A trainer sits two owners down and tells them their dog is not disobedient and not frightened. She simply never learned what any moment was for. Their older dog had worked the household out on his own. She had not, so bedtime and playtime looked the same to her.
roxy had no idea at all of any context For her, any context could be the top left, the find your own fun level, any context. It could be in the house. It could be when you're trying to go to sleep. It could be literally any time.
The chapter in one paragraph
Most of a dog's life is spent loose in a house with nobody asking anything, and that is where most families' trouble lives. The trainers give owners a map for it: a dog is always in one of four windows (his own fun, fun with you, work, or calm liberty), a framework they credit to Jay Jack, another trainer, of Next Level Dogs. The window most dogs are missing is calm liberty: free, nothing asked, settled anyway. When a loose dog gets it wrong there, the answer taught to family after family is to tell him to stop, back it up, give no command before or after, and leave him free; reaching for sit, down or place every time is 'band-aiding it with obedience', and the price is commanding the dog for the rest of his life. A household forbids a few named things, chosen by the family, and allows everything else. Place is a raised spot with one physical rule (four paws up), a choice rather than a lock; the hold ends on a criterion, not a clock: the dog lies down on his own and the anxious stare goes, and he is never released while he whines. Every door, gate and crate is a small rep that keeps the rest of the training alive. A high-energy dog gets a real daily outlet first, because calm is only available once the energy has gone somewhere. A word can be conditioned to relax him, and place is proofed against the knocks, the people walking in, the handler sitting down and leaving, and the long dull evening he will actually face. Kelton's house position on the place cot is that it is both: a great tool for settling, impulse control and keeping a dog out of the way, and possibly a band-aid over a broken calm-liberty window. Whether the cot is ever a time-out spot, how much exercise a day, and sit or down at the door are still open.
Principles
A place hold ends when the dog settles (lies down of his own accord and the anxious stare goes), not when a clock runs out, and never while he is whining, circling, barking or staring; the settle is not a commanded down.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
Do not release during whining, circling, barking, or, what's the last one? Anxious staring.
I never do, and when I see people release them during whining, I'm like, you know what you just taught them? You taught them, hey, I'm gonna put you on a place, but don't worry, if you start whining and making more noise, I'll let you go.
We've down and settled as two separate things. The settle was I put them on there and wait for them to lay down on their own. I call that a settle.
they settle, I release it. That way, you're teaching the dog not, hey, I'm going to put you on it for 20 minutes to get them a little more open up to it. You're teaching them this is how you escape the pressure.
if i was to put him in a position then he'll rely on me putting him in the position on the cot for him to be able to settle and do that and he's not actually settling he's just going with the command
um place for a dog like her who impulse control is she's not very gifted with impulse control so making her sit there for five or ten minutes on place is like a whole workout for her because she's having to really try to push to not break the rules
until she's forced to settle i'm not gonna let her go i mean and obviously like after that first week of like getting everything adjusted you can just place her for like a minute it's not like you gotta look every single time for the rest of her life if she's staring right
Concepts: The settle criterion
Exceptions
- The criterion is scoped: it matters most in the first week home, not every placement for life (Dutchess).
- Once the settle is learned, the target duration comes from the household (what the owner needs), and outdoors early on a lower criterion (four paws and attention) is accepted.
- The lie-down is the trainers' visible sign of calm, not a direct measure of it.
- Release at the settle or extend past it is still open (see conflicts).
A dog is always in one of four windows: his own fun, fun with you, work, or calm liberty. When a loose dog gets it wrong in calm liberty, tell him to stop, back it up, give no command before or after, and leave him free; using sit, down or place as the answer to everything is 'band-aiding it with obedience'.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
Um so there's four parts of the window and then that's the whole window. So same thing in the dog's life, there's four contexts. Every part of the dog's life, they're going to be in one of those.
