Your Labrador Retriever Puppy Month By Month Paperback – December 4, 2012

Incredible book. Easy access to puppy development & challenges month by month. The author is an expert on the Labrador unique traits of inate hunting & retrieving skills, high energy, & loyalty. He leads the reader through step by step training to captalize on the loyalty trait so that correct behavior is achieved through building mutual respect. This method is enjoyable & goes hand in hand with another excellent resource, The Canine Good Citizen. This book is well written & based on personal experience with all the entertaining high jinks only labs can bring to your home. . I highly recommend this book to anyone with a Labrador in their future.

If you are thinking about getting a Labrador puppy or have recently acquired one, you need this book! My family has had Labradors since I was in elementary school, which is to say, a LONG time. My daughter recently purchased a puppy and also bought this book, and while visiting her, I read some of it. I promptly bought my own copy for my Kindle. There is a wealth of great and helpful information, some of which is not commonly known, in the book about caring for and training and especially choosing a great puppy. Whether you will want a family pet or a working dog, I highly recommend this book, especially if you have not picked out your puppy yet!

Great book with a lot of useful info, however, quite a bit of it is written with pure-bred labs with AKC papers in mind; not totally relevant for shelter pups, rescues, or mix breeds. Obviously, this is a breed-specific book and should cater to dogs who fit into the breed description. However, the reality of the world as it is means there are plenty of "Labrador Retriever" dogs that are mixed breeds or adopted from shelters or rescues. This book has constant mentions of breeders, AKC, and other less universal tibits--occasionally a hinderance for reading or finding relevant info. Even for owners of pure-bred dogs adopted from a rescue or shelter, this book would be full of irrelevant tibits. This book could have benefited a lot from additional sectional dividers, sectioning out the "AKC" stuff and adding "Shelter/Rescue" stuff as well. That method of organization would then par the main text to the essentials for ALL Lab owners and leave in those pieces of advice for more specific situations.That said, it's a good mix of info from people who obviously know the breed--a good choice if you're looking at a very "lab" dog. However, a more general puppy book might be more helpful--this is a development guide not a training guide (training info is present, but there isn't very much of it, and what's included is also fairly one-dimensional training--i.e., it doesn't give you a range of what puppies are capable of, just presumes on the average, not helpful if you have a more clever dog!).Also, for people with mix breeds: if you can tell what the other breed is (via gene test or if it's fairly obvious--taking into account several breeds can share features, of course) it's really helpful to get more books. This book gets exponentially less relevant with mixed breeds. (I have a very "lab" puppy and a very "shepard" puppy though they're littermates. I did buy the coordinating German Shepard Puppy book--the info is fairly different. Even things like the "Vaccine" information is written differently. I find the writing style in this one superior--the German Shepard one is more juvenile in tone.)

This author knows Labradors!! My Lab is 18 weeks old and has behaved exactly as predicted in this book.If you need a guide for raising your pup this is THE one.I'm almost afraid to read the next chapter, we are in the terrible twos behavior right now. I hope it gets easier. My pup is a bouncing ball of energy right now, but that is what this book said would happen.Step by step my Lab has been a textbook puppy......according to this textbook anyway.If you are getting a Lab pup, or thinking about it, read this book first and you will know exactly what you are getting into!

It's the "What to Expect when you're Expecting" for puppies!Great guide in helping understand what phases your puppy is going through and how to prepare for what comes next. Lots of tips, examples and explanations.Also helpful in telling you what's normal behavior so you don't think your pup is possessed when he starts to get a little crazy. He's not the spawn of satan, just a pupp. And if you follow the advice on training and being consistent, you'll both get through it.I would recommend this book to anyone thinking about getting any kind of active dog, not just labs!

Greatest book out there. I've read over 5 puppy books & this is the best by far. It's very detailed & step by step. Every month I go back & re-read the chapters of my pups age to get an idea of what to expect & the text is dead on. I've shared this with friends & family who also have lab puppies. Greatest book & worth every penny

I love this book, I have referenced it sooooo many times for my 6 month old yellow lab, and I have shared it with others who question why, why, why! I write in it and keep track of my Zoe's stats. About half-way through a month I will read ahead to the next "month" just to see what will be coming up. It has been help-full with teething, attitude, maturity. Truly an all-around good book to have if you have a lab puppy!!

My puppy is turning 1 year old this month and I've been following her development along with this book. I love the level of detail and the fact that it helped me anticipate some of the behavioral "challenges".The section about potential sicknesses and emergencies might be too overwhelming, it freaked me out a bit, but if you ever encounter any of those situations at least you'll know what to do.