If you're a large breed dog owner or you're about to become a large breed dog
owner, you may face some unique challenges with your large breed dog training.
So today I've enlisted the help of instructor Steve,
who's a professional dog trainer and a multiple large breed dog owner with lots
of experience training, the largest of the large breed dogs.
That's all in today's video. I'm Ken Steepe,
I'm Steve Walsh and this is Skye welcome back to McCann Dogs.
In our facility we help more than 500 dog owners every single week to overcome
their dog training challenges. So if this is your first time on the channel,
make sure you hit that subscribe button so that I can help you to have a well
behaved four legged family member.
So looking forward a little bit with your large breed puppy training,
what sort of things are you going to do unique to large breed dogs that are
going to prepare them for this great size? Yeah. You know,
one of the things that has been really important that I've learned this,
this is my fourth Wolfhound, that I learned quite quickly is,
is getting them comfortable with my hands on them,
getting them comfortable with me doing whatever I need to do,
whether it be for grooming, for trimming nails,
for lifting them up if they got injured.
All of those things are important to really establish with them while you can
still lift them. Sure. Okay. This dog is much stronger than I am.
If I want to clip a nail and she doesn't like it,
there's nothing I can do to force her.
So getting her comfortable with my hands on her, getting her comfortable with me,
picking up a, upon opening up these toes,
doing all the things that I need to do and she goes, okay, not a big deal.
I'm getting her comfortable with me placing her in a down position at the vets
on the floor, have a look at her abdomen, all of that stuff.
If I can get them comfortable with it now,
it's so much easier as they become adults because they're bigger.
And stronger than us, they can, we can't force them to do anything. Right. Um,
and I don't want it to be about that. I want to make it relaxing for them.
I want to make it comfortable for them. I want to make them confident,
not only in my handling,
but in the situation that they're in and their trust in me.
And that starts right from the moment that we, that we get the home. Yeah.
I think that's such an important thing and I think it's something that we often
overlook. Um, as you know,
we're teaching puppy owners and puppy owners don't really see the value of some
of the handling exercises.
And I can totally understand having seen Skye grow up that, uh, you know,
you really do need to spend extra time making her comfortable when,
when she's more manageable size because she did get really big in a really,
really quickly as far as training.
What other things are you going to work on with your large breed dog? Um, well,
all of the stuff that we would do with a, with the smaller dogs, you know, they,
they learn the same way that, uh, that some of the smaller dogs do. I mean,
I have border collies. I've had whippets, uh, as I said,
she is my fourth Wolf Hound. The practices are the same, but you know,
their ability to work as quickly isn't the same. I'm also,
their ability to repeat things isn't the same. You know, she's a big dog.
She's not going to do things 10 or 15 times. So when I do things,
I like to break it into shorter sessions. Um,
let her be successful two or three times, "Hi Girly", and then, uh,
let her kind of wander off and have a little rest. Yeah.
So if we break it into a little bit more shorter sessions,
she can be a little more successful and stay focused. She doesn't,
she's not interested in doing things repetitively like some other breeds may be.
Right. And a lot of larger dogs, you know, we don't want to push them too hard.
Yeah. Especially during their growth and development. So things like walking,
I'm not going to take her for big long walks right off the bat. Yeah,
we'll do little bits and pieces more about teaching them to walk than actually
walking them different places. That's really interesting.
And it is unique to large breed dogs.
One other thing that you might as well get used to being sat on. Yes.
I'm about to, I'm about to be shoved over there even though they are big.
I have no problem with them being a lap dog. It's fine.
You just need a bigger lab. You did mention something that was,
I thought it was really unique.
You mentioned to me something about the stairs that maybe some of our other
large breed dog owners have heard as well. Yeah. Um,
the common notion is that with our, you know,
especially large or giant breed dogs that we shouldn't let them do stairs until
they're fully developed or adults, you know,
these puppies are really awkward when they are young.
They've got giant paws and legs that go everywhere. And it's true.
You don't want them freely going up and downstairs, um,
and possibly hurting themselves by slipping and falling. You know,
there's a lot of momentum when these dogs, go ahead. First downstairs,
I will tell you this story that I made the mistake of with one of my first wolf
hounds that I heeded that,
I did not have them do stairs until about a year and a half. Um,
and then when I decided I want them to come upstairs,
he had no idea how to do the stairs and took a lot of time because he was
already really, really big. And I, the way my house is,
I sort of have like five steps up to the one level.
