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Walk with your puppy on a short leash at your side. I train all our new pups to walk on the left, reason being I shoot right handed. Should you plan to hunt your retriever teach them to heel on the opposite side that you shoot. Not planning on hunting your retriever then walk him on the side you feel comfortable with. Walk slowly and keep the leash tight and keep repeating the word “Heel”, make sure you keep them at your side and don’t let them walk ahead of you or lag behind. Should they move ahead tug the leash back to bring them back to your side. The same goes if they lag behind only tug on the leash forward to bring them to your side. Remember all the while you are teaching this keep repeating the word “Heel”. Teaching your puppy to heel at your side should only take a day or two. Once he has learned the heel command and is walking at your side you can start to make some turns. Turn to the left and right and even due a complete turns to go in the opposite direction. Make him stay at your side by tugging lightly on the leash. The objective is for them to learn to follow and watch your movement.
The Labrador Retriever Remains America’s Most Popular Dog for the 19th consecutive year. The gentle, intelligent and family-friendly Labrador Retriever from Canada continues to be the most popular breed in the United States, according to AKC® registration statistics. This versatile hunting breed comes in three colors – yellow, black and chocolate – and because of their desire to please his master they excel as guide dogs for the blind, as part of search-and-rescue teams or in narcotics detection with law enforcement.
The command “NO” is the first command your Labrador retriever puppy should learn. Usually your puppy will understand this command by the end of the first day with you. Your puppy will hear this command every time it is doing something wrong. Your puppy comprehends the command by the way you say it. The tone of your voice tells your puppy that they are in trouble. “NO” means stop what you are doing immediately. Say “NO” in a sharp loud voice. In the beginning the command “NO” will be the most used command by you. When your puppy responds always follow the “NO” command by another command that will make you happy. When you are happy your puppy will sense this. When your puppy responds to the next command give them praise. By doing this they will realize that the command “NO” is a dreaded word that they do not like to hear. With “Chisum” when I command “NO” the next command I give him is “SIT”. He does this command very well. When you discover the command your new puppy does well that is the command you should give immediately following the “NO” command.
If you can work on training your Labrador retriever 2 or 3 times a day with 5 or 10 minute sessions each time, you will be able to train your Labrador retriever by yourself. It is also a good idea to have family members involved so they can see exactly what you are doing and how it is being done.
Setting the Environment
Setting the right environment for you and your Labrador retriever are very important. The environment should be in an area were there are no distractions. Some places were it is nice and quite. You want your training time to be the main focus of attention. Make all your training lessons enjoyable for you and your Labrador retriever puppy. End all your sessions on a good note. Give them a lot of praise each time they are doing well. Should things start going wrong and they will at times: stop everything and start over the next session. You must also be in the right frame of mind; your puppy will pick up on your mood if you are in a bad one at the time.
Consistence
Be consistent with your training sessions. Training a Labrador retriever is all about repetition, this is how a Labrador retriever puppy learns. Sometimes the training can seem to be boring to you but it is very important to your puppy. This is also the time when you develop a bond between you and your Labrador retriever. Be sure he understands what he is being taught before you move on to the next part of the training step. When you begin to move on to different commands always go back to the commands you have taught and continue to use them in training lessons.
Heel-Sit-Stay-Come
The four basic and most important commands to teach your new puppy. When they respond to their name (and they should with in a couple of days) it is time to start their kindergarten training. When you start your basic training it is important to due them in sequence and do not move to the next command until you are comfortable they understand the command you are teaching. All these commands we will be going over in our future blog posts one at a time.
Puppy Play Time
Always leave time to play with your new pup. I use this time to teach him to retrieve. Labrador retrievers where born to retrieve and they love the water. So it would stand to reason to teach them to retrieve the way you would like them to. There is nothing I enjoy more then taking one of our labs to a pond and throwing a dummy in the water and watching them swim and retrieve. The hunting club I belong to is the best, that is where our labs get to show off their stuff and there are a few of them that are real show off’s. I like to start things off with a sock knotted up, get your puppy interested and start tossing it around. Just toss the sock a few feet and when your pup runs and grabs it, you grab him and pull him back to you. Say to him “give” and take the sock away from him. If you do this 5 to 10 times each session they eventually will just automatically start to run it back to you. Slowly increase the distance of your tosses and as soon as he picks it up start clapping your hands and calling him back to you. As they get older I switch over to rubber bumpers and keep increasing the distances of tosses. Once they have the idea down of returning the bumper to you start making them sit at your side and hold your puppy in place and toss the rubber bumper. Keep telling them to stay and then let them retrieve, it will not belong before they will stay with out you holding them. I have my wife, Arlene take a rubber bumper and go as much as 50 yards away from me and the puppy, my wife then throws the rubber bumper and our puppy doesn’t retrieve until he is sent. He then returns it to me. I want him to get the idea that it is my rubber bumper and he is to make sure that I am the one that gets it back. This type of training is what leads up to duck hunting. I know that many people never will hunt their labs but it is a good idea that they make sure you have all of your rubber bumpers returned to you. Don’t think that play time has to be all retrieving; it can be what ever you want to make it, just remember most importantly make it fun and enjoyable. Your Labrador retriever will look forward to his and your playtime.
