Serket

I have golden retrievers. We got a puppy when my oldest girl was 5, she was fine with the puppy but we separated them during the day - puppy had larger covered outside pen and they had separate training time and close supervision when together so puppy didn’t overwhelm older dog, she was happy to play but sometimes puppies are just too much and especially so with a 13yr old. We sadly lost our older girl this February, the younger one (now 4) was lonely and we’ve now got a 15wk old puppy - she is super full on at times and the 4 yr old is a very soft gentle dog and will yield rather than correct for the most part so we make sure she’s not overwhelmed and out of her comfort zone when the puppy is too rude. If you get a puppy you will really need to be prepared to manage them together and look after the needs of both of them. An older dog would be better for your girl I think, and (hopefully still much further) down the track would still provide that older dog role for a puppy Also I would personally always get a puppy from a registered reputable breeder and ensure full health checks done

Thanks! Found it! Will stick with what we have for now even though it’s in the will not disclose list because at least no peas/legumes but if they change the formula and/or the research is concluded then it’s great to have that data, protein % can be so misleading it’s great that some companies will stand by their product and disclose meat%

Pandi-Girl - I looked at the page but can’t seem to search and/or scroll far enough to find it... The issues seem to be linked with the legumes and peas and stay loyal does still have those so I’m not sure but it’s getting really hard to find anything completely without them. Holistic select has ONE food left without them but it’s probably only a matter of time. Zahra loves the salmon Blackhawk and did well on it but peas #2 so that had to go. Nothing proven sure but not risking it.

Research is currently being done (Dr Joshua Stern) on whether there is a link between the legumes in many grain free foods and taurine deficient dilated cardiomyopathy. Many golden retrievers in particular seem to be affected. I hadn’t fed grain free until recently and when I did it wasn’t because of the grain free factor but due to other ingredients, I’ve since switched to another food after seeing the research and realising that peas are not as healthy as they might seem. I’ve also discovered how utterly impossible it is to find a non-legume (peas in particular) filled grain free (or even otherwise) dog food. Even brands that didn’t previously have them now do, extremely pissed off to order bags of food and have the ingredients on the bag differ from the website. Yes the major commercial brands are “safe” but not necessarily what I want to feed. It’s becoming a big issue in America with some very active Facebook groups with active vet involvement as well (ie not crazies), but I hadn’t heard/seen anything locally and vets and other people I’ve spoken to lately weren’t aware of any potential issues. The other issue with all the grain free diets is while non grain free may have filler the grain free have big % of protein coming from the legumes and not from animal protein sources but labelling requirements don’t distinguish that - not as much meat as it might seem they have

Golden retrievers yes but never a lab. Prefer the look of the long coat, and don't like the stockiness of labs. The personality of those I've met just doesn't appeal to me the same way either. Could do a flat coat, or maybe an Aussie if I ever got something different.

I felt like I should get a boy for our second dog rather than another girl, but as much as I love other people's boys I just like the girls more and just cross my fingers that little miss insolent puppy doesn't turn evil (if anyone picks a fight in the future it will be her). My older bitch is Velcro dog in that she follows me around the house, must be in the same room as me and she cries and belly crawls if I'm late getting home, but she's happy to be next to me, not on me and she's not overly demanding for affection most of the time. Even as a puppy she was a bit more aloof but needy in her own way, The puppy is much more affectionate and wants to be on me and near me desperately, my poor OH can be up one end of the house with them and they're both glued to the baby gate watching the other end of the house for me to emerge. So it's definitely not true in my case that the bitches gravitate to male family members over me. If we ever got a 3rd dog I would get a boy though, but if we keep just having two probably another girl.

So I just got a "refund" for my new policy that was only billed for the first time this week....it was billed Monday and three days later I got an email saying the refund had been processed, I was confused, wondered if it was sent in error as nothing was showing up in my online banking but now it it. I have NOT cancelled my policy! WTF??? I knew paying monthly was a bad idea. Never mind that my 5 year old dog costs me more than 100 more than my new puppy despite same breed and never having claimed...didn't even try to ask for an explanation of that.

