00:00Today I want to show you the first step that I like to do with a brand-new puppy
00:03I have a German Shepherd puppy that I'm training and when I start working with them when it comes to obedience
00:08I want them to love training if I can get the dog to want to train then teaching them new behaviors becomes very
00:15Very easy. Now when we're focusing on obedience in the beginning, we're not worried about markers
00:21We're not gonna do engagement training. We're not worried about commands
00:24All I want is for the puppy to understand how to follow a food lure
00:28I'm gonna show you how to properly hold the food and then we're gonna have the puppy move in six different directions and positions
00:35Relative to our body the left heel position the right heel position the center
00:40Lateral movements right and left directly in front of us and the backwards follow exercise
00:45Which is the first step towards teaching a very nice recall where the dog comes to the sit front position
00:51When I'm doing my training with the puppy when the puppy is moving and I'm actually luring the pup
00:56Then I'm praising them the moment I give the dog the treat
01:00I disengage I walk away and what I want is for the puppy to come back and re-engage me
01:06So then the puppy starts to learn that he's making me work instead of me making him work
01:11And this is what operant conditioning is all about
01:13Operant conditioning is when a dog starts to understand that their behavior has an effect on their environment
01:19Meaning they can make good or bad things happen
01:21And in this case the puppy is making me work for him
01:25And in the end we get the results that we want
01:27So I'm going to show you this process each step so you can do this with your puppy at home
01:33Before we bring out the puppy
01:34I want to show you some key details that you need to know before we get started
01:38Number one is how we're going to handle the food
01:40Now often a big mistake people make is they hold the food with their fingertips
01:44This is fine
01:45If you're just gonna do very simple basic obedience
01:48But if you really want to take it to the next level
01:50You're going to want to place it in your hand and then use your thumb to secure the position
01:54This creates a valley for our dogs to place their muzzle in in order to get the food
01:58Which helps a great deal when it comes to luring
02:00Now the puppy is going to see two main pictures when we're luring
02:04One is where it's going to look like this. They're going to bring their head up
02:07This is going to keep our dogs head up
02:09So they get used to looking up which is going to be important for the focused heel
02:13And then the other picture that they're going to see is this right here
02:16When we're moving away and we're guiding them and luring them into different positions
02:20Now it's similar but because our dogs have to be generalized this is slightly different
02:26So we want to make sure the puppy knows where the food is
02:28Before we start doing the luring exercises
02:31And you might have to just sit there and wait for your puppy to figure out the location
02:35Once they know they will go right to it every time and it's gonna make the luring very easy
02:39Now you're gonna see I'm gonna be moving my puppy to the left and to the right
02:43This is what I call my lateral exercises
02:45I'm stepping with my right leg as I'm going to the right
02:48I'm dropping my body down
02:49I'm guiding the puppy and then I release the food as my hand is moving
02:54A common mistake a lot of people make is they will start to lure and then they'll stop their hand
02:59Trying to encourage the puppy to get the food
03:01But what that does if you move and stop
03:04Your puppy will start to anticipate that and it will slow your puppy down
03:08So you want to continue the movement all the way until they grab it
03:12Same thing when I come back the other side
03:14So that's how I'm holding the food and how I'm moving for my left and right lateral movements
03:18For my heel position as I was showing you the handling before
03:22I'm gonna have the puppy right next to my side
03:24What I want is the puppy's nose straight up
03:27And it's gonna create a straight line from their jaw down to their chest
03:30This is gonna help develop that really nice focus heel position
03:34As I'm walking in the beginning you might take one two steps
03:37You're praising good puppy
03:39You release the food walk away to disengage
03:42Your puppy will eat the food and go hey I want more
03:45And then your puppy is gonna come back to you to engage some more training
03:49Now when I'm guiding the puppy into the heel position
03:52I step back with the leg relative to the side that I want the dog to be in
03:57So if I want the dog to be in the right you're gonna see I'm gonna step back
04:00I'm gonna guide the puppy with my hand
04:02And then I'm gonna flip around very quickly catching them on this side
04:06And then I'm gonna start walking good
04:08And then again I release the treat
04:10And I'll do the same thing on the other side
04:12For the center position you're gonna notice the movement is the same
04:16The only difference is if I step back and I want the puppy to be on my left heel position
04:21That's the movement we bring it back boom right back into that left heel position
04:25If I want the center I like to use my opposite hand
04:29But I'm gonna step back with the same leg
04:31I'm gonna do the exact same movement as in the left heel position
04:35But I'm gonna bring the puppy right into the center
04:37And then I'm gonna walk with the puppy in the center position
04:40And then the last one the backwards follow
04:42We're walking back we have our hand
04:44This can be uncomfortable if your dog is a little bit bigger
04:47But we walk back our hand is nice and close to our body
04:50And then we praise once they're in a good position we can release
04:55And then again we go quiet for a moment
04:57We disengage they eat they come back
04:59And we start it back up again
05:01Once you have your pup moving very nicely in these different positions
05:05Then we're going to add the sit and the down
05:08Now what I like to do this is a little trick I learned from Nino
05:11Which is an excellent dog trainer
05:13As you're walking when the dog starts to understand the movement of the lure
05:17When we lift up the puppy's nose goes up butt goes down
05:20Then we give them the food
05:22But if we show them by applying a little bit of pressure on their back end
05:26And then lifting up we can start to teach them to sit very quickly
05:30And we're gonna do the same thing with the down
05:32We apply a little pressure lure them into the down position
05:35In addition final important note
05:37When we're doing the down the way that I hold the food
05:41Is I have it in my hand and then as I bring it down
05:44We really have to bend our wrist back
05:46So my hand is going back like this it feels uncomfortable
05:49But what that does is as we go down
05:52Your dog's muzzle goes underneath almost like a cave
05:56And then it naturally brings that back in down
05:58And then we reward them and go on to the next set
06:01The better your handling skills are
06:03The better your puppy is going to look
06:05So let's bring the little guy out and get started
06:08I like to start with a phrase to let them know we're training
06:10Are you ready? Are you ready to train?
