video of labrador training
* GETTING STARTED The equipment needed is: A 6 ft. leather or web lead is best (nylon or rope may slide through the fingers causing a burn or blister, chain likewise, and is too heavy, creating the sense that you are pulling), a flat collar, and a twenty foot lead, long line, or rope.
Four empty but clean soda cans, slightly crushed so as to be "square" to prevent their rolling and creating a prolonged sound, with six pennies inside each, with tape over the opening, and a utility bag for carrying equipment.
Lastly, you'll need an open mind and a desire to improve the quality of life for your pet.
First Things First.
Proper handling of your lead: Failure to properly handle your lead is usually the first mistake that leads to your next and more crucial mistakes.
The lead must be handled in a casual relaxed manner to avoid transmitting tension and triggering the opposition reflex in your dog. Start by opening your hand with the thumb extended and palm facing you. Hang the loop or handle over the thumb, and gently close fist around both lengths of the handle.
Close your thumb down over the second joint of the index finger.
Pull down so the handle is to be snug over your thumb as you maintain a gentle grasp around the handle. This is a safety.
If your dog should pull hard, the handle will not accidentally slip through your palm. If it is imminent that you will lose balance and fall, opening the fist will release you and prevent a fall.
Next, take the length of your lead, and bring it upward, placing it under the fingers and in contact with both sides of the handle in your closed palm. You should now be able to pull or slide the running length through the palm to make adjustments.
Drop your arm down to your side.
The length should break just at your kneecap if you're dog were in the heel position. Ordinarily, the heel position is with your dog on your left side, and the lead will be held in your right hand.
Important labrador training exercise
effective training
You can start training a new puppy , and in fifteen minutes of work, have him responding just as though you've been 'good buddies' for a 'dogs age'!!! Once again, things seem simple enough, so we'll throw in a little extra.
Initially, just getting Rover to come, in response to the "recall" command, close enough to be able to pat him, would seem to be sufficient. While that may be good enough for most people, the puppy training Method promises and requires strict, exacting, discipline.
For now, in this initial phase of training, it would be counter productive to be any more exacting. However, after this initial phase of training is complete (maybe just one session of work, but do follow directions, and do this four times), you will be expected to cause your dog to sit directly in front of you during the "recall" or "come" exercise.
This will be extremely important in the "big picture". But, for now, we do not need to be so exact.
The hard part is done!
* The "Hot And Cold " Exercise
Remember the children's game where an object is selected, and the one who is "it" is directed to find same based on directions of "hot or cold" to indicate proximity to the object?
(We call this the hot and cold exercise. Actually, we hate calling this the "hot and cold exercise", and do so, simply for lack of a better name for it!)
We are going to do the same with your dogs attention, with you being the selected object. This "hot and cold" exercise takes about two minutes to perform. Done properly, this exercise will have the effect of shutting off his attention to anything other than you.
This practice should be used any time your dog becomes distracted or is not keeping his attention focused on you. Our objective is to cause your dog to always have one ear and one eye focused on you.
Done properly, your dog will end up directly in front of you, relaxed, and waiting for your next idea. As your dog moves forward and back, around and in front of you, allow your lead to flow smoothly through your hands, the free hand reaching out to collect your lead at its mid point, and place it in the palm with the handle, playing it out as he moves away, collecting it as he returns.
Just get used to the feeling of allowing your lead to flow through your hand, collecting it again, and allow it to feed out as your dog moves.
Be sure not to pull or allow tension on the collar. Do not lean toward your dog or move toward him, as this will cause the opposite effect, consequently subordinating our efforts.
Initially, just getting Rover to come, in response to the "recall" command, close enough to be able to pat him, would seem to be sufficient. While that may be good enough for most people, the puppy training Method promises and requires strict, exacting, discipline.
For now, in this initial phase of training, it would be counter productive to be any more exacting. However, after this initial phase of training is complete (maybe just one session of work, but do follow directions, and do this four times), you will be expected to cause your dog to sit directly in front of you during the "recall" or "come" exercise.
