labsrule

Laundry's are cold places and it has been bloody cold in Sydney lately as winter has hit with a vengeance. Can you put her crate in your room as they like to be close to you and it will be warmer than the laundry. Has your mum had much to do with Mindy since she returned from holiday?

Yes and I would start with some of the softer, fully digestible bones like beef brisket bones, chicken wings & frames. Get the butcher to cut up the beef brisket bone into smaller sizes for pup and then as she grows get them cut into bigger sizes and introduce other bones, like lamb necks, roo tails etc.

As gutsy as he is, I also trained my boy from day 1 to sit and wait for the command "eat" and I make him wait for different periods. The longer he has to wait the more he drools He is excellent with waiting for the magic command but once it is given, he is off and racing

I dont know how easy it is for you to get roo bones Labsrule but I go to a petfood place that slaughters the roo's on the premises and i ask them for their biggest roo bones, the ones I get Mason can eat the meat off and some of the bone but as it is so huge he has to take his time! I will post a pic in the lab thread of him and his huge bone he had yesterday. Masons mum I also give him large Roo Tails as well which I get from my local pet supply store that sells roo and I also get him large beef brisket bones and large lamb necks from two different butcher and large chicken frames from a chicken place. Whilst the large bones slow him down, he does eat bones faster than any of my other labs, both past and present He is just a guts, pure and simple I spend more time on sourcing their food than I do my own

I brought a couple of similar bowls maybe 3-4yrs back for my other labs to slow them down when I feed them kibble for one of their meals and whilst it did slow them down, it wasn't by much I tried these bowls with my current greedy pup and they were unsuccessful when he was a baby as he was able to get his small snout in the paritioned areas easily and as he grew he would actually get frustrated with the bowls and would pick them up and tip the food out clever little bugger and then hoover the food off the ground . As he got bigger still, he then proceeded to eat the bowl by taking large chunks out the bottom and sides of the bowls , so I stopped using these bowls and reverted back to the normal stainless bowl. I have been considering purchasing the stainless slow feeder bowl, but I am sure my pup will find a way to scoff down his food irrespective of the bowl he is fed out of when he has the kibble component of his diet.

Yeah I have a 9mth old Lab pup that is an absolute glutton and is by far the greediest Lab pup that I have had (he is my 4th lab pup) . He was also the biggest of the litter He gets himself so worked up with excitement at feed times, I actually feed him first as he eats so bloody quickly that when I make him wait until after I feed my other two boys, he has worked himself into a frenzy and just virtually swallows the food with very little chewing. I have tried feeding him in the slow feeder bowls, but it doesn't slow him down, he is just obsessed with food and eating it as quickly as possible, even though I feed my dogs separately, so they all get to eat in peace without the other hanging around, but this doesn't seem to slow him down either I have already had a trip to the emergency animal hospital late one night after he swallowed a large chunk of turkey bone, which luckily he did vomit up before we went to the emergency hospital, but I still took him as he was in a very distressed state. Anyway he was then hospitalised the next morning at my vets on a drip :D I actually feed all my dogs separately, twice a day, morning and evening and is essentially the one meal divided into two smaller meals as my breed is prone to bloat and my pup is a sure fire candidate with the speed at which he hoovers up his food As meal times approach, yes he does know the time be starts running around getting himself all excited and some days he is more excited than other days, so I actually delay the feeding time until he settles down a bit. Interestingly enough, he will sit side by side with my other two lab boys when I feed them fruit treats of cut up apple and pear etc and he actually chews these treats quite slowly, so I wish he would do the same at meal times . As greedy as he is, he has fantastic bite inhibition and has never nipped me or any of my family and we have never had any of the mouthing/nipping issues that a lot of owners have with their pups. I have been able to take bones out of his mouth when I have had to as his greediness prevents him from dropping them when I tell him to He has already found two rats, one of which he has dragged inside and another when I let him off let during one of our walks and he goes behind this big tree and then comes running out very excited with this large freshly dead rat which I actually thought was a kitten as it was big Because of his greediness and speed eating, I am always very vigilant when I give him bones and I get the butcher to cut the brisket bones into large bones and I buy the largest lamb necks and chicken frames I can find to force him to chew his bones. The one bone that really slows him done is the neck bone :D Why don't you try feeding your pup twice a day by dividing his meal into two smaller meals :D as this may help to take the focus off the one meal by giving him something in that greedy tummy of his in the morning

My lab pup has has two rat encounters, wit the first one he dragged inside and the other he found on one of our walks a couple of months later. I have owned Labs for many years and he is the only one that has found or killed rats Apart from the fact I hate the b*stards, I freak out as my biggest concern is were they dead when he found them and if so, what killed them as poisoning is the first thing that comes to mind. I kept a close eye on my boy after his rat encounters, but thankfully he was fine with no ill affects. Hopefully your dog(s) will be the same.

Very cute photos, Katie is adorable :D

Yeah they must be devastated to part with them, but I think (hope) they would probably be replaced with a new pup.

