A hundred-pound dog who tried a little fear bite the first time he met his trainer, and whose eyes went 'as big as saucers', is told on camera what the whole program is for. Not a sit, not a down: a deer freezes and takes off when it sees a person, and the trainer wants him to stop looking like that.
the first time he met me he was so scared his eyes got as big as saucers and he tried to he did like a little fear bite not because he's aggressive but because he was terrified.
I want you to look like a dog, like a deer, because like deers aren't around people. Deer aren't around people. When a deer sees a person, they freeze up and go, oh my god, and they take off, right? I want you to not look like that anymore around me. I want you to look like a dog.
The chapter in one paragraph
A frightened dog is not a disobedient one. Pushed hard enough, any dog freezes, flees or fights, and in panic he cannot take in what is asked or choose an answer, so the first job is to lower where he lives relative to that threshold and to find out which kind of freeze is in front of you. That changes the order of the method. The trainers look first for something the dog will accept as a reward (often a jog together or freedom to sniff rather than food, a toy or a stranger's hand), let him explore on a long line, add pressure with a release back into that freedom, then movement, and only after that obedience. They give him room to retreat so he is not trapped into freezing or fighting, and an obligation to come back, and they arrange things so that calm, not flight, hiding or barking, is what ends the pressure. Confidence is built by doing something that works in front of the frightening thing. The dog who shadows his handler is sent away on purpose, because closeness can be how a nervous dog manages fear and because a dog who never leaves has no recall to test. Nerves that came from experience can often be trained away; nerves a dog was born with are managed for life, and the goal is a dog who copes. Progress is read as a dog who looks like a dog and not a deer, graded against his own previous best, and a dog who is opening up may, for a while, misbehave more. Handling is taught the same way: hold through the protest, let go on calm.
Principles
Pushed hard enough, any dog freezes, flees or fights, and in panic he cannot process what is asked or choose; so the first work is to lower the dog's resting stress, and to tell apart a panicking dog, an uncertain one and one for whom freezing has become an exit.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
any dog if you push them hard enough we'll do one of three things they'll either freeze they'll flee or they'll fight
So he's panicking and then has an inability to process the inputs and produce an output that makes any sense.
and so same thing with the nervous dogs they have a threshold unfortunately they sit pretty close to
cuz if a dog doesn't know what to do the adrenaline hits they panic. They're not in there anymore. It's just like a dog running off instinct being like I'm out of here
But what I learned is that once I showed him hey do this instead, he actually coped with
There's normally an emotional component, so like what's the dog's emotional state, and then there is a clarity response. So how clear was it to them, and what's their emotional state like?
Concepts: Freeze, flee or fight
Exceptions
- Which freeze is which (a learned exit to close, as with Finn, or uncertainty to encourage through, as with Sage) is still open: each reading is stated as general on a different dog, and no test is given for an unfamiliar dog (see conflicts).
For a stressed or fearful dog the order changes: let him explore (sniffing on a long line is 'king'), then pressure with a release back into that freedom, then movement at a trot; obedience comes after, and much of a session is the handler doing nothing.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
environmental exploration right that's king and then negative reinforcement right with the release the freedom right back into that environmental exploration and then physical exercise those are the top three like stress reducers
the second one is actually is actually negative reinforcement. So, putting some pressure and then having a release of freedom. It's the context that matters. It teaches them to cope with pressure.
That does not mean that we don't use negative reinforcement or we don't require them to do things, or that we don't create boundaries or penalize things, it just means that there's an order of operations. There's other things that need to happen first.
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
and so like sometimes the answer is actually to do less if we're doing too much
the world's less scary when you sniff it.
Concepts: The three stress reducers
Exceptions
- The third item is sometimes movement and sometimes hard play; play is ruled out for a dog frightened of the handler because it would induce panic (watch 06:19).
- Why exploration outranks the others is asserted, never argued.
- Time with nothing asked is booked as work: hours of company with Finn, an evening on a couch with Bullet with a goal for the next day (watch 00:21).
