- Now, we all know
that training a small dog presents
some unique challenges compared
to training a big dog.
So today, instructor Shannon
and our special guest @ednathepug
are joining us.
And we're gonna talk about how
what sort of differences there are
when it comes to training the little guys.
I'm Ken Steep and welcome back
to McCann Dogs.
(music)
(dog barking)
- Hi there!
We are here today
with @ednathepug
and we are working
on some walking on lead skills.
And we wanted to take the angle today
of teaching a smaller dog
how to walk nicely with you on leash.
So what we are going to do to start
with is just make sure
that first off,
we've got some really tasty treats
and we've got a dog that is willing
to follow those treats.
So the first step I'm gonna take here
is I'm gonna make sure that Edna will
just follow a little lure.
(kissing sounds)
Yes.
I'm going to mark with a 'yes'
to let her know she's done something right
and then I'm going to release that treat.
Yes.
Good for you. What a smart girlie.
What about this one?
Yes.
And release that treat.
So Edna is more than willing to follow that treat,
so I'm going to move on to the next stage of my training.
So the next step that I am going to take here with Edna
is I'm just going to encourage her to my side.
When I do my walking with her out on the street,
I want my dogs to always be at my left hand side.
So what I want to do is just convince Edna
that my left hand side is a great place to be.
So I'm gonna use that lure I just practiced,
and I'm just gonna bring her into my side.
Yes.
And then I might move a bit to the side.
Yes.
Good girl.
(kissing sounds)
Come here girlie.
Yes.
And I'm just gonna practice that.
(kissing sounds)
Edna. Atta girl.
Yes.
Good girlie, okay.
I just wanna convince her
that being at my left hand side
brings her lots of really high value rewards.
So, once I've gotten my dog used to the idea
that getting into my side is a wonderful place to be,
now what I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna start
to add my motion to it.
So, I've got my leash gathered up properly
and my ideal situation is that I never put
tension on that leash when my dog
is doing what I want them to do.
So, I always want to make sure
I'm not physically pulling on the leash,
it's nice and loose,
and the food is doing the work for me.
So now that I've done some repetition
with just rewarding her at my side.
Good girlie.
I'm just gonna walk a little bit.
Yes.
And reward.
(kissing sounds)
Edna, thatta girl.
Good.
It might just be one step.
Yes.
And then I'll give her that treat.
It might be two steps.
(kissing sounds) Yes. Very good.
I might turn a circle.
Yeah good for you!
The idea here is that I'm letting my dog know
as I move, that being in that position
at my side is absolutely the best place to be,
and it brings the highest value rewards.
Now, one of my favorite tips to give
for people working with small dogs
is get something that is longer than your arm
that you can use to help lure your dog
and that's really going to save your back,
especially if you've already got back problems
this gonna be a saving grace.
So I have a backscratcher here,
which is fantastic because I can put my soft treat
on the end of it there,
or I could put some peanut butter there,
or some Cheez Whiz that my dog's going to lick away at,
and I can use that to deliver that food down
without me having to do all that bending over.
Now what I really like about the backscratcher,
is that you can make it shorter.
So now I'm luring a little bit higher,
shorter again,
luring a little bit higher,
until the point where I can really just fade that out
and use it to deliver the rewards by hand,
or use it to deliver the reward down to my dog
but without all that length in it.
So you can use a wooden spoon
or I've heard of people using paper towel rolls,
or wrapping paper rolls depending on the size of your dog.
So get something that is going to save your back,
especially when you're doing a lot of training
with a young, young dog.
Alrighty, so my next step here is that
I am going to use a little bit more upright body language,
because I've got a small dog,
I still want to use my lure,
but I'm gonna start to fade it away.
And these steps are not something that
you are going to do as quickly as we're doing on this video.
You're gonna spend lots of time on each of these steps,
and you're gonna work in situations
where life is nice and calm and quiet,
and then add in distractions as the dog starts to show
that they have understanding
of what you're looking for from them.
So, what I'm gonna do now with Edna,
I'm gonna get up off the floor,
gather up my leash so that it's nice and loose,
I'm gonna show her I've got some really yummy treats,
but I'm gonna do it from up high.
And now what I'm gonna do
is start to add a cue into things,
and we use 'Let's Go' around here.
So, I'm gonna take my treats, I'm gonna say--
Look what I got, are ya ready?
Let's go.
And I'm just gonna take a couple of steps,
And I've got her attention.
Yes.
When I like what I'm getting,
(kissing sounds)
Yes.
I'm gonna say 'yes' and deliver the treats down.
(kissing sounds) Edna. Atta girl. Yes.
Very good. Right here, right here, right here.
Yay, good for you!
So I can still show her that I've got
these goodies, I dropped a couple on the floor,
I'll just help her get back into attentive mode.
Yes. Good for you.
Once I've got her focus back,
I'll work on standing up a little bit again.
Yes. Very good.
