Who Marvin (Giant Schnauzer) is
As the trainer describes him
A giant Schnauzer: a big black male, very large, very young. No age, weight or origin is ever given.
On film
Three big doggies. Good job, guys. Got a Roddy. Got a Corso. Got a giant Schnauzer.
with a dog named Marvin he's a giant schnauzer big huge black dog
not because he's a bad dog or anything like that just because he's very large and he's very young and he's very hyper and he's also got a little bit of anxiety
Not aggressive. A goofy giant who tries to dominate other dogs over a ball by standing over them. The owners say their pet sitters reported the same possessiveness.
On film
Generalized he doesn't he's not aggressive right now.
He's yeah, he's kind of goofy giant dog. He's a little Bit of a he has a little bit of a dominant thing with other dogs.
yeah he'll try to body him yeah he'll body him
from some of the um rover folks who have watched him when we travel yeah that they're like hey you know he does he definitely doesn't want to give up that ball
Very sensitive to social pressure. A gesture is enough to make him react. The owners had noticed the same thing and wondered whether he had been abused; the trainer says it is temperament.
On film
So you could be adding more pressure with an e-collar or with a leash or with social pressure because Marvin's really sensitive to it.
it's funny you call that out because we've called that out you would think he was like abused or something yeah but he wasn't because if i open the front door too quick he'll power down
just a temperament thing yeah just like there are kids that are shy
He freezes under pressure. This shows up twice: as a hesitation during a recall, and as the core problem with the leash.
On film
Cause he has a tendency to freeze, right? When there's pressure.
Yeah, he'd either freeze up like you're going to kill him.
He barks along the fence at home. The trainer calls it barrier frustration, not aggression, and says it is the only time he has seen Marvin look aggressive.
On film
ever like look aggressive is behind a fence yeah but that's that's just what they call barrier frustration and a lot of dogs have barrier frustration
Easily wound up by people. Excited praise indoors will make him jump. He plays rough, clacking his teeth. He is sensitive to the e-collar.
On film
he will immediately jump all over you oh yeah he'll get yeah yeah he's gonna get pumped and
but smacking his teeth he's totally playing
I mean he's very sensitive to it.
Uncertain in very busy places. It is not clear from the audio whether the trainer or an owner says this.
On film
but like there's times where I've taken him into really busy environments. Yeah. And he has been uncertain.
A minor practical detail: his coat covers his eyes, and a staff member mentions a bath and that he would not let anyone near his eyes. The speakers are not identified. It is recorded because it may explain some of the handling sensitivity, not as a finding.
On film
You can't see because you need a haircut, dude.
He never let me even get near his eyes.
As the family describes him
A family dog before anything else: good with their young daughter. Their fear before the program was that he would come back an 'army dog'.
On film
like we were like gosh i hope we don't get back and he's just like this army dog
Hard to walk. Leash manners were their main reason for training.
On film
I would say the leash training was high on that for us.
He pants and barks in the car and does better in a covered crate.
On film
than two times he pants yeah he'll bark a little bit
They say he yelps if his paw is touched the wrong way.
On film
Sometimes he will like, if you like hit his paw in the wrong way.
The program, stage by stage
Before the program: the family's account
Undated; before the board-and-train.
Everything in this stage is the owners speaking on the go-home day. They had done earlier training with another trainer when he was young. They are unsure whether it was at about six months or about a year. By their account it left walks tense, because he was held tight at their side and resisted it. Leash manners were their main reason for coming. At home he barks at the fence, which they value as protection, but he will not come in from it when called. They also report that he shuts down if the front door opens too fast, and that pet sitters found him unwilling to give up a ball. Their stated fear was losing the family dog they had.
On film
is a little bit relieving to us because sometimes we felt because we did training with him when he was just about a year yeah not even like six months six months i think it was
us and because he needed to be right here next to it yeah so i think having that freedom also brings us joy because we want him to have fun
i told him i was like i don't mind that but it would be nice when i could be like hey come back recall him right
In the program, off camera: the evaluation and the authority eventTurning point
Undated; somewhere in the board-and-train. Nothing in this stage is filmed.
