Joan of Arc

I wear the same jeans or track pants to training and trialls. I use liver cooked in the microwave at home and its not greasy or oily but because they are old clothes it wouldnt worry me that much. I like to wear the jeans because then I can train with my thumbs hooked through the loops and she doesnt know if I am reaching for a treat or just carrying my hand there. Plus its still far enough up the body not to be considered 'luring'. But thanksfor the suggestion of a vest - that's a great idea

Unfortunately for most people they learn the hard way about buying any breed of dog from anybody other than a reputable registered breeder. However we never discriminate against any labrador because we are concerned for your happiness as a Labrador owner and his/her health and well being. Why not come and join us all in the Labrador thread in the breed sub forums.

I have never heard of that before but as for the allergies I suggest you remove wheat and all red meat and fish from his diet. Allergies are more common in dogs than we realise. If he is scratching heaps then try to remove these foods and when the scratching stops you can reintroduce fish and see what happens.

Just to clarify a crate question for Matthew and others - it is not necessary to buy a metal crate for Labs. We use metal crates and soft crates. All our show crates are soft crates, never had one damaged in any way. But have seen other breeds rolling theirs down the hill - with contents :D If they are raised with the soft crate they dont paw at them

Matthew buy a size 36 crate, put it in the lounge, your ensuite or your bedroom, depending on where you are. If you are watching telly you can say to him - in your crate, throw a little treat in there - a bone or biscuit - and he will go in there. Close the door and leave him to have his sleep in there. Each night put the pup either back in the crate in the lounge room or move it to your bedroom. Cover the crate and he will learn to sleep there. This has enourmous advantages. firstly he has a nice safe place to retreat to to eat his treats and to sleep. Secondly you have given him a place to sleep that he will learn is his NO MATTER where you put it. As he gets older and more settled you can gradually move the crate to another room such as the laundry. EVentually he will sleep in it no matter where it is - even outside. The other advantage is that you can collapse the crate adn take it with you to visit people or on holidays and he will have his own space there too. I could prose on about the advantages but you will learn more as you go. COme back to the lab thread and talk to all the lab people about crates.

Cant give you a comparison price but suggest you get a couple of quotes from dog show vans such as Groomers & Classic Show Supplies. I have a size 42 and its fantastic for grown labs.

Where are you? I know there is a lady in Sydney that does catalogues and she is fantastic and also a lady in the Riverina.

Hi we are new to obedience trials also but we have just gained 4 qualifying scores to gain our CCD title. YOu can use the same entry form for trials that you use for conformatoin, if using the cheque book style entries form Dognsw then the relevant bit is on the far right hand side and you just put CCD. Check in time is for vetting - if your bitch is not desexed then she has to be vetted to make sure she is not in season. You can show in confirmation in season but you can not trial. You can look all the relevant tasks for CCD up on your regulatory body's website, you havent said where you are so I am answering from a NSW perspective. So you will enter the ring and do a heeling pattern on lead. Then return to the peg and do a stand for exam on lead. Then return to the peg and do a recall - off lead. Then when all the other CCD competitors have done all that you do the group stays. That means that the CCD competitors line up in thier catalogue order and enter the ring. They put thier dogs in a sit stay and leave thier dogs for 1 minute. When they have finished that they put thier dogs in a down stay and that's two minutes (I think). And that completes the CCD trial - you must get a pass of 75 for a qualifying score and you need three qualifying scores for a CCD title. Once you get them you send the qualifying certificates to your relevant body and apply for a title.

Yes I would support these comments including joining us in the lab thread where you can interact with lots of Lab owners and experienced breeders and triallers.

A question on your approach to trials. My girl is two, has been to obedience training for about 7 months. Suddenly decided I liked the obedience side a little better than showing and so we entered 4 trials in the last two months. From 4 trials we had 4 qualies, or CCD and that inlcuded 1 x 2nd place and 2 x 3rd place. The 4th quali was with 91 points. So that means she is able to go to novice - but I am not sure she is quite ready although our instructor said we should enter her anyway. He believes the experience is better than not going - for both of us. What are your thoughts - would you trial if you thought your mate wasnt quite ready?

