Home Alone With Spencer

Dorrie and Spencer

Spencer’s been taking up a fair bit of my time lately. True to his nickname (Fabio) this little charmer has caused lots of drama in the two short weeks he’s been here. We noticed some abnormalities in Spencer when I took him to Mt Stromlo a week and a half ago for a off lead run. Since then we’ve been to the vet discussing any affects his health will have on his new home.

While this has been happening I’ve been careful not to over heat Spencer on our walks. I’ve been running with Dorrie (who need LOTS of exercise) in the morning and walking with both dogs on alternate days in the evening. One morning when taking Dorrie on a run, my husband videoed what Spencer does when we are gone.

Poor chook! Apparently he only does it when Dorrie’s gone. He doesn’t seem to mind if I duck out to the shops and leave both dogs together. So I’ve updated Spencer’s future home requirements. He must have another dog around for company. Considering the pound originally picked him up with another female lab I’m not surprised.

Spencer has a meet and greet tomorrow, I’m really excited about this home. They have another dog who sounds similar to Dorrie so we’re seeing how he gets along with Spencer. Wish us all luck!

Mid shake, Spencer’s lost a bit of weight since then and got some great muscle tone going on. So don’t judge him by this angle!

Spencer on the go

Relaxing at home, where Spencer’s happiest.

Rainy Days

I was cleaning in the bathroom and turned around to see Spencer and Dorrie very comfortable on my freshly made up bed. Typical huh?

Do you have any ideas to exercise dogs when it’s raining?

Dorrie and Spencer have been lazing around all day today. Spencer’s decided he quite likes being inside and doesn’t want to be out in the cold rain thank you very much!

Making the ball SQUEAK!

We played a few games with a ball in the house. The toy has a squeaker inside it and it was hilarious to see Spencer when the squeak sounded. He couldn’t figure out that the squeak came from the ball, so whenever he squeezed the ball he got such a shock he dropped the ball and starting sniffing everything around the house. It’s so funny to see foster dogs adjust to things like toys, living in the house and learning all the house rules.

Spencer met an ex-lab rescue dog today in his own home. He was a little stand off-ish and growled once when she was under the table. I’m not too concerned about this, but still would like to see him interact with some more dogs. I like to test my foster dogs with a variety of other dogs (excitable, young, nervy, old, cranky etc). Obviously the more the better, because then you have a better idea of how they will act in their new home.

So I’m off to book few doggie dates with some dogs in the area. Spencer’s going to have a couple of social days this week, hopefully that’s a good alternative to exercise in all this rain!

Such joy over such a trivial toy. Spencer’s so expressive, when he’s happy he lets you know by his big grin!

Welcome Spencer/Fabio

Beautiful Spencer arrived late last week.

I’ve had a week off from fostering and it was lovely to spend time with just Dorrie. But as soon as Lab Rescue asked me to take a beautiful blonde boy from Canberra pound I couldn’t resist. I’m such a sucker for the big boys!

Spencer’s something special. I know I always fall in love my foster dogs, but Spencer’s really fantastic. Most of the time I foster labs who are young and full of beans. They’ve had no training and consequently can be quite irritating as they learn the rules of the house.

After Spencer was told off for urinating inside the house, he fled outside and was afraid to come back in. I would encourage him back inside and he’d tentatively lie at my feet. As soon as I stopped patting him he would run back outside and wait at the door. 48 hours later, he’d learnt the ‘inside rules’ and now is quite happy to come and go through our doggie door.

Not Spencer. He’s got the placidness of a 12 year old in a 3 year old’s body. He is well mannered and picked up our ‘no dog’s in the kitchen’ rule quickly. He had an accident in the house and was so terrified when I told him off that avoided coming back inside! But once he connected that the inappropriate behaviour was the urinating on my floor, he happily obeyed the rules.

The other thing about Spencer is that he settles really quickly. When I picked him up he had spent three weeks at the pound – more than his fair share. I expected him to be bouncing off the walls because of all the pent up energy. However, Spencer quickly fell asleep next to my bed. He seemed ecstatically happy to have company and that was all he needed to relax. Even when we went to the vet Spencer slept in the waiting room amongst all the people, puppies and cats.

I can’t wait to find a family for him. He’s such an easy dog and I KNOW they will adore him straight away.

Spencer has a knack for getting dirty. He loves a good roll in the grass!

Spencer quickly found the water shell and got straight into it.

Now can you see why we nicknamed him Fabio? Isn’t he handsome?

Max is home at last

Max moved into his new home this week.