right yeah um the second paradigm is this um you can think of it as windows so um the trainer that i that i learned it from his name is jay jack and um he calls it window theory
so calm Liberty is this You're not in command. I Didn't ask you to sit. I didn't ask you to down. I didn't ask you to place. I didn't actually do anything but you got to be chilled out you can't be you got to be like settled right which is what most people would love to have with their dogs is that they have them in house but they don't have to crate them or put them on place for like seven hours in a row just so that they can like function in the house and have their dog out
I normally just let my dog do whatever she's doing. And then if she does something boneheaded, I just tell her, uh-uh. and then I reinforce I penalize with some kind of punishment and I don't tell her to do anything after that I don't put her on place or tell her to sit her down or anything I don't give her any commands after or before I just tell her to stop
if you then go all right come sit down place da da da you will need to do come sit down place every time throughout the day for the rest of your life with these dogs. It will make you bananas and you will wonder why you called me and like why did we hire a dog trainer if we then like still have to constantly ask our dogs to do things over and over and over and over and over and over again all day.
so they're like say that you have a problem like that even like three years ago i would have been like okay take the dog put them on the place cot teach them to stay on the place cot when you're eating right and it's like well that works but it's a band-aid
The more you micromanage them instead of just letting them make decisions and then providing appropriate consequences, good or bad, the more you will have to micromanage them in the future. But if you let them make decisions and let them have the freedom to do things and then have those consequences applied, they will start to be trustworthy essentially where they make good decisions on their own most of the time.
Concepts: The four windows, and calm liberty
Exceptions
- Severity triage (Bo's lesson): a choice you could live with but want different gets the work window; a dangerous one gets punished (watch 02:52).
- The windows can be cued: 'okay' for free time, 'ready' for play, 'enough' and 'easy' for calm, any command for work; one trainer calls the cues more important to family life than the commands (Oscar, watch 66:27).
- Obedience is not used to cover reactivity or dog-dog conflict (Wrigley, watch 25:59).
- Nobody on film defends four as the right number; the lists differ at the edges.
- How long and how hard the calm-liberty correction should be differs by dog (up to a minute for Bernie's table-stealing; a second and reconcile for Thor; leave her alone once calm for Josephine) and belongs with what-makes-a-correction-fair.
Place is any raised surface the dog stays on until released, and its one rule is physical: all four paws up, any position unless one is asked for. The raised edge lets the dog check the rule himself, and place is a choice rather than a lock, which is what teaches patience.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
say i place him on top of this this mat that'll work because it's not very clear to him if he's on the mat or off the mat like if his feet are off on the other end or he stands up and puts his paws out on the floor it doesn't feel really any different it's not very clear to him where the boundaries are
you can break down something like that don't matter as long as all four paws are on the cot then there's that's it that's that's what the command means um so you don't have to say place and then sit or placing them down unless you want him to do that for some reason
it's really easy for them to distinguish the difference between where you left them and where they went so then if they get off the cot then it's like clear as day to them like why they're getting penalized why they have to go back
there being on the cot is helps them to learn how to be patient because unlike the kennel right or the crate inside the crate they are physically locked in there and they can't come out but here they aren't physically locked in and are able to come out so she makes a decision whether or not she can come off or not
Place can be a secure area for them to feel more relaxed and comfortable.
So you can place on any elevated object, doesn't matter what it is. And Fiona is very good at place.
Concepts: A raised texture, and never a punishment
Exceptions
- Whether place is ever a time-out spot is still open (Bo's crate case against Sputnik's go-home; see conflicts).
- What makes place travel (the same texture, or any elevation) is the trainers' explanation; no session tests one against the other.
A household forbids a few specific things, chosen by the family and said in a sentence everyone can repeat, and lets the dog do everything else without being told.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
most useful is to show them what not to do and then allow everything else yeah teach them to do the things when you ask them to do them
every other lawful action that they want to do they can just do anything and that's how you end up like trusting your dog
she can do anything she wants except for pull right she can play with you she can sniff she can look at stuff she can go see squirrels she can literally do anything as long as she doesn't
So do you want her on you or do you want her to not get on you while you're sitting down?
but the last thing I want to do is like bring a dog back and you're like i love this thing about my dog and i'm like yep i e-collared it out of her
even if you never want them to jump on you, it's better to put it on queue than to just try to punish it all the time because they're going to get through sometimes, right?
is that when you penalize bad options, well, they can't do them anymore.
Concepts: Show what not to do, allow everything else
Exceptions
- Where an owner's safety is at stake the trainer may set one criterion as absolute regardless of preference (Max the goldendoodle, watch 13:54).
