Are You Guilty of Breaking These Dog Etiquette Rules?

Tired of chaotic encounters with unruly dogs in public spaces? Join host Amy Castro and guest Nancy Hassel from American Pet Professionals for an insightful discussion on dog etiquette. Gain valuable insights to enhance your canine adventures with key takeaways such as:

- Deciphering your dog's body language for better communication.
- Assessing breed-specific behaviors and individual quirks honestly.
- Handling encounters with confidence, whether leashed or unleashed.
- Creating safe and enjoyable environments for all pets in public spaces.
- Understanding the unwritten rules for taking your dog to various public settings.

From personal anecdotes to practical strategies, learn how to train your dog for well-mannered public outings. Tune in and transform your dog's public presence from problematic to perfect!

Shoutouts in this episode:
American Pet Professionals

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Chapters

• 0:00 Public Dog Etiquette
• 11:22 Responsible Dog Ownership and Body Language
• 20:27 Navigating Dog Behavior and Pet Etiquette
• 27:17 Respectful Pet Ownership and Training
• 32:09 Pet Store Etiquette and Training

Transcript

Amy Castro: 0:00

As a dog mom to several dogs of my own, as well as many foster dogs, I pretty much know which ones are good to go when going out in public and which ones either need to stay home or need a lot more work. Unfortunately, many pet parents don't know that their dog's not ready for prime time and maybe don't even realize the etiquette for being in public with their dog. So that's what we're talking about today so that you and your dog can travel out in the world and get along and get things done. So stay tuned. My guest today is Nancy Hassel. Nancy is the president and founder of American Pet Professionals, which is a business, networking, educational and multimedia organization for the pet industry with members from all areas of the world. I'm so happy to be here today. Thank you so much for having me, amy. I'm so happy to be here today. You know, I was so glad that when we were talking about the pet business.

Nancy Hassel: 1:53

It was something that really helped me understand what it means to be a pet parent.

Amy Castro: 1:57

I'm so glad that when we were talking about the possibility of having you on the show, that you brought up this subject today, because it happens to be a personal pet peeve of mine. Like I told you, before we started recording, I had a Doberman, pinscher, who was very well trained, but it was my fault, he was not really greatly dog socialized. So you know, there were just so many times where I either couldn't take him out in public because other people couldn't control their pets, or even just going to the vet would be a hassle, because we'd be sitting in our corner and he'd be mining his business.

Amy Castro: 2:27

And you know people, without a control, dogs on my least favorite leash, the Flexi leash, would just cause chaos.

Amy Castro: 2:33

And then it was always my dog's fault, because he was, he was barking, yeah, and you got the dirty look yeah, I got the dirty look and then it perpetuates the negative image of my poor dog's breed as well. So you know, it's definitely a two way street, I think, when it comes to this bringing our dogs out in public and being respectful. So what would, what would be and I know you taught classes on this to people what are some general messages about just taking your dog out amongst humans and other dogs? And then I want to get into some specific scenarios.

Nancy Hassel: 3:05

Yeah, absolutely so. I did teach responsible dog ownership class. It was just for people as a class that came out of a knee jerk reaction of me being frustrated with seeing yet another law being passed against dogs.

Amy Castro: 3:17

And.

Nancy Hassel: 3:18

I was complaining to a friend and I said you know, would be nice if, instead of just having another law, they actually educated dog owners. And she's like why don't you teach a class? This is back in 2008. And I was like what? And then it just perpetuated from there. But one of the main things that I always said in every single class we had dog trainers in the class and veterinarians. I started the class off and we had no dogs in the class. It was just educating pet parents and about to be pet parents. We had a lot of people that came that were about to adopt the dog or thinking about adopting a dog or buying a dog or whatever they were doing. However, they were getting their dog.

Nancy Hassel: 3:52

But, one of the main things that I always said is know your dog and know your dog's breed, even if you have a mixed breed, because a lot of the different behavioral issues you know, people thought they were behavioral issues and it was really just what the dog was bred for, right? Our dog keeps getting out and running away, our dog keeps doing this and I'm like, well, that's part of the dog's breed or that's part of your dog's mixed breed, and know your dog, right, don't be in denial about your own dog's personality, their behaviors, you know. Are they a dog that might be reactive on leash, but they're not actually, you know, it's not aggression, they just might have a reaction on a leash. Are they overzealous? Ah, so excited, you know, and jumping on everybody because everybody likes to blame the dog and like 99% of the time, it's not the dog. It's rare when there's an instance when it's really the dog's fault, right?

Nancy Hassel: 4:44

So know your dog and know your breed or mixed breed of dog, what they were bred for. Know your dog's own individual personality, what their limits are if they have limits. So that's something that I've always said and I think you know a lot of people have never really heard that that we talked about in the class. They'd be like oh, I didn't think about it that way and I'm like, yes, it's nothing against you or your dog, you're here to learn, right, and I always. The other thing I always said in the class was no question is a stupid question or a silly question, because you are here to learn. We are not going to make you feel bad about stuff that you might have done incorrectly in the past or anything like that. We want you to learn and have the best outcome for you and your dog, or you're about to be a dog. So that's some of the things that we always said in the class.

