A trainer is explaining the correction words to Deuce's family, and he has to say them quietly, because the dog they belong to is sitting in front of him and will answer to either one. That is the smallest proof on film that the words are already real to a dog. He makes it by accident, while he is still explaining that they exist.
I'm I'm trying to do it quietly cuz I don't want to say it and then he's like, "I didn't do anything."
The chapter in one paragraph
The family goes home with a handful of words, and each word has one job. The command asks for something. A soft marker ('eh', 'uh-uh') sends the dog back into a command he broke. 'Nope' bans a behaviour outright. 'Good' means keep going, and one release word ('okay', in some programs 'break') ends the work and hands the dog his freedom. Nothing else ends a command. There is no 'stay', because every position holds until the release. The order is fixed: command, marker, then the collar. The word goes first, so the dog gets a free chance to fix it and can tell what the consequence was about. The trainers are just as clear about how words go wrong. A word said with nothing behind it goes flat, like a phone battery. A word that reliably comes before something bad turns into the bad thing. A word said four times comes to mean 'eventually'. And a word the house uses two ways ('come' when you meant 'let's go') stops meaning either. The answers they give are about the handler, not the dog: say it once, name first, in a voice that stands out, before your hands move. Give the dog time. Back the word. Keep 'come' for when you will make it happen. Give behaviours he loves a cue instead of trying to erase them, and make sure everyone in the house, and every trainer, uses the same words.
Principles
The owner's vocabulary is small and every word has one job. 'Eh' (or 'uh-uh') is a soft marker that sends the dog back into a command he broke. 'Nope' marks a behaviour that is never allowed. 'Good' is a duration marker: right, keep going, you are not free yet. 'Okay' is the release. The two correction words look the same from outside, a word and then a tap, but the dog files them differently. So the word, not the tap, carries the meaning.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
So all good is is what's called a duration marker. So good and said like good, not good job, right? Because then they're like and they're going to get up, right?
and again if you say ant verse e-collar and then nope verse e-collar it looks exactly the same except minus like one word to the outside but to her brain she's taking the info as two very different things
the e-collar always comes after a word. So, how does the dog know if it's a reinforcement or a punishment if you don't specify? So, that is why we have two words.
And so it's kind of like a dual reinforcement. Um, and so you saw there I I did the ant with the e-collar
Concepts: The marker vocabulary: eh, good, okay - and two corrections
Exceptions
- The two-word system is dated on film. Early-2026 files use 'nope' for a broken command (Fiona in February, Callie in April), and Cosmo's go-home in August says 'we used to just say nope for everything'. A family that graduated early in 2026 may have been given one correction word.
- Luna's trainer scopes the punishment marker to the dog: a nervous husky who does not do things that warrant 'nope' will barely need it (watch 37:48).
- Louie's trainer (Louie the Aussie) teaches an escalation ladder instead of two meanings: name, then 'nope', then the collar, like a parent counting to three.
- Nobody on film tests whether a dog really tells the two markers apart. Many handlers assert it and none demonstrates it.
Command, marker, collar, always in that order. Say the command once. If the dog does not do it, say the marker (and in most versions the command again). Only then does the collar come, straight after the marker and never at the same moment. The word gives the dog a free chance to fix it. It also tells him where the consequence came from and what it was about. A press with nothing said attaches to whatever he was looking at.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
if you can only take away one thing, one thing from this whole thing, it is that you use the e-collar after the marker.
Same idea with the dogs. It's just the eh-eh is the one, two, three, right? So if that's their chance to be like, oh, sorry, and, like, correct themselves.
Not from here. He doesn't know what this is. This doesn't exist to him. He's never like looked at this ever, right? To him, all that makes any difference is me or you, right?
if you don't say anything you panic and you just crank it up and hit the button that actually works so what she'll say is oh that shot came from this dog which means i gotta get even bigger versus if she hears a verbal cue from you
and then no that was perfect you said at first and then immediately I felt the shock but I heard before I felt the shock right it was a split second but that's that's exactly what you want
Concepts: Command, marker, collar - in that order
Exceptions
- The end of the leash is the one wordless case owners are given: the dog hits the end of the line and the collar lands at that instant, so that the end of the leash itself becomes the boundary (Stormie, Stormi, Chunk, the GSD puppy Shadow, Deuce).
