- This is a story three years in the making.
It's the story of a puppy growing into a dog,
and a man getting over his childhood fear of dogs.
Say hello to the people, Bean!
- What is this?
- Beeeeeean! - No! When did you go get him?
- Down, yes. Sit. Yes, down.
- Yes! Good boy!
- I'm considering getting a dog sitter,
just so we can have a date night.
(toy squeaking)
It's 1 AM and he won't stop fussing.
The dog would growl at the baby.
I was mortified.
(cheery music)
This is my puppy journey.
(cheery music)
(rock music)
I am really afraid of dogs.
We did a dog sledding video in Alaska
and I was terrified the entire time.
When I was three, a Doberman jumped in my stroller,
inches from my face, and was just gnashing his teeth at me.
And ever since then, I've been really skittish around dogs.
I always wanted a dog.
I always wanted to have kids.
And this idyllic family afternoon of being at a park
with a dog and some kids,
and everyone's playing Frisbee or something.
That just sounded so nice to me.
But the peak of my attempts to get over my fear
was actually getting a puppy.
My wife, Ariel, loves dogs
so in preparation for having a baby
we decided to get a baby dog.
Let's go to the first time I ever meet Bean.
I'm in the process of surprising my wife, Ariel.
She knows that we're getting a dog
but she thinks it's happening two weeks from now.
(bright piano music)
Okay, so it's the morning of the surprise
and Ariel is so excited.
She has no idea it's coming.
She thinks that we're getting the puppy on Saturday.
Hello, Bean!
Hey, hey!
You go on a big car ride?
Surprise Ariel?
Say hello to the people, Bean!
Hello!
I sneakily bring Ariel in for a fake video shoot
and then bring out our new puppy, Bean.
- What is this?
- Bean!
- No! When did you go get him?
- I got him earlier today!
- No way.
- It's our new dog.
- Are you excited that we get to take him home today?
- Oh god, oh yes.
I've been looking forward to this all week.
- Ariel is really surprised
and then we had a dog.
So I believe we just taught Bean a fun game.
It's called "Weeee!"
(laughs)
It's called "Weeee!" Aka "Chase me!"
Weeee!
So we're going on our first walk ever with Bean.
- He's not actually walking.
- He's not actually walking though.
We tried to get him to walk and he was,
he didn't really like his harness.
It's really fun, - Yeah.
But we keep thinking that there's something wrong with him.
- Yeah, any time he's like "Ooo!" We're like,
"Oh no, what's wrong, baby?" - "What's wrong?"
- Looks like a Build-A-Bear dog.
(laughing)
- Whoa, hello!
- We walk home with our new puppy Bean,
our lives forever changed.
How could I be afraid of little Bean?
He's a tiny little puppy with his paws
barely able to hold himself up.
- He just wants to give you all the kisses!
He wants to give you all the kisses!
- Go get it!
Heyyyy! No, no!
Those first couple days of having a puppy,
it's almost like having a baby.
Bean doesn't want to go to bed.
He's just crying and it's really hard.
(puppy whimpering)
He's still crying and we don't know what to do.
It's really hard to not wanna comfort him.
They fuss all night because they don't know how
to sleep by themselves.
(toy squeaking)
We trained him to calm down right now.
'Cause Bean is not wanting to take a nap.
It's 1 AM and he won't stop fussing.
This is the second week of this
and we are just so exhausted.
Didn't sleep very well.
- No, we did not.
- And I think I made a huge mistake.
I thought that it would be helpful
if I picked up the dog.
It turned out he just fussed for the rest of the night.
- He's a little fuss muffin.
- He's a little fuss bucket.
- Earplugs out.
(giggling)
- Bean just spilled coffee
all over Ariel's nice white pants.
But look at the little guy!
He's so cute!
How can you be mad at that for more than a second?
Suddenly Ariel and I couldn't just go out to eat
whenever we wanted.
Somebody had to go home to feed the dog,
and also we couldn't leave the dog alone
for more than a couple hours at a time.
We're actually, we're considering getting
like a dog sitter just so we can have a date night.
We're having a date night,
I think with Bean,
because he has massive separation anxiety.
- Massive separation anxiety, right?
- We were gonna go out, but no.
Now we're making pasta at home.
- I don't know what to do with him
because every time that I leave him for like,
I timed it, and it's actually, what was it? It was like--
- Three minutes and 15 seconds.
