A trainer on a public trail has just got the heel block he came for. The next thing on the plan is a down. He cancels it, because the block that went well is what makes the next one expensive, and says the three words the whole idea runs on.
now and then i'm not going to do another down rip slow is fast so i'm going to leave it alone i'll
The chapter in one paragraph
A training session is a dose, not an effort. On film it is short, about fifteen minutes as a working figure, mostly walking and sniffing rather than commands, with freedom between repetitions as the payment, and it ends when the quality drops, the heat rises or the dog stops taking part, ideally on one clean repetition and never on a command he got away with. The trainers say plainly that frequency, not the command, is what represses a dog, and that a dog who has shut down has stopped learning; repression can look like a finished dog, and it does not survive the handover. The second half of the chapter takes the session out of the building. A dog learns a command together with the place, the ground, the people and the state he learned it in, and the house is where the old rules live, so the trainers train where the problem lives, raise distance, duration and distraction one at a time, diagnose a failed command by asking which dial moved, proof against the dog's own favourite thing, and practise excited as well as calm. A dog is only as reliable as the hardest test he has actually passed: the standard is to know, not hope.
Principles
A session is a dose: short, mostly not commands, with freedom between repetitions as the payment, and ended on the dog's quality, heat or state rather than on the clock.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
i'm trying to do about like 15 minute burst that way i get like quality time in
early on a lot of times it's really really sparse throughout the session sometimes um 90 percent of the session is just walking and 10 percent of the session is commands
you can go towards like 70 30 that would be a really intense session right um so you always need to allow enough time for them to reset return to baseline and actually be rewarded by the freedom that you give them and not just like okay i'm on a recall simulator
she still wants to play but i'm not getting anything it's not as solid as it was
and I'm filming it because this is a super, super important concept for you to understand, is that now that I've done a bunch of commands in row, I need to then allow time for decompression.
i'm getting pretty close to calling it here for him just because this is his first day so going too long can actually be counterproductive
Concepts: The dose of a session
Exceptions
- Fifteen minutes and ninety-to-ten are reported practice across many handlers, not measurements; nobody on film says where they come from.
- Some counter-rules run the other way: a settle is extended rather than ended (Bullet watch 11:16), and a dog trying to leave work he can do does not get to end the session (the March Zeus, watch 08:13). See conflicts.
- High-intensity work is rationed hardest: no more than two bolt-and-recall events in a session (Lola watch 02:30).
Fewer repetitions than you think: hold out for one clean repetition, pay it with a release the dog wants, and stop, so the last thing he did is the thing he keeps; never end on a command he got away with or on pressure.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
We don't want that. I want him to go smoothly there from standing. If I can get one nice rep, then I'll be able to let him go.
one of the tests here, it's like, look, how, how few reps can you get away with?
now and then i'm not going to do another down rip slow is fast so i'm going to leave it alone i'll
so it might be four or five minutes before i try to get him to do a down again or longer it might be the only down rep i do because i want that one rep to be as effective as possible
we're going to pack him up because i want to end on that really really high note
that is not how i would want to end the session at all it's a bad idea and honestly that's how you erase progress rather rapidly
i never like to end it on like a pressure pressure like pressure type thing i always want it to end on the dog having a really good time
Concepts: Quit on the good rep
Exceptions
- The rule is stated firmly and applied with give: Kodak's trainer at one point does one more after success, and Sofia's session ends with one more attempt after the good one.
- A hard rep is not over until the dog has reset to baseline; a second rep inside that window is still the first (Louie watch 24:54).
How often you ask matters as much as what you ask: frequency, not the command, is what represses a dog, so practice is a few spaced asks inside an outing the dog enjoys, with a break after each.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
there was a lab I was working with like when I was first learning how to train dogs and he did really good and then I kept drilling commands all of a sudden he was like running away from me and like not listening and his whole body language changed and I found out that yeah it was like wasn't necessarily the command that was bad it was the frequency of it that was encouraging him to like repress himself
Yeah. Whereas if I just drill, drill, drill, drill, drill, drill, drill, drill, drill, I'm more likely to teach them to, like, be suppressed more generally than I am to actually teach them, oh yeah, when I say this, it means do that, and then, like, everything's awesome, right? Because everything isn't awesome because you're going to make them do it again two seconds later.
