Effective labrador retriever training approach is vital in teaching your pet fundamental commands such as sit, stay and down. These commands must not be ignored for they are the very basis of other advance training, such as guide dog training, therapy dog training or search and rescue training, you may want your furry friend to undergo when the right time comes.
Like sit and stay, the down command is beneficial in lots of ways. Teaching your dog to lie down on command also means teaching him to respect you as the owner and leader of the pack. The same command can also help keep your dog safe and calm during meal time, when there are visitors coming and several other circumstances. Furthermore, a labrador in down-stay position is less likely to run across the busy street nor run after cars or children thus reduces the risk of getting injury and other problems.
To train your pet the down command, here's one labrador retriever training strategy you may want to consider:
Call your pet to "come" to you and give the command "sit". Once in sit position, hold the treat in front of his nose and slowly lower it between his front paws. Give the command "down" immediately after the treat gets to the ground. Seeing the food bait, your pet will naturally follow but if that's not the case, move the treat further away until he's completely stretched to the ground in down position. Give him the treat and make sure to praise and pet him.
Repeat the process over and over until he he has mastered the command without difficulty.
Extra tips:
- You may want to keep the treat inside your closed fist but make sure that your hand is close to his nose so that he can get a whiff of the bait. This is to inhibit your lab from becoming too dependent on treats.
- Too much treat is not always good for your pet's health hence you may want to regulate treat rewards. As the training progresses, it is advisable to replace the treat with praise and playtime in a gradual manner.
- Use treats that are truly gratifying, instead of using his regular dog food. Homemade goodies as well as tiny bits of human foods like cheese and hotdog can be used as food rewards.
- Make your training fun and interesting and ensure that you conclude on a positive note to get him associate the training with something pleasant.
There are a lot of labrador retriever training tips that can help you obtain your desired training goal - be it to master the basic obedience or more fancy tricks such as rollover and play-dead. All you need to do is to find those tips and follow them correctly.
