Over ONE HOUR of the Year's Best Dogs | It's Me or the Dog

here's the problem okay hey nutty but she's really good with people though she is hi come here this is peanut butter hi that is peter very pleased to be out oh yeah she doesn't like to be back there but she's back there for a reason the majority of the time she is back there can i go see him sure the fact that peanut butter is being locked up really in the pool area for probably what amounts to most of the day really contributes to her hyper behavior bored and frustrated by her lonely situation peanut butter has found other ways to entertain herself and this is all the stuff she's tearing up the lights around the pool and all the little pieces i know that's probably dangerous it's glass yeah it's everywhere i was really shocked when i was walking around the pool because i picked up what looked like glass on the ground and it's where a peanut butter has eaten one of the lights by the pool and there are big sharp pieces of glass and plastic all around i mean this is highly dangerous with the family in a standoff daily chores such as walking are left for tracy to handle alone so she knows exactly where to go but you can tell it's not fun this is not the way a walk should be what happens if you gave her a bit more leash would she just i'm afraid too i'm afraid too i feel like it would wrap around my body and it would wrap around something she's just too out of control i don't trust her enough to uh to give her that leash right okay and right now you can hear her she's choking herself we've gone like five feet yeah and she can't even breathe peanut butter is literally choking herself on a walk and it is unpleasant for her it's just being outside is so stimulating she's gonna take that pain a couple minutes i'm winded i thought myself pretty tough um but this dog is definitely winning this oh gosh she doesn't want to go in okay come on peanut victoria has seen enough the next step is to get peanut butter out of her confined space when i observed you walking with her she was pulling you she pulled pulling your arms out of your socket i also noticed that peanut butter was choking herself that's why we're using the head collar i'd like you to put a treat on the other side so she has to put her nose through to get the treat okay [Music] because the head collar is a new feeling it's strange for a dog to have it on the first time some dogs really really fight at it so when you desensitize to the head collar you pair the head collar up with something really tasty like chicken the dog begins to look forward to have the head collar on make sure that it lies i do it right just behind the ears okay come on good girl yes so now she's not really even fighting it i mean she's going i'm shocked very good with the head collar in place it's time to hit the road now you should always keep it underneath her never over her head okay so that's not good yeah unfortunately they don't get very far before peanut butter starts to resist when we took peanut butter on her first walk with the head collar she was fighting it when she does that uh-huh just stop her from doing it up oh okay now what i'm gonna do is when she pulls me i'm just gonna stop okay i'm gonna wait for her to relax a little bit on the leash and when i feel that relax that leash mm-hmm go slack good girl i'm gonna praise her and i'm gonna walk with her if it goes again i'm gonna wait for her to relax a little bit on that leash good i just hope that over time and with continued desensitization to the head collar that she'll be able to enjoy many walks with tracy yeah she's doing good a good peanut how is this working for you this is this is amazing before she leaves for a few days victoria hands out homework first challenge is to walk peanut butter as much as you can take her out peanut butter should get a minimum of two 30 minute walks per day tracy and lindsey decide to take peanut butter for a walk usually i give you snacks but let's see if we can do it come here peanut butter come here i know this is going to be our battle tracy i told you to use treats when putting the head collar on it's really important to keep desensitizing peanut butter without treats to entice her peanut butter is not cooperating come here come on come on yep come here peanut come on get it so good with that honey making matters worse tracy can't seem to remember how the collar works the worst technique was the head collar i thought i had it and it just didn't work and i felt like okay i got it at first with victoria there now that she's gone um i'm feeling kind of stupid about that so good with that so good what a good girl what a good girl well i don't know there's an eyeball there let's just see i know i'm losing you i know it oh peanut butter you must be so uncomfortable tracy's got that head collar completely the wrong way around this is going to be fine you want to try it would you like to walk we finally got it she's fine she's just bored right now so that's what she does come on peanut butter let's go honey come on let's go peanut come on come on sweetie come on peanut come up again yeah i think that's the most challenging with peanut butter has been the walks come on peanut butter what's going on i don't think we did it right at all come on peanuts did you just get out of it yes you just got out of it having escaped from her collar peanut butter is back in control look at the difference now you do that you can see her choking and tracy is helpless right back to your habit right no way see this walk is a disaster she will not put it back on right now looks like i better get back to the meltzer family people look at this thing and they go what is this all about here i'll show you the thing is is that you pull it up like that so simple so now let's put it on i'm going to give it to you are you going to hold her i'm going to hold her i'm going to pull it down so this goes up like this yes and that and so you put the treat on the other side and then this way that's it so she puts her nose through i got it that's it it's important to pair the head collar with the treat each and every time so that peanut butter becomes completely desensitized i think it was just the fact that i did not pull it up that looks good try walking her now just walk her up and down here now that the head collar is properly fitted victoria wants to show tracy how to take control that's a pull that's a that's a real pull so you stop there this car's going by and she's not doing it she's not lunging at the cars so go ahead go ahead okay tell her good girl good girl remember always praise the calm behavior two-year-old doberman daisy is scaring away guests she's a 70 pound doberman almost all muscle so a lot of people get really freaked out by it so are all guests greeted in the way that i was um yes because she first of all came up to me and then she retreated so she greeted me said hello but then she was growling she does that all the time to people that she only knows a little bit okay she just turned two years old um i bought her as a surprise i saw an ad somewhere some classifieds someone was selling doberman puppies um without papers so it was a little bit cheaper right um that old one you have to be extremely careful there is a really big difference between a responsible breeder and a backyard breeder who doesn't care about health and temperament the more money the guy is gonna get the more he's gonna breed his dogs okay and you bought her home and when did you first notice these behaviors starting she was a puppy i mean we didn't really notice it that much when she was younger because she didn't really get out much until she had over shots so she wasn't really around other people um and she didn't really bark as much when she was really younger okay if a puppy doesn't have a whole load of great experiences around people and other dogs then fear can start to come in mike has invited his cousin scott to visit to show victoria why they are nervous hosting guests at their house [Music] he's a little scared of a doberman i think it's because he's intimidated she feels his intimidation name daisy seems to be polite nice and sweet she is to me not any of the above hi huh isn't she adorable no yeah okay i wouldn't put i just didn't want you to open your daisy doesn't have a bite history but i think if she was put in the position where she feels very threatened i think she could react by lunging and biting at somebody so scott do you get this reception then when you come in well it doesn't matter who who's there dogs or people this is the reception i usually get yeah okay okay oh okay this is normal for me okay so what what what do you what do you feel like when she does growl at you she's she's not coming she's trying to communicate that she doesn't like me yeah you know let's get communicator this dog and do you like her do you uh have a relationship with her no i love her um you know it's just whenever she sees me this is tough love she gives me which is uh you know kind of a warm fuzzy if you know what i'm saying yeah michael's cousin scott came over and it's clear from the start that daisy does not feel comfortable with him daisy is nervous when people come into her territory and so she reacts accordingly oh no she's grumbling isn't she she she won't stop she won't stop how does this affect your social life i'm i'm guessing i mean people won't tell us that right but they probably don't want to come over as much because of they're scared of her being because of daisy they're a little scared i mean we we know she's not gonna do anything but it is still really intimidating for almost everyone okay all right hannah and i are coming up on our one year anniversary and we were thinking of having a party but it may not be a good idea because it just may be too stressful for everyone if they want to get their dog's problems under control they'll have to get with victoria's program first of all daisy if you're going to get a purebred dog and you're going to go the route of a breeder you have to do very very careful research because the difference between a good breeder and a backyard breeder is massive the really good breeder knows that the time between three to five weeks old when that puppy is beginning to understand about social bonding that the good breeder is the person that nurtures that research has shown that 44 of dogs that haven't had the adequate socialization time before before they're 16 weeks old can go on to have aggressive and reactive response in adulthood