Who Stormy is
As the trainer describes her
A young puppy with no training history and, in his read, no significant problems - the easy case, because there is nothing to undo.
On film
She's four months now.
Yeah, because when you get a dog like this that is a puppy that doesn't know nothing yet, good or bad, you can shape them however you want, and you're not taking old problems and trying to go back through and fix them.
Because, like, the progress, since she doesn't have any super big issues right now that I see,
A large guardian-type breed, and expected to become a big dog. The trainer and both adults say so separately. The breed sentence is ambiguous: it can be read as Stormy being an Anatolian Shepherd, or as the trainer's own dog being one and Stormy being 'a similar breed'.
On film
Yeah, she's going to be huge.
for my dog yeah and she's a similar breed she's an Anatolian Shepherd so it's
the same kind of thing just a guardian breed dog big big dog yeah I use picnic
Resists pressure at first and then gives to it - the pattern of every first exposure in the file: the collar in Lesson 1, the prong in Lesson 2, the U-turns in Lesson 3.
On film
Okay, so I see she definitely resists it a little bit
was like you. I don't like that. Um but she gave to us so that's a good sign. Right here so you can
like it because right now her only tendency to ever pull is by staying
Not a forward puller. Her only way of fighting the leash is to brace backward and stay behind, and she complains audibly while she learns.
On film
they do yeah but they figured out quickly so right now she's not giving
making dramatic noises good come on there we go good job yeah so you never
Cares little for food and is only moderately interested in play with a stranger; loves contact. By Lesson 3 contact is named as the reward she really wants.
On film
cuz she doesn't like the treats that much she doesn't care so yeah so then
you guys have had pretty good success playing with her she didn't care about
reward that she really likes she don't care about treats all that much so use contact teacher up up
Growls when picked up and held. The trainer treats this as a learned strategy, not temperament, and says she is not dangerous now but could be in eight months if the strategy keeps working.
On film
from ever having the problem that still has is part of this issue oh did you hear it growl yeah
never growled at me yeah and so all we'll do because she's not really dangerous to hurt you
right now she will be right now you do that like eight months from now she doesn't like it she
Tires within the hour, and the trainer stops when she does - twice he calls the session over because she is done.
On film
tired now good girl so I wouldn't push that right because then you're like pushing for no reason
because then she'll start to be like right if you see that literally right now she's done with
As the family describes her
Formerly inactive - lying about most of the day - and now playing and getting more yard time, whether or not Stella is out.
On film
but I was like, she just lays the majority of the day.
But now, of course, she gets up and playing stuff.
She don't care if Stella's out there or not.
Slow about the house, with one exception: she runs to 'okay'.
On film
She's been pretty good though. I just feel she need to put some pep in her step.
the only thing that she actually runs on is when I say okay if I leave them out
Walks well beside the owner on an ordinary leash and does not pull.
On film
and she she she does really good walking beside me like excellent I like you try to encourage her
Still having occasional house-soiling accidents at Lesson 3, which the trainer calls normal for her age.
On film
yeah still trying to get over the bathroom thing but
she didn't have an accident here and there okay yeah it's pretty normal for her yeah good job
Takes off when let out and does not stop - the family's main fear, and later a thing that happened: let off leash on a neighbourhood walk, she bolted home on the release word.
On film
bathroom yeah she just take off yeah see so I'm a person yeah and I want if we
stop yeah whatever set her down i walked away she ran straight she took off when i said okay
The program, stage by stage
Before the camera
Before Lesson 1. Nothing filmed.
A family with a second dog, Stella, has a female puppy of about four months. By the owner's later account she spent most of the day lying about.
On film
but I was like, she just lays the majority of the day.
Lesson 1: the words come first
Winter, on or before 2026-03-05. watch.
A yard in snow, a flat collar and a thirty-foot line, and a puppy who resists the line a little and plays with sticks and ice. The trainer's first job is play - find which part of the chase-and-grab cycle she likes and play that - and his second is vocabulary: 'yes' means a treat is coming, 'okay' means you are free, 'nope' means stop or else, and the word must always come before any hand, step or pop, because a dog learns whatever happens first. Sit is taught with an upward leash pull, explicitly as a way to teach her to give to pressure rather than to teach sit. The prong is shown and withheld; two fingers are the consequence for now. The last third turns to the household. Stella's snapping history is reframed as a strategy that worked, and Stormy is given handling homework so she never learns it.
