Training and Health

How do you train a Labrador?

admin • 31 Aug 2023

The Labrador Retriever noble and affectionate character and his intelligence make him the ideal member for many families. In addition to being good companions, these dogs are also known for their skills in many different areas as police dogs, search and rescue dogs, rescue, and even as guide dogs for the blind.

That being said, if you are thinking of adopting a dog of this breed or are already living with one, you should know that they need proper education and training so that they can live together in harmony. For this reason, we have prepared an article for you on how to train a Labrador Retriever, a puppy or an adult.

When to breed a Labrador puppy?

All dogs, from the moment they are born, are in a constant learning period. Just like human babies, puppies are in the process of learning and processing the stimuli around them.

In the first 3 months of life before weaning, the mother provides a type of initial education for her litter, such as what it can eat or that the human is harmless. Conversely, a mother who is afraid of humans will transmit the same fear to her cubs. For this reason, if she has had the opportunity to know her pup since she was born, she should not start teaching him basic obedience exercises yet. For the moment, you can interact with him calmly, as long as the mother feels comfortable. That way, your puppy will start to trust you.

From the age of 3 months The pup can be separated from its mother, since she usually starts to distance herself from her puppies and avoids nursing them, since her teeth grow and hurt. We must always respect this natural weaning period since a puppy separated before its mother's time usually shows socialization problems and his mood, which will be a learning problem and generally cause long-term behavioral problems.

Once back at home, when the puppy is around 3 months old, you can start working on its education. In this first phase you must establish the rules and habits that you want him to follow as an adult, although never using punishment, because he will associate you with a threat and lose trust in you. In other words, if you don't want your Labrador to get on the couch when he's older, he starts avoiding it now that he's a puppy. In this way, you will be consistent in your behavior and the dog will understand it.

At this stage it is also very important to encourage the puppy's curiosity and exploration through play, as well as introducing him to new objects and different environments. In this way the puppy will develop his physical and cognitive abilities.

Likewise, a correct and progressive socialization is vital for the education of our Labrador. Puppies are particularly receptive to environmental stimuli, so if they learn to normalize their interactions with other dogs, animals, and people during this time, they won't have a problem associating the interaction with positive emotion.

How to train a labrador puppy?

We must understand canine education as learning at various levels, in which the puppy must first acquire basic education commands and gradually increase the difficulty. If we want our dog to learn complex commands in a short time, we will only stress and frustrate him.

Learning must be done through positive reinforcement, that is, we must associate the behaviors that we want our Labrador to perform with positive emotions, giving them rewards, words of encouragement, caresses, etc. We can also reward you through the game.

Once you understand the above points, we will give you a little guidance on the basic education that you should give your puppy to avoid behavior problems in adulthood. 

Teach him to recognize your call

Normally a Labrador puppy will constantly follow us because we are its reference figure and we give it security. It is possible that he will go a few meters to look around and then come back, even if we have not called him. If we reward this behavior in an effusive way, the eturn, with a juicy prize for example, we will get the dog to learn to recognize our call and will be obedient even when he is an adult. Therefore, we must accustom him to associate this action with our call, always using the same word (his name or the command come, for example).

As our Labrador Retriever grows into a teenager, he will start to develop more independent behavior and may start to ignore us. It is common in these cases for the guardians to lose patience and scold their dogs. However, we must be patient and we must never punish or yell at our dog, even less when we want it to obey our call, this is counterproductive behavior because if he sees us angry he will want to leave. Therefore, we must continue to encourage our four-legged friend to partner with us in something rewarding.

Teach him to inhibit the bite

Puppies have a habit of biting for two reasons: first, it's their way of relieving pain from growing teeth; second, it is their way of exploring and interacting with the environment. Now, when our Labrador bites us while he is playing, it is important that we make it clear by saying an ouch or something similar and stop playing with him. In this way, he will interpret that when he bites hard he hurts us and he will learn to control his force. Therefore, we can use ropes and similar objects that he can chew on and positively associate with the game.

In the same way, when we see him biting objects like the sofa or our shoes, we will give him toys that he likes to chew and we will reward him when he plays with them. We will offer you more interesting alternatives and therefore discourage you from biting into something unwanted.

For more information on how to teach a puppy not to bite, read: How to teach a puppy not to bite.

Teach him hygiene habits

To educate a Labrador retriever puppy to relieve himself in the right place, we must first determine a place in the house that is his bathroom to put the newspaper on the floor and encourage him to relieve himself there. When he does well, we will reward him with compliments and rewards so that he knows that he has done well. It is important to note that this option should only be used when your puppy cannot be released by the vet (for example, when he has not yet been fully vaccinated or chipped). Once your puppy can walk, it's best to get him used to going outside on him.

So when we go for a walk and we see him defecate in the open air, we will reward him so that he understands that he has to do it in the open air. At first we will have to be understanding, because puppies are not able to control well and therefore may not be able to resist. As our Labrador gets older, he will learn to control himself.

Teach him to be alone

It is very important that your dog learns to be alone in a positive way because this will prevent him from developing separation anxiety. This should be a gradual process, because we cannot expect our Labrador to feel self-confident from one day to the next. To do this, we must leave our puppy alone in the room of the house where he feels most comfortable, along with a toy with which he can entertain himself (we recommend the use of the kong), for a few minutes, without going in if we hear him cry or call us. (otherwise he might learn to bark to get our attention).

We will carry out these sessions several times during the day and we will progressively increase the duration during which the animal will remain alone in the room. Little by little, our puppy will learn that, even if we leave, we always come back and he will find himself calm and distracted by the objects we leave him. Successively, we will be able to start these sessions leaving home for short periods of time.