New Puppy Advice

[madguy30]

So we're taking the plunge and becoming a two-dog family again. We have a 5-year-old black lab, and will be picking up a yellow lab pup in late March. Both girls. I've started HIIT training to keep up with her, at 51 will be interesting. I've trained 3 labs over the years, but am wide open to new ideas and suggestions for training if anyone has them. TIA.

I've had a dog for 2.5 years and if I were to change one thing it would not do puppy classes. Basic obedience can be done at home and hammered for repetitions and then imo the rest is desensitization/socializing naturally.

I'd also change the way I took my pup on walks to start where I'd let other dog walkers let their dogs say 'hi' to mine. He's really reactive to other dogs when we walk and I think me not just plowing forward to not hardly acknowledge other dogs was a factor.

 

[Gonzo]

I've had a dog for 2.5 years and if I were to change one thing it would not do puppy classes. Basic obedience can be done at home and hammered for repetitions and then imo the rest is desensitization/socializing naturally.

I'd also change the way I took my pup on walks to start where I'd let other dog walkers let their dogs say 'hi' to mine. He's really reactive to other dogs when we walk and I think me not just plowing forward to not hardly acknowledge other dogs was a factor.

Yeah I've never done any kind of obedience classes. Good thinking on socializing during walks. I've had good luck with housetraining, teaching to sit and teaching to stay, and to lay down. One thing we've always done with new pups, when they're eating, is to have everyone in the family get down with the pup individually and run their fingers through the kibble in the dish. We do this off and on for the first few weeks, helps ensure they don't get food aggressive.

I've been historically bad at getting our labs to be comfortable riding in the car. Didn't do it frequently enough, pretty much only when taking them to the vet or to be boarded. So whenever they've been in the car they're freaked out, sometimes even shaking a little. Not good. So I'm definitely going to get this one in the car frequently, just to run errands, just to drive around, to try getting her comfy while riding.

 

[dahliaclone]

Yeah I've never done any kind of obedience classes. Good thinking on socializing during walks. I've had good luck with housetraining, teaching to sit and teaching to stay, and to lay down. One thing we've always done with new pups, when they're eating, is to have everyone in the family get down with the pup individually and run their fingers through the kibble in the dish. We do this off and on for the first few weeks, helps ensure they don't get food aggressive.

I've been historically bad at getting our labs to be comfortable riding in the car. Didn't do it frequently enough, pretty much only when taking them to the vet or to be boarded. So whenever they've been in the car they're freaked out, sometimes even shaking a little. Not good. So I'm definitely going to get this one in the car frequently, just to run errands, just to drive around, to try getting her comfy while riding.

Give them a reason to be excited to get in the car. Give them treats etc when they are in there and praise them. Do something they like each time you are in the car. Are you going to the park? Get excited and tell them they're going to the park. They'll get excited if they know it's something they like.

We say 'car' or 'park' or 'drive' and our dog might be fast asleep but when we say one of those words he's running as fast as he can to the door.

 

[madguy30]

Yeah I've never done any kind of obedience classes. Good thinking on socializing during walks. I've had good luck with housetraining, teaching to sit and teaching to stay, and to lay down. One thing we've always done with new pups, when they're eating, is to have everyone in the family get down with the pup individually and run their fingers through the kibble in the dish. We do this off and on for the first few weeks, helps ensure they don't get food aggressive.

I've been historically bad at getting our labs to be comfortable riding in the car. Didn't do it frequently enough, pretty much only when taking them to the vet or to be boarded. So whenever they've been in the car they're freaked out, sometimes even shaking a little. Not good. So I'm definitely going to get this one in the car frequently, just to run errands, just to drive around, to try getting her comfy while riding.

My pup rode a long ways back from the breeder in his crate etc. so at first that wasn't an issue and he usually slept.

At some point though he got nervous/'pantie' in the car and I wonder if something or someone spooked him when I was parked and getting groceries once or something. He's gotten better but that was kind of a weird thing.

I tried a personal trainer for the reactive stuff but it really didn't help. Oddly he gets along fine at the boarding place but if we're on a walk it's like I'm in an Animal Control unit with a coyote haha.

 

[Cyclonepride]

Give them a reason to be excited to get in the car. Give them treats etc when they are in there and praise them. Do something they like each time you are in the car. Are you going to the park? Get excited and tell them they're going to the park. They'll get excited if they know it's something they like.

We say 'car' or 'park' or 'drive' and our dog might be fast asleep but when we say one of those words he's running as fast as he can to the door.

I wish we were better at that. My pups usually only get out when we go to the groomer or to the vet, so they immediately get nervous when you take them in a vehicle.

 

[intrepid27]

Here's my 2 major dog rules.
1. Don't let your puppy do anything that you don't want your adult dog to do. For example, Jump on people, beg at the table etc.
2. When you teach your dog commands such as "Sit" or "Stay" make sure they do it until you release them, Get them used to staying under a command until you tell them otherwise. I use the work "OK" to let my dogs know they are free from whatever their last command was.

 

[Nader_uggghhh]

Mess with your pups feet, hold them upside down, mess with their food as mentioned. I basically tried to get my dog used to doing things that he didn't want to do. It really helps with cutting nails and grooming.

