One of the reasons I started this YouTube channel was to help you to avoid the
mistakes that I made as a new puppy owner. 17 years ago,
long before I was a dog trainer, I brought home a puppy. Her name is Deegan.
She was my second dog. And I gave her all the wrong information.
One of the things that I really struggled with was listening skills around other
dogs. So in this video instructor,
Shannon's going to show you three skills that you can teach to your puppy so
that you're choosing you over those other dogs. I'm Ken Steepe.
This is instructor Shannon, and this is Vimy.
Welcome back to McCann dogs.
Here in our YouTube channel.
We publish new videos every week to help you have a well-behaved family member.
And in this week's video,
we are going to talk about how to introduce your new puppy to the other dogs in
your household in a way that helps to emphasize your relationship and listening
skills for your puppy.
And it keeps them from being obsessed with every dog they see out there on the
street. Now in just a few moments,
I'm going to bring out a really adorable little toy poodle named Hippy shake,
and Hippy is going to help me train my puppy Vimy.
Now my goal with Vimy today is to start to help her understand that just because
there's another dog in the room, doesn't mean that's where her focus should be.
I want to start the exercises of helping her understand that ignoring
distractions is a really great thing to do. Now for today's session,
I'm going to concentrate on a couple of skills.
I'm going to concentrate on working.
Vimy's response to name and a little bit of attention.
I've got great treats here that she really loves.
And I've got one of her favorite toys that I'm going to use for big tugging
rewards with her.
So all I'm going to do to start with is work with a little distraction and I've
got my food ready.
I'm not bringing in Hippy Shake until I know I've warmed up a little bit of
these really good exercises with my dog here.
And I'm just going to wander around a little bit. Let her get distracted. Oops.
Put that away. Yeah. What's that over there?
Yes. Good girl. So all I did there was called her name.
I showed her a little bit of food and I turned her to me nice and quickly.
And I'm actually going to reward her several times for that to leave a nice
little impression. So I gave her two or three little treats. Okay.
Let's go over here. What's that? What's that? What's that?
Yes. Good girl. Good job. Yay.
You're so smart. Excellent. Now I'm going to have a little play. Okay.
Okay. Get that toy. My puppy's all paws here.
Good. Girly, good girl.
So we can play and have a little fun and interaction. Then I'm going to say out,
offer her a trade one second later. Yay. Good girl.
And finally, I'm going to work on. Yes.
Whoops. It bounced off your nose.
I'm going to work on a little bit of attention with my puppy.
So I'm just going to show her some food. Draw her eyes up. Yes.
And then reinforce. Yes.
I'm not using a command because my puppy doesn't know what look at me or any
sort of attention cue means yet. So I'm simply working. Yes.
And then rewarding. When her focus is up on my face.
Now some of you might be wondering why,
if I'm trying to teach my dog to ignore the distraction of the other dogs in my
home, there's no other dog in the room here.
And the reason that I am setting up the way I am is because I need to make sure
that my puppy can first accomplish what I want her to accomplish without that
other dog in the room.
Because I can guarantee that if she can't work these skills with no distraction
in the room, she definitely won't be able to work these skills.
Once Hippy Shake comes into the room.
So I wanted to make sure that she had a good opportunity to get some
reinforcement.
I wanted to make sure that she was capable of doing the things that I was going
to ask her to do in the quiet room first,
with nothing going on before bringing in Hippy Shake.
Now I want to make it really clear why I've set things up in the way that I have
here. I've got Hippy over in the corner in that crate so that my puppy can be
successful. Now,
lots of people would set this up and just let their older dogs in the home,
wander around and be loose.
But that will make my puppy's life a lot more difficult.
And basically my goal is to set her up for success.
I don't want her to make mistakes.
I want her to be successful so that she learns that winning is a great thing
and wants to do more of it. The more she's wrong,
the harder it is for her to learn to love training.
So I'm going to do my best to make sure that she has the best chance at
success. Alrighty, Vimy, let's give this a go.
So I'm going to work a little bit on some attention to begin with.
I'm going to just tuck my toy away here.
And I've got enough distance built between me and Hippy here in between Vimy and
Hippy here, that she is going to have a much easier time being successful.
Here girly, That a girl.
So I'm just going to bring the food up to my face to work that attention drill.
Yes. And I'm going to reward her.
If she had tried to jump up to come up for that food,
I simply would have encouraged her back down onto the ground. Just like that.
Then started again. Yes. And reinforce.
I don't want to encourage her jumping up,
but I'm also working with her right now and she's a young puppy.
So I want to make sure that she doesn't get all sorts of, uh,
all sorts of trouble for making that little mistake.
I'm just going to sort of roll with it now. She is doing great.
So I'm actually gonna move a little bit closer to Hippy here because she's
making great choices and I can build on that success by challenging a bit. Okay.
Girly, good job. And I'm just going to draw the food up. Yes.
And then reward her.
Now what I'm going to try from here is a little response to name now.
She is really not distracted by Hippy right now.
