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December was not a good month. Arlene, my wife, partner and best friend was laid up the entire month with a leg problem. She spent most of the month at my mothers, thank god for mom!!! Arlene came home this past week but is still unable to help much with our labs. So it has been very hectic around here for the last several weeks.
The weather has been terrible, snow, sleet, rain, cold and a lot of high winds. I have not been able to do much training with Chisun, but he has not forgotten what he has been taught so far. He walks well on a leash, retrieves, responds to the whistle and is just a complete ball of enthusiasm. Hopefully now we will be able to get back to training. The weather is going to be the problem, not for Chisum but for me.
On December 22nd just when things were starting to look some what normal the worst happened. Our chocolate male SUNSET’S OPENING DAY HAWKEN passed away. He was my buddy, the backbone of Sunset Labradors. You can read about Hawken at this site http://www.sunsetlabradors.com/sunsetblog/2009/12/23/ although he may no longer be with us he will always be remembered. I still have tears in my eyes when I talk about Hawken.
When bringing your new puppy home we suggest that you put a collar on him as soon as possible and let them get used to it. This may take a few minutes and they may fight and try to get it off. After awhile they will accept the collar. Do not spend a lot of money on the collar because your new puppy will grow out of it in a short period. Once they are used to wearing a collar attach a short leash to the collar and let them drag it around until they become used to the leash, this may take a few more minutes and they may fight with the leash, don’t let them chew on it. Now for the most important part, pick up the leash. You are now in charge do not let your new puppy take you for walks, they are to follow you, sometimes this can be a wild experience. The goal is for your new pup to realize that you are in charge, this may take a while or it may take no time at all. You are now in the process of teaching your pup to follow your guidance and you will benefit in the future. You will have a companion in the future that you take for walks and they do not take you for walks. The rest of this chapter is all based on the information we give in a puppy packet that we give with all new owners of our puppies; all breeders are different so it is best to follow their directions.
The critical periods begin at day 1
Day 1 to day 21
The first 48 hours are the most vulnerable time for new bourns, we check our puppies and mother about every hour to make sure they are eating and are kept warm. Mom usually spends the first few hours resting due to exhaustion from the birth of the litter. After the first 48 hours she will take over. Puppies during the first 21 days react to his or her survival needs, food, sleep, warmth, and their mother. The first week they look like little rodents.
The next 7 days
During this period the puppy’s senses begin to develop and they need their mom more in this period more then ever. They start to become aware of the new world around them and mom is their security at this time. With out their mother this could be a frightening experience.
28 to 49 days
“Pecking Order Begins”
At this time the puppies begin to venture around away from their mother and start to explore the world around them. Some start to break into groups and the so called Peking order begins. At 4 and a half weeks we start to feed our puppies mashed puppy chow and usually once one starts to eat they all will eat. The first few days are very messy, they are walking through their food and some even lay in it. By week 6 we try to have all weaned off of mom away from her. We take them all to our Veterinary and they are given a complete physical and their first set of shots. They all receive health certificates and begin some outside activities. We now let people start to see them and socialize with them. The puppies stay with us until week seven by this time he has experienced some competition from his or her litter mates and their personalities are beginning to form and it is time for their new owners to develop that personality.
Depending upon what you are looking for in a labrador retriever puppy, first and foremost find a respectable breeder and explain what you are looking for in your labrador retriever puppy. Over the years I have meet a lot of breeders and they have been very helpful and informative. The best sales person is a happy customer and a happy customer sends more customers.
Should you be a person looking for show quality labs then our suggestion to you is to find a breeder that advertises show quality labs. They can help you chose from their litters and should be able to help with all your questions. Here at http://www.sunsetlabradors.com/ we do not advertise show quality and there is nothing wrong with show quality it just was not my cup of tea. Arlene and I both watch dog shows on TV but our true love is for the working and companion retriever.
