How To Train Your Puppy! (With Cesar Millan)

There you go. That was a good waiting. Remember, it's trust, respect, love. So you have to trust that he can figure it out and he have to respect what you are asking them to do, which is stay in the point of reference. And no matter how much distractions are around. So this is a brand new puppy. This is the first time he's doing it. So there's a lot of waiting in between. There you go. And then you reward that and that's the end of that exercise. That's trust, respect, love. All right, guys, we're gonna do three activities that are going to mean something natural, simple and profound. So point of reference is going to represent trust, respect, love. Walking with your dog is gonna represent follow, play, explore. And the crate is gonna represent safe, peace, and love. So I always like to make sure the dog has a profound understanding on the activities we do. Again, point of reference means trust, respect, love. Walking with your dog means follow, play, explore. And putting a dog in the crate or using the crate means safe, peace, and love. That's exactly the feeling, the energy that a dog needs to have. So the right energy, the right philosophy, the right activities. Well, every time we do TCW, we ask Angela from the Servant Dogs, that's her Instagram, to please bring us some puppies, some dogs, some dogs that can challenge the students. So where do you get these dogs from? A lot of them come from my house. I foster a lot of them. And then I call up my friends because they all have a lot of fosters. Where are these puppies coming from? These puppies are coming from Long Beach. Long Beach, but where, like shelter or what? No, their mom was found as a stray walking around. And so my friend took her in and then she ended up having the puppies that night in her house. And they're for adoption? Yes. So all the dogs that we work on TCW, for the students, all these dogs are for adoption. The great thing about it is the dogs get to meet 30, 40 people, as many people we have here. So everybody gets to practice the same thing with the puppies. And that allows the puppies to connect, have great communication, trust, respect, love with people. And then what we do is we actually tell people, this dog is the back of the pack, middle of the pack, front of the pack. So when it's time to adopt the dog, we actually create what I call compatibility. And then we actually can give them the strategy of what to do with this puppy. So what we're gonna do right now is show you the three most important things that you should do with your puppy as soon as the puppy arrives home. Yes. That's it. All right, so this is the point of reference. I like to use boxes because it allows the dog What's the word? It allows the dogs to understand there is a little cliff right in between with the floor and them. So it actually teaches them to wait a little longer. Easier than, it's much easier to do it in a box than practice it on the floor. This guy is amazing. Video that, Peter. I got it. This is what I mean about it's easier for them to stay. So practically you're teaching the dog to stay in that place. So the cliff helps them to have a boundary. You got it, Peter? Yes, I do. Don't be afraid of using a leash on a puppy. It just gives you access so they don't go too far. And the whole point is just learning to trust and respect the boundaries. The love is the energy you're using and having fun, the food you're using. There you go, bam. Pay for that. So they have to understand that if they practice what I call calm surrender, they're gonna get fed and then that box becomes a point of reference where trust, respect and love is being practiced. And then they go on their own once you practice a little bit more. They just on their own go on that point of reference and you can use it for practicing obedience. So what I'm doing right now, I'm just getting a little bit more distance. I'm gonna move out of that box as soon as he sits down and relaxes, doesn't jump. Then I'm gonna give him food and then I'm gonna get him off the point of reference. There you go, that was a good waiting. Remember it's trust, respect, love. So you have to trust that he can figure it out and he have to respect what you're asking them to do which is stay in the point of reference. And no matter how much distractions are around. So this is a brand new puppy. This is the first time he's doing it. So there's a lot of waiting in between. There you go, there you go. And then you reward that and that's the end of that exercise. That's trust, respect, love. So you're gonna end up waiting a lot with puppies and you're gonna end up doing a lot of repetitions. You can't lose your patience with them. And even as a whole bunch of distraction is actually better because this is exactly how they will learn in their natural habitat. The brothers, the sister have to be around and mother nature is around. So they don't hide to learn. They're actually exposed to learn. That's why I say natural, simple, profound. When you're teaching a puppy and this is the first time he's doing it, they have no idea what you're asking. That's why it has to be about trust and trusting the puppy that he's gonna figure it out and the puppy have to respect your guidance. That's why you come confident and play such a big role. And once they do it, which we waited a period of time, you saw that he surrendered to the activity and that's when you give love, food or affection. In this case, I gave both, food and affection. And then the beautiful part about it is you pick the puppy that is the most outgoing in that time and then the rest are watching. So now because you're not teaching everybody else, the other ones are not watching. Look, the point of reference becomes a place for trust, respect and love. So then they go and touch it so they can practice trust, respect, love. Point of reference, you can always use it as like a show dog moment, look. Just to make the puppy feel good because we're about to start step two which is taking a dog for a walk which it would allow a dog to practice follow, play, explore. Point of reference is a good starting point. It allows them to understand rules minus limitations, safe, peace and love. So food, put it in there. Let him use the tongue more than anything. Let him get excited. Look, this is the easiest way to put a leash on a puppy. To either reach in like a gold medal. Do it a few times. Go back to what he knows. There you go. Make the loop beforehand. Put the loop, boom. He comes and put the leash on it. Let him feel it. Associated with the same activities he did earlier. Sitting down, feeling proud. Being lift. Not yet. Needs to relax. So here I'm gonna pay for relaxation. Just wait. Some of the exercise you gotta do is just to wait a little bit. There you go. That little moment, super important. Okay, let's do it again. Food in your hand. Close