Before you get a puppy, most people have a pretty good plan in place. Once the puppy comes home, that plan can fall flat on its face in that first week of puppy training. But it doesn’t have to. In this video, we sit down with brand new puppy owner, Nancy. Watch as we help Nancy out and give her some tips on how to succeed in her puppy training moving forward.
Puppy Crate Training Doesn’t Have To Be Stressful – https://youtu.be/z0Vr-drfGMQ
New Puppy Owner Playlist – https://youtu.be/nIGqPhSumsc
Get personalized help with your puppy training that’s specific to YOU and YOUR puppy!: https://www.McCannDogs.Link/PuppyEssentials
Visit Our Store And See The Dog Products We Love: https://www.McCannDogs.store
Don’t Forget To Subscribe: https://goo.gl/g6O345
If you’re looking for some music to help your dog settle, THIS is it: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4-GkhTRsl3ZgMZtKqYYi3Q
Become a HeartDog Supporter by clicking HERE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5QwYlOxcT1higtcJVGzCCg/join
We Also Have A Podcast!
Listen On Apple Podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/mccann-professional-dog-trainers/id1302363811?mt=2
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2wuGH4PATAsPECOoOuJwDl
Are you a brand looking to showcase your dog-related product or service? Email HERE: studio905@mccanndogs.com
CHAPTERS:
00:00 – First Week Puppy Training Might Be The Hardest
01:17 – Puppy Owners Keep Making THIS Mistake!
03:15 – The Disney Model – Human vs Dog Tendencies
05:14 – Stop Unwanted Puppy Chewing
06:37 – Be A Great Leader For Your Puppy, Start Making Choices
12:01 – You Need To Understand THIS! (And Feel Better 😉)
13:50 – Teach Your Puppy To See MORE Value In Following
Thanks for watching,
Happy Training! ~Ken
#puppytraining #puppytrainingfirstweek
You know, I had that dream,
gosh, since I was a kid, I wasn't completely prepared for The level of hypervigilance that I needed. We definitely have had a lot of
wins, but also some challenges. She's getting her independence, so
she doesn't really need me as much. So it's a shot to the ego. But then when I take her out of her
crate and she smothers me in kisses, Or if she does something like this,
then I think maybe she loves me still. I do suffer from major
depressive disorder and, uh, Post-traumatic stress disorder, And that's been a challenge for me
for probably the last seven years. I have found that the last week with her
has really been able to pull me out of My head, even though
mom's tired, mom's happy. I am, you know, single,
live at home by myself. So I'm very used to just kind of
focusing on what I need to focus on. And this little lady definitely
needs a lot of attention, Which I don't mind giving,
but it's the, it's exhausting. It's mentally exhausting. And yeah, I would say that I wasn't
prepared for that. Um, I mean, I knew it but wasn't fully prepared. It is so common for the first
week home to not go as planned. A lot of the time we have these great
plans in place and then the rug whoosh Right out from under us. So let's
talk about some of these things. One of the first things that I
wanted to talk about was your, um, Interest in looking for opportunities
to give her more freedom and sort of Broaden her boundaries at this
point. Yeah. And, uh, first off, In terms of freedom, you're a great
student. You're working crate training. You got the house line on all the time,
that is fabulous. Absolutely fabulous. That's a must, absolutely. A must. It really is.
What a lifesaver, right? So in terms of trying to build
bigger boundaries for her, I wanna try to impress upon you to
actually get away from that thinking right Now. Okay. And the reason for that, And this is a very common
thing that people want to
do for their puppies because
They think it is the right thing to do, But from a leadership and
a management perspective, You really want to keep her
contained and sort of within those Boundaries for the first little while, Especially until she is basically
responsive to your voice. So once they get to the point with my
puppies where they will respond to their Name, they'll respond to a
here command, or, you know, If something does go wrong, If I can give them a quick scold from
across the room and they stop with that, Then I know that they're ready
for more freedom. But right now, She's been home just a, a week now,
this is your one week anniversary. Congratulations,- one week of
this new life. So at this point, She is still really learning the rope.
