How To Train Your Dog To Ignore Distractions – Professional Dog Training Tips
actually here on time this week because
last week we started streaming streaming
to nobody it wasn’t going anywhere
we a lot of things to say yeah very
quite an interesting first few minutes
now tonight we’re going to be talking
about how to train your dog to ignore
distractions and I know that’s something
that a lot of people really struggle
with you know that’s something that it
comes up in a lot of situations for dog
owners and there are some tricks and
tips that we’re going to give you today
that will help you from the ground up
you know to help you teach your puppy
how to pay more attention to you how to
teach your dog to you know really you
know not get so distracted when you’re
out and about and I think that we should
check that we’re on yeah I think we’re
oh I think so it’s hard to say normally
now you know what I can do I can
actually go type if you can hear us I
can usually go to well there’s a hello
see what’s going on here but one thing
I’d like to mention is that this episode
and coincides with our Raptors
basketball game now we have a we’re very
close to Toronto and there’s been a lot
of Canadian pride surrounding the
Raptors and it has been pretty exciting
now I know arm thanks guys I know our
yes it is but now we’ve we’ve were
worried we never know if we’re yeah
we’re not negative reinforcement mm-hmm
great great to see everybody helping us
out and I see hello hello hi hi hi
Fraser’s drop a little in the chat good
to see tttt toots have already started
but getting back to things for a moment
now we are we’re just wrapping up the
pre-show but we are in the basketball
playoffs if you follow basketball at all
I generally I don’t really follow
basketball that much but I do when the
playoffs are going on you know when when
your teams in the championship it’s way
more exciting ya know it’s got a root
for your country for sure and somebody
else that is a big fan of basketball is
our moderator Dan the moderator man and
have actually set up a live shot to see
what Dan is up to now I’m hoping he’s
ready because I know he’s really excited
about
game and I’d hate for him to miss it but
let’s just see here if we can go to Dan
so you can go live to Dan’s place yeah
there he is
hey buddy well there’s Lucy Lou yeah it
looks like he’s ready he’s ready for the
big game tonight so this is going to be
pretty good yeah yeah Wow Dan I’m
impressed yeah I can do that yeah I’m
also very impressed that he can spin
that ball like that that is something
that I could never do and it was quite
embarrassing for me
so I don’t think I’ve ever tried let’s
get right into things today we’re going
to talk about how to train your dog to
ignore distractions we’re going to talk
about some stationary skills you know
during playtime teaching your dog to
ignore distractions when you’re walking
on leash and it’s all coming up I’m Ken
steep I’m Cal McCann and welcome back to
McCann dog I see lots of people who are
dropping some great information in the
chat and these are train station
regulars you know they’re they’re
frequent passengers here on the training
train and I’d like to know for anybody
who hasn’t commented yet where are you
where you going us from where are you
heading into the train station from I’d
love to know more importantly I love to
roll this brownie that Lori Randolph
says it’s funny hearing Canadians say
out and about oh yeah I think because we
don’t say a bhoot don’t they think that
we say aboot yeah well we’re about yeah
we really like draw of course I do you
like the inflection on the end of on the
end of those words I wouldn’t vote yes
you definitely do just a friendly
reminder as well that if you are
watching us from Facebook that you won’t
be able to comment we won’t be able to
see your comments or what you’re writing
so if you want to be able to ask
questions so that we can see it and then
we can answer your questions which we
will be doing a lot over the livestream
make sure you get off Facebook and get
on the Macan dogs YouTube page and you
can head to the link there and then
you’ll be able to ask questions and
we’ll be able to see it yeah that’s an
important point because we do these
train stations for you guys so if you
have questions when you have questions
drop them in the chat you know our
moderator can take a look at them and
we’ll also see them we have like a I
have a screen set up sometimes the chat
goes really fast
so I’ve got to go back a couple of pages
but we have something set up to address
that but let’s see where people are
joining us of Americans today yeah I see
let’s see yes a few interesting is from
Hobart Australia Michigan the United
Kingdom thanks for staying up so late
with us Nicola nice I know it’s maybe
Foster yeah midnight yep
Florida Illinois Massachusetts New York
Hamilton United Kingdom Georgia New York
friends away yeah very cool so pretty
pump that you guys are here to join in
this again as Cale mention if you are
watching from the Facebook link make
sure you head all the way over to
YouTube because then you’ll be able to
join us here in the chat I see
chandi Blake has jumped to the chat as
well good to see you Shannon a frequent
train station visit I also saw SD
Cruiser who is our also one of our
moderators so thanks for joining us
again SD Cruiser now we’re gonna talk to
you about a few steps and all of these
train stations sort of come from
questions that our students might ask
whether they’re online or in class or
their conversations that we have you
know when we’re having dog trainer chats
in our in our lunchroom so today we were
I was talking to a student not that long
ago about you know her challenges with
walking her dog on leash and the what
she found was successful was placing her
dog in a sit yeah and then rewarding him
for that yeah and I think there’s some
value to doing that yes but what you’re
going to see don’t get very far that way
right precisely yeah what you’re gonna
see if you if you to do to correct or
redirect a walking on leash issue if you
place your dog into sit and then reward
them for sitting nicely is you’re gonna
have a really great
sit that’s it is gonna be brilliant
because you’ve reinforced it so much but
that you don’t want that to be your
default behavior yeah it’s like that’s
one thing you can do but that there’s
also other alternatives so it’s not bad
if you’re doing that we’re just
hopefully gonna give you more more to do
more yes for sure and we’re going to
talk about the critical points when it
comes to teaching your dog to ignore
distractions because there’s a time
before during and after that you really
need to be aware of and by the end of
this live stream you know you’ll have a
little deeper idea of how you can help
your dog through some of these really
challenging distractions so we’re
excited to get started so I think we’re
ready to go are we yeah the person who
just said long the
Texas just found we can dog training
YouTube channel up so you love it thank
you by the way yeah take the dog the
long way home
you’re not referencing the like a really
good Dixie Chicks song are you or if
their last name is DeLong that’s also
very that would be really witty and
that’s a great YouTube name so let’s
talk about some important skills that
you can focus on that have nothing to do
with you know actually teaching your dog
to ignore distractions but their skills
that will help your dog to ignore
distractions and I know it’s like the
for that like jump into my mind response
to name some stationary control
exercises some attention exercises you
know we work on something like to look
at me maybe would you show you guys a
little bit of work in the look at me
voluntary and involuntary hydrogen yeah
absolutely and also some trick training
which at first do you think like I don’t
that doesn’t make a lot of sense how am
I gonna teach my dog to ignore
distractions by teaching them some
tricks but you’re gonna be surprised at
the value of doing something like that
with your dog mm-hmm
so let’s talk a little bit about the
response to name and the benefit of the
exercise yeah well first of all when we
say response to name our expectation
with McCann method is that when we call
our dog’s name we expect them to check
in with us they don’t necessarily have
to come to us when they hear their name
they just basically need to check in and
be like hey what’s up what do you need
me to do in our criteria is pretty
specific and that is that we say their
name one time we want the dog to check
in with us on that very first try we
don’t want to have to say their name
over and over and over again or start to
get louder or maybe a little edgier with
our voice in order to get them to turn
we want to be able to vary you know
nicely say like spot and have them turn
