**Super_Dogs**

Someone handy could make one. Check out this page link Have a look at the utube clip. In the first 5 seconds it has a 'home made' obstacle with a steel drum and a fabric chute. At the club I train someone has made a steel/metal entrace.

Dancinbcs has shown it is not all lost for you. :) I think most of us agree you need to crate train so she can sleep inside at night and start training her ASAP!! A private trainer is a good idea as they can also assist you with making training fun fun fun for Penny to help you guys bond. It seems Penny with always love your MIL and I think it will be easier the sooner you accept this. Penny is lucky to have company during the day. But for Penny to become "your" dog...........this is now up to you. Remeber the way to a labs heart is food, so I would just ask you MIL not to feed her. If you approach this saying that you love that she gets to spend the day with you and if should could just not feed her as this will affect the training, hopefully your MIlL will respect this. Good luck.

Have you considered crate training her? Reason I suggest this is then she can be crated at night. That way you can keep her inside. There is a DVD called Crate Games by Susan Garrett that teaches you how to successfully crate train your dog so they LOVE their crate. Also if you are out for short periods on the weekend you can crate her so she is not always next door. I think you should google some tricks to teach Penny starting to tomorrow. Use chicken as the rewards - all dogs love cicken!!

Penny is beautiful. I feel for you. Obedience training will help you bond with her. I would also recommend taking her away from the house to practice the obedience. However, if you want Penny to bond with you then you will need to continue with training her longer term at least until she is 12 months old. In my house I train the dogs. The pups love my partner equally until I start more extensive training with them........then it become obvious who they have bonded with. . It upsets him but he realises that unless he trains them that is just the way it goes. Teating your puppy tricks is a really great way to bond. And remember when you are training have really great treats!!

I agree will all the other advise. My advise is do ot leave her unspervised with the chair!! Last year my pup destroyed my leather sofa I made the mistake of letting her have access to the room unsupervised. If your pup has taken a liking to the chair it is going to be hard to stop. And if she still has her baby teeth...........the worst is yet to come (when they get their adult teeth is when the real damage happens!!). If you cannot block access to the room, Move the chair or put a puppy pen around the chair (i currently have done this with another sofa). I threw thousands of dollars down the drain with my sofa being destroyed so better to be safe than sorry.

double post

A puppy slushy. I blend dry food, Tin food and milk suplement. As the pups get older there is less tin food and it is less blended until it is just soaked dry food. I use the tin food just to help it become more mushy - I don't use a lot. About 3.5 weeks. I never actually take her away. I let her come and go as she pleases and find as they get older she spends less time with them. The only exception to this is when I am weaning I keep her away for about the hour before I feed the pups otherwise she will feed them.

Same. I also have 5 but 4 is my magic number. My lot are house dogs so can't have too many. As it is most people think I am mad with 5. They usually ask whet breed thinking small dogs........but no I have large breed.

When considering how to manage this remember you have to live next to this person. I had an incident where a neighbours dog was left to wander the street came into our yard and attacked our dog at 2am in the morning. We told them our dog had to be taken to the vet and they did not offer to pay the bill. We decided that these were not people we wanted to start a enighbour war with......so just left it. Lucky they were renting and got booted out for not pay rent soon after this.

I had the same experience last year with one of my labs. She nearly knocked the vet over!! However my other labs are nothing like this and they are the same lines (mother and half sister). So it is really important to find a breeder that will assist in picking the right dog for a family with small children. I grew up with goldens and now have labs and I do agree goldens are not as boisterous. However - I could not deal with all the hair. You need to vacuum every day.

Great news they are fine. I hate crying pups when you can't work out why........very stressful

I do agree with this. Labs are bouncy and mouthy, but a well bred lab is super easy to train. So as long as the owner is committed to training their lab there should not be any issues. I have had a pup go to a home with 2 small boy, ages 1 and 3. The pup was fantastic and joined in with the kids routine. When it was quiet time, the pup sat quietly with them. Very cute :D My current pup, now 6 months, has been sitting for pats since she was a little one. If she does jump it is only once or twice.