thanks i guess i didn't really think too much about it before i thought that puppy mills were the worst thing ever but but the way she put it i mean these backyard breeders are still pretty bad then there is the the fact of visitors you can't you want to have your first anniversary party but you can't because you've got a dog that essentially always has already got a label on it yeah doberman oh that's a big guard dog that's scary so of course people are freaked out they don't want to come to your home but that's sad victoria wants to address the dog's anxiety around visitors with a little help from michael and hannah's friends i want to put a training in place that's going to help daisy recognize that people coming into the home that are invited are okay what i've got for you here is that you are gonna have a treat bag and what you're gonna do you're gonna throw the food on the ground basically she's going to associate you with food oh okay so you're cool um also this is gonna be the bag you're gonna hang out on your front door for guests because there's also a toy but i think the most important thing is you don't have to say hello to her you don't have to greet her you don't have to touch her totally ignore her she's going to come up and smell you she is not going to bite you so we'll start with nina first good luck i know that daisy's nerves are going to get the best of her when you know the guests knock on the door because she just always does that you can hold her that's it hold her back run in they're just excited hi as i walked into the house with the toy and the treats i think it still made me a little bit nervous because um i didn't know what was gonna happen at that point just throw that's it so that she can see you through the minute i started kind of throwing the treats i saw the change in her and it definitely made me feel a lot more comfortable there you go just throw it on the floor lovely now it's hannah and michael's turn to coach scott through the technique i'm a little nervous that scott's coming in next only because i know how daisy is with him and i think it may be a little bit harder to get her to relax around scott because sometimes just the sound of his voice just gets her growling back good let him get in don't look at her take out a treat take out a treat there you go keep doing it beautiful sculpt she growled a little bit at scott but um mostly she was focused on the food focused on the toy and uh it felt really good to have scott in the house sitting next to me on the couch and daisy wasn't focusing on scott and trying to kill him i've never seen daisy act so nonchalant with me i felt love instead of hate she's gonna regress at times and i think you need to accept failure as part of this healing process as it were but you are on the right track whenever somebody comes through the door daisy gets wonderful things from them and that hopefully in the future is gonna show her the guests that come in her house are okay for the first time since victoria left hannah has a guest come over to practice the door training all right so this is what you have to do um when you walk in the house you need to not look at the dogs okay take a treat and throw it on the floor do it maybe like four times all right so here you go thanks every time i come over daisy is crazy barking so it just makes me really uncomfortable i don't like to come over so much go lay down daisy sit [Music] okay that's fine too okay that was a little better but you really have to keep on top of it you're allowing your dogs to jump up on the guests and you're not doing anything about it one of the first things i noticed when i walked up to the door to see the family again was that there were no treats and not a toy out there for me to bring in for the dogs hello hello i'm fine but wait a second where were the treats and the toys out there oh my god well it's you you're the treat oh oh good cover-up but it doesn't work yeah if i was a guest that daisy didn't know and they'd forgotten to put stuff out there then i don't know how she would receive now that hannah and michael have accomplished all of victoria's tasks it's time for a trial run for a party hey guys do you want to come out here a second okay okay what i've got out here i have the toys here for daisy i've got the treats here for both of them and also here are the little instructions for guests when they come in so everybody knows what they gotta do okay i'm gonna take a stand back and i'm just gonna watch what you do okay if everything goes okay today uh with the dogs and i wouldn't have any worries at all with having you know an anniversary party or other parties at the house you know because the dogs won't be an issue anymore good that's it hi come here okay don't look at the dogs and if cookie jumps on you turn your back to her throw the treats scott there yeah good scott i was pretty shocked that daisy didn't even growl at scott at all when he came in like when once he gave her the snacks she was looking at him like happy and she just wanted the treats for the food hi hello hello hey what's going on lovely okay well good at least they're not barking anybody good it's pretty exciting you know the dogs are ignoring everybody daisy's kind of just hanging around us she's sniffing people here and there you really don't know she's there what do you think of this this is awesome i just love that daisy hasn't been growling at anybody at all once they came in and she's relaxed enough to play yes that speaks volumes yeah if michael would have asked me about a month ago about the anniversary party i would have said he's crazy but now that victoria's worked with daisy it's a good idea everybody thanks so much for coming i'm so happy to have you guys here it's nice and calm who wants cake now it's right now from this test i just feel like everything's been so calm and good and the dogs will behave very well so i think we can have more people here we had a neighbor come over today to visit and um the dogs acted very well i got some treats okay he did what he's supposed to do with the treats and the toys and the dogs didn't bark at him michael and anna i think you guys are doing very well with your dog thank you she's acting very sweet i was very impressed by how well they behaved all right well thank you okay thank you bye if you keep this up you're going to be able to have the anniversary party you've been planning and you can also celebrate how well you've done with the training good girl [Music] on this episode of it's me or the dog the miola altman family is being terrorized by their two bully breeds victoria will have to pull out all the stops no no no no no don't come with excuses before this bullish battle ends in tragedy you have to step up and protect your children my name is daniel i live here with my wife randy my two dogs sasha and digweed and my stepson ethan and my daughter chloe i love my two dogs but i can't trust them i'm afraid someone will get bit that's really my worst fear that they're going to do something to hurt one of the kids this is a favorite game of theirs he likes to bring a sword and pretend sword fight when she's had enough she breaks out the growling so they play this game quite often yes i had such a tough time trying to hold my tongue while i saw ethan prodding a sword at sasha i thought any minute now sasha's gonna have a go at him so ethan do you like your dogs yeah do they ever get really scary do they go well diggs doesn't he just go head some bites oh he does has he snapped at you before then he bit me on the thumb he'd bit you on the thumb these dogs are displaying behaviors that are very concerning especially around the children if they start to demonstrate behavior that you know puts anyone at risk i put them in the garage and it soon becomes apparent why the dogs need to be separated from the kids and that's a good example of why i separate her now even when she's in her high chair okay separate her now you can take him right out come on sasha that's bad when i saw sasha growling at chloe that really really worried me it's a very serious situation when you've got a big powerful dog growling at a baby i'm worried about the kids safety when they're tangling up and making the loud noises okay and that's our biggest concern my biggest concern is not just that it's the way you've allowed ethan to play with sasha that is an absolute recipe for disaster chloe just reached out her hand at sasha and sasha growled in her oh it's reached a point now where i do separate the dogs from the kids because it's just easier that way you have to step up and protect your children and i believe that when the dogs are out chloe's up in your arms if she's down on the ground in any kind of way even if she's in a high chair the dogs are away so if you have a bully breed in your home you have to know what you're doing with one and you have to know what you're dealing with in order for that dog to be successful and that dog to be safe the dog's behavior is affecting your lives and the way you're dealing with it is to put them in the garage now you have children of course you have to do that because the children have got to be safe but if the dogs are spending more time in the garage you then as owners have to step up to the plate and provide more outlets for your dogs it how how can you care for them because you physically don't have the time i am right i just think there's i think there's a way that you could maybe make more time yeah yeah well you're gonna have to you're gonna have to you both are gonna have to she wants to make sure the dogs and the kids can co-exist in the house safely i've got something for you daniel oh i think this is going to help you all right oh wow thank you yeah skate skates okay so nice now i've got one here and i've also got one on the other side one of the things that has been most concerned with this family is the safety of the children but it's unfair the dogs spend so much time in the garage i want the dogs to feel more a part of the family but i want the children to be safe too so that's why i've introduced baby gates you're gonna call sasha and digweed and as you go in i want you to say in to the dogs all right sasha digweed nicely in sasha digweed and walk in walk in with them come on come in come on sasha come on dudes come on in come on good boy good girl if the dogs see being in the kitchen as a positive thing they're more likely to go in there if you think the dogs are getting too crazy in here and you need to give them some