Top 5 Dog Products I’d NEVER Buy (After 30 Years With Dogs)

Welcome back in gang. So look, are there products out there? You're kind of like, I wonder if these are good, but these are bad. Do these work? Do they not work? That kind of thing. So guess what I've done here. I have come up with five dog products that I would never buy. I definitely don't recommend them to my clients and I surely wouldn't recommend them to you. You guys ready? All right. Moving right on into this first one of top five dog products that I would personally never buy. It's your puppy pads. You know, these things, they've been marketed very well, but the end result is it still teaches your dog to use the bathroom under this roof. And to me, that's just a no, no. You know what I mean? It's so much easier to get a puppy in and crate train them. I know a lot of people that choose puppy pads are the kind of the same people that are against crate training for one reason or another, but crate training is phenomenal. It's kind of like a den, it's their dog house. And if it's used properly, it's a fantastic tool. Dogs love it. It's not used as punishment. It's a den. And when you teach it properly, and it's a properly sized one, it is a fantastic tool for housebreaking, right? You can't put a dog in a crate that's too big because the whole reason the crate works is dogs won't soil where they sleep. But if you put a puppy in a huge crate and they can sleep on this side and potty on this side, you're completely ruining the whole idea of the crate or the whole purpose of the crate, right? So, but that's what people tend to do. They, they forego the crate for the puppy pads and it trains them. The dogs are using, you know, potty on the puppy pads, but look, it's still under your roof. You still got to get them outside. And so to me, it's just one step. Okay, great. Now they're going potty here, but we still got to get them outside. And I, I worked with a lot of clients that have successfully puppy, you know, puppy pad trained their dogs, but they're like, okay, I want to get them all the way outside. And I said, great. Yeah. I would do the same thing. And I usually introduce a crate that teaches bladder control again with puppy pads. Dogs aren't going to hold anything because every time they need to go, boom, there's a pad and they go. So where are they learning to hold it? Right? Puppy pads to me, I just don't use them. Don't recommend them. Go with the crate route. You're going to be much better off. You're going to have a well house broken dog because it was done properly. To me, puppy pads are all marketing. Let's move on to this next one. All right, moving right on into this one here. And I know trainers out there are going to agree with me. This is something that we talk about in these smaller circles, but this tool here is seen all over the place. And it is just one of the worst things you can do for your dog. It's your retractable leash. And I'm going to preface by saying the only time I ever use a retractable leash. Well, two things. One is on a completely trained dog. I'm going to work on some recalls or something, but I don't want to give them the freedom to be able to, you know, when I'm working on unleashing maybe in there, but they're already completely trained. You know, when you put a retractable leash on an untrained dog, you're sending, you talk about messages, you're sending them, you know, you're walking 15 feet behind them all the way in the walk, you know, a leader follower type thing. And you go back home and wonder why there's issues retractable leashes plus what they can do. I mean, there's a safety issue with those things. Have you ever been zipped by one burnt by one? They're no joke, right? So the retractable leash is just something that I've completely learned to stay away from the two things that I said, I use them for one would be what I just mentioned. The second one is I love using these teaching the dog how to get in and out of a swimming pool, especially in ground pools, right? Because it gives you the freedom to let them out, bring them in, show them where the steps are at. Because that's the way to do it successfully. Dogs need to know how to exit always. So while they're learning that you can use a retractable, let them go in, let them go out. And when you're ready to show them the exit, you kind of tighten it up and walk them out, show them. So that's where I use a retractable leash. And that's really about it. That or for a completely trained dog, maybe for some proofing, that kind of thing. But otherwise, man, these retractable leashes, great marketing, but just terrible tool for dogs. All right, this next one here could easily be number one, except that I kept a two in one for things that are health related, if that makes sense. But this one here, right? These gentle leaders, these halty collars, these harnesses. Oh my gosh. Right. Again, fantastic marketing. And they do get your, your dog to do the job. And basically they're set up for, you know, dogs at pool. And it's, if you don't know what I'm talking about, look at the pictures here, but it's like, you clip this here, you clip this there, you do all this stuff. So your dog's kind of like, it doesn't mean that they're trained. And that's kind of my big thing. When people say, Hey Casey, what do you think about the general leader? What do you think about this halty collar? I'm like, why don't we just teach them to heal? That's where you're going to get your bond. That's where you're going to have the communication. When you just put on these contraptions and your dogs walk with you and they're not allowed to pull, is that training? No, it's just, I always compare these to, let's say your dog jumps on everyone at the front door. Do you teach your dog either to place or off so they don't jump? Or do you put them in the crate or the bedroom every time somebody rings the doorbell? You see the difference there? You see what I'm saying? Your one is masking the issue. The other one is fixing the issue. So a heel is going to teach a dog to walk properly. Whereas these gadgets here just take away an option and taking away an option is not a trained dog, right? You got to say a trained dog is like, here, all the options you want. I'm going to show you how to choose the right option. That's what a trained dog does. So these gadgets here, I laugh at them. I don't even know how to put them on. People bring them to me. I'm like, I don't even know what this thing is. I've never used them. I've never recommended them. I think they're gadgets instead of training tools. And I stick behind that because a lot of people say, well, I've used it to teach my dog not to pull. Great. What happens when you take it off? Did your dog go back to pulling? That's my point. So let's move on to the next one. All right, moving into these last two. And I said, I put these at two and one because these two, unlike the other three, you know, directly influence your dog's health. And that is something, you know, there's always kind of behavioral and everything else we're doing here, behavioral, medical sides to everything, right? This one here kind of taps into both. First, the medical side. There are tons of veterinarians that will vouch for me and say that they are constantly removing these rawhides, these pig ears, these cow