Struggling With Your Reactive Dog? Watch This | LIVE Q&A

things. Hello. Hi everyone, I'm just gonna wait for a few people to join on to the stream today. Just checking with the old tech that everyone can hear me. I'll give everyone a couple of minutes to join on because I'm a few minutes early today. If you guys have questions that you want to ask, then just drop them in the chat box and I'll do my best to get them all answered today. Just give everyone a few minutes. Hope everyone's having a good week. Almost halfway, almost to football tomorrow, potentially, if anyone's interested in that. I haven't followed it, but All right guys, well, we are live from 6, so I'm just going to get started and then if anyone joins in and has questions that they want to ask, like I said, just drop them in the chat and I'll do my best to get through all of them in the hour that we've got together tonight. There is already a question in the chat now. Your Stay and Train program sounds really interesting. How much does it cost? Um, we don't do a board and train program, so I presume that you mean our 5-day boot camp. So our 5-day intensive boot camp is probably one of the most popular programs that we have in addition to our online program. You can book on to our boot camps in the South Coast from £250 at the moment, but if you did want to book on to a call, obviously I'm sure you guys already know we don't work with everybody. We'll only work with dogs who we actually think that we can help. So my recommendation for you is if you want to get onto the program, just to use the link that should be in the description, book on a call with me or book on a call with Sam, and we'll have a chat with you guys, see where you're at with your dog and if we would be a good fit for you. Boot camp, well worth it. Have an amazing dog now thanks to Sam Kelly and Owen. Ah, Ziggy's here! Is that— oh, it's Ozzy. It's Zig Zig, but Ozzy. Ozzy did amazing. I really loved your, uh, text yesterday, Helena, about your win on the beach with— hi Ozzy— about your win on the beach with the other collie that's always barking at Ozzy. You did amazing. Really glad Ozzy was with us. You should have been so smug. You guys have done so, so well. Ozzy was with us a couple of weeks ago and he's been enjoying some really nice off-lead time on the beach. And Helena has been very grateful to not have to get in the sea and swim with Ozzy since she's been home, because now he can be off-lead and he can go swim swims on his own. She doesn't have to follow behind him on a 5-foot drag line, so that's nice for everybody. Although, to be fair, it's really hot here today So I wouldn't mind a dip in the sea. If you guys have more questions, please just drop them in the chat, or I will start rambling, and people are welcome to stop me in my rambles at any point. Okay, well, I guess I'll just get into a bit about what we think is important in terms of dogs and reactivity and why it is that we do things the way we do them. Um, I'll start by talking a little bit about why it is that we're so big on giving dogs freedom and as much freedom as possible. Obviously, our dogs don't get to live with us as long as we want them to live with us, and I'm sure every dog owner on this stream right now, every dog owner agrees that you want to give your dog the most quality, the best time you have in the short space that you get to spend with them. And for us, that means being able to give your dog as much freedom to go and just live and be a dog as we can possibly give them, as close to a free life as they can possibly have. That means getting your dogs off lead as soon as we possibly can. Off lead freedom is one of the things that really contributes to helping the journey of a reactive dog. It gives them a great outlet to go and explore, to sniff, to use their nose, to do the things that they enjoy doing. It helps provide them an outlet for running, using their body in the way that they're supposed to. It's just something that they don't get when the they're at the end of a 5-foot, 10-foot, 15-foot long line. They're only moving within a certain circle around you at all times. They're not truly able to move their bodies in the way that they're intended to move them. Um, it also really gives our dogs an outlet to make choices be out there, be free, and nurture a bit of confidence where your dog is able to explore and able to go up to the thing that maybe they were a bit apprehensive about. Go and sniff that thing, go and look at that thing, get closer. It breeds curiosity that the dog can get out into the world and see things and experience things in a way that they just won't get when we keep them stuck on a Flexi or on a long line, like I said. So Those are really the main reasons why all of our programs focus so heavily on getting dogs off lead as quickly as we possibly can. Uh, another thing that you will find in— if you have been on or plan to come on any of our courses, whether that be our online course if you guys are further afield um, not in Australia, not in the UK, um, you'll find that we put a lot of emphasis on play with your dogs and playing in the right way with your dog. So not just being that person that's in the park with the Chuck It Stick launching it backwards and forwards, and essentially you just become like a tennis ball chucker at a tennis court. You're there with your dog, but you're not really doing something together. Play should be a two-player thing. It should be something that you're doing with your dog to help foster your relationship, to just have fun and be silly together. I think a lot of people really focus on play as being this kind of obedience-heavy thing. The dog has to sit and wait and stay until I release them to go and get the ball, and they have to bring it straight back, and it has to be this like military operation of things that happen. But play should just really be about having a fun time with your dog. Like, when I play with my dogs, I'm like, I'll trip over myself, make mistakes, I'll do things in the wrong order if I'm trying to teach something through play, but it really doesn't matter because it's just about me and my dog having that 10, 15 minutes of a day where it's just me and them and we're just having