Manners & Obedience

What Foundation Camp Did for Stanley

Before camp: Bolting through doors and thresholds the second they opened.

Breed: Australian Shepherd Mix
Program: Foundation Camp
Length of stay: Several weeks
Trainer: Megan Fiedler

Before

Where Stanley Started

Bolting through doors and thresholds the second they opened

Stanley is playful and curious with a lot of energy, and he had one habit that outranked all of it: he bolted. Doors, gates, any threshold the moment it opened.

Door bolting is not a manners problem. It is a safety problem that looks like a manners problem, and it only has to go wrong once.

The program

Stanley's Foundation Camp

Stanley worked with one of our senior trainers on thresholds specifically. Targeted exercises, repeated in the exact context where the behavior happens, until patience at a doorway was the default rather than the exception.

Because the trigger is a doorway, most of this work has to be done at the doorway, over and over.

Episode by episode

Watch Stanley's Journey

Filmed during the stay, in order. Nothing here is staged after the fact.

See every Training Journey

After

Where Stanley Ended Up

Stanley came home calm and controlled at doorways and thresholds. Our trainer walked his dad Ian through exactly what to hold him to so the old habit did not creep back.

Our head trainer Hannah closed the loop on why follow-up sessions matter for a dog like Stanley. Training a habit out is the first half. Keeping it out is the rest.

Published July 08, 2025

The trainer