When a child steps into the road without knowing about the blast of a car horn, and continues walking, it takes experience to become conditioned. When you step off of a curb, and hear a car horn, your head turns both ways, as you jump back, looking for the car. The difference is conditioning.

This is going to require a few minutes of practice, outside of the presence of your labrador. It would be preferable to do this with any family members available, but may be successfully done alone. What we need to do is develop a sense of timing. Here is where the previously called for cans with the pennies will come in. Have the cans rinsed clean and dry. Insert six pennies in each can, tape the top shut, and crush the sides of the cans, so as to make them square to prevent the cans from rolling, to avoid creating a prolonged sound.! Silence is Golden!

Be careful not to make a noise with the cans. If you should accidentally do so, praise must accompany the event. This will tell him you are not reprimanding him, and that he should ignore it. When more than one dog is there, each labrador must be individually praised and given direct eye contact and non-physical praise.

You should Praise with Sound, with one exception,and that is, when a behavior is being addressed afterwards. When you discover something that occurred outside of your presence, it’s the only time the sound should be presented without verbal praise. To teach your labrador the “come” command, first create a phrase, and select a “key” or “cue” word in that phrase.

The second command must be accompanied by sound. The next request would be treated as a first request. The first instance of any phrase you will use must be presented without the accompaniment of sound. If your labrador should respond properly to this first request, “your-dogs-name-good-boy,” praise him immediately-even before he begins to move.

When you see a response for example the twitch of his ear or tail, to any command, it always needs spontaneous, instant praise for however long your dog is thinking about your request. Keep praising unitl he comes to you, even if you have to move backward as you speak praises and coax.

Don’t think that he will always perform the way you want him to, because we are not yet at the conditioned response level.

When you are finally through with all of the above, test it out. Get comfortable, for example sitting in your easy chair and him sleeping by your side. Ask him to come. When he jumps up and sticks his nose in your face, praise him. Let him go back to what he was doing and call him again.