quiet calm time that's when you put them in the garage i really hope the gates are going to be really useful for the family i hope they allow the dogs to become more part of the family it's going to keep the dog safe it's going to keep the kids safe good girl good boy digweed may be showing more self-control but he's not the only one that needs to learn to play nice all right i want to show you something with the help of my friend here okay okay i wanted to use a stuffed toy dog to work with ethan so that i could show ethan a little bit about what dogs like and what they don't like sometimes sasha growls at you doesn't she yeah now does she growl at you when you hug her sometimes yeah show me how you hug her on this dog you go like that okay now do you know that dogs only hug each other when they want to fight so when you as a human being go hug a dog what do you think the dog's thinking maybe that um you shouldn't be doing this what i want you to do is to stand still and get her to come up to you rather than you going into her space and if you want to pet her pet her on the neck here or on the back here now i saw you when i first came here you were playing with the sword and the shield i feel like we always have to be around a supervisor she didn't like it so i think there has to be a rule no more playing with sasha with the sword and the shield okay i had a special time with victoria i am happy that victoria came to work with our dogs she is a really nice person the risks have been reduced but to maintain a safe household randy and daniel will need to continue the training on their own already sasha and digweed are spending more time inside the house and when daniel wants them out of the way he uses the in command to encourage them into the kitchen come on you guys sasha diggs hey in good girl sasha in good boy i've been really impressed with the training since victoria left we have been able to give it more attention than i originally thought i'm excited to see how daniel randy and ethan have been doing with the training this afternoon daniel has decided to let the dogs out of the kitchen for some family time natasha wait a minute why is chloe there i told them that whenever the dogs are out whether they're training or not she shouldn't be there later on ethan's home from school and ready to play where's daniel and randy ethan's only seven they need to be reinforcing the correct way to play with sasha and while he's left the sword and shield behind without supervision ethan forgets another piece of important advice remember ethan you're not supposed to be hugging her i think we're gonna have to come up with other ways for ethan to play with sasha chloe was out on her little bouncer [Music] what was chloe doing with the two dogs in the room um that's just how we i mean she was awake at the moment what i had said to you is that whenever chloe's on the ground both dogs are out yeah i'll never be able to have a dog out then because chloe's down from the moment i get home when there's just one dog out i can do this you can do that if you feel like you can cope with chloe and a dog then that's up to you with the dogs doing well there is just one other person to get on board i just wanted to have a little chat with you okay i bought this friend of mine to live with you would you like him to come live with you yeah he's yours now there you go now i'm giving you this gift because i want you to get all of your hugs out on the toy and not on sasha victoria gave me a diana short because she doesn't want me to get in the fight with sasha sasha loves you okay and there's no doubt about that but sometimes she does growl at you i don't want that growl to ever become a bite ethan promised me that he wouldn't hug sasha and he wouldn't play swords but at the end of the day he's a seven-year-old kid it's up to the adults in the household to make sure that he keeps his promise ethan still has things he needs to work on and it takes a lot of reminders with that but hopefully we're going to continue to move in the right direction when i first came here i saw that there were a lot of problems and randy it does take quite a lot of effort to put the time in which you've done your dogs are gonna thank you ethan you keep on getting your hugs out on your dinosaur and not on sasha alright and daniel you have made amazing strides it makes me feel good that victoria pointed out the good things that have happened and that we are making progress wait i feel like our house is much safer now for our own children and also for visitors i am having a lot of fun with sciship playing in the backyard we are really good friends i'm elise i live with my boyfriend john and our five-month-old exuberant puppy raven the biggest issue that i have with raven is the nipping and biting hey raven raven's teeth are small now but when she gets older i'm not looking forward to her clamping down on my legs or on my arm hello hi how are you hi hi ray nice to meet you oh this is raven look at this oh my so this is the cool oh hello we'll see i see that gate's effective yeah she has some sharp claws on her yeah she does immediately raven started to jump at me she was also starting to nip me and she grabs hold hard off raven off when i sat down raven was all over me she's very friendly but she uses her mouth that she nips very very hard and you can't even pull your hand out because it just rips on the way out it does rip on the way out that kind of hurts puppy it's very normal for puppies to be mouthy and to chew things but each time raven's mouth went on my arm her little sharp teeth dug in and that hurts oh okay um ow i'm just one huge big chew toy aren't i that is this is really woo raven doesn't have any sense of boundaries she's jumping up on me john and elite she's biting my shoes she's biting my clothes nothing that i can do can get this puppy off me what do you do to discipline her when she is getting crazy like this we've tried holding her around the muzzle we've tried rolling her onto her back um i've even tried biting her a couple of times so she would know how it feels you bid her i did on the neck but it didn't work so i'm not surprised it didn't i have never ever heard of someone biting their dog in order to discipline them that could be incredibly dangerous can i see what she does when you hold her around the mouth just like this and then i'll usually make her sit before i let go raven sit sit okay so that that was awesome um and what do you do sometimes i'll grab her like this and just hold it right and then other times if she's acting up i'll pick her up either by the nape of her neck or like this and pretty much stare at her until she stops okay okay john also tries to discipline raven by holding her up above his head and staring into her eyes and shaking her around the scruff of the neck all of this stuff's a new point raven isn't being disciplined at all those methods of discipline have been ineffective how do you play with him i normally like to just grab one of her toys okay show me play with her hey right pawn come on come on but elise isn't a fan of john's games i definitely think that john playing with raven is one of the reasons why she's kind of aggressive playing john is always riling her up and getting raven to snap at him when i come along and raven's snapping at me i'm not as able to deal with it as jon would be number one she expresses herself with her mouth it hurts i've got all the scratches on my hands still to prove it it hurts now but when she grows into adulthood and she's orally fixated wow that is going to be very serious going to be very very dangerous so we have to stop the behavior right now it's very important for puppies to have play but what is this all getting her riled up by playing with your arms in your hand encouraging her encouraging her saying bite me bite me hear my hands bite me what is that i don't know it's just the way i've always played with with my daughter you can't tell her off for nipping yet encourage you to do that and play victoria wants to instill a more constructive form of discipline in the house i want to stop her from mouthing so much and for jumping up when i came here to observe i mean i was getting jumped up on when i was standing wow when i was sitting um ow i don't want raven to continue this behavior especially into adulthood because then it goes from being just annoying to being dangerous so i want to do something that's going to address both the jumping and the mouthing i want to do a removal technique i'm going to use this and the reason why i've got a chain leash is that when she jumps up to try and bite the leash that's not going to be too pleasant so i'm going to put her leash on yeah i don't feel good does it mm-hmm i'd like you both just to sit down on the sofa good girl she jumps up on your mouth you at all [Music] oh i just said uh-oh and removed her training a puppy should never be confrontational you don't want your puppy to fear you by dominating it so i'd like you to take over i'm gonna come sit down any mouthing jumping up biting she's out okay hi hi sweetheart okay let's go let's go i'd like you to say ah so it's a really clear different marker victoria still wants the couple to give affection come here but if she starts to mouth she is removed before the behavior can escalate nice good that's great elise that's perfect after only a few attempts victoria's calm approach pays off [Music] hi good girl hi puppy after working with victoria i'm very confident that john and i will be able to train raven to be calmer and to exhibit the good behavior that we want now john i know you like rough housing going like this no more the very fact that he played rough with her was actually encouraging her to bite his arms and his hands no more rough play the only interaction between you and her is nice gentle stroking okay okay it's important to praise a puppy when a puppy's done well mark every single good behavior if puppy is praised for a behavior it's more likely to offer you that behavior again no more rough play redirect any chewing onto a toy practice with a chain lish the removal technique you can do it when you're both here or if you have a guest come in so good luck and i'll see you in a few days thank you thank you very much very welcome see you guys bye back at home elise and john have invited a friend over hey hey when i usually come over to lisa and john's house raven is always very prominent she's trying to bite everybody basically all right sweet let's go let's go the minute