Kali
Who Kali is
As the trainers describe her
Big, heavy and cheerful. The staff nickname for both dogs is 'the hippos', and it is used to their owners.
On film
also i i hope you guys don't mind but we can't stop calling them hippos
All right, we've got a big big ol' hippo coming our way. Hippos hippos hippos!
Not a toy-crazy dog. Tug wins her first play test outright, but the tug is 'not consistently' there afterwards, she does little solo play, and her son brings the energy out of her.
On film
Because I have gotten her to like rip on the tug pretty hard. Yeah. But not consistently.
especially him he likes tug more than she does even and then like kelly she doesn't really do a lot of solo play like she has to they rally each other up
that's not surprising she brings he brings the crazy out of her for sure
Touch is what she works for. Rubs are her favourite reward 'so far' by the lesson, and 'butt scratchies' are the named reward in the staff session.
On film
treats that's a good one what else rubs yeah i use that one actually with uh that's probably my main reward right now if you see in the videos that's that's the one callie likes the best so far
She really likes butt scratchies.
She reads what predicts pressure and responds to the prediction: freezing and going down when the leash is picked up, a 'little look' when called in. This is the thread through her whole case (see the adaptations).
On film
So, when I picked up the leash, what did she do? She went to lay down. She kind of froze up a little bit, right?
definitely gonna give her a nice little break here because um she just did like a little bit of like a a look um when uh they start to like anticipate that coming towards me
Not very sensitive to the e-collar by the trainer's account, which he treats as a warning rather than a licence.
On film
i'm gonna have to have to call a few times i've already tried it a little bit um she's not incredibly sensitive to it but i also don't want to take that as like now a thing where
Not dangerous to people; reactions to dogs momentary, worse up close, improving. Said of both dogs together.
On film
but for them they're not dangerous to people at all and I've been clocking the behavior around dogs they're not insanely dangerous to dogs all the time
As her family describe her
Recall at home is the owners' named problem with her: when she wants something she ignores the call with her ears down, or comes back 'lackadaisically'.
On film
doesn't come back she's not and she's not super like fast to run away from you but she'll put them ears down and ignore you
they heard you callie would just act like like she didn't hear at all
Around dogs, both dogs give no warning growl: they stand still and then snap. Said of the pair.
On film
barking or anything like that or just pulling towards the dog and kind of like they don't really growl too much it's literally like they'll stay and you'll think oh everything is good but it's that one second and they snap at them
They fetch and drop rather than return, and both prefer tug. This matches the intake's 'retrieval more than return'.
On film
they're they both like tug better than everything else yeah they don't do they'll go get something and then they'll just drop they just drop it they leave it there
The program, stage by stage
Intake, off camera
2026-08-12
An adult American Staffordshire Terrier, nearly seven, living with her grown son Kane, comes in for obedience with three priorities: first-time obedience, protecting the home and family, and staying off the furniture. She arrives with a solid sit, stay, let's go and release, a down and come that hold only in low distraction, no place and no heel, a history of pulling hard through a prong collar, and one incident two years earlier in which she and Kane bit an attacking dog in the owner's defence, after which both have been unwelcoming to other dogs (source: intake). None of this is filmed.
Kennel weeks with other staff - almost unfilmed
About 2026-08-12 to 2026-09-02, inferred
Kelton's first recording says she has already had 'home context preparation' and other training at the kennel with other trainers. What that was is not filmed in anything that can be dated. The one audible detail is that place was being taught with a handler's foot assist, which the handler judges ready to fade. The same assist is named in Kane's own place session.
On film
and we're gonna find out what she likes because i have not a clue um she's been doing like a bunch of home context preparation and uh other training at the kennel uh with some of the other trainers
I think you can do it without me stepping on it today.
First session with Kelton: find the reward, then a down she fightsTurning point
2026-09-03, evening (watch + watch)
A play assessment in a set order: ball ('can be developed'), flirt pole (little interest), tug (the 'clear winner'). The trainer then asks which part of the game she values and finds she keeps possessing, ripping and shaking the toy, unlike Rocco earlier that day, so the plan is to keep the competitive part and allow time for the kill and consume. When she loses interest to the grass, he switches to negative reinforcement with release to freedom, using the grass as the release. The down is obtained with help across three or four long reps in which, in his words, she 'fought me'. In the second recording she fights 'so much less', he resets her to baseline with a sniff walk because she must not be frozen or feeling pressure, and the last rep ends with the pressure gone as soon as she goes down. He keeps the session short because it is static, pressure-based and without play.
