I think Koda will be fine, Michelle. So many of my friends have successfully added a baby to the mix when the dog was there first. And these are friends that REALLY loved their dogs/treated them like kings and queens before the baby. None of that changed - the dogs are still part of their growing families. There were definitely some transitional issues, but that's to be expected. None of my friends had negative outcomes. In fact, every year, I look forward to seeing all the family christmas cards with the now-older dogs in the middle of the pile of kids, looking happier than happy. I think most dogs are real troopers when it comes to adapting to new things. Especially when it comes to babies. The key for you - Koda is so well trained, and she knows her boundaries. That will be so huge for you in a very good way!

Here are some tips I can think of - buy your stroller a little early, and, as silly as this sounds, start walking Koda next to the stroller so she gets used to the feel of the wheels next to her. And of course, all those "textbook" tips of getting Koda used to the smells will definitely help. Get those diapers into the house early (they have a certain smell) along with some desitin, a baby blanket, etc.

You'll be fine. I am so excited for you - such a very special time in your life - treasure it!

OK - I can't resist posting a pic or our Tucker with our youngest daughter, with all this talk of babies (I have to admit I wish our Izzie was still a baby - they grow way too fast!). This pic was taken a few days ago. My older sis titled the pic "beauty and the beast".

What age do goldens stop growing?


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My understanding is that they reach their adult height at around 10 months, and then continue filling out and gaining weight. That seems to have been what Tucker has done. But I have heard people say their dogs grew up until two.

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Kathleen, mom to one human, age 17, three canines, and a bunch of fish.

Hi everybody,

Guybrush just got out of his "cone of shame" from neutering and now he is back in it with a belly rash. He just had a break to eat a treat and I caught him trying to lick. He looked up at me put his head on the tiles and slowly licked them. His eyes just saying I wasn't licking the rash mum, I was licking the tiles see .

Lately we have been able to leave him alone in the house for about 5 hours without anything going wrong, yet we can't leave him alone in the garden for 5 minutes with out huge holes mysteriously appearing or trees suddenly being eaten...Guybrush tells us he didn't do it, I don't beleive him.

Took him to the vet yesterday for his annual vaccinations and the vet was delighted to see a retriever who wasn't over weight, he is perfect for his height...unfortunately he has stinky, gunky ears and a rash but other than that he is our perfect little guy.

So much better than even 2 months ago and he is much more polite around other dogs and people, it makes those teenage months almost worth it almost.

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Abby had a yeast infection in one ear before the holidays--sounds like what Guybrush's ears look like. Lots of brown gunk. The vet gave us something called OtiScrub to rinse out the gunk, then you had to wipe it out gently, then we put an antibiotic ointment for 10 days. It didn't work, so back to the vet for different ointment, oral antibiotics and antiinflammatories. That did the trick. But now we've learned that Abby has a lower canine coming in the wrong way, and she needs x-rays and possibly surgery! Anyone else experienced this???


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Muprhy will be nine months on Jan 20th and is 81lbs. I was shocked because he's very slim.
Regarding the ear infections. I had two Goldens in the early and mid 90's. Fed them Science Diet, a food I thought was high quality. Now I know its garbage. Murphy is eating Brothers grain free. His ears look like the day I brought him home at eight weeks. I've read many dogs that eat food with grain have allergies which can cause yeast problems in their ears. Just a thought!

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Van Gogh just turned 9 months, he weighs 60lbs -- how much do you feed him daily?


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He gets 3 to 3 1/2 cups a day with some canned topper. As I said I feed him a very high quality food "Brothers Complete". He walks at least two miles a day. As I said he's not heavy at all,,,,,alot of hair though. If I remember how to post a picture I'll put up a recent shot. He's a beauty.

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I hope everyone had a good weekend. Tayla is moving into the next phase of her training – distractions. She does well at home with sit, down, come, etc. We work inside and outside. We work on it when we walk through the neighborhood. I was a little surprised that when we went to a park close to us to walk it was like she had never heard any of the commands before so we will be walking lots of new places over the next months and working on commands. We also took her to a local pet food store in our area that has isles and isles of food, treats, toys, etc. to work on her attention to me. She did horrible (which I expected), but I was able to get 2 “watch me” looks, a few good isle length “comes” and a pretty good sit and down so for the first time I was okay with that, but it showed me that this is an area where we must do much more consistent training. We will be doing that every week until all I have to do is say the command and she does it in a reliable way. I will say to her credit that she didn’t snatch any treats or toys from the shelves so that was good. We also need to work on the fact that she just loves to jump on us when we are sitting watching TV. She is allowed to be on the sofa and there is room to jump on it without jumping on us first so we are also working on the “off” command. When I’m sitting she can’t so much as put a foot on me. I have RA and at 65 lbs. she hurts when she lands on us or just stands with a couple feet on a leg. So every time she is near us and puts so much as a toe on us she gets the “off” command. She can lay quietly next to us and she can lay with her head on us, but that is going to be the extent of that.

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Barb, Rick and Tayla (STAR Puppy)



Cheyenne (CGC) and Jesse (CGC) who will be always loved and never forgotten.