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Summary: Learn information, tips and techniques on how to teach your lab to respond and learn their name in this free video clip.
Views: 7,497 | Tags: training, basic, dog, obedience, lab, dogtraining, name, teachbehavior, labrador
About the Expert
Melanie McLeroy She attends conferences regularly, particularly those sponsored by APDT, Tufts and others. She is a trainer in the Head Start program at Town Lake Animal Cent... read more
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Questions & AnswersHi! I’m Melanie McLeroy with Taurus Training for Expert Village, and today we’re going to talk about training dogs. So let’s talk about how to get a Labrador retriever to pay attention. Labs are wonderful dogs. They’re mostly used for gun dogs and hunting dogs, but they’re very wonderful companions. They were originally brought over to this country to bring in the fishing nets, so Labradors are wonderful retrieving dogs. They’re bred to work with people, which makes them a little bit easier to train than some other dogs, who are bred to have a more independent personality. Now Labs are also very active, so they need a lot of exercise. This is Telula; as you can see she’s very active, come here kiddo, good, good girl. So see I’m using my body to try to get her attention. If you can see Telula has some discoloration around her eyes, that’s due to food allergies, so I’m using pieces of a special dog food to train her. Keep in mind that you want to use the lowest value treat that’s effective. Sometimes having to use the dog’s own food makes it a little more difficult to train, so you have to find other methods of motivation. If you have not already, be sure to check out the pre-training videos before you proceed with any training. Now we’re going to work on what’s called the name game. Telula is very distracted by some puppy dogs over in the play yard there, so I am going to say her name; now she’s paying great attention to me. I’m going to say her name after she’s distracted, and mark the second she makes eye contact. Telula, good. Now it’s a little difficult with a three-syllable name, Telula is a lot to say, so I’m going to shorten it into a nickname, wait till she’s a little distracted. She knows what the treat pouch means, I’m going to hide it, Lula, good. Now she’s making eye contact for a pretty long time, which is very nice, Lula, good. Now that little shake means she’s a little nervous, may be she’s shy on camera, Lula, good, good. Now the reason I hesitated there is that she was cheating, she was looking from where she thought the treat was coming up to my eyes, but she was flicking back and forth. I want sustained eye contact, I want to know that she knows that paying attention to me and asking nicely for the treat is how she gets it, Lula, good, Lula, good, so that’s how to teach a Lab to pay attention.
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