Paulp

The second time I took my dog (GR X Lab) to Belgrave Park lake he virtually circumnavigated the lake chasing ducks, as each took off he shifted his focus onto the next. I had the same concern, that he would run out of energy before common sense kicked back in but he got back OK. A dog that is a good swimmer can go a long way before he gets in trouble.

I used to use sausage which the dogs loved but I found it difficult to handle because it was so slippery. Now I buy a bag of divine tempters which are like short thick straps and chop them into small pieces. Thye have a great smoky aroma that gets my dogs attention and often that of other dogs around us.

Actually I was reluctant to introduce Ebons frisbee at first because he is so responsive to it I was afraid he would totally ignore anything else to get to it and at first that was the case. But I worked on getting him to understand he had to get the ball before he got the frisbee and things started coming together.

From observation of my dogs it also depends on the value that the dog places on a potential resource. A couple of times when I gave my two labs rawhide chews my boy attacked my girl (boy is a couple of months younger but outweighs female by nearly half her weight) even when she was nowhere near him. We had never seen this behaviour before and they feed within a couple of feet of each other and he respects her right to finish her food before he gets a crack at cleaning out her bowl. I don't give rawhide chews or bones anymore and we have not had another recurrance. It seemed that he just placed a much higher value on bones and rawhide chews that normal food. With your dogs your younger dog may not place as much value on bits of food spread around than a whole bowl of food in one place so he doesn't try to guard it.

Yeah, I should have qualified that. I use the frisbee as a tug toy. Actually it is more like a donut now since he tore the middle out of it (kongs aren't quite indestrucible).

Identifying a good motivator is definately worth doing. My lab is very ball motivated but he was slow to return once he had the ball but once I introduced his favourite toy (a kong frisbee) to the process he now returns faster than he goes to the box.

I tried a gentle leader with my lab who I got at 12 months as a rescue. She was prone to lunging towards other dogs/ people (just to say hello not attack) and the gentle leader was snapping her head sideways when she did this so I stopped using it. So I got a sporn pack leader head collar and it worked a treat stopping the lunging. A couple of months later I was able to resume training on a flat colar.

As Tollersowned pointed out Berwick Obedience do agility. Tomorrow is this months sign up day (normally first Saturday of month but did not have a meet last week due to Melbourne cup) so if you are interested come down.

My boy hasn't made the team yet but I'll be there to help with the marshalling on Sunday

You can get a liner for the blackdog pouch which makes it last longer.

I wash my two labs pretty much every weekend. I use Fido's everyday shampoo which is soap free and make sure they are rinsed really well.

Thats him, as you would have seen he is a rabid fetcher. Can be a bit of a problem, when I go to mow the lawn and throw things off he keeps bringing them back! I'm teaching my other dog, the little white lab, to fetch because I want to get her into flyball as well.

Dog 1 (i) lab X golden retriever (ii) puppy Ebon has retrieved ever since I got him at 3 months of age, I don't think it was taught to him, he just did it naturally. At first it could be a bit difficult to get the retrieved object off him. He is the first dog I have owned and trained. Dog 2 (i) labrador (ii) puppy (12 months) (iii) rescue, don't think there was much training although she would sit on command (iv) originally would chase a large ball if razzed up first but quickly lost interest and would not always bring object all the way back. I started training her to fetch last week because I want to try her at flyball. I just started with an object I knew she would chase if in the mood and food rewarded her every time she started bringing it back even it was dropped part way then started rewarding only when it came all the way back. Then started transferring onto tennis balls and dumbells. She is now a very consistent fetcher in the back yard (this only took a few days) but for some reason still won't fetch outside the back yard, this is something I am working on. (v) My only other dog is a natural retriever that didn't need training.

My 2 labs get bathed in the corner spa although lifting my big 36kg boy in is not easy. I don't think a normal bathtub would be big enough. Niether are enamoured with the process but they tolerate it. Use a thing called a vortex washer I got from BigW for about $20. The valve in it expired after a couple of months but I attached the head from it to the butt of a garden shower watering thingy and now it works great. It gets right in under the coat to lift out dirt and shampoo.