This will be extremely important in the "big picture". But, for now, we do not need to be so exact.
The hard part is done!
* The "Hot And Cold " Exercise
Remember the children's game where an object is selected, and the one who is "it" is directed to find same based on directions of "hot or cold" to indicate proximity to the object?
(We call this the hot and cold exercise. Actually, we hate calling this the "hot and cold exercise", and do so, simply for lack of a better name for it!)
We are going to do the same with your dogs attention, with you being the selected object. This "hot and cold" exercise takes about two minutes to perform. Done properly, this exercise will have the effect of shutting off his attention to anything other than you.
This practice should be used any time your dog becomes distracted or is not keeping his attention focused on you. Our objective is to cause your dog to always have one ear and one eye focused on you.
Done properly, your dog will end up directly in front of you, relaxed, and waiting for your next idea. As your dog moves forward and back, around and in front of you, allow your lead to flow smoothly through your hands, the free hand reaching out to collect your lead at its mid point, and place it in the palm with the handle, playing it out as he moves away, collecting it as he returns.
Just get used to the feeling of allowing your lead to flow through your hand, collecting it again, and allow it to feed out as your dog moves.
Be sure not to pull or allow tension on the collar. Do not lean toward your dog or move toward him, as this will cause the opposite effect, consequently subordinating our efforts.
Labrador training
In this example, let's say your labrador properly (maybe coincidentally) performed. However, that does not mean that he will always respond. Remember, a conditioned reflex means that your dog has ABSOLUTELY NO CHOICE BUT TO RESPOND PROPERLY!
Later, when you are done with all of the intricacies involved, test it out like this: Find yourself and your trained dog in a comfortable situation, like yourself sitting in your easy chair and him snoozing by the fireplace. Ask him to come in the proscribed manner.
When he gladly jumps up and sticks his big wet nose in your face, tell him he's good, and tell him he's free. Let him resume his leisurely pursuits and call him again.
Repeat this until maybe on the fourth or fifth occasion that you call him, he believes there is no point to getting up and coming all the way over to you just so you can tell him he's cool and that he may resume his pursuits. Just as soon as he refuses your trivial request to come to you, follow the procedure to make him come.
Remember; any time that your dog does not respond the first time you ask him to come, regard this as a major behavior problem and take the appropriate action to remedy the situation.
So now we must try again to set up the situation whereby your dog refuses to perform a request. Once again, repeat your (1st request) "dogsnamecomegoodboy".
If your labrador does not spin immediately to respond, instantly repeat the phrase with the accompanying sound: your (2nd request) "dogs-name-COME-good-boy", this time, using the can, by giving it one brief, hard, downward shake, (not a rattle), and only on the "key" or "cue" word, in this example, COME.
Later, when you are done with all of the intricacies involved, test it out like this: Find yourself and your trained dog in a comfortable situation, like yourself sitting in your easy chair and him snoozing by the fireplace. Ask him to come in the proscribed manner.
When he gladly jumps up and sticks his big wet nose in your face, tell him he's good, and tell him he's free. Let him resume his leisurely pursuits and call him again.
Repeat this until maybe on the fourth or fifth occasion that you call him, he believes there is no point to getting up and coming all the way over to you just so you can tell him he's cool and that he may resume his pursuits. Just as soon as he refuses your trivial request to come to you, follow the procedure to make him come.
Remember; any time that your dog does not respond the first time you ask him to come, regard this as a major behavior problem and take the appropriate action to remedy the situation.
So now we must try again to set up the situation whereby your dog refuses to perform a request. Once again, repeat your (1st request) "dogsnamecomegoodboy".
If your labrador does not spin immediately to respond, instantly repeat the phrase with the accompanying sound: your (2nd request) "dogs-name-COME-good-boy", this time, using the can, by giving it one brief, hard, downward shake, (not a rattle), and only on the "key" or "cue" word, in this example, COME.
