At McCann Dogs, I've had opportunity to help thousands of dog owners to train their dog. But long before I was a professional dog trainer, I was an under-prepared Labrador retriever owner. This is Deegan, my 15-year-old black lab. You can see Deegan's enjoying her favorite treat, a Kong filled with some peanut butter. Now, in my training experience, I had all of my time and focus and effort and attention on Deegan, but even at that, I made a lot of mistakes.
Now, as a professional dog trainer now, I often see students making these same mistakes. So in today's video, I'm gonna tell you the top 10 lessons that this Labrador retriever taught me about dog training so that you can avoid the mistakes that I made and really speed up your training. I'm Ken Steepe and welcome back to McCann Dogs. (guitar strumming) (dog barking) In the McCann Dogs training facility, we've helped more than 19,000 dog owners who are just like you 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. I'm gonna take advantage of every opportunity that I can to do a video with my 15-year-old black lab. And in today's video, I'm gonna tell you about the 10 lessons that she taught me about dog training. And as a dog trainer now, I see people making these exact same mistakes and I want to help you to avoid some of these mistakes. And you're also gonna learn some tips that will help your dog to be more successful, help you to have a more enjoyable training session, and they're really gonna speed up your training process. It's really going to help your dog to understand what your expectations are. So let's jump into it. Here's number one: have high expectations.
The good news is, your dog is capable of a lot more than you think they are. The bad news is, your dog is capable of a lot more than you think they are. So when you're working with your dog, regardless of the breed, I want you to have high expectations and maintain them. Expect that through the training process your dog is going to stay when you ask them to, your dog is going to come when they call. This was something that was a real struggle for me to get the hang of, to really know that I could expect more of Deegan, if I was clear, consistent, and fair with her.
One of the most frustrating things I see on our channel is someone saying, "Oh, you could never teach a," insert your breed here, "to do that," to come when they're called, to sit and stay. I will tell you, after seeing thousands of dogs and thousands of dog owners, any breed is capable of success in their dog training. The key is your expectations. So keep those expectations high. Number two is really important. It's about management and using a house line for your dog. Now, that's something that I didn't do with Deegan. And if you don't know what a house line is, I'll put a link in the description below. You can check that out. But not being able to manage your dog in your busy household gives them so many opportunities to go do their own thing, gives them so many opportunities to make mistakes where you can't be there to give them the information. They can pick up a sock and run under the couch.
You know, this adorable black lab would always take laundry. She'd grab laundry, whether shirts, socks, pants, underwear, whatever, and then she'd go run around the living room with them. And I never had a great way to control that until I became a dog trainer and learned about the house line. And the value that I see in the house lines with all of our puppies now, with our students' dogs, it's a very powerful tool. And it really makes you seem like a dog training superhero. So use those house lines so you can give your dog great information in and around your home. Teach your out command early. Now, whether you have a puppy or you have a rehomed dog or maybe you're doing some retraining, get on top of that out command.
Because, especially for puppies, because they're gonna be making their way around your home, exploring the world with their mouths, and there's gonna be lots of times where you need a reliable out command. One of the secrets about the out command, though, is doing things like an engaging game of tug. You know, doing something with an interactive toy, bringing your dog into you, playing tug, and asking them to out. Right away, they learn about great leadership because you're controlling the game. Number two, that's a game, that tug game is a game that only happens when you're around. So they, it's engaging for them. But having an out command is really, really important. Now, especially for the fetch. If you have just a couple of minutes of time and you really wanna exercise your dog or do something fun with them, you can play fetch.
But don't let your fetch game look like mine initially did where Deegan would run out, grab the object, come back, and then satellite around me, just outside of arm's reach. So really teach your dog early what the out command means and it's a valuable skill and it'll really step up your leadership. Now, a critical mistake that a lot of dog owners make, and it something that I made, a mistake that I made, and she really exaggerated these mistakes for me, but be very careful about your timing with food reward, especially if you've got a food-motivated dog. Now, we've talked a little bit on the channel about timing and how to wean your way off of food, but in the beginning, you're gonna be using lots of food because it's a currency that your dog understands. Especially if you have a Labrador retriever.