a good time and we're finding something together that we both enjoy. Um, can play help my nervous rescue dog? Yeah, absolutely. So my dog Rue, for those of you that don't know or haven't met her, she is a Romanian rescue She obviously arrived not really knowing how to play. She never had played. Um, she also has, being a Romanian rescue, a lot of stranger danger. So I really use play to help her build her confidence with, with people, with being in the environment. Some dogs are nervous about having that bit of conflict with someone, or like being in a person's personal space, being that close can be a lot, especially for a nervous dog, especially for a nervous rescue dog. So doing something fun together where the dog can be in my space but nothing terrible happened, and we had this bit of a to and fro, and they can realize like, oh, I'm strong, I'm confident, I can do hard things, and actually it was fun and I really enjoyed that. Nurtures your relationship with your dog and can really help them to see that they can do hard things and they can overcome them in a really fun way that's constructive for you and relationship building. It's also really helped me with her in terms of strangers, so playing games where I can get other people involved, finding the game that she actually likes and getting other people involved in that game to bring new people into her life in a way that she can have fun and be a bit silly with it. So yeah, absolutely, we love play for helping nervous dogs. Um, when my dog gets hungry, it humps me. What should I do? Honestly, my dog does it every day. 5, 6 PM rolls around. If anyone's been on my Instagram stories, they'll have seen Rue do it. She gets a hump on, and I don't know, I think it's kind of funny. So unless you really hate it, let it happen. It's kind of funny. Let it go. Um, I would love to get my dog off lead, but I don't trust an e-collar to stop him from attacking other dogs. Stop chasing wildlife maybe, but attacking dogs, I'm too scared to try. So those are two kind of separate things. Your e-collar may play a part in some way at some point, dependent on your dog, in terms of attacking other dogs. But attacking other dogs is a separate issue. You need to teach your dog that that behavior is no longer available to them in a way that they understand, via the means of punishment. Um, in terms of how we teach punishment. It's a very nuanced process, so I won't go too in-depth with it on the stream tonight. But predominantly, that you can use an e-collar to teach literally anything you want to. But mostly we teach— we use an e-collar to teach your dog a rock-solid recall so we can get them off lead, get them out there exploring the world in a way that helps fulfill them and gives them a great life. Teaching them to stop attacking other dogs is a separate part of the process where we utilize punishment to say, hey, that's a no. So when you're out in the wild, they understand that behavior is no longer available to me, pick something else. So yes, might play a part eventually, but, um, two separate issues there. So don't try and use an e-collar to stop your dog from attacking other dogs without help. Even if you don't choose us, please seek professional help for that. Um, how is Chance getting on? Have you done anything differently with him compared to Rue? Ah, everyone knows about Chancey boy. Um, yeah, I have actually, because Chance was a completely different dog to Rue. So when Rue came here, she had never lived in a house before, she had never really been in the company of a lot of people before because she came from a big rescue. And although that rescue was amazing, they have a lot of dogs there, so she had spent a lot of time with people. So my process with her was a lot slower really than with Chance in terms of getting her meeting people and building up her confidence. Chance was already a very confident boy when he arrived, so for Roo it was about building her confidence And with Chance, it's been about channeling his drive to want to live life and be out there. And sometimes I don't know if I'm allowed to swear on here, so I won't, but someone can tell me if I'm allowed to. Yeah, I wanted to channel him into appropriate things. So again, that's where I use a lot of play with him to help us build up our relationship, help teach him a few boundaries there. And help him put his want to do stuff and be a bouncy boisterous boy into something that was actually constructive. Hope you guys are all well. We are well, thanks very much. Well and warm, but it has been cooler this week, which is really nice to be honest. There's actually a breeze this week and it's not hotter than the surface of the sun outside, so That's really nice. Oh, I think it's really sweet that everyone knows about Rue and Chance. Get it, guys? Thank you. What was I talking about before we got into questions? I talked about play a little bit, we talked about off-lead freedom a little bit. Um, I guess I'll just talk maybe a little bit more about the course. If you guys are here, that's probably what you're interested in, or if you have a reactive dog and you're here for advice on that. I think the difference in the way that we work, probably as opposed to some other trainers— not all, obviously— is that everything we do is about giving your dogs agency to make choices on their own so that they are able to live a bigger, freer life where you can trust them to be out in the world and make choices without you constantly micromanaging them. Um, any tips on how to encourage a wolfdog to play? If they show little interest in toys or games? Yes, lots. I have some questions for you. If you have other dogs in the house or your dog spends a lot of time interacting with other dogs, I would try and stop that for a while because they are getting their fix of play elsewhere. So if they can just go play with another dog in the park, or they can play with the dog in, in your house they don't really need it from you. So if you want to get that motivation going, you're going to need to cut off their other avenues to do those things for a moment. Um, yeah, my labradoodle won't play either. So cutting off their avenues to do that thing where it's outside of you— so whether that be playing