# Reactive dog training video



## David Winners (Apr 30, 2012)

Here's a good video on working with reactive dogs. The key takeaway is to give the dog a task and then correct for non compliance. This is far more effective than trying to extinguish reactivity by simply correcting the dog for bad behavior.


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## Sabis mom (Mar 20, 2014)

@David Winners I use two approaches. I try and catch her before she is defensive, quick collar pop with a Mind command and swing into obedience, failing that I put her in a sit and correct for non compliance. No barking, lunging or posturing allowed.
Although her behaviour was fear based, at this point Shadow is absolutely dog aggressive. The last attempted attack a few months ago ended any desire to run. Now she wants to fight. 
Any ideas on what I should do different?


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## cagal (Sep 3, 2013)

@David Winners thanks for posting this. This is exactly what I practiced in my trainer follow up session yesterday. 3 reactive dogs were lying down calmly within several feet of each other at the end of the session because we were all giving our dogs a task (practicing heeling, some IGP commands etc.), correcting when needed and rewarding for wanted behaviour. Takeaway - connect, connect, connect with your dog and help them understand the behaviour you want. They can’t do what you want if they don’t know/understand what to do. I wish I could link the video my trainer posted - it was amazing.


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## jarn (Jul 18, 2007)

Sal at Shield is having us do something similar - Agis should heel when we are in a 'danger' zone (walking by another dog, in the lobby which is tight and high dog traffic), correct for breaking heel.

He also has, at the start, had us pop for fixating on another dog, but that was again more of a 'hey you're walking loose leash and paying attention to us not that dog' kind of thing. 

Having Agis be loose-leash has fixed so much of his reactivity! (Other than a few hated dogs; one is the dog of a server at our local (sigh - man he HATES her dog) and the other is an exuberant lab who bothered him one day that he now hates)

We've also been taking Agis out on his own more, as Xerxes sets him off (and he now sets Xerxes off). We have the tools to help Xerxes too, which is great as well. Xerxes even nicely met a Berner puppy (now bigger than him) in the lobby which might not sound like a big deal, but is.


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## banzai555 (Sep 2, 2019)

I can't get past the title...THAT is the most reactive dog he has trained?? Didn't seem that bad to me? Willow was far worse when I first got her (in her case it mostly just took time, as well as confidence-building).


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## dogma13 (Mar 8, 2014)

Very good video. Being really familiar with your dog's body language is vital if a meet n' greet is going to happen. I had to laugh when Tom said is it a dog or a Muppet referring to the Doodle


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## Honey Maid (Dec 25, 2020)

Thanks much for sharing! Oskar is a good boy, but I did need some tips for any reactivity he displays. Now I know a better way to handle it.


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## Sonny1984 (Oct 25, 2021)

banzai555 said:


> I can't get past the title...THAT is the most reactive dog he has trained?? Didn't seem that bad to me? Willow was far worse when I first got her (in her case it mostly just took time, as well as confidence-building).


Lol I thought the same thing - I’ve seen him train more reactive dogs in other videos. The exaggeration of the dog’s reactivitiy is a way to get more people clicking on the video


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## herojig (Apr 3, 2013)

David Winners said:


> Here's a good video on working with reactive dogs. The key takeaway is to give the dog a task and then correct for non compliance. This is far more effective than trying to extinguish reactivity by simply correcting the dog for bad behavior.



I was interested in the pack leader death aspect to this, and had these thoughts:

I just went thru a similar situ, My Hiro GSD died at 17, leaving my rescued Leonberger like what the heck, so what I did was bring him into the house 24x7 to become more part of the human pack of adults and a house cat. The Leo had a severe fungal infection during this time, so I had to spend a lot more time with him = more than usual, and the antibiotics made him less reactive. THEN we practiced every day with wild dogs on the street. (The Leo had to wear a protective ass-hat, which made him even less reactive). So I just made him sit whenever in the proximity of a wild dog, and then gave BOTH dogs treats for not trying to kill each other. The Leo knows I feed street dogs anyway, so he understood that I was just doing what he's seen thru the fence hundreds of times. It's been months now, and both the reactivity of the street dogs we meet AND LEO has calmed down dramatically (The Leo has become NON-reactive to almost every living thing, even the cat!). Might sound crazy, but it works. I think it's all about connecting your dog to the larger society around it, and doing as Tom instructs.


