Labradors love chewing, and Cleo is no exception!
She can chew for hours and hours without getting bored or tired. As a puppy she used to chew her nylabones or rawhide bones till her gums bled!
And now that she's all grown, she's a certified chew-aholic!!!
As most of you know, we adopted Jesse & Joey, 2 abandoned labrador retrievers a few months ago...
They're living with their Granny just 2 minutes down the road from us. They're doing really well and I thought we should put some new pictures up... Not very good ones though cause they won't keep still when I'm around...
Jesse has gained weight and is now almost 30kgs, compared to the miserably 20+kgs when she first arrived at ours. Her fur has almost grown back completely.
Joey is much stronger now and can prance and play too. He used to have to lie down after standing for merely 5 minutes.
Interestingly, now that they're looking so much nicer we have had many offers for adoption.
We're not giving them up cause obviously these people only want them cause they look nice now. No one was willing to give either of them a chance earlier cause thw two of them really looked terrible!
I just heard that Adlan Benan Omar, or Ben as he was fondly known, has passed away... I am in shock. Ben's only 35...
I never really knew Ben, but had the privilege of meeting him numerous times during my years in Cambridge.
I still remember the first time I met him. It was during a CUMAS event, I was 18 then... and I was in complete awe of him. He was, I believe an inspiration to all of us...
Ben's passing will be a great loss to many...
Being away for the whole of last week was terrible. I missed Cleo and the rest sooooooo much...
And I think they missed me too... cause the welcome I received when I got home was quite phenomenal... I don't think Douglas missed me as much as all of them...
Anyway I was also told that they were quite "NAUGHTY" while I was away and I'll be posting a video of what Cleo made her poor old Grandma do soon... :) It's hilarious.
Here's the Video... enjoy...
cleo-the-naughty-girl.wmv
The You Tube version is here
I am really missing Cleo and the rest of the fur-kids... have only been away for 2 days and am already wanting to be home with them...
I guess I should be used to this by now... but somehow I still hate being away from them. My mom tells me that Lucky has refused to eat for the past 2 days... Cleo has also been moping.. My poor babies...
Oh well I shall be back by the weekend - and I can hardly wait!
Is a Labrador for you? If any of you out there are considering getting a Labrador, or any dog for that matter, I hope that you have considered your decision carefully. Getting a dog, especially a Labrador will mean that life as you know it will never be the same...
So what or who prompted me to write this post? The numerous people that I meet on my daily walks with Cleo...
Everyone is in awe of Cleo... they are amazed when they see her riding quietly in the front passenger seat of my little car. They are amazed when she sits and stays on command. They are amazed when she leaves the countless monkeys that we see everyday alone.
So what's the problem with getting a Labrador? Aren't Labradors sweet natured? Aren't Labradors great family dogs?
Yes Labs are GREAT but owning a Lab means a WHOLE LOT of responsibility - that means that you need to have TIME for your labrador.
Why? Because Labradors are very high energy dogs. In fact Labradors have endless amounts of energy. This is one of the reasons why they are the most popular breed for service dogs as they can work all day without getting tired.
Cleo is barely tired from her daily hour long walks. When we get home there'll be a 20 minute game of fast paced "fetch" with her tennis ball before she's content. And even then she's not tired...
So if your Labrador does not get the exercise that she needs, be prepared to have your home destroyed! And I mean DESTROYED!!!
When Cleo was a puppy she did not get regular walks because I had a regular 9-5 job. That meant that I could only take her out on weekends. And on top of that she suffered from separation anxiety because she could not understand why everybody abandoned her everyday.
As a result our home was DESTROYED!!! She ripped all our furniture to bits. She tore off cupboard doors! She killed all our plants! She broke and chewed everything whithin reach!!! We were at our wits end. But we could not punish her because it was our fault she behaved that way.
Obedience school was disastrous for Cleo. She would sit when she was supposed to heel, walk away from me when she was supposed to Down Stay etc. She only managed to get up to Pre-Novice.
The instructors insisted that we use a Choke Chain on her. We refused and that was when we decided enough was enough. Cause we knew that Cleo was "disobedient" in class cause she didn't see the point. And so we trained her ourselves... And she has come out tops in our books!
Labradors are not the best at Obedience because they are highly intelligent dogs. They question your every command. Again this is a very important trait that makes them great service dogs - they think for themselves before executing commands from their handlers.
Hence if you think that you'll be winning Obedience Trials with a Labrador, think again... if anything you'll be the laughing stock of your class... like I was.
So how come Cleo is so well behaved? Well it was a result of lots of love and TIME to play with her, TIME to exercise with her, TIME to train her and TIME to understand her.
It was chucking today... it rained really heavily all afternoon... and all the kids had a great snooze... They all looked so cute but unfortunately the batteries on my camera died so I only managed pictures of Mishka and Cleo... Don't you think they look so cute?
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!
Here's hoping that the coming year will bring everyone loads of happiness, health and wealth!!!
Haven't got much to say at the moment, so I figured I'd post some new pictures of the kids...
CLEO...
LUCKY...
RASCAL...
MISHKA...
JESSE & JOEY
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