you got a puppy so now it's time to get out there and do a big walk with them right what if I told you that's the wrong way of thinking the last thing I want to do is set the scene with my new young puppy by having her pull me down the street and tear around the neighborhood while eating everything off the sidewalk what I'd rather do is teach her how to walk nicely on a loose leaf now I know what you're thinking in order to walk the dog I need to get to the sidewalk and I need to spend time there but what I'm doing today is I'm trying to teach my dog how to have nice loose lead walking skills it's not my goal to get out for a big long walk around the block because that would be putting the cart before the horse first I want to make sure that I teach my dog how to walk nicely on a leash then I'm going to get out there and go for the big long walks that are enjoyable for both of us because they happen with control and on a loose lead I'm putting in some time training young Kilani here and Kilani specifically needs some work on loose lead walking today so I have a couple of goals in mind my first goal is to be able to work and have her focused and attentive on me in the driveway area and in the front walk area that right there is probably the most important thing that I am going to do in all of my training efforts today what's important about that is the consistency Factor the last thing I want to do is allow my dog to get up and break the sit over and over again and then move right into my walking skills and right into training other skills my walk starts with focus in a sit at my side and that consistency is often the mistake that people make when they head out to train their dogs they start Midway through a point rather than starting right from the beginning getting good attention making sure that the dog is settled in and ready to go I'm going to continue to place Kilani into this sit until she can hold the sit on a loose lead for a short enough period of time get reinforcement for that and then I'm going to start out with my let's go training my next goal is to see if I can get to the driveway and keep that focus and then my final goal for today is to see if I can get all the way to the sidewalk and have her attentive and working nicely with me on a loose lead on that loose lead walking skill now the stage I'm at with young Kilani here is I am building value I want to make sure that she sees me as far more exciting than all the other things that she's air sensing right now yes good girl so I'm going to make sure that anytime she does something that I really like whether it's give me Focus or move with me on a loose lead I acknowledge that with some rewards and where we're at at this point is I'm using some treats as a little bit of a lure because she's still young and this is still pretty new for her but my goal for this section is to be able to start with a reminder with a lower right on her nose but then quickly bring the food up more towards my body yes so she's not quite as reliant on it and I can start the process of making it less Visual and less of a lure for her you ready girly you want to go let's go okay ready ready let's go so I'm gonna help her with the food on her nose help her around the corners yes good girl Geeks so she's distracted this is gonna happen this is very normal for a young puppy that anything that they come across that is something they can pick up and chew is going to be really exciting for them so keep in mind that this is a very normal puppy behavior and you're just gonna help your puppy by working through it you ready do you want those cookies instead of the stick let's go that a girl yes very nice Geeks good girly I need to be a little more active with my voice let's go good girl yes very nice and I also want to keep a brisker pace because that's going to help her stay on task Yay good for you you're a smarty pants yes good job it is entirely possible and actually quite probable that when I get out onto my driveway now what just looked brilliant here on the front path is probably going to come out go out the window and that is okay I am prepared for that as a dog trainer and as somebody who is going to help guide young Kiki to do exactly what she needs to do so a good tactic for me to take yes good girl I'm just going to reward this attention because it's so great a good tactic for me to take might be to go back to having that food right on her nose for a round or two get in some reinforcement for her making those great choices yes good sit there's a dog passing on the sidewalk and she's making a great choice to hold the sit which is wonderful and I want to make sure that I help her in all of these scenarios so I am going to to acknowledge that she's doing a great job and I'm going to make sure that I reinforce her for holding position if you'd like some help with your loose leash walking training plan join us for life skills either in person or online and we'll teach you how to create a wonderful walking companion from start to finish now that we've got a little bit less distraction to contend with in the driveway and that would have been a mistake when there was another dog passing by there is no way at this stage in kilani's training that I would have been able to hold her focus when the dog when the other dog was that close to her so it was a tactic on my part to stay a little bit further away wait until that distraction passed and now I'm ready to see if I can get out there in the driveway and again I'm going to take that step back in my training to the point where I'm luring right on her nose because even though it's only a few steps it's really not that far from a human perspective from a dog perspective that picture changes everything so what she learns from this point to that point is also going to be something that drives her behavior and if she thinks that it's okay to pull me at that juncture then she's going to think that it's okay to pull me there every single time I step out of the house so I'm going to help her to be successful and to get it right and to make sure that I align what I want with what she wants I'm going to make sure that I give her all sorts of good information so I'm going to start by showing her that I've got some food you want those cookies good girl yes I might even rewarder before we step out again and then let's go that a girly I'm gonna help her to this new space yes all reward weeks I'll rewarder a couple of times there and again I'm just going to set the stage Yay good girly let's go let's go good girl good let's go right up here right up here yay good girl thanks let's go Yay good job yes good girly Yay good for you so I've gotten success up there I've gotten success here and I may be pushing my luck a little bit but I'm going to see if I can get some success on the sidewalk as well I know that it seems like these are really small transitions that I'm making but to a puppy and a puppy's brain with that really short attention span this is a lot of effort so I'm gonna go for it and see how we do and I'm going to make sure that if I can get to that sidewalk and keep her attention that she gets a little rain of treats oh you're so good yes good Focus girly are you ready so I've got enough treats ready to sustain me for my goal here ready Let's Go Daddy let's go right here yes good girl Yay good for you ready yes sticky good girly good oh stinker stinker foiled foiled by a little piece of stick on the ground sometimes things don't go as planned and it's not at all out of the realm of possibility that I'm going to have to make adjustments to my training plan even Midway through the plan what's more important is that I adjust based on my dog's abilities and take a step back when I need to and that might look like going back to the front door it might look like placing her in the sit and just working some attention and forgetting all about walking for the rest of the day it might make me plan for the future and keep shorter training sessions there's all sorts of things that are going to come out of making that adjustment and taking a step back or taking a step even sideways to change the way I'm looking at my training plan so I am going to stop pushing my luck I'm going to take a step back into the driveway and I'm going to finish on a high note where she gets to have success before we blow this whole thing out of the water keep in mind when you're working with a young puppy those short attention fans mean that they have very limited work time in them before they start to get really unfocused so keep that in mind as part of your tactics you are going to try to keep your training session short and sweet and successful with your puppies okay you ready I got some cookies let's go let's go good girl Vicky I dropped a bit of food there that was my fault let's go Yay good job you might notice that we really didn't get any further than 20 feet today and I am absolutely A-Okay with that we got a lot more accomplished than just going for a regular old walk around the neighborhood I started on the path to teach my puppy how to walk nicely on a loose lead and I got a ton of wins in that start of our training today something to keep in mind is that if you don't get a win your walk can't begin when I am working with a young puppy the consistent information that I can give her is going to be the best possible thing for her learning so the last thing I want to do is only do loose leash walking training when I'm in training mode and then the rest of the time come out here and let her pull me and let her eat the sticks and you know I'll have lost the ground that I've gained because eating those sticks for her is very very rewarding so what I want to do is I want to stop that process of her being rewarded for eating the sticks and I want to make sure that she recognizes that all of the good rewards in life come from me now in addition to that when I set out to do some more training practice tomorrow and then the next day and the next day because it's important that I do a little bit every day with my young puppy I want to make sure that I know what I'm set up for and I can't expect that I did this training today and now tomorrow her walking is going to be perfect what I can expect is that tomorrow will still be a little bit up in the air it might look exactly the same as today did or I might be able to make a little bit more progress we've made some great strides today and kilani's ready for the next step in her loose Leach walking training plan if you are too click this video right here and on that note I'm instructor Shannon this is Kilani happy training