And continue on with my walking.
Now, in the interest of saving my back,
I am going to start to work with the food up at my waist
and again, this is after a lot of repetition,
we're speeding through things
for the purpose of this video here,
but it's going to take you weeks
to get the dog to the point where
they can walk nicely on leash in a quiet environment
and then you're gonna work with the distractions as well,
so keep in mind that it's gonna take you
a lot of training time to get there.
Don't rush through anything and don't skip any
of the steps.
We'll skip a few here for this video.
So, what I'm gonna do now with Edna
She found a treat on the ground.
(kissing sounds) Hi girlie!
What I'm gonna do now with her,
is I'm gonna show her that cookie,
I'm gonna get her into position,
and I'm gonna tell her 'Let's Go'
and then I'm gonna bring the treat up to my waist.
Yes.
And then deliver it down right away.
Yes.
Good girlie.
(kissing sounds) Edna.
If she gets a little distracted, that's okay
I'll just help her.
(kissing sounds)
Good girl.
She's a very excited girl.
Yes.
Very good.
(kissing sounds) Let's go.
Up to my waist.
Yes, good job.
So good.
(kissing sounds) Edna.
Atta girl, yes.
Good, let's go.
And I'm just gonna keep building that reinforcement.
All I want is for Edna to realize
that walking beside me is absolutely spectacular
so I'm gonna keep delivering a lot of rewards
in the initial phases
and very high value rewards to help Edna
realize that this is a fabulous place to be
even when I'm moving.
So my final step in weaning away from the food lure,
Come here Edna. Atta girl.
Is to actually leave it in my pocket.
Now what I'm going to do is make sure I use good timing,
mark what I like with my 'yes',
then I'm going to reach into my pocket to reward.
And that's the step you need to take
to make sure that you're not always having to have food
in your hand in order to move your dog around
and do your 'let's go' exercise.
I'm gonna help Edna get in here
(kissing sounds) Hi girlie. Good girl.
So I've got my one treat for that.
And then what I'm gonna do is leave my food in my pocket.
Edna. Good girlie.
I'm gonna tell her 'let's go'.
Yes. Oops.
(kissing sounds)
Yes. There she is.
Now I'm gonna reach and reward.
They're such tiny little treats.
Edna.
(kissing sounds)
Yes. Good for you.
That's so good.
(kissing sounds) Edna.
Let's go. Yes.
Good girlie.
Let's go.
(kissing sounds)
Yeah. Good for you.
(kissing sounds) Edna. Good girl.
Yes.
Very nice.
So because she was having trouble there,
I went back to having a little bit of food
more readily accessible.
What I'm gonna do is just work to that point
where it's easy for Edna to say
"I can focus and hang in here with you"
and I'm gonna get to that point
where I just reach after pinpointing
with my 'yes' word.
What a good girl Edna is.
Now, I am working almost as hard, if not harder,
than Edna here.
I'm actually starting to break out into a sweat.
That's what you need to do,
you need to work hard with your dogs
to keep their focus, keep that attention on you
and make them excited about the idea
of learning to walk nicely at your side.
Up to this point, you've probably
been working with your dog in a very quiet environment
to try and get these lessons in
and that's so important in the initial stages of training.
If you think about the idea of trying to learn calculus
while you're riding on a rollercoaster,
probably not going to happen.
It's the same idea with your dogs.
If you're trying to do the first stages of their training
in a busy park, or someplace where there's
lots of distractions, that is going to work against you
and it's going to make your life a lot more difficult.
But, you do need to get to the point
where your dog is willing to ignore
any distractions that they might see,
whether it's out there on the street,
or at the park, or anywhere that you might go
where you want your dog to walk nicely with you.
So what you're going to do is set that situation up.
So start with your quiet environment
but add a couple of distractions
and you might just do one at a time.
So I've got a Kleenex box and a couple of toys here
that I'm going to use as my distractions
but if my dog is really green,
or really excited about toys,
I might just start with one of those
to make it easy for him to be successful.
Really, really important in dog training
you always set your dog up to have success.
So keep that in mind.
Temper the distractions based on your dog's ability
at that point, and then as your dog progresses,
you can add more and more distractions into the mix.
So what I'm gonna do with my distractions
is I'm gonna put them far enough away
from where I'm working that my dog knows
they're there, but he's not gonna have a super hard time
ignoring those distractions.
And I'm just gonna make the distractions harder and harder
as my dog progresses through his training.
And as he starts to understand the expectation
of what I have for him.
- I wanna thank Edna the pug for joining us today
and helping instructor Shannon
show off some of the differences in training
the little dogs versus the big dogs.
I've included some of our social links below,
Twitter and Instagram, so make sure you check those out.
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 spend some quality time
with your four-legged family member.
Beside me is a link
to more of our small dog training videos
that you might wanna check out.
On that note, I'm Ken.
Happy training.
(upbeat music)