with other dogs or whether that be, I think quite often when, when we get like a nervous rescue dog into our house, or a lot, to be honest, a lot of dogs, our thing is to give them like all these toys and they're out all the time and you can have them whenever you want. And really all that does is kind of make them like a kid that's got like a million toys. They play with each one for like 3 seconds and then they've been off and they go to the next thing. Uh, you want to make sure that the toys are away, that their avenues to get their play fix with other dogs, or even other people, to be honest, if you want to build your drive with you. Those are cut off for now. And then when the dog is like, well, kind of bored, want to do something, be like, cool, you want to play with me? Um, maybe keeping your play sessions a bit shorter. So with a dog that doesn't have good play drive, for like, for example, Rue, when she first came, she would get— she would tap out of the game quite quickly. So I started literally playing with her for like 20 seconds. And you want to keep your play like a good date, always leave them wanting more. So try and end your game where your dog's like super, super into it. So that might look different for every single dog, especially if your dog doesn't have like super motivation to play. But when they've got a grip on that toy and then maybe they— the grip slips, then you would say, okay, enough, you didn't try hard enough, toys away. And they're like, oh, I was really enjoying that. Then when you get that toy out again and you say, hey, you ready, you want to play? The dog's like, oh, that thing, I enjoyed that last time. And you can start to build that over time where the dog is super into the game and they start to realize, oh, if I grip a bit harder, if I put a bit more effort in, I could make this last for longer and I'm really enjoying it. And depending on your dog, that might mean that your game lasts 10 to 15 seconds, it might mean that your game lasts a couple of minutes, it might mean that you start in an easier environment where there are less distractions for the dog. I would also really recommend keeping a lead on your dog when they're— when you play. So when you are— when you've opened your window to play, say, hey, you want to play? You ready to go? Keep a lead on your dog. Your dog's options during that window are play with me or nothing. So they're not sniffing, they're not tapping out to stare out the— at the other end of the garden, they're not watching what your partner's doing in the other room. It's me and the toy or it's nothing. And if they don't get into it, fine, toy goes away. Maybe your dog goes to their place or their bed, and then maybe later on during the day when they've got a little bit more energy, click comes back out, want to play? And we start building it really slowly that way. I would also make sure that you're doing it at a time of day where your dog has energy for the game. So a lot of people will try and do it like at the end of the day because they're like, oh, I'm home, and we're out in the garden, may wait for my dinner to cook, we'll have a little game together. But you've already taken your dog out for a big long walk, they've already done all their bits for the day, so really have any energy left for it. So try and fit your games into a time where your dog is like full of it, ready to go, and you can then work on like channeling that energy into somewhere that you want it to go, which is play with you. So those are my suggestions. Can a solid recall really stop a dog from attacking other dogs? My dog seems really determined to attack. He ignores the recall. So can I get a solid recall before solving the dog aggression? Those two things are kind of synonymous with one another. So yes, you want your dog to have a solid recall, but remember what I was saying about giving your dogs agency to make choice. Versus micromanaging them so that they can live a freer life. Getting your dog a rock-solid recall is amazing because, yes, recall is safety. When I say you have to come back, you've got to come back to me. But if you're out and your goal is to go and be in nature, be in the park, go where there are other dogs and other things going on, You're not going to enjoy that walk if all you're doing is still scanning the environment regardless of the fact you know your dog will come back to you. You're still looking like, dog at 2 o'clock, dog at 6 o'clock, off-lead cockapoo coming this way, and recalling your dog every 2 seconds so that they don't go near any other dogs, so that they never end up attacking other dogs. Because one, one day life's gonna throw and awfully cockapoo at you. And if your dog doesn't know what's expected in that moment, then recall isn't going to help you there. So yes, recall is safety, and 100% you should teach your dog a rock solid recall. But teaching them not to attack other dogs is a separate issue where you need to say like, hey, in a way that they understand that behavior is off the table. We're not going to go stick at other dogs anymore. We're absolutely not going to beat up other dogs just for being in our space. You can't do that. Pick something else. Because when you have both combined, you have a dog who's able to live freely, go and experience the world, cope with those off-leash dogs that do have no recall, and give them a bigger life ultimately. Like, you want to go enjoy your life with a dog. Like, no one— I'm sure no one here got a dog thinking, yeah, can't wait to sit in these four walls and go for a walk at 2 AM every day to avoid everything and everyone. Like, you've got your dog because you want to live life together. Like, they're your best pal and you want to take them to the coffee shop and you want to take them to the park. And when you go out with your family on the weekend, you don't want to be the one that has to leave their dog at home because you can't trust them. Getting the, getting the recipe right in terms of recall and taking stuff off the table is really important to getting to that place. Otherwise you're just living a life of micromanagement, which is no fun for anyone. I watched your video on punishment and it made so much sense. Oh, thanks, thanks for