Re: Cooper's criss cross walking Keep strong with it Teena-Ann. You have done the right thing by adding warm water. When Harley is poorly I soak her kibble in warm water for an hour before giving it to her as it makes it softer and the smell can be more appealing to them. Might be worth trying this! It is a good sign that Cooper has had a meal, it shows that he will eat when he is hungry. If he is active and alert I wouldn't worry too much. Keep strong and you will get there
Re: Cooper's criss cross walking Yes TA stick with it....he might have had to have it wet...but he's eaten kibble!yay!this might actually help you with him messing with his water and lying in it....you know he's at least getting some water with his food....if you aren't raw feeding him,his kibble needs to be the main part of his diet ,it's not like he can never ever have scraps again but wait until he understands that his meal is his meal and he must eat it x
Re: Cooper's criss cross walking He doesnt like it soggy or soaked for too long he is thinking whether to eat or not and missed his second meal today he is getting weaker and thin and i can feel his ribcage when i touch it its really hollow wonder how much weight he had lost i jus want him to have his kibble for one meal rest i can manage with rice and meat as he loves them how long should i do this my mom is worried tat Cooper may fall sick and is already weak :-[ :-[ :-[
Re: Cooper's criss cross walking [quote author=Teena Ann link=topic=3493.msg44334#msg44334 date=1388742491] i jus want him to have his kibble for one meal rest i can manage with rice and meat as he loves them how long should i do this [/quote] Teena Ann, I don't get it - you must know you can't feed Cooper meat one meal, and kibble the other. Because then he won't eat his kibble and he'll hold out for meat. Kibble is a complete food, that contains the things that Cooper needs to stay healthy. This is important, particularly now you know he has hip joint problems.
Re: Cooper's criss cross walking He looks lovely Teena - these are great pictures to show how healthy his shape looks. His face is really sweet, I love that last picture.
Re: Cooper's criss cross walking Thanks Lynell Julie and Jacqui..he is really stubborn and is holding out food and seem to be bothered abt it its been four days since he has eaten properly tdy i mixed the kibble with gravy he ate it and i kept on adding a handful everytime so i think tdy he had abt 1 cup of kibble for his lunch i mixed 1 cup of rice 1 cup of kibble and 1 boiled egg as my vet suggested and he ate it he tld me to increase the amount gradually so tat he gets to eat his kibble more than the food which he has been holding out for he says Cooper must knw tat kibble is his food and tat additions like meat or egg can be mixed with his kibble and the regular food so tat he doesnt differentiate them ...the suggestions like adding warm water and other things are working for other dogs y doesnt it work for me and we also have birds does this harm or make Cooper not to eat bcoz he is exposed to the bird feed as they r scattered bcoz tats wat my trainer tld me he tld me to remove it as soon as possible should i be concerned.... im putting alot of energy and time in getting Coop to grow into a healthy dog i jus wanna knw if he is growing and is of correct height or will he grow more than the recent pics shown....
Re: Cooper's criss cross walking he looks fine to me,.....jasper likes sardines mixed in with his food,......some days i add an egg to his food,
Re: Cooper's criss cross walking Teena, you are going to have to stick with the kibble-only plan if you don't want him to be fussy. Otherwise you are going to be right back where you were at your very first post. But I wanted to address the collar reaction problem, as I went through this with my dog, whom we got when he was nearly a year old. He was very collar sensitive, by that I mean he would snap at our hands if we grabbed at his collar to try to pull him away from something he wanted. We have had him for 6 months now, and I'm pleased to say he is pretty much past this, but it wasn't without some effort on our part. Here's what we did: 1) Stopped ALL grabbing at the collar, which was hard as he was always getting into things he wasn't supposed to and did not listen to "no". To physically stop him from doing these things we used a "house line", a short leash that he wore while in the house which we could grab to pull him away from forbidden items or to stop him from jumping up on visitors, etc. 2) We got a harness for use on walks, one that attached the leash at the back, to avoid pulling at the collar while on walks. 3) at the same time, I began to do some clicker training on collar de-sensitivity. I seem to remember you have a clicker? The idea is to associate a hand coming towards the collar means good things, not bad. So you start by moving your hand slowly towards the collar, and click and treat for no reaction. Depending on how sensitive Cooper is towards the collar grab, you may have to take this very slowly. Eventually you will be able to lightly touch the collar, and then loosely put your fingers under it, then even give the collar a little tug, all the time clicking and treating for no reaction. Do this in small sessions, not all at once, and always end with a success each session. As Cooper gets better with this, start to build up speed, until you can quickly grab at the collar without a reaction. The reason I did this was not because we wanted to be always grabbing at his collar but because there could be a little child or someone else who might do this and I did not want to have Simba bite them. 4) and at the same time as all this, you also have to figure out ways to deal with whatever problem is causing you to grab at the collar in the first place. So it's all a big bundle of stuff, but if you take it slowly you can do it. Like I said, all this worked very well for Simba and I honestly can't remember the las time he snapped at a hand coming to his collar.