On film
she keeps possessing it and then she wants to consume and she wants to rip and kill right that's that's useful information
all right so we're just going to try a little bit of negative reinforcement released freedom because she's really distracted right now by the grass
good that's good yeah yeah that's so good that's so good i'm very proud of her um she fought me so much less on that last one there
i'm just gonna reset her to baseline now always important that she's not like frozen up or like feeling pressured
she tried something and she got it perfectly you know I had to like keep on the pressure a little bit there but then like as soon as she saw it she saw it and she figured it out she went into the down all the pressure went away
The down holds; the heel starts; the pressure is tunedTurning point
2026-09-06, afternoon (watch + watch)
In a public field on a long line: ball and tug do little today, personal play works, and becomes the plan. She recalls away from a dog she is fixed on, as a free choice. The down comes on the verbal cue, once with no help and once after one conditioned punisher, and she distinguishes sit from down back to back - 'more progress than I thought'. First heel reps. Then a park walk on a flexi with the e-collar: Kelton explains why a dog who is not very sensitive to the collar must still be run low (bully-type dogs can look resilient for weeks, then suddenly look suppressed), why he pairs clear negative reinforcement with a big release and a long break, and why he will do one rep at a slightly higher level after 'ah ah' so the down comes on the command rather than on the correction word. It works: a down straight on the cue, 'mission success', collar back down. When she gives 'a little look' of anticipating pressure on a recall, he inserts false starts - call, scratches, release - to keep hesitation out. Leash yielding: no bracing.
On film
That was a verbal only down guys
She correctly distinguished between the two, between the sit and the down.
and then i'll use that um that e collar uh level and um that should negatively reinforce doing it on the uh actual command and not waiting for me to say uh condition puncture
that's mission success and then we'll just have to maintain it that way so e-collar goes goes back down slightly again
i'm going to do a couple of like false anticipations for her right so i'm going to call her over and then ask her to be and then i'm not going to ask her to do anything
The leash itself has become a warningTurning point
2026-09-08 (watch)
With staff member Christian as her chase target, she downs on cue and is released to 'go get Christian'. Then the handler shows the problem: when he picks up the leash she lies down, freezes a little, her tail changes, and under light leash pressure she stiffens and thinks about avoiding him, because she expects to be told to heel. He explains that the first link in a chain ending in pressure becomes the signal, and that avoidance deepens until more pressure is needed. So he picks the leash up and lets nothing happen. Her body language is 'much better'. A second speaker describes preventing the whole problem by popping the leash during play so leash pressure means the game; the handler adopts it for Kane the same afternoon.
On film
her tail started getting a little weird and like and then as well when i put a little bit of leash pressure she stiffened up her tail would yeah a little bit talk she wanted to she kind of like started to like think about avoiding me because she thought i was going to tell her to heal
Right, so I wanted to think, oh, he picked up the leash, nothing bad happens we go back to the scratchies
But as I'm playing, I grab it, and I pop it to the leash while I play. So that they think it's an encouragement to the play.
First in-program owner lesson - Kali mostly in the truck
2026-09-14, evening (watch + watch)
Kelton meets the owners at a park near their home. Kane is worked for the hour of theory; Kali stays in the truck and comes out near closing time 'just saying hi'. What the lesson says about her is report, not demonstration: baseline done, each dog worked individually, together by the end; not dangerous to people; rubs her favourite reward; less tug than Kane; Kane brings out her crazy. The owners raise her home recall. Kelton promises a reliable off-leash recall by the end of the program and tells them never to be angry at a dog who finally comes back. The next lesson is to be at the house, with a couch aversion.
On film
working each of them individually so they still have some work to do um but now like things like all the baseline stuff is like it's done
So what she will have is she's going to have where I'm starting to distinguish it now that I've kind of gotten it where she's not kind of like when I put a pressure on her to like teach her different things.
this is important because the way you maintain it is by one i mean yeah it should be great when they come back
We can do it during the lesson, because I know the next lesson is going to be at the house.
Three days after the lesson: the down holds under distraction, the heel dips, and the trainer lowers the bar
2026-09-17, late evening (watch)
An evening park walk of about twenty minutes, narrated to the owners and the public. After she toilets (both she and Kane, the trainer says, reliably do before a walk), he gives a down and leaves her in it for a minute or two while someone plays ball behind her; he says she went down on the first cue and calls it duration and distraction practice. After sniffing and play he tries a heel. The first stretch is almost all 'uh-uh'/'eh' markers and 'heel' cues and ends in a release into running play; he says it was stressful for her and that the fix is on his side: make heel more positive in her mind and maximise clarity. He explains a backpedal he uses to help a hesitant recall, which should not be needed every time. A second heel stretch, again dense with markers, ends in 'much better', and he gives the session's teaching: a skill can look worse before it gets better, mood, context, difficulty and fear can all play a part, and the answer is not to 'hammer them harder' but clarity, consistency, recovery time, positive reinforcement and a lower criterion - here three seconds, or four or five steps, without resistance, then release. He says there was 'so much resistance' in the heel 'where there hadn't been before'. No tool is named in the audio. This is the same thread as the rest of her file (a dog who reacts to pressure she can predict, met with a clearer and lighter hand), now on the heel itself rather than the leash pickup; why the resistance rose on this evening the recording does not say.
