Hello Antoine, Lovely to see you on the Forum and see you taking such a conscientious approach researching getting a puppy. It's a big undertaking and it's not just the cost of your time in company for your puppy,there will also be quite a big financial responsibility for health and training classes so having the full support of your parents in this will be vital. If you proceed ,it's great you will have the first 6 weeks full time with your pup as that is the reality at that stage in their life,they need you A LOT. At 14 weeks when you go back to school the periods of time you would need to leave your puppy aren't recommended . You would need to be looking at arranging breaks and company through the day ,this again will incur costs if you have to arrange a puppy walker sitter. As dogs mature and you have a good foundation of basic training there is no reason that they can't travel between different homes,several of the forum dogs do this comfortably but I can imagine it being confusing to a puppy whilst you are toilet training and training settling at night . Sounds like you have a cat as a pet already and dogs and cats can be great friends but it isn't always something that happens straight away.You wouldn't want have your cat upset or worried and that could take management and you being around a lot to ensure no accidents happen to either animals. Have a read through the Puppy Board if you haven't already ,there's a lot of posts there about the challenges we've met along the way with our puppies . All I I would say is you really need to have support to go ahead,there was nothing I wanted more when I was your age than a puppy and it was non negotiable in our house ...and whilst I was cross at my parents at the time ,they were right....at 15 I had exams coming and a whole social life I knew nothing about and whilst I would have managed I could only have done it with my parents support and their lives weren't in a place where they were able to do that.....so I had to wait ........and got a pet goose instead,and that's a whole other story!
Hi Antoine, and welcome to the forum. Well, there are plenty of people who work full time and have dogs, so just because you're out all day, it doesn't mean you shouldn't have one. However, the thing to note is that dogs are very social animals and it's really not fair to have them alone (sorry, the cat doesn't count!! ) for that amount of time in a day. But, again, that doesn't mean you can't have a dog, it just means you need to make arrangements for the dog to have plenty of stimulation while you're out. This means using dog walkers, doggy day care and the like. Family members and neighbours, if they can be coerced into helping. Angela has given you some really helpful advice and I would also urge you to think about what - realistically - is going to happen to this dog as you get older. When you go to college, for example. Is it fair to take the dog with you? Probably not. In which case, will he be left with one of your parents? Will they be able to give him the attention he needs and deserves? Just think, this dog could be alive for as long as you've already lived! You'll be well into adulthood - around thirty! - by the time he reaches the end of his life, and your circumstances, dreams and desires will have changed massively in that time. So, as Angela says, you are going to really need the full support of your family members to ensure he is cared for throughout his life. Good luck with your research; you're definitely doing the right thing and demonstrates a level of maturity that might just mean you are capable and worthy of dog ownership, if you can iron out the details!
It's great that you're thinking so carefully about a dog's needs. I think you need to imagine your own future a few years down the line - you may want to go to university or have a gap year travelling, you may be in a relationship before the end of the dog's life (if you got a puppy now, assuming it lived a normal life span, you'd be 26-28 or older before it passed away). I can completely understand why you want a dog ( I was very lucky when I was a child and teenager as we had family dogs that I could walk and play with, but which were my parents' responsibility) but I really think you should put it on hold for a few years.
Hi guys - I joined this forum a while back. We (my wife and I) are getting a pup in 2 weeks (when he is 8 weeks). But this morning - I got to know that my wife is pregnant. As much as it is a great news for us and we are elated - I am also a bit unsure whether we are okay to have a pup in our lives at this stage. We both stay alone and I go to office daily while she stays at home. I was wondering if she will be able to take care of the pup while I am away at work (say 8 hours in the day). My office is just a mile alway though. I don't know if someone in this community has been through this before and can share similar experience. I really want to have a labrador pup but I am also a bit worried now. I am still positive that we can manage - especially since it is still an early stage in pregnancy.
Hi! We were in a similar situation to you. We found our breeder but had to wait about six months until we were able to get a puppy. A few weeks after our puppy was born I found out that I was (unexpectedly) pregnant. Our puppy Ella was a week older than I was pregnant. Skipping to the current day, we have an 11 month old baby and a 20 month old dog and I wouldn't trade it for the world. However, I won't pretend that the journey to this point was easy. I was 7 weeks pregnant when we brought Ella home so I was just heading into morning sickness. Puppy poo/wee/vomit (yep, you can almost guarantee that you'll clean up all three of these along the way) and morning sickness are an horrendous combination. Then there's the fatigue. Anyone that has experienced the jet-lag like fatigue in the first trimester of pregnancy can imagine how hard it is to deal with a new puppy at the same time. Once the first trimester were out of the way, things became a lot easier. From this point onwards, it really depends on how you want to live through your wife's pregnancy and the early years of your child's life. For us, we decided to treat Ella as a member of of our family and now we view her as one of our two children (one human and one dog). We have the most wonderful dog and the two kids are developing the best relationship but it has taken a lot of time and effort to get to this point and will continue to take a lot of time and effort in the future. I guess what I'm saying is, if you're prepared to put in the time, there's no reason that it can't work. Congrats on the baby news and good luck with your decisions
Hi all, need recommendation for English labrador in 3 states NY, NJ, CT. Planing to get puppy before end of 2017 but not earlier then 5 monts from now. Need that time to get maximum knowledge about how to choose the breeder, meet with few of them in person plus get more info about labradors.
Help! I want a puppy but am very unsure where to find a healthy one. it is correct to ensure that both parents are health checked. Does this mean that the most desirable ones are only from official breeders?. I really need to be extra careful this time round, as have had no luck at all with our first "rescue" lab who had to have both cruciate ligament operations, from which we carefully nursed her back to health. And most recently lost our 2nd beautiful lab to mast cell cancer at only 5 years of age. The heartache........ Perhaps you can't health screen against this type of cancer...? And yet after all this we still want to have a labrador in our lives. We just want a future puppy to have a long, full joyous life. Our home just isn't the same without a labrador in it..... Any advice please??
