CESAR: When my journey
began as the Dog Whisperer, I taught the world,
there is no such a
thing as a bad dog. Today, my message
has evolved. But it's clear that people
and dogs still need help. WOMAN: The problem is me.
CESAR: He needs rehab
like ASAP. WOMAN: I just don't
want you to get bit. CESAR: Do you know
who I am? Together with my superhero
pack, our mission is to
create better humans and better dogs one
pack at a time. A pack with two dogs
fighting is dangerous, but a pack with three
dogs fighting is a
red zone emergency. I'm in my way to Huntington
Beach, where two dogs have
been in combat for years. Now, the pet parent added
a third dog into the pack. And that dog is now becoming
just as aggressive. This is an explosive
situation. They can potentially
end up in a dog death or
someone in a hospital. I need to address
this immediately. SUSIE: I'm Susie. It's hard being an
empty nester and your
kids are grown and don't really rely on
you for a lot anymore. So, it's great that
now I've got these dogs and
they're kind of my purpose. They're a little too
much of my purpose. I've got Isabella and
she's an English Bulldog. Had Izzy the longest. She is about eight
years old now. She is not the smartest
dog in the world,
but she is very sweet. Kane showed up when he
was about four weeks old. That was three years ago. He is 95-pound Staffy
Pit, Cane Corso mix. I always say he's
like Shrek. He has no idea how big
and terrifying he is, but
he's just a big heart. And then Tricky is
new to the pack. She came here about six
months ago and Tricky is
just under a year old. And she's also a
little Pit Bull mix. She is probably one
of the most affectionate
dogs that I've ever seen. I love them so much. And I don't like really
talking about these things, but I went through a great
deal of trauma in a very
short amount of time. They were what I needed
to not feel alone with
all of the things that I was dealing with,
but I signed up for more
than I can handle. Kane and Izzy used
to be best buddies. When Kane was about a
year old, that changed
pretty significantly. (barking sound) I'm scared to death when
they go at each other, because when the fights
have happened in the past, they all required
stitches and surgery. One time I was walking in
the kitchen, Izzy started
growling, Kane started growling,
and he went after her. Kane grabbed Izzy by
the back of the neck. He was just shaking her
around like a ragdoll. And I was afraid he
was gonna turn on me because I was trying
to get him off of her. And I could just, I
could hear the cry. Finally, got a hold of
Kane's collar and I don't
have a lot of control. So, I broke my
finger doing this. But he let her go. And then I just had to
clean up all the blood. And I, I don't ever wanna
experience that again. I was afraid he
was gonna kill her. (barking sound) And just last night, Izzy
and Tricky got into it, and I had to pull
them apart, separate them and get
them in the crate. So now I've got three dogs
that can't be left alone
or together. Nobody's getting what
they need. I can't walk them
together. Dogs are with me 24/7. Can't have family and
friends freely come over. (barking sound) I, I just don't want
anybody, dog, human to
get hurt. I love these dogs, but
this can't continue. If things don't change
soon, my sanity is at stake. I've gotta get this fixed so
that my pack can be at peace because right now I
live my life worried and it's just
not good for anybody. I desperately need help. Hello.
CESAR: Susie. SUSIE: Come on in.
CESAR: How are you? Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
SUSIE: Nice to meet you. CESAR: Ooh. (barking sound) SUSIE: Down.
CESAR: Okay. (barking sound) SUSIE: I'm living in
controlled chaos. CESAR: It's pretty,
pretty strong. The energy in the
house is really strong. I just walk in and I feel
a, a boulder, a mountain
of pressure, you know? Like this aspiration
of I need help. How long you've been
like, like this? SUSIE: So, I'd say about
two years ago, Izzy and
Kane began fighting. And now with Tricky here,
it's just getting worse. CESAR: This pack's energy
even when they're quiet, it's like an explosion
ready to go off with the
slightest spark. My own energy has
to be perfect. Tell me about
the fights. SUSIE: The Kane fights
are just awful. CESAR: These two fight?
SUSIE: These two Izzy
and Tricky, they got into a fight just
last night, actually. CESAR: What are their
triggers? SUSIE: With Izzy and
Tricky, if I'm giving
one attention, the other one wants
the attention and
they go at it. Then when they get riled
up, Kane gets riled up and will bust
through anything. Whenever there's excitement,
if he hears something,
he's gotta regulate. CESAR: Okay.
