We pick up our Labrador next week!

[Mumma2Ro]

so excited to pick up our baby girl. Silver Labrador she will be 8 weeks old.
I’m going to pets at home today to buy everything.
please share any puppy essentials or any shopping lists you had.
also…. How do we decide what food is best? She’s on a raw food diet at the moment…..
thank you

And a good vacuum. She will grow into a self propelled hair dispenser 🤣

The birds very kindly deal with any dog hair I leave in garden after grooming 🐦.

pretty sure I could knit another lab from all the hair!

She's gorgeous, @Badbudgeter! Here's my 'yellow' lab.

For info about various dog foods/nutrition, this website is useful: https://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/

For treats/teething, we poach chicken breasts in water, chop the meat into small pieces and freeze in small plastic pots - they defrost in an hour or so and fit in a pocket for walks. We freeze the stock in ice cube trays and put them in a kong - the cold is meant to help with teething. (Although if you do continue with raw food, not sure whether cooked chicken is recommended.) You can also use normal ice cubes in kongs, or freeze kongs with all sorts of food in them (lots of ideas on;ine) - worth buying several.

Another book recommendation (with a terrible title): Easy Peasy Puppy Squeazy https://www.amazon.co.uk/Peasy-Puppy-Squeezy-step-step/dp/1788701607/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2VT427TIBFNK0&keywords=easy+peasy+puppy+squeezy&qid=1684099501&s=books&sprefix=easy+peasy%2Cstripbooks%2C225&sr=1-1

She's adorable - enjoy the puppy cuddles!

On a side note I have heard of brindle labs . There is an American charity I watch their pup cams , who had brindle labs once . Their name is" Warrior Canine Connection" if anyone fancies watching the(labs) webcams 24/7.

He's gorgeous, no matter what's causing his lovely colouring!! Have you chosen a name yet?

My top bit of advice would be, start as you mean to go on! If you don't want 35kg of muddy lab standing on the sofa, don't let the cute little puppy on the sofa. HARD not to, but they go from cute little bundles to whoppers in no time!

introduce 'commands' with their regular behaviour when they're weeing 'x command' & praise, & poos!! It's very useful to be able to get them to go basically on command. 'Settle' when they lie down etc (catch the behaviour & reward it) & a word/phrase for being left. Start small, just leaving the room etc. calling them to you (& rewarding) all things you can work on in the house garden that'll make life easier. they're SO keen to please, make the most of it!'

Yeah, same here. They love it. I brush almost every day, but there's still a carpet of hair to vacuum up every day 🤦‍♂️

I hear you. Same here 🤣

Silver is a dilution of brown, but labs don’t have a dilution gene, the only way to get a silver lab is to outcross to another breed.

Not OP but why not? I have crate trained all my dogs, it gives them a safe space and comes in very handy if your dog ends up needing rest or surgery and they need to be confined.

I really don't know , some people are really anti crates when the reality is the puppy will most likely have been in a pen or some sort of an enclosure while at breeders anyway . My crate is seeing it's third puppy and probably has saved my house from being wrecked if pup wakes in the night , and keeps them safe from any hazards such as tinsel and electric leads .

I think because they are often used incorrectly. In puppies it's a secure place for them to sleep. Ours slept in one right beside our bed. Loads of room to move around but confined if she woke up and needed a wee in the night or fancied a chomp on something dangerous. She was never confined against her will. Shutting the door on a sleepy puppy is very different then forcing them in it whilst awake. She now sleeps in it with the door open.

Awake crate training takes months of building value and time and is a very different thing IMO. I've done this too and it's invaluable for things like travel, vet visits, groomers or anywhere else where a dog needs to fell calm and happy being confined.

Like anything it can be used highly effectively in the dogs best interest and welfare or abused.

Our puppy loves her crate. She’s very happy to go in at bedtime and if we leave her to go out. If she’s unsure about something she heads straight in there, as it’s her place of safety. Denying that crate training is good practice is a case of anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism, refers to the practices in which humans attribute human emotional and behavioral features to non-human animals. Put simply, a puppy sees their crate as a place of comfort and safety, whereas a human sees a crate as a cage.

We also have a secure canvass kennel for travelling.

Don't over walk your pup in the first year. This is really important otherwise they may get arthritis as they get older. Labs are not fur babies but a working breed and need a role so take training seriously. They are my favourite breed of dog but shed masses of hair, will eat anything (do not over feed them despite what their pleading eyes say!) and love mud and water but they are the most gorgeous beings,

Having crate trained ours really paid off when they've been post-op and needed quiet. We popped the crate up in the corner of the room and they used as they needed to. If you make it a safe space and a positive place, then I think it's fine.

Good luck with your new puppy.
I have always used crates for my puppies/younger dogs, and they have always been happy in them.
Last year when I was setting up the crate for my new pup, I came in to find my boy had put himself in there! He hadn’t been in a crate for a couple of years, but still loves to go in one!