aussielover

Not me!!!! We don't have that problem here How long have you had her? I wouldn't be giving treats until she is settled in, maybe a week after you got her. Sometimes the stress of going to a new home can cause tummy upsets (and inappetance) so its best to avoid the treats for now. Something less fatty such as chicken breast or dried chicken breast may be ok though if you wanted to give high value rewards for special things such as toilet training. Mindy only wanted to eat her puppy bicsuits (which she was used to) for the first few days after she came home. She has now turned into a little mobile garbage disposal unit, which I'm sure yours will soon! BTW please come join us in the lab breed forum! We have another Archer there as well, except he is black!

Is Cindy goind to a puppy school? If not, I would recommend she start one (she is a bit old for puppy preschool now, bu there are some puppy classses that take older puppies and some puppy classes have a follow on class after pupppy school). Does little Fez run back and try to play with Cindy after you have separated them? I often find this a useful way of knowing whether the play was just play or whether one of the pups really has been upset. I don't think biting on the legs etc when playing is neccesarily rude, but if the other dog doesn't like it, they will let you know! unless they have been very deprived of socialisation, puppies should generally be aware of doggy manners. I would try and let both your pups, but particularly Cindy, interact with a well behaved and well socialised older dog, they should learn some doggy manners by doing this. Playing with other pups their age may not help them develop good dog manners as the other pup is often just as clueless.

so cute! Mindy played with an airedale for a bit today, he was very gentle with her and very lovely. I love airedales (but couldn't deal with the coat) they are great dogs! He did keep trying to steal food from me though :rolleyes:

My puppy is from guide dogs (also a lab) and they recommend 3 meals per day each meal of 1/2 cup of dry puppy except breakfast which is 3/4 cup dry puppy food until they are 4 months old. then they get 1 cup of dry puppy food three times a day. I only give my puppy 1/2 a cup three times a day because she gets extra treats like chicken or tuckertime for practicing recall and some training exercises. I have followed this guide and my 14 week old puppy looks good, quite lean, but not too thin, you can't see ribs but you can feel them and she has a nice well defined waist. When she was 8 weeks though she was a chubby little thing too! So, what you are doing at the moment seems about right. If you want to give treats I would take it out of her food allowance though. It is so easy for a lab to become fat! ETA: your LAB puppy is not finishing her meal :rolleyes: what the??? :D

mmm yum gingernnut cookies.... Anyway, back on topic :D Do you want her to be on the backseat forever? I found changing positions with my pup was very helpful. She initially went in a travel crate which was terrible and then was suggested to put her in the footwell of the passenger seat. This really seemed to help, i don't know if they feel more secure down there and more stable? Anyway, now she can go on the backseat without any problem, when we occaisonally have a verylarge person the the front :rolleyes: (my car is small too) Obviously tie her to the seat or put the lead in the door or something to stop her moving around. And yes, start with very short trips, perhaps give something she can chew on like a rawhide chew or piggy ear.

Yes, should be fine if you are willing to dedicate the time and effort into trianing both baby and puppy! A few of the other puppy raisers have young children <3yrs old and the labby puppies all do fine with them. One of the experienced puppy raisers have an older lab, a cat and 7 kids! 2 are under 3 years old. My own lab puppy is very gentle with little children (even though she is a mad thing with us!). You might want to look at doing some crate training very useful for separating pup and baby when you can't watch them both. Do you definitely want another lab though? While I don't think there will be a problem if you go to a good breeder and invest some time in training, maybe a smaller breed would be more suitable with a young child? I'm sure you know how labs can get excited an accidently knock children over.

