hello everyone , meet my female lab ginger , she just turned two years old . let me start off by saying that i love my girl like one of my kids , but like many other people i bought her from a private individual with no papers, we were told by them that shes a pure bred. but now i am very much curious about her lineage . both her parents were on site at time of purchase and they were beautiful looking dogs as well. ive been on akc site numerous times and have been looking at the standards for labs. there are just a few things that i would like to get feedback from this community about due to the fact that im a first time lab owner . Im such a happy lab parent that i recently also bought a 6 week old pup that looks identicle to ginger but that will be in another post ..lol, prolly the introduction area on here . anyways , the only questions i have about ginger is she seems to be on the small side, and she has a quit a bit of white hair on her butt area and lower belly area . , her skin is also very , very loose . i can pull her neck skin way up as high as the top of her head, also when she lays on her back i can see a large fold of loose skin on her back/sides as well. is this all normal ? what are everyones thoughts on if she appears to be a pure breed or not ? like i said , im all new to the world of labs, but i sure do luv them and am enjoying this research on them, as well. here is a link to some photos. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/k3tq7pibgt9ea9b/AAAwPMOvAMp0LtjtYgvyEfoia?dl=0
Hi and welcome. As far as I can judge, Ginger looks to be pure bred. I also have a rather small labrador, and there are often questions asked about her heritage, but in fact she has pedigree papers . The white hair is normal, as is the loose skin. I have to say though (and this is official forum policy), that we cannot condone taking home a puppy under the age of eight weeks, nor can we give any advice about rearing a puppy of six weeks old, as that is two weeks before a pup should be separated from its mother and siblings.
karen , thank you very much . and i understand. the puppy and mother naturally sepperated them selves from one another . the mother of the pup stopped nursing her and the pup started eating only puppy chow. so the people we bought her from told us she was ready to come home with us, like i stated , im completely new to this. but as of right now all seems to be going well.
I'm glad things are going well, and luckily your pup has Ginger to help with her socialization. It's not true though that the puppy was ready to leave just because she was weaned; most puppies are more or less weaned by four or five weeks, and the person who sold you your pup should have known that. Puppies should stay together for eight weeks as during this time they start to learn about social behaviour and bite inhibition. You have your puppy now and I'm sure you love her and are doing your best for her; I'm just pointing out that our official stance is that six weeks is too soon for a pup to be taken to its new home. This is a friendly and welcoming forum and I hope you're not put off by my comments, but that you understand where we are coming from.
Ginger looks pretty labby to me! I also have a very small Labrador, she is also a fox red and I often get many questions about what breed she is and people are very surprised when I say she is a pedigree lab. She's very dark in colouring but her 'feathers' are her back and back legs are pale, as is the fur on her stomach.
Hello and welcome from me and my dogs . Ginger looks all Lab to me , my Sam is a very big dog indeed, he has areas of lose skin too, nothing to worry about at all . I have to also back up what Karen has said about pups leaving their family before the age of 8 weeks . Their Mum will usually have stopped feeding them herself at just a few weeks of age and the pups will be weaned onto puppy food at around 4 weeks of age but they still rely on siblings , there is still a lot to learn from staying within their pack until 8 weeks of age . Thankfully you have Ginger who will help with this learning process .
Karen ,kateincornwall.. i am not put off at all about your input, as new as i am at this , my wife and myself welcome any input at all on this matter of our pup and ginger,we were only doing what we though was right for this beautiful pup and our girl ginger. as you stated that you cannot give us any input at this time due to her age, i will probably be asking a ton of questions regarding her behavior and interaction with ginger in the weeks to come when she is of age .thank you everyone so far for the input.
Hi and welcome to the forum . I have Harley who is 22 months old and is fox red lab and I often get asked what breed she is! Ginger is gorgeous . Look forward to hearing more about your digs over the coming months
