The EXACT System To STOP Dog Reactivity For Good

The reason your dog is still reactive isn't because you're not training enough. It's because you're training too many different things. In this video, I'm gonna show you the specific exercises, activities, and training drills that actually move the needle. The ones that create the biggest behavior change in the shortest amount of time. The progress I'm about to show you didn't take 5 years, 5 months, or even 5 weeks. It took just 5 days. So if it's taken you months to see progress with your reactive dog, you're focusing on the wrong things. And today I'll show you exactly what to stop stop wasting your time on and where to put your energy instead, backed up with a real-life, real-world example. Right, tell me about your dog, mate. Just need 30 seconds of your time. Firstly, I want to say thank you so much for all the support you have given us. We've just moved into our brand new training center. Look at it, it's magnificent. And, and part of that is down to the fact that you guys have been so supportive across all of our platforms. If you didn't know, we give 100% of our income from YouTube for you watching these videos to a different charity to do with dogs every single month. And if you could do me a favor and stop this video right now and hit that subscribe button, you will help dogs all over the world with very little effort. I can't thank you enough. Enjoy the rest of the video, and we'll see you in the next one.

So, Gunnar, um, he was a year when I got him. Yeah, um, I got him off a guy in Cornwall who breeds German Shepherds for a lot of the police forces.

Gotcha.

He was bought trained, but he has still got a few issues.

What do you want to take out of the next few days then?

If I could get his dog reactivity. The other thing he does, he will chase a duck. We live on a farm and he has got some ducks in a ditch and if he sees a duck in a ditch he is after the duck. And the other thing is he is massive on scenting. So if he is scenting something you just can't get his attention. While he's scenting.

So what we'll do, we'll get him out. Yeah, um, obviously on leash. We'll go into the field, we'll have a little bit of a mooch around with him. We'll treat that as a little bit of a mini assessment, see what we need to do. We'll maybe get a dog out, see how he responds.

Okay.

And then, um, yeah, checking what he's like for food and toys and how he reacts to lead pressure and all the rest of it.

Yeah.

And maybe look at any commands you've got already. And then we'll put him back, we'll have a chat, I'll give you my prognosis, and then we'll start mapping out the next couple of days. How does that sound?

Yeah, cool.

Yeah, let's catch him out. Okay, he's fine with people, Richard?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's— I've got some small grandchildren and he's absolutely sound with them.

You got any food for him?

I have, yeah.

Have you got it with you? Yeah. And you got, uh, you got any toy?

Yeah, in my bag. Do you want me to get that now?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, food and toy now. Hey buddy, come on, mate. He's a good-looking boy. Awesome. We'll just take a stroll down to the— about halfway down. Cool. Just give a little walk to them benches and back. Does he know a down?

Yeah.

Sound about halfway back, ask him to sit and then ask him to down.

Okay.

And then move him along.

Do you want me to reward him with that as well?

Yeah, you can do. Yeah, come on. Here, come here. There's a little bit of conflict with that lead, you know, there's lots of tugging, there's lots of mini corrections. The dog has commands, which is nice, and he's a, he's a good-looking dog too. He's obviously smart. Gonna sit, sit, down. Nice. Gonna heel.

Good boy.

Does he spend much time off a lead, Richard?

He does, yeah.

Hi, hi, mate. Hi, hi, hi, hi. How are you? You're a handsome boy, aren't you?

Yeah. If you shout at him, he seems to suddenly respond. I don't want to shout at him.

No, you shouldn't need to scream your head off just to get your dog to listen. Yeah, that's all right. Okay, yeah, good boy. Yeah, sit! And just offer him a piece of food again and he'll readily take that? Yeah, nice. You see if you have a little play with the toy— keep them on leash would be nice. All right, hey there ya go! Good boy, good boy! Hey, where has it gone?

Where's it going? Where's it here? Go on!

Yeah, yeah, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, out! Hey, out! Yes, good boy! Nice, good boy, good boy! Out!

Wait!

Nice, cool, all right, that's good. Ball away for me. That'll do, that's good, um, that's a nice foundation, isn't it?

No, done, all done.

Awesome, there you go. Nice, nice, nice, that'll do, cool. Right, I'm gonna go fetch one of my boys out, okay? I'll just bring him by that cone here. Okay, all I want you to do, Richard, is walk from that orange cone there Yep. To that, try not to give him too much instruction, just try and let things pan out, see what he does. Okay. And then like I said, we'll, um, see if he needs a toilet, we'll put him up for a bit, and then, uh, I've got a few ideas that I want to run past you. Is that all right?

Yep.

Sound. You just start walking, Richard. And he's a bit drawn there, isn't he, Frank? Hey, hey, hey, hey, come on, Frank. Is this a kind of a typical response from him when he sees another dog? Yeah, just hyper fixated.

