A Game That Teaches Your Dog Self-Control – Professional Dog Training Tips

A Game That Teaches Your Dog Self-Control – Professional Dog Training Tips

I think we all want a dog who makes good choices and some people that I run into seem to think that their dog never makes good choices and that some dog certain breeds might always make good decisions and I’m here today to tell you that that’s not exactly the case today I’m going to show you a game called rule-out and it’ll actually teach your dog to make better choices with a lot of their exercises and it’s actually at the same time gonna reinforce some of those great skills that your dog already has my name is Ken steep this is Grand Slam welcome back to McCann dogs if this is your first time on the channel and you consider your dog a family member then you’re gonna want to hit that subscribe button we post new videos every single week to help you spend some quality time with your four-legged family members so the rule-out game today I’m actually going to show you with slams on your bed skill now we post a video a little while ago it’s a teach your dog to go and relax on their bed you know if you’re going to read a book you can ask your dog to go lie down on the bed or if you’re gonna watch a YouTube video you can send your dog and they’ll go lie down on their bed we’re actually gonna use the on your bed today for part of our rule out game if you have a dog who you know leaps out to grab a cookie for example when you’re going to give them a treat this is a great exercise for them you can put the cookie and the flat up in the palm of your hand and if your dog moves toward it just close your hand and then when they offer to sit or they offer to back away a little bit then you can open your hand if they remain in that position or they sit or back away or you know take that pressure off then you would yes and reward them it really is a great way to teach your dog to make good decisions it’s actually something we use in our training classes to reinforce it down for example and I thought using behind your bed would be a great way to show off you know a relative relatively stationary way how this game works and all you really need is a bed in this case got your dog of course and some kibble or some food here’s how the rule-out game is gonna work I’ve taken some kibble in my hand and I’ve taken it from slams bowl and I’m going to present it to him just like this and if slam decides he’s gonna get up off of his bed to get those treats I’m gonna close my hand when slam decides to sit back and lie down and relax then I can open my hand again if you remains in position I’m gonna reward him now if you ever done that super motivated by food it’s hard to say what that distance is going to need to be for you to find success but I wouldn’t open your hand and immediately shove it in your dog’s face because they’re probably going to break but you do want to find the point where they need to think about it where they need to remain in position you know maybe even check in with you as you’re holding the food and then you can reward them at that point but I’ll show you what I mean my first time that I’m going to show slam this food I’ll just hold it out here yes good boy and then I can reward him with that other hand I’ll move it a little bit closer oops good boy very nice buddy good so he’s doing a really great job now keep in mind I’ve chosen the lowest value food I know there is four slam with this kibble so it’s making it a little bit easier but let’s try it again let’s get a little bit closer now slant rank bought it yes good boy what a good choice buddy very nice oops yes so he needs to remain in position yes good boy oops I didn’t make that much easier now you’ll notice slam was having lots of success when I had my hand up nice and high when I brought it down to his eye level or even beneath his eye level it made it a lot more difficult so keep that in mind when you’re introducing this game to your dog it’s a lot easier for them to maintain position with my hands way up here but it’s a lot harder when my hands weight down beneath their eye level because it’s easier for them to get it and it almost looks like I’m presenting him with a treat so I started wondering maybe if I presented some higher value food I’ve got some cheese here in my hand and hippy shake loves cheese remember the criteria so she needs to be lying down and she needs to be on her bed those are the only two things I expect of her as I present this distraction as we play the rule-out game so let’s see how hippy shake does yes good girl job buddy a little distracted oh so she moved toward it I close my hand yes you can see she’s really exercising some great self-restraint there because she she really wanted to lie down good girl now she’s getting a little frantic so I’m just gonna move it away a little bit good girl good and we’ll reward her for that great lie down on her bed we’re gonna make it really hard for hippy shake because she’s done so well and she’s getting a little bit excited she’s probably really hungry so I’m gonna present it really close to her and see what choice she makes yes good girl you saw her really think about that one good job hippy shake good girl she backed up she looked at the food she backed up and I was able to reward her with it now one thing going to keep in mind you’ll see each time I’m rewarding her I’m bringing the food to her the last thing I wanted to do is hurt make a great choice her to make a great choice and then bring her out to that food so I’m bringing that food all the way to her and she’s done such a great job nice job shaky if either if the dog struggled at any point in time with you know I had to close my hand a couple times in a row and they were making the wrong decision over and over again the best thing I can do is move my hand away farther because because it makes the decision a lot easier for them we know that a solid foundation of skills is built on success so it’s no help to slam or hippie shake if they continue to not be rewarded in position I need to move that hand away and higher as certainly less enticing so move my hand away higher until they find a point where they can be successful then I can yes and reward them then I can move that hand in a little bit closer and wait and see what they do now I’ve intentionally chosen the dinner-hour work through some of these exercises because I know I want the dogs to be hungry so that they have to think a little bit more be a little bit more thoughtful and it’ll make these distractions especially that’s something like cheese make it even more distracting for them and slam really has to make a tough decision do I remain in position or do I go for it do I try to get the food so let’s see how slam does with the cheese yes good boy now I don’t really like how close he keeps getting good boy and you can be as critical as you want to be with your dog yes you’ll see I was careful slim hadn’t gotten up or gone off his bed but he was sort of slowly inching towards those treats so the moment I saw him put his head back and make the choice to remain on the bed i rewarded him for that this is as tough as I’m gonna make it he’s not really sure cuz this is this is pretty tough well she’s gonna figure out very quickly yes good boy that if he leaves the food alone that he’s gonna be rewarded with it good job if you haven’t seen our girl relax on your bed video I’ll link a card to it up here it’s a really really useful skill that that your dog can have so that you can just have some downtime and you know that they’re safe and relaxed on their bed but if this is your first time on the channel make sure you hit that subscribe button we publish new videos every single week to help you spend some quality time with your four-legged family members do you see that card beside me that’s actually our McCann dog’s vlogs playlist we’re 21 time world champion dog trainer Kahle McCann and I navigate our lives with our seven dogs I think you’re gonna enjoy it on that note I’m Ken type of training [Music]