The Real Reason Dogs Bite in Public | Cesar 911

Caesar's next 911 call comes from Patty, whose social club at the local dog park may have to kick out one of their oldest members because her attacking dog, Isaboo, is anything but social. Caesar! How are you guys? Oh, well. I guess somebody took my spot. How are you guys? I don't know. All right. I think you got to share with me. You got to share with me. That's funny. So, Miss Patty. Mr. Caesar, how are you? What can I do for you? Well, we're a group called the West Enders. We come here to the park. The West Enders. It's like a pack. It's our pack. We sit at the west end of the park. For several of the people, myself included, our dogs are what we have. They are our family. So we come together at the dog park and we talk about our kids, what dog toys they like, they don't like. And we also socialize outside of the park. We take vacations together. We have dog parties. There's a member of our group that's not here right now. Her name is Tammy. Come on, Isaboo. Come on. Hi, everybody. We love Tammy and the dogs, but Tammy's dog, Isaboo, bites. Isaboo bites. She has no preference. Male, female, young, old, child. She's bit most of us. Yeah, most. She bit me. I have a nine-year-old. She bit him, left a huge bruise. More than once, actually. And she's bit several of the people in the group. I'm sorry. He's bleeding. So I guess the question will be is, how do you guys feel about it? We're tired of it, frustrated, annoyed, and a little bit nervous, you know, because you don't want to oust somebody in your family, but, you know, it's exhausting. It's exhausting because you come to relax, to talk to your friends, to play with your dogs, to watch the dogs play, and you're on high alert, and then they're on high alert, and if you're going to do that, why come? Yeah. It's just not acceptable. It's just not. We need Caesar to intervene, and we need Caesar to intervene now, because if he doesn't, Tammy and Isaboo will no longer be able to come to the park, and while that may not sound like a big deal to some, it's a very big deal to us. Our family's breaking up. So is Tammy coming? Yes, she's actually, she's on her way. All right, I'm going to go see. I'm going to see, I want to see the whole thing. All right, guys, thank you. Thank you. Wish me luck, wish me luck. Good luck. Good luck, Caesar. Caesar wants to observe Tammy and her two dogs, Isaboo and Porkchop's behavior, as they routinely enter the park to join her club, so he watches from a distance. Let's go. A little bit of excitement. Hi, Dakota. A little bit of excitement, but. Hi, Dakota. Oh, there you go. Hey. The owner's way too excited. A little tense, that one. Oh, there you go. Isaboo, stop. Hey. Isaboo, stop. Sorry, sorry. Isaboo, stop. All right. Come here. No, no, no, get down. Come on, let's go. That's pretty bad. Stop. All right. Hi, Tommy. Nice to meet you. Pleasure. Hi. How are you? Nice to meet you. All of a sudden, there was Caesar. I was like, wow, I have been a fan of him forever. It gets worse than that? It gets exponentially worse than that. She's drawn blood many, many times. I heard that. Yeah. But today, we didn't see that. My name is Tammy Cassell. I live in Encino, California, and I have two little rescue dogs, Porkchop and Isaboo. Porkchop is a terrier mix. I think about five years old, and Isaboo is a terrier mix. I think about four years old. I've loved dogs since I can remember. I always told my dad that I'm never going to have kids. I'm just going to have dogs. Porkchop was a very sad dog. He was very, very depressed, and I wanted to cheer him up. So I immediately went to the shelter and looked for a companion for him. I saw this little black and white dog with this wild hair that was sort of so ugly she was cute, and she just was wagging her tail, and she was a little tiny thing. So I said, that's my dog. Hi. When I started bringing Porkchop and Isaboo to the dog park, I ended up slowly meeting people who became really great friends of mine. Yay! Hi! And all of a sudden, everything changed. Isaboo started becoming aggressive with people at the dog park. One of Isaboo's favorite things to do at the park is just to sit in people's laps, but it doesn't always end well. She bit some people and actually drew blood. I'm sorry! I don't even remember when it started. It was very slow, and then it escalated, and all of a sudden, I can't go to the dog park without literally yelling, no, Isaboo, and trying to call my dog off multiple times. I don't have any close family around here. My community is the dog community. It's what I'm passionate about. I am passionate about animals and dogs and people who love dogs. It is intricate to my life and the quality of my life, and I'm very close to being kicked out of this group, and it would absolutely be devastating. These people have become my family. This place has become my home. You want to go over there and sit down? