The answer
Across nine dogs the trainers say out loud what comes before what, and the orders agree.
Walking comes first. Bun arrived too excited, mouthy and a little reactive for holding commands, so his first week had one rule: no pulling. Neo's trainer says it plainly: loose leash, basic focus, sit and a basic stay around distractions, and giving to leash pressure, "before we do any introduction to heel or like long distance down and stays or sit and stays or big like store situations because if we jump right to that then the foundation won't be done."
Giving to pressure comes before positions and before heel. Stormy's trainer teaches her to go with the leash before he teaches the down, "because it makes it easier to teach them everything else if when they feel pressure they go with it." Chunk's trainer says that if a dog is not yielding to pressure, "then trying to teach a heel is really gonna be miserable", and that heel is "always the last command that i teach them" because it is "the most unnatural command for a dog." Lunna's trainer holds down and heel back until her impulse control is good, for the same reason: heeling a dog who is not focused on you is "one of the most miserable experiences ever."
Within a single command, the trainers name phases. Levi's handler: learning, then clarity, then proofing, with distractions, duration and distance added only in the last phase. She also gives the reason: people punish dogs for commands that were never made clear. Thumper's trainers grade his skills live by the same stages. They add a fifth element to proofing, the client: the cue has to work for the owner too.
With a nervous or pressure-sensitive dog, the order matters most. Anna's handler: "when we train a nervous dog, we do not introduce all of this at once." Only when Anna could take some pressure and "kind of knows what to do" did the next layer of nerves get addressed. "Like with people, you don't just go and try to beat all the nerves at once." Astro, who bit under pressure, got his down lured first and pressure only once the position was easy, and the heel he disliked was held until the relationship was built. Bun's trainer did not start heel on the day he introduced the down, because stacking new things can leave a dog "down and suppressed."
What is inferred: the orders are the trainers' stated practice. Nobody on film compares one order against another. Lunna's own footage shows a handler starting the down earlier than her lead trainer says he usually would.
What to do
Build in order and do not skip. First, walking without pulling and giving to the leash. Then holding commands, taught until clear before any distraction is added. Heel last. Add distance, duration and distraction one at a time, and practise every command yourself, because it has to work for you too. With a nervous dog, take one fear at a time.
What the trainers say
before we do any introduction to heel or like long distance down and stays or sit and stays or big like store situations because if we jump right to that then the foundation won't be done
Neos going into like the service dog work so we're just tightening up on the obedience first making sure it's really really solid and like the in-home stuff
better first before we started adding in a lot of like big obedience and holding commands and things like that for him specifically because if we would have tried to do that initially he would had a really hard time
I probably will not have time to start introducing heel today just because introducing all that at one go is a lot for most dogs and I don't want to mess them up. You could end up having them feel kind of down and suppressed afterwards.
because it makes it easier to teach them everything else if when they feel pressure they go with it
whereas if you already conditioned them to like yield to the pressure then teaching the heel can be dare i say an enjoyable process
so it's always the last command that i teach them yeah um and i think it's the most unnatural command for a dog
most most of the time with the down in the heel i don't typically introduce that until a little
to do is teach a dog a heel while it's like not focused on you it's one of the most miserable
what people do is they think a dog knows something but the dog doesn't really
phase second one is a clarity and then the third is the proofing phase and he's
I asked you to sit, good boy, we are at the proofing stage with sitting, this means we
Of course, when we train a nervous dog, we do not introduce all of this at once.
So we can't introduce that all at once, but she's getting some confidence now to where
to work him with the lure and then once he has the position real nice then I'll
he does not enjoy heel very much
How it looks, dog by dog
Bun
Bun came in over-excited, mouthy and a little reactive toward people and some dogs. In his first week the team set holding commands aside and taught one rule, no pulling. Sniffing and looking were free. Later, on the day his trainer introduced the down at a new park, he chose not to start heel as well: all of that in one go is a lot for most dogs and can leave them feeling down and suppressed. Reps were spread thin over a long walk, and he stopped while Bun still had a couple left in the tank.
On film
thing good boy but just kind of doing the standard walks then he's learning that he can have freedom and he can sniff he can look at stuff it doesn't really matter as long as he's not pulling that's the only rule
better first before we started adding in a lot of like big obedience and holding commands and things like that for him specifically because if we would have tried to do that initially he would had a really hard time
I probably will not have time to start introducing heel today just because introducing all that at one go is a lot for most dogs and I don't want to mess them up. You could end up having them feel kind of down and suppressed afterwards.
