Original subtitles

We've been roommates for quite some time, and his cat hates me.

You should know better than anyone, you don't really go around Buddha and try

to, like, pet him when he's doing his little, like, don't pet me. Am I

to sit there and take him being attacked? I mean, here's the proof.

Walk away.

Buddha's not going anywhere.

I'm thinking of moving out.

We have a cat named Dylan who won't let me sleep through the night.

He is relentless. He starts taking his claws, digging them into my shoulder.

I got my dog Kiko eight years ago.

Hey, hey, Kiko.

To me, it's the cat problem.

I don't want to have to make a choice between my marriage and Dylan, but I

our marriage is on the line.

I'm Jackson Galaxy. I'm a musician by night and a cat behaviorist by day.

I've met cats with all kinds of problems.

But I've never met one I couldn't help.

Oh, hello. In my career, I've worked with thousands of cats one -on -one,

analyzing their behaviors and retraining them and their guardians.

When relationships are at an end, I don't have many more options than to

leave. And cat guardians have reached their emotional limit. Just get rid of

her. I'm their last hope.

You all right? I mean, I don't know. Cats have nine lives, but humans only

one.

We're going over right now to see Hector and Rick about their cat, Buddha.

Buddha's so aggressive, he has shredded them, their guests.

Even their relationship.

Something tells me I'm going to get beat up again.

We're going over there right now to see if I can stop the violence and heal the

humans.

I'm Hector. I'm Rick. We've been roommates for quite some time, and his

hates me. He's like my brother.

I wouldn't have anybody else live in that guy's house but him.

Buddha and I are not friends.

He hisses at me. He attacks me.

Buddha will act out, and Hector will try to correct him or raise his voice, and

I'm kind of like, you don't. He attacks me. Well, but you should know better

than anyone, you don't really go around Buddha and try to, like, pet him when

he's doing his little, like, don't pet me. Am I supposed to sit there and take

him being attacked? I mean, here's the proof.

Walk away.

I feel a little bit bad that Buddha attacks Hector, but, I mean, it's a

bit funny. It's not funny.

I feel like Buddha bullies me, and he's not allowed in my room. He has no

interest in getting to know me. He's just an evil cat.

Not evil.

He's a good boy. Love Hector to death, but Buddha's not going anywhere, so...

I'm thinking of moving out.

Hey, Jackson.

Nice to meet you, man. How are you? Hey, Rick. Good to meet you, man. Come on

in. Welcome, Hector.

Hector, good to meet you, man. So I walked in today, and Hector had such a

of relief on his face to see me. I know right away which one of these guys is

getting beat up by Buddha.

So tell me, what am I here to deal with?

Well, Buddha's got issues. He was a great kitten, and then something just

snapped, and he's violent towards Hector and violent towards anyone that comes

over if they get too close, or even if they're just walking by, and he will

scratch, bite.

Well,

this is typically what happens.

Absolutely terrible. Are you getting beat up more and more? Absolutely, all

time. That's today?

Let me see.

Ow.

So do you get these injuries a lot? All the time. I mean, we've got this kit.

Do you keep this around here? We have it right here. It's Velcro.

It's Velcro to the couch.

I have never seen an emergency kit dedicated to the cat. Not only that, it

Velcro to the side of the couch. This is how bad the attacks are and how often

they occur.

I just don't want to bother with him, so I just have my own little area in the

back. You live in the back? Yeah, the Buddha -free zone.

Buddha's not allowed in my room because I'm tired of being cut and scratched.

Yeah, no, I can see that. You laugh off what goes on. Maybe I make a little bit

light of it.

There's a pretty heavy -duty dose of tension between Hector and Rick. You can

feel it. So you guys got to tell me, if things don't change around here, where

do you see things going?

I'm definitely prepared to find another place to live.

Now you know.

I don't want him to leave.

Hector's a very sweet guy. You guys ready to get up and walk around? Yeah.

let's go. But even though he's soft -spoken about this, you can see

bubbling underneath.

All right. Well, there's our man. This is the guy.

All right. What's up, Buddha? How you doing?

He is huge.

Yeah. I mean...

Look at this. The second I lay eyes on Buddha, I'm concerned. Not about his

behavior, the size of that cat. There's a definite correlation between obesity

and behavior problems because when you're obese like that, you're carrying

around a lot of weight on these joints that aren't meant for it. You're

uncomfortable, and then you're going to act out. And I think that might be part

of the case with Buddha.

