Make Dog Training Sessions Fun
Golden Retrievers learn well through games. Keep things fun to retain your Goldens involvement and intrigue during each training session. Use a happy tone of voice rather than a stern one.
Avoid yelling and exercise patience. If your pet doesnt respond to a cue from you, you can gain his attention by being playful and making the task a little easier to get him re-engaged.
How Can I Prevent Accidents
If your dog has an accident, it is because you didnt take them out often enough or you were not watching your dog closely enough when he or she was sniffing around and looking for a place to go.
- The best thing to do at that point is to clean up the mess and move on. Your dog will not understand why you are upset.
- If you find a wet spot, soak up excess urine with a towel or paper towel and scrub the carpet with an enzymatic cleaner.
- If you catch your dog urinating on the carpet, clap your hands. This will startle the dog and cause them to stop going to the bathroom so that you can carry them outside to finish up.
- You can prevent accidents by watching your dog closely for behaviors that indicate they are about to relieve themselves and rushing them outside when they are.
- You also want to make sure you are taking them outside at the appropriate times to give them the best chance at being trained quickly .
Are Golden Retriever Puppies Easy To Train
Golden retrievers are a sporting breed, which means they have a lot of energy even by puppy standards. Like other sporting breeds, they need a lot of exercise and stimulation.5 Your Golden pup is also likely to have a short attention span, which can be challenging.6 But raising a well trained Golden Retriever pup is far from impossible.
Along with exercise, obedience training may give your dog a constructive outlet for all that energy.When your dog is trying their best to understand you, it means their brain is working extra hard. That may help make for a happily tired-out dog.7
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Reward Based Obedience Training
This is a type of training in which you capitalize and highlight a Golden Retrievers obedience and reward it accordingly. Essentially, you will ignore any negative behavior, but recognize and reward positive behavior.
This is a type of Golden Retriever training in which you will never use any form of punishment if the dog disobeys you.
When Should You Start Training Your Golden Retriever Puppy
The sooner the better.You should try to socialize Golden Retriever puppies and start teaching them basic obedience commands before theyre six months old.4
As frisky as they are, Goldens are also eager to please, so take advantage of that impulse early. Obedience training will also serve as valuable bonding time with your pup. And remember: theyre only this young once, so make sure you allow yourself to enjoy it.
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Training A Golden Retriever: The Complete Guide
Whether you are thinking of becoming the lucky pet parent to a golden retriever, or already have a golden fur baby at home, its important to educate yourself and your family on how to train a golden retriever at any age. Not all golden retrievers enter their new families while puppies some are lucky enough to be rescued in their adolescence, adulthood, or even senior ages.
You Must Make Room For Your Dog And Her Hair
Golden Retrievers are mediumlarge dogs. A male Golden is about 23-24 inches tall and weighs between 60 and 75 pounds . Females are smaller, but they still need space to move, being 20-22 inches tall and weigh between 55 and 70 pounds .
Youll have to give your dog enough room to move freely around the house. Having a yard can be helpful, but as Goldens are very social dogs theyll prefer staying inside with their families rather than running around by themselves outdoors. So be sure your house or apartment is large enough to host such an active and intelligent dog, even if youve got a yard.
The dog isnt the only thing youll see around the house all day. Free your schedule for cleaning up hair as Golden Retrievers shed all year, becoming heavier in spring and autumn. The easiest way to reduce the amount of lost hair is by brushing your dog 3-5 time a week, for about 15 minutes. However, youll still need a powerful pet hair vacuum cleaner to remove the mess from your carpets and sofa.
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Golden Retriever Training Is Very Important For The Following 5 Reasons:
# 1 Both you and your dog will be more happy and content. Golden retriever training helps you to bond with your dog.
# 2 You will understand and communicate with your dog more effectively.
# 3 It may save your dogs life! Having voice control over your dog is important in situations where they may run away, especially if there is traffic around.
# 4 Your Golden will be welcome in public areas and have more freedom.
# 5 Your Golden will have a low chance of developing behavioral problems.
Before The Pup Arrives Home
In a lot of ways, training your Golden Retriever begins before the puppy even arrives home. Dog training demands a tremendous amount of energy and time from both you and your puppy. Not only will you need time, but a few supplies as well.
