Who Dolce is
A female Rottweiler in a board-and-train protection program, whose obedience ran months ahead of her confidence. Her whole command set is German because she is a protection dog; her heel word is deliberately bei Fuss rather than Fuss because Fuss is the bite word. Her bite and chase play were suppressed when she was a puppy, and the central project of her program is reopening it - which is why a dog who is off leash in public by mid-July is still losing the sleeve in September. She takes pressure badly at one specific point (the heel) and beautifully everywhere else, shuts down semi-quickly, and is hard to fool with a fake threat. She was in season through the second half of July, which her handlers worked around rather than through. The protection work is on the plan because her owner wants it.
Breed
On film
she's doing good with it it's just she's a rottweiler rottweilers aren't always the fastest at like wanting to do the fight stuff and like that part of it not like Belgians they pick that up pretty fast
every time I take a roddy out
you're kind of an intimidating breed
Sex
On film
also recently over the past couple of days went on her period um so did you see she looks big back there it's because it's all swole up um but she's still been doing with her training um it could affect it some um but we'll see what we gotta do to work through it
I won't push you too hard. I won't push you too hard Cuz you're on your period. Okay mama. She's in heat
Her name
On film
You are sweet. It's like your name. Dulce.
As the trainers describe her
Her obedience is ahead of her confidence, and the gap is the case. By the first owner lesson the obedience has a completion date and the drive work explicitly does not, because the second depends on how she feels rather than on how many reps she has had.
On film
so for the obedience and proofing that we'll have that part done by probably next week for that stuff the chasing and for like the bite in the defense I'll know more by the end of this week for that because like I said I just I it's just based off her her confidence
and so i was hoping she would open up a little faster but it's a little slower than what I wanted but she is opening up
yeah i'm happy with all that stuff um like i said i'm just i just want her to open up more
Her bite and chase play was suppressed when she was a puppy, and the program is rebuilding it. The trainer's evidence is the owners' own account of a puppy who used to hang in the air off a bite toy.
On film
like stop stop stop it may have suppressed it a little bit yeah she used to love to play with the bike toys i could pick her up on a bike toy like this and she'll hang in the air like as a puppy
and like i said like she has like a little more of the defense side we're trying i'm just trying to get her i'm it's probably just because of when she's a puppy you should suppress it right so i'm trying to open her back up for the biting and like the mouthing and like stuff like that and like the chasing part
i've been doing some flirt pole work with her instead of like the full tug just to get her to want to do it more and like really get into it um because it's just more of a confidence thing where she gets like a little bored with it and she goes and don't really know and then she goes in and she gets like a little nervous with it
She has more of the defense side than the prey side. That is why the boogeyman (barking a threat away) works on her early and the sleeve grip does not.
On film
she has like a little more of the defense side
Alright, so that's the first boogeyman. It went very well. She lit up like we wanted her to. That was good.
At first she didn't really want to bite it, and then when she did, she was going for those little threads. There's some threads sticking out of the sleeve, she was going for those.
She shuts down semi-quickly. This is the single handling constraint every later session has to respect, and it is stated by the handler who first pushed her hard.
On film
another thing about dulce she does shut down semi-quickly
so i had the white gloves on because again i hadn't worked with those people i didn't know like how she responded to lots of pressure karate's every now and then can kind of get a little sketchy with pressure
When she is stuck she is still trying things - not shut down and not panicking.
On film
She seems happy like she's she's totally fine. She more seems like So so she's trying stuff
cuz like if you look at what she's doing, she's um she's she's not unactive.
She seems happy. Like she's she's totally fine. She more seems like unsure. See that face? She's like, I don't know. She seems unsure about how to get rid of it. So, um, so she's trying stuff.
She has one command she does not love, and it is the heel. Everything else she does on verbal alone.
On film
Everything else is pretty much verbal. She'll do a place, she'll do a sit, she'll do pretty much anything else with verbal. It's just the heels are the only thing.
so bifus is not she's not in love with it but it's the rules she has to do it just how it works
Usually, it almost seems to never fail where a dog will do really good with a lot of other commands, but there's one they just do not like for a variety of reasons.
She goes to her place when the pressure is on. Three separate sessions record it; one names it as the problem.
On film
I think at the same time too, she associates the place with safety, and so if she feels like she's not doing something up to par, or if she's getting a little pressure, she'll go to the place which you know she clearly knows place but um you don't want to have that too much
Oh, you like your placement, huh? She's just laying on placement.
She is athletic, strong and physically faster than her handler, which is the honest basis of the off-leash decision rather than obedience.
On film
This is something I could grab but ultimately she could pretty pretty easily get away from me if she wanted to she's faster than I am that's for sure she's extremely athletic so she could get away from me but I don't think that she has that desire in her heart and I think that her training will hold up just fine
Too strong. Yeah. She's way too strong.
See, that's my actual arm that you're biting. That's my real arm. Hey, that's a good sign.
She can tell a real threat from a performed one, which changes how the decoy is coached.
On film
She has a, I was discussing with Kristen, she has a way of knowing. She's pretty good at knowing if it's real or not.
be loud be loud don't throw anything too loud yeah be loud use something you're actually mad at me for
think of something you're mad at me for actually be mad
Sociable to a fault at the start - she wanted to meet every person she passed - and the neutrality work is aimed squarely at that.
On film
But passing by like people right originally every time she passed by a person she was like boo and she wanted to like go and meet that person every single time so just creating neutrality where it's just like we walk by and she can look but she just can't like yank over.
that was the biggest issue she was having was like any like kind of excitement or like movement. She was like, and she just wanted to like pounce and like start chasing, like like just playing type stuff.
she's a bit of an attention hog
Detached or dreamy when she has nothing to do - both the trainer and the owner's side describe it, and the trainer's own version is watching her stare at trees from the corner of her kennel.
On film
She act like she be in her own world sometimes.
Yeah, she like a space dog.
Yeah, she always, she like, be in her own world all the time. Sometimes I enter the kennel and I'm like, give her, like, stuff in it. I just see her in the corner just staring at the like trees. She's like this.
Small things she disliked, recorded in passing: rain and wet ground, water generally, and jumping into the truck until it was trained.
On film
good good good job there you go yeah i know you're not a huge fan of water i noticed that
because we have like little pools and stuff for the dogs and she does not go in them she does not like going into like the pool
we've been working on load up load up good girl yeah cuz she did not want to jump in before yeah so we've been working on the load up so she just jumps right in
Her favourite person at the facility is the decoy.
On film
she loves jayden like he's her favorite person at the house for some reason
Seen from outside her own sessions, by other staff: a sporty Rottweiler with a lot of energy - twice Coco's, one trainer says - who launches herself out of a crate on a shelf and whines in her crate until another dog comes out.
On film
Her name is Dulce. And she's, like, kind of like a sporty Rottweiler. We're doing, like, protection work with her.
And if I bring another dog out, she'll be quiet until another dog comes out, and then she starts whining again.
dulce's got like twice as much energy as coco
dulce will be in the top crate and you'll open it and she'll like jump off the shelf onto the ground like she's just ready to go
As her family describe her
They appear in one lesson (watch / watch) and part of another (watch), and in the first they are asked directly what they want and answer in about fifteen seconds. There is no intake, no presenting problem, no history in their words beyond the puppy bite-toy memory.
On film
so yeah like I said today is just like the basic stuff um do you have any questions about that like does that like look kind of like how you're looking for what you want like with that stuff
What they wanted, in the owner's own words: the obedience matters - no jumping, a sit she holds while he walks away - but mainly it is the protection.
On film
okay all right you know like she's coming along pretty good yeah she she always been like a kind of good like of course like jumping up on people you know and like me making a sit and she can stay and I can walk away and things like that yeah that's the that's the stuff that I'm definitely looking for but like main uh mainly it's gonna be like the defense of the protecting
The owner remembered her as a puppy who would hang in the air off a bite toy. This is the only piece of her history anyone supplies, and it is what the trainer builds the suppression diagnosis on.
On film
she used to love to play with the bike toys i could pick her up on a bike toy like this and she'll hang in the air like as a puppy
The owner asked one training question in the whole lesson, and it was about walking her without a leash.
On film
yeah you ever try to walk a lot without the leash so we're gonna we're gonna do that yeah this week with the proofing
Their three-year-old son had been copying the commands at home since the trainer's visit.
On film
he's been begging like that he went don't you come really don't you come at home there's a little dude when i was at your house
he was cute he's he might be a dog trainer when yeah oh he did great yeah he was telling me all the stuff and he was showing me
The owner likes sport dog work. This is stated by the trainer to a third party, not by the owner, and it is the stated reason protection is on Dolce's plan at all.
On film
and her owner likes doing sport dog stuff
and we're just gonna be running some protection stuff um mostly some sport style like fun stuff with the sleeve
Everything else the family says on film is logistics: scheduling, reminders, bringing his own e-collar.
On film
And I got the date for the next training, and I'll make sure I have an e-collar when I come.
Like, um, see, Fridays and then daytime be a good thing for me too, because I don't have to practice.
Just tell your lady to send me the, you know, the reminders and everything. But I'll be on it.
The protection brief
What it is
Owner-driven sport protection, not a working or police deployment. The words used are 'sport style', 'sport dog stuff' and 'fun stuff with the sleeve'. The obedience is German because of it, and the heel word is bei Fuss so it cannot collide with the bite word Fuss.
On film
and her owner likes doing sport dog stuff
so for like just because she's going through the protection stuff it's all german um for the stuff
and then by foos which of course is a heel we do by foos just because we also do foss for bite i was talking about this earlier with one of my co-workers so just to make it a little more obvious for clients
bifus for Dolce is the word for heel, and the reason we're using bifus is because Normally it's just foose, but we're going to be training her to do protection stuff so we don't want her to get that and false mixed up. Especially because sometimes when the owner says it, it can cause a little bit of confusion.
