Focus training channels and directs the dogs energy. Start your training session with focus and touch routines.
DOGS LEARN CONTEXTUALLY NOT HABITUALLY..., this means that they cannot automatically repeat a routine in a different context. So go back to 'kindy' in an new context until your dog can repeat the discipline in the new context.
TRAINING CONTEXTS commencing
- 1. Enclosed courtyard or in house
- 2. Yard ( limited distraction)
- 3. Public area ( high level distraction)
BASIS TRAINING IS REWARD BASED,... Luring with a treat introduces your dog to the required behaviour
REPETITION TRAINING,... 20 reps minimum for each behaviour in each session with a marker and food rewards will get immediate results.
DOGS have an approximate 6 SECOND MEMORY,..after that,...go back to the beginning and start the routine again.
Give the command & let dog work it out for 4 sec,... Affirm or correct within 6 sec.
Your Affirmation or Correction should be energy neutral without emotion.
‘ENERGY' is evident to a dog as emotion & intent.
Dogs read intent. Be clear in your intent so that your dog is confident in your approval. Dogs respond to emotion. Control your emotion in such a way that your dog can understand and obey without confusion or fear. Don’t punish your dog for something they have not yet learnt or do not understand. When your dog fails to fulfill your command, simply say ‘NO’ without frustration or anger then start again.
REWARD MARKER and DURATION MARKER'YES is your REWARD MARKER'
Mark success with YES or a click(er) as the ‘reward marker’, immediately followed by food reward.'GOOD' is your ‘DURATION MARKER’.
When you are doing a sequence of behaviours or advancing your duration, mark your approval with your ‘DURATION MARKER. I refer to the ‘duration marker’ as a ‘positive neutral’, meaning that you are indicating approval without high emotion or immediate reward. This does not require a treat but communicates success, approval and affirmation to your dog.
JACKPOT YOUR REWARDAlways follow ‘duration work’ with a JACKPOT. YES -> REWARD, YES-> REWARD, YES -> REWARD, YES -> REWARD.
NO Means START AGAIN Don’t use the word ‘no’ to correct or punish your dog. I refer to 'NO' as the ‘negative neutral’. Your saying ‘NO’ must not convey disapproval to your dog. If the dogs cannot complete the command say NO (unemotionally) and positively recommence the routine. Never correct a dog for something it does not understand.
REGULATE PHYSICAL TOUCH
During training, never touch your labrador without firstly giving a command. Touch is reward. Never touch a dog beyond what they can cope with. And do not 'hype' them.
Always give the command "sit" and wait for compliance before you touch your dog. Never touch a dog until the command & response has been completed
'keep the dog calm'
PROBABLE CAUSES of training problems include,... Anxiety, Boredom, Aggression
PROBABLE SYMPTOMS TO IDENTIFY Include barking, scratching, yawning and staring
STAR-ING IS ONE OF THE MOST OBVIOUS SIGNS OF DOG AGGRESSION,... Stop all star-ing immediately
TRAINERS MUST BE CALM AND CLEAR in their response to a dogs (except with recall
Reward based Marker Training Key points
Dogs learn contextually, so go back to 'kindy' in a every new and unfamiliar situation until your puppy can repeat each discipline in the new context.
Start with focus training routines and basic obedience training in
1. Enclosed courtyard or in house advancing to
2. House Yard progressing to a
3. Public area
It is critical that the new handler understands that puppies and young dogs cannot generalise meaning that the cannot immediately transfer a learn behaviour into a different situation.
Basic Training is reward oriented
- Luring introduces your dog to the required behaviour
Repetition training
- 20 reps is an ideal number for each behaviour, in each session with a marker and food rewards.
Remember that a dog has only an approximate
- 6 sec short term memory.
As you advance, give your command & let dog work it out for 4 sec maximum.
- Affirm or start again after 6 sec.
Your Affirmation or Correction must be energy neutral
- Yes is the reward marker (mark success with Yes or clicker immediately followed by food reward)
Advance to a ‘duration marker’ - GOOD. This is neutral positive.
If your puppy does not complete the exercise then use you neutral negative marker - NO.
This must not convey negative energy or your puppy will lose confidence and be unwilling to try again.
'Energy' is emotion & intent.
- Dogs read intent
- Dogs respond to emotion
- Focus training channels and directs the dogs energy.