Amy Castro: 5:30

Yeah, you know, I think one of the things that I find with pet parents and we've done several episodes that have kind of hit on this issue is that too many times we focus so much on what we want.

Amy Castro: 5:41

You know, I'd love to be able to take my dog, Guinevere, out in public and she's overall basically a good dog, but she gets so overly excited, she gets so wound up and then she just then, she just doesn't listen as well. And, yes, I probably should have taken her out more when she was younger. I didn't, you know, I didn't have her from when she was a little puppy. I had her when she was pretty much a year old. But okay, you know. So I either need to, you know, work on that gradual increase of getting her out and about, but yeah, or just not take her out in public but to just basically say, oh, I'm going to take her to an all day, you know, event for dogs in the park. It's just not a good idea for anybody involved. It's going to be miserable for her, it's going to be miserable for me, miserable for other people.

Nancy Hassel: 6:23

Yeah, so you knew your dog. You knew that it wouldn't be a good situation. Yeah.

Amy Castro: 6:27

Right, so so what is the? You know what would be some of the basic etiquette things. Like I said, you know about the flexi leash, you know, to me one of the things would be that your dog should be, you know, within your eyesight and knowing what it's doing, and keeping it within a certain distance from yourself because, yeah, once it gets past that, you're losing a bit of control.

Nancy Hassel: 6:48

I mean, first of all, the basic etiquette is if you're out and about, if you're in a park or anywhere in a town that there's a leash requirement, get a really good six foot leash and keep your dog leash. I do not care how well behaved your dog is. My dog is super well behaved. He has an awesome recall. He's never going to be off leash where he's not allowed to be off leash and even in areas where, like at the beach, there's some a lot of beaches here on Long Island on the east end that are dog friendly. I put him on a 30 foot biothane leash because, like he might jump in the waves, I need to pull him out. You know that kind of thing. He has been off leash at an off leash dog beach away from dogs. He is super dog friendly. But I don't know the other dogs if they're dog friendly or not. So you know, leash your dog, follow the law.

Nancy Hassel: 7:32

You know, every single day when I'm out walking my dog, there's a loose dog and my last dog behind me, mr Max. He was actually attacked by a golden retriever in a park where the dogs were supposed to be off leash and it was one of the scariest things that I went through and I had my Doberman at the time and the owners, you know, unfortunately just adopted it and had it off leash and were really far away from the dog and they just assumed the dog was friendly. Luckily my dog didn't get really hurt. He had some puncture wounds. But for me to then recover, to then retrain my dog it was a it took a long time because I realized a lot of times my reaction would go right down the leash and it would set him off. He wasn't aggressive, he was a very nervous dog.

Nancy Hassel: 8:17

So leash your dog. I mean, like I know a lot of people hate that and a lot of people really give you a hard time. If you ask nicely, a lot of times I'll just stop with my dog, cody. Now Cody could care less about any dog, like he will ignore 99% of the dog. He'll say hello to dogs that we know that are dog-friendly, on leashes and stuff. But if I see a loose dog, now you know I just put him in a sit and then I say to them hey, can you leash your dog? Or you know, I just make it really obvious that my dog is in a sit, stay and I just stare at people.

Nancy Hassel: 8:47

A lot of times that works, but a lot of times they just don't care, and it's that you know that part of it is really frustrating for responsible dog owners who aren't just letting their dogs run ahead of them and not paying attention, especially in parks where there's people jogging and biking and running, horses going through the trails like all kinds of things. I think leaching your dog is for your dog's safety, Dog forbid. Your dog ran up to another dog on leash that was aggressive and that dog on the leash did damage. You're the one that's responsible. Of course it depends on the state you're in, but here in New York you would be responsible.

Nancy Hassel: 9:26

Yeah, and you should be, in my opinion, you're all good for being, you know, being potentially hurt or run or chase something. Yeah, it's just, you know. I know people that have really great control of their dogs and I see them off leash and I don't say anything, I don't make a fuss. You know, I can also spot a dog's body language from afar and be like, oh, that dog's totally fine and see if the owner has it under verbal control. But it's just frustrating when you're trying to go out and enjoy your walk and you feel like a loose dog or two you know, way ahead of their dog. It's like, oh my God put your dog on leash.

Amy Castro: 9:59

Well, it's interesting too. It starts at home you reminded me of. You know I used to in order to get my Doberman good exercise, because even when I was thinner I couldn't run long enough or fast enough to get him really good exercise. So I had a bike attachment and we would ride around the neighborhood and inevitably on any given on any, any given trip. And I remember a neighbor two houses down had two golden retrievers and she had them out on the driveway off leash.

Amy Castro: 10:23

You know she's screaming their names to come back and you know, she's yelling to me they're friendly, they're friendly and it's like, yeah, but I'm trying to ride my bike with my dog, who doesn't?

Amy Castro: 10:32

want your dog charging up to us and, you know, ends up pulling the bike over, you know, breaking the bike attachment, and you know it's just like okay, now I'm around every corner.

