Once called the “lesser” or “St. John’s” Newfoundland, the dog we know today as the Labrador retriever was originally bred for water retrieving. It still excels at this task today, but it has also soared in popularity as a family dog. According to the American Kennel Club, it is the most commonly owned dog in America. The AKC recognizes three different colors for Labradors; black, yellow and chocolate. These intelligent, friendly, easygoing and energetic dogs have come to be known as “labs.”

Use a Crate

Using a crate is not cruel. Your chocolate lab can come to enjoy a nap or some time away from young children inside its crate. Labs dislike going potty and sleeping in the same place, so a crate can help you potty train your lab by eliminating messes while you aren’t home. To save money, purchase a crate that will be large enough for your adult Labrador (which can weigh up to 80 pounds) to stand up and turn around. If your lab is still a puppy, purchase a divider to shrink the space down so that your puppy won’t have room to use a corner as a bathroom area. Tuck treats into your dog’s bedding inside the crate to encourage it to explore the crate on its own. Give it time to get used to the crate before locking it inside.

Frequent Potty Trips

Your chocolate lab should be able to hold its bladder about one hour for every month of age. This means that a four-month-old lab can reasonably be expected to hold it for four hours, but you should give your lab opportunities to relieve itself more frequently than that. Walk it outside on a leash every two to three hours. Go to the same spot every time. Encourage your chocolate lab to go potty. When it does, reward it with treats and praise. Your affectionate lab will love the attention it is getting from you. You can also play a quick game of fetch as a reward. This type of positive attention will teach your lab that it is going potty in an appropriate place.

Correcting Mistakes

Unless a health problem is causing your lab to make messes in the house, it probably doesn’t know where it is allowed to go and where it isn’t. Your job is to teach it. Using positive reinforcement when your dog potties in the yard will help. In addition, teaching it not to go inside the house is simpler than you might think. Interrupt your lab with a noise whenever you catch it making a mess in the house. Take it outside, encourage it to potty and reward it when it does. Labs are affectionate dogs and don’t respond well to punishment or negative reinforcement. These methods can create fear and further complicate house training.

Teach Your Lab to Ask

As your lab learns where it is supposed to potty, you can start to teach it to ask when it needs to go out. Tie a bell to your doorknob. Show it to your chocolate lab and encourage it to “touch” the bell with its nose. Reward it with praise and a treat when it does this. After your dog learns to touch the bell, start requiring it to touch the bell before taking it outside. Don’t open the door until it does ring the bell. When it does, let it out immediately. After your lab goes potty, praise it and reward it with treats. Eventually you can start withholding the treats, but your chocolate lab should always be rewarded with a trip outside when it rings the bell.

Bringing home a rescue dog changes that pup’s entire life in a profound way, but that also means a few changes in your life. Because of the horrible past experiences many rescue dogs go through, they sometimes bring along a few problematic behaviors and tendencies with them. But with enough time and training, you can correct even the worst behaviors.

Trust and Anxiety Issues

There are some cases where rescue dogs immediately warm up to their new owners, giving lots of kisses and love. But many pups who are rescued have moderate to severe trust and anxiety issues, and it’s no wonder. Some of these dogs have been tossed out in the cold, others dealt with long-term abuse and some lived in horrible conditions, surrounded by their own waste. They’ve been dealt a pretty bad hand in life, and they haven’t had a good reason to trust anyone or anything. They’re worried about how their new owners will treat them and what they will encounter. How they act depends largely on their past experiences. If a pup suffered abuse at the hand of a man, she may be more trusting of women and flee to her secure spot if a guy comes within five feet of her. And sometimes the dog may not trust anyone, shying away from all interaction.

Irrational Fears

A lot of times, rescue dogs haven’t experienced anything aside from neglect. The first time you brighten one’s life and bring her home, she’s seeing and hearing things that can be really scary at first. You would think every dog loves squeakers, or at least tolerates them, but dogs who’ve never had toys before may freak out when they hear that first squeak. On the flip side, there are certain stimuli that a rescue dog may have associated with negative experiences. A classic example is a newspaper. It’s harmless in your hand, but your new furry friend may have been smacked with newspapers before, so when you lift one up, she cowers.

Aggression

It’s not uncommon to bring your little rescue girl home and hear a deep growl when you walk past her food bowl, struggle to keep her from lunging and sinking her teeth into another dog or otherwise witness aggression. Something usually triggers the aggressive episodes. If she grew up in a hoarding situation, she may have had to compete for food, which would explain possession aggression. If she was neglected, she may act aggressively out of fear. Even though you removed her from her awful situation, her aggressive tendencies still remain. She doesn’t know that another dog won’t steal her food or that she doesn’t need to fight for her life upon encountering another canine.

Bad Habits

Some rescue dogs may not have any trust issues, few irrational fears and not an ounce of aggression, but you can almost guarantee they’ll all have bad habits. The first few weeks, months or even years with your new rescue will probably result in you trying to break some of those nasty habits. She may jump on people, rip up the couch, destroy things when you leave, relieve herself on your floor and may act like she’s deaf when you try to stop her.

Fixing All the Issues

Remember that no matter what problems your rescue comes with, she can be trained and counterconditioned so that all those bad habits, aggressive tendencies, fears and trust issues will go by the wayside. Showing her lots of love and teaching her basic obedience with positive reinforcement will help her warm up to you and mold her into a better behaved canine. As for deep-seated fears, aggression and severe behavior problems, talk to a certified dog trainer, especially if she’s aggressive.