Training Labrador Retrievers

I have searched far and wide, across blistering deserts and stormy seas and some of the darkest and most perilous doghouses to find the answer…

Well, something like that. Actually, I found an old trick that will effectively train your Labrador to pay attention to you and only you, like I talked about in my last post. Remember, training your Lab to pay the utmost attention to your signals and actions is one of the most fundamental (and crucial) steps you must take to perfecting your Labrador’s behavior.

The trick works like this: Use a long piece of rope (or an actual dog lead, if you have one) that’s about 15 or so feet long. Fasten it securely to your Lab’s collar when you’re ready to go out and have a training session (this is an important process in itself, but I’ll have to talk about that in a future post). Naturally, as long as you haven’t messed it up in some way, your Labrador will be excited that you are taking him/her outside and paying him/her special attention. He/she will probably (if they are anything like my labs) bounce around, sniffing and exploring and having a grand time. Make sure you two go out to an area with plenty of room, because you’re going to be walking around an imaginary square that is roughly twenty feet long on each side.

The one factor of utmost importance in getting this to work is this: you must completely ignore your Labrador. No matter how much they beg for attention during this drill, no matter how they pull and whine and bark and run around, you can’t give them any attention. They need to learn that they need to be paying attention to you, and not the other way around.

Once you’ve gotten out to your area, line yourself up on your imaginary square and begin walking it purposefully. Hold the 15′ line tightly, giving the Labrador all the slack, but making sure you don’t drop it. Once you reach the corner of your imaginary box, stop for a moment and wait– then start walking the next side of the square.

If your Lab is at all similar to mine, he/she will probably pay no attention to you as you start walking, especially if you’ve brought him/her to a new area he/she hasn’t had a chance to explore yet. But once that 15′ line is tightened, your dog will receive a surprising jolt.

Keep walking around your square for as long as you would normally spend training your Lab (fifteen to twenty minutes is plenty). Keep repeating the excercise every other day or so for a couple weeks, and watch what changes take place in your Lab’s tendency to watch you. I found that my own labs improved greatly after just a few days of this exercise.

Try this out, and then tell me how it goes– I would love to hear about it (especially after all that globetrotting it took to find this gem for ya’ll!)

-Lauren