06:12So remember the first thing he already knows this
06:15But just show your puppy where the food is
06:17Give him a minute to figure out how it looks
06:19Show him the other picture where the hand is facing the opposite direction
06:23So you can see relative to him the thumb is now on his left
06:27And when I do it this way the thumb is now on his right
06:30So that is a different picture to him
06:32Now we already have him doing these exercises
06:34So I'm going to start with those lateral movements
06:36Notice how it's nice and straight boom and then I release
06:38Come on little guy nice and straight and then I release
06:41Now I'm going to show you how it looks when I'm training
06:44Because when I'm explaining it you're going to miss some key details
06:46So let's go
06:47Good very nice
06:51Very good excellent
06:56That's a good little puppy
06:59Very good my little man
07:05There's that center movement good job
07:08Let's do another one of those
07:10Notice how I step back with this left leg
07:12That was a little sloppy but it's okay good
07:15Now we're going to do it on the left heel position
07:18Very nice that's a good boy
07:22Do a couple more lateral movements
07:25Good excellent work
07:29Disengage good he re-engages me
07:32A little bit of a backwards follow excellent
07:35Give him the piece disengage
07:37Very nice that's a good boy
07:39You see how he's working me
07:41That's what we want to see we want him working us
07:43Let's do that movement good nice right heel position
07:46And then release
07:48Now I can do the same thing where I spin him into the center
07:51That way but I step back with my right leg
07:53Very good now we're going to add the sit and the down
07:56So I'm going to guide him back this way good quick turn
07:58And now I'm going to lift
07:59We're just going to do the lift at first
08:01Excellent remember no commands
08:03I'm giving him the food when he's in the position
08:05Good that was very nice
08:07We'll do another sit I'm just lifting up
08:09Giving him the treat excellent
08:11Now we're going to do the down
08:12Look at how I bend my hand to get him to bring his body down
08:15Good work my little man
08:17Same thing here very nice
08:19Now we're going to do the same thing
08:21In the left right heel position
08:23As well as the center he's a little crooked there
08:25Very good
08:27Let's get it on the right side as well
08:29Excellent
08:31Make him oh I messed that up
08:33Good job buddy
08:36Right back into that center position
08:38Now we're going to sit there
08:39This is going to help him become generalized
08:41Same thing with that backwards follow
08:43We lift
08:45Get him to put his butt down excellent
08:47Give him the treat disengage
08:49Very nice now we're going to do the down
08:51Boom
08:53Good boy let's get him back to the right side
08:55And then back into the down position
08:57Excellent
08:59And then let's get him into the center
09:01Very good back into the down
09:03That's my good man
09:05We'll do the backwards follow here
09:07Good job and now we're going to drop down
09:09Put him in the down position give him the treat
09:11Excellent
09:13Very good
09:15Nice work now we're going to add
09:17The additional hand
09:19Very good let's speed up that movement a little bit
09:21I'm going to cut him back this way
09:23And then put him back into the sit good job
09:25Let's go back the opposite direction
09:27Very nice
09:29Some sound effects for fun
09:31We're going to come back this way
09:33And then very good
09:35Dropping him into the down position
09:37Excellent buddy
09:39Let's do a couple more
09:41He's almost out of food so that's going to conclude the session
09:43Good now let's bring him into the heel position
09:45Same thing
09:47Boom right into the down
09:49And then into the sit good
09:51Let's do another sit very nice
09:53Take him to the right heel position
09:55Boom into the sit good
09:57And another sit
09:59Excellent
10:01Nice work
10:03And then again the center
10:05Very nice
10:07And if you start getting really brave
10:09And you feel like your puppy is following you nicely
10:11You can start transitioning from
10:13The center position
10:15Oh he lost it
10:17To the heel position good
10:19Let's get another one
10:21Very nice
10:23Working on those mechanics
10:25His muscle memory
10:27We're training an athlete here
10:29So he really has to know how to use his body
10:31And this is why
10:33In the future exercises
10:35We're also going to teach him to walk backwards
10:37To pivot that back end
10:39Remember training sessions need to be fun
10:41So that one I actually
10:43Had him spin the wrong way
10:45So I made a mistake there
10:47If you make a mistake no big deal
10:49Very good we just go into the training
10:51We don't worry about it
10:53One mistake is not going to ruin your puppy
10:55Very good buddy
10:57And now I let him know we're done
10:59I'm out of breath all done
11:01Short fun session
11:03And he wants to keep going
11:05He's like let's keep training let's have a good time
11:07And that's what we want to see
11:09This is how he wants to train
11:11And as I continue to do this
11:13This is going to be one of his favorite activities
11:15And we're going to see a really awesome dog
11:17So I hope you guys do the same thing at home
11:19And enjoy this video
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