The answer
Yes. On film the trainers treat how often you ask as a risk in its own right, separate from how hard you correct. Too many asks too close together is what they say shuts a dog down. The fix they show is spacing the practice out, not giving it up.
What was said. Talking to Stormie's family, Connor tells a story from early in his career. A lab was doing well until he kept drilling commands, and then the dog started running away from him and stopped listening. His conclusion was that it 'wasn't necessarily the command that was bad it was the frequency of it'. Lola's trainer gives her family the same warning at the go-home lesson. One, two or three commands on a walk is fine. A command every couple of minutes on a twenty-minute walk will make her quit, and it already had once, on a long line. The trainer on Akira's second day, whom her arc identifies as Kelton, says a dog drilled rep after rep 'would quickly start to not like me'. Josi's go-home trainer says a dog drilled on downs learns to be suppressed in general rather than what the word means. Kali's trainer turns the warning on the owner lesson itself: run rep after rep for the family's benefit, about eighty in an hour and a half, and by the end the dog's performance drops - 'i thought we were at adventure camp' (watch 50:15, 50:31).
What they do instead. They ask a few times, spread out, inside something the dog enjoys. Beo's trainer puts a proportion on a walk: about ninety percent of it is nothing happening, even in training, and commands every thirty or forty seconds are 'just micromanaging him for no reason' (watch 33:33, 34:08). Kane's trainer says the same of a whole program: the reps are 'relatively sparse' and organic, built into what might actually happen (watch 13:06, 13:18). For Josi that meant five or six downs across a thirty-minute store visit. On Drago's walk a down came about a minute after the last stay, then a heel a few minutes later. Stormie, Dutchess, Daisy and Cosmo all got a break between reps. When a command isn't coming, Dutchess's trainer stops asking and walks around for a minute. When Drago's sit finally came after a hard fight, his trainer gave no more commands for the rest of the walk so the lesson could settle. When Dolce's protection setup went wrong, it was restarted from further away rather than pushed through.
First decide what kind of failure it was. Bo's handler and Dutchess's trainer each treat one bad rep from a dog who knows the command as a dog having a moment, not a gap in the training. Bo's handler won't repeat the sit on camera to prove it. Dutchess's trainer expects the down to come later in the walk, and it does.
How much is too much depends on the dog. Three handlers say a high-drive shepherd or Belgian can take rapid reps and most other dogs can't: Dutchess's trainer, Daisy's handler, and Connor with Cosmo. A doodle needed a minute or more between reps, while Cosmo could go faster. The trainers name the signs to stop: the tail flopping down, a blank look, freezing, lagging behind, flopping down, or a dog dropping into a position too fast because she's worried.
The record doesn't agree everywhere. Trainers differ on whether to drop a stalled command or finish that rep before moving on, and Akira, a German Shepherd, is deliberately not drilled even though other handlers say shepherds can take it (see conflicts). Nobody gives a universal number. The idea that ties it together is inferred, not stated on film: what the trainers manage is the dog's state between asks, not the count.
Thirteen more dogs' sessions show the same practice, which widens the record without changing the answer. Kalypso's trainer names a specific cost for recalls: done ten times back to back they make a 'velcro dog' who won't leave you, so space them out - four or five clear recalls in a twenty- or thirty-minute walk (watch 07:37, 08:06). Irwin's trainer adds that a stream of commands turns a walk confrontational and empties the marker (watch 29:53). Penny's lesson repeats Kali's: about a hundred demonstration asks in an hour and the dog gets suppressed (watch 58:48). On breed, Connor says shepherds can take a high workload yet still backs Shadow, a shepherd puppy, off after three or four reps (watch 21:11, 21:40), so spacing is used even where the breed could take more.
Angier K9 is a family-owned, play-based Board & Train serving Angier, Raleigh and the Triangle, with three full owner lessons.
What to do
Use a few commands on real walks and outings instead of running drills at home: one, two or three on a walk, not one every couple of minutes (watch 11:43; watch 27:41). Give her a second between asks, and more after a new or hard one (watch 46:34; watch 16:50). If a command isn't coming, stop asking, walk around for a minute and come back to it (watch 01:09). If her tail flops down, she goes blank, freezes or starts lagging, stop and love on her (watch 46:54; watch 02:36). A dog who knows the command and fluffs it once is having a moment. That's no reason to make her do it fifteen more times (watch 03:52; watch 17:11).
What the trainers say
there was a lab I was working with like when I was first learning how to train dogs and he did really good and then I kept drilling commands all of a sudden he was like running away from me and like not listening and his whole body language changed and I found out that yeah it was like wasn't necessarily the command that was bad it was the frequency of it that was encouraging him to like repress himself
we want to give them a second to chill out between each command especially if it's like a new thing uh because you can drill a dog too fast and that creates like repression the longer the dog is with me of course the more commands we can do because the load gets higher
a good thing is if you see the tail start to flop down and you've been using a lot of commands and a lot of the collar that means the dog's starting to like get a little spacey and you want to just like run love on him give him a second to just like decompress
so actually I did a mistake that every now and then I make is where like drive a dog too much and so certain dogs have different periods of like how much you can drill
with her um drilling too many commands at once will make her want to be like frick this i'm out right i that that happened the other day where like you know like with with the the tree thing i was telling you about it was like commands and all of a sudden she was like yeah i'm done and she's like i'm on a long line i could just run right now
she's not gonna do that if it's just one two three commands but if you're like on a 20 minute walk and every couple minute or so you're like sit down sit
because some people they uh they get like really excited when the dog gets home and so they're like you know what i'm gonna to do I'm going to just like drill these commands until I like am bored and it looks kind of cool but the dog's in like psychological pain so I don't want to put her in psychological pain
try to get a try to get progress in without you know scarring the dogs it's always a good idea but just you know just i don't want her to learn that coming out here training is a miserable experience and i'm gonna drag you along in the heat right uh we don't want that
I'll see what working on a couple of positions I want introduce too many things at once and overwhelm her or ruin the mood you know because I want her to have a good time out here
work it down or two before we end it i really don't want to drill them too hard though it's very easy to drill a dog too hard so i gotta be careful with that
all right so i'll do this thing too where i like reset where the dog's not doing a command i'm not gonna like push it over and over we're kind of gonna like walk around for a minute
it's really tempting to drill the command and throw them off over and over, but just give it time.