On film
and people will respond to the thing but especially dogs it's really crucial they will respond to whatever the thing that you did first is
is there's benefit to layering this onto it because this is um teaching her to cope with pressure more than it is teaching her to sit
Instead of thinking of it like, okay, this is like an anxiety disorder,
That's what, we're just gonna keep holdin' her,
the faster you put her back down the more she'll learn that if she just doesn't do anything that she gets what she wants which is to be put down
Lesson 2: the walk is the lessonTurning point
About a week later, on or before 2026-03-05. watch.
The first prong, on a twenty-six-foot Flexi, and she dislikes it and gives to it inside twenty seconds. The whole lesson is a neighbourhood walk, and the trainer says outright that this is how he teaches recall - on walks, not in drills. Three things: give to the leash, 'let's go' (move along with me) and 'come' (all the way in, attend, then 'okay' and back out to sniff). The leash action is a pop, never a pull or a tug; the owner reports that tugging the day before had frightened her. One rule dominates: never say 'come' unless it can be enforced, inside the house too. She comes once without the tug, releases once on 'okay' with no movement from the handler, is stopped rather than allowed to bolt when something startles her, and is too tired after the longest walk of her life to learn a down, so the trainer demonstrates it and says he cannot teach it today. This is the turning point in the file because it is where pressure stops being something she fights and becomes something she answers.
On film
as an example the way that i teach recalls i don't go out and do recall drills i just take dogs on and walks okay and then they learn the recall word from the walk
so when i was tugging that's when she was doing like that's when she started pooping she was like
Right, so like if you learned nothing else from this lesson other than come is never optional, always have a way to obligate it,
okay so to say okay but don't say don't move beautiful good girl good girl
from the leash and the prong collar mm-hmm she's not reacting poorly to it
her do that right she started to freak out and panic and all i did was stop her and is that
I'm not gonna be able to teach her down because she's not motivated enough right now, right? Yeah. Yeah, but I can show you
Between Lessons 2 and 3: the rule is broken once
Reported at Lesson 3; not filmed.
What the family reports: she walks well beside them on an ordinary leash; she plays hard with Stella in a way the owner reads as a dominance contest; she still has occasional accidents; and on a repeat of the Lesson 2 route, walking without the Flexi they had not bought, the owner let her off, sat her, walked away and said 'okay' - and she ran straight home. That is precisely the event Lesson 2's rule exists to prevent, and it is the only failure in her file.
On film
like i'm realizing eventually it's gonna be i think it's like a dominant thing going on
don't have that flex so i had to let her go let her sit and i'll say okay she came whatever so
that's when she got up but she took off running yeah and yeah came straight home yeah that will
Lesson 3, first half: the family's fear, and the answer to it
On or before 2026-03-12, evening. watch.
A check-in, not a training session. The owner's fear is a dog who will be big and will not stop when told. The trainer's answer has two halves: 'nope' has to be backed with a real physical consequence as she grows, first the prong and later an e-collar the family is to order; and nothing can be 100 per cent reliable later unless it is 100 per cent enforced from today, which means she is never outside off a leash again. He reads her running to 'okay' as proof the release marker is 'unlocked', and lists rewards beyond food because she is not a food dog: release, the environment, contact, a jog off the place cot, and jumping up - but only on a cue. The family had bought neither the Flexi nor the prong; he emails them the product list and reference guides and sizes a prong for her.
On film
say stop she stopped come back yeah not keep going exactly and so what we're
only way that you can make it 100% reliable starting today is if you have a
that's good that means that you've we've got the okay unlocked in because kind of
uh order your e-collar for her you can use it for that and i'll show you guys how to do it okay
Lesson 3, second half: from bracing to yielding, then place and downTurning point
The same evening, continuous with stage 5. watch.
Loose-leash walking in three phases - U-turns, random direction changes, then maintenance for life - on a dog whose only way of pulling is to sit back. At first she braces and yelps; within minutes, on the trainer's account, she is catching the turns, has stopped yelping, and by phase two 'went with it' instead of bracing. He names the model underneath: escape first, then avoidance - teach at low pressure how to turn pressure off, then raise the stakes once she knows. The joining owner describes the bolt home, and the trainer uses it to restate the never-off-leash rule until e-collar work. Then positions: play first, because she does not care for treats; 'chirp' replaces 'yes' as the reward marker because owners dilute 'yes'; place is taught with a lure and no word until she climbs on easily; the down is taught with small taps and no word until she is already going down, released the instant she lands, and stopped when she is done. Lessons become weekly; the next is 'next Monday', and another trainer is to be introduced. The file ends there.