Amy Castro: 10:41

And then another instance which I got and I shouldn't probably even admit this on the air, but I got a little tiny bit of satisfaction out of this one is that I came around the corner and this lady was working in her front yard and her dog was in the front yard with her off leash and her kid was kind of like sitting on the dog's back. And I thought to myself okay, when I come around this corner, I hope that dog sits where he's supposed to sit, but if he doesn't, that kid's going to go flying. And sure enough, I come around the corner, the dog jumps up, the kid gets dumped on the ground. I mean, he didn't get hurt, it was on the grass, but it's like you know. And here comes a dog out in the middle of the street and it's like what if I'd been on the opposite side of the street and a car was coming?

Nancy Hassel: 11:17

down. Oh, what if a car was coming? Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Amy Castro: 11:21

So you know it starts. I think you're right. I mean, no matter how good your dog's recall and most people's dog's recall is not good at all you know it might come to them in the house if they've got a treat, but other than that it's not good. But you never know what situation is going to trigger them not to hear you or not to listen.

Nancy Hassel: 11:38

Yeah, and a lot of times dogs are super friendly, happy, go lucky. And I want to preface this by saying it's nothing against Golden's. I love all dogs. Right, it could care less what kind of breed you have. We just happen to have certain to your own situations with those different dogs that would be Golden's.

Nancy Hassel: 11:55

I love all dogs, Cody loves all dogs. But it's just, you know, it's just frustrating when you're being the responsible dog owner and here comes a dog running down the street or something. I had a neighbor not too long ago that never leashed a dog. Dogs were always loose. He would scream at them. It was terrible. It was a terrible situation. Thankfully he moved away, but I felt bad for the dogs. The dogs were nice but like people would be jogging by and they would go running up to the jogger and the jogger would be, like you know, terrified and I'm like, oh my God. So yeah, leash your dogs, yeah.

Nancy Hassel: 12:28

You know if you're in an area that, like you're in a farm or you're in an area that there's no leash, it might be a different way of life. I'm talking about exuberbia, city of life that's, you know really, where there's laws that your dog should be leached.

Amy Castro: 12:41

Yeah, well, you know, and having living on a seven acre farm, ish, you know I still get frustrated with people up and they'll literally tell me because I had a volunteer that picked up somebody's dog, thinking it was a stray and needed needed rescue, because it was wandering down the street and it's like you know the excuse is it's a farm dog. It's like okay, then keep your dog, farm dog on your farm, not on my farm, not pooping in my yard, not chasing my dog, not chasing my pony, you know, and so you know, even then it's a it's a respect thing, I think, and it's you know it's it's important to follow the rules.

Amy Castro: 13:14

You had mentioned body language and I think it's really that's a really important topic. Can you talk to the issue of you know being able to you know read your own pets body language, but also reading the body language of the other. You know the other dog and people too when you're out with your dog.

Nancy Hassel: 13:30

Yeah, so this is a big deal. I always talked about this in our classes because when I had my sweet Max, he was a nervous dog and if there was a dog 20 feet ahead on a, on a flexi or retractable leash, or just people not paying attention, I would have to move myself over to the side of the trail, put him in a sit, you know, make him pay attention to me, whatever it was, and they would not watch me or my dog's body language and they would always say my dog is friendly and I'm like he was attacked. And they'd be like, oh my God, anybody that is a dog parent. You know, we'll, we'll address the person's body language first. If you see somebody that is walking their dog and they do what I did and like with my old dog Max, I'd be like, I'd be like into the woods at some point and people are still be lining up. I'm like, no, no, no, no, like, pull your dog back. Watch the person's body language, as you'll see, the person will get really nervous and they're stiffing up, they're pulling their dog's leash because they know their dog might have a leash reaction. So you can see somebody really tense. Right, if they're tense, if their body language is tense if they moved over, if they crossed the street you know, I used to have to cross the street. Sometimes they're like putting their hand out. I just think that, especially now, it's even worse because we're all a lot of people are on their phones and not paying attention.

Nancy Hassel: 14:45

Just the other day I was out walking and where I am there's a winter break, so there was a family walking with their very happy go lucky, beautiful, and it was a golden and a dog was awesome and the dog was just like you know, excited, and my dog very friendly. But the mother was not paying attention to her dog. She was trying to put the hood something back on her kid. So I just stopped to give them space to let them finish. She didn't even see me and then she turned around and her dog was like pulling, pulling, wiggling every part of his body. It was really cute and I just said, oh, he's friendly. I'm just you know, I don't know about your dog just giving you some space to walk by because it was a narrow trail.