Regulated physical touch
Always give the command eg sit and wait for compliance before you touch your dog.
Regulate physical touch during training and never touch a dog until the command / response has been completed. Express positive energy and keep your dog calm.
Remember that the causes of training problems include
- Anxiety, Boredom, Aggression
Symptoms of problems include
- barking, scratching, yarning, staring
- Stop all staring immediately
Trainer must be calm and clear in their response to a dogs (except with an excited recall)
Standard Commands and Leash Protocols.
- Use 1 word commands
- Engage 20 reps min per exercise per session
- Correct Jumping up and never reward a jumping dog with words, touch or eye contact.
- Walking a heel. If your dog moves in front of heel position, stop your forward movement until they release the pressure on thei leash then reward immediately.
- Controlled Heel Walk. Always begin by Luring your puppy with food with your hand positioned behind your left thigh.
- Correct leach pulling by turning 180 degrees and continue walking.
- A Fast Heel walk, employ 90, 180, 360 degree turns, fast & slow.
- Sit, raise you hand with a food lure above your puppies head causing the head to extend vertically. This will endure a ‘sit’. Reward immediately the rear hits the ground.
- Sit Stay, engage a sit position and variously move 1m commanding your dog to stay. As you progress, drop leach and step away)
- Drop / Down; Lure you puppies nose so that they drop to their belly. This movement is best engaged early while it is a natural movement. A your puppy gets a little older they will be inclined to drop only their chest leaving their butt in the air.
- Drop Stay (lure, reward, leave)
- Place / Mat training - Drop / stay on a mat is the most useful lifestyle command.
(Lead dog onto the place / mat, drop food reward onto place and when their 4 feet on the mat.
A Solid Recall is engaged by the command Come / Here with high energy, high pitched enthusiasm. You might like to employ ‘Long line’ training.
- Wait @ Doors & gates is critical. Never let you did enter before you.
- Leave it is applicable with cars, people, other dogs, special items.
- A Release command is commonly Ok or free or break.
Crate training, all labrador pups need a large metal crate and a 600mm Exercise pen.
Lure the puppy into the crate with food. Lure them in & out with food, closing & opening the door after each movement
Puppies learn pack order, weeks 5 to 8
As Breeders of Chocolate and Black Labrador Retrievers people ask us why a puppy cannot be released before 8 weeks of age. The answer is simple. A very young pup needs to learn ‘pack order’ and be socialised among its litter mates from week 5 to week 8.
We begin feeding solid food to a litter from week 3. And from week 5, a bitch will begin to remove herself from her litter so that the pups will wean. The pups are living with litter mate and they are learning ‘pack dynamics’. As part of pack order, a pup learns to ‘play fight’. Bite play is a legitimate behaviour. A puppy learns how to adjust its bite by playing with the other puppies in the litter. This is a critically important period in the puppy’s development. If a puppy does not learn to ‘play fight’ it will not learn how to be a dog. The pup will not learn how to read the body language of other dogs, nor will it be able to demonstrate appropriate body language in return. If a dog doesn’t know how to socialise with other pups it will have conflict (dog to dog aggression), anxiety or timidity depending upon its personality and temperament.
Obviously, this will be a problem which will need care and understanding later.
Following the Lure
‘Luring’ is the most useful technique to teach your dog to walk at heel. Luring will be your best training option to begin with.
When you first lure your dog, it will quite naturally assume that you are offering something to eat. It will naturally try to take the food treat from your hand. You will want to use this 'drive' to direct your dogs energy into a training exercise. If your dog is 'food driven', a piece of kibble as a 'low value reward' may be sufficient for a ‘food driven labrador’ as the 'target'. Otherwise, a small piece of sausage or cheese should be adequate as a 'high value reward'.
Think of a lure as the trail and the food treat as the ‘target’,... and 'reward'. If you want your dog to follow your lure, you need to give them a signal. Stand either beside or in front of your dog and approach the dog’s nose with your left hand to commence the lure. Offer the food treat from the flat of your hand, holding the food between your thumb and forefinger. If your dog is very food driven and tries to snatch the treat food from your hand, withdraw the food by closing your fist, and moving your hand away. To commence the 'lure', move your left hand towards the dog’s nose then move the 'target' a short distance. When the dog approaches your hand,...'Mark' (confirm) the movement with 'YES' & reward the dog with the treat.
