Hi i have a two year old choc lab, though she has only been with me for a week , i have been walking her for a friend since the summer and gradually adopted her She is very good and at the moment in training as she has had very little . She also spent alot of time in the garden before i took her on , i have been giving her long walks up the beach and she is doing so well with training but this morning she done her thing on the lounge floor ! She was mega excited about this , i sent her to her bed while i cleaned up . Took her for a walk and she went again . Have been doing her eve meal at 5.30 so today have changed it to 3.3 then walk at 5 , do you think its lack of house training ? Thankyou
Re: Advice please Hi there....welcome to the forum. Do you know how much training she has had already, if any, and whether she was house-trained by the previous owner? It might just be an upset in routines? jac
Re: Advice please She is probably just a little stresses at the change in environment and therefore forgot her housetraining for a while. I think 5:30 is fine to keep her evening meal at, any earlier and she would be hungry through the night. When adopting out rescue dogs I would advise people (even if they were taking on an adult) to take housetraining back to basics - pretend that she's an 8week old puppy you've just brought home, that way you can't get it wrong! Take her out for the toilet after eating, sleeping and playing and every half hour in between. Loads of praise and rewards when she does her business in the correct place. If she forgets and messes in the house take her straight outside and praise her if she goes again. Don't react to the mess in the house (not even to send her to her bed) just ignore her and clean it up in silence. Make sure you use something that will remove the smell (I was advised to use biological washing detergent but this stained my carpet the colour of the detergent!!) As she is an adult it may not take her long to remember her housetraining, unless she wasn't housetrained in the first place. In this case it may take a little longer but by sticking to the method above you shouldn't have too much trouble. Good luck!!
Re: Advice please Thankyou all, I really don't think she had had any training ! Spent most summer days and eves in a pen in the garden with her mum , And when finally bought indoors for the winter month was in a lobby area with gate .. Whenever i visited she was a bundle of energy (surprisingly !) now shes having nice long walks / runs and games .. I knew not to shout at her but thankyou for advice on not sending her to bed either . She did look sad at that point Yes i guess she must be a bit confused right now and missing being with her mum , Also i have been giving her half a tin with biscuit at 6am as i leave for work then and again at 5.30 as mentioned earlier, I'm wondering if two feeds is making her too full as she went again on taking her out soon after ? I just thought she needed two feeds as she is now more active , Many thanks again for your help x
Re: Advice please How many times a day is she producing a poo? If it's more than about 2 or 3 times it might be that the food you are giving doesn't quite agree with her - this doesn't necessarily manifest itself as diarrhoea. Faeces should be 'kickable' ie. if you rolled them over they wouldn't leave a mark behind or just a little damp patch. Graphic I know but hard to explain without the 'poo scale chart' I had from the vet I used to work with!! Personally I would feed two meals a day regardless of activity levels. Splitting feeds into smaller more numerous meals can help reduce risks of things like bloat.
Re: Advice please Although she is an adult dog, in terms of training it sounds like you will have to treat her like a puppy , right back to basics . It also sounds like she is very enthusiastic and therefore will be willing to learn and please you , use loads of praise when she gets it right, and when she gets it wrong, then tomorrow is another day . Wishing you lots of luck ;D
Re: Advice please I just want to welcome you to the forum, from me Helen, Hattie 6 years and our rescue Charlie 3 years. Good luck with your new girl, lucky her
Re: Advice please Thankyou for the warm welcome , She is adorable if i knew how to post a pic i would ! I find myself talking to her like my new best friend haha .. Thankyou for the poop advice . she goes about twice a day hmmm id say it could do with being slightly more pickupable ! I want her to have good food she is currently on chappie . Any veiws on this brand ? I had a tough year loosing my best friend and my dad within a few months and this little lady has bought me lots of smiles already , i love training her and taking her out , so looking forward to summer x
Re: Advice please Welcome to the forum! So sorry about the tough year you've had. Good to know that Labrador antics and cuddles are bringing some joy back
Re: Advice please Welcome to the forum - lots of good advice available on any subject to do with dogs There are lots of good food out there, I personally use Royal Canin and Harley (months old) loves it. I'm sure others will also suggest other good brands
Re: Advice please Hmmm chappie is a surprisingly good dog food considering how cheap it is. If she seems to be doing ok on it I wouldn't think about changing. Does the poo start out solid with a loose bit on top? This could be a sign her meals are too big - cut down the measurement by about a handful of biscuits and see how that goes. The measurement on the pack isn't always what your dog should have. I've had Penny on a few different foods before settling on Aeden Grange. Rather more pricey than chappie but definately worth it in my opinion. She has less gas, her poo is more solid and less frequent. Anyway, like I said chappie is quite a good food so you would be perfectly ok sticking with it. Just try the housetraining tips first and then consider diet if you want to.
Re: Advice please In the year or so I've had DexiD4DivaDog I've only fed her Pero Labrador Life which she gets twice a day and a black bonio at bedtime. I must admit it really suits her - her coat is sleek, her teeth are clean and she is well muscled and (importantly lol) does lovely firm pick-upable poos at a rate of one maybe two per day
Re: Advice please [quote author=Penny+Me link=topic=3861.msg44210#msg44210 date=1388684305] . Faeces should be 'kickable' [/quote] ;D ;D ;D In all the poo discussions we've had I have never heard that definition of a 'good' poo before ! I can't help really NATZ....I have got a dog ( Dexter 15 months yellow boy and our first dog)and we do have a lot of poo issues but they are down to a sensitive tummy and we manage it with the Royal Canin Gastro Intestinal food and careful restriction of any other food .....we'll have an upset today because he's scoffed some windfall dates this morning when we were on a different walk and I hadn't registered the tree was there :-[.... So really amongst my waffle I'm just saying Hi and I think it's lovely that you have adopted your dog and I'm glad she is making you so happy after a painful year.Enjoy the forum Best Wishes Angela x
Re: Advice please Thankyou all again for your replies , Hi Angela I will stick with chappie for now as she has alot going on with settling in and training bless , I have a persian thats on royal cannin. And didnt give that a thought , may well do a gradual change over to that down the line , Well happy to say no accidents this morning she saved it for her walk ; The more i think about it im sure she was just too full , i only gave her a scoop full of biscuit this morning and will give her main meal at 3.30 . Thanks everyone Have a good day x