Before a frightened dog can be trained there has to be something he will accept as a reward; with a nervous dog the usual ones fail or backfire, so the trainers find what does work (a jog together, freedom to sniff, the ball once he finds it) and stop comforting with touch the dog does not want.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
I'm like, all right, well, you know what can change an emotional state that you don't really have that much control over, hopefully, is I'm just going to go straight physiological and just start running, and you have to run with me because I have a leash.
attaching that as the end of obedience right i ask him to do something and then boom he gets that
it doesn't make sense behaviorally because it's actually an aversive right so the the definition of something that's aversive is something that you know like it is it is punishing to you right it makes you want to to get away from that thing
Now I'm not going to touch her because, um, you know, sometimes people think, oh, that's a nervous dog, you'll make her feel better. The thing is, if they're terrified and don't like the pet, the pet goes from a reward to actively either negatively reinforcing or turns into a positive point of view because you're adding in the pets, right?
somebody was like is petting a dog a punishment or a reinforcement and the answer is like depends on the dog neither it just depends it could either be like a really good reinforcement like right now i'm training a golden retriever who's nervous the first time i met him he ran away and as he was running i like brushed his chin and he like ran and he stopped and he was like he was like do that again
This is why you should always take some stuff with you and try it, right? Because it can totally change your approach. Try tug, try ball, try stuff.
Concepts: You have to be able to reward him at all
Exceptions
- Playing with food is different from food as a reward every time; treat chasing can be excellent if done correctly; lures have a place when necessary.
- Touch depends on the dog and changes over time: withheld from a frightened Lola on day one, offered as two hours of cuddling later if that is what opens her; contact put on cue for Bo, who loves it.
- The physiology ('happy chemicals') is the trainers' explanation; the film shows dogs who start running eagerly and tolerate more work, not the chemistry.
Give a fearful dog room to move away so he is not trapped into freezing or fighting, then ask him to come back and cope inside that room, and let calm, not flight or barking, be what ends the pressure.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
if you had him on a six foot leash and he couldn't escape what would that create well immediately he hits the end of that six foot line and what happens leash pressure right so now there's restraint there's a thing he fears um or a thing that creates anxiety or nervousness in him and he can't get away he can't go anywhere there's no alternative choice
for retreat. So it seems like it's counterintuitive that I would let her retreat when she gets like triggered or fearful, but very often like the first step to get them to feel better about things is just give them an out
You can only get that by cultivating some openness and allowing some space to retreat, but then also still requiring that he does come back and do his thing. There's a balance there.
I'd prefer that he choose to like, create distance between himself and them, than to like bark and raise his hackles and and try to repel them right i don't want that i would rather increase distance so i penalize that and hope that he increases distance
that's counterintuitive and the other thing that's interesting about it is that you need to um you need to actually put pressure on them right but show them that they can cope with that pressure
choice every time because it's the one that works for her because the reason that dogs go hide like that like in her mind why did she go hide in the kennel it works she got out of the scenario she felt better when she got in the kennel that's why she kept doing it right yeah um so if you make that not the thing that works and instead the thing that works is just to kind of like stand there and chill she'll do that instead
Concepts: Space to retreat, obligation to return
Exceptions
- When to switch from allowing a retreat to locking the leash and requiring the return is still open (see conflicts); the record reads it as stage-dependent without a stated rule.
- Room to retreat is not a licence to let a dog escape everything, nor a reason to go looking for frightening situations.
A frightened dog gains confidence by doing something that works in front of the thing that scares him: the fear reaction gets no reaction, the dog gets a job, calm is what gets him out, the dose is capped, and the thing is re-tested later.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
And I'm just going to no-show it if he has a reaction. So like, if he has a reaction to the Phantom, I'm just going to no-show it and just do nothing. And just kind of like keep walking.
