Care & Training

CARE

Bathing and Grooming
Labradoodles seldom need baths, they have no body odor and their fleece tends to be nonporous and resistant to dirt. In fact the more you bath a labradoodle, the less natural oils are left in the fleece to protect it from dirt.

A good brushing every week will ensure that your doodles coat stays nice and mat free. Teaching your puppy to stand or lie down for grooming right from the start will be good practice for the day when you may need to groom your dog later on. As the adult coat comes in your Labradoodle will definitely need to be groomed and all this “Grooming Socialization” will pay off. After brushing, mist a little bit of water or Conditioning spray and pat down the undercoat. This will help restore the waves/curls and prevent knots.

If you choose to take your labradoodle to a Professional Groomer take along some pictures of what you want him/her to look like. The groomers tend to clip Labradoodles like a poodle if you don’t take pictures.

Feeding
Feeding consists of offering puppy his/her food for at least 15-20 minutes. Remember that feeding later than 6 p.m. may result in the puppies need for going potty in the middle of the night.

After dinner feeding, food and water should be removed from puppy to prepare him/her for the night. A nice walk a half hour after dinner should help him/her get into the pattern of staying dry through the night when he/she is old enough.

If you plan on changing his/her food please discuss this with your vet. And do it slowly over a week by mixing their current food with their new food. We recommend a food with no bi-products or fillers.

TRAINING

Education
This is the best investment you can make in your dogs life. Learning to teach your dog to sit, stay and come on command will be a lot of fun for both of you. Labradoodles can not only be trained with voice commands but with hand commands too. Puppy classes are a lot of fun, and what a great way to meet new people.

Books on how to raise a puppy are always helpful, even if you have already raised a puppy. They always have new information for when situations arise. There are a lot of books out there, which may be a little overwhelming. We recommend that you read at least a couple of books before you pick up your puppy. Then take the best of those books to create the best training program for you and your puppy. Being prepared will help your family have realistic expectations for the life stages of your dog.

House Training
For House Training your puppy we highly recommend you get a crate for your puppy! If you don't want a crate then we recommend you set up an x-pen or another "puppy proof" place that the puppy can be put in. Allowing your puppy run the house is only going to lead to accidents, frustration, and a prolonging of the housebreaking process. The Life Stages Series Front Door Folding Crates are designed for use over the lifetime of your puppy! This crate is a wire crate that will expand as the puppy grows. Remember you only want enough room for the puppy to turn around and lay down comfortably during the housebreaking stage.

Puppies will go poop or potty after eating, drinking, playing or after waking up from a sleep… plus some extra times in between. Carry puppy outside each hour and a half during the day, and put him/her in the spot where you want it to eliminate. Give puppy a few minutes to get over the excitement of being outside, and then he/she should go potty. If you don’t wait you may have accidents inside. If this happens do NOT put puppy’s nose in it. Your puppy learns nothing from doing this and makes your training harder.

Restrict the area your puppy has to run about indoors to one room or part of one room, unless you are prepared to watch it Every Minute. Crating for two to three hour periods during the daytime will help puppy to strengthen its bowels and bladder and to teach it that it does not always go immediately when it feels the inclination. Dogs are creatures of habit. So the fewer mistakes that happen indoors, the sooner your puppy will become reliable indoors.

Vigilance is KEY.

Be sure to praise your puppy for a job well done. You may also use training treats, but make sure that they are small so your puppy does not fill up on treats instead of eating their meal.