Hi there. I'm a new dog owner having just brought into my house an almost 6 year old yellow lab that was a show dog (placed last year) but spent the last year at a breeder's place in the country where I think she was left in a kennel house most of the time. She's very sweet and seems to just want love and attention from me. I have a feeling she just wasn't given a lot of attention in the last year. I have two questions is anyone can shed some light from their experiences (this will probably be a little long so sorry! 1) Cleo has no desire to play. I have tried a few types of toys but she'll just sniff it and then crawl all over me to pet her. I'm thinking as a show and then breeding dog she was never given the opportunity to play. Even when we encounter other dogs on walks she just calmly sniffs around them but doesn't try to play. She jumps a little when she's excited but mainly when she thinks I'm about to give her a cuddle session or it's time for food. I crate her when I'm at work...so from 8:30 to about 1 she is in her crate and then I come home and take her for a 20 minute walk, some cuddling, then back in her crate until I'm home at 4:45. Then she is uncrated the rest of the night until bedtime around 10:30. She has only been with me since Saturday so that's why she's being crated so much. The idea is to get away from crating, but since she has no desire for toys I feel like the poor baby is just bored all day! She also doesn't chew anything (lucky me!), as part of her show dog training I'm thinking, so chewing a toy is just foreign to her! How can I get her to interact better with some toys so that she can entertain herself when I'm gone? I am going to try a frozen stuffed Kong this weekend to see how that goes...but what else can I do? And just to note I'm going to be putting her in half day day care a few times a week so she can have some interaction with other dogs and the opportunity to run around during the day. We walk a lot, but this will give her the variety that I think she'll need. I just hope when I take her she doesn't just lay around! 2) I'm trying to weigh the pros and cons of her being allowed upstairs. I wouldn't mind her being upstairs and sleeping in my bedroom. She's housebroken and has had no issues since being with me so my idea is to let her upstairs and block off the top of the stairs with a baby gate so she stays up there with me. I am getting her spayed next Friday though. Should I keep crating her at night until that's done and she's fully healed? I would hate to train her to like the stairs and sleep up there with me over the next week just to make her sleep downstairs once she's got her stitches! Even though I'll probably sleep on my couch to keep an eye on her that first week. Any input is greatly appreciated! Thanks!
It's probably quite hard to know what she's like this early on. A number of people on the forum have rescues or rehomed older dogs and they talk in terms of weeks and months for dogs to settle in their new environment. It sounds like she's looking for quite a bit of comfort and reassurance. She can learn to play I'm sure, or you could use clicker training to train her to do some tricks which would be fun for you both and be a bonding activity. Kikopup is a great youtube resource for clicker training and Steve Mann or Nando Brown do good training/games clips as well. I think stairs could be an issue after her spay although she doesn't sound like the kind of dog to bound around so you may be better off waiting til afterwards to let her upstairs. I hope you and Cleo have lots of fun together
We've had our 2 year old rescue Zach for 2 months a d he is just beginning to settle down and have some idea that this is home. He also acted like he had never seen a toy. We started with stuffed Kong's too. He will now play a bit but really doesn't want to do it alone. Always wants me to play with him. Will grab a toy and come over and put it on my lap. Hang in there. It all takes time!
Our rescue was like that too, a gun trained English Springer Spaniel who had been kenneled when she was not hunting. It took a long time, a year, for her to really settle in and learn how to be a pet dog. I remember the first the OH and ran with her, she had such a look of happy surprise on her face, we got the distinct impression she had never seen people run for fun. I think after the spay you might try doing your own playing to show her how. Throw a ball for yourself or your OH to run get, act all happy and excited, I bet she notices.
Hi and welcome. With the first foster dog I had it took nearly 6 weeks for him to play. He hadn't seen toys before and didn't know what to do. My dog showed him and kept dropping toys in his mouth and helped teach him what to do. I found I had to be extremely high pitched voice with lots of excitement about whatever toy I had in my hand to get him interested. He loved kongs once he got the hang of them. I think daycare will be really good for her, but do look for somewhere that is going full on play all day. My daycare has a quiet area for the dogs to have a nap and they are rotated in 2's of 3's so they all get play/sniff time as well as rest.
Our first Lab was a 4 yr old rescue and had to be spayed shortly after we got her (humane society rules). She always had the run of the house and slept in our bedroom. I don't recall if we kept her off stairs after spaying, but I don't think so. I know we did not let her run around, but she had to do a few stairs to get our our front door, and a flight to get out the back. It did not take many days before she was back to normal activity. We had Tilly spayed at 6 or 8 months. The first think she did after coming home after the surgery was to jump over the couch in the living room. I think we managed to slow down her activity for about three days. Cooper is going in some time this summer. All of our dogs have had the complete run of the house once they were house broken and did not chew up much other than toys. All of them have slept in the bedroom but are free to go out any time they wanted.
