Dogs In The City (2012) s01e05 Episode Script
Eating House and Home
There's 80 million dogs in America.
One in eight New Yorkers owns a dog.
Titus, come here, big handsome.
That's one and a half million dogs, which means there's gonna be some problems.
Oh, no! That's where I come in.
I'm Justin Silver.
They call me the Dog Guru.
All right, let's get started right now.
I've been working with dogs and their owners for nearly ten years.
Watch his feet, watch my feet.
Just walk.
They're gonna follow you.
Walk.
Good girl.
And believe me, I've seen every problem you can imagine.
Stubborn.
No, that way.
Difficult.
Spoiled.
- Oh, my God.
- Demanding.
And that's just the owners.
Okay, now you're gonna hate me.
Now? I mean, the truth is, when I'm training dogs, I'm training owners.
I don't want him to bark.
I didn't ask what you don't want him to do.
I asked what you want him to do.
You never get past the introduction, because you're worried about the flare-up.
Up! Good boy! Bottom line, my job is to make life with dogs in the city a whole lot easier.
Walk.
You see how she starts to just fall into a rhythm with you? If there's one language I speak fluently, it's canine.
To just fall into Up-up-up-up-up-up-up.
This stuff ends today.
What can I say? I speak dog.
What? Oh, my handsome dog trainer? Any breed, anytime, anywhere.
Come.
When it comes to dogs, I've got this city covered.
Take your mark, get set, go! Tonight - a bullish bulldog - I mean, that's crazy.
out of house and home.
It's like The Shawshank Redemption.
Mixed breed Oso Hello, Oso.
He's scared of men.
doesn't want to mingle with the men in Midtown.
I'm nervous that this one may not be that into me.
And while Biggie has a huge weight problem This dog is Biggie.
This is a lot of food.
His owners have bigger issues.
If this dog continues on this path, it's a short path.
I don't know how to stop him.
proudly presents dogs in the city Season1 Episode05 I'm working in my neighborhood, Chelsea.
It's beautiful, lots of trees.
This is dog mecca.
Everybody here's got a dog.
I'm on my way to go see Linda.
She's got a dog, Biggie, that's overweight.
She's got a daughter, Amanda, and a boyfriend, Mo, and I'm gonna meet the whole family.
There she is.
- How you doing! - How you doing? All right! Yo, big man! This is him.
My name is Linda, and I have a dog named Biggie.
He's a puggle who's overweight.
My day with Biggie is feeding him just about all day.
Ma, that's too much food.
No, it's not.
This is what I do with him every day.
Constantly treating him.
Good.
Biggie does nothing but sit and eat.
Good boy! He wants to be home all day in bed.
He does nothing with his life; he's extremely lazy because of all this excess weight.
So, what's the deal? Why is he so big? It's Linda's fault.
She feeds him too much.
He gets a lot of treats.
I was always a big woman-- 326 big-- and - You were what? - Yeah.
You were 326? Yeah.
So food in your family, that's We are all eaters.
It's food; it's always about food.
If you're angry, you ate.
Everything was associated with food.
Even if I visit my mother now, she wants to shove food in my mouth.
Is your family is your parents big? Everybody in my family is overweight.
When I was a kid, I was the chubby kid in class, and when I was about 19 years old I got sick of it, and I really turned my life around, so I mean, this is right up my alley.
So you grew up big and then what happened? It got to a point that I just couldn't even tie my shoelaces, so I made a decision to get surgery done.
And even though I'm thin, I'm always gonna be a big girl.
My mind, I'm still fat.
Besides, like, the fact that, like, you physically can't eat so much, based on the surgery, right? Did you change life habits? I still cook the way I was raised.
I've been cooking since I was eight.
I was always taught food was love, and every time I'm sorry.
No, don't be.
You know what it is? I only have him, if I'm lucky, 15 years, and I feel like I'm gonna put him in his grave a lot faster because of this.
So I am upset, because I love him like I love my daughter.
That's my baby, and I'm killing him, and my girl, and I don't know how to stop.
It's painfully obvious what the problem is.
Linda told me what the problem was, so why can't she stop it? Because people need support.
Amanda's got my eating habits, and she shouldn't be this way-- it's too big.
So this is a life thing.
What do you think about what your mom's saying? It's the truth.
In Linda's case, it's she can't eat, um, she feels deprived, and so she stuffs Biggie and she stuffs her daughter.
What are you feeding him? Make a bowl right now.
This is an addiction for her.
Food is an addiction in her family.
There's a void that's being filled by the food.
You talk about emotional transference-- here it is, in the most obvious sense.
This what I'm giving Biggie twice a day.
Twice a day?! This is a lot of food.
She gives him everything she eats.
I don't see why you can give the dog pizza.
Just like three days ago, you gave him the whole sausage, right? I was, like, "Are you serious? He did; he yelled at me.
When you feed him, what's Go ahead, change this bowl to your bowl.
Emotional transference is when you take feelings about yourself or feelings that you have inside and you transfer it onto other people or other living things.
- That's twice a day.
- Twice a day is.
.
Isn't that too little, though, Justin? - No.
- Come on! - You got to be kidding me.
That's not enough food.
- No.
I can count the kibbles that are in there! You see? She will fight you! This is about right.
This is right? If this was some fresh chicken and some sweet potatoes and things that are the most nutritious for him, instead of the amount being enough, the quality would be enough.
We can love him with the quality of food.
I've dealt with this with people-- before I trained people with dogs, I was a personal trainer, and I used to specialize in weight loss.
When I was working as a personal trainer, it wasn't so much about teaching somebody how to lift heavy weights-- that's not that difficult-- it was all the emotional stuff that got people to the point of where they were obese.
When I dealt with people's issues, the biggest part was getting them to admit the emotional part, and then getting on the treadmill is easy.
You know, I was called for Biggie, but Biggie's habits are their habits.
So this encompasses everything I've worked with.
I mean, let's not dance around it-- if this dog continues on this path, it's a short path.
We should weigh him.
- Okay.
- Big papa, come here.
You look like you look like a seal.
He's 40 pounds! He should be about 25 pounds.
A large puggle should weigh 25 pounds.
Biggie weighs 40 pounds.
That's about 60% overweight.
That's huge.
That's insane for a dog.
And he's three years old.
So, here's the deal.
We got to change this now.
Starting today, we take a step in a different direction.
I got to run to Queens right now.
I'm gonna come back-- we're gonna get to work on this ASAP.
- All right? - You got it.
I'm leaving Linda and her family for the moment.
Now, while I'm gone, they need to start monitoring Biggie's diet and lay off those treats.
When I come back, I'll have a more specific plan for them.
Right now, I'm driving to meet up with Jackie and Kenny and their dogs Sophia and Carmine.
Kenny and Jackie are undergoing major renovations, and I hear that Sophia's not adjusting well to her new environment.
I don't have too many details yet, so I want to go check it out.
- Hey, how are you? - How's it going? - Kenny.
- Yep.
- Justin.
- Jackie.
What's going on here? You got renovations? Yeah, renovating the house, um, and Sophia is demo-ing down here, but we haven't gotten here yet.
- She is? - Yes.
- She did that? - Yes.
I mean, that's crazy.
Our dog's scared of men.
If I move here, I assume he'll jump off.
There is a five-K dog walk-and-run.
Let's go.
Oh, my God! I was not having it.
What's going on here? She did that? - Yeah.
- For real.
How long has she been doing this? For the last four months.
Yeah, four months.
She graduated from slippers, shoes, couches, chairs - Oh, just compulsive chewing.
- yeah Sophia is very destructive when no one's around.
When we're around, she'll play with her toys, she'll play with Carmine.
But when we're gone, no matter how many toys you leave out, she always goes for the wall, the molding, anything that she could chew on or gnaw at.
It's like The Shawshank Redemption-- all you need is a poster over there, and she'll be next-door.
Yeah, she'll go right through the brick.
She stopped with the brick; she can't go anymore.
I mean, that's crazy.
To renovate the house, I gutted upstairs.
After that, we're gonna be moving upstairs.
And then I want to start on the downstairs, but I don't want Sophia ripping stuff off the wall upstairs once we're finished.
Give me a day in Sophia's life.
I wake up earlier, so I let them out.
Kenny leaves, like, around 8:30 to go to work, and I come back home at 3:30, 4:00.
Sometimes maybe a little later.
- Yeah, so nine hours.
- It could be nine hours.
So nine hours, she's been in here.
Okay.
So you got a little time-management issue.
Jackie and Kenny leave the dog for eight hours a day, sometimes nine hours, so the dogs' needs for exercise are not being met.
They're gonna get it out somehow, and the end result is something as bizarre as dogs eating through the walls.
She's high-energy, and she's got needs for discipline.
Why do you keep pointing at him? Because he doesn't discipline her.
I think Jackie's pointing fingers, but I am a little more lenient than she is.
The biggest problem is when we're both not here, there's no one to reprimand them or do anything, and that's when Sophia goes to work.
JACKIE: Like, they have a relationship together, and I I'm not lying-- they're, like, boyfriend/girlfriend.
Sophie has the issue of destroying our home, but she also has this huge problem about coming in between Kenny and I.
When Kenny and I are together and, you know, trying to kiss or whatever, she comes in between us, and literally, it's like a three-way kiss.
