You know, I had that dream, gosh, since I was a kid,
I wasn't completely prepared for
the level of hypervigilance that I needed.
We definitely have had a lot of wins, but also some challenges.
She's getting her independence, so she doesn't really need me as much.
So it's a shot to the ego.
But then when I take her out of her crate and she smothers me in kisses,
or if she does something like this, then I think maybe she loves me still.
I do suffer from major depressive disorder and, uh,
post-traumatic stress disorder,
and that's been a challenge for me for probably the last seven years.
I have found that the last week with her has really been able to pull me out of
my head, even though mom's tired, mom's happy.
I am, you know, single, live at home by myself.
So I'm very used to just kind of focusing on what I need to focus on.
And this little lady definitely needs a lot of attention,
which I don't mind giving, but it's the, it's exhausting.
It's mentally exhausting. And yeah,
I would say that I wasn't prepared for that. Um, I mean,
I knew it but wasn't fully prepared.
It is so common for the first week home to not go as planned.
A lot of the time we have these great plans in place and then the rug whoosh
right out from under us. So let's talk about some of these things.
One of the first things that I wanted to talk about was your, um,
interest in looking for opportunities to give her more freedom and sort of
broaden her boundaries at this point. Yeah. And, uh, first off,
in terms of freedom, you're a great student. You're working crate training.
You got the house line on all the time, that is fabulous. Absolutely fabulous.
That's a must, absolutely.
A must. It really is. What a lifesaver, right?
So in terms of trying to build bigger boundaries for her,
I wanna try to impress upon you to actually get away from that thinking right
now. Okay. And the reason for that,
and this is a very common thing that people want to do for their puppies because
they think it is the right thing to do,
but from a leadership and a management perspective,
you really want to keep her contained and sort of within those
boundaries for the first little while,
especially until she is basically responsive to your voice.
So once they get to the point with my puppies where they will respond to their
name, they'll respond to a here command, or, you know,
if something does go wrong,
if I can give them a quick scold from across the room and they stop with that,
then I know that they're ready for more freedom. But right now,
she's been home just a, a week now, this is your one week anniversary.
Congratulations,- one week of this new life. So at this point,
she is still really learning the rope. She's still learning all of these things.
Things like what is hers to chew, especially,
I know that's been a bit of a struggle for you, and that's so normal. It, it's,
it's often very, um,
very alarming how much they want to chew and how much the tendency to chew
drives their behavior.
And that can sometimes be a little bit of a rug being pulled out from under us
because we don't expect it. For now,
we want to just make sure that we're setting her up to be successful,
and she gets to be right the overwhelming majority of the time.
And then the times that she's wrong,
we can just use as moments to help teach her the right things. Something else I
want to talk about, and this is another really, really common thing.
We are humans, so we tend to think in human terms,
and then we tend to of course, apply those human thoughts to our puppies.
And a lot of the times that can actually work against us very, very hard.
So it's really important to think about dogs in terms of their own learning and
in terms of what matters to them.
So when you are talking about her being naughty in situations,
they're usually situations where the puppy hasn't learned what they should be
doing in a human world just yet. So in a puppy world, in a dog world,
they're scavengers, they're explorers. So she,
it's very normal for her to wanna explore the environment. And of course,
they explore the environment with their mouths. So very,
very normal for those teeth to come across everything. And it's not that she's
being naughty in those moments, she just doesn't know better. Part of the, um,
misconceptions surrounding dogs,
I always say comes back to what I call the Disney model for dogs,
which is this wonderful world where the puppy comes home and then the child
goes out with the puppy and they romp and the field,
and they get into all sorts of mischief. And of course,
the puppy doesn't run off, and of course the puppy doesn't bite the child.
This is definitely a very wonderful dream that we might have,
but it is not reality. And we,
we definitely want to treat our puppies like they are brand new in this
situation,
and they have so much to learn and none of that they have learned yet.
So things like learning how to respond to commands,
learning what the rules of the house are, learning, what their name is,
and what their expectation is when they hear their name. All of those things are
more the reality based side of things and the Disney model we really need to,
we can appreciate in movies and in these dreamy states,
but we really need to put that aside and that will come in the future. Yeah,
so once she is fully trained, once she's responsive, you know,
you're gonna be able to keep her safe.
