Now, if you have a really distracted dog and a dog that you know,
really needs better focus.
The next couple of tips I'm going to share with you could probably be the most
helpful things in this entire video. I'm Kayl McCann. This is Euchre.
Welcome back to McCann Dogs.
This episode is brought to you by Eukanuba.
The time of day in which you train or choose to work with your puppy can really
affect their focus. Now,
the most common suggestion that we make is to choose times of the day where your
dog is naturally hungry. One of the best things to do,
especially if you're working in your house,
when there's not a lot of distractions around is to just use their breakfast or
their dinner.
Typically dogs are really excited to get their breakfast and dinner,
and it's a good opportunity to kind of bank on that natural excitement. However,
that's not always the case.
And that's something that we've actually learned with our puppy Euchre here.
She's actually not very motivated to work for her kibble in the morning.
She's really not that hungry at all.
So we have found that we have to be a little bit more strategic as to which time
of day we do our training. Remember every puppy is different.
So just because one thing works for Euchre doesn't necessarily mean you'll do
the same thing with your puppy,
but it is important to just sort of explore different times of day.
And when your dog is showing the most interest in food. Now for a long time,
I would choose to do my training sessions,
where I wanted to use a lot of food a little bit later in the day or later in
the evening, where she was showing a little bit more natural,
drive for the food. And so I could get away with just using kibble.
If I wanted to get a little bit more focused on or at a time where she was
wasn't as interested I would up the ante.
So I would actually go to some training treats that were a little bit more high
value.
So really think about the time of day and whether it's helping or hindering your
dog's focus. Now,
there are all kinds of exercises that we want to spend time working on with our
puppy, but something you might not realize is that different styles of exercise,
what you're training on actually requires different amounts of focus from your
puppy. So for example,
if I'm working on something that requires a lot of brain focus,
a lot of thoughtfulness, things like, you know,
some body awareness or trick training, obedience training, things like that,
where she's got a problem solve. She's really got to think her way through.
I might then move over to practicing, you know, on your bed. Again,
it's another thoughtful. That was very fast girl.
It's a very thoughtful exercise where she's having to be calm,
and she's going to have to think about what she's doing,
but if I continue to work on thoughtful exercise after thoughtful exercise
I might sort of start to lose focus a little bit of drive. So, you know,
you might not work on a whole bunch of stays and then a whole bunch of
stationary exercises and then, you know, call it quits there.
If you're going to do walking recalls,
keep a variety of things going with your dog,
because that's going to actually enhance your dog's focus and keep them
attentive for a little bit longer.
So if I've just worked on two short brainy exercises.
I might switch it up a little bit just to keep her a little bit more focused and
excited. Ready? Ok, get it. I might switch to something a bit more active,
like using the toy to work on a few things. Now,
of course I could still just do some obedience skills,
but I'm just going to do it in a bit of a different way. Sit. Yes. Okay. get it,
good girl.
So I'm just switching up how I work on things to keep her more motivated,
to keep her more focused. Because again,
she's getting a variety of styles of training,
which just keeps things more interesting.
It can be a really good idea to start with a couple of stationary exercises to
get a little bit more focus before doing things.
They're a little bit more challenging, like walking on lead.
So I'll just reward her for sitting and focusing a little bit first. Yes.
Good girl. And then we can set out to practice our let's go walking.
Let's go girl. Yes. Good. Let's go. Yes,
let's go. Uke yay. Hey, let's go. Let's go. Yes. Good girl.
Let's go. Good. Yes. That's cool. Yes. Good girl here.
That's it. Yay.
I talk a lot about the variety of exercises that you need to work on with your
puppy. And a lot of people end up thinking they have to set aside, you know,
an entire hour or two to do their dog training every single week,
but really the best way to train a young puppy or a young dog is to work on
your training exercises for short periods of time,
many times throughout the day. And that's going to increase your dog's focus.
So you might even put a timer on yourself.
You might set a timer for 10 minutes in the morning,
or get a quick little training session in when you're waiting for your tea to be
done or in between commercial breaks. You know, few, little bits here and there.
Another thing that I'll sometimes do is I'll train until the treats in my hand
are left. So if I have 15 treats in my hand,
I will do 15 repetitions of whatever I'm doing. And then boom,
it's done because what's easy to do is overdo things because it's either going
well,
or you want to kind of keep progressing on things and then you might end up you
know, ending on something that's not the best product.
So keep things short and sweet short periods of time throughout the day is
really going to be a far more effective way to teach your dog,
to train with a lot of focus and attention on you. Now,
if you have a really distracted dog and a dog that you know,
really needs better focus,
the next couple of tips I'm going to share with you could probably be the most
helpful things in this entire video.
We're going to talk a little bit about how to control your dogs, resources,
or their sort of schedule in the home to increase,
focus and not teach them that life without you is actually more exciting.
Now Euchre's in her crate right now. And you know, when I let her out,
what I don't want to do is just let her run around the house and do her own
thing. I want her to learn that when she comes out of the crate,
we're going to do things together.
Now there's a couple of things I'm going to do to make my life easier here.
Number one is I've put all the other animals away.
