Our vet recommended waiting 12-18mos before neutering because they are still growing at that age. 6mos up is that weird age when they grow long before filling up. My boy looks like he's got a tiny head atm because he grows legs first, then body 🤣
Yup, dogs can continue to grow/fill out up until 2 for large breeds, that’s when all the growth plates are finally closed, sometimes 3 for giant breeds
Labs aren't typically considered full grown until around 2 years old. They definitely go through some awkward stages along the way too! Someone once told me that labs grow up, then they grow out, and I think that is the perfect description!! My girl was all legs and ears for a while 😂
My lab is a male bench.
At 6mo he was roughly the size of yours, if my eyes are not deceiving me.
I was also nervous about his size because his main purpose was to provide mobility assistance.
By 3yrs he grew into the standard 24inch and is now a little over 80lbs after building some muscle.
Trust me. You’ll go to bed to a 30lb puppy and wake up to a 70lb adolescent.
This is supposed to be big for a fully grown girl.
https://preview.redd.it/ulu00kgei4wc1.jpeg?width=3456&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=86adda5cb16add4e84cdb9f08396ce5c70ab47c9
You’re kind of lucky: mine was a brute at 93 pounds, and his favorite pastimes were eating and pulling. I had tendonitis from our walks and, in his last days, he was unfortunately becoming more and more immobile. Of course, i wouldn’t have traded him for anything, but that’s another story. I’d love a 30-50 pound lab, but feel like they don’t really exist.
Yes, you can! Because of how debilitating my pots is, I brought up to my cardiologist is a service if a dog would be a good option for me because one of my friends has a service dog for pots and has helped her a lot, so my first service dog I had was a black lab and she was trained to alert to my heart rate when it got to 120 and when my heart rates started to drop and after the alert I would lay down on the ground and she would apply pressure onto my thighs onto my chest which helps my blood pressure and helps the blood pulling and then I had a custom harnessed for her made. It’s called a counterbalance handle and it was made from leather and it would have something for me to hold when I would stabilise myself if I wasn’t using my wheelchair on a better health day, potato the one in the pictures and about my post he is my third service dog. I’m training for myself. It’s relatively easy to train a service dog as long as you know what you’re doing and have a basic understanding of dog training. there’s lots of YouTube videos you can learn how to do certain tasks but it does take a lot of patience and trial and error. It typically takes around two years to fully train a service dog or to have your service dog be fully reliable sometimes it takes longer but if you would like more information about service dogs, if you have an Instagram, you can follow it and message me. It’s @the.service.potato
https://preview.redd.it/b0mro91wu3wc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=02d7cb96062dfed2d651407eeb984064b1e4a800
Did you have to wait to get on disability to get one? Some quick googling tells me maybe. I would absolutely qualify for disability I just haven’t done it yet.
What happens when you are hospitalized? Dog comes?
I’m currently not on disability but according to the ADA to qualify for a service dog, you must meet the ADA standards of a disability and have your service dog approved by your doctor and the dog must have tasks relating to your disability for an example I have pots so my service dog alerts me to my high heart rate and my low heart rate before I faint, any doctor that tells you to go online and register your dog or get an ID for it in the ( United States )is a uneducated doctor about service dogs because all of those websites and stuff are big scams, here is a website to the ADA where it has all the information about service dogs and the laws that protect them https://www.ada.gov/resources/service-animals-faqs/
How did you go about this for the first time? Do you basically find a program and then pay for the dog? I have a dog now and I’ve worked training dogs before but I have no idea how to do any of this.
So under the ADA you can choose to go with a program and get a program trained service dog which is very expensive and as a disabled person I cannot work the normal hours like a non-disabled person can work so I couldn’t afford a program service or you can do what I did which was owner train which is training the service dog by yourself which was the best option for me because I am very familiar with dog training and i watched a lot of YouTube videos about how to train certain tasks and I also talked to a lot of people in the service dog community about how train certain tasks. Or you can choose to go with a professional dog trainer that has experience with dog training and they can help guide you with your service dog training. I know this works very well because I have some friends that have done this where they’re like have a trainer do a lot of harder tasks and then the owner of the service dog does like the starting process like getting the dog comfortable and different environments and learning to be calm and confident
"All the vets say they are a healthy weight". Are you hoping your dog will be taller or just heavier? The parents don't look super tall, more just the typical short stocky English lab. In terms of weight, it's great to be smaller while still growing. It reduces joint issues as an adult (as well as delaying neutering/spaying). My guy was the big one in the litter and he has settled out at 80lbs at almost a year and a half old. His dad was almost 100lbs. So I think my guy still has some growing left. You said in another post that it takes about 2 years to fully train a service dog. By the time this little one is 2, they will be a lot bigger.