SUSIE: Anyone, a human
or dog gets agitated, Kane, he's gotta get in
there and he's always
gotta regulate the energy. Kane is the problem
because he's just so big and he will overcorrect
and hurt somebody. He will grab the dogs,
shake 'em around, pin
'em down, and they've gone to
the hospital. They've
gotten infections. I've gotten bit in
the middle of it. CESAR: Okay. And do you
get any help? SUSIE: I have gone through
five trainers and I still
can't stop the fights. CESAR: It's alarming to
learn that Susie worked
with five trainers and the chaos is only
getting worse. SUSIE: I can't live
like this. So, I mean, I would
love to be able to
make this work. But three dogs are in
this constant chaos and
it's not sustainable. CESAR: Susie is right.
This is not sustainable because one of these dogs
is going to get killed or Susie is going to
end up in the hospital. It's a pressure cooker
in there, just waiting
to explode. Bringing Kane into this
energy will just pour
fuel on the fire. So, I need to keep him
separate while I evaluate
Tricky and Izzy. And this excitement,
is it normal to you? SUSIE: That's normal.
They're happy to see me.
CESAR: Oh. SUSIE: It's kind of like.
CESAR: That's your
interpretation? SUSIE: Yeah. CESAR: Okay. She's allowing
excitement, you know? Excitement does not
equal happiness. Excited dogs can get into
fight, calm dogs don't. SUSIE: Right. Usually
when they get excited is when something happens. Tricky gets in Izzy's
space, Izzy doesn't
like it, and then it starts
something. CESAR: That's how a lot
of dog lovers get into
trouble, right? They see excitement as
a way of happiness and the dogs they see
excitement as a way of
challenging each other. Now, when they're excited,
how do you bring that
energy back down? Do you do anything
about it? Like take
the, the toy away? SUSIE: Yeah.
CESAR: Can I see that? SUSIE: Tricky,
come here. Sit. No. Tricky, come
here. Sit. Let me have it.
Leave it. Uh-uh. Isabella. It's a fight
waiting to happen. CESAR: Uh-hmm. Just to
avoid fights. Izzy twice tried to take
the toy from Tricky. Tricky challenged
her right back.
SUSIE: Uh-uh. CESAR: And Izzy
growl in her face. SUSIE: She's not
gonna give it up.
CESAR: She's not? SUSIE: No. She's not
gonna give it up. CESAR: Susie needs to step
in and give discipline to
deescalate, but instead she
backs down. When I say discipline, I
mean, she needs to guide the dogs to obey rules
and respect boundaries,
as showing leadership. You need to show Tricky
leadership, but you
give up too quickly. SUSIE: Yeah.
CESAR: Right. And, and so, but look how
the pupils get dilated. This energy isn't playful.
Tricky is challenging me. The more the pupils get
dilated, the more they
bring this energy. Dilated pupils like that
are a sign Tricky thinks she's fighting over prey,
not playing with a toy. When a dog hunts, its
nervous system will
flood with adrenaline, which increases her chance
of securing her prey. But in this case, it's
totally inappropriate. It tells me for Tricky,
this isn't play. The more you fight with
them or the more you invite
them to fight you back, the more their brain goes
into this excited way. And it's more difficult
for them to calm down. That's what excites,
that's what excites her. Susie gives up too quickly
instead of following
through enforcing rules. So Tricky has learned
if she waits it out, she
gets to keep the toy. So your dogs don't
respect you. We need to establish
rules so they know what
is not allowed. Right now, she can't
touch any toys. It is like being referee. The referee tells LeBron
James when that ball moves. Look, she ignored my
correction and went
and got another toy. He's killing it. Look at the eyes,
film the eyes. That's pretty dangerous.
They go like this. Well, that's exactly
what happen when they
kill an animal. SUSIE: Oh.
CESAR: There's somewhere
else killing the thing. Again, Tricky's eyes are
telling me the whole story. Right now, her mind is
totally focused on
killing the toy. This is extremely
dangerous. Especially since Susie
hasn't showed Tricky to
respect rules or boundaries. Tsss, tsss I'm gonna take it
away from her. SUSIE: But she can't
chew on it. CESAR: She
can't chew. No.
SUSIE: Okay. I was shocked to learn that
the way Tricky was playing with the toy could be
correlated to her killing
an animal. I thought she was soothing
herself by chewing. It is scary to think I've
been encouraging a behavior that actually could have
led to something
dangerous happening. CESAR: Tsss. Hey.
SUSIE: Isabella. CESAR: Hey. Tricky's
excitement has made
Izzy tense, but we address the same
way by following through
with consequences. I just want her to have
some kind of consequence for the growl 'cause
when she growls, I
opened the door. She wanted to come
out. Uh-uh. You're not coming
out after that growl. Tsss SUSIE: She does that
a lot in the crate. CESAR: Because nobody
has told her that's not
a way to communicate. You're allowing a lot
of primal behavior.
