Five Alive has been home with us for a month now.
And one thing that we noticed in the comments is that a lot of people say that
we make it look really easy with our puppies.
And one of the reasons why it comes off that way is we have a very clear
direction and have very, very clear idea of what we wanna do with our puppies,
right from the beginning.
So it makes it a little bit easier to achieve that also we're professional dog
trainers. So that kind of helps as well. So in today's video,
I wanna go over some of the things that we really tried to focus on within this
first month home of having Mr Five Alive here.
And I'm also gonna go over some of the things that we're still trying to work
through, trying to work on. Now, we are several videos into this puppy series,
but if this is your first time here, let me take you back day one.
This is our new puppy vlog. Now as a dog trainer, for more than 20 years,
I have raised and trained a lot of dogs already in this series.
I'm gonna share with you some tips and tricks that I've learned along the way.
And I bet many of them you've never heard of I'm Kayl McCann.
This is eight-week-old mixed breed puppy Five Alive welcome back
to McCann Dogs.
When you have a new puppy,
it seems like you have an endless list of things that you need to work on and
you do,
but you wanna try and think about some of the top the top things that you wanna
think about within the first month.
So that's specifically what we're gonna go over today.
And the first one I wanna talk about is a pretty important one that is house
training,
definitely something you wanna have under control within that first month of
having your puppy home. In terms of house training with five,
this one has actually gone relatively well for us.
He clearly understands how to hold his bladder.
He understands not to have accidents in the house. He also has been really,
really good for weeks now at going to the door to let us know when
he has to go outside. And this started pretty early,
but I wanna share with you why this has gone so, so easily for us.
And that is we have sort of set him up in a situation where it's easy for him to
ask us to go outside because he's contained in the same room with us all the
time.
And we have a great puppy training house because our kitchen is right attached
to the door to go outside and we're able to barricade him into the kitchen using
baby gates so that you know, there's only a couple places that he can go.
If he has to go to the bathroom,
we can see him every step of the way we can read his body language when he was
young and he would disengage from us or if he would start to sniff or anything
that seemed, you know, as a clue were or a sign to us,
that they had that he had to go to the bathroom. We could start the,
the process of teaching him to go outside.
Once you are able to control the environment so that he,
he never had an opportunity to sneak off and have an accident because we were
either had his house-line on, we had the baby gates on up around.
And and when we couldn't watch him, he has been in a crate.
So that part has gone really, really well from us,
but it has been very highly controlled since the beginning. Therefore,
it's been a pretty fast process. So for you,
after having your puppy home for one month,
there's a couple of guidelines or benchmarks that you need to think about.
Number one, your puppy, shouldn't be having any accidents in the house anymore.
After one month of being home,
they should have a pretty good idea of holding their bladder and also asking you
to when when they have to go outside. That also means that after a month home,
you should have a pretty good idea of what your puppy looks like when they have
to go to the bathroom. So you know, do they disengage a little bit,
do they get really sniffy?
I know if I'm training Five and he has to go to the bathroom,
he gets really like disengaged and distracted, which is not normal for him.
So as soon as I feel that from him automatically I go, Hm,
I think he might have to go to the bathroom.
So reading your puppy to know your puppy's really important,
and last but not least, you wanna have narrowed down some type of schedule.
So for five, this might be a little bit too much TMI for you,
but I know in the morning he's gonna have two pees and then he's gonna poop
before we come in for breakfast, I know he's gonna have another poo around,
you know, late afternoon and he's gonna have another poo before we go to bed.
And that is, has been pretty consistent, you know, since he's been home.
And if, you know, one of that's a little bit off the mark,
I don't panic or anything like that, but it's,
it's really helpful to know because I can kind of mold and shape my day around
doing that next. We're gonna talk a little bit about crate training. Now.
Our crate training has been going quite well with Mr. Five Alive.
He's very comfortable in his crate.
And at this point after having him home for just one month,
we're still utilizing the crate very often and that's gonna continue even in the
upcoming months as he starts to get a little bit older,
but what's nice is he's already starting to develop, you know,
some skills like lying on his bed or, you know,
playing a little bit more appropriately with a toy or a bone on his own.
So he is already starting to spend a little bit more time out of his crate than
maybe the first few weeks home.
However he is highly supervised because something that is a little bit different
about him at this age or at this stage in the game is he's starting to chew a
little bit more.
And one thing that I've noticed is I've been having a little bit of bedding in
his crate, and if it's a certain type of bedding,
he thinks that he should just shred it apart and play with it.
So I've been really careful about the type of bedding that's in his crate,
because I certainly don't want him to consume it or hurt himself in any way.
So if there's just like a small blanket, he seems to be okay,
anything else he really can't have? So at the one month, mark,
your puppy should be relatively comfortable in the crate. At this point,
you could still be feeding your dog in the crate and using it on a pretty
regular basis.
The other thing your dog should be comfortable with at this point is being able
to stay in the crate for longer periods of time.
