Puppy Training First Steps - Small Breed Puppy Training - Professional Dog Training Tips

- In this video, we're gonna be talking about some puppy training first steps, and joining us is this adorable Sheltie puppy named Fizz. Now, whether you're trying to be as prepared as you can to bring your puppy home, or maybe you're already feeling a little bit overwhelmed with your puppy training, this video will give you lots of tips, and hopefully some answers to all of your puppy training questions. I'm Ken Steepe, and welcome back to McCann Dogs. (dog barks) Here at McCann Dogs, we've helped more than 90,000 dog owners to overcome their dog training challenges, so if this is your first time on the channel, make sure you hit that subscribe button so that I can help you to have a well-behaved four-legged family member. Now Lorie, I want to introduce everyone to Fizz. This is your new puppy, and let's talk a little bit about Fizz and sort of, the other breeds that you've had, other breeds of dog, because I asked you if you wanted to do a video all about small breed puppy training and you mentioned that Fizz is actually your largest small breed dog. - He's huge. Yes. - Yes. My other dog is a Papillon, and he's actually a small Papillon, so he, as an adult, weighs five pounds. So, yeah, this is my big small dog. - Yeah. Now, you also do teach our new puppy seminars, and I thought it would be great to chat with our audience today about some of their puppy training first steps, and maybe some of the things that you talk about in those new puppy seminars so that those small breed dog owners can really get their puppies started off on the right foot. - There's definitely some things that are more specific to smaller breeds, and when I was thinking about this, expectations, I think, is one thing that comes to mind. Some people look at a small dog and they go, "Oh, well, it's not really a bother. I won't put the same effort into training it, because if it puts its feet up on me, it's not a big deal, or if it bites me, it doesn't hurt." So, sometimes people don't train to the same standards that they might with a larger dog. Um, and I've had smaller dogs, and I've also had, like, St. Bernards, and, you know, you want to make sure your St. Bernard doesn't put their feet up on you, but I also like to make sure that I train my very small dogs to those same standards. So I don't want a little tiny dog putting their feet on me because I still think their feet should be on the floor. - Sure. Great for leadership. - Yes, absolutely. And just well-mannered, and I think it's important, or I often feel, with a small dog, you need to be a really good ambassador for those small dogs, because, you know, sometimes people look at my small dog, not my big small dog, but my real small dog- - Yes. - ... and go, "Oh, well, I'm surprised. I thought small dogs were yappy and they bit." And it's like- - Right. - ... well, my gosh, no. - Yeah. - No, not, not as a rule. - Yeah. - So you really want to make sure that you get out there and have your small dog really well behaved so that people can not view them that way. - Yeah, and I think, a really important takeaway for any dog owner is to have expectations. You know, it's so funny, as we have students in our classes here, and they just don't really know what they can expect of their dog. But to have the same expectations of your small dog, small breed dog, as you do any large breed dog, is really, really, important. Even though they're, they may, you may feel like you're more comfortable letting them get away with things, some of those nonconfrontational leadership things, like, you know, not allowing them to jump up on you or not allowing them to jump up on the furniture, can really, you know, speed up your training if you're clear with them, and if you're consistent with them, the same way you would be with your Great Dane puppy. - Absolutely, and consistency, that's really the magic word there, consistency. That is really one of the cornerstones of dog training. And I think one of the most important things that people should keep in mind when they come home with these eight-week-old puppies, seven-week-old puppies, whatever the age is, they hit the ground running. They're ready, they're learning. So, you want to make sure that you're not rehearsing behavior that you don't want long term, and that you start training them right away. - Yeah. - So when I brought Fizz in, like, literally into my living room, there was a couple of dog toys on the floor, and a pair of fluffy slippers. And, you know, your initial impulse is to move those fluffy slippers because the dog's attracted to them. - Yup. - And I didn't, and I don't. It's, at, she was just shy of eight weeks, and I had him on a line, so I had good control over him and right away, I'm right there, and it's like, "Leave that." - Yup. - "That's not for puppies." And I direct him to a toy. - Great. - And he figured that out right away- - Yeah. - They are extraordinarily bright. - Yup. - And he knows, like, fluffy slippers, not for dog. Dog toy, for dog. - You