OT: Labrador Question

[Fat Robert]

I adopted a lab puppy this week -- he'd been dropped out of a car, taken care of by a friend for a week, and tuesday it was me or a shelter in NH that would take him (no room in the shelters or the regional lab rescues currently).

the vet estimates he's 3 1/2 months. right now he's 35 pounds. assuming normal exercise and diet, how big might this guy end up, give or take 5 pounds?

i am now resigned to a life of ball throwing. between our golden and this dude, i think i need to buy a pitching machine....

his name is Oskar*, by the way

[Frankwurst]

Hide your shoes. Chewys in the house. :beer:

[top_sgt]

i would guess a little bigger than your golden!!! 50-60 pounds probably.


and yes......................hide the shoes!!!!!!

[cadence90]

Great! Good for you.

Male lab...+/- 70 #.
And no table scraps!

Definitely hide the shoes, door frames, chair legs, cabinet doors, bags, purses, tennis rackets, Veloflex Paves....

[djg21]

I adopted a lab puppy this week -- he'd been dropped out of a car, taken care of by a friend for a week, and tuesday it was me or a shelter in NH that would take him (no room in the shelters or the regional lab rescues currently).

the vet estimates he's 3 1/2 months. right now he's 35 pounds. assuming normal exercise and diet, how big might this guy end up, give or take 5 pounds?

i am now resigned to a life of ball throwing. between our golden and this dude, i think i need to buy a pitching machine....

his name is Oskar*, by the way

A male lab should be around 22 1/2 to 24 1/2 inches at the withers (the highest point on the dog's back, on the ridge between its shoulder blades) and 65-80lbs according to AKC standards. That being said, many Labs are bred as working dogs (e.g. hunting) rather than for show purposes, and they can be a little larger than preferred by the AKC. They are great dogs, and as you already have a retriever, it will be easy for you.

I have two Goldens, and I find two dogs much easier than one. They entertain themselves, and act like dogs! I feel better knowing that they have company when left alone!

[AgilisMerlin]

i just lost one, but i still have a 3 year old lab in the house.


your golden is going to have some shredded ears for awhile


your pretty lucky to be given a lab. jmo

what name have you given him?

curious

[chuckred]

I adopted a lab puppy this week -- he'd been dropped out of a car, taken care of by a friend for a week, and tuesday it was me or a shelter in NH that would take him (no room in the shelters or the regional lab rescues currently).

the vet estimates he's 3 1/2 months. right now he's 35 pounds. assuming normal exercise and diet, how big might this guy end up, give or take 5 pounds?

i am now resigned to a life of ball throwing. between our golden and this dude, i think i need to buy a pitching machine....

his name is Oskar*, by the way

We failed miserably as Lab parents (about 15 years ago...) Beautiful chocolate lab, best personality. But, way too much energy - dug up the entire yard. Vet said - need to run him 7 miles/day! After he puked up an entire dead squirrel on the living room floor, we found him a home on a ranch... (no, that wasn't just a story for the kids - we really did!).

I think you're right - having a golden they should be able to get their "ya ya's out" with each other! If you have a place for them both to swim - bonus!

Good luck! They are great dogs!

[rbtmcardle]

.............. and I find two dogs much easier than one. They entertain themselves, and act like dogs! I feel better knowing that they have company when left alone!


We have a choc. and yellow, they are great together, two totally different personalities and do entertain themselves and us as they chase each other around the house, most people would think we are nuts for letting the dogs run in the house, but they have such a great time we cant help ourselves.

BTW, these are our 3rd and 4th labs and we have only a couple of chewed chair legs in 20 plus years. keep them busy they wont chew and use a crate to train, atmo.

Enjoy

[michael white]

definitely crate train, take to obedience school if you want to make it easy on yourself and the puppy. . . makes all the difference. I had the chewing and digging but it went away pretty early.

[Ken Robb]

Get a crummy tennis racquet and hit balls as far as you can until the dogs have had enough. No way your arm will let you throw balls far enough long enough. If there is a body of water nearby they sure do love retrieving from the water.

Also great "goalies" if you kick tennis balls at them. I could rarely score even from 5 feet. Not talking about my love life here---just doggie fun.

[itsalldark]

We have two black female labs. One is five and the other is a year and a half. They are related. Casey the older ones sister is the mother of Prima, the younger one. We got them from a breeder in Maine. They are so calm it is almost silly. Casey is around eighty pounds and very fit. Prima will be around the same size. I must agree, having two is a great. Just watching them together always brings a smile to my face. Enjoy them---they will bring you much joy and along with it, the usual frustrations that come with these great dogs!!!!!!!!!!

[BBB]

We have a black labrador, a male, and he weighs 34.5 kilograms. He is not at all fat and his father was even heavier again. I think the key is obiedence when young, and then regular exercise when he is over 6 months old and his bones have knitted together. Plenty of attention as well as a bored lab is a destructive one. These days at 5.5 years old our labrador is too lazy to be destructive, but when he was younger, trees, his kennel, the foam around the hot water pipes etc etc were fair game.

[Lifelover]

I suspect you will end up very much in the normal range. We have a black lab mix that as a puppy appeared as if he was going to be a monster. He is still thicker than most labs but overall he is fairly normal.

If you can last the first 2-3 years he will be the best dog you ever own.

Good luck and just like Manet you decent has been slowed a bit for this.

