labsrule

:birthday:

My lab youngster makes me laugh a lot when I take him swimming . He launches himself into the water by running and throwing himself in and submerging his head and then comes up spluttering and carrying on and will then start dog paddling. I kill myself laughing everytime I take him swimming as his predecessor just used to just wade into the water and start dog paddling without hardly making a splash, but not so my current youngster, he is too funny. He actually hasn't yet had a swim in a swimming pool, but I have recently found out about one that I can take him to so am planning on doing that in the near future, so it will be interesting to see what he does in a pool as opposed to the river or beach. No doubt he will have me in stitches. Here are some photos of him making a splash at the river and then finally settling into the dog paddle

Even though I have probably the most widely recognised breed worldwide , hardly a days goes by when I am walking my lab youngster (14mths old) or on an outing with him at a local dog park or the river or a beach, I receive numerous compliments on what a stunning or beautiful boy he is and many of these people that compliment him ask me where I got him from. I took him to river the other day and struck up conversations with 3 different people, 2 of these with labradors of their own and one with a crossbreed and all 3 asked me where I got him from and I am more than happy to promote his awesome breeders and pure breeders in general . I have also found that with this boy is that I am getting a lot of owners of small dogs approaching me and asking me if their small dog can greet my boy or play with boy if we are in a fenced in area and they all compliment my boy on his beautiful temperament and how wonderful he is with their small dogs as he doesnt jump on them, or play rough with them, as all he loves to do is play chaseys with other likeminded dogs, irrespective of their size. On his walk yesterday, I was approached by a lady who had the smallest dog I have ever seen and she asked if her dog could greet mine as she is trying to socialise her more. This dog was so tiny, I don't think my boy quite knew what to make of it , but he was extremely good with this lovely little one and the lady was extremely happy with how he was with her tiny dog. Queuing up behind the lady and her tiny dog was a father with twin girl youngsters who wanted to come and pat my dog which I allowed and they were so happy. Makes you feel good that your dog makes other people happy When he was younger and I was doing lots of training with him on our walks, I got asked a few times if he was a guide dog in training I talk to lots of other dog owners during my walks and outings with my boys as I am out every day with them and I will always give compliments on lovely dogs whether they be a purebreed or crossbreed and if they are a purebreed, we sometimes get into discussions on our breed and breeders.

i didnt bag breeders, i pointed out the arrogance in the original post. we're meant to be teaching tolerance and acceptance within the human race to our children but how are we meant to do that when we can't even do it with our dogs? it's intimidating to come onto a forum and be confronted by people boasting about their dogs because they came from the top breeder in the country, it's like going to a dinner party and having someone boast about their child going to the most expensive private school and going on about how much better it is than the one you could afford to send your child to. anyway, i didnt come here to argue, i came to talk about dogs, in all shapes and sizes. If you are intimidated by this forum where people can PROUDLY boast about their dogs coming from a top breeder, wait until you really get into DOL and read & participate in some other threads you will be heading for the exit door very quickly This a purebred forum to discuss and promote purebred dogs, not the human race and teaching tolerance and acceptance . Good luck in finding a forum that does that, I am sure it would be most entertaining and rather explosive Anyway now to get this thread back on topic

So pleased that you and your dog had such a great and profound experience with K9Pro. :D

Why don't you take a good look at the title of this thread and then what this forum is all about - PUREBRED DOGS - also read the forum rules as well here Forum Rules. You may then understand why this forum will ALWAYS promote PUREBREEDS as recognised by the ANKC. Many dolers have crossbreeds which are well loved and cared for with many being terrific dogs, and they are allowed to join this forum and participate in the discussions, but the fact remains this is a PUREBREED forum for promotion of PUREBREEDS with rules governing what is allowed to be promoted and discussed, pure and simple. :D

Do any of you Doler's with online stores that sell pet toys and products check if any of the pet toys & products that you are intending to sell, are non toxic to pets? When you are researching pet products to sell, is the toxicity issue ever factored into the equation of whether or not you will sell a pet product?. Are you aware that so many pet toys/products contain Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) that is toxic to pets and that Lead is also an issue in pet products? Majority of pet owners are not aware that so many of the toys that they buy their pets contain toxins harmful to pets and that there are no government regulations controlling the manufacture of pet products to make them non toxic like human kiddies toys/products.