And okay, now I don't know whether he wants to play or whether he wants to fight.

Gotcha. Hey, hey, hey, hey, down! Good boy.

Gotcha.

All right, mate, cool. I'm gonna pick him up in a second and leave. Good boy. Down. Attaboy. All right, big fella. Yeah, I know, I know, I know, I know. Cool. All right, so what we need to do is we're going to give him a little break from seeing dogs just this morning of this 3 days, and we're going to start teaching him a very simple language communication system. You currently have a yes marker.

Yeah.

What I want to instill and strengthen is 3 other markers. We've got a yes marker, which is obviously, that's great, do it again next time. We have a good marker, or what we call a duration marker, which is going to be keep doing what you're doing, but don't don't stop.

Okay.

All right, we're gonna have a nope, which is like a not quite right marker. So we put him on a place bed, he gets off, we can say nope, that's not quite right, go back on there. And then we're gonna have a bad marker, which is don't do that marker, right?

Yep.

Very important we establish this small, succinct language in the absence of our dog's triggers to begin with, just to give him a lot of clarity. So then when we introduce a trigger, he knows this is exactly what I need to do, or this has happened because of this X, Y, and Z. There's no point issuing a load of different commands. We're just much better off having a couple of commands— a sit, a down, maybe a place, a recall. Um, but the basis in which they are effective is based on our marker system, on that 4-word language. Okay, we've got yes, that's great, do it again, good, keep doing that, but don't, you're not finished yet. And then we've got nope, not quite right. And then finally bad, don't do that.

Okay.

And we'll work them all together in like this matrix, give him a comprehensive understanding. That's what we'll spend the morning doing. And then this afternoon we'll start introducing that dog into the picture when he has clarity.

Okay. All right. Yep.

That all makes sense? Yep. Sound. Let's put him up. Let's get everything ready. I'll give you a couple of demos without the dog.

Yeah.

And then, um, okay, is that all right? Yeah, I'll actually probably get one of my dogs out, give you a quick example of each one. Yeah, and then, and then we'll get him back out and then start, start cracking. Is that all right? Yeah, yeah, cool, let's do that. Hey everyone, Jacob and Ranger here. We have just spent the last 5 hours planning and putting together a reactivity masterclass, which by the time you watch this video will be available for free If you click the link in the description, it will give you the start, middle, and to finish blueprint of how to finally solve your dog's reactivity. And again, it's completely free. Don't miss it. Link in the description. Enjoy. So this is one of my foster dogs, very similar issues to Gunner in that— yes, in that very hyper fixated on other dogs. And it was just taking his head to a place that I didn't really want it to go.

Okay.

And so everything kind of I've done with him will be applicable to you as well. But I want to just give you a quick example of the final product of those 4 markers in, in play. So we know what we're aiming towards and looking for.

Okay.

He's still very much, I'd consider early doors in his training. You know, he's only a pet dog. He's not like the other dog you met who's my sport dog. Guess. So obviously that's his yes marker. That is stop doing what you're doing, come to me, get reward. And what that's going to create is a lot of excitement within the behavior we've associated it to. It's going to create the likelihood of that behavior being repeated. Yes. But more so, it allows him to stop doing what he's doing and come back to me. So I can use it as disengagement. So let's see, say in the future he was negatively drawn towards you and he's thinking about, oh, I'm not sure about you, and he had some unwanted feelings.

Yes.

With a strong "yes" marker, I could draw— I could push in some positive feelings about your presence. Does that make sense?

Yeah, yeah.

And then we have our "good" marker. Place. Good. Thanks, mate. Thank you. Good. And that is, keep doing what you're doing, don't move, I'm gonna come to you. So that's where we want to create stability in a behavior, and we want duration in that behavior. There's some others we can add as we go, but we're going to go through the 4 big ones, and then we might add more of that dialect in as we go along. Good. Now, over the next morning or so, I'm going to be very pedantic in how you issue those markers. Good. The bowl of food here is my distraction. It's my draw. Okay, this could be a dog, cat, squirrel, or whatever. It's just a distraction. Okay, so what he's learning now is in the face of a distraction, staying on my bed is a good idea. And now we've got a nope marker. So let's say I throw food there and he gets off.

Nope.

