Edit for Context: 6mo border collie/Lab sometimes redirects on me through gentle bites to my hands/wrists. Is this something I should work on directly? Or is it likely a result of gaps in our communication and will get better with everything else? Since original post, redirection has significantly decreased (yay!) The only time it is still occuring is when he is highly stimulated/disregulated and I have to grab his collar to lead him away from something(such as barking at fence in yard or if he gets playing too rough with person.) I will be adding in ecollar in the coming weeks. His leave it and other off leash ob is decent but not up to the level in these high stim situations. Original: Hi Tom! I am loving your podcast, Youtube content, and the NBD club. This podcast gives such comprehensive information to help people understand dogs, their relationship to people and the world at large in addition to the many technical training bits. Your analogies are awesome! I am starting to see great progress with my dog (5mo Lab/Border Collie) in terms of obedience, our relationship, and his reactivity. My Q: As we work through things(especially new things), he does sometimes redirect on me through nips at my hands, barking, showing his teeth. Is this something I should work on directly? Or is it likely a result of gaps in our communication and will get better with everything else? My common sense says he is rightfully frustrated, but I also dont want to be naive and ignore it

Long time listener. Wish it was socially acceptable to give your info to dog owners unsolicited 🤓 your recent episode on off-leash training got me to take our almost 4 yr old fixed 55 lb mixed breed - Bowie - with me to our place in the mountains so I could do some training. He loves it here but hates riding in the car. He doesn’t look forward to getting IN the car - but also doesn’t protest. Its a two hour drive and he pretty much stands the entire time panting and clearly anxious. Same deal when just driving around town. Same whether in a mostly solid kennel in the car or just sitting on the back seat or way back of SUV. Same if we went for two hour hike and then he got in car. Tried CBD treats; didn’t seem to do anything Q1- Advice on how we can reduce his car anxiety? Q2 - he knows place. “Problem” is that he likes his place bed and will just go to it to lay down and relax. He will basically put himself in place and then look to us to say “break” as if he is stuck there. Similarly, if we put him in place and after a bit we say “break” he sometimes seems to just want to stay….if we put him in place and say break do we have to make him physically leave “place”?

Hi! I love your podcast it has been very informative for me. I just got an Australian Shepard puppy. Haddie (the dog) is fairly obedient and has learned sit and is still trying to be potty trained. What should I train her to do, and In what order should I train her that. Thanks!

Hi Tom! I need your advice/input. My Malinois and my neighbors dog do not like eachother. We have a fence separating our yards but every single time my neighbor lets her dog out it immediately charges the fence looking to attack my dog, weather we’re outside or not. I spend most my days outside with my dog, if I’m able to see the neighbors dog before my mal then I can recall her. But if she sees the neighbors dog before I do she will also charge the fence and they will run up and down trying to bite eachother through the fence. What should I be doing in this situation? I have your ecollar and use that to correct her for charging fence after ignoring my recall. But she doesn’t not care, no matter how high I turn it up. Is it even fair to correct her in this situation? I know she’s just trying to protect me but ultimately i want her to ignore the dog, is that fair to ask of her?

Hi Tom! Thank you so much for all of the amazing information that you put out. You have transformed my understanding of dog training and dog behavior. We recently adopted a 3 year old small Shepard mix who was a stray in Texas. She is a wonderful dog, but has a VERY strong prey drive (squirrels, chipmunks, birds, mice etc.). I have listened to many of your podcasts about e-collar training. We are working hard on obedience training currently with your kickstart course- as I know obedience is the first step. Is it realistic that we can get off leash trained with her with the use of the e-collar despite her incredibly strong prey drive? Thank you so much- and keep up the great work you do!

Love love love your podcasts and your work, Tom! 2 questions please :) Question 1 - Should I correct my 16 month intact male GSD for marking my fixed 8 year old female GSD's pee on walks? I correct him when his nose is right in her business while she's peeing but let him mark when she's done and walks away. She's not an excessive marker. Question 2 - What should I do when my 16 month intact male GSD are around family dogs that are excessive markers? The family dogs (11 year old fixed GSP and 10 months intact male Brittany) are excessive markers. They both excessively mark even when there are no other dogs around. I watch my 16 month intact male GSD very closely when he's around them and won't let him join the competition. However he will go back after the fact and mark. I don't want him to learn the excessive marking behavior from the other two. It's not an issue when it's just him and my female GSD. I know scent marking is a canine behavior and marking can increase around other males so not sure what to do in this situation. I'm thinking about leashing him when the other two are around. Thank you so much, Tom!!!

