mikelli

Hi everyone,

Recently I adopted a lovely yellow lab boy, almost 3 yrs old, from the pound. I have been feeding him 350 g of good quality tinned food mixed with 1 cup of good quality dry food both morning and night (so that's 700g of wet food per day, and 2 cups of dry.) I have no idea if this is the right amount, or even the right kind of food. He gobbles it up so fast, so he appears hungry, but I have read that I need to be careful of overfeeding him and most dog-owners overfeed. How often should I offer him raw meat, chicken necks and meaty bones? What kind of treats do labs love most? Any suggestions welcome, thank you!

Kezzdee.

Labradors will always tell you that they are hungry, it is very individual regarding food, you really need to assess the condition of your dog and feed accordingly. Ours are on dry food mostly, 1 1/2 to two cups daily with added brisket bones, lamb off cuts or chicken necks or frames. You need to make sure that your lab does not get overweight.....I would dispense with the tinned food, but that is a personal choice.....there is a recent thread on here talking about keeping labs lean, I will bump it to the top so it is easy for you to find. Hope you are enjoying your lab, if you know the breeder of this boy, yu may be able to contact them and get some tips on feeding.

Mine are all done under GA for hips and elbows. The vet I use has had lots of experience so I guess he thinks that this is the best way to get a good xray....

To illustrate SG's point.... I have two pictures of the same dog. I have posted these before to show how a dog can mature. Now this dog was a very chunky puppy with a lot of bone. He grew into an ugly skinny adolescent. I realised he would fill out because his dad was a big solid dog and his Grandfather was extremely solid. I didn't quite expect him to turn out how he did though!

Have a look at his head in the second picture. Whaddya reckon his body is like? He has a big, solid body to match. No amount of starvation is going to make this dog look "thin" because his skeletal structure is broad and solid. It's his bloodlines and diet can't change that.

These are great before and afters BL. Can you tell us what the ages are in the two pics ?

I would love to know how much more our boy might fill out.

Here is our teenage fella at one, he's choc in the foreground with his girlfriend Scout

Here is Dad

And Mum ...

I don't have a better pic of Mum, but dad has certainly got some bulk to him.

He will continue to grow and fill out for quite some time yet Mrs. TS. Boys certainly keep maturing for at least 3 yrs I recon, he probably will not grow in height much more after 12 months but he will thicken and body down a lot more......its a bit like how long is a piece of string, cos as you know they are all different and develop at different rates.

Don't know how to use the quote button but blacklab I totally argee with your comment

People are too willing to see a poorly breed lab with not enough bone and too much length of leg and say it's the best looking lab they've ever seen

I wonder how many people think Teddy is too fat?

Teddy looks super, she is a beautiful girl

"Misty is a nicely bred and fully matured dog who looks like a labrador should." I might pont out that Misty was less than two years old when that pic was taken so still has some maturing to do....

A long standing labrador breeder in our area has proved over and over again that dogs bred for and do well in the show ring also excell in trials and do a hard days work because they are structurally correct.....in my mind there is only one labrador not "show" and "working" labradors......

"Strongly built, short coupled, very active, broad in skull, broad and deep through chest and ribs, broad and strong over loins and hindquarters.

This description depicts a well balanced athletic dog whose conformation enables him to function as a retrieving gun dog, allowing him to stand four square and move freely over ground and through water. To do this he must be free from exaggeration and without any structural weaknesses. He should be substantial without being coarse, cloddy, or lumbering. Likewise he should not lack bone or be of whippety appearance. It must be remembered that he is an active working dog capable of carrying a heavy object gently while hurdling a fence, or retrieving a fallen bird from water. His broad skull indicates that he has good brain room and the intelligence to carry out his tasks." copied from LRCQ website:

Let us not forget what our breed standard requires of a labrador.......to do this job well he needs to be fit and not carrying excess weight.

Please visit our web page it is very interesting reading: http://www.labradorclubqld.com/

Seeing as you are all sharing pics of your lovely labs, I thought I would put up one of Misty to see if you think she is lean enough????

You will probably find that most fat labs have owners that are not in top physical condition either.....not that I can talk, but my labs are kept in good condition. Mostly it is those "feed me" eyes that get lab owners, they think they are hungry "all" the time. As Mrs.TS says, it is simple "food control".

But lets not just single labs out here, I know lots of breeds of dogs that are far too fat and do not get enough exercise.

I know of a clear to carrier mating that produced 100% carriers, tough result, but none the less you cannot assume anything when it comes to the way the genes fall!!!

Hormones are no longer used in Aussie chooks.

That's good to know. Thankyou.

So they say!!!!!???

We had a little girl with a black spot on her ribs, when she was born I rubbed and rubbed, thought it was blood, but no, it never came off, she had a lovely home and was a much loved family member.

Ok, I got this idea from the Lang Lang thread where someone is saying what a great steward they had. So....... I want you to give thumbs up for your favourite steward. Out of five.

I will start off with Vicky Rose she is a fairly new steward but always helpful, loud clear voice, knows her job and is ALWAYS pleasant. So to Vicky ;) ;) :D

Lou from Central QLD. "Thats it shows over for you" always a laugh.

I say Lou too, she keep us all entertained while we wait it is great to have someone who enjoys the job and does it well.....

wow !

Just joined dogzonline... and im out of here

no other dog / lab forum online is as political as this

Come and visit in "Those Crazy Labradors" in the Breed Sub Forums, no politics there.....