But I think he's got another maybe two
Neo
Neo is a friendly, excitable dog headed for service work. His trainer sets the order on camera twice. The first day: obedience and home manners solid first, then public work, then the service tasks. An early walk: loose leash, focus, sit and a basic stay around distractions, and giving to leash pressure, all before heel, long-distance stays or stores. As excited as he is, starting heel now would take much longer.
On film
Neos going into like the service dog work so we're just tightening up on the obedience first making sure it's really really solid and like the in-home stuff
before we do any introduction to heel or like long distance down and stays or sit and stays or big like store situations because if we jump right to that then the foundation won't be done
pretty excited so if I was trying to get him to just start learning heel and all that it would take me a lot longer get all the basics done first the loose
Stormy
In Stormy's third private lesson the owners learn loose-leash walking in phases: U-turns, then sporadic direction changes, then maintenance. The trainer says why walking comes before positions. A dog who goes with pressure can be put into a sit or down with a touch; a dog who braces turns every position into a fight. By the second phase Stormy stops bracing, and the trainer points out that teaching with pressure is getting easier. Over the lessons the leash becomes something to get used to, then a way to communicate, then a teaching tool, and finally a prop.
On film
because it makes it easier to teach them everything else if when they feel pressure they go with it
with it right and so you can see now that it's becoming easier to teach with the pressure now
just using the leash at first and then eventually the leash just becomes a prop
Chunk
Chunk is a bully with a basic grasp of most commands. His trainer explains at a session and again to the owners why heel has not started. Heel is the most unnatural command and always taught last. It waits until the dog gives to pressure, and a bully may first need to be taught what pressure means at all. Heel on a dog who does not yield is 'miserable'; on one who does, 'dare i say an enjoyable process'.
On film
whereas if you already conditioned them to like yield to the pressure then teaching the heel can be dare i say an enjoyable process
the heel we're gonna start working on that soon because heel is one of those things where i need the dog to know what pressure means
so i try to make sure everything's like looking really good before we go into it because if the obedience is kind of like so so then it makes it a lot trickier
Lunna
Lunna hears commands and cannot hold them once she is excited. Her lead trainer tells the owner at the first lesson that impulse control is the program's focus for now. He normally introduces the down and heel only once impulse control is good, because heeling a dog who is not focused on you is miserable for both. The film is less tidy. On her first day another handler is already showing her the down, and a later session is still guiding it, with the guidance to be faded before the program ends.
On film
bit later once the impulse control is good and we can start to really like work on things and be
Good girl, do you wanna learn to down?
isn't her favorite, so we're still guiding a little bit. We're going to fade off that
Levi
On her first session with Levi, his handler names three phases and a rough timetable: learning now, clarity next week, proofing in week three or four. Distractions, duration and distance are added only in proofing. Her reason is that people think a dog knows something when it was never made clear, and punish him for the wrong things. She keeps the walk to three skills because Levi is new. When sits fail under distraction she notes that a new command should not be taught there.
On film
we want Levi to know clarity consistency and most importantly just clarity because sometimes
phase second one is a clarity and then the third is the proofing phase and he's
next week we can be in the clarity phase and then either week three or four the
Thumper
Thumper's trainers use the stages as live grades. His 'okay' release is judged still in clarification because he took it when the trainer moved but not when she only said the word. Come under distraction is in clarifying; sit is in proofing. Proofing is spelled out as distance, duration, distractions, context and client, and the cue has to hold for the owner too. A coach tells his handler to get off the leash-helping phase and onto the e-collar as quickly as possible for the recall.
On film
Okay is in the clarification stage because I had to move for him to take it.
are working on his distance, durations, distractions, context, and the last C is for client proofing,
leash helping phase as quickly as you can and get it pair it with the e-collar right away as soon as
Anna
Anna is a very nervous dog. She submits when strangers pet her, bolts out of the car, has nerves everywhere. Her handler says they do not address it all at once. Once she can take some pressure and knows what to do, the next nervous behaviour is taken on: here, a short leash so she learns she cannot bolt when startled. Her handler compares it to people: try to beat every fear at once and you never get over anything. A later session expects her nerves to resolve very slowly across the whole program.
On film
Of course, when we train a nervous dog, we do not introduce all of this at once.
where I can put some pressure on her
That's how you build up with trauma
it should be a issue that's going to have to be resolved very slowly throughout the whole program
Astro
Astro bit his trainer more than once under pressure. For him, where pressure goes matters more than how much. The first leash pressure goes on a low-stress sit he already knows. The down is lured with food until the position is easy, and only then is pressure added. Heel, which he does not enjoy, was held back until the relationship work was done.
