Ologies with Alie Ward - Cynology (DOGS) with Brandon McMillan

Episode Date: May 29, 2018

Your best friend is a hairy beast and that's something to celebrate. This episode is a little different in tone and let's just say GOOD LUCK NOT CRYING, SUCKERS. Alie sits down with "Lucky Dog" host Brandon McMillan, who cares more about saving shelter mutts than he does about the 3 Daytime Emmys he's won for doing it. Learn about his Hollywood drama-worthy backstory that led to being one of the world's most celebrated dog trainers, plus how to calm anxious pups, breeders vs. shelter rescues, and how and why dogs help our brains and save our lives. Dogs 4 president 2020.Brandon's websiteFollow Brandon on Instagram and TwitterBrandon's non-profit to provide service dogs to veterans is called ARGUS. I said Angus; how embarrassing.More episode sources & linksBecome a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a monthOlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, pins, totes!Follow @Ologies on Twitter and InstagramFollow @AlieWard on Twitter and InstagramSound editing by Steven Ray MorrisTheme song by Nick Thorburn

Hey, SoulPottyVonDadward with another episode of Allergies. Hi, Valley Ward. So quick question, who doesn't love a dog? If you were like me, then just go, shoot, go on, get it. That's right, this episode is all about the beasts that live on your couch. You're just drooling, very, very hairy best friend. I love dogs so much. I've cried about it.

I've cried about it. Probably so have you. So before we get really into it, I just want to say a quick thanks to all the folks on Patreon who support the show, patreon.com slash olergies. Also to all the folks who cover their bods with t-shirts and such, all available at olergiesmerch.com. Y'all support the show. Thank you for $0 supporting just by reviewing on iTunes or Stitcher. So as I write this on holiday weekend, hey, olergies is number 15 in the Apple Podcast

Science Charts, which is huge and crazy and wonderful. Also, you know, like a dog tearing through your bathroom garbage and eating things. I read all your reviews like fucking creep and just to prove I read them, I read you one every week. This week's Rich the Beach says, this is fast becoming one of my favorite podcasts. It's hard to imagine that you can get so into a podcast about trees or bees, but this gets me every time. I look at the subject and I'm like, trees, dendrology?

Okay, that sounds boring. And then an hour later, I'm riveted to the seat and listening intently. Thanks Rich the Beach. I love it when people are like, am I going to like this topic? And then they're like, I love this topic. That's why I make this show. Okay, let's get into it. Dogs, dogs, the dogs, dogs, dogs.

So real quick, the word cyanology, it comes from the Greek for cyanose, which means dog. Boom. It's pretty rare to hear a cyanology in English. People don't use it much, but it is a real word and it usually means a canine specialist from a breeder to maybe a show judge or a professional dog handler. So it checks out. And a dog, by the way, if you're like, what exactly is a dog? Species, Canis familiaris, which I find to be adorable, families right in the name.

Dogs share a common ancestor with wolves. Some historians think dogs were domesticated from this common ancestor over 35,000 years ago. So us and dogs, we go way back. Now I've known thisologist's work for so many years and I've watched his TV show about dog training and we both work on Saturday morning educational TV shows. So shout out to Innovation Nation and Lucky Dog. I'm sorry for swearing already, which I don't do on your show.

So I've been a fan for years and this year we were at the Daytime Emmys and he was nominated and we were sitting next to each other and his category was literally the last to be announced in a four hour ceremony. All of our feet hurt, everyone was hungry, but we were all stuck it out and he won. It was his third Emmy. We were all so excited. He gave a heartfelt speech dedicating it to the shelter dogs who didn't make it out and everyone almost cried their mascara off.

I was like, come on, dude, I'm wearing fake lashes. What are you doing to me? And then at the after party, I cornered him and I was like, hey, psychology, what do you think? Please be on my podcast. Please. He was like, sure. And I was like, yes.

Wikipedia has called him dog trainer to the stars. Having calmed down and charm schooled the pups of Ellen's generous and Don Cheadle and Kate Hudson and Rhonda Rousey and our mutual pal, Chris Hardwick, who loves him. Thisologist lives and works on a huge ranch full of dogs. It is my heaven. So he invited me up to the ranch to record and y'all, it was like Charlie about to go me Willy Wonka. I was like, oh God.

I arrived. I met his personal tiny dog Lulu and Utah, who appears to be a small werewolf, as well as a bunch of dogs getting rehabbed and one skittish, emaciated and kind of droopy faced foxhound named Betsy, who'd just been sprung from the shelter the day before. By the way, thisologist is super tall, well over six feet tall, very tan from being outdoors and is great with both big dogs and super tiny ones, which was really adorable to watch. Now I thought this episode would be like, aren't dogs goofballs? But in tone, I'll be honest, this interview is kind of less clown whistles and giggles

and slightly more cocktail party mixed with Sarah McLaughlin, SBCA commercial. So you'll learn about his own fascinating like, are you kidding me backstory and where dogs come from and why they love us and how to calm down your anxious pup more about emotional service animals and of course the rescue versus breeder debate. So please sit, stay. For a man you know as Animal Brandon Online, he is a field behaviorist and thus a sinologist, Brandon McMillan. One, two, one, two, all right.

You're rolling. I'm rolling. Yay! We're actually on? Well, yeah, but we'll cut around it. This is where I got to turn on the filter. Yeah, this is where you stop confessing to murders and swearing. Exactly.

JK, I was discussed already. I said the effort. So, sorry, mom. Okay, let's get right into it. So you are technically a sinologist, but you specialize in animal behavior across the board, right? Yeah, yeah. Sinology, I guess you can call myself that.

I just call myself an animal behaviorist. There's a, believe it or not, in the animal world, there's two kinds of experts. You have what we call the book smart experts. These are people that went to school, they studied in books and this is why you go to a university and you get a degree. And the other half of the field that I'm in, the other half of the expert is the, we call them the field experts. And these are the people that actually go out and they work with animals all day.

So I grew up in the circus. My parents were both wild animals, my entire family were all wild animal trainers. So I never read a book on animals my entire life. So if you read a book about animal science from like the 1930s, it's all been debunked in the 1950s. And then the ones in the 1950s have been debunked in the 70s. And the 70s, you know what I'm saying? So apparently dog science is subject to trends and tweaks, not unlike your uncle's mustache

and the rise and fall of denim crotches. But I checked into this and Brandon knows his stuff. It's been all over the place. Like in 1848, a dude named W. N. Hutchinson published a book with a quick and snappy title. This book is called, quote, dog breaking, the most expeditious, certain and easy method whether great excellence or only mediocrity be required with odds and ends for those who love the dog and the gun. How 1848 is that?

Also dog breaking? Get bent, W. N. Hutchinson. So fast forward to the 1840s when dog trainer Blanche Sanders, a cool kind of Catherine Hepburn betrousered gal, was known for her catchphrase. And jerk, praise. And I unearthed this 1946 YouTube time capsule called, training you to train your dog. To be blunt about it then, you'll get top drawer information in this series. Not just some nonsense dreamed up by a self-styled expert who gets giddy about every little doggie

in a window. Leash jerks and throwchains kind of stayed the norm. And then in the 1970s, there was a group of monks in upstate New York who had a best-selling book about establishing dominance over your dog. It was based on the theory that wolves live in packs, so you have to be alpha. But studies have since shown that wild wolves actually have a way more chill family existence with like the mom and the dad wolf sharing leadership, way fewer power struggles, which is sad and crazy when you're like, man, I wish our culture were as civilized as wild

wolves. Beating your dog into submission as it turns out, monks can make them dangerously aggressive, probably pretty emo. They're probably on Tumblr being like, my dad sucks. So in contrast to say, Blanche Sanders command jerk praise, Brandon's go-to is control, train, treat. But he never got certified with that. He just developed it from working with animals from the time he was but a wee pup.

So especially this day and age, you have, there's a big misconception, a lot of people think that to be a dog trainer, that you have to be what's called a certified dog trainer. Certified dog training just became a big thing in the past like 10, 12 years. Certified dog trainer was never a thing when I was growing up. Certified dog training became a thing when the internet really exploded. And the people that created these certifications, they're not even dog trainers. They're just businessmen. But all the old school dog trainers refused to become certified because I will never

take a certification course from somebody who just, you know, is not a top expert in their field themselves. So I looked into this and there are approximately one bazillion schools offering dog training certificates, costing up to six grand for some courses. So odds are that some trainers of trainers are less experienced and in it for the money. So do your own research if this is a field you're considering. Now how did Brandon learn all of this stuff? Growing up with a totally normal, not unusual childhood at all.

