Hello, its great to be on a Lab specific forum to pick up those much needed tips. I havent had a puppy in 30 plus years, I have had several rescues, so a somewhat differnt ball game. We picked up a 5 month old Fox red lab from a rural Welsh farm, about 10 days ago, comes from a working dog strain, she is a bitch called Skye. She has not been lead trained or any type of traingning. She is begining to get a few things already. We have taken advice to just let her be a pup, with a few very basics like, 'leave', 'here' . We tried the collar and lead, she really does not like either at the moment. If we hold her we can get collar on. However as we cant take her outside our garden yet as jabs were slightly behind, we are following a just let her settle and bond and be a puppy...........any thoughts welcome.
Hi Shane. Congratuations on your new arrival! Instead of the collar, you might like to try teaching her to wear a harness - our founder, Pippa, has a video and step by step instructions on this here: https://www.thelabradorsite.com/how-to-get-a-dog-into-a-harness/ There's no rush with other training - but in your situation I would be keen to run through lots of socialisation activities as soon as those jabs are done - it sounds like perhaps she might not have had a lot of socialisation before coming to you? Your best 'window' for early socialisation has closed now (you can read more about this here https://www.thelabradorsite.com/how-to-socialise-your-labrador-puppy/) but there's still plenty you can do to help her feel comfortable out and about. This article has some helpful ideas for socialising older dogs. I hope that's helpful, and that your new friend is settling in well Sammie
