Labrador Puppy - top tips

[FrankieMcGrath]

After years of pestering, I’ve finally given in to the DCs & we’re getting a dog - Labrador puppy. It’s from a family friend, so we know the mum & dad & no concerns about the breeder!

Puppy is due to come to us in a few weeks, so asking for top tips on what’s been most useful / waste of money, that we should prep before arrival?! TIA!

My go to for a new dog is a medical kit
More than half of mine has never been used and then gets replaced because it went out of date so a huge waste of money but one I will happily continue to waste it on
Id rather have it and not need it

Make sure you have activated charcoal for accidental ingestion of who knows what, consult your vet before using it but this was great when my bitch ate a bag of chocolate and they said to give her some before we drove through to them.

Adhesive Bandages

Tick unpick thingy

I also keep probiotics in my kit in case of upset tummies

Flea comb

I keep a lot more in mine but the rest is specific to my dogs/family dogs and probably unnecessary for most

Thank you!

Be prepared for chaos! My labrador is now 3, and calming down, but he has been hard work. He loves everyone and is very enthusiastic about it!

We bought a crate, bedding, a dog cam, a canvass kennel for the car, collar, dog tag, plenty of dog poo bags, a selection of toys some soft, some hard for chewing, a snuffle mat, a kong, metal food and water bowls, a flask for water for walks.

Thank you both! What’s a kong & a snuffle mat?

Oh it will be adorable and chaotic and exhausting and fun and tiresome etc etc.

Mine is 10 now, the first couple of years were quite tough. She was a shoe thief, destroyed many pairs. She emptied bins, ate a chocolate cake, wouldn’t sleep alone, hated a crate, only settled if somebody was close by. She adored walks - still does!Loves the car, loves socialising, thinks every dog wants to be her best friend. No road sense. Totally the most kind hearted pet I’ve ever had. She’s never snapped, you can stand on her and she just looks mournful! She has put up with little ones and is adorably gentle.
Shes the best thing ever!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/KONG-Classic-Durable-Natural-Rubber/dp/B0002AR15U

https://www.amazon.co.uk/M-J-COMFY-LIFE-Snuffle-Mat-Interactive/dp/B0DW42NL59

Get lifetime insurance cover asap, and after many Labradors (and other breeds) I highly recommend Petplan. They are not the cheapest but they are the best by far. They cover things others don’t, they don’t increase premiums because you’ve claimed and they pay out, with no quibble, far more often than other cheaper products. And Vets trust them enough to often allow your claim to go direct rather than you having to pay the vet upfront. I’ve had a couple of dogs that unexpectedly cost us a few thousand in vet fees. Thank god I’d always set up the insurance from the off.

