This is Euchre and she's now six months old.
Do you remember the day we brought her home?
In today's video.
I'm going to give you a little update on how Euchre's training is going,
but I also want to share with you the top things that you need to focus on in
the next few months of puppy training with your dog.
I'm going to share with you the good,
the bad and the ugly in terms of how our training is going. Now.
She is doing really well in a lot of areas,
but there are still a few challenges that I'm facing.
And it's important that I share those with you.
So let's get to that puppy update. I'm Kayl McCann. This is 6-month-old puppy,
Euchre. Welcome back to McCann Dogs.
Now, when we talk about socialization with young puppies,
a lot of people assume that that means that they need to get their dog or their
puppy around other dogs.
And when we think about socialization and what we did with her,
when she was younger is we were focused more on experiences rather than
interaction. So yes, I wanted to get her used to other people and other dogs,
but we also wanted to work on different locations, different footings,
making sure that she was very comfortable in new situations.
So that was the main focus when she was a little bit younger. During that time,
my sole purpose was to have a strong bond and relationship with her as well,
so that as she experiences new things or people or places or whatnot.
I have enough control and enough of a bond with her that if she does get into a
bit of a sticky situation,
she's more likely to lean on me for guidance rather than just forget I exist and
do her own thing. So the bond and the training comes first. And then from there,
we start to give her more experiences. Now she's six and a half months old now.
And some of the, um,
socialization that we've done with her is we have started to let her spend a
little bit more time with our other pack of dog.
She's learning how to interact with them appropriately. She's learned to being,
learning to be respectful. Good girl,
even just sitting here on this deck has been great because there's lots of cars
and people that are passing, passing by.
I want to reward her for just hanging out and being calm.
I also have a few friends that have dogs that are similar age and similar play
style.
And we've given her an opportunity to have a little play with them as well. And,
um, to the best of our ability, we're trying to allow her to meet new people,
but we needed to make sure that we could do things like teaching her to sit on a
loose leash, not to jump up. So as she's meeting new people,
she's also learning how to be appropriate.
So she's startingw to gain a lot of those experiences.
Now that she's a little bit older,
but what's been great about it because we have a few skills underneath our belt,
which allow those experiences to go a lot more successful. Now, in other areas.
We've had to work really hard on is that of jumping up.
Now Euchre is a super friendly dog.
So this was a challenging one for us and something that we've been working on
since she was a young puppy.
And I'm very happy to say that she is doing really well with this.
She's still super friendly with people,
but she does now understand at six months old, that if you rush up to somebody,
you need to be in order for somebody to say hello to you. Now,
we actually have a great video, uh, on this subject that we used her for. Um,
it's basically about a training target and the different process that you need
to go through to help your dog to learn,
not to jump up when people are approaching them to say hello.
So you should definitely check that out.
If it's something that you're struggling on with your dog,
but in the initial stages, prevention is really, really important.
Try to stop that behavior from happening in the meantime,
give your dog an alternative option so that they can still be excited and happy
to see people,
but they need to know what to do differently instead of jumping in order to make
better choices. Now,
a lot of people really struggle with chewing with their young puppies,
and I'll be honest, this isn't something that we've had too many issues with,
but I think that there's a couple of really important reasons as to why.
Number one, her freedom in.
Our house was very limited when she was a puppy. And she always, always,
always had some type of leash or line on her when she was out of her crate.
And there was certainly times where she attempted to chew things or steal things
off the top of her crate, or, um,
she was successful at stealing the toilet paper roll out of the bathroom at one
point. Uh, but because we were very good at supervising her,
we were able to predict when she was thinking about chewing something or
stealing something and we were able to catch her in the act and redirector,
so it didn't take very long for her to understand which things were okay for her
to chew in which things were not.
The other thing that we found very helpful is that we gave her limited chew toys
to play with at a time.
So rather than having this huge smorgasbord of things to play with,
she just had a couple things to play with at a time.
So it was really easy for her to know what was hers.
And we would rotate them often to keep her interested. She's sorta funny.
She definitely has, you know,
a toy or a bone of the week where she gets really obsessive with one or two toys
and then this sort of novelty wears off.
And then we just bring a couple more in and that helps to keep her interested.
Now, the next thing that we did to kind of control her chewing was we would use
baby gates in our house.
So she was not allowed to just roam free in our
downstairs.
We would give her access to our kitchen when we were in there with her,
but she couldn't just wander into the living room when she wanted.
Now she's six and a half months old now,
and she's doing much better in terms of her house training and her chewing.
So we've now opened the baby gates up and she is allowed to come into the living
room. And I can see that she's in here lying on a bed, chewing on a bone,
but we always keep our eye on her to make sure that she's not sneaking away and
getting into mischief.
So puppy proofing your house is going to be really important,
but also making sure that they've earned that opportunity to have more freedom
in the house is going to allow the dog to be free and make less mistakes as you
move along. The next point I want to cover.
