At Lakehouse Labradors our goal is to produce a well-rounded dog that can compete in sports, be a family pet, or do service work. This all begins when puppies are a couple days old. As our puppies get older we like to focus on exposing them to everything we can to make more solid dogs who can perform in the real world after they leave our home.
For example, we see a lot of dogs that have problems with people touching their feet. We start clipping puppies feet at 2 to 3 weeks of age and we do it every week from then. At about 4 weeks of age we start grinding the puppies’ nails so they’re used to a grinder.
At 4 weeks old there are a lot of new things going on with our puppies. This is when we start to work on potty training and crate training. We never punish our puppies for going potty in the home, but we reward immensely when they go outside.
We start crating puppies at 4 weeks old. We start by crating two puppies in a crate next to another two puppies in a crate, all in the same area as Mom. By 6 weeks old we start crating them individually getting them used to being alone in their crate but still have their siblings nearby. This helps them get used to the crate before they go home and understand the crate is a safe place for them.
Starting around 5 week of age we do an activity called the rules of 7. Exposing dogs to different types of things and people—we do 7 of each activity. We work on them being on 7 different surfaces, playing with 7 different types of objects, being in 7 different locations, being exposed to 7 challenges, eating from 7 different containers, eating in 7 different locations and meeting and playing with 7 new people.
The last test we do before puppies go home is an aptitude test. The pet parent will get the aptitude test when the puppy goes home. The test is there to help new pet parents understand how the dog is and what is the best way of going about training. We believe that training is a very important part of a dog’s life and should start at 4 weeks of age. We also believe training should never end. You can always do little things with your dogs—as little as doing a new trick every week. We offer free online or in person dog classes with our puppies when they go home. This way we can continue to help our parents and our puppies have a great future together.
