Are Dog Owners Just Lazy?

00:00 — Kati introduces the episode’s focus: why dog owners can try training yet still make…

Welcome to Off Leash and Unfiltered Trigger Warning. I'm Kati Peppe, delivering the Truth in Dog Training.

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Off Leash and Unfiltered. I'm Kati Peppe, owner of Diamond Canine Dog training in Biddeford, Maine. Uh, we do puppy raising off-leash, obedience, eco training on behavior modification, lots of state of mind work. Um, so eco training is our specialty, uh, and behavior mod, uh, which involves a lot of state of mind work. It's what we love to do. So that's, that's who we are. It's what we do. And, uh, today I thought it might be a good idea to talk about, um, dog owners that aren't making progress despite trying and despite maybe even having a trainer, right?

Because I have clients that don't make progress and some, it's very frustrating. <laugh>, right? It's frustrating to the dog owner, it's frustrating to the trainer. Um, and I, I think it's a really common scenario, so I thought it'd be a good one to talk about.

So, and you see a lot of, uh, people out there really, really putting dog owners down, uh, and blaming them for just absolutely everything. So it's their fault if their dog is, is bad, it's, it's their fault. If their dog, um, hurts somebody, it's their fault. If their dog is overexcited, it's their fault. If their dog is needy, it's their fault. Like whatever their dog is doing, it's their fault. Whatever happens, it's their fault. Um, whatever progress they don't make, it's their fault. Um, and sometimes that's true. And everybody, I think if you've listened to me, you know that I'm really big on accountability and I absolutely expect people to take accountability, um, for their situation and their reality and their results.

But, um, you have to have the information, right? So lots of people get the information, they don't do anything with it. I absolutely agree that those people are, uh, responsible for whatever happened, right?

But the kind of the problem that we have right now in society is that the narrative that's being pushed on people is that dogs and they, these tied together, right? The owners are always at fault because dogs can't have any fault. Dogs are just perfect beings and they're so good at heart and they wanna please, and there are no bad dogs, which I hate that quote more than anything in the world. Um, 'cause it's true that dogs can't be necessarily good and evil from a morale, a morality perspective. But, um, they do do what comes naturally and that can be good or bad, right?

So lots of dogs are wired to do serious harm. Uh, that's a real thing. Lots of dogs out there that are not trainable, that cannot inhibit behaviors or cannot inhibit them very well. Um, and a lot of times those are very dangerous dogs. Those dogs exist. It's not all dogs are good and it's always the people are, are just bad. Uh, that's not how that works at all. So

Let's talk about the reasons, like the types of situations or the types of people, I guess. Um, well, no situations that occur that I think result in people not making any forward progress. So the first example where I see people not making any progress is, uh, because they're DIYing their dog training. So they're not using a professional trainer, they're just gonna do it themselves, right? That's really common for people that are on a tight budget, um, and they have no clear plan. So maybe they're following some people on, you know, YouTube or, or Instagram. And there's nothing wrong with that, you know.

04:00 — DIY training often fails because owners lack a clear plan and rely on scattered…

But the problem is you're often just getting like bits and pieces of what's happening and you're not really seeing the whole process and you're not really understanding the whole process or you're following, you know, 3, 4, 8, 9 different trainers, <laugh>. And they all might do things a little bit differently.

'cause by the way, there isn't just one right way to do things. Like, there's lots of different things you could do in lots of different situations. And so you're just kind of all over the map and you don't have a lot of clarity on exactly what you should be doing. And most people are not gonna do well in that scenario, right? Because you're gonna be less motivated, first of all to do your training because, you know, you don't really know what you're doing. You're unsure about what you're supposed to be doing so it doesn't feel good 'cause there's no real roadmap and you can't tell if you're doing the right thing.

And so that's not real gratifying, it's not real motivating. Um, and obviously it's probably gonna take you longer to train your dog if you even get your dog trained <laugh>, because your training's gonna be messy because you're not really basing your training on how the dog learns.

