– This is Maggie, the
Labrador Retriever puppy, and for the next 20 minutes, instructor Steve's gonna work with her on something called leash respect. It's where he gives her the opportunity to choose him over choosing
to pull on her leash. She's actually also
gonna work a little bit on jumping up, and I know that's something that a lot of dog owners struggle with. On that note, I'm Ken Steepe. – I'm Steve Walsh. – And this is Maggie. Welcome back to McCann Dogs. (guitar strumming)
(dog barking) – Like any other exercise
we teach our dogs, it's important we break
it down into little steps to help our dogs be correct. Now, when I talk about
the idea of leash respect, it doesn't matter to me where she is, it just matters to me that she's not pulling on the leash.
Now, I've picked a great
motivator for Maggie. I've got some cheese here, and she seems to like this
cheese really, really well. In fact, I'm pretty sure
this is the first time she's had cheese, but with your dog, you're gonna need to make sure that you pick a motivator
that is important to them and powerful to them.
Now, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm going to simply tell her, "With me." And I'm gonna take a
step and I'm gonna pause. And as long as she pauses with me, I'm quickly going to say
yes, and I'm going to reward. Now, it's important to remember, she doesn't have to be at my left side. She can be anywhere around me, and as long as she
doesn't pull on the leash, I'm gonna quickly deliver that treat. Here's the other side of the coin though. If she decides to pull on the leash, I'm gonna turn and face her, and I'm gonna add some of
those pulses on the leash that I'll show you in a second to simply encourage her
to reconnect with me.
When she does, I'm gonna
turn on my voice and motion and move away from her and encourage her to stay with me a little bit more. Oh hi girl, she's very excited. And again, I haven't worked with Maggie. So we're gonna see what happens here. I like how excited she is though. So let's go ahead and do this. So I'm gonna have some food
in my hand ready to go, but I'm not going to lure her. This food is up out of the way. It is a reward. Now, you can tell, she knows I have it, and that's a really
really, really good thing. So here's what it's gonna look like. With me. Yes, good girl, very good.
With me. Yes, good girly. With me. She's gonna turn and move. So she's pulling a little. She's making a good choice. There's my girl, good job. With me. Yes, good girl. With me. Yes, good girly, very nice. Now, I'm gonna take another step. With me. And see what she does. So, she's gonna jump. I'm gonna tell her off. Good off, good girl. With me. Yes, good girl. You notice when I bring the food down, I'm bringing it down quickly, to help prevent her from jumping, even though she's excited.
I'm bringing the food down quickly. She only gets rewarded for
four paws on the ground. And I'm gonna keep doing
this a couple more times. With me. Yes, good girl. So she pulled on the leash. I caught you, I did, haha, that's funny. Good girl. With me. Yes, good girl, very good. So the moment that leash went tight, I put a little slack on the leash, added a few pulses until
she turned back to me, but then I praised her
and I became more fun than everything else around her. Now, we're in our hall and
it's an empty hall right now because I wanna set Maggie
up to be successful. I wanna make sure I limit the distractions to build her foundation and understanding. And even though it's a fairly empty hall, she's still pretty
excited about the world.
And that's a really good thing. Most new puppies are excited about things. This cheese that I have is
really important to her, and that's gonna be of value
when I start to do this. I'm not gonna add any more
distractions right now. I'm simply gonna continue
to work this idea of a couple of steps and a pause. And as long as she pauses with me, the good stuff happens. And when she doesn't, no big deal. I'm not mad at her, but
I'm quickly using my leash to redirect her to bring her right back. Now, I am gonna try and
make it a little bit harder, but I'm not gonna do that by
adding a lot of distractions. I'm gonna do that by adding one more step.
So instead of one step at a time, it's gonna be two steps at a time, okay. And here's what it's gonna look like. With me. One, two, yes, good girl, very good. With me. Yes, good girly, good job. I added a little bit more food. Good girl, excellent job. Whoops, off. So I'm gonna work a little of that off, and this is what most
exciting puppies are gonna do.
That's okay, we're just
gonna help work with them. With me. Yes, good girly, good. With me. Yes, good girl. With me. Yes, good puppy dog. Now, she is making
absolutely fantastic choices. Off, and again, I'm just gonna deal with the jumping as it goes. I'm not mad at her. She's excited and engaged with me. So I'm gonna make sure that I help keep her with me. With me. Off, girl, good. With me. Yes, good girl. You'll notice the more I
do this, the more excited Maggie actually gets too. And we are getting a fair
bit of jumping right now. This is pretty common with
these excited young puppies. First things first. She is being excited. She's not being overbearing, but that doesn't mean
I'm not gonna address it. I'm going to tell her off and I'm just gonna add
some pulses to the ground, each and every time she jumps.
