- People are often concerned about using too much
food in their training.
They think that if they use a lot of food,
the dog will become dependent on it and will only
learn to listen when they have treats in their hand.
In this video we're going to talk about the method of
luring and, if it's done properly,
you can actually work towards not eating any food at all.
I'm Kayl McCann, welcome back to McCann Dogs.
(guitar strum)
First I want to talk to you about what the method
of luring is.
Essentially, it's when I take a piece of food,
put it on my dogs nose and then basically move it
so that she follows it in every direction.
I can use this to teach her to do all kinds of tricks,
or even simple behaviors like sit, down, sit, stand.
Wherever my food goes, that's where she goes, too.
Our final goal is to get our dogs to be able to do the
behavior for us without needing the use of food.
So in order to teach Funky to do a behavior it's important
that she clearly hears the command that I want her to
respond to without being distracted by the food.
So if I was to tell her down and then lure her into
position, she's probably going to be more focused on
the food rather than what I'm saying to her because
all she's thinking about is getting the treats
out of my hand.
So in order for her to learn a command it's important
that I would do something like this.
And then lure one second later.
Now the one second later part is also really crucial.
If I always say down and I lure at the exact same time,
again, Funkee's going to be learning to be dependent
on both the word and the hand signal because those
are the things that are easier for her to respond to.
So, again, in order for her to eventually no food and
just on my verbal command alone,
I need to say the command and then lure one second later.
So she's already lying down so I'll show you with sit.
Yes.
And then I give her one from there.
Now you may have noticed from the last example that
Funkee was already moving into a sit and into the down
position on my command.
And that's because she's eight year old,
she's had a lot of training, she knows what those commands
are and she doesn't need the signal or the food anymore
for those particular behaviors.
In order to give you a true sense of what this looks like,
what I'm going to do is get her to do a behavior that
she already knows, but teach her on a completely
different word that she's not used to hearing.
So, for example, banana.
I love bananas, she actually likes bananas too.
To I'm going to teach her how to sit on the command banana.
She sat because I said the word sit.
You are too smart there, girly.
Now, what I'm going to do is show you first off the
importance of timing.
It's very important that I don't say banana and lure
her at the same time.
If she's in the lie down and I have food on her nose
and I was to say banana and then lure her into position,
she is so focused on that food she probably had no idea
what I said to her.
So, again, I need to make sure I say the command
and then lure her with proper timing.
So my food needs to come away from her nose so she's
not distracted.
Banana.
Yes.
And then I can lure one second later.
Now, it's also very important that your signal comes
within one second of the command.
So if I say banana and then a couple second later I lure
her into the sit position, she's also not going to be
able to put the two together.
It needs to be command, the lure, then reward.
So I'm going to go ahead and do a couple repetitions now
with proper timing and see if Funk can figure out
how to be able to sit on the word banana without eating
a piece of food.
I'm just going to lure her into a down here,
I'm going to start a few repetitions.
Banana.
Yes, good girl.
Okay lie down.
Good girl.
Banana.
Yes, good girl.
Very nice.
Banana, yes good girl.
I'm gonna try one more time here.
I threw of piece of food at ya, sorry girly.
Banana.
Yes, good girl.
Okay, I've done about three repetitions,
four repetitions and I have a piece of food here.
Now I'm going to give it a try.
I'm going to pull it away from her nose and I'm going to
just say the word and see what happens.
Actually I'm going to get another treat ready here
so if she does a good job I might even give her a
jackpot reward.
Banana.
Oh, that was so close.
I'm going to try it again.
Banana.
Okay so she's kind of confused, which is okay.
I might not have done enough repetitions.
So I'm going to try a couple more.
Banana.
Yes, good girly.
You can see her little wheels turning.
Banana.
Yes, good girl.
One more.
Banana.
Yes, good girl.
Okay we're going to try the big test now, lie down.
Good girl, ready?
Wait for me.
Banana.
Yes, good girl.
Now remember, using food in your training can actually
be a really great thing.
It's a great resource that we can us in order to get our
dogs to pay attention to us,
especially if they're distracted.
And it's a great way to keep things positive, as well.
Especially if you're teaching your dog something new.
Now remember, food can be great but it also can be
weened off of if you use the method of luring
in the proper steps.
Now, if you liked today's video make sure you give us
a thumbs up.
If you're new to our channel, we post new training
videos every single Thursday so make sure you come
back and check us out, subscribe to our channel.
For now, this is Funkee Monkee, I'm Kayl,
and thanks for watching.