That's a correcting a behavior. Nope. So that is, I've asked you to do something and keep doing that, whether it's a loose lead walk, whether it's staying in place, whether it's staying in a sit. You've broken that, that's not quite right. I'm going to give nope, a check on the leash, and then put him back in place. Good. Once I fix that up, I let some time elapse and then I can go back to marking. The reason we have a yes and a good, one, we want to be able to yes the dog break position and come to us and get rewarded and be excited. But also sometimes we need to be able to reward our dog and then maintain calmness. Down. Good. We use yeses for recalls and things like that, and we use good typically for stay on your place, just chill there, settle down, do nothing, which will be beneficial for Gunner later on when we say, hey, lie down, chill out, do nothing. I'll reward you for staying calm. And then finally we have bad, which is our marker for you've done something and I want to see less of that, whether that's reactivity, whether that's barking. We need our other markers to build insurance, stability, and show the dog a path of what to do. We're never just going to go into a picture, throw a dog in the deep end, and start just using our bad marker and saying you're not allowed to do that, you're not allowed to do that. That'll create what we call— nope, that'll create what we call a superstition. Where the dog's like, oh, another dog's come along and I've just got told off and told off and told off. Now I want that other dog here even less.

Yeah, yeah.

So it's typically the one we're going to come on to last because of— we don't want to just take a hammer to everything. There's a time and a place to say to our dog, hey, like, you're not allowed to do that. But we want to build some insurity and some certainty in the dog that— but you can do this and this and this. And all of these behaviors are preferential.

Okay.

And we, and we teach that through our reward markers, right? So we can also have a release. So I would use okay And that is just, you're dismissed, you're at liberty.

Yeah.

Like, do what you want within reason. Or I can ask a dog into a behavior. People will have up to 20, 25 markers and you can add them in as you go. The less we have, the more succinct they're going to be and the more obvious we are to our dog. It's just the language, you know. We'd never ask a human to go to a foreign country, start a new job without teaching them the language first. But so often we don't have a language established with the dog and we expect them to tolerate situations that are too hard for them.

Yep.

So we teach that language first, then we throw them into the trickier situations. Okay, so he's released, and now I'm going to go through bad. Bad, bad, bad. That's bad. So this was a— that was a setup. That was my distraction. That's the— that represents the unwanted behavior I want to see less of. Okay, bad, bad. Hey, that's bad. Hey, that's bad.

No.

And that might feel like a little bit mean enticing him. However, we never want to first introduce the bad command to our dog's Everest trigger. We want to practice it so our dog has an understanding about it with low draw, low risk behaviors like scavenging food or approaching food that they shouldn't and things like that. Yeah, just come here. We're still friends.

The Dachshund's food bowl.

The Dachshund's food bowl. Yeah. Add another client with the cat's food bowl.

Yeah.

Good. And now he's got the message and it's super obvious, hey, I'm not allowed to do that. He might try once more. Bad. No, bad. Hey, that's bad. Now even though he didn't fully try, I still want to really reiterate my point. Now, this isn't necessarily how we teach these things, but this is how we reiterate them. Okay, come here. Good boy. Alright. Now he's fully got the picture, we can go on to move into something more productive. Yes. Yes. And again, this could be anything. This could be the hamster in the house, the cat, whatever. This could be anything. And now I can start instilling and truly counter conditioning. Yes, ignoring that and paying me attention is really good. So we've got our yes, which is do more of that. I want to see more of that next time. We've got our down good, which is continue to do that and I will come to you. So now I can start teaching my dog to relax around the trigger. The yes is used for more engagement, so I can teach him to engage with me around the trigger. Now I can teach relax around the trigger. I can give surety and certainty in behaviors by using my nope and correcting him to stay in that behavior. And then finally I can say don't do that, and we combine all four to create a really stable, engaged, neutral dog. Yes, attaboy! There's certain nuances with how we, how we deliver a reward and things like that as well. In terms of, I guess, is always going to be with movement. Of course, our good is always going to be back to the dog. I'll show you all of this when we come out though. That no is still in place. Look, general rule of thumb with yes, I'm going to vary the volume of food I give the dogs. Sometimes one piece, sometimes like a jackpot pot handful. Yeah, with Good, I always deliver— it's invariable. So I always deliver one piece. That creates like complacency, chilled, doing nothing. Yeah, good boy. You're a good man, aren't you? And I can keep testing around my distraction and see if he's picked up the message, which obviously he totally has. Yes. And he even chose to do something preferential when he saw the trigger then, right? So that could be our dog, and he goes, no, I'm going to I'm gonna lie down, or proactively engage with you.

Yeah.

All right, and then eventually that's how we get a dog that is just choosing the right things, which we can drive a load of reinforcement into, bank it all up, and then over time we have real nice behavioral change.

Yeah.