The quality control question
On film
She's going into defense work, but we just want to make sure she's not becoming overly defensive with random scenarios or anything like that.
but she's not she's checking things out properly and she's not fixating or trying to be overly defensive or reactive just because there's people around so all that looks really good
She's fine. Considering where her job is going to be.
The program, stage by stage
Already running - the first filmed days
Two uploads on one day: twenty-two minutes in the training yard with a handler who says it is his first day training her, and a nine-minute solo session that states the policy the whole case rests on - every command is in German. No reason for the German is given for another six weeks. The work is place, Platz and Sitz, and the standard is already explicit: a tired dog gets more time, not a lower position. The yard session's only real content is a recap in which she held a position while a toy was swung across her face, and the handler charges a break in her position to his own footwork rather than to her.
On film
Okay, this is Don. All her commands are in German.
Um, I had to remind her the word. I had to just e call her real quick and then she understood the word completely.
So, she's doing good with the sits. You can see she's a little bit tired. So, she did she was on sits for a bit and then, you know, she's tired, which I fully understand. It took her a while to sit down or lay down.
So, um now if she like sat and immediately went down, no, I wouldn't allow that. But she's doing good right now.
She just wants to stick with me, but um so she knows the words. She She didn't want to do it at that time. So I just say and then just use the e-collar and then she like, "Oh crap, I got to I got to fix my mistake." And then she just like slowly sat. And then I waited till she was like fully sat down and then I released her.
But once I told her, like, uh-uh, no, you stay put, like a place, she listened.
That's me. Like, I stepped forward and I had to guide her back.
Play is the problem - drive work indoors
2026-06-24 (watch)
A working room, a duck toy from a drawer, and three minutes of real content inside twenty-four. A senior voice directs the play, prescribes a tab leash so control is always available without a long line spoiling the game, and states the thesis that the rest of Dolce's program will prove: play is the most complicated part of the work. A handler asks for a three-minute break so she comes down rather than accumulating pressure. This is the earliest sign that the drive side, not the obedience side, is where this case will be decided.
On film
The most complicated part of indoctrination is play.
Grab that, put that on her, and then let her walk around with that. That way you can use the tab. It's called a tab leash.
Is there like a three minute break so she can just like calm down so she doesn't get pressured or anything like that?
Into the store - the first public-access outing
Home Depot, framed as a test rather than a lesson, and her first day out in public - published 2026-06-26, so within her first fortnight on film, not six weeks in. The first minutes are given to sniffing and settling before anything is asked. The trainer's real question is whether a dog being started in defence work goes defensive at random in a crowded store, and he answers it with an observable rather than a reassurance: she investigates, checks in, does not fixate, does not react to people. The training content is a first implied stay - sit, two steps away, a few seconds, release with 'break' - and he measures progress by how much help each rep needed: multiple corrections, then a couple, then none, with the last rep given a deliberate second for her to choose before any leash went on. A Platz in the store is much harder and takes a long patient build. What the session shows is that the environment is not her problem; holding still in it is. The Home Depot visit the owners hear about on 07-28 is a later, second trip.
On film
First day out in public and so we're just kind of testing things out seeing how she responds
And just spent the first little bit trying to get her just to open up and sniff and be a little more relaxed and things before we added any public area stuff, which she's doing really great.
She's going into defense work, but we just want to make sure she's not becoming overly defensive with random scenarios or anything like that.
starting a little implied stay, uh-uh, increase that impulse control first, uh-uh, so a couple steps, good, break, break, good
for just a couple steps back a few seconds and then release and then we'll start adding more time and distance and everything to it
so she's starting to learn the idea of the implied stay with it with more distraction around um because i only had to correct her a couple times there compared to the last time i had to correct her multiple times
so that's how I didn't do any least pressure just said it and gave her a minute to give her a second to kind of process it and see what she would do she did the right action which is good
I know. Come on. One. Just one for me. Plots. Uh-uh. Just one. Come on. Just a little bit. I know. You know it. We're doing it at the house. Go down a little bit.
The heel problem, found early - three heel sessions and a coachTurning point
on or before 2026-07-02 (watch, watch, watch, all published 2026-07-02; internal order watch, watch, watch)
A junior handler starts her heel - 'the first time she's going to be doing heel work' - and finds the one command she does not love. The second session says it outright: everything else runs on verbal, only the heel does not, and when the pressure comes on she takes herself to her place, which she has learned is safe. He pairs the heel with a tug she can win as training wheels.
On film
this is the first time she's going to be doing heel work. Going to make it easier.
Everything else is pretty much verbal. She'll do a place, she'll do a sit, she'll do pretty much anything else with verbal. It's just the heels are the only thing.
I think at the same time too, she associates the place with safety, and so if she feels like she's not doing something up to par, or if she's getting a little pressure, she'll go to the place
seems to not be a big fan. Last time though, he did better by using a bit of a lure. We can start with that and see how it goes with that one, but it's a baby steps.
She seems happy like she's she's totally fine. She more seems like So so she's trying stuff
I think my problem is I give up a little too fast. I think, oh, I need to adjust.
like, well, like, push her back past it. Like, but but do like put a little bit like what I did where I like had pressure, pressure, pressure. And even, you didn't really heal, you just let her just be next to you. Because technically, all the good position is just next to you, just next to you.
The heel fight, and the limit that governs the rest of the caseTurning point
2026-07-06 (watch; watch, published the same day, has five usable cues), with 2026-07-07 (watch) as a thin bite-work day after it
A handler takes her out for the first time and finds her one real friction point. Recall and radius are fast and easy; the heel is a different dog - she surges, turns, spins and tries to leave the position rather than hold it, and he names it out loud as avoidance and as an attempt to take the walk. He fixes it for the day by setting her in position first and then asking. Two things land here that every later session has to respect: the naming rule (bei Fuss for heel because Fuss is the bite word), and the constraint that she shuts down semi-quickly. He is candid that he had been handling her with kid gloves because he did not know how a Rottweiler he had not worked takes pressure, and candid at the end that the session was not a clean one.
On film
and then by foos which of course is a heel we do by foos just because we also do foss for bite i was talking about this earlier with one of my co-workers so just to make it a little more obvious for clients
So I have no idea to what extent she is good at her heel. That didn't seem too bad though. We're gonna try to drive it a little more on the way back.
Hey, stop it. That's not... You got to stop doing that. That's not saving... That's not going to get you out of the pressure, Dulce.
All right, we're going to get you in position first.
so i had the white gloves on because again i hadn't worked with those people i didn't know like how she responded to lots of pressure
another thing about dulce she does shut down semi-quickly
well that was a really good session with dulce i well maybe not the most everything went well type one we did have a lot of healthy conflict
Alright I think Dulce is about cooked for this round, she's about done.
The leash had become the release word - the best-explained session in the caseTurning point
2026-07-15 (watch)
Nine days after the heel fight the same vocabulary comes back in a different register. The fault the trainer finds is not disobedience at all: Dolce breaks a command when she feels a little tension on the retractable line, because tension has become part of the release signal. He refuses to hide it by slackening the leash - that would make the footage prettier and leave the owner an extra thing to learn - and instead separates the cue from the word, then explains what he is doing as prediction error: she predicts, he makes the prediction fail with 'ah ah', then supplies the real signal, 'okay'. He runs the entire session on verbal markers with no leash input and no e-collar, and names the stage she is in as public proofing, with a concrete end goal: heel through a crowd, release when the crowd is behind you.
On film
I think for her, the release command might be a little bit wrapped up with feeling the leash.
And I can make that look a lot prettier if I just like put the leash out but I want to get her where she doesn't care about feeling the leash. Like that little bit of leash tension from the from the retractable because that's just an extra step that I have to try to showing owner to do and there's no reason she can't stay without it
all i'm doing is doing a little bit of like the way all learning happens it's just uh she's predicting that if she feels like that little bit of leash tension she needs to come off of it which is correct in most cases but she's taking that as a relief signal and I'm giving her that a prediction error there where it's like she's getting an unexpected consequence which is that I'm telling her that she's wrong by saying AH AH and so then from there it becomes relatively simple I give her the real signal which is the okay command
the really good part is that I'm not having to do any kind of, I'm not having to do a lot of leash input. It's, I'm working all over verbal right now and her condition punish is really strong wrong, so I'm not actually doing a lot other than just the verbal. I haven't used the e-collar at all.
That's the kind of like public proofing stage that we're starting to work on where she's getting all the commands clear like this and pots and by foods and um orc which is um which is a place so she's gotten pretty clear on all of her commands so now i'm starting to prove everything in public
so that you can walk with a crowd of people with her in the heel and then when you get out of the crowd of people you can release her
release to freedom is king, it is the king, the king of the dog training, release to freedom and the tug, the playing of the tug, it is the king of the dog training
Fifty feet, eight feet, nothing - off leash in two walksTurning point
2026-07-17 (watch, then watch)
Two walks on one day. In the first she is on a 50-foot line, in season and worked at a reduced demand; the handler judges her about this close to off leash and probably there already, then declines to act on it and announces the intermediate step instead. He also does two things that define the case's ethics: he backs a failed verbal marker with the collar the second time the same error occurs and says why, and he explains that a recall she ignored was an informal ask, made informal on purpose, so no command was spent. In the second walk the eight-foot line goes on, he states the criteria out loud before he drops it - she is faster than he is, so this rests on her intent, and a first attempt belongs in a place with people but not crowds - tests that she puts no weight on the leash at any length, drops it, asks for a command immediately, and calls the first rep very sloppy. He works it back, notices that sloping ground changes the heel and adds terrain to the proofing list, and at ten minutes says she is fine without the leash.