yeah and what so when you drill command unless it's like a really like high drive like belgian malinois or like crazy shepherd a lot of times what happens is the dog will get mentally fatigued
They'll kind of give you this look of, like, just, like, very, like, nothing's going on up there currently.
But you do too many reps and you'll shut a dog down.
Like, obviously, I've talked about this before, different breeds, faster or the shorter the resting period needs to be in between each rep.
I start to just want to drill. But the thing with her is if you don't love on her she her performance will go down.
then there's a different way of having a one-off where it was like she just made a mistake versus i genuinely don't know what to do and i believe it i believe this first one
watch back up back up she smells you okay reset it start from further away
These things happen sometimes even with with dogs that are doing a lot of the training.
I won't press on that command again to prove to you that it's perfect, but he is doing well to sit.
So, that was just a fluke, it's a fluke, it's a fluke.
Like, if I had gotten a successful rep there, walked three steps, and then tried to get her to do it again, she, after a few times of that, would quickly start to not like me. She would start to think that I'm not cool to be around, not fun to be around. That's why I don't do drills.
That's why you don't just try to drill a thousand repetitions in your kitchen.
leave a long time in between repetitions. It gives them time to fully recover, be completely neutral about it and feel happy about this situation, they return to baseline.
if I do ten repetitions of the command but it's spaced out enough to allow for learning and it's clear that does better than me doing it a hundred times in a row I get way more out of it
have to do like 30 minutes of drills every day like ew um no not necessary just use the training properly um and so all that looks like is just go on walks and play with your dog
do this while i'm training dogs because they learn fast that way slow is fast um but i might only ask them to down like five or six times if i'm working on down like in total and i'll be in the store for like 30 minutes
And it also, it's a spaced repetition system. So it allows for decompression and learning to happen in the gaps.
Yeah. Whereas if I just drill, drill, drill, drill, drill, drill, drill, drill, drill, I'm more likely to teach them to, like, be suppressed more generally than I am to actually teach them, oh yeah, when I say this, it means do that, and then, like, everything's awesome, right? Because everything isn't awesome because you're going to make them do it again two seconds later.
to decompress um have you ever heard of grease the groove grease the groove is a a workout method uh and what you do is you like say like hang a pull-up bar if you like pull-ups or something like that in your doorway and every time you walk through you do one right so i like doing that with the implied stay
he's pretty tired he's lagging behind me um yeah if you drill the commands you'll actually be able to do less reps which means sure you get done a little quicker but you end up actually having to do like more reps in the long run whereas if you pace it out and spend you know have a nice walk long it's better
of like going home because uh when the dog goes home if it's used to i go out and i get drilled commands then when it's just a standard walk there could be a little bit of miscommunication
some dogs like i just got finished working with doodle that dog i don't i'm not like super that dog took like a it was like a minute at least a minute minute and a half cool down because she would get overwhelmed really easily um for cosmo i can go pretty quick
The way that I work with Daisy is not even close, not even remotely close to the way that I would work with like a shepherd or a Belgian, right? With those dogs, you can go boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and they're just like, I'm ready to go.
like i said the cool down is really important it's how you make sure you're not like it's cool in here right i mean it's not hot um environment's pretty chill but you can overwork a dog literally just by not like by trying to drill them right
and the reason for that is because the last thing I want to do is overwhelm him overwhelm his capacity I want him to learn that lesson and have time to put it together mentally
be able to retain it and that can't happen if I immediately put 30 more commands on him and try to get him to sit 15 more times because what because it was hard for him that one time that means i should drill it 15 more times no uh no i should not
if you're giving your dog like commands every every 30 40 seconds uh you're just micromanaging him for no reason
allow plenty of time for them to reset in between then they will not like to walk and if they don't like to walk and they're not enjoying themselves at all and it's just a big long drill for them them, then their learning suffers.
we'll just walk around for a little bit let him let him decompress let's go because it's uh that was a lot of reps for for chunk bullies aren't made to be wrapped like that they're their makeup they're not really built to be wrapped like over and over and over
like boom boom boom boom boom because i'm getting reps for you guys and i do like you know in like an hour and a half long period i'm doing like you try like 80 times yeah by the end of that hour and a half the dog's like performance normally goes
this seemed like like boot campers i'm like i thought we were at adventure camp what's happening
drilling your dog does no good right that's a completely unnecessary thing instead the repetitions relatively sparse within the program
you're stuck um that's what we call a velcro dog right you end up with a velcro dog and then it's
if you will so after I do like three or four of those I back off for maybe like 30 seconds to a minute let like decompress then we go back into it again
How it looks, dog by dog
Lola
A nervous dog, and the file that turns the idea into a rule for owners. It runs through her whole program. In her second session the handler keeps the standard low on purpose so he doesn't overwhelm her or ruin the mood. In the heat, sessions are capped at fifteen or twenty minutes, and the reason given is what she would learn about going out, not her fitness. A heat session is cut short at the point where she is about to stop being able to think, not at overheating. In a debrief after a bolt, the trainer caps intense recall events at two a session, because a dog who expects four per outing comes to resent it. At the go-home lesson all of this becomes a rule with a number: one, two or three commands on a walk is fine, a command every couple of minutes is not. It comes with a prediction about the owners: a proud family will want to show off the new obedience and drill it, and the dog pays for that. The trainer attributes an earlier bolt on a long line (the 'tree thing') to a run of commands.
