Introducing Dingo an 8 week old Labrador puppy!
We thought it would be fun to document Dingo’s early years of life for our community to follow. Whilst we are not professionals, we have been raised with and owned dogs all of our lives and would like to share what we do. We might just have a little tip or hint, that could be beneficial to someone out there.
Why did we pick a Labrador puppy?
We have had Labradors for a number of years and for our family, they are the perfect dog. Primarily our dogs are pets, they are part of our family and will watch TV and come on walks with us, occasionally can be found sleeping on our bed and we shoot. Labradors naturally want to pick things up and bring them to you, which is a great starting point for an amateur. There is an old tongue in cheek saying, Labradors are born half trained and Spaniels go to the grave half trained! Hence a Labrador works better for us, due to our lack of dog training expertise and busy work lives.
How to pick a breeder?
We are fortunate to be well connected in the area through the shop and know a lot of people who work, breed and train many different breeds of dog. We heard on the jungle drums that local dog trainer Andy had a super litter of Labrador puppies. One Sunday afternoon, we made our way across to his farm to have a look at the litter and to meet the bitch (mother of the puppies).
We are not looking for the next Field Trial Champion, most importantly we want a kind temperament, sound conformation and a puppy that is confident but steady away. Andy introduced us to his bitch Brie and her litter of 8 puppies! We knew we wanted a dog (male) as we already have two male Labradors at home. Brie had really done her litter well, there wasn’t really a pick of the litter. All the puppies were a good size and all had very similar confident and calm personalities. They really were a bundle of puppy yumminess!
How to pick your puppy?
As we’ve mentioned, we knew we wanted a male puppy and there were three in the litter. We feel puppies are similar to young horses, in that they will strengthen and change a lot in the next few months as they grow and develop. However the following points are important for us.
- Good limbs
- Straight back
- Good looking head
- Neat jaw that isn’t overshot or undershot
- Bright alert eyes
- Confident and kind disposition
- Clean and alert ears
Having met Brie and seen some photos of the dog, we made our choice and Dingo was picked!
We look forward to updating you with picking him up and introducing him to Baz and Chaos our dogs at home.
