Labrador - Early Training Exercise

As soon as you bring your puppy home, begin gentle training for obedience and hygiene. Reward good behavior with praise, stroking, or food treat. Provide toys to keep your puppy alert and occupied, and arrange regular contact with other dogs to ensure proper social development.

Learning With Rewards:
Verbal praise Labradors are eager pupils and learn quickly. Even a very young puppy will be sensitive to your manner and tone of voice, and will understand when you are genuinely pleased with its behavior. Enthusiastic words of approval should always accompany and other type of reward.

Stroking Reward:
Touch is an intensely powerful reward. Your puppy will naturally want to be stroked, but do not comply on demand. Offer petting in response to good conduct, so that obedience is associated with desired physical attention.
Food Treat:
The Labrador gives the impression that a large portion of its brain is dedicated to a constant search for food. Exploit this breed characteristic by using low-calorie treats such as vitamin tablets as primary rewards reinforced with vigorous praise.

Acquiring Social Skills:
A puppy’s ability to learn is at its greatest during the first three months. If denied ongoing contact with other dogs during this important stage, your Labrador Retriever may not develop the social skills necessary for meeting strange dogs later in life. If you do not have another dog, ask your vet to help you organize weekly “puppy parties” to encourage natural, friendly interaction with other healthy puppies.

Toy for Your New Puppy:
Suitable toys for chewing and playing good toys are designed to stimulate your puppy both physically and mentally. Dogs are particularly attracted to toys with distinctive odours, and ones that are fun to chase, capture, retrieve, or chew. Take special care with squeaky toys; curious Labradors are prone to accidentally swallowing the “squeakers”.

Toys as Reward and Comfort:
While toys left lying around soon become boring, items brought out only under special circumstances are transformed into exciting rewards. Give toys selectively as a prize for good behavior, and put them away after use so your dog understands that they belong to you. Whenever you leave your Labrador alone, provide a favorite toy as soothing distraction.

House Training Indoors and Out:
Paper training your puppy will usually want to eliminate after walking, eating, drinking, after exercise. It may signal this by putting its nose down and sniffing with newspaper, and praise it when it urinates or messes. It is pointless to punish your puppy after an accident. If you catch it in the act, however, say “No” in a stern tone to teach it that is must use the paper.

Moving outside:
Start outdoor training as soon as possible. Three – month – old Labrador puppies need to empty their bladders about every three hours. Take a small piece of solid paper with you; the puppy will smell its own scent, and be encouraged to transfer toileting outside. As it eliminates, say “hurry up”; this will train your dog to relieve itself on the command.