So you're not being really effective. You're just trying to mimic something that you see and you, you're mimicking different strategies and techniques in different scenarios that might not be appropriate or might not fit together, right, for your dog. So, so it's very messy, um, and not at all what I would recommend. So you, you can DIY your training, but you need to have a very clear plan. So I would urge you if you're doing training by yourself, especially e color training, which I highly, highly recommend for dogs over five or six months of age, make sure when you go into it that you know exactly what to do.

It doesn't mean you're going to be an expert at it, right? But read the books, watch the videos. Maybe pick one trainer, <laugh>, okay? Who you really like their style, you like the results that you see.

And do that. Start to finish and see what you get. Okay? Um, you should know when you go into training with your dog, you've got your dog on the leash, you know, hopefully you've got, you're doing e-collar training and you've got your e-collar, you should be like, okay, this is exactly what this is gonna look like today. Like, I can't guarantee what my dog is going to do, but I know what I'm supposed to do in this session. I know what level this thing should be on. I, you know, roughly, there's never gonna be like one set number.

I know when I should be pushing the button. I know why I'm pushing the button. I think that's important. So if you're working with a trainer and you're just following their instructions, like that's fine and I think you'll be okay. But understanding why you're doing what you're doing helps a ton because then you can start thinking on your own using those critical thinking skills and applying it and you'll be more effective.

Um, you'll also be more motivated to do the right thing, which will make you more effective. Because if you don't know why something's important, then you might not always do it. Um, so really understanding how you're teaching your dog, how they're learning and why you're doing what you're doing, I think will make you more effective. But you have to know what you're doing guys. You gotta have a clear plan. So that's key for the DIYers. Doesn't mean you need to know everything start to finish, but when you go into a session with your dog, you should know exactly what it is that you're doing in that session so that you have a very clear plan and like what that progression is gonna look like as your dog understands more and more and you build on it.

Okay? The second situation that I see people just failing to make progress in is they are using a trainer, but they're not given the information <laugh>.

So that's a really common one. So I get a lot of people here who have already been through e color programs somewhere else, and you would think they would be all set, but they're not. And the reason that they're not is because the dog understands everything just fine. Okay? The reason they're here though is 'cause the dog, even though they, the dog understands concepts, they're not doing the behaviors, they're not reliable. And the reason they're not reliable is because the human was never trained on how to keep the reliability. So there's no fairy dust. Guys.

09:00 — Dogs trained reliably by professionals often regress when owners have not learned how to…

Like I can train a dog to be nearly perfect with me, but when I hand that dog back to the owner, they're going to know that they don't need to be perfect for them, right? So just training the dog what to do. But again, this fits into that fallacy where all dogs are good.

All dogs wanna please you. And if they know what you want, they would do it. It's clearly just false. That's not true. If it was true, then we wouldn't be seeing this play out, right? The dog already knows how to do the stuff, so they would just do it. If that was the case, the owner wouldn't be having a problem. But they are because they were never taught how to hold their dog accountable. And so they show up on my doorstep with a fully trained dog that they can't make reliable, they can't get their dog to hold place, they can't get their dog to hold the down, they can't get their dog to come back when called.

All these things. Dogs still jumping on people, right? Sometimes trainers will even tell PE people not to turn the remote above a certain number, which is just completely bogus, complete malarkey.

Dog picks the number and you will be up and down or you will not be effective. So you have to have the right information. You have to know how to use the tool. You have to know what your dog's like specific challenges are and how to work them through that effectively. And if you don't know how to do that, then you're not gonna have a reliable dog. It's very simple. So if you have holes in your training, not the dogs in your training, then you might need to call somebody and get that fixed. And you wanna make sure this is somebody who focuses on giving the owner this information.

