Hello from New Jersey!

You guys bring up some things I've never thought of. One more week and he gets his shots and maybe we can finally walk around the block. Turns out there is another baby lab on the street. He is 5 months from what I hear. We'd love to meet him too!

 

Well I met the neighbors who own a 3 month old Golden Retriever 3-4 houses down named Luna. Sparky's gonna have a playmate!

 

That is marvellous news! It will be wonderful for the two pups to have a nearby playmate. Nothing burns off excess puppy energy than a good romp with another pup!

 

yeah too much energy now when he gets excited. i spend most of the time turning my back on him when he starts getting overly nippy. Again its probably him trying to tell me something. 1st time I turned around and boom he peed and stepped in it and made pee paw prints all over his pen. Had to time out him in his crate so I can clean up the mess. Next few times of turning my back to him, he stopped and started chewing on his toys. He was doing this peacefully when suddenly he pounced on me again. I figured he has to pee again. So i carried him back outside and soon as I put him down on the grass he peed and started being lazy on the grass. Brought him back in and put him in the crate to sleep.

Can't wait for the vet this weekend. He's really starting to get too heavy to carry around everywhere. I can't imagine trying to hold a 20+ lb puppy later on since he can't stand on the vet's floor.

 

Hang in there, only a few more days then you can start taking him out for little walks. And as Lisa says, a playdate with another puppy will help get rid of a lot of that energy!

 

First day with the puppysitter today! Messaged me while I was at work. She said it was a good date. She tired him out well and gave Sparky his lunch kongs when she left. Only one boo boo, she also gave his dinner allotment too! I get home and my niece was already home. He didn't touch the kongs at all! I guess he was already full. I took him out and he had TWO massive poops! As soon as he cleared it out he was ready to eat again!

 

It takes a lot to keep a healthy Labrador from eating... While we were away for a week this summer, friends looked after Poppy and fed her double her usual amount of food... She loved it, and they were so surprised "But she ate everything and always seemed so hungry..."

 

So funny, if mine aren't hungry I check to see if they have a pulse

 

apparently alot of poop! i gave him the kongs back after and he gobbled it up!

 

Glad the first day with puppy sitter went well! Doubly so for Sparky

 

So today was his vet visit. He weighed in at 19.6 lbs. I weighed him the night before and I got 19.8 lb. Pretty darn close. Well-behaved around the other dogs that showed up and gave no bother to the jerk cat owner who left his cat in a laundry basket right in the middle of the walkway. He finally received his combo vaccine that he was supposed to get at 9 weeks. Vet said the next one would be in three weeks and then we could take him outside to walk on the street. At this rate he will be 30 lbs by then.

I did enroll him in puppy classes today. We will start next Saturday. I will bring my niece and wife to the classes so we can all learn how to better train Sparky. I find some inconsistencies with what we do and people don't like positive criticism. I want him to be able to start going off leash a little bit outside his pen without chewing/breaking things.

 

Ah glad he's back on his vaccination schedule,not long before you are able to take him out .
Puppy classes are a great idea and it's good to get all his handlers involved..I took my Husband along to a few ,it worked better him getting instructions from the trainer than it did from me!
Increasing their free space needs to be a pretty gradual ,careful process if you don't want damage...and sometimes you need to go back a bit and reduce as they can suck you into a false sense of security and then you come home to something valuable or special completely chomped! It's not naughtiness ,it's just age.....Dexter went from crate ,to contained room behind a gate ,to kitchen ,to lounge with gate across stairs ,to free range and we didn't have too much damage
Best wishes

 

This whole potty thing at such a young age is tedious. Makes me forget sometimes that its not all about just bringing him outside to go potty and back to the pen to play, but he needs some supervised play also in the living room. Hopefully he gets desensitized with the living room soon enough so I can give him a little more freedom there.

As far as socialization attempts, I live a block away from an elementary school and I managed to get home early the last couple of days and we stood at the driveway and I let him watch all the cars and little kids walking by. Granted there weren't so many coming thru my cul-de-sac. He stared at some, he ignored others. He pulled on his leash on some. Still this boy does not bark. I think next time if I do get him much earlier, I will carry him down to the school and let him watch all the kids.

 

Good idea

...

 

Sparky at a little over 12 Weeks chowing down on some yogurt!

 

Sparky is so cute

 

Just adorable

 

Puppy class went well! He had so much fun with the other puppies. He didn't even get in any trouble and he managed to calm himself down a few times.

 

Just look at Sparky's shiny black nose!! Just love it! Mine had a lovely black nose when he was a pup but it has changed more to darkish brown....with some black! The photo in my profile is from before it changed color! I truly miss his black nose.Sparky is gorgeous!