Hi Tom! I work as a kennel tech/trainer and I have learned so much from you and your content. I’m a new listener and trainer but a daily listener. I do have a question about my newly adopted 3 year old wheaten terrier. His name is Rascal and he was trained with us in November for his aggression (2 week board and train on the ecollar) and he didn’t show an ounce of aggression. His original owner didn’t follow any of our advice and abused him with the ecollar and physically. His owner gave him up due to his food aggression. It’s mostly around his meals or high value items like bones or grooming. Sometimes he snaps and snarls before I even put the food down (in that case he doesn’t get fed that meal). He gets fed in his kennel right now. When he growls outside of the kennel he comes towards you with his head down and continues to growl. When he’s in a mood, even looking at him makes him snarl. He has redirected on me and my poodle when being corrected with the ecollar so I have stopped correcting him that way. We have tried hand feeding but he either won’t eat it or take it and spit it out or swallow it whole and just throw it up. We did that for a month but gave up cause he wasn’t eating and I felt bad. Commands in the house often triggers him but outside of the house he’s awesome so earning his food in the house doesn’t work out. He will take treats but never take his food as a reward. It feels really random and I need help outside of using an ecollar cause using that as a correction only makes things worse. I’m staring from scratch with training to build our relationship but in the meantime how do I feed him?

Thank you so much for this recent podcast. I have an eight month old GSD and I really knew 100% kibble wasn’t the journey I wanted for her. I tried gently cooking meals, but was struggling with making sure that it was all balanced what recipe would work for her understanding fully how much it was costing me at the end of the day because I was trying different things to try and make it balance, etc. and I keep seeing we feed raw and all the work that you do with them and feeding it to your dogs. And after listening to her and her grade story, I just don’t think I can feed kibble knowing now what I know and what I knew before but just hearing it so I didn’t even finish listening to the podcast and I was signing up for my first box.

Tom does a great job of bringing a variety of topics for dog owners to learn from. This is a great resource for dog owners to have and be able to use.

I have listened/watched to Tom for 5 years now and have successfully raised and trained 2 GSD’s. Every bit of his training philosophy is sensible AND effective! Listen listen listen to all of these episodes even if they don’t pertain to you today. Thanks Tom! I don’t have any questions this time but I know where to go when I do! Thank you!! Tom! Episode #244 was so relevant and vulnerable! Thank you for that! Keep up these great podcasts!!!

I am so very thankful I found Tom’s podcast 1.5 years ago when I was searching for good information on dog training when I got my first large breed puppy - Great Pyrenees poodle mix. I’ve always had small dogs and I had no idea what I’m getting myself into with a large breed dog . Unfortunately I did not realize how much I needed education on how to handle a large dog until he was about 6 months and 70 lb and the teenage dog tantrums started to show up . I was also so misinformed and in a way brainwashed in “ positive “ only training ideology that I was initially reluctant to listen to what Tom had to say . It only took one of Tom’s podcast to capture my attention and open my eyes . Tom’s ability to connect , rely information, explain dog behavior and rationale for implementing different strategies so clearly was like an epiphany to me . And …. I kept listening . 1.5 years later and binge listening I finally caught up . First his podcasts, then his you tube videos and the full length videos on No bad dogs members club site helped me tremendously. And now my 2 year old Pyredoodle is a different dog , the whole 95 lb of him ! Still learning and practicing every day using the tools Tom gave me but I am forever grateful to him for the beautiful and healthy relationship I now have with my dog . Thank you !

Hey Tom, I didn’t know if you would read the same people’s ratings at all. That’s okay if you can’t/don’t want to, of course. My Belgian Mal, Aegis,(ee-jis) (Sorry, if I explain more than ask the actual question so don’t feel bad skipping a lot 😭) A byb,(backyard-bred, AKA, badly bred) shelter pup from California. I recently purchased your No Bad Dogs, 280C E-Collar. She has tremendously improved a ton and her conditioning was very impressive and fast, and has helped with her anxiety and crate training too. I would absolutely love to do training with your facility and stuff, although my mom doesn’t exactly agree the whole, No Bad Dogs thing, sadly. I will definitely be saving for the No Bad Dog Subscription later down the line! My mom has an Instagram if you’d like to see my dog, Aegis(obviously I could care less if you don’t want to follow) Insta profile name: @ _capturingk.o._ I hope to take my Malinois, Aegis to your facility one day, too! Question: Here it is, I don’t at all, ever want to have my dog use medication(mainly because it’s not good for anyone let alone my sensitive mal) are there any tips for a hardcore mal with severe anxiety? I’ve had her for too long to stop now and give up. She’s been improving and she’s gotten to 52 commands on the 25th of February too. I hope maybe you’ll have some tips for her. If you don’t, no hate of course 🥹 Alright, I talk too much, thanks for all your work, Tom!

Hi Tom, I’ve been soaking up your content since I found you on YouTube a couple years ago and recently started listening to your podcast a few months ago. Your training tips have helped build up my relationships with my dogs so much! I also wanted to say I’m so excited to watch your journey with “little” Burleigh! My husband and I just purchased our second Tibetan mastiff puppy after recently and unexpectedly losing our first TM. It’s my understanding that TMs and Boerboels have similar temperaments, so I can’t wait to watch how you work and train with Burleigh. My question is, since conventional methods aren’t usually effective with a TM, do you have any tips or tricks to get our obedience better with the new puppy? Our first was a female that we got when she was 7 months old, she wasn’t very well socialized and was pretty reactive. She turned out to be an amazing family dog and we were finally starting to see some obedience progress when we sadly lost her right before she turned 2 years old due to a suspected congenital issue. I feel like since she died so young we didn’t get to fully go through the typical personality changes when a dog hits maturity, since all research we did says TMs typically don’t mature until 3-4. Our new puppy is a male and currently 3 months old, I’m just trying to find out what improvements we can make to get our obedience better this time around. We also have a 6 month old male Akita puppy in the house and I really just want to make sure we keep both boys on their P’s and Q’s to avoid potential drama. Thank you so much, I look forward to hearing your feedback and watching more of you and Burleigh!

