Training your 7 weeks old Lab puppy should not be an arduous task in your life, or in the life of your Lab. All you need to do is adhere to a couple of straightforward points and schemes, the method would then become enjoyable and gratifying for everyone involved.
There are several different phases that a Lab goes by, and a few phases will inculcate freedom and confidence in the Lab, while others will be inclined towards being “training friendly”. By grasping these phases and steps, one can defer a lot of annoyance and master to work with the puppy, instead of picking up a revolting attribute.
Identification of personality is the primary key
When you search for a little puppy to bring home, you must focus on the personality traits of every puppy. When it comes to selecting a puppy, it is all about choosing the suitable litter. Also, the genetic pool will always be the same for each little dog in the litter. Nonetheless, you should focus on traits such as, check if the puppy is hostile towards his littermates or not. Perhaps he just has a subdued or passive personality.
There are certain tactics to decide if your little one belongs to one of those subdued or fierce; glad or terrified; social or asocial ones.
You can put your puppy on your back and check the amount they battle against a weak point. In a case where the puppy simply stays there until you release him, then the puppy is certainly subdued and passive in nature. However, if your puppy revolts against the position he is put in, then you must check the amount of time he is able to battle. Consequently, you will be able to determine the degree of aggressiveness of your puppy contrasted with his fellow mates.
Put forth a hand of friendship
Before beginning anything, we need to ensure that we are in a jovial and light frame of mind when we start the phases of. In case we are fatigued, under a stress, or just not happy, then it will be immediately transmitted to the puppy, and this can turn the training into a less enjoyable and more complicated one. Do find time to appreciate the Lab when he does an activity in the right manner.
To put a cherry on the cake, make sure that you exercise your Lab before beginning the phase of training. It permits his additional energy to mitigate and gets utilised and in turn provides the Lab a good chance to divert his attention to. Contrastingly, if your Lab does not exercise prior to the session, then he will be diverted to say, frolicking around and enjoying fun instead of taking the training seriously.
It must be noted that your Lab will certainly want more of the learning sessions if these sessions are conducted in a loving and amicable surrounding atmosphere where the Lab feels victorious.
Keep it natural
Kindly take a mental note that your Lab puppy is not yet completely built up, nor does he possess an absolute hold over his bodily mechanisms. Therefore, you should take your Lab outdoors numerous times in one day, and never forget to award him when he urinates or defecates outdoors. The same procedure is also effective when the Lab chooses to sit on his own.
A routine is a necessity
You can make a schedule that includes the time pattern of your Lab’s training, stroll, or exercises. This will lead the Lab to perceive the distinction between fun time and training, and will motivate him to pay attention to training. You can appreciate, pat, hug, and deliver loads of attention to your little Lab when he reacts rightly to the command you give. This builds up the process of learning naturally in the Lab.
Always hold an encouraging demeanour for your Lab’s learning. Also, try to follow a regular approach when imparting him commands or the manners of training. No sooner the Lab will surprise you by his perfect reactions to your commands. Always keep in mind that a few days are light and happening, while the others are not. All you need to do is to highlight the good and positive aspects of it.
Essentials to train your 7 weeks old Lab puppy
At the very beginning, we start by teaching the puppy simple things such as the following:
- The place where his water bowl is placed.
- Instruct him about the place and position of his food plate.
- Allow him to learn about the timing of his meal.
- Instruct him about the place and position of his bed.
- Teach him where to go to the bathroom.
- Allow him to learn about the timing for his stroll or run.
- Instruct him about the place and position of his toys.
A fixed routine provides a Lab with a sense of security and safety. The Lab develops a sense where he perceives what is the upcoming activity. As a little one, your Lab may not be confident enough surprises, be it good or bad. We can say that a routine provides a puppy with a confident feeling that he can anytime rely upon you.
A 7 weeks old Lab puppy should also be trained to react to a couple of general commands such as the ones given below:
- Obedience– He should follow general instructions, for example, “no” or “stop that”.
- House breaking– He should be given access to his bathroom. It will act as an initiator to his house training.
- Crate training– The Lab puppy must obey your command to head back to his crate and put up there calmly.
- Handling– The Lab puppy must learn to stand still while you brush him, clip the nails, or floss his teeth.
- Mildness– A very essential trait to be acquired by a Lab puppy is mildness. He must learn to take stuff or treats softly from your hands.