The best thing you can do is accept that having a Labrador is the biggest privilege you could ever have in your life, other than your DC. I am a very experienced dog owner and my Lab has just turned two. I always liked them and wanted to train a Lab, bit other breeds and dogs came my way first. It has been the challenge of my life trying to train calmness into her, I've been called every name under the sun in the first 18 months as she has no play manners whatsoever and body slamming another dog was her way of introducing herself. I have not had to do this with any other puppy, but in her defence she has been brought up with my other dog who is a Newfoundland and has had to learn to play with a giant. She also barks and 'shouts' at me when over stimulated. Another first - not had this issue before! Despite the difficulties, I have not owned a dog with anything like then intelligence she has. Working bloodlines (mine) are a lot more feisty and energetic than show lines, but every dog is an individual so these stereotypes can interchange occasionally. She needs 2-3 hours of exercise, interaction and/or training most days but settles well indoors if she has less. It took until she was 1yr to stop going beserk when I came into the house. She squashed her body out of her night time crate once she got to about 8 months, and pulled her cover through the top or sides and ripped it to bits on occasion. For a more peaceful life, I've always kept crate in my bedroom - it just settles them quicker when young and that suits me. The doors are usually left open on the crate unless closed for her safety/enforced rest as when overtired they become hyper. She had a flexible play pen in my living room until around age 2; I don't need it now but she'd go into it with her toys when I wanted a bit of peace. We've done mantrailing (kind of search and rescue/hide and seek for grown ups and their dogs 🤣) and at 6 months old, she found two strange people hiding and two unknown dogs. I was absolutely bowled over. It was pitch black as well - a November evening when we were training. Since then we've done 1:1 behaviour training to calm her around other dogs (limited success and I felt I could have done what the trainer taught me myself-some are better than others), and beginners gundog training, which she absolutely excelled at. I couldn't believe there were 8 dogs in the class and she was joint top! All new to me as I had no experience of gundog training myself. It's been suggested she can be any kind of therapy dog - I think she could learn all the commands, but her excitement may fail her. To date, she fetches my phone from around the house if I lose it - I send her with the sound from my Apple watch. She LOVES doing that. She can take my socks off if my back is bad, and next I'm going to teach her to open a drawer and bring me a pair of socks. She is happy with anything in her mouth so giving her a job to do makes her SO happy. Not sure how I'm going to do this one but I'll figure it out. Every walk is a training walk to me (2/3 minutes of basics - all the time), for ever, just so we don't slip. One of my weaknesses is chatting to them too much - I'm sure we all do it but be aware as if you do that, they just switch off, a bit like kids! Anyway, that's my experience and I shall never be without a Labrador now.. one last thing ... and it's just personal, I would think long and hard about getting a dog for a child - I was that child, and still didn't want to walk the dog from 13+yrs. I also wouldn't have thanked anyone for one when my kids were babies or toddlers. You'll need many extra hours a day on top of what you already do now-again the first year is just constant tidying and cleaning of all the things you give the dog to play with (tons of cardboard recycling here-often stuffed with hidden treats).. and mopping floors. I sincerely hope you get as much joy as I have had - she's just SO awesome!

Empty 1L coke bottle (other drinks are available) rinsed and with the lid removed is the best puppy toy ever. End of.

Thank you all - so helpful!

You are about to enter the twilight zone OP, they’re cute, adorable, absolutely nuts and land sharks. You will have days you will question your sanity and want to send it back but other days they’re so sweet. I’ve had labradors all of my life and we currently have 5 (I’m a bit of a collector of colours). Do NOT let them fool you, once you think you have training top notch they forget their ears as adolescents - train, train, train and never let it slip. They love mind games and we have snuffle mats, use frozen yoghurt in kong toys to keep their minds busy and do a lot of retrieving and swimming with ours. Be careful not to walk them too much as puppies, remember their little bones are still knitting together and if you do over walk this can cause problems later on.

I had firm boundaries with our children and the dogs, dogs are NOT toys and boundaries need to be respected. I never allowed our children to lift the puppy, annoy it, enter its space while in a bed or while eating, the same worked in reverse.

None of my labs were food orientated weirdly enough, they were toy orientated to train. Labs can be greedy but I’ve never found that with mine, I have friends who have them who are counter surfers and bin raiders though!

One of the biggest tips I’d give is to really concentrate on walking to heel from a very young age, you don’t want a 30kg+ dog dragging you all over the place as well as teach a leave command - if you do have a greedy lab you don’t want it picking up anything when out and about. Ours were also taught a down and behind command - they will lie down instantly if I give the command no matter where we are and stand behind me and wait if I give the behind command. I can’t say this enough but reinforcing training never ends. We also have a bed command as I didn’t want them bounding up to visitors.

We did crate train all of our dogs but they don’t use crates now, they just have a space, we crate trained in case they ever needed medical care and we have crash proof crates in our vehicles for them.

Enjoy your new puppy, they’re fantastic dogs 🥰

Pippa Mattinson's book, 'The Happy Puppy' is invaluable. It's written in a timeline so easy to follow through. Even after four decades of Labs I found it helpful, when current one arrived four years ago. Thinking moves on over the years so it's good to stay updated.

I’m biased but you’ve made the right breed choice 😂
I am on my first dog, he’s 14 months old now and I had him from 8 weeks. He’s a working line, very handsome black boy and he’s the best decision I ever made.

