I bet when you were planning to bring home your new puppy,
you were thinking about all the wonderful things that come along with puppy
ownership.
[
shouting] Popcorn.
When you finally did get to bring your new puppy home,
you probably realized there's a lot more to it than that.
In today's video, we are going to talk about puppy socialization,
and we're going to teach you two skills that are really, really important.
And one more skill that nobody ever talks about that will make all the
difference when it comes to your dog's manners out on the street,
I'm Instructor, Shannon. This is Popcorn.
Welcome back to McCann Dogs.
One of the most important skills that you will ever have with your dog when it
comes to socialization is being able to get their attention back on you when
there is something out there in the environment.
So we place response to name training as a really,
really important piece of the puzzle here to make sure that when we send our
pups off to go and socialize,
or when they're in situations where they're socializing through observation and
watching things go on,
we can still get their attention back on us quickly and instantly.
And we can get in lots of reinforcement,
lots of value built for them turning quickly back towards us when we call their
name. A lot of times,
people are really surprised to learn that they actually need to spend some time
teaching their dogs,
their name dogs don't really understand what a name is all about.
So I'm going to take four steps to teach my puppy,
Popcorn to turn on his name, nice and quickly.
And then it's a really valuable thing to do.
So all I'm going to do for step one is load up my puppy's name.
So I'm going to say Popcorn and then feed him a really delicious treat
Popcorn and then reward. Whoops. Yeah. Dropped it buddy.
Article somewhere there. Good boy. Popcorn.
Popcorn.
Good.
So all Popcorn is learning here is that hearing that word Popcorn means
really great. Things are about to come.
It's a little bit of a predictor of the wonderful cheese that I'm using for
training treats here. Step two of teaching my puppy to respond to his name.
Well,
before I get into socialization with him is going to be when he's a little bit
distracted from me. Now, I'm not going to test my puppy.
I don't want to call his name because he doesn't know what his name is right
now.
I don't want to call his name and expect him to turn on that because chances
are, he'll make a mistake right now. And I don't want that to happen.
I want him to be successful almost every single time right now,
as much as possible.
So what I'm going to do is wait until he's got a little bit of a distraction
going on. What's this over here? What is that? And when he's sniffing,
I'm going to get my food ready and going to say his name,
Popcorn. Show him some oops. Show him some treats. This is hard,
buddy. Woo. Try again. Popcorn. Yay.
So you see how quickly that can go wrong with distractions in the area,
which is exactly why I am helping my puppy get it right every single time right
now. So I'll do one more here. Popcorn. Yes.
Good for you, buddy. That's so smart.
And I'm actually going to give him two or three treats because those are hard
distractions for him right now over there.
And I want to make sure he gets it right? So as you can see,
Popcorn is doing great. He is learning so well,
but clearly there's some challenge in terms of distraction for him,
which is exactly why I want to make sure that I get a lot of practice in with
his response to name, with distractions like this,
rather than waiting until he's out there,
socializing and playing with another puppy. At that point,
expecting him to respond to his name.
If he's having trouble responding to his name,
with simple distractions in the home,
I'm going to be setting myself and my puppy up for a really hard time.
So I need to make sure that I spend a lot of time helping him learn how to
respond to his name so that when I do get to the point where I'm telling him to
go and play with another puppy,
I have a chance of getting him to turn back to me when I need to stop that play.
Or when I want to, I want to call him back.
Now my third step in response to name training,
before I let my puppy go and socialize,
is that I want to make sure I bridge the gap between the less distractions
inside and more distractions outside.
There's going to be lots of different smells outdoors.
There's going to be lots of different sights and noises.
And if I expect my puppy to be able to listen in an outdoor environment,
I need to take some time to do some training in that outdoor environment as
well. So I've got my cheese ready. My puppy is clearly distracted.
I'm still gonna set him up for success.
I'm going to say his name and then one second later,
help him with that food and a quick turn. Okay. Popcorn.
Yes. Good boy. So there's no room for failure for him.
He is bound to be successful every single time, because if he's too distracted,
doesn't start to turn.
I'm already on my way in with the food to put on his nose to make sure I get a
good turn. Okay. Popcorn. Yes. Good boy.
Yeah. It's a very good boy. You like that cheese don't ya? Good job.
I'm going to let him know. He's just a great dog for turning so quickly.
He got a couple of nice little pieces of cheese there,
and we're just having a good time enjoying some play and enjoying some learning.
Now, if you're thinking my puppy is really not that food motivated,
you might want to use a toy instead of a food instead of the food,
or in addition to the food. If you have a puppy that really likes toys,
it can be a great way of building a lot more value for exercises like response
to name. So my puppy is distracted here. Okay, Popcorn.
I'm going to show him the toy back away, let him chase.
And then when he chases me, he's going to get to have a little play.
And the nice side thing about this is that I can also work on manners as we're
playing tug. I can work on out
and helping my puppy drop that toy. Now he's a little reluctant here.
He wants the toy more than the food. So I'm just going to help him no big deal.
I helped him realize that that food was just as exciting by continuing to
persevere with it.
And what I'm going to do with my toy training is make sure that he realizes the
toy needs to be, have manners surrounding it.
And that's going to be all part of our lessons as well as Popcorn learns and
grows. Now,
step four of this response to name training will be with a much better trained
puppy. Now I want to show you the steps of training, response to name.
And I want to show you what step four looks like it is a test with the puppy.
However I know full well that my puppy Popcorn is not ready for this test yet.
So while I might get lucky, I probably won't.
And I'm going to show you what you need to do.
