Hi just thought i best say hello and introduce myself. My name is Tim and I am the proud owner of Murphee who is a 6 month old male Labrador retriever. We got Murph from a breeder near Bradford when he was 8 weeks old and have been on a roller coaster with him ever since! When I read about the joys and hard work a Labrador brings you I though everyone must be over reacting "how can one dog be so much hard work??" is the sentence that now haunts me lol.

Murph is from show stock so is already very big and well set - we are always getting stopped when out walking and people commenting on his fantastic looks. Even to the point last week an elderly gentleman offered to buy Murph for £850!! (he was politely told no )

We have been attending a local puppy class and we are planning on going down the obedience training route with him and maybe even doing the kennel club's citizenship award. Murphee is fully house trained and crate trained and has managed to train himself to dig large holes in the garden and bring in rocks! This is something we are going to be working on trying to correct but I am not hopeful lol.

Murphee is like all Labradors and will do just about anything for a "treat". Short lead training is great he will not move from my side when walking on a short lead, will stop and sit at a curb, wait to be told to move off again and the price for this wonderful ease of walking - a tin of hotdogs! No hot dogs = no walking. He still jumps up at people he first meets despite my best efforts but I have been told that is his age and that if we remain consistent he will grow out of it............maybe. We do take Murph out on his long lead (30ft) most days to give him the opportunity to explore and run free but I haven't ever let him off his lead completely. This is partly due to my lack of trust in other owners of dogs that are not sociable yet they still let them off the leads (friend of mine got a £180 vet bill after he let his dog off and it was mauled by another dog who's owner said "well butch doesn't like other dogs!!") and because I have a small fear in my mind the little mischief maker won't come back lol.

That’s pretty much me and Murph and I hope to talk to some of you guys in the forums

Hi Tim & Murphy, nice to see a fellow lab owner here. I'm new too, look forward to swapping stories.

I bet they are stories of distruction and mental hyperactivity :-D

Luckily no destruction as such, although our grass has died off from him peeing all over it.

Hyperactivity- yep, mental and physical.