So, you can see like when she stopped and was kind of like weirded out by that machinery, I just told her to like it like you know like let's go and that way she had some kind of direction. She had something to do with
been going, we'll do one more pass through those fans to go out, yeah, another 22 minutes, I'm not pushing too hard all in one session
but he overcomes it so like he starts to gain confidence because he becomes competent he knows what to do and how to avoid problems
him being in happy town directly after feeling like freaked out teaches him a lesson that is far beyond obedience and more important than obedience and that's that he can cope with stress and things can be awesome pretty quickly if he does
little dabs of pressure. And this helps me to test and see, okay, was it the water or was it the people? And I can see very clearly because he's walking along the beach now with me, it wasn't the water. It was the people.
that scares you, um, granted, you could, there's a fine line between growth and inducing trauma, and I don't want to induce trauma, so that's why we build out, first, she has to be comfortable with me,
Concepts: Go and look at the scary thing
Exceptions
- Keep a nervous dog's first reps short and winnable: 'it's crazy how relaxed winning can make you' (Anna, watch 09:59).
- Bun's trainer says the confidence effect of negative reinforcement is borne out in studies; he names none, so it is his claim.
A dog who will not leave your side is not showing devotion: a nervous dog may be using the handler's body to manage anxiety, and any dog who never goes out has no recall to test, so the trainers bond hard, stay detached about supplying contact, and send the dog away on purpose.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
The Nervotator has switched from not wanting my touch to actually now she's kind of using our physical touch a little bit as like a nervous, some dogs, the Shepherds have like this nervous behavior where they'll like, either like hold on your leg, circle around your leg. They just start using the handler as a way to manage their anxiety, night which is understandable from a dog perspective but in this case you have to be very detached
it'll be something that anytime you're carrying a nervous dog i will say one of the most important things is to bond very well with them
because she's like tied to me though cuz she's nervous. I really have a hard time testing on her recall.
Alright, so now that he kind of understands the concept, I'm going to loosen up a little bit because I don't want him to become a Velcro dog. Which is, you know, it's been a dog that kind of just sticks by you 24-7. Like, I can't go anywhere. So I'm going to get the leash just a little bit longer.
all the time because that's what happens a lot of times when you just generalize suppression then they end up just never leaving you it's what we call a velcro dog
noticed that he's like he doesn't want to leave yeah i'm going to encourage him to go okay right i want him to go go go go go go look at stuff go right i want him to go away now because i don't want to get him stuck where he's like the glue dog
smidgen of repression is not bad because it's more just like you're repressing that behavior but then it gets to the point where you're actively like repressing the personality and everything and That's not cool
Concepts: Sticking close is not attachment
Exceptions
- Ozzy's handler draws the line only by timing (lap-sitting after the dog is comfortable is trust; before, a crutch).
- Do not recall the dog every time she goes out, or she learns to stop going out (Milo, watch 09:29).
Nerves that came from the dog's experiences can often be trained away; nerves the dog was born with are managed for life, and the aim is a dog who copes rather than a dog who never feels it.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
there's two kinds of nervousness you have environmental nervousness and genetic nervousness genetic is like i mean it's self-explanatory i mean it's genetic um and environmental is like maybe they grew up something made them nervous you can fix environmental nervousness sometimes 100% all the way to where they just look like they're not nervous anymore genetic nervousness takes a long time
with the genetic nervousness you can't just like you can't just be like oh like i'll reinforce the nervousness out of them or something like that you generally just have to open them up a ton get them to trust you and then teach them him how to manage the nerves
The big thing with a nervous dog is that it's very easy to make a nervous dog look opened up, when in reality you've repressed them and aren't managing it well. To get a nervous dog truly opened up, you have to not repress at all, because obviously repressing is a form of, you know, closing the dog up.
marvin in 95 of cases that i've ever worked with where people thought their dog was abused
But you got to learn even in that window like hey you can't lock up. You can't this goes for any nervous thought, right? You can't get skddish and just kind of be like I'm just going to avoid you. Doesn't allow it. It's uh it's against the rules.
somebody dog person whatever is really really nervous hey the last thing you want to do is confirm their fears and let them go with those fears as they get older no come on because then it only gets worse
Concepts: Genetic versus environmental nerves
Exceptions
- The only diagnostic on film is how fast the dog opens up; no test for a dog with unknown history is described.
- A fear snap is kept distinct from a bite risk (Finn, watch 11:25).
