Who Chunk is
As the trainers describe him
A fresh start with high energy and nothing fully known, and promising from day one.
On film
He's high energy, pretty fresh start.
He doesn't really know anything on 100%, so.
He seems highly promising.
Quick to shut down under correction. Three separate sessions describe it early, one of them Christian's warning to the field trainer before the trainer had ever taken him out, and the same trainer still names 'a little bit of natural nerves' on Chunk's last day.
On film
Now you are a little shut up clam.
You are a turtle inside of your shell.
come on so he's got some interesting like tendencies um main one is that he does shut down rather quickly i'm already noticing like kind of like freezes up fairly easily
mentioned he's like hey you need to take him out and uh so what's what's his issue and he said he's got a little bit of nervous stuff
chunk it does have a little little bit of natural nerves
Avoidant rather than simply shut down: he walks away from a command, or drops into a down and watches to see whether he will be made to comply. It is the defining trait in the field trainer's account.
On film
The big one with him, too, like, he shuts down, but he also kind of does this thing where, because he's a bully, he avoids a lot.
Or he would do this thing where he'd, like, go into a down and just, like, watch me and be like, is he going to make me do anything?
A bully who tests, in the field trainer's words. This is the other frame, and the same trainer uses it on the same days as the nervous one.
On film
All right, in a fighting mood today.
He's very much a bully, so.
the collar i don't even i only i barely hit the collar so he is trying to kind of drama his way
like yeah he just won't do it on command I think maybe he's trying to like fight
Very physical and close. He leans on the handler, rests on his leg in a hold and walks in front of him.
On film
He's really physical.
i'm trying to get him to the point where i can like take a couple of those back and it'll hold the position because he just wants to like rest on my leg the whole entire time
stop walking in front of me like that it's like the one thing it spikes like it
High energy all the time, and liked for it.
On film
dude he's just like on 10 all the time i love it yeah he's always like i think that's probably why
And Chunkalunk is just getting zoomies, right?
Fast to learn, smart by every voice, and less of a fixator than the trainer expected of the type.
On film
Ah, he's a smart, he's a smarty pants.
he's cute yeah you're so cute let's go okay so he doesn't seem to fixate as much
chunk smart he just uses his smarts for mischief
He gets hot easily. By the field trainer's account most sessions run about fifteen minutes before he stops being present.
On film
video of it really funny yeah he does get hot really easily like most of my sessions with him are like 15 minutes just because like after 15 that like glossed you know the the eyes just being
Knows his commands and checks whether each new handler will enforce them. On 2026-09-22 the trainer predicts Chunk will try to do 'absolutely nothing' for his owners, as he did, by the trainer's account, when Christian took him out.
On film
he knows down really well too he just is trying to see if he can get away with not using said knowledge around you
the main thing is that he's gonna see if he can get away with doing absolutely nothing with you
when christian took him out he went from doing all the commands with me so he wouldn't do anything for christian
Two reactions when he is unsure or testing: he locks up, or he runs. The trainer treats the two differently (see how the method adapted).
On film
there were like two reactions i got from him i either would say down and he would be like kind of lock up and then i could encourage him into it or i would say down he'd like kind of like freak out and run away and and I would just hit the e-collar and wrangle him back in.
he does like kind of have a tendency to freeze up sometimes um because i think that's just like a little bit of nerves he has right Right. In this case, you can sometimes use the marker and not hit the collar immediately and wait to see what he does.
A nervous bully, in the trainer's words on his last day, who really wants to avoid but would be scared by the handling a confident bully can take.
On film
with chunk he's got a little bit of nerves so whenever you have a nervous bully it's interesting because they do really want to avoid but also you can't go like you would with maybe just your average american bully that's kind of confident it because you'll end up scaring them
Goes through phases of testing a command he knows. By the trainer's count, two or so by the go-home day, each answered by tightening the command up again.
On film
so we're kind of hitting like another avoidance phase because he's a puppy um that's just gonna happen over time he'll do really good and all of a sudden he'll try to go through another avoidance phase
i've gone through like two avoidance phases with him
because he's a puppy specifically he's gonna test like multiple times so you'll have phases where it's really good and then it will seem like out of the blue he's testing
Happy and affectionate. On his go-home day a clean down is paid with a snuggle.
On film
he's like happy all the time
I've kind of successfully tuned him out of the avoidance right there, and now he gets to come up, and he gets to come snuggle with me, as a reward
Walks in front of the handler and stops. The trainer says on the first outing that the shuffle will trip somebody, and a week later tells another family that a dog named Chunk has nearly tripped him five times.
On film
We're gonna have to fix that little shuffle he does in front of me though, cause he's gonna trip somebody.
they'll walk with you and they'll like get in front of you and just stop there's a dog named chunk he's like almost tripped me like five times
Tires through a long day. After about forty minutes of the home lesson he is tired, and by the end of his three sessions on the go-home day he is 'wiped out'.
On film
he's also been tired now too we've been working for a while
Yeah, he's really, he's wiped out.
As the family describe him
Points
- About seven months old, eight next month, by their spoken account at the first lesson.
- Loves water, carrots, ice cubes and pineapple. His toys are vegetable plush toys, and he takes them apart.
- Crate-trained with treats and peanut butter as a puppy and screamed in the crate. Better now.
- Not very vocal, except when frustrated in the kennel.
- Gets on with the family cat, Arthur. He wants to play and the cat is not keen.
- Hates the hair dryer.
- At a lake he tried to run and broke a leash.
- Never aggressive toward anyone, by their account (2026-09-22). People tend to get in his face on walks, which is part of why they wanted him trained to listen.
- On their last walk with him before the program he 'went everywhere' (2026-09-22).
- He destroyed three beds and a play kennel, which is why his kennel at home has a wooden board in it rather than bedding (2026-09-22).
- When excited he jumps all over the furniture at home (2026-09-22).
- He loves the cat, Arthur, and only wants to play with him (2026-09-22, as on 2026-09-14).
On film
seven months okay seven months uh eight months coming up next month just about seven months
been out here like i usually don't let's see we took him to the lake three or two minutes ago he like he like he loves or he tried to run away from us we had to have him on a leash just because he broke it because he was just running so hard
Yeah, he loves Arthur.
He actually isn't that vocal.
he's never been aggressive towards anyone
whenever we take him on walks they love like getting all up in his face
last time i tried to take him out on a walk he like went everywhere
he's had three beds so far and he's destroyed them all
he'll like jump everywhere from couch to behind the island and then to outside
because Chuck loves Arthur.
Breed
On film the trainers describe his type as 'bully' or 'bully breed' throughout and compare his temperament with other bullies such as Titan; they never state a breed.
The program, stage by stage
Arrival day
A short recording that the narrating trainer calls his intake. Place-and-sit repetitions, a 'Nope. Place.' for a miss and one down with an 'ah-ah'. The summary to camera: high energy, a fresh start, nothing known at 100%, likes the cot, highly promising. The trainer is not named.
On film
Nope. Place.
I was good, you like the place, that makes my life so much easier when I look back.
The first indoor days: the implied stay, and a dog who goes into his shell
2026-09-04, watch. The Beo remark is the same day.
Indoors, wet and muddy from the yard. An unnamed trainer works focus, sit and down, and works on keeping him off the furniture when he is released. Then comes the teaching: the implied stay, explained to him as it has been 'to every other dog'. Any position holds until the break command, with no separate stay word. After a correction he goes quiet, and the trainer tells him he is a turtle in his shell and not in trouble. This is the first recorded instance of the correction-sensitivity that the rest of the case turns on. Much of the rest of the file is personal conversation and is not summarised. The same day, in Beo's session, staff joke that Chunk 'almost killed' Beo in a tussle.
On film
picky about that. But anyways, you go into that position and I don't have to say a single thing because I haven't given you the command to break yet.
You don't need to be a turtle inside of your shell.
The first outing: pulling fixed, and the avoidance flop Christian had warned aboutTurning point
2026-09-06 21:45, watch. Kodak's session at the same place is title-dated ten minutes later.
This is the field trainer's first time with Chunk, and by his account Chunk's first time out of the dog room. The stated goal is pulling. Before they left, Christian had warned him that Chunk has 'a little bit of nervous stuff' and will go 'fish out of water' when the e-collar is used. The prediction came true within five minutes: Chunk tries to get away from the handler, goes to flop down, and thrashes if the handler keeps walking. The trainer gives his rule on camera. Deliver pressure without emotion, so the dog attributes it to his own behaviour and not to the handler. Keep walking, so the avoidance stops paying. Use the collar only when he has to, which he justifies by Chunk running into a road. By about eight minutes he calls Kelton over to see a dog who is not pulling. Later he deliberately invites the avoidance again so that Chunk learns backing off is survivable, and says that stopping a behaviour is not the same as suppressing the dog. The session ends with belly rubs. The trainer adds that without the collar Chunk goes straight back to 'being crazy'. He compares Chunk's temperament to Titan's and notes that Chunk fixates less. He also has a habit of walking in front of the handler and stopping, which the trainer says needs fixing because it will trip somebody.
