Now if you’re about to become a new puppy owner, you probably want to know everything you can about the breed, so in this week we’re gonna talk about your Golden Retriever puppy’s first week home, and I am joined by professional dog trainer and multiple Golden Retriever owner, Instructor Wendy. I’m Ken Steepe, and welcome back to McCann Dogs. In this facility we help more than 500 dog owners every single week 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. So everybody this is Gypsy, and Wendy what were some of the first things that you thought you’d need, like what did you buy to prepare for bringing your adorable Golden Retriever puppy home? – Well one of the first things I did was I borrowed a smaller crate from a friend of mine, for her.
Source: McCann Dog Training, https://youtu.be/Kr5ZF7iwPTo
And then I got baby gates put up around my kitchen, – That’s a great idea. – To keep her locked in. – Sure, that’s a great idea. What about treats, or other accessories for your puppy? Maybe you had a house line for her, was that something that you? – I did have a house line, and I had a smaller line. I did buy a new collar though, and a new leash for her ’cause of course she has to have her own. – Absolutely. I think that’s just a flat buckle collar. – That’s a flat buckle collar she’s got on, yes. – So what did you do for food, how did you know what you were going to feed your puppy when you brought her home? – I spoke to the breeder about that. He recommended the food and also how much, ’cause I wasn’t sure how much to feed her each meal. – What about her first night home? What were the first things in terms of, were you up all night? What do your Golden Retriever prospective puppy owners need to know about that first night home with their new puppy? – Well I was very lucky with my breeder, they did a lot of training first.
So her first night home, she’d been in and out of her crate a lot so she could get used to it, I had her in for a short period of time and brought her out, and rewarded her when she was in. And her first night she was actually very good, she slept until two in the morning. Got her up, took her out, didn’t really talk to her, fuss with her, let her have a pee then back in her crate, and she slept until seven.
I was so happy (laughs). – And is that the typical thing? Your Goldens in the past, was it a similar experience? – Yes, yes. – So they’re pretty comfortable as long as your breeder’s had a little bit of experience with some of that crate training? Now crate training we suggest for any new puppy owner, and what was that process for you as you brought her home and got her used to her crate? – That was the one thing I did wanna do right away, I had her in her crate, I fed her in her crate, and it was just short periods of time like she’d go in for maybe 10 minutes, and then I’d let her out.
And then I’d have her out for a bit, and then I’d put her back in her crate again so that she was very comfortable in the crate. – Yeah, so small periods, short periods of time, getting her really accustomed. The other thing we know is really valuable about the crate is that anytime she comes out, she’s with you. You’re immediately building a little bit of leadership, and a lot of value for spending time with you.
And certainly a Golden puppy, any puppy can get themselves into trouble, so supervision is so important. What do you do for supervision with her when she comes out of her crate? Explain that process to me, what kinds of things are you doing? – Oh 100 percent supervision. When she comes out of her crate, her collar and her leash go on right away. And she’s with me right there, so I can step on her leash if she’s gonna get into something. And the same as when I’m outside, I take her outside and I go outside with her. And make sure that she’s okay and not getting into trouble, and has her leash on outside too, a long line. – Yeah, so that’s part of the puppy potty training process which is hugely important. Has she had accidents in your home? – Oh yeah, we’ve had accidents. If I haven’t 100 percent watched her, I turn my back to do something and all of a sudden. So then I quickly get her outside. – For her potty training process describe that to me, break it down, how often were you taking her out, how often did you just randomly need to take her out, just describe that to me.
– I was a bit nervous with her making sure that she went out so I overdid it, I was almost every half hour. I would take her outside, make sure she’d do something. If she was in the crate, as soon as I let her out of the crate, outside we go. If I been doing some playing with her, as soon as I finish playing, outside we’d go again. And I’d never reward her though for going to the bathroom outside. I praise her, good girl, but I wouldn’t give her any treats for that. – I think that’s something that’s really important to remember, because we’ve heard stories of people who, when they take their puppy outside to go potty they’ll give them a treat. And very quickly their puppy learns that the act of going outside, maybe even if they’re squatting they aren’t necessarily going, but pretending to go that’s gonna get them a treat. So using praise when you are outside and your puppy goes potty is more than enough, because it’s a naturally rewarding behavior.
– Mm-hmmm. – So if she does have an accident in your home, what are those moments? You catch her because you’re supervising her so closely which is so important, she has an accident, what’s your next step? – If she has an accident and I catch her, I will scold her and right away take her outside. There were a couple of accidents that I did have my back turned and I missed her, so I couldn’t scold her because I didn’t catch her in the act.
– Yeah marking that moment is so important with your “ah-ah” or your “oops” or something is so valuable because you really capture that moment, and you really mark it for your puppy. But as Instructor Wendy mentioned, even the professionals, the puppies can get away or you turn your back for a moment. And it will, accidents will happen in your home. So this is a regular part of the puppy potty training process. For your training throughout the first week that you had Gypsy home, tell me a little bit of the exercises that you did, some of your general puppy training.