raven jumped up on walter i pulled raven off and told her down i took her off to the side and waited for her to calm down before i reintroduced her to walter perfect elise by removing raven when she jumps up shows her that there are negative consequences to that behavior sit good girl it took a couple of times of removing raven and making sure that she calmed down before we reintroduced her to walter but after maybe four or five times she was able to just sit down and not try to bite or mouth him good girl yay well i almost don't know how to react to that i was definitely surprised at how calm raven was and it lets me know that i can bring people over now i'm so proud right now at the end of the visit raven is just laying on the ground almost closing her eyes it's almost like she's tired i've never seen ravens higher before look at that it's nice to see raven lying so calmly on the floor what a difference her behavior is to when i was first there since the training raven is a lot calmer she's not as mouthy she comes to us for affection without jumping up more often she's starting to listen a lot more veronica the only thing you had to do was walk the door with a dog's life on the line get over it because this guy needs it victoria must get the family to take responsibility for their dog i just don't bring a bag with me i'm too old and too cynical to believe stories like that the girls and i got rocky five years ago we went to the store veronica wanted him so big the reason i finally got the dog is because my daughters wore me down a lot of the problem is my daughters also they don't give him the attention they should they do not follow through you don't walk the door it's always going to be an argument or a fight i'd rather have to walk this dog never have to but you do they try every excuse under the sun by blaming me and saying it's my fault and i don't do anything for him this is what the problem is your job i don't know what she does all day she doesn't have a job shut up for a second they don't care enough about the dog to take him out when he's supposed to go out but yeah when he bites people they want to keep him and they don't want to do anything about it you say you have two daughters are they here yes girls come on down this is all victoria but we call hattori nice to meet you hello and this is veronica hi veronica hello nice to meet you so um what is your experience of rocky he was good when he was a puppy just like as he got older he he became very rambunctious i guess i have to say i really didn't want a dog so you wanted a dog they wanted a dog they promised me that they would take over the responsibility you don't do as much as you should be doing i mean i should walk when i come home from work sometimes i'm like i'm super tired so i i'm lax on my responsibility and what happens when you say that oh i don't know what i'm talking about i don't well i do yeah i know what i'm talking about so you're gonna listen to me okay okay that's why i'm here to help your dog to help your lives with your dog and uh already i can see this is not going to be easy no he's very nervous on deck victoria wants to see what happens on a walk so are you the one who walks here most of the time um me or my sister but she's not home a lot because of school and work so what about your mother she never walks a dog she doesn't now ever why i don't know but i just never no she just tells me to walk the dog so i'll do it i mean it bothers me that she doesn't try and walk the dog but she doesn't walk in me i guess now right i don't think there's one member of this family that hasn't been lazy around rocky they're going to have to step up their game 100 [Music] she's always dragging me like this yes i see and now he's pooping so even pooping he's twirling yes he never stands still i don't know why yes go and then should i go inside and get a bag now do you not bring bags out with you yeah i don't bring bags out with me so who's supposed to pick this up then i do you don't forget it's there you don't you don't not no i pick it up it's just that i don't bring back you're telling me the truth do you pick it up every single time i am telling you this okay i do i just don't bring a bag with me well then you're going to have to go back and go get a bag because we're moving from this spot okay okay where do you leave him with me okay okay she doesn't have a bag with her so she goes back inside of the house to go and get a bag to come out and pick the poop up later that is just not true i'm too old and too cynical to believe stories like that is he being good he's been very good uh oh no when he poops is that it then do you then take him inside oh yeah and that's the end of the wall yeah that's not a walk that's a toilet break a quick out and right back in the house again that's nothing for a dog like this [Music] victoria wants to put an end to the family's finger pointing as to who's to blame for rocky's behavior and have them do what's best for their dog this is the thing and i've heard your side of the store and i've heard you girl's side of the story yes collective we've got to do more now this isn't even about that because if you don't step up your game it's not going to get better when a family gets a dog it's usually the young kids that swear they're gonna take care of the dog and they're gonna do it and the parents stupid enough to say okay i think that's the issue here you girls how much actual work do you do you speak to me and you say that you know you're the only really person that walks him and that you do most of the work with him but would you agree with that you have to tell them every time to do it it's not that rocky's a thought when they wake up in the morning let me get out of bed at 8 30 because rocky should be going out it's whenever i wake up is your mom right [Music] what do you do when you get up in the morning do you go to the bathroom yeah okay so why is it okay for you to go to the bathroom but your dog not too exactly right part of the responsibility if you really wanted this doc and i i do believe i'm sorry it was five years ago they were much younger you did give in to you yeah i know i did i didn't say i said it was a mistake all i do is fight with them over this right and it's not fair to me no one really wants to accept responsibility for their apathy and they've all been lazy with their dog every single one of them you have to make him a priority because it's stressing me out by having to fight with the two of you all the time about this and it's stressing me and frank out but i also think you're here during the day now you have got to i know i you've got to walk him this dog needs a minimum of two hours running exercise a day without that he's never going to succeed you can give all the meds you like you can give them all the behavioral therapy you like but if he doesn't get all of that angst out of him nothing is going to work i can tell you that right now yeah we love rocky so i hope that we can all band together and help him so we have a lot of work and we're going to start and we'll see where we get to victoria wants to hold the girls accountable veronica and tori have got to learn what responsibility is all about i just want to show them how easy it is just to care for one animal so veronica victoria i want to introduce you to sandy and jennifer hi hi thanks for coming to animal haven today i'm not really sure what to think because uh downstairs looks kind of like a pet store i brought you here to this shelter i know that you begged your mum for a dog you haven't been fulfilling that responsibility sandy who's a staff member here at animal haven is gonna show you all about responsibility what you experience at home is nothing compared to what you're going to experience today so after today taking rocky out for a few walks and cleaning up pee and poop is gonna be it's gonna be easy did you bring any of the clothes cause those clothes are definitely not gonna work all right so why don't you guys change and then we'll meet you upstairs in the puppy room okay so go through there and get changed through there all right in the morning when those puppies have spent a whole night pooping it smells very very bad hi hi come in oh how's the smell it's disgusting are you gonna be right yeah all right um the puppy room when i first got in i wanted to vomit from the smell like the stench was just uh so why don't you start on that crate and you can start on the poop since you don't get your philip poop so let's get to it yeah girl get your hands dirty and because i'm very nice and i brought you masks thank you thank you all right we're gonna pick up some poop today yay get right in there pick that poop up i hate you so adorable but they are they're just pooping machines as puppies are they are put muscle into it oh you gotta whoa that's what this is for here squeeze squeeze all right don't you work out a little little muscle on it you got to really do a good job all right that's better much better this is what it's like to you know own a dog it's not just all play there's a lot of responsibility they depend on you you know to care for them just like babies do nasty good job putting more muscle into it this time that's good just step on it there you go what kind of dog is that it's a i think a lab pit mix she appreciates what you're doing for her trust me i'm glad i want you to just clean his paws up a little bit okay see they can't do this for themselves this is you know doesn't this make you feel good to be cleaning him up i feel like i'm gonna hurt him no so tiny i actually am enjoying it here it's a good experience to come here and learn from this i do think that i get how to properly clean up after the dog now here's your reward hold tight and then you can put them back in there see that tail wag tells you thank you are you used to it now yeah get on you she sits everyone down to see if they can change too okay so here it is i always believe in schedules and routines so that everybody knows what they're gonna do so there is no argument this dog needs routine because when he can predict things happening he can cope so i put here rocky's success depends on you and i just want you to work out amongst yourselves each day what you could possibly do in that day so let's start on the sunday all right who can walk him since that the only thing that they have to do for him is to walk him as much because that's one of the problems we have we do all the playing with him and anyone can all play with him frank what do