On film
so we're out here with chunk he's being crazy it's the first time i've been out with him
thing he was doing i was actually warned about that before i even took him out i uh christian
got a little bit of nervous stuff and he is definitely going to do that avoid thing where he's going to like do the the fish out of water when you hit the e-collar and he's going to try
so the big thing is just don't be mean when you do it right don't really show any emotion in general because i don't want him to think it's coming from me i want him to think that's just bad behavior
me i don't know it just it creates a weird like hey kelton look at this look look who's not pulling
So I'm actually gonna do that a couple of times. So he's like, okay, it's not the end of the world if I just back off.
Thing is I don't wanna repress, right? I don't wanna repress.
We're gonna have to fix that little shuffle he does in front of me though, cause he's gonna trip somebody.
Day two with the field trainer: a play test with Christian, the first radius, and a dog who startles himself
2026-09-07 13:10, watch (35 min).
An outdoor session near the facility with two staff: the narrating handler and Christian, introduced as 'our resident bully expert'. The first twelve minutes are a play test with a flirt pole and a tug. The handler says Chunk grabbed the toy but did not know what to do with it until he made it a competition, taking it and letting him win some; the speakers report his bite getting stronger as his confidence built, and explain that play has to be taught and that house life can suppress drive that must be reopened on toys. They judge his nerves better outdoors than they looked in the dog room. The handler sketches a venue ladder (White Deer Park, more dogs, downtown Angier) and explains why he uses 'let's go' rather than hitting the collar at the sight of a dog. On the walk, members of the public and a child meet and pet him, and the handler later says the petting was good for him. The handler then explains his dosing: he has started a radius, but Chunk tends to shut down a little, and on the radius he downed, went 'fish out of water' and panted, so he avoids stacking demands and fixes pulling first. Leash yielding, he says, was learned in 15-20 minutes the previous day; Chunk does not yet know 'let's go'. A small pull near an older couple is 'fine' for day two and would be 'terrible' for a week-three dog. One down on grass is done with a marker and no e-collar. Late in the walk Chunk's paws slide on a textured surface and he startles; the handler describes a pattern of fixating hard on a person or dog and then startling at the lightest leash pressure. Personal, business and breed chat between the staff is not summarised; a remark to strangers about an unnamed Corso is conversational and not about Chunk.
On film
we're out here with chunk we're trying to see if we can get him to
let's see what about this we have a christian here who of course is our resident bully expert
he kind of like grabbed it but he didn't know what to do so then i i acted like it was a competition
See how his bite force is getting stronger. Yeah, because you know his confidence is building.
the more he likes the game you can see though his nerves aren't as bad as they as they looked in the dog room
i might take him to like white deer park and around some more dogs and eventually we can get up to like going maybe like downtown angier
you have a dog like chunk and you hit the collar every time they see a dog they'll get scared of the dog whereas if you do the let's go and then you punish for the let's go
tell i did start working on a radius with him a little bit
i'm trying to gauge like because obviously he does have a tendency to shut down a teeny bit
i never think of like a single command is pushing too hard it's when they all like combine on top
the radius and he downed and then he like fish out of water and everything and he was kind of panting a little bit because it's a very like intense experience for him
But by the end of our session, actually, he was yielding in about 15, about 20 minutes.
interesting he doesn't really know let's go command yet
doing it on the grass so i actually didn't hit the e-collar that time i just did a marker and he gave in pretty much with the least pressure too
bit because he does have starts looking at like another person or another dog and he like goes to lean out that well and he fixates really hard and what happens is because he's really fixated when he feels the least pressure he startled himself
by doing this yeah actually the that kid petting on him earlier was really good
No toy of his own takes; down on a stage and on gravel; heel promised for tomorrow
2026-09-08 21:37, watch. The day after watch.
The same trainer spends the opening minutes looking for a game with his own toys: a textured toy, a ball and an octopus tug, none of which take. (The day before, a flirt pole and a tug had engaged Chunk with Christian once it was made a competition.) He plans to ask Christian about a small string tug Christian had used with Chunk. Pulling is gone. The down is taught on a raised stage and then on gravel. He uses an 'eh' for misses and says he is reluctant to use the collar, then reports hitting it at 15 and says Chunk is starting to treat down as a requirement. He owns a late correction to camera. He announces that Chunk has a basic grasp of come, sit and down and will start heel tomorrow, because a dog who yields to leash pressure can be taught heel pleasantly. He speaks to the owner as a likely viewer: play is not optional, and a walk will not be enough. He ends on a sit and release so the session closes on a good experience.
On film
maybe i'll uh i'll ask uh chris about that that toy he had that he worked with chunk because i
I will have to reinforce with e-collar at some point,
the pressure then teaching the heel can be dare i say an enjoyable process chunk down down so i did hit the e collar on 15 there down down i see so he's starting to realize that it's like not it's a requirement not something that he gets to pick
Yeah, it's for, I think it's one more, which is the heel. We're not going to work on that today. We're going to work on that tomorrow, though.
But the point is, if you don't play with them, you're going to have problems.
Indoors: door-rushing, and the night routine
2026-09-09 15:01, watch; 2026-09-10 23:34, watch.
Two short indoor recordings by unnamed handlers. In the first, the handler says his indoor work and place are good but he still rushes the door hard. A second staff member goes out, knocks and comes back in as a visitor while he is asked to sit. Down is 'still' being worked. A staff member reports that the day before he ran at her, jumped on her and licked her. The second recording is a late-night rotation. He runs off his zoomies, then does place, down and sit. The handler says it is not training and then corrects herself or himself.
On film
Yeah, because I noticed he still wants to rush the door super hard, and I don't think that's very good manners to have, I'll be honest.
Yeah, I want to see what he does.
It's not a part of training, well I guess everything's a part of training.
A new park: the bolt, and 'opening up is good'Turning point
2026-09-11 13:53, watch (re-uploaded as watch).
The field trainer takes him to a park they have not worked together. They have already been downtown and to Beach Bluff Park, and neither outing is in the read set. The job is generalising the down. The collar is tightened because it will not work any looser. Chunk refuses the down repeatedly, and the trainer calls him in a fighting mood, very much a bully, testing what he can get away with. Then Chunk 'really flipped out' and tried to bolt. The trainer says he was mostly pulling on the collar and barely used the stim. He reads the reaction as Chunk trying to 'drama his way out'. He also says that a dog who is not being hurt can still traumatise himself, so he resets and tries again. The downs then improve, the sits are drilled, and a radius begun on the walk is reported better. His closing assessment reframes the whole fortnight. Chunk has opened up, and so is more avoidant about commands, which means more drilling. But opening up is good, because it means his nerves are getting better.
On film
Can't go any looser, though, or else it's not going to work.
We've been to downtown of course, and we've been over at Beach Bluff Park. We have not worked together and Jack Marley though
It's not going to work. You can't do it. You can't fight your way out of it.
really flipped out on me didn't you interesting chunk let's go here come here come here
so he's gonna try to bolt away from me the interesting thing is i was just pulling on the collar i don't even i only i barely hit the collar so he is trying to kind of drama his way out but i don't want to traumatize him like even though i'm not hurting him he could genuinely just traumatize himself out of the experience so we're trying again
radius with me now too right now he's opened up he's become a little more avoidant in terms of doing commands now that he's opened up more which means we'll have to drill those more but it's good opening up is good means his nerves are getting better
The first in-program owner lessonTurning point
2026-09-14, watch (49 min) and watch (6 min).
