Considering a Labrador pup - new dog owners. What do I need to know?

[Pointypointything]

As title. Been considering for a while now and have been notified of a litter ready to go. What do we need to know as novice dog owners? Any resources/books you would recommend? Very excited but want to be good owners 😊

Everyone seems to be telling you about the negatives but Labradors are the best and most loving dogs once they’ve got past the bitey shark puppy stage!

My advice is, get them off lead as soon as they can go for walks as this is the best age to teach solid recall because they instinctively want to be close to you. They are big dogs and they’re fast and no one wants a giant dog hurtling towards them or their dog. They are easy to train because they’re so food motivated.

Also, toilet training them is ridiculously easy! Ours practically trained himself. He only ever had one poo accident in the house which was my fault as it was his first morning with us and I was faffing about trying to find the back door key, and a handful of wee accidents. Take them outside every 30 mins at first and give a treat when they do their business outside. You can tell if they need to go as they start sniffing and circling.

They can have long lasting natural chews (like pizzle sticks) from 10 weeks and that helps with teething. Once they’ve lost their baby teeth, it gets much easier.

Labradors will eat and eat and eat til they pop if they can so slow them down with licky mats, kongs, slow feeders etc. and make sure food is stored out of reach. Oh and put the bin in a room that can be closed like the utility room if you have one. Ours is still in the utility room 2 years later but he still loves a good bin dip if he gets the chance 🤢.

A Labrador’s job is to retrieve and that’s what they’ll do all day long. Throwing a ball isn’t good for them but hiding and finding games are good. Ours can sniff out a ball from anywhere in an entire field! They’ll also bring you presents of socks and toys etc.

When they’re old enough, they love an activity such as agility, gun dog training, man trailing or whatever your interested in. Ours somehow knows when it’s Wednesday and starts nagging to go to agility about 2 hours before his class 🙈😂.

Oh and most Labradors love to swim and they can do it instinctively. The beach is ours favourite place. Conversely, he hates baths 🤷‍♀️.

Here’s a pic of mine chilling with me on my first day of annual leave just for cuteness.

Thanks for these helpful replies. I've found a breeder that has older pups (8-12 months) for sale that are 'pet trained'. The two things giving me pause for thought are that they are black and would prefer yellow (shallow I know) and also that they are working line dogs which a few of you now have cautioned against. Those of you more in the know than me about breeders would you kindly look at this one for me and let me know your thoughts?

Glassybont gundogs

If you go for working line, head for a gundog trainer. Two working line lab owners near me have been really helped by going to one.

Completely unsuitable for a novice owner.

Is this based on the information from the website?

No. Based on owning dogs for forty odd years plus growing up with dogs all my life before that.

If you have a very outdoor life ALL year round and can devote a lot of time to training and exercise for the whole of the dogs life a working dog breed may be suitable but unlikely given that you've never had a dog before.

@Dombasle thank you. Really appreciate your thoughts.

We got a working line lab as a first dog (and a second) and it all worked out well. We were quizzed fairly heavily by the breeders we spoke to about as to why we wanted a pup from working lines rather than show. We were well aware of the level of input they would require.

So that would be my question to you, why working over show?

But I don't recognise a lot of what has been said here. Neither of our pups were very bitey unless they got overtired. A chair or two got a couple of teeth marks but nothing destroyed. House training for both was sorted within a week. They've always settled beautifully in the house without much effort from us. Off lead from 12 weeks, recall has never been an issue, we had to put a bit of effort into loose lead walking with one in particular but otherwise training has been reasonably straightforward. Neither have ever had a visit to the vets beyond routine vaccinations and checkups.

I wouldn't personally consider a pup from a commercial breeder such as one you linked. Our pups both came from working homes where the owners were having a litter to keep a pup for themselves, raised in the home.

The discussion re working and show always surprises me.

I would without doubt always go for the working breed and I have.

Working collies, working wcs and working labs.

