In today's video. We have a puppy who doesn't want to drop things. Did you know,
you may actually be causing this to happen? Well, in today's video instructor,
Kayl is going to talk about the biggest mistakes that people make when it comes
to teaching a dog to drop something.
And she's going to show you how to avoid them. I'm Ken Steepe,
this is Kayl McCann, and this is Sunny.
Welcome back to McCann Dogs.
Here on this YouTube channel, we post videos every single week.
And a lot of those videos have to do with puppy training.
And one of the most common problems that puppy owners have is puppies.
Not wanting to let go of things. As you can see,
our puppy that we're using today has this exact problem.
Prior to turning the camera on,
we had a hard time getting the leash out of her mouth.
So she's going to be the perfect demo dog.
We're going to be talking about how to get our dogs,
to give things up to us more easily. It could be a toy.
It could be your favorite pair of shoes.
It can be anything that is in their mouth.
We're also going to talk about all of the things that people do wrong that can
actually make this situation even worse.
So today we're using wild and crazy black lab mix puppy named
sunny, and she loves to put things in her mouth, as you can see.
So we're going to talk about the first tip that people do that can really cause
this problem to be a lot worse.
And that is what a lot of people forget to do when their puppies are out of
their crate and free in the house is they don't put a leash or line on the dog.
And I know for a fact that when I often tell students, if I asked them,
if they have a leash or a line on the dog, in the house,
a lot of people are confused and they think the leash is only for taking a puppy
for a walk,
but having your leisure line on in the house can allow you to gain control of
your puppy at a moment's notice because when puppies pick things up,
it's usually when we're not quite paying attention and they get that item in
their mouth.
And the worst thing that could happen is if they grabbed that shoe and then they
take off and it turns into a big catch me, if you can game that, um,
allows the dog to think that grabbing things on their own is a really fun thing.
And it also really devalues your leadership in that moment because the
dogs or the puppy is completely calling the shots.
And once they have one little game of catch me, if you can,
it usually turns into a more regular thing.
But if my puppy is wearing a leash or a line,
if she does happen to pick up something and try to run away from it,
rather than chasing the puppy, I can just grab the leash or line.
I can slide my hands down and then I can go through the following steps to get
the toy back, which of course we're going to be going through in this video.
But this is a super necessary tool to have attached to your puppy.
Anytime they're out of their crate and you're supervising him.
The next big mistake that people make with their puppies is not actually taking
the time to drop.
The next big mistake that people make with their puppies is not actually going
through the steps to teach their puppy, to drop things on command.
What a lot of people end up doing is the puppy goes to pick up the tea towel and
they just try to pull it out of the dog's mouth to get it back.
And often if I start pulling back on the tea towel or the shoe, whatever it is,
my puppy just thinks this is a big old game.
So it's very important that if your puppy grabs something that they're not
supposed to try to resist the temptation to grab it and pull it out of the dog's
mouth, because you're probably just might be thinking,
it's time to start a party. Instead,
you want to make sure that you're teaching your puppy,
how to drop things on command.
And we're going to go through some of the steps to help you do that with your
puppies.
Knowing that I have a puppy that is really interested in putting things in her
mouth. What I want to do is start off right from the beginning,
when she's young to train her,
that giving things up to me is actually a really enjoyable thing.
And our favorite way to teach this is by using a trade method. Now,
in order to start this training,
you need to make sure that you have your puppy on a leash so you have control.
You also need to make sure that you have some type of toy that your dog is
interested in tugging. If you have a real wild and crazy puppy,
you may choose to use something that's a little bit lower value just to make the
trade process a little easier. Today I have a toy that she really loves,
but I also have some really high value treats in my bait bag that I'm hoping
she's going to be very happy to trade me for now. Remember trade systems,
don't work.
If you have something that's lower value than what's in the dog's mouth.
So you need to have the real good thing.
And she's going to have something that she, you know, she, she fairly loves. So,
we're going to start off. I'm just going to let her engage with the toy,
which is not difficult at all. And what I'm going to do is as she's tugging,
I'm going to start introducing a command that I want her to let go of things.
I could say drop it. I could say out one second later, after giving the command,
I'm going to trade her for some food in my bait bag.
I'm going to go ahead and show you what it looks like. Drop it. Yes.
Good girl. Very well done. Come a little closer for these treats.
Good girl. Yes. Very nice. I didn't just give her one reward there.