On film
that looks good that looks good about this close to having this dog off leash she's probably there already
I'm pretty close to feeling like I can trust her on that. I'd like to see a couple more instances where she, like kind of
Yeah because I I just did the conditioned punisher before I just did uh uh before when the other guy was passing and she did that but this time Um, this time I got her for it because she needed, um, she needed to get a little bit more reinforcement there.
and to be clear she didn't disobey a command there because i did an informal recall i did that on purpose because i knew she probably didn't want to go that way and i didn't really feel like making her do it because i just gave her a bunch of commands so i was just kind of doing it as a um as an informal thing to see if i could get her to come over
see she's a very active dog and she um she's got a great radius now where she checks in
This is something I could grab but ultimately she could pretty pretty easily get away from me if she wanted to she's faster than I am that's for sure she's extremely athletic so she could get away from me but I don't think that she has that desire in her heart and I think that her training will hold up just fine
we aren't trying it in like in incredibly difficult circumstances, it's best to start in a little bit. There are people out here, but it doesn't look incredibly busy today, but it's best not to do this for the first time in a circumstance that's incredibly busy. You do that next. That's the next stage in the proofing you start out in a little bit quieter spot
you can also see that she walks on a very loose leash if i do hold the leash she's um she's marking again uh last marks good girl but she doesn't put any pressure on the leash um when she feels the pressure she comes right off of it
I'm gonna get her into the training here a little bit. That was very sloppy.
let's get on some more level ground here, I hadn't thought about that, proofing for, um, for downhill and uphill, or like uneven ground, because that can definitely change, especially the the way that a dog does heel
She's doing great. Yeah, she's good. I think she's actually fine without this leash. So now we have an off-leash doggie now. She's good to go.
The first owner lesson - the drive problem goes on the recordTurning point
2026-07-28, 13:03 to about 13:35 (watch + watch, one lesson in two files)
The pivot of the whole case, and the only session where the family is present and the program explains itself. The trainer walks the owners through the standing rule on a flat collar (she may do anything as long as she does not pull), the neutrality work, the working radius that will let him drop the leash, the recall-to-front check-in, and the two words that carry the system - 'eh-eh' as the correction marker, 'okay' as the release, with the position itself carrying the stay. He gives the correction ladder with a parent's analogy: ask, one verbal correction, then the collar, and never the collar to produce the behaviour. Then he tells them the hard part. Her bite and chase play was probably suppressed as a puppy; she is a Rottweiler and Rottweilers are slower than Belgians to want the fight work; he is rebuilding it with a flirt pole and had his first hard held grip only the day before. He gives a date for the obedience and refuses one for the drive. The owner answers the direct question about what he wants: the obedience matters, but mainly it is the protection. The closing three minutes define the heel for them, name off-leash proofing as next, and record that she now loads into the truck, which she would not do before.
On film
so like right now she's not in any commands she's just around so she can be around and sniff she can do anything she wants as long as she's not pulling it is the rule
which is like we like the owners to be involved in this part um for the session stuff is just proofing the behaviors because like at the house or like in the training fence sits and downs and all that stuff uh you know like there's not as many distractions so the dogs typically go okay and they and they just like do this stuff right now we're proofing it where we want it to be like higher distractions where like she'll still not hesitate
what we're doing is basically we've already assigned like the uh as her correction right so that's her correction cue uh marker and then okay is her release marker so if she if we say it's okay she can if not if she like goes to move before that she get that and then she's she's supposed to settle back to the position right
so like if she ignores a correction then that's when i push my e-collar i don't want to push it for like anything else like i'm not pushing it to get the command to happen or anything like that it's just i ask the command if she ignores and i give a correction I give one correction without if she ignores that correction she gets an e-collar correction And then so then she's not reliant on feeling the e-collar to do the command She knows if she does the command everything's fine
It's like with my kids I do like one two three and then something happens right if my kid gets ice cream, and I say one You know I'm like go put it back, and they're like no, and I'm like one One, two, if I get three, I'm probably going to take the ice cream and throw it in the garbage.
so for the obedience and proofing that we'll have that part done by probably next week for that stuff the chasing and for like the bite in the defense I'll know more by the end of this week for that because like I said I just I it's just based off her her confidence
she's doing good with it it's just she's a rottweiler rottweilers aren't always the fastest at like wanting to do the fight stuff and like that part of it not like Belgians they pick that up pretty fast
and like i said like she has like a little more of the defense side we're trying i'm just trying to get her i'm it's probably just because of when she's a puppy you should suppress it right so i'm trying to open her back up for the biting and like the mouthing and like stuff like that and like the chasing part
that's the that's the stuff that I'm definitely looking for but like main uh mainly it's gonna be like the defense of the protecting
So Bifus means she stays next to me.
So it's just adding length of time for it now. So we're just making her heal longer and longer in different areas so that she learns no matter what's going on she has to do it for however long we ask is the idea
we've been working on load up load up good girl yeah cuz she did not want to jump in before yeah so we've been working on the load up so she just jumps right in
The sleeve, and the criterion that is never met again on filmTurning point
2026-08-03 (watch), with the drive-building session watch (published 2026-07-29) just before it and the silent sleeve-foundation upload watch (published 2026-07-13) three weeks earlier
On film
At first she didn't really want to bite it, and then when she did, she was going for those little threads. There's some threads sticking out of the sleeve, she was going for those.
That's not going to work, what we need her to do is to bite the whole sleeve.
So as soon as she bit the whole sleeve and wouldn't let go for a minute, then she got access to keep it. That's how she got to keep it.
but without doing that she didn't get to keep it
so you have to do a few of them as you go and then make progress from there you can't just keep going on that exercise
And then she likes to play tough for the game style, so we're going to use that a little bit where we're just trying to open up more for the chasing part so that we can get her to really enjoy that part of the game and then we can transition to like sleep, work, and things like that.
It's like some basic foundation work.
The boogeyman - one exercise, three runs, four daysTurning point
2026-08-04 and 2026-08-06 (watch, watch and watch published 08-04; watch 08-04 with watch inside it; watch 08-06), with a staff decoy set-up for her recorded in another dog's session published 08-05
The defence foundation, and the place where this dog is easy rather than hard. The exercise is defined on camera: a decoy behaves threateningly at a distance, the dog barks, the decoy runs away, and the dog's bark is what makes the threat retreat. The first run is one rep by design, with pulling on the leash explicitly permitted and the success criterion set in advance - that she picks the decoy over the chickens. She lights up as wanted. The 08-04 session is ten minutes of the same cycle with no narration at all, and everything usable is in the direction to the decoy: hold distance, reset from further out when she scents him, escalate by noise, then by size of movement, then by suddenness, then by gait, and retreat behind cover between reps. The one rule aimed at the handler's own mouth is repeated four times - do not cue the reaction. Two days later the coaching changes, because of what a colleague had noticed about her: she can tell a real threat from a performed one, so the decoy is coached on genuine anger rather than choreography, with posture raised while distance is deliberately held.
On film
All right, so I'm out here with Dulce and we're going to do a boogeyman, a quick boogeyman. This is going to be one and done. I'm just going to hope that we can get some kind of reaction out of her.
And I'm going to let her pull because it's fine to let her pull in this case. And basically, I'm going to hope that she gets interested in him and barks at him and not those chickens.
Alright, so that's the first boogeyman. It went very well. She lit up like we wanted her to. That was good.
watch back up back up she smells you okay reset it start from further away don't say come here
make some noise don't say watch don't say watch watch make some make some bigger movements
make bigger movements make like sudden movements good girl here go back behind the truck
Good girl, Dulce. Good job. Good job, you did it. Good girl. Go get him.
Alright, now just come out walking weird, but stay a little taller.
She has a, I was discussing with Kristen, she has a way of knowing. She's pretty good at knowing if it's real or not.
Watch her. Watch her. Next time she barks, run.
pop your head up but don't come pop your head up don't say watch watch watch don't come any closer watch don't come close get louder watch
be loud be loud don't throw anything too loud yeah be loud use something you're actually mad at me for
weird thing go away, bark at it, and then we'll add the word in there more.
Can we run with Dulce real quick?
Do you have something I can put on my head,
Your car. And I'm going to get Dulce out out in a second, Claudia.
The second owner lesson - tug is a game - and building the fight
2026-08-12 (watch; watch, the second owner lesson, stamped 12:45 and published 2026-09-12), then nothing dated until 2026-09-02 except the Downtown Cary Park walk
It is a lecture on tug as a real game: the trainer contrasts his own early aimless 'toy dog play' with a game that has an objective, and gives the owner three ways to kill it - you always win, she always wins without trying, or it has no purpose - and one rule: use strategies, not brute strength. The same day's six-minute tug session carries three coaching lines for the person on the equipment: give her more fight to work against. Three weeks later the third lesson turns this into the win-for-improvement rule.
On film
Good girl. Go like this. Build some fight.
Yeah, build your fight up a little bit.
Out.
playing like chase and catch right bench with a dog i didn't think of it as a game it's like more
so there's a few things that you can think that would make the game not fun
thing that can make it not fun is if you win every time and they have no chance
another one is if the game is too easy and they win every time and they never even have to try the strategy they're doing
And the other one is that the game has no purpose.
So you want to try to start using strategies, not brute strength.
