“No” had stopped working.
Bernie is big, strong and, in his trainer’s words, “one of the friendliest dogs you’ll ever meet.” His family explains why they decided to train him: when he was little, “we will say no and then he will stop.” Then came a point where “he will start barking at us and start kind of like challenging us.”
The crate had become a struggle too. At the go-home lesson, the family asked his trainer how he had managed it.
“Scary smart.”
Day one was about friendship: a place cot, a game of tug and some television. On day two, on a long evening trail walk, his trainer said it plainly: “This dude is like scary smart.”
He picked things up fast and never fought the work. Treats hardly came into it: Bernie’s favourite game is being chased, so play, sniffing and freedom became his rewards.
An hour and a half on the cot.
On many evenings Bernie practised place in a lived-in room with other dogs in training, the TV on and people coming and going. A colleague knocked and walked in; his trainer stepped outside and checked through the window. “None of them got up, even when I knocked on the door.”
“The longest I had him stay on a cot was like an hour and a half,” his trainer told the family at go-home.
Ten minutes, never locked.
At a busy park, Kelton put Bernie in a down while children on scooters, walkers and small dogs went by, then walked around him and turned his back. Bernie held it. In a farm-supply store, he held another down while his handler stepped out of sight.
His leash manners grew too. “His leash yielding has gotten a lot better,” Kelton says, and the Flexi stays unlocked: “it’s like 10 minutes now.”
“Bernie, go home.”
Four weeks after he left, Bernie bounded out to greet everyone. “He’s very happy to see you guys,” his trainer told the family. Inside, he worked through their own questions, from the kitchen to the table, and showed them how to set a rule clearly and then let Bernie be free.
Then the crate. “Bernie, go home,” and in he went. “I cannot believe that,” a family voice says.
The plan for walks: mostly on a long Flexi, heel when it matters, and a release to freedom as the reward.
Still the same happy dog.
The handover ended with one question: was he still their Bernie? “He’s still the same dog. He’s still happy and, like, having a good time,” his trainer said, and the family agreed.
His trainer also offered quick follow-up help, so questions get answered early: “I wanna be available to help with that.” Kelton says Bernie still comes back for refreshers from time to time.
