| brody115 |
| Posted 3/20/2008 3:58:46 PM |
 |
|
|
Active: 03-20-2008
Posts: 1
|
HI
WE JUST PURCHASED A 7 WEEK OLD LAB PUPPY FROM A BREEDER. HE IS SO SWEET. HE IS CONSTANTLY WANTING TO CHEW ON EVERYTHING BUT HIS TOYS ANY ADVISE?? I WAS ALSO WONDERING HOW MUCH A 7 WEEK OLD SHOULD WEIGH AND HOW MUCH TO FEED IT. THE BREEDER SAID GIVE HIM A HANDFULL AND IF HE EATS IT ALL GIVE HIM MORE. DOES THIS SOUND CORRECT? THANKS |
|
|
| PerfectPom |
| Posted 3/20/2008 6:25:49 PM |
|
|
|
Active: 04-04-2007
Posts: 890
|
Turn your caps off it's considered shouting and hard on the eyes. Your breeders advice about feeding sounds goofy. Look on the back of your food bag to see how much is recommended.
You will have to redirect your pup to acceptable chew toys, bones and not give them free roam of your home, but I guarantee you a few things will get destroyed before his puppyhood is over..good luck. |
|
|
| sasa24510 |
| Posted 3/20/2008 6:36:12 PM |
|
|
|
Active: 12-02-2007
Posts: 49
|
From my experience (my little lab is only 3, so she's really not that little anymore) you have to constantly supervise them, if you aren't going to watch them something will get eaten (like the leg of the coffee table). To encourage the pup to play with it's toy, get yummier (I know that's not really a word) toys. Get the balls that you can put peanut butter in. Are you crate training? It will help you save your shoes, coffee tables, books, socks, clothes in general, (believe it or not) ceremic bobble-heads, barbeque grill cover....
As far as the food goes, I'm not really sure. I always kept my puppy's bowl full (which is NOT recommended) until she was a year, then I went with the recommended amounts. (Of course she was extremely underweight and uncared for when I got her, and I was trying to let her know that she would have food, she was pretty aggressive with it at first) |
|
|
| littlemissmom_23 |
| Posted 3/20/2008 11:35:42 PM |
|
|
|
Active: 02-11-2008
Posts: 151
|
Puppies love rough textures to chew on, so make sure you have a variety of chew things from smooth rawhide to dried sea sponge, ropes and cloth. |
|
|
| suebgone |
| Posted 3/20/2008 11:49:05 PM |
|
|
|
 
Active: 01-10-2006
Posts: 3359
|
no, you certainly don't want to "free feed" a puppy you are trying to housebreak, altho don't expect much until he is at least 5 mos old.
the chewing is all part of being a puppy & you have already gotten info on that.
did the "breeder" tell you not to take the puppy anywhere untill all his shots are complete? that would be at 16 weeks.
how much he should weigh depends a lot on his ancestry & even that isn't always reliable |
|
|
| joeypoodle |
| Posted 3/21/2008 8:24:41 AM |
|
|
|
Active: 03-19-2008
Posts: 41
|
How did you get a 7 week old puppy? YIKES! In most states it's illegal to sell a puppy less than 8 weeks old. |
|
|
| joeypoodle |
| Posted 3/21/2008 8:28:29 AM |
|
|
|
Active: 03-19-2008
Posts: 41
|
| Quote littlemissmom_23: Puppies love rough textures to chew on, so make sure you have a variety of chew things from smooth rawhide to dried sea sponge, ropes and cloth. |
I wouldn't allow my puppy anywhere near any of these things. Each one of these things pose a serious choking or impaction hazard if ingested.
Puppies need to chew on puppy appropriate chew toys. Life Stages makes some great durable rubber toys that have different knubs and bumps that feel good to a puppy's mouth. Puppy Kongs are great too. So ae Nylabones but you have to watch and make sure that the puppy doesn't break off any pieces. |
|
|
| gbat1stop |
| Posted 3/21/2008 8:43:46 AM |
|
|
|
Forum Moderator
 