Two weeks in, outdoors in heat, with the owners. The trainer says the first session is mostly about the owners. Status report: the down is really good, the sit pretty good, recall still in progress, let's go pretty good. Heel has not started, even though it was promised for 2026-09-09. His reason is that heel waits until the dog understands what pressure means, and bullies often do not. He demonstrates let's go as the engine of public neutrality, and shows the implied stay, with Chunk pulling away first and then holding. The theory follows: the four quadrants, 'eh' and 'nope', the e-collar always after a marker with the one exception of the leash hit, and command poisoning. Then the settling week and never going back on a word, food never as the primary reward, 10-15 minutes of exercise a day, the slip lead doubled with the collar, and the out command. He explains the avoidance to the owners in plain terms. Chunk used to walk away or lie down and watch, and has learned he will be made to comply. The trainer got the commands in early to leave time for avoidance drills. The collar is at 30 now and usually 25, and he calls levels 'dynamic' while a dog learns to manage his nerves. In Part 2 he says Chunk is the only dog in a long time he found it hard to teach a down to: pulling down on the leash with the collar 'on high', and Chunk grunting at him. The owners give their account of the dog at home. Almost in passing, they supply the currency the trainer had been missing: carrots. A second session at the owners' home is announced; it took place on 2026-09-22 (stage 11).
On film
um so what i'm doing with him now is like he's got he has like the down really well his sits pretty good his recall is like right um let's go is pretty good the heel we're gonna start working
in in this moment so that's what i've been doing with him is teaching him like hey the e-collar pressure means you need to go back like you you did you messed up you need to give in
So that's why I really made sure to try to get those commands as early as possible.
the important thing is that the e-collar always comes after a marker so you never just like out
i he's the only dog in a long time i had like a hard time teaching it down though
yeah just because like i was like down there like pulling down on the leash e-collar on high and he was just like yeah like just grunting at me and i was like just do it bro
they'll make you push them like to do every single place so like when he actually our next session when he comes and we were at your guy's house
The day after the lesson: downtown and a first neighbourhood route, radius held, heel still to come
2026-09-15 17:49, watch (19 min); one remark on 2026-09-16 in another dog's recording.
The trainer frames Chunk as ready for 'the next step': one more park, then stores and long-line work toward off-lead. The e-collar goes on at about 20, which he says Chunk 'always pushes' him to, to be turned down if needed. He works a radius, not a heel, and says heel has not really started and will start 'very soon'. He explains the rule: curiosity is fine, but breaking the radius by attending to something else more than the handler will be corrected, because Chunk already knows the expected distance. He reports Chunk ignoring a distant dog, no longer trying to trip him, and holding his radius 'really well'. He grades one of his own responses: saying Chunk's name instead of correcting a pull-back was 'a three out of ten'. For the first time he routes a training walk through a neighbourhood, because that is where owners walk dogs. Chunk drools and tires in the direct sun; the trainer turns back, saying he wants dogs tired but not wrecked. At the end Chunk is reluctant to down, and the trainer says he will make him do it because it matters, then releases him. After 17 minutes they return to the truck. The next day, in another dog's session, a staff member reports that Chunk now jumps up into the SUV crate by himself.
On film
ideally i'm gonna take him out to maybe like one other park and then we'll start doing stores long line type work getting that off lead ready to go because he's doing really good
I think he always pushes me to a 20 we'll see what
Chunk didn't care.
He's not doing that tripping jank with me, either,
get past a certain point what it is he's actually breaking the radius right by
me or else he gets the e-collar so it's just like reinforcing it more um like natural curiosity for a dog that's not bad at all right not bad at all
handling the dog that's when it's like a problem and you can see he's holding his radius like like really well.
I don't have him in a heel. We haven't really started with that yet. We'll be starting with it very soon though.
and instead of me like punishing I said his name he was like oh right it would be more effective if I was maybe just like like that was like a three out of ten in terms of like reinforcing
so this is the first time I'm gonna walk through a neighborhood, like in general, with training a dog as part of the route.
but that's a very early sign of a dog getting a little too hot.
So I'm gonna force him to do it, he's tired. He doesn't want to do it. But it's really important that I make him do it.
He can jump into the SUV crate.
At home with the owners: the remote changes hands, and Chunk tests itTurning point
2026-09-22 15:49, watch (45 min), at the family's home. The next recording of Chunk after 2026-09-15.
The home session announced at the first lesson. A short walk near the home comes first, because rain is on the way, then the lesson moves inside. The trainer lends the owners his e-collar remote (only the black button) and recaps: marker before collar, and heel is now the only command still in progress, with everything else 'looking pretty good'. He warns that Chunk will see whether he can get away with doing nothing for them, as he did, by the trainer's account, when Christian took him out. On the walk each owner works 'let's go' and the radius. The distance is their choice but must be the same every day, and a dog kept glued to the handler never gets the chance to choose right. Going past the radius gets the collar with no marker, one of the few times that is allowed. Then each owner asks for a sit and a down, and Chunk does what the trainer predicted. He offers a sit for a down, looks at the owner without moving, hides behind the trainer, and sits down unasked on the walk. The trainer coaches each moment. Say the command once: it is a window that the word opens and 'okay' closes. Do not release an offered sit. Give the marker and then the collar when he looks and does not move, but the marker alone and a pause when he freezes, which the trainer reads as 'a little bit of nerves'. Put him back where he broke. Pull him over when he hides behind someone. For the first week home, follow up every marker. Downs are completed with both owners. When the trainer baits a radius break, one owner holds the stimulation and Chunk yelps; the trainer had predicted it and reads it as Chunk testing what he can get away with with that owner. Inside, the owners describe what he has destroyed and show the kennel they use; a place cot is on order. The commands are repeated indoors, because home is where he will check whether old habits still work, and the trainer tests place with the door of the family's kennel left open; the cue is on film, but what Chunk did and how long he stayed are not described in words. The trainer explains why the leash is on indoors only for now and why the collar, not leash pressure, has to carry the commands if Chunk is ever to work off leash. He tells one owner that Chunk 'really really tests' with them and that they will need the collar more. After about forty minutes Chunk is tired and the lesson ends.
The first time the owners hold the remote and give the commands themselves, and the first recording of Chunk testing someone other than staff.
On film
the commands he's still working on right now is really only only the heel that's it everything else is looking pretty good with him
when christian took him out he went from doing all the commands with me so he wouldn't do anything for christian
because if he's like glued to you all the time he doesn't really have an opportunity to do the right thing
it's consistent on how far the distance is because if like one day he's like here and the next day you let him all the way over to that gray car he's gonna be like i don't know what he wants
if he's too far all you're gonna do is just hit the e-collar that's it it's one of the few times you can do it without a marker
i would say next time don't say okay because what he learns is like this is like a pattern i can build where i can like get out of it by sitting
ordinarily you only say the command once i think of it like a window so it opens the window okay closes the window and if you're in between the window you're going to use some kind of marker to either reinforce or punish
he knows down really well too he just is trying to see if he can get away with not using said knowledge around you
he does like kind of have a tendency to freeze up sometimes um because i think that's just like a little bit of nerves he has right Right. In this case, you can sometimes use the marker and not hit the collar immediately and wait to see what he does.
you want to bring him back to where he already was if you don't you kind of teach him he can like inch his way over to you little by little
So what he's doing here is hiding behind me. So you want to actually like physically, like just pull the leash and make him come over to you?
i say for the first week the dogs come home it needs to just because like you're kind of powering up the word and if the dog thinks like it's a wishy-washy word like sometimes she does it sometimes she doesn't then it can make the authority you have over the dog a lot less effective
i'm gonna try to bait him into it all right hit the e-collar when he's too far keep in hold it there we go i told you he's gonna yelp with you because he he knows he can get away with stuff with you
you have to generalize it in here too because like yeah home is this yeah home especially where like he's gonna be like can i get away with what i used to right
What I wanna see is like, if I point and I say place, I wanna know if like, when I, while I leave the door open, if he'll like just chill in there, and then once I say, okay, like come back out.
if you only use the pressure from the leash you will end up accidentally teaching chunk like retraining him to listen for least pressure or feel for least pressure and then if the dog operates off least pressure can you have an off-leash dog that listens to the least pressure you really can't
that's gonna need the e-collar it's gonna be you because he he really really tests with you
Go-home day: two tune-ups and another 'avoidance phase'
2026-09-29 13:11, watch (6 min), and 13:56, watch (14 min). The first two of three sessions that day.
