How do I play with my puppy?

[freeasabird]

Hey! Thanks in advance for whatever help you guys offer me!

So I have a new puppy, roughly 4 weeks old and we got her pretty sick from the breeder.
She didnt have the 5th finger cut out and she had a bunch of bumps on her forehead which the past owner claims are mosquito bites, but that's just background information. He had videos of her swimming and the little kid litteraly picked her up and threw her in the water. They were very rough with her.

Now its my turn to take care of her. I have school in about a month, but we all give her plenty of attention. She sleeps with us and follows us outside. We like to feed her some of our food (cottage cheese and watermelon) and it seems like she got a bit more lively! But the problem shows iteslf, how do i play with her???

I have taken care of a friends fully grown Labrador for several weeks and decided that the Labrador are the ideal pet as I am very active in running. but that was with a grown dog, this is just a puppy! I dont want to be too rough with her, as she just likes biting on things and running after you as you walk. I dont really know what the puppies like to do playing wise as she does not seem to like any toys we present her?


Any toys that you guys play with would be helpful as well if you could drop off a link!

HELP! Any suggestions/ideas to play with her help. I dont plan on trying to follow guides on training her until shes a little older, but im ok with any suggestions you present me! Will training be a good way of playing?

Thanks again for the help!

[Snowshoe]

Hi, welcome to the board. I'm going to assume you made a mistake in typing and meant to say your puppy is four MONTHS old, not mere weeks. It's against the law in Texas to sell a puppy under 8 weeks old.

You are correct, your puppy is far too young to run with you, good for you for thinking of that, many don't. She shouldn't run with you till she's 18 months old, some prefer even older, to make sure her joints are solid.

Most Lab puppies at four months old are like little sharks, biting, biting, biting. Yo could try a mild game of tug with you holding onto one of the toys, puppy can bite the toy. Toys are usually more fun if you play with them with puppy. Many like to chase balls, a bit of free running on soft surfaces is ok. You should re-consider the training and start right away in a puppy class or a real dog manners class. Or even a competitive obedience class. Yes, in training these days you use play and simple rewards puppy will enjoy to teach. Plus, training tends to help bond puppy to you while it teaches you how to teach her.

Others will be along soon to tell you how they played with their puppies. Can we see a picture of puppy? What's her name?

[Jeff]

It sounds as though the puppy didn't have the best childhood, which is bad, it will learn but it sounds like it had a very rough time during a very important development time. I am also hoping it is four months not weeks. Because they really need to still be with the mother and siblings at 4 weeks.

Anyway your pup may never have had toys and doesn't know what to do with them. You may have to teach your pup how to play with toys. My sister recently rescued a lab that had never had toys ever and didn't know what to do with them. So you may need to get him a variety of different toys. Not all toys are the same and just like human children different labs like different toys. Some love balls, some love tug toys, some love stuffies, some love squeaky toys. So you may need to get a small variety until you learn what they like the best.

You may look at other games like the Kong Wobbler where you can put treats in it and they have to roll it around on the floor to get the treats out.

I also imagine the puppy was sick because they took it swimming early before all the vaccinations. You may want to have your vet double check the vaccination records and make sure everything is up to date.

[freeasabird]

Hi, welcome to the board. I'm going to assume you made a mistake in typing and meant to say your puppy is four MONTHS old, not mere weeks. It's against the law in Texas to sell a puppy under 8 weeks old.

You are correct, your puppy is far too young to run with you, good for you for thinking of that, many don't. She shouldn't run with you till she's 18 months old, some prefer even older, to make sure her joints are solid.

Most Lab puppies at four months old are like little sharks, biting, biting, biting. Yo could try a mild game of tug with you holding onto one of the toys, puppy can bite the toy. Toys are usually more fun if you play with them with puppy. Many like to chase balls, a bit of free running on soft surfaces is ok. You should re-consider the training and start right away in a puppy class or a real dog manners class. Or even a competitive obedience class. Yes, in training these days you use play and simple rewards puppy will enjoy to teach. Plus, training tends to help bond puppy to you while it teaches you how to teach her.

