People Who Expect Magic Wands, Fairy Dust, And Easy Buttons Need Not Apply

00:00 — Kati Peppe introduces Diamond Canine and its specialty in e-collar off-leash training.

Speaker 1: Welcome to Off Leash and Unfiltered Trigger Warning. I'm Kati Peppe, delivering the Truth in Dog Training.

Speaker 1: 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.

Speaker 1: 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.

Speaker 1: So I wanna share something today that has to do with absolutely hands down, no question about it, the biggest challenge all of us dog trainers deal with. And so if you're somebody who works in the field, you'll probably understand this. Now, if you're not and you're just a dog owner, then this might seem not super applicable to you, but maybe it is because maybe it might give you a chance to reflect on your own tendencies to do these things, even if you're not doing them on the scale that I'm gonna be talking about. Um, because, you know, I've said before, we all sometimes can be a little detached from reality.

Speaker 1: We can all sometimes be a little resistant to change even if we don't think we are right, even if like mentally and emotionally, like we're on board with it. But then we still end up like not doing things that we know we should do because it's just hard.

Speaker 1: Like changing your habits is hard. Or we have this idea in our head that it's just going to be unpleasant or too much of an obstacle or a pain, it's not gonna be worth it. And sometimes we don't even know we're doing this, right? It's like our subconscious brain is just like, no, that's a silly thing to do. Don't do it. Um, and so maybe, maybe it will help you in that sense to say, you know what, I've kind of done some of those things too. But what I'm talking about today is really, it's something we don't run into a lot.

Speaker 1: Um, we run into it every day, but just not on this scale, not to this level, but it grates on me, man, <laugh>, like I, and I think we, it's just part of the job and you get better and better at it. And I think ultimately the reason it really grates on me so much is that I blame myself for ending up in this position. I feel like if I had done a better job before I brought this client on, we wouldn't be in this situation, right? So that's actually the reason that it grates on me the most.

Speaker 1: Um, but that being said, to one degree or another, this is a challenge we face every day as dog trainers. And you know what? That's okay. In fact, it can make the experience more rewarding. Um, if you're able to work through it and come out on the other end, you know, somewhat successful. Um, but the last thing you want, if people are going, what the hell are you even talking about Kati? The last thing you want is a dog trainers to feel like you're fighting with your client. That that is not success. That is not great for either party.

04:00 — Challenging clients can become rewarding when trainers and owners work through difficulties together.

Speaker 1: Um, and the dog's not getting anywhere that way either. So that's never what we wanna see. But you know, the, the fact is sometimes we find ourselves in that position. And I know I did an episode not that long ago talking about <laugh>, some of those instances. Um, but here's the thing. If you're a person who has a dog and this dog has serious behavioral issues, whether you think they're a good dog, a bad dog, an aggressive dog, or not an aggressive dog, I don't care. They have serious behavioral issues, meaning the dog is clearly not okay.

Speaker 1: And maybe in some cases, such as the one that I have rattling around in my head right now, in some cases the dog could be dangerous, even if it's out of fear, it doesn't matter. The dog has serious behavioral issues, is seriously mentally uncomfortable, is engaging in behaviors that are annoying and potentially dangerous if you are that person. Okay? And these people obviously call me. We set up a consultation, we sit down, we talk, and 99.9% of the time it's I have to do something and I'm willing to do anything, right? These people are often, they're desperate.

Speaker 1: Their dogs have put them in a position where they're really between a rock and a hard place. And if they don't get this figured out, something bad is going to happen.

Speaker 1: And so they're literally begging like for someone to help them fix this problem. Um, of course, and you know, they'll do anything, right? That's what they say. They'll do anything

Speaker 2: <laugh>,

Speaker 1: But sometimes, sometimes that's what they say when you're on the phone doing the phone consultation and you talk about the program and how you're gonna approach things and what you're gonna cover and how you're gonna do it and all these things. 'cause you wanna make sure they know exactly what we're gonna be doing and what they can expect and yeah, yeah, yeah, that sounds great. And they can't get through the door fast enough. Lesson one rolls around and oftentimes they show up and they're eager to get the training underway, but you can tell already they haven't read the confirmation document that I send out.

Speaker 1: So, and okay, like, life happens. I have no idea what this person's going through. No biggie, right? But it goes in the file, it goes in the file in my little brain, says this could be a problem, maybe not, right? But it's obvious that they haven't read through it because we're missing things like the vaccination paperwork, the pa the payment. Um, they don't have the right type of leash or you know, they have an aggressive dog with no muzzle, <laugh>, which is obviously worst case scenario, <laugh>, um, or kennel. They don't have a kennel, right?