Downtown Cary Park - precision in public, and the don't-heel-grind rule
on or before 2026-08-20 (watch, published 2026-08-20; watch is the same walk republished 2026-09-02 with a teaser)
A thirty-five-minute obedience walk in a crowded park, all in German, with the day's purpose stated as sharpening obedience because the bite drive is going well. She breaks heel once for another dog and puts herself back; she overshoots his hard stops, so he defines heel as tracking the handler; and he gives the rule the republished title sells - heel is a temporary tool for passing something, not a way to spend a walk. He will not take her off leash here because the park bans it, and says so.
On film
I'm just gonna be sharpening up her obedience a bunch today. Doing good with the bite drive.
she kind of went off track once because she got a little distracted by the dog, but then after that, she immediately, once I corrected it, went back where she was supposed to go, so that was beautiful.
Because the whole point of doing a foos or a heel is that the heel command is supposed to make them entirely focused on you for however long the duration of that heel command
which is why i recommend don't heel grind your dog don't like keep going at that forever um you know like 45 minute walk or 20 30 minute walk instead of that's something that you do temporarily
so dulce does great off leash Dose is just fine off leash, but I don't want to do it here because especially at this time of day, they will kick us out immediately and ban us from coming again if we take this dog off leash here. They're really, really strict.
The third owner lesson - the grip work is handed to the ownerTurning point
2026-09-02, 12:25 (watch)
Eighteen minutes of which about one is teaching, and that minute is the most transferable thing in the case. The trainer hands the owner the drive-building work with a rule that needs no numbers: decide what you want her to do with the toy, then let her win any time she does more of it than last time - holds longer, grips harder, pulls harder - and if she offers less, taunt her rather than correcting her or ending the game. The dog wins for improvement, not for participation, and the bar is her own previous repetition. The rest is scheduling, venue talk and the heat.
On film
One of the things you can think about when you work with a toy is think about what you want her to do, what you want for reward. So, what you want is her to grab it and hold it and not let go, right?
So if she grabs it for longer than she did the last time, you let her win, right? She wins if she tries harder. If she grips and keeps it and grips harder and pulls on it, she wins.
So then if she doesn't put forward as much after she lets it go, you make fun of her and taunt her.
The worst time to be a dog trainer is the summer, the second worst time is the winter.
Okay, Monday. Monday the 7th.
September - the obedience has arrived and the grip has notTurning point
2026-09-06 19:10 (watch) and 2026-09-09 12:31 (watch)
The two last recordings show the case's split outcome side by side. On 09-06 the obedience is unarguable: she holds a Platz against being baited with the toy she loves, returns instantly on the verbal marker alone with no leash and no stim, and then holds a remote down with the e-collar on as a backstop while the handler walks supplies to the truck and back - about eighty seconds, no issues. The play is also better than it has been: he waits for the shake as the observable of commitment, names teasing as what produced it, and stops when the quality drops rather than when she stops wanting to play. Three days later, in a park in the heat, the sleeve work runs for about six minutes and she loses the sleeve repeatedly and takes his leg instead. A small dog passes early on and she holds her Platz rather than get up to see it. The session is then interrupted for nearly fifty minutes by a member of the public, and the trainer closes the loop by naming what the interruption actually trained - impulse control with a strange dog present, and a long Platz.
On film
so I want to describe a little bit of what I did there I was waiting for a certain moment right I was waiting for her to do this and shake it and she did she started she started shaking it and you saw she like completed the shake
Where she's really yanking on it and shaking it because I want that kind of like commitment, right? I want her to really like, go for it, you know? Some full power, right?
Me teasing her afterwards is what made her commit right was the teasing
so she went she went for the first time when i baited her but she went right back in when i gave the conditioned Punisher
think she's about cooked good girl yeah she's done we're gonna we're gonna finish up here she still wants to play but i'm not getting anything it's not as solid as it was
Although, normally I've found in my experience that when they get up and they're far away, when you get up and they're far away, they They tend to Come all the way to you and down instead of staying where they're at
Okay, good girl. So that was actually perfect. She stayed there the whole time. So no issues at all with that.
you gotta bite it. You gotta bite it. You gotta bite harder. Er, er, you'll lose it.
Oh, oh. Oh. You gotta fight. You gotta fight for it. You gotta fight harder.
oh man my leg that's my leg bad targeting
Dulce's doing good, though. so she's not getting up to go see the dog.
No, I don't mind. I just take it as she got some good practice in impulse control with another dog around, got to practice her plots.
After the last Dolce recording - still in the protection program
Nothing of Dolce is filmed after 2026-09-09, but two other dogs' sessions mention her. At Coco's lesson stamped 2026-09-18 a trainer tells Coco's owners that they have a Rottweiler 'right now' in the protection program, named Dulce, trained in German, who will bite and watch and do all the stuff.
On film
we have a roddy actually right now that's in the protection her name is dulce she's also in german because she's like full like protection like she'll bite she'll like watch do all the stuff
Skills
Platz - the down, in German
How it was taught
Cue in German. Where the word is soft, a brief collar reminder rather than repetition. The complete position is insisted on - 'All the way' is used as a distinct cue for the part she has not given, and praise is withheld until it arrives. Duration and distance are added last, with the e-collar fitted specifically so the down can be reinforced once the handler is out of verbal range. The expected failure mode is named in advance: a dog that breaks a distant down comes all the way back to the handler and lies down there.
On film
Um, I had to remind her the word. I had to just e call her real quick and then she understood the word completely.
Okay. So, I think she's good on flats. In that case, she's perfected it really.
Platz. Dulce. Platz. Platz. All the way. Platz. Platz.
I believe I should be going all the way down.
I know. Come on. One. Just one for me. Plots. Uh-uh. Just one. Come on. Just a little bit. I know. You know it. We're doing it at the house. Go down a little bit.
so I'm just putting her in a down, which we're using the German Platz for that. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to test her down on my i'm gonna bait her a little bit she loves this thing
so she went she went for the first time when i baited her but she went right back in when i gave the conditioned Punisher
So, I'm gonna go ahead and walk the rest of the stuff back to the truck. I'm gonna leave her here with the camera. So, I'm going all the way over there to the truck. I'm just gonna walk back some of these supplies, but I'm gonna have the e-collar on her so that I can reinforce the plots more far if I need to.
Although, normally I've found in my experience that when they get up and they're far away, when you get up and they're far away, they They tend to Come all the way to you and down instead of staying where they're at
Okay, good girl. So that was actually perfect. She stayed there the whole time. So no issues at all with that.
Sitz - the sit
How it was taught
Cue and wait. The standard is stated on day two and never changes: a slow sit from a tired dog is accepted, a sit that collapses into a down is not. Tiredness buys time, not a lower position.
On film
So, I'm going work on sit
So, she's doing good with the sits. You can see she's a little bit tired. So, she did she was on sits for a bit and then, you know, she's tired, which I fully understand. It took her a while to sit down or lay down.
So, um now if she like sat and immediately went down, no, I wouldn't allow that. But she's doing good right now.
Come on, good girl, here, zits, eh, zits, eh-eh, zits, eh-eh, zits, platz, platz, eh,
Dulce, zitz. Come on. Zitz. You can do it, zitz.
Hier - the recall
How it was taught
Called in German through ordinary walking rather than drilled. Paid with whatever the dog most wants at that moment - here, a drink of water - on the stated ground that recall competes with everything else and therefore has to be paid at the top of her preference list. The standard is not just arriving: she comes to the front, faces up and checks in, and if nothing is then asked for she is released back to her own business, so the recall never predicts the end of freedom.
On film
I'm not hitting the e-call or anything she just takes a quick second or two which is pretty great
That'll make her want to come back. You got to use whatever your most powerful motivator is and she loves that drink right there
Especially for the recall you got to use a powerful motivator.
so if she's like not paying attention and i recall her and then she should do what she just did where she comes she comes into the front and she checks in and then like we don't ask her to do something then she can go do something else right um but but if we like, recall it and ask her to do something else, then we want her to do that thing, right?
Dulce come. Oh Dulce here? I used the wrong word and she didn't respond to it.
bei Fuss - the heel, and the no-heel-grind rule
How it was taught
Four different approaches by four handlers, which is itself the finding. (1) Set her in position first and then ask, when asking alone produces the fight. (2) Pair it with a tug she can win, named openly as training wheels to be tested without and removed. (4) Add duration, and add it in different places so the obligation generalises. Throughout, the position is defined as where the pressure ends, and the rule against grinding it is explicit: heel is a temporary tool used for a reason, not the state of a walk.
On film
You got to just walk at my speed.
Hey, stop it. That's not... You got to stop doing that. That's not saving... That's not going to get you out of the pressure, Dulce.
All right, we're going to get you in position first.
so bifus is not she's not in love with it but it's the rules she has to do it just how it works
See, she knows to go into it. She knows where the position is. She just gets a little ramped up and she's going ahead of me a little bit. it. So I'm working on tightening up the corners, like turning and then tightening up the command more generally and increasing like duration and stuff like that.
And so then I'm just practicing pace changes there because like when I set up, she thought she could get out of it. Like she was good to go. So I set up again and then slowed down to a crawl and she's getting baifus that time and then I was able to release her.
So we're going to be trying to implement some things to help her. to maybe not you know maybe trying to combine it with something enjoyable like a tug toy see if she can come around and uh start to associate it with something more positive
But, if not, I can keep using the twice kind of velour, like training wheels, until I can get a little better.
Just trying to find ways to avoid any pressure. She'll have that once uh she's at your side.
What are you doing with her heel? She freezing up? A little bit.
even just standing next to you, that could be a good... That's like a first criteria,
So Bifus means she stays next to me.
So it's just adding length of time for it now. So we're just making her heal longer and longer in different areas so that she learns no matter what's going on she has to do it for however long we ask is the idea
You're crowding
She was going past me a little bit when I was stopping hard on the foos. She needs to track that when she's in her heel command, her foos. So she needs to track it and make sure that she stops when I stop.
