Gun Dog Forum

So I have a nine month old black lab puppy and I’m having trouble getting him to focus and respect me so does anyone have any tips??

More info would be helpful. Is this new behavior or has the dog not had much discipline all his life? By focus, do you mean you want him to pay attention to you instead of ignoring your commands? What kind of disrespect is he showing...biting, playing fighting, jumping up? What kind of training have you done with him, and how successful was it?

Without more specifics, I'd say you have to get after him in a calm way. No yelling and big body language. Sorry, without specific issues mentioned can't help much. You ought to watch some generic training videos; I think Cesar Millan does a great job especially clueing in dog owners who have problems asserting themselves with their dogs. When a dog lacks respect, in his mind you are just another pup at best, and his underling at worst.

Get a good program, study it and follow it. The Evan Graham series from Rush Creek is good and so is Fowl Dawgs. He's at the age now that he will only get worse and very quickly if you don't put some pressure on him and train him now.

I agree with the others, get and learn a good retriever training program, Evan's program as noted above, is a great one....

How old is your pup. Understand that a "Puppy" at 6 months is mentally like a 3-4 year old child. Physically these pups can run, play, and bark, but mentally they are babies...therefore expecting them to pay attention, obey, fetch, or anything is not going to happen. Any attempt to go beyond 'playing' with them will likely mess the dog up for future training when they are mature enough.

Now I am not saying you cannot train them as a puppy, but you must keep the training short 15-20 minutes and make it seem like play, nothing serious. Reward good behavior with treats and love! Later, after maybe 6-8 months, you can start to focus on less treats and more love for a reward. Below are the names of two really good puppy training DVD's you can get that show very specifically how to get a retriever puppy started. Get these and follow them, they will lead you to the next step of getting the dog going and a comprehensive training program noted above....

Obedience Training - Should start around 9-12 weeks. Includes the commands, sit, here (or come), down (lay down), stay, heel, drop, leave it...this training is usually done by the owners at home, but can be done in a local puppy obedience class. I preferred the class as the dog got some socialization to other people and other dogs while very young (do not start a class until your puppy has had all the initial shots, ask your vet before going) This training can be done in 4-6 weeks, depending on how you do it, if you do it yourself, train only a few minutes (15-20 minutes) per day and keep it fun. Two good CD's of training a retriever pup are...'Training a Retriever Puppy with Bill Hillmann and/or 'Sound Beginnings' Retriever training with Jackie Mertens...both are good starters that will get you and your pup off to a great start.


ALSO, READ THE POST IN THIS WEBSITE LABLED "Sending a dog for Training" it is a similar post to yours and has lots more about the training you are asking about....