Training A Yellow Lab Puppy
Bringing home a new puppy is a happy and exciting occasion. Puppies are cute, cuddly, and love to be involved with everything you do. However, there are some common issues that arise with puppies. We started training Blue because he was struggling with several of these very common problems.
You may find that your puppy likes to chew on both fingers and furniture. This is especially common during teething, and with breeds like labs that were bred to use their mouth a lot. We gave Blue plenty of good things to chew on to give him an outlet. Kongs, Everlasting Balls, and Nylabones make great toys for puppies. We also corrected the chewing on furniture and mouthing on people. Showing Blue right and wrong helps him make the right choice in the future.
Blue was also a bad jumper. He would jump on the children, on guests, and on anybody he met on walks. This behavior might be cute when Blue was a tiny puppy, but it was getting dangerous as he grew. We interrupted the jumping, and taught him a sit as a default behavior for greetings.
Blue also pulled on leash when out for walks. Nearly every lab puppy that we see has this issue because they are just so excited to be out and about. We channeled his excitement into heeling, and gave him a job to do when on walks.
This little guy was also very “busy” in the house. He always wanted to be right in the middle of the kids playing or when dinner was being cooked. We taught him a solid place command to allow him to still be part of everything without being in the middle of it. To encourage Blue to really love his place, we fed him all of his meals up there.
Lastly, we wanted to give Blue some outlets that were breed appropriate. Obedience is a great outlet for mental energy in any dog. Retrieve is also a fabulous outlet, especially for a high energy lab puppy.
After a two week stay with us, Blue had all of the tools he needed to be a fabulous pet. We did lessons with his owners to show them exactly how to handle him. This is extremely important, because consistency is key in dog training. Now Blue is much easier to live with and enjoy.
Blue’s Graduation Video
If you are interested in training for your puppy, please check out our puppy training programs.
