New family addition...Yellow Lab puppy (Picture attached)

ajetfan

A few weeks ago our family decided to get a puppy. The last dog I had was a lab and she was amazing, so the decision on what breed to get was an easy one for me.

So the picture below is of 'Brandy'. She was nine weeks old in this picture and on Wednesday she will be all of twelve weeks old.

Yesterday (Saturday) and today (Sunday) I listed a bunch of my 1972 and 1978 PSA Topps Baseball cards on ebay. A few friends I made over the last few years from these message boards emailed me wondering if I was abandoning our hobby. I want to go on the record with a big NO. My 'PSA addiction' is strong as ever. I just have to raise some cash to help pay off all of the additional expenses that raising a puppy entails. Any pet owner out there has to understand this.

1972 PSA 8s, 1978 PSA 9s, and more on ebay

I was never passionate about the 1972 Topps set and I didn't even enter mine in the set registry. My 1978 Topps are going to be a little harder to part with, but I feel this set is hot right now and hopefully I'll do well with them. Maybe Santa will bring me 1978 vending box and then I can break out my trusty loupe to find some new PSA 9s and 10s.

I would like to wrap this message up with a question to all the dog owners out there. How do you break a puppy of it's digging habits? Before we got Brandy we had the nicest lawn on the block and now we have a puppy instead. Will she just grow out of this? I would gladly (and have) traded my beautiful lawn for all the love that this puppy brings to our family, but I would prefer to break her of this habit before she ends up digging up our cesspool.

Thanks in advance to anyone with any helpful ideas and please wish me luck.

ajetfan (Robert)

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1420sports

Catch him in the act, give a loud NO and a add a little smack to his backside. Not hard, just firm.

ajetfan

Tried that, it will stop her temporarily but as soon as we turn our back she is right back at it. She seems to have 3 to 4 favorite spots for her digging. Also, it is very tough to discipline her because she's so damn cute and we all love her so much already.

The scary part is it's like she knows she's up to no good as the second we yell at her she crouches down on the lawn and looks at us like 'I'm fine, just being a good dog'. She stops until we turn our back and then...

Thanks so much for the reply!!!

baseballcardsonly

Nice Pup....

I bought my daughter a new pup (Pembroke Welsh Corgi) back in April.....because she wanted a pup to sleep with her and now she does.

Just to get the dog and all the supplies she needed

$2600.00 in the first week we had her.

We went to Petsmart and signed up for the Vet service plan they have.

$20.00 per month and they take care of all her shots/spaying and basic healthcare.

so in 6 months we have paid Petsmart $120.00 and received over $700.00 in healthcare (spaying was $350.) so you might want to look into them if you have a Petsmart near by.

To train your Pup not to dig....Take a squirt bottle full of water and every time she does it "squirt her in the face with it"...after a few squirts, she will get the idea! Yes, I does work...they teach it at my dog training class!

Hope this help and take care of the pup.
Mark
ebay (bbcard4me)

UnAmuzd1

The other thing you can do, since she's likely to be doing it when you aren't looking (which makes squirting her in the act difficult), is to move her poop to the places she likes to dig. Just scoop it when you clean the yard up and plop it down in her favorite dig-spots. She's much less likely to dig through her own poo. There are other products you can spray with to make areas smell bad, but poo is very cost-effective.

Morrie (married to a vet tech, owner of 2 dogs, one an ex-digger)

Griffins

Sprinkle cayanne pepper in the holes, that'll stop her and not hurt her.

mikeschmidt

<< <i>Sprinkle cayanne pepper in the holes, that'll stop her and not hurt her. >>



What griffins said - and ammonia/vinegar probably wouldn't hurt, either.

jimtb

That's a great looking pup. They are notorious diggers though. The only thing that I've seen work is to put a board in each hole where they like to dig. It helped my next door neighbor's dog break the habit.

jrdolan

Brandy looks like at least a 9 to me. Maybe slightly rough-cut.

helionaut

Make sure to keep up her heartworm medicine, most people use HeartGard. Also, Frontline is a great flea/tick repellant. It lasts 6 weeks or more, though you really should do it monthly. Avoid any products Hartz, it's cheap junk. HeartGard and Frontline are expensive, but I order from Petshed.com. They're out of Australia, though they ship within the US, and so prices are much lower than your vet or Petsmart or any place like that. Sorta like a Canadian pharmacy for pets.

And don't worry about digging. If you have any wooden furniture, she'll probably gnaw on that, too. One night I was awoken by a scratching sound. I went into the hall and saw my dog lying upside down against the wall scraping into my sheetrock with his front fang. I don't know what he was thinking, but he stopped scraping and looked at me as if to say,"I'm sorry, you weren't supposed to see this." The key to any training is to catch them in the act. Dogs have an attention span of about 10 seconds, so if she digs a hole, scratches something, pees in the house, or whatever, you've got to catch her and do something to make your displeasure unclear, swatting on the behind or clapping and saying,"NO!" will work. They have to associate your actions with their actions, but can't associate your actions with the results of their actions. The best training is long-term growth. After 18 months, with proper attention, she'll be a real sweety. It'll be a very long 18 months, but worth it.

ajetfan

Thank you everyone for your help. It is truly appreciated!!!

magellan

Very good points by helionaut both regarding the medicine and discipline.

We've had 3 German Shepards over the last 20 years , great dogs but one was a great yard digger and one was a fierce wood chewer (we still have her), she must have done $3000 damage to woodwork, chairs, couches, boxspring and even the floor in her first 6 months with us. Even so I wouldn't take 10 times that for her.

My brother who lives next door has had chocolate labs, they just got a puppy about 5 months ago now. Great dogs but both of his are more hyper than the Shepards I've had, stillI'd take a Lab in a minute if it needed a home.

As far as discipline goes you got some good advice earlier in the thread, unfortunately sometimes you can never break/change their behavior although digging/chewing problems tend to be outgrown. My Julia (the Shepard) has always drooled after drinking for some reason. My wife's grandmother said when the dog was very young ...."she'll never outgrow that". She never has and she's now 10.

Enjoy your pup, they are a barrel of laughs and love.