Dog training?

lockedup5

lockedup5

overcompensating underachiever
Joined
Jan 30, 2008
Location
Burke County (Hildebran)
I bought my son a six week old black lab for him to grow up with which is ten weeks old now that might not make it to eleven weeks if I don't grow more patients. Just kidding. I would just like to have some advice on how to train the dog and how to treat him since I've not had a dog in twenty years I don't know how to handle him. I would rather have another child than this dog. Hang on I am having another child(it's another boy found out yesterday) so I'll have two kids and a lab puppy to take care of. Please pray for my patients.

Joking aside I just want Jake (the dog) to be obedient and an all around good dog for my kids. If you have any helpful tips on training or suggestions for a new dog owner please post up. My patients are wearing thin with him. Thanks in advance
 
Buy the book Water Dog

Its nearly 50 years old and still the bible of blue ribbon trainers and happy dog owners alike.
 
congrats on the new addition and soon-to-be addition.

What is getting to you? Is it potty training? Obedience? what? Is he an inside, outside, or in/out dog? Do you expect him to be a pet/member of the family or a hunting dog?


to start, don't use "pee pads". Altough they train the dog to pee on the pad, 99% of the time the pad is INSIDE. during the day, keep him in a crate just big enough for him to turn around in. He'll look cramped but it's fine. He won't go potty where he has to lay/sleep (unless he's sick or can no longer hold it). As soon as you get home, take him straight to the back door and outside. You may have to drag him as he may want to "wander" or try to go potty as soon as he gets out. If this is a problem, move the crate closer to the door or even carry it outside before letting him out. He will learn to use the bathroom OUTSIDE. As he gets bigger, slowly increase the size of the crate. Feed him inside his crate. Leave the door open when he is not in there. Put a pad in there and his toys too. It will create a sense of comfort for him and the crate will become his "room". Eventally if he is bad and you scold him, he'll run to his crate. this is a good thing. He is learning.

My lab is 10 years old and he hasn't been in his crate for 6 years. This summer we pulled it out because he had knee surgery and he had to stay in the crate during the day. As soon as we opened the door, he went right in and layed down without any commands.

Put the crate in your room at night. Let him sleep with you (in the crate, on the floor). It will give him some comfort. When he whines, ALWAYS ignore him. Do not react at all, not even yell or scolding. This creates a reaction to his whining and he'll keep on just to get some sort of reaction. Ignoring his whining will be tough and annoying, but it will go away soon once he realizes it itsn't working.

Always be consistent with training. I used treats and positive reinforcment for basic obedience training. Negative reinforcement on a small puppy can be detrimental and will cause him to be skiddish.

Sometimes with obedience training, you have to physically move the puppy in a manner that you are expecting him to react. Do this several times and he'll slowly learn it.

All of this has helped with black lab of 10 years. He did go through 1 loveseat, 1 couch, 2 chairs, and a couple pairs of shoes.

BTW, if you don't want him chewing on your shoes, DO NOT get the squeaky toy that looks like a shoe!:lol:

Hope this helps.


*Edit*

The book Ron recommended is a great book. I haven't seen mine in 6 years, but its floating around here somewhere.
 
Spend as much time with the dog as posible, take it with you where ever you go (kinda can't in the summer cause of heat) take it swimming and do not throw it in even if it won't go. Try going in from the shore cause they will watch you. Try to sleep with it everynight, you might get lucky and have a non bed peer. Make sure you are a light sleeper or tie a string to the dog and then to you. Oh make sure you take the dog out reguarly, like everytime it gets up, looks at you or you might be cleaning up a mess.
 
If its a inside dog get you a metal kennel.I have a 1 year old Choc lab and she has slept in the kennel since 7 weeks old.We potty trained here with the kennel,and also you wont have to worry about it chewing everything in your house when you not there.I wont go into all the specifics becasue it in outlined on alot of sites on the web but the kennel is the best training tool for a small pup.I agree with the above post .Spend as much time with the pup as you can .I took 2 weeks off for vacation when we first got Reese so we could work with her on the potty training and by the time I went bac to work she was trained.Make sure you have lots of chew toys around for it so it stays busy. My lab is the best,smartest dog I have ever had and my 2 boys (8 and 3 years old) love her like a sister.Heres a pic of Reese

ai142.photobucket.com_albums_r98_81k5guy_100_0100.jpg
 
If it were me, I wouldn't let my dog sleep with me on the bed. I did and now she jumps up all of the time while we are sleeping. Take time to exercise the dog daily and while it is tired take the time to train it. Spend about 5 minutes at a time with it training only and then allow it to play fetch or something it enjoys and then repeat. Labs love food for positive reinforcement and I am now trying a training collar for my stubborn lab who likes the bed and barking. I have a three year old lab that I didn't use a collar on and it slept in the crate, I don't have any problems with him. The new 1 year old is the problem.
 