This is the centre of the case, and it exists only as the trainer's account on the go-home day. His evaluation found that Marvin handled leash pressure in one of two unproductive ways: he resisted it hard, planting and pulling away, or he froze 'like you're going to kill him'. The trainer treated the resisting as the thing that most needed fixing, because it destroys cooperation. His answer was what he calls an authority event: the conditioned punisher 'nope', a leash pop, and heavy spatial and social pressure, repeated about six times until the dog showed submission. Then an immediate release and a return to cheerful work so the dog could decompress. He also says they deliberately made Marvin more sensitive to leash pressure, so that by the end a small tap was enough. Down was taught the same way. The first attempt was a fight. Then he pushed Marvin into position until he went down smoothly, added the word, and removed the help. Separately, and in the opposite direction, he read Marvin's hesitation during a recall as uncertainty, a dog wrongly predicting a stim, and answered it with verbal encouragement instead of pressure. Ducks at the park served both as a recall proof and as the reward.
On film
Or by freezing. Okay. And both of those are bad reactions because you can't get anywhere with the dog.
but if i were to have pulled on him right he would just go and plant and try everything he could to resist it
I'm putting spatial and social pressure on at the same time and I'll say nope and pop and nope and pop I did it I probably did it to him like I probably said it like six times
kid crying right but you see it looks like a kid that got in a lot of trouble like submission right
and so the reason that that's possible is because we had cooperation and fulfillment together first um and then i introduced authority
because we sensitized him to leash pressure a lot more than he was
had a whole fight or something yeah um i had to like pull hard down
and so then instead I'm just gonna verbally encourage Marvin come on come right over here right instead of putting pressure because he doesn't need pressure there he needs reassurance
Two short in-house clips
Order between them unknown.
Nine minutes of footage in total, with almost no narration. In watch he is walked among trees and encouraged to mark, put in a down, and asked to heel. He gets a 'nope', then is recalled on 'here' and praised. He is then switched to a lighter line for ball play but loses interest and is called tired, although he had wanted the ball earlier while watching Shadow play. In watch the trainer lets him roam while 'hoping for an opportunity', then recalls him. Marvin goes to the camera person first, then sits with some help. Neither title's claim survives the audio. No e-collar is mentioned in the 'E-Collar' clip, and no duck is mentioned in the 'Ducks' clip. The ducks are more likely to be the trainer's go-home account of this kind of work than anything audible here.
On film
Marvin. Come on. Marvin, heel. Go ahead. Heel. Marvin. Nope. Come on. Marvin, here. Marvin, here.
he was watching you earlier with shadow play with the ball he wanted to
you left it you left it you left it marvin he's tired
I was hoping for an opportunity.
Alright, let me give you a little bit of help.
The public outing with Shadow and Phoebe
The go-home day, on or before 2025-11-21, before the owners arrived.
Marvin is one of three large dogs out together in a public park: a Rottweiler (Phoebe, by elimination), Shadow the Cane Corso, and Marvin. He wears an e-collar. In Pt. 1 he is only named as one of the distractions Shadow works through. In Pt. 2 he joins group work. He is downed by name, all three are released together, then all three are distance-downed and left in position while the trainer walks off to fetch the ball, and they hold.
On film
You got the eco on him, right? Marvin, down.
all the doggies aren't down they all got distance downed yeah oh yeah
and let's see if they stay down while i go get the ball let's see oh they did good
The reunion and the go-home lessonTurning point
The same afternoon; one continuous recording of about 76 minutes across four uploads.