- Marvin's handover makes a no-warning exception for attacking a dog or a person. Dutchess's trainer says the opposite for a fight. This is carried under conflicts.
- Finn's family, with a major flight risk, were told not to.
- The collar is not used to make the behaviour happen, so that the dog is 'not reliant on feeling the e-collar to do the command' (Dolce, watch 14:24).
A correction word has no power of its own. It works because something the dog did not like followed it before. Say it often with nothing behind it and it drains, like a phone battery. The trap comes right after go-home: the word works on its own because the program has just charged it, and that is when owners stop backing it. So back it every time for the first weeks. Never let the beep or the vibrate stand in for the word.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
Um, but that can lose charge, like a battery, over time.
is this has happened to a lot of people i have worked with so i started mentioning it very very bluntly to people um because i found i was not blunt enough
So on the top of the button, you'll probably notice that when you come home, all you have to go is and, and it'll do it.
you gotta do it 95% of the time
I don't ever use that because if you use the vibration, you take away the power from the word.
Concepts: Keep the marker charged
Exceptions
- The e-collar is the easiest, most nuanced and arguably most humane backing, but other aversives can work depending on the dog. That covers Sage's family being told a spray bottle could do, and Zeus's family being told not to swap in the leash.
- How long the every-time phase lasts is given loosely: 'the first few weeks' (Finn), 'the first month' (Roxy).
- A dog who ignores the word gets two opposite readings on film: the word is not finished yet (Louie), or the follow-through was too light (Bo). Nobody states a rule for telling them apart.
There is no 'stay'. Every command holds until the release word, including moving ones such as heel and yield. The command opens a window, and only the release closes it. The release has to mean real freedom, said brightly, and the dog should actually go, because it is the reward for what he just did. It is the word alone that releases him, not the handler stepping away, relaxing or praising.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
You don't have to say stay ever. I don't know if you noticed that, but we don't use stay.
It's a window so that you start the window by saying the command. You don't say it again because the window's open and when you say okay, you close the window.
And like that's what you want to see because that's like a huge reward, right? Um and then it makes that thing that you asked him to do appealing next time.
the release is the sound that i make with my mouth the okay and not the way that i'm standing
Okay is not a command to come to you.
Concepts: There is no stay, only the release, Meaningful release
Exceptions
- Several programs use 'break' instead of 'okay' (Bubba Gum, Dolce in stores, Callie the Rottweiler; Marvin's owners switched to it at go-home).
- Movement may be added to the release while a dog is still learning the word. Connor makes 'okay' big and animated at first and then fades it (Cosmo, watch 03:45).
- If food is used at all, it comes after the 'okay', so the position does not become tied to the treat (Shadow the Siberian Husky, watch 03:15).
- 'Stay' survives as a description ('good on her stay'), never as a cue.
Say it once, loud enough for where the dog is, with his name first and in a voice that stands out from ordinary talk, and before your hands or the leash do anything. Then give him time to hear it, work it out and start. Repeating the word teaches that it means 'eventually', and the implied stay stops working.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
because even though i'm saying the word come i'm using it in the same monotone voice as all the the other words before and after it, so it doesn't stand out. It just becomes part of the white background noise
recall and stay kind of just in an area that I do my here. Okay. Right. Um, but either way I say the name first. Okay. So because the name tells him I'm talking to him.
the easiest way to avoid needing to repeat the command is to say it loud the first, like say it loud enough, right? And that's going to depend on how far they are from you and how distracted they are.
if I do that all the time what will happen is she'll start to need to hear the word over and over and the implied stay essentially becomes like void right it just doesn't work anymore
You gotta give him time to respond.
Concepts: Name, then cue, in a voice that stands out, Give him time to answer
Exceptions
- Max's trainer repeats a cue while a scenario is still new and stops once it is ingrained (watch 22:28). At Doja's go-home Kelton says he will give a dog a chance and say sit more than once. See conflicts.
- Part of a big dog's delay is mechanical: Deuce's trainer revised his own reading after four days and decided a dog that size simply takes a moment to fold into a down (watch 08:58).