Cesar Millan, his show the Dog Whisperer is on National Geographic Channel. Sounds corny, but his stuff works. I have one of his books but it is more of a case study in that he talks about the individual dogs more than the "rehabilitation" or training of the dogs. Check out the show if get a chance. I have found it helpful and goodness knows I needed something with 2 Saint Bernards, 1 German Shepherd and 1 Pomeranian:lol:
Good luck with it!!
 
X2 on Water dog, great book. I loaned mine to someone, and don't remember who!

As said, spend as much time as you can with him. Feed, and water on a schedule to begin with, and watch for the signs of needing to go. Once you figure out when he wants to go as to when he eats or drinks, you can judge when to take him out and get him used to ONLY going outside.
Talk to him just like you would a child, he will learn key words.
careful how you discipline him, loving words for a good job goes much further than a beating.
Don't use the time out method by using his crate if you use one, will make him NOT want to go in there.
Take him riding every chance you get, just don't feed him right before you go.
Every time you wake up at night, take him out.
Living next to I-40, I highly recommend you getting a underground fence and train him to it. He will learn fast.
take 15 mins a couple times a day and work only on obedience training, any longer and he will loose interest. Buy some cheapo dog biscuits and use them for training. Expand his training as his attention span increases.
Get everyone in your family involved in training.
The first time he fuzzes up at someone, don't scold him, he is protecting his family. Don't encourage it, let him do what he supposed to do. But, always let him know when it's OK and he can stand down.
If he jumps, or pulls, buy a pinch collar, they work wonders!
when you have to swat him, hit his butt, not his head. Use a newspaper, or fly swat or something like that, not you hand.

Much more I could share, but, it's time for bed.
Give me a shout if you have questions
 
Yes, as said before, don't use his crate for punishment or he wont go in there.

As he gets older he will (usually) compete for dominance in the family and will often try to ignore family members' commands. This is a lab's hard-headed mentality and he will overcome it. Just enforce the family member's commands and he will continue to listen to them.

Dogs have a bad habit of jumping on people. I cured my dog's jumping by putting my knee out when they jump. He didn't like that at all and he quickly quit. I've heard that turning your back will do the trick too but IMO that shows weakness to the dog (being submissive, etc.) so I don't do it.
 
Spend time with the dog...as much as possible. Don't put him in a pen out in the back yard and play with him when you feel like it. Crate training is the way to go if you don't like your furniture, shoes, garbage,etc.. being eaten. If he jumps on you or anyone else knee him in the chest hard enough to knock him over, they learn fast and quit jumping on people quickly.No one likes a dog jumping all over them and company. Just like kids they require discipline, and sometimes you have to remind him who's got the "thumbs" in the relationship. After about 2-3 years you'll have a good dog, well behaved dogs aren't an accident and don't happen overnight.
 
rockcity said:
...during the day, keep him in a crate just big enough for him to turn around in. He'll look cramped but it's fine. He won't go potty where he has to lay/sleep (unless he's sick or can no longer hold it). As soon as you get home, take him straight to the back door and outside. You may have to drag him as he may want to "wander" or try to go potty as soon as he gets out. If this is a problem, move the crate closer to the door or even carry it outside before letting him out. He will learn to use the bathroom OUTSIDE.
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If only it were that easy. I have a dog I am pretty sure is certifiably retarded. It just will not learn. And I thought a dog would not sh!t where it eat/sleeps, but this dog has proven that theory wrong as well. The kennel we put her in is just big enough for her to turn around in, not much more. As soon as we put her in there she craps and pees in it then wines as if that is a way to get out. She chews up anything she can except the chew toys we buy her. She is scared of everything and is skiddish as hell. We have to keep her tied up all the time or else she takes off and she will not come to calling her name so its a constant chase. But she always comes back cause she knows where the food is. I have trained a few dogs in my days including a blue pit who was stubborn as hell but he learned. We have another pit that is great and listens but this Treeing Walker Coonhound has yet to make any improvement.

Labs are alot better. They will work with you. One thing, they get huge. I have a neighbor who has a black lab and the thing pulls him around. It weighs prolly at least 90-100lbs and its lean! Good luck man, all good advise on here I just had to rant about my stupid dog.
 
dogs are just like people, some will learn and some won't. most will, in time.

my black lab pulls my wife around. Wife is 108lbs and dog is 115lbs!
 
My chocolate is 55 and shes grown...
 