Labs can be tricky as there are a popular dog so there are soooo many breeders. This is why I siggest thinking about what you are looking for before you start looking for help narrow down the breeders and litters available. If you are going chocolate generally there is a waiting list. The popularity of chocolates is growing quickly (I love chocolates :) ) Ideally you want to try to find a breeder where you can go an visit the pups and meet the parent. Sorry I can't help with breeders in NSW.

Progressive Retinal Atrophy (PRA) is an inherited eye disease where dogs affected often become blind, and always have serious vision problems. EIC- EXERCISE INDUCED COLLAPSE- Affected dogs can tolerate mild to moderate exercise, but 5 to 20 minutes of strenuous exercise with extreme excitement induces weakness and then collapse. Severely affected dogs may collapse whenever they are exercised to this extent; other dogs only exhibit collapse sporadically. The factors important in inducing an episode can vary among dogs. Not all breeders test for these as it is not mandatory. For someone new to buying a pedigree dog I think Dogzonline is a great place to start. Some BYB from Gumtree and trading post can be alittle deceiving in how they promote themself - so you need to know the right questions to ask. I have been told a by a friend their sister did not get papers as they breeder was only allowed to register a certain number of puppies each year. You can also get a list of breeders for the NSW Labrador Club.

It is mandatory for Labrador breeders to Hip and Elbow score their dogs (you can't get the pups predigree papers if this is not done). The lower the score the better. You will find many breeders will have information about this on their website. Many breeders today also test for PRA and EIC. This helps with the breeding program as they can ensure the puppies are not not affected by breeding clear to clear or clear to carrier. There are alot of lab breeders, so my recommendation is to set a few criteria. For example, do you want show lines, do you want working lines, what colour, do you want a breeder that does something with their dogs?

Are you looking for a Sydney breeder? There are heaps of Lab breeders, especially if you are going to look at any colour. So any other criteria?

1 kg I use cheese for training treats all the time. The pieces are very small and I use other treats. I have several dogs and would go through about 500g a month. I try to mix the cheese with a more boring treat as the cheese sent gets onto these treats.

That is it!

+ 1

Thanks. This stuff is a great price I see they come in seperate bags. Do you mix them together? She also has a joint formular with a few extra ingredients.

Good point. I have had a pup do this

This is absoletly correct. It is amazing to see the change in puppies in just 4 weeks :)

Congrats on your new puppy. I think Ian Dunbar's puppy training e-books are a great start. It is free and you can download them now here Link If you would like to purchase a book I recommend Puppy School by Gwen Bailey. It is really easy to read with alot of pictures and it has tips on puppy problems like chewing as well as some basic obedience. Another one which is recommended by alot of DOLers is A Focused Puppy. Both are very good, I just find Puppy School alittle easier to read for a first timer. Regarding food you will find there are many different opinions on what is best - dry kibble or raw. Then there are many different opinions about what brand of food. As you suggested I would ditch the tin food. Personally I just feed dry with the some extra's a few times a week like sardines, chicken necks and natural yogart. The premium dry foods can get expensive but like everything you do get what you pay for. However many of dogs are lives long healthly lives of cheaper kibble. So it all come down to what you can afford.

I agree with espinay2. It is important your puppy is in a controlled environment. Even if you puppy is well trained I still would be going to puppy school as your puppy need practice working for you in an environment with alot of distractions. I always take my young ones to puppy school. Even though I have trained many dogs there is always something new to learn from other trainers. :)

Very interesting. My old girl gets very cranky when I make her move and she will often growl, for example at night when she is comfy and needs to go out before bed. When she does move she is very stiff in her back legs - which is why she does not want to move! I do not touch or push her, this makes her more cranky, I just have to be patient.