While owning Labrador retriever dogs you may notice how their stomachs seems to be iron clad.  After all, they consume all sorts of object from trash to your prized jewelry.  So a sudden change in diet should be pretty easy for your dogs to endure, right?  Wrong.  In fact any sudden changes to the your Labrador retriever dogs main diet may cause temporary health problems as well as their eating habits. 

Health problems such as upset stomach, heartburn, indigestion, diarrhea, and loss of appetite can occur due to a sudden change in your dog’s sudden change in diet.  So how do you avoid these health problems? 

The key is to change your Labrador dog’s food gradually.  How gradual?  You should anticipate changing your dog’s diet within 1-2 weeks.  In order to do this you will want to mix together their old food with their some of their new food.  Every couple of days you will add more new food and less old food until you phase the old food out.  Read the rest of this entry »

Crate training your dog can be very simple if you put the time and energy into doing it right.  Crate training your Labrador dog is very important to ease separation anxiety and promote housebreaking.  Here is a guide to properly crate training your Labrador dog.

1.  Introduce your puppy to the crate: Your puppy will probably not like the crate at first which is why you will have to introduce it to them in a non threatening and enticing way.  How?  By using treats of course!  Your Labrador dog will be highly motivated by food and you will use that to your advantage in every training method.  First introduce your Labrador dog to the crate by throwing treats in, at first just at the opening and slowly moving them further back until your pup gets completely into the crate. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the most important things to teach your Labrador dog is crate training.  Not only will this be instrumental in housetraining, it will also help with separation anxiety which labs are notorious for.  Labs are very loyal and socialable and they do not like being left alone. 

When your lab has separation anxiety they get destructive which means you could come home to thousands of dollars worth of damage to your home.  I personally came home to my brand new carpet completely torn up by my lab puppy.  I have also talked to people who have come home to holes in their couches, trash covering the house, and deep scratches in the front door.  Separation anxiety is as miserable for your dog as it is for you.  That is why it is important to crate train your Labrador dog very early.  Read the rest of this entry »