Completely smitten!

[Mad Chick]

She is absolutely gorgeous

[jemberelli]

Tonight was Lollie's first puppy class. We arrived early so we could meet some of the other pups outside which she loved! Once inside she met all if the others and was very well behaved, bit bonkers but that is to be expected. She did really well with the training exercises and I was very proud of her. She absolutely loved it and my pre-training nerves were for nothing, thank goodness Can't wait for next week, I think she will come on leaps & bounds with this training. She got home, had a long drink and is now zonked on the settee!

[wendy]

Excellent, glad it was a positive experience for both of you.

[Gwenoakes]

I am so glad it was a positive experience for you both, well done.

[jemberelli]

Well, Lollie is now 5 months old, growing well and, when calm, is an absolute joy However, we are having real problems with her lunging at us & biting - sometimes in excitement, often just because she can. She hangs off clothing, we are both covered in scratches from claws & teeth. We can usually get her to stop by getting her sit but is it getting to be a real nightmare. She has had me in tears, hubby has been so down on occasion that he wonders whether we did the right thing getting her As I said, when calm she is a joy and we would never really wish we had never bought her as we love her to bits but this is not pleasant to deal with.

I know labs can be feisty, bonkers pups and am not expecting her to be a calm, sensible puppy 100% of the time but any advice would be most welcome!

[wendy]

Did I send you the bite inhibition leaflet ?
I do hope I did. If you have followed that, then I am sorry she is still, biting. But she shouldn't be
No rough housing play for the time being. If this has gone on [ and it is usually the men of the household that do this]. Try to keep games calm.
At the first sign all leave the room and I know this is a pain, but so is this silliness, get her to realise that any of that nonsense and the game will end.

[jemberelli]

Thanks Wendy. I do have the leaflet, will keep plugging away!

[wendy]

The bite inhibition is more difficult to teach once the pup is past 18 weeks.
You can keep trying and see how it goes.

[Gwenoakes]

Sorry to hear you have a problem, Jem.

Wendy is right in my experience, it is the men of the household who play rough games, although Clare does her fair share of it too. Teddy was biting/jumping, but now he has stopped a lot and when he does start we either turn our backs on him or a firm NO usually does the trick. I am sure you will get through this phase with her and all be happy again.

[jemberelli]

We took Lollie to the vets yesterday, decided to get her 6 month check done a couple of weeks early. We wanted to be sure that all was well and get her teeth/gums checked. She has really been struggling with teething pain and we thought that maybe the biting is related to that. Being a Lab she is very mouth led and the collie in her makes her quick to react and we thought that maybe the pain is frustrating her and she is biting as a result of that.

She wasn't happy about the vet trying to look in her mouth but she saw enough to know that there is no infection in her gums. Hopefully she isn't too far off finishing this teething phase. The vet gave us some metacam, 2 week course, so hoping that takes the edge off the pain. If things calm down then all good. If not, we will have to deal with the behaviour, as per Wendy's instructions - thanks for the PM Wendy!

[Mo]

Just caught up on this thread and the two naughty puppies.
If you think they cause damage just imagine if they were the size of my daughters Cob. Anything he can get into he does.
E.g. he walked round the field with a 5-bar gate on his leg (we had it leaning against the field shelter in case we needed to keep the other horse in)
And stuck his nose through the window of a caravan that Ruth was given, that she thought she could store things in.
And any time he thinks the electric fence battery is low he's away.

Seems to still be in one piece, fortunately. Ruth does check everything, but he sometimes finds what she didn't expect.

[Gwenoakes]

Glad there are no infections re Lollie's mouth, Jem. Sorry to hear that the vet experience didnt go down too well.

Teddy lost his last tooth the other day, it hung on for days. Clare was checking them everyday and also takes him in regularly to the vets to be weighed, so he is quite used to going in there and having his mouth and everything looked at and loves the special treat he gets when he is a good boy.

He does chew the odd thing, i.e. the bench outside still, but not too bad now, says me with everything crossed. LOL

How many first teeth has she still got?

Mo, I can so relate to the horsey things. Jack, Clares Shire always has tested the electric fence and once when on a battery it obviously was dying, so he went through it and took himself up the roadside to eat the nice lush grass. Food is Jacks whole world, so he thought he would take the opportunity to enjoy it. LOL

[jemberelli]

Hi Gwen, glad all is going well with Teddy. We think Lollie just has one biggie left to go, thank goodness! She is very good at the vets usually, I think her sore gums just meant she didn't want her mouth messed about with! Everything else was ok, apart from the shock of the thermometer going up her bum - think that made her blink a bit!! She has put plenty of weight on but is in good shape. I am wetting her food at the moment because when her gums were really bad & bleeding she stopped eating her kibble but other food stuffs were fine. It's all a learning curve for me! She's had 2 doses of Metacam so far so hopefully over the weekend any pain will have gone and the biting will stop

[jemberelli]

Things have been getting better & better with Lollie. As her gums calm down, so does she! She is still very mouth-led but not as much and we are using distractions and her training exercises to calm her down and give her new ways of dealing with her frustration. She is still doing well at puppy training class - last one next week but am already booked on to the follow-up which will do her the world of good. She was 6 months old on Thursday - time is flying by!

Lollie doing my hair for me!



Doing her best Ermentrude The Cow impression: (good old Photobucket - hasn't saved my changes to orientation!)

[Linda S]

Lollie is gorgeous Jemma lindaxx