On film
somebody's playing ball behind her i'm just gonna leave her in the down for a few for a minute or two
because this is good practice for but she went down on the first try
I know that was stressful. Good girl!
so i need to make the heel a little bit more positive in her mind when she hears it
and make sure that i'm maximizing clarity
help to reinforce the recall uh as long as it isn't required every time you should just be
That was much better.
good reaction but sometimes it gets like that right so it'll go a little bit worse before it
You don't just hammer them harder, but you do have to make sure that it's clear and that
So like all I was looking there for is three seconds of no resistance, right?
because there was so much resistance um where there hadn't been before i was just looking for
so lowering the criteria for success for the dog can make all the difference in the world
Skills
Down
How it was taught
Negative reinforcement with release to freedom (tool not named on 09-03): pressure held until she goes down, all pressure off, affection. Reset to baseline between reps. Then a conditioned punisher as the prompt, then one slightly higher e-collar rep so the pressure attaches to the cue itself, then back down.
On film
Let me help you.
that i actually like like when i got her to down uh so like three or four full like down repetitions and that one was for me i think that was significant improvement
Look at that guys another burp only down look at that all I had to do is just I had to give her one Little conditioned punisher and she popped right into it down.
right it shows that she has an understanding of the down but she just kind of you know like uh, she, she just kind of hesitated and waited to see what would happen. And I, I didn't use the e-collar there. I just used the conditioned punisher.
with the e-collar tally down good girl there we go that was a desired result so um looks like that's mission success
Sit, and sit versus down
How it was taught
Ask the other position straight after one to catch a dog repeating the last answer.
On film
and duration they're high um so now i'm gonna try try it down um right after i just did the sit and see if she gets it good or if she if she sits instead
So honestly, like that's more progress than I thought I was gonna get.
Heel
How it was taught
'heel' with 'come on' and 'good' while walking, leash guidance, personal play after.
On film
it's gonna take a little time um it normally in my experience it takes a little longer than the down to get it right it feels a little bit more of like a it's more of a complex um thing to teach um for most dogs it takes them slightly longer to learn it
Cali, heel.
Recall
How it was taught
Let her choose in front of a real distraction; low-level e-collar with leash guidance, pressure off on arrival, big release to freedom and a long break; calls with no command after them.
On film
she's kind of fixated on a little bit use this to prove recall though I'm gonna let her make a choice see what she chooses
together with the leash guidance for her to figure out uh to come towards me so and then once she got all the way to me what happened all the pressure went away right away
Leash yielding
How it was taught
Light leash pressure on a walk to test whether she follows or braces.
On film
and then the other thing is that i'm gonna test out her um her leash yielding here to make sure she's not gonna be pulling me
okay she's getting to it really nicely there yeah not bracing into it at all good girl
Place
How it was taught
Verbal 'place' with encouragement, a foot assist faded, then a long hold (rule 13).
On film
All right. Ready? Come on. Place. You can do it.
Callie. Sit. Sit. Good.
Jumping on people
How it was taught
Not shown.
On film
And what you said is already on the right track, which is you put it on a cue, right?
Down
On film
didn't have to say it twice she just went right into the
Heel
Recall
Jumping on people
How the method adapted
Kali is not a fear case or a bite-to-people case. Her file is the record of one trainer finding, over eleven days, that a calm adult dog who 'is not incredibly sensitive' to the e-collar still reacts sharply to pressure she can predict, and changing his handling around that. The adaptations are his, and all are stated on camera.
Low collar levels because she seemed resilient, not despite it.
Bully-type dogs can look fine under pressure for a couple of weeks and then suddenly look suppressed; he wants to avoid that stage entirely, and to find the least level that still works.
On film
hitting a point where like you know they were pretty resilient with it for the first like couple weeks say as an example oh i'm missing one thing come here come on i'm missing one thing and And then all of a sudden, they get really, like, where they look kind of suppressed and sad. And I want to avoid that stage at all if possible.
and just kind of discover exactly if i can if i can figure out exactly where she sits in terms of how much e-car usage is necessary and how how high the level needs to be and i want to i want to minimize it but i still have to prioritize it being effective
Reset to baseline between pressure reps, and short sessions when the work is static.
She must not start the next rep frozen or still feeling pressure; static negative-reinforcement work without play cannot run long.
On film
But if you're gonna stay like roughly in one area and you can't get them like super like jazzed about the play yet Then if you're gonna use some negative reinforcement, you can't do like a super long session
False starts on the recall, and fake-out leash pickups, so that coming in and the leash stop predicting pressure.
Once a dog predicts pressure from the first link in the chain she avoids it, and deeper avoidance forces more pressure. He says it feels slower but is faster.
On film
false starts there because you can see like this little anticipation of like okay so you're gonna like ask me to do a command and put some pressure and then i just completely no-showed that and gave her scratchies and said go right
that yeah okay girl come on right because i found that like if i get deep into that then i'm like having to turn it up and i'm having to like put more pressure and do more and it just
feels like it takes longer when it actually it feels like it takes longer but it's faster
Whatever she wants right now is the reward: the grass, then personal play, then touch - including jumping up on him.