Before we begin our basic training sections I would like to explain my chose of Chisum. For those of you that do not know about Chisum, He was a yellow male Labrador retriever that Arlene and I kept from our last litter. I chose Chisum for several reasons and I will list them in a few minutes. We bred http://www.sunsetlabradors.com/rock.html X http://www.sunsetlabradors.com/becky.html and I had thought that this would be an exceptional litter four several reasons. Rock is a powerful black male that has a burning desire to please you, he loves to retrieve and his entire personality just melts you. Becky is a beautifully marked female. She is high strung and has no fear in her at all. She is the most dominate of all our labs. The combination of the 2 should and did produce a wonderful litter.
Many years ago I had a yellow male Labrador retriever named Sunny, he was a puppy I kept from a litter I had back in 1982. Sunny was a powerful Labrador retriever and was the second lab I trained. As a puppy he was wild, obnoxious and very hard to train. We had many, many, many frustrating training seasons. To make this story short I eventual used an e-collar, (Electronic Collar). Many refer to the e-collar as a shock collar. The end result was Sunny became the best well mannered hunting Labrador retriever I ever had. Our “Rock” is about the nearest I have come to another Sunny and breeding Rock to Becky I felt the 2 personalities would complement one and other. I also was looking for a yellow male.
The reasons why I chose this particular yellow male over the other males in the litter are:
- He is a yellow male.
- He was the brut of the litter.
- He was not the best marked but he has nice markings.
- I guess he basically reminded me of Sunny.
- I felt this was going to be challenging.
- I also probably will end up using an e-collar in the future and will be able to add this to our training lessons in the future.
- With all this in mind, I am possibly thinking about field trials.
I explained in a previous post why I named him “Chisum” http://www.sunsets-labradorretrievertraining.com/2010/01/why-chisum/. In our next post we will begin our basic training lessons which I like to call Kindergarten Training. Our main topic will be setting the right environment for your labrador puppy.
Groom your new Labrador retriever puppy regularly and start early. Early grooming not only keeps your puppy clean and looking it’s best but also gets it used to being bathed, toenails being trimmed and his coat brushed. All of our puppies are bathed in the kitchen sink, we use baby shampoo, dry them off with a towel and place them back under the heat lamps again. Labs love water. Make this experience a pleasant one. Try not to splash water in their face. I don’t wet their heads too much. Just a quick going over. Before that, we used baby wipes to keep them smelling clean and fresh. Labs also need to be brushed. They do shed. Get them use to all of this early and you’ll never have a problem.
Labrador retrievers do not require a lot of grooming and by getting them use to it early makes it all that much easier for you and enjoyable for them. Toenail clipping is not hard and does not need to be done to often. Your veterinary can show how it is done.
The breeder where you have purchased your puppy should give you information on how they have been feeding and also what they are feeding. The following is the information on how we feed our puppies, but remember all breeders are different and you should follow their instructions.
Your puppy is being fed Purina Puppy Chow Original flavor. We have been feeding the puppies 3 times a day: 8 am, 2:00pm, and 9pm. (Roughly 6 hours apart). We suggest you start with about 1 cup of puppy food moistened with warm water at first. You might have to mash it a little with a fork to mush it up. If he cleans the bowl totally, he could probably have a little more. You will have to play this by ear. Some of our larger pups will probably eat more. Keep in mind; you want to have healthy and satisfied pups. Also allow for the pup’s transitional period. Another thought is that the puppy no longer has “Litter Competition”. So again his eating habits might change. Please no less than 3 feedings a day until he is somewhere between 12-20 weeks old. He will let you know when he doesn’t want that middle feeding. Have clean fresh water available at all times and wash his food and water dishes often. A stainless steel bowl seems to be the best and is easy to clean and sanitize. Please adjust the feeding times to meet your needs. This happens to be our own routine. Since we both use to work the night shift, this is what worked best for us.
If you decide to change your puppy food you should mix the 2 brands together and gradually increase your new brand. This can be done in a period of a week. By mixing them together it will give your puppy’s stomach time to adjust.
I would also like to mention something about water. We have well water and in the past a few of our puppies have had diarrhea after going to their new homes. Come to find out it was the change in water; there is a difference between well water and city or town water. After a day or 2 their diarrhea should clear up.
