Oh, that's sad . Insulin injections are the only treatment I'm aware of. I'm sure he doesn't like the shots, but if that's what he needs, he will have to adjust to them.
Keep with it! Puppies do learn but they are still puppies and get distracted very easily. A lot of patience and love and your pup will learn these commands. Persevere and you will get a well behaved dog some day! Mine is nearly 7 months old now and still has trouble keeping focus (other dogs and food distract him) There should be a logo or something. .....patience for puppies!
Does anyone else have problems with giving baths? Scout seems to be the only Lab I have ever seen that doesn't care for baths nor the rain!
That's what we are hoping!! He is learning and he is only 4 months old so we try to keep in mind he is still a baby.
My lot all hate being bathed, but all love other types of water. I just don’t bathe them; it’s no good for their skin anyway. Shadow has needed a couple of showers in his life (now 3.5 years) after rolling in something gross, but normally I let things dry then brush them out. Willow has had one fox poo “incident” and needed showering several times for that! Luna has never had a wash in her life and is nearly 18 months.
Quick question? Scout seems to listen more to my wife then he does to me. I am generally the one that is more of the disciplinarian and my wife is more of the "I can get away with more" type. Has anyone else had problems with this? He isn't disobeying but at times just seems to be more open to her then me? She says she read that male puppies often see the female as the Alpha and vice versa for female puppies. Has anyone else heard or dealt with this?
Try to be more like your wife maybe that will help your relationship. He listens to your wife because it's rewarding, he'll listen to you more if reward more and discipline less. I don't mean just food rewards I mean telling him he's a good boy playing with him being silly with him. Reward anything good ignore the bad tell him he's a good and special pup all the time. Even if hes just done something simple like a sit for you tell him he's great they love praise some less confident pups really need it. It's much more fun than being bad cop. Have fun with him be silly it's great. If you look on the main site you will see info about the alpha theory, happily the myth has been thoroughly debunked. Just have fun he won't be little for long and best to establish a good relationship though play and fun training.
Completely agree with Swampdonkey - have fun with your puppy and reward all his good behaviours rather than focusing on corrections and discipline. You will soon find your puppy is just as open to you and will listen to you more... and you will have more fun with Scout and build a better and closer relationship with him too.
I do try to play with him along with the training, but I am more of the one that does the disciplining then my wife is. But I will definitely try to be more rewarding! Anything to get him to "open up" more! Thanks yall!
Does anyones dog do a "gumming" thing? Scout is 5 months and every so often he puts his mouth over our arms like hes biting, but hes not trying to hurt us. Im just curious if this is normal?
Squidge still does this sometimes. I don't mind it, it's cute. Shadow does "nibbly noos" with his front teeth.
Has anyone had a problem with their 5 month old not liking water? Scout doesn't want to have anything to do with water short of taking a drink.
It can definitely take time. A lot of labs need a bit of encouragement to swim. Often the best thing is being led by example. A doggy mate, or yourself if you are feeling brave, going in to swim and your dog following is often a good way to introduce water fun!
My first two didn’t swim until nine months (no opportunities because of where we live in the winters) and were a bit hesitant at first but grew to love it. My youngest had the chance at about seven months but still took a little while to get confident with it. Now, I can’t keep them out when there’s water around!
Hello! Thanks for this helpful post! We have a 15 week old black lab boy called Monty. We have just about managed to curb his household chewing habits (although he does seem to have a personal vendetta against our kitchen lino. Luckily we have the same feeling towards it and will be swiftly replaced when we redo the kitchen!) He is great with commands and has picked up a lot very quickly but he does seem to have some manic moments 2 or 3 times a day where he gets really overwhelmed with excitement and grabs clothes, jumps up, bites arm and legs and snarls (it seems to happen most when he's just come back from a walk). We know this is normal puppy behavior and he's over excited but can anyone recommend any techniques to help calm him down a bit? When he has his little manic moments if he tries to pull on clothes/bite our arms or legs we tend to walk to another room and turn our back on him which we think is very slowly starting to work but it would be great if anyone knew a way to try and keep him calm as soon as it starts! We're thinking about having his Kong ready with some banana and peanut butter in for as soon as we get in as a distraction for him, is this a good idea? Thank you!! (PS. Here he is looking like butter wouldn't melt!)
Scout was (and at times does get a little too excited) like this. We would put him in "timeout" and leave him there for a few minutes. And we would be sure to repeat the word "Timeout" several times. He has now learned that the word time out means and if he starts to bite or do things he KNOWS not to we tell him he will go to timeout if he doesn't stop and he generally does! It was the only thing we could do at the time to calm him down and it seems to have helped some...but he is 5 months and still a big puppy (now if hell just realize how BIG he really is...lol)!
Ahh thank you, we'll have to give it a go! We tend to just say 'No' at the moment and step over the stair gate into the living room for a few minutes and he goes and settles down on his bed but he gets very very over excited if we take him somewhere like a park and also when we get back from a walk! I gave him a frozen Kong as soon as we got in last night and it did calm him down for about 20 minutes but the excitement came back shortly after! I think we might try a stair gate on the kitchen door and use the kitchen as a time out zone rather than the dining room where he spends most of his time! Haha! Monty is v much the same, I don't think he realises how gangly and tall he is! He's not even 4 months yet and he can already reach on top of the kitchen worktops!
These are so nice to read. We have an almost 11 week old black lab. He is the same way, a few times a day he goes into those "maniac" modes as well, we try to put him in time out but he acts like its a game, he actually comes back harder, we try standing there not moving but he just goes for the feet or jumps up and tries to bite our legs we don't have a time out play yard yet so we have been putting him in his crate which i know isn't good but it's the only thing we can do right now. It's nice to know there is hopefully an end to this because right now I feel like there isn't. We have an 11 yr old black lab that we got at 3 1/2 months and he didn't do much biting or chewing, he is a mellow guy so this new little guy is like the terrible 2 toddler we never had with our human children lol.