around and say hey what’s up and then we
can tell them from there so that’s
that’s the expectation that we want and
we do want the dog to be able to to meet
that criteria regardless of where they
happen to be so whether they’re in the
kitchen when you happen to be slicing up
food to like you know walking past the
dog park or taking your kids to school
there’s a little bit more going on we do
want them to respond to their name in
those circumstances as well which of
course is a lot more challenging so we
have some methods that we use in order
to teach the dog to be that reliable
yeah and something that I just thought
about is when you’re teaching your young
dog or your dog in training their name
you’ve got to be really careful that
you’re not overusing it the most common
thing that I see is that is that people
will spot spot spot for everything and
let’s imagine their dog’s name is spot
but they’ll just be using the dog’s name
over and over again and they never
follow up if the dog doesn’t listen
they’ll just call it again or they will
not you know acknowledge the great
effort that the dog put in and that’s a
really fast way to decrease the value of
your dog checking in with you and when
it comes to distractions your dog is
going to choose whatever they think is
more valuable or whatever they’re more
interested in so be careful that you’re
not decreasing the value of you by
overusing their name during the teaching
phase
yeah I think it’s pretty common for
people to overuse their name not even to
repeat their name trying to get the
dog’s attention but a lot of people will
insert the name into like other areas of
the life that the dog that they want
further from the dog so it could be like
spot get your toy spot get in your crate
spot here spot this spot that and if
you’re just seeing it over and over and
over again in all these different
contexts it can be I don’t know it just
sort of becomes easy because they they
hear it all the time they don’t really
have to react and it sort of becomes
just another word and we want it to be a
very special world word to your dog yeah
for sure
I mean we talked about some of these
exercises when you’re when your dog is
fun is being distracted really easily
you need to maybe bring out the big guns
so for you at home if you find that your
dog is really challenging no matter what
the skill is that might be the time that
you bring out the good stuff you know
you bring out the chicken wieners you
bring out the hamburger you bring out
the chicken you know those things
because you really want to reinforce
that group with that great behavior
capture that moment that they’re making
a good choice and then reward them for
it so you know as we set up as we start
to get into the idea of teaching you how
you’re gonna train your dog to ignore
distractions we also need to really
think about not just that event and not
just that distraction but really
teaching them that you are worth
listening to you’re worth paying
attention to
hmm do you know what Supertramp is yeah
you don’t know what Supertramp is know
am I supposed to know oh my god yes yeah
it’s a it’s a classic like a country
okay no sorry can’t believe this was the
train station
Wow I know lots of music you’re
surprised we’re gonna be listening I
heard somebody say cheap trick yeah
we’re gonna be listening to some
Supertramp after this whoever’s
commenting of us I know cheap train what
you worry because I have a playlist set
up just for kale let’s talk about the
value of working on some stationary
control exercises and in the benefit of
that well um being able to have
stationary control is a great place to
start because it’s a lot easier to
achieve that than it is to be moving
around with your dog in getting
attention because stationary exercises
so when we say that we are referring to
like holding a sit or holding it down
behavior for a long period of time it
takes the dog a lot of mindfulness to be
able to do that so when they can get to
the point where they can be that calm
calm minded then it helps to lower their
stimulation lower their energy and it’s
easier to get their attention so you
know teaching some stationary exercises
we teach a command that we call get in
and that is a very specific sitting
location that we have are the dogs not
allowed to sit anywhere but they have
just kind of scoot in and sit at our
left hand side nice and tight to us and
they have to remain in that sitting
position until we give them a release
command so and when they’re there
they’re not allowed to bark or by 8:00
or jump up on people they just kind of
have to stay nice and close to us you
know you know pay rather good attention
be calm minded we can pet them we can
feed them they just sort of learn to
kind of hang out it’s like they’re
little off button location and in in our
grade one classes for obedience training
that’s one of the very first exercises
that we train because it sort of gives
people a starting spot when the dog
learns to sit and be calm there then
they can do other things like teach
their dog to walk or teach their dog to
you know do a different position like
down or whatever it might be
so that’s something that we often start
off with so if you can’t get attention
when there’s not much going on and your
dog is still try to focus on that first
before making it a bit more more
exciting then of course you know
consider where you’re practicing make it
make it easier than harder before you
before you continue yeah I I noticed the
question the day rolled by and Dan our
moderator has added in
the chat for question marks so if you
have a can answer the question of the
day and I think our question of the day
is what is your dog’s most difficult
distraction what’s that thing that they
really struggle with I see some of you
guys answering it in the chat which is
really really helpful and we’re gonna
address each of those but if you’re a
for sure so when we get to that if
you’re answering the question of the day
just drop those four question marks in
the chat I wanted to make sure really
quickly about the stationary exercises
so let’s talk about this day or the
getting or anything like that if you’re
working on your dog training your dogs
listening skills you know the work
trying to you know build that attention
on you
those stationary exercises are so
valuable because you have so much
control you can be so precise you know
that you’re not worried about something
moving into your environment are you
moving into something you know it’s a
distraction I see some people mention
stuff like you know rabbits squirrels
other dogs yes those things that those
things are pretty um welding a toy while
running agility yeah and that could be a
challenge but those things can be really
challenging distracting it’s hard to
prepare for them it’s hard to train
through some of them so you really do
need to load all the value on you and
we’ll talk in just a moment about a
couple ways to do that but using those
stationary exercises to you know assists
things like you’re walking on leash do
have value
there really is value there because you
have so much control you can control so
much of the environment hmm um why don’t
we do the you choose exercise and just
talk about you know acknowledging and
rewarding you know checking in with you
I think that our train station the
passengers might enjoy that I can start
calling you guys passengers and I
haven’t decided yet but I see some
really great so we’re gonna get to some
of these specific answers for the
question of the day do you want to head
on over to the train station and we can
start doing that I’ll see I’ve got so
many questions coming in it’s hard
sometimes yeah
Dana says anything that moves yeah I can
totally appreciate that I thought
there’s not there are lots of dogs who
really you know are stimulated by motion
and at the moment they see something
move that it has their attention but
with no further ado guess what time it
is
it’s time to head on over to the train
station
I do love Tooting I think so I can make
it a little bit later if we need to
okay we have a different setting on the
microphone hello can you guys hear us
now we might have to jump back into that
one doing it go for the beginning yeah
okay so one of the things I’m going to
be doing is teaching my dog how to
ignore distractions by way of you know
an offering game so I’m going to
purposely encourage her to look away
from me and I’m gonna wait for her to
choose to look away from a distraction
and choose to look at me what’s
difficult about doing this is I’m not
gonna ask her to do it I’m gonna wait
for her to make her own decision when
she makes the correct decision I’m gonna
reward her and because dogs like to do
what they get rewarded for I’m hoping
that she’ll be able to repeat this
process and what I was mentioning before
