Quaker's Retirement

Quaker the black beast

Hi Scott, Sophie, Cassandra and Elizabeth

We just wanted to tell you a few things about the newest member of your family.

Quaker is a very loving little boy with the biggest heart. He will be very close to you once he has had a chance to realize that this is his new home. we suspect that will take a good two to three weeks. Meanwhile, be patient with him. After all, this is not the first time he changes homes. When he was born, he lived with his breeder for about 10 weeks. After this time, he was flown to Vancouver where he lived with his puppy walkers for a year. When he came back to Ottawa, he lived in the school kennels for 4 months while he was trained. For him, it was a big thing to leave his first family. He now had to live with 30 other dogs in a common area and no family life. He got very attached to his trainer. Then, class time came along. He lived in the dorm with us for 4 weeks after which time we came home where he has been for almost 5 years.

Quaker is now 6½ years old but still a puppy at heart. He loves to play a lot. He loves to run free but you have to watch that he doesn’t get into any junk he can eat. He is a true Labrador and will eat just anything if he finds it. You have to keep the back yard free of anything he can eat because he will do that and then barf it up on your floor.

Quaker eats twice a day. He is flexible with meal times but he will be looking for his meals at 7:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m... He eats a full cup of IAMS Eucanuba adult maintenance food at each meal. After breakfast, he usually has a capsule of flax seed oil which you can continue or stop if you choose to. The oil is good for his skin and helps with the shedding. After he eats, don’t let him play vigorously for at least one hour. Dogs stomachs are not attached so they can roll over when they are full thus twisting and completely blocking at both ends. That usually results in death if something is not done very quickly with surgery. He has been doing very well on that food. He will always be looking for more food but you shouldn’t give in to him. Labradors never know how much food is enough. He would get fat if you feed him more than that. Once a Labrador is fat, it’s very hard to make him loose it. You can shave several years off of a dog’s life if he gets too fat. He would also have trouble with his back legs if he got too heavy. For a while, you will find that he will act like something is supposed to happen around 8:00 a.m... That’s the time we went to work and he always came to get me if it was too late.

He can also have a couple of cookies a day as treats but you have to be very careful not to give him too many of these. They can make a dog gain a lot of weight in no time flat. If you want to give him a real treat, you can give him a couple of baby carrots. He loves them and he won’t gain weight on them.

He loves nylon bones or sterilized beef bones you can get from the pet shops. He also loves the hard rubber toys but he will destroy the cheep rubber ones. He really needs the black rubber toys which are much more durable than the red ones. He will eat through the red ones very quickly. He will destroy any plush toys so don’t bother getting them for him because he will kill them in about 5 minutes. Also, don’t leave any of your stuffed animals or other stuffed toys where he might decide they are his. He will not get them off your bed or anything like that but he will play with them and maybe rip them if they are on the floor. Watch out for that. Quaker is a paper fanatic. He will eat any paper you leave on the floor so be careful with magazines and newspapers. I wouldn’t leave any paper at all on the floor. He has eaten portions of Braille books that fell on the floor. We never found out if he reads them first. Rawhide bones make a mess of your floors and gives him the runs if you leave them with him for too long. If you really want to give him one, take it away after 15 or 20 minutes or else give him the very little ones which are fine. Don’t leave him alone with a rawhide toy as they can splinter and get caught in his throat. Also, bones you can get from the butcher are a no-no. They splinter very easily and get caught in their throat and can make him very sick. Until he gets familiar with your schedule, he goes out 5 times a day. First thing in the morning, I took him again on the way to work, lunch time, supper time after eating and around 9:00 p.m... He will be looking for a cookie when he comes in from his last time out. That’s his bedtime treat.

He gets a pill on the first of the month for heartworm and flea control. He has 2 of these in his care package for October and November. He doesn’t need them during the winter months but you should start them again by the first of June. His annual shots are due in the beginning of May. He got all of the standard shots and rabies every year. You will need to continue his rabies shot every year if you plan to take him across the border. In Quebec, they suggest every 2 years but some states require every year. Also, make sure he takes his heartworm medication every month if you go across the border with him. They are having real problems with heartworm in the States. When you get to the border crossing, make sure you have his vaccination certificate as they will ask for it. He is wearing his rabies tag now and will get a new one when you have him done.

Keep in mind that he has been micro chipped. If you are not familiar with that, it is a computer chip that was implanted under his skin as a puppy. It is located between the shoulders just in the middle between his front paws. That is the standard place where you look for a micro chip. You need a special scanner to read them through the skin. Most vets have the scanners now and many other places dealing with dogs. It is a means of finding a dog that has been lost or stolen. Universities who buy dogs for research scan them before buying them as some people have stolen dogs and then sold them for research. Some city pounds have scanners also. If you ever lost him, you have to tell the authorities about the micro chip. It is a great way to get them back. He has been registered with Canadian Guide Dogs. When scanned, a number comes up on the scanner which has been recorded. That number has been registered with the school and they would get a call. That is one of the reasons why they get very involved with the re-homing of guide dogs. The school, because of your contract with them, would know to give you a call and tell you where the dog is. Because of this, he has no tattoo in his ear. This is more discrete as nobody knows about it except the authorities who would know to look for it and yourself who would tell them to look for the chip.

Quaker will insist on walking on your left. When you walk with him on leash, keep a very short leach and don’t let him walk ahead of you. If you let him get ahead, he will pull and he is very strong. If he pulls a bit, snap the leash back and tell him to heel. If you try to hold the leash in your right hand, it will be a real mess as he will come around to your left because that’s what he was trained to do. Don’t let him sniff or you will never get anywhere. Again, snap back the leash and tell him “no” heal. When you want him to relieve himself, you give him the long leash and he understands what you want when you tell him to “get busy”.

Another suggestion is that his bed should become his place to retire to when he has had enough of everything. He loves his bed and it must never be used as a place to send him to when he is bad. You don’t want him to associate his bed with punishment. The girls should understand that he must not be disturbed when he goes to his bed. He is not an aggressive dog and needs a place to run to when he has had enough playing or being fussed with. If the girls have friends visiting, they also must know that nobody disturbs Quaker when he chooses to go to his bed. That is his safe spot not to be bothered by anyone. I know you won’t be able to keep this one up but Quaker gets brushed every day. That’s why he has such a nice healthy shiny coat. If you can’t do him every day, he should still be done as frequently as possible. This takes out the old hair and avoids the doggie smell. If he is brushed regularly, he only needs a bath 2 or 3 times a year with a good shampoo and has to be extremely well rinsed.

Now that you know all this, if you still want him, here he is!