On film
I'll see what working on a couple of positions I want introduce too many things at once and overwhelm her or ruin the mood you know because I want her to have a good time out here
try to get a try to get progress in without you know scarring the dogs it's always a good idea but just you know just i don't want her to learn that coming out here training is a miserable experience and i'm gonna drag you along in the heat right uh we don't want that
she's in a state where i might only have a couple more minutes with her before she's like all right i'm like i'm tired right and i don't want to work her to her like threshold of like smooth brainer
normally i don't look for more than like like definitely i don't want to have more than like two of those in a session because you start like getting you can't have a bunch of that like that that is that's an intense experience for the dog
she's not gonna do that if it's just one two three commands but if you're like on a 20 minute walk and every couple minute or so you're like sit down sit
because some people they uh they get like really excited when the dog gets home and so they're like you know what i'm gonna to do I'm going to just like drill these commands until I like am bored and it looks kind of cool but the dog's in like psychological pain so I don't want to put her in psychological pain
Archie
Lola's housemate is a small, fast, high-energy dog, the temperamental opposite of Lola, and the same caution is applied to him. Near the end of a parking-lot session the trainer wants one or two more downs and stops himself: it is 'very easy to drill a dog too hard'. That makes this a rule applied to a confident dog as well as a nervous one.
On film
work it down or two before we end it i really don't want to drill them too hard though it's very easy to drill a dog too hard so i gotta be careful with that
Stormie
At the home lesson Connor tells the family the damage comes from the frequency of asks, not from the command itself. He illustrates it with his early-career lab, gives the tell (the tail flopping down, the dog going spacey) and the response (stop, love on her, let her decompress), and adds that the load can rise the longer a dog is in the program. The field session the same day is the case. Stormie won't down on concrete, and the trainer works through surface, e-collar level and collar fit. The collar turns out to have worked loose. He then names a second fault out loud: he has been drilling her too hard, a mistake he makes 'every now and then', because dogs differ in how much drilling they can take. She freezes, he lets her run around, and he goes back to work once she is 'a little more opened up' rather than ending the session.
On film
we want to give them a second to chill out between each command especially if it's like a new thing uh because you can drill a dog too fast and that creates like repression the longer the dog is with me of course the more commands we can do because the load gets higher
there was a lab I was working with like when I was first learning how to train dogs and he did really good and then I kept drilling commands all of a sudden he was like running away from me and like not listening and his whole body language changed and I found out that yeah it was like wasn't necessarily the command that was bad it was the frequency of it that was encouraging him to like repress himself
all right he's a little frozen so we're gonna let's chill out let me run around for a little bit and see how this goes
so actually I did a mistake that every now and then I make is where like drive a dog too much and so certain dogs have different periods of like how much you can drill
so now a little more opened up I can try to
Dutchess
Dutchess's file has the idea in its fullest form, from two handlers. On a hot day at a lesson her primary trainer resets instead of repeating a command she isn't giving him. He walks her around for a minute and explains why to the owners: outside the very high-drive breeds, drilling tires a dog mentally until she taps out, and the blank look is the sign. A second handler, working her for the first time, gives the dose version: too many reps shuts a dog down, and the rest needed between reps differs by breed. Late in her program the primary trainer admits the risk is partly his. Carrying six dogs a day makes a trainer robotic and inclined to drill, and with this dog, whose performance depends on affection, that costs results. At the final off-leash check he sorts a failed down before responding to it: a dog who made a mistake is not a dog who doesn't know. He reinforces once and expects the down again later in the walk, and it comes.
On film
all right so i'll do this thing too where i like reset where the dog's not doing a command i'm not gonna like push it over and over we're kind of gonna like walk around for a minute
um and it's not like when you drill the command over and over because of the mental fatigue they can just kind of tap out, you know what I mean?
But you do too many reps and you'll shut a dog down.
Um when we have like six dog dogs a day it's really easy to get very like robotic.
I start to just want to drill. But the thing with her is if you don't love on her she her performance will go down.
down there we go it's a weird fluke dogs have their moments too so in the walk i'll do it again
then there's a different way of having a one-off where it was like she just made a mistake versus i genuinely don't know what to do and i believe it i believe this first one
Dolce
This is the idea in protection foundation work, where the thing that goes wrong is the setup rather than the dog. In boogeyman phase 1, once Dolce has scented the decoy the rep is spoiled, so the handler restarts it from further away instead of pushing through. A two-minute fragment that is probably an offcut of the same shoot has the same move: reset, try it again. There is no narration explaining it. The reason is inferred from what the handler tells the decoy.
On film
watch back up back up she smells you okay reset it start from further away
Reset. Try it again. Reset. Kind of move back and forth.
Bo
A trained dog has an off day on camera. Bo's sit, which the handler says is on record in earlier videos, falls apart outside a store. It takes a run of cues before it comes, and the handler reads Bo as unhappy about being asked. He doesn't explain it away and doesn't repeat the command to prove it's solid. He calls it a fluke, says trained dogs can just feel strange sometimes, and moves on to a down, which comes cleanly. No cause is offered and none is invented.
On film
That was random. He did not seem super happy there to listen to it.
Sometimes they can just feel a little strange.
I won't press on that command again to prove to you that it's perfect, but he is doing well to sit.
So, that was just a fluke, it's a fluke, it's a fluke.
