How the MVP™ Works: Your Guide to Learning, Training, and Progress
Sep 29, 2026This is the replay of a live call Laura and I held for people considering the MVP™. If you have already seen what our students and their dogs can do, and your remaining questions are practical ones, this page is for you. How is the program structured? How much support do you get? Can you do it on your own schedule, with your dog, at your level?
The recording covers how we think about training and why everything starts with the handler. This page covers the rest: how the program is built, how you move through it, and direct answers to the questions we hear most.
Watch the replay
Watch it to hear how we approach training before you start. We talk through why the MVP™ begins with your skills instead of the dog, how we build a recall, how we look at reactivity, and how heeling is developed. Laura also shares what it was like to go through the program as a student, and how she and I review your assignments.
How the MVP™ works
The MVP™ develops you and your dog together. It is a structured path with a clear order, not a library of videos to browse.
The five pillars
The program is organized into five pillars: drive, movement, vocals, grip, and the visual pillar, where heeling is developed. Each pillar contains its own modules. Heeling Styles™, for example, is a few modules inside the visual pillar. Each pillar applies to you as the handler as much as it does to your dog.
Where you start
You start with yourself. Before you train your dog, you train your own mechanics: how you move, how you hold and deliver a reward, and how you control the distance between your hand and your dog's nose. What you can do without the dog shows us most of what will happen once the dog is in front of you, so this is where we build first.
How lessons, practice and training fit together
Each skill follows the same rhythm:
- Watch the lesson as many times as you need.
- Practice the mechanics on your own, without your dog.
- Bring that skill to your dog in short, planned sessions.
- Film your work so you can analyze it, and so we can see it.
The order matters. You build drive before you learn to switch it. You build technique and position before you add commands and fade your rewards. You build source focus before the heeling styles that depend on it.
Assignments, feedback and coaching
As you progress, you complete five assignments. Each one asks for two things: your own written analysis of your training (what you were trying to do, what you liked, what you would change) and video of you and your dog.
Laura and I review your submission on video. We play your footage, pause it, and point at the details, looking first at your analysis, then at your handler skills, then at your dog. You then resubmit, and the resubmission is usually where the biggest step forward happens.
Between assignments, you can post videos in the MVP™ community on any topic, and we help you see what is happening and what to adjust. We also run regular coaching calls on specific topics, and we keep adding new material to the program.
How you know what to work on next
You are not left guessing. The assignments set the order of the main skills, and the feedback on each submission tells you what your next step is. Within that structure, your priorities follow your goal. Someone aiming for precise, competition-style obedience and someone who wants a dog that is reliable on the street will emphasize different things, and we help you plan for yours.
Questions we hear most
How much time do I need? Training sessions are short and planned rather than long. A few focused minutes with a clear plan do more than an hour of repetition without one. How much time you spend watching lessons is up to you. The program is self-paced, so your timeline depends on your dog, your schedule, and your goals.
Is there a structured path, or just a library of videos? A structured path. The pillars and modules hold the lessons, and the assignments set the order in which the core skills come together.
Are there assignments or homework? Yes. There are five assignments. Each one includes a written analysis and a video, receives video feedback from a coach, and is resubmitted after that feedback.
Can I combine the MVP™ with my current training approach or sport? Yes. The MVP™ is skills-based, and your assignments are assessed on your handler skills, not on which tools you use. Where the program covers tools, it shows options side by side, such as a positive-only out and a tool-supported out, so you can make informed decisions. Students who train for sport use the same skills there. And if you are working through Puppy University, you do not need to finish it first.
What support will help me apply what I learn? Three layers: individual video feedback on your assignments, the MVP™ community where you can post videos and ask other students directly what worked for them, and coaching calls on specific topics.
Can someone at my experience level follow the program? Yes. Because the program starts with your own mechanics, everyone builds from the same foundation, whether you have trained dogs for years or this is your first dog. Students have come through with low-drive dogs, reactive dogs, small breeds, and first puppies. The MVP™ is not the right fit if you need a quick fix for an adult dog today. It is built for people who want to own the skill.
What is the difference between the MVP™ and PPD Premium? The MVP™ covers all five pillars. PPD Premium includes the MVP™ and adds personal protection on top. Protection work is not for every dog, and the replay explains how we look at that.
From student to coach: Laura's view
Laura joined the MVP™ as a student with a low-drive Golden Retriever that was reactive, skittish, and afraid of cars and noises, in a group of mostly German Shepherds and Malinois. Her question was not whether the program worked. It was whether she could do it.
What moved her forward was a few weeks of focused handler work before anything else: her hands, her movement, how to create and direct energy, and how to analyze her own sessions. She started slower than others, then kept climbing, and finished in six months without using any correction tools. Today she coaches MVP™ students.
Her advice for new students is practical. The skills themselves are not the hardest part. Waiting is. The foundation takes time to install, and it can feel like you are falling behind when you are not. In her experience, around six or seven months in, students start combining skills without thinking about it, and their training gets faster and better from there.
Your next step
If this structure fits how you want to learn, the MVP™ program page has the full outline and enrollment.
Everything we talked about comes back to one thing. The decision you make matters more than anything else. This one included.
If you have a question before you decide, contact info@stsk9.com, and our team will get back to you.
Nino