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come here. How can I? Come on, sweetie. Oh! There we go. Very good, very good. There you go. Watch the follow-through. Hey. Confusion? This is okay. Wants to go back home? Not yet. We're not finished yet. If she ends that way, she's still uncertain. So what does this mean exactly? Well, it means she's nervous. Look, look at the tail. Wow. So I want her to finish more in a calm state. Sure. Isabel started to bite the ankles, which is perfect because right away, we get to show how to deal with this behavior. Isabel responds very well to my correction, but then we need to make sure she arrives into a calm state. Repeating this process will teach her that what we want is for her to be calm. So how do I do it? Like, if she's biting somebody and the person's freaking out? I'm going to go over here. Watch. Okay. So that's the equivalent of biting. Because she's chasing. Oh! Yes! Yes, that's a challenge. That's aggressive. Yeah, come on, come follow me. Yeah, that's what we're doing. Okay, okay. This is a fence here, but if there's no fence, we're going to fight. Okay, right. But you see what I did right there, is I went into a moment where she's chasing, which is exactly the same behavior she does when she chases people, right? Okay. So I address the situation, and I'm disagreeing with that, but I'm making sure she finishes in a calm, submissive state. That way she understands, oh, so fight is not an option, Mom. Okay. Surrender is an option. Look, see? Now I can stop her from here. Right. You see it? Okay. So now, so even though the rest do it, I can overrule her desire. And that's my job to do that. Yeah. Isaboo is definitely getting it. A little repetition of the same correction, and we won't even need to get near her next time. You see it? But the main piece of the puzzle is always going to be, for me, a human. A dog can only go to four state of mind. Fight, that's what we call aggression. Okay. Flight, that's what we call fear. And avoidance. But you want this. This is surrender, willing to do whatever you want. If what you want is for her not to bite, this is how they do it. But if you let the brain get dominant and start doing that, that's the sign when she's telling you, I'm getting ready, I'm looking for a target. Okay. So your job is to recognize at that time so you can snap the brain out of it, right? And so she can go into that state. The situation was clear from the beginning. Isaboo entered the park in front of Tommy. Let's go. Which put Isaboo in a dominant position. Therefore, Tommy lost control all the way from the beginning. Then Isaboo got excited. Instead of correcting her, Isaboo, no! Tommy yelled and yelled and yelled, creating more excitement until it was too late. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Tommy needs to learn to correct this little dog before she gets excited if she wants to correct the bad behavior. I have taught her how to do it, but now she has to learn to do it on her own. So I have one of Tommy's friends triggering Isaboo's excitement with a skateboard, but I want Tommy to learn to correct it. There you go, right there. Follow through, follow through, follow through. Follow through. Hey. When you say shh, it's only one time. Oh, it's one time, okay. One time, and then you let it happen, and then if you need it to repeat, it's okay, but you go shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh. Right, right. She just went into a rampage of shh. I was wondering why that never worked for me so well. Because Tommy's coming from an excited point of view, Tommy did what everybody who's excited does, was a shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh. If you just take a moment and analyze the energy that you're projecting at that time, it's not a calm energy. It's shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh. It's shh. See, that's a different approach. That shh is a different energy send. Therefore, it's going to be a different reaction. Every time I do it, I don't just shh. I make sure I stay there until the brain