new dog
- Thread starter LabR@t
- Start date
I know what I'm doing thanks, I've owned 6 dogs so far other than this one. I've never liked Labradors much before owning one simply because I thought they were a very dull and uninteresting breed, owning one has just confirmed it.
Then there must be something wrong with your dog.
My Labrador is awesome! Full of energy, always ready to go, extremely alert, very intelligent and very good looking.
Chances are you either got yours from bad stock or show bred.
Same for any dogs, not just the Labrador breed.
Don't leave food lying around and you wont have any issues.
Most dogs have health problems, its down to the inbreeding through the kennel club.
Labrador problems aren't as severe as other breeds, if anything Labrador's are a safe bet due to the amount of work gone into removing HD/ED and eye problems.
If you ever think about getting a labrador puppy, just make sure you see the parents hip, elbow and eye scores, if you cant see that dont buy them. They need to all be below 6 (elbow 6, hip 6 and eyes clear) otherwise you will experiance trouble in later life.
As you can probably tell by my username I am a fan of GSDogs.
They are great around kids if you train them properly and are one of the most loyal dogs you could get.
Have to agree totally there, GSD's are some of the best dogs to own, try and get dogs bred around police stock or working, there some excellent dogs.
KaHn
Might want to look into getting his nails cut, there a tad long imo.
Na, they're fine. That dog has slightly flat feet, as opposed to tight high-knuckled 'cat feet' in some breeds. Flatter feet (or worse, splayed feet) don't angle the claw towards the ground to the same degree tight feet do; hence less wear and tear. In that pic you can clearly see that the quick goes virtually all the way to the end of the claws (i.e. they're as worn as can be), plus the claw isn't touching the ground or indeed even close. In other words, they're not too long, they're fine.
Not really, if you look closley at her nails we couldn't cut them with out hurting her as the blood vessels are all the way to the edge.
KaHn
IF you want my opinion, you've got a lot of great recommendations in this thread.
The best thing to do is decide your self which breed you prefer then find out through official or unofficial websites on how difficult they are to train and any health issues they may have.
NEVER EVER get a show bred dog, always get a working bred dog, they are vastly more intellectual and have a high chance of not being heavily inbred.
Don't rely upon the KC for all your information, again they promote inbreeding and deformations as acceptable.
Then decide if you have the time, space in the house and money to keep them. Keep in mind dogs are not cheap, sadly the cheaper you make a dog, the poorer there life will be.
If you get a known aggressive breed (Staffy for example) make sure you read extremely carefully on the best ways to train, socialise and control them, otherwise things can get out of hand without your self knowing.
I'm personally biased towards labradors, i think they are the perfect dog. But i also respect and appreciate other breeds like GSD's and Springer Spaniels.
The internet is a great resource for research. Check what food your going to feed them, personally i would never buy any dog food from a supermarket or local conveniance store, there normally extremely low in meat content, high in sugers, non digestible cereals, colourants and addatives which make the dogs fur smell and stains fur.
I personally use Skinners (VAT free) there used by working dogs, so there high in meat content and contain nothing but meat and digestible cereal. And for wet food i use Natures Harvest, again that is extremely high meat content, with vegtables, salmon oil condroitin. He also gets sardines as treats (but thats mainly down to prevention of HD/ED in later life).
The best thing to do is decide your self which breed you prefer then find out through official or unofficial websites on how difficult they are to train and any health issues they may have.
NEVER EVER get a show bred dog, always get a working bred dog, they are vastly more intellectual and have a high chance of not being heavily inbred.
Don't rely upon the KC for all your information, again they promote inbreeding and deformations as acceptable.
Then decide if you have the time, space in the house and money to keep them. Keep in mind dogs are not cheap, sadly the cheaper you make a dog, the poorer there life will be.
If you get a known aggressive breed (Staffy for example) make sure you read extremely carefully on the best ways to train, socialise and control them, otherwise things can get out of hand without your self knowing.
I'm personally biased towards labradors, i think they are the perfect dog. But i also respect and appreciate other breeds like GSD's and Springer Spaniels.
The internet is a great resource for research. Check what food your going to feed them, personally i would never buy any dog food from a supermarket or local conveniance store, there normally extremely low in meat content, high in sugers, non digestible cereals, colourants and addatives which make the dogs fur smell and stains fur.
I personally use Skinners (VAT free) there used by working dogs, so there high in meat content and contain nothing but meat and digestible cereal. And for wet food i use Natures Harvest, again that is extremely high meat content, with vegtables, salmon oil condroitin. He also gets sardines as treats (but thats mainly down to prevention of HD/ED in later life).
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The very best thing you can feed your dog is what it's supposed to eat: whole carcasses and raw meaty bones, offal etc. Cue 'ZOMGWTFBBQ' and a 20 page debate, but there you have it. That crap in a bag passed off as 'food' is the biggest fraud committed against pet owners and their animals since time began.
Dogs are carnivores (check with the Smithsonian) and have zero requirement for carbohydrate - indeed they can't even digest it properly or utilise it without modifications and detriment to health. The whole 'balanced and complete' thing is a bloody great con, which you can easily confirm with an hour's research.
Teki you're right about working dogs, but again they have drives and need an outlet. Dogs aren't ornaments, and that's what I was trying to get the OP to consider in my earlier post. Skinners (and any other manufactured junk food) is >60% grain (by)products btw, which is useless to a carnivore. Worse still kibble and canned food etc is proven to facilitate the disease and early death we have come to accept as normal in today's dogs. So sad.
Whole carcasses and raw, meaty bones from weaning til death overcomes this at very little cost. My dogs eat like kings for <£5 a month (often free as I hunt also, but <£5 when I'm paying).
Dogs are carnivores (check with the Smithsonian) and have zero requirement for carbohydrate - indeed they can't even digest it properly or utilise it without modifications and detriment to health. The whole 'balanced and complete' thing is a bloody great con, which you can easily confirm with an hour's research.
Teki you're right about working dogs, but again they have drives and need an outlet. Dogs aren't ornaments, and that's what I was trying to get the OP to consider in my earlier post. Skinners (and any other manufactured junk food) is >60% grain (by)products btw, which is useless to a carnivore. Worse still kibble and canned food etc is proven to facilitate the disease and early death we have come to accept as normal in today's dogs. So sad.
Whole carcasses and raw, meaty bones from weaning til death overcomes this at very little cost. My dogs eat like kings for <£5 a month (often free as I hunt also, but <£5 when I'm paying).
Wet food is like Tinned meat, its just a term people use.
Technically you need to use more "wet" food to get the same from dry food, but dry food dries out the dogs skin, making more "flaky" skin type effects.
You can mix and match, just make sure your giving them the right amounts.
No, no, no! Even pet food manufacturers will admit this. Kibble is terrible enough, but wet food is even worse! (Penman, S and Emily, P (1991) Scaling, polishing and dental home care. Waltham International Focus. 1(3): 2-8.).
Balderdash. Canned (wet) food is mushed up and reformed grain byproducts made to look like meat. Dry food itself doesn't dry out the coat and skin, the toxic nature of it and the unsuitability for a carnivore causes the system to break down. This produces varying effects from periodontal disease, auto-immune disease, 'dandruff', 'dog breath', arthritis, diabetes, cancer and early death. Read up!
The only thing i have against a RAW diet, is getting the combination right so your not under/over feeding and missing out on certain nutrients. Other things like it being "expensive" and messy.