Marvin at first does not notice his owners. When he does, a staff member calls it the most excited he has ever seen him. He is put back into downs with 'nope' through it, and the trainer reports that he did well. The trainer then explains why he lets a dog go wild at a reunion, and why this is the worst possible moment for the owners to learn anything. He asks for their concerns, gives his read of the dog, and lays out his framework: evaluation, cooperation, fulfillment, socialisation, then authority, with the four windows as a separate layer. He explains the authority event, words before tools, the implied stay, heel as a situational command, and house context. He hands over the e-collar with a level and a rule never to use the vibrate setting. Marvin appears in short demonstrations: a recall off a fence with a dog behind it on one 'nope', a middle and a down. At the end the owner handles him for the first time on camera: down, release, sit, recall. The owners' strongest response is relief that he came back a family dog.
On film
marvin dude you are amped right now this is the most amped that he's ever been in my entire history of seeing him
He did really good. Yeah?
The second thing that I tell people is that this is probably the worst possible learning environment for you.
But you can see he recalled. I had to say nope once, but I didn't have to reinforce with anything, right?
And he's clearly still a happy boy.
Yeah, okay, I think he's going to do better with break.
Skills
Responding to leash pressure
How it was taught
An authority event for refusal, reserved for problems that 'destroy cooperation': 'nope', a hard pop, and spatial and social pressure, about six times until submission, then an immediate release and decompression. Ordinary lapses get 'nope' and a light tap.
On film
And the reason is that that right there is the kind of thing that completely destroys cooperation.
you're gonna see i'm gonna have to tug a little bit right okay totally fine he felt it once he recognized that
because we sensitized him to leash pressure a lot more than he was
Recall ('here')
How it was taught
The trainer first reads why the dog stopped. A dog weighing whether to come gets e-collar pressure, with a long line for direction. An unsure dog gets encouragement. The recall is proofed off things Marvin wants, like ducks, and then he is released back to them.
On film
Right, so I might have to say nope just because that's like one of his things with the fence and another dog on the other side of it.
Yeah, so I recall him off the Ducks and then I tell him okay go now you can go look at the Ducks
Marvin, here. There you go. Good boy.
Down, and the implied stay
How it was taught
He pushed Marvin down until he went into position smoothly, then added the word, then took away the help until the cue works with hands in pockets. Breaking the down gets 'nope' and a re-cue; if Marvin still does not go down, a pop until he does.
On film
the position smoothly then i start marking it with the word down and then from there i start removing help
day because it's implied if i said to down and they're in the down you're in the down still
Tell him nope. And if he goes right back into the down, sick.
Release ('break' or 'okay')
How it was taught
Not described. Every duration command ends only at the release.
On film
we did break with him i did a little bit of okay but i think he's heard break more often
Alright, try break.
Sit
How it was taught
Not described.
Heel
How it was taught
Not described for Marvin. The owners are told to walk him on a long leash with freedom most of the time.
On film
But if they're like clearly like, that's a big dog, you know, be like, oh, Marvin, heel. Walk by him and then say, okay.
Where you where you put them in a heel and you walk with them in the heel?
Calm in the house, and an 'enough' for the fence
How it was taught
Not filmed.
On film
right he has well yeah he has and then we have we usually all the carpets and the rugs we have
him nope really loud yeah just say nope and then go over there and he if he's still like be like nah shut the whole thing down
Down, and the implied stay
On film
Marvin, here, my boy, Marvin, come on bud, down, okay, good job, Marvin, yep, yep, come on, yep, there you go, yep, down,
Recall ('here')
On film
Good boy, down, hey, down, you smart doggy, okay, yeah, come on, come on, come on, good boy
From the Shorts
Short clips posted from Marvin (Giant Schnauzer)'s training. They are undated, so they sit beside the program rather than inside it.
Down, sit and recall in public
In a public place (a restaurant in Cary, by the title) the handler runs Marvin through down, sit, recall and down again with quick praise and releases. On the sit the handler says 'I see you thought about it', noting a moment's hesitation.
