A command that was working has stopped, and her handler starts to suspect she is dodging it. He stops himself, drops the word and simply guides her into the position with the leash, and the command comes back: it had come loose, and the dog had not. Minutes later he runs the same test on another command and gets the opposite answer. She hauls against his hand with her neck, and that tells him she knows exactly what is being asked. The same visible failure gets two diagnoses and two opposite responses. Telling them apart is the skill this chapter is about.
do sometimes is sometimes when the dog uh does a command and I teach a couple other commands. We come back to it like to heal in this case. Um I try not to assume that the dog is just like actively avoiding doing what I want him to do.
second time she's done it. She did this for me on a down the other time too where it's like all of a sudden she's just acting like she didn't know how to do it.
The chapter in one paragraph
Diagnosis comes before technique. The trainers do not read a dog's feelings from general impressions. They watch a few small things against that dog's own normal (how he sniffs, where his tail sits, whether he shakes off, freezes or pauses), and every read ends in a decision to carry on, ease off or stop. A dog who did not understand and a dog who declined look the same and need opposite answers, and a dog who cannot, a dog trying alternatives and a dog who was startled look like them too. So the trainers classify before they react, and when they cannot tell, they help rather than press. They judge the work by the dog's attitude as much as by his position: a correct position from a flat, scared dog counts as a failure. When a command fails, the first suspect is the person holding the leash, including his timing, his word, his equipment, his nerves, where he stands and how he sounds, all of which the dog feels as pressure. No dog is spiteful. There is always a reason, and finding it is the work, but a no-fault finding never lowers the standard. Breed, finally, is a list of things to check, not a verdict.
Principles
Read the dog against his own normal. Watch a few small things (the shape of his sniffing, where his tail sits, a shake-off, a freeze, a pause) and let each read decide whether to carry on, ease off or stop.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
their tail's a little low right now so we need to wind down because she thinks out here means sucky experience every time it's not good
And like, what kind of sniffing are we looking at here? And we'll only know that by what's opened up afterwards. Does he sniff in kind of like a curved arc and go and sniff things?
what I've been really just trying to get him to do is just sniff everything. Because if he's sniffing, he's comfortable.
So, it's like a coping mechanism where they shake the stress off.
When they're under unhealthy stress, you see a bunch of, like, bad fallout signs where they freeze up and they're, like, suppressed really over much and they're doing a bunch of weird stuff.
Concepts: Reading the dog
Exceptions
- One sign is not a translation. Finn's pupils are 'always dilated', so they tell his trainer nothing (watch 16:05).
How a dog feels governs how well he learns, so the read comes before the command. In one program the dog's emotional state is scored every session and reviewed with the skill grades.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
Yeah, the emotional state of the dog is like God. It is all important. I worship
else how they're feeling their emotional state dictates how well they're going to be able to
we tracked the emotional state across every session to see how their emotional state is in each session and that was one of the things I noticed in the data was that the emotional state was lower inside than outside
Concepts: Reading the dog
Exceptions
- Could be literally nothing, could be very little, could be the wrong lesson, could be slowly, it all depends on the dog in front of you.' Bullet's trainer ('a useless endeavor') and Egg's trainer ('They can still learn') each describe one point on that range.
A dog who did not understand and a dog who declined look the same and need opposite answers. Read the understanding, not the outcome. A dog who is trying and falling short gets help. A dog who knew and chose otherwise gets the marker and a consequence. When you cannot tell, help.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
and because I saw he was trying because he sat if he had just sat and then looked at me he's trying to do what you asked him but not quite getting there all the way so then I don't go and punish that I just kind of go okay all the way buddy
When I say let's go and he gave me that look, and that's the look That's not the look of like, "I don't know what that means." That's the look of like that's that like blowing you off look.
If you're not careful you can hand poison a command thinking that they're being tough because they have this like kind of look and they're very confident so when you see them like lock up sometimes you're like oh he's just being stubborn but genuinely they can be kind of confused sometimes
didn't want to do it right because he knows it and he was clearly engaged with me like he was was looking at me he was paying attention he wasn't distracted he just was refusing
encourage I cheerlead a little bit and then she comes oh then she's like oh and she speeds up and comes because you don't want to punish like uncertainty
Concepts: Help it or press it - read which
Exceptions
- A dog confused between two positions he learned by hand gets hands, not the collar: 'don't need collar just just pull him up' (Deuce, watch 23:30).