So I was using food to try and lure him up.
The problem was he could walk up all five steps with his front paws and keep his
rear paws on the ground floor. Right.
So it really took a lot to convince them to use all his paws. So yes,
I very much support not letting, um,
larger dogs do sets of stairs on their own,
but I spend time now, I've learned a ton.
I teach my puppies when they're young in a very controlled manner,
how to safely navigate stairs versus freely run up and down.
And that's just as simple as making sure I have a leash on them,
having some really great food and maybe I start with the two steps down off the
deck or I find a couple of steps somewhere outside and really think about
getting them aware of their feet and really doing it nice and slow.
Rewarding every step. She's actually my best at going downstairs.
She's very calm and she takes things one step at a time, which is fantastic.
Cause of course I got a five year old son in the house. Sure.
I don't want 130 pounds a puppy crashing through everybody so she can quite
safely navigate down and he sets of stairs. Yeah.
And that brings to mind when you mentioned that you have a son at home, um,
introducing your dog to your other dogs, you know,
having a family members included in the training.
Let's talk a little bit about that with these large breed dogs. Yeah.
So like anything else, I need to set them up for success,
but also taking into account their size and you know, what can happen with them.
Um, when she was about a year old, she was a 105 pounds. Uh, my, you know,
my older border Collie right now is 29 pounds. Uh,
so even though this dog wanting to run and play and dogs get along swimmingly to
have an uncoordinated hundred and five pounds of dogs in an yeah.
Yeah. That happens. It's like a wind tunnel. Yeah. You look like that inadvertently.
Knock over a smaller dog or a small child. Ego can create some problems.
There are some responsibilities that we have with these larger breed dogs
because, you know, if they bumped into something, they're gonna knock it over. Yeah.
Um, you know, family members that, you know,
that maybe you're a little bit old or you know,
if this dog throws a hip into them,
then they're going to be knocked over and you have to be conscious of those
types of things and, um, be mindful by managing it. Firstly,
making sure you have a leash on the dog and then helping train them how to greet
people properly in a mannerly fashion. Yeah,
I really liked the idea of using a house line in with the large rates.
Certainly House leashes helpful. Yes. Yeah,
and I would say qualify that with leash because again,
if you just put a little light line on a dog that's 70 or 80 pounds, sure. Um,
that's not something you can be easy to hold on to.
But going and getting a good wide leash and cutting the handle off,
it can be a great way to sort of, you know, easily gain control of them safely.
Not something I would recommend stepping on a leash very often.
But that's an important thing to keep in mind.
Oftentimes with a young puppy you can step on the house line or House leash and
that sort of prevents them from moving forward or having a little flyers making
the.. You'll notice we're both petting an end here.
Neither of us have to reach and just loving.
There aren't many videos we have on the channel where we can both pet the same
dog. And I think she was trying to get on top of us. Yes exactly. Um, so, you know,
with little puppies we may be able to simply step on a leash or a line and
prevent them from going anywhere. But with a bigger dog,
have you want them to say, sorry,
she's sniffing and Cameron nose to nose. Oh, we want to be aware of that.
And you know,
I might want to plan ahead a little more and have that leash on that line in my
hands, uh, and help them sort of navigate those situations a little more safely.
Sometimes people will mention to us that, oh, you know, my dog's a Dane.
He doesn't like to listen our, oh my dog's that an x breed.
And sometimes I feel like, um,
because the larger breed dogs require a little different approach that some
people have lower expectations of their dog training results,
but we know that, um, you can maintain those same expectations.
Talk a little bit about the differences while you're maintaining those same high
expectations of your dog.
How would you approach it a little bit differently with dogs that are this big?
Yeah.
Any of the large or giant breed dogs and oftentimes it comes with hounds and
people say, Oh, it's a hound. The hound doesn't learn, you know,
all the dogs learn the same way. But if we keep in mind helping our dogs, um,
success rate, setting them up to be successful,
they can learn just the same as any other ones can and we can keep those same
high expectations. When I asked her to lie down,
I expect her to lie down quickly and I will help her achieve that. But I don't,
um, excuse it by saying, oh, she's going to lie down when she feels like,
or a big one, especially with the bigger dogs, especially when they're growing,
which can take a lot of energy.
