There's a common thought out there that setting out to train your young dog
means it's going to look unruly or out of control.
But I'm here to tell you it doesn't have to be that way.
I'm going to show you the secrets that I use to get better results faster.
When you train your young dog. I'm Steve. Welcome back to McCann Dogs.
[inaudible]
something we see occasionally in the comment section of our videos is how we're
using already trained dogs.
And I want to spend some time today to talk to you about,
it's not necessarily about starting with train dogs,
but it's about setting your dogs up for success so that looks more trained.
All of the dogs that we use in our videos, um,
have the same sort of training final that you've seen in a lot of our videos.
Even in the most basic videos. The first video that I did with them,
two days after I got him, somebody had said, well, that's great.
You're using a train dog,
but I'm going to share the secret that I use to help you and your dogs get
results faster in your dog training. When you're out in the real world,
if you feel that your dog is being a little too overwhelmed or unruly when
you're out and about,
you need to really look at changing things to help make you and your dog more
successful. And that may mean making things easier,
removing some of those distractions,
moving to a little bit quieter place and helping your dog to be correct.
Cause that's our entire goal. If my dog is making mistake after mistake,
I'm not helping them.
And that's when I need to really look back at some of the foundation exercises.
Now while I talk about this,
we're out here in a great spot that's very safe and secure and final's got some
great skills. So I'm going to give him a little bit more freedom.
Now I'm gonna give him a little permission to going out of a run while I talked
to you about some of the secrets that we use.
Now you'll notice even when I tell him it's okay to go, he's off having a run,
but Jett here,
my older dog is hanging out and wanting to pay a little bit more attention to me
and that's because we spent a lot of time building a lot of value for working
with me and all of this is the result of doing things step-by-step and building
the foundation. I sort of look at my training, like we're building a house.
I have to spend a lot of time building that basement first before I throw all
the drywall on the paint up. I need to make sure my bet,
my basement and that foundation is solid before I head outside or add more
distractions and if you look behind me, their finals out for a little run.
But he has actually looking back and checking in with me waiting for that
information. Hey, good foe. Excellent job. Hi Ray,
why do I got a puppy dog? And again,
he knows the value of me even though he is free to go anywhere else.
You've seen me teach him a lot of different things.
You've seen me teach him to ignore other dogs when we're out and about.
You've seen me teach him to walk on leash.
You've seen me teach him not to pull on leash and you've seen me teach him to
settle when he's a little bit maybe overzealous when he was a young puppy in
that video. In fact, I shot two days after I got him and still people said, Hey,
are you using a trained dog? It's not about using a trained dog.
That's what's setting up your dog for success every single time and it's also
about starting that success in very low distraction environments.
There's a lot of distractions out here. We've got trees, you've got smells.
You've got the Creek over there and he is off because I know that if I need him
to come back to me, he can. Well, I didn't start like this.
I didn't start giving him that freedom and allowing him to make those mistakes.
I started by building a ton of value for me first and then giving them those
freedoms.
What did these basic steps look like and how can you take advantage of them to
help your dog's success rate increase? Well,
things like using your upstairs hallway and your house with all the doors closed
where there are no distractions, to teach the basic stuff,
to help teach them to respond to their name,
to make sure that they're not getting overwhelmed where we feel they're too
distracted and can't learn by removing all those distractions and building on
success, the dogs can learn that foundation exercise that we want. Again,
if I want to build a base of things,
it needs to happen and it needs to happen more often.
We think things happen quickly.
One or two repetitions in our dogs understand it and your dogs might in that
particular situation. However,
go from that hallway and transition that to outside in the real world.
Dog hasn't had enough repetition of success. So instead of thinking big steps,
I want you to think about baby steps.
Maybe the upstairs hallway with all the doors closed and maybe just the
downstairs hallway with a few people in the living room.
We want to make sure that we help them in little teeny increments and several
repetitions to build on that success. Now, like anything else,
you also have to pick the right motivator for your dog.
We often use food for a lot of dogs who are food motivated,
but we also know that there are dogs who aren't food motivated.
So that may be meaning you're using your toy or using yourself as a reward for
your dogs.
The point is you find out what that is that works for your dogs and you build on
that. Even dogs that we have no relationship.
You'll remember the video I did with the yellow lab a little Maggie. Uh, she,
uh, was very food motivated, so I was capable enough to take advantage of that,
to build on success very quickly with her.
And it was also something she'd never had a little bit of cheese.
So you have to make sure that you know your dogs and find out what motivates for
Florida. Now practicing.
This does take a lot of repetition and one or two minutes of this is not really
going to teach your dog and solidify that understanding in every environment.
So transitioning from let's say your front hall to the sidewalk out front where
traffic is going by and other things that may be big that may be too big of a
jump for you and your dog. You need to look at making those little steps,
but then you also need to look at how successful your dog is being.
If your dog is starting to get a little overwhelmed and they're starting to make
more mistakes, you need to make a choice.
And my suggestion at that point is make the choice to make it easier.
Go back inside, spend more time on the foundation stuff,
and then add maybe a step halfway in between.
