SheltieLover,

One of the greatest things that you can do with a dog is to obedience train. As stated above, your dog will appreciate understanding it's place in your household and will love you all the more for it. Training should begin early as well. The main reason for this is that the larger your lab gets, the harder it will be to manage as an untrained dog. Simple dominance exercises, which help your dog understand that you are the alpha dog, are much easier to begin as a puppy than when your dog is 85lb+.

Another great side effect of training is what you will learn about your dog. A good obedience instructor will tell you a background on the commands and actions and how they relate to dog society. Your dog only understands your commands as a translation into "dog language." He or she may resist some commands or may easily conform, but these behaviors will tell you what type of personality your dog has better than if the dog could tell you him/herself.

Through obedience, you will interract with the dog and learn dog language as well. The more you understand your dog's behavior, the better you will be able to detect your dog's mood. You will be able to tell when your dog is feeling happy, sad, whether it is hurt, sick, upset, making up to you, etc.. I don't expect you to be sniffing buts or marking your neighborhood, but understanding your dog makes these behaviors a lot less disgusting.

As for making your dog miserable, look at Sophie's pictures. She has placed in the top three for the event in all of her obedience competitions and she is still the happiest dog alive! She gets excited as soon as she recognizes where we are going and I have heard the same thing about other dogs from my students.

Just be sure train your dog in a positive manner, ask LOTS of questions of your instructor, listen to your instructor, go to class every time, and practice every day (about ten but no longer than 15 minutes each day). Give your dog plenty of attention at home too, as if he/she is part of your family. You won't believe in how short a time you and your dog have a relationship you could never have imagined!

P.S. Slip-chain (choker) and prong collars are not inhumane if used as intended. They are not punishment devices, but attention getters if used properly. I recommend the use of a slip-chain collar for all but the soft throated breeds (your dog isn't). If you allow your dog to pull on the collar or choke your dog with it, you are not using it properly and you are only hurting your dog. For medium and large breeds that pull regardless of the slip-chain collar, a prong collar is a good tool. The proper use of the collar allows the dog to correct itself. Any corrections using this collar should be brief and not using much force. Failure to use these collars properly is probably the main reason for miserable dogs in training and inability of trainers/parents to make progress in obedience. You will only hurt your relationship with your dog. Your instructor can help you in the proper use of these tools.

Another useful tool is the haltie or Gentle Leader type collar. While this collar is the most humane way to curb pulling, some dogs may react violently to it, which is a bad thing if you are trying to train your dog, and people on the street sometimes confuse it as a muzzle which is bad for your dog's socialization.

Food and positive voice is by far the best motivator and, when used in conjunction with a proplerly used collar, it not only establishes you as a desirable provider, but also establishes you as a controller. Both of these things are essential in teaching your dog that you are Alpha. While some newer schools will try to eliminate one or the other, in my experience the combination of the two works best. I recommend that you find a school with a good balance between the two. Visit a few schools before you choose. Look for a school that uses lots of treats, happy voices, and stresses proper use of a collar. Try to eliminate fad schools that claim that they can train your dog through psychology: I have visited such schools and spoken to their students. Most dogs make very little or very slow progress and generally don't accept the authority of the owner/parent. If they cannot help you train your dog, they will blame it on your dog, you, or may even, as happened in one case of a dog who is currently in my class, recommend that the dog be put to sleep (this dog was simply very dominant, bored, and smarter than its parents and their daughter. It got a rise out of challenging them and did so in threatening dog-language ways. After getting the dog into my class, he quickly became my best student and the family is no longer having a problem with him! They are planning to compete with him and I believe that he can go very far.)

Good luck and happy training !


[This message has been edited by Sophies Daddy (edited November 20, 2000).]