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10 week old female siblings

19 13:39:03

Question
Hi,I have a few questions......

I just acquired 2 female lab siblings just over 2 weeks ago. They have adjusted quickly to our home and as labs are, FULL of energy. My family adores them. I work from home doing daycare. I've never had two at one time so I'm not sure exactly how to handle their constant wrestling and biting while the are trying to determine dominance. We are doing the stand up, walk away 'NO bite' thing with them constantly, but they feed off each other and just go go go like the Energizer bunny. At 4 months of age we will begin puppy training (formal) but right now we are trying to work on simple things ourselves.
Do I just leave them alone while they are roughhousing it? How do we deal with 2 very excitable puppies when trying to teach them?
Also, we are doing a good job at wearing them out in the evening. They pass out between 6:30-7:30 every night. The house-training during the day is actually going pretty good. An accident here and there when I can't catch them, but they are learning to go to the door and look at me when they realize they need to go. I have one spot in the back yard which is their potty spot. I walk them the same path each and every time, phrase them when they go potty.
I feed them at 5pm, take their water away by 6pm, I wake them up just before I go to bed to take them potty (usually around 10pm) then put them right back in their crate. They go right back down without a peep. Then I set my alarm for 1am to get up and take them out, they always poop and pee, then back in the crate for the remainder of the night. I get up at 5am and take them immediately out to go, they go poop and pee again. The reason I set my alarm for 1am is because they don't bark or cry in the night. I think they are so tired that all they do is whimper and I don't hear them. I was waking up in the morning to a messy crate until I started setting my alarm. My question is, since at 1am the crate is still clean should I maybe set the alarm for a little later now? They DO have to go immediately when I get them outside though.  

Answer
Don't worry about their play.  That is the way puppies are.  Young Labs, which I know best, and other puppies tend to very bad about biting.  You see a litter of them, and all the ones that are awake are biting another one or themselves.  I am not even sure they realize that when they are alone, if they quit biting, they would quit being bitten.  I won't even say they want to quit being bitten. At 3 to 4 months they are getting their adult teeth, and it seems they spend every waking moment biting or chewing.  One thing you can do at that stage is to knot and wet a piece of cloth.  Then freeze it.  The cooling will soothe the gums.  Only let the puppy have it when you are there to watch it.  I maintain a Lab's favorite chew toy is another
Lab.  Otherwise they settle for any person they can.  They keep hoping to find
one that won't yelp and jerk their hand away, or growl "Bad dog." and clamp
their mouth shut.  Then offer a chew toy.  They keep trying despite hundreds
of corrections.   Another good technique is to quit playing and go away.   Be
sure to praise them when they are playing nice and not biting.

This is a link to a picture of 2 older puppies enjoying a visit, [img]http://www.photolocker.net/images/Labman/gretchenandellaplaying.jpg[/img]

I took my 3 month old and 13 year old Labs to a dog meeting Sunday.  The older lab just enjoyed running around largely ignoring the other dogs.  The younger one enjoyed playing with a couple of much bigger lab puppies and a 1 1/2 year old Shepherd.  I don't think my little girl had any thought of dominating the larger dogs.  

For a few more weeks, likely you are going to need to make the wee hours wee wee.  Different puppies vary.