Like, if I had gotten a successful rep there, walked three steps, and then tried to get her to do it again, she, after a few times of that, would quickly start to not like me. She would start to think that I'm not cool to be around, not fun to be around. That's why I don't do drills.
do this while i'm training dogs because they learn fast that way slow is fast um but i might only ask them to down like five or six times if i'm working on down like in total and i'll be in the store for like 30 minutes
be able to retain it and that can't happen if I immediately put 30 more commands on him and try to get him to sit 15 more times because what because it was hard for him that one time that means i should drill it 15 more times no uh no i should not
she's not gonna do that if it's just one two three commands but if you're like on a 20 minute walk and every couple minute or so you're like sit down sit
Concepts: Drilling is what represses a dog
Exceptions
- Three handlers say high-drive shepherds and Belgians can take rapid reps; Akira, a German Shepherd, was deliberately not drilled. Whether breed is the rule is still open (see conflicts).
- Milo's 'grease the groove' is many reps in a day, each isolated (watch 14:54): the variable managed is the gap, not the daily total.
When a dog stops being able to take part (locked up, frozen, flat, panting and unavailable), stop asking; repetitions past that point teach nothing, cost the next session, and a repressed dog who looks finished loses the training when the pressure lifts.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
so when working with dogs sometimes you gotta gauge the level today i tried to gauge the level and actually i i gauged it too high so he's a little shut down right now it's not a shutdown like a permanent shutdown or anything of that nature you get nothing that bad but it's just enough for his brain in terms of doing commands commands he's down like he's just kind of in survival mode
we're not going to force him to try and do things if it is just going to shut him down i don't want him to shut him down because that's just going to make it my job so much worse and make it more miserable for him
a week or two after she comes home and the repression goes away what happens the training goes away
there's a term called velcro dog you ever heard of it it's where like they take a nervous dog or a dog that doesn't listen well and they use the e-collar and like reinforcement so much so the dog's scared to leave the side and so for the rest of his life it just follows the owner around like this and because they repressed the dog like so hard the dog has no soul anymore not a fan of that
to that question is no right and that's okay right uh that's another thing i'm accepting that answer in this case right i'm accepting that answer because there's no need for me to push that what would be the purpose of it what would accomplish well it makes me feel good who cares honestly who cares I want to make him feel good
i'm introducing things to her at a pace that she can handle it and as a trainer you do kind of have to decide like what like how much can she handle it it's not not my place to decide per se she decides right but it is my job to look at her and make an educated guess about has she taken in too much
Concepts: Stop before you shut him down
Exceptions
- The same house holds the lower bound: some panting is the cost of teaching, and a dog who is never made to pant may never learn (watch 25:52).
- Nobody gives a prospective threshold; every description of the upper bound is behavioural and retrospective.
In hot weather the dog's body sets the session: shade, grass, cooler hours, short sets, and stop at drooling, heavy breathing, slowing or lost attention; heat also changes the diagnosis, so a hot dog's slow down is not read as refusal.
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 actually today i had a dog we only worked for 10 minutes because she got hot and i was like all right we're done yeah i'm not once they're not paying attention
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 but also how the environment is affecting it as an example if they are overwhelmed or scared or anxious that can shorten training sessions right
so i think that down thing he's doing is just him like being hot like just him being tired
Callie is just coming out of her heat cycle so we're gonna keep it light today
Concepts: Heat is a stop sign
Exceptions
- A ceiling planned in advance (twenty to thirty minutes on a walk for flat-faced breeds, watch 23:05) and the signs as an earlier exit are both used; no fixed rule decides between them, and a female in season is judged dog by dog.
- No single number from these sessions is a safe limit for another dog on another day.
