Week 6: New Pups come home

We brought home Charlie and Lizzie when they were 6 weeks, 1 day old.  

 A lot of the literature we read suggests 6 to 8 weeks as the proper time to wean them from the mother, and we knew that the person who raised the dogs (a coworker of mine and a dog lover) was getting puppy overload from the litter of 10 that she had to take care of for the entire time.  

Kelly was constantly asking me to bring them home early.  So after work one day, I arranged to pick them up and used two cat carriers that Kelly had to make sure they didn’t pee or poop in my car, and luckily I had a size that fit both.

Charlie is a big chocolate lab and was the biggest puppy in the litter.  A lot of people that saw him when he was growing up called him ‘Bear’ and it pretty much sums up his appearance.  He tends to chew a lot and tends to like to lay on cooler surfaces (I suspect its due to his larger body type).  Charlie was the first one we were able to teach to sit and lay down after only a few days, using dried cherries as the primary motivational tool.  

Lizzie on the other hand is an energetic little black lab who has been the hardest to potty train. 

Writing this one week later, they both already come when called, although Charlie tends to ignore the ‘come’ command when it’s to come into the house from outside (he seems to love being outside).