But it's really important that you follow this formula. It's always cue, which is that word, stimulus, which is introduce the food, lure into whatever the position is, and then reward. If you're not careful, especially if you have a chow hound of a lab, and you introduce the food first, you put the food on their nose, that's the only thing that they can think about. So your cue now has become food on the nose and they're just thinking about that food. So it's always word, then introduce the food, make it happen, and then reward. Now, I touched on this a little bit earlier, but when your dog starts to have some skills, you know, when they're walking on a loose leash better, when they are remaining in that stay a little bit longer, it's really important that you're proofing, when you're proofing an exercise, that you add the appropriate amount of challenge to it. Now, this is a mistake that I made when she started to, she was always a puller on walks, and the worst was when we'd go up to the park and there were kids playing baseball and soccer.
And I started to get some, she started to remain in at my side, and I really pushed things too quickly. I brought her too close to those distractions, where she just couldn't help herself. She wanted to be the happy-go-lucky bouncy lab that we all love. But it was really tough for her to understand that it's important for her to remain in at my side and no amount of food at that point would get her back on me. So I needed to use my leash and redirect her. But I've actually got this slide that I'm gonna show you. Now, there's a zone, you'll start to learn that your dog has a zone where they're unaffected by distractions. And then there's a point that you get to that your dog will, is absolutely going to fail. They will 100% fail and pull on your leash.
But there's a threshold area where your dog is likely to be successful and if you're really on top of things, you're going to be able to teach them to choose you instead of the those distractions. And that is where the magic happens. So take your time when it comes to adding distractions and really help your dog to be successful. You know, as a dog trainer, as you as the dog trainer with your dog, if your dog's made two mistakes, you can't let them make another mistake. They don't understand. They've shown you that they don't really get it yet. So really make an effort to help them to be successful by reducing the distance, by reducing the distraction, or reducing the duration, whichever one of those things you've started to increase so that you can reward your dog and really remind them what your expectation is and what work it is that's going to be rewarded. In saying that, take advantage of natural training opportunities.
There's going to be a million of them, especially if you're a puppy owner. There's going to be all sorts of things that come up in everyday life that are a great opportunity to teach your dog, reinforce for your dog a skill you're working on. Maybe it is response to name. Maybe you're out with your dog, or your puppy, and you're walking around in your yard or the area where you take them out to go potty, and you see they're a little bit distracted. Call their name. You know, take advantage of that natural distraction and call their name, and if you're in training mode, if you have a puppy who's training in your house, always keep some food or keep some rewards in your pocket in case your puppy makes a great choice. But especially when you're in training mode, be prepared to follow up. So if your puppy doesn't respond, you know, repeat their name, guide them away, and then try it again with less distraction.
Maybe while they're focused on you, repeat their name and reward them. But these natural training opportunities are how you're going to start to integrate your training, integrate the skills into the real world. But you need to be thinking like a trainer the entire time. So when you have that young dog in training or that puppy in training, take advantage of these natural training opportunities as they occur. Now, whether you have a Labrador retriever or any other breed, the retrieve, working on a retrieve with your dog, playing fetch, is a very, very valuable skill. Not only is it a great skill to burn off energy in a short period of time, but it's a great way to build some engagement in a relationship with your dog.
Now, a lot of people struggle with the same things that I struggled with, things that I mentioned a little bit earlier in the video, with their dog coming in so close and then sort of hovering around them. We have a video on the channel that I want you to check out, I'll link it in the description, that will teach your dog that all of the value of the retrieve game is when they get back to you, making it an engaging experience so that it involves both of you. But teaching your dog a retrieve. And this is something we'll do with a puppy, if you have a puppy at home, set up part of your hallway, or some non-distracting environment where you can be sure that the puppy only has one option, it's to come to you.