SUSIE: Yeah CESAR: Literally you have
like Jurassic Park inside
your house. SUSIE: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
(growling sound) CESAR: So those are
Jurassic Park sounds. When I say primal, I
mean these are the
kinds of sounds and behaviors found
in wild dogs. They hunt to eat and
survive on instincts. When a wild pack encounters
another wild pack, sometimes it's kill
or be killed. That is a super
dangerous energy to
have inside a house. SUSIE: There was no, if
there was no human here
and these two dogs. CESAR: No. They'd kill
each other. SUSIE: Met themselves
in the wild. CESAR: They'd kill
each other. I'm really worried about
what I seen with Tricky
and Izzy. But now, it's time for
me to evaluate Kane. (dog barking) Go get Kane.
SUSIE: Okay. CESAR: While Susie leashes
up Kane, I step out to
re-center myself. My energy has to be perfect
because I can hear Kane is
already in a violent state. (dog barking) I'm waiting and I hear that
sound is like, oh, my God. (dog barking) That sound says everything. SUSIE: Come on. CESAR: When I started,
I was in South Central. Unfortunately, there was
a lot of people there
that will fight dogs and you can hear the sound
before they actually go
hurt each other. SUSIE: Tricky. Come on in. CESAR: See, that's
the sound. That's a
killing sound. CESAR: Will somebody
take care of that one? SUSIE: Tricks. CESAR: I need to, go over. I can tell a lot from
a dog's bark based on the
pitch, energy, and intent. With Kane, the combination
of the high pitch, frustrated energy, and
aggressive intent, tell me that he could attack
if he's given the chance. A hazard of Izzy who's
already tense, and Tricky, the overexcited
young Pit Bull. To prevent the fight,
my handler Jaime will take
Tricky to a different room. That should dial down
the pressure a little. So at least we deal
with one bite at a time.
SUSIE: Yeah. Uh-uh. CESAR: That's all right.
Yeah, it's too late. Pass me the leash.
Yeah. Now, you go back
and breathe. There you go. So, I used the leash just
to remind him to go to
calm surrender. SUSIE: Wow. That was
kind of amazing.
CESAR: Right? SUSIE: Kane got really
calm with Cesar in the
first minute or so. This gives me a
glimmer of hope. CESAR: Kane went from that
high pitch, dangerous bark (dog barking) to lying down in calm
surrender after a
single correction. Susie said that he often
plays the enforcer, but at heart, he seems
like a gentle giant. Provided, he gets the right
discipline from Susie and
the right energy. It's really about calm
energy with confidence.
SUSIE: Okay. CESAR: That I use
the right energy. That's why he
surrendered so fast. That's why he gave
up the control to me.
SUSIE: Right. CESAR: Our job is to make
sure that the energy gets
stabilized ASAP. SUSIE: Okay.
CESAR: But it's hard
for you to give the calm, healthy energy in this
space. Your house is heavy.
It's heavy, the energy. I feel pressure in
my chest. SUSIE: Me too. CESAR: You see what I mean?
SUSIE: It's mine. I'm sorry. I guess I've gotten so
comfortable in chaos.
CESAR: Yeah. SUSIE: That's my,
that's normal. CESAR: Yeah. But I'm
feeling something else. So, in order for me
to help your pack, we need to find out where
this energy's coming from. I'm not just here to
see a dog. I need to
see everything because everything matters. What I have found is it's
important for us humans to have someone to share
with where we feel safe. What's the biggest
energy you are feeling?
The negative one? SUSIE: Isolation. Yeah.
CESAR: Yeah. SUSIE: I don't talk
about these things.
CESAR: Right. SUSIE: I don't have
anyone to talk to. I lost my mom in 2016,
and shortly after that, my daughter was in
a mass shooting. -Sorry.
-Mhmmmm. She was in the Las Vegas
shooting and she called me in the middle of
the shooting. She made it out okay. I got through the mass
shooting situation and, you know, in the middle
of all this, my husband
had severe combat PTSD, and was severely
triggered and hurt me.
CESAR: Uh-hmm. SUSIE: And we split.
That re-traumatized me
all over again, and I didn't have
anybody there for me. And starting to realize
that, you know, all of this
trauma compounds, compounds, compounds,
compounds. And so, I'm here already
and it's just put Izzy here and then Kane gets here,
and then Tricky comes in. And it's too much.