Re: Cooper's criss cross walking Lisa thank u so much for the write up on the collar issue it will be helpful for me can u please tell me the length of the training line and harness tat i should get i will try to get one if its available here today i made a progress in him getting to eat his kibble he had 1and half a cup of kibble mixed wid egg he loved it im gonna increase the amounts gradually so tat he starts eating them more without the need to add anything for his lunch he had kibble mixed with rice and some chicken broth and he had it im sooooooooo happy and so is Coop he kept coming for more 1. Lisa do you think tat Cooper will grow in height more or will this be his height as seen in the previous pic he is 9 months now.... 2.Secondly i want to knw if wat i did was bad i have not let Coop off his lead till now as here we are expected to keep our dogs on leash everytime except in our backyard will this affect his nature and behaviour and whenever he is on walks he is constantly sniffing even though he has done his business i have to stop abruptly wen he does this
Re: Cooper's criss cross walking The length of line we used was 4', which I think is the shortest you can get. The danger with longer ones is that you run the risk of getting the lead caught up in something. One problem we ran into was Simba chewing the lead - we went through a few of them until I got a indestructible one made of airline cable steel. I got it in a pet store down on the US so not sure of availability elsewhere. But if Cooper just leaves a regular nylon leash alone that would work. It would be good if your pet store sells a house line or training line - they are specially made without the loop end like a regular leash has, again, to minimize the danger of the dog getting caught on something. We didn't have the leash on at all times, due to the chewing issue, so we put it on when we knew people were coming over or at times like in the evening when Simba always wanted to "prowl" around the house looking for things to destroy : It's likely that Cooper won't grow too much taller, but he might fill out a bit in the chest. I'm not an expert on that, though, so maybe someone else could help you with that. With regards to the off-leash walk, well, I can count on one hand and have fingers left over the number of times Simba has been off leash in an uncontrolled (ie unfenced) area. We do need to make sure our dogs are getting exercise, and especially if they are not getting any off-lead runs we need to take them for frequent walks during the day. If you have a back yard where he can run and play with you (games like fetch where he can run) that is useful. What has been great for me in my community is a dog park, which is fenced, and is a place where people can bring their dogs to play together. They get great exercise doing that. Maybe your community might have something similar. It is also good to keep dogs mentally exercised too, so training is also important.
Re: Cooper's criss cross walking Hey Lisa i don knw if the local pet stores here sell a training line ill try looking into it or check online who knws we might stumble across one and secondly i was tld tat Cooper is not a pure breed or a Grade 1 type labrador wat does it mean he definitely is not a mixed breed and im happy to say tat he has started to eat his kibble gradually wen i pour warm chicken stock he jus gobbled it up and kept wanting more : : : : and wat type of harness should i get
Re: Cooper's criss cross walking Hi Teena Ann, did you get any papers when you bought Cooper from the breeder as this will tell you? As far as the harness is concerned I would use a harness that has the D ring at the front, the chest area not the back as this won't help and he will still pull towards things. I use a harness like this with my dog Charlie and he is 30 kilos and I can control him and I am very petite I hope you can get something sorted at your pet store.
Re: Cooper's criss cross walking No Charlie i neva got any papers wen i got Cooper but the breeders tld me he is pure breed only though i was not fully convinced by it and went on to get Cooper bcoz i fell in love with him u mean to tell tat the D ring should be covering the chest area and not the back if im right even im petite : and cannot handle his pulling the reason i asked abt his lineage is bcoz i wanna know if he will grow more in height or will this be his height as shown in previous pics pls check them out and let me knw...
Re: Cooper's criss cross walking Who told you Cooper was not a pure breed Labrador? You could contact the breeder and ask for Coopers papers then you will know what he is and if he will grow any more. It's very difficult to say from a picture and also Labradors vary so much in height, weight and overall size, he may just be a small boy but lovely with it. Yes get the harness with the D ring on the chest as then he will not have anything to pull into. Hope this helps Teena Ann. Helen
Re: Cooper's criss cross walking Thanks Helen i jus asked the breeders abt the papers and they don seem to have it but its k im fyn with it ryt now im concerned abt his health behaviour and his growth should i get a medium sized harness or large one secondly i was shocked to see his reaction wen i tried to get something away from his mouth he jus gave a growl though he did not bare his teeth does it mean he is aggresive or will become aggressive wen he grows up im worried im teaching him to drop it but a little scared tat he may bite as he is a nervous and a scared puppy at 9 months now my trainer tld me tat changes in his behaviour will be seen oly after 15 months bcoz tats the time he attains maturity is this true and should i be worried