When a cat's obese, one of the first things you're going to see is a lot of

and tear on their joints. They're not meant to carry that kind of weight

I mean, I can weigh him later on. I literally, like, drive around with a

scale in my car because you guys are not the first obese cat that I've come in

contact with. As a matter of fact, there's a solid 15 % of all cats are

and it's going up. Just like the rest of this country with humans, we're seeing

a real rise in obesity along with that.

We have diabetes, which is the big thing I'm worried about with him.

Diabetes is the number one cat disease on the rise, meaning over just the past

five years alone.

We feed our cats junk, for the most part, in the same way that we feed our

junk. And then we have this epidemic of obesity and an epidemic of diabetes to

go along with it. One of the things I work most closely with is trying to

cats' weight down because firsthand experience.

My cat was seven years old.

Almost identical to him.

Identical. Seven years old, I was feeding him stuff I shouldn't have been

feeding, and he was diagnosed, and a year later he was dead.

A year later, he was resistant to insulin. I didn't know about proper

didn't know about what we call now the Katkins diet, trying to get him down at

natural weight. And I lost him. And that's why I do what I do now in terms

nutrition. So I'm going to get on you guys real heavy about that, so to speak.

figured. So to speak.

Now, I can almost guarantee that diabetes is on the horizon for him. And

becomes this slow decline that we don't want to see.

So there's something called hepatic lipidosis, which is called fatty liver

disease. So if he ever gets sick, let's say, and he doesn't eat for 24 hours,

basically his system starts to eat his own liver. And at that point, that could

kill him within days.

there are things besides just arthritis and all the things that go along with

arthritis, and you know it's going to shorten his lifespan, and you're not

to have the boy around. He's not going to live a normal lifespan.

So we've got to get to work on that for sure.

Besides the fact that some of the things that you might be seeing are a product

of him just being uncomfortable.

Let me first see, because, Rick, you're the only one who seems to be able to

handle him at all.

So let me see how you would normally. This is it right here. Look.

See, he's a good boy right now. Huh, baby?

Huh, boo -boo.

But this will change now if he tries to do it.

Well, hold on a second. What's with the sleeves? Well, you never know.

Oh, look at that.

He's pushing away from me. He doesn't like me touching him.

He didn't go toward him. He was actually acting afraid of Hector. Come on back

in again, because to me this is really strange.

Hey,

hey, where are you going?

In an instant, it goes from fear to aggression, and he snaps at Hector, and

Hector got it pretty good at that moment. What I want to do is follow his

and let's go take a look at him, okay? Come on. He has this way about him that

is scary, I get it.

So, there he is.

No, no, no, no, don't go that way.

Hector, is that your room over there? Yes, it's the Buddha Free Zone. Not

anymore, it's not, so let's head that way.

That's the place I want to see. You're going to call someplace the Buddha Free

Zone? Of course, I want to go in.

What's up, mister?

Come here, man.

Come here.

Come here now.

Ow! Okay, come here.

Let's just be cool, shall we?

Can you be cool?

Ow! No, you can't.

Ow, my God.

Okay.

Hey, hang with me, man.

Come here, Buddha.

What if I come high on you?

Ow! Damn it.

Bang!

He got me.

Ow!

That hurt worse than any single strike I've ever gotten from a cat before. God,

you hit like a truck.

My entire hand went numb. I'm thinking maybe he left a claw inside of me, but

either way, never have I seen stars like that before.

But I wanted to see if I could reassociate that area. I grabbed some

sure enough, his nose just started doing the work.

Come here.

What is that?

There you go.

Good boy.

I'm showing you a lot of trust right now.

Right up on me. Right up on me.

Deep breath.

This is why we call it challenge.

I saw it right away. Buddha's tail started going, and that's a big sign

got to back off. Come on.

We've got a ways to go, mister.

Now, if I were to generalize, and I'd say, well, if we have a cat who's going

strike out at me with such ferocity, retreat into a corner, and then the next

second he comes out and he wants treats, I would say he had a screw loose with

Buddha. I get something else about him. So now it was time to go out, talk to

Rick and Hector, tell them what I had seen, give them some homework. Okay,

Uh -oh.

How'd you do? Let me tell you something.

Your cat hit me so hard in one swipe that I still can't feel my hand.

Now you really know how I feel. I completely feel you. The first thing, I

to talk about his shape.

