Hi, Apologies in advance for the length of this.... We’re in week one with our new Red Fox puppy Boomer! So far he’s been a little super star but I’ve got a few questions that any advice would be much appreciated. We’re not new to labs -we sadly had to say good bye to our beloved 14 year old lab in July. He was a wonderful dog - very bonkers with an incredible enthusiasm for life!! But we made plenty of mistakes in the early years that didn’t help with the crazy-ness!! So I’m really keen to start off on the right foot this time and we now have a 4 year old and a just 1-year old to add to the fun. So…. 1. I’ve got the Happy Puppy Book - which is great. But a little overwhelmed about what to tackle and when. So far, just concentrating really on house training, socialisation, getting him used to puppy pen and generally keeping everyone safe and happy! He’s doing sits for meals and we’re doing stage 1 recall in garden and house but I haven’t started any clicker training or any cues or anything else. Any thoughts on when I start adding more in? A bit worried I'll miss some windows and let bad habits creep in! 2. Puppy pen vs crate? I’ve got a crate with a puppy pen attached to it. He settles in there great - but 9 times out of 10 chooses his bed in the pen area rather than the crate. Just wondering whether to really push the crate / and go down that road. Or be happy that he’s all good in the pen and just work with that. 3. I want to walk him in a harness when the time comes for lead walks. But should I be introducing it now? I don’t really want the expense of buying a good harness to fit him now and he’s out grown it in 2 months (can’t remember how quickly they grow to be honest!!) Any thoughts would be lovely. Thanks in advance.
Sounds like you are doing great. I just use a pen for mine - no crate. But I do get them used to a crate at a later date in case of vets etc. Don’t worry about missing windows, so long as you get him out and about looking at all kinds of traffic, people, prams, bins, wheelchairs, odd folk, livestock etc - and do it often, not just once or twice for each thing. Yes, definitely introduce the harness - put it on for all meals to build up happy associations, then sometimes leave it on a while after meals and attach the lead. You can get a cheaper one until he’s grown.
We used a crate at night in our bedroom, and a puppy pen in the kitchen during the day. The advantage of the crate is that it makes potty training easier. Cooper and Tilly almost never soiled their crate at night, and seldom the play pen area, but we were in the bedroom with them at night and would take them out if needed. During the day one of us was usually home. and we could take them out often. For adolescent and adult dogs, I'm a great believer in dog doors going into a fenced back yard. Ours have the run of the house and they yard, any time they want. Fortunately they aren't prone to barking when they are in the yard alone, and they aren't escape artists.
Thanks both for your help - much appreciated and good to know we're ok to just keep going with the puppy pen. Great idea on the harness - I'll get going with that asap.
We will be getting a fox red lab end of Nov, so I was interested in seeing what your replies were. I have a 3 year old girl to contend with as well