What Tom is doing is enabling those people with limited resources to keep and fix their own dogs. The info provided is helping save dogs every where. Love what you are doing. Super happy about the new addition to your family.

Hey Tom, firstly congrats on your new Boerboel puppy! Really looking forward to watching the content and watching him grow up! The question I have isn’t for my dog, but about my father in laws dog. My father in law has a 2 year old husky Doberman x. He is very high energy, stubborn, and opportunistic. He’s the saying if you give him an inch he’ll take 3 miles. He has been through extensive training, including a board and train with my trainer and I help him out regularly. He is off leash trained and knows his commands, whether he decides to listen and blow off my father in law is another issue. My question is do you think you can take your dog out too much? My father in law takes his dog out a lot, which is great, but the issue is that he cannot settle at home or out in public. He will constantly whine and pace if not in his crate or on place. An example would be we took the boys out for a couple hours which included some off leash time and walked over 5 miles. Once we went our separate ways home, he told me he took his dog out again an hour after getting home, and then out again an hour later. I’ve tried to explain that he doesn’t really need to be getting out so soon after and he has been fulfilled. My father in law complains about how much energy he has and how he can’t settle. I feel like he has conditioned him to be this way, that he has conditioned him to always be on the go go go and to always expect to be doing something. I’ve tried telling him that he should practice doing nothing with him. Try going to a coffee shop and practice him settling, but he says he can’t settle so he doesn’t even try. He also gets frustrated easily with his dog because he is starting to get a little reactive to dogs in passing because he has allowed him to go say hi while out on walks. Anyways thank you for your advice!

Tom Davis's offers invaluable insights and awesome advice for dog training. It really is my favorite podcast and it has changed mine and my dogs life! I have a 6-year-old female Irish Setter/Golden Retriever/Poodle mix who is incredibly obedient and well-behaved. However, over the past year as she's matured, we've noticed a new behavior that's been challenging for us. When either my partner or I attempt to leave the house or the car, she gets really nervous and tries to herd us. She will do this to our guests if we are not watching and put her in a down stay as they leave. What happens is she whines and lets out a long bar and tries to nudge or 'muzzle punch' us. She isn't trying to hurt us; it seems more like a small meltdown on her part. It occurs within a brief window of about 5-7 seconds as we're in the process of leaving. Once we are out of the car or the house door, she will stop as soon as she cant see us. She doesn’t have any other signs of separation anxiety, while we are gone. We pay zero attention to her when we leave. I've attempted to distract her with food but she doesn’t care, and I am afraid to reward the behavior. I have thought about putting her in a down stay - but I do not know how to release her once I am out of the door or the car. I am wondering what the best way to stop this behavior is?

Hi Tom, I’ve been a loyal listener of your show for the last 2 years now. You have a wonderful pod and youtube series that has helped me give my lab border collie mix an enriching life. To the point, I am someone who works at a shelter with a high euthanasia rate. When I was hired, they told me it was just over outrageous aggression or breeding health issues, but since working there I have seen this to not be the case. Some of the sweetest, potty trained, loyal dogs who don't get an application within 72 hours are immediately put on the euthanasia list. We are a shelter that can’t afford dog trainers and I can’t in good conscious leave all of these pups behind and quit. I understand both sides of the kill shelter argument and I personally would just really appreciate hearing from you your opinion on the matter as a dog trainer I respect or how to better love these dogs knowing their fate. Speaking with management doesn’t work because we just keep getting more dogs come through our doors everyday. I walk around with your NBD hat on all day just as a reminder to myself these dogs aren’t bad, they’ve just been failed by humans over and over again😔 Thank you.

Hey Tom, love the podcast! Because of guys like you and Will Atherton, my 10-month golden retriever is killing it. I wouldn’t say she’s at level 3 yet but she is definitely on her way. There’s only one thing that I’ve been questioning and it’s regarding her play towards other dogs. She regularly sees two other dogs(both that are well trained) and I regularly have to recall her away from dogs because she can be a little overbearing. She’s bigger than the other dogs and rushes into them, overpowers them, and mouths them until they look like a slobbery mess. During a long play session, the visiting dogs alternate between trying to get away from her but then eventually going back into play. She will quickly knock it off if I recall her or tell her to go to her place. Is this an appropriate level of play for dogs? I want to try to advocate for these other dogs because it doesn’t seem like these dogs can tell her to knock it off. She’s a golden so I know she will always be super friendly but is this just her personality or should I do some other training to eliminate this level of play?