There are a few things to be sure that you do receive when buying a new puppy. First a written health guarantee. Be sure you receive at least a two year guarantee on the hips and eyes. You can look at our guarantee at this address: http://www.sunsetlabradors.com/guarantee.html
Not all owners have the same written guarantee but the hips and eyes are very important. Request to see an OFA certification on the sire and dam of the litter, OFA is the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals; they have been around for over 40 years and are dedication to the advancement of canine health. One of their major responsibilities is to evaluate hips and elbows of canine’s and issue certification papers on their findings. Their website is http://www.offa.org/ This is a very informative website and all of our labs are OFA certified before they are bred. The OFA will not certify hips or elbows until the canine is 2 years old. Usually a Veterinary will x-ray a dog at 18 months and give his our her opinion and will x-ray again at 2 years old and again give you an opinion and if the hips and or elbows look good they will send them to the OFA for certification. You should also receive a puppy registration paper with your new puppy; this is for registering your puppy with the American Kennel Club. There are two types of registrations, full and limited. Full means you have the right to breed your lab in the future and the off spring can be registered with AKC. Limited means that any off spring in the future can not be registered with AKC. A limited registration can be changed to a full registration by the breeder of the litter. Some breeders give limited registrations until your puppy becomes an adult and are evaluated by them they will ask see OFA certification papers.
You would also like to meet the sire and dam of the litter. You can see the size and temperament of both. Some times the sire is not owned by the breeder but they should have a picture available for you to look at. You should have a list of questions to ask when you go to look at a litter of puppies, puppies can be extremely noisy and active and can make you forget questions you may want to have asked the breeder. Puppies are very quit but they do grow up and you are about to commit yourself to them for their life span so be sure to ask questions. There are no dumb questions, they all have a meaning to you and the breeder should answer them all.
I have been one over the years to look at litters of labs for hunting, working and retrieving purposes. Every litter we have ever had I always narrow my chose down to one that I would keep, I usually drive Arlene crazy doing this because she thinks I want to keep one. It is just a force of habit and I have done this for every litter I have ever been involved in. We have kept a few of our puppies and they all have worked out, the one’s that I have chosen that is. Some of the others I won’ get into now. Most breeders let their puppies go between 7-8 weeks.
Next time we will concentrate on the Critical periods in a labrador retriever’s life.
Our blog was started for the purpose to help the average person with Labrador retriever training. The training methods that we use can be applied to just about any canine in the sporting group. For that matter the obedience training can be applied to any and all canines. We are not professionals and do not claim to be. We have trained numerous dogs over the course of several years. During our existence at Sunset Labradors we have been asked many questions on how to train Labrador Retrievers? So we have started Sunsets-Labrador Retriever Training blog for those people in mind. We hope our new blog will be helpful and enjoyable for all that read it. Please feel free to leave comments and ask questions. You can email us at sunsetlabs@optonline.net and we will do our best to answer your questions. We will be covering many areas of the Labrador retriever. We will also be posting all information that mat be important to the dog world. Our net post will be choosing a choosing a puppy and important areas to look for. Once again we hope our blog will be helpful and enjoyable to all.
Labrador Retrievers Origin
Labrador Retrievers, originally from Newfoundland, were initially used in work alongside fisherman, helping to pull in nets and catch fish that escaped from fishing lines. After being crossed with Setters, Spaniels and other Retrievers, the Labrador Retriever honed its skills as a true retriever. From this point in the breed’s history, “Labs,” as they are affectionately called, were bred primarily to perform as an efficient retriever of game, with a stable temperament suitable for a variety of activities beyond hunting.
Labrador Retriever Standards
A breed standard is the description of the perfect, or ideal, dog. It is used as a guideline for measuring appearance and temperament of a given breed. The gentle, intelligent and family-friendly Labrador Retriever from Canada continues to be the most popular breed in the United States, according to AKC® registration statistics. This versatile hunting breed comes in three colors – yellow, black and chocolate – and because of his aptitude to please his master they excel as guide dogs for the blind, as part of search-and-rescue teams or in narcotics detection with law enforcement.
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