Summer 25 pups

[Lavenderdog]

Any other new puppy owners around this summer? Have been looking back at some of the old puppy support threads and can see how helpful it was for those posters to share their experiences.

9 week old mini schnauzer here - so toilet training and avoiding those needle sharp teeth are the current main activities here!

(And being tolerant of her determination to rid my garden of lavender plants. Hence my user name 😂)

@CoubousAndTourmalet and @VanGoSunflowers
Female Lab to be called Kayla. We see her again this Friday to make final payment and sign contract then pick her up next Friday. Breeder is a friend of ours

Shiny Pablo ❤️

I’m surprised at the comments about not finding puppy class helpful. It’s been great for us.

We are using a KC approved trainer and doing the KC good citizen scheme. The puppies (6 in total) are in their own fenced off area working individually so it’s not too overstimulating and the class is to teach the basics of the command and then you get homework to practice at home.

It’s basic things so far, handling, teaching focus, loose lead walking etc. but Bonnie has really responded to it and we see massive improvements every week.

Puppy classes and trainers vary greatly @BarkItOff . It sounds as if you've been very lucky in finding one that suits you.

@BarkItOff I agree with @CoubousAndTourmalet I think you’ve been lucky.

I have to admit that I advise prospective buyers of my pups not to bother, which probably sounds awful but I’ve found a reasonably intelligent owner with access to YouTube or Google does better.

I did puppy classes 20 odd years ago with my first dogs. They spouted the alpha, pack leader crap of showing them who is boss, which we ignored. But the puppy training was good. As a first time owner, I got a lot out of it. Mind you. This was back in the dark ages before YouTube was created.
I now go to a positive, force free trainer for agility and gundog lessons, which i enjoy. But I took K to his puppy classes and they were absolute shite. 10 puppies in a paddock and very heavily socialisation based. The last lesson was about 10 minutes of training. The other 50 minutes was spent wandering around an 'obstacle course' (his description), allowing the puppies to greet each other and then move on. He spent the time chatting one to one with each owner, giving advice on individual problems. My chat lasted 30 seconds - Any issues? No. K and I were bored and cold. We didn't go back for the Puppy Plus lessons.

I think the one I went to was a sort of ‘we’ve set this up to help to make sure the dogs in our local area are socialised and trained to a basic level to avoid them being a menace to society’ type places - it’s a noble quest of course, but I did feel it was poorly executed.

I booked mine not long after I brought Pablo home and in my naive brain thought ‘socialisation = good’ 😂

It was held in a tiny little village hall, luckily there were only two other dogs there. An 8 month old show line golden lab who was HUGE 😂 and a 6 month old WCS. Pablo looked so young next to both of them. They said I was lucky as their limit is ten dogs and they do often have that many 😱

I did spend the first half biting my tongue and feeling a little prickly towards them but I kept telling myself they know better than me and to just go with it 🤷‍♀️

@BarkItOff it sounds like you probably did better research than I did in advance of booking one! So I shall chalk that up to experience and probably won’t now go back. It’s been useful to hear that it’s not necessary as I was feeling a bit bad about sacking it off!

Sorry for the long post, Pabs is asleep and I am procrastinating 😂

I think it very much depends on the trainer. We had fantastic classes, though I’d been doing a lot with Bill already. I struggle with videos and I find the external structure of a class or a one-to-one really useful, plus there’s accountability, extra support if you need it - and you get to compare how you’re doing with others (very much a mixed blessing with Bill 😄). So it also depends what sort of learner you are too. Small groups are crucial - more than six and I’d run a mile.

Our girls tag arrived yesterday - only no-one told me I shouldn't put her name on it :(

@VanGoSunflowers That's not a puppy class, with that age spread! Puppy classes here are 12 to 20 weeks. Puppy plus is 5 months and up.

@SpanielsGalore I did think that when I got there! I thought the other lab was an adult dog! They were definitely advertised as puppy classes but maybe they just let anyone come along.

It’s so difficult when you’re new to it all and you’re fighting against your instinct that it doesn’t seem quite right but also lacking in confidence in your own knowledge of raising a puppy. It’s a balance I am yet to strike 😂

I don't think there is any "shouldn't". It's absolutely down to personal choice.
AFAIK it needs to have address and contact number and everything else is optional.

