Puppy Survival Thread Autumn 2025 - all welcome!

[VanGoSunflowers]

Hello everyone! Won’t tag you all as you know everyone is welcome 😊

So glad he’s ok @VanGoSunflowers ❤️

Thanks all for the messages!

He’s been absolutely fine ever since, eaten his dinner ok and is curled up sleeping next to me. I am very glad I didn’t have to clean up dead rat vomit myself. Hopefully all will be ok with the insurance @SpanielsGalore but I’m sure I will soon find out if not 🤦‍♀️

I was reading the thread about neutering with great interest. I haven’t done much research in to it myself just yet, I was going to wait until pupper was a bit older but was definitely leaning towards not getting him done unless medically necessary

How is Pablo today @VanGoSunflowers ? Okay, I hope.

You'll have seen that I was quite opinionated on the castration thread 😳, partly because having four entire males never caused us any headaches at all. But it is, ultimately, a very personal choice.

@CoubousAndTourmaIet hes absolutely fine today thank you, totally unfazed by his adventure yesterday!

I thought your posts on that thread were very well reasoned and made sense. I don’t know how Pablo is going to be when in full testosterone mode but if it’s not affecting him in anyway then I guess it makes sense not to put him through it 🤷‍♀️ I can’t see us ever needing to board him anywhere or employ a dog sitter/walker either although circumstances can change in time I guess. How is lady Brie these days?

Very glad that P is none the worse for yesterday's experience @VanGoSunflowers

I think a lot depends on the dog as far as neutering goes, we've been lucky that our boys have all been pretty laid back and not highly sexed. We don't tend to get a lot of hassle from dogs or owners but I couldn't say if that's down to where we live or just the fact that we've never let them off lead in public.

Brie is a great big lazy arse these days, truth be told 😂

@CoubousAndTourmaIet I suppose time will tell with Pablo but so far, he doesn’t even seem overly bothered about humping his elephant! He probably goes to it twice a week for a few minutes each time and I’ve never caught him humping anything else. Although he’s a confident dog, as in nothing seems to phase him, he also seems very submissive around other dogs too. Always the first one to go down to the ground and/or attempt to lick the other dog’s mouth 🙄😂
Ah bless Brie, I wish Pablo was a bit more lazy sometimes 😂 but I do love my little goof ball 🥰

@Nella68 as you asked earlier in the thread, Rory was weighed for his flea and worming tablets today… 23kg!! The receptionist made me check again as he’s gained almost 4kg since just over a month ago (whoops he’s a little behind on his tablets 🙈🙈). She said he’s not fat so it must be muscle 😂😂.

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding he’s going to be a big boy! How old is he? I think Midge was about 9-10 months when his growth really started to plateau. He hovers between 23-24 kg now. He needs to stay under 25 as over that and things get more expensive!
We were a month behind on worming. He hates them and can sniff them out at 20 paces. I have to crush them and hide them in cat food!

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding aww he’s a strong, athletic boy! Pablo weighed in at 24kgs when I took him to get the rat out of him 😂 but I think he’s a bit older than Rory and I get told he is big for a Lab so Rory must be a stocky boy! And so handsome 🥰

@Nella68 Pablo is due his flea/wormer on 27th December so I need to check when they’re open after Christmas. He will just gobble them right down usually but he did turn his nose up at the bravecto last time. Funny because he will eat decomposed rat? I probably need to pretend he isn’t allowed to eat it and turn it in to a game!

Funnily enough, we were on a walk yesterday and he had something in his mouth that I didn’t want him to have, I think it was a bone although I didn’t inspect it properly. This time I didn’t make a show of taking it and he carried it around in his mouth for a small period of time and then I managed to stealthily get it off him!

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding When did Billy stop growing? I think I read somewhere that labs reach ‘full size’ at about one year but then continue to fill out for a while after?

@Nella68 he’s only 7 months 😂. Haha, fortunately Rory’s flea and wormer tablets are included in his pet plan with the vets so we don’t have to pay more. He wolfs them down but he’ll eat anything, the other day he stole the base bit of a little gem lettuce 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️.

@VanGoSunflowers I’d say he stopped getting taller about one year but he didn’t fill out til over 2, he still looked very puppy like til then! Believe it or not, Rory is looking quite skinny lately so he must have had a growth spurt. I think he’s going to be taller that Billy and he was a tall boy.

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding I am hoping that Pablo looks puppy-like for a while yet so people forgive him his bad manners while I am training him still. We did have a little run in on a walk the other day. I was training him off lead and he legged it over to a guy that I didn’t see and jumped up at him. I did apologise and I know it was my fault but I don’t think I deserved the mouth full I got and it’s made me a bit nervous now! Have you noticed much adolescent type behaviour in Rory yet or is he still an angel? 🥰

It’s awful when people give you a mouthful.

Even with the best training and the nicest dogs, puppies are not 100% reliable- even when you start to trust them.

Accidents happen and I always laugh it of when other people’s dogs unexpectedly jump up at me - even though I don’t have a dog myself currently. What we need is more tolerance in the world!

@VanGoSunflowers I think working labs always look like puppies as they never really grow into their ears 😂😂. I also think people should be more tolerant but I hardly dare to say that on MN 🙈. To be fair, Rory is still pretty much a perfect angel, although after I declared no issues with the Christmas tree, he has taken to stealing baubles when he’s on his own. He knows he’s not supposed to as when we’re home, he’ll go up to the tree, pause while he thinks about it, look at us and wander off but when we’re out, he goes to town!

Oh bless him.

Agree about Lab;s ears. Especially when they are puppies because their ears are too big for their face. But also that even as adult dogs their ears remain very cute & puppyish.