I only speak from the experience of one dog -- this being our 4.5 year old boy who we got as an 8-week-old puppy so he was a clean slate. And he was bred in a very happy, loving environment. Regarding toys: he will not play with a toy by himself. He is a very social boy, and he wants to play with people or other dogs. But not alone. He does sometimes go to his toy shelf and find a ball, but he always brings it to us so that we can play with him. He might bounce and catch it by himself as he is heading towards us, but in that case he makes sure he has us as an audience to watch him (and cheer him on -- it is very cute!). But if no-one is watching, he won't continue. The only thing he will do alone is chew something (like a hoof). I'm not sure dogs play with toys when alone? I'll be interested to read what others say. Best of luck with your new girl!
Both of our dogs love to play with balls or other toys but neither of them will play with toys very long by them selves if there is not an audience. They will sometimes do it for a short time alone. They do play together without a human audience, and they do chew on bones etc by themselves. Right now I can hear them throwing a bone around on the hardwood floor upstairs.
Show labs are a lot more playful than working line dogs. So it's not that. You might have to teach her what games to play if she isn't used to interaction with people in this way (agree with others that older dogs don't really play with toys on their own). It might take her a little while, but try a few things, see if you get a reaction, then build on this. But also, some dogs just aren't all that into games, and find cuddles more rewarding.
On the sleeping with you thing - my own experience with my older dog, who didn't get to sleep with us as a pup, is he is happy to sleep with us, but isn't bothered if we leave him downstairs. Indeed, once he gets comfy in his bed downstairs or his armchair or sofa, sometimes he just can't be bothered to get up and come to bed. He might wander up later, or he might not. So I'd say don't sweat the upstairs thing: if you want her on your bed, have her on your bed. If then she has to sleep downstairs for a bit, she'll most likely cope.
She sounds like a real sweetie. I'd wait till she recovers from the spay before having her sleep upstairs. I bet that she'll love having your company at night so that will be a lovely surprise for her
Thanks all! We have started a little fetching with her stuffed bone but she loses interest after a few times. But we will keep at it. We also tried a stuffed Kong today with success. It was just moist kibble but it entertained her for 15 minutes. My plan for tomorrow is the same but water to the top so it's a kibble Popsicle! If that works she'll get those when I leave for work! I also fed her evening meal out of a kong wobbler. Well rather than the 30 seconds it takes her to inhale her food it took almost 15 minutes! And she's already tuckered out and napping from the effort!
Yes,most does take awhile for a dog to settle in. Our boy was about 8-9 months old when we got him, it was probably 5 months later that I felt he really settled in. So early days yet for your girl. My dog isn't much of a player either - I have a hard time getting him interested in fetch, etc. He will do it for awhile but then he just loses interest. But keep at it, she will eventually get the hang of it. I also recommend clicker training, it's a great way to bond with your pooch.
When we got our puppy, we kept in him our bedroom at night to sleep -- to keep an eye on him, to make him feel safe, to ensure effective house training. Unfortunately we didn't realise how difficult it would be to continue having a dog in the bedroom: he wakes us up all night cos he moves around a lot, might scratch or lick, etc. It's not that he intentionally wakes us up -- in fact, he now sleeps in until he hears us start to wake up, then he hops on the bed to say good morning -- but it's the constant moving around that disturbs our sleep. However, he will not -- will NOT -- stay downstairs to sleep alone, he is too used to the company. I suppose we could train him to stay downstairs at night, but I just don't think we have the emotional and physical energy to go through with the training at this stage (ironic!). If I could go back in time, I would have him sleep downstairs from day 1.
Thanks MF. I'll admit it's a decent she up when I think about it. She likes her crate so much that she still might prefer sleeping downstairs over upstairs! I just want her to learn the stairs so she can hang in my office with me if I'm doing work at home!
I am sure that after you and her have forged a close relationship, she will not want to leave your side -- she will be following you around wherever you move in the house! When I work from home, it is lovely having Snowie sleeping beside the desk (although sometimes his deep-sleep breathing makes me also want to take a nap!!). The breeder did tell me that her boys are more attached, follow her around in her house, while her girls were more independent and didn't follow her around as much. Not sure if that is a general thing with male and female Labs.
I think we have bonded pretty quickly MF. She already follows me around but just won't go upstairs because she's scared of them! I know I can train her to be ok on them but I'm waiting until after she's spayed so I don't have to take it away from her during her recovery. Well actually that was the original plan, but she's in heat now so the spay is going to have to wait. But I don't want to train her to go up now while she's bleeding! We will be having cuddle sessions though and after a bit she will totally go into her crate and lay down instead. It's funny cause she'll give a big doggy sigh, but she's the one who walked away from me! lol!
I agree with a couple of the others, the being very reserved and cuddly sounds like stress, and the most likely source here would probably be getting used to the new home. The fact that you're worried enough about these things enough to make a forum post suggests your a better dog owner than most. Give it a couple of weeks and I'd bet you'll have a more outgoing pup.
