Hi All out there, Our Family has rescued a ten-month-old lab, our last Lab passed away due to sickness. He is Twelve months old now and doing okay, however, I like to let him in at night time And he runs around like crazy (grabbing anything he can to get attention then running away with it) I have looked around the site and tried a few things but it's not working, can someone lead me in the right direction on how to correct his bad behavior or suggest other methods, Thanks.
"I like to let him in at night time" Does that mean he is outside the rest of the time? If so, what do you expect him to do? He wants some attention, thank you very much.
At twelve months of age, he is barely out of puppyhood and as such, he needs company . Labs are very sociable dogs who crave to be with their humans and build a bond . Until you begin to build that bond , and spend a lot of time with him , training will be very difficult indeed . Rehomed dogs need this so much , I know because I have rehomes several dogs myself , often abused or neglected , they need to feel safe and trust . His lunatic behaviour is purely down to you to correct but firstly you must spend time with him in order to correct using positive methods of course . The behaviour you describe I exactly what you say, it is attention seeking , he is most likely bored to death if spending most of his time without human contact too . Exercising will also help to build a bond , a healthy one year old Labrador needs two good walks every day, one of them being for an hour , this will really benefit him , tire him out and help to promote a close bond with you .
By ‘rationing’ his time inside you’ve turned it into a hugely anticipated and exciting event and you’ve also taught him an association between being inside and being excited. If you have him inside all the time (not just at night time) it’ll stop being an exciting novelty and he’ll learn to settle down. It’ll become ‘ho hum’. It will take a while because he will need to ‘unlearn’ being excited and active in the house. So be patient. Make sure you reward him with food treats when he’s quiet and lying down (which he will do eventually).
And, until this point, you can use baby gates to confine him to safe areas of the house. Probably just your living room to start with. Giving him a frozen stuffed kong may help him to learn to settle down, but he probably won't take it when he's frantic.
Hello all who replied, I have been working with Theo inside the house, i let him in on the lead and reward him when he is quite. He has caught on very fast and if he plays up I put him outside for timeout then bring him back in the house, this has changed his behaviour lots and I just wanted to thank you for you feedback.
That's really good to hear! Great improvement in such a short time. You could move to somewhere for the dog to go instead of outside for timeouts, a crate or a bed. Have you got a bed or mat inside you could use for training a calm settle? This means 1. Training your dog to go to his bed 2. Then reward for calm behaviour when he is there. Here is a video to give you some idea