Train where the problem lives: pick places for the distractions they contain, rotate them, and at home use the commands whenever daily life gives a reason instead of saving them for a drill slot.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
you just kind of do it throughout the day, you just toss it in. Um then that's what's going to be the most effective and the most real life. Life is the Yeah. is the training ground. Um because they're not training for competition. They're training for being a dog in your house.
Right? That's very narrow. So then they're going to start learning, hey, 8 a.m. we go outside, we do drills. I need to listen.
the internet but it's great in here too because like uh home depot has just a lot of stuff that if you're if you've got a dog with some nerves and they have like a weird association or something you'll probably run into it here
This is a very good place to practice doing deals. Because there's lots of opportunities for it that are organic. Instead of just doing it in a field, you know. And there's way more distractions.
so many people do that they see another dog they avoid them with their dog because their dog can't behave good boy let's go up up here that is sad it's a bummer
No, I don't mind. I just take it as uh she got some good practice uh in impulse control with another dog around.
Concepts: Pick the place for what it contains - life is the training ground
Exceptions
- This settles the former 'quiet place first or straight into the busy one' question as dog-dependent with a quiet default.
- Oscar's handlers put the counterweight: fewer commands, given for a reason, perform better (watch 03:41). Probably one rule (a command for a reason), but stated in opposite directions.
- Bite work is kept away from the public (Savage).
Distance, duration and distraction are raised one at a time, the next only when the last is good; and when a known command fails, the trainers ask which dial moved (the ground, a slope, the pace, how close the handler stands, the room to retreat, a person arriving, fatigue) before they look for a motive.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
incrementally well I don't love was it's the three D's I feel like there's got to be a better name for that but it's what they call it and you add distance duration and distraction you don't and you don't add to you always like until one's good then you add another one so what we start with is duration
plenty of time to reset where he can now do this. He can reset, do whatever he's going to do. Um, walk all around, follow me around, get some pets, uh, listen to me yap to the camera. Um, if we're on a walk, go sniff everything. And then only after that reset has happened and he's completely back to baseline, I can try again and raise the criteria. Right? So then he thinks he's figured it out each time and then I raise the criteria again by increasing duration or increasing distraction. And over time you have a heel that is more and more solid.
what I wonder is maybe he didn't want to do it on this blacktop yeah so I moved him over to the pretty hot to the grass and he was a little bit quicker to do it he still resisted a little bit but then but then he got a little faster so So I think it might've been the blacktop was a big part of the problem, fair.
I hadn't thought about that, proofing for, um, for downhill and uphill, or like uneven ground, because that can definitely change, especially the the way that a dog does heel
inside is normally higher tension yeah because there's no they can't really get away from each other yeah there's no real there's no real retreat option there's just tension from anyone else in the room as well yeah they need to be able to handle tension amongst each other
Okay, good boy. Good heel. Good job. Lower the criteria a little bit. Let's go. Come on, Bo.
Concepts: The three Ds, and the variables nobody counts
Exceptions
- Duration first is the default given to owners; per-dog variations appear (Finn watch 15:56). Nobody explains why duration comes first.
- The list of uncounted variables is certainly incomplete: each was found live by one handler in one session.
Generalisation is the whole job. Dogs learn a command together with the place, surface and people they learned it with, and the house is where the old rules live, so every new place, above all home, is taught again, and a failure somewhere new is a reset rather than a loss.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
area, then we have the parks, we have the stores, right? And you know, you take him to enough stores and the dog goes, "Okay, the store is a place I have to listen." You take him to another park, he goes, "Oh, yeah, okay, this is a context I need to listen."
Dogs are all about context.
you do have to generalize the behavior so like in like the training room we have um she looks great right or if i'm out of the park it looks great but in her brain like the house right that's where all the old rules are
this is what I'm talking about. Some of the stuff you have to reinforce it in the house. And that's why we do the sessions in the house.
But if I fail and somebody corrects me for it and then shows me what to do to get the right thing, now when I go to the next place, I succeed faster.
more intense and distracted situations, and you can see it's kind of like a reset. Whereas before we had to go through this just to get him to do basic things on the inside, now we have to do the same thing all over again, but on the outside.
