If puppies came with an instruction manual,
there's one exercise that I wish every puppy owner would do with their dog.
It's a very simple game and it takes just a few minutes,
but it actually will make your puppy training easier. In this video,
Kayl's going to show you how this one game can teach your puppy a few different
things. Number one, it's going to teach your puppy how to take food gently.
Number two,
it's going to teach your puppy how to have some impulse control and number
three, it's going to show your puppy that you are definitely worth listening to.
So let's dive right into the training. I'm Ken Steepe. This is little Euchre.
Welcome back to McCann Dogs.
This episode is brought to you by Eukanuba.
I'm going to start off by taking some of her favorite treats,
and I'm just going to put them into this bowl here. Good girl.
And I'm just going to place it off to the side and I'm just holding her back
because she doesn't yet know not to grab the food. Now,
the first exercise or this exercise that I'm going to focus on with you guys is
called a rule-out.
And this is a tricky exercise to understand because the whole purpose of this is
we are going to teach the puppy to have self control without us having to say
gentle, gentle, or leave it.
We are going to let the puppy or the dog you you can do this with a dog of any
age, decide their own fate.
Now what's going to happen is I have several pieces of food in my hand.
And my goal is that I am able to hold this hand out flat with all of the treats
presented without Euchre, trying to steal them out of my hand.
Now what's going to happen is each time she goes to steal the food from my hand,
I'm going to prevent her from doing that by quickly. Whew,
quickly closing my hand. I can see that she wants it.
And then as she pulls her head away and shows a bit more self-control I am then
going to open my hand. So it's going to be open, close, open, close, open,
close, depending on what she's doing. The more the puppy wants the food.
I'm going to close. As she pulls herself away, I open.
So you're going to see it happens very quickly. Now,
the position in which your puppy is in when you practice, this does not matter.
They could be sitting, standing, lying down. It doesn't really matter.
So I'm going to go ahead and give this a try.
So I'm going to put it near her face. I'm just going to open it close.
Yes. Good girl. So she didn't go for it. So I'm going to yes and reward her.
Yes. Good. So every time she tries to go for it,
I'm going to pull my hand away and close my hand. Yes. An excellent.
Yes. Good girl. Now, you'll notice that when I reward her,
I'm taking the food from my open hand and I'm delivering it to my
puppy. What I wouldn't want to do is say yes,
and then let her have the food because it's going to make her think too much
about getting the food from my hand.
Now there's one very subtle thing that she's doing that I don't like that you
might not notice unless you're a dog trainer. Is that when I go to get the food,
she's, at that last second, she's moving her head towards my hand a little bit.
I would really like her to not do that at all.
So I'm to go ahead and try it again.
And I'm going to be a little bit more nit-picky with her good girl.
Yes. There. That was better.
Yes. Good girl.
Now I want to point out, I am not telling her leave it.
I am not telling her not to touch it. She is deciding her own fate here.
Now I'm going to get her. Okay. You're doing very good. My love.
I'm going to get her out of position and maybe let her stand to do this.
Yes. Good. I bring the food to her. Yes.
Good.
Yes. Good girl. So she wasn't necessarily.
Trying for the food there, but she kept motioning towards it.
And then you can see on that last one, rather than motioning towards it,
she stopped herself. And this is how we're showing self-control.
I want her to think about what she needs to do in order to not get the reward.
Good girl.
Now we actually have another little puppy that we'd like to show you this with.
This is a 12 week old Black Lab puppy named Piper.
And before I go ahead and show you the demo with her though,
I want to talk about why self-control with a puppy of this age or dog of any age
is so important. You know,
when your dog is able to show some self-control and they're able to control
their emotions,
you're going to have a much easier time working through issues like pulling on a
leash or jumping at people when they, you know, want to be greeted.
Barking uncontrollably. You know, a lot of times when dogs are young,
when they have a feeling of excitement or energy or whatever it might be,
they just react to it. They don't have any impulse control.
They just sort of react right away.
So doing little exercises and games like this can really help to teach the puppy
that when they see a distraction in front of them, don't just go for it,
show some self-control and then rewards will come.
Now we often joke with our Lab, puppy owners,
because most labs really love food.
And we get a lot of questions about what to do.
If puppies are taking the food really rough from our hands,
when we're trying to do training.
So this exercise is going to be helpful for that as well.
Your puppy needs to learn to be very gentle when they take the food from their
So if you are going to feed your puppy and you feel any teeth or they're pawing,
or they're being a bit rambunctious,
try to enclose the food in your hand and remove your hand from your puppy.
And then very quickly try again. If I'm getting sniffing and licking. Yes.
Good girly. I can reward from there.
I expect my puppy to take the food gently from my hand all the time.
No matter what I'm working on. So you always can circle back to this exercise.
If you find your puppy's getting a bit rambunctious.
Now I'm going to go ahead and try this rule out exercise with little miss Piper
here.
So I'm going to put some food in my hand and I'm going to do exactly the same
thing as I did with Euchre.
I'm going to open my hand and close it depending on how much control my
puppy is showing me.
Oops. Well, there's a couple of freebies that didn't work out so well.
Yes. Good girl. So I'm going to bring the food to her. Oops.
