The Labrador Retriever is one of the most popular dog breeds in the world. It is not surprising, since his noble character, adaptability and intelligence make him the ideal member in many families. Apart from being good companions, these dogs are also known for their abilities as a working dog in many different fields, be it in the police, in search and rescue work and even as a guide dog for the blind.
Having said this, if we have considered welcoming a dog of this breed at home, or we are already living with one, it is necessary to understand that it also needs a correct education to be able to live in harmony. For this reason, in this article on our site we explain what you should know about how to train a Labrador, puppy and adult.
When to train a Labrador puppy?
All dogs from the moment of birth are constantly learning. Just like human babies, puppies are in a process of capturing and processing the stimuli that surround their environment.
In the first 3 months of life prior to weaning, the mother provides the educationappropriate to their litter, such as what they can eat or that the human is harmless. Conversely, a mother with a fear of humans will transmit that same fear to her pups. For this reason, if you have had the opportunity to know the puppy since birth, you should not start teaching basic obedience exercises just yet. For now, as long as you relate to him calmly, and as long as the mother is comfortable, that's enough. In this way, the puppy will begin to trust you.
From 3 months of age, the furry can already be separated from his mother, since she usually begins to drink distance from her puppies and avoid nursing them, since her teeth are growing and hurt her. We must always respect this natural weaning period, since a puppy separated early from its mother usually shows socialization and mood problems, which will be a learning problem and generally cause long-term behavior problems.. It is his mother who initiates the socialization of the little ones and we must not hinder this moment.
If you wonder how to train a three-month-old Labrador take note! In this first stage you must establish the rules and habits that you want him to comply with as an adult, although never through the use of punishments, since you will become a threatening stimulus and he will lose confidence in you. That is, if you don't want your Labrador to get on the couch when he's older, he starts avoiding him now that he's a puppy. In this way, you will be consistent in your behavior and your dog will understand it. In other words, it won't make much sense to him that you let him get on the sofa as a puppy and as an adult you don't. This will only confuse him and could end up developing a behavior problem.
When it comes to knowing how to train a Labrador from a young age, it is very important to encourage the puppy's curiosity and exploration through games, as well as introducing new objects and diverse environments that encourage stimulation. In this way, the puppy will develop its physical and cognitive abilities.
In the same way, adequate and progressive socialization is also vital when it comes to educating our Labrador retriever. And it is that, since puppies are in a period in which they are especially receptive to the stimuli of the environment, if during this stage they learn to normalize being with other dogs, animals and people, when they are adults they will not present problems as long as they relate the interaction with a positive emotion. In other words, this sensitivity can represent a double-edged sword, since a bad experience will leave a strong impression on the child's learning. For this reason, you should avoid forcing situations in order not to associate negative experiences and reward your puppy with food and games.
If you want to learn more about socializing your Labrador puppy, you may be interested in this other article: "How to properly socialize a puppy?"
How to train a Labrador puppy?
We must understand canine education as learning by layers, in which the puppy must first acquire non-basic instructions in its learning and gradually increase the difficulty. On the contrary, if we want our dog to learn complex commands in a short period of time, we will only stress him out and get frustrated.
Learning must be done through positive reinforcement, that is, we must associate the behaviors we want our Labrador to perform with positive emotions, giving him treats, words of encouragement, caresses, etc. We also have the option to reward it through games. Now, Labradors have a tendency to be rather greedy, therefore rewarding them with food would be the most recommended. In addition, when the puppy performs behaviors that we consider inappropriate, but that are due to its nature, we must provide alternatives to take care of the well-being of our animal.
Once you have understood the previous points, we provide you with a brief guide on the basic education that you will need to provide your puppy to avoid behavioral problems once he is an adult. So, let's see how to train a Labrador puppy:
Teach him to come to your call
The usual thing in the Labrador puppy is that he constantly follows us because we are his reference figure and we provide security. It is possible that he walks away a few meters to snoop around and then comes back, even if we haven't called him. If we we effusively reward this behavior, the "return", through a very succulent reward, we will make the adult dog much more obedient and come when we call him, since that will relate it to something positive. We must, therefore, also get him used to relating this action with us calling him, always using the same word (his name or the command "come", for example).
As our Labrador grows into a teenager, he will begin to develop more independent behavior and he may begin to ignore us. It is common in these cases for handlers to lose their temper and scold their dogs. However, we must be patient and never punish or yell at our dog, much less when we want him to obey us when he comes to our call, as it is counterproductive because if he sees us angry he will want to leave. We must therefore continue to encourage our furry friend to associate coming with something rewarding, playing with him or giving him prizes, avoiding that every time we call him it is for something negative. For example, if when he is in a free environment we just call him to put him on the leash, he won't come in.
Help him inhibit his bite
Puppies have the habit of biting for two reasons: first, it is their way of calming the pain caused by the growth of their teeth. Second, it is their way of exploring and interacting with the environment. Now, when our Labrador bites us while playing, it is important that we indicate him by saying "ay!" or similar and let's stop playing with himIn this way, he will interpret that when he bites hard he hurts us and will learn to control his force. Also, when we play we can use ropes and similar objects that he can chew on and associate positively with the game.
