You're working really hard to teach your dog not to pull on a leash.
You're also working to teach them not to jump up on people.
You're out for a walk. And this happens.
When did you get a puppy in this moment? You need a game plan.
And what you do in the next few moments can really impact your dog's training.
And that's exactly what we're going to talk about in today's video.
I'm Kayl McCann. This is puppy Euchre. Welcome back to McCann Dogs.
We're all looking for a dog that can walk really nicely at our side around any
distractions or in any environment.
But one of the most difficult things to deal with is the distraction of other
people in dogs.
And this can be particularly difficult if your dog really likes other people in
dogs and it gets them very excited.
This is actually something that we've been dealing a lot with with Euchre.
She's not terribly food motivated, but she loves people.
She would be happy for people just to come up and touch her and pet her all day
long. So if I'm walking her along and she sees someone,
the distraction of that person can often be really overwhelming.
And that's exactly what we're going to talk about, how to deal with today.
We can talk a lot about what to do with our dogs in those moments.
But one thing that that can often be challenging is what to say to the people
who are approaching our dog. Because often they see a cute little puppy.
They see that you're training and a lot of people come in with those high
squeaky voices,
and they're really excited and that can sometimes drive dogs a little bit over
the edge.
So one thing that we recommend that you do is don't be afraid to tell people
that your dog's in training and even ask them to to give you some help.
Often, if somebody wants to come up and say hello to my dog,
I will often say no problem,
but do you mind helping me out my dog's in training I'm working on teaching or
not to jump up and I will just very happily but confidently tell
that person what I want them to do so that I can set my puppy up to be
successful. I want to introduce to you the concept of a training target.
So you know what a target looks like.
I want you to think about those different areas as different thresholds that you
can use with your dog to make things either easier or more challenging as your
dog's training progresses.
So if you look at the biggest circle on a target that usually the easiest one to
achieve, it's going to be the same thing with your dog training.
If you're working with your dog around,
other people think about having those people stay in the biggest area of the
target,
the furthest away from your dog in order for your puppy to be successful. Now,
if they're at a distance and your dog is able to sit on a loose leash,
they're able to check in with you. They're able to be attentive.
You can then have that person close into the middle part of that target.
They can come in a little bit closer,
and this is real really where you're going to need to work your butt off. Now,
it doesn't all need to be perfect. It's okay.
If somebody starts to get close and your dog makes an error,
but what you do about that error is going to make all of the difference.
Let's talk first steps. So you're out for a walk with your dog.
Your dog happens to see somebody at a distance. You can kind of tell,
they're going to come in to want to say hello to your dog.
What's the first thing that you should do. Well,
the first thing you need to do is get your dog's attention before they get
locked on to that distraction. So I might interrupt her,
I might use a bit of food. Hey, pup, what's this? Hey, Hey, what's this?
And I might lure her into my side and go to a control exercise that
she's been working on. So she understands that when she's sitting at my side,
yes, that she needs to remain in that position,
even though there's distractions around.
And this is an obedience skill that we drill into them when they're young to
help teach emotional control. So my dog's in the control position.
And as that person approaches, I'm just going to say, Hey, how's it going?
Just hold on. Wait there one second.
I'm just going to instruct them to just sort of stop at a distance. Good girl.
Ok, come a little closer. Yes. Good girl. Good sit. Yes.
And my focus is going to be more on the dog and less on the person. Now,
if I see that she's oops.
If she's over distracted and she can't hold that sit,
I'm just going to ditch the food and I'm just
like melting sit good girly.
I'm going to place her back into that sitting position.
And once she's on a loose leash, there's my pup a Rooney. I'm going to yes.
And reward once again. Okay. You can come in and try again. Sit. Yes. Now,
if she's able to hold the sit as that person gets close, I can then say,
all right, you can pet her good girl. Oops, oopsie.
So I want her to maintain that set even though she's being patted.
So she gets up the opportunity to be patted sort of is,
is non not on the table anymore. Try again. Yes. Good girl.
Yes. Good girl. Yes.
Now the next thing that I can do is I also could give her permission to go and
say hello, but when I do that,
I'm going to keep my leash handy and I'm going to instruct that person just to
be calm. Now, another issue that we've had with Euchre is that issues,
if starting to feel a little bit overexcited,
sometimes she'll actually submissively pee and it's even worse if people are
speaking and squawking and bending over top of her.
So I'll often just encourage people to either stand up tall or bend down and
sort of keep their body upright. And then I'll let her go and say hello. Good.
Okay, good. Go say hi. Okay. Go say hi off. Good girl.
Good off. Yes. So good girl.
Yes. Now you don't necessarily have to food reward your dog in this moment. Yes.
