Bringing new Labrador puppy home - first time dog owner

[Jeezitshard]

We are bringing our little Labrador girl pup Willow home in July, having met her for the first time yesterday. Because of timings (taking my daughter to Newcastle for work experience) we will be picking her up when she is ten weeks old. We're experienced cat owners, but this is our first time as puppy parents and I'm trying to plan what we need - but I can't anticipate the size she will be. She is currently a tiny little thing but I am aware that she will be significantly larger in six weeks time. So my questions are
What size dog bed should I buy?

• I've seen so many lovely ones but a very nice pet shop owner told us not to bother spending money on nice ones until the chewing phase is over What size car seat? I probably need a harness as well as some sort of booster seat but again - no idea what size to get. What size pet carrier and what style? I've heard I'll need a carrier for taking her out and about for a few weeks pre-vaccinations. I've seen little poodle type dogs in things that look like baby slings but not sure what you'd go for with a Labrador Crate - we are going to get a large one and partition it What size collar?

Any other essentials that are size dependent that I've not thought of?

Thanks in advance

I'd make her crate her bed at get a crate pad for in there. As she's a lab avoid any fluffy or light coloured beds - she's likely to be a bog dog and get stinky any chance she gets and with the best will in the world the bed will take the brunt of it. I wouldn't bother with a pet carrier, she'll only be a couple of weeks off being able to walk so just get a puppy carry bag or put her in a satchel bag for life that she can peep out of. I'd get a harness that you can hold while she's in the bag, but I wouldn't buy it until a few days before she comes home. I'd ask the breeder to weigh her and measure her neck at this point so that you can order one. She's going to grow a lot, so for now get a medium crate that can go in the house and the car as it won't be long before she's much too big for a car seat and you want her to get used to being in the boot presumably, or if she's going to be on a seat she'll need a seat hammock so that she feels secure and not like she's going to fall in the footwell. Dogs often like to brace themselves against the car braking so travel well in the boot where they can rest against the back of the back seats.

Personally I wouldn’t buy anything much at all until your puppy is home - we wasted so much money on random bits and bobs that either never got used or that he grew out of within a matter of weeks!

You can borrow a crate for the car for the journey home, or see what you can get second-hand on Facebook - there are always crates etc. being sold on our local pages for £10 or so.

I would recommend joining the Facebook group ‘dog training advice and support’ and look at the website ‘the Labrador site’. We made loads of mistakes with our Labrador puppy and wish we had been more prepared.

I wouldn’t buy anything. Retrievers just shred everything anyway.

I encourage buyers to get a harness and strap the dog into the back seat and have someone sit with them and give them a cuddle - all dogs want is reassurance for their first journey home and being in a crate won’t do that.

A good sling will work wonders, and much safer than holding her in your arms (she will almost certainly wiggle). I carry my Goldies in slings until they’re fully vaccinated - last one was about 12KG by then. It’s not bother with a sling as the weight should be evenly distributed

Any bog standard PAH puppy collar will fit a lab puppy

Tuffies do great dog beds, expensive but last for years and don’t lose their shape.They have a chew proof one although my current lab never chewed his beds anyway. I have the waterproof nests.

Oh and Kongs frozen with natural yoghurt inside are great for keeping them busy and soothing teething phase.

Don't spend a lot of money,yes, unless you're incredible lucky, puppies chew up all the bedding, and then some! Do these hammocks have some sort of seatbelt attachment? Dogs have to be confined by law in a car either a crate or seatbelt attachment..we have border collies, collected them.into a small crate, blanket rubbed on mum dog.took them out in a standard back back but worn on our fronts, straight away to get used to sights,sounds,we never had to ask if anyone wanted to come and stroke the puppy. You can get second hand crates, we've kept all ours different sizes. The one out other dog uses in the car is 30 years old... actually much sturdier and better made than the newer ones
No chew bedding, blankets, nope they don't work! Toys,hard kongs,deer antlers.we got softer toys down the line.

As others have said, I wouldn't buy much other than essentials like bowls, harness.
A crate, but I would buy one for a full size lab.
Brace yourself, puppy blues are real!

Lab mum here
Agree with above. Wait until you get your girl home. Awwwwwwww so special. Please post a picture 🐾🐾🐾

No advice until you’ve posted a picture…
She just had a vet fleece blanket in her crate and then a cheap bed. No need to get until you get her and see size.
Don’t do puppy pads. Just get her used to outside asap. If she starts spinning usually means a wee/poo.
Have a few toys always ready. If she starts biting give her a toy. Also can mean tiredness so pop her in the crate to sleep.

