Let me guess. You go outside, you wanna take your dog for a walk,
and all that happens is they're highly distracted by cars going by, people,
dogs, and your walks are a complete disaster and not much fun at all.
And in order to fix that problem,
you wanna go on more walks and try and work through it.
But what if I was to tell you that going on more walks is not actually gonna
solve your problem?
Today I'm gonna give you a few training exercises that you can do to teach your
dog to listen better to you with the distractions of outdoors.
So if you have a dog that's highly distracted by the outdoors and isn't really
food motivated as well, this video's for you.
Today I'm gonna be working with this Border Collie Euchre.
Now you may recognize Euchre from some of our videos a few years ago because she
actually lived with us while she was a puppy. Now Euchre lives with my brother
in downtown Toronto and there is so many distractions and
unfortunately one of her biggest hurdles is cars.
She's highly distracted by cars and apparently grass and rubbing around.
You big goofball.
So today we're here at the McCann Dog's property and we are gonna be working a
little bit on listening around distractions while there's cars going by.
And an added challenge with her is that she's not super food motivated.
So you're gonna have to see me work through a little bit of training using
multiple rewards in order to get some good focus from her.
So we haven't started any of our training yet,
and I just wanna show you kind of what naturally happens.
If I don't give her any information and there's a car about to come by,
this is naturally what's gonna happen. She sees a car,
she's pulling on the leash and there she goes. And again,
it irks my internal dog training body to let this happen right now.
But I wanna show you without good information, without any training whatsoever,
without any engagement,
she's gonna resort to what she's naturally distracted by.
Now her pain point is cars. Okay,
her pain point is cars. Your dog might be distracted by other people,
maybe it's other dogs, maybe it's people going by on bikes,
whatever it might be. So we're gonna work through some steps today.
And if you have a different distraction, your dog doesn't care about cars,
we're gonna go through the same steps.
You're just gonna use whatever distraction is hardest for your dog.
My ultimate goal is that I wanna be able to walk my dog around distractions and
have her understand to walk at my left hand side and walk close to me without
pulling. But in order to achieve that,
she needs to be able to listen to me first.
So rather than working on my walking skills,
I'm just gonna start off on basic listening skills and I'm gonna give you a few
examples. Now, all while I'm doing this, I'm gonna be focusing on the three Ds.
Now when we're doing our dog training, these three distractions,
duration distance,
those three Ds are things that we can control in order to make things
harder or to make things easier for our dog in order to build on success. Again,
what I'm trying to do is not put her in a situation where she's gonna fail over
and over and over again. I need to build on success.
So we're gonna talk a little bit about distance first.
Being right here beside the road with the cars just going right by is.
Not a good situation for our listening skills.
So I'm going to begin with asking her for a few different behaviors away
from the road so that I can get some success.
So I'm just gonna get her attention. Euchre, come on.
So I'm gonna move a little further away. Hi. Oh,
I already have some attention so I'm gonna reward. Yes. Good girl.
There comes a car. So I'm gonna talk to her with me this way. Euchre.Yes. Good.
So I'm gonna start about, I don't know, 30 feet, 40 feet from the road here.
And what I'm gonna do is just start off with some basic listening skills.
So I have my food ready? Yes. Good girl.
Now I wanna pinpoint what something I'm gonna do here is a little pro tip for
you.
Every single time Euchre decides to just check in with me without me asking,
oh, I almost missed it. As we're working through this,
I'm going to yes and reward her because I want her to learn that choosing me,
even without being asked is a really good thing.
Now here's an opportunity for me to work some distractions. Euchre! yes,
good girl. I could reach in and use a bit of a touch to help her be successful.
Yes. Good, good choice. Sit. Yes.
Good girl. I can reward her for a sit. Good girl.
Euchre. Yeah.
There's my girl. Yes.
So she didn't really listen very well there becuase she was distracted by the
treats in the grass.
So you'll notice I wasn't just saying Euchre and hoping for the best I was
saying Euchre and giving her a little touch on the body just to get her
attention.
