In this video,
I'm gonna tell you about the most common mistake
that puppy owners make when it comes
to basic puppy training,
and this kind of mistake applies
to basic dog training as well.
You may have made this mistake before.
I've made this mistake before,
but when you're teaching your dog to listen to you,
making these little mistakes along the way
can add up to one really big problem.
By the end of today's video,
you're gonna know exactly how to avoid that problem.
I'm Ken Steepe and welcome back to McCann Dogs.
(guitar strum)
(dog barking)
Have you ever heard someone say,
"Oh, my dog only listens when I have food"?
Or have you ever thought,
"Boy, my dog seems really motivated
"as long as I have my hand in my bait pouch
"or I'm holding a treat in my hand"?
That's really common because we know that food
is a very valuable resource to dogs,
and it's exactly why we use food in puppy training.
Because we know it's a great way to communicate
some value with them.
But what's really important is that we understand
how to use food correctly in our training,
so that we don't become dependent on it.
The first thing you need to know about
are stationary exercises.
They're the exercises where you have the most control,
but they're also the exercises
where you need to have the best timing.
We're gonna head over to talk to Kayl,
and she's gonna show you step-by-step how you can teach
your dog to listen to the words that you're using,
rather than just following your food lure.
First I wanna talk to you about what the method
of luring is.
Essentially, it's when I take a piece of food,
put it on my dog's nose, and then basically move it
so that she follows it in every direction.
I can use this to teach her to do all kinds of tricks,
or even simple behaviors like sit, down, sit, stand.
Wherever my food goes, that's where she goes too.
Our final goal is to get our dog to be able
to do a behavior for us without needing the use of food.
So in order to teach Funky to do a behavior,
it's important that she clearly hears the command
that I want her to respond to,
without being distracted by the food.
So if I was to tell her, "Down,"
and then lure her into position,
she's probably gonna be more focused on the food
rather than what I'm saying to her
because all she's thinking about is getting the treats
out of my hand.
So in order for her to learn a command,
it's important that I would do something like this.
Down, and then lure one second later.
Now, the one second later part is also really crucial.
If I always say, "Down," and I lure at the exact same time,
again, Funky's gonna be learning to be dependent
on both the word and the hand signal.
Because those are things that are easier
for her to respond to.
So again, in order for her to eventually learn no food
and just on my verbal command alone,
I need to say the command and then lure one second later.
So she's already lying down so I'll show you with sit.
Sit, yes, and then I can reward from there.
Now, you may have noticed from the last example
that Funky was already moving into a sit
and into the down position on my command.
And that's because she's eight years old,
she's had a lot of training.
She knows what those commands are.
She doesn't need the signal or the food anymore,
for those particular behaviors.
Now, in order to give you a true sense
of what this looks like,
what I'm gonna do is get her to do a behavior
that she already knows,
but teach her on a completely different word
that she's not used to hearing.
So for example, banana.
I love bananas, she actually likes bananas too.
I'm gonna teach her how to sit on the command, "Banana."
Oh, she sat because I said the word sit.
You are too smart there, girly.
Now, what I'm gonna do is show you first off,
the importance of timing, and it's very important
that I don't say banana and lure her at the same time.
So if she's in the lie down, and I have food on her nose,
and I was to say, "Banana," and then lure her into position,
she is so focused on that food,
she probably had no idea what I said to her.
So again, I need to make sure I say the command,
and then lure her with proper timing.
So my food needs to come away from her nose
so she's not distracted.
Banana, yes, and then I can lure one second later.
Now, it's also very important that your signal
comes within one second of the command.
So if I say, "Banana," and then couple seconds later I,
lure her into a sit position,
she's also not gonna be able to put the two together.
It needs to be command, then lure, then reward.
So, I'm gonna go ahead and do a couple repetitions now
with proper timing and see if Funk can figure out
how to be able to sit on the word, "Banana,"
without needing a piece of food.
And I'm just gonna lure her into a down here,
and I'm gonna start a few repetitions.
Banana, yes, good girl, 'kay lie down, good girl.
Banana, yes, good girl, very nice.
Banana, yes, good girl, I'm going to try one more time here.
I threw a piece of food at you, sorry girly.
Banana, yes, good girl, okay.
I've done about three repetitions, four repetitions,
I have piece of food here, now I'm gonna give it a try,
I'm gonna pull away from her nose
and I'm gonna just say the word and see what happens.
Actually, I'm getting out another treat ready here,
so she does a good job I might even give her
a jackpot reward.
Banana, oh that was so close, I'm gonna try it again.
