Welcome to the Absolute Dog Sex and a Squirrel podcast. I'm Lauren Langman. I'm one of the world's leading dog trainers and it's my mission to help owners become their dog's top priority. In each episode, you'll discover how to gain trust and

communicate with your dog like never before, creating unbreakable bonds that make you the most

exciting part of their world. Oh my goodness, my dog bit my dad. You know what? I guess you guys

are listening, thinking, what the hell? And yet it happens.

It happens. Dogs are dogs and there are by incidents and that doesn't make them a terrible

dog and it doesn't make your dad a terrible person for doing the wrong thing. Actually,

sometimes these things happen out. Karen, I'm joined by Rupert's mum, Karen. This is a big

opportunity for you to really get Rupert's story out there. Also, from the

point of view of your dad, from you, like, how did it actually happen and how did it come

about? Because when we play it back, it all feels fairly obvious. And yet in that moment,

it went horribly wrong. My dad had Rupert for the weekend and my parents had Rupert for the weekend

and he needed to have his harness put on and he was on the sofa, very comfortable, happily

chilling away, probably not really wanting to go out for a bedtime wee-wee and my dad moved him to

physically put the harness on. So whereas I know that the best opportunity for Rupert,

if I got to get his harness on, is to move him with some food,

get him actually moving, loosen him off,

and then make that a consensual activity.

My dad wasn't quite as clued upon that

and just physically tried to move him.

And when he went to physically move, Rupert, Rupert basically said no. So effectively he didn't give consent. He was like, I don't give consent to getting off the sofa right now. I quite like sitting on the sofa and I'm quite happy in this space. And no, I don't want to go out for a late outside, possibly rainy, wee, thank you. And it was his version of saying, no, thank you. He just didn't maybe have the thank you or the no in the potentially correct sort of space. Now, how might you prevent that or how might we do better by our dog or how might we prevent, I suppose, it's happening to our dad? And actually, where did you go from here? Because it's really easy for us to fall out with our family members. It's really easy for us to lose our dog sitter. It's really easy for us to feel very guilty and guilty for a long time on this. And these are all really normal observations, feelings, frustrations, upset angst. Where do you sit with that now, Karen? Yeah, so I did and do you feel guilty. And my parents are one of the few people who can or will

look after Rupert. He's not the easiest dog to look after. So it was important from my relationship

with my parents' point of view and also from occasionally needing somebody

...