poochiemama

I got a great black T shirt for my husband from them - it says 'Obey The Chocolate Lab', and it looks like an ad for some sort of revolution. It's awesome.

I want i want i want! all of these beautiful dogs!

No rottie photos? Apart from my two, rottweilers are my favorite...

following on from the 'humping' thread - has anyone noticed dogs that have grown up together play completely different with each other than other dogs? My dogs play quite rough, and there is a lot of humping going on, they bite each other etc, but when they play with dogs at the park, it's mainly 'chasey' games rather than full contact sports. And they tolerate boisterousness from each other that, coming from other dogs, will make them a little anxious.

Underdog actually went through the Look at That game with us, but we had other priorities in training at the time; but now that they are so beautiful behaved (most of the time) , I thought we'd revisit the LAT game...I might start doing it on both of them and see how we go. Will update with progress...thanks for all your suggestions guys, this forum is so great.

Just reading this thread at work and it's totally cheered me up...can't wait to go home and play with my little terrors.

wow, it definitely sounds like a good thing to teach both dogs actually.... it's good to have their attention when you need it, not just when faced with other dogs but any other potentially scary situations. I think it's true about restricting her food...she never seems to be hungry and the treats don't mean much to her as a result. i will start training it from tomorrow, starting at home and then build up to doing it on walks .

Yay! i'm excited to try this ... it seems so simple and i guess i need to train it just like a trick .

What is the best memory or the best day you recall having with your dog?

Just wondering - I give our pooches 2 fish oil tablets each a day...how much vitamin E do they need with it?

Some great suggestions.... I haven't been using the clicker, I think I need to rebuild her association with the clicker at home and then take it on the road.... I made the mistake of training my other dog Charlie more, thinking he's 'smarter'...so he knows the value of treats, the clicker etc but she just lies there and gets treats everytime Charlie gets a treat ... I don't think she's learnt the concept of working for a treat. So does LAT really work? I'm curious as to how to use generalise looking at a target on the wall/cardboard etc to the situation with other dogs....

wow, thanks huski, the leather /french linen tugs sound great, will definitely check them out.

We have a huge tug range and they are very hard wearing http://www.k9pro.com.au/categories/Tugs/ Personally I don't encourage my dogs to play together particularly with toys, just not something I see a point in. Really? I'm curious, why not? I guess if your dogs are involved in lots of activities/agility etc, then they don't really need to play with each other... but for us, they just have their walks, and playing with each other in the back yard expends a lot of excess energy... Will check out the k9pro tugs, any you would recommend as being tougher than others? THe leather ones look good but not sure how they would hold up to two big dogs tugging on them.

Just recently read Control Unleashed, an interesting read although mainly agility-focused. I want to do the Look at That game with my goldie, who is a little anxious around other dogs - she will start staring at them as soon as she sees them, sometimes freezes etc, although there is no aggression and she is becoming more comfortable with some good training from Underdog ... However, if I have a treat for her, she will not look at it or look at me for a treat, because she is too focused on the other dog. This is even when we are miles away from the other dog.... is there another way of breaking her focus from the dog other than treats? Same goes for targetting...although she loves doing it, I try to do it on walks to break her focus from the other dogs, but she can't even look at me or listen to me at that point.

Can anyone recommend some good tug toys? Most of the ones we have just get torn apart in a few hours...

Hi ... just on the topic of movies/books...I read this book recently and it's one of the best 'dog books' I ever read...really makes you think and suzanne clothier is amazing.

Scatter some liver treats around the house and tell him to 'Find it' , my pooches love this game and after a few minutes, they exhaust themselves sniffing and go to bed. Peace and quiet at last!

it's quite possible that they relax because I'm relaxed...maybe it's a placebo. But as soon as I put it on, before I had time to unwind, Hannah, who was restless, laid down, wagged her tail a little and fell asleep. Charlie , who was trying to sleep, gave a deep sigh and went to sleep. I don't think it will work if a dog is highly agitated, but if they're already a little settled, it may make them relax more. On a similar note, tried rescue remedy for them in their water, but it had no effect.

