2yr old dog driving us up the wall

Mickeyie05

Right we have a 2yr old brown labrador and she is driving us up d wall she is running into d house and taking tings and chewing tem to shreds if she doesnt get in to d house she rips up her bed if she doesnt do tat she rips up d bin.

what to do now??? she is drivin us cuckoo


ps she loves plastic.

peasant

yr dg s brd

(your dog is bored)

Rachel 999

Mickeyie05 wrote: »

Right we have a 2yr old brown labrador and she is driving us up d wall she is running into d house and taking tings and chewing tem to shreds if she doesnt get in to d house she rips up her bed if she doesnt do tat she rips up d bin.

what to do now??? she is drivin us cuckoo


ps she loves plastic.

Did you get her as a puppy, if not what age did you get her is she rescued/ rehome.:):):)

Inexile

Mickeyie

Peasant may be right but I think you need to give more info. When did your dog start this - whats its routine eg. how much excercise does it get - how much interaction do you have with it, is she usually allowed in the house etc.

Mickeyie05

we got her only 2mths ago. she was rehomed think she grew up on a farm and is brought for a walk every 2nd day for bout hlf an hr

Harris

There's the problem. She is bored out of her mind and has too much energy to burn. She needs a minimum of one hour every day off the lead running after a ball, swimming etc.
It will not improve if you don't exercise and play with her.

ISDW

Mickeyie05 wrote: »

we got her only 2mths ago. she was rehomed think she grew up on a farm and is brought for a walk every 2nd day for bout hlf an hr

Thats your problem then, a labrador needs a lot more than that, she is obviously bored.

You need to be taking her out every day, for at least an hour. Really, she should be going out at least twice, in the morning and the evening.

Ruby Soho

Indeed OP, a tired dog is a happy dog...
There really is no excuse for only walking an active breed like a labrador every second day. No wonder she's wrecking the place.
If she had a good routine, and knew when to expect opportunities to burn up some energy she would probably stop devoting her time to home-decoration.
Like someone already said, at LEAST an hour a day is what you should be looking at. Think of all the benefits for your own health too, you'll feel better and have more energy.
Have you thought about some serious training for her or agility classes? Labradors are a working breed and need a job to do, and whether her job is agility lessons or spending an hour every day in a field retrieving a dumbbell, or retrieving from water, she'll be beside herself with joy.

ghost_ie

The poor dog is bored silly and also needs to burn up her energy. She needs to be exercised every day for an hour or more, and if there's nowhere you can let her off the lead to run then you need to play with her in the garden after her walk. It might also be useful to move the bin to a place where she can't get at it as Labs are notoriously greedy and will raid anything where they think there may be food

Morganna

Your dog is bored and needs exercise everyday .Also time spent with you .can you imagine what you would do if you where so bored get exercising her .

Munster Gal

No question about it, she's bored. We have a lab and she gets 2 walks a day morning and evening for about 45mins - 1 hour each walk (hail, rain & shine!). The kids play football with her, throw frisbees etc. on and off all day. The odd evening and at least every second weekend we bring her to the beach/river cos she loves water. Labs are gorgeous dogs but can be really destructive if bored.

Acoshla

Yeah your dog is bored.

As well as walking/exercising the dog you could try games, tricks and agility stuff too, when we're tired or lazy or the weathers horrible we entertain our puppy by teaching her new tricks, making her run around the house after us, anything, as long as it involves some bit of exercise and fun she's happy out.

We also just take her out to the garden and throw some toy between us, it means we can pretty much stay still and she just keeps running back and forth having a great time, brilliant after a long day at work

And get a Kong, stuff some treats in there and that'll keep them happy.

Having said all that, ours can be exhausted and still find time to rip her bed apart or chew any cable when left alone for 5 minutes

Sigma Force

Agree, very bored labs need tons of excercise and a job to do, as well as excercise have you considered training classes as well it will also give you somewhere different to bring the dog and the dog will get to play with other ones and you'll learn loads on how to cope with the extra energy.

Kongs are great make sure you get one the right size and perhaps a black kong and some stronger squeeky toys perhaps.

It also sounds like she's almost going through a puppy phase still perhaps she didn't get the stimulation and basic training in her old home so she's doesn't know how to live in a household. So you need to start training from scratch.

Always choose a trainer who uses humane methods only.

Mickeyie05

one problem tho is tat she is terrified of other people nd other dogs

Call me Socket

She probably wasn't socialised enough or at all. You need to start from scratch with her as though she's a pup- but it'll require more effort and patience on your part because she already has embedded fears that a pup wouldn't have yet developed.
Her energy needs to be used before she'll be open to training or overcoming fears.Get her walking/running/swimming everyday, and introduce short sets of new experiences afterwards- ie. an hour exercise and later on in the day 5 mins watching a match from a safe distance. Next day an hour exercise and a few minutes near a busy shop. The day after, an hour exercise and 10 minutes of watching traffic passing. An hour exercise and increase to 10 minutes watching a match. etc etc. Slowly and gradually increase time and noise level. Be careful not to push her- she'll need to go at her own pace, so don't expose her to too much too soon.

