Hi everybody! This video is on the topic of taking your puppy or adult dog
out somewhere new and setting your dog up for success if they typically can be a little bit
worried or overexcited when they go somewhere new. Now Epic here, my little puppy, is actually
really good in lots of different environments but I haven't always had puppies like her and
so I usually set dogs up for success in this way when going new places. Now previously before i
took her here i have worked very religiously on reinforcing her for settling inside of her crate
like this as well as if you had a larger dog you can teach them to relax on a mat,
like she's doing here and so when you go to a new environment you can bring your crate if you have
a little dog or a mat if you have a bigger dog and if you have a bigger dog you can also simply park
somewhere new open the back door and have your dog in a crate and just sprinkle some treats in there
and reinforce your dog for settling in the crate in a new environment, while they're still inside
the car. Now if you don't work on the settle in the crate at home, say when your car is parked
or when you have the crate inside your house and your yard in non-distracting environments first
then it can be quite stressful for the dog and they might not think to settle so the really
important part of the homework here is reinforcing settling behaviors at home first so you can bring
that calmness to other environments. The same with if you wanted to teach your dog to sit, you would
work on that in your house maybe your kitchen your living room and then when the dog's really good
at it, then you could start asking for it out and about, but if you try to teach sit when your dog's
stressed or excited and not taking treats out and about they're not going to learn how to sit. So
that's the beauty of working on these behaviors at home you can then bring the mat and it's going
to help your dog think to relax in a new place. Conversely most people when they get somewhere new
they're excited about checking out the environment so they'll set off walking and what can happen is
that the dog will pull straight ahead or there's just too much stimulation going on for the dog,
where if you just relax for a little bit and let the dog just sit
and look around at the environment, it can be very helpful to decreasing how excited or worried
they are about where they are. When your dog first settles in a new environment it's natural for the
dog to be looking at you for the reinforcement if you've just given them a treat like this so
the dog is going to be staring up at you to begin with. Once your dog becomes a pro you don't have
to reinforce this and you can wait till your dog is casually relaxing and enjoying the environment
but at first to give your dog a head start if they think to go to their mat and they lay down
you can reinforce that and make it easier for the dog by giving them a couple of treats for
simply going and laying on their mat then as you progress and your dog is feeling comfortable
you can reinforce your dog for noticing things in the environment and not just thinking about
the food. So if you constantly feed your dog for just staring at the treats if you don't have any
treats the dog might not think to lay down when you're out and about, so what you're going to do
is wait for those moments that the dog is looking around at something in the environment and that's
when you can use a calm marker or simply just put a treat calmly between your dog's feet, like that.
Basically I'm waiting for her to be distracted by the environment and look around and then that's
the moment that I'm gonna mark and reinforce. And it's a little chilly here today in San Diego so
she's shivering a little bit and previously when we've done this exercise in the sun
she's much more comfortable so with her I wouldn't necessarily be out and about sitting when it's
kind of cold, I would choose a time where it's sunny and warm for her to relax on her mat and if
I wanted to do this exercise I could have her in a sweater. So now she's noticed another dog walking
by and I'm going to reinforce her for simply watching the dog pass calmly. "good, good job"
"good good"
And now a skateboarder is going by. "good" If your dog's not taking treats, you can sprinkle the
treats in the crate or on the mat and limit the leash so that at some point your dog is going to
realize there's not very much things to do in this environment except eat the treats and they might
be more interested in the treats later. You want to refrain from trying to get your dog to eat the
treats and putting the treats in your dog's face if they're not interested. Just put the treats on
the mat or in the crate like you do at home and at some point the dog might think to go and eat those
treats and that's a wonderful sign that they're feeling calmer in that environment. If your dog is
really struggling and they can't take treats and they start whining or seeming stressed you can go
and practice this exercise in front of your house or in your yard or at home at first or simply try
the exercise where you have the dog in the car and are working on the settle in the crate.
If you have a dog that gets worried or excited in new locations you can choose a location that you
think your dog is going to do best at to begin this exercise. So for example if your dog gets
overwhelmed in crowded situations you might choose a place where say for example a baseball field
that no one's visiting where it's completely isolated to work on this exercise first before
then visiting another location perhaps during the middle of the day when everyone's at work
and there are few people there or a place that not very many people go to to begin this
exercise. However I have to say if you have a herding breed or a dog that gets startled
when there's nothing going on in the environment and then suddenly someone or a person with a dog
come out of the blue, that can be very startling to some dogs so choosing a location for example
the edge of a parking lot or some grass in a mall that overlooks an area where there's some
foot traffic that's going back and forth on a path then your dog is seeing an ebb and flow of people
going by and they can relax seeing multiple people moving rather than nothing and then suddenly a
person appearing out of nowhere. So this might be too close for some dogs, but we're sitting next to
a pathway that people walk up and down, so if you had a dog that was nervous you could sit
further away and then reinforce your dog for the people walking back and forth on this path
and I chose a pretty busy time where there's lots of traffic going back and forth, cars and people.
My little puppy has finished her puppy shots so it's perfectly fine for her to go sniffing around
in different locations but if you're concerned that your puppy hasn't finished their shots yet
and you're not sure about the area, that there might have been dogs visiting the area that could
have had diseases or illnesses, what you can do is visit somewhere and bring a large sheet
or blanket, something even bigger than this if you want and then just limit your dog's leash so
that they can't reach the edges of the blanket or the sheet and you can reinforce your dog
for looking around at the world and socializing your dog to what it's like being out and about.
You can also use a baby carriage to bring your dog on outings as well as carry your dog in a bag
or a backpack so they're seeing the world and getting reinforced and feeling safe when
out and about as they're in that very important socialization period. The wonderful thing about
having a dog in a carrier or in a baby carriage is that the other dogs don't pull and stare at your
puppy and they can build a lot of confidence if they're a little bit worried about dogs.