Tug faded as her currency; when pressure made her stop offering anything, he says he had to be clearer and find what she really wants.
On film
she's really distracted right now by the grass so we're going to use that she's going to want to go back to it so we'll just use that for now
so if I can't get a lot with the tug or the ball any time soon, I can use personal play for teaching the commands and then I can prove them on the walks.
So what she will have is she's going to have where I'm starting to distinguish it now that I've kind of gotten it where she's not kind of like when I put a pressure on her to like teach her different things.
Attach the pressure to the cue, not to the correction word.
She had learned to wait for 'ah ah' before downing; one higher rep after it teaches that the command itself is the moment to act. This is the intake's first priority - obey the first time - addressed directly, though nobody connects the two on film.
On film
if she keeps hesitating like that, I will have, I'll probably just do one rep with a slightly higher, um, setting on the e-collar just a little bit more than what I've been using
What the family was told
The owners' job is to maintain, not to train
ideally my goal in this session and then in the next two is to teach you the concepts you need to know to maintain the training
about them you know yeah so i record every training session that way they can always see everything i do with the dog
Punishment must be clear and contingent
other really really important thing about using punishment is that punishment has to be clear it must be contingent on the thing they did if it's not clear and contingent on the thing they did then they can't avoid it
Calm liberty and the couch
i have found to be the biggest deficiency across every person that i work with for the most part and that is the calm liberty window
of the couches on the furniture as soon as he goes to get up on the couch punish him okay right
right um but yeah that's the only way to get towards that possibility of it when you're not home like when you're when they're unsupervised is you have to have some kind of actual aversion to it
Recall: make the return great
they come back so a big mistake people make sometimes i i've made it before i'm out of frustration to be honest and in the past because i didn't know is if the dog doesn't come back to you right away
Jumping on cue (Kali specifically)
And what you said is already on the right track, which is you put it on a cue, right?
Equipment
so the wider it is the less aversive it is
In the family's own words
They pulled badly together, which is why the family moved to harnesses and then prongs.
On film
like the leash they would pull especially together pull really bad that's why i got the harnesses
The couch problem is an unsupervised one: the dogs don't try while the family are there.
On film
mostly have to put like yeah do they do it at all while you're there no no they
Their home recall concern, above, and the yard it matters in.
On film
they heard you callie would just act like like she didn't hear at all yeah she's not even that's dangerous because we got a big yard
Outcomes
What the trainers reported
Significant improvement in the down within the first session.
Kelton, 2026-09-03
On film
that i actually like like when i got her to down uh so like three or four full like down repetitions and that one was for me i think that was significant improvement
Down retained and discriminated from sit three days later; 'mission success' on the first-cue down.
Kelton, 2026-09-06
On film
Looks like Callie remembered the down from our last session.
that's mission success and then we'll just have to maintain it that way
All the baseline work is done; both dogs are doing well individually.
Kelton to the owners, 2026-09-14
On film
working each of them individually so they still have some work to do um but now like things like all the baseline stuff is like it's done
A reliable off-leash recall by the end of the program - a promise, not an outcome.
What the footage shows
A down obtained under pressure on 2026-09-03 and given on the verbal cue on 2026-09-06, with sit/down discrimination, by the trainer's narration of what happened.
A recall away from a dog she was fixed on, once, as a free choice (2026-09-06).
Leash yielding without bracing on one walk (2026-09-06).
Visible avoidance of leash pickup on 2026-09-08, improved within the session by the handler's account.
First heel reps, still with a lot of help.
The ideas Kali's case runs on
- Command, marker, collar - in that order
- Play becomes the reward - and play is a contest
- Prediction error
- Punish the act, not the feeling: he may look
- Put the unwanted behaviour on cue
- Release to freedom
- Stop before you shut him down
- Switch him on, then ask for off
- The dog tells you the reward
- The dose of a session
- The settle criterion
Kane
Who Kane is
As the trainers describe him
A tug dog, and more of one than his mother. The play test scored tug eight or nine out of ten on the first try, and the program was declared 'tug first' on the spot.
On film
oh he's too strong he won oh he's gonna tear that
Definitely, he has higher play drive than Callie does.
learned lots about kane um i know that um he really likes to run around he likes the environment just fine let's go sniff stuff um he's nuts about the tug toy loves love loves tug
especially him he likes tug more than she does even
Clever, and quick to put a sequence together once it is clear.
A big, heavy, heat-limited dog who does not lift his feet. Both facts shape the sessions: the long line tangles, and eighteen minutes of play is described as enough to overheat him.
On film
Cain Cain come here uh one thing that I'm noticing is he doesn't pick up his feet at all when he walks
because he's just I think that you know like that was about 18 minutes and for a bully breed like them with the activity levels that he was giving me you know he was super messed up running around a bunch that's plenty of time for him to get too hot
The one who winds the pair up.
