Welcome back to MCMcCann Dogs. I'm instructor. Steve.
It may be your problem with leash walking training is that you're not teaching
the right kind of walking.
There are times at which I want my dog to walk at my left hand side.
If I'm on a busy sidewalk or out at a market or other places where there are a
lot of distractions, but the reality is I don't want it all the time.
I want my dog to be able to move and sniff and do all sorts of things.
So what exactly are you trying to teach your dog? Well,
we're trying to teach them not to pull on the leash? Well,
what if I told you that there was a skill that you could teach that would have
them understand not to pull on the leash ever?
What is this magical skill that we're gonna teach?
This skill is the idea of leash respect, but to do it,
I'm not gonna start teaching this out here.
I'm gonna head into a quiet place where I know she'll be much more successful.
Why did I come back inside to work my leash walking training?
Why does that make sense? Well, you saw when I was outside,
little Lola here was pretty distracted by everything,
all the sights and the smells and all the interesting things on the ground.
So if I'm gonna change her mindset and change your picture,
I gotta take those distractions in the way out of the way.
So coming back into your living room is where you're actually gonna start this.
Now, what is this idea of leash respect? Well,
leash respect is simply my dog understanding that it's their job to keep the
leash loose. It's not my job to follow them around.
And this is little Lola and Lola belongs to one of my students.
And the reason I picked her is cuz well obviously she likes to pull and B,
she gets very distracted by everything, as you can see, even in this room,
but we're gonna shift her value from everything else to me in a second.
Now you saw Lola outside and you saw how she was interested in everything else
other than me.
So one of the first things that I'm gonna do with her is change her value and
make myself more valuable to her. Now I know based on, uh, her owners, uh,
word that she's pretty darn food motivated.
So I've actually just got some of her kibble we're inside.
So I'm gonna start with my kibble and see if that works now. Um,
just the crinkle of the bag has gotten her attention.
So what I'm gonna do is just start to make myself, uh,
a little bit more valuable.
Now I'm gonna give her some treats for paying attention to me. Good girly,
but how I give her the treats is actually gonna be really important.
I am bringing the treats from my face down to hers and I'm bringing them between
the two of us. I'm not rewarding her looking elsewhere.
I'm not rewarding her with her head looking down.
I'm rewarding her with attention on me.
So she starts to learn that just simply paying attention to me gets a reward.
Now I haven't given her any command. I haven't asked her to do anything.
I'm simply establishing myself as something with value.
What does this have to do with walking? Well,
I'm gonna take this same approach and I'm gonna start to add a little bit of
motion now, because this is the idea of least respect. I don't actually care.
If she's at my left hand side, she can be in front of me.
She can be off to the right. As long as our leash stays loose,
she's going to get a reward and how that reward comes between me and her is
gonna shift the value to me. So I might just take a step with me, girl.
Good girl. Yes. Good. So she didn't really move there, but I said yes,
cuz the leash still stayed loose. But when I rewarded,
you'll notice I brought her closer to me cuz this is where I want the value to
be. Now I might move one step in the other direction with me. Yes. Good girl.
Excellent.
Good job. So I said yes, the moment she shifted, she got a reward with me.
Yes. Good girl. Hooray what a good pup,
I might move back a couple of steps with me. Yes. Good girl.
Harray so she is starting to learn with me that there is more value for
paying attention to me than anything else in the world.
And starting this inside is laying that foundation for going outside.
Obviously I am not going to be taking my dog for a walk inside my living room.
This is just a stepping stone that stepping stone is taking things outside and
making this harder for her. Outside there are more smells.
There are more things.
There are more things to catch her attention for her to pull now because of the
work I've done inside, she's not pulling as much as she was before.
And I've picked a somewhat quiet area. I haven't gone to the busiest place.
I can find I've moved off to the side.
I've found this empty space here and I'm gonna work the drill again.
So I've got my cookies here. I'm gonna reward her for just paying attention.
Good. Excellent girl. Yes. Good job. What a good girl again?
That reward is become coming between her and I.
And now I'm gonna add a little bit of motion with me. Yes. Good girl.
What a good job. Excellent with me. Good. Nope. So she, oh yes.
Good girl.
So I thought she was gonna pull there and she actually made a fantastic
decision. I kicked a rock by accident and she thought about going for it,
but then she turned back to me on her own. Yes. Good girl.