There are more than two readings. The dog may be unable rather than unwilling. He may be running through everything that ever worked. He may never have learned what pressure is asking. He may have had a reflex, which is not corrected. Or he may be processing, and should be given time.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
Permit means like basically like you can't, right? I'm I'm not permitted to do this. I it's not within my ability at this time. So, genuinely, it was not within her ability. So, I instead was doing shorter times.
She's trying alternative strategies.
so the thing with both the roddies i'm working with right now is they have an interesting tendency of like or not tendency they both have the background of like seeming like they don't have a ton of like real world experience in terms of handling pressure
It's just a reaction. That was a reflex.
You can see he suppressed a little bit there, and I could tell he was processing.
Concepts: Help it or press it - read which
Exceptions
- Nobody gives a rule for choosing between readings when the dog's face is ambiguous.
When unsure, run the leash test. Stop saying the word and put the dog into the position with the leash. If he slides in, the problem was clarity. If he braces and hauls against it with his neck, he knew and is avoiding.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
do sometimes is sometimes when the dog uh does a command and I teach a couple other commands. We come back to it like to heal in this case. Um I try not to assume that the dog is just like actively avoiding doing what I want him to do. So, what I'll do is I stop saying the word and I just start doing the position with the leash.
second time she's done it. She did this for me on a down the other time too where it's like all of a sudden she's just acting like she didn't know how to do it. She's like really yanking on me there with her neck which tells me like she kind of knows what's going on and she's just avoiding because she's like I just really don't want to do this.
Concepts: Help it or press it - read which
Happy is the proof. The trainers judge the training by how the dog looks while he works and just after he is released. A correct position from a flat, sad or scared dog counts as a failure.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
could i get obedience out of it yeah sure i could teach him obedience but how would it look it would look gross it would look disgusting um it would look sad right
We want a happy-looking dog, ideally. So the happier your dog looks, that's the proof. The proof's in the pudding.
one that he's becoming very proficient in the commands. But number two, and and this is actually bigger because this is what makes him able to learn and be proficient in the commands. Notice his attitude even when and if I have to use some negative reinforcement to get him to do something.
impulse control just needs more like refining i can't just like i mean you can make a dog having like perfect impulse control in a week but it's also like not humane i'm not like about yeah because you also have to like take away their personality to do it
i'll tell you what that is though it's generalized suppression that's all it is so like i and you you can make it look like the dog's trained because they're suppressed
having a lot of positive reinforcement after you can end up with a dog that listens they're compliant yay but they're flat yeah they're flat and they're sad right
Concepts: Attitude is the leading indicator
Exceptions
- It is not a ban on pressure. In the same breath Kelton says it 'does not mean that we don't use negative reinforcement or we don't require them to do things' (watch 02:13).
- The first rep of a new technique is taken ugly and named as ugly (Bo, watch 11:06). The bar seems to apply to the finished behaviour, not to a technique being introduced. Nobody states that as a rule.
- Nobody on film says how flat is too flat, or tests the look against later outcomes.
The dog's immediate response tells you what happened. A dog who understood a position bursts out of it on the release. A correction or a reward worked only if it looks as though it did.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
Yep, he understood. That's how you know he understood that he was supposed to be in a certain position, namely the heel, is if you say okay and he he sprints out of it.
Um, essentially, if you want to know, all right, was the dog penalized or not, you need to think uh about only one factor. Does it look like it?
and when i stopped he stopped and looked up at me like am i doing it right and i confirmed with an okay and tossed the ball for him
Concepts: Attitude is the leading indicator
Exceptions
- A flat release has two readings from the same trainer: suppression, or a release word the dog has not learned well. It is carried under conflicts.
- Roxy's arc treats 'does it look like it' as a prompt to watch the immediate response, not as proof of lasting change.
