suziwong66

yes, it's their updated 'Jack' - i liked their old Jacks bed but wasn't thrilled with not being able to take it apart or add new inserts. Luckily they updated it with zippers to add new pillow inserts and wash the existing ones. So now, all of the sides and the bottom pillow inserts come out for washing I have a feeling that this bed will be well worth the expense as he likes it so much i reckon he won't try and jump up on everyone's bed during the night. He has a habit of trying to get on our bed and when we tell him to go back to bed he wanders down to miss21's bed and jumps up on that one! and of course now i get to go to the low solo #FTW Coogie, if we close doors, Brown Dawg will just keep banging them till we open them

For three years Brown Dawg Wilbur has not let me have privacy in the loo but today i went solo for the first time. We bought him a new winter bed; i settled him in & headed down to the bathroom. He didn't get up once!

he's sleeping on my feet right now...big lump of labby chocolate

Wilbur appears to like my company best; he won't let me have a shower or go to the loo without him - heaven help me if i try to close the loo door! If he sees me trying to close the loo door he will literally run to try and stop me He doesn't do that with anyone else in the house. If i manage to get the door closed, he will bang it with his nose insistently until i come out or let him in. I'm always the last to go to bed and he will nearly always stay up in the sitting room with me until i go to bed too. He sleeps on OH's side of the bed - that's only because OH gets up first in the morning and gives Wilbur his breakfast bone; his allegiance is to the food more than it is to OH. As much as i suspect i'm his heart person i'm not stupid enough to ignore the reality that food is his first and best friend

I loved all of the dogs in my life; the ones that i had as a child and the ones i've had within the family that i created with OH...but Wilbur my 2yr old chocolate labby has stolen my heart just that little bit more than the others. I think that the time of my life has helped develop the relationship i have with him - I no longer have babies or young children to raise and can focus on him and training much more. I really don't like thinking about being apart from him - going on holidays without him is a stressful time for me. Now when i consider holidays i like to think of ways to get away to places where i can bring him along too. I want to go to Europe in the next year or so as my eldest daughter is living in Germany atm but i'm having a hard time committing to it because i'd have to leave Wilbur

i paid around $150-$200 for a 32kg male lab in January: that included an unexpected post op consult for swollen testicle sack and then the post op stitch removal consult, all the meds etc

just suggestions: i don't know for sure - T-Bar (markets), Goodies & Grains (Markets) - what about a regular stoopidmarket?

i only feed with non-weight bearing bones. When he was a pup, Wilbur (chocky lab) ate chicken wings, necks, and carcasses. Now that he's older he eats lamb and turkey necks mostly. Am about to introduce a large fish head. We defrost our bones; they're large so he doesn't gulp them down. I don't feed turkey wings because the large arm bone pieces make him vomit - they tend to shard for some reason.

done

OMD i don't know why i didn't buy a Dremel before this thread While i've been desensitising Wilbur with it, in preparation for doing his nails, i've also been playing with the other heads. I polished the silver teapot and engraved a couple of glass bottles that i use in the laundry. I think we need a 'what kinds of things do you do with your Dremel' thread

this threads needs to be marked with an enabler symbol...just got home from Bunnings...

We desexed Wilbur an almost 2yr old lab about 3 months ago. It helped with the humping - which ceased post op and helped stop him cocking his leg in public where other dogs had left their pee mail. We wanted to give him a chance to develop to type and then desex. The vet said he'd settle down a bit after desexing - well that hasn't happened but then his craziness/immaturity wasn't why we got him desexed.

BINGO - i've been a member of a training club for nearly two years and NOT ONE TRAINER has ever told me just exactly what heel meant. I assumed it meant 'walk'...and i wanted my dog to be at my side no matter what i did and built in a verbal command of 'close' and a non-verbal cue of slapping my right hip to achieve this. If someone at training had ever bothered to explain what 'heel' was supposed to be and how to achieve that i would have never have thought to build 'close' into my training repertoire. So now i have 'heel' as a walk and 'close' as move close to my side.

our first hand experience post desexing is that bitches aren't the only ones who have sphincter muscle issues. Wilbur, 23.5 months old was desexed a few months ago and developed a leak immediately post desexing. It has gotten a little better as the months have passed but if he has a full bladder and is pushing while pooing, urine will often shoot out concurrently. The jnr vet only discussed surgical solutions - i'm not thrilled with the idea atm. The snr vet said add some bicarb soda to his water - oddly enough it has helped but not stopped the leaking. For the first month or so we had to make sure he went out to wee often. And 3 - 4 months post op i still make sure he goes out regularly to minimise the leaking. It is now only present when he's got a full bladder. Yes, i'm with you Aussie3 and wish vets would be more open about the possibility of it occurring in both dogs and bitches.

