“He likes everybody he sees.”
Rocky came to Angier K9 at the end of March 2026, a German shepherd-Lab puppy about six months old. “He likes everybody he sees,” his trainer told his owner; he cared more about sniffing than about treats or toys, and he was harder to teach when things got exciting.
His owner had been making progress on her own, using treats on their trails to get him to stop barking at dogs. She wanted the jumping gone, and his training started early, while he was still young.
“I just said the word.”
His first session went up on YouTube as “He’s learning so fast!”, all on a flat collar. On day two, on a long trail hike, Rocky gave his first down with no help from the collar: “I just said the word and he did it.”
Out there the release did the teaching. “This is way more entertaining to him,” Kelton explained, “so the release is a much bigger reward here… because he has somewhere interesting to go and something interesting to sniff.”
From victory laps to place.
Play was part of the engine: tug, “victory laps,” then a chance to “return to baseline” before the next rep. After a big game Kelton put him straight on the place cot, because “he needs impulse control more than anything else.”
Evenings at the house were for long, ordinary place holds with Bernie, Akira and Hattie, the TV on and people coming and going. When Kelton knocked on the door from outside, “none of them got up.”
Her turn on the leash.
Rocky’s owner joined three lessons during the program, and Kelton could already report that Rocky “tolerates feeling a little pressure without whining.” At the go-home lesson she practised heel and the middle position herself, with Kelton coaching beside her.
She hides. He stays.
After he went home, his owner brought new questions to her follow-up lessons: joggers, bikes and new dogs. Kelton gave her a second remote, “two sets of brakes,” and one big idea: “do way less… use the leash way less and then do less corrections but make them more meaningful.”
At a dog-park fence Rocky was free to look, then called away, and he came. His owner’s read: “Now he didn’t do what he did before.” And on their trail he has a new place, a big rock, where he stays while she hides behind the trees.
Kelton’s advice at the fence: don’t let other dogs “become a thing.” Let him check, and respond only if he does something inappropriate.