Your poor little guy sounds like a very sick little dog and I am so glad you are taking him to another vet :D The bit I have bolded is an indication that your dog is ill and depressed and when they are feeling like this they tend to seek out areas outside where they can hide and spend time on their own away from other dogs/family. Sending lots of positive and healing vibes to your little guy and hope your visit to the vet today produces some answers and positive outcome for your poor little guy.

Well that's good to know they are genuinely interested in the animals, and the stupid things they say and do arent their fault - the producers call the shots on all that crap to make it more interesting for the target viewers, which is why most people on here cant stand the drivel. I mean the whole thing with the chi - you can just hear the producers saying it - rev the little land piranha up so it looks really good for the silly old bitches at home who want to see Fabio hold up his finger and show blood blood blood. Then you can hear the collective sigh from the old girls - Nawwwww Fabio my darling, I'll fix that war wound for you I should become a tv producer. I am not defending his stupid behaviour but more the fact that I really believe they are sincere in their love for animals. I understand that the stupid things Chris does and says calls his credibility into question time and time again, no doubt about that, but the fact is I still do believe he is a genuine animal lover. Lots of genuine animal lovers do some stupid things with their animals and and say stupid things about them, but unfortunately he does them on national television probably at the behest of the producers to boost the ratings. In the process of doing so he conveys the wrong message out there and opens himself to ridicule by the likes of us dol members and more animal savy people, but I still believe both he and his ditzy offsider are genuine animal lovers.

No - actually I thought I was being quite restrained in my post

I have made my thoughts known on this idiot in previous Bondi Vet threads, but the one thing I will give him is that he does genuinely care for the animals and so does his ditzy blonde offsider, despite the fact she annoys the hell out of me too I don't believe they fake the genuine care and love they have for the animals, it is just all the other idiotic things they do and say that annoy me profusely

Very interesting and insightful. I wish everyone would read it too. Although, poodles are used as guide dogs in Europe. Aint that the truth - a great pity that a hell of a lot of thought didn't take place before the creation of this mutt and the shameless marketing gimmick to get them into the Press Hang your head in shame Wally that you have singlehandedly caused the massive exploitation of two wonderful and very popular breeds in appalling conditions by puppyfarmers and byb's . You worked daily with my beloved breed who have done so much for the Blind community and as service dogs in general and I don't know how you sleep at night with the irrepairable harm you have done to not only my beloved breed but the lovely Poodle and all the other poor breeds have been swept up in the designer craze

Apparently she will be home in December according to this latest article in the Sydney Daily Tele today about the family who gave her up to the Army now trying to lay claim to her ;) http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/give...9-1225957925135 A TUG of love has broken out between the army and the original owners of Sarbi, the hero bomb detection dog. Sarbi went missing in action in Afghanistan after a major battle in Septem- ber 2008. Fourteen months later - after being adopted by the Taliban - Sarbi amazed her handler after finding her way back to the Australian base at Taren Kowt. Now original owner Wendy Upjohn, who gave Sarbi and her brother Rafiki to the army when her family moved from the country to the city, has written to the Defence Minister requesting the return of the dog after her military service is over. But the army told Ms Upjohn that the policy is for the dog's handler to have first refusal on a retired dog. The army first approached the Upjohns about the two-year-old dogs when the family was seeking a home for them 2004. Ms Upjohn said that when a soldier came to collect the dogs, he told the family they would be able to claim them back when their service was finished. "Unfortunately there was nothing in writing," she said. "We just wanted her back as a family pet." The army denied that any such undertaking was given and said the dog would remain with her handler and his family once she retires. Sarbi and the sergeant who trained her, and was then deployed to Afghanistan as her handler, were partners for several years before the dog disappeared in an ambush. She has been in quarantine in Dubai for the past six months and will return to Australia in December. Once she receives a clean bill of health, Sarbi will return to work with the army in January. She could remain on duty for another 2-3 years. "Then she will be given to her handler Sergeant D and his family," a source said. It is understood the Chief of Army Lieutenant General Ken Gillespie is adamant that Sarbi is army property. George Hulse from the War Dogs Association agreed and said that it was entirely appropriate for Sarbi's handler to have her. "He has developed a very close bond with the dog and he never gave up hope that she would turn up in Afghanistan," Mr Hulse said. "To suggest that he should part with the dog would be just devastating."

