shellbyville

I would definitely stop the bathing. If in doubt about that, ring and speak to the vet (not the nurse who suggested it!) The bathing could be why some of the stitches have come loose. Just check the wound to make sure it is not very inflamed or infected. I have had quite a few bitches desexed and found that the ones that were more active were the ones that got lumps around the wound site. Keep her as quiet as possible, lock her up in a small confined space (a crate if you have one) and I am sure the lump will go down with rest. If you are still worried give the vet a ring or take her back for the vet to check the wound.

I got the xrays done on a Wednesday. Sent them registered mail the next day (Thursday) and they emailed me the results on the next Tuesday. Really good service!

Bump - Anyone with any recommendations?

I am wondering if anyone knows of a good dog chiropractor in the Lismore area? I have been to one near Jimboomba, who was wonderful, but am after one a little closer if possible. Thanks.

Hi, I was wondering if someone new of a trainer in the Northern NSW area. I live approx. 45 minutes from Lismore. You can PM me if you have any suggestions. Thanks!

I would feed him only dry food, no mince or raw meat at the moment, until his poos firm up. Maybe change to bottled water and when he is back to normal, slowly introduce the bore water back to him (try some bore with bottled) and see how he goes. Also when he has improved slowly introduce him onto the mince etc. If he hasn't improved in a day or two or seems very lethargic and is not taking fluids I would take him to the vet asap.

I have 2 grown entire labrador bitches and one desexed lab bitch, as well as 3 young pups (2 girls & 1 boy). My girls are very accepting of other girls into the clan. I really think it depends on the personality of your girl. I would get her desexed and then like someone else mentioned, and leave it a little bit before adding another pup whatever sex you decide. I have never had a problem with any of my girls, they all love each other.

I feed my labs raw mince on a daily basis. They do get a fast day occasionally, but as your boy is underweight, I would feed him a smaller amount twice a day of raw + dry, as well as all the other things people have mentioned, like eggs occasionally, sardines etc. I mix some natural yoghurt through my dogs dry food as well once a week and they love it, along with their mince. Then when he is eating really well and putting on weight, you could go back to one larger meal a day. I would suggest a vet check as well, just to make sure there is nothing wrong. Has Cookie always been a small eater, or is it a recent thing?

How about you try instead of the canned food just adding a large handful of raw pet mince and mix it through the dry food. Each day I also give mine either a chicken wing or a raw meaty bone. Once or twice a week I give them a can of sardines in oil as well. My labs get about 1 to 1.5 cups of dry along with the raw and they are all a nice healthy weight.

I am unsure what others would say, but if you don't want to have to contend with crying puppies, I would put them in their separate crates, but in the same room and cover their crates with a blanket or something to make it feel safe and cosy. If they are together (although in separate crates) at night, you will just have to put in a lot of individual separate time with them independently during the day. We usually bring one of the pups inside with us for a bit of time and leave the others outside. This works. It is absolute chaos when we have both or all 3 inside, they go nuts!!! A lot of fun to watch, but the house doesn't quite look the same after. My guys are pretty good at home, and they are quite good taking them away separately. We seem to only have a problem taking them out together, especially to training, as they seem to want to just play and focus on each other rather than on what we are trying to do with them. My girl is the worst, while the pup my daughter handles seems to focus a bit better on her. You may not even have this problem, but just letting you know what our experience is. I must say if I do it again, I will definitely only keep one pup from the litter, mainly because of the amount of time & effort needed to train 2 ( or 3 in my case. )

Hi cocosonni, I kept 3 lab puppies from a litter that I bred, because I couldn't decide between them. My son & daughter (who are adults but still living at home 18 & 20)) have each claimed one of the puppies, and guess what! I do most of the work with the pups! Although they do take them out for socialisation quite often. My pups are now 4.5 months old and we take them to a show training class and it is really difficult getting the pups to focus on us and not on each other, as all they want to do is play with one another, which may be a problem you will face at obedience. We try to keep lots of distance between them, but they still seem to be very distracted and always looking for their litter mate. So you will have to work on that. Training at home has to be done separately and away sothey can't see each other and does seem to work at home, but not at class. I have had them separated at night since they were 8 weeks old and they have been outside in their kennel runs since then as well. They are also separated through the day and get a bit of a play with each other each day, but not for long because they are sooooo rough with each other! We have had no worries with crying at night, because even though they are separated they are close. I am telling you this just so you will know what you are facing. Especially as they do tend to bond with each other. Crate training is definitely the way to go and I probably wouldn't put them in the kids rooms. Kids need their sleep and separated the puppies will probably make a bit of noise for the first few nights. Maybe put their crates in another room and you will have to be prepared to toilet them at night for awhile and you will probably have to do it separately, as I crate trained mine and decided to let them outside at night for their toilet break together and all they did was play and didn't go to the toilet until they were back inside!! As long as you are prepared for the hard work, I hope you have lots of fun with your pups. Your kids will enjoy it I am sure, but if they are anything like my kids (who are now grown) they will love the fun stuff, like playing with them, but may not like the hard work like - taking them to the toilet in the middle of the night & training them. You will have to train the kids to train the dogs, because it doesn't come naturally to most people and lab puppies, can be a challenge. Good luck!

Be very careful with potatoes. I threw some old potatoes out into the compost, and 2 of my dogs broke into the compost & ate them, we are unsure actually how much they ate. Both dogs were very sick with poisoning type symptoms. We rushed them to the vets and they both threw up heaps and were shaking, couldn't stand, however once out of their system they were fine! We think they must have eaten quite a bit though, but still watch out with the dreaded potato!