We ask them to sit at our side and oftentimes those dogs will sort of slumped
down and slide into a down position. You know,
I can very clearly direct them back into a sit now taking into account their
body at that point. You know,
I would make sure I get a little bit of resolution on that set and make sure
that they are sitting on a loose leash.
I might then to help them because they are giant breeds asking them to lie down.
But it is all about setting the expectation. And On your terms. Exactly.
That's really important takeaway for you from that.
So even though we take into account the size, the growth rate,
all the things that come along with giant breed dogs,
we can still have the same and make sure that it's all about the direction that
we're giving them and helping them to achieve that. Yeah.
And you also talked a little bit earlier about um,
you know how you might not get the same longevity in a training session and I
think our large breed dog owners really do need to keep that in mind that their
their training sessions should be short and sweet and to the point and full of
as much successes they can have.
Because you might not have the same longevity you might have with a Toller or a
Border Collie dog of that breed. Yeah. You know what?
And you know that's an important thing to keep in mind along with the
expectations. But I will tell you this dog here, she's my best frisbee dog. Yes,
yes. This is an official. So the sec,
are we going to be so that whammo doesn't monetize this video is
sir, um, you know,
one of the things that I have taught her because she loves to chase is to catch
a Frisbee disc. Yes. Um,
and she is probably my best dog at catching a disk.
Now I can't do it for 20 minutes, right? She gets about three or four good throws.
Um, she tracks the frisbee really will and she catches it and brings it back,
but that's it, right? So we're not going to go out for an hour. You know,
I don't expect her to do it repetitively,
but I still have that high expectation that she runs.
She catches it and brings it right back to hand. Um, and that's another thing,
you know, just a simple retrieve. Oftentimes I hear, Oh,
it's a hell hound or it's this or it's that. It's never going to retrieve. Yeah,
it is. Yeah. You just need to unlock that.
You need to make some value in and oftentimes it's not about the item itself,
it's about you. Right. And if we can build value for you,
all of that translate through, whether it's a giant dog or a little dog,
I love that approach. I love that, uh, idea. Uh, and we often talk about in,
in classes, you know,
we might be using something like food as a resource that the dog immediately
finds valuable or maybe it's toys for your dog at home, but, uh,
we're going to shift that value from these things onto you.
And there are some unique ways that we do,
and on this channel we have lots of videos that talk about that,
but I'm really shifting some of that value over to you can be even more
important when you have some of these great big, large dogs. Yeah. Well,
and especially, um, a dogs like this at our sight hounds,
they're bred to run things down. That's what they do.
And that's another thing that you'll often hear with WIP.
It's great hones other things.
You can never let them off leash because they have such strong prey drive.
That may be the case, but uh, just like, um, you know,
a border collies have strong herding drive now we can discourage them from
herding things. We don't want them to,
I can discourage this dog from chasing things that I don't want her to write,
but again, starts with that relationship with us first. Now,
as a professional dog trainer,
you have both professional and some personal experience with some of these giant
breed. Yeah, I, you know, I didn't start being a dog trainer. I um,
just got an Irish wolfhound I'd always wanted one.
I can't actually tell you why I wanted one, but I just thought they were really,
really cool. And I quickly figured out that to,
when you have an animal that's basically the size of a small pony living in your
house,
there's a few little things that you can do to make life a little bit easier, um,
from everything from, um,
where they sleep at night to how they get around to what you need to do with
them at the vets and other things in their lives. Yeah.
So let's talk a little bit about that.
So if maybe one of our perspective large breed dog owners is thinking about
getting a large breed dog,
what sort of things are they going to need a that are unique to the large breeds?
Yeah, well we need to think about all parts of their life. And first things first,
do you know it's not just about the food or the ball. Um,
it's about what the eventual size of the dog is going to be. No Sky,
actually I will tell you is the smallest we'll found that I've ever had.
Most of my, I've always had male, she's the first female I've had.
Most of the males have been quite a bit bigger.
I'm still quick fit but just a little bit bigger overall.