Nancy Hassel: 15:23

And she's like, oh sorry, and I was like you know, no, it's all right, I didn't have to stop. But for me to stop and give her that space, I think it's respectful because she's a mom with two young kids. They're out walking their dog on a beautiful day. I just want to give them space because I don't know if her dog is friendly, her dog is pulling, is the dog going to pull her down? So for me that's what I do. I'm always going to be more protective of my dog than anything else, right? And she said, you know, I asked her, was he a puppy? He looked like he's a puppy and she said a year and I said I could tell. And you know, we had a nice exchange and she went on her way and I went on my way. But that was a little bit different situation. But most people are just not paying attention. They're not looking at the person's body language and I think that you know if you have a reactive dog or not. A friendly dog like Cody. You know everybody that is being responsible out and about walking their dog has the right to walk their dog leashed If their dog is reactive and your dog you're not paying attention and their dog has a little bit of a barking. You can't get mad at that, right? You want to be able to respect other people out walking their dog. I just think pay attention to the body language. So that's the one thing that we would always address is like watch the people and then watch your own dog's body language. Right, are his hackles going up? Are you tense on the leash? Where you're so tense that the dog's like what's going on, I have to do something right.

Nancy Hassel: 16:47

When I adopted Cody, he's just the like you know they say bombproof dog Like that's just always how he is. He's happy to go lucky. You take him almost everywhere respectfully and I had to learn with him not to tense up on the leash. But when I first got Cody there was a couple of times that I was like oh my God, I'm sorry, because you know old habits die hard. Like 13 years of a nervous dog is a lot to overcome.

Nancy Hassel: 17:11

Then you get a happy, go lucky dog again. You know I'd had to pay attention to my own body language and walking my dog. But my dog, cody, won't react to anybody Like he'll cry, cry like little baby cries to say hi. He's always like that golden, he's like wigglin' and happy. So you know, pay attention to the person's, like their body, pay attention to their dog. You know, if you see a dog wagging the tail, but maybe their lip is curling and they're looking at your dog intensely, maybe don't go say hi, yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I think that over the top with protection with Cody, but I really could care less.

Amy Castro: 17:47

No, I think it's better better to be. You know the old adage better to be safe than sorry. Exactly so. You know, watching the person's body language is well I mean the dog body language, obviously. That's huge too.

Amy Castro: 17:57

But, you know, even if you're out and about and let's say you are walking in the park and there aren't other people with dogs, but watching the body language of the person that's walking, you know, coming your way, did you know? Did they look like they're trying to? Because this is another thing that I've seen is that you know, it's very obvious the person doesn't want to have contact with the other person's dog, watching that other person's body language because maybe they just don't like dogs, that they're afraid of them. So if they're moving out of your way to be disrespectful and let your dog go over to them anyway, you know and saying, oh, that's okay, my dog's friendly. You know, I don't care if your dog's friendly, I'm not afraid of most dogs anyway, but I don't necessarily want your dog jumping on me or slobbering on my pants or whatever it might be. So get the hint. You know it's like keep your dog with you.

Nancy Hassel: 18:44

I will tell you one of the things that I say to people when I can tell that they're like be lining towards us and I will say, oh, not today, we're doing some training, but your dog is beautiful or he's adorable and I just keep walking this way kind of stops them in their tracks and dismisses them, and most people are like, oh, okay, and then you could see their wheels spinning, a little like I didn't even realize that I should, you know, or sometimes I'll be like, oh, you know, you should just always ask if your dog can say hi, because, you know, I don't know if their dog is going to try to attack my dog, right? So that's kind of I try to diffuse the situation, because people can just get real nasty to each other. But yeah, that whole paying attention is just so smart and teacher kids that pay to, oh, you know, maybe their dog was attacked in the past or maybe they're really nervous, like you said, of a dog, a bigger dog coming over to their smaller dog. You know.

Amy Castro: 19:35

Yeah, so so we've been talking about being out in in parks and things like that, and that makes me think about dog parks. You know I am very opposed to dog parks for a lot of different reasons. I bet I'd be curious to hear what your thoughts are about taking your dog. You know, let's say you have a really good manner dog, does that mean it's a good idea to take your dog to a dog park?

Nancy Hassel: 19:55

So I'm also not a big fan of dog parks. I know a lot of people that go and never have an issue, and I also, you know, stood there and watched dogs get into pretty big bites on the outskirts. I think it's a great place to train your dog outside the dog park. I have a video that I just did of Cody during this training, as he's sitting and all the dogs are playing in that park. They all seem to get. They all seem to be respectful of each other. The people I'm not a big fan either, just because of what we were just talking about People not knowing body language, not understanding dog body language. I think every dog parent about to be dog parent should take a course on dog body language behavior, If there's a book, whatever there is learn it.

Nancy Hassel: 20:37

Learn it from a trainer beforehand, like what are the things I should be looking for?

Nancy Hassel: 20:41

That was one of the trainers, rolissa from Dog U Canine Academy. She was a breeder, owner, handler and competed all over the world and her stories and her information were fascinating about what the mother dog would teach the puppies and that you know those certain things as most dog parents don't know that because maybe they haven't been there. I think any pet parent can, or dog parent could learn that and really learn a lot. And I just think you know you can assess the situation right. There's a agility dog park next to a dog park, in a park where you can walk the trails with your dog and when there's nobody in the agility park I'll bring my dog in there to do a little quick agility and then we'll leave.