Is she your first dog? Did you adopt her from a rescue or from Joe Public?

golden

Its does appear that she requires to be exercised every day. I have a working lab (she is not working and she is a family pet) basically she is more hyper than the show dog type she has never chewed anything as she has enough mental stimulation and enough exercise.

Your dog needs to be trained and exercised, the fact that lab is scared of people and other dogs is not an excuse just take the time to train the dog one of my dogs was from a shelter and was badly abused it just took time and effort for her to come around. Perhaps if you could locate a good humane dog trainer would be the way forward for you.

Good luck.

mymo

You only have her 2 months, so it's a great time to set a routine. Labs are easy to train as they love food, you need to spend as much time as you can with her and praise her for good behaviour.
If she's not well socialised start now, its very important, bring people into your home to start, one at a time as many as will help, get them to ignore her but interact with you at first then join in as you play with her(if she's nervous them throwing things like fetch may not be good idea).
Bring her out early mornings and late evenings when not many people are around.
Get some kongs and things to chew, I also hide things in the garden for my dogs to find.
It may take a few months but please put the work in now, get a trainer if you need to, she's still young, get her to meet other dogs. If you know anyone with a quiet older dog, ask them to meet you on a walk just in passing, then maybe join you when she gets used to the dog. They can get over this.

Rachel 999

mymo wrote: »

You only have her 2 months, so it's a great time to set a routine. Labs are easy to train as they love food, you need to spend as much time as you can with her and praise her for good behaviour.
If she's not well socialised start now, its very important, bring people into your home to start, one at a time as many as will help, get them to ignore her but interact with you at first then join in as you play with her(if she's nervous them throwing things like fetch may not be good idea).
Bring her out early mornings and late evenings when not many people are around.
Get some kongs and things to chew, I also hide things in the garden for my dogs to find.
It may take a few months but please put the work in now, get a trainer if you need to, she's still young, get her to meet other dogs. If you know anyone with a quiet older dog, ask them to meet you on a walk just in passing, then maybe join you when she gets used to the dog. They can get over this.

OK you have her two months. 1 Her caracter and condinition to life is well established. She enjoys been excited and active, you are not going to change this. 2. You can however teach her something new. Teach her self control. When she is calm, reward with game. Gradually the lenght of time she can remain calm will increase. She does not know this behaviour yet, so it is new to her so if it is rewarded it will establish. A trained guide dog when off duty can play and be as mad as any average Lab.:):):)

Mickeyie05

d one problem is she is not a very playful dog as we tink she was beaten b4 we got her hence why she is scared of other people and other animals. she is even scared of a tennis bag! went nd bought one of those kongs today as sum gel d girl in d shop told me to freeze it nd give it to her 2moro nd she will luv it

rainbowtrout

Mickeyie05 wrote: »

d one problem is she is not a very playful dog as we tink she was beaten b4 we got her hence why she is scared of other people and other animals. she is even scared of a tennis bag! went nd bought one of those kongs today as sum gel d girl in d shop told me to freeze it nd give it to her 2moro nd she will luv it

Can you write in English, text speak is very difficult to read, my head is sore.

Your dog needs to get at least an hour of walks every day, more if possible. I have two rescue dogs, and one of them was abused before I got her, she was terrified of traffic, so I started by bringing her out for walks just doing laps of the estate I live on at night and early morning when it was quiet. She was also terrified of getting into the car, so then I started bringing to a local forest park in the car every day, so she began to associate the car with walks. Now she loves going in the car and tears to the front door if she evens sees me with the car keys, she trots along beside me and passes no heed on traffic and I can walk her anywhere. I've taught her to sit on the ditch (if there's no path) when traffic is approaching and she does it automatically now. It didn't happen overnight it took quite a while but was well worth it.

My dog isn't particularly playful either, but she had a few toys she likes to chew, but she lives for her walks and a run about in the park everyday. If you start slowly and tire her out you'll probably find a lot of the chewing problems will stop.

duckysauce

does the dog have a mobile otherwise , it might not understand the txt speech and not know what the hell is going on , and think its the end of the world agggggggggh

Crazyivan 1979

When you say he destroys things when he can't get into the house, I take it he is left outside while you are at work. My Lab x used to do that as well, think he was just trying to spite me (you leave me alone - I destroy things!) . I just stopped putting a bed in the kennel for him, if I saw that he tried to chew the fence, I would bring him over to it. point or bang on the fence and then point my finger at him and shout NOOO! He gets it and run into his kennel, 5 mins later he'll come out all sheepish and try to give me the paw. Can't stay mad at him after that.