This is not an easy one to answer and it is very personal and we all have to make our own decisions on this based on our own pesonal circumstances and I agree with the posters that say it would depend on illness, prognosis, age of pet, quality of life etc. Also when people are confronted with an emergency or life threatening situation with their dog, they may act differently than they thought they would, irrespective of finances. Last year I was confronted with a terrible situation when my 10year old lab boy had to have a major emergency operation (splenectomy) at a vet specialist centre followed by 4 days intensive care to remove a large tumour from his spleen. When the tumour was discovered via an ultrasound I was told by the specialist that it could be a hemangioma which is benign (non-spreading) or a hemangiosarcoma which is malignant, but if he didn't have the splenectomy then he could bleed out and die any time ;) I was also told that if during the surgery they found the tumour had spread to other vital organs then it would be kinder to PTS as that would indicate it was hemangiosarcoma which is terminal, but fortunately I did not have to make that fateful decision, as the tumour had not spread. They told me before the surgery that if the tumour had not spread then they would have to send the tumour or parts thereof away to pathology for testing to get a diagnosis on whether the tumour was a hemangioma or hemangiosarcoma. Unfortunately for my beloved boy, it was hemangiosarcoma, so I agreed to chemo treatment on the provision that I would stop it if it impacted on his quality of life, which unfortunately it did and I stopped it and later I had to put him to sleep when the cancer spread to his lungs in September last year :D . I tossed and turned about putting him on the chemo treatment because I was told that my boy only had limited time once he was diagnosed with the hemangiosarcoma cancer and the decider to proceed with the chemo treatment was because he had recovered extremely well from the emergency splenectomy and without the chemo, his survival time would have only been anywhere from 20-60days and given that he had been thru so much and came thru the surgery and recovery so well, I wanted to buy him some extra time whilst he was well, but only on the proviso that his quality of life would not be impacted ;) I incurred some pretty hefty vet specialist bills for the operation, intensive care and chemo treatment which fortunately for me I did have the money for so did not have the added stress of having to try to borrow from family or friends or make a fateful decision based on lack of finances. When I got my new lab pup I took out pet insurance for him pretty quickly and I make sure that I have enough credit on my credit card for any major veterinary emergency for him as whilst I have pet insurance, I still have to pay the veterinary treatment first and then lodge a claim. As I have two senior lab boys, one who is over 14.5yrs (15 in March) and the other 12.5yrs, I would not put them thru any major surgery or major medical treatments.

thanks but I wasn't thinking of the issue with Orijen as I believed the Nutro issue was something to do with the way it was cooked, so I did a search back thru the Nutro threads and found the following post from 4Paws:

Yep too many vets in cahoots with the dry food distributors/manufacturers and whilst my vet clinic also sells a couple of the dry food brands they have never tried pushing them on me. They probably know better as I have had a few lively debates with them on dog nutrition :D and we agree to disagree on some nutrition issues.

