Tell me about puppies - particularly Labrador puppies...

[wangle99]

Never had a puppy before... tell me all the good and bad bits... don't spare anything lol

Sarah

I think if you'd had puppies before, taking a pup into work might be an option if you crate train, (puppies do sleep a lot and are easily tired out) but if you haven't had a pup before, you might find it a struggle. A REAL struggle.

Puppies are a full time job in itself really. And yes, they do bite. Like small children, they explore everything with their mouths and their teeth are like needles and easily draw blood. They wee and poo like you'd never, ever imagine.

Once older a lab ideally needs around 2 hour sof exercise a day, or maybe more, so you'd need to think about how you were going to fit that in along with working full time.

Also, and I know this will sound harsh, but it is wrong to get adog just because someone you know happens to be having a litter unless you were already thinking of getting one. If you really want a dog and can take one into work with you, maybe an adult rescue dog that is known to be good with children would be an option? It would already likely be toilet trained, and maybe have basic training too. Plus, it'd likely be much more chilled out than a puppy, not bitey etc.

KI am sure you know though, that it woul dbe unfair to get a dog unless you could take it to work with you all day. It couldn't stay at home all day alone.

Although I agree that every dog is different and the colour of their coat should have no bearing on their temperament, it unfortunately does in the case of chocolates - but even though many people say that they're a but nutty, they don't understand how they came to get this reputation. A few years ago (and still today), it became very fashionable to have chocolate labs, so less scrupulous breeders started breeding purely for colour instead of temperament or health. If they were chocolate, they were bred, regardless of their suitability. They produced a litter of cute little chocolate pups - all fetching higher prices that blacks or yellows because they were suddenly so popular - and a nice wad of money for the breeder in the process. The cycle continued, each generation becoming more susceptible to nervous problems and poor temperaments due to this poor breeding, leading to chocolates becoming known as a bit 'unstable'. When in fact, there will be absolutely no difference between well bred black, yellow or chocolate labs - just like there will be no difference between poorly bred ones. The only reason chocolates got the bad reputation is because there were so many of them, all around the same time, that had been poorly bred and suffered as a result. But it happens all over - I'm sure the quality of yellows suffered when the Andrex adverts started!

I know that most of the chocolate litters around here come from poor lines, and therefore would never consider one. Even though the pups themselves may come from a decent breeder, if you trace their lines you'll find a lot of them originated as part of this chocolate frenzy, and breeding is everything when it comes to getting a well-rounded dog. There's always a big debate over 'nature vs nurture', but it's been proven that poor temperament parents are more likely to produce poor temperament offspring.

Equally, there are great breeders who have only ever bred the best of the best, and therefore have produced excellent litters, but sadly they are outnumbered by money-grabbing back-yard breeders.

As the owner of 1 yo black lab, I can only second what MrsL and Midori have said.

I think taking a lab to work in an office would be completely unworkable for the first few years at least! They are big, bouncy and full of energy and tbh would have your office destroyed within 5 minutes when they got bored.

Although they are easily trained, the first few weeks are really intense and I dont think you could do it if you were at work.

I know you say you like the idea of solitary walking, but what about when its pouring down, blowing a gale and is -1 outside and you have no option but to take your very unhappy dc's with you - its no fun trying to walk a hyper pup with a screaming toddler in tow (belive me, I have been there ).

Dont underestimate the chewing either. I am a reasonably experienced dog owner and I started a thread on here a couple of weeks ago about my labs chewing - he will chew anything and has cost us hundreds replacing the stuff he has damaged (remote controls, toys, shoes, rugs, etc).

I know I am being really negative but I really wouldnt want you to go into anything "blind" as labs really do need major commitment.

I wouldnt be without mine though - he is lovely and absolutely adores the dc's - they really are fantastic family pets.

I have a lab and have owned and worked with dogs all my life. I think MrsL has put it all very well, and that it would be completely unfeasible for you to take on a lab puppy.

Can I stand up for chocolate labs! Well done daisydotandgertie. The colour makes no diference to temperment at all. There are chocolate coloured assistance dogs. And as ddg says working trial labs and gundogs. If you train a choc well the behaviour will not be determined by the colour.

