Glen

Rotten tough day for you, a good one for her. Hang in there.

My lab sounds very similar to yours. She is great etc. etc. but has a strong "personality". She decided after being barked at in the face by many small dogs, that she would not take it any more. She decided to get in first if a small dog came quickly towards her. Never had contact with one, except once when I was exiting an Obedience ring and a little dog went for her and their leads got tangled together and they were stuck face to face. No damage done, but it was "interesting". However, I trained the Look At That game and always have treats in my pocket when I go out. She very quickly learned that little dogs are the source of good things from Mum and I can manage her behaviour easily. I will let her off leash at the beach, but put her back on lead as soon as a small dog comes our way. Hope this helps.

Great name. Beautiful dog. Together you will go far.

I agree with korbin 13. My two cattle dogs used to eat these bones regularly, but one of them cracked a tooth on one. Was quite an expensive exercise. We stick to chicken frames and lamb necks cut in half lengthways now.

It is not always just a "cultural" thing. I have a similar reaction by many older ladies with SWFs when I walk my very sedate Labrador. I think it is more a personality thing - the personality of the owner/s of the SWF. The SWFs invariably try to get to my dog in a very aggressive manner. And the owners generally hurry them away, looking daggers at me and my dog over their shoulders. Don't think there is much we can do, except smile sweetly and keep going.

I don't know if this works or not myself, but a lady who swears by it says to put several layers of newspaper underneath where the dog is to be in the car. No more car sickness. Maybe worth trying.

That's nice.

Beautiful pictures. Beautiful babies. Beautiful dogs. Congratulations.

I use the words "left about" while I am training this. The dogs very quickly pick up the idea and marry it to the words. Drop your left shoulder quite noticeably as well, far more than you would do for a normal left turn, and continue with this body language, gradually fading it until it is quite minor. In my experience, dogs learn this very quickly. Good luck.

One lucky girl. Good on you for doing your best and not giving up.

I'm really sorry that you are faced with this predicament. I know you are going to mourn the loss of these possible pups no matter how much you know this pregnancy should not be. I feel your pain.

Made my day.

Jimboomba Dog Obedience Club is a good one - especially for agility.

Lovely work. Great dog. Great trainer.

A lovely dog. Lucky her and lucky you. Do you know what happened to the 15 year old mother?

We came by a stray, who when we found his owner, found out his name was Benson. A day or so later, said owner rang us and asked us if we wanted him, as she didn't. He is a great dog and we renamed him George, which suits him down to the ground.

I just want to say "thanks" to Katdogs for sharing Sammy's life with us. I too have a black labby (she's five now), and I am just loving reliving all the puppy "stuff". Sammy is a very beautiful little bloke. He is going to be a very special man. Keep sharing please.

She is one lucky dog. And so very beautiful.

I know of a number of deaf dogs doing extremely well in agility. It makes absolutely no difference if they can hear or not as the dogs work off the handler's body language. Most of these dogs have been rescues (one, a cattle pup purchased from a farm was not known to be deaf at time of purchase) and they have the best of lives which is full of stimulation. And most of these rescues were not pups. In my opinion, it makes little difference if a pup/dog can hear or not (with some obvious exception - it's hard to train the recall etc.) It all depends on the level of committment and understanding of the owner. Congratulations to those who put in that extra effort and save a dog with physical limitation and give it a great life.

I am an older person,(not THAT old) and feel that the dogs I now have may be my last. However, when they have gone, I may still be fine. That being the case, I would hate to live for quite a few years without a dog because I MIGHT soon die etc. So I have been giving some thought to the RSPCA's Berevement Programme where you leave money in your will to them and they will fine the right home for your dog. I also thought that I might be able to get a dog from them as I feel that any dog in that programme most probably would have been well loved and would probably have fewer "issues" than one from a pound or similar, and I probably would not be able to deal with a dog with "issues" as well as I could now. Anyone had any experience with this programme?

We have had 3 labs over our "doggy" time, as well as 2 dobbies, a great dane, a dingo cross and 2 cattle dogs. The first 2 labs we had were very easy dogs, sooooeasy to train and quite laid back. So, as we are now retired and were looking to replace our old cattle dog who had died, we decided to go back to a lab as we had found them such easy dogs in the past and felt we didn't have the energy for a high drive type of dog. So..... we got a great little labby pup. I couldn't believe what energy she had etc. etc. etc. She just never stopped. I took her to the vet for her 12 month check and had to apologise for her rambunctious behaviour and said I expected she would clam down a bit when she was 2 years old. The vet's response was:"try four years". I couldn't believe it!! But he was absolutely correct. As she turned 4 years, she became the calm lab that I thought we would have from about six months. So.... my advice is.... think very carefully about a lab puppy in a house with very small children and a very busy mother.

Getting a foot stuck in those palings would be my concern. Happened to a dog we had, but we were close by and able to free her quickly.

Hi, I have a lab who has been competing in agility since she was 18 months old. She has just turned four. She has done extremely well with ADM ADO JDX JDO SDX GDX & SPDX titles. She also has competed in obedience and has her CCD & CD titles. All I can say is that she absolutely loves working, especially at agility. She comes off after a run with a grin from ear to ear. She has Kadnook and Birdlehund lines in her which are more working lines than show. I keep her at about 25kgs. We have had no problems whatsoever physically. My cattle dog who also did agility (now retired) had many problems because she was so quick and would tear muscles etc. A labby can make a great agility dog as well as being a great all-rounder type dog. Good luck.

That is just lovely. Made my day.

Hunny, I know exactly what you are talking about. We have had Labs in the past and they were nice, laid back, easy dogs. We've had Dobies (lots of fun), and cattle dogs (love them to death). We also got landed with a dingo cross who was a difficult dog to start with. After learning to train her, she became my "special" dog; knew what I wanted from her before I asked it. Anyhow with age and the loss of a cattle dog (still have one) we decided our next dog should be an "easy" dog, so we decided to go back to the Labs. WELL!!! I've never had a more difficult dog!!! She has taken more work than all our other dogs put together - Know what you mean about bursting into the Vets to visit her best friend. But take heart. She is now almost 4 years old and is beginning to quieten down. Yes, it has taken that long. The vet told me it would. But she has her CD title and various agility titles, ADM being one of them, so be patient, be consistent and laugh a lot. You will get there.