She's still learning all of these things. Things like what is hers
to chew, especially, I know that's been a bit of a struggle
for you, and that's so normal. It, it's, It's often very, um, Very alarming how much they want to
chew and how much the tendency to chew Drives their behavior. And that can sometimes be a little bit
of a rug being pulled out from under us Because we don't expect it. For now, We want to just make sure that we're
setting her up to be successful, And she gets to be right the
overwhelming majority of the time. And then the times that she's wrong, We can just use as moments to help teach
her the right things. Something else I Want to talk about, and this is
another really, really common thing. We are humans, so we tend
to think in human terms, And then we tend to of course, apply
those human thoughts to our puppies. And a lot of the times that can actually
work against us very, very hard. So it's really important to think about
dogs in terms of their own learning and In terms of what matters to them. So when you are talking about
her being naughty in situations, They're usually situations where the
puppy hasn't learned what they should be Doing in a human world just yet. So
in a puppy world, in a dog world, They're scavengers,
they're explorers. So she,
It's very normal for her to wanna
explore the environment. And of course, They explore the environment
with their mouths. So very, Very normal for those teeth to come
across everything. And it's not that she's Being naughty in those moments, she just
doesn't know better. Part of the, um, Misconceptions surrounding dogs, I always say comes back to what
I call the Disney model for dogs, Which is this wonderful world where
the puppy comes home and then the child Goes out with the puppy and
they romp and the field, And they get into all sorts
of mischief. And of course, The puppy doesn't run off, and of
course the puppy doesn't bite the child. This is definitely a very
wonderful dream that we might have, But it is not reality. And we, We definitely want to treat our
puppies like they are brand new in this Situation, And they have so much to learn and
none of that they have learned yet. So things like learning
how to respond to commands, Learning what the rules of the house
are, learning, what their name is, And what their expectation is when they
hear their name. All of those things are More the reality based side of things
and the Disney model we really need to, We can appreciate in movies
and in these dreamy states, But we really need to put that aside
and that will come in the future. Yeah, So once she is fully trained,
once she's responsive, you know, You're gonna be able to keep her safe. You'll have this wonderful Disney-esque
model for life, but at this point, It's probably gonna look a lot less
like Disney with the puppy nipping and Chewing and peeing and all the
stuff that comes along with it. And even in this situation right here, I wanna talk about the chewing because
we've got this lovely bone forward at You, but she's also really
eager to chew on her house line, And she was eager to chew on my
hand a little bit there. And again, This is a really, really normal thing.
And sometimes it's a little bit, uh, Surprising for us that when we give them
good things that are supposed to be dog Chew items, they don't
wanna chew those items. So all I did there when she got a little
bit distracted with the long line was I
Just took the bone and I moved it
around a little bit to bring interest. You know, You might take a little bit of peanut
butter and smear it on the bone to make it More interesting than the lion.
And basically what we're doing is, Right now it is a bandaid for sure mm-hmm. <affirmative> to keep them distracted
from the line and keep them interested in The bone itself. But what I'm doing
is I'm creating habits for her, And that's what I want her to ultimately
learn to do, is chew on the bone, Chew on the dog toys, The things that she should be able to
chew on and not the things that are going To cause damage to her home or
potentially cause damage to the puppy, Right? So I'm gonna make sure that I make
this the most interesting thing that's Possible around her, And I'm gonna limit the options that
she has for chewing on anything else. Since I'm here supervising her right now, It's a really good opportunity if she
gets a little bit distracted with the long Line or with the fingers, We can get her interest back on the bones
so that that's a better thing for her To chew. Come here, girl. Oh, what's
that? <laugh>. Oh, what's that? Oh, That's good. Oh, that's good. And then she gets a little win when
she gets to chew it. Yay. Good for you. One of the other things that people will
often do is start to offer the puppy The opportunity to make choices before
they're actually ready for this. Basically what I do with choice work is
I stack the deck in my favor like mad. So once I'm at the point
where I'm no, you know, 90%, I'm 90% sure that my dog is going
to make the choice that I want to, I'll allow them that opportunity because
it is a really powerful thing to be Able to say, okay, you know what? I'm gonna give you this
moment to make a choice. And when they make the right choice
that you like, say for example, It's being in the kitchen and not
jumping on the counter. Right now, she's, She's too little to be able
to do that. But in the future, Counters surfing is probably something
that you're gonna need to do some Training with. So for example,
Once I have built value for my
dog not jumping in the kitchen, And that might be them just standing
there, it might be me working a sit, Something contrary to jumping
on the counter. And I have
done a lot of rewarding For that. And my dog is at the point where they
come into the kitchen and instead of Thinking about what's on the counter,
my dog goes, oh, maybe I'll sit. That's the point where I know I'm ready
to allow my puppy to make choices. But before that, When I know that my puppy's not gonna
be clear on what the right choice may be And the chances of my puppy making
the choice that works in a human rule World versus the choice that
works for a dog in the dog world, I will make sure that I am not allowing
them the opportunity to make a choice. Right? And that is a really big leadership
step because if they learn when they're Young that, oh, you know what? I don't have to go in the
crate when you ask me to, Or I don't have to come into the house
when you ask me to. That sort of thing Will follow you around and
will really set the tone. And especially as they go through
development and they start to get curious About the rest of the world and they
start to really be in a position to make Choices that might be
contradictory to what you'd like, That will come back and really,
uh, bite you in the butt. But that's kind of neat.