Some of the doors are quite heavy and I have replaced them temporarily with heavy plastic while puppies are very small and then as they got bigger replaced the original plastic door part. One of mine was magnetic and quite hard to push open with floppy 8 week old legs even for a golden retriever, I found she was much happier to use it when it wasn't so hard to open and was fine when I changed it back later. It depends on the type how easy they are to open (stiffer is better for not letting the wind in though)

So they have, as promised, sent me out a new harness by courier although it only arrived today as we weren't home to receive it last week (black harness this time), plus a bunch of apology goodies (lead, toy, keyrings) which wasn't necessary but is of course very lovely of them Will have to wait for the next weekend or so to test it out at the beach, but fingers crossed it was a one time fault and there will be no further dramas :)

Just renewed one policy and converted another from 6 weeks free - which apparently requires manual processing and makes you put your credit card details in and then doesn't tell you at any point what the quote would be, so I'm curious as to what the manual processing will entail and whether they are actually going to confirm the price is acceptable before charging my card (I did do a quote separately so I know what I should be expecting, but....who knows). Ombudsman is definitely the way to go if bombardment doesn't work. I've had great success with the telecommunications ombudsman previously when neither Optus nor Telstra would accept responsibility for a phone line transfer taking over 6 months.

UPDATE They've replied and offered to replace the harness fingers crossed for better luck next time

Sounds like I was unlucky then, glad others haven't been affected. That's even worse with the Corgi though pirate, both for the slit throat effect and that it was a show dog. Maybe the blue dye isn't as colourfast as the others and/or maybe with darker and short haired dogs it doesn't have the same result. Post-bath Gypsy is still blue not going to give her multiple baths just to try to get rid of it, it hasn't caused a reaction on her skin so she's just going to have to stay part smurf for however long it takes. She's had half a dozen other harnesses over the years, some ezydog, some other brands, various materials and never any issues. I suspect the neoprene rather than the nylon webbing, but the blue goes around further than the neoprene does. Maybe it just ran further being wet.

Ok, will hold off on washing it and will find their contact details on their website and email them the photos. I've been trying to find a decent harness for the beach and I thought this one was working well! Even if it made everyone think she was a boy, we're used to that. ETA I've just looked more closely and the hair is blue all the way down to the skin! I've emailed them with photos, but I'm worried I'm going to have a blue dog for quite a while if it doesn't wash out of her hair

I know there have been a lot of harness threads lately, so sorry to start a new one but....has anyone else found that the Ezydog quickfit harnesses aren't colourfast? We went to the beach yesterday and Gypsy wore her blue one for the first time, we went swimming, went for a walk along the beach for an hour or so, and then when we got home and I took off the harness I noticed she's now got blue stripes where it was across her chest and shoulders Not really pleased about it, I don't want her turning blue every time we go to the beach and the advertising on their site shows plenty of dogs in their harnesses in or near the water! I suppose I'll put it through the washing machine and hope that any excess dye comes off in there and in future it won't happen again (or I guess I'll have to try to return it), but be warned if you have a light coloured dog and this type of harness! (photos to come)

It will probably depend on the dog how long it takes to pass. Fingers crossed all is well and she is fine. I'd be tempted to hit the idiot who did it up for the vet bills if not. My oldest swallowed all sorts of things as a puppy despite my best efforts - AA batteries, large river stones, my glasses, etc. all passed through without any dramas (but with many frantic vet visits...), so hopefully you will be lucky too. I guess the main concern in your case is if it was a reasonably large piece of plastic that it could get twisted around things, hopefully it will all be fine.

My premiums have gone from around 550 to almost 800 for a golden retriever, so not as bad as some others. They also took almost 4 weeks to send me the details of my 6 weeks puppy insurance which had both myself and the breeder quite stressed since we couldn't get hold of them by phone or email to confirm if it had gone through at all etc. Not hugely pleased, but the alternatives have their own flaws and seem to be rising in price too

Adult gets a kong wobbler with 1/3 cup kibble around 730 am, and then dinner between 7-9 at night, but she has free access in and out of the house during the day and at night so no toileting issues. She seems to sleep all day and we seem to get late afternoon poos but there could be middle of the night or early morning ones too, I'm not tracking hers so closely these days! Just pick them up daily. Baby gets breakfast at 730, then "lunch" at 4-5 when I get home, and dinner around 9. We have 10-11pm poos and then make it to the morning and have 7am poos, and when I get home there's always a poo in her run, but that's a baby digestive system and probably doesn't help. I find that when they're puppies I have a good feel for the time it takes to digest, but since they have free access to the yard as adults I don't micromanage their toilet habits so much.