Jake is going to be an outside dog. I prefer not to have an inside pet. I'm not really wanting him to hunt just be obedient. I will try to buy the book ya'll are talking about and hopefully read it. I just really get frustrated at the yapping and having to walk out and feed him then walk back and pick him up to put him in his kennel. If he would just kennel up I'd be happy for now.
 
dude..this is the best age for a dog...if you are that unhappy with him as a pup, wait until he can destroy shit.

That last post is really a little aggravating to me. You took responsibility for another life now you are frustrated at its dependence on you? It didnt choose a shitty owner, you chose it as a pet.
 
We used the petsmart training. I think it was about $100 for each age class. Each age class is I think 3 months long. It really paid off and very glad we did it. We have a half sha-pei and half german sheperd, he is very stubborn but with the training he straightens right up. We just did the beginners class, wanted to do the intermediate but lost time and didn't have the money so we just worked with him on our own.
 
you can't just leave him outside by himself even if he is going to be an outside dog. You need to start inside first so he can spend time with you and you with him. Once he learns, he will be just fine outside, inside, etc. etc.

Leaving him by himself ouside will only get him bored and lab puppies get bored really quick. When that happens, the learn bad habits or chew everything up.
 
My lab failed out of Petsmart training. (J/k) It worked good enough. Other than some jumping when she is excited, she has been great. She can stay inside by herself for waay too long and not ruin anything. She is crossing her legs when we get home sometimes, but she will not go in the house.

This was probably said, but I think its more about training the owner than the dog.
 
I posted up a few months ago about my new buddy, Sasha. She is a Border Collie / Australian Shepard mix.

I don't think Water Dog would apply in MY case but for Labs it is THE definitive book from what I understand.

There is a book by the New Skete Monks called "How to be your dogs best friend" and I am really liking it so far. Lots of good information about your dog, I have not made it yet to the strictly obedience stuff yet, but the rest has been good so far.

There are sorta TWO schools of dog training out there, the more recent is 100% positive reinforcement where you only reward for good behavior.

The second is where you do have some form of "correction" and New Skete is a bit of both. They correct the bad behaviors such as a push with your knee to the dog when they jump on you, that works FAST by the way and then reward good behavior as well.

Sasha was crate trained in that she sleeps there at night, and during the day she is outside. In the evenings I come home and train with her and play as well. Then later she gets to come inside and hang out while we watch TV.

I put a 6' leash attached to the leg of my couch, a big fluffy bed for her next to me on the floor and toys for her to play with. So she gets to hang out, we don't have to worry about her running off constantly, etc.

I took a 6 week class with her on the basic commands, unfort the training was such I missed a week, then they were off a week, then the trainer wasn't there and an alternate was there the next week, so I really didn't get my moneys worth but I got the point.

Sasha has a REALLY good SIT and working now on a few other commands, that is what I am currently researching. Trying to find a good book or video (haven't watch youtube actually, that might be a good source) that will give me the basic sets of commands.

Not to hijack your thread but if there is sources for that, you and I both could use them!!

Everything I read is the same stuff folks told me before I got Sasha and they are working. She loves riding around town with me, and that is what I wanted. A COMPANION dog! So far she is not mature (or lazy) enough to really come to work with me, but in the evenings or weekends if I am running an errand she comes to "help"

Sam
 
There's no such thing as an outside dog.

Either you have a dog, and you train it and care for it, or you have some ignorant fucking animal that stays tied up in your yard.
 
saf-t scissors said:
There's no such thing as an outside dog.

Either you have a dog, and you train it and care for it, or you have some ignorant fucking animal that stays tied up in your yard.
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Yup...

Sam you might be shocked at how much Water Dog could help....it is not strictly hunting, in fact has very little hunting....but has great techniquees for basic command training.
 
saf-t scissors said:
There's no such thing as an outside dog.

Either you have a dog, and you train it and care for it, or you have some ignorant fucking animal that stays tied up in your yard.
Click to expand...

We have a an outside dog......


I have never seen a dog tear siding off a house!! Apparantly there is nothing this dog wont tear up.


BTW - Free dog to good home :bounce2:
 
Our labs are part of our family. (yellow and black) From my experience, the yellows are way more laid back than the black ones for some reason and take a little more patience to train. I also do not agree with the "outside" dog. What training do you need for that? As for the inside training (which labs are great for) DON"T yell at them. They respond as people do. Get them on a regular schedule for going out side. This means when they get up, after they eat or drink, or have been in the house for a few hours and take them out.Don't let them drink after 9:00pm, Praise them when they do their job outside. If they do go in the house, just scold them lightly, and let them know it was wrong and they will pick it up quick. I can't stress enough how much the praising them works. Heck, our dogs do not even go out of the yard. Just be aware that they do shed ALOT and you will have to deal with that. As for our family, it is a small price for the love and companionship they will award you with. And yes they are a very large lap dog that loves attention. OH and they do love water and swimming.
 
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