suziwong66

When Wilbur (lab) arrived at 8 weeks, he wasn't really food motivated; it turned out it was a settling in period. Once he had settled, about 2 weeks, he started hoovering his food up We feed him a part kibble/part raw diet. breakfast: kibble & yoghurt then a few frozen chicken necks. sometimes i mix fruit in with his kibble & yoghurt. Lunch: 1/3 to 1/2 chicken frame, frozen Dinner: kibble & the formula (minced lamb, chicken frames, some offal, garlic, parsley) or ground chicken frames or can of sardines in tomato sauce and sometimes i grate a carrot in with his dinner

+1 1.2m is the leash length requirement in Prospect City Council area; not sure of anywhere else though. editing to update: online Prospect City Council's requirement is max of 2m although a council pamphlet i had recently said 1.2m.

We used a pp40 for the first 6-8 weeks or so; till Wilbur grew out of it. Then we bought a 42" wire crate on wheels that is situated in the lounge room. It has a front and side opening; currently we use the front opening. We also purchased a crate cover for it and leave the entire front part of the crate open for air flow. If you adequately crate train your pup they will automatically settle and go to sleep when the crate door is closed. The sound of the crate door closing is the antecedent to let it know that it's sleep time. We'll be getting a soft crate early next year for travel & when at agility training but i doubt it would it have done for a puppy early on in the piece. We have never used a divider in the 42" crate even though it was recommended. Wilbur had never had an accident in his pp40 and i made the call to not put a divider in the bigger crate when it arrived. Wilbur is vocal and has always let me know when he needs to toilet so i felt confident that he wouldn't need the divider. Had Wilbur not been vocal about letting me know of his toileting needs then i would definitely have used a divider to discourage crate evacuation.

We have flown our, now passed, male Lab several times over the years (Brisbane to Melb/Melb to Darwin/Darwin to Adelaide) and also passed German Shepherd from Brisbane to Wagga Wagga. We have always used JetPets. Generally speaking, it isn't recommended that animals be sedated during flights. Both Keiran and Casper were always crated in a large wooden crate supplied by JetPets. It had lots of drilled out small circles for ventilation. I doubt very much the stronger breeds will be treated differently than other animals and if they are, it will most likely for reasons of being able to meet their specific size needs rather than temperament etc. I wouldn't have wanted my large breed dogs in a plastic crate; i much prefer that they be in an appropriate container that will assure us of his safety. The last thing i want to see is my dog running down the runway/tarmac etc because the plastic crate had failed somehow. My personal feeling is that you shouldn't lie about your dog because the carrier and/or intermediary company like JetPets etc cannot meet your dogs needs adequately. the more information you can give regarding your dogs needs, the better; that way their needs can be met in accordance with any airline regulations etc More recently we flew Wilbur (then 8 weeks) choc lab from Melb to Adel. We used Virgin airlines. The flight was due at 3:30 pm. We were at the freight company just before the flight arrived and by the time he was unloaded from the plane and was transported to the admin area of the freight company it was 4pm. Check with the freight company regarding how long before you can pick your dog up. Dog usually have to be at JetPets well before the flight is due to take off. They have administration etc that they are required to complete and the crate needs to be taken to the aircraft & loaded into cargo etc - this takes time. Make sure you get your dogs height/weight correct so that the correct sized crate can be used. While there are always horror stories, we've never had any problems flying either our puppy or our last lab and before him, German Shepherd, across the country.

Wilbur wasn't a fan of the car til he started realising that it took us to exciting places :D When he finally clicked that getting in the car meant going to the beach, puppy school, obedience, the shops, etc he was much happier. We had a terrible time coaxing him into the car; initially he wouldn't even go out the front door of the house to get to the car We did all the things that were suggested about desensitising him with the car, but it really wasn't until we just bit the bullet and ignored the howling, crying, yelping and started to go to fun places that he settled down and became an easy traveller. Now when we put his harness on he's happy as Larry to get into the car. It took a while and persistence was mostly the key with a sprinkling of tough love added good luck

I assumed you were Chinese and lacking in imagination, so just used your real name. :p that's hilarious

Suziwong is the Chinese prostitute protagonist in the 1950s movie The World of Suzie Wong staring Nancy Kwong and William Holden. My first name is Susan and when i was a little girl in the 1960s my dad used to call me Suzi Wong. My birth year is 1966. To clarify, I am neither Chinese nor a prostitute