Out of fairness to the original product, Nutro was never banned. It changed hands (was sold to Masterfoods/Mars who also own Advance, Pedigree, Royal Canin etc), and with the imminent plans to manufacture here, the NZ distributor was no longer able to supply Australia. Sags :D Oh that's interesting as I believed it was banned for another reason, can't remember exactly what it was whether it was something to do with the way it was manufactured and I was very upset when it was no longer available as were a number of other DOLERS as the reason for banning didn't make sense at the time as I couldn't understand as why allow it to be imported in the first place then place a ban on it. I may do a search in the DOL archives as I know there were discussion threads regarding the reason it was "banned". I still would like to know why they changed the receipe though from the US receipe. Do you have any inside info on that

He has become an adolescent, the dreaded stage of a dog's development and this is when they do things they have never done before and can be right royal ratbags getting up to all sorts of mischief. My current Lab youngster (14mths), was a fantastic pup who never destroyed his toys and had only had an odd chew on the TV stand, but once he became an adolescent the little bugger decided to go big and the couch seat cushions became his first victim. I started crating him after this when I went out for anywhere from 1-3 hrs (I worked from home) for a few weeks and then gradually let him have his freedom in the family room with my older lab boys like he used to and he was great for awhile, then decided to have another go at the couch cushions, so once again into the crate or outside he went (weather dependent) when I had to go out. Once again after a couple of weeks, I gradually gave him his freedom inside when I went out and apart from dragging the dogs beds and futons and blankets around, he never did any more damage. From about 9months he seemed to have turned a corner, no more couch cushion chewing, no more pulling clothes off the line, no more counter surfing etc Apart from a couple of these couch chewing episodes, he has really been a fabulous pup and the only one out of all my lab youngsters that I have allowed access to both inside and outside when I am not home as I have two senior labs that mainly live inside during the colder months with outside access.

I believe there is concern about the higher protein content in puppy food than in adult food and this contributing to faster than desired growth rates, particularly in the larger breeds.

What if you already feed a top quality puppy kibble though? Ruby is almost 7 months old and I currently feed her RC Labrador Junior. I've just opened a 3kg bag, so I guess based on what's been posted so far, I should change to adult food when it's finished??? I would start transitioning her to adult food when you have approx a week's worth of the puppy food left so for a week you can combine both puppy food and adult and as the week progresses increase the quantity of the adult and decrease the quantity of the puppy food so that at the end of the week you can start her fully on the adult food.

When I fed my black labs Artemis unfortunately they did not do well on it with soft poo and lack lustre coats with dandruff. They were fed Nutro before Artemis but when Nutro was banned from being imported I had to swap them over to a different dry food and I tried several, including Artemis all with varying results and none compared to the fantastic condition they were in when on Nutro. When Nutro started being manufactured in Australia I was a bit apprehensive about trying this new range as the recipe did differ from what was being imported from the States, but I thought I would give it a go due to problems with the various other brands I tried my boys on and all falling short in keeping their coat condition compared to the fantastic results when on Nutro. I bit the bullet and put them on the Australian version Nutro and once again their coats have returned to their fantastic condition. I initially had my lab pup on Advance, but I wasn't happy with it both coat and poo wise and I also swapped him over to Nutro and the difference in coat condition and poo was once again fantastic with coat going from drab and dry to shiny/glossy and soft and the poos firmer. Having black labs you can see the change in coat condition much more easily. I have recently purchased some Black Hawk food to try my boys on as this food has been getting some pretty good reviews here on DOL so will start transitioning my youngster soon and my older boys when their Nutro supply gets lower. Whilst my boys are only feed 30-50% dry food with the balance being RMB, veges, raw eggs, yoghurt, cottage cheese and other supplements, I find the dry food impacts their coat condition and poo very quickly if I change their dry food, so hopefully if the Black Hawk lives up to its reputation, then theoretically, their glossy coats and firm poos should remain or their coats become even glossier

Thats interesting. So when you say it depends on the person buying the puppy, do you mean that if a person experienced in your breed buys one of your puppies, then you would leave it up to them to decide when to swap them over if all or part of their pup's diet was going to be dry food. With regards to what they are going to feed, do you mean raw vs dry food or does it depend on the quality of the dry food i.e. supermarket brands vs premium/super premium.