The first step is to 'lure' your dog to follow the 'target' and move his head towards your hand. Mark (yes) and reward your dog Immediately when it moves its nose in the direction of the target. YES is the reward marker by which you let the dog know that they are doing the right thing. Follow the marker with the (treat) reward within 1 second of marking the behaviour. Mark and reward any behaviour you want from your dog.
Luring enables us to move a dog into different positions without physically moving your dog in any way.
Luring establishes the foundation of reward for behaviour.
Luring enables us to quickly teach behaviours that many dogs initially resist without the reward incentive .
Luring is the beginning of dog training
In my opinion, ‘luring’ the most useful technique for us to use in the beginning of a training program with a young dog.
A ‘lure’ enables us to move a dog into different positions without physically moving your dog in any way.
Luring establishes the foundation of reward for behaviour.
Luring enables us to quickly teach behaviours that many dogs initially resist without the reward incentive .
A lure is a ‘high value treat’ presented to your dog that it the can target & follow with its nose.
Once we have established the position or a behaviour that we want, the lure is supported with a ‘reward marker’ immediately followed by the high value treat as the reward.
However, the lure is of no use if you allow the dog to snatch the treat from your hand.
Your dog will quickly identify the difference between your hand holding the lure, and your hand offering food reward.
Set the marker
I am a committed advocate of ‘Reward Based Marker Training’.
And therefore the very first training exercise for my labrador puppy is to ‘SET THE MARKER’. The word ‘YES’ is the reward marker. (You could use a Clicker instead of Yes) I sit the puppy on my knee. I have treats at hand. And I say YES, then giving a treat to my chocolate Labrador puppy 1 second after saying YES. My labrador puppy quickly associates YES with a coming reward / treat. The treat must be offered ‘almost’ immediately ie no longer than 1 second. I will engage my puppy with the ‘marker’ at every available time for 1 week. This is called ‘Setting the marker’. Only then will I begin to ‘Lure’ the puppy.….Training has begun!
Training Energy & awareness - Great support dogs
If their energy is balanced and your labradors emotion and mental activity are not influenced by fear or anxiety then your puppy can be easily trained for basic support work.
If you build a strong, trusting and loyal relationship then your labrador will develop an acute awareness of your energy variations.
Your dog will become acutely aware when something is wrong with you or in your environment. This might include a stranger with negative energy. Your goal is teach your labrador to be aware but not frighted by negative energy. This will also include your change in mood.
You will begin bonding from day 1 by showering your labrador puppy with affection. This will have the direct benefit of allowing your puppy to become familiar with your scent and gauge your mood variations.
A dogs first ‘Imprint Period’ is from weeks 8 to 24. Be sure to expose your puppy to 100 people in 100 days. Build their confidence and affirm their behaviours even if they make a mistake. Always correct your labrador puppy affirmatively.
In conjunction with the ‘Socialisation/Conditioning Program’ you will need to commence your 10 minutes of daily behavioural obedience training. I suggest 3 sessions immediately prior to their 3 meal times. This will get your labrador puppy ‘working’ for rewards. Their treats and meals will become rewards for work. This will need to be a permanent discipline for you and your labrador puppy.
Commence ‘Puppy Preschool’ at the earliest opportunity then proceed to formal ‘Dog Obedience’ training.
Rewards, Treats and Training
Labradors respond to rewards be they treats, toys or affection. Aversive methods are completely unhelpful and particularly when Labrador retrievers respond so much more positivity and confidently to rewards.
Discipline is not punishment and discipline must not be confused with unhelpful aversive trading methods.
Discipline is a structured daily routine, keeping daily repeat events like meals, exercise and training times to within 1/2 start time. When you have a disciplined routine then your puppy will start to associate the events as rewards in themselves.
A Labrador needs rules, boundaries, restrictions to be happy and secure so be disciplined yourself so that your Labrador puppy understands the routine. Discipline is the process of repetitive actions with your dog until they know what you want them to do. Don’t correct a dog until they know the rules. This means that you ignore mistakes and calmly and confidently ‘go again’. Reward your labrador when they offer your the desired behaviour.
As I commence a training program I quickly introduce the word ‘NO’ and in an entirety positive way to communicate with my dog that we need to ‘try again’, and particularly when my labrador puppy is confident to ‘offer behaviours’. My dogs are not threatened or intimidated by NO,…on the contrary.
