Hi l am very new here. I am getting a middle aged lab from my Mum she is rather over weight and has been feed cheap nasty dogfood.y husband and myself wish to get her onto hills or something like that. We are wondering weather we we have to slowly wean he of the stuff she has been having. As soon as she arrives from inter state as you see l live in Australia we will be attending our vet. Also we have a cat who runs the house do labs get on with cats. I know l have lots of questions so l am hoping someone can just point me in the right direction. Cheers Aussie Meredith
Hi Meredith and welcome to the forum! What a great thing to do, taking on your mother's older dog... Yes, I would start changing her food over very, very slowly as otherwise she may have an adverse stomach reaction. Regarding the cat - generally speaking labradors are pretty friendly animals, but if she has not had contact with cats before you will need to take things very slowly - and your cat may not be thrilled to begin with either! I would keep them separate to begin with, giving your cat lots of opportunity to view the dog without needing to actually come into physical contact - baby gates might be a good interim solution. Good luck, looking forward to hearing how things go on!
Welcome to the forum from me and 4 year old girl, Harley. Nothing to add to the good advice above from Karen
Thankyou so much from myself and Kelly who is about 7. She is not with me yet she arrives from Queenland Australia to Victoria Australia in about 6 weeks so we are just getting everything organized.
Just for the record Kelly is about 35 kg and my husband is concerned about when we will be able to put strenuous excersice on her ie running after a ball ect
Hi Meredith, my dog Obi and I are in Canberra We have a few Victorian members here. It's great that you are planning ahead, and I'm sure your Mum's dog will have a great home with you. There are a lot of dog foods out there but Hills is a perfectly fine one to start with. Our dog gets a bit of kibble in his diet and we use Hills. To change the food over aim to make the switch over a 10-day to two week period. On her first day give her 90% old cheap food and 10% Hills. On her second day 80% old food and 20% Hills, and so on, till you get to 100% Hills. That way her gut bacteria can gradually adjust and she'll be ok. I'd recommend that you buy and read The Labrador Handbook, by Pippa Mattinson. It'll give you a lot of information about dog management and training. There is pretty much no situation that isn't covered in this book. https://www.bookdepository.com/The-...MI-K6dgqeo1gIV1YpoCh1XDQXfEAAYASAAEgL_xvD_BwE