'cause not everybody does. So the way that I would tell that is I would look at their website, their social media, um, or talk to people. If you know people that have used them, that's optimal and make sure that they show their work. You can see they truly get results and that they are open about the use of corrections, right? If they're trying to keep that all on the down low, then that's what they're gonna do in your session with them. You're gonna go meet with them, you're gonna hand them your money and they're gonna do the same thing the last one did.

And not tell you you have to hold your dog accountable. You're going to have to correct them. This is what that looks like. This is how you do that safely and effectively.

So if they don't talk about corrections or punishment or um, yeah, anything like that, then you're probably gonna have the same problem. Alright? Number three. The third reason I see people not making forward progress, um, is something as simple as just old habits die hard, right? So they come in, they come in with the best of intentions, they're excited about it, they're motivated, they hear everything I say, and then they go home and they do everything their old way, right? The second they walk out this door, everything I said just stays right here. It doesn't go home with them.

12:00 — Old habits undermine progress when owners return home and make only a half-hearted training…

And that's a really frustrating one, right? And trainers complain about this all the time, um, because it is frustrating because we genuinely want people to be successful. And when we're giving them the information and we know that the potential is there for them to be so successful, it's really hard when they come back the next session and they just didn't do any of it, you know?

Or they made a really super half-assed attempt to like maybe do a few things or they did it yesterday or something like that. But they're not going home and like grabbing the bull by the horns and like implementing all these things you told them they could do to make a change. Um, that is hard. And I think part of the reason that happens is we tend to view dog training as like the small window of time during the day instead of viewing it as how we live with our dog. Like, that's what the training is guys.

It's how you live with your dog. It's how you get up in the morning and let them out to pee. It's how you feed them. It's how you respond when they jump on you.

It's how you control their decision making during the day, the level of structure that you use. It's what you do when they bark out the window. It's how you follow through when you ask them for something, right? So it's not your 15 minute afternoon session, that's the training. It's how you live with your dog. That's the training. So if you don't go home and start viewing every interaction with your dog as training, you're not gonna be that successful. You're just not. And I understand that, like you got a dog to enjoy them, but you're the one that's looking for training <laugh>.

So you know, you just, you can't, there's no fairy dust. It's not gonna happen if you don't make it happen. And you have to start viewing every little moment as a training moment, right? And that doesn't mean that you have to be constantly training your dog, but it means if there's a situation where your dog is going to potentially rehearse the stuff, you don't want them to just put them away, put them in their kennel. That's really where dogs should be during a training program anyway. They shouldn't have autonomy. They shouldn't be running around your house.

15:00 — Prevent unwanted rehearsal by managing the dog’s access and using the kennel when necessary.

Just put them in their kennel and take them out and work with them in frequent short sessions, right? So that you can control everything not forever, just for now, right? That's gonna give you maximum leverage. And I really believe that's half the magic of a board and train.

I just control everything. If I'm not working with the dog, the dog is put away. And so that makes every moment your dog is with you school, right? Until they're really good and it starts happening naturally and you don't have to tell them anymore, right? And that's when you really start get getting to enjoy the force of your labor. But it's easy to go home and you just, you walk back in through that door, take the leash off, and you just start doing everything the way you've always done it. And that's a huge mistake. It's a huge mistake.

So, and if you don't know, like if you're unclear on how things should look at home, what those small moments are, you should be addressing how much structure you should be using. If your dog should be in the kennel, ask, like if you're working with a trainer, ask them. I can assure you, most trainers will be very glad that you asked and that you're actually trying and that you're implementing this stuff. But if you go home again, just like the DIYing, if you go home and you, you don't have a clear picture in your head of what you should do when you walk back through that door, then you're not gonna be as successful as you could be.

You're gonna leave a lot on the table. Okay?

