Labrador puppy training is all about laying the foundations for good manners and great obedience skills as your dog grows and develops. Training your Labrador puppy should all be positive and rewarding. Catching those moments of great behavior and encouraging them, or setting your puppy up to win with simple training games. Along with that all important puppy potty training, of course.
Welcome to our Labrador Puppy Training Center. This is your portal to training a happy and obedient puppy, with expert advice and clear instructions for new puppy parents. Training your puppy should be fun, and we’ll help to make sure that it is!
Contents
Puppy Potty & Crate Training
For many puppy owners, potty training or house training, is the top priority for the first few weeks. You’ll want to know how long it will take, what the best methods are, and how to deal with any problems that arise.
Some of you may want to use a crate, and some of you may need information on potty training a puppy when you work.
All this is covered in our three key articles:
- An in depth guide to puppy potty training
- The ultimate guide to crate training your puppy
- 15 common puppy potty problems solved
Stop Your Puppy Biting
Biting can be a big shock to new puppy parents. Not just how hard and how much puppies bite, but how aggressive they sound when they do it and how much it hurts. Those tiny teeth are sharp!
- How to stop your Labrador puppy biting.
- Help, my Labrador puppy is aggressive!
- How to stop your Labrador chewing things.
- What to do when your puppy growls over her food dish.
Start Puppy Obedience Training Now!
If you are going to train your puppy with modern positive reinforcement methods, you can start training your puppy as soon as you bring him home at 8 weeks old. The methods we give you on this website do not involve any force and won’t cause puppies any stress. So it is fine for you to get started straight away.
This is important for any large dog that lives indoors with his family. A five or six month old Labrador is quite strong and will be up to all kinds of mischief if he is not given some training and boundaries
Puppy Training Methods
In the past, serious dog training did not begin until puppies were 5 or 6 months old. This is because dog training involved quite a lot of corrections and firm handling. Fortunately, times have changed, and dog training has moved on.
Most dog trainers now use predominantly modern positive reinforcement training methods and a growing number are what we call force-free trainers. Here is some more information about training methods, and getting off to a good start with your puppy:
- Comparing popular training methods.
- Should I use Alpha dog theory with my puppy?
- Getting started with clicker training.
Moving On With Puppy Training
Here are some great basic obedience skills you can start to introduce as your puppy develops:
We have a 12 week old lab puppy who won’t stop biting. It started off as play but is getting more aggressive as we try to stop her. Her play is quite boisterous and the biting is a big part of that. How do we calm her and take the aggression out of the situation please.
Hi Gill, it may help you to take a closer look at our Puppy Biting guide. Best wishes
I brought home a 20-week old female chocolate Lab a couple weeks ago from an Amish family, and am getting myself trained. At first, she was very skittish and would run from us, to the point that we wondered about her hearing. She’s doing pretty well on potty training, going outside mostly but still potties on the puppy pads during the night. I’m going to be crate training her, first time ever using a crate. I give her tons of praise, but can’t give her any food treats; she has chronic diarrhea. What kind of food is going to be best for her?
Soak food for 15 minutes before giving it to your pet. Try giving small quantity of plain yogurt once a day it will improve her digestion.
Avoid overfeeding.
I have a four and a half month puppy lab, he needs training
I don’t have a labrador but training is just the same. I have a 5 week old German shorthaired pointer / Doberman pincher mix. I had gotten him 4 days ago and he’s now potty trained, knows his name, comes when called and has a schedule he’s learning well. The potty training is simple, but it’s tedious to execute, regardless it’s highly effective and has worked in under a week for all my puppies I did this with.
FIRST, take them potty right after eating, right after waking up, and right after an intense play session. This requires you to sleep with your puppy in a small puppy proof area that’s easy to clean in case of accidents. I used my laundry room, but bathrooms and kitchens work well. Expect to be going outside every 2 hours or so. When they do go outside, give that pup some huge praise. Every accomplishment no matter how small is a big deal and you should celebrate it as such with your pooch! Praise training at work. By the second or third night they’ll get the idea and first signal when they have to poop, usually by climbing on you and/or whining. The colon is easier to control than the bladder but keep at it. He’ll start to signal for pees too, soon enough. The trick is to get him outside as soon as they start to signal as they themselves don’t have much warning either. If they wake up in the middle of the night and are wanting to play, play with them after pottying of course. They’ll settle down and go back to sleep. Even after they start to signal do this for at least one week straight to help deeply ingrain this into their little minds. This process not only trains your pup to potty outside but deepens the bond between you and your pooch by some serious strides. This area you do this will be like their den for this training and to canines, that’s an intimate family thing. For puppies younger than 10 weeks this area should be kept dim since the bright/harsh lights can not only tell your puppy it’s play time but it can slow their visual development.
I hope you guys find this useful!! Happy tails are wagging tails.
satej,
From personal experience in raising a number of dogs of varying breeds, I found that using soft treats when training any age dog is best. I personally use hotdogs diced small or boiled chicken breast shredded up small works great! Using these kinds of training treats are great for food motivated dogs/puppies and they don’t get too many fillers and grains in their diets. You can actually start training puppies as young as 4 weeks old!!! However, I would refrain from going around other dogs outside your home (especially dog parks!!) until you’ve had your second round of shots since the immunization affects don’t really kick in till then (as different vets have told me over the past.)
I just thought I’d impart some little lessons and wisdom I’ve learned first hand. I hope it helps! good luck!
Nice tips! Really appreciate your knowledge about dogs. Thanks for the share!