Yes. Good girl. So.
She goes towards the food. I pull my hand away.
Good girl. Yes.
Good girl.
I need to wait a second for her to finish chewing the food. Good girl.
So I'm Keeping it present. She goes towards, I pull my hand away.
Yes. Good girl.
So you'll notice I'm using the word yes.
To pinpoint when she makes a correct choice. I'm saying the word. Yes.
As I see her pull herself away and show a little bit of self-control. Okay.
I'm going to make a little progression. She's actually doing quite well here.
I'm going to try it.
Down position.
Yes. Good girl. And see.
If she'll hold that down position. As the food is presented.
Good girl. You just need to be patient.
Yes. Good girl. Again.
Moving the food to the puppy. All right. We're going to do one more step here.
She's doing absolutely fantastic. I'm going to try putting some food on the.
Floor and I'm going to cover it if she gets up. Nope.
I'm just going to wait for her to stop trying for the food there.
I'm going to expose the food again. Oops. Cover it.
So this is exactly the same exercise. Just put more of an.
Advanced version. So I'm not good. Yes.
Excellent. Good girl.
I'm going to deliver the food to the puppy. Good.
Girl. Well done. Excellent.
I'm not telling the puppy what she should do. I'm letting her figure it out.
Wow. Good girl. Move the food around a little bit.
Good. Yeah.
Oh my God. She's brilliant! She's a brilliant puppy.
Good girl. What if I throw it?
Oh, look at that good girl.
Yes. Good girl. Yes. Excellent.
Now some people might say, oh, you must've done this training before you.
That puppy is just not that food motivated.
I can tell you for a fact that this puppy is very food motivated.
I have done a few exercises with her today and she was really into the food.
But what I can also tell you is that this exercise goes very quickly.
If you have good timing,
which I was able to show you there every time she made a good choice,
I didn't make her sit there forever. You know, not going for the food.
The moment she showed any type of self-control. I reinforced her very quickly.
So if your information can come with good timing, oh she's a rolly polly puppy.
Um, if your information can come with good timing,
your puppy should catch onto this very, very quickly.
Now little Piper is really showing a lot of, um, progression with this exercise.
So I'm going to make it a little bit harder. I've now introduced the food,
which is something this puppy certainly recognized her whole body language
changed. When I started to put the food in a, in a dog dish. Now,
the reason why we want to do this is again,
we're teaching a bit of self control.
But the other thing that this really does is teaches your dog.
That food comes from you. It doesn't randomly drop out of the sky, you know,
would it be nice if you could show your puppy,
all the receipts that you buy from the pet store when you're,
you're buying their food, but what's happening here is she's learning.
This food is coming from me and that if she's a good girl,
she's going to get it.
So I'm going to take the food bowl and I'm going to do exactly the same
exercise. I'm going to place it down in front of her.
I'm not going to taste anything. And if she goes for it,
I'm simply going to pick it up and I'm just going to wait for her.
She does not have to sit. She just she's defaulting to a sit, which is great,
but she doesn't have to. She just has to stop moving.
You'll lift it up.
Lift it up.
Yes. Good girl. Yes. Good girl.
I'm going to reward her several times here. Yes. Good girl.
So I had to do that a few times. Good girl. Good.
Excellent. Going can move it a little bit closer. I need to keep my hand.
Good, good choice.
I need to keep my hand near the bowl because if she tries to go for.
The worst thing that would happen is that she dive,
bombs the food and gets it all too quickly. Good girl.
A little closer. Yes. Good girl reward her again.
Shake it around a bit. Maybe make it a little harder. Good girl. Yes. Okay.
Okay. You can have it now. Okay. Okay.
Good girl. She's like, are you sure? Good girl.
Yay. Good girl. So this is a really.
Great way to have them show a little bit of self, uh, self control.
And then of course you can let them have the food.
Now I just have a little bit of her food in there so that I can practice the
exercise a few more times. Good girl. So she's eating out of the bowl.
Now I'm going to grab a few more.
Kibbles back here. Oh, oops. I'm gonna try it again.
Oops.
Yes. Good girl.
And again,
at this point I do not care whether she's sitting or lying down or even standing
all that I care about is that she's not trying to go for the.
Food. Good girl. Yes. Good, beautiful, good girl.
Okay. Okay. Okay. Yay. Good girl.
And then I'm going to clearly give her permission to go and get the food from
there. That was.
Awesome. Miss Pipey doo. Now you can.
Do exactly the same exercise if you're feeding them in their crate or whatever
you're doing, but this is a great exercise that does not take a long time to do.
And you also can practice it for short periods of time,
multiple times a day when you actually feed your dog.
And it's such a great way to get a little bit of information in there that
you're a leader you're worth listening to,
but you're doing it in a really fun way. Good girl. Now,
before we go any further,
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Now,
this is a great exercise to practice at the beginning and the end of the day
when you're feeding your puppy already.
But if you want some more ideas on what you can do to train your puppy between
these exercises, make sure you check out that card right there.
And if you'd like the opportunity to ask our professional instructors questions
about your training and get daily feedback,
make sure you check out our Puppy Essentials online course.
The link for that is in the description below on that note. I'm Kayl.
This is little Piper, Happy Training.