PUPPIES
All puppies are socialised from an early age with other dogs and daily experiences they may encounter throughout their transition from puppyhood to adulthood.
They are conditioned to mealtimes, and toilet training begins as soon as they are weaned, alongside crate training. The puppies are introduced to various farm animals and engage in human socialisation through small trips to town, which helps them acclimate to travel.
Extra training is provided, as one would expect for any working retriever, including exposure to various noises and ground surfaces, as well as conditioned gunfire during mealtimes, paddling in water, and real game to encourage the early development of prey drive.
All dogs can become fantastic, trainable pets, provided you have some experience in training working dogs and understand the nuances that a young Labrador will exhibit up until 18 months of age. Therefore, correct obedience and socialisation are essential.
Please do not apply for one of these dogs if you cannot commit to training 100% or if you do not understand how important this is for helping a puppy succeed throughout their lifetime.
If you want a yard dog, this type or style of dog is not for you!
A lot of reading is required prior to the purchase of any dog; learning about and understanding the breed of your choice is crucial for the correct care of your pet.
All of my dogs are sold on the limited register and cannot be bred from.
TRAINING YOUR PUPPY
HOW & WHY
Obedience training is one of the best things you can do for you and your dog. It opens up a line of communication between the two of you that is necessary for your dog to understand your instructions.
Nearly all behavioral problems are perfectly normal canine activities that occur at the wrong place or time or are directed at the wrong thing. For example, your dog will defecate on the carpet, bark all night for no reason or chew furniture. The key to preventing dislikeable behavior is to learn and teach your dog to redirect its natural behavior in acceptable ways in domestic settings.
Obedience training is also an easy way to establish a social hierarchy. Obeying to orders, your dog is showing compliance and respect for you.
If you feel like you need help, do not hesitate to enrol your dog in an obedience class to learn the basics. However, it is best to begin training in a familiar area for your dog and with the least amount of distraction possible. Once your dog becomes responsive to commands at home, try them in a different area. Progressively introducing distractions will eventually make your dog responsive in any context. When you choose a word for an order, stick to it. Do not say ‘No stop that’ and ‘Get off’ for the same order, as it doesn’t make any sense to your dog. Those are three different orders. Just simply use one word “NO”
Keep the obedience training sessions short and always end on a positive note. Try and integrate training into your daily routine, such as when you feed your dog.
TRAINING YOUR PUPPY
THE BASICS
REWARDS & REPRIMANDS
It is extremely important to reward your dog every time it responds to an order. You must set up situations repeatedly for it to learn. It is very easy to forget to praise your dog’s good behaviour, as it is less noticeable than bad behaviour. However, you must praise each and every piece of good behaviour from your dog. If you only punish them when they do something bad and do not remember to praise them every time they listen to you, you will thoroughly confuse your dog. Reprimands are important, but praising for good behaviour is more important still.
PUPPY EXERCISE
Your puppy should not do too much exercise as its bones are still developing until around 1 year of age, so do not take them on long walks until they are well over 6 months old. Too much exercise can lead to health problems later on in life such as hip dysplasia. A puppy will get all the exercise it needs playing in the house or garden. When out with your puppy, prefer soft surfaces such as grass rather than hard surfaces such as concrete. This is much better for their developing joints.
SOCIALISATION
DO'S
• Invite friends to meet your dog and encourage your puppy to play with them.
• Bring your dog to parks, playgrounds, and other places with lots of people and plenty of activity. Start with a lead.
• Take your dog on short, frequent rides in the car. Again, some dogs, like people, are carsick and nothing can be done about it (veterinarians can prescribe anti vomiting tablets if you are going on a long trip). Never reprimand your dog for vomiting in the car, it is not the dog’s fault!
• Introduce your puppy to different sounds. Loud noises should be introduced at a distance and gradually brought closer.
• Be kind to your vet and accustom your puppy to being put on a table, brushed, bathed, inspected, having their nails clipped, mouth opened, ears cleaned, paws picked up, etc.
DONT'S
• Don’t put your puppy on the ground where unknown animals have access until fully vaccinated.
• Don’t let your dog socialise with animals that appear sick or if you don’t know them.
