Tips

Below are some tips and thoughts for anyone who might be new to raising a laborador puppy (like we were). This is a reflection of our experiences raising our puppy and may not apply to every situation. The products we mention below aren’t an endorsement from us; they’re just what we happen to use.

 

Background
My fiancé and I are in our thirties, work full-time, and live in a suburb of Washington, DC. I grew up with dogs all of my life (German Shepard when I was young, mutt before I left for college, and a black lab/Beagle mix when I was in college). Other than a short time with a beagle when she was little, my fiancé did not grow up around dogs.

We visited the breeder to pick out Bella when she was 5 weeks old and we brought her home when she was almost 9 weeks old.

 

Things to buy
This is a list of some of the things we bought in preparation for Bella coming home as well as some of the things we wish we would have purchased before she arrived.

• (Large) crate with divider. We purchased a MIDWEST Life Stages 1636DD (36” L x 24” W x 27” H) crate from PETsMART which does have a divider that we moved as Bella grew.
• Pen (the tallest one they have)
• Stainless steel bowls. Ones that hang are best because the pup won’t spill their food or play in their water. The first set of bowls we bought were 3-quart which were too big/deep for the first month or so. What we finally bought for Bella’s pen is a 64-oz. stainless steel coop cup with bolt lock clamp hanger from PETsMART. It’s great because you can attach it to the side of the pen and adjust the height as the dog grows.
• Collar and lead. We bought a 14” collar which was fine for the first X weeks. When full-grown, Bella will need a 22” collar.
• Bed. We set up a dog bed for Bella in the living room from the day we brought Bella home and she really caught on to it. She’ll go and lay down on it when she’s out of her pen/crate and wants to take a nap. It was helpful when we traveled, as we could use it to hold Bella on our laps in the car as well as to set up an area for Bella to nap when she was out of her crate in the houses we visited while away from home.
• Nylabones
• Lots of plush toys
• Kong toy. At first, bought the red one which was too hard for Bella’s puppy teeth. We went back and bought the light blue one.
• Completely fenced in backyard
• (Updated) motion lights for the bakyard

 

Set-up
Paper on front half of crate for first X days, which was a mistake.

Crate inside the pen for the first X weeks. Breeder recommended this set-up and said it may get too crowded as she gets bigger. Paper on floor in pen area. Bowls hanging on side of pen. Breeder told us that she must have access to water during the day when we’re at work.

 

Schedule
From the day we brought Bella home, this is the general schedule we kept her on:

 

Feeding
The breeder fed Bella Eukanuba large breed puppy food (362 kcal/cup) and we’re feeding Bella the same thing. We started off feeding her a handful of food 3 times a day (7:00am, 1:00pm, and 7:00pm).

Keep her quiet (usually in her crate; no running or jumping) for 20-30-45 minutes after she eats to prevent her stomach from flipping.

Our breeder recommended puppy-sided Purina training treats (they use them even for their adult dogs). Used as treats, not food. Breeder recommended limiting the number and size of the treats so that Bella doesn’t become overweight.

 

Treats
Can give rawhide up to 6-months old.

Purina Pro Plan Puppy Biscuits with lamb & rice.

 

Housebreaking
Can hold it one hour per month of age (a little bit longer at night).

From day one, here is the potty schedule we followed. We would take Bella outside:

• Everytime she woke up from sleeping or from a nap
• Every 10-15 minutes when she was playing
• Any time she lost interest in playing and starting sniffing around the house
• Any time she started to circle and/or squat

When Bella was around 14 weeks (after we got back from a week of travels for Christmas), she started going to the back door when she needs to go to the bathrooom. SShe hasn’t learned to bark or ring the bells when she goes to the door, so at first at least twice we didn’t see her go to the door and she went potty by the door.

 

Health
When Bella was 13 weeks old (while we were out of town for the Christmas holiday visiting my parents), Bella started squating every 5 minutes in the house like she had to pee. Sometimes she would pee a little bit; sometimes, nothing at all. We suspected that she had a urinary tract infection (UTI). We found a vet in town. Unfortunately, because her bladder was empty, he couldn’t check to see if indeed she has a UTI (NOTE: If you suspect your dog might have a UTI, try to get a urine sample to take to the vet.). He prescribed amoxicillin (100 mg) and said that if she didn’t have a UTI, the pill wouldn’t hurt her. If she did have a UTI, the pills should help clear it up in a day or two. We gave Bella a pill as soon as we got home and then one at 8:00pm that night to start her routine. We then gave her a pill every 12 hours for the next X days (the vet said to give her a pill ever if it looks like the UTI is gone because if we stopped giving her the pill, it might flare back up). Bella was “cured” by the next morning. We were concerned because we were supposed to leave the following morning and weren’t looking forward to figuring out how to deal with a puppy that had to pee every 5 minutes during our 10 hour drive to Connecticut. The vet said that we shouldn’t let the UTI affect our holiday travel plans and we had no problem during the drive east.