08:00 — Some clients arrive unprepared with missing vaccination records, payment, proper leashes, or muzzles.

Speaker 1: There's really no reason ever

Speaker 1: For you to not have a kennel when we start our program. 'cause here's the thing, even if it was very last minute, even if

Speaker 1: We literally spoke on the phone, you gave me a deposit and we started training the next, next day, right? And you didn't have one already, okay? Not everyone has a kennel, it's okay, right? But if you have a behavioral issue with your dog and you're coming in to do private lessons in a behavioral program, you will need a kennel for that program. Now I can't make you do it, right? But, so then you're already starting off not following the protocols, like makes zero sense to me why you would pay a thousand dollars for a private lesson program and say on day one, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna follow the directions.

Speaker 1: Um, I don't, I don't get that. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Um, but if you don't have a kennel, that's okay. They sell them at Walmart. So you can leave here after your lesson and you can go buy one. Okay? So it's not that we're being super militant and just pissed off and indignant that like we're not able to control things because that's what people think. They're like, oh, well she's a real bitch. It's no actually I understand. Like life happens, things aren't always gonna be perfect, but if you then have an opportunity to rectify things, to catch up, to get where you should be and you don't do it,

Speaker 1: That goes in the file too. Okay?

Speaker 1: So then if you come back for your second lesson, okay, so in the first lesson we talk in a behavioral program, we talk about you're gonna use structure a very high level of structure, which means your dog's gonna be in the crate a lot of the time, you know, overnight when you're gone and even during the day when you're home in between your lessons with the dog. And you know, you can take the dog out as much as you want if you're doing things with them, but we don't want your dog roaming around the house.

Speaker 1: Um, especially, you know, depending on what your dog's issues are. So you need that kennel. Um, and then we cover leash handling. How to properly use your leash with your prong collar and how to start conditioning your dog with the e-collar, um, which is important. If you don't lay that foundation, then we can't do anything with it later, okay? You need to teach your dog what the stimulation means and how it's tied to their behavior and how they shut it off. And you need to do lots of repetition with that. And that's what we do in a board and train, right?

Speaker 1: And if you do a private lesson program, the reason it's cheaper than a board and train is because you have to do that work.

Speaker 1: Now, when, when we're talking about a behavioral program, there isn't a ton of emphasis on teaching all the obedience plans because that's not our goal. Our goal is to address the behavioral issues. However, we do use the obedience and we leverage it in a way that helps us do that. So we do teach some because it's going to give the owner so much more leverage at home if they can tell the dog to do things and they can actually enforce it. So this way it number one, establishes leadership and real rules and real boundaries, which is so important.

12:00 — e-collar training gives owners enforcement leverage while establishing leadership, rules, and boundaries.

Speaker 1: And it also gives the dog something else to focus on, right? It gives them a job. So if we're talking about a working breed like a German Shepherd, it gives them something to focus on. If we have a dog that's nervous, fearful, reactive, like this gives them something, if they are devoting their brain to doing this thing because they have to, then they can't devote their brain so much to the other things that trigger them.

Speaker 1: And so it's helpful in that way. And so we do use it, we do teach it, um, especially a place command. We want all of our clients to have a good solid place command at home for so many reasons. Um, mostly because it's a great passive training tool where you don't really have to do anything, right? You just put your dog there and then you can go about doing the things you have to do. And meanwhile, your dog is relaxing, is rehearsing being calm, he is respecting boundaries, um, and your controlling space and you're calling the shots.

Speaker 1: And so valuable, valuable, valuable tools. So we do teach some, right? So in a behavioral program, there is going to be some obedience training. It just isn't the core. It isn't the goal.

Speaker 1: And so when someone comes in to their second lesson, okay, in the first lesson we're showing them this is how you condition your dog to the eco. And we do want the dog to have a really great understanding of the e-collar, of the pressure, how it's tied to their behavior, how to shut it off. So we're showing them in the first lesson, ask your dog to sit, turn on this e-collar, very, very low. When your dog's butt hits the ground, shut off the e-collar, right? And so we're starting to build a dog, number one that does the thing we ask them to do the first time we ask because we're not gonna keep repeating the command.