@VanGoSunflowers Midge was about 9 months when he ran off and jumped up at an old man nearly sending him flying. I’ve been paranoid about him jumping up at people sine then. It’s still his worst trait, every time I think he’s improving I’ll have strangers coming over to him and putting their hand out to him whilst cooing. He then turns into a kangaroo and all the work is undone. Drives me mad!

@Twiglets1 do you think you will be a puppy raiser again? I really wanted to do it but was vetoed by my family.

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding cheeky Rory! Our decorations are still intact but he did take the Christmas cards off the window ledge and bring them to me one by one so he could swap them for a treat!

Obviously with Brie, I cannot risk her jumping up at anybody, so she has to be kept on a lead. She was 25kg at 4 months old and could have knocked over a child or a frail elderly person. She's about 55kg now and considerably taller than me. So I couldn't expect tolerance if I was to let her run free.

@Twiglets1 I love it when they look down at you with their ears just flapping by their face. I’m not sure that actually makes sense but hopefully you know what I mean!

@Nella we’ve only received 5 Christmas cards so maybe Rory doesn’t think it’s worth it! Mind you we haven’t sent any either…

@CoubousAndTourmaIet I mean, that’s fair enough 😂 55kg is more than me!

More than me as well @Idstillratherbepaddleboarding , which is why I've had to do so much work on the lead training.

I think it’s hard to strike a balance sometimes between meeting your dog’s needs and trying not to inflict them on to the general public.
I may not know much, but I do believe a working line lab needs to be able to run free off lead when out and about whereas this is probably not at all necessary for many dog breeds - especially the giants would you say @CoubousAndTourmaIet?

I try and mitigate as much as possible by walking him/training him in the quietest places I can think of, or where I can see the whole field so I can be alerted to any other dogs or people far in advance, or I will even make a point of walking him in the rain when I know nobody else will be out. I always put him back on the lead when I see other people or dogs and get him to sit and wait until they have passed. To be fair to Pablo, he’s made really good progress on his impulse control around people. Whereas once he would kangaroo towards everyone, even when on the lead, he will now largely walk to heel past them and ignore them. I’ve even managed to get him to walk calmly past a few dogs when it’s not been practical to get him to sit and wait. But it’s a work in progress.

I live in fear of an incident like the other day, because accidents happen and sometimes his impulses get the better of him and off he goes. He’s certainly heavy enough to knock someone over if he was to go full pelt at them and they were small and/or frail (although he seems to have an inbuilt instinct to be calmer around creatures smaller than him, so that’s a plus)

It’s a tough age because when they’re very young and untrained, you know you can’t trust them and so act accordingly. When they’re mature and fully trained you can trust them. At this age, there may be a one in ten chance of him ignoring me and you never know how he’s going to be until he’s already done the shitty behaviour 🤦‍♀️
Ive successfully stopped him approaching so many people and a few other dogs when he’s been off lead simply by firmly saying ‘no’ when I can see his body language change (stops, ears pricked, one paw in the air - that’s the tiny window I seem to get to give him a better choice 😂) but on that particular day, for whatever reason, he really liked the look of that particular human 🤦‍♀️

This is the part of training I am finding the hardest, adding in the distractions to proof it all. I don’t want unwitting members of the public to become part of my training process as it’s not fair on them. Nor their dogs who, even though Pablo is so friendly, still might be scared of him. That’s not fair on them either.

If I am being totally honest with myself, I need to put him on a long line. At least for a short walk every day (in addition to a longer one) and make a point of going to busier places so I can train him there. I keep thinking it but then you have one of those crappy days and all I want to do to wind down is walk out in nature with my dog and no people around because it’s bliss 😂

Sorry for the long post! Fair play if any of you got through the whole thing 😂

Actually, no. Giant breeds need to run off lead just as much as any other dog would @VanGoSunflowers and many of them can and do. Most giant breeds can be taught recall to a decent standard, but with some LGD, it can be very hit and miss because they will switch off from listening to commands if they see something that could be a threat. That's just a guarding breed trait, not a giant dog trait, most of the big guys are fine to wander off lead.

I do think, however, that there is more wariness of larger dogs now than there was 20 or 30 years ago. We used to let them off the lead in quiet areas but I'm more hesitant now, because attitudes are different. S would walk off lead anywhere, N, F & A could be off in a fenced area, but R & M, never. Too people orientated.

To some degree it also depends on the dog. It's about being able to predict how your dog will react to people and to other dogs. With Brie, she is very people friendly (in fact, too friendly) but submissive around other dogs, and I suspect that if a dog attacked her, she would panic and run. So she will only ever be off lead in a secure field, for her own safety and for my sanity.

I do feel like I'm letting her down, she really should be running off lead but with some it's just not possible to be confident that they will ever fully recall.

@VanGoSunflowers I think you’re doing really well. The thing that worked best with Billy was to turn and run on the opposite direction. You look a bit daft but it works!

@CoubousAndTourmaIet my apologies, showing my ignorance there again 🤦‍♀️
As you say, it all seems to vary from one dog to another. And local attitudes etc. I have been so much more vigilant on all the walks I have done since that he’s spending more time on the lead than usual anyway. I don’t feel like being shouted at by angry men when I am by myself

@Idstillratherbepaddleboarding I know exactly what you mean by their ears flapping by their face - so cute.

I can also vouch by the technique of running in the opposite direction if the dog's recall isn't all it could be. They don't like to be left behind or at least Labs don't.

@Nella68 I enjoyed being a puppy raiser and made new friends out of it as well as it was good exercise with the dog walks etc. But I have mixed feelings about raising another dog from 8 weeks old only to have to give them away. The puppy stage was so much harder than I remembered it! Also we were very bonded to Roman so it was harder for us than for him when he moved on. But we are on the list to foster guide dogs & I've heard today that there's a 7 month old trainee guide dog that needs re-homing so who knows?