I was incredibly lucky this week to see Max in his new home. I don’t have any photos to share, but I’m sure his new owner will send some as he progresses through his 2 week trial. I can honestly say that Max is in doggie heaven. His owner is VERY experienced with labradors and she showed me photos on her wall of some beautiful labs she’s had in the past. Max had already been introduced to a doggie friend who lives nearby and within about 3 minutes of being there Max was play bowing and chasing around the room (which was quite daring considering all the pretty things that were delicately placed around the room in knocking distance of a clumsy Max!)

Max spent the first night on the bed cuddling with his new owner, so I can honestly say he’s far happier in his new home than in my home. He wanted so badly to sleep in our bed and my husband and I unanimously agreed that the bed wasn’t big enough for all of us and Max was kicked out. So Max is in a great new home and I wish him lots of happiness.

I took some photos of Max’s last outing. We were testing his social skills with some Lab Rescue labs that have already been adopted. Max learnt a lot about pack behaviour and how many treats he could get when he returned back to me. So much fun!

Max and Ralph.

Max, Billy (with the ball), Ralph and Dorrie. I think only Billy is running around after the ball, the others are just chasing Billy!

 

Moose and Max. Everything is at high speed with Max!

Max and Ralph showing their manic smiles!

Dorrie (front), Max (back), and Shadow. As soon as Shadow arrived he had all the dogs chasing him. My goodness he can run!

Max LOVED Shadow, but of course could never catch him!

Thanks everyone (dog and human) for putting up with Max as he learns how to behave appropriately in a pack!

Max the Goofball – warning lots of photos ahead!

Max has a very typical, goofball, labbie character. And I love him because of it!

Max arrived earlier this week and I’ve already fallen for him. I’m a sucker for the young goofy males, and Max is everything you would expect from a boofy, adolescent labrador. I know I should be upset with him when he chews my bras, but then he turns on his endearing charm, or does something so hilarious I go back to loving him.

Max will sit right in front of Dorrie and paw at her. He wags his tail and is ready to start chasing or playing a game of “I can open my mouth wider than you….” Dorrie doesn’t quite know what to do. At one stage she gave him the most disdainful look. Poor Max, he just wants to PLAY!

Max: “Will you play with me???”

Max: “but I just want to PLAY!”

As much as I joke, Max is very social. He’s been around Liz who told him off a few times and he takes it really well. He’s actually a really good mix between laid back and active.

Playtime! Max loves the attention of two beautiful girls!

Max manages to look stunningly beautiful whilst maintaining his playful, cheeky persona.

 

He was surrendered to the pound because he was escaping and chasing stock. There’s also a note saying he wasn’t getting along with the other dogs in the household. I still want to do some more socialisation with Max to see if there are any issues there. He certainly isn’t minding and I haven’t seen any issues yet. He would probably be too full on for an older dog (Lizzie had to have a few ‘nap times’ between play sessions) but other than that he seems to be fine.

Over the next week I’ll start to see how he goes with being fed near Dorrie and playing fetch. I find that those two activities can be stressful for dogs who have lived in larger dog packs. We’ll see.

I can say for sure that my hubby and I LOVE Max and all his crazy antics! He’s everything you love about a labrador. If his future owner has a sense of humour they will really enjoy Max’s company.

What’s in here?

“Hurry up!”

Max follows everything that Dorrie does. It’s great because he will learn when to ‘check in’ on an off lead walk. Which, to be honest, is whenever Dorrie feels like it…..

Goodbye Bet

Beautiful Bet finally found a family to call her own.

I had the lucky pleasure this weekend to see Bet in her new home. She’s now spent a few nights with a young family in Sydney which suits her perfectly. As you might already know Bet came from a family with young kids and I always thought she needed some children and chaos around. She was such a laid back easy dog she really suited that demographic. It’s not often that we get a young dog that I trust/encourage around children, but knowing Bet’s background I thought it was a good idea.

This was Bet’s second meet and greet. Unfortunately her first didn’t work out because a member of the family started getting asthma from Bet’s long coat. They couldn’t imagine having a dog and not being able to cuddle it, so they made the mature decision to call off the adoption. I really admire them for doing this. They obviously had fallen for Bet and it took a lot of courage for them to say goodbye to Bet. I’ve heard they’ve now found another dog (a breed that doesn’t normally have as many rescue options as labs do) and that’s working out well. I’m so happy for everyone. In my mind that’s a great result!

Bet would pace a lot when she first arrived at our house.