Got the CD 'Through a Dog's Ear'....it's classical music for dogs; I heard it's used in shelters with good effect. Oh my goodness, it works! Canines and humans are all very relaxed!

Our dogs sometimes live so much better than we do, it's true I was checking out massage therapists for them today, after getting them some memory foam beds, and I thought, what in the world am I doing? I sleep on a saggy mattress, my back aches every morning and I can't remember the last time I had a massage ! Back to raw feeding...thanks for the suggestions. It sounds like I am not feeding him excessively. If anyone else has any experience, please let me know. It's been quite good so far, Charlie's coat was so soft and smooth today, I was surprised, it's only been a couple of weeks since we started raw. They also seem to be less hyperactive than before.

We've just begun to feed raw, yay! Our labrador is a little overweight, so I want to be sure I don't overfeed him. Most of the raw websites give suggestions eg 300 g of meat etc...but I don't have measuring scales yet, and I am a little confused by it all. Just wondered if someone with a medium-large dog like a labrador can give an example of what he gets fed in a day? So far, I've been feeding chicken frames, turkey, liver, kangaroo, eggs, sardines, cottage cheese etc and they're loving it...I split it up so they get different things each day. We haven't fully made the switch as OH is a bit reluctant to commit So in the morning they get half a cup of kibble, and in evenings, eg 1 chicken frame, a little bit of cottage cheese and a small amount of meat, like small chunks of kangaroo or turkey. Does this sound like too much? Thanks

agree fully with corvus... all of us are learning constantly about dogs. We all had to learn somewhere, and good on the OP for seeking advice. I also think it's a bit insulting/rude to tell people who are asking for advice on this forum that their dog would get a swift kick in the head from them for rude behaviour...previous threads that have suggested that people would kick dogs in 'defence' were referring to dog fights or aggressive dogs, rather than in this context, where a dog is humping another. to the OP, don't get put off asking for advice on the forums. I learnt the hard way that you get a lot of useful information on this forum, but you just have to ignore the negative/rude comments. Also, humping is quite a hard behaviour to correct by yourself, and it might be worthwhile getting a dog trainer to see him at the park - chances are that the humping is one of many other issues related to having a young lab (I've been there ). The trainer can help you with general doggie 'manners' - in the home and in the park.

wow, I just checked this thread and can't believe so many people bothered to reply! Thank you everyone, there are some great suggestions. I guess we have not tried them inside for a long time (the last time we had them inside by themselves was the day Charlie decided to eat his way through his soft crate) - maybe it's time to try again, with close supervision, and maybe short periods at a time. They just sleep all day when they are outside anyway. Now, I have to convince husband to try this once again (he's been burnt too many times by the sight of doggy-destruction)...maybe I'll forward him the link to this thread to show him there is hope and that many dogs manage to stay inside peacefully!!

For those of you who leave your dogs inside the house when you leave, how do you do it? Our dogs are inside dogs, and there is usuallys someone at home with them. When we leave the house (usually only for 2-3 hours), we put them in the back yard. We do this because in the past, when we've left them inside, even for half an hour or so, we come back to 'dog bed fluff' everywhere and torn beds. They're not destructive when we are at home with them, but we worry that if we leave them inside when we are not at home, we'll come back to destroyed couches or carpets. Just wondering how people have trained their dogs for this... because the heat is so blistering in summer (or rainy in winter), I don't like leaving them out . They have a nice yard, with a lovely big kennel, but i would love to train them to stay inside the house. We used to have soft crates, but Charlie ate his way through one of those. Ideally I'd like to train them to stay inside, behave well, and be uncrated (maybe I'm dreaming).

We used to give our dogs smoked bones from the pet shop....our labrador got a severe bowel obstruction when part of the bone chipped off inside...corrective surgery/massive vet bill later, we will never feed them these bones again. The pet shops don't provide any education on these bones and have no idea of the dangers; I remember when we were quite naive about dogs and we asked the salespeople if the smoked bones were safe, and they assured us that ' all bones are fine , they're dogs after all' !!