Niques

Cable ties. 20 months on and one's fallen off, I think, but otherwise holding together perfectly. I too, could not understand the spiral things. At all

Chicken wings were a staple for my labrador in the early weeks. As well as lamb shanks, flaps, the odd turkey neck and, later, chicken carcasses. I thought keeping track of dog meat in the freezer and remembering to take it out each day was an effort for the dog's dinner...this diet has proved me very wrong Isn't garlic supposed to irritate dogs' bowels? Or is it just onion?

I want to say that James was fully toilet trained somewhere between 16 and 19 weeks? I think it was during that timeframe I'd realised we'd only had one inside wee in the past few weeks. At 20 months of age, he still doesn't toilet on command though, the horrid dog. I'm convinced he knows what I want him to do. He just doesn't.

I've always wondered about this. I would feel more nervous having to choose my own pup out of a litter that I barely know. I was fortunate enough to be able to visit my pup's litter several times and was, for absolutely no rational reason (he had a scab on the back of his neck - I was calling him "warthead" ) getting slightly attached to one of the puppies. Luckily, he did turn out to be my boy ;) But there's no way I could distinguish between his and his brother's temperament solely based on the couple of hours spent with them (let alone if they had been interstate and there were only photos and second-hand updates to go off) so I'm glad the decision was taken away from me. Otherwise I'd always wonder: what if I picked the wrong dog?

Simply "desex/ed" for both sexes.

I find the varying builds in Labradors very interesting. James is purely from show lines, as far as I can tell, and has a nice, broad head (my preferred look). Yet a tradie today was surprised that he was purebred simply because of the shape of his head, which isn't the first time it's had comments. I wonder if the field type is becoming the public's norm.

I just do James monthly but occasionally throw on a tick collar as well. He still gets the dog ticks regardless of how much protection he's got on, but has never had a paralysis tick.

Interesting isnt it? Its not a negative thing IMO in any way just an observation -some of the old Lab book I have read prefer the blacks for their working ability and stability and generally did not like the yellows for the same reason though it appears that was more of an issue with the early developement of the yellows in the breed since they were initially developed under a separate register. Dont know how relevant it is now - I just find it a curiosity. My black boy is a bubbly lunatic who loves everyone

James wants it to be known that Labradors require no grooming When he needs a brush I end up chasing him around outside until he's cornered. Upon which he sits down looking dismayed. Brushing him is not the funnest of tasks

James is scared of stairs. That's about it, really - he's the kind of dog that pops balloons for fun (seriously), so none of the loud noise phobias here. I'm not overly fussed about the stairs issue since seeing him go up and down solid concrete stairs whilst out and about. The internal stairs, I know now, are too slippery for him to go down. I do wish he'd get over the external stairs though; they're not slippery, he's just a scaredy cat.

Basic figure is just shy of $100 I think, and includes worming, tick prevention and food. He gets great economy out of his dry food and as such, takes about 7-8 months to go through a 15kg bag of dry. Bones are the biggest monthly expense. Training, toys and vetting is irregular and not worth calculating for a monthly sum. ETA: I forgot treats. That probably pushes it up to just over $100, I think.

You've got to be joking. Even if you didn't know that some people kept their dogs bare at home, you wouldn't maybe think that a collarless dog had slipped its collar? Snagged it on a branch or otherwise broken it? I sincerely hope you never find my dog if he gets out. You're obliged to report found animals. You don't have to dump it at the pound; the relevant authorities do need to know that an animal by X description has been found though.

Akita: Kyojin American Staffordshire Terrier: Tua, Max Australian Shepherd: Banjo Belgian Shepherd (Groenendael): Fleming Border Collie: Roy, Molly Bull Terrier: Bonnerville Cane Corso: Ali Cavalier King Charles Spaniel: Bree, Ingrid, Jersey, Lacey, Fern, Floyd, Indy Chihuahua: Chelsea and Pansy, Heidi, Bertie, Moose Dally:Appollo Finnish Lapphund: Halo, Vienna, Jaana English Setter: Spartan, James German Coolie: FlashBazil, Latte German Shepherd: Java, Odin, Tlaloc Golden Retriever: Onslow, Matilda-Rose, Chester Great Dane: Sparkles Griffon Bruxellois: Mocha Labrador Retriever: Lestat, Bailey, Tia, Mieka, James Papillon: Blaze, Minka, Portia, Tyson, Coco Pointer : Kite Audrey Poppin konrad Pug: Lotus Rottweiler: Roxy, Feonix, Radar, Neo, Abby Samoyed: Mistral, Alchemy, Yngvie, Dante, Bundy, Kamikaze, Fergus, Kato Siberian Husky: Akira, Tikaani Staffordshire Bull Terrier: Kiara SWF: Zoe Rescue Bitsa: Keely, Fred & Ginger, Ozzie, Tess, Maverick White Swiss Shepherd: Rakim Weimaraner: Ariane, Lulu, Louie

