four quick ways to exercise your dog

 When you have a puppy in training, it's really important to make the most of your time, or if you have a really busy lifestyle, you want to make sure that the time spent with your dog is as efficient and as rewarding and as engaging as possible. In today'article, I'm going to show you four quick ways to exercise your dog that have nothing to do with going for a walk, so that you can exercise both their body and their brain. I'm Ken Steepe and welcome back to McCann Dogs. (gentle guitar strums) (puppy barking) Now there are a few different peo

ple that this video will be perfect for and as you can tell, we are currently traveling with our dogs. This looks nothing like the studio, nothing like the McCann Dogs training center. But, when we stop as we're traveling or when we're able to exercise our dogs, we really want to do things efficiently. Do it as quickly as possible to take the edge off while they travel. If you have a dog who you're trying to teach to walk on a loose leash to stop them from pulling, it's really important that you don't continue going on the same long walks where you train half the time and let them pull half the time. You need to be able to focus on that great training, on that really focused loose leash walking and not worry about it being their only exercise for the day. For those of you who are dealing with nuisance behaviors, a lot of time a little extra exercise, burning off some of that energy will reduce the likelihood of your dog making those bad choices, the barking, the chewing, all of those things you don't like, your pup may need a little bit more of an outlet. I'm going to show you four different ways to burn off your dog's energy in a short period of time and if you're coming back to this video for a refresher, I'm going to drop the links, the time code, in the description below so you can jump right to the section that you need. Let's get started. One exercise we do with all of our own puppies is the restrained recall. The restrained recall's a great way to build value into something like teaching your dog their name. It gets them motivated about hearing their name. The other great thing that it will help to teach your dog is the recall command, the come command. Now, depending on your dog's level of understanding, if you have a puppy, maybe you're doing this restrained recall in a hallway, but if your dog is able to focus on you for a little bit longer or if your dog has worked through some little bits of distractions, you can move out to bigger areas. Maybe it's your fenced yard, or somewhere at the park, but the restrained recall is a really great way to get your dog motivated about some kind of command. It's also a great way to burn off a lot of energy in a short period of time. Now most of the time people will show you how to do this with two people, but in this video today, I'm going to show you how you can do this alone. You need to find a great motivator for your dog and one of the best things I like to use when we're teaching the restrained recall is something like a tug or an interactive toy. Now, you can also use food for this exercise if your dog is more motivated by food, but I really like the engagement that the tug brings. No matter what your dog's ability to listen, I want you to make sure that you have a leash or a line attached to them and in this exercise, if you're doing this alone, it's also a good idea to have maybe two leashes attached or use a long line. Loop your leash around a stationary object, maybe it's a fence post or a tree or something like that that's not going to move. Now start really close with your dog. Get them really excited about that motivator. Again, if it's a tug toy, you get them really excited about that toy. If it's food, you show them that you've got some really great treats and then start to back away a little bit. Be sure you maintain your dog's attention. Now, if they start to look away, you're not being motivating enough, so use exciting language, you really want them leaning into that leash as it's looped around that object. Get them really excited about whatever you've got as you're backing away. At the peak of their excitement, call their name, run away, make it really exciting. Really make it exciting to chase you and then reward them once they get to you. As I mentioned, you can even use the come command. Get your dog focused on that object or that treat and then say come and release them and back away. What I love about this is you can get several repetitions in in just a couple of minutes. You can really burn off a lot of that energy in five, six, seven repetitions and it also does a great job to build motivation for that word that you're using. As mentioned at the top, this is even better if your dog loves to tug and tug on it's own is actually a great way to exercise your dog in a short period of time. Problem is that not all dogs love to tug naturally and they need to be trained a little bit so there are a couple different styles of tugger that are out there. Let's see which style of tugger your dog is. Dog number one is the kind of dog who doesn't really get engaged with the game of tug. It's the kind of dog who you're not really sure if they ever really want to tug and that's the kind of dog that you'd love to play tug with them, but you can't really figure out how to make them tug. Something that people