the microphone was working is that you
can start off making this exercise very
easy on your dog and as they start to
get better you can start to make it
rather challenging to really prove
through things so to start I have
several pieces of treats in my hand I
have one in this hand I have four or
five in this hand and I’m gonna take
this food and I’m gonna purposely draw
hippy shakes attention away from me this
is hippy shake she’s a five-year-old toy
poodle of whopping six pounds so I’m
going to draw her attention away and I’m
just gonna hold the food off of her nose
a few inches and I’m going to wait for
her to look away from the food and look
back at me yes good girl so she looked
forward at the food she actually eats
she’s pretty smart live dog she said
okay you’re not rewarding me for
anything so what if I lie down what she
laid down I just ignored her what I’m
looking for her to do is to look away
from the destruction and look back at me
so I’m gonna try it again and you start
the food on her nose I’m gonna pull the
food away
oops yeah but if she leaves position I’m
just gonna move yeah so what she’s
trying to do is offer a bunch of
behaviors just wait there for a second
yes good girl now
dog training 101 dogs learn within one
second so my marker command the command
that I used when my dog is correct
is the word yes so when she does
something correct I’m gonna say yes yes
to my dog means that you’re right and
you’re gonna get a reward so you’ll
notice that I’m waiting for her to look
at me before I say yes and give her a
treat you need to try one more time here
and see what she does
nope so she does something you don’t
want I’m just gonna start again oh so
now look what’s happening guys now she
went okay yes good girl I starting to
get the idea so I’m holding the food out
here yes good yes excellent so now she’s
starting to pick up on what I want him
holding the food out she’s choosing to
look at me so the food that I’m using as
a reward you may notice and I’m bringing
it to my face and then I’m rewarding her
what I wouldn’t want to do is have her
do such a great job of looking at me and
then do this yes and then feed her from
my pocket I need to reinforce that eye
contact by making sure I feed her for
looking at me so I’m gonna try it again
yes good girl now I’m gonna start making
it much more challenging by putting the
food very close to her face I mean they
get some more treats ready here yes girl
yes good so you’ll notice I’m having to
be pretty specific with my timing
because she’s offering little tricks us
we play if I was to yes well her paw was
going in the air she would think we were
doing wave or shake a paw so I’m waiting
until she’s settled yes and then I’m
rewarding yes so see I have my hand
within a couple inches of her face yes
good girl now if I know it’s able to get
I’d give you a bit of a more advanced
version by having her hold a weight and
I’m going to put several pieces of food
on the floor and if she goes for them
I’m going to pick them up yes if she
looks at me instead of looking at the
food yes good girl yes good girl yes
good girl
yes get it good girl and then maybe if
she looks at me I can say yes and then
tell her to get it from there so I got
the hard part what people really want to
do is they want to say look at me look
at me look at me and they give the dog a
bunch of commands and you certainly
could do that as a separate exercise
once your dog knows that command really
really well but what I love about this
is that it causes the doctor
problem-solve and you know what dogs
really like that they love using their
brain they like exercising
problem-solving techniques but again
what’s very important is that we have
good timing I’m looking for her correct
behavior I’m guessing and rewarding when
she’s correct when she’s wrong you’ll
notice I never scolded her I never gave
her any Corrections I just placed her
back into position and I helped sort her
through that particular exercise but we
love playing that game we play it with
food with her food bowl we play it with
toys yeah so if you’re doing this she’s
obviously a fully trained dog but when
you’re first starting you could put a
leash on so that they can’t run around
they can’t steal the food and make sure
you’re in charge that way but it’s a
great little game yes good coming on
back yeah we had a brief audio outage I
had I hadn’t set up the other microphone
yet so that was my oversight but let’s
get into some of your questions I see
Karen GST lover who I know is a frequent
visitor here on the train station so
they really need this for my dog and
that’s one of the really great things
about exercises like this is if you
don’t need any space to it absolutely
literally just do it in your kitchen or
living room yeah whatever between
commercials yeah and we call times a day
and and those are the best times to do
it you know if you always go out after
dinner to do your attention training or
you always go out whatever before your
dog training class maybe and you’re
always doing attention training then but
you don’t do it any other time it
definitely doesn’t have that staying
power as doing it at various times all
during the day I think what’s really fun
about that exercise is often you know
when we teach it in our classes the
people are like a little bit overwhelmed
with it at first but then once they try
it a few times then we go to revisit it
the next week the dogs are so much
better that it’s very rewarding for the
handler as well and I think
it’s really cool to see your own dogs
start to put things together and start
to purposely make good choices it’s very
rewarding as a as a dog trainer and as
an owner as well so really play around
without I think you’ll find that both
you and the dog quite enjoy that
exercise mm-hmm
so I see some really interesting
distractions and let’s touch on some of
these really quickly so take the long
way home says my bridge is not a Dixie
Chicks on my greatest distraction is
most definitely my other dogs yeah and
one thing that you really need we talked
a little bit about this about when we do
our introducing your puppy to your other
dogs video I think that might be really
helpful for you and I don’t know whether
we have Dan in the chat right now but if
not we can definitely check that video
out on our Channel it’ll be helpful for
you but you do need to make sure cuz
you’re those other dogs are so valuable
from day one they speak the same
language they know you know how to
communicate with one another and those
other dogs can seem really exciting and
really interesting if you aren’t there
to sort of guide the process and teach
your dog that you are worth listening to
more than they are so take a long way
home definitely check out that video on
our Channel I see Mike and Judy tipper
also frequent visitors in the train
station kids playing and rabbits also
food smells with Kona so close their
one-year-old lab yeah pretty common yeah
Kevin I just got married in Kona Hawaii
we did last month yeah
miss Immortal says luckily my pup is
very food motivated but there are
definitely things he likes the most yeah
if he’s food motivated you’re gonna find
that that is a good that I just showed
you that’s a good exercise to do it can
be hard wear that with the really food
motive
motivate it can’t speak today with the
food motivated dogs at first because
they’re so enthralled with the food
that’s in front of them so remember you
don’t have to start with the food really
close to the dog’s nose like I was doing
with hippy I initially started it with
much further away and then you can
progressively go closer as they get
better for sure Charlotte and Koko the
SD IT service dog training a greatest
distraction is steak again another food
motivated dog that’s gonna be really
really helpful for you
Nichola home son says my dogs oops
missed it
says my dog’s biggest distraction is
other dogs and people in the distance
she just stands in stairs and won’t move
until the thing comes closer she
switches off to her name and food and
we’ll talk a little bit about maybe some
redirection and how you and this is
going to really lend itself well to our
conversation we’ll have in just a couple
of minutes about the timing because
there’s you know this sort of if you
imagine that there’s kind of a force
field around your dog and when someone’s
approaching that force field you may not
get the same once they enter that force
field you’re not going to get the same
attention as when they’re approaching it
and we’ll give you a couple of tips to
you know get get and maintain get and
maintain some of that attention as well
as how to deal with that point if your
dog is just staring just waiting for
that talk a little bit about like
follow-through because I think sometimes
when our dogs get stuck or frozen