Thanks BL. Yes Will is half brother to your boy. He was a very happy boy and my dog. He was the type of dog that just stuck to my side and just enjoyed being with me. Thanks for your thoughts. My little fox Terrier was one of those dogs that loved to smile. If you didn't know him you would think he was baring his teeth at you, but he just loved to show off his teeth with a big grin. Very cute! We will miss his smiles that he gave us on cue! Someone here was always saying "Give us a smile, Schack!" and he would! I will miss them both, it just doesn't feel the same here without them.

Thanks everyone! It really has been a hard day for us here. Your kind words help though. So thanks so much.

Today I lost 2 of my beautiful boys. 'Schack' my little foxie that has been a part of our family for 14 years and grew up with my kids, and "Will' my black lab that was not quite 2. It has been a very sad day in our home today, and we will miss them both. I can't share the details right now of what happened, too upsetting. Thought it might help to write it down and say goodbye to 2 beautiful boys.

I have to agree with Tess32 here. In a puppy it doesn't necessarily mean they have good hips. However saying that you would very rarely see an older dog lie in the 'froggy sit' if they have hips that are not great, as it may cause pain.

Hi, Your puppy is gorgeous and it sound like she has settled remarkably well. Be patient with the toilet training it can take a little while for them to get it. Just keep putting her outside and praise her like crazy when she does it where you want her to. I would just ignore the inside accidents and clean it up really well so there is no odour. I agree with crate training, it is brilliant to help with toilet training and also gives the puppy a safe place to have a good rest. Puppies grow so fast and needs lots of sleep, and the crate provides a secure, safe place for your puppy to rest. Like you said she follows you everywhere so by putting her in a crate for a rest time actually enforces the rest, and gives you a rest as well. I would discourage her eating foreign substances like rocks etc. Maybe when you take her outside have a chew toy and when she goes to eat things she shouldn't distract her with the chew toy, or a pigs ear or something she can chew. Good luck and have fun with her, they aren't puppies for very long!

Maybe when your puppy was very young with its litter mates, it did not have a choice where to toilet, and had to toilet where it slept. I have a litter of 11 pups and they go to the toilet as far away from their bed as possible and they are not quite 7 weeks old. They are outside and have an indoor kennel and a small run and they all go to the toilet right at the gate. So be patient and provide a way for puppy to go to the toilet as far away from her bed and I am sure she will get the idea. Don't get angry at her when she goes 'in the wrong place' but praise like crazy when she goes where you want her to. Hope this helps. It just takes more time with some puppies.

My daughter had a cocker spaniel, that would chronically dribble when riding in the car. She would get out at the other end and you knew she was not feeling well. I don't think she was stressed, just had terrible motion sickness. She never vomited, just dribbled everywhere. She also became very reluctant to get in the car also.

When I got my very first pedigree labrador retriever to show, I bought her home and very quickly taught her to 'come' - Great! Then promptly taught her to 'sit' which only took a few minutes - very smart dog! Took her to her first show as a baby, entered the ring and she very nicely sat down, stood her up, she sat down, stood her up, she sat down.... Then had to teach her to stand....she learnt it pretty quick! I had a lot of fun learning the showing thing with her!

I agree that feeding the mum really well to boost her milk supply is the way to go, especially if the pups are gaining weight. I have a litter of 11 and did have to supplement feed some in the first few weeks. Some pups took to the bottle better than others, so I concentrated on the ones that liked the bottle and let mum feed the rest, just to help her out a bit.

Are you going to put a floor in the kennel? If you did put in a timber floor off the ground, you could put trampoline beds in there for them to sleep on, or just put in old blankets, that if they chew is no big deal. I have one youngster here at the moment, that chews her bed all the time. So I took it out, went to St. Vinnies and bought some old blankets and put them in her kennel and she still does pull them and chew them, but they are cheap and replaceable. When she gets a bit older and out of her chewing phase she will get her bed back. :D I have a few dogs and mine can also get very bored, but i try to spend some time with each of them, everyday, with a bit of training, playing and a short walk. It seems to do the trick and they are not terribly destructive, they also get some time inside with us (in turns) and they seem very happy to go into their kennels at night.

I have just recently got a 2nd hand hydrobath. The best thing I ever did. I had an old bath out in the shed, with hot/cold water and a hand held shower nozzle and my back would be very sore after doing 6 dogs. I now have a single tub hydrobath with heater, although because I have the hot/cold water right there I don't use the heater, just fill with the hydrobath from the shower hose with warm water. I also still have the shower nozzle attached so I bath with shampoo using the hydrobath and then rinse them off with the shower head. Hope I explained that well enough. We are on tank water as well and the rinse with the shower head, isn't as good pressure as the hydrobath, but does the job. I use less shampoo now and quite enjoy bathing my dogs.

Hi Woody2shoes, I am sorry to hear about your puppies elbow dysplasia. It must have been heartbreaking for you. It is so good to hear you kept looking into it and went to another specialist and you have had success. There is nothing worse than seeing a dog in pain! Good on you for your positive outlook as well. I am sure your pup will continue to improve and hopefully will lead a normal pain free life! Well done! I am off to google 'Fragmented Coroniod Process' now!

Thanks for the replies. I think he really fretted for his other lab family and was looking for them, as the new owners thought he seemed happy enough with them. I agree that obviously 1.2m is not high enough for him, as once he decided he could do it, there was no stopping him. Electric fencing wasn't really an option they lived in a suburb and had young children! He is happy back here with us and if another family come along that want him, they will have to have very high fences or a run. Thanks for your help.