Akira
A high-energy young German Shepherd, the kind of dog other handlers say can take rapid reps, and her trainer still refuses to drill her. On a four-mile hike he spaces hard down attempts minutes apart so she returns to baseline between them. He reads her as annoyed rather than scared. He says that if he got a successful rep and then asked again three steps later, she would soon stop liking him. His prescription for owners is a few reps spread across an outing the dog enjoys, not a thousand in the kitchen. At the owner lesson it becomes 'slow is fast', and maintenance becomes walks and play rather than daily drills.
On film
But because I'm allowing plenty of time in between these repetitions, she returns to baseline every time.
Like, if I had gotten a successful rep there, walked three steps, and then tried to get her to do it again, she, after a few times of that, would quickly start to not like me.
that um you go out in nature you go to something do something that's interesting to them you play with them play tug or something like that and then you only do a few reps right those reps are spaced out in a longer uh session of things they enjoy
if I do ten repetitions of the command but it's spaced out enough to allow for learning and it's clear that does better than me doing it a hundred times in a row I get way more out of it
maintain the dog's training is really just two things take them on walks and use the training
Josi
The failure is visible in Josi herself. When downs are demonstrated in a row she starts dropping too fast, out of worry rather than understanding, which the trainer describes as her thinking 'oh crap'. At the go-home lesson he gives the prescription: five or six downs across a thirty-minute store visit, with decompression walking between. He admits he has asked a dog for fifty downs in ten minutes himself. His reasoning is that learning happens in the gaps, and that drilling teaches general suppression rather than the cue.
On film
trying to like when we're demonstrating stuff is then they she starts to go into that mode where she goes into it too fast right because she just thinks oh crap right so don't like drill like a whole bunch of them in a row
do this while i'm training dogs because they learn fast that way slow is fast um but i might only ask them to down like five or six times if i'm working on down like in total and i'll be in the store for like 30 minutes
Yeah. Whereas if I just drill, drill, drill, drill, drill, drill, drill, drill, drill, I'm more likely to teach them to, like, be suppressed more generally than I am to actually teach them,
Milo
Milo's file adds the other half of the dose. Formal reps are few and spaced, but many tiny reps woven into the day are welcome. At the November lesson the trainer runs a few stays in a row as a demo, then gives time to decompress. For the owner's homework on Milo creeping out of his sit, he prescribes 'grease the groove', a workout idea: an implied stay at every doorway and at the car. That builds a habit from small reps across the day, not a block of drilling. The two readings complement each other in Milo's arc rather than conflicting.
On film
few in a row to kind of give you a demo right but you can um you can then give some moments to decompress
to decompress um have you ever heard of grease the groove grease the groove is a a workout method uh and what you do is you like say like hang a pull-up bar if you like pull-ups or something like that in your doorway and every time you walk through you do one right so i like doing that with the implied stay
Cosmo
A young retriever, and the file with the most practical reasons against drilling. Connor gives three. Drilling tires a dog so fast that you get fewer reps overall. Training built on drills transfers badly to an ordinary walk at home. And a tired dog shouldn't be ground on. The rest between reps is set by the dog: a doodle he had just worked needed a minute to a minute and a half, Cosmo can go fairly quickly, and only a Belgian or a very high-drive shepherd could go every ten seconds. Cosmo is momentum-driven and flops down if the work isn't kept moving. In an early heat session the trainer regrets the last rep he asked for. Early on he plans to take the sit 'as far as possible' without 'drill it for hours'.
On film
not grinding commands with Cosmo, especially because he is tired. Grinding commands in general is not a fantastic idea.
he's pretty tired he's lagging behind me um yeah if you drill the commands you'll actually be able to do less reps which means sure you get done a little quicker but you end up actually having to do like more reps in the long run whereas if you pace it out and spend you know have a nice walk long it's better
some dogs like i just got finished working with doodle that dog i don't i'm not like super that dog took like a it was like a minute at least a minute minute and a half cool down because she would get overwhelmed really easily um for cosmo i can go pretty quick
one thing with cosmo is he's very like momentum based i've noticed so i keep everything super exciting it's got to be like a chain or else he's kind of like it's kind of like flops down
him do it yeah i really shouldn't have made him do that last time he's exhausted cosmo it's okay i'm not doing it anymore don't worry
or trying to get it you know i'm not gonna like drill it for hours but try to get it as far as possible
Daisy
A nervous dog who is 'not a sport dog', and the handler sets the dose by the dog in front of her, not by the breed chart. In a store she works the down with short cool-downs between attempts rather than drilling it. She says Daisy can't be worked the way you would work a shepherd or a Belgian, and that a dog can be overworked by drilling alone, even in a cool, quiet store. In the same session she catches herself double-cueing and sets a one-word rule: say it once, then apply pressure.
On film
drill it too hard because she's not a sport dog if uh if this is not apparent she is not a sport dog nothing wrong with that of course but the only real big thing is that sport dogs just do their energy you can drill them and can't drill daisy
like i said the cool down is really important it's how you make sure you're not like it's cool in here right i mean it's not hot um environment's pretty chill but you can overwork a dog literally just by not like by trying to drill them right
The way that I work with Daisy is not even close, not even remotely close to the way that I would work with like a shepherd or a Belgian, right? With those dogs, you can go boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and they're just like, I'm ready to go.
Drago
A hard-won rep, and what comes after it. In a park Drago fights leash pressure on a sit for a long stretch before he gives it and is released. The trainer then asks the viewer to count the commands he has given since: none. He explains that this is deliberate, so Drago has the capacity to put the lesson together. Asking for the sit fifteen more times because it was hard would be exactly wrong. On another outing the trainer spaces his formal reps out loud: a stay, about a minute later a down, and a heel a few minutes after that.
