bozthepup

Hi Kerryz Labs are the most beautiful pups, we have had one and getting another choc boy in 2 weeks time. He will be a gorgeous friend and huge part of your family in the futur When you're home, can you put him out to toilet at key times ? Very hard when you already have two other babies I"m sure but pups tend to toilet after they a) wake up, b) eat and c) play. Of course they like to go at other times as well but if you can try to put him outside in a designated area when you are at home and give him a command that he starts to recognise, then lots of praise when he goes. We used 'quick' in a high kind of voice to tell our boy we wanted him to go. This takes some persistence though like everything with pups ! It's a little more difficult if he's outside during the day on his own since he obviously can't be commanded to go. If he sleeps through the night, you have a very good starting point though. I would try to take him to pup school. If he isn't getting any other dog socialisation, he really needs it and this age is a crucial time for him to learn how to play nicely with both dogs and humans and experience as much of the outside world as possible once he's had vaccinations etc. I realise 3yo is quite a handful in terms of human babies, but perhaps you could take the 3yo along while OH looks after the baby ??! Our pup school had a number of kids and it's a lovely experience for them to see all the puppies as well. I have no idea of your circumstances but it's just a thought.

Ahahaha, they need to give their toys to me. where are you based iggie piggie ? We have some old puppy soft toys/collar/stuff etc. from our boy that is no longer with us (he was killed in an accident at 4 months in March). Understand if that's a little macabre or something for you, so feel free to say no, but we are throwing them out for our new beginning, and getting some new ones for our new pup who arrives 30 May. (Probably a bit luxurious in this economic climate but there you go). That said, our most popular toy was a large plastic milk container (mentioned elsewhere here), with some pebbles/dirt inside and tied to a bit of rope so we could swing it round. Lid on tightly, and might not be great when their teeth get stronger and can get lid off but good for the early days. I also highly recommend your local charity store as others have mentioned. I bought a couple of things, ripped the eyes out of the poor soft fluffy toys and sewed their eye sockets very tightly together. We borrowed a crate from my SIL from when their pups were little, you might find people may be willing to lend you crates that puppy has grown out of. good luck with your new pup -what breed is it ? I'm in Melbourne bozthepup. Not macabre at all. And I am worried i made myself out to be penniless. I have bought all the essentials. But I am going to discuss with my breeder, and we will figure it out, even if i have to wait a little longer. No, I don't think you appear 'penniless' ... I think the general gist of your thread is a great idea in this economic climate, even though some of us may have liked to spend our Krudd $900 on dog stuff ! We're in Sydney and just figured we're chucking out the stuff anyway, but may not be worth the price of the postage ! Feel free to PM if you want to follow up.

Ahahaha, they need to give their toys to me. where are you based iggie piggie ? We have some old puppy soft toys/collar/stuff etc. from our boy that is no longer with us (he was killed in an accident at 4 months in March). Understand if that's a little macabre or something for you, so feel free to say no, but we are throwing them out for our new beginning, and getting some new ones for our new pup who arrives 30 May. (Probably a bit luxurious in this economic climate but there you go). That said, our most popular toy was a large plastic milk container (mentioned elsewhere here), with some pebbles/dirt inside and tied to a bit of rope so we could swing it round. Lid on tightly, and might not be great when their teeth get stronger and can get lid off but good for the early days. I also highly recommend your local charity store as others have mentioned. I bought a couple of things, ripped the eyes out of the poor soft fluffy toys and sewed their eye sockets very tightly together. We borrowed a crate from my SIL from when their pups were little, you might find people may be willing to lend you crates that puppy has grown out of. good luck with your new pup -what breed is it ?

:) :rolleyes:

HI Cesar fans I posted this in general forum www.cesarmillaninc.com/interactive/aust_auditions.php

Another Daddy fan here !! Or, as Cesar says it 'Dardy'. Cesar is in Australia in June, my SIL bought us tix to his live show as a xmas pressie (no doggies can be taken along tho )

Shellectra, Shyla is a real cutie !! I hope all goes well with this latest 'phase' with her !! Good luck

catandgrant, you have alot of good advice already here. My only addition would be..... please try not to despair ! It will get better even though it seems right now like it won't. Both OH and I had so many times like this where we wondered why we even THOUGHT about getting our little monster. Try to be as patient as you can; if you're really exasperated (like it sounds you are just when he was nipping at you while typing), pop him outside or in a time out area for a bit, just to retain your own sanity ! The leash worked well for me - it's a pain in the butt to have him attached to you but worth a shot. Best of luck

What a terrible accident - I'm sure you're asking 'why' ? My deepest condolences, RIP Ruby Tuesday.

