E362- Why Rehoming Your Dog Might Be The Best Option

[SPEAKER_00]: Rehoming your dog is not always the worst case scenario.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rehoming your dog in some cases could be the best case scenario for you and your family and your dog.
[SPEAKER_00]: The quality of life for your dog to live in another environment that's more suitable and more safe for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: is much better than hanging on to a dog that doesn't fit your lifestyle and is dangerous to you and your family because of the dog's personality or genetics.
[SPEAKER_00]: So most people think, oh, if I get rid of a dog or if I re-home my dog or even if I give my dog back to the breeder that you're bad and you couldn't handle the dog and all these things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now actually you're advocating for the dog to say, you know what?
[SPEAKER_00]: what's going on everybody welcome to my second youtube channel and the no bad dogs podcast if you guys are watching this and youtube make sure you subscribe to my second youtube channel we're going to be posting tons of different stuff on here but for right now we're posting our full-length podcast with all my amazing guests and this is a uncut unfiltered version backwards hat unbranded hoodie some probably room temperature
[SPEAKER_00]: Today, I want to talk about something that I've never done before with a dog-turning client that was in desperate need that I felt like I wanted to share with you guys because I think it's very, very valuable lesson.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a very valuable piece of information.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I had a consult yesterday.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can work with me online.
[SPEAKER_00]: I work with a bunch of people online every day, basically just consulting with them, coaching them, helping them, answering questions, etc.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they have a dog that is developing resource guardian and it's getting pretty bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the dog has bitten the other dogs.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they have three dogs altogether.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they have two senior dogs, two very senior dogs, like 12 years old senior.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, so unedited that I'm just going to put on chapstick midway through this.
[SPEAKER_00]: So
[SPEAKER_00]: but the dog was was attacking the other dogs because of resource guarding and so they had a tough decision to make and basically they came to me and they said, hey, how much they said how much time how much money do we have to spend to make this go away and I was honest with them and I said, you can't.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't make this go away.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the reason why is because resource guarding, just to define really quick, that's when a dog will try to attack at the very least, grow, lift their lip up, show their teeth.
[SPEAKER_00]: But in most cases, the dog will attack another dog or even sometimes people if the dog gets near their resource, which could be a bone, it could be a stuffed animal, it could be in this case food.
[SPEAKER_00]: know that it's um the dog was attacking the older dogs and so again they wanted me to kind of give them the advice on getting rid of it and I said look resource guarding from from what I have seen and you guys have seen me work with resource guarding plenty of times on my YouTube channel as well as talk about it in my podcast a lot of times it's genetic which means the dog it's baked into the dog.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's they were born with it, sometimes it develops over mature maturity other times it's there right when they're puppies, but
[SPEAKER_00]: To be honest with you guys, and I was honest with them, which is what made me go down this really uncomfortable conversation with them for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe, I don't know, wasn't uncomfortable for me, but it was something that I've never done before.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I was telling them, look, you could work on training, you can work on desensitization, you can work on correcting the behavior, but the reality is is your other two dogs who were in their golden years, you know, they have.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, six months to two years left of life, possibly last possibly more, and I was like, do you want to put your older dogs through this?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because this is something with the dog the aggressor, that's not going to go away.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are going to be managing this behavior likely for the rest of the dog's life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this is the important, there's two important things about this guys that's, in my opinion, some of the most valuable stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: How I approach dog training no matter what the case is.
[SPEAKER_00]: I look at in my head a risk and reward assessment sheet basically so in my head I go through this with the dog owners out loud I say okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's talk about the risk the risk is we keep the the aggressor who is one year old big giant dog around with the 11 and 12 year old two dogs and we work on.
[SPEAKER_00]: It de-sensitizing resource-guarding, correcting resource-guarding, muzzle-conditioning the dog, making things more manageable, slightly more predictable.