- A rule may be put on cue instead of banned (Bo's jumping), or suspended for one named exercise and the suspension said aloud (pulling in Dolce's protection foundation, watch 00:18).
- Before a quirk is trained out, the owner is asked; Luna's pawing was kept as a quirk on the owner's word.
Every door, gate and crate is a small training rep: the dog sits or lies down and waits, goes back if he bursts out, and comes through only on the release word; because it happens many times a day it keeps the rest of the training alive.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
We do that every time in and out of the kennel and every time in and out of the crate.
So if she tries to bust out, I'm just going to make sure she goes back in until she waits.
No, I haven't said okay. Okay, so I want her to wait until I say her release command for her to get out of the crate
ten kennels um every time in and out when when i go to get them out they have to like sit or down and then normally i use down sure and then i put the collars on and then i walk through the gate and release them
Um, so we've been working on like walking in, he has to calm down first, then I put his leash on, he has to stay calm, I open the door, he has to stay calm, you know, so every step of the way, he has to, it takes a little longer right now
all of those places that's where we teach the dogs things as well just in daily life those are opportunities and if you want to maintain their training at the highest level you can utilize those same opportunities
Concepts: Calm at every threshold
Exceptions
- Sit or down at the door is a preference, not a rule: Kelton says sit is fine too and chooses down because it gets practised less (see conflicts).
- For a dog who winds up when someone comes in, the door itself becomes the setup: a helper goes out and comes back in (Titan, watch 00:07).
A high-energy dog can only be calm in the house once his energy has had a daily outlet, usually hard play and not just a stroll, and after go-home giving that outlet is the owner's job.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
that right if he's pent up all day he's not going to want to do this because he's he needs an outlet he needs some type of running or walking or something right
dependent on like honestly it's usually more how much exercise he's gotten like for the day and how bored he might be right because that's usually where destruction comes in is when they get bored right
But the point is, if you don't play with them, you're going to have problems. And it can't just be a simple walk because it won't be enough for him.
sit sit good girl good oh so the thing with the belgian is it's not trying to necessarily calm belgian down it's using play to like to amp them up
back to that level if she doesn't get the sufficient amount of exercise and play she'll go right back to it
same thing with walks if you if you don't give them the the walks in the in the um and the things that the to release her energy she'll end up like being pent up
Concepts: The outlet comes first
Exceptions
- How much exercise a day is still open: the figures on film run from about ten to fifteen minutes (Chunk) to at least about forty (Madam) and thirty minutes to an hour (Apollo the Sharkie), by dog and by speaker (see conflicts).
- Walking itself does real work for some dogs: regular walks brought Lucia's pulling down (watch 00:22). 'Not enough' is said of high-drive dogs.
- The outlet does not replace the settle work; it makes it possible (play first, then positions, for Madam and Chunk).
A word can be conditioned to relax a dog: say 'easy' during a slow rub-down, regularly, until the word alone predicts the relaxation; then use it before handling or when the dog is winding up.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
rub down easy easy good boy easy good because then you can get what's called conditioned relaxation
where you have uh the relaxation more or less on command
easy cue and the purpose of it is a conditioned relaxer right so when you
realized is that you can use in certain circumstances the conditioned relaxer
gonna relax when you're saying easy and so then if you do that on a regular basis which i recommend
just use a conditioned relaxer every time they'll get better and better at it and then you can just
Concepts: 'Easy': the conditioned relaxer
Exceptions
- Not on film: how many pairings it takes, or a test of the word working on a dog who had not just been rubbed.
- At Drago's go-home, 'enough' (stop and chill, enforced) and 'easy' (predicts a massage) are two different routes into calm; whether the relaxer comes from Jay Jack's window theory or is Kelton's addition is not settled.
A dog that holds place in a quiet room has not learned place yet: the trainers proof it against what a house actually does (a knock, someone walking in, the handler sitting down, leaving and coming back) one event at a time, and against the long dull evening he will really face.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
And then progressively we're going to make these kinds of sessions more and more distracting,
So that's just, that's why we do this. Because all you need is somebody walking in for them to start thinking about getting up.
are learning is that just because somebody sits down uh that's not an invitation for them to
Because the entrance is sometimes harder
That's gonna be what it's like when he goes home.
