New Lab 6 weeks in

[artie]

I made the mistake of using my lab too hard. He would follow me when I was on skis in the deep snow. Also when the quad was stopped he would jump off and on it. I let him jump out of the back seat of the truck and now he has arthritis in his right front elbow. It is called jump down syndrome. In the winter I saw him running after a coyote on wind packed snow. The snow gave way and he did a flip and came up limping which lasted for over a month. The vet said that the flip was just the last straw as he already had problems in that elbow.. So what I am saying is watch your dog with the jumping. Labs are heavy in the front end and that is hard on their legs.

[R&R@60]

great advice quoted here!

Lardy seems to be the gospel, but as someone mentioned here, Evan Graham for someone not as advanced with training does a much better job in explaining and breaking it down to laymans terms plus his dogs in his videos don't always do everything perfectly so it helps you over come those obstacles or barriers in communicating with you pup that you will encounter. Some real good advice on this thread, training methods are better now than they were 20-30yrs ago. Good luck with your pup and keep us updated!

Originally Posted by Pixel Shooter

congratulations on your new pup, what a sweetie .

take it for what it is worth, my suggestion would be let the pup be a pup Typically we don't formalize obedience till the pup is 6 months old, by then typically they have their new permanent teeth in. Obedience formalized that includes whistle sit and here. If you are going to use a collar, collar conditioning would take place during this process. Sit as a puppy is easy as are a few things that you are already having great success, great on you two. have fun with it, keep it fun and short. they have the attn span of an ant LOL. At this age, its all about exposing your puppy to new things, having manners and building routines and slowly building desire/drive. Less is more at this age, honest

last comment, watch the length of exercise, with pups that grow at such a fast rate can be hard on limbs and joints. Might be worth thinking on putting your pup on some supplements. Awesome the whole family is taking an interest and pitching in. nothing better than puppy breath

[gatorhunter]

wwbirds. In just a couple short sentences, which book or video(s) do you recommend? I referred to water dog because it's the only one that I've used and it's worked. My lab is 7.5 years old so I see (unfortunately) another one in the next 4 or 5 years. I'd like to get a head start on learning from another training manual that does incorporate newer methods. Thank you.

[wwbirds]

Gator Any of the current modern trainers who subscribe to escape avoidance training there are a few listed in the link I posted but probably many more exist: excerpt

People like Mike Lardy, Evan Graham, Jackie Mertens, Dave Rorem, and most recently Danny Farmer and Judy Aycock. These people are the best of the best in dog training and have put their knowledge in training materials that are easy to understand, easy to apply to your dog, and that succeed because they are all based on a building block type program where each step builds upon itself and the result is a finished dog. The Basic OB and Transition stages are the same for training a hunting dog as they are for a field trial dog.

My personal favorite is a Tom Quinn whose Working Retrievers book was only printed once but is available from most libraries. If he didnt invent "cueing" he was the first to write about it in the late 80's.