Banana, okay, so she's kind of confused, which is okay.
I might not have done enough repetitions,
so I'm gonna try a couple more,
banana, yes, good girly.
Can see her little wheels turning.
Banana, yes, good girl, one more.
Banana, yes, good girl.
Okay, we're gonna try the big test now.
Lie down, good girl, ready?
Wait for me, banana, yes, good girl.
Now stationary exercises are one aspect
of your dog training, but what about
for things like walking on leash?
Using that same food lure is a great way
to reinforce your dog for being in the right position,
but you don't wanna be doing that same donkey and carrot
routine forever, especially, if you live in a part
of the world that gets these bitterly cold winters.
(ominous music)
As you start to do more loose leash walking training
with your dog, it's a good time to start using something
like a bait pouch or have a loose-fitting sweater
or a jacket that has deep pockets
so that we can tuck the treats away inside them.
We really want to increase the challenge a little bit,
over these progressions, we don't wanna always have
to be holding food in our hand.
This gives our dog a little bit different picture
than we've been showing them at the beginning.
And this is the point where things start to get
a little bit more challenging.
We often talk about our training being
clear, consistent, and fair.
So what exactly does that look like for walking
on leash training?
Being clear means that we're only rewarding our dog
when they're in at our side, on a loose leash.
Being consistent means that the only time they're getting
the food is when they're there, if they get out of position,
we're gonna slide our hand down the leash
and bring them back to where they need to be.
Once they've remained there for a few steps,
we can start rewarding them again.
And being fair seems to be one of the greatest challenges
that dog owners have as they start to decrease the amount
of food and increase the challenge
in their loose leash walking, so we need to do some things
to set our dogs up to be successful.
Whether that's finding an environment
where there are very few distractions
so that you can get some reinforcements in for your dog
so that they're not over faced by all of the things
going on around them, that's a great way to start.
The other thing is finding a pace
that your dog finds engaging and finds rewarding.
Often people will walk really slowly
'cause they're so focused on maybe the reward timing,
or they're so focused on their dog being in at their side
in the right spot, that it just gets boring
or that the things on the ground are moving by so slowly
that their puppy has an opportunity to check in with them.
But the most important thing you need to remember
as you reduce the amount of rewards you're using
with your dog, is to use your voice.
Now, here's an admission of guilt, as a guy,
when I first started training my dogs,
I found it really difficult to be more outgoing
with my dog training but what I quickly learned
was that the more animated I was,
the more genuine I spoke to them,
the more connected we were.
As we reduce the amount of rewards the dogs are getting,
we need to somehow bridge the gap.
Because there are still things happening around
that they may find interesting.
But by using our voice in between our rewards, you know,
acknowledging our dogs walking in at our side,
it's a great way to maintain that connection.
Let's go, yes, let's go, good, let's go, good girl.
Yes, good, let's go.
This is something that I'm often mentioning to guys
in our classes, girls seem to be a little bit better
about this, but with guys, be a little bit more animated.
It's not like you're going to be nattering on
at your dog forever, but at this point,
when your dog's understanding is, you know,
just starting to build, you really wanna focus them
on you, you really wanna maintain that connection
so that it allows you more reinforcement.
So that it allows your dog to not be as distracted
by the world around them.
And you'll start to see something amazing happen,
you'll start to see that your dog's remaining in position
for longer periods, you'll start to see them checking
in with you, at random times because if at such a,
strong history of reinforcement, in that position.
This is when you can start to decrease the amount of rewards
you can start to take them to more distracting environments
and reward them for remaining in position.
A couple of weeks earlier, your dog may have been
really distracted by something on the ground
and they would have left you to go in and investigate it.
But after all of that reinforcement
and after some good timing with your rewards,
your dog may check in with that thing,
and then check back in with you.
These are the times that you're still gonna use that food.
Mark that moment with a yes and then reinforce your dog
for leaving that distraction and coming back to you.
We're not gonna remove food completely from the picture.
We still wanna be able to use it,
but we wanna use it to capture the moments
that they're making great choices.
Not necessarily putting it back on their nose
and bringing them back in at your side.
It's a really important moment in your dog training,
when you start to see behaviors like that.
By putting the focus on your timing
and using your voice first, before you present food
to your dog.
That means that your words are going
to have a lot more meaning.
And that's gonna result in a lot less food dependence
when you need your dog to listen.
(upbeat music) If you'd like
to learn how to teach your dog to leave a distraction
when you're out on walks, then click that card right there.
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to help you to have a well behaved,
four legged family member.
On that note, I'm Ken, happy training.