Because the whole point of doing a foos or a heel is that the heel command is supposed to make them entirely focused on you for however long the duration of that heel command
which is why i recommend don't heel grind your dog don't like keep going at that forever um you know like 45 minute walk or 20 30 minute walk instead of that's something that you do temporarily
practical use case thing when you need to use it uh for some particular reason like walking by somebody with a dog walking by somebody that seems uncomfortable with your dog
How's she doing with her heel? Uh, she freezing up.
Place - going to the cot on the word, and the escape hatch it became
How it was taught
As a position with an automatic stay, released only on the word. The remedial work is not on the place itself but on what it has come to mean - the aim stated is that the place she feels safe should be beside the handler rather than the cot.
On film
So, she gets comfortable in in the place.
Do you see a place? Place? Place? No. Place? Okay. Good girl.
orc which is um which is a place
I think at the same time too, she associates the place with safety, and so if she feels like she's not doing something up to par, or if she's getting a little pressure, she'll go to the place which you know she clearly knows place but um you don't want to have that too much you know you want you want to kind of be the place console speak while doing heels like you want to to be next to our, you want your dog to be next to you.
So like I was just trying to show her like, hey, like this is like, everything's, it's like the floor is not everywhere else, but then like right here, it looks good. Like if you're next to me, you're good. You're good, yeah, everything's good.
Loose-leash walking on a flat collar - the one rule
How it was taught
No command is in force. She may sniff, look, mark, greet and be excited; the single prohibition is pulling. Excitement gets the verbal marker and she settles, so the collar is not used for it. The standard is deliberately set at what actually matters in public rather than at a heel.
On film
so the like loose leash walking, right, checking in, that's what we've been mostly focusing on for like the standard like going out in public and everything
and get to where like even on the flat collar she's not like dragging and like trying to yank those places right it's okay if she's excited as long as she's not like out here like like pulling us down type things right
so like right now she's not in any commands she's just around so she can be around and sniff she can do anything she wants as long as she's not pulling it is the rule
really sensitive to leaf pressure now she doesn't pull on it
Yep, you can sniff. As long as you're not pulling.
Off leash - the criteria, and the graduated release
How it was taught
By shortening the line in stages and arguing for each reduction before taking it - 50 feet, then eight or nine feet of lightweight line, then nothing - with the dog required to show the behaviour a few more times before each step. Four criteria are stated out loud before the line is dropped: she has been doing well; she is faster than the handler so the decision rests on her intent and not on his grip; the venue has people but is not busy, and the busy venue is the next stage of proofing rather than the test; and she puts no pressure on the leash at any length and comes off it the moment she feels it. The first rep after the line is dropped is asked for immediately and judged honestly.
On film
If not on this walk, definitely on the next walk I'll switch to a shorter, long line. Because that's a 50 footer. I'll probably switch down to the, I have one that's like an 8 or a 9 foot line, that's super light, super lightweight.
I'm pretty close to feeling like I can trust her on that. I'd like to see a couple more instances where she, like kind of
This is something I could grab but ultimately she could pretty pretty easily get away from me if she wanted to she's faster than I am that's for sure she's extremely athletic so she could get away from me but I don't think that she has that desire in her heart and I think that her training will hold up just fine
we aren't trying it in like in incredibly difficult circumstances, it's best to start in a little bit. There are people out here, but it doesn't look incredibly busy today, but it's best not to do this for the first time in a circumstance that's incredibly busy. You do that next. That's the next stage in the proofing you start out in a little bit quieter spot
she doesn't put any pressure on the leash um when she feels the pressure she comes right off of it
I'm gonna get her into the training here a little bit. That was very sloppy.
She's doing great. Yeah, she's good. I think she's actually fine without this leash. So now we have an off-leash doggie now. She's good to go.
so dulce does great off leash Dose is just fine off leash, but I don't want to do it here because especially at this time of day, they will kick us out immediately and ban us from coming again if we take this dog off leash here. They're really, really strict.
we don't want her just like yanking everywhere we want her to be roughly like in the same general area so we can so we can set the um set the like perimeter around us and the boundary where like i can like start dropping the leash and she doesn't want to just like take off
The working radius
How it was taught
Define how far out she may range and hold her to it while walking. Two handlers describe it independently: one as an exercise he enjoys and uses often, the other as the perimeter that has to exist before the leash can be dropped, and as self-control and impulse control rather than as obedience.
On film
radius so she really doesn't need to hang out much further than this all right we'll say about out there so radius is a thing it's i i enjoy doing radius quite a bit
so as you can see she's already quickly grasping the radius
see she's a very active dog and she um she's got a great radius now where she checks in
so just again creating like the set self-control and impulse control is what we've been focusing on with the obedience
Neutrality in public, and the settle test
How it was taught
Walk past, allow looking, disallow the yank toward the person; the excitement gets the verbal correction. Separately, a standing-still test in a store: stand in one spot for a long time and wait for her to give up on attention and lie down on her own, with no down command, because in real life the handler will be standing and talking to someone and the dog has to reach the conclusion herself.
On film
But passing by like people right originally every time she passed by a person she was like boo and she wanted to like go and meet that person every single time so just creating neutrality where it's just like we walk by and she can look but she just can't like yank over.
So for, like, the excitement, like, there, she went to jump a little bit, right? So that we're just conditioning where we do the uh-uh, and she settles. so so she so we don't have to like push the e-cowler all the time it can be verbal
and then just like i was wanting to see how long it would take her to just like completely settle so is that the thing like when we were at the store yesterday yesterday just standing in one spot and trying to see like when would she just lay down and like stop trying to get attention because that's important for like going out in public
I don't want the dog like moving around a whole bunch the whole time I want eventually I don't want to have to always be like oh you know do it down or something I just want want to be able to talk and then the dog be like oh like sniff check some stuff out and then be like well we're not moving anywhere so i just i guess i'll just lay down and wait
Got another little dog coming by in the background of this video. Dulce's doing good, though. so she's not getting up to go see the dog.
No, I don't mind. I just take it as she got some good practice in impulse control with another dog around, got to practice her plots.
I think lay down on me. What's that? You laid down.
Impulse control and the implied stay
How it was taught
The position itself carries the duration - there is no separate stay command, and the obligation runs until the release word. Built in the smallest possible unit first: sit, two steps away, a few seconds, release, and only then add time and distance. Progress is measured by how much help each rep needed. After the cue, a deliberate pause before any leash input, so she gets the chance to choose correctly and earn the clean rep. The whole obedience programme is described as being for this rather than for the positions.
On film
once she goes to position, we want it to be just an automatic stay, right? An automatic staying in that position until she hears okay, right? And then once she hears it, okay, then she can do whatever she wants to do.
so just again creating like the set self-control and impulse control is what we've been focusing on with the obedience
starting a little implied stay, uh-uh, increase that impulse control first, uh-uh, so a couple steps, good, break, break, good
for just a couple steps back a few seconds and then release and then we'll start adding more time and distance and everything to it
so she's starting to learn the idea of the implied stay with it with more distraction around um because i only had to correct her a couple times there compared to the last time i had to correct her multiple times
so that's how I didn't do any least pressure just said it and gave her a minute to give her a second to kind of process it and see what she would do she did the right action which is good
And what I'm going to do is I'm going to test her down on my i'm gonna bait her a little bit she loves this thing
The markers and the correction ladder
How it was taught
Two conditioned words. 'Eh-eh' is the correction marker and 'okay' the release; the correction is her chance to fix her own mistake before a consequence arrives. Then a fixed escalation: ask the command; if she ignores it, one verbal correction; if she ignores the correction, the e-collar - and never the collar to produce the behaviour, because a dog corrected that way becomes reliant on feeling it. The accounting rule for repeats is stated separately: a marker that failed once must be backed the next time or it stops meaning anything. It is handed to the owners through an analogy every parent already runs.
On film
so she knows the words. She She didn't want to do it at that time. So I just say and then just use the e-collar and then she like, "Oh crap, I got to I got to fix my mistake." And then she just like slowly sat. And then I waited till she was like fully sat down and then I released her.
what we're doing is basically we've already assigned like the uh as her correction right so that's her correction cue uh marker and then okay is her release marker
and then if she was to ignore um like the correction then that's when i use my e-collar so the e-collar is just if she like ignores right because their dogs like dogs will try things sometimes and be like oh maybe if i do this i don't have to do this
i'm not pushing it to get the command to happen or anything like that it's just i ask the command if she ignores and i give a correction I give one correction without if she ignores that correction she gets an e-collar correction And then so then she's not reliant on feeling the e-collar to do the command
Same idea with the dogs. It's just the eh-eh is the one, two, three, right? So if that's their chance to be like, oh, sorry, and, like, correct themselves. And then if they don't, the e-collar is, like, throwing the ice cream at them, right?
Yeah because I I just did the conditioned punisher before I just did uh uh before when the other guy was passing and she did that but this time Um, this time I got her for it because she needed, um, she needed to get a little bit more reinforcement there.
I'm working all over verbal right now and her condition punish is really strong wrong, so I'm not actually doing a lot other than just the verbal. I haven't used the e-collar at all.
she went right back in when i gave the conditioned Punisher
so then once we release her then she can do whatever she wants to do it doesn't matter um yeah it doesn't matter at all whatever she wants to do if she wants to go meet people or sniff or whatever it doesn't matter um as long as when we get her attention she comes back for the attention focuses and then does whatever command we ask
Drive building - chase, tug and the shake
How it was taught
Chase first, then the bite. A flirt pole rather than a full tug, run off the back of a game she already wants, with the aim that she enjoys the chase rather than tolerates it. On the object itself the handler waits for the shake before paying the round, because the shake is the observable that says she has committed rather than merely held on; teasing after a round is used deliberately to raise the next one; and the person on the equipment is coached to give her more fight to work against rather than to make it easier. The round ends when the quality drops, not when the dog stops wanting to play. The second owner lesson (08-12) hands the owner the frame for all of it: tug is a game with an objective, and it stops being worth playing if either side always wins or it has no purpose.
