New puppy advice

[LWJ]

Well. Somehow Mrs. LWJ went from "no more dogs" to "let's adopt a puppy."

We now have a lovely 18 week Black Mouth Cur. Smart. Sweet. Cute. Athletic. Hunter.

I have enjoyed and somewhat trained two labs in the past. They were both amazing, wonderful, loving family members.

I would love input on socialization, training, and any related best practices to use for myself and my family.

Thanks in advance!

[billybek]

Had to look up what they looked like!
No advice on training but congrats on the new dog!

I think that a new dog thread should be like a new Porsche thread. Useless without pictures!

[Crowbob]

Timely thread. I am this close (><) to adopting a puppy.

[1975porsche]

Do lots of training. My year and a half Husky/akita is a wonderful dog, just requires lots of constant training to keep her interested in listening to my commands. Will be helping my daughter with her new rescue. White husky. Good luck and Merry Christmas 🎄

[recycled sixtie]

As the above mentioned get your new pup to obedience classes. And secondly would recommend a see through crate/cage so you can leave your dog in the house for short periods of time and not worry about it destroying the furniture, shoes etc.

Yes pics are essential.
Cheers, Guy

[crb07]

Did not know this breed. Says “need lots of daily exercise, do not like confined spaces”. Sounds like a lab/retriever type personality. Good with kids and families. Going to be a great dog. Someone needs new hiking boots.

[LWJ]

Agreed about the photo. Here he is. Kennel cough eye-goop and all. Vet time in an hour or so.

[vash]

Cute,

Man, you are in for some work!

I can’t do puppies anymore. Maybe when I retire.

[Jim Richards]

Congrats on the new puppy!

[LWJ]

Surprise! He has all adult teeth. Weighs at 22 skinny pounds. Almost full grown. We were thinking 90ish pounds.

Good news is he has a big dog, chilled out personality.

Seems like a nice compromise. I'm not a fan of ankle nipping yap dogs.

[RSBob]

I have excellent luck training my dogs with a very simple technique. I use one word commands like, come, sit, stay, down, outside, up, down, etc, rather than expecting them to understand sentences like some folks. When they successfully do the command, I simply say good (come, sit, stay, down, outside, up, down, etc) and pat them on the head, or play with them. It’s very simple and works beautifully. For more complex training like how to heal, I would use treats as a reward and when they started getting proficient then reward them every other, then every third or fourth time until I finally stopped because praise was enough. This is called, variable ratio reinforcement which is the same technique effectively used on people playing the slots.

Also trained my puppies to nuzzle a bell mounted low on a doorway using treats to let us know when they had to go pee. Unfortunately our too smart cat watched this and would go over and ring the bell too even though it had its own cat door.

[stealthn]

I used hand signals too with every command, that way at distance they can still see what you want, it starts with food in your hand so they are watching your hand.
I can’t say enough about socializing with other dogs, throughout their life, it makes th8ngs easier for you as well.
If there are young kids in the picture make sure to teach them the roughness kids can have as well as a puppy, pull ears, legs, tail etc. All the while praising them and a treat or two.

Good luck

[KFC911]

Awe.... I'm right there with the last two posts...that dawg will have you trained in no time...no poop .

Nice!