1st time owner! Puppy Questions Please help!

[jmwoody]

Greetings,
Will be getting our Lab pup at 7 weeks come Sunday! What are the best puppy chew/toys and essentials?
Also, should ! start command training right away? Do I try and teach multiple commands immediately or wait until one is mastered before presenting next? I am so nervous ! I will appreciate any help, tips and advice. Thanks

[kimbersmom]

Welcome! This is a great board for lab owners. Probably the most important thing to remember is Tucker will be a little baby when you get him, so patience is key!

[jmwoody]

Thank You! How should training begin? One command at a time until mastered?
Any favority puppy toys to suggest?

[Doreen Davis]

Hi there, welcome and congrats on the new pup.

They are really babies so the transition to your house is a big one, the most important first step is establishing a routine ie when will they eat ( usually keep them on the food they were on until they settle in, know quantity and times of day. House training is the biggest goal, taking them out every 20 minutes to the same spot and recognizing their signals is important, this will include through the night too, probably one or two trips.
We are big fans of crate training, you can learn about it by searching the site. Most pups will like soft plush toys, simply made so that they can't ingest parts. Plus something to chew on but again that they can't ingest like a nylabone puppy.

And as they get a bit older, sign up for a puppy class to help with socialization and confidence.

There re are a couple of books that others have recommended, whose names escape me right now. I'm sure they'll weigh in. Weekends are a bit slow.

[barry581]

Congrats on the new pup!!!!! Always a fun and exciting time when a new addition arrives. Since the pup is only 7 weeks old, I'd just work on getting it settled in to the new environment. You will probably be in for a fair bit of whining and crying the first couple nights, as the pup has never been on its own, and he will be missing his litter mates. I second the recommendation fro getting a crate, a big one that can be adjusted for size as the pup grows works well. If you can take a few towels to the breeders beforehand and put in with the puppies, it will help when you bring him home, as it will have familiar smells for him.

I picked up a copy of "Retriever Training" by Robert Milner and have been reading it while on my trip to the UK. I really like it, very well written, with good common sense methods to train your dog. Wish I had read it before Bruce's arrival last year, as there are a few things I would have done differently.

[jules]

my puppy is almost 12 weeks old and when we first brought him home he wined for about 3 nights.I had an old sheet ,folded into a square that fit in his crate,as soon as I put that in,he stopped wining and started sleeping for large stretches of time thru the night.As soon as I let him out in the morning,he grabs his blanket to lay on thru the day,worked for me

[Snowshoe]

WElcome to the board. Funny, there was a thread recently about whether to train one command thoroughly first, or work on several at a time. I guess it depends partly on what you consider to be "mastering." We worked on three main commands to start. COME my puppies learned first by the method at the link below. We also learned SIT and then as we increased the duration of the sit we began on DOWN and STAY.

There are many theories and different ways to train. Double ditto getting into puppy classes. Ask your Vet, breeder if close by, friends with well behaved dogs who they like as a trainer. This is your first puppy but is this your first dog at all? I was only four years old with my own first puppy. Just a puppy myself. So after decades of dogs I had basically never trained a puppy and found the book by Brian Kilcommons and Sarah Wilson, "Good Owners, Great Dogs" to be a huge help. And our breeder was a big help.

Snowshoe's Album: Teaching COME

Good Owners, Great Dogs: Brian Kilcommons, Sarah Wilson: 9780446675383: Books - Amazon.ca

I've not looked at it but Brian Kilcommons has a website with a lot of information on training puppies. I really like the book and it helped us a lot but I don't know anything about what he says on his website.

[Woodrow_Woodchuck]

Howdy and welcome!

Congratulations on your new family member! The first thing I do is build a bond with the puppy. Remember, he just left life as he knew it, everything is different and scary. YOU are the keeper of food, water, shelter, the door... Pretty much everything in its world now. You have to spend time to teach him what is expected of him.

Every second spent with the pup is a teaching moment. Work on things like teaching his name and to come to you when you call it. At this point their attention span is measured in fractions of a second though, so calling from 3 feet away still gives them 3 feet to be distracted buy a leaf, a bug, some unseen object.... Or just stopping to sit, forgetting where they were going.

For toys, he is a lab pup, EVERYTHING is a toy!!! You will have to find out what perks his interests. Try a nylabone, a Kong type toy, a squeaky plush toy... When my current black gal was a pup, the only toys she liked were large stuffed animals. Ignored the Kongs, bones and all that. She found things that interested her, her favorite outside 'toy' was a black plastic 3-gallon planter, like you would get a shrub from the nursery.

Lastly, just relax. You will do fine. As questions pop up, post here, there are many knowledgeable folks who have raised a lot of puppies.

[jmwoody]

Thank You very much! I appreciate all of your time and great advice!!!!!

[Jimbo B]

Congratulations.
Some play things
-an empty plastic water or soda bottle (make sue cap and tap or off) as a puppy this is free and will last a day(then give the pup a new one ) take it away once a tear gets in
-elk/deer anthers ( cost about 20 to 30 bucks) but will last months
-Nyla bone ( some dogs like them ) some don't
-Kong toy (get the black one shaped like a snow man fill it with his food/kibble with in a little plain yogurt to the kibble to keep it frozen and freeze it overnight
Hey every dog need a squeaky toy (go for the softer plastic ones they last longer for some reason)

Crate training (get a crate)
I train my dogs in less then one day to house break(my training is crap on other things(but I am the potty whisperer)
Try to get your pup on the weekend (even better take Thursday and Friday as vacation days)
Go in and outside with your pup as much as possible
When you are going out carry them out ,,don't let them touch the ground till you are outside.
Get a crate with a divider in it..the first day make SHORT TRIPS out(say no more then a half hour) and put you pup in the cage
When you retun again CARRY the pup out never let them touch the ground when you are outside
Also when you pus pees or poops congradulate the HELL out of them ,,clap jump up and down tell them how good they are
The next day leave for 2 hours,,,if no mess in the cage then extend the cage.
I always let mine sleep with me from day one..
If I got in the middle of the might..i would CARRY then outside again don't let them touch the ground till you get outside
If you keep them in a crate at night I would still take them out if you get up in the middle of the night again CARRY THEM out
Remember at a young age they can not hold it in for too long,
I would get up at least 2 times a might
Yeah it was hard to get up..but I was not on my hands and knee's clearing up poop and pee throughout the day

Good luck