- Three minutes. With a Kong toy.
- Three minutes and he'll start barking.
- Until he starts crying.
- I didn't know the first thing about raising a dog.
So I talked to a dog trainer to help me out.
- So tell me about what you guys have been doing?
I know you're not fully confident
in everything you're doing so far,
but I wanna know where you guys have started,
what you've done.
- Ned is really good with commands.
He's telling Bean to sit everywhere.
- Yeah, sit.
Good boy!
(laughing)
Good boy!
Sit!
Good boy!
(gasps)
- Tray training has been a disaster.
And he cries all night. - Fussing.
And whenever we leave him alone.
- To a certain extent,
a lot of that puppy crying is very very normal.
And you can't get rid of it 100%.
Until your puppy starts to understand
and get used to the fact that being alone
is not a bad thing.
- How do we get him to feel that way?
He'll follow me into all the different rooms.
He'll follow me everywhere and sit on my feet
and lay down there.
- So what you wanna start with is gonna be crate training.
So with crate training, what you're trying to do is
build a positive association with the crate.
So your puppy should eventually view the crate
as kinda like their safe spot, like their room.
Then you wanna fill it with
all sorts of fluffy things for them
to feel comfortable there.
As he gets older he should
naturally grow out of that a little bit
but you can help him along the way to make that
progress a little bit faster.
- So last night, Bean actually slept
through the entire night for the first time ever.
It was incredible.
I sang to him.
I sang a lullaby that I made up called "Babybies."
We felt like new parents
just kind of creeping away after the baby's asleep
like, "Oh, he's finally asleep!"
As time went on, I became more comfortable having a dog.
- He's got teeth coming in so he chews on everything.
It's just like this.
- So what you really wanna start with at this point
in time is socializing a little.
A lot of people will go straight to "sit, down" cues,
things like that.
But there's something called the socialization period
from four weeks to sixteen weeks of your puppy's life.
And that is when your puppy is like a brand new little spud.
And everything you expose them to,
they soak up and normalize.
You want them to do things like loud trucks,
big crowds, escalators, things like that.
Those are all things you want to expose your puppy to
at this point in time.
- So Bean is about to meet other dogs for the first time.
Eugene brought over Pesto and Emma.
Pesto, Emma, and Bean got along really well.
And Bean immediately started playing with them.
- We think he's going to be great socially.
(chatter)
- Get him!
We are at the mall trying to socialize Bean.
We're just gonna walk around
and try and meet lots of people.
It is week three and I'm taking Bean for a walk to dinner.
Ariel and I are gonna get dinner outside.
Operation "Socialize Bean" is happening.
So another dog just snapped at Bean
and he got really scared.
And I was getting all his flashbacks
of all times that a dog scared Bean.
I just feel really sad for him right now.
Is he gonna be okay, Ariel?
- I think they're all fine.
- He'll be okay.
♪ We're walking in circles, we're walking in circles! ♪
♪ It's fun to eat apples! ♪
♪ Watch out for the table! ♪
Little by little I got better at being a dog parent.
I learned that when dogs jump up at you,
that means they wanna play.
And if you don't want them to do that
make yourself less interesting,
not by going, "Ahh! Ahh! Ahh! Ahh!"
but by closing yourself off and waiting
for him to do that behavior that--
(yaps)
Making me look bad, Bean.
It's a big day, we're gonna give Bean a bath.
We got this little chew toy with sweet, sweet cheese inside.
Yay, this is the best day ever!
(whines)
- Oh my God, you're in the sink.
- Here's water, this is the water, drink the water.
You are so soft. No, stay in.
(singing)
- Time to bust out the big guns!
- Washy, washy, washy!
- Look at this! You are just washing him!
- He's so tiny!
- It's okay, it's okay.
Look at me. No!
Where did all of your fur go?
You are now just a little tiny doggo.
She's done. More cheese.
- So this is called a clicker.
It comes in a bunch of different forms
and you can click one side.
(clicking clicker)
- Ooh, that is loud!
- And it makes this nice clear noise.
So a marker helps identify to your puppy
what they did correctly and when they did correctly.
- It helps them connect the treat to the behavior.
- Exactly, exactly.
- Beanie, can you sit?
(clicking clicker)
Good boy!
- Beanie, down!
- Come on, you can do it!
- No!
- Beanie, beanie!
Sit down.
Good boy!
(clicker clicking)
- Yes!
