It’s Not Because ‘He’s A Puppy’ (Also, Puppies Aren’t Glass)

00:00 — Kati Peppe introduces Off Leash and Unfiltered and asks listeners to subscribe.

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 guys, thanks for joining me today, recording this on a Monday. Feeling pretty good. They made my coffee right today. And, uh, the garage downstairs is playing some kind of metal and rock, metal rock combo type <laugh>, but that's what we have going on for our, our background music today.

I don't know if you can hear it, but, um, it's tolerable. It's not too bad. And, uh, most of the best thing really is the puppies didn't have any accidents last night.

Paulo hasn't really had any, but the other puppy that we have here is, has been having a lot of accidents. Almost every night in the middle of the night, there's like a poop explosion, <laugh>. So I was very, very pleased to see that we didn't have that going on today. Um, so it's a good day whenever you get up and you don't have to clean up pee and poop and clean up the crates. It's a good day. So that's where we are today. But let's talk about puppies. That's what we're gonna do today. We're gonna talk about puppies.

Uh, puppy episodes seem to do really well, so, you know, I don't think of that as being one of the most important topics, just because I feel like so few people have puppies, right? To me, a puppy, obviously your dog is a puppy up until they're grown, but we consider puppies to be like under six months of age.

Like, that's the puppy, puppy stage. And obviously that doesn't last long. It lasts six months and then it's over, right? So most people's dogs don't qualify as puppies, but apparently we have a lot of interest in the puppy stuff. So we're gonna talk about puppies today, and we're gonna talk about the thing nobody likes to do, which is correcting puppies. Um, and I just did an episode on this not that long ago, how to punish puppy behavior. Um, but here we are again, and part of the reason is because I've been thinking about restructuring our training programs and I'm considering removing the puppy training altogether.

Um, I'm, I'm having a hard time making that leap because it is so, so important. Like, if you get the opportunity to raise your dog from the time they're a puppy, there's so much value in that, and there's so much opportunity, and I love helping people with that.

Um, and as you know, my big thing is like getting the information out there, getting the knowledge out there, like making the stuff accessible to people, showing them, guiding them, helping them, um, because it is so hard to find all this stuff, um, to find the truth and to find someone who actually knows what they're talking about. I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, but there's just, there's a lot of crap out there. Of course, on the internet, there's a lot of trainers that don't know or don't care, um, and there's a lot that do too, right?

But that stuff's, it's hard to find. It's really hard to find. Um, and so I love helping people with puppies, and I feel like it's a critical piece to dog ownership if you actually happen to have your dog when they're a puppy. But here's what we have found.

Unfortunately, we have found that most people, the reason I completely stopped doing private lessons with puppies, and I did, I took that off from my website. Um, I got rid of my, my puppy private lesson program. And there was a reason for that. And that is because if you've been listening to me at all, or if you know me, you know, I like to get results, right? I am very, very results-oriented. Um, and to me, right? I'm here to help people. Yes, I like dogs. I wanna help the dogs, but mostly I wanna help the people with their dogs, right?

04:00 — Kati says owners’ reluctance to correct puppies makes improving behavior and relationships more difficult.

I wanna help them understand what's happening, what to do, how to get different results and make their life better, and make their relationship with their dog better. And I found in puppy program that that is more difficult.

Of course it is, right? Because puppies are puppies and they're soft, and they're cute and they're innocent and all these things. And so if, if you listen to me, what's the number one thing I say? Almost everybody that I meet needs the most help with correcting behaviors, correcting their dog, right? So in a puppy program, it's no different. That's the number one thing most people need help with, is correcting their puppy and stopping behaviors. And the fact is, most people have a very, very difficult time doing that. Um, for all the reasons I just mentioned, right?

Puppies are soft, they're cute, they're lovable, they're innocent, they're all these things, and people don't want to correct them. People don't want to punish their behaviors. And I'm not saying that we should be correcting everything your puppy does wrong. That's not what I'm saying at all. And that's not what we do.

Um, so in case this is like your first time listening and you have no idea what I'm talking about, <laugh>, um, your puppy has so much to learn, so much to learn. And I don't wanna get deep in the weeds here, um, but just, you know, for anybody that's new here and doesn't know, we don't hold puppies accountable, generally speaking, for obedience commands. We don't punish them for not sitting when we say sit, we don't punish them for getting off place when they get off place. Uh, for the most part, we really, we don't do any of that.

We don't punish them for chewing our shoes. You know why? Because if our puppy's chewing our shoes, we gave them too much freedom. At some point, yes, you'll need to punish that behavior if it continues. Um, but really when your puppy is a puppy, when your puppy's under six months old, they shouldn't even have access to your shoes.

Like you are relinquishing too much control to your puppy. So that's not what I'm talking about here. But a lot of folks get puppies, especially working breed puppies. So they come home with a terrier, a hound, a herding dog, something like that. And sometimes these dogs are very, very drivey, very, very intense. They have a lot of internal instinct and drive, and it's coming out as a lot of frustration and being frantic and just over-escalated all the time. And it results in things like their arms just being all chewed up by the puppy, um, puppy that can't settle is barking incessantly, biting, barking, that sort of stuff.

