Committed to buying a puppy!
- Thread starter J35T3R
- Start date
Labradors are great family dogs 
They are obsessed with food so you need to keep an eye on how much you feed it as it will eat as much as you give it and can get fat very easily. Their obsession with food does mean they are very easy to train with treats though
They are also slightly different to other breeds in that while most dogs stop being puppies around 1-2 years old, they remain quite playful and mischievous their entire lives. I would advise you make sure they have some robust toys of their own to play with otherwise they will decide your stuff is worth playing with (socks/shoes/books/glasses/etc) and its not uncommon for them to swallow things they get hold of.
Also once it is a bit bigger you need to be careful where you place drinks, they are almost always wagging their tail and it sends stuff flying (Coffee tables are just the right height for that).
Have fun though
They are obsessed with food so you need to keep an eye on how much you feed it as it will eat as much as you give it and can get fat very easily. Their obsession with food does mean they are very easy to train with treats though
They are also slightly different to other breeds in that while most dogs stop being puppies around 1-2 years old, they remain quite playful and mischievous their entire lives. I would advise you make sure they have some robust toys of their own to play with otherwise they will decide your stuff is worth playing with (socks/shoes/books/glasses/etc) and its not uncommon for them to swallow things they get hold of.
Also once it is a bit bigger you need to be careful where you place drinks, they are almost always wagging their tail and it sends stuff flying (Coffee tables are just the right height for that).
Have fun though
As a self-confessed cat lover and cat servant, I do also like dogs. More specifically, other people's dogs.
But I could never live with a dog. Not because they need more work, rather because they're bloody filthy creatures, whose idea of a good time is rolling in/eating fox poo.
A cat, on the other hand, spends half of her entire life obsessively cleaning herself
A dog wants that fox poo to stay matted in its fur, so it can enjoy the aroma all day long.A dog will reliably eat its own barf moments after the act of puking it up. A cat will instead come and cry to its owner to clean that stink up, pronto.
Associate
and they get bigger real quick lol! My puppy 9 months ago...
and now...
She loves cats though, she'll eat all she can catch
and now...
She loves cats though, she'll eat all she can catch
Ours was... well is a whippet. As a breed they generally won’t foul/ pee near their bed.
Toilet training generally isn’t that hard as long as you are consistent with the pup and keep a close eye on them after meals or when they start skulking around in my experience. Positive re-enforcement and ignoring (not punishing) bad behaviour - even if you catch them in the act- worked well for us
Lots of good advice here already. Socialise as much as possible. Busy high streets, pubs etc etc puppy classes essential imo.
Do not let your heart strings be pulled when you hear it crying at night - it's hard but essential unless you want your dog living with you in your bedroom!
Would advise against allowing it on furniture from day 1 as well.
Do not let your heart strings be pulled when you hear it crying at night - it's hard but essential unless you want your dog living with you in your bedroom!
Would advise against allowing it on furniture from day 1 as well.
Get a cage or crate to put it in at night for the first 6 or so months. It sounds really cruel, but it really does help give them there own sense of space. Our Cocker loves hers now, goes in there all the time. They cry at night for a while (we got really lucky with our last, cried once for a night but hasn't done so since), but they soon get used to it. Just be sure to cover the crate at night with a blanket. As soon as that sun comes up they'll be howling like crazy.
Associate
Have you been behaving badly?
Socialise socialise socialise.
My parents didn’t do it with my dogs as a kid and they were a nightmare around other dogs
Our 11-month old Whippet (Sweep) has been heavily socialised at puppy classes at 15 weeks and gets on so well with other dogs - it makes it so easy to take him anywhere
Also I found this worked well re crying etc...
- Night 1 -2: I slept in the room with Sweep
- Nights 3-7: Sweep’s crate was next to our bed
- Nights 7-10: Sweep’s crate was just outside our door in the hall but he could see us
- Nights 10-15: we slowly moved his crate down the hall until it was in his now- bedroom with our bedroom door open so he could come in
- Night 15+: Sweep sleeps in his room and we sleep in ours with the door shut as usual.
The first ten days or-so required 1-3 middle-of-the-night toilet visits in the garden but it really was not that bad
Good luck
That's the worse advice you could give!
Sleeping in the same room with the dog will just make it think its the norm, start as you mean to go on is the best way.
Put the dog in crate at night downstairs, if he whines or cries don't go down, leave him.
As for letting him out during the night, its not required. All you need to do is place pee/poo pads in the crate so that she/he can do the business whilst your in bed. For the sake of 20p each the cost of the pee/poo pads its literally not worth losing sleep over.
Once hes house trained he wont need the pee/poo pads.
Here's a link to the pads ;
https://www.petsathome.com/shop/en/...d-toilet-training/puppy-training-pads-p546--1
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Associate
- Joined
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Goodluck. A lot of work but all worth it
Commissario
Just about to hit the forth series after having started again from scratch after many, many years. It's still as funny as I remember it (ie, very).
Soldato
- Joined
- 16 Aug 2009
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Have to add to the calls to get them socialised. House where i used to work the owner didn't and left it alone or isolated and turned into a nightmare, very small puppy terrified of people or anything it didn't recognise turned into a very large german shepherd who was equally terrified and equally aggressive towards anything or anyone it didn't recognise, owner used to take the dog out in a van with a cage in the back didn't dare risk letting it jump out loose...
Caporegime
I'm going to be that guy, but is your neighbour a proper breeder?
Kennel Club Registered and same with the stud. They are also keeping pup so the mum and brother will be close by.
Really looking forward to it, my girls have never kept their rooms or the house in general so tidy in preparation for the chaos.
Soldato
Hot water bottle wrapped in a shirt/jumper you've been wearing worked for our puppy. He cried all night until we tried that, then not a peep until 6am....
Caporegime
Great to hear! Backyard have-a-go breeders boil my ****.
Associate
Remember to get an old jumper or something that smells of your puppy's momma, put that in the crate with pup. Will help it feel more secure.
Ensure that you get decent pet insurance that offers lifetime cover. Labs have tendency to hip and elbow displasia and treatment can easily be over £5,000. Our lab's sire and mom had good hip/elbow scores but he still had elbow issues, and first year the costs were £7500, luckily we had £7000 cover.
Been ok for 7 odd years, but now starting to get a touch of arthritis and might need a further op.
As others have said labs are always hungry so make sure that you don't overfeed. If you are giving lots of treats (great way to train them) remember to reduce the amount of dinners.
Been ok for 7 odd years, but now starting to get a touch of arthritis and might need a further op.
As others have said labs are always hungry so make sure that you don't overfeed. If you are giving lots of treats (great way to train them) remember to reduce the amount of dinners.
Soldato
Socialise and make sure it knows where in the pecking order it sits at home..