The one issue is that Hector feeds him. I blame him for overfeeding Buddha.

Oh. The reason I give Buddha a little bit of extra food is just so he could

me better. We cannot play into it anymore.

What I want you to move towards is a raw diet.

I'd like to see him eating nothing but meat protein, a little bit of grasses,

and the supplements that he needs. Nothing else. The next thing is no more

Buddha -free zone.

I know.

I know what you're thinking. I know where your fears are. I know you think

you're going to get attacked in the middle of the night. I need you to trust

because there's no way for me to get this work done with him without you

changing the way you approach him.

Finally, I want to send my friend Dr. Mahaney over here to see Buddha. It

concerns me so much to see a seven -year -old cat carrying this much weight

around. What we have to make sure of is that we're not dealing with arthritis

that might have already kicked in. At the end of the day, I want you to live

here. But it's got to be workable for Buddha as well.

All right, guys, I'm going to head out. I am actually very concerned about

having an open -door policy for Buddha.

I'm getting anxiety about the consequences, and I'm not looking

I'm here for my second visit with Hector and Rick and Rick's cat Buddha. Let me

tell you something. The first time I was here, Buddha beat me up.

He beats Hector up on a daily basis.

Good to see you. Thank you very much.

Rick and Hector are fighting all the time and Hector's on his way out the

And all I can hope for at this point is I'm going in there now and Buddha's

respecting that world just a little bit, but we'll find out. All right, guys. So

how are things going here?

We, uh...

I had a breakthrough with Buddha. I did. Really? Absolutely.

Tell me about it. Well, it started with the open -door policy from Buddha. You

did it. You did the open -door policy.

You'll be proud of you. I am.

That's amazing.

Hector had news for me. He couldn't wait to tell me that he's been working with

Buddha, and he's doing it without fear, which I got to tell you, for Hector, is

huge news.

And I want to take a look at your video homework. All right, great. Let's do it.

Well, he's on a rocky diet because he's a big boy.

Tasty. Big Buddha, come on. If that's all you have to eat, Buddha, you're

to eat it, right?

I saw my friend Dr. Mahaney do a thorough exam on Buddha. 18 pounds.

Because of Buddha's weight, he did some laser acupuncture on him as well, which

I'm sure relieved a little bit of the pressure on his joints. The vet just

and Buddha is happy as all hell.

Cut. Yeah, man, there's a lot of good stuff in there. Now, I want to get up

walk around a little bit.

Look at that.

Hello, rock star.

Buddha looked fantastic.

He had lost some weight already, but it provided us with a great chance to have

Hector go over there and demonstrate to me the strides he's made in dealing with

this cat. Here we go. Here's some treats. So, Hector, it's just about the

your hands with him.

See how I'm able to touch him and... Amazing.

You have no idea.

Yeah, this is amazing. This never happens like this. This is so nice. This

what I wanted to do for a long time.

Bang!

Buddha hits him and hits him hard. He immediately starts bleeding and Buddha

heads for the hills. How are you feeling right now? I am a little shaken up. All

right, so let's get up and let's move over to your place. Clearly the new diet

and Hector getting over his fear of Buddha have helped ease relations.

But obviously, Hector and Buddha have a lot of work to do before their best

friend.

So, guys, here's what I want to do.

We are going to test this open door policy.

Hector, I'm going to give you the treats. And what I'd like you to do is

Buddha back in here through this open door. We'll take it from there. Great.

Good.

You go all the way back. Let him come on in.

Open door policy, buddy.

We get right up to the front door there, and it stops.

I mean, literally at the threshold of the door, Buddha says, yeah, I don't

to go in there. When his body starts to get into that place, let's play with

him. Let me see what he does.

Okay, come around the corner now. Here we go.

There we go. Nice job.

Look at that.

Very nice, Hector. Start being prey with him just a little bit.

Good boy.

Make sure he doesn't stop.

Trail it around.

Does that stop again?

Hector couldn't get Buddha past the threshold of his door with treats, with

toys, nothing.

I know that you felt a little disappointed, I think, maybe. Yeah, it's

disappointing. You know, I thought I'd come a long way.

Yeah, but you know, I got to tell you something. He beat the hell out of me

last time I was here.

Damn it.

He doesn't feel all the way safe here. So it's time for Rick and Hector's

homework. And the first thing I wanted to do was go outside and bring them in

something I got for them.

Kind of excited about this.