Like we see that a lot. And those are the things that we do say, hey, you gotta go after this. Like you, you need to stop this. And most people know that, and that's why they're here, right?

They're like, oh my God, I'm having this problem. I don't know how to fix it. And most people, when they come here, they've tried rewarding not doing it. Rewarding and building incompatible behaviors, you know, all alternative behaviors, all this nonsense that you hear online. Like they've done all that. The redirection, right? Here's a bone, here's a toy, which, by the way, is essentially a reward. Um, they've done all that, it doesn't work. Now, yes, if you have a puppy with no real behavioral stuff and they're just teething, and sometimes they kind of use you to teethe on, that's not really the same thing.

08:00 — Kati distinguishes temporary teething from biting tied to internal drive and pushy behavior.

I still wouldn't allow it, just me, my opinion, right? But yeah, a dog like that, that's just kind of teething and it just kind of feels good to chew on your finger a little bit and you redirect them to a toy, yeah, the behavior might just go away, right?

'Cause when they're done teething, they're gonna stop doing that, right? And it has nothing to do with, oh, you redirected them and taught them something else. It has to do with, they just don't need to do it anymore because the teething is over <laugh>, right? And it goes away. But some dogs, it's a little bit more than that. Um, it's more behavioral, it's more drivey. It's more tied to having this, um, internal drive and nowhere to put it. It's more tied to sometimes just being pushy by nature and treating you like a, a sibling, like a, like a, a puppy in the litter that they would play with, that they would push around, that they would dominate, right?

Which is all play for like real-world stuff. Um, and so you can imagine if you let that go on, you let that continue, you're essentially filling the role of the sibling that's getting beat up on and bowled over and their ego and their drive is getting more and more inflated while you sit back and let it happen.

And as they come into maturity, you could see how that could potentially turn into a real problem, right? Because things could escalate. Maybe not, but maybe, and it, we've seen it many times, uh, escalate into, well, you know, I've always pushed you around. I've always put my mouth on you. I've always kind of like quote-unquote dominated you, right? Um, kind of released my frustration on you, demanded things from you, whatever it is, right? Just like they would another puppy. Doesn't make them a bad dog, but just by nature, that's what they would do with their littermates.

Um, and it's in rehearsal for the real-world stuff, right? And then as they come into maturity, you might see that side of them really blossom. And now because you didn't do anything about it, now they view you as the doormat, the one to be bowled over, the one to be pushed around, the one to be bitten, right? And it turns into a real bite maybe.

And so that's why when you're dealing with this stuff, it is so important. You get it under control. And the simple fact is, guys, you're not going to do it with treats. You're not going to do it with being a tree, which means being still, right, or turning your back and being still. And kind of a funny story real quick, when I had my puppy who was like I'm describing, really, really drivey, really intense, really nuts, um, and I couldn't get any good help. I did go to one trainer who's one of the better trainers in the area, but still was just off, just didn't, didn't really help me.

But anyway, one of the funnier things he said was, if I was, if I was a tree, they would piss on me. Um, and that couldn't be more true. <laugh> Truer words have never been spoken.

Um, you need to know how to inhibit behaviors and you need to be able to execute it. And if you can't do that, then I can't help you, okay? And so that's why we are thinking maybe this puppy thing just isn't worth it, right? And it's a lot of work for me too. You know, we decided, well, I decided, right, that board-and-train was better because I'm very open about the fact that we're gonna correct behaviors like that. I don't hide that from anybody. Um, but you know, sometimes even when people are emotionally and logically, like, they're on board with it, they still just have a hard time doing it, right?

12:00 — Kati explains that board-and-train lets owners see results before implementing corrections themselves.

'Cause they're human and corrections are no fun, especially with a puppy. Um, and I get it, but so we'll do a board-and-train, right? Which kind of relinquish their responsibility to do it, at least for now, <laugh>. And we can get, we can get it done and we can show the results, right? And then people are more likely, um, to stick with it and be able to do it down the road. 'Cause they can see, right? They get to see the results up front before they have to do it themselves, which I think is helpful.

And we have had some tremendous success, um, with the puppy board-and-train. However, puppies are hard work. Some of them don't sleep through the night. Some of them have a lot of accidents.

And I'm just kind of in a place where all of that combined with the general lack of results with their owners, it might make it not worth it. Love the show? Well, I have great news. We are offering an inexpensive subscription to our new premium content. This is content that isn't available to the general public. We make it just for our subscribers. We're gonna cover a variety of new topics in these episodes and I think it's gonna be a ton of fun. So you can jump right down into the show notes to get that website address and then skip over there and sign up for this premium content.

Just wanted to take a second to let you guys know about that. Thank you so much for your support. And now on with the show. In addition to the fact that you really need to get your relationship in order right off the bat where your puppy goes, oh, hey, this entity sets boundaries. Um, this entity will disagree with things. They're not just a weakling littermate to be bowled over.