Is your puppy's recall.
Now this is something that we have been working on with Euchre since the second
day that we brought her home,
but what her recall looks like now is a lot different than what it was when she
was a puppy.
Now in the early stages of teaching her recall to come reliably when called her
with setting her up so that she was successful all of the time. So we did,
you know, look back, looking back,
you'll see we did things like restraint-recalls, back and forth. We, um,
you know, started in really low in a distraction environments.
And then we progressed from there.
We're going on our very first prop walk at the training school,
a very mini prop walk of course,
was that it was
so cute. And then I started working on, you know, just walking around my,
my property and letting her drag a long line and then calling her and letting
her chase me and then playing a game of tug as her reward.
But all of her recall training was done in an isolated way where I could control
the level of distraction. So our other dogs weren't around,
we were in limited space so that it was really.
Easy for her to be right. And the reason.
Why this was important is that I needed to teach her that coming to me was the
best thing.
Now she's six and a half months old and we have now made some really great
progressions we've changed locations.
I've practiced in a bunch of different places. And one of the places that is,
was the biggest challenge for her was that our dog training school,
we have quite a bit of property there. There's a lot of open space,
a lot of room to run. And when we first started there,
it was like this giant playground and she didn't really know what to do with
herself. So when we brought her there again,
we didn't bring the other dogs into a mix that was a little bit too exciting for
her in the beginning. Hi babe. Um,
but we did have run a long line and we would just practice in more quiet places
in the property, making sure that she was reliable.
And then over the last couple months,
we've slowly started to integrate some of our other dogs into the mix to provide
more distractions.
We started with some of the more boring dogs that just sort of Donald along some
of the older dogs that aren't that interested in playing with her so that she
could just get comfortable listening around them.
And now we've worked up to being able to go for walks are casual walks around
the property with the whole pack with Euchre included. Yes. Um,
now to ensure that we have good control though, while we do this,
she does wear a really long line and I'm always armed with some really high
value rewards.
And we spent a lot of time calling her back every couple of minutes,
we're calling her back to reinforce and what I've been so pleased about is that
because she starts to learn the game,
she actually goes out and then stops and checks in with me and sort of waits for
me to call her back because she knows good things happen.
So rather than putting her in a situation where she's around other dogs and she
kind of forgets that I exist. I need to know that if I have to call her back,
for some reason, whether it's for control or maybe even for her safety,
that she comes back quickly and reliably each and every time.
But that has been something that I've worked on over several months in order to
get to the spot where we are now goals is that we are able to work off-leash
eventually. But for now I actually think she's doing an awesome job. Um,
one thing that we will do though,
just to ensure that we're not over facing her as we still do lots of walks
individually. So I don't always walk with the other dogs.
That's like a special treat that we do. Often we'll just go out one-on-one,
we'll play a little game of fetch while we're out there just continuing to
making sure that our bond is strong and that recalls always reliable. Now,
a big thing that I've noticed with her being six months versus when she was a
puppy, is she has a way more energy now. And it's good girl,
and it's a lot harder to tire her out to the point where we actually see her
calm and settle in the house. But one thing around,
one thing that I've really learned with her is that, oh, good job, Euchre.
Is that taking her for just like a little walk around the block just does not do
it. That's great for her training. It's good for her socialization,
but it does not tire her out.
So we try to play a little game of retrieve every single day.
I don't just throw the toy mindlessly like this for her. Um,
sometimes I'll make her do some obedience training. So sit good girl. Wait.
Yes. Okay. Yay.
So I make her think a little bit about what she's doing because I personally
find that physical activity is really good.
But when I combine that out around with mental activity where she's, um,
thinking about what she's doing, she has to show some self-control,
I'm implementing some brain work or some problem solving she's way more
tired. And so we try to think about, um,
how we can implement this type of thing every single day into her schedule,
because it just allows her to be calmer and more relaxed in the house. Um,
it also find I also find that I don't have to crate her as much.
So sometimes if she's too busy,
cause she hasn't had enough exercise or enough work,
she's annoying in the house. And you know,
and they're just wanting to put her in the crate.
I don't want to have to do that all the time.
So doing a few little fun games to kind of take the edge off. Also,
this is a great way. Okay,
we're building a bond by doing this rather than taking her and letting her run
around and forget about me.
This is a fun thing that we get to do together every day. Um,
and that means that she's a little bit more tired and she can go in and chill
out and relax while we get things done.
And I don't necessarily have to put her in the crate. We.
Know that dog training is not a linear experience and it's possible that things
will go really well with your puppy. And then all of a sudden it, it doesn't.
And that's something that we always keep in mind with her. You know,
if she starts to regress in a few areas,
we're simply going to put the house line back on and follow through where needed
now the age of the dog at which you start to wean off of the house line or
remove the use of the crate. It really doesn't depend on the age.
It's more about the dog specifically.
You might have some dogs that take a little longer,
you might have some dogs that, you know, power through these steps very easily.