If your test fails and your puppy has a little bit of a hard time with it,
it's really,
really important that if I call my puppy's name and I don't get a response,
I don't keep calling.
The last thing I would want to do is teach my puppy that it's okay to ignore his
name. I want him to know that if he ignores his name,
he's missing out on some really amazing opportunities.
So my friend Dan here is distracting my puppy Popcorn.
I'm still going to be nice and close because if I need to fix,
and I predict that I might, if I need to fix,
I need to make sure that I'm nice and close.
And my timing is good with my puppy.
So I'm going to try here a little test if Popcorn gets it right,
Dan's going to let go. I'm going to back away,
reward several times and let Popcorn know that he is just an amazing little man.
All right. Little distraction Popcorn. Yes, good boy. Whoa. Oh.
Yeah. Oops. What's going on there? No more teas. Okay.
It's a buddy. You want the toy instead? All right.
So my puppy has all found poo.
There is an interesting distraction with poo and Hey, that's part of life.
So what I'm going to do here,
I don't want my puppy messing around with that poo,
but I'm going to try this test again.
Cause I really didn't get the result that I wanted.
I sort of had a bit of a puppy,
but he really wasn't that interested in the food I had.
So we're going to try this test again.
I've got my toy this time because I know Popcorn really likes toys and that poo
over there is a little bit of a distraction. That's too much.
So I'm actually going to angle out this way to make my puppy's life easier.
This is so important.
Being able to adjust in the moment when your puppy is struggling.
It's absolutely crucial for continuing to build these skills.
So Popcorn's a little distracted. I'm going to come in. Nice and closer close.
Cause I know he had a hard time Popcorn. Yeah, good boy.
Back away. Let him play with that toy. That's how good boy.
Obviously he is motivated by the toy a little bit more than the food and
that is absolutely great. I'm going to use that to my advantage,
to let him know that great things happen when he responds to his name. Good job,
buddy. Good for you. Wow.
You can see how much Popcorn loves this fuzzy ball tug.
If you want to get one of your very own check out the link in the description to
McCanndogs.store. So as you can see,
there were varying levels of distractions that I worked with with my puppy
Popcorn today. And I want to be really careful with testing.
Normally I would not have tested a puppy in this stage,
what we wanted to get through all the steps in the video.
I want to test my puppy once I am 99% sure that he's going to get it
right. If I have more doubt than that,
then I'm going to wait on my test to make sure that my puppy learns to be
successful rather than rehearsing doing the wrong thing.
Now we did some great practicing with response to name with Popcorn and his
response to name was coming along really nicely out there,
but you might've noticed that something called the drive-through was also making
progress. And we call the drive-through when the dog comes in,
gets the reward for doing a good job and then checks back out again to go and
take in that distraction.
So we're going to start to solve that problem right now by working on taking a
hold of our puppies collar. So I'm going to use my response to name,
to get his attention and draw them in nice and close to me.
And then I'm going to have several little pieces of cheese held back in my hand
so that as he's hanging in with me, I can reach under the chin,
take a hold of his collar and I can let him get used to the idea that giving me
calm control and calm attention is a really,
really positive thing as well.
And this is what's going to help him focus on me when there's options for
playing with other dogs and socializing with other dogs.
And instead of wanting to run off and run and play with those dogs,
I'm going to have my puppy focused on me until I give him permission by letting
go of a collar and telling him to go play.
So what I'm going to do a little bit of a distraction perhaps to start.
Call his name, Popcorn, turn them back towards me.
And as he's nibbling that treat, I'm going to reach under,
take a hold of his collar. I'm not going to make it a secret.
I'm letting him know I have control. I'm rubbing his neck.
I'm putting my whole hand or as much as I can in that collar as I'm rewarding
him and letting him know that he has an absolutely wonderful little puppy for
hanging in with me. Now,
here is the step that is perhaps the most important thing that I will ever
establish with my puppy when it comes to allowing them to socialize.
And that is clear permission to go play or go say hi,
or go and investigate that thing. A lot of times,
what people do is they let their dogs dictate when they're going to go and say
hello to another dog, by allowing them to pull them over to that dog,
which basically leaves the puppy with the impression that all other dogs or all
other distractions are within their available reach.
What we want to do with our puppies is have them use the default of leaving
distractions alone. Knowing that distractions like that toy, for example,
are not necessarily going to be available to them until you have given them
permission to go and play.
And that just sets up our training a little bit nicer.
So I'm going to put this whole thing together here so that I can show you the
release that I use when my puppy is ready to go and investigate a distraction,
or when I'm giving him permission to go and play and socialize with another
puppy. So I'm going to let him go and investigate that toy so I can do first my
response to name Popcorn. Yay. Good boy. I'm going to back away.
Reach under, take his collar. Oh, you are so smart. What a good dog.
I'm going to take my time,
making sure he doesn't turn this into a drive-through good boy.
Good job.
I fed him two or three little pieces of cheese and then when I'm ready,
I'm going to tell him, okay, I'll get the toy.
Good job! And then we can have a little bit of a play together and a party,
but I want my dog to understand that it's not an option for him until he clearly
has permission to go and seek out those distractions.
Socialization can be a very confusing topic.
Did you know that the way you socialize your puppy can make a big difference in
how they view you as a leader? If you'd like to know more click this card.
Socialization is just one small piece of the puppy training puzzle.
If you would like some personalized support for your puppy training,
check out the link to our puppy essentials program in the description below and
come and work with the McCann dog trainers.
Learn all about the McCann Method on that note. I'm Shannon. This is Popcorn.
Happy training.