When Bet first arrived at our house she was very distressed. She had separation anxiety and would pace and bark a lot. I was worried about the first day in her new home with her being unsettled. Apparently she did okay.  She paced a lot when I left but then settled while everyone was watching a movie. The family was very understanding about not giving Bet attention when she was unsettled because this can reaffirm the behaviour.

My house has carpet everywhere except the bathroom and kitchen and I think Bet would overheat on it. She’d often hang out on the tiles to cool off.

Bet’s now named Lulu and has a diamonte studded tag on her collar to remind everyone of her new name. Bet’s new home has lino flooring everywhere which means she has lots of places to go to cool off (something my home didn’t have). She has two young human playmates who were very keen to take her on walks and play fetch in the yard. Apparently there are now a few toys on the roof because the kids are still learning to aim!

To top it all off, the family live near a river! Bet’s going LOVE swimming there!

I’m very impressed with Bet’s new family and wish them lots of happiness for the future. They even gave me a hand drawn bookmark as a thank you gift! Enjoy your new life together!

Lovely Liz is back but not for long!

Liz (taken today) has very cute teddy bear like face.

Today’s a very, very happy day. Liz is having a slumber party at my house so that she can get her final vet check before she goes to her new home.

Liz was my foster a couple of months ago. She in quite a bad state when we first had her. She was very skinny and her hair was falling out. We had to give her baths in melasab to try to get rid of whatever was causing her hair to fall out. She was also down to 21kg which was very skinny for her. Her eyesight was fading slightly and she would snap at your hand if you went to pat her. She was also disinterested in food which is very unusual for a lab.

Lizzie was on melesab baths a couple of times a week to help kill off whatever was causing her hair loss.

Over the months that we had her the weight was slowly coming up. We got rid of her fleas and took care bathing her so her fur regrew. She was with us for about 3 months when Lab Rescue  moved her to a new foster carer with young kids so that I could start taking some of the younger, more unpredictable dogs. I missed Lizzie a lot, but knew she was in good care.

What an amazing difference to have her back again! She’s now a whopping (but healthy) 29kg. Her fur is silky and smooth. It’s worthy of a shampoo ad! She’s no longer snapping and has a fantastic temperament  It’s a ongoing joke at Lab Rescue that “everyone wants Lizzie”. Every foster carer will put their hand up for her because she’s so easy to look after and such a delight to have around. The carers who had Liz after me have done a terrific job of looking after her.

Liz has had the all clear from Gwen our Lab Rescue vet. She’ll be heading up to Queensland next week to be with her new best friend! Wish her luck, quite a few LR foster carers will be upset when she leaves!

Lizzie playing with 18 month old Max, my newest foster. Liz always loved playing with the young boys. It made it much harder to put weight on her because she was always burning it off playing!

Frustrated Dog Owners

One Saturday morning after my husband and I slept in, our foster at the time Yoshi demolished our tissue box. Lovely….

There’s a new show on ABC on Wednesday nights called Don’t Blame the Dog. It’s basically the canine version of World’s Strictest Parents. If you’ve never seen the show, they basically talk to people in the UK who have an unruly dog who’s out of control. They then fly them to the other side of the world (in this episode it’s in Oz) to see well trained dogs in action. Yesterday’s show was all about working farm dogs and a well known trainer who trains them.

The tv show is very vague on training techniques and specific behavioural problems. It just keeps explaining that it’s not the dog’s fault, it’s the owner’s fault for causing the dog to act up. It’s a clever angle because there are SO many different training techniques and people are very passionate about the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ way of doing things. One thing that everyone can agree on is to blame the environment that is allowing the behaviour to happen. In this show there’s no super hero dog trainer and definitely no leather pants or dogs running on treadmills.

The show is entertaining enough. It’s easy to sit back and judge the owners and feel compassion for their journey. It’s rewarding to see the owners learning to take responsibility for their dogs. The main thing that jumped out at me was the frustration and anger the owners have towards the dog when it acts up. I completely understand that! While watching the show I was so empathetic towards Kim, a 20 something year old girl who loved her dog, but would get so annoyed and powerless when her Staffordshire Terrier called Chunky (great name) plays up. There’s a montage of scenarios where Kim is screeching while Chunky walks on kitchen benches, pees on the floor and drags her down the street on a lead so he can hump another dog. Poor Kim is caught between yelling at the dog, chasing it down and trying to keep her skinny jeans from falling off.

This is Molly who stole a oven mitt of the bench and turned it into a chew toy. It was a rainy day and she hadn’t been for a walk.