His paws don't remember those textures as being relevant to his training.
Concepts: Generalisation is the whole job
Exceptions
- The program's own design changed because of this: they used to start dogs from scratch in the park and now lay the foundation indoors with an in-house handler (watch 11:58). Neo's day one describes going straight to public for standard cases (watch 02:23).
- The week-to-settle and 'two or three placements on a new cot' are trainers' expectations for particular families, not measurements.
- Dutchess's trainer allows a stricter standard inside and a looser one outside, with the recall exempt (watch 13:03); whether that is a house position is open.
Proof a command against the dog's own currency (his ball, the open truck door, the ducks), and where it is safe make the temptation the payment for complying.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
and i tell him down and then i throw the ball if he'll stay in the down when i throw the ball he'll definitely listen
because the way I think about it is like all right if you can lift 500 pounds you could lift 100 pounds
Because he does it every time when I go to get him in the truck. I use that to proof it down because he's always amped to get up in the truck.
Yeah, so I recall him off the Ducks and then I tell him okay go now you can go look at the Ducks
be careful about here is is he recalling because he thinks he can't get the squirrel anymore or is it because he can get the squirrel he thinks he believes still that he can get the squirrel but now he's listening
You need them to make a mistake.
Concepts: Proof it against his own currency
Exceptions
- Which drives are released to (ducks, the truck, the ball) and which never are (livestock, cats) is not stated as a rule.
- A rep counts only while the dog still believes he could win (Wiley).
Calm does not generalise to excited, so the trainers switch the dog on in play and then ask for place, sit or down until going from full speed to zero on cue is itself the skill; the same on/off switch runs through protection work.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
calm does not generalize to excited
Energetic because if you train a dog to listen on when their energy is seven out of ten when they hit that eight out of ten hyped up what then the distractions too high and now the training goes down
you obligate it in their highest arousal when there are the most amped up
excitement and then you're asking them to do something. So they have to go from 60 miles an hour to zero really fast, which is what you're training for anyway, right?
not with any dog we work with with the impulse control not suppressing the dog but just teaching the dog how to like just chill out
right um what you need to be able to do though is like all right like you should be able to out him like this and then afterwards charge it back up right even within the same thing
Concepts: Switch him on, then ask for off
Exceptions
- A base can be laid calm or tired first and the energy range extended to ten before off-leash is trusted (Boog, Levi, Titan); the record reads this as sequencing, not disagreement.
- 'State, not place' is the trainers' experience-based claim ('hundreds and hundreds of dogs'); no controlled comparison is on film.
A dog is only as reliable as the hardest situation he has actually been tested in. A good run can mean nothing has happened yet, so the trainers discount easy successes, build the real test on purpose, count a first success as a first, and take the backup off only when they know rather than hope.
Said as a rule on filmOn film
sometimes a dog can look really good because nothing's happened. You know what I mean? So like maybe two out of 10 times the dog will bolt. But the thing is if you only see the eight out of 10 times you're like yeah good.
she's not doing any bolting out here which is really really good it is night and there's less distractions too so So, we'll see how she does at, like, you know, 2 or 3 o'clock tomorrow in the afternoon.
it needs to be in a place where he could just leave and because they know they know if they can just leave or not right dogs are not stupid right so like if he's in the training yard he knows he can't get away
have him go in and out of the crate for them and follow commands with different like skill levels for handlers so not all professional dog trainers
it's not something you just kind of like try out you want to be confident before you do something like that you want to know not hope you want to know not hope
But we won't know until we see.
Concepts: Reliability is what you have not tested
Exceptions
- Where failure is recoverable and informative the trainers stage it; where it is dangerous or irreversible (a very big dog off leash) they refuse to find out.
- No number of clean repetitions that counts as reliable is given anywhere on film.