Also the reputation that labs chew yes they will if you let them. I am worried sick by the list of things the dogs have chewed here. Vigilance is vital when they are in the chewing stage and you must make sure they can not reach things that chewing could so easily kill them. Chewing is usually done out of boredom or stress so as a owner we can easily sort out those issues.

"The cycle continued, each generation becoming more susceptible to nervous problems and poor temperaments due to this poor breeding, leading to chocolates becoming known as a bit 'unstable'." such a sweeping statement if you research your lines well you can get excellent chocolate labs. Research is vital on any breed goldies included!

I feel for my choc lab now.

She is a beautiful dog who protects the boys. She hardly barks is as happy running around or having a lazy day.

HOuse training her was easy but stressfull at the beginning but that is the same as any dog.
She is very well behaved off a lead.

I couldnt think of a better dog to have when you have children.

Well said re the chewing, Minimu. I get a bit bored listening to myself on here, warning people to make sure things are out of reach.
When you've watched a beautiful young dog being put to sleep on the operating table because the vet has opened it up and found all its internal organs are glued together by peritonitis after it ate something it shouldn't - that's heartbreaking

I have to agree re: the chewing. If you are vigilant and sensible, things should never be chewed. More importantly than it is annoying to have your things ruined, it is very dangerous to the dog.

I think mrsL123 is righ in saying that the reputation of chocolate labs has probably come from all the BYBs and puppy farmers breeding without a care to anything than colour. They were extremely fashinable a few years ago (maybe stll are) and everyone and his wife was breeding them for money. It isn't to do with the colour though, just co-incindental so many were bred in that colour, there are puppy farmed/poorly bred and mental yellow and black labs too.

I also agree research is vital and any breed (yes, even my beloved Goldens) can be a problem if not properly bred or properly reared and socialised. I will never forget a call I had from someone wantng to go on my puppy waiting list. She had had to have her Bullmastiff put to sleep as it had bitten her children and she wanted a Golden as they were so biddable and wouldn't bite her children. Needless to say I told her that any dog could bite given the right (or wrong) circumstances and turnd her away.

you also have to consider that some dogs will never outgrow the chewing stage although it does obviously become less prevalent as the dog gets older.

My first guide dog was a yellow lab and she would chew whatever she could lay her paws on if left alone. In the first six months I had her this included:

A cushion
four meters of wrapping paper.
A set of modem cables that belonged to dh' work (ooops).
A sweatshirt (well she just chewed off the arm .

And this was an eighteen month old dog that had been well-trained as a guide dog, was exceptionally obedient and who did come to work with me every day obv and slept in a basket under my desk and we went out at lunchtimes. But she didn't like to be on her own as she was so used to being with people and so when left she went looking for things to do.

Just three months ago I came home and found she'd chewed up a letter that had come through the door, and she was nearly fifteen then. (we had to have her pts in December due to a tumour )

What you have to bear in mind is that these are animals. And even if you put in all the hard work and the training etc they are still animals with their own personalities and querks.

I now have two lab x golden retrievers (one is a soon-to-be retired guide dog who is being retired early due to a behavioral issue, and the other is a still-in-training guide dog who I am being trained with atm). The older one is fabulously obedient, perfectly sociable, loves people and children, I can take him into school and meetings and the classroom and he will lie at my feet and not move even with 30 children shouting and running and causing a noise. He is an excellent guide dog and works incredibly well.

When not working he is brilliantly behaved in the house, has never chewed anything, although he's an opportunist with food and did eat a box of chocolates that landed him at the vet, but other than that... His recall is perfect, he doesn't run off.

On the face of it he is a perfectly trained, well behaved dog. but...

He doesn't like other dogs when he's on lead/in harness. He reacts very strongly towards them in fact - barks at them and will growl at them, although is perfectly happy to make friends once I have done so, and he only reacts like this when restrained.

We have tried everything to break the habbit but it is simply not possible. Trust me I have tried everything - vets and behaviorists, and special collars and reinforcement training (praise the good behavior, ignore the bad), but the behavior is so ingrained in his psychy that he cannot be trained out of it.

