I just wanted to say how informative this forum has been for me over the past couple of months. My wife and I decided to get a labradoodle on New Year's day. We located a breeder a couple of hours away and the puppies were born on January 19th. We got our puppy last Friday. This is our first dog so we've done lots of research to make sure we would get off to a good start. I've read this forum fairly consistently since January.
We are crate training and the first night was fairly rough with all of the crazy sounds I had read about. While it is still difficult to get him to walk in the crate by himself, by last night he didn't make a sound once the door was closed. I'm really amazed at the progress. We are also tethering him and that seems to be working out as well. We purchased an x-pen as a possible alternative to tethering. I'm not sure if that experiment will work. We have made regular and frequent trips to the backyard and so far he as only had one accident on the floor.
We're really happy with our decision and feel like if we are persistent he is going to be a great dog. Again, thanks for all the sharing of information. It has been invaluable to us.
We are crate training and the first night was fairly rough with all of the crazy sounds I had read about. While it is still difficult to get him to walk in the crate by himself, by last night he didn't make a sound once the door was closed. I'm really amazed at the progress. We are also tethering him and that seems to be working out as well. We purchased an x-pen as a possible alternative to tethering. I'm not sure if that experiment will work. We have made regular and frequent trips to the backyard and so far he as only had one accident on the floor.
We're really happy with our decision and feel like if we are persistent he is going to be a great dog. Again, thanks for all the sharing of information. It has been invaluable to us.