When we're in bed, she comes on, and then she scoots her little butt down in between us, puts her head on the pillow and starts looking at him as if hearts are coming out of her eyes.
I want to see what happens when you two want to cuddle in bed.
Lay down with each other-- not with her, forget about her.
Lay down with each other.
Okay, so anytime you guys want to get affectionate, we've having this; she's in it.
Yeah.
Off! Get off! That's it! You're annoying! You always ruin everything.
- Off! - Get down.
Why does she feel the need to jump in the middle of us? We just got to work on creating some Boundaries? Thank you.
Jackie says she asked Kenny to implement some discipline, but, you know, Sophia's, like, Daddy's little girl.
We, uh, we got some things to work on.
Sophia's got a few things going on, but I'm gonna say the wall-eating is the major problem.
I got one thing that's gonna help me assess the situation, all right? Thanks.
Sophia only chews the walls when no one's around, so I got a little help-- I got a nanny-cam.
I'm gonna set it up, so I can see what's going on during the day while Jackie and Kenny are at work.
The nanny-cam's job is to watch Sophia, see what she does in this room.
Okay.
And then I'll get a sense of what she's doing when we're not around.
- Awesome.
- Great.
All right? So I'm gonna go.
First thing I do when I come back is we're gonna look at the footage.
Awesome.
I'll see you guys soon.
- Thank you very much.
- So nice to meet you.
I cannot wait to get back here and see the footage on this camera.
This is gonna be really interesting.
- Hello? - Hey, Linda.
It's Justin.
What's up, baby? I was thinking about what we talked about, Uh-h? about feeding Biggie.
Yeah? You like to feed Biggie chicken? Yeah.
Why don't you pick up some chicken for him, some sweet potatoes and some broccoli.
All right? And I'm gonna show you some healthy ways to cook for him.
Linda told me, "In my family, food is love, " so I called Linda, because I want her to focus on the quality of what she was cooking for Biggie and bring those ingredients along to my next session.
You could "Puerto-Rican girl" it up.
All right.
Some chicken, sweet potato and broccoli.
- All right? - Okay, you got it.
All right, speak do you later.
Bye-bye.
I'm on my way to Midtown Manhattan to meet up with Todd, Joe and their dog Oso.
Other than Todd and Joe, his owners, the dog is really skittish around guys.
I'm Joe.
This is Todd.
Our dog's name is Oso, and our problem is that he's scared of men.
Oso's biggest issue is he gets vicious towards most of our friends.
We have a lot of parties and we like to have people over.
When we take a vacation, we can't ever call a friend to help us out and check in on Oso, because there's gonna be a problem.
JOE: I just really want to see Oso be able to be friendly and chummy with men.
I want to be loved by every dog, so I'm a little nervous that this one may not be that into me.
How are you? - I'm Todd.
- I'm Justin.
Very nice to meet you.
This is Oso.
Hello, Oso.
How are you? When I walk in the house, I'm really looking to see if the owners have any rules for how the dog is supposed to meet strangers.
They didn't; it's open season.
Now, no problem with women? He's fine with women.
He seems calm, and I'm just kind of, like, making my presence known.
So that's his avoidance right there.
Yeah.
And if I move here, I assume he'll jump off, right? Yep.
There we go.
Do we know more about his history? We got him from the shelter when he was three months old.
They captured his mom and dad when she was pregnant with the puppies.
This is extremely uncommon for a man that he just met, like, ten minutes ago? This is uncommon, right? Very uncommon.
I'm not really approaching him head-on.
I'm letting him initiate contact with me-- I'm doing it on my terms, but I'm also respecting his space.
See? There we go.
Just let him check it out.
He's certainly not that fearful.
Now, watch.
If I get up and I do this There we go.
When Justin walked in, we were both really impressed, because generally, when a man walks into our apartment, he freaks out.
Now, he's eyeing me, see? He's fearful, right? Justin found this way to communicate with him that I haven't seen before.
Let me do this.
Do you have other people that he reacts to? You have friends in the building? Yep.
Yep.
Can we call one of them, have them come in and see how the normal interaction goes? They're good friends with their building manager, Luis, so I asked if they would call him in.
Joe and Todd don't have any ritual for how to handle him at the door, Hi, Luis.
How are you? Come in.
How you doing? Luis comes in Oso's really frightened.
Show me what your interactions are like.
Usually, I pet him, I say hi to him.
Okay.
- Hi, Luis.
How are you? Come in.
- How you doing? Todd and Joe's building manager, Luis, comes in, and Oso's really frightened.
Show me what your interactions are like.
Usually, I try to pet him, and say hi to him.
Well, there you go.
Now, at this point, what do you normally do right now? Definitely, if his reaction isn't as intense, we'll try to force him - Okay.
- into the situation.
It was his duty to be the guardian in this situation, to ward off the potential threat-- as opposed to you showing him that, hey, I'm gonna make the introduction with Luis and I'll show you that he's a friend.
JOE: Normally, we try to toss Oso into those situations where he's exposed to tons of men.
Now we realize maybe there's a better way to approach the situation.
Now, I'm not forcing him right now, right? I'm just keeping him I'll be right here.
I'm establishing that this is safe right now.
What Oso needs is time with guys, but not in a way that's so forced and not with such hyper focus on top of him.
When we start to build just positive experiences around men, he'll start to relax, even quicker and quicker and quicker.
Yeah.
I got all the information I need.
Luis got out of there without his fingers getting chomped off.
See you guys soon.
- See ya.
- All right.
- Bye.
- Bye.
I'm done for now, but I'm gonna come back with some buddies to work with Oso a little bit more.
Hi, kids.
Hey, what's up, Justin? What's up, big handsome? Today I'm meeting Linda, Amanda, Mo and Biggie, and we're gonna do a little personal training.
The two components for healthy living is diet and exercise.
So, I used to do personal training, and one of the things I used to like to do with my clients is try to make the working out fun.
Let's get the dog moving, let's get you guys moving, and I'm gonna set up a circuit training course for your guys that we can do together with Biggie.
- That sounds awesome.
- You mean the two of them? - And you.
- Okay.
And you.
Biggie is completely sedentary, but this issue has nothing to do with the dog.
The family and Biggie should be moving around together.
There's four parts.
Here's part one.
These cones.
You're gonna go touch here, touch there, touch here, touch there.
I saw all those cones, and I was, like, oh, it's early, it's hot.
I don't know if I want to really do anything.
I was just not having it.
You're gonna grab one of these.
Jump, jump.
This big ball.
You're gonna push, push, push me.
Put these boxing gloves on, and we're gonna punch, punch, punch I like that last part.
back to here.
You ready to go? Biggie's gonna be really tired today.
It's gonna be challenging physically for Amanda, and I think it's gonna be challenging for Mo.
All right, you ready, Biggie? Let's go.
Go! Go! Fast, fast.
Touch, touch, touch, touch, touch, touch.
Back.
Come on, bring him.
Encourage him, encourage you.
Come on, baby.
Come on, big boy.
In the middle of doing this course, that actually brought me back to junior high school That is a heavy ball.
I almost felt like I was gonna give up.
You okay? It was so hard.
Hold the ball.
Ready? Push.
But a little bit of this every day, the reward is gonna be worth it.
I have not done anything like that in a long time.
I set the course up like a relay race, and Biggie was the baton.
Mo, let's go.
As each person ran the course, they passed Biggie off, and then Biggie would run the course with the next person.
Go, Biggie, go! Come on.
Let's go.
Push, push, come on, Biggie.
You got some anger to get out? You can do it.
Let's go, Biggie.
Come on, Amanda.
You could push harder.
What this? Come on, Amanda, I know you got it in you.
eight, nine, ten.
Yeah! Yeah! This was good.
I'm looking forward to Biggie getting down to his weight, looking forward for this being a lifestyle change for my whole family.
That was cool.
You did it, Mama.
It's so important for Linda to see that Biggie can exercise like this.
No more excuses for anyone in this family.
Still breathing a little hard from the workout.
But I feel good.
Up, up.
Good boy.
Biggie needs to be walking every single day.
But exercise is only half the battle.
- This is the food you made.
- Yes.
Normally, he eats how much more than this a day? I'm gonna say two of those twice a day.
Two of these twice a day?! Two of these twice a day, Mo! So he eats four times the amount that he's supposed to be eating.
But wait, he's also eating snacks throughout the day.
- Yes.
- That's horrendous.
This is a two-cup portion, Right.
which is how much he's supposed to eat in a day-- if he was at the weight that he's supposed to be.
Oh, my God, Biggie, Mommy's really had it wrong.
So, he will eat half of this in the morning And half at night? and half at night.
When Justin showed me what I should be feeding Biggie, it was definitely a wakeup call.
Oh, my God.
It's going to be really, really tough for me, to feed him healthy and the right portions, but once I start seeing that Biggie's losing the weight, I know that I'll feel good about it.
Now, Linda, you like to cook.
Yeah.
Food is love in your family.
Yeah.
What does that say on the top? "Biggie's Sexy Beach Body Diet"" That is cool! And on that is a list of what? "Good food"! Flip it over.
- "Supplements.
" - And? - "Bad foods.
" - And since you like snacks so much-- - "Treats.
" - That you can make at home.
Oh, my God, Justin, that is great.
This is an example of somebody who should be cooking for her dog, because that's the way she can show love.