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## Carter Smith (Apr 29, 2016)

Good video David, thanks for sharing seems like reactivity is top issues for many these days. Thoughts on this situation, i think it’s age, but Ellie while engaged will ignore other dogs, while we’re playing or training she doesn’t bother.. maybe a glance but she’s more interested in what we’re doing, but when left to her own not being asked to do anything like at @ ATS, she was hackles up barking at the scents of other dogs around the setting, no dogs in sight, basically when engaged good but left to her own she’ll be far more reactive, time and reps? Age?


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## car2ner (Apr 9, 2014)

finally watched the video. Kona looks so much like our Big-boy did, except Kona has a soft ear. Our boy had gotten some leash frustration around the year mark and he had to learn that he could look but not meet. I like how he uses the inside turn to break Kona's stare. We did that as well. Instead of Leave It for another dog I used None-ya. As in that other dog is None of Your Concern. 

I agree with leash laws, etc. but our dogs really are lacking in the social skills. They don't get to play together much, get restricted to leashes and backyards and don't know how to behave. Then when we do take them out in public their first instinct can be to protect themselves instead of watch and learn. In Kona's case it looks like adolescent hormone changes. Glad the gals were getting help. 

I know my gal-dog and my big-boy loved to play in the yard. Fast forward to our big-boy passed away and our son brings over his dog. This dog has a different play style. Both dogs were let loose in the yard, raced around but when the play styles didn't match the game failed. After that both dogs would simply be around each other and put up with each other. You could almost hear them thinking "you don't do it right. You're no fun". But they didn't argue and fight. 
That was always our goal with other dogs. They have a right to exist in this space but you don't have to be their buddy or their enemy.


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## David Winners (Apr 30, 2012)

Sabis mom said:


> @David Winners I use two approaches. I try and catch her before she is defensive, quick collar pop with a Mind command and swing into obedience, failing that I put her in a sit and correct for non compliance. No barking, lunging or posturing allowed.
> Although her behaviour was fear based, at this point Shadow is absolutely dog aggressive. The last attempted attack a few months ago ended any desire to run. Now she wants to fight.
> Any ideas on what I should do different?


This sounds like grumpy dog has had enough. To change the behavior you need to either change her mind or manage the situation with OB/equipment. 

I think you know this dog better than anyone. Do you think you can change her mind? That will take good reps and a lot of them. Handling things through management is quicker and easier for you unless you have access to a lot of neutral dogs that I don't know about.


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## David Winners (Apr 30, 2012)

banzai555 said:


> I can't get past the title...THAT is the most reactive dog he has trained?? Didn't seem that bad to me? Willow was far worse when I first got her (in her case it mostly just took time, as well as confidence-building).


Yeah. He does a lot of click bait titles and thumbnails. I don't like it but I'm sure it gets him views and subs.


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## David Winners (Apr 30, 2012)

Carter Smith said:


> Good video David, thanks for sharing seems like reactivity is top issues for many these days. Thoughts on this situation, i think it’s age, but Ellie while engaged will ignore other dogs, while we’re playing or training she doesn’t bother.. maybe a glance but she’s more interested in what we’re doing, but when left to her own not being asked to do anything like at @ ATS, she was hackles up barking at the scents of other dogs around the setting, no dogs in sight, basically when engaged good but left to her own she’ll be far more reactive, time and reps? Age?


When hormones kick in, dog smells are something new in their meaning and they can bring on unfamiliar feelings in the dog. Time and exposure will make them a normal part of life.

I exposed Valor to a ton of dogs when he was young. While I understand why most advise against this, my lifestyle guarantees that he will be exposed to a lot of dogs. I would rather he didn't think it was a big deal. 

He has matured into a rank dog so I have to watch interactions and shut things down if things start to get competitive. That's where OB comes in. Here. Down. Settle yourself. Try again and keep your cool if you want access to this dog.


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## Sabis mom (Mar 20, 2014)

David Winners said:


> This sounds like grumpy dog has had enough. To change the behavior you need to either change her mind or manage the situation with OB/equipment.
> 
> I think you know this dog better than anyone. Do you think you can change her mind? That will take good reps and a lot of them. Handling things through management is quicker and easier for you unless you have access to a lot of neutral dogs that I don't know about.


I'm not confidant she will ever like dogs outside. She can deal with strange dogs in the house with very little effort. I sort of gave up on the friends idea years ago and settled for neutrality/good behavior.
Honestly? I just wanted your take on where I went wrong, more for informational value. She is nasty reactive and somewhere around two she shifted from frozen in fear to fine I'll fight. I had several years of acceptable neutral behavior as long as they respected her space and then back in March that all went out the window. Clearly I did something wrong. Had the foundation been solid one incident should not have destroyed it. 
She has not the strength or balance to do much anymore, so training is probably a lost cause. I don't know a single stable dog around here, sad as that seems.


