Hello I'm totally new to being a dog owner, my name is Christina and our newest addition to the family is a black lab called Millie. She is now 13 weeks old and already sort of housebroken (she goes to the door and wait but the problem is she don't make any sound so if I miss that she heads to the door she pees on the floor). I'm very proud of her, had her now for soon 4 weeks (she now knows sit and lay down) and she is the best friend of my 2 1/2 year old daughter. I got no problems to get Millie out for a walk with a leash and a stroller as long as my daughter is with us, the problem I got is in the evening I usually walk alone and Millie refuses to leave our property (I end up carrying her out to the road and then it's a bit whimpering but it quickly goes into a fun walk session). I found my way to this forum when I was googling about Labrador forums, hopefully to be able to get guidance and some insight, I am so scared of being the reason to mess up my dog (I seen enough people that shouldn't be near any animals).
Hi Christina and welcome to the forum. You don't need to worry about walks for Millie yet, in the sense of exercise. She doesn't need much. Just focus on making all her new experiences fun. If she is worried when you put her on the ground near the road, instead of taking her for a walk, just spend time there cuddling her, and feeding her so she gets used to the new experiences, cars going by etc.
Oh she loves walking, it's just she don't want to go anywhere without my daughter. And when I carry her to the road she doesn't whimper it is when I put her down for a second or two while Millie look towards the house and then she comes running wiggling her tail. I take her on 2 • 15 mins walks a day if the weather allows it. We live close to a farm so she's used to just sit and watch horses and cows without getting too excited and hopefully I can find her some playmates. People around here don't really chit chat, if you even see anyone that is. I got a little question what sort of treats is the best for lab puppies? I have been using pieces of bananas and apples after that milk bone gave her diarrhea. And thank you for welcoming me, I ended up writing a lot more then I intended.
Hi and welcome to the forum. When Juno was little I just used a portion of kibble from her daily ration for training. Puppies are usually happy to work for something as simple as that and no risk of tummy upsets either
Thank you a lot, I sure am enjoying this forum. Been reading this and that whole day when given an opportunity. Used kibble too during our training sessions today (I usually do 3 training sessions a day for 15-20 minutes each and then play between naps).
Hi, Chloe, Claire and I are new here too. I too use their kibble for training. I upgrade to boiled chicken when working on recall. To me that's the most important thing for them to learn, so the reward is special. Millie is beautiful!