Wow.

Right? Now this, this is the top of what we're going to call Buddha's Temple.

Buddha's Temple.

It goes in your space, Hector. First of all, I want them to build something in

there that's going to symbolize comfort and home for Buddha because he

definitely doesn't feel that right now. I want people to come in there and give

the offerings to the cat who's in the temple, and that's with treats and

sure that he associates people with good things. In the meantime, you guys are

building this together, and I think that that's really important, to have

something that's a unified goal between you guys. I think that that's sort of

that last step. of getting rid of this divisiveness that actually Buddha has

helped create.

The last thing is I want this gone. Oh, no. Yes, it's time.

It's time for us to trust this pad enough to say, you know what? No more.

any of this. What we're going to do instead, we're going to have Buddha's

kit. People come in here. We want them to know, A, we trust him, and B, they're

good things. They come in here. They give him treats. As opposed to you guys

expecting the worst to happen in here. Because I put Buddha on a raw food diet,

I felt like I still had some wiggle room to use treats as a positive association

as opposed to Band -Aids and gauze. All right, guys. Thank you. Take care, okay?

I still have a little doubt that Buddha's not going to attack people.

Buddha's always going to have that little bad boy attitude.

And now it's time for another kitty bit.

What country's zodiac calendar includes the cat?

Is it A, China, B, Vietnam, or C, Japan?

Find out right after this.

What country's zodiac calendar includes the cat?

Is it A, China, B, Vietnam, or C, Japan?

And the answer is B, Vietnam.

Unlike the Chinese zodiac, the Vietnamese zodiac calendar has a cat in

the rabbit.

I'm here for my final visit with Hector and Rick and their cat, Buddha.

First time I met these guys, Hector was literally about to walk out of here

because Buddha's aggression was so bad.

Hey, Gary. Good to see you, man. We have done a lot of homework on both Buddha

and Hector. I'm hoping we're going to walk in here today and just see some

So how are you guys? Doing great.

You look good. Good.

Tell me what's going on.

Well, Buddha's a whole different animal.

I mean, he's pretty much mellowed out. He's getting along with Hector.

Have you been tagged by him in the last couple of weeks?

No, I have not. Not once. Not once.

That's fantastic.

So you have a relationship with Buddha, not based in fear at this point.

Completely. The fear is just practically gone.

It was getting cool, right? He's actually sleeping on the bed with him,

What? I know, crazy. Is that the truth? It's the truth.

I'm so happy.

He comes, looks for me now. You know, now after the open door policy, the

wide open. All right, good.

So, as always, I asked you guys to video journal your homework.

So let's take a look at what you got.

Oh.

Some of the best parts of it were about teamwork.

The first thing I saw was the building of Buddha's temple. Wow.

Yeah. Nice.

And then, this really beautiful moment, their friends parading in. I am bringing

this peace offering, a lovely flower.

Each one of these friends have gotten beat up by Buddha in the past.

This is my piece I bring to Buddha.

Yet, they're coming back in to switch that association to make a new start

Buddha. Man.

Crazy, huh? That is crazy. Now, I've got to see that temple. You've got to see

it. Of course, I want to see Buddha. Come on, guys.

Here we go.

What do you think? Wow.

It's gorgeous.

This thing is beautiful. The energy put into this was so magnificent. I can't

even put it into words. Here comes Buddha. He's here. Hey, Buddha. Hello.

are you doing?

Look at the open door policy, mister.

Come on in, baby. Now, the last time I was here, no matter how hard I tried, I

couldn't get Buddha to accept the open door policy. He wouldn't cross that

threshold into Hector's space. Look who comes in. I love it.

Crazy. I am so impressed with the open door policy.

That's fantastic.

And, well, on your bed.

Fantastic, our man.

Good to see him. Now, I just want to see a little bit of your interaction with

him. Well, all the treats. He's got a little Buddha treat kit. I love that. Of

course, you know it. It's just amazing.

The first time I was here, there was the Buddha emergency kit, which they were

using constantly. And I had them change it around last time to make it Buddha's

treat kit.

Good boy.

Oh, hi, bud.

Look at that, night and day. I am blown away.

Yeah,

no fear at all. There was no hesitation whatsoever.

I was really proud of Hector. This is the kind of relationship we have with

Buddha again now. You ready, Buddha? Here.