I also tried to take him everywhere I could to get used to rides, socialize, and staying close off leash. My lab never showed any interest in running away and I think a lot of that was the off-leash work.

 

[carvers4math]

We’ve had three lab mixes. The one we didn’t take to class was the best behaved. It was part Pyrenees, I think that helped.

That being said, obedience class at our vet was great for the current dog. It’s always a crapshoot when he sees a cat or something, but the one command he always listens to is he comes when we call him. That’s the most important one.

 

[ISU22CY]

Few things that we did right:

Played with his food when eating, using in-between our fingers to hold kibble so he got use to being gentle when eating.

Played around with his ears, his feet, his tail all those things that they would do at a vet. He pays hardly any attention to it at all.

He road with me everyday to the farm in a vehicle so he has no problem with rides. They are exciting for him.

Let little kids play around with him. He's very good with kids.

We didn't crate we actually had his bed on the floor and put a small fence (usually what you see for puppies) around it. Works out great as he also has one at the farm when I have to be gone so its comfort for him. My parents have the same thing in their house and my in laws as well so if they are watching him just have to take his bed and that's it.

Things we didn't do good at:

He's reactive to other dogs he's not familiar with. This was our fault of introducing him when he was a puppy to full grown dogs that were pretty rough on him.

He's reactive to certain kinds of people when he is with my wife. This was more our crackhead neighbor that came onto our property high as a kite yelling and screaming at my wife when she was outside with him, but to this day he just doesn't like certain people.

Drove recall commands harder into him. He's good at coming back if something doesn't have his full interest. But if something does it takes the audible sound on his collar to get his attention.

Worked on leash training better. We didn't have a need really for a leash since he had free range to run around at the farm along with a few other places. We are slowly getting him better as we like to take him to places out and about but it has been difficult.

 

[cyfan21]

My female black lab is 1 now.

- I did puppy basic obedience bootcamp starting at 4 months old with Dog Training Elite. I dropped my puppy off at 7 am and pick her up at 5:30 pm. They would practice on obedience for the day and I would practice with my puppy for the week to reinforce what was learned and bring her back the next week to continue training.

I never had any experience training a puppy, so that's why I paid to get my dog trained.

I would do it all the same again if I had to.

 

[SCNCY]

My wife and I just got a puppy, see my profile pic.

We've done an ok to good job so far, with him being 7 months, old, and we got him at 3. But he still has a tendency to want to chew on things he shouldn't, like our hands, socks, shoes, etc. It's not as bad as it was before, but still enough where we get curious what he's doing when he walks away. Any advice on what we can do to prevent this behavior?

 

[Gonzo]

My wife and I just got a puppy, see my profile pic.

We've done an ok to good job so far, with him being 7 months, old, and we got him at 3. But he still has a tendency to want to chew on things he shouldn't, like our hands, socks, shoes, etc. It's not as bad as it was before, but still enough where we get curious what he's doing when he walks away. Any advice on what we can do to prevent this behavior?

I'm no expert but have had 3 labs before the one we're getting in March and one thing that seems very clear to me is that puppies chew on things. Just a fact of life. I don't know that there's any kind of training that will take that instinct away, maybe there are things that could minimize it. If there are, I'm not aware of them.

 

[SCNCY]

I'm no expert but have had 3 labs before the one we're getting in March and one thing that seems very clear to me is that puppies chew on things. Just a fact of life. I don't know that there's any kind of training that will take that instinct away, maybe there are things that could minimize it. If there are, I'm not aware of them.

Understood that puppies chew on things, and he used to chew on a lot more. I just want to make sure as he gets older, it doesn't continue into adulthood, and just want to see what to do to make sure he grows out of it. Basically, want to make sure he chews on appropriate things and not inappropriate things as he gets older.

 

[cmjh10]

My wife and I just got a puppy, see my profile pic.

We've done an ok to good job so far, with him being 7 months, old, and we got him at 3. But he still has a tendency to want to chew on things he shouldn't, like our hands, socks, shoes, etc. It's not as bad as it was before, but still enough where we get curious what he's doing when he walks away. Any advice on what we can do to prevent this behavior?

Could be trying to use up excess energy? Try exercising several days in a row and see what happens?

My saying is a tired dog/puppy is a well behaved one.

Our 2 dogs go nuts if they don’t have enough exercise

 

[Alswelk]

Understood that puppies chew on things, and he used to chew on a lot more. I just want to make sure as he gets older, it doesn't continue into adulthood, and just want to see what to do to make sure he grows out of it. Basically, want to make sure he chews on appropriate things and not inappropriate things as he gets older.

My corgi is 8 and he occasionally still gets a wild hair and decides to chew on something he's not supposed to, although that's maybe like once every year or two at this point. His particular favorite are books I'm in the middle of reading but haven't finished yet . Only my books, never my wife's.

 

[Gonzo]

Understood that puppies chew on things, and he used to chew on a lot more. I just want to make sure as he gets older, it doesn't continue into adulthood, and just want to see what to do to make sure he grows out of it. Basically, want to make sure he chews on appropriate things and not inappropriate things as he gets older.

Yeah it's weird how things work. Our last yellow lab was done with toys and chewing on things by 3, had zero interest after that. Our current black lab is turning 5 and still has a basket full of chew toys she plays with every day.