Two short outdoor sessions in the early afternoon of the day Chunk went home, by the trainer who gave the handover later that afternoon (he counts the handover lesson as Chunk's third session of the day). The first opens with a few brief heels to warm him up. The trainer cues 'down' when, by his own account, he meant 'sit', puts it down to his own body language, and makes Chunk complete the down anyway because he said it. The rest is the down on the word alone: the trainer says Chunk has been 'fighting' him on doing it verbally, and he is tightening it up with the e-collar before Chunk is back with his family. In the second session he is 'still tuning up' the down. By his account Chunk is in another 'avoidance phase': the down was 'really tight' a week or two earlier, and a puppy, a bully puppy especially, goes through phases of testing a command he knows. He counts about two such phases with Chunk so far. His answer has two halves. Refusal must not pay, so every down is completed, by the leash if need be, until Chunk learns 'it's not worth the fight'. But Chunk has 'a little bit of natural nerves' and may still be in a 'fear cycle', so the trainer stays encouraging and says he will tell the owners not to 'only go negative', because, he warns, Chunk will lock up if the handling is only negative. He stops for a walk to let Chunk decompress after 'a lot of reps', and he says an average confident bully can take a held stimulation while a nervous one like Chunk would be scared by it. A clean down is paid with a snuggle. He worries for a moment that Chunk now downs to his name. If the phase has not passed by drop-off, he says, he will tell the owners it is normal and show them how to correct it, and he presents the session as a preview of how Chunk will test them at home.
On film
i'm just starting off very like basically very brief heels with him and we're gonna like warm up into it because i just took him out
Actually, funny enough, I must put something in my body language because I meant to say sit and sit down. Chunk. Now I have to make him do it.
I'm going to do some e-caller reinforcing here because I need to encourage him to do it all verbal only, which...
so he's been fighting me a little bit to make it like verbal only so i'm just kind of tightening up kind of fixing it up before he's with his people
Just still tuning up just making sure the down is nice and good.
so we're kind of hitting like another avoidance phase because he's a puppy um that's just gonna happen over time he'll do really good and all of a sudden he'll try to go through another avoidance phase
if you go back and look at the videos like a week ago about two weeks ago you'll notice that the down was really tight
i've gone through like two avoidance phases with him
So, the more times he learns that, like, good things happen when I do down. Like, if I don't do it, he probably pulls me back into it and he just yanks me down. Over time, the dog learns, like, okay, it's not worth the fight, right?
chunk it does have a little little bit of natural nerves
he might still be in his fear cycle too right so he's a little weary um so just being very encouraging and i'm gonna go over that on the drop-off day is like yeah like being encouraging with chunk don't only go negative because he'll lock up
we'll just walk around for a little bit let him let him decompress let's go because it's uh that was a lot of reps for for chunk
with chunk he's got a little bit of nerves so whenever you have a nervous bully it's interesting because they do really want to avoid but also you can't go like you would with maybe just your average american bully that's kind of confident it because you'll end up scaring them
I've kind of successfully tuned him out of the avoidance right there, and now he gets to come up, and he gets to come snuggle with me, as a reward
i got worried a second that we conditioned you to the wrong word
so if he's still going through that if he hasn't gotten out of it when i drop him off then i'm just gonna like talk to the owners and be like hey this is a very normal occurrence with a dog like him he knows the word you just have to kind of know what to do to correct it to get him back into that zone again
because the dog's going to test the owner so in this case what's funny is just he started an avoidance with me so it kind of just looks like what the dog would probably look like when he goes home and then you just see me tightening it up which again is normal
The go-home lesson at the family's home, and Chunk goes homeTurning point
2026-09-29 15:24, watch (33 min). Chunk's third session of the day by the trainer's count. He went home that day.
The handover lesson at Chunk's home on the afternoon he went home, after two shorter sessions earlier that day (the trainer mentions working him downtown and in a park that day). The place part was covered before the recording starts; the trainer gives the rule for the family's cot when it arrives (legs may hang off the edge, a paw on the ground is a break) and says place is hard to ruin. Most of the lesson is how to keep the down. The trainer says Chunk gives one of two reactions when he is unsure or testing: he locks up, or he runs. A lock-up gets a quiet cue, a point and encouragement, never a sudden collar, because punishing a dog who was about to comply teaches him that complying did not work. A refusal or a bolt gets the collar, and he is pulled back into the down while the handler says 'down', as the down was first taught. He warns that as a puppy Chunk will test in phases, and says the down 'looked really good' for the first two weeks before Chunk started testing him again that day. The owners practise downs inside with the trainer's remote and no leash pressure. With one owner Chunk rolls over first and then holds the down; he locks up when confused, and once does not go all the way down. The trainer has them shorten a rep after a couple of failures so it ends on a success, and warns that a hand movement repeated with every command will become part of the cue. The heel is taught outside, at the handover on purpose, because a new place shows the owners how the heel will really look in their hands. The trainer explains that pressure goes everywhere except the heel pocket and leaves the moment Chunk is in it, then demonstrates. Chunk matches his speed, tests the sit at a stop, and looks back at his owners, which the trainer calls the most common sight at a drop-off heel. Each owner heels him. The heel is looser with one owner than the other; the trainer says practice will tighten it, so that in a year it should be tighter than it was with him, and that heel took Chunk a while to learn. The lesson ends with the fit of the owners' own e-collar (two fingers flat under the band) and the handover paperwork. Chunk, 'wiped out' after three sessions, goes home with his family.
The handover: the owners take over the down and the heel, and the program ends.
On film
this would be his third session of the day. Because I work them a lot like the day they go home to make sure everything's nice and good
the biggest thing is it places one of those commands that to mess it up You have to like actively try
the rule is that the legs can't touch the ground. It's like, if he wants to have like two legs that are kind of floating off the cot, but not touching the ground, that's fine. It's just the second a paw touches the ground, that's when he breaks the rules.
there were like two reactions i got from him i either would say down and he would be like kind of lock up and then i could encourage him into it or i would say down he'd like kind of like freak out and run away and and I would just hit the e-collar and wrangle him back in.
if he locks up though and he just sits there and like freezes the last thing you want to do is like boom e-call it right
I mean, because if you punish him for it, he's going to be like, well, dang, I did it, and it didn't work, so I guess I should probably not do it again.
Yeah, and I say down at the exact same time to reinforce it. That's how we teach down in the first place, but when you're reinforcing it, it helps out a lot too.
because he's a puppy specifically he's gonna test like multiple times so you'll have phases where it's really good and then it will seem like out of the blue he's testing
the first two weeks i like the down looked really good and actually today he started testing me again and so i went out in the park with him
i want to see you guys put them in a down and the main thing is i want to see him do it where you don't have to use any leash pressure
he's just rolling over
his implied state he's actually like got it down where he'll he'll hold the position
encourage him a little more like positively right here because he's a little of locked up because i think he's a little confused
he's had like a couple like failed attempts so make it a shorter rep where it's like a positive where it's like uh it went well this time that way you don't build like a negative association
if you do this like a mannerism like that every time he'll actually start to think this is okay so i tell people like don't don't leave the hand on the e-collar don't do this kind of thing every single time
i always like teaching the heel on drop-offs because because it's a new area the heel the way he's gonna respond to me putting him in a heel is gonna look a lot similar to how it's gonna look when you put him into a heel
but in reality that's not really how it works you create pressure everywhere that you don't want him to be and then when he gets in the right zone pressure leaves immediately yeah so e-collar goes away once he's in the right zone or at least pressure you take it away the second he's in that pocket of the heel
you'll see that he's walking slow with me but then if I speed up he speeds up and then if I slow down he needs to slow down
when I stopped he should sit that's the thing is like with a a temperament like that you have to like very continuously like drill it
that's like the number one thing that happens on my drop-off when i do heel is they keep like looking back at their owner they're like you're gonna let him do this to me
the more both of you do it the more tighter it gets
if you do everything right if for some reason i ran into you guys a year from now it should actually be tighter than it was with me
That took Chunk a minute to learn how to do, by the way That was not one that he wanted to do naturally
you should be able to fit two fingers in here
Yeah, he's really, he's wiped out.
Skills
Loose-leash walking and giving to leash pressure
How it was taught
The e-collar is stimulated the instant the dog hits the end of the leash, with no marker, so that leash pressure and stimulation become one sensation. This is the one stated exception to marker-before-collar. He keeps walking through the freezes, flops and thrashing so they stop working. A slip lead is doubled with the flat collar so he cannot back out. On day two (2026-09-07) the handler says the yielding had been learned in about 15-20 minutes the day before.