On film
he likes the crazy
she brings he brings the crazy out of her for sure
Reported, on 2026-09-08, to react to pressure from people and from dogs, and to have growled at kennel techs who were pressuring him - the example given is being told to go into a crate. This is a report by a trainer who was not describing something he had seen in that session, and it is the reason he gives for the pace of Kane's first down.
On film
so honestly um the main reason is that kane um has shown some like you know reactions to pressure from humans even um and definitely from dogs right
he's grouted a few of the techs and stuff like that good boy and it was specifically in context where they were pressuring him like say like they were telling him like to go in the crate or something like that and he did uh react that way
Described six days later, to the owners, as coping well with human pressure, not quick to react, not dangerous to people at all - and as a dog who would act if he judged a threat real, which the trainer counts as an asset for the protection side of the family's goals.
On film
He already copes with pressure from humans pretty well. Like, he doesn't just immediately bat off. So, I've noticed that, like, if he feels like a threat is real... He'll do what he needs to do.
Um, and that's one of the main skills that, like, it's really hard to develop. And he has it, which is good.
but for them they're not dangerous to people at all and I've been clocking the behavior around dogs they're not insanely dangerous to dogs all the time
Gentle under handling, in the one early recording where a handler says anything about temperament. The dog is not named in the audio; the title makes it Kane.
On film
It's so gentle.
As his family describe him
A puller - worse with the two together - which is why they went to harnesses and then prongs.
On film
like the leash they would pull especially together pull really bad that's why i got the harnesses
getting pulled like a sled right yeah and then with the prongs it's like i know this hurts them
With other dogs, no warning: a still second and then a snap. Said of both dogs.
On film
it's literally like they'll stay and you'll think oh everything is good but it's that one second and they snap at them
On recall, he hears and acknowledges and may run off anyway - unlike Kali, who acts as if she has not heard.
On film
so kane more so when you call him to do recall yeah he hears you and he kind of like he'll take off running from you or acknowledge he'll acknowledge they heard you
He toilets many times on a walk.
On film
I've had him poop like three, four, five times on the walk.
The program, stage by stage
Intake, off camera
2026-08-12. Nothing filmed.
Both dogs' forms were submitted the evening of 8/12 with a pickup the same day (source: intake). For Kane the family asked for obedience and protection; their priorities were first-time obedience, protecting the home and family, and staying off the furniture with a baby coming. He arrived four and a half years old, 67 pounds, on daily medication for skin allergies and partway through an ear-treatment course, with a heart murmur his vet did not consider significant, a single dog-fight in his history, reactivity to new dogs marked 'Often', and a home 'down' the family considered usually reliable (source: intake). None of this is on camera; no evaluation or arrival day was filmed.
The kennel phase: place, with help
About 2026-08-14 to 2026-08-30, other handlers. Three recordings: watch (uploaded 2026-08-14), watch (published 2026-08-28), watch (published 2026-08-30).
What survives of Kane's first two and a half weeks is place work. In the earliest recording, two days after pickup, in a room full of dogs with a television on, the handler is still physically helping him onto the place and says so as the next thing to fix; a sit and a 'lay down' follow, with tummy rubs in the down. The intake had recorded place as unknown (source: intake), so this is the program's first lesson being taught. Two weeks later there are two long place recordings: one twenty minutes of near silence whose title claims a settle, a reset and a guest entry that the audio cannot confirm, and one in which the handler coaxes him 'all the way down', notes that he held the down until released without being told to wait, cues place, and then says nothing for seventeen minutes. They yield almost no quotes, and they are the only evidence that Kane was doing long holds at all.
On film
come place okay we gotta figure out how to get you up here without me putting my foot on it first
You know how to do it. You can do it all the way down.
I didn't even tell him to wait there, I just told him to wait down. I waited until I told him it was okay.
Kelton takes over: tug first, and a down he is allowed to chooseTurning point
2026-09-08, one afternoon in two videos (watch 16:50, watch 17:09).
The trainer who had taken Kali over five days earlier - Kelton, by his own later account of these videos - runs Kane's play assessment. He starts with the flirt pole on a hunch, is out-muscled on the tug inside two minutes, scores ball three (then six), flirt pole five and tug eight or nine, and declares the program tug-first. Before teaching anything he puts a second collar and leash on and builds small leash pops into the tug game, an idea taken that same day from a staff conversation during Kali's session, so that leash pressure means the game rather than a correction. The out comes easily off a dead toy. It is hot, Kane is breathing hard, and the session is split. On a shaded cool-off walk the same afternoon the down is built as a chain - foot on the leash, the word, downward leash pressure, a little e-collar - and the help is taken away one layer at a time: taps and the conditioned punisher, one more clarification round, the conditioned punisher alone, and finally the word. Let's go is taught with the command before the pressure, and he braces twice.
