He’s living the life…

Cute puppy, labs are my favorite.

What a cutie, congratulations!

Well, after the first day (and night), a few observations:

1) I was reminded, very clearly, what a lab puppy is.

2) I don't remember it being so hard to get up off the floor with the last one.

3) On the plus side, his nighttime pee schedule isn't that much different than mine, so there's that.


PS. Thanks for all the comments and well wishes.

Cute!!! You're gonna need a Jeep now, just saying.

quote:

Originally posted by TexasScrub:
Cute!!! You're gonna need a Jeep now, just saying.

I'm not buying him a jeep until he retrieves his first dozen birds...

^^^ He's gotta earn it!

Congrats! I'm so envious. I lost my buddy a few months ago and miss him something awful every day. Hope you have many happy years together.
Rod

quote:

Originally posted by sig sailor:
Congrats! I'm so envious. I lost my buddy a few months ago and miss him something awful every day. Hope you have many happy years together.
Rod

I understand completely. They leave a hole in your soul when they go. How about another buddy? It doesn't fill the hole, but it does help to not dwell on it. And thanks for the good wishes.

Beautiful pup! Does sound like he picked you, lol. I’m sure you’ll have many fun times with him!

Happy for both of you...

Well…after 1 week were both still here. Riley is already sleeping through the night, although, his night is a little different than mine. We’ll adjust. He’s still a little mouthy but getting better. Probably should have spent another week or so with Mom so she could put him in his place. Already knows “sit” and “down” but with the attention span of a gnat, performance is still hit and miss. He’ll learn quickly though. Had our first nail trimming session. That was fun. You’d think I was killing him if you heard him.

1st vet visit yesterday. All puppy tests negative (parasites/parvo). Vet is pushing Simparica Trio as flea/tick/heartworm med. While I love the idea of a single monthly med, all my previous dogs used Heartguard/Frontline. I tried doing some research, but all I can find are horror stories from folks using it. Is anyone using this med for their pups? Effectiveness / issues? I find it hard to believe that Riley’s vet would push something that would harm him. Forum vets 2nd opinion welcome. Thanks!

We looked at the flea/tick/heartworm med combos for Moose, and the prices were outrageous, plus I haven't heard great things about their effectiveness. We ended up going with a standalone heartworm med 1x/month and a flea & tick collar. The collar has been simple and highly effective...ticks are horrible here this year and I was pulling multiples off of him every day the first warm week. Since getting the collar we've only found one, and it wasn't burrowed in.

Getting him to eat the heartworm med has been the biggest challenge. My old dog you could just drop it in her dish with her food and she'd chow it right down. He eats everything around it and leaves it. We gave it to him with peanut butter and he licked all that off and spit the pill back out. Finally we broke it into tiny pieces and basically force-fed it to him. A friend gave us some "pill pockets" that we're going to try next month and see if that works any better.

congratulations - so cute. I have no experience with Simparica. I go with heartguard and seresto collar

He's a cutie.

We have had our pup on Simparico Trio with zero issues. It’s cheaper via our vet’s prescription service than via Chewy.

Hera is a 4 yr old lab / chihuahua / Aussie mix, about 50 lbs.

Thanks for the replies. I've used the heartgard/frontline combo for close to 40 years on 4 different dogs with zero problems and outstanding effectiveness. While a monthly one and done is very appealing, there are way too many stories of neurological issues with the new stuff for me to get comfortable with. Where there's smoke, there's fire and all that. Probably silliness on my part but I'll stick with the old way.

And I lost my chair...

Part of the tick/flea meds decision is exposure. With short grass in a fenced yard, it’s much lower than a rural area, brushy. Yes, they can be almost anywhere, early summer is high time.

Just do the size appropriate application. After a trip north to our camp, I try to do a bath with tick shampoo upon returning.

Right now I use the off brand with the same ingredients as front line. Ticks potentially carry nasty ailments with a deep bite.

Another vote for the Heartguard and Frontline combo.