We have colourbond on two sides, wooden fence on another and bamboo screening along the back and the dog in the yard at the back drives us INSANE with its barking. We can't go into our own yard without being barked at (and it won't stop until we go back inside), the dogs can't use the back half of the yard, and none of the neighbours of this dog can go out in their yards without it going nuts. The blocks are weird and our backyard starts level with the height of their 6ft fence hence not having a proper fence on this side I guess, no idea what the previous owners were thinking. It's a poor little staffy that never seems to get taken out or interacted with but we're currently trying to find something we can replace the bamboo screening with so it can't see up into our yard anymore. Even at 3am when I go to take the puppy out it slams itself against the laundry door where it's locked in at night because it can see the shadows in our yard. Not a happy situation for anyone I imagine. My dogs don't bark and completely ignore it thank goodness. But solid fences all the way here IMO.

I've been asked several times what my 10 week old golden retriever puppy is....often whether it's a lab or GR and that I can mostly forgive, but sometimes straight out what is it? and that question most recently by someone who owns a golden retriever puppy themselves. Apparently the difference in colour was confusing... I thought I owned one of the most identifiable breeds out there, but less than 50% of the time people actually guess right for either my adult or the puppy. I don't understand. It doesn't surprise me at all that people struggle to identify other breeds or refuse to believe they are purebreds. Too many people I know or meet have oodles of varying types. I find it hard to be polite about them

My aunt gave me two MASSIVE pillows to use as dog beds (golden retriever sized but look like a normal lounge throw cushion) because she couldn't find anything big enough to cover them with. I think I have a solution now! this looks perfectly suited to my level of DIY ability I think that will make almost 10 beds in the house for the dogs....not including lounges spoilt much?

Woofs and wags - Gail is lovely and experienced, classes are small, and she has a range of classes you can follow on with after the puppy preschool or you can continue with formal obedience elsewhere. She also runs classes in a few different locations. I went to both vet- run classes and hers and Central Coast Obedience at Kincumber previously and I've gone back to her to start with for our new puppy. The vet one wasn't bad in any way, but it was a bit basic for what I wanted and we spent a lot of time listening not doing. Link is http://www.woofsandwags.com.au

I fed Artemis for the first 2 years or so and then switched back to proplan (what the breeder had started them on), my oldest dog went off Artemis after a while, the formula changed or maybe just the kibble shape and size and she just didn't like it anymore. She does well on proplan (salmon variety because she loves fish, not due to skin issues). She gets the occasional ear infection but it seems to be seasonal/environmental, otherwise no issues at all. New puppy is on eukanuba for now as that is what her breeder feeds, we'll see how we go with that, so far so good but she's only been home a week and a half :laugh: Both are golden retrievers

Interested to see what people suggest as my little one is having a similar issue the last few days, no change of diet as such but more treats than she'd be used to which is what I've put it down to and tried using her kibble more as a treat to firm it back up. Seems to be working so far. Of course she's only little and a small amount of treats makes up a big percentage of what she eats and can easily have an impact. On the topic of how much food, my adult GR (5yrs) gets 1-1.5 cups of proplan salmon kibble, plus some sardines or similar small treat added each day and is around 24-26kg depending on how many extras she gets and whether I forget to reduce her ration when she's had a lot of bones. I can't imagine feeding 4 cups a day and certainly not 6!

I am a dreadful enabler :laugh: but I fall victim to it just as often. :laugh: Puppy update: my dogs are now ridiculously in love with each other, it's getting harder to distract them from each other just using a squeaky toy when it gets a bit too rough and overexcited for the little one, now I have to actually call the older dog off and give it treats and settle her down and lock baby up for a bit to get them to chill. I settle Gypsy down and then Zahra comes bolting up to start the games again otherwise. Still, better than Gypsy hating the puppy I guess! Spent this afternoon adding a tarp to the puppy pen and trying to make sure it's sturdy enough and safe enough for her, we both have to go back to work tomorrow and my sister is no longer willing to puppy sit and nor do I want her to, sigh. Hopefully Zahra will just sleep most of the day, she spent a big chunk of the weekend in the pen happily enough, and even when we'd go to let her out she'd walk out and then straight back in, but she's a contrary one like that.