Yep RSPCA Of course you could say to them, "I've told you time and time again that hitting the poor dog wont make it more obedient. Maybe I should just keep hitting you until you get the message" Keep you boy at parents so they cant exact the same 'discipline' on him and tell the BF they have to go - the abuse of the animal is too upsetting for you and making you sick.

Hi MIck Yes come and visit all the labrador people in the Lab thread. We will answer all your questions, help you anyway we can and help you count down until the day you collect your baby.

All our Labs do this but one of our girls does it more than the others. I dont see it as an issue, after all dont we all stretch when we stand up.

;) Me too. I like maintaining the connection with the dog. I do flip finishes too, for the same reason. And it is a matter of good hind-end awareness as Cosmolo says. Can you elaborate on this please

Gheez Mrs TS I don't know, I'll have to take the stop watch with me and time them. But I can tell you it would be b*##dy quick, not sure I would have time to press the button on teh stop watch.

Thank you for all the responses - so much to take on board, think about and try. Will let you know.

DOH!! I am so dumb, why didnt I think of that. Thank you settrlvr.

Today we competed at Wangaratta in thier two obedience trials in CCD class. We were very lucky and finished 2nd in the am trial with 88 points and our CCD title and then this afternoon finished 3rd with 86 points. I am very proud of my little Tina.

Front feet chewing we find is common with dogs with anal gland issues. Does your dog get bad ears?? Yes now that you mention it, if she swims we have to make sure we dry her ears completely Could she be in pain?? She shows no evidence of being in pain, she has been quiet over the past 3 - 4 weeks but her pups would only be 16 weeks and she was a bit quiet after her first litter left. She is a very placid girl at the best of times Have you tried a doggy chiro/bowen ?? She has been manipulated before so I will have that looked at again My old boy has arthritis & on his bad days he will lick his front legs as often as possible.It seems to bring relief although undesirable. Thanks for that, I will take some steps to see what works and try the Nutro anyway.

Looked at Eagle Pack adn lots of others but went for Nutro in the end. Will trial for a while and see what happens. OH when he saw the price.

I would have to say that she chews and almost sucks her back feet and even as a pup would lay there with her back foot in her mouth almost half way up to the leg and groom for ages. She gnaws on her nails on her back feet even though we keep them well trimmed etc. Sometimes this chewing and sucking goes on for 20 minutes or more - if we see her we stop her. She really licks her front feet - she doesnt gnaw on them as though they are itchy or anything, just sits and licks them - one could almost think they were covered in honey or something and she was compelled to lick it off. Again this could go on for 20 minutes or more if we dont stop her. I feel the real damage is done when we are not home during the day. But probably cant differentiate between the amount of time she spends on either the front or the back feet. CAn I ask what your line of thinking is?

I wasnt actually game enough to go and buy tinea cream but since others have contacted me and said they have done it I will give it a try. She chews her feet - over cleaning really and has done it since she was a pup and is now 4. But because we have had so much wet / damp weather this winter her feet havent had a chance to dry out. I am reluctant to spend over $100 on biscuits - we have several dogs and Labs are pretty good doers anyway and some have suggested that it might be extra weight.

We have always fed our dogs a raw diet that includes meats of all description, sardines, eggs, meaty bones and of course biscuits. But we have one dog that scratches a bit and we have tried many things without success. OUr bitch has been having feet trouble lately and the vet believes its a fungal infection similar to tinea because the ground has been so wet lately. Someone suggested we try them on a wheat free diet and that we should try eagle pack. I was wondering who else uses this and what the results are. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

We are only new at obedience and only have two passes at CCD but hoping for our third this weekend. At training we were doing heaps of sit stays and then drop stays and I am lucky that my lab girl is sound on both. However we are getting some extra training one night a week from a couple of the senior triallers in our club and both of them stated that they never never ever have taught a dog to sit and then drop from the sit. Its their belief that this can encourage the dropping from the sit stay. So we do our sit stays and then we walk off the mark - return and drop and stay. For those dogs that the sit stay was a problem for it seems to have helped.

Personally I think in CCD its a bit silly not to be able to at least give some direction in the heeling pattern. By this I mean when the judge is dictating his/er patter and says 'left turn, right turn' etc why cant we at least say 'heel' to the dog. AFter all CCD is meant to be the encouragement class and some people expect your dogs to behave with 'open' perfect responses. If you didnt have the figure of eight what would you replace it with?