I'm not mad at her. She's simply an excited
puppy at this point, but it is important I address
it each and every time. Off. Good girly. Good off, excellent job. And I can even take the
opportunity to yes and reward her for keeping four paws on the ground. Good off, very nice. I'm gonna combine these two now. A little bit of leash respect
and addressing that off. Okay, With me. Yes, good girl, good job, good with me. With me. Off, good off, good. With me. Yes, good girl, what a superstar
Labrador Retriever you are.
With me. Yes, good girl. And you can see how quickly she starts to figure out that she shouldn't jump, and that good things come for keeping four paws on the ground. We've started to get some success now without any distractions down. Like anytime I wanna add things in though, I need to add them slowly to help her understand how to be correct. So, I've put some toys down on the ground. (bells dinging) And these are pretty exciting for her. She heard one of them squeaking. She was pretty interested in them. You'll notice, off, that I've moved back from those toys a little bit. I'm gonna do the exact same exercise back here far away from those toys to help her understand that she shouldn't pull on the leash in spite of those
distractions being there.
Now, same rules are going to apply. I'm gonna have some food
in my head ready to go. I am not luring her. I am rewarding her for making choices. So, you'll notice when I move, I'm not moving with food on her nose. The food is up out of the way, but it's there that I can quickly say yes and reward her. And I'm gonna take one or two steps toward those toys, and as long as she doesn't pull on the leash, I'm going to yes and reward. Are you ready, girl? With me. Off. So again, I can address the jumping. Off. Let's get your paw out
from under there, off. Good off. With me. Yes, good girl, good job, very nice. Go ahead and get it. Good, with me. Yes, good girl, might move
a little farther away. With me. Off, off. Good off. With me. Off. And this is pretty common that the dogs get a little bit excited and start to do things repetitively. People often ask us, how
many times am I gonna have to do this before my dog understands.
And really, it comes down to, yes, good girl, as many times as it takes for them to understand what we want. I'm never mad at them. I'm simply giving them
the best direction I can to help them to be correct. With me. Off, yes, good girl, good. With me. Yes, good girl. With me. Yes, good girly. With me. Yes, good girl. Now I gotta say, with me, girly. She just made, off, a fantastic choice. These toys were there. She looked at them and
paused for a second, but then looked back to me. I yessed it and I gave
her a little jackpot, but I also didn't hang out there. I made a little bit more space to help her make the right choice, okay. And then, I'm gonna try it again.
So a little tense on the
leash bump, bump, bump. I caught you, I did. Yeah. Good try, girl. Off. Good. That's better. Yes. What a good puppy dog. And I'm going to repeat these steps. So I'll go a little closer again. With me. Yes, good girl. With me. Yes, good girl. With me. Yes, good girl. With me. Yes, good girl. Very good puppy dog. And then again, once I've
been this successful, with me, good girl, I'm going to move away to
help her be successful. So toys are not something that seems to be a big draw for her. So I'm gonna make it a little harder. But again, I'm gonna still do
it in a controlled fashion. I've asked Ken to come
out here and stand here and he's just going to
be a human distraction, because oftentimes, that's where these
little social butterflies can really struggle. So same steps are going to apply. My expectation is that she
doesn't pull on the leash, in spite of Ken being there.
Now I'm not gonna go rushing up to Ken and have her rehearse
jumping all over Ken. I'm going to build more
value for her staying with me and focusing on me. One thing I want to highlight right here, do you notice how she's
turned and faced me right now. I very much make a habit of rewarding these dogs
turning towards me, understanding that good
stuff comes from me.
Instead of just magically appearing while they're looking
everywhere else in the world. So here's how it's
gonna be like, my leash, she's got up. I've got the food in my hand. I'm not going to lure her with it and I'm going to take a step towards Ken. With me. Yes, good girly. With me. Yes, good girl. And I move back a little bit. With me. Yes, good girl. Now, it's important to note, she's not jumping as much right now. Part of that is simply
we've addressed it each and every time. With me. Yes, good. With me. Excellent job. And I'm going to push this hard here. With me. Yes, good girl. She's making great choices right now. Off. Good off. Yes, good girl. And I'm going to really
actually try and push her because she's making such great choices. I'm going to really see if we
can test her in the situation.
