Leave it,
Yes. Good boy!
Teaching your dog to ignore distractions is a pretty crucial part of your dog
training. And in today's video,
instructor Steve is going to show you a step by step process to teach you how to
train your dog to ignore distractions on a single command. I'm Ken Steepe.
I'm Steve Walsh. Welcome back to McCann dogs.
Yeah. Today we're going to spend a little time teaching my seven month old puppy
funnel here, how to ignore distractions.
Now we're actually going to make sure that we teach our dogs how to leave things
alone or ignore distractions on a command because it's very handy if your dogs
out in the real world,
they're wandering off in the other side of the field and they get interested in
the deer running off.
Then you can say leave it or whatever that command is going to be and have them
respond right away. But like anything else,
I need to start close to help my dog be successful before I ever had any of that
kind of distance or reliability questions.
Now because we're starting with the basics,
I'm really gonna make sure I helped my dog be successful by controlling the
environment and also controlling the distraction. If I can take away high body,
I know that's my toy.
If I can take away as many of those things to help him understand how to be
successful, his understanding of the command will improve greatly.
Okay. Now you can see he is a puppy. He's a busy guy, and that's okay.
I'm going to help them. Now what I'm gonna use is two things. One,
I'm going to use a distraction that I can control, and in this particular case,
it's a Tupperware container with some dog food in it,
and I've just drilled a few holes in it there so he can smell it,
but he can't actually get to the food.
You could use whatever your dog is interested in.
It might be those sticky socks that are lying around the house.
It might be those shoes, or it might be, again,
a piece of food or something that they really, really take a liking to. Now,
not only am I going to control the distraction that's gonna attract my dog.
I'm also going to try and do everything I can to make it easier for my dog and
take this to a quiet place,
maybe a hallway or the basement where nobody's around.
Find a quiet room that you have a little bit of space to work. Okay? Now,
whatever space you have,
make sure that there's not noise that's going on or other things because we
really want to allow our dogs get focused on this thing first so that we can
show them how to ignore it. Now, here's how I'm going to set this up.
I'm going to take this item that I know my dogs can be pretty interested in and
I'm just simply going to put it on the floor. Okay?
Now I don't care if he sniffs it right now because I do want his interest.
If you're an August interested in other things,
switch it out for something that's a little bit more interesting,
interesting to him.
Now I'm going to place it on the floor and I'm simply gonna move a little bit
further away. Hit by, come on back here. Go ahead.
I'm going to encourage them to move with me. Now here's what needs to happen.
I need to have him take notice of what that distraction is and then I need to
give my command. Now the command that I'm going to use this, leave it and leave.
It means look away from what you're looking at and check back in with me.
It doesn't mean runaway, it doesn't mean anything else.
It simply means look back at me. Okay,
now I am also gonna use a little food so that he understands how to respond to
that command. Now two things are really important when I do this.
I am not going to go, no,
I'm not going to try and go as close as I can to that distraction because to me
it's not about going as close as I can to that distraction.
It's about teaching the dog to respond to the command in spite of that
distraction. And that's a very different approach.
I'm going to work further away from this thing.
So I'm going to get a little food in this situation.
I'm going to put it in my left hand. Okay. I'm going to tell him. Okay.
And I'm going to take a couple of steps toward that container.
The moment his eyes look in the direction of that container,
I'm going to say leave it and then I'm going immediately gonna put the food in
his nose and I'm going to turn him 180 degrees away and praise and reward him as
we do. Okay, so real time, it looks like this.
We're just going to move a little bit. Okay.
He knows I have a little bit of food in my hand, but it's not on his nose. Okay.
Okay. Bye.
Well, I know he also knows I have a little food in my hands.
I'm gonna make this a little harder.
Go ahead.
[Inaudible]. Yes. Good boy. I heard Ray. Excellent. Good job. Excellent job,
buddy. Good job. So I said leave it.
I immediately put the food to his nose and use the food to turn him away.
Now it happened pretty quick with this dog. He moves quite quickly.
But the one thing I want to highlight,
and I'm gonna do it again as I'm not pulling on his leash at this point,
I am saying here's the command and here's how to respond to it.
So I'm going to try it one more time. Okay, go ahead.
So I'm keeping the food away from his nose. Leave it. Yes. Good boy.
Excellent. Very good. Now I'm going to try it again. And if all is going well,
I'm going to try move a little closer to the distraction. Okay.
Now if I move closer and I say leave it and my dog is so distracted by that
thing that the food doesn't help them, you're just going to be patient.
You're going to put that food in their nose and just create a little bit of
space for the distraction,
but resist the urge to pull on them and walk away with a tight leash. Okay.
Again, we're showing the teaching phase. We'll test this in a minute. Leave it.
Yes. Good boy. Excellent. Now try and go a little closer.
Oh, he says, I know I've got food there, so leave it. Yes. Goodbye.
Excellent job. Good job. Now you don't that time he actually went,
I'm not sure if I want to look away from you, but the moment he did,
I didn't wait. His eyes left me. I said, leave it.
Then the food went to his nose.
