You got a puppy. So now it's time to get out there and do a big walk with them,
right? What if I told you that's the wrong way of thinking?
The last thing I wanna do is set the scene with my new young puppy by having her
pull me down the street and tear around the neighborhood while eating everything
off the sidewalk.
What I'd rather do is teach her how to walk nicely on a loose lead.
Now I know what you're thinking In order to walk the dog,
I need to get to the sidewalk and I need to spend time there.
But what I'm doing today is I'm trying to teach my dog how to have nice,
loose lead walking skills.
It's not my goal to get out for a big long walk around the block because that
would be putting the cart before the horse. First,
I wanna make sure that I teach my dog how to walk nicely on a leash.
Then I'm gonna get out there and go for the big long walks that are enjoyable
for both of us because they happen with control, and on a loose lead.
I'm putting in some time training young Keilani here,
and Keilani specifically needs some work on loose lead walking today.
So I have a couple of goals in mind.
My first goal is to be able to work and have her focused and attentive on me in
the driveway area and in the front walk area.
That right there is probably the most important thing that I am going to do in
all of my training efforts today.
What's important about that is the consistency factor.
The last thing I wanna do is allow my dog to get up and break the sit over and
over again,
and then move right into my walking skills and right into training other skills.
My walk starts with focus in a sit at my side.
And that consistency is often the mistake that people make when they head out to
train their dogs.
They start midway through a point rather than starting right from the beginning,
getting good attention, making sure that the dog is settled in and ready to go.
I'm going to continue to place Keilani into this.
Sit until she can hold the sit on a loose lead for a short enough period of
time, get reinforcement for that.
And then I'm gonna start out with my let's go training.
My next goal is to see if I can get to the driveway and keep that focus.
And then my final goal for today is to see if I can get all the way to the
sidewalk and have her attentive and working nicely with me
on a loose lead on that loose lead walking skill. Now,
the stage I'm at with Young Keilani here is I am building value.
I wanna make sure that she sees me as far more exciting than all the other
things that she's air-scenting right now. Yes. Good girl.
So I'm gonna make sure that anytime she does something that I really like,
whether it's give me focus or move with me on a loose lead,
I acknowledge that with some rewards.
And where we're at at this point is I'm using some treats as a little bit of a
lure because she's still young and this is still pretty new for her.
But my goal for this section is to be able to start with a reminder with a lure
right on her nose, but then quickly bring the food up more towards my body. Yes.
So she's not quite as reliant on it.
And I can start the process of making it less visual and less of all lure for
her. You ready? Girly? You wanna go? Let's go. Okay. Ready? Ready. Let's go.
So I'm gonna help her with the food on her nose. Help her around the corners.
Yes. Good girl. Kiki. So she's distracted.
This is gonna happen.
This is very normal for a young puppy that anything that they come across that
is something they can pick up and chew is gonna be really exciting for them.
So keep in mind that this is a very normal puppy behavior and you're just gonna
help your puppy by working through it. You ready?
Do you want those cookies instead of the stick? Let's go That a girl. Yes.
Very nice Kiks. Good girly.
I need to be a little more active with my voice. Let's go. Good girl. Yes.
Very nice. And I also wanna keep a b brisker pace,
cuz that's gonna help her stay on task. Yay. Good for you.
You're a smarty pants. Yes. Good job.
It is entirely possible and actually quite probable that when I get out onto my
driveway,
now what just looked brilliant here on the front path is probably gonna come
out, go out the window. And that is okay.
I am prepared for that as a dog trainer and as somebody who is gonna help guide
young Kiki to do exactly what she needs to do. So a good tactic for me to take.
Yes. Good girl. I'm just gonna reward this attention because it's so great.
A good tactic for me to take might be to go back to having that food right on
her nose for a round or two.
Get in some reinforcement for her making those great choices. Yes. Good. Sit.
There's a dog passing on the sidewalk and she's making a great choice to hold
the sit,
which is wonderful. And I wanna make sure that I help her in all of these
scenarios.
So I am going to acknowledge that she's doing a great job and I'm gonna make
sure that I reinforce her for holding position.
If you'd like some help with your loose leash walking training plan,
join us for life skills either in-person or online,
and we'll teach you how to create a wonderful walking companion from start to
finish. Now that we've got a little bit less distraction to contend with in the
driveway.
And that would've been a mistake when there was another dog passing by.
There is no way at this stage in Kalani's training that I would've been able to
hold her focus when the dog, when the other dog was that close to her.