Now on tools, you can see he's got a pinch collar on here. I'm going to talk to you about that. There's quite a lot of wrestling between you and your dog, right? He's on the flat collar or the martingale collar. The flat collar I don't like because of all the pressure you're going to put on the dog gets pushed through his trachea. Yeah, that's going to really wind him up over time. And although it seems like the nicer tool to use because of that— looks like a nasty spiky collar— over the period of the half an hour you're walking your dog, it's just going to bruise and smash his trachea to bits. So my argument against it would be, hey, why don't we try this? It's going to be a little bit more succinct in our feedback in terms of we're not going to need these like big wrestling match corrections. We're going to say, hey, don't do that. And it gives us like minor adjustments that are going to be really obvious to the dog. Because what I'm seeing every time Gunner's like corrected on the lead, it almost like winds him up more and pushes him into the behavior. That's probably because the collar's been conditioned to like wind the dog up a little bit. And so like if I switch Kobe to his flat collar— okay, I can— he feels the end of it, typically he's gonna pull into it. He's obviously not now because we've just done a bit of training, but most of my dogs, because of before they come to me, they were walked on flat collars they've been learned to pull through it, and it's what we call a poison tool. So how do you feel about that?

Yeah, good. Yeah, yeah, fine. I quite like it that you're not raising your voice to him.

No, you know what I mean?

Because it's very calm.

Yes, we don't need to raise our voice. I don't need to shout at my dog. If I shout at my dog to get him to stop doing anything and that volume is a factor in which the behavior is reliant on when my dog's mid-flight or whatever and I'm screaming, I've only got so much volume I can go to, right?

Yeah, yeah.

So everything I do comes with action afterwards to make things important, whether that's positive or negative action after that cue. And then very quickly we should be able to whisper to our dog the, the commands. Sit, reinforce. Down, reinforce. Bad action on the back end of it. And then very quickly we get a dog that's just like really using their ears. Yeah, that's how you get a dog that's not like Yeah, otherwise we start shouting, we get a lazy dog as well. So like, oh, you'll shout at me when you mean it. Yeah, yeah.

And it becomes a bit of a white noise, doesn't it? Become a bit of a—

Correct. All right, right, I'll put him in.

Okay.

And then we'll get Gunner out and we'll start some action. Is that all right?

Yeah.

Hey, good man. I'll take him just for a little spin, especially when introducing this collar. I'm just going to start moving him around, and what I want to just start teaching him on this new collar is When he yields to the pressure and faces towards me, that's gonna— yes, that's gonna earn him a yes. And there's a couple of times he has rejected the food now, so I need to be careful of not poisoning markers. Good lad. Yes, good boy. What a good boy. Clever clogs. So I'm just walking backwards. This is just how we start conditioning this tool. I'm gonna face towards him so I know exactly what his head's doing. And if he starts hitting the end, I'm gonna just gently pulse it. Yes. Until he yields, his head comes towards me, and then I deliver the yes. Not only will this condition the tool well, this will also increase the potency of our yes marker as well. Yes. The last thing we wanna do is slip a collar like this onto a dog. Good man. And then throw him into a picture with another dog.

Yeah. Yeah.

If he hits the end and freaks out, it's just going to kind of add more adversity to an adversive situation already, right? So good lad. Yes, good lad.

Yes.

That was one of my jackpots. I can just start lots of different changes of direction. I'm not asking him for anything in particular. I just want to make this collar quite important to begin with. Good boy. Yes. Ah, good boy. Cool. So there's our yes. Let's move on to our good and our nope. Kind of place. Down. Good. Obviously you've gone and conditioned your yes, and that's, that's perfect. That's what we need. I don't need to formally condition my good command because it happens in the behavior. Nope.

Down.

Good. Good. I'm gonna let a little bit of time elapse between my nope and my good, reason being I don't want a nope to equal a reward. Good. So distraction went off over there, he stayed where he was. I want to reward him for doing that, but also communicating with him, that was good that you ignored that, but keep doing what you're doing. And this is where and why our good comes into play. Good. And I'm going to reward him off with a yes in a second and then encourage him with me. Yes. So remember, yes is stop doing what you're doing, come to me. So I can use place to start reinforcing both of those. Place. Well done for ignoring the bus and staying calm. Good. Yes! We move, move, move, move, move. My marker, verbal marker, down, always comes— nope, down— before any action. So it's "yes" and then move. It's "good" and then reach for the pocket. If I start moving and then issuing the word after, my dog will only care to look for my movement.

Yeah.

And very quickly that will overshadow my words and my voice. So it's always voice, action, voice, action, whether that be positive or negative.

Yeah.

Otherwise our dog, like all dogs do, will prioritize a visual or a tactile cue. Nope, down. Good. Over an audible cue. And very quickly, our dog won't listen to us. Our dog won't always be able to see us. Our dog won't— we won't always be able to touch our dog. And so we want to build a communication system where they're listening for our words. Good. Guess, then move, and then pay. Now we do the bad. Bad. Hey, that's bad. That's really bad. No, no, that's bad. I'm not speaking to you. No, you're naughty. So I mark action, that's a correction. I reiterate my bad command, which is bad correction, bad correction. And I'm going to ignore him. And although he has no idea what I'm saying, just me getting into that emotional character allows, one, the dog will read the emotion, but also two, it allows me to remind myself of the steps in which we're going through. And I, I must get to the final test where he goes, no, I'm not going to do that, before I then let some time elapse.

