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  1. #11
    Senior Dog Blackboy98's Avatar
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    Welcome to the best source of information and moral support there is for labs. All the above info is great and told from experience.

    If you are unsure that a lab is right for you, try fostering a dog. That way there is an opportunity to get to know labs and help those in need.

    Best of luck, Mike
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  2. #12
    Senior Dog Tanya's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Charlotte K. View Post
    Welcome! I would recommend an adult, at least 2 years to middle aged, retired, well socialized, house trained (or at least crate trained) Lab. My kids had dogs around all the time, but they really did not like the "monster puppy" stage, which seemed to last from teething or 3 months up to about 3 years of age. I also recommend at least three months of obedience class for you and the new dog to get on the same page. Puppies are death to kid's floor toys and teethers or pacifiers. A toy in the gut can be death to the dog. A puppy is also one more toddler to train.

    All that being said, a Lab can be the best kid's dog.
    this is a good option. some breeders have social friendly adults needing to be placed, could be a good option.

    i wouldn't recommend fostering per say. Unless a rescue has a system wehre dogs are assessed over a few weeks then placed into foster homes. More often than not they NEED the foster homes to do the assessment. not ideal for a home with limited experience and two young kids. Fostering is great but it's not always the best option.

    I agree with the comment that adding a puppy is like adding another baby. it's a ton of work. and you also need to work wtih the kids to train them on how to behave with the dog (ex: even having the kids playing and the dog running around the yard will take some work to enure everyoen is safe). And the pup will need exercise daily (less so at first but from 6-18 months think an hour a day - rain or shine, hot or cold).

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  4. #13
    Senior Dog windycanyon's Avatar
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    In addition to what Charlotte K and Tanya said above, how much extra time in your daily schedule do you have to get puppy to the vet for vaccines, etc, those first few months?
    And to repeat, do you have time for obedience classes? I personally like to see people in classes regularly that first year. That is going to be hard if you have such young children to care for already.
    I'd second the thought of getting an older, already trained adult that has a great temperament with kids. I have placed one in such a home who was on my wait list, and they are SO grateful to have her, and it's mutual. She is now the princess of their family rather than one of several here. Good luck. Anne
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  5. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by windycanyon View Post
    In addition to what Charlotte K and Tanya said above, how much extra time in your daily schedule do you have to get puppy to the vet for vaccines, etc, those first few months?
    And to repeat, do you have time for obedience classes? I personally like to see people in classes regularly that first year. That is going to be hard if you have such young children to care for already.
    I'd second the thought of getting an older, already trained adult that has a great temperament with kids. I have placed one in such a home who was on my wait list, and they are SO grateful to have her, and it's mutual. She is now the princess of their family rather than one of several here. Good luck. Anne
    I agree with this. We had two Labs before we had kids ... the younger one was a little over a year old when my first daughter was born, so we were already over the puppy stuff and we had no issues. When he was 10, and my kids were 6 and 9 we got a puppy, which worked out well, but I do think managing a young puppy with young kids might have been a challenge ... especially if you haven’t had much experience raising puppies ....
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  6. #15
    Senior Dog Doreen Davis's Avatar
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    So we have a 22 mo and 16mo lab and they are hard to have around small children, they tend to be bouncy and it's tough on the kids and the dog but that being said, lots of people have been successful at it. In our case, we didn't have Anthony on a leash, our 4 yo visitor took off running down our driveway and and Anthony's recall was not done yet and he took off after the 4 yo all thinking it was fun, knocked the little kid down and the little kid is now painfully shy around dogs.

    There are rescues who can fully vet a 2 yo lab, many of whom are pretty darn close to purebreds but who don't have paperwork, but by fostering them, the dog has been exposed to kids, other dogs and cats etc.

    All food for thought. Best of luck on your search.

