A Few Basic Tricks Your Puppy Needs to Know

Sit!

This should be the first trick your new Labrador puppy should learn. It's ridiculously easy and they usually take to it the first or second attempt. The way you do it is to get a few treats in your hand. Let them have one so they get a taste for it. Now standing in front of your puppy take the treat and let them smell it, but do not let them grab it. Now while they are smelling it in your hand, move your hand up and over so there head comes up. While doing that simply say sit. Usually they move their head up and as they do, they sit naturally. Once they do it correctly give them the treat. It's that easy. Do this a couple of times and then repeat a few hours later or even the next day.

Stay!

This is the second trick you should teach your new puppy. Do not teach this to them until they have mastered Sit! So once you get them trained to sit, start to back away from them once they go into the sitting position. Their natural instinct is to get up and follow you, but quickly say NO! Then make them sit again. Once they sit, back away from them, all the while repeating for them to STAY! They will eventually stay and once they do, toss them a treat while saying "GO" or "Good"! That's it. We use Sit and Stay daily while we feed them. We make them sit at attention and stay until we fill their bowls and then make them Stay and wait until we say GO!

Other Tricks

Ultimately you and your dog will benefit from these tricks. Labrador's exceed at commands and so we highly recommend you utilize their natural talents and also you might want to consider obedience school. Some other tricks you might want to teach your puppy are Lie Down, Roll Over, Turn Around and even to fetch their own leash when they want to go out for a walk!

You can use the treats to position your dog to lie down, rollover, etc. Turn around is easy as you simply hold the treat in your hand and then make a circular motion where your dog follows the treat in your hand while giving the command "Turn Around"! To make them lie down, first get them in a sitting position, then bring the treat down low to the floor. You may have to manually position them in the correct laying down position, but use the command once they are in the right position and eventually they will do it on their own. To get them to roll over you simply take a treat while they are in the lying down position and roll your arm so they follow your hand, making them roll over while giving the command. Once they do it right, give them the treat.