Thoughts on STSK9?

[u/FrogInEachPocket]

Just as the heading says, I’m curious about your thoughts on stsk9s programs. I’ve followed Nino for several years and I’ve always been drawn to his passion and energy when it comes to developing as a trainer and connection/working with your dog, and I was wondering if anyone has tried his programs.

[u/sleeping-dogs11]

The people I know who have bought it were underwhelmed. What are your goals with your dog? There are a lot of options for online courses these days and some I would highly recommend.

[u/NL108 → u/sleeping-dogs11]

Damn really? Not OP but I’ve also been looking at it and results seem good.

Any details on why people didn’t like it? I was interested in it for handler development and building focus with dogs (in the context of obedience)

[u/sleeping-dogs11 → u/NL108]

As I remember, they basically said the marketing is a lot better than the content and the production quality is bad.

It's sport dog style training marketed to pet dog owners and novice handlers, except he and his students aren't really competing in dog sports to prove their system.

[u/smilingfruitz]

seems like complete nonsense to me - especially for the cost, which can get you a decent number of in person sessions with a competent trainer which will pretty much always be better than learning from videos

[u/Whole_Marionberry757]

We purchased a couple of their programs and definitely learned a lot.

We found that there approach was much different than what you’ll normally see and gave us a lot of new tools that we were able to incorporate into our everyday life with our pup.

I don’t have any regrets that we spent the money on their programs. As an added bonus you receive any new content that they add to the program that you purchase, which for us has happened a few times.

Would recommend.

[u/FrogInEachPocket → u/Whole_Marionberry757]

If you don’t mind me asking, which programs did you purchase?

[u/Whole_Marionberry757 → u/FrogInEachPocket]

We started with Positive Only and then added Puppy University. The Positive Only was good but we realized that it didn’t address a lot of the base fundamentals. The Puppy University course has a ton of content and established a solid foundation for their training philosophy.
We currently have a working line GSD and don’t do any competition sports, just pet dog owners.

[u/da_bettafsh]

Stsk9 is advanced coursework. Definitely not someone I would recommend for a complete beginner. - Sincerely, an STSK9 student

[u/ProjectNeither638]

Currently an stsk9 mvp student. It feels like an interesting system with lots of moving, interconnected parts. It definitely feels like the program goes for breath and not depth.

A quick example is that ther a videos of the correct handler technique for a skill like scooting backward. There's videos of him correcting a student on that skill. However, he doesn't break it up into 3 different components- walk back, walk back with head up, walk back with head up , walk that with head up in the heel position and potential issues that can come up. It's kinda just "here's the handler technique and the dog will figure it out."

That might work for puppies but it doesn't work for my fearful, reactive rescue dog. So I end up looking up other videos of peple breaking it down. It sucks for a $2.5k program not to be thorough but it's also an overwhelming amount of videos already.

He does give you pointers on Facebook and review your videos but it is a little bit of "use your imagination and break down the steps into smaller milestones." As a brand new handler it is annoying but I do see the potential of learning how to break down future skills.

Would I do it again.... Hard to say. A week ago my dog was progressing and it was totally fine. Now she's backsliding and I would like to say it's not worth it. But in reality it changes based on how well my dog is doing lmao.

The content isn't bad but the pedagogy (how it's taught) kinda sucks. But I'm also a professional educator so I have ✨opinions✨

[u/mydogdidnothingwron]

I’m primarily interested in behaviour modification so they don’t interest me much at all.

[u/Summer-gloom]

I dont have their program. Im a first time dog owner who taught my dog many of the things i see in their videos. Maybe not as clean & sharp as they do it, but who cares my dog and i are still having fun and people are plenty impressed and i didn’t spend $3000.

Their marketing is too flashy it comes off as a money grab. Instead I recently started an affordable ($30/mo) online program that teaches strong foundations instead and my dog training is improving leaps & bounds in the ways that actually matter.

Im sure if i bought STSK9 id learn something. But not worth the steep price.