Dog training lesson #1 is that what you say is mostly white noise, and what you do is mostly the message received.
Yes, tone of voice is an action, but for many dogs it is a weak action when paired against self-rewarding behavior like rolling in cow shit, eating deer poop, chasing chickens, and killing cats.
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It can be a 'weak' action, when used by those who don't how to use it properly. Pretty much like any tool. I find that those who say they can't use vocal control on certain dogs, don't know how to use their voice correctly. Yelling a command more and more loudly is a sure sign it's a lost cause, and wasn't trained properly or proofed at all to begin with. Timing is everything no matter what training tool is being used. If the dog's in sight, a command should be paired with a hand signal anyway.
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