Training Your Labrador for Newbies

The Guide to Training Your Labrador for Newbies

If you own a Lab, you will have to do more than just feed him and give him toys to play with. Just about every dog, no matter what breed, will have some bad habits and behaviors that you will need to break.
There are different ways to deal with each of the unacceptable behaviors from your Labrador. Whatever you do, make sure that it is something that will be effective in order for your dog to change his ways. Some behavioral problems stem from the genetics of the breed of your dog.

Labrador training tips and techniques

You must teach your Labrador from the beginning what is acceptable or not. Leaving it to a later stage will be harder for you and harder for him to learn as he will be much more set in his ways.

Your dog is a member of your family and your best friend so having an obedient and well behaved pet is crucial.

A happy Labrador means a happy owner and once they get attached to you, there is no turning back. Your dog will be your best friend and companion for life.
A dog can be your protector from hurt, harm and danger. They will easily and readily come to your defense when they need to. However, in order to do that, they have to be trained properly and the most important thing is to get rid of any bad behaviors they may have so that they can be more efficient and dependable and this requires patience on your part.

Your Labrador Unacceptable Behavior

There are certain unacceptable behaviors that your dog may have such as chewing and biting, pulling on a leash and jumping up on people. These behaviors must be corrected early on so as to instill into your dog what is right and what is wrong. No-one likes a badly behaved dog so stopping this type of behavior is essential in order for your dog to be more sociable with others.

Biting

Even though biting is considered as normal behavior, you should also keep in mind that later on, it could pose a serious risk to others, including yourself. It may be cute in the puppy stage, but not as your dog gets older. In order to stop your dog from biting, you will need to teach them early on.
As a puppy, biting is a behavior that is taught by their mother and additional litter. While still in the puppy stage, allow the puppy to play with other puppies as they like to interact with each other and sometimes that will include biting. As they do this, they can learn to control themselves.
If there is one puppy that is overly aggressive, the others will get after the aggressive puppy for being too rough. As they continue to play with each other, the more aggressive puppy will learn to calm down.

Here are some tips for training your labrador that you can take to get an advantage:

• Let the puppy know that you hurt when they bite you. You can be stern and say ―no‖ or ―ouch‖ to let the puppy know that they have gone too far and they will think about what they‘ve done.
• Slowly take your hand away. Doing this too fast can cause more damage.
• If they bite you again, repeat your verbal reaction. Step away from the puppy for a while.

They will realize that you don‘t appreciate what they did and will figure out that you don‘t want to be around them.

• Give them a toy to chew on.
• Reward the puppy when they are good and not biting you.
• Be consistent when you are training them to stop biting. Continue to let the puppy know that bites are not acceptable.
• Your puppy should take an obedience class and this way, he can interact with other dogs as he gets older. He will learn about limits with humans and other dogs.
• As your puppy gets older and grows into a dog, he needs lots of physical activity, including regular exercise. Give him a chance to play outside so that he can get some fresh air and make sure he gets to walk and play fetch as this can help him to forget about biting.
• Keep them on a schedule with their physical activities. They will get used to doing things and will come to enjoy doing them.
• Keep young children out of harm‘s way by not leaving them alone with the puppy. The puppy may still be in the learning stage and may bite the child.
• Refrain from aggressive behavior with your puppy as that can influence them to continue biting.
• If they continue to bite despite your best efforts, contact your veterinarian or a dog trainer for assistance.

Chewing is natural, starting from puppies all the way to a grown Lab, however, it is not necessarily correct. If you notice that your Labraor has problems with chewing, you will need to correct this as soon as you notice it.
There are some dogs that will chew anything in sight which include shoes, clothes and furniture. Of course, these are things that you would rather them keep away from as it will become very expensive to have to keep buying replacements.

One of the easiest solutions to this problem is to get your dog a variety of dog toys that they can chew on as using these toys can teach them what they can and cannot chew. Also, having a variety of dog toys for them to chew on will keep them occupied and keep their teeth and gums healthy. Some of the better choices for dog toys to chew on are ones that are scented or flavored. Consistently encourage your dog to play with the toys.
While you are training your dog, also teach them not to chew on items that they are not supposed to be chewing on. It is also important that the area where the dog plays is kept free of clutter. For your part, make sure that there are no shoes or other items that they can start chewing on.
If the dog should happen to get something that they‘re not suppose to have, get their attention and remove it, then replace it with a dog toy. Each time they do that, applaud them for doing the right thing. You can also prevent them from not chewing your items by applying something that will make them step away from it, such as Tabasco sauce and other non-toxic items that they won‘t like the taste of.

You can help your Lab change their bad behavior by consistently working and training your Labrador. Be consistent and stick to your rules, not allowing anyone else that comes into contact with the lab to deviate from what you have taught. Once your strategies and training is etched in stone, your Labrador will start to get used to them and eventually will behave better. You will be less stressed once your lab is at ease and is obeying your commands; you will feel more comfortable and at ease about taking them out for their daily exercise.