I work nights, and my lab sleeps with me all day. At night, once I leave, he kind of goes on patrol of the apartment. He'll lay down in front of the bedroom doors for my wife and son. He won't budge from there. He just stands up, and waits to see who opened to door. I haven't seen him with a stranger in the house unless I'm there. When he was an outside dog, he wouldn't tolerate someone he didn't know in the yard. Once you left the property, he'd go back to his dog house.

As previously stated, Labs LOVE to ride in the back of the truck, and will run around like crazy. I have heard stories about them falling out, but I haven't seen it. Mine was a pup and he jumped out when we got home, before I let him out. I spanked his butt, and he's never done it again. I don't know about the crate training thing. I never tried it. He now rides in the cab of the truck with me. Great on long trips, I call Hoss my navigator.

I have noticed that sometimes when we are outside, if he doesn't know a person who is walking up, and I don't see them first, he can go off half cocked. Usually with my whistle (quail call) he stops and comes right back. Like I said, he responds well to voice and sound commands, even better to hand commands, if hes not to busy running.

 

labs are a great breed as they are strong,willing and loyal.

 

Already sits,fetches ,goes to her cage, housebroke and loves the water and taking showers. This is my 3rd lab, I trained her with treats, very easy, I'm working with her to try to make her point birds and retrieve waterfowl. She's doing very well, a good bloodline goes a long way.

Good luck!

 

I've found that mine, as much as she likes food, trained better with just a ball and some praise. Those is her main drives and she'll do just about anything for them. Most labs don't react very well to harsh training, quite the opposite. They aren't the smartest (as in thinking for themselves) but they are more likely to listen to your command than a self thinking breed (like the Old Eng. Sheepdog we used to have).

 

...but they are more likely to listen to your command than a self thinking breed (like the Old Eng. Sheepdog we used to have).

Reminds me of an Afghan Hound I know.

 

wow nice, thanks for all the help guys....he's begining to bite hard jejeje i guess thats a good thing..he's only 6 weeks old now....

 

This may sound cruel, but I assure you they don't care. I had the same problem with mine. Stick your thumb in his mouth, and cup his lower jaw when he bites to hard. Press down on his tounge. He will stop doing that soon enough. Mine would slowly start lowering his jaw, and when I pressed, he stopped. That was a professional training tip I picked up.

 

jeje am gonna try that tonight, but i dont want him to be too softy because he's gonna be a guard dog for the house outside....

 

I have had black, yellow, and chocolate, and trained many of each kind, and I believe the black lab is by far the smartest one.
I love the looks of a yellow lab, but they just don't train as quick as a black lab.
Chocolates are just dumb in a way, not to say they don't train, but they are hard headed to say the least.

 

Trust me when I say this, but if you teach him not to bite you hard when he's playing, he'll stop, and this won't stop him from protecting you or your house in the future. Dog's know the difference between play and intruders and they can snap out of SOFTY mode quickly.

 

I used to have a female black Lab named Maggie. She was a great dog and to this day is the best friend I ever had.
I dont really know of any Lab forums, but a lot of people on here have dogs, so Im sure someone here can help you.
Labs are really great dogs and arent all that hard to train at all. Just make sure that you provide them with plenty of chew toys and take them outside for a walk or a game of fetch for at least 30 minutes a day. If they dont get the chance to get out and blow off some steam, they go crazy.

 

yeah tell me about it...i couldnt sleep last night...had to bring him to bed because he kept on whinning all night.....

 

take him to the park so he can play with kids and other dogs. you want a social dog that's not going to freak out everytime you have company or someone walks past the house.

you also want a dog that will heel when he's told and that's best learned at an early age. my mom's lab is 10 this year. he's an old man now. when he was a pup the first thing i did was train him with lots of short walks till he ddin't need to be on a leash with me. i'd give him a little slack on the leash and then tell him here and when he didn't come give a little pull. best thing for a dog that he can be trusted off the leash and run around a little.

housebreaking is pretty easy too. just take him outside a lot and reward him as soon as he does his business. you'll learn the body language when they need to go and put him out before there's any accidents

 

I just got home and found that mine had eaten ANOTHER sneaker! And she is particular... she only eats one out of a pair. She now has a very guilty look on her face. "I couldn't control myself.... there it was, just begging to be eaten!" I am running out of pairs of sneakers!!! Other than that, she is a very good dog.

 

All that dog is going to do if a burglar enters, is hold the flashlight for him
Wonderful animals, not always very good at guarding though...at least mine aren't.

gw