littlelabrador

Hi. We are wanting to go away mid year for around 10 days. Its too long to leave Molly at the vet for boarding, as that is just cages (taken out to wee, etc). I want to find somewhere that she will be well cared for, happy, and is a good environment. Somewhere that has indoor/outdoor runs (if thats what they are called), so she isnt locked in a cage and can walk in an outside area, etc. To be honest, i have no idea what I am supposed to look for to know if a kennel is good or not - hence my question. I will probably have to supply her food as shes on a more expensive brand. Molly will be about 11 months, if that makes any difference. What do i look for, what is important to ask prospective kennels ? thanks !

Molly was desexed 3 days ago, and no problems so far. Shes been very good and isnt really bothered by the wound/stitches at all. She hardly ate or drank the first 36 hours after, but since then has made up for it, as usual. So, just need to wait another 9 days for the stitches to be removed, then we can finally organise doing the obedience classes. Not much else has changed, shes a great puppy, gets into a little mischief as they all do. She's tolerating more foods now, can eat most fruits, vegies, eggs, sardines, other fish, meat etc, with no diarrhoea so i think her gut just needed to 'mature'. Haven't got any more updated pics but she still looks the same, just a bit bigger.

Hi all, haven't posted for a while, December has been a really busy month. Molly is doing great. Shes 18 or 19 weeks now, i've lost track of it, lol. Growing well, about 14kg now. One question, Molly is being desexed in about 3.5 weeks time, and I just know she is going to be the one who will try and pull out the stitches. Is there some kind of stitching i can ask them to do, that is under the skin rather than on top ? I know human surgeons can do this, just cant remember what its called. I'm happy to pay extra if it stops her pulling them out. Once she is over the desexing, i think the obedience club will start its 09 sessions, so we hopefully will be doing that too. She's not naughty at all anymore, sits, stays, comes, still wont drop, but thats no big deal. Not so great with going for walks, pulls all over the place, but we've only been a few times. She gets a fair bit of exercise in our yard, so dont want to over do it. any advice on the stitches appreciated.

As poodle wrangler said, i dont know about the biting you being teething. Molly is also teething. I didn't think this happened until a bit later on , but i noticed the other day that she has all these really really tiny teeth coming through her lower gums, so i've been looking each day and they are getting bigger ! I therefore assume that these are the adult teeth coming up. Never even noticed the others disappear, lol. Molly is definitely chewing more, shoes are a favourite thing to try and steal, but she certainly is not biting us. And you know we had all the biting/jumping issues at around 11-13 wks. Shes 17 weeks today. How does she go with walking beside you calmly ? Molly's hopeless. I've only taken her on 2 walks so far, and both times she just pulled the whole time. Thinking i might get one of those Halti's before i try it again.

Ever seen a puppy chase bubbles ? too funny. Was blowing bubble solution for my daughter and Molly was going crazy chasing them, jumping up in the air to catch them, trying to eat them etc. Next time i get them out, i am going to video it and send it to funny home videos. After seeing what won $200K on that last weekend, im sure we can beat that.

haha, laundry door (bin is in laundry) stays firmly closed now ! and we take dinner rubbish straight outside to the main bin. we learnt.

no, shes not bad at all. she likes the camera. she seems fascinated by it, and will sit still, and look at me when i call her name, then about 2 seconds later, she will race up to try and get the cord, hahaha. a nice game.

lol, that was my thought too, not like she's going to crack it open and put it on the camp stove, haha. Must admit, i have been cooking her meat, but i think i will switch to raw soon. Just want to be sure her tummy is well settled down before i change anything.

I have not heard that eggs have to be cooked for dogs. The breeder said just a raw one cracked over the kibble was fine, which is what i've done. She actually had cooked egg yesterday, lol, when my daughter decided she didnt want the egg she asked for at breakfast and put the whole plate on the floor for Molly, who thought it was just fabulous ! haha. My mum always gave our other labs a raw egg too, supposed to be very good for their skin and coat. like sardines i think. I think the whole raw egg thing is probably like it is with humans, if they are pregnant, or immunocompromised but otherwise fine. I guess someone will tell us ! ah, Molly will sit still, Molly spends half her day sleeping, hahaha. Shes a labrador remember ! But i've got her trained now anyway to sit and stay, for a short time.

pardon my ignorance, but what exactly are the 'dew claws' ? what do they look like and where are they located ? do all breeds have them ?

here are some updated pics, taken a few minutes ago, of Molly, for anyone still interested. Shes really becoming a lovely puppy now, at 16wks this wk.