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## Chloé&Buck (Jul 1, 2020)

banzai555 said:


> I can't get past the title...THAT is the most reactive dog he has trained?? Didn't seem that bad to me? Willow was far worse when I first got her (in her case it mostly just took time, as well as confidence-building).


Lol I thought the same, that's mild.
I still watched and liked the overall approach.
I liked that he said it was OK to look, a lot of content out there makes it sound that the solution to everything if focus focus focus and that you should lock eyes with your dog 24/7, which is of course not viable and not the goal.


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## David Winners (Apr 30, 2012)

car2ner said:


> finally watched the video. Kona looks so much like our Big-boy did, except Kona has a soft ear. Our boy had gotten some leash frustration around the year mark and he had to learn that he could look but not meet. I like how he uses the inside turn to break Kona's stare. We did that as well. Instead of Leave It for another dog I used None-ya. As in that other dog is None of Your Concern.
> 
> I agree with leash laws, etc. but our dogs really are lacking in the social skills. They don't get to play together much, get restricted to leashes and backyards and don't know how to behave. Then when we do take them out in public their first instinct can be to protect themselves instead of watch and learn. In Kona's case it looks like adolescent hormone changes. Glad the gals were getting help.
> 
> ...


I do a lot of impromptu off leash play with other dogs. Usually just one on one as two or more dogs can team up. I think practice makes progress and having a lot of good experience with strange dogs takes the shiny new penny aspect out of strange dogs. 

Just yesterday, we were playing with a GR about his age, taking turns fetching a bumper. They were posturing and pushing buttons at first but we didn't allow it, bringing the dogs back to us for a reset and then letting them free to interact. It ended up being really fun and good OB practice for both dogs, holding a stay while the other dog fetched the bumper. 

I'm lucky to have the spaces available to live like this with my dog.


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## David Winners (Apr 30, 2012)

Sabis mom said:


> I'm not confidant she will ever like dogs outside. She can deal with strange dogs in the house with very little effort. I sort of gave up on the friends idea years ago and settled for neutrality/good behavior.
> Honestly? I just wanted your take on where I went wrong, more for informational value. She is nasty reactive and somewhere around two she shifted from frozen in fear to fine I'll fight. I had several years of acceptable neutral behavior as long as they respected her space and then back in March that all went out the window. Clearly I did something wrong. Had the foundation been solid one incident should not have destroyed it.
> She has not the strength or balance to do much anymore, so training is probably a lost cause. I don't know a single stable dog around here, sad as that seems.


I have no idea what changed her mind. In my head, it's just a math problem. Interactions sway the dog one way or another on a scale relative to how strongly they experience the interaction. You just have to keep the score trending in your favor. Sometimes there are setbacks.


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## Sabis mom (Mar 20, 2014)

David Winners said:


> I have no idea what changed her mind. In my head, it's just a math problem. Interactions sway the dog one way or another on a scale relative to how strongly they experience the interaction. You just have to keep the score trending in your favor. Sometimes there are setbacks.


You are awesome. I always forget the keep it simple stupid part. I am going to dig out the prong and use it for a few weeks I think. Lighter, clearer corrections and I will work more on keeping her attention on me. I have gotten really lazy about letting her ignore me and sniff along. She is aware that she is older and weaker so it would take less to make an impression. 
Thank you for reminding me.


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## Carter Smith (Apr 29, 2016)

David Winners said:


> When hormones kick in, dog smells are something new in their meaning and they can bring on unfamiliar feelings in the dog. Time and exposure will make them a normal part of life.
> 
> I exposed Valor to a ton of dogs when he was young. While I understand why most advise against this, my lifestyle guarantees that he will be exposed to a lot of dogs. I would rather he didn't think it was a big deal.
> 
> He has matured into a rank dog so I have to watch interactions and shut things down if things start to get competitive. That's where OB comes in. Here. Down. Settle yourself. Try again and keep your cool if you want access to this dog.


Are you surprised he’s a rank dog? Ellie has had lots of exposure being around dogs but has only ever interacted with two outside of our pack. I don’t have a lot of neutral dogs to expose her to. I just don’t want a bad experience with it while so young, I need to keep exposing her and working on upping her thresholds. My parents have a wonderful senior golden (13), who is neutral but she’s female and I have a sneaky feeling Ellie is same sex reactive/aggressive. Don’t know how to approach it.