Squeeze Training
To prep up your little puppy for his training, you can start with the elementary squeeze test. You can begin by holding the puppy in your arms and then sit tight to check his reaction. It may happen at one point of time or another that the puppy begins to wriggle, and you may naturally react to it by putting the puppy down. However, the trick is not to put him down yet.
Rather, you should now provide him with a delicate squeeze by keeping hold of a little pressure. This will allow the Lab to unwind himself and keep patience for you to ooze out the pressure. It may be the case that a few puppies choose to battle against the pressure weight and wriggle much more. This will certainly give you an insight of your Lab’ nature and personality.
Sooner or later, even the most tenacious puppies will quit battling against this delicate embrace of yours. At the point when the Lab stops, you must promptly discharge the pressure. In a case where the puppy begins to battle once again, at that point you must reinforce the delicate pressure until the puppy stops.
It ought not take an ample amount of time before the puppy makes sense of the fact that the pressure ceases to exist once he ceases to battle against it.
You can choose a time frame of say, seven seconds where the Lab should calmly sit in your arms. Once the time frame chosen by you is over, then you can allow him to get down and roam around or just let him flee. In not much of a time, the Lab will learn to become absolutely still the moment you decide to provide him a little delicate squeeze.
Communication solves all the problems
Training is all about communication. The puppy should be able to interpret what is that you expect from him at a point of time. Then, he can gradually learn to respond rightly to your instructions.
Remember that communication is something that always flows through both the parties. The Lab needs to get all his energy and learning drive to focus on everything that you instruct him and make him learn.
- The particular words that you are going to use as your instructions.
- The alteration that you bring in your voice.
- The signals that convey through the usage of your head and hands.
It is suggested that you should primarily teach your Lab by way of voice instructions. Then, you can move over to use signals through your hands as well as voice at the same time. Similarly, it will allow you to do a trick or two with your puppy just by using signals through your hands.
The added advantage is that your choice of signals to be used is totally up to you. So long as you are able to develop a good manner of communication between the two of you, then everything is up to the mark.
Time to socialize
Socialization will majorly affect your puppy’s confidence in new conditions. He should be presented with as many new things as he is prepared to encounter them.
You can begin the social prep-up by taking him to the recreation center or a children’s park over the road from your home. There are a huge number of children there and that is actually what you should look for when you begin to socialize the puppy. The children need to pet the puppy when they see him. You can instead ask them to hold him.
This will open the Lab puppy to new individuals and allow him to count their scents. The more he encounters various individuals the more he is going to think this is normal. That is the thing that you must strive for that your puppy is alright with bunches of new encounters.
Likewise, you can take your Lab puppy to different spots where he will look, listen, and smell different people and stuff. Moreover, even wild or adventure strolls in places fields close to your home are additionally extremely supportive with regards to boosting up your Lab’s confidence.
Types of Training for 7 Year Labrador
1) Teach the command “sit”
- Stand in front of your Lab and extend your right arm straight out in front of you 90 degrees to your body. Hold a treat that your puppy likes in your hand.
- Take the treat close to your puppy’s nose and give him the voice command of “sit”.
- Gradually raise the treat over his head. He will go down on his haunches as you do so.
- Do not give him his treat until he sits down completely.
- Repeat this exercise a few times.
2) Teach the command “down”
- Ask your Lab to “sit”.
- Bend your arm at the elbow with your palm facing downwards.
- Bring your palm slowly down to your side.
- Hold a treat for your pooch in the palm of your hand.
- Lower your hand that is holding the treat down to the floor between the puppy’s paws.
- His nose will follow your hand that is holding the treat and he will get into the down position.
- Now you can release the treat to him.
- Practice this command until he masters it.
3) Teach the command “come”
- Stand a few feet away from your puppy.
- Get his attention by calling out his name.
- Extend your arm towards the dog and then raise it towards you in a conventional “come” gesture.
- At the same time use the voice signal of “come”.
- Once he follows this command, give him a treat and plenty of praise.
4) House training
Usually very high on the list of training priorities for a Labrador puppy is the issue of house training. Teaching your Labrador to avoid elimination in the house is important for several reasons- the most obvious of which is the odor and mess that a non-house broken puppy will make.
In addition, there are health concerns for humans, puppy and other animals if there is fecal material in the same area that food is prepared or consumed. Often puppies will eat their own waste, so keeping the animal away from this material is also important to prevent bad and unsafe habits from forming.