So it's just me here so that she can't really look at anything else.
And I'm also going to close this baby gate.
So she can't just bomb out of the crate and run into the other room and have
some fun.
And the other thing I'm going to do is when she comes out of her crate,
I'm going to engage with her. So I'm going to get some treats out first.
Now she absolutely loves these Eukanuba treats.
And I know they're the sponsor of today's video, but I am telling you,
we have had so many issues with food and treat training with this dog not being
motivated. And she loves these. So that's been super helpful.
Now I have my leash on and before I let her out,
I'm just going to work a little bit of control. Good girl. Yes. Good.
Well done. Okay. Yes.
Sit good girl.
So rather than letting her come out and do her own thing,
she comes out good girl. Okay. She comes out and I put the leash on right away.
Yes. Good girl. Now,
the reason why Euchre is putting herself back in the crate is I will be
perfectly honest here. We have been working. Okay. Come on up.
We have been working so much in our obedience training that there are times when
we finish our obedience training and I go to put her back in the crate and she's
like, no, mom, I don't want to go there. I want to keep doing stuff.
So in the recent weeks,
I have been working a ton on building more value for going in her crate.
And I'm very pleased to see that it's actually really helping. What a good girl.
Okay. You can come on now. But when she does come out of her crate,
I'm not just going to forget about her. I'm going to do stuff with her.
We're going to come out.
We're going to go for a walk or we're going to play Frisbee,
or we're going to do some training,
or maybe we're going to spend some time together in the kitchen. But you know,
I'm going to keep the the situation controlled so that she has
to stay with me. And I'm more likely to get more, Oh, hi, cutie.
I'm more likely to get some focus.
What I don't want my puppy to learn is that when she's out,
she can earn reward by doing things on her own. You know,
if she decides that she can come out and she'll rip the couch apart,
or chase the other dogs or jump up on the table and, you know,
steal the family's dinner or whatever it might be,
she learns that those are the ways that she seeks enjoyment that has nothing to
do with me.
That's going to really diminish the focus and the relationship that I have with
my puppy. So we like to say, when they're young, like this,
that it's quality over quantity.
So basically when Euchre's not doing stuff with us,
or we're not actively engaging with her, she's in her crate for now.
And eventually that will change as she gets more trained and she starts to make
better choices in the house. But for now,
one of the reasons why we have so much focus from her is because that's all she
knows. That's all she does when she's out of her crate. It's all fun and games.
And then nighty-night for a little while. And then we just rinse,
wash and repeat from there like girl. Yes.
So really controlling those resources can enhance focus.
Like you would never believe.
When we talk about a puppy's focus or a dog's focus.
One of the things that seems to be the most obvious thing to help them with this
would be food treats. It's a great resource.
Yes. Good girl.
Okay. Come up here dingle heimer Schmidt. Come here. Now,
when we talk about increasing focus,
one of the most common or obvious things that we could talk about would be food
and treats.
This is a great resource that we can use to help keep our dogs attentive.
But unfortunately it's not as easy as just putting your puppy's favorite treat
in your bait pouch or pocket, and then setting out to train.
Often people have a sort of an understanding that their puppy loves this
one treat.
We actually see this happen in our classes and in our online classes a lot where
people go out for a walk, they take what they think is their puppy's,
favorite treats, and about five minutes into the walk,
the dogs not interested in the food anymore.
And really what happens there is that when we take our dogs into different
environments or around different distractions,
sometimes we have to keep the food a little bit more interesting.
So having a variety of treats in your bait bag, in your bait bag,
or your pocket can help immensely so that you can switch to different treats.
You should also know which are a little bit more high value to your puppy.
Maybe which ones are a little lower values of you're in an environment where
there's not as much going on stick to the lower value things.
And if a harder distraction comes by, or maybe it's a more challenging exercise,
then you can switch to something a little bit more high value.
Now to give you an example of, you know, what I would do with Euchre,
she's very picky when it comes to food, she needs very high value treats.
You know, if I go for a walk, I can't take her kibble.
That's just not persuasive enough.
So I take a whole variety of things including some of the high value treats
we have our Eukanuba treats, which she actually really, really loves.
It's been a saving grace without with going out in the street with different
cars and people that we pass by.
But variety of treats that you can switch it up is going to be immensely helpful
to get more focused with your pup. Now, before we go any further,
I want to give a huge thank you to the sponsor of today's video Eukanuba.
Each Eukanuba, formula features,
ACTIV advantage and exclusive protein and nutrient power design that fuels your
dog's body, mind, and energy.
We create videos here on YouTube to help you get out and do more with your four
legged family member. And Eukanuba believes that with dogs,
an active life is a healthy life and we couldn't agree more.
Yes.
Click the link in the description below to find out which Eukanuba formula is
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Now that you have these great tips on how to increase your puppy's, focus,
check out this card right here.
It's going to give you some ideas on what you can focus on when you're training
your puppy. If you'd like our professional instructors,
to answer your questions and give you daily feedback on your puppy's training,
make sure you check out our Puppy Essentials online course.
The link for that is in the description below on that note,
I'm Kayl this is Euchre happy training.