The Perils Of puppydom

[Bogmaster]

 Got home from the Illinois convention,early this morning.My wife informed me,that our black Lab pup had gotten sick and thrown up.The cause of his sickness----he had swallowed a Berkshire disposable stake.I don't know which was tougher--his stomach or the stake.
 Sure hope he sticks to his puppy chow.
 Tom

[Thumper]

I hope not the cable too!

    

[coyotero]

My Black Lab,when she was little,ate a Blair Eddy Coyote Skinning and Handling video tape.She chewed it up and swallowed it.She also ate the VCR remote control that day.Made for interesting lawn clean up the next couple of days.A guy I know left his Lab pup in the truck with his shotgun,uncased,the pup chewed up the butt stock so bad it had to be replace.

[Macthediver]

Tom
Wait till you hit a little colored dog turd in the yard with the lawn mower, and Poof! It turns from a little white pellet. Into a full size plastic grocery bag or more often a paper towel. I don't know how a dog can swallow one of them without choking, but I've seen it several times. I had one lab here that had a thing for eating socks(whole). Funny part was it never ate mine just the wife and kids. I don't know if my socks just stunk to much, or if it was a dominance thing.

Mac

[Bogmaster]

 Mark,he is only about  half grown now.I am going to have to buy a front end loader,just to handle the dog turds.5 pounds of food,yields 10 pounds of doggy land mines.
 Tom

[curdog]

 

[cotton jonas]

having a time house breaking our new lab,man she's a pretty thang.
take the little knothead outside and she'll come back in and wizz in the floor

[skidway]

Keep talking guys! I'm using these posts as reasons NOT to get another dog.

[Bogmaster]

 Tony,mine goes for a week with no accidents--then he has one.Perfection is adequite,but like babies ,it isn,t going to happen.
 Mike,think how boring life is without kids,it is the same way with dogs. A dogless life,is a boring life.Their love is real and unending.
 Got woken up yesterday,by 2 paws on my back and something tugging on my ponytail.Nope,wasn't my wife.
 Tom

[skidway]

I just got rid of the kids Tom! I'm enjoying freedom from responsibilty for a while here. It's been nice not having to wonder (worry) about what to do with the dog and the kids; just close the door and take off for a while. But I miss them and know I'll have another in the future ( dog, not kid. The dog and I got fixed on the same day) for the exact reasons you mentioned. Gets too quiet around here now..

[Macthediver]

I've had the dogs I trusted to walk around the house day and night. I also have one right now that just won't leave ya sleep during the night, if left to roam.
So... all of the dogs we have had here the last 15 or more years have been crate trained. Training a dog to use a crate / pet porter is really a neat thing. Helps a bunch with house breaking, dog goes out soon as it comes out of the crate. Then are not let back in the house till they go. Don't take  a smart dog long to figure that one out.
But Tom ya really can't trust most dogs not to have and accident or two. Untill they are at least a year old they just can't hold it sometimes. It's like you said just like a child.
Most the dogs I've had have been females and we had a couple that took a long time to get over the submissive piddle. Really annoying.
But back to the crates, some here may recall me camped at the 01 NTA convention in Ohio. I had 4 full grown labs tied up at my camp site. They laided around in the sun or shade most the day. Then at night I just popped them all in their crates and they was happy campers.
Used to work great when I hunted Iowa for pheasants. We sometimes had as many as 5 or 6 dogs in one motel room. There was no playing and rolling around with each other all night. They all went in crates at bed time and snored away.
There have been times when there is a bunch hectic stuff going on here at the house. One or both of the dogs disapears. You go look and their in their crate snoozing.
I don't think a crate is a cure all, but I can say that I will never have another dog here that is not crate trained.

Mac

[Bogmaster]

 Mark,the crate I got the pup,is as big as aV.W. bus.Now I have a place to sack out, if my wife gets mad at me.
 Tom

[tbull55]

I'll tell ya what about those labs.  A buddy of mine had a big black lab and we use to refer to her as the silent theif!  We would have some sort of food laid out on the counter and as soon as you would turn your back she would swoop in, take the food, consume it, clean the plate and be gone by the time you turned around.  I mean this pooch was good.  She was a tough old bird, twice she got into her dog food bag and ate a whole 50lb. bag of food.  She ate a whole box of chocolates, a small bag of charcoal, a bag of millorganite, and several other household items, I just listed some of the odd ones.  She was fed well and had plenty of company so, I have no idea why she ate this weird stuff!  All in all she was a good dog.

Tbull