By KC badges, do you mean the Good Citizen awards (Bronze, Silver and Gold)? If so, there is no reason why you can't do that with an older rescue - all but two of us at our dog club have rescues, many start Bronze at ripe old ages
As for living in a flat, it could work, but you'd have to be seriously disciplined about getting outside maybe as often as hourly at first. It is recommended that Labs don't do stairs until they are fully grown (12 months +) to protect the joints, so carrying a 20-30 Kg dog up and down stairs several times daily is likely to be a reality.
You will have to be very committed and I'm afraid it's not something you can 'try' as the title of this post says - you need to be certain you can make it work for the next 13 years or more (and another thing to consider is when the dog gets old, if you're likely to be living in a flat still - how will it cope with the stairs?).
Not trying to put you off, I know if it were me I would make it work because I couldn't live without a dog (but I may be more inclined to go the rescue route). I just don't think many people would want to or could cope with the realities of a young Lab in a first floor flat.
I'll probably get shot down in flames here but....
When we got Jessie as a pup, we had a first floor flat. We had a private entrance and our own garden. Yes, it meant us carrying her up and down the stairs to toilet train her but she was fine - in fact she had very few accidents in the flat at all. I think a couple of pee's and poo was about it.
It can be done, it just takes dedication and a love of all weathers
well we live in a 2nd floor modern flat. It has lament floors in the hall and living room, carpets in the bathroom and lino in the bathrooms. we have a large shared garden that is 95% used by dog owners and 5% by the kids that play in the garden. We are lucky in the fact that our neighbours are good, but we respect the fact that not everyone wants a bouncy almost-2-year-old lab greeting them and put him on a lead if there are folk about. Everyone picks up after their dogs (just the local cats and foxes that leave a mess grrrr). we own our flat
We got tiber at 9 weeks. Our flat has a lift so we used that to get him up and down the stairs. we had a few accidents (as you'd expect) but we just made it a routine to take him out really really regularly and to be fair to Tiber, he did 'get' the toilet outdoors idea pretty quickly (helped by treats and a lot of fussing when he performed. One thing we did in the morning when we were toilet training him through the night was get dressed, unlock the door, call the lift, arm ourselves with lead and poo bags and treats, and then - and only then, did we open his crate and let him out. we distracted him with a toy to keep him from having an accident on the way down! it worked for tiber.
I've been told that we do alot with Tiber - he has the garden and we do stand outside in all weathers whilst he has a sniff and a wander (its our decision to live there - so its only fair that he gets to enjoy his garden) and its nice in summer when we go out and sunbathe together. He gets a 20-30min walk in the morning, 1.5-2hrs with our dog walker then another 30-40min walk in the evening or we do an activity such as flyball or agility. Weekends - long walks mixed with agility/flyball/gundog.
The negatives are - I would love Tiber to have his own garden - but thats me - we do let him off the lead in our garden - just put it on if someone else appears until we know they are ok with dogs (but tbh we hardly ever meet anyone else in the garden!).
true - we have had to clean up poo and vomit in the flat - but I guess that in a house you won't always make it to the garden.
I probably over compensate with the walks now that he is older (did the 5 min rule as a pup) as we don't have a private garden - but that isn't necessarily a bad thing as it gets us both out and about and Tiber enjoys his walks
IMO Its not as bad as you may think as long as you make an effort to make it work - we have made it work - and in my opinion - it works well for us Tiber gets plenty of exercise and stimulation (tho i think my neighbours think im crazy when i set up agility poles and the tunnel in the garden! gives them something to laugh about!) We are hoping to move next year - ready for the next step of having a bigger place and it will be nice for Tiber to have his own garden and not share it with the other people/dogs! Plus I want to get labrador no 2 and we def don't have room for a second dog!
I hope this has helped give you an opinion of someone who is living with a lab in a flat. If you want, please feel free to PM me for more advice.
I hope this helps you to make the right decision for what will fit in with your lifestyle. At the end of the day you want to give the dog the best life possible! We did think it through before getting Tiber - both financially and lifestyle. We don't have any kids to run around after so can run around after the dog!
Apart from the house-training, there's something I've learned on this forum in the last year and that is that lab pups up to a year old should have their joints protected while they're growing and trips up and down stairs should be kept to a minimum.
As someone else has suggested, have you thought of adopting an older dog? Labs are puppies for many years, some would say they never grow up so you'd have the best of both worlds. A tremendously fun dog to have around and take for walks, fully house-trained with no requirement to be carried up and downstairs all the time.
Apologies if I've duplicated anyone else's post but I'm on my mobile which is a pain to read all the previous posts with.
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Mooz, Ivan & Milly xxx
When we got Basil we lived in a flat (or apartment as it was a nice one ). we knew we were moving in 2 1/2 weeks time to a house with a big garden so I wasn't worried.
Basil was a dream pup and slept through with no toilet trips from 10pm - 7am. He never made a peep in his crate at all.
That said he weighed 9kg and put on a kg each week. He was a heffer to carry in and out repeatedly. It was summer and in all honesty we took to spending afternoons or whole days outside for ease as I wasn't working. I was exhausted tbh and very relieved when that 2 week period was done.
By contrast Nell came when we were in a house, we opened the patio doors and she was easy to pop in and out with to toilet train. We got up twice a night to her as she couldn't hold and so i could stand in my dressing gown. She yodelled something rotten though and tbh if Basil had done that i'm not sure how the neighbours would be in a flat. I realise how jammy we were with Basil being Basil, another pup in a flat might have been unworkable.
So my advice would be,
get a summer pup
make sure you have a lift or very strong arms
get DH's agreement to do night time pee trips in writing
forarn your neighbours because puppy noise travels more generally in flats/
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