You'll have this wonderful Disney-esque model for life, but at this point,
it's probably gonna look a lot less like Disney with the puppy nipping and
chewing and peeing and all the stuff that comes along with it.
And even in this situation right here,
I wanna talk about the chewing because we've got this lovely bone forward at
you, but she's also really eager to chew on her house line,
and she was eager to chew on my hand a little bit there. And again,
this is a really, really normal thing. And sometimes it's a little bit, uh,
surprising for us that when we give them good things that are supposed to be dog
chew items, they don't wanna chew those items.
So all I did there when she got a little bit distracted with the long line was I
just took the bone and I moved it around a little bit to bring interest.
You know,
you might take a little bit of peanut butter and smear it on the bone to make it
more interesting than the lion. And basically what we're doing is,
right now it is a bandaid for sure mm-hmm.
to keep them distracted from the line and keep them interested in
the bone itself. But what I'm doing is I'm creating habits for her,
and that's what I want her to ultimately learn to do, is chew on the bone,
chew on the dog toys,
the things that she should be able to chew on and not the things that are going
to cause damage to her home or potentially cause damage to the puppy,
right? So I'm gonna make sure that I make this the most interesting thing that's
possible around her,
and I'm gonna limit the options that she has for chewing on anything else.
Since I'm here supervising her right now,
it's a really good opportunity if she gets a little bit distracted with the long
line or with the fingers,
we can get her interest back on the bones so that that's a better thing for her
to chew. Come here, girl. Oh, what's that? . Oh, what's that? Oh,
that's good. Oh, that's good.
And then she gets a little win when she gets to chew it. Yay. Good for you.
One of the other things that people will often do is start to offer the puppy
the opportunity to make choices before they're actually ready for this.
Basically what I do with choice work is I stack the deck in my favor like mad.
So once I'm at the point where I'm no, you know, 90%,
I'm 90% sure that my dog is going to make the choice that I want to,
I'll allow them that opportunity because it is a really powerful thing to be
able to say, okay, you know what?
I'm gonna give you this moment to make a choice.
And when they make the right choice that you like, say for example,
it's being in the kitchen and not jumping on the counter. Right now, she's,
she's too little to be able to do that. But in the future,
counters surfing is probably something that you're gonna need to do some
training with. So for example,
once I have built value for my dog not jumping in the kitchen,
and that might be them just standing there, it might be me working a sit,
something contrary to jumping on the counter. And I have done a lot of rewarding
for that.
And my dog is at the point where they come into the kitchen and instead of
thinking about what's on the counter, my dog goes, oh, maybe I'll sit.
That's the point where I know I'm ready to allow my puppy to make choices.
But before that,
when I know that my puppy's not gonna be clear on what the right choice may be
and the chances of my puppy making the choice that works in a human rule
world versus the choice that works for a dog in the dog world,
I will make sure that I am not allowing them the opportunity to make a choice.
Right?
And that is a really big leadership step because if they learn when they're
young that, oh, you know what?
I don't have to go in the crate when you ask me to,
or I don't have to come into the house when you ask me to. That sort of thing
will follow you around and will really set the tone.
And especially as they go through development and they start to get curious
about the rest of the world and they start to really be in a position to make
choices that might be contradictory to what you'd like,
that will come back and really, uh, bite you in the butt.
But that's kind of neat. Okay, , ,
are you looking at a foot over there behind the camera? What's this?
What's this? Hmm. Okay, let's just snuggle. How's that?
So I'm just gonna take choice away and I'm just gonna snuggle her so I'm not
being mean. I'm just saying, you know what,
in this moment you're adorable barking at that foot over there,
which is exciting,
but right now we're in the middle of something else and it's not party time over
there. So I'm just gonna take,
remove that choice from her and we'll see if we can get her interested in this
bone again. So really before she's ready to make the right choices,
you're best to direct her behavior as much as possible, okay?
And just be confident in that direction as well, because she will,
as soon as you take charge and have that leadership for her, she will say, oh,
okay. That's what you want me to do instead, I get it. Mm-hmm. ,
no problem.
Going over to the bathroom is great. She does her thing, she's lovely,
wonderful. But when it's time to come inside,
it's very hit or miss. Whether or not she'll respond to coming inside.
Sometimes it's no, I don't want to. Yeah.
And very understandable. I.
Feel bad because I'm like.
