"Did I give the wrong homework?" A single remark from Kang Hyung-wook halted the flow of the solution.
The protagonist who opened episode 1 of Channel A's dog solution variety show "The Time of Dogs and Wolves 2," which aired on the 7th, was manager Choo Sung Hoon's dog. Wolf No. 1, who repeatedly snapped and bit at even trivial contact, nicknamed the "Dongdaemun sudden-acceleration dog," faced Kang Hyung-wook, who found himself needing to reassess the direction of the solution from the start.
The wolf No. 1, a long-coated chihuahua, was calm only when held in the owner's arms. But that peace did not last long. The instant a person's hand touched it or eyes met, its aggression surfaced and it repeatedly bit without warning. There were many victims who bled due to bites that continued without any clear trigger.
Once the sudden-acceleration dog's excitement soared, it became uncontrollable. The mother owner was forced each time to physically restrain it, and the discipline grew harsher. By contrast, the father's perspective, who suffered relatively fewer bite injuries, was different. He said, "You just need to avoid creating situations where wolf No. 1 bites," showing empathy for wolf No. 1's position rather than recognizing the seriousness of the problem. The conflict surrounding the sudden-acceleration dog soon escalated into a standoff between the owners.
Kang Hyung-wook did not view wolf No. 1's reactions as mere aggression. He first examined the emotional state underlying the repeated biting and the environments in which that emotion had been reinforced. He retraced moments when the mother owner had no choice but to subdue the dog and asked, "Is the current training being learned by wolf No. 1 as 'tension' rather than 'stability'?"
Kang Hyung-wook issued a "no skinship" order for wolf No. 1 and began by reducing the owner's interventions. He judged that affectionate contact made unintentionally when the sudden-acceleration dog wanted to be alone only heightened its tension and could lead to biting. What the sudden-acceleration dog needed was not more contact but time to find calm on its own.
Kang Hyung-wook said, "Sensitivity doesn't go away," and made clear that the goal was to help the dog restrain excitement rather than try to eliminate its temperament. Tasks were assigned to practice stopping wolf No. 1 before its excitement exceeded the limit and to reset the timing for when the owner should intervene. The solution appeared to be finding its direction.
But as he was checking the homework before the home-visit solution, Kang Hyung-wook's expression changed. "When you remove the skinship, it turned out to be a household that did nothing." That remark left the need to reexamine the relationship between the owners and the sudden-acceleration dog from the beginning. The solution was not over yet.
"The Time of Dogs and Wolves 2" is a program that looks deeply not only at correcting dog behavior but also at owners' attitudes and environments, the root causes of problem behaviors. It provides a three-stage solution: initial feedback in the studio, intensive care close to daily life, and follow-through at the owner's actual residence.
[Photo] Provided by Channel A
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