Hey Tom I love your podcast and your whole message. I started watching your podcast when I decided I wanted a dog and it’s helped me so much since I got my puppy. My question is where should I go with my training now. My puppy is 4 months old and the basics (Sit, down, Stay, place, and kennel). We train pretty much once a day if not more but it’s starting to get repetitive and I’m just wondering what I should introduce next. Whenever you answer questions you always say you don’t need all the background but I’ll put it here for reference only if needed. He’s about 60% red heeler and then mixed with a whole bunch of other stuff. He’s super eager to please and very treat motivated.

First, thank you so much for this podcast! I appreciate the direct and honest advice you give. Second, I have sort of odd question— how would you deal with a dog that barks, growls, and almost even bites when people show affection to other people (hugging, kissing, etc.)? I assume it is from anxiety (thinking people are being aggressive toward each other) but don’t know how to approach it.

I love that Tom gives advice that makes sense and is consistent across each episode. I’ve listened to almost every single episode and at this point I can predict what he will say which to me is a good thing. I also love that he never judges owners and offers solutions without making anyone feel like a bad owner. My questions: what would you look for in a pup as a parent with a small toddler (12-18 months old) and what advice would you offer for balancing the needs of a pup with the needs of the toddler. I’ve been waiting for my baby to be less dependent on me to get a golden retriever pup and am worried that I will set myself up for failure without a good game plan later this year when I get one.

Love the podcast! I have a question about loose leash walking and "breaking" my dog on a walk. She generally walks ahead of me and doesn't really pull the leash, but she'll hit the end of it and I'll call her back to me & reward. She's getting pretty good at staying in heal on command, but as soon as I "break" her, she trots ahead and hits the end of the leash. I call her back, reward, and after enough times she'll stay closer and check in more often, wanting and expecting treats. The next day, it's like she forgets and she still hits the end of the leash. How can I reinforce that there's still rules in the "break" and she needs to maintain a loose leash during the whole walk? Thanks so much!

Hi Tom we are used to living on a lot of acres and and my dogs can just go wherever they want we are about to move to a neighborhood type area is there any tips tricks or things I should know the backyard is going to be about 600 ft.²or 800 they are not the best on the leash i’ve watched a ton of your videos on leash training and they do great around the house but when it comes to distraction they just pull so I’m trying to save up and take them to a professional. The one I am going to take them to is called Revolutionary, canine in North Carolina.

Hi Tom, my name is Kelsey & I’m a new listener and I love your content already. It’s clear you put an extraordinary amount of time and care into your work, and you genuinely want to help others. I’m a graduate student that moved to TN by myself, and I started fostering Oliver last Thursday. The shelter estimates that he is about 1 yr & 10 months old, and he’s a black lab/Great Dane mix. Oliver has been in the shelter for about 3 months and before that he was in an abusive home where the owner also left him in a crate for about 12 hours a day. Despite all of that, Oliver has the sweetest demeanor, is super cuddly, and loves everyone. He struggles a lot with terrible anxiety, although I understand he’s been through an extreme amount of stress and change lately. I’m planning on adopting him and building a healthy relationship with Oliver is my priority. I’ve been walking him 5-10 miles a day, playing with him (if I can get him interested with the toy), and slowly starting with obedience training. At first, I was doing everything wrong and was feeding into his anxiety by projecting my emotions onto him. I didn’t realize this until listening, so thank you, we’ve already started making progress on his separation anxiety. He does still sleep in the bed with me, but has gotten much better with me leaving him alone. However, with the obedience training, Oliver is not good motivated at all. I’ve tried a variety of different treats, not feeding him breakfast, and limiting distractions. He avoids eye contact and cowers when I bring the treat closer to his nose in attempt to motivate him with the smell. He occasionally does well with chicken, but it seems like he thinks that I’m baiting him and will hurt him if he goes for the chicken. I understand he’s still getting comfortable (a week is very little time) and this may be something that will just take time. I’m more than happy to be patient and just keep working slowly, day by day. I just want to make sure I’m not doing anything wrong/making it worse. Thank you so much!

Love this podcast and all of your material keep up the excellent content! We rescued a 6mo Dal from euthanasia. He’s very bouncy and fearful of strangers (he’s been hit a lot). He smacks you with his feet bounces off your body but when corrected with a leash pop/or loud no wets himself. Also resource guarding food in kennel (now hand feeding) How can I correct bad behavior, without making it worse. Working on a place when around strangers, currently he’s hiding behind me and alarm barking.

Hello ! Please help how do I let her get out her energy without her running away from me and juggle the jealousy? We have a 7 year old husky Nina who I can not teach recall. She bolts anytime she’s outside and is impossible to real her in. All she wants to do is sniff and run. I’m trying to teach her to recall and to stay but I also have 2 pugs who know get jealous when I put them away to train Nina. The 3 of them end up fighting for attention now. Nina is always on a leash or in her kennel and is this bad for her as a dog ? Or is it making her want to have freedom more ? I have been listening to your podcasts and love all the information!

