Labs are particularly
known for their love of humans, and thus make great family dogs.
I recently read that DNA research shows their closest relative to
be the dolphin. This is not surprising, as they share the same fun
loving spirit, and need for social activity. One of our female labs
was sold to the owner of a private school, where she attends class
regularly. Many days I have walked in and seen two or three children
reading, with their heads propped up against her, or cuddled around
her during naptime. They are chewers by nature, but with some gentle
guidance will learn what is OK to chew. The worst thing you could
do is to punish them for this act. Simply take your television out
of their mouth, and replace it with a piece of wood. They will need
attention, such as walking, or swimming. They traditionally show
a love of water and retrieving. You and a tennis ball will be their
best friends. As they have a need for space and exercise, they are
not ideal apartment dogs. To put one in an airline kennel while
going to work, or tethering one to a chain is unthinkable.
Your
New Puppy
So, what will
your first days with your new pup be like? Crying - As they will
miss their kennel mates for the first few nights, you have two choices.
Sleep with them, or endure five or six nights of them crying themselves
to sleep. If you take the latter route, I don’t recommend responding
to their howling, or they will have you trained! One night soon,
they will figure out that the howling is keeping them awake, and
quit.
Call
of Nature
As far as housebreaking,
I often have new owners ask me how we managed to train them at such
an early age. We don’t. They will naturally want to go on something
organic (like grass or straw). Place a patch of straw outside where
you want them to go, and get them familiar with the location. Then
it will be up to the humans to read the proper signals! You will
not want to punish accidents – just reward good behavior.
Digestion
System
Puppies have
an extremely sensitive stomach. Switching too fast or slamming to
another food can cause diarrhea (in some cases with blood) vomiting,
and in extreme cases, death. If a puppy gets a hold of bark, leaves,
paper towels, etc.. They can have an upset stomach (when a puppy
digests a foreign object,they could develop diarrhea, and in some
cases you may see a little blood in the stool (At least this is
an all natural material). This is normally caused by the foreign
material (the bowl of a puppy will bleed very easily ( the saying
is "trash mouths (meaning they will eat anything) and baby
stomachs (meaning very sensitive) ", unlike humans the severity
of this is low. Should this occur, don't be alarmed.
Diet
I highly recommend
spending the extra money, and using a super premium. You will either
spend the money in a good food now, or in vet bills later. I use
a super premium all natural food that was developed by leading canine
nutritionist Dr. Tom Willard, PhD . We believe strongly in quality
nutrition. The convenience factor is excellent. JaxMax.com
has the ability to schedule re-occurring deliveries on a time frame
you can decide on and modify. This food is not available in stores,
and probably will never be (as this food does not have sugar and
fillers to drive consumption) . It sure beats lugging heavy bags
of who knows what home! Most foods (yes, even some of those highly
advertised brands) use the cheapest ingredients and fillers. They
are also notorious for advertising high protein. What they usually
fail to mention is the lack of digestible protein. After all, your
dog can’t tell you. (Another advantage to using a food with
little or no fillers is less dog mess in the yard). www.JaxMax.com
Toys
Under Family Labs:
Everyone loves
to shop for their new puppy! Some things you have to watch out for
are buying "contaminated-products". The leading pet supplyware
houses that allow pet in the building, can lead to the spread of
the deadly puppy virus known as Parvo. If you would like to purchase
you puppy chew toys and pet paraphernalia, you can go a couple of
different ways.
1) Purchase
from an online store ( For this reason, we have established a
partnership with www.JaxMax.com
for our customers).
2) Purchase
from a retailer that does not allow pets in the building.
3) If you
already purchased products from a store that has dog traffic,
you can sterilize the items in a 15% bleach solution for fifteen
minutes. This will decrease the chance of your pup contracting
a disease
Inside
or Outside?
Of course, your
dog will almost always want to bewith his/her human family. The
ideal situation is for them to havea choice. As they have thick
coats, they can cope with fairly cold weather, as long as you will
provide them with a draft free place. For summer, a child’s
pool will earn you doggie licks!