I gave her several. Now let me talk to you about here get this thing. Get this,
to get this thing, get it good. Ooh. You like the food better? Okay. Well,
that's good. It's great that she likes the food so much in my pocket.
There we go. Let's get her on this toy again.
I want to just draw your attention to two things that I did that really made
that go easy. Number one, when I said drop it,
I waited a moment before showing her the food.
And this is really important because what I don't want my dog to do is continue
having something in her mouth.
And then just look at me to see whether it's worth my trade or not.
So I need to say the command first,
give a little pause and then offer her the trade. One second later,
the second that I think I did that made it a little bit easier on her.
As once she did focus on the food, I moved the the toy,
snuck the toy behind my back a little bit to sort of take that option away from
her. So she couldn't just grab the treat and go back onto the twice.
Let me go ahead and show you again. Can't get it going again.
So I need to move this toy around and make it exciting. Get it, get it, get it,
get it. You'll notice I'm saying get it.
Which means I'm giving her permission to grab it so that she can't just jump up
and grab things whenever she pleases. Okay. The rules are in my control,
even though we're having a ball here now, as she's tugging,
I'm going to reach into my bait bag.
I'm first going to say the command and then I'm going to offer the treat one
second later. Drop it. Yes. I'm going to tuck the toy away behind my back.
Yes. Good drop it. Good girl. Yeah. That's a good girl.
Come a little closer though. Yes. Good. And I'm going to reward several times.
Good girl.
Now this looks easy when you have a dog trainer showing you how to do this,
but I want to just talk a little bit more about some of the common mistakes that
a lot of puppy owners will make when they're trying to train this. Um,
I kind of touched base on this a little bit before,
but if you're playing tug with your puppy and you go to say,
drop it and you have the food on their nose and you're still tugging and pulling
the toy a lot of puppies,
especially if they're really crazy about what's in their mouth might not want to
drop the toy. So as you're tugging and playing,
when it comes time to do the trade,
stop moving the toy out or drop it. And then trade,
So see I just immobilized the toy, made it a little bit more boring.
You could even pull it close to your body, embrace it against your body.
You could stand up and hold it against your leg, but you need that,
that toy to sort of go lifeless so that the focus is on the food.
If you have a dog, that's not quite as she's quite food motivated, actually,
which is making this quite easy. But if she wasn't that keen on the food,
I would make sure I use again, use something high value.
And when I put it on her nose,
I might even just put it right up to her nostrils and wiggle my hand a little
bit, make this motion and exciting. So she's more likely to drop that reward.
So it's very important that you go from this being the exciting thing to
whatever you're going to trade for, to be the next exciting thing.
So a big mistake that people make again,
is that timing becoming reliant on that food or whatever you're using to trade
the puppy. And then the puppy just sort of learns to expect it.
Now you may be trying to practice this and you go to have great timing.
And when you offer the food for the toy, your puppy might say no way, man.
I love this toy. I'm not dropping it for anything.
So one of the great tricks that you can do to help teach your puppy,
this is to trade them for a second toy.
You can actually flip flop between the two toys. So again,
all you need to do is use a reward that your puppy finds a higher value.
So I have two toys. Now I'm going to show you what it looks like.
She's tugging away on this one. I'm just going to actually drop the leash.
I'm going to get her on this one. Good girl.
Get it get it To get it going again. Again again again, good girl,
I'm going to let her get a good latch here. And again, you see,
I have this toy just sort of hidden away. When I tell her drop it,
I'm going to make this toy boring and I'm going to then make the new toy more
exciting. Drop it. Yeah. Good girl.
Yay. Good again. I'm saying drop it.
And then I'm presenting the trade again.
My goal here is that I do this so often that Sunny starts to anticipate
the trade coming and she starts to release on her own choice.
Right now she's only releasing because I'm showing her something better.
Eventually that will change. Drop it.
Yay. Okay. That was a good example. She didn't do it right away. You'll notice.
I didn't say it again. I didn't keep repeating myself. I didn't get angry.
I just played the waiting game. I waited until she made a better choice.
Drop it, drop it.
There we go. So I just did a little quick reset there.
I repeated the command followed by adding my toy actually think she's getting it
now. Good girl. Drop it.
There we go. See how she's getting faster.
She's starting to figure out this game, drop it.
Drop it.
Hey, good girl.
Now I've never trained this puppy before we met about five minutes before this
session started,
what I'm learning from this is she finds this toy more valuable.
I'm not sure if watching the video, if you've you figured this out? She see,
she keeps coming back to this one. So I'm learning that.