Number four, and this is a big one, <laugh> number four, I think people are often unsuccessful, um, with their private sessions because deep down inside, they don't really believe it will work. They either don't believe that they can do it, they don't believe their dog can do it, you know, and it's a whole lot of effort to get back little or no return, right? It's like those stupid diets. It's like, yeah, I'm gonna starve myself silly and I'll be lucky if I lose a pound. No thanks, right? Not worth it, right? So when someone tells you to go home and like maybe you have a dog where your trainer wants you to give the dog less affection, you know, get them outta the bed, have them sleep in a kennel at night, uh, restrict their freedom, uh, make sure they come through doors properly like every door.

And it becomes like this really tedious chore to like, take the dog out to go to the bathroom. Like it feels like a lot of work, a lot of effort and a lot of sacrifice. You're sacrificing things you like, things you enjoy, um, and you don't, you either don't believe it's tied to results or you just don't think it will work, right? And so we don't really do it. Maybe we don't do it at all, or maybe we just kind of half-ass it. We do it a little bit sometimes, or maybe one person in the house is doing it, the other one isn't.

Um, that, well, that won't work, right? So that's a self-fulfilling prophecy where we have in our head, this stuff won't really work. Um, and so we don't do it. And then guess what? It doesn't work. <laugh>, of course it's not gonna work.

You need to do the work so you will get back what you put in, right? It's gonna look a little different for every dog. Um, but you cannot get amazing results without amazing effort. Um, and that's part of the reason I think board and train is, uh, such a successful program compared to private sessions. Not that private sessions aren't successful. I have plenty of clients that have done wonderful. Um, but it's a lot harder. And the reason I believe is because with a board and train, you know, we meet on go home day and people get to see the results up front, right?

19:00 — Board-and-train often succeeds more easily because professionals handle the work owners must repeat consistently…

So they get to start their journey with their dog seeing the result, and they're blown away by what their dog can do and how much better they are. And so then when I say, go home, use your kennel, reduce your affection, correct your dog. If they jump on you, this is how you do that. Like, they go home, they do it because it clearly works, right? So I get to prove that upfront where in private sessions they have to take my word for it and go home and do it. And I think that's harder. I think that's a lot harder.

Um, number five, the fifth scenario, why I believe people often fail with their training is nothing more than we're busy, right? So it becomes, I'll do it tomorrow, I'll do it tomorrow, I'll do it tomorrow. And I just heard this last night from a private session client, and by the way, they have a very serious dog who could hurt somebody, who could frankly kill somebody. And so there's no room for this for those people. Not that there's room for anybody. You know, if you pay for a program, you should want to get the results bad enough to prioritize it, right?

You gotta get psyched up.

Think about what your dog could be. Trust me, they are capable of more than you think. Think about how good it would feel to get the burden off your shoulders If you have a dog you can't trust right now, make it a priority, guys, right? But it becomes, oh, the week just goes by so fast. Um, you know, I've got work and I've got kids and school and sports and all these things, and I get it. Like most of us have those things. We're very busy. And here's the thing, we, we all hear about this, you know, work life balance, right?

And let me just tell you this balance thing, it's bullshit. It doesn't exist. It's not real <laugh>.

It's not real. So, and here's the thing, I think in the macro, sure, you can have balance, and I think that's kind of the goal that we should all shoot for. But in the micro shit, things are not gonna be balanced, guys. They're just not. Because you, I'll tell you why. Because you can't make everything your top priority every day, right? So by you thinking that you're gonna accomplish everything on your list, everything that's on your plate is gonna get attention and be in good shape every single day. I hope you have a really fricking boring life.

22:00 — Owners cannot make every responsibility their top priority, so dog training must receive deliberate…

Because if you don't, there's no way that's gonna happen. And you're gonna be miserable every day and tired and defeated every day, okay? So when you sign up for a training program with your dog, right? And you make a commitment with the trainer and you pay them the money and you're excited about training your dog at that moment, you need to decide the dog training is moving to the top of your list.

