Tejas, congrats on getting Enzo! In fact, I got my black lab puppy on the same day; i.e. Friday, the 3rd of July! We call him Duke. Unlike you, ours was not really a planned adoption. Duke is 2.5 months old and was living with a friend. Unfortunately, the friend's mom could not take to the puppy's antics and decided to give it away. Luckily, my family is all for animals and we already have a year old cat called Ginger who just delivered four kittens. Duke lives with me, while Ginger lives with my parents.
On Saturday, we took Duke to the vet who gave him his first shot of 1-in-7 vaccination. The vet also gave deworming medicine, which is to be added to his food once every 10 days.
Though I've had four cats in different periods over the last 10 years, I'm finding having a dog a whole different ball game! The expression and reciprocation is wonderful. With all that, my wife and I are facing (almost) the same problems that you are - having a pup at home!
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Originally Posted by Tejas@perioimpl Enzo went on a chewing spree for 3hours till he's finally sleeping now.
Other than crating, tying or using a rolled paper, I don't know what to do. At my wits end. He doesn't like any of his toys to chew. My hand is scratched like mad. No amount of 'no', voice modulation or catching his muzzle is working. What to do? Suggestions? |
Because we live in an apartment where Duke has a lot to chew, we got him to accept being tied up right from day one. He did bark for a while, and as suggested by my vet, we ignored him. Apparently, cuddling or 'trying to calm him down' sends a wrong message to them that you appreciate their barking behavior. Duke has now settled down with his leash and does not mind being tied up. We have also successfully trained him to 'sit', 'shake hand' and 'come' while walking him indoors. Though he obeys only when his attention is not diverted by other people/things!
He has successfully torn apart a thick door mat we put for him to sleep on and loves biting hands, legs, shoes, rags etc. To avert this, we try and divert his attention from the 'human item' to his chewy or dog ball. You could also try getting the puppy chewies and/or biting toys available at pet stores.
Last night, while bending over to play with him, he caught hold of my neck chain and kept pulling it. It took quiet some distractions by my wife to 'free' me! Both my wife and I have hands full of scratches from his sharp teeth. Again, to get him to not bite/chew our limbs, the doc suggested giving him his toy and ignoring him for a couple of moments when he does that. He should be allowed to bark and get annoyed to see his play mate (us) go away. That's how he associates biting/chewing to loss of a play mate.
Another habit we're trying to discourage is excitement over food. Duke gets on a barking frenzy when we're eating, even if he has just been fed. We ignore his barking and pretend we can't hear him. After doing this for three meals, he's much better. Now, he simply looks at us with the 'puppy face' as if begging for a morsel. We plan to never feed him human food.
How old is Enzo exactly? From your pics of Enzo, I concur Duke is about 10% larger. It would be fun to see the pups play each other!
Take a look at
Effective Dog Training & Puppy Training Methods, Approaches & Tips and
How To Train A Dog, dog training tips and techniques for home based dog trainers. I'm reading up tips on obedience and behavior training there. Hope it helps you too and have fun with Enzo.
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Originally Posted by jraj I have noticed 2 very funny habits with Labs...
-They dream and run in the sleep.Run in the sense,while lying down,they move all 4 legs as if they are running.The first time I watched Pepsi do this,I was scared wondering something happened to her.But no,nothing to worry. |
Duke eats/drinks in his sleep. I've seen him lap up the floor as if it were a bowl of food!
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Originally Posted by Cyrus43 More Pictures.
Ohh I soo wish i could have one of them!! But Mr Dhabhar Senior is **** SCARED of dogs!! |
One of the pups has extensive hair loss on the back. What happened?