And then you can leave the room and go eat your lunch.
Concepts: Proof place against what really happens at home
Exceptions
- No session shows a doorbell as such, or a family running these proofs at home after go-home.
- Holding place while other dogs play was not trained for Sputnik, and his trainer says so: 'that's almost insanely hard' (watch 20:29).
What owners are told
In the house, give no command at all. Decide the short list of things that are off limits, agree it as a household, and allow everything else. When he does one of them, mark it ('uh-uh', 'nope' or 'enough') and follow it with a real consequence; no place, no down, before or after; then let him go. Judge it by whether he stops at once and stays stopped. Use the window cues so he knows which window he is in. Put place on a raised cot, not a floor bed; the rule is four paws up; put him back every time he steps off before release; do not release while he whines, circles, barks or stares, and release the moment he lies down and relaxes. Use place for real moments: the front door, cooking, meals, the evening show. Before every door, gate and crate, ask for a down or sit and release him through with your word; if he pushes out, put him back. Give a high-energy dog the daily outlet your trainer set, and tie his freedom in the house to it. Say 'easy' with a slow rub-down regularly, then use it before handling. And practise place through the knocks, people walking in, you sitting down and leaving the room, not only when nothing is happening.
On film
is sit, down, place. They band-aid it with obedience. Don't do that. Don't band-aid it with obedience. Instead, just tell them to stop doing that thing.
watching tv maybe here sitting here you can put her on place and just practice that and even when you're eating you should place her um so she can get used to just being at home
doing great okay yeah but i always like think it's always a good practice to keep is like before he comes in so that he doesn't bust in make him do it down
If you don't play ball, you don't play tug, you don't take him on walks, he's going to lose his mind, and he's going to be a menace.
Owner words
On film
does he run to the door if somebody comes oh yeah well we had to actually gate him into the kitchen because it was just out of control
like she stayed we had dinner she stayed there we had dinner and cleaned up and she was still over there and so i released her and she actually played with some toys and went right back to it
What trainers know
Settle: send to place, back up, sit, say nothing, leash slack and locked, pressure only on a break; no release during whining, circling, barking or staring; release on the self-chosen lie-down with the stare gone; note the time; re-earn it in each new place. Whine is read as the current impulse-control ceiling, not distress. Place: raised a few inches with an edge the dog can feel; cot preferred for portability and cooling; four paws is the rule and position is free unless added, so tell the family which version the dog learned; split 'up up' from 'place' if the climb is what sticks; marker then put back, and correct only an actual break; give credit for time served. Build duration first, then one household event at a time, and proof by leaving the room with headphones off to hear a break. Windows: teach the framework at the first owner lesson and credit Jay Jack; test the owner on the dog in front of them ('which window is he in?'); cue each window; in calm liberty, no command at any point, a short private off-limits list, free shaping with punishment, then 'okay' and freedom; size the correction by whether the dog stops and stays stopped for ten to twenty seconds; triage by severity (work window for a choice you can live with, punishment for a dangerous one); deliberately create the choice point; never use obedience to cover reactivity or dog-dog conflict. Rules: ask the family each rule as an either-or and record it; ask before training out a quirk; consider putting a valued behaviour on cue. Thresholds: position held until the release word; break-outs go back in; for an excitable dog each step of the exit waits for calm; create the door trigger with a helper. Outlet: play before training for high-drive dogs, commands inside the game, tie loose freedom to the day's exercise, prescribe more varied walks for a reactive dog walked rarely. Relaxer: 'easy' with a slow rub-down, then before collar on and off. Proofing place: sit down, walk around, knock, walk in, leave and re-enter (re-entry is harder), group holds on tab leashes, evenings that look like home.
On film
right now she's doing the anxious staring as soon as that's gone and she settles down and chills as soon as she like calms down and lays down then get her off
tested like we're testing her threshold the threshold gets higher but every single time you hit that like max threshold she's gonna whine
people that contact me after their dog goes home the problems they're having are not obedience issues they're context problems
actually i could use your help for something real quick could you just like go out one of the doors and then come back in like really like we need to work on like his
In the dogs
Roxy
Kelton tells the family their dog is not disobedient and not frightened; she simply never learned what any moment was for, so bedtime and playtime looked the same to her, while their older dog had worked the household out. The fix is cueing the window the family wants until she puts herself in it, and correcting without commands.
