Stressmagnet

Um. Please take this in the kind spirit it is meant, instead of the bitchy way it's bound to come across. :D Can you elaborate on any it's so bad to have a dog sleep inside in your bedroom? I ask because I was determined to have Ernie sleep ANYWHERE BUT my bedroom when I got him. ALL my other dogs had either slept outside or in the laundry. Flash forward to Ernie - 6.5 hours from home, taken from what I suspect was a kennel environment with other dogs for company, thrust into the estrogen factory that is a house with 2 teen girls and me - Grumpy Bitch Goddess. He had a lovely bed set up for him in the laundry - blankies, a hot water bottle and a tick-tock bear. I couldn't bear his crying - I lasted an hour. So now his crate doubles as my bedside table. Apart from the odd yipyiping in his dreams, he beats my other former bedroom companions hands down. He keeps me company in the event of weird night noises and is so Maude-damn happy to see me every morning . He listens to my commentaries on books I've read and quite enjoys my lavender scentsy candle smell thingy. Honestly, I feel a bit bad that I didn't do it with all my dogs. If you aren't keen on it being a permanent arrangement - you can always move the crate out of your room when he's got his confidence back (as I did with my other dogs). He'll adjust fine. But seriously, you can have a dog in your bedroom and keep him out of your stuff and off your bed, and it's really quite wonderful to see all that joy focused on just YOU when you get up with shocking bed hair and a case of the crankies.

I reckon my Amstaff girl's aggression was due to the Propalin she was on to sort out her spay incontinence. She was noticeably more irritable and nervous on it. If I ever have another bitch, I won't be spaying her until she's mature. Vets never tell you about this stuff until it's too late.

Wow Tapua. I know who I'm getting my next Labrador from. You should be justifiably proud.

See other TWO threads where this has been posted. Big Pharma hysteria in my opinion.

See other thread. I'm not sure why you are posting this all over the place but...

Your link is broken. I presume it's a scientific study done with regulated controls or you wouldn't be concerned enough to post it here. If it is, I'd love to read it. Edited: here's the link: http://www.borreliose-nachrichten.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/NexGard-_and_-Bravecto.pdf Looks like another Big Pharma conspiracy site with some bad science behind it. Just my opinion.

Wow. Annie sounds like she has the makings of an awesome dog, And you sound like just the perfect owners -- if you can just hang in there. My kelpie Katie was so smart and an escape artist. She was also what I call 'soft' in that she would take every correction terribly to heart and I think if I hadn't realised this -- she could have ended up with issues similar to Annie. One thing she DID display was terror at the vet. I dunno if was the smell and sound of other scared animals - she would shake and snap. We finally started letting the vet treat her on the floor and I always went with a pocket full of chicken which I would shovel into her face while telling her what a good girl she was. It actually didn't take Katie long to figure out vet = chicken and cuddles. Stick with your girl. I can tell you from experience that kelpies easily (or not so easily!) end up wiggling their way into your heart so firmly that all other dogs you own in the future will be compared to her.

Just chiming in as usual... I proudly fit a 26kg Labrador, grocery shopping, assorted dog and kid paraphernalia, a bunch of rain gear, netball chairs AND two lanky teenage girls plus one friend in my little Hyundai i20. I reckon we look like the clown car at the circus. Thank Maude it's not painted yellow.

Do you think he could just be extremely biddable, like a good gun dog generally should be? When we got our Lab I thought she was a bit slow for a few reasons - she didn't offer many behaviours, didn't have that cheeky independent spark and just waited to be told what to do. But when I started training her to do complex tricks, I realised that the intelligence is definitely there, she just had a different, people-pleasing approach to what I was used to. She's not flashy but she is a steady, consistent, no-fuss learner with an outstanding memory. I think he's exactly how he should be -- for his breed. He's extremely biddable, stays close by circling on walks. He's a dog that wants to be told what to do so he can show you he can do it. He's calm, steady and nothing seems to phase him - but if something does, he looks for me for guidance. He will calmly wait at my feet during a conversation until I'm ready to move on. I think he'd make an awesome gun dog but given he comes from gun dog lines, that's no big surprise. The Labrador up the street is a whirlwind, regularly scales the fence and despite training, cannot be relied upon to settle. At ALL. Two Labradors, two different lines, two different temperaments, two different dogs. Ones not necessarily better, just different.

