Training Labrador Retrievers

Boundary Training For Labradors

Yesterday, I had my two labs outside with me as I took a break from work and played a little frisbee in the front yard. As I watched them, they would frequently look down the street or into the next yard and it was obvious that an epic moral struggle was waging in their minds– should I run to check out all those awesome new smells, or should I stay here by Lauren like I know I’m supposed to?

After watching this, it occurred to me that I’m sure some of you are still working with your dogs to train them to be manageable where there aren’t fences or leashes to contain them.

Mind you, it’s never an excellent idea to have your dog untethered where he could get away and even into danger. But this training makes it much easier to keep tabs on him/her and will make your dog much more easily managed.

Here is the step-by-step formula, as told to me by Paula the Professional Dog Trainer (You can read more about her here.)

1. Make a boundary that the dog can see– use flags, a painted line on the ground, etc.
2. Put a leash on the puppy and walk along a couple feet from the line. Then every time the puppy goes to cross the line, give the puppy a little tug and tell him “No” to get him to stay on my side of the line.
3. Once you achieve success while walking them on the leash, put a long-line on them. (I would stay twenty or thirty feet back.) Then let him go out and do his thing. As soon as he starts to cross the line, give him another tug.
4. When the dog was really good in those circumstances at staying there, then try doing things to entice the dog to cross the line. Roll a ball over the line, or have another dog or person stand or play beyond the line. Remember to give your dog a correction every time he begins to step over the line.
5. Now, following the instructions above, work the boundary with your dog by walking it as often as you can. This technique is much more effective when coupled with the heel exercises you can watch in your free dog training videos.

Good Applications

One good way to use this technique would be to use the grass/curb in your front yard to form a boundary. You can use the leash techniques outlined above to train your dog not to cross the curb into the street.

Another application for this technique is to warm up into exercise (read about the secrets of correct dog exercise here) by working this method for about fifteen minutes before you exercise your dog. Working through a training exercise with your dog before allowing him to run around and play not only builds a positive attitude towards training, but will help you to better manage him by limiting his exercising room to the boundary you taught him.

A third way to use this method is to use it inside your house. If there is a room that you don’t want your dog to go into (or come out of), use this technique to boundary-train your dog.

Once you’ve tried this out, feel free to comment and tell me how it worked out for you!

To watch two dog training videos that are normally part of the Response Revolution training course for FREE, click here: free dog training videos!
-Lauren