So which means this needs to be my trade toy.
I would start with this toy and I would reward with this toy.
So as I'm presenting different options with her,
I'm going to make sure you like this one do you?
I'm going to make sure that this is going to be my go-to reward too.
I need to again, use something that's high value,
but the whole purpose of that demonstration is to highlight the good timing.
If you're saying drop it. And you're showing the puppy,
the food at the same time, good girl. Um, your puppy will have to,
that was actually really good. It wasn't that you just dropped it on command.
I should maybe give you I or value reward for that.
If you're always showing the trade, as you're giving the command,
you might run into a problem where your puppy continues to hold that item until
they see what you have. So it needs to be drop it.
Then present your item from there and through repetition,
your puppy will start to figure out when I hear that word and I give that item
up in my mouth, something better is going to come my way.
And you can see as we progressively go through the video,
Sunny's actually starting to make those realizations good girl.
I'm sure you could tell how much Sonny loves this toy. And, uh,
what's great about this. One is if you have a dog that's not crazy about toys,
but they love food.
This toy is really awesome because it's sort of a two in one.
And for Sunny who loves food and toys, it's a double whammy,
but there's a Velcro who that's like the sound of glory. There we go.
Um, it's a two in one,
it has a little Velcro pocket that you can put some high value treats inside so
that when your puppy puts their mouth on it,
you can open it from time to time and have a little tug.
These toys are actually available in the McCann dogs store.
So if you're looking to get something a little bit more high value for your dog,
you certainly can check that out.
Now that we've trained the behavior a little bit.
The next thing we need to think about is generalizing our practice because
puppies are very situational.
They can learn to do a really great drop it on a specific toy,
but what happens if they're grabbing other things, maybe it's a different toy.
Maybe it's your, um, you know, it's a bone that they don't want to let go,
or maybe it's one of your items that you really don't want their mouth on.
You can't just practice in one situation. The next thing is to change locations.
So I'm in the kitchen. Now I'm going to practice it in a new location.
And instead of practicing with a toy,
I'm just letting Sunny chew on her bone a little bit.
I also want her to be able to give the bone up to me when I ask and again on use
a trade system. So I have some treats in my hand here.
I'm just going to approach her hey girly, drop it, good girl.
I can just drop some cookies on the floor while she's busy, snacking away.
I can pick up the toy. Good. I'll give that back to her a little bit.
See if we can try it again. Good dog again.
Sometimes if they're really into whatever they're chewing,
you have to think about what you're using as your, your trade. Ok,
she's into it again. Word first. Drop it.
Yes. Good girl. Good. Drop it. Good girl. Again,
watch the timing command first. Then you're going to do your trade from there.
Good go. Yeah, you can have it back. Good girl.
And the other thing to do is to think about as well is giving the item back.
So if you're training with something that you don't care that your dog has,
whether it's their bone or whether it's their toy,
sometimes just the act of taking it from them and then giving it back is a
reward in itself. And actually might even try that drop it. Yeah.
Good girl.
So we've had enough repetitions during the video of a training of this video.
Good girl. Have it back, that I can take it away and give it back. Good girl.
But again, I wouldn't be doing this until I've worked on building the trade.
So you've got to switch up your locations,
switch up your items because it's really important that while you do all this
great training,
it is not going to prevent your puppy necessarily from picking up things that
they're not supposed to. They're puppies. They're super curious.
They want to get their mouth on everything. So while you're doing your training,
you're in control while you're not doing your training,
you also need to stay in control, which is why that leash on line on,
in the house, utilizing your crate. When you can't watch your puppy,
when they're actually loose in the house with you and your family.
Two eyes should be on the puppy at all times,
because if she goes to sniff the boot or pick up the boot,
I can use my voice to try and stop her right away. Again,
going back to our first mistake, people just sort of don't pay attention.
And before you know it, the dog's grabbed this, the dog's grabbed that.
And now you're in a situation where you have to kind of battle them.
So be proactive, supervise a little bit better. And then in the meantime,
train your puppy, that giving things up to you is a really great thing.
Teaching your puppy to drop things is one of the very first exercises that we
work on the first week that they're home.
And if you want to learn some more exercises that you should do with your puppy,
the first week home click the card right there,
if you're looking for a step-by-step help with your puppy,
as well as daily support from our McCann team of instructors,
make sure you check out our online course called Puppy Essentials.
The link for that is in the description below on that note. I'm Kayl.
This is little Sunny, happy training.