Teaching your puppy right off the bat that there's a different dynamic is so critical. But in addition to that, you also want them to see sooner rather than later that that's a thing that can happen, right? So they know and understand it instead of just surprising them with it when they're a year old, two years old, like, oh, all of a sudden I'm going to give you a correction for something. It's like, teach your puppy right now what no means. And we're really, really, um, specific about picking our battles, right? We don't just cross, we don't just chase puppies around with bonkers all day, guys.

We're doing tons of leash work, tons of food work, tons of reward in just cementing what we want. But if you jump on us, there's a little correction. If you bite us, there's a little correction, right? Or a big correction, whatever, you know, because it depends on the puppy. So just because your puppy is small, just because your puppy is young does not mean they're made of glass. Guys, I've seen some pretty tough puppies come through here. And when, especially like we were talking about earlier, you get a herding breed, you get a terrier, you get a hound.

15:00 — Kati argues that being small and young does not make genetically tough puppies too…

Some of those dogs are genetically wired to be really, really tough. And the fact that they're small and young right now, it leaves people under the illusion

that the puppy's going to break if they give them a correction. Um, and it's just not so. And yes, we know that 'cause we do it all the time. Um, did it with my own puppies and it worked out quite well. Thank you very much. Um, and you know, the dozens and dozens and hundreds of puppies that have come through here, same thing. Um, and it's never backfired and it's never caused a problem. What it has done is put the biting issues to bed. And I've had people come in here with bruises, cuts, scratches, everything else.

And you're either gonna do what it takes or, or you're not. But highly, highly recommend getting behaviors like that. Those are the most important. You, you gotta get those under control. And unfortunately, just handing your puppy a bone when they do it is not gonna fix that problem. You're essentially just rewarding your puppy for biting you. And that's why we don't do that, guys. That's why we don't do that. And a lot of times we have people that want to say, well, we're okay with this, but not with that, right? It's okay if you wanna give our puppy a little poke in the side, but don't bonk them or don't leash pop them or don't use a prong collar or don't this or don't that.

And we don't do that because we're going to do what works. Whatever is safe and effective and efficient, and again, very result-oriented, that's what we're gonna do. And that's what we wanna do for our customers, right? But we can't force someone to take our help. It's like people will come here, help me, help me, help me, and then go, oh, I don't want your help like that.

Well, we know how to do it, but it's just, it, it's painful because you don't want to watch someone let, especially behaviors that we know we can fix. You don't wanna watch someone let those behaviors continue and watch things unravel and watch that relationship go further and further down the tubes. Not that it can't be saved, right? It's never too late, but it definitely gets harder. Like you're making it harder on yourself, 'cause you're gonna have more work to do later to dig yourself outta that hole.

So much value in learning how to set boundaries and stop behaviors now while your puppy is young and just select the behaviors that you're gonna go after. What's the priority, right? Because you can't go after them all. Like I said, management. But I think this is the biggest thing that gets in the way of people raising the most balanced, confident, respectful dog possible. Because the relationship is so wildly imbalanced from the beginning. And the people are treated like littermates and they do become doormats. And sometimes, depending on the nature of the dog, as they move through adolescence, maturity, we see that flourish.

19:00 — Kati distinguishes corrections from boundaries communicated through leash pressure and body language.

And then people have real problems sometimes. Like things get much, much worse. I promise you, your puppy isn't going to break if you correct them properly. <laugh> I promise I haven't had it happen yet. And for a lot of things, it's not even a quote-unquote correction, it's just setting a boundary. It's using your leash pressure, it's using your body language. It's saying, hey, don't climb all over me right now, and drawing a firm boundary there. Not everything is a correction.

Um, but even that is really, it's just un- very unnatural for people. And I think that's why I, I, I want to continue doing the puppy training piece. Um, I like helping people with that. I like showing them how to do that. Um, and I think people need it 'cause they don't know how to do it. And we tend to use our hands and we tend to be soft with our hands and to the puppy, that tends to be affection or it tends to be like a game. Um, and you don't really end up setting a boundary, which is what you're trying to do.

You don't really end up having the conversation you're trying to have, which is you're trying to draw a line, you're trying to set a rule, you're trying to ask for space. Like any of these things, um, is really, really tough 'cause people don't know how to do it.

Um, yeah, we've got some good stuff available and I plan on putting together some more. Um, so online resources are a great idea if you need help with that. Setting boundaries with your puppy, developing leash communication with your puppy, um, and just learning how to start to integrate them into family life in a way that reduces frustration and chaos and results in you communicating the things you're actually trying to communicate to your puppy in an effective way. Um, and that ranges from everything from structure and management to leash pressure and corrections. Um, and then again, tons and tons of food stuff for like the commands and the door manners and the stuff we're trying to teach.

But you have to have an inhibitor, right? So you hear me say that all the time, like you can reward what you want all day long. That's awesome. That's amazing. I think you should do that 110%. But if you're seeing things that need to be inhibited, you have to inhibit it, you have to punish it, you have to correct it. And there just isn't any other way around that. 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.