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## David Winners (Apr 30, 2012)

I think it is common for owners to get complacent with their dogs and because of that, things slowly start to slide. When consistency goes out the window, so does reliability. Dogs are creatures of opportunity and they will get away with whatever we let happen. Some dogs are always pushing on that bubble of acceptable behavior, trying for baby steps in their favor. It's like reverse-training 

Consistency is just a hard habit to build.


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## David Winners (Apr 30, 2012)

Carter Smith said:


> Are you surprised he’s a rank dog? Ellie has had lots of exposure being around dogs but has only ever interacted with two outside of our pack. I don’t have a lot of neutral dogs to expose her to. I just don’t want a bad experience with it while so young, I need to keep exposing her and working on upping her thresholds. My parents have a wonderful senior golden (13), who is neutral but she’s female and I have a sneaky feeling Ellie is same sex reactive/aggressive. Don’t know how to approach it.


It doesn't surprise me he is a rank dog. He's pushy. His dad was pushy. He is fantastic with other dogs until the posture games start. Then he just needs a reset.

I don't really recommend that you train your dog like I train my dog. If something happens, I can handle it. I know when to give them a break and how to calm things down. I have a lot of control over my dog and he understands how to control his emotions well enough to listen under great distraction.

I made a lot of mistakes with a lot of dogs to get to where I am as a trainer. Some of those were my dogs, some client dogs, some military and police dogs. I've seen and been involved in a lot of scuffles and fights. I'm just not worried about it until things look wrong and then I have the tools to handle the situation.

I suggest you train your dog in a way that makes you both comfortable. If you are uneasy about a thing there is no reason to do it. Everything works in a particular situation. 

Carmen would say that your dog doesn't need to interact with other dogs and that neutrality through proper exposure and obedience is the key to having a good dog around other dogs. This is a viable and popular opinion of most working dog trainers.

I just choose to live a certain way with my dog and I know how to make that happen.


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## SFury (7 mo ago)

Carter Smith said:


> My parents have a wonderful senior golden (13), who is neutral but she’s female and I have a sneaky feeling Ellie is same sex reactive/aggressive. Don’t know how to approach it.


As someone who owned a small alpha male dog who had to be "in charge" around male dogs all I can say is be cautious. Take your time, and find a way to redirect your dog. I was able to keep Buck, my 13 LB papillon/sheltie mix, from reacting. I had to seek help to find ways to redirect him initially, and just never let up on that training.

He was nuts in that he thought large breed dogs should submit to him, and I had to get a handle on things to keep him from getting himself killed.

He was oddly enough not aggressive in any other way outside of his potty training as a pup. He hated the rain, and I had to stand outside for 40-45 minutes one day to resolve that issue. We never had problems after that.


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## Carter Smith (Apr 29, 2016)

David Winners said:


> It doesn't surprise me he is a rank dog. He's pushy. His dad was pushy. He is fantastic with other dogs until the posture games start. Then he just needs a reset.
> 
> I don't really recommend that you train your dog like I train my dog. If something happens, I can handle it. I know when to give them a break and how to calm things down. I have a lot of control over my dog and he understands how to control his emotions well enough to listen under great distraction.
> 
> ...


I would never make the mistake of applying a military dog trainers methods to my own practice . I just like to pick experiences handlers and trainers brain and see how it can help in our realm of life/work/training. Thresholds is one of the most important things I’ve learned so far and understanding when to push and when to call it. Appreciate all the insight I get.


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## GSD07 (Feb 23, 2007)

My previous male was always amused by little “alpha” dogs displays. He was just so sure of himself and knew his strength and that small dogs were delusional so he was giving them a pass. Remember one time he was hanging out in a park, lying in the grass. Here a growling pug comes and climbs on my dogs head. My dog just stood up, the pug fell on the ground like a rock. It was it lol 

Large male dogs was a different story. We had a neighbor with a male Rottweiler with a similar personality, they disliked each other but they were always under control and never allowed to interact.


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## Carter Smith (Apr 29, 2016)

SFury said:


> As someone who owned a small alpha male dog who had to be "in charge" around male dogs all I can say is be cautious. Take your time, and find a way to redirect your dog. I was able to keep Buck, my 13 LB papillon/sheltie mix, from reacting. I had to seek help to find ways to redirect him initially, and just never let up on that training.
> 
> He was nuts in that he thought large breed dogs should submit to him, and I had to get a handle on things to keep him from getting himself killed.
> 
> He was oddly enough not aggressive in any other way outside of his potty training as a pup. He hated the rain, and I had to stand outside for 40-45 minutes one day to resolve that issue. We never had problems after that.


They have a term for that don’t they? Little dog syndrome . I never want to make the mistake of one bad experience, it’s hard to add the amount of positive experiences to the memory bank to outweigh that one bad one, so always cautious.