On film
So we're going to bring Dulce out. We're trying to increase her want to chase and things like that. So we're going to use a court pull, start, go through, and see how she does.
i've been doing some flirt pole work with her instead of like the full tug just to get her to want to do it more and like really get into it um because it's just more of a confidence thing where she gets like a little bored with it and she goes and don't really know and then she goes in and she gets like a little nervous with it
and i just got her to finally like get to that point yesterday with the um with the flirt pole uh where like i finally got it where she like i snapped it and she went for it
Good girl. Go like this. Build some fight.
Where she's really yanking on it and shaking it because I want that kind of like commitment, right? I want her to really like, go for it, you know? Some full power, right?
Me teasing her afterwards is what made her commit right was the teasing
think she's about cooked good girl yeah she's done we're gonna we're gonna finish up here she still wants to play but i'm not getting anything it's not as solid as it was
You let go. You let go. You let go.
thing that can make it not fun is if you win every time and they have no chance
So you want to try to start using strategies, not brute strength.
Boogeyman - barking a threat away
How it was taught
A decoy at distance behaves threateningly; the dog barks; the decoy runs away. The bark is what makes the threat retreat, so the dog's behaviour is rewarded by the decoy leaving. Distance is the primary variable and is held while intensity is raised along a graded ladder - noise, then bigger movements, then sudden movements, then a strange gait, then posture. If she scents the decoy the rep is spoiled and is restarted from further away rather than pushed through. The handler withholds all cues, because her reaction has to be to the decoy and not to his voice. Pulling on the leash is explicitly permitted here, against the standing rule. And because this dog reads authenticity, the decoy is coached to generate real anger rather than mime it.
On film
And basically, I'm going to hope that she gets interested in him and barks at him and not those chickens.
And I'm going to let her pull because it's fine to let her pull in this case.
Alright, so that's the first boogeyman. It went very well. She lit up like we wanted her to. That was good.
watch back up back up she smells you okay reset it start from further away don't say come here
make bigger movements make like sudden movements good girl here go back behind the truck
Good girl, Dulce. Good job. Good job, you did it. Good girl. Go get him.
Alright, now just come out walking weird, but stay a little taller.
Watch her. Watch her. Next time she barks, run.
pop your head up but don't come pop your head up don't say watch watch watch don't come any closer watch don't come close get louder watch
think of something you're mad at me for actually be mad
Dulce, who's that? Watch. Yeah, stay back there. He's acting weird. Alright, flail your arms at us. Yeah, he's threatening.
weird thing go away, bark at it, and then we'll add the word in there more.
Out - the release from the bite
How it was taught
Not described anywhere. The word is given once, in one session, with no method, no criterion, no reason and no result.
On film
Out.
Load up - getting into the truck
How it was taught
Not described beyond having been worked on. Recorded because it is one of the few unambiguous before-and-after results in the case, and because it was shown to the owners rather than claimed to them.
On film
we've been working on load up load up good girl yeah cuz she did not want to jump in before yeah so we've been working on the load up so she just jumps right in
Here. Okay. Dulce, here. Here. Here. There we go. Okay. Load up. Load up.
Not jumping on people
How it was taught
Not described. It appears only as a reported result at the start of the owner lesson and in the Home Depot report.
On film
We've been working on the jumping.
yeah she wanted people's attention but that was about it you know but she didn't like jump and go crazy on people she just was around
she she always been like a kind of good like of course like jumping up on people you know
Sitz - the sit
On film
Forgot, she doesn't speak English.
From the Shorts
Short clips posted from Dolce's training. They are undated, so they sit beside the program rather than inside it.
Three Rottweilers, and the one who only speaks German
In a light behind-the-scenes clip, staff try to line up three Rottweilers for a group sit and down. One dog is asked to sit in English and then with the German 'Sitz', and the handler laughs that she forgot this dog doesn't speak English; Dolce is the one of the three trained in German. They end with all three wanting to play tug.
On film
I'm going to do a little bit of a fun video, guys.
We've got the three rotties.
Zits.
Forgot, she doesn't speak English.
okay all right all right now put them in a down
Think he wants to play tug they all want to play tug
How the method adapted
The command language was changed for her. Every cue is German, from the first filmed week, because she is a protection dog - and the handlers wear the cost: one says outright it is not fun for him and that he is still learning the words, another that he has to fight his own muscle memory to use them.
So the obedience vocabulary and the bite vocabulary belong to different languages and cannot bleed into each other, and so the dog's working words are not words she hears all day.
On film
Yay. Not fun for me.
so for like just because she's going through the protection stuff it's all german um for the stuff
i'm having to control myself to use the german commands because all of my instincts and my my muscle memory and my my habits i guess you'd call it more more likely my all of my habits give me the other ones
I've been doing all of Dulce's stuff in German, German commands, so to make sure to remember to do that because the English commands I use every day are really ingrained in my mind
One word in that vocabulary was changed again, specifically for her: the heel is bei Fuss rather than Fuss, because Fuss is her bite word.
Stated twice, independently, with the same reason - and the reason given is the client's clarity, not the dog's. An owner saying the wrong word is the failure mode being designed against.
On film
we do by foos just because we also do foss for bite i was talking about this earlier with one of my co-workers so just to make it a little more obvious for clients
we're going to be training her to do protection stuff so we don't want her to get that and false mixed up. Especially because sometimes when the owner says it, it can cause a little bit of confusion.
Pressure was rationed, from the first outing onward, because nobody knew how much she could take and then because they found out she shuts down semi-quickly.
The failure mode the handler names is not a dog that folds but a dog that decides to fight the pressure, which on this breed he does not want to create. So the first sessions are deliberately under-pressured and the limit is stated aloud for everyone who works her afterwards.
On film
so i had the white gloves on because again i hadn't worked with those people i didn't know like how she responded to lots of pressure karate's every now and then can kind of get a little sketchy with pressure not every one of them interested most of them won't but don't say let's go but all it takes is for me to get like one tattoo out while it takes pressure and goes i'm gonna fight and i don't want that i really don't want that
another thing about dulce she does shut down semi-quickly
On the one command she resists, the criterion was dropped to almost nothing - standing beside the handler - rather than the pressure being raised.
Because the read of her state was 'unsure', not 'shut down' and not 'panicking'. An unsure dog is still choosing, so the answer is to make the right answer easy to find. The business owner makes that discrimination live and then corrects the handler, and the correction is about not quitting rather than about pushing.
On film
She seems happy like she's she's totally fine. She more seems like So so she's trying stuff
like, well, like, push her back past it. Like, but but do like put a little bit like what I did where I like had pressure, pressure, pressure. And even, you didn't really heal, you just let her just be next to you. Because technically, all the good position is just next to you, just next to you.
even just standing next to you, that could be a good... That's like a first criteria,
I think my problem is I give up a little too fast. I think, oh, I need to adjust.
She seems happy. Like she's she's totally fine. She more seems like unsure. See that face? She's like, I don't know. She seems unsure about how to get rid of it. So, um, so she's trying stuff.
The tug was moved from the end of the work into the middle of it, as a restorative rather than only as a reward.
When she gets stuck, the pressure comes off temporarily and she is played back up until she is tugging and enjoying herself again - and only then is the ask repeated. Her mood is treated as a precondition of the next rep rather than as its consequence.
On film
She's tugging, then go for it.
Okay. And then put it back on. After you've gotten her like, she's having a good time again, She's tugging, then go for it.
Smart girl. Good job. Get it.
A toy was used as an open, declared crutch on the heel, with a plan to test without it and remove it.
To change what the command feels like rather than to compel it, and to give her something she is winning inside an exercise she dislikes. The handler names it as training wheels, which is the opposite of hidden help.
On film
trying to combine it with something enjoyable like a tug toy see if she can come around and uh start to associate it with something more positive
Honestly, even if it's just a little bit, I think it'll help just to make her feel like she's winning something.
But, if not, I can keep using the twice kind of velour, like training wheels, until I can get a little better.
The drive work was rebuilt from further back than the program would normally start, on a flirt pole rather than a full tug, and the chase was built before the bite.
Because the drive had been suppressed as a puppy and she gets bored, then unsure, then nervous, then backs off. The stated order of operations is chase first, using the game she already wants, with enjoyment as the bridge to sleeve work.
On film
i've been doing some flirt pole work with her instead of like the full tug just to get her to want to do it more and like really get into it um because it's just more of a confidence thing
and then she kind of like backs off a little bit so we're just trying to boost that up before we move on to any of the other stuff
we're just trying to open up more for the chasing part so that we can get her to really enjoy that part of the game and then we can transition to like sleep, work, and things like that.
The calendar was split in two. The obedience got a date; the drive work explicitly did not, and the trainer said so to the paying owner's face.
Repetitions finish mechanical work on a schedule. Confidence does not run on one, so a date for it would be a promise he could not keep.
On film
so for the obedience and proofing that we'll have that part done by probably next week for that stuff the chasing and for like the bite in the defense I'll know more by the end of this week for that because like I said I just I it's just based off her her confidence
yeah I'll know more by probably the end of this week how long how much longer it'll take for finishing that part of it
Her breed was used to set the expectation rather than to excuse the result.
Rottweilers are named as slower than Belgians to want the fight work. It is said once, to the owners, in the middle of explaining why the protection side is behind - and it is immediately followed by the statement that she is opening up anyway.
