In our last video, we taught you how to teach your dog to ignore distractions and used to "leave it" command. But what we heard from you is that one of your toughest distractions is other dogs. And you can see a little final behind me is no exception. In today's video, we're going to teach you how to teach your dog to ignore distractions.
How do I get my dog to stop reacting to other dogs?
I'm Ken Steepe, I'm Steve Walsh, and this is happy go lucky. Final, welcome back to McCann Dogs. A couple of weeks ago we posted a video on how to teach your dog to leave it and ignore distractions around them. This video today, we're going to build on that and take that distraction outside. So if you haven't seen that video, click that Link down there and have a look.
So once your dog has an understanding of how to leave things, and we've talked about those static distractions in the house, it's time to go outside and really start to test this in real life.Now, like anything else, it's my job to help my dog be successful. I've done the foundation work and taught him what leave it means in certain situations.
But out here now I need to be really conscious of how close I'm getting notice as distractions to help him make those same great choices. Now when you come out in the real world, of course, distractions can come from anywhere. It's pretty hard to control some of the things, but one of the things that we can really control as our distance from them, one of the biggest distractions for most dogs is other dogs.
And most of our dogs say, Oh my gosh, there's a friend I should go run and play with that dog. I will tell you that a, that's one of the first things that I teach my dog to leave. Now when I do that I want to again, make sure that I'm setting my dog up for success. I'm not going to walk up to another dog and expect my young dog to be able to leave that right away.
But let's say the moment my dog looks at a dog across the park, that's when I might start to get my little food out, get them ready, tell them, leave it. Use a little food and their nose. Turn and move them away and yes, and reward and build on that success at a distance. Once I have a little bit of success, they're moving closer is going to help test that.
So I'm out here outside now and of course finals, looking around and he sees something over in the distance. So just to review, I've got some food in my hand ready to go in the moment. His eyes go there, I'm going to say leave it. I'm immediately going to put the food to his nose and I'm going to turn and move 180 degrees away. Rewarding him as he goes. So I'm going to wait until he looks here. Leave it.
Yes. Good boy. Very good job. So I said, leave it. I use that food to turn him. I marked it with my yes, and then I rewarded him as he moved with me. Now, one of the best ways to teach your dog to ignore distractions is by controlling the distance from them and having a little leash free park or someplace where you can work as a really, really great tool to use.
I don't recommend that you walk into Elise free park and expect to be able to teach your dog to leave it, but being outside a park like this, and we're going to put some dogs in here and a little bit and make things exciting for a little final, but moving, I'm teaching him this, leave it at a distance where I can move further away to help him be successful and then start to move closer as he gets more successful, can really help solidify his understanding no matter that distraction around him.
I'm going to let final look into this imaginary little lease free park that we've created here and I'm going to review those steps that we already have taught him. Okay. He's going to look, I'm going to say leave it food and his notes. Yes. Good boy. Excellent job and I might move a little closer. He's going to look at that. Good boy.
Now, one of the things you'll notice is happening. I spend a lot of time doing the foundation work so he is, it's already becoming harder for him to get distracted in this environment. This may seem like something that's really basic for this dog. I've done this a number of times with him, but I can't tell you how important it is to keep practicing every little repetition.
Successful repetition of leave it is helping to build as understanding two or three times isn't going to cut it.I need to keep doing it and keep doing it before I start to add more distractions. You can see with some dogs running around here that that final has definitely a little bit more interested in this kind of stimulation. Now I'm feeling pretty confident in his validation, so I'm going to try and work this, leave it here. Same rules will apply.
He's looking, I'm going to say leave it food and his nose. Oh, it's not working cause we, we're a little too close now. This is a pretty common thing. I've said leave it. I put some food on his nose.
He says, not happening. Okay, here's what I need to do to help him. I need to move a little bit further away to help him understand how to respond. Even though I've done some great foundation on this, he thinks this is really, really important, so we're just going to shift back a little bit and try it again. I've moved about a, I don't know, 15 feet away from that initial position and I'm going to try and see if we can do this again.
The dogs are in the corner. He's looking. Good boy. Leave it. Yes. Good boy. Excellent. Good job. What a good puppy dog and I'm actually going to give you a little jackpot reward for that because this is a pretty hard distraction. I'm going to try it again. Leave it. Yes. Good boy. Excellent. Good job. Now I'm going to move a little quicker than I really suggest. I'm confident that he can start to work a little bit closer, but my version of closer is two or three feet.
It's not 10 feet to have him make a mistake again. Okay. Now he's looking, leave it.Yes. Good boy. Little bit closer. Leave it. Yes. Good boy. Excellent job. Very nice. And maybe one step closer again.Leave it. Yes. Good boy. Excellent. You'll notice I'm building in little steps to help him be right over and over and over again. Finals had some really good, successful repetitions of understanding.
Leave it with a little bit of food lure. So I'm gonna give him a little test, just like in that video we did a couple of weeks ago. I'm going to say, leave it and see what happens. Now if he responds, I'm going to say yes, move away and throw a party. If he doesn't, no big deal.
I'm gonna repeat that. Leave it out. A few bumps in the leash and encourage him to move away. And and really still still let them know he's doing a great job, but it's important that I go back and change that distance to help them be successful.So I'm gonna see what happens here.
He's looking in that direction. Leave it. Yes. Good boy. Excellent job. When I get puppy dog, I can even pull out a little toy, have a little tug in play and let them know that it's absolutely the right thing to do. Good boy. Good job going out. Now I'm gonna move a little closer and see if we can just kind of push his understanding a little bit here. Okay. Now I'm going to move the met. Yes, go ahead boy. Excellent.
I will tell you, I'm pretty surprised by that. Given his interest in these other dogs, for him to respond that quickly is something I really want to start to celebrate with him. Okay. Now I'm gonna try and move a little closer or we're just gonna keep pushing and see how, where his little threshold is for this. So we'll go a little closer. Leave it. Yes. Good boy. Excellent. Good job. Very nice. Good. Let's go back. Let's go. Leave it. Yes. Good boy.Her Ray.
Excellent job. We'll try one more, a little closer here. Leave it, leave it. Hi guy. I did catch you. Yes. Now, I will say I went way too close there, but I really wanted you to see the immediacy of microfinance. I said, leave it. He didn't respond. I'm not mad at him. I simply repeated, leave it out of those pulses away. Now I helped me successful again.
So here are the important things to remember when you're teaching your dog to leave it and ignore moving distractions like these dogs. Keep your distance away from them. The further you are away and the more successful your dog can be, the easier it becomes for them to understand. The more mistakes they make by getting too close too soon, the harder it is for them to understand. So start farther away, move close to help them understand how to be right, and then test them.
Why is my dog aggressive to other dogs on walks?
And if they're still struggling, just move a little bit further away. There's nothing wrong with moving further away, to build on their successes and then start to push their ability to understand.
Like most dogs, dogs are probably your dog's biggest distraction. But it's important you've worked this scenario through all distractions, whether it be bikes or cars or that squirrel that keeps taunting you on the back deck. Find all sorts of different things to help proof your dog's understanding of how to leave it and ignore distractions.
Now you've made it this far through this video and you haven't gone back to watch our first video with leaving it. Click that card right there. If this is your first time on the channel and you haven't subscribed yet, click that subscribe button. On that note, I'm Steve. Happy trading..
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