Hi all Our new boy arrives end of May and I'm looking for a good puppy school/instructor. We had one with our last pup that was okaaaaaay, but feel like we could maybe do better. If anyone can make good reccomendations (and why) - please PM me ? thanks alot.

The instructor should be controlling things a little better. Our personal experience was that most of the class was a free for all, which surprised us a little bit but of course we know better now - hindsight is wonderful. We had a lab so obviously no size issues there, but there were two tiny little pups, a puggle and a silkie who were pretty terrified at first. The puggle totally came out of his shell and gave as good as he got after 2 weeks or so but the silkie was scared, and to her credit, the instructor tried to keep an eye on that. You might want to make enquiries for another pup school in your area, and use the experience you have to gleaned through this to question the instructor before signing up so they know your personal situation. Where are you in Sydney ? Some places offer 'junior school' which is the next step to puppy school but pre obedience. An alternative, especially if your training is already going well at home, is to look at the local obedience clubs (if vaccinations are good, I think someone mentioned this earlier). At 16 weeks, maybe the pup is moving beyond pup school.

So so sorry for your loss. I just cried at the kids' reactions as well - it's so hard for everyone concerned. Our little boy Boz will be at Rainbow Bridge to play and rumble and show Rex around. :rolleyes:

How cute is she!! He's been pretty good lately and we have left him on his own when he comes in now. Only in the mornings if he wakes up really early we just put a treat in his crate for him and he'll eat that until he's tired again. Sometimes he will go toilet 2 hrs after we put him to bed and he won't wake up until 5.45-6am. It depends how much excitement he's had for the day too. Just waiting until he is ready to start short walks. That should tire him out a bit. He's had his 12 wk vaccination already. He is such a cutie Molz !! Not when he barks though I'll bet. If he's barking at a time when you can put him back outside, I'd suggest maybe that. We used to put him out and shut the curtains so there's no lookies and he shut up soon enough. His reward when he stopped barking was to come back in and he got pretty good at realising. It's a bit never ending when they're this age !!! If it's not one thing it's another - but the cuddles are your reward !!!

Yes !! Many pups (and dogs) do it - they are dreaming about conquering the doggie world, running very fast and chasing all kinds of creatures; and of course eating lots ! Our pup used to move his feet /legs quite alot and also make little noises. His eyes sometimes appeared to be a little bit open as well. Normal as i understand it.

Our choc lab changed colour quite alot. At one stage he had a 'strip' of almost orange colour on top of his head and down the top of his back where the sun bleached him a bit. It went away again though. I think they can change, due to sun but also just maturation.

my two bob's worth. Our pup kind of picked us, because we wanted a particular colour, and he was the only choc in the litter. At six weeks, he was the biggest and the boldest, he was always on mum's teet first, he was always running ahead of the pack - literally. He'd be off investigating by himself etc. At 8 weeks we thought we had a v naughty pup, at 10 weeks he wouldn't stop biting but by 3 months, with training and socialisation, he was a lovely friendly little boy that didn't try it on too much. He still had 'spunk' but he knew when enough was enough. His brother, however (who at 6 weeks was very timid) proved to be quite a handful, and his sister, who was also quite bold as a 6 wk old, now rolls over (ie submits) as soon as you approach her. So from my limited experience, it's not always the absolute indicator. I'm sure breeders could share more insights. Good luck with your pup !!

You probably already have an idea of how many times the pup needs toilet during the night, but go wake him up before he wakes you up. We used to wake our boy up and he was groggy enough that after he went toilet he would still be tired so settled down again. A few times he looked like he wanted to play but we quickly popped him back in his crate or laundry and he seemed ok.

Oh dear, a recipe for disaster for sure. Would it be too forward to print out a couple of the threads here on lab pups biting / being mouthy ??! Before they know it they won't be able to stop and the little one will be on the wrong end of it. I agree with this Ceasar Milan idea - neither my OH nor me had owned pups before we got our little one last year but because I am such a research freak I got online to learn all the 'right' things. I bought OH Cesar Milan book for Xmas and he LOVED it. He was able to put into practice a few things and that knowledge made him feel great when he saw it in action. In fact, if there's a present opportunitiy ahead (eg birthday, with an easter egg ) - Milan is coming to Australia in June, maybe some tickets to that ? I'm not sure if there's a Q&A session but hearing it from the experts might be better. Is puppy school something they've heard of / thought about ? Maybe you could find the local puppy school for them ... and say that your kids love the lab so much, wondering if you could take your kids along because it's such a fun thing watching all the babies play together and rumble in the socialisation bits. In the 'serious' bits, maybe the pup nips and the instructor is there; or you can ask the instructor 'dumb' questions that might make the BIL hear some sense. Can you tell your sister (or whoever is the immediate family connection) to try and get the message through ? It's always hard with family that's for sure !