Not by how much she pours into the bowl, but the time she takes preparing it, the time she takes researching the ingredients, the time she takes serving it to him, and I really want her to focus on that.
Okay, there is a 5K dog walk and run.
Let's go.
Oh, my God.
When he said 5K, I was a little scared.
I don't I don't think that's possible.
Want to go with me? This family needs to show up for healthy things in their life and Biggie's life.
Yes.
I'm a little nervous and a little excited.
I never thought in a million years that I would be doing a 5K walk with my family and Biggie.
I'll see you guys later.
- All right.
Have a good day.
- Bye, Justin.
But now it's happening, so I hope that this is a lifestyle change for my entire family.
curb I headed back to Joe and Todd's to meet up with Oso and work with him.
But this time, I brought Big Dave, my business partner, my buddy Nate, my buddy Gary.
So, here's the deal-- this dog, it's scared of men.
So I was just going to show you guys how to interact with it, and then I'm going to show the guys who own it how to interact with it.
Hey, guys.
- Good to see you.
- Good to see you.
- How are you? - And good to see you.
I was just surprised to see Justin with an entourage of three friends because, generally, one man's too much for Oso to take.
Let him just sniff.
See, look, look, look, look.
Good boy.
The point of this exercise is to get Oso comfortable around men and do it the way that I want to do it as opposed to the way that they've been doing it.
So, dude, we're going to see you guys later-- hang out here-- and we'll be back.
All right.
Sounds good.
Come on, kids.
Come on, kid.
When I saw Justin walking away, I thought to myself, "Wow.
This probably won't work.
" I totally expected to hear back from him five minutes later saying, " Let me try something else.
" Come on.
- But he's definitely skittish.
- He wants to go back.
Come here.
Oso, come here.
Come here.
- I don't want to force him.
- Let's go.
It's okay.
Come on.
Good boy.
My goal for him today is just to let some people pet him.
Just relax.
We just keep cool, he'll get cool.
As we were walking around, I told Dave, Nate and Gary to just relax their arms, let Oso come up and sniff their hands.
Everyone was just relaxed, not hyper-focusing on him.
Just relax.
Nice and easy.
And then, over time, over time, Oso was starting to warm up to them slowly as we walked.
These are your buddies now.
These are your buddies.
Here's my idea.
Take a seat.
I just want him to sit with us and relax.
Come here, handsome.
Come back up.
Here you go.
Sit down.
Don't be so nervous.
I'm just, like, calming him down.
So, I just wanted to let him ease into it a little bit.
Sit down, buddy.
Sit down.
There we go.
He doesn't let anybody do that.
He doesn't let people touch him.
He's chilling out now, right? Look, you see his expression change? For sure.
Look at his face.
He looks like a dog now.
Well, you know what I want to do? I want to just call them so they can see this.
We're on 44th, between 9th and 10th.
I didn't want Joe and Todd to just come right up, because I think that would trigger Oso again, so I asked them to just check it out from across the street.
I see them all the way down there.
- That's pretty impressive.
- That is really good.
He's doing good.
That guy is, like, petting him.
Scratching his head.
I was absolutely blown away.
There's my dog with four guys sitting around him, and he looked like he was having a great time.
What I was showing Joe and Todd was, by taking their time and letting Oso just get a little comfortable, and then interacting with him, he'll be fine meeting men.
I mean, he won't do this with friends that he's known for years.
We just did it calmly, We didn't force it-- but this is not going to happen by just having a bunch of people come over and throwing a party.
So, here's what I'm going to suggest.
Instead of having a big party, let's just have a little get-together, and I'll work on training you in that scenario.
TODD: Oso and a dinner party.
I'm completely skeptical.
But I'm entrusting Justin completely at this point, and I'm looking forward to seeing if it works out.
dogs Go! I'm headed back to Jackie and Kenny's.
I really want to see what Sophia's been doing on that nanny-cam.
Now, while we're doing this, do you do you - This is annoying.
- You just let this happen? We ignore him.
But ignoring him isn't doing anything.
We figured, if we ignore him, maybe he'll stop, but Well, but how long have you been ignoring him for? A while.
Carmine and Sophia both have issues, but Carmine flies under the radar because Sophia's issues are so glaring.
Can you do you sit down? Sit down.
So he doesn't know his sit command.
- - Only with a treat.
He does when you go, "Sit, " like that, but Go ahead.
Then do it like that if he knows it.
Come over here.
No, I say he doesn't; you're like, "No, he does"" He does, but I'm, like he only does it when he wants to.
- So, then, he doesn't know the command.
- No.
It's not a command if I only do it when I want to.
It's not a command.
It's a selective command.
If I literally go just, "Lay down, lay down, lay down, lay" Oh, look, he followed his commands.
Wow, you're good.
I'm kidding.
Here we go.
She's eating it.
She's eating it.
See? She just starts.
She eats the sheetrock.
It's insane.
Yeah, she just goes.
She's bored.
It's like she's smoking cigarettes, eating the wall.
I feel bad for her, you know.
I want them to see her standing there, feeling bored, feeling anxious.
Then she goes back.
She's, like, pacing almost, like, bored and - She's not having fun.
- She's just keeping herself busy.
Those splinters aren't good for her, either.
She gets, like, an upset stomach sometimes.
Yeah, it's like a laxative for her.
She's, like, going diarrhea.
It's disgusting.
So, I've just seen the hole.
It's kind of disturbing.
For Sophia to be eating wood and drywall, the fact that they haven't had to take this dog to the hospital yet for ingesting all these toxins is a miracle in and of itself.
It's, like, really bad.
So, now that we see the footage and everybody's upset, good-- time to fix the problem.
I've seen enough of this.
You get it, right? Yeah, it's not good.
- I recommend adequate exercise.
- Okay.
"Adequate exercise.
" Which is so much more than what she's doing right now.
Let's wear them out a little bit, and then, when we come back in here, we'll work on some practical training techniques that you can do to stop this kind of stuff.
I've got to get Sophia's energy out.
She's got to walk.
She's got to play.
They have a backyard, so I want them to play with the dogs out in the backyard.
You can't really discipline them and expect them to sit in a crate for eight hours a day or expect them to behave properly if their needs for exercise aren't being met.
He goes to the gym.
They need to go to the gym.
Yes, exactly.
Both dogs need exercise, both dogs need structure, but Carmine didn't ring any alarms for them because he's not chewing through the walls.
It's like a three-ring circus in there.
So let's create some rules in the house.
Why are you pointing at him? 'Cause he does not set rules.
I set them up.
When I'm here, they work well.
He ruins it.
No offense or anything, babe.
You also have to set rules also.
It's not just me.
I say you got to wake up, you got to take them for a walk, you got to let them out.
Yeah, uh, we do.
Working with a couple is hilarious.
The finger-pointing starts.
It turns to family feud, man.
This has been an issue for a while, or I wouldn't be here, but now I think they're going to see it and get on the same page together.
I think it's a team thing.
- It's not to point fingers.
- No.
If you point fingers, nothing's going to get done.
You have to work together and get it done-- that's what I think.
Okay.
So, now that these guys have got some exercise, let's go back in the house.
Let's work on implementing some rules in your house.
You know, bulldogs are always like So I know these dogs are getting tired when they just start slowing down a little bit, so now that the dogs are tired, we can begin to apply some training.
Now it's realistic for us to try the crate.
The crate is always done when she's hyped up, she's got tons of energy, and then you throw her in there, and then you leave, and then she's like, "What are you doing? " Sophia needs crate training.
She obviously cannot be left alone and have free reign of the house.
If a dog's all wound up and needs to go out, you can't expect to put it in the crate.
She's afraid of the crate.
She doesn't realize that it's not a bad place.
She's just terrified of it at this point.
Watch.
I'm going to give her a treat in there.
There you go.
What's the difference between laying right here or laying right here? It's more comfortable in there, I think, 'cause of the blanket.
I would think so, too.
There's a blanket in there.
Instead of being terrified of the crate, she's occupying herself.
Lay down in bed.
If you keep the crate here and she's exercised, it's just a place for her to lay down.
JACKIE: It feels amazing.
It feels like it was never going to happen.
And I'm pretty confident that this is going to be the start to a new chapter of our life.
Just keep in touch with me, 'cause I'll be able to give you little touch-ups.
They're still going to have to work on the crate training.
Still just can't throw Sophia in the crate, and then leave for the day.
That's not going to work.
They have to exercise her first, practice having her in the crate while they're at home, and then, before you know it, this problem's going to be solved and everything will be peaceful in that house.
I just finished my last training session, and I told my ex-girlfriend Erin to meet me outside my apartment with this new dog that she's thinking about fostering-- Kaia.
This dog came from a shelter where, you know, most of them get put down, so I love that Erin does this work.
- Here she is.
Oh, my goodness.
- I know we've got to work on the jumping issue first.
- I know.
- She's sweet, huh? Justin and I broke up about five years ago.
One thing that we both got really involved in was animal welfare, and together, we still try to save dogs that need help and need homes by fostering.
In the shelter, she got along with dogs.
- She's young, right? - A year and a half.
She's comfortable with me touching, so, you know, I'm putting my hand here so she can't turn on me.
And the first thing I do is just a physical assessment to see how it is with people handling it, people touching it.
She's comfortable being handled, which is important.
The shelters are all overloaded.
For every dog that gets pulled out of a shelter, there's hundreds more that are rotting away, and a lot of them get put down.
