Hi everyone, We're having some issues with our lab Benji, who is now 10 months old. Some history: we inherited Benji from some friends who couldn't keep him at 5 months (and they got him from another family who also couldn't keep him when he was a puppy). The friends we got him from also had a German Shephard and we gather that he was left alone with that dog for long periods at a time and probably rarely let into the house. He came to us with very little training at all, and we've really had to make up for lost time. We've taught him all the basic commands, he can do a formal 'stay' on his bed for probably 3-5 mins at at time, his recall is okay, loose-leash walking is a constant struggle but has improved, etc. He sleeps very well now and we generally leave him in his crate all night without a problem. Anyway, we got to the point with him where we could leave him alone outside for relatively long periods (with kongs/food dispensing toys etc), and he would amuse himself (we have a really large backyard with lots of interesting things to sniff/chew). But just recently he's started to become extremely high needs and will pretty much only be able to be alone for 30 mins or so max - after which he'll come to the door and bark shrilly to be let in. We try not to let him in after he's barked, but it is difficult. We know we're supposed to wait until he's finished barking so as not to validate that behaviour, but we have neighbours and worry he's disturbing them, so we generally try to wait for a 10s pause in the barking before letting him in. We also have a baby gate separating our foyer area from the rest of the house where we often leave him (this is where his crate/bed are) and he's pretty much at the stage now where, depending on how tired he is, he'll start whining if he's left in this area and we go out of eyesight. We aren't sure whether this is separation anxiety or attention seeking, or what to do about it. Benji gets plenty of stimulation as I'm working from home and my wife is on maternity leave. He generally gets at least one decent walk a day and at least 1 dedicating playing and/or training session (plus loads of other general attention/company). I was wondering if anyone else had experienced this at this age and, if so, how you ended up solving it?
Hi Dellward, welcome to the forum I don't think anyone can say for sure why he his feelings about being outdoors have changed suddenly - it could be that he's had an unpleasant experience in the yard which you didn't witness, that means he no longer perceives it as a happy or safe place to be. Or now that he's reaching physical and emotional maturity, the games and toys might currently on offer might not be enough to keep him entertained for long periods. Some dogs also go through a secondary dear period during adolescence, and that could be happening to Benji at the moment. Since he's had several homes in his short life he might also be struggling to feel safe and secure in your attachment to him. Ultimately, a lot of it probably comes down to being a young animal from a social species, and craving your company - which is exactly what we bred dogs to do when we domesticated them. The only way to solve it is the same in all cases though - cut down how much time you ask him to spend alone, to a point where he's comfortable with it again, and build back up gradually, mixing longer durations with very short ones. Try to always invite him back in before he starts asking to be let in too. Good luck, and let us know how you get on
Thanks very much for your response, Sarah. I'll let you know how we go. It's odd. Sometimes we can leave him for half an hour; other times we send him outside for a minute and he demands to be let back in immediately (even ignoring a frozen kong full of peanut butter). We have read from many places that it is advisable to let him 'bark it out' but this honestly is just not an option for us. The bark is so shrill, loud, piercing and unpleasant to listen to that we find it difficult to deal with more than about ten minutes of it (not to mention we are worried we'll get complaints from neighbours if we do). I have been trying to train him to stay outside by leaving him out for a few seconds and treating him if he doesn't bark, etc. but this seems to have variable success. Sometimes he will bark after only two seconds when I have built up to ten, and then bark continually with only pauses of a few pauses in between. I worry I am validating the behaviour rather than training it out of him. Is it possible that he has some sort of anxiety problem? We're also noticing that he doesn't appear to be sleeping very well (whites of eyes not really visible). He doesn't chew destructively (at least, not in a way that is 'out of the ordinary') while alone but he does just seem incredibly highly-strung. We had a friend's dog (a 13-month-old golden retriever called George) over at our house the other day and the difference between them was like night and day. Benji was so much more responsive to commands than George (friend barely trained him), but George was so placid and calm compared to Benji.
I don’t think really labs settle that well outside on their own. It’s lonely for them and they are sociable animals that want to be at the heart of the house. They don’t self entertain very well and get bored so would rather be inside with their family. At 10 months too they need lots of exercise , and mental training to wear them out, so maybe it’s a bit of that as well. Does he need to be outside ? At that age my dogs are inside with access to everywhere except upstairs. We worked on “settle” inside and she took a while but it was worth the effort. Maybe try that instead ? We did it by removing the gates and when she was on her bed, we walked past tossed her a treat (bit of her meal, kibble). She got the message that being calm on her bed was rewarding. We could only do it to start with after a good off lead walk though, but it didn’t take long...good luck .
Hi Dellward, we went through this with my lab when he was much younger, if we went out of his view when he was outside he would bark like mad and would not sleep more than 5 minutes. We had to restart from the beginning by leaving him outside for short time and increasing it slowly. Sometimes we would throw him a treat out the window when he was quiet and he eventually realized that we were home and didn’t go anywhere. For us it was separation anxiety as he was used to always being in our house and being around at least one family member. It could also be that your lab is tired of the same activities and he’s finding outside to be rather boring. I’ve heard they tend to get bored of the same things and toys which I’ve found true with my lab maybe try new things and activities with him so he can enjoy and will find being outside fun. Even if it’s just a 10 minute game with him, if that’s hard for you than I might suggest an automatic thrower or a bubble machine but it’s really essential for them to have some quality time with you since they're social animals and love company and attention. This is what worked for us and now it’s gotten extremely hard to get our lab to come inside the house he’ll come in when he’s gotten bored. Now on why you’re dog isn’t sleeping is hard because our lab wouldn’t sleep do to him scared that if he closed his eyes we would leave his sight. We had to make sure that he had enough physical stimulation but also enough mental stimulation and somewhere he felt was comfortable for him to lay and sleep. You can stay with him in the room for a couple minutes and slowly work it up and eventually he will sleep on his own. It’s also good to reward him when he willingly goes to his sleep area and is calm. We keep his crate in our room but we also gave him an area in the house that’s his to sleep, lay and do whatever his hearts desire and rewarded him when he went and I’m not going to lie it took us about 3 months for him to just go and sleep in his area all by himself but he’s also at his age where he’s just going to be testing you. Just have to keep training him even though it’s hard eventually it will stick and all your hard work will be worth it
You can even try to spread his meal, if it’s kibble that you feed him around the backyard and he can be focused on that instead of barking and it will tired him out so he can sleep. Might I also suggest if you haven’t to teach him the speak and stop command where you teach him to speak( bark) on command and to stop when you say so, you can see a video for better explanation. It’s hard to deal with but he will eventually be just as calm as your friends dog. Some labs just need more work than others but it’ll be worth it