watching. Um, we're now able to walk past any dog completely fine and now just trying to teach teach him how to interact nicely. Do you referee their social interactions with yes and no the same way as reactivity? So what you're talking about there is resocialization, and that is also a huge part of our boot camps. So some dogs are more pro-social, some dogs are not social at all. So I'll use Rune Chance as an example. Rue really does not care about other dogs. She wouldn't go over to them, she would walk past them. She's happy just like living her little life, doing her own thing. Chance loves other dogs. He would love to go over and say hello to everyone. He would love to try and wind everyone up and try and get them to play with him. So two different ends of the spectrum, but getting them to socialize appropriately is super important for both because on the one hand Rue is like I don't really care to be around other dogs, uh, in order for her to move through life and like live a bit more freely, she's gonna have to be prepared to cope with those situations when life throws— I'm sorry if anyone here is a cockapoo owner because I'm really getting on them, but when life throws the awkward cockapoo your way, your dog needs to be prepared to deal with that in a way that isn't just kicking off at the other dog. To say, yeah, fine, I don't want you in my space, to cope with it for long enough for you to help them out and advocate for them and say, all right, go on then, off you go, we're going this way, you go that way, see you never. In terms of Chance, he needs to learn how to appropriately socialize with other dogs. So that's not just bouldering on over like a bat out of hell, rushing into dogs' faces, getting up into their face going in for the kill every time. He needs to learn that that is antisocial, is rude, and it's not the way to interact with another dog. So when you're thinking about resocialization, yeah, absolutely, you need to referee in the beginning. But it's not just the case of throwing dogs into a situation and being on the sidelines to referee and just kind of hoping it goes okay. You need to make sure that you're picking dogs responsibly, and each owner in that situation is advocating for their dog. The way we teach it is quite specific, so if you want to know more, jump on a call, have a chat with us. Um, but yeah, we teach dogs to cope with it in a specific way. But yes, telling your dog when they got it right and also telling them when they got it wrong so they have a very clear picture of where the boundaries are in terms of those interactions. I'm a trainer working with an adolescent Corso. Do you think that when practicing recall, it's okay to recall off play with a toy with a human and reward with food, or will that ruin play drive? Depends in the beginning what the, the drive is like for the Corso. So if it's really, really good at play, you could use it to proof your recall because that's quite a good high-level distraction. Um, don't really love it, uh, but if the play drive is low and it's something you want to build, I wouldn't do that because you want to keep your play like fun and exciting in this thing that we can get involved in. If the drive of the Corso is super low to play, then I would think about practicing off of something else. Use the environment, it's the perfect practice. Good luck with your Corso, let me know how it goes. Let me know what that Corso's play drive is like. Is it something that you're working on? Is it something that owners want to work on? Let me know in the comments. Always makes me feel like Beyoncé when I say that. Like, rate, share, subscribe. Um, cool. Well, before I got into my rant about 10 million other things, we were talking about giving dogs agency. So for those of you that have just joined us, I'll kind of recap over that for those of you that are still here. Sorry if I repeat myself. Um, giving dogs agency, like kind of how I was saying about— a lot of people have asked about recall for a dog that attacks another dog. That's not giving your dog agency. Because the dog doesn't know what's off the table. Why did I just say no? I said no so Australian then. The dog doesn't know exactly what's off the table, so you can never trust that dog to be at liberty. So they're never going to live a truly free life because you're always nitpicking, always scanning the horizon, always looking for what's coming around that corner. You can never just take a walk down the street, be chatting with your friend, knowing that your dog's just walking next to you, taking in the world, and not gonna kick off at things, or not gonna lunge at that bike that goes by, or snap at that old lady that moves a bit funny. They're never going to be off lead and see a dog rushing towards them and think, 'Not today, Satan,' and take themselves off the other way. Um, they're never gonna be walking in the country park and you come across livestock out of nowhere and they know I'm not allowed to chase that. So you're going to have to have them on lead, because if you don't know the area very well, they could be anywhere. Or there could be horse riders, or— I don't know where all you guys live, but there's a whole bunch around here. So if you can't trust your dogs to be at liberty, can't really give them the, the free life that we aim to give them, the fullest years that we aim to be able to give them. Um, Corso's drive is high, but his owner has a lot of hesitancy to use any sort of environmental testers because she doesn't want to use a leash correction for anything. Um, what do you mean as a leash correction? Like using your lead to help the dog come back in? Are you teaching recall using an e-collar? Are you teaching it with a long line? And when you say correction, what does that, what does that look like? If you're like the only way that you're very interested in what you have to say, but I know it's kind of hard to ask good questions. No worries. Okay, I'll just answer them as best I can. Um, you're gonna need to proof at some point off of— you're gonna need the, the dog at some point in order to make sure that your recall is actually solid, to proof off of something that the dog finds more interesting than coming back to you. Because recall