Good girl.
Come here.
Unless people like Erin step up and volunteer to foster these dogs, - Come on, girl.
- their fate isn't that great.
Shakes, sit down.
- Shakes just wants a girlfriend so bad.
- He does.
Erin's dogs, Shakes and Baxter, don't have any issues with dogs.
I'm not worried on their end.
I just want to make sure that Kaia's okay with them, so we're gonna do a nice introduction with all three dogs.
Stay in proximity with me, but just don't go so close.
You stay Don't put them face to face yet.
I wanted to see if these dogs are gonna fight.
Just walk by.
Just walk by.
- Ready? - Yeah, just walk by.
Go ahead, let her sniff.
Let her sniff, I trust you.
I trust you.
Not so close, not so close Immediately, you know, they didn't even really look at each other.
So the fact that they're not paying that much attention to each other is pretty good.
Let's go, this way.
Good.
Erin gets tied in a knot, 'cause that's her style.
Erin.
Come on.
But I didn't see anything from the dogs that was problematic.
Turn around smooth.
She's cool, man.
- Isn't she awesome? - Yeah, I like her.
They look like a box of crayons.
- Look at this circle of happiness.
- This is good energy.
What Erin's going to do is foster Kaia and get this dog shaped up so that she can find a forever home and be someone's family pet.
All right, Kaia, what do you say? You want to find your forever home? You can come stay with me for a little while until you do, though, okay? - Say good-bye to Justin.
- Bye, sweetheart.
He's not as big of a pain as he seems.
I'm not.
midtown - How's it going? How are you? - Good to see you.
- It's good to see you.
- You, too.
I'm back at Todd, Joe and Oso's.
- How are you? - How are you? They're going to have a little get-together, and I'm going to show them how to introduce Oso to their friends a little bit differently than the way they've been doing it.
When he hears the door, or when he hears the buzzer, and then the first person comes in, and they reach for him, it just keeps escalating, escalating, escalating.
So maybe we just have some rules about that, just for his comfort.
- Okay? For yours and his comfort.
- That'd be awesome.
- Does that sound good? - I think that's great.
- Okay.
Let's leash him up.
Okay? - Okay.
I think having a leash on in the house is gonna be good for him.
Oso, when he gets nervous, will run behind the couch or hide in a corner.
So having the leash on Oso is great, because we want to let him know that everything is safe, everything is okay.
When the buzzer rings, it's usually a It's like these unconfident barks that start to build and build and build.
So when someone comes in, right, I just want to keep him next to me, I want to keep him on lead.
I don't want to let him go run up and smell them first, and then potentially them spook him.
- Right.
- Just keep cool.
Okay.
Hold on a sec.
Easy.
Sit down.
Relax.
Relax.
Now, normally he would just run to the door right now.
Okay.
Oso, come here.
Now I'll lead him to the door.
I just want to keep him next to me, I want to keep him on lead.
Good boy.
So this is where I use rewards.
He is not thinking about whoever's at the door right now.
What you want to do is let the thing that bothers the dog occur, then redirect it and reward it for its behavior after it's redirected.
Can you knock on that door again, my friend? Come here.
Come here.
Sit.
Good boy! I kind of just redirect his attention come here.
Good boy.
- Sit down.
Sit down.
- Hey, Oso.
- How are you? - Good.
- I'm Justin.
- Francisco.
- Francisco, nice to meet you.
- Hey, how are you? Oso, come.
Come here.
And heel.
Now, he doesn't seem too bothered by Francisco right now, does he? You can touch him.
Little nervous, but certainly tolerating it.
Things were looking pretty good.
Oso was in a chill space.
Next guest comes in, I let Joe take the lead.
Hey, Oso.
Okay, don't now don't get so just tell him to sit.
Sit.
Good.
That's enough.
You see? Right there.
Go grab the door.
All right.
Come on.
Come, Oso.
Confident.
Don't let him pull you over there.
- How are you? - Come in.
Still a little nervous dog, that's okay.
But he's not freaking out.
Hey, Oso, how are you? The buzzer rings again, and I let Todd take over.
Sit.
Okay, sit.
Say it once.
There you go.
Lead him confidently.
Don't let him pull ahead of you.
Then ask him to sit.
- How are you? - Good.
Just have him sit by your side while your friend comes in.
- Sit, Oso.
Sit.
- So he's not the he's not the focal point.
Good boy.
- Invite your friend in.
- Come on in.
Fun game, new people coming.
- Come in, come in.
- Thank you.
People start eating, they're moving around, talking, grabbing glasses of wine, and Oso's just the family dog.
He's just running around, sniffing everybody, tail wagging.
He's letting people touch him.
It's like we did it! I mean, look how far you've come in a few days.
- This is your work.
Thank you.
- You're very welcome.
TODD: It was really heartwarming for me to see my friends actually pet my dog.
It was awesome.
Made me feel great.
ALL: Cheers! Like, I can't tell you how much it fills me up to see a dog that was suffering, that was so tortured, that was so fearful, to watch that dog just being in a room of people, letting people pet him That made me feel so good.
ANNOUNCER: Dog owners, please keep your pets away from the 5K starting line.
- You guys excited? - I guess, yeah.
Biggie is 15 pounds overweight, I don't know if he's going to be able to make it.
Dog owners, please keep your pets away from the 5K starting line.
So, big morning.
I hopped across the river to Tenafly, New Jersey, to meet up with Linda, Mo, Amanda and Biggie - Hey, how you doing? - Nice to see you.
for a big 5K dog walk.
You guys excited? I guess, yeah.
"I guess, yeah? I was getting hit hard last night, with Amanda and Mo you know, "I don't want to do this, I don't want to run.
" If I didn't push, we wouldn't be here today.
It's important for him, he's active with other dogs - Yeah, yeah, no no, I know.
- You know, and they'll motivate him.
LINDA: We gotta start somewhere.
Biggie's 15 pounds overweight, so if I can get the family involved, then it's gonna be all good, 'cause we're all gonna pitch in.
- Okay, he's good? - Everybody's good.
- Let's do it.
- Let's do it.
- ggie! High-five.
- High five, Biggie.
High five There you go! Come on, let's go.
We walked to the starting line.
I'm not sure if they can do it, but I'm going to be there to coach them every step of the way.
Let's see what happens.
Runners, take your mark.
Get set go! For whoever thinks this is easy, it's not.
How do you feel? It's a lot of work.
"Mommy, I'm gonna lose five pounds on this walk" " He is 15 pounds overweight.
I don't know if Biggie's gonna be able to make it.
He wants to go where all the other dogs are going.
Yeah, no.
That's good.
This'll give him the push to keep going.
Biggie kept pulling me.
He was more and more psyched.
- He's got a big smile on his face.
- Yeah, he does.
He's like, what's Mommy's right here, don't-don't-don't get crazy.
'Cause normally, I don't want dogs to pull, but I was like, "Let him go.
Let him do what he wants to do" " So this is actually exciting, and the fact that there's a lot of dogs makes it even better.
Yeah.
That dog was amped up.
Come on, buddy, come on, buddy, come on, buddy, come on, buddy, come on, buddy! Oh, he's flying now.
I was pretty surprised that he was into it.
Good boy, good boy, good boy, good boy, good boy! I don't care if it takes an hour, I don't care if it takes 100 hours, I just want to see them cross that finish line, because it's gonna make them feel so good.
Good boy.
He's slowing down a little bit, but he's doing good.
We're at the home stretch.
I really didn't think that he was going to be able to do this.
I thought that he was gonna just stop, and say, "That's it, Ma, I'm done" - How you doing, hon? - Amanda wants to run.
- You want to run, Amanda? - No.
Go run, Amanda.
Go, girl! Seeing my daughter, um smile while we were doing this 5K walk, and enjoying it - The start to something new.
- Good for you.
I don't know, you know I guess this is telling you how I feel about my daughter doing this.
He is a changed dog.
He did the 5K walk, which I didn't think my boy had it in him.
And he was psyched.
Yeah, Biggie! - Come on, Biggie! - You did it, papi! All right, that's my dog.
We crossed that finish line and I'm telling you, I felt awesome.
That's it! Good job! Good job! I've never done anything like this before.
- What'd you think? - I liked it; I enjoyed it.
You had a change of heart, right? Yes, I did.
It's showing me that I need to take care of myself.
I-I have to.
I think that I'm gonna start walking Biggie in the morning now.
I'm gonna make Amanda do it.
This came out of her mouth.
She said this on national TV.
She's going to have to stick with her word.
- It's healthy for us.
- Yeah, for you For me, for Biggie we gotta do it.
We gotta start I gotta start somewhere.
Justin gave me the push to push my family.
So now that Justin has given me the tools to work with, now I can apply that to my family, and get my family, as well as Biggie, on track.
- Enjoy the rest of the day.
- All right, you too.
Bye-bye.
This is a happy ending to this story, but a happy beginning for this dog and this family.
Biggie's doing okay.
I'm actually very proud of him.
Changing your life can be daunting, but ignoring an issue is ultimately more damaging for everyone, especially your dog.
- All it takes is a few adjustments - This feels good.
and dedication to follow through, and you can change life for your family and your dog.
There you go! One constant in life is change.
That's why I'm always gonna be here for all these dogs Good boy.
and their owners, to make sure they adapt and thrive in the city.
dogs.
in.
the.
city s01e05
One in eight New Yorkers owns a dog.
