I know I have been away from a month, life has been crazy with new pup , then I forgot the password to the site and it would not let me login. So , changed from "overread-tobe-labowner" to "Rocky-mum". sounds better anyway. I have been reading the forum and taking notes though. Rocky has been such a good boy. We have made a lot of progress in house training , I do not remember the last time he peed in the house. He never pooped in the house , except first week I guess. I am not sure, if he is realy trained or I take him out enough number of times that he does not do it . But , I am glad either way. Now, I take him once in two hours and it works. He is adjusted well to apartment living. It has been hard work for me taking him outside so frequently and also try to get some offleash time( got few comments from other residents to make sure he is on leash, US huh). I had some trouble with my training (doing it first time, so not unexpected). He would sit each time he saw a clicker. We moved past it and now he knows-Sit,down, hi-fi, Shake hand (yes, my daughter , who is 3 dictates training and what to do next. Heel and come are work in progress. "Come" is getting better since I have started using long line during our walks and started calling him back for treats. He now chews only on his toys. Took lots of "No","no" and redirection whenever he chewed on other things . I know, not ideal way but when you are in a hurry to get things done in the morning , clicker training is not easy. he sleeps through the night (How many are jealous?) . From 10 P.M to 7 AM and loves his crate from night time sleep. Day time naps- not much. He sleeps either by my work station or if I am leaving him alone, he sleeps in his pen with vet bed. Yes, I leave him alone for small duration (1 hour max) and he does not make a sound!!He goes to his day care if I have long work hours , he loves it there.It is in-home day care run by a lady who has 3 of her small- breed dogs. they have a ball. His loose stools are still a problem. Vet is not sure hat is gong on. He was put in bland diet , just chicken and rice, given antibiotics , adjusted feeding schedule/quantity. Nothing helps. Vet says she is clueless since all allergy tests/parasite tests come back normal. Frequency of stools have reduced now with antibiotics, we need to see how he does when he comes off it poor thing. And thank you to this site, I get so many compliments for how well behaved he is (mosly at petsmart . Gundog training site helps, he will never hunt but no harm in having some fun in the city life , is there? Thank you for reading my long update and thank you for being such an amazing group of helpful people.
What a great update, and how lovely to hear how well you are doing! Sounds like great progress. A couple of months ago, I met a (very nice) lady from the US in the park. She congratulated me because I was the only person who had a dog on a lead. I had to explain that was only because he was recovering from an operation.....I think she was disappointed..... Go Rocky's mum! Show them a tiny Lab pup is not a danger to society off lead!
Oh, I meant to say - I had trouble with runny poo. It was solved in the end by changing the protein source in his kibble to one he had never had before. To duck. And the carbohydrate source to tapioca (also because he would never had eaten that before) - but that's not available in the US, potato is used. The food I used was Royal Canin SC21. http://www.amazon.com/ROYAL-Canine-Hypoallergenic-Selected-Protein/dp/B0050JLFVO
" He would sit each time he saw a clicker. " - Ha ha - I had a similar problem with Coco when we started Total Recall - he would come every time my whistle rattled on its lanyard - we're over that now. Good work Rocky.
Sounds like it's all going great and that you're doing a wonderful job I hope the poop situation is resolved....
Are you quite sure about that? Haha, mine won't stop looking at me if I put my whistle in my mouth on a walk. They know it means stop whistle practice and that means the good treats!! I have to be sneaky and do it when their backs are turned Lovely to hear your update. You know what I'm going to ask next....... pictures?
Julie: Thank you for suggestion on Hypoallergic kibble. Do I need to switch slowly to it or go cold turkey?I am not comfortable with vets approach of keep changing medicines today she asked me to switch to some other , I am not a fan of medicines to kids or now dog Fiona: I guessed your question, I will do that soon. I still do not take enough pictures of him
Hi Rocky-mum - the version I got said it was ok to switch a dog immediately to the hypoallergenic kibble (because it was hypoallergenic, so unlikely to cause an upset tummy, the reason you would normally switch slowly). The only thing you should watch is that I was switching to this food for a near adult dog, you have a young puppy. I don't think that being on an adult food for a while would do him any harm, so if you want to try it and see if it solves the problem that would work. But you'd need to look at whether it was appropriate longer term. There are good reasons to feed a Labrador puppy kibble designed for slow growth. I made the switch under vet supervision. It's a shame you don't feel the vet is giving you good advice. I'd try finding another vet....but I'd also try switching food. The advantage of switching to a food with a single protein source, and a single carbohydrate source is that you know what's what - if it doesn't work, you can try a different protein and so on. If you just start randomly switching dog foods - most of them contain various ingredients - it's impossible to work out what might be upsetting your dog (different proteins, or grains etc...).
Rocky-mum we fed Juno on Husse kibble when she was young and only changed her after she was spayed on the advice of the vet, but I was very happy with the Husse kibble. They produce 2 Hypoallergenic foods which are formulated for puppies so it may be worth trying a free sample before buying - not a cheap food but my breeder uses it for all her dogs and puppies and is a distributor for the company. http://www.england.husse.co.uk/dog-foods-products/dog-dry-food/puppy-dry-food/hypoallergenic/ Hope you get his tummy problems sorted very soon