Speaker 1: Number two, it's all done on a leash so we can follow through and get the behavior. And number three, tons and tons of reps, they learn what the e-collar means.

Speaker 1: So we want to lay as thick and solid a foundation as we can. So we'll, we'll tell people, go home, do a bunch of sits. This is what you do with your e-collar. Go home, do a bunch of place reps. This is what you do with your eco. And we show them hands-on. We do the reps, we have them do the reps. Um, and then we might throw some other commands in too if the dog already knows them. But it's not super important. 'cause again, it's not really about the commands, it's about teaching the dog about the e-collar.

Speaker 1: And we give very explicit instructions, hands-on demonstrations. We tell everybody, it's very important to use your eco when you're doing this because it's not actually about the command, it's about the eco. We are teaching your dog what the eco means. You have to use it, you have to use it every time. Um, and so when someone comes in for their second lesson and they go, well, we haven't been putting the eco on consistently all the time, which is our instruction, by the way.

Speaker 1: We haven't been using a crate because we didn't have one when we started the program and we didn't bother to go get one. We had one delivered and it just came in today, the day of our, our second lesson, and these are hypothetical theoretical examples, um, but definitely things we have had all these things happen <laugh>. So, so they haven't been having the dog wear the e-collar the way we recommend. They haven't had the dog in a kennel like we recommend. Then we jump into the obedience training with the e-collar and they say, well, we haven't been using the eco consistently because, well, of course not, right?

16:00 — Partial implementation leaves multiple foundational instructions incomplete and prevents the program from progressing.

Speaker 1: Because the dog only has it on half the time and we haven't done any other commands accept place, you know? And so, okay, it's like, so our, so three, four instructions that we've given you in that case aren't being implemented. So if you have a dog with severe behavioral issues, who is fearful reactive, a bite risk because he's fearful and reactive and you come back for your second lesson and you haven't followed any of the instructions that we gave you, I don't feel inclined to have a third lesson with you.

Speaker 1: I really don't. <laugh>. So this is the thing. It's like if someone is unsure, if someone is hesitant, if someone just doesn't understand it, if someone is trying to do it, but they're just struggling for some reason, none of those things bother us. It doesn't mean they can't be challenging sometimes. Sometimes there's communication barriers for whatever reason. Um, you know, things of that nature. That's okay. Like we're gonna go the extra mile, we're gonna help our customers get there. We're gonna, we'll do the extra lessons, we'll give them the in-between lesson support. Um, I send the notes, they can text me anytime.

Speaker 1: If they have to come for an extra lesson, that's okay.

Speaker 1: We're gonna get like we're devoted to getting people there. It's so important to us that once you have a contract with us, you, you give us money and you hire us and you say, I want your help with, with this thing. I want this thing to be better. And of course there's no guarantee. People ask me all the time if I offer guarantees, we don't guarantee anything. Um, because you can't because not all dogs is that possible. All dogs have their own genetic abilities, um, and limit with their ability. So, so we don't offer guarantees.

Speaker 1: And another reason we don't offer guarantees is because a big part of the success does come down to the owner handler. It's like I can't make you do the thing you need to do, right? So we don't do guarantees. But anyway, we guaranteed in the sense we do absolutely positively everything we can to help you. But when you have somebody who just says they will do anything and then they go home and they do nothing, I can't help that person. It's not that they don't understand it, it's not that they don't know how to do it, it's not that they're struggling with it, they just didn't do it.

Speaker 1: And then when they come back for their second class, they expect me to somehow move them forward. And guess what? We can't. I cannot build on something you didn't do. We just can't. And I just don't understand the mentality sometimes of I'll do anything, I'll do anything, I'll do anything. And then showing up and basically going, I'm not doing that right? And that's not what they say, but that's what they do. Which you know, so obviously that is philosophy. I don't care what you say, I care what you do. And so that's the challenge, right?

Speaker 1: It's not, it's not. When you have a customer who has concerns, it's not when you have a customer who is hesitant, it's not. When you have a customer who's confused that stuff, that's gonna happen. That's what we're here for. We're here to educate, we're here to show you, we're here to support you. But I'm not a fucking babysitter. And there are folks out there where if I don't go to their house and knock on their door and tell them to do their homework, they just don't do it.