Okay, <laugh>, <laugh>, Are you looking at a foot over there
behind the camera? What's this? What's this? Hmm. Okay, let's
just snuggle. How's that? So I'm just gonna take choice away and
I'm just gonna snuggle her so I'm not Being mean. I'm just
saying, you know what, In this moment you're adorable
barking at that foot over there, Which is exciting, But right now we're in the
middle of something else
and it's not party time over There. So I'm just gonna take, Remove that choice from her and we'll
see if we can get her interested in this Bone again. So really before she's
ready to make the right choices, You're best to direct her behavior
as much as possible, okay?
And just be confident in that
direction as well, because she will, As soon as you take charge and have that
leadership for her, she will say, oh, Okay. That's what you want me to do
instead, I get it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, No problem. Going over to the bathroom is great.
She does her thing, she's lovely, Wonderful. But when it's
time to come inside, It's very hit or miss. Whether or
not she'll respond to coming inside. Sometimes it's no, I don't want to. Yeah. And very understandable. I. Feel bad because I'm like. <Laugh>, so let's go kid. That is one thing you need to just put
at the back of your mind. Don't feel bad. You are providing her
with a wonderful life. You're giving her good structure and good
information in that moment. You know, We have these feelings where we feel
like we're taking something away from the Dog. But I want you to
get rid of those thoughts. You do not need to feel
guilty for directing her
behavior and keeping her safe. And it's really important that
she knows that when you call her, She needs to come in from the yard, Which she's not ready to
make that right choice yet. So she needs to do some more learning
before she's ready to say, okay, You'll be out there on your own.
I'm gonna call you from the door, Or I'm gonna try to encourage you to
come back into the house. Right? Um, She might not want to
follow you in that moment. So rather than giving her that
opportunity to make the choice, This is where the house line comes in
really handy. And when I have puppies, I take them out to go to the
bathroom. We might play in the yard. We might have a good little time
for however long we want to. And then when I'm ready
to go back in the house, I'm going to step on the
house line, pick up my puppy, And just bring her in the house. Okay? So pick her up
outside and then bring her. Yeah, you bet. Okay. And then what I'm
going to be doing in the meantime too, Because obviously that's not an, a
solution for the rest of her life, right?
You know, She's gonna get pretty big and you don't
wanna be carrying her in the house. Yes. She's a hefty one. So, yeah. So what you're doing in the meantime is
you're teaching her how to respond to Her name very reliably with all of
the good skills that we're teaching. You're teaching her how to, um,
do a puppy recall towards you. And then once she's built a
lot of value for those things, You can start to use those
things to call her in the house. But for the time being, Because we know she's not
ready to make the right choice, It's really important that we not put her
in the position where she can make the Wrong choice. And then the unfortunate
part of that is that the value gets Built for making the wrong
choice. So when she says, I'm not gonna come in from the yard, I wanna stay out here in the cold
and in the snow and, you know, Play with some snow, it's okay.
You're learning too. Not to worry. But when she says, I wanna stay out
here in the snow and have fun. Yeah. Then that becomes reinforcing
for her as well. Yes. Instead of just taking the option away.
And then, you know, you might, um, You might do some games over
the threshold, for example, Where you call her name and then
reward her for coming in the house. That'll build value for responding
to you in those scenarios. Work the puppy recall in the yard. That'll build value for running to you
in those scenarios. And then you'll, You'll start to see that balance shift.
You'll no longer need to step on the Line and pick her up.
You'll be able to say, okay, Call her name and then she'll happily
run in the house because she's learned That that's really valuable too. Okay? And that's what we mean when we talk
about aligning our rules and the things That we find valuable with what we
want them to find valuable as well. Don't feel bad about what you don't know. This is a very normal part of the
learning process. And as humans, We want everything so fast and we think
that we should know everything because There's a wealth of information
at our fingertips all the time.
But you don't know what you don't
know. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And that's why you are doing the right
thing by reaching out and asking for help By being in a, in a puppy class, So that we can give you good direction
and good information and we can help to Prevent the mistakes that are so common
out there in the world. So please don't Worry about that. Now, Nancy is one of our in-person
Puppy Essentials students
and we can help her with Personalized feedback. If you would like personalized feedback
to help with your puppy journey, You can join us both in-person or
online depending on where you are in the World. And if you'd like more information, Click the link in the description below. The first week home it is so normal for
people to have high expectations and we Had a conversation before you brought, uh, Your new puppy home last week where I
mentioned that a lot of the times it Happens that people will bring their puppy
home and it's basically the first day Of kindergarten and they're already
thinking about university graduation. So keep in mind that this is
a training process. You know, She's only been home for a week.
She's the most adorable thing, Sleeping right there. She's only been
home for a week and this is a process. So you mentioned not being able to get
her into the down just yet. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> right now we're just
working on helping her follow that lure, Helping her learn how to lure, Because really luring is something
that's brand new to our puppies as well. They're used to just grabbing
and running off with things. So being able to nicely follow food and
being able to manipulate them because They're nicely following that food.