Yeah.

Yes. And show him what he should do.

Soon it's become something to avoid.

Yes.

Doesn't it?

Yes.

Yeah.

And so then I can have my dog at liberty and not constantly like having to tell him what to do, and he just goes, "I'm not allowed to do that." Yeah. And then because he chooses to do something we do want, I've got the "yes" to mark and reward that, to make him choosing that option more likely next time.

Yeah. Yes.

And then he chooses the preferential behavior. And that moment there is just where true behavioral change lies. He chooses, no, I'm not going to do that, I'm going to sit because I know that's the decision, didn't he?

Yeah, yeah.

And then doesn't— and I've missed to mark it, and that's fine, but that doesn't meet— then require for me to constantly micromanage my dog. And so can you see where each marker has its place? Yeah. Cool. All makes sense?

Yep.

Sound. Give him a little bit of a break. Yeah. How we want to really structure our sessions is exercise, socialization, rest.

Yeah.

And when you're trying to change behavior, you want to separate exercise and socialization a little bit, not trying to achieve them at the same time, so we can really like focus on the socialization aspect. And that's for him, how do you behave around other dogs. So what we'll do when we bring him back out, we'll look at play.

Okay.

Looking at improving that and so he can get the most out of that. Yeah, and we give him a couple of minutes to come down, and then we'll do some exposure or socialization work implementing what we've just been through there. Grab your ball out, have a little play with him. I'm going to talk you through a couple of improvements we can make. Okay, good boy, good boy, good boy, good boy. Cool, keep him moving now. Objective when he has the toy is to move away from him. All right, Richard, good lad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, out, out. Nice. Good boy, good boy, good boy.

Keep—

yeah, move. Yeah, good, good, good, good, good. Yeah, nice.

Good boy.

Keep him moving.

Good boy.

Good, good. Yes. Yeah. Good, keep moving away from him for me. So just when you're in this bit here, play a little bit of a game. I take the end of the leash, hips open again, a little bit of movement. Careful, there's no big— and it's his job to catch me to restart the game, not— whoa, good boy! Not me to go to him to start the game. Okay, that'll help us with a couple of other things later on down the line. Good boy! Whoa, clever boy, clever boy, clever boy! So I don't want to be like going into him, I want him being motivated to come into me.

Yeah, yeah.

And then that starts the game again. Out, out.

Ah, yes!

Oh boy.

Whoa, I never played with him on lead with a ball before.

Yeah, so yeah, by having the leash there, one, we can speed up our out.

Yeah.

Two, we can start like adding in a little bit of punishment for not holding on to the toy. Yeah, like I have now. Good man, good man. 3, I can do this bit. Yeah, where I can— haha, good lad! I can start teaching him like getting that ball back to me. Really good. That's what starts the game again. Play isn't just about exercising the dog. We can teach a dog a lot through play. Out. Good. Sit. Good. Good boy.

Get it.

Oh, good boy. Good lad. And there's a couple of times I've managed to sneak it from him. That'll make him want it for longer as well if I just— ah, good lad, clever boy. Oh, good boy. Now we're holding on.

Good lad.

Because of— again, play's not just about— all done— getting the steps in for the dog and exercising him. It's about allowing him to express his competitive edge, his prey drive, his desire to stalk and chase and hunt, catch, parade. And when we play with our dog, having a little bit of obedience, having that option to punish him for leaving the toy behind, etc., etc., allows us to really take the edge off him. So when we do get a dog out and we ask him to stay down here, he's like, that's okay, because I've had my time Yeah, yeah, good boy, good lad. You're a clever boy, great dog. Thanks, mate. Yeah, good lad. Yeah, yeah, yeah, good lad. Come on in. Yeah, yeah, good. If he left it at that point, that's on him. He should have kept hold of it.

Cool.

All right, last O-U-T, then tell him all done, and then pop the toy in the pocket.

Out.

Good.

All done. Nice.

Cool. Nice. And then pop him on place, and we go back into conditioning our markers, like just like we did earlier. Reward him for that down.

Good.

Very nice. Good job. Now you're going to tell him heel. Walk him to heel to that bench and back, and then back into place.

Heel.

Nice. Yep, take him with. Good. Now his job is nose behind toes and head off the ground. Anything less than isn't specific enough for our dog to really comprehend. Nice. And see how he's on this come down, his ears are back a little bit after the play. When we want to recondition how a dog feels about any trigger, but other dogs specifically, Gunner, place. We want to make sure we're doing it whilst we're in that, um, nice laxy-daisy state of mind.

Good.

Nice. Down. Good man.

Come on, Gunner, down.