It's very pretty <3. It has both mine and DH's name and numbers on. She won't be going out-out for a while so I may order another one for when we do off leash stuff in a few months and have it "plain"

@LandSharksAnonymous - I’m so pleased you said this about puppy training classes, I thought it was just me and my pup! He lost his mind halfway through every sodding class and it was a nightmare trying to focus on what the trainer was saying or getting him to focus on whatever task was being given to us. He was so wound up by being kept on a lead and not being able to play with the other pups and having to sit through a lot of talking!

@Inastatus its really not just you! A lot of pressure gets put in people to go to puppy training classes but IMO what most puppies need is to be taught on walks, or in fields or even in their garden. Puppies need to learn to perform commands around distractions, but they need to learn those commands first - and a training class with lots of being ‘spoken’ at and five+ other dogs, in the evening (when puppies are at their most irritatingly stupid) is not the place for the majority!

Your puppy acted the way the vast majority of puppies would 😀almost certainly the way mine would!

It’s been pretty windy here yesterday.

Bonnie was NOT impressed at her ears blowing around 😂

Just entering this thread for the first time! 3.5 month old Labradorish pup, I posted a few weeks about car struggles. We started taking him on the tiniest drives, like to the next street to start a walk, and he's now managing 20-25 minutes in car! We've also got a bigger car and a boot divider so he doesn't have to go in a crate. He cracked me up yesterday - first time in new boot space, I had him on lead and tied it in to stop him leaping out when we arrived but he was fine, so I thought I'd leave the lead off for the way home - he barked at me until I stopped and re-attached him, after which he was fine. 🤷‍♀️

Anyone here with Labs - what age did they figure out they could swim? We live by the sea and he is thoroughly dubious 😅

@BarkItOff Bonnie is very pretty!

@PuppyVsCar I have Goldies, so slightly different...although still retrievers. Two of them hate water, one only goes in to try and drink it and the other one is a fan only if she can roll about in the muddy bits, so you may well find yours never turns into a water lover! Retrievers are an odd bunch. @VanGoSunflowers has Pablo shown a love for water yet? He's a few weeks younger (I think?), so probably closest in age to PuppyVsCar's dog!

@PuppyVsCar Hi! My lab is about the same age as yours!

He loves splashing about in water but hasn’t actually swam yet. Having said that, he’s only been given one real chance to so far and while seemed comfortable enough leaping about in ankle deep (to him!) water he didn’t venture out too far.

However, a week Friday I’m heading out with a couple of friends of mine. One of whom is in to wild swimming. The plan is for her and I to have a swim and try and encourage Pablo in too, while third friend (who has no interest in wild swimming 😂) remains a land lubber and will be out of the water to see to him if he doesn’t fancy it so I will let you know how we get on!

I think @tizwozliz gave us a bit of a rundown on how her labs took to swimming on the adolescent thread too so you could have a read through there. I think it’s on the latest one a page or two in?

Can I be a total bore and tell you all about the lovely walk we had earlier??
It was a local park that we drove to, only I had no idea there were all these walking routes out the back of it (despite living in this town my whole life and being very in to walking!)
For the short lead portion, Pablo walked beautifully with only a a few bits of kibble needed. Off lead he was so well behaved, absolutely in his element and loving life but not going off too far and always checking in with me. There was hardly anyone about but when someone did appear from around the corner, he remembered to sit nicely to wait for a fuss and I stood chatting to her for a little while. Then he did the same with this lovely older couple who we happened across who were cooing over him and I stood and chatted to them too!

I know this doesn’t mean we have cracked it, I know tomorrow’s walks could be hellish but I just wanted to have a little celebratory moment after such a nice walk. I live alone and WFH too so it was nice to chat to some lovely people 😊

That sounds absolutely lovely @VanGoSunflowers

@VanGoSunflowers oh that's lovely! He's so young still as well! And even if he does turn into a little [insert rude word here] tomorrow, you know it's just a fluke - because he's proven he's a good boy 😊

@VanGoSunflowers that sounds like a great walk! And good luck with the wild swimming... will you be getting in? I do sea swimming and pup watched very dubiously despite being given reassurance and treats from my husband...

@PuppyVsCar I am going to get in, yes! I’ve never done it before so it’ll be a first for both of us but my friend swears by it! I bet sea swimming is ace, even better if your dog eventually wants to join you!

@PuppyVsCar - I’ve got a 5 month old lab who has only just in the last week had his first swim. We have an older lab who loves the water and swimming and until now our pup has just danced round the edge of the water and watched. Last weekend my DH waded in to the river with older dog and armed with treats and pup swam out to him. We repeated it over the next few days and he is loving it.
I think the sea will be another challenge though. Again, older dog loves it but I think the waves will take a bit of getting used to for puppy.