What owners are told
Keep sessions short, about fifteen minutes two or three times a day, mostly walking and sniffing, with a minute or more of freedom between commands. Stop while the work is still good, end on a good repetition and never on the hard thing. When the dog comes home, do not drill the new commands because they are exciting: use them when life gives you a reason, a few on a walk, place while you cook. If a command stalls, walk a minute and come back. If he goes flat, stop and try later. On hot days train early or in shade, test the ground with your hand, and stop at drooling or lost attention. Expect the first week home to be a new place for him, be strict, and practise in your own rooms on your own equipment. Test him where he could fail, with other people holding the leash, and keep the backup on until you know.
On film
so that's another big one is when the the dogs come home people will want to like drill everything and be like do it again do it again because it's like exciting right when you have something new you're kind of like a do it again because it's exciting but for them if you keep drilling things over and over they'll shut down
because some people they uh they get like really excited when the dog gets home and so they're like you know what i'm gonna to do I'm going to just like drill these commands until I like am bored and it looks kind of cool but the dog's in like psychological pain so I don't want to put her in psychological pain
Uh, how often? That's up to you. Um, because what makes the most difference is using them in an actual life situation and having this on to reinforce whatever the command is and doing it right.
have to do like 30 minutes of drills every day like ew um no not necessary just use the training properly um and so all that looks like is just go on walks and play with your dog
she doesn't do that behavior like anywhere else now. But because it's the old behavior associated here it's got to like throughout that week you got to be strict.
What trainers know
Plan the session out loud: length, number of hard reps, one goal. Stated figures: about fifteen-minute bursts; 90/10 walking to commands early, 80/20 as the dog settles, 70/30 is intense; a minute to a minute and a half between commands for a dog who overwhelms easily; no more than two bolt-and-recall events; one and done for a first protection rep. End criteria: quality, not willingness; a couple of minutes before threshold; heat; no clarity in a few reps means start fresh next time; end on the clarifying rep, then free time, and never straight into the vehicle. Stop signs for drilling and shutdown: tail flopping, blank look, freezing, lagging, flopping down, worried fast drops, panting and locked up. Responses in rough order of cost: free time, longer gaps, smaller ask, play, wait, shelve the command, end the session, revisit another day. Check heat, reps and the collar before judging the dog (Stormie's field session: a freeze, a collar that had worked loose, and the trainer naming his own over-drilling). Heat signs: drooling, tongues out, audible breathing, sneezing, red or glazed eyes, lost toy drive, lost attention. Venue ladders on film: facility, parks, stores towards the end of the program, downtown as the final test; rotate parks by name. Harvest a rep only against a real pull. Raise one criterion at a time after a full return to baseline; lower it out loud. When a known command fails, run the uncounted variables: surface (hand on the ground), slope, pace, proximity, retreat space, a familiar person arriving, fatigue, the handler out of sight. The go-home runs the command set in the family's rooms, on their cot, on the leash they will use. Temptations come from the dog's own ranked wants; release to them where safe. Obligate at the peak of the game; keep command-release and toy-release words separate in protection. Log firsts as firsts, discount easy conditions, build the real test (unfamiliar crate, new handlers, non-professionals), and remove the backup only on certainty.
On film
it's important to know when to back off and when to fold your cards
so actually I did a mistake that every now and then I make is where like drive a dog too much and so certain dogs have different periods of like how much you can drill
because you want the dog to not necessarily be like i'm really good if it's specifically this person walking through this door in this room right you want them to learn to manage the the impulsiveness and the high energy
We do this lab in Jack Marley a lot I like it because I can focus on the commands but the downside is that like if you don't actively have somebody the dog only does like one area and keeps the command in that one area
In the dogs
Bo
On a public trail Kelton gets the heel block he came for and cancels the planned down: slow is fast. Later, to prove a crate-guarding dog can be boarded, his trainer builds a mock boarding kennel with two staff Bo barely knows, and plans a next round with handlers who are not trainers.
Luna
A dog who normally gives twenty-five minutes gives out at nine on a hot day, and the trainer stops and runs a short session later. Her downs start on grass and move to concrete, where she resists until the heat of the slab is recognised.
Kodak
A fearful dog finally holds the heel through the turn he always bailed on, and Kelton packs him into the truck on the spot. Asked nearly an hour into a first session whether he could be pushed further, Kelton says no: 'I want to make him feel good'. Later his down is tested with the ball thrown past him.