Get out of here. Crazy, huh? What about you, Jackson? Can you do it? Of course I

can do it. Come on. Who do you think I am? If Hector can step up to the plate,

man, so can I.

That said, this cat knows these guys a lot better than he knows me.

So, here goes nothing. Here we go.

You ready for some of this?

Here.

Wow. Good boy.

He's a gentle giant. Good boy, my gentle giant.

That's fantastic.

This is when you call it a day.

This is the cat that beat me senseless. And there he goes.

Jackson was definitely impressed for all the improvement that Buddha made.

It's a completely different cat. This is, for me, about as good as it gets to

see the transformation.

And I'm looking over here.

There's Buddha in the cabana. Yeah. Let's go join him. Okay? Okay.

All right, come on.

Check this boy out.

Talk about owning a space. Yeah, totally. Here, he's showing us that...

With my voice resonating here, with you guys sitting here, Hector, with you

sitting right here, that he trusts you, you know? It's just amazing to see the

progress, the change in the cat, the change in our friendship.

Buddha, I thought, was unfixable.

But it's been definitely a positive experience, and Jackson's done the deal.

Now, just so you can tell me, because I can't imagine.

Are you still thinking of going? Are you staying right here? I'm staying.

Yeah.

There's no reason to. I don't want to scream at you, but I'm so happy for you.

Thank you so much.

Congratulations. I'm so happy here.

My man.

So relaxed. I look forward to being greeted by Buddha.

I'm definitely staying.

Life is good. I mean, Buddha and Hector are about.

I'm here for my first visit with Richard and Diane about their cat, Dylan. He's

keeping them up at night. He's running all over the place. He's basically

causing mayhem. But also, they've got a dog named Kiko who seems to be a big

part of the problem. I'm going to go in there right now and try to sort it all

out. My name is Richard.

Hi, my name is Diane.

I'm in real estate.

And I'm a pediatric dietician. We've been married four years now.

We have a cat named Dylan. Diane adopted the cat from her sister.

We have one big dog.

I got my dog Kiko eight years ago, but Dylan won't let me sleep through the

night. Won't let us sleep through the night.

You can see the time.

It's been over three years since Richard and I have slept together in our own

bed. It has been very challenging on our marriage. Probably the biggest

challenge since we've moved in together.

Another night Dylan wakes us.

Dylan will come up and sit next to me, and he'll just start meowing. And then

takes his paw and starts hitting me in the face.

He is relentless.

He starts taking his claws and then digging them into my shoulder.

There's no way you can sleep through it.

315.

Why? It's loud.

It wakes you up from your deepest sleep.

He'll jump off the bed and then start calling at the carpet.

And by this time, Richard's like, I've had enough, I'm going downstairs.

He's with our dog downstairs in the recliner.

It has been very challenging on our marriage.

The dog goes outside at night to sleep.

I have to say our animals have definitely caused us to live separate

Can't be blamed on the dog. To me, it's the cat problem. He's Diane's cat.

I don't want to have to make a choice between my marriage and Dylan.

Getting rid of Dylan is not an option. I think if things continue as is, our

marriage is on the line.

Hey!

I never get greeted like that.

Finally, help is here, and it can only go up from here. Hi, Diane.

So excited.

Good to meet you, man.

So, guys, beautiful plate, gorgeous view, and I know that's not why I'm

right? We need your help because my cat Dylan won't let us sleep through the

night. Okay. And it's affecting our marriage.

And it affects our daily life.

Has he been doing it his whole life?

No. It happened when I moved in with Richard after we got married. Now, the

problem with Dylan is that he keeps Richard and Diane up all night long. He

do whatever it takes to wake them up. And when that happens, Richard throws in

the towel. He gets up, he goes downstairs, he sleeps on the couch. And

happens every night.

Why would it be that, Richard, you've got to go sleep downstairs as opposed to

relocating Dylan in the middle of the night?

Because Dylan is relentless and he will start banging at the door. He will paw

underneath the door. He will scratch the carpet.

All right, so.

We need your help. Yeah, no.

We need sleep. And sleep.

And sleep, yeah.

The problem is not just Dylan keeping Richard and Diane up all night long.

They've also got a dog named Kiko. Tell me about the dynamic between Kiko and

Dylan. Dylan is afraid of Kiko, and if Kiko sees Dylan, she will chase him. And

she cornered him in the bathroom at one point.

So Dylan was in that corner yelling and screaming? Yeah. Okay. I was deathly

afraid that she was going to, yeah. Yeah, that's dangerous.