Doing the the Kong thing works as well, mix a bit of dry dog food with water so you can mould it in through the kong then freeze it, it will keep him occupied for hours.

Of course all this isn't treating the main cause, which is he is bored. Although, my fella was getting 1.5 hours off the lead every day and was still doing it, seems to have grown out of it now. Good luck.

ronbyrne2005

If dog chases balls get a few and bring him to a field/park and throw ball with one of those plastic throwers untill dog is too tired and lies down. Give rawhide bones for chewing. Walk the dog if it doesnt like chasing balls and if u cant give it exercise then you shouldnt really have it.

wexford202

Yeah it is bored.

All dogs can cause havoc when they are bored. Long walk with a doggie backpack (Not to heavy) can be good.

dungeon

I'd absolutely love to get a lab myself but this is the main reason I don't as I know it is a huge commitment from the point of view of walking/exercise.

flahers

please be patient and give the dog more time. We have a Samoyed of our own and got a rescue Samoyed during the Summer, its a huge commitment but we excercise both of them twice a day and even though the rescue was very subdued at first and never wanted to play in the garden we encouraged her and you should see the diffrence in her now

Calhoun

In addition to the excersize ect you should try some toys. Recently tried a kong with our brat and nothing funnier than watching them have to think how to get the goodies out of it :P

wexford202

I have seen those Kong Toys many times and often wondered about them.

The treats don't look too tasty. Do the dogs really like them?

LisaO

wexford202 wrote: »

I have seen those Kong Toys many times and often wondered about them.

The treats don't look too tasty. Do the dogs really like them?

Stuff them with whatever treats your dog likes, you don't have to buy the "Kong" branded ones, which are quite expensive. Use some of their dinner, bits of ham, cheese, chicken, dog treats and biscuits, peanut butter, soft cheese, liver paste, etc.

wexford202

LisaO wrote: »

Stuff them with whatever treats your dog likes, you don't have to buy the "Kong" branded ones, which are quite expensive. Use some of their dinner, bits of ham, cheese, chicken, dog treats and biscuits, peanut butter, soft cheese, liver paste, etc.

I must try that. I never really knew how they worked but putting yur wn treats in is a great idea. The peanut butter would def be a goer for my dog.

Thanks for the tip:)

Calhoun

wexford202 wrote: »

I must try that. I never really knew how they worked but putting yur wn treats in is a great idea. The peanut butter would def be a goer for my dog.

Thanks for the tip:)

They are good, i never used the kong brand ones. Just last night i got a piece of ham and some doggy nutts and stuffed it down the bottom of the kong.

She went nutts trying to get it out and kept her busy for a good hour was so funny as she started barking at the rubber thing keeping her ham from her :P

ziggy23

I got a lab cross from the dspca. Absoloutely beautiful dog but had the exact same problems. If left alone for 5 minutes he'd do some damage. He even ripped up the entire lino in the kitchen one night:eek: He was getting loads of walks and trips to the park everyday but he was just sooo destructive. I was worn out and it wasn't my house for him to wreck. Anyway got a dog trainer out to the house and it was the best thing I ever did. He is a new dog:D basically there were a number of things I was doing wrong. Firstly I was giving him the run of the house and garden all day. She reccommended one of those big cages for him to sleep in at night. Secondly she reccommended a dried food specially for Labs/retrievers that wouldn't make him as hyper and poop as much(that was another problem) Anyway she gave me loads of other tips too and it worked a treat so definitely get him trained:D

Steve30x

There is one other thing you need to do. When you are playing ball with he dog dont just throw it straight away when the dog brings the ball back. Hold the ball away from you and make sure the dog sits , Wait for the dog to stop concentrating on the ball , wait for the dog to calm down a little and look at you , then throw the ball. This takes time but it gets their mind working which dogs need also.

If you have a big garden try to train the dog to wait at the top of the garden until you go to the other side of the garden and hold the ball out , Wait a few seconds and tell the dog to get the ball. This is also good for the dog as it gets their mind working which is what your dog needs.

I can almost guarantee that this will reduce if not stop this kind of behaviour. It wont work on some dogs like jack russells which are a nightmare to train.

I had a border Collie puppy from 4 onths old to a year old. I used these tricks with him and done this a few times a day with him and he stopped doing any sort of damage after 3 months because he had some mental stimulation as well as walking a few times a week. I have bad knees so I cannot go for long walks every day. Another thing that helps is get a big real bone from the butchers or from a pet shop. Dogs love to chew on bones. But it is true what everybody else is saying. The dog is very bored.

PS. Please try to type in english and not TXT. TXT is just being lazy and sometimes hard to understand