- This is Maggie, the Labrador Retriever puppy,
and for the next 20 minutes,
instructor Steve's gonna work with her
on something called leash respect.
It's where he gives her the opportunity
to choose him over choosing to pull on her leash.
She's actually also gonna work a little bit
on jumping up, and I know that's something
that a lot of dog owners struggle with.
On that note, I'm Ken Steepe.
- I'm Steve Walsh.
- And this is Maggie.
Welcome back to McCann Dogs.
(guitar strumming) (dog barking)
- Like any other exercise we teach our dogs,
it's important we break it down into little steps
to help our dogs be correct.
Now, when I talk about the idea of leash respect,
it doesn't matter to me where she is,
it just matters to me that she's not
pulling on the leash.
Now, I've picked a great motivator for Maggie.
I've got some cheese here,
and she seems to like this cheese really, really well.
In fact, I'm pretty sure this is the first time
she's had cheese,
but with your dog,
you're gonna need to make sure
that you pick a motivator that is important to them
and powerful to them.
Now, here's what I'm gonna do.
I'm going to simply tell her, "With me."
And I'm gonna take a step and I'm gonna pause.
And as long as she pauses with me,
I'm quickly going to say yes, and I'm going to reward.
Now, it's important to remember,
she doesn't have to be at my left side.
She can be anywhere around me,
and as long as she doesn't pull on the leash,
I'm gonna quickly deliver that treat.
Here's the other side of the coin though.
If she decides to pull on the leash,
I'm gonna turn and face her,
and I'm gonna add some of those pulses on the leash
that I'll show you in a second
to simply encourage her to reconnect with me.
When she does, I'm gonna turn on my voice and motion
and move away from her and encourage her
to stay with me a little bit more.
Oh hi girl, she's very excited.
And again, I haven't worked with Maggie.
So we're gonna see what happens here.
I like how excited she is though.
So let's go ahead and do this.
So I'm gonna have some food in my hand ready to go,
but I'm not going to lure her.
This food is up out of the way.
It is a reward.
Now, you can tell, she knows I have it,
and that's a really really, really good thing.
So here's what it's gonna look like.
With me.
Yes, good girl, very good.
With me.
Yes, good girly.
With me.
She's gonna turn and move.
So she's pulling a little.
She's making a good choice.
There's my girl, good job.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
With me.
Yes, good girly, very nice.
Now, I'm gonna take another step.
With me.
And see what she does.
So, she's gonna jump.
I'm gonna tell her off.
Good off, good girl.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
You notice when I bring the food down,
I'm bringing it down quickly,
to help prevent her from jumping,
even though she's excited.
I'm bringing the food down quickly.
She only gets rewarded for four paws on the ground.
And I'm gonna keep doing this a couple more times.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
So she pulled on the leash.
I caught you, I did, haha, that's funny.
Good girl.
With me.
Yes, good girl, very good.
So the moment that leash went tight,
I put a little slack on the leash,
added a few pulses until she turned back to me,
but then I praised her and I became more fun
than everything else around her.
Now, we're in our hall and it's an empty hall right now
because I wanna set Maggie up to be successful.
I wanna make sure I limit the distractions
to build her foundation and understanding.
And even though it's a fairly empty hall,
she's still pretty excited about the world.
And that's a really good thing.
Most new puppies are excited about things.
This cheese that I have is really important to her,
and that's gonna be of value when I start to do this.
I'm not gonna add any more distractions right now.
I'm simply gonna continue to work this idea
of a couple of steps and a pause.
And as long as she pauses with me,
the good stuff happens.
And when she doesn't, no big deal.
I'm not mad at her, but I'm quickly using my leash
to redirect her to bring her right back.
Now, I am gonna try and make it a little bit harder,
but I'm not gonna do that by adding a lot of distractions.
I'm gonna do that by adding one more step.
So instead of one step at a time,
it's gonna be two steps at a time, okay.
And here's what it's gonna look like.
With me.
One, two, yes, good girl, very good.
With me.
Yes, good girly, good job.
I added a little bit more food.
Good girl, excellent job.
Whoops, off.
So I'm gonna work a little of that off,
and this is what most exciting puppies are gonna do.
That's okay, we're just gonna help work with them.
With me.
Yes, good girly, good.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
With me.
Yes, good puppy dog.
Now, she is making absolutely fantastic choices.
Off, and again, I'm just gonna deal with
the jumping as it goes.
I'm not mad at her.
She's excited and engaged with me.
