Hi all,

My lab is 11 months old and up until last weekend has been really well behaved (after the initial puppy chewing thing was over) but.... me and OH went away for the weekend and left her at home with the kids and an aunt to babysit.  She didn't eat very well and was very huffed when we came home.  I have changed the flavour of her food (Burns) this week to try and get her interested but she still couldn't care less, obviously not lab-like at all, but she will eat anything else that the kids give her or drop on the floor!. 
She will not walk to heel, had to come home yesterday from walkies because it took me 20 minutes to get her to come back to me - her recall has always been great, she has chewed a chair leg and kitchen rug overnight and is now sleeping on my daughters bed as if butter wouldn't melt!!

Sorry to go on about so many different things but is it all related and have i now got to go back to the beginning?

We went to Devon for 4 days this year and the girls stayed with my dad ...when we got back one of mine refused to even look at me for 2 days and when she finally came round the look on her face was like ( how dare you leave us ) LOL she soon settled back into routine ...........

My 4 1/2 gsd was diagnosed with HD back in april but not too severe, she had lead walks for weeks and has been having Hydrotherapy for the past 5 months, she is very fit and very strong and did our first agility show on saturday since april, she did very well and was very happy doing it, trouble is she has become a right kevin, wont stay with me when we go for a walk, no matter how far we walk its not long enough, when i say thats it time to go home she just stands and ignores me, in the house every little noise is scarey and she opens the back door and goes in to the garden, i have had to cage her again as she jumps the gate into the house at night and wanders, and she has got really aggressive towards other dogs, she is fine with my other three dogs.Going for walks these days is not relaxing because i am forever calling her back and its an awful walk if i have to keep her on the lead. any ideas please

the advice i would give you over the food is just put it down for her and leave it. dont give her
any scraps or treats. when she is hungry enough she will eat it. this is best done with biscuits as
they dont go rancid like meat. i had the same eating problem with my dog, although mine was
more down to spoiling her with mince and steak and kidney instead of dog food than anything else.
she became fussy. i was told by a breeder to leave the biscuits down and just leave her.
it became a battle of wills and hard as it was she eventually got so hungry that she gradually
started to eat them. if you start to spoil her with things she will have won and obtained dominance
over you. be firm!!

Our 12-month lab is the same with his food - everyone says they'll eat anything and his best mate eats his dinner in about 5 seconds, but ours takes a while and quite often leaves some. We've just learnt to stop worrying about it as everything we tried failed!! On the recall and behavioural stuff, a friend of ours who is a qualified trainer/behaviourist says that if you've instilled the basics before the Kevin stage they will always come out the other side OK - you just need to accept that they will appear to have forgotten everything in the meantime. They also apparently have two distinct chewing phases at puppyhood and adolescence...

Thanks for the replies.  I know I am probably to blame by offering her different food, but you get that guilty feeling that she is really hungry!  will try and be more firm.  We have gone right back to basics with heel work and i haven't let her off lead for two days now (she is not impressed!!)  She gets 'done' next week so perhaps that will calm her down-or make her resent me even more?  Well just going to keep on trying my best,  Thanks again

Sara