is safety, right? So if, like, when I'm out with my dogs, they get 2 walks a day, 7 days a week, so that's 14 walks a week. I probably recall my dogs in that time maybe 6 or 7 times because most of the time I don't actually need my dog to come back and be at me, I just need them to go in the direction I'm heading. So I would use more of an informal recall like a 'this way' or 'let's go,' whatever. Um, but when I call my dogs back, they have to come back and they have to come now, because recall is safety. So really, you're going to want to use something in the environment at some point where the dog's like, nah, just a minute, hun, just gonna finish staring at this, or just gonna finish sniffing that. And you're gonna have to say to them, hey, no, when I say come, you have to come back now. And by the means of negative reinforcement We have to make coming back to us the most valuable thing. And don't get me wrong, when they get back 100%, we still pay them for having come back and a job well done. But they have to know that it isn't an option to come back. When I say come, come right now. Don't hesitate. Don't think about it. Don't keep inching forward a little bit and wait for me to recall you again. You have to have something in play with that call. So to say no. I said come, that means come right now. Come back to me, get paid, and then I'll release you back again. Um, what do you guys— what do you guys with GSD pup working on— what do you guys with— is it okay to train first thing and again when come home, or do I need a walker? He will He will undergo family protection training eventually. Uh, I would— I guess if you're doing protection work with him, you're already working with a trainer. So like, protection training is not my area of expertise, so I'm not going to comment on that. But, um, if it's a working line dog you're going to want to give it something to do. So yeah, you should be doing something with it in the morning, something when you come home. But also bear in mind it's a young dog, like, you're also going to want to teach that dog to do nothing and not just constantly be doing and doing and doing and doing, because then you create a dog that needs to do and do and do and do and do. And I think that's quite a common thing with people with younger dogs, that you never actually teach the dog to switch off. Do I need to get a walker? Sorry, that's the question. While I'm at work, um, depends how long you're out for during the day. Like, how, how old is the dog? Um, if it's a super young puppy and you're out for like 8 hours a day, then yeah, you might not need necessarily a walker, but definitely someone to go in at some point during that interim while you're at work and no one's at home to like toilet the dog. If there are more than meals a day to make sure that they've been fed and given something to do in that time, um, would depend on how old the dog is and how long you're at work, I guess. Does the boot camp work for all dogs? I'm really interested, but because my dog is a rescue and nervous but also very reactive, I just want to check we'd be a good fit. She's also 7. Is that too old? So I'll work backwards with that question. There is no age at which your dog is too old to learn something. The— that's completely false. Yes, there is a point at which if you leave issues to go untouched for a very long period of time, you may reach a ceiling on how far you can get with that dog because they've had such a history of rehearsal doing things that you don't like or that are dangerous to them. Um, but there is no age at which you can't teach a dog anything. Um, yes, rescue dog, nervous dog, 100%. We've got, uh, 1, 2, 3 rescue, nervous rescues here this week with us. Um, so the course Yes, is like, it is structured, but it's tailored to every single dog, whether or not you would be a good fit for it. Like I said at the beginning, I don't know if you were here at the beginning, but our programs, we don't just say yes to everyone. We, we promise that we will help. We give a money-back guarantee that if you don't get to Friday on the boot camp and say, yeah, I'm happy that training worked, you get your money back. So if we don't genuinely think we can help you, then we will refer you on or give, give you the best advice we can possibly give you at that time. My recommendation to you would be to book on a call with me or Sam. I think the link will be in the description, or book on with one of the guys at YCA or Perth if you're in Australia. Have a chat with the team there. They'll be able to talk bit more in depth about you and your dog, what's going on there, see if they can get to the bottom of what's kind of going on and make sure that you're actually a good fit for the program before we accept you on. So I'm not going to say yes or no right now because I don't know you and I don't know your dog, but I would love to know you and I would love to know your dog. So please do book on a call and we'll have a little chat and see what we can do there. I agree with that. Uh, this is the course. So again, I agree with that. Challenge comes with owner having a powerful breed but very unwilling to provide clear consequences because they're afraid of hurting their dog's feelings. I mean, yeah, I think the thing that I would say there is that is exactly what you have just said. You have a big powerful dog and sometimes You need to— the most powerful thing you can do when you have a relationship with a dog is to hit them in the feelings. Like when you were— I think I talked about this, I don't know if you've seen it. I did a talk on punishment and why we rely so heavily on the social system. When I was a kid, I was pretty well behaved, but there were a fair few times where I got a smack bum for doing things I shouldn't have been doing. I couldn't tell you what any of them were for, and that's what I would liken to more physical corrections. But there are 2 or 3 times my entire life where I got the, "I'm so disappointed in you, just go to your room and don't talk to me for the rest of the day." And that hit me in here, and I can hand on heart tell you I never did those things ever again. So I would let them potentially know— I don't know, I don't know how you work, I don't