Totally run of the mill. Nothing to see here. Well, so, you grew up around the circus and I've seen pictures. You posted a picture around Mother's Day of, I think, your mom holding like a tiger cub. Like, what was that like? How did your parents get into it? And what were some of your early memories working with animals? My father got into it.

So I'm first generation American on my father's side and he's from the UK. And this is post-World War II, times were tough in England. It was not like the modern day England we see, it's just, you know, booming economy and technology. After World War II, especially up in the north of my family's from, we're from a town called Workington, which is about 10 miles south of the Scottish border and it was very poor. It was so poor back after post-war that basically people were a lot of crime in the streets, a lot of stealing, a lot of, you know, a lot of begging. And so what was happening is people, my father was actually, he was debating, what should he do?

Should he go to the military or should he do something else? The circus happened to be in town and he went to the circus. He was mesmerized by the lion trainer. His name was Gunther Gable Williams, who was the most famous lion tamer from the 1950s to into about the 1970s into the 80s. And my father was so mesmerized by him, he jumped on the train and became an apprentice for him. Oh my God. At 15 years old.

Oh my God. He's like, bye. Yeah, exactly. I was like, maybe I should see what this guy looked like. And so I pictured someone in a mustache wearing like a wool three-piece suit and a monocle. Incorrect. Oh my God. Oh my God.

Oh my God. Oh, the majesty. So Gunther Gable Williams' image search returns are deeply gratifying photos of just a lemon blonde, sun-kissed demigod wearing bespangled flared spandex pants and a matching vest. Hold the shirt. Not needed here. He looks like a wholesome, sexy, Billy Idol, but with a cheetah draped around his neck. And if there's one thing you can learn from looking at him, dude could get some tail.

And I'm not just talking about elephants. So if this dude swung through my post-war town, I would hop onto a circus wagon. So hard I would break it. So Brandon's dad was like, this dude is cool. I'm in. This is my new career. Workington. I'm out.

Well, there was nothing going on in Northern England at that time. He's like, I'm either going to grow up here and become nothing or I want to see the world. So, you know, my father always said the same thing that I said when I, because I ran away from home at 15. And I say I wasn't running away from something. I was running to something. And so my father basically after about seven to 10 years of apprenticing with him, he became a tiger trainer himself and Ringling Brothers.

This is back in the late 60s, early 70s. Ringling Brothers recruited him for his own act. Oh my God. And by the way, this is before the circus was controversial. In fact, the circus was cool back then. And so you ran away at 15. Were you running away from the circus in a state? No, no, we were actually, my family was out of the circus by them.

No, I ran away. I wasn't meant to be at home. I'm like that. I'm like that caged bird. The second you left the cage open, I was out of there. Yeah. Yeah. And it wasn't a bad thing.

I lived in Hawaii for almost four years. That's a great place to live when you don't have a home. Yeah, it's very temperate. Yeah, it's great. So side note, I thought I would find some cute statistics and just like pop them in here on a maybe like a Van Dwellers subreddit about surfers who live in VWs on the North Shore and have a better life expectancy than more traditional American lifestyles. But then to the contrary, I fell down a rabbit hole reading about Hawaii's homelessness

epidemic and a bill to classify homelessness as a medical condition. And one man saying, I don't have a house, but I'm not homeless. This island is my home and this public land should serve the people. Everyone here has a home. It's Hawaii. And then I started crying reading that. But anyway, Brandon said that Hawaiians taught him everything he needed to know, including how to shark dive.

You may have also seen Brandon on Shark Week. And in essence, Brandon's story of liberation went from feeling like a bird fleeing captivity in adolescence at 15 to an adulthood of being dangled in a steel cage confronting great white sharks, super norm core sequence of events. One through line in his life, clearly animals. So when you started training animals, how old were you? Were you doing that? You did that before you left for Hawaii, before you kind of went off on your own?

Oh, yeah. No, I used to prep the animals for my father's act. So I grew up with tigers in our backyard. We had lions, we had grizzly bears, we had elephants, we had primates, we had some hoof stock, we had some reptiles. So we were we were true animal trainers. And so by the time I was, you know, 15 years old, I already had more experience than half the trainers in the industry that were, you know, 40 and 50.

And so so after after I ran away, when I was 19, my uncle found me at Hawaii. He brought me back to California. He had one of the biggest companies out here. They were called Hollywood Animals. They did a lot of animals for movies over the years. Remember the tiger from the hangover? Oh, yeah, that was Hollywood Animals. So by the time I was 19, look, he, me gave me an option.

He goes, listen, you're joining the military or you're, you're coming to India with me because we're doing a movie over there right now. And I was actually thinking about going to the military because my grandfather was World War II veteran. And so he actually, like I was literally, you know, signing the paperwork and he like stopped the pen right there. He's like, he was like, I was trying to hint to you, you little. He was like, you're coming to India with me.

We're doing, we're doing a movie. So it took me about three months to learn his animals. He had a, he had a pride of lions. He had a few tigers. He had some leopards. He had some grizzly bears. He had elephants. He had some zebra.

So it took me about three or four months to learn his animals. I had to slowly but surely like acclimate myself to them so they wouldn't keep coming after me. You have to enter each of the cages and eventually they don't look at you as prey. They look at you as one of their own. Oh my God. So you, do you do it a little bit little by little?

Like, hi guys. You know, believe it or not, when it comes to wild animals, they're all the same. It's, it's not what you, it's not what you do that's going to help you survive. It's what you don't do. Okay. You know, so when you're dealing with predators,

for example, the worst thing you can do is turn your back. And if a predator is actually facing you and running towards you, believe it or not, the best thing you can do is run towards it. And act and look big, right? Yes. Predators are not used to getting stuck themselves. Do you take any of this knowledge and wisdom with animal behavior and apply it to your own life?

Yes. Like when you're in a business meeting and someone's trying to screw you over, are you like, oh, I'm not going to back down? 100%, I do with, I do with people. I do it because you have to remember, everyone you're talking to in the world, they're, they're just like you, you know,

whether they're smarter, they're, they're, in my opinion, they're no smarter than you, they're no better than you. So everyone is a human. We all bleed, we all have emotion, you know. So yeah, I apply the exact same theories to, to humans too. So at what point did you go from training tigers for movies and being in India and you've traveled all over the world?

Like you, you were trained in how to survive in the bush. Like at what point did you say dogs, rescuing dogs, that's going to be my deal? It was, it was a slow process. I can't say there's one moment that changed at all. It was basic evolution. Look, when I, when I joined my uncle's company, Hollywood Animals, he had every animal.

And when you have a wild animal company, you always have a pack of dogs. And the reason why is because every commercial, every movie, every, you know, advertisement on, whether it's a magazine, there's always dogs. Not every movie has a tiger, you know. I just want you to know that there is an entire Wikipedia page called Films About Tigers,

which would lead you to believe that there are a lot, but there's only 27 entries. Maybe someone started this and was like, who's ever going to look at this page? And then just gave up too soon though. The answer is me. I'm looking at it and I love it. That's what his company was known for.

But believe it or not, the dogs were working way more than the tigers ever were. Oh, I bet. Yeah. And so we were always working. I forget exactly what year it was. I believe I was in my early 20s. I must have been like maybe 21, 22.

And with any dog pack, you always have, we call it our, you know, our basics. In other words, we have our goldens, our labs, our retrievers, our shepherds, our roddies. And these are the most common dogs you'll ever see in like a movie or commercial. And as time goes on, of course, dogs unfortunately don't live forever.

Yeah. So next thing you know, our Rottweiler, she hit 14 and you know, she passed away on us. And my uncle was old school. He said, we got to go to the breeder and get a new one. And I said, at the time I was living in an apartment and it was right in West Los Angeles. And I was about a block away from the shelter.