On thursday we took my 9 month old pup to the vet as he had a stomach upset, the vet gave him 2x drontal tabs to take and 2 different antibiotics, the one he had never had before called Metrogyl. The first night he was on the tablets he slept fine and his stomach was back to normal, last night he tossed and turned and moved around the whole night, took him out today for some exercise as he has been really hyper yesterday and even after a run around he cannot seem to sleep and has loads of energy! I would phone my vet and ask them if they think its the tablets but they are now closed for the rest of the weekend.

What should I do?

Maybe he is just feeling a whole lot better than he has in a while

Mikelli. That is a good simple idea.

You could even use the keyed Whitco Sliding Aluminium Window Locks with the push buttons. They could all be keyed the same for extra security.

Theres not a lot of room between the side of the crate (doors) and the side of the canopy when it is shut down though....

Sorry to go on a tangent Oceanaussi but I would just like to ask Mikelli a few questions about the setup they have posted.

Mikelli - I like your setup on the tray. I have seen a few variations that would be similar to this. It would be good in all weather conditions. The dogs and equipment would be secure when travelling and it would also be easily accesible for the vertically challenged like myself.

For the hot days / nights when you are camped and have the sides up, do you have any locks on cage doors to prevent people from opening the cages easily.

How does your setup cope on dirt roads with the dust?

The doors slide open and we put a chain around the door/door post (hard to explain) to prevent it from opening and padlock it when we need to, works well and very quick and easy.

Dust wise its pretty good as most times we have the fan going inside and this does not let too much dust get sucked in.

We also have a ramp for the dogs to go up and down.....

This is our set up. Toyota Hilux, its a V6, auto, tows our caravan with ease, so the dogs are comfortable and so are we. The canopy is fibreglass (WOW brand) so is cool, they usually come with windows in the sides but we got it made with all fibreglass as we thought the sun shining in would be too hot for the dogs, we have a fan set up in the back for really hot days. We have 4 crates and room on the back for all the show gear, or you can put crates or gazebo on top if you need to. We have had lots of people comment on what a great set up it is.

That is a great setup mikelli! My OH would like that

The best part is if we want to upgrade the ute at any stage we can just take the tray off and put it on a new cab

We love it, helps when our son is a builder and made the crates inside for us, took a couple of days and a carton of stubbies...

The crates can come out quite easily, however we have never taken them out as we usually just put ports or shopping etc. into the crates if we need to....

This is our set up. Toyota Hilux, its a V6, auto, tows our caravan with ease, so the dogs are comfortable and so are we. The canopy is fibreglass (WOW brand) so is cool, they usually come with windows in the sides but we got it made with all fibreglass as we thought the sun shining in would be too hot for the dogs, we have a fan set up in the back for really hot days. We have 4 crates and room on the back for all the show gear, or you can put crates or gazebo on top if you need to. We have had lots of people comment on what a great set up it is.

Bundaberg Canine Club Inc wishes to advise anyone that hasn't sent entries

to our show for the 6 &7 February 2010 and wish to enter could you please

send your entries to:

Bundaberg Canine Club Inc,

PO Box 7370

Bundaberg North QLD 4670

Please ensure all cheques and money orders are payable to Bundaberg Canine

Club Inc...

We hope to see you all there

Cassie Hatfield

Show secretary

I guess you must be the new secretary Cassie, congrats, I sent mine this morning to Mt. Perry too, so you will have a few to collect from there.

Thanks

OK thanks for that guys - yes I have started the biolac. If he was weak or unwell in anyway I would probably be more pushy about feeds I am happy he has had colostrum and when he feeds his belly is full. I gave him about 10ml this afternoon and I will get Pete to do one more toninght and I'll feed him again when I get home around 11pm. So thats 3 feeds today.

Again he is not showing any sign of weakness , poos and piddle all normal - just have to wait I guess.

We give our babies nutridrops too, they usually help little babies to catch up.

I looked for some a couple of years ago and there was no such thing .Id take it out if you can find it.

Our insurance company will insure us for 10,000,000 for a bit under $500.00 pa. I was wondering if anyone else has insurance, or if they thought it would be worthwhile.

I was wondering if anyone has Public Liability Insurance to cover dog breeding and showing? We are wondring what other breeders do? Are you covered?

I come in to see how MM is going?

I saw your darling daughter at the vet clinic this morning, I hope everything is ok and the baby is fine.

Hi Rysintira.....no sadly we had to PTS. There was just nothing else we could do. Her body couldnt fight it any more and she started having mild fits this morning.

:D RIP Bambi - she was three weeks old today.

And have to say this has been the longest, tiring and most emotional 3 weeks with a litter that I have ever had.

Kelpiesrule.....so sorry to hear that you have lost one also.

Sorry to hear you have had such a battle MM, hope things start to improve soon.... ;)

If I were entering a new breed I think I would want to know what it is like in the "real" world as far as shows, and interpretation of breed standards go, however it seems that apart from "how their toes smell", little else can be said. The comments that were removed were not directed at any one person or any one show, only general comments, mostly about interpretation of breed standards and in my humble opinion were not intended to be "political"...

I PAID ALOT OF MONEY FOR THE PUPPY AND JUST WANT TO ENJOY HIM, I DONT WANT THE BREEDER HARASSING ME FOR PHOTOS AND UPDATES, SHE SOLD THE PUPPY TO ME AND THAT SHOULD BE IT, SHOULD SHE LET GO OFF HIM AND MOVE ON?

Not sure what breed you have but with an attitude like that please don't ever contact me to get one of my babies. I put my heart and soul in to each and every puppy I breed and a quick update is all it takes to let me know that the puppy is going OK.

:p