Duke Ferguson

Teach your dog self-control through play.

Do you have a dog that is hyper and pushy; one who is always biting at your hands and pant legs or jumping all over you?

If you said YES then this video is for you!

SUMMARY

How To Get A Hyper Active, Nippy, Jumpy Dog From Crazy to Lazy / Creating Self Control Through Play!

• Through play, you can get your dog from a very high state of arousal to self-controlled and stationary.
• Have the proper equipment for this exercise; a long line and a favourite toy and patience!
• To curb biting and nipping from an early age you want the dog to be channeled to certain toys that he can tug; not your pant legs and not your arms.

• If you’re a dog owner and you say, “Hey, how do I get my dog to stop grabbing on my pant legs?” or, if he bites your hands, you can say, “That hurts! Don’t bite me, bite this instead.” Just redirect to a favourite toy.
• To calm the dog, one thing you can do is you just make the toy go dead (stop moving it).
• You have to start play and you have to end play.  Your dog can engage it if he wants to.  You can engage if you want to, but you really like the dog to want to be the one to want to think “Hey, I want to play, I want to play”.  This desire to play is a resource you have to teach behaviours.
• We play a little game of fetch as well, so it’s not all about the tug. And actually, if you can play fetch, I’d rather fetch than tug with any dog.  I think every dog should learn how to fetch.
• By holding it back I’m going to just claim the toy.  This is one of many, many ways you can teach a puppy to stop bitting it. If he doesn’t want to let go,  I’ll just have some patience but I’m not going to play with him anymore. When he releases – we stop.  As soon as he learns to let go, I’m going to give it back. He will learn letting go is the key to getting it back.

• Never let the dog take the toy away to claim it.  Make sure you have control of where your puppy is with a long line or leash.
• Get used to putting the dog into some arousal and calming him down. Why is this good? Because they learn when they’re in a high arousal state like jumping on somebody at the door, they’ll be able to switch off and to do something else instead.
• I say, let the dog do the work. You shape and control the environment, shape what you want. 

• NEVER attempt these training techniques if your dog is showing actual aggression, you could get hurt and you should seek professional training and coaching. Feel welcome to reach out to to us for a  strategy session so we can help you.    In this training demonstration, I am working with a 13-week old puppy.  It is important to work with your puppy as early as possible to help reduce the chances of possessiveness.

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Full Transcript – 

How To Get A Hyper Active, Nippy, Jumpy Dog From Crazy to Lazy / Creating Self Control Through Play!

[The following is the full transcript of this YouTube video. Please note that this video, features Duke speaking extemporaneously–he is unscripted and unedited. Filmed in one take].

Hey there, I’m Duke Ferguson owner, CEO, and master trainer of Unleashed Potential Canine and creator of Dog Training Genesis. In this video, I’m going to teach you how to get your dog from a very high state of arousal, into immediate self-control and stationary so that you can then easily calm a dog down. We’re going to do that through play, no food in this video. Okay. I just want to go through and, and, do a little work with Oscar here. He’s got a lot of drive. He likes to bite. He likes to nip. He’s very highly aroused by times. I’m actually going to do some games, some tug work with him. And to give you an idea, if it’s not always food, I start everything with food as you guys know.

But once he has a foundation, he understands, look he sees this. He’s like, hey, I want to jump. This could be your hands. Why I’m going to show you. This is because I think it’s super important to have a dog in a very high state, high arousal state to be on with play, and immediately shut off and have self-control like this in a sense. All right. So I’m going to just get them a little bit amped up and you don’t have to do a whole lot, and I’m just going to play with the dog. So hopefully this will be a value for you.

Okay. So I get him, get him onto it. And I ask to sit, and you wait and you just wait. Now, notice I’m not pulling this thing behind my back. Like hiding it. I’m just going to throw it. Hopefully, he comes back. I have a long line in case he wants to run around and play. I’m not doing tug yet. I just want to make sure he goes and gets it. He’s a little puppy. He’s only like three and a half months old. So I’ll bring him in and I want to teach him. You’ve got to bring it back to me. Alright now we can play a little game

Look at the full mouth. Look at this guy. Oh, he’s got sharp teeth. Okay. So at an early age, you want to curb this. You want the dog to be channeled to certain toys that he can tug, not your pant legs, not your arms. With puppies, there’s one thing you can do is you can just make the toy go dead. There. Good boy. Tease him a little bit more and ask for a sit. And what I’m going to use is a little spatial pressure, break. Immediately, as soon as his butt hits the ground, he learns, hey, that’s a sit. He’s downing because I think the last video that we did, where he was jumping on Shane and stuff or wanting to is a, he was doing a lot of downs and offering them. So we just went with it.

