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  1. #11
    Best Friend Retriever silverfz's Avatar
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    Your best bet is a Older , calmer lab . Even then 8-9 hrs is along time. some of my experience as like you we came from a doxie , camp alot along the east coast and some times at bourne scenic park or bay view.

    First year is going to be real tough as puppies need alot of frequent attention.

    They are energetic and need alot exercise. gigi is going to be 1 and she goes to big dog park on the weekends ,gets walked every day and we even send her to day care if we cannot take her out due to weather or if we are sick.

    She does loves to camp, they are fun. She last summer camped in the cape , new Hampshire, poconos , maryland , outer banks of delaware and was a road warrior.

    we spent a lot of time on puppy social , training to get her to be boarded when we take our kids to theme parks in our travels like hersey park.

    your parents will have issue, my mother in law watches her with the kids but she is used to having labs and spaniels all her life . Even then i take her to the dog park for an hour to drain some energy.

    We have left her unattended for 7-8 hrs on few occasions but then again run at the dog park and let her rest. You put a young lab in a crate for 8 hours, you are in for a few hours of tremendous out burst of energy for the next 2-3 hrs.

    On another note a young lab is not suitable for a closed on top of each site campgrounds in Cape Code. I prefer to take her to state parks and campgrounds where we have more space and alot of woods/water features. She loves to run , swim with the kids and us. we look for a more open campground because of her.


    The Lab might not be a right breed , a more sedate breed might work. even then 8-9 hr thing is a think i will be worried. It must be a doxie thing as our doxie did not care one bit. He loved to camp , but went to bed in his crate when he wants and would just hang by himself all day if left. He needed people rarely but really never cared. The lab is just the exact opposite. Plus you could use a puppy pads and the quantity of pee is manageable. gigi at 8 month is solid enough that we leave her alone in the camper. the doxie would just go to his crate and sleep when we go for trips. not gigi.

  2. #12
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    Thanks for the replies. Certainly a lot to think about here. Unfortunately, when I'm told I CAN'T do something, I usually can and do make it work. I'm spoiled by my neighbors dog, who...contrary to what people are thinking, is just about to turn 2 years old. He is a VERY well trained dog. It's utterly amazing what this dog can do and how he responds to commands. Amazing!

  3. #13
    Chief Pooper Scooper JenC's Avatar
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    Your neighbors are pretty lucky to have a good 2 year old lab. We have one too. I attribute it to the breeder and all the time I've put in with her. Good, YOUNG dogs are not the norm, so you will have to spend more time researching breeders. If your neighbors did not get their from a good breeder I would try to find out what they did...they may have the magic touch with training, they may have gotten lucky. In any case, it's best to know what you COULD be up against. You can definitely make it work. But for every story of it "working" there are 10 stories from folks that don't know how to deal with their spawn of satan and have no clue that THEY are actually the problem, not the lab puppy. Best you hear all the horror stories up front and not expect to be as lucky as your neighbors. They are not the easy breed that most people are led to believe. But if you do your homework, you could end up with that easy puppy. RESEARCH is key.

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    Abulafia (03-14-2017)

  5. #14
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    Jen - They worked very hard with their dog and it was amazing to see.

    Perhaps my "general" description was just too general. When I get a pup, I will be doing so during a time when I can assure little to no time home alone for the first few months and I plan on working very hard at the training. That's how I did it with my Doxie, a dog people told me was stubborn and difficult to train. We worked very hard and he was amazing. We have very few problems. He was great on lead, off lead and even at 11 years old, learned to remain in our yard off lead.

    The breeder we've found is phenomenal. Very smart and compassionate dogs. Highly recommended. As we get closer, I'm going to ask to sit with them and discuss everything in detail. I also plan on speaking with the many people we know with labs over the summer. I like to thoroughly research anything I do and want all the facts on the table before deciding. We are also discussing and researching other potential breeds to get all facts

    I understand recommendations of an older dog but I've heard too many horror stories of inheriting other people's "problems" and that concerns me

    I do appreciate everyone's advice and believe me, I'm listening; thank you all!!

  6. #15
    Chief Pooper Scooper JenC's Avatar
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    You can avoid the "problems" that you inherit in an older dog if you focus on breeder's placing their older dogs or LABRADOR rescues where the dogs are fostered in other peoples' homes. I am helping a friend place a dog he bought from me, there are no issues with the dog to speak of, and given than my dog gets along with the new owner's current lab, the rehome is a go. Those kinds of deals are out there if you look.