CESAR: Yeah. SUSIE: I was just so
completely emotionally
overwhelmed and shaken, and I'm exhausted
because I'm trying to
survive all the time. CESAR: Because you're
running on empty. SUSIE: A 100 percent
CESAR: Yeah. SUSIE: Yeah. I've run on
empty for a long time. CESAR: Yeah. And they
sense it that you're
running an empty. Susie has faced more trauma
in the past seven years than anyone should
ever have to bear. And she admits it's left
her emotionally exhausted. That leads to feelings
of isolation and lack
of motivation. Susie needs to address
that exhaustion as
soon as possible because it's led to her
abandoning the
leadership of her pack. And the result is
total chaos. Each dog has their
own issues. Tricky is overexcited,
Izzy is tense, and Kane aggressively
corrects the other two. But if Susie gave them
calm, confident leadership and provided rules,
boundaries, and limitations, each dog will be
able to stay calm and the fight will be
a thing of the past. Instead, Susie has given up. SUSIE: She's not
gonna give it up. CESAR: She's not?
SUSIE: No. She's not
gonna give it up. CESAR: She thinks bad
behavior is unavoidable
and backs down. And so, the pack has
resorted to instinct. Communicating and playing
in primal ways, and fighting over
everything. These are big, powerful
dogs without limits. The next fight could
potentially end in a
dog's death or send her to the
hospital. I need to get the dogs and
her to the DPC to begin
work immediately. You need help.
SUSIE: Yeah. CESAR: So, I want to
invite you to the DPC. Come to my ranch, it's
43 acres, it's beautiful. And I will guide you and
support you along with my
team, right. So, you're not going
to be isolated. You are not alone. We
will do it together. At the same time, they get
rehabilitated right away. SUSIE: Okay.
CESAR: Is that okay? SUSIE: Yup. I cannot wait
to get my life back. Spending my energy,
enjoying things instead
of managing chaos. Thank you. CESAR: We got you. NARRATOR: The following
morning. SUSIE: Okay. Take a
deep breath. NARRATOR: Susie heads to
the DPC with Kane, Izzy,
and Tricky. SUSIE: All right, guys.
We're off to Cesar's. You make me nervous. You need to learn how
to be new dogs together. CESAR: There they
are. Today's going to
be an intense day, not just for Susie
and this pack, but for me and my team
as well. All right, guys, this
is a red zone case. I wanted you guys
to be super safe. Three dogs, that's
just a lot of dog.
Follow my lead. I have got to make
sure we all have the
right energy and move slowly
and deliberately. I will not allow
anyone to get hurt. Get ready. SUSIE: Isabella, Tricky,
Kane, we're at the DPC. NARRATOR: Susie arrives at
the ranch with her pack. Tense bulldog Izzy,
overexcited pit mix Tricky, and Kane, the aggressive
enforcer. Due to emotional exhaustion
after a series of life
traumas. SUSIE: I'm exhausted
because I'm trying to
survive all the time. CESAR: Right.
NARRATOR: Susie has abandoned
her role as pack leader, and the result is
increasingly vicious
pack fights. CESAR: How are you? Do
you want to open it, so
they have some air? SUSIE: Yes.
CESAR: Yeah. So, how's it going? SUSIE: So last night,
the situation with Izzy
and Tricky is escalating. And I mean zero
to a hundred. They're just constantly
going at it. I am over my limit already
with Izzy and Kane. And now Izzy and Tricky
are getting in fights. It's happening multiple
times. I don't know what I'm
dealing with those girls. CESAR: Who starts it?
SUSIE: This one. Izzy starts growling,
and hissing, and
biting, and scratching. And I don't understand
why she's doing it.
CESAR: Okay. So right now,
they're doing good. Well, she was doing good. Oh, wow. Tricky
wants to fight.
SUSIE: Okay. CESAR: That's a bark
of fight.
SUSIE: It is. Okay. CESAR: Packs should get
along like a happy family. A pack that fights like
this is abnormal, and it
happens because Susie is not giving
discipline or calm,
confident leadership. But it's also because
Susie doesn't recognize the
signs a fight is brewing. SUSIE: So, when Cesar says
that sound could trigger a
fight, my stomach just sinks. All of the little things
that I've been experiencing all actually have a
really big meaning. And I was, I've been
missing it all this time. CESAR: A pack walk
is usually where
the pack bonds. SUSIE: Okay.
CESAR: What has it been
like when you walk them? SUSIE: I haven't even
tried to take Kane and Izzy on a walk
together since the
last big fight. And I can't let all three
of them walk together. CESAR: No. None of the
dogs had bonded on
walks recently. It's a huge part
of why they fight. (dog barking) The ultimate goal will be
turning these dogs back
into a true pack. But for now, we must work
with them one on one. Let's get him out first. Susie said that Kane
plays the enforcer with the other two dogs when they
get tense or overexcited. Now that Tricky is
barking, he's getting
Kane worked up. Susie needs to
calm him back down. Before you get him
out, we have to, we have to remove
him from that sound. That sound means he's
getting excited and anxious. SUSIE: Okay, back.
