We get a lot of Labrador Retriever puppies in our classes.
And we know that they are fun, loving,
energetic dogs that required a lot of time exercise and training. That's why,
what happens in the first day and in the first week, home is so important.
So in today's video,
we're going to give you a Labrador retriever puppy guide so that you know
exactly what to do when you bring your new puppy home. I'm Kayl McCann.
This is eight week old black lab puppy, Hank, welcome back to McCann Dogs.
Let me get our puppies home.
One of the first things we'd like to do is start to get them to learn some of
the basics of our training that we can now begin with already.
One of the most important words your puppy is going to hear is the word. Yes.
And we're going to use that to pinpoint when our puppy is correct. Now,
the other thing I want to draw your attention to is this long line or this house
line that I have attached to this little puppies collar.
And I like to attach it when I'm doing my training sessions,
because I have the treats out.
He's not so worried about fussing at it and biting at it.
It's just sort of there and he's getting accustomed to it.
Now when we're teaching our puppies, the word, yes,
we need them to understand that it means something really good.
So we're just going to start off by playing a little word association game.
Now this is a little Hank and he has never tried this before yet.
So this is what it's going to look like the very first time we do it.
So he's not paying attention.
So I'm going to get my line and this is why it's important. I, Hey, there we go.
Good boy. That's why it's important to have the line on.
So they can't just run away.
Yes.
Feed.
Yes.
Then feed. Good boy. Yes. Feed. Beautiful.
Good boy. Yes, then feed.
So I'm saying the word. Yes. And then I'm rewarding. One second later.
Now the timing here is very, very critical.
It's important that he hears the word and then he gets to have the food.
If I say yes and I feed at the same time,
he's so enthralled with the food that he's probably not really internalizing my
word. So it needs to be yes. Then feed that timing specifically.
We want them to think that the word yes means he's wonderful and something
delicious is coming his way. Now in the same training session,
you can also start to teach your puppy how to respond to their name. Again,
you're going to need some treats,
some delicious treats and have a little liner leash on your dog so you can keep
control. And again, you're going to play a little word association.
You're going to say their name and then you're going to lure them with some
food. One second later. Now my puppy's distracted. Here's what I would do.
I'm going to get his attention. Hank, yes.
Good boy. When we're training our puppies, the idea here. Yes. Good boy.
Hank is that our puppies are 100% successful.
So if he's never heard his name before and he's distracted and I say Hank five
or six times, and he doesn't know what to do. When he hears that name,
I'm teaching him from day one that he doesn't have to listen to his name.
So it's important that every step right now is about teaching and learning and
helping. Now.
He's pretty engaged with me now because he knows that I have treats in my hand.
So I'm going to use this to my advantage,
Hank, and then I'm going to feed him Hank. Then I'm going to feed him. Good boy,
Hank. Good at his little ears. Come up. When I say his name,
Hank.
Yeah.
Good for you. Now you let him get distracted. One more time here.
Look it over here.
And I'm going to show you again. Look, it's on the ground.
Yeah.
So again, by using the food and timing, when I say his name,
I can successfully have my baby puppy. Who's only been here.
A few moments learning to respond to his name every single time.
One thing that's really great about a Labrador retriever is that they are often
highly food motivated, but sometimes it comes with the toll.
It means that when you're using the food,
they can sometimes be a bit overzealous and they can take the food from your
hand, very roughly.
And that's something that you can address very early on with your puppy.
So we play little games where we offer them some food and see how they take it
from our hands. So I'm going to put a couple of treats into my hand here,
and I'm going to offer my hand to, to Hank. And if he snips,
if he sniffs or licks at my hand, I'm going to reward.
He's a little bit of nibble on my, on my fingers there. So I'm going to,
yeah, that's better. I'm going to pull my hand away. So if I like what he does,
I'm going to reward him. If I don't like what he does,
I'm going to pull my hand away and give him a light verbal reprimand. Yes. Good.
Super dental. Now, buddy often.
Yeah. I literally only took one time and he was like, Oh, I don't.
I'm not supposed to do that.
Yes. Good boy. Now I don't hold it there forever.
I want to look for a very small yes. Opportunity to reward them.
Yes. Perfect. Good boy. You got one more.
Yes. Perfect. Here it is.
