1. Labs are very high-energy dogs and need lots of exercise. An adolescent or adult lab needs at least 45 minutes of vigorous exercise every day. Vigorous exercise means a BRISK walk, a jogging session, swimming in a lake, ocean, river, or pool, or a hike in the woods.

2. Puppies and adolescent labs LOVE to chew. Labs are mouthy dogs and they love to chew up whatever they can get their mouth on: remote controls, shoes, sweaters, blankets, and anything else you want to keep are all fair game. If you want to keep it, keep it away from your Lab.

3. Labs love to eat. This is pretty universal. A Lab that is uninterested in food, is most likely a very sick lab. There are few exceptions. Labs should never have free access to food and should always be on a strict diet to prevent obesity.

4. Labrador retrievers are exhuberent dogs with a love for life. This sounds great, but it means your lab will try to pull you across the street to meet a new dog or person.

5. Labs love water. Your lab will try to wallow in any water he or she can get: ocean, river, lake, pond, kiddie pool, or mud puddle.

6. Labrador retrievers are powerful dogs with minds of their own. Labs are very strong dogs with strong wills, without training your lab will lead you around town like the owner in the Marmaduke comic strip.

7. Labs have strong senses of smell (and bad eyesight). You can usually tell when your lab is on to a strong scent trail (food or otherwise) as he or she will will usually get a single-minded focus on whatever scent is in the air. Labs don't have great eyesight and you will often be surprised at the goofy things your Lab finds threatening or interesting: a plastic bag, a balloon, a branch shaking in the breeze.

8. Labrador retrievers come in three colors: black, yellow, and chocolate (brown). Black is the oldest color, yellow is the next most recent color in the breed, and chocolate is the most recent. You'll hear a wide variety of atributes ascribed to each color, I suggest you take them with a big grain of salt. In general the black color is probably the least in-bred (bred for the color and not other qualities) and chocolate is probably the most in-bred, but it's best not to ascribe too many qualities to hair color.

1. Have your new dog and your old buddy meet first, off-leash, on neutral territory like a park or a friend's yard.

2. If your new dog is a puppy, don't hold him above your older dog when the dogs first meet. Holding one dog above another can cause a negative reaction in either dog.

3. Allow your new lab some time to explore the new house on his own while your old lab is out of the house. This will allow your dog some time to get used to his new home without the distraction of meeting his new brother or sister.

4. Keep both dogs on leash at least for the first week. It will allow to quickly control and separate the two if they start to get too excited.

5. Don't leave the two dogs unsupervized along for at least the first month. Keeping your dogs in their kennel while your gone gives them some great "time out" breaks and someplace they can call their own.