Im no expert like the others here, but our labrador was 4.4kg when we got her at 8wks. Shes now almost 16wks and is 11.8kg. Our breeder told us 1cup of dry food twice a day, plus a handful at lunchtime if they seem hungry. She was on supercoat and it was apparent quite early that she was intolerant of that. I really dont think the breeder (who had about 22 puppies from 3 litters all together) actually noticed. She had continuing diarrhoea/ very loose poos, and we ended up on a special vet food. Even on that , it was still about a cup for each meal. This is if you are not adding anything else. Molly is now on Hills Science Diet Large Breed puppy and is thriving. As the vet explained, it doesnt work out much more expensive than supercoat etc, because you feed less - ie, if you look at the pack of supercoat to see how much you are going to be feeding him at 9 months, its like 5-6 cups ! Not pushing any brand of food here either, just explaining. The advice from our vet was that a large breed pup should be gaining about a kilo a week. Molly gets about a cup of dry food, with a little rice, and either some chicken mince or beef mince, and about once a week, a raw egg. We arent using the yogurt yet due to her sensitive tummy. And when i say some mince, i mean about 2 tablespoons, not a huge amount. good luck. got any pics ??

Funny story. Yesterday i put an egg, cracked over the kibble, in her bowl for lunch. The breeder had said she had had egg, but as we'd had so many gut problems when we got her, Molly had not had egg in that time. She looked at it, looked at me, tried to start eating her lunch and backed off, jumping in the air, about a foot up, making 'roo roo' noises, it was soooo funny. She just had no idea what it was and looked like she was saying 'what the hell is this you've put in my food'. I left her licking it, and eventually she came out wagging her tail, so i think she liked it, but her reaction to it was just so funny. I'm looking forward to being able to add other things, kibble must get boring day after day. She has now had chicken mince, beef mince and egg, with no hassles. I've bought some sardines to try, but will leave it another week or so. Then i will try different vegies again and see what happens to her gut. Weighed her the other day and shes now 11.8kg, so shes gaining a little over a kg a week still. Not sure when that starts to slow down ? She is almost 16wks now.

Molly is fine. After my last post i did find a big vomit in her bed, so she had done that overnight and there were obvious bits of bone in it. Talked to the vet and they said just watch her. Its been a day and a half and she seems completely normal, so i think she will be fine. thanks.

thanks everyone. She seems okay so far, but here it is 5.30am ! I woke up at 3am because i could hear her whining and thought 'oh *&*^, but no, she seems fine, bouncing round the kitchen and just wanted some attention i think. It would only have been about 1/3 of a wing bone, ie one part of it, at the very very most, that she could have eaten, and even then, i think just bits of it crunched up. I will call the vet this morning to be sure though. I think as she had had her dinner, which was kibble and chicken meat, so soon beforehand, its probably been churned up with that and hopefully will just come through the other end with no damage. thanks.

Doesnt help that this is her normal sleeping time now either ! She will crash out now for an hour or so, then go out for a wee before bed, then we go to bed, so i wont really know whats going on overnight. ( God, its just like when a child hits their head just before bedtime and you're supposed to observe them for drowsiness !). Well i guess i will just watch and wait and call the vet in the morning then. I doubt she got a lot, pretty sure it was the little wing bones, and she was really chomping on them, growled when we tried to take them away so had to spray her with water to get her to move away from them. Hard to know with 'bloated tummy' as she was fed only 10-15 mins before this happened, so belly always looks big after eating anyway. thanks. will watch her.

Molly took cooked chicken bones out of the garbage bin tonight. Hubby's fault, he had the lid off and forgot, Molly could obviously smell it. Anyway, he found her with some bones in her bed, having a good old chew on them. We took away every scrap we could find, but im sure she must have swallowed some. I know cooked bones can splinter and be really bad for dogs. Now since i have no idea what she has or hasnt injested, what do i do ? Do i just watch her and what signs would i be looking out for that something is wrong ?? thanks.

I think we are getting there. I'm also getting her to sit, before i go through the gate into our kitchen etc, so she doesnt try to run out as soon as i open it. She's getting the idea. The only problem is the doorbell. She goes a little nuts when someone rings the doorbell or knocks on the door, and practically jumps over the gate to get there. She gets very excited still for new people, but is calming right down for family and people who are here often. Now, if only i could stop her pooing overnight !

