Help me get ready for lab puppy- shopping list?

[Asinine]

We're getting a lab pup soon and would love some recommendations from experienced owners for equipment eg bedding, chew toys, leads, food, anything else I need? We are getting a crate from a friend who had a lab and have one red kong. Is there a good online site I should look at? There are so many so I thought i'd take the mum net shortcut and ask for advice. Are some brands worth paying more for? General advice welcome, too.

It was seeing your name on here that made me search one out for the toy collection, it looks like we'll have to get a bigger one for Mabel too!

awww Letty, great name and obviously a genius, as all labs are

The Kong Wubba is the holy of holies here is ONLY brought forth from The Pocket Of Joy for tricky recall and stop training. Love the multi tonal ssqeeeeeeeeak it produces.

KongWubba is the toy of choice for stopping the chewing of the cuffs/trouser legs/fancy bits on shoes. Not that she'll be a chewer, oh no no no no, she's a Lab and lab's don't chew, do they?

No, hardly ever.

Gah, there was a rogue ' in that post. Very sorry Your Highness, Queen Slubber of Pedantville. Appalling, unforgiveable lapse.

ME a royal in pedantville? I think not! I am a prime offender in over excitable apostrophe use, that and the iPad shoves them in willy nilly too.

Is vet bed the brand name, or is it a type of bedding?
Btw, is the dog poo thing like with dcs, when your own dcs poo, wee or vom is far less disgusting than other people's dcs bodily fluids?

yes, I think dog poo is like your Dc's - I will happily pick up my dogs poo , walk aorund with it , fling it in the bin , but I could not do the same with another dogs poo .

We have owned labs for many years and in that time spent a fortune on different sorts of bedding. IME labs are dreadful chewers( for a good 18 months) and will destroy anything with a seam, stuffing or label! Ours are all on a solid plastic bed with a piece of profleece bedding, cant do a link but google the dog inn or profleece.
Hope you enjoy your new puppy!

Use baby nappy sacks- sainsburys basics are 15p or something silly. I used to liked tne fragrances nappy sacks best and you spend a lot of time with bags of poo in your pocket.

I found the basics/value nappy sacks were too thin to cope with picking up dog poo. One too many poo-ey fingers incidents and we moved to the proper, thick nappy sacks.

Another top tip - get used to broken nights again, I've been up since 5 and have cleaned out the accidents from her crate and put the bedding in the wash again. I was reading somewhere (Labforums, I think) that some people put a camp bed next to the crate for the early weeks and taking pups out for toiletting. Not for me, but maybe you should add campbed and sleeping bag to your list .

The water bowl I was talking about, very, very good, won't tip even if they stand on it.

Can't remember if I said but stock up on lots of kitchen towel - you'll need it for mopping up accidents, oh and some of that pet odour remover spray if you have carpets.

Oiilhan hope Letty gets the hang of toileting soon, and that you get more sleep tonight

My list is getting longer but it'll all be worth it

She did brilliantly yesterday but I was taking her out very ,very frequently and staying out there until she performed but at 5am, in my dressing gown, in the cold it wasn't my idea of a good time . I brought her in too soon a couple of times then had the inevitable accidents 5 seconds later .

But now she's asleep cuddling her honking goose she is far too cute and she's forgiven!

just a quick one to agree with Moaningmin above- plastic bed with some 'vet bed' is the best solution. Anything else gets chewed to bits and you will have to wash it reasonably often so don't bother with those big padded beds. Total waste of money.

I am shamelessly copying some of my own post from another thread here on getting a new puppy as there seems to be some good advice here about preparing for your lab. Our golden retriever will be similar, I guess - so here goes with some questions I have in the last 2 to 3 weeks before 'Rollo' joins out family:

How can you tell the difference between whimpering/ howling for company in the night and for needing to poo/ wee? I know you're supposed to ignore attention seeking noises but not those related to toilet needs but have no idea how to tell the difference.

What kind of collar should we get and what kind of lead? What make is best?

Are there any special toys you'd recommend that your puppy has particulary loved? If a toy says, "use under supervision" does that mean you can't let the puppy have it to play with if you go out of the room and , if so, what kinds of toys are safe to leave for unsupervised play?

For the first few days, did you manage still to do ordinary stuff like shopping and school run without taking puppy - or should I plan to have Rollo with me all the time?

If he won't be wearing a collar at first (although I know the breeder has already put little soft ones on all the puppies to differentiate them) - how do you coerce puppy to go outside to toilet, when you realise he's about to 'go' , if he won't follow you and he's too young for a collar and lead? Do you pick him up or what?

The breeder will have trained the pups to toilet on newspaper, rather than outside. Should I therefore put newspaper outside where I want him to go? Should I accept that he'll toilet on newspaper INSIDE for a while in any case?...

Sorry if you've read these on the other thread. I'm in pre-puppy excitement/ panic stage!

solo I'm a year on so am trying to remember what i did

howling/whimpering. um. I don't think my pup howled or whimpered when she needed to wee or poo, she just squatted down and did it , hence going out into garden laden with treats every 15 mins, plus before eating, plus after eating, plus before having a sleep, and after a sleep. Oh hell you are just in and out of the garden all the live long day with your treats until they get it that wee outside = yummy treat. I crate trained from the get go and took her out a few times in the night so she never had an opportunity to soil her crate.

Collar and lead, flat adjustable collar and lead with a clip. HUGE FAIL by allowing the dds to choose (pink sparkly gorgousness, dh not amused).

puppy kong big fave. Everything new is a toy, PAH does a selection of squeaky things. You have to keep quite vigilant about them chewing and ingesting stuff so when I was going out then she went into the crate with no toys.

For the first few days...it's all a blur. I think I went to the loo a few times and maybe gave the dc food. carrying puppy while you are out and about is excellent for socialisation (although sainsbos would probably object). School run esential.

ime Puppy didn't need coercing to go outside. if i was outside she was outside. if i was inside she was inside. Excited calling and bending down will have them coming to you. Floor sniffing and circling = imminent excretion so i think I do remember scooping her up and taking her outside on those occasions.

Bobbins to newspaper. Take pup outside A LOT and treat and praise like mad if they do it outside. Ignore, and clear up any inside accidents without comment but clean with biological washing powder solution to make sure smell doesn't linger.
Won't take puppy too long to work out that piddling on the grass = nice things happen. Piddling inside = nadda.

hth

We got our black lab bitch last year July when she was 8 weeks. When you collect your dog, breeder should give you a towel/old t-shirt with the Mum's scent and/siblings scent too. So please ask before hand if not take a soft toy/towel/old t-shirt with you to do this. Our puppy was used to a collar, as breeder used coloured collars to distinguish whose pup was whose. Take an old towel with you when you collect pup too as pup may be sick as possibly first outing in a car, also time when collect (breeder should advise) your pup obviously not after it's breakfast or lunch. We had a crate, half lined with vet bed and newspaper as this was what the breeder had been doing. The first night she cried for all of 5 minutes but we didn't go to her (found this quite upsetting) but didn't want to make a rod for our back so to speak. That was the only night she cried. She would ONLY wee on the newspaper in the crate at night. When we came down in morning we would open crate and go straight to the garden so she could do her wee/poo.

I will add more when I'm free.