Puppy!

[beautybutterfly]

Originally Posted by Procrastinator

price is a bit high, £600, but way less than pure breeds, and we are ok at that price as it is the cross breed we are after.

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Yeah pure breeds the price has doubled, almost tripled in some cases! Same with some popular cross breeds - glad you've found a reasonable price that you're willing to pay x

[xXxSammi88xXx]

What a cutie. What i will say is prepare for lack of sleep. We’ve had our puppy for a month now and i’ve honestly found it harder than having a newborn baby. But it is so rewarding when you see that little face come upto you for cuddles. Ours has his second jabs on Monday so a week after we can finally take him for walks. We have been going out every day and carrying him just to try and get him used to noises.

[mitch84]

Originally Posted by Procrastinator

price is a bit high, £600, but way less than pure breeds, and we are ok at that price as it is the cross breed we are after.

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£600 for a cross collie lab? I agree they are lovely dogs. We had one growing up, an accident between a local farm collie and a wandering gun dog. They were practically given away. Best dog ever. But £600?
Our pure bred lab is 2, his parents were both pure bred kennel club labs, but the mating wasn’t planned, and they had 13 pups so they didn’t register them, £350, and that was the dearest dog my husband has ever bought.
I think you need to meet the pups, see the parents and pick. I’d pull out and wait, that’s extortionate.
Just bear in mind as well, you are combining 2 fairly highly strung working breeds. A lot of exercise and stimulation would be needed. Will someone be at home with the pup most of the time?

[Scaramouche]

We had a collie x lab and he was my absolute life. Lost him in feb 2019. 💔

£600 seems an awful lot. I know they’ve put the prices up. But our pure breed KC registered was only £850.

[mitch84]

Originally Posted by dreamadream

One bit of advice; be prepared for post puppy depression! So many people I spoke to report the same! The first few days/weeks are just so fun, you accept the negatives such as mess, chewing, nipping, not being able to leave the house for more than an hour, getting up in the night again etc. Then it hits and you wondered if you did wrong getting them. But then the thought of not having them anymore kills you.

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Oh yeah, I wanted this exact puppy so much, little black lab called Max, I’d had him planned for 20 years.
My husband bought him for me, initially great, but I was working full time (Hubby works 7
-2 and we had extra day time help) and he was waking me up at the crack of dawn and if I turned my back for 2 secs he peed/poo/chewed/ate the washing powder 😂 I wondered what on Earth I had done.
He’s the best dog ever but the puppy time was so hard

[Procrastinator]

Originally Posted by mitch84

£600 for a cross collie lab? I agree they are lovely dogs. We had one growing up, an accident between a local farm collie and a wandering gun dog. They were practically given away. Best dog ever. But £600?
Our pure bred lab is 2, his parents were both pure bred kennel club labs, but the mating wasn’t planned, and they had 13 pups so they didn’t register them, £350, and that was the dearest dog my husband has ever bought.
I think you need to meet the pups, see the parents and pick. I’d pull out and wait, that’s extortionate

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All pups at present will be costing a fortune. Supply and demand.

So the choice is pay the price or wait, possibly for quite a while, to hope to find another for a lower price.

If money was the primary concern you would be correct. But we have canned our August trip to Florida. £600 isn't a big deal in that context. Would rather have the pup now than maybe get one for half that price in 12 months.

I would have preferred to have met the pup before. But that is likely to be difficult for who knows how long.

We are set on a lab x collie - and while you got lucky they do seem to be relatively hard to find. Like you say they tend to happen by accident. They tend not to have a lot of value so people don't often breed them intentionally. This one comes from a farm where it is the product of their pet lab and the wandering eye of the neighbours sheep dog.

Happy to pay £600 for a dog that has come from that background and has those breeds for parents.

[tink111]

Congratulations! I’m sure it will be a lovely dog!
We’re picking up our cocker spaniel in a few weeks and can’t wait! We have a cockapoo already and she was a dream puppy... literally toilet trained within days and didn’t cry at all! Think this one will be different as we were so lucky the first time !
I’m sure it’ll be great for you when you have it though, such an exciting time 😊

[Procrastinator]

Originally Posted by mitch84

A lot of exercise and stimulation would be needed. Will someone be at home with the pup most of the time?

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At present i work 5 days in the office, other half 3 in the office. I think post lockdown we should be able to get that down to other half 2 days in the office and me 4, or maybe even less. So that would probably only leave 1 day with us both out.

But whether it is 1, 2 or 3 days we are both out, there are multiple doggy day care places nearby. We will use them when at work. Costly, but we have accepted the cost, not leaving the dog home alone for prolonged periods.

Though having said that we are a long way from that being an issue. Offices will not be back to normal anytime this year and probably longer.

Between my wife and i we go running between 3 and 6 miles probably 5/6 days a week. So we need to get it trained to be able to come with us and be under control. Though this will be later as need to let the pup build up to that sort of exercise.

Garden is a decent size and the kids will i think play lots - so need to get it trained in fetch and other games.

Both my wife and I will be more than happy to take long walks at either end of the day.

So we are going in to it with eyes open as to the effort required (Or as open as they can be when it will be our first pup).

[stecee]

I had a collie x as a youngster, his marking were very similar to your gorgeous little girl. He was very intelligent and a great friend.

[Edie ray]

What a gorgeous puppy!

My sister has the same issue as you, she has just bought a puppy from Wales and now has to go pick her up soon, not sure what is going to happen yet