My Awesome Labs       Specializing in white Labrador Puppies

New Puppy (owner) Responsibilities

Here at My Awesome Labs, we want to place our puppies with the greatest families possible. We want families to be informed and know what to expect when they take a new puppy home with them as well as what financial resources are required for the best pet care possible. A puppy is just like bringing a new baby home from the hospital. You are the new parent that will provide care for the puppy day and night so he/she will turn out to be the adult dog that everyone loves to be around.

We work very closely with our vet for pet care, physicals, vaccinations, as well as dog care suggestions. We recommend that our new families take their new puppy to the vet within the first week that they have the puppy. This is for a complete check over and to introduce the puppy to your vet. I'm sure that this will be a fun experience for you and the puppy.

A few things to take into consideration before you bring a new puppy into your home:

- do you have time for a new puppy in the house? If you are trying to house (potty) train a puppy, they will need to go out about every 2 hours, maybe more after eating and playing. It won't be long, and they will be able to hold it all night and go potty outside. Labs adjust to indoor life very easily. They are easy to train, and gentle for the entire family.

- we feed our dogs a good nutritional food as well as NuVet supplaments and Omega-3 vitamins every day. This is essential for a healthy and happy pet. Don't wait until your pet becomes sick or quits eating, start your pet on NuVet today.

- socialization is very important for your new puppy. We recommend taking them to puppy school and obedience training which is fun for both you and your new pupy. If you are in the Stillwater area, we recommend puppy school at the Stillwater Kennel Club.

- we recommend crate training for your new puppy. Even if you don't plan on using the crate very long, we have found out that once they are trained, then they are happy to stay there any time.

- each puppy will need to take a heartworm medication monthly. This is to prevent heartworms that are tansmitted by misquitoes and can be very unhealthy for your dog. Visit with your vet for information about your area and the best heart worm, flea, and tick prevention for your puppy.

- labradors love water and need regular exercise. They love to go on walks and really love when they are around other people and other dogs. Sometimes they enjoy being turned loose and just running. We find going to the park or walking through the neighborhood is a lot of fun and good exercise for us too.

- we try to bathe our dogs weekly. They really love the water and will look forward to their bath. Labs also shed noticeable twice a year. We find using a comb like a firminator will remove the under coat of hair and help reduce the white hair in the house. We use Dawn dish washing soap on our dogs. It is amazing how it makes their coat shine.

- labs LOVE to chew. You will need to teach them what to chew on as well as what NOT to chew on. We have found that we need to be around the puppy even when it is playing. We can then tell the pupy "NO" when they head for something they should not be chewing/playing with. Then we give them one of their toys to play with and give them praise as they chew on their toy. Very soon they learn to only chew or play with their toys not MY toys. We also go to the local butcher and buy our dogs fresh beef bones. They love to chew on bones and it provides hours of chewing relief.

- A little caution: Labradors don't mature till about 2 to 3 years of age. When playing with them, don't bounce a ball off the garage door for them to suddenly change direction and chase or catch. This puts undue pressure on their joints and may result in damage or soreness to their hips. Something else to avoid is letting the puppy jump down from a pickup or suv, this too may cause joint problems.