After much and long deliberation we decided to get a dog for ds(9) and brought home a 13 weeks old black lab puppy 8 days ago. We have called him Diesel.
He is kennel club registered and has a lovely pedigree. He wasn't vaccinated when we got him so we can't start his puppy socialisation classes and puppy training classes for another week or two (but he was with his 8 litter mates and 4 other pet adult Labradors until last week). He's quite big already and weighs 10kgs.
Had a puppy trainer to the house yesterday and all was good.
So far he has been great, no accidents in the house since day one. We have been setting boundaries for him, doing a bit of training and he can (when he feels like it) sit, stay, wait, come etc. for me or ds(9). He goes into his crate now and again during the day and also goes all night in it, when in it he doesn't whine or bark. He has only actually barked (randomly and not aggressively) once or twice.
He play grabs with his mouth (and needle teeth!), but responds well to us saying ouch and turning away.
The pup's crate is in the den (garage converted into room in which we have a two seater couch/computer & small tv) and he has access to this room and kitchen. He is not allowed in living room or upstairs and already he is good at this as doesn't go into room even when the door is open. He sleeps a bit still and we give him plenty of quiet time so not to make him over tired.
ds(9) has never been around dogs much as no one we know has one anymore so this is a big learning curve for him.
That was long a bit long, but wanted to give you a bit of background.
I have been feeding the pup and asking him to sit and wait before putting his food bowl down. Today asked ds to do it and pup barked loudly and snarled at him and ds got a big fright. I reacted by grabbing pup and putting in crate (was abrupt, but didn't hit/scold), ds was crying from fright.
The pup will usually do sit and wait commands for ds, but this has been when his food is not involved (he does give it a training treat).
Having a Google, it says I should not punish the pup for growling as it is a warning and if it is trained not to growl it could go straight to bite. OK, so grabbing and putting him in the crate was maybe not a good idea.
The pup wasn't scared or in pain, is it a dominance thing, or maybe because ds(9) who is smaller/higher voice than me doing it?
ds is now scared of pup, do I push ds giving the pup food while its still very young and gets used to him (closely supervised), or have just me and dh feeding it for a while?
Should I get puppy trainer back in for advice? (£40 for home visit, which was good, but cant afford too often!!!)
(we also gave him first dose of advocate today, but don't see anything on Google with any aggressive side effects)