Getting a new puppy is a really exciting time and in the weeks leading up to getting their new puppy people often make some really great choices getting an appropriately sized crate for their dog getting appropriately sized treats and toys for their new puppy as well as educating themselves when watching YouTube videos just like this one but occasionally people make some really big mistakes and miss out on opportunities to train their dog in the first few days at their home today we're going to talk to Kayla McCann a 20 time world champion of dog agility as well as being a dog trainer for over 20 years about the top three mistakes that people make when they first bring their puppy home I'm Ken Steve and welcome to McCann dogs hi I'm Cale and this is baby beeline she's an 8 week old border collie and the newest addition to our family when puppies are about eight to ten weeks old they often go through a common fear period and that typically is this similar time to when we bring them home for the first time a couple of things that we like to do with the pups so that they don't feel overwhelmed is do things like when you first bring them in the house let them investigate a little bit try not to force them to pay attention or do certain things when I brought her in for the first time I sort of put her down let her sniff let her check things out when I took her outside for the first time I carried her in and out so she didn't have to worry about managing stairs or seeing shadows and hearing different sounds for the first time sort of one thing at a time the other thing that I find a lot of puppies can be overwhelmed is their caller and that's one of the first things people like to do when they get a new puppy is put the flashy new collar on but when we first put the collar on her she spent the first 15 minutes eating and itching and itching so I waited a little bit before I put that on just again get her feeling a little bit more comfortable using the crate can be another great way to not overwhelm your puppy but you should use it wisely if you're using the crate and keeping the puppy in a very unsocial part of your home that could actually cause the puppy to cry more or get more anxious in their crate we try to move our crate around so if we're in the living room we'll have her in the living room in her crate with us when I'm out in sleeping at night she's in the crate beside my bedside table so I can hear her and take her out if I need to just trying to make sure that although she's in there and she's under control that she's not being separated from our family and the other thing people often struggle with is supervision and freedom controlling a puppy's freedom when you first get a puppy home they're often very curious they want to check everything out and if you have a busy household a lot going on it's really easy to kind of forget where they are every moment of the day your puppy's learning whether it's right or wrong and if you're not there to say whether it's right or wrong they could end up learning some pretty pretty wrong things so a couple of things that we do to help help control her freedom is use a long line so when she's out of her crate she's roaming around the house she's always dragging a light rope behind her so that if she gets into any bad trouble I can redirect her very easy the other place I used it is outside so she's out on the lawn and she's running around having some fun or having her bathroom time I can control her really easily if a distraction comes upon me she decides to go after it I can stop her with the long line and keep her safe and keep her under control also in the house to make sure she doesn't get into too much trouble we use different barricades and baby gates so if I'm in the kitchen she's in the kitchen she can't roam off into another room and make any bad choices this allows me to set her up for success and I'm spending more time telling her what a great puppy she is and less time getting frustrated with her making mistakes which really isn't her fault it's more mine for allowing her to be in that scenario in the first place the other thing people often forget about is natural training opportunities so things like breakfast lunch and dinner when your puppy wants to eat food rather than just putting the bowl down and walking away you could use that valuable time of the day to build your relationships like hand-feeding them for example teaching them that good things come right from you that's a great time for me to teach her how to respond to her name or what the word yes is or how to sit or how to lie down had a lure for food which is gonna be the basics a lot of the training that I do one of the most favorite games that we like to do with our puppies at home is restraint recalls or Rico's down the hallway so we sit at either ends of the hallway close all the doors so she can't get go anywhere but us and we just practiced calling her back and forth and back and forth for her food this tires her out and teaches her that coming to her name and coming to us is a really really fun thing with the right education there's a lot of opportunities to learn what to do with your puppy on the first couple days you bring them home that will really set you up to have a great relationship with your puppy in the future if this is your first time watching please make sure you subscribe in the next few weeks we have a lot of training ahead within this baby bee line here so make sure you tune in and check out those videos again don't touch that little baby be
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