MyLabradoodlePuppy.com

Bella characteristics:

To lie down she slides her bum back along the floor until she is lying down- so lazy and she does it really slowly while looking at you like ‘what?!’

She played for about three hours with… the very tiny end bit of a lime.. no joke.

She thinks being brushed is an amazing game and tries to eat the brush and dodges my attempts to grab a limb and brush her.

She likes eating things out of any kind of pot, pushes her head right in it to get every last bit… and then gets it stuck on her face and runs around trying to shake it off.

If she runs in the house she ends up taking a corner to fast and her legs go out from under her, every time.

When we are out walking and she tries to run fast through the fields, her back legs go to fast for her and she falls flat on her face.

Every morning when she first sees me she curls up on my lap for cuddles, even though she doesn’t really fit anymore!

She has lots and lots of baggy skin!

If anyone uses any kind of cleaning product,she goes mad! Especially window wiping, she stands at the other side of the window and her head goes up and down following the cloth.

She’s crazy, but lovely, what does your Labradoodle do?

So I read an article in a newspaper saying that dry and processed dog food can be bad for our dogs, and people feed them dry food out of convenience. Now there were good arguments either way, so I decided to give Bella a mixture. Her main food is ProPlan as recommended by my vet, but I also give her more natural food as well. Bella is a fan of…well everything, but also fish. Good, healthy, fish. She sometimes has tuna on top of her dry food, sometimes she has sardines (I am so kind to her because she STINKS for ages after eating sardines bleeurgh). Bella has also tried Quorn fillets (we were emptying the freezer), cabbage steamed in drained tuna oil, beef stew (what I couldn’t eat) and she also really loves a cup of tea! what a true english dog she is.

her other very random favourite is…. tomatoes, I put tomatoes in with her dry food quite a lot to soften it because she loves it so much, I think she just does it because she knows I hate the red beard! Oh and another tomato tip…. tomato juice stops dog wee making a brown stain on grass!

So I went to Crufts for the second time this year, figured I had to experience it as a dog owner this time! Excitedly walked round ‘discover dogs’ where owners bring their dogs so people can see a dog of every breed…. NO Labradoodle’s!! I was gutted. Jack Russell’s were only registered as a breed a few years back and now I see a jack russell owner criticising labradoodle’s on the BBC website?? Umm, people didn’t like your dog a few years back either so get off your high horse and give doodle’s a chance!

Yes they aren’t ‘true to breed’ in that many of them look completely different… but does every Dalmatian have the same amount of spots? Labradoodle’s are unique, they aren’t a ‘designer dog’, they haven’t been inbred to make them fit in your handbag or even a teacup, they are the wonderful discovery of a mix of two of the most popular breeds and the reason they are so popular is simply the result! Amazing dogs. I think it’s just jealousy.

If I said my dog was a Hovawart would you know what breed that was? Or would you assume I was a crazy under the impression my dog goes to the wizardry school of Harry Potter and friends?

Get Labradoodle’s at Crufts next year! Even if not as a registered breed- let people see them in discover dogs and make their own mind up!

Now this isn’t the television dog whisperer with the controversial methods, this is a lovely Derbyshire based dog trainer called Ade.

I asked him to spend two hours with me and Bella to train us both. We learnt methods for good leash walking, recall and jumping up because I wanted to sort it early because Labradoodle’s are big dogs to be jumping up!

Ade is calm, friendly and uses completely dog friendly methods, no shouting, hitting or anything of the sort. It is all about reading your dogs signs, reading there behavior and using corrective methods BEFORE the naughtiness, not punishing after.

He has really helped me and Bella, and also my sister and her Airedale who she was scared to walk after he was viciously attacked by a labrador. He travels all around the country and is very reasonably priced (£30 for two hours plus travel) .

Check out his website and testimonials!

Get to the vets. now.

I checked up on all the websites, seemed pretty simple…it’s not, well it is, and it isn’t.

The process once you start isn’t hard but it takes a long time. The process is a rabies vaccine, a second rabies vaccine two weeks after, a blood test two weeks after that when if the results are good then you are issued with a pet passport. Seems simple enough… the catch. After the rabies vaccine you have to wait SIX MONTHS before you can bring you beloved dog back INTO the country. So Bella was vaccinated nearly two weeks ago now so I can take her out of the country when her passport is issued, but I can’t bring her back into the country until six months after the date of her rabies vaccination, so I only just made it in time for Bella to be able to come home with us after our happy holiday in Spain this summer!

Also, if you’re going abroad, think about the foreign tics and bugs they aren’t used to. Think about cutting you dogs coat shorter if you will find it hard to find tics in the fur.

One thing I’ve been recommended is to make sure Bella is treated against Heartworm.

I can’t wait to take Bella on holiday!

So far I’ve recommended KONG toys, and still do, it’s still one of Bella’s favourites and you can fill it with whatever you want, you dont have to pay more for their biscuit refills, if you don’t want.

The other day I decided to renew Bella’s toys so whilst shopping in Sainsbury’s I randomly picked two toys. One was a hit, one was….not. A ball on string with a bell inside, simple, but Bella LOVES it, and you just have to twirl it around on the floor whilst they chase it! Or if they play with it on their own… you can hear where they are, oh so cunning! The other purchase wasn’t popular, your standard squeaky bone. Took it out, waved it and smiled and squeaked it…she ran. This puppy does not like a sudden high pitched squeaking noise, can’t say as I blame her…

Another great toy for dogs AND cats believe it or not- a laser pen! Amazing for you, you sit on the sofa and point it wherever whilst you watch TV and your pet goes MAD trying to pounce on the laser beam and getting frustrated as it disappears! They will follow and chase it round forever. They exercise and play, you can relax, simple eh?