Once your dog is successful with settling in this environment you can then take little
adventures away from the mat and then return to calm your dog down again. So you can either do
calm sniffy walks where you allow your dog or puppy to explore the environment or you can work
on exercises such as loose leash walking or strong behaviors they already know. I don't suggest
working on something new or adding criteria to any of your behaviors in a new environment, instead
you want to ask your dog for behaviors that are really strong. So I like to ask for behaviors
that I've worked on a lot such as attention and the attention game, recalls are also great
but if you're trying to get the get your dog to be calm maybe I would work on something else besides
an exciting behavior like a recall. "Are you ready?" So I'm going to go on a little sniffy walk
and let her investigate the environment. So I'm going to say 'let's go' and call her off the
blanket and I'm just going to get this leash out from under her leg and then let her sniff around.
So you can have a cue for your dog to explore the environment like 'go sniff' and point.
"go sniff" If you have a dog that's more interested in staring at you or the treats,
you can mark and reinforce for your dog sniffing around and conversely if your dog sniffs around a
lot and finds it highly reinforcing you can reinforce your dog for coming away from the
smells and back to you when you say 'let's go' "good" So if your dog is sniffing around
that's a time that you can mark and reinforce your dog "good" for walking on a loose leash and not
just staring up at you and hoping for the treats to come because if you just reinforce your dog for
looking at you as you walk around, if you don't have treats or your dog's not looking up at you
your dog might think to start pulling on leash and not understand the concept of walking next to you
if you're not in training mode. However if you're working on exercises
where your dog is at your side and you're using a marker word, a high rate of reinforcement
or a clicker like this it's great if your dog is looking up because they're waiting to see
what you want next and that's perfectly fine. "are you ready epic?" So we're going to practice
a little walk away and I'm going to mark and reinforce her for walking at my side like this.
"good" As well as stopping when I stop. "good. let's go. good" And she's going to be looking
up at me or looking towards the mat that she's then going to relax on. "good job
let's go" And the difference is, that you see she's got her head face forwards in a natural
position and I can reinforce that on a normal walk. So when we walk around and she's just
enjoying the environment I can reinforce her and I can feed her in the direction that her head is
facing like that. If you're out and about and you have treats and your dog is hyper fixated on your
treats you can give your dog a treat like this and then show your dog you have nothing and say "all
done" and then "go sniff" and then wait until your dog is invested in sniffing in the grass like that
"good" and then you can mark and reinforce. So your dog is understanding good that by not paying
attention to you is how they're going to get the treats in this type of situation. So that then
you can walk around and have your dog explore the environment without them hyper fixating on you and
the treats and when the treats are not there that they completely ignore you completely. So
that's what I like to do. In the same way that you would reinforce your dog when settling for looking
around at the environment you can do the same when the dog's standing still like this or when
you're walking. So as I'm talking to you i have a treat in one of my hands ready to give my dog
"good" and then the moment that she checks out and she starts looking around at the environment
or as we're walking and she's sniffing "good" I can mark and reinforce. So I don't get that
constant staring at me which if you have a young puppy they're not going to be looking around at
the environment and learning what the environment looks like because they're just staring at you.
So I find it extremely important for building confidence that the puppy is also getting time
to look around explore and sniff. If you're planning on training your puppy or adult dog
when out and about I first suggest warming up with the attention game or really easy behaviors
that are your dog's strongest behaviors because if your dog isn't able to do just these simple things
then it's not a good idea to work on harder behaviors or add criteria or teach something new
in a distracting environment. So as you can see she's looking straight up at me
and looking for the treat. Another test that you can do is mark with a clicker and if your
dog doesn't look for the treat or look when you say good or yes look for their reinforcement
that tells you that in this environment at this point in time the reinforcement isn't very strong
or isn't reinforcing at all to the dog because the environment is too stressful
or arousing. So I have a video on how to train the attention game and I'm going to link that
in the description below but here's just a quick example. I'm going to put a treat down like this
and then I'm going to make a kissy noise and mark and reinforce when my dog comes towards me.
Putting the treat down in the grass gives you some time to get further away from your dog.
"good job" If your dog is highly distracted by things in the environment such as things
in the grass, maybe rabbit poop trash or dogs or people walking around and your dog is hyper
fixated on those things sometimes playing the leash pressure game away from a distraction
can focus your dog in on one specific distraction to concentrate about and it can be much easier for
the dog to start to pay attention to you worrying about that specific distraction rather than no
distraction they know about and they're fixating on things in the environment. So I'll link a video
in the description below on how to work on the leash pressure game
but i suggest trying it out out and about if you have a dog that gets distracted
by things in the environment. So basically I'm going to put a treat down out of reach from her
over here and then I'm going to mark the moment that she turns back towards me and we played this
game before so first you're marking the moment that your dog turns towards you when they feel
the pressure on the leash and then you're marking and reinforcing your dog for staying with you,
with the goal of the dog completely ignoring the food on the ground and it's cueing the dog
for default attention on you. After playing this game a little bit to warm up you could
then work on the behaviors that you wish to work on with your dog. Here's some footage
of me working on a leave it game when out and about with my puppy halo. I've set up little
blocks of cheese on this windowsill and at first I'm giving him a verbal cue to leave the cheese
and then next I'm marking and reinforcing him for doing a default leave it past the cheese.
"let's go" Here's some footage of me working with Epic
instead of going on a sniffy walk away from settling in the crate
we're practicing walking at my side and turning when I go in another direction. "okay let's go"
"good" Thank you so much for watching. If you'd like to support my work
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