Nancy Hassel: 21:26

But you know, it's tempting because there was a Doberman in the dog park one day and he was doing the agility and there was nobody in there and I was like, oh man, I really want to take like Cody, play with that doby, because I could just tell the doby was like perfection, right, and the guy was super nice and as I was like this close to saying, okay, I'm going to like Cody in there and play with that dog, they're going to have a blast, and he's never been in a dog park ever. And just I heard a car door shut and I looked and I see somebody being dragged by like four big dogs and like two people being dragged by four and I was like, yeah, have a nice day.

Nancy Hassel: 22:01

I'm not even going to take a chance Now. The dogs could have just been excited. But you know, I think that the part of the problem with the dog parks is that people are not paying attention to their dogs and you'll see a smaller dog, even if it's a big dog, run and it is big dog, getting pummeled by 20 other dogs or they get that chasing factor. So I think you know, if you're a dog parent and like that's the only option maybe you live in a city and, like New York City or you want to go to the dog park go and watch the dog park first, get to know some of the people in there.

Nancy Hassel: 22:34

There might be times, if you want to go into the dog park, that there are certain dogs that are always there that get along great and there's no scuffles. I will never bring my dog to a dog park. I don't want to set him up for failure. I don't want him to get attacked. You know he's just too just would never do it, he's too, friendly.

Nancy Hassel: 22:51

I knew a dog that got ruined by being brought to a dog park. She was the happiest dog, and after a few times of going there she was a different dog. So it's not all dogs that's going to happen to, but I just think, assess it. But yeah, I think it's. You know, there's no real structure in a dog park. There's a sign. Nobody reads the rules.

Amy Castro: 23:08

So All right, what about you know, one of my personal challenges that I always used to have was going into the vet's office, because you're kind of limited in space as to how much space you can, how much space you can maintain there, and I don't feel like the. You know they separate, they might separate. You know the dog side versus the cat side, so that helps a little bit. But any particular advice for when you're taking your dog to the vet and there are going to be a bunch of other animals in that space.

Nancy Hassel: 23:37

Yeah, absolutely. I mean I think we kind of learned this through the pandemic is that wait, wait in the car with your dog and have him call you when they're ready to go in? If your dog, even if your dog is just excited, right, like like that's how Cody is, he's like who who at the vet, he's probably one of the few dogs.

Nancy Hassel: 23:54

But if your dog is happy, go lucky and excited, you know, and you're trying to control a young puppy and you're in that vestibule, which they're never big enough, right, right, and people are coming out and they're trying to pay and all the things you can always just say to this, hey, I'm going to wait outside with my dog and can you just call me when we're ready.

Nancy Hassel: 24:12

And then if you have a dog that is reactive or you know they will, a good vet staff will tell the people that are like maybe by the door, like somebody's coming in, and we're going to bring a dog back. I think that's just the easiest thing to do is wait outside and then just be respectful. You know, not everybody wants your dog jumping on them, right? Or you know, sometimes there's cats in a cat carrier and you can have a dog that doesn't see it and then all of a sudden gets a whiff. That is like really excited about an animal and a cat and a carrier, even if it's another animal, a bunny or something else, and if they have prey drive, that could you know really be intense.

Nancy Hassel: 24:48

So, I would just say ask the staff like hey, I'm just going to hang out outside with my dog. I am very fortunate that I didn't have to stay outside ever during the pandemic with my dog. They just scheduled the appointment so you could go in as soon as you got there.

Amy Castro: 25:02

Yeah.

Nancy Hassel: 25:02

He just called it was pretty awesome, yeah. So I think you know, I think we make it harder than it actually is, right, yeah.

Amy Castro: 25:11

I mean, it's so easy for them to just text or call you when it's you know when they want you to come in, when they've got an exam room open. You know the other thing I'll say. You mentioned the thing about the cats, and it's not always necessarily about your dog and how your dog reacts to cats, because this is a little pet peeve of mine, not only at the vet, but also we have our cats in cages, condos we'll call them condos at a local pet supplies plus and we, you know, we love to have the ability to show the cats there. But you know people think, oh, my dog is friendly, my dog likes cats. That doesn't mean those cats aren't terrified of dogs.

Amy Castro: 25:43

They may not have been around dogs, so just because your dog is good with cats doesn't mean I want you charging up to my cat carrier when I'm sitting in the lobby at the vet, or to my cat kennels at the pet supplies. Plus, you know, it just traumatizes them. So that's another little bit of advice for everybody. It's not, it's not your dog's testing ground to see how your dog reacts to cats, please. You can do that at home with your own cat.

Nancy Hassel: 26:06

Yeah, and I go with Cody and he goes, oh, so you get excited, and the cat, literally, oh, like, whatever, it's so funny. But we just walk by and I'm like, all right, don't make too much noise, we just keep going. But yeah, I agree with that, that's so funny.

Amy Castro: 26:21

That's funny. So what about? We talked also before a little bit about pet friendly stores, because I've been seeing some rumblings. You know, when I look at neighborhood Facebook pages and things, like that where you've got, you know people who are very pro, you know bringing their dogs to the Home Depot's and pet stores and Lowe's and other places like that.

