Hello everyone. I am new here. My boyfriend and I are getting a lab the first or second week in Janurary. I have owned dogs before, but not a 8 week old puppy so I have three questions. First, what treats do you use for training? I want to use something either small or something I can break into smaller pieces so he doesn't have too many. Second, everything I read says to put the crate in our bedroom, however our bedroom is small. Has anyone had success with keeping the puppy in the bedroom with the door closed at night? I will still be waking up every few hours for potty breaks. Third, when will he be able to go on walks outside? Where we live it can get kinda cold, so I don't want to start too early and make him freeze. I also don't want him to get sick, but he will have a good start of vaccines from the breeder and we will be going to the vet the first week he is home for anything the breeder missed. Thank you all for helping me!
Hi and welcome to the forum What's your pups name? Treats - a lot of people use some of the pups kibble as treats as usually works to start with. I also use sausages (tiny bits) for training. Bedroom - we tried the crate in the living room to start with but she wouldn't settle. After a few weeks we brought her into our bedroom and she slept on her bed next to ours and it worked out so much better - she only woke a max of once a night! They can usually go out for walks 7-14 days after their final jabs, your vet should advise you of how long as different areas is different times. You can carry him and get him used to the outdoors and the noises, smells and people. When they first go out a lot of people use the 5 minute rule. For example, when Harley was 10 weeks we walked her on lead to the field (4-5 mins) let her off Lead to sniff and play with us for 15 mins approx then walk home (4-5 mins). Hope this helps Look forward to hearing about your pup.
Thank you so much! Right now we don't have a name picked out, but I am thinking about Remy. I like the idea of using his food for it. So if I do that should I do training around feeding time? Or would he just get extra food?
Welcome to you from Mags, Tatze and Mollie Tatze is my pet dog, a black Lab three years old. Mollie is my fourth Guide Dog puppy, a black Lab and she's twelve weeks old. I can't recommend the Happy Puppy Handbook enough, it's brilliant - all your questions will be answered in it. As to treats, I use kibble until about 14 weeks then move to soft liver treats plus kibble. Always give from below the muzzle, pups don't have a cough reflex at first and if one is dropped and gets in their windpipe the pup wouldn't survive. It has happened so it's worth remembering. ...
Hello, I have a 14 week old chocolate lab named Remington, we call him Remi for short... We did his kibble for a treat, we didn't want to much of different foods as he is still a puppy and the mess it can make with runny poop. Remington sleeps in his crate all night long. When we first got him we needed to take him out to potty about every 2 hours due to he had giardia Not Fun!!! He is all better now gaining weight fat and happy little puppy. We didn't take him out to see other dogs or people until his last shots. We would walk with his leash in the back yard to get use to it... Good luck with your new puppy, just remember they are like a new born baby,they need lot of attention...
Hello and welcome to the forum! I've just brought home a new puppy, too For training treats, I use a variety of things. For my adult dogs, they get lots of things, including roast chicken. I generally buy two chickens a week and roast them together. One will do us for a dinner and sandwiches, and the other, I remove the meat from the bones and freeze it. Then, I can take a bit out every day to defrost. I also cook them sardine or tuna biscuits, which are basically just rice, egg and the protein, bound together with a bit of flour and baked. I make a huge batch and freeze a big bag of them, then take a handful when I go out. Other treats are mini breadsticks, broken into pieces about 1cm long, cheese, turkey frankfurter, sausages, ham or turkey block, ocean sticks, prawns, raw meat, pate.... basically anything and everything! The messier things tend to be for use at home. When your puppy can go out on walks is dictated by the vaccination schedule he's on. Generally, you shouldn't put a puppy on the floor in public until a week after their final vaccination, which is normally given between 12 and 16 weeks, depending on their schedule. It does vary depending on the prevalence of things like parvovirus in your area. You should take your vet's advice on this. With my first puppy, her crate was in our living room, and she was fine with that. I slept apart from her from day one. Other puppies are too upset on their first night to be able to settle, so you'd have to play it by ear. With my new puppy, I've gone for a crate in a pen, so I don't have to get up in the night - that's the theory, anyway! The first couple of nights, I slept next to the pen in the living room. Tonight (night three), I'm going to go to bed in the next room.