But work on the retrieve. You know, the amount of puppies, energy that puppies have, you'll want extra little things you can do throughout your day that will burn some of that energy off. And if you do have a Labrador retriever or a golden retriever or any of the retrievers, it's something that they will naturally want to do and you want to take advantage of that. Make training fun by adding a retrieve into your training sessions. Now, an important part of taking advantage of natural training opportunities is to not test too early. You're thinking like a dog trainer. Now, I would never have a young puppy out without a line on or a leash on and call come because they have an opportunity to make a mistake.
And I wouldn't have any way to follow up to help them to be right. This is definitely something I did with Deegan far too early. I was testing her stay with really tough distractions without a line on, I clearly remember doing that in the house because I wanted to show off how cool it was that my dog could stay, and then she failed miserably. But especially with things like your come command, you're gonna remove that word from your vocabulary unless you're training it. So you're not testing your dog. You've got, maybe you're a couple dog training classes in or you've watched a few videos here on the channel and you're working on your recall. Don't call come unless you're sure your dog is going to turn or you're ready to help train them to help them to be right. Most important thing that Deegan taught me was to put the time in early.
Now, Deegan was two years old when I started training with her. By that time, she had a lot of opportunities to make bad choices, to learn bad habits. It's going to be a lot of work. It's going to be frustrating sometimes, it's going to be incredibly joyous sometimes. And sometimes you're gonna wonder if you have any idea what you're doing. But I waited until Deegan was two years old. She'd had so many opportunities to learn the wrong things, you know, make bad choices, be rewarded by making mistakes, chewing on stuff and whatever that might be for your dog, but you know, the puppies I have trained since, all of the puppies that we train in our school, these dogs have an opportunity to only get good information. So invest the six, eight months that you're going to invest into getting your dog to be that well-behaved dog who listens all the time, and it will pay dividends for eight, 12, maybe even 15 years of their life.
And it is so, so worth it. That initial relationship building is something that, even with Deegan at two years old, you know, I really look back fondly on those days. A really important way to speed up your training and build a stronger relationship with your dog is by being a great leader. Click that card right there to make sure that you aren't accidentally being a bad leader for your dog. 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, this is Deegan, happy training.
Now, as a professional dog trainer now, I often see students making these same mistakes. So in today's video, I'm gonna tell you the top 10 lessons that this Labrador retriever taught me about dog training so that you can avoid the mistakes that I made and really speed up your training. I'm Ken Steepe and welcome back to McCann Dogs. (guitar strumming) (dog barking) In the McCann Dogs training facility, we've helped more than 19,000 dog owners who are just like you to overcome their dog training challenges.
10 Dog Training Lessons that I Learned from Labrador Retriever
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. I'm gonna take advantage of every opportunity that I can to do a video with my 15-year-old black lab. And in today's video, I'm gonna tell you about the 10 lessons that she taught me about dog training. And as a dog trainer now, I see people making these exact same mistakes and I want to help you to avoid some of these mistakes. And you're also gonna learn some tips that will help your dog to be more successful, help you to have a more enjoyable training session, and they're really gonna speed up your training process. It's really going to help your dog to understand what your expectations are. So let's jump into it. Here's number one: have high expectations.
The good news is, your dog is capable of a lot more than you think they are. The bad news is, your dog is capable of a lot more than you think they are. So when you're working with your dog, regardless of the breed, I want you to have high expectations and maintain them. Expect that through the training process your dog is going to stay when you ask them to, your dog is going to come when they call. This was something that was a real struggle for me to get the hang of, to really know that I could expect more of Deegan, if I was clear, consistent, and fair with her.
One of the most frustrating things I see on our channel is someone saying, "Oh, you could never teach a," insert your breed here, "to do that," to come when they're called, to sit and stay. I will tell you, after seeing thousands of dogs and thousands of dog owners, any breed is capable of success in their dog training. The key is your expectations. So keep those expectations high. Number two is really important. It's about management and using a house line for your dog. Now, that's something that I didn't do with Deegan. And if you don't know what a house line is, I'll put a link in the description below. You can check that out. But not being able to manage your dog in your busy household gives them so many opportunities to go do their own thing, gives them so many opportunities to make mistakes where you can't be there to give them the information. They can pick up a sock and run under the couch.
