 you wouldn't go to your mechanic looking for dental work advice, would you? Then why would you go to your primary veterinary and looking for canine behavior advice? It makes zero sense. This thing on, yeah, it is. Hello everybody and welcome back to the coolest dog training channel right here on YouTube. I'm Tom Davis, America's Canon Educator. I want to say, oh, first of all, there's Lakota. She's got a little mad at me. Thank you guys so much for joining me here today on my YouTube channel. I truly do appreciate it if you're new here. Hello and welcome. And if you've been here for a while, thank you so much for the support. Today I'm going to be talking about something that we've been getting messages on for the last couple of years. We've been hearing stories for the last couple of years. Sometimes it's heartbreaking. Sometimes it's success stories. But today we're going to be talking about taking behavioral advice from your regular veterinarian. A lot of times veterinarian look at a thing, look at a behavior and assume certain things because they just don't have experience in it. Like for example, Kota, watch him. Watch him. Watch, watch, watch, watch, watch, watch, watch, watch, watch. Ooh, that dog looks kind of aggressive, doesn't it? Or was she just barking because she wanted the ball? If you really know dogs and you really dedicate your life to behavior, then that's the type of people you need to be going to see. You shouldn't be going to your veterinarian for K-9 advice. It's silly, y'all. First and foremost, I want to state that in this video, no matter what the title is and no matter what people may think, this is in no way shape or form trying to disrespect veterinarians at what they're good at. I have friends and family that are really great at what they do, and they do a phenomenal job and they work really, really hard. I can tell you firsthand. But I've also seen some really bad incidences, unfortunately for dog owners at home, which is why I have to make this video. So I wanted to make this video to clear the air and to give you my, of course, this isn't the absolute opinion. This isn't the right opinion. This isn't the, this is what everyone has to follow. That's laughable. And there's a B. I don't know if you guys saw that. That's laughable. That's not what I'm trying to say. I'm not trying to say what I'm just giving you my opinion. We get a lot of emails. We get a lot of requests of like, Hey, what do you think about this? Or what do you think about this sad story? Or what do you think about this? And we've seen it firsthand here at the academy where people will actually come in and tell us that their veterinarian has told them, you know, specific behavioral advice and exercises to do to make sure that certain things don't happen, which can be great. But at the same time, when you're hiring your veterinarian, veterinarians do not go to school for behavior. Actually, I'm going to give you some facts here in a minute about what that's doing school as far as behavior goes. But veterinarians are science and medicine. Veterinarians are there if your dog is sick, if your cat is sick, if your rabbit is sick, if your hamster is coughing. Veterinarians are science and medicine across the board, depending on what you, of course it depends. Like if you're a specialist, that's different. But what I'm talking about is just going down any old town and seeing a little veterinary clinic or even a big veterinary clinic and it's 10 different vets or six different vets or 13 different veterinarians in one hospital. It doesn't matter. These types of veterinarians are there for science and medicine for your animals at home. So what that means is, is veterinarians sure have a lot of experience working with animals, no doubt, no question about that. However, veterinarians are on a very tight schedule. They get in, they get out. And that does not mean that they don't care. I'm not implying that. What I'm saying is, from the time they clock in, say it's eight o'clock in the morning when they walk into the hospital from the time they leave, they have 20 or 30 or 10 or five different patients that they have to see that day. And I've seen it firsthand where they're rushed and bumped to different appointments. And that's okay. I'm the same way when I train. However, you have to understand that when these veterinarians come in, they have little to no canine behavioral backgrounds except for the dogs that they see and they care for in their care. Now what I'd like to do really quick is Tom's trivia. A little something I made up to have filmed with you guys at home. What I want to know is, is Lakota's over there waiting for something. I want you guys to tell me, what is Lakota's favorite toy? Is it A, a Frisbee, B, a Comtoy, or C, a Chucket Ball? Leave your answers in the comments below. