I have a 17 week old labrador/standard poodle x bitch. I weighed her today and she is about 11kg. She is fed on 125g of Hills large breed puppy food 3 times a day. I am not sure if this is the right amount to feed her because it hasn't changed since we got her at 8weeks. She is definitly growing enough and is definitely going to be a very tall dog (she looks like a tall, skinnier labrador with curly hair and she is taller than a labrador puppy at training who is 18 weeks). I can feel her ribs but they have some fat around them. Does this sound like a sensible amount of feeding? She also has about 3 schmacko's daily, a dentastik almost everyday and a kong about twice a week.
TIA

Her progress sounds fine but that sounds like quite a lot of treats to me :)  I would not give so much as it throws out the balance of her diet at the time when it is most important.  What is she getting in the kong and how much of it?

She has a large breed puppy kong which is usually stuffed with puppy kong filler, low fat cheese spread, regular food and any meat if there is any in the house. She only has these when we go out for more than 2 hours with out her. She does get quite a lot of exercise, about 3 15 minute walks a day ( i know probably too much for her joints). I miht try cutting down on the treats. It's jsut with training she's getting a treat for going to the toilet out side, coming back when on a walk and when we are practicing the commands learn at training. Thanks for the advice!

Hi evilbeak,
do you feed a dry food? What I used to do if I was training with my pup wa use his kibble and just take it from his daily allowance, but then Blade would be happy to work for anything as long as it was edible *and sometimes not too :rolleyes:* I also found kibble less messy to keep in your pocket so you always have it to hand when needed.

Agree with others that there are too many treats.   Three fifteen minute walks a day on a lead is not too much exercise.  She needs to socialize and experience the world around her. What you want to avoid is exercise that puts to much strain on her joints - like jumping, or going up and down stairs, or running with her, or extended periods of exercise.  Puppies and young dogs naturally run/jump/play in short bursts - then they plop down for a rest, or to dig a hole in your garden, or gnaw your wooden chair legs.  :-) 

If I recall from reading the kong filler ingredients at PAH, it's full of fat and junk.   Try softening a part of her regular food with water and use it to stuff the kong instead. Or buy a few packs of Naturediet and use it to stuff the kong, but remember to feed her a bit less at her regular meal.  You can do the same with any leftover plain meat and veg. Low fat cheese once in a while is fine. 

Schmackos are junk food for dogs.  Dentastix are in the same category.  IMO opinion they should not be given to puppies at all and only once in a while to adult dogs.  Try James Wellbeloved Crackerjack treats instead.  I often just give my dogs regular pieces of JWB food as a treat - they are very partial to duck & rice - and are as happy with it as they are with food sold as treats.

Have you tried clicker training?  Really short version is that your dog learns to associate the "click" as praise by using a food reward when you first begin to use the clicker and/or teach a new trick.

Personally, I don't bother with food treats at all with puppies this young :)  The joy of getting praise and attention is plenty I find.  They toilet so often the treat giving can rise to quite a quantity.  All my puppies have been pretty well housetrained in about 10 days without a wiff of a bit of food.  It is only when they get to the "teenage" stage that I find a little more incentive may be required ;)

very true Isabel, I never used food to treat Blade for toileting it was more for trying to keep attention when doing sit, down etc, with the toileting a big lot of praise in a singy voice, and a big stroke always gained his favour and he was toilet trained straight away more or less, (only a couple of accidents )

Thnks for the advice. She probably is getting too many treats, you are right. Our trainer recomended schmackos and also says that at this stage you should be rewarding them pretty much every time they sit on command, recall etc and as we walk her off lead and are having to recall her quite a bit this does increase the amount:rolleyes:. She is on dry kibble so i wil try using this instead of schmackos. I've reduced her food allowance slightyl aswell and occasionally giving her 75g of kibble mixed with half a waitrose tray od dog food. Thanks for the advice everyone. Just need reasurance that i'm doing it right. first time dog owner!