On film
Marvin, yeah, good job, Marvin down, Marvin, sit, I see you thought about it, okay, oh, yeah, Marvin, here, my boy, Marvin, come on bud, down, okay, good job
How the method adapted
Marvin's case turns on a single problem: the same dog was very sensitive to social pressure and also completely indifferent to leash pressure. The trainer did not treat those as contradictory. He read each stop separately, and the adaptations below follow from that.
The trainer answers two stops that look alike in opposite ways: reassurance for a freeze of uncertainty, and authority for a plant of refusal.
His rule is that evaluation comes first and never stops. A dog that stops mid-recall because it expects a stim is 'predicting the wrong thing' and needs the prediction corrected. A dog that plants against the leash is refusing, and refusal destroys cooperation. From the outside the two look the same. The trainer tells them apart by reading the dog, and never says on camera what he looks for. That is the open question at the heart of the case.
On film
add pressure but in the other one where he that looks like a dog that's like unsure maybe he's thinking oh they recalled maybe i'm gonna get stemmed right so then it's like okay well he's predicting the wrong thing
right so so then it's like okay well with that second one that was a big problem so what what you do with that is that's when you when when authority makes sense
Authority came last, after cooperation and fulfillment were in place. It was one concentrated event, not a steady stream of corrections.
His order is evaluation, cooperation, fulfillment, socialisation, then authority, so that 'when you use authority you don't hurt the relationship'. He compares it to a teenager who is left alone most of the time and so listens when it matters. The event is meant to be unpleasant; his word is 'spanking'. It is also meant to end the moment it has worked.
On film
said you know because there's already already cooperation and fulfillment there then I can get to the last one right so the next one socialization and then there's authority yeah so then when you use authority you don't hurt the relationship
getting a spanking essentially right um and i would do it but i wouldn't just do it once
Now he can have an awesome time and go all over the place because when it needs to happen we make a scene
They made him more sensitive to leash pressure, deliberately, so the long-term cost would be lower.
A dog that ignores a prong collar can only be handled with force. After the program a light tap does the job, and the owners notice they no longer have to pull hard. It is the same logic as the e-collar: a very sensitive dog on a low level, with 'nope' as the warning he has learned to expect.
On film
because we sensitized him to leash pressure a lot more than he was
Even if you say nope like there was a moment where I would say nope and he'd feel it coming and he'd already be Tensing up and okay, okay, which is what you want
Motivation came from the world around him, not from treats: ducks, trees, tug and the ball.
The trainer says dogs became more motivated once he stopped using treats, and he admits that six months earlier this handover would have been treat-based. For Marvin, going back to the ducks is the reward for coming away from them.
On film
you can use it as training right because it gives you two opportunities one it gives you an opportunity to proof recall right and then number two is it gives you an opportunity to use it as motivation
The owners' own wishes were kept: the fence guarding stays, and walks are loose, not heel-bound.
The owners want the fence protectiveness kept, and the trainer confirms they did nothing to remove it. What they need is a recall and an 'enough'. After their earlier experience of heel-bound walks, they are told to give him far more freedom than feels right, and to use heel only briefly for a purpose.
On film
Well, the good news is that we didn't do anything. That's not gone, right?
say is get used to giving him way more freedom than you think you should
What the family was told
Why the reunion is chaos, and what that means for learning
Yeah. Why? Because, why try to control that?
The high is gonna go down and then you're gonna be like, hmm. What about this? Yeah, what about that?
The framework: five steps, then windows
there's like there's like five steps in any training program that i think are important
we evaluate right what are you even like looking at and that that's all along the process
So everything is kind of like pressure and release, even positive reinforcement training, pressure and release.
Walks: freedom, a long leash, cheer the sniffing
So you should be thinking about what does Marvin want to do? And think, well, is it okay if he does that? Yeah. If the answer is no, well, then you don't let him do it. And then you get him to do something else.
favorite tool in probably all of dog training is a retractable leash
the problem is you're always trying if people are always heel grinding the
The authority event and ordinary 'nope'
So watch out for that. If you see that, respond that way. Right.
Now, if you notice that he makes a habit of making you say nope multiple times.
