MissMonaro

Hi Karen, Thats not the little one that went on the long journey is it ?? Off topic.......but I got to have a cuddle of him on Monday night at obedience....cute :-)

glad to hear that all is well with your poochies.

Just on this note.......2 pups from same litter......one scored 3:3 hips...the other a 9:11 hip score. Mother 1:2 hips and Father 0:3 hips. However, 2nd dog weighed in at 40 kg at 9 months of age. This is where you ponder the question of environmental issues ....and what effects did this possibly have on the hip score.

One of my lab bitches sits like that on my slippery floor also. She also sits over on one side. Dont know how to explain...but she has always done it. Like a lazy sit...with her feet out one side. She drops the same as well...hardly ever in a sphinx position, like they should. One night at obedience the trainer said "thats a sure sign of HD" cos she wont sit properly. My bitch has a "perfect" hip score. 0:0 But I will say that some dogs can live a good life if they do have HD without going through expensive operations.

Thanks. :D He certainly didnt seem too overly fazed by the young labs. I thought of bringing the older pup/teenager, but she gets very excited and I thought might off been a bit too "in his face"....whereas the younger ones, being smaller than him, I thought he might not feel threatened by them. But I think he did really well Tracie. ;) and from what I saw he looked like he went well in class for you also.

I always bath my pups at 8 weeks before they go to their new homes also.

My dogs have their check ups when they go for their annual vaccination. Otherwise the only other time they go to the vets is when they are sick or injured, or an expectant mum.

and dont let him get too fat !! Very important !! Good luck with your new puppy....am sure you will have lots of fun times ahead.

Glad I saw this topic. One of my youngsters has a thing about the car. Any time the back door opens she loves to run inside....but on the mornings we are going to a dog show I am sure she knows...as she will not come inside. Whilst the other sprawls out on the seat and sleeps...she sits there and drools the whole time. She wont lie down on the seat. Last weekend she threw up in her crate at the show. It was just water and a bit of grass. We got her out to clean the crate and she was fine. She trots around the showring as well, so I'm sure its not that that is bothering her. It just seems to be the car travel. I have heard about the rescue remedy (never used it) but I think I might look into the ginger tablets and see if that helps her.

We have chickens and dogs and well they all did live harmonously together, until we got a mini bull terrier. Then we started having problems. Had a few chooks fly out of the pen - not a good move. Anyway she killed a few - between her and one of the younger labs (that is her partner in crime). We have now erected a new colorbond fence so that we have the facilities to seperate the dogs that cant control themselves around the chooks, and now the chookies will be able to free range again. If they jump into the dogs pen, well I cant help them then. Our BT wont go near the chook pen though when we are feeding them...she stays right away. She is full aware of what is in there and I am pretty sure she knows its wrong.....but I am betting in her eyes its a great game to chase the chicken (and she goes straight for the neck too). We have a cat as well (3 actually) but only 1 that comes into the dogs yard. The bully actually doesnt really fuss much over the cat...but the younger lab will chase her. She has just met the baby pups and they sat and barked at her and she didnt move, so they became bored very quickly with that game. But my suggestion is.......build a more secure chook run.

Will he ever be normal ?? He's a lab.....and that is normal Labs love to dig. I always question my prospective puppy buyers about how "garden proud" they are.......cos if they are fanatical gardeners I advise them against getting a young lab puppy. You may have to erect a fence around your plants to protect them, but make sure its secure, as it could be a game for him to get to the plant. A sandpit is a good idea for him to dig in - as has been suggested - as well as a kong. Bones are also a good idea, but dont leave him alone with them esp if smaller. A good cheap toy that I use is an empty milk bottle - 2 litre variety. Just rinse it out and give it to him. When he has chewed it up, throw it away and give him another. My labs love them. They destroy their doggy toys pretty quickly and then tire of them. Especially the squeaky ones. They will rip them apart till the squeakie no longer squeaks and then the toy is no longer interesting. They will shred balls, hence they are picked up after playtime. But as mentioned by others, they do need stimulation as they do quickly become bored. They do "mostly" grow out of the destructive stage....but even in summer my older girls will dig a hole in the garden under the trees to sleep in. (we have soft soil where I am)