Today my 4yr old nephew and 18month old neice came to visit. So in all, 3 kids 5 and under running around the backyard. Molly was EXCELLENT !! I was so pleased with her. The little one ran around, pretty hard to stop her when shes on a mission, and Molly sort of scampered after her, but a good couple metres behind at all times, and did not jump up once. A few times i had to say 'molly, no' when she looked like she was going to jump, and she would just sit when i said that. She didnt try to nip any of the kids, i was really proud of her. She seemed calmer around them than she was the last time they visited, about 2 wks ago. Hope it continues.

thanks, i will do that now. Don't want poor Molly to be known as something she probably isnt.

Thanks for offering your help, but if you'd read through all the posts, you'd have realised that this post has been going for almost a month now, and things have changed a lot in that time. I dont know if there's a way to change the title of the post now, because i certainly would no longer think of Molly as aggressive. Just sometimes boisterous. We have no problems around food now. We used a technique suggested by someone here, which worked really well, and we continue to use it. Molly will not eat her food unless we give her the signal to do so, i can walk out of the room and come back and she will still be sitting there waiting for me to tell her to eat. She has learnt to 'sit', 'stay' and 'come' but still hasn't got 'drop' yet. The water spray bottle is working well as well, in regard to jumping and nipping. All in all, she is becoming more controlled and somewhat calmer. Last night when we sat down to watch tv, she just layed down and went to sleep, so things are definitely on the up. As for last weekend's bite, i dont believe it will happen again. And yes, she is always supervised when my daughter is with her. If you could see the two of them together you would realise there is already a strong bond there. Molly will be going to obedience classes, but they dont start up again until early february.

Got that water spray bottle happening. Molly does not like it, and looks very shocked when she gets sprayed. It stops her in her tracks, so will keep going with that in regard to nipping and see what happens.

Husband does need the training !! thats half the problem, i realise that. Daughter just turned 5 last week, shes about 113cm tall. I'm sure Molly is trying to get up that ladder ! Shes been trying to 'nip' a lot today, following daughter around and opening her mouth moving towards her legs or pants a fair bit. I've been telling her off and giving her time outs. What else should i do ? Puppy preschool is because we cant get into anything else. I rang the local obedience club but they said that (at 12 wks) she was too young for the current group, (shes 14wks now), and in December/January they have a break and we can join the next group in February. Molly will be almost 6 months old then They are always supervised when together, NEVER left alone. Molly basically lives in our kitchen/dining room, which is gated off from the rest of the house (because that part has carpet) with metal baby gates. Whenever i leave that room, i take my daughter with me. Molly often follows her outside, so of course, i have to go out too. Today i actually tried to get my daughter to do the training too, i gave her the food and told her to get molly to sit, stay, come, etc. I dont think her voice is quite loud enough to do it, but Molly knew what was going on, looked at me intermittently, but did do it. I think this might help, for her to learn that she has to obey my daughter too. Of course i was standing right beside daughter, she wasnt doing it alone at her age.

I'm not giving up on her. I think she is a boisterous strong willed little thing, who needs training. Unfortunately I do not think we can afford K9 at this stage. I still need to find one of those water bottles, will have a look today. She still tries to nip my husband in the evenings, although not like it was a few weeks back, so we need to get on top of it. I agree she has to learn to not bite anyone, no matter the size, totally agree. Daughter is ok, shes not scared of her at all, in fact as soon as she got up this morning she wanted to cuddle her, so im not worried in that regard. I asked her what she thought of Molly biting her and she said 'its ok, shes just a baby', so she knows Molly has to learn not to. To be honest, i think Hubby is still the main problem ! Molly really doesnt want to listen to him, and i know he needs to show his authority etc with her. He does try. She's doing ok with me, i've got her sit, stay and come, under control with her, plus the waiting for her food. When i'm using food rewards that is. Shes less inclined to do it if i have no food on me. Puppy preschool starts up again this weekend.

She's not so clever tonight. Molly bit my daughter. I dont mean a nip, i mean a bite. Hubby was playing ball with her outside, Daughter was out there too, and decided she wanted to get a different ball to throw for Molly. She ran to get the other ball, and Molly saw, ran for it too, and jumped up and bit her to stop her getting the ball (assume that was her intention). She bit her on her inner elbow, a deep puncture type of wound. Daughter was very upset, screaming her head off like i've not heard in years, but seems ok now. Molly was disciplined at the time, (as was daughter) but it worries me. I know my daughter shouldn't have run for the ball, but im surprised she got a real bite. I'm not quite sure how to handle it. What should i do to stop her attempting to bite again ? I'm just really disappointed that she bit her.