Stormie
Connor tells the family about a lab he over-drilled early in his career, then catches himself over-drilling Stormie in a park and says so. Her go-home session is capped at ten to fifteen minutes before it starts because of the heat, and her program ladder runs to downtown Raleigh as 'the final boss'.
Lola
At the go-home lesson the trainer warns the family they will want to drill the new commands and that she already quit once on a long line for exactly that; minutes later she blanks a recall in her own living room that she gives in a park. Kelton had already told the family that eight clean bolts-that-didn't-happen out of ten prove nothing.
Finn
In a hardware store his trainer grades himself on camera: he gauged the level too high and Finn is in survival mode. Outside, the whole indoor progression has to be run again ('kind of like a reset'), and his recall is tested only where he could actually leave.
Drago
After a sit won in a long fight, his trainer asks the camera to count the commands he has given since. There are none, and he explains why doing it fifteen more times because it was hard would be the wrong move.
Zeus
Kelton makes the program harder than Zeus's life will be (500 pounds so 100 is easy), proofs the down at the truck door every day because that is where his recall once failed, and after his best session leaves the leash on: you want to know, not hope.
Sage
A slow down is about to be read as resistance until a handler moves the dog from blacktop to grass, gets a faster down, and revises his conclusion; before the next sit he tests the ground with his hand. Sage herself got ten to fifteen minutes between reps when she was more nervous indoors.
Roxy
Asked how many minutes a day to practise, the family get an answer about the stove, the evening show and the walk: life is the training ground. Her place is proofed with Kelton watching through the door hole.
King
His trainer extends a walk on purpose to pass a person, and says owners who avoid other dogs end up with a sad life for it. King's temptations are his own: the ball thrown past his down, the open truck door.
Bullet
Four minutes into a session a trainer counts 'a little bit of shutdown', lets him run, and says what he will do instead: spend more time chilling with him and bonding. On day one Kelton calls the session near forty-one minutes because going longer would be counterproductive.
Deuce
Connor tells the family generalisation is the whole reason the dog cannot just be trained in the dog room; the first session is at the house, and at the first drooling in the heat the session ends.
Max (Goldendoodle)
Leaving Max in a down, the trainer sits and delivers the thesis of the switch: calm does not generalise to excited.
Where the trainers differ
Position
Stop asking and walk it off; take the eventual rep and do not re-prove it.
Context
Dutchess on a hot day with a tired dog; Bo outside a store.
On film
all right so i'll do this thing too where i like reset where the dog's not doing a command i'm not gonna like push it over and over we're kind of gonna like walk around for a minute
I won't press on that command again to prove to you that it's perfect, but he is doing well to sit.
Position
Finish the rep now, because letting him win teaches that doing nothing works; then stop.
Context
Cosmo resisting a sit; Drago's sit held through a long fight.
On film
merely just couldn't let him win that exchange because then he kind of develops a little bit of a thing that i'm like oh i can just kind of like not do anything and it works
be able to retain it and that can't happen if I immediately put 30 more commands on him and try to get him to sit 15 more times because what because it was hard for him that one time that means i should drill it 15 more times no uh no i should not
Position
Stop. End on the good rep; doing less today is faster.
On film
now and then i'm not going to do another down rip slow is fast so i'm going to leave it alone i'll
you did good you tried he said i made it a minute and a half boss or like a minute i was going for two minutes got greedy
Position
Extend. A settle is the green light, not the finish; a dog who learns quickly can be pushed a little.
On film
he's kind of starting to settle a little bit so we're going to let him settle and we're going to do it like a longer duration thing here it's good experience for him
relatively quickly so i did kind of push it a little bit um but he did really great with it
Position
The dog's state: when he is tired, flat or cooked, stop and try again later.
On film
it's important to know when to back off and when to fold your cards
so if we're going to do another session we should probably put him in a kennel and we'll have to do that and see if
Position
The handler: a dog trying to quit and go back to the car does not get to end it.
