The Problem With Husbands - a podcast by Ty Brown

Husbands are the bane of my existence. Now, I realize that I happen to be a husband. Is this a post about self-loathing? No! See, I’m a good type of husband. But I always joke with other dog trainers that if it weren’t for husbands, I’d be a rich man. Husbands have cost me more dog training over the years than anyone.

This is something that’s happened numerous times. I’m not calling anyone out. The other day, I got a call from a woman who’d been referred to us by her friends. She said, “We have a real problem. Our dog is attacking people. He has some big-time aggression. My husband’s been working with him, but we just can’t seem to make headway.” We chatted, and I told her the program that I recommended. She immediately responded that this was what she thought they needed. “Now I just have to see if my husband is on board,” she said.

So I sent her the information, and told her I’d be in touch in a few days to see if she had any questions. I could tell she wanted to move forward. A few days later, I called back to ask if they wanted to get started, but I talked to the husband. He said: “Well, we’ve decided not to move forward. I’m just going to solve this on my own.”

Now, I’m a guy that doesn't get offended easily—but even to me, that’s kind of offensive! I’ve dedicated thousands of hours of my life toward fixing dog aggression, and to hear someone who’s had maybe three or four dogs in his life decides to fix his problem on his own is crazy. It’s as if I heard from my mechanic that my engine needed to rebuilt and deciding—even though I’m not mechanically inclined—to fix it myself. Or going to the doctor and hearing that I need to have my gallbladder removed and saying “Okay, I’ll do that one on my own.” It’s easy to say that you can do someone else’s job without any training, but it’s very hard to do it.

Years ago, when I was a little more fiery, I should shoot back at people who said things like that. I would ask them: “If you’re going to fix it, then why haven't you fixed it by now? What’s going to be different tomorrow? What will you know that you don’t know today?” If you’re reading books and trying new things but nothing seems to work, then tomorrow won’t be any different.

What is the point of trial and error? Maybe if your budget for doing a big project is absolutely not there, then I see the value of putting in sweat equity on your own. But the reality is that so many people won’t be able to figure out how to do what they need to do.

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