What Foundation Camp Did for Thor
Before camp: A large working dog whose protectiveness needed to come under his family's control.
Before
Where Thor Started
A large working dog whose protectiveness needed to come under his family's control
Josh and Kristen came to us with a dog who put himself between his family and anyone he did not know. They did not want that instinct gone. Josh works 24-hour shifts, and he wanted Thor there.
What they wanted was control over it. A dog who let them decide when someone was a problem, instead of deciding for himself. With a dog his size, guessing is not an option.
The program
Thor's Foundation Camp
Thor's stay ran 24 days, extended partway through because the work that mattered was his mindset rather than his obedience, which was already solid when he arrived.
Chase ran the standard curriculum rather than anything bespoke. Greetings, heel, sit, recall, place, and thresholds first, then the handoff protocol, being passed calmly from one handler to the next, worked again and again from day eight onward. Socialization ran alongside it the whole way: unfamiliar men, six separate outings to new environments, bikes and skateboards and wheelchairs at a distance, and calm responses to knocking and the doorbell late in the stay.
Kristen came in near the end and worked those same situations herself, because a handler who is confident is half of the outcome with a dog this size.
Episode by episode
Watch Thor's Journey
Filmed during the stay, in order. Nothing here is staged after the fact.
After
Where Thor Ended Up
Thor went home able to settle himself when he felt pressure, instead of needing a person to step in every time. At the follow-up, Josh and Kristen reported him calm around construction workers, pool technicians, and their toddler son Brody.
What made it work was not the 24 days. It was a whole family running the same structure afterward, with Kristen handling him herself before he left so the handling went home with the dog.
Published November 08, 2024
The trainer
Who Ran Thor's Program
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