thinking about something we just sort of
sometimes you know that’s not the time
to wait your dog out like I was just
talking about with that last exercise I
said you know wait your dog out until
they choose there’s gonna be some times
where you don’t want to wait your dog
out you want to disengage them from
whatever they’re stuck on and redirect
their attention away with you know
guiding them with the leash or
redirecting them with a distraction or
whatever it might be so just be aware of
that yeah Adriana says she’s a big time
sniffer and picks up loads of things
from the ground so in general the
outside especially sense and other dogs
in the neighborhood we’ll talk a little
bit about that will talk will give you a
couple tips specifically for your
walking training we’ll also you know
just a couple minutes get into a leave
it exercise and teach it out how to
leave it on command which would be
really helpful for those situations now
I notice Melinda Miller mentioned in
here that when went on leash my dog
licks her lips anytime we are
approaching another dog or squirrel
because she’s so used to getting
rewarded and that’s really that’s a
great indication that you’re making good
choices you know there’s actually good
that you would notice that too for sure
yeah you’re at some point you’ve
acknowledged or she’s acknowledged that
she’s going to be rewarded by staying
with you so that licking of the lips
it’s like that ring a bell and the dog
will salivate exactly the same process
there so I want to talk just for a
minute about some attention exercises
when
talk about but some simple things that
are really easy to change in your
training like a reward position we had
talked about the value of a reward
position when it comes to building focus
on you yeah you know we have a lot of
people say to us like why do your dogs
just stare at you all the time like they
don’t look anywhere else and a lot of it
is because they’ve had hundreds and
hundreds of rewards for focusing on us
but the direction and the location that
we reward our dog is always very
thought-out is very specific and the
main thing that we want to do when we’re
trying to build a lot of attention in
any exercise that we’re training is make
sure that we’re rewarding our dog with
them still looking in our directions of
Kenna was my dog and he was looking at
me and I said yes and then I fed him and
i lured as how to wait for me to get the
reward I’m taking away all of that great
focus I need to make sure that if I’m
looking for attention I need to feed in
a way that he’s still pointing towards
me looking at me so how you hold your
hand how you use your food is all really
important if you’re a type of person
that trains and you have treats in your
pockets or in bait pouches that’s great
but be mindful that when you’re training
that you’re don’t have your hand hanging
out and your bait pouch the whole time
that’s a huge indicator that you’re
gonna be feeding from your pouch we
would prefer you to take the food from
your pouch to your face to your dog
rather than going directly from the
pocket to the dog’s mouth again if the
dog always knows that the food’s gonna
come from up high they’re gonna look to
where that that reward is coming from
mm-hmm absolutely we I just thought of
something that else escaped me in terms
of what feeding from our mouths that is
something that we do maybe you can
mention that yeah something that some
people get really grossed out with is
well actually put well they’re not
really dog treats but they’re like human
food I’ll put like chicken wieners or
chicken or cheese strings or something
I’ll actually put them in my mouth and
they’ll bite a little piece off and then
give it to the dog and that way like
literally the food’s coming from my
mouth and not from my pocket but some
people are really grossed out by that I
personally don’t care but some people
yeah they can go oh how could you do
that yeah but at home I mean you can
probably catch it you’ll immediately
notice or think about this dog sees all
the value coming from your
mouths coming from your face so they’ll
you know start to associate that with
really good things and you know the
worst thing we can do is try to train
our dog with food always on their nose
you know that’s great at the very
beginning but they are focused on the
foods I mean for any skill you really do
need to get the the rhythm of you know
saying yes for example using that that
marker word maybe it’s a clicker for you
whatever it is using that thing and then
presenting the food because otherwise
you have a dog who’s entirely focused on
that treat in your hand what is Dan
referring to that’s a mean left hook
Kelly I saw someone mentioned that their
dog is really distracted by balls and
that’s a really common thing that’s
because it’s often associated with fetch
and maybe Karen you’ve actually used it
to play fish but I’ll tell you a really
great way to teach your dog to remain in
position are those stationary exercises
when there’s balls around so what I do
is I take a tennis ball or something so
maybe not the highest value so if your
dog thinks that tennis balls are the
greatest thing on earth then maybe you
have another sports ball or something in
your house that’s a little bit less
enticing and you place it at a distance
and then you work your stay or then you
work your whatever station to get in or
some some stationary exercise and then
you can start to move that ball a little
bit closer and work those exercises
again but things like balls in like
fetch toys and things like that are
surprisingly easy to discourage your dog
from leaving you it’s easy to teach your
dog or to train your dog how to ignore
those things because you have so much
control of them so there is sort of that
proactive which we’ve started to talk
about a little bit in that that reactive
kind of training so if you can identify
and acknowledge something that your dog
loves then you know what you’ve got to
do to to train through it and it’s so
easy to set those situations up with the
ball in the distance or even like get a
friend or family member to hold the
tennis ball or toss a tennis ball while
you’re working on that stay I think that
a general dog training tip that we could
give you that could be applicable to any
any exercise you working on really is
that the best way to have a well-trained
dog is to try to predict future issues
and train through it before you’re
actually in
the moment where you have to use that
particular skill on the fly so you know
if your dog’s distracted by balls or
squirrels or whatever types you know
whatever the situation is not that
you’re gonna like bring a bunch of
squirrels home and work on it but you
know before you set out into the world
where the distractions are going to be
very very challenging you know we would
advise you to work through teaching or
leave it teaching a response to name you
know before I get to the point where I’m
taking my dog on long walks or I’m
taking them to really public places or
I’m going to a park you know whether at
a time when there’s more people there my
dogs have already learned a response to
name they might not be perfect at it yet
but they they have an idea of what it is
they know what yes is they’ve heard and
worked through leave it commands and
look at me exercises and little recalls
and sits at the side so we’ve already
proved through some of those things at
home you know on our own with nothing
nothing going on and then with some
distractions in my own home
adding distractions like purposely
scattering toys around and putting
little bits of food everywhere and
proofing through that so that I have a
more realistic prediction as to how my
dog is going to react and then I’ve
already tried and erred and failed and
succeeded on a bunch of different
options so I have an idea of what works
for me and my dog before I all of a
sudden get bombarded or surprised by a
distraction when I’m out at the park or
out for a walk so remember that dogs
don’t come trained that’s our job we
have to teach our dogs how to make good
decisions and the easiest way to do that
is to set our dogs up for some of these
things and work through them one on one
so our dogs know what to do yeah sort of
– when you’re looking to level up your
attention or your focus and teaching
your dog to leave distractions alone
something that people wouldn’t really
think is a value is trick training
mm-hmm in trick training the power of
trick training is quite remarkable
because it gives your dog the
opportunity to choose it gives you an
opportunity to reward your dog for doing
something valuable for working with you
you know I can tell you two things that
when you’re done that tricks have saved
me on okay were you gonna finish that
sorry so two things that I have found
tricks to be extreme
