How To Train A Young Puppy To Walk To Heel Perfectly!

So guys, welcome back to Fenrir and today we have the only English Mastiff, Eileen, and as you can see, we're out with some lead work. We practiced this morning, so we've been following the perfect

puppy

course with Eileen. I've been doing a lot of lead work exercises, some

heel

work exercises within a low distraction and she's really getting there. Now what we're noticing is that we're starting to try to layer up the level of distraction and bring it outside into the real world environment. Then we can start to get to that point where we can take her for a

walk

and when she goes for a

walk

, she knows that the

heel

is working

perfectly

, as soon as you apply pressure with the sliding cable, which is my favorite tool hands down.

In dog

train

ing, I think it's the combination of all the different environmental stimuli that forces her into a freezing pattern and now she's getting stubborn. This is another classic example of the difference between breeds: higher drive, smarter, easier to handle.

train

easier to please or eager to please breed your malinois your shepherds your labradors your golden retrievers find this stage very easy especially because they are very active and want to be outdoors very stubborn english mastiffs not so smart much less energy they really don't have The desire to be here is much more difficult for her and now she is getting into a pattern where when we try to do these exercises outside, she gets stubborn, digs her heels in and doesn't want to do it, the problem with that is that here is where a lot of people would give up and switch to something like a harness which then deepens the problems the dog learned doesn't learn to communicate with a leashed handler leading to terrible reactivity when pulling communication breaks the relationship breaks down and it's a really bad thing, so what I'm going to show you here is an exercise of how I overlay all the hard work we've been doing with basic indoor heel commands and applying communication through the guide with some very basic commands . lead the pressure to help eileen understand that she is in control and she can take that pressure off and all she needs to do to take that pressure off is come to me, follow my guidance and direction and then let's lavish on the rewards of praise and Wow, I have a pocket full of goodies today and I'm going to go through that process and show you exactly how I do it, so to start off, just to give you a better demonstration of what I mean, I want to show you what This happens if I try apply pressure here and get Eileen to come see me.

You notice that she's really starting to try hard. She is getting very stubborn and fighting the pressure. What that means is that we are not communicating effectively. It's fair to her, I'm going to release the pressure now, like I said, the worst thing I could do in this situation and this is where so many people make so many mistakes, the only reason I wanted to do that was to show them that I've just suffered. a big loss by applying pressure, she dug her heels in and then I released the pressure because through operant conditioning and canine behavior and psychology, in the way that dogs learn that pressure appears, she has shown behavior of freeze, I don't want to.

To do that, the pressure goes away, so what he's learned is that when he feels that pressure to freeze, dig deep, be stubborn, not want to follow any kind of guidance from me, so the next time he feels that pressure, he'll do the same thing. You will reach a point where you will have difficulty walking with a tool like a slip lead and again, that is where a lot of people will turn to a harness because it doesn't apply any pressure or communication, which means I just mentioned that you will have all the other problems. Harnesses can be a great tool when used positively after you already have a dog that can communicate very easily with you.

They are terrible tools if you use them as a solution. to poor communication through the leader, so what I'm going to show you is how we combat that and how I'm going to help eileen learn to disengage that pressure in a positive, fun, praise-based way, so this is a lot In a balanced training method, we use lead pressure, but we also use positive reinforcement, food work, and training to help overcome that again. If this was Riley Joe's Labrador here, this would take a while and she would learn, oh, that changes the pressure. and I get an amazing gift with Eileen.

This could take me days of doing this for three or four minutes, three or four times a day, for her to really begin to understand that realistic expectations calm constant leadership and set her up for success. Let's go over that process, so you'll see a combination and it happens very quickly. The main pressure continues. I use a law to make her come to me. The main pressure goes off when she makes that decision and then receives praise. So what do I need? What I have to do is get rid of her mind. The lead pressure continues.

I panic. I dig my heels in to lead. The pressure continues. Oh, that means I need to come to you and follow that pressure that turns it off and then something good happens at the end, so Eileen. so I'm going to get her attention so the main pressure comes up and she follows it yeah good girl good girl so my timing was a little off because I was trying to talk to you about the process but let's dig in in that. and over and over again and that's what I want you to see, so this is another beautiful example, so this would be an example of pulling.

Now you're applying pressure. You need to learn to remove that pressure. Eileen, come on, we still have the pressures. She speaks very, very lightly as soon as she makes that decision. Come on, she's almost there. Come on, come on, oh, what's she so close? She just wanted to make that decision. You can do it. Yes, good girl. Yes, that was a very good example. So what she saw there. It was the moment she made the decision to come to me, the pressure was gone and she was praised and rewarded, so let's try to do it a few times in a row and I might struggle to keep up with the comments because I really need to focus on her. to help her get through this and if we can do some repetitions we can start to capture that behavior so again oh harley what is this?