Good job I'll have 2 thanks.......hehehe

I use check chains on my dogs for obedience. Always have. I also use food rewards. I have since seen the likes of haltis and head collars be allowed to be used. However, watching someone that doesnt know how to use one correctly and I've seen dogs walking with a bent neck half the time. I dont think that would be great for the spine. Anyway, each to their own. Agility and flyball classes must however be done in a flat collar. But at my club you cannot do agility either until you have reached class 4 obedience. I think this is fair as you need a dog that is reliable off lead and also comes when called. Although even now at agility I see some that even though they are competiting in obedience, the excitement of agility and they are off running around....so imagine a dog that has no training at all. Plus most of the dogs in the earlier classes are usually too young to compete in agility. At my club they arent allowed to start in agility training till they are 14 months and then only allowed over the small jumps. No full on training until they are 18 months.

I have to admit it is the only thing my pregnant bitches will eat also. And of course I pamper to them...hehe

It was the first one we've had and I was devestated. The people were given back their deposit on said pup and told they were under absolutely no obligations whatsoever etc. But I was glad that they decided to still take her and cherish what time they could have. Lovely lovely people too, so it was heartbreaking to have to tell them. When my bitch was pregnant, towards the end, they said one pups heartrate was not stable and when they got them out (c-section), one of them was in the gunk (problems with bitch). We now are thinking it must of been this one. She was sick as a wee pup and we put them all on a course of antibiotics, not knowing exactly what was wrong then. Although she was tiny, she progressed well and so we did not expect anything was wrong. After that, sometimes it makes you sit up and think how much you should interfere and wonder if we made the right decision to save her back then. The specialists report said that it could be due to an incomplete valve in one side of the heart (without looking I'm sure thats what it was). They can operate, but at such a young age its too much to put her through. So hence why they will check again as she gets older and re-assess then. I wish you well with your dog also.

our old dog had a heart murmur (not sure of the grade) but he lived till he was 15 1/2 (no medication for it either) We recently gave a puppy away that was diagnosed with a grade 4 heart murmur. The couple had dearly fell in love with her and still wanted her even though I told them the same grim outlook - that she could have one week, one month, one year, 6 years.........all unknown. They have taken her to a specialist to see what could be done, and at this stage he has said he will re-evaluate her again at 2 years of age. They know that her time is limited...but we discussed it all and my only option was to PTS, but they decided they would give her what quality of life they could.

I feed my dogs twice a day also.

I feel my older labs on Bonnie. Its around the same price as Supercoat. I was feeding them the lite version, but have switched to Adult. The teenager gets Supercoat Junior and a white meat mix, which includes veges, fish, etc with that.

It might of paid you do query the judge. The reason I say this is I went to watch one of my friends trial her dog. One of the scores was a NQ and she was going to pack up and go home...but we convinced her to stay for groups and give her dog the practice. We ended up staying to watch the awards at the end as well....and she got called out for a place and a qualify...and we were all like What ?? It turns out that the writer had written the scores on the board incorrectly. Luckily they had been checked. Also watch the addition of the scores - have seen them be added up incorrectly as well.