So he just defaults into that and I’ll change it up. Once you start sitting, I’ll actually ask them for a down. So I just, this is as easy as I’ll tug with a little guy like this. I mean, he’s pretty vicious. I mean, in a good way, not a bad way! Listen to him. You’re a monster! Ah, big mouth, grip. I’ll let him win it. Yes, it’s okay to do that. Alright. Unless he’s got like real possessive issues, we have to work on that, but this is going to teach him – play. He’ll be highly aroused and I have to start play and I have to end play. He can engage it if he wants to. I can engage if I want to, but really, I like the dog to want to be the one. Hey, I want to play. I want to play.

I want them to kind of beg me for things, that just gives me a lot more resources to use, to train with. Okay. So I’m actually playing with my puppy. It’s not my puppy. It’s someone else’s puppy, but I’m playing with him and I’m teaching him things. So he’s learning right now when it’s when I own it. Good job. And I see he wants to bite my hands and stuff like that. I’m not going to make a big issue of it right now. I really am not. I’m just going to ignore it. It should go away in time. It’ll be channeled towards this toy. Now, if you’re a pet owner, you say, hey, how do I get my dog to stop grabbing on my pant legs? Like that type of stuff. Will you tell him, or if he bites your hands, you can say, Oh, that hurts. Don’t bite, bite this instead. So I’m just going to get him all amped up. Now, this is actually, sit, almost like a lure. We’re helping him in the beginning. Okay. Now I can’t do much spatial pressure here. Just stand up for a second.

Break. I’m going to throw it. So we play a little game of fetch as well. So it’s not all about the tug. And actually, if you can play fetch with, I’d rather fetch than tug with any dog. I think every dog should learn how to fetch. Be honest with you. He wants to claim it and kill it there. Well, he’s got good prey drive. Okay. I’m just bringing them in like a fish on a wire. And I reached down and we started to play. I’m not going to immediately take it from him and keep it away from him. That actually creates more problems than you’d want. Okay. So I play with him and I look, bring the camera in here. A lot of dogs, you know how they’re nervous about being petted. Now with our puppies, we do a lot of touch and feeds. But as he’s playing, I’m going to take the big, scary hand and I’m just going to stroke him and pet him. Boy, if your dog was to let go and be, and that tells you, they’re nervous about this, right? And this is, I’m doing this, the puppy. Now, if you had a dog that was doing this and they’re dangerous and they bite and you don’t reach over and do this cause you’re going to get bit. Okay. All right. And it sounds vicious. It’s not, he’s just, or when he’s got a little bit he’ll counter. There’s a thing called a counter. Watch. He’ll regrip right there. And if I let them own it, that trains him to bite with a bigger mouth. See? Right? So now I’m just going to end the play here. I’m going to just claim the toy. And this is one of many, many ways you can teach them to stop biting it. He doesn’t want to let go. You just have some patience, but I’m not going to play with him anymore. This is done. We stop. As soon as he learns to let go, I’m going to give it back. So his letting go is an issue. So let’s work on that instead of the sits. I’m just going to, um, teach him when he lets go. He can have the toy back. Okay. So if a dog is sitting here like this, sometimes they’re good. Right?

Break. Let them have it again. The break is his release mark. Same as a clicker. There’s really no difference. What a good boy. He’s a good boy, I let them hold it. I’ll let them own it. Like he’s got it in his mouth. It’s a big bite. What a good fella. I’ll pick him up. Such a good boy. Now he can’t bite my hands right here. Cause he’s got this thing. Now mind you, if he was to be, you know, let it go and nail it. Or you got an issue we have to deal with. But this is a cute little guy. I like this. I like a dog with a lot of spunk, a lot of drive. I like them really pushy, really intense. Cause I can channel all that stuff. It’s just, people ask me sometimes, Hey Duke, what’s the, what’s the easiest dog you’ve ever trained.

And it’s not really breed specific. It’s the one who wants what I have most. It’s the easiest dog to train, age doesn’t really matter. I mean, it can be, you know, he’s three months old. You can have eight weeks. You can have eight years. You can have 12 years. You know, my dog’s 13 years. He’s still bloody fun to train and learning new things. Let’s go a little quicker, hopefully. Wow. Oh yeah. So you notice, I’m not asking him to out as I don’t think I can get it right away. Here’s a little tip. I never, I never name a command or anything that I can’t get -that I’m not happy with. So if I can’t get it or if I’m not happy with the way it is, I don’t name it.