know how you teach, but sometimes hitting the dogs in the feelings isn't the worst thing in the world. It can help them to grow, it can help them to have a freer life. And if you have that relationship with your dog, it sounds quite manipulative sometimes, but you can leverage that to say, hey, you want to do nice things? Don't do that then. Thanks, good work. Thanks. If anyone who's on here tonight is wanting to know more about our boot camps or our online course, if you guys aren't able to attend a boot camp my recommendation to you guys would be to follow the link in the chat— in the chat? In the description. It'll be somewhere, check it. Um, follow that link, book in a call, get on a— get on a call with one of our team, and we'll be able to go a bit more in-depth with you in terms of like exactly where you're at with your dog maybe talk about the things that you've tried before, what's worked maybe to a point, what hasn't worked at all, and where you're currently struggling, so that we can give the best advice we can possibly give. We can get you booked onto a bootcamp if we think you'll be a good fit for one. Um, and if we don't think you'll be a good fit, hopefully you'll walk away with some useful advice anyway that can help you keep progressing with, with your dog. My rescue dog is behaving with, with decent— with, uh, my rescue dog is behaving decently with 99% of dogs, just that one husky who lives near us. He can't stand him, as it seems, and reacts to him. Okay, so here's the thing about taking behavior off the table. It's one thing to say to a dog, you can't go sick at other dogs, you can't put teeth on people, you can't chase children. Those are crimes, you're not allowed to do them. But yes, you're not allowed to bark at other dogs, but if that husky comes out of the house every single day and goes sick at your dog and then your dog barks back, but with most— with 99% of dogs, and that husky is the 1% that barks back, I wouldn't think about saying to your dog that he got it wrong there. So like, he didn't start the fight, he's just like, get lost, don't shout at me in the street when I'm just trying to live my life. What you can say is okay, I get it, knock it off now. That's something I would use my end of play cue for. So if you guys have a window of opportunity to play with your dog where you have a word that opens your window— so with my dogs I say ready— and you have a word that closes that window and says right, the thing we were doing, we're no longer doing that, we're not playing anymore, I say enough. So once my dog understands that then I would be saying to my dog, okay, I know he started it and that dog is a pain, enough now. And we move on with our day because that's not really a crime. If someone came over to me in the street and punched me in the face and I hit them back, I didn't start the fight. So someone can say to me, hey, don't go ham and knock them out, but if they punch me in the face and I push them off, no harm, no foul, as long as I don't take it too far. So if he's barking at the husky, I would say, hey, knock it off, move on with the day. Um, my dog is very reactive with all dogs but just wants to play. I want him to calm down. When you say reactive with other dogs, what does that actually look like? Is it lunging? Is it barking? Is it whining? Do you play with your dog? If you do play with your dog, do you have any boundaries in there in terms of when the game starts and when the game ends? Lunging, okay. And does your dog only ever play with other dogs? Or do you also play with your dog? Because yes, while you can say to your dog, you can't lunge other dogs, that is unacceptable and antisocial behavior, your dog is looking for a channel to drive energy into. And quite often I think people really sleep on play. I know I keep going back to it, but it's super important. And if your dog is looking for an outlet for this need he has to do something and to play with dogs, and, and the only time he ever gets it is that 5% of the time when you say, all right, go on then, play with that dog, play with that Labrador at the park, play with Fluffy down the street, and you never actually do anything for you never actually do anything with a dog in terms of play, then when you leave the house, your dog has all this unspent energy and is looking for somewhere to put it. He's always going to want to look to put it into other dogs. So you need to build a channel for your dog to put that into something productive, build a bit more value in you there, less on the other dogs. But in terms of like taking the reactivity off the table Like I said, uh, if you're struggling with that, I wouldn't go out and try and tackle that on your own because there are like small nuances to doing it, and timing needs to be correct, and intensity in terms of like environmental factors and all that kind of stuff all plays a part. So even if you don't seek professional— our professional help, please do seek professional help.. But if you've joined this and you've enjoyed chatting to me and want to chat to me some more, follow the link, book on a call. We'll chat more about that and what's going on. And like I said, even if we don't think you're a good fit, hopefully you'll walk away with some helpful advice anyway. What are the online options? I would prefer in-person training, but online would be the only realistic option, but I'm hesitant. I'm scared to mess up without in-person instructions. So our online course is super helpful and super effective for those that cannot travel to one of our sites to do in-person training. If it wasn't effective and we didn't think that it worked, we wouldn't offer it. So the benefit of the online platform is that, yes, you have access to a plethora of online videos It runs through everything in real detail with you, showing you the way that we do each thing with lots of different dogs, so you're able to see it in different situations. But also you'll get access to a team of trainers, so if you have questions, if you think you're not doing it right, you're able to send video footage. Like, just take a little video of you doing your training with your dog, send it over to us. One of the trainers will be able to go through it and nitpick 