you think mom not the type of attention that he should be getting right the only time he ever goes in the backyard is with me the only time he ever goes is if frank and my mother take him for long walks because i'm allergic to everything so the trees in the ground and the playing part even in the house you don't mind me saying i feel like since i've been with you that you put you put the blame on everybody else not doing anything but not yourself i feel like it's like a lo i'm the only one fighting for this dog the only thing i ask them to do is walk this dog that's it last night i couldn't even find either one of you just to take him out i played the only thing you had to do was walk the dog i never answered his phone that is nice this isn't like that's what you do hold on this isn't the blame game what we're here to do is come up with schedule not to argue and fight because i know you like well there it is walk him that's it wait that's it you know what you're all lazy and you all need to take your dog out more often [Music] i get where everyone's coming from but let's just forget all about us and about what you're all doing or not doing let's forget about it this poor animal has been stuck inside this house only going on pee-pee walks for five years it's not fair it's like get over it and do it without argument because this guy needs it i want you to sort out who is going to be walking i'll feed him twice a day and i'll give him his medication i would like it if you could sometimes walk him we're gonna do a little bit to make him more manageable on the leash so he's not all crazy so it's gonna be easier for you to handle so now who will be able to take him for a walk in the morning on sunday saturday and sunday mornings i'll take care of that okay so put uh frankie you can you can write this who can do his long walk in the morning at like nine ten do it okay right okay we all learned that it's not just one or two people who have to take care of rocky it's like a joint thing it's a collaborative effort rocky oh my god come on rock don't let anyone rob rub this out ronnie you're in charge it's been two weeks since i left the geiger family and i'm just amazed what a change has come over not just rocky but the entire family come here life has improved so much since victoria left i'm gonna take rocky out now good because he just drinks everyone knows exactly what they have to do it's not so much stress of oh my god who's going to walk the dog oh good boy bloody brawls are a daily occurrence if they were big dogs i'd probably be dead by now hostilities are at a boiling point one of them got to go that ain't happening it's up to victoria to broker a piece this has to change you have made the behavior worse victoria is the last hope because if it doesn't change i don't know what i'm gonna do because i might lose my relationship because i don't think my girlfriend's gonna wanna be with me with two screaming dogs and i can't get rid of my dog usually if i have them in a room together i normally have to put the muzzles on them because i just want to at least try to allow them to not be tied up at least try to play sheena likes to bring the dogs together every day so they can have some together time i wanted to see what together time was all about with an emphasis on safety see that's the sizing up part of it where they start staring each other down see yeah she's ready okay take her out they know they got their muzzles incredibly sheena and tiffany also allow the dogs to have together time without their muzzles we showed victoria how we tied one of them to the coffee table and another one under the tv on a leash no no i've seen enough of this yeah let's um put one back in the bedroom i am shocked at what is going on inside this house sheena and tiffany's approach to these dogs is all wrong tying them up having them in the same room together it's just fueling the fire it's making things a lot worse what happens if things don't get better somebody's gonna have to go and get adopted one of them gotta go that ain't happening that ain't no no what you're none of them are gonna get adopted you're not to give one up no so what happens is i i feel like them are my kids them are my children and you come into a situation where you have to make it work you know and people every day parents have children that's bad i don't see them giving each other to me it's it's different they're not kids if they were children i would never put my child up for adoption well you gotta look at it with this but a dog is definitely expendable and if they don't go then i guess i'll be looking for a room somewhere or maybe i'm gonna have to move back where i came from and she could come visit me tiffany threatens me a lot that she's gonna do this she's gonna do that but i just feel like she just needs to get over it because i'm not getting rid of the dogs at all now it's time for her to sit down and confront the girls with their issues i see the love that you have for these dogs but i also see the disharmony that a lot of your treatment is causing and this has to change both of these dogs are living in a very very stressful environment these dogs despise each other to the point that they want to kill each other got two very feisty breeds here a dachshund and a yorkshire terrier that were bred to kill things and that's what worries me you have fed your dog's stress you have made the behavior worse you have managed it in a way that has caused it to get a lot worse you have to understand and i want you to be realistic if this doesn't work and if you can't manage the situation you are going to have to open up your mind to the possibility of rehoming one of those dogs because their lives [Music] i know and i'm gonna really work hard and try and not have that okay i promise you i'm pulling all the stops out on this one but i want you to know i want you to prepare yourself i mean i know she'd be happy but it's so hard for me to get rid of one like i'm so attached to both of them they're like my kids and like it's hard for me to do that it's something that you have to face up to but as i said i'm going to work very hard to to get your dogs to a place where hopefully that doesn't have to happen victoria wants to start rebuilding their relationship in a neutral environment the reason why i brought her onto neutral territory is the house is associated with a lot of negative things between the dogs and i want to basically get the dogs working together side by side before ellie can enter the picture victoria wants to start one-on-one with nyla i want to show you clicker training the clicker is a precursor to a reward i'm charging the clicker up throw the food click each dog is going to have their own clicker and the click sounds of each clicker are different with nyla responding to the clicker victoria has sheena remove her to another room so ellie can have a turn with tiffany hi i want you to try this clicking and treating i'll hold the leash all right so i should click it good girl so it's always click followed by treat [Music] good girl ellie nice good girl perfect timing now that each dog is responding to their respective clickers victoria wants to bring them together my goal is to get the dogs closer together and not reacting fights are more likely to happen in confined spaces so i wanted the training to begin in an open space so that the dogs wouldn't feel confined and wouldn't feel threatened okay okay ready at the moment nyla is so stressed that she can't eat so she can't focus on food [Music] good girl because she's too stressed to take food i'm just telling her good girl for lying down you can hear by the raspy panting that she's doing good girl that she's stressed [Music] every time nyla reacted to ellie we were out the door and the same rules that apply to nyla also apply to ellie take her away as soon as she does that if ellie wines or barks ellie's taken away from the situation for 10 more minutes the dogs go head to head it's really difficult to put a time on how long it will be until the dogs completely relax with each other ellie no emotions take a while to change habits take a while to change and the dogs need to be given time ellie ellie is the first to remain calm now i want you to take this over okay okay good girl good girl good girl now the stress level's coming down she's taking food closer obviously we don't want the dogs to get nose to nose good [Applause] [Music] they come together they go apart they come together they go apart [Music] finally after 15 minutes there's a huge breakthrough good girl working both your dogs in the presence of the other dog good girl marking their calm you're marking their non-reaction wow that's something i haven't probably seen her lay down in her presence since the first fight look at her look at her exactly i felt my eyes welling up with tears when i saw that nyla wasn't acting out i mean i felt emotional she's a good girl wow if you would have caught me about a couple of months ago this would never been a case they would have been killing each other it would have been no progress okay so if you take her out now i will follow a moment later i feel very good at the progress that we've made but i know that it's just a very very small part of a massive massive job now the pressure is on as the two dogs are about to meet on home ground for the first time since training has started this is going to be tough this is the challenge the real challenge okay let's put nyla back in first get her safely situated and then we'll bring ellie normally i don't like bringing the dogs in for a face-to-face greeting because it's very confrontational but with these dogs i had no choice they're living in such close proximity they have to learn that they cannot react no i'll go right now you can with nyla safely put away victoria wants to refresh the clicker training with sheena and tiffany we're gonna do exactly the same thing as we did in the larger space in here okay now if she has a reaction you go into the bedroom okay just hang there for two seconds come back out again i'm gonna be taking isla out that way okay all right are we all ready good girl right from the word go nila can't relax even when ellie's in the other room she was stressed out she couldn't concentrate too rolled up as before the clicker and treats are used to reward calm but when they react the dogs are removed it's really important to cut vision off between these two dogs because if it gets to the point where the dogs are reacting they have to be removed