Hello everyone, First post here. I’m glad I found this forum because it seems like a valuable source of information for this new journey my wife and I started yesterday. My wife and I brought home a male black lab puppy. He is our first lab ever. His name is Remington. He is 9 weeks old and this is the second day we have him. The first night wasn’t as bad as we were anticipating, so that is out of the way. We have a list of miscellaneous questions were are hoping to get guidance on. I look forward to being a member of this great forum! 1. Napping - like all puppies Remington loves to nap. We crate him when he sleeps at night. The crate is in our bedroom so we can soothe him if needed. But during the day we bring the crate to our kitchen with the door open so he can go in/out as he pleases (which he does). He loves napping on our ceramic tile kitchen floor. I think the cool feeling of the tile is his preference. Question = is it OK to let him nap outside his crate? 2. Humping - when we play with him, he sometimes wants to hump. More so my wife than me. We simply say “NO” firmly and push him off and distract him with a toy. He has not experienced another dog yet, so we are not sure if he will do that to other dogs. I suspect he will. I suspect he is very excited in a non sexual way and that’s how he knows to show it? 3. Chewing and Biting - bring 9 weeks old, he is in the chewing and biting phase. When he tries to chew on fingers, toes, clothing, furniture we firm say “No chew” and give him a toy to chew on. When does the chewing phase pass? 4. Potty training - is it safe to follow the guideline of after he eats and drinks or wakes up from sleeping or napping to take him out to potty? He only has 2 accidents inside in the 24 hours we had him. Both my fault. I didn’t take him out right away after we woke up and after he had a long drink of water. I actually kind of stopped him mid pee one time, took him out, and he finished. We have many more questions, but will start with these three first. We apologize in advance for the basic questions. This is the dog we have raised from a puppy.
Hello and welcome to the forum from Fred, Annie and me. Yes it is ok to let your puppy nap outside his crate if it suits you. Great work on the no chew front, it all depends on the puppy. Fred never did much chewing but Annie did. Have you got The happy puppy book by Pippa? If not I would try and get a copy, it is very good. Yes, I always took my two out after a nap, eating or if they had not been out for about a hour. He will soon get the hang of it. Sounds like you are both doing well.
Welcome to you and welcome to Remington (love that name!). He is a real cutie - that tongue.... I'm not an expert, but I can give you my experience. Napping - yes, my boy Pongo spent most of his day napping, anywhere and everywhere. At night he slept in his pen, but during the day he collapsed wherever he liked. I was amazed at how much time he spent asleep when he was very little. And yes, four years later he still loves sleeping on the cool tiles, especially in this heat. He finds a spot where there is a nice flow of air, out of the sun, on the ceramic tiles, and just snoozes the day away. Humping - Pongo never really did this, but I think you are right, it is not sexual it is just excitement. Pushing off won't work in the long-run - it just becomes part of the game - but distracting with a toy is probably the best idea. Chewing and biting - oh my lord yes. We all know about that. You'll see the term "crocopup" everywhere on this forum! I strongly recommend the "ignore" approach. This means that whenever he nips, say "ouch!" and IMMEDIATELY turn away from him. No eye contact, no attention, absolutely nothing. This tells him clearly that (a) he has hurt you and (b) you are NOT willing to play the nippy game, it is a boring game and you will not play. What he wants most of all when nipping is to play, so its is a very effective message (and it is what his mother would naturally do). This worked with Pongo within 2 days - honestly! - and he stopped pretty much completely. I do know some pups are harder to convince than others (there was someone on this forum pointing out wistfully that it is hard to ignore a puppy who is hanging by his teeth from the leg of your jeans, especially when he's got a bit of your leg in there too....) but it does work. As an aside, it is also a great way to teach young kids how to deal with a nippy puppy - when he nips they should "pretend to be a tree" because puppies never nip boring trees. Potty training - yes, I think that guideline is good. You can take him out more often if you can. The thing that really works is to reward him MASSIVELY as soon as he does a wee outside - big treats, huge fuss, best-boy-ever. If he has an accident indoors, make no fuss (so it doesn't become either rewarding or something he tries to hide); just clean it up very quietly and calmly using an ammonia-free cleaner. Give him as many opportunities as possible to wee outside, and REWARD every time. Pongo quite quickly got the idea that this was the best possible way to get treats, and would really try to get outside for a wee. What took longer was his bladder control - he knew to go outside, but he didn't always know soon enough that he was about to have a wee! You just have to wait for muscles to develop well enough to control the bladder - in the meantime just keep taking him outside as often as you possibly can and rewardrewardreward every wee. If Remington is like Pongo he will soon be trying out the "multiple-wee" technique on you - to maximise treats - and even the "fake-wee" pretence. Both are very funny and hey, the multiple-wee trick does develop bladder control!!! I have one more bit of advice - take photos! Lots of photos. The puppy weeks are exhausting, but they pass so very quickly and you will want to look back on them. And, of course, this forum just looooves puppy pictures... Have fun, and do let us know how Remington gets on!