Amy Castro: 26:41

And then you've got other people, whether they've got pets or not, that are like oh, there's no reason for that dog to be there, and I can see both sides and the benefits to bringing your dogs to places like that. So how can we do that without pissing people off?

Nancy Hassel: 26:53

basically, yeah, so I will say anybody's listening or watching or anything like that that knows me. I bring Cody almost everywhere. Obviously he doesn't go into every store with me and I tell him that you can't go into the store. You don't have to go into the store, you have to stay home, right? So that's the first thing. If it's not dog friendly and your dog is not a certified service dog that you, legally, you know you have to help you leave your dog at home.

Nancy Hassel: 27:17

If it's not a dog friendly store, some of the dog friendly places like we recently went to Lowe's because they're dog friendly and I double check, I triple check, I check all the signs, I look online because I don't want to bring my dog into a store even though it says it's dog friendly. That's really only service dog friendly, right. But we went at dinner time when there was nobody really there. It was like freezing cold and that's the only reason why we went and we walked around. We did training and respectful of the store and they also have Petco now in a lot of Lowe's. So it is, some of them are pet stores. They did have a whole pet section but it wasn't an actual pet go, so we walked around. I actually had to get a couple of things at Lowe's. It wasn't just like me going there to bring the dog, to bring the dog to walk around.

Nancy Hassel: 28:01

And then I ended up getting some pet stuff too and just have to be respectful. Don't let your dog chew on the wood, don't let your dog pee, you know like.

Amy Castro: 28:09

Make sure that you're being respectful that peeing one is a huge pet peeve of mine because Again, it's people being oblivious, they're not watching what's going on. You know, if you know you have a male dog, you know, even if it's neutered, the odds are some other male dog has lifted.

Nancy Hassel: 28:25

My leg on the corner of that display.

Amy Castro: 28:27

Yeah, so for you to live, and it's so preventable. Don't allow your dog to stand over there and sniff that spot. I mean, yeah, if you, if you understand body language, you know it's gonna be sniff, sniff, sniff. Take a step and then the legs gonna go up. Prevent it and it's just. It's shocking to me the people that will and I've seen this so many times sitting at the pet supplies plus, where People will just be oblivious and it's, you know, peeing, peeing on the floor. And I get it if it's a puppy, but if you've got a male dog and then and then it's lifting the leg on a 70 pound bag of dog food, that I don't want to buy.

Nancy Hassel: 28:59

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah so rude, so disrespectful and I can't imagine being in the stores and that happening. There used to be a pet store I think they're still there and it said no male dogs allowed in the store because for that reason, yeah, I mean.

Nancy Hassel: 29:40

But yeah, I think it's all goes down to training, knowing your dog, paying attention to your dog, keeping your dog On that six foot lead. Don't let the dog wander. When I was walking around Lowe's with Cody, he was right next to me. He wasn't allowed. I wasn't allowing him to sniff stuff. So you know, just pay attention to your dog, like you said it's. I think it's just so. Like I said before you, we make it more difficult than it has to be. If you have your dog on a longer leash and the dog is ahead of you and you're looking at something else, your dog may go to the bathroom and you might not see it.

Nancy Hassel: 30:10

But, if your dog was not on that longer leash and was trained in a sit-stay or to pay attention to you. Bring the tools with you to make the dog make you the most exciting part of that yeah.

Nancy Hassel: 30:22

I have treats in my bag, I have a squeaker with my old dog, mac, and that he didn't go into any of those stores I have. I haven't had a tennis ball. He likes to hold a tennis ball. So you know, like find out what your dog is going to be paying attention to. You train your dog Look, cody knows the term, don't pee on that. And I walk him and I pull him to me and my feel, don't pee on that. Like I took him yesterday to pet smart, just to walk around, because he was bored and I bought him a toy and I wasn't doing training, I was just there, was nobody in there, was just letting him like do his things, that hello to one or two people, but there was a two spots that I could see and I was like that over here to me.

Nancy Hassel: 30:59

You wouldn't, you know? Add to that. So, yeah, you know, I think it all depends on your situation. Are you the only person with your dog? You're gonna have more time to do that. Are you a family with your dog and you want to go out and about? You know, maybe your dog doesn't need to go to those pet friendly stores I get for people that are like you know, not wanting the dogs there. I think for me, my biggest pet peeve is being respectful of service dogs, because I Just don't understand. If you see a service dog with somebody, don't bring your overzealous dog up to them. Don't bring your dog like in their vicinity. I just think it's not that difficult to be respectful when you see that, and right, it's pretty clear that you could tell the difference between a service dog and a fake service dog, right?

Amy Castro: 31:45

We did a whole episode on that, yeah, so we're not even to get into it.

Nancy Hassel: 31:48

But it's pretty clear because I've seen a few of the fakes and I've even said oh, that's not a real service dog. You know, and it could tell, because the dog wasn't a puppy in training. It was, you know, like going crazy. But um, I Don't know the whole store thing is. You know, I love to bring Cody to pet friendly places.