Hey, good choices that are made.
And now I get all kinds of kisses.
[inaudible]
you know,
another thing we like to do to help tire the puppies out and engage with them is
teach them about how to play with toys. Now, labs being labs.
They love to have things in their mouth. So try to choose a toy.
That's easy for the puppy to grab on to, and that you can move around and make,
look very lively. Now I have some treats hidden away in this hand,
but I'm going to see if I can engage them in this toy a little bit.
One of the best ways to do that is to wiggle the toy around.
So it looks a bit like dying, pray and let the puppy chase after it. Whoa,
he's got a good little latch. Now. Now once you sorta latched on,
I also need to practice being able to give him, I haven't give the toy up to me.
So once you engage, Oh, there we go. That's the puppy I'm looking for.
Woo. Good boy. So you see the head shaking in the growling.
Some people get a bit concerned with this, but it probably is just do this.
That's how they play.
And that's how they sort of show that they're having a lot of fun,
but I'm going to work on establishing some control in a really positive way.
So I have some treats in my hand, I'm simply going to trade him,
treats for toys out.
Oh my goodness. How fantastic was that?
Good boy. Now you see,
I pulled a fast one and I just tucked the toy behind my back here so that he
can't grab at it. But now we're going to try the game again.
So I'm going to bring the toy back out here
so I can move the toy around, get them to latch on a little bit.
Oh, good boy. Oh, you like that thing now you shake it. Good boy.
I was at the puppy. Really get into it before I have them. Give it back to me.
Good boy. Oh, he's wild. He's crazy. He's wild. Good boy. Alright.
Now I'm going to try a trade. I'm going to say out first,
and then I'm going to offer him a little treat reward and let him grab on again
out.
He's not dropping quite as quickly this time. So I'm just going to be patient.
Yes, there we go. Oh, he's not quite into it. So I'm going to try that again.
I'm going to make the toilet or the treats a little bit more appealing by
putting him right on his nose. Hey, Peppadew look at this. Okay.
So this is a good thing. That's happening. A lot of times people will be sick.
People will say I can't use the house slide because my dog just wants to chew
it. So I'm going to do the same exercise. But with this house line out,
yes. Good boy. Now, rather than letting them go right back to it,
I'm going to engage him into my attention.
Yes. Good boy. I can get,
get them doing something because if I just give him a treat and then leave him
alone, she probably a good chance.
He's going to go back to the line or I'm going to keep the line in my hand.
I might even wiggle it around a little bit. Yes.
And I'm going to reward him for ignoring it.
I'm going to get some more cookies out.
Good boy. Yes. Good.
Yes. Good boy. Good boy. So I can train him.
This is off limits. Yes,
but this is on limits. This is for puppies. This is for puppies. Yeah,
get it, get it. It's all about what you teach your puppy in.
The more you let them do things that they're not supposed to,
they simply don't know what to do. So we have to make things really,
really simple for them to understand good boy.
And if I make this toy more fun than biting on the line,
then he's going to sort of migrate to that. You're wild. Okay.
Can try one more little drop it.
Go boy out.
Yeah.
That's super good. Boy. Hanky, panky. Beautiful. Here it is.
Yes. Well done. You might be wondering why I'm standing in the hallway now,
but that's because it's one of our favorite places to practice.
One of our favorite games with our puppies and it's called a restraint recall.
Now we practice in the hallway specifically because there's nowhere to get
distracted from us.
I make sure you close all of the doors so that there's nowhere,
no sneaky places that your puppy can go. Instead of you. Now,
the way this works is you and your partner are going to be armed with some
delicious treats.
And you're going to set yourselves up on either end of the hallway.
And you're going to practice calling your puppy back and forth.
Make sure you use high happy tones, lots of noises.
You can even tap the floor to make it really exciting for your dog to follow
you. And as they reach you, you're going to feed them,
turn them around and then let your partner give the puppy a call.
And you're going to go back and forth a few times,
conditioning the puppy to respond to their name or even a fun here,
command all while they're getting lots of rewards.
Now there's a very simple exercise that we want you to start off practicing with
your puppies. The moment they come home,
and that's conditioning your puppy to accept you taking a hold of their collar.
