A gentle leader is a tool
that we use often around here, mostly for our busier dogs who are a
little younger and need a little help getting some success early. It can be a very powerful tool to
help your dogs in those early stages. But there are also times when a gentle
leader can help a little bit older dog who maybe has some great skills, but struggles to listen in
different environments. Okay. Now my young dog final back here, you've seen him in lots of different
videos and he has some fantastic skills, but there are still times in his
life where he struggles to listen, whether it be waiting for his turn, watching agility or when some of
the other dogs that are running. And one of the biggest remarks that we
get from students who have older dogs, when we suggest using a gentle leader, it's first thing they say is that they
tried it, the dog didn't like it. Okay. It's important that there'll be an
adjustment and we help our dogs get accustomed to the gentle leader
before we leave it on them. There's a number of
things that you can do. So because final struggles
in certain situations, I'm going to take some time to show
you how I work through putting a gentle leader on an older dog. I
know when I put it on him, he's not going to like it
much like our students dogs, but I'm going to show you some of the
little tips and tricks that I do to get dogs comfortable in wearing the gentle
leader. I'm Steve, this is Final. This is finals, new gentle leader.
Welcome back to McCann Dogs. Now, before I head inside and start training
final on how to be comfortable wearing the gentle leader, here are a few quick tips that can help
you get a little bit more success in getting your dog comfortable with
it, feed your dog, their meals, wearing their gentle
leader, breakfast or dinner, play tug and fetch with your
dog. Wearing that gentle leader. Use those toys that they love most, or simply sit and pet them nice and
calmly give them that lovely massage that they like while they're
wearing that gentle leader. So step one with this is getting him
comfortable with just the nose loop. And I want to do it a little bit.
Some course that can be successful. I've got some great cheese
here, which he loves. I've got my gentle leader ready to go. And all I'm going to do is
know the positive association
with him feeling I was in on getting that yes in reward.
When he's calm with it on his nose. Now a couple of ways to do this is I'm
not gonna try and fight and put this on him. I'm going to make it easy. I'm
actually gonna take my treats, put that, treat hand through the nose
loop, turn you this way, buddy. So you can see that they
came up, move your back. Now I can slide that nose loop on. Yes.
And then he gets the treats. Good boy. Yes. And then I can slip
it off and try it again. And this is going to start building that
positive association with that feeling of the nose loop on his
nose. Yes. Good boy. Yes. Excellent job. I'll slide it off again. And I'm going to try this
over and over and over. What I want him to start to know
is that this nose loop means good. Things are going to happen. So you'll notice this time his nose is
now coming forward to the nose loop, looking for those treats. So my
hand can be out of the nose loop. Now his nose goes right through
that nose loop. Yes. In reward. Pull it off again. Now part of this is me also figuring
out the size of the nose that I have noticed a couple of times and I
put it on that's a little bit big. So I'm just going to make it a little
smaller and we'll try it a couple more times again, a little
food on his nose. Yes. Good boy. Excellent job. That's a much
better fit. Pull it back off again. That's pretty much step one. So I've spent a little time getting
final use to the idea of having the nose loop of the gentle leader
on his little face. I have rewarded him for doing it
and he's getting okay with it, but I haven't really put it on him. I haven't done anything with it
because I'm going to do that right now. And what I want to show you is how
I'm going to work through getting him comfortable with it. When
I first put it on him, he may paw and he may try
to struggle a little bit. He may try to resist it a little bit. And oftentimes that can be a little bit
worrying for some of our owners in terms of what do they do? Well, I'm going to work through it and you
can see how I do it right now with him. I have a couple of things that are going
to help make this process a little bit easier. I've got some great rewards and
I'm going to help to build that positive association with the gentle leader. And I've also got my toy and final
loves to tug. He loves to play, and I'm going to use both of those things
to help him realize that the gentle leader still means all the
good things can happen. Now, it's pretty obvious that a lot of
the times when I'm talking to you and demonstrating things, I'm doing
it in a fairly quiet environment. Final good boy, sit. And
there's reason for that. Our job is to help our
dogs to be successful. And if I put my dog in a situation where
things are too crazy and my dog is too distracted, they're not learning. They're simply over faced
in that particular moment. So I've got my treats ready
to go finalist here with me. I've got my gentle leader
ready? First things. First, I'm going to put a little food through
the lift off and sit through the nose loop there. And I'm going to give him
that treat and slide it on his nose. And then this head collar is
going to come around behind. And I'm just going to snug that up on
him for a second and make sure that head color fits a little
tighter boy. Excellent job. And then I'm going to transition my
leash from the nose or from his collar to the nose live. When you can see right
now, he's already starting to say, Hey, wait a second. I'm not super fond of this. I'm just going to get
my leash organized here. He's messing with it a little bit. So I'm just going to lift up here a little
bit and then put some Slack back in. Good boy. Excellent. Yes. So,
oops. I'm going to leave it. Good, good point. Leave that bud. So
he's pulling out of it a little bit. So I'm going to help him a little
bit. Leave that buddy. Go ahead. Leave that one. I know. So this is something that's
pretty common with a lot of dogs. He says I have lost control.
Good boy. Leave that, please. And now I need to sort of
wrestle with this thing. So I'm just going to guide him to the
ground and I'm going to calmly help him understand that. No pressure,
good. Leave them alone. Leave that lab. And this
is a pretty typical thing. Now he did something pretty smart
there. And I don't know if you see this. He actually managed to get the
nose lip off. So no big deal. I'm going to reset myself. We're
going to put it back on again. So I'm going to take this nose leap off, take the gentle leader off and to put
this back up on his nose. Good boy, bud. And then I'm going to
change things a little bit. I'm going to make it a little bit
easier for him to be right before I do anything. Now I'm going to get it a little food
and I'm going to help him understand. Yes. Good boy. Then. Good things can still happen with this
gentleman. So I've got some cheese here. Yes. Good boy. Excellent boy.
