Hi there,
Just joined the forum, hoping for some advice and guidance from those more knowledgeable dog owners out there. Have had our collie/lab cross pup now for over 2 weeks and are going back instead of forward! She is almost 9 weeks old now and our main worries are being able to levae her alone, and some snapping at us from time to time.

Looking forward to chatting.
Gavs.

Hi Gavs from another newbie.

Are you worried about the thoughts of your puppy being left alone or have you tried to leave it alone and encountered problems?

We recently weaned a litter of Labrador puppies. If they did get over excited and nipped, we would loudly "yelp" and then walk out of the room and close the door. After about 2 minutes go back into the room and resume playing with them. They soon get the message that nipping is unacceptable behaviour when their game is cut short.

The nipping is typical Labrador, they are bred to use their mouths after all, although the persistence can catch new puppy owners out at times. It's normal, not at all aggressive, and you just need to be consistent in how you treat her. So don't get her excited and then tell her off when she starts to nip, try and keep play calm, and don't accept the nipping, play stops when that happens. Some people suggest substituting a toy when it happens, I don't really agree with that theory so much, but if it works for you in your individual circumstances, why not

As for leaving her alone, obviously she's still very young, but yes, she does need to learn to live with her own company. I'd suggest crate training simply as it not only keeps your stuff safe, but keeps your dog safe. I know from my experience with my two as pups, one has pretty much always been fine to leave alone, the other one ate the most bizarre things, including once chewing up a light bulb without (thankfully) injuring herself!!

Welcome to the forum btw

Hi and welcome. It's usually the case with any pup. Two steps forward, one step back. Yesterday my new retreiver pup was 'bringing in to hand' like an old pro. Today, he just wants to arse about so training stopped. There's always tomorrow.

Hi
Thanks for all the replies - it's good to know I'm not alone! we have crate trained her, and it works well. She sleeps like a baby at night and uses it in the day of her own volition and no whining or barking. But we don't keep her locked in it or use it as a time out as were advised not to as it's supposed to be her "safe place" and bed? But we do confine her to the kitchen, where the crate is, and out in our back which is vv small.

The nipping during cuddles is fine - I have been "yelping" and she defintiely notices, but am now starting to leave the room as well. It's more that over the last two days, she at times has literally snapped out at me, not during play but when I go towards her or go to stroke her???? I haven't been using any punishment at all so can't really understand. It felt like she was growing to hate me

We had her first jab last Thursday, don't know if that had anything to do with it, then we stupidly tried to bath her over the weekend. Live and Learn.

Me and my partner work different hours so she will never be on her own for a full working day, and at the moment we are really just starting to leave her. She does whine when I leave the room for a bit - which I have been doing lots in preparation, but usually calms down. We have only left the house once together and she pooed in the kitchen (goes outside) and ate her wee toilet. Tomorrow morning she will be on her own for about 30 minutes again, so we will see. Have lots of kong toys for her so not sure what else to do.

Sorry for the detail, thanks again for answering. And welcome to the pother newbies.

With regard to the 'Snapping at you, she isn't growing to hate you, pups dont 'hate' anyone. Perhaps you've caught her off guard or at a time when she's tired and just wants to sleep. Difficult to say without seeing, what prompted this response, but rest assured, she doesn't hate you,
Good luck with her.

Just to add to what springerpete has put, can you imagine if you were a pup, how exciting it would be to grab that thing that moves?!

Please don't try and associate what your pup is doing with human emotions, it just doesn't work like that. Your pup is exploring the world in the way they know how, and that involves putting things in their mouth, even nibbling it, doesn't matter if it's something you think they should be familiar with by now, it's still exciting stuff to them

Hi Sleeping Lion and Springerpete,

Thanks for your replies - they help as I am a novice at this I do feel she is just not sure of things at the minute and am trying to give lots of attention when she is behaving well and not when she isn't. But I think that is cause there's two of us, we're maybe not always being consistent and this could be confusing for Reba??


Another question. Reba is almost 9 weeks old, fairly robust - good weight and size - and has had her first set of jabs. She loves being out out back, which is totally closed, and sometimes we interfere when she is eating things like bits of gravel, small chips of plaster etc and generally having fun for herself. Should we let her enjoy herself and just ignore what she is climbing on/munching or should we stop her/bring her indoors? A puppy school trainer I spoke to thinks I might be mollcoddling her a bit.

Thanks,
Gavs.

Try not to focus on unwanted behaviours like the picking stuff up, they will grow out of it eventually, and the more you try and stop them, the more they think it's a game which gets them attention, doesn't make any difference to them whether that's attention because you're trying to stop them or not

I would really recommend getting your pup out and about to get used to seeing things like cars, bicycles, prams, wheelchairs, brollies, hats, hoodies, etc, etc, etc, which they need to get used to. As long as you don't take them to popular dog walking areas and let them play where lots of dogs toilet, you should be fine. It also gives them a chance to get used to being fussed by complete strangers who will no doubt be all over a cute pup! A friend of mine used to puppy walk for the GDBA and take her pups down to a bus stop with a bench, so they could just watch the world go by and get used to everything. It's a good idea as well if you know people with vaccinated dogs that will be ok with a pup, to come round and play with your pup, to help socialise and learn a few dog manners. If you're anywhere near Yorkshire my two are always available for puppy socialisation, they're used to pups popping round, doesn't phase them one bit!

Thanks Sleeping Lion,

I live in Belfast so a bit far to go but thank you for the offer! Had a chat with a puppy school trainer last night and I am being overly anxious about play biting - ie not letting her touch me at all when she wants to do this and yelping at the slightest contact - poor pup must be dememted. Think she snapped at me because I was "eye balling" her??

Definitley being more relaxed and giving her some space too seems to be helping. She starts socilaisation classes tomorrow and we're getting her out and about too.

Gavs