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm talking about clients coming in, or dogs across the country or the world being mistaken for mistaken things, misdiagnosed from a professional that actually has no background professionally in working with dog behavior, which is, let me put my glasses on, which is extremely scary. And I understand that veterinarians do have a lot of experience with dogs, but like I said, in their schooling practices, there is little to no requirements for behavioral cases. Like I said, a lot of times veterinarians come in, they get out, they do their job, and everything's great. They fix whatever needs to be fixed, but they have nothing to do with behavior. The North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine don't even work with aggressive dogs within their veterinary program. They have nothing to do with it. They actually won't even take dogs that have behavioral issues or a little bit or a tad bit aggressive because what it'll do is it'll put a liability onto the students. Listen, I get that. I understand that. I don't want students, young people, dealing with dogs that are potentially dangerous and aggressive. That shouldn't be done either, but there should still be some sort of course criteria videos, education slides. I mean, don't you guys agree that if these veterinarians are going to work with potentially dangerous dogs or dangerous animals in their lifetime, they should at least be mandated to do some behavioral stuff so they can give proper advice? And in most cases, that doesn't happen at all ever in any college, and that's unfortunate. UC Davis in California, which is a very big veterinary school, it's one of the best in the country, has a mandatory one week or five days integration of a wellness, behavior, and nutrition course. One week mandatory. That's probably one of the biggest courses out of all the colleges, and it's not even specifically for behavior. It's wellness, behavior, and nutrition. So you take five days and you work on that particular stuff. Chances are of you getting a lot of aggressive dog or behavioral cases in and working with that clinically over time to figure out what to do in the future. If you do get these cases, they're very small because you're working on three different things for only five days out of all the years of getting your DVM or becoming a veterinarian. Now again, I'm not talking about people who go become behavioralists. That may be a completely separate video. I'm just talking about normal veterinarians that you go to within your area or in your town. Texas A&M of College Veterinary Medicine reports that there's currently a one hour course on behavior that is not mandatory. So I'm just taking some cliff notes here of different colleges that are pretty big in the veterinary field. And the only one that mandates it is a three-part course of UC Davis in California. Now these stats may be old, they may not be current, but I'm just letting you know that this is what we're dealing with here. And we have a lot of people coming in saying my veterinarian told me that I should only do this. My veterinarian should tell me. And here's the frustrating thing. Here's why I'm making this video. It's because again, you're not gonna go, you're not gonna go to your dentist and expect them to give you advice on your marriage or your ear ache or something like that. But if they did give you that advice, you have to understand that that's not what they specialize in. Nor did they go to school for it. They're just saying like, oh, I talked to a lot of people and I see a lot of ears. It doesn't make them the end all of what you should be doing. And I think what happens is people get overwhelmed and I think people trust their veterinarians because they are skillful at what they do, administrating science and medicine to help their dog if they're sick or they're broken or what have you or just doing a wellness check. They have a ton of education. They have all these plaques and stuff on the wall. But the problem is, is they know nothing about behavior clinically. They haven't studied it. They haven't had hands-on and aggressive dogs. I can tell you firsthand, I brought a dog, actually the one over here, super sick. He had a fever. He was sick. We don't know what happened to him, but he's okay now. But he came up to the vet. First of all, you have to understand that when you go to the vet, it's super stressful. Their waiting areas are set up like accidents waiting to happen or some sort of Chinese fighting ring. You have all these dogs basically just looking at each other that don't know each other that are sick, that are vulnerable, irritable, et cetera. And they're in this place that's loud, smells like medicine. People are walking around in uniform. It's a very scary place for the majority of dogs. So when you go to your veterinarian, a lot of times they're there because they're hurt. So it's a very bad association. They're getting poked, probed, pricked. You name it with things that they, with somebody they don't know. And so veterinarians unfortunately do get a lot of nasty dogs. And in this case, I brought him up and he was nasty. He was sick. He was in a muzzle. And he didn't know this person trying to do a bunch of stuff. This lady could not be more terrified. She was on the other side of the counter and wouldn't even assess the dog unless they basically put him under. And again, I get it. I understand veterinarians have a ton of other animals that they need to see that day. And they don't want to get hurt or risk their health