You know, this adorable black lab would always take laundry. She'd grab laundry, whether shirts, socks, pants, underwear, whatever, and then she'd go run around the living room with them. And I never had a great way to control that until I became a dog trainer and learned about the house line. And the value that I see in the house lines with all of our puppies now, with our students' dogs, it's a very powerful tool. And it really makes you seem like a dog training superhero. So use those house lines so you can give your dog great information in and around your home. Teach your out command early. Now, whether you have a puppy or you have a rehomed dog or maybe you're doing some retraining, get on top of that out command.
Because, especially for puppies, because they're gonna be making their way around your home, exploring the world with their mouths, and there's gonna be lots of times where you need a reliable out command. One of the secrets about the out command, though, is doing things like an engaging game of tug. You know, doing something with an interactive toy, bringing your dog into you, playing tug, and asking them to out. Right away, they learn about great leadership because you're controlling the game. Number two, that's a game, that tug game is a game that only happens when you're around. So they, it's engaging for them. But having an out command is really, really important. Now, especially for the fetch. If you have just a couple of minutes of time and you really wanna exercise your dog or do something fun with them, you can play fetch.
But don't let your fetch game look like mine initially did where Deegan would run out, grab the object, come back, and then satellite around me, just outside of arm's reach. So really teach your dog early what the out command means and it's a valuable skill and it'll really step up your leadership. Now, a critical mistake that a lot of dog owners make, and it something that I made, a mistake that I made, and she really exaggerated these mistakes for me, but be very careful about your timing with food reward, especially if you've got a food-motivated dog. Now, we've talked a little bit on the channel about timing and how to wean your way off of food, but in the beginning, you're gonna be using lots of food because it's a currency that your dog understands. Especially if you have a Labrador retriever.
But it's really important that you follow this formula. It's always cue, which is that word, stimulus, which is introduce the food, lure into whatever the position is, and then reward. If you're not careful, especially if you have a chow hound of a lab, and you introduce the food first, you put the food on their nose, that's the only thing that they can think about. So your cue now has become food on the nose and they're just thinking about that food. So it's always word, then introduce the food, make it happen, and then reward. Now, I touched on this a little bit earlier, but when your dog starts to have some skills, you know, when they're walking on a loose leash better, when they are remaining in that stay a little bit longer, it's really important that you're proofing, when you're proofing an exercise, that you add the appropriate amount of challenge to it. Now, this is a mistake that I made when she started to, she was always a puller on walks, and the worst was when we'd go up to the park and there were kids playing baseball and soccer.
And I started to get some, she started to remain in at my side, and I really pushed things too quickly. I brought her too close to those distractions, where she just couldn't help herself. She wanted to be the happy-go-lucky bouncy lab that we all love. But it was really tough for her to understand that it's important for her to remain in at my side and no amount of food at that point would get her back on me. So I needed to use my leash and redirect her. But I've actually got this slide that I'm gonna show you. Now, there's a zone, you'll start to learn that your dog has a zone where they're unaffected by distractions. And then there's a point that you get to that your dog will, is absolutely going to fail. They will 100% fail and pull on your leash.
But there's a threshold area where your dog is likely to be successful and if you're really on top of things, you're going to be able to teach them to choose you instead of the those distractions. And that is where the magic happens. So take your time when it comes to adding distractions and really help your dog to be successful. You know, as a dog trainer, as you as the dog trainer with your dog, if your dog's made two mistakes, you can't let them make another mistake. They don't understand. They've shown you that they don't really get it yet. So really make an effort to help them to be successful by reducing the distance, by reducing the distraction, or reducing the duration, whichever one of those things you've started to increase so that you can reward your dog and really remind them what your expectation is and what work it is that's going to be rewarded. In saying that, take advantage of natural training opportunities.
