Hello to all, we are starting over again having lost the last of our 3 labs in April this year and I swore I could never do this again, but as they say, never say never ! So, here we are with our 2 little precious bundles, Oakley (chocolate) & O'Reilly (blonde) & ready to start over, however, we are aiming to do things differently this time around in terms of feeding, medication & training so I have done as much research as my brain could handle to identify natural/healthy options. But there is no match for personal experience and advice from people who have been there, done that, so here I am on this forum. We collected Oakely 1 day short of 9 weeks, weighing 5kg. O'Reilly is 10 days younger, we collected her just shy of 10 weeks, weighing a petite 3kg. Being the tinniest in the litter she had to stand up for herself, so she is incredibly confident, independent & is so cute it is surreal. Her weight and size alongside Oakley was a little bit frightening initially, especially as Oakley spent the first 4 hours trying to dominate her & was very aggresive, but we let them work it out & they snuggled up together that evening & are fab buddies. On their first evening with us we decided to feed them the croquettes they had been fed by the breeder (Royal Canin), seeing O'Reilly's stomach bloat to such an extreme after eating was distressing, I started her on home made the next morning & the difference after feeding was night & day. She started on raw chicken wings the following day & did amazingly well. Her weight and overall body shape have already improved even in just one week & no bloating at all. It was obvious to us that she was behind in terms of certain areas of development compared to Oakley, she walked with her hind legs spread out low to the ground for the first couple of days as she seemed to be literally, finding her feet. She is now walking normally & following by sound & sight better than she was (turning in circles). I was initially 100% all in for the raw feeding, however, I wobbled and have not had the confidence to stick to it, mainly because they had both had their vaccinations just prior & I tend to believe that it compromises their immune systems for a period of time. (We do not plan to follow up with any further vaccinations). So for the moment I am giving them a combination of raw chicken wings as one meal & cooked chicken, broccoli, blueberries, salmon oil, linseeds, keffir & apple cider vinegar for the other meals. During my research I have come across people advising not to mix raw/cooked and I have also come across people advising that it is not a problem to mix and match, as long as the puppies don't have any negative reactions & their poop is 'healthy'. So I am watching and listening to my 2 little ones and they are both thriving, active, playing & sleeping brilliantly. We are also crate training them & O'Reilly has taken to it like magic, Oakley is not so happy & seems to get physically stressed which starts with her panting, then whining & then literally screaming. As our previous choc lab suffered from terrible separation anxiety which we didn't deal with very well, we are determined to make sure that Oakley gets through it as best as possible. We are using homeopathy & we are making good progress. It is amazing how much we had forgotten about life with puppies, we are making the most of every moment this time around & enjoying it all. I would appreciate any helpful advice from anyone with any similar experiences. Happy New Year, La vie et belle.
Welcome On the forum I think it's better to ask specific questions. I wouldn't know where to begin with your open-ended question, apart from enjoy yourselves. I didn't notice any socialisation program as part of your imediate plans. Socialisation to the other puppy is not what one has in mind with such a program. Are you planning on getting titre tests in the future?
