Black Lab Puppy Training Classes in Omaha

Our Omaha black lab puppy training classes focus on teaching the dog owners how to avoid many common dog problems from starting in the first place.

Black lab puppy Louie’s parents enrolled him at 10 weeks. In the past, new puppy parents used to wait until a puppy was done with all of their shots before starting puppy classes, however that is the old protocol. Socialization at a young age is crucially important for all dogs, but especially if you have a high energy breed like a black lab puppy.

Louie is small and young now, but that wont be the case for long. Labradors have been bred to work in a field running back-and-forth, using their nose and then retrieving. Those skills require a lot of energy which means this breed can be a challenge if you don’t start you Black Labrador puppy off on the right foot.

Louie’s family wanted to make sure he got started on the right foot, er, paw – so they signed him up for all 12 weeks of our puppy classes. 80% of our puppy parents elect for this option.

Signing up for all 3 classes at once is wise for multiple reasons.

• The lessons we introduce in kindergarten build into the lessons we teach in Elementary and the same thing for High School.
• Signing up for all 3 classes ensures your pup continues with the pups it knows which helps with confidence.

Signing up for all 3 classes holds your spot for the same day and time for all 12 weeks. Since we keep our classes small, they tend to sell out a month or more in advance.

And signing up as young as possible is super beneficial. All dogs go through something called the critical socialization period. This lasts from 3 weeks to 16 weeks and is the most important developmental time for any young puppy.

If you wait until you puppy shots are complete, you miss this crucially impactful developmental period.  This frequently leads to adult dogs who are insecure, anxious or not comfortable with new people, dogs or situations.

We often see adult dogs who need behavior modification help because their guardians waited to socialize them until after their shots were complete. And when you have a big powerful breed like a Black Labrador puppy, building thier confidence earlier is even more important than with other breeds.

We make sure that our facility is safe by disinfecting the floors multiple times a day, having everyone wipe their puppy’s paws before entering the building, not sharing toys or water and requiring every puppy to have started their vaccination regimen. After 8,000+ pups, we have never had a puppy catch Parvo or the other things the shots cover.

A Black Lab Puppy Training Journey

When Louie came for his first class, he was a little bit trepidatious. Our instructor recognized his slightly tense body language and used a few tricks to help him feel comfortable. We love having a Black Labrador puppy in our class (Labs are one of our most popular breeds with over 1,000 graduating from our program) due to how quickly they learn and adapt and Louie was no exception.

In order for socialization to work, it has to be something your puppy enjoys. Many people adopt a “you’ll learn that it’s nothing to be afraid of” mentality, but that can be very detrimental when it comes to puppies. This is why all their early exposures need to be positive and include a lot of variety. Louie’s classmates include a Golden Retriever, Aussiedoodle, a GSD and another Black Labrador puppy.

Speaking of being positive, one of the most important parts of black lab puppy training is to keep your training positive. While telling your dog no makes sense to humans, it actually can amplify whatever the puppy is doing at the time you say it.

But saying “no,” correcting or punishing a dog actually backfires with black lab puppy training, or really training any dog breed for that matter. For dogs, all attention is rewarding, and whatever your puppy is doing when you give it attention (good attentuion or bad attention) is what you are specifically rewarding. Most people give more attention to their puppy for undesired behaviors (nipping, jum[ping, barking, chewing) and accidentally train their pup to do those things more often.

This is a very common mistake that many puppy and adult dog owners make. But each time you do it, you’re more likely to reinforce that getting into the trash gets your attention than stopping your dog from doing it in the future.

We have an exercise that we do at the beginning of each one of our puppy classes to help people avoid this common behavior problem. We call it celebrating and it’s probably the easies way to train any dog.

Of course we cover several basic obedience lessons which is important for the foundation of your black lab puppy training program. Louie loved learning how to sit, lay down, sit up and go to his dog bed in his first 2 classes. What a smart Black Labrador puppy.

We take a hand’s-on approach to puppy training for our classes.  Our instructor will select one of the puppies from the class and then demonstrate how to teach the lesson, narating the steps while everyone watches.

Next, the puppy parents practice with their own puppies until they they’re getting the same level of success. Louie’s family really enjoyed our spending extra time with their daughter in class. This allowed us to help her refine her technique until she looked like a dog training pro!

Seeing Louie’s family see him learn and grow made our day. We love teaching humans as much as we enjoy the black lab puppy training. This is a key reason why we keep our classes small in size. It allows our instructor to give you and your family plenty of one-on-one attention.

The ultimate goal of our puppy classes is to teach our puppy parents so well that they replace our instructor. You are around your puppy way more than we ever will be, so the better we teach you, the better you can instruct your pup.

This is why Black lab puppy training is best done by their owners. The more that Louie practices sitting when the family’s daughter asks for it, the more respect she will develop for the child.

This builds a wonderful relationship between human and dog while simultaneously building your dogs confidence and motivating them to do what you want.

its important to start your black lab puppy training as soon as possible. Just like molding clay, the older a puppy gets, the harder it is to change or modify behavior.

While puppy Louie loves coming to puppy class, it’s a safe bet that his favorite part of puppy school is the play period we hold at the end of every class. This gives the puppies an opportunity to socialize with one another. This builds confidence, develops social skills and teaches manners.

While black puppy training is important, it’s much more beneficial to focus on building confidence through social experiences when your puppy is young. That’s why our classes place a heavy empahsis on socializaiton.

You only get one shot at your puppy’s early development. Our classes help you maximize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so that you end up with the most amazing adult Black Lab possible.

Fill out the form below and our booking coordinator will call you to answer any questions you may have or get your Black Labrador puppy enrolled in our next set of classes.