I just get the behavior more and more until it becomes better. And then once it’s the way I like to see it, then I’ll name it. Sometimes I can name it pretty quick. Sometimes it takes me a little time before I decide I’m going to name it. Okay. So I’m claiming it. I’m kind of wanting the toy. He’s locking on there. But notice he’s not on my hands anymore. Okay. So I own it but notice I’m very slow and calm as well. Good boy and break. Oh, ha okay. Now sometimes you’ll get a dog. Who’s just not going to let go. There’s no way like my dog, when he was younger, what I used to have to do is just pull up on the lead like this a little bit and just wait and wait and wait. So adds a little pressure. Okay. This guy has got some, some problems with his he’s only small. He’s got some problems with his throat. So I’m choosing not to do that with him. But if I held that enough, he just let it go. As soon as he lets it go, right. As soon as that comes out of his mouth, let’s say I was holding him there longer. And as soon as he drops it, I’m going to hold them back. Actually a little bit with this harness and this both okay. Claim it here.

As soon as he lets go of it, see, he starts to cough. So I’m just going to hold up the harness. I tell him good, break and I let him have it again. Okay. He wants to run away with it and claim it. Never let that happen. Never, never, never… bring him to you. This is what I do. He needs to come to me. I’m not going to ask him to come to me or nothing. And I just teach him having this thing also includes me in the equation. He never has free access to this toy ever in a million years. Right? You’re fun, man. I could do a lot with this dog. I had him long. He’s only here for as long as he here with you Shane? 11 days. Yeah. He’s his puppy client. I’m going to own this claim here. Good. Break. Now, take it. Oh, you’re a monster. There’s a big mouth grip. Oh, he’s a fun dog. I could do protection with this dog.

In a good way. Okay. You just have to patience, break. Nope. Here you go. I’ll get it back. We’ll go into drive. So you’re just putting the dog into some arousal and calming them down. Why is this good? Because they learn when they’re in a high arousal state to be able to switch off and to do something at the door, say they’re jumping and somebody’s at the door, sit. Boom, they’re used to this high arousal. And now that he’s just a puppy, this is just a little game of teaching him. Break, let it go. Pick it up, let it go. And I can do that 5, 10 times. As soon as he lets go faster and faster and I can start naming it. Okay. Right now I’m not going to name it because it’s the first time I’ve ever done this with him ever. Break. Now I’ll ask for maybe a down. Okay. Down, break. Right? Now I just blocked with my hand a little bit, but I’m not going to pull this away. If he really wants in it, then he needs to learn. No, you’re not going to get it until you do what I ask you to do. I normally won’t notice. I’m not repeating commands either over and over.

What I’m doing is just waiting for him to do it. Okay. And if he’s not doing it, then I’ll wait it out. Or I’ll close this game and I’ll work on having him drop pretty fast before I start naming it again. Good. Good job. Oh, let go. There you go. Break. Boom. And he can have it. All right. I take it away. It’ll get a little quicker here. Now the next session or even during the session, it might become quicker and quicker, break. Oh Yeah. Oh, I’m going to stand up. I’m going to get him aroused to jump again.

Jumping, jumping sit.

Great. We’ll end it with that. Oh, there you go. Big man. Okay. Now he’s got the big rabbit. Bloody things almost the size of him. I like him.

Okay, If you don’t channel this type of, come on in here. Look at this guy, he’s cool. If you don’t channel this right though. And this is the dog that’s going to be jumping all over you. He’s going to be, he’s like shamed, right? High drive. After your pant leg and you say sit , break. Oh, that was fast. All right. All in drive. If you don’t do this type of stuff now with your puppy or your dog, um, you’re going to have a dog that’s biting your hands all the time. Your pant legs. They’re ripping everything apart. Look at him. I haven’t done anything. I’ve talked for. How long? Seven minutes. 12 minutes is a long video. Okay. That’s a long time. Usually, I do this two-five minutes and he’s already done some obedience sessions, but it can say if you have a dog with tons of energy, how easy it is, I didn’t move. I’m not sweating. They used to say, if you sweat, you do a good job. Now I just say, let the dog do the work. Okay. You shape, control the environment, shape what you want. So I hope that helps have some sort of value. And we’ll see you in another video.

For your convenience, I’m going to leave a bunch of helpful links below in the description box. Things like how you could find an unleashed potential trainer near you, or how you can find out more about dog training Genesis, online training videos. Just check out the description box and there’ll be helpful links for you. Thanks for watching. And don’t forget to subscribe. I’ll see you in another video.