Hi everyone, I am new to the forum. A week ago yesterday, we adopted a lab mix puppy from an area rescue. He was born at the foster's home. He is now 9 weeks old, and for the most part he is a good puppy. He is already sleeping through the night, and does not have an accident in his gated area while I am at work. He has a calm temperament and will likely be an amazing dog. We are slowly working through the jumping and biting/chewing. We are needing some advice with a couple of things: 1. Separation anxiety. He does great in his crate at night for us, but even without being crated during the day (we have him baby-gated in the hallway), his Kong and chewy toys to keep him busy, he screams and cries LOUDLY when we leave. If we leave the room, he follows us, and when we separate our two dogs during meal time he cries unless someone is with him. If he happens to get to where our other dog's food is, he will eat it even if he just ate his own. Any ideas for teaching him that it's not his food? 2. Sibling communication. We have an 11-year old cat and 9 year old small dog. The cat is actually doing ok with him, sets boundaries when needed, and for the most part Mo (puppy) responds to that. The dog has adopted the couch as her "island" and has started skipping meals, even though we separate them at meal time and each has their own eating space. I try to keep him leashed so that she feels she can get down without getting jumped on. How do we teach him not to play rough with his older (but smaller) sister? Is there a word/command/method/trick that anyone else has used? Thanks in advance! Tiena
Hi Tiena and welcome to the forum! Great idea to use baby gates, they have been our saving grace..still use them now With food it is probably going to be easier just to have down at meal times then remove afterwards. For our cats we have a baby gate with a cat flap in and that works well for our cat, and I guess a small dog could get through too, it is lockable though which is useful. We still separate our three dogs at meal times, just a good habit we felt to get into. With our puppies though, they are always fed in their crates so they have positive associations with them. Another set up to consider, which works well for some with young pups is a crate within a playpen.
Hi and welcome. How long are you at work for? It might be because you are away from him at night when you sleep, then during the day when at work that he simply wants to be with you when you are home. Labs are sociable and love being with people. As for the play with your other dog, it's good that you are putting Mo's lead on at times as it gives them space. Give it a few weeks and I'm sure they will get on much better. He's a baby still at the minute and needs to learn/be taught how to act with other pets.
Hey Tiena! Yay for a new baby! We are currently raising Labrador puppy #5 (one of the 5 is our own dog, the rest Guide Dog puppies), and he's 18 weeks old. I am at home with the dogs as I work from home, but even so we try to gradually increase the time our pups are alone in order to ease separation anxiety. Our puppy raising tips are to deliberately walk out on the pup a couple of times a day, not to make a fuss when you leave puppy in a room - with something to keep him busy - and then to return in just a few minutes, again without making a fuss or greeting puppy. If pup is happy in his crate or a playpen, you can put him in it to practise the gradual increase in isolation. A typical Lab will eat ALL the food they come across! Its best to keep it out of reach as much as possible. As for playing rough, if puppy isn't paying attention to his older housemate you can seperate them. A 30 second time-out, again without saying anything, will quickly teach pup that is he gets rough the fun will stop. Good luck!
