Labrador Retriever Training: Teaching The Down Command

Effective labrador retriever training strategy is very important in teaching your canine friend fundamental commands like sit, stay and down. These commands shouldn't be ignored for they are the very basis of other advance training, like 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 useful in many 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 guests coming and several other circumstances. Additionally, a labrador in down-stay position is less likely to run across the busy street nor pursue cars or children therefore reduces the risk of getting injury and other issues.

To train your pet the down command, here's one labrador retriever training strategy you may want to take into account:

Call your dog 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 fully stretched to the ground in down position. Give him the treat and remember to praise and pet him.

Repeat the process again and again until he he has mastered the command without difficulty.

Additional tips:

- You may want to keep the treat inside your closed fist but make sure that your hand is near his nose so that he can get a whiff of the bait. This is to prevent your lab from becoming too dependent on treats.

- Too much treat isn't always good for your pet's health hence you may want to regulate treat rewards. As the training moves on, it is advisable to replace the treat with praise and playtime in a gradual manner.

- Choose treats that are really rewarding, instead of using his regular dog food. Homemade goodies as well as small bits of human foods like cheese and hotdog can be used as food rewards.

- Make your training fun and exciting and make sure to 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 achieve your desired training objective - be it to master the basic obedience or more complicated tricks like rollover and play-dead. All you need to do is to find those tips and follow them correctly.