On film
yeah that's where we're gonna get our maximum our maximum motivation levels right there is with tug so Kane's program is gonna be completely tug first program in the proofing stages
dog and I actually got like a a nice like um I didn't have to like force him into it instead he um he kind of went into it on his own
that's why i just took my time went really really slow on the down and um gave him time to choose it um instead of of forcing it or pushing him harder than necessary and then getting myself bit by that.
going to be making that uh connection between the word dow in and um you know like that little bit of leash pressure going down and then and then the down itself and and as well as like a little bit of eco pressure i've been using so um he'll be able to put that whole chain together and go ahead and down when i ask him to
i'm gonna try one more king come here come on i think he's got it in okay down okay good boy there we go that's that verbal only rep i was looking for
Six days not in the reading
2026-09-09 to 2026-09-13.
Nothing read. Whatever happened here took the down from one verbal-only rep to something the trainer calls 'pretty good' at the lesson.
The first in-program lesson - Kane as the demonstration dogTurning point
2026-09-14, evening, a park near the owners' home. watch (Part 1) and the first four minutes of watch (Part 2).
Kelton meets the owners for the first of three lessons and works Kane on a flexi for an hour while he teaches reinforcement and punishment and the four windows; Kali waits in the truck. The progress report is general: no weight lost, the baseline covered, each dog worked individually with the plan to work them together by the end, not dangerous to people, reactions to dogs momentary and improving. The owners fill in the home: pulling together, a snap after a still second, the e-collar tried at 75 when the dogs were puppies, the couch when nobody is home, his allergies, and the rolled-over 'down'. In Part 2 Kelton says Kane's jumping is much better and that he handles human pressure well, then talks through what protection work would require - obedience and a neutral 'out' as a call-off first - before putting Kane up and bringing Kali out.
On film
by the end of the program they'll be doing stuff together out okay um right now i'm working each of them individually so they still have some work to do um but now like things like all the baseline stuff is like it's done
command kane hey down kane down good down kane and then the release of freedom okay go boy go go go
better way better okay good i'm glad we got to test that
Now, he has gotten a lot better with the jumping.
right and one of the reasons like you can't even do it unless you have all the obedience down like that is because you don't want to like escalate that and make that happen already and then have no way no concept of calling it off
Three days after the lesson: proofing, the first filmed heel, and protection named as nextTurning point
2026-09-17, early afternoon (watch)
A trail walk on the e-collar, fitted at the start with a remark on correct fit. The trainer sets the day's aims: proof the sit and down 'he's learned', work the heel 'again', and note that the stage is mostly set for simple family protection with Kane. He then sets family protection apart from police canines and sport protection dogs: what a family needs is a deterrent, a call-off, and the ability to cue it, which takes far less training and handler education. (He also gives money comparisons; those are business talk and are not reproduced here.) Kane braces hard against the leash; a short leash-yielding test gets 'a much better response'. A down that needed a repeated cue is re-run with the stated plan to use negative reinforcement if it is not first time; the second rep is first time. The trainer explains the three Ds - distance, duration, distraction - as coming only after verbal fluency, and says Kane is now verbally fluent, so they can be raised. He explains jumping on cue ('up up' with a chest tap, released with 'okay', uninvited jumping punished), discussed with the owner and being worked with Kali and Kane, and draws the parallel to protection: aggression toward strangers only when the owner cues it or the context merits it. Heel reps follow: 'a little bit better', then one called 'perfect' with 'very very light' e-collar pressure and a few more sessions estimated to something usable.
On film
is proofing some commands he already knows sit and down that he's learned and then i'm going to
be working on the heel again
those and um the stage is mostly set now for doing the um the protection work that needs to be done
with cane um and it's just like simple family protection
um what you actually need for family protection is way less than that like like primarily you
definitely need a deterrent um and you need to be able to call them off that's another really
He braced, and that shouldn't be happening.
There we go. That was a much better response.
and hopefully um get it first time if i don't get it first time um then i'm going to go ahead
that was much better good job um so i am getting more first time results here from kane
so like now that i've seen okay he's he's he's clearly understanding um the verbal command
So that's something that, um, we're working with Callie and Kane on.
instead it's that you should never act aggressively towards strange people unless
Maybe A should be cued by the owner, and B should be you've determined that the context merits it.
okay good boy that was perfect all right that's much better yeah i think a few more sessions here
e-collar there but very very light pressure on the e-collar
Yeah, well, it's good we're turning back early
Probably do another session later
Maybe a protection session or something like that
So I toss in one more right with the down there
And he uh, he handled it perfectly. No issues at all
Skills
Down
How it was taught
Three phases across three handlers' worth of footage. A kennel handler coaxes and praises, and the down holds until released. Kelton then waits the dog out - no force, many cues, reward with the tug when he goes down on his own - explicitly because of reported pressure reactivity. On the same afternoon he builds a chain (foot on the leash, the word, downward leash pressure, a little e-collar) and strips it back one element per rep to the word alone.
On film
I didn't even tell him to wait there, I just told him to wait down.