[SPEAKER_00]: The one thing about this particular case is was very inconsistent, which makes any type of dog behavioral work very challenging.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you have inconsistent behaviors, it's extremely hard to deal with, because you never know when it's going to happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't really know the triggers for sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: 50 to 100 miles, you hear this really weird noise and then it goes away for three days and then comes back.
[SPEAKER_00]: How are you supposed to explain that, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's very inconsistent.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't know where it's coming from and you don't know why it's happening.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when you have a dog that is developing resource guarding and it's inconsistent, it makes it very dangerous and frustrating to work with because you don't know when it's going to happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so as we were working through this risk and risk over a reward assessment, or yeah, that's just a good way to put it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like what's the ROI here?
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the risk, again, was that the dog does lash out to the older dogs, potentially injuring them, and obviously just like with people when you injure a senior dog,
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, antibiotics, surgery potentially, even just the amount of stress.
[SPEAKER_00]: So here's all that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's all the risk factors, your older dogs and their senior years and their last couple years here with you, live a very stressed life.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are stressed as dog owners.
[SPEAKER_00]: So as the owners are working through these situations, their anxiety is through the roof.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the other dog too.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when caveat here is the dog didn't like doing what he was doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: He just couldn't help it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So after he did it, he would go and hide.
[SPEAKER_00]: He would go into a closet and it's kind of like the the the the wolf man turning into wolf man.
[SPEAKER_00]: They can't really help it right.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the dog doesn't want to do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And which really leads me to like the baked in genetic.
[SPEAKER_00]: type of resource carding where the dog knows it's wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: The dog doesn't want to do it, but they just have to.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is baked in genetics that you can't get rid of.
[SPEAKER_00]: We see it all the time and a lot of other drives with dogs.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, so there's all the risks, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Your stress, the aggressor's stressed and your older dogs are stressed the entire time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what I was explaining to them is I said, look, even if you are successful and you get your dog out and
[SPEAKER_00]: They're co-mingling and they're co-existing and everything is fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't know when the trigger's gonna happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't know if he's gonna resource guard you, resource guard the couch, resource guard the food, the water dish.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I was telling them, you're gonna be stressed the whole time, even if it is successful.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's really a lose lose.
[SPEAKER_00]: Think about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have a dog that has a history of attacking the other dogs, the other dogs are seeing you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you don't want anything to happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: So your heart's gonna be in your throat every time that they're around.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're gonna be, we're gonna, they're gonna do walking next to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, all right, it's just going to be constant and that's the reality of owning a dog that has a history of this because once you see it, you know, and let me know in the comments if you guys have dealt with something like this, it's very violent and it could be very traumatic for everybody in the household and you know working with reactive dogs my entire life, I definitely have some sort of PTSD just by hearing certain things like if a chair moves.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like a wooden chair moves on a floor just right.
[SPEAKER_00]: It sounds like a really blood curdling grow and my heart spikes immediately happens all the time Because I work with a lot of dogs that try to come after me to try to bite me.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when I hear that Instinctually my heart just immediately jumped on my own.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I definitely deal with that myself And so I know when the owners have watched their aggressor dog their young dog attack the older dogs.
[SPEAKER_00]: They got to be feeling the same thing
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we start talking about, you know, the options, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So kind of closing out the risk reward assessment.
[SPEAKER_00]: The risk is all that stress and they're still potential of the aggressor to go after them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now you're kind of in a deeper hole because your senior dogs who are putting their trust into you to advocate for them to keep them safe is now dwindling.
[SPEAKER_00]: So again, like the last couple years of these dogs life is anxious, walking on egg shells, and potentially like ruining the trust in relationship with you because you're letting this dog do these things and you know about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's just not a good situation, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a good situation, and so going over to the reward, it was, okay, again, resource guardian isn't going to be one of those things that the dog never does again because it's like, it's genetic, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So think about it like this, let's say, we have, you know, a lab that really loves a ball or a shepherd that really loves a ball, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That dog chasing that ball and playing fetch is a genetic disposition that most dogs have.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's called prey drive.
