The difference between having had experience or not, is conditioning. For example if a child ran out onto the road and a car horn sounded he would continue walking. On the other hand if you heard a car, you’d trun your head every way to see where the car is.

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!

It is important you handle these cans quietly. Should these training aids accidentally create a noise, dog praise must accompany the event. This will tell your labrador you were not talking to him, and he should disregard the incident. When more than one dog is present, each labrador must be praised and acknowledged with direct eye contact and non-physical praise.

Praise Must Always Accompany Sound, with one exception. That is, when a behavior is being addressed after the fact. When you have discovered a behavior that occurred outside of your presence, this would be the only time the sound shall be presented without verbal praise. The details are covered later in “using sound to break bad behavior.” To teach your labrador the “recall” or “come” command, we must first create a phrase, and select a “key” or “cue” word in that phrase.

Your next command must be accompanied by sound. The first time you use a phrase you do so with no sound. If your labrador responds properly to this first request, praise him immediately, even before moves.

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.

As long as you are moving backward and he is coming forward, he’s still coming. In this example, let’s say the dog properly (maybe coincidentally) performed. However, that does not mean that he will always respond. Remember, a conditioned reflex means that your dog has ABSOLUTELY NO CHOICE BUT TO RESPOND PROPERLY!

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.