How do you keep a working puppy safe?
Discussion
Our Labrador (Mac) is about 15 weeks old now. He comes from working lines on both sides and we see it more and more every day.
There are all the rules about walking puppies 5 mins per month of age, not letting them climb stairs, etc.
But someone should try telling Mac that! He was doing his 5 minutes of "puppy madness" in the house this morning, and has discovered a new trick... Jumping on to the sofa, on to the backrest and then leaping right off it onto our hard laminate floor! He lands perfectly, doesn't slip, doesn't get hurt and just keeps on running... But that can't be good for his hips!
An hour after that, I took him out to a park and walked as fast as I could for 20 minutes while he ran circles around me and sprinted/hopped through the long grass. He didn't slow down for a second, no panting, and after we got home he wouldn't even take a drink of water and only now (3 hours later) he has finally settled down in bed.
We only feed him about half of what is recommended by his bag of dog food - any more than that and his energy becomes completely unmanageable (and he gets an upset tummy).
Where does he get his energy and how do we protect his wee hips?
There are all the rules about walking puppies 5 mins per month of age, not letting them climb stairs, etc.
But someone should try telling Mac that! He was doing his 5 minutes of "puppy madness" in the house this morning, and has discovered a new trick... Jumping on to the sofa, on to the backrest and then leaping right off it onto our hard laminate floor! He lands perfectly, doesn't slip, doesn't get hurt and just keeps on running... But that can't be good for his hips!
An hour after that, I took him out to a park and walked as fast as I could for 20 minutes while he ran circles around me and sprinted/hopped through the long grass. He didn't slow down for a second, no panting, and after we got home he wouldn't even take a drink of water and only now (3 hours later) he has finally settled down in bed.
We only feed him about half of what is recommended by his bag of dog food - any more than that and his energy becomes completely unmanageable (and he gets an upset tummy).
Where does he get his energy and how do we protect his wee hips?
James Wellbeloved turkey and rice dry puppy food.
It has more protein and more oil/fat than the food the breeders had him on (Burgess Supadog puppy food) yet recommends more than twice as much volume be given each day! He is growing very well (and obviously has enough energy!) on half the recommended volume...
It has more protein and more oil/fat than the food the breeders had him on (Burgess Supadog puppy food) yet recommends more than twice as much volume be given each day! He is growing very well (and obviously has enough energy!) on half the recommended volume...
You can probably ignore the 'recommended' quantity on the side of dog food bags. I'm convinced it is only there to sell as much dog food as possible. If I gave my dogs the daily amount of food that the manufacturer recommends, they would explode. It is very easy to overfeed a lab, then you end up with a big fat unattractive animal that destroys its hips and is lucky to last eight years.
Cleo on the other hand was 15 when this photo was taken and lasted another year after that.
Cleo on the other hand was 15 when this photo was taken and lasted another year after that.
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