Cool. And then nothing else changes. Now we're just exactly the same. If he breaks the down— nope, leash. Down. If he maintains the down, good.

Pay.

He's going to think about breaking in a sec. Good. And pay. So that moment there, he disengaged from the dog. He's more likely to respond to you when he's like fixating like that. At this stage, I wouldn't try and like punish him or anything. I just wait. If he gets off the bed, hey, nope, get on the bed. If he then disengages from the dog, good. And pay that. We want him to see the dog, look at the dog, process, make a decision. So we just watch him for a second. He's going to do one of two things. He's going to get off the place bed, or he'll disengage from the dog. He gets off the place bed, we know what to do. If he disengages the dog, good, well done for staying calm. Saying good while he's fixating, chances are he's just going to blow the good off and it's becoming less important.

Good. Nice.

And again.

Good.

Nice. Okay, now close back there and back. The first movement he makes towards the other dog though, and he goes to pull on the lead— nope— and use the leash to bring him back into the behavior you want.

Okay, heel.

Nope, nope. That's all right, he's just having a look.

Cool.

And I want you to get there, 180 again, and the same thing. And on your way, he's going to look at the other dog, and then he's going to look away. And when he looks away, you say yes and reward him. Heel.

Nice.

And relax the leash. He can look. He's not allowed to pull.

Okay.

He's allowed to look at the dog. We're not going to tell him off for looking at the dog. Okay, actually he's made a lot of good decisions because he's gone, he's looked, he's disengaged, he's looked and disengaged.

Makes sense.

Yeah, and that's what we want to see more of. And if we want to see more of something, yeah, we deliver the yes and pay that. We're not going to deliver the good in this one just because of we're in a moving behavior anyway. And anytime he looks at you in the presence of the other dog, that's another opportunity for a yes. So he's got such a history of correcting the dog, he's just trigger happy, wants to correct the dog when The dog didn't, hasn't really needed correcting at any point thus far, just rewarding a lot. I want you to look out for anytime he looks at you, say yes, move and pay him.

Yeah.

Anytime he looks away from the dog, say yes, move and pay him.

Okay.

Right, and just like get a march on. You're kind of just like looking for, you're focusing on when you need to correct it because in the past it's probably just been like correction, correction, correction, correction.

Okay.

But now we're at the point where we're ready to drive a bunch of, uh, drive reinforcement into what we do want, and it's better choices, right? So, um, don't get me wrong, if he pulls towards the dog, yeah, you nope and you correct.

Okay.

But anytime he's processing the dog is there and decides not to act on it, yep, yes, yes. Just like we did with the food bowl earlier, the dog's choosing. We've not even needed a bad, we've not even like thought about needing a bad yet. No, no. Okay, now loosen up your lead. Say yes and pay him. Very nice. And although he's staying in a behavior, it is a moving behavior, so we theoretically wouldn't use our good. Okay, because that's for stationary behaviors.

Yes.

Okay, and careful with that early hand, Richard. Cool. We've kind of swung over a little bit. Let's come back up here, a bit closer to the dog. Yes.

Yes.

Nice. Nice, good. Wait for him to come around the corner with you. Yes, there you go. Yes, cool, mate. Bring him over here and you're going to lie him down here.

Down.

Good. Pay.

Good.

Nice work.

Good boy.

So what we've done with our training prior to bringing the dog out is created a little bit of hesitancy in him, like, hey, there are rules to your actions. We did that through play, we did that through our, our mock-up scenario earlier.

Yeah.

And that's allowed him to process the situation of the dog a lot easier.

Yeah.

And so that's why it's always important that, like, even in the absence of dogs, we're not absent corrections or consequence because of That's what gives the adequate preparedness to deal with these situations. He's chill, he's not freaking out, he's taking food, he's happy.

Good.

Yeah, pay him down. Good man. If he were to react, what we're going to agree on is if he verbalizes— if he vocalizes, sorry— if he, if he starts and then pulls, that's when our bad's going to come into place. If he just pulls and he's inquisitive But he is breaking the rules. Nope, we bring him back in. Now just bring him here, mate. Put him into a sit, throw some food on the floor, just scatter it out a bit. Keep him in the sit, then give him an okay. Now, okay, okay, nice. Now he's at liberty. So the yes allows us to pinpoint the exact moment that he's nailed it. And that's why we use it, because we can be a lot more accurate with our voice, which is then contractually obliged to payment, than we can hand in our pocket and then try and get the foods in. Because by the time we've done that, we've missed the moment.

Here.

Yes.

Yes. Reward him even when he's not looking at you, if he's just behaving, or—

Yeah, so anytime he disengages from the dog, do we want to see more of that? Absolutely. So we're going to use yes. Anytime he looks at you, we might say yes.

Okay.