On film
That happened way over on the other side of the park now and I want you to count
and the reason for that is because the last thing I want to do is overwhelm him overwhelm his capacity I want him to learn that lesson and have time to put it together mentally
be able to retain it and that can't happen if I immediately put 30 more commands on him and try to get him to sit 15 more times because what because it was hard for him that one time that means i should drill it 15 more times no uh no i should not
And I'm probably going to, it's been a little bit since I did an implied stay back there, so probably give it like a minute or so, and I'll use that opportunity to do a repetition of the
Beo
Beo's trainer narrates the dose on two walks in September 2026. On a park trail he points out that about ninety percent of the walk is nothing happening, even in training; an owner's walk should be more relaxed still, and commands every thirty or forty seconds are 'just micromanaging him for no reason'. Without time to reset between asks, the dog stops liking the walk and his learning suffers. Two days later he puts heel where it is useful - crossing streets - and lets Beo roam the rest of the walk.
On film
here is that like hey like 90 of this nothing's happening right i'm not giving him lots of commands over time and this is even during training right
if you're giving your dog like commands every every 30 40 seconds uh you're just micromanaging him for no reason
allow plenty of time for them to reset in between then they will not like to walk and if they don't like to walk and they're not enjoying themselves at all and it's just a big long drill for them them, then their learning suffers.
But then like the rest of this walk, it's unnecessary. You can just let him roam freely.
Chunk
Chunk, a young bully on his go-home day, has been worked through a run of downs during what his trainer calls an avoidance phase. Once the down comes, the trainer stops and walks him around to decompress: that was a lot of reps for Chunk, and bullies, he says, are not built to be repped over and over - overwork gets poor performance.
On film
we'll just walk around for a little bit let him let him decompress let's go because it's uh that was a lot of reps for for chunk bullies aren't made to be wrapped like that they're their makeup they're not really built to be wrapped like over and over and over
in a sense of like you can overwork and then get poor performance
Kali
At Kali and Kane's in-program owner lesson the trainer turns the rule on the owner lesson itself. A lesson is more for the family than the dog, and if he runs rep after rep for them - something like eighty in an hour and a half - the dog's performance drops by the end: it stops feeling like a walk and starts feeling like boot camp when she thought she was at 'adventure camp'. So between asks he ran with Kali, used an informal recall instead of a command, and gave her scratches to keep her emotional state good.
On film
the lesson's more for you than it is for the dog so then it's like but how's the dog's experience of that lesson like how are they are they having a good time
like boom boom boom boom boom because i'm getting reps for you guys and i do like you know in like an hour and a half long period i'm doing like you try like 80 times yeah by the end of that hour and a half the dog's like performance normally goes
this seemed like like boot campers i'm like i thought we were at adventure camp what's happening
was like i ran with her a little bit and then i did like an informal recall instead of a command and then like scratchies right um so that i can make sure her emotional state's still good
Kane
On a park walk late in Kane's program the trainer asks the viewer to look at the whole program: drilling does no good, the repetitions are relatively sparse, and on a single walk they are organic - built into what might actually happen - with a few for practice and plenty of neutral, free-wandering time between them.
On film
drilling your dog does no good right that's a completely unnecessary thing instead the repetitions relatively sparse within the program
if you look at like a single walk there's not over and over and over again lots of drilled repetitions like the recall or anything else but they're organic
Bun
On a long walk the trainer says he doesn't need to keep drilling Bun: ten or fifteen minutes of back-to-back reps is 'no bueno', and an hour of it would leave the dog hating him. Instead the walk is mostly walking and enjoying, with maybe ten percent teaching.
On film
In terms of like repetitions, I don't have to like keep like drilling him over and over again
If I do, you know 10 15 minutes, it's like crazy drills. It's like boom boom boom boom one after the other that is
Obviously, you know, just enjoying and maybe 10% teaching, teaching things, right?
Dory
When Dory struggles with impulse control around people, the trainer keeps walking to let her cool down rather than stacking commands, and states it as his general practice: he doesn't make a dog drill a command over and over, and most dogs can't do it.
On film
doing them one at a time so let's just keep walking let her kind of like cool down a little bit because that's all like i do my training i don't just make a dog drill command over and over
Most dogs can't do it.
Hattie
After about five or six downs that she is starting to get, the trainer gives Hattie a minute of free time and then switches to a heel rather than asking for another down.
On film
And then I would likely use this opportunity to do a heel command with her, instead of doing another repetition of down.
maybe five or six repetitions of down at this point.
Irwin
After a rep the trainer deliberately asks Irwin for nothing for several minutes: a run of sits, recalls and downs would make a 'recall simulator' of the walk, turn it confrontational and empty the okay marker of meaning.
On film
key is i don't ask him to do anything else for several minutes because if i continuously give him commands and like a recall simulator um like a sit recall down simulator then uh it's going to create a very confrontational walk and the okay marker is not going to mean anything all that
Kalypso
The trainer sends Kalypso back out after each recall and explains why: ten recalls back to back would leave a 'velcro dog' who won't leave your side, and then the recall can't be trained at all. Do it every day but space it out - four or five clear, reinforced recalls in a twenty- or thirty-minute walk can be a good session.
On film
Because the risk is,
say you did that like 10 times in a row,
you're stuck um that's what we call a velcro dog right you end up with a velcro dog and then it's
to feel like glued to you and that's no good so um do it every day and space it out right so then
i might only recall them four or five times in a 20 minute walk or a 30 minute walk
Max (Goldendoodle)
The owner-facing version: maintenance is 'like changing the oil', not running training sessions. The family doesn't have to drill sit, down, place, heel and come; using the commands properly in daily life keeps them.