So it was a tactic on my part to stay a little bit further away,
wait until that distraction passed and now I'm ready to see if I can get out
there in the driveway. And again,
I'm gonna take that step back in my training to the point where I'm luring right
on her nose. Because even though it's only a few steps,
it's really not that far from a human perspective, from a dog perspective,
that picture changes everything.
So what she learns from this point to that point is also gonna be something that
drives her behavior.
And if she thinks that it's okay to pull me at that juncture,
then she's gonna think that it's okay to pull me there every single time I step
outta the house. So I'm gonna help her to be successful and to get it right,
and to make sure that I align what I want with what she wants.
I'm gonna make sure that I give her all sorts of good information.
So I'm gonna start by showing her that I've got some food.
You want those cookies? Good girl. Yes. I'm,
I even reward her before we step out again. And then let's go that a girly,
I'm gonna help her to this new space. Yes, I'll reward. Thanks.
I'll reward her a couple of times there. And again,
I'm just gonna set the stage. Yay. Good. Girly. Let's go. Let's go.
Good girl. Good. Let's go right up here. Right up here.
Yay. Good girl. Let's go. Yay.
Good job. Yes. Good girly.
Yay.
Good for you. So I've gotten success up there.
I've gotten success here and I may be pushing my luck a little bit,
but I'm gonna see if I can get some success on the sidewalk as well.
I know that it seems like these are really small transitions that I'm making,
but to a puppy and a puppy's brain with that really short attention span,
this is a lot of effort. So I'm gonna go for it and see how we do.
And I'm gonna make sure that if I can get to that sidewalk and keep her
attention that she gets a little rain of treats. Oh, you're so good.
Yes. Good focus. Girly, are you ready?
So I've got enough treats ready to sustain me for my goal here. Ready?
Let's go. That a girly. Let's go right here. Yes, good girl.
Peaks. Yay. Good.
For you.
Ready? Yes.
Good girly good. Oh.
Stinker.
Foiled, foiled by a little piece of stick on the ground.
Sometimes things don't go as planned and it's not at all outta the realm of
possibility that I'm going to have to make adjustments to my training plan even
midway through the plan.
What's more important is that I adjust based on my dog's abilities and take a
step back when I need to. And that might look like going back to the front door.
It might look like placing her in the sit and just working some attention and
forgetting all about walking for the rest of the day.
It might make me plan for the future and keep shorter training sessions.
There's all sorts of things that are gonna come out of making that adjustment
and taking a step back,
or taking a step even sideways to change the way I'm looking at my training
plan. So I am going to stop pushing my luck.
I'm gonna take a step back into the driveway and I'm gonna finish on a high note
where she gets to have success before we blow this whole thing outta the
water. Keep in mind, when you're working with a young puppy,
those short attention spans mean that they have very limited work time in them
before they start to get really unfocused.
So keep that in mind as part of your tactics,
you are going to try to keep your training session short and sweet and
successful with your puppies. Okay, you ready? I got some cookies.
Let's go. That a girl. Yay. Let's go. Good girl.
Kiki. I dropped a bit of food there, that was my fault. Let's go.
Yay. Good job.
You might notice that we really didn't get any further than 20 feet today,
and I am absolutely a-okay with that.
We got a lot more accomplished than just going for a regular old walk around the
neighborhood.
I started on the path to teach my puppy how to walk nicely on a loose lead,
and I got a ton of wins in that start of our training today.
Something to keep in mind is that if you don't get a win, your walk can't begin.
When I am working with a young puppy,
the consistent information that I can give her is going to be the best possible
thing for her learning.
So the last thing I wanna do is only do loose leash walking training when I'm in
training mode,
and then the rest of the time come out here and let her pull me and let her eat
the sticks. And you know,
I'll have lost the ground that I've gained because eating those sticks for her
is very, very rewarding.
So what I wanna do is I wanna stop that process of her being rewarded for eating
the sticks.
And I wanna make sure that she recognizes that all of the good rewards in life
come from me. Now, in addition to that,
when I set out to do some more training practice tomorrow and then the next day
and the next day,
because it's important that I do a little bit every day with my young puppy,
I wanna make sure that I know what I'm set up for and I can't expect that I
did this training today and now tomorrow her walking is gonna be perfect.
What I can expect is that tomorrow will still be a little bit up in the air.
It might look exactly the same as today did,
or I might be able to make a little bit more progress.
We've made some great strides today and Keilani is ready for the next step in
her loose Leach walking training plan. If you are too,
click this video right here. And on that note, I'm instructor Shannon.
This is Keilani. Happy training.