'Okay, that, that's where you're going a little bit wrong there. Your timing's a little bit off here, this, that, the other.' So we can help you keep progressing. There's also weekly live Q&As, so just like this one. If you're feeling like you're hitting a stumbling block, it's not like when you have one-to-one training that's just once a week or just once a month, and you do your training for the hour and then you go away and you spend 6 days getting tiny little bits wrong, and then go to your next training session with that trainer and they spend the first half an hour, 40 minutes unpicking all the little bits that you've got wrong over the last 6 days, and then the last 20 minutes tidying other stuff up and setting you on your way to do more things, so on so forth, and it just takes a long time. With our online option, you get all of the stuff, it's all there for you to watch at your own pace,, but you also have access to our whole training team, so someone will be there for you to help you every step of the way. It's not like you just log on and peace, hope for the best, see you never bye. We'll work with you until you get to where you want to be. Um, he plays with my— oh, this is the reactive dog— he plays with my parents' dogs and we play day. I guess that means every day. Um, so I would cut off the avenue of playing with other dogs for now and build the drive to play with you, because he's still learning to put a lot of value in other dogs and not as much value in you. So work on your play together, find a game you actually both enjoy, and work on putting some boundaries in there. Any tips for getting my husband to agree to training? She's better for him than me, so he doesn't see the stress, but I feel like we're confusing her because we're not on the same page. Um, book onto a call, we can chat together. Uh, sometimes I feel like calls can kind of be like couple, couples counseling because you're both talking to a completely impartial person, one of our trainers on the team, and we're able to help you navigate those stumbling blocks in terms of like getting on the same page. But yeah, you are right, like, it's really important for you both to be singing from the same hymn sheet. And if you have reservations in one area, or maybe you're like the primary carer, I guess, in that situation, and you're dealing with the dog a lot more, obviously you're seeing a lot more of the day-to-day. So perhaps it's just that your husband needs to see that from like to understand that from you when you're able to talk it out with another person. So I would really recommend booking onto a call, getting to chat to one of us, um, and we can help you guys navigate that, see where you're at. And obviously, if you wanted to book onto one of our boot camps, we really encourage that the whole family attends. So whilst everything that we do isn't like deny his marital rights until he agrees. Helena, you never ever not make me laugh. But yeah, what Helena said, just threaten divorce and then tell him that it's training or nothing. Um, don't do that, but also if it works, it works, so do do that. Um, I've completely lost my train of thought now because that is funny. Uh, but yeah, like you say, you both obviously want what's best for the dog, right? So if you're leaving them in this gray area of like, sometimes it's this and sometimes it's that, um, sometimes I get to do this, sometimes I don't get to do that, Mum says this, Dad says that, not really being very fair on the dog because the rules aren't the same across the board. And although you might be trying to implement some kind of training here, there. It's very confusing, very gray area for the dog. So obviously I'm assuming that your husband loves your dog as much as you do, and I'm sure that he does. So if he wants to help her out there and make sure that she's living in less of a gray area— or he— I'm really bad at misgendering dogs. So one of our last week's boot campers threatened to put it in his review that I kept misgendering dogs. They all found it funny. But I'm really working on myself, so I'm gonna presume your dog is a girl. Um, but you're not wrong, it will be confusing for her because you're not on the same page. So use your husband's relationship with your dog as leverage. He wants what's best for her. You've got to sing from the same hymn sheet. All right guys, well Anymore for anymore, because we are coming to the end of what I feel like has been actually a very productive hour together, even though it feels really weird that I actually cannot see anyone and I feel like I'm talking to myself, but I'm not. Um, let me know in the chat if you guys have any more questions or if you want any helpful tips with anything else, or if you are here and you've been in one of our boot camps and you want to tell everyone how great it is. I'm looking at you, Helena. Um, but on a serious note, I think one of the most rewarding things that we do is just knowing that dogs like Ozzy are just living the best life now. They're going out, they're doing things, they're being with their family, they're going to go on holiday with their family, and they're going to enjoy themselves. And the world is much bigger for them now because they get to explore it and experience it with the people that they love. It's fantastic. My dog is now happy and alive. Who the vet wanted to put to sleep due to behaviors. Yeah, we hear that a lot, and it's really sad knowing that there are dogs out there who people deem unfixable, but they're your companions, they're your family, right? You don't want to just want to give up on them, and we don't want to give up on them either. There is, there is more, like book in on a call, have a chat with us. Like I said, if we don't think we can help, we're not going to take your money. Like, us being the right fit for you is just as important as us getting paid for what we do. But ultimately, our goal is to make sure that your dogs are happier and healthier and have this real life. Um, does the program have to change one's mindset? I feel really stuck and frustrated. My dog has been reactive for 3 years. I worked with so many trainers, no progress. I feel a bit helpless. That's absolutely one that we hear all the time. Um, I think