talked a little bit about using a house line. Now, we have a video on the channel, but tell us a little bit about the importance of using a house line with your puppy, whether they're a small breed dog or the largest of large breed dogs, the benefits of using something like a house line, and maybe even what a house line is. - Yeah, a house line basically is a leash that you would attach to your dog. Often, it doesn't have a handle on it, so it doesn't snag on furniture. But it's really another magic trick with dog training, and what it enables you to do is have control over your dog without being sort of invasive or overpowering. So when you want that dog, you just step on that line. If you want to stop them from heading over to the fluffy slipper, you can stop it before it happens, and you have better control. And we always try and make sure that you have a good relationship with your dog and their collar. So, you know, if you want to stop your dog and you're forever reaching in and grabbing their collar, they learn to become, to get out of the way- - Yup. - ... or collar shy, whatever you want to call it. - Yup. - They look like a severely abused dog when you do that- - Yeah. - ... but typically, they're just trying to get out of the way. - Right. So it avoids all of that, and it gives you good leadership qualities, because trying to run after a puppy doesn't make you look like a leader. It's amusing to everybody else in your household- - Right. - ... because typically you don't win anyway. - Right, yes. The puppy's too quick. _ This gives you really, really good control and you can stop behaviors before they happen. - Yeah, if we could quickly talk about how you might build some value for your puppy allowing you to take their collar. You know, what you would do to sort of teach the puppy that it's a great thing when I take your collar. - Well, one way is food, a food reward. If you take their collar and you give them food, but food and small dogs, actually, are a bit of an issue, if you want to touch on that right now. - Sure, yeah. - With it, but you know, if you have an, you know, a 15-pound Lab puppy, you know, you can get a lot of treats in there and it doesn't really affect them all that much. But one of the challenges with small dogs is, you give them even, like, a little small treat, and when I'm talking about giving a dog a treat, I'm talking about something- - [Ken] Tiny, yeah. - ... this big. But even a handful of those on three or four pounds, you're going to fill that dog up, and sometimes you can actually make it quite ill. So you have to be, work with treats more sparingly than you would with a larger dog. - Sure. - So you really need to turn on your charm, and sometimes just taking the collar, you take it from underneath their chin, not over their head, so it's not threatening. You can take that collar and give them a good scratch in the chest. That's a really nice reward, that just feels really good. And you can talk to them, and smile at them, and go, "Oh, that, oh, you are just something else!" And that- - I think Fizz enjoys this part of the- - He does! - Yeah. - But it's like, life is that simple. - Yeah. - It's, it gives a good rapport and it starts to build already on the bonding process. You're in there nice and close, you're doing something that feels good. It's an alternative to food, and they go, "You know what? This is, this is good." - Now, when we talk about the big picture of puppy training, when we're talking about puppy training first steps, tell me a little bit about your mindset when you're choosing things to do with your puppy. - What do I want that dog to look like? How do I want it to behave as an adult dog? And then, I want to, I want that to be specific, I want it to have super-high expectations, and then, I'm going to train to that level, and that's all on me, okay? I'm not going to expect the dog to guess what I want, I'm going to teach all of it. And I want to make sure it's fair to the dog, and by doing that, I want to know those, that list of expectations ahead of time so I can start training it right away. We talked about, they learn right away, and a great example of that is, if I don't want an adult dog jumping up on me, then I'm not going to let a puppy jump up on me, because that's actually not fair to your dog. If you let them put their feet up at this stage, when they're little, it's cute, they're small, you know. And some people even go so far as to bend down and touch the dog and reward them for that. So you're teaching a dog, for weeks, jump on me, it's good. And then, all of a sudden, the tables turn, and you're like, "Get off!" - Right. - "Get off." Like, the dog has no idea how that changed. - Yeah. And it did change, for them, and that's not fair. So, I want to go ahead of time, I don't want a dog putting their feet on me. Well, I'm going to start right away by, if my puppy steps up, I'm going to gently put him on the ground. And then I'm going to reward for the feet on the ground. It takes a nanosecond for them to figure that out, if you are consistent. - Yeah. They're