On film
you know what time it is he's just learning what leash pressure means
pulling with him we went on a little adventure together and he avoided a
that well it's cool though all right well to get some of this started with him um just trying to like test out his pulling and stuff he's not doing that at all
I only hit the collar without saying something, because what I want is I want when he hits the
electric now so that's kind of how we do it like so with the leak pressure like I pull on him at all he gives it immediately there's no like resistance
But by the end of our session, actually, he was yielding in about 15, about 20 minutes.
if you only use the pressure from the leash you will end up accidentally teaching chunk like retraining him to listen for least pressure or feel for least pressure and then if the dog operates off least pressure can you have an off-leash dog that listens to the least pressure you really can't
i want to see you guys put them in a down and the main thing is i want to see him do it where you don't have to use any leash pressure
Down
How it was taught
Verbal cue with 'eh' for a miss, on a raised stage first and then gravel, the surface dogs least like lying on. The collar was withheld as long as possible and then used at 15. At the new park it was leash and collar pressure, and the refusal was treated as testing: 'you can't fight your way out of it'. After the bolt the handler reset rather than escalated. The Part 2 account of pulling him down with the collar 'on high' while he grunted describes a session not in the read set. Later: every down completed ('it's not worth the fight'), by the leash if he refuses or runs; encouragement and a point when he locks up; e-collar reinforcement to move the down onto the word alone (2026-09-29).
On film
Because Claudia, she's the one who does all the inside training.
like test out his pulling and stuff he's not doing that at all just good it's a big thing now go up on the stage here um chunk hey all right so i'm gonna try to teach him a down
let's see if he'll do it on the gravel here because that's when dogs really don't like to
So I'm just gonna have to generalize the depth down okay
down down that was better good job
Chunk, down, mm-mm, come on. So that's the avoid thing he's doing right here where he's like actively like pulling away from me.
he knows down really well too he just is trying to see if he can get away with not using said knowledge around you
so he's been fighting me a little bit to make it like verbal only so i'm just kind of tightening up kind of fixing it up before he's with his people
if you go back and look at the videos like a week ago about two weeks ago you'll notice that the down was really tight
I've kind of successfully tuned him out of the avoidance right there, and now he gets to come up, and he gets to come snuggle with me, as a reward
he's just rolling over
his implied state he's actually like got it down where he'll he'll hold the position
Implied stay (every position held until the break command)
How it was taught
No stay word. The position lasts until the break. Sit drifting into down is accepted. It is proofed by moving, making noise or running off. If the dog follows, the collar and a return to the position. A broken position is reset to the exact spot.
On film
And you're capable of focus for what we like to call an implied stay.
Down, and so the rule is that he has to stay in the position until I release him.
job right and that's how it works so that's for all the commands like sit heel down all that stuff how that looked right there is how it should be all the time but he's still learning
you want to bring him back to where he already was if you don't you kind of teach him he can like inch his way over to you little by little
his implied state he's actually like got it down where he'll he'll hold the position
that's why we do the stuff in the house because you get that little like stuff like that where they'll do the command but maybe they jump up a little too early
Sit
How it was taught
Verbal cue and praise. In the field, avoidance of the sit is met by making him comply.
On film
And I took him out there, and I was like, sit. And Chunk kind of looked at me and just walked away.
chunk sit good job good job chunk that's so good good job chunk
i would say next time don't say okay because what he learns is like this is like a pattern i can build where i can like get out of it by sitting
he's actively avoiding him is what's happening
when I stopped he should sit that's the thing is like with a a temperament like that you have to like very continuously like drill it
Place
How it was taught
Sent to the cot and asked to sit or down. Proofed in the inside room by staff re-entering the door 'super amped' and varying who and how. At home: point and say 'place' with the kennel door open; he should settle and come out only on 'okay'.
On film
I was good, you like the place, that makes my life so much easier when I look back.
Okay, enough. That's enough, buddy. Come on, let's go to place.
things that could happen so maybe after like two or three corrections the dog will get it and then we're good yeah um but we have like our inside room so like the place is an implied thing too
What I wanna see is like, if I point and I say place, I wanna know if like, when I, while I leave the door open, if he'll like just chill in there, and then once I say, okay, like come back out.
the rule is that the legs can't touch the ground. It's like, if he wants to have like two legs that are kind of floating off the cot, but not touching the ground, that's fine. It's just the second a paw touches the ground, that's when he breaks the rules.
Door manners
How it was taught
A staff member plays a visitor who knocks and enters. The scenario is restarted and varied so that the dog learns to manage impulsiveness rather than one picture.
On film
Sit. Sit. Sit.
very specific things like that you just want to generalize it to managing the impulsiveness which he's way more chilled out than when I met him
Let's go (direction change) and public neutrality
How it was taught
Say 'let's go' and move off whenever he locks on to a person or dog, until disengaging becomes automatic. Correct the ignored 'let's go', never the sight of the dog or person.
On film
still working on that um and the reason that i do go over the let's go is because that's how we train like public neutrality with all the dogs so chunk is like interested in anything that moves
interesting he doesn't really know let's go command yet
so I'm let's going him a lot and he listens what I'm gonna do now is if I
you have a dog like chunk and you hit the collar every time they see a dog they'll get scared of the dog whereas if you do the let's go and then you punish for the let's go
you're teaching a dog to not run up to people you have to do it in that order of like let's go doesn't listen then punishes for not listening as opposed to like punishing for being interested
Recall
How it was taught
The cue 'come' and the front 'plop'.
On film
You know, you can't have the, so Chunk's got a basic grasp on most of the commands already.
and it's different from a recall where he like comes up and plops in front of me which we're still working on that
the commands he's still working on right now is really only only the heel that's it everything else is looking pretty good with him
Heel
How it was taught
The sequencing rule that held it back: heel is the most unnatural command and is always taught last, and with a bully, heel before yielding to pressure is 'miserable'. At the handover the method is stated: pressure everywhere outside the heel pocket, removed the moment he is in it; say 'heel' once; heel always on the left; match speed; sit when the handler stops; the collar, with the marker, when he breaks or lags, rather than pulling him, which makes him resist; keep him in heel until 'okay'.
On film
And he's going to kill it because he's got everything else so far.
things a couple things need to be in line before i start working on that so it's always the last command that i teach them yeah um and i think it's the most unnatural command for a dog because
I don't have him in a heel. We haven't really started with that yet. We'll be starting with it very soon though.
the commands he's still working on right now is really only only the heel that's it everything else is looking pretty good with him
i'm just starting off very like basically very brief heels with him and we're gonna like warm up into it because i just took him out
but in reality that's not really how it works you create pressure everywhere that you don't want him to be and then when he gets in the right zone pressure leaves immediately yeah so e-collar goes away once he's in the right zone or at least pressure you take it away the second he's in that pocket of the heel
you'll see that he's walking slow with me but then if I speed up he speeds up and then if I slow down he needs to slow down
because again new area right if I was training over here I would do that like five times maybe five ten times and each time it would get tighter
really in reality you should say the word once and then that's it
That took Chunk a minute to learn how to do, by the way That was not one that he wanted to do naturally
I would recommend using the e-collar a little more when he gets behind because yeah because when you keep pulling him it just kind of encourages him to resist more so using that e-collar every time he like starts to stray too far make sure you use the marker of course
the more both of you do it the more tighter it gets
Radius
How it was taught
Walk on the flexi or leash, stop, and see whether he stays in range. Breaking the radius by attending to something else more than the handler is corrected with the collar, because he knows the distance; curiosity itself is allowed. For the owners: the collar without a marker when he hits the edge, held if he keeps fighting it.
On film
So I'm going to start a radius with them.
tell i did start working on a radius with him a little bit
the radius and he downed and then he like fish out of water and everything and he was kind of panting a little bit because it's a very like intense experience for him
get past a certain point what it is he's actually breaking the radius right by
handling the dog that's when it's like a problem and you can see he's holding his radius like like really well.
once he goes too far then i i hit the e-collar and i don't say anything
it's consistent on how far the distance is because if like one day he's like here and the next day you let him all the way over to that gray car he's gonna be like i don't know what he wants
Yeah, so like when he hits the end of that radius there, oh, you gotta just, you just hit it. And if he's like, keeps trying to fight you, so you just hold the button.
You exceeded the radius my friend.
Staying off the furniture when released
How it was taught
Called back to a sit on the floor. Excitement allowed, jumping not.
On film
But that does not mean you have to jump on every piece of furniture
he'll like jump everywhere from couch to behind the island and then to outside
Out
How it was taught
'out', then the collar, until the word alone works.
On film
But we do it for the pet dogs, too, because, um, if they grab something in their mouth that we don't want them to have or something,
Walking manners: stopping in front of the handler
How it was taught
Not described beyond telling him to stop.
On film
We're gonna have to fix that little shuffle he does in front of me though, cause he's gonna trip somebody.
stop walking in front of me like that it's like the one thing it spikes like it
they'll walk with you and they'll like get in front of you and just stop there's a dog named chunk he's like almost tripped me like five times
He's not doing that tripping jank with me, either, where he, like, tries to trip me while we walk.
like that there's the trip thing
Play and tug
How it was taught
Make it a competition: take the toy, let him win some, then not; with a bully, play rough enough to ride the wave of excitement.
