The Dog Lab / Laura Labrador

The Dog Lab / Laura Labrador At The Dog Lab, I help dogs (& their owners!) thrive. Need daycare or boarding? Your dog will enjoy walks, a family home, and plenty of TLC.

From group puppy classes to 1:1 training, I’ll help your young dog grow into a well-rounded family companion.

02/06/2026

One of the biggest mistakes I see owners make is trying to piece together their dog training from social media.

A reel here. A YouTube short there. A TikTok someone sent them.

The problem isn’t that the advice is wrong. Most of it isn’t.

The problem is that every trainer has their own way of doing things. Different timing. Different expectations. Different techniques. Different end goals.

Before long, you’re asking your dog to do five versions of the same thing and wondering why neither of you is making much progress.

Dogs thrive on clarity and consistency. They don’t need twenty trainers. They need one clear message.

If you’re looking for help, most trainers will happily jump on a quick call with you. Ask questions. Find out how they work. See if they’re the right fit for you and your dog.

A good trainer should make things feel simpler, not more complicated.

And trust me, your dog will thank you for it.

Have you ever found yourself down the dog training rabbit hole on social media? Let me know below…..and how many trainers were you training with?

29/05/2026

This was earlier this year. (Sound up to hear)

We’d barely started our walk when I realised the local hunt were working a trail about 100 metres away. A pack of foxhounds, horses, ponies, people moving through the landscape. Plenty going on and exactly the sort of thing that can send some dogs into overdrive.

My two spotted it immediately.

Heads up. Watching. Interested.

But doing absolutely nothing.

No lunging. No whining. No desperate need to get involved. Just still while we watched the hounds move through the covet in front of us.

This is why I spend so much time teaching my dogs to switch on and switch off.

People often focus on the exciting bits of training. Recall. Retrieves. Hunting. Running. But the ability to sit things out is every bit as important.

Some dogs would find a situation like this overwhelming. Others would be desperate to join the party. Neither is wrong. They are dogs, after all.

But teaching a dog how to simply exist in the presence of excitement creates something incredibly valuable. Stability. Clarity. Trust.

My dogs know that I will make the right decisions. They don’t need to.

And that relationship, where they can look at something exciting and choose not to react, isn’t built in a day.

It’s built through hundreds of moments of doing nothing.

The boring stuff that ends up becoming the important stuff. Online 4 week course to get you off the starting blocks coming soon 🌸

18/05/2026

Everyone talks about the lovely bits of getting a Labrador puppy.
The sweet paws. The floppy ears. The cuddles on the sofa.

What people don’t talk about enough is how full on it can feel in those first few months.

The lack of sleep.
The biting.
The chewing.
The chaos.
Wondering if you’re getting any of it right.
Feeling like your entire life suddenly revolves around a puppy that’s growing exponentially.

Labradors… they are bright. Busy. Curious. Always watching. Always learning.

This is why I care so much about foundations.

Not endless entertainment.
Not over exercising.
Not chucking them into puppy chaos and hoping for the best.

But calmness. Routine. Sleep. Boundaries. Learning to switch off. Learning how to exist peacefully in your home and out in the world.

The people who often struggle most are the ones trying to tire their puppy out all day long.

You don’t need to create a tiny four legged athlete.
You need to create a dog that can live alongside you happily.

If you’re finding the puppy stage harder than you expected… you are completely normal.

Comment PAWS below and I’ll add you to the waitlist for my online Labrador puppy course which is launching very soon (around the dogs and the children 😂)

17/05/2026

This happened this morning on our walk. I hope you can see in more detail how it works ‘doing nothing’. I don’t think the dogs had necessarily clocked on to it being right there. There’s no wind this morning but give or take a few seconds they would have smelt or seen it. Apologies for the heavy breathing we went up a hill and I’ve got a horrible cold. Billy (the Spanish water dog) has the command wait so I popped in one of those when he looked a little restless but apart from that …… sit is the command and then we go on our way when we finish. This is what practicing every day looks like …… so when it really happens everything is ok. Every one switches off immediately. And waits for me to tell them what to do.

16/05/2026

This is where it starts.
Not in a busy park. Not in front on a fox (see my previous reel).
Not surrounded by 14 dogs charging about.
Not with a pocket full of treats trying to negotiate with your Labrador.

Here.
At home.
In the garden.
Where it’s safe. Familiar. Quiet enough for your dog to actually learn.

People underestimate “doing nothing” because it looks… well… like nothing. But this is the foundation of EVERYTHING. Calmness. Recall. Focus. Manners. Steadiness. Being able to exist around life without losing their minds.

And a bit like building a good bum at the gym… it takes consistency. Repetition. Time. You don’t do three squats and suddenly have glutes. Same with dogs.

You practice it over and over until it becomes second nature. It’s not something you do for a week and bingo your dog is perfect.

And if you stop doing it?
You tend to lose it.

Doing nothing isn’t punishment and it isn’t mean. It’s teaching your dog how to settle into the world instead of reacting to every single thing in it - and reacting to everything is utterly exhausting for both the dog and the owner….And for working dogs especially… that’s a really good thing.

11/05/2026

There’s a reason I teach my dogs to do nothing.
And there’s a reason we practice it every single day.

Because I don’t want four Labradors making a collective decision to chase a fox.

Four dogs in hunting mode means you’ve lost control before you’ve even had time to think.

Today was the perfect example.
Noses up. Air scenting. Bodies changed. They alerted me before I even spotted the fox.

And that was our moment.

Straight away we sat down and did… absolutely nothing.

No drama. No shouting. No chaos. Just steadiness.

Because we rehearse this constantly. They know that when I say the party’s over, it’s over before it’s even begun. The hunt isn’t starting.

And with working dogs, steadiness matters. Massively.

Everyone wants the flashy recall or the big retrieves, but the ability to switch off, hold position and stay connected to you? That’s the foundation underneath all of it.

Sometimes the most important thing you can teach a dog… is how to simply do nothing.

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Churchill
Chipping Norton
OX7

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+447778933133

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