So little Bear is becoming medium sized Bear at 17.5 kilos last Saturday, when he was 20 weeks. He's the joint smallest out of the litter, one of them was over 22 kilos at 20 weeks!
The toilet training has worked itself out now, probably within ten days of me posting about him still weeing in the house. No accidents at all inside for nearly three weeks, and we've now removed the pen from around his crate, so no more puppy pads (not that he has messed inside the crate for over a month, I think. )
I do feel we are missing out on not being able to go to puppy classes. He's distracted by other dogs, cyclists, runners, children, pretty much everything. His recall to whistle is pretty good, close to 100% if there is no distraction.
He is without doubt brighter than Monty, he moved things to get onto other surfaces, and just sees life as one huge climbing frame.
He things the dishwasher is amazing, and steal the cutlery straight out of the rack. He seems to go for knives - one morning I picked the butter knife up from the middle of the lawn, and in another hairy moment, OH had to gently get a very sharp vegetable knife from him - he was holding it horizontally, with his mouth across the handle. Eek.
Monty continues to be lovely, though the play fighting and noise is very wearing. Bear still jumps all over him and uses Monty's back as a perch to reach up higher.
On reflection, I'm not really sure if getting Bear is in Monty's overall best interests. He does seem quite frazzled by him, and doesn't ever learn that much of the time Bear just wants to jump all over him and nibble his ears. However, every day now, we have multiple times when they do chill out together - on our bed, the sofa, carpet. They aren't especially snuggly with each other - Bear would probably like to be - but that's fine, no rush. In fact, I feel that Bear has aged Monty a bit -he' a little slower, a bit more sensible - up for an occasional zoomie and tug, but he's happy to snooze the day away more then ever before(frankly, he's probably shattered)
Bear has become more affectionate, with more tummy rubs and snuggles, in the early days he would tend to move away from us. He is so quick and agile, leaps up and over things, takes steps three or four at a time. I was thinking of some gundog work with him(I''ve bought a puppy dummy I have absolutely no idea what to do with) but actually, I think agility might be his thing.
I'm a complete hypocrite as I swore I would do the five minute rule with Bear - and we haven't, at all. 90% of his walks are off lead and at his own pace, but we are around 45 minutes now on each walk. If he doesn't get a decent walk, he will do mad zoomies round our small garden, which I think is probably far harder on his joints than trotting round the woods. Though a couple of weeks ago he did leap across a four foot ditch, no thought, no fear. We were just left open mouthed.
I don't think he's the prettiest / most handsome dog ever, but he's growing into his face a bit more, his fur is beautiful and dark, the same colour all over and incredibly soft.
He's a delight, and a horror, and angel and a devil dog. Typical lab puppy?
The toilet training has worked itself out now, probably within ten days of me posting about him still weeing in the house. No accidents at all inside for nearly three weeks, and we've now removed the pen from around his crate, so no more puppy pads (not that he has messed inside the crate for over a month, I think. )
I do feel we are missing out on not being able to go to puppy classes. He's distracted by other dogs, cyclists, runners, children, pretty much everything. His recall to whistle is pretty good, close to 100% if there is no distraction.
He is without doubt brighter than Monty, he moved things to get onto other surfaces, and just sees life as one huge climbing frame.
He things the dishwasher is amazing, and steal the cutlery straight out of the rack. He seems to go for knives - one morning I picked the butter knife up from the middle of the lawn, and in another hairy moment, OH had to gently get a very sharp vegetable knife from him - he was holding it horizontally, with his mouth across the handle. Eek.
Monty continues to be lovely, though the play fighting and noise is very wearing. Bear still jumps all over him and uses Monty's back as a perch to reach up higher.
On reflection, I'm not really sure if getting Bear is in Monty's overall best interests. He does seem quite frazzled by him, and doesn't ever learn that much of the time Bear just wants to jump all over him and nibble his ears. However, every day now, we have multiple times when they do chill out together - on our bed, the sofa, carpet. They aren't especially snuggly with each other - Bear would probably like to be - but that's fine, no rush. In fact, I feel that Bear has aged Monty a bit -he' a little slower, a bit more sensible - up for an occasional zoomie and tug, but he's happy to snooze the day away more then ever before(frankly, he's probably shattered)
Bear has become more affectionate, with more tummy rubs and snuggles, in the early days he would tend to move away from us. He is so quick and agile, leaps up and over things, takes steps three or four at a time. I was thinking of some gundog work with him(I''ve bought a puppy dummy I have absolutely no idea what to do with) but actually, I think agility might be his thing.
I'm a complete hypocrite as I swore I would do the five minute rule with Bear - and we haven't, at all. 90% of his walks are off lead and at his own pace, but we are around 45 minutes now on each walk. If he doesn't get a decent walk, he will do mad zoomies round our small garden, which I think is probably far harder on his joints than trotting round the woods. Though a couple of weeks ago he did leap across a four foot ditch, no thought, no fear. We were just left open mouthed.
I don't think he's the prettiest / most handsome dog ever, but he's growing into his face a bit more, his fur is beautiful and dark, the same colour all over and incredibly soft.
He's a delight, and a horror, and angel and a devil dog. Typical lab puppy?
I think he’s got a beautiful face .
.
