upset stomach?

Question
Thank you for your reply.  Let me ask you a question regarding the muzzle.  We are using it at the advice of Vet, I wasn't too sure about it myself. Can using the muzzle only during outdoor time (to prevent ingesting foreign objects) have adverse reactions on the puppy?  Specifically behavioral?
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Followup To

Question -
Hello again, our Lab is slightly over 11 weeks...uses a muzzle to prevent her from eatting things other than her own food...however it seems that she has full blown diarhea.  This just started but she had a similar issue a couple of weeks ago (not full blown) that she was treated for with medication (although no diffinitive testing was done)  I understand from other comments that stomach upset is not uncommon, but do you think this is uncommon in a pup, and do you think it could be her food.  Eukanuba large breed puppy is what we feed her.  I do plan on following this up with the Vet, but as a Lab owner I was wondering what your opinion was. thank you and sorry for the spelling and grammar error's.  It is pretty late.

Answer -
I doubt it is the feed.  Two years ago I was feeding a Lab Eukanuba Large breed puppy chow because that is what the service dogs school she belonged to uses.  She did fine on it.  I assume if very many of their puppies had problems from it, they would switch to something else.  Most dog will thrive on most chows.  No one chow is right for all dogs.  The exceptions where a dog doesn't do well on a certain chow are rare.  

It is fairly common for Lab puppies to have digestive problems.  Usually they go away in a day or 2 and are shrugged off as something the puppy foraged and upset it. See what the vet says.  Muzzling it seems like an extreme measure, but some puppies are much more difficult to manage than others.  

This could help:

A couple big putty knives
work well on bowel movements.  Just slide one under it while holding it with
the other.  This gets it up with a minimum of pushing it down into the carpet.
This works with even relatively soft ones, vomit, dirt from over turned house
plants, or anything else from solids to thick liquids.  Finish up with a good
shot of carpet foam.  Note, do not let the puppy lick up the carpet foam.
Once the dog is reliably housebroken, your carpet may need a good steam cleaning.


Answer
I have no experience using a muzzle, and don't remember much from my training and reading about them.  They just aren't used much now.  Some people I know on the net would foam at the mouth at the thought of using one.  OTH, I really wonder of some of the ''experts'' ever encountered a truly difficult dog.  Some dogs are much more difficult than others requiring methods others don't.  Combine a sensitive digestion system and a strong drive to consume anything it gets its mouth on, and maybe a muzzle is a good idea.  

Are you crating her?  The crate does a fine job of limiting what they can eat when you aren't around.  Combined with good supervision, a little puppy proofing the house, and restricting it to a limited part of the house, you may be able to reduce the foreign object ingestion.  

It is only natural that a puppy resists its crate at first.  What the puppy
wants more than anything else is to be others, you, anyone else in the
household, and any other pets.  In our modern society, even if we are home,
other things distract us from the attention an uncrated puppy must have.   The
only real solution is to crate the dog when you aren't around.  The dog may be
happier in its den than loose in the house.  It relaxes, it feels safe in its
den.  It rests, the body slows down reducing the need for water and relieving
its self.  Dogs that have been crated all along do very well.  Many of them
will rest in their crates even when the door is open.  I think the plastic
ones give the dog more of a safe, enclosed den feeling.  Metal ones can be put
in a corner or covered with something the dog can't pull in and chew.  Select
a crate just big enough for the full grown dog to stretch out in.

Leave it some toys.  Perhaps a Kong filled with peanut butter.  Don't leave
anything in the crate the dog might chew up.  It will do fine without even any
bedding.  You will come home to a safe dog and a house you can enjoy.

A dog that has not been crated since it was little, may take some work.
Start out just putting its toys and treats in the crate.  Praise it for going
in.  Feed it in the crate.  This is also an easy way to maintain order at
feeding time for more than one dog.

The "shut the puppy in a safe room" is a fallacy.  Very few houses even have a
safe room.  How many of us have a room with a hard surfaced floor and nothing
else?  Most rooms have electrical cords to chew if nothing else.  In addition
to destroying anything a bored puppy finds to chew, it may choke or have
intestinal  blockage from the pieces.  I had a friend that left her dog in a
"safe" room.  It ate a hole in the floor covering.  The safe rooms fail to
give the dog the comfort of the enclosed space their instinct requires.  Nor
do they restrict activity extending the time the dog can go without relieving
itself.

Anybody struggling with a Lab should read Marley and Me.