Hello all I am new to the forum, although I have spent a lot of time catching up through reading your wonderfully helpful posts and articles! It has been a life saver! Sam, our new puppy, will be coming home with us on Friday and I literally cannot wait! I have lots of questions, and I suppose much of the answers for those questions will come from actually caring for the pup! However, I was wondering - If you could go back to when your dogs were pups - what was your biggest surprise or challenge? When Sam comes home with us I will post a picture of his adorable face! Thanks! JP.
Re: Sam - Expected Arrival Imminent Hi, and welcome from Holly and me. This forum is a fantastic resource for all manner of doggy advice, or just sharing pictures and experiences. The biggest surprise: I think I'd forgotten just how cute Labrador puppies are! I was amazed at how quickly we bonded. The biggest challenge: I think we were wondering if house training would ever end. It was only three months before she could go through the night, but at the time it seemed like an eternity. I hope that you and Sam have a long and happy life together.
Re: Sam - Expected Arrival Imminent Hi and welcome from me, 21 month old fox red lab Harley and 2/2.5 month old rescue fox red lab Spero The best thing about Harley as a pup was that she was so easy to train and fall in love with The thing I would change is teaching her to walk nicely on a lead from day 1 as it is so much more difficult when they are bigger Would love to see a pic of Sam when you get him
Re: Sam - Expected Arrival Imminent Welcome JP! Is Sam yellow, black or choccie? And how old is he? The biggest surprise.... how well little Pongo adapted to his new home. It must have all been terribly strange for him, but he immediately found his way around and curled up happily. Cuteness in a little fluffy ball. The biggest challenge.... we thought we were ready (we really had done a lot of research) but the early weeks of the crocodog and house training phases were really, really hard work. The biggest challenge (and surprise) was how hard I found it to cope. I spent a lot of time wondering what on earth we had done and whether it was the biggest mistake ever. And when I found this forum it was an absolute life-saver. You are going to have the most wonderful, roller-coaster ride with Sam! Good luck (and get the sleep in now while you can... )
Re: Sam - Expected Arrival Imminent Hello and welcome from me and my Sam , black Lab almost four years old and our older terrier Millie
Re: Sam - Expected Arrival Imminent Thanks for the warm welcome Sam is seven weeks old, and is a chocolate Lab. I am quite fortunate in that I wont be going back to work until the end of May, so I will have three/four weeks to settle him a little to our home (that's the plan anyway!). Aftewards he will be going into doggy day care (which I hope he will like, as I would never want to leave him home for so long). I am a mixture of nerves and excitement, - i just want to make sure that we can give him a happy home!
Re: Sam - Expected Arrival Imminent Hello and welcome from me and hooligan Choc Charlie. Exciting times....
Re: Sam - Expected Arrival Imminent My Cooper (14 months - yellow/almost white). Biggest shock was the biting. I had no idea. I knew about getting up several times at night for potty, how tired I was going to be (even though I was not working). I crated him from day one and he took to it GREAT (that was the best surprise). Good luck -- you will get through it -- we all do. Just be flexible, patient and enjoy puppyhood....it goes by very fast. You will find your puppy to be very affectionate and loving and a handful!
Re: Sam - Expected Arrival Imminent Hello and welcome! Well....its like having a baby again. In very many respects. And [size=18pt]DOGHAIR[/size] - gets absolutely bloomin' everywhere! Jac and Lilly
Re: Sam - Expected Arrival Imminent I think the lack of sleep! You forget how exhausting that is! ;D ;D
Re: Sam - Expected Arrival Imminent Hi from me and 10.5 week old Lola For me the biggest surprise was quite how quick the cycle of "awake - tired and bitey - asleep - awake again" was. Also, we were overly worried to begin with about her hating her crate if we shut her in it, so had long period of her being over tired and over excited and driving us crazy. In fact now when she's like that and we put her in her crate, she calms down within a minute or so and still loves being in her crate, and it saves our sanity! And one tip - get yourself some nice tough, comfy and boring shoes (ie. no shoelaces!) unless you want a puppy constantly hanging off your feet!