On film
she's doing good with it it's just she's a rottweiler rottweilers aren't always the fastest at like wanting to do the fight stuff and like that part of it not like Belgians they pick that up pretty fast
and so i was hoping she would open up a little faster but it's a little slower than what I wanted but she is opening up
The demand was lowered for the fortnight she was in season, and the difference was reported honestly as slight rather than dramatised.
The cycle is treated as a variable that changes what can be asked, not as a reason to stop working her. Her extra marking is read as a symptom rather than as a training failure, and her sensitivity is named rather than trained through.
On film
also recently over the past couple of days went on her period um so did you see she looks big back there it's because it's all swole up um but she's still been doing with her training um it could affect it some um but we'll see what we gotta do to work through it
but she's tolerating things well so she's still doing good but she's been like slightly slightly different because of it but not not like a crazy difference that I see
I won't push you too hard. I won't push you too hard Cuz you're on your period. Okay mama. She's in heat
The weather was allowed to set the session length, and the summer is named as the worst time of year for the work.
Dogs get too tired. Protection work in that heat is capped at eight to ten minutes; a recall session was abandoned outright because the park was too hot; two long walks record her tiring and the exercise being cut short.
On film
and it like shortens the sessions because the dogs get tired it's too hot for them so they i can't do more than like for this kind of thing i couldn't do more than like maybe eight nine ten minutes and then I was like not call it
The worst time to be a dog trainer is the summer, the second worst time is the winter.
really hot over here I am not training a recall over here no no no
The decoy was coached on his internal state rather than on choreography, because this particular dog can tell a performed threat from a real one.
A faked threat will not work on her, so the decoy's genuine anger becomes part of the setup.
On film
She has a, I was discussing with Kristen, she has a way of knowing. She's pretty good at knowing if it's real or not.
be loud be loud don't throw anything too loud yeah be loud use something you're actually mad at me for
think of something you're mad at me for actually be mad
Her mouthing was judged against her job rather than against a general no-teeth rule, and biting the handler's real arm was read as a good sign before it was stopped.
In a dog whose problem is a suppressed bite, teeth on a person are evidence the suppression is lifting. Both handlers who record it stop it and neither corrects it as aggression.
On film
She's fine. Considering where her job is going to be.
See, that's my actual arm that you're biting. That's my real arm. Hey, that's a good sign.
That's my real arm. Don't bite that. Not yet.
Her habit of escaping to place was identified as a problem created by good training, and was answered by redefining where safety is rather than by punishing the place.
Place meant safety to her, so pressure sent her there. The aim stated is that the handler's side, not the cot, should be the safe place - which is the same move as dropping the heel criterion to standing beside him.
On film
she associates the place with safety, and so if she feels like she's not doing something up to par, or if she's getting a little pressure, she'll go to the place which you know she clearly knows place but um you don't want to have that too much
So like I was just trying to show her like, hey, like this is like, everything's, it's like the floor is not everywhere else, but then like right here, it looks good. Like if you're next to me, you're good. You're good, yeah, everything's good.
The grip standard was made contingent and all-or-nothing, and then handed to the owner in a form with no numbers in it.
For a dog who was fishing at the threads, an approximate bite earning the sleeve would have trained the approximation. The in-house version is the whole sleeve held about a minute or nothing; the owner's version is that the bar is her own last repetition, and a weak effort is answered with taunting rather than a correction.
On film
So as soon as she bit the whole sleeve and wouldn't let go for a minute, then she got access to keep it. That's how she got to keep it.
Yeah, and so then like whatever was more than the last time that you did it, she wins.
So then if she doesn't put forward as much after she lets it go, you make fun of her and taunt her.
The e-collar was deliberately not used for long stretches, and where it was used the reason was stated.
One whole park session ran on verbal markers alone because her conditioned punisher was strong; the September remote down had the collar on for one named purpose, to make the position enforceable out of verbal range.
On film
I'm working all over verbal right now and her condition punish is really strong wrong, so I'm not actually doing a lot other than just the verbal. I haven't used the e-collar at all.
we're just conditioning where we do the uh-uh, and she settles. so so she so we don't have to like push the e-cowler all the time it can be verbal
but I'm gonna have the e-collar on her so that I can reinforce the plots more far if I need to
Commands were threaded through real walks rather than drilled in blocks, with genuine freedom in between.
Release to freedom is named as the strongest reward available, and the handler credits the release rather than the exercise with making her like the heel. The obedience is proofed against the environment it actually has to work in.
On film
release to freedom is king, it is the king, the king of the dog training, release to freedom and the tug, the playing of the tug, it is the king of the dog training
She's getting good at it. I think she's starting to like it because of the release afterwards. Big reward for her. She gets all ramped up afterwards.
so then once we release her then she can do whatever she wants to do it doesn't matter
Her handlers corrected themselves out loud, on camera, rather than charging their errors to her.
Four separate instances: a position break attributed to the handler's own footwork; a non-response charged to the handler using the wrong word; a proofing variable the handler admits he had not thought of; and a handler naming quitting too early as his own fault. In a case built on a dog whose confidence is the constraint, that habit is load-bearing rather than decorative.
On film
That's me. Like, I stepped forward and I had to guide her back.
Dulce come. Oh Dulce here? I used the wrong word and she didn't respond to it.
I hadn't thought about that, proofing for, um, for downhill and uphill, or like uneven ground
I think my problem is I give up a little too fast.
A command he was not prepared to enforce was downgraded to an informal ask, and the downgrade was announced so the record was clear.
Late in a long session, with a tired dog who did not want to go back the way they had come, a formal recall he would not back would have cost him the recall. So he asked informally, she declined, nothing was enforced, and he said out loud that no command had been disobeyed.
On film
and to be clear she didn't disobey a command there because i did an informal recall i did that on purpose because i knew she probably didn't want to go that way and i didn't really feel like making her do it because i just gave her a bunch of commands so i was just kind of doing it as a um as an informal thing to see if i could get her to come over
An hour of a session lost to an interruption was reclassified as the training, on the spot, by naming what it had actually trained.
A stranger and her senior dog turned up four minutes into a protection session and stayed for nearly fifty. The trainer's response was not to write the session off but to count what the dog did: impulse control with another dog present, and a long Platz.
On film
No, I don't mind. I just take it as she got some good practice in impulse control with another dog around, got to practice her plots.
What the family was told
What a walk with her should look like
so like right now she's not in any commands she's just around so she can be around and sniff she can do anything she wants as long as she's not pulling it is the rule
it's okay if she's excited as long as she's not like out here like like pulling us down type things right
which is why i recommend don't heel grind your dog don't like keep going at that forever um you know like 45 minute walk or 20 30 minute walk instead of that's something that you do temporarily
practical use case thing when you need to use it uh for some particular reason like walking by somebody with a dog walking by somebody that seems uncomfortable with your dog
so that you can walk with a crowd of people with her in the heel and then when you get out of the crowd of people you can release her
The two words that carry the system
what we're doing is basically we've already assigned like the uh as her correction right so that's her correction cue uh marker and then okay is her release marker so if she if we say it's okay she can if not if she like goes to move before that she get that and then she's she's supposed to settle back to the position right
once she goes to position, we want it to be just an automatic stay, right? An automatic staying in that position until she hears okay, right? And then once she hears it, okay, then she can do whatever she wants to do.
so then once we release her then she can do whatever she wants to do it doesn't matter um yeah it doesn't matter at all whatever she wants to do if she wants to go meet people or sniff or whatever it doesn't matter um as long as when we get her attention she comes back for the attention focuses and then does whatever command we ask
Just say, okay.
When to use the e-collar, and when never to
so like if she ignores a correction then that's when i push my e-collar i don't want to push it for like anything else like i'm not pushing it to get the command to happen or anything like that it's just i ask the command if she ignores and i give a correction I give one correction without if she ignores that correction she gets an e-collar correction And then so then she's not reliant on feeling the e-collar to do the command She knows if she does the command everything's fine
It's like with my kids I do like one two three and then something happens right if my kid gets ice cream, and I say one You know I'm like go put it back, and they're like no, and I'm like one One, two, if I get three, I'm probably going to take the ice cream and throw it in the garbage.
Same idea with the dogs. It's just the eh-eh is the one, two, three, right? So if that's their chance to be like, oh, sorry, and, like, correct themselves. And then if they don't, the e-collar is, like, throwing the ice cream at them, right?
because their dogs like dogs will try things sometimes and be like oh maybe if i do this i don't have to do this and if i do this i don't have to do this right
Why you are here for this part
which is like we like the owners to be involved in this part um for the session stuff is just proofing the behaviors because like at the house or like in the training fence sits and downs and all that stuff uh you know like there's not as many distractions so the dogs typically go okay and they and they just like do this stuff right now we're proofing it where we want it to be like higher distractions where like she'll still not hesitate
so right now she's still like hesitates every once in a while or she's like I kind of want to go sniff that instead so we're correcting that and getting the behaviors just tighter so that by time she's done she has all the proofing and everything
so for the part of the proofing is that right there where like she can hold the position have people around right that's the phase we're in right now we're finishing up the proofing where like we're getting rid of that what bounce part
What the finished dog looks like in your life
I don't want the dog like moving around a whole bunch the whole time I want eventually I don't want to have to always be like oh you know do it down or something I just want want to be able to talk and then the dog be like oh like sniff check some stuff out and then be like well we're not moving anywhere so i just i guess i'll just lay down and wait
just creating neutrality where it's just like we walk by and she can look but she just can't like yank over.
we don't want her just like yanking everywhere we want her to be roughly like in the same general area so we can so we can set the um set the like perimeter around us and the boundary where like i can like start dropping the leash and she doesn't want to just like take off right so just again creating like the set self-control and impulse control is what we've been focusing on with the obedience
so if she's like not paying attention and i recall her and then she should do what she just did where she comes she comes into the front and she checks in and then like we don't ask her to do something then she can go do something else right um but but if we like, recall it and ask her to do something else, then we want her to do that thing, right?