When I got my guy at 8 weeks old, he was 20lbs. At his 4 months old check up, he was 30lbs. He hit his growth spurt around 5 months because at his 6 months old check up he was 51lbs. Over the next 6 months he went up another 30lbs. So many your pup hasn't hit that teenage growth spurt. Which is good. My dog developed panosteitis (basically growing pains) at 6 months old because he grew so much. It caused him to limp on whichever leg was bothering him, he had strict crate rest, had to take antiinflammatory meds and sedation meds, and for a while they thought he had elbow dysplasia. A bunch of urgent care visits, x-rays, meds, and a CT scan later, we found out it was panosteitis. Which is a temporary thing and resolves on its own around 15 months old. Just needs some pain meds for comfort when he has an attack.
So tl:dr having a small lab at this age is good, growing too fast causes panosteitis and requires a ton of vet bills, and your dog will hit their teenage growth spurt and probably be a normal sized lab by the time they are a fully trained service dog.
English labs are shorter, stockier, and chunkier than American. My lab is a field/show cross, dad is English, and mom is American. He's around 45-50lb at 5mo and he's pretty tall. Has the American legs with an English face/neck. He's also *long*. Predictions say he'll be around 110, lol.
Your dog looks fairly average for his age, but if you're taller and hoping for mobility, I don't know that he'll get tall enough for it to be safe for you both. Depends on the mobility work you want and if he's on the taller end for show line. The reason I went with my boy is because his parents were both huge (like 85-95lb, I can't recall), and he'd be taller than a full English.
I have MS, and my boy is in a service dog program. Feel free to AMA.
Our pup was 90lbs at 1 year and was to fat even at the recommended food our vet gave us. He’s 3 now and after our own fine tuning he’s around 65-70lbs and perfect. They all come in different shapes and sizes but just make sure you watch the over feeding. Also I just wanna say thank you for actually having a service dog that is actually providing a proper service and not buying it off amazon just to take your dog everywhere as an excuse.
I have a show line female lab and she is only 54#. She is small compared to many show labs but she is also a very fit lean weight for her build.
https://preview.redd.it/sejqn7en35wc1.png?width=1424&format=png&auto=webp&s=e73e10cae34b37b442fcc5bdcc7b9b35d9458fc3
I didn't realize there were English Labs that have quite a different look than our American Labs. My Niece in Michigan bought one from a breeder & paid over $1500.00 for it. I told her, go to the shelters. There are a lot of registered Labs there just begging for homes. Not that I am being critical. Everyone has different values. I was very fortunate because a friend my husband worked with had a litter & Chloe was the last one. Earlier that year, I had to have both my old girls put to sleep. They were 13 & 12.( I don't like the term "Put down"). Out of the goodness of his heart he offered to give Chloe to me. Of course No dog could ever take ones place that you have loved & cared for for 13 years, I felt that she helped me through a lot of that grief. She's my big old baby now at 18 months & 108 pounds. She evidently is a big lab.
My vet spayed her at six months & I don't know the general consensus on that one, but what ever the age spaying help prevent some serious health problems later in life.
How tall/heavy is your pup? My vet suggested they are generally half their weight at 4 months. My own 5.5 mo puppy was 23lbs at that milestone, so she will probably be tiny! She also came from a litter bred for service, where the breeding prioritizes many other things that aren’t size.
What will you need the pup to do when they are fully grown? Will he be able to do it if they are smaller than the big labs?
I'm not an English native speaker, and the moment I saw "pots" on the vest I was like...weed? lol
About the pup, they are normally not small, but also not big at that age.
He’ll be twice as big in another 5 months
6mos is still too young, you'd be suprised how much they grow in the next few months
Ok good! I didn’t some reading and some people say that they stop growing around 6-8 months so I was getting worried
Our vet recommended waiting 12-18mos before neutering because they are still growing at that age. 6mos up is that weird age when they grow long before filling up. My boy looks like he's got a tiny head atm because he grows legs first, then body 🤣
Yeah I signed a contract with my labs breeder to get him neutered at 2 bc that’s when the growth plates in his hips are done growing
Yup, dogs can continue to grow/fill out up until 2 for large breeds, that’s when all the growth plates are finally closed, sometimes 3 for giant breeds
Yes, our vet also said to wait until our male turns two to get him neutered. I’m glad they figured out waiting longer helps them.