So all I'm going to do is use that to my advantage and do a little successful
response to name Vimy. Yes. Good girl. Oh,
you are so smart now after I've warmed that up a few times,
I might take the opportunity to make it a bit more challenging. Okay.
What's that? Yes. Good girl.
Because she has had two successful reps in a row.
I know that the chances of her having a success successful third one are pretty
high.
So I'm really going to challenge her by moving in a little bit closer to Hippy
and oh, there's a good distraction. Okay. Okay. Park again.
Miss Hippy girl. What's happening? Who's that in there?
Yes. Vimy. Yes. Good girl. I actually yessed her getting distracted.
That's the dog trainer in me. Good job. Good for you.
Now I made a little bit of a change to the situation because my puppy Vimy was
doing such a great job.
I've now taken Hippy out of the crate and I put her up on the couch there.
And for those of you that have small dogs in the home and you're bringing a
puppy home, or if you have older dogs in the home,
this is a really good way of taking the pressure off that older dog.
A lot of the times people think that they should let the puppy do their thing.
And the older dog will eventually tell the puppy off and peace will reign in the
house. And unfortunately that's a really bad position to put your older dog in.
What we want to do is we want to build their confidence around the puppy and let
them know that they don't have to interact with the puppy if they don't want to.
And lots of older dogs are really keen on just enjoying their old age and they
don't like the antics of puppies around,
but there'll be polite until they're not.
So we don't want to put them in that position.
This is a really nice thing for Hippy shake because she gets to be part of the
fun and Vinnie gets to learn around Hippy shake.
But it's a nice safe scenario for everybody.
So now with Hippy shake out and Vimy ready and in working mode,
I'm going to start with my attention work. Yes. Good job.
Yes. Very nice. And then I might just do a response to name from here.
What's that? Over there. Okay. Okay.
Oops. Vimy. Yes. Good girl.
Distracted by her own horse up treat Vimy. Yes. Good job.
So she's had two successful ones. Okay. Okay. Vimy,
you, Hey, good for you. Good job. That was excellent.
Good girls. That was a really good one. Yay. Good job.
I'm going to feed her a couple of times for that,
because that was a really good one. And now I'm just going to get in.
Where'd my toy go. You can get in a littl.e tug session. Okay. Get it.
Get it. Good job.
Get in a little tug session. I might move a little closer to Hippy.
I'm going to make sure I still have good control of my puppy in case she decides
to wing out. I don't want Hippy to get tumbled over there.
Good job. Very good out. Yes.
Very nice. So this that I'm doing here,
this work that I'm doing is so wonderful for teaching my puppy.
That just because there's another dog in the room,
doesn't mean that's where the excitement's happening.
So this is a fantastic drill to set up,
to get my dog used to the idea that that other dog is not the center of the
world.
Now let's troubleshoot because Vimy is having a little bit of a hard time here
when Hippy decides to get up and move a little bit. Now she's back with me.
But basically if this was the case and my dog was distracted by the other dog in
the room, I have a couple of options.
I can go back to putting my older dog in a spot. That's not quite as exciting.
I can also build space spaces are really,
really great dog training, golden nugget.
If you have space between your dog and the distraction,
you're going to have a much easier time of getting success with it.
So rather than being this close, maybe I'll leave Hippy shake out on the couch,
but I'm actually going to bring my puppy Vimy further away from that distraction
so that I have a better chance of success. And you can see right away.
As soon as we moved away from Hippy as a distraction,
I had her attention on me and now she's a little bit more connected to me,
but this isn't good enough. So her staring at Hippy, instead of focusing on me,
isn't what I want for a final product.
So I'm going to change something so that I get a better result and I can get in
a reward then. Yes. Good girl. I can turn her back towards me.
Oops. Hip Hippy. Hippy go. Good girl.
Hippy's looking for food too. That was exciting. And I love what just happened.
Hippy went up on the couch,
then he checked out Hippy and then checked back in with me.
So I took that opportunity to say what a smart puppy and get into yes.
Get in a reward. And I just did the same thing again,
to capitalize on that behavior for my puppy. Yes.
Her choosing to look at me instead of the distraction of the food scent on the
floor or the distraction of Hippy is awesome. It's exactly what I want.
One of the important takeaways from today's video is that I want you to realize
that if you're struggling or if your puppy is really struggling,
you're not doing it right.
What I want you to think about is making the situation easier to build on
success.
Always remember that it is so much easier for your puppy to learn based on those
repetitions of right.
And it's also much more fun for us and for our puppies as well.
So spend a lot of time thinking about the setup and how you can help your puppy
be successful and then build on those repetitions of success.
Setting your puppy up for success is a great quality of a good leader.
If you want to learn more about how to be a great leader for your puppy,
click this card. If you're looking for step-by-step help with your puppy,
as well as daily support from the McCann team of instructors,
check out our Puppy Essentials program for puppies,
less than five months of age, you'll find the link in the description below.
And on that note, I'm Shannon. This is Vimy. Happy Training