Now on this channel,
we've been working on a lot of great puppy training with Five.
And if you've been following our series,
you would've seen all the great things that we're working on.
We're at the point now, though,
that we're ready to start working on more advanced training,
it's really common when people get to this exact point in their training,
that they make a lot of common mistakes. So in this video,
I'm gonna talk to you about how to smoothly transition from puppy training into
a little bit more advanced training so that you have less bumps along the way.
I'm Kayl McCann. Hup. Yeah.
This is Five Alive welcome back to McCann Dogs.
Here in our training facility,
we've helped more than a hundred thousand dog owners to overcome the same dog
training challenges that you have.
So if this is your first time on the channel and you're currently training a
dog, make sure you hit that subscribe button so that we can help you to have a
well-behaved four-legged family member. Now,
how do you know when you're ready to start working on more adult things?
That really depends on what the puppy stage has been like with your dog up until
this point, because when we start to work on, you know,
things that are a little bit more related to walking and recalls and stays,
there's a really important foundation that you need to lay.
That's gonna make the next leg of the training a lot easier.
Now what I've been really focused on and what you should be focused on at this
point in your puppy's training is all about teaching your puppy, the basics,
and this is gonna sound really silly.
But my goal for the first couple of months was to teach him how to learn.
How to problem solve, how to understand when he's right, how to be okay,
when he's wrong and to try other things and just be a good problem solver.
So basically just all of the easy stuff, learning how to, how to learn.
The way that I accomplish that and the way that you're gonna do so with your
puppy is allowing your puppy to be right. A lot.
My goal was to set him up so that he was mostly successful in all aspects
of his life, whether it would be his experiences on a leash,
his experiences in and out of the house, his experiences in the crate,
how he was, you know, using the food, how he's interacting with people,
other dogs, all of those things were very highly structured.
So that most of the time they went really well.
What happens is when dogs rehearse things properly over and over and over again,
well, that becomes the way that they do things.
So then flash forward months later,
most of his experiences have been great ones and I'm able to bank on that
success as we get into a period now where I'm gonna start testing him more,
I'm gonna start asking for a little bit more independence and reliability,
but I have a really great foundation to kind of set me up for the next the next
step. So for us, before moving into some of the more advanced skills,
we wanna work on things like, does he know how to follow food reliably?
Does he know how to hold position for, you know, a certain length of time?
Of course, without distance, without distractions just working on reliability.
Does he know how to respond to his name?
Does he understand that looking at me for rewards is a really good thing.
So if you're able to sort of create a,
a good foundation is the perfect word for it.
You're gonna find that as you go into the harder things that maybe are a little
bit more complicated or more challenging for your puppy to be really successful
at, it's gonna be a lot easier when they understand sort of how the process of
learning works. And you already have a young puppy that says,
I like doing things for you. I like paying attention.
I like practicing exercises. And then the rest is gonna be a lot easier. Now,
what things should you not be doing with your puppy at this stage? Well,
it's a bad idea to let your puppy go off leash and play with other dogs at this
stage right now,
the most important thing that you wanna be working on is building a relationship
between you and your puppy.
And if you let them off the leash and you let them go and play with other dogs
before they really have a reliable recall, and they know to choose you,
you're really gonna weaken your relationship because they're not even gonna
remember that you're standing outside with holding the leash in your hands.
So that's one that I would definitely avoid.
The other thing you wanna be careful of is I wouldn't be taking your dog for
long walks at this point.
Think about all of the distractions you're going to come across when you're
going for a walk.
And at this point you're probably not ready to deal with all of those things
really easily. A lot of people get really excited about their dog,
getting to the age where they can start to take them off leash and take them for
long walks. But what you need to remember is that you don't wanna be, you know,
accomplishing or working on kindergarten stuff and then flash forwarding and all
of a sudden expecting your dog to nail these university level types of things.
The goal is to make sure that we have progressions and steps all along the way.
Big picture here is that as we're going from point A to point B,
we wanna make sure that we have a lot of success in, in our dog's choices.
And sometimes that means going a little bit slower. Now,
what are these advanced skills that I'm talking about?
We actually have a lot that we do,
but I'm gonna talk to you today about some of my favorites. Now,
the first one is teaching our dogs to sit in a controlled position at our left
hand side. Now, this one is, seems so simple, but it's super, super critical.
And it's one that I've used in all kinds of situations to help Five Alive,
stay a little bit more focused. Now his job is to sit at my left hand side,
specifically nice and tight beside me with a loose leash. And in this position,
he understands that I'm in control. Now,
I'll admit he's not completely perfect at it.
So if I'm talking to you and he makes mistakes,
I'm gonna dog train at the same time here. But when he's here,
I can work on him, not jumping up on people. I can have him sit like this.
When the Amazon guy walks up our driveway and he learns not to pull towards any
person that he sees. I've also used it around distractions,
like traffic going by. He understands that when he's sitting here at my side,
he needs to be attentive and he needs to remain in position until I release him.
So you can actually take this pose and use it in all kinds of scenarios.
In fact, I used it the other day at a competition I was at,
there was all kinds of dogs and people around there was chaos around actually.
And we just found a little corner and we worked on just sitting calmly at my
side. So he understands how to be focused.
Even there's a lot of action and busyness going on around me.
One of the most important skills that you can teach your dog to do is come when
they're called and have a reliable recall. Now, at this point in our training,
when I'm transitioning from puppy training to adult training,
you have to be really careful that you don't put your dog into a scenario where
they can learn that, that come responding to come is not an option.
And this is where a lot of people make their mistakes.
They go from making it really easy,
maybe practicing in the house with lots of treat in their tug toy.
