My wife is such a wonderful lady. On Saturday, she took our daughter to a Girl Scout troop meeting, and afterwards our daughter wanted to go and spend the night with her little friend....No problems. Well, her little friend's Dad just so happened to have 2 two week old Golden Retriever/Black Lab mix pups. The Dad is a Black Lab with papers while the Mom is a Golden Retriever/Yello Lab Mix...no papers. Out of the blue, the owner askes my wife if she might want one. My wife then askes the owner what the price would be for one of the little pups....both golden haired and male. The owner replies &quot;All you need to pay for is the $20 for the first shots&quot; She calls me, I say yes....Now, we'll have a new addidion to our family in 4 weeks!! <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle> I met the little guy yesterday for the first time...got some baby video footage, and set up a few visits until we can bring him home.

Anyone with a Golden Retriever/Lab mix out there?

What, can I expect to be able to do with this little fellow as he grows, as far as hunting?

Any concerns or tips for hunting? ...House-breaking?? .....Health concerns??? Suggested training books/videos????

All help appreciated.

Edited by - Catfish369 on 01/27/2003 13:28:38

You really need to wait until the pup is 7 to 8 weeks old before taking him from his siblings. At 6 weeks, he will not yet have learned that he is a dog.

Doc is right on about the time frame to bring your new family member home,be fore warned that the pup will test everyone to see where it stands in it's new pack, over and over and over again. The visit thing is very important as the pup will associate your scent with nothing to fear.

I also agree with Doc. I picked up my Lab when she was 7 weeks to the day. I think that was a good time.

As far as advice, PATIENCE, PATIENCE, PATIENCE! As I said, I have a Lab. I had an invitation to join an English Springer Spaniel club and accepted it. These guys are great. I help them (grunt and gun work) and they in turn help me. &quot;Annie&quot; is my first hunting dog and I am as green at training as she is at learning. I tried the book and video approach and made numerous mistakes.

The guys at the club are helping me work through the mistakes and advance into good training practices. The president of our club has been training dogs since 1962, and the others have varried experience. If you can join a dog club (any hunting breed) it ill help you. Good Luck!

As far as hunting,it's hard to say. There are some mutts that will beat a purebred in the field any day, but it tends to be the other way around. A lot depends on the trainer too. But hey, for $20, that could end up being a very good investment. Good luck with your new pal.

Without passion.....Why bother?

id wait till 7-8 weeks also. i dont know much about bird dogs but the lab mix i had would retrieve anything u wanted her to naturaly never hunted with her so i cant comment on hunting ability.

I agree with the others,,try to wait until 7 weeks,, there is a BIG difference in the attitude of a 6 week old and a 7 week old,,as far as a golden/lab mix,,I know of a few (2 or 3) that are ABSOLUTELY wonderful hunting dogs,,,but the key words for a good hunting dog are PATIENCE&lt; PATIENCE&lt;PATIENCE and TRAINING &lt;&lt;TRAINING&lt;&lt;TRAINING

Have fun and congratulations on the new addition!

Picked him (Buck) up today!!! 7 weeks old, to the day. Well, when I was out shopping for a few things (SEVERAL chew toys, Ol' Roy Puppy Food, collars, leashes, food/water bowls) for Buck prior to going over to get him, I ran into the current owner. After setting a time to meet at his house, he mentioned that he still needed to find a home for the other pup he still had and asked if I knew of anyone. I replied that I knew of no one looking.......and then I took both pups [8D]. The other pup' s name is Roy. They are named after Roy Clark and *Buck Owens, (*my 3rd cousin on my Mom' s side, believe it or not). Both are Golden phase and as cute as a button....well 2 buttons.

They don' t seem to like it inside and are doing just fine outside, even though it' s raining right now, so outside is where they' ll stay I guess. First Vet visit scheduled for Monday, and puppy obedience training starts soon afterwards, in about a week or so. Later I' m hoping to fine a good retriever School and go from there, or possibly train them myself.

What a great day!!!

Good luck to you with your new pups. My lab is now about 13 weeks old and she is a handful, but if yours are staying outside and are happy with that, it may make it a lot easier. Have fun!!!!!!!

I know you are excited, however, taking on training a pup is a time consuming thing for a novice. Training two might be more that you have anticipated. I do not know about you but I work about 9 hours a day with a 1 hour round trip commute so there goes 10 hours of my day. Mojo, my dog, is one year old and a " started retreiver" now, so he does now require quite as much attention, however, during the first 10 months or so I put in 10 hours of work then 15-20 minutes with Mojo and a couple hours with the family then off to bed. Don' t want to discurage you by any means. Just did not know if you have thought it through. Those cute little eyes and noses can be hard to say no to. If you have thought through all this stuff, then good luck to you and your new additions to the family.