gusgem

HI Chris and Welcome! I have two labs, a boy whois 5 and agirl who has just turned one, so I know how much of a handful young labs can be. Firstly you really need to spend a lot more time with him than you are, from what it sounds anyway. I would highly suggest a crate, he will be so happy that he is allowed to come inside with his pack that Hopefully he will be content to be in his crate. IS he desexed? I highly recommend him getting done now if he isn't already. I also think that you need to take him to a local dog club and socialise him with other dogs and learn how to control him. I don't like the idea of sending them away cos then once they get home, YOU have no idea how to keep up their training, and even more so cos you haven't had a dog for a while. Labs are the sort of dogs that need people....they thrive on it. From the sounds of things I don't think he is aggressive, but he certainly is above you in the pack order. What I would do in the meanwhile, while you organise joining a club is, if he knows how to sit, as soon as you go outside get him to sit, don't give him the opporunity to jump on you...maybe even put his lead on so you can control him better. Anyway, get him to sit and praise him...lots of treats. Then I would get him to drop (if he can) and give him more treats, and if he is still in the drop position, slowly stroke him and pat him and tell him what a lovely boy he is. In a calming relaxed manner. If starts to jump up and bite you get him to (you might have to even growl at him, this works well for me when my puppy is being dominant, and trust me she tries her little heart out to be dominant!!!!) sit again and praise. YOu really have to do a lot of training with him. It sounds as though he is really bored as well. He's only a baby, he wants to have fun, and if you aren't going to provide it, then he will, by pulling clothes of the line and other destructive behaviour. My dogs have never pulled clothes off the line and there is no way that I would tolerate that behaviour. Provide him with his own sandpit that he can dig in, put his food in a buster cube or kong and please take him for walks....... Whereabouts are you in sydney? Sorry for raving on, but I hate hearing about how labradors have become destructive because their owners haven't met their needs as puppies. Let us know how he gets on.

29kg hey...well thats as much as my boy weighs and he is 580mm at the withers...a bit too tall for standard. HE is in great shape, in proper working condition. My little girl who is 11months old weighs 20kg and she is little, she is only 500mm at the withers. So if I am picturing your dog right (cos its too hard to tell from the photo), I would say that she probably is overweight. I was mortified when a girl at work told me about her male pup who is the same age as my girl weighed 38kg!!!! OMG!!! She kept saying to me, he's such a big boy... well he may be big in height but he definitely has to be fat to be that heavy. I think the weight range for males that are to standard in height should be only 32kg at a max! HO Hum, yet another fat labrador..... GOldens are totally different dogs to labradors when it comes to weight. BUt Mel774, you are right in saying that it does come down to individual dogs.

Alibear... My Gus had had blocked tear ducts for ever, and cos he went to beach so much it was getting worse and worse, he eventually lost all the hair from where he was weeping (he still has slight marks today), we did the amacin thing, didn't realy work and eventually getting his tear ducts dilated was the only option and it worked, he hasn't had a problem now for 3 years!!! If it really is a constant thing, I wuold get it done...which vet do you go to?

Northern Suburbs on monday nights and saturdays and canine fun sports, whenever I can make it.

I definitely would NOT breed from a dog with hip scores any greater than 10 and they have to have good elbows too. Remembering that people should really only breed to better their breed. I'm so sorry that your pup has HD! Hugs and kisses coming your way!

I have found also feeding my dogs in the morning....it helps them metabolise it better and they can use the energy all day by running around like loonies! I have labs, and they are very very prone to weight gain... Since moving out of home I have fed them in the morning and Gus has gone from 32.4kg to 29kg, I haven't changed his diet one bit!!! Give that a go...it worked for my dogs!

Hey Well done... a big congratulations from us here. Maple and Gus send big labrador kisses and hugs to Elvis FDX!!! Doesn't it feel great when your dog hasa title? best of luck for your next run!

The training that I have used on my past three dogs are....Meg the GSD hated food treats loved pats and verbal praises was an excellent worker... Got everything really quickly! Gus, I made the mistake of using food, or rather over using food...he being a labrador is already obsessed so its so hard to do anything without food in your hand. Maple...another lab I started clicker training with using a combination of food and toys, have come to a bump-in-the-road at the moment with retrieving her dumbell...she just doesn't get it!! Meg was my best worker that I have had....can't wait to get another GSD!!! lol

:D :Best Wishes through this difficult time. Give her hundreds of hugs and kisses from everyone.

Welcome to the world of owning a GSD!!!!! They lose heaps of hair when they lose it. My old GSD used to drop her coat so badly it was awlful, so much bloody hair everywhere you went!!! It only happens a few times a year, well it did with meg anyway, and I found brushing helped it and it made her coat look nice, what was left of it!

A big congratulations from us to you and dexter!!!! Doesn't it feel great to have letters at the end of your dogs name?!! Well done!