Yeah so good to see this programme becoming more widespread in Australia prisons it is a win win situation for all involved and I would say does more to rehabilitate the prisoners than other programs do. A great way for the inmates to contribute to society and feel worthwhile and receive so much love and attention from their non judging charges

now on

As the title suggests, 7pm Project in Sydney which is currently on Channel 10, has a segment on Puppies in Prisons coming up very shortly, I think after the current ad break

All my desexed males both past and present both cock their legs and squat. My 8.5mth old pup who won't be desexed until after his growth plates close has not yet cocked his leg

Yeah it is great news and I posted about this in the News forum on the same night of the program http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?showtopic=198294

Poor baby This poor boy would probably be better off going to one of the rescues who can put in the required training & socialisation that he is obviously lacking rather than straight to a family who probably will be unprepared for the amount of work that will be required to right the wrong that his current family have done through lack of attention and training and he could be possibly dumped/surrendered as an "uncontrollable youngster" Lab rescue contacts: http://www.labradogrescue.com.au/about/about_us.html http://www.rescuealabrador.com/

Probably with the whining at the door wanting to come inside or barking and being unsettled outside, or with reluctance to want to go outside when it is cold

Unbelievable Your own lab girl was bred by a disreputable breeder who didn't given a shit about their pups by selling them to a petshop, so I seriously doubt any form of health testing was done on her parents, let alone proper puppy raising practices so you cannot make claims that your dog is a wonderful example of the breed. Knowing all you do and having the experience that you do, makes this intentional breeding of a lab with a questionable background even more appalling :D . So much damage done to my beautiful breed by people like yourself ;)

2nd Lab BYB despatched in a matter of months. Remember jamieson ;) - the deed is done people - Steve has the right attitude

Love your description of my beloved breed ;) especially the "full on extroverts" is why we love them so much and yes our labbies are slow maturers, some very slow

I can understand your sadness and mixed feelings and it is inexcusable that they didn't even have the courtesy to reply to your application knowing full well you were going thru probably one of the most stressful and worst times of your life This is the first I had heard of this drug and I also lost my beautiful lab boy to Cancer (Hemangiosarcoma) last year and the chemo only brought him an extra few months. and I was absolutely devastated losing my beautiful boy so was very interested to hear about this drug as it has such great potential to save so many pets and prevent their owners going thru what we have in losing our beautiful boys

TV Sunday Night just had an amazing story on this new drug EBC46 found in the rain forest in QLD and being trialled for cancer treatments on dogs and cats with some amazing results as follows: A 13 yr old German Shepherd with mammary cancer given weeks to live had EBC46 injected into the tumours in January and they have shrunk dramatically and 5mths later is doing very well A Husky with large tumours on his bum had EBC46 injected into the tumours and when they checked a week later, tumours had already shrunk noticeably A Cat with cancer of the ear also had a gel containing EBC46 rubbed into the tumours on his ear and a week later tumours had shrunk by over 50% and part of tumour was already falling away A SWF had a tumour on the back of his back leg and his tumour was also injected and a week later tumour had shrunk noticeably EBC46 will be on the vet shelves in months – shrunk tumours by over 50% in first application They will begin trialling on humans next year. This drug could be revolutionary and is fantastic that it will be available to Vets in months :D I will following this story with much interest EFS

I took my 8.5mth old black lab boy Tana and we had an awesome time Was a great day and even though my boy was a handful as he was beside himself with his usual over the top excitement with so many dogs and humans around to meet and greet, so I didn't get a chance to stop at a lot of the tents to say hi and introduce ourselves as it was a full-time job navigating our way around all the other dogs that my boy just wanted to sniff and lick :D and say hi to their owners Was a lot of stop start, stop start along the way and he even got to do some tasting of treats at the treat stalls and they got his seal of approval - mind you I think any treat would get his seal of approval :p My main reason for going was to check out the Retrieving Trials and my boy was even given an opportunity to test his retrieval skills to assess his skills and suitability , albeit not in the main retrieval paddock and we were given some helpful tips and advice by the wonderful friendly and very welcoming retrieving people there We watched their dogs do some awesome retrieves and it was so great to see what happens in Retrieval Trials and to have access to the retrieving people and their wonderful dogs We will be getting involved in retrieving as it will be another great avenue to channel the energy and drive that my boy has as well as giving that brain of his something else to do Well done to Dogs NSW for putting on such a great day for the public and both my boy and I got to meet many beautiful dogs along with their owners, some of whom were the general public and others breeders. This is the first time I have been to the Dogs NSW complex and I was very impressed :p Was a big day for my boy and this is him 5 mins after we got home

So good to have you back Jed. Your immense loss of your beautiful babies must be overwhelming and unbearable and my heart breaks for you as you grieve for your beloved babies. They will always be loved, always missed and never forgotten Wishing you all the best during your recovery

Why do you think her behaviour will turn to aggression? She sounds exactly the same as my 8.5mth old lab pup who is an exceptionally greedy pup, even by lab standards and I have always been very vigilant in monitoring his eating bones of any description. I always feed my 3 labs separately, so they can all eat in peace without the others hovering around and hopefully (one must live in hope ) eat slower, although nothing seems to slow my pup down, even a slow feeder bowl doesn't make much difference . I don't believe in taking a bone off a dog to prove you can and only time I ever take any bone off my pup is when he has been outside for ages with it and is running around with it and going to different places in the yard to eat as I know he is having trouble digesting the last piece of it, so I remove it from his mouth and bin it. I have to make sure he has large bones like beef brisket which I get the butcher to cut into large bones, lamb necks, chicken frames because he also inhales bones and I have already had a late night trip to the emergency animal hospital due to him swallowing a large piece of turkey bone . Thankfully he did vomit back up again just before I was due to take him to the animal hospital but as he was still very distressed and still vomitting we still went to the hospital and he was actually admitted by my vet the next day on a drip. Needless to say bones were off the menu for a few weeks, but he is back on them under my even more watchful eye. Being a greedy and speed eater doesn't mean they will be aggressive with food. Even though my pup is a greedy pig, he sits side by side with my other two as I feed them treats, normally fruit like applies which I cut up and they each wait patiently for their piece and never try to take each others.

Jed, so pleased to hear your recovery is going well. Stay strong and my thoughts are with you.