Mudlark

That crate looks like a beauty :) Also - just wanted to chime in to say that I agree with all the others that Roo is a very beautiful and photogenic dog and that you are one helluva committed, patient and gutsy person. I'm not sure who has more admirers...you or Roo :)

You are definitely not strange or over the top. In no way at all. You are 100% normal for a person who loved their dog as a dog should be loved, and was loved in return. When I lost my beloved dog last year I found that it was the most painful thing I have ever experienced. One aspect that took me by surprise was how guilty I felt - not about his death, but about every little time I didn't scratch his tummy when he wanted it (though I had scratched it ten thousand times) or every time I went out and left him at home (though we had taken him with us ten thousand times) or the times when I didn't let him have the last of my toast (though he had had it ten thousand times). I kept beating myself up about those stupid things, even though he had actually had a wonderful, long, active, interesting life with the best of care in every way. I mentioned it to a friend who said she had felt the same when she lost her special BC, berating herself about, for example, the time when she had left the dog shut outside and went out for dinner and it rained...and forgetting the ten thousand times when the dog was snug on her bed, or taken on holidays, or the daily 2 hour walks on the beach etc etc. It was a relief to find that I wasn't alone in feeling/thinking the guilt stuff. Anyway, if you are feeling all that guilt stuff too - it is normal. Over time, we found it helpful to do a few things as a tribute to our dog - we chose a favourite photo and had it made into a canvas for our lounge room wall, we planted a line of roses in the garden, we hung up his flyball and obedience ribbons and we got an engraved memorial stone for his grave in the garden. Just kind of helped us a bit.

Congratulations on a fantastic result - and obviously one that's cone on top of many years of other achievements :)

*mega swoon*. They are gorgeous. Fabulous photos.

Just go ahead and bawl whenever you feel like it. It's the worst to lose a dog you have such a connection with. Thinking of you.

We got the Bottoms Up thing for our old Lab and found that it was very difficult to put on, did not stay up round his hips (it 'wanted' to slip down to his hocks all the time when we tried to lift him with it) and it seemed like it was really uncomfortable for him. After trialling it in the house we never used it again. I don't know if it'd help your dog but we found that a good set of dog boots was beneficial. Our boy's main problem was getting traction with his back feet and the boots helped a great deal. They also stopped him from scraping his back toes on the ground all the time. We got Ruffwear Bark n Boots from here. We got the socks to go with them but didn't find them necessary.

Lovely story about your day, Puppy. Sounds like you worked hard helping out all over the house. Good to see you developing good oral hygiene habits at a young age :) Sammy is right - soap is great Labrador food. My first Labrador, Nicolae, ate a bar of soap as a pup - he swallowed it whole. Erk.

He is looking pretty relaxed there :) Great that he is feeling a lot better.

So sorry about your beautiful, courageous boy.

Espinay2 and The Spotted Devil, the Labrador pictured on the front of Mary Roslin Williams's book 'Advanced Labrador Breeding' is, to me, the ideal Labrador (or pretty much as close as you can realistically get anyhow :)). Here is a link to an image showing the cover of the book.

It is a fair thing to ask and I think the consensus is that the dog is not fat, but is just a very solid, big-boned, muscular boy (IMO at the more solid end of the spectrum, even for a show dog). I thought he was fat at first sight but on closer inspection he got around the ring without the kind of wobble you'd see on a fat dog. I guess people (including myself) can be quick to call a Labrador fat because so many owners (pet owners I mean, not so much show) let their dogs get huge and mistake it for muscle and it is sad to see. Weight is always a sensitive issue for Labradors! :) There was a dog in the Gundog group that I had not seen before - the Bracco Italiano. Wow - I really loved that dog. He had a beautiful, fluid movement and a regal air about him. What I thought was really good though was that most of the dogs seemed to be relaxed and having a good time.

Here are the Labrador bitches being judged. Tail wags all round :) The winning bitch and winning dog were then assessed together by both judges. Apparently the judges could not agree on which was better out of the two and so a third judge was brought in and chose the male.

Can't argue with that :) The dog was obviously very happy and relaxed in the ring (until the nasty camera tried to eat him towards the end) and loved his owner to bits. That was wonderful to see. Having looked again at the Labrador standard (here) I do agree that there is nothing about this dog that objectively goes against the Australian standard. It asks for a broad dog, and he is a broad dog. But, to be honest, he doesn't conform to my subjective interpretation of the standard or the breed extension (here) as, to my eyes, he is too heavy in appearance (not saying fat, just too thick and heavy in body, neck and head). I am a big lover of the breed too, but Romeo is just not the style of Labrador that I prefer, that's all. It's only my opinion. Looking at the bigger picture :) , it's definitely fantastic to see a Labrador do so well at this level.