, so let's go kid.
That is one thing you need to just put at the back of your mind. Don't feel bad.
You are providing her with a wonderful life.
You're giving her good structure and good information in that moment. You know,
we have these feelings where we feel like we're taking something away from the
dog. But I want you to get rid of those thoughts.
You do not need to feel guilty for directing her behavior and keeping her safe.
And it's really important that she knows that when you call her,
she needs to come in from the yard,
which she's not ready to make that right choice yet.
So she needs to do some more learning before she's ready to say, okay,
you'll be out there on your own. I'm gonna call you from the door,
or I'm gonna try to encourage you to come back into the house. Right? Um,
she might not want to follow you in that moment.
So rather than giving her that opportunity to make the choice,
this is where the house line comes in really handy. And when I have puppies,
I take them out to go to the bathroom. We might play in the yard.
We might have a good little time for however long we want to.
And then when I'm ready to go back in the house,
I'm going to step on the house line, pick up my puppy,
and just bring her in the house.
Okay? So pick her up outside and then bring her.
Yeah, you bet. Okay. And then what I'm going to be doing in the meantime too,
because obviously that's not an, a solution for the rest of her life, right?
You know,
she's gonna get pretty big and you don't wanna be carrying her in the house.
Yes. She's a hefty one. So, yeah.
So what you're doing in the meantime is you're teaching her how to respond to
her name very reliably with all of the good skills that we're teaching.
You're teaching her how to, um, do a puppy recall towards you.
And then once she's built a lot of value for those things,
you can start to use those things to call her in the house.
But for the time being,
because we know she's not ready to make the right choice,
it's really important that we not put her in the position where she can make the
wrong choice. And then the unfortunate part of that is that the value gets
built for making the wrong choice. So when she says,
I'm not gonna come in from the yard,
I wanna stay out here in the cold and in the snow and, you know,
play with some snow, it's okay. You're learning too. Not to worry.
But when she says, I wanna stay out here in the snow and have fun. Yeah.
Then that becomes reinforcing for her as well. Yes.
Instead of just taking the option away. And then, you know, you might, um,
you might do some games over the threshold, for example,
where you call her name and then reward her for coming in the house.
That'll build value for responding to you in those scenarios.
Work the puppy recall in the yard.
That'll build value for running to you in those scenarios. And then you'll,
you'll start to see that balance shift. You'll no longer need to step on the
line and pick her up. You'll be able to say, okay,
call her name and then she'll happily run in the house because she's learned
that that's really valuable too. Okay?
And that's what we mean when we talk about aligning our rules and the things
that we find valuable with what we want them to find valuable as well.
Don't feel bad about what you don't know.
This is a very normal part of the learning process. And as humans,
we want everything so fast and we think that we should know everything because
there's a wealth of information at our fingertips all the time.
But you don't know what you don't know. Mm-hmm. .
And that's why you are doing the right thing by reaching out and asking for help
by being in a, in a puppy class,
so that we can give you good direction and good information and we can help to
prevent the mistakes that are so common out there in the world. So please don't
worry about that. Now,
Nancy is one of our in-person Puppy Essentials students and we can help her with
personalized feedback.
If you would like personalized feedback to help with your puppy journey,
you can join us both in-person or online depending on where you are in the
world. And if you'd like more information,
click the link in the description below.
The first week home it is so normal for people to have high expectations and we
had a conversation before you brought, uh,
your new puppy home last week where I mentioned that a lot of the times it
happens that people will bring their puppy home and it's basically the first day
of kindergarten and they're already thinking about university graduation.
So keep in mind that this is a training process. You know,
she's only been home for a week. She's the most adorable thing,
sleeping right there. She's only been home for a week and this is a process.
So you mentioned not being able to get her into the down just yet. Mm-hmm.
right now we're just working on helping her follow that lure,
helping her learn how to lure,
because really luring is something that's brand new to our puppies as well.
They're used to just grabbing and running off with things.
So being able to nicely follow food and being able to manipulate them because
they're nicely following that food. That's a teaching process as well.
So don't worry about the finished product.
It's always going to be a process that you are taking little steps at a time and
building on that step before and eventually the university graduation will come
and you'll be so proud of things. But don't think about that just yet.
We're still in kindergarten,
so we're gonna build those steps. You came prepared today,
you brought some lower value kibble treats,
and you brought some higher value treats, which awesome . Good job.
