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Training

A few flat-coats can develop into dominance issues. This fact sounds unusual for retrievers, but all retrievers have the potential to be dominant if they are not properly trained from the beginning. A clever dog can very quickly figure out how to keep the whole family in line, and it can happen without the family noticing it. These dominance issues typically resemble pushiness and over-exuberance rather than true dominance-related aggression. Dominant retrievers tend to demand to have their toys thrown for them to fetch until they become a nuisance or demand affection until they become too annoying. To combat this potential problem, flat-coats and all retrievers should be trained from an early age.

Flat-coats need lots of exercise. They should be walked at least four times a day, several miles at a time. This exercise regime should include a daily opportunity for the dog to run off leash. The area chosen for off leash exercise should be secure and fenced. A dog park is a great place for a sociable and active dog like a Flat-coat to expend its excess energy. If one does not give this breed its exercise, it will become restless and rambunctious in the home and may cause mischief.

Many flat-coats love to swim, and finding an area for the dog to swim can be somewhat difficult. Most public park lakes do not allow dogs to swim in them, as do most recreation lakes. Private pools are generally good, but the dogs should not swim for hours in chlorine. It is bad for their eyes and mucous membranes. After a swim, a dog should be bathed to prevent the dog from stinking. Retrievers have rather oily coats, and getting them wet merely stimulates their oil glands. This oil causes the dogs to develop a foul odor, which is sometimes called "wet dog" smell. Retrievers tend to produce this odor much more strongly than other breeds. The oils prevent the dog from getting soaked to the skin in its initial moments in the water. This adaptation allowed the flat-coat's ancestors to swim in the frigid North Atlantic. Today, it makes the dog smell bad whenever it gets wet.

Flat-coats should have their ears cleaned once a week, using a canine ear cleaning solution and cotton batting. Use the directions on the solution bottle, which usually instruct that the liquid be poured into the dog's ear and then massaged deep into the ear canal. Then one should take cotton batting and clean out the ear canal, remembering that the ear drum on a dog is much deeper in the ear canal than it is

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