Theoretically, anytime he looks at the dog without losing his shit, we could say yes. And then if he looks at us after the fact, we pay that. That's absolutely great. Dog training is, hey, don't do that. Showing him what's not in his favor and then to give opportunity to then show what is in his favor and then bank reinforcement in that.

Yep. Yes.

All right. My dog's getting a little bit flat. He's not responding to his yes. I'm almost going to do this activity now, which is the first one we did earlier, as a little bit of a recharge. All right, so I go hips towards the dog. If I can catch him out and he hits the end of that leash, double tugs. Good lad. Yes, that head comes towards me. I hope my mark move reward Yes, yes. Now I found him again. Heel. I can say heel. Yes. Good boy. Sit. Heel means head up, remember? And so if I want to give him sniff time— okay, I'm gonna make sure I permit that, not for any other reason than I want to be nice and specific when I am asking him to heel. If I sometimes let him sniff, sometimes let him come out of position, sometimes let him get across me— yeah, it's not black and white enough for the clarity he probably needs, okay, when exposing him to other dogs or triggers. If you think about how we've worked things today, we've progressively made it harder for him. Yeah, that's how we want to think about life with him. Like, going from where we are right now to the seafront, too big of a jump. Yeah, it's like going from a 5K to a marathon. Yeah, you can ultimately fail, get injured, and you're further away from a marathon. Yeah, yeah, because if all he's going to do is like, if he's not prepared, he's going to rehearse that behavior of the unwanted behavior, that's going to get stronger. And then we're further away from our goal. And so we started off with no dog, then we went to Ranger, my older dog, then we went to— who did we bring out? Then we brought out Keith, a little bit bigger, a little bit more energy, and now we're about to bring out her young Malinois, a little bit more energy as well. So then same deal. So what I'm going to ask you to do is be stationary and just ask him to do nothing. All right, she's going to bring her dog to that cone.

Yeah.

And we're just going to give him feedback on what we like and what we don't like to begin with before we ask for any behavior. Yeah. So if he goes to react, you obviously— we're going to go bad, and we're going to make that first imprint of that marker in the presence of another dog really important. But if he's just looking and disengaging, we're just, yes, yes, and moving around. All right. Yeah. And that's how we get a real trained dog, to be honest. When they're at liberty, they're out of a command, we've not asked them to do anything. Of course he's on a leash Yeah, and then we're just going to give him feedback on, on his choices.

Okay.

And there's a time and a place for a command, you know, when we're walking somewhere and we've got a ginnel, an alleyway. Okay, we're gonna ask you to close now. But if we want a dog that just makes good choices while they're free, sometimes we need to allow them to be free and then feedback to them on what they have done. Yeah, not constantly telling them what to do. No, no, he's got a big boy, isn't he? Yeah. Huge. Or huge is right short. Bit of both. Yes and pay.

Yes. Nice. That be a yes rather than a good?

Yeah, I would have just added a little bit of movement, but it's okay. Just because good is for when you've asked him to do something and keep doing, because we've not asked him to do anything now.

Okay. Bad.

Hey, hey, no, that's bad too. No, bad. Hey, Gunner, bad. That's enough. No, don't look over there. No, no, we're doing our thing. No, no, we're not friends. Okay, we can be friends again. Come on then. I'm not going to rush to ask what I do want. I'm going to let it pan out cuz he's still 50/50, you see?

Yeah, yeah.

And I want to just make sure I'm sure. Bad. Hey, no. Bad. Hey, bad. No. So didn't mind him having a whine and a look, of course. Hey, bad. Bad. He let out that little murmur and I said, right, that's my cutoff point then. That's where we're going to instigate or initiate that protocol. Go on, go on. Now I'm feeling more sure. If I need to do it 10 times, that's okay. Okay, I'm feeling more sure. I don't need to rush. Yes, man! Now we can go into what I do like. Yes, lad. Now, because of like, I know exactly what I need to do at each step depending on what he does, like, I don't feel nervous or anything now because I'm just like, all right, I know the solution to every little choice he makes. Good, good. Okay, I'm just going to release him into liberty. I'm not going to ask him to do anything, see what he does.

Seems a lot more relaxed, doesn't he?

It's just clear. Yeah, like when we say to a dog, you are not allowed to do that, and then they go, all right, what can I do? And you go, that's great. They go like, oh brilliant, sound like it's a really easy choice for me.

Yeah, yeah.

That dog that's whining and thinking about one or the other, it becomes a stressed dog through anticipation.

He was like in the starting blocks.

Yeah. And then all of a sudden he just stood back from Yeah, and he was like, oh, okay, if I can't do that, yeah, I'll pick something else. We drive loads of reinforcement there and we go, that's, that's what I need. Just clear as day. Don't ask him to do anything, see what he does. Once you feel like he doesn't have— he's not thinking about being naughty, then you can give him a wanted behavior and then we can move on. Set him heel and move on.