And so because of this (and predominantly because a member of the public complained), he is being withdrawn as a guide dog next week.

But looking at him you would never know.

The querks of the new dog have yet to emerge

I guess what I'm trying to say is that even if you have the time and the patience and the inclination to put in the training, a dog is an animal, and it will always have querks that are a part of its personality.

You can buy a puppy and hopefully train it to fit in with your family, but you also have to be prepared to fit in around the dog to an extent (much like having a baby).

Are you prepared for that?

loads of people have mentioned the chewing stage, what about a jumping stage, has anyone experienced this before?
My 15 week old pup is definitely going through that stage right now!

"The cycle continued, each generation becoming more susceptible to nervous problems and poor temperaments due to this poor breeding, leading to chocolates becoming known as a bit 'unstable'." such a sweeping statement if you research your lines well you can get excellent chocolate labs. Research is vital on any breed goldies included!"

Minimu I didn't mean to come across as if I was saying chocolates were bad - quite the opposite infact - the very point I was trying to make is that colour has nothing to do with it if you choose a decent breeder, and getting a well bred chocolate is no different to getting a well bred black or yellow. As I said, there are excellent chocolates available if you research it properly. But my point was, people unfairly say all chocolates are 'mental' without knowing the real reason they came to get this reputation - not because their colour gives them a different temperament (which is ridiculous, it's just hair colour!) but because so many poor examples of chocolates flooded the market at the same time due to these awful money grabbing breeders, and therefore people associated the colour with the temperament issues, rather than realising it was because they were the victims of 'supply and demand'. I bet there are many yellow labs out there that suffered a similar fate due to the 'Andrex Puppy' craze. Unfortunately with the chocolates, the reputation stuck for some reason - maybe because those back yard breeders are still breeding for colour alone. I know of a local BYB who gets an extra £100 for his chocs, and has advertised four different litters in the past year - compared to just one litter of yellows and blacks. Why anyone buys from him, I've no idea - one look at the parents and you can tell they shouldn't be producing pups from them. But some people want a cute little chocolate puppy and would rather go to an idiot like him than choose a 'common' black one from a decent breeder

I was actually trying to stand up for the chocolates myself, sorry if it came across as the opposite

Everyone will always tell you that their particular breed of dog is much harder work than other breeds!

We have always had Scotties. They are hard work. Housetraining takes a l-o-n-g time. As a girl I had a Dalmation and she was hard work, too, for different reasons.

My friend down the road has a miniature Schnauzer and she says he was a fairly easy pup. They weren't experienced owners, either, so I'm inclined to believe her because she's not comparing him with anything else. He housetrained himself very quickly--unlike my latest Scottie pup, who, at seven months, can still make mistakes if not watched.

We were very careful when we chose our choc lab - we found her through the labrador club of Scotland, it was only her second litter, and we saw not only the mum, but our pup's 'aunt' - same dam and same sire and over a year old, so a decent gap between litters (I hope that was a fair assumption).

Having read the comments on this thread about chewing, I am ashamed of what our pup has got hold of. Some things can't be kept out of her reach (furniture etc) but I will be more vigilant about the things we can move up or away, and will also make sure she has plenty of things she is allowed to chew and will look at doing more to keep her interested too. The last thing I want to be is a neglectful owner.

A question - one of the things I can do with her to keep her occupied is more training, and there's still plenty for her to learn or learn more definitely - but she responds best to treats, and we are a bit worried about her weight atm, so are there any low calorie treats we can offer - at the moment, I use mini-bonio type biscuits from tesco, broken into two or three bits. Or should we use her dry food as training treats, but cut down the amount she gets at meals?

We do the latter.

Our dog has a lot of lab in her, we are first time owners and both at home all day. It has been a very steep learning curve and definitely harder than either of my two DC's were as babies and toddlers.

She is 8 months now, not too bad until 7 months but then things deteriorated and the last 24 hours have been pretty disastrous really. Whilst I was in my office yesterday morning and everyone else downstairs, she sneaked off into our bedroom. Sitting on a chest of drawers was a new TV bought last weekend that doesn't work properly and was due to go back this weekend. The cable had fallen off the top of the chest of drawers somehow and was on the floor. Plug now chewed off the end.