When a command fails, the handler is the first suspect: his timing, his word, his body, his equipment, his criteria and where he chose to ask. The trainers name their own errors on camera, often with the client standing there.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
I'm dumb I messed it up not you never blame the dog good girl never blame the
I might have been a little bit too high on the criteria end there.
a handler error there see how i reach for the pocket see what happens to his eyes when i reach for it i'll have it um i reached too early before i gave him the the okay so then he thought he was done so that's why he pulled out wiley that wasn't really fair to him
little mistake right there. So we're all prone to mistakes. So if
that is e-collar i made it a little lit too loose because i wanted to make sure it was comfortable for him and it slid around the bottom and it's not making contact like it should
the last thing I want to do I think about like dog training is that you are like kind of experimenting the whole time you train a dog
Concepts: The handler is the first suspect
Exceptions
- The same practice names two opposite errors, being too hard or fast and quitting too soon, and gives no rule for telling which one is happening. Carried under conflicts.
Your leash, your nerves and your voice are part of what your dog is reacting to. A tight line held back from something the dog wants builds frustration. An owner who prepares for a trigger turns it into an event. So keep the leash loose, do nothing in advance, and answer only what the dog actually does.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
I'm putting tension on the situation he's like why is they pulling me back right and then I want to get there so it makes frustration that's how we train protection dogs we train them by frustrating them with the leash we don't let them get to the thing they want
if there's tension on the leash then it's harder to know for sure why they're reacting that way because if you have a dog pulled back and you've tightened up the leash and you're feeling nervous about it then they're gonna be like oh what's going on and so then it creates frustration
you do nothing unless he does something you're giving him a choice point so he's choosing how to react and you wait until he reacts a certain way you don't try to manage it ahead of time
of him and so they walk up with that fear and he feels it and then he goes what's wrong with you
So, from Bose's perspective, um, what is communication to him? It's not rational language. It's like a sound, but then there's other stuff, right? Plus the sound, right? So, they respond to like body language cues. They respond to um like vibe almost, right?
and i think they can feel it
Concepts: The handler is a variable: nerves, tension, voice and energy
Exceptions
- The trainers use the same restraint on purpose to build protection dogs. Both sides agree restraint builds drive. The question is when that is wanted.
- No one on film gives an owner a technique for changing their own nerves. The instructions are all about the leash, the eyes, the voice and the walk.
Where you stand, how close you step and how you sound are pressure, as real as a leash or a collar. The trainers add social pressure to back a known command, and take it away when it is what is making a nervous dog break.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
So you could be adding more pressure with an e-collar or with a leash or with social pressure because Marvin's really sensitive to it.
I go, you ignored me, so I'm going to add social pressure.
like i didn't push the button or anything i just got in his face and he was like yeah you better do it right and he was like okay
But if you're annoyed with bubblegum, that's going to make a bigger impact on her because of the relationship.
give her a little space, okay? She keeps avoiding you. That's why she's trying to get off, right?
Concepts: Social pressure
Exceptions
- Length matters as well as intensity. One sentence of being told off is not the same as several minutes of it (Zeus, watch 42:44; Roxy).
No dog is spiteful. A dog can do things that are really not good, but there is always another reason, and finding it is the work. A no-fault finding never removes the demand that follows. The trainers keep the standard and drop the grievance.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
in this case like it doesn't have to be personal like he didn't do anything horrifying he didn't do anything bad he wasn't trying to be mean to me or hurt me or do anything he should he was just trying to get out of the pressure
so there's no reason to get upset about that just kind of like move them around and be calm it's not like he mouthed me or did anything bad um so you can just keep it super neutral and non-personal and just show them the
look whose fault is that right sure ain't the dog's fault right and it's not the neighbor's fault and in in many ways in this case I don't think it's the owners fault either
I don't think that you guys did anything to be very frank nor do I think any traumatic events caused this I think this is very likely his genetic makeup
you did everything right except he chose to not he chose to act out and you gave in that's what happened
happen but it's like 98% of dogs are not stubborn it's a real statistic look it up
Concepts: Nobody is at fault; it isn't personal
Exceptions
- Nobody explains how the handler's neutrality changes the dog. The stated reason for it is practical: anger is what makes a handler escalate.
Breed is a list of things to check, not a verdict. The trainers name a breed's reputation, test each item against the dog in front of them, strike off what he does not show, and hedge the rest.
Shown, not saidOn film
there we go so kings of course is shepherd so he's stupid smart sometimes the biggest problem with shepherds is just too smart for their own good they're so smart that and neurotic of course
i feel like maybe i shouldn't say that out loud because he may show me some heavy signs of neuroticism at some point
That's what I mean right there That was not disobedience This is being slow You gotta give him time.