Heel.

Very nice. You just keep going up and down, Richard, and Alicia's going to work around you. We've told him clear as day what we don't want. Now what we need to be clear as day what we do want.

Good boy. Come on, heel.

Yes. Yes, yes, yes, nice! There you go, nice! Yes, cool, there you go, cool. We'll head over, we'll keep— we'll go over the field and go down to the park. How's his recall coming along?

Yeah, yeah, he's sort of, well, when we were working with Kirkie yesterday, that's hard work to get him to go away from us, do you know what I mean?

All right, yeah, sounds.

He really sort of, he's much more, I think he seems a lot more settled in himself.

Yeah.

Bit more confident in himself.

Yeah, nice. It's just because with that freedom, he gets that choice.

Yeah.

What's he been like when he's actually interacted with other dogs?

So I don't know whether you saw the videos, but I had a really good weekend of meeting several other dogs out. Took him into John Lewis.

Yep. Sound.

Met another dog in there. Sorry.

Heel.

Heel.

Watch out.

Yeah, really busy sort of touristy place. Met about 20 dogs, you know, come towards us and I think the prong seems to like, as soon as he goes on that, he realizes that he's got to behave himself.

Okay, that's all right. Right, how do you feel about letting these two off and doing some recall practice? Yeah, come on then.

Okay, boy, now gonna come.

That's it.

Yes, yes, good lad, good lad, good boy. Cool.

Now gonna come.

Nice. Yes.

Nice. That's better. Don't have time for hesitations. Good boy. Good man. Yeah, you're my good man, huh? Yes.

You notice how we looked at him then and decided to come back?

Yeah, you should say yes and pay that. Okay, so those auto check-ins, those good choices.

Yeah.

Yeah, I like that. Yes, I like you. We'll get that on the way back. I like it when you see dogs in there and look to me for that insurance instead of fixating and lowering the body language. Boys. Trav, come.

You want to come?

Clever boy.

Good lad.

That's a good boy.

Good boy.

Very nice. Cool, we'll recall them back in a second, put them on leash. Okay, Trav, come.

Going to come? Yes.

You been over here yet?

Yeah, yeah, I came over with Alicia the other week. All right, yeah, yeah, and we walked to the calves.

Oh nice, we'll do same thing again today. Yes, oh boy, very nice. Some floofles over there, Trav, look. Guess.

When I took him out last weekend, I said to my wife, it's funny because you, before that, you spend time trying to avoid dogs.

I know, now you're looking for them.

You actually go to maybe look for them a bit.

Yeah, exactly. I see him again. Me and Susie were running around my village like headless chickens the day before yesterday, weren't we, Susie, looking for dogs? Yeah, because she was just trying to do some dog work and Yeah, yeah, get someone to film with Travis, but he, um, we can't find any basically. Good lad. Heel.

Good lad.

Hi mate, you all right? Yes. Good lad. Hiya, you okay? Yes.

He seems to have a different sort of mindset.

How do you mean?

Like just generally calmer, just generally more— Yeah. When you're out, yeah, he's just—

Everything's a bit clearer.

Yeah.

Probably as there's less conflict in your communication as well. So like you're constantly not like having to to and fro and tug him and wrestle him past dogs and all that. And he probably has more controlled freedom as well. So he's just kind of— allows to get him out of his system. That's why I'm trying to— I shit myself then looking at that car.

Yeah, I think that's what it's designed to do, is it?

Oh dear. This is what I'm trying to do with Travis now. I'm just trying to give him as much controlled freedom as possible. We'll go this way. Yeah, good lad. Hey, good boy. Too easy, innit, bud? Too easy, bud, huh? It's all about giving the freedom to make right choices. Yeah. And, and early, early doors you have to manage a little bit more and, and, and not give the dog the benefit of the doubt.

Yep.

Right. But when, you know, we start moving on a little bit and we want to like really change the dog and how he feels, then it's It's all about giving those choices and then going, hey, that was good. Yeah. Or hey, what you just did wasn't good. Yeah, yeah. And let's pick something better next time.

Yeah. Yeah, that's what I've noticed, that he seems to make his own decisions a little bit.

Yeah.

A little bit more.

Come here, bud.

Do you find that once they get their freedom, they're not that bothered about their freedom?

Yeah. It becomes less novel, you see, so. They'll just mooch around.

Yeah, and yeah, you're just as interesting as the—

yeah, exactly, rest of it. But prior to now, it was all forbidden fruit.

Yeah, yeah.

Good boys. He's a good dog, isn't he, Richard?

Sorry?

He's a good dog, isn't he?

I think so. Yeah.

And if you do have a high drive working dog that maybe is reactive and you like this style of video, then you're going to love this video right here.