i lost my 2 labradors last year to ill health. one had been a puupy farm rescue dog who despite living with us for 8 years never shook off the harm done previously. after a lot of thought we are now the new owners of a choc lab, had him since january and i have found this site to be really useful. I have manged to find answers to feeding queries, house training etc and this has made the first few monthe a doddle. However reading some of the posts about choc labs last night make me concerned that others viewed choc labs unfavourably. i bought from a kennel club breeder and he really is proving to be a delight. However last few days he is beginnig to push his luck a bit. When walking on the lead he is desperate to sniff every grain of dirt, piece of grass etc. i use an ordinary lead and collar, but I can feel the strengh in him developing. Bought a gentle leader the other day but he didn't like it at all. Just sat down and refused point blank to move. Any suggestions?

I'm no expert, some will be along later but I used to get the gentle leader out to feed my dally titbits and food etc to get her used to it. It worked for me. It took a couple of weeks of doing this but it was worth it.
I think most people will advise you to get them used to it rather than just putting it on.
Stick with it though, my two are both on head collars and they are marvellous.
Also make sure it is fitted correctly, I found this a bit fiddly and took mine along to obedience training where they showed me the correct way to fit it.
My younger dalmatian wears the gentle leader but is off lead most of the time so doesn't wear it much but the older one has been wearing a dogmatic for 6 months but only because he is aggressive because after 6 months of walking him on lead I have trained him to walk to heel.

Hi there - welcome to Champdogs - do I suspect another Archers addict :D ?

I would perservere with the gentle leader - it really is worth it.   As Spotty dog says - keep some treats in your pocket, so that when the nose goes down to the ground say something like "oh - whats this - offering a treat (I find that tiny pieces of cheese are very good).

Don't worry about "colour prejudice" - there are as many people on here who will defend their choccie labs to the death ;) - I think that the main worry on here about them is the fact that they are so popular, and are being bred to fill a demand, without any thought as to how/what is behind the dog.   For me, personally, the "only" colour for a lab is black    - for others, the only colour is yellow, and my friend says about our little black girl - oh you would be so lovely - if you were a choccie ;)

Margot

Hi,

My main worry would definetly be the way they are being bred just for the chocolate colour. Before we got bitten by the Aussie bug, we were looking at getting a Lab, and you would see advertisments saying things like 'blacks £500, yellows £550 chocs £650' it is awful :( .

I know that in some breeds some colours are rarer than others, but it doesn't take better breeding skills, or more vets bills for different colours, why should it effect the price?

Natalie

Hi Natalie, yes I do agree with you. There are some excellent and reputable breeders out there producing some really good chocolates.  Unfortunately, there are also the not so reputable, who breed for the colour demand and this puts pounds signs before the breed. Strangely enough only a few years ago, Chocolate Labs were never seen in the ring, and today only a handful of good chocolates enter the ring.  I have yet to see a really good chocolate in the field too.  But in saying that I only breed Black and Yellow, I leave the Chocolates to the experts. :D  Biased or what :D :D

I supose it is the same as anything, the higher the demand, the higher the price, and even more terrible, the more of these poor little dogs, end up being bred by puppy farmers and the like, and so more end up in rescue, the whole sorry tale just goes round in circles! :(

We went to a show over Easter weekend, and a lady there had a gorgeous black Lab, he was absolutely huge! We had to look twice to see that he was actually a Lab! He wasn't in a very good mood though and just barked when our son tried to stroke him (with owners permission of course), but honestly, we were really shocked how big he was. Sorry that is me rambleing(sp?) on agan! Nothing to do with the thread :O LOL

You say you have had him since January, but how old is he?  He sounds just a pup and at this young age will be wanting to expore and sniff everything he can.  to stop this behaviour, I have gently brought the dog back to me and they are told to *leave*. I have never used a halti or any type of walking aid with any of my Labs.  All are trained to walk to heel. Maybe this would be a better way for you to go.  I have in the last couple of months trained to walk to heel, a couple of year old Labs which pulled the owners over while using these aids.  Labradors, if allowed to pull will continue to do so, and build up tremendous neck and shoulder muscle in the process, giving more power to the pull.  How does he behave at training classes, and are you consistant with his training out of these classes.

Oops, PS forgot to say Welcome :)

lol @ Margot, I was wondering about the Borchester name  also, but didn't want to say anything :)

:)  There's an awful lot of us Archer addicts in the closet - it's getting quite claustrophobic in here - maybe we ought to set up another thread.....

Margot

My puppy is 5 and a half months old. generallly he walks well on the lead but at training classes he pulls a lot as he is just desperate to get to play with the other dogs.