And I could hear these dogs just barking all day and all night. And I went in there a couple of times just out of curiosity because I, you know, I was old school too back then. And so I found the shelters to be a place that, you know, we were lied to. We were, we were lied to from the 1950s. People always told us that the shelter dogs are damaged goods. Shelter dogs have only the worst of the worst, you know,

and suddenly you walk in there and you're surrounded by, you know, all these dogs that you were, you know, taught to be afraid of your entire life. And suddenly they walk up to your face and kiss you. So I found a, I found a Rottweiler in there. Her name was Raven. And I went to my uncle and I said, why are we going to go to a breeder?

And I said, we can get this female that she's great. She's about a year and a half. I said, I promise you, I won't let you down. Let me just rescue her. He's like, shelter dogs are damaged goods, you know, they're the worst of the worst. He was old school. And I said, okay, I put my job in the line.

I knew I wasn't going to get fired. Like literal nepotism. Nepotism, side note, is derived from the Italian for nephew. Because popes and bishops were like, well, shoot, I'm not allowed to procreate and have sons. So I'll give this cool thing to a different younger male, such as for example, my nephew. So despite his uncle being dubious, Brandon went back to the shelter.

I rescued her and he was telling me not to. I just went in and pulled her. I'm like, there, there's a new dog for the company. And it took me about two, three months to train her. And she went on to become one of our best Rottweilers at the company. So I changed his mind right there. And from there, as the years went on, you know,

other dogs were passing away and we replaced, we replaced our goldens and our labs and our shepherds and our Jack Russells. Next thing you know, we had a full pack of dogs that were all from the shelter. And as in this process, I started reading about the statistics of, of shelter dogs in America, just in America alone. You know, we're talking, you know, back in those days,

it was more like, you know, two million dogs a year were euthanized because they couldn't find homes in the shelter systems. Thankfully, that number has dropped. Okay. This day and age. Yeah, but it's still, it's still, we're pushing, pushing a million. It's debatable too, because shelters are not required

to keep a number on their, on the euthanizations. So it's all on average. Oh, I thought that they would have to have spreadsheets. No, no, not the euthanizations, because some, because some shelters, they actually euthanize so fast. But by, there's some shelters, I mean, they will euthanize the dog the second it comes in. If they see any aggression, they won't even give it a chance.

So that dog won't even be on the record. They won't even be on the books. It'll just go. Yes. God, that's so sad. I'm so sorry. I didn't know that this episode will be such a heart tugger. I didn't anticipate it.

So when I started reading about these statistics, I'm thinking to myself, we have an epidemic here in America that most people don't even know about. So it's, it's become this, this underground, you know, warrior club of us that basically have to fight behind the scenes and we don't get a lot of recognition for it. I lucked out. I got recognition for it for being, you know, a lone ranger.

You know, I got a show from it. I'm one in a million. Yeah. You know, you mentioned that your, your uncle didn't have a lot of faith in this Rottweiler. Like what do you think about shelter dogs being damaged goods? And what have you noticed in trying to train them or in looking at the behavior versus, you know,

breeder puppies that you get, you know, as soon as they're weaned, what challenges do shelter dogs have and what advantages do they have? Well, look, you have to understand a shelter dog is basically someone's, it's someone's trash in, in, in, in, you know, I'm using that metaphorically. It's basically someone threw them out. They screwed this animal up as much as they possibly could. And then finally, the last straw was getting that shelter, get out of my life. So you have to remember, you're dealing with a lot of residue from the past,

from someone else's irresponsible, you know, behavior or just, I basically call it uneducated, you know, behavior because, you know, a lot of people don't realize how easy dogs are to train. They might be, you know, high energy or they might, you know, have different personality traits, but dogs are actually very easy to train. Now they're the biggest drawbacks of a shelter dog. I will say this. They're not a blank slate, like a puppy.

A puppy is a blank slate. Okay. That is a great thing to have training-wise. But you have to remember most shelter dogs you're going to get, they're going to be past the destructive point, past the chewing, past that age where it's like, it's, it's a lot of work. So a lot of shelter dogs, you know, you're talking, there's very few that are going to be like under a year. We're talking, you know, most of them are going to be a year, two years, three years.

And believe it or not, it's a lot easier to deal with a dog after they've hit, you know, that year mark because a puppy, when you're talking about a six to eight week old puppy, you're talking, it's like 24 hour care. You're not going to sleep for the first, you know, week or two, I promise you, you know, because everyone has this idea like this fantasy land of like just rolling in this green grass with puppies all over them. I'm like, yeah, until you bring it back to your house, it's chewing everything. It is just releasing all of its body fluids everywhere in your head.

Yeah. Say goodbye to your grandma's rug, you know, your favorite chair is going to look like, you know, a Nila bone on the side. So there's a lot of, there's a lot of drawbacks to, to having, you know, a puppy from a breeder, you know. So, and look, the bottom line is there's any, any dog's going to be work. That's where the lines come together. So you have, you know, your pros and cons of both, but regardless, you're going to have to train both.

You're going to have to train a puppy. And by the way, you're going to make mistakes with a puppy. Everybody always has this idea, oh, it's a puppy, so it doesn't have any, any history. Well, you're never guaranteed because there's, there's, there's two basic laws when it comes to animal behavior. Okay. You have, you have, it's called the nature versus nurture. Well, as we all, that's a, that's a common phrase we all understand.

And that means there's some things that are, that are, that we, that we teach the animal and there's some things the animal automatically has in its personality traits, kind of wrapped up in their DNA. I read a bunch of canine biology articles and I'm going to boil it down for you. So yes, it is nature and nurture, genetics and experience that contribute to a dog's personality and abilities, which has led dogs to different jobs. Like stubby legged doxies used to charge into badger holes like bitches, watch out. And they were so good at that.

And Yorkies were bred to be tiny and accompany miners in small places to eat their rats. Poodles were bog dogs. They were good at navigating the water to pick up hunters, dead ducks. And even the Queen's corgis once had the job of herding geese. Hence they are very short. So today we rely on apps and robots to do chivalrous. But back then it was like, I need an animal with a gangly face and no tail and bowed arms for the purpose of finding and biting the village witches.

And they were like, cool, here you go, we bred you a new dog for that. Now, here's the best part of a shelter dog. Most shelter dogs, most are some sort of mix. When you have a mix, you're creating new genetics. New genetics is much healthier than a purebred. Purebreds are very expensive. Purebreds, especially the more pure the dog, especially the more popular of purebreds. So for example, a lot of your shepherds, a lot of your goldens, a lot of your labs,

they come with a longer list of health problems. And the reason why is because there's such high demand for these breeds, especially this day and age you have the French bulldogs, are very popular. And the more popular the dog, the more of the demand the breeders are going to be out there breeding these dogs, like we call them, I call them Pesda Spencer's. That's what I call the females that are actually, I call them that because that's exactly what these females are doing. You know, these breeders are literally turned these females into a Pesda.

They're just a, their only job is to produce babies, produce puppies. You know, and it's sad. Oh no. Now, you have an entire litter of dogs with a lot of health problems. Because you're not taking, you know, you're not taking brand new genetics and mixing. You're not taking the same dogs, you know, in the same region of the state, and you're breeding those same dogs together. And they're all like distant, distant cousins.

This is why hip dysplasia is so prominent in German shepherds this day and age. This is why French bulldogs have every health problem, you know, under the sun. Yeah. Frenchie problems include, but are not limited to deafness, laryngeal collapse, hairy eyelids, screw tails, and heat stress. They also commonly have giant heads and narrow birth canals. So they have to be delivered by C-section. They are deeply ridiculously cute, but that salad of selected purebred genetics isn't

always the healthiest. Now, shelter dogs, because they're not, even when you see like a pure shelter dog, a lot of times it's got a little bit of a mix in it. That little bit of a mix makes it 10 times healthier. That right there saves you a fortune in the long run. Dog lives a happier, healthier life. I hadn't thought about it in those economics that you're going to be going to the vet list. Oh, yeah.

Because a lot of people, they have this idea, purebred, it's beautiful this night. I said, well, you know what's not beautiful? Your credit card at the end of the month, because you're taking that thing to the vet constantly. Allergies. Oh, yeah. It's very common. Well, okay.

Now, you said training a dog is very easy. It's definitely very easy for you, because you grew up in like a crazy, idyllic circus life where you got to learn a lot of this stuff. When you're trying to explain it to someone who is not as, say, masterful as you, what do you think is the easiest thing about training a dog? What are the fundamentals? Okay. So I tell people dog training is just like martial arts.