Progress for a frightened dog is not a better sit; it is a dog who sniffs, wanders, checks in and walks up to people instead of freezing and bolting like a deer, graded against his own previous best and by what did not happen.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
I want you to look like a dog, like a deer, because like deers aren't around people. Deer aren't around people. When a deer sees a person, they freeze up and go, oh my god, and they take off, right? I want you to not look like that anymore around me. I want you to look like a dog.
he runs out and then he stops and waits you know he's checking in with me he's sniffing he's just doing his thing that's really that's really all i want to see is him being a normal dog
That's something. It was better than before. I didn't say okay and he ran and hid. He was just standing on you. He was letting me do stuff with him and everything.
get him acting like a dog around me. Because if I can't get him to act like a dog around me, I can't train him. And acting like a dog means sniffing things, peeing on things, exploring, being curious.
Ozzy, if he's not in love with that. Again, that's good though. When you progress from the dog is terrified and spazzes out to he doesn't like it, then it's still way more, it's still a nice world of change.
once you get them investigating then they can't be in these other mindsets these other modes so
Concepts: Look like a dog, not a deer
Exceptions
- For some dogs the picture is the finish line (Finn, Daisy); for others it is the entry criterion before any training (Jack).
- Nobody explains why posture and curiosity track internal state as reliably as the method treats them as doing; the observables are asserted and used.
As a nervous dog opens up (sniffing is the gauge), behaviour the fear was hiding may surface for a while: fixating, dodging commands, a new chase. The trainers read this as progress, not relapse, and expect dips at each harder level.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
that means like their nerves are a lot better because they're like willing to be open and
but it's good opening up is good means his nerves are getting better
It's very common that they might get nervous again and then kind of open back up.
certain behaviors will sometimes like surface once there's less apprehension.
there's two parts to that. There's like one part of it where it's like it's great to see her just be a dog. Yes. Right. where she's interested in things other than hiding. And then there's the other part of it where it's like stop that.
Concepts: Opening up
Exceptions
- This is the trainers' reading as stated on film.
- The surfaced behaviour is both celebrated (what it signifies) and stopped (what it costs) by the same handler in the same conversation.
Accepting handling is taught like any other skill: hold on through the protest and let go when the dog relaxes; and where a dog already fears a procedure, change everything around it (place, posture, order, equipment introduced in advance) rather than forcing it.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
egg needs to be able to go to the vet and do other stuff you know otherwise he's not going to get proper medical care he's going to bite people
anybody can basically think of it like all right we want to train her that anybody can come and like grab her paws and do all this stuff and she's not supposed to do nothing about it
Instead of thinking of it like, okay, this is like an anxiety disorder, think about it like this is just a situational thing that actually, from the dog's perspective, makes a whole lot of sense.
If he feels confined or something like that, or if it's near the place where we originally had the issue
They're pretty specific. So like, you know, like if you just force a dog to put a muzzle on, it sometimes increases the anxiety of the situation and it can encourage like a reaction.
walk him around the parking lot for a minute first and like let him settle and if he tries something dumb punish it um but let him make the choice don't assume he's gonna do anything okay so don't start off with the muzzle
Concepts: Handling is training
Exceptions
- Holding through the protest is the puppy's version; for a dog who has already bitten over a procedure the trainers change the conditions so the objection does not come. The record does not say whether these are one rule for different dogs.
Moving commands (heel, recall, let's go) let a worried dog stay busy and alert; still ones (down, place, stays) ask her to relax, which she may not yet know how to do, so that is where a nervous dog's trouble shows and those commands are planned last.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
the heel it's a very aware command any command that requires her to just relax
of that is just she doesn't know how to just like relax yet because she's scared
movement they don't care like i can like egg could be off leash in like a few days yeah like
the command sit there you go normally I do want them to follow when I start
Concepts: Positions versus movement
Exceptions
- Stated on three dogs only; not stated as applying to every nervous dog.
