mrs tornsocks

I have heard a few recs for Gladesville but not experienced them myself. here is a previous thread on the topic. Good luck !

run free Kapper.

what a cutie pie Henry is !

I am no expert on prey drive at all but I think the main thing is very short bursts at that age. I remember thinking we had a 'dud' lab (not really but you know what I mean) because he didn't retrieve consistently as a young pup. And when he did, it was only after really specific toys. Now, at 9 months, he goes back and forth all day retrieving. After doing a little bit of reading on retrieving, it's continually stressed not to work with the dog to the point of boredom (ie distraction). Even if that means he only runs after the toy twice because on the second retrieve he gets distracted, end the game. And your points about concentration span and age (ie he gets tired and hot quickly) are probably the most pertinent.

I wouldn't be too concerned - if you have a decent food drive, your training should be made easier. What's your longer term 'plan' for your dog in terms of building his prey drive ?

Thought I'd add my story here in terms of compensation. After bringing our lab pup home aged 8 wks, at about 11 weeks our puppy school instructor noticed he had an overbite. We are novice owners so didn't think to look him over for this when we picked him up, although I did 'inspect' him as best I knew how. (We had no plans to breed or show). Long story short, as soon as we found out, we contacted the breeder, who agreed to pay for any costs associated with the overbite, to the point that it was causing him health issues. It hasn't and it has improved a little but he's 9 months now and doesn't seem like it will effect him in any way. The point being, I would always contact the breeder as a first port of call, no matter what. It's great you've done that. As an aside, did you tell him about the 'mites' and what was reaction there ? I'd have thought that was something seen in the initial vet inspection.

We take our lab to Matt @ Quakers HIll, they're open til 1pm http://www.quakershillvethospital.com.au/

From Archie, 9 month old lab ... we get:- *sits bolt upright outside when he first sees us through the sliding door* *door opens, what we call 'four legged leapses' -- ie all fours off ground at once for a little while* *we don't usually react too much to discourage jumping but he finds something for his mouth, a leaf if it's the nearest thing* *wags whole body as much as possible for ages* *settles down with hungry eyes, no matter what the time of day* We are away on holidays and a fabulous DOLer is minding him so I cannot wait to see his reaction when we're back. I won't have seen him for a month, and OH hasn't seen him for over 2 weeks.

our lab used to do this occasionally when he was maybe 12-14 weeks and it was a call to play. If I was lying on the lounge, he would come up, look at my and then just bark at me. At first I had no idea why he barked and once or twice I would respond by playing with him, but not give in to his 'demand' each time. Probably not exactly the right response, but we're lukcy, he grew out of it pretty quickly.

We're on hols in the US, just wondering if anyone knows whether it's generally cheaper here to buy lenses ? I'm still very much a beginner on SLR but figured while I'm here it might be worth while. I have a 14-54mm that came with my olympus.

Thanks guys. I just got a new mac book pro for work with final cut pro and a cajillion gig hard drive plus external hard drive. Must have photoshop !!! *runs off to download photoshop*

I'm from Sydney but I kinow a couple of folks in the lab forum have been there -- mason's mum with an 8 month old or so. Pics look great !

Yuk. I think my Nana -- or her Nana - would have been a fan. Interesting ... I work in TV and a vignette is a short form piece of programming; usually 1-2 minutes or so - you see more of them on subscription tv than the free to airs. I wonder where the name originates - in photography or literature I'm sure.

Apologies if this has been done before. I have a new DSLR and I'm lucky enough to be testing it out in New York City where I'm on hols. I have it set to a pretty high res, so each pic is 4mb or so ... which I want while I'm learning so I can get a true idea of what my pics look like. I upload them to my work laptop currently (one day I will put them all on my mac) ... but does anyone have a quick and easy way to compress them ? If I zip them, it hardly reduces. Currently I'm uploading to photobucket but that is quite time consuming too. thanks guys ...

Gorgeous pics !!! We had a cat called Heather when I was younger - our BC was called Ben --- so the hubby of one of my friends saw my parents one day (but had only met them once before) and accidentally said "Hi Heather and Ben !" :rolleyes:

It's probably toilet, food or wake up time -- or all three combined ! How often is pup going out for toilet during the night. You might want to consider putting her to bed a bit later and setting alarm to take her to toilet -- that way you might be able to control things a bit more. It's worth the investment of time to wake up durng the night to alleviate the 530am wake up call.

Haven't clipped Rusti's nails yet and are there any tips on the best way? Hey Seven, if you can ask the vet to show you (if you're there for any reason) that's always good. Definitely invest in a proper pair of doggie clippers. I also trained Archie to 'stay' while i do it and preferably after he's had a good run or play and is tired. He now will actually lie down will I do it, I tell him stay and give him treats every now and then too. You can also get him used to clippers and treat him a few times if that helps.

OMG - they will have a ball !! Don't worry about them, they are obviously in safer hands (think about it: who would you choose after yourself to mind them that would know exactly what to do and how to care for them). When our first lab pup was aged around 16 weeks, we sent him for a few days to be minded by another friend who owned a labs and had owned dogs all her life. When he left, he was biting and nipping to the point of sending him to a behavourist. When he returned, problem solved !! He'd been 'told' by the other dog and so in that sense he came back a different dog - but a much better behaved dog - and had a ball as well, our friend took videos. Do you think it would be a bit rich to ask breeder to shoot a bit of video or photos of them ? Can bet your bottom dollar it will be nothing but pure joy and fun for them !

omg the first one in particular is just out of this world gorgeous ....

Archie .. taken a couple of weeks ago when I had family Xmas dinner as I'm away for work and then on hols in the US for Xmas ... I miss my little Santa's helper ..... "Oh must I ????" "Here's what I think of your hat. Now ... where's my dinner woman ??"

Hey guys Lab person lurking here --- just thought I'd let you know since it looks like you're doing a redbubble calendar. When ordering, there's a promo code you can use that will give you free shipping, no matter what the number of calendars. It's teejunction0909 you punch it in on the final order page, make sure you click on 'update total'. Have fun !! I just order our lab one, you can see it below, compiled by our fellow lab owner macka. http://www.redbubble.com/people/kristinaga...crazy-labradors My boy is Mr April

as youngsters, you just need to keep a really close eye on them albeit it can be time consuming ! Our training was by no means perfect and we are novice owners, but up until 4 months or more I never didn't know where our boy was. He was either in sight, or in his crate; just too much possibility of accidents, whether toilet or just general tendency to seek and destroy anything. Ours runs quite quickly to the door but has never cried etc. Now that he's older we just know that at 'regular' times, he will just need to go so make sure he has the chance to go out, whether that's leaving the door open a bit for him to nudge it wide enough, or just opening it every few hours in case he needs to.

RC here too, our 7 month old goes really well on it. But I have a lab who never leaves a crumb of anything.

If he chewed and gnawed on it rather than tried to gulp, this is great . It will help teach him to chew on bones when and if you want to move up to wings or frames. Our typically gutsy lab (nearly 8 months) tried to gulp when I first gave him necks and wings as a pup and it freaked me out; I did quite a bit of trial and error and now avoid all chicken pieces and only give him frames - or we buy turkey legs from Woolies (gi-normous so he can't gulp) and chop half the meat off - give him the leg and save the meat for another meal, or the best treats in town ! Very normal to treat it like a bone and run off with it, Archie does this also to his special patch of feasting grass.