Hello Pippa. We have a brilliant six month old black lab called Murphy. He has been a relative dream since we got him at 10 weeks old - so good natured, playful, obedient, learns quickly, house trained, LOVES all people and other dogs. 10 days ago he cut his paw quite badly on some glass out walking and has had to have a couple of staples in his pad and so isn't allowed 'proper' walks for three to four weeks. He is not in any pain and doesn't flinch when we have the dressing changed or when he walks on it - he hasn't even shown any interest in chewing off the substantial bandages on his leg so we haven't needed to use the cone. We were worried he would go stir crazy being cooped up inside so i've taken him with me in the car if i've needed to go out and tried to give him a change of scenery where possible, and he's been really good and chilled out. The last couple of days we've been allowed to take him on short, lead walks but it will still be a couple of weeks until we can go back to the normal swimming, running, retrieving etc that he is used to. Coincidentally, during this 'cooped up' time, his behaviour has deteriorated, along with the high levels of obedience that we were used to. He is NEVER aggressive, but has crazy episodes where he just hurtles around the room/house, jumping from one piece of furniture to another, constantly jumping up to sniff the work surfaces in the kitchen, grabbing anything he can find to take back to his bed and demolish, jumping up at the table while we are eating etc etc. He is still great at night, goes straight to sleep in his bed and gets up when we do in the morning - there never seems to be any chewing or 'puppy' behaviour at night. I imagine this 'new' behaviour is borne out of frustration from not being able to expel his energy by running outside, but I wondered if it's also an 'adolescent' period at around the six to seven month age? We try to play with him indoors as much as possible to keep him entertained and he does sleep quite a lot still during the day, but when he's awake, he's well and truly awake! We would be really grateful for some advice about how to get him through this challenging period. Thanks so much! Laura
Hi Laura and welcome to the forum. It sounds like he's bored and frustrated, yes. Poor boy, he doesn't understand why he's being cooped up. JulieT has had a couple of episodes with her Charlie needing to be on very restricted exercise after operations and she put together this very useful thread: http://thelabradorforum.com/forum/n...-things-to-do-for-dogs-on-restricted-exercise That might have some good suggestions for you to keep Murphy's mind occupied and tire him out a bit. It's entirely possible he's starting his adolescence phase, too, but it doesn't really make any difference to your approach. If he can't follow your cues, then he either doesn't understand, is too distracted, and/or the reward isn't big enough. So, go right back to basics on everything and start off as if he didn't know anything. Good luck and keep us updated. We also love pictures (hint, hint).
Hi and welcome to the forum from me and Juno. You have my sympathies having a 6 month old on restricted exercise but you are not alone, quite a few of us have been there. Fiona has pointed you to a really helpful link. I think many of us fit in lots of new training to help stimulate and tire the brain rather than walks to tire the body. Have a read of the ideas and suggestions and give some a try. Hope Murphy's foot is better soon.
Hello everyone - thank you SO much for the swift response and such useful advice. It's such a help hearing how others have managed these phases, thank you! I just tried to add photos but for some reason it says i'm not authorised to do so - any advice and i'll happily send through a few! I'll let you know how we get on over the next few days - we have friends coming to stay with their 16 month old son and three year old Dachshund today, wish us luck!?
I just tried to update my own profile and it says 'You are not authorised to do this'. Would someone be able to let me know what i'm doing wrong? Thanks so much!
Photos have to be hosted through a website like Flick.r or Imgur . If you go to the "Forum" tab and then to the "Technical Help" you will find 2 "Sticky" topics which have all the information to add photos and videos. For some reason I can't copy and paste a link today from my tablet ..... .http://thelabradorforum.com/forum/i...ation-introductions-forum-help/technical-help now it has.......
What were you trying to update? Send me a PM if you want and we can sort it through rather than cluttering up this thread
Thanks again! All worked out, and here is a link to some photos. Hope you like them! https://www.flickr.com/gp/137392245@N03/9k3U6a
What a cutie! That one of him under the grassy plant reminds me of this one we took of Willow when we went to visit her at the breeder's: Also... one of the middle ones ... Murphy, put it away!
Thanks, I think so! She doesn't look like that anymore, though Looking forward to seeing more photos of your little man as he grows.
