I have a male 4.5 month old labrador puppy.  His father was hip scored but his mother wasn't.  I have been advise by a puppy trainer to put him on adult food, give him a marabone each week.  This will apparently slow down his growth and build muscle around his hips.  I have been to the vets today and she advised that i put him back onto puppy food as slowing down his growth may lead to complications in his later life and because he has no hip problems at the moment.
Who is right? What should i do? Please help.
Thanks

Change your pup onto Junior at 6 months and then onto adult between 9 and 12 months. You can't repair any malformation of the bone by giving incorrect food, it is true that good muscle development will help if the hips are poor but he will develop that anyway on the correct food and exercise. Guess I am saying your vet is right.

4.5months is slightly early to be changing to adult.. however.. I would have my labs on adult at 6/7months.. I have never given the junior...

nothing wrong in giving him a good marrowbone to get his teeth into though ;-)

Although breeders have years and years of experience, I would still sometimes take their advice with a pinch of salt. Why wasn't the mum x-rayed in the first place if they are such serious breeders, especially with sensitive breeds like labs? I would trust a good quality dry food brand and feed him puppy food until he's 8-9 months old at least. No other calcium supplements though. And exercise him, breeders are often too keen on keeping puppies inactive to spare their joints but lack of muscle is, to me, even more negative on a large dog. Always read the label carefully before you choose your dog food. Best is to ask your vet, and he or she can follow you all along your puppy's growth and give you specific advice for YOUR dog. Remember, even within a same breed, some dogs grow and mature faster than others and each may have different needs.

Gaelle.. since when did labs become a sensitive breed?  not quite sure what you mean by this.. can you explain?

to the OP.. please stick to a reasonable excersise regime with your pup until around 14months.. a good rule of thumb is 5 minutes per day per age in months.. so at 4 months you pups should be having around 20minutes lead walk per day.. increasing by 5 mins per month.. This is a guidling for 'leadwalking'  or lead excersise in the home or small garden need not be resticted.. puppy will stop when tired.. but while leadwalking.. they dont have that option.. its a good guidline..

As for keeping the pup on puppy food .. I find that 6/7 months is ideal.. however. that is not carved in stone.. A slow and steadily maturing dog is preferable to a rangy dog having growth spurts..and possibly associated joint problems...

Sorry, wrong wording! (I'm foreign after all!) I didn't mean it like that, I meant labs are a breed that is prone to joint problems and more so : dysplasia.

Ah.. ok.. forgiven ;-)

While labs are a breed known for their joint problems.. its not always down to poor breeding.. the environment has been proven to play a large part in this.. This is one of the reasons.. we advocate a reasonable excersise regime for pups.. thus at least try to eliminate the possibility of the onslought of environmental HD in what were otherwise a perfectly good pair of hips...

There are never any guarantees, even with the best intentions.. so we need to take heed and prevent as much damage as we can.. overfeeding and over excersising.. can cripple any medium/large breed.. not just Labradors..