I love my Labrador because he's actually the dumbest of all the dogs I've owned. Or to rephrase - he doesn't do a lot of thinking for himself so it's easy for me to tell him how I want him to behave. Not every family dog should be super smart and problem solving. My kelpie was an awesome dog but she was not cut out to be a family pet. My amstaff was equally awesome but independent and stubborn. The sprinters I grew up with had a hard time shutting off and the family Westie was a terror in small pants. My Labrador does what he's told, looks to me for guidance and doesn't have an independent bone in his body. While breed certainly does matter, generalising an entire breed is a gross oversimplification. Some of the dogs this graphic rates highly, I wouldn't, based on personal experience. It all depends on the temperament you are looking for, and careful conversations with the breeder.

*sigh* I just want a plain old ordinary 'get your ass here without exceptions' recall... Although his 'leave it' is stellar and I'm so proud of him.

Should I relax the crate rule now he's 1? I was thinking if just leaving it unlatched and seeing if he behaves (no peeing etc). What do y'all think?

Done!!

Is it bad to consider leaving Ernie's crate door open now that he's a 'grownup' ONE YEAR OLD LABRADOR :D? He can snuggle with me as long as he doesn't pee on my bedroom carpet OR wake me up at 5am. What are my chances??

I'm embarrassed to say when I was last over visiting my sister in Alberta, she left me in charge of her two Westies. They would curl up in bed with me at night. I woke up one morning to smears in the bedclothes and a dog with a distended vulva and discharge. I raced little Pip to a 24 hour vet only to be educated on dog reproduction and charged $140.

Now I feel slightly less stupid for taking my dog in to have that weird little black lump removed from his chest- which turned out to be one of his nipples At least you didn't try to pull a nipple off thinking it was a tick Um. I almost have. I've never told anyone till now. Seriously tho, is this their first dog? Because if it is -- get the pup back now. Maude help them if it grows up with s taste for feces.

Thanks for the heads up on the App, Fluff. Ernie's just finished his first month on Nexguard and I've seen no ill effects at all. I must admit, I'm liking not having to worry about his dunking himself in any available body of water less than 24 hours after a topical dose. We live in Tick Central.

Hmmm. I wonder about Ernie (Labrador). Having him seen him jump gaily into icy waters, I hadn't thought about this. He's in my bedroom, in a covered wire crate with a snuggle pillow. He's my first dog who slept inside. Am I not doing enough??

I can highly vouch for gabapentin for nerve pain. I'm on it to block pain from a tumour in my spine and it's a wonder drug. So know that he is definitely in a lot less pain, WM. X

Can I watch this on my iPad? I've never bought videos from Amazon before - tho I'm an old hand at iTunes.

Ernie seems to need a loud 'OI!' To get his attention. I need to remember I got him from a kennel situation when he was 6 mos old - and I know he'd had little if any formal training. He us only now getting what it means to be in trouble. It's hard to train a dog who has no concept of when you are actually NOT pleased with him. Also given his age (12mos), I also think he is just a boneheaded youngster. His recall is getting better - when prefaced with a loud OI!!! and his 'leave it! Is getting really good. He actually left a dead maggotty bird alone this morning, As for an e-collar - I'd rather avoid using one at this point. I think used correctly they can be a good training tool, but I don't think we are at that point yet. I will say that the recall prowess of the dog (s??) shown is really impressive and I like the lavish praise heaped on the returning dog.

I think we'll do it this year. I want the girls to participate in something other than cancer fundraisers :D and we've never done it -- since our last dog Georgia was DA.

A rather interesting blog post that came up in my FB feed: The Fatal Epidemic of Animal Rescue Workers

Oh Anne. Sending you a massive hug

I just added the Labrador one to my Amazon wish list. Because someone, one day, may ask themsekves: WHAT WOULD STRESSY WANT??