hooves, these chew sticks, you know, inside from dogs through medical emergency surgeries because they're getting lodged. They're, you know, they're causing issues. That's the medical side. I'm not even talking about the behavioral side. So just on that alone, these things shouldn't be sold. Except when you walk into your big pet stores, what's the first aisle you see? Bam, right there for you. And a veterinarian will tell you, you know, as far as medical, no, they are, stay away from them, right? Now I'm going to drop a little nugget about the whole behavior side. When you get into these cow hooves, pig ears, you know, these are like parts of animal. These are, think about that. And these, all of these can trigger resource guarding quickly in dogs. And I'm not saying all dogs, some dogs, and I know already people are like, oh, my dog chews on rawhides, never had an issue. I get that. But every time that I deal with resource guarding, if you ask enough questions, it usually leads back to one of these. Oh yeah, we used to give them pig ears all the time. You know what I mean? So a lot of people don't even realize this is what's triggering the resource guarding. It's going on to something else, but this is where it started. And a lot of times, think about that. You know, these are like, you know, you got an ear from an animal, you have a hoof from an animal that you talk about. We've domesticated dogs and all of a sudden, now they're hovering over an animal part and you walk by and you hear, you're like, where'd that come from? Well, those right there. So between the medical side that a vet will tell you that they're constantly removing these from the inside of dogs, because if not, the worst is going to happen. And then the behavioral side of what I just told you, all these trigger resource guarding like crazy, you know, that's an easy, just do away with them. I've gone into more homes and said, just get rid of them. And they've listened. And that is to start to the new beginning, right? We've got to go in and get rid of the triggers that cause these behaviors to begin with. And a lot of times it's these little things right here. All right, here we go. We are at the number one. And I said, just like two in one, these both affect your dog's health. And a lot of people don't see it that way, but it's nutrition. You know, what are you feeding your dog? And more specifically, what I'm talking about here is what I would never, and what I would never recommend and stay away from is the kibble that you can find at your department stores or your grocery stores. Now I'm not a big fan of kibble, but if I were to feed kibble, I'd get it from some of the high-end dog shops that have the, you know, kibble for all life stages. Because think about that. You know, when you've got these companies like Purina and all that, they do puppy, they do senior, they do high energy. They do, that's all marketing. Think about a company that might say, and if you go and look out there, you'll see them. You might find a bag that's going to be a lot more expensive, but then it says for all life stages, you know, you kind of, you get what you pay for. We all kind of know that, but that to me makes sense. That's a company that says I'm making the best stuff we can make. We're putting it in a bag and we're going to sell it. And it's for all dogs, puppy through senior. And that to me is, you know what I mean? I understand the puppy formulas. And I think it's all just a little bit of marketing, to be honest, because I've raised so many puppies. I've done this for so long. And a lot of my puppies go right in and start eating a raw diet. You know, they don't have a puppy formula, you know, all that kind of stuff. So my point is, if you are to choose kibble, go to the, your high-end kibble stores. The point, the stuff I'm saying, stay away from is when you can go to Walmart and grab a bag off the shelf, you can go to your department stores, that kind of stuff, because guys there's these brands, such as Mediful, Pedigree, there's a bunch of crap out there. I mean, literally crap. And even some of the higher end ones, if you can get them and think about it, if they're available at Walmart, what does that say? And it says a lot. It really does. You know, you want to go to your high-end stores or, you know, I've fed raw freeze dried raw. I've made my own recipe for years. You know, you can do all that. Cause at least that way, I know what's going in it. You know what I mean? So I've done that for so many years and it's not as hard as people think. Again, there might be people out there to make you think that's hard. So you go get this kibble and spend money on that. You know what I mean? So again, my whole point here with number one is just, if you're a kibble person, just get the high-end kibble. Look for something that's for all life stages. When you go and grab a kibble from your grocery in your department stores, you're just really not doing your dog any justice. And a lot of people don't really even think about it. A lot of people say, well, my dog's done just fine on Beneful. Well, if that's all the dogs had this whole life, how do you know what, how good he could be? Do you see what I'm saying? A lot of people don't ever even try because of the price point. The price point is different. You get what you pay for, you know? And plus what you're going to see is in your backyard. I don't know if you guys have noticed that all your diets, that's the true tale right there. You want to know how good your diet is? Go look in your backyard. The stool tells everything, right? And I've learned what stool does from kibble, what kind of stool you get from raw, what time, you know what I mean? So that's how I kind of make my choices on what's best for the dog. But again, guys, just to stay away from this commercial kibble. I mean, it's just, it's not good. All right. When you think about all five of those, you guys agree. I'm sure there'll be some disagreement. That's fine. But that's what these videos do is kind of raise awareness, build some education and let's chat about them. If you've got some comments, put them down there, you know, and I do my best to read these and reply, right? But this is how these conversations get started. This is how we build awareness. A lot of people just don't really think about any of this until it's put in front of them. And they go, Oh wow. Right. And that makes sense. You don't really think about anything until you decide you're going to do something about it. And then you're like, Oh wow. So that's what these videos are trying to do. That's my point or my, the reason behind these videos. I just like to build awareness guys. There's so much out there that, you know, people aren't tapping into. They're kind of just more of the same. They don't really think about something new until they go, Oh wow. Right. So that's exactly my point. There you go. You like my old wows, right? Um, but seriously guys, again, my starter kit, dream dog starter kit. I'm going to put another link below because people are jumping on this and the feedback has been phenomenal. This is a free starter kit, but it's going to show you how to start shifting and doing things differently. All right. So click the link below, grab your free dream dog starter kit and I'll catch you on the next video.