Teach Your Dog to Release Pressure and Unlock Better Stock Work
Getting the “Get”
If your dog locks onto stock and won’t give ground when you need them to, every other skill gets harder — flanks tighten, gathers collapse, and pen work turns into a fight. This course gives you a step-by-step process to teach your dog to turn and move away from stock on command, building the kind of responsive distance that makes everything else fall into place.
Start Building This Skill
What You’ll Walk Away With
The “get” is one of those tools that changes the feel of your entire working session. When your dog understands how to release pressure and move off stock on command, you stop fighting for distance and start shaping the work you actually want — wider flanks, calmer pen work, and a dog that thinks with you instead of pushing through you.
A Dog That Releases on Command
Your dog learns to turn and move away from stock when you ask — not because you’re overpowering them, but because they understand the behavior and feel good doing it.
Distance You Can Actually Use
Once your dog gives you the “get,” you can push them off stock and flank them wide, walk them back up with control, or hold them at a distance while you work a gate or pen.
Off-Stock Foundation First
Every step starts without stock so your dog learns the mechanics before the excitement hits. That way, the reward comes at the right moment — when they move away, not when they push in.
Progressive Steps, Not Pressure Battles
Each lesson adds one layer of complexity. Your dog builds understanding through repetition and reward, not correction and confusion.
What’s Inside the Course
A clear progression that builds the “get” off stock first, then adds stock one layer at a time until your dog will turn and move away on command in the open arena.
Build the Mechanics Off Stock
Before any stock is involved, your dog learns to move off your pole pressure and turn away down a narrow alley or hallway — rewarded with a cookie toss so the payoff comes for moving out, not for driving in.
Add Stock, One Layer at a Time
Stock enters gradually — penned behind you, then reachable, then in front of you, then in a wider space. Set up so the only choice is the right one, your dog turns away and earns a walk-up back onto the stock as the reward.
Take It Into the Arena
Start in a corner sitting on the draw to strip away distractions, then move to the middle of the arena — the finished product, where you can ask for the get and either walk your dog up or flank them wide around the stock.
11 Lessons
Progressive, step-by-step video from off stock to open arena
Any Setup
A hallway, a doorway, a take pen, or an arena — use what you have
Real Demos
Multiple dogs and breeds worked through every stage on video
Why This Skill Changes Everything
If you’ve ever been at a center pen with a dog that tightens up instead of giving you room, or watched your dog pin stock on a fence line because they won’t release, you know the frustration. You’re not lacking effort — you’re missing a tool.
The “get” gives you a way to unlock your dog from pressure without a battle. When your dog learns to turn and move away on command, suddenly center pens get calmer. Fence line work gets smoother. You can create the distance you need for a wide, clean flank instead of fighting a dog that wants to push in tight.
Dawna and Megan teach this the way they teach everything — off stock first, so the reward comes at the right moment. If you try to teach this on stock, the dog only gets rewarded when they push back in, which is the opposite of what you want. By building the skill in layers — hallways, alleys, thresholds, pens, corners — your dog arrives at the arena already knowing the behavior. The stock becomes the reward for doing it right, and the learning sticks.
Every skill in stock dog training is a tool in your toolbox, and they all become necessary at one point or another. Having a solid “get” means that when you need it — at a center pen, on a fence line, or just to create distance for a clean flank — it’s there and your dog knows exactly what you’re asking.
What You Get
Step-by-Step Video Lessons
Every lesson includes clear video instruction with real dogs at different stages. You’ll see exactly what the behavior looks like, how to set up each exercise, and how to adjust for your dog.
Personal Feedback from Dawna & Megan
Post questions, share your training videos, or ask for help when something isn’t clicking. Dawna and Megan are there to guide you through the process — you’re not figuring this out alone.
Lifetime Access
Work at your own pace and revisit any lesson as your dog develops. This skill may look different at each stage of your dog’s training — having the course there when you need it makes all the difference.
Give Your Dog a Critical Skill That Makes Every Other Piece Easier
A dog that releases pressure on command is a dog you can shape. Wider flanks, calmer pen work, better gathers — it all starts with the “get.”
Start Training the Get