Titus, come here, big handsome.
That's one and a half million dogs, which means there's gonna be some problems.
Oh, no! That's where I come in.
I'm Justin Silver.
They call me the Dog Guru.
All right, let's get started right now.
I've been working with dogs and their owners for nearly ten years.
Watch his feet, watch my feet.
Just walk.
They're gonna follow you.
Walk.
Good girl.
And believe me, I've seen every problem you can imagine.
Stubborn.
No, that way.
Difficult.
Spoiled.
- Oh, my God.
- Demanding.
And that's just the owners.
Okay, now you're gonna hate me.
Now? I mean, the truth is, when I'm training dogs, I'm training owners.
I don't want him to bark.
I didn't ask what you don't want him to do.
I asked what you want him to do.
You never get past the introduction, because you're worried about the flare-up.
Up! Good boy! Bottom line, my job is to make life with dogs in the city a whole lot easier.
Walk.
You see how she starts to just fall into a rhythm with you? If there's one language I speak fluently, it's canine.
To just fall into Up-up-up-up-up-up-up.
This stuff ends today.
What can I say? I speak dog.
What? Oh, my handsome dog trainer? Any breed, anytime, anywhere.
Come.
When it comes to dogs, I've got this city covered.
Take your mark, get set, go! Tonight - a bullish bulldog - I mean, that's crazy.
out of house and home.
It's like The Shawshank Redemption.
Mixed breed Oso Hello, Oso.
He's scared of men.
doesn't want to mingle with the men in Midtown.
I'm nervous that this one may not be that into me.
And while Biggie has a huge weight problem This dog is Biggie.
This is a lot of food.
His owners have bigger issues.
If this dog continues on this path, it's a short path.
I don't know how to stop him.
proudly presents dogs in the city Season1 Episode05 I'm working in my neighborhood, Chelsea.
It's beautiful, lots of trees.
This is dog mecca.
Everybody here's got a dog.
I'm on my way to go see Linda.
She's got a dog, Biggie, that's overweight.
She's got a daughter, Amanda, and a boyfriend, Mo, and I'm gonna meet the whole family.
There she is.
- How you doing! - How you doing? All right! Yo, big man! This is him.
My name is Linda, and I have a dog named Biggie.
He's a puggle who's overweight.
My day with Biggie is feeding him just about all day.
Ma, that's too much food.
No, it's not.
This is what I do with him every day.
Constantly treating him.
Good.
Biggie does nothing but sit and eat.
Good boy! He wants to be home all day in bed.
He does nothing with his life; he's extremely lazy because of all this excess weight.
So, what's the deal? Why is he so big? It's Linda's fault.
She feeds him too much.
He gets a lot of treats.
I was always a big woman-- 326 big-- and - You were what? - Yeah.
You were 326? Yeah.
So food in your family, that's We are all eaters.
It's food; it's always about food.
If you're angry, you ate.
Everything was associated with food.
Even if I visit my mother now, she wants to shove food in my mouth.
Is your family is your parents big? Everybody in my family is overweight.
When I was a kid, I was the chubby kid in class, and when I was about 19 years old I got sick of it, and I really turned my life around, so I mean, this is right up my alley.
So you grew up big and then what happened? It got to a point that I just couldn't even tie my shoelaces, so I made a decision to get surgery done.
And even though I'm thin, I'm always gonna be a big girl.
My mind, I'm still fat.
Besides, like, the fact that, like, you physically can't eat so much, based on the surgery, right? Did you change life habits? I still cook the way I was raised.
I've been cooking since I was eight.
I was always taught food was love, and every time I'm sorry.
No, don't be.
You know what it is? I only have him, if I'm lucky, 15 years, and I feel like I'm gonna put him in his grave a lot faster because of this.
So I am upset, because I love him like I love my daughter.
That's my baby, and I'm killing him, and my girl, and I don't know how to stop.
It's painfully obvious what the problem is.
Linda told me what the problem was, so why can't she stop it? Because people need support.
Amanda's got my eating habits, and she shouldn't be this way-- it's too big.
So this is a life thing.
What do you think about what your mom's saying? It's the truth.
In Linda's case, it's she can't eat, um, she feels deprived, and so she stuffs Biggie and she stuffs her daughter.
What are you feeding him? Make a bowl right now.
This is an addiction for her.
Food is an addiction in her family.
There's a void that's being filled by the food.
You talk about emotional transference-- here it is, in the most obvious sense.
This what I'm giving Biggie twice a day.
Twice a day?! This is a lot of food.
She gives him everything she eats.
I don't see why you can give the dog pizza.
Just like three days ago, you gave him the whole sausage, right? I was, like, "Are you serious? He did; he yelled at me.
When you feed him, what's Go ahead, change this bowl to your bowl.
Emotional transference is when you take feelings about yourself or feelings that you have inside and you transfer it onto other people or other living things.
- That's twice a day.
- Twice a day is.
.
Isn't that too little, though, Justin? - No.
- Come on! - You got to be kidding me.
That's not enough food.
- No.
I can count the kibbles that are in there! You see? She will fight you! This is about right.
This is right? If this was some fresh chicken and some sweet potatoes and things that are the most nutritious for him, instead of the amount being enough, the quality would be enough.
We can love him with the quality of food.
I've dealt with this with people-- before I trained people with dogs, I was a personal trainer, and I used to specialize in weight loss.
When I was working as a personal trainer, it wasn't so much about teaching somebody how to lift heavy weights-- that's not that difficult-- it was all the emotional stuff that got people to the point of where they were obese.
When I dealt with people's issues, the biggest part was getting them to admit the emotional part, and then getting on the treadmill is easy.
You know, I was called for Biggie, but Biggie's habits are their habits.
So this encompasses everything I've worked with.
I mean, let's not dance around it-- if this dog continues on this path, it's a short path.
We should weigh him.
- Okay.
- Big papa, come here.
You look like you look like a seal.
He's 40 pounds! He should be about 25 pounds.
A large puggle should weigh 25 pounds.
Biggie weighs 40 pounds.
That's about 60% overweight.
That's huge.
That's insane for a dog.
And he's three years old.
So, here's the deal.
We got to change this now.
Starting today, we take a step in a different direction.
I got to run to Queens right now.
I'm gonna come back-- we're gonna get to work on this ASAP.
- All right? - You got it.
I'm leaving Linda and her family for the moment.
Now, while I'm gone, they need to start monitoring Biggie's diet and lay off those treats.
When I come back, I'll have a more specific plan for them.
Right now, I'm driving to meet up with Jackie and Kenny and their dogs Sophia and Carmine.
Kenny and Jackie are undergoing major renovations, and I hear that Sophia's not adjusting well to her new environment.
I don't have too many details yet, so I want to go check it out.
- Hey, how are you? - How's it going? - Kenny.
- Yep.
- Justin.
- Jackie.
What's going on here? You got renovations? Yeah, renovating the house, um, and Sophia is demo-ing down here, but we haven't gotten here yet.
- She is? - Yes.
- She did that? - Yes.
I mean, that's crazy.
Our dog's scared of men.
If I move here, I assume he'll jump off.
There is a five-K dog walk-and-run.
Let's go.
Oh, my God! I was not having it.
What's going on here? She did that? - Yeah.
- For real.
How long has she been doing this? For the last four months.
Yeah, four months.
She graduated from slippers, shoes, couches, chairs - Oh, just compulsive chewing.
- yeah Sophia is very destructive when no one's around.
When we're around, she'll play with her toys, she'll play with Carmine.
But when we're gone, no matter how many toys you leave out, she always goes for the wall, the molding, anything that she could chew on or gnaw at.
It's like The Shawshank Redemption-- all you need is a poster over there, and she'll be next-door.
Yeah, she'll go right through the brick.
She stopped with the brick; she can't go anymore.
I mean, that's crazy.
To renovate the house, I gutted upstairs.
After that, we're gonna be moving upstairs.
And then I want to start on the downstairs, but I don't want Sophia ripping stuff off the wall upstairs once we're finished.
Give me a day in Sophia's life.
I wake up earlier, so I let them out.
Kenny leaves, like, around 8:30 to go to work, and I come back home at 3:30, 4:00.
Sometimes maybe a little later.
- Yeah, so nine hours.
- It could be nine hours.
So nine hours, she's been in here.
Okay.
So you got a little time-management issue.
Jackie and Kenny leave the dog for eight hours a day, sometimes nine hours, so the dogs' needs for exercise are not being met.
They're gonna get it out somehow, and the end result is something as bizarre as dogs eating through the walls.
She's high-energy, and she's got needs for discipline.
Why do you keep pointing at him? Because he doesn't discipline her.
I think Jackie's pointing fingers, but I am a little more lenient than she is.
The biggest problem is when we're both not here, there's no one to reprimand them or do anything, and that's when Sophia goes to work.
JACKIE: Like, they have a relationship together, and I I'm not lying-- they're, like, boyfriend/girlfriend.
Sophie has the issue of destroying our home, but she also has this huge problem about coming in between Kenny and I.
When Kenny and I are together and, you know, trying to kiss or whatever, she comes in between us, and literally, it's like a three-way kiss.
When we're in bed, she comes on, and then she scoots her little butt down in between us, puts her head on the pillow and starts looking at him as if hearts are coming out of her eyes.