from the side of each other in order that they can calm down in order for the training to commence she's not able to take food right at this minute there's frustration being held good girl frustration being held back [Music] good girl nyla yay good girl good girl each time she makes a decision to back away from ellie and look at me good girl she gets a click and a tree nyla's showing really important progress it's going to take a long time for her to feel completely relaxed in ellie's presence but for the moment we're making significant strides you're gonna take over sheena thank you good girl good girl very nice timing good girl good girl nyla the fact that they was in the same room without trying to kill each other without barking at each other growling at each other this was a big step nelly's doing what could be construed as quite a tough stance she's squaring up but then she's choosing to back away which is great instead of reacting they make the choice to look back at their owners or to turn their body away from the other dog good girl ellie good tiffany that is a huge step before you saw they were just like trying to get each other going crazy they were further away than they are now good girl i feel hopeful at this moment i feel like there's nothing that we can't do with the dogs i mean the opportunities are endless good girl ellie joseph has had enough of tony and his beloved german shepherds sasha i've never seen anything like this look at the door joe it's not a big deal this is our place and it's being destroyed it's up it's not being destroyed i think josie blows a few things out of proportion the chewing of the trees that's enough sasha no more no what dog does that she's gonna outgrow it well i want her to outgrow it now now i want it now he's got blinders on and he doesn't actually want to see what's going on sasha is completely uncontrollable she's a terror she's she's she's not she's here you have to you have to let me talk okay cause there's two sides to this i have to put up with the damage i have to put up with her barking everything else and i will go through all that but to him it's like all beautiful you know josie seems to be the long-suffering wife she has had it so your frustration damage i can show you we have major damage look at the door you see her claw marks feel that victory run your hands across that doesn't it remind you of a piece of driftwood no drift driftwood yeah the elements it's it's it's worn it it it gives you memories doesn't it memories of what we'll take a picture of it and you can look at it any time you want who wants those kind of memories of their dog scratching to get into a door ripping their place apart i will show show you our biggest problem okay see the door now watch when i open it no no no no whoa sasha sasha i can't you gotta get her that is my biggest problem you don't understand this is just like driving me nuts does that happen each time she goes out every single time no it happens all the time tony this is our home so i have to live in our home with all this going all over the place right okay we got to live with all this stuff here this is our home right all right so i got to live in a pigsty if she would just learn how to release this negative energy things would run a lot smoother in the house so she's got a fascination with that but oh my leg oh she just took ow did she just oh my gosh okay saw that we'll just massage it right now that is a nice little she didn't mean that she didn't mean that she got into the line of fire tony took josie's leg and was like oh brushed it off like no problem no problem that's a k-9 mark in his wife's leg what planet is he on the couple wants to show victoria another one of sasha's odd behaviors these are all her markings all the way down the block you'll see markings on every tree oh my god look at this i've never seen anything like this something has happened in her past where she's been maybe taught to grab onto something and hold it there and she can't release how long has she done that for eight months or so now how did she start it i started doing a little bit of personal protection with her not much just a couple of months we were working it was a little early for her to start on the sleeve but it seemed like she had a real nickname so you actually started her so she's been on a sleeve she's been on a sleeve and she was pretty good got a full bite midair helicopter her around a couple of times doesn't let go but yeah but could you get her to let go eventually on command um no we that's what we were trying to work on and then i didn't follow through but uh she wouldn't she wouldn't let go started after that you don't mess with protection work you don't mess with it because it's incredibly dangerous if the dog bites and does not release unless you can devote most of your life to it do not do it because otherwise you can turn the dog into a ticking time bomb i'm always afraid that she's going to like really like bite me in the face or something like that i don't mention that to you saying come on i've mentioned that to you before i've seen it happen because believe me he obviously loves his dogs but i have to say he's pretty clueless now that victoria knows the cause of sasha's biting problems she wastes no time tackling the couple's biggest flashpoint the sliding door this training is gonna be one of the biggest challenges with sasha because the behavior with the sliding door for not letting go is deeply ingrained i've got my work cut out for me here i want you to start opening the door like this and then back away okay to begin victoria works with tony to desensitize sasha to the door opening stand here put your hand on the handle open it a tiny bit the plan is to ignore sasha's negative behavior the door won't open if she barks or tries to bite walk away from it walk away from cannot give in to the barking so this might take a while we have to get to the point where she can run down sit and wait before we open the door sorry to your neighbors this is a really really tough habit to break i have to tell you i don't know if i can deal with this yeah you know too we've got to get it in her mind this is a different way i was i wanted to pull my hair out because that that hard barking just like penetrates you when sasha stops barking josie finally gets a break and training can resume walk back it's okay now i'd like you to put into a sit wait in the middle here sit okay sit sit not on the sofa sitting yeah not on the couch sasha tony what i'm gonna do is give you a bit of a treat it's gonna help you easier easier to motivate her enough sick good girl okay now go to wait victoria has tony use the weight command while opening the door slowly wait wait wait there she goes let's go ahead tony walk away josie was really distressed certainly not going to be easy for her to continue i'm mad i'm pissed off every time she goes for the door i tense up try again tony start up walk away from it walk away from good oh my god you don't understand i gotta wait wait throw a treat out sasha go nice nice we did get to the point where the sliding door could open she was sitting and waiting we could throw the treat outside go good she could go out that was a major accomplishment wonderful it was great i was pretty impressed with the door training already i mean i know it's going to take some time but i could see some promise already if we get this problem under control are you going to replace the door yeah i would be willing to you'll be you you will be willing no the door will be replaced i will be ecstatic when sasha is completely trained and she leaves my furniture and my door alone this is i think becoming a bad memory the fact is it's not a bad memory because it's a continual problem that you have here [Applause] go get it go get it now victoria wants to help tony and josie with one of sasha's biggest problems walking on a leash sasha lunges and pulls while trying to attack those nasty trees sasha's had two years of pulling you but the fact is her pulling's always been reinforced because she's pulled and you've gone where she's wanted to go yeah including down to flighty steps right and that's tough sasha lunges and pulls so hard when she's out on a walk that i'm really afraid of her throat now this harness is just to give you a little bit more control it's a special harness that leads her from her chest and what happens is she can still pull in it but it's going to help you a little bit she's going to be able to pull just a little bit less what we're going to do we're just gonna walk along and i'm gonna just try and control her a little bit but she wants to get to that tree right that's what it is she's got temptation as soon as she comes as soon as she comes out and it's a habit for her now so now you can see if she's pulling i'm pulling her around okay even though she's still pulling me and pulling a good girl and i'll pull around kind of like training a horse almost you might kind of yeah she pulls me up pull her around good girl sasha's got to learn that pulling on the leash isn't going to get her anywhere so this one when you pull tightens up around under her arms okay okay try come over and take what i'm taking no she can't that's it nope you're walking in circles go keep walking in circles it's just like potty training you got to be persistent with her major pulling problem it's going to take at least a couple of months to get her to the point where she can walk well on a leash and that's every single day doing this not fun it's not going to happen overnight although i want it to happen overnight it's not and i understand that for 30 minutes sasha lunges and tucks as tony tries to redirect her behavior really you've got to take charge of her you got to be tough with her that's it good girl nice good girl sasha nice girl nice you you got focus there which was the first time that's happened yeah beautiful beautiful beautiful you can also see yeah yeah put some treats and your put your treats in in whatever hand front of her face is easiest along with her good that's it there you go you gotta look good good good girl good girl nice good girl that's it good girl oh beautiful good girl sasha cool that's it that was nice lovely you are sweating like a bear i know it's a workout leash training was kind of like exhausting but you know what sasha exhausts me anyway she was walking next to you like a normal dog yeah that felt good right now you got to try that for the whole walk it's gonna happen tony it's gonna happen you're