The German, and the heel word
so for like just because she's going through the protection stuff it's all german um for the stuff
So Bifus means she stays next to me.
So it's just adding length of time for it now. So we're just making her heal longer and longer in different areas so that she learns no matter what's going on she has to do it for however long we ask is the idea
The honest part: what is behind, and why
so for the obedience and proofing that we'll have that part done by probably next week for that stuff the chasing and for like the bite in the defense I'll know more by the end of this week for that because like I said I just I it's just based off her her confidence
she's doing good with it it's just she's a rottweiler rottweilers aren't always the fastest at like wanting to do the fight stuff and like that part of it not like Belgians they pick that up pretty fast
and like i said like she has like a little more of the defense side we're trying i'm just trying to get her i'm it's probably just because of when she's a puppy you should suppress it right so i'm trying to open her back up for the biting and like the mouthing and like stuff like that and like the chasing part
and so i was hoping she would open up a little faster but it's a little slower than what I wanted but she is opening up
yeah i'm happy with all that stuff um like i said i'm just i just want her to open up more
How to play tug with her yourself
thing that can make it not fun is if you win every time and they have no chance
another one is if the game is too easy and they win every time and they never even have to try the strategy they're doing
And the other one is that the game has no purpose.
So you want to try to start using strategies, not brute strength.
One of the things you can think about when you work with a toy is think about what you want her to do, what you want for reward. So, what you want is her to grab it and hold it and not let go, right?
So if she grabs it for longer than she did the last time, you let her win, right? She wins if she tries harder. If she grips and keeps it and grips harder and pulls on it, she wins.
So then if she doesn't put forward as much after she lets it go, you make fun of her and taunt her.
Logistics
i could just um shoot you guys a text like you know yeah just try to let us know like if possible like a week in advance okay because if it's like the day before i don't know if i can always like yeah
Okay, Monday. Monday the 7th.
yeah you ever try to walk a lot without the leash so we're gonna we're gonna do that yeah this week with the proofing
In the family's own words
The family speak for perhaps ninety seconds in twelve weeks of footage. When asked directly what they want, the owner answers in one sentence: the obedience matters, but mainly it is the protection.
On film
okay all right you know like she's coming along pretty good yeah she she always been like a kind of good like of course like jumping up on people you know and like me making a sit and she can stay and I can walk away and things like that yeah that's the that's the stuff that I'm definitely looking for but like main uh mainly it's gonna be like the defense of the protecting
The one question the owner asks about training in the whole lesson is whether she can be walked off leash.
On film
yeah you ever try to walk a lot without the leash
The only history anyone supplies about her comes from the family: a puppy who would hang in the air off a bite toy. It is the entire evidential basis of the suppression diagnosis.
On film
she used to love to play with the bike toys i could pick her up on a bike toy like this and she'll hang in the air like as a puppy
Someone on the owners' side describes her as being in her own world - a space dog. The trainer agrees and supplies his own version of it.
On film
She act like she be in her own world sometimes.
Yeah, she like a space dog.
Everything else is logistics, and the owner is diligent about it: he takes the date, promises the e-collar, gives his availability and asks for reminders.
On film
And I got the date for the next training, and I'll make sure I have an e-collar when I come.
Like, um, see, Fridays and then daytime be a good thing for me too, because I don't have to practice.
Just tell your lady to send me the, you know, the reminders and everything. But I'll be on it.
What the family never says on film: any complaint, any worry, any account of her at home, anything about why she was sent, and anything at all about the protection work beyond wanting it.
On film
do you have any questions about that like does that like look kind of like how you're looking for what you want like with that stuff
Outcomes
What the trainers reported
The obedience and proofing would be finished in about a week from 2026-07-28.
The in-program trainer, to the owners
On film
so for the obedience and proofing that we'll have that part done by probably next week
She is an off-leash dog.
The park handler, on 2026-07-17, in the session itself
On film
I think she's actually fine without this leash. So now we have an off-leash doggie now. She's good to go.
so dulce does great off leash Dose is just fine off leash,
She has a great radius now and checks in unprompted.
The park handler
On film
see she's a very active dog and she um she's got a great radius now where she checks in
She is learning the heel faster than most dogs and likes it.
The in-program trainer, to the owners
On film
I just introduced this like over the last couple days. So she just started in with this. She's doing pretty good. I mean, she, she's learning this faster than most dogs actually.
She bit the whole sleeve and held it for a minute, and so got to keep it.
The trainer, 2026-08-03
On film
So as soon as she bit the whole sleeve and wouldn't let go for a minute, then she got access to keep it.
She lit up on the boogeyman as wanted.
The trainer, first run
On film
Alright, so that's the first boogeyman. It went very well. She lit up like we wanted her to.
She did great at Home Depot - no chasing, no reacting, wanted attention but did not jump on people.
The in-program trainer, to the owners, the day after
On film
we went to Home Depot yesterday too we were walking around she did great with everything
she's checking things out properly and she's not fixating or trying to be overly defensive or reactive just because there's people around
She now loads into the truck, which she would not do before.
The in-program trainer, to the owners
On film
cuz she did not want to jump in before yeah so we've been working on the load up so she just jumps right in
She is opening up on the drive work, just more slowly than hoped.
The in-program trainer, twice in one lesson
On film
i was hoping she would open up a little faster but it's a little slower than what I wanted but she is opening up
She is in the protection program 'right now', will bite, will watch, and does 'all the stuff'.
On film
we have a roddy actually right now that's in the protection her name is dulce she's also in german because she's like full like protection like she'll bite she'll like watch do all the stuff
She is in protection work and bites the sleeve.
On film
We're doing, like, protection work with her. Like, she don't bite the sleeve and everything.
What the footage shows
A Platz held while the handler baits her with the toy she loves; she breaks once and the verbal marker alone puts her straight back, with no leash and no stim.
On film
so she went she went for the first time when i baited her but she went right back in when i gave the conditioned Punisher
A remote down held for roughly eighty seconds while the handler walked supplies to the truck and back, with the expected failure mode named in advance and not occurring.
On film
normally I've found in my experience that when they get up and they're far away, when you get up and they're far away, they They tend to Come all the way to you and down instead of staying where they're at
So that was actually perfect. She stayed there the whole time. So no issues at all with that.
A full park session run entirely on verbal markers - no leash input, no e-collar - on 2026-07-15.
On film
I'm working all over verbal right now and her condition punish is really strong wrong, so I'm not actually doing a lot other than just the verbal. I haven't used the e-collar at all.
The line dropped on camera and obedience asked for immediately; the first rep judged poor out loud, then worked back to clean off-leash heel and recall sets.
On film
I'm gonna get her into the training here a little bit. That was very sloppy.
I think she's actually fine without this leash.
One break from heel in a thirty-five-minute walk through a crowded park past other dogs, corrected once, with the dog putting herself back rather than being re-placed.
On film
she kind of went off track once because she got a little distracted by the dog, but then after that, she immediately, once I corrected it, went back where she was supposed to go, so that was beautiful.
A Platz held through nearly four minutes of a stationary stranger conversation in July, and through most of an hour with a strange senior dog at close range in September.
On film
I just take it as she got some good practice in impulse control with another dog around,
Full committed grips on the tug with completed shakes, and commitment visibly rising after being teased - the drive rebuild working, in September.
On film
I was waiting for her to do this and shake it and she did she started she started shaking it and you saw she like completed the shake
She definitely committed more. She committed way more that time.
Barking that sent a decoy running, on at least two approaches in one session, with the reaction generated by the decoy's behaviour rather than by a handler cue.
On film
Dulce, who's that? Watch. Yeah, stay back there. He's acting weird. Alright, flail your arms at us. Yeah, he's threatening.
Neutrality shown on the last dated day: she holds a Platz while a small dog passes and does not get up to go see it.
On film
Dulce's doing good, though. so she's not getting up to go see the dog.
The settle - lying down in public of her own accord because nothing is happening - is named as the goal in July and never shown arriving.
On film
i was wanting to see how long it would take her to just like completely settle
I think lay down on me. What's that? You laid down.
The ideas Dolce'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 chase before the bite
- Build the handler's timing while it is easy
- Close the other door: the escape hatch
- Command, marker, collar - in that order
- Dates for obedience, no dates for drive
- Don't accept the almost
- Don't heel grind
- Don't poison the command
- Down in motion
- Drilling is what represses a dog
- False reps: the dog reads the chain, not the word
- Fit before level: check the tool before you judge the dog
- Freedom is given in measured steps
- Freeze, flee or fight
- He has to be allowed to get it wrong
- Heat is a stop sign
- Heel entry versus heel in motion
- Hidden help
- Honest limits, and reliability is not permission
- Keep the marker charged
- Management, not training
- Meaningful release
- Nobody is at fault; it isn't personal
- 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
- Prediction error
- Pressure, release, reward
- Release to freedom
- Show what not to do, allow everything else
- Start with freedom
- Stop before you shut him down
- Swapped commands: keep sit and down distinct
- Teach the move, then the word
- The boogeyman: barking makes the threat go away
- The camera is part of the method
- The decoy's job
- The dog tells you the reward
- The dose of a session
- The gear list, and the reasons for each piece
- The handler is the first suspect
- The leash is a prop
- The radius
- The settle criterion
- The standard is set by the job
- 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