Steph M

I love the party they're all having! Awesome! Haha.

That's shocking, Kirislin, must take a lot of work to make awhippet fat! We saw one vvery fat one at the park once and its so glaringly obvious when they're even a little fat!

It makes it hard for your average pet owner too. My flat coat looks much like your dog, still lots of filling out to do but last time we went to the vet I was told he was very skinny 'for a retriever' in a negative way. I was pretty upset and took it pretty hard, and for a while I did try fatten him up a little, but it made a huge impact on his energy levels. Even a few kg made a difference, and he wasn't as bouncy and ready to run and swim at a moments notice and go for hours. He's back to being fairly trim now and I still get a lot of comments about it but none bother me as much as the vet. I wonder if its the show ring influencing the public a bit or vice versa? Labs have in my lifetime been a 'chunky' pet, I suspect that's peoples way of coping with the energy levels of young dogs on some level, that and they're garbage guts dogs. I don't know how long that's been a show trend, but it does make me wonder about the influence the public has. Its evident I suppose in lots of breeds, the public want super squashed face pugs for example, and that could concievably eventually find its way into the show ring and the expectation of what the breed should look like. That dog is way too heavy though. It almost looks like an old dog. Yikes.

We as humans intervene way too much and force lives to extend when they shouldn't and naturally wouldn't in a lot of cases. IMO this is one of those cases. Poor thing.

Actually that was the first thing that came to my mind too. Mine too. One can't bully and encourage bullying then cry when one is bullied.

We have tried a few things, royal canin, which normally suits most people didn't agree with Gus, however supercoat was no problem when we ran out of the black hawk he wasn't excelling on. Go figure I wasn't comfortable feeding supercoat long term, my own preference so rather than start scratch again we went all raw too. Just further backs up that sometimes you can spend $100 on a bag of food which does nothing for your dog, who might do amazingly on goodos, for example.

We will do sausages and rolls if you like! I've put the word out for another 2 dogs, tango and indie from last time. Will let you know as soon as I know!

My flat coated retriever would be super happy with that! He didn't walk at all last week, thanks to the flu, and was quite happy, but can walk for hours.

Absolutely agree

They were an Australian seller, and assured to be Australian made. We had a similar problem.with size too. Xxl was about 10cm tops.

I feel sick even thinking about that. Imagine what misery those poor dogs have lived in and how hard its going to be to rehabilitate them and find them homes. I wish the worst on that awful family. The absolute worst.

Anyone else find the 'tough' toys are usually pretty plain and boring too? Interesting toys that are tough too would make a bomb!

I'm.also interested. The same problem happened with the lot we bought of eBay!

I'm sure you could do it, but tresspassers would have to get close enough to catch it and would it be enough? Plus do lots of people/potential robbers read 'the stare' or just think 'dog isn't barking, all good to go'

I've got a friend who bought an indoor plant which was slightly taller than the dog could pee (she has tiny dogs) and placed that in a tray full of fake grass and takes the whole thing out to hose off every day. Not my cup of tea, but I have big dogs who do big wees. Haha.

That's huge! As long as people keep vaccinating as well!

Well I can't imagine cutting out artificial additives to be bad for anyone!

Personally I think it just suits their agenda. That's interesting though, might do some reading. Interesting stuff!

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/peta-runs-deceptive-campaign-about-autism Seriously, what a horrible bunch. It saddens me people follow them whilst remaining so uninformed.

I have to say the biggest lesson Gus learned was from mum's cranky shih tzu. She nipped him on the nose and gave him a fright when he was being a twit one day. That slowed him enough to think and gave me a chance to teach in much the same way, you talk nicely or not at all. Now he stops and waits to suss out groups of dogs, and he's finally worked out when I call him he does back or we go home. Not suggesting that. Just backing up what everyone says.

I was thinking that!

Yup! We are in Gus and Rosie are go! Will edit this post properly on a PC...

I would be wary of passing on undesirable personality traits, the learned ones would be easy taught to a pup I'd imagine and there's probably a lot going on in that clever noggin that hasn't come to the forefront yet. Perhaps a more experienced person/actual breeder can be of more help. I'd just worry about raising a litter of fearful, resource guarding dogs.

https://www.aldi.com.au/en/special-buys/saturday-31-may-2014/ Down the bottom!

It looks good, but to be totally honest I could feed raw and human grade meat with veggies, apple cider vinegar and green lipped mussel for less than $10 a kilo and have it fresh and au natural so to speak. We can also balance it as we go and change it up for variety. Factoring in I'd also have to include bones and things it works out hideously expensive even when you take out their multivitamin. It might be good to take away with us though or when they go board etc. Totally not meaning to say its no good, looks amazing but I can't justify $127 a bag when my dogs eat better than we do as is. Haha.