just gonna have to work at it it will be done sasha will be trained there's no doubt about it wait out yes good job the fact that sasha has not been going after the door has been a huge huge improvement i can scream it out i'm like yes it's working it's been two weeks since i left tony and josie buan santo and things have really improved for them i just hope now that tony can truly make amends for the damage he's caused and now we're going to be replacing that door soon right we're almost there but soon i would hope before the winter we replace the door so we don't have to have a breeze coming into our list okay we'll wait but definitely before the wind yeah on this episode of it's me or the dog victoria tackles a herd of out-of-control chihuahuas don't you bite me there's been over a hundred bites and it's up to victoria to reign them in get back i'm stacy from long island and i live here with my three kids ashley hunter wake ashley up police and tristan and my six rowdy chihuahuas beckham havana winston riley and aspen oh my god the biggest issue i have with the dogs is the constant barking they bark at anything and anyone that passes the front door or the windows one dog will bark and then they all join in be quiet winston we can't have any friends over at all because they all get bit [Music] i walk through the door and there's a sea of chihuahuas and this why why this generally to keep people safe when they come in so that we can let them calm down a little bit and then let them in very good very good like it as i walk through the gate a big fat chihuahua jumps up and puts his teeth on my pants as if he's gonna bite me [Applause] he nails my boot don't you bite me no no no this one and that one tend to bite like when people come in enough good enough okay you want to meet the kids yes i do i do this victoria's here this barking is awful hello these are my children this is ashley victoria nice to meet you that's hunter my middle son don't you dare and tristan good boy is hello nice to meet you no i still i can already see one problem how many people have you bitten um i don't know a lot i can't a lot yeah a lot he's bit me like how many he's bitten you a few times yeah yeah the recent ones was just hit me like right on my hand what happens when your friends come over my friends are afraid to come over because they don't want to get bit we've kind of stopped that my friends won't come in either their parents of the friends don't come past the gate and most of them can't even stay on the noise so i'll meet people outside it's me or the dog presents victoria's show secrets stacy's chihuahua beckham gave me some special attention when i arrived don't you bite me turns out i wasn't the only one that got the beckham welcome take a look michelle got bit pretty bad broke skin so i don't know what you guys want to do does it hurt oh my god he really got it good you got it good i'm so sorry oh my god beckham you're not allowed to bite people you're a bad boy we usually take people to the hospital to get shots just to be safe so let's go victoria wants the family to get to work immediately on imposing a new condition of entry you have a friend waiting outside i just want to see the dog's reaction i want to see who starts it i pretty much expect that all the dogs that bombard him jump on him try to bite him and then chase him all the way up to hunter's room yeah so let him ring the so you go down bell answer it do what you normally do okay well hold on one second back get back before the guests can come all the way in victoria waits for the dogs to calm down beckham is a dog that we act without thinking i want beckham to think about the situation before he reacts so he can make a much much better choice which is to practice avoidance good boy good boy now say hello good boys good the dogs have such a ritual of behavior doorbell rings they all go crazy change that ritual up make it a different outcome you have different dogs we're gonna revisit this and do this again and i'm gonna have you take charge we're gonna get a whole beautiful ritual that happens at the door so nobody gets bitten anymore okay yeah all right good the following day victoria wants the whole family to reinforce the training for their dog's biggest issue i have a neighbor of yours who's gonna come and ring the doorbell and i basically want you to take charge okay okay first up is ashley there are six dogs go back i've had many many years of very negative behavior at the door when people come through so this is going to be hard stay keep at it good go back it takes a while stay but the dogs eventually retreat now it's hunter's turn keep an eye on them too make them stay back good good hunter's no-nonsense approach quickly reaps rewards by the time stacy takes over the dogs are still barking go back that's it good nice tell him good good go back winston go back but she soon gains control and invites her guests in good beckham i was actually pleasantly surprised that it didn't take quite as long as i had originally expected for them to finally get the hang of it now you can say good boys good boy good boy good boy good boy good you did it took a while but they responded i feel like maybe they were just responding because you were standing no no no no no i didn't have anything to do with it you did it on this episode of it's me or the dog victoria enters a household divided maybe he says no men allowed the shelton family is split down the middle son spencer and dad joe have had enough yet the women in the household cherish junie d i loved you nami once the kids get home victoria learns about spencer's frustrations with junie b my mom and my sister get this love and we get the aggression from her and i don't think it's fair at all abby what do you think is going on in junie b's head i think some of the fall dispensers because he's always shooting rubber bands at her tell me tell me about these elastic bands uh yeah i have these um rubber band guns they just shoot little elastic bands they don't hurt much but i never shoot her i just joke i shot her yesterday but [Music] i feel sorry for spencer because this was supposed to be his dog but it's a dog that will just not allow him near her hey i understand you're frustrated totally get it i would be too if i was in a house with a dog to growl at me for three years try to bite me but you're not gonna make things better victoria starts off the training with a lesson on personal space everybody has i call it a space bubble around them and you let people that you know and you love into that bubble dogs also have a space bubble around them but we humans are always invading their space without being invited and that causes so many problems especially for a nervous dog that's your space bubble that's your space bubble too let's say you don't know me okay now i want you to react like juni b reacts when i get too close for comfort [Music] stepping back from that what about spencer if i do this oh you're such a cute little boy oh hello oh hello oh yeah strange a you haven't given me permission to come into your space you certainly don't want to be touched by somebody you don't know on your head so that's what juni b's going through because she is having people invade her space all the time she is having people coming up to her and smiling hi what's that it actually just sees my teeth also i'm staring when victoria came into my bubble just felt strange and that i thought no well why are they coming into my bubble and why are they doing this to me i feel unsafe and i wanted to run away how'd that feel uh very intimidating you can make it easier for her by doing other things first i could approach just sort of with my side body because that is smaller then i could approach like this the look and the look away look look away and what you're actually doing there is you're talking dog they avert their eyes it's no threat the stare is a threat aversion is not abby and spencer each take a turn at using the side body approach fabulous so now you can tell your friends about space how important it is and what they should do when they come over to your house one frequent visitor to the house is spencer's friend samuel victoria wants junie b to start building some positive associations with the boys spencer has in the past got very frustrated with junior b and i think sometimes he's taken out that frustration on her it was important to illustrate a just what the world is like from junie b's point of view but also to say you know this is how you can develop a relationship abby can you bring junie b in hi she loves food and that's great for us because we can use it victoria entices junie b out of the safety of abby's lap with a small piece of hot dogs then has the boys do the same and this is just building up a positive association for junie b that you know what spencer and samuel are the source of good things not bad things now one more thing do you want to just lie down on the floor on your stomachs like this now when i stand up i look pretty tall from down there don't i imagine living your whole life being much smaller than everybody else having these huge great big feet tramping past you and you don't speak this weird person's language because you're a different species you don't know that i'm not going to be threatening a little daunting huh okay that's what julie b goes through every day so spencer when you do get frustrated with her try and remember what the world is like from her point of view it was interesting to see junior's point of view because i never thought of jeannie being that small and her seeing the world around her as this and it was a eye-opener for me okay thank you victoria bye-bye guns no pointy fingers it's day one without victoria and spencer and his friend samuel are keen to keep up with the training touch good girl juni b is on her best behavior and so are the boys good girl all right that was good see good job as long as you invite her in and let her know that she's your friend it's good okay on this episode of it's me or the dog you have a loaded weapon on the other end of your leash if you kill somebody you're done for murder and you're in jail and that's it casper is just like a registered weapon he has the capability to kill he's just very misbehaved he's just the devil [Music] it's scary if he gets loose he could definitely kill me if he wants i'll sit down then eric has told me to sit down on the table and i want to follow his instructions because there are numerous instances of praises attacking