The same thing if I was trying to talk to you and you weren't paying attention,
I might just give you a little tap on the shoulder. Euchre. Yes. Good.
And once I get that attention, I can yes. And reward. Euchre.
Yes. This she is good. And then I can yes.
And reward once I have focus. Good girl.
So we have a little bit of attention here.
So what I can start to do is lessen the distance. So she's doing quite well.
I'm gonna go a little closer to the road. Okay. Euchre. Yes.
Good girl. Before she gets too committed to the distraction,
I'm gonna call her again. Okay. Good girl. Euchre. Yes. Good.
Each time that she responds, I can yes. And reward her.
Now I mentioned at the top of the video, okay, leave that!
That she's fairly focused on food, but not really.
Right now she's focused on the food because I'm not too close to the road.
But you may see that change.
And I have tug toy slipped away in the back of my pants here just in case I need
it. Euchre, yes. Good, good girl.
So just using some simple responses to name, just to get her focused.
Now the other thing that I want her to be able to do is move with me in a loose
So I'm gonna just take a few steps in a different direction and I'm gonna just
use some fun, happy tones to get her focus. Here comes a car, Euchre. Yes.
Good girl. Excellent. This way. Euchre. Yes. Good girl.
Good with me this way? Yes. Good here. This way. Yes. Good girl.
And I'm just.
Gonna change direction and all I want her to do. Wow. Good.
Look at you without food. Here comes a car. Good with me?
Yes. Okay, have a tug for that. Woo-hoo.
All I want her to do here is just move with me on a loose leash and
choose to focus on me rather than getting distracted with the cars.
Now why is she successful? I'm engaging.
I'm moving quickly to keep that exciting and attractive to her and
rewarding often.
Now that last bit she did quite a bit without any rewards before getting
reinforcement as she starts to get a bit better. Good girl,
I can lessen those distractions. Out! Lessen those rewards. Okay, sit.
So I said this before, but I think it's really important to, to say this again.
Although my ultimate goal is that I wanna be able to go for a nice stroll down
the down the street with my dog and have her walk really well at my side. I'm
not able to do that right off the bat because that actually takes an immense
amount of training and control.
What we're looking for to have success on first is your dog's ability to just
listen to you without needing you to pull up food or have to pull on their leash
a bunch of times.
Our goal here within McCann method is to build on levels of success.
What I don't wanna do in my training is go for a walk and constantly be telling
her, no, hey, leave it. I don't like that. I'm frustrated.
She's frustrated and it's just a lot of negativity.
So the reason why I'm choosing some of the exercises like response to name or
just moving around and getting her to follow me,
even just simply sitting on a loose leash is so that she is getting lots of
reinforcement for being with me,
being on a loose leash and being attentive. And if I can check those boxes,
it's going to be easier for me then to progress to walking.
What I'm trying to do is put her in a situation where she's rarely wrong and
she's mostly right. So let's get back to the three Ds.
We talked a little bit about distance. I'm now about 20 feet from the road.
She's lying here quite calmly, which is great. Oops, right here. Lie down.
Good girl. I'm able to get a response to a lie down 20 feet away.
So the next thing we're gonna do is talk about how this impacts distraction.
Now obviously the closer I go to the road,
the more distraction she's gonna have,
but what about what I have on me that can compete with those distractions?
There's some dogs that get so focused on the distraction that you could wag you
know, a steak, oops, sorry, I'm just gonna keep dog training as I talk.
Here babe. I didn't tell her she could get up, lie down,
so I'm just gonna make her lie down again. Good girl.
What I don't wanna do is just let her just go and do her own thing,
even though I'm talking to you guys here. Good girl. Yes, that's better.
There's some dogs that you could wag a steak in front of their face and if a
car goes by or a dog goes by, they could care less.
They just want that distraction.
So I need to make sure that whatever I'm using to reinforce her,
she finds more valuable than whatever she's distracted by.
So think about your level of distraction. Think about your level of reward.
I have some low value treats in here. I have some high value treats,
like I just have some cut up cheese. I also have a tug toy.
This is for her the ultimate. Again, your dog might be different,
you're gonna have to figure that out for your dog.