Sage
A senior trainer stops a session to teach a junior handler the one rule that matters, and the dog behind him is doing the anxious stare while he names it.
Astro
On a cot with the television on and another dog beside him, nobody tells him to lie down; when he finally does, the trainer checks the clock: twenty-seven minutes. Back from a refresher he lies calmly beside the vacuum he used to go for, allowed anything except acting crazy toward it.
Stormie
An owner halfway through says she can hear dogs crying in the back; Connor would rather she asked, and explains that five or ten minutes on place is a whole workout for a dog short on impulse control. Her family is asked each house rule as a direct either-or.
Thor
A family who had gated their dog in the kitchen and bought two cots is told the cots are band-aids; the picture they want is a dog who follows them to the door without being told anything. In training Thor holds through the trainer leaving and knocking and tries to get off the moment he walks back in.
Hattie
At a spring fair Kelton tells a stranger that three years ago he would have taught a place-cot stay through dinner, and that it worked and was a band-aid.
Bo
In his crate case Kelton says emphatically that the crate cannot be a place of punishment, 'we don't do time out with the dogs in these cases'; elsewhere his trainer puts jumping up on cue instead of banning it.
Sputnik
At his go-home, after spoiling another dog's play, he is corrected and then put on the place cot to wait before being let back out, the counterpoint that keeps the time-out question open; his trainer is candid that holding place while other dogs play was never trained.
Callie
The family learn that the gated corner she was sent to when she jumped is why she would not go in; the trainer renames it her sanctuary, with time-outs only for the absolutely unacceptable, and at the go-home offers the cot for persistent jumping.
King
Kelton recommends a cot over King's big pillow because it is cooler and its boundary is clear, lists place as planned management when guests come, and tells the family not to answer a bad choice with sit, down or place.
Madam
A staff member trying to calm a young Belgian before training is handed the tug instead; weeks later she walks beside her owner without circling because 'she has a way to get it out'.
Rocky
Group holds on place in the evening while staff watch TV; a staff member sent outside to knock and walk in, because all it takes is someone walking in for a dog to think about getting up.
Murphy
At the go-home Kelton calls himself a stickler for door and gate manners and asks the family to switch from sit to down at the door, because the down gets practised less.
Drago
At his go-home the two routes into calm are laid out: 'enough', which is enforced, and 'easy', which predicts a massage.
Dolly
A husky who pulled like a sled dog is told she may do anything on the walk except pull, and that the one rule is what will get her taken everywhere.
Where the trainers differ
Position
No, at least for the space a dog has to live in: in Bo's crate-guarding case the crate cannot be a place of punishment; Callie's gated area is renamed a sanctuary, with time-outs only for the absolutely unacceptable.
Context
Bo's crate session, a crate-guarding case ('in these cases'); Callie's go-home, about an enclosure.
On film
we're trying to show how you can change his perspective of the the crate right because right now he thinks that the crate is a place where he gets sent for punishment because that's happened to him so we can't send him to the crate for punishment we can't act like these places are punishments for him we don't do time out with the dogs in these cases that's a very very very very bad idea I want to emphasize that
know just feeling feeling happy spaces right no timeouts unless she does something that's absolutely not acceptable
Position
Yes, as a short wait after the correction: Sputnik spoils play, is corrected, waits on the cot, and is let back out.
Context
Sputnik's go-home in the family's yard, a cot used briefly after a correction already given.
On film
Yeah, basically any time you notice something like that happened just cancel Sputnik's fun His fun ends he gets punished the way I punished him the first time and then he gets put on the place cut And he has to wait, but then you let him back out
That was probably a good length of time. We're like nope. Nope. Now you're you're basically punishing him and then putting him in timeout
Position
No: tell him to stop and back it up; do not reach for sit, down or place.
On film
people's first thought is is sit, down, place. They band-aid it with obedience. Don't do that. Don't band-aid it with obedience. Instead, just tell them to stop doing that thing.
