Your puppy's got to go out for a potty
break several times throughout the day, and I think it's exactly the opportunity
that you're missing in your puppy training. So many people overlook this,
the importance of this moment. Now, let's start with what I'm not doing.
Number one, Maple's brand new. I've never met her before. One thing that I see a lot of people
mistake I see a lot of people make when they're taking their puppy out for potty
training is that they're talking to them and they're engaging with them
and their puppy's meandering around. There's all kinds of distraction out here. So their puppy gets distracted
and forgets why they're out there. So I'm not really going
to say anything to her. I'm also not going to move
around all over the place. I'm basically going to turn into a post. I'm going to try to be so boring so that
she doesn't have an opportunity to get distracted and move all over the place.
I'm just going to let her sniff around a little bit, maybe pick a spot, and eventually I'm hoping that she's
going to have to go pee or poop. The other thing I'm not going
to do, this is a big mistake, and it might be something
that seems brand new to you, but I'm not going to reward
her with a treat for going pee. Now you'll see she's kind of circling.
So I think we might be pretty close here. So often people will say, we give your
puppy a treat when they go out for a pee, and that's absolutely not necessary. I want this puppy to understand
that when we go outside, she's going to have a pee or a poop, and she's naturally
rewarded by relieving her bladder or her bowels. She doesn't need to be food rewarded for
this because it already kind of feels good.
The other thing we hear, we get 500 dogs a week here
in our training facility, and a lot of those dogs are puppies, and we hear puppy owners that started
by rewarding with food when they're doing potty training. Now the puppy's scratching at the door
or asking to go out when they don't even really need to go out. So
now that we've finished, now that she's had a little poop there, it's actually time to work on some of
the training that I want you to know about. I talked about not food
rewarding your puppy when they go pee, but I did bring treats out with me. And whether you stuff some treats in
your bait pouch or in your pocket, it doesn't really matter. What I want is I want to be ready to
work on a few exercises to start building some value on me, building some value on putting in a
little bit of effort with me. And this is where your puppy starts
to learn how to learn. And every single potty break
is a great time to do that. So the first thing I'm going to do is
I'm going to start loading value on her name. And I want you to do this at home.
You're going to make it dead simple. We don't want our dogs to get
distracted. We don't want our puppies to. There's a million things that your puppy
could get distracted by when you're in the real world. I want to
make sure she's successful. So what I'm going to do is I'm
going to put this treat on her nose. I'm going to say her name and then
I'm going to lure her in toward me. That's exactly what I want you to
do at home with your puppy as well. It's so simple. Watch how this goes.
Get a treat on her thing. Maple, bring her in nice and close. Good
girl. And try it again. I mean, there's all sorts of great distractions
out here. Maple, good, girly. Nice job buddy. And all I'm doing is I'm basically just
saying her name and then bringing her in and feeding her a treat. So simple, Maple. Now this is so much better than being
out letting your dog out in the yard, calling their name, hoping
that they come back in Maple. And just wondering, the challenge is
that so often when people do that, new puppy owners do that. Their
dog stops listening eventually. It's just not that interesting to come
into you when they can go and sniff in the flower bed or go
dig in the yard. Maple. So when you go outside each
and every time with your puppy, take a couple of treats, do some luring.