What owners are told
When your frightened dog stops listening, stop treating it as disobedience: if he is at his limit, more pressure will not get through, so lower the stress and make the ask easier. Start with a long line in a natural place and let him sniff; do almost nothing yourself; release him straight back into freedom when you do ask for something; walk briskly enough that he trots. Find one thing he will actually work for, and if he shrinks from your hand, stop petting and loud praise for now and stay quietly kind. Do not hold him tight on a short leash near what worries him, and do not reel him in or soothe him; let distance be his way out, but still call him back. If hiding has become his answer, lock the leash, wait, and leave only once he is calm. Stop treating shadowing as affection: see whether he will leave you at all, and do not recall him every time he goes out. Expect part of his nervousness to fade and part to stay, and judge progress by whether he sniffs, wanders and keeps functioning when nervous, not by whether he looks quiet. When new behaviour appears as he relaxes, tell the trainer rather than assume he is getting worse. Handle paws, nails, teeth and collar now, holding until he is calm, and let the trainer plan any procedure he already fears.
On film
sometimes in like a tight spot like a tight area to freak him out but I basically just go hey like come on let's go and I just like make him do it and then he figures it out after like one or two passes through whatever it is so if that happens to you at any point you just literally just make him do it
Yeah, we just don't want her hiding. No hiding, no running, just let her sniff.
And then when she does, like, the response that you want, where she comes and she's just, like, okay, and she's just standing there. Then you go, okay, and remove her from whatever the thing is that was freaking her out.
Owner words
On film
even that like before she would never even go near the water she wouldn't go anywhere near it she's kind of freaked out by it yeah yeah so it just makes me really happy she's more confident she's acting like a yeah she's a dog she's a dog now
What trainers know
Predict each dog's first response (freeze, flee, fight) and train the pressure response, not just positions. Lower the resting stress before correction-heavy work such as heel. Discriminate shutdown, panic and uncertainty; for uncertainty encourage and make the ask easier; for a learned-exit freeze close the option with pressure that ends the instant the dog acts. Ask two questions when a response fails, emotional state and clarity, and never default to more pressure. Order: exploration first on a long line in a natural setting, then negative reinforcement with release into freedom, then movement at a trot; a lagging dog is moved by pace, not words; keep a freezing dog moving and widen his world with textures. Search for a reward in order (food, toys, then exercise); tag contact and play onto a jog and put the jog after an obedience rep; stack it behind the release marker. Test touch before using it. Equipment for retreat: long line or unlocked flexi with a backup; pre-decide which coping response earns relief (distance yes, barking or hackles no). For a dog whose retreat works, lock the leash, wait out the attempts, release on calm. Spook routine: no reaction, a job with a known cue, calm as the exit, passes decided in advance, a named re-test later; for a two-cause spook change one variable. Keep first reps short and winnable. Prevent Velcro: give the line back at the moment control gets easy; run the two-handler recall and vary it; do not supply contact on demand. Type nerves (environmental, genetic, usually both) from how fast the dog opens up; a quiet dog may be repressed, not recovered. Name one cheap per-dog observable (crate entry, tail carriage) and report through it; grade by the dog's own best and by what did not happen. Brief families on what surfaces as the fear lifts. Handling: release on calm; for a procedure with a bite history change place, posture and order, use a slip lead, work from a squat and wear gloves; condition a muzzle with food and a word before it is needed. Plan stationary commands last for a nervous dog.
On film
never default to like, okay I'm gonna put more pressure, default to be like, alright I'm gonna suspect a play with this dog
if we let them just kind of freeze and not do anything, then their brain can't move to the next step.
Then it kind of gets her out of the mental pattern of Velcroing to anybody.
He's not quite sniffing yet. That's what we're looking for.
In the dogs
Finn
A hundred-pound dog who fear-snapped on arrival and froze under pressure. His trainer could not reward him until he simply started running with him; Kelton gave him a long line and room to retreat, penalised barking but not moving away, and graded progress against Finn's own best until the day he walked up to a stranger in a park.
Sage
Her freeze is read as uncertainty (encourage, she knows what to do), and her hiding in the kennel as a strategy that worked. At the go-home Kelton reverses it: lock the leash when she retreats, wait without piling on commands, and leave the moment she stands calm.
Kodak
On a frightened dog's first public walk Kelton says he could get obedience and it would look gross, catches himself about to pet him and explains why he must not, and later says he would rather Kodak went home without a heel than without the ability to cope with barking dogs. Weeks on, the same dog stares down a ball in the heat.