I want to see what happens when you two want to cuddle in bed.
Lay down with each other-- not with her, forget about her.
Lay down with each other.
Okay, so anytime you guys want to get affectionate, we've having this; she's in it.
Yeah.
Off! Get off! That's it! You're annoying! You always ruin everything.
- Off! - Get down.
Why does she feel the need to jump in the middle of us? We just got to work on creating some Boundaries? Thank you.
Jackie says she asked Kenny to implement some discipline, but, you know, Sophia's, like, Daddy's little girl.
We, uh, we got some things to work on.
Sophia's got a few things going on, but I'm gonna say the wall-eating is the major problem.
I got one thing that's gonna help me assess the situation, all right? Thanks.
Sophia only chews the walls when no one's around, so I got a little help-- I got a nanny-cam.
I'm gonna set it up, so I can see what's going on during the day while Jackie and Kenny are at work.
The nanny-cam's job is to watch Sophia, see what she does in this room.
Okay.
And then I'll get a sense of what she's doing when we're not around.
- Awesome.
- Great.
All right? So I'm gonna go.
First thing I do when I come back is we're gonna look at the footage.
Awesome.
I'll see you guys soon.
- Thank you very much.
- So nice to meet you.
I cannot wait to get back here and see the footage on this camera.
This is gonna be really interesting.
- Hello? - Hey, Linda.
It's Justin.
What's up, baby? I was thinking about what we talked about, Uh-h? about feeding Biggie.
Yeah? You like to feed Biggie chicken? Yeah.
Why don't you pick up some chicken for him, some sweet potatoes and some broccoli.
All right? And I'm gonna show you some healthy ways to cook for him.
Linda told me, "In my family, food is love, " so I called Linda, because I want her to focus on the quality of what she was cooking for Biggie and bring those ingredients along to my next session.
You could "Puerto-Rican girl" it up.
All right.
Some chicken, sweet potato and broccoli.
- All right? - Okay, you got it.
All right, speak do you later.
Bye-bye.
I'm on my way to Midtown Manhattan to meet up with Todd, Joe and their dog Oso.
Other than Todd and Joe, his owners, the dog is really skittish around guys.
I'm Joe.
This is Todd.
Our dog's name is Oso, and our problem is that he's scared of men.
Oso's biggest issue is he gets vicious towards most of our friends.
We have a lot of parties and we like to have people over.
When we take a vacation, we can't ever call a friend to help us out and check in on Oso, because there's gonna be a problem.
JOE: I just really want to see Oso be able to be friendly and chummy with men.
I want to be loved by every dog, so I'm a little nervous that this one may not be that into me.
How are you? - I'm Todd.
- I'm Justin.
Very nice to meet you.
This is Oso.
Hello, Oso.
How are you? When I walk in the house, I'm really looking to see if the owners have any rules for how the dog is supposed to meet strangers.
They didn't; it's open season.
Now, no problem with women? He's fine with women.
He seems calm, and I'm just kind of, like, making my presence known.
So that's his avoidance right there.
Yeah.
And if I move here, I assume he'll jump off, right? Yep.
There we go.
Do we know more about his history? We got him from the shelter when he was three months old.
They captured his mom and dad when she was pregnant with the puppies.
This is extremely uncommon for a man that he just met, like, ten minutes ago? This is uncommon, right? Very uncommon.
I'm not really approaching him head-on.
I'm letting him initiate contact with me-- I'm doing it on my terms, but I'm also respecting his space.
See? There we go.
Just let him check it out.
He's certainly not that fearful.
Now, watch.
If I get up and I do this There we go.
When Justin walked in, we were both really impressed, because generally, when a man walks into our apartment, he freaks out.
Now, he's eyeing me, see? He's fearful, right? Justin found this way to communicate with him that I haven't seen before.
Let me do this.
Do you have other people that he reacts to? You have friends in the building? Yep.
Yep.
Can we call one of them, have them come in and see how the normal interaction goes? They're good friends with their building manager, Luis, so I asked if they would call him in.
Joe and Todd don't have any ritual for how to handle him at the door, Hi, Luis.
How are you? Come in.
How you doing? Luis comes in Oso's really frightened.
Show me what your interactions are like.
Usually, I pet him, I say hi to him.
Okay.
- Hi, Luis.
How are you? Come in.
- How you doing? Todd and Joe's building manager, Luis, comes in, and Oso's really frightened.
Show me what your interactions are like.
Usually, I try to pet him, and say hi to him.
Well, there you go.
Now, at this point, what do you normally do right now? Definitely, if his reaction isn't as intense, we'll try to force him - Okay.
- into the situation.
It was his duty to be the guardian in this situation, to ward off the potential threat-- as opposed to you showing him that, hey, I'm gonna make the introduction with Luis and I'll show you that he's a friend.
JOE: Normally, we try to toss Oso into those situations where he's exposed to tons of men.
Now we realize maybe there's a better way to approach the situation.
Now, I'm not forcing him right now, right? I'm just keeping him I'll be right here.
I'm establishing that this is safe right now.
What Oso needs is time with guys, but not in a way that's so forced and not with such hyper focus on top of him.
When we start to build just positive experiences around men, he'll start to relax, even quicker and quicker and quicker.
Yeah.
I got all the information I need.
Luis got out of there without his fingers getting chomped off.
See you guys soon.
- See ya.
- All right.
- Bye.
- Bye.
I'm done for now, but I'm gonna come back with some buddies to work with Oso a little bit more.
Hi, kids.
Hey, what's up, Justin? What's up, big handsome? Today I'm meeting Linda, Amanda, Mo and Biggie, and we're gonna do a little personal training.
The two components for healthy living is diet and exercise.
So, I used to do personal training, and one of the things I used to like to do with my clients is try to make the working out fun.
Let's get the dog moving, let's get you guys moving, and I'm gonna set up a circuit training course for your guys that we can do together with Biggie.
- That sounds awesome.
- You mean the two of them? - And you.
- Okay.
And you.
Biggie is completely sedentary, but this issue has nothing to do with the dog.
The family and Biggie should be moving around together.
There's four parts.
Here's part one.
These cones.
You're gonna go touch here, touch there, touch here, touch there.
I saw all those cones, and I was, like, oh, it's early, it's hot.
I don't know if I want to really do anything.
I was just not having it.
You're gonna grab one of these.
Jump, jump.
This big ball.
You're gonna push, push, push me.
Put these boxing gloves on, and we're gonna punch, punch, punch I like that last part.
back to here.
You ready to go? Biggie's gonna be really tired today.
It's gonna be challenging physically for Amanda, and I think it's gonna be challenging for Mo.
All right, you ready, Biggie? Let's go.
Go! Go! Fast, fast.
Touch, touch, touch, touch, touch, touch.
Back.
Come on, bring him.
Encourage him, encourage you.
Come on, baby.
Come on, big boy.
In the middle of doing this course, that actually brought me back to junior high school That is a heavy ball.
I almost felt like I was gonna give up.
You okay? It was so hard.
Hold the ball.
Ready? Push.
But a little bit of this every day, the reward is gonna be worth it.
I have not done anything like that in a long time.
I set the course up like a relay race, and Biggie was the baton.
Mo, let's go.
As each person ran the course, they passed Biggie off, and then Biggie would run the course with the next person.
Go, Biggie, go! Come on.
Let's go.
Push, push, come on, Biggie.
You got some anger to get out? You can do it.
Let's go, Biggie.
Come on, Amanda.
You could push harder.
What this? Come on, Amanda, I know you got it in you.
eight, nine, ten.
Yeah! Yeah! This was good.
I'm looking forward to Biggie getting down to his weight, looking forward for this being a lifestyle change for my whole family.
That was cool.
You did it, Mama.
It's so important for Linda to see that Biggie can exercise like this.
No more excuses for anyone in this family.
Still breathing a little hard from the workout.
But I feel good.
Up, up.
Good boy.
Biggie needs to be walking every single day.
But exercise is only half the battle.
- This is the food you made.
- Yes.
Normally, he eats how much more than this a day? I'm gonna say two of those twice a day.
Two of these twice a day?! Two of these twice a day, Mo! So he eats four times the amount that he's supposed to be eating.
But wait, he's also eating snacks throughout the day.
- Yes.
- That's horrendous.
This is a two-cup portion, Right.
which is how much he's supposed to eat in a day-- if he was at the weight that he's supposed to be.
Oh, my God, Biggie, Mommy's really had it wrong.
So, he will eat half of this in the morning And half at night? and half at night.
When Justin showed me what I should be feeding Biggie, it was definitely a wakeup call.
Oh, my God.
It's going to be really, really tough for me, to feed him healthy and the right portions, but once I start seeing that Biggie's losing the weight, I know that I'll feel good about it.
Now, Linda, you like to cook.
Yeah.
Food is love in your family.
Yeah.
What does that say on the top? "Biggie's Sexy Beach Body Diet"" That is cool! And on that is a list of what? "Good food"! Flip it over.
- "Supplements.
" - And? - "Bad foods.
" - And since you like snacks so much-- - "Treats.
" - That you can make at home.
Oh, my God, Justin, that is great.
This is an example of somebody who should be cooking for her dog, because that's the way she can show love.
Not by how much she pours into the bowl, but the time she takes preparing it, the time she takes researching the ingredients, the time she takes serving it to him, and I really want her to focus on that.