people as if there's one wrong move he could go for me let's go casper get over here whatever you do never act scared when casper has exhausted himself and calmed down victoria can take a closer look you bring that dog hey lay down lay down lay down casper showed me a lot of signs that he's unstable lunging at the person what happens if he makes contact so what he did just to to the camera like you could definitely pet him right now and he'd be fine i'm gonna i'm gonna wait until i do that praises are not to be fooled with they're dangerous and they're dangerous in the wrong hands what really worries me is that i don't think eric is really aware of the potential liability how old are you i'm uh 20 years old how old was casper when you got him about eight weeks he's a little over two years old now i'll tell you right now i think it's highly irresponsible for a breeder to sell an 18 year old guy praise a canario you've got a fighting breed here you've got a dog that was bred for fighting yeah so you know you've got one of the most difficult breeds to handle before victoria continues she wants to have a serious talk with eric sit down eric all right so many young guys like eric have dogs that look cool i have to give them a reality check just what he has at the other end of his leash you are way way out of your depth here people aren't safe around you i don't have to be with this dog for five minutes to know that he is reactive and that could be dangerous one day he's gonna say that's it i'm done i don't think he would ever snap on me to be honest with you my bond with him is that strong you shock him enough times believe you me you're going the right way to make it happen 20 years old of course this dog's never going to do anything to him i know better because i've seen it happen okay eric come over here victoria sees casper showing signs of aggression so she takes eric to a local canine training facility that deals with dogs that have aggressive tendencies i want to introduce you to mike here and earl they do specialized dog training for very hard breeds of dogs that are very aggressive or are showing tendencies to be reactive and the reason why i wanted to bring you here is first of all so you could meet them and see what they do because they're 20 minutes away from you these guys are a resource training casper could be a six to eight month process to get him to a place where he's comfortable and you're comfortable with him and he's more confident so mike could you tell me a little bit about what we're going to see here you're going to see what a bully breed is capable of doing he's going to run he's going to bite earl on the arm it's going to look very scary i want to show eric the power when a bully breed does launch themselves at somebody i have to give him a reality check just what he has at the other end of his leash if you're so friendly why don't you give me your money i'm watching this football launch himself uh earl i'm thinking you don't want a praiser jumping up on you like that tyson come that is impressive good boy gary gave the command he just came right back to him and he was in complete control you know i would love for casper to be able to be like that any dog that we do this kind of work with first has to complete a whole set of classes where they basically pass the equivalent of a canine good citizen test where they could be pet by people be around other dogs and interact like a safe member of the society the key thing with his dog is that his dog is confident and very social around people he doesn't have this reactivity as casper does casper's unstable you have a loaded weapon on the other end of your leash if he kills somebody you're done for murder and your dog gets put down i just don't want that to happen it could be really tough to change this 20 year old's mind but there might be a little in the armor maybe a little light is getting through i just want you to know and i'm sure you do know this about me already that i'm 100 devoted to my dog and i love my dog and you i will prove to you i guarantee because you're training me you're teaching me the best techniques i would guarantee that my dog is going to be such a great trained dog i'm i'm going to be the ambassador for president canary you better be i just want you to keep proving because sorry the car the image the big dog i see more in you than that everybody around here judges me everywhere i go people are staring at me thinking i'm doing something wrong in this place and that's why i was so happy to come out here and just prove to them already that my dog's better than their dog that my dog can be trained and that i can train my dog hey after this finishes i'm gonna be on your case all the time i'm gonna be checking on you all the time i'm so ready to prove it okay i'm so ready i gotta do it if eric continues to be responsive and open to my ideas i think we could achieve great things with eric recommitted to training with victoria she takes on one of casper's biggest problems tell me your worries about casper at the door when somebody rings the doorbell we get pizza delivery something like that and they'll ring the doorbell so that right away wires casper i'll run through the door and start barking like crazy scratching at the glass so he now has a ritual and a habit of behavior what happens if it changes what happens the doorbell rings but you do nothing casper's very reactive when the doorbell goes but i want to be able to train what happens when casper does hear the doorbell and how eric can control casper in that situation don't do anything and don't look at him the first step is to desensitize casper to the sound of the doorbell by showing that eric and denise have no reaction to it just be barking barking it's hard to get him to stop the process must be repeated again and again [Music] finally casper starts to catch on and victoria can add the next step to the training it's important to have somebody helping me in this training a to ring the doorbell but then to be that person standing behind the door so that casper can go from seeing nobody at the door to seeing there's somebody there put him into a sit and stay that's it good boy good boy don't no not too much affection just sit and stay stay stay good boy stay stay casper sit oh you go brat don't guess we're sitting don't see him as a brat he's learning all right no book don't tell him to know because you're barking ignore him he's still staying in his place okay shut the door tell him good boy and come back and sit down okay good boy nice and then it's denise's turn bring him round again nice come here nice and calm good sit sit good boy now you stay and stay casper there's been so many times where i have to be the one to answer the door and it's just so frustrating trying to get him to stop barking stay eric and denise just have to keep themselves calm be patient and casp will get there victoria invites eric's friends over to help casper work on socializing with others but i'd like you to interact with the way you do interact with him just you know because he knows you and then maybe i can just fine-tune a few things just to keep him a little calm so why didn't you let him out and do what you normally do all right okay when he gets excited he wants to jump on you he wants to play with you it's fun but he's a big dog he has giant teeth if you play with him the wrong way or touch him the wrong way you know someone could really get hurt eric always plays with the rope with always spots so that's why he's definitely into the rope with him but casper shows that he still has a ways to go in his training you don't want to play with him he's getting a little excited um and you're the one now that you say all right casper come with me okay so walk out there here you go good nice nice that's something i would like to try right now maybe maybe we could just sit down on the couch yeah and and see if i can kind of get him to lay down get him an activity toy put a little bit of peanut butter inside it and just see what he does stay right there stay stay stay we immediately saw that casper you know was very very obedient casper definitely seems a lot more well-behaved i'm very excited to see more progress be made stay good boy casper okay casper good boy i love that focus on you casper is a great dog i've seen a big change in him since i've been here that bond between dog and owner is getting stronger and stronger every day i want you to be an ambassador for the breed because people will judge you they will judge the way you look they'll judge the fact that you have this big dog but my god will they be impressed when they see this beautifully controlled animal by your side well good luck thank you goodbye my love and good luck with him thank you so much thank you welcome eric saved my life hey well i'm really pleased to have met you and keep proving my first judgment of you wrong okay yeah we'll stay in contact i'm gonna prove it to you that's true all right see you then bye bye bye you just go outside and ring the bell and i'll have him wait over here eric has continued with the door training and people can now come and visit in peace lay down good boy you stay who's that caspar has even improved his behavior with denise sit my proudest moment with casper is getting him to remain a little calmer when there is someone at the door and they ring the doorbell and we get him to sit down and just wait stay stay the bond between him and denise is growing stay casper to see denise and caspar working together is fantastic hey what's tomorrow i'm mike hey hey eric good to see you eric has started his apprenticeship with mike and earl beau pardon it good boy and is showing real potential for this program nala sit good girl now good girl i do hope that eric continues his apprenticeship with mike and earl this is a dream for eric and i would love to see both eric and caspar benefiting from this program thank you seeing eric and casper make a complete 180 is a huge achievement i'm proud and ecstatic at the progress they've both made [Music] [Music] you

Channel: It's Me or the Dog

Views: 424,648

Rating: 4.8967209 out of 5

Keywords: It's Me Or The Dog, It's me or the dog victoria stilwell, it's me or the dog tv show, it's me or the dog watch online, victoria stilwell dog training, it's me or the dog animal planet, victoria stilwell, me or the dog, me or the dog usa, dog training, puppy training

Id: G31bxXgksnc

Length: 101min 46sec (6106 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 26 2020