So I'm gonna make sure that I help
keep her with me.
With me.
Off, girl, good.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
You'll notice the more I do this, the more excited
Maggie actually gets too.
And we are getting a fair bit of jumping right now.
This is pretty common with these excited young puppies.
First things first.
She is being excited.
She's not being overbearing,
but that doesn't mean I'm not gonna address it.
I'm going to tell her off
and I'm just gonna add some pulses to the ground,
each and every time she jumps.
I'm not mad at her.
She's simply an excited puppy at this point,
but it is important I address it each and every time.
Off.
Good girly.
Good off, excellent job.
And I can even take the opportunity to yes and reward her
for keeping four paws on the ground.
Good off, very nice.
I'm gonna combine these two now.
A little bit of leash respect and addressing that off.
Okay, With me.
Yes, good girl, good job, good with me.
With me.
Off, good off, good.
With me.
Yes, good girl, what a superstar Labrador Retriever you are.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
And you can see how quickly she starts
to figure out that she shouldn't jump,
and that good things come for keeping
four paws on the ground.
We've started to get some success now
without any distractions down.
Like anytime I wanna add things in though,
I need to add them slowly to help her
understand how to be correct.
So, I've put some toys down on the ground.
(bells dinging)
And these are pretty exciting for her.
She heard one of them squeaking.
She was pretty interested in them.
You'll notice, off, that I've moved back
from those toys a little bit.
I'm gonna do the exact same exercise
back here far away from those toys
to help her understand that she
shouldn't pull on the leash
in spite of those distractions being there.
Now, same rules are going to apply.
I'm gonna have some food in my head ready to go.
I am not luring her.
I am rewarding her for making choices.
So, you'll notice when I move,
I'm not moving with food on her nose.
The food is up out of the way,
but it's there that I can quickly
say yes and reward her.
And I'm gonna take one or two steps
toward those toys, and as long as
she doesn't pull on the leash,
I'm going to yes and reward.
Are you ready, girl?
With me.
Off.
So again, I can address the jumping.
Off.
Let's get your paw out from under there, off.
Good off.
With me.
Yes, good girl, good job, very nice.
Go ahead and get it.
Good, with me.
Yes, good girl, might move a little farther away.
With me.
Off, off.
Good off.
With me.
Off.
And this is pretty common
that the dogs get a little bit excited
and start to do things repetitively.
People often ask us, how many times am I gonna have
to do this before my dog understands.
And really, it comes down to,
yes, good girl, as many times as it takes
for them to understand what we want.
I'm never mad at them.
I'm simply giving them the best direction I can
to help them to be correct.
With me.
Off, yes, good girl, good.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
With me.
Yes, good girly.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
Now I gotta say, with me, girly.
She just made, off,
a fantastic choice.
These toys were there.
She looked at them and paused for a second,
but then looked back to me.
I yessed it and I gave her a little jackpot,
but I also didn't hang out there.
I made a little bit more space to help
her make the right choice, okay.
And then, I'm gonna try it again.
So a little tense on the leash bump, bump, bump.
I caught you, I did.
Yeah. Good try, girl.
Off.
Good.
That's better.
Yes.
What a good puppy dog.
And I'm going to repeat these steps.
So I'll go a little closer again.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
Very good puppy dog.
And then again, once I've been this successful,
with me,
good girl,
I'm going to move away to help her be successful.
So toys are not something
that seems to be a big draw for her.
So I'm gonna make it a little harder.
But again, I'm gonna still do it in a controlled fashion.
I've asked Ken to come out here and stand here
and he's just going to be a human distraction,
because oftentimes,
that's where these little social butterflies
can really struggle.
So same steps are going to apply.
My expectation is that she doesn't pull on the leash,
in spite of Ken being there.
Now I'm not gonna go rushing up to Ken
and have her rehearse jumping all over Ken.
I'm going to build more value for her staying with me
and focusing on me.
One thing I want to highlight right here,
do you notice how she's turned and faced me right now.
I very much make a habit
of rewarding these dogs turning towards me,
understanding that good stuff comes from me.
Instead of just magically appearing
while they're looking everywhere else in the world.
So here's how it's gonna be like, my leash,
she's got up.
I've got the food in my hand.
I'm not going to lure her with it
and I'm going to take a step towards Ken.
With me.
Yes, good girly.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
And I move back a little bit.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
Now, it's important to note,
she's not jumping as much right now.
Part of that is simply we've addressed it each
and every time.
