When will I start to notice Nelly changing in terms of listening more, playing fetch, less mouthy etc? I'm sure it's different with every dog but a rough estimate?
Molly was playing fetch, as in reliably bringing back what I'd thrown, by about 10 months. She noticeably calmed down around 18 months.
Corona was playing fetch by 4 months I'd say, but as Joy mentioned above she isn't always reliable yet for bringing it back, especially if we are outside. She's 6 months now. Corona was SUPER mouthy, I swore mine was the worst biter ever, happily she no longer does that. We just remained consistent with "no bite" and kept exchanging our clothes/hands for toys. I would say she was better by 4 months and it was done completely shortly after that. As far as calming down/listening more, we have noticed a major improvement in the last month. Even a bit before that. She has a great routine now. Her most active time where she tends to get into trouble is the morning so I make sure to bring her for an hour walk. We play on and off while I work and do some training. She also has a period between 3-6 where she is more active but it's nothing that some playtime and another walk don't take care of. She sleeps most of the afternoon, is out by 8pm in the tv room with us and is in bed by 10pm. Maybe I'm one of the lucky ones! I'm hoping that when people say their dog doesn't calm down until 18 months or older, they are referring to a pretty sedate dog. This is our third lab and they were all noticeable chill by a year old. They will always require walks and playtime but by then, they just fit right in to your lifestyle.
They are all different - Quinn played fetch from the time we brought her home, starting on night one. It was definitely her nature - we didn't teach her at all and just worked at dropping the ball when she returned. By 4 months she was at the park playing fetch with some distance (had to keep it to just a few throws though, hard on the puppy joints). She was a very calm puppy - noticeably calmer in the evenings by 5 months and stopped biting completely by 4.5 months. Compared to a lot of the stories on here, we had it super easy. She has always listened - not a terrible biter, never a jumper or counter surfer, chewed only one thing (TV stand) and pretty chill in the house after 6 months day/night.
Yes, I think that's what I mean. By 18 months I could hang tea-towels within reach without them being stolen, leave food on a low table while I was out of the room, knew that cushions wouldn't be chewed up etc.
I won't tell you everything Ripple gets up to then , and he's 21 months! Mind you he's my third lab and the other two were both much calmer by this age.
I am very lucky in that Harley has always been a chilled pup. We've never moved things out of reach and even left food on the work tops, but she's never touched it. At home she loves training / playing, but also loves snuggles. She's slept well since she was 4.5 months old (11pm-7am). Out and about she is very energetic and eager to interact on walks. We did have a challenging few weeks around 10 months old, but that was about it (apart from her lead walking which is my fault as never done properly when she was a pup). Don't get me wrong, she will pinch my slippers and socks and run away with them, but just wants to be chased / played with and never chews things so I don't mind. I think this thread shows how different all of our dogs are.
Bailey has his mad moments, but generally settles down around 9.30pm at night and then starts looking at us reproachfully around 10.30pm wanting his last wee and then bed! He sleeps wonderfully at night and quite often I have to wake him when I need to leave for work (generally around 9am). If he needs to be on his own during the day then he settles down and sleeps - but when he is with us he is on the go the whole time - including walking the grounds of the rugby club several times a day with my OH. For example today he walked twice round the grounds and then "helped" me clean the changing rooms and showers - OK for help read "got an old broom head and had a 10 minute zoomie session round four changing rooms and one very large communal shower. He took great pleasure in running around the showers, leaving a lot of muddy footprints for me to clean up! We are more than happy for him to be at his most active during the day and then we have a sleepy cuddly boy at night
Duggan is 9 months and lapsing on all his training. He's like a new dog we need to work with again from square one. Until now he's been excellent in most regards. He wasn't mouthy or a chewer, we thought he had a great recall. Lol.. His issues were jumping with new people and eating everything outside. How we aren't in surgery every other week is beyond me. We were lucky in that my OH was there 24/7 with him and am there 24/7 6 months of the a year so he was never crated and had his needs met all the time and he still needed a lot of attention and now needs re-training. It never ends. He has settled in the house and has just about stopped tormenting my extremely hyper 8 year old niece when she completely sits still and ignores him. In terms of listening, they always listen, you just need to learn their language. They don't speak English, or French or whatever you might.
This might be me writing about Molly also 9 months old - fun isn't it? Good luck with Nelly, I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun as she grows up
If you are like me I think you won't really notice till one day, for some reason, you stop and think to yourself, "Hey, she hasn't bitten my hands for a while." Or whatever. And then you try to think back to the last time she did and find you are not sure. We are so close to them we fail to notice small changes. I relied a lot on Grandma noticing what was to her a big change since the last time she visited. To me the changes would be small increments and I'd be busy with so much dog stuff I'd miss some.
This is true, too. I walk Coco all week, OH at the weekend. Every weekend he says "Coco is walking a little better", when I haven't noticed.
Bessie wasn't much of a mouther (in terms of biting hands etc). I'd say by 3-4 months she'd stopped trying to mouth us, and when her adult teeth fully came in around 5 months it was 100% better. Chewing inappropriate things: she will still do this if she wants attention. Especially my sheepskin slippers, sigh. But she stopped gnawing on furniture around 4 months. She is still trying to eat a rag rug I have and she will still chew through a harness if I leave it on her in the house. I would say she's a pretty intense chewer and this is her worst remaining behavior. She noticeably calmed down right around 6 months of age. No more zoomies, much better at listening to commands, finally started getting not to jump up on people like crazy when she first meets them. She's always been super sleepy/calm from 5-6pm onward. She slept without needing to go out from 11pm-6:30am by around 3 months old, and I worked hard to get that to 7:45am by around 4 months. Now I can let her out at 8am and have her come back in and say "time for more sleep" if it's the weekend and she'll lay down with me and sleep more. She is a natural retriever with an excellent "drop it" naturally - barely had to train that, she is pretty reliable with it at 8 months. She didn't fully housetrain until close to 6 months. But if I had to give you one answer I'd say she got her stuff together in a general sense around 6 months old. I breathed a big sigh of relief and thought, phew, we're through the worst of it.
Stanleys nearly 10 months - he's definitely better than he was but is still a cross between a Tasmanian devil and tigger. Absolutely radged - but he doesn't really bite anymore and he's knows most of his cues. I try not to hope for him to grow up too quickly because one day he'll be old and I'm sure I'd be happy to have these puppy days back