That gets a little jackpot with me. Yes. Good girl. Good job with me.
Yes. Good girl. Now again, I don't care if she's on my left.
If she's in front of me, if she's on my right. Yes. Good girl.
I am teaching her that it's most important to pay attention to me.
The leash hasn't actually even come into it yet because I've helped her to be
right so many times. So she's doing really, really well.
So I'm actually gonna make a big step for her. I've come closer to the road.
I'm in a new place and I'm gonna add a little bit more motion to see.
Does she make the same choice now? She just decided to pull on the leash.
that's better. Now. I added a little pulse on the leash. She pulled,
I turned and faced her.
I added a couple of little pulses until she turned back to me and then I praised
her. I didn't feed her right away.
I waited until she sort of came back and committed to me.
I want her to know that if you pull on leash,
there's a little teeny consequence, but there's gonna be more value for me.
So I'm gonna move again and see if I can get her to keep making great decisions.
But yes, good girl.
But I also want her to make the odd wrong decisions so that she knows she
shouldn't I got you again. Silly thing. Come on over here. Excellent.
Good job. So both times I move forward towards you guys.
She got really interested in something. Now I'm not mad at her.
She's a young dog. I'm adding those quick pulses on the leash.
But the moment she gets back on my page,
I praise her and let her know she's right now. How do I help this?
Cuz she's done that same thing twice. Well,
I'm gonna work the same skill a little bit further away from you guys.
And let's see if she can be a little bit more correct.
And then we'll see if we can move closer. So okay. Come on girl with me. Yes.
Good girl. Hurry. What a good pup. There you go. Good girl. Good. Good. Okay.
With me? Yes. Good girl. Excellent job. Good.
Maybe I moved this way. A couple steps. Good. Move this way. A couple steps.
Yes. Good girl. Excellent job. And now I'm right up next to you guys.
And she's making fantastic choices.
The big question is what do I do if I don't have food in my hand? Well,
when I'm initially teaching this, I actually want you to have food in your hand.
I want you to find the motivator for your dog,
but when your dog starts to understand this, like Lola's starting to do,
I'm transitioning away from that constant lure to saying yes,
then getting my food out and reward.
So the onus becomes more on her to perform the skill versus me saying,
Hey buddy, here's a cookie. If you decide to pay attention to me,
now you can see Lola has been pretty successful at this,
but there's a couple of reasons for that. I found the motivator.
That's kept her attention as we built on the skill and for her that's food right
now. Now I know some of you're gonna say, well,
my dog doesn't care about the food. And especially when I go outside,
they don't care about the food. Well,
that's why those early steps are so important.
But not only that maybe think about trying this before you fed them that big
dinner,
take some of their dinner and see if you can get their attention at that point.
Or you might need to find a different level of treat.
Maybe it's the cheese or those hot dogs or something else that, uh,
may peak that dog's interest. But it's not always about the food.
Maybe your dog's more toy motivated. Well,
you can do the exact same exercise with your dog's favorite toy.
Maybe that toy is the McCann dogs, fuzzy ball tug available McCanndogs.store.
With me. Good with me. Good girl. Good job. Love.
Now you can see that she's a little bit less engaged than she was right off the
start. I can certainly see it here. And this is where, uh,
we have to make a choice and the choice I'm gonna make right now is to sort of
end on a win. Um,
but that doesn't mean the leash respect exercise and the leash respect training
is done. This is something that needs to be focused on all the time.
If it's only focused on, sometimes the dog is not gonna have an understanding.
So what does that mean? Well,
that means anytime the leash is attached to my dog,
I am focused on teaching her not to pull.
Now I have an interesting problem though.
I am all the way out here and I need to get back to the place to this studio
where her crate and where her things are. So I've got a couple of options.
I will tell you the option I'm gonna pick is I'm gonna get some of those great
treats that I have left over.
I'm gonna put it on her nose and we're gonna do a little bit more controlled
walking and I'm gonna lure her the whole way.
Because I don't want her to be tuned out. Yes, good girl.
And I want to get back there and still do some training along the way.
A lot of people struggle with their dog's focus when they're outside.
And if that's something you're working on, check out that video right there.
And if you're working on least respect with your dog and you'd like some
personalized feedback from me and the other McCann dogs,
instructors check out our Life Skills, online training program.
The link is in the description below. And on that note, I'm instructor. Steve,
this is Lola happy training.