I have a Roadie and haven't had any experience with the Champion - so i can't compare. What i will say about the Roadie is that i find it more difficult to put on Wilbur (23 month old chocolate labby) than the video for Roadies shows. We have to put it on over the head first - we can't get it over his head if we put his in feet first - this way may be fine for short leg dogs; not so easy with longer leg dogs. We've found there's a 'trick' to putting it on comfortably for Wilbur; we have to put it over the head but just to the back of his head and then put one foot in, turn the harness to the other side a bit (but still quite forward) and then put the other foot in and then move it backward to fit on his body. Clear as mud Wilbur doesn't sit on a car seat with the harness threaded through the seatbelt; we have him in the back of an X-trail and have an extender strap attached to the baby carseat harness point so i can't give you any input. I'm not unhappy with the Roadie; it does what i want it to do - keep Wilbur as safe as possible in the car. Like you my main motivation in using it is because it's been crash tested. It's sturdy; much more so than the cheap brand of car harness i previously had.

pure gold

i would really like to volunteer with Wilbur (choc Lab) at nursing homes through Delta...he's not quite two and gets very excited by strangers (despite constant club training since 4 months old) so i'm not sure he'll be ready for a while yet. We might need to wait till he settles down a bit. When he comes in contact with my mum, who has very thin skin due to medication, he can accidentally tear her even though he's quite settled around her. It's one of our training goals.

I second Boomerang tags: i have several so that each collar has a tag and i can swap collars easily. I've recently bought a buckle-leather collar and will need to order a new tag for it. Boomerang tags are excellent products.

never found anything in Wilbur's crate - except sand which i'd expect since he loves his sandpit. However, one walk through our house will net you with the remains of empty toilet rolls that are constantly stolen from the waste basket in the loo. It doesn't matter how often i pick up loo-roll-remains there's always more to find. He's forever chewing them up into pieces and leaving them where he was sitting I think we'll have to invest in a waste bin with a dog-proof lid as Wilbur was recently caught trying to steal neatly wrapped and used menstrual care items thank goodness the filthy grot was caught as soon as he'd stolen them. Needless to say, i didn't want any kisses from him that day!

we're watching tonight...totally enthralled with the dancing with dogs...Wilbur; not so much LOL

Our breeder supplied copies of both the sire and the dam's health tests, import papers and ANKC registration papers with the pedigree in our puppy pack; i was very appreciative of her transparency and attention to detail of our puppy folder - it's this kind of commitment that will lead me back to her when we want another pup.

our choc lab Wlbur was named after the pig in the book, Charlotte's Web by EB White.

i hate to burst your bubble, but if your mum has issues with her lungs and hair is a trigger then a lab isn't for you...it'a a rare lab that doesn't shed like crazy. Short coats or not, they shed a huge amount. Many will say that yellows shed the most, but between our current choc and our departed yellow, there has been no difference in the shedding...and boy, there's plenty of hair. I could vacuum every day of the week and there would still be hair around. In fact, i use a rubber broom in the lounge room daily and pick up a huge handful of fur, just off the rug alone. I'm also of the opinion that labs need a lot of intellectual stimulation; they can be incredibly destructive when they're bored and being alone in the backyard isn't the ideal situation for them. They love to be around people as much as possible. I also believe that life-long training and/or dog sports of some kind are really beneficial for labs and their physical and intellectual well being. JMO

we recently bought one for after our lab's desexing. Firstly, once the anaesthetic wore off he wanted to lick his stitches and the inflatable collar didn't stop him - he had easy access to the wound. The other issue, was that the vet nurse blew it up too hard and the stitching, of the outer lining, burst in places. We had to buy the plastic elizabethan collar to keep him from getting to his wound. I think the inflatable collar would be great for upper body wounds but in our case it didn't work for the desexing wound.

perhaps he might benefit from an area wash with Malaseb to get some relief from the irritation? My choc lab has summer-long skin irritations and i bathe him a few times a week with Malaseb and condition with Aloveen to give him relief from the itching and the irritation of the redness, sores and scabs that form. Hope your boy feels better soon.