- Nobody on film gives the wait in seconds.
A word takes on whatever reliably follows it. Correct in the same breath as the word and the word becomes the correction. The dog who hears 'sit' then backs away or freezes. So the collar never lands on the word, never goes on a word the dog does not know yet, and each word keeps one job. A position word is not a telling-off. 'Come' is not 'walk past me'. A real command is given only when the handler can make it happen.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
some people still were like I just like I was like show me how you do and they're like sit boom and I'm like yeah you just taught the dog the sit means you're getting punished which that's a really bad thing
this is a careful stage with the down you have to make sure the dog knows the word because if If you e-collar before the dog knows the word, they can associate the e-collar to the word.
it's just not the idea is not even getting to them, right? So, if he jumps, like the nope is really important to use.
it's very important that you keep those two commands separate because this is what happens all the time people do this we're walking up close the door Zeus is over there right Zeus is over there walking up to the door says Zeus come and you're still walking and then he walks by you into the door and he didn't follow come at all
And the reason that you might not give the actual command sometimes is because if you give the actual command, you must reinforce it. You must negatively reinforce it. It is not optional.
Concepts: Don't poison the command
Exceptions
- The owner lessons put a price in weeks on repairing a poisoned word. On film a word that has soured a little within a session or two is repaired quickly. Bo's heel was repaired in about ninety seconds with a break, some affection and lower criteria (watch 07:28). The long repair is never filmed.
- In Josi's case it was the tool that went bad, not a word; what caused it stays unresolved (see open questions).
'Let's go' and 'come' are two words for two jobs. 'Let's go' means move along with me, and the dog may pass you and carry on. 'Come' means all the way in, staying with you until the release. Use 'let's go' whenever that is all you need, so the recall is not spent. Call formally only when you will enforce it, and call informally ('come here') when you will not.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
people will use come like it's let's go and that messes up the recall right
So there's a different command if you just want them to move along with you or go in the direction you're going and they can fly right by you afterwards. and that's let's go
that was an informal recall right so i said not come right those are different
Concepts: 'Let's go' is not 'Come' - and the recall has an ending
Exceptions
- Whether 'let's go' requires movement toward the handler, or only that the dog stops fixating, is open (see conflicts).
However long the dog took, the moment he reaches you must never cost him anything. Any consequence belongs to the not-coming, and it comes before he arrives.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
Right. Um so if you punish her when she gets back, think of it as you are punishing her for doing the right thing. She finally came back.
he does get back to you channel your inner Buddha right like you feel bad right but you're like you're mad and you go good boy say good job even if he just made made you irritated and tortured you
Concepts: Never punish the return
Exceptions
- Callie's trainer says the rule is 'different when you're working with the e-collar and they're off leash' and does not explain the difference (watch 02:38).
A behaviour the dog loves and the family only sometimes wants (jumping up, mouthing, alert barking) is given a cue and a release, not erased. Once it can be asked for, the version nobody asked for can be stopped cleanly. For a people-wary dog, it also means he is not taught that approaching people is bad.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
that way you can ask them to do it and it just kind of increases the the clarity in the the training because if you can put it on command then you can also easily tell them not to do it
make it clear that like i can punish it when they do it when i don't ask but then there's like an outlet for it
learn okay that's not the contact because that's the risk if you punish jumping especially with a dog like her
Concepts: Put the unwanted behaviour on cue
Exceptions
- He was first given permission for play a person started, and that was later narrowed.
- Some behaviours get no place at all, such as chasing joggers and bikes (Rocky, watch 10:47). The files never say how a family decides which gets a cue and which gets none.
A dog learns particular sounds, so everyone who handles him uses the same words, in the language he was taught. That includes the family, the second owner and every trainer.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
blending things and the dogs like I don't know what you're saying okay good
She didn't know what you were asking her.
go nope this way i'm trying to um um i'm switching my commands over to what kelton
Concepts: One household vocabulary
Exceptions
- Sofia went home on Spanish cues (bájate, junto, cama), with 'ok' shared by both languages. How long that takes is not on film.
