Lyla

The cream girl is looking for her forever home..... ;) Send her up then. I always melt at the cream one in your signature.

Awww... I want the blond one! So, SOOO gorgeous!

RIP Lexie. Hope you and your son are ok.

Signed and posted to FB.

I'm so sorry Natz. This is just horrible. Wishing you every possible good thought for your other girl. RIP little puppies.

Oh Natz, I hope the AB's do the trick. It must be something with this month, have you read the June thread? Quite a bit of sadness. I'm hoping that with a new month all this badness will disappear. Maybe there is some hope since the pup is aborted, Faith's problem was that the dead one's were still inside her. I will keep all my fingers and toes crossed for you. Thanks for your thoughts Amstaff. Faith is really not her self yet, but no wonder with what she has been through. I honestly think she thinks she's in season. She growled at me today (very strange) because I had her separated from the other 3, so I let her out. She kept standing at my boy with her tail lifted, and he attempted to mount her. All were quickly separated again, which Faith is not happy about. Poor thing, hormones must be going haywire.

I used my own boy, but I only got him this year, and he fell deathly ill from a suspected worm infestation the first week I had him (long story). It certainly explained the haste of his previous owner with getting him to me. I was told that he had only ever been mated to 1 dog, and she has recently had a healthy litter. Thanks for the tip about the AB's, will certainly bring this up with my vet. Going to cuddle up with Faith now.

Thanks for the well wishes, it has been a rough day. Well we have Faith home now, but none of the litter could be saved. Massive uterine infection and some necrotic puppies, possibly the first one dying early on could have led to the decline of the rest. Swabs are being sent away to determine WHY. Vet thinks infection could have started as early as mating with bacteria being introduced by the male. But wont know till results are back in about 3 days. I spent the afternoon crying on and off, and wondering if it was me that caused it, but when they brought Faith out at the vets and she was so perky and wagging her tail I felt so much better. She is on AB's, swabs will confirm she's on the correct ones, so hopefully Faith will make a full recovery. Its been such a roller coaster day, and the main thing is that Faith is ok, but it is hard when your whole life pretty much revolves around thinking about the puppies, and you feel like they are already part of the family before they are even born. We will try again next year and hopefully things will go better. My 2 pups will be old enough then too, so it will be an eventful year. I wish everyone well for July and sincerely hope there is no more sadness in the new month. of course I'll be checking in to see everyone else beautiful babies. Jodie

Goodbye my sweet little babies. Gone a week before you even had a chance to "live" I'm sure there was a reason, and I feel like I already knew you, but it doesn't make it easier to comprehend why. I feel like I have lost my own babies. I hope you are all in a better place now. RIP

Well I've just rushed Faith to the vet and it looks like we might be losing the whole litter. She is day 52 and i noticed a black discharge this morning after she wouldn't get up. Vet recommended c section and aborting the whole litter, as he said there is obviously at least 1 dead, leaving the rest of the uterus a toxic environment (aren't they all in their own sacs???). Going to do ultrasound and see what comes up. Vet just rang. He could see quite a few puppies, but could not find any heart beats. She will be having a c section now. I am devastated. This is only my 4th litter, but I've had no complications before. :rolleyes:

My labs were whelped and lived in the dining room. My bitch was not a fan of the puppy pen around the whelping box so it was removed as she kept jumping it. She was also reluctant to stay in the whelping box without me so I was in there for the birth of all puppies. Once all the pups were born she was happy to stay in the whelping box with her babies so the puppy pen wasn't necessary. The whelping box is also very large, so there was plenty of room for mum to move away as pups got older, she rarely wanted to leave them anyway. She was very protective of the pups, so none of my other dogs could come inside, and she wouldn't even allow them on the verandah to look through the glass door. She couldn't care less about people though. My eldest who was 7 helped with the whelping and handled pups from birth. The next day the other 2 kids who were aged 1 and 3 got in the whelping box with mum to see the pups. The pups had me and my kids in the whelping box at various times through the day every day, and there were also plenty of neighbours who came to have a look. Pups were born in November, so ducted aircon was used as necessary, but temp was pretty good in the house. They were on a thick fluffy blanket inside the box, changed daily. I also slept in the lounge room for the first week, but this bitch proved to be such a great mum, it wasn't necessary for me to help much. Pups were raised with people around most of the time, all the usual kid and house noises, and stayed inside exclusively until 4 1/2 weeks old.

I have Labs, and they must be 12 months old. Different breeds are different ages. One of my bitches was deliberately mated at 11 months old when she was with her previous owner, so that she whelped at the "acceptable" 13 months. Anyone doing things ethically would not breed their bitch at this age though. Most dogs wouldn't be finished growing, and would be too immature to be good mothers, or know what they are doing. If this person is a registered breeder, I would find it unlikely that the mating was an "accident". The bitch isn't fertile the first day of her cycle, you have plenty of time to notice and separate the dogs.