Position
Sometimes: if she keeps jumping after 'nope', place her on the cot; place is also one of three options when guests are over.
On film
right nope is the word n-o-p-e is the word that we use and then if she wants to keep doing it because she's excited you can place her on the cot and tell her you know place and she would sit
right you got the kennel the other two options are you can just stick them on place if you really wanted to just be completely out of the way and not have to worry about it at all or the other option is you can let him do what he's doing right and you can enforce calm liberty
Position
About ten to fifteen minutes a day (Chunk's go-home).
On film
he needs around 10 to 15 minutes of exercise a day
Position
At least about forty minutes (Madam); a dog like the Malinois is built for very high activity.
On film
about like 40 minutes of exercise a day at least
have fun with him give him something to do otherwise he will be a lunatic if he's cooped up too much a dog like this is built for really really high levels of activity sometimes three four hours a day
Position
Sit at every door, kennel and crate.
On film
I always make them sit before we go in through the doors.
Position
Down, because sit gets used everywhere anyway and the door keeps the down maintained.
On film
doing great okay yeah but i always like think it's always a good practice to keep is like before he comes in so that he doesn't bust in make him do it down
Position
Release at once, treating the settle like the instant of a down.
On film
Actually, I think that when they lay down, I really feel you should treat that like you're training it down. And like, what I mean by that is, you know how like when you teach it down, the second they go into position, you release them?
Position
Let him settle and go longer, or let him settle for a minute or so and then release.
On film
he's kind of starting to settle a little bit so we're going to let him settle and we're going to do it like a longer duration thing here it's good experience for him
so we'll let him settle for a minute or so and then release
Position
No: a commanded down is reliance, not a settle.
On film
They look like the dog settled, but all they actually just told the dog is down.
Position
The dog should be able to do both; a down stops him trying to come off.
On film
They should be able to do both, putting it down, or you can just let them, just wait and let them settle.
As a course unit
Name which window a dog is in at any moment and cue the one the household wants; answer a wrong choice in calm liberty without a command; run place to the settle criterion on a raised cot and proof it against home life; make every threshold a rep; and set the daily outlet that makes calm possible.
Lessons, in order
- The four windows, and calm liberty
- Show what not to do, allow everything else
- A raised texture, and never a punishment
- The settle criterion
- Proof place against what really happens at home
- Calm at every threshold
- The outlet comes first
- 'Easy': the conditioned relaxer
Drills
- Calm liberty evening (King, Roxy, Bernie, Drago, Oscar): dog loose, no command; two or three off-limits acts decided privately; mark, consequence, no command before or after, 'okay' and freedom once calm; judge by ten to twenty seconds of staying stopped; run 'okay' free time and 'ready' play on purpose too.
- The household rule list (Stormie, Roxy, Angus): ask each rule as an either-or, write down the answer, enforce only the named act every single time (Stormie's imaginary kitchen line).
- Place to the settle (Sage, Anna): send to a raised cot, back up, sit, say nothing; no release during whining, circling, barking or staring; release the moment he lies down on his own and the stare goes; note the time; repeat somewhere new.
- The home-life ladder (Piglet, Thor, Rocky): stand, sit down, walk around, throw a toy, leave and come back, knock, have someone walk in, then add time; reset at the first sign of breaking; some holds are just an ordinary evening.
- Threshold routine (Murphy, Wrigley, Max): at every kennel gate, crate and door, down (or sit), collars on, handler through first, release through; break-outs go back in; for an excitable dog, wait for calm at each step of the exit.
- Outlet first (Chunk, Madam): run off the energy with hard play, positions inside or after the game.
- Conditioned relaxer (Max the goldendoodle, Oscar): after activity, slow rub-down while saying 'easy'; regularly; then 'easy' before the collar goes on or off.
Assessment
In a filmed home session the student states the household's off-limits list and which window the dog is in at each change, answers at least one wrong choice with no command before or after, runs one place hold to the settle criterion and releases within a second of it, adds one household event to a hold, and runs a door with a release-word exit. Failing conditions: releasing during whining or staring, or answering a calm-liberty mistake with sit, down or place as the automatic response.