They Say There Are No Bad Dogs (But There Are No Good Dogs Either)

00:00 — Kati Peppe introduces Diamond K9 Dog Training’s focus on e-collar training, off-leash obedience, and…

Welcome to Off Leash and Unfiltered. Trigger warning. I'm Kati Peppe, delivering the truth in dog training.

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Off Leash and Unfiltered. I'm Kati Peppe, owner of Diamond K9 Dog Training in Biddeford, Maine. And we do primarily e-collar training for off-leash obedience and behavior modification and state of mind work. So that's primarily what we do, that's our specialty. And we do puppy raising, puppy training and that sort of thing, uh, which is a ton of fun. So that's who we are. It's what we do. And this podcast is a platform that I'm using to just spread the word, spread the information, um, because it's so hard to find.

So I know back when I had a really bad dog, oh no.

Down, hey, good.

<laugh>, sorry about that. So got Oak here with me holding it down. So, and she decided she was gonna sneak off. Um, I had a really powerful power breed dog that was dangerous. Um, I had a really hard time finding the truth. And so I'm really, really, really passionate about being super honest and transparent about this stuff and just getting the information out there for people to find. And I'm not here to convince anybody. Um, a lot, a lot of people do not agree with me. Um, I don't care. It doesn't matter. It's irrelevant. Um, if I am to be honest, they're adults, <laugh>.

So this isn't, um, a scientific study. This isn't an experiment. This isn't me theorizing. This is what I do every day, day in and day out. It's what I see with my own eyes. Um, and if you don't believe what you see with your own eyes, then you're an idiot.

Um, but that's fine. I'm still not, I'm not here to convince anybody. This information, I'm putting it out here for the people who are actually ready to receive it, the people who are desperately seeking the truth. Here it is. So, today's episode, though, isn't really quite as heavy. I wanna talk today about, um, categorizing your dog <laugh> as good or bad, because I think this actually has some pretty far-reaching implications, um, for people and their dogs and their dog training. And, um, <laugh>. As a side note, this is the third time <laugh> that I have recorded this podcast.

So my mouth is dry and I'm tired. It's getting late <laugh>. Um, yeah, so it's probably not gonna be a super long one 'cause it's the third time I've done it, uh, which is good. Maybe I'll be more succinct and I can take all this information and kind of concentrate it into a shorter, shorter episode for you guys.

03:00 — Kati argues that good-or-bad labels are unhelpful because dogs lack a human moral compass.

Um, but categorizing your dog is good or bad, is not helpful. It's not helpful at all. So what I mean by that is, well, you know, here's the thing. Dogs don't, they're not human guys. They don't have a moral compass, right? So they're not good or evil. Uh, they don't have the advanced cognitive abilities that we do. They don't go through the thought processes that we do. So your dog, literally, they cannot be good or bad in that sense. And you know, it's funny because when I talk to people, like, especially during my phone consultations, nine, 9% of the time they tell me their dog is a good dog.

Maybe, maybe it's even closer to a hundred percent, but almost all the time, they, they feel the need to tell me that their dog is a good dog. Uh, and, and sometimes they're really not, right?

They're doing terrible stuff. They're biting their own family. And like, if that's a good dog, I'd hate to see a bad one. <laugh>, okay? But it's important to people that I acknowledge their dog is usually a good dog, except for when, you know, he is out murdering people or, you know, whatever. That'd be a very extreme case, but you get my drift. You get my drift. And I do believe it gets in our way when you look at things that way. Um, and in both directions. Even if you ca- categorize your dog as a bad dog, I that'll get in your way too.

I wanna talk a little bit about that and dissect that just a little bit. Um, and then I'm gonna move on to one other thing that's related. But here's what happened. We tend to assign our dog the good dog status, right? And that gets in our way because then we feel guilty when we punish things. And I don't globalize often, guys, I don't use the words always, never or all or none hardly ever, because I really like to be precise in my speech, but I'm gonna use it here.

A wide range of consequences, including punishment, absolutely necessary for all dogs, all of them, yours included, has nothing to do with whether they're good or bad dogs. Even the best dogs are gonna have behaviors that need to be punished if you want things to be reliable, okay? So that's just a fact. That just is what it is. Behavior's not reliable without eventually adding in punishment.