goes to a calm, submissive state. And then once they go into a calm, submissive state, I do the shh again. So my shh means calm. Okay, so how do I complete it? We got to follow through. Watch this. Shh. See, I went... Right. See what I'm saying? Right. So when she does the shh, they stay standing up. So they're not completely calm. They're just on pause. Oh, okay. The brain's still excited. You have to finish. Okay. Go ahead. One more time. Follow through. Okay. Right there. See that tail? See it? Shh. There you go. Okay, now relax. You're learning. So you conquer, but then you stay tense. So you conquer, you relax. Okay, got it. Once she saw how I did it and how simple it is, she was working on it right away. But then, if you don't follow through, meaning staying there until the dogs surrender, it's never going to stop that behavior. It's going to take a lot of practice, but I want Tommy to work with Isaboo on her own. Then I want them to meet me at the dog psychology center. Thank you so much. Thank you. Good? Thank you, guys. Thank you so much. The intervention today was a giant lesson for me. I realized that it's all my fault that she bites, and I need to learn how to be her leader. It's my responsibility to create a calm energy no matter where I go. It's not going to be an easy thing to do at all, but the stakes are too high for me to not get this lesson this time. After two days on their own, Tammy and her two dogs arrive at the dog psychology center to continue their work with Caesar. We definitely made some progress at the dog park, so hopefully Tommy kept it up. Okay, come on, sweetie. Here we go. Tommy. Hi. Do you know? Ooh, ooh, ooh. I guess not. Okay. Should I just come in? Well, what do you think? Do you think the way they are expressing themselves to a new environment, it says to them they're friendly? No. Correct. A little better, a little better. Okay. Yeah, now you can come in. Okay. There you go. Okay. You know, see the behavior, very calm. Yeah. It's an excited behavior, but it's not too overwhelming. Right. I was worried when Tommy got out of the car, but she's capable. She just needs to remind herself that she needs to keep her dogs calm, but for that, she needs to stay calm. Tommy wants to work with Isaboo when sitting in her lap without biting, and that's a perfect exercise to start. All right, let's practice having Isaboo in your lap. Okay. Let me just show you how we're going to do it. Come on, girl. Good girl. Come on. And so, like, anybody gives her eye contact that she doesn't know? That was bad, by the way. That was bad. Why? Because they didn't ask. They just moved right in. They just moved. So. That was perfect. Okay. Now you can call him in. Come. Can you come? You want to come? There you go. You want to come, Porkchop? Or you can bring him in. Okay. There you go. Go for it. There you go. Beautiful little sweetie. Okay, I'm going to turn. Hi. What's this one's name? This is Alfie. Alfie? Now you're sharing. Hi. This is social behavior, by the way. Hi, sweetie. You give all your love. But look what you're giving the love to. Calm energy. You first greet, that's right. I'm rewarding calm energy. I get it. You're rewarding peace. I've never been able to have Isaboo on my lap without her acting out. Then Caesar starts handing me all these dogs, and Isaboo's fine. Just because I'm calm? Pretty amazing. I'm feeling good. I'm feeling better. Yeah. I like Tommy a lot. She's an excited lady. But she's learning well, and you can see the change in her dogs. She's doing better with the calm part, but to control Isaboo at the dog part, she also has to be assertive. Now I have the perfect place to focus her excitement while teaching her to be assertive. Agility training. Tommy needs to control Isaboo through all the obstacles in the course. Using the right energy and assertive attitude, her dog will just follow her. Isaboo, can you go? Come here. Hey. Come here. You want to go? Tommy. Oh. Isaboo, come. Isaboo, come, please. Come here, sweetie. Go ahead. One more time. Isaboo, come. We all know. Isaboo, come, please. Anybody? Isaboo. Tommy. You need to be assertive. Of course. Because it's a very simple program. Confident. Okay. That's it. You need to become a leader. You need to empower yourself. Oh, gosh. I'm inspired. You see? Yes. One more time. Come. Go. Come on. Table, table, table. Okay. Don't do table. Hi, sweetie. Come here. Isaboo, come. Come on. Over, over, over. Good girl. That's pretty awesome. This is good pack leadership. And