Absolutely love ALL your content!! You’re truly an amazing human for selflessly sharing your gift of dog language and behavior in easy to understand term for us humans not blessed with your innate gift. Specifically, I appreciate that you understand all the knowledge you have is completely useless to the recipients if you can’t TEACH us how to apply it. You sincerely care that your No Bad Dog Army succeeds by teaching us down to the micro how to improve our relationships with our much loved companions. You, Will, and Forest are the most gifted educators common dog owners can gain realistic, useful, loving, supportive, and practical knowledge from without ever leaving the warmth of our homes. It’s evident in all your content that you unselfishly do what you do for the love of ALL dogs, not for fame or fortune, but for pure love. Thank You! I have two male Wheaten Terrier’s. The seven year old OBSESSIVELY licks the floor on a daily basis Whenever he’s walking around the house. For many years now he’s has had a condition called Pica (he eats any and all material during episodes). For the most part I’m able to manage his condition through daily steroids, micromanagement, and early detection of the onset of an episode. The vet is unable to say if his Pica causes him to CONSTANTLY lick the floor, or if it’s his high anxiety, or if it’s a nervous tick. My question for you is; is it fair to correct him for his obsessive licking if I don’t know what is causing him to constantly lick every square inch of my floor? And if it is fair to correct him, you often say a correction should be accompanied by showing them the behavior you want them to do instead, but I don’t know how to show him an existence that doesn’t involve licking his way across the room. I feel like I’m constantly nagging him to stop, which may be diminishing our relationship. Do you have any advice on how to show him what I want him to do instead, which would be ANYTHING other than obsessively licking? I’d love to be able to sanitize my floors, not just clean with water, so he doesn’t ingest chemicals (and not having tongue/beard streaks all over the floor would be a BONUS!!). Again, Thank You for answering our questions at the end of every episode, it’s one of my favorite things about your podcast. I love the extra insights you gift us just for listening till the end, you Never disappoint! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I started listening to Tom’s podcast because we adopted a rescue dog who had been returned or taken away from 3 previous families. We went into our adoption with eyes wide open, knowing there were reactivity issues. Though we had other dogs in the past, it was clear we (or rather me) needed to become a better dog owner in order to give Minnie (an Australian Cattle dog mix) a chance at her best life. Here is some of what Tom taught me: 1. Your dog is yours and does not need to interact with every random person or other dog you encounter. Your dog does not need to fall in love with all the people or other dogs they meet. 2. Much of your dog’s behavior comes from the cues you give. If you can be confident and have clear boundaries, your dog will thank you. 3. Dogs at their core are wild animals, and most of them need a “job”. Figure out what job your dog needs. 4. You can train a dog but you can’t change what their DNA tells them to do. Breeds were bred to do X type of behavior. Do you know or understand what your dog was bred for? 5. The right equipment can make all the difference. 6. Behaviors have consequences - “no” is as important as “yes”! 7. Remember to have fun with your dog. Thank you Tom for keeping it real when it comes to dogs.

So much good insight and knowledge on training dogs to the highest standard. I love listening to the podcast in the car or while doing chores and love to watch the YouTube videos to see everything put into action. Thank you Tom! Question: when training a puppy what do you do if they don’t immediately listen or comply right away? Scenarios: after a walk or potty I ask my puppy to sit and wait at the door while I take his leash off and open the door, he is sometimes still excited and won’t listen right away. I’ll wait until he does sit to take it off but occasionally have to repeat the command a few times before he listens. Other times when working on training I’ll ask him to sit or go to his place and he will not listen right away or will do the opposite of the one I asked. In some of your YouTube videos I’ve heard you mention not to repeat commands because it can be confusing but what would you do in these scenarios?

It can be so overwhelming to know the best way to train your dog. I really want the “good dog”, but was having a hard time knowing where to start with all the different approaches and voices out there. So thankful I found Tom and his resources. His training resources and tips in combination with working with a local trainer have really helped me as a first time dog owner. Question: I really want my dog and my best friends dog to be friends. We’ve tried introductions and after listening to a recent podcast, realize we did it all wrong! We didn’t start on neutral ground. My dog seems to be happy and wants to be friends and hers is reactive - growling, barking, snapping, resource guarding. What can we do to start over or is it too late?

Tom has a gift and is willing to share his insight in a very accessible way. I’ve followed his content for a long time and has been so helpful as I foster and have worked with some challenging dogs. My question is about the very rare, but sad cases where the dogs may seem perfectly friendly with great obedience, but will turn on their owners-frequently in the evening seemingly out of nowhere. I’ve heard it called “springer rage” as is a genetic issue. Have you experienced this? If a dog has been persistent in attacking caregivers and then acts perfectly normal afterwards can anything be done?

Tom has gifted me with the skills, knowledge, tools and confidence I needed to bring out the good girl inside my 90lb, 5 y.o. shepherd/mastiff mix. I got her from the shelter 3 months ago and after consistent training and reassurance from Tom’s podcast and YouTube videos we can’t go out in public without receiving compliments on her behavior, even at the vet. As we continue to iron out some some behaviors/anxieties and work on new skills, I am immensely thankful for his free and informative content for teaching me what my dog is thinking and for reminding me about patience and accountability. I’ve never left a podcast review before, but this one is worthy of breaking my silence. Tom- I recently realized that my girl doesn’t know drop it. Any advice on how to train this? Also, what question do you wish people asked you more often and why?