With me. Oops. I caught you. I did, haha. Good thing, off. Let's get you really sorted out and with me. Good. With me. Yes, good girl. So that was a little bit
too much for her brain. She saw Ken kneel down and thought, "Oh, I should go and jump on Ken," so I just simply added
those pauses and moved away. Off. And I'm reestablishing
her idea of leash respect. With me. Yes, good girl. With me. Yes, good girl. With me. Yes, good girly. Excellent, good job. Very nice. The next step I'm going to make with her is I'm actually going to
take food out of my hand. I'm not going to hold it. I have it in my bait pouch.
I have it ready to go. I have easy access to it. Off. But I'm going to now simply say yes, reach for that food and reward her. And again, this is a
step that we take away from holding food in our hand. You know, we are not
bribing her to move with us. We're rewarding her, but this is going to be our first step. So again, she can be on
my right, that's fine, as long as she's not pulling on the leash. With me. Yes, good girly. So I'm saying yes,
reaching in my bait pouch and rewarding her. With me. Yes, good girl. Good job. Very nice. With me. Yes, good girl. Good, with me. Okay, get it.
Good girly. With me. Yes, good girl. Maggie's doing a fantastic job and I've already moved to the point where I've been testing her
not holding food my hand. But like anytime when I
introduce new distractions, I need to back things up
to help her to be correct. So here's what I'm gonna do, I'm actually gonna pop
this door open in a minute, because oftentimes people say, my dog does it great
inside that empty hall, I should just go outside and they wonder why the dog struggle with all of that new environment. So here's what we're going to do. I'm going to take some food, I'm going to put my hand here in a minute, and work a little bit of
this leash respect here, with the door closed. And then I'm going to pop the door open and we're going to see how it goes.
Same rules apply though, she needs to move with
me on a loose leash. I'm still only moving a
couple of steps at a time. And I'm still rewarding her
for those great choices. So I've got some food here. Just as a little
refresher, she knows I do. With me. Yes, good girly. With me Yes, good girl. With me. Yes, good girl. Let's open the door and see how it goes. The door's open now. My goal is not to go right out the door. My goal is for her to show
me great leash respect in spite of this door being open. Hi, girl, you caught me off guard there. Good girly. So here's what it looks like. With me. Yes, good girly. With me. Yes, good girl. I'm gonna move away from the door. With me. Yes, good girl. With me. Yes, good girl. With me. Yes, good girly. Very good. With me. Yes, good girl. Now she's doing quite well.
So I'm actually going to push this. I'm going to go out the
door a couple of steps and work my way back in. With me. Yes, good girl. It's important our dogs learn not to rush through doors ahead of us. It's important that they
learn to be respectful as we do that, and this is going to help with those. With me. So a little pull on the leash.
Bump, bump, bump. Hi, I caught you. Yes, I did. So here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna pop back inside. With me. Yes, good girl. Get it. Good girl. Are you ready? Are you set? With me. Yes, good girl. Very good girl. With me. Yes, good girl. With me. Yes, good girly. With me, girl. (bell dinging) Yes, good girl. Now that was a lot for little Maggie to do and she did a great job with that. You'll notice that when I came back in, I took a couple of big steps and I stopped and she actually fixed herself. There was a little tension
that went in the leash. And the moment she felt that, she actually turned back towards me. Those are great things to look for. That tells me she is starting
to understand the exercise. Now, this has been a lot
of work for this dog. She's getting a little
tired and a little over it. So we're going to take a break shortly. But even though she's
getting a little tired, I still expect that she's not
pulling the leash right now.
Anytime she's getting up, I'm simply placing her back in that set, she still shouldn't jump up on me. All of our dog training
rules still apply throughout the entire exercise. Good girl. You're a good thing. You'll get to have a little nap soon. Good little Labrador Retriever. Yes, you are good girl. Now we've spent the last 10
or 15 minutes teaching Maggie the idea of leash respect and also working on some jumping up. And these are very common issues that a lot of dog owners experience. Now if you want to watch a little bit more about leash respect, you can click that card right
there where I did a little bit of that work with my own puppy final. – Now, if this is your
first time on the channel, make sure you hit that subscribe button. We publish new videos every
single week to help you to have a well-behaved,
four-legged family member. On that note, I'm Ken. – I'm Steve. – Happy training. – Happy training..