So little things like where do they sleep at night? Um,
how do you contain them when they are puppies? You know what about a year old, uh,
these wolf hounds will be a hundred plus pounds of Ganglia pupping sure.
So there are not a lot of great stuck in sort of comfortably contain them.
So do you have a place in your house where you can contain them with some gates?
Because management is key when we know we can't supervise. Um,
how do you get them to and from things, you know,
if you're driving a little Toyota car right now,
you're not going to be fitting one of these in the back, back seats.
So having a van or an SUV or something to help them get around and SUV is,
even though they're great for space of can actually also be proved difficult for
them to drag breeds because of the high step in height.
So maybe ramps or other things that uh, um, can help them with that.
Does your vet, if you've researched one yet,
do they have the capabilities to do some of the diagnostic work on some of the
bigger dogs? You know,
most of that offices don't have a table at this dog can fit on it.
And I've had situations where dogs have had to be x rayed and I've actually had
to go in and hold half the dog because we can only fit half the dog in the x Ray
table. Wow. So lots of things like that that you really have to think longer term,
not just little young puppy. Right. Now you mentioned briefly about uh, you know,
management, some management ideas.
We know that I'm crate training and we often suggest for, you know,
some breeds that are certainly smaller than sky.
We'll bring that puppy in their first night's home with their, in their new home,
into the bedroom.
Would that be something that you can still do with one of these large breed dogs?
We can, you know, how many are creating the bedroom is a great way. I'll admit.
Now every puppy that comes into my house sleeps in my bedroom. Um,
mainly because I don't want to get out of bed to quiet though at night.
I want to be able to reach down and reassure them without getting into bed with
them and causing a fuss without having to really wake up the puppy that
everything's okay. But do note with their growth rate that, um,
that will have to be a pretty frequent change of,
creates these guys gain about five pounds a week. Wow.
That's literally what their growth rate is for at least the first eight months.
That tends to slow down at about a year, but they grow till almost two years. So,
you know, there's a lot of stages that they go through.
So even though we can start from just like the little dogs,
there are a few more steps along the way to get them to adulthood.
I guess maybe for our prospective large breed puppy owners, you know,
where are they going to get information,
suggestions about what they should feed and what is,
should their expectations be for quantity? Yeah. So like anything else,
your breeder or a breed club, uh, um,
is a great spot to go for general information. Um, I will have him, breeders,
I've got several quantum of, I've got several here that are excellent, uh, um,
breeders and have, are they're really great resource for me.
I know exactly what they've been feeding all the way along.
I know how much to expect. They've also been in the breed for years.
These are not sort of new breeders. Um, and with the phenomenal growth rate,
there's,
there's some things to take into consideration that you wouldn't necessarily
know. Um, we really try and slow down their growth a little bit to prevent, um,
things, getting, getting dogs getting sore, I'm growing pains, interests,
or even just things developing a little bit wrong.
So we're very careful about protein levels and some other things.
So your breeder or the recovery is an excellent place to start for that thing.
Um, a lot of your vets do have some great information, but they may not be, um, uh,
as in tuned to the breed specifically. Sure. Okay.
So each giant breed is a little bit different field,
whether it be Danes or are a lot of our burners.
We see a lot of brown and Burmese mountain dogs these days.
A lot of those large breed dogs here, you know,
a good breeder will be an excellent resource for that. As far as quantities.
I will tell you what the phenomenal growth rate,
it's quite an investment in financially yeah. To feed one of these dogs. Yup.
You know, when she was a puppy growing at her highest rate,
she was eating 10 to 12 cups of kibble a day. It's amazing. Yeah.
So three times a day it was, you know, two to three um, uh,
cups of food per meal per day. Yeah. No, she's leveled out a lot more now.
She's still very fit. Um, I like to keep the dogs nice and fit.
So she is on about four cups a day right now in terms of commercial food. Um,
so it's, uh, it's a lot. Yeah, it's a lot,
especially if you're feeding some really good high quality foods,
which we generally recommend as well.
Talked a little bit about handling training for your large breed dog,
and if you'd like to learn about more handling training,
click that card right there.
We hope you feel a little bit more prepared for your large dog breed to welcome
them into your home. And on that note, I'm Ken. I'm Steve in.
This is sky high be training.