Love all the information you put out, highly recommend! Have been binge listening to all of your content and wanted to ask a question, I have a 10 month old un-neutered Potcake (street dog from Turks & Caicos) he resembles a vizsla. He’s dog friendly, severely anxious and scared of humans, has food aggression with other animals, and the biggest issue with training he’s terrified of the leash / sidewalk / street and cars. But walks amazing on any trail on leash. I’m close with other owners of dogs from his litter and the mother who was rescued, all the puppies have these same issues. We got him after losing our old dog to cancer, and I feel like a failure not starting training sooner when we got him as a puppy whilst grieving. I’m wondering how you would recommend to start back to the basics after not giving him structure for this long, how to gain that respect in the relationship whilst dealing with him being a highly anxious dog? Does the genetics play a big part in how I should be approaching training? Thank you in advance, appreciate all of your content!

Tom- You are an amazing person. Thank You for all the free content you provide, it’s truly helped me, a long time Saint owner that thought she had the breed down until my most recent trouble maker. *Most* importantly it’s awesome & so needed that trainers on your level help in the shelter system. Lisa & DeeDee the Saint

Incredible podcast and great content on all platforms. I discovered Tom on YouTube back in 2020 when I was trying to figure out how to train my 60-pound out of control lab mix. I was instantly hooked and I've watched every video and have listened to every podcast. My dog was incredibly reactive, pulled on the leash, and completely blew off commands. I learned that I was a terrible leader/communicator and needed to completely change my approach, and I did! I switched from a gentle leader to a prong and ecollar, taught her to walk on a leash, introduced the ecollar (layered over known behaviors) and taught her recall, have enforced boundaries in the house, and have taught her all sorts of fun commands. Our relationship completely changed and she is consistently referred to as the most well behaved dog among my friends and family. They don't believe me when I describe her behavior pre-training. We now are able to go for off leash hikes with our ecollar and a tab leash - when approaching/passing other dogs on the trail, I call her into a heel, grab the tab, walk by with no issues, and break her to run free again. This was a dog that previously could not be walked by anyone but me because no one could handle her. My partner can now walk her alone on the prong as well. Tom's work is transformative IF you implement it correctly. I am an advocate of the NBD movement to all of my friends who have gotten new dogs and I try to provide information about balances methods. Thanks for all your work Tom, you've transformed my relationship with my dog. No bad dogs, baby!

Thanks Tom, all of your content has been so helpful for me and my anxious/reactive girl. I was wondering how to not mitigate progress in training by doing everyday activities - like walking on the leash. My girl and I are working on leash pressure and heel at home, but I still have to walk her everyday and there are dogs (a trigger for her) in the neighborhood and she pulls me on walks. I try to do the same thing, hold pressure until she releases the pressure and reward her for having a loose leash, but when there's a dog present she'll just stare at them unless I do the "find it" game and throw treats in the grass (sometimes this doesn't even work). We're also practicing the figure 8 turns which she gets at home, but on walks, she'll turn with me but won't staring at the dog. She makes progress at home but she isn't at that level 3 where she can walk nicely in public yet, but that's still something I have to do everyday, and then it feels like I'm constantly starting over. Do you have any advice for not backtracking? Right now I'm using a flat collar but did just get a No Bad Dogs slip leash in the mail - I'm waiting to use it until she's desensitized to putting in around her neck and I can practice doing the corrections with my wrist.

Hello I recently adopted a beagle who is 7 years old from the animal shelter. He has been a bit challenging but is adjusting to our lifestyle and we have changed our life style to adjust for him. We take him on 3, 30 minute walks a day and take him to dog park for 25 minutes a day. We live in a one bedroom apartment with another dog too. The issue is that he pees right after we take him on walks and after we discipline him for example he will be jumping up on the kitchen counter tops and we will confine him to the bedroom and he pees almost immediately. Any advice? Ps love the pod

Hey Tom, I know you most likely won’t see this because I never get seen, but I’m giving it a shot anyway! My name is Jessica and I have a passion to train and work with dogs, to not just help them but communities through through their dogs. I have so many questions and topics that I would love to hear you talk about because I truly believe in what you do. When I heard on one of your episodes that you work within the prison system I had to pull over and cry with gratitude. You really know how many lives you change just by being you. I aspire to one day be a trainer you can be proud to call a “co-worker” so to speak, but I find myself in a very unique and complicated situation to make that a reality. I would love to be able to talk/email with you to get some guidance in my situation as to how to make my dreams a reality. I hate that currently I am one of the trainers you talk about on your show, but I can’t think of another way to make this happen without your guidance. I will never give up trying to make this dream a reality, but I would love to get advice from someone I aspire to emulate. Thank you for your time and consideration. I really hope to hear from you. Keep making content because you have no idea who’s life you’re changing! NO BAD DOGS JUST BAD OWNERS! Ban the bully ban! Sincerely, Jessica Hagmeyer