When I first got my GR X lab puppy I fed him IAMS. Then I tried supercoat puppy (bought a 18kg bag). Within a week or so his behaviour seemed to deteriorate (he was less obedient and more destructive). I thought at first it was my imagination but after a couple of weeks I went out and bought Advance Large Breed Puppy food and started feeding that and the behaviour improved again. I continued feeding the supercoat as a quarter of his diet until it ran out and have been on Advance ever since. Could not say for sure that it was the supercoat but it seemed to coincide with the addition and removal of it from his diet. Interestingly I have noticed that when he gets stomach upsets he seems to go through bouts of destructiveness (although potentially he eats things in his bouts of destructiveness that give him an upset tummy.......) so I don't know if the behaviour change was directly related to a food ingredient or maybe it just upset his stomach.

I have tried a few of those loaf products the supermarkets sell but found that most of them are too soft so my labs clean them out in no time at all. The one that works well is the platinum tender chicked and brown rice that safeway sell. It has a reasonably non slippery and solid consistency that resists the dogs for a while in their kongs. Shoving one of those bone shaped biscuits in as well makes it a bit harder as they have to work around it.

If your'e in the SE suburbs theres an animal feeds place on the corner of Lysterfield Rd and Wellington Rd that a couple of weeks ago had pallets of the 20kg bonus bags of large breed puppy food for about $85/bag (was spewing when I saw it, had just bought 4 bags elsewhere).

I don't let him get away with growling at me, I make physical contact (should clarify, don't hit, just hold or lay my hands on his head) with him and verbally reprimand him if he growls. I have always had a good physical relationship with him in that I have always been able to take things from his mouth and manhandle him when necessary. He hurt his leg a few weeks back and we have treated it conservatively in case it was a dysplasia so we have not been walking much over the last couple of weeks and I have been trying to discourage his insane racing around as much as possible, on the other hand they have had much more time inside with us. All seems to have settled down though and we are going back to our daily hour or so strolls. I noticed the first signs of this changing behaviour before the injury. I just ask as sometimes an innocuous behaviour develops into something larger and it is much easier to deal with when it is still innocuous if you know what you are looking for. The household rules stay the same no matter what their age.

My male lab X GR (desexed) pup is now about 14 months of age and I'm seeing definite changes in his behaviour. He seems to be becoming more fixated on me and perhaps more possessive. We have had a couple of growls when he has a particularly favourite chew item and when he was socialising with one of his buddies the other night before obedience class he started to get a little aggressive when the other dog interfered with him coming back to my recall, something he has never done before. In the last couple of months we have introduced another dog into the household, a desexed female lab a couple of months older than him, but there has been no conflict between them, they get on like a house on fire (they are sleeping snuggled up to each other next to me at the moment). They do play very rough but not agressively. Are there particular behaviours I should watch for and nip in the bud or just let the growing up run it's course?

Seems like a strange place for an injection but sometimes dogs have a reaction to a vaccination. My lab developed a golf ball sized lump at the site of a booster shot about a week after the shot. Hot and cold applications (on the advice of the vet) morning and night had it gone in a week with no ill effects.

I assume that the physiology of dogs is a bit different to humans but the basics should be similar. Unless you severely restrict both protein and energy (in humans we are talking fat/carbs but I assume dogs are more biased towards fat metabolism) it should not have a great impact on growth. Feed too much they get fat but long bone growth should not be greatly effected. How much you feed your puppy (ie how much energy it gets) will probably have a bigger influence on it's rate of growth than the amount of protein in its diet.

I feed my two young labs on advance puppy growth large breed. At obedience school a couple of weeks ago the instructors asked what people were feeding their dogs on (a survey for pedigree to get some sponsorship) and from what I saw advance seemed to be the most popular.

Check chains are not supposed to choke a dog! A quick 'pop' on the chain and the dog stops pulling and walks nicely beside you. [/i] That is why I wouldn't use a check chain on her and went to the sporn pack leader instead.

Have you seen the sporn pack leader head collars? They work similarly to a gentle leader or halti but the attachment point is behind the neck. To the OP, if your dog does not pull constantly you should be able to train it on a flat collar. As long as there is time to praise and reward between pulling you should be able to train it out.

I would agree with this. My second lab is from an adoption agency and was 15 months or so of age when we get her, she pulls like a locomotive (impressive for only 25kg of dog). I agreed with the adoption agency not to use a check chain but would not have anyway because she just pulls too hard (I am not against check chains, I trained my first lab on one but he did not pull hard enough to choke himself). I persisted with a flat collar for a couple of months and got nowhere (if the dog does not stop pulling long enough to squeeze some praise and a treat in then positive training is a tad difficult) so got a sporn pack leader head collar and now we are making great progress.