Introduction
Labradoodles are extremely intelligent dogs very easy to train. But the first obedience lessons should start when your Labradoodle is still a puppy.
In this article we are going to give you some necessary information on Labradoodle basic training. We hope, that this how-to-train guide will be very useful for you.
House Training
House, or potty training, seems to be one of the biggest challenge for every dog owner. Since a puppy is at home, it should know where it can ‘go to the bathroom’. A traditional way of house training is to scold a puppy for doing its deeds indoors and praise a puppy for doing so outside the house.
Just take your puppy outside at specific times: first thing in the morning, straight after meals, as soon as it wakes up from a nap and before the bedtime. You can choose a phrase that will be pronounced every time you go out, for example, ‘Potty time!’, ‘Be clean’ and so on. These words will be associated with going to the toilet and you will find it very useful. Do not forget to praise your puppy straight after it.
Crate
Crate training will help you to train your Labradoodle overnight. The easiest way to introduce the crate to your Labradoodle is to feed the dog in it.
Soon, your puppy will associate the crate with its own house or hiding-place and won’t ‘go to the bathroom’ inside. When you open the crate in the morning, you should immediately take your puppy outside to the toilet.
Lead Training
It is very necessary to introduce a collar and a lead to your Labradoodle in a right way. For the first time, use very lightweight collar in order not to distract a puppy during the training lessons. A puppy should know that it must always go near you without pulling the lead frontwards or backwards.
Take the reward and put it down by your side and start to walk forwards. The puppy will follow the treat and after a few steps, stop and let the dog have it and give it lots of praise.
Training Your Labradoodle to Sit
‘Sit’ is a very important command for every dog. Take a reward and stand in front of the puppy. Show it the ‘yummy’ and raise it so the puppy is not able to reach the reward. A puppy will be trying to reach the food and finally it is going to sit – a high time to say ‘Sit!’ and give the reward to a puppy.
Training to Stay and Achieving the Recall
These commands should be trained after ‘Sit!’ is well mastered. For training ‘Stay!’ and ‘Come!’ you will need enough space (the perfect place is your backyard).
To begin with, ask your puppy to sit, using the verbal command. Then, use the verbal command ‘Stay!’ and raise the palm of your hand in a ‘stop’ manner. Proceed to say the command ‘Stay!’ and start to take backward steps. If your puppy follow you start all over again.
Take three or four steps back and stop, bend down and call a puppy by his name, for example, “Jackie, come!” When the dog arrives at your feet, ask it to sit again and praise and reward the puppy.
These are the basic commands and obedience rules every Labradoodle should know. Just start to train your dog as soon as possible, since younger dogs learn the tricks better.