Calm, Confident Consistent leadership lets your labrador know when their behaviour is acceptable. Cruelty/abuse must under no circumstances be presented as discipline and aversive intervention is never acceptable as a means of training.
Socialisation and mental health
Mental and emotional well-being is critical if your labrador puppy is to grow into a healthy family pet. Psychological health is just as important as physical health, perhaps more important.
For mental stability, it is critical that your labrador puppy knows that their world is a place of safe and secure relationships. It’s up to you to establish and maintain a safe, calm and trusting environment for your dog.
You will need a clear understanding of your dogs mental and emotional needs. A solid trusting relationship means that you will accurately engage with your labrador. And you will be looking excessive energy, fear, timidity or aggressive behaviour.
Accurately attending to your dog’s emotional needs nurtures and builds the relationship between you as the handler and your labrador. This is the most critical factor in preventing behavioural problems. Generous, affectionate and patient leadership rather than dominant and aversive tactics build a confident, secure, trusting labrador puppy. And a confident labrador will offer behaviours without fear of aversive correction.
Dogs are social creatures, just as we are. Your labrador puppies first ‘imprint period’ is 8 to 16 wks of age. However, I treat the first year as a continuous “imprint period”. From this early age your puppy ‘must’ engage in two-way non-threatening interactions.
If trust is broken you might damage your relationship with your labrador puppy and this is often irretrievable.
Conditioning & socialising your puppy from 8wks means meeting 100 people in 100 days. This is essential. Likewise, meeting other (vaccinated) dogs in a controlled environment is strongly encouraged for the sake of confident and appropriate dog to dog behaviour from your labrador.
There is a high risk of behavioural uncertainty and instability if your puppy does not engage in appropriate socialisation opportunities. Dog to dog aggression and dog to people aggression can be the result. You must teach and normalise a wide variety of experiences for your labrador puppy.
Mental stimulation
Healthy Labrador Retrievers are high energy/drive dogs. High energy dogs have active minds and they require mental stimulation as much if not more than physical. So you need to put that brain to work.
This will help you to regulate your dogs behaviour. Mental stimulation is essential for a high drive labrador in that it can ‘cap’ that energy. You will teach your energetic puppy to go from an active state to a ‘capped state’. And mental stimulation can raise the energy of a low drive dog.
Mental stimulation is just as tiring for a dog as physical. However, to get a good outcome, this will require you to be just as engaged as your puppy. Be consistent!
The emotional and psychological development of puppy is equally important as physical.
I highly recommend that you construct your training program around feeding times. A labrador puppy will need to eat 3 times a day.
Start with 3 minutes of training before each feed, 9 minutes each day. When you reduce to 2 feeds, train twice for 5minutes. And when you reduce to 1 feed, train for 10 minutes, each day.
Short term memory
The short term memory of a dog is estimated to be between 6 and 27 seconds. It is vitally important to understand this and particularly when correcting your dogs behaviours. And the same for training.
If your labrador puppy takes your shoe, you must only correct the behaviour within the scope of its short term memory. If you find your shoe in disrepair 2minutes after your labrador puppy retrieved it, don’t react. At best, you are wasting your time. At worst you are in danger of unhelpful harshness when you intervene after 27 seconds. A puppies behaviour can be very frustrating however you must take measures to keep them away from personal items. Put your shoes out of reach. Labradors are retrievers and will always stay true to this ‘inherent behaviour’.
My personal rule in dog training is firstly ‘teach’ my dog. I can indicate disapproval only when my puppy knows the rules. Until then, I keep teaching & training.
Dogs are mirrors
I always ask people buying a labrador puppy about their preferred characteristics in their dog. And almost always, they prefer things like, calm but enthusiastic, trainable, friendly, obedient. None of these characteristics are inherent traits. They are all trained into a dog. A labrador puppy becomes trainable by training. Labrador retrievers are considered by many as the most trainable of dog breeds.
High energy/drive labradors can be ‘capped’ by controlled mental stimulation activities. And low energy dogs can be elevated by active physical games & training.
Understanding your labradors ‘mind activity’ and ‘level of drive’ is essential to shaping the personality your puppy. Because high energy labradors have active minds. Games with mental stimulation activities are perfect for you and your labrador puppy.
Always reward your puppy when they offer you the behaviour that you are looking for. If you are calm, consistent & confident then you will have dog whose behaviour is equal to the environment in which they live. If you do this, after 12 mths your growing labrador puppy will be a ‘mirror image’ of their environment. Of course, we all make allowance for maturity & age appropriate development.
