- Today we're gonna talk about handling,
and the importance of it.
Now, usually when I say the word handling to people,
most people just right away answer,
"Oh my dog has no trouble with me handling them,
"I can touch any part of their body and they don't care."
But what people don't realize is sometimes
when we need to handle our dogs,
it's when they are in a stressful situation.
Maybe they have a part of their body that's hurt,
or we need to clip their toenails,
or we need to give them medication in their mouth.
There's lots of times when our puppies
might not want us to touch them,
and they need to learn that it's okay.
So if I wanted to have her lay on her side,
if I wanted to be able to lift her paws,
look at her belly, I should be able
to basically do anything that I need or want
(laughs) whenever I want to, and I should have a puppy
that lays calmly and relaxed and completely trusting
of what I'm gonna do so that I can make sure
I can keep her safe at all times.
This is my seven month old puppy Beeline, my name is Kayl.
Welcome back to McCann Dogs.
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Welcome back to McCann dogs, where every single Thursday
we publish a new video to help you enrich your dog's life.
Now, what I'm gonna do is start off
with the very first step to some of this handling,
and when I want to touch different parts of her body,
the first thing that I wanna make sure is
that she's in a completely relaxed position,
and maybe not where she's trying to do tricks right now.
So what I'm gonna do is take a piece of food
and I'm just gonna lure her into a down position,
and I want her to be rotated onto one hip.
So all I did there, I'll show you that again,
is I just moved her head towards her shoulder,
and that causes her to flip over onto one side.
I'm just gonna give her all the food in my hands,
because once the food's out of my hands,
I'm gonna allow her to be a little calmer.
I like that there's a blanket under here,
'cause I can pull her around a little easier.
Now what I'm gonna do is brace her outside leg,
and I'm gonna just gently push on her shoulders
to get her on her side, good girl.
Once she's on her side, come here monkey moo,
I'm just gonna pet her very calmly, good girl, on your side.
Yes, and I actually teach an on your side command.
On your side, good girl,
shhhh, good girl.
And I want her to lay here completely calmly
until I release her.
Good girl, on your side, good girl.
Now, for some dogs you certainly could incorporate a lot
of feeding, but this particular puppy
is very, very food motivated and the more that I use food,
the more frantic behavior I get
because she likes it so much.
So she actually responds a lot better
to just really calm praise, and calm petting and touching.
Good girl, on your side, good girl, very nice.
Once she's relaxed then I can tell her okay, good girl,
and let her get up from there.
So that's step one, that's what I would start off
before you do any touching of the body parts.
Good girl, yes.
Now, once your dog is very comfortable laying on their side
they're relaxed and they're calm, lie down, on your side,
good girl, the next thing I would do
is start to touch different body parts.
Now I have a bag of cheese hidden behind my leg right now,
it's out of sight so it's not super distracting,
and if Bee is able to lay here calmly as I touch her paws
I'm going to say yes, and then reward her.
Now the timing of this is very important,
I need her to believe that the best part of this,
hi love bug, the best part of this
is when I actually touch her paw
it's important that I use the word yes
to pinpoint that before I get my food out.
So I'm gonna get her back on her side here.
On your side, good girl, settle, good, on your side.
So I'm gonna take ahold of her paw,
good, on your side, oh you're so good, yes,
so I'm gonna say yes while I hold her paw,
and then I'm gonna get my cheese out to reward her.
Good girl, good, yes, very nice, good.
What I wouldn't wanna do is hold the paw,
let go, yes, and get the food out,
because I want her to think the best part
so that I'm actually touching her body part.
So timing is really important in dog training,
they learn within one second, so it's very important
when you use your pinpoint word it's at the right time.
So I'm gonna try the other paw now.
Good girl, I might even make it a little harder,
spread her toes apart, pull on each individual nail,
that's something that I would have to do, oops, settle,
so she's a little bit uncomfortable with that,
so I'm just gonna lay her down again, settle, good girl,
yes, so she was completely calm that time.
You are so smart, good girl, try your back feet, good girl.
Oh, she's a good baby, yes,
Good girl.
So yes while I'm touching, and then reward.
I got one more paw to do,
good girl, lie down, thata girl, settle.
There, oh that's good Bee.
Yes.
Good girl.