On film
we're out here with chunk we're trying to see if we can get him to
he kind of like grabbed it but he didn't know what to do so then i i acted like it was a competition
See how his bite force is getting stronger. Yeah, because you know his confidence is building.
doesn't seem to really be interested in the other toys i have so but we're going to use play with
what I've been doing to start the training with him is I usually will have like a 10-minute play session with them before
I've kind of successfully tuned him out of the avoidance right there, and now he gets to come up, and he gets to come snuggle with me, as a reward
How the method adapted
Most of what the trainers did with Chunk is the program's standard kit. The adaptations are about dose and sequence for a dog read as both correction-sensitive and avoidant. Hold the collar back, re-invite the avoidance instead of avoiding it, get the commands in early so there is time to drill the avoidance, and delay heel. They are also about finding a currency, where the program's usual answer, play, did not become his reward: a flirt pole and tug engaged him once, with Christian, on 2026-09-07, but none of the field trainer's own toys took, and the owners' carrots came only at the first lesson. In the last fortnight the adaptations move from the dog to the people. The split between a freeze and a refusal is taught to the owners, the lighter hand for a nervous bully is stated as a rule, and the go-home day itself becomes extra training.
The collar was used sparingly and late, and the trainer said so every time.
Because he was warned the dog was nervous, and he saw him freeze on the first outing. The reluctance is stated three times in three sessions. Against it stand the reported 'on high' down episode and the rise to 25-30 by the lesson, which the trainer explains as levels being dynamic while a dog learns to manage his nerves. On 2026-09-15 the trainer says Chunk 'always pushes' him to about 20. No level is given in the later recordings, and on the go-home day the trainer contrasts Chunk with an 'average' bully who can take a held stimulation.
On film
least pressure that's good because he was not walkable before yeah and so i i didn't want to to stress him out so i hit it when i had to but frankly it was for his own good
Nope, so I'm really not using much e-collar
right now i'm on a 30 but that's because is that pretty low um i'd say it's like an average usually
I think he always pushes me to a 20 we'll see what
you just got to be a little more delicate with chunk because a lot of bullies your average bully right you can hit the e-collar maybe hold it right and they'll just kind of whine out
The avoidance was invited on purpose, not steered around.
So that it stops working and so that he learns backing off is survivable. The trainer frames this as stopping a behaviour and then opening the dog back up, not as suppression. The next day the same handler treated a flop on the radius as a reason to lighten the session and not stack demands; both are his words, dosed differently. By 2026-09-22 the rule given to the owners is the first half: make him complete the command once or twice and avoidance stops being an option.
On film
That's the kind of avoidant stuff though that I'm looking for on purpose.
this is not what we're doing it's just punishing of behavior and then be like okay good we're gonna open up now
i never think of like a single command is pushing too hard it's when they all like combine on top
one thing about avoidance is usually they will try to run away but if you force them into the command like once or twice and they learn like oh it's not an option for me
Commands were front-loaded so there was time to drill the avoidance.
Because the first park outing showed he would walk away from a sit he had done indoors for Claudia.
On film
So that's why I really made sure to try to get those commands as early as possible. So I can try to run as many drills for his avoidance as possible.
Heel was held back until pressure meant something to him.
Because, in the trainer's breed account, bullies do not always know what pressure means and will 'flop around like a wet bull noodle'. Heel before yielding is miserable. The promised start date slipped by at least five days. The start kept slipping: still 'very soon' on 2026-09-15, in progress by 2026-09-22, and taught to the owners at the handover.
On film
automatically know what that means like the second you put it on them you don't have to like condition a lot of them you put the e-collar on you hit it and they're like oh crap and they like go back and they're like my bad uh with bully breeds you do have to sometimes teach them what
he's a bully so his tendency is to be like nah i'm not doing that but dogs in general right like
I don't have him in a heel. We haven't really started with that yet. We'll be starting with it very soon though.
the commands he's still working on right now is really only only the heel that's it everything else is looking pretty good with him
After the bolt, reset rather than escalate.
Because a dog who is not being hurt can still traumatise himself out of the experience. This is the trainer's explicit limit.
On film
out but i don't want to traumatize him like even though i'm not hurting him he could genuinely just
Short sessions, and play before work.
Because he overheats at about fifteen minutes and then 'disassociates'. Because he is 'on 10' and a walk cannot burn it off, the trainer starts with about ten minutes of play.
On film
what I've been doing to start the training with him is I usually will have like a 10-minute play session with them before
oh right now he's just associating yeah he does like yeah he disassociates once he gets
The reward search: toys, then Christian's tug, then carrots, and in the end contact.
Because the program's preferred reward is play, and none of the field trainer's toys worked. The owners' carrots arrive at the lesson, and the trainer's first thought is to use one for heel, although the house rule is that food is never the primary reward. On 2026-09-07 a flirt pole and a tug did engage him with Christian. On the go-home day the reward on film is a snuggle.
On film
doesn't seem to really be interested in the other toys i have so but we're going to use play with
i'll use like some ice cubes or carrots as a reward yeah he loves carrots i'm like he would
He'll jump all the way up.
See how his bite force is getting stronger. Yeah, because you know his confidence is building.
I've kind of successfully tuned him out of the avoidance right there, and now he gets to come up, and he gets to come snuggle with me, as a reward
Generalisation, venue by venue.
Because bullies test whether a rule applies in each new place. The sequence runs dog room, road, a park near the facility, stage, gravel, downtown, Beach Bluff, a new park, a neighbourhood, the owners' home (2026-09-22), and a new area outside the home for the heel at the handover.
On film
kind of like how bullies are is they're like oh well you made me do it during the day at this
so this is the first time I'm gonna walk through a neighborhood, like in general, with training a dog as part of the route.
you have to generalize it in here too because like yeah home is this yeah home especially where like he's gonna be like can i get away with what i used to right
i always like teaching the heel on drop-offs because because it's a new area the heel the way he's gonna respond to me putting him in a heel is gonna look a lot similar to how it's gonna look when you put him into a heel
Encourage the lock-up, correct the refusal.
Because the trainer reads Chunk's freezes as nerves and his walk-aways and bolts as testing. He separates them on 2026-09-22 (the marker and a pause for a freeze), plans earlier on the go-home day to tell the owners not to 'only go negative', and makes it the main point of the handover: a point and encouragement for a lock-up, the collar and a pull back into position for a refusal.
On film
he does like kind of have a tendency to freeze up sometimes um because i think that's just like a little bit of nerves he has right Right. In this case, you can sometimes use the marker and not hit the collar immediately and wait to see what he does.
he might still be in his fear cycle too right so he's a little weary um so just being very encouraging and i'm gonna go over that on the drop-off day is like yeah like being encouraging with chunk don't only go negative because he'll lock up
if he locks up though and he just sits there and like freezes the last thing you want to do is like boom e-call it right
I mean, because if you punish him for it, he's going to be like, well, dang, I did it, and it didn't work, so I guess I should probably not do it again.
A lighter hand than for a confident bully.
Because, in the trainer's words on the last day, a nervous bully really wants to avoid but would be scared by the handling an average confident bully can take.
On film
you just got to be a little more delicate with chunk because a lot of bullies your average bully right you can hit the e-collar maybe hold it right and they'll just kind of whine out
with chunk he's got a little bit of nerves so whenever you have a nervous bully it's interesting because they do really want to avoid but also you can't go like you would with maybe just your average american bully that's kind of confident it because you'll end up scaring them
Fewer reps, and the last one a success.
Because 'that was a lot of reps' for him, overwork gives poor performance, and five failures and one success leave a dog remembering the failures.
On film
we'll just walk around for a little bit let him let him decompress let's go because it's uh that was a lot of reps for for chunk
in a sense of like you can overwork and then get poor performance
he's had like a couple like failed attempts so make it a shorter rep where it's like a positive where it's like uh it went well this time that way you don't build like a negative association
if he has five failures and one success it's like people right if you fail something five times and you succeed once you're gonna remember your five failures
Extra sessions on the day he went home.
The trainer works dogs 'a lot' on the day they go home to make sure everything is in place. Chunk had three sessions that day, two of them tightening the down before his family took over.