Hi, This is purely my experience only with a lab, I think it's horses for courses - but crating is certainly very convenient. NIGHT When he came home (a little early at 6 wks), we had a crate but put him in the laundry at nite. The crate was also in there, door open, and we put food and his fav toys in there. He didn't appear to get in there. He cried the first night but stopped thereafter, however in the morning there was pee and poo galore in the laundry. We then set an alarm to get him for him to pee and poo (he never cried to tell us), sometimes we got there in time, sometimes not. I got tired of poo n pee, so at about 9 weeks, we put him in the crate, but in the loungeroom where he could see / hear us and he cried a little but we ignored him and he quitened down. He then told us when he wanted toilet and we'd get up and let him out. That worked well for us Then, we graduated him back to the laundry, crate in there and door open (obviously he was being toilet trained in the meantime) and eventually he just slept int the laundry, no pees or poos, but we still got up maybe once to toilet him. DAY I am lucky I work at home, but I alternated between crating him, letting him hang out with me at my feet under the desk, (watching closely for toilet time obviously) and putting him outside. At first he didn't like outside by himself but got used to it. I just didn't really like having him in the crate for much longer than 30 mins during the day, just me though. However I do think this time spent in the day crated helped for the night-time stuff (above). He never really fell in love with his crate like you hear some pups doing but we made it work for us. He was starting to outgrow the crate so we'd decided to graduate him outside for sleeping and had sourced a kennel, in the meantime giving him more and more outside time, both on his own and with us. Unfortunately we lost our little boy at 4.5 months to an accident in March - but we will go through the puppy process again when we get another soon ! Good luck with it, not sure if this helps.

Deepest condolences Miss B. Charlie will be well loved and well looked after at Rainbow Bridge. My little boy Boz (4 mnths old lost to an accident on March 8) - will be there for company.

Thank you so much :rolleyes: How are you coping? After just over a week im still down.. each day does get better but I just made Lucy a tribute video which im uploading onto my youtube channel. I will post it when its uploaded if you wanted to watch how precious her life was to me. Big hugs to you.. stay strong with me Yes, each day is better for us. I am now able to tell people that don't know without getting teary (well most of the time). We went to see the people who were minding him last weekend - as you can imagine, the man who was driving the tractor that ran over Bozzy was completely devastated. But we just talked for a few hours about him, and doggies in general (he owns three labbies) and that was another step in moving on. He told us how much fun Boz was having running around the farm and how he could swim from one side of the dam to the other now - the hardest part was going down to the dam with Boz's sister, a black girl who is now very good at retrieving and swimming. We pictured him alongside her and that was difficult. Hopefully the tears will continue to be replaced with smiles and happy memories. I am not sure how to post a video - I have one of Boz, it's not very well shot but it just epitomises how pups love life. All the best to you, I hope things are on the improve.

Shine brightly as you play at Rainbow Bridge boy, RIP. Condolences skyehaven

rest peacefully Sandy, condolences Shaw, remember and rejoice in all the happy times, quirks and things that made Sandy such an enormous part of your life.

Poor little miss molly !! :D My heart goes out to you and the kids. I know our little pups are all having the most amazing time at the Rainbow Bridge puppy school RIP Miss M....

Thank you so much everyone. I am relatively new to this forum and the outpouring of support from people we know understand our depth of loss is so comforting. We returned home from our holiday today - Boz died while we were away and all his little signs of cheekiness were scattered around the house - so hard to walk around taking all that in. But we will spend lots of time thinking and talking about him over the next few days and remembering his amazing little life. I posted this excerpt from Marley and me over on little Lucy's condolence thread. He came into our lives just as we were trying to figure out what they would become. He joined us as we grappled with what every couple must eventually confront, the sometimes painful process of forging from two distinct pasts one shared future. He became part of our melded fabric, a tightly woven and inseperable strand into the weave that was us. Just as we had helped shape him into the family pet he would become, he helped to shape us, as well - as a couple, as parents, as animal lovers, as adults. Despite everything, all the disappointments and unmet expectations, Marley had given us a gift, at once priceless and free. He taught us the art of unqualified love. How to give it, how to accept it. Where there is that, most of the other pieces fall into place.