Couple of dog/puppy questions (1 Viewer)

[Trunk Monkey]

So, last month our 8mo lab puppy had to have surgery for a blockage, she'd eaten part of the mat that was in her crate. Fast forward to this week and we had the same scare. She has a tug of war rope that's about 3' long and has 3 big knots in it. My wife found her with it and about 6" of it was missing. Later she stopped eating, super lethargic, etc. Well, this morning, she's back to normal. Pooped and there's a bunch of string from the pull toy in her stool. So, it looks like she'll pass it.

Which brings me to my question - what the crap kind of toys should we be giving her? She has a couple of other cloth animals with squeakers in them that I'm scared to give her now. Is it rawhides and tennis balls only? We have a Kong that she loves (and doesn't eat) but that's for treat time only. She's still a pup and needs to chew to keep her busy.

Second question is walking. When we're walking it's constant pulling for the first 2/3rds of the walk. She finally tires enough towards the end that it's just hard tension by then. We have one of those simple choke chains, but that doesn't matter to her, she'll just pull until she's wheezing. She's pretty good with me, I can yank on the chain and correct her and she'll catch on pretty fast, but with my wife it's constant pulling. A friend recommended a walking collar that also has a portion that goes around their muzzle so when they pull too much, they pull their head towards you. Any other thoughts?

Stupid dog.

 

[Keowee]

There is not much that a large pup can be trusted with. Some will swallow whatever they can rip into pieces. Mine would rip the cover off of tennis balls and eat the pieces. They can choke on rawhide too.
Something like a large nylon chew bone is pretty safe.

Pups won't understand walking to a leash for awhile. Just give her short sessions of training until she learns what you want her to do.
Shorten up on the lead so you can keep the dog beside you. When she pulls against the leash yank it back and command her to heel. Keep at it until she will walk beside you without pulling ahead. It takes a lot patience with a pup and they will forget if you skip the training. Most get better with age.

 

[IanB]

X2 on dog toys like nylon bones or kong-type materials that won't chunk, anything else and you need to be supervising closely and take it away as soon as she "defeats" the toy.

As for walking, I had the same issues and the product that really changed the game was a pronged choker collar. They may look barbaric, but put it over your arm and give it a tug, it's not painful, the dog is simply able to realize through the excitement and distractions that you are trying to communicate with it. You don't have to correct as hard or as often as with a normal choker, so it's actually puts much less stress on the dog's windpipe, and they won't pull against it. It honestly made a HUGE difference in how my dog responded to inputs while walking, I never have to give more than a wrist twitch to get the dog to respond now, it's like a remote control into her brain.

Another trick I learned is to teach the dog to sit anytime you stop. You are on the sidewalk and reach a street, stop and have the dog sit, then proceed across the street. Drill this like crazy, stop in the middle of the sidewalk, stop anywhere and everywhere until the dog learns it is expected to sit before the walk continues. You can then move on to teach the dog to "wait" so that you can continue walking and the dog will remain, which is great for anytime you're going in a door, through a gate, or anywhere you don't want the dog to follow you.

If the dog continues to pull, just do an about face turn mid-stride with the dog on the outside of the turn so you can keep tension on the leash and the dog learns that YOU control where the walk goes, and they should be looking to you for directions, not the other way around.

 

[carboncycles]

Pinch collars work really well

If you can start now, give your pup large beef bones. Some butcher shops will give them to you if you ask...boil the bone and let your pup spend hours trying to get the marrow out of it. I always prefered natural chew toys than the plastic/nylon ones.

Labs are POWERFUL chewers. My yellow can destroy a kong on a good day!

 

[hairy_apple]

Labs are POWERFUL chewers. My yellow can destroy a kong on a good day!

No kidding. My black lab mix is a beast. She can destroy any toy you give her in a few minutes. She'll rip a tennis ball apart in less then 5 minutes. Just shred it.

I've worried a lot about her actually EATING some of the stuff she chews... I've found little bits of tennis ball in her poop before and it really upset me.

 

[JohnVee]

X2 on stopping and making the dog sit. Do it every time he starts to pull. If he wants to continue the walk then he has to learn that running and pulling makes it stop. Keep the leash short so he's right at your side. Same side every time. Also X2 on stopping and sitting before you give him permission to go through a door. This will really come in handy. Everybody in your family that handles him has to follow the same training regime each time for anything you're teaching him. That is soooo important.

I had a German Shepherd that would bite a heavy duty NylaBone in half in about 60 seconds and not leave a mark on it. The other one would eat any stuffed toy it could find and then produce it again like magic. You have to be vigilant about leaving toys unattended - find a Kong-style toy that you can fill with kibble that will spill out slowly when he noses the toy around. That will occupy him for a while and he won't be trained to chew the toy to get the food out (of course it will still smell like food to him). One warning - it helps if there's nothing in the room for that toy to roll under. I've got an armoir with 2 chewed up legs to prove my point.

--john

 

[AJP]

X2 what Ian said.

When your dog tries to lead ... it is demonstrating its dominance over you (or your wife) ... this is NOT good and must be stopped PDQ if you want a happy relationship. As others have said ... bring to heal, stop or another technique that works is .. assuming the dog is walking on your left ... is to keep it close and the moment it starts to get a ahead of you a little bit ... turn to the left and push it gently in the new direction with your leg/knee. Soon it will understand that you decide where you are going and not the dog and they will keep an eye on you.

http://youtu.be/RTZmIFdgU2M

 

[Trunk Monkey]

So, we borrowed the walking lead that has the loop that goes over the top of their muzzle. If she pulls it pulls her nose down. Holy crap night and day difference. My 7yo daughter can walk her easily now.

 

[ih88hi10]

Which brings me to my question - what the crap kind of toys should we be giving her? She has a couple of other cloth animals with squeakers in them that I'm scared to give her now. Is it rawhides and tennis balls only? We have a Kong that she loves (and doesn't eat) but that's for treat time only. She's still a pup and needs to chew to keep her busy.

The simple answer is that puppies should be supervised when playing with any toys. Kongs are great for chewtoy trainging (teaching them what is acceptable to chew on) when they are stuffed with something yummy like bread and peanut butter and they will probably show little to no interest in the kong after it's been cleaned out but I have always left puppies with kongs in their crates but nothing else when I am not there to supervise. I know that runs counter to what I just said but if you're having this problem I would take out all the toys when you're not there to supervise.

Yes puppies should have chew toys but they should be supervised when using them. Puppies should learn that when you're not home, that's nap time not chew time.

As you are finding out that rope toys and stuffed animals will get destroyed in no time. I d use rope toys and stuffed animals for when I play with the dogs but they get put away and out of reach when we're done playing.

Second question is walking. When we're walking it's constant pulling for the first 2/3rds of the walk. She finally tires enough towards the end that it's just hard tension by then. We have one of those simple choke chains, but that doesn't matter to her, she'll just pull until she's wheezing. She's pretty good with me, I can yank on the chain and correct her and she'll catch on pretty fast, but with my wife it's constant pulling. A friend recommended a walking collar that also has a portion that goes around their muzzle so when they pull too much, they pull their head towards you. Any other thoughts?

I would ditch the collar and start the slow retraining process of pulling means we stop, not pulling means we go.

Stupid dog.

Why? Because the dog doesn't know what is expected of it because he or she never learned?