On film
i know i know you want to go and rest and do absolutely nothing but we got to do some more training come on yeah come on there we go i will gladly sit here come on let's get back to work
Position
Yes: rapid reps are fine for Belgians and very high-drive shepherds; it is other dogs that cannot take them (three handlers).
On film
yeah and what so when you drill command unless it's like a really like high drive like belgian malinois or like crazy shepherd a lot of times what happens is the dog will get mentally fatigued
The way that I work with Daisy is not even close, not even remotely close to the way that I would work with like a shepherd or a Belgian, right? With those dogs, you can go boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and they're just like, I'm ready to go.
Position
Akira, a typical high-energy German Shepherd, is deliberately not drilled; her reps are spaced minutes apart.
On film
yeah she's a hard player uh she's just like a it's actually relatively simple she's just a typical high energy germ shepherd
Like, if I had gotten a successful rep there, walked three steps, and then tried to get her to do it again, she, after a few times of that, would quickly start to not like me. She would start to think that I'm not cool to be around, not fun to be around. That's why I don't do drills.
Position
One standard travels, the house included.
On film
So already she learns that here is the same rule as like at the house.
Position
Stricter inside, a little looser outside, with the recall strong everywhere.
On film
What you'll do is you'll generalize stricter obedience inside and a little bit looser outside.
As a course unit
Plan a session before it starts (length, hard reps, one goal, ratio of work to freedom), end it on the dog's state and say which signal ended it, and take a command out of the building one dial at a time until it holds where the dog will actually live.
Lessons, in order
- The dose of a session
- Quit on the good rep
- Drilling is what represses a dog
- Stop before you shut him down
- Heat is a stop sign
- The three Ds, and the variables nobody counts
- Pick the place for what it contains - life is the training ground
- Generalisation is the whole job
- Switch him on, then ask for off
- Proof it against his own currency
- Reliability is what you have not tested
Drills
- The planned dose (Deuce, Kodak, Lola, Bo, Kali, Lunna): say the length, the number of hard reps and the goal out loud; run roughly nine parts walking to one part commands with a minute or more of freedom between; end on whichever comes first of goal met, quality dropping, heat rising or state changing, and name it.
- One good rep (Bullet, Louie): announce the target, re-cue each miss calmly, stop and celebrate on the good one; after a hard rep, several minutes of sniffing before anything else.
- Trying or stopped (Finn, Sage, Zeus): a watcher calls 'trying' or 'stopped' every ninety seconds; on 'stopped' the handler names and applies a response at once.
- Which dial moved (Stormie, Bullet, Sage, Bo, Luna): one command, one criterion said aloud, full reset between reps; on a failure run surface, slope, pace, proximity, room, person, fatigue, change one back, get a clean rep.
- Life as the training ground (Roxy): three moments a day that already exist (cooking, the first evening show, a door) become place or down reps; a few random sits and downs on the walk.
- Switch on then off (Bernie, Fiona): hard tug or frisbee, 'out', place; release back to the game; repeat.
- His own currency (King, Wiley, Zeus, Ace): ball out of the pocket, ball held, ball thrown short, ball thrown past the down; down or wait before every truck loading, then release into the truck.
- The real test (Bo, Pepper): build the deployment scenario with unfamiliar handlers, then non-professionals; hand the leash to a second person in a store and watch.
Assessment
The student plans and runs a filmed session and a filmed outing. Pass criteria: the plan was stated in advance; the session ended on a named signal and on a good rep; no command was repeated inside its reset window; every failure was followed by a named variable check rather than a raised level; one command was proofed in a new place and against one of the dog's own top three temptations; and the student states which conditions the dog has not yet been tested in.
The ideas it draws on
- The dose of a session
- Quit on the good rep
- Drilling is what represses a dog
- Stop before you shut him down
- Heat is a stop sign
- Pick the place for what it contains - life is the training ground
- The three Ds, and the variables nobody counts
- Generalisation is the whole job
- Proof it against his own currency
- Reliability is what you have not tested
- Switch him on, then ask for off