- Where's the puppy?
(boing sound)
Hippy Shake, how did you get a bicycle in here?
Now it can seem pretty overwhelming as a new puppy owner
trying to avoid disasters like this one and trying
to give your puppy the best information possible
So today, I have simplified things for you,
the new puppy owner.
And I'm going to give you five rules that you can follow
so you will have a less stressful experience
with your new puppy and you can help turn them
into a well behaved four legged family member.
I'm Ken Steepe.
This is Hippy Hippy Shake.
And welcome back to McCann Dogs.
(barking)
Now if this is your first time on the channel
and you want to give your puppy the best start possible
then make sure you hit that subscribe button.
We publish new videos every single week
to help you have a well behaved four legged family member.
Rule number one.
Use a crate.
Now none of us are super human
and we can't watch our puppy every moment of the day.
So a crate is a great pet sitter.
When we aren't able to supervise our puppies,
then putting them into their crate with maybe
their favorite chew or maybe so that
they can just take a nap is a really important step
in your puppy training.
Your puppy's crate is a great way to keep them safe.
But it's also a great way to keep them
from self rewarding in your absence.
Some self rewarding behaviors like peeing on the rug
or rooting through the garbage
can be really gratifying for the puppy.
And if you're not there to give them
the good information that they require during those moments,
they're going to think that's the right choice to make.
Using their crate is a great way to avoid this.
Rule number two.
Have treats available at all times.
You really want to take every opportunity
to reward your puppy for making great choices.
You also want to take advantage
of some of the natural training opportunities
that you might come across in every day life.
You want to be able to guide
your puppy away from distractions.
You want to be able to reward your puppy
for making that great choice of sitting in front of you.
Now truth be told, there has been several occasions
when we have a puppy in the house
that I've washed a pocketful of kibble.
But you don't need to keep kibble in your pocket
all of the time, there's a couple other things you can do.
If you're preparing treats for your training sessions,
break them up into training session sizes.
Just enough that you can work on one exercise
or a couple of exercises with your puppy.
That way at a moment's notice
you can go to the fridge and grab
a training session's worth of treats.
And if you have treats that don't need to be refrigerated,
then you can break them up
and place them into a mug or a bowl
in really busy areas of your house.
That way should you find the opportunity
to reward your dog for making a great choice
or you want to do a quick training session,
there's always treats available.
And having those treats available all the time
is a really great way to break up your training sessions.
You can do two or three minutes of sits with your puppy.
You can do some walking at your side
up and down the hallway.
Maybe while you're preparing your dinner
you can work on some down luring.
These are all great ways to break up
that training and keep motivation high.
Rule number three.
Focus on motivation.
Now puppies have really short attention spans
and we don't want to work our puppy
until they're disinterested.
Puppies also have tiny little bellies
and you don't want to work with them until they're full.
Keeping those training sessions really short
and sweet keeps those motivation levels up
and it builds in work drive.
You really want your puppy to know
that it's a lot of fun listening
to you and working with you.
And that's really why we want to keep this
a really motivating experience as we train them.
And building motivation means doing things like
changing up the reward.
Maybe it's play one time.
Maybe it's a toy that they love
that they can be rewarded with.
Maybe it's changing up the food
to something that's different.
Maybe rather than kibble it's chicken or cheese
or something that they really love.
But it's gotta be fun.
That's a key element here is keeping the training fun
so that your puppy loves every moment
that you're spending together.
Rule number four.
Supervise.
This is probably the most common thing
that people struggle with is supervision of their puppy.
Whether they are, your puppy's having potty training
accidents in the house or they're chewing your shoes.
Whatever the thing is,
the problem likely is the lack of supervision.
Now I'm not talking about supervision like this.
But I'm definitely not talking about supervision like this.
Puppies are learning at every moment during the day
whether they are being supervised
and being given good information by you or not.
And puppies will do what's rewarding
so if they find that chewing on your shoes
is a really self rewarding thing,
then they're gonna continue to do it.
So you need to be there to give them the right information.
You need to guide them away from your shoe
and give them a chew toy that they are allowed to chew on.
You need to be able to mark that moment
when they have a potty training accident in the house.
Without that information your puppy thinks
that what they're doing is the right thing.
So supervision is key.
This refers us back to rule number one
about using your crate.
When you aren't able to supervise your puppy,
you can just pop them pleasantly in their crate
so that they can hang out for a little bit
and they aren't able to go around the house
and make wrong choices.
Rule number five.
Use your leash.
I recently posted a video on the channel
about using a house line with your puppy.
And a lot of people found that a really surprising tactic.
But I'll tell you why it works.
As I mentioned earlier, puppies are going
to do what's rewarding so imagine a scenario
where your puppy grabs a sock from the laundry hamper
and plays a game of keep away
where they duck and dive underneath the kitchen table
or maybe they run under the living room couch.
Well that is a lot of fun for your puppy, it becomes a game.
But it also makes you rather powerless in their eyes.
Now if you're using a house line on your puppy,
you are able to step on that line as they're trying
to run away or you're able to get that sock out
of their mouth or maybe it's something even more dangerous.
In that video I talked about a scenario
where maybe you drop a pill on the floor
and you're able to step on that line and avoid disaster.
Now I didn't come up with that idea.
These are some of the stories that some of our students
have talked to us about at McCann Professional Dog Trainers.
These are real life situations
where a house line has averted disaster.
But those house lines also allow you
to redirect your puppy from jumping up
on guests in your house or jumping up on you.
If they're nipping and biting at your shirt sleeves
you can guide your puppy away and show them
the chew toy that they are allowed to chew on.
That house line really empowers you
and in your puppy's eyes they really see you
as a great leader who is giving solid
and consistent information.
Now I know being a new puppy owner
can be overwhelming but if you follow these five rules,
you're sure to be giving your puppy great information.
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.
Now that playlist beside me is our puppy training playlist.
And as a new puppy owner,
I think you're gonna find it really really helpful.
On that note, I'm Ken, happy training.
Bye for now.