For this reason, we recommend you have the following supplies ready before your new puppy arrives:
Recommended Supplies
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Write A Puppy Socialisation Checklist For Your Golden Retriever Puppy
Yes, there is a checklist and its a long one. But you can download it here, or read our full article about it here. Its an enlightening read, honestly. Theyll give you the best ideas of things to do with your puppy to help them learn that the outside world is a positive place theyll be happy to live in.
How Long & How Often To Train Your Golden Retriever Puppy
Life is hectic with a new puppy, but heres the good news: you can have a well-behaved puppy and train them in as little as five minutes a day.
Puppies dont have long attention spans, so its actually unproductive to try to train them for more than five or ten minutes at a time.
In fact, when your puppy is young, its better to keep training sessions as short as two to five minutes.
This way, your puppy has fun the entire time and keeps a positive association with training sessions.
As far as how often to train them, having three to five of these short training sessions is recommended.
Now, you might be thinking, how am I going to train this wild puppy with such little training time?
Well, in reality, every moment with them is a teaching moment.
You spend the formal training sessions teaching them the basics, and then take advantage of little moments here and there to practice.
For example, lets say youre taking your puppy on a walk and youve been working on come and sit.
When you walk up the door you can ask your puppy to come, and then before you put the leash on, ask them to sit.
Then, when you get back inside, you ask them to sit while you take the leash off.
This isnt adding any real extra training time, but practicing behaviors as part of your everyday routine will help your puppy learn fast.
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Golden Retrievers Love Treats
This fact might be the one thing that makes it easiest to train golden retrievers. They LOVE treats.
Once they realize that they get treats for doing what you ask, theyll be much more inclined to listen. My golden could be playing with his toys, sleeping, or just hanging out on the couch, but when he sees me even go near the treat jar, hes right by my side.
And although goldens love treats, they do occasionally get bored of them, so make sure to switch up the treats youre giving them.
I like to give my golden Zukes mini treats. I usually rotate between the peanut butter and oats, chicken, and rabbit recipes.
A Trained Dog Is A More Intelligent Dog
According to Psychology Today, training your dog makes them smarter. If you put in the effort to train your dog to follow certain commands, youll improve their cognitive abilities and make it easier for them to find solutions to problems.
Here are a few of the intelligence-related benefits training your Golden can bring:
- Theyll learn tricks easier: Smarter dogs will have an easier time learning new tricks. If you want your Golden to have a variety of tricks they can perform, training them will make the trick-teaching process a bit less complicated.
- They can solve puzzles: It might sound easy, but not every dog can solve puzzles, even with training. So, if your dog persists on the task until it is completed, youve got one more feather in your cap for great dog training.
- They can better tell your emotional state: Why own a Golden if he or she cant cuddle you when youre feeling down? But not every dog can do that. Only the smart ones know when to hug you tight.
While most dogs can be trained in all these aspects, not every dog breed will make it so easy for the trainer. Golden Retrievers are one of the few exceptions.
As weve discussed, some have the golden traits that make dog training that much easier while others dont. Without a doubt, the Golden counts among those that are easily trained.
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History Of Golden Retrievers
The Golden Retriever originated in Scotland at the end of the 19th century. The breeds lineage dates back to many different hunting breeds that primarily retrieved waterfowl. These origin breeds were often dignified, reserved, and aloof.
They were great companions in the field, but not as affable and warm at home. Thus a breeder set out to combine the homely canine and the hunting utility into one, and what resulted was the Golden Retriever breed.
This is important as the hunt remains present in this breed. This means that despite the perfect family dog reputation of a Golden Retriever, their lust for stimulation and their work-oriented demeanors are innate to them. Its important to know the lineage of any dog if youre going to train them, and the Golden Retrieverdespite their popularityis no exception to this rule.
Recommended For New Owners
Despite differences in Golden personalities and your potential deficits in the dog training department, the truth remains that Goldens are easy to train.
Obedience is in their DNA, and that characteristic carries over into dog owners homes all over the world. That being said, these dogs are highly recommended for even and first-time dog owners or trainers.
As long as you put in the effort to train them, you wont have too much of a difficult time. So many thousands of owners have successfully trained a Golden Retriever. And, you can be one of them too!