Active: 11-21-2004
Posts: 3679
|
| Quote joeypoodle: How did you get a 7 week old puppy? YIKES! In most states it's illegal to sell a puppy less than 8 weeks old. |
I agree, even a lab puppy should remain with it's mother and litter no less than 8 weeks, I prefer 10 but many so-called breeders will let them go at 6 weeks. A litter of lab Puppies can get quite costly for the BYB to feed care for and so they let tham go ASAP.
I have fostered many litters of lab Puppies and own 3 adults and from personal experience, they will eat until they "explode". I fed 1/2 cup of food several times a day. It is best to get them on a set feeding schedule to help with their potty training. Most Puppies will poop within 30 minutes of eating.
Size is not something we can determine. The breeder may possibly be of some help but cannot guarantee an exact weight/size. I have seen healthy, adult labs weigh 50lbs up to 120lbs (which is grossly overweight).
Toys, toys, toys. Labs need plenty to chew on. Make sure you have a variety of toys. Ropes, balls, stuffed animals, frisbees, balls, kongs, etc. DO NOT use old personal items such as shoes, socks or slippers. Your puppy cannot determine which is old and cheap vs. brand new and expensive |
|
|
| littlemissmom_23 |
| Posted 3/21/2008 3:42:27 PM |
|
|
|
Active: 02-11-2008
Posts: 151
|
Quote joeypoodle: I wouldn't allow my puppy anywhere near any of these things. Each one of these things pose a serious choking or impaction hazard if ingested.
Puppies need to chew on puppy appropriate chew toys. Life... |
Rawhide is perfectly safe for Puppies and dogs (I take them away when they become small), dried sea sponge is shaped into a bone shape or ball shape and polyester filled, sea sponge can even be eaten by us - perfectly harmless, ropes floss dogs' teeth and stuffed animals are fine as long as you take them away as soon as they are torn or damaged in any way. |
|
|
| boswer |
| Posted 3/21/2008 7:29:09 PM |
|
|
|
Active: 03-12-2007
Posts: 765
|
| Quote littlemissmom_23: Rawhide is perfectly safe for Puppies and dogs (I take them away when they become small), dried sea sponge is shaped into a bone shape or ball shape and polyester filled, sea sponge can even be eaten... |
I wished the moderators would filter out dangerous advise people give.
Giving a Dog rawhide to chew may seem like a harmless way to make the Dog happy, but now and then the result can be tragedy, as one Dog owner discovered. Paula Peruzzi's loyal Dog Lydia recently died from toxemia after biting off and swallowing a chunk of rawhide too large for her body to digest, Detroit television station WDIV reported. "I felt bad. I felt like it was my fault," Peruzzi said. "I didn't really know" it was dangerous for the 6-year-old dog.
Peruzzi had given Lydia a rawhide chew toy, and the Dog had apparently chewed a big chunk off one end and swallowed it without anyone noticing. The Dog threw up the next day but seemed fine afterward.The day after that, Perruzi got a frantic call from her sons at home. Lydia was having convulsions.
"She was flopping all over the place, and red stuff was coming out of her mouth. One eye was red," Perruzi said.
She rushed the Dog to the vet, but was too late to save her. "He said it was toxemia, the blood poisoning," she said. "The rawhide had lodged inside of her." Dr. Christian Ast, of the Plaza Veterinary Hospital, said dogs can digest smaller pieces of rawhide, but it takes time. Larger pieces become dangerous because they block a dog's digestive tract. Veterinarians say there are no reliable statistics on how many dogs are hurt or killed by swallowing rawhide -- dried cow skin --in part because the obstructions are hard to see on an X-ray. After the harrowing ride to the vet, when she had to hold her dog's head as her intestines drained out, Perruzi said her new Dog will not get to chew on rawhides. "I think they should have warnings on them, but I know they won't," Peruzzi said. "So when I'm in the store, we tell people that (the rawhide) killed our dog." Many vets recommend rubber chew toys instead of rawhide, and say Dog owners need to make sure the toy is too big to swallow.
Boswer |
|
|
| maoseger1010 |
| Posted 3/21/2008 9:49:20 PM |
|
|
|
Forum Moderator
 
Active: 02-20-2005
Posts: 6666
|
Quote boswer: I wished the moderators would filter out dangerous advise people give.
Giving a Dog rawhide to chew may seem like a harmless way to make the Dog happy, but now and then the result can be tragedy, as... |
How would we do that? Filter out "dangerous advice"?
This case for example, now you and I may never give our dogs raw hide but thousand if not hundreds of thousands of people do. Its a huge seller in many pet stores around the country. So clearly not every Dog that eats it chokes and dies or has a tragedy involving raw hide. So is it dangerous or not? You and I may think so but I can't make that call for everyone else. |
|
|
| gbat1stop |
| Posted 3/21/2008 10:02:49 PM |
|
|
|
Forum Moderator
Active: 11-21-2004
Posts: 3679
|
Quote boswer: I wished the moderators would filter out dangerous advise people give.
Giving a Dog rawhide to chew may seem like a harmless way to make the Dog happy, but now and then the result can be tragedy, as... |
It is not the responsibility of the Moderators to decide what is "dangerous" information and what is not. It is ultimately up to the owner to decide what they feel is best for their own pets.
As Mao stated, the majority of us choose not to provide these "treats" to our pets but hundreds of thousands of pet owners provide these on a daily basis without incident.
It is absolutely impossible for us to "filter" information as it would be based solely on our own opinion which would not be fair to anyone on the forum. |
|
|
| PerfectPom |
| Posted 3/21/2008 10:39:25 PM |
|
|
|
Active: 04-04-2007
Posts: 890
|
Quote boswer: I wished the moderators would filter out dangerous advise people give.
Giving a Dog rawhide to chew may seem like a harmless way to make the Dog happy, but now and then the result can be tragedy, as... |
UHH seriously there have been a few who have wished they could filter you out, and thought things you were doing were whacked, so opinions are like a@@holes and everybodys got one!
None of my dogs have ever much liked or spent any time chewing on hard rubber toys, believe me I tried. With kongs they just get the treats out and forget about it.
I have heard the warnings about rawhide, greenies, bully sticks, you name it and they have even reformulated several. My dogs love the little dingo bones with treats in them and have never choked on them. I also gave them thier first bully sticks several weeks ago and they chewed the stinky things down to nubs. Let's just say they are experienced chewers. I am famliar with thier chewing habits.
I don't like greenies or the nylabone type as Peanut did choke on those but nothing serious. They spend hours chewing thier bones and I'll be damned if I'm gonna ruin thier fun. You are supposed to supervise them while chewing. I doubt your giant breeds would choke on a rawhide ROFLMAO!! |
|
|
| littlemissmom_23 |
| Posted 3/21/2008 10:51:57 PM |
|
|
|
Active: 02-11-2008
Posts: 151
|
I don't mean to drag this out further but like a previous poster somewhat mentioned, you hear claims of many things responsible for the death of dogs from choking. I used to work at my local petstore and I would have people come in every other day saying don't sell greenies, don't sell pig ears, don't sell ropes, this that and the other thing killed my/or my friend's dog, the list goes on and on. And for me, personally, it does not matter what kind of toy or chew you give your dog, they should only have it if they can be supervised. |
|
|
Pet Lovers Discussion Forum 