So there's that, right? And so if you just, oh, my dog's a good dog. He, he's, you know, he is a good dog most of the time except for this, you know, then you tend, those people tend not to do the hard stuff, or at least they don't do it as well or as much as they should because they think of their dog as a good dog who doesn't need it, right? But all dogs need it. All dogs need it. The other reason that thinking of your dog as quote unquote a good dog is that we tend to put them in positions that we shouldn't.

And that's really unfair to them, right? So here's an example. I had a dog for board-and-train, uh, really nice dog, playful, great personality, um, seemingly friendly, you know, affectionate, goofy, great dog, great family dog. She went home from her training, she was doing really well.

07:00 — A seemingly friendly dog bit someone after training, challenging the assumption that a good…

But when I saw them at their follow-up, guess what? She had bitten somebody. Now that doesn't surprise me because almost nothing does. Dogs are dogs. They do dog stuff. Um, but because she was categorized and boxed into this good dog category, right, to most people, that pretty much means biting's off the table, right? They kind of view it as black and white. Like either your dog's a biter or not a biter. They're either a good dog or a bad dog. Um, it's just simply not how it works. Dogs are dogs. They just do what comes naturally, period.

That's it. That's all there is to the dog. And what comes naturally is going to change from moment to moment and especially as they move through maturity, okay? And also I might add that, and this is why, this is why you can't trust other people to judge what their dog is capable of.

They're terrible at it, guys. They're terrible at it. People don't know what their dog is capable of because they box them into these categories. And because they tend to see the best side of their dog, like from a relationship perspective, right? Their dog knows them, they have a relationship with them, they have a history with them, they trust them, so they see the best side of their dog in that sense. But then you have that dog interact with a stranger and you might get something totally different or you might suddenly get a behavior that's different, right?

And people don't realize that. They think, nope, good dog, lovable dog, friendly dog, social dog, affectionate dog. So she's a safe dog. No, that's not how it works. And so then we put our dog in situations where we shouldn't, with strangers, with dogs they don't know. And then the shit hits the fan. And so that's not fair.

So then all of a sudden, this dog has to deal with all this pressure and all these situations that they don't know what to do with, people and dogs that they don't know, relationships they don't have. Um, because a good dog should be able to handle that. And that's just messed up <laugh>. It's messed up and it opens the door for problems. Now, I've had the flip side too, um, where people kind of categorize their dog as like a bad dog and they don't give them the trust that they've earned. And so they never really get to the point where they can trust their dog.

Like even though, right? And there are some dogs you, you never can trust in certain situations, but I've definitely seen that effect where I know the dog is way capable of these things. And this, you know, these people won't, won't take that step because they can't get outta the mindset that their dog is bad.

10:00 — Kati describes two Labs whose jumping, pulling, and other uncontrolled behaviors improved after training.

Um, and <laugh>, I have a couple of examples that I can think of. And they're both Labs <laugh>, oddly enough. So, and neither one of them were really aggressive dogs. Um, but just completely out of control. Wild, wild behavior, pulling, jumping, um, and really strong dogs too, barking in one case. Um, they were really reactive to other dogs. So we have that. Um, but in the other one, just like food thief, not listening, jumping, pulling, not coming back when called, like you name it, just a really difficult dog, super excitable, um, type of dog. And after a training program, man, this dog is amazing.

His impulse control is amazing. Uh, he can execute, right? And he's still excitable. He is still kind of a rambunctious guy. Like if you just leave him to his own, um, devices, but he listens and he can listen when it's hard and he does it and he's great.

Um, and I know what he's capable of, but his family is kinda stuck in a place where they don't trust him with certain things. And these are things that I trust him with all the time when he is with me, 'cause he comes back periodically for boarding sometimes when they're away. Um, and so I was surprised to hear that, like, there are things like that that they're not doing with him that usually pertains to, like, company coming over, like having him in the room or leaving him alone in the car or like any of these things, um, that I know he, he can totally do, right?

But they're so stuck in this mind that, that they're not gonna be able to control him because that's the type of dog he is. And it's like, but we've changed these behaviors, we've changed those behaviors. You put in the work, changed it, he can do it now.

