Costs!

GaHunter19 · 02-15-2003, 10:50 PM

A hunting partner' s lab just had pups. He' s giving me a pup for free, in exchange for doing his share of the off season work on our lease. I' m in my final semester of college and and curious what costs i might incur for the next three months until I start working. I' m on a limited budget. I know that it has had its first shots, but thats about it.
Also, I know the mother is a great hunter, but very high strung. And the father is a very calm pet that has never hunted. What should I expect from this type of dog. I one that I have picked out is a chocolate female, and she tends to be a little more agressive than her siblings.

Thanks for the help

gspgirl · 02-16-2003, 09:40 PM

The best investiment in the next three month' s is lot' s of chew toy' s!! ha ha
Congrat' s on you' re new pup, good luck!

Ruddyduck · 02-17-2003, 04:24 AM

Invest in a good kennel crate. The money you save on shoes ,furniture and anything else a pup can get into when you' re not watching will more than a pay for itself in the first week.
Then go to you local library and get a few books on training. They usually have Woolters and Free on the shelves.

RockCreekRetrievers · 02-25-2003, 04:37 PM

Hi, and congrats on the new puppy, I am a lil partial to the breed, I have 4 of them!

The first 3 months are not gonna be that expensive if ya take advantage of some really good cost saving tips,,,

First there is the dog food:
Buy a really good PUPPY formula it has the extra calcium and vitamins that your lil girl is gonna need,,there are some great ones out there that are NOT expensive,,I tried the Diamond brand ( cost me $20.00) for puppies,,but my last lil yellow male has a corn meal allergy!! but I have had several that like it ,,but even cheaper than that is MAXXIUM PUPPY FORMULA( i think it is about $8.00-10.00 at Wal-Mart) , which is also good.

Then there is the shots:
I buy mine from the vet' s office,I recommend the vets shots because I have heard that the " feed store" shots are not as good quality in some cases. I give my shots to my dogs myself (cost is about $7.00) and I do the Progard 7 series....

Next and this is REALLY important,,WORMER
For one dog you can pick this up at the vets office really cheap ( I have 4 so I buy the bottle of Panacur) for about $8.00 for a single dose. It is really important to worm them regularly, I worm mine from 6 weeks (and then every 2 weeks) until they are 14 weeks old. and then I worm them every 3 months.

Please let me caution you about the recent findings about PROHEART 6,, ( NOT PROGARD 7 ) this is an injected 6 month supply of heartworm medication that has been proven to cause SEVERE HEALTH PROBLEMS AND EVEN DEATH IN DOGS!

I would recommend a crate,,not to be confused with " pet carrier" they can be found at Wal-Mart really cheap as well,,,

And last but not least ,,,,the number one toy for a bored lab to have.......

Can you say KONG ??????????(you can find this at any pet store) yep, it is indestructable (so it is safe to leave it with your dog) and you can fill it with frozen peanut butter, treats,,,etc...... it keeps them busy for awhile trying to lick all the goodies out!

If I can answer any more questions for ya just let me know, I have raised 4 from puppies, and there are some things I could share with ya! by the way,,one of my boys is a Chocolate!

OhioDuckHunter · 02-25-2003, 05:33 PM

Congrats on your new pup!

I have 2 Labs myself. A 5 years old gunshy couch potatoe and a 1 1/2 year old retrieving machine! THis all sounds like very good advice. Labs require lots of attention and execise. A pup will require little play at first, more later. At 14 months, I was ready to get rid of my pup. I did not have hyperactive problems with my older Lab and did not know how to deal with it and was not ready to put up with it forever. A friend in a club I joined gave the advice of working with her 15 to 30 intues each evening when I returned home from work. This works great! She loves the attention and retrieving practice and makes her more bearable in the house.

More advice... Walters has some good books and videos avaiable at most libraries. His books and videos are good, but what I found is that not all advice works for all dogs. I tried to follow his regime to the T and was disappointed. Maybe because I am not a professional trainer and maybe not. What worked for me was to read a lot of authors and take what worked for me from all of them. More from some than others.

Lastly, if you do not plan on breeding your dog, which should be left to those whom know what they are doing, have your pup spayed or nuetered. This will help with excitement levels later in life and will not affect the dog' s performance in the field. Good luck!