On film
have to do drills you don't have to constantly be like okay doing like sit and down and place and heal and come and all this stuff like drilling it like you're doing training sessions all you have to do is use it properly if you know how to use it properly it will never go away because as long
Murphy
When the heel isn't working - Murphy 'might not like the heel very much right now', possibly a slightly poisoned cue - the trainer changes strategy instead of pushing it: a release, some freedom and play to change his emotional state first.
On film
Murphy might not like the heel very much right now I had to change strategies so each dog is different you have to try to tailor to them and the faster you can
might have something where you kind of need to like change their emotional state give them a release give them some freedom get them happy do some personal
Penny
The same owner-lesson problem Kali's trainer names: demonstrating for the family, Kelton has asked Penny for 'like a hundred' behaviours in an hour. She gets a little suppressed and reluctant to get up, so he watches for it, encourages her and ends it.
On film
how many behaviors have I asked Penny to do?
in the last hour like a hundred um and so then they're like dude i don't know right what's up um
come on good um so what she'll do is sometimes she'll get a little suppressed and so i just watch out for that and if she seems a little suppressed and i'll just encourage her and then like end it if that makes sense um because she's doing the thing but if she's like reluctant to
Rocky
In an owner lesson the trainer explains why Rocky seems rushed: 'I don't do drills'. The amount of training someone else jams into ten minutes he spreads over an hour, with stretches where the dog just walks around looking at things. The owner's reply, on uncertain audio, is that he had been asking for recalls five times in a row and was probably drilling him.
On film
that's the other thing um trying to I don't do drills like I don't like jam a bunch of training
into 10 minutes okay I'll do the same amount of training that a lot of times you'll see somebody
Shadow (German Shepherd puppy)
Connor with a German Shepherd puppy: shepherds can carry a high mental workload, but he still keeps her 'mentally primed' - three or four reps, then thirty seconds to a minute of decompression, so the work stays fun. This is a shepherd handler choosing spacing anyway, which bears on the breed conflict.
On film
a thing where you can like run too many reps at once I'm gonna let her calm down for like about just like a minute here um sometimes in like the videos I'll talk about it where you can drill a dog too frequently so kids are shepherds so you can drill shepherds like they have a very high workload like mentally wise they can handle a lot but um I try to keep them in a very like mentally primed condition
if you will so after I do like three or four of those I back off for maybe like 30 seconds to a minute let like decompress then we go back into it again
Shadow (Siberian Husky)
A small in-the-moment version: asking for sits, the trainer tells the dog he doesn't want to drill him, just do a couple, and tries to make them exciting.
On film
doing good shadow come good boy oh all right let's go for a sit come on i don't want to drill you i just want to do a couple suits that's it bro hey hey let's make it as exciting
Simba
On a refresher test the trainer notes that retrievers can do a lot, but he doesn't want to overwork Simba.
On film
everything so yeah we're gonna do the down and we're gonna do the heel excuse me but i want to drill him too hard like you know retrievers they they can they can do a lot like but at the same time i don't want to overwork him let's go um he hasn't oh yeah so he made me use the collar there
Titan
The trainer reads that Titan may only have a couple of minutes left before he tires, says he doesn't like to work dogs to that point, and caps the set at one or two more reps.
On film
I might get a couple more minutes before he starts being like, all right, I'm tired.
And I don't like to work them to the job.
I don't want to keep drilling this set, but we're going to do maybe one or two more.
Why it works
The trainers give several mechanisms on film, and they are separate claims.
1. Frequency, not the command, produces repression. Connor's lab story is the first-hand case, and he gives the rule with it: a second of chill between commands, because drilling a dog too fast 'creates like repression' (watch 46:34, 47:15). Josi's go-home trainer states the same thing as what is learned: drilled reps teach a dog to be 'suppressed more generally' rather than what the word means (watch 07:18).
2. Mental fatigue. Outside the very high-drive breeds, repetition tires a dog mentally until she 'taps out', with a blank look as the tell (watch 02:10, 02:26, 02:36). A second handler gives the dose version: too many reps shuts a dog down, and the rest needed differs by breed (watch 06:58, 07:07).
3. The reward loses its meaning. A release only feels good if it lasts. If the same ask comes 'two seconds later', nothing is awesome and the dog has no reason to comply (watch 07:31). Kelton's version, on Akira, is about the handler: a dog asked again three steps after a success 'would quickly start to not like me' (watch 42:03). Lola's trainers say the same about the outing itself: she must not learn that going out is miserable (watch 08:48). Intense reps are capped per session so the dog doesn't come to dread training (watch 02:30).
4. Learning happens in the gaps. Spaced reps let the dog return to baseline, and the next trial is where learning happens (watch 33:48; watch 07:10). After a hard rep the dog needs time 'to put it together mentally' (watch 16:50).
5. Practical returns. Drilling tires a dog so fast you get fewer reps overall, and drilled training transfers badly to the ordinary walks the dog will have at home (watch 07:02, 08:02). Three September 2026 trainers state the cost in the same terms: a walk that is 'a big long drill' means 'their learning suffers' (watch 34:34); overwork gets 'poor performance' (watch 05:38); and an owner lesson run as a string of reps ends with the dog's performance dropping (watch 50:15).
Inferred, not said: these mechanisms point to one variable, the dog's state between asks. Every prescription on film changes the gap between asks (a break, a walk-around, a cool-down, no more commands), not the total number of asks in a day. Milo's 'grease the groove' fits that reading: many reps in a day, each isolated. No trainer states a universal number, and the dose visibly depends on breed, age, temperature and the dog's state.
Where the trainers differ
When a command stalls, drop it or finish this rep first?