Here she is! Meet Willow xx

Awww she’s so small!

I haven’t had experience with labradors but I think just take the approach of buying as you go. There’s no need to overthink it and try to anticipate what sizes you need in 6 weeks etc. It’s likely that you’ll buy stuff to set you up at the beginning, but replace as she gets bigger. So just go into it with awareness you probably will need to ultimately buy 2 sets of stuff (for puppyhood and adulthood).

I think the best thing would be to take her to a pet shop when she’s robust enough and you can gauge sizes in person and buy there and then.

We’ll be getting a new puppy in a few months after losing our two elderly hounds a year ago.

We’ve always had a huge dog crate as a bed in the kitchen, with the door clipped back and sometimes put a blanket over the top. It’s their safe place. My two had it as puppies and used it for their whole lives (13.5 yrs). My late female hound loved it so much, that when we visited my sister, she squashed into my sister’s miniature schnauzer’s crate. (My dog was a 34kg Basset Hound!). Also really useful if visitors, workman or the dog needed to be put in the crate for its safety. Also helpful to encourage them to rest if they get too overexcited. We used dog bedding cushions and blankets that could be regularly washed. Basset Hounds are a very houndy smelling breed.

We also had other dog beds in other rooms and another in the kitchen. We’ve always used big heavy duty plastic dog beds which are again easy to clean (particularly important when young or old) again with washable dog cushions and blankets. Have to say Basset Hounds aren’t really chewers like Labradors though, so someone might have more breed specific advice for something else.

Other than that, large water bowl, eating bowls, leads/harness etc but that can be a personal choice depending on the dog. Plus a toy for those sharp little puppy teeth. It’s always a relief when teething is over as those puppy teeth can be like needles. Again, this is where the crate can be useful. However if using as a bed, it’s important the dog doesn’t come to think of it as the naughty step, so when shutting the door, give treats and try and make it a positive place.

Agree if you get a crate, get a big one from the outset. They grow so quickly! Plus whilst they are puppies, you can have bedding down one end, and a puppy training pad down the other if they’re shut in and not fully toilet trained. Most dogs won’t want to mess in their bed area. The breeder of our late boy recommended this and it worked well. My crate can easily fit two 34kg Basset Hounds, but it’s the one we bought when we first brought him home as a small puppy. Again the breeder recommended this size of crate from the outset. Our crate is still like new 15 years later and about to be used all over again. We got it from an online company called Doghealth.co.uk and they’re still around.

We had a smaller crate for the estate part of the car when they were small. But once they reached full size they went into the estate part of the car without the cage. I’ve got a large estate car with a heavy duty boot liner, special dog mat and a dog guard for safety. Also if the dog doesn’t like travelling in the car initially, just do a 20 min shorter daily journey for them to get use to it. My boy wasn’t keen and I spent about 2 weeks driving up the road and back, he use to mess and whine, but then one day just stopped and was fine travelling after that. Again this was advice from the breeder at the time.

Is she getting first vaccinations at the breeders? Check that you can carry on the course, so much easier if you can get them out and about asap.

We just used a rucksack worn on the front as a puppy carrier. Probably only needed a handful of times.

First harness was donated by someone who'd had a lab pup 3 months previously, we then passed it on again. Second we got for a tenner from a bargain bin in a pet shop. They'll grow out of it in 2 mins.

We bought a cheaper bed from Amazon in the knowledge it might get destroyed but neither of ours have been bed chewers.

Collar size will depend on the pup, the collar we had for our older lab when she came home was too big for our second. Assuming you can get to a pet shop easily I'd just measure when you get home.

Make the house puppy proof. Move anything low she can possibly get hold of such as shoes etc. Move cables out the way.

Get a foldable gate to put across areas where loads of wires or to stop her getting round the backs of things. We also had a pen in doors and that was souseful to put her in when she became bitey. We have a large garden, with lots of nooks and crannies and hidey/escapy places for a pup so we fenced off with temporary fencing an area out of our french windows and patio area onto the grass where she could just go. We had a no stairs rule for quite a while. First night and for the first weeks, I kept a camp bed up in the living room for her crate. Apart from the first night, we didn’t use it. She slept so well at night.