Darling little Monster!

[TinPan76]

Hello, so we got a super adorable female choc lab pup, 10 going on 11 weeks old. It's been a dozen years since we have raised a pup and admit it's a bit much for us now at age 58, but we can do this for sure, all we need is some reminders and advise. For starters we understand every pup is different, and I must say our first 2 labs were what seemed simple compaired to this youngster. Here is what we need reminding of.

Water: The breeder gave us puppy chow and told us one cup with water in it 3x a day, limit visits to the water bowl, cut off water 2 hrs before bed time and walk her 2x during that 2 hrs. The pup seems to be doing ok with this, but looks for the water bowl often. How much water should we alow keeping in mind that she is not totaly house trained yet, and neither are we as we often miss the signals and an accident will result. We are here with her all day so how often should she go out?

Biting: when she wakes up we take her out then she wants to play, she has toys her fave's are a stuffed doll that squeeks and a tenis ball with the fur removed and a bone. She gets over excited and when you hold a toy she will play and bite/chew it but then quickly switchs from the toy to your hand, I would drop the toy and tell her no but she will "air nip" and display a vocal protest, then she will abandon the toy and then get in trouble with chewing things she should not, we would distract her away from it and tell her bad but as soon as you turn around she is into something else. We have tried to direct her back to the toys but she still wants everything she cant have. Is there any way to calm her down? Or do we just have to wait it out till she matures a bit? How long should that take? We have not had a chance to get "bitter apple" yet but is something like lemon juice ok to use in the mean time?

Obedience: Is this a good age to teach "sit, stay, lay down" and so on? She hasn't quite become aware of her name yet, dosnt respond to it as of yet, she will mostly keep doing what she is doing when called, sometimes she responds but we think she is just responding to our voice.

Thats it for now, thank you for any advice and we want to focus mostly on stoping the Biting.

[javasmom]

She should go out every 30 minutes, at least. Immediately after playing and upon waking up take her right out to pee, first thing.
I did not restrict water for my girls when they were pups until it was getting close to bedtime (about 2 hours before), then I would take the water up.

Unfortunately, the biting stage will persist for a few months until she loses her baby teeth and her adult teeth start coming in. You can redirect her to an appropriate toy (nylabones), give her ice cubes to chew on, etc.

Now is a good age to start teaching her sit and stay.

[marmstr]

We didn't leave water down all the time but we did put down about 1/2 cup of water every hour (each time we got her out of the crate for a potty break). Now she's 5.5 months and we're having a brutally hot summer (like most of the rest of the eastern US) so we don't limit water now. We keep water in her dish all the time, she's really good about going to the door when she needs to go out and her family is getting much better at noticing when she goes to the door

Make sure she has some soft toys for the teething...rope bones were popular at our house. Stuffed squeeky toys were huge fun till we learned to disembowel them a few weeks ago. No more of those now!

I have to second the ice cube recommendation. Those are a favorite treat at our house...

We didn't get Artemis till 11 weeks but we started obedience classes the next week (at 13 weeks)...we signed her up for puppy class at our local Petsmart...she was already learning sit before we even got to the first class...she was also learning to walk on the leash...

Enjoy! Enjoy!

[BigBrownDog]

Restricting water for a puppy can buy you some kidney problems. You don't want her to become dehydrated. A normal puppy will not drink more than she needs to drink. I would lift the water bowl in the evening (a few hours before bedtime) in order to try to get through the night without an accident - but that is the only restriction I would allow. A few pee accidents is preferable to crystals in her urine.

[Laceezmom]

Mine was a crazy mad biter - mostly at me - until at 3 1/2 months her dog cousin, a ten month old Irish Setter - came to visit and taught her not to do that any more. It was a God send. I tried what was suggested here - yelping loudly whenever she bit - but it did not work for us and was just increasing my anxiety. We are in your age group and this was our third and toughest lab puppy to handle. I was close to giving her back to the breeder. I would tell my friends she was a terrorist. Now, at almost a year, puppy kindergarten adn intermediate good manners passed - I call her my angel.

[kassabella]

We didn't leave water down all the time but we did put down about 1/2 cup of water every hour (each time we got her out of the crate for a potty break).I have to second the ice cube recommendation. Those are a favorite treat at our house...

...

Enjoy! Enjoy!

Can I please ask why you limited the water. I am always eger to learn new things and info for when I get a pup. Do you just do it for pups or older dogs.

I feel bad if I discover the dogs water bowl is empty so maybe being a bit paranoid.

[Sophiesmama]

I read that labs need lots of water. I have never limited Sophie's water. A rule of thumb about needing to go outside to potty is that they can hold it for 1 hour for each month they are old. So yours should be able to go 1 1/2 hrs. I watch Soph and I know her body language now. She will be 16 weeks on Wednesday. She has slept through the night without needing to go out since she was 10 weeks, so we are lucky there. We have been working on the "don't bite" command since we got her. Needle sharp little teeth! She always wants to gnaw on something and lots of the time its us she chewed on! I would place my hand palm down over her nose and command "don't bite!" She is doing really well with it now, but for awhile there my arms had scratches and teeth marks! We started teaching sit at 9 weeks, she picked it up immediately. We followed with "Sophie Down"... I would have a treat in my hand and point to the floor and she would flop down, that was easy too....I was surprized. Then we did Sophie Shake. I would take her paw in my hand and give the command and a treat. She got it the first day. We taught her Sophie Speak about 2 weeks ago, and now she will give us both silent and vocal "speaks" on command. We are starting Drop it now. She is starting to get it. Labs are really smart. She already knows "GO" too and will head to the door. You will have fun training your pup. We are retired and it has been easy with the "Sophie Outside" command for potty. She is doing really well. Good luck! As you can see, we always preface a command with her name. It has worked well for us.

[marmstr]

Can I please ask why you limited the water. I am always eger to learn new things and info for when I get a pup. Do you just do it for pups or older dogs.

I feel bad if I discover the dogs water bowl is empty so maybe being a bit paranoid.

In our case we were just giving her about the amount we thought she needed each time she was out of her crate. We didn't leave the water down for long because it seemed like she'd drink and drink and drink--no matter how much water was in the dish--until it was gone...then sometimes if we took her out to pee she'd come back into the house and have an accident within 5 minutes. So vet told us to put down just 1/2 cup at at time but about every hour or so, he felt like she wasn't able to self-regulate yet. WE did that for about 2 months till she started not drinking everything in the dish everytime water was in it.

She's fine now (5.5 months) she'll drink just a little at a time off and on through the day (when she's not crated). We leave water down all the time in the kitchen but don't put water in her crate. She gets 4-5 cups of water/day and seems well hydrated.