  7. #16
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    Thank you everybody for your experiences and advice! My wife is a stay at home mom with our two kids, so there will be somebody home with him all day everyday. We have a large room that used to be a garage that we will use as "his" room, so that would work out nice. I work with a friend that has had 3 labs and he turned me to a breeder that he has always used and I called her last night. They are registered and all that, and she has health records going back a few generations showing no health problems at all, and I will say her pups look outstanding. I'm still doing my research! She said they would have a litter ready to take home in mid December.

  8. #17
    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    So puppy will be your wife's new child, mostly.

    Does this breeder do all the health checks mentionned in a post above? Work with Labs in some venue, confirmation, hunt, rally, etc., is a member of her local club? Being registered (I assume you mean AKC?) is good but is merely a first step and says nothing about the reputation of the breeder. If you get your post count up members here familiar with your area can help you by PM with opinions on your breeder but we do not name breeders here or comment on them openly.

  9. #18
    Senior Dog Tanya's Avatar
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    make suer "health records" = clearances. regular vet checks are not at all the same. Being "registered" doesn't mean a whole lot really unfortunately. AKC is strictly a registry (assume they mean "registered with AKC") and doesn't look at health or temperment of the dog or quality of the breeder at all.

    I highly recommend crate training even with a room. Puppies can chew floors/walls you name it (including anything else in teh room). it becomes their home, their den. There are MANY advantages to crate training VS just using a room. You can still make use of the room here adn there but also crate train.

    Definately make sure a winter puppy is what you want - not sure how bad the winters are but house training a puppy in teh winter (ESPECIALLY with two young ones in tow) can be hard as the puppy will need to go outside every few hours at first (and they can't go alone, during training you need to be out there with them). And we've had some posters with puppies and young kids that found this VERY hard as the kids could nto be left unsupervised (and neither could the puppy) and it was too cold to bundle them up and get them outside (plus the puppy would pee before you can dress two kids!)
    And exercising a puppy in the cold isn't as pleasant. again you can't leave the puppy outside alone so the wife has to go outside - and the kids are too young to be left alone so that means dressing them up to come outside and supervising all three carefully. And possibly not entirely pleasant in cold days (dogs can't keep skipping exercise on cold days! they need to go out). Even if the plan is for you to exercise the dog when you get home from work it'll make for a very hyper dog all day for yoru wife until you get home.

    hopefully wife is 110% on board as she will be doing most of the training since she is home all day alone wtih the puppy and kids. a puppy will be A TON of work for her each and every day.

    Best of luck.
    Last edited by Tanya; 08-18-2015 at 10:12 AM.

  10. #19
    Senior Dog Maxx&Emma's Avatar
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    I do hope you let your wife read these comments! As I previously said I did do a puppy and small children but it was work and I am not sure I would want to do so with a Winter puppy. Potty training and daily exercise are something to seriously think about. Someone will also be up to potty puppy in the middle of the night for the first few weeks. Labs are great dogs but they do not come that way and it takes lots of training. Please be prepared to accept EVERYTHING that comes with a Lab puppy, it can be frustrating for the most experienced.
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  12. #20
    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    LOL, how cold does it get where you are in Missouri in winter anyway? Ok, I googled and it looks like your average winter lows of just below freezing are what I could call positively balmy. But I also saw that somewhere in Missouri had a record low of -40C (same thing as -40F).

    Oban was a winter puppy, we picked him up Dec. 8. Wouldn't you know that would be one of colder, snowier winters with lots of -30C and about double the average snowfall of 200cm (~6 feet) so that we got about 12 feet of snow? And, of course And, Oban would be the puppy who needed out twice a night to bathroom at first. The puppy who slept through the night from the get go came in May, of course she did.

    I hope it doesn't look like we're all trying to discourage you. We're trying to prepare you but sometimes you have to wonder, if you didn't know some things ahead of time would you ever have done them? After the hard parts are over you were probably glad you did some of them and a puppy, in three years time, would definitely be one of those.

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