• Do not reward fearful behavior. Let your dog get used to things by acting calm yourself.
• Do not allow experiences to be harmful, painful or excessively frightening.
• Do not rush your puppy.
• Do not overdo it. Young puppies need a lot of sleep and tire very quickly. Older dogs may panic if they take in too much at the same time. Take things slowly and calmly.
HOUSETRAINING
DO
• Provide constant access to a toilet area. In the beginning, your puppy will not know what it is for. It will eliminate anywhere and everywhere. Every time you see it eliminating, immediately pick it up and put it down in the toilet area. If you do not catch your puppy in the act but find urine or faeces on the floor, pick up your puppy and bring it to the place where it eliminated. Bring its nose close to whatever it did, repeatedly saying ‘No’ in a stern voice. Then pick it up, and put it in the toilet area. Let go of the puppy and walk away. If your dog has constant access to the outside and you want to teach it to eliminate outside, do the same thing: when you have brought them to the area it eliminated indoors and said ‘No’ a number of times, put your puppy outside for a couple of minutes.
• Every time you see your puppy eliminating in the toilet area, wait until they finish, then praise it by saying whatever word you have chosen as the 'praise' (remember, you will confuse your dog if you have more than one praise). It is not necessary to give a treat every time it eliminates in the right place as this may lead to bad habits.
• When going out, if you are leaving your puppy, it is best to confine it to an area that is covered with papers or whatever your choosing so that it can only eliminate in an area that looks like the normal toilet area.
• Feed your puppy at regular times.
• Encourage your puppy to sleep in the same place. Every time your puppy lies
down to sleep, coax it to the designated sleeping (crate, bed, or basket) area and stay with them, stroke them until they settle down and feel comfortable. Using a crate as a designated sleeping area is very useful if you will have to put your dog in a crate at some point in its life.
Confine them for gradually longer periods of time when you are at home in order to be able to leave it for longer periods alone if necessary in the future.
• Provide your puppy with a variety of toys to chew.
Puppy teeth change between 4 and 6 months of age and can be very sore so expect a lot of chewing particularly around that age. In adult dogs, chewing is a form of occupational therapy to relieve stress and release energy. If your dog gets anxious or if you do not come home until late, they may start chewing everything in the house. It is pointless to punish this behaviour as it may just make your dog more anxious. Just spend time with your puppy playing with its toys, showing them that these are the designated things to chew and repeating the praise for good behaviour whilst playing. Praise your puppy every time you see it playing with their toys by itself. If you catch your puppy chewing on something it shouldn’t be, say ‘No’ and replace the object with one of their toys, using the praise word as soon as its starts playing with the toy.
• Be patient! Getting frustrated and angry will only confuse and scare your puppy.
DON'T
• Don’t leave food out all day and night for your puppy to eat at whim. Have set feeding times, and if the food isn’t finished after 15 minutes, take it away. Your puppy will understand this very quickly, and finish the food if it's hungry.
• Don’t allow your puppy to eliminate anywhere other than the toilet area.
• Don’t give your puppy free unattended run of the house. You are the dominant dog in the house. You tell it where it can and cannot go.
• Don’t let your puppy get used to lingering around the kitchen when you are preparing food! This will encourage them to become a thief and beg. Say ‘No’ or ‘out’ or whatever order you have associated with the dog moving away from you. Point to where you want it to go, and accompany it to the place you want it stay. If they try to follow you back in, stop, say ‘No’ firmly and walk on. Repeat this until your puppy stops following you into the kitchen.
• Don’t leave rubbish, shoes or any valuables lying around the house in reach of your puppy. Leave toys in reach and in plain view instead. Keep doors closed.
TRAINING SCHEDULE
It is very important that you have one order for each action, and that you have a word to end an order. That is to say, when you tell your dog to sit, and praise them for sitting, you need to choose a word like ‘OK, its over’ or just ‘OK’ to signal the end of every order. This is of utmost importance especially for orders like ‘Stay’, ‘Heel’ and ‘Sit’. This is because as soon as you give an order, the latter must be carried out by both you and the dog until you say the end-word signalling that the order has been carried out to the end.
