MIGHT BE TAKING ON A 16 WEEK OLD LABRADOR - ANY ADVICE!

[WTFwasthat]

we are very excited, but getting the jitters about how unprepared we might be. He has come from a breeder but his owners have returned him after 4 weeks. because the daughter did not like him He is housetrained but has apparently received no training from his previous owners. His breeder is going to keep him for a week to settle back in and another week to give him some training. We are going to visit him in a week to make our decision. What should I ask her?

[WTFwasthat]

Hasn't anyone got any advice?

[ThePlatypusAlwaysTriumphs]

Exciting! I would vet the breeder the way you would with any puppy- you should be able to see mum (possibly dad) and both parents should be hip scored and she should be able to tell you those scores. Both parents should also be eye tested.

Don't worry about being unprepared, but maybe organise a crate (which he might well be used to already if he has been back with the breeder) Check what the breeder is feeding him on and plan to stick with that for at least the first few days.

Ask if teh previous owners had him vaccinated or microchipped- if they did they should be able to provide paperwork. If there is no paperwork forthcoming, you'll have to assume he has had nothing and start vaccines again, although a vet will be able to check for a chip. If he is chipped, you will need to amend the details on the chip.

Check if he has been wormed at all, how often and when. has he been registered with the kenel club? Did the previous owners register him to them? You migth want to look into it and make sure he is registered to you.

Good luck and enjoy!!

[Wolfiefan]

Do you have a vet? Have you scoped out puppy training? I wonder if DD not liking it is code for it bounced all over her, demanded attention or chewed her/her stuff. Just being a puppy really!

[WTFwasthat]

he has been vacced, chipped and crate trained from what I know so far. The previous owners asked to bring him back after two weeks at which point the breeder contaced me and then they changed their minds. The breeder called me again two day sago to say they had brought pup back because the dd didn't like him. She is going to assess him for a week to see how he is behaving atwhich point we will go and visit. I'm guessing I'll need a pertty large crate! I will check to see if previous owners have donated crate

[WTFwasthat]

Just heard from breeder again. She is not letting him be rehomed for a further three weeks as he has received no training and spent the majority of his time in a crate . WTF are people thinking?! Poor boy

[BrianCoxIsUpTheDuff]

sounds like the breeder is a decent breeder, if they weren't they would have no qualms about passing him over to you in his current state.

Have you had a lab before?

[WTFwasthat]

No. . I've not owned a dog before but have been fiendishly reading up all I can for ages. My sister has a labrador and she is beautiful. What advice can you offer?

[TheMonster]

Get thousands and thousands of chew toys and keep all shoes out of reach!

[Svrider]

Ok my advice is from a border collie owner

1. Be patient

You will be his 3rd home, and he'll be confused and scared

1. Exercise 2x a day, at about the same time of day
2. Do not let upstairs/ on the settee/ jump up from the start

The lovely little puppy will soon be huge Labrador
(ignore this if your intending ALWAYS letting him upstairs etc

1. Do training little and often

I found it best to train dog myself, and then train the family on what to do/ sat etc
It will confuse a small puppy if everyone's trying to train him, in their own way

Enjoy

[BrianCoxIsUpTheDuff]

My advice:

find an obedience training class, puppy training/socialising is worth it's weight in gold.

Labs are amazing dogs, I would never have any other kind (well, I would because I am dog mad but labs are my fave). They love their food, tend to adore water (swimming) and for an intelligent breed....have their incredibly stupid moments!

They are into everything but are, I find, easily pleased/distracted - just be prepared to keep them entertained.

They are wonderful family dogs, patient and scatty in equal measures.

I think they calm down by the time they are 2/3 years old - before then they tend to be lunatics.

[MrsMcEnroe]

I have a 16-week old lab puppy and a 7yo lab, both from the same breeder.

Labradors are walking dustbins. They eat anything and everything, they steal food, they are driven by an inbuilt desire to seek food. If you've ever had a picnic ruined by a thieving dog it was probably a lab. Bear this in mind AT ALL TIMES!!!!! Don't leave food lying around at home. Labs can climb/jump pretty high to get at food; our pup can already reach the edge of the kitchen workshops and can open the flip-top bin to get the scraps out .

Certain foods are toxic to dogs: grapes and raisins are the big no-nos (some dogs, including ours, are ok with them as I found out unintentionally, but they can cause kidney failure so the advice is to keep them away from dogs).

Both our labs, lovely though they are, will take food out of a child's hand without a second thought.

Food stolen in this way often bounces back up, and often pretty much immediately!

Labs love to carry things around (they are retrievers) so yes, get hundreds of chew toys and hide all shoes, as BodyofEyeore says

Labs chew and chew when they are puppies. Never never never let them have an old shoe as a toy; they won't be able to differentiate between "their" shoe and your Louboutins.

They are easy to housetrain but they won't be able to go all night without weeing/pooing for ages yet so invest in some puppy pads or use old newspaper on the kitchen floor or in the crate.

Don't let the puppy upstairs!!

Exercise little and often to start with.

Don't leave the pup alone during the day for more than 3 hours at a time, and don't do this every day. Puppies need company.

Choose which commands you are going to teach (sit, down, leave, come etc) and make sure everyone uses the same commands and tone of voice when issuing those commands. Praise like hell when the command is obeyed, even if it takes 10 minutes to get there! Labs generally want to please you and love being trained IME (I've had 4 and am friends with a lady who breeds labs for a living).

Don't be afraid to ask the breeder for advice on an ongoing basis. Yours sounds very responsible. I'm wondering if our pups are siblings...?!