often do is stuff the toy in the dogs face, trying to show them that they've got this really fun thing that the dog will probably want to play with. Now imagine it's people, if someone asks you if you wanted something to eat, but you weren't really that interested. - Do you want some yogurt? - Uh, eh, I don't really think I want any yogurt. - You love yogurt. - Yeah, but I just don't really feel like it right now and I don't... I don't want the yogurt. Instead of shoving that toy in your dogs' face who might not be that interested, make it fun. Make it a game, take that toy, place it on the ground, animate it, make it really exciting and keep it away from your dog. When they start to show interest, maybe take it away to a point where they're just, they can't quite get it. Make it something that's really exciting of your dog. I might even hold that toy up and shake it around over their head and hold them back while I'm shaking the toy. I need to figure out what's going to activate that drive. It's essentially prey drive from your dog. I need to figure out what's that thing that's going to get this dog really excited about the toy? Another thing you can try is using a different type of tug toy to play with. Sometimes your dog is just not that interested in the toy that you're using. The other thing I'm going to do, is when I do have that toy drive or that prey drive activated, once the dog first gets the toy, I'm going to let them win. I'm going to let go of that toy, make a big deal of it. Maybe your dog likes clapping and excited bubbly words, it doesn't really matter. You need to figure out once your dog gets that toy, figure out what's going to make them more excited about that toy. Now, once they've captured that toy, I'm going to take it away from them and I'm just going to do my best to get it away from them and then make it more fun again. I'm going to move it around the ground, make it really animated and exciting. I might even hold them back, ready, set and then release them to it and once they've got it, I'm going to tug, but only for a couple of seconds and then I'm going to let them win again, they've got the toy. It's a big deal. I'm going to allow them to have some fun with that toy and maybe tug with it a couple of times and then pretend like they've taken it away from me. So now this thing of value is even more valuable because they've got it. With this kind of dog, I need to keep these play sessions short and sweet and I'm not going to allow my dog to have this toy when we're not playing. That toy is never going to be found on the ground, I'm going to put this in a special place so that every time it comes out, it's fun, it's new and it's exciting. Dog number two is the kind of dog who loves the game of tug, but they're never really sure when the game is over. So for this kind of dog, I'm going to tug with them for a brief period, just a couple of seconds before they completely lose their mind about the action of tugging and then I'm going to stop the game entirely by holding that toy against my thigh. Now, holding the toy against my thigh sort of makes that tug less interesting, it's less of a dynamic game and that's when I can use my out command. Now if you're not sure how to use the out command with your dog, we've published a video earlier teaching your dog how to bring a ball directly back to your hand and we talk a little bit about it there, so you can check that out above me in a card above me and in the description below. Now nearly everybody knows that playing fetch is a great way to exercise your dog in a short period of time, but fetch is all about motivation. I don't know how many people have left comments in the channel that their dog would come in and then they'd circle around them just outside of arms reach. Well let's head over and hear from Kayl. She's going to show you how to teach a super motivated retrieve from your dog. - Before you begin, you may consider putting your dog on a leash and what I've also done is put my toy on a leash, so that I have control of both variables. Now before doing this, I've already established that my puppy really likes this toy, so make sure you have an idea of what types of toy your puppies like. Whether it's a tug toy or a rubber size type toy like this, sometimes dogs don't like to retrieve 'cause they aren't motivated by the type of toy or reward that you're using, so experiment, make sure you find something that your dog likes. Now one of the main reasons why I've put my toy on a leash is so that I can make this look like dying prey. That's a lot of fun for the dogs. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to get Bealon engaged with the toy right now, just by moving and whipping this toy around and letting her chase it. Ready, Bea? What's this, ready? Oh! So, puppies like when things move, so I'm going to get it ready. What's this? Choo, what's this? Get it, get it, get it, get it, get it, get it! Oh, she caught it already! So I'm just going to move it away from her and if she happens to let go of the toy, I'm going to start whipping it around again. Woo, there it goes! Whoop, whoop! (laughs) She's pretty quick! Good girl! And this is the first part of the retrieve. I wouldn't actually throw the toy, I would just engage her in a game of tug by keeping the toy very active and exciting, good girl, get it! Now that I've established that Bea really likes this toy, the