like, "Nothing good comes of the feet up on their legs, really good stuff happens with my feet on the floor." And then, I don't turn the table on them at any time. - Now, Lorie, when it comes to actual training for your puppy training first steps, what are some of the things that you are working on with Fizz right now? - Well, we work on quite a few things because training is happening anyway. You're either controlling it, or they're introducing it themselves, and their ideas are often quite different than yours. - Right. - So I start immediately, like I said, when I first brought him home and I had some toys on the living room floor and he went to see the fluffy slipper and it was, "Leave that, not for dog. Here's a toy." So that's training. - Yeah. - Managing him, you know, he has short little teeth. He'll roll from playing with his toy, roll over and go to sink them into the couch. There's no way for him to understand one's acceptable and one isn't. - Right. - So, I'm right there to move him, "Not for dog, this is for, this is for the toy." So that's part of training. I try and optimize any type of behavior he might offer. So, if he's, you know, a few feet out in front of me and turns and walks towards me, I'm going to say to him, "Here, here, here." And, when he comes in nice and close to me, I can give him a little food reward, because I usually have something in my pocket, or I can scratch his chest and tell him he's wonderful. - Yeah. - And, that's, that's training. - Natural training opportunities. And dog trainers really understand taking advantage of natural training opportunities, and I think that's a really, really great one. Especially when you mention, so small dogs might be a little hand-shy. You know, we're really hovering over them when we bend over to pet and play and do these things, so really, rewarding every moment where they move in closer to us, where we can more easily take control of them, are such, you know, of great value, in the big picture of dog training for these small dogs. - Yeah, absolutely. And as we mentioned, I have another dog, I have a Papillon who's, he's a workaholic. He works all the time and really likes training, so I set Fizz up right beside him. I have the same expectations. Obviously he's learning, but it's very easy to lure him into a sit and a down and a stand. We have shake a paw, roll over. He learned all those things in the first week. - [Ken] Yeah. - [Lorie] And it's not Because he's brilliant. Um, well. - I mean- - He is brilliant. - We can't say he isn't. (laughs) - He is, he's gifted. - Yes. - He's quite eager. But, right away, you're really capitalizing on the value of training, and it's fun. Training's fun, dogs like it. They want to hang out with you and engage with you. So, yeah, you can get that going right away and it lets you include your other dogs and when you've got them both going like that, you're really establishing yourself, you're the leader. It's, they're into, they're both interacting with you versus each other, so you're covering a lot of ground with a couple of pieces of freeze-dried liver. - Yes, absolutely, which is of high value, as we know. - That's right. - You mentioned briefly about an introduction to your other dogs. Now, I'm sure that's maybe not something you did the first few days home, but in your case, maybe it was. Now, we talk a little bit in our, introducing your puppy to your other dogs video, which I'll link above, about, you know, when you make that first introduction, you need to really understand the energy and the socialization that the older dog has had, as well, because the last thing you want to do is put your new puppy beside a wild and crazy dog who loves to play with other dogs, because it's going to be overwhelming for that puppy. Conversely, if you have a wild and crazy puppy and you have a dog who, an older dog who's just not too sure, you know, about other dogs, you don't want to overwhelm that older dog, either. So there's a balance there. Talk a little bit about how you introduced Fizz to your other dog. - Well, I introduced them right away, just because of the way that I live. So, I introduced them outside. I had both dogs on a line. Now, my little Papillon, Dash, he's really sort of indifferent. He's not wild about playing with other dogs. He's wild about playing. - Yes. - So, he's very invested in me, and it was a little bit unfortunate that I brought that puppy home, but he could work around it. - Right, right. - And then, when we went inside, Dash found some toys that were on the floor and he stockpiled them, and then stood in front of them and said, you know, to, the idea was for the puppy, "Okay, you're in here, but this is all my stuff." And, so I, you know, had to remind Dash, "Actually, it's all my stuff." - Right, right. - "And we're going to share them." _ Yeah. - "You have yours. He, he's not going to be allowed to come and take anything you're using, but he is going to be allowed to use things that you're not using. Sharesies." - Yes, right. - And I have a lot of control over that. - Yeah. - I