Okay, there is a 5K dog walk and run.
Let's go.
Oh, my God.
When he said 5K, I was a little scared.
I don't I don't think that's possible.
Want to go with me? This family needs to show up for healthy things in their life and Biggie's life.
Yes.
I'm a little nervous and a little excited.
I never thought in a million years that I would be doing a 5K walk with my family and Biggie.
I'll see you guys later.
- All right.
Have a good day.
- Bye, Justin.
But now it's happening, so I hope that this is a lifestyle change for my entire family.
curb I headed back to Joe and Todd's to meet up with Oso and work with him.
But this time, I brought Big Dave, my business partner, my buddy Nate, my buddy Gary.
So, here's the deal-- this dog, it's scared of men.
So I was just going to show you guys how to interact with it, and then I'm going to show the guys who own it how to interact with it.
Hey, guys.
- Good to see you.
- Good to see you.
- How are you? - And good to see you.
I was just surprised to see Justin with an entourage of three friends because, generally, one man's too much for Oso to take.
Let him just sniff.
See, look, look, look, look.
Good boy.
The point of this exercise is to get Oso comfortable around men and do it the way that I want to do it as opposed to the way that they've been doing it.
So, dude, we're going to see you guys later-- hang out here-- and we'll be back.
All right.
Sounds good.
Come on, kids.
Come on, kid.
When I saw Justin walking away, I thought to myself, "Wow.
This probably won't work.
" I totally expected to hear back from him five minutes later saying, " Let me try something else.
" Come on.
- But he's definitely skittish.
- He wants to go back.
Come here.
Oso, come here.
Come here.
- I don't want to force him.
- Let's go.
It's okay.
Come on.
Good boy.
My goal for him today is just to let some people pet him.
Just relax.
We just keep cool, he'll get cool.
As we were walking around, I told Dave, Nate and Gary to just relax their arms, let Oso come up and sniff their hands.
Everyone was just relaxed, not hyper-focusing on him.
Just relax.
Nice and easy.
And then, over time, over time, Oso was starting to warm up to them slowly as we walked.
These are your buddies now.
These are your buddies.
Here's my idea.
Take a seat.
I just want him to sit with us and relax.
Come here, handsome.
Come back up.
Here you go.
Sit down.
Don't be so nervous.
I'm just, like, calming him down.
So, I just wanted to let him ease into it a little bit.
Sit down, buddy.
Sit down.
There we go.
He doesn't let anybody do that.
He doesn't let people touch him.
He's chilling out now, right? Look, you see his expression change? For sure.
Look at his face.
He looks like a dog now.
Well, you know what I want to do? I want to just call them so they can see this.
We're on 44th, between 9th and 10th.
I didn't want Joe and Todd to just come right up, because I think that would trigger Oso again, so I asked them to just check it out from across the street.
I see them all the way down there.
- That's pretty impressive.
- That is really good.
He's doing good.
That guy is, like, petting him.
Scratching his head.
I was absolutely blown away.
There's my dog with four guys sitting around him, and he looked like he was having a great time.
What I was showing Joe and Todd was, by taking their time and letting Oso just get a little comfortable, and then interacting with him, he'll be fine meeting men.
I mean, he won't do this with friends that he's known for years.
We just did it calmly, We didn't force it-- but this is not going to happen by just having a bunch of people come over and throwing a party.
So, here's what I'm going to suggest.
Instead of having a big party, let's just have a little get-together, and I'll work on training you in that scenario.
TODD: Oso and a dinner party.
I'm completely skeptical.
But I'm entrusting Justin completely at this point, and I'm looking forward to seeing if it works out.
dogs Go! I'm headed back to Jackie and Kenny's.
I really want to see what Sophia's been doing on that nanny-cam.
Now, while we're doing this, do you do you - This is annoying.
- You just let this happen? We ignore him.
But ignoring him isn't doing anything.
We figured, if we ignore him, maybe he'll stop, but Well, but how long have you been ignoring him for? A while.
Carmine and Sophia both have issues, but Carmine flies under the radar because Sophia's issues are so glaring.
Can you do you sit down? Sit down.
So he doesn't know his sit command.
- - Only with a treat.
He does when you go, "Sit, " like that, but Go ahead.
Then do it like that if he knows it.
Come over here.
No, I say he doesn't; you're like, "No, he does"" He does, but I'm, like he only does it when he wants to.
- So, then, he doesn't know the command.
- No.
It's not a command if I only do it when I want to.
It's not a command.
It's a selective command.
If I literally go just, "Lay down, lay down, lay down, lay" Oh, look, he followed his commands.
Wow, you're good.
I'm kidding.
Here we go.
She's eating it.
She's eating it.
See? She just starts.
She eats the sheetrock.
It's insane.
Yeah, she just goes.
She's bored.
It's like she's smoking cigarettes, eating the wall.
I feel bad for her, you know.
I want them to see her standing there, feeling bored, feeling anxious.
Then she goes back.
She's, like, pacing almost, like, bored and - She's not having fun.
- She's just keeping herself busy.
Those splinters aren't good for her, either.
She gets, like, an upset stomach sometimes.
Yeah, it's like a laxative for her.
She's, like, going diarrhea.
It's disgusting.
So, I've just seen the hole.
It's kind of disturbing.
For Sophia to be eating wood and drywall, the fact that they haven't had to take this dog to the hospital yet for ingesting all these toxins is a miracle in and of itself.
It's, like, really bad.
So, now that we see the footage and everybody's upset, good-- time to fix the problem.
I've seen enough of this.
You get it, right? Yeah, it's not good.
- I recommend adequate exercise.
- Okay.
"Adequate exercise.
" Which is so much more than what she's doing right now.
Let's wear them out a little bit, and then, when we come back in here, we'll work on some practical training techniques that you can do to stop this kind of stuff.
I've got to get Sophia's energy out.
She's got to walk.
She's got to play.
They have a backyard, so I want them to play with the dogs out in the backyard.
You can't really discipline them and expect them to sit in a crate for eight hours a day or expect them to behave properly if their needs for exercise aren't being met.
He goes to the gym.
They need to go to the gym.
Yes, exactly.
Both dogs need exercise, both dogs need structure, but Carmine didn't ring any alarms for them because he's not chewing through the walls.
It's like a three-ring circus in there.
So let's create some rules in the house.
Why are you pointing at him? 'Cause he does not set rules.
I set them up.
When I'm here, they work well.
He ruins it.
No offense or anything, babe.
You also have to set rules also.
It's not just me.
I say you got to wake up, you got to take them for a walk, you got to let them out.
Yeah, uh, we do.
Working with a couple is hilarious.
The finger-pointing starts.
It turns to family feud, man.
This has been an issue for a while, or I wouldn't be here, but now I think they're going to see it and get on the same page together.
I think it's a team thing.
- It's not to point fingers.
- No.
If you point fingers, nothing's going to get done.
You have to work together and get it done-- that's what I think.
Okay.
So, now that these guys have got some exercise, let's go back in the house.
Let's work on implementing some rules in your house.
You know, bulldogs are always like So I know these dogs are getting tired when they just start slowing down a little bit, so now that the dogs are tired, we can begin to apply some training.
Now it's realistic for us to try the crate.
The crate is always done when she's hyped up, she's got tons of energy, and then you throw her in there, and then you leave, and then she's like, "What are you doing? " Sophia needs crate training.
She obviously cannot be left alone and have free reign of the house.
If a dog's all wound up and needs to go out, you can't expect to put it in the crate.
She's afraid of the crate.
She doesn't realize that it's not a bad place.
She's just terrified of it at this point.
Watch.
I'm going to give her a treat in there.
There you go.
What's the difference between laying right here or laying right here? It's more comfortable in there, I think, 'cause of the blanket.
I would think so, too.
There's a blanket in there.
Instead of being terrified of the crate, she's occupying herself.
Lay down in bed.
If you keep the crate here and she's exercised, it's just a place for her to lay down.
JACKIE: It feels amazing.
It feels like it was never going to happen.
And I'm pretty confident that this is going to be the start to a new chapter of our life.
Just keep in touch with me, 'cause I'll be able to give you little touch-ups.
They're still going to have to work on the crate training.
Still just can't throw Sophia in the crate, and then leave for the day.
That's not going to work.
They have to exercise her first, practice having her in the crate while they're at home, and then, before you know it, this problem's going to be solved and everything will be peaceful in that house.
I just finished my last training session, and I told my ex-girlfriend Erin to meet me outside my apartment with this new dog that she's thinking about fostering-- Kaia.
This dog came from a shelter where, you know, most of them get put down, so I love that Erin does this work.
- Here she is.
Oh, my goodness.
- I know we've got to work on the jumping issue first.
- I know.
- She's sweet, huh? Justin and I broke up about five years ago.
One thing that we both got really involved in was animal welfare, and together, we still try to save dogs that need help and need homes by fostering.
In the shelter, she got along with dogs.
- She's young, right? - A year and a half.
She's comfortable with me touching, so, you know, I'm putting my hand here so she can't turn on me.
And the first thing I do is just a physical assessment to see how it is with people handling it, people touching it.
She's comfortable being handled, which is important.
The shelters are all overloaded.
For every dog that gets pulled out of a shelter, there's hundreds more that are rotting away, and a lot of them get put down.
Good girl.