This is a really easy thing to practice between commercials,
or between shows while you're watching commercials rather,
it's also good to practice this while your dog
is already a little bit tired in the beginning
so that they're more likely to settle.
And then as they get more experienced with it
you could also practice when they're more excited.
Unfortunately, you can't always choose the energy level
of your dog when you take them to the vet
for an appointment, they need to be able
to be comfortable with this type of handling
any time of the day and in any situation.
You are ridiculous, good girl.
Now it's not always convenient
to have your dog laying on their side to do handling,
there's gonna be times when you need to look in their eyes,
check their ears, look in their teeth,
and for that I usually prefer to have my dog sitting.
So again I'm gonna get rid of the food for a second,
and I'm just gonna have my hand in her collar
just to brace her a little bit.
What I also like to do, I'm just gonna swing her this way
so you can see, is brace my hand underneath her chin
to help keep her head still,
and again if your dog's not very used to you holding them
in this position, I would take the time to pat
and praise calmly, yes, good girl, yes,
and you could even just certainly start off
by rewarding that, now I have done this with this puppy
since the day I brought her home at eight weeks old,
so she's quite comfortable with this,
but some puppies take a little longer.
So you can see she just sort of settles
when I hold her there,
which means I can look in her eyeballs really easily,
I can look in her ears really easily,
make sure there's no, you know, dirt or grime in there.
Also, too, this is gonna sound really strange, but one
of the easiest ways to tell whether your dog
has a ear infection, hi babe, is by smelling their ear.
If they have a funky smell coming from there
they might have an ear infection.
So can she be still as I get (laughs) without kissing me,
yes, get my nose near her ear to smell it,
good girl, yes, you're so good.
And again, I take my time doing this.
It's a good idea to practice handling
when you don't actually have to check them from something.
You know, I have some time to do this, I can take it slow.
Now, last but not least, their mouth.
This is one of the hardest things.
So when I start to work on being able
to look inside their mouth, I start off
by just simply being able to lift her teeth.
Look at those pearly whites, yes, good girl.
If she allows me to lift her lips
to see her teeth, I would reward that,
then I could practice maybe trying
to open her mouth for a moment,
so I have my fingers braced behind her teeth,
I'm just gonna open her bottom jaw there. (laughs)
So she wasn't quite loving that, so I'm gonna try it again.
Good girl.
Yes, good.
So see how I just had her do it for just a moment?
What I'm looking for is acceptance,
I'm looking for her to be still,
to be calm, if she's fighting me
and trying to pull her head out of my way,
I don't want to be yes-ing and rewarding that.
Come here monkey moo, you're gonna have to try it again.
Sit, come on, up up, up up, good girl.
So I'm gonna hold her head again, try one more time.
Yes, good girl.
Excellent, very nice.
And I can just do little bits at a time,
when you're doing handling you can choose
to do one body part and do that for a little bit,
and then maybe the next day do something different
depending on the comfort level of your dog.
It's always best to build on success
so that your dog doesn't get worried
or stressed during this,
and they actually find it a pretty nice,
relaxing, calm time with you.
Being able to handle your dog in order to check their ears
or their eyes, clip their toenails,
is obviously very important and something
that you'll need to use every single day.
But unfortunately, there could be a time in your dog's life
where you need to be able to handle them
in order to save their life,
or to get them out of an emergency situation.
I know I've had a couple of those myself,
I've had a dog get a fish hook caught in her leg
while I was swimming her at a conservation area one time,
and she had to lie perfectly still
so that I could get it out very strategically
so that I didn't injure her any further.
And she laid perfectly quiet and allowed me
to do that, which I was so grateful for.
I also had another dog that had Addison's disease,
and I had to give her medication every single day
for years by mouth, and so if that was a stressful thing
for her, or for I, that could've been a really hard thing
for me to be able to do every single day with her.
Now, can you think of any scenarios where you've had to,
or you've wished that your dog's been able
to accept your handling?
Or can you think of any scenarios where you think
this could be important in your own dog's life?
Any suggestions or situations that may have come up
with you and your dogs would be so great
to share in the comment section below.
I think sometimes the best way to learn about these things
is to communicate with one another,
and share each other's stories.
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For now, my name is Kayl McCann, this is my puppy Beeline,
thanks for watching and happy training.