Sometimes what happens when the puppies get a little bit older is that people
start to use their crate less and they shouldn't do that because as the puppy
start to get older, after one month,
you're gonna start to get maybe puppy problems that you didn't have when they
were a lot younger.
You might get more chewing or them doing more nipping and biting, or, you know,
more behavioral things because they're a little older, little,
a little bit more experienced, they're more comfortable in your home.
So you know,
that's actually a more important time to be using your crates. And last one,
at least they shouldn't really be having any excessive barking in their crate.
At this point, they should understand Five, Five is licking.
The camera man's face right now.
At this point they shouldn't be having excessive barking in the crate.
They should understand that they can go in and be relatively quiet for,
you know, for whatever period of time that you need them to be.
And that comes with comfortability that comes from the dog being used to going
in their crate that comes with the, you, you know,
building a lot of value for in the crate. And then in some cases,
if you are getting noise from time to time, like we happen to be right now,
you need to be able to properly address it with good timing.
We actually have a lot of really great crate training, barking,
specific videos here on our channel.
So we'll make sure that we link that in the description description below for
you next. We're gonna talk about the house line. Now, the house-line,
if you've watched your, our yes, boy,
our YouTube channel before is something that we reference a lot and that's
actually what five has attached to his collar right now. Now,
if he didn't realize that orange is Five Alive's color,
then I think this is a pretty dead giveaway. Yes,
my dogs all have their own color. I recognize it's ridiculous.
But the house line is really, really in important.
And basically it's just an old leash that you don't really care too much about.
We've cut the end off the handle. So it can't get caught on things.
And five wears this house line any moment that he is not in his crate,
regardless of what we're doing, even when he's snuggling with us on the couch,
he's still wearing a house-line.
And it's really helpful because I'm never chasing him.
I'm never grabbing at him and scaring him.
I always just get to go right for the line. Now this line is so ratty.
You can see it is very well loved,
very well used because he's wearing it all of the time.
Now I will be truthful after having a month home and us wearing this line,
basically every single moment that he's out of the crate.
I can't really remember the last time I've really used it too much because we
used it so much in the first couple weeks in our training and helping. Hey Five,
come here buddy. He's starting to figure out the rules of the road. Okay.
You know what I think we,
this is this disengagement that we were talking about before.
Do you see how he's going to the door? So I need to be a good dog. Yes.
Good boy. I need to be a good dog trainer and we need to go outside.
So we will be right back.
We go. That's better. Okay. Come here, buddy.
Now you see only have this really big long, hi bud. This really big,
long line on him.
And that's actually something that I've just brought in inside so that I can
show you. I actually don't bring it inside very much because it gets very dirty.
But this is about a 20, 25 foot long line.
And this is what we transfer him to when he goes outside. That way he has,
you know, he can bomb around a little bit. He can have a bit of fun,
but also if he starts to pick up something that he's not supposed to picks up
sticks or whatever, it's not a cute to young man, no way.
I can address him. Now again, see I had the house line on,
I switched it right away if he didn't have a leash on there and he grabbed this
and I went to take it from his mouth. What a lot of puppies will do,
is they'll play that catch me if he can game. But my line's on, I could, well,
like how fast I was able to stop that.
I literally did it without stopping to speak to you guys.
After one month of your puppy being home in terms of a house-line or a long
line,
your puppy should be wearing these items all of the time to ensure that you have
control.
You're really not gonna worry about weaning off of them until you get to a point
where your puppy's training is really progressed.
And you can't really remember the last you had to pick it up and use it to stop
your puppy from doing something. So it could be, you know,
a couple months in the future, that would be completely normal at this point.
The other thing sometimes people will mention to us is that the dogs will chew
on the lines and that's why they don't wanna use them. Well,
you saw me address the chewing of the line just just a minute ago.
It's just about following through and teaching your puppy that you they're not
allowed to do that. You're gonna do that through good supervision and timing.
If you're interacting with your dog, if your eyes are on your dog,
you're able to see them make those choices and then you can address it.
It it's just really about consistency at that point.
Now they really shouldn't be chewing their lines or anything like that,
you know, after being home for, for a month or so.
But it doesn't mean they're not gonna do it. Sometimes you saw Five do it there.
I'm not gonna worry about it. I'm going to address it. We're gonna move on.
We're gonna talk about my favorite next. And that is skills. Come here, Mr. Man.
Now skills are really important because this is what's gonna build relationship
with your dog.
This is what's gonna lead you to not having to use the crate or use the
house-line or use all of those other things as your skills start to get
stronger. Now you can,
I have a little keen bean here and throughout the video today,
I've actually just been using his dinner as part of his reward. Yes. Good boy.
Part of what I'm using to, you know, train him throughout the evening. You know,
you don't have to worry, be worried about over feeding your dog,
but just you can ration some of the food that they have.
I've even thrown a couple extra little goodies in here as well.