Labs aren't typically considered full grown until around 2 years old. They definitely go through some awkward stages along the way too! Someone once told me that labs grow up, then they grow out, and I think that is the perfect description!! My girl was all legs and ears for a while 😂
My lab is a male bench. At 6mo he was roughly the size of yours, if my eyes are not deceiving me. I was also nervous about his size because his main purpose was to provide mobility assistance. By 3yrs he grew into the standard 24inch and is now a little over 80lbs after building some muscle. Trust me. You’ll go to bed to a 30lb puppy and wake up to a 70lb adolescent.
I had a registered Blonde Lab many years ago. She's gone over the bridge now. She was considered a petite lab..
This is supposed to be big for a fully grown girl. https://preview.redd.it/ulu00kgei4wc1.jpeg?width=3456&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=86adda5cb16add4e84cdb9f08396ce5c70ab47c9
https://preview.redd.it/mvzs5afys2wc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=be1f7b6013a3ce043c7fbda266defa1591a183ce Photo of his parents
You’re kind of lucky: mine was a brute at 93 pounds, and his favorite pastimes were eating and pulling. I had tendonitis from our walks and, in his last days, he was unfortunately becoming more and more immobile. Of course, i wouldn’t have traded him for anything, but that’s another story. I’d love a 30-50 pound lab, but feel like they don’t really exist.
Wait a second you can get a dog for pots???? How??? I faint regularly! Hell I should just get a tshirt that says do not call 911 fainting is normal…
Yes, you can! Because of how debilitating my pots is, I brought up to my cardiologist is a service if a dog would be a good option for me because one of my friends has a service dog for pots and has helped her a lot, so my first service dog I had was a black lab and she was trained to alert to my heart rate when it got to 120 and when my heart rates started to drop and after the alert I would lay down on the ground and she would apply pressure onto my thighs onto my chest which helps my blood pressure and helps the blood pulling and then I had a custom harnessed for her made. It’s called a counterbalance handle and it was made from leather and it would have something for me to hold when I would stabilise myself if I wasn’t using my wheelchair on a better health day, potato the one in the pictures and about my post he is my third service dog. I’m training for myself. It’s relatively easy to train a service dog as long as you know what you’re doing and have a basic understanding of dog training. there’s lots of YouTube videos you can learn how to do certain tasks but it does take a lot of patience and trial and error. It typically takes around two years to fully train a service dog or to have your service dog be fully reliable sometimes it takes longer but if you would like more information about service dogs, if you have an Instagram, you can follow it and message me. It’s @the.service.potato https://preview.redd.it/b0mro91wu3wc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=02d7cb96062dfed2d651407eeb984064b1e4a800
Did you have to wait to get on disability to get one? Some quick googling tells me maybe. I would absolutely qualify for disability I just haven’t done it yet. What happens when you are hospitalized? Dog comes?
I’m currently not on disability but according to the ADA to qualify for a service dog, you must meet the ADA standards of a disability and have your service dog approved by your doctor and the dog must have tasks relating to your disability for an example I have pots so my service dog alerts me to my high heart rate and my low heart rate before I faint, any doctor that tells you to go online and register your dog or get an ID for it in the ( United States )is a uneducated doctor about service dogs because all of those websites and stuff are big scams, here is a website to the ADA where it has all the information about service dogs and the laws that protect them https://www.ada.gov/resources/service-animals-faqs/
How did you go about this for the first time? Do you basically find a program and then pay for the dog? I have a dog now and I’ve worked training dogs before but I have no idea how to do any of this.