There's going to be a million of them, especially if you're a puppy owner. There's going to be all sorts of things that come up in everyday life that are a great opportunity to teach your dog, reinforce for your dog a skill you're working on. Maybe it is response to name. Maybe you're out with your dog, or your puppy, and you're walking around in your yard or the area where you take them out to go potty, and you see they're a little bit distracted. Call their name. You know, take advantage of that natural distraction and call their name, and if you're in training mode, if you have a puppy who's training in your house, always keep some food or keep some rewards in your pocket in case your puppy makes a great choice. But especially when you're in training mode, be prepared to follow up. So if your puppy doesn't respond, you know, repeat their name, guide them away, and then try it again with less distraction.
Maybe while they're focused on you, repeat their name and reward them. But these natural training opportunities are how you're going to start to integrate your training, integrate the skills into the real world. But you need to be thinking like a trainer the entire time. So when you have that young dog in training or that puppy in training, take advantage of these natural training opportunities as they occur. Now, whether you have a Labrador retriever or any other breed, the retrieve, working on a retrieve with your dog, playing fetch, is a very, very valuable skill. Not only is it a great skill to burn off energy in a short period of time, but it's a great way to build some engagement in a relationship with your dog.
Now, a lot of people struggle with the same things that I struggled with, things that I mentioned a little bit earlier in the video, with their dog coming in so close and then sort of hovering around them. We have a video on the channel that I want you to check out, I'll link it in the description, that will teach your dog that all of the value of the retrieve game is when they get back to you, making it an engaging experience so that it involves both of you. But teaching your dog a retrieve. And this is something we'll do with a puppy, if you have a puppy at home, set up part of your hallway, or some non-distracting environment where you can be sure that the puppy only has one option, it's to come to you.
But work on the retrieve. You know, the amount of puppies, energy that puppies have, you'll want extra little things you can do throughout your day that will burn some of that energy off. And if you do have a Labrador retriever or a golden retriever or any of the retrievers, it's something that they will naturally want to do and you want to take advantage of that. Make training fun by adding a retrieve into your training sessions. Now, an important part of taking advantage of natural training opportunities is to not test too early. You're thinking like a dog trainer. Now, I would never have a young puppy out without a line on or a leash on and call come because they have an opportunity to make a mistake.
And I wouldn't have any way to follow up to help them to be right. This is definitely something I did with Deegan far too early. I was testing her stay with really tough distractions without a line on, I clearly remember doing that in the house because I wanted to show off how cool it was that my dog could stay, and then she failed miserably. But especially with things like your come command, you're gonna remove that word from your vocabulary unless you're training it. So you're not testing your dog. You've got, maybe you're a couple dog training classes in or you've watched a few videos here on the channel and you're working on your recall. Don't call come unless you're sure your dog is going to turn or you're ready to help train them to help them to be right. Most important thing that Deegan taught me was to put the time in early.
Now, Deegan was two years old when I started training with her. By that time, she had a lot of opportunities to make bad choices, to learn bad habits. It's going to be a lot of work. It's going to be frustrating sometimes, it's going to be incredibly joyous sometimes. And sometimes you're gonna wonder if you have any idea what you're doing. But I waited until Deegan was two years old. She'd had so many opportunities to learn the wrong things, you know, make bad choices, be rewarded by making mistakes, chewing on stuff and whatever that might be for your dog, but you know, the puppies I have trained since, all of the puppies that we train in our school, these dogs have an opportunity to only get good information. So invest the six, eight months that you're going to invest into getting your dog to be that well-behaved dog who listens all the time, and it will pay dividends for eight, 12, maybe even 15 years of their life.
And it is so, so worth it. That initial relationship building is something that, even with Deegan at two years old, you know, I really look back fondly on those days. A really important way to speed up your training and build a stronger relationship with your dog is by being a great leader. Click that card right there to make sure that you aren't accidentally being a bad leader for your dog. 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, this is Deegan, happy training.