Preparing to take your new puppy home
To be adequately prepared for your new puppy, we suggest you purchase the following,
1x ‘extra large’ size metal crate & cover. This crate will service your dogs needs into full grown adulthood. We practice crate training.
1x 600mm high exercise pen,
1 roll @ 50m x1200mm corrugated paper from Officeworks / Bunnings
Ipetz D feeder 9” from an Aqua / Bird Centre (IPetz.com.au) These water/feeder can be elevated on the puppy pen/fence so that your puppy does not soil their water.
Your puppy will sleep up to 16hrs / day and will live very safely & happily in the confinement of the exercise pen.
We feed Royal Canin Labrador Puppy, 3 feeds/day.
If you are in an area with ticks, you will need to use ‘Nexgard Spectra’.
DANGEROUS TOYS & BEDS Ingesting foreign Objects
Every new puppy owner loves to find toys for their new family member. However, it can be a dangerous & deadly trap to acquire poor quality toys based on price. We recommend that you purchase ‘Kong’ brand toys.
Labradors were originally bred as ‘retrievers’ which means that they are naturally very ‘mouth, teeth, crew active’. And this means that the poor quality toy will be dismembered immediately. Not only is this annoying and frustrating, it is extremely dangerous.
If your puppy ‘ingests’ the particles of the toy and it causes a blockage in the small intestine, your puppy (dog) has hours to live. It will require emergency surgery. And if this occurs after hours it will cost big $$$$.
Fabric threads are the most dangerous so don’t buy any toys made of fabric. And don’t buy anything that will break down to threads. This includes purchasing cheap (cute) deadly dog beds that can be reduced to threads.
A Behaviour Chain
Behaviour chains are set up when a number of behaviours occur in sequence. And there is an up side and a down side to this.
Marker training sets up desirable ‘behaviour chains’ by marking and rewarding behaviours and therefore reinforcing them in your dogs mind.
However, many undesirable behaviours that your dog displays will have been inadvertently set as ‘behaviour chains’. Without knowing, we have established cues and continued to reinforce them. These sequences of behaviour need to be undone / counter conditioned.
When the your dogs various behaviours become a sequence connected by ‘cues’, your labrador will identify, learn these cues and reliability follow them.
The key to understanding a behaviour chain and why it establishes repetitive behaviour is to identify the cue that the dog is following. This cue is called a ‘conditioned reinforcer’. The cue is the "green light" for a behaviour that leads to some kind of reward for your dog. However, It is often the case that the cue has also inadvertently reinforced some other behaviour that happened at that time.
Your Labrador may exhibit many behaviour chains through the course of the day. Many incidental behaviours and sequences of routine have become behaviour chains.
The routine of releasing your dog from their crate in the morning, standing still to have their leash put on, waiting quietly at the door are incidental behaviours that should have been taught, marked and rewarded individually at first. And when they are linked as a sequence they become a behaviour chain. If you mark & reward each behaviour, it acts as a cue reinforcing the previous behaviour and anticipating the next. For example, if your dog is waiting quietly at the door, by saying ‘let’s go’, you have given your dog the cue to go through the door. The freedom to go through the door reinforces the waiting. The ensuing walk is the ‘positive reinforcer’ of the whole ‘behaviour chain’.
With ‘reward based marker training’, you can mark (yes) a behaviour and reinforce (reward) it. This will also serve as the cue for the next unit as part of a behaviour chain. The whole sequence of behaviours that constitute a walk have formed a behaviour chain.
In both the positive and negative sense, the individual units of behaviour within the behaviour chain act cues and therefore reinforcers. Your dog with always conduct itself within a behaviour chain.
There are many opportunities throughout the course of a day to establish or break behaviour chains. Every situation that you and your labrador engage is an opportunity to reinforce behaviours. As you use verbal cues like ‘Wait, Sit, Drop, Stay, Let's go’,...Mark and Reward them individually and your dog will identify and follow a behaviour chain.
While your dog is learning new cues, reward every desirable behaviour with a high value treats.
Be sure that you do not ’break’ the desires behaviour chain, perhaps by putting the leash on your dog then getting distracted and doing something out of routine
Feeding, Desexing & Exercising your puppy.