So now you're gonna take that next step and trust him. And I'm not saying people should take unnecessary risks, especially if they have like a, a dangerous dog or a dog that, you know, engages in dangerous behaviors. Uh, but at the same time, you know, whether you categorized your dog as a good dog or a bad dog, whether you've struggled, you know, um, with either one of those things, you wanna really take the emotions out of it and take the categorization out of it and really look at things on a micro level. Look at the individual behaviors instead of the dog as a whole.

Um, because that will lead you down the wrong road.

Okay? Dogs are dogs. They do what comes naturally. They do good things, they do bad things, they do things we like, things we don't like. And your dog is capable of both. And you have to look at each behavior standing on its own and just address it. Good behaviors and bad behaviors alike. Nurture the ones you like, extinguish the ones you don't like, and don't feel the need to label your dog as a whole, right? Or feel like you can't trust your dog because of this one thing thing. So again, use good judgment. I'm not saying trust your dog where you shouldn't.

Um, but yeah, you gotta look at the behaviors individually and not label your dog's personality just based on a behavior, a single behavior, okay?

Um, but that piece about people seeing the best version of their dog with them, that was kind of the piece I I wanted to talk about at the end. And I know I touched on it earlier. Um, but that's why you can't trust people to judge their own dog because they see the best version of them and they just assume that's their dog, right? Their dog isn't capable of anything else except what they see with them in their house. And that just simply isn't true. And even if they do normally let their dog interact with strangers or other dogs, like even then, even then, just because what they've seen so far is what they've seen doesn't mean there's nothing else in there.

14:00 — Changing circumstances can produce unfamiliar behaviors, so a history of friendliness does not guarantee…

It doesn't. Behavior is somewhat unpredictable, right? Reality is chaotic, the environment is chaotic, and it just takes the right combination of things to occur for you to suddenly see a behavior you've never seen before. And so, man, there's no one I'd be more leery of than someone that says, "My dog is friendly." <laugh> I'll tell you what, that's one you gotta watch out for. <laugh> That is a person you can't trust, right? And of course, I'm half joking here. I'm not, like, if it's a a person you have a relationship with, I'm not saying you actually can't trust them, but you cannot trust their judgment with their dog.

No, you cannot. You cannot because they don't know.

For some reason, everybody has it in their head that their dog is only capable of things they've already seen them do. And that's just stupid. I mean, when you think about it, right? That's like saying, "Oh, my dog is never gonna do anything for the first time." Like, of course they are. Of course they are. So I have customers whose dogs have been great and then all of a sudden they chew up their door and they're like, they call me and they're like, "Why did she do this?" And I'm like, "I don't know. She thought it'd be a good idea."

Like, it was there. She got the urge to chew on it. So she did. And that's it. Like, we don't have to complicate it any more than that, right? And it's the same thing when someone gets bit, it's like, "Why did she do that?" It's like, well, there may very well be reasons, like maybe this has been coming for a while and you just missed all the red flags. Highly likely, actually, but it doesn't matter. Something in that scenario triggered a bite. And that's totally plausible for any dog. They all bite, guys.

So it pays to remember that your dog isn't good, your dog isn't bad, your dog is just a dog, they're doing dog things. And you shouldn't trust your dog. You should trust your training. So if you do the training and you see the result, then start opening up that door and trust your dog a little bit in a safe manner, right? But that way, 'cause you wanna enjoy their training to the fullest. Do not trust your dog simply because they're a good dog, right? Trust them because you've trained them for the, those specific situations. Don't trust your dog just because they're supposed to be a good dog.

17:00 — Kati closes by urging owners to train desired behaviors, judge trust through observed results,…

That's stupid. And it puts them in unfair situations. And I think that's it. I think that's it. So stop categorizing your dogs, <laugh>, stop putting them in unfair situations. Um, stop taking things personally, right? Your dog's not good or bad, they're just doing dog stuff. And get after it, guys. Get after it. Train for the stuff you want. And, um, decide whether or not you can trust your dog based on actual results and what you see with your own eyes. <laugh> That's it for today, guys. Thanks so much for joining me and I look forward to the next one.