[SPEAKER_00]: They like chasing.
[SPEAKER_00]: They bring it back.
[SPEAKER_00]: It chases again.
[SPEAKER_00]: It bring it back.
[SPEAKER_00]: It runs again.
[SPEAKER_00]: They bring it back.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's genetics, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's say this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's say okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: This dog is is doing what what he likes to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here she likes to do chase the ball and what if we say one time like okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's stop the chasing of the ball forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: For whatever reason.
[SPEAKER_00]: that is going to be lifetime suppression.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in dog training, suppression for some reason strives me nuts.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's so many dog trainers who talk about suppression like it's this awful thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, if you are training a dog and you put a leash on a dog, if you put a fence in a backyard,
[SPEAKER_00]: you are suppressing your dog.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hate to break it to you trainers who are thrown around suppression like it's this some nasty word and nobody will nobody in the dog training space will be doing it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well you don't know what you're talking about.
[SPEAKER_00]: Suppression by definition is quite literally, especially towards animals is to make a dog do something they don't want to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you put a leash on a dog and they want to go this way and you say, no you can't, there's a car, you're suppressing your dog.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, for most people out there who are normal thinkers, critical thinkers, realistic thinkers, we all understand that suppression is part of every single day life.
[SPEAKER_00]: We stop at a stop sign even over late and we don't want to, but we do it because it's safe and that's the law.
[SPEAKER_00]: Suppression is something that we deal with.
[SPEAKER_00]: probably by the minute, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So do dogs and so does training.
[SPEAKER_00]: So anybody out there who's listening and see other people on TikTok and other social media talking about, oh, that person uses suppression.
[SPEAKER_00]: Guess what, so do you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody uses suppression.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, off my soapbox.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's say the dog that the lab that loves the ball, we say all of a sudden, hey, you can't go chase the ball.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is the dog does the dog want to do it or will the dog have the urge to do it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if we manage it, could we manage it?
[SPEAKER_00]: We can be stopped it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can we put a leash on the dog?
[SPEAKER_00]: Can we put a knee collar on the dog?
[SPEAKER_00]: Can we make sure the dog doesn't chase the ball?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's going to be a lifetime worth of management to make sure that the dog doesn't chase whatever they want to chase.
[SPEAKER_00]: So hopefully that example lands with you guys and makes sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's the same thing with the resource card.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was saying, there's a good chance we can't get rid of the resource carding because it is baked into the dog's DNA.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even if we did work on it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So even if we went to the reward side and said, OK, what is the reward of this?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's the ROI of this?
[SPEAKER_00]: worked on it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The only way we'd really be able to work on it in a context that is realistic is if we used your other dogs.
[SPEAKER_00]: So again, we kind of flopped back to we have to use the other dogs to really work on desensitizing, correcting, training, behavior modification, all that stuff and still at the end of the day like the lab that owns the chase to ball, we're really just suppressing stuff because the dogs genetics say I need to have resource guarding and the dog
[SPEAKER_00]: So anytime I'm working with any dog, especially behavioral cases, I should say it's really only applicable to behavioral cases, a basic obedience, this doesn't really, it's not applicable.
[SPEAKER_00]: So dog trainers and dog owners, you can use this, like you look in this assessment, you go, okay, what's the risk of going through this type of training and what's the reward?
[SPEAKER_00]: And a lot of times, especially in this case, it was like this, there's really no rewards here, because even if we had a couple of good weeks,
[SPEAKER_00]: and you let your guard down and the aggressor attacked one of the other dogs and the other dog had to go in the surgery and you know now they're living the last six months on antibiotics and recovering from an injury, it's going to be awful.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I talked about the options that they have.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the first option is to create and rotate and play zookeeper for the rest of your life, which is what a lot of dog owners do.
