New owner of Black Lab/Terrier Mix 4 months old

My biggest issue is the evening. Woody is wound up and tired. Right now I bring him inside around 7pm, start his walk around 8:45pm, and try to have him in his kennel for bed by 9pm. I'm then in bed by midnight and up by 8am to get him up.

The problem is that this time between 7pm and 8:45pm is almost never pleasant. I can occupy him for about twenty minutes with Kongs, but the rest of the time he is just hyper and constantly on the verge of jumping and biting. Tonight I had to put him back outside for a timeout on 3 occasions due to jumping up and biting. I'm not sure if he gets the message though since his brain is so tired by this point.

I could put him in bed an hour earlier, but that would mean that he would be in his kennel for 12 hours, and that seems long to me. Right now he's spending 11 hours, and when I get up I don't usually hear any movement or sound from the baby monitor, and when I open the garage door it seems I'm waking him up. So it would seem that 11 hours is just about right for him now.

By bringing him inside at night it ups our overall time to around 4 1/2 hours, and I feel better about bringing him in around dark rather than leaving him outside to bark and yelp because he wants to be inside during that time. But I'm trying to figure out a way to do it that doesn't end the night on a negative.

I thought about doing timeouts inside in a crate, but when I tried to put him in a playpen a few weeks ago he would bark so loud that it gave me a headache so I gave up on that. As I said near the beginning, I can continue to put him outside for timeouts, but I think I'll be doing that every 15 to 20 minutes for months during that time-period.

I hope this doesn't sound like griping or complaining. I'm really trying to figure this all out, and it helps just to type it and know someone is listening, even if they really don't have anything else they can add.

 

I can tell you are really thinking about Woody and what might work and what might not. I also like you believe things happen for a reason. I chose to get a puppy but didn't think for a moment I would get a bad case of the puppy blues. I have had to do a lot of figuring out and this forum has and is an amazing community to know I can come to. My puppy was hard going in the evening. I literally had to structure the evenings teaching her to settle and get on with our older dog (who didn't want to have anything to do with the puppy). I taught my puppy to settle on a bed by using her lead and giving her a kong. Also playing games. We also had a small crate in the sitting room for short time-outs. It took weeks but she learnt to settle and it has been so worth it. I know you started out not wanting an inside dog but you may well find the affection and company your puppy gives will alter your view. Now at 9 months, I take my puppy for a short training walk which we both love and then she settles down right by me in her sitting room bed. She sleeps or just relaxes until we go to bed and then she goes into her crate in the kitchen - she goes happily. The nipping and biting does stop and is replaced by a loving and affectionate dog.

 

Just wanted to say that this evening behavior is absolutely normal. I have an amazingly well-behaved and quite laid-back puppy - but in the evenings until just recently he turned into a bitey whirling dervish. Now that he is 5 and a half months old this has got much, much better. So don't panic, it will improve.

 

Would you mind just telling my five year (six in a couple of months) and nearly four year old that?! They're both sleeping peacefully now, probably having beaten me to my favourite sofa, but I can guarantee that about 8.30-9pm-ish they'll suddenly decide it's time for tug-of-war and/or bitey-face!

 

I hope to post more later, but wanted to give a quick update. The Rescue Shelter said this dog was a Black Lab/Terrier Mix, and after looking at various pictures of mixed breeds, I think it is more specifically a Lab/Jack Russell Terrier Mix.

At roughly 23 weeks he is now 25 pounds, and the calculators say he will get to around 32 pounds. So he is essentially going to be a Mini-Lab. The size and the temperament lead me to believe he is indeed part Jack Russell. And the more I'm reading the more I'm thinking that what makes him so challenging at times is not the Lab part of him but the JRT. I read somewhere that mixing a Lab with a JRT might just produce the most energetic and hyper dog possible.

Training is coming slowly for me since I don't have a lot of time to put into it, but we're making baby steps. He's slowly but surely becoming less bitey but we've got a ways to go.

 

Just to follow-up, here is how one site describes a Jack Russell Terrior:

Vocal
Stubborn
Athletic
Energetic

Yeah, that's Woody

 

It could also describe all the labs ive ever had too.

 

I do want to also highlight Woody's other attributes. At times he can be very gentle and loving. I will often sit down around him, and he will curl up in my lap with something to chew on. A few times he has chewed a little too close to my body, and I've let out a welp in pain. He sits straight up, looks at me, and then licks my chin

 

Yeah, that's what I've been reading too. Just think what it could be like if all those qualities are amplified from a Lab/JRT mix? The one saving grace is that this mix seems to also be keeping his size down, so at least he'll be easier to manage from that standpoint.

 

He sounds lovely and that yout hard your hard work is paying off.

 

Glad you came back with an update - Woody sounds like a lovely little chap.