or their wellness by getting bit by a dog that they don't know. However, I just think that veterinarians aren't open-minded about behavior in general. I truly do think that they see a dog that comes after them. Well, no crap. The dogs weren't going to come after you because every time it's here, you poke them. You put something up their butt or they put a muzzle on. And you're walking around in this white coat. And I've had firsthand veterinarians call me in for help on behavior, which is fantastic, because they deal with dogs that they're uncomfortable with. That's the best type of professional you ever want to deal with is to say, hey, this isn't my ring. This isn't something I'm comfortable with. Just the same thing. When somebody comes in with a sick dog, I go, go to your vet. Like, yes, I'm around 35 other dogs every single day. I've been around dogs my entire life. I know a lot about dogs. But I don't be naive. And I stay in my lane to say, well, I'm not a doctor. So why don't you go see your vet? And I truly do think that the amount of education that veterinarians have, which is little to none about canine behavior, they should do the same thing. When they have a dog that is potentially dangerous or they're uncomfortable with seeing, they should call in some sort of behavioral specialist or a trainer or somebody that actually is boots on the ground working with some of these dogs every single day in order for these dogs to stay alive, for the veterinarian to be safe, and to make it a pleasant experience for the dog. Why don't we just try to work with the dog? And again, you as the dog owner, which is what this video is for, have to realize that if your veterinarian says something about your dog's behavior, you can take that with a grain of salt and realize that you should actually probably go see a specialist, somebody like myself or my other great trainers here at the Epstate Canine Academy that literally get from start to finish, from the morning we wake up to the time we go to bed or working with dogs that potentially wanna hurt us, potentially wanna kill us, that try to every single day that work with dogs who growl and lunge and bite and all this is what we do. And these are the things that we wanna help people with and we've devoted our lives to doing it because it's what we like to do. It's a huge epidemic here in the United States just with kids in America. People or doctors are literally prescribing pills to individuals, to young adults, to kids even because they're a little bit hyper. So instead of giving them something to do, they just put them under, which is something that veterinarians are infamous for. It's the same thing, why they, sorry about that guys, why they give a certain food out and why do they prescribe certain things? It's all a ring, it's all a circuit. They get paid for having certain amount of food, a type of food, a type of brand in their office because they get kickbacks from it. It's just like the medical field in humans. So don't be fooled. And more importantly, I want you guys to really, really understand that you need to respect your veterinarian. You should take all of their science. And if your veterinarian gives you that behavioral advice, go to a professional that actually works. Google right now, if you guys are having these issues, Google right now, behavioral trainer or behavior modification trainer in my area. And that's what you guys can do to really start searching for somebody who specializes in the exact things that you're troubling with or you're struggling with. And that's really important. It's a great advice for you guys. If your answer was C, a chucket, you are correct. Congratulations, you know that. So just make sure that you're doing your education and understand that there's always gonna be a second opinion. And just because your veterinarian gave you advice on behavioral training doesn't mean it's the end all and you can't do the training you wanna do and you can't get the results you wanna get. Just do what works for your dog and do what's comfortable. But more importantly, if you're having trouble with a specific thing, bye Ben, everyone's about to Ben. Thank you guys so very much for joining me today. Oh, one other quick question. Why guys I was saying before my camera died is I'm thinking about doing some videos about like my facility here with all the staff. There's 10 other people that are running around this area working with dogs doing particular things and do really good at. And I was thinking about maybe showing you guys some parts of my business. I wanna know if you guys would be interested in seeing that maybe doing a live in my daycare or doing a live in some of our training with our other staff. As you just see some of my daycare, they're probably gonna go nuts. The girls are gonna kill me, but I'll see. They've already busted me. Anyway, there's another inside which is where the majority of dogs are at right now. But anyway, thank you guys again for watching. Don't forget to like this video. Leave your comments below. Let me know if you guys wanna see more of my business. I truly do appreciate you guys watching the stuff that I do. I, talk to you next time. Peace.