I have no idea where she found it but she got hold of one my Emu boots, possibly from off the top of the piano, and there's now a hole in the sole. And DD left the wii remote on the sofa whilst she nipped to the loo and that's had a bit chewed off.

Previous to that she chewed two computer mice on consecutive days, has beaten me to the post and ripped a Boden catalogue and my water bill (cage being fitted very soon). She's climbed up onto a coffee table and found a plastic bag of fake snow on the top of my fairly tall shelf unit, books have been plucked off bookshelves, hair brushes chewed, plants have been taken out of pots in the garden and the list goes on and on really.

This is with us both at home with her, daily walks, frequent short bursts of training, variety of toys like tug a jug, chew toys that are rotated, DD doing things like hide and seek. We don't seem to be very good at dog ownership.

Oh. No. That naughty, naughty dog.

Dogs will train for carrots and bits of apple as well as cutting down on their food is they have been given lots of treats. Dried liver is a great healthly treat and can easily replace some kibble if that is what you are feeding.

I never ever let a dog out of my sight until they are at least two but that does mean my dogs only chew what they are meant to chew.

If I do have to leave them, as of course I do, they are shut in a safe place for them to be left. Sometimes with a kong but when I leave them they are tired so will usually sleep. I never leave an unexercised dog until it has been walked. So first thing before I am feed or showered the dogs get a run usually 6.00am ish. Then they are feed and happy to sleep when I shower sort out the family etc.But they don't chew the wrong things and two are labs!

Not meaning to preach but the chewing can be controlled with careful but I agree timeconsuming methods but back to the OP she needs to acknowledge the time that is needed to look after the dogs.

Minimu, can I ask you how you'd do the exercise for an 8 month pup please ? I'm always very mindful of not over exercising because of the joints and have been doing the 5 mins per month of life which means we're at 40mins now. Any suggestions of when you'd do that and would you just walk once or break it down into two smaller ones ? Any suggestions very gratefully received, thank you !

10 mins walk in morning home for breakfast.
5 min training at 11.00 ish
10 min walk before lunch home for lunch
5 min training at 3.00ish
10 min walk afternoon home for supper
5 min training 6.00 ish
10 min walk before bed

One tired pup and knackered owner

we have a guide dog puppy that is ½ black lab + ½ Golden Retriver and she came at 7 weeks old {younger for GDP}

Anyway we have had her for 2½ weeks and you deffo couldn't work with a 9 week old puppy

I am taking her outside so many times during the day that you not get any work done IMHO or IME

I barely get to have telephone conversations unless on mobile or cordless phone

She has a crate that she has to sleep in for at least 1 hour after each of her meals ~ this is to make sure she get digested ok

She also sleeps in it at night

BUT SHE IS VERY VERY CUTE AND WE LOVE HER + she is great fun and DEFFO BRILL

Minimu you are a complete star. We're both home all day so can split it and as long as we get the tired pup I don't care if we are knackered! Thank you so much.

We have a golden retriever and he slept through the night (in a crate) from the very 1st night we got him at 7 weeks exactly. He never pees in his crate and can go for 11 hours without a pee (I overslept once ). He's 16 weeks now.

Kid the jumping!! It's driving me nuts

I couldn't possibly let our have the run of the house. He's only in the kitchen, hall and garden. Very occasionally upstairs when supervised. He ate a sock once and I found it so stressful, I wouldn't let him go where he could find anything else. He's chewed the corner off one tripp trapp chair, but that's all so far, fingers crossed.

Puppies are a lot of work, a bit like toddlers, they need watching and want your attention. It's an incredible morale boost though. They're genuinely thrilled to see you every single time you enter the room . You can also put them in a crate and go out, which is pretty different from a baby. A puppy at work would be exactly as helpful as a 1yo child though, ie not at all.

Oh. You mean you can't put the kids in a crate and go out? Oh bugger.

Where does it say you can't crate dc?

Romanarama said so, Bella - is she wrong then? Whew!!!!