Now even though I had to help him a little bit more at that time,
I still said yes.
The moment I got them turned and I still moved away with some excitement.
It's important that you help your dogs understand what the job is at that point,
which is to turn away and move with you.
Now I've spent a little time teaching and final how to leave this particular
distraction. And the reason I say this particular distraction,
it's every distraction is going to be a little bit different now because I spend
a little time teaching them how to respond with this particular distraction.
I feel confident that I can test him a little bit now.
Up until now he's looked at the distraction. I've said, leave it.
I've used that food to lure him away. I'm going to try it again.
I'm going to move further back again. Distances my friend.
When it comes to distractions, the further away I am,
the more chance of him being accessible, successful.
When I'm simply going to say leave it and I guess, see what happens.
Now if I say leave it and he turns and looks at me, I'm going to say yes,
I'm gonna move away and I'm going to really throw a party and let him know he is
absolutely doing the correct thing. Okay? Now here's the thing. If he doesn't,
no big deal. I'm going to repeat leave at one time.
My left hand is going to go on the leash and I'm just going to add some firm
pulses on that lation til he actually does check back in with me and moves away.
I'm still gonna say yes and praise him. Okay? But the next document,
the next time I try this out,
I might move further away again to see if I can help him be successful. Okay?
Now if I say leave it and he does, by all means, I'm still gonna throw a party,
I'm going to praise him and yes, and reward. But again, if he doesn't,
I'll repeat. Leave it one more time. One more time. Only my left hand.
We'll add some pulses on the leash at his head level. As I move away.
Here's my little rule of thumb though. If I have a am,
I'm training my dog with something and they make two mistakes.
So let's say I test him on leave it and he doesn't get it the first time and I
test him again. He doesn't get it the second time. He doesn't understand it.
In this situation, I need to go back and teach him. So I'll simply go back,
I'll get some food in my hand and go and rehearse those initial steps that we
talk about of saying leave it and then lowering and way.
So I'm gonna do a little test. He's done this a couple of times. Okay, buddy.
I don't have any food in my hand this time. Okay. The moment,
his little eyes leave me. I'm going to say leave it. We'll see what happens.
Okay, you're ready? He said, okay. Leave it. Yes.
Skip all ARA. Excellent job God. So you notice his eyes left me.
They went to that distraction. I said leave it.
His little head spun around and I made a really,
really big deal out about it about it.
Now you'll also notice I'm doing this far away.
I'm not walking up there to set them up to make a mistake.
I'm back here helping them to be correct. Now as he's more successful,
I will move a little closer. Okay. All right. So no food in my hand again.
Leave it. Yeah. Got by. Excellent. I can, yes. In their ward that. Okay.
Now I'm going to see if I can have him make a mistake. I'm on,
I'm not going to force him to make a steak though. I will tell you that. Okay.
I'm going to see if he can make a mistake and see if he needs a little help.
So I'm going to go really close to this thing. Good boy.
Good leave it. Leave it. Good boy.
I did catch you that time. Good job. So I said, leave it.
He looked at me, but look right back in that container, no big deal.
I repeated that, leave it,
added those pulses on the leash and I still praised him.
I still let him know he was, he did a great job,
but he didn't necessarily feed that one.
I'm going to save my really good rewards for the things he absolutely gets
right, but like anything else, at no time, I'm not mad at him. He's learning.
It's my job to help him understand now that I've had to help him,
I'm going to try it again.
But I tried to get him a little bit more distance to sort of build on his
success. Okay buddy, come on, be ready. He said leave it. Yeah,
good bye. Excellent. Good job.
So with a little bit of extra distance and a little bit of help,
he responds beautifully to that leave and I can make a big deal of that now
again,
once I've practiced this with several different in several locations and started
to add some things,
I would take the dog outside and just let the world distract them.
Oftentimes there are so many things going on outside in the world that we can
just let the dog look away and it really helps me practice my timing of saying
leave it and then using that food to lure away the same things that we practiced
right here in this room. I would practice out in the real world.
Now as the dog gets more successful,
you can also start to add more distractions.
So let's say there are dogs running around and playing. Now,
I wouldn't go right up to those dogs and expect my dog to leave it,
but maybe I can find a spot 50 or a hundred feet away across the field.
Let my dog look at those dogs, say leave it and turn them away.
The more time I spend building that foundation on. When you hear this command,
here's what to do. The more reliable, the more reliable it will be.
A further down the road. Now of course,
leave it as a fantastic command for things that are out in the world,
like dogs and squirrels and bikes and other things, but leave.
It can also be really important in a fact, a lifesaving command.
If there are things around that you don't really want your dog to have.
There are lots of things on the street that I want to make sure my dogs don't
take into their mouth. So if my dog has a strong leave at command,
it can really, really be beneficial.
So spend some time getting your foundation and then go out there and apply it in
their lives.
Other important commanded to teach your dog is to respond to their name.
And if you're interested in seeing that video, click that card right there.
I want to thank instructor Steve for joining us today.
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you'd have a well behaved for like a family member. On that note, I'm Ken.
I'm Steve, and this is vital. I be training.