we go here. We go weave. Come. Weave. Oh, nice. Easy. Good girl. Over here. You're good. Good. Come. That was awesome. I just kept reminding myself what Cesar taught me, and Isaboo did great. Now it's crazy to think of myself screaming at my out-of-control dogs at the dog park. So, what do you learn today? I need to adjust my energy, and also I can't be out-of-control excited. Right. It makes a very neurotic dog. It's just over the top. That's right. I've always known it was me. I just couldn't figure out. I can't. It's hard. And it's not done. Believe me. I'm going to be working on me for the rest of their lives. Awareness is the first step. And then is the agreement. Then is the follow-through. And then you see the outcome. Yeah. Well, I absolutely will follow through with all of this and go home and write down everything. I remember that you said. And put it on my wall and stamp it on my forehead and give a copy to everybody I know. I am very proud of Tommy and Isaboo because they have shown a big change. I'm just hoping they can keep it out without me during their homework. So, at the park, it's going to be very simple, their homework. You enter, come. Yes. The second thing is how you teach people to have your dogs on the lap. Okay. That's another thing. Also an agility course. That's it. Okay. You got it. Thanks for coming. Thank you. Tammy has some of her dog park friends videotape her working with Isaboo on Cesar's homework assignments. Tammy needs to prove that she can maintain control of Isaboo or she'll be kicked out of her dog park social club. One month after Cesar left Tammy and Isaboo to work on their homework, he heads back to the dog park to check on their progress. The little ones. Oh, he's got the little. When I first met Tammy, she has no control of this little dog, Isaboo. No, no, no, no, no, no. I taught Tammy to correct Isaboo when she got excited, but I also taught her to control her own excitement. Come on, let's go. I hope Tammy and Isaboo succeed so they don't get kicked out of the dog club. All right, so let's see. Okay. How you did. Let's see. We're going to the park. Nice. You look comfortable, relaxed. You're making her wait. That's very good. Good follow through. You're practicing leadership. Wow, that's very impressive. Thank you. That was a big difference. Tammy stayed calm, showed great leadership, and Isaboo responded. Patty's been working on is not automatically picking them up. Right. Isaboo always acted out when sat in people's lap. I taught Tammy to make sure Isaboo was calm before she was invited to people's laps. So let's see. Okay. How you did. Uh-uh. Have to ask. So they have to, like, present and be calm and submissive. And then you can pick them up. Good girl. Now you can pick her up. Good girl. There you go. Now she's more relaxed. Invading versus inviting. You want inviting. Inviting. Yeah. Invading, not good. I love it. One dog owner teaching another dog owner. I couldn't have done better myself. I have a little agility. Oh, you made? Uh-huh. Oh, my God. You're awesome. Nice. It's a fun exercise, and you can also practice getting her to follow you. Incredible. That is incredible. So, you tell me. What did you, any difference? I love this, by the way. Huge difference. Yeah? Huge. Tell me. In Isaboo and in Tammy as well. Yeah? Everyone has noticed the difference in Isaboo. Right. She's not attacking. Right. Look, she's calm. She's much more calm. Look at that. She listens to Tammy. And I feel like we're a more cohesive group because of the experience. That's beautiful. Well, thank you. Wow. That's beautiful. Thank you. Thank you so, so, so much. Thank you. Keep doing what you do. Would you like to, can we get some friends over here to see the Westenders? I want to go and sign in. I am so grateful that I am now actually welcome in the Westender group. Now I get to come and enjoy this place that has been sort of my refuge. Guys, how are you? What a change. This is beautiful. I brought mine. This is mine. Not to sound overly corny, but this experience has been life changing. It's been transformative in so many ways. And for us, the humans, it's just a whole different vibe. People are now looking forward to coming to the park and all sitting together and having community. Really, a lot for the better, I think. See how one dog made an awesome pack. That's right. One dog. Thank you so much. Thank you. For me, it's more than just helping a dog. It's more than just helping people. It's to see that this dream can be real.