Welcome to The Retriever Blog

Welcome to the Retriever Blog.

With much reservation about jumping into the blogosphere, I have started this retriever blog for those of us who want a better behaved Labrador retriever. After 15 years of training dogs, I for one can appreciate a well behaved dog, regardless of it's breed or purpose. Whether it is a hunting dog, a herding dog or just a family pet, for example, for me there is nothing more annoying than an ill-mannered dog, one who barks, jumps up on people, runs off every chance it gets or won't come when called. Sound like your dog or a dog you know? Well, this blog is for you.

My name is Jeff and I have been training Labrador retrievers since 1993. I have seen a lot of problem dogs in that amount of time and the biggest problem I have had to deal with has been the lack of obedience training, or to be more precise, a lack of good obedience training. Just because the family dog sits after 27 "sit" commands doesn't mean he knows how to sit.

I am, however, also a huge believer in part of the over-crowding problem we have in animal shelters across the country is as much, if not more of, a lack of training problem as it is an over breeding problem.

Think about it for a moment. Many of the dogs in animal shelters, especially Labrador retrievers, are there for one of two reasons, they were either dropped off by frustrated owners who couldn't control the dog and gave up or the dog wandered off from home and got lost. Both problems which could be solved by a month's worth of obedience training.

There will be more to come on this and many other topics regarding training the Labrador retriever as this blog continues to grow. I hope this will be of some benefit to Labrador retriever owners in particular as I have come to appreciate these great animals and companions.

Jeff