I don't want it to get to the point where I say it's either our marriage or

Dylan. We close?

Mm -hmm.

We've got a couple here who haven't slept in the same bed for a full night's

sleep in four years. This relationship is going down the tubes. I can see it in

their faces.

I don't have a lot of time here to get this done. So I just want to start

walking around. You guys can show me where there's some problem areas, okay?

Great. All right, let's do it.

Okay, so now this kind of space here, one of the big things I'm looking at is

that I want them to be able to see the other animal from a safe distance.

But I'm not seeing places in here that are sort of built for Dylan.

There's nothing in here for him. I mean, if you looked at this place, you

wouldn't even think a cat lived here. What I'd like you to do, Diane, is I'd

like you to go get Dylan. Okay. Let's bring him back in here.

I would love to see how he responds, knowing that we're standing here and

got Kiko sitting right there.

Okay. All right? So go ahead. All right.

I'll just be waiting right here.

Hi, Dylan.

I don't know whose heart was beating faster, Dylan or mine.

So, you put the muzzle on her.

I mean, I feel bad for him because I know he's really scared right now.

I'm telling you, Dylan, although he was fearful, was breathing better than she

was. Kiko's completely safe having the muzzle on. Even if Kiko does the chase,

she can't do anything about it. What I'd like to see is, can you have her do a

sit? And then stay.

Okay. I've got to see if you can take your hand off her and see if we can get

her to just hang here. Come here, girl. Let's do it. Come here. Come on.

I was in shock.

Dylan's never been that close to Kiko.

Sit. Sit.

Kiko. Sit.

Stay. So we got Kiko to do the sit. Not bad.

Stay. Be a good girl. But then we removed the pillow that was covering

Stay.

Stay.

Stay.

there it is okay there we have it it's okay buddy it's okay when i saw

kiko go after dylan my adrenaline just started to kick in i was like how can i

protect him it's okay there it is all right you all right yeah okay all right

took every ounce of strength that I had to peel that dog off that cat, and I was

so glad in that moment that we had a muzzle on Kiko. This is why we do these

experiments in complete safety, because otherwise there would have been hell to

pay in that room.

We got a lot of work to do based on what I saw in the living room.

All right, guys.

Look, let's just cut to the chase. I'm going to give you guys some homework,

okay? The living room is a really important piece of this world that he is

coming to.

So I want to stage an open house for Dylan.

So in real estate, you stage a place, right?

And so you make it so that it deals like home.

I want to bring that to Dylan.

So I want you to get something that encourages him up instead of down and

So it can be a cat tree. It can be a tower of some sort. First thing I want

do is play into the fact that Richard is a real estate agent. And real estate

agents are constantly doing open houses. Same thing I want to do with Dylan.

The other thing that's going to make it appealing and attractive for him is if

Kiko's not going to try to kill him while he's in here. We need to really

concentrate on your training work with her. Stay, you make eye contact, then

give treat.

That's command over Kiko, and that's where we have to be because the next

come back here, I'd really like to see her be able to execute that stay no

matter what's going on. The final thing I've got for you is I'm going to leave

you with a motion -activated camera that we're going to put in your room.

Whenever they wake you up, I get to see it. It's really playing havoc on your

relationship. At this point in time, I doubt that we'll never achieve the end

result we were looking for.

But I want to give Jackson and the homework a chance to work. Great meeting

All right.

Thank you so much. You're absolutely welcome. Take care, guys. Thank you.

So I'm here for my second visit with Richard and Diane about Diane's cat,

First time I was here, their relationship was basically on the rocks

Dylan keeping them up all night.

Also, the dog, Kiko, and Dylan at it all the time.

Now, knowing that Richard is a real estate agent, I wanted them to do an

house. I wanted them to be inviting to Dylan.

Hey. You're welcome, man. How are you? Come on in.

Kiko. Come on.

Hopefully, I'm coming in this time to see a calm dog and an invited cat.

How's life?

So Dylan is coming downstairs more often.

Wow. And that's something he would never have done. Never, ever, ever.

That's great news.

Yeah, big, big.

Really good news.

That's not just baby steps, man.

This is some progress for Dylan, but a long ways to go. But it's a good first

incremental step.

Now, what I want to do, you guys shot some video homework for me. Yeah. And I

want to take a look at it.