But I'm gonna try and go a little closer and I might need a resort to using my
tug toy rather than the food. And what I'm gonna do this time,
and here's a specific tip about cars is I actually would love for her to
learn that when a car goes by, oops, come here bud.
When a car goes by that I would actually lie down what I would actually like her
to sit or lie down so that it's more of a safety concern.
So I'm gonna go a little closer to the road now I'm gonna wait for some cars to
go by and when they do, I'm gonna work on getting her to sit or lie down.
And if she's able to do that, I'm gonna reward her. Okay babe?
So I'm gonna go a little closer. Yes. Oh, good girl. Did you guys see that?
I moved forward a few steps and without pulling,
she turned and she looked at me without me asking her. Remember?
I said be on the lookout for those to make sure we get some rewards in. Okay,
good. Okay, here comes some cars. I'm gonna bring her into my side. Sit. Oops,
get in. Sit. Good. I don't want her sitting in front of me again.
That's not really very respectful. Okay, here comes a car.
It's getting a little bit closer. Yes. Good. Sit. Good girl. Good.
Oh yes. Good. Sit. All right, it's coming by. This guy's driving nice and slow.
That's helpful to me. Good. Sit. Yes. Get it.
Oh my goodness. What a decision.
Wow.
So not only did she hold a sit on a loose leash there without me even
asking, she chose to look at me when that car went by. So as a reward,
we're gonna have a little game of tug. Again,
if your dog's not that toy motivated,
maybe you would give them a jackpot of cheese or steak or chicken or give them
like a big, you know, big pet or something. Something that your dog says,
oh my God, it just hit the jackpot. This is way more fun than chasing cars.
Good girl. Okay,
out today I'm only gonna share with you a few tips and tricks on how to work on
better verbal control, leash, walking leash respect.
But in our online Life Skills Program,
we're gonna go through the entire process step by step.
And what's great about it is once we get to know you and your dog,
we can make some personalized changes to help you be more successful. Just like
I know Euchre's favorite reward is a tug toy when I'm up against a distraction,
we'll be able to help you with those same decisions.
So we would love to work with you and your dog.
Let's talk about a couple technique things there,
because that probably happened very, very fast. Number one,
when you have the leash on,
we need to make sure that we're holding it so that it doesn't impact our timing
by having the leash super loose.
If I'm just holding a handle of the leash and she decides to dart after a
distraction, she's gonna be gone in a jiffy. And,
and I'm not gonna have very good control.
So I'm gonna have my leash gathered up.
I have my left hand free since she's right here so I can more easily reward.
And you may also notice that when I'm rewarding her yes, and she looks at me,
I'm guessing I'm reward her in way that her head is turned away from the
distraction. I'm not saying yes when a car goes by,
I'm feeding her for looking at the car.
I don't want her to think that has value. Yes, good.
Look at all these cars going by. Yes, I want her to think that the value at me.
So reward placement is really important now with the leash Euchre is making a
lot of great choices. But you know, if she was struggling,
I could a go a little bit further away increase my distance back to her,
one of our Ds. Or B,
if she did decide to get up and chase after a car or go after a distraction,
I could cut my leash so I have a little bit more control and I could bring her
back. Now in order to sit, I could bring my right hand close to her leash.
So I have good control. I could place her into a down,
but I want to do something that's going to make it happen because again,
my dog's so distracted, she might not follow treats back.
She doesn't want the food, she wants the distraction.
but what I don't wanna do is stand here and say, sit, sit, sit, sit,
sit, sit. Well, she's not listening to me now.
I'm just basically teaching her that I'm a broken record and I'm gonna give her,
you know, a million chances to respond. So I need to be able to give her a cue,
give her a command, and then follow through either with some help,
whether it's with food, whether it's with a placement, or if that's not working,
I need to build my distance so that this is a little easier to conquer.
We just talked a little bit about distance.
Now I'm walking further away from the road. I have some food.
And now because I'm pretty far yes, from the road,
look at what she's decided to offer me. Yes, some nice loose leash walking.