On film
as long as it's enough to get them to escape the pressure they want to escape it but then we want to teach them to avoid it
i didn't need to because she didn't brace she didn't she went she felt it and kind of went
because she's not yelping anymore right because she learned what does yelping do for her nothing
yeah and so then they learn oh i can do that and you want them to like you want to like have that
usefulness instead of using yes I've started using the word chirp like a bird
because if you say down early um when you're using negative reinforcement she could think down means i'm getting punished
bring another one of my trainers with me okay uh so i can introduce you guys because i might have
After Lesson 3: nothing
From the 'next Monday' lesson onward.
Whether the lessons continued is unknown. That is a gap in the footage, not an outcome.
On film
week now okay okay okay next week yeah yeah okay good next monday sounds good don't forget to call
Skills
Markers: reward, release and penalty
How it was taught
Three words in Lesson 1 - yes (treat), okay (release to freedom or play), nope (penalty, sparingly, two fingers as the consequence). Lesson 2 adds 'eh-eh' for a mistake and 'good' for 'correct, keep going'. Lesson 3 swaps 'yes' for 'chirp'. The constant rule across all three: the word first, then everything else.
On film
a marker is what's used to provide meaning to behaviors and to indicate whether they did it correctly or incorrectly
sitting in there yes and you say yes she should go and look up at you and be like where is it at yeah right she should look for it by the end of the week
that's more of a penalty marker this one is just like you made a mistake you did it wrong
so you say okay but you don't move at all
release marker right and so if they like my favorite thing is if I see that the
chirp chirp chirp chirp because yes is too easy for people to screw up yeah
Giving to leash pressure (and the prong)
How it was taught
Light pressure held until she gives, released the instant she does (Lesson 1, flat collar); a tiny constant tension she learns to ignore, plus pops, never pulls (Lesson 2); U-turns and random turns that make the escape predictable (Lesson 3).
On film
But what you want them to learn is the opposite is if they just go ahead and give to it Then they they win Because the pressure is gone because that's what winning means
so if you tug on a dog they might resist it right so instead you just want to do a little pop
she knows she can escape the pressure like right here before she was bracing really hard now
she's coming towards it instead whereas before she was like trying to get away from it and start
Let's go
How it was taught
Say it first, then a tiny pop, and walk on; never interchangeable with 'come'.
On film
the difference between the come and the let's go and don't use them for each other's things they're not interchangeable they're separate
is just i'm gonna say it first i'm gonna say let's go okay and then i'm gonna apply just a tiny bit of leash pressure so you don't pull on the dog you never pull okay
Come (recall)
How it was taught
Wait until she is distracted, say 'Stormy come', then a little tug and back away with open arms; pressure off the moment she arrives; a second of attention; 'okay' and send her back out, which is the reward and the next opportunity. Recall about half the time she investigates something safe.
On film
straight back when we tug on the leash then we're going to start going okay let me see if i don't tug on the leash at all i just say stormy come and start backing up a little bit
yeah so like okay so here's one really important thing if you say come to her you say stormy come you must have a leash on so in the house do not say stormy come if she doesn't have leash on okay
very important yeah she should never ever be off leash outside until she's fully awfully trained
Sit, and sit with duration
How it was taught
Upward pressure ended by a marker; raise one criterion at a time; 'eh-eh' and put her back, never 'nope' and a pop for a missed sit.
On film
this is a low stakes not super stressful way to introduce Leash pressure.
right so this would put you in the proofing phase because she already knows what sit means
so now they think sit means something bad's about to happen yeah okay right they poison the sit now
Make sure she's not suppressed.
Loose-leash walking (three phases)
How it was taught
Phase one: U-turns on four to six feet of leash, hand low, slack-then-pop on tension. Phase two: random direction changes so she has to watch where the handler goes. Phase three: ordinary walks for life, a relatively hard pop on any tension, with a couple of minutes of phase two as a warm-up.
On film
because the tool doesn't fix it right good job training fixes it
because it makes it easier to teach them everything else if when they feel pressure they go with it
And so now it's just maintaining it and maintaining it just means consistently punishing it.
Place
How it was taught
Lure on with treats or contact and no word; attach 'place' only once she gets on and off without trouble; then a little pressure if she does not go. Release is the word with feet planted, never the handler walking away.
On film
she has a bad association with that word now so I don't use it yet until she's getting up and off there up and down without any problems
so now i'm using a little obligation for her to know oh if i hear place and i don't get up on the cot it's gonna be a little pressure
exactly so you were walking and said okay at the same time so then she's like okay so if he walks away I can get off right
Down
How it was taught
Ideally out of a play game; small downward taps on the prong, 'annoying, not hard', until she lies down; a party the instant she lands; the word withheld until she is already moving into it; no hold.
