owners tolerate…

And I think that's a big one. 'cause that's essentially your dog taking over and saying, no, no, no, this is mine. You get away or sounding the alarms, right? There's an intruder here. It's not your concern, it's not your house. It's not your concern. My house, same thing. If you have a new baby, for god's sake, for the love of God, don't let your dog, especially your aggressive dog, go up and smell your baby and investigate your baby whenever they want to. What are you doing when you do that? It's like the dog is getting free access.

Go into the baby space whenever you want. Go smell the baby. Go check out the baby. Go rub on the baby. No, stay away from the baby.

Baby's mine, not yours. Stay away from classic mistake. Glad I threw that one in. But barking is a big one. Jumping on folks is a big one. Counter surfing, right? Stealing your dinner off the table. Dog knows it's not his guys. I can leave my dinner on the couch and walk away. My dogs aren't going to touch it. That could change someday. One day they might decide, oh, this is the day I'm gonna do it. Would it surprise me? No, because nothing surprises me. Dogs or dogs behavior does behavior things. So I can never be a hundred percent sure, but every time I put my dinner on the couch and I walk away and I have to use the restroom or whatever it is, I am 99.9% sure it's gonna be there in intact when I get back.

Even if my dogs are in the living room.

And if that one day comes <laugh> or that changes, we will have a conversation and things will change back to the way they were <laugh>. Um, but you have to take charge guys. You have to step up. Perception won't change on its own. You actually have to change what you're doing. Use your kennel, right? So I like place because place doesn't have a physical boundary. Kinda like we talked about the gate being a physical boundary and not like a command, not like you are telling the dog. This is a boundary, right? But you're not always gonna be there to enforce boundaries.

And whether you are or not, it's just good for your dog to go in their kennel sometime and learn to be inconvenienced, right? And just learn that you tell them. Like if I tell you it's time to go in your kennel, it's time to go in your kennel. So even if you're home and you're awake, put your dog in the kennel for an hour. It's not gonna kill 'em.

Let them watch what's going on from inside the kennel require that they relax and that they're calm and that they're quiet in their kennel use place. Do long places. Your dog doesn't have to run around the house. And if you're worried about exercise, that's a whole other issue, right? Because if you are relying on your dog doing laps through the living room and kitchen to get their exercise, that's a you problem. Take your dog out for a walk. Go for a nice long walk. Inhale, <laugh>, there's an idea. So your, your dog's getting physical exercise.

36:00 — Kennel time, fetch, and required drops provide structure while giving dogs physical and mental…

They're getting mental exercise and your relationship is building, or take 'em out and play fetch, throw the ball around, right? And they have to drop it when you tell them to, whatever it is. I want your dog to get their exercise. They don't need to get it running around your house, right? So you can't use that as an excuse to not limit your dog's freedom.

And if you have toys scattered all over the house, pick 'em up. You can play with your dog, right? But when it's not time to play, the toys are put away. It's not. This is my castle and these are all my things scattered all around me. No, it's your house. I want you to take your house back. <laugh>. So you have to swipe the deck guys and build this whole new relationship with your dog. But here's the thing, A lot of dogs, and this was the case with Finn, and it was the case with Rosie too, who the funniest thing in the world is, I was just thinking about her the other day because of course I got thinking about all the dogs that have fit this, um, this kind of mold, right?

She just texted me this morning, she's got another dog. Rosie's doing great. She's got another dog. But so many dogs fit this, this type, right? They're kind of in this category where they can be super good, super well behaved, very respectful. But if they know that you're just a softie, you just, you don't have expectations. You wanna snuggle, you wanna pet, you wanna do all the fun stuff with them, but you don't wanna have the real rules, the real boundaries that are enforced with tangible consequences. You don't wanna put the collar on every day. You don't want to require your dog to stay on the place caught.

You don't provide a consequence if they bark to someone coming at the door. Your dog knows. And you get the worst version, right? Which if that happens to be being pushy, being snotty, being bity, then they will, right? And dogs like that can often be fixed in one day. So take the word fixed with a grain of salt, right? Because like I said, we can't really change who your dog is. We can't change their personality.

You can't make your dog not a prick <laugh>, if I am to be blunt, right? But he can behave better. And so we see that a lot with these cases. And their owners will describe them doing things that I can hardly even picture them doing because they're so good when they're here, right? For no, not because I'm magic guys. We're not magic, right? But because we just have standards here, we have expectations. And the dog sees that and they go, oh, well I'm gonna be on the straight and there. And they just need to see that from you.

And they'll do it, right? And so it's good and bad because it's like, it's so easy to do.

It's, and I know it's hard. It's hard. It's hard to change your habits. Um, but it isn't like complicated. It doesn't require all this thought and figuring out why and taking the dog to doggy therapy and doing all these lessons, it's like, no, your dog just needs to see that you deserve respect. And you can do that today, right? So if you have one of those dogs, consider yourself lucky. And it's not all dogs. Some dogs to really dominant, they're really pushy. They really have a problem with being told what to do. And some dogs, it's harder, right?

40:00 — Many dogs become cooperative once they understand that their owners genuinely expect them to…

But then a lot of dogs, like the ones we're talking about, they just fall right into line, right? They just need to know they have to. And then they're just golden. They're like the best dogs.

And that's amazing. And you owe it to yourself and your dog, right? 'cause you're both gonna pay a very high price for no other reason than it was just hard to change your habits. And that's silly. So do it guys and do it today. Implement the structure, implement the rules, implement the boundaries, dial back on your affection, swipe the deck, build a new relationship with your dog so you can finally see the best version of your dog. And then you can make an educated decision on is this gonna work or not, right? Because you can't make it from this dark, deep place of, my dog is biting me.

My dog doesn't listen to me. I can't trust my dog. I'm worried about what's gonna happen. You have to actually do the work and then you can. Then you can at least feel like, all right, now I know like I've done the work, now I know what my dog is capable of, how good they can be, what things can look like. And now I can make an educated decision on is this dog safe enough to live in my house? And the good news is, most of the time, the answer is yes.

Hey guys, thanks for joining us today. I really hope you enjoyed the show. If there's a specific topic you'd like to hear discussed, you can send that to me directly via email or fan mail. Just jump down into the show notes. That information will be there for you. I really look forward to hearing from you. Thanks for supporting the show, and I look forward to next time.