it, make a little tunnel. Put it in the nose. It's almost like a peanut butter. This is what Kong sometimes are really helpful for puppies or for dogs. Then show, boom. Nose, eyes, ears. Adjust the leash as he's been doing it for a long time. I understand being careful, but when you're too careful, you actually provoke, no, provide like a nervous energy. So just treat him like he's done it a million times. Okay, that's why you have to practice first so you have the ability and the practice to adjust as you go. Look how beautiful the tail feels. Good boy. So in the beginning, I don't want him to jump, so I'm just gonna carry him away from the point of reference so he knows that the only way he can come out is when the human takes him out. Don't pull on the leash, just motion. The leash is only if he stops. And just to keep him in one, not zigzagging. Look, this is his first time, so there's a horse on that side. You let him experience it at a distance, proximities, that's how they experience the world, at a distance. You're going to adjust the leash again. Go back to where I was earlier. Check on it. Look, don't pull on the leash yet. They follow motion, they don't follow pull. So I'm introducing, slowing down, staying forward. Don't go that way. So I'm controlling the explore. The fact that he looked at me, I'm gonna reward that moment. I'm going to cuddle that moment. I'm going to make him feel safe. I'm going to make him feel part of my pack because he's following me, so I want him to be part of my pack. I want to reward good behavior, right? I want to give the love, the joy, and then we go back and do it again. Again, calm, confident. Wait for the right moment. Watch, no tension on the leash. The reason why puppies resist the leash for the first time is because people pull instead of just walk in front. And that, my friends, is how you begin to teach a puppy to be on a leash so he can do a natural, simple, profound activity that we call a follow, play, explore. See you in the next one. All right, so step three on connecting with a puppy, helping a puppy adapt to you, to the environment, and to how he's gonna learn with you and in your house. So we have point of reference, which is extremely helpful. We have the walk, which it allows the connection of going outside. And then once you come back home, that's the time that you practice the crate. Are crates good? Crates are great because a dog needs to practice five body motions. He needs to stretch, walk, run, then rest before he sleeps. So a crate to me is a place where a dog can extend the amount of time where he goes into a resting state. This is where you can see when people go in meditation mode or people go into a retreat mode or a yoga mode, quiet mode. That's the equivalent of a crate. So my boy right here, after a good walk, he's ready to practice the crate. So never put a good dog in the crate if exercise and mental stimulation has not been done yet. So the crate is gonna represent safe, peace, and love. Okay, so for that, you need the brain to be in total calm surrender so the puppy doesn't go into a fight, flight, avoidance or feel that he's being trapped. Okay, ready? All right. So this is why the point of reference is so helpful, you know, especially with the crate. Now I'm going to help him associate point of reference with the crate. He's never been in the crate but he's been in the point of reference. Now don't let him come out of the crate. He has to calm surrender before he comes out of the crate. And here's the waiting game. Don't look at the puppy, just wait for the calm surrender. Remember, we want the crate to represent the highest level of relaxation. We want the crate to feel a place where they feel safe, peace, and love. And we want the crate to represent resting state. So right now it's an alert state. It's just a waiting game right now. Bam, then you pay. Then you invite the puppy to come out again. Then you make him go a little farther away because it's a game. Get him a little excited here. Remember, this is his first time. Going in, he can be happy-go-lucky about it. Coming out, he needs to learn to become surrender about it. Okay, so never close the gate when the brain is still excited or happy-go-lucky because then they're gonna feel trapped. Now we're gonna close the door after he becomes calm surrender. One, two, three seconds in that state, even more. That was a big one. I was not expecting that one. So we pay, then we get the puppy out. Sorry, sorry, sorry. We get the puppy out. Got distracted. Don't do anything if he gets a little bit nervous. Send him back to the nose. So this moment, he has to figure it out. Nothing bad is happening over there. That's part of the safe and the peace. Right now, he just have to get fed from me or from anybody in the room that nothing bad is happening over there. So he got distracted, but at the same time, he got spooked. So this touch is not to give him affection or to cuddle. What he is, it's just to help him snap out of it. You can see it on his face. He's still a little bit unsure. Right now, even if I carry him or I do it with the leash, that's not good for him. He's a little bit in shock. So I wanna remove the shock with something smelly. All right, all right. Back to play. Okay. Oh, he's still, huh? Now, once it smells a little more powerful, it's gonna get him excited, watch. Also, food has like expiration day. Like certain smells have like an expiration time. All right. All right, we got him back, we got him back. But there's nothing in here for him to. This is also a moment to teach separation anxiety. No, this is also a moment where you can begin to teach separation so they don't develop separation anxiety. Because a big mistake people make with puppies is they don't leave them alone, which is unrealistic because that puppy will grow really fast. Puppyhood stages, again, from birth to eight months. So that's the shortest stage in a dog life. And that's where most people unconsciously lie to the dog reality, right? The dog reality is the human is gonna go away one time, at one point, to go to work, to go to school, to go visit family. Or in some places, they just don't allow dogs. So if a puppy doesn't begin to understand that the human will separate from them, right from the moment you get that puppy, that puppy is going to develop what's called separation anxiety. So right now, the separation is, there you go. Then we close the door. We ask for a few seconds. Nothing hard, nothing strong. So from the few seconds we were earlier, now we're gonna wait for 10 seconds. And that, my friends, is how you teach a puppy to go to point of reference. That's how you teach a puppy to walk on a leash. And that's how you teach a puppy to go in a crate all in one day. Guys, I hope you enjoyed the video. Make sure you like, subscribe, and comment. And join me on my mission of better humans, better planet.