The easiest dog for me to train, like the easiest possible in my personal opinion, reactive or not, to me it does not make a difference.
I don't know. He's a terrier of some kind.
Concepts: Breed is a checklist, not a verdict
Exceptions
- Nobody says that breed is a prior to check rather than a prediction. The trainers behave that way, which is why this principle is marked demonstrated.
- Temperament type (anxious or amped) does more work in shaping a program than breed does (Sage, watch 05:28). A related dog the trainers have worked is a sharper guide than breed (Dutchess).
In heat, the dog's body sets the session. Work in shade, keep it short, and stop when he drools, pants hard, slows or stops paying attention.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
he's just working um if he were to like start drooling or anything we would be done immediately
i'm tired but you know i can put up with a lot more than the dog can in terms of once they're actually hot they're done
it's funny you really have to think about their biological um status like like and and like how their psychological status is affecting their biological status
Concepts: Heat is a stop sign
A dog who seems not to care about a correction may be panicking, may not feel it, may need it repeated rather than raised, or may be avoiding on purpose. Check the tool and read the body before changing anything.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
Yeah, because I can do lots of other stuff through, like, concepts, because one of the things that he struggles with is, um, is that when he freezes and panics like that, all of the thoughts go out the window,
arbitrary rule where i like they must always do what i say like sometimes they're not ready for it and if you discern that you need to lay off um but if they know it and they just don't want to do it then that's a completely different story
Resilience of like you can take one and not really care. I Give her a couple inches like all right fine
Concepts: Eating the correction, and avoidance as a tactic
Exceptions
- The e-collar side of this (fit before level, what the number means) is chapter 7's.
What owners are told
Learn your dog's normal tail, sniffing and body, and act when they change. If his tail drops or he stops sniffing, stop asking and walk him until he opens back up. Before you correct anything, ask whether it looks as though he knows what you want. If he is trying, help him the rest of the way. If he knew and chose otherwise, use your marker and follow through. If you can't tell, stop saying the word and guide him into the position. Watch the dog, not the position: a bounce or a burst on the release is good, and sinking, freezing or no change is a warning. When it goes wrong, check yourself first: your hands before your word, the word you used, the collar's fit, the place you chose. Keep the leash loose near triggers and do nothing in advance. He is not being spiteful, and it is not your fault, but the fix is still yours to keep.
On film
the ready command, you're just going to want to make it very clear. So most of dog training is about clarity, right? So, uh, clarity to them, not to you. It might be super clear to you cause you know what you're trying to say, but they're not telepathic.
cared about any dogs we walk by at all so um your reaction a lot of times controls his reaction
better communication from your side no doubt that's nearly always the case so i want to teach
If it does, success. If it does not, it it didn't work.
What trainers know
Each read drives a decision. The shape of the sniffing is the live measure of a fearful dog. A tail below its baseline ends the exercise and starts the repair. A shake-off after a rep is the target, while a freeze, heavy suppression or odd behaviour is handler error. A visible deliberation that ends in compliance means the pressure was right. With a dog who has bitten, read the face hard and treat a repeated freeze at the same trigger as the warning. Score the emotional state every session and review it for blocks. The first command in a hard place is unreliable, so tune up in a quiet corner first. Classify every failed rep before acting: confused, declining, unable, trying alternatives, never taught pressure, reflex, processing or bored. Hands are the tool for confusion, and the marker is kept for declining. Firmness scales with how well the dog knows the behaviour. Protect the release, and don't spend the dog's post-release happiness on your own convenience. Say out loud when a tool was not used, so a head shake is not blamed on it. Check handler timing, word, equipment, setting and criteria before the dog, and refuse credit for an anticipated rep. Evaluate reactions on a loose line only. Handle a dog with a bite history like a normal dog, with no hesitation. Train in a normal voice so the client's voice transfers. 'Stubborn' is not used as a label.
On film
really hard at the dog's facial expressions make sure you're reading them properly
just hi deuce hi buddy hey so we're gonna have to tune him up so he may
huh, well all of a sudden Bo's mood of Yay, I got released happiness from the down gets messed up and if that gets messed up then what happens? Well They learn the down slower, right? Because the release command wasn't real.
