Are some labrador retrievers non trainable?

Question

I have taught him to sit on command, but he is so excited at the prospect of getting a treat, he sits and wiggles and scoots his rear end around. I then started attempting to make him lay down with a 1 word "DOWN" and he does go down but the treat is just too much and he is going crazy before he gets down and once he has the treat, its all over and he is full of energy. How long can it take to train this dog, or are some just never trainable? We have been working on this trick for over a month.

Answer 1

He sounds very trainable to me. As someone else has already pointed out, food motivated dogs will usually bend over backwards for you if there's a treat involved. The problem here is that he is focusing on the wrong thing...the treat, rather than you. Exercising him before working on training might help, but you really need to work on impulse control. He needs to learn to look to you, not the treat itself, in order to get the treat. There are a couple of ways you can do this.

One way is to teach him to "leave it." The easiest way to teach him this is to get two kinds of treats. One that is ok, like plain dog food, and one that is super-fantastic, like cheese, cooked chicken or steak, etc. Put the low-value treat on the ground and cover it with your hand or foot. He will probably paw at it and watch it intently trying to get to it. The instant he looks away from your hand/foot, shove a super yummy treat into his mouth. Pretty soon, he'll get the idea that looking at where the treat is hiding gets him nowhere, but looking away from the treat (ideally at your face, but you may have to start small and slowly work your way towards eye contact) gets him something even better than what he was trying to forcefully get. Once he's got the hang of this with you covering the food, you can slowly work your way up to placing the food on the ground in front of him and waiting for him to look away from it when it's uncovered. The trick here is to not let him get to the food either by keeping the leash short enough that he can't get his head down or by being quick and covering it with your foot or hand so that he can't get it. If you make a mistake and he happens to get the food anyway, put a command to it like "get it" or "go for it" and use that same command when you are handing him treats as well.

A similar but different method that my dog trainer uses to teach leave it (she calls it "off") in her beginners obedience class is to have the dog in a down (although sit would work as well) and hold a treat in your hand in front of the dog's nose. The dog will probably try licking or nibbling your hand to force his way into your fist to get at the treat. Again, wait until the dog stops trying to force his way to the treat and the instant he looks away reward with praise and treat him. As the dog starts to get the idea of the game, wait a little longer between when the dog gives up trying to force his way to the treat and when you actually give him the treat in your hand and start using the command that you want to use (whether that is "leave it" or "off" or something else). When you are first teaching it, reward immediately for any behavior that is not trying to force the treat. Then move on to counting to two, three, four, five, etc. Do this about five times in a row and then take a break and come back to it later.

Another way to teach impulse control is to use meal times to your advantage. He already knows "sit," so you can use this when you are feeding him. Make him sit before you put the bowl down. If he picks his butt up as you are bending down to put the food on the floor, give him a quick "ah-ah" and stand right back up. Make him sit again before attempting to put the food down. The idea here is that you've told him to sit and he's not to take his butt off the floor until you've given him a release command to indicate that it is ok for him to get up and eat. Try to use something that doesn't come up a lot in normal conversation such as "all free" or perhaps the word free or release in a different language....a lot of people use "ok" as their release command and there's nothing wrong with that except that it comes up a lot in casual conversation and an excited dog will assume that you are about to release him if you say "oh" as in "oh, what a good boy you are!"

The bottom line for ALL of these techniques is that the dog NEVER EVER gets the food when he's being crazy. He must learn to control himself and be calm or he doesn't get the food. If your dog is overstimulated and just won't stay calm long enough for you to treat him, walk away and ignore him for a few minutes before trying again. If he still won't be calm long enough for you to treat him, walk away and ignore him for a few more minutes, put the treats away, and then take him for an exercise session before trying again.

Answer 2

There are some very rare dogs, who are crazy due to inbreeding, that are dangerous and should be put to sleep. All other dogs are trainable.

Sounds like your dog is under 1 year old and still full of energy. You need to burn off that energy, by walking or running him for 30 min, twice a day. Then train him.

You can train a Lab to understand a command in a month. But training with distraction can take a year or so. Try training without food, just say good dog. If that doesn't work, it is time to learn about variable reinforcement.

Rather than giving a treat every single time, give him a treat every other time, after he understands the cue. Also, a treat should only be a small taste.

I use cheap hotdogs that I slice into dime-sized pieces... then cut into fourths ! Not much to get excited about, but provides a positive signal.

After he works with every other time, the go to random... treat, no treat, treat twice, no treat, no treat, treat, 3 times without a treat... make it variable... should help....

He is very trainable, you may want to get a little help from an experienced trainer...But keep it positive.

Take a look at books by Patricia McConnell and by Ian Dunbar for a little more insight and hints.

Answer 3

Sounds like a VERY trainable dog.

Food oriented dogs are the easiest to train because they WANT something from you. Give him a long walk or retrieving session and FEED him before you work on training... then lower your ante ..don't give him the best treats unless he does something spectacular.. you can even use dogfood as cookies.

Answer 4

Of course hes trainable you just need to keep trying. Also if he's a puppy you just need to give him time. Just keep at it he'll get it. Also maybe you could try traijning him when he's tired or was just on a walk. Dont train him to much in a day or they just wont care. :)

Answer 5

Never heard of a non trainable dog.

Answer 6

Light shedding is questionable as is the barking issue. But for my money there are no dogs with better family dispositions. My 4yr old son loves to play "dragon" with our lab. A game that involves him waving a stick at the dog and pretending to fight the dragon. When he gets carried away and actually hits the dog he never bited or snaps. Just knocks him down and lays across his body for a minute until he calms down. Afterward he will even bring the stick back, as if to say "game on"

Answer 7

All dogs are trainable! It just takes time and persistence!

Answer 8

sounds like he just needs a good long walk first..when they have energy, being excited is all they know to get rid of it..so take him for a long walk or a run if you can, and then try training him, most likely it will be 100% easier

Answer 9

ALL dogs are trainable. you just might be doing it wrong.

Answer 10

take him for a long walk THEN train him