Mas1981

I am using the Duoxo spot on, only started last week so I can't really see an improvement as yet but will post back after I have been using them for a bit longer

Buy yourself a hula hoop and teach him to sit in it. You can work your way back to send him from a distance - this is the start of UD work and dog in the box. Have you taught him to hold a dumbbell yet - thats something else you can have fun with. I am trying to teach him to hold a retrieving dummy and not drop it but not a dumbell as such, I am useless at teaching new things that I dont know how to train, I watch the video's etc on the net but it is sooo much easier when someone points out what you are doing wrong, G has helped a lot he can always point out what I do wrong Great idea with the hula hoop, I will get one next time I am at the shops!

Mine is the 22 RosieFT!! Mine is the 4th! So everyone better bring me belated tokens of love and affection!!! Wow there are loads of us having birthdays July and August!

RosieFt, I am no expert but I taught Mason to heel by holding a favorite toy at my hip, when he looked I threw the toy and we had a game. I am sure others may also have some suggestions. Now when I walk him even though I am not asking for heel he tends to look at me a lot when we are out walking instead of pulling, he only ignores me for the first few minutes now whereas before he ignored me the whole walk! Just trained for 20 mins in light rain, it went ok but I feel that I should add some new stuff in to make it more exciting for him, any suggestions?

Mine is the 22 RosieFT!!

Thanks RS I will try get him to look up and do a touch while we are heeling off, being male he may not be able to multi-task lol The trouble with me is that I know that I cause most of Mason's faults, I dont know half of what I am doing wrong and its those little things that send him mixed signals etc.

You are a bad girl Mas1981 - you are lumping - lumping sets the dog up to fail - you need to repeat 10 times I must not lump, I must set the dog up to succeed. Translated - this means you are asking the dog to sit for too long and he is not ready for this yet...... Are you still yoyoing the time up and down or are you trying to get to the 1 minute for CCD? back to the drawing board. I am varying the time, it seems that he wont do a sit stay in our backyard, I suppose its too boring for him!! Nothing for him to look at.

I know what you mean RS, it seems that just yesterday I was teaching Mason new things and now he knows most of what we need for obedience I just need to fine tune all of it and I am struggling to find ways of making boring stuff interesting if you know what I mean ? Our 2 big problem area at the moment are sit stays, he was useless last week, dropping all the time, then Ptolomy gave me some great advise and it worked well, he did the sit stays well in class - but then yesterday evening he lay down in a sit stay again!! Thats our one problem, the other one is that if we just heel off from a stand than i have his focus but if we try heel from a sit the first step he always looks down - its as if he cant get up from a sit while looking up

We could make it a triple birthday as its my birthday that week Amy its just the first series of his allergy vaccines, they give them one every 20 minutes for a couple of hours and moniter them etc, that way when you go home you administer the biggest dosage the dog can handle right away instead of building the dose up slowly. He is on an elimination diet at the moment roo and sweet potato! PS I had a look and I worked out the weeks and he will only be due for the Rush Therapy the friday after Trixie's party I think.

Average 9-12mth old Lab boy ending up in rescue with someone who knows and loves the breed... a few weeks is all it takes to get them settled down and behaving respectfully... desexed and get some training and rules into them and they are brilliant. A few months is waaaaaaaaay underestimating the trainability of a young Lab. You may be right, they are very smart and eager to learn. Hope he finds a great home!

I should be able to come Amy, Mason is probably having his RUSH therapy for his allergies that friday but if he is up to it we will be there for sure!!!

He probably needs to go to a foster family for a few months to be trained and disciplined before being adopted out. Poor baby, when you take on a dog its a 10-20 year commitment and all dogs need discipline, training and routine.

Pity how many members are leaving dol these days due to others flogging them. The way I see it is that yes she should have been a registered breeder but the pups are here now and she is asking for advice, to run her off is denying those pups help because now she wont return and ask other questions, some of which will probably be more important then Id tags. And another sad fact is that I have heard of loads of labs with hip and elbow dysplasia and other health issues who were bought from registered breeders, it is not just backyard breeders who produce pups with health problems. Stop attacking and start educating.