Kane. Wait. CESAR: Let me see. (exhales) He's super tense. Let's all stay calm so we
don't feed the aggression. Don't get him out yet,
okay? He needs to be
total calm surrender. SUSIE: Okay. CESAR: If you don't
have calmness, safe
goes out the way. He reacts to the
tension you give him.
SUSIE: Yeah. Uh-uh. CESAR: And he can
get aggressive. SUSIE: Kane, sit. Wait. CESAR: He's patient,
but he's not calm. You have to learn the
difference between quiet
tense versus quiet calm. SUSIE: Right. CESAR: Be patient. Let
him figure it out. So that's the boundary,
that's the rule. You wait until he comes
down and then he can move. That's calm.
Bring him out. SUSIE: Okay. Come. CESAR: So here, yeah,
put them over there. Stay calm. All right. This
is promising. Susie was able to get
Kane into calm surrender. It's the first time I've
seen her follow through
with discipline. Usually her emotional
exhaustion leads her
to just giving up. SUSIE: She's not
gonna give it up. CESAR: So, this
is progress. And because Kane is now
calm, I'm going to have
Susie nurture that calmness by
letting him play with
her in the Serengeti. Connecting with Kane
one-on-one in a playful
way will help Susie reset her tense
energy as well. Yeah, you can go
through this.
SUSIE: Okay. CESAR: Easy door right here.
SUSIE: Okay. Come here. CESAR: That's bad.
That's bad. NARRATOR: The overexcited
pit makes Tricky begins to make the high
aggressive growl that Cesar heard yesterday
at Susie's house. CESAR: It's a fighting
sound. It's a killing sound. NARRATOR: The sound tells
Cesar it's not safe for Tricky
to be around other dogs, especially her tense
packmate, Izzy. CESAR: I need to safely get
Tricky out of her crate and burn up some of her
excess energy before I
work with her. Because Jaime will be
assisting me with
Tricky's rehabilitation, and he's an experienced
handler, I'm going to have
him take the leap with her while I work with Izzy. He needs to move extra
carefully to not
provoke aggression. He's getting a little
excited. This excitement
is unhealthy. But right now, I want
to, I want to make sure
that Jaimeto practice everything he
knows, assessing and
evaluating. Yes. Calm confident.
There you go. She's coming down
because Jaime's calm. Next, I like Jaime
to remove the muzzle. Tricky has calmed down
a little, so it's safe
to do this. But Jaime has to move
carefully to keep tricky from getting back into
an aggressive mindset. The hand has to be done
in the right place. The leash has to be done
in the right place because
we can't make a mistake. Take the muzzle off. CESAR: Okay. How did
you feel? JAIME: Oh, she's a
little alert. CESAR: Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, take it off. NARRATOR: Overexcited
pit mix Tricky along with
her tense pack mate Izzy, and playful enforcer Kane
constantly trigger fights with each other because
emotionally exhausted pet mom Susie doesn't follow
through with leadership. SUSIE: Uh-uh.
CESAR: Tricky's overexcited
aggressiveness could easily trigger
her pack mate Izzy, just like it was getting
Kane worked up a few
moments ago. I need my handler Jaime
to get her out of her
crate slowly to keep things
from escalating. So, every movement that
Jaimeto is making I'm
right here supervising. Yeah. We have no
room for error. JAIME: Here baby...
CESAR: That was beautiful. We're gonna need
the bike. Jaime was fully calm
confident, so tricky
allow him to remove the muzzle
without becoming
aggressive, and her high pitched
violent growl has stopped. That's bad. Because the pack fights
prevent Susie from
walking them, Tricky is bursting
with pent up energy that must be burned off
before she's allowed
near any other dog. Just not the right moment
for her to meet dogs and now is the right
moment for her to run
that energy out. And then you can
just, you're just
gonna let her rip. JAIME: Wanna get on?
CESAR: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Slowly. Slowly.
There you go. Let's get Izzy. NARRATOR: Izzy, the seven
year old bulldog gets
tense easily. CESAR: Slow.
NARRATOR: So Cesar
must be cautious to avoid triggering
aggression. CESAR: Right now,
she's calm. You know. There you go. Okay. Uh-oh. She got tense. Look, look, when she
gets tense, she gets
really still. Uh-oh. So, her being
tense can lead that
to aggression. Yeah, you have to be
very careful because
they can snap on you. Susie never leads or
follows through with
consequences. So, Izzy is not used to
somebody telling her
what to do. She's calm, but
totally confused. She has no idea where
she is. She sees Susie up
there with Kane. Oh, look at that. Kane
is being so happy go
lucky. I love it. SUSIE: Come on, Kaners.