Hi Eve, sorry to hear about your lab, I know how hard it is when you lose such a loyal friend. I'm not certain there is a way to check on this, my last lab had mast cell at six but I was lucky, after two ops it was successfully removed and didn't return. Perhaps the parents history can help but not sure if you'd be able to get this information reliably. I'm sure someone here will know though. I'm also looking for a pup now and really need to remind myself of everything I need to look for. My last lab was healthy for the most part and almost managed 15 years, he was from a breeder called Henry in Alfold, Sussex but I'm not sure they are still going. His Kennel Club name was 'Tumbles Boy' or Harry to us and he had a very broad head, thick coat, a bit wavy on top, huge chest, immensely strong tail and a big broad head and yet he was proportionate, his legs didn't look too short. He was a big lab and the vet thought his natural weight would be around 42 kilos although he was a little over this when he got older... I really want to find another like him but I think many of them are more like the American dogs, more narrow head and slimmer build so not sure where to find one. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I wouldn't buy without parent's health tests and knowing a bit about the breeders because I think it's all a bit of a minefield and you really need peace of mind that the dog has the best chance of being healthy and living a long and happy life. There's so much good advice on here so it's a great place to start.
Hi to you both (Eve and Alexander). I would suggest you purchasing the 'choosing the perfect puppy' from Pippa Mattinson as it goes into breeders, what to look for, what tests should be done, health issues with different breeds and also gives you a lot of links as to where to find more info. I would suggest you look at the kennel club for breeders. There is another really good website for good breeders and hopefully @Rosie will pop on as its where she got her dog from.
Hi @Alexander (and @eve williams and @edilomot ). I suspect this quote from you, Alexander , is why @Naya thought to mention me! Your last lab sounds physically very like my big boy Pongo, who is one of the biggest labs on this forum I think. If you look at the recent string about "SW Forum walkies" you'll see some pictures from yesterday when a few of us went out for a big muddy walk. Pongo is the one that starts off yellow and ends up half black . He is 42kg, all muscle, a great big head and the most wonderful temperament. I think he is beautiful although of course I am biased - and admittedly he may not be looking quite his best in all that mud.....he probably looks a bit cleaner in my avatar picture... I'll happily share info on his breeder if he is the sort of pup you are looking for, she is keen on breeding "old fashioned labs" (her words!). I don't know anything about outside the UK (sorry) but for general puppy searches, I was pointed to the Champdogs website, it is very good. In fact it has higher standards than the KC itself so it ought to be a good starting point if you are looking for healthy puppies. Then, the KC website has a feature where you can check the extent of "in-breeding" between any given sire or dam - so if you are looking at a litter you can ask for the KC names of mum and dad and check whether they are safely unrelated. You can also check health scores for your potential pups parents, grandparents, and siblings. It is a really good resource. There is lots of research you can do like this, but don't be intimidated - it is great fun and very exciting, and this forum is here to help with advice any time! Good luck with your searches and let us know how you get on. We just want puppy pictures when you find your boy or girl....
Hi Rosie, thank your for your reply, I'd be really interested to see more of Pongo but can't find 'SW Walkies' can you send a link? Thanks.
Hi Alexander, try this link for the walkies thread: https://thelabradorforum.com/threads/sw-forum-walk-today-16-4-17.18982/#post-289141 And here are some slightly more flattering photos of Pongo (although he thinks he looks better wearing a mud pack). The last one has got turned on its side for some reason, sorry about that.... Pongo is just over three years old now.
I got Rory from a breeder on the champdogs site. She was really nice honest and helpfil and Rory is a great dog. I would definately use the site again.
Hi guys. I'm new here as we have come to stage to own Labrador. Quick question - one pup has catches our eyes, BUT.. Owner says he hasn't got time to register it, he's looking quick sale as he's moving to England soon.. As much as I found from web it it's really important to have papers.
Hi Risa and welcome to the forum The situation with that breeder sounds a bit suspicious to me. Does the breeder have the mother dog and the whole litter? If a breeder had no papers, had not done health checks on the parents (and can show you the proof) and is after a 'quick sale' I'd be suspicious that puppy farming was going on and I'd walk away.
That's where me and husband having argument. My husband says - what's the big deal we can make papers. - Can we? What are the risks on this situation? Would that be just the fact it wouldn't be pure bred pup? Or is there anything else? He has the mother of pup but says father is stud from other city.
Papers aren't really important unless you want proof that the pup is pure bred. The really important thing is that the parents of the pup have been health checked. This involves a series of tests (like hip and elbow X-rays, genetic tests for heart conditions, and annual eye tests) to make sure the parents are free of inherited diseases that will affect the puppies. You don't want to run the risk of getting a puppy with major inherited health issues - it's heartbreaking. You can reduce the risk by buying from a careful and honest breeder who has had all the health checks done. Also - I really don't think that any breeder who was committed to dog welfare would be interested in a quick sale. Good breeders are very fussy about selling their puppies and are never in a hurry and do not make excuses like saying they are moving to another country. Good breeders plan ahead with all their litters. My advice would be to look for another breeder who is doing it all properly. That will give you the best chance of getting a happy, healthy puppy who will be a member of your family for many many years. It's worth waiting for and looking harder. Just my advice
Here's an article about what to look for in a good Labrador breeder and how to avoid a bad one http://www.thelabradorsite.com/how-to-spot-a-bad-labrador-breeder/