And And I don't know why he's shaking his head. I did not use the e-collar or anything else. He He did that without any kind of pressure.
oh he's kind of unfixated so that like I mean if I wanted to be like dishonest on the video right okay because he like ran the second I said it but it was actually i could tell he started moving either way like even before
so one of the main things is if you act funny like he's gonna do something Yeah, then he's gonna be like what's up? Why why are you acting like that? Do we have a problem?
In the dogs
Luna
Her tail, judged against her own normal, decides one session twice. When it drops, the down is abandoned and she is walked until it comes back, and only then is anything asked again.
On film
you see the tail is a lot more like she her tail kind of flops down but for a second it was like lower than usual so i wanted to make sure we open her back up
Finn
A fear case whose progress is reported through one observable, the shape of his sniffing. His family is told plainly that nothing they did caused his fear.
On film
I'm liking this really active sniffing good he's starting to see walks I can tell as much more of an exploratory
Bo
The confused-or-refusing fork is set out at his go-home. Attitude under negative reinforcement is named as 'bigger' than proficiency. In a busy store a run of failed heels is put down to the trainer's own criteria, and clean heels follow once he lowers the bar.
On film
or not? Um, and try to read, does it look like he understands what you want or does it look like he wants to know what he's supposed to do, but he's maybe like a little little confused about it if you see that just help him right
Stormie
Connor runs the leash test on camera and gets both answers in one session: one command has come loose, and on another she hauls against his hand. On her go-home morning he reads her shake-off and her visible pause as feedback on his own pressure.
On film
so you can see she's kind of like thinking about it all right you're good yeah she's thinking about it she's like should i get up
Kodak
The happy-dog standard is stated as the reason not to drill a frightened dog. Kelton classifies Kodak's jumping and leash-grabbing under pressure out loud as escape, not malice, and traces a failed cue to a collar he had loosened himself.
On film
yeah it would be be really, really sad, depressed-looking, forced-looking obedience. And man, we don't want that.
Drago
The standard applied to the trainers' own results. At the go-home the family is told Drago had been 'a little too suppressed' for five days with the trainer and some colleagues, and was moved to a flat collar. The go-home video shows him rolling and playing.
On film
to see it i had a little bit of an issue with him only in the last like five days and this was one of the issues that was existing a little bit of an issue with him where he was with me specifically and um and sometimes with a couple of our other trainers he was a little too suppressed
Lola
A nervous dog. The trainer reads her emotional state on each recall and cheerleads uncertainty rather than punishing it. When she keeps leaving her cot, the adult moves the child standing too close.
On film
Right. Because what I'm looking for is emotional state. I'm looking at her emotional state and changing based on that.
Zeus
Kelton demonstrates, on a tight line with another dog in view, how owners build reactivity by accident. His heavy frame earns patience in the down, and his arrival reputation for aggression is later read as insecurity.
On film
He was just insecure, bro. I actually think that he was very insecure.
Dutchess
The trainer stops a session to define 'permit'. She was trying to hold the stay and could not, so the exercise is made shorter, not firmer. On her last day he grades his own rep down for needing the collar.
On film
Not perfect because I did have to eat collar. But once you got in the command I stepped away
Akira
On day one she was 'stubborn'. On day two the trainer tells the family she is incredibly smart and is simply trying every strategy that has ever worked for her.
On film
She's actually incredibly smart,
Mazi
A young Rottweiler first read as tough ('she feels it, she just kinda doesn't care'). Within a week she is re-read as a dog who never learned how to handle pressure, and the handling changes with the reading.
On film
I mean, she feels it, she just kinda doesn't care.
King
Four minutes into his first session Kelton lists the shepherd reputation out loud, strikes off what King does not show, and hedges the rest.
On film
the good thing is he doesn't seem to be so impulse heavy like distracted like some shepherds where they're like i'm gonna just run up to you so we're not gonna have to work on that so much with him
Reaper
A dog with a bite history and frightened neighbours. The trainer refuses blame in every direction (not the dog, not the neighbour, not the owner who inherited it) and goes straight to what has to change.
On film
in this particular case the owner who saw training was the second owner right so he inherited this issue already in full swing
Max
Christian shows the family what he does when Max ignores a cue he knows: he steps in front and gets firm, and on a later rep that alone is enough.