Okay. For anyone who's ever done martial arts, even if you haven't done martial arts. I have not done martial arts. Martial arts is a very simple theory of technique and conditioning. That's it. As a, I've been a student of several martial arts my entire life. And it wasn't until I was older that I understood how easy martial arts really is that I started applying it to my animal training techniques.

So if you were to join, I don't know if you know kickboxing, but if you don't. I do not. Okay. If you were to go into a kickboxing class right now, it would only take that instructor an hour or two to teach you the theory of here's how you punch. After the class, you now have the technique. I get it. Conditioning takes weeks and months, if not years.

Okay. That's what gets you fast at it. And that's what gets you in, you know, in combat mode where you can actually use it in a practical, you know, real life situation. There's no difference between martial arts and dog training. Dog training is the same thing. I can teach anybody a technique on how to teach a dog to lie down. So whether I'm teaching a human or whether I'm teaching a dog,

if I'm teaching a dog to lie down, all I do is I teach the dog to lie down. It only takes the dog about an hour to truly understand, oh, I get it. You want me to lie down? Now, I'm not saying the dog's going to be great at it. And you can say it 20 times. The dog might only do it like, you know, one or two times. But guess what? The technique is in their arsenal of training now.

The conditioning, that's where most people fail. Because you have to understand people, they have this idea, they'll just go to like a dog trainer and the dog trainer says, okay, we're going to get your dog to stay. So after that one hour, the family of the dog, they're like, this is amazing. I taught my dog to stay, but that's where they end it right there. They don't condition the dog. If you don't condition your animal, your dog is barely going to be trained. Okay, there's trained and there's well trained.

Conditioning is what makes the animal well trained. So I want you to teach your dog that stay every day, three times a day, just for five minutes. It's like muscle memory. Remember the karate kid? I do. Remember Wax On, Wax Off? Sure do. Wax On, Wax Off.

Why did he do that? He got so good at it without even realizing it. He was teaching his body muscle memory, you know, that whenever he actually started teaching him the theory, I think it was, was he teaching karate? I think so. Karate kid, right. That's all he wanted to do. He wanted to teach him muscle memory.

And it's exact same thing with, with animal training. It's just conditioning. I'm going to teach your dog a sit. Now your dog has the technique. You have to condition your animal. Okay. So I as a trainer can teach your dog the sit, but I can't move into your house for the next six months and keep teaching the sit.

That's a higher fee. Yes. I imagine. Exactly. So when you're, when you're doing your show, how long does it take for you to train certain dogs? By the way, during parts of this interview, there was a tiny chihuahua in my lap and I loved it. Hi, you. Lulu.

Lulu, am I going to have to kick you out of here? It's so cute. How long would you say it takes you to train a dog from the shelter to like you can, you're now home ready. You know where to go potty. You know what furniture to go on, which ones you should stay off. Like how long is that, how long should that process take? It, it depends on the dog.

Yeah. You know, dogs are just like humans. You have your A students and you have your average students. Every once in a while you have your D students. Unfortunately, which we try to edge them up to a C plus, but every dog is different. So I always say this, here's the, here's the best way I can always describe. People are always under the mindset. They say there's certain dogs that are just smarter than others.

I say that's, that's completely false. And here's why I say that it's not that any dog is, is smarter than the next. I say there's response time. Response time is really what, what you're, what you're seeing. So for example, you have your, you have your main dogs that we always think of, like, you know, our most intelligent breeds, our border collies, Aussie shepherds, German shepherds, Labradors, what else is, poodles are very smart. Yeah.

There's a lot that I'm missing here. They're so cute. But all your, all you're seeing is response time, because in reality, Alasa, Opso, or a Pecanese, which are not known to be the most, you know, I don't want to throw any breezes in the bus. I know there's a lot of people listening right now. They're not playing chess. But of, of hundreds of breeds, there's like the top 10,

the Pecanese generally is not making them the top 10. I remember the top 50, but it doesn't mean that a Pecanese can not learn everything a German shepherd or a border collie can learn. It just means the response time is not as quick. So think about a computer. You have a 2018 MacBook and a 2003 MacBook. They both kind of do the same thing. It's typing the letter the same and they both kind of do the same thing,

but this one's a little slower. Right. But it does not mean they're not as intelligent. It just means response time. That's all we're talking about. Do you have a favorite breed? Do people ask you that a lot? The one you're petting right now.

Oh, so cool. I have my top, I have my top five that I like to train. And it's mainly because of what we were just talking about, response time. Because I like training dogs for not only a purpose, but I like training them for like a job. I love seeing dogs work, especially when they're working in the original jobs that they were originally bred for. So like for example, you saw outside I had that bloodhound mix.

Yes. I just got her yesterday, but I'll probably do some nose work with her. And nose work means you're teaching the dog to use their nose and you're teaching them actual scent, like kind of games, fun stuff they can do with their nose. So if you can actually work an animal and identify what they are originally bred for, those are the kind of dogs I like working. So for example, like the golden retrievers, the Labrador retrievers,

I love teaching them service dog techniques. Because retrievers, they like picking things up off the ground and handing it to people. So I train them for people in wheelchairs. So Brandon, alongside a military dog trainer named Mike Herstick, started Angus Service Dogs. And it's a nonprofit that trains service animals for disabled veterans, many of whom were hit by improvised explosive devices and are just learning to walk on prosthetics.

And yes, I watched some videos about how these dogs brought independence and true joy back to veterans lives. And yes, I cried again. Okay. Now when you have prosthetics, it's very difficult to reach down to the ground and pick up your keys or your sunglasses or your hat. These dogs are trained to pick up the objects for them. And they're not good at that.

They're bred for that. I prefer the retrievers because now I'm teaching a dog to use their natural instincts. That's why it's called the retriever. They were originally bred to assist a hunter when they shoot the waterfowl. Right. And go grab that duck. Yep.

And furthermore, and the reason why the retrievers were the ideal dog is because goldens and labs, they're known to have a very soft grip. Is that what the egg test is? Yes. So Google dogs plus egg test, highly recommended. Although I do need to have a word with people who attempted this with a raw egg in their carpeted rumpus rooms. Like, no, don't.

Don't do that. So you can teach any dog to retrieve. Okay. You can do it with pit bulls. You can do it with rottweilers. The problem is you try it with a rottweiler with your sunglasses. You might not want to try your expensive sunglasses because they're going to retrieve it for you.

They'll bring it back to you. But they might clamp down on it too hard. Yeah, you're like, oh, don't pick up my baby. Oh, don't pick up my baby. Exactly. You know, same with, I find the same way with the pit bulls. I find the same way with a lot of the, like a master, for example. They just, they can't help it, you know.

But the retrievers, they were, that's what their original job was. So they would, they would have these retrievers go out and bring the waterfowl back because they would literally, it's almost like a four-year-old just grabbing your hand come this way. Yeah. These are natural talents the dog has. Yeah. So same with the, you know, same with the shepherds.

Shepherds are working dogs. Same with the border collies, you know. Even though they're a herder, they're a working dog. They need a job. So I love breeds like that. I love German shepherds. I love border collies. I love Jack Russell's, you know.

These are dogs that were meant to work. They're meant to thrive on a job. And if you don't give them a job, that's where the behavior problems come in. Right, they need something to do. Yes. Well, I'll give you the best example of the modern day working dog. There's very few breeds out there left in the world

that are bred specifically for work. Right. Because we have technology that does all the job they did in the past. Right. We got robots. Well, yeah. We have exterminators. That's why we don't need Jack Russell's anymore.

Right. That's why the skipper key below you right now, they are outdated because we now have Terminex coming to our house. Get rid of our rats, you know. I prefer a skipper key, but you have what's called the Belgian Malinois. You ever heard of that breed? No. That sounds like a souffle.

It's a, okay. So the Belgian Malinois, I'll just give you one guess where it's from. I did some research on this and it turns out it's Belgium. It's a military police dog. This is when you see the canine units. It looks like a copper brownish German shepherd with a black face. Oh.

People think it's a German shepherd. It's actually a Belgian shepherd. And so what they did was they capitalized on this dog's high energy and they found out this dog is so high energy, all it wants to do is have a ball. That's all it wants. Like, I need that ball. I need that, like almost like addiction.