Now he's getting it.
Let's go lightning mode. Sit!
Yes, down!
Yes, sit! Yes!
Down, yes!
Sit, yes!
Down!
(clicker clicking)
Yeeeeeeaaaah! - There we go! Good job!
- Yes, yes, yes, Bean!
I got to play with the dog clicker,
I learned different cues,
and by the end of the first month,
Bean knew how to sit, lay down,
he would come when we called,
and he had an emergency recall phrase called
"Bean, come find me!"
- Bean, come find me!
(tapping ledge)
(clicking clicker)
Yes, good boy!
Here! Over here!
Yes, oh! Over here, yes!
- That was used when all else failed.
(tapping knee)
Ahhh, good boy! Good boy!
Sit!
Shake!
Oh, goodness! Ahh!
- Sit! Shake!
Yes, good boy!
- Learning how to communicate with Bean
actually helped me get over my fear of dogs.
As time went on we had more and more tender moments
that made me really appreciate the dog.
I was able to transfer those feelings of love
for my dog towards other dogs.
So it is the evening time and I just came back from a dinner
with my friends, The Try Guys.
And I've had a little bit to drink.
And all I wanna do is play with my dog.
I just wanna cuddle with Bean.
This is a big change for me.
Previously, I would not want to have
anything to do with dogs.
(toy squeaking)
Ohhhh, Bean!
I just love you so much!
I love you, Bean!
Yeah, I just wanna hold you, ohhh!
- Hi!
- Ohhh.
That one wants to touch you.
He did so good.
There was one part where he was a little spooked
but aww, he just seems to really like the horses.
We went to dog parks together,
he would run around,
we were getting closer and closer to that idyllic
Saturday afternoon at a park with a kid and a dog
catching a Frisbee.
But then everything changed when we had a baby.
We had a baby!
The baby's here!
He's right over there!
Suddenly, Bean was not our only baby.
We had an actual human baby
that we devoted way more time,
way more energy,
way more our of tender loving care
and Bean, a dog, was kinda relegated
to second-class status.
We didn't go to the dog park as much.
We didn't get to run around as much.
And Bean became more protective over the baby,
which means he barked a lot more.
Which seems very sweet, until the baby is napping.
It is a god damn nightmare!
We'd enlist my sister to take him on walks
or take him to the dog park.
He would even spend the night at my sister's house
because it would be a more fun experience for him.
And as Wes started crawling around,
and interacting with the dog,
all of a sudden I became terrified
that Wes was going to develop a fear of Bean
because any time Wes saw the dog,
all he wanted to do was grab a big ol' handful of his fur
and yank him!
(growls)
- Bean, stop it! No!
It's okay, Wes.
The dog would growl at the baby.
I was mortified.
I'd done something horribly wrong
and now my one year old son is going to be afraid
of dogs forever.
It'll take him 32 years and a whole bunch of YouTube videos
to get over it and then he'll have a kid
and that kid will be afraid of dogs too.
Ugh!
But as Wes started eating more solid foods,
suddenly they had something in common!
Snacks!
That's right, any time Wes ate meals
he would have a little bit in his hand
that he would slowly drop on the floor for Bean.
And then Bean was so excited.
"Hey, this little baby that used to grab my hair
"is now feeding me snacks."
Little by little, their cold relationship warmed up
because of snacks.
(lapping milk)
(laughs)
Yeah!
What are you guys doing?
Oh my gosh.
Now Bean is three years old.
He's officially no longer a puppy.
He is full on dog.
And Wes, my baby, is a year old.
They're both growing up together
and we finally had a nice summer day
in our backyard where Wes was able to take a ball
and throw it a little ways,
and then Bean went and grabbed it
and brought it back to him.
I finally have that idyllic Saturday afternoon
with my family and a dog.
And as for me, now when I go out in public,
if a dog starts barking at me
I don't just run faster.
I'll walk over, say hi.
And then keep running.
I still get spooked if I'm walking down a dark alley way
and a dog suddenly barks but I think everyone
would get scared in that scenario.
And now even though I did have
a traumatic childhood experience,
I'm not afraid of dogs anymore.
If you love dogs,
I hope this made you think of your dog.
Yes! Oh yes!
(upbeat music)
He says, "Ugh. Mommy's gone.
"Now I have to play with the dad."
Beanie, let's play!
Let's play!
Let's do fun things together, yay!