Lola
Not touched on day one because touch was not yet a reward; later leaning on her trainer, which he names as anxiety management; sent off a second handler to break the Velcro pattern. Her environmental nerves are reported gone after a couple of weeks and some genetic nerves remain. Near the end she swims after a duck, and her trainer says both 'it's great to see her just be a dog' and 'stop that'. Her family: 'she's a dog now'.
Jack
His story ends where the footage ends.
King
Fine in every park, locked up at the box fans in a store. Kelton no-shows the reaction, waits instead of pulling, plays, does one more pass on the way out and stops: 'I would ask if that was fun, but I don't think it was.
Ozzy
About a week with nobody pushing him, then hiding places taken away; heel postponed because it needs many corrections. His handler grades terror-to-dislike as 'a nice world of change', and a lap is allowed as trust only once he is comfortable.
Bullet
Day one at a lake, Kelton changes one variable and finds it was the people, not the water; weeks later a trainer goes back, says what he expects, and Bullet drinks from it. An evening on a couch with nothing asked, so he will play tug the next day.
Bun
A fearful dog who hid behind his trainer at the bottom of a staircase climbs it alone at the end of the session; Kelton's account is competence: 'he knows what to do and how to avoid problems'.
Anna
A frightened dog with a 'really nice' heel who cannot yet lie down and relax; kept to short, winnable place reps, and her handler stops petting and talking so she faces the new mat on her own.
Irwin
The trainer moves the procedure outside, away from the spot, asks for a couple of easy commands first, stops reaching over his face and wears gloves; the collar comes off without a problem. His story ends where the footage ends.
Josephine
Her trainer's model is to move a fearful dog from fear into seeking; several trainers rotated through her obedience so she would befriend more people, and at go-home the rule is 'No hiding, no running, just let her sniff.'
Chunk
At a new park his trainer notes that he has become more avoidant of commands as he opens up, and calls it good; his arc records the alternative reading, which is why opening-up awaits Kelton's endorsement.
Where the trainers differ
Position
Give the fear reaction no response: no 'it's okay', no pulling, no punishing; keep walking or wait. The dog copies the handler's non-reaction.
Context
Kodak's first public walks; King at the store fans.
On film
playing on the phone it kind of weirded him out instead of me like oh it's okay it's okay i just let him i just let him do what he's gonna do like it didn't matter right so if he chooses to do that like a little bit of a weird avoid a thing i'm not gonna like resist it i'm just gonna keep going and no show it and by me no showing it well he's gonna start no showing it
I'm not gonna pull on you. I'm just gonna wait.
Position
In the moment several handlers speak kindly to a frightened dog, Sage's family is told to encourage her when she freezes, and Nash's trainer uses a burst of verbal encouragement, not a treat, to move him through a worrying spot.
Context
Sage in a store; Bullet on day one; Nash in a park.
On film
So, Sage just got up cuz she heard the dump truck. Come here. I know that was scary. Come here.
bullet oh that freaked him out more it's okay buddy you don't wanna all right we'll keep going
just encourage and then she'll do it is what I've found. Because she knows what to do.
Position
Have the dog go through the thing: anxiety is beaten by facing it, and the family is told to insist at tight spots.
Context
King's second in-program lesson; Daisy's store trip.
On film
sometimes in like a tight spot like a tight area to freak him out but I basically just go hey like come on let's go and I just like make him do it and then he figures it out after like one or two passes through whatever it is so if that happens to you at any point you just literally just make him do it
honestly the secret to anxiety in dogs is just making them face it.
Position
Comfort and exploration come before pressure; exposure is good only while the dog stays out of a bad emotional state; never default to more pressure.
Context
Hank's first public outing; Sage at Lowe's; King's own coaching session.
On film
there you go so we're going to do a similar thing just get them comfortable with kind of going places first and then start adding a little more pressure out in public
Definitely a little bit freaked out, but this is good exposure for her, as long as she doesn't go into a bad emotional state here.
Position
A learned exit: the dog can cope and has learned freezing gets him out, so the option is taken away.