PS - on the "chewing" thing, we got some chew-deterrent spray from Pets At Home to protect the table legs and curtains (!), it worked brilliantly and after a few weeks Pongo lost interest in being quite so destructive. I know if only works for some dogs, but it is worth a shot, it doesn't cost too much.
Hi and welcome from myself and my pup Isla. I completely agree with Rosie except that we tried the chew deterrent spray and it made no difference,Isla still chewed EVERYTHING! When she chewed on us,we had a stairgate on most doorways and we simply lifted her over the gate saying"no bite"and ignored her,opening the gate and letting her back in the room a few minutes later,she soon got the idea. She still has lapses when she's excited but is much better. Have lots of fun with Remington
Week 1 update: It has been a little over 1 week with Remington. It’s amazing how fast these puppies change. Crate - he sleeps very well at night in his crate. We started off taking him out twice a night for pee and poop. Now he sleeps through the night for an average of 6 hours. We take him out first and last thing before he is crated. He even slept through a NASTY storm with heavy rain, wind, thunder, and lightening. Humping - this has decreased but he still gets excited often. The excited that is obvious to see. Typically when playing. I suppose this is normal (my first time having a male dog). Biting and chewing -
Continued form last post (timed out) Biting and chewing- this has been the biggest issue. He clamps down on anything that he can. Just today we started the loud “yelp” method. It seems to work for the time being. He stops and cocks his head then licks our fingers and hands instead. Time will tell. Eating - he eats anything he finds outside: grass, leaves, flowers, mulch. I know he is curious but I’m sure he ingested some of this. He has to learn though right? We keep an eye on him, but he is quick to chomp anything!
Yes, Pongo did this. It's a bit worrying but he never came to any harm, and it is a phase that passes. (Although grass remains a delicacy...). Just make sure you stop using weed-killer and put any slug killer pellets absolutely out of use.
Welcome and Congratulations on your new puppy. Great name. He's adorable. Our Chocolate Lab puppy is coming home in October. She's also named Remington , Remy for short.
Week 4 update: I apologize for the lack of posting! It has been a little over 4 weeks since we brought Remington into our lives and it has been a busy yet fun 4 weeks. He will be 14 weeks old on September 4 and is approximately 21 lbs. We all are doing well. Shortly after bringing him home, we noticed his poop was runny and had some blood in it. We contacted our vet and sure enough he tested for an intestinal parasite (giardia). The first phase of medicine was not successful, so another round of was initiated. This has seemed to work and we will know for sure once the lab results are back. His poop is much more solid and has no visible signs of blood in it. He continues to sleep well throughout the night. If he has to go out in the middle of the night (rare) he lets us know with a whimper, scratching at his crate, or a yelp. Potty training is going well. He only has about 1 or 2 accidents per week. He is starting to consistently walk to the door we use to take him out and look back at us. That is his signal to tell us he needs to go out. We plan on introducing a bell he will ring to go out in the near future. He is too hyper and curious now for the bell. I know he will play/destroy it if we let it hang on the door handle at his age. He has socialized with a handful of dogs. Mostly one on one (not a dog park setting). He does well, but he is sometimes too rough for older dogs that do not care for his energy. Our friends have a one year old lab that we have introduced Remington to and they had a blast playing together. He quickly learned to be submissive to a larger and high energy dog…exactly what he needed to experience. The “zoomies” are here to stay. Every day and night, he gets a burst of energy and runs through the house. He also has found his bark and likes to bark during the “zoomies” too. When he gets out of line when trying to jump on the couch, chew furniture, chew our blankets or clothes, we tell him “NO” firmly and distract him with a toy instead. This sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. When he is fixated on something, he tends to not give up easily. He has met many people. Depending on how tired he is from exercise, he either rolls over for a belly rub or licks their hands. If he has built up energy from being in the house too long, he will jump and nip. Again, we firmly say “NO” and offer a toy. Having a well mannered dog is our top priority. We do not want to accept him jumping to greet people or nipping. My wife and I have been watching different videos on YouTube for suggestions. It will take consistent work to make Remington behave the way we envision, but we are determined to get there. He is intelligent and has learned the basic commands fairly well. What can we expect in age 14-18 weeks? I was told he will double in weight (from 20 lbs to 40 lbs). Does the constant chewing of anything he can get his mouth on decrease at all? He has brought so much joy to our lives. We enjoy loading him up in the car and heading to different parks to play and explore. He enjoys it too! Here is a recent photo of Remington enjoying the park on a hot and muggy afternoon.
Remington is so cute. Sounds like he's made a lot of progress. We had a change of plans and decided to go with a rescue dog instead. We got a Lab mix pup from a kill shelter in Mississippi. We named him Lincoln.
Your boy Remington and our Roamin are the exact same age. Roamin is 14 weeks today as well. I could have written your post about our boy. Zoomies, pudding poo, focused on what he wants (stubborn), excited jumping up and so on!
Ooh I like the sound of the bell to go out, might try that with Isla. Lovely to hear Remmington is progressing so well. I hope the results come back clear, Isla had Giardia as well and its horrible, took two attempts to clear it. I'm afraid the chewing and zoomies may continue for a few more weeks yet but he sounds like a typical lab puppy!