Haha maybe I shouldn't have started this thread I've jinxed us all.... Mindy had an accident last night also

I don't see how keeping a puppy with no recall on leash is irresponsible In fact it would be pretty stupid of her to let if off in that case. Not all non doggie people are aware of what the term "recall" means or know that not all dogs learn to/are inclined to come back on their own. Not all puppy schools teach a reliable recall either - some are just free for alls where the puppies learn nothing but how to value play with other dogs over and above their owners (though yes, there are some good ones out there - usually run by qualified trainers, not vets/vet nurses). The woman has every right to keep her dog on leash, even in an "off leash" area. Perhaps she was trying to socialise her pup? Or perhaps she just doesn't know any better and presumes the dog park is where you take dogs. Totally agree! Mindy was playing with a whippet puppy the other day (at the same dog-kicking park ) and all of a sudden the whippy took off, ran up the pathway that exits the park and over the bridge above the park It really scared me and it wasn't even my dog. Mindy thought about following but I called her back :D Luckily she has good recall and is not really one to run off anyway as she likes being close to people (and she is too lazy!). The scariest part was that the bridge leads onto quite a busy road on a blind corner The owner didn't even try to call the dog back as "she wouldn't come back anyway" and "she always comes back eventually" I always recall my puppy and put her back on leash when I see a new dog enter the park, in case it is aggressive, or old, too big for her, or just doesn't want to play. She is quite rude with her friends that she already knows and will fly into them excitedly, so i'd hate for her to do this to a strange dog.

Aussielover, was this in the Thornleigh dog park on Dawson Avenue? No, it was on the north shore. After speaking with some other dog owners, apparently it occurs frequently. Will not be taking my pup there for a while now which is a shame as it is a nice park with usually only a few dogs at a time and only 5 mins from my place.

The OP has a GR which along with the lab is the breed of dog most likely to pick up sticks, bark and rocks and swallow them. So I understand the concern there. My own lab puppy will rip up shrubs and pull leaves off trees, even when left with an assortment of interactive toys! She also puts sticks and rocks in her mouth and I do worry about her swallowing them or them getting stuck in her mouth, I have seen dogs at the vet who have swallowed these items and required surgery to remove them. Anyway, Cornell, you sound like you have found an ideal arrangement at the moment- good on you

Aren't chicken necks a bit small? I saw some dried ones at petbarn the other day and they looked quite small. My greedy guts would probably swallow them whole! Do they attempt to swallow the vertebrae? we were told not give give chicken wings, they are too small for lab puppies who may swallow the bones whole in their enthusiam

aww lola is so cute and squishy!

Last week was so bad for irresponsible dog owners! There a number of incidents which really pissed me off and some that really worried me. I can sort of see why non-dog people want to place lots of restrictions on dogs (never see them in public etc). The first and most annoying was when I took my pup to a cafe to have a coffee with my dad. There was a SWF (quite cute) running around OFF LEAD in probably the most busy shopping area in my suburb. The road is very busy as well. To make matters worse, the owners of this dog then sat at the table next to us and did not bother to leash their dog. I had tied my puppy up and she was sitting nicely but this dog kept running up to her and begging for food at our table. The man then had the nerve to start up a converstaion with me about my puppy. He said he wanted "one of those" (mindy) because his dog was "too pansy and delicate" for his liking I asked him if he could put his dog on a lead because my dog was trying to learn to sit quietly around distractions. He said "oh well, this is good practice for her then" (having SWF run around her) and also said he didn't believe in using leads, if you need a lead to control them, your obviously not a good trainer Anyway, we had a very quick coffee, Mindy did very well and pretty much ignored the annoying dog, except when it came up to her face, at which point I had to physically remove it myself (owner didn't bother to help). I then saw a lady at the park hit her dog with a tennis racket because it growled at a dog that had come up to say hi I saw someone not pick up their dogs faeces and asked them to pick it up, even offered a bag, she said "eww i'm not picking that up, you pick it up if you're so keen, i think it is disgusting" This in a park where kids and dogs sometimes share A man tried to kick my puppy.We were in an off leash park, there were no other dogs around and he went up to her and went to kick her. I ran over and was outraged but he said my PUPPY had provoked him and tried to jump on him and he would see me in court if i did anything about it Mindy actually thought it was a game and did try to jump, after he tried to kick her. APparently he has done this to other peoples dogs too :D ANyway, hoping this week will improve :D

