Originally Posted by
barry581
At 12 weeks Bruce could sit, down, stay, here, wait, heel, without any distractions. He was also pretty good with leave it, drop it, waiting for his food, high five, roll over and crawl. I did 3-5 short training session per day, no forced leash walking outside the yard at that time.
Puppies are like sponges, they will soak up any training you give them. I did the Petsmart Puppy Class with Bruce, and he could do everything that was taught on the first day. I did it mainly for the distractions and socialization. I think Petsmart classes are good, but their trainers do vary as to their skill. Audit a class first to make sure you are good with that trainer. I'm doing a CGC class with Bruce now, he's 5.5 months old now and doing great.
I think the average Lab needs to be challenged and engaged. They bore very easily, and a bored Lab is a bad Lab. Trust me, they will find something to alleviate the boredom, and it won't be good.