Hi everyone! It's been a while since I was last posting on here.... it's not just short of 4 years on and Barkley will be 4 on Friday and we have just secured a new addition to the family. He was born on 30th December and so won't be home until the end of February but i'm doing the usual dog mummy thing and worrying over a couple of things.... 1)for anyone who has introduced a new puppy.... how did you do it? Did you worry about your current lab feeling left out in anyway (obviously we will probably naturally make more fuss of him because there's a new one coming but still!) 2) Did you do anything differently? 3) Did anyone else forget a lot of what they did as it was the puppy days and there was a major lack of sleep so in terms of sleeping through the nights etc in the fist week? 4) How useful is a whistle for cueing? we didn't use this last time but taking learnings from Barkley i think it would be great to have a consistent sound (my husband isn't sure but is always skeptical!) I have both Pippa's books from last time but need to purchase the Total Recall one as unfortunately, our focus areas for this little one are socialisation, walking on the lead and the dreaded Recall! It's still a work in progress for Barkley as this has just failed for us this time so i'm deciding to totally start again as Barkley comes back but in his own time and making a few pit stops on the way but re-reading these books is showing that there are certain behaviours we let happen without realising! Also, for the little improvements I am going to try and work on majorly before the pup comes with Barkley are: 1) Barking at the postman/anyone at the door..... this is ridiculous as as soon as we open the door he runs to the nearest stick and shows him! 2)walking on the lead - we were never consistent and found it so hard! 3)Recall - he got surrounded/attacked by two labs 2 or 3 times near our street and this was a while back he was shaking etc and I was frightened and now he's gone from really submissive to very barky and hackles around certain dogs so he is no longer off lead unless it's quiet or dogs we know as it can be quite a loud and intimidating experience... has anyone experienced this and if so, how did you manage, please? He's such a softie too so we have spoken to our trainer and she believes it's a protective of us thing as he doesn't tend to do it with his dog walker! Many thanks to you all in advance and once we have more pictures I will share!
I'd be tempted to say that you have a lot of work to do with your current one before you get a puppy. Unfortunately dogs do quickly pick up (bad) habits from each other. I would be tempted to say not to take your puppy out with the big dog at all until you have got his issues sorted out.
Hi there we're in the same situation , looking forward to adding a second puppy to the family. Hailey is almost 3-- we did extensive training with her but won't be able to attend any classes with the new puppy due to Covid restrictions here in Toronto. Good luck with your new puppy!
Thank you so much! I've been so busy working I've not had a chance to log in here and it's the big day tomorrow!! Yes we are the same I'm hoping all of the experience form Barkley has prepared us more for revisiting the puppy years! Have you got your puppy home yet? Xxx