Re: Sam - Expected Arrival Imminent Hi from me and Juno, my 10 month old chocolate girl. The biggest surprise - being totally in love with her before got home from the breeders. The biggest challenge - getting up for night time wee and the tiredness of caring for a puppy
Re: Sam - Expected Arrival Imminent Hi and welcome from me and Obi I guess I'd just say that you can expect an awful lot of biting - but remember that he's just playing and exploring Have a plan for how you'll redirect and manage biting. Stay calm - it'll pass!
Re: Sam - Expected Arrival Imminent Welcome from me and Molly, 20 months old. I found the biting stage awful - I had bleeding hands for several weeks! On the plus side, house-training was easy - Molly has never done a single poo indoors and went through the night after 3 days. She was also a gorgeous little bundle of course. Look forward to seeing photos of Sam.
Re: Sam - Expected Arrival Imminent The thing I was not prepared for was the screaming! I knew puppies yipped and whined, but oh my gosh I wasn't prepared for 4+ hours of shrill yelling a night for the first several nights. It persisted no matter whether she was in her crate, pen, or in a box by my bed. 3 weeks in it is getting a bit better.
Re: Sam - Expected Arrival Imminent Welcome to the forum form Dexter and I ,our first dog he will be 3 on September...time goes too quick x
Re: Sam - Expected Arrival Imminent Biggest positive surprise - Molly was a doddle to toilet train. Very Good News because I got her in late November. She was reliable by Christmas. Worst surprise - what a Crocodog she was. I would never have anticipated that a bred famous for its gentle, good nature could be so bitey when young. I would trust that mouth anywhere now. I'll rephrase that, I would trust her not to bite anyone now. I have opened those powerful jaws and had my hand right inside that powerful mouth and come out unmarked. She is 19 months now, she is still very boisterous. That also surprised me, I thought they were quiet, dignified dogs but it is just her exuberant nature.
Re: Sam - Expected Arrival Imminent Many welcomes from me and Merla, a little black lab who will be two this month Biggest challenge, without a doubt, was getting sensible behaviour around other dogs from my gregarious but rather obsequious little pup. She has always felt that the best approach is to dash up to every dog and human and try to get them to play : Between 5 and 11 months was dreadful for this, but happily we've now, at long last, got to where I wanted (mostly!) and I can recall her from dogs and other weird stuff and heel past off head. Phew! Relentless persistence (and lots of good treats) DID pay off in the end. ;D Biggest surprise might just be what a great influence on my life my dog is. Always cheerful, enthusiastic and happy to be with me - it makes getting up every morning just so much nicer (just as soon as you get past the puppy night-time stuff and house training ;D ;D)
Re: Sam - Expected Arrival Imminent Hello and welcome form me and my two who are nearly nine months. Exciting times for you! My biggest challenge, I think, was believing I was completely prepared and then realising that NOTHING prepares you for the disruption and upheaval that a little pup can bring to your life. My biggest (happy) surprise was to find I actually enjoy taking them out even in the rain, and relish the time away from the computer spent with my lovely bouncy monkeys.
Re: Sam - Expected Arrival Imminent [quote author=snowbunny link=topic=10796.msg161188#msg161188 date=1430808042] My biggest challenge, I think, was believing I was completely prepared and then realising that NOTHING prepares you for the disruption and upheaval that a little pup can bring to your life. [/quote] Oh yes, this! I have had dogs all my life but always rescues. When Tatze arrived it was a very steep (but happy) learning curve! I too thought I was ready (nope ) But I enjoyed it so much I have decided to do it every year until I am no longer fit! - I became a Guide Dog puppy walker and Gypsy arrived when Tatze was 15 months. The new pup will arrive soon after Gypsy goes to Big School (June or July - ish!)