She took the food there, but she could really care less.
What she really wants is love and affection.
And as long as she's remaining in this sit position,
I'm going to allow her to get that affection.
But I also want to make sure that I have good control.
So I also want to train her Euchre. Yes. Good girl.
I want the ability to get her back to me and when I want her to,
but because she's a puppy, I'm going to train her to do that.
Shall we try that again? Okay. Go say hi, you say hi,
let's go say hi off. Good off. Good off.
Yes. Good off. Yes. Euchre. Yeah.
Good girl. So I let her go visit for just a moment. And then I call her way,
let her go visit for a moment.
Then I call away keeping it nice and short and sweet.
The longer I let her hang out there.
The opportunity there is for her to make an error so I can get lots of little
reps in without her making a lot of mistakes. Now, she was really good.
She didn't jump on Ken, but I did have my leash ready. And if she did,
what I would've done is instructed Ken to stop petting.
And this is where a lot of you know,
maybe less experienced people around dogs have trouble because often.
Okay.
So Ken's behavior is actually causing Euchre to jump up
on him right now. So it's very difficult. See,
it's very difficult to teach her what to do.
If I'm just allowing this to happen.
Look now she's starting to nip and bite at his hand, she thinks this is a game.
So basically he's provoking her to, to make a poor choice. Oh, she says,
I'm just going to be a wild animal now.
So if I'm not giving her good information,
you can see how she's just making poor choices. But if I set the situation up,
so I'm in control, it goes entirely different.
It's not always going to be a person that's going to be the challenge.
You might find that your dog is awesome when there's people,
but it's maybe a little bit more challenge challenging when there's an adult and
a kid, or maybe somebody walking another dog,
you might have to pick and choose what that threshold is going to be for your
dog to, depending on the different distraction level.
And it's okay if they're different,
you just need to be able to make good choices based on what's happening in front
of you. We talked about the importance of distance from that distraction.
But the other thing that we need to talk about is how distracting the actual
person is. Sometimes when people are excited to come in and see your dog,
they can't help themselves. Where did you get a puppy?
They want to react in a really exciting way.
So it's really important that you coach them on how to portray their energy.
You know,
it's good idea for them to come in and just stand and be still and be calm.
Be careful about the voice tones that they use,
that they aren't using a high squeaky pitched sound that they're just sort of
speaking in normal tone, eye contact is important.
You may have them look away from the puppy if they start to get too excited.
And if you have a real Wigglebottom,
you might even have them just turn your back to your puppy for a moment until
your puppy starts to settle. And then they can certainly turn back around.
But you might have to give that person that come in,
that's coming in to say hello to your dog,
a little bit more coaching so that they can help make the right choices.
And then you're going to start to see what works for your puppy.
And then you're going to have a few go-to moves that you're going to be able to
tell people when they come in to say hello.
Now there could be times where you're walking across a sidewalk or an area where
that distraction is sort of is forced to be close to you.
So one of the tactics that you can do is just actually move off to the side.
So I'm going to get her attention Euchre, good girl. And as I walk forward,
if that distraction starts to come by here, girl,
I'm just going to actually pull her off to the side to work my sit, sit?
Good girl. Yes. Excellent.
And as that distraction walks by, I can then be rewarding. Her.
This is a lot easier opportunity for her to make good choices than it would be
if I was sort of stuck on that skinny bridge or on the side of the, you know,
on the sidewalk,
I want to change my location so that it's easier for her to maintain some self
control and keep in mind, not everybody's going to want to see your dog as well.
So it's important that she understands that every single person that goes by
doesn't necessarily need to stop in and say hello to her.
She needs to stay under control with me. And I'll either say, yes,
you can go or no, you gotta stay here. And and be under control.
Our ultimate goal here is that people can come in and say hello to our dogs.
They can pet our dogs and our dogs can accept that and be really happy about it.
But their four paws stay on the floor and they maintain some type of
mindfulness. Now, keep in mind when people come in to say hello to your dog.
If your dog is a little bit too over-excited and they're rehearsing being able
to jump up and they're not really being trained not to do so.
It's a very self rewarding behavior,
and it's not something that will go away very easily.
So it's in your best interest right now,
while they're young to set the tone and show them what they should be doing
differently in order to seek affection from other people.
I've mentioned walking on a loose leash, many times in this video.
And if that's something you're still struggling with,
make sure you check out the playlist right here. If you want to teach your dog,
walk on a loose leash, come when called and just have great overall manners.
And you want our professional dog trainers to help you get there.
Make sure you check out our online course called Life Skills.
And the link for that is in the description below on that note, I'm Kayl.
This is Euchre. Happy training.