And just to be clear, in a true survival situation, I doubt Les would intentionally let the dogs go just for the fun of it. However, I believe it's perfectly legitimate to simulate an "oh, drat, did I really do that?" moment? Forgetting to tether your dog team for a minute while you attend to the call of nature would be one of those moments.

Also, to whatever extent these shows do teach real survival skills (and I accept that, financially, they have to provide entertainment first, real skills second), they are most likely to be of use by teaching to the lowest common denominator. Therefore, the advice they give needs to be learnable by the average armchair warrior; something that only works for someone who's gone through a half-dozen military survival schools is kind of like preaching to the converted.

I went through Officer training in the Canadian military (and flunked out at the end) and I was astonished at just how difficult it was to keep track of my rifle at night after a couple of days with minimal sleep (and that was something I was highly motivated to look after - if an instructor was able to pick up your rifle before you could get to it, you were "not in control of your weapon" and could expect some pretty nasty consequences). I think somebody who doesn't have years of experience in survival training is very likely to make these kinds of mistakes; for a survival instructor to pretend they won't happen if you're "careful" would be dangerous and irresponsible.