On film
Well, it's actually perfect because it's a very, like, kind of low-stress thing
because sometimes he has a bad response to pressure.
to work him with the lure and then once he has the position real nice then I'll
recently because I wanted to get through some of the
Why it works
As the trainers explain it: each layer is what the next one is taught with. A dog who gives to the leash can be shown a sit or down with a touch, so pressure never has to escalate (Stormy). Heel is the least natural command and is built entirely from pressure and focus, so it waits for both (Chunk, Lunna, Neo). Clarity comes before correction because a dog punished for a word he never understood learns nothing useful (Levi). Pressure onto a known cue lets the dog resolve it quickly; onto a new cue it can overwhelm him (Astro). With nervous dogs, adding every fear at once entrenches them, the way it would a person (Anna). Stacking new behaviours in one session can leave a dog suppressed (Bun).
On film
because it makes it easier to teach them everything else if when they feel pressure they go with it
so it's always the last command that i teach them yeah um and i think it's the most unnatural command for a dog
know it because it wasn't clear so then people just punish them for the wrong
That's how you build up with trauma
Inferred
No film compares one order with another.
Where the trainers differ
Whether the down waits for impulse control
One view
The lead trainer holds the down and heel back until the dog can concentrate
On film
most most of the time with the down in the heel i don't typically introduce that until a little
Another view
The film shows another handler starting the down on day one, and it is still guided weeks later
On film
Good girl, do you wanna learn to down?
isn't her favorite, so we're still guiding a little bit. We're going to fade off that
How to read it
Lunna's arc resolves it as 'down worked from the start; heel may have waited'. The lead trainer's sentence is hedged ('typically'), and he says in the same breath that Claudia was doing much of the work.
How fast to leave the leash-helping phase
One view
Get off leash help and pair the cue with the collar right away
On film
leash helping phase as quickly as you can and get it pair it with the e-collar right away as soon as
Another view
A week or more in each phase, proofing in week three or four
On film
next week we can be in the clarity phase and then either week three or four the
How to read it
Not a direct disagreement, but the pace differs: one coach wants the recall moved from leash to collar as soon as possible; Levi's handler budgets a week per phase.
Common owner mistakes
- Punishing a dog for a command that was never made clear, because it looked like he knew it.
On film
what people do is they think a dog knows something but the dog doesn't really
Watch at 10:50 ↗ - Starting heel on a dog who does not yet give to the leash.
On film
which is for a dog like him or really dogs in general i would say like him because like he's a bully so his tendency is to be like nah i'm not doing that but dogs in general right like if they're not yielding to the least pressure then trying to teach a heel is really gonna be miserable
Watch at 12:07 ↗ - Trying to fix all of a nervous dog's fears at once.
On film
Like with people, you don't just go and try to
Watch at 3:26 ↗
Questions owners ask
Why hasn't the trainer started heel yet?
Because on film heel is taught last. Chunk's trainer calls it the most unnatural command for a dog. It waits until the dog gives to leash pressure, and Lunna's trainer adds until she can focus, because heeling a dog who is not ready is miserable for both of you.
On film
so it's always the last command that i teach them yeah um and i think it's the most unnatural command for a dog
to do is teach a dog a heel while it's like not focused on you it's one of the most miserable
What should I teach first?
Walking without pulling and giving to the leash. Neo's trainer puts loose leash, focus, sit and a basic stay, and yielding to pressure before heel, long stays or stores. Stormy's trainer says a dog who goes with the leash can then be taught everything else easily.
On film
before we do any introduction to heel or like long distance down and stays or sit and stays or big like store situations because if we jump right to that then the foundation won't be done
because it makes it easier to teach them everything else if when they feel pressure they go with it
My dog is nervous about lots of things. Where do I start?
With one. Anna's handler takes her fears one at a time and moves to the next only when she can take some pressure and knows what to do. Trying to beat all of them at once, she says, is how fear becomes something the dog never gets over.
On film
So we can't introduce that all at once, but she's getting some confidence now to where
What does 'proofing' mean?
The last phase of teaching a command, after the dog has learned it and it has been made clear. Levi's handler adds distractions, duration and distance there. Thumper's trainer adds context and the client: it has to work for you, not just for the trainer.
On film
proofing phase during the proofing phase we add more distractions durations and
are working on his distance, durations, distractions, context, and the last C is for client proofing,
The lesson
The goal
The owner can lay out the order of a program (walk, yield, positions, heel) and the phases of one command (learning, clarity, proofing), and knows why each step waits for the one before.
Learn first
The drill
[object Object]
Watch out for
- Starting heel before the dog yields to the leash.
- Adding distraction to a command that is not yet clear.
- Introducing several new things in one session.
- Treating a command as proofed when it only works for the trainer.
Check yourself
Your dog sits every time in the kitchen and never at the park. Which phase is the sit in, and what do you add first?