Yes - a big thankyou from me too!!!!

Yay for the Labrador! :) But, yep, thought he was tubby. He was also built like a brick outhouse, LOL. I keep my Labrador slim and am often asked at the local dog park if he is a cross breed.

I have sometimes left my dog in the car on a cool/cold day in the shade with the windows partly down while I get petrol or go into the local shops for a quick purchase. However the last time I did this (last winter, was well under 10 degrees, cloudy day, car under a tree, windows down 10cm) I came out of the supermarket to find two people having an intense discussion about how best to smash my car window. My dog was watching them very intently - no panting and cool as a cucumber. I said nothing to the people but was roundly and loudly abused as I got in the car and drove off. No doubt they had my dog's interests at heart (though he didn't need their help) and have also seen some dogs in actual danger in cars, but I would have been pretty pissed off if they had needlessly damaged my car and showered broken glass onto my dog. So I have not left my dog in the car at the shops since then - only at the servo where I can keep sight of the car. I totally approve of smashing a car to bits to get out a hot, stressed dog, but some people over-react when there is no actual risk.

Another option is to try walking him in a harness - one that attaches up on his back so he can't grab the lead quite as easily. There are quite a few harnesses on the market (e.g. Blackdogwear make a range of harnesses - that's what I've always used for my dogs who walk in a tracking harness). Like a head collar (as opposed to a neck collar) a harness doesn't choke the dog and your dog may react less to it. Anyway, just an idea.

I emailed him and this is what he said. Seems that memory cards might be the best way to go these days after all: "You need a special adaptor to get the photos from the card/camera onto the iPad (e.g. this kind of thing). From memory the in-built photos app on the iPad will import them – no special software needed. These days memory cards are pretty cheap and iPads only have up to 64G of storage (I think you can get 128G ones now too), so if you take lots of raw photos it'll fill up pretty quickly, I suspect. Probably best off these days with a series of smaller memory cards and treating them like film – fill them up and then put them away until you get home".

SammieS, I will ask hubby when I see him later tonight :)

When we went OS a few years ago we took an iPad to put our photos on. The iPad was also useful for other things (e.g. GPS, internet access etc etc) but we mainly got it for photo backup. It worked very well as a solution. That's the limit of my technical knowledge so I can't actually say how it worked, just that it did work - my hubby is the resident IT whiz.... He put all his photos on it in RAW.

They get you moving, don't they? :) Sounds like you are really enjoying your new bubs (even though sleep-ins are a distant memory). I bet they are gorgeous. I'm keeping a collection of all the limbs, noses, tails, snouts, antennae and other miscellaneous body parts that get chewed off toys round here.

So glad he's feeling better. And what a lovely face too.

With the nicking off with stuff - get some treats and swap them for the thing she has nicked. She should spit out the nicked object to get the treat. Make a big fuss of her when she gives up the object for the treat. You can keep little dishes of kibble around so you can easily grab something to swap in return for the illegal object. When she nicks something never ever ever chase her or try to wrestle it off her - that is a wonderful game from her perspective and she will want to play it again and again. Provide her with a basket of dog toys that she can grab and chew on as an alternative to your possessions. With the taking too long to move on from sniffing stuff: At home, work on getting your dog's attention in return for a treat. Put the treat in front of her nose and, when you have her attention, move the treat to between your eyes so she is looking you in the eye. Say 'watch' (or any word you like) and immediately reward her attention by giving her the treat. Work on this a lot till you can get her attention by saying 'watch' (rewarding with treats). Also work on short, fast recalls - get her attention with a treat and run backwards a short distance, calling very enthusiastically, to get her to chase you for a couple of metres - rewarding with the treat. Work on this a lot - at any moment you could call her to come to you and get a yummy treat! This will teach her to switch her attention to you for a reward. Once you are getting a reliable response at home and out on walks in areas where distractions are minimal, you can then step it up to using your 'watch' or quick recall to get her attention away from mildly distracting things like sniffs. Make sure you reward a quick, attentive response. Use good treats (eg. little bits of cabanossi) and an enthusiastic, over the top, goofy voice so that you can compete effectively against the interesting sniffs :) I let my dog sniff but he is not allowed to pull to get to sniffs (if he pulls we stop dead or abruptly change direction) and he has been taught to come away from sniffs when called using the above approach. Sniffing all the fascinating smells is important to a dog, so I wouldn't want to deprive a dog of doing it completely. Your dog is a teenager right now do don't despair - she will become more mellow over time. But teaching her that it is worth her while to pay attention to you will help in the meantime.

Really glad to hear that he is more cheerful today. What a relief that must be.

I'll second that.