I cried for days when I got Nelly in early January and wanted to send her back! They just turn your lives upside down! It will get better and your puppy will mature before you know it. Theres not much more I can say other than good luck to you and time is a healer!
I had Basil last week for a night. He's a 12 week only border terrier puppy. I was amazed! He was so well behaved in comparison to Stanley at that age. Still hard work, of course but I definitely thought I got the raw end of the deal with devil dog. He didn't cry, he didn't bite, he didn't run off with anything. You could play and interact with him without the fear of blood pouring. I definitely think Labradors are one of the harder puppy breeds - my friends who all have dogs couldn't believe what I was telling them. I always got "mine never did that". But everyone's on here seems to
Borders as adults can be a bit of a challenge ask my friend who had had to have Minnie dug out of badgers sets 3 times now .
@Atemas - you may not feel it, but your post is really positive. You are looking for the little successes - these are what keep us going. And the little successes will get bigger and bigger. Keep focusing on those little successes xx
Don't think I can answer this Harley as not had much experience of other dogs but perhaps others can help. My older black Lab was 5 months old when we got her - toilet trained and responded to simple commands. She did have wappy moments especially out on walks - running off and going mental when the House Martin's were swooping through the fields here. Then all of a sudden she became such an easy lovely dog. She was a Pets As Therapy dog for a while. The whole family adore her.
I have had 3 Newfies and have an Alaskan Malmute...Meg my lab has been the easiest of them all by a long shot......she's much brighter and motivated by food. She has been so easy to train compared to the non foody big hairy bunch...
I've not had a Lab puppy yet - the main reason I joined the forum is that i wanted to get a reality check on raising a Lab vs. the breeds that I know - I've raised two Rottweilers and fostered several other breed puppies, mainly pit bull and Rottie mixes. I have really good reasons for choosing a Lab as my next dog, but I have to say, when I was raising my two Rottie boys and going to obedience classes, when I'd see the Labs, all I could think was: "Those are beautiful dogs, but they are holy terrors and thank goodness I don't have one." My first Rottie in particular was easy as pie. Went to work with me from 10 weeks old and slept under the desk all day, no barking, certainly no bitey stage, calm as all get out. The second one had bad on-leash dog aggression as at 1-2 years old, but at home he was equally if not more easy. So frankly - I say to all you Lab puppy parents - I DO think you have a harder road to walk down than with some other breeds. "Are the dogs sedated?" I love it. I'm sure a lot of people on the forum would like to get their hands on the secret stash of puppy sedation meds if such a thing existed! Reading a lot of puppy/teenager threads here, I sure have asked the same question, especially as I will be working with a school to do my dog's service dog training. Heck, that's why I looked at Labs to begin with. I thought that there must be something to why so many schools around the world use them as all types of service dog. The tales I've seen here of puppy hell do very much clash with the image of the angelic Lab SD or GD! After hanging out on the Forum for WAY too much time over the past six months, all I can think is that those calm and well-behaved service dogs are the product of a lot of consistent work and simply time to let the crazy puppy brain mature. For anyone new to the Forum, two of my shining beacons of puppy raising are Mags/ @Boogie and her guide dog puppies and now the amazing Fiona/ @snowbunny with her tireless documentation of working with her Squidge (aka Luna) both here and on her blog at This Little Doggie. In Mags' case, check out her current and past puppy walking threads which follow her puppies from arrival to the time they go on to Guide Dog school. Lots of other people giving great advice and sharing experiences too, so not to diminish their input at all, but these two are my go-to models for puppy training and great to follow.
@Harley Quinn Don't get me wrong, Stampy is a handful. That's an understatement. But funnily enough, the trainer running our puppy class used Stampy for some examples, then said "I used a Labrador so that's cheating, of course he'll get it immediately". The rest of the class even voted to for him for "most well behaved puppy". So... ??????
Came down to wee and poo in the crate again this morning despite her doing both last night before bed (she was clean a few nights ago). Anyone experienced this? I thought they weren't supposed to not soil their dens (she does go happily in there). Any advise would be helpful. On the positive side, she let me clean her up and later she sat on my lap to be cuddled and stroked for at least 3 minutes. She also let me brush her for about 30 secs. She has licked me a few times the past few days and there is tail wagging.
I had to get up with Stanley through the night to poo and wee until he was about 16/17 weeks. Overnight is a long time to hold it for them. I'd say if you're going to keep her in a crate overnight really you should be getting up to let her out so you don't ruin her den instinct. Otherwise I'd think about a puppy pen with her crate at one end which gives her room to pee/poo away from it It sounds like you got some nice cuddles - i miss puppy cuddles!
Absolutely. Their systems need to mature. When they wet in the night it's not a behaviour thing at all, it's a maturity thing. I have a puppy every year so disturbed sleep wasn't an option lol. I have a puppy pen with a plastic bed so that the pups can use a puppy pad or the other end of the pen at night until their bladder matures, which happens at different ages with different pups. Gypsy was clean and dry overnight by 10 weeks, Twiglet 16 weeks, Kara 12 weeks and Mollie 14 weeks. It takes a little longer using a pen arrangement but saves my sanity lol. In fact 99.9% of puppy behaviour is a maturity thing - maybe that's stating the obvious, but we can't expect them to behave like adult dogs at this age. Of course they need training, but they need to enjoy their puppyhood too. ... ..
Oh yeah! Stanley was definitely the cleverest puppy in his puppy class by miles. Picked everything up in one or two goes. He was also the most boisterous though and wanted to say hello to every creature that was in there! I was the only one with open wounds on their arms and my puppy was about 3 times bigger than anyone else's in the class. I just think they come pre-programmed to be Tasmanian devils.
Last night I set my alarm for 1.30 - I woke at 1.00 so crept downstairs. Red was just sitting there in her crate. Put her leash on, crept through the Utility past sleeping older dog. Red wee'd then I waited another minute and she had a poo. Put her quietly back in her crate with a few treats and left her. Didn't say a word but patted her as I put her in the crate. This morning at 6, clean crate and a repeat performance outside by Red. A hours noisy play and she's now fast asleep in her crate. I am very tired (so so tired) but know I need to keep this up now. We were expecting too much of her at night.
My puppy is 17 weeks (nearly 18) and still needs to go out once or twice in the night! You get used to disturbed sleep
That's great. Mollie is 20 weeks and still occasionally has an early wake up for a toilet break. Even if she wakes at 6:30am I put her back to bed, 7am is the earliest I will get up. The key is to make the breaks as boring as possible so that they know night = sleep ...
Maybe not, I never have given treats in the night, I don't even speak My older dog doesn't wake up at all - but she is used to having young pupsters around. ...
