"My vet said..."

What do you say to somebody who starts every other sentence with "My vet said..." and ends it with something you wholeheartedly disagree with?

As BF and I were walking the pups this evening, we met a guy walking his 13-week-old Ridgeback. "Cute" doesn't even begin to describe the pup. The second thing I noticed was the collar. The shiny, puppy-sized choke chain. On a 13-week-old dog! He at least switched the leash to the flat collar so the dogs could socialize.

I got the guy chatting about the pup, and learned a bit about his training preferences. Basically, if the vet said so, that's what he does. Dog eating foreign objects off the ground? Leash correct him. Dog starting to guard food? You're not correcting hard enough. Holy frijoles, Batman! This guy is going old-school hard-ass on his poor puppy!

I asked if he was taking the dog to classes. He said no, that his vet said (there we go again..) that the walks and going to work with the owner were enough. Apparently his vet used to train police dogs in Canada. Hm... now things are starting to makes sense.

At least the guy was able to say "I know any trainer I talk to is going to tell me I'm doing everything wrong." Great. NOW CHANGE!

Oh, and exercise? Mr. Wonderful Vet said he should start jogging. With the 13-week-old puppy. Yeah... let's fast forward 5 or 6 years to our first hip surgery, shall we?

So let's see here... We've got a 13-week-old pup who already:

• Guards food
  
• Is being taken for sustained runs
  
• Is on a choke chain
  
• Gets physical corrections, not treats, for training

I was very careful not to say he was doing anything wrong. I did point out that his methods were old-school, that many trainers are moving to positive reinforcement, and that PCOTC has great trainers and awesome classes. Hopefully the next time I see him I'll have some trainers' cards on me.

What would you have said to this guy?