On film
because she's not amped up she's not motivated for anything that's why she was so resistant right
pressure it's harder for them to get understand the down than it is for them to understand the sit
the other super important thing you do not try to make her stay in it because if you do she will be confused about what the thing she was supposed to do was
Being handled and picked up
How it was taught
Hold her through struggling or growling; the instant she is quiet, 'okay' and put her down fast; no treat, because being put down is the reward. Separately, paws, nails, teeth, collar and tail handled until she settles.
On film
her teeth grabbing a tooth and grab her collar here so she can't get away and and then as soon as she chills okay cool good girl right start doing that now with everything that you think might need to happen with a vet
so this could be a thing where when when she gets restrained she doesn't like it so then oh let's
times what will happen is they will learn that a strategy works so when she growls she gets put
Play
How it was taught
Find the part of the game she likes and play that; add rules only once she enjoys it; later, long unpredictable play with occasional 'outs', one position, 'okay' and play again - more play than work.
On film
you're doing is figuring out what part do they like and then just do that
the concepts are the same right but the main one that's going to be super useful for her right now
so that's why you have to make sure you're doing more play than you are work when you're using play for the training
How the method adapted
This is a private-lesson case: the trainer sees the dog for an hour a week and the family does the training. Most of what changes from lesson to lesson is therefore adapted to the family as much as to the dog. The adaptations below are the ones where the trainer ties the change to Stormy herself - her age, her appetite, her way of fighting the leash, her history - and says why.
The prong was withheld because of her age, and two fingers were the consequence instead.
At about four months he saw no reason to use it; a poke is 'just as effective' for her for now. It appears a lesson later anyway (see the sequence conflict).
On film
I probably could.
But I don't really see a reason to.
that tool um but for now what would actually be for her i can tell just as effective is
Sit, which she already knew, was re-taught with leash pressure so that pressure could be introduced on something easy.
The point is coping with pressure, and a known behaviour makes that low-stakes.
On film
is there's benefit to layering this onto it because this is um teaching her to cope with pressure more than it is teaching her to sit
Because she is not a food dog - and the owner did not want to use food - the rewards were moved to freedom, contact and movement.
The owner said so on the walk, and by Lesson 3 the trainer has seen for himself that she does not care much for treats. Freedom to sniff becomes the walk's reward; contact and a cued jump-up become a reward she 'really likes'; a jog off the cot is offered for pep.
On film
smart right you can give him some love that's what i did just give love right like you said i don't
you know what a really underrated reward is what's that just a freedom oh just freedom
treats. Let's see. Oh, you want this? She doesn't care about it that much. So we'll
sometimes like 50 of my rewards are just i'm like i'll teach them a command to jump
Loose-leash walking was taught against a backward brace, not a forward pull.
Her 'only tendency to ever pull is by staying behind', so phase one is about coming off tension from behind and phase two about going with the handler's direction; the stated payoff is that yielding makes sit and down easy to teach with pressure.
On film
like it because right now her only tendency to ever pull is by staying
because it makes it easier to teach them everything else if when they feel pressure they go with it
The down was not taught when she was tired, and when it was taught the word was held back.
In Lesson 2 she was unmotivated after the longest walk she had done, so he demonstrated only. In Lesson 3 the word 'down' is withheld until she is already going down, because under negative reinforcement an early word could come to mean punishment.
On film
Because we haven't never walked that far, so...
I'm not gonna be able to teach her down because she's not motivated enough right now, right? Yeah. Yeah, but I can show you
because if you say down early um when you're using negative reinforcement she could think down means i'm getting punished
After the bolt, the management rule was restated as the only way to undo it.
One successful run home teaches her that running works; the lesson has to be 'erased' by never giving her the chance again until the e-collar is taught.
On film
yeah and so then they learn oh i can do that and you want them to like you want to like have that
lesson erased from her memory like it didn't happen okay and the only way to do that is to
Handling homework was set as prevention, because of the other dog in the house.
Stella had learned that snapping makes vets and groomers back off; Stormy is to be handled everywhere, by everyone, before she can learn the same thing.
On film
anybody can basically think of it like all right we want to train her that anybody can come and like grab her paws and do all this stuff and she's not supposed to do nothing about it
What the family was told
The word comes first
it's gonna be important that you don't indicate to the dog in any other way That you're about to give them a reward.