Working dogs are bred for health and temperament. They will be bred for steadiness, they should not be neurotic and will have an off switch.

Working dogs may have long periods of working but they will also have mega long periods of down time, waiting in a kennel etc. Working dogs have to have impulse control or be taught this. A working lab could spend literally hours in a wait at the peg on a shoot.

If you get any labrador you are signing up for daily walks about 2 hours anyway so you may as well have a great healthy intelligent willing dog that will then come back and settle. IF you get a lab they will all be much happier for having a job to do - with a working lab they will be easier to train and give so much back to you.

OP think what you want to do with your dog - and dont get put off by the working breeds are too much to handle but do quiz the breeder on what the expectations they want for the home for their puppies.

@IngGenius this is what the breeder has written on the website I linked - that they are bred for temperament. I'm speaking to them later hopefully and will be honest with them about what we want from a dog and our home setup.

It's something we really want but I can't lie, I'm a bit daunted about the responsibility.

Don’t.

I also have a black lab and this post sound labs up perfectly. Mine also looooves to swim and hates the bath!

mine was hard work until age 1 but now aged 3 is amazing. Loves long walks, swims and games, loves to be with the family. Chills out at home and sleeps on the sofa. Such a loyal and friendly dog. But be prepared for the moulting!

We had a working line as our first dog and she's remarkably chilled.

Toilet training and crate training essential for us. Toilet training was only two weeks but it was winter and it felt like the longest two weeks ever.

I thought I was prepared (grew up with dogs) but it was much more unrelenting than I expected. I wasn't prepared to have puppy blues, which stayed for around 8 weeks.

We spent a lot of time training. Loose lead walking and recall from day one. Total Recall is a useful book.

Mistake we made: we over socialised her. That's one thing we'd do differently. Our lab's kryptonite is that she loves other dogs too much and it made recall training so much harder. She's 19 months now so it's easier to recall her away but the first year was horrendous. She was a frustrated greeter.

We didn't really have a chewing stage so we're lucky in that respect. Dog isn't really left alone as there's always someone around but can happily stay on her own for 5 hours (never tried longer).

Our dog doesn't like swimming though. She only likes to go in shallow water. Will retrieve if there's nothing else to do but lose interest if there are other dogs. She was the only dog in gun dog class not interested in retrieving. The trainer said this happens sometimes!

It's hard work at the start but she's super easy now at 19 months.

Perhaps the biggest change for us is that everything now revolves around the dog. We've lost spontaneity. Vacations are now mainly to places she can come with. Visiting family abroad costs us a fortune as we pay for home boarding which is expensive where we are.

I came here to say this! Lab's shed so much , make sure you have an excellent hoover

They are absolute barmpots. Not like any other dog i have experienced. They seem to have two very strong instincts, to eat and to hump. Nothing else seems to matter and they get bored extremely quickly. They will need huge amounts of mental and physical stimulation along with good dog control to even start getting an easy dog to live with.

With all that said, most of the negatives are also positives. Their instinct for food makes them respond very well. They are very intelligent. They are very loving and fun.

1st dog. Nope, college had 2 years of hell before he got to grips with his and to this day if he was asked he wouldnt have made the same decision given another chance.

2nd/3rd dog - Possibly. Been around dogs all my life and have two now. Still not sure i could cope with a Lab.

We had a yellow girl, bred for service but she wasn’t suited for it. She was wonderful, calm, brilliant and kind of lazy. She was four when I met my husband so I missed out on the puppy years, but he said she was quite easy after the first ten days of potty training. We lost her last year.

We returned to the same breeder and waited patiently for months for just the right litter. Met our new puppy and are now (not very ) patiently waiting to bring her home. She’s the same type - not a hunting dog but not solely show either.

I am already in love so ready for the hell.

What’s the reason for not throwing the tennis balls? Just curious to know if it’s bad physically or cause behavioral issues or something else?

Working dogs have to have impulse control or be taught this.

