just to introduce myself the owner of a 12 yr old black lab dog (gun dog side of breed) lost our gorgeous 10 yr old black lab bitch (show side of breed) have been adopted by an 8 week old black lab bitch pup (gun dog side of breed) Now we are 10 years "out of date" with pups and training methods etc...and have this bundle of fire that is making her place in our hearts AND OUR GARDEN !! lol "Meg" is "getting there" with house training...but in the garden has a real "thing" for leaves and stones....will pick up small stones off the path and scare me to death !!! then rampages through the border hunting dead leaves which she proceeds to eat unless i get there first lol... My question....what is the current thinking in training to stop issues like this ? ive heard about cliker training..and wondering if this would help ? Meg has a crate but dont want to banish her to that as i want her to see her crate as a positive safe space...... many thanks
Try to ignore the stone picking up, if you take them off the pup it can make the stone much more valuable - then they try to keep it by swallowing it! The main site is full of brilliant advice as it the Happy Puppy Handbook. http://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-puppies/ And welcome to you from Mags, Tatze and Mollie from Manchester UK Tatze is my pet dog, a black Lab and she's four years old. Tatze means 'paw' in German. Mollie is my fourth Guide Dog puppy, a black Lab who is ten months old. . .
Ziggy is 13 weeks and still picking up leaves and stones. I've given up trying to stop him as he always ends up spitting the stones out anyway (unless he finds a piece of charcoal which he takes great delight in crunching much to my dismay!) As far as leaves are concerned, these usually get spat out too - eventually - although I've known him to chew on his favourite holly leaves for ages!! Must have a cast iron mouth!!
Ah we've all been there. Ash has given me a few worries too, vomited up a stone on a few occasions. Thankfully they do grow out of this stage fairly quickly. What ever you do don't chase her, she'd think that was a great game and do it even more.
Welcome! The Happy Puppy Handbook is a really good resource and good reminder even for owners like yourself who aren't exactly novices. Ignoring or swapping for a small treat, toy, or a play would be my suggestion as best approach to the stones (not worried about leaves!) jac
Hi and welcome to you and Meg from me and my boy Bailey. Bailey still likes to carry a stone around with him (he's 18 months old) but I remember well my heart stopping when he was tiny and used to pick up stones to play with. I found swapping it for a treat worked well when he was smaller - as he got a bit older (and I got braver) I watched him carefully and he just likes to hold stones in his mouth - he doesn't chew on them and to date has not swallowed any of them either, so I ignore it until he drops it of his own accord (usually on my foot as he has no idea of personal space!). He used to chase leaves that blew across the ground - barking and growling at them, it was so cute, I miss that. The Happy Puppy Handbook is excellent, so is Total Recall and the main website has a lot of information that I have found invaluable. Now a heavy hint....we like pictures on here please....lots and lots of puppy pictures (and of older dogs too)