And I'm not saying you skip work to train the dog, at least not every day <laugh>. But I'm saying you've got a lot going on. You've got a lot on your plate, you've got a long list. If dog training is at the bottom, if dog training is supposed to fit in somewhere after everything else, you are going to fail. You're going to fail because you've got too much to do. We all do. Okay? Or maybe you don't, like, maybe you're just exhausted and you wanna just sit and like, I get that too. But that will not get your dog trained.

It will not, okay? And just showing up to class and then going home and saying, I'm too tired or I have too much to do. I have to make dinner, I have to do dishes. I have to bring the kids to school. I have to, that will not get the dog trained. It won't. So you have to make a commitment, I think, to make dog training. Not forever, but while you're in the program, it needs to be a high priority.

And maybe it's not a high, the highest priority every single day. There might be days where you have other priorities that are higher, right? Like showing up to work is a higher priority. Fine supper might be a higher priority. You have to make dinner for the kids and for the family, okay? But if you're that tight on time, maybe you do takeout, okay? Um, but whatever the other things are that you normally do in your daily routine, and think about it, write 'em down, look at it, be like, what are the things that I do every night, right?

So one night when you're not even trying, just write down all the little things that you do running around the house, picking up, doing dishes, uh, taking a phone call, having a work conference, whatever it is, okay? Watching three hours of golden girls, I don't know. But whatever you do, write it down. So you can just see like, what, how am I actually spending my time?

25:00 — Writing down daily activities helps owners identify where their available time actually goes.

And now, especially anything that's on there that you do every day, I want you to decide if those things are a higher priority than dog training while you're in the program, right? So if the six week program, it's like, okay, is this something I can bump down the list? Maybe not every day, but most days for six weeks, right? Because you have to do your dog training. So again, dog training is how you live with the dog, and every moment matters. You're training all day. But for most people in most programs, there's also going to be a practice, um, segment to this, right?

So you are going to have to go home and spend 15 minutes like rehearsing an obedience command, right? So I, earlier in the podcast I mentioned it's not that it's how you live with the dog. And that's true, that's absolutely true.

But there's usually also an element of obedience training, right? Where you have to actually just take the dog and do repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition. Um, and so that's not gonna go away. Like you need to do that until your dog learns the thing. And then obviously you can stop. Um, um, but that's a process. So you do have, you are gonna have to carve out some time to do those repetitions, to do that obedience training, but it's usually not a huge deal. My clients, most of them, I tell them 10 to 15 minutes twice a day.

And so if there's two people and you can each do one session, that's pretty easy. Guys. If you can't find 10 minutes to train your dog, then like really just go home. Like save your money.

All right? So if it gets away from you one day, no big deal. Okay? But the problem is it doesn't, it gets away from people every day and then they're trying to cram the day before they come in for their next class. And guess what? That doesn't work. Yeah, your dog might learn something, but it's gonna be obvious that they don't really understand the behavior because it takes time, it takes repetition. You have to build on it. They need to develop muscle memory. They need, they need to internalize it. They're not gonna do that with one day, okay?

So if you don't make it a priority above other things in your life that seem important or that seem habitual, like it's just your habit and dog training's at the bottom, then it just will not get done.

So you need to be prepared to walk back through your door at home and approach this from a how I live with my dog standpoint. And then in terms of the obedience repetitions that you'll need to do, you need to be prepared to prioritize that. So even when you're dead tired, you're gonna go, you know what? Maybe I don't have 20 minutes of training in me right now, but I'm gonna do five sessions. Don't have to be long guys. And like, I usually say 10 or 15 minutes, but even five is way better than nothing, right?

Or you could do a five minute session five times a day if that's easier for you, right? So you have some flexibility here, but you gotta put in the effort. Like there just is no fairy dust. We're fresh out <laugh>, okay? And number six, the number six reason that people fail is because they are just plain lazy.