[SPEAKER_00]: a lot of dog owners have to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Meaning we have two dogs in the house that don't get along and so we're just rotating them through our lifestyle.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's many people who have to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you have working dogs, this is your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Working dogs, this is the only life they know.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're not out.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're only in the crate or the kennel and when they're out and they're working and then they're back in.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's just the life, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, you know, the other the other option and really I kind of went through two different options.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the first one was management, you know, well, I guess I'll give you the second one.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's three.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the other one was do you sensitizing the dog, the aggressor to hopefully get better to reduce the the resource guarding, but still.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yours, the owners are still going to be nervous and the other dogs are still going to be nervous.
[SPEAKER_00]: So even if the aggressor doesn't react, it's still creating the same situation for everybody in the environment, everyone's nervous.
[SPEAKER_00]: And to live your life like that is not very fun and it's not really sustainable.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to, it's just your nervous system is constantly like on edge and it's not not a good, not a good idea.
[SPEAKER_00]: So then the realistic option was re-homing the dog and this is a conversation so there's two parts to this that's kind of profound for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first part is talking about this, I don't know if I've ever talked about this in this way, but re-homing your dog is not always
[SPEAKER_00]: The worst case scenario, re-homing your dog in some cases could be the best case scenario for you and your family and your dog.
[SPEAKER_00]: The quality of life for your dog to live in another environment that's more suitable and more safe for them is much better than hanging on to a dog that doesn't fit your lifestyle and is dangerous to you and your family because of the dog's personality or genetics.
[SPEAKER_00]: So most people think, oh, if I get rid of the dog,
[SPEAKER_00]: or if I re-home my dog or even if I give my dog back to the breeder that you're bad and you couldn't handle the dog and all these things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, actually, you're advocating for the dog to say, you know what?
[SPEAKER_00]: If I keep this dog who doesn't, you know, for example, get along with the other dogs in my house and make our entire life stress.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our marriage is stress.
[SPEAKER_00]: My other dogs are stress.
[SPEAKER_00]: The whole thing is stressful.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if I re-home this dog to another home that doesn't have other dogs, the dog will live a happier life, the better quality of life for everybody increases.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the ROI on that is gigantic.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I feel so many people are so hard in themselves and stigmatize if you get rid of a dog, you're a failure.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in this case, that is not the truth whatsoever.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have a dog who has a natural baked in genetic resource guarding issue that the dog can't shake.
[SPEAKER_00]: The dog knows it's wrong, the dog has sweetest pie outside of this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the owners are stressed, the older two senior dogs are stressed, and the aggressor is stressed because he doesn't want to do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So to hang on to this dog and keep this dog in the home,
[SPEAKER_00]: is actually selfish and doing the wrong thing, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because because of what so many people are stigmatized is if you get rid of a dog, you're the worst.
[SPEAKER_00]: And no, if that's not the case at all, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: If you get rid of a dog to make the dog's life better, you're doing a better thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm just here to tell you, as somebody who is owned and loved dogs for over 30 years,
[SPEAKER_00]: and it's been a professional behavioral expert for over a decade, getting rid of your dog to better suit the dog's life and give the dog a better quality of life is the right thing to do in that circumstance and you are not a bad dog owner and it's not that you couldn't handle the dog or
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just this isn't the right fit for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Period, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like if I adopted a dog tomorrow and brought it into my home, thinking, oh my kids and my family and my other dogs, all this is going to be great.
[SPEAKER_00]: That dog came into my home in three months later, the dogs started attacking all mother dogs.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why would I live for the next seven to ten years through stress and agony?
[SPEAKER_00]: just so people on the internet or just so your neighbors or just so your uh you know your conscious doesn't feel bad and I'm here to tell you it is okay to re-home your dog.
[SPEAKER_00]: If your quality of life for the dog and everybody that lives with you is going to crap shoot.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing wrong with that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And secondly, when I was explaining this to them, they were really disappointed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like in here in their voice, I'm in listen, I'm in the people business.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not in the dog business.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a passion for helping people, but I just have a master's in dogs if you will, like that's what I'm naturally gifted at, is dogs, but I love helping people.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I can hear in their ton of voice that they weren't happy with what I was telling them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so for the first time in my career, I just simply said, can I ask you this, can I?