With me.
Yes, good.
With me.
Excellent job.
And I'm going to push this hard here.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
She's making great choices right now.
Off.
Good off.
Yes, good girl.
And I'm going to really actually try and push her
because she's making such great choices.
I'm going to really see if we can test her in the situation.
With me.
Oops.
I caught you.
I did, haha.
Good thing, off.
Let's get you really sorted out
and with me.
Good.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
So that was a little bit too much for her brain.
She saw Ken kneel down and thought,
"Oh, I should go and jump on Ken,"
so I just simply added those pauses and moved away.
Off.
And I'm reestablishing her idea of leash respect.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
With me.
Yes, good girly.
Excellent, good job.
Very nice.
The next step I'm going to make with her
is I'm actually going to take food out of my hand.
I'm not going to hold it.
I have it in my bait pouch.
I have it ready to go.
I have easy access to it.
Off.
But I'm going to now simply say yes,
reach for that food and reward her.
And again, this is a step that we take away
from holding food in our hand.
You know, we are not bribing her to move with us.
We're rewarding her,
but this is going to be our first step.
So again, she can be on my right, that's fine,
as long as she's not pulling on the leash.
With me.
Yes, good girly.
So I'm saying yes, reaching in my bait pouch
and rewarding her.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
Good job.
Very nice.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
Good, with me.
Okay, get it.
Good girly.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
Maggie's doing a fantastic job
and I've already moved to the point
where I've been testing her not holding food my hand.
But like anytime when I introduce new distractions,
I need to back things up to help her to be correct.
So here's what I'm gonna do,
I'm actually gonna pop this door open in a minute,
because oftentimes people say,
my dog does it great inside that empty hall,
I should just go outside
and they wonder why the dog struggle
with all of that new environment.
So here's what we're going to do.
I'm going to take some food,
I'm going to put my hand here in a minute,
and work a little bit of this leash respect here,
with the door closed.
And then I'm going to pop the door open
and we're going to see how it goes.
Same rules apply though,
she needs to move with me on a loose leash.
I'm still only moving a couple of steps at a time.
And I'm still rewarding her for those great choices.
So I've got some food here.
Just as a little refresher, she knows I do.
With me.
Yes, good girly.
With me
Yes, good girl.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
Let's open the door and see how it goes.
The door's open now.
My goal is not to go right out the door.
My goal is for her to show me great leash respect
in spite of this door being open.
Hi, girl, you caught me off guard there.
Good girly.
So here's what it looks like.
With me.
Yes, good girly.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
I'm gonna move away from the door.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
With me.
Yes, good girly.
Very good.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
Now she's doing quite well.
So I'm actually going to push this.
I'm going to go out the door a couple of steps
and work my way back in.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
It's important our dogs learn not
to rush through doors ahead of us.
It's important that they learn to be respectful
as we do that,
and this is going to help with those.
With me.
So a little pull on the leash.
Bump, bump, bump.
Hi, I caught you. Yes, I did.
So here's what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna pop back inside.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
Get it. Good girl.
Are you ready? Are you set?
With me.
Yes, good girl. Very good girl.
With me.
Yes, good girl.
With me.
Yes, good girly.
With me, girl.
(bell dinging)
Yes, good girl.
Now that was a lot for little Maggie to do
and she did a great job with that.
You'll notice that when I came back in,
I took a couple of big steps and I stopped
and she actually fixed herself.
There was a little tension that went in the leash.
And the moment she felt that,
she actually turned back towards me.
Those are great things to look for.
That tells me she is starting to understand the exercise.
Now, this has been a lot of work for this dog.
She's getting a little tired and a little over it.
So we're going to take a break shortly.
But even though she's getting a little tired,
I still expect that she's not pulling the leash right now.
Anytime she's getting up,
I'm simply placing her back in that set,
she still shouldn't jump up on me.
All of our dog training rules still apply throughout
the entire exercise.
Good girl.
You're a good thing.
You'll get to have a little nap soon.
Good little Labrador Retriever.
Yes, you are good girl.
Now we've spent the last 10 or 15 minutes teaching Maggie
the idea of leash respect
and also working on some jumping up.
And these are very common issues
that a lot of dog owners experience.
Now if you want to watch a little bit more
about leash respect,
you can click that card right there where I did a little bit
of that work with my own puppy final.
- Now, 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
to have a well-behaved, four-legged family member.
On that note, I'm Ken.
- I'm Steve.
- Happy training.