The big thing that was just so important to me was to see that nighttime camera

in action because I don't get to see Dylan's behavior in the middle of the

night. That boy was pretty annoying. Now, the good news is 6 .30 in the

I'm still seeing everybody in bed, and I loved it. On the bad side, I'm still

seeing Diane offering payoff to Dylan's behavior by petting him.

That is something we got to work on.

I also got to see Richard practicing his training with Kiko. I loved seeing that

he was committing to that. If Kiko can't be trusted to stay, then Dylan's not

going to stay.

Dylan is checking out his new cat tree.

I think Dylan's afraid of the cat tree.

All right. Good homework. This is a fantastic cat tree, but it's not for

He's a 17 -pound cat.

It's not very sturdy for him.

Oh, what are you kidding me?

So we've got to get them a better cat condo, something that he's going to

appreciate and actually sit in.

We've got Dylan's routine a little bit better. His bravery is up. His self

-esteem is up downstairs.

We're halfway there with the open house.

Really good news.

Let me just check something real fast.

Oh, okay.

I've got a surprise for you guys. It's about that time. Hang on a second, okay?

I'd like you to meet Rachel Clark.

I'm like...

Who's that?

Like, why is she here?

So, my friend Rachel is a marriage counselor.

Oh. The last time I was here, one of the things that really stuck with me is

when you referred to yourself basically as roommates at this point because you

never see one another.

There's that dynamic between Dill and Kiko that's become really destructive.

Yeah. I wanted to bring Rachel in because, frankly, over my head a little

Why it's happening, the animals, that's me. But the other stuff, that's Rachel.

At the end of the day, I'm a cat behaviorist. I'm not a marriage

Let's just get started with this.

When I hear you say we are like roommates, that is big, big red flag,

can't be all in the same room together because Dylan's afraid of Kiko. I mean,

she's a big girl and... Well, let me tell you what this has a flavor of.

It has a flavor of a blended family.

Yes. That's exactly what we are. Right? It's exactly what's going on here.

And here's the good news.

It can work. But here's what the big word is, boundary.

And they have to be enforced.

We've got to get the kitties out of your bed.

Rachel gave Richard and Diane some great homework. You've got to have

boundaries. You've got to have time for you and not just the animals and you.

Believe me, I was going to give it myself.

Rachel, thanks so much for coming. Thanks for having me, Jackson. Good

guys, with everything. Thank you so much. All right, take care. Bye -bye.

Only a man that's confident in what he's doing can bring another professional to

help us solve that problem.

Now, I need to see the rest of this place. So let's get walking. Come on.

Now, the most important thing that I was here for today was to see both Dylan's

progress and Kiko's. I got to test Kiko's ability to do her down stay. We

to bring Dylan out. Okay. And I'm going to bring a treat right to the middle.

All right. All right. We're going to ask Kiko to come to the middle here, take

the treat with... Dylan in her view. All right. And have her come back to you as

well. This time around, I still want to stick with the muzzle. Okay.

Do you want to put the muzzle on Kiko? And if you want to get Dylan, we'll get

this started. Okay.

Okay. Here we go.

Let's bring Kiko over here.

Great. I want Dylan looking Kiko straight in the eye and saying, you know

I think I feel safe.

Last time I was here, that went pretty horribly wrong.

Great. Okay. Now, release the leash. Okay.

And here we go.

When Jackson asked Richard to take the leash off of Kiko, I was really, really

nervous.

Part of me wanted to say this might be a mistake.

All right, you guys ready? Everyone chill?

Look up. Stay.

Stay. There are so many ways that this exercise can go bad.

Stay.

No leash, no hands on her, no hand on the collar.

Stay. Stay.

And release her. Good luck. Go on. Go on.

Good girl, Kiko.

Come here.

Good girl.

Good girl.

Now have her do a sit. Good girl. Sit.

Stay. Good girl.

Are you kidding me?

Now that is the foundation that we're going to work from. We got a 30 -second

day. We had Dylan staying on the other side, looking at her dead in the eyes.

Perfection. So I thought now is a perfect time to give these guys their

set of homework.

So I'm going to bring in something that I've never actually done before with

homework, which is I'm going to leave it up to you guys. Would you rather have

the cat in the bedroom at night while you sleep or outside the bedroom while

sleep? You tell me right now.

Out.

All right, I'll go without.

You'll go without. I'll go without. Fine.

The first thing we have to do is make the living room, the rest of the house.