Maybe instead of writing the sidewalk,
you work just on your front walkway or your front driveway.
And if that goes well, then start to add a little bit more distance.
Ideas and dogs are setting up for success every single time.
The most basic of exercises that you can teach your dog in any environment is
just a little bit of value and focus for you.
Even though she's sitting up here on this rock,
she knows to look at me and I don't have any food money.
Not these requiring her to do that. I'm certainly not bribing her to do that,
but I have spent ton of time since the day I got that. Anytime she looked at me,
I can reward her. Yeah. With a little bit of food.
She's pointed in my direction. She understands that good things come from me.
She also understands that the information comes from me,
the things that I need her to do all come from here.
She's not looking elsewhere, trying to decide what she wants to do.
She's waiting for me to give her direction. Okay,
and you can start that right in your home.
You start in the living room every time you are sitting with the dog.
If they look at you, yes or no, war build value for you.
Whether it be with food, whether it be with a toy,
or whether it would be with just a quick little physical plan, a little pet.
Having the dogs understand that you're valuable is the first step in getting
those results faster. Remember, our ultimate goal here is to kill our dogs.
Freedom to teach them to listen to us so they can run free and they can enjoy
the world.
But knowing that when we call their name or when we need them to respond,
they will do that reliably. Now what do you do when everything does go to,
so what do you do when things actually go well? You need to change things.
Taking away our dog's ability to rehearse.
Doing the things that we don't want them to do or acting in a way that we're not
really happy about has to happen quickly.
The more they rehearse those behaviors we don't want,
the more they will go to them. So you need to stop.
You need to just bring your dog into you a little bit,
move away from the distraction or realize that that particular situation and
environment is too much for your dog, so taking them home,
starting things again,
a little bit more basic level can really help solidify the behavior,
but really make sure we stopped the rehearsal right off right off the bat.
One of the questions is how do I make it easier for my dog while changing the
environment by taking away some of those distractions,
so instead of being out in the park,
head back to the house or in the front drive work to the place you were less
successful. Oftentimes people don't want to take that step back.
They really have in their minds that the dog should know this,
but you also need to be listening to your dog. If your dog is not getting right,
you need to understand that they don't know it, but that's not,
they don't know it at all.
They don't know it in that particular situation with that particular distraction
or that particular thing going on in the environment.
The big thing is even if my dog does get overwhelmed,
I'm not going to just leave it and head back and not train.
I will go back to someplace that's a little bit less distracting and always try
and end on success.
Something even as simple as having my dogs sit when I ask them to or respond to
their name in the front hall.
Start with that success or finish with that success and your dogs will remember
that going forward. When you look at our videos,
you'll see that anytime we start a young dog,
we started in an area with no distractions.
It's an empty room or it has one or two little things.
We want to make sure that we introduced the distractions one at a time and if
you find that certain distraction is too much for your dogs,
maybe it be the kids are riding bikes. I want to take that distraction away,
solidify the behavior first. Then maybe introduce the kids,
riding their bikes on the other side of the road,
someplace further away and a little teeny steps to teach your dog to work
through it instead of being overwhelmed by it.
There's that tipping point in all our dogs when we know they can work through
this and they can start to build or when they're really starting to check out
from us and get a little too overwhelmed.
Now sometimes changing the environment to help your dog be successful can be a
challenge. Sometimes you need to think a little bit outside of the box.
I'm taking advantage of the time at our training hall where there aren't any
classes running. There aren't students coming get on with their dogs.
There aren't cars coming in and out of the parking lot.
So I really taking advantage of the open space to allow my dog some freedom and
this is a bit of a test for him to see how well he's listening and as long as he
continues to listen, I will continue to give him the freedom.
Really big thing to keep in mind is that dog training is not easy and to keep
the dogs being successful takes time and it takes effort.
It's a big thing to keep in mind is we know dogs are going to make mistakes.
That's fine. They're animals. Our job is to help them to be right.
Our job is also to understand that they're making mistakes.
We're not failing them.
We need to do is change things to help everybody be successful.
That's one of the other reasons why I really try and end on a success no matter
what or how simple the success is. It makes me feel better about myself,
continues to maintain the relationship with my dog,
and I can kind of take a breath and start again another time.
There will be times when your dog's gonna make a mistake.
There will be times when your dog is going to get overwhelmed and it's really
important. You don't look at that as a failure.
If dogs are making mistakes because they don't know it,
not because they're being bad or being spiteful.
Our job is to make sure we take a breath.
Realize this is part of the training process. Make it easier.
Here's the biggest thing to keep in mind when you're training your dogs,
good dog trainers.
We'll see mistakes happening and make adjustments to help the dogs be
successful. Great dog trainers.
Anticipate those problems and make the changes before the dog has a chance to
make a mistake. Our goal is to set them up to be successful 100% of the time.
And if you keep that in mind,
you'll have a lot more fun training and your dog will be a lot more successful
faster. Now, if your dog pulling on leash is the biggest struggle you're having,
click that video right there. This is your first time on the channel.
Make sure you hit that subscribe button. And with that, I'm Steve.
Thanks for watching. Happy training.