On film
this would be his third session of the day. Because I work them a lot like the day they go home to make sure everything's nice and good
so he's been fighting me a little bit to make it like verbal only so i'm just kind of tightening up kind of fixing it up before he's with his people
What the family was told
Two markers, two meanings, and the collar always after the marker
So we have markers that we use. We have like our eh and then our nope.
so like a boog's jumping on you he's gonna get nope right but if i put him in a sit and he gets
my face and i was like boom it's a little bit of like a violent analogy but you would know why it happened versus if i was just like hey what's up boom you'd be like why'd you punch me i don't get it and that's kind of how the dogs are thinking
The leash and radius exceptions
that so like if we use a marker that's another time we can use the e-collar so you never use the e-collar unless it's like what i was just talking about with the leash
if he's too far all you're gonna do is just hit the e-collar that's it it's one of the few times you can do it without a marker
Command poisoning
And he doesn't listen. And then you're just like, boom, I'm going to hit the e-collar. Well, you can accidentally teach Chunk that down means punish. And then you poison the word.
think that if the dog gets up you punish but what you end up doing is the dog takes it as i was in
but i don't want to ruin the word for him either
The settling week: he will avoid with you, and you never back down on a word
When he comes home, he's going to avoid with you guys.
right so i the general thing we say is about a week the dogs take about a week to settle
so when he comes home if you use one of the markers you have to follow it up with the e-collar
because he's gonna do a lot of that when he comes home
i say for the first week the dogs come home it needs to just because like you're kind of powering up the word and if the dog thinks like it's a wishy-washy word like sometimes she does it sometimes she doesn't then it can make the authority you have over the dog a lot less effective
Mindfulness until muscle memory
but i do think that's how that you should do the training for the first little bit until your muscle
He will test you: in public, at home, and in phases
in front of my parents because sometimes the bullies will be like are you gonna e-collar me
the main thing is that he's gonna see if he can get away with doing absolutely nothing with you
because he's a puppy specifically he's gonna test like multiple times so you'll have phases where it's really good and then it will seem like out of the blue he's testing
because the dog's going to test the owner so in this case what's funny is just he started an avoidance with me so it kind of just looks like what the dog would probably look like when he goes home and then you just see me tightening it up which again is normal
Let's go and neutrality
eventually when he sees another person or another dog and like the park or the store his brain goes
Food is not the primary reward
favorite um phrases that i've ever heard is make sure that the reward for listening is greater than
Exercise is not optional
But the point is, if you don't play with them, you're going to have problems. And it can't just be a simple walk because it won't be enough for him.
Yeah, I mean, it is really important. So I would say when Chuck comes home, he needs around 10 to 15 minutes of exercise a day
when bullies get bored they tend to just cause problems
Why the owners are taught now, and why the home session exists
learning how to maintain it properly because there's a lot that goes into it and last thing
session there is because they'll come home and they'll kind of be like do the rules apply here
He listens to me, but I need him to listen to you guys or else it won't. It doesn't matter. i tell people i'm like well if you listen to me that's great but i can't come and live with you full time
I want to see how he does down in here because I don't train them in your house you know what I mean like that's why we have these sessions
Equipment: slip lead doubled with the collar
The reason for that is that if he slips out of the collar, it's kind of a bad thing.
Say it once: the command window
ordinarily you only say the command once i think of it like a window so it opens the window okay closes the window and if you're in between the window you're going to use some kind of marker to either reinforce or punish
he looked at you and was like you gonna make me do it or not and so once he gives you that look then you use the marker
really in reality you should say the word once and then that's it
Don't release the sit he offers for a down
i would say next time don't say okay because what he learns is like this is like a pattern i can build where i can like get out of it by sitting
in this case he wasn't like there was no command that he was under and so when you said and he was like i don't know so he just went into a command right there in hopes that you'd just be like okay we're cool
A freeze is not a refusal
he does like kind of have a tendency to freeze up sometimes um because i think that's just like a little bit of nerves he has right Right. In this case, you can sometimes use the marker and not hit the collar immediately and wait to see what he does.
he'll do this thing where like you'll say it and if he's not exactly sure he'll kind of like lock up and then if you go to hit the e-collar then he just freaks out so what i do with him is like when i'm reinforcing it and he like decides to like test a little bit i'll say down and kind of point down
if he locks up though and he just sits there and like freezes the last thing you want to do is like boom e-call it right
I mean, because if you punish him for it, he's going to be like, well, dang, I did it, and it didn't work, so I guess I should probably not do it again.
encourage him a little more like positively right here because he's a little of locked up because i think he's a little confused
When he refuses or runs: the collar, the lead and the word together
there were like two reactions i got from him i either would say down and he would be like kind of lock up and then i could encourage him into it or i would say down he'd like kind of like freak out and run away and and I would just hit the e-collar and wrangle him back in.
Yeah, and I say down at the exact same time to reinforce it. That's how we teach down in the first place, but when you're reinforcing it, it helps out a lot too.
If he doesn't, I want you to just like go and like point down. and then if he doesn't do it you can hit the e-collar
Put him back where he broke
you want to bring him back to where he already was if you don't you kind of teach him he can like inch his way over to you little by little
When he hides or pulls back: lead, don't be led
So what he's doing here is hiding behind me. So you want to actually like physically, like just pull the leash and make him come over to you?
when you're with a dog you're either being led by the dog or you're leading the dog so if he pulls back and you give in he goes okay i'm the one in charge
that's gonna need the e-collar it's gonna be you because he he really really tests with you
One household, one language
the main thing is that both of you guys speak the same language to him and there's not like a weak link right because sometimes that will happen is one person will be really stern but then the other person will be like be kind
Your voice
So, like, when I tell him to sit, I'm like, sit, right? But then when he does good, I'm like, okay, good job. And I get, like, really happy.
as long as it's just not devoid of life
as much as the negative reinforcement's important doing the positive stuff and just telling the job is as equally important so you don't have to be like you don't have to use the authoritative voice 24 7
The remote: one button, and a still hand
the only button you're gonna want to use is the black button over the red one
if you're holding the e-collar that your finger kind of stays in the same spot that you're going to hit the button, because if you like have it like this and then every time you punish him, you're like drastically move.
he will look for a specific like movement with your hand on the collar before he listens
if you do this like a mannerism like that every time he'll actually start to think this is okay so i tell people like don't don't leave the hand on the e-collar don't do this kind of thing every single time
The radius on your walks
because if he's like glued to you all the time he doesn't really have an opportunity to do the right thing
it's consistent on how far the distance is because if like one day he's like here and the next day you let him all the way over to that gray car he's gonna be like i don't know what he wants
Yeah, so like when he hits the end of that radius there, oh, you gotta just, you just hit it. And if he's like, keeps trying to fight you, so you just hold the button.
Children and passers-by: 'let's go' first
with the kids remember you just want to use like a let's go um because the danger of if you if he runs up to them and you don't say let's go and then go auntie collar what ends up happening is he'll actually view the kids as a threat
you're teaching a dog to not run up to people you have to do it in that order of like let's go doesn't listen then punishes for not listening as opposed to like punishing for being interested
Generalise into the house, and let the collar carry the commands
you have to generalize it in here too because like yeah home is this yeah home especially where like he's gonna be like can i get away with what i used to right
once the reinforcement is good you can start to like can actually just have nothing on him and he'll do it
if you only use the pressure from the leash you will end up accidentally teaching chunk like retraining him to listen for least pressure or feel for least pressure and then if the dog operates off least pressure can you have an off-leash dog that listens to the least pressure you really can't
i want to see you guys put them in a down and the main thing is i want to see him do it where you don't have to use any leash pressure
that's why we do the stuff in the house because you get that little like stuff like that where they'll do the command but maybe they jump up a little too early
Place on the family's cot
the rule is that the legs can't touch the ground. It's like, if he wants to have like two legs that are kind of floating off the cot, but not touching the ground, that's fine. It's just the second a paw touches the ground, that's when he breaks the rules.