Labs are wonderful and I'm sure you'll be best friends in no time

[daisydotandgertie]

Blimey. None of my 4 Labradors would steal food or raid bins. It just doesn't happen, and never has. Neither would they take food from a child's hand, because they know they are not allowed to.

My advice is decide what you want from your adult dog, and base your training on that. So decide about sofas and upstairs before he arrives and stick with it. Mine are all allowed on the sofas when invited and upstairs whenever they like.

Out of the 4 I have now, only one has been a chewer of shoes.

The most important commands are fido come, fido sit, fido leave it and fido wait.

The right amount of exercise for a Labrador pup is 5 minutes for every month of age once a day. So by the time your puppy comes home it'll be nearly 5 months old and will need about 25 minutes a day.

The reasons for restricted walks are twofold. Firstly to avoid over tiring the dog - an over tired dog is much the same as an overtired child, and most importantly to protect the growing joints.

Our puppies always have a big old soft toy each, a couple of other soft toys and a couple of things to chew. We also have a lot of fun with empty milk containers, empty bottles and loo roll middles when they are little and too feeble to destroy them!

[MrsMcEnroe]

Some Labradors do steal food Daisy - and no amount of training can stop them! Ex-police dog trainer in the family agrees. You're lucky that yours aren't food thieves

[ThisIsNotHoneyDragon]

Have a 19/20 week old pup here.

Breeder sounds good if she wants to work with the dog.

They are mouthy breeds as pups, let them know you don't like it with an ow.

I have always had Labs and they have all been taught away from oppurtunistic thievery. But as with any Pup if you leave something tempting and accessible it's gone.

Don't put off training, especially on the lead, they get strong quickly.


Accept that it will be a puppy fro a long time. A large and strong puppy, but still a puppy.

Love them. You will get oodles in return.

[WTFwasthat]

Wow, you have been busy! thank hyou for your posts. so the chewing...... now that does sound like a challlenge. I think we had better get into the habit of leaving shoes in the porhc between now and then! Pup had has not lead training thus far from what the breeder can establish. He has been walked but not disciplined on a lead by teh sounds of things. She is an advocate of 'clicker' training. So I'll look on YOu tube for some clips of how it is doen. Is it really worthwhile? I guess if he is used to it then I had better carry on

[WTFwasthat]

honeydragon, is yoru puppy a lab? How have you found things? Particualarly interested to hear as your dog is around the age mine will be (if we opt to take him on). The breeder has toldme not to feel pressured into taking hi if we do not feel it is rhght for us. She can rehome him 5 times over!

[ThisIsNotHoneyDragon]

You will get a lot of help in here if you need it and other forums.

Hully is my 3rd Lab as an adult. They are a pita as puppies as they do take a long time to mature

Even so, I've asked for a lot of advice on here, particularly from Daisy as like with babies puppy care changes.

I do love Labradors. If you put the work in when they are young you get a great family dog.

Hully is a pre-teen at the moment and just finding her strength. And then you get the grotty teenage phase where they get selective deafness. However she is a joy to play with a train too at the moment as its all a great game.

As an adult Labs need a lot of excersise, to keep them healthy and stimulated. We have just had a fun filled walk in the rain.

I'd say the most important thing is your dc's. Do they understand that skipping the dogs walk is NOT an option? Ditto, they can't stay the extra hour in town, at the park because the fog needs to be returned to?

I am on my own a lot as dh works away. Ds (9) and dd (2)know that the puppy WILL be walked twice a day, shoes on no arguing. Equally I enjoy my early evening walk when dh is home, as it's just me and the dog . If your whole family are on the same page, and you know what you are letting yourself into, then go for for it!

[ThisIsNotHoneyDragon]

Dog, not fog!

[WTFwasthat]

I'm assuming that once the dog is adult it will require a good offlead hour once a day plus another walk thrown in. Does that sound adequate? I can do longer but am basing that on minimun.

[ThisIsNotHoneyDragon]

As a minimum that sounds good.

[Wolfiefan]

WTF. I'm so glad this poor dog (who had such an awful start) looks like it'll end up with an owner like you.

[Catsmamma]

Consistency is what matter with pups, and especially labs.


imo most of them are not that bright, but are easily confused, so rule breaking is never a good idea. They are usually eager to please and have excellent memories, so if they get away with something once, expect to see it repeated!

They are very very cute, but don't let that get in the way of telling them off or teaching them manners.

I think you will have a BIG commitment to socialise this dog if he has been crated so excessively....what a poor boy! We only use the crate at night, or for afternoon naps....our current pup never bothers with it otherwise, but I do know that lots of dogs really do like theirs.

[WTFwasthat]

wolfefan, thanks for your vote of confidence. I am hoiping so. I did feel so sorry for the poor little pup. Thebreeder did show me an email message from the previous owners as I was curuios to know wiht teh prob was. They were dithering about and rather negative as if pup was a problem dog. I am qutie aure he was just displaing pup behaviours. I'll take what the beeder says as gospel though.

[daisydotandgertie]

Ah, Mrs McEnroe; I don't know much, but I really do know Labradors!

They can be trained not to steal food. Not from each other, not from children and not from bins or worksurfaces.

All of mine, past and present have been taught about good manners with food and it really isn't difficult. IMO, good manners with food are a training building block as vital to my dogs as learning the stop whistle, the recall whistle and hand signals.

[Lonelylou]

As an experienced lab owner yes you can train them not to steal food. They are VERY intelligent dogs and love company.

I would also recommend training classes to get the best from your dog...and for the dog to get the best from you. You might be able to get your dog involved in fun classes such as agility for extra bonding.

There's an american site called blacklab that has been a good source of knowledge for me.

What colour is the lab? I believe even though they're all different characters the colours make a difference too.