And so what these military and law enforcement trainers figured out years ago, they said, this dog basically, it doesn't work for food. It works for one thing. It's favorite ball. So now what they do is they say they take the ball and they hide it. And now they train the dog to become like explosive detection, contraband detection.

This is why these dogs are trained so well, because the dog, all it thinks about all day is that ball. It's just obsessed. It wants that ball. And this is why they're a working dog, because basically they're, they're so like, just, they want that ball so bad. Whatever toy it is they're kind of fixed on, you know, they're addicted to.

Basically, that's why they're such good workers. Oh, so cute. Dog's noses are much more reliable than any machine out there in the world. Like scent hounds, like a blood hound. Yeah. Oh yeah, it'll put like a Belgian melon water shame. God, that's so crazy. That must be so confusing for them all the time.

It must be like hearing 10 different playlists going all the time, because you're smelling everything. Well, that's why hounds are very difficult to train. Because they're so distracted. Yes. So, for example, people always call me with, with hounds, like blood hounds or like a beagle. Or bassin hounds.

Oh yeah. And they say, my dog doesn't listen to me. And so I say, okay, I bring it over. And they bring it over. And I'm like, oh, well, that's why you could have told me that over the phone. Your dog is a hound. So their sense of smell is literally, I don't know exactly what the numbers are.

Maybe you could find this. You're good at that kind of stuff. So a little cursory research revealed that humans have about 5 million cent receptors, but blood hounds have 300 million. And the long ears and that chin waddle, the bloogie, bloob, bloob, bloob, bloob, that's called a doo lap. And they help sweep scents toward the nose. So there's a lot of reasons to be happy.

You don't have a flappy neck. But smelling bus farts would be the main one. It's crazy how much more powerful their sense of smell, which is why they're the number one dog for homicide detection, because they can find a body out in the woods miles away. Damn. I mean, once you get a little, just a trickle of a scent of what they're actually looking for, they can track it for miles.

Is that how you're going to train Betsy? You're like, I hate a body for you. Find it. Well, you won't see that on Lucky Dog. I don't think we'll find a dead body, but we'll figure something out. Do not hold your breath for that spinoff. And stupid question, but with all the species he's trained to get to his current career, are dogs his favorite animal,

or is there a sneaky one he likes more? Dogs are still in my heart, but not that way. Yeah, dogs have, they've made me a better person. They've taught me a lot about myself. They taught me a lot about, you know, just human nature. There's a yin and the yang of human nature. They teach me on how just vicious human beings can be, because I see this in the shelter.

I have to pick these dogs up from the rubble, you know? I have to pick these dogs up from the rubble. They're physically defeated. They're mentally defeated. They're psychologically defeated. There's nothing like they collapse when they get to the ranch here. And, but there's the other side of the yin and the yang, then it also tells me there's, you know, there's,

there's hope for humanity, because there's also an army of people out there that are trying to help these dogs. That right there, there's no other animal in the world that I can think of that really does that to you. Like a dog that basically they look and they stare at your soul and they're like, help me, you know? So yeah, I mean, I mean, you got Lulu on your lap right now. She was, she was pretty much, you know, she was,

she was like the, the, the template, the, the foundation of the show. So just FYI, 13 year old Lulu, still in my lap, but it's easy to forget because she weighs about as much as a mango. Now Brandon saw her in around 2011 and she was already a little older for an adoptable dog like four or five back then, which is a lot in dog years. And then, you know, even more when you multiply it by LA years. She was in a shelter and she was, I saw her there every day when I was going and she was there for probably about three or four months.

She's a chihuahua. So side note, I used to think the most fun way of pronouncing this breed was chihuahua, but after hearing New Jersey born Brandon pronounce it, I have determined that his is the best and the most endearing. Chihuahuas are very common in the shelters. They get, they get overlooked very, very often. So finally it was down to her last day and I said, what's going on with that chihuahua?

She seems so sweet, she seems so cute. That's another like, no one has any interest, you know. So I rescued her thinking, actually, I was, sorry. I, I drove about, you know, probably about a mile away and I was in rush hour traffic and I was thinking about her and I made a U-turn and went back and I got her. And, you know, a little dog like this, who'd have thought that, you know, here's me, I'm six foot three and you'd think I would have like the rottweilers or the pit bulls and the chihuahuas is what, you know, I roll with.

So yeah, I mean, dogs do that to humans, you know. There's so many stories of, of that you hear of an animal helping a human out. There's so many stories of, you know, people just going through cancer, whether they survived or not. They said the dog was there with me the entire time, you know. That doesn't happen with a crocodile, you know what I'm saying? That doesn't happen with a, you know what I'm saying? My pet rooster.

Exactly. Not so much. I'm sure once or twice. Just want to say I researched and there have been many emotional support roosters, as well as peacocks, pod-billied pigs, therapy turkeys, some spiders, not all of those species care, however, if you're like going through a breakup. They're like, I'm a turkey. What are you, why are you hugging me?

But dogs understand human emotion. They understand, especially the more they hang around us. And this, this comes with a mix of, of their sense of smell. They understand there's chemical changes going on our body, which is why they can, they can detect diabetes. They can detect a blood sugar drop. They can detect cancer. They can detect a seizure about to happen, you know.

They can detect pretty much anything in our bodies that our noses, our weak little human noses cannot detect, you know what I'm saying? We don't even know we have, you know, diabetes or about to have a seizure. And suddenly the dog starts changing its, its behavior 10 minutes before a seizure. And next thing you know, you have a seizure and people say, your dog is actually identifying, it's indicating on you, you know. I don't know of another animal that does this. Right.

Yeah. And I've worked with them all, you know. Does it change the way you look at yourself as like, do you have to see yourself as an, as the alpha of this pack? And do you, do you see alpha behaviors and beta behaviors in groups and apply that to humans at all? Not really. I'm not, believe it or not, I'm not that egotistical to be the alpha male in a group.

Honestly, the, you know, the loudest one in the room is the weakest, in my opinion. Oh, never heard that. No. I'm usually, I'm honestly, I'm, I'm pretty much a, I'm a loner. I'm a loner, daddy. A rebel. I like. A lone wolf.

Yeah. I don't like hanging out in big groups of people. I don't like, you know, so I'm kind of a lone ranger in life. And also you have 10 friends on the property right now. They're all very hairy and small, but do you, do you think that the dogs are important for people who, who have introversion or who are, who are lonelier? That's one thing about dogs. I feel like they are so valued for, because a lot of times in life we don't get unconditional

love the way that we get it from a dog. You know what I mean? Your dog does not care what kind of car you drive. Absolutely. You know what I mean? Like. Yeah, absolutely. You know, there's, people are seeing the, there's, you know, the emotional support dogs.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So that became very popular in the past 10 years. Now, emotional support dogs have been around for thousands of years. You know, this is where the, you know, original lap dogs came from. Right. Like a Maltese, for example. That was like one of the, you know, true original lap dogs.

And so it was, it was to provide, you know, comfort and emotional support to somebody, you know, who was just, you know, we needed a companion. And in the past 10, 12 years, emotional support animals have also just had a resurgence, you know, and everyone's like, this is a new, new word of the decade. And I'm like, well, that's just actually an old word that's been around from, you know, since the biblical times. Yeah. And, and the reason why it's become very popular is because people are, are seeing

more and more, I see it all the time with, for example, autistic kids. I work a lot with autistic kids, train a lot of service dogs for them. And we train these dogs to do kind of all kinds of tasks, whatever. But the most important thing that these dogs offer these kids are emotional support. Because a lot of these kids, whether they're, you know, whether they're autistic, or they just have anxiety, or they're just very shy, and they just can't, you know, open up to the world, the dog does not see them with a disability or a condition. They don't see you as, as any, as, as any different than anybody else.

They're seeing, you know, everything but the, but the surface, you know. Dogs are, they're, they're like the ultimate poker player. They can read tells. They know what you're thinking. So yes, dogs have evolved to care. Even chimpanzees don't follow a human gaze or pointing like domesticated dogs do. So the whites of human eyes, they're called sclera, and they were adapted and evolved to communicate with other humans.

So we have these non-pigmented sclera and small irises in our eyes. So we can tell where each other's eyeballs are moving, and if we're averting a gaze, because we're shady, and dogs are capable of following that in ways that even chimps can't. So evolutionary speaking, this helps dogs predict like, okay, you're looking at a microwave. That must mean you're about to pick up the hot pocket. Some steamy ham may soon drop on the floor. I'm watching what you're doing. I got this.