On film
so I kind of get in front max down okay and I'm firm about okay
Where the trainers differ
On film
Yep, he understood. That's how you know he understood that he was supposed to be in a certain position, namely the heel, is if you say okay and he he sprints out of it. Otherwise, you're probably just working with generalized suppression, which is not what you want.
On film
if you don't see an excited dog obviously that's gonna be relative depending on the dog right so you might see like ace lake is like boom right but if you don't see at least something some kind of change when you release them then perhaps they don't actually they don't actually know their release command that well right
On film
the only reason that that would turn into a habit is if it worked
On film
There's normally an emotional component, so like what's the dog's emotional state, and then there is a clarity response.
On film
conversely if it looks like he did know what you wanted him to do and he just ain't doing it because he don't want to because he's sniffing something doing something else and he doesn't recall cuz of that then I'm gonna use the word that predicts that something bad will happen next if he doesn't listen
that's the perfect time to just use a little bit of negative reinforcement make him do it
On film
sometimes it actually ends up being the right way to do it because sometimes it's worth doing it the wrong way if or letting something go if their emotional state stays high right because then if you do that then later on you can fix it right once things are clear
On film
so that was forcing him into it even though in the distraction which he really needed
that buddy I don't want to do that to you
On film
Tried to increase a little bit of duration there. Might have been a little early
On film
but do like put a little bit like what I did
On film
and I'm saying them quietly because apparently she's really like receptive to them
On film
you got to be really persistent really high energy yet if you're not really high energy then it's not gonna work
On film
you do nothing unless he does something you're giving him a choice point so he's choosing how to react
On film
just needs to like not care as much as you don't care which means like you really need to make sure you don't care about it
As a course unit
The learner can read a dog's state against his own baseline and turn each read into a decision, classify a failed repetition before reacting (running the leash test when unsure), score a rep for the dog's look as well as the position, check his own timing, word, equipment, setting and leash before blaming the dog, and turn a breed label into testable predictions.
Lessons, in order
- Reading the dog
- Heat is a stop sign
- Help it or press it - read which
- Attitude is the leading indicator
- The handler is the first suspect
- The handler is a variable: nerves, tension, voice and energy
- Social pressure
- Nobody is at fault; it isn't personal
- Eating the correction, and avoidance as a tactic
- Breed is a checklist, not a verdict
Drills
- The tail check, as run on Luna: during a session watch the tail against its usual carriage. When it drops, stop the exercise, walk and let the dog sniff, and confirm the tail has come back before asking again.
- Classify aloud, assembled from the handovers: on every failure, say your classification and the evidence before you act. Confused gets hands and words ('all the way, buddy'). Declining gets the marker and follow-through. Unable gets a shorter version. When you cannot classify, drop the word and produce the position with the leash.
- Score twice, from the happy-is-the-proof lesson: for each rep, record whether the position happened, and separately what the dog did during it and in the seconds after the release, using only signs named on film.
- Film yourself, as Wiley's trainer caught himself: watch a short session back for any hand, arm or pocket movement that comes before your word.
- No-show it, as given at Max's go-home: when a dog or car approaches, keep walking at the same pace with a loose leash and your eyes ahead. Don't say his name, reach for treats or stop. Answer only what he does.
- The breed checklist, as done with King: write down the traits the breed is supposed to have, test each in the first sessions, and act only on the ones you see.
Assessment
- Your dog stops sniffing and his tail drops halfway through a walk. What do you stop doing, and what do you wait for before you ask again?
- You ask for a down. The dog sits, holds it and stares at you. What do you do, and why?
- A dog goes into a down on cue, holds it, and on release gets up looking exactly as before. What two explanations do the trainers give, and what else would you need to see?
- Your dog broke his sit the moment you reached for the treat. Whose error was it, and what do you change on the next repetition?
- Your dog breaks a down every time your partner walks past. Before correcting him, what do you change?
- Your dog grabs the leash and spins when you correct him. What is he trying to get, and what do you do next?
The ideas it draws on
- Reading the dog
- Help it or press it - read which
- Attitude is the leading indicator
- The handler is the first suspect
- The handler is a variable: nerves, tension, voice and energy
- Social pressure
- Nobody is at fault; it isn't personal
- Breed is a checklist, not a verdict
- Heat is a stop sign
- Eating the correction, and avoidance as a tactic