In the same way, when we see him chewing on inappropriate objects, we will provide him with toys that he likes to chew on (such as those with treats inside) and we will reward him when he plays with them. We must therefore give him more interesting alternatives and thus discourage him from biting into something unwanted.
For more information on how to teach a puppy not to bite, we recommend you read: "How to teach a puppy not to bite?".
Provide hygienic habits
To educate a Labrador puppy to relieve himself in the right place we must, first of all, determine a place in the house that is his bathroom to place his newspaper or a pad there and encourage him to do it there. When he does it correctly, we will reward him with praise and treats so that he understands that he has done well. It is important to note that this option should only be used when the puppy cannot go outside at the request of the veterinarian. Once the little one can start to walk, the ideal is get him used to relieving himself outside
So, when we go out for a walk and we see him defecate outside, we will reward him so that he learns to do it outside the house. We must be understanding, since puppies are not able to control their sphincters well and, therefore, it is possible that many times they do not hold it. As our Labrador grows, he will internalize this learning and better control his bowel movements.
Teach him to stay alone
It is very important that your dog learns to be alone in a positive way, and this learning will prevent him from developing separation anxiety. This must be a gradual process, since we cannot pretend that our Labrador, being a puppy, feels safe being alone from one day to the next. For this purpose, we must leave our puppy alone in the room where he feels most comfortable together with a toy with which he can entertain himself (we recommend the use of the kong), for a few minutes, without going if he cries or calls us (of otherwise, it might mistakenly learn to bark to get our attention).
We will carry out these sessions several times throughout the day and progressively increase the time. Little by little, our Labrador puppy will learn that, even if we leave, we always come back and he will be calm and distracted with the objects that we have left him. Next, we can start doing these sessions by leaving the house for short periods of time
Train him to walk on a leash
Proper learning as a puppy about how to walk on a leash will prevent our dog from pulling on it in the future. We must normalize the leash so that the puppy does not perceive it as something negative, since from the perspective of our puppy, wearing a leash is an impediment to moving freely. For this reason, we will calmly put the collar and leash on him and reward him immediately so that he associates them with something positive. We will also try not to abuse the time the puppy spends on the leash and we will always be watching him, because if we get lost he could break it.
To practice the walk, we will try to move inside the house with our furry and we will reward him for staying by our side. When he walks away and the leash tightens, we'll stand still, call him back, and reward him again. In this way, he will learn not to pull on the leash. Little by little, we must practice this activity outside the home. You may be interested in reading: "Walking the puppy on a leash for the first time".
Once the puppy has acquired the habits described above, we can consider teaching him new instructions such as dropping objects, sitting down… It should be noted that despite being Labrador retrievers, each dog is unique and, therefore, may your puppy has more facilities or difficulties to learn some things.
How to train an adult Labrador retriever?
Once our Labrador has turned a year oldand has acquired the necessary routines for coexistence, we can consider having him learn exercises more complex.
The Labrador is a very adaptable breed to all kinds of situations and activities, therefore, our dog has great potential to acquire all kinds of skills and tricks if that is what we want. We must always keep in mind that for our farmer to learn a complex instruction, it must be made up of more basic orders. For example, to teach him to "make the croquette", it will be necessary for him to first learn to lie down on the floor and follow our hand. We invite you to read the following article in which we offer you all our tips and tricks to learn how to teach your dog different basic commands.
In addition, we must be constant, dedicate time each day to our furry and practice for no more than half an hour or an hour with a break in between. In fact, it is much better to establish short sessions, of about 15 minutes, spread over different times of the day. In this way, we will ensure that our dog is focused and motivated. Likewise, if we are not motivated enough or we feel down and stressed, it is advisable not to do any session with our dog, since it could capture our state of mind and associate it negatively with exercise.
If we are not looking to teach our dog to perform a lot of different exercises, we must bear in mind that although it is not strictly necessary, it is important that we keep our dog mentally active through environmental enrichment, for instance. Learning exercises is one of the different ways to achieve this and, together with the care that this breed needs, such as adequate physical exercise, we can keep our Labrador calm and without problems in his daily behavior.
Conversely, a dog of this breed that is bored can develop various difficulties, such as pica syndrome (ingestion of objects such as dirt, paper…). And we must not forget that the Labrador is a working dog, which needs to stay active so that its well-being is covered.
Tips for training an adopted adult Labrador
Now, if it turns out that you have adopted an adult Labrador Retriever and you wonder if you still have time to educate him, the answer is yes. However, in these cases it is important that we try to know the history of the dog, if possible, and that we learn to identify his signs to know if he is afraid, frightened, stressed, etc. Especially dogs that have been abused tend to be adopted with a number of traumas that need to be worked through before any basic commands can be taught. For this reason, we advise to go to a veterinarian specialized in ethology to evaluate it and indicate the steps to follow before starting the training of the Labrador on our own.
If the adopted dog is in perfect condition, then we recommend starting with socialization and gaining his trust. From here, we can start the education from the beginning, but keeping in mind that an adult can take a little longer than a puppy to internalize the rules and orders.