20:00 — Kati supports confused owners but refuses to perform every responsibility for clients who will…

Speaker 1: You know? And by saying that, I'm not saying, oh should do their homework every day perfectly. No, of course not even I don't do that <laugh>, okay? So if we tell someone to go home and spend, you know, 10, 15 minutes twice a day doing the stuff with their dog, I'm not saying, oh, it needs to be twice a day for seven days or you're a loser that that's not what I'm saying. I'm actually a pretty reasonable person. I'm just saying like if you are in a desperate situation where you're on the verge of losing your dog, right?

Speaker 1: And someone else's dog almost got hurt, this is theoretical guys, theoretical <laugh>. If you are in that situation and you actually get into a real good training program that actually with someone who actually knows how to fix the problem you're dealing with and make your life better and make your dog safer and more comfortable and you just go home and don't do it 'cause you're making this training thing a third, fourth, fifth, sixth priority in your life. If even that, it's not good enough.

Speaker 1: 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.

Speaker 1: Thanks for your support, enjoy the rest of the show. It's not good enough. And I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt because you know what? I don't know what's going on in their lives and I get that I've had weeks where I have completely fallen apart. I have weeks where things that are supposed to be a priority just aren't. I mean, you can look at my social media over the past few weeks and it was terrible. I hate that by the way, <laugh>,

Speaker 1: Because I literally couldn't find 10 minutes in my schedule to sit down and do it from day to day. I just couldn't.

Speaker 1: But I'll tell you right now, if I went to a professional to get help with this and I paid them a thousand dollars to help me with it, and they said, okay, this is how we have found success and these are the steps. I want you to go home and do these steps. I would fucking go home and I would do it. Okay? It's like, and here's why this happens. I think at least you know, in the case, the most recent case, which is the one I'm thinking about, this is why this happened. People think that they're going to, they're just going to single out one little behavior.

24:00 — Addressing one isolated behavior often fails because the dog’s underlying state of mind remains…

Speaker 1: I say little, but it's usually a big behavior that they don't like that's causing them a problem. That's a thorn in their side and they're just going to attack that problem completely alone by itself and they're going to ignore fucking everything else.

Speaker 1: And that is not how we roll here people, because that is not usually a path to success. Now I'm not saying that it never can be in the sense that you might be able to knock that behavior out and then just have a better, better life. Your dog will still be uncomfortable, your dog will still be an asshole, whatever. But that one thing that was causing you a problem, you might be able to fix it. But most of the time that isn't what we see. What we see is whack-a-mole where like you fix that behavior and another behavior crops up.

Speaker 1: Um, because your dog is still in the same state of mind, nothing's really changed with the dog. Or sometimes the behavior gets worse because you just have no clue what you're doing and you end up exacerbating things.

Speaker 1: So we take a whole dog approach from maximum leverage and that's why we get success. That is why. So like when you meet people that have had success, when you look at our reviews, when you look at our social media, when you see the dogs and you see, wow, this dog was doing this terrible thing before and now look how much better they're doing, I can tell you we didn't just attack that one behavior. That is not what we did. Now for simple things like yeah, your dog gets into the trash or digs holes in the yard.

Speaker 1: Yeah, fine, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about actual behavioral issues, not nuisance behaviors. I'm talking about severe leash reactivity, aggression, fearfulness, massive anxiety. You are either going to heal the dog or you're not. And that's what we do. And that is done through structure, it's done through state of mind work, doing duration work, requiring calmness, addressing small moments all throughout the day, having commands and requiring them and enforcing, enforcing them rules and boundaries and enforcing them, showing the dog how to resist impulses at every opportunity we get, especially moving through doors showing the dog like, this is how you're expected to ride in the car and stay calm.

Speaker 1: All these things. But people waltz in here and they think they know better than we do. And they go, ah, I'm not gonna do any of this stuff. Just show me this. I just want this. I don't care about any of that. And it's like, well, I thought you were willing to do anything. 'cause we have the recipe. We know what works, we do it all the time. And I am so passionate about sharing that with people. That's why I do this. I want to help people. It's funny 'cause PE the first place people would go is, oh, you get to play with dogs all day, you love dogs.

Speaker 1: And it's like, yeah, when I was younger, like it was, if I had thought about being a dog trainer, would've been mostly about the dogs. And I do enjoy dogs, I do, but that's not really why I do this. I do it because I was that person. I was the person going to bed at night in tears and I didn't know what to do and I couldn't find anybody who knew what to do. And now I know what to do because I went on a mission to find out.