Rapid growth in a puppy is known to cause skeletal problems. Slower body growth over the first 18 months of a puppies life will mean better vital organ and skeletal health. So make sure you keep your puppy slim, with an obvious waist. I recommend you check out the ‘Hills Body Fat Index’. Don’t over feed your puppy. And don’t feed them off the table. A premium dog food like Eukanube, Hills or Royal Canin are scientifically balanced diets. A cheap food is a false economy. You’ll pay 1/2 and use twice as much. And your vet bills will be higher.
There is categorical evidence that shows desexing / neutering is a major contributor to a number of health issues including dysplasia, skin and vital organ problems.
Studies in the USA have found that the incidence of dysplasia in male dogs desexed early in life was double that of male dogs left intact. I do not recommend desexing male labradors but this may not be practical in an urban area. Please don’t desex a dogs under 3yrs of age. Your labrador must be physically mature enough to compensate for the impact of hormone loss on their joint & vital organ development. Not before age 3 if you need to desex.
As far as exercising your labrador puppy is concerned, the first and critical consideration is the impact upon their ‘growth plates’.
Growth plates are soft cartilage areas at the ends of long bones in puppies & young dogs. The cells divide, allowing the bones to grow and lengthen. And this continues until the end of puberty. Growth plates narrow as hormonal changes occur to sexual maturity at approx 14-18 months of age.
It is a sensible precaution to carry your puppy up and down steps to avoid placing load on their growth plates. Puppies climbing stairs at an early age are more likely to develop dysplasia.
The most common cause of growth plate and soft tissue injury is repetitive exercise with a young puppy before 18 months. Long walks and extended running are definitely a problem. A puppies free-play sessions achieve appropriate exercise needs. I like to exercise my dogs from 8 weeks of age with ‘Dog Obedience Training’. This provides an age appropriate level of physical exercise and an abundance of mental stimulation. And of course, i’m bonding all the more with my labrador.
It is critical that you don’t teach or encourage your dog to jump until their growth plates have set and they have stopped growing. For a labrador, this is at 14 -18. With labrador puppies, it can be tempting to exercise them to burn their energy and tire them without giving due consideration to the impact on their growth plates.
Please don’t take your puppy jogging with you. Delay those agility classes. And no frisbees yet. Puppies love running and moving to the point of exhaustion so limit the time and control the type of activity they engage in. Be careful with high impact activities on hard surfaces like asphalt or concrete. Grass is softer and has better traction.
Hormones have the significant role in a puppy’s growth plates, skeletal and vital organ development.
With labradors, growth plates close when a dog is 14 to 18 months old. If your dog is not prematurely desexed then this will occur with the appropriate level of sex hormone. Male and female sex hormones play the key role in the development and closure of bone growth plates. If a dog is desexed prior to puberty, there is a delay in the closing process. Delay desexing larger dog breeds like labradors. This will significantly reduce the incidence of these orthopedic skeletal & vital organ conditions.
David’s Weekly Blog 13/7/19 www.pawlinglabs.com
Puppy Socialisation & the first Imprint Period
Puppy socialisation is a program that exposes your labrador puppy to new experiences beginning at 8 weeks of age. Weeks 8 to 16 of a puppies life are the first ‘imprint period’. A deliberate socialisation program should occur while your puppy is making positive connections and positive associations with their new experiences. Labrador puppies are always observing and always learning. Your goal is to help them focus in every situation, no matter what distractions come their way.
I like to take 8 week old puppies to outdoor coffee shops with slow moving traffic close by. This allows me to control and regulate the new experience for my labrador puppy.
Be aware that ‘trauma’ during the ‘imprint period’ can have a serious impact on the emotional well-being of your puppy. For example, I don’t want them exposed to aggressive dogs. You don’t want your puppy to develop dog to dog and /or dog to people aggression or timidity.
The 3 general areas of exposure should be 1. Other dogs, 2. People, 3. Vehicles & traffic.
With regular expose to these things, your labrador will become confident and relaxed with new experiences.
In a new situation, watch your puppies body language. Calmly withdraw a little from the situation if your dog shows any sign of anxiety or stress. Don’t normalise your puppies anxiety by comforting them. Just calmly draw back a little. This will be your starting point for your next occasion.
Some Labradors can become over-excited, some will be cautious, and others will take everything in their stride. If you are tense, your puppy will be tense. If you are calm then your puppy will be easier to settle. Your dog will take their que from you.