Now there are many times throughout the day that we need to take a whole of our
puppies collar. And it's pretty common when we first do it,
that puppies often want to nip or bite or run away when we do that.
So we want to condition our puppies to be very comfortable with that process
happening in the way that we're going to do that is by incorporating a little
bit of food rewards.
So I'm going to get Hanks attention a little bit on me here.
I'm going to put some food right on his nose. And while he's snacking away,
I'm going to take my other hand and I'm going to put it in his collar. Yes.
And I'm going to reward several times as my hands in the collar.
Now I can move my hand around. I really want him to know that I'm holding on.
I'm not going to sort of be passive or sneaky about it.
I want them to know my hands in there and that there's absolutely nothing to be
worried about. Now, once I'm done treating, I'm going to let go.
And I'm going to repeat that process over and over again.
And I'll tell you that we make the suggestion a lot to our students.
And most of the time people say to us, Oh, my puppy is really good at that.
But then that same puppy turns 15, 16, six months, seven months old.
And now they start to say, I'm not a really like when you take control.
So this is something that you should practice. Even if your puppy is really,
really good at it because they need hundreds of repetitions of practicing this
so that there is no issues that come up along the way.
So I'm going to try it one more time.
So he's a little bit distracted. So I'm going to take the food.
I'm going to turn them around.
So he's engaged with me and then I'm going to take my hand and put it in his
collar. Yes. Good boy. And I'm going to reward generously.
Move my hand around a little bit. Yes.
Now you notice I took the time to have them focus on me before practicing so
that he knows that this isn't engaging time between the two of us.
So I'm at a food. So I'm going to let go.
I want the best part to be when my hands right in that collar.
Now you're going to soon find out that puppies are extremely busy.
So you're going to need a few ways to help control them.
We talked a little bit about the use of a house line,
but the other thing is going to be the use of a crate.
It's really important though, that we're teaching our puppies,
that the crate is a very positive place to be.
So we want you to take some time to condition them,
to go in and out of the crate with just some use of some treats. Now,
if you're having any puppy potty issues at this point,
this particular crate is a little bit too big for a puppy of this size,
but we thought that using a wire crate would be an easier way for you to kind of
see what's going on in there. Now he's investigating. Yes.
So what I'm going to do when he goes in there, Hey, pup you go try that again.
That was awesome. I'm going to use a bit of food.
I'm just going to put a piece of food inside there. Yes. Good boy.
And I'm going to let him investigate. And as he's in there,
I'm going to reward here it is.
Oh.
Now if he comes out, I'm not going to worry about it at this point.
We're just going to practice going in and out for some food. Yeah.
So I love using wire. Crate is I can do that.
Well, you missed it.
You missed it. Go ahead.
Let's try it again. Here it is.
Yes. Good boy.
And I might even reward him before he comes out. Good boy.
And then start to teach a command. Okay.
Yeah.
So it's my idea that he comes out and he doesn't just learn to go in and out.
Yes. Good boy. Good boy. And I'm going to feed him before he comes out.
It's right here. It's behind you.
It's behind you. Here it is.
I missed it. Try it again.
What? So I'm going to feed him before he comes out. Yes.
And then I'm going to tell him, okay.
Yes. So now you can see,
he's already starting to figure out the being inside is where all the food
happens. Now. Again, I have my house lines.
We can't just go and do his own thing.
Gooding has chosen cheese in there this time.
Yes. Good boy. Good boy.
Yes. Good. Okay.
Wow. That was awesome.
Good boy. Okay. We're going to push the limits because he's doing so well.
I'm going to throw it into the back of the crate and now I'm going to shut the
door.
Yes. Good point. And I wait until he turns around.
Yes. Good boy. I'm going to feed him a few times. Okay.
Yes. I'm not going to let them out.
So we're just going to practice short little spurts in the crate.
Nothing stressy. Look at that. Yes. Good boy. Here you go. Here.
It is nothing stressy, all fun and games. Good boy.
And a close it. Yes. Okay.
Anyone want to come out that time? You know what it's all about? Don't you go,
boy.
Now we've given you lots to work on in your first day and your first week home
with your puppy, but there's still lots more work to do. Now.
I want you to click that car right there to see our video on our puppy training
schedule by age on that note, I'm Kayl. And this is now a very tired black lab,
puppy, Hank happy training.