Love Tom’s candor and no-nonsense approach to training. Not sure how he maintains his cool when people ask questions he’s answered dozens of times! Content has helped me develop realistic expectations for our two one-and-a-half year old, 75 lb Rottie/American bully sibling pups and keeps me focused on developing stellar obedience to have the control I need when the environment is unpredictable. Really appreciate all your podcasts and videos. Question: One of our pups seems to be more insecure than the other, less able to relax and almost always on alert. Obviously we do everything we can to drain him mentally and physically because of his working breed tendencies (long distance runs with me, fetch, obedience/impulse control exercises), but running, screaming kids seem to really be a trigger for him. We had one instance where my 7 year old abruptly came running and screaming out our back door onto the patio where he was lounging and he jumped up and actually ran toward her, grabbed her leg and left a bite that required one suture. Obviously that was very concerning to us but did seem clearly provoked. Since then we kennel him in another room if our kids have friends over and he is always supervised and tethered when our own kids are around. While he’s good at his Place command, he’s clearly not perfect when an unexpected, high intensity trigger pops up. We’re definitely still working on a perfect Place command with different triggers, but I wondered if you think there’s any value in spending time counter-conditioning him to loud, unpredictable kids in addition to that? For example, a trainer suggested keeping him securely tethered/on leash in his Place (since obviously we don’t want to let him make a bad decision with kids around) and setting up scenarios where the kids are running and yelling at a distance and we are rewarding him when he stays calm? He’s e-collar trained (Dogtra 280c) and when he gets too fixated on a trigger we use the command Off or Leave It and correct him, which works well, but I’m wondering if it’s realistic to think that he could ever be desensitized to the craziness of children or if the counter-conditioning would simply be a waste of time (or worse, make him more agitated). Thanks for your input if you have time to answer this one!

We got a 8 month old female French Mastiff from the Humane Society last week and she is so loving and good with are two boys but I have never owned a Big Dog before is there anything I should watch for or any advice with having a French Mastiff ? Thanks

Love the podcast! It’s helped me quite a bit but I’m stumped with this. I have a 7 year old Russel terrier mix. I was wondering if I use a bark collar for him would that affect the way I would use an e collar? (Currently do not use either but waiting for yours to go back in stock). Should i introduce them separate ways? Thank you!

Your podcast has helped my progress in my journey towards getting my dog to learn neutrality and I can’t thank you enough! I appreciate your approach to balanced training and advocating for the appropriate use of tools, and giving people hope with their reactive dogs! I have a 3 year old male neutered vizsla who developed leash reactivity (towards people and dogs) and resource guarding behaviors when he was around 9 months old. I worked with a trainer who specialized in e collar work and that has worked wonders on solidifying our obedience and heel work and has translated well to diminishing his leash reactivity towards people. We still struggle with remaining calm and neutral when walking by other dogs (especially if the other dog tries to engage) I am trying to incorporate my hermspringer prong into these situations more, but I have found that when I try and pop the collar when he looks like he is leading towards a reaction, this just pushes him over the edge and jump starts his reaction. (Ex: I see his ears perk up and his body slightly stiffen when he sees another dog so I pop the collar. Then he starts lunging and barking and causing a scene) How can I prevent the correction from pushing him into a reaction? Do I need to correct sooner? I feel like I’m at a standstill with this aspect of our training and appreciate any tips you can give to avoid these “failure” moments!

Hi Tom, I just wrote in the other day about issues with my dog whining in his crate in the morning, but unfortunately, I have a more urgent question. What, if anything, can you help me understand about why my dog bites and how to live with him with no fear? The LATESST incident (Yes, he is 2 years old and has bitten multiple family members, no non-family), was tonight. He was awake and laying on my bed. I approached him, pet his head a couple of times and then went to remove some eye boogers, and he popped up and bit my thumb, even holding on for a few seconds, which isn’t always typical. Other times it’s a quick nip, even if breaks skin. Most biting incidents happen when he is being pet, which has been confusing for us, since we are showing him affection and his reaction is violent. He usually doesn’t growl, bump or even lightly bite to express his disinterest in what the person is doing. I actually am elated when he has growled to express himself! I worked weekly for about 6 months virtually with a trainer specializing in aggressive dogs. She helped us a ton, but it has been about 6 months since our last session with her and there have been 3 biting incidents within that timeframe. To give a bit more context, he is a 23lb mini aussie doodle and we have had him since he was 8 weeks. I am still in touch with the breeder and our dog is apparently the only one he has heard of having a biting behavior. He only bred our dog’s mother (F1 mini aussiedoodle) once. Before finding our trainer, I spoke on the phone with our dog’s mother’s owner. She told me that the mother was possessive over the puppies and it was difficult for the breeder to handle the puppies with her around. She told me they would have to put a towel over her head to dismantle her enough to get close to the puppies. Any information and advice is appreciated!