valuable are with have been I have a few
dogs that in the past that have been
stressed with either loud noises or new
places but we’ve spent a lot of time
enjoying tricks together and I’ve been
able to use you know asking my dog for a
few tricks in my vet office for example
yeah or we have a dog now funky monkey
which I’ll bring her out and actually
show you some really cool tricks she
knows all kinds really cool ones but
she’s now a little bit nervous of
thunderstorms and so one of the things
that Ken and I will do with her is we’ll
get some treat outs treats out when the
thunderstorm starts we’ll start doing a
bit of trick training and within minutes
her whole demeanor has changed her ears
are up and she’s lively and she’s
excited because we’re doing something
that sort of takes her mind off what
she’s stressed about so that’s one thing
the second thing dealing with this same
dog again funky again she’s 12 now and
she’s very well trained but when she was
younger so she’s half Terrier half
Border Collies so – very energetic
breeds blended together right I am got
her first sport for dog agility but when
she was a puppy my god she was a wild
child she was a sweetheart she was a
very good dog but she was super
energetic and like I couldn’t I I was
struggling with her focus and you know
using her her energy for for good and
not evil so when she was younger I
started doing a lot of chick training
and it really enhanced our relationship
it really enhanced her focus on me and I
was able to you know get her doing some
tricks and and she would be focusing
around distractions a little bit better
because she really enjoyed it it was
very motivating for her and she knows
far more tricks than any of my other
dogs probably more tricks than all my
dogs put together but it’s because I
when she was young to gain focus and to
build a working relationship between her
and I for sure did you want to show
Trixie I can show a couple tricks if you
want you’re kind of fun I see there’s
been a couple of points in here that I
wanted to talk about Rhonda mentions you
know I think I’m expecting too much from
my one-year-old boxer Chevy and I can
tell you Rhonda that keep those
expectations high and don’t
you know don’t lower those expectations
just because you’re not getting the
results you want it just means you might
need to take a step back to a easier
progress in your training but at one
year old regardless of the breed you
should be getting you know a dog that
listens reliably around a dog that you
know can pay attention to you when you
need it but you do need to be consistent
you need to be a great leader for that
dog okay with no further ado hopefully
we have things set up one of my favorite
parts that lights on and we’re heading
over a train station okay so this is
funky Munky she is gonna be 12 this year
and she’s one of my high competitive
agility dogs but when she was younger
her actually throughout most of her life
I did a lot of trick training with her
so I’m gonna show you a couple of the
trick she knows so one of them is that
she will tap her nose to my hand so if I
say tap yes top yes
tap tap yes good girl and I’ll actually
use that a lot for focus exercises hey
tap yes top it sit top yeah top yeah
it’s good girl so just sort of gets her
ready to work okay she knows some of the
normal things like sit shake a paw yeah
that’s good girl
high five yes good girl can you wave
wave wave yes good girl this is one of
her favorites can you walk quiet can you
wait for fast
wipe your face wipe your face yes yes
yes this is another one of her favorites
give you best
yes zero you go right quiet
so we’ve taught her her rights and
laughs right yes great
you’re cheating right right
yes left yes am i doing it officer oh my
god poor funky left ah yes
right oh my god if I did it right my
poor dog would do it right – here get in
[Music]
it’s much more impressive when she got
on a wall okay good girl okay good girl
and we are back in the away from the
train station now imagine doing that
with your dog with them online every
single time I want those dogs to be on a
line or a leash like a long line or a
leash but imagine doing that you know in
a relatively busy environment imagine
how much you’re not only you’ve got your
dog’s attention cos you’re rewarding
them well but you’re working on
something with them we use as a term
relationship pretty loosely and it might
be a little bit abstract if you’re not
totally sure what we’re talking about
but when we talk about relationship
we’re talking about a dog when you have
a great relationship or even a working
relationship with your dog that’s the
kind of dog that looks to you for
information it’s the kind of dog you
know what their level of understanding
is and you know how to help them through
that you know you have a dog who wants
to go on walks and doesn’t want to pull
you know you can really deepen your
relationship and strengthen your
relationship by doing stuff like trick
training imagine do your training at the
park you know as somebody who’s walking
you know a few hundred yards okay it
also allows your dog to look a little
more relaxed and more approachable as
well especially – if you have like more
of a bully type breed
boxers things like that Bulldogs I know
I had a friend of mine on Facebook’s
today a few days ago say that he has
this cute little French Bulldog and you
know people were walking past and like
doing one of these because of the breed
but she’s like a four month old like
cute little sweetie pie so he tries to
do some tricks with her and like her
look a little softer because she’s
really a very nice dog but sort of just
has a bit of a bad rap or maybe there’s
people that are nervous around dogs and
if they see them doing a cute little
shake a paw or lying down and covering
their face it just makes them feel a
little bit more comfortable like the
dogs you know it has good listening and
that type of thing so it sort of works
all the way around also you got to get
that gram those grande pecs yeah you
need those
Melinda Miller mentions we did a million
cross your paws out of that a few weeks
ago it helps so much for sure and you
know what’s interesting about that is
some of our workshops yeah absolutely we
did attention exercises we also did
cross your paws as one of our mystery
box workshops and you may have seen on
the lower thirds going by if you are
watching this on your computer laptop TV
whatever if you take out your iPhone or
your Android device and you scan that
code it’ll take you to our free
workshops and you’ll definitely want to
check those out because we do those
every single month and they can be
really helpful but talking about
Melinda’s point you know it’s funny
because if we’re in the vet sometimes
you know as a dog owner we’re a little
bit like ooh this is you know I’m a
little bit stressed about this you know
I don’t want I know my dogs gonna be
worried but for both of you it can be
such an advantageous thing to do you
know comforts them they get to be
rewarded and it just turns out that
experience into a positive one yeah you
can also do things like my puppies as
part of their agility training when
they’re babies I teach them which we
call perch work so I have this like
little box and I teach the puppy to get
up and sit on it and do those types of
things but what I quickly notice is the
one I would go to the vet for a visit
the waste scale that’s there they would
say you know can you get your puppy up
on the weigh scale and I would just get
a few treats out and say hi pup and the
puppy would go oh we’re doing the Box
exercise go ahead and they literally
will just jump right up on the weigh
scale and sit and look at me and wait
for their treat because we’ve practiced
it as a little game and a little trick
prior to that so you can turn all kinds
of really useful you know everyday
behaviors with your dog into little
tricks and little games to make it a
more enjoyable experience for both you
and
dog mama lioness said my almost 60 pound
Old English Sheepdog landed in my lap
hearing funky yeah she’s pretty see
relating a lot of jobs I have a hard
time with her bark because she’s so
animated yeah she is sorry she’s quite
an intense bark for sure so now I know a
lot of people might be struggling with
walking on leash one of the most common
things we hear is people you know have
trouble when they maybe they have a dog
who’s starting to learn to walk on a
loose leash and then all of a sudden
someone’s coming down the sidewalk and
their dog can’t can’t help themselves or
I think someone I forget who was
mentioned earlier their dog loves to
pick stuff up off the ground that can be
a real it can be really dangerous for
one but that can be a real challenge
take the line way Oh watching like
lighting up the train station here we go
