Max's Journal

2013.07.30

This is the first journal entry. I decided to do this so other lab/Newfoundland owners can have some feedback about what their Newfoundland lab might be like. Please note that even among pure breed dogs not all personalities or physical characteristics are the same (which is a good things). This is especially true with mix breeds so please don't assume that your puppy will turn out like mine. We got max on July 16th of 2013. We were told he was about 8 and a half weeks old. The vet put his birthday at May 19th which isn't necessarily exact but we're going with it. (The vet suspects that he might be a tad younger than we thought) Max was considerably smaller than his two siblings that were left with him (one girl that was larger and one boy that was nearly twice max's size). Maybe he was the runt? He was the first puppy to come over the little hill in the yard and approach us. All three of the puppies were still nursing to some extent and when we brought Max home he continued to try this on Maggie and Granite for about a week. (Maggie is our two year old lab border collie mix. Granite is my parents cocker spaniel) He particularly like Granite's fur which was similar to his mom's fur. His mom was a Newfoundland named Cocoa and weighed in at 120 lbs which is on the big side of normal for a Newfoundland female. His dad was a yellow lab. I do not know his dad's name or weight at this time, nor do I have any pictures of his dad. Max was very cuddly for the first few days then became pretty independent as he grew. He likes to be near us, but isn't overly fond of cuddling. It seems that this is partly due to liking to lie on cushions and partly due to becoming overheated easily (great.. just like Maggie!). He loves to play with Maggie, is fond of toys and takes frequent naps. He seems eager to please but to our surprise has developed a shyness over the past week. He loves us, but is cautious to approach at times, we are working on overcoming this. He loves people and other dogs in general, but is cautious of new dogs he meets and of new people. Perhaps this is due to not a lack of socialization, but not quite enough (I have been overworking the past few days). We will continue to work on this. He understands sit and learned it pretty quickly. He does not know how to stay but accidentally started learning shake... we'll see how well he understands that. Potty training went well at first, but has taken a bit of a turn for the negative mostly, again, our fault due to not watching for ques as well as we should. It's interesting because at times he will hold it for four hours and at times he has to go again in 15-30 minutes. I suspect this may be due to getting distracted while going pee and not finishing the job. Again, we will continue to work on this. The day after we got him he weighed in at 9.13 lbs and now weighs 15 lbs as of today... This is a 5.87 lb gain in a little under two weeks. I did not get his height and length until today, but we will start tracking that to see how he develops in those areas. I feel like he is a little underweight for his breed but he is perfect weight for his height and length so we will just see how his development goes. He does not like hard surfaces, does not like being left alone, loves being outside and does not like being kenneled or confined though he is doing well with kennel training. We took him to the duck pond a couple days ago and he immediately followed Maggie into the water without any encouragement from us. Not far enough to swim, but far enough to get his chest wet. That was great for his first water experience!