Much more palatable. It's got to be much more open even than it is right now. I

got something for you. Hold on one sec.

Airplugs.

Another surprise?

So, here is your first homework assignment. This is the cat nightcap.

We have some catnip toys.

This is flower essence remedy to help them mellow down before the end of the

night. Because believe me, Dylan's going to want in that room. Yeah. You're

going to have to say no.

We have to make it so appealing for him, expand the notion of the open house

that he'll want to sleep in the living room.

Richard, you're a real estate agent. We've got to close this deal, okay?

We've got to make sure that we have a real condo. So that means something with

nice wide base to it. It's something that he loves to sit in, something he

sink into.

Another thing, you guys need some time for yourselves.

Set up a date night. Have just a quiet time to yourselves.

You deserve it. We haven't been on a date with just...

The two of us in a very long time.

The next time I come back here, we need Dylan safe on his condo. The Kiko has to

have no leash and no muzzle. I want us to be three people and two animals just

sitting there. Great. Thank you so much. The big challenge is going to be our

next session without the muzzle. And if it doesn't work, we will have to go back

to the drawing board.

I'm here for my final visit with Richard and Diane, their cat Dylan and their

dog Kiko. I was dealing with a marriage that was on the rocks because of Dylan,

who was keeping them up all night long. These guys haven't slept through the

night in years.

Now I'm here on the last day to make sure that Dylan is letting them sleep

the dog is also not trying to kill the cat. That'll be a big bonus.

Hey, how are you?

How are you?

Well,

it's good to see both of you guys. And you.

Tell me, what's going on here? How's it going?

I think that our marriage is actually back on track now.

Good. Great.

We're not just feeling like we're roommates anymore.

Cool. Yes. Fantastic. We're sleeping in the same bed together. We're able to

spend time together.

It's nice because we're bonding again, and it's bringing us back to...

where we were before we got married.

Now, I know that you guys have been video journaling for me, and I do want

over all that. I'm kind of excited.

I'll see you in the morning, okay?

Bye.

The cat nightcap has actually been a great success. I put everything out, and

the morning, it's, like, thrown all over the stairs, so I know it's working.

Finally, they get it. Dylan is outside the bedroom, couple inside.

Simple solution.

We're here having our date night. We're excited.

I like it. I have something for Richard, and it's got my own lipstick mark on

there. Aw.

This is for Richard to open right now. Very nice.

All right, here's what I want to do. I want Kiko in here. I want Dylan in here.

I want to recreate what we did last time, but I want it to be done without

muzzle. All right.

The first thing I noticed was the new cat house.

In the middle of the living room. This is a huge change over that last tree

we had here.

Now, we actually have a house for him. Richard, you being in real estate, you

must appreciate the fact that we now have a sold sign that we can hang on

thing. Now, I want to get Dylan in here. Bring in Kiko and also get him up on

this thing as well. All right. You got to remember, the first day I was here,

had things go pretty horribly wrong.

Hi, Kiko.

Sit. Good girl. That's fine. I was a little worried because Kiko's energy was

way up. I mean, she was panting, looking around. She wanted something, and I was

hoping that that something wasn't Dylan. What I'd like you to do now, Diane,

pick up Dylan. Let's get him on the tree. So now things are about to get

We got Kiko without a muzzle on. I thought that was really important to

demonstrate that we could have trust in her.

Stay. Stay.

Good girl. Stay.

Dylan.

Look at Dylan up there exploring his tree. Look at this, guys. He sat there.

exhibited the kind of confidence that I didn't even see a hint of the first day

that I met him. Now this is a different cat.

Hey, guys, how are you feeling right now?

Proud.

Both Kiko and the fact that Dylan's staying there.

No attention paid to the cat whatsoever.

Right. This is a big step from the first time that we met.

I think it's definitely...

helped our marriage to, it's been a win -win situation for me.

There's this moment where I sort of take a look at the entire room. I've got

Dylan sitting on the top of his new cat tree, deal closed over there. I take a

look at Kiko.

Really grounded, disciplined. She's found this new way of respecting the

around her. That's great. Then I look at the couple. We've got a marriage that's

found its way again. We've got Diane, who now has less fear about her cat. And

we've got Richard, who's finally getting some sleep. And now I know I can leave.

Thank you so much.

You're absolutely welcome.

I think our nightmare has become a dream.

So don't wake us up. Yeah, don't wake us up.