And then they flash forward to a big open field or a place with a bunch of dogs,
or they let their dog off the leash and go for a walk in the forest. You know,
that's just too big of a leap at this point.
Now you've seen a lot of the foundation training that we've done with five in
our earlier videos. Things like restrained recalls up and down the hallway,
or recalls to a tug toy,
outside all opportunities where he hears the word come,
and then he associates it that it's fun to chase me and to come to me.
So if I wanna start working on something more advanced with my recalls,
I might take something that I already know.
He knows how to do like a retraint recall, for example.
And I might try it out here where there's maybe a little bit more distractions.
Now I'm out here by myself, which is a great way to start.
Just changing locations is gonna be enough.
And I'm gonna see if I can get him to respond to a recall. Ready? What's this?
I'm gonna do exactly the same thing as I did, you know,
inside where there was no distractions.
I can start by making sure I have a leash on. I can get him excited. Ready?
Set come. Yes. Good boy.
It's all about getting a lot of great repetitions in of success with making it
really easy. Good boy. Okay. Good boy.
And I could maybe build more distance by using a long line instead of a leash.
There's lots of things that I can do.
What you wanna do is make sure that as you make it harder, you make it harder,
gradually.
I'm not gonna go from being in my kitchen to all of a sudden going to something
that's really over distracting.
And my dog just fails over and over and over again.
The next advanced skill I wanna talk to you guys about is the stay. Now,
this is one that a lot of people underestimate the importance of,
and also they think that their dog is really good at,
but I want to talk to you about some of the really key points that make this
exercise a really, really important one to work on with your dog,
because it really teaches your dog about emotional control.
Being able to understand they have to hold position for as long as you want them
to until you release. So it's also really good for leadership. Now I will admit,
Five is just learning this. So he might not do perfect at it,
which is totally okay.
But the goal is that he's able to stay in position and I'm able to get some
distance and I can implement a few distractions,
but he understands to hold position. Oops, until I say, okay.
Now if he gets up, I can simply place him back into position.
And it's important that I get in there. Yes.
With some rewards to make sure that most of the time he's doing it successfully.
Good boy. Good stay. Yes.
But the idea here is that he holds position until he's released.
And right now I'm practicing outside, which is a really great way to start.
Okay. Oh boy, buddy.
But I also could utilize this when there's more distractions.
Maybe I'm gonna practice by the school when the kids are coming out.
The important piece about this exercise is the emotional control part.
It's not really about holding position, although that's a great part.
It's about them understanding that when they're excited and they wanna go
towards a distraction,
they're able to have enough self control that they can hold position.
And this is really important because a lot of young dogs really naturally lack
this. And if it's something that you can implement while they're younger,
you're gonna find that they're able to calm in situations that you wouldn't
normally expect them to simply because they understand how to stay.
The big one that everybody always wonders about is walking on leash.
Now at this point, the puppy training that,
that we've done with our walking on leash so far has been in the house.
It's been with very little distractions. It's been basically with a food lure,
like right on his side,
so that he has a lot of value for walking at my left hand side. Now, again,
I don't wanna go from that style of puppy training where I'm really making it
dead, easy to going for a walk around the neighborhood where there's lots of
distractions. So I might start in a situation just like this.
I found a quiet place on the property here. There's not much going on.
I'm gonna try and start with the same steps that he's used to,
but I've just changed location and added a little bit of a distraction.
And of course, a change of, of environment.
And I'm gonna do exactly the same thing as I did before.
I'm gonna reward him at my left hand side.
I'm gonna encourage him to move with me on a loose leash.
I'm not going to expect that he does this independently.
So I have some food ready. Good boy. Let's go. Yes.
Good boy. Let's go. This way. Yes. Good boy. Let's go. Yes.
So if he's not walking well at my side, I'm just gonna use the food to help him.
I'm not gonna use any type of leash corrections or anything like that at this
point, because he's a, it's just a young dog.
He's just learning exactly what I want him to do. Yes. Good boy. Sit.
Yay. My goal is that I can get lots of rewards in while the leash is loose.
Now I don't wanna be putting the food on his nose forever while I'm practicing.
So as he starts to get better, I could wean off of that a little bit.
And I could just start to reward it a little bit more randomly,
or I could introduce some more distractions,
but I need to make sure I have a nice stepping stone from working on puppy stuff
to eventually working towards being able to take him to for long walks around
my, my block or for a hike eventually.
And he understands that his leash needs to stay loose.
We hear the excuse all of the time that people can't practice this step because
they're unable to find any place that's quite enough.
There's distractions everywhere.
Now we have students from all over the world. We have students from,
you know, downtown cities to people, you know,
people out in the middle of nowhere.
So it's really important that you just work harder to find a place where you can
practice. It might mean that you have to throw your dog in the car and,
and drive away from your property or your,
or your backyard to find something a little quieter.
Maybe it's as easy as going in a different time of day. If you live in a,
in a survey or a city, try to go at quieter times.
So there's not as many people in dogs out so that your dog can have an easier
time doing this. Remember if you want success with your dog, walking on a leash,
you need to set them up for success.
And that means bridging the gap between zero distractions and a whole bunch
of distractions.
So it's important that you are able to find a location where you can ease into
it so that your dog is mainly performing the act of walking on leash correctly.
We've talked about teaching your dog to walk on leash in this video.
And there's actually a lot of common mistakes that people make when trying to
teach their dog to walk on a loose leash so that you can avoid those mistakes,
click that card right there.
If you're looking for some more help with your training,
all of the skills that we talked about today are covered in our online program
called life skills.
You can work with me the rest of our McCann team to help you get some success
with your dog. The link for that is in the description below. On that note,
I'm Kayl. This is Five Alive happy training.