29:00 — Laziness, exhaustion, or merely wanting to appear proactive can prevent owners from doing the…

Like those people are certainly out there, they're just lazy. They're just tired or they just wanna look good for the judge because like their dog bit somebody. And so I get those folks a lot too, who are like, they're just here so that they can say they're being proactive about their training. They go home, they don't do a fucking thing I said to do. And trust me, when I get subpoenaed to confirm this person did training, that's not what I'm confirming. What I'm gonna confirm is they didn't do anything I told them to do because they have a dangerous dog.

Maybe it's a dangerous dog that's already hurt somebody and they're not taking the training seriously. They had no interest in doing the training. They basically exchanged money with me in exchange for confirmation that they are being proactive about dog training and their dog's behavior and, and having control, but they're really not the facade.

So, and I'm not gonna spend a lot of time talking about those people because, um, I can't help, nobody can help them <laugh>. So, so just being lazy will not get your dog trained. Um, and just paying money for the program and then just not going home and doing it. 'cause he had no intention of doing it, obviously that won't train your dog. So there's no reason to talk about them. We're here today to talk about numbers one through five, the people that have good intentions, but they just don't make it happen. Make it happen for some reason.

And so to summarize, I think if you're one of those people that falls in those one through five scenarios, you need to, number one, make sure you know what the plan is. Whether you're DIYing or you're using a trainer, you gotta have a clear plan on what you are doing. Otherwise you'll be confused. The dog will be confused, it'll be messy and ineffective and it won't be very motivating or gratifying for you.

Um, once you know the plan, write it down, right? Especially if there are habits that you know you need to change that are gonna be a little bit difficult, write it down and put it somewhere visible. Hang it on the front door, hang it on the fridge, right? These are the things that we need to do with Sparky today. When we take him out of his crate, we need to do this. We take him out through the front door, we need that. He can't be free roaming in the house, whatever the things are, write 'em down.

Um, when you go home, like if you go to a private session, when you go back home and you walk through that door, you are now in school, okay? So we always see dogs behave a million times better here than they do at home. It doesn't matter how far into the training program we get, that will often be the case for many people. And that's because it's not because I'm magic, right? So people will say, oh, it's because you're here, it's because you're here. And there might be some truth to that, but that tells us something, right?

Because I'm not magic. I don't have any magic powers, it's because I do things differently or the dog knows when I'm present, you do things differently. That's what you're seeing, okay? So they know when they're in this building or when I'm present, they, they know what the expectation is, they know what the consequences are, all these things.

They know what the expectation is, okay? So you need to attach that mindset to your house. Your house is ground zero, guys, that's the most important place for all this stuff to happen, right? So I can show it to you here, or you know, your trainer can show it to you where they work. But when you go home, you have to take responsibility for attaching all those behaviors and all those mindsets and attaching them to your home environment, enforcing it in your home environment. And that's why one of the biggest mistakes people make is giving their dog the freedom to just roam around the house all day because it just carries over that same old mindset of this is my home.

33:00 — Owners must transfer behaviors learned with the trainer into their own home environment and…

I'm comfortable here and I just do what I want, right? So they just stay in that old frame of mind and instead of like shaking things up and like, oh, I guess there's rules and boundaries, right?

Which is what we really wanna do. But you have to go home and do that. Nobody can do it for you. And so I want you not to even view home like home. It's like it is school, right? So think about how you feel when you're walking through the door into your dog training session. And when you pull into your driveway and you get out of the car and you look at your door, I want you to behave the same way and carry that with you into the house, okay? You're gonna become a dog trainer for a little while, <laugh>.

Um,

And I mean, you need to get motivated too, right? So you need to be, you need to believe it can work and you need to be excited about it working. So do whatever it takes to do that for you. Look at other people's results. You know, hopefully you're working with someone that shows their work on like social media and you can kind of see the results. Um, if you know someone that has used that trainer, like look at their dog and talk about their results, um, just ask the trainer directly like what the prognosis is like based on their history and their experience.