Nancy Hassel: 32:06

But yeah he's trained and he's well behaved. My last dog I didn't bring him because I never knew what the situation was gonna be if somebody else had a dog. There's actually a store here on Long Island that did an amazing thing recently. It I kind of went viral on their Instagram. She had a special shopping day for a reactive dog. She closed the store and let the dog have. It's a small boutique, let the dog have his shopping day and celebrate the birthday and I was like that is such an amazing idea. In 20 plus years in the pet industry I have never seen anybody do that. So I hope that takes off and more and more stores do that. Because, like I never brought Macs to any kind of pet store, you know, it's just there was no way I was gonna put him in that situation. He was nervous, so there was just there's no way I was gonna do that.

Amy Castro: 32:53

So part of that. You know we've been talking about etiquette and not taking your dogs on place if they're not trained. But there's also that whole side of it of then. How do you get them trained to behave in public if you can't bring them out in public? And and I do want to address that as we kind of come into the tail end but I, yeah, I want to hit on something you said about Going to the store with your treats and your squeaker and whatever, because that's another thing with the pet etiquette in being in a pet store Is that you know my, my dog knew the word leave it. Actually, all my yeah pretty much know the word leave it, yeah, and I see people going down the aisle, you know Picking up a bully stick and you know it's an ow, it's in the dog's mouth, putting it back and it's yeah, okay, yeah.

Amy Castro: 33:32

I hope they're vaccinated and I hope they don't have this and I hope they don't have that and it's like Reason, though.

Nancy Hassel: 33:37

You know I always Cody's term for that. He knows, leave it, but it's don't shoplift, you know there you go, he can sniff, but he's not allowed to pick up anything, so it's kind of funny.

Amy Castro: 33:45

If you lick it, you buy it. That should be the rule.

Nancy Hassel: 33:50

Hilarious right should be a sign there. But you know, I did a video with him recently of him we're online waiting and he's in a sick day and the lady behind me was like you hot, can I hire you for training? And I was like no, I said it's just patience and Repetitiveness. You know, and Cody is very excited to be at a pet store. I have some pretty funny videos of his feet on the counter of him. But, like you know, it's a people and they encourage it. They were like, oh, he can you know? And I'm like no, sit. And they're like okay, and I'm like, oh, that's one other thing that's frustrating.

Nancy Hassel: 34:23

If your dog is like overzealous and wants to jump up and say hi, jump up and say hi, don't let him do that. And people respect the pet parent and say you know, if I'm like no off, don't jump, whatever. Don't say it's okay, yeah it's not okay, I know we want to, as you know, get in there and really say hi to the dog, but you know you really shouldn't have a dog jumping on other people and you, as a dog person, if you love it, you shouldn't be letting other dogs jump on you.

Amy Castro: 34:51

Um, I always tell people when we have foster dogs and you know people are coming to meet them and they, you know, they're in the process of being trained or maybe they don't have any training in it's yeah. When they say, oh, it's okay, I don't mind, and it's like you know what, that's so great. But then you know the next person that come along might mind, or he might get adopted by somebody that has an elderly person in their House and we don't need him jumping on somebody's grandma, so let's discourage that. You know.

Nancy Hassel: 35:13

Help, help me out by discouraging that.

Amy Castro: 35:16

And then they usually will get it, but that's that's a really good point.

Nancy Hassel: 35:19

I just want to make one other point of the training that I've done with Cody over the years. I mean, I've had him for eight years now but and I got him when he was about 10 or 11 months. He was a shelter dog, lives in the shelter for six months, but he was kind of chilled out, which is really funny. I was like what's going on with you? You're so common here and he's a Exuberant happy.

Nancy Hassel: 35:37

You know he howls at everybody, he's just the happiest dog. But he still needed training with that. You know like I couldn't just have like craziness the whole time.

Nancy Hassel: 35:46

But what I would do is outside of any place. I'm gonna bring him in pet store. Anything like that is Sit, stay, because he's like he knows he knows doggy store. Right, like, I'm gonna go to the doggy store and he's super excited. But you have to get that excitement under control and you know it took a while and it took a lot of Repetitiveness, because the door is open and the door is closed.

Nancy Hassel: 36:08

People come in, people go out, right, and he would be, you know, like, let's go, I want to get in there, and the fifth day and so I get it would put him in a fifth day, wait 30 seconds. Maybe if he pulled now back into a Sid's day. I think that really helps with like, yes, they're gonna be excited to go into the store, but they should also be under your control, right, right, somebody commented on a video on his TikTok saying I could never bring my dog into a pet store Cuz you'd be too excited. And I'm like, yeah, cody was very excited, he's still excited, but you know you have to take what that is, right, you're gonna have some training and you're gonna have some excitement right.

Nancy Hassel: 36:44

So you have to figure out what it is, because Cody just loves, loves, loves other people. He loves other animals too, but yeah, so excited to see people and I take them to a lot of like outdoor events and stuff like that. He sees a pop-up tent now.