28:00 — Kati explains that personal desperation motivated her mission to find effective answers for difficult…

Speaker 1: I went on a mission to find out. And now that I know I've made it my career to share and to help others, it's really, really important to me. And so there really isn't anything more frustrating than when somebody desperately needs help. And I can clearly see how much better things could be if they just follow the recipe and they won't do it. They won't do it. It's like watching somebody with their whole life ahead of them jump off a bridge. I mean, it's a little dramatic, but it's like they just can't see it. It's like they want an easy button and there just isn't one.

Speaker 1: But that doesn't mean you can't get there, you know? But then when you start to think about it, a lot of times <laugh>, these folks have some failures in their lives and it starts to become obvious why? It's like there's no easy button you have to put in the work. No one's gonna do it for you. And that might mean that you are a little stressed. It might mean time-wise things are difficult. It might mean that you go through an uncomfortable period where you're not sure. It might mean that you have to work through confusion or that you have to do things that are outside your comfort zone.

Speaker 1: If you're not willing to put in the work, then you're, you just fail there. There is no other outcome to that. And that my friend, is the most difficult thing that a dog trainer deals with. Give me any dog any day over somebody who just won't do the work. And I am so fortunate that like 95% of our customers are amazing. They're incredible. They're not perfect. Most of them aren't perfect anyway. I can think of a couple that are pretty close <laugh>, but that's okay. I'm not perfect either. I struggle with some things with my own dogs and I know what to do.

Speaker 1: <laugh>, you don't have to be perfect, right? And I always say people often they don't live with their dogs the way that I would, right? The standard I would set, they don't have that standard. And that's okay when it's not okay is when they're not happy with how things are, right? So if someone's not happy with how things are, if they're not happy with their dog's behavior, if they're still complaining, but I can look at what they're doing and in two seconds point out things that need to change and they don't do it well, they're no well right, live with it, then I guess there is no magic guys.

32:00 — When owners ignore observable changes, Kati says they must accept that no magic solution…

Speaker 1: Like there is no fairy dust, there is no easy button

Speaker 1: If you are not getting the results you want. It's like Dr. Phil would say, how's that working for you? If it's not working for you, then for Christ's sake, you have to do something different. Like, all I can do is tell you and show you, I cannot make you do it. So if you're not happy with your results, you have to acknowledge yourself and your actions as being responsible for your outcome. But people don't, we just, I just took in a puppy and um, her sister's here as well, and she's a very vocal puppy, so you might hear some of that.

Speaker 1: She just came in literally five minutes ago. Um, people don't, they don't seem, not always, again, like I'm talking about very specific small, small, small percentage of folks that we meet. Most of our customers are incredible and successful. Um, and they're happy with the results. And sometimes we get folks that struggle and that's okay. And every once in a while we just get someone that wants fairy dust, just fix it. Hold on. No. So I'm just gonna bonk her crate and see if that gets me any traction here. I have her in the office with me and, uh, she hears me talking and she knows her sister's out there and she's just getting whiny.

Speaker 1: Hey,

Speaker 1: So I just, her no kinda went over and bonked her kennel with this towel kind to see if the oh, and she just laid down and took a breath. That's good. So anyway, <laugh> getting off topic here. One, this is a very small percentage of people. This isn't us complaining about our clients. Our clients are awesome. I have a lot of clients that I consider friends now and um, a lot of them have dogs that I almost feel like they're partly my dog. I mean, I know they're not <laugh>, but they, they come to see us often.

Speaker 1: They come to group classes, a lot of their dogs poured with us regularly and they're great, right? But once in a while, someone will slip through the cracks who's like, just fix my problems. And then they go home and they don't do any of the shit they're supposed to do, but they'll keep tell, here's the kicker, they'll keep telling me about the problems. They'll keep sending me the pictures, sending me the text messages. Okay, what the fuck do you want me to do about it? Really? I mean, if you come to one lesson and we give you four or five things to do and you don't do any of them, what the fuck do you expect?

35:00 — Occasionally, clients demand a fix while doing none of the required work at home.

Speaker 1: Just to put it bluntly, <laugh>, really? What, what do you expect there? I always say I'm out of fairy dust. Sorry, it's on back order. Don't have any, I know how to fix the problem,

Speaker 1: But I can't do it for you. You have to follow the protocols. And that doesn't mean that you're gonna do everything perfectly. It doesn't mean you're gonna hold your dog to the same standards. I would. It doesn't mean you're not gonna miss anything. It doesn't mean you're gonna be perfect. But some people don't try, they just complain. And that is it. I think that is it. That is the worst part of my job. Now, having someone who's actually confused or just struggling with things for some reason and actually like meeting with them and working them through those things, that might be the best part of my job.