Words first, with one exception
So I would say, nope, always verbal first.
because they remember whatever's first in the chain.
And that's if they're doing something that you want to get rid of entirely and never have it even start ever again.
Heel is situational
number of times that I actually want them to heal it's pretty small but I think of heal it's not a way to take a dog on a walk instead it is a command with a particular function right the function is situational
The four windows, and obedience as a band-aid
from another trainer his name is jay jack it's called windows so windows are like contexts for dog's life
the reason that we get clients is because the dog doesn't know the first three
So anytime that we don't want him in the way place, right? I look at that as a kind of like a band-aid
The house: free when you are home, crated when you are out, calm energy
then if he does something dumb make him make it clear to him that that was dumb don't do that again and that's it
that things were exciting right now yeah right so if you don't want that then don't don't give him that signal
the house yeah because i don't i look i i trust him supervised
The e-collar handover: level, fit, wear it all day, never the vibrate
He's normally on like a 10 or 15.
i would have him wear it most of the time okay um one of the reasons for that is you don't want them to become wise to what it is
never ever use a vibrate button yeah he doesn't know what it means and when he it'll probably scare him more than him feeling the shock
myself yeah i don't need to press a button on a collar i can i can speak so i can tell him nope
Maintenance: live with him, send videos, come to the park
drills yeah you just need to live take him on walks and play with them and have him in a house
if you're having any kind of issue take a video of it and send it to there
In the family's own words
Their concerns, in order: excitement, reactivity, focus, then above all the leash.
On film
what are your main concerns I think it was just general like excitement reactivity like just being able to keep his focus
Their thanks is for what did not change.
On film
no yeah he's a family dog so thank you
And he's clearly still a happy boy.
They report a success of their own in the yard: throwing the ball off leash and having him come back into the fence.
On film
But, like, I would throw the ball down the hill to the backyard. Yeah. And I'd just say, you know, he'd wait, and I'd say, go get it.
Their one e-collar question is practical: whether it stays on at night.
On film
Do you take it off at night?
Outcomes
What the trainers reported
He did well at the reunion and in the group session.
Staff, to the owners, on the go-home day
On film
He did really good. Yeah?
Leash refusal is fixed. A small tap now does what a prong collar could not.
The trainer, go-home Part 2
On film
because we sensitized him to leash pressure a lot more than he was
He is a sensitive dog who needs no more than 10 or 15 on the e-collar.
The trainer, go-home Part 3
On film
He's normally on like a 10 or 15. He doesn't need more than that.
He came back the same happy family dog.
The owners, go-home Part 2
On film
And he's clearly still a happy boy.
What the footage shows
A recall away from a fence with a dog behind it, on one 'nope', with no further pressure.
On film
Marvin! Here! Here! Nope! Nope! Here. Come on. Go ahead.
A distance down held with two other large dogs while the handler walked off to fetch a ball.
On film
and let's see if they stay down while i go get the ball let's see oh they did good
The owner gets a down, a release on 'break', a down held while the owner walks away, and a recall, on the first try with coaching.
A heel with an error marked 'nope', then a recall, and he tires quickly of ball play on a line.
On film
Marvin, heel. Go ahead. Heel. Marvin. Nope.
The ideas Marvin (Giant Schnauzer)'s case runs on
- Attitude is the leading indicator
- Collar awareness: the collar is a paperweight
- Command, marker, collar - in that order
- Don't heel grind
- Evaluate, cooperate, socialise, fulfil - then authority
- Genetic versus environmental nerves
- Help it or press it - read which
- Hidden help
- Maintenance is use, not practice
- Proof it against his own currency
- Restraint manufactures the reaction
- Social pressure
- Start with freedom
- Swapped commands: keep sit and down distinct
- The four windows, and calm liberty
- The gear list, and the reasons for each piece
- The handler is a variable: nerves, tension, voice and energy
- The lifetime pressure budget
- The reunion is the worst learning environment
- There is no stay, only the release