Hi - we have a 5 month old lab. She goes in her crate over night, and is very good in it - she starts whining shortly before we get up. It stays in the living room. We had a good routine going - in the evening she'd get a good play/training session in the garden, then have a chew/kong whilst we have dinner, then go in her crate for a couple of hours whilst we sit and relax. Then out for some more time in the garden before bed. Suddenly about 3 weeks ago, she's started whining - building up until she's yipping - after a couple of minutes in the crate when we're in the room. I think she's just desperate to be with us on her terms, not ours - she seems to find it impossible to settle when we're around in the evening. When she's whining she's not interested in having a chew, which normally distracts her from anything. She only stops when we let her out to play with us. Which is fine for short times, but she does wall of death laps of the living room, so it's not really possible the whole time! I've been trying to have her out as much as possible so that being in the room with us isn't too exciting. I've also been working on clicker and treats, rewarding quiet. I'd built her up to about a minute of quiet, but we've now gone backwards and she can barely do 5 seconds! Currently I've put her in the next room, where she's gone to snooze in her basket, but as soon as she's back in the living room she won't settle. Is there something I'm missing here? I feel like we're in a difficult in between age where I'm trying hard to limit her exercise to recommended levels, but she has huge amounts of energy to release. We do different things on different days - sometimes she's in on her own with a visit halfway through the day, most days I work from home so she's hanging out with me (when I'm working at my desk she's vastly better than when we're sitting on the sofa!), and weekends we're in the garden working most of the day and she's happy hanging out with us. She has a 25-30 min walk (mostly off lead) daily, plus garden play/training sessions. None of this seems to make a difference - apart from the odd day when we visit friends with a dog and she races round for the whole afternoon and is very tired in the evening. Thanks in advance for any ideas!
