I was sitting on the floor with my 4-month-old black lab puppy in my lap, sobbing. She was happily chewing a bone, oblivious to the fact that I was heartbroken because I was planning to give her away.

Scarlett, my puppy, was a bit of a hellion. She had a habit of attacking your feet when you weren't looking, and she would bark at you for what felt like hours without stopping.

She didn't care for kids, or scooters, or skateboards, or anything that darted around in an unpredictable fashion.

If you rolled her over on her back, she would shriek and fight like a chimpanzee being murdered (I swear I'm not exaggerating. I have witnesses!).

This dog was nothing like the sweet, loving, cuddly puppy I had imagined. She was completely unmanageable. So obviously I brought in professional help.

The dog trainer who came to my apartment only visited a few times before she pointed at Scarlett, who had been busy attacking my feet again, and said, "That is NOT normal. You will never be able to trust this dog. She'll have to wear a muzzle around kids for the rest of her life."

She suggested that I take my puppy to a shelter she knew of and then start over with a different breed; something more suited to me.

This woman's advice broke my heart. I couldn't imagine just giving my dog away, regardless of how difficult she was. But what else could I do? She was the expert, not me. If she said my dog was broken, then she was … right?

Well, not so much.

My parents encouraged me to get a second opinion. The new trainer rolled his eyes and said, "She'll be perfect in 3 weeks. This is normal stuff for a smart, spirited lab."

And he was right. After working with the right expert, Scarlett was a completely different dog than she had been the month before.

That was seven years ago. She still doesn't love weird things with wheels, but she happily plays with babies and kids of all sizes, and she loves rolling over and getting belly rubs. No screeching necessary.

Sometimes I think about how I almost gave her away, and I shudder. Because how many people did take that terrible dog trainer's advice? How many perfectly decent dogs ended up homeless (or worse) because of her?

The truth is, this kind of stuff happens all the time. We put our faith in experts, simply because we assume they're more knowledgeable and educated, and dismiss our own intuition — often to disastrous ends.

In this week's throwback blog from October, 2017 I'm giving you a few super compelling reasons why you shouldn't always trust advice from experts.

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