When a word fails, the trainers audit their own words first: repetition, order, a stray 'okay'. They say so on camera, and several of them are working alone when they do.
Shown, not saidOn film
I just have to remind myself to give him time to comply because I find that one of the things I'm doing, I was reviewing some of my own video footage and I found that I was not giving enough latency, not giving enough time between giving the command and giving the command again or correcting.
so right there I made a little mistake there okay what was my mistake well I kept saying the word over and over
Come on. Alright, I might have poisoned that a little bit.
he's getting a false positive that's the problem that's why he got up he released because he heard me say say that okay good boy that's much better so he was taking that as a release
Concepts: Give him time to answer, Don't poison the command
Exceptions
- This is shown, not stated as a rule. No trainer says 'check yourself first' in those words.
What owners are told
You get a short list of words, and each one does one job: 'eh' (or 'uh-uh') for 'go back and do what I asked', 'nope' for 'never do that', 'good' for 'right, keep going' (not 'good job', which sounds like the end), and 'okay' to let him go. Drill them into your head. Say the command once, name first, loud enough for the distance, before your hands move. Then give him time. If he doesn't do it, say your marker, and only then the collar, straight after the marker and never at the same time. If you remember one thing, remember that. Don't say 'stay': he holds until 'okay', and if he gets up first you put him back in the same spot. When you say 'okay', make it mean something and make sure he goes. Back your word every time for the first weeks home, even when it seems to work on its own, because that is exactly when it starts to drain. Don't use the vibrate as a warning. Use 'let's go' when he only needs to come along, and save 'come' for when you will make it happen. However long he took, never be cross when he gets to you. Everyone in the house uses the same words.
On film
Um you're not free yet. That's That's only okay, right?
never used without a marker first that is like i want to like if you only get one thing from this
It will die a horrible death. They will think it does not mean anything.
But you can't be like the little boy who cried wolf.
so come and then his release word is okay. So anything that he's doing, you never have to say stay.
What trainers know
Sequence: command once, marker (plus the command again in most versions), then the collar. The gap from command to pressure is a split second to about half a second. From marker to collar it is no more than about two seconds, never simultaneous. Practise the timing on a person before the dog. One trainer wears the collar while the owner practises. Two markers: the soft one returns the dog to a position, 'nope' ends a behaviour. Choose by what the dog should do next, not by how annoyed you are, since a soft marker after a bite reads as an invitation to escalate. 'Good' is said short and flat. Charge markers from the first night. Back them nearly every time, and never pair a marker with the vibrate, because an unbacked marker is being unlearned. The wordless exception is the end of the leash, instantaneous. Implied stay on every command, moving ones included. The release goes to the handler, bright, sensitised big then faded to the word, never with a leash tug. One cue, then silence. Volume is chosen for the distance before the cue, not after the failure. Latency has three causes that call for different handling: not heard, processing, mechanical. The house has no interval in seconds, and saying which mode you are in out loud helps a watching client. Poisoning comes from the correction landing on the word, from correcting a word the dog does not know yet, and from a word doing two jobs. Hold the collar back until the word has been taught by lure or leash. Formal versus informal recall is decided before the call. A behaviour the dog loves gets a cue, and the uncued version gets the marker. Staff who share dogs align their cue words, and a relief handler uses the dog's trained word. Numbers for collar levels belong to chapter 7.
On film
it's always like an action and then an effect afterwards right so it's always
longer you go without really making them know their markers of course the more risk that they have when they go home
just like a like a split second difference and it makes all the difference in the world for the dog
sometimes and it's like you do have to sensitize the word like just saying okay might not be enough for every dog you may have to get really big and really animated at first and wean them off of it
has come and uh and so that just rolls me off when i have to train or hold one of his dogs
In the dogs
Roxy
The only household that is handed the whole vocabulary as a list (eh, good, okay), with 'good job' named as the mistake that ends a hold. The same lessons give the battery, a door-handle demonstration of processing time, and at go-home the rule that Roxy must never be punished when she finally arrives.
On film
touch the doororknob, dude. Touch the door. Touch it. Touch it. All right. And now take it out. All right. Could you touch the doororknob? Good job. See the difference?