Be warned: the construction may not hold up if you leave the top flap open and a certain (heavy!) puppy thinks he'd like to climb his way out For those who already have one of these specific crates, do they just have the one end door aside from the top flap? I can't quite tell from the site if either of those sides open at all. There's only a "window" on the top and a door at the front. The sides don't open up, though I guess theorhetically if you were desperate, you could lay the crate on its side and use the top flap as a door lol! Haha, no, it's just that his current (shredded and saggy from the aforementioned climbing incident) crate has a side door as well. I'm thinking it might be easier to keep a new one in one piece if there are only one set of zips to chew on.

I simply would have started looking at different breeds or wouldn't have gotten a dog at all if there were no suitable labrador breeders when I got James. I'm a first time dog owner so I specifically went with a breeder so I could be confident that I could predict certain aspects of my dog, both physically and in terms of temperament instead of picking a wildcard. Personally, I can only see myself buying from a small scale breeder as I want a puppy that's been raised in a home environment because it mirrors my current circumstance. But I see the benefit of larger kennels in the pursuit of quality dogs, assuming all health testing is done and there is some qualitative, preferably purpose-related, criteria behind their breeding.

Be warned: the construction may not hold up if you leave the top flap open and a certain (heavy!) puppy thinks he'd like to climb his way out For those who already have one of these specific crates, do they just have the one end door aside from the top flap? I can't quite tell from the site if either of those sides open at all.

I started my boy on a chicken wing (frozen or thawed) a day for lunch as soon as he came home. The shape forced him to actually chew it properly. I can't remember if he ever got chicken necks, but he could swallow two thirds of a turkey neck whole by about 14 weeks so I would think chicken necks have the potential to go down whole at a much earlier age - something to keep an eye out for

I think that early vet recommendations are very useful: if you've made it all the way through puppy preschool without some idea in your mind of when you'll get your dog desexed (if at all) then it's brilliant that the vet is planting the idea. If you do know when you plan to have them done then it doesn't affect you.

Backseat in a harness. Which is the one he used as a puppy and is now rather snug - I keep forgetting to get a new one. If the backseat is needed then he goes in the front passenger footwell (assuming someone's there to sit in the front passenger seat), but that is quite rare. He often goes without a harness for very short journeys, particularly those where he'll be getting out at the other end of the trip (e.g. to the dog park) as the bloody thing drives me mad

I wanted an intelligent, eager to learn dog that wasn't small-sized or long-coated. Enter: Labrador. And he's turned out to be an excellent choice. Except for the shedding...in all my research I somehow skipped over the "ownership will result in constant black, hairy floor surfaces" warning ;)

I have no interest in chocolate labradors - I really don't find them to be attractive dogs. Yellow was contemplated for a while (they do make the cutest puppies) and I would be perfectly happy to have a yellow lab down the track, but I ended up back at black. Not so much a problem in labradors given the dominance of black and yellow.

I would find a new vet. My vet took it as a given that James would be done at 6 months but happily dropped the issue when told that he wouldn't. I really would not be happy to be given a "5 months or double the cost" ultimatum. My labrador boy was just done recently at 14 months His breeder recommended anytime after 9 months but had it not been for his upcoming council registration renewal I probably would have left him until at least 18 months or possibly not had him desexed at all.

Elbie looks like he's glaring at you towards the end. "Again? Really?" Tricks for Lazy Hoomans are the best kind I do something like that with James already. Except he very rarely uses his left paw - I stubbornly refused to teach him to shake on the left and now he won't use it for "Paw" either. Really need to work on that more.

Peekaboo is very cute! Definitely goes on the list. I would, but I'm scared of going back to the hell of a stickytape coated dog Last time I tried he ended up with bits of fallen tape stuck all over his body and it turned into general chaos. I keep meaning to go back to it...but then I remember the great effort and persistence needed and stop thinking about it

James will head tilt for "Dinner". And I exploit it a huge amount each evening until he starts to think I'm lying and there really is no dinner KTB, what Peekaboo entail? Paw tapping sounds fun. I can imagine your two ending up like Clever Hans - they're such observant learners.