A lot of it has to do with their personality.
And sometimes a lot of it has to do with you and how consistent you are,
how reliable you are you with your rules. Um,
how much do you follow through with some of those things with your puppy?
So that it's, you are going to fall right off the couch you turkey. Um,
how easy is it for the dog to understand what their rules are?
So try not to make this about the age of the puppy,
try to think about the behavior is their behavior worth,
giving them a little bit more freedom. And if things start to regress,
no big deal. You're just going to dial back.
You're going to resort back to using your crate a little bit more often.
Maybe use your leash a little bit more often.
And then after a few weeks of success goes by give it another go and hopefully
you'll be ready from there.
Now you might think that because we're professional dog trainers,
we'll have a perfectly trained dog at six months old,
but that's just not how it works. All dogs are different.
We've definitely seen a few different challenges with Euchre than we've even
seen with some of our dogs in the past.
So although she's doing great in a lot of areas,
there are definitely a few things that we are still working on.
So I'm going to talk to you about a few of those areas. Now,
something you may have heard as mentioned about your group of forests,
that she's very stimulated by anything that moves,
and although you might not think that right now, but, uh, you know,
when she's around moving cars or anything that moves faster has a motor,
she gets really stimulated.
And this has provided a few challenges for us when we're out on walks.
And we've really had to work on specifically going to areas where, um,
it's not super busy so that we can get a little bit more success and then slowly
working on getting her around areas where there's more cars. So for example,
sometimes just part of her walk is standing out on the corner where there's cars
that pass by and just rewarding her for sitting calmly beside us on a loose
leash. We don't even work on the walking part. We just work on the focus part.
And then from there we can add a little bit more walking.
So that's still a work in progress she's doing really well.
And in order to make sure that we're moving forward,
we're just controlling how and when we walk her.
So if I know that there's a lot of busy-ness, there's a lot of, um,
it's a busy part of the day.
There's going to be a lot of people out on the street.
Those are not times where I'll typically go out and practice.
I try to go for quieter areas at this point, so that when she's going out,
she's rehearsing the good stuff. Um,
and that seems to be working really well to our advantage.
If you're struggling with walking on leash with your dog,
one of the best things to think about is not rehearsing the bad stuff.
So try not just to go out for walks because you know, you need to walk your dog.
You really need to think about training.
One thing that really helped her was isolating the behavior. So,
without many distractions around,
I really wanted to make sure she understood what my expectation was when we were
walking, where she should walk, how her leash should be,
where she should be looking to stop and sit at my side,
those types of behaviors need to be perfected so that when I'm out and about
around more distractions, I have some skills to fall back on.
So my best advice for you is to isolate that behavior,
make sure that you're working.
So your dog clearly understands what you expect of them during your walking
exercises,
and then start to implement the distractions gradually so that your dog can see
success.
It's much better to repeat successful repetitions than to get your dog to do a
scenario where, you know,
they're going to fail because you're just going to end up both getting,
getting frustrated.
Another thing that she's still struggling with is the ability to just chill out
in all situations. There's a few portions of her life,
where she is able to go and lie down on her bed. Like when we're eating dinner,
we've just come out inside from having exercise.
She's really good in those moments, but you know,
if she hasn't had enough exercise or we want to sit down and, you know,
watch a lengthy movie,
she isn't able to just go and lie down and have a nap during that process.
And she's a young, energetic, breed. Energetic dog.
And so we haven't been able to see be successful at that.
So I basically have two options to work through that. Number one,
I could put her leash on and I could train her and teach her how to do that.
Or number two,
maybe I just want to sit down and watch a movie and not worry about the dog.
She does settle really well in her crate,
which is what I will choose to do if I'm not in a position where I want to be
working through it. And what I don't want to do is just say, oh,
I'm frustrated with you and just let her continue.
Bebopping around the house because I don't want to rehearsing those behaviors.
So if you have a busy dog, think about, you know,
what you're doing prior to the time where you want your dog to chill out,
have they had enough exercise? Have they had training?
And then in that moment decide whether you're going to train through it or
whether you just want to abort mission and put them in their crate.
That is okay too, because as they get older and more trained, those crate,
um, times will be less.
And the opportunity to be out and just sort of chill with you will become more
and more and more, but it's not just an overnight process. Something like that,
especially with really energetic dogs does take time and you just have to be
patient.
Now it's been fun sharing this little six month update about miss Euchre here.
But if this is your first time watching our channel, you may not know,
but we've actually been documenting Eucharist training all the way from the
beginning, from that first day that we brought her home.
So if you want to check out that video, click that card right here. Now,
if you'd like some step-by-step instruction on some of the exercises that we
trained in today's video,
make sure you check out our Life Skills online program.
You're going to have access to our professional trainers where you can ask your
questions and get answers every single day to make sure you're on the right
track. The link for that is in the description below on that note, I'm Kayl,
this is Euchre, happy training.