after a few weeks of no accidents after a few months of no accidents When they ask to go outside (some dogs never do this?) When they can hold on for a few hours etc... when do you consider your dog to be toilet trained? We have not had an accident for weeks, but I still don't feel my puppy actually fully understands the concept. I am super viligilant and will still take her out after waking up and every hr-2hrs when she is awake. The other day she did go to the back door and then went out and did a poo when let out, but that may have been a fluke. If she even goes near the back door I take her out and toilet her. She also toilets on command, so it is hard to know if she actually needed to go or is just responding to the command So I am not really letting her show me that she knows. At what age did you think your dog was toilet trained and how did you know? Thanks!

Wow, your puppy must be well behaved to consider leaving him the whole house! I wouldn't even leave mine for 10 minutes unsupervised! I suppose if you have been letting him around the whole house previously, he will be more used to it. Does he have access to outside though? Otherwise you might find little messes when you come home. How old is puppy? I would try to leave some interactive toys such as stuffed kongs, treat balls and some chews or something. And hopefully his older sister will be stop any naughtiness (and not join in :rolleyes:) Good Luck

She is a very cute dog :rolleyes:

I would contact K9pro, I know they are recommended here by DOLers (I haven't personally used them myself though), they are situated nr richmond I think, which is a bit far from campbelltown, but hopefully worth it. They have experience in dealing with aggressive dogs. There is also a vet behaviourist at seaforth vet clinic who you could contact. Did the other dog provoke your dog? If the other dog wasn't hurt, that is a good sign Because I am sure your dog probably could have done some serious damage to a chihuahua, perhaps even killed it had she wanted to. You are doing the right thing, seeking help before the problem could potentially escalate so good on you

Why would you have a dog debarked beofre trying other methods such as training? I don't have a problem with debarking in some cases, but I believe people should at least go through other less invasive options first.

My vet says when a dog's that big, getting weight off fast is a good thing. I'd give him what you consider to be a normal meal for a dog that size until you talk to the vet. But if he's THAT hungry, and at that size, I'd suggest you run a thyroid panel on him. That's interesting as I was always told don't as it can release too much fat into the blood stream which can then go to the Liver and cause problems. I will ask my vet again when I go in next time. There is something called hepatic lipidosis, which is often caused by fasting in overweight cats; but it is not so common in dogs. 14kg is huge for a maltese- my 3.5 month old lab puppy is not even that! please post some pics!

Did you see pieces of the tablet in the vomit? I would give it again in 2-3 days just to be sure. Most worming tablets these days are only work for about 24 hrs so it should be safe. Was it drontal?

Quickbrownfox- what breed are those puppies? very cute

You could try using a metal chain type leash. I have heard that puppies will not generally bite these and if they do, they don't like it.

Yes, mindy is more of a carrier than a chewer! She always looks so proud with something in her mouth. I did know one golden that could carry up to 3 tennis balls in his mouth at the same time! If your dog is ripping them up, then no, it is probably not a good idea to continue to give them.

And that's my point - if you are putting clips on youtube to teach people tricks for their dog then you need to be actually teaching the trick properly. Teaching tricks is not about simplifying them but about building the behaviour so that you have a solid trick at the end of the training. I can teach my dog to lure into a bow in about 30 seconds but it will take several more sessions (always a max of a couple of mins when teaching new behaviours) to then add the command word, then increase the bridge and then ask for the behaviour without lure. There is more than one way to teach a dog the same trick Different methods work better for different dogs. Having perosnally seen Riddick and Rover perform their repetoire of tricks I can assure you that LMS does know what she's doing and the methods she uses definitely work! In don't think LMS was indictating that the trick could be taught in one 30 sec session. I will be attempting to teach my little monster this trick this afternoon

Very cute! Riddick is adorable! I'm guessing that was rover at the end? How and when do you incorporate a hand/voice signal? How long did it take riddick to learn? Please make one of how to teach your dog to put his paw over his face! I've always wanted to teach this!