I have experience w/ german shepperds. Labs are hunting dogs and that means lots of energy all the time unlike shepperds. It also means chewing.. I know histories of labs chewing parts of his owner´s motorcycle. If left alone at home he will chew. Labs love water. Do you live in a house or is it an apartment?
You can train a dog by feel.. he will love you and trust you as his owner and master. JUst go along that trust and show him what to do and what not to do. He wants to please you. Labs are not stubborn. I much rather train the dog myself than hire .. it´s such a pleasure to work the bond betwee you guys by yourself.
slow.
Went looking for a lab back in 2005. Wound up with an American Eskimo. Today I'm on my 2nd. Also great companion and running dogs. Even though its about German Shephards I found the book by Monks of New Skeet to be very helpul. Its one of the oldest dog training books in publication. -Mike G
A bit of Covid Crazy for us was the addition of our Golden Retriever Tuuli (Finnish for breeze- don't test it please, we are convinced this is right. A correction will just make us sad.) She is 9 months old now and training is fun and as @colker said, she really does want to please us. She is a bit stubborn but does like routine. I wish we had started identifying her potty spot right away. I have a fair amount of lawn repair ahead of me. Having her sleep in the same spot every night (we have a baby gated mud room off the kitchen) has worked well. She needs lots of exercise, luckily her best friend lives two doors down.
She is most eager to please/train when hungry.
Have a fun ride
DJ
Last summer we (well, I) fenced in about an acre or so of our yard and we added a dog door to the area from our mud room. If that's at all an option for you, do it. Our 65lb rottle (rottweiler/poodle) goes in and out as he pleases and it's the best feeling ever to not have him closed into one place or another (he generally does NOT like to be outside for any length of time without one of his humans).
Also with this area (vs an invisible fence), "friends" can come over to play outside. Socially distancing outside and watching dogs play has been a covid lockdown savior.
lupin jenson in snow.jpg
Some background: My Dad made a living training bird dogs for many years. When I was 12 or 13 a friend of his wanted his dog trained to sit, heel, stay, etc. so Dad said 'Sure, no problem, Scott can do it' and I got a crash course. I ended up training several dogs before I even had a driver's license.....in fact, I purchased my first motorcycle and first car with dog training money.
You really only need to spend about 30 minutes a day on intensive training.....but you need to make sure that they do what they've learned all of the time. The more you don't reinforce what you've taught them, the more they will test you. I was able to get a dog minding perfectly after about 2 months, though about 5 weeks in or so they would usually rebel for a short period.
The best piece of advice that I can give is simple...don't confuse the dog. Let's say that you're calling the dog to you and he's ignoring you. You walk towards him, calling the whole time, yet he still doesn't come. When you get 2 feet way he decides to come to you....when he does, praise him. If you chew him out at that point it just confuses him....he did what you wanted (even if it was later than you wanted) so he expects praise.
Since you mentioned field trials, we went to them all the time for 8-9 years at least. My Dad was often one of the judges but we went regardless. I have no idea how Labs are as hunting dogs, but for the typical pointer/setter when we had pups we would start them out very young with a piece of white cloth tied to the end of a fishing line. It didn't take long before they were pointing it.
Eat one live toad first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you all day.
How do you teach a dog to heel? I get the others but heel is tricky because it's basically walk obediently by my side which is a command in-between sit and run. That seems the trickiest in my mind because it's hard to define. All training is done with a nibble reward right? I get the praise I'll be all over that.
I would attach a long rope to the dog's collar. Hold the rope tight so he doesn't have any slack and start walking, constantly repeating the word 'heel'.....let the rest drag on the ground. After a day or two of that you give them a bit of slack, doing the same thing. You can also hold the end of the rope in your other hand and spin it in front of the dog, so that if he moves forward he gets a light smack on the nose....they quickly get the picture to not move past you. Over time you give them more and more slack until you can finally get rid of the rope. It's important at first to repeat the word 'heel' (or any command) so that gets into their mind.
I never used any kind of treat, just praise and lots of petting, but certainly that would be a viable option.
Eat one live toad first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you all day.
Exactly what choke said, command, praise (if done correctly) lather, rinse and repeat. I have found that a healing stick works well also. It's like a riding crop. I tap the chest when they get too far forward, and a firm no. Healing stick works great when teaching sit from heal. Tap on the butt with command of sit. This is assuming sit has already been taught. I treat train them when puppies for kennel, here, sit. Just use one piece of their regular food.
Our puppy was born. He is the only male in the litter.
Standard Poodle (of course).
Tentative name is Isaac or Elijah
Dad dog is Desmonde...what a hunka hunka
desmonde.jpg
pup1.JPG
pup2.JPG
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Last edited by Too Tall; 04-21-2021 at 04:15 PM.
Josh Simonds
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This lady's trying technique works very well. Pretty sure no treats are required. Our dogs won't listen to the rest of my family unless every command is prefaced with, "Wanna carrot?"
https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Basic-.../dp/0764541641
Jeff Hazeltine
Without any further adieu, Charlie.
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Awww Charlie needs a lap
Josh Simonds
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Rick
If the process is more important than the result, you play. If the result is more important than the process, you work.
Josh Simonds
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www.facebook.com/NFSspeedshop
www.bicycle-coach.com
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