Let's go. (laughs) CESAR: This is a
strange new place for
Izzy, so I want to see how she reacts when she
sees Kane's familiar face. SUSIE: Go see your
friend, Kane. CESAR: Look at Izzy,
look how tense she gets
at the fence. Look, Kane was happy go
lucky with Susie, now he's
excited from Izzy's tension. They're supposed to be
happy seeing each other. That's what pack mates
should do. They're family. They should be happy go
lucky, greeting each other, or calm surrender
greeting each other,
not dominant or tense. They had a lot of
fights over the years, but dogs don't usually
hold onto that. Izzy shouldn't be so
tense around Kane,
her oldest pack mate. I'm going to introduce
her to a pack of my
calmest dogs so I can teach her how to
relax instead of tensing up.
Susie? SUSIE: Yes, sir. CESAR: I want Lisa to
take Kane.
SUSIE: Okay. CESAR: And then we can
focus on bringing my pack so I can get to see
her a lot more with
different dogs. SUSIE: Okay. CESAR: I'm going to
have Izzy meet Sophia,
Lucio, and Blue, three of my most
well-balanced dogs. It should be impossible for
her to stay tense around
these three dogs. SUSIE: This will be
interesting. I really don't have
any idea which way
it's gonna go. I'm hoping that Izzy gets
along with the other dogs, but I also want everybody
to see what I'm seeing. CESAR: The reason why we're
bringing her around in my
pack is because, you know, this is a new pack, so
instincts have to
surrender to a new pack. SUSIE: Okay.
CESAR: Yeah. So it's like going to
a new school. SUSIE: Yeah, you
have to assimilate. CESAR: You have to,
like, yeah.
SUSIE: Yeah. CESAR: You have to cue
off the other dogs not just follow her old
aggressive habits. Hold on. See that? Holy moly.
Look at her. See? She went and peed on top
of that. It just shows
you how dominant she is. This is actually
pretty serious. Dogs use pee to mark
territory or even just to
say hello to other dogs. But Izzy marking the spot
that Lucio just marked is
a direct challenge to him. She just met these
playful new dogs and her instinct is to
show dominance because
she's used to the dog eat dog environment
that Susie allowed at home. And it's going to
potentially lead to a fight
here too, unless I stop it. Tsss, tsss. So, after she went and
peed, she went, she got
really cocky about it. SUSIE: Yeah.
CESAR: Because he's, so, I went in and
snap her out of it. I have to let her know
that she can't just do
whatever she wants. SUSIE: So, I should
correct that behavior. CESAR: At one point.
SUSIE: I see. CESAR: You're supposed
to tell the dog, This
is off limits. SUSIE: Right.
CESAR: This is the rules. This is, you know,
the boundaries. I can see now that it's not
that Susie has given up teaching her dogs
how to obey rules. She doesn't know when or
how to do it correctly. So, in addition to
recharging her
emotional batteries so she can move on
from her trauma, she also needs to learn
how to read these dogs so she can anticipate
fights before they arise. SUSIE: What I noticed with
Izzy is it's, she's okay with other dogs until I
start giving them affection. CESAR: Let me see
that part.
SUSIE: Okay. CESAR: And then you,
and then you move in.
SUSIE: Okay. CESAR: So, you can
trigger it.
SUSIE: There he is. CESAR: Here's Blue coming.
Give affection to Blue. SUSIE: Hey, Blue. Hi, Blue. Oh, now, you are jealous. CESAR: Hold on. She's
getting tensed. She was about to
jump on him. (growling. barking) CESAR: See how I cut
him in the moment?
SUSIE: Yes. CESAR: You saw how,
ta, ta, ta.
SUSIE: Yeah. CESAR: So, she was
about to do that to him. Uh... And then she just
redirects the anger. SUSIE: She does that,
she, kind of, air snaps. CESAR: Air snap. Like
Pac-Man, you know?
SUSIE: Yeah. CESAR: Obviously, it's
important to follow through. So, if you don't do
anything about it,
Izzy never learns that she needs to
stay calm in situations that usually
makes her tense. I'm going to pet Blue
and she has to stay calm. Then, she can't walk
away because then, if
she walks away, she doesn't
learn anything. Now, Izzy is trying to
avoid a tense situation by walking away instead
of calming down. Usually, Susie lets the
dog avoid consequences
to her misbehavior but I won't allow
it or else, she'll never learn how
to get calm when she's
stressed. She can't get calm. She doesn't know how
to calm surrender. Instead of calmness,
she's gonna keep pacing.
SUSIE: Yeah, she's not. CESAR: You know what I mean?
SUSIE: Sat down
or laid down once. CESAR: That's,
that's not normal. SUSIE: She's like
that at home too. CESAR: She paces?