I recently adopted a 2-3 year old corgi/cattle dog mix with a rough past including a bite history and tons of anxiety which lead me to the podcast. Tom makes the concepts easy to understand and implement while making it clear the basic obedience is the key to a good dog. My question: I have had him for about 1 month and have been doing daily mental and physical stimulation with him since the day he came. He is settling in and his obedience is coming along well: sit, down, stay, place, heel, leave it, all becoming more reliable in low distraction situations and continuing to test him further. The problem I’m finding is that if I say a command, such as sit or down, but don’t do a hand signal, he won’t perform the command. For example, if I say sit but don’t raise my hand, he will just stare at me. If I apply pressure to the leash or raise my hand he will then sit immediately. It doesn’t matter if I have treats or not. Is this something that will just take more time and repetition or is there a trick to ensuring he completes my ask off of voice commands only? My current sequence has been ask for sit (or any command), wait 2-3 seconds and apply leash pressure if no response , then pay him when he sits either with praise or treats. Thoughts ?

To preface, absolutely love your videos. Its helped me train both of my dogs to the point that they are constantly complimented on their obedience. My young one, Nani, is a 75lb, 10.5 month old GSD being introduced to the e-collar (Dogtra 1900s starting today). She does great with training and is super smart. Currently on a prong collar. The problem I just found is she is absolutely freaking out over the vibration feature. She is also scared of things like vacuums and blow dryers so I’m thinking its because of the intensity of the vibration. Is this something I should try desensitizing her to or just do away with that feature? I’m just scared to try desensitizing her to it and it not work and I damage our relationship in the process. Butttt, if it would work in the end I would like to utilize is as I’m preparing her to be primarily off leash. Also, she does not react negatively to the nic/continuous and is already starting to understand what I want from her when its used. Thoughts?

Hey Tom, you reallllly inspired me to help family members with dogs that have reactivity or have no obedience. (Ex. Leash aggression, jumping, no recall, biting, resource guard, leash pulling, etc)As a animal lover and someone who cares about my family dogs that I don’t live with, how can I help or maybe improve their dog behaviors? With my life style it probably won’t be consistent since everyone has different work schedules, but I can’t enjoy being around the dogs or the family members house if they are not under control whenever I visit. So this is my next question, if I do start adding your set skills to these dog(s), will it confuse them or will it not make an effect if I’m the only one who is teaching them these skills? The owners probably won’t continue the training but how can I help them when my family members are in denial that their dog is “improving” or “getting better” on their behavior, when it clearly shows that they don’t have control of their dog. It saddens me when I now understand more about these issues ever since listening and watching your videos that this is a very serious thing. Most of the time I don’t even go to their house anymore because of the situation both the owner and dog(s) live in. So what can I do to help them or will it even help if I did step up and take action?

👏👏👏 is exactly what me and my daughter needed to hear. Our dog is jumping up so much and hitting us in the face and I wasn’t sure what was going on. Thank you so much is there anyway that you can send me the video of the correction too? It would be so great to be able to see it done to see if we can get it to work with our dog too.

Hi Tom I love your podcast. You have helped me and so many people with their dogs. Thank you for your patience with us. I have a black German shepherd male 6 years old. His name is Clooney. He is friendly with all dogs and people.He is sensitive to fireworks, and lightening. He is not on medication but I give him calm herbs twice a day. We get out morning and evening for about 2 hours each. Lately there has been random fireworks for about 2 weeks at about 2 am. Since then he has reacted the same to the wind at night. It has a light roar. He won’t settle. He won’t sleep where he was when the fireworks went off. He looks at the room and will not enter. I thought it might pass. He is listening for it and predicting it’s coming. Do you have any suggestions. What to do to help him and not reinforce it? He is fine when the morning comes. I wonder if it’s confidence building, Training or just time. Thank you for all you. You are awesome. Jeanne and Clooney forever followers

Love your podcast I get so much out of it and it makes sense!! I have a 10yr Shiba Inu (River) and a huskylab mix (Strider). The huskylab is trained on an ecollar while my Shiba Inu is a little too sensitive for it and it just doesn’t work for her. If my shiba hears the beep or vibrate going off and she’s close enough to my huskylab (who’s wearing the ecollar) she gets extremely anxious (panting, choking herself, tail unfurled) and tries to turn tail and run away or back to the car. It’s hard to get her out of that mind space after and I don’t know what to do if I’m on a trail. should I turn around and give in to her pulling to go back to the car or should I wait it out? Do I start pairing the ecollar beeps and buzzes to a reward?

Hi Tom, I’ve leaned heavily on your podcasts since bringing home our second Rhodesian Ridgeback in May. Overall, he’s a good dog. The issues we have with him can be summed up as struggles with authority- which we are working on in the house. My husband and I mostly have a handle on it and over time, he’s understanding where he falls into line. What are your suggestions to help him understand that the kids are above him in the hierarchy? When he’s in the house, he’s great with them. The back yard is another story. We are working on place with him while they’re running around, but if he breaks and I can’t correct in time, he barrel rolls them and I can only redirect with a highly incentivized recall. Obviously the kids have to grow and the dog has to mature and be corrected enough to get it. If he does this, I immediately put him on a backyard time out- short leash. Are there any back door strategies we can use to reiterate to the dog that the kids aren’t litter mates? Side note- he’s fed by one of the kids (with supervision) at least once per day and they do give him treats for obedience.