....whats a JPS procedure? here's a nice link that will explain the procedure My link

a REAL devil puppy would have your most expensive shoe in its mouth

I rang the vets well before Wilbur arrived and made an appointment for the Monday following the Friday of his arrival. He arrived late in the day so a Friday appt was out; i decided against a Saturday appoint because typically vets are busy and i didn't want to be rushed through my appt. ...So my best option was the Monday. As it turned out, it was that appt that made me change vets. The very strong guilt inducing didactic marketing lecture that Wilbur should be 1) on Hills Science Diet and NOTHING else; 2) he NEEDS to have the JPS surgical procedure so he doesn't get hip dysplasia and 3) should be desexed asap, did nothing to assure me that the vet service had his physical and emotional well being at heart... I had already paid for the puppy school classes with the practice, before he had arrived or i would have used another service....puppy school ended up being very little socialisation and lots of didactic lecturing with a good measure of guilt applied....no shocks there, since i get the feeling that all the staff across all three practices within the service have been directed to approach clients with a marketing focus. I still stand strong that Wilbur won't be on the Hills Science Diet, won't get the JPS procedure and won't be desexed until he's at least 12 months old so that his hormones develop bone density and he develops into what a lab should look like. I have since found a vet that is very lab oriented as he and his wife breed chocolate labs; so they're right up our alley.

awwww :love:

look for a local hydrotherapy pool for dogs to teach water confidence before your holiday. Our vet has a pool and a hydrotherapy treadmill. We can buy 1/2 hour sessions just for fun.

Wilbur loves banana...he has high end tastes given the price of them

golden glow have the sachets at better prices if you purchase in bulk. The natural yog sachets have a unit price of $2.96 when you buy a 'kit' of 12 sachets. with standard postage they become $3.37 per unit....still good

have you noticed how much more expensive the sachets have gotten? i used to pay around $2.30 a pack; now they're around $4 I just bought the system today and yeah 4.50 or something like that for the sachet. the price is getting over the top considering i can purchase a 1kg tub of Jalna for not a lot more (around 50 cents more) and i don't have to make it myself

have you noticed how much more expensive the sachets have gotten? i used to pay around $2.30 a pack; now they're around $4

We do the same at dinner time, Aussie3. Wilbur loves his kibble mixed with sardines, an egg, mackerel, 'the formula' (a pre-prepared mixture i buy from a small private pet store which has heart, liver, lamb mince, chicken frame minced, parsley & garlic), chicken mince etc. I just make sure to vary it throughout the week. Breakfast is a little bit of kibble with yoghurt and a few frozen chicken necks. Lunch is a 1/3 to a 1/2 frozen chicken frame.

Wilbur has a few dessert spoonfuls with his morning kibble...i let him lick the spoon because he's so very good at sitting at my feet while i prepare his breakfast :D I make Easy Yo yoghurt, but if i've run out and there's Greek Yoghurt or natural yoghurt in the fridge, he gets that...he's truly not fussy and will eat any yoghurt.

OH suggested we get another dog...mind you, this was while we were still waiting for Wilbur to be old enough to come to us I said yes, but with two conditions. The first being that i wanted to be home for the puppy like I am for Wilbur while he's growing up and 2nd was that OH wouldn't get the Toyota sedan he'd been wanting to get...I said we'd need a bigger vehicle that would fit two large breed dogs. He started looking at Nissan X-trails that day When that happened i knew he was serious and said that i'd like to wait between 1-2 years before i'd be ready for another pup...he was agreeable What still puzzles me is that, while OH likes dogs and falls in love with our dogs, he's not really a dog person. I don't think he would have ever gotten a dog except for me, prior to marriage, saying that 'i do' comes with the understanding i will always have a dog.

Perhaps you need to make this a more human experience? Yes, you are entitled to know some information about where a prospective puppy comes from and how it will be raised, but if you don't give the breeder some sense of who you are, they are less likely to connect with you. They need to get some sense of who you are to make a decision about the puppy they are finding a home for. Try and repair the relationship if you really want a puppy from this breeder. Your questions can be presented more casually in a phone conversation; you can follow the general 'dot point' format of them but keep it casual; less overt. good luck

our next lab will be a girl who will be named Luna...we seem to always pic literary names. Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter Wilbur was from Charlottes web...his second name is Atticus from To Kill A Mockingbird. Luna's second name will be Anouk...from the book (now movie) Chocolat and its sequel The Lollipop Shoes.

as soon as i read this name Fatsoman a little voice in my head said "Chully Bun"

we changed vets this year...i have no problems changing vets when i'm being marketed to rather than my dog's emotional and physical well-being not being the priority.

Wilbur is crated when i go out during the day; there's nowhere safe in the house that can be blocked off so crating was our only option. He is left in the back yard alone for short periods of time...eg me ripping down to the local fruit market.

When i click eye contact, i began with luring food from his nose to my eyes. when he moved his gaze from the lure to my eyes he got a click immediately and then a treat. Once he knew what was going on (not long, only a few clicks) i began to lure from nose to eye. as soon as i got eye contact i said 'look' and clicked then treated. Eventually i removed the lure. used my lure hand movement. when i got a look, i clicked and said look then teated. Eventually i i removed the lure movement and just pointed to my eyes and said look. when i got a gaze i clicked and treated. Then i took the hand movement away and said 'look' and clicked and treated. Then i stopped clicking and just used verbal and hand cues. I like to keep my hand cues so i make sure i frequently point to my eyes and say look to get the behaviour.