Start house training the puppy as soon as you bring him home. NEVER LET HIM HAVE THE RUN OF THE HOUSE. He will get into all kinds of trouble and dangerous situations. Confine him to only one room, usually the kitchen. Think of it as “Child-Proofing”. As soon as you arrive home with him take him to the spot where you want him to do his business and see if he will go. If he does praise him and then take him into the house so he can get to know every one and explore his surroundings. Always take the puppy out to the spot where he is supposed to go to the bathroom after meals and when he wakes up from a nap, first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Taking the pup out 6-8 times or more a day for the first few weeks is standard practice when it comes to training a new puppy. They catch on quick. Only let him have access to the room that you are in so you can keep a close watch on him. If you see him start sniffing around quickly take him to the bathroom. If you are consistent your puppy will be house trained in a few months. We do not encourage paper-training puppies since then you will have to re-train the puppy again from paper to outside. Labs are very smart and easy to train. They will be trained early. We also recommend the use of a crate. Labrador retrievers do not like to go to the bathroom where they sleep; this is true in any breed of dog. When you let them out of their crate take them immediately outside. They will catch on very quickly where they are supposed to go to the bathroom.
Your puppy just came from a warm, safe whelping box. From the moment of birth our puppies sleep only on fleece blankets for extra warmth (that are changed 4-5, sometimes even 6 times a day) and are under a raised heat lamp continuously for 24/7 & for the whole time they live with us (7-8 weeks.) A soft stuffed animal made specifically for puppies, will give the pup a little company while he is in the crate. We have enclosed a small piece the fleece blanket for your puppy. This is one of the best toys we found to keep the little ones busy. They love to drag it, sleep on it, and roll on it. This is the original blanket in which the litter has been sleeping on. All of his littermates and Mom’s scents are on them. Even though the blankets are washed every day, labs don’t lose that sense of smell. We thought by you putting it in their crate at night and making it their “blanket” they might not miss everyone so much and might feel more secure in their new home. This is the first time he is alone. We use to put the crate on the nightstand next to our bed and put on a small light. If the pup started to cry we would stay in bed but let him see us as we talked to him. He would soon drift off back to sleep. The puppy will miss his littermates the first few nights and will probably cry and howl. This should only last a few nights. Another thing we have done is to” name the crate”! We call it “Bed”.
Make sure you have a warm safe place for your puppy to rest. A crate is an excellent place for your puppy as he can use it for a bed and it can provide a place that your puppy can feel is his own safe little haven. You should also put the puppy in his crate when you go out and he is home by himself so you don’t have to worry about what she/he might get into before you return home. Puppies are like babies. They will eat wires; lick sockets and can easily choke on small things that might have gotten missed by the broom or vacuum. A crate is an excellent way to begin house training your puppy, as they don’t like to go to the bathroom where they sleep. The first few times that your new puppy is placed in his crate they may do some whining, whimpering, barking and cause a lot of commotion. We stress the fact that you let them carry on until they become quite and sometimes go to sleep. Once they have calmed down you can take them out, unless they have gone to sleep. If they have gone to sleep just let them sleep. Over a short period of time your puppy will see the crate as his domain within your house. All this is part of his learning procedure and usually only takes a few days.
Do not use the crate for punishment; you want the puppy to look at his crate as a secure, safe place he can rest in. In a short period of time your new puppy will go in and out of his crate by himself. The crate has now become his and is a safe haven to go to.
I have been asked why I named our newest male Labrador retriever Chisum? The reason being is that when I was a teenager, which seems many, many, many years ago. I was a big fan of John Wayne movies. Probably my favorite movie was Chisum. The following is a brief description of the movie.
John Chisum was born in Madison County on 15th August, 1824. The family moved to Texas in 1837 and Chisum found work as a building contractor. He also served as county clerk in Lamar County.
Chisum got involved in the cattle business in 1854 and became one of the first to send his herds to New Mexico. He purchased land along the Pecos River and eventually became the owner of a large ranch and over 100,000 head of cattle.
In 1880 Chisum was involved in getting Pat Garrett elected as sheriff of Lincoln County. Garratt immediately attempted to deal with the problems being caused by Billy the Kid. In December 1880, Garrett shot dead two of the Kid’s gang, Tom O’Folliard and Charles Bowdre. Soon afterwards Billy the Kid, Dave Rudabaugh and Billy Wilson were captured by Garratt.
John Chisum died in Eureka Springs on 20th December, 1884. Chisum was unmarried and left his estate worth $500,000 to his brothers.
The name Chisum is short and catchy. When you name a lab, always try to use a call name that is short for training purposes, I have always found it easier to train with short words and commands. Your Labrador retriever will learn to respond to shorter commands much quicker and they are not confusing to your Labrador retriever. At this point I find myself calling Chisum, CHIS which is even shorter. Chisum’s AKC name is SUNSET’S RIDE EM HIGH CHISUM. Try calling him that while training.
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