Dog Obedience Training Tips

When you first bring your puppy home you will be happy that he is so quiet and calm. After a few days of getting familiar with his surroundings, he may decide to take on the guardian role and bark at everyone that comes to the door. While this is cute at first, it can get really old really fast. Not only will the barking become a pain for you, but also your neighbors might not be all that happy either. It will also be difficult for your friends and family to come visit because that puppy will grow into a large dog that can look very intimidating when it is barking.

The first thing you want to do is to try to fix the problem before it really becomes one. You have to make sure that your dog is being properly socialized. This means that you will want to allow your dog to experience other animals such as dogs, cats, bunnies and anything else you can think of. You also want to make sure that your dog is properly exposed to other people and a variety of people at that. Allow your dog to be around other races of people, both male and females, old and young as it is important for the social development of your dog.

You can take your dog to the park, walk him around the block every day or take him to a pet store that allows dogs to come in. This is the best way to make sure that your dog understands that other animals and other people are not always a threat. But that is outside of the home. You also want to make sure that you are inviting as many people over so that you can show the puppy that it is okay that they are inside. Your puppy may be okay with someone at the store but would not be happy with them standing on his front porch.

Your puppy could also begin excessive barking out of sheer boredom. It is after all how they communicate. If you have not had a lot of time lately for walks and playtime and your notice that your dog has begun to bark more and more, there might just be a connection there. To correct this, try making sure that you are setting aside ten or fifteen minutes a day after work that will be just for you and your dog. Not only should the barking slow down, but your dog will be so much more emotionally stable for it.
Avoid shock and spray collars as they do nothing more then torment the dog. You do not want to emotionally scar your dog so take a different approach. If you find that you are having a lot of problems getting your dog’s barking under control after a few weeks, it may be time to seek out the help of a professional dog trainer to see what they can do to help. You should find that the barking will decrease when a trainer gets involved.

Now that you have finally brought your new puppy home, you have probably realized that your home is not as puppy proof as you once thought. There are many things that can be removed from the reach of the puppy in order to protect it all from damage. However, unless you are willing to remove every single piece of furniture, you are in for some chewing trouble. Even if you did empty out a room, your puppy might just find the door, the carpet, or even the drywall to be tempting enough for chewing. Basically, you want to correct the problem instead of preventing or hiding it.

The first thing you will want to do is to figure out just what is causing the chewing behavior. Is your puppy teething? If that is the case then you want to provide your puppy with something that is approved for chewing, such as a doggie toy. There are also special treats that are designed for puppies that need to chew extra because they are teething. Just as you might do for a baby, you will want to take the chew toy and freeze it for a couple of hours. This will help your puppy deal with the pain that comes with the teething. It is also a great way to make sure that your little puppy is distracted from chewing on everything else in your house.

If you find that the chewing is because of loneliness, stress or boredom, you will need to address those issues. Are you playing with your dog enough? Is he being walked every day? If you allow your puppy to get enough exercise throughout the day, he will be less likely to chew up everything in the house out of boredom. The fact is, he will simply be too tired to even think about tearing into your couch.

For those that feel that the chewing is linked to separation anxiety, you will want to change the way you leave the house. Try to make your exit very quietly. Keep it low key so that the puppy barely has a chance to get himself all worked up about you walking out the door. Also, make sure that he has plenty of toys to keep him entertained while you are out of the house. You will want to make sure that the toys you are leaving for your puppy are meant for puppies to ensure safety.

You may find that it will take a couple of days or a couple of weeks to completely stop the chewing. This is normal and to be expected. The key is to make sure that you are being consistent. Do not hit the dog as a form of punishment. This will only make matters worse and possibly create new problems to deal with later down the road.

Read as much as you can about helping your puppy with his chewing problem and make sure that you are seeking the help from a vet if the chewing results in your dog swallowing something he should not.