That's a teaching process as well. So don't worry about the finished product. It's always going to be a process that
you are taking little steps at a time and Building on that step before
and eventually the university
graduation will come And you'll be so proud of things.
But don't think about that just yet. We're still in kindergarten, So we're gonna build those steps.
You came prepared today, You brought some lower
value kibble treats,
And you brought some higher value
treats, which awesome <laugh>. Good job. That's good thinking. So what I like to do when it comes to
deciding what to use with the food is I Will start with the lower value and
I'll see how much interest that garners. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And it
depends on the puppy. You know, Some puppies are a little bit more picky
and some puppies are just chow hounds. Labs tend to be what I
call walking stomachs. So if she will work for just her kibble, That is fabulous because then you don't
have to go to the higher value treats And you can save those for later down
the road when you're working with higher Distractions. You know, when she
really does something dynamite, You could pull out a high value treat to
make it a little bit more impactful for With that reward. And you can save
your kibble for most of her day-to-day Training. So let's see if
she's interested. Oh yeah,
that smells good. Hey, Girly. So I'm gonna start just
by luring her <laugh>. Oh, She found the high value ones. I'm gonna
hide those away and we'll see here. There we go. Yes. Good girl. So all I did there was rewarded her for
moving and following that treat. Woohoo. She likes the kibble. We'll work
into the sit. Yes. Good. Girly. Turn her around here so everybody
can see your pretty face. And then we'll see what we
can do with this down here. So I'm just gonna slowly lure. Yes.
Good girl. <laugh>. You know what, It's just tricks of the trade.
No, don't worry. <laugh>. So all I did there was I just
waited, you know, when I kept, When I got it to the ground and she
was sort of sniffing and licking at it, I knew she was still interested in it. So I just waited until she sort of
followed it into that position. Okay. And basically her legs just collapsed
under her and she got into that down. And then as soon as she did, I
was able to say yes and reward it. Another trick is to push in towards
her a little bit. Yes. Good girl. So that time what I did was
I used the food to sort of Push in towards her chest and that kind
of toppled her into the down. Oh, okay. Do you wanna try that? I. Think what I've been
doing wrong is, um, T up.
There you go. Good. Good, good,
good. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, I have all your treats. Oh,
she likes those. There you go. Good <laugh>. It's usually, It's usually easiest to start
her in the s-i-t position. So you can go upwards first you
going upwards. <laugh>, <laugh>. That was good. She flopped into the down! A few of the things that I just noticed
that I think that we can give you some Pointers to help you get
better results on. So one, I'm gonna work with one treat at a time.
So even though I have a little hand, Whoops. Okay. A little handful
of kibble in my left hand, My right hand just has one at a time. The other thing that I noticed
is the positioning of your hand. When it's really deep in your hand,
it's hard to sort of direct her motion. So what I'm gonna do is I'm actually
gonna pinch those between my fingers and Then I'm gonna use that to sort of
move it around. So I think that, um, That will help you get her into the
right position as well if you've got good Mechanics with your hands. And then finally what I wanna do with
her is I wanna make sure that even though This is her kibble and it's her
meal and it's her meal ration, And I do wanna make sure she gets that, I also wanna make sure that she is
earning it. So if, whoops, <laugh>, Or are you gonna eat that
one again? Do you want. That back? I don't want it. There you. There
you go. You can have that one, That one you already earned
so you can have it again. So I wanna make sure that if she's not
actually gotten into the position I want, Or if she's not accomplished what I want, That I don't actually release
the treat yet. Okay. Okay. So that'll help her
connect the dots of, oh, I got that reward because my elbows
touched the ground there. Yes. Good girl. And then finally, I wanna make sure that I give her an
indication and we use yes because it Is an event marker and it says,
this is where you earned the reward. This is why you earned the reward. And
chances are, if you repeat that behavior,
You're gonna earn another reward for
it. Yes. Good girl. You're so smart. So another trick if she's, If she's having trouble pulling
and pulling up into the stand, You can actually use that and just
sort of, yeah. Oh, good girl. <laugh>. So her butt was against your leg there
and that worked to your advantage. You'll get more used to these motions
too as you continue to play with her. So even if you just wanna play
with Loring Spins this one. Yay. And I can tell she's still not
necessarily a hundred percent certain on Following the food, So that's probably part of why she's
struggling a little bit too. But again, She's a baby and she's just
learning. So not to worry. Yay. Good job. Job. See, just took a little
change in my pa mechanics. Good. Work. It is so common to have struggles with
crate training in the early days when you Bring your puppy home. If you need some
help with your crate training plan, Click this card. And on that note,
I'm Instructor Shannon. And I'm. Nancy. And this is Keilani. Happy training.