- The nicer weather is finally here.
And if you've been on the channel recently,
you'll know that we're doing a series featuring
disc dog tricks.
And today we are featuring Instructor Carol,
who's not only a McCann Dogs instructor,
but she's also a four-time, world champion of disc dog.
I'm Ken Steepe and welcome back to McCann Dogs.
(strings being plucked)
(dog barking)
- There's many ways to teach a foot stall.
One I like to use is just starting off getting
my dog comfortable jumping up on an object.
Outside it might be a tree stump, a rock,
anything I come across.
Inside I'm gonna use my highly-technical training tool,
my stool,
And initially, I'm just gonna encourage my dog up.
And he might only put two feet up.
I'm happy with that.
I'm gonna reward him.
Brick, get it.
Good boy.
I'm using my foot to make it stable.
I want, oop, you jumped right up.
I wanna make sure my dog's happy.
You can see he's jumping up on his own.
I don't want him worried at all.
Brick, get it.
So for a small dog,
I'll start out with a much smaller object.
Same idea, smaller rock, smaller stool.
Again, I'm not having them stay on for a long time.
He had a few treats and back off again.
Never wanna rush my foot stall.
I want my dog to be very eager to jump up.
Really happy, really confident.
And then I'm gonna make it a little more difficult.
Number one, I might go to a smaller diameter object
because my feet aren't gonna be as big
as that stool or a big rock.
I can also work on something that's a little less stable,
and right now I'm gonna start to build some height.
Again, outside I might use some higher objects.
Inside, once again, I'm gonna go to my trusty stool.
I'm gonna make sure it's nice and stable
as I get a little higher.
I'm gonna encourage my dog up.
And I might, okay Buddy, good.
And I might just initially reward two feet up there.
What a good man.
Get that.
Ready, encourage up, good.
Now, if I thought my dog was gonna have trouble with this,
or not be too confident,
I like to use a harness with a nice big strap
and I could even have a little line on here
so that if he did have trouble getting up
I would have control of him.
Burke's got a little bit of experience.
I'm gonna make sure the stool's stable
when I tell him, "Okay."
I could even pick him up.
Good boy, get it Buddy.
All about building that confidence.
Hey, Buddy, ready ...
Yeah, what a good man.
Yes, just a few seconds.
And then, what a good boy, and I take him off.
Before I move to my next surface,
I need to make sure my dog's very confident.
Remember that Burke has lots of experience
with this already.
So with your dog,
you're gonna work a little bit longer on those.
Make sure he's eager and confident.
Then I could introduce a surface
that's a little less stable.
Because when I'm down and my feet are up,
my feet are gonna move a little bit.
I like to work with a peanut.
So I'm gonna work it the same way,
I'm going to make sure it's secure,
I'm gonna reward two feet up to begin with,
eventually I'm going to have him jumping up.
Lots of reward. I'm not working long.
This is tough.
Bonus, he gets to work his core strength
at the same time as we build that confidence.
Next step, now that my dog is really comfortable jumping up,
I'm gonna to go back down
a little lower to a very stable object.
Again, it could just be a rock or a bench.
And what I'm going to do now
is start to get my body language out.
Because when I'm standing tall with those treats,
pretty Brick que,
very different than when I'm on the ground
and my feet are sticking up in the air.
So I'm going to encourage him to jump up on the verbal.
Are you ready? What are you gonna do?
Yeah. Good Boy.
Again, if he only offered two feet,
I would be happy to reward that achievement.
Yes, Brick.
Now my next step, I'm gonna have somebody work with me.
They're gonna put Burke up on my feet.
Just have them comfortable being up there,
they're holding on, he's not nervous at all.
Lots of treats.
Couple of seconds.
And then Rob's going to take him back down again.
We're going to do lots of that
until he's really comfortable.
Building on that,
this time Rob's gonna put him up there
but I'm actually going to reward him up there.
Rob puts him up.
Good stuff,
he might even loosen up his grip a little bit
if Burke's got a good hold there.
Good boy. Excellent buddy. Good work.
Rob might even back away a little bit if it's going well.
Perfect.
And then he's gonna step back in and take Brick off.
Thank you Rob.
Now, once my dog is pretty comfortable with that,
I'm gonna have Rob stay in the picture
but he's going to stand at a little bit of a distance.
So it's the same sort of picture
but we're gonna see now if Burke will go up
with just a verbal without Rob helping him.
Pitch, oh what a good boy, yes.
Sometimes that second person just gives him the confidence.
And I might even have Rob come in and take him off,
just he might not be comfortable jumping off yet.
Perfect.
Next step,
I'm gonna do it without Rob in the picture at all.
Now that my dog's got lots of confidence,
I'm gonna try it without the second person in the picture.
Fetch. Yes.
And I'm still gonna reward him with food.
What a good boy.
I'm gonna bend lower and tell him "brick".
Yes. What a good boy.
So he gets a nice easy landing coming off me.
And now we add the discs.
Out. Out. Out. Good boy.
Brick. Good work.
Good so just a recap,
we're starting off building value,
jumping on any object at all.
Making sure it's nice, safe, and secure.
Then we're starting to get rid of our body language.
We're making the objects more like my feet
and then we're working
with a second person building confidence actually with feet.
Couple of tips. Make it fun and do not rush it.
If we rush it,
our dogs can have a scary event
and then they're going to be nervous
and that setback's really gonna cost us.
So take it nice and slow.
Let your dog tell you what pace you're gonna work at.
Have fun.
So another pretty cool disc dog trick from Instructor Carol.
If this is your first time on the channel,
make sure you hit that subscribe button.
We publish new videos every single week
to help you spend some quality time
with your four-legged family member.
Those videos beside us,
those are videos Instructor Carol
has shown us from before that you might enjoy watching.
On that note, I'm Ken. Happy training.
(upbeat music)