On film
he's totally capable of coping with the problem he's just being allowed to to freeze up and that's dictating um whether he's going to do things or not and so he's learned he could just get out of it if he just goes and just freezes up like that so i'm just not allowing that
Position
Uncertainty: she knows what to do and is unsure whether everything is cool, so going harder is the wrong route.
On film
just encourage and then she'll do it is what I've found. Because she knows what to do.
Position
Let him retreat and hide on a long line; he is always free to come back.
On film
leash pressure and him yanking me around he can put distance between me and him like I can let him hide you know basically I can let him run from me and go hide up to a pretty good distance but then he's also always free to come back
Position
Once retreat is the dog's working strategy, lock the leash, bring her back, and let calm end the situation.
On film
handle that is you'll see what I do in the video I stand there and she like goes to retreat and then like I just kind of like lock the leash and have her come back to me and like I don't like push her into doing a bunch of commands
Position
Progress: the trainers read it as what braver looks like at first.
On film
doing commands now that he's opened up more which means we'll have to drill those more
- opening-up
- eats-the-correction
Position
A ceiling: managed for life; she will always have some nerves.
On film
she's got a little bit of genetic nervousness and environmental nervousness the environmental nervousness is pretty much gone that was pretty much gone i would say around the one to two week period but genetic nervousness is a lot more tricky because you do have to learn to manage it
I think she'll always have, like, a level of, like, a little bit of nerves.
Position
The speed: genetic nervousness takes a lot more work.
On film
yeah because it's not really genetic genetic is of the two the one that takes a lot more work
As a course unit
Recognise a frightened dog's state (panic, uncertainty, a learned exit), reorder the work for him (reward access, exploration, pressure with release into freedom, movement, then obedience), arrange room to retreat with a required return, and read progress as a picture graded against his own best.
Lessons, in order
- Freeze, flee or fight
- You have to be able to reward him at all
- The three stress reducers
- Space to retreat, obligation to return
- Go and look at the scary thing
- Positions versus movement
- Sticking close is not attachment
- Genetic versus environmental nerves
- Look like a dog, not a deer
- Opening up
- Handling is training
Drills
- The jog as reward (Finn, Kodak): on leash, break into a jog; when he runs willingly, add a brief touch or a moment of play before it; then ask for a known command and make the run the release. For Kodak, jog immediately after the release word to charge it.
- Long-line exploration (Finn, Lola): a natural place, 26-foot line, the handler doing nothing for most of the session; pressure only with an immediate release back into freedom.
- Room and return (Finn, Kodak, Sage): when a stranger passes, do not tighten or reassure; moving away gets nothing, barking or hackles are answered; recall reps under pressure inside the room; for a dog whose retreat works, lock the leash, wait without commands, and 'okay' and leave on calm.
- The spook routine (Sage, King): stand still or keep walking, no reaction; a known job ('let's go'); calm is the exit; passes decided in advance; re-test the same trigger weeks later with the prediction said out loud first.
- Produce distance (Lola, Milo, Roofus, Deuce): long line, walk away, be boring, pay the going not the coming; two-handler recall off a Velcro person, varied so it does not become a pattern.
- Handling homework (Stormy): paws, nails, teeth while holding the collar, release on calm; owner, then family, then visitors; the pick-up variant.
- The picture log (Finn, Jack, Luna): write the picture and baseline in one sentence each; one unwatched observable logged daily; after each session, best moment against his own best and what did not happen.
Assessment
On footage of a fearful dog the student names his first response (freeze, flee or fight) and state (panic, uncertainty, learned exit) with the body signs; proposes a session in the stress-reducer order with a reward the dog will accept; sets the retreat room and the coping response that earns relief; and writes a progress note graded against the dog's previous best and by what did not happen. Failing conditions: recommending more pressure on a dog showing panic, or scoring progress by obedience alone.
The ideas it draws on
- Freeze, flee or fight
- The three stress reducers
- You have to be able to reward him at all
- Space to retreat, obligation to return
- Sticking close is not attachment
- Go and look at the scary thing
- Genetic versus environmental nerves
- Look like a dog, not a deer
- Handling is training
- Positions versus movement
- Opening up