Like how do do they think your dog will do? Now nobody knows. There's no guarantee. Um, they can probably give you a pretty good educated guess about how far you can take your dog if you really try, right? Because you need to be excited about it. And you need to believe that your effort is going to produce fruit <laugh>, right? You're gonna reap some benefit from putting in all this work. Um, you need that motivation.

And the other thing you can do to convince yourself that it's worth it and it will work. It's like, just pick one thing, pick one thing and go after it hardcore. Okay? Just spend a couple days going after one thing, right? You have to know how to go after it. So hopefully you have that information, whether it's behavior you wanna stop or a behavior you wanna build, you have to know how to do that. But then do it. Like, just focus on that one thing and just see what you get, right? And in a couple days you might be going, holy cow, like this really works.

And so then you've got a little bit of mojo going, okay? And hopefully that will bleed into everything else. And you can say, well now I feel pretty good about putting in the effort and really committing. Like, who knows?

Like sky's the limit, right? You might be able to do things with your dog you never dreamed you could do before. So find a way to get that motivation. Um, and as far as the people who are super busy, it's like, guys, time flies. It always will. It always will. So remember two things. It's not all about carving out time for sessions with your dog, it's how you live with them, right? So it's less about a time commitment and it's more about being bothered to do things correctly throughout the day, right? You have to let your dog out to pee now just like you did before, but now you have to do it a certain way, right?

So that's not a time commitment guys. It's a process changing commitment.

And when you do have to have sessions with your dog to teach them a behavior like place down or coming when called, the sessions don't have to be long. You can do short sessions like in the winter, we have to go work outside. I'm not out there for an hour. We go outside sometimes for just five minutes, right? Identify what gets in your way. So start paying more attention to it, okay? That moment when you're at home going, I should train the dog right now. We should go spend a few minutes working on down or working on heel or place or whatever it is.

Like I should, but what is it? What is that? But what is the thing that's getting in your way? See if you can get some claws into this thing and identify what is actually getting in your way because it will probably get in your way every day. And before you know what, you're walking back through the door to class again and you have to be embarrassed and tell your trainer you didn't do anything that week. And people are, they're embarrassed because it wasn't their intention. And like, I totally get that.

38:00 — Identifying the specific obstacle behind every “I should” reveals what repeatedly blocks training action.

But it's frustrating for me too because I want my clients to be successful. It doesn't reflect well on me if they're not. And frankly, I just wanna help people. So when I see them come in here with good intentions and still just continue to struggle because they can't get out of their own way, that's really difficult. So when you have those moments where you say, I should, but I want you to really think about what the reason is that you can't do it, that you can't even take five to 10 minutes and go do those reps and take actual physical action to change that thing tomorrow.

Whatever it is, right? So maybe it's just as simple as, but I'm tired. And in that case, it might be like you have to just suck it up, right? Or maybe you reward yourself with something after. You know, maybe if you go, you do the 10 minutes with your dog, then you can take a nap, <laugh>, or a long bath or I don't know, maybe, maybe there is no answer except for, well, I'm just tired and there's nothing I can do about that. 'cause I have to get up early every morning for work. I can't change that.

It's like, all right, well you're gonna have to do your dog training tired, <laugh>.

Okay? Or maybe it's actually dinner that gets in the way. So maybe you can move dinner to a different time or maybe someone else can help with making dinner. Or maybe you can get takeout, right? But start making a real effort. Figure out what the thing is that gets in your way and identify at least one thing you can do to change that so it doesn't get in your way again tomorrow. 'cause it's going to <laugh>, it's going to. All right guys, that's it for today. Good luck with your dog training. Make it a priority.

Make your trainers proud, um, and don't hesitate to ask them questions, right? So especially me, I always tell my clients I'm always here to answer your questions and very few of them ever reach out for help. Um, and we want you to, we want you to ask your questions. We want you to get help. We don't want you to wait until you walk back through the door. Um, so get clarity when you need clarity. All right guys, happy practicing. Thanks for listening. And I.