Posted on 12/31/2008 1:43:36 PM PST by scottdeus12
Hi everyone. Not sure if you remember my last post...it was about our dog, Cody. He was diagnosed with a highly-aggressive form of cancer....and sadly (we miss him greatly), he went to Heaven last Monday.
We decided to get a new puppy to fill the void, and picked out a 6-week old yellow female lab last week. She is (of course) adorable.
We will crate-train her and all that good stuff...but I'm just wondering if anyone out there has any good advice for raising a new pup.
Thanks,
Scott
Seriously? Go get another lab same age. We got our two from the same litter. Best decision we made about dogs. Crate training was the second best. The two dogs keep each other company, exercise each other in the yard (watching them play-wrestle is great) and wears off enough of that lab energy that what we get to deal with is the fun level, not the insane wear-you-out level.
How freakin’ inappropriate can you get?
Go away party pooper. All dogs go to heaven. Maybe not YOUR heaven, but their own.
Get the puppy a cat so it will have an animated plush toy to play with.
We have, right now, three house dogs, five outside dogs, about a dozen barn cats, and eight horses. More like a zoo than a home, but...
We’ve had several labs over the years, black and yellow. They are, without doubt, the best family dogs we’ve ever known. Likewise, though, they require a lot of stimulation, to keep them occupied, alert, and in shape. Our kids were very good about playing with them, a lot of fetch and tug-o-war with a large diameter rope toy.
So, that’s my advice...a lot of play time and positive reinforcement of proper behavior.
Good Luck with the new addition, and please accept our sincere condolences on the loss of your pet.
You forgot to tell him to use the same command every time he takes the dog out to relieve himself, and to not play with the puppy at the same time that he takes him out to relieve himself. It must be separate times, so the dog learns what he is supposed to do when he is supposed to do it. It makes life much easier when a dog will pee or poop on command.
Lots of praise as part of training. Rubbing noses in excrement and whacking are really counterproductive. At least in my experience.
Our previous dog was a lab and that was the dog that convinced me to not use crates. She hated the crate, so we put her in a tiled room with an old chair in front of a window and slid a piece of showerboard across the doorway anchored by the couch. Not everyone has that option and many people disagree, but I've met a lot of puppies with great promise who ended up flighty and the one thing they had in common was crating.
Socialization as a puppy is very important to having a healthy fun adult dog. Make sure and surround him or her with lots of people (kids too) and around as many other dogs as safely as you can.
I have a lab and the biggest challenge is keeping them from chewing your house apart when they are pups.
Labs are wonderful dogs but are VERY mouthy for the first 2 years or more.
Do you self a favor and pooch too by buying a KONG http://dogs.thefuntimesguide.com/2006/02/stuff_this_in_a_kong.php
It will occupy him for hours. I just stuff it with leftovers and peanut butter and cheese and such
Please Don't Be Dreaming of a Yellow Lab Christmas Los Angeles Times, CA - Dec 24, 2008... producing litter after litter of adorable yellow lab puppies, some of whom will be born deformed because of the manic breeding -- and some of whom will ...
Expect a whole lot of chewing with a lab puppy. I don’t think the chewing fully goes away but it does subside as they grow older. Don’t leave anything laying around that you don’t want to have a corner chewed off. Don’t leave shoes where the dog can get them or you might end up with one shoe. Those new dog combs work great on a lab, you just have to use it or have hair everywhere. Yellow labs make great family pets and are very patient with tail/ear pulling children.
Lab ping
I know you guys said whackin with a newspaper and rubbin their nose in it worked for kids and now ya’ll have pups too.....maybe ya can help this freeper !......:o)
Merry New Year !!
Good luck with your lab. I have a 14 year old girl named Stella who still acts like a puppy! I'm waiting for her to settle down. Last week the a service man at my house guessed her age to be 3 because of her hyper disposition. My advice is keep the dog really fat. That way they're too tired to do anything obnoxious. LOL
Token picture of my old girl.
I beg to differ about sweetest dog.
We have an 11 month old Great Pyrenees. Beautiful dog, intelligent and has a great disposition.
Easy to house train, too.
Get the monk’s training book. Monks of Skeyne in NY state.
Am looking for a tri-color English Shepard pup myself.
Thats quite a menagerie!
My experience is to get one dog at a time and let it bond with you. Then get the second dog and let the first one train it.
I'm with you on that netmilsmom. My idea of heaven includes all the dogs I've owned over my lifetime waiting for me with a wag of a tail and sloppy kiss welcoming me home.
I tried to break my Pit Lab of chewing, she learned how to use a chain saw.
We had a similar situation in September with a cat. My daughter (age 9) was just devastated that “her” cat passed away. In fact, she cried herself to sleep every night for weeks, even before the cat succumbed.
Admittedly, I probably didn't help matters because I barely consider animals to be living creatures, and couldn't work up a lot of empathy/sympathy to answer her questions.
So, the cat passed away, and I figured, “lets just get another cat to replace it.” In fact, I found a suitable candidate right there in the Vet's office when we were putting the old cat down. My wife however said that was a terrible idea. Something to do with sending a message that “people are replaceable”, but it's not a person, it's a cat.
Anyways, my wife made us wait a whole month before we could get another cat. In my view this just prolonged the suffering of my daughter.
But, in the end, we did get a new cat. He doesn't like my daughter at all, but he follows me around like we're best friends. His name is Fat Mike.
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