But a lot of times people do the step away and the okay at the same time.
so you have to say the verbal thing first without doing anything else
Lesson 1 homework
tiny ones and then you can go yes and you can do it like a hundred times a day
If you do the homework, I'll know.
i don't know yeah that's interesting we're gonna do that all week and tell her okay and put her
Pop, never pull or tug
pulling and you don't tug either so i'll show you the difference between a pull and a tug okay hold
it's important that you have your hand down here Because think about it if your arms out here How am I gonna correct her now?
one thing you'll want to make sure you feel pressure from her first because sometimes we anticipate the pressure there you go yep let them make the mistake
Come is never optional; a leash every time she is outside
So if you don't have a way to make that a hundred percent, don't ask them to do it.
you always have to have a way to obligate it until they know it until they know it off leash
way to obligate her every single time so that means that going forward from today
but it's more for the training purpose because you need to be able to obligate the recall every
Freedom is the walk's reward
Right. And so what you're going to want to do is encourage her over time to get further away from you.
mean me and so then they're like oh what a well-behaved dog you have yeah no you just have a dog that thinks it has no options
Slow is fast; stop when she is done
slow is fast with dog training slow is fast so um you have to let them return to normal before you ask them to do more stuff
and then make her go back um and then try again and go little by little don't jump from uh okay she's doing it really good for about 30 seconds to i'm gonna make her do it for five minutes right that's not gonna work
this training session right we've been out here for a while she's done so don't like push it too
Pressure has to mean something - and must never be all there is
yeah it's when you attach a consequence yeah afterwards that's when it makes it serious to dogs and kids
that's a problem if they don't know why it's happening and they don't know how to escape it that just sends them into a panic
Cuz if you train only with the negative reinforcement, you get a flat depressed dog. They'll listen
you end up with a compliant dog they do what you say but they're flat okay
Equipment
her right now okay so you'll have to add prongs as you go along because as she gets bigger she'll outgrow the collar
won't put the e-collar on for a little bit here um even once you get it don't put it on until i'm
there's four PDF attachments and there's one another PDF attachment down at the bottom so
In the family's own words
say stop she stopped come back yeah not keep going exactly and so what we're
for her but I just want her to not run me pretty much yeah if you get what I'm
like these two days well really today but yesterday was like forced but she still did good
That's why I can't wait to get that collar
Outcomes
What the trainers reported
She took the prong without fuss.
The trainer, Lesson 2
On film
was like you. I don't like that. Um but she gave to us so that's a good sign. Right here so you can
from the leash and the prong collar mm-hmm she's not reacting poorly to it
The release marker works: 'okay' is 'unlocked'.
The trainer, Lessons 2 and 3, on the family's report that she runs to it
On film
right so it looks like you have made a little bit of progress on the okay
that's good that means that you've we've got the okay unlocked in because kind of
From bracing to yielding inside one lesson.
The trainer, Lesson 3
On film
i didn't need to because she didn't brace she didn't she went she felt it and kind of went
she knows she can escape the pressure like right here before she was bracing really hard now
She walks beautifully beside the owner and does not pull.
The owner, Lesson 3
On film
and she she she does really good walking beside me like excellent I like you try to encourage her
Progress will be linear if the homework is done, because she has no big issues.
The trainer, Lesson 1 - a forecast, not a result
On film
the progress will be pretty linear if you're doing it.
What the footage shows
Three weekly-ish home lessons took place and cover, in order: markers, pressure, play and handling; let's go, come and sit on a walk; loose-leash walking, place and a first down.
Within the recordings, the trainer's running commentary reports her giving to pressure each time it is introduced, and releasing on 'okay' once with no movement from the handler.
The family did the homework in part: they practised the release (she runs to 'okay'), walked her on the leash between lessons, and gave her more play.
The family also broke the central rule once - she was let off leash and ran home - and said so.
Nothing about the pick-up growl is reported after Lesson 1.
The ideas Stormy's case runs on
- 'Let's go' is not 'Come' - and the recall has an ending
- Bracing and the oppositional reflex
- Escape before avoidance: the collar backs a word the dog already knows
- False reps: the dog reads the chain, not the word
- Handling is training
- If it works, it stays: the strategy has to stop paying
- One layer at a time: the order is part of the method
- Pick the place for what it contains - life is the training ground
- Pressure, release, reward
- Release to freedom
- Teach the move, then the word
- The dog tells you the reward
- The marker vocabulary: eh, good, okay - and two corrections
- Two events, not one - and what the handler does in between