Now on the topic of hot things dropping, let's get to your questions. But before we take questions from you, our beloved listeners, we're going to take a quick break for sponsors of the show. Sponsors, why sponsors? You know what they do? They help us give money to different charities every week. So if you want to know where oligies gives our money, you can go to alleyword.com and look for the tab, oligies gives back.

There's like 150 different charities that we've given to already with more every single week. So if you need a place to go donate a little bit of money, but you're not sure where to go, those are all picked by oligists who work in those fields. And this ad break allows us to give a ton of money to them. So thanks for listening and thanks sponsors. Okay, your questions. One question, and I got a lot of questions from the Patreon page. You ready for a rapid fire round?

Yeah, go. Okay. Patrons are- He's got to be easy to answer. Go. Laura Mulligan wants to know, why are dogs always ready to just party? Party like what, in your house? Just hang.

Just why are dogs always so down to hang? Well, I mean, they're dogs. Dogs are very social creatures. I miss, well, put it this way. Here's what I cannot answer. And this is the million dollar question I have for anybody. Right. Why do dogs love to play underneath your feet?

I don't know. There's a, so I, you know, I have a massive ranch here. I have a big training yard. They can run around there all day. But when I go down there, they choose to play right underneath my feet. Right underneath my feet. I'll look into that. I don't know why they love to party.

But dogs, you know, they're, they're party animals. You know, I started looking into the origin of party animal, and it seems to have sprung up in the late 1970s on Saturday Night Live. But predating that is a usage in the 1920s, when people who loved to drink and just corrals around were called, quite aptly, party hounds. Tofer Mendoza, Michael Shea, and Anthony Stoll all had the same question. Why do puppies or puppy paws smell so good like corn chips or Fritos?

Have you ever smelled dog feet? Yeah. I don't know. There's certain odors. Well, first of all, believe it or not, dogs sweat through their paws. Oh, they do. Yes.

So that might be one of the theories. That's their BO. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So that could be. It seems like, okay, well, if a dog eats grain, it's going to sweat out.

Frito do. But actually, it's due to paw-dwelling yeast that happens to smell like corn. So it doesn't make it any less delicious. Well, maybe it does, but it's still cute. Michael Sadambuga wants to know, can an old dog really learn new tricks? And then his follow-up question along with Evan Simcovitz was, does my dog really love me as much as I love them? So can they learn new tricks and do they love us?

Can an old dog learn new tricks? Yes. Absolutely. There's a big misconception. They always say, you know, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. I would 100% disagree. And the reason why I disagree is because I train old dogs here at the ranch all the time from the shelter.

You just can't teach them as fast. Think about a sponge. You have a dry sponge and a wet sponge. The dry sponge is a puppy. Okay, I'll talk into your terms. Okay. Think about two computers. Sure.

Think about two hard drives. You have a brand new hard drive, empty. And you have an old hard drive that is full of information that you need to kind of like move things around, eliminate a few things here. Right, you're a defragment. Yes. Now the new hard drive, it retains information very quickly

and you can just load it up quick. The old hard drive, yes, you can still put information on there. It's just not as fast. Okay. Yeah. And do dogs love us? Of course. Okay, just checking.

Who would ask that? I think we doubt it. There's no way my dog can love me as much as it seems. Like it loves me is what a lot of people think. And maybe people just need to come to terms with how lovable they are. Yeah, you have to remember our form of love and dog's form of love is much different. We require love out of like a want. Dogs require love out of need.

Because they're dependent on us in some way? Of course. Okay. Of course. We've domesticated these animals to the point where they are dependent on everything they must survive with. And love is one of those actual survival skills. That's, I'm a firm believer of that.

I love that though. Well, it's true. It's true because look, if you just give your dog the basic needs, the basic necessities, and you don't ever pet it and love it, it's going to have social problems. Right. Yeah. So you've got to love your dog and they've got to love you back.

Yes, that's part of the basics that it needs. So go pet your dang dog right now. Or if you're like me, you can pet someone else's dog, even if you don't know the people and they're just at the next table over a branch. And you're like, look, it's a friendly dog. It's not my fault that it's cute and in public. That's on you. Jacob Hewell wants to know,

am I ruining my nine month old puppy by letting her sleep in the bed with me? Absolutely not. Okay. Absolutely. I let all my dogs sleep in the bed. The only time I ever have an issue with that, and this is just me, the only time I ever have an issue with a dog sleeping in the bed or getting on the couch is that they get possessive over it.

Okay. You tell them to get off and now they're growling at you. 00:53:01,660 --> 00:53:02,860 That's where the buck ends. Okay. Yeah. But as far as dogs sleeping in the bed, you kidding me? You got nine dogs in the bed here.

You know, I find myself sleeping in like the fetal position up near like the pillow area. Because there really are nine that there were 10 dogs in the property that and then you have that. That's just what you saw. Right. Yeah. You're so lucky. Hey, Dustin Mills wants to know, do dogs enjoy hugs?

I'm going to guess that's a yes. Yeah, but it's different. Not like a hug, but put it this way. I would not agree with a dog liking a hug. Like we like to hug where you're talking chest to chest. That might make a dog feel a little bit uncomfortable because it's a very unorthodox. But as far as like a side saddle hug or something like that, they like more petting. Now, there's a lot of debate whether they like being pet in the head.

But there is one thing you can't deny. Dogs like a nice long firm stroke. So they don't like a trickle touch. That's almost like annoying. They like a firm long stroke from, you know, shoulders all the way to tail. Oh, like a firm paintbrush all the way down making a skunk strike. And there's also been a lot of scientific evidence that not only petting a dog lowers their stress and lowers their anxiety,

but it also lowers ours. So petting a dog is actually a win-win for everybody. I need a dog yesterday. So why this may be, some studies suggest that a bonding hormone called oxytocin is released when you snug a pup. Now, this is the same chemical that your body pumps out after you nut, that scientific term, or when you have a newborn baby. And evidently, it has a lot of physiological and psychological benefits.

And now I'm just dreaming of a world where doctors prescribed mutts and health insurance covered chew toys. That's weird. Wants to know what do dogs dream about when they're making those cute little wines in their sleep. Chase and rabbits. Yeah. Um, my crew wants to know, why do some dogs kick their leg really fast

when you itch a certain part of their body? We all have our spots. We all have our spots. Okay. I'll tell you a little secret of me right now when I, because I, I love getting massages because I'm tall and I'm very athletic and my back always takes a beating. Like I have herniated disc all through my back and I'm always in pain.

And so there's one spot right at the top of the butt where it meets the back. You could dig your elbows in there so hard. And I swear I would start kicking my leg like a dog. Just for some reason, it's my spot. And I think it's because of the spot that I can't get myself. I just can't get any leverage for it, you know. And so, um, yeah, it's sometimes just the areas they really can't touch. I think that's them saying, oh, that's the stuff.

Mara Spensieri wants to know what breed is best for cat people, aka low maintenance and very lazy dogs. What's the best kind of dog for someone who's used to having cats? Like what, what is a dog that's like the most similar to a cat? I would say the, uh, the Shiba Inu. Oh, really? Oh yeah. Anybody who has a Shiba Inu, anyone listening right now?

Uh-huh. I promise you, just tell them to, tell them to tweet you. And they will, they will, we call those the cat, the cat dog. Really? Oh yeah. And they look like foxes also. Oh, they're gorgeous. Yeah.

Very difficult to train. Okay. Yeah, very difficult, very feral, very cat-like. Do they knock stuff off of shelves? Uh, yeah, probably. They're known for not listening. A lot of people think they're, they're, uh, when they have a Shiba Inu, if they're not experienced with the breed, they think that the dog is deaf.

Okay. Oh my God. Oh yeah. That much like talk to the paw, like don't even look at me. Yeah. And it's hilarious. Dog trainers, you know, they make a lot of money off those dogs. I'm sure.

Because you're constantly calling them back. Um, Jamie Gibbon wants to know what's the strangest cross breed you've ever seen? I saw, okay. Years ago, I saw a, um, a Corgi and a, I want to say it was a kind of Corso. What the hell? Which is a large, very large pit bull type breed. Oh Jesus. Yeah.