5) Crate training
One of the most successful ways to train a puppy is to use the crate training method. The crate is seen by the dog as a safe area or den that he or she can use to sleep, or just to spend time.
There are several benefits to crate training your puppy that will continue to be useful as your puppy matures. A crate provides an excellent environment for transporting your Labrador, a comfortable yet confined place when you are not at home, a method to control challenging behaviors such as digging and chewing, as well as a tool for scheduling toileting, sleeping and other activities.
It is important to allow your Labrador puppy to adjust to the crate and to learn that the crate is a good place to be, not a punishment.
- Start by placing the crate on the floor, and placing inside some dog treats and toys.
- Close the door, and let the puppy sniff around the crate. The puppy will soon realize the treats are on the inside, and will whine or scratch to get into the crate.
- Praise the puppy for wanting in, and open the door. Leave the door open, but don’t praise the dog for coming out.The puppy needs to learn that inside is better than outside.
- To get the puppy to go back into the crate have a few more treats and toss them towards the back of the net.
- Positively reward puppies for walking and eating them.
- Gradually begin to close the door behind the puppy. If the puppy does start to whine or bark, make sure that do not let him or her out until it is quiet, or you will be reinforcing the whining behavior.
- Always have a treat or two inside the crate, and start saying “crate” to alert the puppy to go in for a treat.
- Never force the puppy into the crate or it will start to be seen as punishment.
- Increase the time in the crate but do not exceed thirty minutes to avoid any accidents or stress on the puppy.
6) Paper training
For the folks who are unable to spend time with their Labs during crate training, there is yet another viable option to resort to paper training. You can begin with a little place where it is easy for you to limit the Lab. Also, kindly ensure that there is no carpet or mattress kept at that place, and the floor can be mopped off easily. Now, stack a layer of paper on the entire place of the floor. The Lab shall randomly go to places, and in the process be constantly eliminating on paper. Do clean of the area as well as the paper as likely as possible to maintain hygiene.
The Lab will only mess up in particular places on the floor. Now, reduce the usage of paper bit by bit on the floor, and make it come down to a little but manageable space. In a case where the Lab messes outside of the place, then just enclose that place with paper and reduce the area for him.
After a time when the Lab strictly uses the paper that you have provided him with, then you should slowly start placing it in that part of the home where you would want him to use.
7) Litter box training
This method is effective with small breeds of dogs, such as the Labrador. Dogs, unlike cats, will not use a litter box naturally; so will need to be taught. Start with the puppy in a confined space, and use the same method as the paper training. Spread the litter on the floor and have the puppy become accustomed to feeling the litter under its feet when it is eliminating. Gradually decrease the space the litter is spread in the room or area.
Move the litter to a box when the puppy is ready. Make sure that the litter box is the correct size for the puppy, as they may not be able to get in and out of the box. This method is practical, but may be more difficult to manage in the initial training stages.
Few tips to maintain cordial relationship
- Don’t be hard on your Lab. Never ever hit your Lab, no matter what he does.
- You should constantly be in a situation to train your puppy before you begin showing him another instruction.
- At whatever point your puppy reacts well to your training him, you should give him a great deal of commendation.
- Be exceptionally clear and steady in the commands that you use. Do not let your bodily gestures collide with your verbal command.
- While training your puppy, your planning ought to be adept. You should address your puppy not long after he commits a wrong act. Else he won’t have the option to associate the reform with the wrong act.
- Speak out your puppy’s name each time you train him something. It builds the feeling of mutuality that exists between you both.
- Try not to speak your Lab’s name when you are stating “no” to your Lab.
- The training must be viable enough to guarantee that your puppy doesn’t reiterate the mistakes.
- At the point when you are training your puppy to “stay”, you should build the time you request him to stay bit by bit.
- When training your puppy to “heel,” make sure to stroll in squares. Try not to stroll around and around.
- Aim for flawlessness in whatever you choose to do.
- Most importantly, be understanding and consistent with your Lab puppy.
Conclusion
Always remember that a 7 weeks old Lab puppy is similar to a toddler. It demands lots of love, attention, and care. With a routine training and healthy pattern of habits, you can cultivate him into the smartest dog into the family. An early training ensures that the puppy grows into a mature adult dog.
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