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## GSD07 (Feb 23, 2007)

“Carmen would say that your dog doesn't need to interact with other dogs and that neutrality through proper exposure and obedience is the key to having a good dog around other dogs. This is a viable and popular opinion of most working dog trainers.”

I now have the same viewpoint and can attest to the above. I always socialized young puppies with dogs, ppl, kids etc. Well, because of covid shutdowns our young dog was socialized through exposure only, no direct contact with dogs or strangers till I don’t know, 9-12 months. The result - a dog and people neutral dog, friendly with kids, pretty social, can take anywhere type of dog. Genetics play a role as well (he’s Czech/Belgian/West German).


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## Slamdunc (Dec 6, 2007)

I do agree with obedience and giving the dog something that it can do correctly and reward for that. I think the GSD in the video is a nice, soft dog and not really reactive. The dog in the video is an easy to handle dog and it would take 5 minutes to correct this behavior. 

On my scale of hardness this dog is maybe a 4 out of 10. It is a fairly soft temperament dog and not aggressive at all. Odds are if you dropped the leash and the dog ran up to a neutral dog the dog would be fine. I'm not recommending that, just saying I don't see a very dog aggressive dog there. There is very little reactivity in that dog. He doesn't redirect to the leash or handler, the "trainer" takes the leash with no issue and the dog immediately behaves better. The video is a really good example of how a dog may act out when the owner is unsure of how to handle the dog, even a soft dog. Teach the dog what is correct and train the dog and the problem is gone. The dog and everyone else is much happier and they all sleep soundly.


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## Chloé&Buck (Jul 1, 2020)

Slamdunc said:


> I do agree with obedience and giving the dog something that it can do correctly and reward for that. I think the GSD in the video is a nice, soft dog and not really reactive. The dog in the video is an easy to handle dog and it would take 5 minutes to correct this behavior.
> 
> On my scale of hardness this dog is maybe a 4 out of 10. It is a fairly soft temperament dog and not aggressive at all. Odds are if you dropped the leash and the dog ran up to a neutral dog the dog would be fine. I'm not recommending that, just saying I don't see a very dog aggressive dog there. There is very little reactivity in that dog. He doesn't redirect to the leash or handler, the "trainer" takes the leash with no issue and the dog immediately behaves better. The video is a really good example of how a dog may act out when the owner is unsure of how to handle the dog, even a soft dog. Teach the dog what is correct and train the dog and the problem is gone. The dog and everyone else is much happier and they all sleep soundly.


Definitely. Even dogs who look super agressive often just put the brakes on 5 inches from the other dog's face and not much happens. That was my dog when I got him at 1 yo. I wasn't aware he had this issue (no background info) and I innocently took him out to the vet to grab flea treatment. For the whole walk down the street I was like "hey, not too bad for an untrained dog", not that much force pulling considering his strength, quite receptive to cues, etc. Then I came to the vet's glass door and the second he caught glimpse of a little bulldog in there, he just exploded. It blew my mind, I had no option but to just drag him on the side in a bush and stand there body-blocking him. After that, my legs looked like they had got caught in a harvester. lol 
It certainly didn't look like that footage, my dog looked like the blurred balls of fur you see in cartoons when there's a fight.
And that is the same dog I had just let out of the trunk right to my other dog's face the day before with no particular issue. On that occasion, the only difference was that he had no visual on my dog, he just got out straight to her face, so it's like he didn't have the time to react, he was tensed up and a little wild like you'd expect from a young dog who's not seen much, but nothing wow.


Anyway, I'm still amazed at how reactivity is so disconnected from true agression in that breed in particular. 
Some look so bad on a leash and there's no obvious rationale behind it. We have an older GSD girl in my area, she's good with other dogs, not that she interacts a lot (she's older now too) but she's really OK. And still, she just has to do her little show when she passes other dogs. At this point, she's not even charging or attempting anything anymore, she just goes yap-yap-yap while walking calmly besides her owner ^^
It's so bizarre to watch lol
It's nearly a bit cute because it's so fake. She does all that grimacing, teethy barking/growling, and as soon as we are past she's like "lalala" nothing happened, love you.
I think that it's related to them being extremely visual dogs who tend to lock eyes and build tension from it. But really there are parts of it I can't explain.


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## Rionel (Jun 17, 2020)

Another aspect would be to have another trainer with a neutral dog that can ease your dog into closer proximity with that dog. (If that was done in the video I apologize for the repeat - just didn't have the time to watch it.) Totally agree with giving the dog a task to refocus.


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