Speaker 1: Don't get it twisted. I love helping people through to the other side. I love helping people through their challenges, love doing that. That again, that's why I am here is to help people. I love doing that part of my job. But the thing is, you can't help someone who thought they were going to come in here and you were just gonna give them some magic, fix it all pill. And sometimes that's what I think they think like they were gonna come in here and I was gonna cast some spell on their dog and their problems were gonna go away.

Speaker 1: That'd be great, but no such luck, dude.

Speaker 1: And so I think that's an extreme, that's an extreme sort of example. But the reason that I'm talking about that is because we have had a couple people like that recently, believe it or not. So we'll go long stretches without having any ordeal like that. But you know, two, back to back is a lot. And I think more common, um, the more common manifestation of this is not that extreme. It's something more like people are well-meaning and have intent to do the work when they sign up, but then it's just very easy to fall back into our old habits because we have life and we have obligations and things we don't feel like we can put on the back burner.

Speaker 1: Like we have to keep those things on the front burner. And so the dog training naturally goes to the back. And that doesn't work out real well either, unless people recognize that and change it. But I think that's the more common, uh, thing to have happen is for people, people don't necessarily expect a magic <laugh> spell to be cast and fix all their problems. They know they're gonna have to do work and stuff, but then they just

39:00 — The more common failure involves owners recognizing required work but repeatedly choosing not to…

Speaker 1: Don't do it because other stuff gets in the way and one day turns into one week and the next thing you know, they're back here going, oh, well we didn't have a great week.

Speaker 1: And so as a reminder, if you feel like you fall into that bucket, take a good hard look at things and, 'cause here's the thing, it really doesn't take that long, right? If you're trying to change your dog's behavior, yes, you might have to carve out some time for obedience training, right? But the good news about that is it's not forever. Once you've taught it, you've taught it, right? So it might have to display something on your front burner temporarily for a couple weeks, right? And you have to be willing to do that to make progress.

Speaker 1: But behaviorally, it's really less about the time we're carving out and it's more about changing our habits every day. Being willing to use a crate, being willing to not allow our dogs to rush through doors, right? You don't have to carve out time necessarily to practice stuff. You just have to enforce that boundary in the moment. And I get a lot of people don't know how to do that. And that's where it's like, okay, do your research, get a trainer, watch, watch some videos, A lot of great content out there. We have a lot of great content.

Speaker 1: But my point is just that it's not, it's not a huge time commitment and it's not a forever thing when you're training your dog. It's like once you decide to do it, you have to just commit to doing it. And it will come and it will go. It's like anything else. And I'm not saying then you'll be completely done, right? But the bulk of it is done. The hard stuff is done, the time consuming stuff is done. So you just have to decide, this is gonna be my priority this week. That's not forever. It's for now.

Speaker 1: And you have to decide, all right, we're gonna change some of our habits and it might be difficult and unnatural, but it's not time consuming. So we can do it. We're just gonna change these habits. We're gonna change the way we live with our dog for a little bit, right? But if you're not willing to do either of those things, how will you ever get there? Because you can't, right? So hopefully you're not one of those folks that finds yourself complaining, complaining, complaining, and just not doing anything any differently. 'cause I think that warrants some serious self-reflection.

Speaker 1: <laugh>. But again, those people are pretty few and far between. But um, it's definitely something I needed to

Speaker 1: Vent, vent about, I guess because we've just had two instances like that back to back. And I'll tell you what, nothing riles me up more than that. Nothing gets me going, like seeing someone I desperately want to help. And when they walk through the door, I just see someone who hasn't done any of it. And it's not for lack of understanding, it's just they don't think they need to. Um, it's just some people feel entitled to results, right? Maybe they were raised that way. Uh, and then, uh, when they're in a situation where the only way to get results to put the work in, they don't, but they still expect the results.

Speaker 1: And I put it ready in my paperwork, man, just coming to class will not get you results. There's no magic here. You gotta take what you learn and you have to go home and you have to apply it and apply it consistently. And you have to reach out for help if you need help. And if you don't, then nothing changes. There are no easy buttons around here. If you want results, man, we are the people to help you get results, but you better be ready to do the work to get them.

44:00 — Kati closes by inviting listeners to email questions and suggest future podcast topics.

Speaker 1: 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.