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A BIG THANK YOU!
To bee or not to bee (stung)?
Labradors abroad
Are you having difficulties uploading photos to your dog’s profile?
A BIG THANK YOU!
During April and May this year Carys went on the road to meet some of our members (and their owners). The youngest dog was just 5 months old when we visited, and the eldest was one of our longest standing members at over 2 years of age. A planned two week trip took nearly six weeks to complete, encompassing visits to meet 44 dogs and travelling well over 4000 miles. The response to our request to visit was overwhelming, and we were disappointed we couldn’t get to everyone who said yes, but the data collected was incredibly useful and we can’t thank everyone enough.
A number of things came to light during the visits. The answers to the questionnaires themselves are being analysed and in response we are hoping to introduce a few changes to the website to make it easier and quicker to enter data for everyone participating. In the near future we will also report more detail on the findings of the visits themselves.
It was wonderful to put faces to some of the people who are helping us try to improve Labrador health and meet Dogslife Labrador Retrievers of every size and colour. So to everyone from the New Forrest to Perth and Denbyshire to Norfolk who answered our questions and offered tea, coffee, biscuits, cake and dinner – we would like to say that your contribution has been invaluable and offer a really big THANK YOU!
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To bee or not to bee (stung)?
At this time of year dogs love being outside and chasing things which move in the breeze! Unfortunately, one of the risks with curiosity is that sometimes it can lead to rather less desirable outcomes, such as bee and wasp stings. We know that a number of Dogslife members have already encountered these problems (fortunately they are rare) and that dogs don't always learn from their mistakes (so occasionally it can happen again).
Fortunately for dogs, the majority of wasp or bee stings cause nothing more than short lived discomfort and a local, temporary swelling (which is the result of the body's immune system reacting to the sting). Stings usually occur on the face as it is the closest part of the dog to the wasp or bee at the time of chasing it. Most stings shouldn't bother your dog, but you should check if the "sting" is still in the skin. If you can see it, then scrape it away with a rigid piece of card (being careful not to break the sting). Don't squeeze it with tweezers as you might cause more of the "venom" to be released from the sting.
If the sting occurs in the mouth or throat then it can be much more problematic as any swelling could cause obstruction to the respiratory tract. Rarely, single or multiple stings at the same time can cause a severe allergic reaction resulting in general weakness, difficulty breathing, and a large amount of swelling. If your dog’s swelling is localised and doesn't go down within a few days, or if you have any concerns that your dog is developing an allergic reaction or is having difficulty breathing, then call your vet immediately. Fortunately, for most dogs (and people), all they are left with is a bit of hurt pride!
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Labradors abroad
Every year Labrador Retrievers from the UK are exported around the world. Labradors make great family pets, working gundogs, assistance dogs, and service dogs, so it’s not surprising they are popular the world over. In 2011, 283 Labradors were exported. The graph below shows how many Labradors were exported to each country.
In total, Labradors were exported to 41 different countries worldwide. The highest number (73 Labradors) went to the USA, followed by the Netherlands (23), Germany (20) and Sweden (20), Switzerland (19), and Denmark (13) and France (13).
In 2011, more Labrador Retrievers were exported to Barbados, Brazil, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, India, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Serbia, Switzerland, USA, and Zambia than any other pedigree dog breed from the UK. Labradors are considered to be the most popular breed of dog in the world and remain firm favourites particularly in the UK and the USA.
For more information on breed and export statistics, please visit http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/item/1128.
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Are you having difficulties uploading photos to your dog’s profile?
Dogslife hopes you enjoy using the features on the website such as the facility to upload a picture of your dog to their profile page (as shown in the image on the right), and the scrapbook to display photos and memorable events in your dog’s life.
For members whose dogs are one year of age, we ask that specific images of their dog are uploaded to their dog’s profile at this time. A button entitled ‘File Upload’ will appear on dogs’ profiles when they turn one year of age (circled in red in the image on the left) and by clicking on this button, instructions and examples of the photos we are looking for can be viewed. The ‘File Upload’ facility will remain on dogs’ profiles for two months so you will no longer see the ‘File Upload’ button if your dog is older than 14 months of age.
If you are having any difficulties uploading photos to any of these areas of the website, you may wish to compress the image so that the file size is smaller and therefore uploads more quickly (the website cannot upload images larger than 5MB).
Dogslife are happy to add photos if you are unable to upload them, so please do not hesitate to email us at info@dogslife.ac.uk with the image attached and explain where you would like it, and we will add the picture to your dog’s profile for you.
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Don't forget to come back to Dogslife to update your dog's record www.dogslife.ac.uk
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