Be sure to praise and reward your puppy as they meet new situations and experiences. Reward them for the behaviours you are wanting to see. Find an excuse to reward them when they calmly meet people, dogs, vehicles & traffic. Don’t push you labrador puppy too far, too soon. And end each session on a positive high.
There is a short window of opportunity during the ‘imprint period’ while your puppy’s inquisitive sociability outweighs fear. During this ‘imprint period’ you should repeatedly expose your labrador puppy to everything you want them accept as an mature dog. Expose your puppy to different people, dogs, vehicles and places.
Between nine months and twelve months, your puppy will again show signs of insecurity and anxiety. You should continue to expose them to things they are not totally comfortable with.
A socialized dog is calm, confident and easy to train. Unsocialisd dogs don’t adjust easily to new experiences or changes in their lives. An unsocialised dog might bark and pull when they meet unfamiliar situations.
There are so many opportunities for your puppy to meet the world in a positive way. And as your puppy matures, your socialisation program shouldn’t stop. Vary and increase your dogs experiences to keep their confidence high.
Information and advice for the new labrador puppy owner.
It is my personal preference to ‘house’ a Labrador puppy in a crate and exercise pen.
A wire mesh crate should be sized for an adult labrador to stand and turn around.
A ‘400mm high ‘exercise pen’ clipped to the front of the crate forms a small open area for the labrador puppy to wander.
I put a blanket over the crate leaving the only the front open. This creates a den as their own space and the labrador puppies love this. An 8 week old labrador sleeps 16 - 20 hours a day so they need to ‘get away’.
If you want to relocate the labrador pup to be with you, watching tv, you can easily relocate the ex pen. Both of these items are available off the shelf at good pet shops. Crate training is essential and the maturing labrador never grows out of their.
We take a mature lab each time we visit her family in Noosa. The adult lab still sleeps in the closed crate without an ex pen. Of course, the mature labrador will not soil a crate in 8hrs.
All our lab pups are trained from birth to soil on ‘corrugated paper’ purchased on a 50m roll from Officeworks. It actually cardboard, marketed as corrugated paper. With an 8wk old, I always place a 1.2m x 1.5m piece in the ex pen. This allows me to leave a labrador puppy ‘contained’ without excessive pollution.
You should not go on extended walks with a Labrador or any large breed puppy for 14mths, until their growth plates are set. And you should carry your labrador puppy up and down stairs to guard again injury and unnecessary join load until 8mths and then only on leash.
We feed our lab puppies a premium food like ‘Eukanube Large Breed Puppy’. It is a false economy to use a cheap food at 1/2 the price. You will use twice the volume.
And your waste clean up will be doubled and so will you veterinary costs.
If you puppy struggles to eat you can leave food available and / or soak it briefly in warm water.
I never feed a lab without asking them to ‘Work’ for food. This means that you will train the 8 - 32 week old labrador pup for 3 min, 3 times a day at each feed time.
Three feeds per day is a volume issue not so much a regularity issue. A pup cannot consume the daily necessary quota in less than 3 feeds. You can reduce the number of feeds to 2 at about 24wks and to 1 feed at approx 10 months.
The first ‘fear imprint’ period is from week 8 to week 16. During this period, expose your pup to 1. People, 2. Vehicles, 3. New surrounding, 4. Other vaccinated dogs (until you pup has had its 2nd vacc at 12 wks).
The second imprint period is suggested to be at 1yr.
Whenever the puppy is hesitant, don’t comfort your pup. Rather, withdraw and re-expose them to the same thing again.
Remember that ‘tough love’ only serves to create fear which will manifest as ‘dog to dog’ and / or ‘dog to people’ aggression or timidity.
Puppy preschool (immediately) is great for the new handler and for the education, training and socialisation of your labrador puppy.
Dog obedience training from approx 7mths of age is essential for the cognitive well being of all dogs.
Digging is a sign of boredom and your labrador is needing mental stimulation.
Regularly tether you labrador from day 1 on a light chain leash. Don’t forget that labs are chewers until 2 years, sometimes later. They will chew cloth and leather leashes and this gets expensive.
You should be aware that a labrador that free ranges for long periods of time makes its own rules. In my opinion, a dog is an outside creature that comes in side. I always restrain a puppy when they are inside. They are compulsive chewers. It not a question of if they will chew, only when and what.