As the title suggests I am interested in the opinions of Breeders on the ages they recommend their puppy buyers to swap their pups from puppy food to adult food and the reasons why you recommend the age you do. I have always followed breeders' recommendations on this and for my current Labrador youngster when he was a pup, I started transitioning him over to adult food at 4months as per his breeder's recommendation and this age was also my vet's recommendation as well. I believe there is general confusion by puppy buyers as to the age that they should swap their pups over to adult food as they may be told one thing by their breeders if they brought their pup from a breeder and the manufacturer's instruction on the dry food seems to be a standard 12months and their vet may also have a differing opinion. I will always follow breeder's advice on this issue and particularly so in the case of my current youngster's breeder who has been breeding Labradors for over 30 years, so his advice and opinion I would take over my vet if my vet's advice and opinion was different, which in this case it was not, as they both recommended to start swapping over to adult food at 4months. My 3 previous Lab pups have been swapped over to adult food from 4-6months, so I have never had a lab pup on puppy food for longer than 6months. Puppy buyers of pups from pet shops, byb's and puppyfarmers will probably not receive the correct advice if in fact any advice, so they would probably be more likely to adhere to the dryfood manufacturer's recommendations or recommendations from family/friends. I have placed this topic in general rather than in the Breeder's forum as I believe it will be helpful for other puppy owners who do not read the Breeder's forum.

Yeah lol they wouldnt get a Pug from me....I can and will be fussy where my puppies go, whats wrong with that....yuppies that drive fancy cars and live in Brighton....they arent about to DUMP their Pugglet. What an elitist snobbish attitude to dare judge someone by the postcode they happen to live in . My suburb is under Blacktown Council and my postcode is 2147 and I bet I provide a better home and environment for my pampered pooches and am a much more responsible owner than your yuppie snobs in Brighton . Blacktown is the largest growing area in Sydney and there are a lot of young families here and I think it is absolutely terrible that they would not get a look in at a pup from Breeders like yourselves that are so judgemental with elitist snobby attitudes :p I dont sell my puppies to families with only small children....they drop pug puppies....and I dont sell puppies to families that already have a large dog. I can list all the reasons and give examples if you like and I can also get all the figures and facts of Pugs that end up in rescue. Call me a snob, I dont sell to the masses and I dont have to.....as I have said before I dont have that many litters....let the Pug breeders that have litters on the ground all the time sell to the masses. So going by you post- if someone happens to reside in a particular postcode, they are relegated to only buying puppies from dodgy breeders??? Wow. With an attitude like yours it's no wonder Pugs are so popular in the BYB market. Yes you can sell to whoever you like but the way you are coming across sounds extremely snobby and judgmental rather than being concerned about the welfare of your puppies. Why will you not sell to someone with a larger dog? What happens if they get a larger dog later on? This forum never ceases to amaze me....I make one statement and you have all run with it like mad women and now I am a snobbest elitist that is so effing funny. Now if I had said that I breed all the time and have 3 litters on the ground at all times and I sell to anyone, renters, dole bludgers, potential bybers simp;y cos they live in Melton, you name I dont discrimate....what would you have said then????? Say things as it is...dont pussy foot around. I put a great deal of time into each and every mating be blowed if I am going to sell them to just anyone. I fostered a black pug that was extremely food aggressive cos the Lab he lived with in the backyard would bully him away from his food and eat his too....owners didnt care or supervise...surrender the viscous Pug, yeah right...the poor thing was starving and they didnt care. So thats why I wont sell to someone that has a big dog....specially if there is no one home during the day. The statement you made was discrimatory and inflammatory that you judge people based on postcode and people in certain postcodes are not good enough to have one of your pups :p . You further inflamed the situation by stating that people in wealthy suburbs do not dump dogs and then to top it all off you state you won't sell pups to anyone who has a larger dog due to your one bad experience where a pug was bullied by a larger dog and you also don't sell your pups with families with small children :p Then you are amazed when people react, unbelievable