I don't think he actually knew the down command but he went into it and then I was able to reward
job all right so like that time I didn't have to use any like a lot of leaf pressure or anything like that I didn't use the e collar and he got it with just those little tiny little tiny taps on the on the leash
down okay good boy so didn't have to do any leash stuff um just um and no e-collar stuff there uh just the commission punisher
i'm gonna try one more king come here come on i think he's got it in okay down okay good boy there we go that's that verbal only rep i was looking for
or whatever it is he's not really good at that yeah he's getting pretty good at down now
Tug, and the out
How it was taught
Tug with leash pops built into the game; the toy made dead so he lets go; the game restarted as the reward.
On film
ball yeah we'll give it like a like a three out of ten floor pole we'll give it like a five out of ten tug we're gonna give that like an eight or a nine out of ten
oh and he responds pretty well to a dead toy for the out
definitely gotta make sure he distinguishes between me and the toy because that would hurt
um is if they bite you have to be able to tell them to let go right right you need to have off yeah and so like he already has been learning that
Let's go and leash yielding
How it was taught
The command first, then light leash pressure; on a brace, a slight e-collar rather than a pull, so that the word and not the leash is what is reinforced.
On film
good boy come on let's go good oh he gave the leash pressure really easily that time
so i just um and and i gave him a let's go first right so i'm reinforcing the command there
smart doggie yeah so he did he did avoid the leaf pressure there a little bit he braced again
okay because I punished the behavior of putting pressure on the loose any kind of leash tension is a no-no you should never brace against the leash
Place, and long holds
On film
come place okay we gotta figure out how to get you up here without me putting my foot on it first
Okay, place.
Other dogs in public
How it was taught
Choice points: wait to see what the dog does; move on if neutral; punish fixation, never looking; reinforce the recall after.
On film
better way better okay good i'm glad we got to test that
Right, and I first, before I called him over, I just waited to see like, what's he doing?
wait to see what kind of choice they're going to make and if they make a good choice like he did which is he just did nothing he was neutral he didn't care about it
Recall
How it was taught
Not narrated for Kane beyond its inclusion in the day-one list. The owners are told to make coming back great and never to be angry at a late return.
On film
this is important because the way you maintain it is by one i mean yeah it should be great when they come back
Jumping
How it was taught
Not recorded.
On film
Now, he has gotten a lot better with the jumping.
Down
On film
like that i had to to repeat myself there so i am going to do another rep in just a second here
Heel (new to the file)
On film
All right, so he got a little bit better that time.
Let's go and leash yielding
Jumping
Protection (new to the file)
Recall
On film
gonna do a recall here kane come papa kane come good boy
How the method adapted
Kane is a strong, tug-mad adult dog with a reported history of reacting to pressure and a family who want him to protect them. The adaptations in his file are almost all about pressure - how much, when, and what it should mean to him - and nearly all of them happen on one afternoon.
The first down was waited for rather than made, because of what the trainer had been told about him.
Stated: he had reacted to pressure from people and dogs, growled at techs who crated him, and forcing it risked a bite. The slow rep was the price, and the trainer names it as slower than with most dogs.
On film
good boy all right so that took to get that first down rep longer than a lot of the other dogs you might have seen me work with there is uh a dual reason for that there's a two-fold reason
that's why i just took my time went really really slow on the down and um gave him time to choose it um instead of of forcing it or pushing him harder than necessary and then getting myself bit by that.
Leash pressure was introduced as part of the tug game before it was ever used as a correction - a change adopted that same day from Kali's session.
To skip the leash-avoidance problem the staff had been dealing with in Kali, where picking up the leash had come to predict pressure.
On film
introduce like a little bit of pressure while i'm playing with him so that he doesn't take the pressure the bad thing um something i was discussing with christian earlier when i was training cali
Yeah, that's a good idea. It's a sport trick that people do.
The whole program's reward was set by his play test: tug first.
Maximum motivation for the proofing stages.
On film
proofing stages now that like I'm starting to teach him more stuff
oh he likes the ball more than i thought all right ball's gonna get now like a like a six out of ten
Heat changed the shape of the session and his schedule.
A heavy bully-type dog overheats in eighteen minutes of play; the session was split, the second half was a slow shaded walk kept short, and he was to be moved to cooler slots.
On film
already made pretty good progress right just based on those two reps um but he's breathing pretty heavy
uh you know this loop um not gonna walk super far because i don't want to extend this walk past his ability to truly enjoy it
definitely gonna be using that especially um i'm gonna put him in like a cooler afternoon or early morning slot sometimes for the training
Help was faded inside one afternoon, with a stated stopping rule if it did not work.
The trainer predicted a verbal-only down within two reps, allowed for one more clarification round, and said he would pack up and start fresh rather than push.
On film
see if i can get sufficient clarity in that um and those few repetitions if i can great if i can't it's okay um we'll just pack it up and uh we'll start fresh the next time
down down come on down come here come here all right so we're going we're gonna have to do the one more clarification round
At the lesson, a passing barking dog was handled for the owners' comfort rather than as the trainer would have handled it alone.
Stated: he would have left Kane to choose, but did not want to make owners he had just met nervous.
On film
Right, and I first, before I called him over, I just waited to see like, what's he doing?