Stormie
Connor gives the two-marker argument to a puppy's owner and reaches for the Rottweiler he has just finished: the soft marker after a bite would have read as 'try again, a bit worse'. He also gives the owner-facing ladder, with the one wordless exception at the end of the leash, and the hardware rule never to use the vibrate.
On film
so in that case i use the note marker because if she bit a dog and then i went ash to be like wait look again right i can do it a little bit worse than that yeah whereas if it's a nope it's like you can't do this like this is a it's not allowed i don't want to see it again
Deuce
Deuce's first owner lesson teaches the order rule most completely. The word goes first, then the collar, never the collar on the word, and the trainer promises to repeat it at every visit. It also gives the commonest owner version of a misused word: 'down' shouted at a jumping dog. At the handover Connor predicts the trap: the word alone will work at first, and that is when families stop backing it.
On film
so that's that's the main thing. It's just like knowing what you're doing, right? So, it's just important that it goes in that order.
Dutchess
A dog who had hurt dogs she lived with, so the order rule becomes a safety rule: say the word above all in a scuffle, or she decides the other dog shocked her. Minutes later two of the household's own dogs flare up, and the trainer names the sequence as it happens. At her handover the owner objects that the two markers look identical. He answers with the counter and the cot.
On film
But you saw right there, there was a nope and then the e-collar happened right there.
Finn
A major flight risk. His go-home carries the bluntest version of the battery, which Kelton says he started giving because families kept losing the word. It also carries the one handover that forbids the collar after 'come', and Kelton's own confession that he once punished a return.
On film
the second thing is that make sure that you do not press the e-collar after you have said come
Sage
Kelton names the thing ('a conditioned punisher') and explains why it drains. Sage is also the dog who comes back after 'okay' asking whether she did well, so her release has to be answered.
On film
she's going to come home with a really strong conditioned punisher, is what that's called. So that marking word, that eh-eh, is a conditioned punisher. It's conditioned because it's through association.
Bo
Bo's file makes the release into equipment. There is the go-home rule that an 'okay' must send him somewhere, the follow-up argument that a flat 'okay' rewards nothing, and a walk where the trainer won't lead the freed dog round the wrong side of a pole to save himself a detour. It is also where a heel soured in a busy store and was repaired on camera.
On film
see i could have tried to get him to come around the other side of the pole there with me but i want to ruin it
Lola
A nervous dog, and the strongest version of 'word order decides what the collar means'. Correct her with nothing said as she starts to fixate and the collar attaches to people. The file also has the trainer's own admission that the first dog he ever trained bolted at 'sit'.
On film
first dog I ever trained actually when I was learning how to train I had a little dachshund and I I said sit and he like bolted away cuz I had like trained it the wrong way and I felt really really bad
King
The longest teaching block on 'let's go' against 'come'. His trainers call the recall King's best command. It is also where a handler, working alone, catches his own short latency by watching his footage back.
On film
so it's important that you don't mess up the recall because very often the reason that you're telling him come is because you want him to not be over there what he's doing something or going towards something he shouldn't be and so you want to protect him
Cosmo
At the August go-home for Cosmo and his housemate Simba, Connor gives the two-marker system and dates it. He adds the two-dog reason the word must come first: corrected in silence while mouthing his brother, Cosmo could blame Simba.
On film
difference is we used to just say nope for everything now and is a reinforcement and nope is our punishment
Sofia
A dog read as slow indoors turns out to be answering a different language. Her family speaks Spanish to her. From then on her cues are Spanish, and Kelton narrates her park work in Spanish.
On film
Her commands are all gonna be in Spanish
Levi
The drain observed after go-home. At the follow-up the trainer's reading is that Levi noticed nothing happened after 'eh', and that it can be fixed because it is still fresh.
On film
Yeah, probably what happened is he probably noticed that when you said, like, eh, that all, like, nothing happened
Penny
A people-wary dog who loves to jump. 'Up' is taught as a cue and used as a reward, so that the uninvited jumps can be stopped without teaching her that going to people is bad.
On film
didn't invite it you can punish it okay so it makes it very clear hey sometimes it's okay
Where the trainers differ
On film
So that's the the other thing. Um you'll avoid repeating the commands if you allow processing time. So if it takes them a little longer. They're not a sport dog. We're not in competition here.