thank you very much thank you so much
they say I take the long way home so
thank you so much for all of your
knowledge and time and binge watching
your channel well that’s very very cool
thank you very very much that’s really
nice and now I know everybody’s pumped
we’re excited to get going a little bit
dear and so I changed things up see I
like to change the train stated that one
did you yeah I did you need to use one
of our dogs face it I know I know it may
be a little more challenging I hope you
liked it at home and thanks for watching
thank you thank you very much for the
the super strat for the donation so
let’s talk a little bit about walking on
leash we know that you all reliable
skills are built on a solid foundation
of success so if you are in the middle
of your walking training and you’re
still having your dog pull you down the
street or you’re still having your dog
you know really struggle to know what
position they need to be in then you
need to find success there before you
take them out into a more challenging
environment actually I have an image I
think I still have this on here the
Train one yeah the Train okay let’s just
see here so we talked about the the five
elements this teach rehearse add
distractions increase expectations and
new places and when we talk about these
things so for example teach would be
introducing your dog to this new
skill maybe it’s walking unleash
rehearse might be you know doing it over
and over again adding distractions must
come after your having success you’ve
been able to rehearse it successfully
that’s really important it is because if
you start to skip steps you will
definitely fail and it’s just not great
for your dog’s learning you know you
want to be a great leader for your dog
by helping them be successful you know
showing them if they’re making a mistake
you’re gonna show them how to be right
but you’re also going to try to not have
to be always saying no don’t do that you
got to be home and be closer over here
so I think in saying that to that what
they learn first they learn best so
right there if you know our goal with
the Macan method is to set the dog up so
that they do the behavior successfully
first whether we lure them in a position
or show them with our hands or you know
help them in any way to lose so that
they do it right and then we repeat that
over and over again so that they learn
to first do it correctly and then we
make it a little bit more challenging
it’s always best to build on success
than it is to set them up to fail yeah
and when you’re working with a dog
Melissa boom a hi Melissa
welcome to the train station I I just
love Tooting when you’re working with a
dog who may be getting distracted
finding distractions along the way
what’s the first indie you know this is
gonna be a little redundant cuz you guys
are on a boat a 10 second delay but
belcheck doesn’t like my name Melissa
it’s okay the first thing that you
noticed the first indication that your
dog is distracted and that they might
leave you is gonna be their eyes they’re
gonna look in a mark I think are the key
to your dog’s soul right yeah it’s also
the key to you being successful with
things like your leave it you know with
things like acknowledging your dog
remaining in position and rewarding them
for being there I’d love to jump into a
leave it teach these guys we’ll leave it
up really quickly and then we can talk
just a little bit about the the timing
of all of your I’ll be perfect okay I
don’t know if maybe you should let those
guys outside it’s gonna get pretty
stimulated Michelle Jones hello I love
your channel thank you well thanks for
joining us here in the train station
Michelle it’s nice to have you here and
since to have all you guys here joining
us oh I’m not sure how many people are
watching right now but we’re excited to
have you here and just
moment Kayla’s gonna show you the leave
it is such a powerful skill especially
for walking on leash but it also can be
you know if your dog is maybe in your
living room and you don’t want them to
you know whatever be sniffing something
specifically or digging maybe for a toy
or something like that did leave it it’s
going to be so helpful to redirect your
dog’s attention if you do some of these
exercises now we do have a leave it a
full video on leave it on the channel
but I want to show you guys sort of the
abbreviated version of this of this
exercise and I love seeing hippie shake
get out there and work so this is gonna
be fun for me too
okay let’s take it on back to the train
station I just went and got that’s a
good girl alright so what we’re going to
do is oh do you see how folks ID is for
this chicken boat we’re gonna start with
said chicken bone a bit of a distance so
I’m just gonna place it a little bit
further away to begin with and I’m just
gonna start off by placing my little dog
into a sit at my side good girl and I’m
gonna start off to see if she can just
sit on a loose leash at my side without
going towards the chicken bones good
girl yes it’s a chicken foot not a
chicken bone yes good girl now when you
begin this and you’ve never done this
before the likelihood of your dog
remaining in position it’s probably
pretty small so if they get up to go
towards in it you’re simply going to
okay you’re simply going to place them
back into position into a sitting
position good girl and then the goal is
to put slack in the leash if I hold her
tight she’s not learning how to do this
by herself so the leash is loose she has
a choice to go if she’d like to but of
course if she if she does I’m not gonna
let her get away with him I’m gonna put
her back but my goal is to allow her to
choose to sit here so now we can just
work a bit of a leave it at a distance
now you’ll notice hippies resorting back
to that you decide game that we
practiced earlier notice that she’s
looking at the chicken bone then she’s
looking back
that’s great so I like to start that
game earlier before I do anything like
this now what I’m going to do but I also
have some pretty high value treats in my
pocket and I’m going to move towards
this particular distraction but before
she can get to it I’m going to tell her
leaving it and to teach her what leave
it means and I expect her to look away
from the the distraction when she hears
the word but I’m not just gonna test her
I’m gonna show her so I’m going to say
leave it within one second of Missy you
sit there for SEC within one second of
me saying the command I’m gonna get my
food down on her nose and I’m gonna draw
her attention away from it and when I
see that she’s more committed to me and
my food and not on the chicken I’m going
to yes then reward my dog so I’m gonna
just motion towards I’m going to tighten
my leash up though so she can’t snatch
it without me being ready my food is
ready in this hand okay good okay leave
it yes good girl excellent good girl
okay okay girl you’re too smart Missy
moo leave it yes good girl
so I’m saying leave it and then I’m
drawing her attention away okay so she
can do that now I’m going to test her
I’m going to move towards it I’m going
to say leave it where you going sit I’m
going to say leave it but I’m not going
to give her a treat Missy can you sit
these wait I’m just going to ask her to
leave it I’m gonna see what she does
okay okay leave it
good girl okay leave it yes yes good
girly she said mom I’m gonna take the
long way around yes good girl well done
that’s a great opportunity to talk about
how you built so much value yeah for
being open moving away and turning away
from that from that object that she just
chose to do yeah and again stop do you
see how she keep trying to go behind me
actually what she’s trying to do now is
because she knows that she’s not allowed
to get the reward she’s actually trying
to move herself further away she’s
trying to be right but I’m just gonna
place you’re here because I want her to
realize that yes I don’t want her to
take it but I also
her to feel comfortable that she can sit
near that distraction and everything
will be fine good girl but yes we played
this game many times before and she’s
had a lot of value yes my love that’s a
good girl she’s had a lot of value for
moving towards me with some very high
rewards that I’ve had so she’s learned
very quickly that that’s not as exciting
as what’s gonna happen when she moves
towards me that’s a very very good girl
now when you begin I’m tried to make it
as hard as I could so that I could maybe
make her can make a few mistakes but
when I begin I sometimes will take an
old Tupperware container
I’ll put treats inside I’ll put the lid
on and then I’ll poke a bunch of air
holes on the top of the other you’re
having a sneezing attack come here sit
good girl we um I poke a bunch of hair
air holes on the top sit and wait good
girl
and that allows the scent to come out
