Hellow from new lab owner

[silverfz]

We have a 12 week puppy GIGI. she is mostly chocolate. The male was a chocolate lab and female was a golden/German Shepard. We saw her online, drove 825 miles to get her when the kids where overnighting at the grandparents.

We rescued a chocolate lab off Facebook[Not recommended]... we were told he was kid friendly and a medium size dog. He adopted form peuto rico unseen. We go to logan airport cargo and out comes a 80 lbs skinny chocolate blood hound mix. He was huge and dr said he is under weight. He constantly growled at my kids and me.
we were contacted by the foster mom to tell us he was never exposed to kids and lived with her and 2 dogs in a farm. He was a awesome dog as long as you keep him away from kids. So after rocco was rehomed [we got lucky ] with a young couple and plays with his friend all day in a fenced in back yard.

So gigi is now with us , she is 12 weeks has her accidents , sleeps 8 hrs in the night in her crate is a little nippy. she is going to training at petco every week. We were feeding her 2 times a day but the trainer said we should do 3 for 2 more months.so from today she get fed 3 times. She plays fetch.

She loves car rides and loves camping. She has been with us for 20 days and out of which camped 8. She pooped in the camper on first trip but not on the 2nd. She loves people petting her at campground and all the dogs. We do watch interactions as she is yet to get her rabies. She howling and pitched a fit /pooped before settling down in the crate. We changed crates , put it in our room. She is funny. when he announce bed time and tuck the kids in , she runs to our room waits for me to move the crate to the room so she can sleep in it . Sleeps from 8.30 to 5.30. Wish he will get a little later . She did not show any interest in water till the kids ran into the water, next thing you know she is swimming around at 10 weeks looking like a oter.

Its a struggle but she is improving and growing. She still has accidents in the house but then sometimes goes to the backyard does her thing and comes back. She has lost her fear of cars and we do walk every day. btw she is 23 Lbs at 12 weeks.

When I can introduce a invisible fence, I live on a main street and a few yrs back a neighbor`s german died across my house and I had to carry him ... so we do not need a repeat. I can get a chain link put in for 5k....yikes.

thanks
satz

[SunDance]

Hi, satz....welcome to the board.

Hint, hint....we love pictures so when you get your post count up (I think you need 10), we'd love for you to post one (or more) of Gigi.

One thing I'd suggest is that you not do an invisible fence. That kind of fence does nothing to protect your dog from other animals. Perhaps there's another kind of fence that wouldn't set you back as much as the chain link, or maybe you could fence in a smaller area. Just a suggestion.

[Snowshoe]

Welcome to the board. Gigi sounds like a real little smarty pants. I bet she'll do you proud when you take her to puppy classes and obedience classes.

[Tanya]

welcome and congrats on the new addition.

physical fence - especially if you are on a main street, wayyy too many things that can come into your yard or entice your dog outside the yard.

[POPTOP]

Hello and Welcome!

Looking forward to pictures.

[silverfz]

i kept attaching pictures and could not see them....i will wait till i hit my 10 th post.

She is growing like crazy. She is at least twice as tall now and looks like a lab except when she is on her back and then she looks like a chocolate German. anyway we thing alot of her and expect her to be a healthy member of our family.

the trainer told us that she will lose the tendency to just hang out with us soon .and will not respond to recall as she gets older to this degree . I might do something kind of fence to keep her in. the problem is i have a 32 ft camper i park in the backyard for winter .

[Tanya]

especially if it's busy area you need to keep her safe, use a long line for now (or tether her to you), look into fencing and start formal recall training now. Don't wait or rely on her wanting to hang out with you, it takes only one "oops".

[TT120]

Hello and welcome! Looking forward to pics. We love pics......

[zd262]

Can't wait to see pictures! Definitely ditto on the long line. You can buy a 20ft or 50ft on amazon for pretty cheap and it's a really easy way to keep them close by and to practice recall from a distance!

[silverfz]

She does have a long line in the back yard. the kids playset acts like the taggling point. I might take it apart and move it so she can pretty run around till I figured out a fence.
she acts like a lapdog which is funny.

when I am towing my camper,driving she likes to sit on my lap. When I am in the passenger seat she will sit on my lap unless the kids are in the back. they she will hang out with them.

do labs howl after feeding, does it every time.