The two dogs were worked separately.
The owners report they are good individually and not together; Kelton reads it as possibly maternal and says they will be worked together by the end.
On film
his mom bro are they behaving well he's like you know they do good individually but together i was like yeah i think that's a maternal thing i'm not sure
What the family was told
Why the lessons exist: owners maintain, trainers train
ideally my goal in this session and then in the next two is to teach you the concepts you need to know to maintain the training
Release to freedom as the reward, shown on Kane; no treats
right why because every time i say okay to him it's been conditioned over time he hears okay and he's like oh sick yeah some something dope's about to happen
Leash yielding, and a wide flat collar instead of the prong
it and they come whichever direction you kind of pulled on them with then things get a lot easier so the kind of underlying skill is called leash yielding
so the wider it is the less aversive it is
Other dogs: choice points, and punishing fixation not looking
and you can think of it as like a choice point right so instead of immediately managing the behavior wait and kind of see what kind of choice they're making
Instead, you make, it's no biggie. You just, you no show it.
Punishment must be clear and contingent
other really really important thing about using punishment is that punishment has to be clear it must be contingent on the thing they did
The couch: free shaping while home, an aversion for when nobody is
He goes, tap the e-collar.
And then you go, okay, buddy, good boy, go ahead.
but with the couches there is an option um you could make an association with the couch
Protection: 'out' is a neutral call-off, 'eh' is never-do-it
right and one of the reasons like you can't even do it unless you have all the obedience down like that is because you don't want to like escalate that and make that happen already and then have no way no concept of calling it off
Like a child. Yeah, that's not an out. That's an eh. That's never, never do it, right?
Recall maintenance
this is important because the way you maintain it is by one i mean yeah it should be great when they come back
In the family's own words
They had moved from harnesses to prongs because of pulling, and had tried an e-collar on the dogs as puppies.
On film
like the leash they would pull especially together pull really bad that's why i got the harnesses
Cause I tried to start them like when they were puppies and boy, I had to go up to like 75 before I got a response and I just felt bad.
They explain the dogs' rolled-over 'down' themselves: it was the word before being checked for his skin and ears.
On film
always made them like i'll say like l-a-y l-a-y-d-o-w-n and then let me see yeah so whenever y'all would tell them down yeah they'd show you their stomach i was like yeah they did i did notice they rolled over at first yeah they'll because they were preparing
They name the dog problem precisely: no growl, a still second, a snap.
On film
it's literally like they'll stay and you'll think oh everything is good but it's that one second and they snap at them
Outcomes
What the trainers reported
All the baseline work is covered; each dog is being worked individually; they will work together by the end.
Kelton to the owners, 2026-09-14
On film
by the end of the program they'll be doing stuff together out okay um right now i'm working each of them individually so they still have some work to do um but now like things like all the baseline stuff is like it's done
Not dangerous to people; reactions to dogs improved.
Kelton to the owners, 2026-09-14
On film
but for them they're not dangerous to people at all and I've been clocking the behavior around dogs they're not insanely dangerous to dogs all the time
Jumping much better.
Kelton, agreed by an owner, 2026-09-14
On film
Now, he has gotten a lot better with the jumping.
The down is getting pretty good.
Probably Kelton, 2026-09-14 (speakers not separable)
On film
or whatever it is he's not really good at that yeah he's getting pretty good at down now
He has the capacity to act on a real threat, which is hard to develop.
Kelton to the owners, 2026-09-14
On film
Um, and that's one of the main skills that, like, it's really hard to develop. And he has it, which is good.
Both dogs will have a reliable off-leash recall by the end of the program.
Kelton to the owners, 2026-09-14
What the footage shows
In one afternoon, a down that took minutes of waiting at first became a down on the word alone, through a chain whose parts were removed one rep at a time. This is the clearest single progression in his file.
On film
good boy all right so that took to get that first down rep longer than a lot of the other dogs you might have seen me work with
i'm gonna try one more king come here come on i think he's got it in okay down okay good boy there we go that's that verbal only rep i was looking for
At the lesson, six days later, he downs and is released on camera, walks past a dog to a bin, and is neutral when a barking dog passes. He also still braces on the leash and still fixates on a small dog.
On film
command kane hey down kane down good down kane and then the release of freedom okay go boy go go go
wait to see what kind of choice they're going to make and if they make a good choice like he did which is he just did nothing he was neutral he didn't care about it
Two long place holds exist in August, one of about seventeen silent minutes after a held down. Their quality is not audible.
On film
Okay, place.
The ideas Kane's case runs on
- Bracing and the oppositional reflex
- Command, marker, collar - in that order
- Don't poison the command
- False reps: the dog reads the chain, not the word
- Heat is a stop sign
- Hidden help
- Play becomes the reward - and play is a contest
- Punish the act, not the feeling: he may look
- Switch him on, then ask for off
- The dog tells you the reward
- The dose of a session
- The method the case can afford
- The pair is the unit of training
- The settle criterion