Others will be along soon to tell you how they played with their puppies. Can we see a picture of puppy? What's her name?

OH GOSH! Thank you for correcting me! I actualy meant to put 7-8 weeks, but my thoughts got jumbled up as I wrote it and for some reason thought 4 weeks. I dont even think shed be able to eat all the food that I am giving her if she was so young.

Thank you for the very warm welcome as well. Its great to have sources that help you when going through such a pleasure as raising a dog.

From what the "breeder" has told me she was 8 weeks old (at least that is what the ad said), but she looked a lot younger than that. I just really wanted to rescue her since I told myself id give her 4 days before contacting him (I wanted to give somebody a chance before me). I saw the video and I thought the dog needed a rescuing since it looked like it was treated a bit too rough (to clarify its not with malicious intent, its just that the little kid was a bit too violent with her from the get go, just like little children can sometimes be.)

The puppy itself looks to be about 7-8 weeks old, and she loves to bite on my fingers and all the wires she can see. I am taking her to a VET to check her out and shell tell me the appropriate age at then, but she looks very young. Ive tried balls and ive tried different variety, but she seems to only like messing with my pillows and headphone wires. Ill definitely try buying her some more toys that involve her chewing and biting on everything!

Ill post a few pictures later to confirm her age, but her name is DeeDee (from dexter's Laboratory) and she certainly acts like her.

[freeasabird]

It sounds as though the puppy didn't have the best childhood, which is bad, it will learn but it sounds like it had a very rough time during a very important development time. I am also hoping it is four months not weeks. Because they really need to still be with the mother and siblings at 4 weeks.

Anyway your pup may never have had toys and doesn't know what to do with them. You may have to teach your pup how to play with toys. My sister recently rescued a lab that had never had toys ever and didn't know what to do with them. So you may need to get him a variety of different toys. Not all toys are the same and just like human children different labs like different toys. Some love balls, some love tug toys, some love stuffies, some love squeaky toys. So you may need to get a small variety until you learn what they like the best.

You may look at other games like the Kong Wobbler where you can put treats in it and they have to roll it around on the floor to get the treats out.

I also imagine the puppy was sick because they took it swimming early before all the vaccinations. You may want to have your vet double check the vaccination records and make sure everything is up to date.

Thanks for the insight! I am definatly going to get her as many toys as I can get my hands on, though she only appreciates wires and my pillow. Thanks for the swimming point, that never came to mind and I am definitely going to take her to the VET pronto to check it out.

I ordered the Kong Wobbler online and hope she will like it!

[kimbersmom]

Welcome to the board!

If Dee Dee is truly 7-8 weeks old, she is very much a baby. Just like human infants, many baby puppies don't yet play with toys. Kimber didn't start playing with toys until she was about 4 months old, and didn't show any interest in fetch until she was 6+ months old. At this stage, Dee Dee mostly wants to play with *you*. You can trail a piece of string for her to pounce at (puppies can be very cat-like!), or hold a toy and wiggle it at her for her to pounce on. As she matures she'll want more types of play but being so young, she probably mostly wants to be with you.

[JenC]

BTW- not removing the dew claw is no reason for concern. A lot of breeders do not remove them now. I usually just hand-wrestle with the baby pups.

[TT120]

Welcome to the board! DeeDee is in full on land shark mode and will be for a few more months. I just went through it with Milo and it pretty much stopped when he got his adult teeth. My hands and arms were pretty torn up there for a while. I had to "yelp" loudly, pull away, and stop playing for a minute when Milo hurt me with those needle sharp puppy teeth. Milo didn't know how to play with toys either so I ended up getting several different ones until I found something he liked. One of his favorite toys to this day is a 10' piece of very thick rope I got from Home Depot. I tied a knot in each end and that is his tug toy. I did not let him play tug with any other toy except the rope so now, if I have to take something away from him, he doesn't try to play tug with it. He brings me his rope every morning and evening when I get home from work.

[Rosy]

Welcome to the board!

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