I second the advice about getting insurance from Petplan! Mine ate a decomposing rat carcass once which meant an emergency vet trip and Petplan paid out with no issues.
Best thing I ever bought was a baby gate - the tallest one I could find so I could close off between kitchen and living room. Keep shoes out of their way. It’s the only thing mine ever tried to destroy. Other than that he hasn’t been destructive at all - sofa, cushions, rugs and skirting happily all still in tact!
I crate trained mine until 5 months and then gave up and he has slept on my bed since then. Also don’t regret that either.

When socialising your pup, don’t let them meet absolutely every dog and person! I let mine interact way too much and he the friendliest dog I have ever known. It’s taken me months and months of consistent training to get him to ignore other humans when out on walks, but he still struggles with ignoring other dogs! Thankfully he has settled right down with how he interacts with them though!

I have no evidence for this next piece of advice and it may have just been a fluke but I spent a lot of time ignoring him when he was a puppy (obviously watching him to make sure he was safe) and he has always been, and still is very calm in the house.

Don’t let your puppy play with a football
when he is bigger he will be able to bite and burst them and you won’t be able to go to any park where kids are playing football!
just use a tennis ball!

Just expect it to be hard, hard work. Rewarding yes but I can honestly say the puppy days were harder than the newborn stage with our dc.

My only advice is to expect constant chewing and mouthing and have an assortment of toys to keep them from chewing feet and shoes.

Crating is contentious on here, we used one purely for nighttime to keep her safe and after a few months removed it as she'd happily sleep in her bed then.

Puppies are like kids some a non sleeping nightmare, some not and easy. Just expect the worst and anything good is a bonus.

Ours is older now and adorable but those early months were 😬😬.

Thank you!

Puppies are hard work, so be prepared. They’re a bundle of cute energy, but it can be relentless. Be prepared for good and bad days. Don’t expect the puppy to fit around your life, you fit around theirs.

Puppy biting stage - this is horrible. They’ll nip at your feet, arms etc so wear old clothes.

Routine - puppies don’t have one. Make sure someone is at home and prepared to be with pup all the time. We eventually established a routine whereby he was awake for two hours, then slept, then awake etc. if he played up, we knew he was getting tired so popped him in his crate for a nap. They also need to be let out at night fir a wee.

Puppies can’t go out for walks initially, so you do feel a little caged in at first.

Start researching puppy classes. The good ones get booked up, Book ones with follow on classes as six weeks of lessons isn’t enough.

However much your dc say they look after the dog, be prepared that you will do it all.

Puppies can be relentless and hard work and you will have ‘what have I done’ moments.

@FrankieMcGrath just to say, this bit below from @VanGoSunflowers is the best piece of advice on this thread:

When socialising your pup, don’t let them meet absolutely every dog and person! I let mine interact way too much and he the friendliest dog I have ever known. It’s taken me months and months of consistent training to get him to ignore other humans when out on walks, but he still struggles with ignoring other dogs! Thankfully he has settled right down with how he interacts with them though!

Everyone will say to you, 'oh I love puppies' or some variety of that and they'll say 'oh I don't mind' if he/she jumps up. They quickly change their mind when your dog is 35kg. So best thing you can do is avoid putting your dog in a situation where other people or dogs are more exciting than you 😊

Separately @VanGoSunflowers every time you say something about P being the best decision you ever made, I always smile happily 😀

@TheHungryHungryLandsharks glad it makes you smile 😊
And yes, I remember the ’oh I don’t mind’ people encouraging him to jump up when he was a baby but they certainly aren’t keen if he tries to do it now! Luckily, for my nerves, he tends to keep his paws on the ground now 😂

Can I ask how you stop him jumping / getting friendly with strangers? What do you actually do?

@FrankieMcGrath @TheHungryHungryLandsharks will have better advice than me, but if you’re talking about during the socialising period, I wish I had just let my pup observe but not interact. I think that may have helped him to be more neutral around people. It’s not always easy as people will make a bee line for you if you’re out with a cute puppy.
If you’re talking about how to train the ‘friendliness’ out of them afterwards, that’s a whole other thread and something I am still working on with mine 😂

Treats! Always treats with labs. Make them sit, stay then a treat as the person walks passed. They soon get more excited about a treat than the person