Five minutes of dog training at feed time.

Always insist that your labrador puppy participates in a 5 minute training routine before giving them their food. If you feed twice a day then you’ll have 2 training sessions. Start at 8 weeks of age. They’re never to young or too old.

An 8 week old Labrador pup requires 3 feeds a day to guarantee that they get the proper intake. You’ll have 3 opportunities to train your labrador pup or any breed for that matter. More short length training sessions are preferable to 1 long session each day. A young labrador will lose focus fairly quickly.

For this reason, I like to do ‘focus work’ with my 8+ week old puppies. I hold a ‘treat’ in each hand and ask them to ‘watch’. The instant the pup make eye contact with me I ‘mark’ the obedience - ‘yes’ and reward. If they have learnt to focus on me, I know that when their attention is lost, I have over extended the pup. Keep you training sessions positive and successful.

You might prefer to tether you dog on a 2-3m line. This simulates off leash training. Other wise you’ll attach you training leash.

The first goal in training a Labrador of any age is to establish the ‘reward marker’ - ‘yes’. Once you labrador puppy understands their ‘reward marker’, they will begin to problem solve and offer a response in the hold of gaining the ‘reward’.

The second goal is to ‘lure’ your dog so that they will follow you. Draw your puppy into a game, making the treat in your hand a ‘target’ for them. Lure the puppy in any and all directions. Finish short routines with ‘yes’ and ‘reward’.

The third goal is to commence teaching you dog specific positions. My dog trainers recommend that you start by teaching the ‘sit’ command.