One view
Stop asking and walk it off. Dutchess's primary trainer resets and walks her around rather than repeating a command she isn't giving him, on a hot day with a tired dog. Bo's handler takes the eventual sit and refuses to re-prove it.
On film
all right so i'll do this thing too where i like reset where the dog's not doing a command i'm not gonna like push it over and over we're kind of gonna like walk around for a minute
I won't press on that command again to prove to you that it's perfect, but he is doing well to sit.
Another view
Finish the rep now, then stop. With Cosmo, the trainer insists on getting a resisted sit because letting him win teaches that doing nothing works. Drago's trainer holds a sit through a long fight before releasing, and only then refuses to repeat it. At Dutchess's final check her own trainer asks again and 'reinforces' rather than walking away.
On film
merely just couldn't let him win that exchange because then he kind of develops a little bit of a thing that i'm like oh i can just kind of like not do anything and it works
be able to retain it and that can't happen if I immediately put 30 more commands on him and try to get him to sit 15 more times because what because it was hard for him that one time that means i should drill it 15 more times no uh no i should not
I'm gonna just reinforce here.
How to read it
The same Dutchess trainer takes both sides in different sessions: the reset on a hot, tired day, and the reinforced rep at the final off-leash check. Nobody on film states the rule that decides which applies. Every file agrees on the part that follows: once the rep is done, don't drill it again.
Can a high-drive shepherd take drilling?
One view
Yes, rapid reps are fine for Belgians and very high-drive shepherds; it's other dogs that can't take them. Three separate handlers say so.
On film
yeah and what so when you drill command unless it's like a really like high drive like belgian malinois or like crazy shepherd a lot of times what happens is the dog will get mentally fatigued
The way that I work with Daisy is not even close, not even remotely close to the way that I would work with like a shepherd or a Belgian, right? With those dogs, you can go boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and they're just like, I'm ready to go.
go like every 10 seconds like a dog you can do that with is like a belgian right or some really high drive shepherds you can do that you can't do it with cosmo but he's still pretty quick
Another view
Akira is a 'typical high energy' German Shepherd, and her trainer (Kelton, per her arc) won't drill her. He spaces her reps minutes apart and warns that a dog asked again three steps after a success would come to dislike him.
On film
yeah she's a hard player uh she's just like a it's actually relatively simple she's just a typical high energy germ shepherd
Like, if I had gotten a successful rep there, walked three steps, and then tried to get her to do it again, she, after a few times of that, would quickly start to not like me. She would start to think that I'm not cool to be around, not fun to be around. That's why I don't do drills.
How to read it
This may not be a real disagreement. Akira was seven months old, on her second day, learning a new position under pressure. The other handlers are describing rest intervals for known work. The record doesn't settle whether breed sets the dose or only moves it.
Repeating the cue inside one rep
One view
Say it once. Repeating the word teaches the dog to wait for the repetitions, and Daisy's handler makes it a rule mid-session.
On film
the way it is you say sit the window is active and the window is closed once you give the release if you keep saying sit over and over you can train the dog that it's like they learn that oh i need to hear the word over and over and then that defeats everything that i taught them and makes your life harder
try it again down turn to it i'm not gonna say it again that's the rule
Another view
On film, trained dogs are sometimes cued several times in one rep, including the Bo sit this page uses as its off-day example.
On film
Bo, sit. Sit, bud. Bo. Nope. Sit. Sit. Sit. Come on. Sit. Nope. Sit.
Takes her a second sometimes, I'll say it one more time.
How to read it
This touches a neighbouring idea (say it once, don't poison the command) more than drilling across reps. It is recorded here because an owner watching the Bo clip for this page will see the repeated cue.
Common owner mistakes
- Showing off the new obedience at home by drilling it, one command after another, because it looks good.
On film
because some people they uh they get like really excited when the dog gets home and so they're like you know what i'm gonna to do I'm going to just like drill these commands until I like am bored and it looks kind of cool but the dog's in like psychological pain so I don't want to put her in psychological pain
Lola · Watch at 11:49 ↗ - Scattering a command every couple of minutes through a walk.
On film
she's not gonna do that if it's just one two three commands but if you're like on a 20 minute walk and every couple minute or so you're like sit down sit
Lola · Watch at 11:43 ↗ if you're giving your dog like commands every every 30 40 seconds uh you're just micromanaging him for no reason
Beo · Watch at 34:08 ↗ - Running a practice block on one command (ten minutes of downs, or a thousand reps in the kitchen) instead of using it inside an outing.
On film
don't like go out there and be like okay down and like we're gonna work on down for like 10 minutes it's like that dog is gonna be like what the heck by the end of it
Josi · Watch at 6:19 ↗ That's why you don't just try to drill a thousand repetitions in your kitchen.
Akira · Watch at 42:23 ↗ - Repeating a rep many times because it was hard.
On film
be able to retain it and that can't happen if I immediately put 30 more commands on him and try to get him to sit 15 more times because what because it was hard for him that one time that means i should drill it 15 more times no uh no i should not
Drago · Watch at 17:11 ↗ - Asking again straight after a success, so the release never means anything.
On film
Because everything isn't awesome because you're going to make them do it again two seconds later.
Josi · Watch at 7:31 ↗ Like, if I had gotten a successful rep there, walked three steps, and then tried to get her to do it again, she, after a few times of that, would quickly start to not like me.
Akira · Watch at 42:03 ↗ - Assuming homework means daily drill sessions.
On film
have to do like 30 minutes of drills every day like ew um no not necessary just use the training properly um and so all that looks like is just go on walks and play with your dog
Akira · Watch at 27:41 ↗
Questions owners ask
How many repetitions is too many?
