feeding labrador

taffy

As an owner of a ten month labrador i need to know how many times a day she should be fed.at present i am feeding her with pedigree food for dogs up to the age of 18 months.as labradors are prone to put on weight i need a few tips on how to prevent this.also how do i stop her pulling on the lead when walking her.

Taffy.

Gillie

I have a ten month old dog also. German Sheperd.
Not sure how much you should feed the dog. Maybe a quick call to a vet is needed. They'd know best.

As for putting on weight - this will only happen if the dog isn't exercised properly.
I walk mine every day and he gets a long walk on saturday and sunday!

Do you have a choke chain? If not get one.
Contrary to belief they are not cruel! If you train your dog properly then when she gets older hopefully She won't need it.

Always walk the gog on your left hand side. If the dog pulls bring them into check - a short sharp pull on the chain. User the word "Heel" as much as you need to. When the dog responds properly give it some praise but not too much as the dog will think its doing you a favour and will not do it unless it sees fit.

As you can imagine a German Shepard is much bigger than a lab and i've managed to get him to be fairly good on the lead at this stage. I brought him to a dog trainer for a couple of basic lessons. The dog trainer trains the owner not the dog. It was well worth it!

Anyway - hope this helps! Be patient and persistant and it'll work out!

skipn_easy

I'd agree with the poster above. I'm not sure about how much to feed growing large dogs. With our dog I think we pretty much just fed her different amounts until we figured out what a good amount was. She's put on weight but she's nowhere near being fat.

As for getting her to stop pulling a choke chain is definitely the way to go. It shouldn't take long on the chain until your dog is walking the way you want her to. Its a matter of praising her when she does what you want her to do and pulling on the chain when shes not. Using her voice is very important so that she knows what she's doing right and wrong.

Smurfette

I have a two year old black labrador and she eats like a horse literally wolfs down anything she can get her paws on ! On the weight issue our girl is quite overweight and this is made worse by her being spayed as advised by the vet .We live in the country so excersise is not a problem .If you can try and get her onto the dry food (I think you can get puppy mix ) its better for them and seems to keep the weight off better !

paulthelegend

Well a few things, if posible i would put her onto dried food, the best in the market is "purina Pro Plan" they have food for puppy large breeds, then adults then senior (when they get old it will add alot of extra time onto there life since the liver and all them seem to go first if left on normal food) then light(if there too big). It also comes with a chart that tells you EXACTLY what to feed them like and a cup to make sure u give the right amount.

Just get your dogs weight (stand on the scales get yours) then hold your dog and stand on the scales and the extra is your dogs so simple some friends of mine spent hours tryin to get their dogs four paws on the scales haha...

then go into a shop and say to the people workin there and they will be able to explain the chart to you.

I get my food from a great shop on the quays boardwalk pets on wellington quay, think there either the only place or the only supplier in Ireland for it but either way there the cheapest and great advice.


as for the choke chain im not to big into them things, theres whats called a LUPI, or HALTI are two things, one is almost like a harness for a horse, like it goes around the nose of the dog and when they pull there head is pult to the side and they HAVE to stop cause they cant see where there goin, the other is like a harness and when they pull it pulls there front to legs off the ground and thats where there forward motion comes from, the choke chain puts all the pressure on the neck and can give the dog alot of problems when they get older, and to get the benifits off a choke chain you really have to be cruel and when they pull u have to yank it really hard.

hope that helps you