We can go weeks at a time without seeing another person or dog, so I understand this entirely. You just have to sometimes go out of your way to get into situations where you would. So, every now and again, forgo your walk in favour of driving to your nearest town and working on skills there.
Hi Karen and welcome to the forum from myself and Jenny. I know the feeling of losing your best friend, lost Coco in May but then I got Jenny in August at eight weeks old. You forget how much work they are but so so worth it.
At my age I can't afford to wish away time but...I won't mind when this boy of mine is a year older. I think if you went to divorce court and asked around, everyone there would have a lab under one.
Hi all! We picked up our boy a week ago tomorrow! This is our first experience having a dog as adults, so we've never been responsible for training a puppy, so it's definitely been a learning curve for all of us. I'm currently dealing with all of this, but it's nice to know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel He basically eats anything he can get his mouth on, will hang on to my daughters skirts or dresses for dear life, and whines/cries/howls if he notices you have left the room. We're working on crate training and so far it's not working out at all but the plan is to keep at it and hope things work out sooner than later. This is my boy, Titan at 8 weeks old
Titan is adorable! It's crazy how fast they grow, Scully's only a month older but she seems massive in comparison. She's a real whiner too, unless you leave her with something edible. OH gave her a frozen Kong, went out to corner shop and she hadn't even noticed he was gone when he got back!
I've kind of been noticing that he seems to whine most when he's tired but doesn't want to sleep. Most of the time, he's good but when we start to wind down for the night he's a bit noisier. I don't know if that's normal for a lab puppy or not haha but that's definitely what I've been seeing with him lately. I've also only had him for a week so he's still getting to know us and getting more comfortable in his new home
Overtired puppies are like overtired toddlers. They moan about having to go to sleep but suddenly they're out for the count. That's when a crate really comes in handy! "But I'm not tired! I don't want to sleep!!!" "Well, let's just pop you in your bed and if you're still awake in five minutes, you can come back out." "OK, but you just watch! I'll still be awake in fivzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"
My pup just hit 1 year. she has done all the above noted things, still does some of them, but is slowly improving. she no longer chews on us, actually she is very gentle with her mouth. she still is a terror on her toys, but slowly improving. I believe there is hope and advise to hang in there.
B is 5 mo 5 days and seems like she suddenly grew a brain. She is SO much better with basically everything from being alone in the crate/ex-pen to not jumping up on people to giving the older guy some space. Recall training is going really well but it's time for me to step it up to the next level. Counter surfing is still a problem, constant supervision required. Even when there's nothing up there, she'll take a peek. She's pretty reliable loose in the house, not getting into anything she shouldn't. It's mostly puppy proofed by not entirely. She easily tolerates a few pairs of shoes around; I haven't put the whole bucket of them back yet. She still pees in the house occasionally and it is driving me nuts. Like at least once or twice a day, despite me taking her out every 2 hours. And she still requires a lot of intervention from me with new people so she doesn't jump up on them. But it's like she's starting to get that you keep all four paws on the floor and you get the attention.
@b&blabs Its amazing isn't it when they start using their brains! You sound similar to us in everything except I'll exchange the weeing for shoes...Libby can't ignore a single shoe, slipper or welly but she rarely wees indoors. Did you train the shoe thing?
@DebzC, I am so glad you too are seeing improvement! How old is Libby again? I put away all shoes but one pair at a time and would tell her no and redirect with that pair. The others I put in a big plastic tub atop our shoe shelf so she could not get at them. Slowly over the past 3 months I increased the number of shoes left "out" (we do have a semi-enclosed shelf so they're not in her face all the time). Still no extra shoes around, ha, just a pair or two for each of us. My shearling slippers are too exciting, and I understand. I learned my lesson and saved my new leather, shearling-lined boots from almost certain destruction (she did nibble on the zipper, but knock wood, it still zips). Leather/suede gloves are still too yummy, too. She's good enough to take to a friend's to hang out with the other dogs in a big farmhouse and not get into too much trouble, chew anything (we had to put the glove basket up) or pee indoors there (which is why I wonder what's up with her house training). I did have to leash her to stop her jumping on the new visitors, until they were there for a while and she chilled out. I found a clue to the house-peeing today. The new Nature's Miracle (brand of enzyme cleaner) was not getting the pee out. I got down and sniffed the floor. The gaps stank of pee, where she has been going, and the strong scent of the product - the new bottle smells terribly strong and makes me headachy. Returning it and I went to the old standby of baking soda and vinegar for now (ordered a different enzyme cleaner on Amazon). Have a fan on the area. It seems to have helped immensely. And only one accident (in the basement, my fault, she was due to go out but ironically I was busy cleaning up the pee upstairs) today.
Sorry, can't edit - I meant I redirected her to an appropriate toy and would then praise her after she let go of the shoe.