Not too sure. Good quedtion though. If I give my dogs frozen bones they tend to be lamb necks or roo tails, something with some meat on them so by the time they have slobbered all over it an gnawed at it for a while hopefully the bone part will be defrosted.

I don't have one of those!!! Gus is utterly obsessed with water, but luckily he hasn't bleached. That could be true about the black and chocolate thing. Also I think when chocolates are bred with chocolates it makes the coates a lot lighter and bleaching is more likely. I hope my little girl doesn't bleach. She came from a black x black breeding, but has a yellow grand sire. She is a little bit lighter than Gus.

I have two chocolate labs. When my oldest one was about 9months old his coat started to get bleached by the sun. He is a very very dark chocolate and so it looked awlful. I put suncream on it every second day for about a week, then I got bored if doing that, but funnily enough it has never become belached again!!! But I think its definitely got more to do with keeping her out of the sun than any dieatary thing, speaking from one lab owner to the next.

The NSW ones say "I certify that this exhibit withing the said period of three months been in kennels affected with Distemper, CAnine Hepatitis, Parvo Virus or any other contagious or infectious disease ans that the dog has been vaccinated." ;)

This year.....I had the meningicoccal and a hep B booster! Apologies to anyone I upset, just get a little obsessive when it comes to this topic. Will bite my tongue in future!

Ok well you guys do what you want with your dogs...... Was just curious, if any of you trial or show your dogs, I thought when you signed down the bottom of the entry form, you were signing that your dogs were fully covered against vaccinatible disease?

I'm sorry but people who DO NOT vaccinate their dog have obviously never lost a dog to any of the disease. I lost a little cattle pup from parvo and it was awlful, bloody diarrhoea, vomiting the lot, she had an exceptionally poor start to her 10week life. You are probably the kind of people that don't vaccinate your kids either!! This really frustrates me when I here about people NOT vaccinating, for gods sake be serious about your dogs health!!!!!!!!!!!!!

how are grapes toxic? Whats in them that does it? Have given all my dogs grapes, they love playing with them and had no problems. Lots of people a t training use them too, where did you get the info from?

I'd think you would only need to use these methods if the pup/dog was challenging your authority. Certainly my baby puppy had no behaviours that suggested she need this form of training. I think when they are just babies, as your pup is, you mainly want training to be fun, otherwise they won't want to do it! Have games with them, like tug, but make sure you always win (ie stopping on your terms, not his) so he realises you are the boss, thats all I believe to be necessary for babies. Perhaps enrol in a puppy preschool the instructors should be able to help you if you are having serious pack problems.

Correct me if I am worng, but I thought revolution only did fleas....I know I will be automatically corrected by the flea/tick treatment nazis when I ask that. I am in sydney close to the coast and my dogs are always at the beach. I use frontline and a tick collar, but the thing is you really have to be religious with it. It is not 100%, nothing is. Some dogs even get them with using proban, which I haven't personally used myself. I think the main thing is to be really anal about checking them. Frontline tends to give a better coverage then just a collar because it travels through the oils in the coat and can go to the back end. if you can afford it, get the spray, works much more effectively, but the nagain, you do have two big dogs! As for heartworm, I use the injection, but purely for convenience! Some people on this forum believe you can't give to certain dogs and it is unsafe in collies etc etc but if they actually talked to a vet, they would find out that it is ivermectin that collies react to not what constitutes the proheart injection. I think you will find it hard to find something that will work for everything!! hope your doggies are ok now. Just reading back- gosh I sound like an angry bitch!!

Go to a puppy preschool, they will answer all questions like this, well mine has done so far, and I have only been one week. In this situation I would have got up off the lounge, walked away and ignored her. baby puppies don't really understand the word no! If this didn't work, I would have picked her up and taken her outside and left her there till she settled down, but then again I read your last post about her hating being outside, so maybe put her in a crate or in the laundry for some time out.

Christina, don't wanna sound harsh or anything, but just because you read stuff on K9's website about halters doesn't necessarily mean that it will be right for you or your Bella....trust me, I totally stuffed up my GSD by opinions from other people and "trainers". Totally go with your instinct, it'll work better in the long run..

I think Halti's are one of THE BEST INVENTIONS EVER!!!!!! Look at the pack, it should show you what size to get, my old GSD bitch was on a size three, so I'm thinking it would be too big for your bella, maybe try a size two, but check the pack first to see what they suggest. You can now get different colours of Halti's and Gentle Leaders and Blackdog even make similar ones, but I much prefer Halti brand as I find them stronger and it is harder for the dog to pull off.....oh and expect her to paw at it! Every dog does! Just remember to praise her when she stops. I used to walk my GSD on them and it made taking her and the others a dream, because she wouldn't pull my arm off but could still smell things as she wished! Best of luck!

My Lab Gus is 17.8, which is 7.9 years younger than the average lab! i have to say that does answer a lot, being that he is a rebelious male teenager!!