Our breeder suggested giving Bella something called “GlycoFlex” (which is suppposed to be good for the joints). They order it over the Internet but she said that most vets carry them as well.

 

Training
The fact that our breeder taught Bella her name and crate trained her before we got her was a huge help.

Bzzzt, say “no,” and grab her by the scruff of the neck. She caught on after a few weeks and sometimes all we had to do was make the bzzzt noise and she would stop whatever she was doing that we didn’t want her to do. At 14 weeks, she still doesn’t associate “no” with doing something she shouldn’t be doing.

Correct nipping

Off (four on the floor)

Paws

Sit

 

Exercise
5 minutes of walking per each month of puppy’s life

 

Hygine
Our breeder recommended no baths for Bella. as it’s bad for their skin condition. She said that labs who regularly get baths smell worse than those who have never been bathed because bathing destroys their natural lanolin and odor fighting abilities. Of course if Bella accidentally rolls in poo, we should spot clean her. A good swim or rinse with the hose is all you need every once in a while (like quarterly or yearly).

 

Weird behavior
Chewing on rocks. From just about the day we brought Bella home, she developed a habit of chewing on rocks when she was outside. Our breeder hoped she would grow out of it and said that sometimes strange eating habits can signify something lacking in the diet. She suggested getting doggie vitamins—Pet-Tabs®—to give to Bella every day. We bought the 60 tablet bottle from PETsMARTt and gave Bella half a tablet in her food bowl at dinner. It seemed to help because she stopped chewing rocks.

Licking/chewing on carpet

Eating poop. Around X months, Bella developed the habit of eating her own poop. The vet gave us an 8 g packet of For-Bid™ anticoprophagic condiment for dog rations and told us to put 1/3rd-1/4th of the packet on Bella’s food once a day. This only seemed to make her poop more desirable to her. The vet gave us another 8 g packet a few days later, but as of this writing, Bella is still eating her poop. We have been watching her closely when she goes potty and picking up her poop and throwing it away. We also correct her with “no” if we see her starting to eat her own poop. Our breeder says that this could mean Bella is either not getting enough food or is not digesting appropriately to get the right nutrients out of her food. We’re going to try increasing amount of food a little at a time. If she continues to eat poop, we’re going to try changing her food to Purina Pro Plan. We also tried changing her toys as the breeder says it could be a boredom thing.

 

Miscellaneous thoughts
“Training” mom and dad is definitely much harder than training the puppy.

Puppy proof the yard

We brought Bella home the Friday after Thanksgiving which I think worked really well. The family had left so there weren’t a lot of extra people around and we had 3 days at home with Bella before we had to go to work. Then a month later (when Bella was 13 weeks old), we were off for the entire week for Christmas.

A little over a week after we brought Bella home (when she was almost 10-weeks old), we had a holiday party with over 40 people coming to our house. With a new puppy that wasn’t quite used to her new home, we were a bit worried, but Bella did great! We made sure one of us kept our eye on her and were with her at all times when she was around kids. We also stayed close by so that we could “inform” guests how we’re been training Bella to deal with her jumping up and biting. We managed to wear her out a few times during the night, because she was able to sleep in her crate (which is in the living room) for almost an hour on two separate occassions as people were standing next to her create talking. The one mistake we did make that night is that one of our guests wanted to hold Bella on her lap while she was sitting on the couch. Up to this point, we had been teaching Bella “off” any time she put her paws on the couch and/or tried to get on the couch. Well, after the guests left, for about the next week, Bella would try to get up on the couch, around the same spot where she was held during the party. After another week or two of correcting her, she realzied that she wasn’t allowed on the couch.

When Bella was almost 13 weeks old, we traveled out of town to visit our families for the Christmas holiday. The first trip was a nominal 5-hour drive from just east of Washington, DC to an hour south of Cleveland, Ohio. The trip took us X hours. The second leg of the trip was a drive from Ohio to Niantic, Connecticut. The total trip time was just under 10 hours. The final leg was the drive back home from Connecticut to Maryland. The drive took X hours.

 

Resources
Besides our own experiences, there are a few resources we used to help us along as we were raising our puppy:

• The breeder was extremely helpful in answering questions. For the first few weeks, we would email questions to her and receive responses within a day. We also called the breeder after a few days of flying solo with Bella.
• There is a great Lab Training/Puppy Advice forum (new and old version) on the Just Labradors web site. I would recommend starting to read it a month or so before you bring home your puppy. We read it a few times a week for advice or to post questions we have and it is an awesome resource.
• Our vet has been very helpful in guiding us. When we thought Bella had broken her paw, the vet called us (after business hours) at home to see how Bella was doing as a follow-up from our visit to his office earlier in the day. When we suspected taht Bella had a urinary tract infection while on vacation, we called the vet while we were out of town to get a second opinion on what the out-of-town vet told us.