Toys around the house-

One of Bella’s favourite toys is a set of measuring spoons, she fished them out from god knows where, I’d never seen them before. But they’re four different sized spoons attached on a ring, she throws them around. Its like a baby with car keys, they make a noise and she chews them (they’re only thick plastic). The other nifty extra to this new toy is that at night when I give her a treat in bed I put it in her measuring spoons as a change to her KONG. And sometimes if I’m feeling generous, and can be bothered, I put something different in each spoon for different tastes. She loves it.

When you’re throwing something away, think about the dog, sounds weird so I’ll explain.. egg boxes, magnificent fun to shred up but yes you do need to clean up the mess after, but put them in a certain area with it (watch they dont eat it, but Bella’s never shown an interest) same with finished toilet rolls and kitchen rolls. The other extra of an egg box is I seal a treat inside, keeps her occupied for a while! The other massive and probably main favourite- milk cartons. Make sure you wash all the milk out first! But give it to the puppy and they chase it, jump on it… it’s actually quite funny and they get a few hours fun. Take it off them when they’ve punctured it quite badly as the plastic could get sharp. Empty jars? Let them lick them out! may as well? Bella LOVES licking the oil and residue from empty tuna tins (make sure the rim isn’t sharp) and today I gave her a peanut butter jar, hardly anything left in it but they chase it as it rolls and lick it clean. Jar glass is quite robust so shouldn’t smash but all home style toys should be kept an eye on!

Another favourite if your dog has a love of shoes, if you catch them with your shoe, tell them NO and give them a cheap copy of a CROC, you can get them pretty much anywhere and pretty cheap and theyre rubber so chewy for them. You take off them what they can’t chew and give them what they can, thats THEIR shoe. Save your heels, you won’t cry over a croc!

A treat I picked up in the supermarket the other day as well- caught my eye. Just little pots of ‘paste’, not pate but paste. Beef flavour, chicken flavour etc. They were only 50p and last a while, they can lick the jar out and it’s made for humans, so less additives etc, it’s hard to know what’s in dog foods, and some have been proven to be full of sugars and additives, so I think if I can eat it, then she can (in sensible terms, not chocolate etc).

Those are some tips and tricks I’ve come across so far, if I discover anymore I’ll let you know!

Yes you heard right, a live worm, not a garden worm but a disgusting spaghetti like creature that had taken up residence in my poor puppy. A Tapeworm to be exact.

Yet again I ring the vets in hysterics, this CANNOT be normal right??! And again I am told- “this is normal, lots of dogs get tapeworm, just give her this one pill…”

So yet again I feel like the worst owner ever. When did she get tapeworm?? I’m sorry but tapeworm doesn’t sound normal, it definitely wouldn’t be normal if I had tapeworm! Haven’t you seen that episode of house?!

Bella is absolutely fine now, just gave her one pill (masterfully disguised in cheese) and she was right as rain, all fine.

Apparently dogs get worms from eating weird things (practically impossible to stop) or from eating poo (lovely). Worms usually come out the ..ahem… rear end so watch out, but if they sick them up its usually tapeworm (they can come out either end) and if they sick them up it’s usually a bad case. But it’s still easily treated with one magic pill, goodbye Mr Worm.

So once again not the drama I first thought, although the image of that tapeworm will haunt me.

Ok so you wait for weeks and weeks for them to be ready to walk after vaccinations, thinking “great, I’ll walk off this christmas weight”…. yea, nothings ever easy is it?

Get ready for some embarrassment! Getting them out the door, a struggle, getting her to stop playing ‘tug’ with the lead? impossible. And there’s that lovely (repeated often) moment when they just…stop…any reason? no. too tired? we only just started. they just sit, looking at you in bemusement while you try and persuade them (often in a high pitched voice) that they reeeally want to go walkies with you, as lots and lots of people suddenly swarm the street at that very moment and say helpful things as they walk past like ‘haha she doesn’t look like she’s a walker!’ or ‘haha don’t think shes very interested’ while you smile, trill a fake laugh then try to get the dog moving before someone else comes along to laugh which she eventually does… for about a minute, then stops again. sigh.

Then Bella happens to be a weaver, she runs excitedly round and round my feet and I try and try to avoid her and stop her tripping me up, but then the inevitable happened… I trod on her, and heard a resulting yelp. I felt TERRIBLE, like I’d just slapped a grandma or something. I stopped straight away, bent down, apologised profusely (I’m sure she understood) and checked to make sure her paw was Ok. I was just recovering from the ordeal when a man walked past…. “so.. tread on her did you?” he looked down at me in absolute disgust, looked at Bella in pity and walked away, leaving me to feel like Cruella De Vil or some evil equivalent into dog cruelty.

There was also one time when we walked her too far so we had to carry her…in a rucksack.

Apart from the stressful bits it is great to watch her run through the fields (until I’m washing the cow poo off her later, and picking every single bur out of her fur) and I like to walk her off the lead and she always comes to me…

…until she finds a very interesting driveway…

…or that one time when she ran under a fence straight onto the golf course and did a poo… safe to say I grabbed her… and ran.

Bella in a bag, pampered dog. We didn't look too silly...

The Bella cycle

Dogs LOVE dishwashers, especially this Labradoodle! as soon as we open it she jumps in and licks all the plates clean. washing machines live longer with doodle’s! at least we dont have to worry about bits clogging the dishwasher…

A lot of our family is horrified with me for letting her do this… but the dishwasher does sanitize so why not, when she’s sorting the plates out she isn’t causing mischief somewhere else!

Caught in the act