the biggest thing is it places one of those commands that to mess it up You have to like actively try
End a hard run on a success
he's had like a couple like failed attempts so make it a shorter rep where it's like a positive where it's like uh it went well this time that way you don't build like a negative association
if he has five failures and one success it's like people right if you fail something five times and you succeed once you're gonna remember your five failures
Expect avoidance phases, and tighten the command again
so if he's still going through that if he hasn't gotten out of it when i drop him off then i'm just gonna like talk to the owners and be like hey this is a very normal occurrence with a dog like him he knows the word you just have to kind of know what to do to correct it to get him back into that zone again
the first two weeks i like the down looked really good and actually today he started testing me again and so i went out in the park with him
The heel at handover
i always like teaching the heel on drop-offs because because it's a new area the heel the way he's gonna respond to me putting him in a heel is gonna look a lot similar to how it's gonna look when you put him into a heel
the reason for that is they apply pressure continuously even when the dog is in the spot because they think oh if i pull him into the zone he'll know where to go right
but in reality that's not really how it works you create pressure everywhere that you don't want him to be and then when he gets in the right zone pressure leaves immediately yeah so e-collar goes away once he's in the right zone or at least pressure you take it away the second he's in that pocket of the heel
the heels always on this side on the left
what i would do is like you would hit the e-collar that he stopped because he broke the command
I would recommend using the e-collar a little more when he gets behind because yeah because when you keep pulling him it just kind of encourages him to resist more so using that e-collar every time he like starts to stray too far make sure you use the marker of course
I would have made him still stay by you because he's not out of the heel yet
Keeping the heel: both of you, for a year
the more both of you do it the more tighter it gets
if you do everything right if for some reason i ran into you guys a year from now it should actually be tighter than it was with me
E-collar fit
you should be able to fit two fingers in here
if you can fit two fingers tall under the e collar it's too loose
In the family's own words
On film
some of the videos he he's not bad like we just we i could have trained him myself
than anything else we could have all for me it does take a like a dog like him takes a lot of time a lot of time especially because like if you were to train him too you would need to make sure that like you're not shutting him down
that was a really big issue because we have been in an apartment building
he's never been aggressive towards anyone
whenever we take him on walks they love like getting all up in his face
last time i tried to take him out on a walk he like went everywhere
he's had three beds so far and he's destroyed them all
Outcomes
What the trainers reported
Pulling fixed. He gives to leash pressure immediately.
The field trainer, 2026-09-06, 2026-09-08 and 2026-09-14
On film
now we had a little adventure Oh someone not recording oh yeah look no more
But like, he'll always give in to the pressure.
The status at two weeks: down really good, sit pretty good, recall in progress, let's go pretty good, heel not started.
The field trainer to the owners, 2026-09-14
On film
um so what i'm doing with him now is like he's got he has like the down really well his sits pretty good his recall is like right um let's go is pretty good the heel we're gonna start working
He has learned that he will be made to comply.
The field trainer, 2026-09-14
On film
He learned that that is the case.
Much calmer than when the trainer met him.
The field trainer, 2026-09-14
On film
very specific things like that you just want to generalize it to managing the impulsiveness which he's way more chilled out than when I met him
His nerves are getting better. The evidence offered is that he has become more avoidant about commands.
The field trainer, 2026-09-11
On film
but it's good opening up is good means his nerves are getting better
Heel would be started on 2026-09-09 and he would 'kill it'.
The field trainer, 2026-09-08. It had not started by 2026-09-15; it was the only command in progress on 2026-09-22 and was taught to the owners at the handover on 2026-09-29.
On film
And he's going to kill it because he's got everything else so far.
Holding his radius 'really well', and ready for one more park, then stores and long-line work toward off-lead.
The field trainer, 2026-09-15
On film
handling the dog that's when it's like a problem and you can see he's holding his radius like like really well.
ideally i'm gonna take him out to maybe like one other park and then we'll start doing stores long line type work getting that off lead ready to go because he's doing really good
Heel was the only command still in progress; everything else was 'looking pretty good'.
The trainer to the owners at home, 2026-09-22
On film
the commands he's still working on right now is really only only the heel that's it everything else is looking pretty good with him
He knows the down; his lapses are testing, not ignorance.
The trainer, 2026-09-22 and 2026-09-29
On film
he knows down really well too he just is trying to see if he can get away with not using said knowledge around you
so if he's still going through that if he hasn't gotten out of it when i drop him off then i'm just gonna like talk to the owners and be like hey this is a very normal occurrence with a dog like him he knows the word you just have to kind of know what to do to correct it to get him back into that zone again
Tuned out of the avoidance earlier on the go-home day, and he 'didn't bolt that time'.
The trainer, 2026-09-29
On film
I've kind of successfully tuned him out of the avoidance right there, and now he gets to come up, and he gets to come snuggle with me, as a reward
he didn't bolt that time and it's just all about taming the the avoidance
If the owners keep it up, the heel should be tighter in a year than it was with the trainer. An expectation, not an outcome.
The trainer at the handover, 2026-09-29
On film
if you do everything right if for some reason i ran into you guys a year from now it should actually be tighter than it was with me
What the footage shows
The avoidance pattern, live: trying to get away from the handler and going to flop on the first outing; a flop and panting on the radius the next day; a bolt attempt at the new park, followed by a reset and improved downs; pulling away from a down in front of his owners and then holding it. Later with the owners: a sit offered for a down, hiding behind the trainer, sitting unasked; and on the go-home day an 'avoidance down' that the trainer works through. As far as speech can show a behaviour, the avoidance is on film from the first outing to the last day.
On film
So he's really trying to avoid.
He was gonna lay down, like flop.
so he's gonna try to bolt away from me the interesting thing is i was just pulling on
So that's the avoid thing he's doing right here
the radius and he downed and then he like fish out of water and everything and he was kind of panting a little bit because it's a very like intense experience for him
pull him, pull him over to you? Because he's using me as, like, an avoidance thing.
that's that avoidance down making those crazy eyes at me
An implied-stay hold, demonstrated with a release, in front of the owners.
On film
So like I can like back up, do my thing, converse.
Downs on a raised stage and on gravel, with 'eh' markers and one admitted late correction.
On film
that was a little late i'll give you so whoever's watching my video don't be late like that i just
A staged door entry with repeated sit cues. The outcome is not audible.
On film
Sit. Sit. Sit.
Testing the owners at home: a sit offered for a down, hiding behind the trainer, an owner pulling him over, and downs then completed with both owners.
On film
i would say next time don't say okay because what he learns is like this is like a pattern i can build where i can like get out of it by sitting
So what he's doing here is hiding behind me. So you want to actually like physically, like just pull the leash and make him come over to you?
good boy yes like right there
That's what I'm talking about.
Earlier on the go-home day: repeated down cues before he complies, a mis-cue completed anyway, and a clean down paid with a snuggle.
On film
Actually, funny enough, I must put something in my body language because I meant to say sit and sit down. Chunk. Now I have to make him do it.
so he tried to avoid um and i just gave him no i guess not gonna work he went and he did it and it was great
I've kind of successfully tuned him out of the avoidance right there, and now he gets to come up, and he gets to come snuggle with me, as a reward
The handover: downs with the owners inside (rolling over, then holding; a lock-up), the heel demonstrated and then walked by each owner, and Chunk looking back to his owners.
On film
he's just rolling over
encourage him a little more like positively right here because he's a little of locked up because i think he's a little confused
you'll see that he's walking slow with me but then if I speed up he speeds up and then if I slow down he needs to slow down
that's like the number one thing that happens on my drop-off when i do heel is they keep like looking back at their owner they're like you're gonna let him do this to me
the more both of you do it the more tighter it gets
Chunk went home on 29 September 2026, at the end of the go-home lesson at his family's home, his third session that day.
On film
this would be his third session of the day. Because I work them a lot like the day they go home to make sure everything's nice and good
Elsewhere from Angier K9
- Read Chunk’s Angier K9 story ↗ · angierk9.com
The ideas Chunk's case runs on
- 'Let's go' is not 'Come' - and the recall has an ending
- Assess before you ask
- Breed is a checklist, not a verdict
- Build the handler's timing while it is easy
- Close the other door: the escape hatch
- Command, marker, collar - in that order
- Contingent, avoidable, and the right size
- Control is not obedience
- Control what the dog blames
- Cue the trigger, correct the command
- Don't accept the almost
- Don't poison the command
- Drilling is what represses a dog
- Fit before level: check the tool before you judge the dog
- Fixation is the failure mode
- Generalisation is the whole job
- Give him time to answer
- Heat is a stop sign
- Heel entry versus heel in motion
- Help it or press it - read which
- Hidden help
- Maintenance is use, not practice
- New textures in bite work
- One layer at a time: the order is part of the method
- Opening up
- Pick the place for what it contains - life is the training ground
- Play becomes the reward - and play is a contest
- Play is a capacity you can grow
- Pressure, release, reward
- Proof it against his own currency
- Quit on the good rep
- Reading the dog
- Say the criterion out loud before the rep
- Stop before you shut him down
- The camera is part of the method
- The dog is a different dog for his owner - and authority transfers
- The dog tells you the reward
- The dose of a session
- The handler is the first suspect
- The leash is a prop
- The method the case can afford
- The outlet comes first
- The radius
- The settling week
- The three Ds, and the variables nobody counts
- There is no stay, only the release
- Two events, not one - and what the handler does in between