  7. #16
    Best Friend Retriever silverfz's Avatar
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    There is a breeder in rayham mass. I have seen quite a few of his dogs at the dog park and friends who own one. His pups do seem calm. I do not own one from them but been looking for my mother in law.

    Good luck .

    Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

  8. #17
    Senior Dog Labradorks's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Abulafia View Post
    1. Time alone—yep. That is just too much time alone. Certainly for a puppy, but even for an older dog if it's on anything other than the rarest of bases. Labs are a people-oriented, people dependent breed. It's part of what makes them such absolutely wonderful dogs—but that's only if you can give them this key aspect of what they need: to be with their people. While older Labs may do much better w/ alone time, every time I have seen a Lab w/ behavior problems it is because the Lab has been poorly trained (or not at all), and / or left alone too much. And a Lab with behavior problems is a lot of dog to be dealing w/.
    Some of the best owners I know have full-time jobs outside of the house and still have healthy, happy, well-adjusted, well-trained dogs with multiple titles in several sports. I'm not the best owner I know, but I work full-time and commute, not at all unlike the typical American, and my dogs are just fine plus they are well-trained and hold titles in different dogs sports.

    I don't think that time away from a dog = bad owner or unhappy dog. If the dog is left outside, chained, etc. for 8-9 hours, sure. Or if the owners come home and don't spend time with or train or exercise the dog, of course. And, puppies should have a dog walker at no less than four-hour intervals. I personally take time off until my puppies are around 10 weeks old, but I'm not convinced that this is a requirement.

    I would not personally get a high drive field type dog and one of the reasons is because it does not suit my lifestyle. Doing rescue, I'd say the bigger issue is that people go out and get dogs that don't suit their lifestyle because they don't want to spend the money on the right dog, don't want to take the time to find the right breeder, get frustrated with the process (finding the right breeder, getting on a list, etc.), they don't know that there are differences in temperament between lines (or that there are even different lines), etc.

  9. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by silverfz View Post
    There is a breeder in rayham mass. I have seen quite a few of his dogs at the dog park and friends who own one. His pups do seem calm. I do not own one from them but been looking for my mother in law.

    Good luck .

    Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
    That's the one I've been researching! Beautiful good natured dogs and fantastic "reviews." Known all the way to PA where my sister lives.

  10. #19
    Senior Dog Abulafia's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JenC View Post
    Your neighbors are pretty lucky to have a good 2 year old lab. We have one too. I attribute it to the breeder and all the time I've put in with her. Good, YOUNG dogs are not the norm, so you will have to spend more time researching breeders
    Yep. As another one w/ one of those ridiculously calm young Labs (~20 months, the same age as Jen's girl)—I attribute this to our breeder, which I researched for several months before choosing, and the year or so of training we did for her first year. And of course the training we continue to do (though now much of it is in the context of her PT).

    But for every story of it "working" there are 10 stories from folks that don't know how to deal with their spawn of satan and have no clue that THEY are actually the problem, not the lab puppy. Best you hear all the horror stories up front and not expect to be as lucky as your neighbors. They are not the easy breed that most people are led to believe. But if you do your homework, you could end up with that easy puppy. RESEARCH is key.
    Yep.

    We have had people see Hoku—who never went through a crazy puppy phase (because she's such a soft dog, I think—and exclaim "Oh! That's just what I want! That's how every dog should be!" I would never want someone to get a Lab based on Hoku. But if they did, I'd send them to her breeder, and her trainers, and tell them to be ready for a lot of work and hope like hell they luck out!
    Hidden Content Hokule'a ("Hoku") / b. 06.08.15

  11. #20
    Chief Pooper Scooper JenC's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by silverfz View Post
    There is a breeder in rayham mass.....
    If these folks are also the ones who do viszlas, I might look else where. Breeders should have their dogs out in the open on their websites, clearances listed, AKC registration numbers so that you can do all the health clearance checking that you want through the online databases. You want lists of accomplishments of THEIR dogs, not the dogs in the pedigree that the breeders have had nothing to do with. But I think there are a ton of other posts on what to look for in a breeder. You can do a search on that. If I got the wrong breeder, just keep those points in mind.

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    Abulafia (03-14-2017), silverfz (03-14-2017)

 



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