If you have just taken a new Labrador Retriever puppy into your home, you are probably very excited. Even though puppies are a lot of fun to play with, they are also a lot of work. If you take your time and understand that training takes time, you will be off to a good start.
One problem that you might notice is that your puppy is biting. While a little puppy biting your hand or shoe is cute, it will not be so cute when that puppy grows into an adult dog that wants to bite people for fun. The key is to stop this behavior while the puppy is still a pup.

Remember, adult dogs that bite can and will destroy furniture and possibly even land you in court. Your dog will not understand that it is okay to bite you in a playful manner and not the neighborhood kids. For your safety, the safety of the neighborhood and the safety of the dog, you want to nip this in the butt as soon as possible.

You want to make sure that you are not playing tug or war games with the puppy. This game encourages the biting behavior. The last thing you want to do is to encourage the biting one moment, only to correct the dog the next moment when he is biting something you do not approve of. The rule of thumb should be no aggressive biting – no matter what!

You also want to make sure that you are not physically punishing your puppy for biting. This could lead to behavior that is more aggressive or emotional trauma and you do not want either of those things to take place. Instead, you will want to verbalize a “no” command and then ignore the puppy for a little bit. Show the puppy that biting is not a way he is going to be able to get your attention.

It is also very important to make sure that everyone is one the same page when it comes to training the puppy. Your Labrador Retriever needs everyone, including the children, to be consistent with the commands. When you want your puppy off of the couch, for example, you do not want person saying “down”, another saying “off” and then another saying “floor” and expect that the puppy is going to understand what everyone ones. Pick a verbal command for each situation and stick with it.

There are many books out there that may be able to help you if you are not able to get the biting under control. It may take a couple of weeks but as long as you and your family is consistent with the commands, there is no reason why you should not be able to get it all under control. If by chance you are dealing with an extra stubborn Labrador Retriever, then you can always take him to an obedience class for additional assistance.

In the end, you will see that all of the hard work of the training was well worth it. You will be able to play with your dog and trust that he will not harm anyone or anything.

Even though your cute little puppy may not look like it now, it is going to grow up to be a dog that loves to dig. It is just in his nature. The problem is, you do not want your Labrador Retriever digging up your yard or your beautiful flower bed. The key is to prevent this problem from ever coming up but if it has already begun, there are ways you can eliminate the problem all together. It is going to take some hard work and a lot of understanding and patience on your end but you will be able to pull it off.

One thing that you might want to do is to pick a place in the yard where it is okay for your dog to dig. This way, you will not feel as though you are preventing him from doing what comes naturally to him but you also will not have to worry about having ten thousand holes in your front yard. You can purchase a sandbox, fill it up with sand or dirt, and allow your puppy to dig there. Alternatively, you can just pick a back portion of your yard that no one really sees or cares about and allow the puppy to dig there.

At first, your dog will wander off to the areas in the yard where he is not allowed to dig. This is why it is important for you to keep a close eye on the dog. You want to be right there as soon as you see him start to dig somewhere that is off limited. Give him the “NO” command and redirect him back over to the area that you have designated as the dig area. When your puppy does begin to dig in the right area, you will want to make sure that you are giving him some positive reinforcement. This will encourage him to want to repeat the behavior by always going to that same spot to dig.

If you catch that your dog has dug in an off limits location after the act is done, it is too late to yell at the dog. This will only confuse him because he will not understand that the reason you are yelling is because of the hole he dug twenty minutes ago. Dogs simply do not have the ability to understand a sense of time like we can. You can only correct the puppy if you are catching him in the act.

Another way to ensure that your puppy digs where you want him to is for you to bury something fun. If you bury a bone, or something of that nature, he will get a whiff of it and dig for it. Dogs love to find buried treasure so you just want to make sure that there is going to be something for him to find.

This is not a hard task to handle but it will take a little bit of time. Every breed and every dog within a breed is different. It may just take one day for your puppy to catch on or it could take two weeks. Just be patient and everything will fall into place.