A couple of years ago I attemped a sweepstakes obed with my lab. It was at my club, so I thought familiar grounds...yeh...okay....no probs. But of course when I got there I just felt physically ill - I was sooooooooo nervous - and it was made worse by everyone from training saying you'll be right, no probs - and they stood and watched me, which just made me even worse. Well that was just disastrous. (and everyone said I was so stiff in the ring they thought I was going to pass out) I just absolutely choked out there, so not blaming the dog totally. For the off lead heel......off we start. First sit....yep.......then that is where my dog stayed and watched whilst I walked around the ring. I was sooooooo embarassed. I got NIL for that exercise. I decided to keep going anyway.....recall (which she was normally good at). Give the command to come......nope....I'll just sit here and watch you again. More red faces from me. Judge says call her again. Of course comes in doing a great recall...but already too late. On to the group exercises. Thinking what the hell I might as well keep practising and if she aint gonna move all day, then this should be a breeze. Thankfully full marks for the stay exercises. But I was sooooo I have another really embarassing one from a trial. Judge decides to start with the figure of eight (something different alright). So off we go and at the first sit, she just looked at me as though to say I dont think so...so without even thinking I checked her and in a loud voice SIT. All I remember was the judge screaming NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Then me thinking OH SH*T cos I had realised what I had done. I got a severe reprimand and a lecture for that one and a 10 point deduction. (I realised I would of been better to of just lost points for not doing that sit, but then again me putting her in her place early meant she did behave during the rest). I just didnt think - it happened so quick. At training if they dont do it the first time then they get us to put them in the position...lucky I didnt touch her as well. But OMG I was soooooo embarassed. I did have ppl coming up to me afterwards and saying not to worry too much because if I let her get away with it in the lower classes then she'd still put it over me in the higher classes where a better standard is expected. I managed to just scrape a qualify - of course when the judge presented the certificates she told everyone I was very very lucky to be getting a pass. :p ;) (as if I didnt want to shrivel up as it was)

When I do stay exercises I stand with my hands by my side. Recall I stand with my hands clasped in front as because I do train with food, the object is the dog will come straight in to where my hands are clasped in front of me. It was just something I was told to do to differentiate between a stay and a recall exercise. I know some ppl use a stay command for stay and a wait for the recall...but cos I have always trained using "stay" this is just one thing I do. However in training we do all the things like walk around the dogs, walk past them, walk over them (although mine does not like this), squat in front of them, do star jumps or jump up and down on the spot...and also do another where on lead we pull on the lead gently reinforcing the stay command as well. Sometimes the instructor will chuck a ball in front of them all (thats tough on the retrievers... )

I always do SFE with my hands by my side. Also in recall I do call my dogs name...pause...and then command. But most I have been pipped for this is a few points knocked off. On a side note I have been in a group sit exercise and either 4 or 5 of the dogs down the other end of the line got up and moved because one of them bothered the others. There literally were dogs going everywhere...except the 3 up my end. The whole time I was hoping they didnt come up my end and bother my dog and the 2 either side of her as they were all stable and stayed put. The judge decided to redo the whole sit exercise for everyone. But others whose dogs also knew the next exercise was group drop....then blew their chances because a couple of the dogs dropped. So they were pissed as originally their dogs had completed the exercise but then lost out cos they had to redo it for the others. My dog did shuffle her front feet when the others dropped...but thankfully stayed in the sit position. Now in the drop exercise, one of the dogs that had been bothered in the sit exercise the first time around....moved again. The judge decided it was because it was still anxious and then let her redo that portion of the drop exercise again with 2 other dogs (that had failed because of the sit fiasco) and she passed just that one. There were many ppl shaking their heads at that one....but kind of like showing....helps when the person was also a judge.

I have sadly rehomed 2 dogs, both that were at a level 4 in obedience (both by my 12 to 14 yr old daughter) eg. almost ready to compete They were rehomed because they failed health testing. The 2nd I would of kept in a heartbeat to do obedience with, if it wasnt for dog limits. We breed and we show as well. This dog was also shown, but I sadly couldnt keep her. Very very sadly too I must admit. :cool: My daughter was given the option to keep her for obedience, but her heart is really in the showing side of things, and she wants to keep showing. I would of held onto her longer for my youngest to learn showing with, but the right home just happened to come up sooner than expected. Both dogs were rehomed very easily and both new owners are absolutely wrapped in the fact that they are so obedient and well trained. Although I would of been happy for the 2nd one to go to an obedience home, I am still happy that she has gone to live with 3 kids to love her all to herself (well shared with a cattle dog that she gets on very well with).....as I think she had great potential in that area.

well done

We actually start both at pretty much the same time with our labradors. Well obedience cant be started until they are 4 months of age at my club anyway. But at obedience we dont teach our show dogs to do an automatic sit when you come to a halt, until they are older. Border collies are smart dogs. Our bull terrier wasnt started at obedience until her showing was out the way, because she's not very focused at the best of times.