Come here.
Unless people like Erin step up and volunteer to foster these dogs, - Come on, girl.
- their fate isn't that great.
Shakes, sit down.
- Shakes just wants a girlfriend so bad.
- He does.
Erin's dogs, Shakes and Baxter, don't have any issues with dogs.
I'm not worried on their end.
I just want to make sure that Kaia's okay with them, so we're gonna do a nice introduction with all three dogs.
Stay in proximity with me, but just don't go so close.
You stay Don't put them face to face yet.
I wanted to see if these dogs are gonna fight.
Just walk by.
Just walk by.
- Ready? - Yeah, just walk by.
Go ahead, let her sniff.
Let her sniff, I trust you.
I trust you.
Not so close, not so close Immediately, you know, they didn't even really look at each other.
So the fact that they're not paying that much attention to each other is pretty good.
Let's go, this way.
Good.
Erin gets tied in a knot, 'cause that's her style.
Erin.
Come on.
But I didn't see anything from the dogs that was problematic.
Turn around smooth.
She's cool, man.
- Isn't she awesome? - Yeah, I like her.
They look like a box of crayons.
- Look at this circle of happiness.
- This is good energy.
What Erin's going to do is foster Kaia and get this dog shaped up so that she can find a forever home and be someone's family pet.
All right, Kaia, what do you say? You want to find your forever home? You can come stay with me for a little while until you do, though, okay? - Say good-bye to Justin.
- Bye, sweetheart.
He's not as big of a pain as he seems.
I'm not.
midtown - How's it going? How are you? - Good to see you.
- It's good to see you.
- You, too.
I'm back at Todd, Joe and Oso's.
- How are you? - How are you? They're going to have a little get-together, and I'm going to show them how to introduce Oso to their friends a little bit differently than the way they've been doing it.
When he hears the door, or when he hears the buzzer, and then the first person comes in, and they reach for him, it just keeps escalating, escalating, escalating.
So maybe we just have some rules about that, just for his comfort.
- Okay? For yours and his comfort.
- That'd be awesome.
- Does that sound good? - I think that's great.
- Okay.
Let's leash him up.
Okay? - Okay.
I think having a leash on in the house is gonna be good for him.
Oso, when he gets nervous, will run behind the couch or hide in a corner.
So having the leash on Oso is great, because we want to let him know that everything is safe, everything is okay.
When the buzzer rings, it's usually a It's like these unconfident barks that start to build and build and build.
So when someone comes in, right, I just want to keep him next to me, I want to keep him on lead.
I don't want to let him go run up and smell them first, and then potentially them spook him.
- Right.
- Just keep cool.
Okay.
Hold on a sec.
Easy.
Sit down.
Relax.
Relax.
Now, normally he would just run to the door right now.
Okay.
Oso, come here.
Now I'll lead him to the door.
I just want to keep him next to me, I want to keep him on lead.
Good boy.
So this is where I use rewards.
He is not thinking about whoever's at the door right now.
What you want to do is let the thing that bothers the dog occur, then redirect it and reward it for its behavior after it's redirected.
Can you knock on that door again, my friend? Come here.
Come here.
Sit.
Good boy! I kind of just redirect his attention come here.
Good boy.
- Sit down.
Sit down.
- Hey, Oso.
- How are you? - Good.
- I'm Justin.
- Francisco.
- Francisco, nice to meet you.
- Hey, how are you? Oso, come.
Come here.
And heel.
Now, he doesn't seem too bothered by Francisco right now, does he? You can touch him.
Little nervous, but certainly tolerating it.
Things were looking pretty good.
Oso was in a chill space.
Next guest comes in, I let Joe take the lead.
Hey, Oso.
Okay, don't now don't get so just tell him to sit.
Sit.
Good.
That's enough.
You see? Right there.
Go grab the door.
All right.
Come on.
Come, Oso.
Confident.
Don't let him pull you over there.
- How are you? - Come in.
Still a little nervous dog, that's okay.
But he's not freaking out.
Hey, Oso, how are you? The buzzer rings again, and I let Todd take over.
Sit.
Okay, sit.
Say it once.
There you go.
Lead him confidently.
Don't let him pull ahead of you.
Then ask him to sit.
- How are you? - Good.
Just have him sit by your side while your friend comes in.
- Sit, Oso.
Sit.
- So he's not the he's not the focal point.
Good boy.
- Invite your friend in.
- Come on in.
Fun game, new people coming.
- Come in, come in.
- Thank you.
People start eating, they're moving around, talking, grabbing glasses of wine, and Oso's just the family dog.
He's just running around, sniffing everybody, tail wagging.
He's letting people touch him.
It's like we did it! I mean, look how far you've come in a few days.
- This is your work.
Thank you.
- You're very welcome.
TODD: It was really heartwarming for me to see my friends actually pet my dog.
It was awesome.
Made me feel great.
ALL: Cheers! Like, I can't tell you how much it fills me up to see a dog that was suffering, that was so tortured, that was so fearful, to watch that dog just being in a room of people, letting people pet him That made me feel so good.
ANNOUNCER: Dog owners, please keep your pets away from the 5K starting line.
- You guys excited? - I guess, yeah.
Biggie is 15 pounds overweight, I don't know if he's going to be able to make it.
Dog owners, please keep your pets away from the 5K starting line.
So, big morning.
I hopped across the river to Tenafly, New Jersey, to meet up with Linda, Mo, Amanda and Biggie - Hey, how you doing? - Nice to see you.
for a big 5K dog walk.
You guys excited? I guess, yeah.
"I guess, yeah? I was getting hit hard last night, with Amanda and Mo you know, "I don't want to do this, I don't want to run.
" If I didn't push, we wouldn't be here today.
It's important for him, he's active with other dogs - Yeah, yeah, no no, I know.
- You know, and they'll motivate him.
LINDA: We gotta start somewhere.
Biggie's 15 pounds overweight, so if I can get the family involved, then it's gonna be all good, 'cause we're all gonna pitch in.
- Okay, he's good? - Everybody's good.
- Let's do it.
- Let's do it.
- ggie! High-five.
- High five, Biggie.
High five There you go! Come on, let's go.
We walked to the starting line.
I'm not sure if they can do it, but I'm going to be there to coach them every step of the way.
Let's see what happens.
Runners, take your mark.
Get set go! For whoever thinks this is easy, it's not.
How do you feel? It's a lot of work.
"Mommy, I'm gonna lose five pounds on this walk" " He is 15 pounds overweight.
I don't know if Biggie's gonna be able to make it.
He wants to go where all the other dogs are going.
Yeah, no.
That's good.
This'll give him the push to keep going.
Biggie kept pulling me.
He was more and more psyched.
- He's got a big smile on his face.
- Yeah, he does.
He's like, what's Mommy's right here, don't-don't-don't get crazy.
'Cause normally, I don't want dogs to pull, but I was like, "Let him go.
Let him do what he wants to do" " So this is actually exciting, and the fact that there's a lot of dogs makes it even better.
Yeah.
That dog was amped up.
Come on, buddy, come on, buddy, come on, buddy, come on, buddy, come on, buddy! Oh, he's flying now.
I was pretty surprised that he was into it.
Good boy, good boy, good boy, good boy, good boy! I don't care if it takes an hour, I don't care if it takes 100 hours, I just want to see them cross that finish line, because it's gonna make them feel so good.
Good boy.
He's slowing down a little bit, but he's doing good.
We're at the home stretch.
I really didn't think that he was going to be able to do this.
I thought that he was gonna just stop, and say, "That's it, Ma, I'm done" - How you doing, hon? - Amanda wants to run.
- You want to run, Amanda? - No.
Go run, Amanda.
Go, girl! Seeing my daughter, um smile while we were doing this 5K walk, and enjoying it - The start to something new.
- Good for you.
I don't know, you know I guess this is telling you how I feel about my daughter doing this.
He is a changed dog.
He did the 5K walk, which I didn't think my boy had it in him.
And he was psyched.
Yeah, Biggie! - Come on, Biggie! - You did it, papi! All right, that's my dog.
We crossed that finish line and I'm telling you, I felt awesome.
That's it! Good job! Good job! I've never done anything like this before.
- What'd you think? - I liked it; I enjoyed it.
You had a change of heart, right? Yes, I did.
It's showing me that I need to take care of myself.
I-I have to.
I think that I'm gonna start walking Biggie in the morning now.
I'm gonna make Amanda do it.
This came out of her mouth.
She said this on national TV.
She's going to have to stick with her word.
- It's healthy for us.
- Yeah, for you For me, for Biggie we gotta do it.
We gotta start I gotta start somewhere.
Justin gave me the push to push my family.
So now that Justin has given me the tools to work with, now I can apply that to my family, and get my family, as well as Biggie, on track.
- Enjoy the rest of the day.
- All right, you too.
Bye-bye.
This is a happy ending to this story, but a happy beginning for this dog and this family.
Biggie's doing okay.
I'm actually very proud of him.
Changing your life can be daunting, but ignoring an issue is ultimately more damaging for everyone, especially your dog.
- All it takes is a few adjustments - This feels good.
and dedication to follow through, and you can change life for your family and your dog.
There you go! One constant in life is change.
That's why I'm always gonna be here for all these dogs Good boy.
and their owners, to make sure they adapt and thrive in the city.
dogs.
in.
the.
city s01e05