God. Yes. Good boy. Good. Excellent. Yes. Good boy. Good. And as long as he sits calmly,
I'm going to reward him. Yes. Good boy. Excellent work. You
know those any time I reward him, this leash hangs straight up and down.
There's no tension on that gentle leader. So he's gonna learn pretty
quickly. No tension means good. So now I'm going to
help them a little bit. I'm gonna move him just a little bit.
Let's go. Good boy. Let's go. Yes. Good boy. We're going to move quickly.
We're going to reward off and let's go. Good boy. So I'm getting him moving. I'm
getting them focused on something else. Good boy. Now he's going
to paw at it that's okay. So I'm just going to lift up a little bit. I'm going to place them in a set and
then put some Slack back. Yes. Good boy. Excellent job. So I interrupted him as quickly as
I could letting him know that he shouldn't play with it. First
things first. I'm not mad at him. I'm not telling him that he's
a bad dog for doing something, but I am preventing the
behavior from continuing. He is really starting to understand.
Okay. Don't pod the thing, but good things happen when you simply
go with it. Let's go. Good. Let's go. Yes. Good. Let's go. Yes. Good boy.
Excellent. Let's go feed that. Good. Yeah. Yes. Good. Let's go. Good
boy. Excellent job. Good boy. Ready? Get that thing. Good. That's cool. So now we're giving them
something else to focus on. What'd you just moving with me and I'm
going to reward him often for moving with me. Good boy. Let's go ahead. And the more he moves and
realizes that good things happen. The more he settled into the gentle leader
now where they will tend to struggle with it a little bit more simply
when we're sitting biggies, he's going to start to realize now
that it is on his nose and it's kind of bugging him go, boy, I'm going to
make sure that he gets lots of praise. Leave that good boy. When he sit in calm, we are not messing with the gentle
leader. Excellent boy. Good job. Very nice. Yes. Good boy. Now, one of the nice things about a gentle
leader is that it gives my dog full range of motion of their mouth. So the other thing I can actually do to
help him be more comfortable with it is I can take out my toy and I can let
him tug and play and have some fun. He can open his mouth. He can do all
those things. And the more he associates, he isn't able to do that with my toy.
The more he will settle into it, but boy, good out. Yes. Good boy. So I'm interspersing some calm behavior
on the gentle leader with some more exciting behavior. Okay. Get it. Good
Boy. Tug, tug, tug. Good boy. Good job. Excellent work. Good. Out. Good. Good boy. Yes. Good set. Excellent work. So you can see a couple of times there
he was. Okay. Good job. Leave that. So again, in that particular
moment, leave it good. Leave. Leave that good. He's working
through his head right now. Whether or not he should
fuss with it. Yes. good boy. I'm interrupting every time. Now
the big thing is when I interrupt, I am making sure that I put
Slack back in this leash. This is the most important part for him
to figure out is that good things happen when there's no tension at
all? Good boy. Excellent work. And the sitting is the hardest part
because of the emotion they're focused on the gentle leader. Yes. Good
boy. Good job. Excellent work. Just a little bit more walking for today. And then that's all I'm going to do with
them today on this particular thing. So I'm going to get out some more
food again. Hey bud. Are you ready? And he said, I got some great treats
here. Good job. Okay. That's cool. Yes. Good. Let's go. Let's go. Yes. Good boy.
Good. Let's go. So anytime he moves, I think it's lots of rewards for moving
with me on a nice loose leash, warring, his shiny new gentle leader.
And for our first time, that actually went pretty well. Okay.
Again, he had a couple of issues with it, but it's important that you understand
that your dog needs to be accepting of it and we're going to help
them to accept it. Okay. We're not going to let them
rehearse that kind of thing. One week later. So it's
a week later now guys, I've spent the last week doing all sorts
of fun things with Final while wearing his gentle leader. And you'll remember last week
when I put it on him in the hall, he wasn't really fond of it.
He really didn't like it. My job is to help him through it. So
I'm going to do some work with him. Now I'm going to do a little response to
name. I'm going to do a little walking. I might even pull up my toy and have a
little tug and play and he's going to work through it. Now he may pod a little bit and I'm
just going to work them through that. I'm going to encourage him to leave it,
but then I'm going to keep on moving. The idea is much more comfortable with
it now and we can have much greater success. Okay buddy. Bye now. Yes. Good
boy. Excellent. What a good puppy dog. Good. Good. Yeah. God, this way. Ready
you set. Hi. I'm over here. Good point. Get in. Let's go. Go ahead. Let's go.
Yes. Good boy. What a good puppy dog. Hey, good boy. Excellent. Are you ready?
I said final. Yeah. And sit. Oops. Sit. Good. Sit. Good job.
Let's go. Okay. Let's go. Good boy. Ready? You set.
Okay. Ready? Give that to him. I get to get to get good boy.
Get to, get to get it out. Yes. Good out. Excellent boy. A common thing that happens when people
try a new piece of equipment is they put it on the dog and the dog doesn't like
it and they immediately take it off because they think that the dog really
isn't getting any use out of it. Or it's really not going to work. It's important that you take the time
to get your dog comfortable with any new piece of equipment. Before you can start to get success with
it. It's important to stick with it. A gentle leader is like any other training
tool and it's designed to get success early with your dogs, but it's also something we don't
want to become dependent on. If you want to learn more about how
to wean away from a gentle leader, when your dog is ready,
click that card right there. If this is your first time on the channel, make sure you hit that subscribe button.
We publish new videos every week. Tell you to have a well behaved
four legged family member with that. I'm Steve happy training.