It's because I'm not so close to that distraction anymore. She's saying,
Ooh mom, I like what you have for me.
So I'm able to get a little bit more success back here.
Now to be a smart dog trainer, I'm not going to expect that she can do this.
When I walk back out to the road,
I know that the closer I get to the road right now in our training, oops,
that's better, she's going to have more failure.
So I'm gonna pick and choose my battles and I'm gonna, yes,
I'm gonna take my wins when I can get them. And if that means I'm asking for,
you know, a little bit of higher expectation from her,
further away from those distractions. Euchre, oops, that's it. Good girl.
Then I know I can get some wins there. Yes, it good girl.
As I get closer to the road,
I'm gonna ask her for a little bit more simple behaviors where she doesn't have
to use her brain quite as much. We've been talking about the three different Ds,
but what I failed to mention is you're actually gonna be working on all of these
things at the exact same time so you don't work distance and then work
distraction and then work duration. These things are actually working together.
Now I've talked about distance. So how far, how close do you go?
I talked about distraction. You know,
what do you have as a reward that is going to compete with whatever distraction
you're talking about. But I haven't talked about duration yet.
And here's where this is where you really need to know your dog. You know,
how long should you ask them to do the behavior that you're looking for? Like,
we're not gonna make them sit there for several minutes at a time before
rewarding or breaking and, and lessening the pressure of the distraction.
And how long do you go here for?
Like maybe you are used to going for a half hour walk. Well,
maybe instead you spend 20 minutes in your driveway or 20 minutes, you know,
at a park where there's stuff going on.
Think about the amount of time and make sure that you're not pushing it past the
point where your dog can be successful. I'm gonna do one last exercise with her.
Now I've decided to make a few things harder.
So I've made the distance more challenging. I'm out on the road now.
I don't have the fence between us.
I'm much closer to the road now in terms of distractions, it's higher,
but I have a higher value reward. I have my toy.
I don't know if she'll take food when we're this close,
but in terms of the duration, I'm only gonna work for short little bits. Yes,
good choice. So I'm gonna make her here bud. Come in and sit at my side.
Sit. Good girl.
The other thing I'm gonna do is make sure my leash is loose and I'm only gonna
work this sit for a second. So I see a car coming behind me. Good. Sit.
Good girl. Now the moment she slows that sit, when that cars go by,
I'm gonna yes and reward her. Good. Sit. Good girl. Good Sit.
Yes. What a good sit again. If she was to get up, I place her back.
Here comes the car. Sit. Sit. Yes. Okay, get it. Woohoo. Good girl.
Yay.
So I don't stand here and wait for car after car after car to go by before I
release and reward her. I wanna let her release and have a lot of play.
Especially if you have a dog that's highly distracted by something like cars or
things where they need to be really active.
Sometimes sitting still for a long time and getting cookies is actually not what
they think is fun. This is a border collie. She's got lots of energy.
She wants to move around.
So part of her reward is that she gets to jump up outta that sit and have a
little game of fun. Good. So again,
my goal is not to put her in a situation that every single time she fails.
Euchre didn't make any mistakes there because I've made the decision feeling
that she was ready for this step to come out and give this a try.
And I rewarded before she had a chance to fail.
Fail could look like pulling on the leash. It could look like lunging out at the
distraction.
Now you might not make these progressions as quickly.
If your dog was not successful behind the fence, 30 feet away,
you are not then gonna come and stand beside the side of a road and expect your
dog to make good choices.
You have to make sure that if you're gonna make progressions,
you are successful as you go. What a good choice.
Now that was a lot of steps all in one go.
So in order to end on something fun,
I might just go further away from the road and just do a couple easy things.
Or maybe we'd go in and we just celebrate on that because I I would say
that I have a pretty happy dog on my hands here and we had a lot of huge
successes around those distractions outside.
The exercises I showed you today are challenging and they're gonna take a lot of
repetition before you're ready to move on. But if things are going well,
you're probably gonna be ready to move on to teaching your dog to walk on a
loose leash. And if you think you're ready for that,
check out this video right here. On that note, I'm Kayls. This is Euchre,
happy training!