I’ve felt exactly the same with some of my fosters! They end up doing something naughty and you try to discipline them by raising your voice or grabbing them around the collar to get control. You know it’s not working, the dog just gets more and more excited, but in the heat of the moment it’s your first reaction and it’s mainly out of frustration.

What I’ve found works best to have a plan BEFORE the dog acts up. Dogs are habitual and if they have learnt a bad behaviour, you’ll see it regularly. You may even know a trigger that sets off the behaviour – like jumping when the food bowl comes out or pulling on the lead when you walk past another dog. If I know my foster is going to act up, my husband and I plan out how we’re going to deal with it BEFORE it happens. It sometimes means I put a check chain on the dog to convey a reprimand. Or it may mean my hubby and I arm ourselves with treats to distract the dog and to reward him/her when they act differently.

It’s important to discipline and train a dog out of bad behaviours in a controlled unemotional way. If it’s done out of frustration, you’re guaranteed to fail. Another advantage about seeing training as a logical, unemotional task is that you can continually re-evaluate how the technique is going. If I don’t see progress happen I can feel myself getting impatient and frustrated again. That’s usually a signal that I need to re-evaluate. I talk to other foster carers and work on a another technique. If you un-emotionalise the issue (not sure if that’s a word!) you’re less likely to think you’re ‘failing’ and instead be willing to seek out something new.

Have you found yourself getting so emotional about your dog that it’s detrimental to it’s health or behaviour?

You can watch Don’t Blame the Dogs on the fabulous iView player here. Matt and Danielle Webb, the dog trainers in the episode, run courses in training stock dogs through their business Kippakoop. Info can be found here. It looks like good fun for kelpies and border collies!

Some dogs were never meant to breed

Anna, now rehomed in Canberra, was used extensively for breeding. This has taken a toll on her behaviour making her very nervy around people.

Recently, people involved in rescuing labradors are being reminded of the shocking hereditary illnesses affecting non desexed labradors in our care. It’s heartbreaking when you get a foster dog that has a serious hereditary problem that has been affecting them in some way.

What’s even worse is that all the dogs I’ve seen with these issues have been entire (not desexed). The males could have impregnated countless dogs who will have the same issues they did. At least with the females you can generally tell when they have had lots of litters – and it breaks your heart.

When Dorrie first arrived at our house as a foster she was on heat. We had to be VERY careful that she couldn’t escape our house, and that other dog’s couldn’t get into our house.
She wore some daggy old red undies to stop her bleeding on our carpet.

This is why it’s SO important to get your dog from a responsible breeder. There are so many pretty labs out there with shocking hereditary problems affecting them in some way. Breeders have to pay (sometimes each year) for various checks on their stud dog and bitches health to ensure they are fit to breed from. They also are VERY concerned if one of their dogs develops a hereditary sickness. If this happens, they will cease breeding from that pair and potentially offer you a refund. A responsible breeder is very concerned with the health and healthcare of all their pups.

At the moment at Lab Rescue we have seen dogs with shocking arthritis severely restricting their movements, dogs with urinary problems – meaning they ‘leak’ all the time which is very painful for the dog. We’ve even got a deaf dog. He’s stone deaf and we don’t know why. I think another foster has a dog with bad ear canals, meaning they are very prone to infections. This has led the dog to be anethitisied so that their ears can be properly cleaned out. Amanda from LabraDOG rescue who saves labs in Sydney has just taken in a dog who can’t use it’s back legs.

All these dreadful conditions, and they all reflect poorly on the people who bred the dogs in the first place.

Please purchase your dogs from a responsible breeder who cares about preventing some of these common diseases. 

Want more info on labs, breeding and potential risks with the breed? See the dogz online forums for a comprehensive FAQ and a chance to ask questions to breeders around Australia.

Just keep swimming….

Tags

Offlead, swimming

Bet’s about 600m from the edge of the lake, she’s just realised she’s that far away and is lazily swimming back to us.

We took the girls out for a swim today. They LOVED it. Bet’s such an easy dog to exercise if you have some water nearby. She doesn’t care much for a shell, she prefers water that you can swim to explore in. You just take her off the lead and she takes off without a care in the world.

I tried to capture in this photo the scale of the distance she swims. It’s incredible!

Bet’s a golden retriever cross, so she has a longer coat than a labrador. When she gets out of the water she looks so skinny!

Bet dragging her soaked body out of the lake.

Dorrie had a great time with a stick:

Dorrie always seems to find a favourite stick. She then finds a spot on the grass and rolls on it.