but she can’t steal any food Missy
sit your little curly bum down yes good
girl okay you owe me doing else okay
good yes head back oversee some
questions coming in to the train station
um I always I always enjoy like
especially if we can use hippy for some
of these exercises she’s smaller so it’s
easier especially in the smaller area in
the space that we’ve got but she can
also you know she could make mistakes in
these situations and Kail tried really
hard what you might need to do is if you
have a dog who is distracted by whatever
the thing let’s say it’s people you
might work first maybe at first you use
a tennis ball and then maybe the second
thing you work on this exercise with
it’s some food and then maybe you can
introduce like a familiar family member
and work through it but by by increasing
those success challenges by increasing
the challenge you can increase your
success with your dog now if you were to
go out and try doing leave its around
people the very first time out
practicing this it’s probably gonna be
pretty tough the other thing you can do
is I mean we don’t have a lot of space
to show you here but if we were working
it with a little puppy we would probably
put that food bowl in one corner of the
frame or gal
and then kale would be have the puppy
over here we have some tutorial videos
on how to teach leader on our YouTube
channel though where you can actually
see it a little bit better than yeah
it’s a pretty thorough example of the I
think it may be called teach your dog to
leave it and so that could be really
helpful that’s not a couple of
interesting things I wanted to say
Phillip B this is exciting got an
ultrasound confirmation today that my
burna doodle puppy is definitely on the
way can’t wait to put into practice all
that I’ve learned from this channel
gradually translations that’s pretty
exciting doodles are all the rage right
now yeah yeah they’re quite popular in
classes
Donnie Kirkland asks an important
question it’s what colors best to teach
a five pound puppy to heal properly
without risking hurting their neck and
I’ve had a couple of questions on the
channel about this recently about the
appropriate equipment for your dog and
do you want to start us off well I have
a six pound dog and I trained her on
just a regular flat buck we’ll call her
I did a lot of training and focus before
I did a lot of walking and heal when you
say puppy I don’t know what age you’re
referring to but I know because when
hippy was a puppy she was like what
three pounds or you know something like
that really yeah I didn’t do a lot of
big walks with her just because the
world is pretty big out there when
you’re that small so I would take her to
different places to socialize her but I
was just a little bit more careful about
walks and I just trained around a
regular flat buckle collar I actually
used a cat collar for the first a little
bit because her tiny little neck was so
small that dog collars didn’t really fit
some people out there may suggest using
a harness and for dogs that are really
small harnesses can be okay but as a dog
gets bigger than say ten pounds we do
not recommend you use a harness for
training because then their leash
attaches to the back of the dog they’re
literal back and you can’t turn and
maneuver and have good timing
you need the leash to attach to their
neck so you can turn their head and help
them to be successful but little tiny
tiny dogs sometimes our harness is okay
because their whole body so little when
you move the body you move you move the
head at the same time yeah a couple over
ten pounds not
yeah to be honest I mean hopefully
you’re always working on a six foot
leash and in regardless of the dog’s
size at six feet you know you’re gonna
start slowing them down at two three
it’s hard for them to reach out and hit
the end of that leash so that’s
something to keep in mind we talked
about harnesses Kel talked about
harnesses a little bit and something
that we’ve learned is that harnesses if
dog is pulling and walking and pulling
and walking is that the harness actually
changes the dogs gait how they very good
for their how they step yes you’ve got
to be really careful about the amount of
time that your dog is in a harness
especially if you’re trying to teach
them to walk on leash week we always
recommend starting at like a flat buckle
collar level because it gives you so
much control of their neck and head it
really allows yeah sure it really allows
them to feel the tension the pressure we
always want that clip of the leash
hanging down because at that point it’s
so easy to transition to leash dragging
and ultimately off leash but something
like a flat buckle collar will allow
your dog to really know that whether
they’re putting pressure on the leash or
not yeah so this is hippy shakes collar
it just took an offer it’s a bit grungy
sorry it’s just a little leather rolled
collar
she’s the only dog that has this pink of
course and it has a buckle to attach it
as you can see we really like collars
for our dogs rather than snaps because
once it’s done up it’s not gonna come
undone snaps can break or they can snap
open accidentally so that’s why we say
flat buckle collar we just find that
this is a little bit more reliable yeah
and then we can put the dog’s
identification actually literally her
little tag that said her name and number
fell off yesterday yeah I have to go get
another one but yeah she wears this all
of the time so that she always has
information on her and I have a way of
getting control should I need to yeah I
just want to say hello to Daryl and Luna
he says he’s really busy right now but
we know thanks for jumping in stopping
in in the train station
what was it gonna say we’re talking
about harnesses changing the dog’s gate
oh there are a couple of questions I
think that came in that I wanted to chat
about so Colton raballo asks it at the
dog park anywhere around other dogs she
will chop at other dogs when they get
near me it’s the only time she shows
signs of aggression or ill intent she
doesn’t do that
my girlfriend’s though so it’s hard we
get a lot of questions about biting and
aggressive behavior and I’ll tell you
Colton that through YouTube is not the
best place to get information about a
behavioral issue your best my best
advice for you is to seek out like a
local behaviorist that can give you some
give you some tips get you started
fixing this problem but it’s hard for me
to know you know what what the trigger
is
it causes yeah yeah exactly what the
level of aggression is is it fear
aggression is right there are so many
factors I wish I could help you out more
we can tell you this though that
behavior isn’t acceptable and it
shouldn’t be happening so in the
meantime if you don’t know how to
properly correct the behavior which is
what we’re suggesting you go to a
behaviorist force they can really give
you the proper advice but for now you
need to avoid those situations from
happening so if this is happening at the
dog park then you need to stop doing
that because again if your dogs
rehearsing this you know if a dog snaps
at another dog aggressively for whatever
intention it might be and it backs other
dogs off they go huh that worked and now
your problem starts to get worse so you
need to stop that right now from
happening and then in the meantime go
and seek out somebody to help you so
they can assess the dog situation it’s
one thing if we can see the dog you know
with our own two eyes and assess but as
Ken said over the Internet we would not
want to give you the wrong information
because yeah every situation deserves a
slightly different piece of advice
totally yeah and I just I saw that
Colton had mentioned he goes some areas
are mostly dog free and that’s to your
advantage the dark Brady Park he goes to
has three separate fenced areas and just
be aware of when people are coming in I
might say you know he’s not friendly
don’t you do whatever and then you can
you can leave sticky situation yeah yeah
it’s a tough spot
Charlotte and Coco asked do you
recommend a head halter gentle leader
hall tea or whatever the brand I think
this one yeah we do recommend head
halters or head callers we call them we
really like them it takes a lot of
impact off of the dog’s neck but we only
recommend the gentle leader
we do not recommend the halti or any of
the other brands out there our
experience with the general leader has
is the best one it’s easy to use it’s
comfortable for the dog it works very
well it works on the premise of pressure
rather than the premise premise of pain
like some other training collars out
there yeah and what’s really nice about
it is that you can wean off of it which
some other head halter is it’s a little
bit more challenging to do that right so
there’s a bit of a process that we do in