have everybody on a line. I'm quite clear that all the toys are mine. I mean, if you saw them, you would understand. They're great toys. - They sound like really nice toys, yeah. - I know, you want some now, okay? - (laughs) - So right away, they all sort of understand, again, I'm the leader. Everybody's safe. Everybody has some space, And I'm going to manage things really closely. I don't want Dash overwhelming the puppy, and explaining it on his terms, how it works, and I don't want the puppy going, "Oh, look, they've already supplied something that's sort of small and fluffy." - Right, that's, yeah. Yeah. - Because yeah, that looks very tempting to a puppy, when you have, like, a Papillon tail. You ever seen those? - Yes, I have, yes. Yeah. - Puts this thing to shame, it's way more exciting. - It's not nearly as exciting, absolutely. - That's right. - And this doesn't run down the hallway. - That's, that's exactly it. - That's a real differentiator. - So, lots of management and lots of very gentle reminders that, "I've got this, everybody, and it's actually going to go my way." - Yeah, and I think, an important element of that is we talked right at the top of the video about management. So when you aren't able to be there and supervise the experience, Fizz can go into his crate and have a nap, you know, and relax a little bit, because you've got things to do. You have, you know, a life to live. - So many things to do. - Yes. - Absolutely. - Yeah. - I put my dog in a crate a lot of times. And sometimes for five minutes, sometimes for a half hour. Sometimes I walk outside and pretend I didn't get a puppy. - (laughs) - It's very refreshing. - Yeah, the puppy- - (gobbles excitedly) - The puppy training challenge can feel a little bit overwhelming sometimes, you know. It can seem like a lot, and that's really one of the benefits of having a crate, because your puppy needs a rest. Your puppy needs to go in and just have some time on their own, as well, but so do you. Because you want to be engaged, you want to be enjoying the process, and you want that puppy to think that, you know, sun shines out of your ears, so to speak. - A much better place for it to shine, yes. - Now when we talk about some puppy training first steps, how does our new puppy owner get prepared, or be prepared, for when they bring that new puppy home? - I think having a crate. Now, I go crate overboard. - Okay. - I have a crate that I put for nighttime right beside my bed, so if I have a new puppy, that can be a little stressful for them. They miss their litter mates and they're somewhere new. And then I like to have a crate, I borrow them. There's usually tons around, if you put word out, you've got a puppy and you need crates. I have one in my kitchen so that, if I'm doing something, I can pop the puppy in the kitchen. if I eat dinner, I put the puppy in a crate so I can enjoy my food. It also gets him used to the idea that dinnertime's not really your business, you can go lie down. Basically, I put them anywhere I hang out so that I can put the puppy in there right away, and manage the puppy very closely. Like, I'm a micro-puppy manager. - Yes. - They're on a line, they're in a crate. They're on a line, they're in a crate. I do my very best to make sure they don't rehearse any behavior I don't want. - Yeah, and I think that's really important because it sets them up to be successful. The last thing you want to be doing is, "No, get out of there. Oh, no, you can't do that." You want them to be having a really great experience with you, so by managing your puppy really well, and I know you mentioned that you have a couple of crates around your home. That's so important, and a lot of people that have struggled with maybe barking in a crate overnight, or just generally, you know, barking, their puppy or dog barking in their crate when they go to work, part of it could be because that puppy has only ever experienced the crate when they leave for work or overnight. You know, taking these moments during the day when your puppy, you know, puppies love to nap. When your puppy does need a rest, using the crate for that. See, puppy's having a nap right now. Using the crate to your advantage. In those- - We should pick it up a bit, eh? - Yeah, I know! In those instances, can be really, really helpful and speed up your puppy learning process that the crate is a really great thing. - Yeah, absolutely. And you can, you know, be ahead of yourself a little bit too and give them something something that is safe for them to chew on in that crate. - Yeah. - So they are automatically distracted and rewarded at the same time, so it makes it a little more pleasant for everybody. - Now, I've put a playlist together with more puppy training videos, and if you'd like to check that out, click that card right there. I'd like to thank Instructor Lorie and her adorable puppy named Fizz for joining us today and talking all about your puppy training first steps. On that note, I'm Ken and this is Lorie. Happy Training!

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