I think the key here is "be taught this". Working dogs are trained from day one to do what they do - how many pet homes can offer that level of training and discipline?

Some good precautionary advice above. They are greedy and you should control their food intake. Our neighbour's Lab had to have liposuction!

Loads of pet homes - pet dog homes are not homes of the stupid!

I find the term pet dog homes so derogatory as if they are owners who have no clue. This is not the case many pet dogs owners compete in dog sports go to training classes spend hours with their dogs.

It is dead easy with a bright intelligent working dog to teach impulse control.

Most working dogs coming from the breeders will have a wait command!

Oh exciting enjoy your new puppy

Chasing balls is a killer for dogs joints and can push some dogs adrenalin very high.

You could with a lab get them to retrieve a still ball or a still dummy. It is the endless chasing moving balls and quick turns onto moving balls that does the damage.

A controlled dog in a wait, ball or dummy thrown out and a calm release to the object is fine but still needs to be regulated.

@IngGenius That makes sense. Also the disciplined way of doing this seems wise. Our girl was just... well should wouldn't even chase a rabbit with any real gas. She would kind of pretend to be interested but it was all for show.

Yes. A working line will (should) be healthier and have better conformation and temperamentally more sound AS LONG AS you have a real understanding of what they need mentally more than physically to keep them that nice, stable, go anywhere kind of dog.

I have taught lots of working line gun dogs agility. Those in either experienced hands or those who have done their research and got support have done well and ended up with superb dual purpose pets and working dogs (albeit working in agility, scentwork, obedience etc). I have also had my fair share of people who had no idea there was a working and show type and no real idea of the difference in needs. Some of them turned out ok with support. An awful lot did not.

So if the OP really knows their stuff, spends time with the breeder and also gets to know some trainers it will probably be ok. Based on my experience though I would say a well bred and health tested pet line would be more sensible. Again I know quite a few who are very easy to train and bombproof both in temperament and health.

I have a terrier whose mum works and dad looks very (Crufts) pretty. We chose the breeder as I wanted a dog with spark but not inferno. All terriers are working technically but some are more work orientated than others! She does need more than 'pet' versions of her breed and typically struggles more with over arousal and impulse control but that's ok as we were expecting that and it is improving with work and age to a point. I have known people with the same breed with pure working line really struggle with them as they assumed they were all the same. I have taught quite a few.

It's buyer beware really.

pet dog homes are not homes of the stupid!

I find the term pet dog homes so derogatory as if they are owners who have no clue.

I didn't once say pet owners were stupid and didn't have a clue.

I just think it's important to be realistic. Many dog owners don't want to spend hours taking their dog to agility or gun dog training. They want to go to classes in their local village hall and have a dog who is biddable, generally obedient and non-aggressive.

Yes, there are some who do spend hours on their dogs and who do have the time to go to multiple training classes but IME they're in the minority. I see so many threads on here from people who have working strain dogs and can't cope with them because they just wanted a pet who likes walks and can play with their children in the garden.

Ha, or what @Newpeep said. I don't think there's anything wrong with owning a working-line dog as a pet but you do need to be able to give them what they need.

My experience is that the training needed to have a nice, well-rounded family pet is very different to the commitment of having a nice, well-rounded working dog as a pet.

Things I wish I had realised - appreciate this is more negative but everyone focusses on the early years. My marriage broke down when the dogs were 10 and 11 and I had to do all the really hard stuff on my own as they lived until 14 and 15:

1. They will be with you for a LONG time - if your marriage breaks down, are you prepared to take full responsibility if you H is a twat like mine?
2. Like children, you can't just give them back when they get annoying
3. The twilight years can be wonderful but really frustrating as they can't do the walks you used to enjoy - just as you start to enjoy walking without toddlers/children/teenagers the dog physically declines
4. Having holidays, days out, nights or weekends away becomes worse than planning childcare.
5. Having to make the decision to PTS is really really hard and you are never certain it is right. Are you prepared to be the one who has to make it?