order to do that but we love the gentle
leader product yeah and so Mary William
says I went to a new training place with
Bodi on a gentle eater and they said it
could hurt his neck and they don’t like
him they strongly advised a prong collar
oh gosh now this is something we we
really encourage you to not use a prong
collar for a couple of reasons we know
that you can get the same kind of
success with something that isn’t using
pain as the state of chronic collars
gonna hurt your dog’s neck a lot more
than a gem
yes but I think what some people think
is that you are using maybe the prong
collar for like for like
longest-reigning for like long line
things you know for you you’ll never
have the nose loop over your dog’s nose
with the collar clipped to it on
anything over six feet so you don’t have
an opportunity to hurt the dog’s neck
you aren’t allowing them to pull on the
leash you aren’t you know cranking them
around with it but the prong collar I
mean number one it’s really hard to wean
off of it because if your dog is
becoming dependent on those pressures
and those those pinches and folks where
the gentle leader you can simply simply
slip the nose loop off of your dog’s
nose and clip it to the flat buckle
collar you need to keep in mind that
with any color that you use there is a
correct and incorrect way shears it so
it is important that if you’re gonna be
using even a regular collar there are
certain techniques and and timing and
all these things that you need to learn
through dog training whether it’s from
us or our online training or whoever
you’re getting your training from
there’s specific techniques that you
need to know because you know there’s a
right and wrong way to do it so you know
our experience with using the general
leader of course we teach proper
techniques is the dogs have been you
know doing a great job on that we
recommend them for young dogs as well
because they you know takes all that
impact
their trachea but we’re not advocates of
the prong collar in any way shape or
form and keep in mind we have we trained
over 80,000 so a lot of experience
yeah we’ve been helping more than 500
dogs a week for several many many years
and we there was a time when we were
using prong collars that was just the
tool to use and it seemed to make sense
but over time we learned that something
like the gentle leader if you need that
kind of control I mean flap vocal colors
what you’re working towards right that’s
the thing that you ultimately want to
use to train but it’s the we actually
didn’t really use prong collars we use
chain colors right right yeah very
different yeah but you know moving
towards that flap of a collar the gentle
leader is such a simple progression to
slip the nose loop off and clip it to
the flat buckle collar of your dog let’s
talk for just a moment about the before
during and after when it comes to a
Chinese comment she just made it
absolutely brilliant let’s see it here
so she Andy Blake says I see dogs on
prone collars dragging people down the
street tools are great but there’s no
substitute for teaching loose leash
walking so your dog understands how to
walk on leashes yeah that’s really
that’s really really important I think
that’s really the stance that certainly
that we take and I think it’s the stance
that everyone should really understand
dogs aren’t robots they know training
and they need advice and they need
guidance and that’s what we need to do
and our goal is to try to do that in the
least adverse avoid you okay let’s talk
about the before during and after when
it comes to distractions now when you
are approaching something that your dog
finds distracting and let’s say let’s
just give you a very specific example
walking on a loose leash you need to
identify the moment that your dog starts
to get distracted maybe you see the
person maybe your dog sees the person or
the other dog at that moment you could
you start using something like your
leave it you could even start rewarding
your dog getting some attention but the
last thing you want to do is be feeding
feeding feeding feeding until you run
into that thing that your dog finds
really distracting so sort of envision
this like circle around your dog that
you can start rewarding them when they
reach that threshold that point when
they might start to think about leaving
that’s going to be really
really powerful as well as what you’re
gonna do during so if we were walking in
straight lines towards that other
distraction try to get some distance try
to get some lateral distance away from
that distraction so that your dog’s way
more likely to be successful you don’t
want to all the food in the world may
not be helpful if you’re too close to
that dog is there anything you want to
add no no what’s so funny I’m well hey
I’m not really listening to you because
what you say is probably spot on but I’m
just watching the chat and seeing that
Shandi is giving me a reminder because I
was supposed to do something for her a
few days ago and I haven’t done it yet I
will do it right after the stream is
over I promise now the after sometimes
when you get a great response from your
dog let’s say you’ve been working hard
to teach your dog to leave something
alone the moment they make that decision
the moment they check back in with you
you can really make that exciting now
for stationary skill you’re not gonna
jackpot rewarded I mean you’re not gonna
be it like an enthusiastic bubbly you’re
gonna go in and you might jackpot reward
them with food but if you’re walking by
something on the street you’re walking
by another dog another person and your
dog is often leaving you for that but
this time because of your planning
because of your before and during your
successful that after better be a lot of
fun you better make it rewarding for
your dog Jenni’s a tough choice in
genuine yeah for sure
absolutely so it’s so powerful though it
really keep in mind those moments that
as you’re leading up to the distraction
while you pass the distraction in you
know if you’re trying to teach walking
in a loose leash don’t default into a
sit you might get a stronger sit out of
the deal but you really want to teach
your dog to make great choices to walk
on a loose leash and then the after is
that acknowledge the success and if they
don’t get it right you can you have your
leash you have your leash in your hand
you can guide them away you can really
show them you know the position that
they’re supposed to be in which is such
a such a helpful thing and we want you
to get out and you know as you build on
these successes be able to do stuff like
go to the park and have a distraction in
the distance because you’ve got your
leash or you’ve got your long line on
and you’re able to challenge your dog
just a little bit and don’t
underestimate the value of a high high
value rewards I think sometimes what
happens that happened to me this weekend
in one of my training classes my one of
my students was trying to work
on a recall with this dog and this dog
was just very very distracted and
couldn’t really focus and was looking
everywhere but him and literally all I
did was give him a little bit of a
higher value treat and the dog like
couldn’t get enough of him because now
he had something better than what was
going on in the room so don’t be stingy
with your treats guys make sure you use
really high-value rewards make it worth
your while for your dog to make good
choices to be with you and to focus on
you but if you don’t have something
that’s that’s high-value enough and we
can certainly give you recommendations
you’re making your life a little harder
than than it needs to be jo-ann Greco
asked about the gentle eater I see Dan
the moderator man dropped our gentle
leader playlist and that is going to be
quite an extensive coverage of how to
use a gentle leader you know how to get
your dog a customer’s a gentle leader
how to fit it as well as how to wean off
of it so that’s gonna be really helpful
playlist for you now we’ve arrived at
the point of the livestream where I see
people are saying we the North Go
Raptors it’s almost game time it’s
almost game time but I want to thank you
guys for joining us today now if this is
your first time on the channel make sure
you hit that subscribe button because we
publish new videos every single week to
help you to have a well-behaved
four-legged family member now I need to
say a big thank you to our super chatter
take the long way home yes we’re very
amusing
very amusing YouTube handle but thank
you very much for the super chat we also
need to thank our amazing moderator man
Dan Luton for lighting things up in the
chat taking care of our stand we do
appreciate it Dan and on that note I
want to wish you guys well I’m Ken I’m
kale happy training bye for now see you
next
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