Poppy is 5 1/2 months old and has me in tears some days and makes my heart melt other days. When I am not supervising Poppy I am on this forum, it has been my lifeline. She is very hard work!!!! We have Holly but rescued her at the age of three so having a puppy is all new to me. However the way I cope is thinking " I survived the last problem, I can survive the next" Having that thought and the help of all the lovely people on this forum we can do it... just remember you are not alone.
I just put some things together and realized he is probably from a puppy mill(((((((. I am a horrible person. Ughhhhhhhhh I called the Humane Society in that area to report it. My husband called the people who sold him to me. They said they are brokers and not the breeders. There is more but ughhhh...
So, I think our Lab is from a puppy mill after putting some pieces together which means I am a horrible person. I feel so bad.
I'm sorry, but I think you are making irrational excuses about your situation. You have a young 4 month old puppy. What do you expect it to do? Do you expect infants to be perfect when they become toddlers? So maybe you got it from a puppy mill. So what? It's too late now. You pup may have missed out on 8 weeks of socialization, but he has the rest of his life with you. Start training/puppy classes. Be more consistent and firm with training. Understand he is also starting to teeth and that makes him bite more. I had qualms like you months ago when I was searching for a puppy. All this talk of puppy mills and to stay away from them. It was so difficult to sort through all these breeders. Some where so fickle with contracts and applications. One breeder couldn't wait to sell me a puppy once I "passed" her application. Makes me wonder if that was just a front for appearing to be a proper breeder. I ended up going with my co-worker's sister-in-law who breeds Labs as extra income for a farm. They were a pretty large kennel at one point, and I know she keeps her dogs in clean cages in a kennel. She keeps the bitch and puppies inside her home for 8 weeks and exposes them to kids and all sorts of farm machinery. So yes I was afraid it was a puppy mill kind of situation also, but I was trusting my co-workers word. Sparky loves everyone and I mean everyone. It doesn't matter. He may get scared for a second but he bounces right back. My puppy is 8 months old now. He nips less, but he still does it once in a while. I turn around and stop play or he goes on time out in his crate if he doesn't calm down. If you can't tell a bite from a nip, just imagine full on clamping down with teeth sunk into your flesh bleeding. So most likely its play nipping. I can tolerate the nips. I know the other people here at home doesn't and are also afraid to grab him when they have to. So when they are around his leash stays clipped on so they can grab/step on the leash to regain control over him. Poppy has a 3 year old rescue. Where do rescue's come from? Puppy mills, abusive families, strays. He must be bad too. With the proper help, they can be fine dogs too. Give your puppy a chance. It will get better. Sparky is so much better now at 8 months. Although, he was a PITA when we went to a pet convention yesterday. He was so confused with all the different dogs there pulling left and right. I really don't mind him kissing other dogs, but some of the other dog owners are a little prissy and didn't want their dogs to make contact. So alot of time pulling him away from other dogs. After the initial excitement phase he started to calm down and pulled less and paid more attention to me. The best of it all, he had no accidents inside the building!
Irrational excuses? This is not a helpful response to a possibly serious situation. I posted this knowing I was risking judgement but there is more to it than socialization concerns. He is on a consistent tether. Perhaps all the biting is related to him just being a puppy who knows but judging and and saying my concerns are irrational excuses hardly helps the situation. I hope others don't make your situations feel like irrational excuses. Thanks xxryu139xx
Like I said on the other thread, even the best reared puppies are biters - it's 100% normal. I am on my fourth Guide Dog puppy - reared in the best circumstances possible. ALL have been total crocodiles until about five months old. I repeat it's NORMAL. Pups don't look back, they respond to the here and now. So it's up to you to make the here and now right for your dog. Use this info I've linked to and he'll be fine. A bad start doesn't mean a bad outcome, it's up to you to make things right for him. http://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-puppies-biting/ ...
Let's try and keep this constructive, folks. Puppy mill or not, it doesn't really matter at this point. You have to deal with the puppy you have in front of you. And, to be perfectly honest, he really does sound absolutely, 100%, normal. Mags (@Boogie) is more experienced with puppies than most of us, and since she has them back-to-back, doesn't have the luxury most of us do of "forgetting" the hardest bits of puppyhood. She's very wise, listen to her advice
I'm sorry to say you misinterpreted what I posed as an attack towards you. Things get lost without emojis and what not. I was just pointing out reality and forgive me if it was a bit too blunt. I wish you got past the first sentence and read the rest of my reply to you as I was trying to be helpful. Anyway, I'll leave it at that and good luck to you.