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Teaching Your Golden Retriever Puppy To Wait
The practice of patience: Waiting. What a lesson to teacheven for humans.
For your puppy, waiting means not moving when we move away. But you can also use this lesson later on for things like waiting at doors, before you let them out of the car, or in their crate. Unfortunately, using it for teaching them to wait on tables is way past their learning capabilities.
There are two aspects to teaching your puppy to wait:
First, well work on duration.
Now, lets practice distance.
Can Goldens Be Tough To Train
Heres the truth: many of the things that make goldens easy to train, can sometimes make them hard to train.
Golden retrievers are people pleasers. They absolutely love people. And they dont discriminate who they love. So if youre trying to ask them to walk nicely by your side down the sidewalk, but someone is jogging on the other side of the street, they may forget about you and try to go say hi to the jogger.
Golden retrievers are smart. In fact, theyre so smart that they can often be mischievous. You may ask them to drop a toy or shoe, but if theyve figured out that youll chase them to grab it, theyll forgo being obedient for a fun game of chase.
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Is It Bad To Wait A Few Weeks Or Months To Start Training
Theres lots of evidence that proves a puppy who starts training at 6 months can very quickly catch up to and equal the skills of a puppy that started training at 8 weeks.
So waiting a while, perhaps a few months, and just letting your puppy be a puppy wont necessarily cause any long-term harm to your training goals.
But you will have a puppy that doesnt know any commands so you cant ask them to sit, stay, drop or do as you ask.
If living out in the country and your dog spends all their time kenneled outside and do not venture into town or perhaps inside friends homes and business premises, then maybe this doesnt matter.
But if they live indoors with you and your family, are taken through town and into other peoples buildings, then you will definitely want to be able to keep them under control. So starting training early is pretty much essential and will be a massive help to you.
Golden Retriever Leash Training
Play with your dog while shes wearing her or while letting her drag the leash around the house or yard. This will allow her to get used to it.
Once your Golden Retriever is used to wearing a harness and leash, you can start guiding her around gently, partnered with lots of praise and treats.
Dragging your pooch by pulling on the leash, hoping she gets the hang of it, is NOT the right way. It essentially sends the message that shes the pack leader.
Strive to have your Golden walking beside you on a slack or loose leash.
Reinforce the idea that walking beside you is good. If she walks ahead, stop, and dont give her any attention until she returns to your side.
Heres a quick video on how your dog should be on a loose leash training:
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Consider Using A Crate
Crates can be a great tool in your training arsenal. Theyre a catch-all piece of gear. A crate can be used for house training, obedience, and safety. If you ever have to leave your puppy alone, the crate will ensure that they cant get into any trouble. Its recommended that you use the crate at night as well.
Over time, your puppy will start to see the crate as a place of comfort. Theyll go to it whenever theyre scared, tired, or just want to be alone. By introducing a crate early on in their lives, you can rest easy knowing that theyre comfortable using one.
This can prove to be useful whenever you need to take your puppy to the vet or on an airplane. Typically, owners will stop using the crate full-time once their puppy has reached adulthood, using it only when its necessary.
Signs Of Maturity Phase
Training:
While this should be a well-engrained protocol by now. If basic obedience/performance titles have not been earned, now is the perfect time to focus on those. Working together becomes fun and enjoyable.
Growth Milestones:
Maintaining breed standard weight may be tricky because of the caloric needs of adolescent energy. They may require more calories, but just as they are peaking with the need for more calories, their metabolism changes and weight management becomes a challenge.
Exercise demands continue to be high for this Olympic athlete. The personality and traits of the dog come into full bloom now, which may have gone underground during the previous stage. With a potpourri of emotional, physical, and mental changes in the first 1½ years, occasionally special personality traits take a hike. This is when the puppys head reattaches to the body just like a Rock em Sock em Robot, add Lewine and Cochran. But, dont despair, all of the pieces come together at the 2-year mark.
Purpose:
This is when the physical and emotional development reaches full completion and for the owner to seize the moment and build on the strong team training and foundation. If you do everything you need to for the first two years of the puppys life, you will have the dog of your dreams for the remainder of its life, claims Lewine.
Grooming:
If someone doesnt want to care for his/her Goldens coat, the Golden Girls advise getting a short-coated breed like a Labrador Retriever!
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