one, the difference in how we work, in it being different to most other trainers, is that we do have that money-back guarantee. So One, we won't accept you or book you into a program if we feel like you aren't a good fit. But also, once you're on the program, we're committed to you 100%. So we will give you everything we've got. We are not going into it with the mindset of like, we've got your money, hope for the best, and then once you've left, see you, never bye. If you get to Friday or you get to the end of your online course and you're like 'Now I committed to it, I did the work, and it did nothing,' we'll give you your money back, or we'll work with you until you're where you want to be. Um, so there's that. But also, just because your dog's been reactive for 3 years doesn't mean that things can change. It just means potentially that your communication system isn't there yet. Like, your dog doesn't have a way to understand that was right, that was wrong. Maybe they're not just— they're not fulfilled enough, like they're not getting what they need because you can't get them off lead because they're reactive, because you don't trust them, and then they don't see stuff because you're— so you're closing up their world more and more because they're more and more reactive, and then they see less and less and less and less, and then when they do see things, those things are really novel to them, and it just all feeds into this like horrible cycle. So 100% understand that you are feeling really stuck, and it is rubbish to have been burned by trainers before when you have that bit of hope there and you think you're going to get somewhere and then you don't. But give us a call, have a chat to one of us, and we'll see if we can help. The link is in the description. I have a very reactive Tried 5 trainers and a behaviorist. I feel your pain. Yeah, it's rubbish. I would love to join your course and I love watching your videos, they really help. Finances do not stretch that far. I really appreciate your training videos. Oh, I'm really glad that you have got something from the content that we put out. Um, um, in terms of finances, we do have payment options, so to book on to One of our boot camps, um, you can book on from £250 to reserve your spot. And then, like I was saying before, you don't pay your remaining balance until you get to the Friday and you're like, yeah, that helped, like, that worked, I'm ready to go live my life, I feel good. Um, and then we have split payment options for that, so Have a chat to us, we'll see where you're at. But yeah, it's really rubbish that you've already been burned and that you've wasted money there. We commit to you, we're not— we know with most people, we're not most people's port of call first time round. They'll usually go somewhere else, somewhere cheaper, somewhere closer to home. Somewhere someone else tried once before 5 years ago with the Labrador that pulled on the lead, but that's not your dog, but you try them anyway because they have a good reputation. But we're people's last trainer. That's what we commit to. We'll help you until you're where you want to be, and if we take you on, we'll get you to where you want to be. That's our commitment to you. So If you want to chat, you know where we are. Thanks for answering all the questions. Oh, you're welcome. They also don't leave you alone after. Still get help now if needed. Sound like a fangirl. I'm happy for you to be my fangirl, Helena. You can maybe be my only one, but everyone starts somewhere with a groupie, so you could be mine. Um, but we all loved having you here and we're loving your videos of Ozzy. Everyone's really thrilled for you, so well done. You've done amazing with him and I'm really happy that you decided not to listen to what those other people told you about him being unfixable. I don't know why I keep doing this, it makes me seem insane. Um, what breed is Ozzy? Ozzy is a border collie. I wish you could have pictures up here. I wonder if I've got a picture of Ozzy. We've only got like a minute left to go, so this will be a nice one to go out on. Um, where are you? Okay, this isn't the best one, but this is Ozzy on the trampoline. That's Ozzy. I wonder if I've got a good one of Ozzy on the beach. There must be one. This is Ozzy, free on the beach, living his life. That's Ozzy. Uh, would love to hear a bit more about him and his struggles and how boot camp went for him. So, um, Ozzy came to us, obviously, like I said, not his first trainer. He had been told by an initial trainer that he wouldn't take him on until he'd been for a pain check at the vets. At the vets, Ozzy was not comfortable and he tried to nail the vet. The vet said that he'd never seen an aggression case like it before and that he recommended that Ozzy be put to sleep. Obviously Ozzy is a cherished family member and Helena is committed, and she wasn't just going to give up on him like that just because one person said so. So she sought the help of another trainer who recommended having Ozzy neutered because that would help, but with the caveat that if it didn't help, he should be put to sleep. They did go ahead and have him neutered, and it helped a little bit, but it was a short-term dulling of issues that faded a little bit for a period of time and then just came back. Um, so Ozzy was struggling with reactivity to people and dogs, and Helena, I think it's fair to say, was just at her wit's end. She wanted, wanted more for Ozzy, knew that he was capable of more, but everyone and was telling her that no, he would never change, he would never be a different dog, he was always going to be that way, and that he was basically dangerous and should be put to sleep. So she booked on a call with us and then she came to see us at South Coast. It was his last resort. So glad I went. Thank you, it was honestly such a privilege to have you here. Ozzy's a great dog, but you are one of the funniest people I've ever met, so I was thrilled to have you here that week. You really made our week, and some of your Helena-isms still make us laugh to this day. Um, so yeah, Ozzy came here. Not the easiest dog we've ever worked with by far, not the worst dog we've ever worked with. Um, but they— Helena and her daughter left