next thing that I want to do is start teaching the retrieve portion of it. Now what I've done, is I've actually taken two leashes and I've attached them to this toy so I have a really long line to use to control the toy. Now, I know she really likes this toy, so I'm going to throw it out, but to prevent her from running around my yard with it, I have the line attached so that once she picks it up, I can use it to reel her in back in towards me, teaching her to go get the toy and bring it directly back to me and I would just repeat this process a few times until I don't have to assist her with it any longer and she's doing it a bit more independently. Okay, Bea, you ready? Want to get this toy, ready, ready, ready? So what I'm going to do is hold on to her, make sure I have the end of my line ready. Ready, set, oh she's ready! Come here, come here, come here! Set, get the toy, get the toy! Good girl! Whoop, whoop, whoop! Bring it here, bring it here, bring it here! Yay, good girl! Now once she gets back, I don't want to take the toy from her right away, I want her to be rewarded and have fun for bringing the toy to me, so I'm going to take a second to play a little game of tug. Oh, that was a good puppy! Okay, let's try it again. Are you ready? So I'm going to get the end of my line. Ready, set, get the toy! Good girl, bring it here, bring it here! Yay! Good girl! Very nice! Good! Now we just repeat this process until the two of us get tired. (laughs) Good girl. Now, I've just done a bunch of repetitions with me holding the leash and she's been really good about bringing the toy directly back, so I'm going to progress now by throwing the toy a little bit further away and I'm going to start dropping the leash. Now, if at any time I feel like she's not bringing the toy directly back to me, I'm not going to chase after the dog and the toy. That could be probably the worst thing you could do. When you chase a dog, what they typically do is keep running and just turn it into a big catch me if you can game. So instead, I'm going to try and get to my line so I can go back to directing her with the leash in my direction. Hopefully I won't have to do that though. You ready miss Bea? Ready, set, get it! Good girl, bring it here, bring it here! Yay! What a good girl! Always lots of play and praise when your puppy brings the toy back and try it again. Ready, get set, get the toy! Good girl, bring it here! Woo, good girl! (laughs) I think it's safe to say she likes this game. Good girl, yes! Very nice. Now, once you're able to do that with the leash on the ground, obviously the next step would be able to progress to not having the toy attached to anything, but it's not going to hurt anything by having the leash attached a little bit longer, just to be on the safe side. Especially if you're in a busy location where there tends to be lots of distractions. Good girl, yes! Once you've had a lot of reliability playing with the toy with your dog while the toy is attached to a line, you may consider taking the line off of the toy, but to ensure that you have control, you could always attach this long line to your dog. That way, if they decide to make any poor choices or they get a little distracted, you have a way to keep them safe and under control. Now, the last component that I think is really important to talk about is how you move your body. In order to get her to bring the toy back to me quickly, I always want to move away from her to try and encourage that chase drive. So this last retrieve I'm going to show you, I'm going to throw the toy out, once she gets the toy, I'm going to call her and I'm going to run away and that's going to ignite her chase drive, she's going to want to come back to me quickly and then we can have that fun game together at the end. Okay, Bea, ready? On your mark, make sure you don't step on the line so that you don't (laughs) make it go tight when they run away. Ready, ready, ready, okay! Ready, set, we're going this way. Get the ball, get the ball, get the ball! Bea! Yay! Your dog might not add that exuberant jump at the end of the recall, my dog is a little bit over the top. (laughs) But whatever they want to do to make the game fun. Yes, good girl! You want to do one more? Are you ready? Set, get the toy! Whoops! Here, bring it here! Yeah! Bring it here, bring it here, bring it here! Yay! This way, yeah! So always moving away from the dog, encouraging them to bring the toy back to you. Now if either one of you is not out of breath at the end of this, you're not doing it right. (laughs) Now, retrieving is obviously a really fun thing to do with your dog and it's something that we encourage you to play a lot with them, but it's really important that when you're playing retrieve that you don't compromise your control by letting your dog be in a situation where they can take the toy and run off with it, so it's a really smart idea to keep your dog or puppy on a line or your toy or whatever you're retrieving with on a line as well to ensure that you always have control. - Now trick training on it's own isn't necessarily a great way to exercise your dogs' body, but it's a great way to exercise their brain and the beauty of trick training is you can do it in any environment and that you can do it in just a couple of minutes while you're waiting for your coffee to brew in the morning. The other great part about trick training is that