00:56:58,940 --> 00:57:03,500 We're talking, yeah, we're talking like 80, 90 pounds, but then it was mixed with a Corgi. So it had these, it had these legs that were, I want to say these things were probably four inches tall and it, they, they bowed out almost like a sea lion, you know? And it, and it walked like a sea lion. So it had this long body with these four inch legs and it had this giant, giant shoulders and head. I mean, it looked like just something out of like, you know, this, uh, it looked like you,

you did something out of beetle juice. Like you just combined these two animals. Yeah. I've seen some pretty cool mixes out there. But yeah, that was definitely the weirdest one and he was sweet as could be. Oh my God. Oh yeah. People looked at him if you saw, if you just saw a headshot, you're thinking to yourself,

man, that's a big pit bull. And I will say, you see the whole body, you're like, what happened? What was his name? Do you remember? I forget his name. God, I hope it has an Instagram account. But I did train him. Man, I forgot his name.

But as an Instagram account, you better let me know. Yeah, yeah. So in trying to track down an Instagram account, I failed. I straight up failed, but I did end up scrolling through a lot of Corpit, Pitchy, Corbill, hashtags. And I can say 12 out of 10 would waste precious many minutes of my life doing that again. Mads, Clement, Jen, Durbin, and Dave Miller all wanted to know a little bit about emotional support dogs, whether or not, what your thoughts are in people registering them, whether or not that

privilege is being abused, and what the best dog, if you are looking for an emotional support dog, what the best kind of dog would be. Okay. So emotional support in animal, there's three, a lot of people, they get emotional support animals confused with service dogs. And let me just explain to you, there's three categories of technically service dogs. So you have emotional support, you have therapy dog, and you have service dog. Okay.

Now there's a massive difference between each one. Emotional support animals, they require no training, zero. Okay, now this is where the problem lies. This is where I put my foot down because the biggest problem is they can go into areas that you can have like service dogs or other animals. So for example, emotional support animals or ESAs, we call them, they're allowed to go into planes and fly with, this is why you see a lot of dogs on planes, most of them are not service dogs, they're emotional support animals.

The biggest problem is all you have to do is you have to get a note from your doctor. I'm not discrediting these people or denying the fact that they need this animal because they don't want to take drugs. That's good. That's a great thing. But I think there should be strict guidelines that these people should have to train their dogs, at least some sort of basic standards, basic obedience, good canine citizen tests, something that says this dog is qualified to go into public places and be around other dogs

and safely around children and stuff like that. The biggest problem is you have everybody registering their dogs and they bring them into planes and now we're seeing a lot more problems, we're seeing a lot of these emotional support animals that are, they're biting people, they're attacking other dogs. So last year, a Southwest passenger was bitten by another passenger's support dog and Delta Airlines has also recently cracked down. They require ESA animal owners to sign a voucher essentially saying, my support animal won't fuck anyone up.

But I think we can all agree that the problems are somewhat rare and when there's an animal on a flight, everyone gets so stoked. Like take for example, Daniel Turduckin Stinkerbutt, who recently accompanied his owner, a PTSD sufferer on a flight. By the way, he's a duck. Everyone loved it. Daniel Turduckin Stinkerbutt, the duck was decked out in tiny red flappy shoes. He was wearing a Captain America diaper.

Honestly, I feel that airlines should charge more for flights with diapered waterfowl on them. Do it and they're first in line. But not all emotional support dogs are service animals. Those are kind of leveled up. So that is the difference between the emotional support dog and the service dog. A service dog, they come with, I mean, high level training. We're talking six months to a year to even two years sometimes. And the service dog, that's part of our testing we do.

We test it around other dogs, test it around kids. We test it around all kinds of environments to make sure this dog will never bite a kid. He'll never bite another animal. It won't cause a problem. So yes, do I think people are abusing it this day and age? Absolutely, 100%. Okay, and this is the hard part. It's hard to filter out.

Okay, this is one of the good guys. This is one of the bad guys. This woman's doing it right and this one's abusing it. So there needs to be some sort of standardized test to say, this is an emotional support animal and it has to pass these guidelines. I had a ton of patrons on Patreon ask me what to do if their dog has anxiety. And are we just more aware of dog anxiety or is it becoming more prevalent? But what do you do if your dog, it seems like an anxious pup?

I don't think, I think anxiety is the same today as it was 30, 40 years ago. It's just people, yeah, we are identifying it now. You got to remember, I think the reason why it's become such a big thing nowadays because you have, dogs are much, they're part of the family. There's an old saying that we say in the dog world, dogs went from the farm to the backyard, to the house, to the couch, to the bed. This is the chronological order of events that this is how the dog has evolved in our families. So yeah, sure, back in the 1950s, dogs had anxiety but we didn't notice

because they were stuck in the backyard in the dog house. So we didn't notice. It hasn't been until recent times that we've started seeing the other dogs with heavy anxiety because now they're just living in our homes, on our couches, in our beds. You know what I'm saying? So I think the anxiety is the same nowadays as it always was. Now there are ways to help it. You're never going to eliminate it, but there are ways to help it.

I actually use this product now. It's called Soloquine and there's also something called Com. It's a supplement and stuff like that works. There's also these, what's called the compression shirts. Those are big help sometimes. There's also music boxes. These music boxes, what they do is they've, I guess they've found out, I haven't read the exact science behind it, but I have them here.

I've tested about and probably about 500 dogs over the years. And I'm actually a fan. Really? I'd say, yeah, I'd say, let's say of 100 dogs, it works on about, I'd say 25 of them, which is a good number. Right. Because you got to remember, you're not going to ever get 100%. So when Brandon said music boxes, I thought he meant this,

which is tinny and kind of creepy. And it seems annoying if your ears pick up like everything. But I did all the digging and it's more like a Bluetooth speaker with spa jams. Like this sample from Relax My Dog on YouTube, which has over a million plays. So either a few dog owners use it a lot or it's not uncommon for dogs to need just a little bit of help chilling out. Anxiety is, it's inside them. There's something going on inside them, the reason why they have anxiety, just like humans.

And so there's all kinds of stuff on the market that can help their dog. Now, here's what I will say about helping your dog with anxiety. There's something I do all the time on the show and I do it in training videos. I don't stop at one product. So in other words, if I try one product and I say, oh, it's not working, I don't eliminate that product and try something else and eliminate that product and try something else and so on and so forth. What I do is I call the layered system, the layered training system.

If I don't see results of that one product, I keep them on that product and I layer another one on. And I keep stacking things on until I find the combination of what works. Because believe it or not, you can try one product and eliminate it and you might strike out. But sometimes you have the combination of three or four of those things and it works. Really? So like maybe melatonin's involved or magnesium or things like that depends on what's... It could be a music box and a thunder shirt. You know what I'm saying? It could be the combination of both that actually you see the best results.

So I always say it's called the layered approach. It's almost like a Rubik's Cube. Oh, there we go. I found the formula with these two combined or these four combined. And you just unlock it and you know what? Summer's coming up. Um, what do you do for fireworks? I know that there's so many dogs and shelters after fireworks because they freak out.

I wish I had the magic, you know, code for that. I look fireworks. It's just like, it's just like thunder. It's, it's a very, it's, it's scary. Look, it's scary to wild animals and you have to remember domestic, domestic dogs. They're just, they're one step away from a wild animal. Everything we see our domestic dogs do, it's the, the traits came from the wild animal. So wolves are just as scared of fireworks and just as scared of thunder as domesticated dogs.

It's an instinct. Oh man. Just thinking about a bunch of scared raccoons clinging to trees on the 4th of July. Oh man, I'm gonna cry again. Oh shit. But you should keep your dog somewhere safe during fireworks season. Oh, absolutely. Now, believe it or not, there's, there's two days of the year where the shelters are

the most populated and I'm not talking, I'm not talking about human populace. I'm talking about dog populated. And that is the 5th of July and the 1st of, of January. And the reason why is because a lot of people, they go out to whatever, the fireworks show and they just leave their dog in the backyard. The dog starts freaking out when they hear the booms everywhere. And the dog will do anything to save its own life. It will dig under the fence or jump over a six foot fence.

