I think you are expecting too much too soon. You say he is only 9 weeks so he is a mere baby. The interactions between him and your older dog need to be carefully managed. Letting your older dog have his own space (you might need to use a baby gate). Maybe using a lead on your puppy in the evening and beginning to train ‘on your bed’ for a few minutes at a time. This is a slow process but if done consistently it will pay dividends for the future. I know from experience. Last year it took hours and hours of planned hard work getting my two together - thought it would never happen - but it did.
Ours is the same way in a sense. We both work during the day so he is left to his own devices in the bathroom and his toys. Sometimes we do good at night, especially, when I am working with him then he goes all crazy and barks, and jumps and bites. I try to spend as much time as I can with him in the evenings, but he gets wild so im trying to teach him that it isnt acceptable to bite. We are hoping it will get better soon.
I think you're right. Because my little dog has had a litter of her own (before I adopted her) and got along so well with my golden, I had probably unrealistic expectations. I appreciate the tips, I'm not giving up. Because I know that we can have the best home possible when we get thru this.
What about giving our puppy raw hide type chew toys? What are others that you have found work good as ours seems to be getting "bored" with his. Are there types we should avoid with puppies or Labs in general?
Lots of dogs get upset stomachs from rawhide, but many others are fine. It makes my two older dogs (3.5 years) throw up. If you do give it, make sure it's only under supervision because it can be a choking hazard, and I would avoid any that has been processed in China during any part of its lifecycle. I feed the occasional bully stick, which last a few minutes for my adult dogs but a good while longer for a puppy. just be careful again of upset stomachs, and my latest pup decided to swallow one whole once - it came out exactly the same as it went it Other than that, Kongs are the bomb. They last even my adults a good 20-30 minutes when they're frozen. I use the medium and large sizes, generally stuffed with either raw mince, a mixture of soaked kibble and tinned tuna/sardines or I cook up a doggy beef and vegetable stew and use that.
Yes! My puppy is similar.. I just did a post about the it...she's 10mths too...hasn't nipped in ages! Your post was probably written a while ago... How is your dog doing in that area and who old now?
Yes, so long ago that I don’t remember writing this! My dog is 2 now and if I remember correctly, she was easily worked up from 9 months to around 12 months on leash at times and in the evenings at home. I also had a relapse in our recall at that time. I joined a recall training class when she was 9 months and that helped a ton with her focus on walks. She just calmed back down again around 12 months; it was just a short teenage phase that we worked through. She’s grown into a very good dog! I will take a look at your other post to see if I have anything else that could be helpful!
It's been a totally difficult week. Monday I had company, we were watching the TV with the dogs, when the cat came out of the bedroom. I looked at her (she naps on my bed during the day) and her back legs were covered in blood. I went in and looked at the bed..she had been on the comforter. There was a dinner plate sized pool of blood on the comforter, went thru the sheets, the mattress pad and onto the mattress. So emergency run to the vet ...30 miles away. Turned out to be a small cut, how it bled so much baffled the vet and me, but it was so obviously a nip from Moose that caused it. I am home all day, and I would've sworn he didn't get her, but he did. I know it wasn't intentional harm, he was trying to get her to play, but she's such a gentle cat she won't use her claws to teach him to leave her alone. Anyway, I've separated them, kitty downstairs. She is on antibiotics and prednisone, and healing fine, but this is a first for me. I've never had anything like this happen, and I've had a lot of dogs in my life. But I am an oxygen patient now (scarring on my lungs) and don't move real fast, so maybe that's the problem. Vet recommended keeping them separated until his puppy teeth are gone (about 6 months of age). Poor kitty. Meanwhile, Moose is showing that he can listen, has learned his sit command, working on the down command. And he's so pleased when he does it. I must find a good gate for the kitchen doorway, it would solve alot of problems. The one I have is a tension gate and it just does not hold.
I am still having troubles with sit. he does great when I am working with him on it, but when we are doing other things it "goes out the window". What else can I do?
Have you taught a release cue? This means a word/signal that tells your dog he can move from the sit. Then build distractions into your training sessions, to build up to the sort of situations you’ll be in in real life when you may want him to sit. For example ask for a sit and then: put the kettle on before releasing, wave your arms around before releasing, get someone else to walk in and speak to you before releasing. Train this in different rooms and the garden before training in public spaces. Kikopup videos on YouTube are great for this.
