Hi, I have a nearly 5 month lab. I love her to bits but I'm still getting the puppy blues - she just has so much energy! I'm going by the rule of 5 mins walking for every month of age but it really doesn't seem like enough. I play with her, she has interactive games, kongs, I train with her - I do everything the books tell you to do but I find myself desperate for my partner to come home and take her off my hands at the end of the day! Please, tell me it gets easier! I'm used to labs that have a decent two walks a day, just a little ball throwing/obedience training mid-day and then are happy to snooze away the rest of the day. Help!
Hi @lolalab Puppies are hard work that's for sure. Have you thought about clicker training? It's a lot of fun for owner and puppy, also it tires their little brains out. You can teach really useful things like no jumping up on visitors, walking on a slack lead. Also lots of important things like brushing teeth, nail clipping, checking ears etc. There are endless uses to using a clicker. There is a lot of information on the forum to help you get started and what's really great is you see the results quite quickly. You could give it a go You could also hide bits of her kibble around the house for her to hunt, you could teach a hand target but remember keep the sessions short maybe 5 minutes 4/5 times a day. She is only 5 months old and yes it will get better but only with lots of effort which can be hard but stick at it and you will see results. Keep going you are doing a great job, just vary things. x
As I read it that 5 minute rule meant "force" exercise. Forced being anything on leash, hard surface, straight line, constant pace. Free play off leash on grass was fine and unlimited. Though I found I did have to limit Oban as he'd go till he dropped. Still, much reduced risk of damage to little legs if puppy can rest, turn, slow down, speed up etc. as she wants compared to on leash.
I'd say, take her out more often. I've not been able to find any evidence for the 5 minute rule . I think it's more a matter of being sensible -not going on long lead walks where your pup has to keep up and not allowing very long periods of play with other dogs. If you're in the UK it's easy to find places you can let your puppy have an off-lead play / scamper. Also consider taking her (by car /bus) to a town where you just sit on a bench and watch the world go by. This will really develop her confidence in coping with a variety of sights and sounds and will tire her out so she's ready for a nap when you get home. She will become easier -this time next year she'll be a wonderful companion.
Hi, I know what you mean, having a four-month old puppy myself! I agree with Joy and Snowshoe - If all I allowed were 20 minutes of exercise a day, we would all go mad! Merlin has unlimited access to the garden and plays with my older dog Poppy quite a bit (as much as she will tolerate). I take him for one formal walk a day together with Poppy, for around 30 minutes, but he is off the lead almost all this time. Other than that we take him out on little expeditions, and I let him swim or paddle in water and don't count that in the five-minute rule. We do lots of short training sessions, probably 4 or 5 times a day but keeping it very short each time. I also give him lots of things to chew, as I find this keeps him busy and stops him trying to destroy the garden! I am quite strict though about not letting him play too much/too wildly with other dogs, and I don't take him for long walks on lead. Good luck - you'll get through this and it WILL get much better.
Oh do I feel your pain. Biscuit is nine months old now and oh so very slightly calmer, but I think that is more to do with it being winter down here in South Africa than anything else! I wanted to second what was said about tiring them out mentally as well as physically. Clicker training (or any training really) is great to keep them thinking. I also try serve her one meal a day out of her bowl, so either in boxes that she has to figure out how to open (read:rip apart), or our current favorite, in a shallow box that I've filled with balls of newspaper, cardboard tubes, tennis balls, etc. I scatter her food in there, sometimes with a nice smelly treat right at the bottom if I'm feeling nice, and leave her to snuffle for her food. If nothing else, breakfast takes three times as long, although she's getting clever lately and has worked out that if she removes the other things from the box, it's easier to eat! I've also recently been reading up on the importance of teaching dogs to be calm. I had a good laugh and thought that clearly they've never met a lab puppy, but I've been making her bed a worthwhile place for her to be for the last couple of weeks (she doesn't have a crate) by randomly dropping treats when she's sitting or lying there awake, and I've found that in the last week, she is choosing to go to her bed and wait for attention when everyone else is busy.
Agree completely re upping the little walks/playtime and little training exercises . I hadn't even heard of the five minute rule before I got my current Labrador Sam who is now six years old . I did employ some common sense but he did have more than five minutes for each month , usually off lead and always on soft surfaces, plus garden play with our older dog , tired him out nicely and helped my sanity too !