My dog had a dry coat too, I feed him a home prepared diet, all meat is raw but I feed cooked veggies, sometimes I feed them raw depending on what they are but he wont eat all veggies raw. I also give 5 Evening Primrose caps a day and 5 fish oil, they help a lot with my dogs allergies. Edited to say that Claire Middle has written a book on raw feeding that I got from the library, it has been very helpful

Its amazing how each of us have a favorite breed and we tend to stick with it, when I get another dog will probably be getting another lab ..... just love their personalities. Ptolomy glad to hear that Mason is not the only dog around here allowed to sleep on the bed....

Same thing happened to me Amy, I decided I wanted a dog even though Oh kept saying no no no as we are renting etc and then I saw on a breeders website that she had pups, I got in touch and males were available and I wanted a male this time round, got to go and pick at 7 weeks, OH had seen the pups at 1 week and 5 weeks and he was then sold on the pup and he now loves Mason just as much as I do

Mr Gray Congrats on the new addition Ptlolomy!! BTW Mason's sit stays are fixed I practiced what you said for a few days and today he completed his sit stays in class again looking forward to meeting your bunch on sunday

A couple of people at my obedience club today asked me where I got my tug as they saw Mason having so much fun with it, going to take a few of the cards that I got in my parcel down with me next week Will post pics in a few minutes. Here is a photo taken quickly, will get more of him playing with it during the week

You could get a puppy pen and make a pen for her where she has some shelter and some grass if possible?

Congrats Millie and Katie!! Was just going to text you and ask for a video but I saw it on here first

Something to try - ask Mason for a hand touch and reward him with the tug. You then up the number of hand touches before rewarding him. Why do this - because you can take hand touches into an obedience ring and by pairing it with the tug he will expect that at some stage he will be rewarded with his favourite toy. OH and speaking from experience - I ordered this you beaut tug with rabbit fur from clean run. I showed it to Blaize and she went ballistic over it. A few minutes later the phone rang so I took the call outside, came back in 5 minutes later to find the tug in many many pieces! So don't leave it laying around. Yes, can vouch for a handtouch in the ring. Works great with Snazzy..I paired it with a tug and with food. Me too. Ruby enjoys hand touches and spinning in circles as her "reward" between exercises. At one stage the judge was off doing dog knows what for a few minutes between exercises so I had to entertain Ruby for what seemed like eternity! I asked for as many tricks as I could think of that I know she likes Mason loves spins more than touch, he will do touch but it doesnt seem to excite him like spins do!

I can only speak for myself, but I find just stepping off on the right leg is a clear enough stay signal for Daisy. I love my down signal, I do it when Mason is in front of the telly and I need to change channels when he is in the way

That's why I need a friend who is actually interested in watching it Looks like VCBR might be my friend for the day ;) Will also come visit the showring :p I am going to be going this year, missed out on watching the dog events last year, got there too late

Something to try - ask Mason for a hand touch and reward him with the tug. You then up the number of hand touches before rewarding him. Why do this - because you can take hand touches into an obedience ring and by pairing it with the tug he will expect that at some stage he will be rewarded with his favourite toy. OH and speaking from experience - I ordered this you beaut tug with rabbit fur from clean run. I showed it to Blaize and she went ballistic over it. A few minutes later the phone rang so I took the call outside, came back in 5 minutes later to find the tug in many many pieces! So don't leave it laying around. Just did the hand touches and rewarded with tug, he seemed keen!

Something to try - ask Mason for a hand touch and reward him with the tug. You then up the number of hand touches before rewarding him. Why do this - because you can take hand touches into an obedience ring and by pairing it with the tug he will expect that at some stage he will be rewarded with his favourite toy. OH and speaking from experience - I ordered this you beaut tug with rabbit fur from clean run. I showed it to Blaize and she went ballistic over it. A few minutes later the phone rang so I took the call outside, came back in 5 minutes later to find the tug in many many pieces! So don't leave it laying around. Lol I wouldn't take my chances leaving it lying around although saying that he isnt really destructive, his favorite activity is picking his soft toys up in his mouth and just parading them around and then shoving them into my lap if i ignore him. He also has a new thing where he will lay and lick the toys like he licks the cats!!