SUSIE: all the time. CESAR: She's anxious
because you never gave
calm confident discipline. So, your dog's getting
anxious because nobody
is giving them direction. SUSIE: Right. I had no idea
that Izzy's pacing was because of my lack
of leadership. She's been doing this her
whole life. I felt awful. I feel so guilty because
I feel, like, I did this
to her. CESAR: This is not for,
like, a beginner
rehabilitator. Izzy needs much more work. But now, I wanna work
with Tricky to lower
her excitement which is like a call
to aggression for her
pack mates. Let's do a switch,
Jaimeto. I saw yesterday how
overexcited and primal
Tricky gets while playing. So today, I'm gonna use a
game of fetch with my pack
to trigger excitement so I can correct it before
it turns into aggression. I have, I have balls. That will teach her the
proper level of
excitement during play and teach Susie the
signs to look for that Tricky is getting
out of control. Look at the distance.
Look at her distance. SUSIE: Yeah, she's
right up in you.
CESAR: That's right. In the dog world,
giving space is a way
of giving respect. When you get too close,
other dogs interpret that as a challenge and
you will get a fight. But just pay attention
to how she acts around
the ball. Remember her eyes
yesterday, when she
was chewing her toy? She can go into a
primal mode. When she plays,
she's too excited.
SUSIE: Oh, really? CESAR: Yeah, that's how
wild dogs hunt and kill
their prey. It's very instinctual. And we have to snap her
out of it anytime she's
doing that. SUSIE: See now, she
hasn't put the ball down. CESAR: So, we correct that. Tsss, tss. The dog is not
respecting discipline. She's waiting it out like
she does with you, Susie. Tsss, tss. Good. Tricky is slow
to release the ball because she doesn't
respect discipline. That's because Susie
never showed her any. For the first time
in her life, Tricky is
learning there are rules. No fight, no competition. That's what I'm
saying right now. As soon as somebody
how, look. Too excited, too fast. She
needs the leash again. We have to let her
calm down. See that? She's crowding again.
Hey. She has no respect
to intimate space.
SUSIE: None. CESAR: She's not
backing down. Tsss. Tsss. Okay. I finally got her
to at least sit down. I did that because she came. SUSIE: Right. Right up
in your face. Exactly. CESAR: So, there's too
much intensity, right? But the more disturbing
thing, she isn't reacting
to my corrections. Look how long it
took for her. Just to put
one foot down.
SUSIE: Yeah. CESAR: Just one knee
down. One knee down. She's not feeling the
touch. She's ignoring it. When I was touching,
she was like. SUSIE: Yeah. You
wanna go? CESAR: Yeah. To me?
SUSIE: Yeah. CESAR: She's not feeling it. CESAR: Well, there's
always a first time. When I work with a dog,
the goal is to actually
touch the dog as few times as
possible. Most dogs, all it takes
is one to two touch
corrections and they quickly learn. More difficult cases,
you have to touch a
few more times. Tsss, tsss... But Tricky is the
first dog I've seen
who does not respond to corrections at all.
She's so overexcited that
she doesn't even feel it. It's very dangerous.
You know, she gets
stronger and stronger. SUSIE: It's only
gonna get, yeah.
CESAR: That's right. SUSIE: Oh, yeah. It's
intense to see Tricky kind
of square off with Cesar. Or like, "Do what you want.
I'm gonna do what I want. You don't faze me. Forty
pounds of that in
another six months, and some bad attitude,
that's an ER visit
waiting to happen. My situation is far
worse than I thought
it was gonna be. CESAR: We got to
come up with a plan. I wanna sit down with
Susie and the dogs and
explain just what an explosive situation
she has and how can we
start to fix it. SUSIE: There's my guys. CESAR: This is a pack
where each dog can incite
a fight with the other two. So, I have my full team
of handlers on standby
to keep things safe. You have three
powerful ones. Him alone is
powerful enough.
SUSIE: Uh-hmm. CESAR: Kane to me is,
is happy go lucky guy. He's powerful. Yeah, he's
on aggressive behavior. SUSIE: Yeah.
CESAR: All of that stuff. He's always ready to
jump into a fight or correct the other two
which shouldn't be his role.
SUSIE: Yeah. CESAR: Izzy over here,
that's your ticking bomb. Always tense, ready
to explode.
SUSIE: Uh-hmm. CESAR: Right? Tricky,
she's disrespectful and
intense and excited. She could trigger a fight.
SUSIE: Right. CESAR: So, your dogs, they
have different problems. But they're going to create
the same outcome, fights. And that's because you
don't see the signs they're
becoming aggressive. SUSIE: Uh-hmm.
