“Full power.”
Deuce is a big young Rottweiler, just ten months old and, in his trainer’s words, “a big baby.” He arrived “kind of a chronic puller,” and in his before video, given commands on the word alone, he jumped and pulled.
Connor remembers how it started: “When I met him, he pulled so hard I was like holding on to dear life with him.” It wasn’t a light pull, he says; it was “full power.”
Cue, return, reward.
Connor built everything on a clear word, a quick return and a real reward, then a release back to fun. Tug and play did a lot of the paying, and in the July heat, sessions stopped before Deuce got too hot.
One day he dropped what he was chewing, looked up and checked in all on his own. “That’s a really good sign,” his trainer said. “I didn’t hit anything there.”
Forty-five seconds on the bridge.
On a park outing, Connor put Deuce in a down on a bridge while people walked past. “He’s definitely fighting demons right now,” he said, and Deuce held it for 45 seconds.
“That is so freaking cool.”
At the second owner lesson, Deuce’s owner took the leash and Connor’s remote. “He’s not yanking on you at all, actually,” Connor told her, and when Deuce answered fast, her reaction was instant: “That is so freaking cool.”
Then the family set up the exact problem, an excited greeting. He didn’t jump on either of them; he leaned his whole weight in instead, the classic “Roddy lean.”
“I’m fairly impressed.”
On his last day, Connor took him to a busy town centre, “a good place for the dogs because there’s so much people.” His verdict: “Pretty good out here, though. I’m fairly impressed.”
When the crowds got to be a lot, Deuce got a break and some love: “You’re doing so good.”
Home, with better manners.
At the go-home lesson Deuce took place on his family’s own cot, and when he started to jump, a “nope” and a tap stopped him halfway. He held a down in the living room with the family’s two small dogs loose around him.
Then his owner ran the recall herself, and he came in and sat. As for any commotion, the family knew where it came from: the little dogs were “showing out. He ain’t doing nothing.”
The plan for home: keep the heel in daily use from day one, because every dog tests it in the first week home.