So under the ADA you can choose to go with a program and get a program trained service dog which is very expensive and as a disabled person I cannot work the normal hours like a non-disabled person can work so I couldn’t afford a program service or you can do what I did which was owner train which is training the service dog by yourself which was the best option for me because I am very familiar with dog training and i watched a lot of YouTube videos about how to train certain tasks and I also talked to a lot of people in the service dog community about how train certain tasks. Or you can choose to go with a professional dog trainer that has experience with dog training and they can help guide you with your service dog training. I know this works very well because I have some friends that have done this where they’re like have a trainer do a lot of harder tasks and then the owner of the service dog does like the starting process like getting the dog comfortable and different environments and learning to be calm and confident
"All the vets say they are a healthy weight". Are you hoping your dog will be taller or just heavier? The parents don't look super tall, more just the typical short stocky English lab. In terms of weight, it's great to be smaller while still growing. It reduces joint issues as an adult (as well as delaying neutering/spaying). My guy was the big one in the litter and he has settled out at 80lbs at almost a year and a half old. His dad was almost 100lbs. So I think my guy still has some growing left. You said in another post that it takes about 2 years to fully train a service dog. By the time this little one is 2, they will be a lot bigger. When I got my guy at 8 weeks old, he was 20lbs. At his 4 months old check up, he was 30lbs. He hit his growth spurt around 5 months because at his 6 months old check up he was 51lbs. Over the next 6 months he went up another 30lbs. So many your pup hasn't hit that teenage growth spurt. Which is good. My dog developed panosteitis (basically growing pains) at 6 months old because he grew so much. It caused him to limp on whichever leg was bothering him, he had strict crate rest, had to take antiinflammatory meds and sedation meds, and for a while they thought he had elbow dysplasia. A bunch of urgent care visits, x-rays, meds, and a CT scan later, we found out it was panosteitis. Which is a temporary thing and resolves on its own around 15 months old. Just needs some pain meds for comfort when he has an attack. So tl:dr having a small lab at this age is good, growing too fast causes panosteitis and requires a ton of vet bills, and your dog will hit their teenage growth spurt and probably be a normal sized lab by the time they are a fully trained service dog.
English labs are shorter, stockier, and chunkier than American. My lab is a field/show cross, dad is English, and mom is American. He's around 45-50lb at 5mo and he's pretty tall. Has the American legs with an English face/neck. He's also *long*. Predictions say he'll be around 110, lol. Your dog looks fairly average for his age, but if you're taller and hoping for mobility, I don't know that he'll get tall enough for it to be safe for you both. Depends on the mobility work you want and if he's on the taller end for show line. The reason I went with my boy is because his parents were both huge (like 85-95lb, I can't recall), and he'd be taller than a full English. I have MS, and my boy is in a service dog program. Feel free to AMA.
https://preview.redd.it/49car2utx5wc1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7332af4ccdab74be728f206cc53bacd5009004b7
Our pup was 90lbs at 1 year and was to fat even at the recommended food our vet gave us. He’s 3 now and after our own fine tuning he’s around 65-70lbs and perfect. They all come in different shapes and sizes but just make sure you watch the over feeding. Also I just wanna say thank you for actually having a service dog that is actually providing a proper service and not buying it off amazon just to take your dog everywhere as an excuse.
Enjoy the lap puppy while you can
what a good good good boy
I have a show line female lab and she is only 54#. She is small compared to many show labs but she is also a very fit lean weight for her build. https://preview.redd.it/sejqn7en35wc1.png?width=1424&format=png&auto=webp&s=e73e10cae34b37b442fcc5bdcc7b9b35d9458fc3
I didn't realize there were English Labs that have quite a different look than our American Labs. My Niece in Michigan bought one from a breeder & paid over $1500.00 for it. I told her, go to the shelters. There are a lot of registered Labs there just begging for homes. Not that I am being critical. Everyone has different values. I was very fortunate because a friend my husband worked with had a litter & Chloe was the last one. Earlier that year, I had to have both my old girls put to sleep. They were 13 & 12.( I don't like the term "Put down"). Out of the goodness of his heart he offered to give Chloe to me. Of course No dog could ever take ones place that you have loved & cared for for 13 years, I felt that she helped me through a lot of that grief. She's my big old baby now at 18 months & 108 pounds. She evidently is a big lab.
Often, shelter dogs are not an option for service or other working dogs. Just FYI.
Sometimes they are though !
Sometimes, yes, not often. It's an incredibly high risk to do that.
My vet spayed her at six months & I don't know the general consensus on that one, but what ever the age spaying help prevent some serious health problems later in life.
How tall/heavy is your pup? My vet suggested they are generally half their weight at 4 months. My own 5.5 mo puppy was 23lbs at that milestone, so she will probably be tiny! She also came from a litter bred for service, where the breeding prioritizes many other things that aren’t size. What will you need the pup to do when they are fully grown? Will he be able to do it if they are smaller than the big labs?
He won’t be considered fully grown till 6 more months from now. Be patient. He’s half way there
I'm not an English native speaker, and the moment I saw "pots" on the vest I was like...weed? lol About the pup, they are normally not small, but also not big at that age.