And then a couple specific to Golden Retriever training that you did with her, what were you working on with her? – So the first one I was working on was your basic, your sit. So I’d lure her with a sit, with a treat, reward her. And with the downs. Her name. – Yeah. – Trying to teach her her name, her name and then have her lure her tongue to me and reward her for lots of that. – Yeah that’s a great one, and for anybody who hasn’t maybe seen that video on our channel, simply loading value on her name’s really important, so you’d say Gypsy then reward, Gypsy then reward. Gypsy and then if she’s maybe a little distracted, turn her in toward you and then reward her. That can be a really valuable exercise. Now I know Instructor Wendy, you do competition retriever stuff with your Golden Retriever, so what sort of things did you do with her that are Retriever specific? – So her, I started with just a fuzzy toy and I was just tugging and playing with her, and then I would throw it just a little bit.
And then she would bring it back to me and we would tug and play with it, and she would have lots of fun. Then I got her little bumper which we work in field class, and then I was starting to throw it, and she would have a line on so that if she didn’t want to bring it back, I could guide her back to me. And when she brought it back we would have fun with it, and then I would throw it again. – Great. Yeah if you haven’t worked with any retrieving stuff with your fetch exercises with your dog, I’ll actually link a video above that is exactly what Instructor Wendy’s talking about, where you have a little bit of control of your dog with that line on, but you also have a little bit of control of that item so that they can’t choose to keep it away from you.
But those things are so much fun to do with your puppy, and what a great way to burn off puppy energy. – Oh it’s great, if it’s raining outside and you don’t wanna go outside, in the hallway. Now I can throw it right down the hall, she goes flying down the hall and she brings it back to me we have a tug and play, and it’s great. – That’s awesome. Now because she’s coming into a household with other dogs, describe the process of socialization, introducing her to your other dogs.
– Well my one dog’s an 11-year-old Golden so I knew she would be fine, I didn’t worry about her. And I had her on a leash to make sure she didn’t jump on her or anything. But I also have a four-year-old Shepherd, so that was a little different, I waited. Actually I think it was just the first day, the second day maybe, but I brought him out with a leash on. – Okay. – Because I didn’t want him pawing her or jumping on her ’cause he could hurt her! He’s quite large. – Yep. – So it took a bit, before I could actually trust them together, but even now I a hundred percent supervise them together. – Yeah and I think that’s really important for people to remember is that when you are introducing your puppy to your other dogs at home, or other dogs, family members’ dogs or whatever, you need to control the situation. You need to have control of those other dogs, and you need to control your puppy because they’re going to very quickly find value in playing with those other dogs.
So you need to make sure that you have your house line on for example, or you have a leash on them and that you can control the process a little bit, not only to keep them safe because that’s really important, – Very important. – But also to build value on you so that your retriever puppy will listen to you, even in some of these exciting environments. – Well that’s just it, I didn’t want her to think that he’s wonderful, like he’ll play and have fun with me, whereas I want her to look up to me for her leadership. – Totally. It’s a great reminder for any puppy owner, and especially with you guys with those really friendly, happy-go-lucky Golden Retrievers. Because I know that you travel a lot with her, you go all sorts of different places, describe the process to me about getting her accustomed to some of that traveling, ’cause some puppies could really struggle with being in the car.
– Yes, I always have crates in the car for the dogs, they’re a lot more comfortable in it. So we put her in her crate and we go for a little trip here and there, and just to get her used to driving in the car. We take her out and play and do some stuff and back in the crate, we go for another little trip. – Yeah, so how long? Maybe drive three or four minutes, get her into and out of the crate, or a little bit longer? Describe that process. – Yeah a little bit longer, maybe 10, 15 minutes. I go to my son’s place and we play there, and then back in the car or to my class.
– Sure. – Or coming here. – Yeah, so some of that includes some socialization. Not only with people, or certainly not necessarily with other dogs, but places, sounds, smells, surfaces. All of those things are hugely important for your puppy training, and getting your puppy more confident and accustomed to these things. What was your experience with her discovering new places? – Well we didn’t wanna go a lot of places because they haven’t had all their shots yet, so I just went places that I knew are safe. I came to work here, and I knew it was okay out back.
I said to my son’s place, I knew it was safe there. So just safe places that you can take your puppy, and get them outside and experience things before they’ve had all their shots. – For sure, and I think that’s something that I know we hear a little bit on the channel with potty training is that you do need to be aware until they’ve had all their vaccinations. So what would make a place safe in your mind? – Places that I know people, or I know the dogs around.
Or there’s not a lot of dogs around, you don’t know that they’re other dogs have been there that haven’t had their vaccines. – Yeah, you just need to be a little bit more cautious. – Not going to parks where a lot of dogs’ll be at, I wouldn’t go places like that. – For sure. I hope you feel more prepared for bringing your new Golden puppy home. If you’re looking for more puppy training, make sure you click that card right there. I want to thank Instructor Wendy, and Gypsy for joining us today, and on that note I’m Ken, this is Wendy, happy training. Bye for now! .
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