CESAR: They don't
have rules. That combine and then
your tension, you know,
and running on, on empty, you actually became
the back of the pack. SUSIE: Right. Yeah. CESAR: You're the
person, you're, you're
a roommate, right? But you are not
leading the pack. And since, there is no
leader, there is no
discipline. And they just fight
over everything. Toys, food, getting
close to you. And so. (barking, growling) (barking, growling) CESAR: Be quiet.
Stay calm. Yeah, Good? SUSIE: Like a
flash of lightning. Izzy and Tricky are
going at it again. It's awful. I'm terrified that Izzy
or Tricky is gonna get one or the other's neck
and I was terrified
that even though he's tied down, Kane is
gonna break through that. And he's gonna do
something to intervene in the fight with Izzy
and Tricky. And to see the reaction
of everybody around, I
was frozen. And that shakes me up. CESAR: They got too
close, yeah. But I felt the end
of, like, I felt it
under my butt. As I was talking with
Susie on the couch, Tricky
went under my legs. Izzy noticed and
muscled herself in. That triggered a fight
because neither knows
how back down. And then, Kane came in to
correct the situation. It's the same behavior
I've seen over and over
since yesterday. And here you saw how they
combine in this explosive way
when they are all together. This is what happens when
the pet parent doesn't lead. Tsss, listen it took all of us
to stop the fight, at your home, that
would've gotten bloody. Two of your dogs, Izzy
and Tricky don't have
an off switch. That's not safe for
you and the pack. SUSIE: I'm just
completely overwhelmed
with these dogs. I can handle Kane
on his own. I can handle Izzy
on her own. I thought, I could
handle Tricky on her
own but even now, I'm like, I can't
even handle her.
CESAR: Uh-hmm. SUSIE: I have no idea how
to make this work now. CESAR: Uh-hmm.
Uh-hmm. SUSIE: It's overwhelming.
CESAR: Yeah, without a doubt. SUSIE: I'm not feeling
very confident that I can
handle my pack. You know, you think about
Cesar talking about
rules, boundaries, and limitations and I
feel, like, I'm beyond
my boundaries. CESAR: I mean, this
requires a lot of me.
SUSIE: Yeah. CESAR: I have to have Jaimito
to help me with this one.
SUSIE: Yeah. CESAR: even me,
I need extra help. That fight shows what a
desperate situation this is. Two of the dogs, Izzy and
Tricky are simply unable to get calm despite
repeated corrections. Which means, a fight is
possible at all times. And Kane goes from calm to
comeback in an instant. Susie needs to learn
leadership but, in
this case, it's much bigger than
that. These dogs require
radical intervention. I would like, um, to at
least, keep the bulldog Izzy for two weeks
starting right now.
SUSIE: Yeah, okay. CESAR: You continue
with Kane at home. Keep working on getting
him to calm surrender and get him out on
walks every day so he
gets more exercise. SUSIE: Okay.
CESAR: This is plenty
for you. SUSIE: Yes.
CESAR: I know, you're working
and your life, you know? And replenish that part
that is, you know, empty.
SUSIE: Yeah. CESAR: While I'm working
with Izzy here at the ranch, Susie is gonna practice
getting Kane to calm
surrender because he's a quick
learner and he's calm as
long as he's not provoked. And with a break from the
full pack, Susie can focus
on her own work, addressing her own emotional
exhaustion from the
traumas she has suffered. SUSIE: And you think
that if I continue with
him while she's away then they'll be
able to come back together? CESAR: Yes.
SUSIE: Okay. CESAR: Yes, because I'm
going to give you a
calm surrender girl. A girl with a switch.
SUSIE: Okay. Okay.
CESAR: You don't have that. SUSIE: Okay. So, you're gonna
keep Izzy for two weeks and I'm gonna work
on Kane at home. What about Tricky? What's
the plan for her? CESAR: Now comes the
hard part, Tricky. At just 10 months old,
she's growing and
learning every day how to be in a pack
and in the world. And what she has learned
from this pack is violence
and primal aggression. So, the question is,
even with a full rehab, can Tricky really be
happy in this pack? After everything I seen
yesterday and today, I know what the answer is. I need to ask Susie a
very difficult question. I know you have three dogs
and your heart is so big
but at the same time, I just, I have to
tell you the truth. I think your, you took
more than what you can
at this point. It's too much. It's
just too much. And so, what I would like
to do for Tricky is, is offer her, like,
a fresh start. How do you feel about
the idea of offering
Tricky rehab and she will stay with me? So, I can work with
her until she is ready
to go to a new home. SUSIE: So, I, I, I
don't, I can't give
her what she needs. But I feel guilty because
I signed up to help her. It's really tough
because I'm sitting here
feeling like a failure. I, I don't know what to do.
