We are going to visit Zinnia next Tuesday in Avon, Connecticut. We’re going to return to Avon to pick her up on Tuesday, November 12th, about five weeks away.

We’re going to get her a large crate right off the bat and put a divider in it, puppies grow fast and there’s no point in getting a crate we’ll just have to change later.

Lab puppies can’t really control their bowel and urinary movements until about 12 weeks, so we’ll put a towel in one end of the crate, and we can wash it in the morning.

There is no good reason initially to get up in the middle of the night. We’ll need our sleep when she gets bigger.

I’ve got my socialization program in order – Bishop Maginn and the Mansion the primary places, the dentist’s office has volunteered and so has Carroll’s Corner, the consignment shop.

She needs to get used to cars and bank drive-thrus and coffee stops. I hope for her to be a trusted therapy dog, and socialization early on is the key to that. She has to get used to a lot of different people, sounds, smells,  and places.

I want her to experience a lot of different things, so almost nothing will startle her.

I’ll save some empty plastic water bottles, there are few better toys for a Lab puppy, they love the noise and can push it all over the house.

No playing outside during housebreaking, we don’t want any distractions from peeing and pooping. She’ll eat 3/4 of a cup of puppy food three times a day at first, then we’ll pare down to two feedings in a few weeks.

No ball playing inside of the house. No wrestling, no putting her teeth on people, no jumping up on people. She should be encouraged to walk, not be carried, from the first. Training begins informally and casually right away. Details to come.

She will sleep downstairs in a crate for the first six to eight months, past early teething and accidents. This is not difficult for us to do, we don’t need or want a 60 pound Lab in our Queen sized bed.

We’ve learned that lesson.

I’ll carpet bomb the floors with appropriate chew toys, Labs will chew on anything when they are puppies. They need to know the difference between their stuff and our stuff.

Bud gets into bed sometimes, but he sleeps in a crate as well until just before we get up.

(I took this photo on the way back from a food shop in Bennington. Got some fresh crab cakes and salmon for dinner. We have been blessed with some beautiful skies in the past few weeks, global warming seems to be good for colorful skies.)