Having your dog on leash is an imperative part of teaching them so that they catch on even faster.

Today i'm gonna show you how to get your dog

loving leash training with "Flurry", the rescue Lab puppy.

Give "Flurry" a thumbs up, make sure you subscribe to my channel and pick up a

copy of my book! ...No, this is not a chew toy.

You can get it (the book) in written or

audio form. I'm real excited to be using Merrick's backcountry real salmon jerky treats in today's lesson

these are some of the best dog training treats that you could use.

The number one ingredient is salmon. That definitely smells like salmon.

If you want a high-value currency, you can't go wrong with these.

When using a really good quality treat,

you want to make sure that you're using real small pieces of something that's soft and tastes really good and

smells really good to your dog. Just this one strip right here,

you could do so much training you can also get Merrick's backcountry raw infused dog food.

Listen to these ingredients: deboned beef, lamb meal, salmon, then sweet potatoes, then I guess normal potatoes.

Boy. He likes this stuff how many brands

do you know that actually have real pieces of freeze-dried meat? And that's real meat in the dog food itself

It's a really top-notch dog food

This food is so high-quality that I'm gonna use it along with these salmon treats today in our lesson. They also have grain free stews, too.

We got green beans - look at all that meat.

I see some carrots in there, so much good stuff, and you know Merrick's got your cat covered, too.

You can get Marik's backcountry line on Petflow. You can set it up for auto-ship as usual.

I'm gonna have a great discount and a link in the description.

The leash is for far more than just walking your dog.

It is the absolute best way to control where your dog can and can't go during that first year of training even

indoors. Young dogs like Flurry who are just a few weeks old tend to stay really near their people, so many

mistakenly try to bypass leash training because they just conclude, "hey, my dog is pretty good off leash

and I don't really need a leash".

But as your dog gets older, bad habits begin to emerge slowly at first and then tend to get out of control. Now,

let's make sure that Flurry is doing well on leash while in this easy setting first, and

then we'll go outside and see how things go. Flurry, this is leash biting

not leash walking.

So many puppies love to bite on their leash. If your dog does that, first make sure you're using a good treat.

And, we're just simply gonna get his attention on this treat, instead of yanking the leash out of his mouth. Look at that!

We just taught him to think from the inside-outward, without forcing him to do something. And just be real consistent,

they're gonna do that for the first few weeks of training come on. Let's go walk. Let's walk here, good.

Come on. Yeah nice work, and I'm gonna reward really liberally here and give them lots of tiny treats

Let's try one of those freeze-dried bits. It's there. Oh, that's good, isn't it? You love those. Let's walk here.

Good job. And look, you can see how he's paying attention to me - wherever I go, he's going.

I'd like to make sure that I can get Flurry's attention on me as well. Hey, up here Flurry. See that

Yes, that's very good.

Traditionally, leash training has been all about popping the leash and creating an

unpleasant consequence when your dog doesn't behave ideally on leash. That's something we really need to get past, though.

And we really want to motivate our dogs to want to do something rather than correcting them for doing things

we don't like. That'll make training a lot more enjoyable and your dog will progress a lot faster.

I'm so proud of you.

So, we're gonna go into the real world now and see if we can make this lesson a little bit more challenging, because, hey - if

your dog won't listen to you when they're distracted,

well that means your training isn't done yet. Of course, if you've got a young dog, make sure your puppy is appropriately vaccinated before

taking them in public. There's a distinction between a training walk and a real walk.

See, a training walk has no real destination.

The entire objective is simply to get your dog paying attention to you while you're on the other end of the leash. When you're leash

training in a new environment for a young puppy you must be tolerant of them being distracted.

It's just all part of being a puppy. I'm just gonna change directions really often over here.

Just to keep them guessing and paying attention to me. Now

I'm gonna see if I can get him to look up at me here here. Here we go. Come on. There's those eyes.

I love it. Here you go buddy. Flurry is freezing up a little bit.

He doesn't want to walk with me.

But that could mean a couple of things. It could mean, hey, they're sincerely nervous. Or, he could be saying, "I want to go this

way, I don't want to go back that way".

So, I'm gonna try and get peppier to get his attention on me cause, you know, dogs like it when we're fun.

And he's biting on the leash. I don't care about that right now. I'm just happy walking more enthusiastically. Good!

How about this way, let's go on the grass. The beauty of training walks

is that when you see

distractions like giant exotic birds

everywhere, you can use that as an opportunity to do some training with them and get them to listen to you

around these distractions. The last thing you want to do is be on a normal walk and encounter something that your dog has never seen

before when you're in a hurry, because you don't have time to teach them in that situation.

So, here we have the benefit of having nature,

we have geese and all sorts of crazy birds, so I'm going to walk around right here. All right!

Yeah, that's a good dog. Come on.

Yes good job! And so I'm just getting them in the habit of paying attention to me while around all these birds.

But of course, when you're walking with your dog you can't just

walk around in circles all the time saying, "hey, look at me,

look at me!" You eventually want them to walk on a straight line like a civilized Labrador. We're walking in a straight line,

now I'm going to turn around. I'm going to try and make a straight line this way. Let's go Flurry, come on, look at that.

I mean hey, this is starting to look like a real walk right here.

It's not just about giving your dog a treat every time they do something good let them know,

sincerely, with heartfelt appreciation

how much you

appreciate that they're trying. That's what you want out of a leash training session with your dog. Leash training is way trickier than a lot

of people realize. See, when you have a young puppy like Flurry,

they're gonna grow so rapidly.

Their legs are gonna get longer, their muscles are gonna get stronger and their natural pace is just gonna increase. And they just have no

idea that they're walking faster than you.

So, you'll need to be very tolerant and very vigilant throughout their first many months of leash training. If your dog is

particularly rambunctious when you're trying to do a leash training session, that almost certainly means you need to do some exercise with your dog before

leash training. Now, I know it might seem normal -

"Hey, I'm taking my dog on a walk to get their energy out".

But with real high-energy dogs, fetch is generally the best way to

exercise them, so if your dog doesn't yet know fetch, that time should be dedicated to teaching them fetch.

If you've got a new puppy,

and you want to continue to see great dog training content, consider becoming a supporter on my Patreon campaign. That link will be in the

description. Oh, now that's my currency: puppy kisses! I love it.

Click thumbs up if you think Flurry did a great job today. Make sure you're subscribed to my channel.

Set automatic Merrick food delivery at Petflow, too - it'll make your life way easier.

the Merrick Back Country Line is

amazing as you saw in today's video. Pick up a copy of my book, Dog Training

Revolution. Those links will be in the description. Good job Flurry, you did good!