It's amazing what they can actually do when they're scared. And so, so the 5th of July, everyone is out there looking for their dog. Yeah. I feel like in the summer, I see those, I see posts more on social media. You will see a lot. Yeah. So I always try to remind people of that, you know, especially when you get around that week of the 4th of July.

Look, just if you have to, if you, even if you have to create your dog, you know, just keep it safe. I'm usually not a big, you know, a fan of crates. Typically, I do, I use crates for, for crate training as far as like, you know, housebreaking. That's kind of where it ends. Yeah. But then that's about it. But if we're talking about saving a dog's life, yeah.

I'm saying create them for the 4th of July. Right. So maybe your dog won't hate you, don't worry. Your dog's like, never again will I trust you. Exactly. Okay. So last two questions I ask everyologist, what do you dislike about your job or your work as a sinologist?

What's the most annoying thing? Is it picking up poop? Is it lint rolling? Is it scheduling? Is it billing? What is it? I guess the most annoying thing about my job is whenever I'm done training an animal, believe it or not, I, you know, no news is good news.

I like the idea of no news is good news because that means everything's working. What irks me the most and it ticks me off more than anything is when I spend all this time training an animal, I put all this time and energy, you know, and I donate a lot of training to people that can't afford it. And the only thing I ask is make sure it sticks. I don't want to see you here. I don't want to see you back here. And if they didn't take the time to do it, you know what I'm saying?

Oh, I was busy. I didn't, you know, listen, here's the reality. Dog training is just like, it's just like a daily diet. You know, you can get the gym membership, but you have to actually go to the gym. You know, a lot of people, they, they, when they get an animal, then they start having problems with it. All they want to do is they want to pay a dog trainer to take care of their problems. That's not how it works.

You are paying me and I'm showing you, you know, because if you, if you're not going to put the time or the effort into your own animal, I am not going to call you back. Right. And so I make sure people know that. And I, you know, a lot of people, believe it or not, they get pissed off when I say, you know, look, I want you to buy this, buy my book. And they're like, oh, it's all about the money, huh? And I say, okay, let me tell you something.

You have an animal. Okay. It's going to live the next 13 to 15 years. If you can't spend $17. Okay. Where you can have a reference book and say, oh, let me see here. Oh, this is how you teach a dog to stop counter surfing. Listen to that.

It's a reference book. If you can't sit there and spend a week of your life reading it and spend $17.99, you know, when you just paid $2,000 for this pure red dog, you know what I'm saying? You bought it a $300 bed. You bought it some little jacket that it probably won't wear. We live in Southern California, but you're not going to invest $17 and spend a week reading that book. You do not deserve that animal, period.

Right. It's a textbook. Yes. Forgotten stakes. It's just like having a kid, you know. If you're not going to, you know, read up on how to raise a child, read up on how to, you know, how to teach your child a few things, you do not deserve that kid. You know, this is basic parenting, whether it's a kid or it's a dog.

01:10:01,660 --> 01:10:05,980 And so this is why I always tell people education is very important, whether you read my book or someone else's book, read something that will give you the basic information. If you're the kind of person that just says, oh, I want to just pay someone for my problems, just go ahead and, you know, find another home for your dog right now. Get a robot dog. Exactly. Okay.

So what is the best thing about dogs? What is your favorite? What do you love the most about your work? Not only saving the dog's life, but I see it all the time. You know, people say you saved my life too. So my job as a trainer and a rescuer, I love seeing both sides of the coin. I love seeing the dog's life change. I love seeing, you know, how they came out of their shell.

Like for example, that bloodhound mix you saw outside, this is day one for her. Technically, she came last night, but this is true day one for her. You're seeing, she's a little timid or tails tucked. She wanted no part of it. Come back here in a month. You're going to see her do a full 180. She'll be the most popular dog here at the ranch, you know. And that's what we do.

We change lives. So I love, you know, changing the dog's life, but then there's another side to that. You know, the woman that she's going to that I have in mind that I think she's going to, oh, she's just, you know, she's over the moon, you know, she's over the moon about it. And it's going to change her life. You know, a lot of these people that I train dogs for, they've lost something. You know, whether it's a, whether they've lost a dog or they've lost a family member or they've lost a part of their life that they're not going to get back.

These dogs are almost like a new chapter for them. It's a new, you know, whole, only chapter of life. They're going to look back and say that was the best period of my life. You know, that golden retriever I had, that, that bloodhound, that Jack Russell, that little Chihuahua that I had, it was the best dog I ever had. And when that's what I say about every dog I've ever had my entire life, that was the best dog I ever had. And I keep saying it.

Honestly, they're all the best. Yeah. There's that saying, I love saying, you know, who has the best dog in the world? We all do. Oh, that's so sweet. Uh, just heads up here. Um, maybe I might be talking about myself in this next question. What if you're so into dogs, you're afraid that you're not going to be a good enough owner?

Well, I, Does that ever happen? Yeah. I mean, look, that's, I, that's a hard one to answer. That's, that's the, uh, that's a million dollar question. You know, I'm, I'm, I'll just be honest. I don't know if I'd be a good father for human. You know, like, I don't know if I, if I ever have a kid, I always ask myself that.

I've had a million people would be like, no, you'd be a great dad because you'll see, you sound like everybody else. I don't know the answer to that. You know, I, as I'm going back to going back to the dog, I don't know the answer to, you know, what, what if they're, you know, what if I'm not going to be a good dog parent? Look, you, you don't know, do you try? But the thing is, what I, what I will say is I wouldn't, I wouldn't get the dog unless you are, you know, dedicated to, I'm going to give this thing

every single thing it needs. I'm going to give this animal all the love, all the, all the, you know, all the training, all the education, everything it needs in life. So perhaps one day you'll see old dad ward on Lucky Dog. And yes, I will 100% start sobbing when Brandon changes the dog's collar from a red in training one to a green one, meaning this dog is yours. Oh man. Oh, water works.

See, this is why we got to get you on season seven. I know, seriously. Thank you so much for doing this. So to learn more about Brandon McMillan, you can go to canineminded.com and there are links to his Facebook and Twitter. He's animal Brandon on Instagram and his book, once again, is called Lucky Dog Lessons. I purchased it even though I don't have a dog. So if you have a dog, it's worth it even more.

Go get it. Lucky Dog is on Saturday mornings on CBS. You can check your local listings. And as long as we're talking about it, so is my science show, the Henry Ford's Innovation Nation with Mo Raca. It's a long title. It's a great show. No swear words.

Allergies is on Twitter and Instagram at Allergies. I'm on Twitter and Instagram at Allie Ward with 1L. And for shirts and dad hats and pins and totes and baby clothes, you can head to allergiesmerch.com. Thank you, Shannon Feltas and Bonnie Dutch for running that. And you can join the Facebook Allergies group. Thank you, Aaron Talbert and Hannah Lippo for admitting that. Thank you to the patrons who keep the podcast going.

You can join that for as little as 25 cents an episode. And you get to hear what episodes are coming up next. And you can submit your questions. And you also allow me to pay the incredible Stephen Ray Morris to help me edit all this together. He is the best. I owe him a basket of puppies. And by puppies, I probably mean cats or dinosaurs.

Let's be honest, he knows his brand. The theme song was written and performed by Nick Thorburn of the band Islands, which is a very good band in case you want to check them out. Now, if you stick around to the end of the show, you know I tell you a little secret to say thanks for sticking through the credits. And this week, I'm going to tell you a secret.

I don't have a dog, clearly. All I want is a dog. And my family and friends know how much I want a dog. That this past Christmas, my parents were cruising past a thrift store and saw a mechanical robot dog named Biscuit and purchased it for me for Christmas. That is Biscuit. Biscuit.

It's the size of a normal dog. And it's mechanical. And it's covered in fur. And you can hug it like a normal dog. It's Westworld as hell. And my secret is the A that I own, Biscuit, who responds to you when you pet him. And also, can you even, you guys?

It was the best purges ever. And I hug Biscuit. And Biscuit has been sitting next to me this whole time I recorded this episode. And when my parents bought it, they're like, our daughter would love this. It's all she wants as a dog. And I think the owners of the Snowline Hospice Thrift Store

near my parents' home were like, oh, how, how old's your daughter? And they had to be like, oh, she's in, she's in her 30s. She's a grown ass woman. So I own Biscuit. He loves me. Okay, continue to ask smart people stupid questions.

Bye-bye.