Awwww, great pic

I agree, an older dog sounds like a better option to a baby puppy. I would be reluctant to sell a puppy to someone who does not appear to have the intention / ability to at least make an effort with puppy preschool. I recommend this to everyone, mainly for owner education to avoid people thinking that a dog who is shoved out in the yard (not that I disagree on a yard dog) will suddenly learn human rules and boundaries on its own. If they haven't got the time to train puppy in it's first year, then its only going to be down hill from there as we all know. It also sounds like they are determined to get a pup nomatter what, so I guess it is better to try and help, and maybe educate them with some initial doggy ground work. ie: do they know what Lab puppies are REALLY like? I never hide the fact that they are usually destructive, will chew everything, can be clumsy and knock things over with their tails (including small children) etc, etc. But if they ARE willing to put in the effort to start with, they will be rewarded with a beautiful companion for themselves and their children for many years to come. BTW, I don't think a puppy of any breed is a suitable "present" for a baby.

I had 4 bitches, and there were never any problems whatsoever. 1 bitch was the dominant one, the rest couldn't care less about pack rank. The bitch I had first was the one who was the boss. Unless your current dog has temperament issues, I couldn't imagine you having a problem with another girl.

My lab is now 7 months old and when she is excited she will dive into the clamshell full of water and dig the water everywhere. She loves it. When mine were littler they used to dig the water from buckets too.

Woody was terrified of the bass guitar. Not the acoustic, not the electric guitar, only the bass. He is a bit better now, cause we did some training with him. He now realises it won't hurt him. Do you think it was the noise or the guitar or a bit of both? _____________________________________ It's strange to think we aren't the only beings with irrational fears. Mine was scared of the look of it (accoustic owned by a 7 yr old), but totally petrified of a single strum. Lucky none of us actually knew how to play the thing This is a dog who used to chase the ride on so he could get a ride on it, so can't really fathom the guitar fear.

Oh don't tell me that!!! I have calculated Faith for 60 days as thats what she did last time, so she really shouldn't go 3 - 4 days before that!! And OH will be on night shift all weekend too. I suppose at least I'll have 6 little girls to babysit my 1 & 4 yr old (human kids) if it does happen. ;) ....she is rather large and uncomfortable already though... Find out Thurs how many she has in there. How cute, little cocker puppies. Maybe the bitch heard puppy time instead of party time!! Faith is an escape artist too...but the other dogs make such a noise if she escapes that she has never gotten far. (She can climb 7 ft fences!!! ;) )

We had a Lab who was not scared of anything much...except...GUITARS! My daughter brought her guitar outside one day and Tazer ran a mile. He tentatively came back, and we were all laughing hysterically, she plucked a string and he ran off again. It was hilarious. He ended up hiding his head under my arm and sat in my lap and wouldn't move till the guitar was away. Happened every time he saw it. I don't know where this all came from as he'd never seen one in his life before, and with 3 young kids the dogs are pretty used to everything.

I'm feeling rather unorganised too! My eldest is having an 8th birthday sleepover next weekend, so fingers crossed that Faith doesn't decide to go early at the party. :cool: We are also planning on putting the whelping box in a different room as we have reno'd the dining room where we normally keep the pups, and OH isn't too keen on getting our new shiny floorboards all scratched up...wouldn't be much grip for for doggy paws anyway. I'm hoping the whelping box will fit in the other room as we got a little carried away and built one which would fit a Dane. Better get myself sorted this weekend methinks.

My girl is like this aswell, last time i had to sit in the box with her all day with her sitting in my lap (imagine an amstaff here, but this isn't unusual for my sookie girl), she wouldn't let me leave, after she finally whelped the bean bag just outside the box was my makeshift bed lol Looking just a tad pregnant here at around 40 days. Had a good laugh imagining you sitting with such a big girl on your lap having pups bit bigger than my toy poodles Not so laughable when its a 35 kg Labrador in your lap!!! These posts are bringing back memories....I remember sitting in the whelping box, amongst all the mess, with a cushion behind my head sleeping against the wall between the last couple of puppies. Ended up with an hours sleep, then had to get kids up for school. Aaahhh, the memories. I also spend a couple of weeks sleeping beside them. Not that I get much sleep with the way my girl snores.

Oooh thats sounds nasty ..is this common with your breed ?? Luckily I have never had any anal gland problem ever .".touches wood" My Tameeka is getting very very sooky ..can't sit down without her wanting the lap cuddle Can always imagine one day one of my girls will whelp right in my lap :D My girl who is due soon would not whelp till I got in the whelping box with her last time! She was buggered by pup 5 and was literally in my lap for the last couple!! Lucky I'm not too bothered by the mess, and luckily it was a night time whelping and my young-uns were asleep. Natz, hope your girl gets better soon.

Lol! Very entertaining thread!

Absolutely agree! Your boy looks fantastic. After having a quick education in dog food ingredients it appears that some of the "better" foods are in fact not so good. After sussing out many of the brands ingredients list, the holistics seem to be best, but you will pay for them, and IMO UA / GB come in next...above the pricey premiums. Price does not equal quality. But each to their own, go with what agrees with your dog. BTW ellz, mine get their natural enzymes foraging for cat shit in the garden!

Thanks for the tip Kitkat! There is a buy x amount get 1 free with the premiums, but I can't remember if its 5 or 10. I get points for my purchases and get a $10 (woo hoo!) voucher for every 500 points, which doesn't take too long to accumulate anyway. Can't get the UA / BG there though. I'm happy enough with the coprice, but I have Labs, so I can pretty much feed them anything, regardless of taste. Its like they are all trying out for the food olympics at feed time here!