Clover at the beach :)

[Karen]

Where in Canada do you live? I've never seen a beach that color brown! Tan sand, pink sand, white sand - but not chocolate brown! And there's no such thing as too many puppy pictures!

[Sowa]

Where in Canada do you live? I've never seen a beach that color brown! Tan sand, pink sand, white sand - but not chocolate brown! And there's no such thing as too many puppy pictures!

East coast. Red soil here.

[cassiesmom]

You will NEVER post too many pics of Clover for me! I love seeing her!

What Chocolatepuppy said! I love seeing her too! She is so pretty! I love her eyes.
"I am Clover and I'm on a mission." Yep, a mission to have fun and be happy and precious!

[Karen]

East coast. Red soil here.

Cool, are you up in the Maritimes? My grandmother used to visit Nova Scotia with friends, and we have a lot of Newfie people (okay, descendants of) at my church!

[Sowa]

Cool, are you up in the Maritimes? My grandmother used to visit Nova Scotia with friends, and we have a lot of Newfie people (okay, descendants of) at my church!

Yup

[kaycountrygal]

No, You dont post too often or too many pics. I like seeing pics of Clover. She is just beautiful. No, I dont think she is too skinny. She looks "just right" to me. She sure is a sweet pretty puppy.

[luvofallhorses]

She is so cute! Never too many pics of puppies! I do not think she is skinny, she looks like she's in good shape for a pup a lab at that! Just keep her the way she is, most labs even pups I have seen are overweight for their age and it saddens me but your girl looks great! Make sure you don't do any heavy exercise though until she is atleast a year-1 year and a half old.

[Sowa]

What would be considered heavy exercise? She goes to the beach but she doesn't do much. Mostly she runs around.

I try to run her off leash a little bit everyday. She listens well right now but we don't take any chances and is only allowed off in fields where no cars are (my cottage for ex. huge fields with really no where to go) or if its fenced in. She seems to get really hyper if I don't run her a little in the morning and in the afternoon.

How long should I be walking her a day at this age? I'd say we go for maybe 2-3 20 min walks a day. Maybe a little more or less depending on how much time I have. I find if I do this, she's not getting into trouble in the house (like chewing etc)

Maybe she's not old enough yet, but my last Lab chewed EVERYTHING. Even the legs on the kitchen table/chairs. I have a lot more toys and chewy bones for Clover though. That might help. I hope! I hate having to leave her locked up every time I go out.

[HoochsMommiee]

can i smooch ur baby tooo adoreable

[luvofallhorses]

Well jogging with her making her run is heavy exercise and is hard on their growing joints. I would say what you're doing now isn't heavy exercise. As long as you exercise her good, she won't want to shred everything in sight up.

It's for her own good to crate her when you're gone, I wouldn't feel bad about it and if you give her like a kong filled with peanut butter while you are gone, she will be fine. I would put peanut butter in the kong, freeze it overnight and give it to her before you leave. My dogs LOVE that.

It keeps her safe and your house from getting torn up, too or having her getting into something toxic or eating something that can cause obstruction and a very expensive vet bill.. so I wouldn't worry too much she is safe in her crate.

[Karen]

I hate having to leave her locked up every time I go out.

Don't hate it, it is just a nice way to reinforce the crate as her own little den.

[CountryWolf07]

No! Don't quit posting pictures of Clover! I LOVE her. She's a unique girl. I love Labs, so, obviously, keep doing it. If you want to encourage her to like water, get a kiddie pool. My boyfriend has one for his Lab, Dozer. He loves it, otherwise, he hates the hose! Silly boy.

[IRescue452]

Looks like she had fun .

She's definately not too skinny. Free running exercise is better than forced leash exercise. This way if she gets tired she can stop. She can choose what speed she's able to go at any moment as opposed to leash exercise where a dog has no choice but to push on until the human decides to stop. Some leash walking is good too though, it helps with obedience and learning control in situations where a dog may need it. 20 minutes is a good sized walk in addition to off-leash stuff.

As far as crating goes, I have 2 dogs who hate the crate, one is rescued. They will at least listen to the command to go in the crate though. I believe it is very important to try and get your dog to take to the crate as comfortably as possible. You never know when an emergency is going to happen and the dog will need to be confined safely. Also, what if something happened to you? What if somebody needed to care for your dog but was unwilling or unable to leave them out at all times? It would be best for the dog to be ok with being crated at times.

[Sowa]

Thanks, that makes sense about the exercise.

I don't want her to always be crated though. Only until I know she will be safe on her own. Then she can have free range of the house. (minus furniture) That's how it's always been with my other dogs.

I'm starting puppy kindergarten soon. I think around 6 months we'll do obedience. I think I heard that's when it's ok to start using training collars and such. (that's what they usually use at obedience classes I've been to.) Though the person I was talking to said I could start her around 8-10 weeks old.