[SBash]

My daughter and her husbund have a choclate lab TITUS, 85 Lbs of energy, and we take care of him quite often. Get ready for Eat-Play-Poop-Play-Pee-Eat-Play-Poop. Labs have tons of energy and need to burn it off. Titus loves the tennis ball, the slimy stinky one, not a good clean one, so wear a glove. He can flip the tennis ball to me about 5 feet in the air. He eats 3 scoops of dog food in like 40 seconds, he is a vacuum cleaner, and probably does not chew. At the same time, after we burn some of that energy off, he will just lay down, while I'm on the computer, or just hang out with me in my shop. Sometimes I will look over at him out of the corner of my eye, he is staring at me, just waiting for me and the tennis ball.

SB
PS: Labs are great with kids, other dogs, and just love life.

[Climb01742]

we have a chocolate lab. she's about 70 pounds. sweetest heart possible and loves to run. she needs daily exercise. two suggestions: crate train and early obedience training. she's my first lab. what a wonderful breed. can't imagine a sweeter dog. good luck, robert. get your smile muscles ready...you'll be using them!

[Too Tall]

Lucky Doof :) I think that Black Labs and esp. female B.Labs are some of the most loyal dogs ever and boy howdy are they "ALL DOG" and nothing but dog. Really fun beasts.

Our next door nighbor has 2 black labs...a 2 yrs. old and a 1 yr. old. They let me come over and "dognap" them both. The pup loves my mah :)

They are NUTs off leash and can dang near run my std. poodle into the dirt.

WOO WOO.

+1000000000 on the crate training...saved our life. Never use it as a punishment. Feed them dinner in the crate and toss treats into it for no reason.

[Dave B]

Great dogs..Labs.

There is a brillant book written by German Monks on dog training. I thik they trained these german shepards. So many useful ideas adn tactics that work well.

Labs have energy, but the great thing is that they can give their owners energy.

You have to come to the understanding that humans don't "own" dogs, they have relationships with them. Think about your dog as a member of your family and think about how you would want to be treated. Dogs love attention more then a food treat. Give it loads of attention and have fun with it.

If a dog chews on something, it doesn't know it wasn't supposed to. Working with a dog and giving it human restrictions/expectations doesn't work for the dog! They don't understand human talk!

Plus you stepped up and took the dog for keeps. If that doesn't speak loudly about your character then I do not know what would. Congrats! Good karma is fun to hear about!

[djg21]

Great dogs..Labs.

There is a brillant book written by German Monks on dog training.



The monks to whom you are referring are the Monks of New Skete (http://www.newsketemonks.com/)
They aren't German, they're from SerottaLand -- Cambridge, New York.

The book to which you are referring is entitled How To Be Your Dog's Best Friend.

http://www.newsketemonks.com/images/bestfriend1.jpg

It is a wonderful book, and well worth owning. It may be purchased at Amazon, or any other bookstore. However, I strongly urge you to purchase it directly from the Monks. http://www.newsketemonks.com/catalogue.htm.

The Art of Raising a Puppy is also great. However it is largely duplicative of some of How To Be Your Dog's Best Friend.

On edit, you can visit the Monastery if you make it to Saratoga.

http://www.newsketemonks.com/images/map.jpg

[NAHBS]

I have 2 Black Labs. Jake and Elwood.
Elwood is now 8, but plenty fiesty. He still wrestles with Jake (3) daily. Its much better with 2 dogs. They will play and wrestle and if you have one that is well behaved and a bit older, its easier to train the younger one.
Elwood used to lay at my feet in any room in the house, until Jake came along. Then he let Jake lay by my feet.
The funny thing is, even though they are both Labs, Elwood is a shorter, stockier type and Jake is tall and lanky, built for speed.
I use a 8 inch rubber ring for "fetch". More often than not, they will bring it back until tired...then they will lay down and protect it until its time to throw it again.

Congrats on the dog!

DW

[jhcakilmer]

Are you sure it's a pure lab, or could it be a mix?

Just wondering since, my bother-in-law's brother has a lab, that is a mix, but looks 100% lab, and is over 120lbs and is a beast.....awsome dog. Great personality, and even great with kids, except that fact that he doesn't realize how big he really is.

I believe his is a German Shepard/Lab mix.....anyway, makes for a very large dog.

In my experience, labs have the best personality of any medium-large breads, but do require a quite a bit of work, but will definitely pay off in the long run!

[William]

I have 2 Black Labs. Jake and Elwood.


DW


William :cool:

[lemondsteel]

I have a Choc. Lab who's bloodline is the duck's Umlimited champion "Mud". The dog knew 47 commands (If I remember right) and my dog Jagger is almost with him on known commands. He is always at 77-80lbs and is very lean. We feed him nothing but Eagle Pack Holistic dog food. Tried all the other good brands and Eagle was the best. Coat shines, no hot spots in summer, minimum scratching and sheddding. Please look into this food it is the best IMHO. Run him dialy or as we all say wear your arm out throwing a tennis ball. Jagger is the resident stud in the area and one of his males sold to a friend and name requirement was "Mick". Ours is very protective and is a dominant type dog yet very gentle when when not in a protect mode! I would never own any other breed!

[Serotta PETE]

Have two males labs. One Chocolate and 9 years and the other yellow and two years. Wonderful dogs and are in low 80 lbs...

Definitely recommend crate train (usually they learn real fast) and obedience training...

Have fun with him....PETE