All she has to do is follow the food. It's very donkey and carrot
and it's supposed to be, because right now I'm
teaching her to follow food, and that's going to be a great building
block for the next couple of exercises. Now, another thing we hear from students is
that their puppy is so full of energy and it doesn't seem to matter how many
times they go out and work with them. Their puppy always has extra
fuel in the tank. Well, why not add a little bit of tug or a
little bit of toy play into your puppy potty training. This
is a great opportunity. Likely after your puppy goes pee or poo, they're probably going to be
a little bit more energetic. You're going to seem a
little bit more excited. Now, I don't know if Maple's toy-motivated,
but if she's going to be toy-motivated, it's going to be on the McCann dog's
puppy tugs. Let's see if she wants to play with this thing. Okay, buddy,
do you like that toy? Okay. Oh, you want to get that toy Ug? Really,
I just want to keep this animated. Get her interested. She's never played
as a toy like this before. Get it, get it, get it, get get it. Oh, good girl. And what I love about
these interactive toys, especially this one obviously is this
becomes exciting because it's with me. This toy is only fun when
she's playing with me. And this is a great way to burn off. A
lot of energy is short period of time. If you are headed to work
for the next couple of hours, maybe you're work from home, you
want to work on stuff like this, it takes 30 seconds or a minute and
you're going to see, oh my goodness, she likes that coin. You're going to see a dog that's way
more tired than when we've started. She really likes to tug. But I'm
going to do something like this. I'm going to do a game of tug
before we work on the next exercise, which is some of the more foundational
stuff in your puppy training. Look at her. She loves it. So many people are talking about
wanting to take their puppy for a walk. But the thing you might not realize is
that you need to train your puppy how to walk before you take them for a walk. And this next exercise is exactly how
you're going to start and finish your walks. But because we have a
young puppy, we can't go very far. We just want to work on some
of these really simple skills. I'm going to do that
donkey carrot thing again. I'm going to put a treat on her nose
and I'm going to lure her in at my side and at the end a little lift up and she
sits. Now imagine a world where your puppy's offering to sit in this position
because you've built so much value here. I'm not saying sit. I'm
not giving her any commands. I'm just starting to teach little
Maple here and look at this. I'm starting to teach little Maple here
that there's value for remaining in this position. My leash is loose.
She's sitting in at my side. She's doing such a great job. Wouldn't
it be nice if your puppy were like, would default to this? Well, this is
exactly how this all starts. I mean, there's a lot of distractions
you guys can't see. There's a couple of dogs just off to
her right here. There's lots going on, and she's remaining in position, I think Maple's 11 weeks
old or something like that. And I have never worked with
her before. But look at this. This is how we're going to begin and
end all of our walks. And this is an exercise you can do. This is a bit of an advanced technique
for those of you who are getting some success in this position, but
I see a lot of students who, they're working with
their puppy or their dog, and the dog is fixated on
the pocket or the pouch. The dog is looking for the food. So what you can do if you're
getting some success here, is reward from your face directly to
theirs. You can see, yes, good girly. I mean, she's looking right at me. I've never worked with this little
puppy before. We just met today, and she's giving me nice
attention right on my face. And all I'm doing before I feed her is
bring that treat up to my nose and then rewarding her in the direct line between
my face and hers. Make no mistake, this is all about the food. I just want
to build value for some of these things like when she checks in
with me. Nice job buddy. That sit and start position or sit at
your side is exactly where we can begin some of this leash walking training. Wouldn't it be nice if when your dog was
finally ready to start going on walks, if they understood to start here, it
also gives you lots of control. Now, I'm not going to take my 11-week-old
puppy and you're not going to take your 11-week-old puppy and go
for long walks with them. But you can start at this point with
three or four pieces of kibble or three or four treats in your hand. All
you're going to do, again, back to that donkey and carrot routine
because this is a resource that the puppies naturally understand. I can keep
her motivated to follow along with me. Alright buddy, let's go. And I'm just
feeding her every couple of steps. When I get to my last treat, I'm
going to lure her into a sit. Okay, that one was okay. I
don't love her position there. Can you guys see what's wrong with that? Do you know what I might not
love about the way she sat there? Lemme know when the comments below.
So I'm going to turn her around. I'm going to take her with me.
I'm just going to lure her away. I'm going to guide her around the
corner and I'm going to try it again. I'm just going to lure her up
with that nice little sit. Oh, and I got that little bum out to
the side again. That's better. Much better pal. So I really
want the puppy at this point. I have so much control. I want the puppy
to sit straight and sit close to me. So often the way people
are rewarding, okay, has the puppy turn out to the side. And this isn't great if you're walking
on a sidewalk and you get to the corner and your puppy swings out into the
road. You don't want that kind of thing. You really want your dog to
be in close to your side, and that has a lot to do with
where that reward placement is. But this is where we could
build the foundation of it. When your puppy's really little, when
you're only going eight or 10 feet, teaching them the basics, the foundation, so that when they get to 16 weeks or 18
weeks and you're working on this in a busier environment or in the real world, you're going to have way more success. They've already figured out
how to learn with you. Okay! Now you've optimized your
time outside with your puppy. It's time to optimize your time
inside with your puppy. And for that, watch this video. On that note, I'm
Ken. This is Maple. Happy Training.