it teaches your dog to problem solve a little bit. Now, if you've got just a couple of minutes to teach your dog something, check out this video where Kayl teaches her dogs to spin left and right. - So, we're going to start off by step number one, teaching your dog to spin left or right. Now, I have a smaller dog, so I can do this from my knees. If you have a larger dog, you may consider standing up to try this. So I have a few pieces of food in my hand and all I'm going to do is start off by making sure she's in a standing position and I'm going to keep my hand level with her nose so that as I turn my hand, she's likely to follow it around in a circle rather than sitting. So I'm just going to start off by moving my hand really slowly. Try again. Yes, good girl! And I don't need to say any commands at this point because I'm assuming that she doesn't know what she's doing. When you begin, your puppy probably won't know what it means quite yet, so there's no point in saying a command. Yes, good girl. So as she finishes the turn, I'm going to say yes, good girl and then I'm going to reward her and you're just going to repeat this process until your dog starts to turn more easily each time you practice, good girl, yes! Now once your dog can turn very easily with the food, you can start to put it on a command. Now, you can be as creative as you want with the commands, but one of the things that I think is really cute is teaching them a left and right. I also do a lot of agility training and I find the left and right command very handy for when I'm on course with my dogs as well. So what I would do is make sure I know the difference between my lefts and rights, which is a challenge for me sometimes, and I'm going to get the food under the nose, tell her left, yes, and then turn her in that direction. Good girl, left, yes, good girl. Remember our good timing, you need to say the command followed one second later by the lure with the food. Ready, left, yes, good girl! Left, I think somebody wants to go right. Good girl, now I'm going to try right. Right! Yes, good girl. Right, you're cheating. Right, yes, good girl. So she was wrong there, she guessed and went the opposite direction, no big deal. I actually love that she's trying to do something in order to get the reward, she's being creative, so I want to encourage those behaviors. I'm not going to get upset with her about it. Okay, one more time, I got one more treat. Right, yes, good girl! Very nice, little Bea! Now, as you're practicing there are a few common mistakes that sometimes comes up. One of them is that often the handlers try to move their hand too quickly, spin them around with the food too fast and sometimes the dogs lose focus really easily and then they aren't able to spin all the way around. So make sure when you're practicing when you first start, move your hand incredibly slow, slow enough that your dog can easily follow the food around in a circle continuously and as they start to get better, you certainly can make your hand move faster and faster. The second thing that I often see is people often hold their hand a little bit too high, so they go to spin their dog and because the hand's too high, the dogs end up being stuck in a sit. Now, it's hard to spin your dog, I know it's difficult when they're in a sitting position. So if I just lower my hand so it's at head level, good girl, and then I try to turn her, yes, yes, good girl. I'm much less likely to get a sit. Hopefully you'll find that helpful. Now, I've just practiced a whole bunch with food hidden in my signal hand. So what I'm going to do now, is I'm going to try a couple without any food in my signal hand and I have food ready here to jackpot reward her, bonus reward her if she's able to turn on my command and hand signal. Hey miss Bea, come here, ready? Left, yes, left, yes, good girl! Ready, right, yes, right, yes, right, yes! Good girl! Very nice, one more. Left, yes, right, yay! Excellent girl! And then I can reward her once she's responded to my command. Good for you! Now this process of training may take you a few minutes, it may take you a few weeks, it may take you a few months, it really just depends on your dogs willingness to learn or how much shaping and training you've done with your dog previous to this point. Come here, Babes. So if things are going along well and you see that your dog's even starting to beat you to the punch a little bit, as you start to say left or right, your dog kind of already starts to go in that direction, your dog's probably telling you they are ready to learn this on a verbal command. So what I'm going to do this time, is I have my food ready. I'm going to tell her left or right, but I'm not going to also encourage her, (laughs) good girl, with my hand. I'm just going to keep my hands quiet and if she's able to do it just on my word alone, I'm going to really generously reward her. Ready Bea? Left. Yes, good left, good girl! Left. Yes, good left, you're so smart, good girl. Ready, right. Yes, good! Right, yes, good girl! So she went left instead of right once there, again, no big deal, I'm just going to reward her for the things she does correctly and just sort of ignore the things that she does incorrectly, no big deal. - We have a couple of other five minute teaching plan article and if you like to teach your dog to listen in a couple  minutes, check out the video right there.