On film
Don't give him the choice, don't give him the choice.
And actually, when I'm training with the dogs and it gets weeks into the program, I actually find that if they don't listen for a second, I'll give them a second chance and I'll be like, and then I'll look at them.
On film
And it's really important that we do that and that we don't condition our dogs to, like, need to hear a Punisher word first or condition them to where you have to pull the leash or condition them to where they need to hear the word two times
On film
chance. Right. Yeah. Um, I'll give them a chance. I'll tell them sit more than once. Right. Cause
So then like I repeat the command in this case because I'm still teaching, right? Once the scenario has been like really ingrained, then I don't repeat my commands.
On film
it's just like that's one of those things always important but if you can only pick one opportunity where you actually say it that's the one
On film
So, yeah, so that's the way it would look, is you could do it with the Zapper, as long as you don't do it without having said anything.
Now, there is one exception to that rule.
On film
so if they're behind me I'm gonna use a let's go so they catch up if they're in front of me unless I'm changing direction and turning back I'm not gonna use let's go I'm just gonna use the recall
On film
He doesn't have to, like, freaking run in my direction as long as he stops fixating.
On film
want okay to start meaning um okay but you still have to stay close to me and so then you're like
On film
she was kind of hovering around the heel area okay okay i'm not going to correct for it um
On film
I feel like that's probably more helpful when you do have two dogs I noticed if I
As a course unit
The learner can name the household words and the one job each does. They can run command, marker, collar in order with the marker charged and the gap short, hold a command until the release without saying 'stay', give one cue in a voice that stands out and wait, and say the ways a word goes flat or sour and how each is avoided.
Lessons, in order
- The marker vocabulary: eh, good, okay - and two corrections
- Command, marker, collar - in that order
- Keep the marker charged
- There is no stay, only the release
- Meaningful release
- Name, then cue, in a voice that stands out
- Give him time to answer
- Don't poison the command
- 'Let's go' is not 'Come' - and the recall has an ending
- Never punish the return
- Put the unwanted behaviour on cue
- One household vocabulary
Drills
- Two lists, as taught to Stormie's and Luna's families: commands the dog sometimes leaves (the soft marker's territory) and behaviours you want gone (nope's). Then, inside one minute, a held position marked 'good', a break marked with the soft word and backed, and a release with 'okay'.
- The timing rehearsal from Baxter's lesson: the trainer wears the collar and the owner practises word-then-press on him until he reports hearing it before feeling it.
- The door-handle exercise from Roxy's lesson: make a person the dog, hurry him ('touch it, touch it'), then ask once and wait. Ask which one felt fair.
- The release test from Thor's and Thumper's sessions: say 'okay' standing still and looking away. If the dog only goes when you move, the release is your feet.
- The formal-or-informal decision from Kodak's walk: before each call, decide aloud whether you will enforce it. If not, say 'come here' or 'let's go'.
- The every-time phase from Finn's and Roxy's handovers: for the first weeks home, every marker the dog ignores is backed, even when the word alone seems to be working.
Assessment
- Your dog is in a down. A visitor arrives, he breaks it and jumps on them. Which marker, and why? (Nope: jumping is a behaviour you never want. The soft marker would tell him to go back into the down.)
- Your two dogs start scrapping and your hand is on the remote. What do you do first, and why is this still an open question in the house?
- Two weeks home, and 'uh-uh' works on its own. Why do you still follow it with the collar, and what is the first sign you stopped too soon?
- You say 'okay' and he stays where he is. What has the release come to mean, and what do you do?
- Your dog jumps on a guest. You say 'down' twice and correct him on the second 'down'. Name the two things that went wrong.
The ideas it draws on
- Command, marker, collar - in that order
- The marker vocabulary: eh, good, okay - and two corrections
- Meaningful release
- There is no stay, only the release
- Give him time to answer
- Name, then cue, in a voice that stands out
- One household vocabulary
- Keep the marker charged
- Don't poison the command
- Put the unwanted behaviour on cue
- Never punish the return
- 'Let's go' is not 'Come' - and the recall has an ending