Nancy Hassel: 36:57

He thinks it's something that he should be going to and when we leave when we leave, he literally sometimes will stop his body and look at me like I'm ruining his life. I'm like we've been two hours, let's go, yeah. Other thing I would say to that point, being at events Like you were saying you didn't necessarily bring your doberman to events is watch your dog's body language. Like I can say to Cody, I know when he's done, like it's we've been here long enough Even if he's wants to stay and gives me that sad face and stops like doesn't want to walk. You have to be that responsible person, just like if you had human kids to say Like it's time to go, you're gonna have a meltdown, right, you've seen the little kids having meltdowns because they've been there too long or they ate too much sugar.

Nancy Hassel: 37:41

With Cody I'm like we got to go, that's it. Yeah, we had fun. We were here for two hours. You know like let's go. It might take some treat, encouragement, but you have to be that advocate of your dog and paying attention to when they are done, because when they're tired, when they're stressed, if it's just stressful situation, it's not gonna be good for your dog. So Cody has a threshold, usually never more than two hours. I used to bring him to pet expose and be there for a long time now we do no more than like two hours and I'll say, coach, do you want to go home? And he goes oh, he'll lose me. I'm like oh.

Amy Castro: 38:14

But that's, that's a good point. You know it's, it's, it's two ends of the spectrum there. So it's knowing, you know knowing when your pet, who is used to these things, yeah has had enough, because even those pets can be pushed beyond a limit.

Amy Castro: 38:27

But I think that whole idea of knowing your pet and knowing those limits starts at the beginning too. You know, maybe the whole thing starts with, and I think this is what my key would need to be with with Guinevere is we? You know if, if I was trying to get her to the point where she could go to a two-hour pet event without, you know, losing her mind or dropping dead of a heart attack because she is a bulldog and so she just gets?

Nancy Hassel: 38:49

so worked up and yeah, yeah, pink, and she scares yeah.

Amy Castro: 38:53

So you know, getting her in the car first and just taking her out, not necessarily getting her out of the car, go for a short car ride. Then maybe it's a quick run in to grab one thing at the store and out, not hanging out for 30 minutes, but you build up to what you've done with Cody. It doesn't doesn't start from the beginning like that and I think that's important for people to know is where are you on that spectrum and build up to the bigger. You know bigger outings.

Nancy Hassel: 39:18

Absolutely. I love that you said that. It's so true because you'll hear people say, like my dog Hates the car. This you know. He only associates the car with going to the groomer, to the vet, you know. Yeah, well, my dog, because that's all that happens. Yeah, my dog has never seen outside the fence because they don't walk the dog. And then they wonder why, like hey, we want to go to this event in town and the dog is like freaked out.

Nancy Hassel: 39:39

So yeah small increments is so important with dog training, with getting your dog used to things. And of course it goes back to your dog, right? You can have a dog that's just like happy, go, lucky, like Cody, ready to go. Or you can have a dog that's like he wants to go or she wants to go, but like your dog, cody, gets red too. People are always like what's wrong with his eyes. I'm like nothing, he's just excited. I think it's a bully thing, you know. But you know the same thing, it's just. That's such a great point to me because it really you know, really you wouldn't bring your dog, your new dog, to a pedex bow for eight hours and expect to have the most perfect Right so right.

Amy Castro: 40:18

Well, nancy, thank you so much for being with us today. This was really, really. I know it helped me because I have allowed me to get some stuff off my chest.

Amy Castro: 40:24

But I think but I think the advice that you shared is gonna be really helpful to our listeners and I hope that people are able to identify like, yes, this is me, that's this are. These are the mistakes that I'm making, possibly, and and how they can go about remedying them. So I really appreciate your time and sharing all of that. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you so much for having me, and if you have family members or friends who you know they have these issues, you know, share this episode with them, because you know it. Really, when you get to that point where you've got a well-trained dog that you can Take out in public and comfortable with your knowledge and with their behavior, it's just so much less stressful when you're when you're doing it and it'll be so much more enjoyable. And that's what you that's the whole point of you taking your dog out and about is to have a good time right, yes and can.

Nancy Hassel: 41:11

I say one more point. I know we'll go on for hours. Higher dog trainer right, yeah, sure how to do it. Higher dog trainer interview dog trainers. You may not find the first dog trainers, the dog trainer for you or for your dog or for your family situation. Interview them, get to know them and have them work with you on Areas that your dog needs help in. If there are those areas, I feel like there's so many amazing dog trainers in this country that can help you. So go hire a dog trainer, you know, even if it's a one-time thing.

Amy Castro: 41:41

All right. Well, I think that's a great, a great piece of advice to end with, and again, thank you so much for being here today and thank you to everybody for listening to another episode of Starlight Pet Talk. Thanks, amy, thanks for listening to Starlight Pet Talk. Be sure to visit our website at wwwstarlightpettalkcom for more resources and be sure to follow this podcast on your favorite podcast app, so you'll never miss a show. If you enjoyed and found value in today's episode, we'd appreciate a rating on Apple, or if you'd simply tell a friend about the show, that would be great too. Don't forget to tune in next week and every week for a brand new episode of Starlight Pet Talk, and if you don't do anything else this week, give your pets a big hug from us.