What is this pressure on pressure without pressure? Yes, oh good girl, what is this pressure on you? get to try pressure on pressure off yeah pressure on oh this one now she's stepping back to dig heels yeah oh good girl oh you're so smart oh you're so smart so this is beautiful so now because we're putting in the replays and we're starting to capture the behavior so this will be another lovely she is distracted by the pressure of the

puppy

comes eileen yes oh good girl now that one was beautiful I want to stop and pause there and talk about that so she is distracted by the puppy in The door appears towards the one who headed toward the puppy's pressure on the leash, which 15 minutes ago was making her say, wow, dig my heels in, but she's already starting to learn to take that pressure off, come to me, follow my lead, and direction and that pressure goes off and What I'll show you when we've done a few more exercises is how to use that with the positive free form and the positive lure as part of the early stages of the perfect puppy course, which is why a puppy of the Ireland's age can be so perfect, he will work so

young

, so this will be a perfect example, so now he is starting to interact with me and this time there is a little more space, so I am leveling up now, so the pressure gets to Eileen, yeah, oh you. what a good girl oh yes oh yes I'll even give you two treats oh yes a lot of vocal inflection a lot of positive praise yes we are using a little lead pressure but we are balanced we want to help her with the lead pressure understand what we want so that that way we can use the combination of the two to achieve incredible levels of success and that is the same theory for all tools, whether it be slip cables, choke chains, prong collars, e-collars, they can be used incredibly.

Positively when you help the dog understand how to use it, which is exactly what I am doing here, a minor pressure that is not painful, it is just a little pressure and to turn off that pressure follow my guidance and direction with the command that I already gave you. I've taught, so Eileen understands what it means to come to me because we've been doing a lot of recovery work, so this is another good exercise, so the pressure is on Eileen, she's distracted, oh yeah, such a smart girl, a So smart girl, and that's it. making great progress i'm really going to try it with laura now so she's pushing eileen yeah pressure off oh so smart so smart yeah pressure and now she's eager to follow me oh yeah oh yeah oh so smart also smart and now if you look at this once you're done eating this one now this is where the magic happens with healing eileen hi lin the pressure is on the pressure goes off oh yeah oh yeah so smart and you can treat yourself now oh yeah the pressure is on she knows how to turn the pressure now because we're putting the reps on pressure, come on yeah the pressure goes off instantly oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah I was probably expecting too much from it there oh yeah oh you're doing great when you're in The heel position treatment comes and, As you can imagine, pierce that, repeat those layers, waiting for more steps and I'll let you rest now she can go for a run for two more days.

We'll have Eileen walking

perfectly

to heal with that combo. of lead pressure and positive reinforcement, so if you are one of the people following our perfect puppy course, you will have seen many exercises in terms of luring them into a position, marking and reinforcing them, starting to take steps, adding leadership, eileen. she can do that inside, we take it outside and that extra level of distraction is stressing her out a little, not too much, but it's enough to make a panicked digger get a little scared and respond incorrectly. This is a perfect example that you missed.

It's how unintelligent he is, he just had his head stuck in that fence thinking he could fit through one of those gaps, the classic English mastiff puppy, on the other hand, on the other side of the fence, learned this in 10 seconds, a farmer will do it. Learn it in 10 seconds, Eileen, like I say, it's going to take us a little bit longer for her to really start to understand and understand that process, but that's what I want you to understand because now, if you can imagine right now, I have to do it. . Guide her from behind, but if she gets too far away from her, lead pressure appears.

She now understands that how to turn it off is to follow the pressure and when the pressure continues, she shuts down and when she drops, she is rewarded if she goes too far. way ahead of me, the pressure appears to turn off that pressure, she needs to lower the pressure again, she is praised and reinforced, we layer it over time, we repeat it, we practice it, we practice it, we work hard and that's it. how you have a dog that walks perfectly on their heels at very

young

ages, you help them shape the behavior in a positive way and then use the balanced approach of using small pressures when they are doing the wrong thing, but tons of praise and rewards. when they do something good, they put the two things together, voila, you can learn, teach your dog any behavior that you've ever wanted, so I hope that was helpful again, you got involved in a very real problem that we were doing.

Camera, Joe and I were working on this ourselves, um, and we thought, let's take the camera and bring you guys on the journey of how do I help a dog that is more afraid and maybe wants to dig in his heels and not . walking versus a dog pulling on the end of the leash because we're going to be doing more videos which you can go back and watch some of the older videos of dogs aggressively pulling forward, but the principle is exactly the same. a little pressure the dog learns how to cut off the pressure when the pressure goes away we apply lots of praise positive reinforcement works well and it really isn't rocket science if you can understand the mindset and theory involved