[SPEAKER_00]: What would you have like to hear?
[SPEAKER_00]: And it wasn't from a place of
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to make you happy as a client.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was just curious.
[SPEAKER_00]: What were you hoping to hear?
[SPEAKER_00]: And first of all, he said, and they were great.
[SPEAKER_00]: First of all, he said, look, we hired you to consult, to give us the answer we needed to hear not we want to hear.
[SPEAKER_00]: So first of all, thank you for being truthful.
[SPEAKER_00]: I said, sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they said, but honestly, we were hoping that you were going to tell us something that we didn't think of.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that was the first time in my career that I actually extended this olive branch because I could hear the frustration and sadness and disappointment in their eyes not because of me, but because of what I said and so I just was like, what's the deal?
[SPEAKER_00]: What would you, what did you expect and
[SPEAKER_00]: They just said, we were hoping something else, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I get that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're doing the right thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you have a situation at home, you find a guy like me that eats loose and breathes reactive dogs and you go, maybe this guy has a different option.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the reality is, is when you're dealing with something so baked in, it's very difficult.
[SPEAKER_00]: to remove.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in most cases, you can't, you have to manage it and suppress it.
[SPEAKER_00]: First, you know, again, like the dog wants to chase the ball.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are assessment balls.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why are they obsessed with balls?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because they're a working line shepherd or a working line, whatever they're dog.
[SPEAKER_00]: So throughout our whole life, you call a trance.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want my dog to stop chasing balls.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, I can get your dog to stop chasing balls.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm not going to be able to stop your dog from wanting to chase the ball.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the difference between reality and
[SPEAKER_00]: fairy tale right and I get that that you would hire a dog trainer, especially a behavioral expert like me to get rid of the thing that is causing so much stress in your life and so that this was a profound session for me online and I wanted to share it with you guys because I think it I think it's helpful for people to hear it now
[SPEAKER_00]: you know it's it's gospel right it's like it's subjective like this is just my professional opinion and of all the dogs you know I'm a human being I'm a father I'm a husband I'm a dog owner I'm a business owner and that's just that's just where I'm at you know so I don't know if everybody would agree with this but to me it's just like I'm using my
[SPEAKER_00]: critical thinking skills to like go through like every possible situation and that's what I gave him I said you could keep your dog but you're going to have to rotate in order for the quality of life for all the dogs to be not stressful for the rest of their lives and are like well that's going to make us stressful I know so I just think it's important for people to understand some of these things that go on behind the scenes and
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this is invaluable to a lot of people out there, especially dog trainers, to have that conversation, you don't really know how to say it, or you don't know what to say, or you don't know if it's okay to say to get rid of your dog, it's the better option, and again, I'm just a normal guy, you know, I'm not, you know, the profit, I've watched the profit on Netflix, which is crazy documentary by the way, not anyway.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, you guys can listen to all my podcast, listen to my sub-stack basically when I go on dog walks Um, I have all these ideas pop up into my head and it's like the only time in my life that I can't just, you know What about a camera and talk about it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Especially when I'm walking with my dogs because you might think like, oh get yourself on
[SPEAKER_00]: I just record audio voice notes and I send it into my sub-stack.
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys can check that out in the link below.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, guys, thanks for listening to the no-bed dogs podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for watching this on my second YouTube channel.
[SPEAKER_00]: Make sure you guys subscribe to my second YouTube channel because we're going to be not collaborating with the Tom Davis dog training channel any much longer.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you guys, if you don't subscribe, you're going to miss it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you guys so much for listening and watching.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I will talk to you on the next one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peace.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also really quick guys this episode is brought to you by my friends over at we feed raw if you guys want to Hop on the bandwagon and try a fresh fresh raw diet delivered straight to your door You guys can click the link below and say 50% off your viewers or right now because you're listening to the no bed dogs podcast enjoy