Nobody on film gives one number, but the working figures are small. Lola's trainer says one, two or three commands on a walk is fine and one every couple of minutes is not. Josi's trainer asks for five or six downs over a thirty-minute store visit. Beo's trainer reckons about ninety percent of a walk should be nothing happening, and calls a command every thirty or forty seconds micromanaging. Drago's trainer spaces a stay, a down and a heel minutes apart through a walk. The rest between reps depends on the dog: over a minute for a doodle that overwhelmed easily, less for Cosmo, and only a Belgian or very high-drive shepherd every ten seconds. Watch the dog, not a counter.
On film
she's not gonna do that if it's just one two three commands but if you're like on a 20 minute walk and every couple minute or so you're like sit down sit
do this while i'm training dogs because they learn fast that way slow is fast um but i might only ask them to down like five or six times if i'm working on down like in total and i'll be in the store for like 30 minutes
some dogs like i just got finished working with doodle that dog i don't i'm not like super that dog took like a it was like a minute at least a minute minute and a half cool down because she would get overwhelmed really easily um for cosmo i can go pretty quick
if you're giving your dog like commands every every 30 40 seconds uh you're just micromanaging him for no reason
Won't fewer reps make training slower?
The trainers say it works the other way. Connor says drilling tires a dog so fast that you end up doing more reps in the long run. Akira's trainer says ten spaced reps beat a hundred in a row. Josi's trainer calls it spaced repetition, with learning happening in the gaps. 'Slow is fast' is said in two different families' lessons.
On film
he's pretty tired he's lagging behind me um yeah if you drill the commands you'll actually be able to do less reps which means sure you get done a little quicker but you end up actually having to do like more reps in the long run
if I do ten repetitions of the command but it's spaced out enough to allow for learning and it's clear that does better than me doing it a hundred times in a row I get way more out of it
And it also, it's a spaced repetition system. So it allows for decompression and learning to happen in the gaps.
Do I need to do training sessions every day to keep it up?
Not drill sessions. At Akira's owner lesson the trainer answers exactly this worry: no thirty minutes of drills, just go on walks, play with your dog and use the commands properly. Connor adds that drilled training carries over worse to a normal walk at home than training done on a fun walk.
On film
have to do like 30 minutes of drills every day like ew um no not necessary just use the training properly um and so all that looks like is just go on walks and play with your dog
of like going home because uh when the dog goes home if it's used to i go out and i get drilled commands then when it's just a standard walk there could be a little bit of miscommunication
My trained dog didn't do it once. Should I practise it until she gets it right?
First decide what kind of failure it was. Dutchess's trainer separates a dog who made a mistake from a dog who doesn't know what to do. He expected the down to come later in the walk, and it did. Bo's handler called a bad sit a fluke and said trained dogs can just feel strange. Drago's trainer says a rep being hard is not a reason to do it fifteen more times. A failure that keeps happening is a different matter, and these clips don't cover it.
On film
then there's a different way of having a one-off where it was like she just made a mistake versus i genuinely don't know what to do and i believe it i believe this first one
These things happen sometimes even with with dogs that are doing a lot of the training.
be able to retain it and that can't happen if I immediately put 30 more commands on him and try to get him to sit 15 more times because what because it was hard for him that one time that means i should drill it 15 more times no uh no i should not
What should I do when she just isn't giving me the command?
Dutchess's trainer stops asking, walks her around for a minute and comes back to it. He says it's tempting to push on, but the dog is getting mentally tired. Connor, with Stormie, stops and loves on her when the tail drops. Some handlers finish a resisted rep before stopping, so that refusing doesn't pay (see conflicts). The file doesn't settle which applies when, so ask your trainer.
On film
it's really tempting to drill the command and throw them off over and over, but just give it time.
a good thing is if you see the tail start to flop down and you've been using a lot of commands and a lot of the collar that means the dog's starting to like get a little spacey and you want to just like run love on him give him a second to just like decompress
The lesson
The goal
Recognise when repetition has stopped teaching, and build practice as a few spaced asks inside an outing the dog enjoys, with a break after each.
Learn first
See it done
- The rule and its tell given to a family: a second between commands, and stop when the tail flops and the dog goes spacey. Watch at 46:34 ↗
- A reset done live: the command isn't coming, so the handler walks the dog around instead of repeating it. Watch at 1:09 ↗
- After a hard sit, no more commands for the rest of the walk, explained to camera. Watch at 16:13 ↗
- Formal reps scheduled out loud across a walk: stay, a minute later a down, minutes later a heel. Watch at 0:11 ↗
- An off day handled honestly: a bad sit called a fluke and not re-drilled on camera. Watch at 2:30 ↗
The drill
As run on film. Take the dog on an outing she enjoys, such as a store visit, park walk or hike. Ask for the target command only five or six times in the whole outing (watch at 06:41), spaced as Drago's trainer spaces them: a stay, about a minute later a down, a few minutes later a heel (watch at 00:11). Release each one properly and let the dog go back to sniffing and walking, so she returns to neutral before the next (watch at 33:48). If a command stalls, walk a minute and come back (watch at 01:09). If a rep was hard-won, give no further commands for a good while (watch at 16:50). Stop the outing while she can still think, before the tail flops or she goes blank (watch at 08:25; watch at 46:54).
Watch out for
- Drilling the new obedience at home to show it off.
- A command every couple of minutes through a whole walk.
- Ten-minute blocks of one command, or reps in the kitchen instead of on an outing.
- Asking again straight after a success, so the release means nothing.
- Repeating a hard rep many times because it was hard.
- Treating a one-off from a trained dog as a training hole and drilling it.
Check yourself
Your trained dog took three asks to down on a walk and then did it. What do the trainers on film do next, and what do they explicitly not do?