And I just have work for his food. We do a bunch of fun stuff together.
So in terms of what I've been focusing on it for skills with Five in the first
month home,
I've been working a lot on things that encourage him to learn about problem
solving things like tricks. We've done all kinds of tricks, ready? Yes. Right.
Right.
Yay boy, all kinds of tricks, all kinds of silly things just to get him focused.
But the other thing we're gonna do is start with things to teach him about being
calm minded or having some self control.
We've been working on things like rule outs.
So if I hold some food in front of his face, Yes. Good boy.
He needs to have man. He needs to have manners. Good boy.
So if he goes to go for it, I pull all the way. Yes. Good boy. Yes.
Good boy. Good. Good.
Okay.
Yay. He has to wait for me to release him.
So just silly little games that teach him about using a bit of self control.
He's a pretty wild and crazy boy. So those types of things are really important.
Now in terms of obedience skills,
we've been working a lot on teaching him anything to do with coming to us. Now,
we haven't put him in any type of situation where we have tested his response to
come or his name because he's still a puppy and he's only been here for a month,
but we've been doing all kinds of things to teach him that coming to us,
there's a ton of value. You can see whenever him feeding him. Also,
I'm always feeding him for being nice and close to me,
but we do all kinds of games where I'll call his name and I'll run away and
we'll play tug.
When he catches me or Ken will hold him at one end of the hall and I'll go to
the other and we'll call back and forth actually within the month,
we've had to make it harder on him because that's been too easy.
So I'll go hide in the house and call him and he has to come and find me.
And then Ken will do the same. It also gives him way more exercise,
which is awesome,
but things that build value for potentially skills that are gonna maybe be
lifesaving in his future. We haven't really done much walking on leash,
which I think surprises a lot of people in the first month.
He hasn't really been on a walk yet,
but we practice all kinds of leash exercises where he's learned to walk up my
side up and down the hallway or around the,
the island or he's learned to come in and sit at my left hand side and hold
position on a loose leash,
all foundational skills that are gonna help me when he is a little bit older and
he is ready to start some of that training. So at this stage in the first month,
it's all about building value for you and teaching them that as a young puppy,
you can learn to listen to me. When there's other things going on,
I just thought of another thing that we've done this first month is we started
to teach him how to listen around our other dogs.
So for the first couple weeks home,
the only training I did was just with me and him and no other distractions like
that around, within the last couple weeks,
I've been doing some training with one of our Border Collies hanging around or
you know,
outside where the dogs are on the other side of the fence or whatever it might
be so that the distraction is there.
It's controlled and he's learning to listen.
So what should you be focused on for your skills in the first month home,
where you're gonna focus on anything that's gonna build, focus and drive on you,
whether that be trick training,
that would be response to name anything that gets your dog, you know,
motivated to listen to you.
That's really gonna be the main focus for the first month home before you get
into the, the bigger, more important things right now,
it's just about building fun and teaching your puppy to lern to listen around
distractions. Woo.
Now we've been talking a lot about this video things that I've been working on
Five,
but if you're wanting to know things that are more specific and right for your
puppy, check out our online class called Puppy Essentials.
The link for that is in the description below.
We need to talk about socialization.
Now it's less about interaction in more about experience and that's exactly what
we've tried to do with Five within this first month home.
Now you do need to be careful about where you take your dog or where you're
exposing your puppy before they've had all their vaccines.
But that doesn't mean that you can't start some of that, you know,
exposure process. You can get them to different places in your house.
You can build distractions. You can change footings.
You can do all kinds of things,
even just in the comfort of your home or take them out and about,
but go when there's less traffic and try and be aware that you're not taking
them to places where less of other dogs have been,
but it's really important that your puppy doesn't just stay inside the house for
the first little bit that they're home. They need to get out and they need to,
you know, experience the world little bit.
You need to do need to remember though, in the first month home,
they are very impressionable. So it's very,
very important that if you're going to be giving your dog experiences,
they need to be positive ones. So if I have him around other people,
or even if those people have dogs,
I am really weary are really cautious that those
experiences are going to be positive ones. You know,
if he's going to be meeting kids or anything like that, I might choose.
I love her. You're so cute.
I might choose to hold him in my arms rather than put him on the floor and,
and put him in an intimidating situation.
I make specific choices that are going to give him good experiences and help
build his comp evidence. As he gets older, as he gets more training, I can,
you know, up the ante a little bit, but socialization you know,
minimal interaction at this point. But tons and tons of exposure is important,
but it does need to be highly controlled.
I mentioned earlier about how we're not going on walks yet.
And this always surprises people because they wonder if you're not walking your
puppy. What do you do with them to get rid of all that energy?
Now we've actually made a video exactly on that topic.
So if you wanna check that out, click that card right here.
We have been having so much fun making this series.
So if this is your first time with us,
make sure you hit that subscribe button so we can help you to have a well
behaved four-legged family member on that note, I'm kale.
This is Five Alive happy training.