Is a puppy for me?

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Glenys
Glenys
Glenys
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Joined: 31 Dec 2006, 16:54
Location: Lancashire
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Is a puppy for me?

Post by Glenys »

The pros and Cons of Labrador puppy or Adult ownership.

With all the excitement of the puppies I thought I would do a piece on puppyhood this is both as a rescue worker and a past breeder of show dogs.

The best way to prepare for a dog in your home or a new dog is this think carefully which will suit you best.
A puppy can weigh up to a pound in weight at birth they quickly grow so falling in love with the picture of a cute puppy is natural but they don’t stay small for long they grow very quickly but their body may grow at a rate of Nott’s but their brain doesn’t this is a mistake many people make you are big so you should know not to chew furniture, wee on floors and jump up .
You are big now so we can leave you eight hours a day but woe betide you if you are naughty.
Dont foregt if you left him at nine am and he chewed the TV remote he will have forgotten when you come back and if you greet him with a scold or worse a slap all he sees is I waited so long For Mum and now she is not nice to me I am now sad.....

A Labrador puppy is still a puppy up to 12 months how sensible they turn out is up to you if you start off with rules and start as you mean to go on you will have a well behaved dog if you encourage a pup to jump up ,climb stairs, laugh when he pinches your biscuit you have then laid down the rule which says that is ok.
So when he pinches your prime peice of steak dont blame him its your fault.....

If you start by not encouraging these things then you wont be bowled over whilst carrying the ironing up the stairs your dog will have been taught not to do that if you don’t want your visitors bowled over as they come through the door you will teach your puppy to wait behind you all things are easy if you teach them from day one what is acceptable behaviour and what isn’t .
You are the leader you say what you want the pup to do and importantly make sure everyone in the house gives the same command choose the words like if one person says DOWN ! and one says OFF! Its confusing.
We used to start our pups housetraining ( our own litters) in the nest at around three weeks when a pup suddenly knows not to mess in his bed we instead of covering all the pen with vet bed cover half and half newspapers its amazing to see puppies wake up and walk off the bedding onto the newspapers in the years we bred we never had one dog reported to be a dirty dog they simply left our care and instructed to place lots of newspapers down to start eventually till they had just a small amount near the door then with door open lots of praise when the toilet was done, simple.
The worst dogs I have owned for being dirty are ones I didn’t breed myself and I don’t like the new idea of puppy trainer pads they are expensive and do sometimes teach them they can wee on something soft like the carpet. Good old newspapers is all you need.

Male or Female?

I have heard the quite “ Bitches are more faithful than male dogs” they are not.
Its all in the bringing up and all in how they were started off.
We get good and bad in rescue for my own dogs I have found females harder work than males but that’s my experience.

Choosing:

So ask yourself male or female ,colour, then stick to it don’t say oh well I will have that as it’s the only one left it doesn’t work, be prepared to wait for what you want unless we can convince you otherwise if you have had conflicting ideas remember we recommend dogs to families becaus it often works it does us no good to palm off a dog on you that will be back very soon in rescue.

Puppy or Adult?

Puppys are a blank sheet of paper teach them your ways and do it right for instance if you have a cat,rabbit or similar you can teach the puppy how to behave but if you are out at work a new puppy wil need four meals a day he cant housetrain himself ,open a door etc.. he doesn’t have total control yet so when he needs to go he has to he cant think hang on they will be back soon.
So taking on a puppy when everyone is out at work, school etc.. isn’t fair on the pup.

Adults ? some of our dogs have been left long periods they can be dumped on rescue because they haven’t been taught to walk on a lead,simple enough to teach a puppy from eight weeks too l slip a rope lead gently round his neck and walk round the garden maybe following one of my other dogs and continue but not easy when they are juvenile delinquents allowed to pull a person around its possible but harder.My dogs walk on slip leads and do not pull.
So lots to bear in mind I will update this again soon adult dogs have a lot to give and will learn your ways eventually.... either way there is work involved in order to get your good companion dog……

More soon.......

This topic is locked as I wish to add to it later if you want to comment please start a thread and I will answer...
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