In allow a labrador pup to pull things but I ‘redirect’ this behaviour to ‘ tugging’. Play tug and let them win 7 out of 10 times. Tug does not make a puppy aggressive, it support ‘prey drive’ which is important for motivation and training.
Teach your 8 week old labrador pup to ‘fetch’ immediately by rolling a small ball 1m.
Don’t leave toys or they are no longer treats but objects to destroy.
I allow my labrador puppies to ‘mouth play’ but I ‘redirect’ away from my hands and arms.
Their teeth draw (my) blood.
Labrador puppies sleep 16-20hrs per day. They can be safely left alone during the day in a crate / pen combination as long as they have 2 receptacles of water on hand. Your labrador pup will invariably soil the water( who knows why???)
Labrador pups make all kinds of peculiar movements, breath and spasms at unforeseen times and particularly while sleeping. Scouring (diahorea) is generally the only issue to be concerned about. Puppies can dehydrate quickly if they scour. Immediate attention from a vet and this will not be an issue. Remember that a labrador puppy will not rehydrate with water. They will need electrolytes.
Teach you dog to WATCH (3)
Your dog should learn to ‘Watch’ and offer eye contact regardless of the situation or distraction. And they must hold the position for ‘DURATION’, until you release them.
As my labrador develops their ability to ‘watch’, I will add more intrusive distractions like jumping, stepping sideways, walking a little, letting other people and dogs come into view. When my dog is able to ‘maintain FOCUS’, I will extend the ‘duration’. My dog should ‘Watch’ without looking away for 1 minute.
Once I am confident, I can move to different situations like my front yard, in a car park, in a park. But whatever the level of distraction I want my dog to ‘WATCH’. They must be able to maintain FOCUS EYE CONTACT.
FOCUS TRAINING will help you to advance any dog at any age. At one extreme, if your dog is nervous, asking them to ‘watch’, making eye contact and staring at you is immediately reassuring and settling for them.
At the other extreme, If you have a dog that tends to be enthusiastic, ‘focus’ eye contact will calm your dog and also reinforce that you are the leader.
With this in mind, it is important as a dog owner to understand the danger of dogs staring at each other. This is an aggressive behaviour. You must intervene immediately before the situation escalates. Redirect you dog’s attention and refocus your labrador,...‘LUCY...WATCH’.
This way you are teaching your dog a genuine coping skill. Their flight / fight response can be controlled by the option to ‘Watch’.
Your dog cannot bark, lung, look at other dogs and distractions if they are ‘WATCHING ‘ you.
This allows me to take them many places and work around other dogs because they have another behaviour available. Instead of staring at another dog (bad behavior) they are ‘focusing’ on me and ignoring every distraction.
If your dog is to be confident outside your home environment you will need to train them increasingly difficult locations with distraction.Reward your dog for ‘any’ success with high value treats and lots of verbal praise. And do this constantly.
Teach you dog to WATCH (2)
When my chocolate labrador understands the ‘MARKER / YES’, they also know that there are treats in my hands. And they are looking for a reward. Initially, your dog will look at one hand, and then the other, looking for the reward. I want my dog to anticipate that the treat is coming,... when they look at my eyes.
Say ‘WATCH’. Be sure that your dog eyes makes even passing eye contact meeting your eyes. Then immediately MARK / YES and REWARD. Keep repeating this routine. This is how you reinforce the behaviour.
You will need to be patient and particularly if you dog is very young. I always put my dog through 20 repeats of a training routine. I’ve learnt that these repetitions allow time for my dogs to ‘problem solve’ and understand the concept. Give them time to ‘problem solve’. It’s actually more about your labrador learning to problem solve and any single routine. Once your chocolate labrador learns ‘problem solving’, they can work out just about anything.
As the puppy advances, I can direct them into the heel position then ‘call front’. Alternatively I can move myself to a position in front of my dog.
I can advance this behaviour by raising my arms up and down while commanding my dog to ‘WATCH’. I will reward them, only if they continues to ‘FOCUS and ‘watch’ my eyes. Otherwise I calmly say ‘NO’ and start again.
If they break, I say ‘NO’ and start again. ‘NO’ is a negative command communicating that the behaviour is wrong. It won’t be rewarded and we are trying again. ‘NO’ must not communicate anger or frustration. Don’t correct your dog if they do not understand the routine, simply say ‘NO’ and start again.