Sounds like you have a lot on your plate at the moment... I assume you have a dog walker lined up to walk Moose, as in a couple of weeks he is going to start to need increasing amounts of exercise. A grow labrador, as I am sure you know, needs a minimum of an hour exercise each day to be fit and healthy mentally and physically. I hope your little cat is ok!
Kitty is fine, it's just a small cut, even the vet couldn't believe how it bled. I will walk him myself, I have portable oxygen and the weather is getting warmer now that I expect to. I've started a bit with the leash, just on the driveway and yard so far. And I am lucky enough that he's had play dates twice this week, one with a 6 yr old lab, another with another larger breed dog. Oh his antics! Those dogs will play with him for a bit, and then lay down and he just climbs all over them.
Thank you so much! Tymba is 3 months old, She's biting my kids so hard I thought I was doing something wrong, till I read you post. I've done almost every advice on internet but nothing works. I guess I just need more patience.
Yes - and strategies that help. They are crazy crocodiles at this age - All mine have been! It's 100% normal. Take heart, they quickly grow out of it. Wear tight sleeves and skinny jeans - wellies if necessary! Here are some articles with the best advice - more importantly, it WORKS! The only tip which didn't work for mine was the yelping - that just made them even more excited. The important thing to remember is that repetition is needed - lots and lots of repetition for them to learn new skills. http://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-puppies-biting/ http://www.thelabradorsite.com/how-to-cope-with-an-overexcited-labrador-puppy/ http://www.thelabradorsite.com/how-to-play-safely-with-a-labrador/ http://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-training/
I have tried that. Sit, Stay, Go, but its been a VERY Slow process...Ive noticed he does pretty good with the treat, but without a treat not as well!
It sounds like he needs to learn that it’s ok to follow a cue even when he can’t see the treat because a reward will come regardless. The easiest way to do this is to “fake” the treat between your fingers. Once he has performed the behaviour, you mark it, show him you have nothing in your fingers and then (the most important part) reward him from your pocket, or a pot on the table etc. Do this a lot and he’ll learn that it doesn’t matter if he can see the reward or not; he will always be paid for following a cue. If he’s flaky at following a verbal cue, the chances are that you introduced it too soon. Us primates do like to jabber on and often rush into this. I always think to myself that I won’t add a verbal cue to a behaviour unless I would be willing to bet £100 that he will perform the behaviour from the lure or shaping that we’ve been working on to introduce the behaviour. Then, since we have to go back to the beginning of the training process in each new situation (different environment, increased distractions etc), I replay that rule over and over. My dog may be ready to sit to a verbal cue in the kitchen, but if I am not at the stage of betting £100 on him sitting to my hand signal outside (which has come from my faking a lure), I’m not ready to add the verbal signal yet. In any event, at all stages of dog training, if the dog isn’t responding, it’s either because he doesn’t understand or he’s not been motivated enough. We humans struggle to comprehend that a dog who can sit every time on cue in the kitchen doesn’t understand the same cue when given in the street, but that’s the reality of it. So we need to recognise that when the dog isn’t responding, it’s not him being “bad”; we just have to communicate better to him what we want, which usually means taking the training of that particular behaviour back several stages and working through them again.
My puppy is 6 months old now and doesn’t bite. He will sometimes put his mouth around our hands, but never bites down. However, when he was about 10 weeks until about 16 weeks, he was a shark. We actually nicknamed him “shark” because all he did was bite. And as he got bigger, it HURT. We had an older dog (now 2.5 years old) that did not bite as much at that age. The biting was out of control. I ended up ignoring him whenever he would play-bite, which worked wonders. However, honestly it was just something he grew out of. We did temporary solutions (give him a toy to bite, ignore him), but nothing to really teach him to not bite us. It just seemed like something he just stopped doing. So glad he isn’t a shark anymore.
I have started to notice that he is doing more of the mouth around the hand and less biting so that is a good start! Now just to get him to potty less in the house and better with the training and we will be golden!!!
My lab puppy is 3.5months n has diabetes since birth.. We found it when it was 1.5 months.. It has high sugar levels up-to 600.. We started giving insulin as suggested by the Vet n the level is up-to 480.. He is just 3.2 kgs even now.. We r giving him royal canin Maxi starter. . He is not dropping his sugar levels nor putting on weight.. Really not sure what best can v do for him to recover.. Giving insulin everyday is a prob as he is unwilling to take the shots and he cries too.. Please suggest what should v do.. Appreciate your help..