That's good thinking.
So what I like to do when it comes to deciding what to use with the food is I
will start with the lower value and I'll see how much interest that garners.
Mm-hmm. . And it depends on the puppy. You know,
some puppies are a little bit more picky and some puppies are just chow hounds.
Labs tend to be what I call walking stomachs.
So if she will work for just her kibble,
that is fabulous because then you don't have to go to the higher value treats
and you can save those for later down the road when you're working with higher
distractions. You know, when she really does something dynamite,
you could pull out a high value treat to make it a little bit more impactful for
with that reward. And you can save your kibble for most of her day-to-day
training. So let's see if she's interested. Oh yeah, that smells good. Hey,
girly. So I'm gonna start just by luring her . Oh,
she found the high value ones. I'm gonna hide those away and we'll see here.
There we go. Yes. Good girl.
So all I did there was rewarded her for moving and following that treat. Woohoo.
She likes the kibble. We'll work into the sit. Yes. Good. Girly.
Turn her around here so everybody can see your pretty face.
And then we'll see what we can do with this down here.
So I'm just gonna slowly lure. Yes. Good girl. . You know what,
it's just tricks of the trade. No, don't worry. .
So all I did there was I just waited, you know, when I kept,
when I got it to the ground and she was sort of sniffing and licking at it,
I knew she was still interested in it.
So I just waited until she sort of followed it into that position. Okay.
And basically her legs just collapsed under her and she got into that down.
And then as soon as she did, I was able to say yes and reward it.
Another trick is to push in towards her a little bit. Yes. Good girl.
So that time what I did was I used the food to sort of
push in towards her chest and that kind of toppled her into the down. Oh, okay.
Do you wanna try that? I.
Think what I've been doing wrong is, um, T up.
There you go. Good. Good, good, good. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah,
I have all your treats. Oh, she likes those. There you go.
Good . It's usually,
it's usually easiest to start her in the s-i-t position.
So you can go upwards first you going upwards. , .
That was good. She flopped into the down!
A few of the things that I just noticed that I think that we can give you some
pointers to help you get better results on. So one,
I'm gonna work with one treat at a time. So even though I have a little hand,
whoops. Okay. A little handful of kibble in my left hand,
my right hand just has one at a time.
The other thing that I noticed is the positioning of your hand.
When it's really deep in your hand, it's hard to sort of direct her motion.
So what I'm gonna do is I'm actually gonna pinch those between my fingers and
then I'm gonna use that to sort of move it around. So I think that, um,
that will help you get her into the right position as well if you've got good
mechanics with your hands.
And then finally what I wanna do with her is I wanna make sure that even though
this is her kibble and it's her meal and it's her meal ration,
and I do wanna make sure she gets that,
I also wanna make sure that she is earning it. So if, whoops, ,
or are you gonna eat that one again? Do you want.
That back?
I don't want it. There you. There you go. You can have that one,
that one you already earned so you can have it again.
So I wanna make sure that if she's not actually gotten into the position I want,
or if she's not accomplished what I want,
that I don't actually release the treat yet. Okay. Okay.
So that'll help her connect the dots of, oh,
I got that reward because my elbows touched the ground there. Yes. Good girl.
And then finally,
I wanna make sure that I give her an indication and we use yes because it
is an event marker and it says, this is where you earned the reward.
This is why you earned the reward. And chances are, if you repeat that behavior,
you're gonna earn another reward for it. Yes. Good girl. You're so smart.
So another trick if she's,
if she's having trouble pulling and pulling up into the stand,
you can actually use that and just sort of, yeah. Oh, good girl. .
So her butt was against your leg there and that worked to your advantage.
You'll get more used to these motions too as you continue to play with her.
So even if you just wanna play with Loring Spins this one.
Yay. And I can tell she's still not necessarily a hundred percent certain on
following the food,
so that's probably part of why she's struggling a little bit too. But again,
she's a baby and she's just learning. So not to worry.
Yay.
Good job.
Job. See, just took a little change in my pa mechanics. Good.
Work.
It is so common to have struggles with crate training in the early days when you
bring your puppy home. If you need some help with your crate training plan,
click this card. And on that note, I'm Instructor Shannon. And I'm.
Nancy. And this is Keilani.
Happy training.